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.

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