Kate and Apollyon were relaxing on Kate’s balcony after their trip to the museum and a wonderful dinner.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” Apollyon looked over at the Nightmare snuggled against her.

“Going to the military museum with me.”

“I have to admit that I had fun. I must thank you for asking me to go there.”

“Hey, you asked to go this early, I would have been fine if we did this in a few years or so. I’m glad you had a good time though.”

“I think I would like to return there eventually, there are many small homes and weapons I want take a closer look at.”

“Sign me up! There is still so much to learn.”

“There truly is.”

“Speaking of learning, there was a piece of information missing that I would have liked to know.”

“Okay. I might be able to answer a few questions.”

“What are the other High Commanders doing now?”

“You know about War, Hera and Fury. Freya is studying the various species of Hell cats, Neith is writing novels and I believe Astarte is still travelling the border world.”

“That sounds quite reasonable...wait. You said species of Hell cats, as in multiple different ones?”

“Yes. The three cats you know are common Hell cats. Two different variations of the common Hell cat, but still just the baseline. Sera is a blood forest cat, their white fur is pretty unique. Rin and Mochi are what we call city cats. The correct terminology would be Acheronian plains cats, recognizable by the swirly patterns in their fur colouring. There are some cat species with starker differences though.” Apollyon paused. “Do you want to take another journey outside? I know where we could find a few of them.”

Kate’s eyes lit up. “YES!”

The two demons were kneeling on a ledge in the Kurian mountains looking across the chasm between two sharp peaks. On the other side was a small group of black cats, each adorned with tiny horns and a pair or leathery wings.

“Kurian mountain cats. They don’t wander into towns often and are quite hard to befriend, mainly because they just ignore demons most of the time.”

Kate just observed the cats in awe and didn’t respond.

Apollyon continued. “I’m a bit sad that they keep away from us. They are truly adorable.”

“That they are.”

One of the cats dove off their ledge to snatch up a rodent on the cliff below. After a little snack it stretched its wings and made its way back up to the other cats.

Kate couldn’t help but stare. “Oh no… that’s too cute. They’re literally just demon cats!”

“There are stories of them roosting on the roofs of homes in the city of Kur, you know the one we visited a few years ago that was built into the mountainside.”

“Now I almost regret not moving to Kur.”

“Don’t you worry about not getting enough cat visitors, Sheol is on the travel routes of a very cute type of cat we will hopefully see later. There is one place I want to take you before we go to them though.”

“Sounds good.”

Kate and Apollyon left once the mountain cats had huddled together for a nap. The two demons now sat on a bench in the upper streets of the abyss, a giant conical canyon with extensive cave systems beneath it.

Apollyon conjured a few pieces of meat and placed them beside herself. “It usually doesn’t take long for one to show up.”

“Abyssal cats, right?”

“Yes. Smaller than our common cats, but with some cute bonus appendages.”

“Bonus appendages?”

A small furry tentacle made its way from under the bench to the meat pile, dragging a piece down. It sounded like whatever had snatched up the snack was quite happy with it. It wasn’t long before the cat in question jumped onto the bench to have the rest of the meat bits.

The abyssal cat was dark blue with two fuzzy tentacles extending from its shoulders. It used its tentacles to drag any stray bits of food towards itself to not have to move while eating. After gobbling up everything Apollyon had given it, it thanked both demons with a gentle rub against their legs and a loud happy meow. With that, it slinked away into the shadows under the bench.

“Bonus appendages indeed. That was adorable.”

Apollyon nodded. “They are native to the lower Abyss but travel up here for the same reason most cats spend time in our settlements: food, cuddles and fun.”

Kate giggled. “I suppose that is why we all spend time in our settlements.”

“That’s not untrue.”

“You said something about the lower Abyss, I thought this canyon was all there is?”

“Oh no, the lower part of the Abyss is much larger than the inhabited areas. Here and the upper caves are all part of one large settlement, but the deepest caves are largely unexplored. We don’t know how deep it goes and how far it reaches. It connects to the caves under Kur at minimum.”

“That is almost the entire way across the inhabited part of Hell.”

“Yes. The Abyss is one of the few things that scare me. We can venture in there if you want, but you will have to excuse if I hesitate.”

“That’s fair. I would love to go down there one day, but there is no rush. A little bit of mystery is fun too.”

“That it is. I must admit that I am curious what horrors live in those depths.”

“I remember that there is this large burrowing thing that sheds its skin. Joro told me about it when we decided on using Atteka for a floor.”

“I would like to see one up close.”

“I would too.”

“I would also like to show you another kind of cat before we return to cuddles.”

“Let’s go then.”

Over on the banks of the river Lethe, Kate and Apollyon easily found the cats they were looking for. They came running as the demons teleported in, meowing at them. The cats stood on their hind legs, their front ones shortened, their thick tail swinging behind them. There was a hint of scales under their fur. Overall, they looked like a mix of cute raptor and cat.

Kate reached out into their minds to understand what they were yelling about. It was a question: Friend?

Conjuring meat chunks for all of them made them confirm: Friend!

“These are the wandering cats I told you about, this group will arrive in Sheol in the equivalent of three border world years, but of course there are more herds travelling around. We call them raptor kittens. Their proper name is felisaurs. They are very playful and love the company of demons. They will also just nap on you for a long time if you let them. That is why I brought you here last, so we can spend time cuddling with them if you want.”

“Cuddling with you under a pile of cats sounds like a great idea.”

“I thought so as well.”

“Before we surrender to the cats, there are even more different ones out there, right?”

“Of course. These were just the ones I knew how to find on short notice. Shadow cats for example would have been utterly impossible to find on purpose.”

“Fair enough. Any favourites among them?”

“A hard question… I am quite fond of abyssal cats. I love them all though.”

“It’s hard not to, isn’t it? They are all so cute.”

Velhari

A bit of a shorter chapter today, but I wanted to do some Hell world building before we get to more big plot stuff soon. And after teasing all the cute cat varieties in a comment recently, I couldn't help but actually show them sooner rather than later.