<div class="floatright">(https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/images/brock-ohurn-1.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Houser<br/><strong>Pet Name:</strong>Baekho<br/><strong>Breed:</strong>Maine Coon<br/><strong>Wearing:</strong>Blue Jeans, ratty white shirt under a leather biker jacket/black three piece Armani Suit<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Australian/New Zealand Temple of Bast/Catmandu<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>None<br/><strong>Content:</strong>Defending his Eye and dealing with his summons<br/><hr/><br/>Houser did a running baseball slide to avoid the fireball that whizzed past his head, searing the ends of some of his long hair in the process. “Fire! Why is it always fire?”<br/><br/>He had been checking on the Temple in preparation of Bast Day. Being in Catmandu on such a day as Bast Day meant that he would have been hard pressed to hurry back to his post as Guardian of an Eye if the temple came under attack. So he had wanted to make sure that the illusions and wards in place were not at risk of crumbling when the Temple itself had come under attack.<br/><br/><em>Damn warlocks and their traitorous Familiars!</em>thought Houser as his Arch appeared in hand. He’d been bouncing around dodging fireballs all while leaving clones of himself behind in hiding. They were nothing more than illusions, but his Master had told him during his apprenticeship that each of the Nine were all gifted with unique gifts that set them apart from Catkind. As one of the Nine, technically he answered only to Bast. However, as she had been rather silent for sometime the King of Catmandu was given authority over the Nine, so long as his orders did not interfere or intrude on their duties as one of the Nine.<br/><br/>Shifting to his Cat form, he streaked closer to the fool who thought that such a prize as an Eye of Bast would be left unattended. This Temple only ever had one Guardian. As it was so far removed from normal human society that the fastest way to get here was through a warded gateway. Being near the center of the Australian Continent, most humans avoided coming this far inland as it was considered for the most part inhospitable. The aborigines steered clear of the place, having ancient legends about entering it is taboo and to enter is to forfeit ones life.<br/><br/>Once he was within easy striking distance of the warlock, he activated his illusionary clones. They charged the Warlock from eight different directions. The human thinking this some kind of advanced magic panicked. Houser made him pay for it, with his life. His arch sang out and clove the fool’s head from his shoulders.<br/><br/>Houser retracted the blade with a negligent flick of his wrist as he spun in place, searching for the Familiar. The Eye hadn’t been touched yet, or he would have known about it. And since he’d been kept on the defensive, dodging fireballs, he hadn’t had a chance to kill the pesky familiar. It was the enhanced instinct of being a Guardian that caused him to do a backflip narrowly avoiding the crossbow quarrel that would have taken him in the spine. His enemy was too far out of reach for him to use his arch effectively, so he set off at a dead run even as his foe reloaded the crossbow.<br/><br/>Houser absently pondered why the familiar was using a crossbow given that firearms were so prevalent in modern times. But that didn’t stop him from rolling to the side as the familiar made one last attempt at shooting him. By then Houser was close enough to strike with his arch. The blade grazed the other cat’s cheek, but that was enough. Houser wasn’t about to play games with a Familiar. Especially not one who had discovered the location of a Temple. His blade was extruding a concentrated form of the Coastal Eastern Taipan’s venom.<br/><br/>The venom was so strong that in an excited victim, it paralyzed within seconds and because it was magical it took multiple spells to disperse.<br/><br/>Houser came to stand over the familiar whose fingers twitched towards a pistol but because of the neurotoxin wasn’t able to move enough to do anything serious. “Trespass upon the Sacred Temple of Bast is punishable by death. You are a traitor to your own kind and the duty set to us by the Goddess Bast. I would take the time to sit here and watch as the toxin worked it’s way through you, however, I have other duties to perform today. So I shall make your end quick.”<br/><br/>The blade flashed twice. Severing the head and cleaving the heart in two. He gathered the carcasses and heads up and dropped them into a gateway that would open up a half mile out to sea depositing them far, far from the Temple. He quickly set to work restoring the damaged and destroyed wards, when one of the Monks appeared at the gate to the Temple.<br/><br/>Houser ignored him as he tended to his duties.<br/><br/>“Houser, Guardian of the Australian Eye, I bid thee greetings in the name of King Bahadur and Queen Apinya. I am to…” started the Monk when Houser approached the Gate. “Hey, are you listening to me?”<br/><br/>Houser looked at him with an indifferent and chilling look. “One does not need to speak in order to be listening. Deliver your message then leave this place, Monk. I am aware of my duties on Bast Day. But my duties as a Guardian take precedence over a summons from the King”<br/><br/>“But…” started the monk.<br/><br/>“What happens if one of the nine Eyes of Bast were to be destroyed or worse?” asked Houser trying to be patient.<br/><br/>“Ugh…” started the Monk clearly overwhelmed by Houser’s approach.<br/><br/>“Exactly. The barriers between worlds would destabilize at best or at worse the Apocalypse occurs. Now, I am attending to my duties. I’m almost done. But the longer you distract me, the longer it takes, and the longer it takes for me to appear in Catmandu. And if you call down Sphinx Cats to have me dragged off, I will have a word with the High Priestess herself about you.” Said Houser before walking away.<br/><br/>He finished his work. Then motioned for the Monk to follow. He passed through a rock face that hid a gateway to Catmandu. Once there, he used his larger than normal stride to cause the monk to have to all but job in order to keep up. He stopped at a vendor and paid for his offerings seeing as the fight had prevented him from bringing the fresh fillet of salmon he had acquired specifically for today.<br/><br/>Then he had stopped at a bath house, forced the monk to hold his offering before grabbing a bath. It would not be seemly to show up before the King and Queen dirty, covered in shards of dusty rock, and your hands covered in blood. He appeared from the bath house with his hair and beard expertly groomed, dressed in a three piece suit, tailored specifically for him by the great cat, Giuseppe Armani. It would have appeared to be tailored for a human, except that there was give in all the places he would need if he had to run or fight.<br/><br/>He took back the offering from the Monk and led the way to the Palace. He appeared in the courtyard just in time to see Felix brought to court in a cat carrier. He approached the Throne and bit back the remark about the King’s presence being even more fluffy and poofy than normal. Instead, he merely placed his hand over his head, bowed to the King and Queen, “Your Highness. You appear to be in… good health, sire.”<br/><br/>Turning his attention to the Queen, he said with a smile, “And all of us stand in awe of the Queen’s radiance, which only grows with time.”<br/><br/>Stepping back, he looked at Felix he grunted. He wanted to ask if the other cat had no shame or dignity. Appearing in court carried in a cat carrier! Houser would suffer a thousand bathes at the hands of the Young Mistress rather than suffer that indignity.<br/>