Fang woke to the smell of smoke. He twitched his whiskers, trying to waft it away, but the scent persisted. His ears perked up as he heard the rattle of metal, and his eyes opened as the door of his home opened. Fang smoothly rose from his warm spot on the couch, rubbing against the radiator he had been nestled against as he stretched his back legs. He hopped down from the couch, and picked his way through the bottles and food wrappings to his human as he entered.

His human flicked his cigarette away outside as Fang wound between his legs, freeing his hand to reach down and give Fang his rightful tribute of scritches as recompense for going missing all day. The man picked his way through the room, stepping almost as precisely as Fang (though with none of the same feline grace) as he evaded both litter and cat on his way into the kitchen.

Soon, the two were seated on the couch in Fang's usual spot, his human eating fried nuggets that tasted almost but not quite entirely unlike bird, while Fang enjoyed his vastly superior can of liver pate. Once they were finished, he curled up on his human's lap as the TV blared its nonsensical series of pictures. His human had another bad-smelling smoke stick in one hand, while the other alternated its attention between petting Fang and today's bottle. Eventually, his human started to snore, and Fang dozed on his lap.

Until the cigarette fell on the floor.

Fang's ears flattened and he shied away from the acrid smoke of the smoldering carpet. He meowed at his human, demanding that he do something, but he continued to snore. Fang bit the man's hand, but that only caused him to twitch and knock the bottle off of the couch to shatter on the floor. The contents erupted upwards in an explosion of flame, which in turn resolved itself into a mirthful, mocking face.

Fang blinked.

He arrived in a tree, huddled on a high branch as he watched his house burn. Crackling and cackling mocked him from inside, and flames licked up onto the roof, solidifying into a glowing vulpine form. It paced along the edge of the roof, then ran and leapt forward toward Fang’s perch, its many tails streaming behind it.

Fang blurred to another tree, to the next and the next and the next as each one erupted into flame, smoke smothering the horizon behind him.

He fled in a mad panic, losing all sense of direction and distance and time as he sought to lose the flames pursuing him. Finally, his impeccable feline ears picked up something to orient himself.

"Chairman Meow, din-din!"

Fang narrowed in on the sound of his human's voice, darting in its direction and leaving the flames behind. The seemingly endless forest of trees around him parted, and he made a jump for the solitary ancient oak occupying a corner of his human's back yard. His eyes fixed on his house, and his human standing on the back porch with a can of tuna in her hand.

Somehow, the branch he expected to land on was a bit farther away than he expected. Fang plummeted towards the ground, and straight through a hole between the roots. After a moment of disoriented flailing, Fang emerged into an open space, falling towards a barren plain of gray ash. He landed on his feet with a whump that sent out a cloud of ash, prompting two quick sneezes from the feline.

As the dust began to settle, Fang took stock of his surroundings. It was a quick process, considering his surroundings were essentially empty. Clear space until the horizon, a blank grey sky without a single cloud, dominated by an enormous feline eye composed of blazing magma. The only thing of note to Fang was the surface on which he landed. It seemed to be a lap.

He looked at the lap's owner as he turned a circle on it and settled down. It was humanoid, rather a necessity in order to have a lap, but anything beyond that was difficult to say, as every inch seemed to be blackened, melted, and charred beyond recognition. The figure sat upright in a large, high-backed chair of black glass despite its apparent deceased state. One leg was missing below the knee, one arm ended at the wrist, and one eye was a blackened pit. The other eye opened, a pitch-black but otherwise ordinary iris staring down at Fang.

The remaining hand lifted and began to gently stroke Fang's back. A raspy voice emanated from between its cracked lips, "Do not play with fire, young one."

The words pressed into Fang's mind, and they translated to concepts with ease. "I once stood where you do now, at the start of my path. The path which led me here. Which only ever leads here. I thought myself the master of my fire. I thought of the flames as my weapon, a tool for me to realize my dream. But fire is a force of nature. It does not create, or protect, it cannot be tamed. It consumes." The hand trembled slightly as it stroked along Fang's back. The cat purred contentedly, emanating a sense of calm into the empty world. Of course fire was a force of nature. When confronted with fire, the only real option was to get out of the way. Even Fang, a courageous, indomitable feline, had to flee from fire now and then. And then. And then. Fire seemed to really like Fang.

The charred human rambled on, "Do not play with fire. It only offers false bargains. It takes, then takes more in exchange.” The being gestured around at the empty world, earning it a glare from Fang before he returned to his soothing petting. “Do not make the same mistakes as myself and those who followed my path. Learn the lessons of flame, then step from my path and forge your own. "

The raspy voice began to grow fainter as it continued, "It is time for you to depart now, young one. For both of us to depart. Heed my words, and I pray we will not meet again. Remember. Do not play with fire."

With those last words, the hand petting Fang's back fell apart into ash. The blazing eye in the sky winked shut, plunging the land into darkness. The world turned to ash, and it blew away on unseen winds.

Fang woke to the smell of smoke. His eyes stayed closed as he basked in the sun warming his whiskers. He shifted around to expose more of himself to its warmth, but he found the current spot sub-optimal for sunbathing, so he opened his eyes and rose to his paws.

There was only a small beam of sunlight that had been filtered through a tree's canopy onto his face. He had been napping among the roots of a large tree, far from the most comfortable location, especially with how they slanted downwards to a sinkhole a few steps away. Fang saw a slim plume of smoke rising from the center of the hole, and barely glimpsed a crest of reddish-black rocks deep in the pit. Not a spot of ash to be seen anywhere, though a few tree limbs directly over the pit were charred.

Of course it was a dream. A cat missing a jump? There was no way that could have ever been reality. Utterly preposterous. As his indignation roused Fang to his senses, he noticed confusion and concern radiating over the link to his familiar, with some relief filtering in. It seemed his pet needed the assistance of her feline master.

Fang stretched, opening his mouth in a wide yawn, displaying his fearful (if damaged) fangs to any furtive onlookers. His pet needed him, so naturally, being his benevolent self, he had no problem leaving to go to her aid. Besides, if there was one thing that his dream had made clear (apart from the fact that, shocker, fire is hot), it was that he missed good, proper scritches. Time to find and train his human.

Fang set off into the woods in the direction indicated by his bond. This time, the feline path was indeed a direct route towards his goal. The forest in this area was virtually devoid of any creatures larger than an insect, and the trees grew too tall and close to offer opportune sunning locations, so Fang continued towards his familiar without distractions. It was only after he had been strolling through the woods for a good two hours that the sounds of fluttering wings, rustling leaves, and chirping food began to filter back into his surroundings.

This was no time for hunting insignificant little snacks though. Fang was a cat on a mission, and would not be dissuaded from his goal by petty distractions and insignificant threats. Besides, the woods still smelled of smoke, and Fang was quite eager to be away from the area. That almost-cat had been quite large after all, and it had not done anything to earn his wrath. It was best to respect his fellow feline’s territory, at least until it gave him a reason to hunt it down.

In his determination to acquire his rightfully-earned scritches, Fang nearly overlooked a loud commotion directly in his path until it was almost on top of him. Crashes and thuds, splintering wood and the startled cries of birds, each closer than the last. Fang quickly clambered into a tree and pressed himself low to the branch. He was not hiding of course. Whatever this disturbance was, it stood between him and his pet, so it would meet the full fury of his claws. Remaining unseen and taking the high ground was merely giving himself the tactical advantage, a shining example of Fang’s genius at work.

His eyes fixed on the forest floor below, Fang waited for this foolish creature that would stand in his way to reveal itself. As the crashing came closer and closer to his tree, finally, the culprit revealed itself. A small rodent with a long, bushy tail darted across the ground, earth-shaking beneath its feet. Fang waggled his rear, quickly lining up a pounce as it passed beneath his branch, when the entire tree he occupied shook wildly, forcing him to dig his claws in to maintain his footing, fur bristling as the rodent ran out of pouncing range.

Fang looked towards the base of the tree, indignant at his wooden foothold’s betrayal, only to see a large chunk missing from the trunk, and an enormous boulder hurtling across the ground, wood splinters trailing behind it. Then the boulder bellowed, increasing in speed rather than slowing down as any self-respecting rock should. Fang gazed down in confusion, then realization as his sharp feline eyes picked out stumpy, broad legs, beady eyes, a mouth, the boulder resolving itself into a creature the size of Alice’s car, all sharp angles and grey, craggy skin. It continued charging after the small rodent, smashing or flattening everything in its way, and Fang breathed out in relief. He had almost interfered in the boulder monster’s hunt. That would be terribly rude. After all, it really did not seem that bright. Who knows, if Fang had taken this meal from it, the poor thing might have starved.

Patting himself on the back for his good manners, the great and magnanimous Fang carried on through the woods in the direction of his familiar. He did keep to the canopy as he went though. After all, he really didn’t want to deprive those poor dumb boulders of food. In fact, in his unending generosity, Fang decided to hunt a bit on the way. The return of his nemesis may have had something to do with the decision, as one of the arrogant, flashy birdbrains happened to be perched neatly in his path. A simple pounce and bite took it out, and its delicious, sunshine-filled flesh was his for the eating. Oddly, this one tasted a bit different from the usual; it had more sunshine within it, and the fleshy bits were softer, juicier, more fragrant, almost like the scraps he enjoyed stealing from Alice's plate back home. Fang offered the flashy bastards some small praise for at least improving their deliciousness, even if that was their only redeeming quality.

Still licking the blood from his chops, Fang carried on, and immediately found another of the flashy bastards, and dispatched it just as easily. He only took a couple bites of this one, before dropping the rest to the forest floor, as a present for those pitiful rocks beneath him. Then he found another, and another. The stupid birds seemed to be getting more common the closer he got to his human, until he had to leave some of them behind without even killing them in order to keep on track. Of course the ones in his path still inevitably met their well-deserved end, and Fang left a trail of dead birds littering the forest floor behind him. Somewhere along his path, a familiar face returned to greet him, with a slight change.

Level Up!

Thrice-Charred Cat class has reached level 11!

+10 status points gained. Visit the Status screen to allocate them.

Fang had mixed feelings about his boxy friend's new attitude. On the one paw, it called him a Thrice-Charred Cat. He was simply a Cat, full stop. But the box seemed complimentary enough that he could overlook the error. The number of status points was different too. Fang got some conflicting thoughts from what he saw. The vague impression he got was that the number now was more than the number it had been before, though both were such inconceivably high sums Fang did not want to bother with thinking too hard on them. However, whatever the intuition was telling him, Fang's genius intellect could see that the new number was made of a 1 and a 0, both of which were much less than the immense sum he had gotten before. Fang glared with suspicion at the box for a few moments. It would require some future consideration. For now, Fang dismissed his azure minion and carried on along his path of blood and death.

The terrain started moving upwards after a while, and the trees started growing shorter, more knobbly. Fang's incredible feline grace had no trouble leaping between the trees of course, but as they grew sparse, he decided to walk on the ground again. His mighty leaps between branches were clearly too much for these weak trees to handle; Fang imagined he smelled smoke with every jump, as if the sheer brilliance of his athleticism had the trees ready to burst into flame.

Fang traveled over the significantly less impressed rocky terrain, up the slope. He could feel his familiar quite close now, and purred in anticipation of all the scritches he would be getting once he arrived. As he neared the summit though, a familiar sound echoed over the mountain: a shrill, ear-splitting, incalculably irritating screech. The same cry Fang so enjoyed hearing from his sunshine-filled prey, turned up to eleven and accompanied by a blaze of radiance from over the rise, looking like a second sun had spent the night rolling in rainbow droppings and chose this moment to rise. Fang blurred up the rest of the slope, emerging onto the peak of the small mountain.

There, he saw it, the biggest, flashiest, kill-stealingest, annoyingest bastard to ever bastard. Standing in the middle of a nest of branches and sticks, its multicolored wings spread wide, its brilliantly combed head reared back for another screech, was the enormous flashy bastard that had stolen the corpse of the boar Fang had indirectly killed and then abandoned. It was Fang's chance to enact his vengeance for this terrible injustice.

Oh, and his familiar was also there, standing in front of the bird along with the flashy and fat humans, while the other girl stood in front, a wall of earth between the humans and the Flash Phoenix. Shadows congregated around the group, negating the worst of the light, while streamers of blood whipped out around the wall to smack into the immense bird, largely ineffectively.

Fang ignored them for now. Lillian didn’t seem distressed, so Fang wasn’t worried about them. Well, she seemed distressed, but no more distressed than normal for her. Fang mentally added relaxation to the list of things he needed to train her in, right after scritches. For the moment though, his humans were fine, apart from the unsightly riot of colors staining their surroundings. Fang set to solving that problem by entering a low slink, prowling up directly behind the bird while the stupid creature stared forward. The light washed over him, dazzling his eyes and heating up his fur, like an irritating imitation of sunlight, with all of the harsh heat and none of the relaxing warmth of the real thing. Fang wanted nothing to do with this pretender to the sun’s glory, and he began to ghost along the ground, letting the rays pass through him while imparting just a shadow of their warmth to him. He made it directly behind the beast without issue, though he felt a slight flash of recognition and panic through his link as Lillian’s eyes met his. He sent pleasant warmth back, flexing his fifth limb to harness the feeling of sending the true, proper sunshine through his body, and to his surprise, the sunshine itself flowed across the link into his familiar.

...Well, that was fine. His familiar could use some soothing sunshine, and Fang was no doubt about to gain more sunshine than he could ever desire once he removed this unsightly bird’s head. Continuing to push his sunshine outwards, Fang leapt upwards. His blinking was suppressed with Lillian’s eyes on him, and he judged he could climb the bird like a big, colorful tree. As he strained for all the height he could manage, he felt almost as though his legs hadn’t uncoiled from the jump, though they were definitely outstretched behind him. He pushed that ghost sensation, clumsily trying to match it to his physical body, and he found himself propelled even higher as they stretched out. Not by much, but by just enough to overshoot the tailfeathers he had been aiming for.

Fang did not flail around in the air upon his missed jump; a cat would never do something so undignified. Instead, after a few moments of desperately not doing that, he realized his blinking was no longer suppressed, and aimed above the bird’s head. Only for the suppression to return the instant he aimed, causing him to wisely abort the jump, yowling in frustration as he began to fall back down, unsuppressed. He tried to teleport up once again, aiming directly behind the bird’s head this time, and his blink went off without a hitch. He was left a bit tired and drained due to the increased distance as he fell, but that would not stop him from venting his irritation on this oversized pest. He stopped ghosting through the air as he dug his claws into the feathers of the bird, and immediately yowled in pain as the light began hitting his eyes again, the unpleasant heat across his whole body heightening to a painful degree. He shut his eyes and bit down on the offending avian, digging in and yanking out feathers even as the bird began to thrash around in response to the yowling and painful plucking.

Fang felt a sharp spike of panic across the link and pushed out more sunlight to soothe his familiar. As the sunlight flowed through his body, he felt the invasive false sunlight burned back by it, and Fang sent even more sunlight up towards his head, trying to push back the light enough for him to open his eyes again.

Fang immediately regretted his decision. The moment he bit down again, a wave of flames erupted from the point his teeth made contact, washing over the bird’s feathers and causing Fang to recoil in pain as the fire seared his eyes in the brief moment before he closed them. The sudden shock caused Fang to lose his grip and flail through the air perform a dazzlingly complex aerial retreat. He felt some of the flames catch, his beloved whiskers burning downwards, and patches of fur smoldering. Despite these distractions, Fang still managed to twist around in the air, landing with perfect feline form, before yowling at the top of his lungs and blindly dashing off, shaking his head to try and dislodge the flames.

After a few dozen feet, Fang drove his face down against the ground, rolling around and pawing at his head to smother the flames, like the most intense dust-bath of his life. As the burning pain on his face cooled, Fang’s attention returned to less urgent things, such as the spike of fear from his link. The fear was followed by something else though, something far more welcome. A stream of his familiar’s warm, pleasant energy flowed across the link, pouring into his body. It quickly spread to fill his feline frame, and Fang felt it soothing the itches brought on by the bird’s radiance, cooling the burnt patches of skin, numbing his scorched eyes.

Fang tried opening his freshly healed eyes and was treated to a blurry view of the forest, with the bird nowhere in sight. Clearly, it had been scared off by Fang’s display of aerial agility. Fang praised his pet across the link, while simultaneously demanding more comfy healing light. The flow did not stop, but it did slow to a trickle after a few seconds. Fang looked towards his familiar to strike her with the might of his begging eyes, which is about when he noticed the treachery of the flashy bird. Rather than fleeing before his might, it had somehow wound up behind him, closer to his humans than Fang himself. It was also in quite a bit of distress. The flames the stupid giant had used to shorten Fang’s whiskers had caught the bird’s own plumage on fire. Imagine being such a pea-brain that your own attack sets you on fire. The flames had spread over the bird’s entire head and shoulders, and the inferno was creeping down its wings even as Fang watched. The storm of blood, earth, and shadow that had surrounded his humans had also joined the beatdown, the distraction of the flames proving enough for the bird to discard its attack and be put firmly on the defensive.

The flashy bastard attempted to flee, a single flap of its oversized wings taking it off the ground, but that same rush of air caused the flames across its body to roar with renewed vigor, the pain and disintegrating feathers forcing the bird to crash to the ground, lying stunned for a moment. With that opportunity, a coil of its own blood seeped out and wrapped around its neck, binding it to the ground, while a sizeable boulder began to lift off the ground and float above it, rising high above its head. Fang debated assisting in the bird’s demise further, but in his infinite wisdom, realized it was still on fire, and allowed his new boulder ally to have its time in the spotlight. Just as the bird began to regain its senses and struggle against the bonds of blood, the boulder stopped floating and started falling, impacting with a sickening crunch onto the bird’s head. The colors of its feathers dimmed, and Fang was greeted by one of his blue boxy friends.

Level Up!

Thrice-Charred Cat class has reached level 12!

+10 status points gained. Visit the Status screen to allocate them.

+1 skill evolution point gained. Visit the Skills screen to use it.

The box had changed once again. Fang twitched his nose in irritation at the word 'Evolution'. That had been such a pain last time he didn't even want to consider it. Maybe the rocky cat would show up again and deal with the swarm of boxes that would no doubt accompany whatever that point was talking about. Fang swiped the screen away, and gave a stretch, extending those fearsome claws and stretching his jaw to display his mighty teeth, the stretch working back from there to loosen up his back and relax his hind legs. His humans were here now, so it was time to switch from hunting to napping.

Fang stalked towards his humans, striding past the smoldering corpse of the bird. He decided to nip a couple of feathers to chew on the way, before kicking some dirt back at his kill. It was a bit too big to bury, but this would do just fine. He strode up to his bed and leapt onto his shoulder. The chubby human had the good sense to not attempt dislodging Fang from his rightful resting place, and the cat curled up on top of his oversized pack.

Fang fixed his familiar with his cutest eyes, and sent his praise, followed by meowing his demand at her: "Human, give scritches."