"Shielding the others with their mighty body, Mertal glided beneath the berserk dragon. Blazing flames scalded Mertal's back, coloring their grey scales black."

My sister laid over the book in human form, her round chin cradled between her palms. Chocolate brown eyes flicked between the words and vibrant pictures on the page. Then, they rose to see me enacting the fight scene.

I stood atop a small boulder, sunlight shining down from a cave hole in the ceiling. It warmed my head and shoulders. Platinum blond hair curved around my pudgy, blush cheeks. My salmon pink and white shirt was a size or two too large. Baggy blue pants hung past my ankles, tied up high to my far skinnier waist. As a child, I despised tight-fitting clothing and wouldn't touch denim or embroidery. Irregular materials irritated my sensitive skin.

The scarlet cape flung around my back. I flapped my arms and jumped, pretending to be a dragon protecting my friends. My mother sewed it for me after finding my previous cape, made of bed sheets, torn and muddy in a pile. Red fabric square-knotted around my throat. Jade warned me of choking hazards. Boss and Mouse always held me by my cape during combat training, tugging me off balance. Despite their joint efforts, I wore it everywhere like a close friend. Half of my acquaintances knew me better by my cape than my name.

Our picture book depicted two dragons, one of the mountains and the other from Kano's tribe by the sea. The mountain one, with brown belly scales and a grey back, Mertal, soared over the handful of animals beneath them —the fleeing members of Pax Equilibus. Flames swathed the other dragon. His eyes blazed and an angry inferno swirled behind his jagged teeth.

"Pax Equilibus fought from their safe ground underneath Mertal, successfully fending off the evil dragon," said Pudding. Observing me, amusement blossomed on her lips. "To express their gratitude, Pax Equilibus offered Mertal a position on their team. The black-scarred dragon humbly accepted their offer and later founded the Tank order. To this day, the Knight class and other members of S.H.H.A. still commemorate Mertal's heroic en-end," Pudding stumbled on the word.

"Endeavor," I said. While vocabulary test scores begged to differ, I memorized the old children's books by heart. The interesting parts, anyways.

"—endeavor by lighting the highest point of Mertal Mountain ablaze the night after every deky-du-os tree up the Singed Trail has lost its leaves."

Whoever decided 'hey! Let's celebrate Mertal by lighting their namesake on fire' probably had more issues than I. Which said a lot. That said, running up and down the mountain as a kitten, scavenging for trees that hadn't yet lost their leaves, held a special place in my memory. I may or may not have ripped a few leaves off their branches in hopes of quickening the process.

Walking up the winding trails brought back more memories than that. Pudding and I racing up and down the boulder sides; me in human form slipping on the winter, icy ground and spraining my ankle; my good friend, Athena, teaching me how to identify lavender and how to use it on my bug bites and sunburns. Evening drawing closed as Boss lead me up the tranquil mountainside.

I shook my head. Not right now, I thought. Not ever, said a quieter voice.

Dew glimmered in the morning sun. It brushed off grass blades onto my legs and trickled down pine needles onto my back. Although deciduous, leaf-losing trees —which Pudding later learned were pronounced "duh-si-jew-us"— dictated Mertal's ceremony, a majority of the trees were evergreens. Red spruce and the endemic winged pine, to be precise.

Of the semi-humans I passed, many in animal-form, most were guards or out practicing. The forest next to Mertal's Mountain, where my office was located, was the S.H.H.A.'s training ground. Certain layers were exclusively for Knight practice, the combat and defense class. Sometimes distracted teams or those seeking solitude strayed closer to the air force in the mountains.

Guards patrolled here to ensure no one slipped through the portal gates. Ages ago, long before I existed, mages created a layer that covered S.H.H.A.'s borders and replicated the landforms. They made five portal gates, which only members knew of, to enter the headquarters. This kept S.H.H.A. a secret from the rest of the world.

As I turned a corner, a large waterfall came into view, marking the entrance to a massive cave. The waterfall, fittingly named "Agua Veil", did not come from a river. In fact, from the opposite side, the water appeared to rise. Agua Veil was one of many sacred gifts from Maxima which prophesied a new leader. This one was for a dolphin semi-human long ago.

Semi-humans milled about, some splashing in the pool beneath Agua Veil. Most, including myself, marched through the corridor carved into the cave side. Mist droplets irritated my feline nose and caused a sneeze to escape. It interrupted the timid "hello" of a passing cream-striped, black garter snake.

He slithered off, too shy to repeat himself. I hesitated to return the greeting but shrugged instead. It's not like I knew the guy or any of the others acknowledging me. Even if we'd performed a mission together, I would have forgotten them. People only remembered me because I was their leader.

Bright white lights illuminated the elevator platform. Dank, chilled air blew from somewhere deep within the cave. Cacophonous echoes of screeching, babbling, and tapping bounded from wall to wall. From the elevator, located to the right of the entrance, the tunnel extended as far as I could see. Random caves of various sizes poked holes in the walls.

Hidden away near the cliff over the sea, the air force stored their equipment and training grounds in the mountain. Those were the crazy people who enjoyed touching clouds and staking their lives on computer systems.

Note the hypocrisy.

Muggy summer afternoons filled the corridors with hot semi-humans seeking the cool stone floors. Not this summer, though. When the density of sweaty or panting animals grew too thick, on-duty heroes and their apprentices couldn't pass. Guards cracked down on it every afternoon, shoeing away the tired Knights and Spies who were unwelcome there.

Quicker than I felt comfortable, the elevator shot up. Lights embedded in the walls flashed by. The metal floor rumbled beneath my paws, and I felt a sickening sensation rise in my guts. I'd seen explosions before. The platform would fall, and fire would wrap around my legs, smothering me in flames and smoke.

There's nothing to create an explosion, I reasoned, shaking away the disturbing imagery. Even if there were, I wouldn't survive the impact of the fall long enough to experience the flames.

Is that supposed to sound more tempting?

Before I could respond, the platform slowed to a stop beside a wide passage in the stone wall. Two riders, a small deer and wolverine, vaulted out, rushing down the cavern hallway. They looked back only to send cheeky grins to their companion who stood next to me in human form. Palm propped on her hip, exasperation was evident in her tired frown and glaring white eyes.

"Come on, Cream!" shouted the deer in semi-human as she trotted away. The wolverine looped her legs like an obstacle course.

Semi-human was a common language among all semi-humans. In most families, children learned it while learning the universal human language. We creatively named that one "human".  To us, different human languages were akin to heavy accents. To maintain our identities, we listened for those accents while around humans. Most semi-humans were bilingual in our two languages, but that wasn't the case for many humans.

Semi-humans communicated through projecting "intention" rather than audible sounds. The receptors for picking up the semi-human language were located in their ears. Typically, but not in all cases, deaf semi-humans couldn't hear either language.

"Intentions" were almost the same as audible sounds. Anyone, including non-semi-humans, could hear them to an extent. It took time and effort to learn to better hear them. Even more to understand them. To a human, hearing these "intentions" was like feeling a rhythm in a silent room. Some called it the sound of nature. Ones more attuned to semi-human picked up words. Not the words spoken by us. They heard random, often familiar, words their brains decided to warp the intentions into —such as their names.

Animal languages, however, were a whole different rodeo. Learning animal languages was a lifetime commitment. Besides being difficult in the first place, most animal languages changed as rapidly as the weather. I never cared to waste my time learning cat. Cat-whisperers were overachievers with questionable life choices.

Certain beings spoke an older language. The predecessor to semi-human. Its name was of its tongue, so people like me who couldn't speak it had no word to call it by. Creatures like the hippocampi learned to speak it before semi-human, as did many heroes born from Mages. Firebirds spoke only that language.

I stepped off the elevator platform and turned the corner to my right. Outside again, I took in a breath of fresh air as if I'd been stuck in the cave for ages. Under the ground enticed me far more than flying high above the ground. That said, waterfalls and humidity were a different matter.

Five percent driven by the desire to find the mystery tabby and ninety-five by the desire to stay out of sight of Zeal, I exited S.H.H.A. grounds through the portal gate.

There weren't any guards visible, but I knew that at least a team of six was stationed behind the gate. They signaled to guards inside of the mountain whenever someone entered or exited. This way, if someone —like a human— wandered in on accident, we could control the damage to some extent. Spiders and snakes generally worked for chasing the humans away without suspicion.

Memory led my paws to the right and down the edge of the off-orange clay boulder. A strong breeze bashed my side, reminding me how close I was to the drop. As a kitten, the narrow trail made my stomach far less queasy. 

"I don't miss this," I muttered, glancing to my right. Where I would've seen headquarters on another layer was an expansive forest. Further to my right, the ocean met land, flooding a large blue lagoon. Shadows drifted over the trees, cloud poofs dotting the sky. Today the sky shone a dazzling shade of light blue, the same shade as my eyes staring up at it.

I wonder what S.H.H.A. looks like from up there. My vision tipped down. One look over the edge, and I scrambled back up against the boulder, blinking away a rush of dizziness. Not worth finding out.

Robins, cardinals, and a single curious chipmunk were my only company on my drudging trek. It wasn't physically strenuous. Twisting through cracks between boulders, scaling stacks, and leaping over pits or towering burdock plants was childsplay. For practice I navigated intricate traps, climbed vertical planks, and tackled moving targets. What dragged my paws and twitched my ears was sheer boredom.

"Hey! Anyone there?" I shouted into another dark cave for the umpteenth time. Silence returned my call, and I huffed, turning back down the trail. Go figure.

No wonder why Mertal joined Pax Equilibus, I thought. The mountain guardian spent all day every day defending their territory, monitoring the trails and keeping out unwanted visitors. I can't imagine another hour of this. How did I survive as a kitten?

The hair on the back of my neck pricked, and I glanced behind. Two brown birds lifted off their perch above my head, shrieking at one another as they flew away. Wind whistled by then settled, leaving me in peaceful, unbearable silence once again.

"Two cats. A whole mountain of areal portals," I said while finding footholds in the eroded rock trail. "I'd take a needle in a haystack any day over this. What did I do to make Ilene so ticked off with me anyway? She could've at least sent me with a dog or someone trained to do this."

I could've asked someone for assistance without Ilene assigning them.

Rocks rolled beneath my paws, and I let gravity slide me down the steeper section. I ducked just in time to avoid ramming my head into a jut. The trail was no longer flush to the edge of the mountain, but I could still see the rising sun to my right.

But that requires me talking and working with a stranger. Pudding's getting her beauty rest, Moose is getting an earful from Zeal, Ilene's Ilene, and I haven't seen Athena or Kight in forever. Not to mention, those two aren't even here. I'm not calling them over to Headquarters just to humor their old friend on a stupid hike. Plus, Athena's got her own team now. Makes sense considering—

Movement up ahead. My eyes locked on something white —maybe a tail— as it flicked around a corner. Rubble scattered in its midst.

"Um, hello?" Limbs frozen in place, I waited for a reply only to hear nothing. A shaky breath exited my mouth. Whoever it was left in a rush. Either they didn't want me to find them, or they wanted me to give chase.

The mystery tabby, I thought, nerves buzzing like a vibration alarm trapped in my chest. One hesitant step forward turned into three long bounds to the corner.

I tapped at my watch, pulling the cape and mask out. Sure, the animal had already seen me without it. To be honest, I hadn't really expected to find anyone. Searching for my destined teammate was a little too surreal. At the very least, my suit gave me confidence, and if this was the first time the animal had seen me, then it would still somewhat work on them.

There wasn't a trail. Two hulking boulders had crashed into one another, breaking apart their tops. The broken rocks produced steep footholds. I crawled up, wary of the cool air seeping from beneath the rocks. One wrong step on the unstable surface, and I could find myself free-falling in a deep, dark cave.

Specks of unusual color against the bronze-tinted rocks drew my attention away from the wobbling surface and my disturbing thoughts. Fur, black on one end and white on the other, snagged on the sharp edges of the stone. Upon closer inspection, individual hairs littered the rocks underneath my belly.

An image of the mysterious tabby reappeared in my mind. Soft white underbelly, chest, and chin drenched in water. Violet fabric wrapped over her shoulders and around her lower chest like a cat-modified vest. Unlike my mask, hers not only circled her eyes but also covered the top of her head with two half-moon shaped holes for her ears. Her head faced down at the shark, her eyes out of sight. A billowing cape hid her back and tail.

While light grey fur and dark stripes poked from beneath the cape, I couldn't recall for sure if the tabby had black stripes. A majority of the time we spent fighting, I was either preoccupied not dying or she was behind me, flying me away.

Warmth brought a dizziness to my head. She did all the work saving me from the shark, breaking its camera, and then carrying me off. I might as well have not been there at all. My eyes widened in horror. I played the damsel!

And she dumped me. The warmth vanished, a scowl replacing it. I recalled the sudden weightless feeling of her letting me go, heartlessly dunking me in the cold lake. What kind of hero's she supposed to be?

The kind that's going to be my teammate.

Sunlight blinded me as I pulled myself between the boulders. As I hopped down the rock ledges, the ground felt more solid. The back of my mind reminded me that there were still countless caves beneath me. Nonetheless, a skip entered my step as I left the questionable rubble patch behind.

To my left, the stone wall curved, creating a circular platform where I stood. To my right was the forest around a thousand feet below. Ahead, a wide cave carved into the stone wall. Several caves, I noted, seeing how well illuminated the inside was.

No sign of the fleeing animal.

It's like a landing platform, said my imaginative side. As a child, this perch would've been paradise. Heights weren't as frightening back then. They still sent the sensation of spiders crawling up my spine, but not the heavy dread or nausea from overthinking. Here, Pudding and I could've played and read to our heart's content, no one to bother us. No Daisy, no Boss, and no Zeal.

I stepped toward the cave, eyeing the cliff. If it was the mysterious tabby, then she's already flown off. It's the perfect escape. Unless I'm falling into option B, a trap.

Assuming this so happens to be the mystery tabby. Ilene said "a tabby". Now that I think about it, she didn't even mention if they're confirmed semi-humans. I might be chasing a couple of strays.

The cave walls were smooth and curved, no stalactites hanging from the ceiling or stalagmites piling on the floor. Holes like those of swiss cheese shaped the ceiling and walls to my right. Ladders of light, as Pudding and I called them, cast a soft gold glow over the dappled taupe and blue-gray stone.

Or it's a dead end.

Humored along by my pessimistic thoughts, I continued, peeking in each side tunnel as I went. I may have talked bad about cat whisperers before, but if I really was chasing a stray, a cat whisperer could've found out with one sniff. It's not that semi-humans couldn't use their noses better than humans. However, we couldn't smell as good as our animal halves without practice. We also couldn't differentiate smells without understanding animal languages.

At least it's not a damp cave, my optimistic side tried. No sooner had it whispered when it got shut down with, Oh yeah. Thousand feet above the ground. Loving it. At least, if the ground gives, Zeal won't be the cause of my death. Or will he? He is the main reason I'm out here.

The cave widened as more splits broke apart its halls. Holes in the cielings, walls, and floors. Some allowed in light and fresh air while others lead to never ending trails through areal portals. If I didn't take the right turns back out, then I might find myself stuck in a maze of portals and levels.

Eyes pricked the back of my neck again, bristling my fur. Like last time, I swung around. I don't know what I had expected, maybe nothing, but not the black and white cat a mere two feet behind me.

I sucked in a breath and leapt back, doubling the distance between us. Fur spiked along my back like stegosaurus plates. Seeing a ghost felt like an understatement.

White fur trickled down her nose, widening into a bib shape beneath her chin. The rest of her fur was jet black. White swirled beneath it, revealed only where her hair parted. She wore her coat like a lavish scarf. Silky, fur hung off her shoulders, fluffing at her chest and blending smoothly over her back.

A snow-tipped tail rested over her same colored paws.

How did I not notice her sooner? Sure, sometimes things distracted me. Zeal's had my ear a time or two for that and Daisy another. Not this time, though. Not while I was actively searching for the stealth artist minutes after seeing her before.

Curious orange eyes sketched with gold and amber, like two jack-o-lanterns lit in a dark night, stared into mine. Awaiting, almost. Her head was round, the puff of her fur creating a near perfect circle.

She didn't resemble any breed close enough to call her by. Feet a tad small for her body. Shoulders and stomach similar to a rag doll's —a muscular, sturdy build. Shorter than most rag dolls'. A sheen traced the flattened hair on her back and around her tail.

Bewildered, I sputtered and asked, "How the heck did you get here?"

"I walked," she said casually in a low, rich voice. It had a rough edge. Not the roughness that came from a hoarse throat or an unfriendly demeanor. It was the kind of rough that came from deep, hearty chuckles.

She was older than me, but with semi-humans, determining age could pose a challenge. If I were to guess on looks alone, I'd have said sixteen to seventeen. However, her voice held a maturity that I didn't expect from her youthful appearance. The formed voice of a young adult who hadn't worn it out yet with age.

Who is she? What business does she have in the mountains? Where is her tabby companion? These were all the questions I should've asked. Instead, a mix of intrigue and stubbornness cast them to the side in favor of a half-hearted, "Gee, I guess that marks teleportation and flying off the list. Care to be more descriptive?"

Eyes narrowed, her voice took on an edge of annoyance. "I moved one foot in front of the other in a repetitive fashion. Would you like me to go into further detail, or would you prefer to tell me why you're here?"

Guess she also doesn't care for this line of interrogation, I thought, reigning my mind back to the more important questions.

I cleared my throat. "Yeah. Right. I'm here to ask you why you're here." Warmth flickered alive again, burning the bridge of my nose. Her gaze pinned me in place, and although the ground had been warm five seconds earlier, it now felt dank and sticky. I should've thought this through.

"I think I need to know a little about you first," said the tuxedo cat. Her tail flicked and circled around her feet from the other direction. The corner of her mouth quirked up but eyes remained narrowed. "A name would suffice."

Tipping my head to the red cape, I said, "Not sure I can tell you that."

"Okay, Little Miss Hero," she said, now with a full smirk. Her smirk faltered. "You are a Miss, right?"

"Yes."

"Look there, that's the first thing I've learned about you. Since you were so kind to answer my question, I'll return the favor. I, too, am a Miss." She beamed under my impressive deadpan. "Fine, fine. The name's Ninja. It's not like I have anything to hide from you, hero."

"You still haven't answered why you're here," I said, eyebrow raised. By this point, I couldn't tell if Ninja was trying to be difficult or born that way. Quite frankly, I had nowhere to judge.

Disappointment lined her tone as she asked, "Do you not have anything better to ask?"

"Let me think." Now I was the one getting annoyed. "No."

"Well," she said, taking a step toward me. I took a step back. "That's quite unfortunate. For you and me. It's been quite some time since I last had a conversation with a new face."

An unpleasant chill racked my body. The word conflict screamed in my mind along with the crashing realization that this was both a trap and a dead end. As my weight shifted to my hind legs, the image of the mystery tabby flickered. The advancing Miss Tuxedo took her place.

"You have a companion," I said. Maybe, just maybe, I hoped, naively reaching for something to keep my imagination afoot. I preferred a new trail to a new dead end over letting this plane crash now. Ninja kept advancing as I backstepped deeper into the cave. I didn't know the caves well, but she did. "A tabby. Who is she?"

"What do you know about her?" Miss Tuxedo's tone hadn't changed, and perhaps that made her even more intimidating. A panther stalking her prey. Any second, she could pounce.

I debated activating my power now. She's hiding her power, whatever it is. If I wait until the last second, I'll have surprise on my end as well. Then, if things turn south, I can use that moment to escape.

"I had a run in with a tabby at Meadow Lake," I said. I tried to replicate her unwavering tone. Yet, my voice hesitated, drawing out while my mind was preoccupied assessing the situation. "A hero in a purple cape."

My foot slid into a rock, but Ninja also paused. "Is that so?" she mused. "And how did that turn out?"

Heart drumming against my chest, my earlier frustration resurfaced. "She dropped me in the lake."

Miss Tuxedo snickered, still staring into my eyes. Despite the awkwardness, I was afraid to look away, sure that the moment my eyes left her, she'd take her opportunity. Never underestimate my opponent. Even when I have searing hot claws.

"If I were to consider helping, could you offer a description of this 'hero in purple'?"

"White belly. Grey back. Flys. Very unlikable. Guess she's good at combat." I would've continued, but Miss Tuxedo's chest heaved with barely contained chuckles. Mirth glistened in her eyes. "What?"

"Sounds like quite the character," she said, subduing her chuckles.  "Doesn't she, Marsh?"

Soft patters of paws on stone came from behind me.

"Who's not very likable?"