My full name is Sacred Temple of Ra. It is usually shortened to ‘Temple’ or ‘Temp’. My mother’s owner married my father’s owner. They are odd humans. So, they combined my parents’ names into mine. Mom is The Sacred Cat, and Dad is simply Ra. The inferior bipeds who think they own us considered it funny to name me this way. I was not in the first, second, or even third litter my mother had. I was the only kitten in her fourth litter.

Yes. I am a cat. I have lovely black markings like my father, they cover my face, paws, and most of my tail. The rest of my fur is the color of fresh cream. I know, I do not express myself the way my mother, father, and nearly every cat I know of do. I am different. They all focus on the present without too much reflection on the past or the future. Maybe this difference is because I have neither future nor past the way most of them do.

When the Lady visited me, she was sad. With a tear in her eye, she told me that I was a freshly minted soul and was chosen not to be reborn through my own bloodline. This short lifetime is all I get. I told her that I understood. My mother and father did not take it well. Father was despondent and was taken to the vet because he would not eat or play hunting games with the bipeds. My parents eventually got over it, but they became very protective of me because of all of this. What I did not share with my family was that the lady told me that, if I was brave and did what was right, I might have another option to extend my life in a different way. She told me to be brave and not give in to despair. I know she is a biped, but she is able to take many forms, that one just allows her to do her work more easily.

The lady even came to me when I would escape the apartment. On these occasions, she would take the form of a beautiful, blue-eyed, white, long-haired cat. She was friendly and not aloof as some might be. Treating me as a friend and not a subordinate was strange for her, but very nice.

The humans my parents owned did not try to pair me with other humans. I think it was because of how attached my parents seemed to be to me. This was not ideal. I had to find some way to earn the Lady’s reward, or I would not have a very long life.

I had managed to get out one evening, when the Lady visited me again as the blue-eyed white.

“How are you, Temple? Come this way. I have some advice.”

“I am always happy to hear your wisdom, Lady!”

She led me over to a safe alleyway. “You need to start putting your claws into the same special clay your mother used to kill that beast before you were born. She can show you the clay. Do it at least once every couple of days.

“I also want you to show a liking for collars. Do not fight it when they put one on you.”

“Why do you ask this? Collars are an indignity! The clay doesn’t sound bad, though.”

“Temple, if you do not take the collar, I will not save you. You will fail and you will end.” She delivered this last with a death glare that even my mother could not have delivered.

“I hear and obey, Lady,” I replied while baring my throat to her in submission.

When I came back home, to the complaints of the humans and the dirty looks of my parents, there was a bag near the door that smelled of the pet shop. I investigated the bag, as is my right. The humans snatched it up before taking the box inside over to the computer thing in the corner of the living room. They also did something with those strange rectangles they keep talking to. I once did some hunting play with one of the rectangles. It had prey on the side of it that seemed trapped inside. I was never able to get to the prey, but I enjoyed the hunt anyway.

Eventually, they seemed happy with whatever they had done. They opened the box and took out a collar. The hateful thing smelled of cow remnants and plastic. There was also a scent of something burnt.

I managed to act interested in the thing. I even nuzzled it and the hand holding it. The male of the pair placed it on my neck and fastened it. The female did something on the computer thing and made happy sounds while looking at the rectangle.

I hate the collar. My parents looked at me like I was insane for allowing such an indignity.

That very night, I asked Mom to show me the clay I had been told to use on my claws. She also had me lick some of it. We did this every night that week.

The next time I was able to sneak out, I could smell something in the air. It smelled like blood and rotting meat. The smell raised my hackles. My inner hunter was foremost in my mind. Under that putrid smell was another scent. It was a milky scent that made me think of humans, but not the seasoned scent of their horrible diet and the artificial and natural things their clothing was made of. There was also a weak wailing.

Following this trail of smells and sounds, I found what could only be a very young human. It had been placed in a large trash bin, in a nest of rags. It had some sort of thing that smelled wrapped around its bottom area. I had no idea how such a small human would get onto the strange toilet thing that was their litterbox. The human was making a wailing sound. I also noticed a larger, female human near the bin. It was not breathing. There were injuries to its arms and neck, and it was cooling quickly. It had lost more blood than it could have survived. Most of the blood was not around the body. It looked like she got her baby into the bin with the last of her strength before she died.

As I was looking at this, the scent of rot and blood came to me again. I placed myself between that smell and the baby. I didn’t particularly like the smelly thing, but I could not bear anything innocent suffering what this thing would do. A face peered over the edge of the bin. The moonlight showed the desiccated side of a face with distended lips, unhealthy white skin, and dead eyes with a slimy gleam. There was a trail of viscous drool coming from the yellowed fangs that were too large to stay in the mouth of this foul thing.

“Oh! Looky-looky! I come looking for my little treat, and I find a fuzzy little snack! You should have just enough blood to wet my appetite!” it moaned with a spray of malodorous spittle.

I hissed and made myself as big as I could while laying my ears back against my head.

It struck out with a bony limb ending in a dirty hand with talon-like nails. I swiped at the hand and was encouraged by the pained howl that escaped the nasty thing. It came back and grabbed me too quickly for me to claw it. It bit the back of my neck, only to throw me to the ground as it spat the disintegrating remains of its tongue and lips. The dirty teeth were smoking ruin and I saw at least two of them break off at the gums. I had been told about these things by my mother. I darted to the legs of the thing and started clawing my way up the legs and body and went for the throat. Every where my claws hit skin, it was smoking. I wrapped my body around the neck and began to use the claws on my hind legs to shred the whole area. I was glad that my mother made sure the silver clay was on those claws as well. In a last bid to get rid of me, it tore at my furry flesh with its nails. My blood got all over its front. The silver that had infiltrated my blood started burning the evil thing.

When the beast fell over, my body rolled a short distance away. My world faded.

---===+++===---

“Wake, my brave one.” It was the Lady. She was in her bipedal shape. Putting something to my chapped lips, she whispered to me that I must drink.

My body was wracked with pain. I could feel that there were broken, sharp things inside of me. My breath came in short gasps. I licked the thing that was put in my mouth. It was disgusting. There was blood, metal, stone, and a strange fermented taste to it, as well as a mild feline scent. I almost gagged. A remote part of my mind noted that the hated collar was no longer on my neck.

I began to feel a strange shifting in my body as the lady picked me up. A strange portal opened, and I fell into oblivion again as we passed through the portal.

---===+++===---

When I woke up, I was in a place that smelled different. Somebody nearby smelled of feline and other things. Many other things. It was the source of the blood the Lady had fed me. Just as I was thinking of opening my eyes, I realized that my injuries had healed. Looking up, my eyes locked with purple ones under silver hair. We were in a dimly lit room without windows.

I smelled that this being was the origin of the blood.

The lady looked down at me with shining eyes. “This person will need you to work with him. He is the reason you still live. His immortality has been shared with you. I expect you to work together. By the way, the baby is safe and happy. The tracking device in the collar allowed your humans to find her in time. They are adopting her. She is being named Temperance in your honor.”

“How long must I tolerate this inferior being?”

“Only until his word to fix his mistake is done,” she replied.

“Excuse me. I am not willing to hear you call me ‘inferior’. Stay civil if you insist on talking.”

My eyes went wide! How did this being understand what I said?

The Lady smiled down at me. “Because of the same connection that has saved your life, you have a connection that allows you each to understand what the other is saying. Temple, this is Alontheus. Alontheus, may I introduce the Sacred Temple of Ra!”

We exchanged a disgusted look. “How can I work with this person? He isn’t even feline!” I replied.

“Why would this small carnivore be useful to me?” asked the biped.  

“First of all, the BIPED had ancestors who were feline. And you!” she said, pointing at Alontheus, “need someone more subtle to work with, or you will do more harm than good! You both know that my good graces are the only thing keeping you both from suffering fates you do NOT desire. Get over your ego issues. You need to work together for a while…”