Board Thread:Archive/@comment-24866242-20140611005755

Sachy posted September 22, 2001 10:29 PM

Sachy stood at the door for a moment and sniffed the air before setting a tentative paw out on the back step. There were countless new smells assailing his olfactory sense and it was all very exciting. It was all so real! There were birds flying in the air above and there was a squirrel in the trees not too far away. Behind him Ben stood watching him with a cup of coffee in his hand and gestured for him to go ahead.

The little gray brown tabby had been on the holodeck before but it didn’t compare to this. Sachy had never been what you might call an outside cat. Most of his life had been spent in various space stations or ships; wherever Ben had been working at the time. For a brief time he had lived in the Doom Bringers base but hadn’t really gone outside except for a little access port he knew that let him sit on a ledge overlooking Sha’mad Conde canyon. Yet even though most of his life experience up to this point had only prepared him to navigate the ventilation systems of the Colorado when the cooling fans were off, he did have those times on the holodeck and all sorts of instincts were being reawakened now.

With a sudden leap he jumped off the porch and dashed towards the tree where he had seen the squirrel. He covered the distance pretty quickly and leaped up to catch hold of the tree, flexing his new claws as they dug into the bark. He practically ran half way up before pausing and looking around to see if anyone was admiring his skill and prowess. When he had satisfied himself that Ben was still watching he pulled himself the rest of the way up to the first branch and paused there to catch his breath before orienting himself enough to locate the squirrel. Much to his chagrin he realized the squirrel had leapt to a branch on another tree! On top of that it was chattering at him while crunching an acorn! That was tantamount to laughter for a rodent. How dare it? With a hiss of disgust he scrambled down the trunk of the tree and disappeared into the woods.

Ben chuckled to himself and sipped his coffee as he stepped back into the kitchen. He hoped the cat enjoyed himself. The claws were coming off again when they went back out next week. Dr. Ross said they could be removed and regenerated every other week for the rest of Sachy’s natural life if necessary.

He was kind of happy about that. He had always felt bad about keeping the little guy inside all the time but the New Oregon Navy regulations were pretty strict about that sort of thing. If a cat came with you into space it had to be de-clawed. The fleet wasn’t big on scratched up furniture.

The island was one place he felt safe letting Sachy run free. If he needed to find the critter quickly there was a small tracking device implanted under his skin behind his neck, and all the potential predators that might give a cat a problem were on the other side of the lake. Kat apparently felt the same way. She had told him a few days ago that Joke had been given free reign of the island a week before and had been working hard keeping the bar and grill free of mice. The only problem was keeping Hamish out of his cat food.

Sachy posted October 31, 2001 11:59 PM

Even with all of the interesting smells and sounds it was all mostly familiar from the holodeck even if it was that much more interesting for the intensity in real life. There was one thing he hadn’t smelled before, however, and he felt inclined to investigate before heading deeper into the forest. Near the house, Sachy observed after doubling back through the woods, was a large fenced pasture and a wooden structure near by. The building wasn’t large, maybe half the size of the house. It wasn’t a barn, more of a shed. The smells emanating from the place were marvelous! Sachy lifted his nose to the wind and breathed the pungent odors in before making a quick dash across the small empty space between the trees and the building.

Once there he paused for the barest of moments to compose himself. No good investigating if you were seen doing it frantically. The best thing to do, he decided, would be to casually walk around the edge of the thing until he could find a way inside. No need for anyone to think that was what he was doing though, so he inched his way around the building, taking every opportunity to bat at the local insect life as it buzzed away, until he found an open door and slunk inside.

There was a pair of large creatures inside. Sachy had never seen anything like them before so he was naturally cautious, but one of the creatures whinnied at him right away and he realized he’d been found out. The direct approach then. He edged around the framework of the stalls until he found a place where he could jump up and see the animals inside more clearly. They were eating something in big bins hanging off the stall doors. One was anyway. The other was looking at him nervously. Sachy sat down and let his tail curl around his toes for a moment and looked back.

The one watching him was covered in a short brown coat and had a stripe of long black hair going down its head and neck. The same was true of its tail, he realized as it flicked up to ward away a fly. The other was a more reddish color and had white markings on its head and legs. They both had long faces and large mouths that looked quite capable of seizing him and giving him quite a shake if he got too close so he kept his distance. They stood on long legs that ended in the most peculiar blunt paws that Sachy had ever seen. They were both quite large. He thought if they were friendly then he might be able to sit on one of their backs with four or five friends as long as the creature held still while he was doing it.

The one that was looking at him whinnied again and its comrade finally looked up from its meal.

“Oh, what is it, woman? Can’t you just let me eat?”

Sachy nearly fell off his perch in surprise. He had heard other cats speak, of course, and Orion, the one and only dog he hoped he’d ever encounter, but aside from that he’d never imagined that another creature could actually communicate in a way he would understand.

“Something’s come in from outside! I think it’s looking at me.”

“What? Again? You think everything is looking at you cross-eyed. Last week you swore up and down that a rock was looking up your tail! Oh, hello there. Tabitha, my dear, it’s a cat.”

“Well I don’t like it. Make it go away.”

“Nothing wrong with cats. Good company, cats. Keep the mice out of the food, they do. Have you come for lunch, little fellow?”

“No, sir, thank you,” Sachy said, rising to his paws and stepping forward. The mare, who was closer, shied away and the little stable shook as she bumped the side of her stall.

“Calm yourself, my dear. What a polite young cat he is.”

In fact, Sachy, one of a long-lived breed of New Oregon cats, was twenty-eight, but being a cat he had a poor sense of time and didn’t argue the point.

“Oh! He’s a ghastly thing!” the mare wailed.

“Nonsense!” the chestnut insisted around a mouth of hay it had pulled out of its bin. “He seems a perfectly respectable fellow. Aren’t you?”

Sachy wasn’t sure just what to make of any of this so he blinked at the pair of them.

The chestnut took this for agreement and barreled on. “Now I won’t have you being rude to perfectly respectable visitors, Tabitha, I won’t have it. Now apologize.”

The mare bared her teeth at Sachy and made a horrible horsy sound.

“That’s the best you’ll get out of her, I think, young fellow. So if you haven’t come for lunch just what can we do for you?”

“Well,” Sachy began. “I thought I’d do some exploring. Can you tell me anything about the area?”

“Not the forest, my catty fellow, not the forest, but I can tell you I saw another cat not far off from here just the other day. There’s an old machine stable on the other side of a little bay about ten furlongs turn wise of here. You’ll have to cross some hills on the other side of the forest to get there. I expect you’ll want to cut through the forest in order to save time. The trails the man takes with me tend to wind about but being a cat has all sorts of advantages I expect. Oh, there he goes, Tabitha. Look at him go. Have fun!” the horse called after him as he dashed out of the little stable and across the pasture at a dead run. It was less than a minute before Sachy disappeared into the woods again.

The Stalker posted November 06, 2001 11:31 AM

He sniffed the air with hungry anticipation. He’d been tracking his prey for more than an hour, keeping his distance to keep the little gray tabby from rabbiting. He smiled to himself, knowing that soon he would taste the blood, feel the body quivering beneath him. Soon, the creature would know the power of the beast.

He watched in silence as the cat investigated the barn. It amused him to hear the conversation. Truly this creature was new to the woods. Yes, this would be the easiest kill he’d ever made. It almost seemed unsporting to take advantage of the creature’s innocence…but that feeling was soon quashed. There would be no pity for the weak.

He followed at a distance as the cat left the barn, always keeping his prey within sight if not smelling distance. His stomach rumbled, signaling the time for the creature’s death was at hand. As the cat stopped to sniff a particularly interesting scent at the base of a tree, the beast crouched low to the ground. Muscles tensed and ready to spring, he waited for the perfect millisecond and, with the grace of the jungle cat he was, pounced the little cat. Rolling with his prey, he felt the little animal beneath him struggle, heard his cry of fear and anger. As the momentum of their bodies stopped, the fierce jungle cat roared in triumph as he found himself on top. Fangs glittering dangerously, he closed the gap between his snout and his prey and……

Licked his nose. “Heya Satchy. How ya doin? Long time no see. Like the woods? Pretty keen, huh? You should see the great hunting spot I found. Squirrels everywhere.!”

Sachy posted November 06, 2001 01:23 PM

When the attack started Sachy’s first instinct was to try and scrabble away. He had been without his claws for so long that he had pretty much forgotten how to use them. This saved Joke’s stomach from a nasty case of disembowelment.

The larger cat rolled over with Sachy in his grip a number of times until they came to rest against a tree a few yards away. Sachy was not in a position of advantage when they stopped. The larger cat bared its fangs and prepared to move in for the kill.

Sachy closed his eyes tightly, readying himself for the fields beyond…

But the killing stroke never came. The lick to his nose made him sneeze and he instantly recognized his assailant.

“Heya, Sachy! How ya doin? Long time no see. Like the woods? Pretty keen, huh? You should see the great hunting spot I found. Squirrels everywhere!”

Sach weathered the onslaught the way he would any storm. The saliva dripping from Joke’s mouth was enough to rival the worst hurricane.

“Joke, did I ever tell you your breath smells like three day old salmon?”

“Salmon? Where? I haven’t found any salmon yet. How’d you find it? You just got here!”

Sachy blinked away the slobber before rolling out from under the larger cat. “We’re in the middle of a forest, kid. No salmon here. You said squirrels though…”

Joke looked dejected for a mere instant before being reminded of the squirrels. “Yeah….squirrels… Ever hunt a squirrel? They’re so stupid. Think they can get away by climbing trees. What a joke!” As if realizing the play on his own name, the orange tabby let out a screeching laugh.

Sachy shook his head with a little chuckle. It was amazing Joke could catch even the tiniest rodent with that loud voice of his.

“Lead on, kid. Take me to your Squeaker.”

Turning from Sachy, Joke began prancing off in a northeasterly direction, chattering all the way as he did so. “Squeakers? Don’t know of any mice in the forest, but there’s some good hunting at the two-legger’s place. Rats everywhere! Harder to catch than squirrels, though… They don’t climb trees. They got holes, ya see…………”

Sachy shuddered at the mention of rats. He had once run across a rat that was larger than he was and preferred to avoid the creatures altogether. “Squirrels then.”

Joke shrugged his shoulders and continued to walk and talk, giving anything living warning of their impending doom at the hands …..or rather claws…of the two greatest hunters known to the animal kingdom.

They continued to the northeast for several minutes before Joke dashed off to the left quite suddenly. The younger cat had spied a bird that had landed on the ground nearby. Joke pounced! And missed. The bird fluttered away chirping with laughter. Joke wasn’t going to give up yet though. He disappeared into the trees after the bird but Sachy could still hear him crashing through the underbrush.

That was when the acorn hit him on the head. The force of the impact was enough to knock Sachy down. He got up woozily and looked up, trying to locate the source of the attack.

He heard the chattering of squirrels in the trees and saw the second acorn on its way down. Just before it hit him between the eyes…

When Sachy woke up he was buried to his neck in a pile of nuts. There was a fuzzy brown shape near his head. He tried to turn to get a better look at it but his vision was blurry.

It spoke. “You-you, cat-thing! Now you talk-talk. What you doing now with foolish chaser?”

There was a sudden deluge of chattering voices around him and he realized as he looked up that they were all around him. In the branches, on the ground, clinging to the trunks of the nearby trees. Their voices were angry.

With a groan Sachy hauled himself to his feet out of the acorn pile. The squirrel closest to him rushed away, muttering under his breath about the cat menace. The squirrels that were on the ground made mad dashes for the trees as he shook the nut debris out of his fur. As if to show he didn’t consider the squirrel hoard a threat, Sachy took some time to straighten his fur.

There was no sign of Joke. That bird must’ve led him on a merry chase. No doubt working with the squirrels. It occurred to him that they probably thought he was the easier target because of his smaller size. Well he would show them…

Calmly looking at the trees he selected the fattest looking squirrel from the mass and began to ignore it. He walked a short distance to the right before throwing all of his power into his hind legs and leaping on the tree trunk. His momentum carried him up the trunk and down the branch the fat squirrel was sitting on. Sach caught the critter by the tail, but it decided to struggle. The squirrel unhappily refused Sachy’s invitation to be lunch. It tried to bolt away with Sachy hanging on for dear life. When its tail went taut, the squirrel snapped back while Sachy was pulled forward. The pair of them collided in the middle and fell off the branch to the leafy forest floor.

Sachy landed on top and he took advantage of the situation to get a grip on the critter’s neck. With all of his might he clenched his jaw before shaking the squirrel from side to side. A horrified chattering rose all around as the fat little rodent’s neck broke.

Sachy let go and licked his lips as he admired his work. The chattering had stopped as suddenly as it began, he realized, and he looked up.

Its coat was a sleek midnight black and he was larger than the others. While all the squirrels had bushy tails, his could have been made up of three or four of his brethren’s. He came forward. The branch on which it moved dipped dangerously as the creature slowly made its way to the end. With more sadness than fear, the creature looked from the cooling body to Sachy. For the longest moment, those little black eyes watched him, saying more to him than any words. Then, just as silently as he had appeared, the creature returned from whence he came. During his appearance, the other squirrels said nothing. None moved. They stood in awe of the larger creature.

Sachy was a little in awe himself.

The squirrels’ muted chatter began again when the larger squirrel was out of sight. One phrase repeated itself within Sachy’s range of hearing; “The King-King! The King-King!”

While they were distracted, Sachy regained his grip on his prize and dragged it silently into the underbrush. 