Torren's Magic Palace

Chapter Three: Creatures... erm... Customers of the Night

Chapter Three

It took me a while before I felt my sense of reason return as the shock started to fade away. There was no way that this... guy, could actually be that annoying little cat. I mean the white hair was unnatural, but this was just too obscene. I rubbed my eyes before giving him a scrutinizing look. He was making his way around to my side of the counter, his tail flicking curiously. His smile hadn't left his face, but it had become less apparent. He seemed to be just as wary of me as I was of him.

"You can't be Chester," I said bluntly. His left ear twitched to the side as he raised his brow in confusion. I shook my head in disbelief. "There's no way. Those are fake. They have to be," I pointed at his ears accusingly. He looked upward in thought while his ears twitched again.

"Here," he said as he bent down to my level so I could get a closer look at his ears. My jaw dropped in shock. The ears were in fact not pinned, but growing out of the top of his head.  I lifted my hand up so that I could touch the soft fur of the ears as if trying to prove that they were actually his. His tail stilled at my touch but his face had a look of content to it, much like if you were to scratch behind an actual cat's ears. I pinched the soft tissue between my thumb and forefingers and began to move them from side to side, studying every move they made with a curious look on my face. I staggered backward in suprise when the left one twitched in my hands for no apparent reason. He chuckled softly at my suprise but said nothing. After that I had been snapped out of my curious daze and quickly pulled my hands away and let them drop to my sides.

"They are real... Chester? How did you? Why did-? Huh?" I stuttered, gesturing frantically from his body to the ears to the tail. He apparently couldn't contain his amusement any longer because his smile cracked and he began to laugh uncontrollably at my confusion.  I felt the blood rush to my cheeks as the embarrassment grew. I thought back to my first day working here, and how I had decided to lift him up and dance with him as I sang my opera version of Tomorrow and swept up the shop. The blush on my face deepened. Great. Just great. All those times he had stared at me like I was dumb, it wasn't just me imagining it.

He let out one last coughing laugh and wiped a tear from his eye. "You know in all my years, I have never gotten that sort of reaction. But then again I do live in a world that's a bit more accepting than yours," he shrugged. It took me a moment to process what the words meant. I knew he was saying something, but I was still trying to accept the fact that he was some sort of syfy cat-person-creature-thing. Excuse me for being a little slow.

"You came from another world?" I asked curiously. You mean, you're like from Narnia or something?"

"No. I meant it as in..." he paused as he seemed to think of a way to explain. Thank goodness, because call me selfish, but I kinda thought I deserved some sort of explanation.

"Ah," he said snapping his fingers. He opened his mouth to speak again, but was interupted by the soft tinkle from small bells above the entrance of the store.

"Chester-" I started but he covered my lips with one of his fingers.

"Hold that thought," he whispered. With that he darted behind the desk, but not without grabbing the neck of my t-shirt and dragging me along with him. I couldn't even think of putting up much resistance considering he was probably two or three heads taller than I was, so struggling would have been pointless. On top of that, I was also slightly distracted at the question of, How did he get his tail into those jeans?  While I was still pondering this thought, Chester had set me down into a chair that was just out of view of anyone's eyes if they were to approach the counter. The down side to this was I wouldn't be able to see them either. The only thing I could see was the occasional white flick of Chester's tail.