<div class="floatright">(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag94/Autocad-E/fbb2a6e48ece10846e09a5781586bedb_zps50nw9bkt.jpg)</div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;">Catherine "Cat" Katniss (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=873915)</span><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Background</div><div class="spoiler_body">He (you read that correctly) was once a soldier who didn't like cats, and once in a drunken fit of drunkenness he did drunken things inside a temple of Bastet, kicking over tables, molesting priestesses, peeing on altars, that kind of stuff. Well, Bastet had the last laugh, because she turned him into a woman and plopped cat ears and tail on the now her for extra irony as a divine punishment. The ranking priestess told her - at least after she managed to stop laughing - that she had to serve Bastet as a priestess to atone and have any chance of returning to her original form. So now she's doing that but also trying to find another way to undo the transformation on the side.<br/><br/>Catherine, or "Cat" for short, is an Oracle of Bastet with the Lunar mystery and the Tongues curse, speaking in meow-and-nya-flavoured tongues in times of stress. Also, she's got a tiger companion "Hobbestet" to keep an eye on her on behalf of the goddess and make sure she isn't up to no good.</div></div><br/><br/><hr/><br/><em>"Stay behind. The two of us can go forth on point. Several should wait outside in case some weird trap comes from outdoors...or we need to be busted out with a geomancy spell."</em><br/><br/>Cat had signed up for the expedition, hoping to find within some hint to solving the problem of his - now her - condition. She had a perpetual scowl on her face, as every step she took reminded her of what she had lost... and gained. The sway of her hips instead of her old straightforward gait, the pair of weights on her chest that made her back hurt if she wasn't careful...<br/><br/>She was just fine with the order to hang back while the leaders delved into the pyramid. Let them trigger the traps - everyone knew there were traps, it was just a question of how many and where - after all. Although if they were meant to keep something<em>in</em>instead of people out, it wasn't an entirely comfortable prospect.<br/><br/>The juvenile tiger, not anymore a cub but not yet a fully grown adult, napped in a curled up ball at her feet. Damned cat; he had just shown up one day, and refused to leave. And he wouldn't respond to any name other than Hobbestet either, so she couldn't even name him herself. No doubt he was Bastet's minion sent by the goddess to keep an eye on her, as if her condition wasn't enough of a divine punishment already. At least the other workers were too scared of him to go near her, which suited her just fine.<br/><br/>Cat was idly looking at some of the hieroglyphs on the walls, wondering what stories they told, when she felt something off in her magical sense, that she couldn't pin down concretely. As though it was a dark night and someone had uncovered a lantern, the beacon visible even from a distance, but instead of night it was day and the lantern cast out darkness instead of light. Hobbestet apparently felt it too, as the great cat stirred and yawned, inadvertently showing off a mouthful of large sharp teeth, and the workers gave him even more space. But whatever it was, it came from deeper within the pyramid... and Tora and Shelna were down there with it, and they probably needed help. "Heel", she said, and the tiger padded obediently after her as she started to follow in their steps.<br/><br/>Although unlike most dungeons, "deeper" in the pyramid meant going<em>up</em>instead of down, as Cat passed by deactivated pressure plates and spent magical traps. She cast<em>light</em>on the tip of her quarterstaff to illuminate her way as she made her way up, calling out "Tora!" and "Shelna" occasionally.