A single shiny dragonfly landed on the bark. Its yellow-green back nearly matched the grass, except that it glowed sunset-red when the light hit it just right. And those iridescent wings looked so much like a pond’s surface, so pure, so sparkling, so…crunchy.

I couldn’t have asked for a better target. Here was a dragonfly setting itself up to be eaten—right at the base of my personal tree!

I had to fight it, even if just for trespassing.

First I crept up on the dragonfly, careful to make myself as quiet as possible. Since the grass here was tall, I had to move at the same time the wind moved it—and to tread lightly.

Then, when I was as close as I got whenever I was swatting beetles, I whipped out my claws.

Wham!

I actually caught it!

Though the attack had been one-pawed, I then brought both paws together like an iron maiden to finish the job. A surge of power went through me. It wasn’t a Level-Up, though. It was just satisfaction at having captured the prey that had fled once before. Sometimes that was just as good.

EXP: 7% (30/450)

HP 100% (60/60) SP 67% (30/45)

It was nearly sunset in the Vencian Wood, and the sky was a thing of wonder. All the caterpillar clouds had turned navy-blue, traveling under an orange dome.

I devoured the dragonfly. Flavor-wise, it was actually a step up from the beetles—it had a tang to it. But the water-like surface of its wings was like a slap in the face, considering how little water I’d found thus far. Yes, I’d found the tiniest, saddest watering hole as I’d made my way back from the Rabbitfoot Hills to my so-called Home Base, but in lapping it up, I’d also exhausted it.

On my way back, I’d crushed a few more beetles, spotted a gecko (and missed it), and nearly captured another rabbit (proving that the same trick won’t always work twice).

When the afternoon had grown late, I was pleased to find my old rabbit remains still sitting in the fields. After all, with my Inventory, couldn’t I take it with me and eat the rest at my leisure? But I couldn’t find a way to approach it—not safely, since a falcon was standing over the remains, plucking out what little meat was left. Grrrgh.

And now I was back at my tree. I knew that I had the Attack and the willpower to go out and fight for more Experience, but this had been my first day of real adventuring and I was fatigued, not to mention my mind was overloaded with new information. I kind of wanted to rest on my laurels for the night. Plus, I hadn’t given myself a chance to look at the Treasure I’d found just yet!

Now that I was at the place my boxes had kindly called Taipha’s Tree, I could climb up to my favorite branch and take a breather.

I did just that. And found a raccoon sitting in my spot.

No, I found five raccoons. All sitting like lazy losers, letting all their limbs along with their heads dangle off the edge. They were all wide awake, though, and they turned their heads in sync to gaze at me.

I was sure, without a doubt, that this was the same bunch of raccoons that had claimed the milk I still considered mine!

Can you believe that pink girl actually defended the raccoons instead of me?! It might even have been her fault that they were slacking on my branch! She didn’t have to let them live!

And I, sadly, wasn’t about to risk my life going head-to-head with what may well have been five Level 8 creatures. So I hopped down, realizing that maybe I was the real loser.

I landed on the grass again, thinking, That’s alright. Maybe they won’t be there tomorrow. Even if they are, I can find another place easy.

I sniffed. My scent was still on the tree—you can’t just remove a scent like you’d peel off a sticker. But now the rival smells hit me, too, strong and clear.

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I looked around.

Suddenly I was all too aware of how many spots in these woods were taken. Hollowed-out holes. Bustling nests. Pits in the ground, housing rabbits or snakes or worse.

Then a thought came to me: There is a place for me.

It was the cabin. Reed’s Cabin.

I hated the thought, but…if it was for the sake of survival, I had to do it, didn’t I?

That girl—the one who let the raccoons live—she hadn’t been a total jerk. After all, she hadn’t pet me like the blue one had. And both of them had done nice things for me. I had to admit it.

“Good night,” the pink one had told me.

With such a nice smile. A smile that…

I hadn’t figured out who she reminded me of. Someone from the city I’d grown up in—someone had a face like hers. But who?

And why did I care, anyway?

Message from Sierra, the Goddess of Nekomata I’ll help you out here.

Activate: Morph!

Wha, huh?!

Oh, so now the goddess wasn’t explaining things. She was just going to leave me out here with more questions than answers!

Wait, did she just make me use my Trait?

I froze.

Mere moments had passed since that box appeared and disappeared. Nothing had happened yet. But I had a feeling that a long, terrifying, stomach-curdling transformation was about to ha—

Poof.

Not quite.

In a flash, I was sitting in the grass—kneeling on bare human legs.

Everything about me was different. My breathing was deeper and longer. My body was so tall I felt like a tower. My whiskers were gone, taking some of my talent for tracking with them. And I didn’t have fur anymore. I had hair that, however long it was, couldn’t make up for how cold I was quickly becoming.

Except for my extremely long, Lady Godiva-like hair, I was totally naked. My hands flew to my arms and—uh, chest—to try and cover the goosebumps. Then I rubbed my arms like heck.

How was I shivering? It was such a pleasant summer out here!

No wonder humans wore stuff.

Wait. Some things were still the same. I felt cat ears twitching on top of my head. Sure, they were proportional to my big old clunky human head, but they still worked, and moved as keenly as ever. Though losing my whiskers did sting, I still had all my senses mostly intact.

Not only that, but I still had my tail!

Which was practically useless now. Tails are great for communication and balance, but humans get my tail signals all wrong, and plainly humans don’t need any balancing help from them. (I guess they have canes for that?)

So unless I was meeting other cat-human hybrids anytime soon, that thing would unfortunately just be decoration.

I took a break from arm-rubbing to check out my hands. Aw, I had ordinary human nails!

Or did I? I tried bringing my claws out, which did something strange: the nails actually filed themselves into ten sharp, pale points. Clacking them together, I found out they were just as hard as my cat claws. I swiveled my legs and feet out to try it there—same thing.

Okay. Breathe, Taipha. This wasn’t all bad. It did make me feel dizzy, and queasy, but at least it was…

The perfect way to approach Reed’s Cabin.

Going there was, at any rate, a better idea than sitting in the middle of the forest, staring forlornly at the tree I liked to call mine.

I wobbled to my feet, rising slowly to keep from getting vertigo.

My wavy blonde hair, striped with fine stripes of orange, fell almost to my knees. Ugh, it was just asking to get tangled in tree branches.

I took my time walking through the woods, setting my hand on tree trunks as I passed to keep myself upright. No animals attacked me. Nothing even approached me—I figured they might have been afraid of me.

Certainly something to keep in mind the next time I was in big trouble.

But for now, I just had to find a safe haven. And now that I was moving toward one, I burned to see that magenta-haired girl again.

When I found the log cabin, it looked almost the same as it had the night before. I’d approached it from a different angle. Cozy red light streamed from two ground-floor windows. The rest were dark, save for one on the second floor, beaming yellow.

A lantern hung beside the front door. I knew that wasn’t the doorway I’d gone through last night—the “milk door” must’ve been on the back or side. This door didn’t have a screen window like the other one. Its brown surface was carved with curlicue vines, just fancy enough to look out of place on this down-to-earth cabin.

In the distance, an owl hooed.

I had no idea what those humans would think of me coming to them in this form, but it couldn’t be that bad. In a magic world, anything is possible—and they’d have to have known that. Cats probably came to humans in the form of naked women every day.

As I walked toward the cabin, I realized I wasn’t just dizzy—I was losing energy. No, I was losing SP! I brought up my Stats:

HP 100% (60/60) SP 22% (10/45)

Oh no. I wished I’d remembered that sooner: the Stage 1 Morph was a constant drain on my SP. Then again, if it was going to guarantee me a good night’s sleep, I’d get it back anyway. Risk and reward…

I gritted my teeth. I’d risked this much. Either these women were going to let me in, or I’d fight my way in.

I marched up to the front door, onto those short concrete steps, and did what humans did: I knocked.

Then I did the other thing humans did and, with my new human voice and my new human words, I announced myself:

“Meow.”