The Neko's Tail - 3. The Hall of Blood

Artemis stretched out with a yawn, wincing as his back cracked. A week of sleeping in the pilot chair was killing him, but there was no way he would share the bed in the cabin with Elias. The neko deserved to have his own bed, and giving him that was worth some discomfort.

The tiger was reasonably certain he had found Elias’ mystery fortress, but he needed to be positive before launching any kind of weapon at it. What he was planning was illegal, but with luck, no one would ever hear of it. He was more likely to get in trouble for abducting Elias.

Turning on his audio sensors, the tiger padded softly to the bathroom. Returning to the cockpit, he found Elias standing next to the pilot seat, listening to voices. The neko had a small smile on his face as he turned to face the tiger.

“That’s the prince. Quarian is near.”

“Good. Are they at the Hall yet?”

Elias shook his head, done talking. He had talked though, and Artemis was happy to hear his voice. Eventually, he’d talk more and if he didn’t the tiger didn’t mind. Maybe they could find other ways to communicate.

“At this location, the local time should be noon,” Artemis said. “They are stopped for lunch?”

Elias nodded, startled that Artemis knew they were eating lunch.

“We have some time then. I think I know where the fortress is, but I don’t want to do anything until we know for sure. For now, we’ll keep following them. Is the other group still nearby?”

Elias nodded again.

“I wonder who they are. They’re heading to the fortress at any rate, or they would have stopped in the city. And they, or at least some of them, are shapeshifters. This is going to get messy either way.”

The tiger sat in the pilot’s chair with a sigh.

“Elias, I’ve thought about this. I can get in trouble for helping you do this. You’ll have to help your friends on your own. I will show you how to use the ship’s mining laser because if you come with me you’ll need to know how to use that anyways. If you just so happen to aim it at a certain fortress while practising, I don’t think I’d be fast enough to stop you.”

Elias smiled at the tiger’s words and Artemis smiled back. He may be a bit of a mute, but no one could accuse the neko of being dumb.

A low whistle startled Elias as he lined up another shot on the dark side of the moon. He looked up from the strange window that showed the moon, meeting Artemis’ eyes. Kind, gentle eyes that drew him in.

Elias glanced away, not noticing the look of admiration in the tiger’s eyes.

“You are a natural at this,” Artemis said, pointing at the target he had painted on the moon’s surface.

Every one of Elias’ shots had hit within ten feet of the centre, almost as close as Artemis could do with years of training.

“A… natural?” the neko repeated uncertainly.

“Yes, you are really good,” Artemis explained.

Elias smiled, lowering his head in embarrassment.

“I marked the group’s last location. We’ll be back there in an hour, and you can set up on the fortress. Pick your shot carefully; you’ll only get one.”

Artemis returned to his seat and began manoeuvring the ship around the moon. Elias watched the tiger as he flew, studying his calm demeanour, and the way he constantly scanned his instruments to avoid hitting an obstacle.

Turnining back to his own window, Elias watched as the stars shifted in the sky around him. Stars shifting…

“It was you,” he blurted.

Artemis glanced up from his work.

“Hmm?”

“You were the blinking star,” Elias said more subdued.

“Oh… yeah. I sort of followed you for a while before I rescued you from that shapeshifter.”

“Why?”

Artemis looked a little pleased, if also embarrassed by the question.

“I… I think it was your voice. You have a nice voice,” the tiger said.

“Oh.”

Elias turned back to his star gazing, confused. He had a nice voice? But before he met Artemis he had always been told to be silent. Even Danuva, as nice as he had been, never gave him permission to speak.

“I like hearing your voice,” Artemis admitted. “It would please me if you spoke more.”

Elias stiffened at the words, the words of his master.

“Yes sir,” he said quietly.

Artemis slowed the vessel to a halt over the planet, double checking his coordinates to make sure he was at the right spot. The group they had been trailing were below, barely a mile from the fortress gates and the other group of shifters was another two miles distant, and closing.

“Elias,” Artemis said, grabbing the neko’s attention. “You have had over a week to decide whether you wish to stay on board the ship or not. I am going to take a nap for a few hours, and when I wake, I will be jumping into light speed. If you desire to remain behind, you must tell me before then. I will land you in a city of your choice, with your old clothes and your memories of myself and my ship wiped from your mind. Should you decide to remain on my- our- ship, we will head to the nearest port, thirty light years from here. It will be the last time you see this planet, but there will be other planets and other homes to explore.”

Elias nodded, then stiffened slightly, before saying, “Yes sir.”

The tiger shook his head.

“None of this sir business either. My name is Artemis. Do what you need to regarding your friends. I will be in the cabin if you need me.”

Artemis passed through the door out of the cockpit, trusting the neko with his ship. It would be a relief to sleep in his own bed again, and not for the last time, the tiger reflected that if Elias came with him they would need a larger ship. Even if the neko didn’t join him he might get a larger ship anyways.

The tiger pulled his shirt off, but left his pants on, in case Elias needed him suddenly. Flipping the walls around his bed to transparent, Artemis climbed into his little den and curled up, watching the stars.

He was admittedly nervous leaving Elias to his own devices, but the tiger knew the neko didn’t trust him. He hoped letting him have unrestricted run of the ship would help Elias trust him more, or at least let the neko feel at peace with his surroundings.

Artemis wasn’t tired, but he needed to sleep. The jump into faster than light travel required travel into a universe that didn’t follow the same laws as this universe. Setting the portal into the other realm required a lot of concentration and the tiger needed to be well rested.

Reaching into his dresser, the tiger removed a green chip from a drawer full of various coloured chips. Removing the black translator chip from his bracelet, the tiger replaced it with the green chip. A tiny clock appeared in the air above the chip, and Artemis messed with a couple of dials on the chip, setting the chip for a low dose of sleeping powder that would give him three hours of rest provided no one woke him.

Pulling his blanket over his body, the tiger yawned as the powder took effect and his eyes closed.

Elias stared through the viewing glass, watching Quarian adjust the sword on the elf’s back. The neko was stuggling with what he had to do. He had now been with the tiger longer than he had with Danuva and Quarian. Did he really owe them anything?

They had rescued him from the inn, but they had bought him too. He had been Danuva’s slave, just as he was now Artemis’ slave. And a slave’s job was to make life easier for his master. Artemis had already told him he could get in trouble if Elias tried to help Danuva. But he was letting him anyways. It confused the neko.

Artemis had been kind to him, aside from kidnapping him and locking him away from his planet, but he had made it clear Elias was still his slave, even if not in name. Was it all an act? Would the tiger punish him if he fired the weapon at the fortress?

The neko tracked the group as they walked toward the fortress, puzzling these things out in his mind. He watched them get stopped by a guard, centering the mining weapon over the archer’s head. Artemis said he’d only get one shot. He needed to make it count.

The gates to the fortress opened and a young neko stumbled out. Elias’ fingers slipped on the weapon’s controls as he recognised the face of his sister, Naia.

Holding his breath without realizing it, the neko continued tracking the group as Naia led them through the fortress, stopping in front of a woman. Words were exchanged and Elias growled as the woman slapped his sister. That settled it.

The neko centered his weapon again, aiming for the woman who held Naia a captive. He barely held himself back from firing right then and there.

Quarian suddenly turned on Sandolin, blinding him with his own cape and grabbing the sword from his back. Elias didn’t blink as the werewolf shoved the elven prince to the ground. He figured they had planned this all out.

The woman stepped forward, laughing. The neko saw a guard nocking an arrow to his string off to the side, and he knew he needed to act now.

Double checking his aim quickly, Elias fired the laser.

Three hours after he had fallen asleep, the timer on Artemis’ bracelet reached its end. The bracelet stopped emitting its powder and a minute later, the tiger’s eyes opened groggily. Sitting up in his bed, Artemis swung his feet around, his toes curling in the soft rug on the floor.

Taking a moment to yawn, the tiger stood and pulled on a shirt, barely remembering to switch back to the translator chip before he left the room. The door to the cabin hissed open as he walked through, directing his feet toward the cabin.

Artemis scanned the room, missing the neko.

“Elias?” he called quietly.

Walking into the kitchen, the tiger frowned, finding it also bare of life.

“Elias?!”

Returning to the cockpit, Artemis brought up a holographic model of the ship, setting scanners to detect lifeforms. He saw a red dot in one of the holding bays and his heart dropped. Those bays were rarely heated. If the neko was there he could be frozen solid.

Rushing through the hall, Artemis grabbed a blanket from his bed. Racing into the entry bay, Artemis nimbly climbed up a ladder, nearly slipping as he reached the top.

Listening carefully as he walked through the cargo area, the tiger stopped outside the room full of probes. Opening the door, he found the neko curled up on the rack of probes, shivering.

“Hey, what are you doing up there?” Artemis asked quietly.

Elias stared at him blankly.

“If you wanted to sleep there are much better spots for it. Why don’t you come down here and we’ll get you warmed up?”

“I killed her…”

The words startled Artemis, until he remembered what the neko had planned.

“That was the point, wasn’t it?” he said.

The cat carefully climbed up the stack of probes, draping the blanket over Elias’ shoulders. He was starting to feel the chill himself, but he ignored it as he tried to coax the neko down.

“You watched her for a while. Did she seem like a good person to you?”

Elias shook his head no.

“Do you think that she would have hurt people if she was still alive?”

A shrug.

“Did you save your friends by killing her?”

There was a pause, and then Elias nodded, frozen tears glistening on his face.

“Then you did something good, even if it might not feel like it now.”

Holding out his hand, Artemis waited until Elias took it. Helping him off the probes, the tiger wrapped the blanket tighter around the neko and led him from the bay.

Climbing down the ladder into the entrance bay, Artemis waited for Elias below. The neko placed his foot on the top rung of the ladder and slipped, crying out.

Artemis caught the cat before he hit the ground and helped him upright.

“You’re okay,” he whispered, embracing the smaller cat.

Elias stiffened in his arms, and Artemis drew back quickly.

“I’m sorry,” he said, motioning for the neko to walk ahead of him.

Nudging Elias into the kitchen, Artemis pressed his hand into the scanner on the wall, mentally requesting a hot drink. It appeared a minute later, steam rising from the mug, and the tiger handed it to Elias.

“Drink it slowly,” he warned. “It can be quite potent.”

Elias stared at the mug suspiciously, then sipped at it, gasping as he burned his tongue on the liquid. Artemis stared at the neko, trying to memorize every detail of his face, before the neko chose to return planetside.

Sighing wearily, the tiger spoke.

“Like I said earlier, I’m heading out of the system within the hour. I would like for you to join me, but I will not force you.”

The neko’s ears drooped sorrowfully.

“You saved me from that wolf,” he said quietly. “I belong to you now, and my place is at your side.”

“No!”

Artemis slammed his hand on the table and Elias squeaked in shock, his drink spilling over his hands.

“You are not a slave. You will never be a slave again. Didn’t Danuva free you?”

Elias stared at him with fearful eyes, his ears laid back on his head.

“I have never wanted a slave in my entire life, and that is not changing now. Now, let me rephrase the entire situation.”

Artemis sighed at the look in the neko’s eyes, the deepest, most vibrant blue eyes he had ever seen.

“If you could go anywhere in the universe, where would you want to go?”

Elias shook under the tiger’s gaze, curling into a ball in his seat. The question shocked him; he had never thought about what he wanted, besides a master who was kind. He had been a slave all his life, and it was hard to realize that perhaps he really was free, even if he didn’t feel free at the moment.

The tiger really was giving him a choice, and glancing back up at Artemis’ eyes, Elias knew he wouldn’t be punished for his decision in any way.

What did he want? The neko had no true home; it had been stolen from him when he had been sold into slavery at the ripe old age of six years. He had no real friends; even Danuva and Quarian had been nothing more than kind strangers.

But Artemis wanted to take him away from everything he had ever known.

Suddenly the enormity of his choice hit the neko. His breath became laboured, his stomach cramped. Artemis held out his hand and Elias clutched it for dear life, trying to calm himself.

He would never see home again. But it had never really been his home. If anything it had been his prison. He had no place to call his own.

And the stars called to him. He had always dreamed of being free like them, able to rise above anything. And here was a person offering that very freedom.

“I want to see the stars,” the neko said quietly, his decision made.