Round 1

Xio sat down, stunned. He was trying to dig down deep into his memory to remember how he got into this predicament. Just a few days ago, he went to a shaman for a reason he could not remember, and he woke up with almost no memory. It was a terrifying prospect, because he was lost no matter where he went, so his only hope was to travel randomly, and hope for a miracle in finding his answer. This wasn't what he had hoped to find, but deep down inside, he felt like he had scrubbed his life clean for a purpose, and that purpose was now clear. Somewhat. Idris had left him with an unusual set of instructions and a seemingly impossible and slightly nonsensical goal. However, having a purpose, in Xio's mind, as odd as it may be, was better than having no purpose.

"They're coming." Jarren said abruptly.

"Who's coming?"

"Sentinels. They're coming to kill us. I have to get back to my place and save my wife and son."

"What about me?"

"Do whatever you want. I wish you had never come here, this will be the end of me."

From outside, in the rain, a pack of cat warriors had already gathered outside. "Come out! We only want to talk!" the sentinel Captain yelled.

"Should we go?" Xio asked.

"It's a trick." Jarren replied, "As soon as we go outside, we die. Our only option is to get to the roof and hope for a place to jump onto that won't destroy our legs."

"Can't we hide?"

"No, the local psychic will find us if the sentinels don't first. They have excellent hearing, so even the slightest noise you might make will alert them."

Just then, a battering ram made from an enormous log slammed through the front door, smashing it open instantly. Reacting quickly, Jarren knew sentinels would come racing through the door, so he turned and dove towards the first sentinel, disarmed him and used his armblades to cut his throat. The doorway funneled the sentinels one-by-one to Jarren, and he used his superior fighting skill to cut down one after another as they came through. The bodies of the sentinels began dropping all over the floor, creating a rapidly-expanding pool of blood.

The Captain realized what was happening, and ordered his men back after losing about 20 of them, but still had plenty by his side. "We're going to burn the place to the ground." he said after some thought.

Inside, Jarren was panting and covered in blood and had a large cut across his left eye. "No help?" he asked, looking angrily at Xio. "I'm not a sentinel." Xio replied.

"Look at you. You're bigger than an average laborer, but from the way you talk, you certainly can't be an intellectual. Now, pick up a damn blade, put it on your arm, and be ready to die like a warrior."

"I don't know how to use this!" Xio lamented, picking up one of the blood-soaked blades.

"Maybe you won't die like a warrior, you'll die like a bitch."

Bewildered and terrified, Xio asked what to do, but Jarren already raced up the stairs. Xio dropped the blade and followed him. They went up to the roof and Jarren peered over the edge. "Shit." He said, "They're lighting a fire... we're going to burn if we don't jump." Jarren began going along the edge of the building to look for a safe place to jump down to, but no such place presented itself. "Great. We're going to burn." Jarren muttered, shaking his head.

"What if we go back downstairs and talk to them?" Xio suggested.

"Are you stupid?" Jarren snapped, "Oh, that's right. Your brain was erased, of course it is."

Jarren peered over the edge again, and this time, an archer fired an arrow right through his chest. Jarren made a guttural sound and collapsed, bleeding profusely. Xio, even though terrified, rushed over to Jarren's side and asked "Are you okay?"

Jarren groaned and struggled to speak. "Y...you asshole... I... have an arrow in my body... suffice to say... I'm not... okay."

"I had no idea this would happen. I feel really bad about this." Xio replied, trying to be sympathic.

"It's not your fault. It's not your fault."

"Well, you seemed pretty upset with me, so I just wanted to make sure you weren't blaming me for-"

"Shut up. If you get out of here alive, take care of my son. He is all I have left, he is all I have worked for."

"I don't want to sound like a jerk, but I just met you today, and raising a kitten is a huge responsibility, and I don't think I'd make a great father, so... uh..."

Then Jarren died on the spot and his eyes rolled back into his head. "I hate this place." Xio said, and went back downstairs, which was engulfed in flames, and just walked out the front door.

The sentinels stared at him as his walked forward out of the burning building and said "I surrender! I surrender! Take me to the Chieftain, I can explain this. I didn't do anything wrong." and he was immediately punched in the face and hauled away to the Chieftain's residence. Xio was thrown at the feet of the Chieftain, who sat on a very regal-looking chair. By the Chieftain's side was a brown cat, who was a psychic.

"I can explain..." Xio started.

"Silence." The Chieftain commanded sharply. "What did the prophet say to you?"

"He..." Xio started. He knew he would need to pick his words carefully, or the Psychic would reveal that he was lying. "He told me a bunch of nonsense. I don't really understand what he wanted."

The Chieftain turned to the Psychic. "He's telling the truth." The Psychic replied.

"Tell me, did he say the world was going to end?" The Chieftain asked.

"Yes, he did." Xio replied, and the Psychic confirmed that it was the truth.

"Have you ever met Idris or Jarren before today?"

"No, I swear I never have. I didn't come here to make trouble."

"Did you kill my sentinels?"

"No, Jarren did all the killing. I don't even have a drop a blood on me. Zero blood."

"What did Idris want from you?"

"He wants me to 'travel through time'. I don't even know what that means. It's some H. G. Wells shit."

"Did he tell you how to travel through time?"

"He said there was a machine that could make it possible, but I didn't believe him."

"Where is the machine?"

"It's broken. He said it was in pieces."

"Where are the pieces now?"

"I don't know."

"Do you intend to find the pieces?"

"No."

The Chieftain mused for a moment, and then said "At my side is a very powerful psychic, Sirara. She was sent here by Queen Ta herself after she was warned about Idris. She will escort you out of the city and into the wilderness, where you will stay in exile. If you show your face in any village or city, you will be taken in and executed. I'm doing this out of the great mercy in my heart, but if you should break your end of this deal, death will come down on you like lightning, is that understood?"

"Yes... yes sir..." Xio replied.

"Wait." Sirara said. "You owe a favor to someone. Who is it?"

"It's nothing, we should get going. I just want to leave this place." Xio replied.

"It's Jarren's son. He was given to you."

"Yeah, and I told him no."

"He gave his life as a warrior, and you are too cowardly to fulfill his dying wish? Why did the prophet ever want to see you?"

"I don't know. I wish I knew."

The Death Machine In The Sky

Countless years pass.

The humans and cats have both evolved - the cats have taken over the Earth, and although cannot harness the most advanced human technology, have a crude understanding of engineering that has been advanced greatly by the growth of their opposable thumb. They have been able to fight a seemingly-endless interplanetary war with the moon, where the humans now reside in biodomes and underground tunnels. A major mismanagement of the humans' food supply caused a near-extinction of the human race, leaving an elite few to fight on against a vastly superior population of cats on Earth. Despite their setbacks, the humans continue to fight on bitterly, determined to win at any cost.

In that day, a new prophet appeared. He began proclaiming doom to everyone alive, and quickly caught the attention of many followers. At this time, the Earth's former cities were left to rot and crumble, as the cats had no means of maintaining the structures built by mankind, and so the former cities became overrun by vegetation, rust, and wild animals. Every day, an old building, bridge, or some sort of structure would collapse from hundreds and hundreds of years of decay. Still, cats would hide out in the abandoned buildings, creating a sort of make-shift post-apocalyptic society that fed off the former abundance of the world before.

This is where the prophet went to speak. His name was Idris, and he was an albino with white fur and red eyes. His gift was to have future-dreams. According to cat culture, an all-white cat was a sign of bad luck, and this seemed to be the case with Idris. He would have nightmares about the end of the world, and began to speak about it despairingly to whoever would listen. At first, he did so to receive comfort, but his village kicked him out because they feared he would bring bad luck to them, and so he wandered until he found a destroyed human city where the cats there took him in.

Idris was getting old, and was going blind in his right eye, and had difficulty speaking. His adopted family grew increasingly worried about him, because the stress of his nightmares, they knew, was causing him to quickly die. The city's chieftain sent his personal bodyguard, Jarren, to watch over Idris and to attend to him.

One rainy day, while Idris was sleeping on a thousand-year-old mattress in the corner of a former office, he awoke suddenly and said "I'm feeling much better today."

"No nightmares?" Jarren asked.

"No, but I fear I'm getting old and will die soon." Idris replied stoically. "A refugee is coming. Go to the Chieftain and meet the refugee."

"I'm not allowed to leave your side."

"I need you to bring him to me. I can't walk in this rain, my joints are grinding together."

So Jarren obeyed the order and went to the Chieftain, and sure enough, some of the city's sentinels had found a stranger sleeping on the outskirts of the city's perimeter. The sentinels were simply the soldier-class of cats; very large, fearless, but not particularly intelligent. Every community had a some sort of military-style caste that trained from birth to fight, to leave the thinking to the intellectual caste. The selection for the sentinels varied from commune to commune; some were comprised entirely of males, others all-female, others were a mix of genders, others would include only certain breeds, and others would exclude certain breeds. The cats did have access to some ranged weapons, such as bow-and-arrow, but did not have the proficiency to manufacture firearms, so many sentinels built their own bladed weapons out of metal, and would either carry them as swords, or strap blades to their arms, legs, and even tails in some cases. Since cats need their tails to maintain their balance when standing upright, most sentinels preferred to not arm their tails, although truthfully, everyone knew that sooner or later, their tail would be chopped off in combat. Many of the older sentinels were missing at least one limb and/or tail, would be missing an eye or an ear, or have a scar of some sort.

Jarren, for having higher intelligence than the average sentinel, was promoted by the Chieftain to a commanding position, and eventually, to the Chieftain's personal bodyguard. Jarren's wife and son were also of the sentinel class, and trained their single son to become a sentinel. It was unusual for a cat to be the father of only one kitten, but the entire litter of kittens died, except for one. Like a strong soldier, Jarren left his emotions by the wayside, and concluded that the one surviving kitten must be destiny.

The Chieftain was part of the intellectual-caste, who ruled the entire cat population in a feudalism-style hierarchy. Though there were many other castes and classes in cat culture, the intellectuals would minimize their social interaction with other classes and castes, and only maintained friendships with other intellectuals. Many of the intellectuals were powerful psychics with varying powers, but nevertheless, were considered snobs and arrogant by the other classes. Their power was absolute, and all of catkind lived under an all-encompassing dictatorship that the sentinels enforced for the intellectuals. Defying the ruling caste meant death or exile without a trial.

Jarren defied the Chieftain's order to stay by Idris' side by returning to the Chieftain's residence. The Chieftain was infuriated when he saw Jarren there without Idris. Jarren attempted to explain "There is a traveler here, according to the prophet, sir."

"You idiot." The Chieftain replied disdainfully, "I should have all your limbs cut off right now. Didn't I tell you to stay with him at all times?"

"Sir, he made another prophecy about a coming traveler."

"As a matter of fact, we found some stray sleeping by the roadside this afternoon. He's sleeping upstairs in the loft. What did the prophet say about him?"

"Simply that he would arrive and to bring him."

"Listen to me carefully, Jarren. I don't care for prophets, psychics, or any of those mind-bending-shits, but I respect Idris, and that's why I'm going to allow you to bring the stranger to him, but after that, report back here for punishment, because you deliberately disobeyed my orders."

"Yes sir..."

Jarren went up to the loft to find the stranger sleeping on some hay. "Get up." Jarren ordered, and the stranger woke up and asked "Who are you?"

"I should ask who you are." Jarren replied.

"I'm looking for the answer to that myself." the stranger replied.

"You don't know who you are?"

"No, well, yes, but my memory was erased by a witch-doctor. All I remember is I went to him, and he cooked me an eel - he deep-fried the eel, it was gross. It wasn't like anything I'd ever eaten before. It made me sleepy and sick, and I passed out. I woke up and threw up, and I could barely walk. Once I woke up, I realized I was in a strange place and had been sleeping for several days. I can't remember anything except for a blurry details."

"Do you remember your name?"

"Yes, I think so. My name is Xio."

"Do you remember which village you came from?"

"I can't remember my village. I just have been walking and hoping I would find the answer to my questions."

"Come with me, I have your answers."

"Really now?"

"Yes, there is a great prophet here. He has foreseen your arrival and has asked to meet you."

So they went out and made their way back to the prophet's residence, where Idris was patiently waiting for Xio and Jarren to arrive. Idris sat at a little table where he poured some tea into a tiny cup, just the right size for a cat's paw.

"Come in." Idris said frailly.

Xio stepped inside out of the rain and came over to the table with Jarren at his side. "So," Xio said, "I heard you might have some answers for me."

"Well," Idris replied, "In life, we look for answers, but oddly enough, find only more questions. You will find the answer, but it is not the one you want."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that it would be better if you didn't know."

"Ah, I see. So you're someone who speaks in riddles."

"No. I will tell you specifically why you are here. I am dying and cannot fulfill my task. The Chieftain has been feeding me poison. I pretend not to know, but it is there, and I have nowhere to go to now. I would not make it a mile outside of this house where humans once went about their day."

Jarren looked surprised, but Idris said "You don't believe me? The Chieftain is keeping me here. Why do you think he had you look after me? You weren't caring for me, you have been guarding me, and the food you give me is tainted with mercury."

"Why?" Jarren asked, not sure what to think.

"Because," Idris replied, "I've proclaimed that the end of the world is coming. The humans have been building a death machine in the sky to kill us all and our beloved ruler, our goddess on Earth, Queen Ta, is silencing all the prophets who foresee this event taking place. While she proclaims that the Earth is safe from any threat under her guidance, the humans are developing a weapon that will tear the moon apart and send a huge chunk of it directly into the Earth, killing every living thing on the surface."

"Damn." Xio replied.

"Xio, there is very little time to spare. Because I'm dying, you have to do something that will test everything you know, or in your case, don't know. There is a door, a portal, that will let you pass back and forth through time. I've seen it, but it is broken, and its fragments have been scattered into four places. You have to find and assemble the pieces, then go back to stop George from establishing the cat kingdom."

"Whoa, whoa, what? You want me to go back in time, then just let the humans rule the Earth?"

"Yes."

"How can I possibly do that? You realize time-travel is impossible, right? If I go back and stop George, then this will have never happened, therefore, I couldn't go back. If I did go back, this would already be changed, which means that I've already failed."

"You must do it. You must."

"What you're saying is completely absurd, and even if I could do this, I wouldn't want to, because humans are disgusting. If they want to kill themselves in order to kill us, I say let them."

"Xio, you must forgive Gothford."

"That saying... it means nothing to me."

"Listen, you must meet with The Duke and Arcadius. They will tell you what you need to know, but for now, you must reassemble the portal, for the sake of everyone alive. You, as well, Jarren. The Chieftain has already dispatched his minions to kill both of you, as he does not want you to find out the truth. Queen Ta will certainly target you to kill you as well."

"No! What have you gotten me into?" Xio lamented.

But with that, with his dying breath, Idris completed his life's purpose and went to sleep. Xio was left there alone with Jarren, overlooking the body of Idris, while hearing the sound of raining splattering on the ground outside.