ZiaJang's One Shots & Short Stories

My Pet Cat, I mean Dragon

Title: MY PET CAT, I MEAN, DRAGON

Genre: Fantasy

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Bambi

Get a pet, they say... It will be fun, they say.

Well I have been living on my own since I entered high school and I was totally fine. Now at twenty years old, about to enroll on my third year at the university, I have grown to love my independence.

It was not a choice really. My family hates me. They say I’m lazy and a total mess. My parents and my older brother kicked me out of the house. So here, I am. Being away from my family (they live literally in another state), I had to learn to survive alone. I made friends here where I live. They, Ron and Krissy, are the ones who convinced me to get a pet. Why? They told me living by myself must be lonely. They also said so getting a pet would make me learn how to be responsible over someone else’s life and wellbeing. As if taking care of myself wasn’t hard enough.

So, I got a cat.

Blaze was a tiny kitten when I accidentally found him on the street. He was a little wet most likely from the previous onslaught of weather change. It was supposed to be hot and dry but it rained suddenly.

It was about to rain again. I thought of ignoring the tiny thing but my friends’ words began to echo in my head like a broken and unpleasantly annoying record. It was right at that moment when I badly wanted to avoid my conscience and run back to my apartment. Nope, it didn’t happen.

That white angel on my left shoulder tricked me to take the little orange bastard back to my studio apartment of a little over four years. At first, I stood there by my doorway with the half-conscious kitten in my hand. So what I do, I asked myself.

After a wasteful minute or two, I dropped my backpack and I walked through the scattered stuff in my studio. I made my way to my cream-colored sofa bed toward the balcony. It was a little old given that I got it a secondhand store. My parents refused to give me more than what I pay for my apartment and my tuition fees so for all other things I need, I had to get it with the money I myself earned.

I laid the kitten down on the sofa and tried to dry off his orange and white fur with one of my used shirt. Poor thing was actually shivering; it snuggled onto my shirt and stayed there for a few minutes.

In the beginning, I was really lost on how to take care of the kitten. I saw on TV that cats like milk and tuna so I started getting those. Blaze had to eat with my left overs that night – store-bought roasted chicken. After a while, I noticed, he was not picky. I would eat something and I would feel someone's hard stare on me. That was him, looking at me as if to hypnotize me to give him what I was shoving down my throat.

Well, that worked fine. Awesome actually because I did not have to worry what to feed him.

The next problem was potty training. That was a complete puzzle to me. It didn't occur to me that I needed to train him to do his ‘businesses’ in the right places. Then again, I never saw any ‘accident’. Until my friends came over and immediately began to investigate my room.

Apparently, I needed a cat box, whatever the hell that was. Except for my own pile of mess in the room, nothing else was odd. There was no evidence that he popped or peed anywhere. Until I woke up way to early one morning and found Blaze gone.

I was not exactly in panic to see him gone. Granted we have been living together for a good couple of months. He forced his way into my routine which composed of me doing the same things only with another pair of eyes lurking around supervising what I do. It made me conscious a little that I made a little progress in my messy way of life.

He also doubled my food expense. That led me to take a couple more hours at my part time job. I thought I would have less time to study (I am not lazy about that). To my surprise, I was able to get my homework and papers done knowing I had to finish them at a certain time because ‘something’ was waiting for me at home.

Back to the morning I didn't see the orange fluffball in my apartment, I bolted out of bed and frantically took the covers off thinking he might have crawled under the sheets. He would normally sleep by my feet which was very nice because he was warm. My feet are always cold no matter the season.

Anyway, I felt my chest hammer when I didn't find him. My room was not that big and I kept looking, twice as much. It was the first time in my life I cursed that I was a messy girl. I live on the third floor of the building and my door was locked. Then I turned to my balcony.

I was getting hyperventilated thinking he went there and because of the wind blowing that way, he got scared. Boy did I get an even bigger heart attack. He wasn't there! My feet brought me to the rails. My head was still stuck on looking for Blaze that my eyes immediately roamed the gardens down below. What if he fell, I asked myself.

My eyeballs almost fell out of their sockets when I saw my cat squatting near a lonely rock among the sea of white roses. I didn't remember the rock being so dark as if it was burned or something. Then I learned how it became that way.

I watched my orange tabby step away from his poop and turned to look at it. He was going to bury it with dirt, that's what I thought, but no. Little balls of red and orange flame burned that s**t out. Excuse my language.

Holy Molly!

My cat was a dragon!

I didn't know what happened after that. I fell unconscious.

When I came to it, soft paws were kneading on my right arm sprawled next to me. I squinted as brightness hit me soon as I opened my eyes. The sun was already high up and that's when I realized it was almost noon. I didn't feel the heat as cool air was brought by something fanning me.

I was about to get my bum up and collect my lost self when the memory of hours prior hit me. It dawned on me why I fainted as I turned to look at the owner of the paws affectionately kneading on my arm. That’s when I knew why I was feeling that coolness.

My cat has wings!

"B-Blaze..." I stuttered as I sat up and scoot back from him. His yellow green eyes dilated with fear as mine scrambled to understand what I was seeing.

My cat was flapping his beautiful red and orange wings as he stood in front of me. His wings were was long as his body and tail combined. I also noticed how some spots on his wings would shine as the sun hits them.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm not scare or whatever," I mumbled clumsily. "I mean, y-you're not a cat. You're a cat dragon right?" I asked as if getting a response from him was going to happen. Until it did.

He tilted his head and began to walk in a small circle before he sat down with his wings tucked in his back. Was he showing off his looks for me?

"You breathed fire earlier," I added as I attempted to pet his head. When I smiled, Blaze let me land a palm and a soft caress on his fur. "That shocked me you know. I mean could this be just a dream—"

I felt him move backwards as if to tell me what I just said either insulted him or it was not true. Blaze gave me a short stare before he pointed his head towards the railings. He stood with his back facing me and then there he was, breathing another ball of flame and blackening my white painted railings.

I chuckled a little nervously. Blaze was showing me what he really was. I was a little scared, of course. I own a cat that blows fire out of its mouth.

Little by little, I learned to adjust to the new change in our situation. It was a big change but for someone who lives in her bubble of fantasies and alternate world, it was not so difficult to manage my new life. I wasn't a tattle tale type of person so keeping Blaze's true nature to myself wasn't hard to do. When my friends come over, my cat would act like a normal cat. I know because Krissy would always say, "He's the cutest and the best mannered cat in the word! He just lays there and sleeps all day!"

Blaze does sleep a lot during the day. In the evening, when I come home, is when he would be truly alert. He would be watching me prepare my meals and he would be eagerly waiting for half the portion of everything.

Dinners became fun and so was studying at home and watching TV.

Blaze would be quiet when I'm reading a book or doing a research on my laptop for a homework or paper. He would snuggle on my lap or distract me (by kneading on my skin) enough to get my eyes from the screen every twenty minutes. Sometimes he would burn my scrunched scratched paper I threw in the air. It would leave ashes here and there but as long as he didn’t burn anything else, it was good to me.

When we watch a movie, he would make little noises as a reaction and it was always fun to talk about what I thought was going to happen on the next scenes. He seemed to like that I spoil the movie which my friends hate so much when I do.

I guess my friends were right about the positive side of getting a pet. Mine was just more awesome because now he's a fire breathing cat that will most likely defend me from an enemy. Or at least that's what I had imagined when a stranger came to my house looking for an orange tabby.

"I'm Kai. I'm just going around the neighborhood and see if anyone has seen my kitten."

The second I saw the flyer he was holding with a photo of a kitten exactly how Blaze looked like, I shut the door immediately. No way he was taking my cat!

I looked down and saw Blaze in front of me staring at the closed door. I might have been wrong but I saw his eyes turned sad as he walked towards it and placed a paw against the wood. He rubbed his cheek against the door and stayed there as we both listened to the voice of the man outside.

‘No no no. He can't be your owner. We're friends!’

"I'm sorry, Blaze,” the man outside say. “I know that's you. Please forgive me..." I kept quiet while in panic. How did he know there was a cat behind the door?! What if he really is my cat's owner?!

I got even more scared with what he said before I heard his footsteps leave. "I'll come back, Vulcan. I'll come back."

Now what? Do I need to move to another state?!

The end.