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A couple of years ago, I tried to write a Willow and Tara story. I had a detailed outline of forty-odd chapters. I posted five chapters, then bogged down.
Now, I have a new story. This story is only two parts long. I have already written the first draft of the entire story. This story will be finished!
Title – The Cat Maiden
Author – John Martin
Uber - Fairy Tale
Rating – R
Disclaimer – Willow, Tara, and the other characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer are owned by Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and 20th Century Fox. I am writing this for fun, and not for profit.
Summary - It’s your standard fairy tale plot. Girl meets cat; girl loses cat; girl gets cat.
Feedback - Sure
Part 1 of 2
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a girl named Tara. She was an innkeeper’s daughter. She worked for her father at the inn.
Tara was a kind and quiet girl. She had been a happy child, always laughing and smiling. But then her mother died. Now, Tara rarely smiled. This was a shame. When Tara did smile, it was the kind of smile that made all the people who saw it want to smile back.
Tara was pretty. She wasn’t too tall and she wasn’t too short. She wasn’t too thin and she wasn’t too fat. Her eyes were blue. Her hair was hard to describe. It was too dark to be called blonde and too light to be called brown.
Tara wasn’t the prettiest girl in the kingdom. There were princesses and noblewomen in the King’s court who had the time and the money to make themselves much more beautiful. But Tara was certainly the prettiest girl in the village. The young men of the village noticed this.
One day Xander, the shoemaker’s son, said “Marry me, Tara. Be my wife. I will work as hard as I can to provide for you. Our children will be well-shod and well-loved.”
Tara said “I’m sorry, Xander. I can’t marry you. I don’t love you.”
The next day Riley, the blacksmith’s son, said “Marry me, Tara. Be my wife. I will protect you. Our children will be healthy and strong.”
Tara said “I’m sorry, Riley. I can’t marry you. I don’t love you.”
The next day Jonathan, the merchant’s son, said “Marry me, Tara. Be my wife. You will want for nothing. Our children will be plump and happy.”
Tara said “I’m sorry, Jonathan. I can’t marry you. I don’t love you.”
The villagers tried to tell the innkeeper that his daughter was making a mistake. “She needs a husband. It doesn’t matter if she loves him.”
“Tara deserves to be happy,” said the innkeeper. “She deserves to be with someone that she loves.”
One day Tara found a cat mewing piteously in the woods. The cat had been attacked by a wolf and could barely move. Tara brought the cat home to the inn and cleaned the cat’s wounds as gently as she could. She fed the cat scraps of meat and fish. Slowly Tara nursed the cat back to health.
It was a beautiful cat. No, she was a beautiful cat. Tara could tell that she was a girl cat, not a tom. The cat had thick, soft fur, white and orange in color. The orange parts of her fur were so dark that they were almost red. The cat’s eyes were a bright green.
The cat would follow Tara around all day. Whenever Tara stopped moving, the cat would rub against her legs. In the evening, when Tara sat down, the cat would leap into Tara’s lap. Tara would stroke the cat and the cat would purr. Her purring was like music. Tara would hear it and smile.
Sometimes the cat would meow and then stare at Tara, as if expecting an answer. “It’s like she’s trying to talk to me,” said Tara to herself.
One evening, Tara entered her room to find that the cat was sitting on her bed. As the sun set, Tara saw the most amazing thing. The cat took off her fur, just like a person taking off a shirt. Before Tara’s eyes, the cat transformed into a beautiful girl.
“Hello,” said the girl. “My name is Willow.”
Willow had green eyes, the exact same shade as the cat’s eyes. Willow had red-orange hair, the exact same shade as the cat’s fur.
Willow was totally naked. She did nothing to hide her body from Tara. (Cats don’t care about nakedness; cats don’t wear clothes.) Tara looked at Willow and decided that she had never seen anything or anyone more beautiful.
“Hello. My name is Tara.”
“Yes, I know,” said Willow. “You saved me when I was almost dead, and you took care of me. And I’ve been trying to tell you for days how grateful I am, and how nice and kind and pretty you are, but it didn’t work because you don’t speak Cat. But now that I‘m human, I can think of another way to thank you.”
Willow rose up from the bed and kissed Tara on the lips. Tara was startled at first, but after a moment she kissed back.
That night was a revelation to Tara. She had never kissed a boy. She had never kissed a girl. She had certainly never kissed a magical cat-girl. Soon their kisses turned into more than kisses.
When Willow kissed her, it was like fire. When Willow caressed her, it made her tremble inside. And when Willow made love to her, it was the most wonderful thing that Tara had ever felt. Tara tried her best to kiss Willow, to caress Willow, and to make love to Willow with exactly the same care and tenderness that Willow had shown her.
Afterwards, the two of them cuddled together. “Did you enjoy it?” asked Willow.
“Yes,” said Tara. “Very much.”
“Good. I wanted to thank you properly before I leave.”
“Leave?” asked Tara with a tremble in her voice. “You’re going to leave?”
“Yes. I am bound by the magic of my kind. When the sun rises, I must put my fur back on and become a cat again. I must return to my family and my clan whether I want to or not.”
“But I don’t want you to go.”
“I’m sorry. Really, I am. But I don’t have a choice.”
That night, Willow slept in Tara’s bed. Tara lay next to Willow. Tara couldn’t sleep. She lay in bed, thinking. There had to be a way to keep Willow from leaving.
And then Tara had an idea. She slipped out of the bed without waking Willow. She grabbed Willow’s cat fur. She carried it out of her room and up the stairs into the inn’s attic. There Tara found a trunk full of old clothes. Tara buried the cat fur at the bottom of the trunk. Then she went back to her room and slipped back into bed with Willow.
In the morning, Tara woke to find Willow frantically searching the room.
“You’ve got to help me,” said Willow. “I can’t find my fur.”
“I know,” said Tara. “I hid it.”
“You hid it? Why?”
“Because I want you to stay,” said Tara. “Because I want to get to know you better. Because you’re the most beautiful person I‘ve ever met.”
For a long moment, Willow looked at Tara and said nothing.
“I’m sorry,” said Tara. “I’m being selfish. I’ll get your fur and you can go.”
“No. Leave the fur where you’ve hidden it. I’ll stay with you, at least for a few days.”
So Willow stayed with Tara. Tara taught Willow the ways of humans; how to wear clothes, how to serve food and drink to the customers of an inn, and how to clean your body without using your tongue.
In return, Willow taught Tara the ways of cats; how to move silently and with grace, how to stalk prey, and how to speak Cat.
At night, Willow and Tara always shared the same bed. Some nights they made love. Some nights they talked for hours. Some nights they just slept, cuddled up together.
Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. Everyone in the village noticed that Tara smiled often. Tara was happy again.
One night, Tara said to Willow “I love you. I want you to stay with me forever.”
Willow burst into tears. This was the last thing Tara had expected.
“What’s wrong?” asked Tara.
“I want to stay with you forever too,” said Willow. “But I can’t. I am bound by the magic of my kind. Sooner or later, I will find my cat fur. I’m not looking for it. I don’t want to find it. But sooner or later, I’ll find the fur by accident, or someone else will find it and show it to me. It’s fate. When I see my fur, I won’t have a choice. I must put the fur on, turn back into a cat, and leave. My magic will take me far to the east, to the Mountains of Jade, to be with the rest of my kind.”
“What if I burned the fur?” asked Tara. “Then you couldn’t find it.”
“No! Don’t do that!” Willow exclaimed. “If you destroy my fur, I’ll die.”
“Oh,” said Tara.
That night the two girls came to an agreement. If fate decreed that Willow must leave, if their time together was limited, then the two of them would do their best to enjoy the days they had.
Over the next few weeks, Tara asked many questions about the Mountains of Jade. What were they like? Where exactly in the Mountains of Jade did Willow’s family live? Tara asked Willow to describe all the lands, all the obstacles, all the roads that lay between her village and the Mountains of Jade. Tara listened very carefully to Willow’s answers.
All too soon, the fated day came. There was a ten-year-old boy in the village who was extremely curious. One day he wandered into the attic of the inn. The boy looked at everything that was stored there. He opened all the trunks in the attic. He found Willow’s cat fur, then he carried it downstairs.
When Willow saw the cat fur, she whispered “No.” She knew that her doom was upon her. She walked across the room and took her fur from the boy. She put her fur on and magically changed back into a cat. The cat ran out of the inn and into the woods faster than any person could follow.
Tara had been outside, feeding the chickens. When Tara discovered that Willow had left, she began to cry. Through her tears, she told her father that she had to leave. She was going to search the world until she found her Willow again.
The villagers thought that Tara was crazy. They spent three days trying to talk Tara out of leaving. “You’ll just get lost,” they said. “You’ll run out of food and starve to death. You’ll be hunted by wild beasts and eaten. You’ll be robbed by bandits. The bandits will kill you, or do something worse than kill you.”
After three days, the innkeeper asked his daughter “Do you really have to leave?”
Tara said “Yes. I love Willow. I will never be happy without Willow.”
“If you must go, then go,” said the innkeeper. “But please promise me that you’ll come back to us if you can.”
“I promise,” said Tara.
Xander, the shoemaker’s son, said “I’ve made you these sturdy boots, to wear during your journey.”
“Thank you,” said Tara.
Riley, the blacksmith’s son, said “I’ve made you this sharp dagger, to protect you during your journey.”
“Thank you,” said Tara.
Jonathan, the merchant’s son, said “Here’s a purse with money in it, so you can buy food during your journey.”
“Thank you,” said Tara.
So Tara left the village she had known all her life, and walked the roads of the wide world. She knew where she was going, for Willow had told her about all the lands she must travel. She traveled east, always east.
Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. Tara walked through forests and fields. She crossed plains and deserts, rivers and mountains. Whenever wild beasts or bandits were about, Tara hid, using the stealth that Willow had taught her.
Without the sturdy boots, Tara never could have walked that far. Without the purse of money, she would have run out of food.
Finally she arrived at the Mountains of Jade. Willow had told her exactly where to go. Tara rode the ferry across the River of Swans. She walked upriver for two days. She followed the babbling brook up into the mountains. She passed the misty waterfall.
At last Tara came to a clearing. In the clearing, she saw dozens of cats. They were all beautiful, in their own ways. But in Tara’s eyes, none of the cats were as beautiful as Willow.
Tara hid in the bushes and made no noise. Fortunately, Tara was downwind, so the cats didn’t notice her.
The cats were eating and drinking, singing and dancing. The cats were having a party. When the cats talked or sang, Tara could understand everything that they were saying. Willow’s lessons in Cat had really worked.
All at once, the cats stopped talking. A white tom cat with a tiny crown on his head had climbed up on a boulder. ‘He must be the King of the Cats,’ thought Tara.
The King began a speech. “Today we are gathered to celebrate a joyous event. Today my daughter comes of age.” A beautiful cat with orange and white fur jumped up next to him. It was Willow.
The King continued. “It is time for Willow to marry. Her spouse will be the one who passes three tests, according to our traditions. Who wishes to marry my daughter?”
“I do,” said a black-and-white tom.
“Very well, Spike,” said the King. “Are there any other candidates?”
Tara watched in despair as several young tom cats stepped forward. One of these cats would surely pass the tests. Willow would be married and Tara would lose her forever. But maybe there was still a way.
Tara stepped out of the bushes and into the clearing. “I wish to marry Willow,” she said. All of the cats were amazed. A human had found her way to their secret clearing. Not one cat had seen her, heard her, nor smelt her.
“Tara?” said Willow, as if she couldn‘t believe her eyes.
“Tara!” shouted Willow, as she ran across the clearing as fast as her four legs could carry her. Willow leapt into Tara’s arms and began to purr.
“You came,” Willow said. “I missed you so much. I thought that I’d never see you again. But now you’re here.”
“Of course I came for you,” said Tara. “I love you.”
Soon Tara found herself in the presence of the King of the Cats. Tara curtseyed to the King.
“Who are you?” asked the King.
“My name is Tara, your Majesty.”
“You want to marry my daughter?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I love her.”
“Please father,” said Willow, “Let me marry Tara. I love her.”
“This is ridiculous!” objected Spike. “She can’t marry Willow. She’s a human, not a cat.”
“Our traditions are clear,” said the King. “Cat or no, the one who passes the three tests has the right to marry my daughter. We shall proceed with the first test immediately.”
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<=praying for more!
keep going I'm looking forward to the next update.
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I love the way you put together the story, and the mystical elements. Very creative 