We still had enough provisions to decide not to try and make it to Krenburg today. Instead, we would take it slow, starting with a hearty breakfast.

I had a fresh carrot and half a cabbage with some freshly picked, slightly bitter leaves as spices. And even without the spices, there were surprisingly different flavours of cabbage, a culinary realm which my new form had unlocked for me. I also tried a tiny bit of the sheep's cheese that Freya was eating, but my taste buds did not agree with it. On the other hand, the tea Freya had made in the evening was delicious, even cold. And some of the greens from the village were nice too.

We ate in silence and then slowly broke camp.

Freya walked beside me and saw my muscle ache. I took her right hand and put it on my lower shoulder. We need to talk without too many misunderstandings. "Freya, do you have any ideas? I mean about Krenburg tomorrow."

She sighed, "I know. And I have no idea. I want to hide with you in the woods forever."

"We still have some money. We can delay our arrival for a week or two."

"And then," Freya shook her head. "No, it will only be worse." And tears began to flow. She threw herself in my way and hugged me tightly, her face in my breasts.

I sat on my protesting forelegs to get down to her eye level. "But we won't have to avoid each other there for sure?"

"No," she sniffed, "but"

"I understand we cannot marry."

Well, that was not the right way to start, of course, and Freya burst into tears again.

"But blessing from clerics is getting? Please mindspeak"

She looked at me. "About us. A blessing for two women?"

"Maybe not about women. I mean, most people don't see me as a woman. No, a blessing as my constant companion until whenever."

That made her think. Enough to distract her.

"Maybe a dsgdf," she muttered, out of mindspeak again. I could see the wheels of her scheming department spinning up. "Kiara, what a great idea. Yes, let's go and get their blessing."

She almost started to run. Pip, who had been following us in the trees, hurried down and jumped on my shoulder.

Freya was not much of a runner and soon we were back to a slow walk.

* * *

After some time of walking at a slow human pace, my muscle ache had disappeared. Thus, I invited Freya on my back again and we could continue at my normal pace.

In the early afternoon, we came to a junction. It was probably the path down to the Kren Plain, as it descended almost immediately. But there was also a trail continuing straight on the ridge, although it was clearly the less travelled one. We decided to continue through the forest rather than descend to the plains without many words. I was not looking forward to paved roads at all. And yes, trees. During the lunch break, I had some fun chasing Pip again. But I kept it short enough.

The trail followed the ridge along the plain but with a lot more up and down than before. Occasionally, we could see the plain through some trees when we went over a cliff.

Later in the afternoon, clouds appeared and the wind picked up. Freya looked nervously at the sky. "These clouds don't look good. There might be thunderstorms later."

Somehow, I agreed. By instinct from some animal part of my soul, because my human knowledge of cloud shapes was from the wrong world and not very conclusive as a former city dweller.

We had two choices. Either we could descend through the forest and hope not to end up on a vertical cliff but at an inn on the plain. Or we could delay, walk on and look for a campsite that would be good enough even in a thunderstorm.

We continued on the trail. An hour later we found something, a small cave in one of the cliffs. An old fireplace on the cave's mound showed that travellers had used it from time to time. Freya went in first to check for any creatures. But it was empty. The entrance to the cave was really low, I had to squeeze with my legs bent out to the side, sliding on my belly fur. Inside the cave was only a little longer than me from head to tail, but more than a metre high. I could turn over on my back and then back again. Cramped, but no worse than the hermitage, especially as there were only two of us and a squirrel.

It was time, a wind blew up from the plain and carried up sand and dust. We lay side by side, peeking out of the cave, watching the sky darken. A distant thunder rolled once, then another. The storm must be coming from behind us, for we saw no lightning over the plain.

It was getting darker and darker. A cold, strong gust brought more dust, blinding us momentarily. Then the rain started, getting heavier by the second. The wind blew the spray into our faces. We retreated into the dark cave.

"Some light would be nice."

"I could try and light a fire at the entrance," Freya offered.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"No, the wind could blow embers into my fur." I shuddered.

Anyway, the small cave was soon heated by our body heat. I rolled over on my back and Freya lay on my stomach. After some evening fun, we dozed off to the sound of the heavy rain outside.

* * *

The next morning was neither warm nor bright. It was still raining, not heavily, but steadily.

Low clouds in all shades of grey raced across the sky, eastwards towards the plain. According to Freya, this meant that the weather had changed and would stay like this for at least two or three days.

Leaving the warm cave was a considerable challenge. But the call of nature could no longer be denied. And once outside, we might as well hurry on to Krenburg, for we could not get a fire going in this wet weather and our provisions were almost empty.

A smelly but dry medieval house didn't sound so bad compared to the cold rain.

Freya was wearing a leather cape improvised from the package with which she had bundled her Sunday clothes, which were now loose in the hopefully watertight saddlebag. I used the latter as a makeshift hat. It was as stupid as it sounded, but it kept most of my torso a little dry. Pip also huddled up under the saddlebag hat next to my ears, ignoring the fact that squirrels should be used to rain.

Even though Freya had the leather cape, the steady drizzle pooled in my fur and she got wet from underneath. And the occasional gust between the trees went under my makeshift saddlebag hat. After an hour we were soaking wet and cold, and the mood was at rock bottom. At least this part of the ridge was sheltered from the wind and the rain had temporarily stopped. Neither wind nor rain meant that the fog was rising. We almost missed the next trail down, at least we hoped it was a real path and not just a deer trail that would end after a few metres and lead nowhere.

But the trail held its promise, steadily descending on muddy, slippery ground beneath the leaves. Even with the claws out, I skidded quite a bit. The bumpy ride was hard on Freya, sliding back and forth on my wet fur. She tried to walk, but the straight leather soles of her boots offered far less traction than my claws. So she climbed onto my back again and hugged my wet body. The saddlebag came under Freya, providing a slightly drier seat than my fur and giving her something to hold on to when I skidded on the mud. Soon I was down on all six, all claws out. It was hard work. Probably thanks to my squirrelling out, I was able to walk (and skid) down the path with my claws out for a full hour. The rain started again, driving away the fog. When the path finally levelled, my legs and arms were muddy up to my knees and elbows, and my shirt was soaked and dirty. And my claw muscles were sore. I couldn't even retract my claws fully, the cramps were so bad and there was so much sand in the claw sheaths.

A nearby, very dense fir tree caught my attention. "Freya, please looking."

She climbed under the low branches. "Yes, dry, good find."

I followed quickly. It was indeed dry. I didn't mind the prickly needles on the ground and on the branches above; I didn't even mind that my tail was still out in the rain. I just needed a break. My wet fur was steaming. Freya was by the trunk, hugging me for warmth as we curled around the trunk. She was shivering, slowly warming up. I fell asleep within seconds.

* * *

"Kiara!"

"Hnn?" I open one eye.

"Are you ok?"

Slowly I recognised my surroundings, the low branches of the fir tree, Freya beside me. Cautiously I moved my claws, and they retracted now. Luckily the sand in the sheaths had dried enough to have fallen out. "I thinking good."

Freya had fished the last bottle out of the saddlebag. "Let's have some wine!"

Even for my tired claws the cork had been no challenge.

Freya took big gulps. I rather sipped. Not that either of us was in danger of being fined for driving under the influence. But I was afraid of getting tipsy. I could carry Freya any distance, but it was not mutual. And I really want to rest tonight in a proper house with a big fireplace. Instead, I ate the rest of the bread, which was wet and on its way to becoming chewing gum.

While I ate the bread, Freya finished the wine and closed her eyes.

"Freya?"

"Hnn, oh you. You are so warm."

She was warm too, warming my right side all the way up to my hind legs. There were still some occasional drops through the less dense outer branches reaching my left side, but I was more or less ok, drier than before at least. But the tail, well, it had been mostly outside and was wet and cold. We cuddled a little longer. But eventually, the water found its way inside on the ground. Time to go.

"Freya? Cute Freya!"

That did it. She moaned as she moved. Well, there were certainly better ways to sleep than bent over backwards.

"Warm?"

She snorted. "No, ef dfsgsdf not. What do you think?"

"Tonight, warm house?"

She sighed. "Yes, a warm house for the warm big cat and the small, cold and wet Freya."

I had to crawl backwards and rub countless needles into my fur. It could not be helped. Freya was huddled over the saddlebag, legs in front of her chest, so that she could fit almost entirely under the leather cape, the saddlebag under her. I would be completely exposed to the rain and would have to keep warm by walking. I tried to pull my tail over me, like Pip. In fact, the squirrel never came out as we left our shelter. "Pip?"

He did not come. So we walked on. Using my tail as an umbrella did not work. It just got caught in low branches, it was already soaked and dripping more than the drizzle, and it was not wide enough. No protection for me then.

We soon left the forest. The rain picked up again and the wind added to our misery. I felt like a piece of clothing in a washing machine, inadvertently on the cold cycle. I walked faster and got into a sort of running gait, trying not to push Freya around too much. At least the rain washed the mud off my shirt and arms.

Then the path joined the main road, which was cobblestones again. I silently cursed and kept to the side as much as possible. But after a night and half a day of rain, the sides were full of puddles and muddy and slippery. It could not be helped.

I was pretty sure that the last few days had strengthened my body and the current speed would have been impossible when I first arrived in this world. But in the grey, foggy rain it did not look like we were making any progress. Eventually, the mud on my stomach and legs reached saturation, the new splashes matched the dripping mud. The repeated silhouettes of trees gave the impression that we were walking in circles, which was impossible with the road as our guide.

We did not talk, Freya shivered occasionally, and I was wet and cold and out of breath, but I really gave it my all. I reached the zone, I was on automatic, with a brisk walk while daydreaming. Lying on the beach of the forest lake, baking in the sun. Then I slipped on a particularly large, uneven stone, stumbled to the side and almost threw Freya off. The adrenaline kept me awake for the next hour or so.

In all that time we had only passed one goods wagon, also bound for Krenburg, drawn by a single horse. The poor drenched creature had my full sympathy as it had no choice but to go on in this weather. At least it had the prospect of spending the night under a roof. Soon the wagon disappeared behind us in the foggy rain.

Later we came across a group of soldiers. We stopped briefly and exchanged greetings. Freya told them briefly about me and our journey. They had good news, Krenburg was less than two hours away. Then they carried on in their silent misery, although they were better equipped with rain gear and on horseback. Well, Freya rode me.