Theresa tried to take stock of the situation rationally, but it was an exceedingly difficult task under the circumstances.
Everything was wrong. She was a cat. A cat stuck up in a tree. A cat stuck up in a tree with nasty dogs guarding against her escape, even if she could figure out a safe way back down.
She was a cat stuck up in a tree with nasty dogs that were clearly doing Francine's bidding.
And she could hardly think.
Her cat side thought that she was mad to even consider leaving the safety of the tree under the circumstances. It was not particularly fond of the process of going down in any situation let alone under threat of the vicious brutes beneath her. Her cat side was quite sure that the imbecilic dogs would eventually lose interest and leave.
The woman in her wanted to hope, yet also knew she would be in more trouble if she just sat there.
Even in the completely unlikely chance the dogs were unrelated to her Francine woes, her aunt and her men would still be on the march. Theresa had to keep moving.
Her eyes fell upon the nearest tree. It was only a short distance away, or rather a short distance away had she been safely on the ground. The nearest branches looked really far from her present vantage point.
Far beyond the tree, she could see a rocky cliff. If she could just make it there, she could probably climb up and lose the dogs below her.
If they had been capable climbers they would already be up on a limb happily chewing on her rather than barking and whimpering on the ground.
Maybe she could make it, somehow.
She knew that she had to try. This tree bore nothing but the illusion of safety.
The cat part of her was screaming that her terrible idea would only end badly. It wanted her to stay exactly where she was and wait for the dogs to get bored and leave. She could feel her fur rising in her unease.
She glanced down again at the dogs below her. The smaller shorthaired dog was still watching her.
It was certain Francine's men were coming. But the dogs—
Theresa screamed in her head for her cat instincts to be silent and let her think.
She was human and it was her body, no matter how she might appear on the outside. She was not a cat.
With that certainty, she coiled energy into her legs and made a reckless leapt for the next tree.
She flew forward and arced down at the same time. It felt as if she was falling faster and her heart leapt into her throat as she plummeted.
Finally, her paws hit a branch and she dug her claws deep in. The branch snapped, but it still slowed her down enough that she caught the next one. Her paws hurt but she ignored the pain.
Theresa looked down. The ground was not very far. Ignoring her feline preferences she leapt down the rest of the way and landed on her feet without trouble.
Without wasting a moment she dashed in the direction of the cliff. If she could just climb up, the dogs would be powerless to touch her or trap her.
She ran until the cliff was in sight.
Her surge of relief was quickly destroyed by the sound of barking closing in on her.
She had caught them by surprise, but they had recouped fast.
A quick glance showed her that the grey dog was nearly upon her. The other two were not in sight although she could still hear their barking echoing through the trees.
She ran with all the frenzied speed she could muster towards the rocks.
Only too late did she realize she had reached a terrible spot with tall sheer rocks surrounded her on either side.
The gray dog cornered her against the very cliff face that she had thought might be a refuge.
She looked up desperately. The rock was too smooth here for her to hope to scale.
She had no choice so Theresa faced the dog, fur on end.
This dog had looked smaller than the others, but up close it towered over her. It closed in steadily, no longer running.
She could smell its foul scent. It knew that it had her cornered and that there was nothing she could do about the situation.
It moved forward, growling softly, closer and closer.
She could no longer imagine there was intelligence in those eyes. They were filled with only the mad joy of a successful hunt.
She had no control over the panic that swept through her entire being.
Theresa knew it was going to kill her with a pure, sadistic pleasure. Her mind was hopelessly blank and she cowered in the corner of the rocks.
Its small, mean eyes stared at her. Drool continued to slide down its panting mouth.
Theresa could feel its breath on her and she could do nothing but wait for its teeth to close into her flesh.
She was frozen in fear. She could not breathe. She was going to die.
Then something happened that Theresa expected no more than the dog in front of her could have.
Some brutal desire for survival welled up inside her. She hissed and lashed out with her feline speed and raked the beast across its face with her sharp claws. The dog howled in pain.
For a second it was as if everything froze and Theresa stared at the face that she had ripped. Both eyes were shut, although the one on the right had clearly born the blunt of her attack.
Every detail etched itself in her mind as blood began to well up in the vicious cuts. It pooled around the dog's eyes before slipping down the sides of its face.
Theresa felt bemused horror that her small paws had done such brutal damage.
Then the dog's lips pulled back from his teeth and he lunged blindly forward, snapping at her.
Theresa dodged and scrambled past the dog. She ran along the base of the cliff. The other dogs barked and snarled as they pursued, but she ignored them as she streaked away.
She leapt upon up a ledge of the cliff face and climbed frantically until she was certain that she was safely out of reach of the dogs.
She paused for a moment and took a deep breath before she continued to climb. She could hear the injured dog's pained, enraged whining behind her when the braying occasionally subsided.
When she reached the top, Theresa glanced down behind her.
She was extremely high up; she doubted she could have made it to the top in her old human form.
The gray dog was still snarling and whining, but had curled up pitifully. The other two danced around and howled their defeat.
Theresa felt the smallest glimmer of regret that she had to hurt the animal, but she pushed it aside began to run.
Her heart was frantically pumping, whether from her close scrape or exertion she did not know.
She was shaken up by the violence of her nature. She was disgusted by the vision of what her claws had done to its face, though she had only done what she needed to do to survive.
Theresa hurried on.
After a while, Theresa slowed down as reality and exhaustion started to crash in on her. She paused for a short rest before pressing on.
She was separated from her sister, the one person in the world who knew the full extent of her magical dilemma and the one person in the world she wanted to find a way to protect.
She had no idea how to go about finding her sister. She could not retrace her steps because of the dogs and she did not think she could make her cat side climb back down the cliff even if she tried.
Though the dogs had followed Theresa, there were still her aunt's men to worry about at the very least.
She hoped that Daphne had not been captured, wherever she was.
Theresa had to find Daphne somehow.
She could not manage alone as a cat. She could not even ask anyone for help. She would be hard pressed to find a literate commoner and she did not think her paws had it in them to write the whole explanation in the dirt even if she could find such a rare gem.
Daphne was the only person who knew that she was truly human.
Except of course for Francine and maybe her men, depending on what they had been told.
Theresa did not care that Francine could likely return her to her normal form; she was not going back to the woman who had enslaved them to beg for help.
Better even a cat alone in the world than a woman under the dominion of an evil wizardress.
Theresa straightened her back and tried to summon her flagging determination.
She would not allow Francine to defeat her. She would find Daphne somehow and they would remove legal control from their aunt through their appeal to her unknown sovereign. They would be free.
First, she needed someone skilled in using magic. There had to be someone out there who could help, even if she had never actually seen a wizard or wizardress aside from Francine herself.
Before that she had to find Daphne.
Theresa continued to run in the direction that they had been going, hoping that she would find some sign of her sister. Maybe Theresa's cat senses could pick out something a human would miss.
Theresa continued quickly onward until she came to a stream. She walked up to the edge of it and peered into the cold, shallow water. She lapped water into her dry mouth as she contemplated it.
It would be a good idea to wade through the water to make her trail harder to follow in case they sent more canines. It was far too shallow to drown.
Yet she hesitated. She dabbed the water with her paw. There was something about the water that made her recoil. The pool of water just seemed terrible.
Theresa decided to follow the edge of the stream to find another way to cross. She hoped that Daphne would be clever enough to walk in the water for a while to disguise her own trail.
If only her sister were with her then Daphne could carry Theresa, she thought wistfully. She would not be faced with the horrible prospect of immersing herself in the vile fluid.
It would be so easy.
Besides Daphne's practical functions, Theresa missed her sister and her mind kept circling back to worry. Daphne had been doing well thus far for Daphne, but who knew where she was now and what she was doing?
She needed Theresa and for the first time in their lives Theresa needed Daphne as well.
It was not just a practical need, either. Theresa and Daphne had always been together. They had been each other's closest companion for nearly as long as Theresa could remember.
Theresa was not used to being alone. She worried about how Daphne was taking their separation. She desperately hoped that Daphne was not just sitting somewhere crying dejectedly.
Theresa had to find her, but the world outside Waldwick was so much bigger than she had imagined it would be. She could not fathom how to even begin to find her sister, or how her sister would cope.
Theresa shook her head. It would not do to worry about things she could not control. She had to focus on her goal.
She would find Daphne no matter what and then she would be returned to human. It was the most important thing.
Theresa kept walking, but she felt tired and haggard and distracted. She was having trouble focusing on coming up with a brilliant plan, which was the one thing that she knew that she desperately needed. She did not like improvising.
Worse, her attention was increasingly captured by the small movements of animals scurrying around with enthralling speed. They sounded inviting, like something worth pouncing on, like a delicious buffet.
She knew that she would feel much better after she ate. She was hungry and she was certain it would not be that hard to catch something. Once she was full, she could focus on a plan.
She salivated and could practically feel herself purring at the thought.
Theresa came to a dead halt.
She was not going to start eating rodents, no matter how hungry she got. She was not going to hunt vermin no matter how inviting the idea of ripping their juicy little bodies might become.
She was a human. She was only a human even if she was stuck looking like a cat. And humans did not eat rodents, especially not raw. It was disgusting. She should recoil at the thought.
Normally she would recoil.
Yet the sound of their scratching in the grasses was ever so mesmerizing. If she just...
No! She was going to think of a great plan. A wonderful plan that did not involve eating small creatures. She would create a simply marvelous plan that would find her sister and restore her body and deal with their aunt. It would be a fantastic plan. The world would marvel before her planning skills.
But it was so hard to think, to concentrate. She was just so hungry. If she just caught one little mouse or vole or bird or something of that nature she could really focus on what needed to be done. There would be no more distractions.
No, it wasn't the time for hunting and eating!
But...
No!
But she was so hungry! She moved towards the sound of a quick movement, silently, balancing carefully on her paws. She moved closer. Closer...
Theresa pounced and raked her claws through the grass.
Nothing. Theresa felt terribly disappointed. She had been so close and she had likely scared away any prey in the immediate area.
Well, no matter. She would move farther afield and find some more. Her sensitive ears still picked up many intriguing sounds in the trees around her.
Theresa started walking silently in the direction that seemed the most promising as far as tasty little creatures were concerned. There were inviting scents coming from all around. She felt quite content with the expectation that she would soon have her stomach full.
As she slunk through the undergrowth, she listened carefully. Finally she detected the sound of a different gait than her last prey. This one was almost certainly a rabbit.
Theresa moved stealthily closer. Once she was close enough she would catch it. She anticipated her pleasure at the prospect. Theresa loved rabbit, roasted over a fire or made into stew and it was almost in her claws.
Theresa moved closer still and she bunched her muscles, preparing to spring.
She would have smiled in anticipation if she still had her human mouth.
She tensed and waited for the right moment. She was ready. It had not even noticed that she was there.
The rabbit was chewing on something green and tender. She was so close she could smell the rabbit clearly. She could smell something else, too.
It was a familiar scent.
Daphne!
Theresa let out a small meow of surprise. It was not very loud, but it was loud enough. The rabbit dashed away, far out of her reach.
At that moment Theresa hardly cared, although her cat side was terribly disappointed and her stomach was still growling its impatience.
A good feeling of purpose welled up inside her. She had found a trace of her sister!