//------------------------------//
// The Man and the Cat, Act Two 
// Story: Felanthroid 
// by Zytharros 
//------------------------------//

I awake. The sky is purple. Blue electricity shoots across the cloudscape at random intervals. The thunder never comes. It never comes with sheet lightning. I move on the wind, exploring this new area. The gray road I walk on twists and turns in all directions. The world itself does not appear to be completely round, more helmet-shaped. No, even that isn't true. It shifts, flowing slowly like boiling magma.

Parts of the pathway burst into short-lived flame for a while, then die off and leave a black resin on the roadway. In seconds they break off from the gray and slowly float away over the horizon. The path then divides, filling up the empty space once more. The road is never perfect again, though. There is always a little bit more missing with each flare.

I walk along this path, slowly disintegrating even as it repairs. I see nothing familiar, and yet I'm not afraid. I know that at some point I will meet up with Her and everything will be fine. Yet, for now, I'm content to walk this road alone.

A shape appears on the horizon, a cannonball with a hundred spines, shaped like a Pacific salmon. She swims with the grace of a butterfly through the sky. But I pay no mind, engrossed in my whims and wants.





It looks like a winding path below me, but it is hard to make out through these clouds. I float in constant orbit around my own mind, evicted by an invader I do not want within me. I am a cat. I am independent. I shall not have Him in me.

Yet my will on the matter, even as He explores more of me, weakens. Like the clouds that now pervade my vision, He becomes more welcome every passing day. I know we will have to part one day. Part of me does not want this to happen. The other parts, however, cannot wait.

So I float, an Oddity in the Sky, and my brain begins to tear apart for it. I am essential to this world, and yet I cannot repair it.

Not until He lets me.





I walk along this landscape. The Fish has passed by three times now, and the Land has slipped away more and more. I sit down and ponder these events. What does it mean? Why does She remain distant, even as I rry to bridge the gap? I mean her no harm. If I am controlling this brain, I want Her to help.

But how do I do that?

Do I let Her change me? Do I allow Her access Iinto my deepest reservoirs and memories? No. That would reveal secrets about me I promised I would keep hidden forever. It isn't anything serious - just special moments with friends we swore to keep secret - but that's exactly it. I can't betray their trust.

Until then, She will have to be separated.

I'm sorry.





The Brain... it shrinks now. He has to let me back down there so I can repair it. It shall not last long like this. I hate to invade, but it is my Brain. He cannot have it. He shall not have it! I want my brain and body back.

Maybe that is my problem. Maybe I do not want to share. Cats do not share.

Maybe I should. He will be here for a while. The Music must play. Maybe that's why the Brain is burning out.

"Zytharros."





I hear a whisper on the wind. The Fish is next to me now, a ghostly apparition on a backdrop of chaos. She mouths something. My name, I think. Something in me knows there's trouble in these lands. I have invaded, though not of my own volition. I see the Fish fading. I see the Path dying. I see the Sky dimming.

And it all becomes clear.

We can't fight anymore. We need to help each other. Our fight is destroying us, destroying our home.

Soon BOTH will die.

I reconsider.

And I whisper.

"Opalescence."





WE.

WE need to work together.

WE have to.

If WE want to live, WE need to.

WE think WE are destroying OUR brain with OUR actions.

This must stop.

The Music wraps itself around the Fish. The Fish sings a lovely tune.

WE do not know how WE will cooperate.

But WE will.

WE will survive.


Whiteness.