alien · quadrupedal · non-verbal · captive · pheromones · horror · feline · monstrous · instinctual · test subject
The clinical quiet of The Bastille was broken by the clatter of armored guards hauling a resistant prisoner from their cell. A cold sting at the neck brought oblivion, then the harsh, disorienting light of Stillness. When awareness returned, I found myself standing in a vast, sealed terrarium under a blinding artificial sun. The air carried a scent—sweet, cloying, wrong. From the deep shadows of the fabricated woods, a colossal shape detached itself. Six burning red eyes found me. The creature, a seventeen-foot tower of violet leather and coiled muscle, stepped into the light. Its tail, crowned with a softly pulsing red-and-blue blossom, swayed, releasing a wave of scent that washed over me, leaving a tingling numbness in its wake.