I had intended to record this on Audacity and embed the recording at the bottom of this post, but as technology often does, I couldn't get things to working right for me when I needed it too. So I'm hoping you'll forgive me and simply enjoy this new story that I offer as a contest entry for the Feral Spirit Steem Monsters Common Card Fantasy Story Contest.

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Good news, after all: I figured out my technical difficulty and have embedded the audio reading of this story at the end.

People often wonder where we come frommmmm. I mean, I did, before my transformmmmmation. Now, I wander the dark landscapes of night looking for others who will join me.

I am a feral spirit. Wild, untamed, free. And as formless as a new creation before conception. Hmmmmmm ....

You can't train the dead, tame the unliving. You can try. But we will never let you. And as for me, I was wild and carefree before my unlife. I had to put in my practice, you know.

It happened on a night like tonight. I stepped out for a breath of fresh air expecting nothing but to gaze at the stars, to leap at the moon, and mmmmmaybe stroll the streets or the alleys of my home town. What's that? Where'm I frommmm? Hmmmmm, wouldn't you like to know?

It's immaterial now. The unliving are from nowhere, yet everywhere. We go where we go, and who can stop us?

Where was I? Yes, at night. My master gave me leave to enjoy a few moments alone. A back porch on a friday night can be a marvelous excursion. Or not.

In my case, I did not know how mmmmarvelous it really was until after the cold had gone. You see, I stepped out and went for a stroll, as I often did back then. Hmmmm-mmmmm. Oh, the midnight strolls of an alley cat are the twinkles of little girls' eyes, and those are the twinkles I like best. This particular night, however, was quite memorable.

It was a night like any other night. That soft globe in the sky cast my shadow like a silhouette on the being I would becommmmme. Hmmmmm, a cat knows her ways. But a dead cat knows even more.

I did not know what it was that would get me before I jumped off the porch that night. I was in no hurry. Mmmmmmy mmmmmaster had gone to bed. He would not awake until morning. So I took my leisure and mmmmade my nonchalant stroll down the street and around the corner, careful to pace myself. You don't want to get to nowhere too fast, you see.

It's true, I had dalliances, distractions. They were nice. But they are nothing compared to what I have now.

MMMMmmmy scurrying legs carried me all over town that night. Into receptacles meant for garbage, beyond fences, through trees and tall grass, up and over large obstacles like wagons and chariots, and under the rest. I made friends, taunted enemies, and teased that black cat who'd been after me for mmmmmmmmonths. How sweet it was to get mmmmmmmy revenge.

And then. There I was. Slowly making my way back hommmmme. Sauntering past the closed eateries and the pubs lowly lit in hopes they might look inviting. They were. But not for me.

One last leg on my trip home, and it happened. From out of nowhere, it leapt. Like a giant bird of prey, or some monstrous butcher from the sky, it swooped and lunged its claws into me. I cannot lie. The pain of it still haunts mmmmmmy memory.

I could feel the blood trickle down my ribs. How warm it was, and stinging. My fur knotted as the bleeding clot itself into knots. And the sharp talons of my new suitor squeezed ever tighter, constricting the life clean out of me.

How long it lasted I do not know. I was alive. I was well. I was enjoying my life, and suddenly, I had no life. It all went black, ohhhh, darker than the blackness of empty nothing. And I was alone. Or so it seemed.

Through the dark tunnel of death I caught a glimpse of a flashing white light, and like a candle flickering in the wind, the portal that is my soul opened wide like a gate. There I was, staring down at me, seeing myself sleeping. No, I was dead. Snuffed. Out of life. Blood curdled all around my mangled limbs. Ahhh, but the pain was gone. As was my killer. And a cold chill swept over my bones like an ice stormmmm. Even outside myself, I could feel the chill.

These days, I am aware, I cannot die. I am the unliving. I am a feral spirit, as free as I ever was. You cannot tammmmmme me. But if I see you, I will crawl up into your nostrils, wrap myself around your brain, and chew until I am full like a gluttonous bat.

Not all of us have the same shape or formmmmmmm. I am a cat, or was. Others might have some semblance to a bear, or a bird, or a monster, or you. And while we may not look the same, we are of the same substance. We are spirit. The once-life of the once living, the afterlife of the now dead, and the hungry souls left behind on this plane who feast on the remains of life itself. Our continued existence relies entirely on the shortness of yours.

So commmmmmmme to me. Let me eat. Hhmmmmmmmmm ....

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Review Me, Please

I hope you'll do me the honor of checking out these other Steem Monsters tales written by me, none of which, though fun to write, have been selected to be official canon:

• Feet of Clay, Heart of Flesh
• The Ballad of the Crustacean King
• How Magic Was Born
• Enkidu the Fire Beetle

And this audio recording I used to audition for a Steem Monsters voice actor position:

• Twisted Jester

And while you're here, you might as well check out some of my poetry:

• Cigar
• Music
• The Ballad of the Crustacean King
• Nocturne: Battlefield Sonnet
• Tattoo
• 20 Acres
• The Journeymaker's First and Last Hope
• Old Goth

And miscellaneous writings:

• What the Frack is Weird Fiction?
• Memorandum of the Ministry of Silly Putty
• My Secret Life as a Garden Gnome

The backside 5 (my latest five posts):

• Butter Me a Crypto Biscuit! Bitcoin Looks Like Dennis Rodman!
• Twisted Jester - Steem Monsters Voice Actor Audition
• Ulog #2: What I Didn't Do Today
• #MinnowUprising: Please Don't Swallow Me Up
• Poetry Sunday: Cigar, The Poem

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