Lineage

I sat and watched our newest catgirl gobble and munch the meats, bread, and liquids laid before her, making a rather large mess of her hair and face as she violently tore apart everything and anything she could get her big, fluffy paws on. As entertaining as it was to watch her eat, I felt like there were still questions that needed answers and needed them now, so I decided to ask the most basic one:

“Can you tell me what your name is?” I asked, drumming my fingers on the table to get her attention.

She stopped devouring mid-loaf, pursing her lips and looking at the corner of her eyes before responding with a less-than-stellar one:

“I don’t really have a name” she shrugged. “Everyone just calls me Neko.”

“That’s not a helpful answer,” Luna said, crossing her arms and leaning against the doorway. “Surely your parents gave you one”

“I don’t know who they are,” she said, guzzling down a mug full of water. “I lived with a nice girl called Michelle for a long time. She taught me to steal and how to live, but she got caught and they roped her a while ago. It’s sad without her around.”

“Roped her?” I asked.

“Hanged, Richter,” Luna answered for her. “Thieves get the gallow sentence the second they’re caught stealing.”

“That’s bleak,” I said with a disturbed expression before turning back to… Neko. “Do you mind if we give you a name? One that you like?”

“Do… do I get a collar?” she asked. “I’ve always wanted one. One with bunnies on it. I like bunnies… they don’t like me very much though. They run away whenever I try to play with them.”

“Why do you want a collar?” I asked her.

“Because pets are supposed to have collars on them,” she said in a tone of voice that told me I was supposed to know this already. “So when they get lost you can see where they live.”

“You… you’re not a pet,” I said with a hand gesture. “You’re a free citizen of this city. You don’t belong to anyone.”

“I know…” she said, stopping eating for a second and lowering her gaze, her ears flattening against her head. “But I’d like to be a pet. Pets have very nice lives. They get fed, played with, and have a nice warm bed to sleep in… and they have collars.”

I rested my chin on my hand as I stared at the Nekomata, trying desperately to work out how this little fluffball functioned in that head of hers, talking about and wishing for things that would make most women scream out in pure rage for even suggesting they do. But, low and behold, was a grown woman, catgirl or not, asking to be somebody’s property.

If this had happened when I was fourteen, I probably would’ve melted. But she would be my fifth catgirl, counting Karra, Larra, and the twins, and I was in the mood for a fresh species of big-booty-bitches. So she wasn’t going to be napping on my lap anytime soon, despite how upset that would make her.

“I’ll take her,” Luna shrugged, walking over to the catgirl and giving her head a good rub, the Neko purring and smiling happily. “I’ll call you… Kalla.”

“That sounds nice,” she said, rubbing her head and mess of white, puffy hair into Luna’s palm. “Do I get a collar?”

“Yes you do,” Luna smiled. “It’s been awhile since I’ve owned a Feral Nekomata.”

“Is that what she is?” I asked, staring at the much more developed cat features. “It’s been killing me trying to figure out why she’s so different.”

“Yeah, she’s Feral. I thought they were extinct in this part of the world, but I guess not,” Luna explained. “You usually only see Ferals with Warrior Nekomata.”

“Explain?” I requested.

“Warrior Nekomata are small clans of deity-worshipping Nekomata that can use enchanted stones to transform into Feral Nekomata from their usual, much more human form. The biggest changes are the paws, the feet, the thicker tail, more cat-like features, muscular structure changes, and… well they become rock-stupid, relying on nothing but instinct to fight.”

“As dumb as Kalla?”

“Dumber,” Luna answered.

“Do they forget how to breathe sometimes?” I asked.

“No, but they’re close,” Luna said. “They’re impossible to reason with in their Feral form and just need to be taken down.”

“Ever fucked one?”

“Trust you to ask that,”

“That’s not a no,”

“Yes, I fucked one. A very long time ago,” Luna nodded, petting Kalla more. “And now I’ve got a new one to try out.”

“Don’t you think she’s a little… young for that?” I asked.

“Are you guys talking about sex?” Kalla asked with her ears perked. “Cuz I know a lot about sex. I think I’m good at it, too. A lot of guys tell me I give really good blowjobs.”

“So… lemme get this straight,” I said, rubbing my temples. “You can’t count higher than eleven… but you can suck dick to such a degree of skill that you get praise for it from a clientele?”

“It’s funny, isn’t it?” she asked with the most innocent grin I’d ever seen.

“Kalla, by any chance, was one of the names people used to call you Bimbo?” I asked her.

“Uh-huh,” she nodded. “I had a collar with that written on it… but the word was kinda covered with cum quite a lot so it was kinda hard to see.”

“Wait… were you a prostitute?” I asked.

“Yup,” she giggled. “I was good at it too before Mr Williams made me start stealing stuff.”

“When did you start being a prostitute?”

“When I was eight.”

“And I am done with this conversation,” I said, standing up out of my chair so fast as to knock it over. “Luna, you take care of your new pet sexual harassment victim while Annerose and I go to talk to our new business partner.”

I walked out of the room, calling Annerose’s name with my voice cracking loudly in the middle of the word. The woman walked around the corner with a chuckle before I grabbed her by the collar and dragged her through the tower.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“To a place where the children run free, happy, and without a womb full of paedophile semen,” I said, not even attempting to hide the terror in my voice.

Annerose was silent for a long moment, blinking blankly, before looking up at me with utter confusion in her eyes.

“Excuse me?”

The two of us made our way to the business district, deciding to look for a mansion matching the description Kalla had given of it. The snow had started coming down hard as we made our way over there, blanketing the entire city in a white sheet that reduced visibility to less than ten feet, the snowfall being more of a snowstorm if anything. The weather reminded me of the night I’d spent in the cabin with Luna on the way to Winter’s Maw to look for Svea. Back when my life was a whole lot simpler than it was now.

But, strangely enough, reminiscing about that cabin, and especially Svea, brought a very warm feeling to my body that helped block out the cold, snowy environment and help remind me of the warm embrace of the beautiful dragoness I’d inadvertently, but never regrettably, bonded to.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking right now,” Annerose interrupted as she stared at me in the eyes. “But from the faces you’re making, I’m guessing it’s the third gayest thing on this planet.”

“Most likely,” I nodded. “Any sign of the mansion yet?”

“I dunno,” she shrugged. “Does the mansion look like a wall of fucking white? Because if it does, this mansion seems to be its own dimension.”

“That’s a scary thought,” I chuckled, trying to use my mutations to the best of my ability but gaining no ground from them either. “Looks like we’re on our own for now. Our best bet is to find a wall, hug it, and search around from there. You ready to jump down?”

“Not really,” Annerose called back, looking down at the torrent of white beneath her. “Because I’m pretty sure if I trade in my confidence to jump down, the world’ll trade me back two broken legs.”

“Do it, pussy,”

“Fuck you, Richter,” she said, looking around the rooftop. “I’d suggest following our footprints back down, but they’re about as present as my dad was in my upbringing.”

“You are going really hard with the jokes today, aren’t you?” I asked, now needing to shout over the tearing wind in the snowstorm.

“Yeah, it’s the only way I know how to cope with the fact I think my pussy’s frozen shut!”

“Annerose?”

“Yeah?”

“Marry me?”

“No thank you,” she responded. “C’mon, feel in front of you and try not to plummet to your death while looking for the edge.”

“Phenomenal instructions, those,” I nodded, doing as told and eventually finding the edge of the roof, calling out to Annerose and getting her to climb down with me. Once on the ground, we set about looking for the mansion, looking for the lights of torches barely illuminating in the snow, any grunts, coughs, and conversations between guards, or some other form of location-giveaway that would help us find our way through this seemingly-unnatural snowstorm.

“Annerose?” I asked.

“Yeah?” she responded.

“How long have you been in this city for?” I asked her, holding my hands up against the near-lacerating winds.

“Three years, why?” she asked.

“Do the storms usually get this bad?”

“Never. We’re unlucky if it gets more than a few inches overnight,” she answered. “This isn’t normal.”

And seemingly, as if by vocal command, the storm began to die down, the winds becoming less like knives and more like a crisp breeze, the torrential snowfall returning to its normal, gentle dropping speed… and standing feet away from us in a garb not fitting of this part of the world was a sight I really didn’t want to see.

Khalifa.

Despite her viciousness and all the cruelty I knew she held, I’d be a fool and a damn liar to say that she wasn’t one of the most beautiful creatures I’d ever seen. With a body to die for, a face that seemed to be a gift from the gods themselves, and the most unnatural-yet-beautiful amber eyes, it was no wonder that she had all the men in this city in her pocket. In her hand she clutched a short staff, similar to the type Twilight had shown be long ago, and on her beautiful Arabian face she wore a gorgeous smile that lit up my loins like few could.

“Well, well, well…” she said, still having kept her accent from her land of afar, adding even more to her exotic beauty. “What do we have here? You wouldn’t happen to be here to see Williams, would you?”

“What’s it to you?” I asked in a rough tone.

“My, my,” she said, placing her finger to her cheek and faking a pout. “Such an offensive tone. I’d keep in mind who you’re speaking to, young man.”

“And I offer you the same advice,” I said, walking towards the door only to have several of her thugs make their presences known in various areas.

“Mhm, it’s quite obvious my lovely boys don’t like the way you’re talking to me,” she shrugged. “And to be quite frank: neither do I.”

“That’s good to know,” I growled, signalling for Annerose to follow me. “Now if you excuse me, I’m going in to talk to-”

I was cut off by one of her thugs pushing me back from the doorway, drawing his weapon, and growling angrily.

“Aren’t you listening?” he demanded. “The Lady’s talking to you?”

“I am listening,” I responded in a cold tone. “Now are you listening to me?”

The man laughed arrogantly, his friends beginning to surround the two of us, and due to his arrogance he decided to humour me.

“Yeah, I’m listening,” he smirked.

“Good, then listen to this,” I said, stepping closer to him. “You put that hand on me again and you’re not getting it back.”

There was a moment of silence before the man wheezed out a laugh, his friends joining in with the chuckle in a manner I’d seen before in more than a few situations. He pushed his luck too far and I made him pay for it. As he placed his hand against my chest and pushed me lightly again, cocking his head in a cocky manner, I made my move.

Grabbing hold of his hand and wrenching it to the side, making the bottom of his wrist face upwards, I extended my hidden blade and used the sharp edge and all my strength to cut clean through his unarmoured hand, severing the limb instantly, before grabbing the man’s upper arm, pulling him forwards, and knocking him out with a brutal elbow to the face. He crumpled to the floor just as Annerose made her move on the other two, cutting them down to size with her own hidden blades before going back-to-back with me.

Khalifa sat quietly on a barrel, crossing her slender legs over one another, and resting her hand on her chin as she watched the two of us cut down her men, blood, guts, and grit flying everywhere as we effortlessly slaughtered her goons in under a minute, corpses littering the ground as we retracted our blades. I turned my head to Khalifa, shooting her an angry glower but the Middle-Eastern beauty merely winked in response.

“You were saying?” I asked.

“I wasn’t saying anything,” she shrugged.

“Really?” Annerose asked. “Because it sounded like you were flaunting your power around before your little fuckboys got railed and now you’re acting as if nothing ever happen because you’re scared.”

“To be truthful, deary, I would rather forget my rather… unfriendly comments to you and your loverboy there,” Khalifa said, leaning back slightly on her barrel. “But that’s because I thought you were arrogant and useless. But now I see that you’re arrogant and useful.”

“He’s not my loverboy,” Annerose growled. “Secondly: you change your tone quick, don’t you?”

“Anything to stay on top and in control, dear,” she smiled.

“Ironic words, coming from a prostitute,” Annerose snarked.

“Charming,” Khalifa sighed, hopping down off her barrel and beginning to saunter away. “Though if you and your friend are ever looking for work for a more reputable source, come find me at the Ivy Garden.”

“Don’t count on it,” I responded.

“We’ll see,” she giggled, turning around and blowing a kiss. “Sooner or later, I’m going to be the one running things around here.”

Her dark words were complimented by an agonised scream from inside the mansion, alarm rushing through the two of us as we ignored Khalifa and sprinted inside the building, seeing Alexander’s meagre amount of guards butchered and cut up. We bolted upstairs, kicking down a locked door to see Alexander trying to keep a bleeding assassin from stabbing him whilst clutching at his own side. Annerose made short work of leaping across a table and stabbing the assassin in the neck, her and his body dropping to the ground and allowing Alexander to stagger back.

“Who the fuck are you!?” he demanded. “Are you more of her thugs?”

“No, we’re here to help you, Alexander,” I answered in a calm voice. “And by the looks of downstairs… you look like you might be hiring soon.”