Jon's right kitty ear twitched. That was an amazing thing, and he took a moment to think about that. But it had twitched because he had heard a sound.
"...elp..." he heard weakly. "...elllp..."
He followed the sound as it got a little louder. And there before him was a boy with his foot caught in a nasty trap with spikes and serrations. The boy was probably about 8 years old. His eyes were wide as he trembled in fear as Jon approached.
"Hold still," Jon instructed, as the boy whimpered "don't eat me" at the same time. Jon sighed. "I didn't set this trap, if that's what you're thinking."
"I know," the boy said. "It's one of my father's bear traps." The boy was too tired and bleeding to do anything.
"This is going to hurt," Jon said.
"Just please, make it fast," the boy begged.
"I'm planning on it. When I pull open the trap, you pull your leg out quickly, even though it will hurt."
"You're going, to help me?"
"What did you think I was doing?!" Jon asked, annoyed the boy would think anything else.
The boy looked down and said "sorry," too embarrassed to admit he still was thinking the cat-man was actually going to eat him.
"All right, I'm going to do it now, be ready to pull your leg out!" Jon pried open the trap, and the boy started crying but even so, a moment later lifted his right leg into the air and scooted away, falling on his backside but still suspending his leg in the air. It was oozing blood, and had deep punctures. Unless he got help from a mage healer or got some of that new medicine that had been introduced by the king's wizard alchemist, antibiotics Jon thought it had been called, he was going to need to get his leg amputated or else he would not live long.
That was when the boy did something that truly surprised Jon. He laid his hands upon his leg, and a blue halo of Saint Elmo's Fire lit up the space around his arms and leg. Jon jumped back. A rushing sound of white noise filled the air as tiny electrical discharges skittered around. After about 20 seconds the boy slumped back and lay flat on his back on the forest floor, apparently exhausted, and his leg was apparently healed.
"Healing magic!" Jon said. "You're a sorcerer's apprentice?"
The boy nodded.
Jon thought back to what he had said earlier. "Why, would a sorcerer be trapping bears?"
"The life force," the boy said back.
"Oh," Jon said anxiously. "One of those sorcerers. I shouldn't be surprised, after the healing magic."
The practitioners of life magic, such as Athena, were the most dangerous and feared of all, after all. Little was known about them, other than that they were a vampiric sort of monster, sucking the life out of living things to power their arcane magics. What were the odds of a second one living in secret within miles! However, it also meant, maybe Jon had an alternative method of getting back to normal.
"I don't suppose, you could change me back to normal?" Jon asked.
"Normal?" the boy asked.
"The witch Athena turned me into a cat-man, as you can see."
"Ohhh...." the boy said in understanding. "I, don't think so."
"How about your father. Do you think he could do it?"
"No, I don't think so, the magic of one life mage can't be undone by another."
"Ugh. I guess it's plan B again."
"What's plan B?" the boy asked.
"Try to get, a certain amulet, before Athena gets it. Fat chance of that happening."
"An amulet?"
"Yes. An amulet made by a wizard long ago, and hidden in a cave."
"And Athena is going to try to get it?"
"Yeah."
"Well I could track her. Would that be useful?"
"Actually, yeah, especially if you could do it from a distance without being discovered. You're quite capable. I'm surprised you couldn't use your magic to get out of the trap."
"It's a magic trap that sucks the life and power out of what it catches while it's on them."
"Oh?" Jon asked. "So you're saying, if not just an apprentice, but even if a fully fledged life mage was in the trap, they would be completely powerless?"
The boy nodded. "No matter how powerful they were, I think they would need help from someone with enormous strength to get out."
"Interesting," Jon said quietly.
"Roy! Roy, where are you!" a voice was heard calling.
"That's my dad! DAD! I'M OVER HERE! THERE'S SOMEONE I WANT YOU TO MEET!"
"EEeee!!" Jon squealed in fear, not knowing how the life wizard would react to him.
Just as he was about to make a dive for the bushes, a man stood before him holding a bow and arrow, aimed right at Jon's chest. Jon held his clawed hands in the air, his new tail puffed up, his new ears flat on the top of his head, as he gritted his teeth. The man didn't look like a typical wizard. With flowing red hair and massive muscles that could well wrestle a bear, he looked like he could be a stand-in for mighty lord Zorkkark, god of lightning and volcanos himself.
"Dad! No, he saved me from one of the traps!" Roy said.
"Oh?" the man said, slowly letting the pullstring of the bow go straight.
Jon let out a breath of tension.
"It's hard to tell, what with your, affliction, but you're hardly more than a boy yourself, aren't you," the father said sympathetically to Jon. "This is the work of Athena, ain't it."
Jon nodded.
"You probably have nowhere to go, right?"
"I have, a home, but I don't know, about getting there, what people will do, when they see me, or if I can, go, and live there," Jon said, downcast.
"Come home with me then. Stay for dinner at least. Perhaps longer. My name is Ron."
Perhaps Jon had a chance of doing something after all, with this guy and his son as allies.
Jon followed the man with the godlike figure and answered a series of questions about who he was and what he was trying to do, and his altercation with Athena, as he led Jon to his reasonably large cottage, where he was led inside.
"Honey, it's me, and Roy, and I have a visitor."
Ron's wife was as attractive and well-proportioned as her husband, and Jon realized, of course, they look that way because they have used their magics on themselves, of course they'd do that.
"This is my wife Elaine, and my daughter, Sylvie," Ron said.
"Who's this sexy kitty?" Sylvie said, without warning reaching out and scratching the fur at the bridge of Jon's nose. "Meowww," she said with a wry smile.
"Sylvie!" Ron shouted. She backed away and slipped around a corner.
"Keep your paws off my daughter," Ron grumbled to Jon, whose ears were flat on the top of his head in fear, his tail comically puffed up again. Ron burst into laughter at the sight of that. "Come come, I didn't mean to scare the hairballs out of you lad. You look positively bedraggled right now, what an embarrassing affliction you have been given, well, embarrassing when you react to stress like that at least. Honestly, you don't look half bad. But if my daughter gives birth to a part-cat child, I swear to Zorkkark... Now, tell me about this amulet you want to get before that evil cunt of a sister of mine gets it."
"You're Athena's brother?" Jon said in surprise. That did make sense. Two life mages living close to each other for no underlying reason would be a big coincidence after all. But could he really trust that witch's brother, who was the same type of wizard?
So Jon told Ron what else he knew about the amulet, and how he had gotten the map.
At the end, Ron, laughed hysterically.
"What's so funny?" Jon asked.
"I've been tracking her this whole time. And I think she's really stupid enough to fall for it," Ron said. "That's just something! That map, the cave. What do you think the odds are that some amazing relic would just be found in a cave hidden in her own land? She's not going to find any amulet there." Ron then laughed hysterically some more. "Be glad she got the map from you. Be glad you didn't succeed in your mission, sir Jon."
Meanwhile:
"I can hardly believe I soon will have the amulet of Cusco!" Athena cooed evilly as she entered the cave. She looked at the map. It seemed to have directions of some sort. There were 3 hidden panels that she needed to press, to disable the traps guarding the treasure.
She pressed them in sequence.
And 2 bear traps emerged from the cave walls and closed down on her arms.
"AAHHHHhhhhhh!!!!" she shrieked in agony.
