Spacial Illusions

Chapter Six

NOT PROPERLY EDITED

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The hard floor knocked Callisto awake, a surprising difference to her usual alarm clock wake-up of Helix and his friends. Nightlight swirled around her head like a cartoon star of dizziness as the striped and leathery wing of Ursa swung down to slap her in the face and chest, throwing her back down to the floor. Pushing his appendage off and turning to snap at the large Tao Cat, she froze when the large feline jolted up into an attentive position with its huge satellite ears swerving forward with sharp razor teeth glistening with spit and froth.

"What's wrong, Ursa?" The Tao Cat launched from the bed and sped through the house with Callisto in swift tow to the front door seconds before knocking was heard.

"Callisto? I'm here for training. Can I come in?" The muffled voice of Deimos floated through the door and Ursa lowly growled at him through the barrier. This was when she realized that Ursa was being protective of his perceived pride partner and he saw Deimos as a rival male encroaching on his pride and territory.

"Callisto, are you growling at me? I get that it's early in the morning, but isn't that a bit excessive and rude?" The said female sighed deeply as she worked Ursa away from the door enough that she could inch the wooden barrier open to reveal an unamused Deimos in the doorway.

"Sorry I'm not growling at you, Deimos."

"Then who are you growling at? The glow fish?" Ursa lurched forward to attack through the door, claws and teeth leaving deep gouges in the wood barrier. Deimos eyed her like she had grown a second head and spoke in tongues as Callisto rolled her own orbs and pushed the Tao Cat back by his flat nose.

"It's not me that's growling."

"Then who is?" Callisto wasn't given the chance to explain, Ursa had waited long enough in his mind and he was losing his pride partner to a mutineer rival. The striped feline shoved the blue-hued female aside with the door and tackled Deimos to the wood, his growls vibrating the air around his head and shoulders.

"Callisto, what is this?" The female stepped out of her house and sighed again at the sight of Ursa trying to intimidate Deimos. She also took this moment to notice that the Tao Cat was longer than Deimos- of whom she estimated to be around six feet.

"Deimos, this is Ursa. He followed me home yesterday from a grove of dragon fruit trees. He thinks I'm his pride partner, which makes you a rival in his mind." She pushed at the huge feline's ribcage to make him move off the hybrid boy but it was a fruitless feat on her part.

"Well do you mind letting Ursa know I'm not trying to do anything? My arms are starting to loose feeling in them." Having decided that physical removal was impossible to accomplish herself, Callisto decided to try a new angle. She moved back a few steps before speaking in her most authoritative tone of voice.

"Ursa!" A large ear flipped in her direction before the cat turned his head towards his pride partner. "Get down. Now." It took a few seconds of debate, but Ursa finally crawled off Deimos- not before giving him a final growl of warning. The tall boy pushed to his feet and rolled out to his shoulders to return feeling and blood flow to his numb limbs.

"What is that thing?" Deimos eyes Ursa warily as he spoke, the Tao Cat huffed at him before curling around Callisto's legs and waist.

"Hydra told me he's called a Tao Cat. They find partners with similar food sources and go through a ritual to bind them for life to each other."

"And you just happened to partner with a Tao Cat for life?" Callisto shrugged to convey that he had guessed correctly, the boy rolling his brown eyes before lightly shaking his head in bemused annoyance. "First the glowing fish and now a Tao Cat, what next? At this rate you'll have every creature on Praesidium at your door. So are we training today or will your new boyfriend try to tear out my throat again?"