The Crystal Swordsman: Alfheim's Awakening

Wildcats

"Unlike ours, K's wings are physical." I explained, figuring that to be the most worthy explanation.

We neared the same market town square that we had initially passed thru upon our arrival. Above, Sinon had landed upon a balcony on a more secluded building that divided two diagonally running roads. Her feral eyes looked down at us and she snarled, knowing she couldn't run from us anymore. She readied her claws and knelt to pounce, but K suddenly came crashing thru the window right behind her. She turned just in time to meet him, being tackled off the balcony and into a wagon of hay in front of us. The wagon broke from the landing, but the hay had made for a soft cushion. Sinon immediately jumped out with a back handspring, facing the bale as she readied to fight again. She ignored us this time as K emerged to dust himself off.

"I don't want to do this." K admitted as he prepared his palms in a more defensive stance, one he hardly ever takes.

Sinon just growled audibly and rushed towards him.

"Shino!" I tried to yell her real name in hopes of snapping her out of it, but she just pressed K with an onslaught of slices from her claws.

He covered up, even managing to catch one of her wrists in the process of her frantic frenzy.

"Snap out of it, Shino!" K demanded and got in her face.

In response however, Sinon sliced her claws across his eye. He recoiled and backed away, which Sinon stood and allowed. K looked back up and felt the claw cuts around his eye. His demeanor changed as he slowly stood tall, watching Sinon from eyes red with rage.

"Keep your cool, K. We can still help her." I reminded him.

"I can't fight back, meyye. There isn't much I can do." K barked at me.

"He's just trying to keep you calm." Liz tried to point out.

"No offense to any of you, but the only one capable of calming me down is currently the one attacking me." K explained, not breaking eye contact with Sinon.

"That's not entirely true..." Asuna remembered back to some prior conversations.

A few details of which I'd prefer not to remember. K just glared at her with his bright red eyes before looking back to Sinon who was about ready to lunge.

"Not the point." K spoke.

"I know the moment isn't right, but you've wrestled feistier cats than this before, haven't you?" Liz joked.

K managed to let out a minor chuckle.

"None quite this claw happy." K smirked.

That's when Sinon hissed while bearing her fangs.

"Talk about clingy." Lizbeth giggled as K was advanced on.

Sinon swiped her sharp nails for his face but K ducked, dodging her next follow-up attack after that. He dipped away from her next downward slice and ducked beneath her subsequent swipe for his neck. K took this opportunity to charge her lower body with his shoulder, allowing him to pick her up and tackle her to the ground without breaking the kingdoms safety system.

"Shino! Enough!" K pleaded while holding her down with his entire body.

She hissed again and managed to land another cut on his face, this one successfully cutting his eye. K just winced, shut his wounded eye and gripped her wrists immediately. In an unprecedented display, K forced Sinon against the ground so hard that the impact from pushing her wrists down cracked the intricately constructed street tiles around them. The one eye that K held open was emitting a blinding red light that was almost like looking directly at the sun.

"Stop this!" K yelled but stopped when he realized Sinon had been knocked out from the collision.

He slowly got off to kneel beside her.

"Is she okay??" I asked, rushing to get closer.

"She will be." K assured, bringing his attention to her face.

Sinon's eyes weakly opened and they seemed to be back to their normal selves. She calmly sat up and looked around at all of us with an expression of confusion. She rubbed her head with a palm and strained from the pain.

"What was that?" Sinon asked as she came to focus.

"I don't know. Some kind of infection I'd imagine." K surmised due to our last run in with something similar.

"Could it be a disease only privy to Cat Sith? The last one we encountered exhibited similar behavior." Lizbeth connected.

"Wouldn't we have encountered a lot more?" I questioned, thinking there would be an epidemic if that were true.

"The infection was transferred via bite." Asuna added.

"Seems like Vampirism to me." Liz concluded.

"But it's daytime." Leafa commented.

"Oh yeah..." Liz pondered harder.

"Did you have any desire to feed?" I asked Sinon.

She thought about her experience deeply.

"No. I only remember wanting to get away from everyone." Sinon admitted.

"I have a theory that pertains to that." K spoke up.

"Oh?" Asuna was the most curious.

"Let's hear it." I encouraged.

"I believe that Sinon was just infected with lycanthropy." He concluded.

"Lycanthropy?" Silica questioned.

"You mean like werewolf stuff?" Liz tilted her head in confusion.

"Precisely. That was why she turned so feral." K confirmed.

"But how were you able to knock her out of it so easily?" I couldn't shake.

"Lycanthropy can be controlled. Werewolfism cannot." K deduced.

"Werewolves and Lycans are different?" Lizbeth asked, knowing it was a menial question.

"Marginally, yes. There are a few distinct differences." K finished.

"And I became one?" Sinon asked.

"You were acting extremely feral." K validated with an assuring nod.

"I'll say. She turned into a damn wild cat." Lizbeth joked with a laugh, inducing us all to do the same.

"Yes... A Wildcat." K pondered deeply upon hearing that.

"What is it, K?" Asuna picked up on this.

"A Cat Sith turned Werewolf. We can call them Wildcats." K coined the term with conviction, looking to the group to affirm his classification.

"That's a great idea." Asuna agreed.

"Might be your best name yet." Sinon smirked as K took her hand and helped stand her up.

"I try." He chuckled with a shrug.