25 - I command you!

Ana looked at him, frustrated that she had no answers and continued to drink the coffee that was in a dark red cup.

The sun invaded the apartment, leaving it completely lit. That morning was not hot, but the sun still seemed to be able to blind anyone who was not careful.

Ataz already had a full belly, so he decided to lie down on the couch to take a nap, while Ana fiddled with her cell phone.

After a few hours, Ataz was awakened by Ana talking on the phone, and realized that it was already getting late.

"Hi Thomas, what is it?" Ana said while she was holding one of those strange stone tablets that Hector had also been carrying everywhere.

This made the cat remember the family and wonder if it would be better for him to go back to that house. He didn't miss them, but it was safer to be in a city that was more quiet than this one that was extremely busy.Ataz felt it might be easier for whoever was looking for him to some day notice him in a city like this one.

"Is it today?..." Ana said while biting one of her nails and dropping the object on the table. "... Okay, I will," she added.

Ana hung up the phone and sat on the living room floor, laying her head and arm on the couch, looking at the cat. "Look, I'm going to need to leave today. You are going to stay here, okay?" she said as she slid her finger across the upholstery of the sofa. "Please, cat, don't hurt anyone, okay?"

Ataz stretched, shrugging off what she said, and went back to sleep.

Ana got up and walked towards one of the rooms. She made a lot of noise, as if she was looking for something in a mess, preventing the cat from continuing his sleep. Ataz just turned his head towards the noise, but he didn't waste his time going over there to find out what that noise was.

Ana left the room after a few minutes with a backpack and a book in her hand. The book had written on it: 'World of Magic - Book of Masters'.

"Oh, what is that?" Ataz thought, lifting his ears and following the cover of the book with his eyes.

The cat got up from the sofa and walked towards Ana, trying to get at the book. He jumped up on the table and started to fiddle with the cover of the book, trying to open it. Ana then looked at him, putting the book in her backpack. "I'm late, boy. You can have fun knocking things over to torture me later," she said, putting the backpack on her back.

Ana then walked towards the door and when she was leaving she exclaimed, "My God, I forgot the data, damn it!"

Quickly, she put the backpack on the floor and ran towards the other room. Ataz, without thinking too much, pulled one of the zippers with his fingernail and entered the backpack quietly.

Ana ran out of the room and took the backpack with one hand. However, not expecting the weight of the cat but a light backpack, her hand was pulled down to the floor. She then held the backpack in both hands and placed it on the table, opening it. "Get out, cat. You can't go!" she said, looking seriously at him.

Ataz jumped out of the backpack and lay on the table, turning his belly up, trying to convince the girl. "It's not very safe there for a demon cat, okay?" she said, adjusting her backpack. "God forbid they realize that you have some kind of superpower or whatever. Even those weird nerdy friends of Thomas's," she added as she held her hand back so as not to pet the cat's belly.

The cat then looked towards the door that was still open, and staring at it a moment, closed it tightly, then looked back towards Ana. She had the key in her hand, standing, staring at the door that had just been slammed quickly in front of her with force, as a sign of threat.

"I understand that you own this house. I understand that your body is more valuable than mine. But now that you know about me, I tell you the rules," he thought, looking deep into the girl's eyes, causing her a little discomfort.

"Okay... You can go, but you have to stop this business of threatening others," she said, moving her fingers over the key, worried.

She opened the backpack so that the cat could enter and he walked in quietly, snuggling among the objects thrown in the darkness.

Ana put the pack, cat and all, on her back and left the house. "Don't try to unzip it, cat. I'm trying to carry you on my back, so I'm not sure I'll be able to hold you if you don't keep quiet," she said coldly. Ataz didn't care much, but he wasn't able to move around a lot in the backpack because it was full, so since he couldn't leave, he started analyzing the things that were inside the backpack with him.

The book was close to him, but he couldn't open it because of its size, so he decided to just put it aside for now. Some dice were stored in a small bag. There were multiple different kinds and some contained more numbers than Ataz had ever seen.

Back during the cat's previous life, dice already existed because of bets on magic that were made, but a small object like this had ended up causing several wars between the kingdoms and this caused the object to be outlawed and, apparently, it had come back to life in this decade and was now much more complex.

Even though he didn't see what was happening, he could hear well enough and identify what Ana was doing. She had just climbed on top of the vehicle and left the place where she lived, heading towards the street.

Ataz felt the wind coming in through some small tears in the backpack. He squirmed, trying to get his body to reach some of the holes. He looked through the passage and tried to remember the way they were going. Luckily, he had a very good photographic memory, so if he saw the places, he would be able to go back to Ana's house alone.

He began to realize that according to the hour, people dressed differently. During the day, they wore light and cheerful clothes, in the afternoon, people wore pastel tones of brown, and at night, they were dark or strong colors, like a bright red or purple blue.

Some shops were already closing, as restaurants and bars started to open. As the lights in the sky went out, those in the city went on. Ataz was impressed with the organization and naturalness the heavens had granted to the people of this time.

In the past, they only differentiated between bedtime and waking time. There were some select spells that could only be done at certain times, but Ataz never imagined that people would now follow the orders of heaven so precisely.

After a few minutes having his face smashed in some corner of the backpack due to the motions of the bike, Ataz started to feel a strange sensation, as if he had been there before, but something bad had happened.

He shoved his face against one of the rips in the backpack, looking for what this foreboding sense could be trying to tell him, but he didn't see anything that caught his attention, just a town square that was totally dark at that moment. Even with the city surrounded with light that place seemed empty, lifeless. The cat did not pay much attention, this should not be what gave him that feeling, however, there was nothing else around that attracted his attention beyond the square.

He continued to stare at it, afraid of what he might find in the middle of that infinite darkness, but nothing appeared, not even an animal could be spotted nearby sleeping under one of the benches in the square. This left the cat with a little discomfort, but nothing that made him want to investigate more about the square.

And so, he remained puzzled over what he had sensed...

------- Read the author's notes here! nhaa :3 ↓↓↓

Hello,

If the novel reaches 1000 votes, I will post 3 extra chapters on Sunday

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