Chương 4: Book 1 - Chapter 4: I Am No Thing To Be Caught

Setting off again, Dominic was unpleasantly surprised when he ran into an invisible wall within a couple of paces. Face-first. Ow, he moaned, the grumble falling out of his half-open mouth as he pawed at his bruised muzzle. An unexpected sense of amusement made him jump and look around. There was nothing to be seen, but anyway, it hadn't felt like it came from anything outside him. Instead, it had felt distinctly like his own amusement – but not, because he hadn't been amused.

While prodding at the invisible wall in front him, a part of his mind was musing over the odd emotion. Actually, that wasn't the first time, was it? Now he was thinking about it, he remembered the surge of contempt he'd felt when he'd first tried to walk and tripped over his own paws. That was even before the whole anomalous protocol thing. Anomalous protocol…. Two bodies, two minds, two souls. Dominic froze, his paw stilled against the barrier.

A sudden possibility had just occurred to him as he considered a half-remembered battle in a void of cold and heat. And I decided to be the hero, didn't I, he groaned, dragging the paw he'd lifted over his muzzle. If God really is watching from above, then this has to be the height of dramatic irony for him. As if being reincarnated as the same kind of creature that killed him wasn't ironic enough. If he'd somehow ended up allowing the original soul to stay because he'd succumbed to the desire to play the hero…

well. That just confirmed the universe had a sense of humour. Or maybe it was purely Dominic's fault. Of course I'd be the most anomalous reincarnation of the lot, he snorted, feeling like it was a situation where he needed to laugh or cry – and as far as he knew, lions couldn't tear up. Dad always complains about how bad I am with admin. Figures I'd manage to complicate even a planet-wide bureaucratic process. He huffed. Despite his grumbling, he wasn't truly upset.

In fact, he reckoned he was currently a couple of steps beyond where he had been. Hunting things over the savannah as one of its fiercest predators had to be better than serving coffee. As long as his dad accepted him, that was. The thought reminded him of why he'd ended up walking face-first into a wall in the first place. Standing on his back paws, he walked up the wall with his front ones.

To his dismay, his exploration revealed that it reached almost as high as he could reach – and that it resisted his claws perfectly. Worse, when he stretched up to his fullest extent, he didn't find the top of the wall, but a ceiling. A sinking sensation went through him and he started prowling the length of the wall, hoping he was wrong. While he was doing that, he reassessed his earlier assumptions. Maybe it wasn't something I did that meant I was reincarnated as a lion. Maybe it's the lion's fault.

A sudden surge of outrage caught him off-guard. Somehow, he hadn't been expecting the unwanted passenger to be able to hear his thoughts. It had only previously reacted to his actions. Well, what have you done lately? he asked loudly, curious about whether it would get a response. To his fascination, it did – a surge of indignation, accompanied by a good deal of denial. Hah! I knew it! Dominic announced, briefly elated at their ability to communicate.

Though he sobered as he considered what the implications might be of two minds trying to coexist in the same body. In the end, he just shrugged and refocused on the invisible wall he'd run into. He'd cross that bridge when he got to it. Just like he'd figure out how to approach his father in a lion's body when he found the man. But to do that, he needed to get past this – or, as he was increasingly suspecting, get out of this. After a few minutes of walking quickly, he met another invisible barrier.

Fortunately, since he was travelling more slowly, he was able to react to the warning of his whiskers before he smashed into it nose-first again. Dominic had a new appreciation for whiskers by this point. Even as he continued prowling the length of this new barrier, Dominic mused about his human form – the message had mentioned two bodies. He'd pretty much confirmed that the previous occupant's mind and soul still remained squished next to his, so perhaps his body still existed in some form too.

Or perhaps not – the message had indicated it was both present and absent, somehow. Not that he was keen on turning back right now – he was enjoying the leonine body too much – but it would be useful to have as an option. He wondered whether he should feel guilty about essentially supplanting the lion in his own body. Nah, he decided after a bit of consideration. I'm pretty sure it… he's only sticking around at all because I didn't push him into the cold like I could have after I won our battle.

He wasn't sure whether he was imagining it, but thoughtfulness seemed to emanate from what he'd come to identify as the lion's spot in his mind. After a few more minutes and a fair bit of walking, Dominic was back where he'd started, his theory confirmed and his stomach had become a mess of snakes. It's a cage, he concluded soberly. Cages weren't good things – not when he was inside them. Unless it was a shark cage – then it was very good indeed. But now, as a lion?

Animalistic panic suddenly welled up inside him, and he, who had never been afraid of small spaces, felt nothing less than intense claustrophobia. Dragged into his new instincts, he threw himself at the wall bodily, biting and snarling, determined to get out! It was almost like he blacked out briefly, only, instead of falling unconscious, he simply lost all sense of reason and self control. When he finally managed to fight his way back out into a state of semi-calm, he felt like he'd been beaten.

Which he kind of had – by a wall. You want to get out? Then don't do that! he snarled at the other presence – that was where the panic had come from, he was sure of it. In fact, it simmered even now, threatening to drag him back under. Though, Dominic had to admit that not all of the fear came from the lion. His own imagination was going wild with reasons why he might be in a cage – and one like this specifically.

After all, if it had been a metal mesh, he would have thought it a human construction – bad, but arguably surmountable if he applied human intelligence to the problem. This was clearly something of a completely different calibre. His claws didn't work; there was no gate that he'd found; the ceiling wasn't a way out either. But he couldn't be entirely trapped or how had he got in? This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. What about the floor, he mused.

Maybe I can dig under the wall. Heading over to the wall closest to the hill he'd been walking towards, Dominic started his tunnelling attempt. Digging at the dry, hard ground with his paws was not pleasant, but he was surprised at how well they worked for the task. It took him a bit of time to get into the motion, but he soon found a good pace and the hole grew rapidly. And then, about half his foreleg's depth into the ground, he hit it – another barrier.

Dominic snarled in frustration and had to battle against a resurgence of panic. He was utterly trapped in a box that was probably twenty metres by perhaps a bit more than that, and four metres high from bottom barrier to top – assuming he was a normal lion size and not some sort of miniature version. Pulling himself out of the hole, he slumped next to it, deciding to take a break while he considered what to do next – that digging had been tiring.

While he rested his chin on his dirty paws and considered the problem, he found his thoughts wandering back the first messages he'd seen. He was pretty sure he'd put things together now. He was too much lion for the Sapient Being message, and too much human for the Beast message. Hence the anomalous protocol. Yet, clearly, he had not been entirely cut off from the path of growth – had, perhaps, been set on a different one. Predation, stage one, he murmured, remembering the message that had flashed up.

I wonder, he mused, thinking back to the Sapient Being message. Status? Though half-expecting it, Dominic flinched when text appeared before his eyes again. DOMINIC MARTIN COLE /? Species:? Form/s:? Tier/Rank:? Domains Predation – Basic Stage 1 So this is how it works, Dominic murmured to himself as he identified Predation as a 'Domain'. There's an 's', he noted. Does that mean I can unlock more? If so, Dominic was determined to get as many as he could.

Regardless of how his body had changed, this was his lucky break. And, if the name of the protocol that had pulled him here was anything to go by, his situation might just be unique. It took him a couple of tries to work out how to dismiss the status screen, and when he did, he pulled it up again a moment later just to check that he could and that nothing had changed. He could and it hadn't. He tried a few obvious commands – inventory, messages, health bar – but nothing useful appeared.

Still, he wasn't too disappointed. That he had a status screen at all was promising; that there was so little information on it was more frustrating, however. More to the point, although intriguing and promising for the future, it offered no more clarity on the present than he'd had before – nor what to expect. For all he knew, this was a gladiator cage – the pig-dogs might have been the first opponent of many, sent in group by group until he was finally brought down.

Bear-baiting had been a thing among humans; why not lion-baiting among whoever – or what ever – had captured him? He needed to get out of here. But how? The ceiling wasn't an option unless it had a hole somewhere – but he could spend forever trying to find it. Perhaps he could push his way out of the walls.

Standing up, Dominic proceeded to do his best to make a dent in the wall, but, no matter how much force he applied, how much he ripped at it with his claws, or bit at it with his teeth, he made not the slightest impression. The floor, then? Dominic wondered after he tired of throwing himself at an unyielding surface. He was also rather bruised and was keen to attempt a different technique, though it seemed as much of a long-shot as the ceiling. After all, what did he expect to be below the barrier but more dirt?

The best he could hope for would be to crack the barrier enough to make a hole and then dig a tunnel out. Leaning into the hole, he struck at the barrier below him with full force. Then, his frustration and fear drained away as he noticed something. He repeated the action. Interesting. His head tilting to one side, he dropped his full weight once more on his front paws. Sure enough, the ripple in space repeated – the invisible barrier had become briefly visible, flashing blue and opaque for a fraction of a second.

What if I do that in quick succession? Determination filling him, he lifted and dropped his weight onto the barrier with rapid movements. It was very awkward, but less so than it would have been as a human. It seemed to be working. The barrier stayed visible for longer and he started recognising hexagonal shapes in the bright, opaque blueness. He shivered – not in fear or cold, but in relief. Finally he was having an impact. This was the way out! I will not live another life in an invisible box, he swore.

A moment later, there was a clicking sound that filled the air, almost like someone was tut-tutting, and he felt a sudden wave of reproach. However, what made Dominic pause for a moment was the certainty that it wasn't the lion this time – it was even more eager to get out of this place than he was. Another clue was that instead of emerging from that small spot in his mind, it had blasted into his face like he'd been hit on the muzzle by a newspaper.

Dominic's thoughts immediately returned to his theory that he was in a gladiator's cage. And clearly his attempts to escape were meeting with disapproval. Good, Dominic thought spitefully. I'm a lion, not a dancing monkey that will perform obediently for you! Baring his teeth briefly at the ceiling, he turned his attention back on his task and doubled-down on his efforts, forcing the barrier to reveal itself again and again.

A few moments later, he let out a rumble of achievement when a quiet, but audible crack met his ears. I am no thing to be caught, he gloated to the watcher, though with no idea whether it would actually hear him or not – certainly it hadn't responded to his previous pointed thoughts. Abruptly, the reproach was replaced by nonchalance – and curiosity. As if the observer was saying 'alright, fine, have at it – I'd like to see what happens next'. Oddly enough, it was that sudden switch that made Dominic hesitate.

Is this reverse psychology or is this actually not a good idea? he wondered uneasily. His sense of disquiet increased as more cracking sounds rang out, like he'd made the first crack in an ice shelf rather than in a barrier. Dominic briefly wondered apprehensively whether he'd misjudged. As he caught sight of what lay below the barrier, he knew he had. Scrambling backwards, he watched as the small crack he'd made transformed into a cavernous chasm, nothing visible within it but void blackness. This…

might have been a bad idea, he admitted to himself as he backed as far as he could away from the earth around the hole that was beginning to shake. But it was too late. Dominic watched, horrified, as the hole extended sideways in two directions, a crack swallowing up increasingly large quantities of earth and grass.

The crack reached the wall nearest to the hole and, instead of opening up the barrier so Dominic could escape, it caused the whole wall to suddenly go blank, the savannah suddenly obscured by the bright sort of opaque blueness that he'd noticed in the barrier beneath when he'd been flexing it. Dominic's stomach sank as he wondered whether anything had been real or just a projection.

It seemed impossible – the savannah and sky had looked so realistic, not a single bit of distortion indicating the presence of the barriers he knew were there. But it seemed the only explanation as the crack fractured further and the two walls on either side of Dominic as well as the ceiling above his head also went blue screen of death and then cracked apart to show nothing but a black void beyond.

He and his animal mind were in true communion as the edge of the void approached the corner he was pressed into with inevitability. Like a mindless beast, he scrabbled at the now-blue walls, looking for something, anything to catch his claws onto. But, though no longer invisible, the walls resisted his claws like every other time before. The ground crumbling below his feet, he stared into the abyss in a way he hadn't previously dared to, his instincts screaming at him not to pay it too much attention.

And now, as the crack approached the tiny fragment of earth on which he was perched, he had the distinct sense that something was looking back. And that it had noticed him. Oh hell! he cried out mentally, nothing but a faint whimper emerging from his lips. The crack reached the wall behind him. The earth crumbled beneath his feet. He fell into blackness.