The Cat
From Torg Adventure
The cat was all black and sleek, its fur shiny and luxuriant; it had a black collar with a silver bell on it. It was very insistent. It meowed and meowed at me, while I sat on the park bench in the dark, smoking in the crisp fall air. I'd seen this before in my own cats; they just kept meowing until I did what they wanted. I gave in and stood, taking a bigger drag than usual off my hand-rolled cigarette.
"Okay, okay. Where we goin'?" I asked the cat. Now satisfied with my response, it stopped complaining and turned to lead me across the sculpture garden. I could see some statues around the grounds, nestled into hedges or framed by trees. The feline lifted its tail high in the air as it surged ahead and then slowed to wait for me, looking back and meowing again. "I'm comin', I'm comin'. Hold your horses," I said rather annoyed, puffing at the cigarette.
It raced ahead again, getting about thirty feet in front of me, when it ran around a pine tree. I trotted to catch up, got to the tree, and walked quickly around it. Two tall carved stone pillars were right in my path, and I passed between them without thinking, my mind intent on the cat. Too late, out of the corner of my eye I saw the yellow glowing runes on the sides of the pillars that faced each other. In the next instant, a light flashed blindingly, and I stopped dead in my tracks.
As my vision cleared slowly, I knew something was wrong -- the park was gone. The short well-tended grass had been replaced by lush undergrowth; the sparsely-spaced pines and hedges were no longer there, but immensely tall trees with leaves and hanging vines were everywhere. The temperature was a good thirty degrees warmer than a second ago, and the thick humidity slapped me like a fish.
I shook my head to clear it, but the jungle remained. Faced with an impossibility, I looked for the only thing that would make this scene familiar, the cat. The black imp that had brought me here was nowhere, hidden by ferns and other unidentified plants. I froze as I heard a low, deep purring that couldn't be a house cat off to my right. Slowly, I turned my head toward the sound and then stopped again when I saw what was there. A large black panther stood less than ten feet away. My breathing quickened in fear, and my heart thumped a million miles an hour. The creature's yellow eyes gazed at me without blinking. It licked it chops and settled onto the jungle floor.
"Don't be afraid. I'm not going to eat you." The purring words filled my head, but seemed to come from the panther; the voice was definitely female. Telepathy? Telepathic panthers? Now I was sure I was dreaming. I must have bumped my head in the park or fallen asleep on the park bench. I looked around to make sure it wasn't someone else talking.
"You are not in the park. You have not fallen asleep. You are in my world." The mental voice held a note of amusement. Now I knew I was dreaming. How else could the cat know what I was thinking?
"Why have you brought me here? What's going on?" I asked. If this is a dream, I wanted to see where it was heading. What next?
