The thundering crash awoke me from my fitful dreams. Instinctively I jumped to my feet, my balancer swishing behind me. A crunching, splintering hell bombarded my soft ears, backed by the unrelenting grunts and raucous squeals of the beasts. Fear shook through my limbs, and without even glancing behind me at the unimaginable actions taking place I darted from the Room of Pleasure. Finally I stopped running, and cowered behind one of the Great Walls. Sounds of crashing death followed me even here. The beasts continued to grunt heavily. They were obviously excited. I could smell it coming off their skin in waves. The two skinny beasts, The Master and The Redeemed Petter, had been acting strange, more active than in past cycles. Normally they rested their towering bodies on the white mountains, staring at the glowing box inside the Tower of Lights and Sounds, and grunting and whistling at each other occasionally as the magic box spewed out similar barbaric noises.

Such primitive creatures, I thought as I scratched at my ear, such a shame they could not speak the Divine Speech. Communication would be so much easier. Instead I had to resort to rubbing up against them and using other forms of body language to convey my needs. They usually obliged, I mean they are slaves after all. Slaves though they were, their lanky paws had some sort of Power hidden deep in the hairless contours. I could lose touch with reality for hours as their massive tentacles caressed my neck…

I shook my head and stopped scratching myself. Back to reality Phoebe! Get ahold of your head! Those beasts could bring their rage into this part of the World at any second! Vigilance! The sounds of bloodlust still carried across the still air. Only minutes ago the beasts had been gathered around this new Tower in peace and happiness. This new Tower of Obsession had simply been there one minute, standing tall in the very center of the room. Its size made it look laughably out of place and I could not imagine why the beasts had brought it there. I remembered seeing it somewhere else in the World before this. Something about it sparked some sort of chemical reaction deep down in my brain. Something about the Upper Reaches of the World where the delicious and crunchy prey were placed in the ceramic bowls. Lord Felinos, why couldn’t I recall it? For as long as I can remember I’ve had terrible long term memory. Oh well, back to the Tower of Obsession.

For hours they had been obsessed with it and the promises it held, dancing and standing around it in some silly and savage ritual involving cups and plastic white balls. They had grown more aggressive and unsteady as time went on. The three Newcomers had smelled like piss from the beginning, but now their sweat reeked of selfishness and testosterone. There was a new smell also. It was one I had sensed on The Master and the Redeemed Petter in the past but could never put my claw on. It smelled the way the Frozen Tower smelled after The Master had left the World for a long period of time, but with a hint of rotten lime. It caused my hair to stand on end.

The suffocatingly loud crashing ceased, along with the wailing of the beasts. A quiet sense of mortality hung in the still air like the stench of feces hangs around public restrooms in France. Still I waited, in this little safe corner of the World. Eventually two of the Newcomers left, striding across the floor in the typical beast way and disappearing through the door at the edge of the Worlds. Strange noises and scents had come through that door before, scents that struck fear into my little beating heart. I scratched at my leg, working up the courage to go investigate the strange happenings that had occurred in the Room of Pleasure. I stalked down the relatively narrow canyon that lead to the wide area. Fear gripped my heart again and I fought the urge to flee. Madness, sheer madness awaited me in that once beloved place of sanctuary. Smoke hung heavy in the air, visible in some places as it reflected the ambient light from the three Suns. The Tower of Lights and Sounds squawked and chattered, in it’s place, backed up against one of the Great Walls. There was a new scent in the air. I sniffed again to make sure. The smell of destruction, the pungent reek of unnecessary death, of teen suicide and veterinarians. The Tower of Obsession, once standing tall, was no more. It lay splintered and dead on the floor. Dozens of broken pieces lay scattered over the floor, spreading for miles. The three remaining beasts reclined on the white mountains, their eyes red and droopy, something I had come to associate with the sharp scent of smoke that hovered in layers around the scene.

Fear gradually gave way to sadness in my heart, the sadness of beauty lost, and of things that would never be. I gingerly stepped forward and took a step onto the wreckage. Time to search for survivors. Carefully I crawled around every inch of the wreckage, using my nose for some clue as to what had happened. Testosterone laden sweat was smeared all over the brown pieces, like butter on toast. I gave it a lick, then hastily licked a part of my body to get the taste out. There were no words to explain what had happened. Vainly I tried to ask, to extract from these monstrous beasts any bit of information that could explain what had happened to the proud Tower.

“What have you people done?” I cried in anguish, standing as high as I could to get their attention. “In the name of Lord Felinos what has happened here?”

It worked! The Redeemed Petter glanced at me, then showed his teeth and pointed towards me, all the while grunting to the other beasts. They looked my way and the edges of their mouths came up as well, baring their teeth. They all started chattering excitedly using their primitive sounds.

I lowered my head, it was no use. The beasts were not smart enough to convey the past. They had probably already forgotten what had happened. All of a sudden the Redeemed Petter lifted his giant foot, a foot the full length of my body, and heaved a great chunk of the fallen Tower in my direction. It slid dangerously towards me, getting larger every second. This was life or death. If I didn’t make a decision I could be killed, and end up in the same situation as the late Tower. Hastily I turned tail and fled.

——

I looked down as the orange kitten walked gingerly across the broken pieces of the beer pong table. I still couldn’t believe my brother had put out the challenge that the winner of all the games had to break it with a single punch. Of course one punch had turned into an all-out karate kid wannabe frenzy, and within about twenty seconds the entire table had been reduced to smithereens. I smiled and shook my head. Ha, hot damn, we had drunk a lot. I inhaled cigarette smoke deep into my lungs and looked back at the kitten. It stood tall and arched it’s back, head turned imploringly towards us on the couches. It let out a few pitiful mews. I laughed and pointed.

“Ha, hey y’all check out Phoebe. I think she’s trying to tell us something.”

James and Travis looked at the small cat and laughed too. “Don’t be retarded dude, cats are dumb as hell.”

I started stretching my foot out to wiggle my toes at Phoebe.

“Here, kitty, kitty, kit…ahh shit.” In my drunken stupor I accidentally kicked one of the shattered boards towards the cat. It ran out of the room.