Project Z

Project Z, or Zion as he prefers to call himself, is a Feline, one of the last of his species. Though even though he is one of the last, there is even more of a story behind that than one might think.

Appearance
Zion is a black Feline, meaning that his hair-colour was originally black. Throughout his 9 lifes, like all Feline, his hair colour will change. But unlike all Feline, his will not change just a little bit, but at the end of all this lives, will change from pitch black to snow white. He is about 177 cm tall, slender of build, very much like a cat. He has, like any other feline, cat ears and a tail. His eyes are pure purple, with cat-like pupils. Zion is one of the more cat-like Feline, meaning his nails are claw-like, and a stroke of furr goes from his neck untill his tail over his spine and many other cat-like attributes. He has short, messy and fluffy black hair. He is agile, has quick reflexes and loves a warm place in the sun or near a fire. But his history has taken from him many of his cat-like traits, such as purring or his curiosity, and even though he still wants to do such things, he refrains from doing those due horrible memories of the consequenses.

Story
On the realm of Terra, there are those who prefer the usual, non mysterious life. A house, a family, stuff like that. But there are those drawn to mystery, to the inexplicable. Most of these people are called mages, for they practice the mysterious art of magic. There are three types of mages. The white robes, who use their magic for healing and for good, the red robes, who use their magic to preserve the balance in magic, and the black robes, who use their magic for evil and harm.

There are several tower of magic in the realm of Terra. Most of them inhabited by all sorts of mages, free for all to enter and do as they please. But there are some towers inhabited by only one kind of robe, who severe themselves from the rest of the world to perform their experiments and rituals in secrecy and silence.

It was in one of these towers where the black mages were experimenting on live. This was where Project Z was made. It was an experiment, but against all their expectations, they actually DID create live. Or recreate, for it had already been alive before. It was a Feline, of a species what had been extinct for a long time. Up untill about 20 years ago, already the Feline's were hard pressed to survive, untill they were brutally murdered by the vampire lord Xamrad.

The Feline they brought back was a boy, and looked like a newborn child. His hair was pitch black, as was the furr covering his cat-ears, spine and tail. He had sharp claws, and moreover, purple eyes with cat-like pupils. Some powerfull mages even said they could see magic energy emanating from his eyes at some times.

Other mages might have considered this a miracle, a new life, something to be cherished. But the black mages saw this as an opportunity to experiment on further, to unravel the mystery of the Felines and maybe some of the mysteries of life itself. The black mages went on so far with their experiments that they even got close to torturing to get information, to get result. Zion did not think this as odd or horrible. It was all he knew.

Untill one day. One fated day.

A red robed mage, his age about 45 years old, human and male, was new in the tower. He was supposed to learn from his brethren, learn magic in apprenticeship of the master of the tower, Daërmin. But Daërmin did not care about this mage. The only reason he had taken in this red robe was so that he could clean the corridors, rid the rooms of the remains of the experiments, which some times... most of the times, included blood and corpses.

On the first day of his life in the tower, the red robe, named Heradon, was given a mop and a bucket and an order to clean the top floor. The red robe did as he was asked, but found something more than mud and blood and slime. He found a baby. The baby had a short, black tail and messy black hair with tiny cat-like ears. There was a stroke of furr across his spine, and he had the most purple eyes he had ever seen... if he had seen purple eyes before. Heradon saw innocence in this child, and smiled. He got closer and touched the little hand. The child grabbed one finger and put it in his mouth, chewing on it. Heradon winced as the tiny fangs bit his finger, but he was certain of one thing. He would care for this child, if no one else did.

This was the beginning of a friendship, one that otherwise the Feline would never have known. When Project Z grew at an age of which he could talk (which was relatively fast, the Feline grew at a rate that amazed the mages. He reached an age of 5 in only 3 months, but no one knew why), Heradon started to teach the Feline things. Talking, reading, the alphabet... And it was not before long when Heradon thought the Feline deserved a name, something else than 'Project Z'. Heradon thought about it for a while, and decided the name should be Zion. Zion, in Heradon's language, meant "the world to come".

Zion loved the lessons, loved having one to talk to, to share things with. He asked questions, and even started to call Heradon 'Dad' when he had learned the word. Heradon, never having had children himself, but wanting them dearly, had accepted this role.

Heradon did all of this in secret, and after a while started teaching Zion more moral things, like ethics and individuality, an opinion and things alike. But the black mages started suspecting things, especially when Zion started to refuse cooperating. They found the source of this change, and punished Heradon, prohibiting him to go to the top of the tower. They also punished Zion, and erased all memories of Heradon and his lessons from Zion's mind. But things like ethics and individuality can not easily be removed. Zion, not remembering anything about his 'dad', but remembering who he was, and especially his name, decided to escape. He tried everything, to no avail. He got desperate, and jumped out of the window on the highest floor. He jumped, and for the first time saw the world, the trees, and the ground rapidly coming towards him. After that: darkness.

When he woke up, he was dizzy and dazed. He did not know what had happened, only that he had to get out as soon as possible, to run away from this dreaded tower. He ran and fled and ran more, and eventually found himself in a pine forest. Cold, weary and tired from running, he searched for a place to sleep. He was not used to this world, to the strangeness of it all. He found an abandoned house, nearly caving in upon itself, but it was shelter. He walked inside, found a pile of straw, fell down on it and fell asleep, his dreams carrying him far away.

He had no idea what horrible thing was waiting for him to wake up.

Being roughly shaken awake, Zion opened his eyes and looked about. Before him stood someone, a dark, gloomy person. As if all light was afraid of him, fleeing from his presence, leaving shadow around him instead. He introduced himself as the Lord of vampires, lord Xamrad. He introduced Zion as his next meal. But the vampire was interested in this Feline, if only slightly... just a bit. But interested enough to let Zion live for a while as his pet, his entertainment. He took Zion with him to his castle, where Zion led 6 years of his live as the vampire's servant and pet-Feline. Other things came with it, such as beeing a messenger, a killer, abducter and other horrible things. Zion could not escape, for the Lord's magic did not let him.

Xamrad taught Zion to fight, for he would not like his pet being destroyed by the earliest gang of humans he encountered, and also taught him to ride a horse. The latter was done with tying Zion on a horse, and then digging his long, sharp nails into the horse's flank. This was done untill Zion was able to remain on the horse without getting himself trampled.

One day, a girl ventured near the forest, near the castle of Xamrad. Xamrad, being interested, sent Zion to abduct this girl. Later, when the girl was in prison, Zion felt remorse and regret, and visited the girl in her cell. The girl asked Zion to go to the nearest town and ask for the Master. Zion knew his master would not like this, and probably punish him, but the girl, being beautifull and pure, did not deserve this. This was Zion's fault, and he would fix this.

Xamrad later asked Zion to go out and get him some supplies, for even vampires need new candles and weapons to torture from time to time, and Zion did so. With great pain, he managed to get the word out in the town. The word spread, and eventually the Master did come to the castle, against all expectations. What foolish man would go willingly to the castle of the vampire Lord Xamrad?

A vampire.

The two vampires fought like only vampires can, though they both knew no one would win, and no one would die. They spoke to eachother, well... hissed, more like, but they exchanged words nonetheless. Zion could hear only one thing. The master had spoken.

"You should keep a tighter leash on your servants...."

Zion turned pale. Now Xamrad knew of his betrayal.

The Master left, and Xamrad turned on Zion. His rage was not on his face, but in his eyes, his cold, blood-thirsting eyes. Xamrad cut off Zion's tail with his sharp, long nails, and cut off his ears too. After that, he impaled Zion's lungs, heart and stomach with his hands.

After several painfull, never ending tormenting seconds, Zion died. Xamrad left, leaving Zion to bleed on his beautifull marble floor. After a few moments, it could have been minutes or even hours, two blood-sworn came in. The blood-sworn were people who came to Xamrad, giving their lives for a last wish, a request. Xamrad fulfilled those requests if they were in his interest, but after that, the blood-sworn were his by right, in body and soul. They served as servants or food, and sometimes entertainment. The two blood-sworn who found Zion found him to be breathing... how could this be, they thought. They pitied the poor Feline and carefully carried him outside the castle, thinking it best if he died in a more worthy place than a vampire's castle, and lay him under a tree. They thought he would die, for his wounds were lethal. They did not know Zion was a Feline, and had more than one life.

When Zion woke up, he was in the forest, a good deal away from the castle. He was weak, and his hair, which had once been so beautifully black as a raven's feather, was now a dark shade of grey. The encounter with the vampire had cost him 3 lives. with the one death from the wizard tower now left him at 5 lives left. Zion had healed, but his ears and tail were still gone. The remains hurt, and the loss of his balancing tail cost him dearly, causing him to fall over more than once. Zion wandered like a lost child through forests, away from the vampire as far as possible, with no home or destination to go to.

(to be continued)