Essence

The essence of the thing seemed to be that of a cat, and indeed I had even seen it in that exact form at one time. We had been patrolling aboard a dated bi engine airplane and had encountered a sprite, you could call it, a powerful being whos’ form at that time was of a huge person like apparition cloaked in a large loose overcoat, making his deviltry out on a dusty swirling plain , so we approached rather naively, head on, for an investigation.

The shuddering blow  nearly swept us from the sky, but with dogged, though ignorant, persistence we soared 180 degrees around and made our approach from a lower vantage point than before; starting our run relatively low to the behemoth and rising into what could be called his , I had supposed the thing to be a him at least; groin region and came on with our guns blazing as would be said in an old time western. At any rate our rounds seemed to be making some effect for the apparition suddenly coalesced itself into an aeroplane similar to our own and soared away from us, beginning evasive maneuvers immediately.

We continued the pursuit while maintaining our advantageous offensive position and continued firing on the transformed entity until finally we “smoked ” one of the engines of the craft.

The pilot quickly made one final diversionary run then sidled toward the ground and brushing back the trees, lost himself in the vegetation alongside the dusty forest.

I found myself trailing who or what I did not know, even though I had seen, imagined, my quarry through the limbs and leaves ahead, but had lost all sign until I rather abruptly popped out of the trees into the expanse of an old homestead or farm.

Resting now a bit, I spied a rather curious looking cat or bird, perhaps a bit of both in an obscene sense, filtering about the residence and while it seemed to lead me about, at the same time it appeared to be looking for something, or someone. Eventually I realized that as the daylight was receding the thing,  now definitely catlike had turned the tables and was  stalking me!.. A cold chill rose up my spine though silly it seemed to me that a mere feline, and a housecat sized one at that, would instill such fear in me.  An ancient, evisceral fear it was and as we played the cat and mouse game until evening, I became aware that it indeed was I playing the role of mouse.

It was nearly dark and I had taken to using my flash and magnopellet gun trying at first to kill but failing that, to at least repel the critter, when I heard a noise indicating the arrival of a compadre and soon found myself within the confines and relative, I thought, safety of the old farmhouse with my lieutenant from the plane and soon we were discussing our situation in earnest.

It seemed then that bill had more knowledge of our adversary than I and I am not too sure that his knowledge was not somehow inherent  to his genetic pool. IN fact, later that night we found ourselves to be calmly though emphatically challenged by fear, discussing a feat that we must attempt even though it was understood that our chances of making it out alive were for all practical purposes. slim to none. The shapeshifter  I had come to realize as a nearly omnipotent source of power, but you must understand that the term shapeshifter does not really express the notion or picture I held in my head, although for now the idea is as near as I can iterate. The gist of the situation resolved itself to be that we, at least there was a we, in no guaranteed amount of time, would engage in a  jaunt that would express from us all the courage and innate ability we had to complete a task that even now I am not sure how it can be, or will be accomplished, Or even on what plane of existence we might end .

It occurs to me now that the creature was involved in the parameters of this discussion directly. It was with us in the house

 

 

 

 

This writing is the result of dreaming and then, immediately upon waking, sitting at my keyboard and pounding out words until the memories of said dream began to fade. The only editing done on this piece entailed my correcting spelling and spacing errors and completing malformed sentences. This could be the beginning of a solid story if I can a. Dream more of the dream in order to continue the plot, or b. Rely on my imagination and the emotion that I felt while experiencing said dream to continue and flesh out the drama. I will let you all know the results at a future date. Thank you for reading !     ; )