On a quiet night in a peaceful town, a pair of cats from another world gather a clowder for a ritual that will bring unforetold wonders onto a young man with hidden potential.

A breeze blew through the lakeside town on a most unusual night. Well perhaps it would be considered unusual if anyone were to witness what was taking place in the backyard of the two-story white walled house near the entrance of the Cul-du-sac. To look over the fence and see the seven cats sitting in a circle near the tall tree in the yard’s corner. Which isn’t strictly speaking unusual as plenty of neighborhoods have cats unless you take into account, the fact that they were talking to each other. Five amongst the small clowder chatted excitedly in their newly understood speech as the older two watched their charges. Then, the dark furred queen, Kissi, spoke “Everyone!” their charges attention to the older female “The Surge is now upon us.”.

“Are we really going to learn magic, now?” asked Uther and Lina, a pair of orange and black kittens their green eyes flickering in anticipation.

“Not yet, tonight is your initiation into the arcane arts during which you will be aided by myself and my partner, Balmung,” Kissi announced “your education will begin once you have completed the Trial of Drawing and unlocked your full reserve.”

Once his partner had finished, Balmung sprinted over the house’s ivy covered back wall, waved his paws in the air in a sowing motion unsheathing his claws at the end as the vines came to life flailing back and forth like live tongues weaving into something resembling a staircase. The white tom turned to the others “Now, everyone make your way up the vines, one at a time,” he ordered “once everyone is on the balcony, Kissi will grant you entry into the house.” The female walked up the ramp of vines with the others following close behind her. With the rest of the clowder on the balcony, the male trekked upward to reconvene with them as the ramp collapsed around him. He and Kissi nodded to each other and then the queen walked over to the sliding glass door ran her paw against the surface then swat it causing the door to open a crack. She opened the door wide enough to let the charges and her partner in then entered herself.



Now that everyone was inside the house, Balmung scouted ahead down the dimly lit hall peeked into two of the bedrooms and to the tom’s satisfaction their occupants were still fast asleep jaunted back to the clowder and motioned them to follow him to the only remaining bedroom at the end of the hall. He ran his paw underneath the crack between door and the floor and with a slow stroke against its surface the door quietly slid ajar. Balmung turned to the initiate charges, “Before we begin the Trial line up, from the first female to your last male.” Midnight stepped ahead then Uther then Lina then Storm and then finally, Jinx and the older tom opened the door wide enough for them to enter through. They walked into the dark bedroom furnished by a desk, a large dresser and a large four poster bed with a black-haired young man lying in rest tucked tightly beneath the covers, in perfect position for the clowder’s purposes. Kissi walked into the room ahead of the others stopping at the foot of the bed “Now as we’ve discussed, one by one you will each siphon a portion of this human’s magic into yourselves not only unlocking your own reserves of magic but bestowing him with the power to command his own.” She drew her ears back, twisted her tail upward and opened her mouth agape to demonstrate to anyone who had forgotten. Midnight, a black female, went first leapt onto the bed standing on the human male’s chest before positioning herself as the queen had demonstrated and slowly but surely a thin shadowy wisp rose from his being and crept its way towards her open mouth. The magic then shifted from a creep into a gradual, steady flow filling the young female with power as her reserves sprung open like a freshly dug well until it stopped coming all together. Midnight leapt off the bed, Uther jumped on and repeated his fellow initiate’s steps and siphoned until no more would come followed by his sister who did the same. Next was Storm, a blue-gray male, who struggled at first to get a steady stream to come into him but when it did the magic filled him rapidly and when he was finished, he leapt off the bed with a resounding thud causing the older cats to flinch. But finally, an odd-eyed female, Jinx followed her the steps of the others and the magic came to her quickly in a large globule shoving itself down her throat unlocking her reserves. As soon as Jinx was finished, Kissi turned to the space underneath the desk, swished her jaws and tongue around then in similar position in which she demonstrated the siphoning rapidly opened her maw as a beam of cool colored energy shot into the space under the desk and widened into a dark portal to which the queen had then ushered her charges into with only a few giving a brief moment of hesitation before stepping through then Balmung entered and the queen trailed behind him as the portal began to spiral out of existence.



Jinx and the others came to in a courtyard with vine wrapped walls and got to their hindlegs as they looked around trying to assess their new environment. “I can see everyone made it here in one piece,” said a familiar female voice, the quintet of newly awakened Familiars looked in the direction of the fountain as Kissi walked out from behind it now dressed in a pelttight indigo outfit with gold trim “Allow me to give you an emphatic welcome to your new world, Caliban! Now follow me and we’ll get you all some suitable clothing and then I’ll show you to the dorms for you all to get some well-earned rest. You all have a long first day of training ahead of you.” The quintet looked at each other and seeing little other choice followed their new teacher across the sprawling campus.



When Xander woke that morning, he rose from his bed to the feeling of something powerful...