A New Phase - Chapter 8
#8 of A New Phase
A New Phase
Chapter 8
There was some shuffling as creatures cast spells and moved about the room, seemingly haphazardly. Jack watched curiously until he realized that they were all moving back to where they originally did the time stop, some guided by spell-cast hazy versions of themselves that marked their exact position.
Takaran took Jack by the hand and led him back to where he had originally been standing, nudging Jack to get his shoulder beneath Farren's paw. The wolf frowned at this arrangement, sighing. "She'll likely notice," he muttered.
Jack glanced over his shoulder at the three females still frozen in time. He noted Sess'tha's fur standing up a bit, and Farren's look of concern. He stared at Selkine for a long while, trying to remember what side she had been on. Takaran caught his attention and turned him back to face forward as he had been, but he did a double take. Had Selkine's whiskers twitched? Takaran frowned and got him to reposition himself again.
Once everybody was back in position, the same six pairs of hands rose into the air. A twist in reality, and surrounding noise started up again, Farren's paw slipping forward off the shoulder. Jack realized that he had also been walking forward when the time stop occurred, and winced as Sess'tha stopped with her nose just shy of his back. Everybody in the room was still just looking at him, as if from where they left off, and the hands of the ones who had created the time stop dropped.
Farren's paw squeezed Jack's shoulder, and she leaned in closer to him, murmuring in his ear. "I think they just did a timestop, Jack. And you moved during it, so they may have done something to you." Jack reached up to pat her fingers reassuringly, while Takaran's keen ears didn't miss Farren's low voiced observation.
"We did. Quite sorry, but it was the course of action decided upon before coming here. We did what we needed to do, though, and everything is fine now," Takaran told the vixen.
"I hope this doesn't mean we have to make dinner for all of you," Selkine sulked.
Takaran chuckled. "Oh, goodness, no. We will be leaving now in fact. We got a lot of information, and now we need to plan more of what is to happen." Murmurs of agreement filled the room as animals began to file out the front door.
The wolf held a hand out to Jack. "You obviously got something out of our actions also. You'll have to bring me up to date on that, but not today. We sent Jeran to fetch you three because we were short on time today after waiting. However," Takaran looked at the three girls, "I do need to have a brief word with you three alone. Jack, if you would be so kind as to head back to the bedroom, I'd be grateful."
Jack sighed and nodded, spinning around to head that way. Farren gave him another comforting squeeze on the shoulder and smiled to him as he headed into the bedroom so the animals could have their private conversation. He looked at the group of them as he turned the corner. Could things get any less complicated, please?
Reaching the bedroom, Jack flopped on the bed. Okay, Jack, he thought to himself. Let's go over this. You're a failure at something, so you've become this, like, super-thing hero to the world. There is also an avatar, who can help you, but can't do much else in the world. So far you've been knocked over the head, almost raped, electrocuted... or magicuted?... screwed delightfully senseless, abused by a shadow-bound porcupine, and found out about this inner shell...
His thoughts were interrupted as he realized that the ticking sound he heard was not normal. With a frown, he glanced at the window as the light ticking continued. He saw a motion on the other side of the blinds, and finally decided to go investigate. It didn't look too horribly big, whatever was out there.
Jack split the blinds and realized the ticking came from a claw being tapped lightly against the window. The creature was obviously aware of his presence inside, and he reached for the pull cord to lift the blinds. He was surprised to see a somewhat familiar face peering back at him from the other side of the glass. The little female wildcat from the call center gazed in at him. He wasn't sure what her expression meant, but she looked concerned.
Making a decision, Jack reached down and lifted the window open. Hmm. He would have to get the apartment folks to replace that screen. The wildcat smiled at him meekly through the window, peeking in past him briefly.
"Hi," she said, her voice low. She looked nervous now. Jack peered down at her as she fidgeted. "I, um, wanted to come and apologize. I didn't think I could find you by yourself anytime, so I tried now. I hope you're not mad at me or anything. I didn't think anything bad would happen, and Urasa was soooo convincing. But I'm really sorry. I heard a little bit about what happened because of that, and I saw what Urasa tried to do."
She hung her head, her ears wilting. "I understand if you can't forgive me. I just needed to apologize. I wish Urasa c-could..." She suddenly dropped to her haunches on the rocks outside, putting her hands over her face in dismay and shaking in distress. Jack could hear her crying quietly.
Jack frowned. This little female had been urged entirely by the tigress. He bore no ill will for her, and was distraught to see her like this. He felt an odd flash of power from within himself, but he wasn't sure what it was about. Concerned, he reached down to the little wildcat and touched her shoulder. She jumped as he did, and the fact that she had not been moving at all for a moment prior to his touch bypassed him completely. She looked up at him, her cheeks and muzzle fur wet with tears.
"Hush, don't worry," Jack murmured gently. "I forgive you, and I know it was not your fault. What's your name? And Urasa was the tigress?"
The wildcat sniffled. "Alinia," she said meekly, her ears flicking. "Urasa... She was my closest friend. I can't believe she got sh-shadowbound." The cat broke off crying again, but Jack realized he had heard that word before. The white vixen had said that to the porcupine.
"Shadowbound?" Jack asked. He could not hide his confusion.
Alinia's words were muffled by her paws over her face. "She has a sh-shadow wrapping her soul. It made her do th-that horrible thing. Now, she's stored, waiting until they c-can see if they can fix it... And if not, they have to d-destroy her!" She broke off crying softly again.
Jack was torn between feeling sorry, and getting information. "How do they know she's shadowbound?" he asked. "Maybe she just made a bad decision, and she can make the choice not to do it again."
The cat paused in her sniffles to look up at him. "You really are from the outphase," she murmured in wonder. She shook her head. "Nobody from the midphase ever has the will to do anything bad unless they are shadowbound. We don't have much crime because of this, and the cause of all of it is simple enough. But it also means that criminals can't be helped to just make better choices, and can never be sorry for it, because they are no longer themselves. So they get stored... complete time stasis... and if they are lucky, their soul is not held too tightly by the shadow, and it can be cleaned, decades later. If they are not lucky, when their turn comes in 20 years or so, the shadow is too strong, and they must be destroyed." Her ears flicked back in distress, "Oh, poor Urasa! She..."
Alinia suddenly stopped speaking and looked confused for a moment, then began to look around curiously. Her ears laid much further back, and her eyes widened. "We're in a timestop!" she exclaimed. Jack blinked, suddenly aware of the fact that the world was not moving around them at all, not even a breeze to rustle the leaves. Jack was even more shaken when he realized that somehow HE had done this himself. That was what the surge of power had been, and when he touched the cat, he had released her from the timestop.
But how had he done this? And didn't Master Takaran get hurt pretty badly from doing this alone? Was he in for pain in the future when he released this, assuming he could release it? A familiar voice rang in his head. "You will be learning many new things, and very quickly. Follow your instinct as you go into the future. It will not misguide you. Remember, your vixen has had the first of you. The link is forged; she will not keep you from your own will in the future. Fear not for what you have done now. No harm will come to you for it."
"Did... did you do this?" Alinia asked him timidly.
Jack flushed red as he nodded. "I did... I'm still learning a lot of things, and this is new to me too." He noticed how fearful the small cat looked, and frowned. He leaned out the window enough to take her paw and draw her to stand. "Please, come in. We have some privacy with this... timestop... so you shouldn't be left standing out there like that."
Alinia climbed carefully through the open window, looking very hesitant and unsure. "Thank you," she said in a tiny voice, wrapping her arms around herself as Jack sat on the bed to give her room. Her tail curled down around her legs as she looked cautiously around his room, her eyes finally falling on him. "You... you're not mad at me, right?"
Jack smiled warmly. "I'm not mad at you at all. And if Urasa was controlled by a shadow, then I'm not mad at her either, just at the shadow." He held his arm out beside him on the bed. It was a habit to invite a regular outphase pet cat up beside him, but Alinia responded in like, carefully moving to climb onto the bed beside him. He curled an arm around her. She was like a child in size, but obviously fully grown.
Alinia snugged against his side, her shivers fading as the magic of his touch warmed her. He wondered if her fur was softer than an outphase cat of her type, or the same. Hmm. Since he was dressed only in outphase clothing, her midphase form was directly against his skin.
"Are you coming back to work soon?" she finally had the courage to ask. "Everybody at the call center is wondering about you, and misses you." She flicked an ear in consideration. "Well, all the midphasers at least. And some of your coworkers in the outphase."
She looked up at him and licked the underside of his chin worriedly. "There's a rumor that you aren't coming back. People say that they heard the outphase managers talking about you not working there anymore."
Jack sighed and shook his head. "I've been retired with a huge pension. I don't get to work there anymore, but I'm set for life."
Alinia earwilted, saddened by the news. "Everybody is going to miss you. And what will we do for rep of the month? People would try to brush past you all the time because you feel so warm and special." The little cat snuggled closer.
"Wow..." Alinia murmured, realization dawning on her. "All this time, everybody has only been able to be close, or overlap you, but nobody could touch you. And here I am, snuggled against your side, and you're even holding me. This is like a dream come true." She squee'd in delight and threw her arms around him, knocking him back on the bed and hugging him tightly. "Thank you so much, Jack!"
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