I had big plans for today. The color of the sky that hung above me was a deep, infinite blue, a mirror to the possibilities ahead.
At long last, I was going to run around in the western and central Wood and explore those hidden Map squares sprinkled seemingly randomly around there.
image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map127-1.png]
I mean, look at this! Look at it! A4 was out of the way, so I had no need to hang around the Kaugs yet again to finish out the Quest, but what about B4 right next to it? Or the rust stone place in B1? Or, worse yet, the entire western wing of Mirror Pond up in B2? I mean, how did that one still count as “unexplored”? I felt like I’d explored Mirror Pond like five times already! D1 was only semiexplored because I’d ended up there yesterday. At the time, I’d been too distracted to bother exploring it more.
So I had very specific areas I wanted to target: B1, B2, B4… C1…D1, D4 (which was also semiexplored, yet incomplete, for some forgotten and unholy reason), and then maybe D5 if I was feeling gutsy.
The big question of the day was, how fast could I explore a single square?
Ideally I’d get back to Reed’s cabin before evening, so I could greet Heidschi and see everyone else greeting Heidschi. It’d be something! I’d never seen my friends interact as a single unit with anyone else, except, well, me.
Then again, if Chora still needed space, I’d have to shift things around. It’d be a little disappointing, but not as disappointing as disappointing Chora would be.
It was still morning out here, and “evening” probably meant around six o’clock, so I figured I’d have…eight hours. Depended on how long it’d take me to finish breakfast.
Reed had discovered that having breakfast outside, on occasion, was a great idea.
A cool breeze was blowing in, carrying the slightest hint of pond scent. It was also colliding with the trash and, luckily for the two of us, carrying the aroma of garbage directly away from our picnic area. Earlier Reed had told me it was time to take out the trash again. I considered going with her soon, but then again, I didn’t want to scare the raccoons too bad.
Weaklings.
“You don’t seem to like them very much,” Reed said after a bite of plimpberry pancakes. How she could not only stand their taste but also get apparently zero benefit from their SP-restoring properties, I’d never know. Bayce was just as absurd, but she was away right now. “It’s not just that time they rampaged through the savannah, is it?”
I shook my head, a fish spine dangling from my mouth. With the spirit board, I pawed, “WERE NOT HUMANS, REED. WE BOTH EAT MEAT. WE COMPETE OVER RESOURCES N STUFF. THERE IS…NO REASON FOR ME TO LIKE THEM?”
Thinking about it, though…I could get along with animals. Or, rather, an animal, one at a time. But not a whole throng of them. A single raccoon with a leg in a trap and a heart-melting smile? I might help. Although last year I might’ve stayed to myself.
“ITS FINE IF U LIKE THEM,” I added hastily. “I GUESS THEYRE CUTE…IF UR A HUMAN”
She laughed. “Trust me, there are very few animals cuter than…”
Then she trailed off and stared away.
Why didn’t she admit it?
Humans thought cats were cute. Ergo, she should find me cute. Right? Unless she was feeling embarrassed because she didn’t see me that way. But…what way? Did I look powerful? Studly? Weirdly like a dog?!
I didn’t press, though. I didn’t want to rock the boat, especially not when the ground already seemed to be rocking. A strange and transcendent hum entered my skull, and when I looked toward the cabin’s outdoor hatch, I swore I could see traces of translucent magic hovering up from the cracks…
“You’re sure you don’t want to watch?” Reed asked after a sip of juice.
Nah, Bayce had this Intelligence cantrip under control. After having that plus-5 modifier around my neck for so many hours, I had utmost faith in her ability to not scramble my brain. Besides, I didn’t want to take a detour into that basement. I was too impatient for the day ahead. Within the past three minutes, I had slid eighteen more fish into my mouth. Metefry were pathetically small. Delicious, but small.
Instead, I heard from Reed about what her day would look like.
She sighed. “It should be a long one. A good, long, satisfying, bone- and head-aching kind of day. Assembling Spells with Bayce is already tedious, but I’m going to be crafting Equipment on top of that.”
Those were two things I did regret not staying to see, but surely there’d be other times. Someday we might return to Reed’s favorite mountain, where I’d watch her forge a new sword, a real masterpiece.
“We’re going to need the best weapons we can get,” she continued, “if the threats in our future are as bad as everyone’s fearing… This blade will be like a test run for me. Something to show my skills and some crafting concepts I’ve been wondering about.” A smile flashed on her face. “Unless you’re already well-armed enough, I could even make you things!”
“Mah?”
“Not another sword, though. You have that! But I was wondering if you might be interested in armblades. Or, rather, front limb blades.” She gestured to her elbows to clarify.
Ah! That was actually an amazing idea. Why hadn’t I thought of that? If I had scythes on my front legs, just above the paws, that could take my fighting style to another level. I’d be an all-out blade dancer! The idea reminded me of all the contortions I’d do when I used Air Cutter at the same time as a bending jump. My only problem would be making sure to avoid slicing my own stomach. Oh, and whatever secured the blades would have to be sturdy. Blades that wobble out of place don’t really hit their mark.
I gave her my most enthusiastic meow and most twinklingest of eyes. That made the whole prospect of crafting stuff way more exciting for me!
Plus, now I wasn’t just eager to show them all my vat of cash. I was thrilled by the idea that Reed might be able to use it to buy amazing ores and power us all up. I guessed we could just buy weapons, but wouldn’t it be so cool if the strongest weapons were the ones your friends made from scratch?
But I stopped abruptly. A figure moved behind her, almost like a ghost. I caught myself staring—the worst possible move.
Chora had descended!
She looked at me. I looked at her, shifting my gaze from her eyes to her mouth. Reed simply observed as Chora came closer, ensured there was no plate of food between me and her…and bowed.
“I hope you’ll forgive me,” she said.
I couldn’t help myself. I jumped away from the food, Morphed, stood up as tall as I pleased, and then bowed at the waist, over ninety degrees.
“Meow,” I said.
Asking me to forgive her was excessive. I was the one who told her we hated her! Even now, the guilt was returning.
I glanced up in time to see Chora falling to her knees. What was this? Was she…how was there a way to out-apologize me right now?!
Her eyes stayed glued to the earth. “No, I went over the line. Not just that day, but so many other times.”
Well, in that case, I was the worse one because I’d been tactless and witless about a thousand times in my life! You can’t outbow someone whose face is in the dirt!
I fell on the ground in the shape of a worm.
“This has to stop,” Reed said. “Not to diminish your feelings, but you’re both taking this a little too…gravely.”
Yeah, we would literally burrow down to our graves if we allowed this to continue. I stood up, and Chora stood up, and after I wiped the dirt from my brow, I beamed and spelled out, “UR TOTALLY OK! I LOVE U. UR MY FRIEND. ALWAYS”
The words spilled out. They were nothing but reverberations of thoughts I’d had before, but seeing my own hand reach for them, in a form as condensed as this, made me tear up despite my smile. I tried to blink the tears away and hoped Chora didn’t notice.
I wondered for a moment if Chora would hug me. Instead, she nodded, a single steady time. “And you’re okay. Thank you.”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
We all watched each other for several moments. The magic in the hatch rumbled on softly beneath our feet, and the dust seemed to settle.
“Now, about the beach,” Chora said, hands behind her back. It was so sudden, and the subject so thorny, that Reed and I visibly flinched.
But the trajectory Chora was taking, as it turned out, was nothing to be nervous about. Though it did baffle me.
“You know,” she said, “it really is beautiful over there. If I go there, and you go there”—she pointed to me—“and we defeat whatever entity is over there, then maybe…it might be nice to relax in a different environment.”
I needed another moment for some more dust to settle.
She squinted at me. “What?”
Eep. My humanoid form’s face was too easy to read.
“I’m reasonable,” she insisted. “It just takes me time to consider the possibilities, and to not be angry about them.”
Reed took a deep breath, then clasped her hands together. “It sounds like things are starting to fall into place, then!” she announced. “But, uh…Taipha, you should really reconsider the situation with…that person…”
“Reed,” Chora said, “you need like a secret code or something. That was very transparent.”
“W-well, um—”
“Look, if Taipha’s bringing a date to the cabin, I don’t mind. In fact, I need some human interaction right around now. Bring them in!”
“A-a-a-a-a-a-a—” Reed stammered so hard that a single “a” became a wobbling moan.
I wanted to pound my fist on the table! “ITS NOT A DATE! ITS JUST PERSON!”
This was a little too much socializing for me. Now I felt like I was overstaying my welcome—which I suspected wasn’t true, but my nerves and the blood rushing to my face said otherwise. I was blushing, and for once, I knew it. I poofed back into cat form, waved with my paw, and darted away, setting sights on what was, after all, the day’s goal.
I had eight hours…or more like seven, after all that chicanery.
***
image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map127-2.png]
Current Location: Mirror Pond West (S.B2)
I was racing around the edge of the pond, giving no care to the colorful wood ducks enjoying their day. Dashing through the grass, then tromping through the wet dirt of the shallows, I banked, turning so close to the water I was practically falling in. I charged. Ducks flew. I kept going.
The trees at the northern end were speeding into view, unimaginably fast. I was unimaginably fast.
image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map127-3.png]
As I checked my Map, I estimated that I could make it fully around the pond’s western half in…three minutes.
Sure, my legs would be howling, but that was the name of the game! For today, at least. Today was a day of endurance.
Okay, maybe there’d be a little fighting too. Come on, that duck was practically in my way. All the rest had swum closer to the pond’s center already! You know better! I thought, pouncing in mercilessly.
My bare paws were enough to deal a hard clonk to the duck’s side. “Quaah!” they screamed as they hurtled into the spray.
EXP: 93% (4198/4500)
What was that, about 200 EXP? Maybe half of what I would get from utterly murderizing them. But again, I wasn’t prizing Experience just yet. Experience would come.
I was back to rounding Mirror Pond’s western curve. With the whole pond essentially shaped like a bean, I expected no surprises. The tough part was navigating the obstacles and pits in the way: small, but at the right speed, remarkably deadly. Imagine tripping on a pebble at a hundred kilometers—I’d rather not.
But I found that the less I thought over my split-second twitch reactions, the better I did, the less clumsy I was, the faster I went. That was unsurprising. All my learning in the School of Wisdom had taught me this. One of the better prizes of Intelligence was the knowledge and the willingness to know when to put it away. Foundational knowledge was enough to know what a rock is.
I checked my Map again, glad that it didn’t fully cover my vision. About twenty-five percent of the earth below me was still visible, and that, as I’d discovered today, was enough in a pinch.
image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map127-4.png]
Wow! I actually ran all the way around! But the Map still wasn’t complete…what gives?
I slowed to a stop, then mulled it over. Well, there was a huge vat of water right next to me…but the idea of needing to dive into it made me shiver. Not because of water, but because of the glitch water Logy had subjected me to. I hadn’t needed to do anything like that to uncover Mirror Pond East, had I? No, it was probably the far-west end I needed to check out, farther from the water.
And that I did, galloping through the bushes, through briars and all their tiny thorns which hurt my hide like pine needles hurt plate armor.
image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map127-5.png]
Quest: Explore the Vencian Wood Progress: 57% (17/30)
Amazing! If only I’d been using this strategy from the start. Then…then I’d be such an exercise junkie that my leg muscles would be perpetually shredded, but hey, I’d have had that Quest done way earlier.
Without skipping a beat, I hopped north, toward the land of the rust-colored stones. If any remained, that is, after DeGalle had transplanted them.
As I remembered her and all the weird events happening across the Vencian Wood, I started getting excited about that expedition. Not nervous, or worried, or remotely scared. Just excited. I didn’t know about those villagers, but everyone else, in my eyes, was eminently prepared. At the very least, I was. Logy was, if she was coming—and I felt certain she would come. She’d support me…in her own way and for her own purposes. DeGalle was pretty powerful, seemed like she could pull useful strings.
And I had the power of a very uncommunicative and hands-off goddess on my side! I had enough job security for an extra life if I needed it.
Message from Sierra, the Goddess of Nekomata Excuse me. I never said you had nine extra lives.
There’s NINE?!
Um…no.
A message from Sierra (the goddess of nekomata) was such a rare and attention-demanding event that I had to stop roaming. Just give me a straight answer. How many more lives do I have?
Maybe I should have never revived you. It’s making you brazen!
I rolled my eyes. No, I just don’t have all the information.
Okay, okay, you have like one more life. If that. It takes a lot of energy on my part to do these things.
I nodded. What’s Logy?
What’s with you?
I can’t miss a chance to speak to you when I’ve got it.
I’m flattered, but also, why can’t you enjoy the thrill of unfettered discovery?
I-I enjoy that every day! I’m sick of “discovering” stuff about deadly strangers, just tell me so I can make sure my friends don’t die!
But you already know, right? You’re asking this about a week too late.
Logy’s trying to get back to her Arkmagus. I don’t know where they are. I don’t even know if what she’s saying is true. I look at this planet through your eyes and the limits of your Map.
That’s why you want me to rely on her, kind of…and that’s why you’re pushing me to do this, I thought. You miss…what’s their name? Chi?
I told you, I miss a lot of things. I miss food, for Pete’s sake. You are a fishing line cast into the water. If you refuse the mission now that you know it, all our lives will go on. That is your free will.
…I have free will? What? Am I in Otherland right now?
Well, it’s not like I can kill you from the celestial realms. Only antagonize you! But you’ve just discovered that you can still see okay through the edges of your vision no matter how many pesky boxes I make fly toward you.
You could also slay me, to be honest. But you don’t wanna do that.
To be honest, no I didn’t. This…this was giving me a bizarre feeling. It wasn’t just Chora bowing to me in a situation that felt inappropriate. There was also Logy, scouting out areas at my command without hesitation. And now Sierra?!
Or was this a double reacharound of irony, a case where she was saying more things she didn’t mean, deliberately hiding even more information just so she could metaphysically boop my nose and say “gotcha”? Was the fact that I had that thought a sign that I was incredibly smart now, or just a sign that I was too gullible and too far gone?!
Either way, it felt wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong! I decided not to reply to Sierra this time and to just go on my way. She’d receive enough incriminating information about my thought process anyway, and was probably laughing herself silly.
I had a mission to uphold! That mission: do what Sierra asked. That irony—if only that—was never lost on me.