For Cata! The Chase and the Magic

[xp-clea.livejournal.com]

Bas gives Bloodstone a run for his money.



Backpack slung over his shoulder, Bas dodged a low-hanging branch and skirted a large tree root as trekked through the woods. He had been following the trail of the television crew's jeep for nearly half an hour, but had finally come across a fresh set of tire tracks and now he could hear voices ahead of him. Relieved, he set his bag down and started pulling off his clothes. He stashed them in his bag and shifted smoothly into his cat form, a black and white cat the size of a hatchback car with the same cartoonishly large eyes his dragon form had.

Grabbing his backpack in his mouth, he climbed high up into a nearby tree and stashed the bag, cut a wide arc around to the jeep's three o'clock via tree branches heavy enough to hold him, and then descended as noisily as possible to the ground.

"Bigods! Chet, you were right for once. Consider your contract renewed until at least next Thursday." Bloodstone roared from the front of the jeep. "Randy, get me some footage. Carl, my tranq gun!"

Giving Bloodstone what he hoped was a 'come and get me, asshole' sounding meow, Bas flicked his tail at the Jeep, watching the man he guessed was Carl turn to pick up the tranq gun. Before he could hand it off to Bloodstone, Bas charged the Jeep but then jumped out of its path at the last moment, as if playing a game of chicken. He shot off into the forest where the trees were too close together for the Jeep to follow.

"By Jove, that's a feisty pussy! We'll need to go on foot!" Bloodstone leapt out of the jeep, his gun cradled in his meaty hands. "Follow me, and for God's sake, Randy, try not to trip over anything this time. Chet, head back to camp and get the rest of the crew. I can smell an Emmy afoot, what!"

Sniggering to himself at the pussy comment, Bas loped on ahead, trying to make sure he stayed close enough that they didn't lose him but far enough away that he wouldn't pose a great target for the tranq gun. He bounded over large tree roots, hoping to trip them up, leading them in an indirect route towards an area of the woods he and his friends had prepared with traps ahead of time to slow up the tv crew. Most of the trees were too small to support the weight of the animal that looked slightly like a SmartCar, but Bas knew the ones that were large enough and scrambled up one to change the angle of Bloodstone's target, leaping from one tree to another and skittering down it to keep running, leaving huge claw marks in the trunks of both trees.

Surprisingly, not only was Bloodstone keeping up with him, but the hunter was actually closing the gap as his camera crew fell further and further behind. For all he seemed like a pompous windbag, it was become very clear that Bloodstone was very good at what he did. An tranq dart embedded into a tree inches away from Bas' nose, forcing him to scramble in a new direction.

Uh oh. Once again, Bas felt admiration for Bloodstone flare up and determined that he'd start watching the show. If he survived this.

Putting on a little more speed, Bas led Bloodstone to the area with the traps. The first was the little creek that ran through the forest. It was about five feet deep in the middle and maybe six feet wide, but the slopes of the creek bed were much wider, spreading the area one would have to jump over to about fifteen feet. It wouldn't stop the hunter, but Bas hoped it would slow him down slightly.

"Hurumph. A stream." Ulysses paused for a moment and looked back. "Randy, bring up the- RANDY, YOU VOMIT ON YOUR OWN TIME, YOU USELESS FISTULA!"

Instead of trying to ford the stream, he ran upward for a few minutes, towards an old willow on the banks. As he reached it, he pulled a device from his pocket and attached it to the base of the trunk. Stepping back a few feet, he hit a trigger on his watch and a small explosive detonated, shattering the base and dropping the tree into the stream. With surprising agility, the hunter jumped on and quickly rushed down the trunk before jumping off on the other side, delayed by several minutes at best.

Holy shit! He'd just blown something up! Bas didn't chance a glance back to see what it had been, running through the next trap area, careful of the route he was taking. They'd dug holes around a wide area on the other side of the creek- not too deep, but deep enough that they could turn someone's ankle if they ran into one- and covered them over with leaves.

Incredulously and impossibly, Bloodstone went through the route sure-footed, picking up solid ground instinctively as he did. Before he could close for another shot, his phone rang, and the hunter was forced to pause.

"Rot! Fine, fine. Just tell them to hurry." He huffed into his phone, jamming it away as he continued to scan the trees, picking up the route of his prey. Behind him, gasping and stumbling along were Carl and Randy. The camera and the mic boom were suffering dents from falls and both men looked to be at their limit.

"We're - gasp - here - wheeze..."

"I've - ugh - got sound on - gasp..."

"Arrgh!" They screamed together as they both went down in a heap, tripping into one of the pit traps and ending up a confused pile on the ground.

"The witch doctor was right. I have been cursed by a plague of idiots." Bloodstone muttered, covering his eyes at the spectacle. "Randy, Carl, I want you to stay right here. Not move. Stay right here. Set up the camera and the mic so when I go and bring back the tranqed cat I've been stalking YOU TWO WILL HAVE A MINIMAL CHANCE OF DOING ANYTHING ELSE TO SCREW THIS UP, YOU MALODOROUS TWATS!" He huffed and then plunged back into the forest, leaving them gasping on the ground.

Bas had gone up into a tree to get a better view of what had happened with Bloodstone and his men, and now came down quickly and set off running again, beginning to wonder what would happen when he got tranqued and dragged back to the camera. Would the lack of consciousness trigger a return to his human form? Wouldn't that be a surprise for them? And he assumed if that happened Bloodstone would have to let him go, uninjured. He might be eccentric, but he didn't seem like the type to kill a person. So maybe letting himself be caught was an option. But not yet. Now he had to lead Bloodstone through another trap. This one had been Stephen's doing- an enormous tree that had been magicked to fall when someone passed it. Bas ran past and risked a look back to confirm that the tree was indeed falling, hoping it would block Bloodstone's immediate path and slow him down once again.

Bloodstone stopped just short of where the massive tree crashed down. He snarled in frustration and pulled out his machete. With a deft hand, he began to sever the branches in front of him, using the stubs as handholds to climb up on to the bole of the tree and then hack himself a clear way through to the other side. As he reached the ground, he pulled his rifle back out and looked for signs of his prey.

While Bloodstone was fighting with the tree, Bas ran on ahead and changed directions, not stopping until he knew he would be out of sight. He then bounded high up into a tree where he changed back into his human form. A spare set of clothes had already been stashed on a branch nearby, though he was up the wrong tree and had to swing and climb over a few of them until he reached the backpack Clea had packed for him. He put the clothes on quickly and smiled at the portable game console she'd put in for him. Settling back on a branch, leaning against the trunk of the tree, he started playing a game, making sure to turn the sound off. He wasn't trying to call attention to himself, but if Bloodstone managed to find him, he was just a kid in a tree wanting to get away from the camp and its stupid no-electronics rule.

Frustrated, Ulysses tracked the cat prints into the woods until they disappeared. He moved in careful circles, searching for clues. Unfortunately, the area was obviously part of the camp's programs, and footprints and scruffs from human campers muddied up the forest. Finally, he shouldered his tranq gun and walked back to where Carl and Randy had set up.

"And here he is! Ulysses Bloodstone! And the fearsome giant Welsh Tiger!" Randy said as Bloodstone walked into the clearing. Behind him, Carl made 'rawr' noises and cat claw gestures. "Alright, Bloodstone. Awesome. Where's the Welsh Tiger?"

He sighed. This was what he got for leaving the BBC. Instead, he gestured back towards the stream. "Back there. Careful over the fallen tree bridge. He sat down as they left, carving off a plug of chewing tobacco with his huge knife, setting it in his cheek just as Randy and Carl discovered what happened when two overladen men stepped on the same unsupported tree trunk in the middle of a quick moving stream. He leaned back with a smile at the splash, closed his eyes, and as always, thought of the hunt.



Stephen and Clea use their magic, and a lot of it, to help a friend.



"Cata. Sit." Clea said to the car size Cat. It didn't take much to get Cata to their cave where Stephen and Clea were planning on shrinking her. "Okay. I have no idea where to start." She gave the cat a scratch behind the ear.

"I...you know I don't think we quite thought this through did we," Stephen noted dryly pulling out a treat to feed Cata as he looked over at Clea. "It'd be easier if we had something to practice on before we tried it on her but, " he smiled fondly at the giant cat who was licking his hand looking plaintively for another treat, "you really don't leave much around here for us to work with do you?"

"Well..." Clea moved to stand next to Stephen. "I believe we can do it. We have done the shrinking spell a lot." Even if she was a little nervous. "We can try it on a tree outside. A tree is large."

"It can't hurt to practice a little before we try it out for real," he agreed nibbling his lower lip nervously, "And a tree isn't going to keep moving and trying to lick us to death," Stephen added giving Cata a weary look.

"Cata. Stay." Clea said to the giant cat who looked at her with her large eyes but didn't move. "Alright let's go." She lead the way out of the cave and came to the first tree. "This one."

Stephen knelt down next to the log closing his eyes and to rested his hand on it as he fed magic into it building up a picture of the spell as he always did. Raising one hand he held it out to Clea nodding, "This can work, we can do this," he said trying to build up a false bravado.

Clea watched him before she also knelt down beside him and grabbed is hand and placed her free hand on the tree. It was simple, right? Already she felt the magic flowing through her and into the tree, it was a sensation that she would never get used to nor did she want too. She visualised the tree shrinking to a small one and watched as it started to shift in front of her.

Stephen cracked one eye open when he felt the tree shift under his hands, "That was...easier than I thought it would be," he allowed it was actually quite scary how easy that had been, he knew the tree wasn't alive anymore but he still had issues with this. It shouldn't be this easy to change the world around you, otherwise why would you stop?

"Okay, so we know size doesn't matter." She turned over to see Cata looking at them from the cave. Off in the distance the sounds of a tree crashing caused Clea to worry slightly. "We should hurry." Standing up and moving over to Cata. "It is okay. We are going to save you."

Stephen pushed himself to his feet slowly shaking his head, "We can't rush this and make a mistake," he cautioned Clea before giving her a wry shake of his head, "Me being the voice of caution. Never saw that coming. Besides, trust Bas, he's gonna be having the time of his life right now leading Bloodstone and his crew through every nook and crevice he can think of. They won't know what's hit them."

"Still doesn't ease the fact that he is up against Bloodstone. I've seen one of his episodes with my mum." Clea buried her face into Cata's fur. "Plus I want to get this over with so I don't have to worry." Her voice was muffled from the fur.

Stephen slipped an arm around Clea's shoulder's pulling her into a one armed hug, "Hey, don't worry about it, we've got this. Bas has been running around these woods for years. He probably knows them better than anyone but Cata," he reassured the girl, "If anyone can stay ahead of Bloodstone it's him. We'll shrink Cata and he'll run Bloodstone in circles," he slipped his hand into hers and pulled it up to show her the entwined fingers, "Come on, this is us, there isn't anything the three of us can't do if we work together, you know that. Hell, you're the one who keeps kicking our butts if we forget."

Clea looked up at Stephen and smiled, "Only because you two are the only true friends I have. I can't let you forget." Looking back at Cata and nodded, "I am ready. Cata we are going to shrink you now, for your own safety. And then you can come home with one of us and have all the food you want." With her free hand, she patted the giant cat before the magic in the air started to rise again.

"You know,you have a really weird way of showing affection," Stephen noted with a smile as he settled down on the opposite side of Cata scratching the big cat's flank. "I'm pretty sure you're spending too much time with Cata, pouncing on people and bashing them into the ground repeatedly is not how you show someone you're happy to see them." As he spoke Stephen let the image of hte spell he wanted to preform form in his mind.

"At first I didn't know you were talking about me or to Cata." Clea said as she continued to soothe the cat. "You should feel special. I don't pounce on just anybody." Clea grew quiet as she watched as Cata slowly started to shrink. It didn't look it was hurting her but she was mewing in confusion. "It is almost over Cata."

"I dunno, the cat is definitely your spirit animal, you're very pouncy," Stephen teased distractedly as he tried to keep his mind on the spell and not think where all the excess mass was vanishing off to. "No wonder you get on so well with her Cata," he told the cat who was down to the size of a large dog now.

"Pouncy? I always thought my spirit animal would be a narwhal or a unicorn." Cata gave another mew as she stopped growing at the size of a normal cat. "We did it. We shrunk a living thing." She reached down to pick up Cata and snuggled her as her stomach gave a large gargle, "And I am soo hungry."

"We could probably...liberate something from the kitchens," Stephen replied catching Clea's eye and grinning. He was still a little high from the adrenaline rush of pulling this off, "Besides, we're gonna need to get a treat for Cata too."

"Lets find Bas, make a mess of the Bloodstons camp, and head back to our own camp." She a tired smile crossed her lips as she picked up Cata and lead the way out of the cave.