Queen Of The Ventils

Prologue

Archie the cat scampered around the alleyways of Arcadia Oaks, trying as hard as he could to enjoy his late night outings. It was a hobby of his, to take walks in the evenings. Nothing but himself and the stars for company. Sometimes, he even caught strings of gossip about other humans that he would try his best to remember for future reference. In case I need it, he would argue when Douxie would scold him for listening in on gossip. 

But tonight was different. He didn't stop to relax on his usual perch overlooking the town. He didn't hang around in the trees by people's houses, yearning to hear the latest gossip (The latest news he had heard was that some girl named Mary from Douxie's school was kissing some guy from their rivals, which apparently was a big deal).

He made his way through an abandoned alleyway, to stay inconspicuous. People would be pretty startled if they met an anthropomorphic feline late at night in the street. It was littered with broken glass, rusty nails and garbage all over the ground. Why on Earth are humans so sloppy, he thought to himself. They're supposed to be the most intelligent creatures on this planet. If they can invent fire and build gargantuan civilizations, surely they'd be able to keep their towns neat and tidy.

He carefully crept through the smelly alley, taking heed to avoid the tiny glass shards from brown bottles on the ground. Picking them out from his feet would be a nightmare. A very painful nightmare. He could, of course, transform into a dragon, but that would draw way too much attention to himself. And right now, stealth was key.

After weaving through the minefield of broken glass and random assortments of debris, he clambered onto the lid of a dumpster, and from there proceeded to parkour his way onto the roof of a building.

On top of the Stuart Electronics store, Archie could see the whole downtown of Arcadia Oaks, and the woods beyond. He could also make out the form of the bridge crossing the canals, golden lights glimmering in the distance. On exceptionally clear nights, he could even make out the silhouettes of the suburbs on the horizon. Sadly, he couldn't stick around and enjoy the view of the town's skyline tonight. He had a task to complete.

For weeks following the end of the war, the authorities wanted to make sure people were staying safe. They sent Toby, Jim, Claire, Steve and Krel to make sure there were no 'loose cannons', as they said, wandering about causing trouble. There had been a few incidents involving some little skirmishes here and there, but nothing too extreme. So, Arcadia Oaks settled back down into the quiet little town everyone took it to be. Douxie, Archie and Nari moved back to Arcadia, the school was repaired, and Jim and Claire resumed their normal lives. And for about a month, everything was peaceful.

Then, the strange claw marks being showing up on tree trunks and human-like footprints were found in the woods.

This wasn't so strange. Arcadia Oaks was a weird place. Any normal town would have assumed it to be some crazy, homeless person on drugs wandering around at night. For Arcadia, however, it wasn't. Trolls, extra terrestrials and wizards were a regular there. What made the footprints strange was that all the trolls had left, the aliens had returned to their home planets, and the wizards sure as heck didn't have huge, cat-like claws. So what was making them?

That was Archie's job. He was to pose as an average cat--The most humiliating role possible, he had reluctantly accepted--and find the identity of the strange person making those marks. If it was some crazy person who had a lethal weapon, they needed to be stopped and potentially taken into custody.

Leaping over the gaps between shops and diners, he went through the same routine as he had been doing the past three weeks. Checking the shady alleyways, crossing into the suburbs and keeping an eye out for strange people, and then rounding it all off with patrolling the woods.