The next morning, Niall’s eyes opened slowly, his gaze meeting the wooden ceiling above him. “Wait, that’s not…” he muttered sleepily before memories of the previous day came rushing into his drowsy mind. “Fuck,” he added. As much as he would have liked it, none of what occurred yesterday was a dream or a hallucination. A glance at his paw-hands confirmed that further.
He raised his head, briefly taking in the room again in all of its rather messy glory. Though instead of Katao being there to greet him, a clearly much older catfolk woman sat at the cluttered table. By what Niall could tell, she was perhaps around 40 years old, and her skin tone and fur colors mirrored those of Katao. She wore a poncho of some sort with brown pants, her ears perking up a little when the woman noticed Niall was awake.
He gave her a small wave. “H-hello.”
“Hi there,” he received a warm smile in return as she spoke. The woman’s eyes were a duller blue, though the color still contrasted against her other features well. “You’re the girl who barged into the village yesterday, yes? I heard your entry was… surprising,” she chuckled.
“Uhh… yeah. Are you Katao’s mom?” he said, slowly regaining his wits and a modicum of confidence.
The woman nodded. “Mhm! She told me that she’s going to be escorting you home, yes?”
“That’s the plan,” he nodded in turn as he flung his legs over the edge of the bed and stretched a little. He couldn’t see Katao in the room right now, so he surmised that she was likely either outside or somewhere else in the house. Perhaps in her own room, preparing for the journey. Niall didn’t quite have the guts to tell the woman of the scope of the ‘escort mission’ that her daughter was about to undertake, lest she become overly concerned. Besides, Katao had made clear that his realm-traveling nature was something that should be kept secret.
“Are you ready for the trip?” the woman then asked as she stacked up some of the items on the table, hoping to make it look at least halfway tidy. “She patched up your scrapes and bruises, I know that much. Where are you from? Oh and what’s your name?”
Katao’s absence weighed on Niall much more now. She was the only person who could have answered the first question for him, though luckily he wasn’t new to spinning up lies on the spot. “The west, and my name’s Niaka, ma’am.” The new name felt odd to him, as if he was referring to anyone but himself; a nonexistent person whose skin he was wearing like some kind of weird spy. Still, yesterday’s session in front of the mirror had made it painfully clear that this body was now his, and all of the feminine aspects that came with it.
“The Western Clan? Rare for someone with your fur coloration to be from there, isn’t it?” Katao’s mother tilted her head inquisitively before her expression brightened up again and she scoffed at herself. “Here I go, questioning a guest like the guard’s just caught you. Sorry about that. I’m Maka, and you don’t need formalities in this house.”
Niall breathed an inner sigh of relief. “Understood. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Maka nodded. “You seem like a sweet girl. If there’s anything you need for the trip, feel free to tell me.”
Being called a girl so openly bristled Niall, but the woman in front of her was clearly very kind and ready to help, so he pushed down the initial urge to go off on her and refuse aid that he definitely needed. “I really appreciate that. Thank you,” he smiled and got up, soon heading in the direction of Katao’s room. If he was going to be embarking on an arduous trip, he needed to know what that might entail, and Katao was the only one with that knowledge right now.
Down the hall, he found the room and gave the door a knock. “Can I come in?”
“Sure. I’m just packing up,” his new friend’s voice called out, and so he entered. As he expected, the room was very simple but cozy with a bed, a desk and a wardrobe along with an extremely soft animal pelt rug on the floor. He hoped it was one of those wolves, it’d be a tiny form of payback to know that they weren’t safe from the catfolk.
A leather backpack sat on the bed as Katao stuffed a bottle of the familiar healing goop inside. “You talked with my mom?” she asked without turning around to look at him.
“Yeah. She was nice but I had to lie about a thing or two,” Niall answered as he closed the door. “I told her I was from the Western Clan, apparently. Is that bad?” He walked over to the backpack to inspect its contents for himself, which seemed to consist of clothes, some tools and the aforementioned healing salve bottle.
“Not really, I guess,” Katao sat down next to the luggage on the bed and looked Niall over. His hair was a slight mess, but otherwise he looked the same as he did yesterday. “We’ll be heading north, but that’s not a big deal. I doubt we’ll come across that Clan at all.”
“Alright, that’s good. I just don’t want to poke holes into the plan, that’s all.”
Katao nodded and pulled out a hairbrush from the bag before she gestured for him to take a seat in front of her. “Your hair’s a straight mess. Let me handle it.”
“Hm? Oh, I can take care of it,” Niall ran a few fingers through his hair, and he winced as they came across more than a couple tangles. “Is that important anyway?”
She giggled at the question, brandishing the brush at him like it was a sword that would strike down the beast that was his unruly mane. “It is if you don’t want to look like a street urchin. You’ll learn a thing or two about how to handle it while I’m at it.”
He huffed briefly but acquiesced, sitting down onto the floor, facing away from Katao. “I’ve never had long hair before.”
“I figured. Well don’t you worry, it’s not that bad to take care of. And besides, it really suits your new look,” she encouraged him as she began to work through the tangles in his hair. At the start of each motion, the brush ran against Niall’s scalp, sending a warm wave of relaxation through him. “Feels good, doesn’t it?” she smiled, noticing the obvious reaction.
“Fuck, it does…” he muttered in bliss, choosing to ignore the comment about his new appearance. He wasn’t about to draw more attention to it than was necessary, even if he’d come to grips with his predicament a little more last night.
Little by little, the tangles were eliminated, and Niall found his shoulders slouching as he leaned back, taking in every little bit of the treatment that he could get. A few minutes later the brush left him alone, though he suddenly felt a few fingers scratching his scalp instead. The sensation was similarly amazing, but it was undercut by the knowledge that Katao was doing it on purpose. “H-hey!” he turned to look at her with an unintended pout, and sure enough, her face was plastered with a smug little smirk.
“Couldn’t resist,” she giggled and withdrew her hand. “Your hair’s done now.”
Niall scoffed and ran his fingers through his hair again, now finding it to be smooth and almost silky to the touch. His wash yesterday contributed to it without a doubt, but it still took him slightly by surprise. “Oh wow! T-thanks,” he said, turning around and standing up again.
“Don’t mention it. You’d better pack some stuff for yourself too, you’re lucky I have a spare bag and a bedroll.”
“Hm?” he looked to where Katao was now pointing, quickly spotting the bag off to the side before he began to fill it with items that she gestured at one after another. His luggage ended up much lighter than the girl’s own, but that was more than fair. “Think we’re all set then?”
“More or less,” Katao said as she rummaged through her bag, counting the rations she’d packed. It wasn’t exactly great food, mostly consisting of dried meat, bread and other such things, but it was far better than the alternative of being hungry on the road. She had a couple waterskins as well, freshly filled from one of the barrels in the bathroom. “Our first destination is Ardenglade. It’s a human city that has plenty of connections to other places, so it’s as good a place as any to ask around.”
“Do you think someone there will know where Otaoka is?” Niall’s ears flattened downward as he found the idea a bit unlikely.
“Maybe, maybe not. Let’s just hope for the best, yeah?” Katao returned a cheerful smile, one that he couldn’t help but find infectious.
“I guess.” He scratched his chin in thought. “I’ll just trust your judgment.”
“Not like we’ll run out of places to look through. The first stretch from here will be pretty comfy too, since we won’t really need to walk at all. My mom knows the merchant who stops here from time to time, so we can hop onto his cart for the trip.”
“Hm, handy. Sounds good to me,” Niall’s ears perked up at the idea. While horse-drawn carts were bound to be far slower than cars, they beat having to make a long trek on foot. “How long will the ride be?”
“We’ll get there by this time tomorrow morning, the city’s pretty close.”
His eyes widened briefly. “It’ll take a whole day? Well if it’s our best option.” Ultimately, he shrugged and accepted the plan since it really wasn’t that bad when put into context.
“That’s a long trip for you?” Katao raised an eyebrow.
“Well… yeah. Back home, you could go halfway across a continent in a day if you didn’t stop for breaks.”
Now it was Katao’s turn to look surprised, as her ears positively sprung up to full attention. “A continent?! With… with one of those cars you mentioned?” Her eyes brimmed with curiosity and awe. Niall could tell that she’d give an arm and a leg to see a car in person right now.
“Mhm,” he nodded, feeling sort of smug deep inside. He could still blow her mind many times over with tales of modern inventions, and he looked forward to seeing her reactions to them. After all, she did look extremely cute when her tail swayed from side to side just like it was doing now. “Driving long distances is a pain in the ass though,” he then added.
“A-alright.” Katao blinked, this new surge of information sinking into her brain as she tried to process it all. “Goodness, I… I hadn’t expected them to be so fast. Tell me more about them later.”
“Well, I can try. I don’t know all the intricacies, but I guess it’s a fair trade for you showing the way.”
“More than fair,” she nodded with a smile before she went to double check her luggage. “Money, bedrolls, waterskins, rations, spare clothes, this and that…” she murmured, and she seemed to be satisfied in the end. “I believe we’re ready. The merchant should be here any moment now, I think.”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“Alright,” Niall picked up his own bag and proceeded to follow Katao to the porch. The other catfolk didn’t seem to pay as much mind to Niall now, but he could still feel a couple stares on him. It was unlikely that anything of much note happened here, so even the arrival of someone new was cause for intrigue. That is, until the villagers lost interest and went about their days again. This at least gave Niall some breathing room, so he sat down onto the steps to wait for the merchant’s arrival. It was bound to cause some buzz.
And that’s exactly what it did, as people soon began to congregate around a different gate than the one Niall had come through. Walking over with Katao, the two were met with the sight of a basic cart being pulled by a brown-furred horse. On the front seat of the cart sat a portly human man wearing a white tunic and brown pants. Niall wouldn’t have thought him to be a merchant if it wasn’t for the multitude of items in the cart itself, most of them packed in wooden crates. He could see fishing equipment, farming tools and other goods packed there. The man waved at the catfolk who’d come to watch his arrival before he stopped the cart and hopped off.
The man sported a well-kept and thick black moustache and a fair bit of stubble to boot. His short hair was pitch-black as well, with slight curls that looked rather charming. “Greetings, everyone! Good to see you all again,” he greeted the small crowd. Niall kept a bit of distance with Katao, as they weren’t interested in his wares for obvious reasons.
The villagers then began to trade coins for goods, replacing old broken fishing rods and restocking their spice racks. Niall watched passively, tapping his foot as he waited for Katao to go in and talk to the man. The opportunity came some moments later as the crowd had begun to disperse, and so Katao walked up to him and smiled. “Hi Al! Say, could you do us a small favor?”
The man – apparently called Al – immediately turned to face the girl and he returned a beaming smile. “Oh, Katao! I can certainly try, if you tell me what it is.”
“Well, my friend here needs a ride to Ardenglade, and I’ll be joining her. Could we hop onto your cart for the trip? You’ll be going there anyway, right?”
“That I will be, yes,” Al nodded and looked Niall over. Before he said anything else, however, the man reached out a hand toward him for a handshake. “Let’s not forget about introductions! I’m Alphonse, but everyone calls me Al. That means you can, too,” he gave a wink and smiled.
Niall found himself slightly taken aback by the gesture. He’d hoped no attention would fall onto him, but it wasn’t the end of the world as long as he didn’t mess up his cover story. “Uhm, nice to meet you, Al. I’m Niaka.” He returned a handshake, and though Al visibly kept his grip gentle, Niall could tell that he himself was noticeably weaker than the merchant. Back on Earth, they would have likely been on equal ground, or maybe the former young man would have been stronger. Al did seem to be roughly middle-aged, after all, and he was no mountain of muscle.
“I’m always up for helping a friend of Katao’s,” Al let go and was at ease again, briefly glancing toward the girl’s home before he looked at her. “Your mother is fine with you leaving, I assume?”
“Of course, no need to worry,” Katao nodded.
“Alright then! Let me just finish up my business and then we can be off. Won’t take long.” Grabbing various herb pouches and other alchemical tools from his cart, Al made his way to Katao’s home. The village’s healer was a friend of his, as Katao had mentioned, and of course he wanted to sell to her as well.
“He seems like a cheery guy,” Niall commented as he waited with his friend.
“Yep,” she chuckled. “He’s nice. All the kids here call him Uncle Al, it’s cute.”
“I can see it,” he smiled in turn. Sure enough, a small group of younger catfolk were swarming around Alphonse, begging for sugary treats, before he entered the house..
It didn’t take longer than fifteen minutes for Al to return, with his coin pouch a little heavier than before as he then prepared and reorganized his cart for departure. It didn’t seem like he lingered in a given village for very long, and that was the case now as well.
“Hop on!” he gestured to Katao and Niall.
The two climbed into the back of the cart right away, placing their bags among the crates. Luckily there was enough space for both of them, though it wasn’t exactly the height of comfort to sit on bare wood without any cushions.
Niall leaned against one of the crates as Katao did the same, sitting down beside him.
“Ready to go?” Al turned to ask.
After getting agreeing nods, Al brought the cart into motion. Niall felt a nudge as the wheels began to turn, bringing the small group out of the village and onto the rural dirt road through the forest. Their surroundings were much the same as the road that Niall had taken to the village himself, though the path was visibly more trafficked. He wondered where the earlier path led, then. Looking around himself idly, he could only spend a few moments appreciating the beauty of the forest before he found himself getting bored and he turned to Katao. “Hey, do you have a plan for what we’ll do after we get to the city?” he asked with a half-whisper.
“We’ll ask around for sightings of Otaoka,” she replied, one of her ears perking up at the question. “I already said that, right?”
“You did, but leaving it all to chance… it sounds risky,” Niall gestured at the girl somewhat nervously.
“It’s not as bad as you think, it’ll work. You just don’t know how stuff works here yet,” Katao gave him a smug little look and tilted her head.
At that, he scratched his head in thought. “Guess I don’t,” he muttered before leaning in toward her a little to whisper “Actually, I had another question. Umm… are there any ‘human’ things I should avoid doing? Like, behaviors, phrases and whatever.” If Niall wanted to remain undetected, blending in was his best option, though the thought irked him a little. Here he was, going to a city apparently filled with other humans, while he had to act like anything but.
“Good question,” Katao whispered in return and took a moment to think. “On average, us catfolk are more outgoing than humans, I suppose. Humans like to say we’re affectionate,” she smiled, still speaking in a low volume so that Al couldn’t hear the conversation. It’d have seemed like an odd topic, to say the least. “I can’t really think of any big taboos. Just don’t let people manhandle your tail, I guess. It’s a little bit sensitive, being part of the spine and all.”
“Right, this thing,” Niall brought his tail around himself as much as he could, inspecting the appendage he hadn’t possessed previously. Weirdly enough, it didn’t feel too alien to him at the moment. “Fair enough. If there’s one good thing about it, it’s definitely the softness,” he said as he ran a hand against the orange fur covering the tail. “Are there catfolk with different tails? Like, bushy ones?”
“Yep!” she nodded with a smile. “I hear they make for great extra blankets during the winter,” she giggled.
Niall let out a chuckle as well. “I figured. Sounds pretty great.”
“Mhm! See, it’s not all bad being like this,” Katao gave his cheek a teasing little poke.
“Right, but you gotta stop with the poking,” he smirked half-jokingly.
She only shrugged as she wore a wider grin. “I just told you we’re affectionate. Gotta get used to it.”
Katao’s smugness seemed to fire up Niall’s attitude as well, with him turning to face her fully before he reached out to return a poke right onto her own cheek. “There!” he grinned in turn as he got his revenge, but the surprise on Katao’s face mixed with the sudden mild redness of her cheeks gave him pause for a second. Did he just fuck up? He couldn’t help but note how adorable she looked like that, with her eyes widened a little, but his thoughts were abruptly put to a stop when the girl reached out to place her hands onto his cheeks, taking hold.
“W-wait-” he sputtered. “What are you-”
“You won’t get revenge on me that easily! No one takes me by surprise without facing the consequences.” Katao grinned mischievously just before she pinched Niall’s cheeks and pulled on them. It didn’t hurt him, luckily, but the teasing was tailor-made to fluster him more.
“Stop! I won’t do it again!” he whined while a legion of butterflies ran amok in his stomach. His hands tried to pry hers away to little effect at the same time.
Katao, for her part, giggled as she treated Niall’s poor face like a chunk of play-doh. He was lucky that his new features were so soft. “Oh I know you won’t,” she laughed. “You should see how you look right now, so cute!”
That only served to cause his face to become as red as an overheating stove top, and in spite of his frozen body, his tail was swaying from side to side with energetic flicks.
Al chuckled heartily as the exchange had by now become more than audible to him. “Watch out, a cat fight!” he grinned and laughed more at his own joke than either Niall or Katao ever would.
The treatment stopped before long, and once the brunt of the embarrassment was over, Katao was content to fill the time with much more relaxed and casual conversation. Even Alphonse chipped in to the chat, adding quips and comments here and there. That gave Niall time to process that little exchange with Katao, while his new friend was busy talking with Al about what he’d be doing in the city.
Niall’s fingers slowly massaged his bare belly. The fluttering sensation earlier in his stomach had been immensely strong, and though it wasn’t uncomfortable by itself, it was… new. He sighed slowly. Having to deal with all-new emotional and mental sensations on top of physical ones was tiring, and he wasn’t at all equipped to handle them. “Stop messing with me already…” he whispered to himself, berating his own mind.
The journey was at least going well, with breaks being taken on occasion, and Katao’s and Alphonse’s spirits were high by the looks of it. The sun was slowly beginning to creep toward the horizon as the evening wore on, and Niall hoped that the night would be just as calm. He was going to need some good sleep if he wished to deal with an entire city full of new things to experience.