Downtown Druid

Dantes found himself standing in a wide open field filled with high, green grass. The sun was at its highest point in the sky, but a cool breeze kept him from feeling too warm. A single tree stood a few yards to his right, but it cast no shadow.

He took a few deep breaths when he heard something rushing toward him. He turned just in time to see an enormous furry form slam into him. He was knocked to the ground and saw a massive maw above him, lined with sharp teeth. It opened, and dragged a tongue the width of a wine barrel across his face.

The weight on him was suddenly lifted and the beast stepped backward, wagging its tail.

Dantes stood as well, and took in the sight of a massive black dog with sharply pointed ears and a long regal snout. It was panting, its tongue hanging from the side of its mouth, and it was easily the size of a small house.

Dantes gently scraped his hand across his face to remove the saliva from it and bowed.

“The god of hounds? It’s nice to meet you.”

“Your courtesy is wasted on him,” said a voice behind him.

Dantes whipped around to see, sitting in the tree, a normal sized orange cat peering down at him.

“The god of cats as well?” He bowed to her this time. “I’m surprised to see you both at once.”

The cat stretched on the branch and leapt down, landing perfectly gracefully on a patch of grass.

“It is unusual, but that’s just how the timing worked out. Besides, he and I aren’t so different really. We both love humans, we just have different ideas about how transactional love should be.”

The god of hounds blew some air through his nose. “I see you as partners, she as servants.”

The god of cats licked her paws. “I see you as partners, he sees you as masters.”

Dantes smiled a bit, their people had given him a pretty strong impression of what they’d be like. He was grateful that impression wasn’t far off. “I’m grateful to speak to both of you, your opinions on me and mine don’t offend me at all.”

The hound god began to pace playfully around him. “Not many of your kind seek my blessing. There are some hunters who I’ve granted it to, but normally your kind favors my father, the god of wolves.”

Dantes shrugged. “I’m more domesticated than the other druids are. I like people more than they do. Hounds are more to my liking than wolves.”

He laughed a bit and did a few quick rolls in the grass. “I will grant you my blessing, Druid. You should know though that it differs from those blessings you’ve already received. You can call my children to you, but only those already loyal to you will heed your commands implicitly.”

Dantes nodded, that was disappointing, but he didn’t let that feeling reach his face. Apparently hiding his true emotions was something he could do even in dreams he was pulled into by minor gods.

“Those that are already loyal to you though, will be strengthened when you call upon them. They will bite harder, seek more thoroughly, and run with greater speed than they should be able to in order to honor you.”

The cat god weaved through his legs to gain his attention, and he instinctively scratched her between the ears.

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“My blessing is different as well. You can look through the eyes of any of my children as you will, and they will listen when you speak, but they will choose whether to follow any of your requests. I have given them too much of myself for them to heed orders from anyone but themselves.”

Dantes nodded.

“You will receive another gift from me though, one that normally takes far more effort to earn.”

“You won’t tell me what that gift is?”

“That’s correct.”

He smiled, that seemed about right.

“Can I ask you both for one additional favor?”

“Of course,” said the god of hounds.

“It would be bold of you,” said the god of cats.

“After you grant me your blessing, can the rest of my sleep be dreamless?”

The gods exchanged a glance and nodded. Dantes held out his arm and each of them placed a paw on him. There was no pain this time, and the rest of his night he was free of the headsman’s axe that had so long deprived him of restful sleep.

…

He awoke purring as nailed fingers ran their way through his course gray fur. He instinctively rolled over onto his back to expose his stomach and the fingers moved to scratch him there, causing him to purr even more loudly.

He blinked a few times, and looked up to see Sevryn, half covered by blankets and wearing only her jewelry, looking down at him with lavender eyes.

“First I find you have a bastard, then you turn into a cat. You know how to keep a lady on her toes.”

Dantes shifted back into himself, surprised to find the process painless. The gift the god of cats had granted him, she’d given him the ability to shift right away and do so with ease. He looked at his arm, there was a fully gold cat’s paw, and a dog's paw with the center pad filled in with gold.

He looked at Sevryn. “You handle surprises very well.”

She shrugged. “I’m very changeable.”

He stretched a bit, and moved the hair from her face. When he’d told her of his son he wasn’t sure of how she’d react, but all she’d done was laugh and say she was surprised he only had the one bastard. She even wanted to meet him, though she was clear that she was going to be acting as his aunt rather than his mother, which was more than fair to him, and made Alessa much friendlier to her almost immediately once that was made clear.

He stretched and coughed, seeing Jacopo sitting up in his nest looking at him.

“I didn’t like that,” he said, his whiskers twitching.

Dantes laughed a bit. “Don’t worry, I don’t have many uses for catform that aren’t covered by ratform already. I’ll likely only be changing in very specific situations.” He took a few steps, finding that the unconscious silencing of his footsteps that he did was even easier than usual. “Huh,” he said as he poured himself some water and drank it. He looked over to Sevryn to tell her to get some rest, but she’d already rolled over and gone back to sleep.

He went to his garden to see his hounds sleeping, but their ears perked up as he entered. He had them wake up, spin around, run in circles, then stand on their hind legs.

He sighed, kneeling and scratching the sides of their necks. “You would’ve done all of that even if I didn’t have the mark.”

They didn’t disagree.

He moved toward the large tree in the center of the room. He leapt up, grabbed a branch and pulled himself up. The branch barely moved as he did it. He’d always been a strong climber, but he found himself adjusting his weight and balance far more delicately. He jumped from the top of the tree, and landed perfectly on his feet, not even feeling a strong impact on his knees as his body automatically distributed the force of it across the rest of him.

He smiled, looking at Jacopo who had followed him inside.

“You know, I enjoyed the enhanced senses that the rest of my marks eventually gave me. Sensing danger better, improved hearing, the ability to feel my way in the dark perfectly, but I have to say, this may be my favorite so far.”

Jacopo sighed, and focused, trying to shift into a cat as well. For him, it seemed that the god of cats hadn’t made the effort to keep the change from being painful, but when he was done he was a massive brown tabby. He flexed his claws and ran one of them across a long front tooth.

“I guess there are some benefits.”

The hounds eyed Jacopo curiously, but he hissed at them and they laid back down, cowering just a bit as they did so.

They spent the rest of the morning testing their new abilities and sparing, even letting the dogs join in some chases to see how quickly they could really move and climb. By the time the sun was up, they were exhausted, but felt they had a much fuller understanding of the blessings they’d been given. The extra rest had done him and Jacopo both some good. Dantes had barely any coughing fits and Jacopo seemed to have much more energy. The boost was temporary of course. They both knew that the headsman would visit again the next night. Still, no reason to spoil a boon simply because it wouldn’t last forever.