Cythera Chronicles: The Origin of Callie

As Callie attempted to slink away, she accidentally ran into a trash can. The large clanging noise alerted the black and gray tabby cat who was following her. It stealthily crept towards Callie. Getting into a position where he could easily get a good leap onto her, he coiled his powerful back legs. However, he was interrupted by the shout of "Kitty!" from a young girl. Getting away from her was futile; she had grabbed around his middle in a crushing hug.

Callie turned back and saw the helpless tabby. She smirked at it and exited Cademia at a brisk pace. It was too dangerous here. The next place she would go was LandKing Hall. Alaric was always kind to her. She would have to go past that abandoned farmhouse. Ruffians were always hanging around it. They didn't like cats, for whatever reason. She would wait until night before traveling to the Hall.

She caught two voles and found some cheese for her dinner. The sun was barely setting. Callie decided to take a quick nap until it was about midnight. Curling up in a small berry bush, she went to sleep.

When she woke up, the full moon was fully visible in the nighttime sky. It was giving off a ghostly pale light. Callie stretched the coldness out of her muscles and started to walk to the Hall. About halfway there, Callie sensed movement behind her and turned. The old tabby cat from Cademia!

He pounced on Callie and they became a whirling, hissing, clawing and spitting ball of fur. In the end, Callie had several cuts but the tabby had a slightly torn and bleeding ear. The tabby walked away, doing his best to glare at Callie.

Traveling at a quicker pace, Callie arrived at LandKing Hall almost at sunrise. She climbed into the small hole in the mountain that was the front door. As she walked though the hall to Alaric's quarters, several people stopped to greet her by scratching her head. Before she went to Alaric's quarters, she stopped by the kitchen. Emesa had always loved cats, and had had one for several years. For breakfast, Emesa cooked two sausages and gave Callie a slice of cheese and half a pomegranate.

The large steel door loomed over her as she came into the carpeted room. Clawing the door produced an ear-splitting grating noise. Footsteps came toward the guilty cat and unlocked the door with a soft click. The door swung open, squeaking as it did so. A disgruntled Alaric was looking down at her. An explosion came from the room and a pale blue liquid trickled out from an unknown source.

Alaric looked at the very innocent-looking cat and smiled. Several spells soon repaired the distiller and door. Some flatbread and butter with a couple ribs was Callie's conjured early lunch. Callie stayed there several days. She slept in Bellerophon's room at night. During the day she played with Magpie's string collection, sat on Alaric's throne when he was away and stared into the ethereal void for hours.

After staying a few more days, she decided to move to Kosha. Stentor and Pelagon liked her very much. Sometimes she would watch them fishing. She then traveled four days to reach Kosha. Callie was fed fish and cheese there.

Callie walked out of Itanos' house and say Stentor and Pelagon fishing. She walked over to them. Suddenly, she froze. A large tentacle had come out of the water and grabbed Pelagon. There was a muffled scream as it dragged him under the water. Now Stentor ran over to Itanos and began telling him the story. Callie left Kosha for Pnyx later that day.

She had decided to take a short route and travel through the southwater swamps. At the very edge, she looked down and decided to take a different route; there had been what seemed like a swamp gator convention. Callie now made her way to the mouth of the Styx river. A freemage with a mad look in her eyes was wandering around near there.

Prusa was what she called herself. A very unfriendly magess, she was. After her encounter, Callie's leg wasn't that badly broken. A simple spell would heal it. After a few days, Callie arrived at Pnyx. There was a crowd of students around the entrance and they were all looking up. Callie looked up too and spotted something on the roof. Coming closer, she saw it was a mage. He had crashed into the side of Pnyx. It seemed rather hard to do, though, as it was thirty-five feet off the ground. Pheres and Lindus hurried out from the door and told the students to move away.

Callie now figured out how it had been done. An experimental spell had probably caused him to smash into the roof. Lindus had now conjured a ladder and him and Pheres were climbing it. "Ferazel, I've told you not to experiment with your spells here. Please do it in Cademia; at least it's a mess already!" Callie heard Lindus say. Several students snickered.

Ferazel groaned and stood up. Pheres cast several healing spells on himself and climbed down. "All right, head back to the classroom!" Ferazel yelled as he climbed down.

The students refused to budge and Lindus had to tell them to go back to the classroom before they moved. Ferazel resumed teaching back inside the classroom, almost as if nothing had happened. Callie was sitting in the back of the class. Ferazel taught the "art" of creating spells. One of his spells, called the "Spell of Flight", had gone wrong and he had flown out of Pnyx, then onto the roof.

After class, all the students filed out, each with a different story of what had happened. Ferazel stayed in the classroom to grade some essays. Callie jumped up onto the desk he was sitting at. Ferazel started to pet her. He noticed the broken leg and quickly fixed it with a spell. "How did you get a broken leg?" he asked.

Callie replied "Prusa" and to her surprise, it came out as Latin.

"Third attack this week," he muttered.

"Excuse me, but how am I speaking Latin?"

"Oh yeah. It's a spell I made."

Callie noticed that she was glowing a tint of pale blue. The glow faded away and then Callie could only meow again. 'I thought he wasn't supposed to test out his spells here,' Callie thought. Ferazel then picked up Callie in one arm and pointed his wand skyward in the other. "Directed Nexus!" he shouted.

The world dissolved before Callie and LandKing Hall faded into view. They were in Alaric's quarters. Ferazel set Callie down and whispered something to a door with a purple, glowing handle. It swung open almost instantly.

Alaric was looking out into an ethereal void to the north. It stretched as far as Callie could see. "Prusa has been attacking things again, Alaric. I suggest that -" Ferazel began.

"Prusa is completely insane now. She cannot be moved from her home at the mouth of the Styx. Leave her alone for now and simply warn people traveling in her area." Alaric interrupted.

Ferazel sighed and teleported back to Pnyx with Callie. Now it was about 6 o'clock in the afternoon. Ferazel left and returned with a basket of food from the Study Hall. Callie ate slowly. She was thinking about where to stay. She couldn't wander around Cythera until she died. Ferazel seemed to sense what she was thinking. "Would you like to stay with me? I stay and teach here at Pnyx, but I'll go out on an adventure sometimes."

Callie couldn't have been happier. Someone had offered her a home! She began to purr and wouldn't stop for half an hour.

A few months later, Callie was back in Cademia. Ferazel was testing some new spells deep in the slums like he always was. Callie had been a magic cat for three weeks now. Ferazel had used several spells on Callie to make her as smart as the average human. Bribing Lindus 1,500 oboloi was how Callie knew how to cast some spells herself. It was quite funny to watch the pair of Callie and Ferazel. Ferazel would test spells and Callie would make sure he didn't permanently damage himself...

[This message has been edited by moderator (edited 10-21-2002).]

Speaking of cats, I saw a thirty pound cat saturday -
it was of some exotic type called an 'Mouw'
The guy with it said that it would grow to be about 70 pounds, but I think that was a bit of a hyperbole, considering the cat wasn't much more than 25% bigger than an ordanary domestic tabby.
My cousin also has a cat. It's a skiddish and antisocial beast...
A friend of mine has several cats and dogs in her house - it's driven her to harbor a dislike most animals Posted Image

On the other hand, she has a pet rat and really likes it....
Okay, I'm babbling, aren't I?
Later.

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