A New Name

No one had expected things to end the way they had. The woman's shattered body at the bottom of the old stone bridge. Suicide, accident, or murder - there was every rumor you could imagine on the lips of those who'd known her, and known her husband. Her husband had been found dead too. His body fresh, but blackened and growing fungus, two miles down the road from town. A compelling mystery for certain. And what of their little boy? Such an unfortunate episode. The little boy left all alone, he'd be handed off to his aunt and uncle soon.

The little boy, Rudolph, he didn't care. Why would he care? He didn't care. All he'd had of his parents was locked doors and muffled yells, the shadow of their backs' silhouetted in the doorway. He didn't need them! He spent his days tromping through the woods and splashing through creeks, he slept and ate at William's house half the time anyway. Why did he have to go live with some stinky old aunt and uncle he'd never met? Why couldn't he just stay with William and his family? It wasn't fair. This was all so stupid.

But he'd been taken away anyway. Up to the mountains. Up to another house full of closed doors. Only in this one he was trapped. No talking, no running, no whining, no exploring, no fun, no NOTHING. And at night the dark unfeeling coldness of his room gnawed at him. There were monsters waiting to come out and eat him, he could FEEL them. Choking in the night gasping for air. He thought he could see mushrooms growing their way up from the corners of his room, his fingers and toes going numb. But in the morning to matter how much he searched, the room was as spotless as his aunt and uncle always demanded.

"Aunt and Uncle" They weren't his aunt and uncle! They were a hag of a witch and an ugly decrepit sorcerer! 'Sit up straight!' 'Don't chew so loud!' 'Mind your manners!' 'Don't touch anything!' On and on and on. Needling and hounding him. Trying to suffocate the life out of him all together, and turn him into a little empty robot of a boy.

The only solace Rudolph could find was when he managed to slip away and go running through the mountainside. Trees and hills and brooks. Bushes and waterfalls and breathtaking views. When he could get close to the squirrels, when he came face to face with a beaver, when he could sit and talk to a wild tabby cat, when he could laugh at the birds! It was the only respite he had. But that was when he could get away. When those two prison keepers didn't stop him and tell him it was 'too dangerous.'

Before long Rudolph knew he had to leave. This was a prison. These monsters were trying to kill him! To replace him with a little monster! He was sure of it! He'd grown desperate enough to do something when the witch who insisted on being called his aunt had locked him in his room. She said he'd misbehaved, shattered the fine porcelain right before important guests. But he knew she was just using that as an excuse. They were going to kill him and were inviting their monster friends over for a feast! He had to get out tonight. He had to get out or he'd die.

By the time his dismayed aunt and uncle found the broken open window Rudolph was long gone. He'd already made his way down the mountain. Scraped and cut and dirty through the thickets and over the streams. Night had already long fallen before they started looking for him. But he wasn't found. He curled up in a little duvet in the rock to sleep. To cry. Before resuming his journey when the sun and the birds woke his tired little body.

Then the orange cat came back. He'd seen it before, he was sure of it. A strange little cat, with a split tail. It stared up at him and flattened its ears, and then meowed at him. Rudolph blinked back, simply watching the cat. Then the cat turned and walked away, but it didn't go far before turning back and meowing at him again.

"O-oh okay, I'm coming, I'm coming!" Rudolph awkwardly hurried after the cat, his legs still sore from the hike and the deep grooves made by shattered glass. He followed the cat like this for some hours, before it finally disappeared. Leading him directly to a barrel of freshly picked fruit. Fresh fruit that Rudolph eagerly helped himself to. The sounds of conversation from the men returning to their harvest alerted Rudolph to their approach before they were alerted to his, and so he was able to hide.

He lived like this for several weeks. A small town, but bigger than the village he'd been raised in. Plenty of places to remain undetected. And to hide when people came looking for him - when the monsters came looking, especially. It hurt. Why did everything have to hurt. Why did everything have to hurt. It made him angry. Like inside he was boiling. Something had taken his parents away, someone had taken him away from his home, his friends. The Sanders, they were his real family. But they said they couldn't take him. Why couldn't they take him? Why did these monsters want him? Why did the dark make him feel numb? Mushrooms, the little black fungus kept following him. Then retreating when he tried to crush it, to see it. Why? Why? Why!??

He didn't care. He was alone. He'd keep those stupid monsters away from him. He wouldn't let them win. Rudolph thought bitterly as he wrapped his arms around himself. He was huddled in a stable, the cold rain whipping outside with the screaming winds. The stinky horse dung and the uninsulated wooden cover did little to shelter him or the horses from the water and wind ripping through them. There were monsters out tonight, but they weren't interested in him.

It was a few days later that Rudolph overheard the conversation. A knight had come to town, a bright and gallant woman. Perfectly annoying, and exactly the type to try and befriend you before betraying you and handing you off to the monsters. So Rudolph kept far out of sight of her. The story was a baby had been kidnapped, but she'd found it. Only the creature that'd taken it wouldn't give it back, unless she was given a new child in return. Rudolph listened further.

The creature was a yokai, a nekomata. Apparently they could turn into cats. And they could make human children one of them… Rudolph thought back to the cat that had helped him all those weeks before. Had that been a nekomata? It seemed to match the description he heard from the gossiping market goers. And anyone could become one… Could… could HE become a nekomata?

Rudolph found himself becoming obsessed. The knight and the parents thought and talked long and hard, and Rudolph became more resolved, more anxious, more ready. He crouched behind a tree in the late dusk light, his heart pounding out of his chest. Several yards away were the knight, and the nekomata. He'd hardly dared to look when the yokai had emerged from the forest, fearing to be seen, mostly by the knight.

When the yokai came, however, a supernatural quiet fell over the clearing. It was a woman. A tall woman with a dark complexion and darker greenish hair falling in unruly curls down to her knees. She wore a long flowing robe that seemed to disappear into the darkness around her. Her red eyes shone in the shadows and two tufted feline ears sprouted from her head, a matching split tail peeking from under her robes. In her clawed hands she delicately held a peaceful babe. It wasn't asleep but it made no noise, hardly fidgeting like a normal baby. It stared with wide but calm eyes at the knight. Fear gripped Rudolph's chest even harder, but he couldn't back down now.

"Please, consider the other options! This is far from the only way!" The knight pleaded passionately, placing a hand to her breast in a desperate motion.

"And I've told you already. Find me another child, and you can have this one back. But don't take too long, I'm growing impatient. And soon little Delphinium will be too much of a nekomata to give back." The intimidating figure purred.

"But can't you see! Her parents love her! She has a family and a name already! It's Mirabella, not Delphinium!" The knight pleaded. But the nekomata only ignored her, looking down at the baby in her arms and cooing at her as she poked the now babbling baby's stomach. The knight grunted in desperation.

"Take me!" Rudolph spoke. His legs seemed to propel him forward all on their own, the vibrations of his heart beat having taken over his entire body. The yokai and the knight turned to look at him in tandem, and Rudolph felt as though he would drop dead then and there. His entire body shook, but he tried to stand tall as he stuck out his chin. "I-I'll be your c-child. Take me."

The nekomata turned fully to face him. The long robe covered her feet and so she seemed to glide across the grass toward him, the darkness following her and snaking its way toward him. She came to a stop not far from him and looked down, carefully studying him. She didn't seem impressed. But then Rudolph felt something soft brush against his leg. He jumped and looked to see the tabby cat he'd met all those weeks before circling him. Its eyes were locked with the nekomata woman and they seemed to be communicating in some way. Then it stepped back into the shadows, leaving Rudolph alone.

The nekomata returned her full gaze to Rudolph's face, and her expression… softened. "Very well." She said, her eyes remaining in contact with his. Slowly Rudolph felt his fear ease away. His heart rate slowed and his muscles relaxed. The nekomata turned and walked back to the knight, depositing the baby into her arms. "You can have your baby." The knight was confused and unsure whether to settle on this, but Rudolph didn't stop to listen to her words. He didn't care. He had something else now. That's all that really mattered.

The nekomata glided across the grass soundlessly back toward him and all else seemed to fade out, like they'd been transported to another place. She reached her hand out to him and he took it, her deep maroon eyes smiling at him as she knelt in front of him. She took both of his hands on hers and he felt all his anger and fear and pain fade away in a moment. A cool and comfortable fuzz wrapping around his mind as he was engulfed in a peace along with strong arms that lifted him up and held him close.

"Come on, Delphinium. Let's go home." Her voice whispered comfortingly in his ear as warm tears peacefully soaked his cheeks. The warm and soft feeling of his mother lulling him to sleep.