Spirit Animal

"Scat!"

The instant such a brazen word rang out, a dirty, misshapen broom swept my face.

In a frenzy, I leaped out of a crooked front entrance. My jet-black paws thundered onto the crack-ridden sidewalk stretching down the city street. Halos of light from the lampposts flickered in and out. Their reflection bounced off an angry head behind me; sloppy footsteps danced off the walls of brick buildings.

'Don't use it...'

'Don't use it...'

I bee-lined across the street. That trash of a shopkeeper skidded to a halt when I disappeared into the silent night. Trash, indeed! 'He should have swept himself!'

As I slunk into a lone alley, empty soda cans toppling over the edges of the towering piles of trash startled me. 'Who's there?!' The prized morsel of fish tail that hung from my fangs flopped in the gentle wind; my mouth watered from the salty oils secreted from its scales.

'So...hungry...' My stomach screamed out.

I squinted back toward the deli peasant, the idea that I had to fend for myself... 'You should be the one feeding this to me!'

Another light clank of a soda can sent me backwards. I decided to sense around the periphery; there was only the presence of a moving car in the distance and one very slow human two blocks from me. Must have been an old hag, by the sound of fake pearls snapping together on a flimsy string.

'Good.'

I ducked behind a trash can, facing away from the mystery splatters dripping off the rim. I dropped the fine fish tail onto the ground. Ha! Listen to me! I've been hungry for so long, I actually believed it was a meal fit for a king!

Some king...Having to stoop down to eat in the dirt, like an animal!

I huffed and snapped my paw onto the slimy remains. The two silver scales hanging by a thread wiggled. Under them, flesh appeared, and bones crackled into life. Rows of scales multiplied outward from the tail. Fins grew back, beginning as stubs and stretching into grey veils. Gills sliced into the body one by one. Dead grey eyes of a life short-lived expanded in their sockets. One short moment, and the tail became a full-sized tilapia.

I tore into its fat, fleshy side. 'I can't believe I have to keep my magic hidden from this country, too. I would love to rapidly grow that man's hair back just to light it on fire.'

I ripped the juicy flesh piece by piece and blindly scarfed down every morsel my mouth touched, even crunching the many tiny bones with my sharp feline teeth, silently imagining it had been cooked to perfection and served with sauce. It's not that I would have died, but starvation, I admit, was very painful.

I was sure this was very amusing for the backstabber who cursed me into this beastly form, someone of my nobility being treated like some sort of animal! I would have easily changed myself back if it weren't for that ghastly coil of power around my neck. I couldn't see it, but I felt it constrict me every moment of every day. Always there, unable to rip it off, no matter how many times I scratched at my neck; I've almost grown a bald patch.

'I used to eat real meals! For real kings!' I yelled to myself with a full mouth. 'I was served! Feared!' I wanted to scream out every word, for the whole world to hear, yet all the smelly alley heard was irritated yowling and sloppy eating.

In the nearer distance, a car roared along a heavily bumpy road. 'Back in my day, they were called carriages! And they couldn't run me over so easily all the time! Can't they ever see me walking?'

Furious, I left the fish half-eaten and stomped away onto the open street. Here I go again: 'I was treated like royalty!' I repeated to myself in a low growl. 'I stood above everyone else! High above! I dictated how everyone lived their lives!'

Those peasants and their stupid little 'revolution', having the gall to stand up to me.

Me!

I could still see that flimsy little ex-apprentice of mine, faking that sorry look on his face, blackmailing me and claiming that the "collar will come off on its own terms."

Ha! Inexperienced; even his magic had to do its own bidding. I've tried every trick I knew to figure out what the 'terms' were... 500 years later, still nothing. I thought maybe it had to do with my life, but I had it all! I found true happiness: being a prince. I never did anything wrong; maybe just a little hypnosis to become the king's adopted son? Is that really so bad? As far as I was concerned, that man was begging for one, anyway... I gave him a blessing!

Almost as if on cue, across the empty road, was the image of an old enemy standing on rotted wooden steps. That lopsided cloak...Unkempt frizzy hair...Freckles... Looking still just as apologetic as ever. I knew it was just a mirage, yet my anger welled up.

'Oh, you can hear my thoughts!' I yelled out in a hiss, 'Well, listen to this, you little disappointment! No one mourned your loss! And your ma? Died after you! Ha! '

My throat closed on itself. I sucked in my breath, and I violently shook my head and pawed at the "nothing" around my neck. My claws came out on their own; a stinging pain erupted underneath the strangling.

'Get it off, get it off-!'

I stumbled out onto the black pavement, dragging over the painted white and yellow lines, violently jerking my body this way and that, my head and legs kicking in sporadic bursts. I screamed right over the sound of a car coming closer, and I hissed, 'Frederick, I'll bring you back to life just to kill you again!'

A rapid clanking of plastic beads shook behind me, and a painful squealing struck my ears, like a banshee crying out right next to me. I cowered; my rage flew right out of me as my peripheral vision was blinded by a hyperbeam of light. The tightness in my throat melted away, and I sucked in my breath like a desperate fish.

I turned toward the source of the light. In front of me was a shadowed silhouette, a human, hunched over. It blocked the light from a car, covered by a cloud of smoke from its sudden halt. Peeking around the human, I caught the glimmer of bent metal standing on the hood. 'Is that supposed to be an ornament? Don't give up your day job.'

The old human drifted her attention down at me; impossibly large glasses hung daringly close to the tip of her nose, lenses thick as a book. She had to have been no younger than 60, by the silvery hair tied up in a messy bun. A long pearl necklace draped around her thick overcoat, the plastic I must have heard.

I loathed that look she gave me -- like she was worried. "Are you okay, little dearie?" she croaked.

I scoffed. How dare she?! I gave a loud, intimidating hiss. My fangs bared, my ears flattened, and my claws snapped out. 'I don't need your help!' I backed away slowly.

I just sped over to where the traitor stood, but of course, there were only the steps of a pathetic shop, missing one more fish tail, not even 3 minutes ago. 'Back to the scene of the crime, I was baited!'

Very slow steps dragged behind me, pearls clanking again.

An engine revved, and there was an explosion down the street. "Stupid cat!" The driver yelled out.

'What did you just call me?!' I flipped my head over, but only met the old hag again.

'Go on, away with you!' I 'meowed' out.

The hag looked down at me, then at the shop, where a bald man was inside sweeping aggressively. 'He really lights up the room. And I don't mean his smile.'

"You know," the hag said, "This is my favorite deli." She kept looking at me, like she wanted to do something. But I know she wouldn't dare!

'Yeah? I steal from it all the time; you have poor taste, lady.'

"And my grandson just so happens to own it."

'Tell him to try a different hobby.'

"Oh, such a sweet, handsome boy you are!" She said. To my horror, she hunched even lower down and extended out her hand; I almost thought I heard a bone or two snap.

'Put that thing away! Don't you know who I am?!' I hissed again, feeling my tail swing back and forth violently. I raised a paw on instinct, then immediately planted it back down.

'No, no...No magic...Drats! I'd turn her into the ashes she already is!'

"Oho, okay, dearie, not yet." She laughed.

Yet?! Ha! Like everyone else, I intend to leave her behind. Not like she could keep up with me. With a twirl and a hop, I sprinted down the sidewalk, mindlessly following the tire tracks painted on the Swiss cheese-like road. I heard only the ring of a store bell and a door closing shut. 'Ha! Sucker!'

My throat squeezed and gripped me harder and harder with every step I took. After only a few blocks, I started choking. I started hobbling as I ran to paw at my neck, but of course, nothing was there.

Those tire tracks took a left, right over the sidewalk, and hid in the parking lot between buildings. I felt the presence of... Danger in between my panting. The form of a teenage kid was right around the corner. The second I stepped onto those tire tracks that painted the concrete, my breathing became unbearable, and I came to a halt.

'I can't....Breathe...'

A white light shone on me like the morning sun. "Well, look who it is!"

Wait, I recognized that stupid voice! Squinting up, a teenager was flashing a device light straight at me, and the car that had almost run me over parked behind him; his other hand was on the front wheel, as if he was inspecting it. The ugly hood ornament reflected his phone just as well as the deli man's head did.

I steeled myself. 'How about you call me that again!' I snarled in between breaths. 'A stupid what?! In my day, I would have beheaded you for even looking at me wrong! So go ahead! Say it!' My tail wagged rapidly, and my claws scraped against the sidewalk as I gave the best hiss I could.

He was intimidated; I was sure. He reached into his passenger seat and pulled out a stained wooden bat, leaning it on his shoulder like he was tough. Imprints covered the handle, shapeless like the tattoos painted on his stupid face.

"You know, black cats are bad luck. Maybe I should do society a favor?" The kid teased, spinning his bat in his hand.

'Try me!' I growled. My paws readied; 'when they start glowing, I'm gonna turn his insides into outsides!'

I clamped my mouth shut and looked away in anger. 'Oh, right...No magic.'

I may have been the reason that the 'black cat' rumor started in the first place. I had to stow away on a boat to multiple countries like a fugitive because of all the massacres. The thought still sends shivers down my spine.

I coughed. I needed to go back to the alley, at least until I could breathe again.

Regrettably, I turned my back. The kid raised his bat, and one swing to my hind legs sent me flying onto a stairway one door down. My chin smacked onto the wooden spindle railing, and my ribs took an imprint of the steps. Wincing, I raised myself, only to find that three legs could move. The other leg cracked, forcing me to drop back down.

'Ah...I suddenly prefer the broom now.' I moaned.

With fury in my chest, I whipped over to the kid. If I can't be obvious about it and just straight out kill him, I'll just scare him!

One sharp look, and I popped the lamp post that looked over him, shards of glass sliced his ugly hair and jacket. As expected, the kid froze mid-swing. I popped another one right next to him. He hopped back.

"Wh-wha-?" He trembled out.

I popped another post.

Then another.

Then another.

All the way down the road, glass bulbs smashed onto the ground, snapping and crashing on the pavement, leaving half the city in the dark; the only light was from the untouched lamps across the street. It sounded like it was raining glass; the kid had to cover his ears.

Now that I knew I had made my point, I turned to him. I expected fear.

Only, it was, indeed, fear. Just not the fleeing kind... It was the look of the hunt that I knew all too well.

"Oh, my god...It's actually evil!" He blurted out.

'I'm the evil one?! You just hit a defenseless anima- me! You hit me! Not an animal (ugh!) I'm certainly not the good guy, but you need help!'

The kid raised his bat at me; I narrowed my bright yellow eyes. Guess I need to end him after all, which will surely cause attention, and I'll have to flee the country again. I had no choice.

All that commotion, I didn't sense the presence of two familiar figures following the chain of broken glass towards us. What I did hear, however, was the clanking of fake pearls knocking closer and closer.

'There is no way!'

"Hey, you troublemaker!"

The boy snapped his head over, and in the very dim light of the street, was the shining head of a man in a deli apron, holding up a shotgun.

"Go on, get out of here!" The deli man didn't wait for a response, just took a thundering shot right next to the kid and sent him screaming and crying for mommy.

The stupid kid turned back to give me a nasty look. Like he was thinking, 'I'll be back!'

'I look forward to seeing you again!' I said with a snide smirk.

"Oh...You poor, poor dear..." The old hag said.

Before I could react, I was hoisted upward. My leg dangled slightly, making me writhe and scream. 'Ah! Don't you dare! You people are beneath me! Unhand me at once!'

Amid my flailing and hissing, I gasped in the cool night air; I froze. My throat...The collar still hung heavily, but I felt lighter than ever. Peering up at the hag, I wondered, 'Who is this crone?'

"Hey, I know this little thief. You really wanna take him in, granny?" Said the deli man.

Take him in?!

"Of course, look at the poor dear, he's injured!" She cooed gently, "I've been needing a companion at home."

'What awful words to hear!'

But I had realized ... With a leg like that.

I couldn't escape her clutches.