Inane Verbiage

XVI

 A deathly silence.

 "...I suppose this isn't the welcome you expected from the Fae kingdom?" Az asks hesistantly as he eyes the cats surrounding us, wobbling on his newfound legs.

 "Hardly." Eros throws him a pair of breeches (goodness knows where he got those from), his bow already slung and ready to fire as he moves to protect the now-tailless merman. "Now put those on and don't get scratched!"

 And as though that were a signal, MeoWR (anyone would recognize that tacky badge anywhere) gives a loud, well, meow, and with identical yeows the cats come leaping straight at us.

 Oh shizzle.

 I instinctively go into Ghost Skin Mode, thankfully not sinking through the ground this time as I watch cats pass through me and inadvertently scratching one another with a confused look upon their faces. 

Since nothing can hurt me, I take the time to survey our surroundings, hoping to find a way out of this mess before Eros runs out of bows and is unable to defend the one person who is vulnerable to the cats' lethal claws and the most important one of us all.

 It's easier than it sounds, though - as far as the eye can see, the light purple, sparkling forest is teeming with furry, armored bodies (guess what they are), with no end in sight. 

That's when I see a hole by the corner, about twenty feet away from where we are and with a convenient rock to roll over the entrance once we're safely inside. 

I make sure there ain't no cats in the vicinity (well, alive ones, at least) before returning to normal and gesturing towards the cave frantically. "Eros! That way!" 

The god nods an affirmative, grabbing an grim-faced Az (who'd just stabbed five cats to death with the stick in his hands) by the arm and all but dragging him towards the hole, somehow managing to fend off the remaining cats with ease even though he only one hand to do so. Whoo hot.

Of course, it's not the time to be thinking about things like that, so I shake that thought off and dump myself back into Ghost Skin Mode and scamper over as well, leaving the tortoiseshell cat that'd been leaping at me looking disorientated when its claws come into contact with a fellow soldier instead of nice 'human' (or so they think) flesh.

 "Let's go!" I say breathlessly as I skid to a halt beside a determined-looking Eros.

 "Take him," Eros tells me gruffly, thrusting Az into my arms before turning to face the incoming cats (headed by MeoWR, which isn't surprising. What is is the amount that's left - while there are still too many of them to escape unscathed, the amount is much lesser than it was a moment ago. Eros has mad shooting skills, I swear).

 Since there's nothing much I can do to help (it just figures that my measly 'powers' are only useful for myself), I take Az from his care and pull him into the cool darkness of the cave behind me, watching apprehensively as Eros ducks inside with difficulty, using his bow to fend off one overzealous cat as the leftover army advances with a speed no natural cat should have. 

My gaze involuntarily drops down to the lethal curved claws on each animal. Then again, I suppose these cats are nowhere near natural, since no 'natural' cats are supposed to have poisonous claws in the first place. 

For a moment it seems as though the Cat Army (or at least, the one-third that is remaining of this particular troop) and their evil evil grins are going to reach us in a heartbeat and we're going to be pretty little shreds before we can even say 'kalapalooza', then Eros snaps his fingers and the rock rolls into place, swallowing us in darkness as the furious yowls outside tell us that we are bloody doomed if we can figure a way out.