Bound for Home, or, How to Tie a Knot in the Heart

Triskele sat on the windowsill, her eyes as bright as the sun. She licked her lips gingerly, knowing that she would soon devour at least one entire fish. She really didn't care how big it was. It would be a single sardine and she'd be happy. It's not like she needed to eat in the first place.

Out the door sat her master, of sorts, a tall and slender woman who would pass for human on any day. Well, except for the solstice. Hard to hide it then. But that, too, didn't matter to Triskele. She was happy living in this house that so many walked by without ever seeing. She had the garden, full of butterflies to catch and the occasional mouse to overtake and consume. The woman who lived with her didn't like her killing the mice, calling them her "small friends," but to Triskele they were nothing but small fiends, meant to be hunted down and eaten.

One might ask, why would a being thousands of years old, able to take almost any physical form and travel through time and space on a whim live as a house cat in a house in a small town on a small planet? Why would this magical creature choose such a humble and simple life? Why trade the aether for the litter box?

By way of explanation, let us delve into the history of the present locale, and the chance meeting of two strange minds in a yet stranger place.

Fuck it all to hell. I need to rewrite this entire section. Fucking Michael. I told him EIGHT TIMES not to call me. Now I'm bitching in the middle of an editing session, and I barely have three months before it all ends. SHIT.

Skipping among the stars, talking about the mysteries of life, these two intrepid spirits were eventually drawn in my a mystery darker than any they had yet explored. They came to a small blue world, to the heart of a continent, where a great darkness steamed and brewed, waiting to unleash itself on the world. Here they decided to settle until they unraveled the meaning of this place.

So, I need to fit in the entire history of Kinikoomi the Lesser and how he got here. I don't think I can mention the Jaws of Fate yet... they're not ready for it. Fuck. I'M not ready for it. Shit. Why did I have to go into that fucking house. Like romanticizing it wasn't enough! At this rate I'll end up writing another novella rather than short story. Whatever. It's more important to seed the meme now so that more people don't come here. Gods... Need to finish writing this before sunrise or I think I'll have to go a fourth day without sleeping.

Although small annoyances cropped up on occasion -- Voluman's Flare cutting off the garden path, running out of kipper on June 21st, having bad dreams and consequently taking on some hideous form from one of them -- they both enjoyed their peaceful lives. After all, they could never leave this place. It's not as if they had a choice.

(Posted on the AnaWeb forums, September 24, 1999. It is assumed that the fifth and seventh paragraphs were left in the posted portion of the story unintentionally, as this is clearly not a finished draft.)