Silhouettes in the window gave them away. Two familiar women were downstairs, standing, shifting, chatting. The shorter one picked up a large rectangle, a shadow that blocked both shadows from view. Then that was gone, and the taller shadow suddenly flitted away.
I was watching Reed’s cabin from not so far off. Along with the light in the den, the one in Chora’s room was on. I hated to think that while the rest of the cabin was active, she might be lying like a slug, demotivated thanks to me. I certainly had been.
Before I could get close, the front door popped open. Bayce was hanging in the doorframe, loosely, like she’d fall out if she let go.
She smiled. “How’d I know someone was out here?”
We both walked and met each other in the middle. As we went, I remembered that sparkling hairpin I still hadn’t given away, wondered how it’d look against her uniquely colored hair. Also, for that matter, the bunch of gold and the lump of topaz. When was the right time for these things? Was this moment too lighthearted? Just lighthearted enough? How much did it matter?
Before any of that, I felt I had to tell Bayce and Reed and Chora (if she was not inert like a slug) about what happened and how now I really wanted to go out to defeat those plant vine beasts in a couple of days, and also at the same time how I wanted everyone to take a vacation, because we were really pent up and we needed to blow off steam just as much as we needed to help others, or even more!!
“Did you get any vines?” Bayce asked.
It was so abrupt that it felt like a non sequitur. I stared a while before realizing she was thinking of the cantrip.
I nodded, and without another word, Bayce spun on her heel and opened the outside door to that cantrip-making basement.
As I followed her in and my front paws touched the edge of the hatch, a voice called from the cabin.
“Try not to leave the door o—" Reed stopped herself. Bayce was already trotting down the stairs, she couldn’t hear anyway. So instead Reed simply stuck her head out the door, smiled wide, and gave me a wave.
“Meow!”
The door gently closed.
***
I was the proud owner of two conventionally functional hands. Not only that, but with my current Evolution having Morph at such a high rank, I had ample opportunity to use them.
On its own, this ability wasn’t exciting. But it came with other fringe benefits, including…
image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map126-1.png]
The ability to write things in my head that were actually legible! In this case, the message was, “YAY BAYCE HELPED ME GET A CANTRIP YAY YAY YAY!!!” But you already read that, didn’t you?
I could also…draw beautiful cats! Much unlike what I scribbled when I first got this power!
image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map126-2.png]
Never mind. Somehow that was still hard. This cat looked like a rectangle with legs, or not even.
Of course, though, the flashiest benefit of this new cantrip was my ability to open doors. To demonstrate, I squeezed the cabin doorknob and nudged the thing open. With ease! Bayce offered polite applause.
Instead of making this cantrip a totally new piece of jewelry, we opted to add a gem to the strand that held the reading cantrip. I’d chosen an orange stud, something that reminded me of calico spots, amber guard towers, and the savannah east of the Kaugs.
“And how is the other cantrip?”
She must have meant the Intelligence booster. I gave her an enthusiastic meow and nod.
Bayce rubbed her hands together almost deviously. “Great! Great, then the template works! I’ll make a better one.”
I didn’t expect a precise numerical answer, but I had to ask anyway: “HOW MUCH MORE INT WILL IT GIVE?”
She shrugged. “Maybe ten times more? I’m still going to be a little careful about it. Don’t want to short out your brain.”
Well, ten times five was fifty, and when I had 50 INT, I was, I dunno, probably Level 15? 20? I was competent then. And I wasn’t too much more of a genius now! I could definitely use the Debug Blade with more finesse if I had that on me.
Bayce watched me pick up a fork and twirl it around. For about fifteen seconds I wibbled and wobbled it, fascinated by how easy it was. Then I looked at Bayce. She wasn’t fascinated. In fact, now she looked impatient.
“So…now to the bugbear in the room…”
Reed spoke up from the den. I always forgot how well sound could carry on the first floor, and how easily people could “hide” in plain sight. “We just want whatever you’re comfortable sharing,” she said.
My throat went a little dry. I put the fork down, came around the counter that separated the den and the kitchen, and held out the spirit board. “CHORA?”
Reed nodded from the couch.
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“I TOLD HER WE SHOULD ALL GO TO A BEACH TO RELAX. SHE GOT ANGRY AND UM…I GOT ANGRY AND TOLD HER WE ALL HATED HER.”
As soon as I spelled the word “hate,” something came over Reed. Her body slumped—slightly, but it was there.
Bayce had been watching me spell words too. “Why would you…”
My eyebrows twitched. “BC U DO HATE HER!” That temper leaked out again, and I wasn’t sure I regretted it. “SOMETIMES U HATE HER, SHE HATES U, REED N I HATE IT BC WE JUST DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO. SO IF WE ALL LEFT THE HOUSE FOR ONCE, APOLOGIZED FOR ONCE…”
It looked like gears were turning in Bayce’s head as she stared into the middle distance. Reed, though, straightened up and spread her arms. It took a moment to register: she was offering a hug. “You want to come here?”
My first reaction was defensive. Why would she think I need a hug right now? I’m just explaining myself, and I just told them that nobody wants to be around an angry person.
But then I looked at myself. I was trembling, again, and I hadn’t even thought my anger this time was that serious. Clearly it was. I accepted Reed’s suggestion and sat by her side.
Before I could even turn, she held me. And though she didn’t squeeze me so tight it restrained me, I felt my body calming down. I took deep breaths in rhythm with hers.
“It’s alright,” she said quietly. “We know that none of us meant to hurt anybody.”
At that, I broke the hug, and spelled another message. “BAYCE N CHORA R ALWAYS TRYING TO HURT EACH OTHER.”
“No,” Bayce said, in more of a groan than a word. “We just…we remember the times when we hurt each other, and they were so frickin’ bad that they changed the way I see her. Sometimes I have patience for Chora. And I…guess she has patience for me. But other times, we just don’t.”
When she put it that way, the solution seemed so easy. Just have more patience! It sucked that things weren’t so simple.
But Bayce seemed to be fighting with herself right now. She took a seat at the far end of the couch, by the armrest, and put her head on a pensive fist. “Maybe I’m the jerk. But I can’t be the jerk! Everyone else seems to like me! It’s literally just her!”
“Bayce,” Reed said, “we all have flaws. That’s nothing to be ashamed of! And if you are really dead-set on it…then after this summer, you never have to see each other again.”
Bayce looked at Reed like this was the first time it’d occurred to her. The words were an ultimatum. They had weight to them.
“Yeah…I suppose you’re right.”
“WELL,” I interrupted, “THATS WHY I WANT A VACATION. ONE LAST GOOD TIME WITH CHORA. CAN U DO THAT?”
I wasn’t just asking for the sake of a good last memory. In my mind, there was no reason for them to “break up.” Both of them just had to grow. If I could mature even after reaching a pretty ancient cat age, then obviously human beings could get smarter after age nineteen.
“The beach seems fun,” Bayce said.
“NO I DIDNT ASK ABOUT THAT!” My head shook furiously! (I hoped Reed ducked out of the way of my hair.)
“Okay, fine! Um—sorry. I didn’t mean to explode. It’s just hard. Um, yes. I can do that.” My cyan friend had done an emotional one-eighty within about eight seconds, and now looked seriously bashful.
Reed tentatively reentered the talk. “Taipha, has Chora agreed to this vacation?”
Oops, um…no, she hadn’t. I’d gotten so carried away with how satisfying the concept of this was that I hadn’t thought about the logistics. I shook my head.
“Did you bring it up to her?”
I nodded.
“I don’t think we made you aware, but that hunting expedition is moving toward a beach. Did you…pick the same one? The one in the northeast corner?”
What the heck did I know about where the stuff in my unmapped territories was?! I nodded again.
Reed held a fist to her mouth. “That would have frustrated Chora further. She doesn’t think you’re taking things as seriously as she is.”
Bayce let out a raucous laugh. With remarkable speed and timing, both Reed and I swiveled and glared hard at her. She lost her smile and got really bashful again.
She coughed. “What I meant by that laugh is, i-it…doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. For some people, showing up for war in good spirits is a sign of utmost disrespect to whoever you’re about to fight. I think if whoever this enemy is saw us fighting in beach gear, they’d be ticked off, and know how little we fear them.” Then she gulped. “That wasn’t why I was laughing, though. I was just imagining how shocked and dismayed Chora would be if she saw us running over to fight in swimsuits.” She traced a circle on the armrest. “Yeah, I do make fun of her a lot.”
“Teasing is what friends do, sometimes,” Reed said. “But I think you’ve been using it to paper over your frustrations…”
Bayce shook her head. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”
That was one topic down and a million more to go.
…Wait, this one still wasn’t really resolved! This vacation still wasn’t happening for certain! But at least Bayce seemed like she was warming up to the idea of helping strangers alongside the rest of us…maybe? It was hard to know, especially because she gave us a simple “goodnight” and turned in after that.
And after I un-Morphed due to a lack of SP, Reed told me that Chora wasn’t ready to talk to anyone. She was, indeed, self-exiled in her room. On one hand, that didn’t make me feel good, but on the other, she was doing exactly what she’d insisted she needed to do when angered: keep to herself. Reed had faith she’d come out when she was ready.
But she did not feel good about the concept of Heidschi coming over when there was a chance Chora would severely dislike it. “Um…who is this person?” she said, once Bayce had disappeared for a peculiarly early bedtime. “I trust you not to invite weirdos over, Taipha, but now is probably not the time.”
“IM SORRY,” I said. With Bayce gone, I was more fully aware of just how close Reed was to me. Her presence was as reassuring as it was nerve-inducing, which didn’t make any sense—but it could’ve just been the rollercoaster of emotions that was this day. “NICE SHEPHERD! BLOND HAIR. BLOND DRESS. SOFT VOICE. GIGGLES. SEWS. U DONT KNOW STILL?”
Reed shook her head, though she was still clearly searching her memory banks.
“THEY SEWED UR…” Ack! Maybe it was better not to remind Reed of the horrible damage I caused her quilt to suffer long ago. But it was too late now! “…UR QUILT. REPAIRED IT.”
She brightened a little. “Really! Well, we’ll see how Chora feels tomorrow. I might ask you to take them elsewhere instead, maybe by the pond.”
That solution was so elegant it hadn’t even occurred to me.
I practically spilled out info, my paw moving at hyperspeed. Another benefit of the hand-eye coordination cantrip was that even when I technically didn’t have hands, I found myself feeling more dexterous, found movements like this more effortless. My front leg felt like a total machine, twitching toward letters—and glad Reed could keep up.
I told her Logy might be reliable for something, and might be coming back to me tomorrow with valuable new knowledge. She told me the clumps of mysterious ore Chora brought back from Outlast were here for a reason. That reason was the most dazzling thing I’d heard all day.
“They’re crafting materials,” she said. “I can make Equipment.”
Did this woman’s talents never end?!
***
“…and certain alloys conduct certain types of magic well. Mine draws out mostly pure aura with a bit of additional force and heat. It’s not the strongest…”
A minute ago, I had been watching Reed and her burlap sack of ores like a hawk. Now I was barely blinking away the sleep.
I did want to learn more. I did! But how could I help falling asleep after such a long day? And curled up like this in Reed’s room? Granted, I was on a random cushion on the floor across from her and the bag, not in her…strangely intimidating bed. But I was so comfortable and tomorrow was so close.
Reed chuckled. “You’re bored, I bet.”
“Mrah!” I writhed my head back and forth.
“Oh. Just sleepy.” Through the blur of my eyelids, I saw her look around. As if anybody else was watching!
“Well,” she went on, “maybe I’ll just continue?”
Yes yes yes.
She sifted through the ores, naming alloys and weapons. It all went in one ear and out the other, but the journey of the words was thoroughly calming.