Halloween Contest Entry - Mirror Isle (obviously links are all broken now)

This page has been condensed into 1, formerly 4 pages || Also note this used to be on t32rf

Onyx  ...   Tang   ...    and introducing     Hooligan

"I think it's a really bad idea, Onyx." Tang said. She pushed her paw over her nose.

"It's perfectly in keeping with the precepts of the feline charter, Tang. We must." The black furred blue eyed cat replied. He too was undergoing a grooming fit. Between the two of them, they were both so nervous that it was a wonder their fur hadn't all fallen out in clumps.

"But Onyx, it's a -"

"It is a door. And doors must be opened!" Onyx said. "According to the first law of the Charter, 'our sacred duty is to open any door'," he was going to continue but Tang hissed and stopped him.

"I know the charter, Onyx, we were just at the meeting."

"Then you should understand that this is a door, and it's meant to be opened!" Onyx said, his big fluffy tail swishing. He could barely be seen in the twilight, save for his bright eyes. Tang's yellow eyes burned into his.

"It is a door. I'll give you that. But we have no idea what's on the other side of it!" She was impatiently lashing her tail.

"Our sacred duty to open any door regardless of the desire or need to be on the other side of it." Onyx pronounced. Tang sighed. Technically the black male was right. It didn't matter what was there. If they could smell something recognizable, she thought, maybe she could talk him out of it. But...

All she could smell there below the door was more of the same: grass and maybe the hint of a wood fire in a human home. But it didn't go to a human home, that was painfully obvious. It just wasn't at a house - this door was just ... hanging there. In their part of the neighborhood. The meeting had occurred as it always had, up on the higher pile of dumped objects in the junkyard owned by the kind old man. He kept a dog, but no cat had ever been harmed by the big old hound dog, and the old human put out the occasional bowl of food for the cats in the area.

The group of local cats in the union numbered perhaps twenty, cats weren't good at counting over four or five. More than the number of limbs they had, things got a little wonky. So they left it at 'a bunch'. This bunch included several old vetran cats and a large number of post-teens from the last couple of litters. They'd just lost two of their kind to something - no one knew what - and it was making everyone nervous.

The meeting was called to make others aware that if anyone saw anything, they'd report it or make sure that it could bleed. But every cat knew that running to save their own hide was far more important than what smell of blood came from an enemy. Fighting was a last resort - especially when it concerned something that could and possibly had killed cats.

So here were Tang and Onyx, on their way to their respective homes in the local neighborhood. Just beyond the pumpkin patch and before the stream, was a little road that humans would often take on their bicycles. It was safer by far than traveling the streets, since no motor vehicles came on this narrow path. The orange and black cats went along it for a ways, and then came across this door.

It did just hang there, as though someone had put it up and left it, near the bushes at the side of the trail. It had no recognizable scents - not even human scent though it was clearly a human made door. It was faintly cracked open, both cats having lived indoors and outside all their lives knew an unlocked door when they saw one. Onyx in fact could open a closed door with his bulk hanging from the knob.

"I can get it open," he said, as though that thought had just crossed his mind.

"Fine," Tang said, "fine." Her excuse that she was still grooming was fading - both of them had gotten nearly all the dust from the road off their fur, and both looked as though they could attend a show in their perfect conditions. Onyx stood up, stretched long and low, and then approached the door.

He appraised it, and then lept straight up at the knob. He'd done it a hundred times at his house, and with the same success. The knob turned a little, then the door creaked a bit on its hinges. They were loud, but no one save the cats heard it.

Tang almost lept from her skin, as it opened. It was darker on the other side than here. That the door opened to somewhere other than just "the other side of this door where we could see" was obvious to both felines too. Perhaps a human would have trouble with that idea, but not the cats. Sometimes they used the shadows and darks behind objects to teleport away, so they knew that space wasn't always the way you saw it from one side.

Tang did get up and walk around the side of the door's frame, just to confirm it. It did not look like it'd opened from the opposite side, and she got a sick feeling in her tummy when she realized that meant that there were actually two directions they could go. But she decided not to bring that up to Onyx - he'd just want to open it too...

"Good job," she breathed instead. "So.... now we know. It's open. Can we go now?"

"But it smells nice on the other side, Tang! Come on, I want to see it." Onyx stood up and then padded through the narrow opening. The taller grass on the other side had prevented it from opening any further than a cat-wide space. To Onyx that was a sign that he'd done exactly the right thing. It was just the size for a cat, he was a cat, therefore ... you get the picture! Onyx would follow his nose until his whiskers got burnt, he was that kind of curious.

His dark tail faded into the shadows beyond, as Tang watched. Instead of remaining alone on the other side, she bolted through and kept pace with him, shoulder to shoulder. Their paws sank deeply into thick grass, it was slightly damp with dew and the night was in full swing here. On the other side of the door, it was still merely dusk.

It was apparent that trees covered most of the sky. To a cat though, any small chink in the tree's cover could provide a light bright enough to see. Dappled spots of aurora borealis and starlight crossed their path.

"I would like to get a better look," Onyx said, and started hefting himself up the nearby tree. It was sturdy, probably tall, and had a lot of branches coming off its thick trunk. Tang followed shortly, going up a slightly different area. Right about the time that she settled on a branch nook, she heard something very odd.

A rustling, a bit of a familiar feel - and then Onyx puffed up fiercely in reaction to something he saw!

"AAAAAHHHHHOOOOO!" something called, from quite close by! "Hoooooo! Heoooooo!"

Onyx practically climbed on top of Tang to get to the other branch, and so suddenly she was in the front. Two menacingly huge eyes turned on them, glowing and floating in the dark...

"Ah - ah, stay where you are!" Tang said.

"Who?"

"You! I don't know who you are but you just don't come any closer!"

"WHO!"

"YOU! STUPID!"

"I'm not stupid! hoo!" Said the same voice, subdued. The eyes narrowed down, and then waddled closer. On the other tree branch was a huge white owl, who blinked at the cats. "And you should know better than to insult an owl in his own tree!"

He was nearly twice the size of a cat, and silent in every way except for when he'd randomly say Hoo! His yellow eyes blinked again, and he shifted his gaze around by turning his neck smoothly. Tang muttered to Onyx, "eeew, that's creepy."

"There is something coming, perhaps you should hide. Hoo." The owl said, puffing his feathers up. The cats wasted no time in getting into a hollow spot, above where they had been sitting. They heard a muffled clomping sound, rustling of feet through leaves. But the footfalls were heavy, numerous. Were there more than one person coming by? Who were they?

A deep voice startled the cats. "We have heard the door open, Hooligan."

("Hooligan? that's his name?" asked Onyx, and Tang flickered her tail in reply.)

"Yes, sire." Was Hooligan's soft reply.

"Then have you seen any foreigners? It is your duty to my kingdom, owl." The male voice was a bit more menacing than before, but only in a stern fatherly way. Not as though threatening the white bird.

"I - hoo - have seen no one, sire, but it has been only a few minutes." Hooligan said.

The cats both looked at one another and began grooming nervously. Hooligan, an owl they'd barely even met, was lying for them? Or was he just dense and didn't remember? That was a possibility, both cats knew that only a few birds had the brain power to remember yesterday let alone details...

"See to it that whatever came through the door is found, Hooligan," said the voice. Then, the shuffling of heavy feet came to the cats ears, and they hesitated in their hollow.

Tang took a careful moment to rise up, and looked down into the area near the tree. What she saw defied description. She sunk back down, and as Hooligan stood guard, Onyx wagged the end of his tail in irritation.

"Well? Who was it? A king, noble man and a guard? Or what?"

"Or what." Tang said. Onyx didn't like that answer one bit. But by the time he'd brought his own head above the edge of the wood knot, there was nothing but Hooligan standing there on his branch.

"Who was that, Hooligan?" Asked Onyx, jumping down to share the space on the wide branch. The owl merely blinked, and kept watching the way that this king type had gone.

When Tang came out, Hooligan finally replied quietly. "That was the king of the woods, King Proudly. His real name is Proudly Waves His Tail."

"Tail?" Onyx said. He turned to Tang. Tang merely nodded a bit, and then began licking her shoulder.

"You'll have to see him anyway, I don't know - hoo - why I even said I hadn't seen you..." Hooligan gave a birdy shrug. "I suppose it's best that you have some time, some warning."

"I don't understand, why would we need a warning, exactly?" Tang spoke at last.

"You have entered a place that is not your own, cat," Hooligan said with more confidence than before. "You have never seen the likes of King Proudly, have you?"

"You're right, I haven't," she said. The orange cat then looked at the ground, and decided that she'd leap to the tree trunk first, to get back down. She went quickly, unlike whenever a human would be watching them, and rapidly belly-slunk to where the foot falls of the king had dug deeply into the ground.

From above, Onyx saw the same marks, and said, "he was just on a horse, how does that -"

"No, he was a horse, with a man's body, and a horn from his skull," Tang said. "He was nothing I've ever seen."

"King Proudly is a unitaur," Hooligan said, "and you should come along, then. We will let him get settled in his court and then bring you in to see him. He'll - hoo - want to see you to make sure you are harmless."

Tang and Onyx both would have hissed at that - they were mighty hunters! But ... Tang could very possibly curl up in the print left by the king's hoof, she felt like she was nothing compared to that strange amazing beast. Hooligan flapped a bit and got himself to the next tree, and finally both cats were able to follow him along a well-worn but overgrown pathway.

Away from the door, Tang noted with some trepidation, but ... It was their duty. As it was Hooligan's apparently to play door owl.

***

Whether they had walked a mile or ten, neither cat could decide. Anything longer than a few city blocks was 'a long way' to an animal their size, and they wound their way through a very long path indeed. Hooligan eventually had to circle overhead, and guide them, since the trees thinned out and the ground turned harder. Nearby was a raised tree of such great proportions that both cats had to just sit and look at it silently for a moment.

It too was unlike any tree they'd ever seen. Perhaps it was that there were bright lanterns coming from it in places, maybe the fireflies dancing around - which weren't fire flies at all, but faeries. A couple of them came near, when they saw Hooligan.

"Who have you brought us!?" Screeched one little glowing person. Another bobbed nearby and said, "they are lions silly!"

"They are not lions," said the first, and spat a bolt of what looked like lightning at his friend. They scampered off in the air, chasing after one another with hurled insults and shocking bolts.

"You might as well be lions," Hooligan said, "what - hoo - with you being the only cats in the realm right now."

"... No other cats?" Tang said, curiously. "How can that be?"

"Well, cats your size," said Hooligan. "Lions we have. And Manticores, chimerae, gryphons, and such lionlike people."

"Where is here?" Asked Onyx.

"The Woods," replied the owl, simply. "Hoo."

Soon after that, they approached the tree itself. Massive roots towered to both sides of the trail, and soft lights from torches and other strange sources could be seen within. Then, other eyes became apparent. Glowing from the darks, slanted and square, big and small. Hooligan had several perches along the trail, so he waited for the cats to come near.

A lull in the noises came, when everyone who had been doing something stopped and looked. There were all manner of beasts and people, and peoplish beasts, here. Ones with goat legs and horns, goats with snake tails, faeries galore, little people with soft petal hats on their heads, a woman whose body was that of a huge snake...

No humans to see. No dogs either, now that they were given to smell the air here. The whole trip had been a feast for their tiny noses, first the rich forest, with its decaying ground cover, then the wider open fields where flowers and the chaff of grain tickled their sense of smell. Now the rich spice of fresh dirt turned by one person, the hard chemical smell of another pouring moulten ore into a mold, leather from the few humanoids clothing, every manner of dung...

And then they saw the reason why everyone stopped - it was King Proudly coming toward them.

He was very big indeed. Standing as tall as a man's head at the shoulder, plus a burly man's torso where a horse's head would be. His hooves were as big around as dinner plates, and the horn on his head glowed with a strange yellow-white light. He used that to guide himself toward the cats and Hooligan.

"Well I see that you found the intruders," the king said. Hooligan was about to puff up and look proud of himself, but the king raised his hand. He had stubby dark human fingers, they looked worn with scars. His flanks had scars as well, but they were covered by a rich embroidered cloth draped over his body. No saddle of course graced him, no saddle could possibly be put on this magnificent king.

"And you could have introduced me where they were, so as to make it much easier to let them leave," the king continued.

Everyone who had been holding their breath, meaning everyone present, let it out and began to mutter quietly. Hooligan was in trouble, that was obvious.

"Well sire I - hoo - um," Hooligan started, but it was Onyx that intervened.

"Sire, king of these woods," he said, crouched low in what passed for a subserviant pose, "the Owl allowed us to see a great and beautiful amount of scenery in order to first be prepared to meet you. My companion and I would have been ... overwhelmed by your presence, if not for his preparing us."

The unitaur gave a moment to pause, his thick black eyebrow shooting up almost to his horn. "Indeed," he said, the trace of a smile on his heavy face. "Then perhaps I owe him my thanks, in escorting such as yourselves here..."

They were almost going to be relieved. But... That was not to be. "Hooligan, it was your one duty to make sure that outsiders did not see this place. And you have brought them straight to me."

"Sire - hoo!"

"Incautious guards are of little value to me," the king continued. "As are curious feline visitors who may lead their human owners to my realm."

"Sire!" Tang said, sharply and distressed. "We have human hosts that is true, but we are not guiding any of them to us! We were never followed on any of our journeys by any human! The insult to feline kind you've given is hardly fitting someone of your greatness. It was an honor to arrive, but I fear we have overstayed even our small visit."

She turned to Onyx and with wide open eyes said, "we should be leaving now. We can find our own way."

The hush came back, abruptly, when she stuck her tail in the air and began to walk away. Onyx attempted to follow her, but his one foot just wouldn't come free. It was a good thing, too. Because a huge black shadow passed over them, causing Onyx to crouch all the way to the ground, and for Tang to pull down into a curl. The king lept over them, one great bound, and turned on his hind hooves angrily.

Though his face was merely stern, as his voice to Hooligan had been before, his forehooves pawed the ground with ire, and dug runnels in the fresh healthy dirt.

"You felines are all certainly the same, aren't you," he said. His wide nostril flared, "well that was just as insulting as the last cat who came to my court, why should I have expected any other to be more respectful...?"

"We felines are under an oath of duty as any other," Onyx said, still rooted to the spot, "to open any door and investigate! It is our sacred duty!"

"To poke your noses where they hardly belong," the king retorted, it almost looked as though he was enjoying this jibing. "And when your whiskers get singed, you always complain that the fire too hot, or the dog too noisy, or the babe too grabby. Cats," he said and raised himself back up to a proper stance.

Oddly enough, everyone had gone back to their regular activities by now. After the initial rush of mutterings and silences, it was clear to everyone else that this was a practically normal event.

"Hooligan, you are not going back to your post yet are you?" The king asked of the white bird, who suddenly switched courses and landed back on a branch near the cats.

"... Hoo! No, sire, I was ... um," he said, but the unitaur tossed his head and waved his glowing horn around.

"No, you shan't be doing that. You are to escort these little furballs to the east falls."

The place went silent again, and one could nearly hear someone gulp as they were in the middle of a drink.

"... Sire?" Hooligan said, "but that is -"

"Yes," Proudly said, "the realm of the dragon. There they may find their way if they can. If they make it back this way I shall welcome them with open arms."

"And crush us," Tang muttered.

"You have not been to the dragon lands," Proudly said, "do not judge me poorly when you do not know the reason I send you there."

"Not all dragons - hoo - are fire-breathing monsters," Hooligan said. "Some might breathe water..."

"And all of them are big enough to protect these little felines in my court, should they come back this way," Proudly said, and then turned again. He walked past the cats, and on his way back to his ... throne room or wherever he'd come from, he looked down at Tang with a soft smile. "Well played, feline. I respect you and your charter, but never let it be said that my own kind cannot hold its own in a battle of wits against a cat."

He snapped his fingers, and Hooligan startled into the air. "Hooligan, you will remain with them, as their escort. Should you not return, I will offer your guard position to another owl. In the mean time it will remain unguarded."

"But - hoo! Sire!"

"The door will not open for just anyone," Proudly said quietly. Onyx heard this and realized that there was more to this than just insulting their stealth abilities and the like. He turned again to the cats, "there may even be another door or two to open on your way."

In any event, the cats were given fresh water, meat for their journey, as Hooligan himself took the time to hunt a lizard or two.

Then, in this twilight world, the trio set off to the east.

(( formerly halloween2.htm))

Hooligan was obviously distressed about this whole thing. He muttered to himself about how he was a fool to have guarded them, and not been honest with the king, and now look at him he was having to head into the most dangerous part of the whole realm.

Onyx and Tang on the other hand thought that they were lucky. They hadn't been crushed to death by the 'taur's great hooves, for one thing. They had been feasted, given praise, and now a guide to these odd new lands.

"I didn't know you were such a good public speaker," Onyx said, "Tang, I'm proud of you!"

She would have been blushing, if she were human. Instead she flicked an ear back and held her tail high. Somehow, while they traveled in the dim ever-night, the length of their journey again seemed to change from around the corner to across the country. The huge tree was still visible in the distance, only to their eyes. But to the east?

A great mass of hills that sharply turned into snow-capped mountains awaited them. Neither cat had ever been in mountains, but Hooligan assured them that they were going to have an easier time than all that. Apparently the king had imbued them with a wave of his horn, with some special powers.

As they traveled along, they could hear animals and tribal sounds in the distance all around them. "The elves are at - hoo - war with the nyghts," Hooligan explained. "Vampires and undead things, they are. Hoo!" But neither were seen in their journey.

Before they even realized it, the pair of cats and their white escort were in the steep foothills below the mountains. "How did we get this far so quickly!?" Onyx asked.

"I said, King Proudly did something." Hooligan commented, and they left it at that. Plus, it was always night - even when they took one short break to nap. The cats were tired, their paws ached a bit. But they would move on, because of that last little tidbit that the king had given them.

There were other doors.

"I was expecting a river, or something," Tang pointed out, when they began their trip through a narrow gorge between two high peaks. "He said the 'east falls'."

"Yes," Hooligan said. "But ... you will see..." He still sounded a bit worried but none of them had even sniffed anything amiss in their whole journey.

Then they came to a rugged jag in the pass, where the ground tipped downwards again. "Surely we can't be halfway through those mountains yet!" Tang said, but then Hooligan had to sweep before her and flap his wings sharply at her. In response she ducked back, putting her tail down and ears back.

"You don't have to be so rude!" Onyx said, in a similar state.

"You do not have to yell at me - hoo - I am only protecting you!"

They looked past the owl, and to their amazement it wasn't much more than a few feet before the path simply ended, and dropped off into the biggest, scariest cliff ever known. The mountains appeared to be sheared off right there, one or two places they dangled as though a bridge over a river, but mostly it was a vertical slope and then snowcapped hills behind them.

"How... how are we going to get anywhere now?" Asked Tang, urgently. "It's so very high here!"

"Just jump," Hooligan said. "Hoo."

Before Tang could say anything to the contrary, Onyx had already done so. Something about the way the sky appeared, perhaps, or the smell? He landed - next to Hooligan.

"There is a windy part," he said panting, his fur on end, but otherwise safe. "Just there. But... There's something here, come on. Jump."

Trusting her friend, Tang bunched her haunches and launched herself across the air. She'd been on a glass table once as a kitten, and this was exactly what that felt like now. She could not trust her eyes, so she had to trust her feet.

But they could hardly have gone another few yards, before the scenery actually changed again. They could see the glass-table landscape cutting the mountians in two, and the small gap where they'd walked up from the woods. Now it was like being on the other foothills, with low rounded and boulder-strewn hills surrounding them.

"Why did we think it was so far?" Onyx asked of Hooligan, and he could only give a 'hoot' in reply.

"It's magic, I guess," Tang said. She was not far off. The day had not dawned yet - nor would it. They rested, hunted and groomed again, before moving on. Farther east, under stars which were not the same as those found in their home city, the cats and bird traveled.

At last, though, they could go no farther - because there was a door.

One Big Massive Door. Set into the mountainside, crafted almost as though it was from the same stone which the opening beyond would be.

"Well, doors are your area of expertise," Tang said to Onyx.

He met the challenge by standing at the door, and carefully letting out a 'meow!'

***

Though Hooligan was unsure of the value of a single kittenish noise, Tang seemed satisfied with it, and eventually the door - began - to - open.

It was massive, so it took what felt like their entire journey to actually come open. Beyond it, though, was a darkness of a different sort than their current twilight eve. A hall, sharply carved and lit only at the far end, stood elegantly on the other side. And nearby, was a woman. She was slender, pale skinned, and had long hair which draped around two long elfin ears. She smiled prettyily and gave off a musical laugh.

"Oh how sweet! You should come inside, it's time for me to set out some milk!" The elfess beckoned with her fingers and the cats instinctively followed. The owl did so after a moment, unsure if she'd even seen him though he was as white as that milk she was offering the felines. "Normally we don't leave that door open - we're called the Isle of Mirrors for a reason, and doors get in the way..."

"Please, miss," Tang said, "we've been sent from the woods by the king, but-"

"Yukihada," she sang, as she poured milk into two bowls and then set another of water up for Hooligan.

"Bless you," Onyx said.

"No, that's my name, silly kitten," the elf smiled and spoke. "It is rare that he would send cats. I haven't seen any cats there."

"There are no - hoo - cats, miss Yukihada," Hooligan said, "all the cats vanished when the moon did."

That left both Tang and Onyx just sitting there staring at their bowls.

"Ah, then they are from the human realm, and not your kingdom?" Yukihada asked, and Hooligan seemed happy to regail her with their journey. While they spoke, the cats conversed quietly too.

"No moon, that was ... odd." Tang said. She cautiously licked at the rich milk.

"Where did it go? And why did the cats go with it?" Asked Onyx, and Tang gave him a twitch of an ear that said 'of course you'd ask that'.

"Please ma'am," Onyx said, after licking himself clean and watching Tang do the same, "if you don't mind, where is this place? You said it was an island?"

"The Isle of Mirrors, yes," the attendant elf replied. "And I can see that you are here to complete a quest. All three of you," she looked at Hooligan who was preening too. "But you must understand that we do have a number of people looking to do the same. There are never quite enough eggs to go around-"

"Eggs?" Tang asked. "What kind of .... oh," she said, with her tail slowly fluffing up, "you mean dragon eggs."

"You do catch on quickly for a foreigner," Yukihada said. "But we will see if you can complete it with the first of our eggs, and if not, there will be others that might help you."

"Bring them on!" Onyx said, and even Hooligan jumped at that.

"Hardly," Yukihada said, abruptly. "There are rules to follow, you need to know how to care for a dragon if you do recieve an egg."

"... How will we do that," Tang asked quietly, "if we don't have hands?"

"How would you care for your own young, then?" The elf said, and turned away. They followed her, into a great hall where other people, creatures, and ... other creature-people were waiting as well.

"Perhaps if this particular dragon wishes your companionship, it will come to you when it hatches. The egg will respond, so eventually you will be allowed near it."

She indicated a dark egg in a dark corner. It was spooky. The others waiting were equally so.

"Then I suppose we wait," Tang said, and Onyx agreed. "Hooligan?"

"Hoot," he said, and settled down next to them. He put his wings out, and guarded the cats, still dwarfing them. They waited.

***

The wait wasn't as long as all that. In fact, fairly shortly, one by one each of the temporary residents were taken through a grand doorway and ... they didn't return. That made the felines and their avian companion a bit worried. What had become of them? Would they now have to wait even longer? Were there dragon eggs yet to come?

Yukihada came through the door again, and, smiling, beckoned the trio in. "Come along, I think you will like what you see here."

She stood aside as they made their way in, and the scenery changed. The tall ceilinged room was bedecked with dark ribbons, rotted looking trees and large carved pumpkins with flickering candles set inside them. Tang stood by one, which had a cat hissing on it. She emulated it, and the others gave soft laughter.

But then they went around one jagged --- boulder? Why was there a boulder here? Onyx turned to ask Yukihada, but she was gone. In fact, the door was gone - entirely. Not even left to push open! Onyx's tail fluffed up widely. That caused Tang's to do the same, and shortly, Hooligan was even bigger than before with his feathers on end.

"Why are we here again?" He asked, "hoo!"

"To see about finding a dragon, to help us on our quest, which we didn't even know we were on until just a couple days ago..." Tang replied. "Look, look at that."

Following the angle of her ears, whiskers and snout, the others cast up at a large nest, stone that looked as though it was from an old castle wall. Lined with first large rocks and sticks, but then with small sticks, softer boughs of ferns and plants, and even what looked like a batch of sheep's wool cast off from a farm.

When Onyx looked into the sky, he saw stars, but no moon. No ceiling, either. "I guess this means that the egg has asked for us," he said.

The egg was quite large, compared to the three of them, but they could still surround it in its nest. Hooligan rested atop it, wobbly at first but then hunkering down to see if it fit him. "It's a bit - hoo - uncomfortable. But it is warm."

"That's good, I guess," Tang said, snuggling up to one side of it. It fit the curve of her body nicely, if she lay against it. She could hear something within, moving.

"It's alive," Onyx commented as well, hearing the same thing. "But I suppose it's not ready to hatch just yet... I wonder when it will?"

"We will need to feed it," Tang announced. Her motherly instincts had kicked in, and she now knew what Yukihada had meant. Just because they didn't have hands didn't mean they would not be able to raise a dragon. Every mother could hunt or provide for her young. Humans needed thumbs - but cats didn't.

"Then we should hunt for something bigger than we would separately," Onyx said, tiredly from the other side of the egg. His tail could barely touch Tang's around the far end, as they looked at one another with the bulk of the egg blocking their view.

"We can do that tomorrow. If the sun ever shines here, which I doubt it does, or if there is good starlight. Hoo." Hooligan said.

They drifted to sleep - each wondering what the egg would bear, and what tomorrow would bring.

***

Tomorrow brought a noise. The trio of animals heard a kind of spooky keening coming from--

"It's inside the egg!" Tang exclaimed, springing to her feet. "The egg is going to hatch!" That woke the others pretty quickly indeed. Hooligan still perched atop it, but quickly discovered that it wasn't staying as still as it had been.

"hoo!" He said, flapping his wings, "energetic little cuss."

"It just wants to get out," Onyx said wisely, "no wonder this egg came to us. It wants to be on the other side of its door."

So they waited, both cats purring loudly and the owl occasionally hooting to encourage it. Soon, a bulging crack appeared. It was so slow going - they could see the dark lining of the hard eggshell keeping the insides safe. It was also preventing the dragon within from escaping quite so easily. Pieces of shell began to dry and fall from the lining, and then, finally, a dark claw pushed its way out from that opening.

"You can do it," Onyx said, "come on out!"

With that, other parts of the egg stretched, and grew webbed with fine lines. Within moments, the entire top of the egg was riddled with them. Since there was now a slit in the lining, the dragon inside took that as its opportunity. A nose appeared and then jolted backwards, slicing the egg open where it was softest. Triangles of orange-colored shell flew off of it in the line that was opening, like a zipper breaking.

A dark nose emerged, slick and wet. The eyes were still closed, but the fins and distinct head antennae came slipping out after the nose. A long heavy neck, ribbed in punkin-orange, came next. Short wing stubs followed, and shoulders-body-rump-and-tail came tumbling out next! The dragon had hatched!

If they had hands, the animals would have applauded!

"Welcome," said Tang. "Just rest now, young one."

Her mothering instincts were strong, and she glanced at Hooligan. "You said you'd hunt, go hunt." Then Tang approached the midnight-skinned dragonet and began to carefully groom it. The dragonet seemed to enjoy this treatment, and gave a gurgling cry. When its eyes opened they were as green as green could be, emerald.

"She's beautiful," Onyx said, "it is a she right?"

"Yes," Tang announced. Hooligan arrived with her first meal, a squirrel, and - they discovered a bowl of water that seemed endless. When they lapped at it, it didn't vanish. The dragonet hesitated and dumped her whole face into it at first, snorting and blowing bubbles. But then she got the idea quickly enough to drink. She washed down the gobbled-up squirrel, and promptly went back to sleep.

"Well. That was exciting!" Onyx muttered.

"Oh come now, hoo, you don't expect her to fly and speak straight out of the shell, do you? Hoo!" Hooligan announced with a puffing of his feathers. "She's just newborn, and no chick out of the shell has ever flown or done much more than demand food. I should know. Hoo!"

"That's true, Hooligan," Tang said. She curled down next to the black and orange dragonet. Though the egg was large, the dragon stretched out nicely, but was still small enough that the pair of cats and their avian partner could snuggle close together around her.

"Drws Agor," Hooligan said, before they all slept again.

"Bless you," Onyx said.

"No, that's her name," Hooligan announced sleepily.

"Oh, and so now you get to name the dragon that's supposed to help us on our journey?" Onyx seemed a bit miffed.

"If you'd pay attention," Tang muttered, purring, "you would know that her name means Open Door. Doesn't it?"

"Hoo."

They nestled together. Later on they would remove the shards from the nest, so they didn't injure their paws and get shell fragments in their fur. But for now, it was one happy family.

Name: Drws Agor (open door, or door open, in Welsh)

Age: Hatchling

Type: Halloween, Unknown

Gender: Female

Hatched From: Isle of Mirrors, Contest October 2004

(( originally Halloween3.htm ))

Drws Agor was as dark as she could be, with those bright eyes of hers closed you could hardly see her in the twilight. Save for her wings, which were growing at a good rate - their punkin orange color would blend in with the fall leaves below the trees.

"Where are we, anyway?" Asked Tang after a while. They had set off on the next leg of their journey, as soon as Dwrs was able to fend a bit more for herself. She still didn't speak aloud, but she did make noises and could gobble down nearly any food bits that the cats or bird chased toward her.

"I don't know, hoo," Hooligan said, "this place is unfamiliar to me."

Both cats hissed and puffed up, "why didn't you say so earlier?" Onyx said, angry.  "We're lost, we'll never get home now!"

"You have a quest to finish!" Hooligan reminded the black cat. It was odd, though, because when Hooligan said that word, 'quest', Drws lifted her head from sniffing at a flower nearby.

She tilted her head, nuzzling toward them. by now she'd grown almost three times her hatching size, it was getting a little unnerving to the cats. They figured soon enough they'd be able to ride on her back, instead of trying to dodge her taloned feet.

"Quest?" The dragon said, and all three others froze. "Quest?"

"Yes," Tang said, excited. "That's your first word, quest? We're on a journey to find the other cats - like us." She indicated Onyx and herself with a wave of her fluffy tail.

"Quest!" Drws announced, and raised her head high. It was as though she looked through the treetops above, past the clouds. Then she let off a great roar that shook the trees. It also shook Onyx and Tang, Hooligan had all but vanished in a big puffy ball of fluffy feathers.

After that great noise, Drws seemed to be satisfied. Perhaps she'd announced their idea to the world, or maybe she was warning everyone to stay out of their way. But either way, the foursome was now set on their course to locate the other cats, and perhaps figure out why the moon disappeared here, as well.

***

The curiosity that the cats displayed regarding new smells, shut doors, windowsills and dangling shiny things was not lost on Drws. She examined everything in their path. Flowers, roots, stones, earthworms. She insisted that everyone give her the names of things. Some only Hooligan could name for her, as this realm was hardly Tang and Onyx's to know about. They passed through a town filled with ghouls and ghasts - undead creatures which were loud but somewhat harmless. They too wanted to know how there were cats in the world again.

"You see, Tang," Onyx said with a purr rubbing up against the orange cat's shoulder, "they know that you and I are meant to be together."

"I can see that you don't get it yet," Tang nudged him away. "I'm not ready for that just now... and needless to say I'm not ready to repopulate an entire world... That's way too many kittens for me!"

Hooligan chatted with Drws because he felt that this 'adult' talk of theirs was too intense for her youngling ears. But actually Drws Agor listened to them and wondered why they shouldn't be the ones to bring cats back? "They will have many kittens, eventually," Drws said.

Hooligan fluttered, while riding the great black and orange dragoness. She'd grown tremendously in the last few months, and had begun displaying some different features. Her wings had grown much larger, her antennae long. Hooligan thought that she was ready to learn to fly - and when they'd reached a wide valley he hooted loudly to stop the cats behind them (they rode nearer the middle of Drws' back while Hooligan was on her neck and shoulders) from distracting her.

"Here is a good place- hoo - to catch the winds," Hooligan announced. "You should spread your wings and learn - hoo - to feel the currents below them." As the cats lept down to the heather and grass, Dwrs Agor raised her head and stretched her wings fully out.

"I do feel them, they're not very strong here though."

"True," Hooligan said, "hoo - but any stronger and you would not be able to - hoo - practice." He helped her learn to manipulate her growing wings, until she was able to flap hard enough to actually hover!

The cats remained in the underbrush, with the wind from her great wings pushing their long fur back. "She's going to do it!" Onyx exclaimed. "Our baby dragon is learning to fly!"

"When I am ready to really fly," Drws said, "I will take you to the end of the world, if that is where we will find your kin!"

Name: Drws Agor (open door, or door open, in Welsh)

Age: Adolescent

Type: Halloween, Air

Gender: Female

Hatched From: Isle of Mirrors, Contest October 2004

((originally halloween4.htm ))

It seemed to take no time at all, before Drws was an adult - capable of flight with her broad wings, and able to see for miles above the landscape. Hooligan had taught her well, she could of course out-distance the little owl within but two of her massive wing-beats. She truly enjoyed flying, soaring high above the clouds or down through misty valleys. And it was through all of those that the trio rode her, frantically, searching for the lost moon and the cats.

Every village they spied, they carefully descended to. The cats had to get used to clinging on to her neck ridges, Onyx remaining nearer her right shoulder, while Tang took her left, and Hooligan got quite strong simply by holding his wings down while Drws pushed through the air. As an owl, his feathers provided the perfect lift - and when he wanted to not be lifted, that posed a bit of a problem!

The first village was filled with small sprite-like creatures who used snakelike beasts as guards. They hissed and tried to strike at Drws but a low growl from the dragoness made them back off. The sprites were slightly larger than the cats, but not by much, so the appearance of such a gigantic dragon made them all a bit nervous.

"We have come on a quest," Tang said, "seeking the whereabouts of our cat kin, and the moon that we all miss."

"Do you know where anyone might have taken them?" Asked Onyx.

But the blank stares on the faces of the villagers told them everything they needed to know. They knew nothing, but one bold boy stepped forward and said, "I once heard a story that one night the moon went down and never came up. Maybe that will help?"

"Hoo!" Hooligan chirped, "I think it will, young lad." He ruffled his feathers and looked at the other two. "Perhaps heading west, we can follow the moon's normal direction."

They thanked the young boy and flew off, tossing some of the frail sprites into the air harmlessly, blown by the great wings of their dragon, as they left.

So west they went, if there had been a sun to light the way it would have been easier, but by now everyone could see almost as well as they did in the day time. The cats had all but forgotten what basking in the sun's light felt like, though, they enjoyed feelings like that. Onyx yearned to go home some day. But could they take a dragon through a door that small? Was there another door?

On their westward journey, they encountered armies and monasteries, villages and cities. Grand forests and empty wastes, and had to fly over the biggest mountain they had ever seen. At least, Tang commented, they did not have to do it on foot this time!

When they had crossed that mountain they reached another abrupt world-end. But there were no words of wisdom to come from anyone's mouth this time - no invisible bridge to cross. It was the end of the world. Carefully they looked down, seeing the sheer face of the mountain dip down and vanish into the depths. Though the sense of vertigo was far greater here, the cats climbed to their normal posts, and Hooligan perched between them. They went downwards, since the darkness would quickly obscure the way back if they were to head directly out from the great cliff.

For what seemed like days, they zigzagged downward from the surface. They kept their eyes open for any glimmer of moonlight, or any nooks or caves that might have caught the moon on the surface side.

But they found nothing. They had to sleep clinging to the cliff side, which wasn't easy. After one rest, though, Hooligan gave a little hoot.

"What if it is out there?" He said, looking westward again, away from the edge of the world. "What if, hoo, what if it just wandered away and cannot find the land again?"

"There's a thought," Tang said, glumly. "But how could we find it if it's just ... 'out there'?"

"And how to get it back, if we cannot see the world's edge?" Onyx said, even more grim.

They sighed, and then Drws spoke for the first time in a while.

"I think I could get us back to the world, if we got lost... But I must find someone first. Someone who can teach me something."

She immediately began to fly back up to the edge where they'd left off. When not criss-crossing the vertical surface, they got up to the ground level quickly enough. Still, it would take days to travel where it seemed Drws Agor knew instinctively to go.

She headed back to the place where she had been laid, the Isle of Mirrors. But it was a different route than when the cats and owl had gone. A lake, shining in the dark, seemed to reflect everything around it. She headed downward, and the cats clutched onto her shoulders screaming that she was headed right for the biggest body of WATER they'd ever seeeeeen!

But it merely tickled, as they entered the halls of the dragonry. She swept around and located a pillar which was inscribed with information written in an arcane ancient language.

"I know where I must go, but I must go alone," Drws said. The others dropped to the marble floor, and waited as patiently as they could. The cats curled up together and pondered kittens again, while Hooligan preened himself thoroughly.

***

Drws on the other hand flew a gauntlet of difficult directions into a realm where only air dragons were welcome. The air became static, but filled with a strange sensation of power. She landed on what felt like a field of warm air, and lowered her head.

"Great elder dragon, AshniRose, may I ask you a boon?" She said, with greater reverance than her feline and avian companions had ever heard.

The ghostly shape of the ancient Lightning dragoness turned her head and gazed at the young one. "You may ask, but I may refuse. What do you request, young one?"

With a deep breath to make her confident, Drws Agor looked up with her leafy green eyes. "Great one, I ask that I be given a power to transport myself great distances, though I may not be able to see where I go. To return to the place I last roosted. I am ... I am on a great quest with my bonded friends, to locate the moon of that world, and the cats who have all gone missing. We think we may have located where it all went, but..." She sighed, "but if the moon itself (and I," she said under her breath, "don't really even know what a moon is, to be honest) and all the cats in the world, cannot find their way from this place, I can only think that most powerful magic might."

The ghostly lightning dragoness stirred, and moved herself to face the air Halloween. "It was right for you to ask this of me, but now I must ponder giving you such a gift. Perhaps you might forgoe any other powers, or perhaps I may decline entirely. I will think on this now. You may rest while I do so."

And with that, the shape seemed to vanish in a cloud of bright static electricity.

Drws' heart thudded, and she got a strange feeling in her belly. What if the Elder didn't award this gift? What if she was refused? Would she ever be able to ask for another power if she couldn't have this one? For the first time, worry crept into Drws' mind. She hoped that it didn't wear off onto her friends, who remained outside in the normal domain of the Isle of Mirrors.

***

The trio of animals waited, and waited. They weren't sure quite what they were waiting for, other than perhaps for Drws to come back. They lost track of any time before she did reappear. And when she did...

They pounced on her, the cats and bird all making noises and questioning her. She looked happy, which was good. Her green eyes were wide, and her laughter rang through the hall.

"I have done it!" She cried, "I have asked and gotten what I went for!"

With that, she spread her wings and blew a huge blast of wind with them. Before the cats and bird could say anything, Drws had gathered them up with her forepaws, and began flying toward...

"That's the cliff!" Shouted Tang, "how did you do that?!"

"It is the gift I was given," Drws replied, happily. "Now we can go where we need to, and not get lost!"

The cats and owl kept huddled in her great paws, and would climb back to her shoulders when she landed. They congratulated her on her special ability, she'd been taught this spell, this action, this way of travel - it was unique to her. She was quite proud of herself for having mastered it in such a short time.

They could now begin a long, long journey toward the west - toward what they hoped was where the Moon and their cat kin had gone...

It was a journey that would take them to some very interesting places, indeed...

Name: Drws Agor (open door, or door open, in Welsh)

Age: Adult

Type: Halloween, Air

Gender: Female

Breath Weapon: Dark Wings (portal power)

Hatched From: Isle of Mirrors, Contest October 2004