Caat Studies

Amara laughed happily feeling the sun on her face.  It had been a long boring winter, but spring was finally around the corner.  It had been almost seven months since the formal, seven months of peace and quiet.  The weather was finally starting to warm up again, and she was anxious to start getting outside some more, maybe start running again.

Training at the dojo over the winter had been quite the chore.  The building was incredibly packed with so many caats crammed inside.  Cassie's body had been carefully preserved and studied, sealed away deep beneath the academy.  It had taken time, but every single caat that went there had eventually been taking down to see what they faced.  To see what the enemy looked like.

Word had spread from there, other academies sending there representatives to see the awakened for their own eyes.  It had been argued at first that Amara should also show them what she could do too.  To show that it was possible for their own kind to awaken and grow beyond just what they were as caats.  Amara and Shae had both argued strenuously against it however.  There was too much danger of what she was getting out, of more of the masters servants trying to kill her.  Reluctantly, Reina had agreed with them, keeping Amara's secret safe from the world at large.

Cassie's Yeras still remains unburned.  It has been stored in a vault somewhere in the academy, known only to a select few.  It was unknown at this time if a regular caat feeding upon it would awaken her, or kill her.  The beast that had been Cassie however, had just been too hard to kill.  Too unstoppable.  It was deemed that when the time came, a volunteer fully informed of the risks would eat the Yeras.  It would either awaken them, or kill them.  Cassie's strength however, couldn't just be thrown away so casually.

Amara walked back towards the house after getting the mail.  She hummed happily after having another great day at the academy.  She had finally gotten a blow to land on Dot today, and it was like the sun had come out as she danced with joy.  Dot had of course, been pissed.  Dot was always pissed though, so there really wasn't anything special about that.

Glancing through the letters, Amara's heart suddenly fluttered in her throat.  There was a letter addressed to Mike, from the United States Army.  Tearing it opening quickly, she scanned the first line.

“This letter is to inform one, Mike Thomas Jenkins, that he has been drafted into the United States Military effective March 14.  He is to report to Camp.”  Amara stopped reading as her terror spiked through the roof.  She sprinted inside the house.

“Shae!  Shae!”  Amara cried, as yet another unwelcome change prepared to enter their life.

Afterword

Whew!  Book 2 done already.  I was originally going to just continue posting it on a weekly basis until all the chapters were posted, but I didn't want to torture the few readers I have.  The tone of this book was meant to be quite a bit darker than the first one.  While book 1 was more of a slice of life, book 2 definitely deals with more of the nitty gritty, and some the worse aspects of being a caat.  Book 3 will shift to being even darker and more serious yet.  This second book is also quite a bit shorter than book 1, but is much closer to the length I was aiming for.  I'll probably be taking a break from this series for a time to start on another project I have, so it might be awhile before Caat of War appears on the list.

I was somewhat disappointed that there wasn't a single review yet at the time of this posting.  I hope people are enjoying the story though.  While it was primarily written for my own enjoyment, knowing that others are enjoying Amara's story would be nice to hear.

The last side note I really wanted to add was my biggest regret for this book was again, that Marcus got shuffled off to the back burner.  Originally Shae was supposed to be the minor character, with Marcus being the third leg of the love triangle. Shae's story however, really drew me in, and she became a far more important character when I was writing.  In this book, I literally named 4 of the early chapters Marcus, trying to get him in, but ended up changing the titles later on.  Instead he got stuck close to the ending, and again didn't have much to do.  He has a major role with Shae in book 3, and I just feel bad for short changing him.  But giving him more page time would have changed the pace of story to much overall.  Bye Marcus, good luck in book 3!

As always reviews are appreciated, and I hope you enjoyed your return to the Caat World.  See you in book 3!

Gar