Quest: Explore the Vencian Wood Progress: 50% (15/30)
image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map102-1.png]
image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map102-2.png]
Current Location: Bog of Possibility (S.F3)
There were several odd things about this scene.
I was trotting through the very very south end of a bog-square with a playful opossum who was “totally not following me.” The fellow creature stopped and started and looped around my path, as if we both just so happened to be going the same way.
This was kind of ridiculous. Yes, many animals make cooperative unions like this, but I never had. Any scenes of working together on Earth, I ended with a hiss and a running-away. Then again, on Earth I was often betrayed and gotten the better of by cats who were stronger, and frankly smarter. And why expose myself to anyone after that?
Hanging out with an animal of some random species was even a little weird on Vencia. Approaching humans was, of course, different. Humans liked pets, for one. Everybody knew that. I’d seen humans with birds and livestock. I’d seen a witch play a flute for a fish. But a human hanging out with, like, a bear…I still had yet to bump into that.
And that reminded me. I’d heard some human laughter earlier, or sworn I did. But all I saw racing by at the time was a dragon, though details were hard to make out when all you saw were a shadow followed by some blurry hindquarters. Big wings…a deep-green, scaly tail…uh, no scrapey ridges…
Well, that was kind of the whole reason why I was traveling south right now. See, the subway train’s worth of bats and red things had flown from north to south, all looking very determined. It all gave the impression that if I followed, I’d see something major.
The opossum kinda-sorta-definitely following me seemed to agree, though I had a feeling that their favorite part of the passing dragon was simply the adrenaline-fueled jump onto their tail.
As my Map told me we were butting up against the bog’s southern edge, I noticed that the trees just ahead were a glorified curtain—thick forest stopped here. I paused and turned to the possum slinking in the shadows. Possy paused too. Possy yawned.
…In some ways it was unsettling to hang out with what looked like a dog-rat hybrid, but I didn’t choose this life. It wasn’t like any other cats were watching and ready to make fun of me. The one who would was hanging out in Silent Goddess Space, and probably wouldn’t come back unless I started cooking a delicious meal.
Either way…I broke the veil.
This was another spot in the Vencian Wood where the transitions between squares were heartbreakingly obvious. In this case, I emerged on a thankfully not-muddy field. The ground was so flat that it could’ve been laid out with a rolling pin, but lush with grass and prairie flowers. The sky was bright with a dusting of stars, and the grass seemed to radiate cool mist.
image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map102-2.png]
Current Location: ??? (S.F4)
Crickets, the krigries’ smaller and hopefully much less violent cousins, echoed across the land. Actually, I hoped they were fifty percent more violent, so that crushing them could actually net me some EXP. Playing with Possy had gotten my Experience infuriatingly close to the next-Level finish line, with just 33 left until Level 24.
But just as I was thinking that, a strange sight on the horizon took my mind on a one-eighty.
Dark trees dotted the fields for a while, until the horizon, where they gave out completely. Over there…was that a human city? I wouldn’t have been surprised. After all, a village and farmland bordered this forest on one end, so why not the other.
But then I closed my eyes for a moment and gave it a listen. Behind the chorus of crickets, I could hear…nothing. No signs of the typical human activity, at least.
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And if those were cityscape towers and monuments rising above the trees, they certainly were wacky. At this distance, even my sharp night vision couldn’t help me much with the details. The tallest thing looked like a skyscraper with a few spheres studded down its length. A shorter one had just two spheres, one at the top and one in the middle.
Maybe these were more like command towers or lighthouses. In fact, I swore one did have the shape of a lighthouse.
Possy drew closer as I closed my eyes again. My ears were picking up hints of chatter, just not human language. It was clear to me that this wasn’t supernatural chatter. What we had here was a human setting taken over by critters.
For that matter, what few trees and bushes were scattered across the plain let out intermittent chatter too. If I had to guess, this whole place was dotted with…more strong rodents like Possy.
My roomy closet of human information told me that not only were opossums not rodents but marsupials, a better nickname for this one would be “Opossy.”
I wished I could swat at intrusive thoughts the same way I could a box.
In any case, everything came together to tell me I should slowly get closer and try not to slap crickets too eagerly, because one wrong slap could startle a sleepy raccoon and give them a reason to gnaw on me. With about half my Health and SP, I didn’t want my paws writing checks that my body couldn’t cash.
We walked closer and the city grew larger…but not that much larger. Okay, let me stop calling it a city, then. But a village? No!
There was also an utter lack of lights, even the compellingly red ones. As we went, we found more evidence of strong human presence in the not-too-ancient past. Bottles and a shard of glass that cut me. Then wheels, and even an overgrown cart, fallen under brambles. Inside was splotchy dirt and a bed of worms. The grooves in the wood had been hollowed out and chewed away with…hm…maybe fifty years’ worth of time.
On the side of the wagon were words! Yes! Another chance to test my cantrip!
Uh, T…H…OW…and half a Y? Maybe I can use context clues to figure out the rest, and Sierra, you can give me a Quest for it? Huh?
My mind was filled with utter silence.
When a paper label was this moth-eaten, no context-clueing would put it together again. Maybe it said “The Hottest Show In…Yown.” Whatever, I tried.
What I’d assumed was a little horse-drawn thing next to a flagpole was, in fact, connected to that flagpole. The pole was hollow, and ragged at the tip. Who knows? Maybe this wagon had once been hooked up to a dragon or a bat, who flew it around instead of galloping it around.
Collecting detective clues was oddly fun, but not very helpful.
Possy was eating the worms. I decided to eat some too.
It was a horrible decision in most ways, but it did give me 3 of those Experience Points I’d been hurting for. Possy, you’ve done it again!
Finally, we reached the tiny city’s limits. A gate surrounded the place, sealed with huge aluminum shutters. Rather, once sealed. One shutter had fallen enough to expose a triangle-wedge of space and both faced holes in the earth, each big enough for a bear cub to crawl in.
Crawling my way through one of the holes, I then peered up and found a grand archway, its words weathered but not erased:
CORNUTOPIA: A FIELD OF FUN!
← Reservations
Ticket Booth →
Below was every sign of human abandonment. The springy concrete that would ordinarily be swept clean had dirt, windblown refuse, and worse. Right in front of the ticket booth, I spotted a splash of bones. And the statue of a humanoid corncob, smiling with a single tooth, was discolored in such a way that it seemed rotten. It even had a black eye! Somehow that was the worst part.
A month ago, nothing about this would have fazed me—not beyond the ordinary “stay on guard.” But now I had more context.
First, no place was just “random human place.” Possibly millions of humans had come here to laugh, celebrate, and ride rides. I mean, they were rides about…corn, apparently…but you see my point. Now all of that was over and their treasured memories were being smeared by blood, waste, and the stench of death.
Second, if that got melodramatic, it’s because it was also mixing with what I had read in the Book of Sister’s Shadow. I had an eerie feeling about this place, maybe way eerier than I should. Yet I felt that I had to know more.
To my surprise, my heart was racing. I pulled myself out of the pit and calmed down, then reminded myself of how ridiculous I was being. My cat-core was right: this was just a mildly unique neck of the woods, and it did contain more of those familiar Vencian critters. It didn’t hold any challenges I couldn’t face, had nothing I hadn’t seen before.
See, I even had an ally! Possy had scampered ahead several seconds ago and was now chewing on a bone.
Well, if ever there was a sign to never fear, maybe that was it.
I decided to forge ahead into Cornutopia (a name so sad it made me shiver. Did Vencian kids of the recent past really get so thrilled over corn?). But if I was gonna do this, I’d try to do it right.
To start, I experimentally placed the Sapphire Queen’s personal map of Probably-Cornutopia over my own Map of F4, starting in front of where I was right now:
image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map102-3.png]
I’d probably have to turn it ninety degrees or something, depending on where the Queen had envisioned the entrance archway, but yeah, this’d do. It was good to have at least some landmarks.
It also helped me to stay task-focused. So I went through my big laundry list of things I could do and wanted to do once again, then pulled out my current Top Three:
1. Find flytrap vines.
2. Find Queen murder victim spot.
3. Destroy lots of raccoons.
Actually, yeah! That seemed reasonable. Plus, now I had a companion. Possy might even be able to help me find flytrap vines, if any were around here. If I showed them vines from a Nature Spell and made my intentions clear, then—
Oh. Possy was already gone. That was what I deserved for treating them like any random subservient dog, I guessed.
No matter! I forged ahead, staying close to booths, meeting the shadows.