Chapter Text
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Silence, silence fills the room as the quiet leaves a comforting feeling.
”—-s!”
A strange muffled sound can be heard, but only barely.
“—ss!”
A sound capable of bringing one out of their slumber.
”-uss!”
Growing over so loud-
“Puss!”
“Geh- Wh- Wha- Hahah?” Puss screams out as he finally rises from his deep sleep. He groans, sit up-right as he checks on the clock on the wall. 4:30 am? ¿En serio? Why in the holy fríjoles would Kitty wake him up so late?
Kitty only chuckles at his ever-so-gentle banter as she sits next to him on his cabinet, a cabinet in which he never uses and will never use as he is continuously on the go: one place to another.
”You told me to wake you up for your stupid training montage or whatever.” Upon hearing so, Puss immediately gets off his bed, pulling off his cotton sheets, quickly putting on his infamous feathered hat, belt, cape, and of course, the boots. And what kind of legend would Puss be if he forgot his most handy weapon: his rapier? Once dressed, he comes up to the vanity that he for some reason has in his temporary room, pulling open the cabinet as he looks for something. He struggles for quite a bit though..
Kitty hops on the vanity, standing right next to him as he hands him an eyeliner and the gatito blade she lent him.
“Ah, gracias.” Puss says, as he opens the eyeliner and places the blade right at his eye, precisely where he wants it to be to obtain that sharp, foxy yet fierce look he always goes for.
“So, are you really going to try out for that leader type of thing? Were the adventures or the fight with literal Death not enough? What happened to just sitting back and, I dunno, taking a breather for once? What’s that cut on your face by the way? You look like a winter soldier who came back from war.” Kitty asks, leaving Puss with little room to even process any of the questions being asked. However, he did understand the question she asked about Death, leaving him a bit too nervous to even muster up a response and also unintentionally causing him to mess up his eyeliner. So, Kitty only receives an awkward giggle (or gargle, considering he did also choke on his own spit) as well as a quiet ‘mierda’ as he messes up his eyeliner.
Puss grabs a tissue from the tiny box settled on the vanity as he wipes away the ruined eyeliner on his right eye as he tries again. Only then, he does respond to Kitty that, more or less, answers her questions.
“Uhhhhh, what is the point of settling down if the point was to live life to the fullest?” Puss looks at Kitty sheepishly, half-expecting her answer.
Kitty stares at Puss for a bit, then smiles as she plops down on the edge of the vanity. “Fair enough.” She says, looking around at his room which somehow was in so much disarray despite the fact that he is one cat. But again, he is still Puss In Boots, so that basically sums up everything about his character.
”Y’know, Perrito was actually pretty excited for you willing to live out your life like a normal, not deranged legend-fanatic-enthusiast. But again, he also wanted you to live it however you wanted.” Kitty says.
Puss looks over at Kitty, smiling as he looks back at the mirror. “Those words, I agree with. I will live a good, meaningful life! On the terms that I am more careful of my surroundings and other dangers lurking within us, of course.” He winks at Kitty, who was watching him finish up his eyeliner. Kitty smirks in response.
”Sure you will, pussy cat.” Kitty responds.
Puss closes the eyeliner as he looks at his work up closely. “Perfect.”
As he was about to ask Kitty about her conversation with Princess Fiona, a black figure in the corner of the room can also be seen or identified. He looks closer, until…
”Puss? Hello?? You alright?” Kitty is currently waving a hand in his face like he was some dimwitted idiot, which he is but unfortunately he is the only one who does not know that.
Puss blinks, snapping out of the haze. He looks at Kitty and then gives her one of his signature grins. “I am alright, my dear Kitty! Nothing will stop this cat from getting back on his feet!” He jumps off the vanity, offering her a hand if she needs assistance. Usually, Kitty just gets off by herself as she is capable of doing such a thing on her own (duh, she is pretty strong and athletic for a cat). However, seeing Puss proclaim such a gesture did tug at her heartstrings a bit, although she would never admit this to him. She grabs onto his paw as she gets down from the vanity.
“Let’s make haste, not let the day go to waste! Let’s go!” Puss exclaims, with his stupid boastful tone of a voice.
Kitty laughs at the utter cheesy and corny rhyme he just did, knowing the fact that he was dead serious. “Pfft- haha, god you are so corny it’s also making me feel bad for you!”
Puss furrows his brows at her as they both rush to the door. “Hey, I’m serious! Why are you still laughing? Stop that!”
As the door opens, silence embraces them both. Kitty looks over to Puss with a somewhat embarrased expression.
”Puss, it’s still early in the morning. We were screaming like loonatics, do you think we woke somebody up?” Kitty asks.
Puss stands in silence for exactly 7 seconds. He then speaks up in a hushed volume. “Eh, nah. Vamonos.”
Kitty smirks at his blatant response as they both rush out of the fancy rooms they were so graciously gifted by the newly proclaimed royalty, King Arthur.
. . .
Silence fills the room once more, but it is accompanied by another. Death. It was he who stood at the spot in which Puss was engrossed in, it was he who scared Puss straight, it was he who watched the fear course through his soul like a snake trapping his prey, it was he who fought him and remained victorious.
..But, it was also he who let Puss live. He gave Puss another chance. How stupid he was, he should’ve sliced his puny little head off once he had the chance. Goodness, the Gods must be laughing at him now. Not that he ever cared what those bastards ever thought of him, he just hates their annoying remarks or gossip surrounding him. They love to talk up a storm, especially if it was of their dear, dear wolf. Eugh, those jerks made him sick.
He sighs, both in anger and just out of pure boredom. He steps into the dark once more, enveloping himself in its tranquility, as he disappears into the abyss.
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Death steps out of the shadows from the tree right in front of the glistening moonlight sky. He approaches the edge, unphased by its frightening height (to must at least), but he is too angry to sit down (somehow). He stares up into the sky.
Alone, until no longer. A fellow god, in the form of an anthropomorphic sheep, dressed in white robes, knitted with golden split ends on the bottom sides, wearing a white hooded fleece, stands by the wise tree in the forest.
He notices her presence, but he is not exactly thrilled by it. He groans in annoyance, slamming his right scythe to make its place on a nearby tree, who is unfortunately deemed the victim of this predicament. He flops down on the edge, completely disregarding his other scythe.
Life follows closely behind, but before sitting down, she kneels down to grab his left scythe and throws it to the same tree that was cursed with the despair of being Death’s target. Only this time, the left scythe was thrown and made a hit on the space next to the right. Death looks behind him to look at the tree. He raises a brow, expecting an explanation.
”Couldn’t have it be lonely, could we?” Life responds with her usual smile on her face as she sits down next to him. She pulls down her hood as she does not necessarily need to hide her appearance. Not that it mattered anyways, considering she was just as secretive and an expert at hiding in plain sight as Death and the other gods.
”Come to lecture me? Or gawk? Or did you just feel like stalking me?” Death says to Life, refusing to look at her by instead staring at the moonlight sky.
”I only came to check on you, Death.” Life tells him, also not looking at him; however, not out of refusal. She would take time out of her typical duties to look at the sky at night. Oh, how she admired the stars gleaming, glistening like diamonds in the never-ending abyss. Helps to forget the toll of being a god, along with its duties and overall toll on her. Unmoving, she opens her mouth. “I have a confession to make.”
Death looks at her, half-knowing what it’s about. “Hm”
Life continues, now deciding to look at him. “I have been watching your quarrel with the infamous Puss In Boots.”
Death doesn’t say anything for a small bit, until he sighs and looks up at the view as before. “So, you know.”
”From start to finish, yes.” Life says, bringing her attention to the expanded horizon, covered to the brim with tall forest trees. In a way, they seemed to have formed a protective layer at the top as if to protect themselves from any outside danger. Like a protective sheet of some sort, or a barrier that only the chosen and most prestigious may enter such grounds away from everything else. Both Life and Death remain quiet for a bit, taking in the silence as a method of filling in conversation.
”…”
Life looked at Death, considering to question if she should nudge his “conversational mood” as she calls it, but unsure if she would set him off. She ponders for a bit…
”…Would you like to talk about it?-“
”I hate that fucking cat, I hate him! He just makes me so angry and frustrated and aggravated and just agh!” As Death ever so softly (not really) explained his concerns, he began doing angry hand gestures in the air with his left hand as he gripped the grass on his right, throwing it off the edge into the air as he let irritation get the best of him.
“Do you have any idea, any clue of the dumb shit he’s pulled!? How many times he died and yet still couldn’t give enough of a rat’s ass to ever appreciate his past lives?! Oh, but now he wants to appreciate them. Now he wants to live life to the fullest, right after I was just having fun! What a joke, that idiot is. Gah, just pisses me off so bad!-“
“I understand your frustration, wolf.” Life says, in a hushed and quiet tone (half because she was trying to calm him down and the other half being because he was kind of being obnoxious with how loud he was being). “While it is best to talk about your frustrations, perhaps it shouldn’t be done in such a destructive manner.”
Death laughs at that statement. “Oh please, if you were in my position right now you’d be just as peeved as I am. This guy made me want to wrangle myself with a hanger.” He sighs, then continues again as he rubs his hands to get rid of the dirt. He claps his hands together, looking at Life again. “Fine, let’s try this again. Ask me what’s wrong.”
Life looks at Death, pausing for a bit as she raises a brow before asking. “What is wrong?”
”The cat, the cat with the giant stupid feathered hat, with the stupid ugly boots, dumb cape, dumb belt that is too big on him also, and his pathetic little toothpick of a weapon: the rapier.”
Life hums in response.
Death furrows his eyebrows. ”He does not value any of his lives and treats them like casual mess-ups, like they were just normal, ordinary occurrences with no consequences whatsoever, or at least he did not value them. He does now, I guess. I just can’t believe he would do that at the Wishing Star of all places. Just when we were fighting, he suddenly had this huge epiphany or something!”
Life tilts her head to the side a bit. “I do not understand, I thought the whole purpose of this pursuit was to humble him? Open his mind on the severity and price of losing a life? How important it is to cherish those dear to him as it may be the last time to ever do so?”
Death grumbles, scratching at his neck. “Well, yeah. It’s just..“ He gestures with his hands without finishing his sentence.
“..You wanted it to wait.” Life fills in for him. “Drag it out.”
Death just stares at her for a second or two, before touching the place in which Puss In Boots swiped a hit on the side of his snout. “You summed it up pretty well.”
Life chuckled at the remark. “Thank you.”
”…”
”…”
Life pays her attention to the sky once again, Death follows shortly after.
. . .
”Our fellow Gods were talking about you, as per usual. Though, it was mainly those of lower status than us. I am not sure if our coworkers have heard about it; however, if I had to assume, I’d assume yes.”
Death groans loudly in annoyance. “Of course they were, stupid shit-eating bastards. The nerve they have knowing that I could mop the floor with their blood.”
”Don’t worry, I will ask them to stop on your behalf as they are more likely to take me more seriously if it comes from me.” Life reassures him, finally standing up from the edge to dust herself off. “Well, if I were to talk to the lesser Gods. The others, well, I would certainly have a better chance than you.”
Death looks at her as she gets up, but he remains in his spot.
Life received the memo, pulling up her hood. “I will leave you be.”
Death just does that peace hand sign movement with his back turned. “See ya’.”
Life hums in responses. She envelopes herself in between the trees until she is no longer seen.
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Puss and Kitty, along with Perrito who was way too hyper at this time of the day, are voyaging through the forest. Perrito enjoys the walk (as all dogs do) but Kitty was starting to grow agitated.
“Ughh, Puss! How much longer is this stupid training montage crap going to take us? We were walking for two hours already!” Kitty states, in a hushed but sort of rushed tone.
”Worry not, we are almost there!” Puss shouts out, completely oblivious of the silence surrounding them. Kitty rushes up to him and places a paw over his mouth.
“Callate, estupido!” Kitty whisper-shouts at Puss, cringing at his sudden volume.
”Ahem, sorry.” Puss says bashfully.
”Ooouh, we’re here! We’re here right?” Perrito says, looking straight ahead at the open forest space, containing a table on the right filled with weapons and five target dummies on the left. Straight ahead was a small cabin, looking old and creepy but still seemed to hold its ground. Besides, they weren’t going to sleep in that old bag anyways. They are way too busy to be frolicking around in a random forest.
Puss rushes open to the open space as he looks back at the two. “You see, King Arthur and Queen Lillian were very generous to lend such a spot for us. So, who are we to not put this gift, this beauty to use, eh?” Puss flashes his signature grin, with Perrito flashing his toothy smile and Kitty rolling her eyes at his dimwitted personality.
“Okay, golden retriever. Let’s get to training. At 6:30 in the morning. Like a normal person.” Kitty says, with sarcasm leaking out of her words.
”Oooh,” Puss says in astonishment once spotting a large machete (well, very large for his size) stabbed on the table as if it was calling to Puss to pull it out of the wooden trenches.
Puss makes his way to the table, hopping onto the table as he pulls at the large machete. “Perfect, now let’s- get!- to work!!-“ He falls back as the large machete gets flung all the way into deep, deep forest of tall, menacing trees. He then slides off the edge of the table, making a ‘thump’ on the grass.
“…”
Puss looks at Kitty dumbfounded as Kitty looks at him in embarrassment.
“Well, at least the table’s-“
The table crumbles down into several chunks of wood. Huh, it seems like the table wasn’t as sturdy as they thought.
”..Oooohhh boy.” Puss says nervously, shuffling up to his feet and picking up his feathered hat that fell off his head at the impact. He turns around to the direction of where it went.
Perrito rushes over to Puss in worry. “Oh no! Puss are you okay? Are you hurt??”
Puss looks at Perrito, putting back on his grin from before as he pets his head. “I’m alright, Perrito. I’ve faced greater dangers in my adventures.”
Kitty just laughs at his stupidity, stepping up next to him as she places a paw on his shoulder. “Adventures which still whooped his pot. Don’t worry pussy cat, I got it.” She turns to Perrito who was standing right beside Puss. “Hey Perrito, mind checking that totally-not-so-menacingly cabin over there to check for any nails and hammers? Maybe you two can try nailing it back together. Well, fix whatever you can from this mess anyways.”
Perrito giddily looks up at the cabin as he quickly looks back at Kitty and then to the cabin yet again. “Okie doke!” He says, already making his way to the cabin, tripping on the dirt midway but immediately getting himself back up later as he bursts through the door. Immediate crashes and glass shattering can be heard from within.
Kitty looks back at Puss. “Puss,-“
”On it.” Puss tells her, as he quickly rushes behind Perrito. Kitty snickers to herself as she rushes towards the direction in which it was launched, wanting to get it back as quickly as possible to prevent it from either being lost or stolen.
It was a pretty high launch, so it’ll probably be in a tree somewhere, Kitty tells herself, sighing internally from the mild annoyance of having to go on a search. Regardless, she sets off on her unwelcome quest.
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Life has been walking through the forest for about 2 hours now. Usually, she would just simply slip her way through a crack in the light or slip through a barrier and be on her merry way, but there was something enchanting about an early morning stroll in the woods. Sure, many people would far prefer it, but it brought peace and solitude. She leans herself against a tree and closes her eyes.
She would hum a tune in the quiet, hushed to not wake any sleeping bugs or forest creatures but loud enough to provide a mellifluous sound. Another noise joins, growing closer and closer-
Shing!
Just right next to her neck did the large machete land a mark on the tree she leaned against when she moved her head out of instinct. She merely stares at the large machete before moving aside and pulling it out from the wood.
Closely, she inspects the metal work. From FFA, she reads as she traces her fingers along the edge.
Rustling can be heard from behind, her eyes quirked with interest and her stance ready.
Rustle, rustle rustle…
“Ugh, how long is this going to.. to taaaaahee...” Kitty complains until she stands still. She looks up at Life, who is ahead of her. She also sees the machete she holds in her hand. Life looks at her too, curiosity sparking within her. She never thought she would actually have Kitty see her physically, considering she was hiding amongst the surroundings. Out of the two, Kitty is the one who began to speak.
“Uhm, uh.” Kitty lifts an eyebrow as she looks at Life.
Life looks at Kitty, stares at Kitty.
“...”
“...”
“Hi.”
“..Hello.”
“..You okay?
“Pardon?”
Life looks at the machete in her left hoove and back at Kitty, narrowing her eyes a bit. “Ah, I see. So it was you who almost murdered me.”
Kitty choked on her own spit. “Oh god, not that- uh, it wasn't!- Ah, uh..- Listen, I am so sorry.-”
Life speaks up. “No no, it is quite alright.”
Kitty looks at her dumbfounded. “No, it’s not alright.-“
Life interrupts her. “It is quite fine.”
”But-“
”Choppy craftmanship, do you not agree?”
Kitty stops her stammering looks at her confused. “What?“
”Kitty, are you done finding it?” Perrito can be heard in the distance, yet he did have to scream it considering the first few times were not heard. Well, at least not by Kitty. Life did hear it, though she did want to let the conversation play out.
Kitty looks towards the source of the noise, scratching her head. “Well, if you want I can take you to our little space. Seems like you have lost your-“
Kitty looks back at the direction in which Life was originally in, but instead is met with just the tree and the machete- Wait, where is-
“Kitty!” Perrito shouts from a distance.
“..way. What the fuck? Did she just..-“
”Kitty, hello!” Puss yells out from a distance, only a tad bit louder than Perrito
Kitty looks back at the source of the sound, groaning in annoyance.
“Coming!” Kitty screams out as a form of confirmation, making her way to Perrito and Puss.
….
Life merely camouflaged herself within the trees on Kitty’s right, silent as a bird watcher.
Life watches intently on Kitty’s departure… Then brings her attention to the machete in her hand.
Hm. She smiles, humming a tune once again as the birds tweeting and the sun rises start to embrace the tranquility of the forest. She steps into the light as her humming soon comes to an end, only this time has she truly made her departure.
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