Vitaly S Alexius

Where the Predators Prowl Ch 99 + song

Added 2025-08-11 00:00:27 +0000 UTC

99. Rediscovering Us

Kristi flexed her claws experimentally, nervously staring at them like they might betray her again.

"Never. Do. That. Again," she hissed at me.

"No promises," I said. "You ready to help us save the world?"

“No world,” Nessy commented. “Just ourselves. Maybe some dragons too. And our magic RV. Then Ferguson… I think.”

“You think? Magic RV?!” Kristi's eye twitched. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but... fine. What else do we need for this insane shopping list?"

Twenty minutes later, we had a shopping cart full of our random assortment of items: five large alarm clocks, five cubic zirconia gems, five markers, five CDs, a blender, chalk mold and one very bothered Kristi.

"Now what?" Kristi asked.

“Now we…” Nessy's stomach growled loudly. "Agh! Almost forgot! NUGGETS! Need to fuel up and think of how to magic up these mundane items.”

“They need to be magicked up too?” the raptor lamented.

“Obviously,” the husky replied.

...

At MacPaws, Brad looked ready to quit on the spot when he saw Nessy approaching.

"Haiiii Braaaad,” Nessy announced mischievously.

"No," he said before we even reached the counter. "Whatever nonsense you're about to demand, no."

“Come on Brad, aren’t we friends?” Nessy cooed.

“We are not friends,” the worn down wolf replied. “You’re a menace is what you are.”

"Uh-huh. Ninety nuggets divided by whatever is stupid max number is on your menu!" Nessy slammed her paws on the counter.

"You sure you can fit that many in there?" I asked, eyeing her skinny, fit body.

"Pfff. We're in a time loop, cost and amount is irrelevant," Nessy shrugged.

Brad squinted at her.

"And whatever my friends want!" Nessy declared. "We're celebrating!"

"Celebrating what?" Brad asked wearily.

"Kristi believing in magic!" Nessy announced.

“Ah.” Brad looked at Kristi. "You got sucked into her weird cult then?"

Kristi covered her face with her claws, likely pretending to be anywhere else.

"It's not a cult," I said. "It's more of a... temporal survival situation."

"That sounds worse," Brad muttered, punching in the order with a yawn of his wide snout.

“You’re probably a First Person Hunter in disguise struggling to break out of your physical binding to crunch on us,” Nessy smiled, her eyes watery. “But that’s okay. I still like you. I love this. This long gone place that lives on in my memories. Thanks for being here manifesting noms that no longer exist.”

“Riiiiiight,” Brad commented with a sigh as Kristi and I made our orders.

We found a booth in the corner. Nessy immediately pulled me into the middle. Kristi sat on my other side.

Brad brought the food and departed with a grumble about nutty huskies.

"Aight," Kristi said, dipping a fry in tub of mayo, "run it by me again. We're in a time loop?"

"Time funnel," Nessy corrected through a mouthful of nuggets. "Like a dimensional whirlpool. We keep getting pulled deeper with each death until we either escape, run outta loops, or get eaten by First Person Hunters."

"I don't get it, what happens if we die?" Kristi frowned.

"Oh, that's the fun part!" Nessy's tail wagged. "Death isn't really death in the funnel. It's more like... hitting the reset button on a video game. We just sink deeper in! Four more deaths left till we run outta ticket-generated forgotten memory dreams.”

"That's... Marginally comforting, but mostly extremely disturbing," Kristi commented, stealing another fry from Nessy.

"Death is just a minor inconvenience! Like getting your socks wet or running out of ketchup!" Nessy grabbed another nugget. "The REAL problem is if the FPHses catch us alive. Then they eat our consciousness while we're aware of it. Slowly. Over centuries. While we experience every moment."

I choked on my burger. “Sounds bad.”

"Super bad!" Nessy agreed. "That's why I shot us all in the head last time!"

Kristi set down her juice. "You keep saying 'last time' like we should remember."

"You don't remember ‘cus your consciousness got reset, but your soul remembers! It's all there, just... compressed. Like a ZIP file of trauma!" Nessy explained.

“How come you remember this shit but I don't?"

“I think that’s ‘cus…. You’re more Syntropic while I’m more Entropic,” Nessy clarified.

“What?”

“I dunno,” Nessy shrugged. “I’m still processing stuff from the last loop… sideways, using my nose to sniff the truth variables.”

Kristi sighed.

"No pouting!"

"I just—" The raptor began.

"You still think that we're making stuff up, yes," Nessy said. "Oh! I know! Try summoning your stats! Just think about your powers and say 'Stats'!"

"That's ridiculous—"

"You watched me fuse your thumbs with magic," I pointed out.

Kristi sighed, but was moved by the potential threat of more thumb-fusing. "Fine. Stats."

Her eyes went wide, unfocused, clearly seeing something we couldn't.

"What the fuck," she whispered. "It knows my name? Level...? And what's this... 'Soul Damaged by Highway Sixty-Nine… Temporal Anomaly'?"

"Ooh, that's from when Highway Sixty-Nine chewed on you for two years!" Nessy said after sniffing the raptor's neck.

"WHAT?!"

"Go on, list your skills! Bet you have something cool!"

Kristi's eyes darted back and forth, reading invisible text. "Beastbane? Shadowstep? Hang on… Who's Adelle Dallia? Why is she listed as a 'Soul Passenger'?"

"She's a cheetah! Very stronk! Your extra aggressive, suppressed side. Shadowstep smells like her core skill. You should be able to use it and move really fast."

"I have another person IN MY SOUL?! How do I get her out?!"

“I dunno.” Nessy shrugged.

I decided to check my own stats while Kristi enjoyed her existential crisis. "Stats."

The silver text materialized:

"Huh," I said. "I have skills.”

“Tell, tell,” Nessy bobbed.

I listed my skills to the girls.

"Ooh! Let me try to sniff out what they do!"

The husky stuck her nose into my neck and then licked, making me shudder.

"Sniff sniff... Hrm. Reconstitution smells like... growing new organs! Very useful! Never… die! Hrmmmm no, that’s not exactly right… More like die but come back! Like a… meat phoenix."

"Gross." Kristi commented.

"Depictomancy..." Nessy sniffed and licked even slower. "You can make drawings move! Animate stuff! Very Disney! Like .gifs but in real life.”

“How’s that useful?” I asked.

"I dunno. Maybe you can impress Kristi by drawing her Titanic-style like one of your French girls.”

Kristi tried to swat at Nessy, but got a lick on the hand and retreated quickly.

"And Syntropic Fusion is what you used on Kristi's thumbs! Fusing physical stuff together! Making reality smooshy! And Alpha Authority..." Her tail went rigid. "You can command pradavarians.”

“All pradavarians?”

“No, just me and Kristi… I think.”

"What?!" Kristi and I said simultaneously.

"Actually… Ah!" Nessy ignored us. "I have stats too? Staaaats!"

Her eyes glazed over. "Ooh, skeels! [Scrutiosmia] - I can smell EVERYTHING! Including emotions and time crimes! [Riffweld] - I can... sing joy into being? [Pack Bond] - Helps with pack! [Emotional Resonance] - helps control emotional conceptoids, whatever that is. And [Good Girl] - increases pack morale by being cute and funny!"

"That last one sounds made up," Kristi said.

"Shush you. I'm the goodest girl! System-confirmed!" Nessy bobbled and wiggled in her seat, tail fluttering like a helicopter.

“You can sing joy?”

“I can make good music about stuff on the fly, I think? Not completely sure. Gonna explode into a song now. Yep, it's time for a juicy song. Prepare your ears and clappy hands.” Nessy cleared her throat dramatically.

"Nessy come on, this isn’t the place for…" Kristi began.

Nessy ignored the raptor, chugged her PawFlurry, slapped it on the table with a "thwomp" of cup hitting wood and began.

“Tun tun tun tun tun dun dun…

I sit here in my favorite booth today,
Where ketchup stains mark yesterday's display,
Brad's behind the counter, tired and done,
The fryer hums its endless run,
This MacPaws where my heart wants to play!"

Her voice was absurdly clear and warm. The ‘tun tun tun’ backdrop somehow stayed in the air like an inexplicable second layer sung by a non-existent second voice. Kristi’s claws and my foot began tapping on the tile floor, adding a beat.

Brad dropped the mop he was holding, mouth falling open and several customers turned to stare. A small child pointed excitedly. "Mommy, look, look! The doggy is singing!"

Nessy did a little spin on the booth seat, nearly kicking over Kristi's juice with her tail.

"The nuggets taste like childhood dreams come true,
The sauce packets, I always take a few—" She paused, grinning wickedly, "—or twenty-two!"

She dumped an entire handful of sauce packets from her dress pockets onto the table. Kristi facepalmed.

"The sticky floors, the buzzing lights above,
This fast-food temple that I love,
Will vanish in the future's view."

As she sang, something odd happened. The fluorescent lights started pulsing gently with the beat.

"Beside me sits proud Kristi, cute and tall,
Pretending that she's above it all,"

Kristi immediately sat up straighter, trying to look dignified despite having mayo on her beak.

"But I can see her sneak my fries,
The softness hiding in her eyes,
Behind that optimal-self raptor wall."

"I do NOT sneak fries!" Kristi hissed, while literally holding one of Nessy's fries halfway to her mouth. She dropped it when I saw her. I laughed.

Nessy hopped down from the booth and did a theatrical curtsey to Kristi before continuing:

"Her feathers gleam like emerald summer rain,
She counts each calorie with practiced pain,
But when Alec laughs, she melts inside,
Though she tries so hard to hide,
The heart beneath her gold-wrought chain."

Kristi's face turned such a deep violet that she looked like an eggplant with green feathers.

Nessy bounced over to my side of the booth, draping herself dramatically across my shoulders.

"And here's my Alec, scrawny, sweet sixteen,
The gentlest soul I've ever seen,
He shares his fries without second thought,
Gives me the love that can't be bought,
My tree-boy caught between between."

She booped my nose with a sauce-covered paw, leaving a BBQ sauce dot. Brad was now openly filming Nessy with his phone, having given up all pretense of working.

"Oh MacPaws, your nuggets golden-brown,
In the future, you won't be around,
But here inside this temporal fold,
Your deep-fry warmth keeps out the cold,
The swankiest place in our whole town!"

An elderly badger in the next booth raised his coffee cup. "Hear, hear!"

Nessy leaped onto our table, scattering napkins everywhere, and struck a dramatic pose:

"I know that Kristi loves him just like me,
Because we're petals on the same heart-tree,"

Both Kristi and I choked on our drinks simultaneously.

"She brings him sushi with little notes,
I bring him jokes and joy that always floats,
Two paths to set his spirit free."

Nessy winked at us and leapt off the table like a black and white comet.

"Sometimes we fight like cats and dogs—" She paused, grinning. "—it's true!"

I chortled.

"Over who gets to stay by his side,
But underneath our silly war,
We're something neither less nor more,
The same soul split right down in two.

The First Person Hunters wait to grab n' bite,
Time loops spin and collide,
But here we're safe, just for today,
In MacPaws' fluorescent ray,
The nuggets never leave me astray!"

The whole restaurant had gone quiet now, everyone watching as Nessy's voice took on an ethereal and then operatic quality. She grabbed a nugget and threw it in the air, catching it in her mouth and swallowing.

"I'll miss these yums when the world goes strange,
When Superstores become an endless dungeon's range,
I'll miss this booth, this grease-stained floor,
This automatic sliding door,
That welcomes all without exchange."

The automatic door, as if on cue, opened and closed several times despite no one being near it. Brad's eyes went wide.

Nessy grabbed her PawFlurry and held it high like a torch:

"I raise my PawFlurry to Alec's laugh and Kristi's pride,
To sitting all together, side by side,
To stolen fries and shared desserts,
To all these tiny, perfect hurts,
That make us feel so much alive!"

She took a dramatic slurp of her PawFlurry, got brain freeze, and made a face that had half the restaurant laughing.

"Oh MacPaws, your nuggets golden-bright,
You're our shelter in the temporal night,
Though you will fade away,

Right now you're here, and we can stay
Three bodies with five souls… beneath your neeeeeooooon light!"

As she finished, the lights flickered once, and for just a moment, I could have sworn I saw ghostly figures superimposed over the girls: a silver fox where Nessy stood panting, and a grinning cheetah overlapping with Kristi. The moment passed and then the entire restaurant burst into spontaneous applause.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Brad shouted, his phone still recording. "That was AMAZING! Dude!"

“Shit,” Kristi blinked rapidly, voice dropping down to a barely discernible, raspy whisper, “I think that… I love her.”