Kameko

The clank of a pot hitting against the stove stirs me. As my consciousness comes back to me my senses come alive, the strong smell of smoke, the crackle of fire, heat residing off of me. Wait. Never before have I been able to sense or have any control of my body. What is that strange feeling as if someone is watching me?

I tense my muscles, opening my eyes, the effort was surprisingly little. I lay on a small cot at the corner of what seemed to be a little log cabin. There is a fireplace beside the head of the bed, flames crackling and popping as embers try to escape the metal screen of the fireplace. On the other side of the fireplace is what seemed to be a small kitchen, a sink, and a stove with a small pantry and cabinets above which stretched across the room to the wall. On the wall opposite of me, there is a small door with thick locks and latches on it with coat hangers hanging on the walls beside it. Having to strain my eyes to look down to the wall at the foot of the cot, I found another door and a small window.

Blinking, I look to the center of the room, a thick, red and brown carpet sits there, atop of it a small table. A woman sits there, although no woman like I've ever seen. She has large, cat ears with what seemed to be a tortoiseshell coloration, with a long, black tail with fur that feathered out on each side. No, not a woman, a cat woman. Her hair is goes down to her shoulders, fluffed out to the sides with bangs, it's mostly black, but with thick streaks of orange, and chocolate brown, her skin tone being a light peachy color. She is short but stout and curvy, although I wasn't able to tell very well as she is sitting. Her eyes are a bright copper that glowed with the blaze of the fire as she continues to stare at me. She is wearing a grey turtleneck with sweats and purple fluffy socks.

"You're finally awake." The cat woman says, standing up. I sit up one the bed, only to slump back to the position I'd been in, I'm not used to being able to control my body. I begin to stare at the cat woman as she walks up to my cot, her hips moving from side to side as she walked. "I was worried you'd die when I found you in the snow, not as much about the cold but you had several broken bones and many bruises and scratches. You've been asleep for the whole day."

I continue to just stare at her, not realizing I had to speak, for I never done so myself. I knew what words sound like and how they're supposed to sound, I just have never had to make them. As the cat woman sits down on my cot, she flicks her tail about, spreading it across the cot. She stares back at me in silence.

"Are you gonna say something?"

"Ooo.. ak.. er.. who, who ah...rrrr ya, you?" I say, struggling through trying to make my mouth make the vocalization. She stared at me for a while, slightly confused, until she answers.

"I'm Kameko, can.. can you understand what I'm saying?" I nod, trying to sit up once more.

"Who am I?" Komeko looked slightly surprised, then concerned. She opens her mouth to speak but I interrupt her by saying "What ish, is going own?"

"What do you mean? Er, I don't know who you are, I just found you in the forest." Her responses slightly disturb me for, I've never had anyone answer one of my own questions.

"You are.. familiar, but... your name is not." I say, remembering that cat that used to follow me around. "You, were a cat." Kameko now looks slightly startled, on top of already seeming quite confused.

"But I'm not a cat, I'm in the hybrid race, it's not like I can change forms or something." As Kameko speaks I lift up a hand, examining it. My nails look like claws, long and pointed in an inhumanly manner. Frowning I place my hands on my head, feeling the hair on my head, on one side it went down to the bottom of my head, the other was shaved. My hair is a reddish orange.

"Do you have a mier-er... mirror?" I ask Kameko, placing my hands down on my lap. She nods, standing up and turning away from me she floats down to a door. Opening the door she disappears through, soon coming back holding a handheld mirror.

"So, do you have no memories of who you where?" Kameko asks as she hands me the mirror and sits back down on the cot. Pushing off the blankets, I swing my feet around to the side of the bed, now sitting directly beside Kameko.Looking down at myself I seem to have a pretty stalky figure, but nothing like Kameko's, I seem to only be wearing a black crop top T-shirt and pink fleece pants that where too short for me, only coming up to my calf. "Oh, sorry about the outfit, nothing else fit you so that was the only option. You... were not wearing anything when I found you."

"I died to get here, that makes sense." I said, lifting the mirror up to examine my face. I have long canines with rich brown eyes, on my forehead there is a strange patch of white markings that is in the shape of an oval with a droplet in the middle.

"You died? To.. get here? What?" Kameko says curiously. I stand up, stretching out each leg with each step forward. I still seem to be the same height, strangely enough that never changed.

"I think I was in some kind of dream world, I've been in it for.. for as long as I can remember." I say, turning around to face Kameko as she begins to stand. "Then finally one day, I guess I drowned." I shrug, quite nonchalantly.

"What do you mean 'you guess'? How and why is that not a big deal to you? Didn't you struggle?" As Kameko stands in front of me, I realize how much taller I am than her, her head came up to my shoulders.

"Well I wasn't the one having the dream, I was just stuck in the mind of the person. No control or feeling over my own actions." We both fall silent, not really knowing what to say, until the pot on the stove begins to boil loudly, causing Kameko to hurry to the stove.

"So what was that like?" Kameko asks as I follow her into the kitchen section of the room. She turns off the stove then stirs at the pot's insides, steam resonating out of it.

"Could we talk about something else? I would really like to just move on from that. What is this place? Where are we?"

"Oh, sorry. Well, this is my cabin, it leads out to the woods. Through the woods there are several cities and such, but I don't really enjoy the hustle and bustle of city life. There is a small village in the woods, I'm on the outskirts of it, but I'm kinda shy so I'm not very good at being social." Kameko says, curling her tail around her legs.

"What is the date?" I ask, leaning against the wall next to the counters.

"2030, this is the country of Shtevia. This is one of the most populated countries but there are only three that allow humans, I'm guessing you are one." Kameko says as she stretches up to reach the cabinets above her. She could just barely reach the handle. Standing the rest of the way up, I walk over to her, Kameko steps back to let me through. Easily reaching the cabinet handles, I open them to find stacks of bowls. Pulling out two bowls, I turn around to face Kameko, then hand one to her.

"I will tell you more about this world once I get us dished up, you can go sit at the table while you wait."