A story about @elsewhereuniversity ‘s campus cats.
Most at Elsewhere share whispers of The Gentry, The Fair Folk, The Season Courts, Them. The warnings flit by everyone who Knows, fill their ears and spill from their mouths as they try to clutch the ones they know close enough to their chest that they won’t even try to step into the woods. But, those far and few between, often art majors, on good terms with the crows and with collections of their trinkets and art, they know better. They, The Gentry, They are to be respected as much as the next. But it is important to look past the loudest and most obvious threat, to what lay behind and unnoticed.
The Cats, of course, tend to not be involved with students. Besides the far and few between, they tend to go completely unnoticed. You see, The Cats have long found a home in the woods, they slot perfectly into unfilled space and act not as rulers, but as watchers and guardians. If a student is lost in the woods, not yet claimed as prey by one of the Fair Folk, the cats claim them. They use the magic in their paws to weave and rearrange the woods so the lost may find their way home. The Cats ask nothing in return, indecisive at worst and helpful at best, but small things left in the woods often win you favor.
The cats and the crows find themselves closely woven, the crows never being taken by cats and in return, nothing belonging to the cats being stolen. It is a long held agreement, unshakeable. The cats are not like the fae, though. They do not make deals or bets. They figure you can understand what you owe if you do not see them, and if you do you are considered family. This story, though, is not only about the cats. No, it is about a student who went by the name Wire.
Wire was an arts major, one who frequently found themselves given gifts by the crows. Wire loved and treasured each gift, and showed them off proudly enough that the crows trilled excitedly each time Wire entered their sight. Wire, though, often found themselves lost in the woods.
The fair folk never saw them as a threat, never even thought of them. They belonged to the crows, too covered in gifts to mean anything but shunning from the crows if they were stolen. So Wire was allowed to trot happily through the woods.
A couple semesters passed, around a year and a half, and the crows began winning the favor of the cats for Wire. The crows thought that Wire was a mighty fine creature, one that took pride in the art they made. The Cats were reluctant, as it was their way to only take that which has been lost, and to remain on the undergrowth, unrecognized.
They gave in after two and a half years, growing fond enough of Wire who clumsily stumbled through their territory, and the next time Wire stepped 2 feet into the woods, the cats wove a path to themselves. All this time Wire has spent in the cats territory, filled with and breathing in the ancient magic of the cats, had given them some of the power that the cats held in their paws. Wire, when wandering toward the cats, was being filled with their magic at every inhale and exhale, it was being woven into Wires very bones while the Cats worked. And once Wire came upon the camp, they collapsed.
A cat, with a name to be used by the strange creature, took care of Wire for the two hours they slept. Three kittens stumbled into the cave nest upon Wire waking up, and gave them a new name. Now, Wire goes by Felid and nothing more, the cat by their side still loved by the wood only responding to Corvid. It is strange that no campus pets will ever step foot in the wood, and that even when given the opportunity to run they will not, even stranger that Corvid prances through campus like it is their kingdom, weaving into the the same trees that dorm pets whine in the face of, thought nothing of except in hindsight.
Felid and Corvid have made a home in the Lost and found, not to be confused with the lost and found run by Rosehip. The Lost and found is where the things that have been lost for so long they become forgotten go. At the end of each month, Felid and Corvid are seen prancing into the wood happily and bravely in a way no student has seen from someone who returns.
They strut into the wood without hesitation because they know, no matter how respected and feared and avoided the Gentry are, the Cats hold things that are older, the crows know things that no one should, and the Gentry respects the two because they understand that fear is one thing that lets you sink into existing under the notice of h th one not looking, but being Unthought Of and invisible under the feet of others? that is something to bow to, lest you be the pray of the wild and invisible and become Lost as well. No one is immune to being Lost, but the Cats are safe having never been Found before.
