A Strange State of Affairs Ch. 2

A girl, newly orphaned, attempts suicide and ends up turning into a cat. A series of strange events leads her to the land of Kor in which she encounters even more unexpected events.

A loud growl emanating from the left corner of the cargo bay awoke her. 

Elevine hoisted herself up and looked about. The growl rose in pitch; Elevine felt the fur upon her back rise slowly.  Ignoring a foreboding feeling deep inside her chest, she advanced toward the sound.

            The hackle-raising tirade was coming from a cage covered with a soiled white cloth.  El took a corner of the thick fabric and gave it a yank. 

            A red-eyed hound stared back at her.  Its eyes grew frenzied and it began to let out explosive barks as it rammed its deep chest against the metal of the cage.  Elevine leapt back and felt the fur on her back spike; she tried to console the dog, but the only sound that emerged from between her lips was a hiss.

            The dog hurled its weight one last time against the cage, forcing open the door.  It hurled itself into a pile of boxes across the narrow aisle, then stood and shook its head wildly.  Elevine scrambled frantically upon another stack of boxes to hide.

            The dog looked about for Elevine, spotting the tip of her tail poking out from the corner where she was hiding.  It put its paws upon the first box and then leapt �" knocking the whole pile over.  El was flung to the floor, where she failed to land with feline grace and lay upon the floor in a daze. 

            She saw the beast approach through hazy eyes.  “No!!  B-bad dog!!  Get away, go!!”  She cried, but all that escaped her lips was a wild yowl.  She tried to backpedal, but her legs had turned to furred jelly and all she could do was fumble about as the dog drew nearer and nearer, eyes upon its hysterical prey.

            Elevine closed her eyes �" this was not how she had imagined her death.  She mewled; what an awful way to die!!  The foul jaws closed upon her back, filling her with excruciating pain, felt her body lifted into the air, dropped, and then there was nothing.  El lay still, eyes squeezed shut.  Upon feeling her body sliding across the slick floor, she opened her eyes and looked around. 

            Her attacker was sliding, footing lost.  The plane was tilting and taxiing, preparing for landing.  The dog slid into a stack of suitcases and disappeared with a frustrated howl.  Elevine managed to sit up as she was flung onto her bed of rugs, which swayed precariously in the shifting balance of the aircraft.  She looked at her back; saw the parabola of deep gouges formed by lethal canine teeth and the blood that gushed out, pulsating as she breathed.  She managed a tearful meow and hunched her body deep into the shaggy fabric to better observe the antics of her vicious companion.

            The plane was losing altitude swiftly now; in a matter of seconds, it touched the ground, bouncing once or twice before rolling smoothly into its designated station.  El picked herself up from the adjacent suitcase she had been violently jounced into, a disgruntled expression on her face. 

            The dog was standing at the door of the cargo bay, watching it slowly lower.  Light shot through the cracks as the door fell to reveal the immaculate airport of Tien, a province of Eastern Kor.  As El watched, other aircraft shot smoothly into the air, circling once or twice before departing for their respective destinations.  In the distance, tall figures inspected the runways and loaded baggage.  Ecstatic, she leapt off of the suitcase and made for the door.  At last!!  Land!!

            In her haste, she forgot her tormentor, who was still standing at the door with a pink tongue flapping about in the air.  The beast, upon sighting the erratically ecstatic antics of a joyful feline, immediately took off after its prey, barging past a startled man who had come to unpack.

            Elevine sighted her pursuer and darted for the ground floor of the airport through a large set of automatic double doors in which employees were entering and exiting.  She shot through crowds, mingling in with the commuters and flight attendants who were stunned to see a bloodied cat running wildly through an airport, a large black hound darting after her. 

            El ran �" quick, quick, quick!! �" as fast as her injured back and sore legs would allow, heading in the direction of the main entrance.  Her paws skidded madly across the polished marble floor of the airport, and she flew out of the grand entrance powered by nothing but sheer momentum.

            Elevine mixed in with a crowd of mustachioed, turbaned, and monocled men wearing ubiquitous grey tunics and escorting two women apiece.  She assumed them to be from the province of Istansi in the country south of Kor, a monstrous landmass brimming with polygamy and adultery.  El shuddered just to think of the horrors of such a land, and the fur along her back bristled painfully along her back as she shivered.

            She looked about for any sign of the dog; seeing nothing put her heart at ease.  Elevine walked languorously to a nearby bus stop �" this one, she knew, would take her to the first summer house built by her uncle, a beautiful little cottage along the western coast of Eastern Kor.  This one was closer than the other house, which was a series of villas along the southern coastline (her father rented these out, mostly). 

            A crowd materialized around the bus stop.  Elevine slunk off to the side, avoiding the clumsy feet and enormous suitcases of the mob.  The bus soon arrived:  a sleek and silver vehicle powered by electricity and solar energy, which was an abundant resource in the beautiful climate of Kor.  The people flooded the bus, while Elevine sauntered towards the rear of the contraption.  She spotted a series of horizontal bars at the rear of the vehicle, perfect for reaching the roof of the bus.  Climbing these with moderate ease, she padded along the roof until reaching the square indent directly in the middle right where the emergency exit was located.  It was the perfect size for seating a cat, and she lay sprawled in the cozy metal pit.  She’d deal with her throbbing back later.

            The bus sped off, ambling through moderate traffic for a while before reaching the spacious roads of the scenic country.  El lifted her head, watched the sea mews soar overhead and the ocean sparkle.  A light breeze teased her ears and the limbs of the trees that grew on the side of the roads.  The apartments of the city had transitioned into cozy bungalows and chalets.  Children flew kites and made cat’s cradles out of magnificently brilliant skeins of yarn, waving to the vehicles that passed by.

            The summer cottage was two hours away from the airport, a time that Elevine spent lazing about in the warm sun.  At last, the bus stopped at her destination and she hopped off, eager to have a place to call home.

            As she padded down the road that led to the cottage, she briefly sensed that things would not turn out as they seemed in her head.  “Get a grip, Elevine,” she mewled to herself, “You know you’re just dying for an omelet and a hot bath.” 

            She turned up the driveway that led to the cottage, a spacious spread with flowers in the yard.  Elevine stopped in the driveway, observing the flowers �" she could remember planting those daisies with her father ten years ago, wearing the sunflower hat he had bought for her and a pair of holey gloves once worn by her mother.  She walked up to the patch, rubbing her face in it.  “It’s good to be home,” she thought, then suddenly recoiled from the bush �" she had felt a scratchy plastic edge within the thicket of flowers.

            Parting the pliant stems, she spotted a red model airplane with a broken propeller lying within the bush and also the broken head of a doll rolling about in the muck.

            A sudden scream parted the air, coming from inside the house.  Elevine tensed and turned; the sound emanated from behind her.  A pudgy little girl was standing near her tail, sucking her fingers in her mouth.  “Biwwy, wook!!” She yelled, pointing at El, “A kwiddy!!”

            A boy, jar-headed and looking to be about seven (the age when all they do is tear things apart without bothering with reassembly), tore out of the house.  “Whoa!!  Gimme that!!”  He took a hold of El’s tail and yanked it; she flew out of the bush and landed on the ground. 

            He peered at her.  “What is that?  Do you think it’s flammable?”

            The girl was kicking her brother and hitting him with globs of spittle.  “My kwiddy!!  Mine!!”

            The boy made a lunge for El.  “Mae, see if we can catch it!!  I wanna experiment on it!!  Do you think it can eat chocolate?” 

            Mae, the girl, stamped her feet.  “Mine, mine, mine!!  I’m gunna dwess hew up in puwple and we’ll pway Pwincess and Teatime togethew.  And then I’ll paint hew nails and pway dolls wif hew, and…”

            El ignored the little rant that the girl-child was giving, focusing on ignoring the little boy.  She felt his hand close once more upon her tail; rearing back, she dealt him a scratch upon the arm �" deep enough to ensure her privacy, but shallow enough to avoid permanent damage to his skin.  He shrieked and began to cry, fat tears rolling down his chubby cheeks.  The girl, upon seeing her brother bawl, began to wail as well.

            El skedaddled, shooting off toward the ocean.  She would hide out by some tidal pools for the night and make her decisions in the morning with a head cleared of jet lag and limbs well-rested.

 

Reviews

[Katie de Lavani]

There is no doubt that this is publishing quality! You manage to embed such an amount of detail in a scene with the movement of the storyline that not only entices the reader to continue with the story, but gives them a panoramic view of where they're going. I enjoyed how you maintained an amount of action through the scenes and I hope it's maintained throughout the book. There are definitely some points of mystery contained and I hope they are touched on as the book moves forward. There is a great deal of potential for this book regarding plot and intrigue; you have already met a perfect peak for your details. Well done!