章 1: ch:1
For the longest time, we had wondered where we came from. Some thought we were born of light and dark but we all knew that we were not from nature. And so we sought those answers that we were never given. For ages we picked through the ruins of the ancient culture that preceded us, sometimes we would find clues leading closer to what we really were. We pieced it together slowly trying to understand our past and our origins. We would scramble over forgotten war machines lost to time, through tunnels, abandoned cities and, long roads that seemed to go nowhere. When we would go looking for answers I would sometimes wonder what it was like when they were alive, I didn't know who they were but I still wondered.
When I was just a kitten I would sit on the hill overlooking our small town. Over the walls, ruins could be seen, and when the sun would set it would glint through the crumbling towers. That was back then, but even now not much had changed. We still didn't know much, but we had found some pieces of our past, they were buried underground in ancient complexes that had become dilapidated over the centuries.
Over the ages, we had learned a few things from the complexes. There were other nations of Precursors as well as Poeso, and that they had an in-depth knowledge of us. One of the older archeological finds was of a map of our world, and it was made of pure light. It was found near the southern border of our kingdom under the devil's spine. The map was detailed and led to an understanding of our language and names a little. What we called the Devil's spine they called the garden of the gods, our kingdom of Aurora had come directly from one of their cities. The area they called the black forest we did as well, probably for a different reason though. The kingdom of Cheyenne was named after their region too. We were just a small fraction of the world. There were countries that were two to three times larger than the "United States" region we inhabited.
Then there were the obvious facts that required no adventuring, ones that were undisputed like there was a war, and we were pretty certain that was when the Precursors died out or left, no one knows because no one ever found any remains. We also knew that we were close to the precursors and even lived with them. Those machines were theirs too and the ruins. They were obviously more advanced. However, we also used the same language, as we understood the writing within the ruins we would find. Even still, To us, they seemed like gods.
They were the basis of our religion and our testaments. We knew there was something between us and them. The most common belief was in light and dark. That the precursors created the sun and moon to rule over and watch us while they were gone. That one day they would return. Others believed that the sun and moon were the precursors themselves. That's what most wanted to believe anyway. In reality, most of us knew that it was something else but we couldn't explain what. So we let ourselves be content until we understood more.
I remember when I was little my father showed me something he had found on an expedition. It was a plastic statue a little larger than my paw it was a calico just like me. The only difference was that this Poeso was on all fours like the beasts in the woods. I felt like it was important, and we had found mutes just like this before. They were savage and didn't understand language or even society. They were too similar to us for there not to be a connection. For the most part, however, we just tried not to interact with them. They were unsettling, they looked deranged and mangey. The guards would see them prowling around outside of the walls at night. For that reason, we had to build longer walls to house the herds of guineapigs while we slept.
Some attempts were made several years ago to communicate with them in hopes of learning about our past. All we learned was that unlike us they have claws on their forepaws, no thumb, and can jump about four times their height. Like us, they use all four legs to run and move quickly. Some mutes were friendly others weren't sometimes they would sit and stare as you walked by. You could feel their gaze piercing you. It bothered most adventurers, however, most of us also carried a small sword anyways.
The mutes were scary simply because they were like us but with no reason. There were other beasts too that were much more terrifying. Like bears that when standing could reach halfway up the walls. Apparently, they used to be smaller but they seemed to grow larger every time we saw them. Occasionally we would see herds of giraffes that stood so tall they would dwarf our tallest buildings, all except the town walls.
When we would adventure into the precursor's cities the old machines were so large they could have made up half of our town. There was a story that they found an operational one in the far east. It destroyed seven entire cities before they were able to kill it. The thing is, is that was in Mohawk territory. They were the largest empire of Poeso with the largest military that we knew of. The map that we found showed that there were once a good seven hundred machines around the world just like that one. There was only one that was now operational in the "United States" region. It was somewhere in the kingdom of Cheyenne but that's all we knew. There were others marked on the map we found. They seemed to roam freely in the "Africa" and "Russia" regions.
The incident in the far east had caused a religious movement, at first it was just a running joke but it soon started to gain traction. Some believed that the machines were the true gods and had become angry that we were worshipping the Precursors. They believed that the Precursors were devils. This idea gained a lot of followers of extremely religious people. The majority of us however followed the testaments, that if we waited and explored the truth would be revealed to us. The testaments were known throughout every kingdom and empire. They were supposedly put in place by our first ancestors and had just been passed down. Most Poeso were curious about the past and followed them out of curiosity and just logical reasoning.
I was one of those who followed the testaments. I was also an adventurer, like most I was not content with living and not knowing who I was. There were some things that tied me down. Things that made me content with just living in the town, things like my wife and kids. But no matter how much I loved them I needed answers. Unlike most of my friend's wives, my wife was fine with me being an adventurer. We had met on an expedition and fallen in love, her name was Nadia, she was a beautiful siamese with sleek tan fur. She became a school teacher after our daughter Pella was born. We had a son named Rajan a few years later. And then there was me. I was called Cat. It was a sacred name with relatively unknown origin. It was old and my father told me it was the name the Precursors gave us. I was proud of it.
Thinking about all of this it made me wonder even more what we were. I put my jacket on and my claw guards on, and then my boots over them. Strapping my sword onto my waist I kissed Nadia goodbye.
"Be safe" she said
"I will" I pated the kids' heads and closed the door, there had been a new complex uncovered and I was part of the expedition.
クリエイターの想い 
CHODINGERS_CAT
CHODINGERS_CAT not too great at writing but I like it and I think some others might.