Chapter 25 A Cat, a Trio, and the Mage Part 1

~Some years prior to the main story~

“Hmm~“

“Nothing goes over a nap in a forest~“

I was leisurely stretching all four from me as I half asleep, skillfully balanced myself on the thick tree branch.

The sun shone through the lush green leaves, forming a pattern on my fur that slowly moved with the nice breeze.

“…”

I opened one eye as I noticed a presence hiding behind a tree and then closed it again, “Whatever they want, my sleep has priority!”

I continued my nap for who knows how long.

“Excuse me…” A faint voice reached my ears that moved in response.

“Hum… excuse me… are you awake?” The faint voice continued, not giving up…

I felt how their tiny body swirled around me, but I did not respond, “Sigh, let me sleep some more…”

I dozed off again.

“…”

I could feel a penetrating stare…

“EXCUSE ME!” The faint voice, now not so faint anymore, seemed to have had ran out of patience.

“PLEASE WAKE UP!” The being continued.

*Splash*

I, annoyed by their wake-up call, casually pinned down their body; water splashing in the process. I yawed, “Can’t you wait until I finish sleeping? How rude.”

“Isn’t it ruder to ignore someone and continue to sleep?!” The small creature consisting out of water complained while trying to wiggle their way out of my paw.

I yawned again, “What do you want? I was just having a nice dream about being in a world where everything was made out of food.” My tail waged slowly as I recalled the tasty dream.

The tiny water spirit looked at me perplexed, not understanding; probably they never tried out food… I glanced at them with pity in my eyes.

“Anyway, the great Lamidea asked me to ask you for help!” They still wiggled like a freshly caught fish under my paw, which made me kind of hungry…

“Why are you looking at me like that? Release me at once! How can you be so rude! I never expected the one Lamidea would ask for help would turn out to be such a ruffian.” They complained.

Annoyed by the disturbance, I squished harder and slowly let their body freeze, “Is that how you ask someone for help?”

“Wait! Stop, please! I’m sorry, okay. Please let me go!” The tiny spirit pleaded.

I closed my eyes for a moment, contemplating if I should hear them out or simply freeze them and continue my sleep.

“Hmm…”

I could feel a desperate stare, “Please, as a fellow spirit, help Lamidea; otherwise, who knows what those vile humans might do to her…” The rude voice began to sound worried.

I slowly opened my eyes again, resting my chin on my paw, staring at the rude water spirit, still fixated under my other paw. “Hmm, fine.” Then I released them, and they quickly flew back up, their frozen part turning back to water.

“Great! Follow me, rude cat!”

“Then lead the way, rude tiny water ball!” I replied as I stretched myself on the tree, ready to jump down.

The spirit looked back at me, “I’m not a water ball!”

“And I’m not a cat!” I said nonchalantly as I landed with all four on the ground.

***

“You sure this is the right place? It looks like any normal lake to me.” The human looked around the small lake imbedded in the surrounding greenery.

“It's the right one, trust me. That’s the lake that healed Jörg’s leg injury.” He stared with greedy eyes at the water surface. “If we can catch this water spirit, we will be rich!”

“B-But how do we know there is a spirit in there, and how do we catch it?” Another timid human spoke up with a trembling voice.

“Tsk, did you not listen to me?! I already explained that Jörg said he saw one! And with this-” The rough-looking human pulled something out of his pocket. “We can easily catch it!”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“What is this thing?”

“You idiot! That’s called... ahem, right, a magic thing! I got it from a trustworthy mage!”

***

“Is that a magic item?” Water ball and I observed their doing from a distance.

“These impudent sacks of flesh, how dare they!” The tiny spirit angrily flew in the air, practicing their punches... “They sure have a way with words...” I thought as I relaxed observed them, scratching my ear.

“Hmm...” I looked back at the humans, the rough one proudly displaying the magic item while his underlings clapped in awe...

“... are they idiots...?”

I looked at them skeptical.

“Sigh, let's get this over with...”

“$@§%ß...”

While water ball was distracted, chanting words that definitely would get censored if this was a story, I made my way to the wannabe bandits.

“Meow!”

“Huh, a cat?”

All three looked at me in surprise.

“How cute, what are you doing here?” The timid one squatted down. “Did you get lost?”

“Meow~”

“Stop playing with the cat; we have something to do!”

“R-right.” He sprung up again.

The rough-looking human in a cool pose stretched out his hand, the magic item that looked like a rubber duck, pointing towards the lake.

“...” I stared in silence.

“Heed my call, oh, spirit dwelling in this lake. I command thy, show yourself!”

*squish*

*quack*

*silence*

*whoosh*

A breeze of fresh wind rustled through the grass...

The human still standing in the awkward pose looked at the rubber duck, out of its mouth water emerged.

His two companions didn’t dare to utter a word...

“Pft!”

“Who was that?!” The rough human turned around, looking at his companions.

“What do you mean, Bob?”

“Someone laughed right now!”

Both looked at each other confused.

“Pft~”

“There, again!”

The three looked around.

“Hahaha~” I was rolling around on the grass, laughing.

“I can’t... a rubber duck, pft!” I thumped with my paw on the ground, unable to contain my amusement.

“Hey, is that cat making fun of me?!”

“You are angry over that?”

“T-The cat is talking; how is that possible?”

“Shut up, you two!”

The rough human came closer to me, “Hey, you!”

“Pft, haha... a fricking rubber duck~”

“Hey, listen to me!” He screamed loudly, veins showing on his temples.

“Ahhh...” I breathed out in satisfaction. “It’s been a while since I laughed that much.” I thought to myself and then looked up at the angry human.

“Pft,” I looked away again. “Ah, sorry, but looking at you reminded me of that weird pose you did... and what was this ridiculous chant? Did you get scammed, old man?”

I looked back at him and sat down, trying to contain my laughter with little success...

*pop*

“Did I imagine things, or did his vein just popped?” I tilted my head innocently.

“I’m not old; I'm in my late twenty’s!”

“You don’t look like that though.” I stared at his hair, which had already begun to flee his head.

“Wha-, wait and see, if you get older your fur will fall out just the same!” He said pouting.

I sat up proudly, “I have to disappoint you, but I am already older than you, and my fur is perfect! Not one hair missing!”

“Why are you calling me old when you are actually older than me?!”

“Hey, Bob, this is not the time to argue about hair and age.” The other human pulled him back.

“R-Right, t-the cat is talking!”

He looked at his companions and then back at me, who slowly moved their tail.

*silence*

I tilted my head again, “How long will you stare at me like that, baldy?”

“What! I’m not bald!”

“Not yet.” I replied calmly.

He got angry again, and the other two dragged him a few meters away from me.

“Calm down, Bob!”

“Haya!” With a ridiculous-sounding outcry, tiny water ball appeared and punched baldy with their tiny fist on the cheek.

“Did a mosquito just bit me?” He said confused, unable to perceive the spirit...

“What!?” Tiny water ball grew furious, “Take this vile humans!”

*splash*

A water ball appeared over the trio’s heads, “W-Wha-! Look over us!”

All three looked up in surprise before the water promptly fell on them and they got a nice cold shower.

Tiny water ball looked proudly, “Do you see that, rude cat! In the end, we did not need your help!”

I raised one of my eyebrows, observing the ridiculous chaos, slowly growing tired of all the noise.

“What was that!?”

“I-Is this the wrath of the spirit!?”

“Bob, should we run?”

“As if! Are you guys afraid of a bit water now?!” Baldy said angrily.

“Hmm... it was funny and all, but they get on my nerves.” I looked at them annoyed, and then turned to tiny water ball, who was still cursing at them.

“Instead of showering them, you should have drowned them.” I said calmly.

The spirit looked at me in surprise, “Oh, you are right, that’s a good idea!”

“What! Who are you talking to? Wait... how can a cat talk in the first place?!” Baldy asked.

“You wonder about that now?!” The two other humans said at the same time.

“Ahhhhhh...” I let out a long sigh.

“Enough with the chit-chat; let’s freeze you nice and solid~” My patience had hit its limit, and before the three could comprehend what I said, they turned into ice sculptures, albeit ugly ones...

“Hey, why did you do that?! I was about to drown them!” Tiny water ball swirled around me angrily.

“Then you should have done it faster, and in the first place, didn’t you ask me for help?” I yawned, slowly getting tired.

“If I had known they would be this weak, I would have dealt with them myself!” They said sulking.

“Heißblütig I see you brought Nox.” On the water surface emerged the upper body of a spirit resembling a woman but consisting entirely out of water.

“Heißblütig, you did well bringing them here. Now I would like to have a private conversation with Nox here, so please leave us alone.” She said rather coldly, but tiny water ball seemed not to mind and was overjoyed being praised?

“Certainly!” They turned around and flew into the forest, but not without glaring at me and whispering, “Rude cat, you better act respectfully towards the great Lamidea!”

*sigh*

I looked back at her, my annoyance written across my face. “Please excuse Heiß’s behavior; they are a young spirit, and ever since I took them in, they revere me...” She let out a small sigh.

I glanced at the three ice sculptures and wandered towards them, “You didn’t ask me to come here because of these idiots, right?”

“You are right; I can easily dispose of them myself. The real problem lies with this mage they mentioned and their collaborator. As you can see, I’m bound to this lake, so I can’t go to deal with them myself.”

She sighed again as if recalling an unpleasant memory, “They keep sending humans over to me, promising that their magic devices can capture me; it’s such a pain dealing with them every time.” She looked at me with pleading eyes. “So could you do me a favor...”

“Sigh, sure. Why not...”

“Thanks a bunch!” She twirled through the water happily...

Annoyed and tired, I tapped at one of the ugly ice sculptures, leading it to fall over like a domino, bringing upon itself and the other two a shattering doom.

“Can’t let this beautiful landscape get ruined after all.” I thought looking at the scattered pieces of ice that would soon melt.