Wake up, eat globs of unidentifiable processed meat, play with Xio, sleep some more, eat some more, patrol territory, sleep, repeat. That had been Xia’s life for years. She didn’t remember the Alyene or whether she had ever been there, she remembered being a kitten and having five blood siblings and another ten siblings that she wasn’t actually related to. She didn’t remember her mother; her memory didn’t go back that far. She had always known what her powers were, they just came naturally to her. Xio would sometimes ask what it was like and she always described it as breathing or blinking; you don’t have to force yourself to blink or breathe, it just happens, and like with blinking and breathing, you can also control it if you want.
Xia had never been content with the life she led in Vieryen. She always felt like something about her was being smothered. She knew that being inside that colorless place was stunting her powers, and she was worried about how much it was stunting her son Xio’s powers. He couldn’t even use them away from the barrier. The closest she could ever get to having full powers was traveling along the edge of the Suppression.
One day she was walking along the barrier when suddenly a ragged line of light started being drawn on the purple shield. She had scurried up the nearest apple tree and watched from above as a circle was made on the Suppression. The inside of the circle faded away and a cloaked figure stepped in. She watched as the figure hid a crystal in a nearby tree. Once he had left, Xia hopped off the tree and walked to the hole, only to find it was no longer there.
Xia came back to that spot at the same time every day, every once and a while bringing her son Xio. She could never get through the window without being seen, most of the time the man stayed and watched the gap close. Each day that the stranger came he left that crystal in a tree. Eventually, Xia got an idea, get their servant Rienna to take the crystal out of the tree and make an opening in the Suppression. Her plan had worked, she had gotten Rienna to go into the Alyene, which was even better than what Xia had imagined.
Then everything had gone sideways. They had been taken captive by a witch, lost Rienna (then found her), and then gotten captured by a group of child-stealing lunatics. Now they were inside a giant birdcage listening to a ridiculous human man talk to them condescendingly. The idiot had the nerve to call himself ‘The Houndmaster’ and act like he could control animals. Locking up creatures does not make you a ‘master’ of anything! Xia thought angrily.
“Hey there little pets. I’m The Houndmaster, you belong to me now.” He had said. He then went on a long monologue about how awesome he was.
Xia could tell that her son wanted to say something, but the human just gave no opening. Finally, when he took a breath Xio cut in, “We just as smart as you. Maybe more smart. You have no right to talk to us like how you did.”
“Oh! You can talk! Why that will add so much more excitement to the entertainment tonight. Keep talking! I’ll give you a treat?” The Houndmaster said, who had revealed his name as Zumfy Fippleton during his life story.
“You treats suck, Zumfy!” Xio yelled, “Let us out of here!”
“Sorry, no can do. As I said, you’ll make wonderful entertainment. Say, what can your friend here do?” Fippleton gave a patronizing smile.
“Don’t tell him anything. If we ignore him maybe he’ll go away and we can find out how to escape.” Xia mewed to Xio.
“Meow mew, mewoll?” The Houndmaster mimicked, “Is being a chatty cat her power?”
“Meow mew, mowell. You said it wrong, you imbecile.” Xia snarled back. She turned to Xio, “Let’s at least try to sleep, even if his blob of a mouth keeps talking.”
“Okay, Mama.” Xio meowed, “I’ll try. I’m really worried though…”
“It’ll be okay Xio, don’t you worry, just go to sleep,” Xia told her son.
It wasn’t long before Zumfy Fippleton lost interest in the cats and for Xio to fall asleep. However, Xia stayed awake for a long while, observing the large shack of caged animals around her. She wondered how Rienna was faring and who would have to rescue whom. Eventually, though, she did fall into a dreamless sleep from which she didn’t wake until Zumfy rattled the cage that she had been put in.
“Wake up little kitties! It’s time to do some tricks!” Zumfy cooed. The rude human lifted the cage that Xia and Xio were in and carried them out the door and into a large room with soldiers sitting in chairs all around the edge.
The Houndmaster brought the cage to the center of the room and plopped it on the table causing Xia to slam against the metal bars. “Hello, everyone! Today I have a new excitement for you! Two cats, mother and son, are here before you, their sole purpose is to entertain your bored, exhausted, brains!” Zumfy announced loudly, unlocking the cage, “The small one has the power to speak! Stand, sorry no, sit, amazed at this spectacular duo!” With that, he opened the cage.
Looking out, Xia saw that the soldiers around the room were rather bored, and by the horrid attempt at an exciting introduction, Xia could tell that the soldiers only came here since it was better than anything else they could do.
“We are not entertainment or toys. We are intellectual beings, maybe evens more smarter than you!” Xio yelled to Xia’s dismay. This would go so much faster if they weren’t being entertaining.
“Xio.” She said firmly.
“What?! They’re all jerks!” Xio retorted.
“And I’m sure that yelling at them about how we are smarter than they think will stop them from trying to make us entertaining.” Xia told her son, “If we are going to do anything, it should be to make this as terrible for them as possible.”
“Fine. So, what? Do I just lie down and pretend to sleep?”
“That would work, yes.”
“Well, that’s what I’ll do then,” Xio said with finality. Xia watched as he lay down and curled into a ball.
“Kitty! Why do you lie down? Don’t you want to speak some more to your friends out here? What did your mommy tell you?” Zumfy asked. Xio didn’t answer and Xia started lying down herself. “Kitties!! Come on!! Please, tell us how stupid we are and how you’re so smart!” Zumfy continued, starting to sound a little desperate.
“Fippleton! We come here to be entertained, not watch you begging to cats!” Someone in the audience yelled.
“I don’t know,” another person answered, “I think this may be more entertaining than anything else he’s shown us!”
“Hey!” The Houndmaster yelled, walking away from the cage, “I don’t see you trying to get these animals to do tricks! It’s harder than you think!.”
“Yeah, well, you’re only doing this so you seem like you're useful to this ‘camp’.” Yet another audience member called out.
“Now you listen here! …” The Houndmaster started.
“Xio!” Xia whispered, “Look how they are all distracted! Do you see an exit, I may be able to get us out of here.”
Xio looked around, “I think the best we can do is go out the way we came.”
“I agree.” Xia mewed softly, “Follow me, I’ll use my powers to speed us up.” With that Xia jumped out of the cage, followed by Xio.
Running with the wind behind her, she sprinted through the door and into the room where they had originally been held captive. There were three entrances into the room, the one they came from, and two on the other side. From what she remembered, the Houndmaster went through the left door at night and then through the right door during the day. She guessed the right door went outside and the left went to the human’s room.
She heard the clamor from behind her as the Houndmaster attempted to run after the cats and tripped over chairs and audience members. “Xio, this way!” Xia called out before continuing to run. Her guess was right, the right door led to a short hallway that went outside. There was unfortunately not much to hide behind outside so they had to continue running until they reached the outhouses in front of the fence surrounding the entire camp. Luckily no one was using them and they were able to hide in the small gap between the outhouses and the fence.
“Well, what are we going to do now?” Xio asked, glad that they had escaped the Houndmaster, but obviously still distraught that they still hadn’t completely escaped.
“We are going to get out of this terrible slave camp and help bring these humans to justice,” Xia said, holding her head high, determined to save the children and stop the soldiers from ever doing anything like that again. “First though,” she continued, “We need to find Rienna and her friend Jen and get them out of here.”