“Hey, uh, Frazay?” Xander asked, hesitantly.
“Yes?”
“What’s a ‘great loravian panther,’ and why does the goddess of cats want me to rescue it?”
“…Are you telling me you just got a quest to rescue the giant panther over there?” Frazay pointed to the horse sized feline that Xander had previously noticed.
“Yes?”
“I’m on board with it,” Frazay said, shocking Xander.
“Really? I was expecting more pushback from you guys.”
Atrax shrugged, and Graffus offered, “I’ve never met a menagerie caravan owner that wasn’t an asshole, so I’m not complaining about a goddess given task to rescue an animal that clearly has no business being there.”
“Do you think I can just…buy it? I mean how many people are going to want to buy a giant, man-eating sized cat? That thing looks like it could bite me in half without even trying.” Xander pondered the best way to go about this. As distasteful as he found the caravan, he didn’t want to just steal the cat, either.
“I’d imagine there’s a pretty good market for something like that if they can find some tamers,” Atrax said.
“Mm, that’s fair, I supposed. Well, can’t hurt to try it.” Xander handed the reins of his horse over to Atrax, dismounted and walked up to one of the merchants that was nearby the panther. “I want to buy that one,” he said simply, pointing at the loravian panter. The animal was currently pressed against the back of its enclosure, panting, as a crowd of onlookers ‘appreciated’ its ‘exotic beauty.’”
The merchant seemed dumbfounded that someone would want to buy such an animal in this village. “You… you want to buy the loravian panther?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?” The man was not getting this through his skull.
“Yes.”
“You know those things are vicious, right?”
“I’m confident in my ability to handle the thing. Just tell me how much it costs already.” Xander was quickly becoming annoyed at this merchant’s odd lack of desire to just sell him the damned cat.
“Ooookay. You don’t look like the usual tamer type, but if you say you know what you’re doing, then you must know what you’re doing. Asking price for it is one hundred gold pieces, these cats are rare and there’s sure to be buyers in the capital asking after it as soon as they hear we brought one in.”
Xander didn’t have one hundred gold. After the payment from the guild as well as his time working for Smith, he had maybe three quarters of what he needed. “I’ll give you fifty gold, and I’ll enchant the bars on your carts to be stronger.”
The merchant looked thoughtful. Xander knew that runework like that could fetch a pretty penny, so it was a tempting deal already. Greed won out. “Hmm… Sixty and the rune work.”
“Fifty, and you can have my horse, too.”
“…Deal.”
Xander was surprised at the ease of the purchase. Either runework was more valued than he thought, or the merchant thought he was scamming him and considered the cat a lemon. Either way, he was the real winner here. The runework would be easy for him to do, if a little tedious, and the potential of the cat being an undesirable product was negated by the fact that the goddess of cats - Xander still wondered why there was a goddess of cats - had given him a quest to do so. The moment he shook hands with the merchant to seal the deal, he felt another update on his status sheet. After handing over the money, as well as leading his horse over to the merchant, he opened his status.
---[Quest] task successfully completed---
---Reward from Hetra dispensing---
Xander felt a presence at his side, though no one else seemed to notice anything amiss. In his mind, he heard, The loravian panther above all others carries my favor. While I might have preferred that my wrath be visited upon cretins such as these, you have indeed fulfilled that with which you were tasked. Go now with this blessing.
---You have been granted the title [Cat-Touched]---
[Cat-Touched] – You may form a bond with one feline creature, which lasts until either the caster or the targeted feline dies. Cooldown: 30 days. Mana cost: High. Duration: Until death.
Xander knew what his next obvious step was. The merchant removed a key from his belt and handed it to Xander. Evidently, the man wanted nothing to do with getting close to the beast. Xander took the key and made his way to through the crowd, earning a few disapproving glares as his armored form bumped slightly against more than a few of the villagers. Staring at the huge feline, he really hoped this ability would work. He cast his newly granted [Cat-Touched] ability upon the loravian panther.
Immediately, he was aware of the cat and its location relative to him. He could feel that the poor thing was cramped, bored, and stressed. The panther had swiveled its head to stare at him as soon as he had finished casting his ability. It was clearly aware of Xander as well. He wondered if it could tell as much about his state as he could its. Cautiously steeping closer to the bars, he held his hand up close enough to sniff. There were a few gasps and murmured voices behind him as he reached up to the cat. The panther sniffed him, and then chuffed, rubbing its head against his hand. Xander had heard a tiger chuff before, back when he still had an internet connection, but this one was far, far deeper than any tiger’s. He had the sneaking suspicion that if this thing decided to roar at full volume, it could easily scatter the crowd and damage ears.
He could feel the hope of the panther rising through the bond. He wondered if it could sense his intention to set it free, or if it was simply the first time the panther had been shown any kind of compassion. “Alright buddy let’s get you out of here. But first, you have to promise you won’t hurt any of these people, can you let me know somehow?”
The panther, surprisingly, gave a small nod. Xander was unsure if the animal was extremely intelligent naturally and the bond had simply given him the ability to communicate with it, or if the bond had increased its intelligence to allow it to interpret his instructions. Xander didn’t know much about the animals of this world, but he felt that the second option was more likely. He could somehow see that there was…more behind the panther’s eyes than when he’d been looking at it previously, and it made sense that a skill bestowed by a goddess would be powerful enough to alter an animal in such a way.
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Xander slowly put the lock in the key and turned it. There were more gasps and even a few shouts as the crowd noticed that he had begun unlocking the large door set into the bars. The crowd quickly began to disperse as people decided that they had much better, and safer, places to be than in front of a cart that was about to release a giant, predatory cat, leaving only a few braver observers hovering nearby. As soon as he had finished unlocking the gate the panther pressed a portion of its weight against the door, popping it open in its entirety. Gracefully, it slunk through the doorway and hopped the short distance to the ground, where it stood next to Xander, sniffing him inquisitively, and gave his armored shoulder a slight, but very rough, lick. Xander could hear the cat’s tongue scrape against the steel of his armor. The cat was hunched in on itself slightly, and Xander could tell it was uncomfortable with so many eyes upon it. It would have to get more used to that, Xander thought, considering that it would likely draw stares wherever they went.
“What are we gonna call you, huh?” Xander pondered aloud, considering his newfound companion animal. “I don’t even know if you’re a male or a female… say, are you a male?” The panther gave a quick shake of its head. “So female, then. What’s a good name for a giant female panther, huh? You got any ideas?”
The panther tilted its head slightly as if it were thinking but offered no answer.
“How about… hmm… Freyja? Sounds nice. It’s an older style of naming an old god from my own world, which seems fitting considering your divine providence.”
The panther seemed to consider for a moment before giving a nod, and Xander could feel that the animal was pleased to know it had a name.
“Now, let’s get you out of this town before they start bringing out the pitchforks or something. Just gotta hand over the payment and get these bars sorted.” The villagers were still apprehensive of the pair, seemingly expecting the giant cat to go wild at any moment and begin mauling people.
Xander made his way to the merchant, who was half hiding behind the wagon. Freyja had followed him at a sedate pace, and the man was clearly uncomfortable to see the animal looming behind Xander. Xander could tell Freyja deeply disliked her former captor and turned to the cat. “Be nice Freyja.” The panther changed her demeaner in absolutely no way, befitting a cat’s understanding of ‘behaving.’ But the admonition mollified the merchant somewhat. Xander counted out fifty gold worth of coins, having to resort to silver for some of it. “Right then, let me get started on the bars and Freyja and I will be on our way.”
“You want to meet your new friends first?” He asked the cat, struggling not to resort to baby-talking it considering that it was at least somewhat intelligent.
The panther cocked its head again at the new word and Xander felt its interest pique at the question.
Xander made his way over to Atrax, Frazay, and Graffus, with Freyja padding softly behind him. The two horses were clearly wary of the new beast, but settled quickly as it made no quick or threatening movements. Frazay’s stag however, looked like it would drop dead if it were not held by its own bond. Frazay was doing her best to soothe it, murmuring calming words to it and stroking its neck.
“Well, meet Freyja. Freyja, meet Atrax, Graffus, and Frazay. Please be nice to them. And their horses and deer!” Xander added the last bit quickly, seeing the panther’s eyes drawn to the fidgety stag. “She’s real smart, it seems like. I have to engrave the bars on these carts as part of my payment for her, but I’ll make it as quick as I can. Would you mind staying with her while I do that? I have a feeling that a lot of the animals would get riled up having her in front of their cage. Freyja, please wait here while I get this over with.”
The panther let out what could only be interpreted as a rather bored sigh and made itself comfortable by laying on the ground. Its relaxed demeanor seemed to put his groupmates more at ease, and they were looking less like they were ready to draw steel and more interested in inspecting the cat.
Xander quickly made his way back to the carts before the group of merchants could start to think he was considering making a run for it without engraving the bars. He made his rounds of the carts, quickly engraving a couple of gathering arrays and strengthening runes onto each bar. He could easily have added more per bar, but he wasn’t exactly feeling charitable towards their business.
Soon, he was done, and returned to his companions to find Frazay eagerly scratching Freyja’s chin as the cat rolled and squirmed on its back. Atrax and Graffus were still at a slightly ‘safer’ distance but had good natured smiles on their faces.
“Glad to see everyone getting along,” Xander commented as he came closer. Freyja paused her squirming for a moment to look at Xander, but quickly went back to it as she sensed no displeasure from him. It didn’t hurt that Frazay had not stopped her enthusiastic scratching of the big cat’s chin and cheeks.
“So… you’re bonded to the cat?” Atrax asked, slightly confused. “I’m pretty sure you didn’t mention any animal bonding abilities, and it’s not exactly a fit with any of your classes either.”
“Remember that quest I got to rescue her? The reward was an ‘animal bond.’ It gives me the ability to bond with one cat, and only cats I guess because it came from the goddess of cats, until one of us dies.”
“That is a unique gift to be given. It’s very rare for people to be able to achieve a skill that is not in line with their class. Even items that allow one to cast something outside of one’s wheelhouse are considered uncommon at best.” Atrax said, thoughtfully.
“Not much common about [Godsmarked], from what I hear,” quipped Graffus. “And Xander here sure seems to fit the mold in that regard.”
“Sorry again about the delay, I hope it didn’t put us back too far.” Xander felt a little guilty about putting them behind schedule. It had taken him about an hour to do all the bars, plus the time he’d spent acquiring Freyja.
“Worry not, we aren’t on much of a schedule. No one’s waiting on us. And I don’t think we would have made it to the next village before stopping for the night anyway, so camping out on the road was always the plan for tonight. Although, since you’ve evidently sold your horse, do you have any plans for keeping up with us?”
“Uh, shit. Yeah that was maybe not the smartest move. I’d kind of thought I’d be able to ride Freyja here, but I guess I should maybe ask first since she’s smarter than the average cat. If not, I guess I can keep up using [Eternal March], since we aren’t exactly going much faster than a brisk walk anyways.”
Xander turned to the cat, who was still stretched out on the ground, despite no longer being under Frazay’s ministrations. “Freyja, would you be alright with letting me ride you while we travel? It might be a lot faster than having to wait on me to walk everywhere, I’m too short to be fast like you.” Xander chuckled at his own joke. Freyja’s size really was just ludicrous. “I’ll even make sure I make you a nice comfy saddle so I don’t make you uncomfortable.”
Freyja appeared to be lost in thought after Xander’s question. He could see the gears turning behind the cat’s eyes as it thought the request over, and could feel it through the bond, too. While not really translated into words, the gist of it came across in the bond: While the idea of being ridden by any old stranger struck her as distasteful, she didn’t mind so much allowing Xander to ride her, considering he had rescued her, and traded his other riding animal in the process. But the saddle better be as comfortable as he says it will be. Freyja gave a nod once she was done mulling the thought over.
“Perfect!” Xander was excited. While owning and riding a horse in his armor had made him feel rather knightly, riding a horse sized cat would make him feel like a magical knight. Which he sort of was, he realized, considering his mostly plate armor and ability to use skills. “Let’s get this thing started then so we can get out of here.”
Xander began the somewhat trial and error process of creating a saddle for a cat. What he’d ended up with was similar in construction to a harness that a dog or a cat might have worn on earth, with two loops being buckled around each front leg, and a larger, singular sheet of leather looping around Freyja’s stomach area. He’d made the leather as smooth and supple as he could to prevent it from rubbing and added quite a lot of padding under the saddle to help distribute his weight a little more for the cat. He even embossed runes of smoothness on the underside of the straps and saddle, going all out for the comfort of his new companion. Freyja didn’t seem to mind the contraption one it was put on. The combination of the light construction and the smoothness runes making the saddle feel as if it were hardly there. Xander’s weight was hardly anything compared to what the cat would take down and drag in its natural habitat, so her movement was not much impeded by a rider. Xander hooked his feet into the stirrup like straps he’d added near where his feet would hang and gripped onto the handles he’d built into the saddle. He’d doubted that Freyja would appreciate something like a bridle or reins. Considering she was intelligent enough to respond to verbal commands Xander figured that she wouldn’t need all that much direction, and if she did, he could just ask her to do what he needed. He still had a white-knuckled grip on the handles, though. He was certain that the cat could sling him from the saddle if it decided to.