I try to reassure myself that most of them just want simple, little things. That effort is only mildly successful, however. I can feel the sense of silent desperation all around me. Too few meals, wounds that were never properly treated, exhausted bodies and weary spirits. These wouldn't be simple, casual good deeds. A lot of these people clearly needed help, and likely more help than I, a mere dog, could possibly hope to offer.
No, no sense despairing over such things. I just have to do my best, and hope that that will be enough.
Vile stood up and sighed from her place atop the back of her feline slave as she looked to me. "Don't tell me, let me guess... you plan on doing all of the quests here, don't you?"
"How did you know?" I ask.
"Well, you are a paladin. I suppose that it's only natural." Slave says, "We shouldn't stay here too long, though. Aren't you trying to catch up to your owner?"
There's something strange about that last part. Not the idea in itself, as it was quite a reasonable one, but there was an odd anxiety, a hopefulness to her words.
"It''s true, I do need to find him." I say, "But that doesn't mean that I can abandon those in need."
Slave crinkles up her nose and is about to talk, but Vile speaks up instead. "I suppose that me and Slave have nowhere to be. Hanging around the city for a bit won't hurt. Maybe I can even find some new spells or other useful items."
The black cat lowers her head. "Yes, mistress." she says, an obvious tone of disappointment in her voice. It's unclear whether Vile fails to notice it or rather just chooses to ignore it.
The rat hops off of her back, looking to her left, along the inner stone wall. "I guess while we're here I should probably visit my family. Slave, you stay with Squire, and do whatever she tells you. I don't want your sense of obedience to get rusty after all."
"But mistress-" the cat whines, silenced by an authoritative glare from the large, dark furred rat which shuts her right up.
"Are you sure that you'll be alright on your own?" I ask.
Vile chuckles in response, "Oh, please. Cities like this are a paradise for us rats. You take care of Slave in the meantime. Feel free to harshly discipline her if she misbehaves..." she pauses, "...or even if she doesn't. Although if you do need to, I'd much rather be there to watch. I'll catch up with you later. If necessary, you can find me on the mini-map."
"Um, of course." I say to the rat, "Still, be careful!"
She waves a paw dismissively as she walks away. Slave, meanwhile, feels downright crushed at being abandoned. Fortunately, I have an easy trick to chase the blues away... quests!
I suppose that I shouldn't have been surprised when the cat didn't share my enthusiasm. She follows behind, making a point to keep an unusual distance between herself and the humans, but as soon as I've dealt with one of them, she quickly and obediently returns to my side, remaining silent all the while. Most of the quests are quite easy, but not in ways that I liked. Sure, I do enjoy helping people, but the fact that so many people required healing or just a few coins and seemed so grateful for them was incredibly unnerving. I'm glad to be able to help, but how was it that in such a large city filled with so many people that nobody else had come to their aid?
Then there's the Slave issue. She's clearly devastated at having been abandoned by her mistress. On the bright side, at least we had worked out our issues already, otherwise things could have been incredibly awkward. Still, I wished that there was something that I could do to help.
"Are you alright?" I ask, dumbly. I know that she isn't, of course, but who knows? Maybe getting her to open up just might help a little bit.
"I thought that mistress needed me, but I guess she doesn't. She didn't even want me around." the black cat whines before looking up at me, her yellow eyes filled with fear, "What if she never wanted me around, and was just keeping me around out of pity?"
"I can't imagine that's the case." I say to her. "For one thing, you're a loyal follower who I'm sure she cares for deeply in her own way. Secondly, she doesn't really come off as the pitying type."
"Yeah, I guess that second part is true..." she says, looking a little less sad, but less confused. "Why did she leave me behind, then?"
"Well, she did mention that she was visiting her family, didn't she? They must be rats, right?" I say, only 90% certain that that's the case, "It might make them uncomfortable to have a cat around."
Slave stops mid stride and lowers her head. I fear that something is wrong, and that maybe I said something inappropriate. I have no idea what that could be, but from past experience, I know that it's far from impossible. Instead she throws her head back a laughs a beautiful and melodic laugh. It takes a little while for the laughter to fade to mild chuckles as she wipes away a tear with a dark furred paw. "Yes, yes, of course. How foolish of me. I can only imagine the commotion that my presence would cause." she says, "You're right, and I should have thought of that, before. Still, it is a shame. I would have liked to see what mistress' family was like."
I simply nod my head, largely in agreement. I'm far from eager to meet them, but I do have to admit that I am rather curious, especially considering the rather dismissive opinion that Vile had seemed to demonstrate towards other rats back at the village. Perhaps I'll ask once she returns.
I continue my questing, and while Slave's mood has certainly improved, she still looks to be on edge. "What's wrong? It isn't like you to be so nervous." I ask.
"I don't like humans." the black cat says, bluntly.
It takes a moment for that to sink in. "What do you mean you don't like humans? How can anyone not like humans? They're amazing!" I say.
"You clearly haven't met many humans."
I frown a little, unable to deny that. "I guess you're right. Still, they're pretty nice when you get to know them..." I say, catching myself, "Well, most of them, I think."
I look around at the many people wandering about until I find a particularly unintimidating looking target. "Look over there." I say, gesturing to a small human child, filthy, crying and standing against an aged brick wall, with the tell-tale glowing bit of punctuation over her head. "You should go over there and accept the quest she's offering."
The black cat frowns. "Do I have to?"
"Yes, you do." I say. I feel a little guilty about abusing the power over Slave that Vile had bestowed upon me, but I'm certain that it's for her own good. The cat sighs dramatically, but shows no actual defiance as she walks over to the small girl. I keep my distance, watching, waiting for her to return.
"Apparently that dumb human lost some stupid toy outside of the city walls and needs for me to go retrieve it." Slave sulks.
"That sounds easy enough!" I say, smiling "Plus, you said you didn't like being around all of these humans anyways. Now you have a chance to go outside the city."
"I guess." she grumbles, clearly unconvinced.
"Lead the way!"
She reluctantly walks towards the distant pillar of light. Not directly, of course, instead adjusting her path to reach the gate. In truth, I likely wouldn't have thought of that, and instead would have headed straight for it, only to be blocked by the stone wall. As we exit the crowded city, Slave does ease up, somewhat, but still remains silent.
"I guess you've had trouble with humans in the past, huh?" I say, feeling the need to say something.
"They are cruel, bitter and selfish creatures who seek to destroy anything that they consider beneath themselves." She says, "And not just animals like us, either. Look at how so many people in the city live. They have nothing, and have suffered at the hands of others. Even in a city with an abundance of resources. The people are left to suffer not because helping them is impossible, or even that difficult. It's because people want them to go unhelped."
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"Why would they do that?" I ask, internally annoyed to hear her badmouthing these wonderful creatures, but I try to maintain an open mind.
"Because in the end, that's how humans are. When actual survival is no longer a desperate and full-time struggle, they invariably turn to trying to boost their own egos. They, all of them, need something to look down at, something to hate. Something to hurt. Sometimes they target monsters or other animals, but more often? It's their own kind, usually the weakest we can't properly defend themselves. None of them want to be in this category, of course, so that leads to them endlessly just trying to climb over one another and tear one another down, purely to convince themselves of their own superiority." the cat replies, narrowed eyes darting back and forth to assorted groups of men and women, as though she were expecting them to attack her at any moment, "All of this suffering and squalor around us? It's entirely by design. It's ultimately the only way that humans know how to live."
"Well, maybe humans aren't perfect, and some of them can be mean..." I say, meekly, "But a lot of them are nice and, well, even if nobody else wants to help them, that's all the more reason that we should!"
"Why?" she grumbles, "For a few experience points and gold coins?"
"No. It's because we can. That's reason enough." I say, a little more confident now. "It feels good to help people, all sorts of people. You'll see."
The cat simply scoffs as we approach the destination. It isn't far outside of the city gates, along the stone outer wall. We aren't the only ones there, however, and the other guest is clearly not an adventurer. It's a huge creature, larger than a human, larger than the trinity serpent, and far larger than the death weavers or even the largest of the wolves. It's a bear, with far too many claws, not only extruding from the toes but spine, shoulders, head, joints... virtually everywhere. I have to admit that I'm rather anxious at the sight of it. I hadn't expected to need to deal with something like this on a simple retrieval mission.
At it's feet, being roughly pawed around is a small wooden doll, vaguely humanoid shaped.
"Stop!" Slave calls to it, stepping forward.
The beast raises it's large, rounded grey furred head and looks to the cat with dim brown eyes. From appearance alone, I suspect that it isn't really the talkative sort.
"Look, I don't want to fight." the black cat sighs as she approaches. I can't help feeling a little bit anxious as she does, I can see why she might consider herself to be invincible, but it's not a belief that I share, especially in this situation. "Just let me take that stupid doll back to the stupid human so that I can finish my stupid quest and then we can..."
She stops both mid-step and mid sentence as she gets a closer look at the small wooden figure. It has simple, segmented limbs linked by string, and wears a plain brown dress. What clearly catches the attention of the cat, however, is the head, with its elongated snout, a broad smile crudely painted upon it, along with the rounded wooden ears. Peeking out from underneath the hem of the dress is a bent, wire tail.
Slave smiles a little tilting her head at the sight of it, before the heavy clawed paw of the bear roughly stomps down on the figurine. The bear aggressively snorts at the approaching cat.
"How... how dare you..." The cat hisses, her fur standing on end, taking a battle-ready stance herself. Worse, I can see a frighteningly familiar red aura emanating from her body.
"Um... Slave?" I say, meekly, but I suspect that she doesn't even realize that I'm here at this point. In think that the doll is supposed to actually be a mouse rather than a rat, but it's clearly close enough to the image of Vile, or at the very least Slave's own mental image of her that the distinction hardly matters. She rushes in to face the monster, and I, caught by surprise follow just a few precious seconds too late.
Battle Start! Slave Versus BladeBear!
Slave enters an enraged state(max level)!
Attack power increases by 32 times!
Defense reduced to 0!
BladeBear mauls Slave!
Slave suffers 955 point(s) of damage!
I can't help but wince at the devastating hit that the black cat had taken as I draw my sword and rush in to join the battle. A combat round is only a few seconds long, however, and my brief hesitation cost me dearly. Hopefully I can get in to help her before it's too late!
Slave attacks! Critical Hit!
BladeBear suffers 2355 point(s) of damage! BladeBear is defeated!
Slave has won the battle and earned 900 point(s) of experience and 300 gold(s)
I come to a skidding stop. 'Defeated', as it turns out, is something of an understatement. The BladeBear, as it was apparently called, wasn't so much killed as completely destroyed, having burst into dozens of bloody pieces with the still yowling black cat standing among the viscera, her tiny body still engulfed in that baleful red energy.
"Um... Slave?" I say as I nervously approach to offer her healing.
I shrink back as she glares at me with wide, bestial yellow eyes, streaks of red swirling within them. For a moment I fear the worst, but the red aura fades away, and recognition returns to the feline's eyes. "Squire..." she says, seemingly confused at first, but she quickly regains her senses, looking about with a surprised expression as the bloody carnage all around her. She sighs. "Mistress isn't going to be happy about this..."
"Well, the important thing is that you're okay." I say with a smile, pressing a paw to her shoulder, pushing the warm, healing energies into her body. The black cat is still rather concerned, but a good deal of her tension melts away as her injuries are healed.
Still, she doesn't look happy. She sighs as she pads forward, nudging the mangled wooden toy with her paw. It helps that the doll was held together by string which resisted the impact, but the wooden bits are cracked, if not entirely broken away, the simple cloth dress torn. "So much for the quest." she says, although I suspect that's not really the source of her sorrow.
"Is the waypoint still pointing here?" I ask, the cat giving a faint nod in response, her eyes still locked on the broken toy. "Well, that must mean that the quest is still going on. We should bring it back."
"I... guess." Slave replies, clearly not so convinced, as she takes the wooden figurine in her mouth, lifting it up with surprising delicacy.
The return trip is naturally an uneventful one. I run into many, many quest markers and can barely resist stopping to take them, but this is Slave's quest, and I don't want to interrupt it.
I stay back and watch as the black cat gingerly sets the broken toy at the small human girl's feet, all the while wearing an expression of intense guilt. Guilt which I imagine she wouldn't have been feeling were the toy not shaped like a rodent.
"Missy! You're back!" The child excitedly chirps as she takes up the toy in her arms, hugging it was though it were her own baby. "Thank you so much!"
Slave just looks shocked at the reaction, all the more so when the human reaches out a small, open palm to give the black cat a pet. She recoils briefly, looking back at me. I offer her an encouraging smile and nod in return and with a defeated sigh, she approaches the hand. She's clearly very tense at first, looking ready to bolt at any moment, but once she's touched between the ears, she actually begins rubbing her head against the small, dirty hand.
This goes on for a precious few seconds before the cat seems to remember her aversion to humans and backs away, returning to my side. As for the human girl, she takes no offense, her attentions focused on her beloved toy.
"So? How was it?" I ask with a smile.
"Even though it was all dirty and broken... she still loves it so much..." Slave says, looking back.
"Yeah." I nod, "Humans might not be perfect, I'll admit it, but they aren't as bad as you think. When they truly love something, they won't cast it aside, no matter how broken it is."
The cat remains silent, clearly not entirely convinced. That's okay, though. My own opinion of humans is shaped largely by my own experiences with them, and it would take an awful, awful lot to change my mind. I can't expect her to change her mind so easily, either. We, all of us, have reasons for being the way that we are.
"How did you like getting petted?" I ask, changing the subject, but not really.
"I think I prefer getting hit." She says with a shrug, but still smiles a bit, "I guess I can see the appeal though."
I grin back and nod. Maybe questing isn't really her thing, but I'm glad she got to try it out, anyways. As for me, Vile has yet to return, so we still have a bit of time to kill. I won't fault the cat for having little interest in helping people. That just leaves more quests for me!
---
Slave: "So mini-maps are a thing now? Why hasn't that come up before?"
Squire: "Well, I've just been traveling in a straight line towards my owner. I haven't really needed to use a map."
Vile: "I'm sure it will become a lot more useful when we start delving into dungeons."
Squire: "Why would we be exploring dungeons?"
Vile: "There's no avoiding it. It's an essential part of the genre."