>>5905352>>5905316>>5905279If you take it to a veterinarian, it’ll die on the way there, and you’d rather not let a random cat die just based on a guess.
Apart from that one cockroach, you never tried unreliable habit on a living thing, but it’s the only option you can think of that could save the cat in this condition.
You focus, the pattern of the wound is, unsurprisingly, a mess. Generally speaking, the more ‘repeatable’ something is, the more ‘pattern-like’ it is. If you can say ‘I’m seeing a pattern here’ towards something, then it should count.
Problem is, the crushed ribs of the cat and the internal bleeding is all but repeatable. Even if you were an expert on cat biology, it would still be hard to figure out what belongs where. Even so, you push through and try to disrupt the wound.
The cat’s skin starts to stretch, until it detaches itself from the body and...nothing, the skin just stands there. You try to disrupt the bleeding, but the cat pukes more blood. You feel like you're making it worse, but maybe if you can hold the cat just right then-
It isn’t breathing anymore.
You stare at the bloody carcass under you, as if you expected it to jump back up at any moment. But it doesn’t, it was a normal cat. If you had better medical knowledge, could you have saved it? or if your powers were slightly different, or if-
No, it doesn’t matter, it was an accident, and you did the best you could at the moment. You carry the body of the cat to the garden, and starts digging a small grave for it. The kids are still looking at you, this time fear is the only emotion present in their eyes, you can’t blame them, you killed one of their friends after all.
Once the grave is finished, you feel the ground give way beneath you. The dirt swallows you and pushes you deep within the earth, then deeper than the earth, then deeper than death. For some reason, you aren’t scared, it feels like home.
“Acceptable,” A booming voice says. A thing towers over you, its multicolored, bulging eyes gazing at you like you are a caged animal in a zoo. You can’t read any pattern from it, because there are no such things here. A pattern-less place, this is the thing that bothers you most here.
“You sought me, yet you were willing to pass the chance to meet me to save another life. It wasn’t your fault, yet you felt guilt for the death of a lowly thing you did not know. You failed, yet you accepted that one’s path cannot be carved by mulling over one’s past mistakes, but by moving forward and learning from them.” It tilts what you think is its head. “You have my attention. I shall grant you one wish.”
You don’t say anything, you don’t think you can in this place. Somehow, it still understands.
“Granted.”
