A neglected housecat runs away from his family and is tempted by the alluring world of the ferals, who steal from the human society that cared for him.
🏆AWARDS
1st Place - The Future Banned Writer Awards 2023, Fantasy (Score: 58/60)
1st Place - Th...
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Akhi gazed up from the round oak table. A raccoon sat across from him, desperately analyzing the painted cards in her hand. Wooden figurines of animals sat motionless on a colorful, checkered board between them. A crowd of elderly onlookers had gathered at the plaza to watch the riveting game of Long Fang. The raccoon and Akhi were the last players alive. The other three animals at the table sat back, calculating odds in their head.
She better have the green snake in her hand, Akhi thought.
He still couldn't believe all the entertainment that the streets of Cuniculum offered. While waiting for the mysterious Baldwin to show up, he had visited shops, tried on clothes, rings, sampled foods, found games, and even visited a weapon stall. After spending time wandering the underground city, Akhi felt familiar enough in Cuniculum that he could get around on his own without becoming lost.
His favorite activity, he discovered, was spending nights at the Tangled Tail tavern, sampling milks from different animals. So far, sweet Guernsey cream was his preferred drink. He and Halima would sing rowdy songs late into the morning, while the innkeeper, Estoril, and his band performed with a medley of string and wind instruments.
The tunes were new to Akhi, but after seven nights of raucous singing and heavy drinking, the other patrons cheered him on as a regular songbird while they drank themselves into a stupor.
It was almost morning and the all-night Long Fang game was coming to a head. Akhi's tiger figurine had progressed within spitting distance of the board's final gate. He had already selected a card from his hand to play, the spotted falcon, and he waited patiently for the raccoon to make her selection. After years of just obeying, first his sister, then Jacob and Abigail, and finally Misha, it felt freeing to be the one to push others around in a game of cards. A bead of sweat dripped down the raccoon's forehead fur and onto the oak surface. Akhi smiled. I have her by the whiskers.
"Cagney!" The crowd turned toward the ruckus. It was Halima, storming through the crowd. "We have to go!"
"What? Why? I'm in the middle of a game," he whined.
"Baldwin is at the Tangled Tail. He wants to meet you. Right now," she grabbed him by the elbow and lifted him up from his chair.
Halima looked at the raccoon, "The cat forfeits. You win," she announced before pulling Akhi away from the table. The raccoon breathed a sigh of relief and turned over a card with an image of a green snake on it before being congratulated by the crowd.
Halima and Akhi barged through the creaky wooden door of the Tangled Tail. Their eyes drawn to a booth in the back, where a large gray rat sat by himself, holding a frothy drink in a pewter mug.
Akhi's eyes grew big as he approached the wooden booth. The gray rat was massive - almost the size of a feline. Judging by the contours of the rodent's gray fur, Akhi guessed he was made of almost entirely muscle. He had scars up and down his sides. His incisor teeth protruded upwards from his bottom jaw and looked like tusks.
