theattic | Cat's Eye

The Cat's Eye

A glittering, saffron gem the size of a man's fist, crafted by a wizard using forbidden magics and hidden away in the hills after nearly driving a town to destroy itself for want of possessing it. The Eye was said to be worth a kingdom and lay at the heart of almost every fantastical story surrounding Thrush Mountain since its disappearance. K'tchonsynk had tales upon tales and it was nearly impossible to tell which were true, but if you asked anyone on the mountain, the story of the Eye was one nobody questioned.

The thing was, everyone who quested for it disappeared. Searching out the Eye could have been a way to say you were going to start a new life somewhere else...but that was a roundabout way of doing it. so many people vanished in search of it that they must have found it and whatever was keeping it hidden it must have found them.

____

Thrush Mountain was a gentle but woody slope, thick with ancient trees, thorny brambles and shelves of slate. The earth was split with old cracks from when the mountain was a meek volcano lifetimes ago. You could see the Mountain Town in its shadow when you reached its second peak, often called The Fang. There was no snow on this mountain and so there were no rivers or little creeks so animals were found in the dips between Thrush's points where rain had collected and where caves had been washed out.

It was in one of these shallow rain pools that a single coin shone like a drop of sunlight in the misty afternoon.

Say that she didn't have what it takes, will they.

Say that the Guildmaster will personally revoke her cowl, WILL THEY?

She'll show 'em.

She'll show 'em all!

Her horse let out a small, indignant squeal as she pulled him up a little more sharply than was necessary, pausing on the trail to scowl back at the town nestled in the valley. The Thieves' Guild wasn't even there, it was miles and miles away, but as the closest patch of civilization, it would just have to serve as a symbolic receptacle for her loathing.

"We'll show 'em," she growled to her horse.

The horse wasn't impressed.

They'd been making their way up the mountain for some time now, though, and while it wasn't the worst terrain she'd ever had to cross for the sake of one of these godforsaken missions, it was still thirsty work even in this damp weather. Keeping your anger at a simmer for hours on end apparently wasn't great for staying hydrated.

Slipping her feet from the stirrups, Hazel swung down from the saddle and stepped down, tugging her mask (a stylized black leather rabbit face and frankly the coolest thing she owned) down to take a drink of water from her canteen.

A drink that she coughed on halfway through because she remembered how Mad she was.

It was as she pounded her chest and hacked into the misty air that she noticed the glint of coppery light at her feet. It set off an excited internal alarm immediately. Because in the Guild, you didn't get paid unless you were good at your job, and if you weren't paid, you didn't eat.

She bent to investigate further. And by investigate I mean scoop the coin up and look around to see if there were more.

Because not only was money good (money can be exchanged for food and goods), if the myths were true, random coinage out here in the middle of nowhere could mean she was getting close.

The pool became cloudy for a moment when Hazel scooped up the coin but when the sediment settled, it revealed no more treasures. What stooping down that low did reveal was the mouth of a cave almost hidden by a curtain of moss and sprays of curly ferns. If one wasn't looking right at the cave, you could mistake it for a shadow or simply dark and damp rock. It was enormous, big enough for both Hazel and her horse to walk through.

And others, as evident by the smooth earth and pebbles in the bottom of the pool.

Dammit.

Oh, well.

One coin is better than none.

It was only when she'd already started to pocket it and get back to her feet that she looked up and saw.

First she froze for a solid several seconds-- almost expecting something to come out of the cave at her. When nothing did, she finished straightening up and stepped forward, tip-toeing up to the cascade of ferns and parting it cautiously, like she might part the lacy curtains of some wealthy elite's upper-story city window.

Could this be it...?

"... I think we found it, Scarlet," she whispered to her still-thoroughly-unimpressed steed, the grouchiness that had been hanging over her like a cloud this whole time dissipating in favor of excitement and hope.

Maybe, just MAYBE, this mission would go right.

And none of those arrogant dickholes back at the Guild could say shit about her if she actually found and retrieved the Cat's Eye.

She grabbed Scarlet's reins and eagerly (but cautiously) stepped into the cave's mouth.

The further Hazel and Scarlet went into the cave, the chillier it became. The walls dripped and sparkled in the streaks of light that made their way through the cracks that snaked through the ceiling. Roots trickled down between them and moss coated the stone and earth like a layer of snow.

Then, the path grew steep and craggy as the last traces of light from the surface became a memory. The birdsong faded as well and soon the only sounds were the fall of Scarlet's hooves, Hazel's breath, and a deep humming sound that filled in the space around them and pressed inward.

This was the sound a mountain made.

Something crunched under Hazel's boot.

Scarlet balked when the angle of the path started to increase, snorting steam and shuffling.

Truth be told, Hazel was starting to have second thoughts about bringing her horse down here to begin with-- maybe it would have been safer for them both for Scarlet to stay out on the mountainside and Hazel to go in alone.

But it was a little too late for that no-- crunch.

If her hair hadn't been contained in her hood, it would've done the Ghibli frizz thing. Instead, she just froze for a moment, waiting to see if the sound had alerted anything to their presence... before finally looking down to see what she'd been unlucky enough to step on.

At first, the thing under Hazel's boot looked like a giant white spider with its legs all curled up in a classic death pose. But Spiders didn't crunch like that, even the big ones.

No, this was a skeletal hand, belonging perhaps to a human or an elf once upon a time. There was a silver ring with a black stone on one of its fingers.

It was so freaking dark.

Scarlet REALLY should have stayed on the surface. 8[;;

But after a moment of very muffled cursing behind her mask, Hazel fumbled a match out of one of the many pockets on her vest and struck it against her boot to cast light over the unfortunate sp-- THAT'S NOT A SPIDER.

Oh fuck.

To her credit, she didn't squeak or gasp-- she might inexplicably the laughingstock of the Guild, but stealth was her job.

At first, even on top of her instinctive revulsion, she found herself reaching out to collect the ring-- only to stop, reminding herself that that was how you got curses. And knowing her luck...

No, best just to focus on the goal.

Eyes on the BIG prize.

Stealth with a horse in a cave was going to require one hell of a roll!

The deeper most run-off bored caves wind into hillsides, usually, the narrower they become. Not this one. As the path angled downward, the walls grew further and further apart. Eventually, the light from Hazel's match didn't even reach the walls. She and Scarlett were in a yawning chamber. Columns that stretched from the ceiling to the floor threw long flickering shadows over shattered wooden wagons, over old twisted bits of metal, and over bones still draped in rotting cloth.

There was a smell here--not a stench, but a warm animal smell. Of breath and blood and dander and, oddly, of fish.

Hazel's light fell across something strange--a feather. A big feather. A feather that was as long as she was, white with a black tip.

BAD DECISIONS WERE MADE, OKAY?!

The rogue found herself almost forgetting to breathe as they moved slowly downwards-- when the walls fell away, she felt the space weighing down on her and their tiny light almost more than when they'd been in the comparatively light tunnels.

That weight only got heavier when the twisted skeletons and small hillocks of debris come into view.

The feather... the feather only clinches it.

This is either the location of the Cat's Eye... or she managed to stumble into the lair of some completely different horrifying monster.

Hazel swallows heavily and wills her feet to tread even quieter.

For some time, there was nothing.

And then, there was everything.

As though coming out of a fog, Hazel's light bounced off pieces of gold that lay on the ground as though tossed aside as an afterthought. The scattered pieces became piles. Became heaps. Statues, goblets, weapons, and long strings of jewelry rose up on either side of the adventurer and her horse. The treasure reflected off of itself and almost seemed to glow.

"Heeeey, little fire bug, whacha think you're doin?"

The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. It was loud and belonged to something enormous.

Scarlet had whickered and wuffled, puffing through her nostrils, at the smells in the air. She was a prey animal. She knew what those meant.

Hazel had ignored it, bending down to observe the treasure at her feet. Even if it wasn't what she was here for, the sight made her heart jump in her chest.

But not nearly as much as the voice.

Her eyes widen behind her mask, and quick as a flash, she blows her tiny flame out.

But simply winking out of sight doesn't help much with a panicking horse-- WHICH SHE VERY MUCH HAS-- right next to her. Scarlet shrieks, turns tail, and straight up leaves her rider in favor of blindly running back in the direction they'd come from.

"Ooooh, no!" The voice said, mockingly. It was also muffled a little as though whoever was speaking was pressing their hands to their cheeks to make their lips pucker. "Wheerrrh'd he gooo?"

There came a horrible sound as sparks flew from above. The thing in the dark had scraped its claws against the walls of the cave. The tiny points of light fell and a trench that ran the boarder of the entire room burst into light as fire raced along the oil that collected there.

Between Hazel and the exit hunched a creature big as a house. It had a woman's face framed in choppy black hair. Feline shoulders were hunched and black and white wings were folded against a back splashed with orange. The rotund beast's behind was high in the air and wiggling ever so slightly, accented with a bobbed tail. She was crouching and staring intently at Hazel with eyes like yellow moons. She was smiling too and it was not a kind smile.

"Fee fi fo fum, motherfucker."

Honestly, she shouldn't be surprised.

She really shouldn't.

It's just her luck that it would go like this-- that the monster would find her before she even saw the damn Eye.

Wasn't it always worst-case scenarios whenever she was involved?

She hates herself.

But no time for that-- the luminous eyes locked onto her position told her that extinguishing the light did nothing-- she had to move and fast.

Not offering a reply to the thundering taunts, the rogue threw herself behind the closest pile and kept moving-- her only hope was to dart somewhere unexpected while she was still out of the creature's line of sight (something she knew wouldn't last long).

As she went, she frantically went over the details in her head. Feline eyes, feathers, a human face... no doubt about it, it had to be a sphinx. She'd read about those... but all the books had emphasized the riddle part. Not the running for your life before a riddle was even asked part!

The monster's eyes followed Hazel as though pulled by a taut rope. Her ears swiveled to follow the adventurer's footfalls and she rose from her crouch and rolled her shoulders before starting a jaunty stroll through her collection. She was built as all the great carvings depicting the woman-beast hybrids were--gifted with a great pair of fur-covered assets that hung carelessly between her powerful front legs. It was some true blue Don Bluth bullshit and she didn't have a care in the world.

"Don't run awaaaaaay," the sphinx purred in a mock-childish voice. "Plaaay with meeeee. Play with me in this space! We're doing this! You're a tricksy thief and I'm an incredibly powerful and attractive "

Her voice boomed and echoed off the smooth cave walls and made the strings of the few instruments she'd stashed away hum. The sphinx eyed the smooth surfaces of shields and great silver mirrors, watching for Hazel. There! The tail end of a tattered cowl. With a graceful leap, the sphinx hurled herself through the limited space and landed, paws sprawled, in front of Hazel.

"Found you!"

Somehow the Don Bluth bullshit depicted in the illustrations (those pages worn and bent by MANY young Thieves Guild initiates for the sake of late-night "study seshes") was distinctly more menacing in real life.

Hazel could be as stealthy as she wanted, but there were jingling coins EVERYWHERE and unlike the stalking sphinx, she didn't have night vision to help her avoid them.

She skids to a halt with a startled squeak and a cascade of crashing coinage-- BUT!

Despite her reputation... she was a good rogue, dammit. And in the brief window of time she had, she'd grabbed out a thing.

"SMOKE BOMB!"

And then she throws it at the sphinx's giant feet, releasing a cloud of... well, smoke.

And yes, it was absolutely necessary to shout 'smoke bomb' out loud.

The sphinx lowered her smiling face down, down, until her chin almost brushed the ground. She opened her mouth to quip once again at her intruder but then--

"Smo'wha?"

The plume of smoke that erupted between her paws earned a loud wet hiss from the sphinx. She reared back and spat and sneezed and scrunched up her nose, pushing her brow whiskers forward in attempts to shoo away the offensive smoke. When she finished coughing, the sphinx balled her soft white paws into fists and clenched her jagged white teeth.

"So it's gonna be like that..." The sphinx's voice lost its playful tone. She ruffled her wings and set her ears leaning back against her spiky black mane of hair. "No man has gotten out of here, you know...it'll be easier if you just give up now."

Under the cover of her... well, cover, Hazel had dove down another alley of treasure, running straight up until she heard the sphinx's coughing and sneezing start to slow.

Then she hunkered down between a treasure chest twice as big as she was and a gleaming statue of a dragonlike creature with unusually muscular arms and tried to silence her breathing as much as she could.

The temptation to yell out 'I AM NO MAN' was almost overwhelming, but since doing so would give away her position for sure, she just bit her lip.

Her only hope was for the creature to wander far enough in the other direction that she could make a break for the exit without being caught up to... but jeez, knowing her luck...

Enormous paws padded through the mounds of treasure, spreading out the coins as though they were pea gravel. The creature's wings cast long shadows as she spread them to plunge the area she searched into darkness. Her yellow eyes, not unlike the fabled Eye Hazel was in search of, glittered as she searched.

"We can do this two ways, little man...you can face me and fight me or I can lay in front of the entrance until you starve to death. I guarantee I can wait longer than you can."

While it was true of her physical nature--she was huge, had plenty of reserves, and had already waited out many a thief--she also had the attention span of a radish. So. That was a thing.

The ultimatum made a lump form in Hazel's throat.

She had some rations on her, of course-- playing the waiting game is just a reality in the life of a rogue, and it wouldn't be the first time she'd had to just lay low and wait for the dust to settle.

But she'd never had to do anything like this.

Especially not when the tiniest crinkle of a granola bar being unwrapped could spell her doom in a second.

She clenches her jaw harder, nostrils flaring in frustration for a moment as she wills the corners of her eyes to stop stinging.

Dammit, she should have known this would happen!

And if she didn't make it out?

Those assholes back in the guild would almost certainly think up a fate even stupider and more embarrassing than this one to have befallen her. She'd be even more of a joke and she wouldn't even have the chance to turn things around.

Frustrations aside, she knows that speaking up at this point is just what the beast wants her to do-- and she's no fighter.

So she steels herself and stays silent.

She'll wait.

She'll wait till she's either found or until the sphinx makes good on its threat to lay down in front of the exit.

Surely it'll have to sleep at SOME point, right?

The minutes slowed and oozed to become hours. The beast had stood and waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally, she turned to pad back toward the entrance of her chamber and flopped down with a cave-shaking thud. The entrance was blocked save for the tiniest sliver that allowed in a breeze. She tucked one wing up against her back and spread the other across the treasure she guarded. At last, she tucked her paws up under her chest feathers and settled her head down into the rolls around her neck. It was not a graceful pose but she held it for a long time. Her stumpy tail flopped against the earth and occasionally she let out agitated chirps when a bat or mouse moved within the chamber.

Eventually the sphinx's eyelids started to droop.

Patience.

Hazel had oodles patience.

If she didn't, she wouldn't have gotten this far to begin with.

She stays still and quiet and watches those luminous eyes like a hawk.

And when they finally do shut... she doesn't move right away. Closed eyes doesn't automatically mean sleep.

No, she waits awhile, and continues to listen.

It isn't until she hears the giant creature's breathing slow that she finally stands, quietly and cautiously, from her hiding place.

The sphinx's sides slowly rose and fell as she slid from the world of the waking to the world of fitful dreams. Her toes twitched along with the tips of her wings.

A deep thrumming purr echoed from her deep chest. She would have been cute if she hadn't been making death threats earlier. Or if her lair wasn't full of human skeletons.

There.

There it is.

It's time.

As quick and as quiet as she can, the rogue makes a break for it... slowing down to a very cautious walk as she approaches the sphinx's slumbering bulk.

Okay okay okay... just have to... play this slow...

Somewhere, high above, above the mountain, above the clouds and the sky and the sun, a great boulder fell and where it rested a 1 was embossed upon its hoary face.

The sphinx shifted suddenly in her slumber and twisted, rolled to one side, and streeeeetched out her front legs. Her toes spread and her claws extended as Hazel crept by. Then, in one fluid motion, the sphinx withdrew her limbs, snatching up hazel in the process as she crossed her paws across her face the way cats do.

When cats do it, it is very very good. But the guardian of the Cat's eye was not a cat, she was a man-eating monster and Hazel was closer to her teeth than ever before.

Cat's Eye

Cat's Eye

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