Dumb Hungry Panther-Cat-Thing (Karma and le Prince)

Karma sighed as Nightmare walked to the door of the Pet Store and pawed it. "Are you being serious?" She muttered. "If you're so hungry, go catch an elk or something." Nightmare meowed skeptically, and Karma sighed. "Fine, Fine." She pushed the door open, her cloak billowing the wind. Nightmare ran into the store, meowing happily. "Dumb cat." Karma muttered, walking in after it. She loved her Familiar, but she was just so high maintenance.

Karma stepped up to the counter, frowning as her cat did a ninja jump onto the counter and sat. She sighed. "Can I have enough meat to feed a panther please?"

Baranovsky's familiars? Just what he needed, a familiar to fill the void he was recently feeling. He entered the shop and slowly looked around at all the animals there. He needed something tough but trained, friendly yet deadly. He turned as the door opened and backed into the wall as he gulped in shock at the real life panther stood before him. He'd heard of animals like those, he'd even hunted them but he'd never been in such closed spaces with one.

Karma glanced behind her at the boy who had just walked into the shop, grinning a bit at his fear. "Look at you, Nightmare, scaring the locals." She said with a laugh, petting the panther until she shrunk back into kitten size.

As Karma turned back to the counter, the kitten jumped from her shoulder to the top of her head, sitting as if about to pounce, her big round golden eyes fixed on the boy. Her tail twitched back and forth, as if hunting.

He shrunk back and straightened his shirt as she moved over. "Im not local nor am i scared." He said standing up straighter and moving away from the cat, cleverly disguising it so he wanted to look at a snake in the tank next to him.

"Who has a cat/ panther thing anyway?" He asked, was nothing normal around here?

Karma grinned. He amused her, if nothing else. "Well, I'm not a local either, so I suppose we're even."

"I have one. That's about it. One of a kind, Nightmare." The kitten meowed and hopped down onto the counter, deigning to follow the boy around. "That's her name. My mom had one, turned from a white cat to a Siberian Tiger. Much more impressive, I think. But, hey, once you get a Familiar, it's til death do you part." She handed the man behind the counter a few galleons and tossed a small hunk of meat toward Nightmare.

The kitten caught it in her mouth, becoming a panther to gulp it down before shrinking back to kitten size and weaving her way between the boys legs. Karma watched with a small smirk. "Either she likes you, or she's trying to freak you out. Whichever." She shrugged and pocketed the rest of the meat. "I'm Karma. Karma Black."

"English?" He asked taking note of her accent. "I'm guessing you go to Hogwarts yes?" He said his eyes trained on the cat. "Right." He said dusting his shoulder down in disgust as some hay managed to land on it. "So there's two of them." Great. He added as an after thought. Just what they needed, some giant killer cats.

"Can't you like put it on a leash or something?" He asked, staying still as it circles his legs.

"Dante." He said still distracted by the cat. "Dante De Silver II."

Karma grinned. "Nope, only one. Daydream, my mom's Familiar, died with her." She said, looking through the glass on one of the tanks in the store. She gently tapped on the glass, trying to make the frogs inside move.

She laughed and looked down at Nightmare, grinning at his suggestion. "Put her on a leash? Are you crazy? She'd kill me." She chuckled, crouching down and extending her arm to the cat.

Nightmare looked at her, but jumped onto the counter, then onto Dante's shoulder. Karma giggled, standing and raising an eyebrow at the cat. "Nice to meet you, Dante."

"Oh. Im sorry to hear about your mother." He said bowing his head in respect. Losing his mother recently stick hit a nerve so he knew how that felt. He turned to look at the frogs with her, no doubt a distraction from her mother. "Do you miss her?" He asked looking away to the snakes again to give her space to feel the emotions she obviously felt.

"A muzzle then perhaps?" He suggested looking down at the cats teeth. Anything like that should be locked up or set free into the wild where they belonged. They were called wild animals for a reason.

Dante swotted the cat away and dusted down his jacket, no one touched him without permission. But he wasn't in Italy now, and hardly anyone seemed to know who he was which sadened him.

Nightmare hit the ground in a crouch, her teeth bared and her hair on end. She seemed to think that this boy was above himself. Karma grinned and picked up the cat. "I never knew her, so it's fine." She shrugged. "Never knew any parents, really, but whatever, it's funner this way."

Karma grinned, holding up one of Nightmare's paws and squeezing the pad so the claw came out. It was wicked sharp. "You're free to attempt to put a muzzle on her, but all she'd have to do is change size to get out of it." She pet the kitten until she purred softly, but Nightmare still glared at him.

"Che sulla terra, controllo che cosa!" He said jumping back out of reach of the stupid cat. "Keep that thing under control will you?" He said placing a hand on the handle of his sword out of habbit. His master had always taught him to be caustious so now naturally he was.

He frowned. "Then where have you lived? Who looks after you?" He asked, he'd never known an orphan before so he didn't know how these things worked. He shook his head. "Aren't there people trained to do that kind of thing? I know you can get them adjusted to fit both forms incase it does decided to change and try to break free." He said looking at the cat as it glared at him.

"I need some air." He said slowly backing out the shop before leaving it.

Karma found herself reaching for the dagger at the small of her back in response to him reaching for his sword. She checked herself at the last minute, instead pulling out a piece of meat for the kitten. She fed it to her with a flick of her wrist as she chuckled. "I can't keep her under control any more than you can."

"No one looks after me. I look after myself. And well, there's portraits at home, and house elves around... I've never needed much." She shrugged. "I used to have a mentor, but he's died too, recently." She didn't go further into it, knowing full well that Arsen wouldn't like for her to be throwing around that he was killing people. Or maybe he would, cocky git.

She followed him out, curious enough to go against the chill of the air outside. She pulled up her hood, glad that Nightmare climbed and stowed herself around the back of her neck so that her arms could say warm beneath the cloak. "Are you alright?" she asked, a bit concerned. Or, maybe not concerned as much as curious. What was wrong with him?

"Fine just keep it away from me." He said looking at the man behind the counter and back to the snake behind him. Maybe he'd leave without a familiar, he didn't like any of those in here anyway.

"Seriously? You were brought by elves and portrait?" He asked, he couldn't believe people could allow that to happen. Surely someone knew she was there all alone with no one to take care of her. "Oh right." He said, it seemed everyone seemed to die around her too.

He turned to look at her out of the corner of his eye as she caught up. "Not really no. I've just been dumped into a world i know nothing about with people i can't even understand." He said hugging his coat closer to himself to keep him warm. Another thing he hated about this country, the weather was freezing!

Karma grinned. "Sounds like me in first year, when I realized that there was actually other people in the world who could use magic other than me and my neighbor." She shrugged. "What about you? Why were you dumped out here?" She shivered but didn't move. It was so much colder up here than it was back home.

He listened to her story and shrugged off his coat. "Would you like my coat?" He asked, he was wearing two anyway thanks to the unnaturally cold weather.

"My kingdom was taken over." He said turning to watch a bird making its nest in the tree. "My parents ruled Italy until recently when a rival country killed them both and took over my throne." He admitted, blinking back the tears he felt coming. He didn't even know why he was telling her this, he just needed someone he could talk to.

"So i was dumped here for my protection. A place where i know no one. I don't even belong here! I'd much rather be back home fighting for whats mine then sat here doing nothing." He frowned.

Karma grinned and nodded as she slipped his coat on under her cloak. It made her a bit warmer. "Thanks." She said softly.

She walked, gesturing to a bench and sitting on it. She looked up at him before looking down at the ground. "I'm sorry about your parents. It gets better. I promise." She sighed and pulled her knees up to her chest. She rested her chin on her knees and glanced over at him. So people kept dying around him too...?

"Fighting does always seem the best course of action at the time, doesn't it?" She said, her eyes going up toward the grey cloudy sky. "But in the long run, sometimes it isn't." She grinned. "I wonder why they didn't take you to Hogwarts. I expect you go to Durmstrang right?"

"You're welcome." He said following her to the bench and sitting down.

He nodded. "I know, i just don't know who they are anymore. They've lied to me my whole life. What i thought was life was just a small portion they decided i could see." He said looking off into the distance opposite to where Karma sat. He'd been lied to and hidden from the real world for so long he didn't even know what the lies were anymore.

"They have my life! And my people, i can't just sit around and watch them claim whats rightfully mine. I was born for the simple reason, they needed an heir. It is my birth right!" He said hating those that stopped him from doing what he wanted. He could be fighting now and getting nearer to his throne.

"They wanted to, but i wanted to be closer to my people. It was the only way i would leave. Of course Hogwarts would be safer for me but what kind of king would i be if i just ran and left my people suffering?" He asked turning to look back at her.

Karma looked at him, her eyes calculating. "Stepping back in order to veiw and plan from differant angles does not make you a bad king." She said seriously, meeting his eyes. "It wouldn't be safe to go against this force alone, not in the least. You'd need an army, or at least backup. And you wouldn't be able to die during the mission, or who would enherit the kingdom? No. What you need is an assassin, and an army, and then and only then would it be less than a suicide mission." She was seriously thinking about this now. Dangerous.

"So if you need an assassin, well, here I am. Looks like now you only need an army." She grinned. It was quite devilish really. "An alliance. What do you say?"

"I know but thats not whats happening. I am being cut off from my life and being shoved into another without so much as news to whats going on. They just expect me to sit here and be a good little boy and act like a normal kid. I don't even know what is expected of a normal kid!" He sighed, really hating his parents now for leaving him in this mess.

"I could probably fight better than most my men, yet they treat me like a child." He said shaking his head. He smiled and shook his head. "Thanks but you have no idea what your getting yourself into. Im talking country verses country here and i have an army... well whats left of them anyway. We're just waiting for their defenses to go down before we attack but that could take years." He frowned.

"I will make an alliance with you. Who knows i might need you after all." He smiled, at least now he felt like he was doing something. "But you will always be free to turn back, i wouldn't blame you. This isn't your fight after all."

Karma shrugged. "Being a normal kid isn't so hard. Not knowing what your doing is kinda the point." She watched the snowy horizen as Nightmare poked her head out and veiwed Dante over her shoulder. "And maybe if I ever go to Durmstrang for some reason, you can edjucate me on your country history."

She grinned over at him, happy he seemed a little less depressed.

"Thats easy for you to say. I'm foreign to this world, i can't understand a word half of you say and i speak perfect English!" He said giving her a smile when in fact, he was terrified of having to try and fit in because he knew he'd never be one of them and that meant he'd always be the boy on the sidelines. The one no one talks to because he's to weird to be cool.

He laughed. "Deal, im beginning to regret not going to hogwarts now. I seem to speak to you guys most." He shrugged. "If you ever come to Durmstrang you'll have to teach me to be normal." He smiled.

"You probably didn't get a lesson on the slang, huh?" She said thoughtfully. "That is something I can't help you with. Slang is not my forte." She shrugged. "Then again, maybe it's just the accents."

Karma snorted, and giggled a bit. "Well... I can't profess to be normal, or that I know how to be, I kinda stand out in most crowds, but I can do my best..." She smiled and winked at him. "Who knows? I might even be able to show you how to be better than normal. Once you see normal, maybe you'll hate it, like I did."

She reached into her cloak and pulled out a Chocolate Frog. "Well, as we're friends... or Allies, whatever, here is a token of... uh... promise?" She shrugged and handed it to him, pulling out one for herself. "Don't know if you've seen one before, but make sure you catch it when you open it." To demonstrate, she pulled hers open, and caught the chocolate frog as it jumped out of the container. She held it up for him to see.

He shook his head. "No i didn't even know Slang existed until recently. I swear you have just invented words to confuse people like me. What's wrong with old English?" He asked, he didn't understand the need to invent words with meanings that already had a word. "No accents i can deal with, i've traveled to many countries already."

"Normal or not, just anything to make me seem less weird. Or at least get a better clue of how to act like everyone else." He said watching as an older man walked passed, even he walked weirdly. It was weird how much you realised your life had been controlled once you lost it.

He gratefully took the frog, having not being allowed eat sugar as a kid it felt great to finally do as he pleased. "Wait they are alive? Thats barbaric." He said watching as she caught the live frog. "Oh just a spell." He smiled once the frog stopped moving. He opened his frog and caught it just as she had before biting a bit of its head off. "Hmm, this is delicious." He said taking another bite.

Karma hummed as she bit the head off her own Chocolate Frog, the chocolate inside filling her with warmth. She pushed the rest of it in her mouth, already going for the Chocolate Frog Card. "Gregorvitch." She mumbled through the chocolate, holding up the card for him to see. The little wandmaker on the card waved at him. "Who'd you get?"

He turned to look at the wand maker he'd never seen before. His wand had been made especially for him and he didn't even know that mans name. He glanced down at his own card and turned it over to see Asric Chaos, hunter and now Hogwarts headmaster. "Wow how bad is it that i didn't even know the Hogwarts headmaster?" He smirked.

"So what do you guys do for fun around here?" He asked.

Karma looked at the card. "I have that one." she said. "I have like three of them." She handed him her Gregorvitch Card. "A better way to learn whos who in Wizard History. Chocolate Frog Cards. You may gain weight, but you can tell yourself it's the knowledge in your brain." She grinned.

Karma shrugged. "I do absolutely nothing for fun around here. I'm not from around here, remember?" She laughed. "I was thinking of going hunting though. Should be harder than down around Hogwarts, I suppose." She smiled. "Are you any good at hunting, Dante?"