It was hours until Hoku finally returned home. The first thing she did was drop to her knees and scoop the four of her cats into a tight hug, kissing each of them in turn. She was exhausted, dirty, and her eyes hurt from crying. There was so much devastation, people frantically trying to contact family and friends, afraid they wouldn’t answer. A lot of them didn’t, wouldn’t, in the coming days and weeks.
Once she was assured all five of her cat children were safe, she made herself a hot bath and sank as far down in her claw foot tub as she could, her hair floating on the surface of the steaming water like a thick mass of seaweed. She stayed in the water until it started to cool, got out, and pulled on boyshorts and a tank top. As Loki pawed the television on, she wrapped her arms around herself as she watched the news; it was the same on every channel: the deviation brought about by the Snap (as it would become known as in the coming years) and how the Avengers could let something like this happen.
With shaking cameras, brief shots of the Avengers were shown… the ones left, anyway, because not even a superhero was immune to magic as old as the universe itself. She scooped Loki into her arms, seeking his warmth as briefly a shot of Thor was shown. “He looks so defeated. As difficult as it’s going to be for regular people, for them it must be worse.”
Once, a long time ago, Nick Fury had approached her about the Avengers Initiative. She had politely turned him down. She enjoyed her freedom too much. She nuzzled Loki’s head. “I love you.”
The image of Thor flashed across the screen at the same time that he was picked up. Loki didn’t protest but instead began to purr, licking the back of her hand. Distant though he was, he did feel some form of affection for this cat-loving witch. He glimpsed some of her earlier memories, of how she helped the others before returning home. She’d shared their pain but had brought some kind of stability that allowed them to gather their strength long enough to return home safe.
But he knew that this was just the beginning.
It would take years, if not decades, for the survivors to pick up the pieces. And if he knew Thor, he wouldn’t take things lying down. He would find a way to hunt Thanos down and force him to use the Stones and reverse the effects. Loki wriggled closer, his head smooshed between Hoku’s breasts, as if he wanted to just crawl under her shirt and hide from the rest of the world. He waited for a knock on the front door, of the familiar booming voice telling him to quit his charade and to HELP them.
It never came. Life continued, albeit grudgingly, as there were those who refused to accept that their loved ones were gone. Cats, dogs, and any kind of cuddly companion seemed to be viewed as comfort pets now, and whenever he wandered outside, he could expect to be grabbed by one of the children and hugged within an inch of his life. This time, the children ended up dropping him by accident on a muddy puddle. Thus, he was pretty grumpy by the time he was found, his fur dirty and rumpled.
And life continued. It had to, because there was still three-billion-something people left on earth, even if entire towns had been dusted. The real issue was that entire species of animals were nearly wiped out, the endangered ones which now had no chance to recover. This would start a chain reaction that would, down the road, lead to a mass extinction event. Thanos might have achieved his goal, but he didn’t wipe out half of the population of a planet; he doomed the entire world.
This wasn’t Hoku’s concern, at least right now. No, her concern was scooping Loki up and taking him inside for a bath. She herself was dirty from working in the garden. She never bothered to close the door as the cats always figured out a way to open it and join her within the sea-green room, though Hoku never minded. All her cats enjoyed water, though Thran would never admit it and Momo sort of just… floated in place; Kalapana enjoyed swimming and little Tiggy liked to splash around much to Thran’s annoyance.
Once the tub was filled and there was the right amount of of lavender/vanilla bubbles, Hoku climbed into the tub with Loki still in her arms. Most would think she was crazy, but not once had he ever scratched her (unlike four others she could name) so she didn’t see what the problem was. She laid back, having rolled a towel to support the back of her head against the porcelain, and settled him on her naked breasts.
“I don’t know what I would have done if I lost one of you to the Snap.” With one hand, she gently poured warm water onto his body, using the other to rub along his back. “Especially you, Loki. I just found you. I refuse to give you up.”
“You’re a needy little thing, do you know that?” Not that she minded of course. It was easy enough for her to tote him around in her arms and do absolutely nothing else for the rest of the day.
She had trouble getting going in the morning, sometimes, but not since Loki showed up on her doorstep. Opening her eyes and seeing stare down at her in the mornings was a great way to start her day. The early morning was mostly uneventful, but by mid-morning things started to change. She started feeling almost ill, though of course she hid it from her customers, pressing a hand to her stomach. There was too much negative magics in the air, so to speak, and she could feel it.
She pretended to adjust things at the register counter as she listened in on th two women’s conversation. The battle in Wakanda seemed to the the source of the bad energy; war always generated bad mana. The women thanked her and departed the shop, the little bell above the door tinkling softly. She let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.
Out of nowhere it hit, a shift in the magic that circled the world. A surge of power unlike any she had ever felt before. It knocked the breath from her body, and before she realized it, Hoku snatched Loki up from the counter and ducked under it, practically crushing him to her chest. Her breathing came in hard,l and a bead of sweat rolled down her temple; she was sure she was having a panic attack even though she had never had one before.
Then the screaming started.
Vehicles crashed as their drivers turned to ash; a car would have came right through the front of her shop if it wasn’t stopped by the protective barrier she had up. As quickly as the surge of massive magic cane, it was gone. The screaming continued, the panic as not only that world but all worlds were thrown into chaos. After what seemed like forever, Hoku crawled out from under the counter and cautiously made her way outside, Loki still in her arms.
People- less people than there should have been given the situation -were scrambling around, pulling passengers out of cars where drivers simply vanished; down the block a mail truck had plowed into a fire hydrant, and a truck was through the front of a boutique. Other cars were crashed into each other. There were hardly any responders on scene.
Her first thought was to get home, to make sure her other cats were alright, but she couldn’t just run away and hide. She held Loki up in front of her, hands under his front legs and she pressed per lips against his face. “Listen to me, Loki, I know you understand words. I need you to go back to the shop and stay there, okay? I need to help where I can, but I can only do that if I know you’re safe. I’ll come get you after and we’ll go home.”
She gave him another kiss before setting him down on the sidewalk, trusting that he would (hopefully) listen to her. She took off, running over to a car that a group of people were trying to pry the door open to get the young teenager out of. She used her magic, bending the metal with her mind enough that the door could be pulled open. If the strangers noticed it, they didn’t seem to care, helping the boy out. She moved onto the next group that could use her talents.
His response was a surly meow, but he obeyed by returning home. He could hear the yowls from the corner of the street, and he raced the last few feet to slip inside via one of the half-opened windows in the kitchen. Loki paused, seeing Kalapana first, and then Tiggy ( who practically bowled him over in her excitement ), and then Momo, and finally Thran. They were all there. He relaxed and joined them on the floor where they stayed huddled. The other cats didn’t fully understand what was happening, but they had heard the pained sounds that some of the neighborhood animals made. It was enough to make them all afraid, and they ended up lying next to, or in Tiggy’s case, ON, him.
When they heard the keys in the lock, the four darted forward while he stayed on the floor, rolling onto his back. Most of the neighbors had been crying for hours, and it was from their spluttered words that he learned that thousands, if not millions, of people had disappeared at the same time. Thanos had finally achieved what he had set out to do, and it was to eradicate half of all life. From animals, to Midgardians, and thousands of other species across the galaxy, he had simply Snapped them out of existence. A part of him wondered whether Thor had been among them, but he chose not to focus on that worrying thought. Mainly because he believed that if his adoptive brother had ‘died’, he would have felt it.
Loki yawned and closed his eyes, selfishly content that HIS world hadn’t been impacted by much, if at all. News reports began to play all around them as frantic neighbors raced to figure out what was happening, and the knowledge that they weren’t the only ones affected was some kind of comfort. It also added to their nervousness because what if it happened again? It was the kind of phenomenon that felt unstoppable even by those who possessed magical abilities. It wouldn’t be long before panic and confusion began to spread, and Loki finally got up and rubbed his body around Hoku’s ankles.
Her little television was one of those box ones, not the fancy flatscreens that most people used. Thus, it was easy for him to stand on his hindlegs and push the ON button, retreating a few paces so that he could see the screen. Like all channels, a news report was playing, along with a live counter showing the number of people who were missing. The figures were practically flying up, with the numbers reaching a million in the span of ten seconds.
It was hours until Hoku finally returned home. The first thing she did was drop to her knees and scoop the four of her cats into a tight hug, kissing each of them in turn. She was exhausted, dirty, and her eyes hurt from crying. There was so much devastation, people frantically trying to contact family and friends, afraid they wouldn’t answer. A lot of them didn’t, wouldn’t, in the coming days and weeks.
Once she was assured all five of her cat children were safe, she made herself a hot bath and sank as far down in her claw foot tub as she could, her hair floating on the surface of the steaming water like a thick mass of seaweed. She stayed in the water until it started to cool, got out, and pulled on boyshorts and a tank top. As Loki pawed the television on, she wrapped her arms around herself as she watched the news; it was the same on every channel: the deviation brought about by the Snap (as it would become known as in the coming years) and how the Avengers could let something like this happen.
With shaking cameras, brief shots of the Avengers were shown… the ones left, anyway, because not even a superhero was immune to magic as old as the universe itself. She scooped Loki into her arms, seeking his warmth as briefly a shot of Thor was shown. “He looks so defeated. As difficult as it’s going to be for regular people, for them it must be worse.”
Once, a long time ago, Nick Fury had approached her about the Avengers Initiative. She had politely turned him down. She enjoyed her freedom too much. She nuzzled Loki’s head. “I love you.”
The newest addition to the Hewahewa-Crawford family seemed to heal incredibly quickly, but Hoku wasn’t complaining. The small foyer separated the kitchen and living room, but given the matching pair of arches allowing smooth access between them, Hoku could see the cat from the corner of her eye as she dished out equal shares of fresh tuna into separate dishes, each one engraved with a cat’s name; the new cat simply got a small plate until she could figure out what to do with him.
He watched her with an intense wariness, his tail twitching back and forth. She was used to cats staring at her (especially in the bathroom) but there was something about this big boy’s stare that was unnerving. There was an intelligence in that stare, as though he could see right inside of her. All her secrets. Her desires. It was ludicrous to think that a cat could be so intense, but there he was, entering her kitchen as if he owned the place and devouring the tuna that was set down for him.
That same day, she found him on the back of a chair, pawing one of her ridiculous amounts of books off the shelf. This particular tome was old and she watched with raised brows as he pawed through the pages until he found the chapter on Loki. If they could, her brows would have lifted right off her face and into her hair was he used one of those paws to point at the word LOKI and meowed up at her.
Cool, cool. She adopted an eerie cat who could read.
She could move things with her mind, so really, was it that strange? At least he got along with her other cats, for the most part, even allowing little Tiggy, who was really still a baby, to cuddle with him.
It was an eventful weekend, but all too soon, Monday rolled around, which meant back to work. But as they said, find something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. She took Loki with her into the town proper. Bell, Book, and Candle was her little shop among other little shops, situated between a cafe and a second-hand shop. As the name implied, her shop specialized in charms, books on the mystical, and candles, salts, teas, and soaps to aid in… well, anything one could possibly need aiding in. All homemade of course.
During lunch she crossed the street and went down the block with Loki in tow to the pet shop where she got him a pretty green collar and used their personalization machine to make him a tag with his name on one side and her information on the other. She put it on him when they returned to the shop, giving him a smooch on the head and a scritch under his chin. “I guess you’re mine now, hm? And I’m yours, as long as you’ll have me, my darling.”
To her, an animal was not a slave nor a pet, much like a human wouldn’t be. If one of her cats ever truly wanted to leave, as heartbroken as she would be, she would let them go. If they chose to stay with her, as they have so far, she would continue to treasure them.
One thing they seemed to disagree on with her was her choice in company. Some of her more frequent shoppers would stop by for a home visit, just to chat, or looking for advice. These were usually the older women and occasionally a teenaged girl and her friends, sometimes a mother seeking a more natural cure for their child’s ailment (though Hoku never implied her homemade remedies were somehow better than modern medicine, thank you) and these types of guests never bothered the cats. In fact, they delighted in them as a welcomed guess often brought treats or new toys or attention and sometimes all three.
No, what her cat’s didn’t seem to like were the guests of the… male type; unless they were accompanied by their wives or girlfriends or were old enough to be Hoku’s grandfather. Not that Hokulani had many single male visitors; she rarely went on dates. However, there was Philip. He was a bank manager from London who had to often make trips to other branches of his banks, which included the one in Whitehaven. Apparently, he had spotted Hoku one day eating lunch at the cafe next to her shop and was “smitten ever since” (his words) and just had to speak to her. It had taken him months to finally wear her down enough that she agreed to a date.
He was attentive, polite, and seemed interested in what she had to say. Hoku would never say it was love, but she was fond of him, and did find him a bit attractive, even if he wasn’t all that fond of animals. That, of course, changed the moment she rushed into the living room from the kitchen where she was making them lunch. Her dark eyes took in the scene before her. Her other cats, who had shot under furniture the moment Philip arrived, gave her all the information she needed. While she could tap in and see what a human thought in words (which she rarely did as she believed in privacy) and animal’s mind worked more in pictures. Through her cats’ minds, she saw Philip kick Loki was was just minding his business.
She scooped Loki up, holding his big-little panther body to her chest protectively. “Get out of my house. Lose my number. In fact, forget I exist.”
“Now, love, lets calm down. It’s not what it looks like. I didn’t see him th-“ Philip broke off watching in growing horror as the other four cats emerged, fur raised, ears back. They spit and hissed, and he had to jump back as a paw, claws on full display, swing for his shin. As the cats advanced, they weren’t the only ones spitting.
“A man who can hurt an animal whose so small compared to him is no man at all. He’s a childish bully who has no place in a woman’s home.” The cat’s lunged and he backpedaled. Somehow, the front door was opened. Momo, with his solid body, planted himself firmly in Philip’s path.
The jerk tumbled out the door, landing hard on his backside where he looked up to see six pairs of eyes looking at him like he was worthless. Those eyes were focused on him, unwavering and even his massive ego was deflated in that moment. Hoku looked magnificent, all wild hair and dark eyes. Surrounded by her cats in her overgrown cottage in the woods, she indeed looked like the witch the townspeople whispered about. Equal parts beautiful and frightening.
“And to think I actually considered sleeping with you today.” And she slammed the door, turning the lock in place. The cats watched through the curtains with satisfaction as Philip limped his way down the path to the road and hopped into his car, peeling away, hopefully never to be seen again.
Hoku cuddled Loki to her breast, rubbing the top of his head with her nose. “I’m sorry, my baby. The mean man will never hurt you again. No one will. Or I’ll kill them.”
She was a feisty one indeed, and Loki was purring long before Philip had tumbled out of the house and right on his ass. He threw a triumphant look at Kalapana, and no words were needed for the mutual agreement that passed between them. He could sense that the female cat didn’t like Philip either. His manipulation would benefit all of them in the long run in the sense that they didn’t need to worry about dealing with someone as cruel and moronic as Philip Astor.
Loki closed his eyes in response to her nuzzling, placing a paw over her hand as if to bless her for her swift reaction. He would end up protesting if she decided to put him down on the ground; it would be hours before he allowed her to let him go. He was perfectly content resting his furry little head on the swell of her breasts.
Once he joined the other cats, however, he lay down on his belly, ignoring Tiggy, who climbed over his back and ended up using him as a pillow. The sound of their food bowls clattering in the kitchen didn’t even prompt him to move, so he was the last one to eat his dinner that night. He did follow Hoku into her bedroom and make his way onto her bed, using her butt as a cat bed once she rolled onto her stomach.
He knew that this kind of life couldn’t and wouldn’t last, but as far as anyone and even Thanos knew, he was dead. His body long lost in space, floating forever in the endless horizon. There was no reason for any of the Avengers to search for someone who no longer existed; this was his chance for a new life and a new identity.
Even if it meant being stuck in a cat’s body.
Morning came with him waking her up by sniffing at her cheek and then meowing twice. He knew that she needed to be up at a certain time so that she could be in her shop twenty minutes before it was supposed to open, and she was never late. Not since he started living with her, that is.
He liked going with her to her shop: most of her customers were nice, and they patted and stroked him whenever he was within their reach. Even the children seemed to be fond of the jet black cat with green eyes who sat by the cash register, and he purred at them if he was in the mood. Some of the tourists also asked for pictures with him and the other cat(s) that was there, but he rarely obliged. He didn’t want images of him being spread, just in case his brother ended up seeing them.
He followed Hoku to the store ( he never needed a leash or a harness ) and slipped in once the door had been unlocked and opened. After a quick check of the inside, he determined that there was no one else there, and he plopped down on his usual spot on the counter. The muffled conversations coming from the outside provided soothing background noises, and he rested his head on his chin.
That is, until he heard one of the first few customers discuss the disturbances in Wakanda. They’re saying it’s aliens, one of the women muttered as she put a few bottles of Hoku’s best-selling soaps. A few of the Avengers have arrived, and it looks like a fight’s about to start. You think that cute blonde one is going to be there? You know, the one with the huge hammer?
Loki narrowed his eyes at the gossiping women as they puttered around the store. But he could hear them perfectly from where he was sitting, so he just watched them like a hawk as if he thought that they were shoplifters. Now and then he moved to avoid getting in Hoku’s way, but he refused to leave the counter. The women finally finished shopping ( they’d gotten stuck at the tea shelf ) and brought their baskets to the front where they greeted her with a warm smile.
One of the women had whipped out her phone and was watching something, and she gasped and showed her friend live videos of the war, shot from a shaky camera. The familiar sight of the Chitauri flashing across the screen had him hiss and stand on all fours. So far, it looked like the Wakandans’ and the Avengers’ efforts were working – the shield was being rather effective – but he thought that it would be wiser to let the Chitauri in and slaughter them before the shield broke.
They would need to keep out something stronger soon.
The women had left before he could see what happened next, but based on their screams of joy, Thor had arrived. Despite everything, he still worried for his older adoptive brother, and he almost transformed just to insist that the women stay and show him what was happening. Before he could, however, there was a sudden, STRONGshift in magic that had him shudder and his neck throb in pain. Ghost fingers seemed to wrap around his throat and squeeze: echoes of a memory that hadn’t even begun to fade. He retreated to the other end of the counter, curling up by Hoku’s hand, but before he could seek or offer comfort, the screaming began.
He didn’t need to look outside to know what was happening: people began to turn to ash and disappear, leaving the rest to wonder in horror over what had happened. Loki looked up at Hoku, only to see that she was still there. He licked the back of her hand to make sure that she was, and a few minutes later, it was all over.
“You’re a needy little thing, do you know that?” Not that she minded of course. It was easy enough for her to tote him around in her arms and do absolutely nothing else for the rest of the day.
She had trouble getting going in the morning, sometimes, but not since Loki showed up on her doorstep. Opening her eyes and seeing stare down at her in the mornings was a great way to start her day. The early morning was mostly uneventful, but by mid-morning things started to change. She started feeling almost ill, though of course she hid it from her customers, pressing a hand to her stomach. There was too much negative magics in the air, so to speak, and she could feel it.
She pretended to adjust things at the register counter as she listened in on th two women’s conversation. The battle in Wakanda seemed to the the source of the bad energy; war always generated bad mana. The women thanked her and departed the shop, the little bell above the door tinkling softly. She let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.
Out of nowhere it hit, a shift in the magic that circled the world. A surge of power unlike any she had ever felt before. It knocked the breath from her body, and before she realized it, Hoku snatched Loki up from the counter and ducked under it, practically crushing him to her chest. Her breathing came in hard,l and a bead of sweat rolled down her temple; she was sure she was having a panic attack even though she had never had one before.
Then the screaming started.
Vehicles crashed as their drivers turned to ash; a car would have came right through the front of her shop if it wasn’t stopped by the protective barrier she had up. As quickly as the surge of massive magic cane, it was gone. The screaming continued, the panic as not only that world but all worlds were thrown into chaos. After what seemed like forever, Hoku crawled out from under the counter and cautiously made her way outside, Loki still in her arms.
People- less people than there should have been given the situation -were scrambling around, pulling passengers out of cars where drivers simply vanished; down the block a mail truck had plowed into a fire hydrant, and a truck was through the front of a boutique. Other cars were crashed into each other. There were hardly any responders on scene.
Her first thought was to get home, to make sure her other cats were alright, but she couldn’t just run away and hide. She held Loki up in front of her, hands under his front legs and she pressed per lips against his face. “Listen to me, Loki, I know you understand words. I need you to go back to the shop and stay there, okay? I need to help where I can, but I can only do that if I know you’re safe. I’ll come get you after and we’ll go home.”
She gave him another kiss before setting him down on the sidewalk, trusting that he would (hopefully) listen to her. She took off, running over to a car that a group of people were trying to pry the door open to get the young teenager out of. She used her magic, bending the metal with her mind enough that the door could be pulled open. If the strangers noticed it, they didn’t seem to care, helping the boy out. She moved onto the next group that could use her talents.
Whitehaven, on the coast of Cumbria, was no stranger to bad weather. The storm raged, lightning zig-zagging across the black sky. Rain lashed against buildings and no one was outside unless they had to be. The small cottage on the outskirts of town had buckled down for the storm, the windows closed tight against the wind and rain, in the fireplace the flames danced. While there was but one human in the cottage, there were four cats, all laying in various states around the fireplace on the throw carpet.
The one in charge was a petite female with pitch black fur, Kalapana, who had claimed the squishy armchair. Stretched out directly in front of the flames and warming his tummy was a rather hefty light-colored ginger named Momo. Tiggy, another small female tabby, was curled up on a pouf. Finally, there was the majestic Thran, a silvery-white with shocking blue eyes, who was stretched out on the sofa.
Their human mom was curled up under a throw blanket on a loveseat in the sunroom. Her head was tilted back and she was staring up through the glass roof toward the sky. There was something about a thunderstorm that Hokulani Hewahewa-Crawford enjoyed. Perhaps it was the chaos of it all, the raw, natural energy. Snuggled under her blanket in leggings and an oversized sweater, she was quite comfortable.
At least until she felt it.
Hoku always had an affinity for animals, for all of nature, since she was a child. She could harness the elements, find the healing herbs in a forest without really looking, and “speak” to animals. She stood, bare feet moving to the front door of the house immediately, tossing open the door. Despite the awning, rain soaked her feet and up her legs immediately. The cats had felt it as well. Distress. The need for help. Desperation.
“Stay.” Then she’s out in the pounding rain, immediately soaked through to the bone. It was freezing, lightening whipping across the sky. She follows the feeling until she sees it. A cat, huddled under a bush in the far corner of her garden. With little regard for herself, her knees hit the mud the same time her mind reaches out to the animal’s.
Hoku frowned, pausing for a split second. The brainwaves of an animal were different from those of a human’s. This cat’s was closer to a human’s, yet not quite; it was also different than an animal’s. She had no more time to contemplate this oddity as the bush whipped around in the wind, branches scratching her hands and face. Despite the cat’s weak protests, she managed to gather it in her arms and hurried back into the cottage, the door slamming shut behind her without her touching it.
She shooed the other cats away as she set about examining the newest feline. He (and it was definitely a male) was much larger than she had first realized. The fur around his neck was much thinner than the rest of his body, and what she could see if his skin under the fur was badly bruised.
For just a moment, her eyes met the cat’s; his eyes were a vivid forest green holding shadows and secrets and unimaginable pain. More than that, there was an intelligence not seen in an animal normally. She gently stroked him. “Don’t worry, my darling. You’re safe now. I’ll take care of you.”
The tricky part was getting him clean as he was already soaking wet and cold, but she managed it somehow. She got him dry and set to work on healing his neck; it was slow going as healing took a large amount of energy and she did not want to make a mistake. Once she was satisfied that she did what she could for him, she got a basket and laid it out with a pillow and then a soft blanket. She swaddled him in the basket before setting it in front of the fireplace.
She ordered Kalapana to watch over their new friend and keep the others away for the time being. Then she was stripping, sopping wet clothing hitting the tiled bathroom floor as she hopped in the shower. As much as she wanted to linger in the steaming water, she didn’t. She dried and got dressed in an oversized tee shirt, a towel-turban wrapped around her hair on her head. She sat down beside the basket and readied herself for a long night.
Pain. Smoke. Fire.
Three things that engulfed him as he fell down an abyss of space and stars and darkness. He was supposed to be dead, but Thanos was no god. Force and fury could kill an ordinary man, but Loki was someone with plenty of tricks up his sleeve. A mere crack of his neck didn’t equal his death, and the explosion that rocked the Statesman gave him the propellant that he needed to fly away from the site and to an unknown destination. Just before he blacked out, he remembered creating a portal out of space before the sudden collision with hard ground.
When he came to, he found himself in a four-legged form caught in a heavy storm. His magic was severely depleted that he didn’t have enough energy to turn back to his normal form, and so he waited, ears flattening as he tried to weather the storm. The first few cracked meows he made were enough to draw someone’s attention: a witch, a powerful one, based on the aura that she gave off.
He allowed her to carry him back inside her house, and despite his feeble protests, began drying him off. However, when he felt the warm, soothing tendrils of her magic around his neck, he stopped, his purrs filling in what was left of the silence. His eyes were half-closed by the time he was laid down on the basket, which was sinfully soft that he was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
But he was still vaguely aware of the other feline forms around him and that they seemed to know he wasn’t completely a cat. None of them were threatening him, however, so he let them be. The storm was still raging by the time he woke up to a grey morning, and he stood up on all four paws and stretched, baring his sharp teeth. He gave a start when the other black cat began rubbing herself all over him, prompting him to sit down and wait until she was done before he stepped out of the basket.
From a cat’s perspective, the house was large, and it took him a while to fully explore what he assumed was the living room. The rattling sound from the kitchen caught his attention, as well as the other cats’, and he was nearly bowled over when the four raced past him and towards the pair of bare, tanned legs standing in front of the kitchen counter.
Loki meowed, watching the five of them warily, tail flicking back and forth. It wasn’t until he was sure that he had a share in the food that he stepped forward, tail held high, and devoured the fresh tuna that was offered. He would have refused if he’d been given kitty kibble ( he looked like a cat but certainly didn’t and wouldn’t EAT like one ), and he licked his chops once he was done.
Well, he supposed it wouldn’t hurt to stay there with this witch and her four cat children.
And so, the witch called Hokulani unknowingly adopted a trickster cat, one who made his preferred name known by knocking down a book on Norse myth and pawing through it until he reached the page about LOKI. He meowed and pressed a forepaw on the name to help her understand, and he soon had a green collar around his neck with a name tag that bore his name. The one thing he disliked was when she considered embedding a tracker chip just in case he ran out: something that had him glare at her with contempt.
He also ended up learning more about the other four cats: Kalapana was the unsung leader of the group ( a position he often challenged her for ), Thran, the prissy diva cat, Momo, the chubby cat who loved the kitchen and all of its fishy treasures, and Tiggy, a sweet tabby who liked using Loki as a pillow. The cat dynamics weren’t different from the ones he had with his adoptive brother, the Lady Sif, and the Warriors Three, much to his amusement. But there was one thing they all agreed on: they disliked the man that visited Hoku every day.
Philip Astor ( oh the amount of derriere insults Loki thought of during their first meeting! ) was the typical wealthy dude who liked Hoku because of ‘her bangin body’. While he acted sweet around her, he was really a douchebag in a Porsche. Not the kind of man he or the four cats wanted around her. The number of times he’d tried kicking the cats when she wasn’t looking were too many to keep track of, but he made his mistake when he tried kicking LOKI that sunny afternoon.
Loki was snoozing in the middle of the living room after a nice, full lunch when Philip decided that having a cat in his way wouldn’t do. Loki felt the pointed tip of Philip’s shoe on his side and yowled in pain, louder than necessary, and it startled Philip, who began to back away. Loki lay on his side, breathing heavily, and began to meow pitifully when he heard Hoku’s familiar footsteps.
The newest addition to the Hewahewa-Crawford family seemed to heal incredibly quickly, but Hoku wasn’t complaining. The small foyer separated the kitchen and living room, but given the matching pair of arches allowing smooth access between them, Hoku could see the cat from the corner of her eye as she dished out equal shares of fresh tuna into separate dishes, each one engraved with a cat’s name; the new cat simply got a small plate until she could figure out what to do with him.
He watched her with an intense wariness, his tail twitching back and forth. She was used to cats staring at her (especially in the bathroom) but there was something about this big boy’s stare that was unnerving. There was an intelligence in that stare, as though he could see right inside of her. All her secrets. Her desires. It was ludicrous to think that a cat could be so intense, but there he was, entering her kitchen as if he owned the place and devouring the tuna that was set down for him.
That same day, she found him on the back of a chair, pawing one of her ridiculous amounts of books off the shelf. This particular tome was old and she watched with raised brows as he pawed through the pages until he found the chapter on Loki. If they could, her brows would have lifted right off her face and into her hair was he used one of those paws to point at the word LOKI and meowed up at her.
Cool, cool. She adopted an eerie cat who could read.
She could move things with her mind, so really, was it that strange? At least he got along with her other cats, for the most part, even allowing little Tiggy, who was really still a baby, to cuddle with him.
It was an eventful weekend, but all too soon, Monday rolled around, which meant back to work. But as they said, find something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. She took Loki with her into the town proper. Bell, Book, and Candle was her little shop among other little shops, situated between a cafe and a second-hand shop. As the name implied, her shop specialized in charms, books on the mystical, and candles, salts, teas, and soaps to aid in… well, anything one could possibly need aiding in. All homemade of course.
During lunch she crossed the street and went down the block with Loki in tow to the pet shop where she got him a pretty green collar and used their personalization machine to make him a tag with his name on one side and her information on the other. She put it on him when they returned to the shop, giving him a smooch on the head and a scritch under his chin. “I guess you’re mine now, hm? And I’m yours, as long as you’ll have me, my darling.”
To her, an animal was not a slave nor a pet, much like a human wouldn’t be. If one of her cats ever truly wanted to leave, as heartbroken as she would be, she would let them go. If they chose to stay with her, as they have so far, she would continue to treasure them.
One thing they seemed to disagree on with her was her choice in company. Some of her more frequent shoppers would stop by for a home visit, just to chat, or looking for advice. These were usually the older women and occasionally a teenaged girl and her friends, sometimes a mother seeking a more natural cure for their child’s ailment (though Hoku never implied her homemade remedies were somehow better than modern medicine, thank you) and these types of guests never bothered the cats. In fact, they delighted in them as a welcomed guess often brought treats or new toys or attention and sometimes all three.
No, what her cat’s didn’t seem to like were the guests of the… male type; unless they were accompanied by their wives or girlfriends or were old enough to be Hoku’s grandfather. Not that Hokulani had many single male visitors; she rarely went on dates. However, there was Philip. He was a bank manager from London who had to often make trips to other branches of his banks, which included the one in Whitehaven. Apparently, he had spotted Hoku one day eating lunch at the cafe next to her shop and was “smitten ever since” (his words) and just had to speak to her. It had taken him months to finally wear her down enough that she agreed to a date.
He was attentive, polite, and seemed interested in what she had to say. Hoku would never say it was love, but she was fond of him, and did find him a bit attractive, even if he wasn’t all that fond of animals. That, of course, changed the moment she rushed into the living room from the kitchen where she was making them lunch. Her dark eyes took in the scene before her. Her other cats, who had shot under furniture the moment Philip arrived, gave her all the information she needed. While she could tap in and see what a human thought in words (which she rarely did as she believed in privacy) and animal’s mind worked more in pictures. Through her cats’ minds, she saw Philip kick Loki was was just minding his business.
She scooped Loki up, holding his big-little panther body to her chest protectively. “Get out of my house. Lose my number. In fact, forget I exist.”
“Now, love, lets calm down. It’s not what it looks like. I didn’t see him th-“ Philip broke off watching in growing horror as the other four cats emerged, fur raised, ears back. They spit and hissed, and he had to jump back as a paw, claws on full display, swing for his shin. As the cats advanced, they weren’t the only ones spitting.
“A man who can hurt an animal whose so small compared to him is no man at all. He’s a childish bully who has no place in a woman’s home.” The cat’s lunged and he backpedaled. Somehow, the front door was opened. Momo, with his solid body, planted himself firmly in Philip’s path.
The jerk tumbled out the door, landing hard on his backside where he looked up to see six pairs of eyes looking at him like he was worthless. Those eyes were focused on him, unwavering and even his massive ego was deflated in that moment. Hoku looked magnificent, all wild hair and dark eyes. Surrounded by her cats in her overgrown cottage in the woods, she indeed looked like the witch the townspeople whispered about. Equal parts beautiful and frightening.
“And to think I actually considered sleeping with you today.” And she slammed the door, turning the lock in place. The cats watched through the curtains with satisfaction as Philip limped his way down the path to the road and hopped into his car, peeling away, hopefully never to be seen again.
Hoku cuddled Loki to her breast, rubbing the top of his head with her nose. “I’m sorry, my baby. The mean man will never hurt you again. No one will. Or I’ll kill them.”
Whitehaven, on the coast of Cumbria, was no stranger to bad weather. The storm raged, lightning zig-zagging across the black sky. Rain lashed against buildings and no one was outside unless they had to be. The small cottage on the outskirts of town had buckled down for the storm, the windows closed tight against the wind and rain, in the fireplace the flames danced. While there was but one human in the cottage, there were four cats, all laying in various states around the fireplace on the throw carpet.
The one in charge was a petite female with pitch black fur, Kalapana, who had claimed the squishy armchair. Stretched out directly in front of the flames and warming his tummy was a rather hefty light-colored ginger named Momo. Tiggy, another small female tabby, was curled up on a pouf. Finally, there was the majestic Thran, a silvery-white with shocking blue eyes, who was stretched out on the sofa.
Their human mom was curled up under a throw blanket on a loveseat in the sunroom. Her head was tilted back and she was staring up through the glass roof toward the sky. There was something about a thunderstorm that Hokulani Hewahewa-Crawford enjoyed. Perhaps it was the chaos of it all, the raw, natural energy. Snuggled under her blanket in leggings and an oversized sweater, she was quite comfortable.
At least until she felt it.
Hoku always had an affinity for animals, for all of nature, since she was a child. She could harness the elements, find the healing herbs in a forest without really looking, and “speak” to animals. She stood, bare feet moving to the front door of the house immediately, tossing open the door. Despite the awning, rain soaked her feet and up her legs immediately. The cats had felt it as well. Distress. The need for help. Desperation.
“Stay.” Then she’s out in the pounding rain, immediately soaked through to the bone. It was freezing, lightening whipping across the sky. She follows the feeling until she sees it. A cat, huddled under a bush in the far corner of her garden. With little regard for herself, her knees hit the mud the same time her mind reaches out to the animal’s.
Hoku frowned, pausing for a split second. The brainwaves of an animal were different from those of a human’s. This cat’s was closer to a human’s, yet not quite; it was also different than an animal’s. She had no more time to contemplate this oddity as the bush whipped around in the wind, branches scratching her hands and face. Despite the cat’s weak protests, she managed to gather it in her arms and hurried back into the cottage, the door slamming shut behind her without her touching it.
She shooed the other cats away as she set about examining the newest feline. He (and it was definitely a male) was much larger than she had first realized. The fur around his neck was much thinner than the rest of his body, and what she could see if his skin under the fur was badly bruised.
For just a moment, her eyes met the cat’s; his eyes were a vivid forest green holding shadows and secrets and unimaginable pain. More than that, there was an intelligence not seen in an animal normally. She gently stroked him. “Don’t worry, my darling. You’re safe now. I’ll take care of you.”
The tricky part was getting him clean as he was already soaking wet and cold, but she managed it somehow. She got him dry and set to work on healing his neck; it was slow going as healing took a large amount of energy and she did not want to make a mistake. Once she was satisfied that she did what she could for him, she got a basket and laid it out with a pillow and then a soft blanket. She swaddled him in the basket before setting it in front of the fireplace.
She ordered Kalapana to watch over their new friend and keep the others away for the time being. Then she was stripping, sopping wet clothing hitting the tiled bathroom floor as she hopped in the shower. As much as she wanted to linger in the steaming water, she didn’t. She dried and got dressed in an oversized tee shirt, a towel-turban wrapped around her hair on her head. She sat down beside the basket and readied herself for a long night.
