[MAN’S BEST FRIEND] - Like any city’s streets, Soaring Heights is littered with a multitude of wanderers. This includes more than a handful of dogs, cats, pigeons, and even the rumored horse or two can be found in the most surprising of places. Most of them are friendly, probably, so how about you try your luck and make a new friend?
The sound started at such a low, intense frequency that he felt it first, deep in his chest, in his sinuses, at the very base of his spine where the primal instinct to recognize a warning resided – and for a moment, it pricked at the desire to return the warning in kind, at a magnitude far greater, and the threatening rumble started just beneath his skin before Kalpas quashed the temptation, and he simply threw a single sheer hiss back to the cat who was snarling at him from the high branches of the tree.
"You can't stay up there," he argued, reaching an arm up to wrap a large hand around the heft of the branch, to tug it just slightly down to bring the creature into reach – and like lightning, it swiped, a steak of claws against his gloves and another deep, vibrant growl.
Where another might have been tempted to release the branch, to withdraw from the beading of pain at the scratch, Kalpas kept his grip, and hissed once more in return to the flattening of its ears against its little head.
It wasn't even that big! It shouldn't be causing such a fucking fuss!!
"If you don't come down here, then I'm gonna have to come up there to you," he warned, and in return the cat fluffed its ruff to twice its normal size, and laid its flat gaze on him as though in challenge.
"HEY, SAKURA - !!" How she finds him, dear reader, is no longer with both feet planted onto terra firma, but clambering and tangled through the dense branches, almost spiderlike, reaching through each little hole only to be met with a swipe, a hiss, and a scoot from his little feline companion.
Why was he so determined, one might ask? If one knew him well, those who had met Reverie, one might understand that he bore the beast no ill-will, no matter its enmity towards him – indeed, sharp-eyed among passersby might notice the (torn) bag of cat food at the base of the tree, and a delicate dish filled with pilfered sparkling water from the Empyrean resort.
"YOU GO TO THE OTHER END, IT CAN'T ESCAPE - !!"
⁎ .｡❀ THIS SIDE OF PARADISE.
In truth, Sakura had caught sight of Kalpas while he was still fighting with the cat from the ground, watching bemusedly as he argued with the feline creature as though it could truly understand him, and even letting out an amused hum as she watched him clamber up the tree. She would have called out his name, but thinking against it, she took a big bite of the steamed bun she’d gotten on discount instead.
A hum. She took another bite of her cheaply priced steamed bun. Purposely taking her time, perhaps, quietly enjoying the sweet, savoury filling whilst watching the spectacle before her unfold. The sight of Kalpas—towering, loud Kalpas—arguing with a scrappy little thing high up in a tree was nothing short of amusing. A part of her even wished the others were here to witness it as well. Elysia, certainly, would have enjoyed the sight.
She continued chewing leisurely, tilting her head upon hearing the way he’d hissed back at the creature, his voice a hilariously deep mimicry of the feline’s own warning. The cat, for its part, seemed entirely unimpressed. Not even afraid of the threat before it, puffing up even further, even, as if to say, You dare challenge me!?
By the time Kalpas called out her name, half tangled in the branches like some overgrown, grumbling raccoon, she had already finished her bun and dusted the crumbs from her fingers.
“Kalpas,” she called up to him in turn, voice still laced with amusement, “most people just shake the tree or wait for the cat to come down on their own. They’re nimble little creatures, I am sure it’ll be alright even without your help.”
The cat, now thoroughly displeased with the sudden audience, let out another guttural growl. Perhaps not this cat, then. It reminds her of her friend now. So feisty and just about ready to bite, if given the chance. Breathing a laugh through her nose, she walked closer to the tree, eyeing the treat and water resting against it.
“I’ll stay on the ground, ready to catch it in case it jumps down.” With a clear of her throat, she does her best not to appear so thoroughly amused, “I am confident you can handle the rest on your own.”
The cat’s ears twitched, its golden eyes darting between its two would-be captors. With a yowl, the creature launched itself not at Kalpas, but past him, landing nimbly on a lower branch. “It seems to be outdoing you, Kalpas.”
