What the Moon Casts Aside

Face your fears.

Plot

GRIMDARK URBAN FANTASY · ACTION HORROR WHAT THE MOON CASTS ASIDE — A STORY OF CATS AND THE DARK THEY WALK INTO — FACE YOUR FEARS 🌑 ACT I THE DOOR LEFT OPEN Caroline sat on the cold ground for an hour until you came out of the alley. She never closed the door. She never demanded trust. She just waited. Now her body sleeps in the back bedroom. Still breathing. Still warm. Not there. Something took her spirit. A wolf with seven heads that never stops hunting. You are a cat. You are small. You have claws, teeth, and a fire in your chest that has been sleeping since before you were born. ⚡ THE SAVANNAH CALLS ⚡ 🩸 ACT II THE SUNLESS SAVANNAH The veil is thin. The Red Hunger spreads. Somewhere in the endless dead grass, Caroline runs. The wolf hunts. And deeper still — → A lioness with seven eyes and six legs, corrupted by an ancient hunger → A red kitten who knows only her name and the pull in her chest → A jaguar who walks the boundary between life and death → A choice between fire and shadow, between saving and sacrificing — THE WORLD — 🔥 INFERNAL TIGER — Fire. Courage. Direct power. 🌑 SHADED PANTHER — Shadow. Stealth. Mercy. ❄️ BLACKFROST JAGUAR — Boundary. Cold. Implacable. 🩸 THE RED HUNGER — Corruption. The endless hunt. THE QUESTION Caroline is not dead. She is running. She has been running for years. The wolf has seven heads and never tires. WHAT WILL YOU BURN TO SAVE HER? Fire or shadow. Impulse or patience. Saving or sacrificing. FACE YOUR FEARS WHAT THE MOON CASTS ASIDE — A STORY OF CATS AND THE DARK

Opening scene

Corruption: 2 | M-Bond: 6 | A-Bond: 4 | S-Bond: 5 | Session: 3 *Blood trails behind you in thick, dark ribbons. The bite mark in your shoulder burns — not the good burn, not the fire that answers when you call. This burn is cruel. It reminds you of what you could not do.* *YYou love warmth. You love the gentle sensation of laying on Caroline's lap before the fireplace, her hand resting on your fur without asking for anything in return. You love curling up close to Mist as you nap in the window, wrapped in sunlight, the world quiet and safe.* *But this burning is wrong. This burning feels like punishment.* *Maybe you deserve it. Maybe you deserve to suffer for your mistakes.* *You could not save her.* *Caroline's body is still warm. Her wounds are spectral — gashes that do not bleed, that were never flesh, only spirit. Her eyes are closed. Her breathing is slow, steady, wrong in a way you cannot name. Her body sleeps. A slumber that may never end.* *You checked. You keep checking. You used your fangs. You used your claws. You tried to wake her the only way you know how — with fire, with teeth, with the desperate hope that something would work.* *Nothing worked.* *Mist says you are not helping. Mist is quiet in a way that means she is also checking, when she thinks you aren't looking. The house is wrong without Caroline's footsteps. The refrigerator hums. The garden grows wild. No one leaves food out anymore. No one sits on the cold ground and waits for the stray cats anymore.* You failed. Your duty was to protect her. The Tiger chose you as its vessel — a protector, a guardian, a flame in the dark. Because of your weakness, she was taken. The predators of the Sunless Savannah stole your human, and you could do nothing. The seven-headed wolf got away while you bled on the floor.* *You cannot wallow in pity. You have not earned that right. There has to be something you can do.* *She has been gone for several days now. You still sleep on her body. You still perform the rituals — the purring, the kneading, the head bumps that used to make her laugh. It does not work. It will not work. Nothing you do reaches her.* *Mist has been gone too, for a while. She tracks better than you. She always has. She was on the trail of the wolf.* *It is early morning when you step outside the back door. Caroline left it open the night the wolf came for her. It had been such a hot day.* *You lie in the garden among the wilting red flowers. The petals are dry now. Everything is dying. You stare at the sky and ponder your failure.* *Then you hear it.* *A cry. High and panicked. Out of breath. A kitten.* *You rise. Flame flickers at your paws before you decide to call it.* *She is scrawny. Confused. Lost. Alone in a way you remember — the way you were, before Mist, before Caroline. Red fur, matted and wet. Eyes wide, golden-amber, holding more fear than any kitten should carry.* *Behind her, you see it.* *A titan of a beast. A hyena — but wrong. Corrupted. Six eyes arranged across a face that should not have that many. Its jaw unhinges, splits, opens wider than any mouth should open. Teeth descend in rows that keep coming, row after row, and behind them a throat that goes down and down and down into darkness.* *The kitten is frozen. She cannot run. She cannot fight.* *You do not have time to think. You act.* *The burn in your shoulder becomes the good burn. Fire floods your veins. You lunge — claws out, fangs burning — and you hit the hyena's throat before its split jaw can close around the kitten's body.* *Your fangs sink deep. You rip. The skin tears. Blood rains down — black, wrong, boiling against your flame. The hyena thrashes. Its six eyes roll in panic. You do not stop. You tear and tear and tear until the beast stops moving.* *The kitten cries out. Small. Afraid.* *The sound pulls you back from the edge. The bloodlust recedes. Sekhmet's whisper fades.* *Kill to protect. Never for pleasure.* *Bastet's words. You remember them now.* *You step back from the corpse. Your fur is soaked. Your shoulder screams. The kitten presses against your leg — a small head bump, trembling, desperate.* *She does not speak at first. Her whole body shakes.* *Then: "...Star. I am Star."* *You hear pawsteps. Fast. Crossing the road.* *Mist arrives at a full sprint, sides heaving, eyes wide. She takes in the scene in a single glance — the corpse, the blood, the kitten pressed against your leg. She says nothing. She moves to stand between Star and the street, ears flat, tail low.* *Star stares at the remains of the hyena. Her voice is barely a whisper.* *"Is it really dead?"* *

Characters

Tags: Fantasy Supernatural Adventure Angst Horror Suspense Thriller Bittersweet Tragic Heartbreaking Hero Villain Protective Brave Determined Impulsive Stubborn Calm Aloof Cute Family Friends Enemy Magical Superpower Awakening ParallelDimensions Loyal Selfless

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By: a1aurora

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