KILLYAN PICHÉ's Arc

Chapter 8 of 8

Night fell over the farm. The family kept their watch, lights burning along the barn wall. But Killyan slipped away to the one problem no one else could solve. The gray cat crouched in the shadow of the barn, ears flat, eyes wide behind its small glasses. It had stayed through all the nights of the lamp and the wand. Still it would not let him near. Tonight the air felt wrong. The cat knew the bear was coming. Any moment it would bolt for the trees, and Killyan would lose it forever. He knelt in the dirt a few feet away. "Please," he whispered. "I know you're scared. Me too." The cat hissed and backed toward the dark line of the forest. Killyan's chest went tight. He had tried the glowing light. He had tried the gold wand with the cat ears. Each trick pulled the cat closer, then drove it off again. Tricks were not enough. The cat did not fear the forest. It feared him. Footsteps crunched behind him. His father came around the barn, a lantern in one hand. Ruan was broad and quiet, the man who fixed everything on the farm. He stopped and looked at the cat, then at his son in the dirt. "It won't trust me," Killyan said. His voice cracked. "The bear's coming and it'll run." Ruan set the lantern down. He did not reach for the cat. He crouched beside Killyan instead. "Stop chasing it," he said. "But I have to catch it." "No." Ruan pulled a strip of dried meat from his pocket. He laid it on the ground, halfway between the boy and the cat. Then he backed away. "You don't catch a scared thing. You wait. Let it choose." Killyan swallowed. He stopped leaning forward. He sat back on his heels and made himself small. He looked at the ground, not at the cat. He waited. Minutes crawled by. His knees ached. The cat stared at the meat, then at him. It took one step out of the shadow. Harlow's voice came low from the corner. "Don't move." His cousin stood frozen, a bag of chips forgotten in his hand. Beside him stood Raven in her red and black, holding the jeweled dagger that had driven the bear away before. For once she said nothing. Even she could feel it mattered. The cat crept forward. It sniffed the meat and ate it in one bite. Then it looked up at Killyan. It was close now, close enough to touch. Killyan did not grab. He held out his open hand, flat and still, the way his father had shown him with the farm dogs. He waited. The cat pressed its head into his palm. Killyan breathed out. He stroked the gray fur slow and soft. The cat leaned into him, warm and shaking a little. It did not pull away. It had chosen. "Good," he whispered. "Good, I've got you." He lifted it gently against his chest. The cat let him. It tucked its head under his chin and went still. A sound rose from the trees. Gears. The grind of metal joints. Red eyes glowed deep in the forest. The bear had come. But the cat did not bolt. It stayed against Killyan's chest, calm in his arms. Raven lifted the dagger. Harlow pointed. "Catch the light!" The ruby stone threw a bright red flash straight into the bear's eyes. The creature swung its head away, blinded. Ruan stepped in front of his son with the lantern raised. The bear's eyes winked out. The gears faded back into the dark. It was gone, and this time the cat had not run. Granny came across the yard in her apron, her three dogs circling her ankles. She looked at the cat in Killyan's arms, then at the gold wand lying in the grass where he had dropped it weeks ago. "You didn't need the charm after all," she said softly. "You needed to be worth trusting. That's a harder magic." She touched his red hair. "It won't come back now, that bear. Not while this little one stays with you." Killyan carried the cat inside and gave it milk in a bowl. It drank, then curled on his lap and slept. He had crossed into the forest in his heart more times than he could count, and his mother had told him five times to stay out. None of it mattered now. The legendary cat of Assypond, the one no one ever got close to, was his. He pushed up his glasses and watched it breathe. He had waited, and it had chosen him, and that was the whole of it.