As the steam from the espresso machine let out a gentle whistle, Melvin whistled with it in unison. It always made that noise when it needed a little bit of cleaning. The gray tabby was digging through his coffee cart for cotton swabs when he heard a clamor from around the corner. 

He stopped what he was doing, and pushed his sweater up to his chin. Years of living near the outskirts of Avurn taught him that it was time to make himself scarce, but the whistle of the espresso machine was an obvious trail. He could not possibly hide.

Bravely, he peeped his head above the metal frame of the tiny hand cart and could see a small light flicker through the hallway adjoining the large auditorium he held shop in. Light footsteps were coming closer, the occasional tack as something hard was scraping along the walls.

Melvin had set up shop in an old shopping center that was close to death. Although it was only a ghost of it’s old self, he had a strong attachment to it. As a child he went here often, he even took violin lessons here in an old studio that now stood abandoned.

Today he was the only shop remaining there in the abandoned mall, and he now acknowledged this was a stupid choice...

...especially with the rumors flying around about what was crawling within the walls.

At first he was overjoyed to see a cat’s frame step out of the hallway, and then he was immediately filled with horror when he saw who it was.

“Ahzila Vlumane! H-how? Wh-what can I do for you?” He stuttered, quickly grasping at a cardboard cup to pour her a free drink. The machine whistled in protest but he wasn’t in any mood to be on the wrong end of Sempiternity.

“Can’t imagine you get many customers this deep in the outskirts.” Ahzila mused in a low tone, her purple knife hovering around her head, both as a light source and as a reminder that he could not run, if he were still considering it.

Melvin’s knees shuddered.

“Not anymore, no. Lights went out last week.” Melvin said. Ahzila shot him a wary glance, clearly uncomfortable with that newfound knowledge. “Only just flickered for a few minutes but...not too many vendors came back after that scare.”

She looked around the dilapidated center, sniffing deeply as if she were following a trail. Her whiskers twitched when some clumps of dust fell from the ceiling.

“Would you like some coffee? Jerky? The Pape-”

Ahzila violently buried the knife into the table of the coffee cart.

“-Paper.” Melvin finished, forgetting how to breathe.

“I’m looking for a girl named Misty, an Earth cat on all fours, so she’s easy to spot.” Ahzila said, leaning down into his face, her brilliant eyes dilated large as saucers.

“Earth? Miranda’s abducting even more childre-”

“Long brown fur, missing one ear, green eyes. Sometimes red.”

“Red?” He hesitated. “What do you mean by ‘sometime-’”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to!” Ahzila hissed, picking the coffee cup out of his hand and tossing it directly on the ground so it splattered across the old pink tile floor.

“Have you seen her?” She asked, leaning on the hilt of her blade.

“No!” He said impulsively, “No I haven’t! No kids out here. Never seen a kid in my life-”

The knife darted towards his throat with a quick spatter of spellwork. Ahzila moved so quickly, he barely saw her lips move. It felt warm against his throat, although it was inches away.

It itched. It would probably continue to itch for days.

“Are you feeling like a hero? Feeling brave, are we?” She asked him, her blue eyes were vivid, like the hottest point of a candle’s flame.

“Ahzila!” Melvin insisted, “If it’s just a little girl, she’s gone! People disappear all the time! Out here the walls will eat you alive!”

“Walls!? No one is eating anyone. It’s just potion cats you’re afraid of, we’re in gang territory.” She said with a sniff. Ahzila picked away the dust tickling her whiskers, keeping her right hand steady to control Sempiternity. He did not love that the slightest tilt of that right hand dug the knife closer and closer to his neck.

“Last I checked, they aren’t cannibals. Yet.” She assured him.

“I’m not saying it isn’t gang territory. I’m just saying, it was a potion cat who told me that himself.” He insisted, unsure of what to do with his hands. They went back and forth form his pockets to the pits of his arms.

The knife lowered with Ahzila’s hand. She picked it out of the air with the other and polished it with a rag from her pocket.

“Ah.” She mused. “So is that your customer base? I guess you’re in a prime location, then!”

“Please! Please don’t tell Miranda Hanshicock, I can-”

“What way did she go? She’s got like three scent trails, she’s clearly trying to lose me.” Ahzila hissed.

Melvin hesitated. The Kingdom desperately needed less children under the care and supervision of the gentry. But, he wasn’t about to venture further into the Skirts to save her himself. 

He had made enough poor choices today, so he decided to make one more.

“She went that way.” Melvin pointed off to one of the halls behind him. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you, just like I warned her before she went that way as well.”

(an excerpt from the comic version where Ahzila was in a better mood when she talked to Melvin)

Ahzila grabbed a cardboard cup and poured herself a coffee from the machine. Under her control the machine seemed to understand it’s master and the whistling stopped. “Continue.” She suggested.

“The only reason I’m telling you, the only reason...is because whatever you and Miranda have planned can’t be worse than the stories I’ve heard about the Skirts. Last customer said his entire crew was just replaced with scrawling, words.”

“...Words…” Ahzila hid her visible stress behind a long sip of coffee.

“I haven’t any idea what that means, and I haven’t seen him since, but he said it was lizards.”

“Potion cat superstitions!” Ahzila huffed. “I’m 17^th in this Kingdom, and whatever devoured some two-bit criminals will die.” She flung out Sempiternity, towards the ceiling and back, it coasted along the air as deftly as a bird.

“And as for your ‘coffee’ shop…” She mused, letting it trail a bit, “I’ll let it live another day. Consider it compensation for your compliance.”

Melvins heart sunk back into his chest. It had been floating in his throat since her arrival.

“Thank you, Ms. Vlumane!” he said quickly, bowing so he wouldn’t have to see her expression.

“And don’t let me catch you again.” She hissed as she walked down the narrow hallway that exited the mall’s center.

He looked back at his cart and traced the deep gash into his shop’s counter.

“Mrrow fft, it’s only Tuesday.” He said. The machine whistled in agreement.

***

Ahzila followed the trail of Misty’s fur. From the path she left, the girl seemed to frantically jump from obstacle to obstacle, staying concealed and close to the wall. It was the movement of a beast that was used to stalking prey, and while Ahzila had searched for people before under Miranda’s orders, none of those people were quite as wiley.

None of them had ever gone this far from the Center, that was for certain, this area had been condemned for ages.

“Damn stray, ruining my life.” Ahzila sighed, feeling a little bit guilty as she said it. She knew that Misty was probably a lot more terrified than she was. Hell knew if the child was even still alive.

Ahzila caught herself with a huff. Was she becoming strangely attached to the girl? Perhaps a consequence of having to adopt her on paper?

She decided not to think about it.

The hallway opened to another old shopping center. Windows and decorated doors lined the walls, some still even had old merchandise stocked inside and signs of sales and discounts clinging to their posts. The paint here was peeling and faded, but it looked like it once had childlike primary colors striped to the ceiling like a skating rink.

A shuffle rattled behind her.

“Misty!?” She squinted at the far side of the auditorium, sensing movement but seeing nothing, even with feline eyes. “Lights out here are so dim, even with Sempiternity...Ahneromenia Avu!”

At her spell a glowing ball of light appeared next to her, casting it’s radiance like a little star. She saw her breath leave a trail of fog in the air. It was deathly cold out here.

The light reflected off pieces of falling dust in the air and shiny debris on the floor. Each illuminated glint gave Ahzila a little scare, as if they were the reflection of eyes and faces.

“Damn Outskirts.” She sighed. “Elemen slowly rotting, shutting himself down, the walls crumbling into nothing...I used to...I used to shop here.”

She remembered her mother’s hands holding hers as they walked by the little fountain that sat next to some benches. It would always smell like chlorine, and there were colorful potted bromelaids that lined the seats.

Now the fountain was dry. The remains of the plants were worn out husks draping along the ground.

“Damn it.” Ahzila whispered again. “I had memories here. Like a dream that someone else used to have.”

She closed her eyes, seeing it as it used to be, a room full of color, of lights, of air, of warmth. A room full of people dressed like her. The smell of fried food and drinks. The chopping of fish and steaks mingling with the tinkering of silverware. The children on the tiny playground she used to call friends.

Ahzila opened her eyes and instead of that tiny playground she saw mounds of soot and rust.

“We’ll lose this wing by the end of the month.” Ahzila realized. “Damn it.”

Following Misty’s smell, she came to the opposite end of the auditorium, where a warning sign was posted not to go further. The exact kind of sign that Misty could not read at all.

Behind it was completely dark, the lights had gone out, and likely so had the heat and water. After a deep breath, Ahzila hopped the little caution tape in front of the sign and began to walk into the unknown.

“Mrrow fft! I can barely smell her anymore. Did I take the wrong turn or did she trick me and that stupid coffee vendor?”

A force hit the back of her neck, sending her forward into the rocky ground. Under her weight, the tile chipped, and Ahzila was grateful for the leather coat that took the beating instead of her robes.

Hastily, she turned, Sempiternity and the orb of light dancing around the hall. But nothing was around her, or at least nothing she could see.

“Show yourself!” she hissed. 

Sensing something above her, Ahzila instinctively hailed Sempiternity into the ceiling. She felt resistance in her hands, when it hit something soft; a spray of dark blood covered the wall and her face.

It tasted like a nosebleed, hot and slimy.

A cry erupted down the hall, but it was a strange cry for a potion cat to have. Unlike the voice of a cat, it reverberated with clicks and deep tremors. Ahzila felt the roar rush through her, like an ocean wave.

This potion cat was something else.

(fun fact this story used to be called "Avu" so I'll throw in old covers sometimes. like this one which has some fun colors.)