Spirit World

Free as Cat

"I can't believe I'll be working on someone opposite of me. The sovereign's really playing with me," Free said to himself, a frown obvious on his face, his voice in a scoff. He was looking around while walking though he couldn't feel the coldness of the floor in Cobb's house, and the roughness of the ground when he reached the outside. "What is that old spirit trying to do with me?"

He had been keeping all his frustrations inside him. He was near on answering back the girl with all of her harsh replies and insults on him, if he was not good at controlling himself and talking himself to calm down internally then he might have taken this girl as well to those men and let them capture her along with her mother. But, as always, and as what was always told by the Sovereign of the Spirit, one thing that they should build with their long-term human assignment was to have a good connection with them. Through that, he believed, everything would fall into their places and they would be able to do their mission right and successfully.

Free swore that he was doing everything to make himself as calm as he could. He was only keeping his smile to mask everything. In that sense, about the emotions and the feelings that spirits had, if the spirit held the humans they were assigned to, the emotions they had would be shared with them, like adopting magic that would travel from one to another, the spirit would eventually feel and be aware of their emotions as well.

When Callie just passed out yesterday night when he showed himself most unforgettably and his usual manner of showing, he had to carry her to her room instead of letting her freeze on the cold floor, and so the reason why he had to hold her. The time he did, he felt electricity going through his body, the sensation was new but familiar. It had been so long since the last time that he touched a human and let himself feel everything again like half human and half spirit. He never let the other humans touch him even if they tried, he would only use his power to be like a cloud, so by that, they would not be able to hold him. Their hands would just go through him, that was how spirits were known, after all.

With all these feelings back, and the sensations that he was like a beginner again. It was off-putting how after a long time, instead of happiness that he would feel like the welcome feeling he would feel, the irritation had overtaken it. He couldn't believe he would feel irritation again after a long time, it felt so... human. He hated it. He hated everything about being a human, that was why he wanted to stay being a spirit as much as he could. Thus, the deal that he made with the sovereign, the permanent stay in the Spirit World without being transmigrating to the world again. Something about being in the physical world had made him somewhat an unsettling feeling.

"Meow..."

The noise of the cat broke him from his thoughts and made him aware of where he was already. He was already three blocks away from Callie's house, and there were a lot of spirits lurking around as well, trying to see which body they could take. They couldn't stay longer in the human world, there would be a direct effect on the spirits if they would stay exposed to the human world for longer than a day. Their 'spiritness' would be lessened, and their power to teleport or know things that normal humans' minds couldn't grasp. So, as an alternative, since they couldn't go back to the Spirit World whenever they want as long as their missions were not done, they would have to be on the body of any creature they would find solace and be their temporary shield from the mortality of the Human World. 

"Oh, hi there," he called with a grin as he landed on his foot and crouched in front of the cute black and brown polydactyl cat. They were beside a trash can, and it was obvious from this cat that it had no owner as it only eat the spoilt food in the garbage, and no spirit had taken its body. It was so cute, its hair was slightly entangled, but it was nothing a proper bath couldn't fix. Its eyes were very innocent, at the same time, fierce as well. Though it contradicted his free spirit aura, it would still be the best fit for him. "You are so cute but I--"

Before he could even continue what he was saying and even tell the cat's spirit to get out of the body and ascend up to the Spirit World, the cat ran off. It seemed like the spirit of the cat already knew why he was there and so it was escaping. However, poor little cat... It couldn't do anything if he wanted its body. A cat was nothing against the spirit, if it would be the cat's spirit against him, then it would stand a chance, but since the cat had its physical body, then it was just an easy task to him. 

The cat ran everywhere, hiding through every corner, fitting into small entrances, but Free was effortlessly passing through everything. So not only after five minutes, he was able to grasp the cat's tail, and as soon as he did, the transition was immediate. He felt himself warped and the next thing he knew, he was already inside the cat's body, and the cat's spirit was already outside the body and just looking at him as if it was telling how mad it was for stealing its body, but then after that, it also ran to away from where he was and left him alone since it had nothing else to do with him anymore.

He grinned to himself again, at least he would be able to restore his lost strength from staying too much outside. He really hated the Human World for a lot of reasons, and one of those was because it was absorbing his power, it was one of those that was very shallow. Anyway, since he had already gotten his body to stay in for the rest of the mission, he wanted to take a nap first. Callie would be busy with the book, anyway, so it was better if he would let him.

He climbed on the pile of things around until it led him to the roof where he settled at the side and coiled, yawning and then finally closing his eyes. 

It was already night when he opened his eyes, and to say that he jumped on his feet was an understatement when he felt how shocked he was that it was already dark. He immediately climbed down the roof and ran to Callie's house. She might think he had already run off from her, or she might be angry now because he just suddenly vanished when he said he would come back quickly.

When he reached her house, he saw the lights are still on, and the girl seemed to be in the kitchen and eating her usual meal since her mother was gone. He ran toward the door, expecting that he would get through, but he forgot that he was already in a body of a cat, so his head only hit the door which only caused it to be like a knock. Well, that hurts. He could feel what the cat was feeling since he was in its body.

The door opened, revealing Callie who had a very dark aura and dim face as she looked down on him. He could imagine her eyes in red because of how angry she was, or maybe it was because of reading everything in the book? He didn't know, she was too scared to look at right now. It was like anytime she would kick him, but he was in a form of a cat. It wasn't possible for her to kick an innocent cat, right? She was certainly heartless if she did.

"Really? Of all the body you could have gotten, you'd decided to live in an... ungroomed cat?" Callie said after a while of staring at him with obviously full of disgust. "You could have stolen a body with a human, or at least a homebody pet? There's no way I would let those dirty paws in my house."

Well, of course, this woman would not be that heartless. But, no one would be spared from his straightforward and almost painful remark, not even a cute cat in front of her. 

"First of all, human, we are not allowed to take your body, nor anyone else, that's against our rule. Secondly, I don't have much time to look for a 'groomed' pet, so forgive me. It isn't like you're going to take care of me. Thirdly, would you really let a cat be outside the whole time?" He asked and looked up at the girl with his eyes forming like a pleading look, but in a cat way, if there's a thing like that. He tried, though.

They had a staring contest for a moment. He could see how Callie twisted her face in annoyance because of possibly annoyance with whatever he was trying to do. Nevertheless, Free grinned when he saw Callie sigh in defeat and opened the door slightly opened and let him in despite the cat's dirty paw and smell.

"You better make sure that cat would take a bath and clean its dirty paws. I never wanted pets in our house because of how messy they were," she said and closed the door behind her back and perched on there. 

He looked at her and grinned. He knew it was weird for a cat to grin, but he did, and it didn't get out of his sight when Callie's lips turned up for a moment before it went blank again. "Well, it didn't think we're going to stay here for long, though. We have to find your mother."

She nodded. "You have a point, but make sure you wouldn't leave a single fur or else my mom will kill me once she comes back. I hope she comes back."

Free saw how her blank eyes turned sad for a moment again. He realized that he might be blank and serious most of the time but she was someone who was loving to his mother as well. From what he could remember, she had mentioned that her mother was the most important person to her, so it might be hard to be away from her and without the assurance that she would return as she was just taken.

But she had asked for the spirit's guidance, his help specifically, she should never worry because he would surely do everything to achieve this mission. For his deal.

He scoffed. "What are you worrying about? If she won't come back, then we'll force her to. You just have to trust me."