Chapter 13 - Lucky, or not?

Kitty learned about the animals, and how to care for them. Shep learned very quickly to let her ride around on his back, much to Dane's surprise and amusement. Kiterina stayed with them over the weekends, and during summer break, when she didn't have school.

Kitty learned about how the humans did not always stay together when they mated, and the young were not always raised with the mother. She also learned that not all men were evil as her mother claimed, though she had no interest in interacting with any other humans, if she could help it.

Kiterina came home one weekend, all excited about some advertisements she had seen on the television during the week.

"They were advertising about designer pets. They claimed they could make any type of pet, that you could think of. And the price was dependent on what traits it would have. I know we can't get one, but we could claim we did, couldn't we?"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea. I'm sure they will remember who ordered what, and we don't even know if they have her type available. I'm sure they would know by now that her types are very smart, and can talk. I don't imagine they'll make them available."

"You're probably right," she gave in sadly, and Kitty sat with her, to help her with her homework.

"So, what's television?" asked Kitty.

"Oh, no!" Dane shook his head, but they had one installed by the end of the day.

Kitty started learning a lot after that. Dane complained that he had lost his helper to the T.V., but she informed him that it was far smarter than the animals, so he would be just fine.

Several years past, and Kitty was getting ready to celebrate her fifth birthday. Kiterina was staying with them full time now, her mother had moved away to live with a new mate. The designer pets were a horrible problem, because people were spending their life savings to get them, then releasing them into the wild because they couldn't afford to care for them.

Special hunters were popping up to deal with them, as they often had no natural predators. The world's governments had outlawed them in most places, but the black market was running in high form, shipping them all over the world. Even after the labs that produced them had shut down and been swallowed by government programs, new animals were popping up all over the place. It was finally safe for Kitty to stop hiding.

Dane had even taken her to a pet store, as soon as it was safe to do so, to get a beautiful necklace for her to wear, so no hunters could claim she was wild. She had looked at the clothing that was available, but decided it was too constricting.

She had grown, by the time she was ten, too big to ride around on Shep, and he was starting look a little grey around the muzzle, instead of white. Kiterina was graduated and moved out of the house, to her new home, a college dorm. Most of the animals that could be captured had been, as it was too profitable to leave them wild.

The governments had designed their own war animals to fight for them, in the place of men. Kitty was disgusted by the whole concept of designer animals.

Dane had been slowing down, getting sick more, so Kitty had taken over doing some of the chores for him. With Shep getting older, she had also started patrolling the fields to keep predators away from their animals.

Stopping to examine some footprints next to the fence row, she felt a strange tingling in her left back leg. Hopping to the side, she expected to find that she had paused on an ant's nest, or something, but strangely, she didn't land as she expected.

Shaking her head, and splaying her legs out to keep from falling, she no longer felt dirt and grass beneath her feet. Cold stone met her touch.

Looking up, she was shocked to find herself inside a room. Two men were standing in front of her arguing.

"I didn't tell you to summon a sphinx! What are you thinking?"

"But, Master, I don't know how I summoned it! It was an accident, I swear! I think I must have mispronounced something!"

"Mispronounced my butt, you spoke the wrong language!"

As she looked back and forth between them, her first thought was that she had fallen into some show depicting the middle ages, or some King Arthur reproduction, based on their clothing and the things laid out in the room. But as they continued to argue, she suddenly realized what must have happened.

"Aww, man! I've read stories about things like this! Let me guess, there's some Demon King that needs to be defeated?"

They both stopped dead in their tracks and looked at her.

"How do you know about the Demon King?" asked the older 'master' in horror.

"Ah, that means I must be the chosen one," she added, hanging her head.

"The…?" began the apprentice, his mouth hanging open.

"So, what great reward do I get for doing this thing? I'm not too keen on princesses."

She studied the room, noting that the walls and floor were made of stone slabs, and the door seemed to be an incredibly heavy wood.

"Reward?" asked the Master, still not caught up.

"Of course. You know, in the prophecy?" She sat down, enjoying this far more than she probably should have.

"It must be the Chosen One if it knows about the Prophecy!" exclaimed the apprentice in terror, stumbling to the door in a panic.

The Master looked at her, his eyes narrowing. "Which prophecy?"

Yawning, she feigned disinterest, having learned it well from watching the cats. She stood, and followed the apprentice to the door.

As she stepped out of the spell circle on the ground, the old man jumped back against the table behind him, his eyes wide in a panic. The apprentice, seeing her heading towards him, fumbled with the door, finally throwing it wide and running from the room, screaming in fear.

She paused, turning to the man, and cocked her head to the side. Something was up. Why were they so afraid?

"How did you break free from the circle? It should have prevented you from leaving it?"

Looking at the silly drawings on the floor, she read the words written out loud, "Summoning Circle. Hmmm, doesn't say anything about keeping me in. Maybe your apprentice forgot that? I would double check his work before letting him summon creatures. We might be dangerous or something. Lucky for you, I've already eaten lately."

Swallowing, he nodded. She turned to leave, and found a window, just outside the door. She could hear footsteps in the distance, but she was too entranced in the view before her.