Tales from Dreamland

Various dreams I've had written like stories.


Scaredy Cat

Part I

Raindrops like the dew on roses pooled atop my umbrella, slipped onto my spider-webbed hands, chapped by the fierce April winds. Pushing the door to the pet shop open, I stumbled, a wet black bundle, into the animal warmth. Carved ebony masks from Africa, India, Thailand, adorned the walls with holy grimaces and silent chanting, and exotic creatures from across the world lined up in cages preening as they waited for some fool to take one of them home.

“How may I help you?” the petite clerk asked, pincurls bobbing as she smiled.

“I’d like to get a cat, if you have any.” I replied, brushing the moisture off my trench coat.

“We specialize in exotic pets,” the woman sighed, “but we do have a very special kind of feline here with us, if you’d like to take a look.”

I followed her to the back of the shop, where several silver cages sat apart from the rest, bars engraved with a strange cipher. Posters scrawled with sacred symbols hung on the oaken wall.

“This is a cat-baku,” the clerk beamed, gesturing proudly to a small black cat with a squashed-in face, like a Persian with a gargoyle nose. The thing was hideous, with crafty little green eyes darting everywhere and a tale pointed like a devil’s. But sometimes things are so ugly, they’re cute. This “cat-baku” was one of those things.

I had to have it. The fiendish little creature was adorable in its own way, and obviously very rare. What better kind of cat could I get? So I paid for the darling feline and loaded him up in my car. Driving home on the slick, wet roads, I felt a sense of satisfaction: I had a kitten at last.


Little did I know just how fiendish my new kitten would turn out to be. As soon as I let him out of his cage, he disappeared. Literally. His black fur faded into a soft grey smoke, and wafted slowly into complete invisibility. This was no ordinary cat.

Quickly, with the soft tread of a hiding gazelle, I padded up my living room stairs and sat down at my computer to investigate. I had no idea where the cat-baku might be. Invisible, he could be anywhere. So silently, like a thief, I snuck around the internet and looked for an explanation. An obscure blog gave me the answer I sought:

Name: Cat-Baku
Category: Demon
Appearance: Catlike, with a pointed tail, black fur, and a gargoyle-like nose.
Qualities: Can disappear and shapeshift at will. Brings bad luck to its owner. Dislikes silver.

A demon! I had just purchased a demon!



---------------------------To be Continued---------------------------------