Kay walked over to the sleeping, not dying dang it just sleeping! girl. He placed his hand on her face. He didn't know what doing that was supposed to tell him, but he had seen others do it for sick people before. It felt right to him to do it though.
"Kay. Let's get you to class." Cat said, leaping off the bed and turning into his humanoid form before his feet touched the ground. For such a thickly muscled man, he was very limber and light on his feet. It was impressive really.
"Who is going to stay with Ami? Cat, we can't just leave her like this. We can't just leave her alone! Should I start testing out some spells on her? Something is bound to wake her up, get her moving, or at least make her open her eyes. What do you think? The tiniest fireball? No... No that might catch the bed on fire. Oh! What about water? No, no leaving her wet will elevate her levels of being sick. I don't know how to use lightning. Umm, what about a nice gentle wind?"
"Kay you are getting lost to your babbling again. Come along to class now. We can't have you get into trouble for tardiness. You not becoming an adventurer helps no one. Now come on." Cat says,
The two make their way down the stairs and make a quick stop into the kitchen.
"Good morning Cat! Good morning Kay! It's nice to see you awake early enough to eat something! Sit, sit. I made eeeeeggs!" Vita practically sings at them.
"Oh I like eggs. Of course, I have liked all of the food that I have had here. It's actual food, and it isn't half rotten! I mean, I am sure that it is excellent quality even without that caveat but, and this might come as a shock, I am not a culinary expert." Kay says, over sharing as usual. He was rather good at that, truly a talent really. Also, even he had a fun time learning what the next thing he was going to say was.
Sometimes it felt like he just opened his mouth, and the words came out, no thought needed. This time, this time though, when he opened his mouth nothing came out. Why? Because eggs were going in.
"I'm glad you like them. George made them extra hearty. He was hoping that you would be dropping in for some food. Here here. Eat up while they are still hot!" she says. They both take a seat and shovel a bit of food into their mouths.
"Dis eal e goo Ge gee!" Kay tried to say with a mouth full of food.
The bear-kin was able to hear the compliment and somehow was also able to understand it.
"Thanks." he said simply. It came across very heartfelt though, even being only one word.
Emmie saw the two of them eating and glided over to take a seat with them.
"Good morning Emmie!" Kay says brightly. Ever since their talk, Emmie had become one of his favorite people. She had seen him vulnerable and was super nice about it. Kay couldn't help but think that she was a really nice lady. And that he wanted to get to know her better. She had been really easy for him to talk to.
"Is it alright if I join you?" she asks.
"Of course." Cat says.
Emmie grabbed some food for herself and took a seat. There weren't very many chairs in the kitchen, but there were enough for the three of them.
“If you can’t find a chair you can always sit in my lap… wait did I just say that? Wow, look at me so bold and in desperate need of shutting my mouth. Oh, look more eggs, thank you eggs for your sacrifice.” Stabbing an entire fried egg Kay desperately tried to shove the whole thing in his mouth.
“Haha, thanks for the offer. Perhaps another time though?” Emmie says as she moves an additional chair over to the table.
They made light conversation going from topics such as how good Cat was at playing piano and how Kay's classes were going. One topic no one brought up was Ami. Talking about it wasn't going to make her better.
After eating Cat was going to escort Kay to class, but Emmie cut in.
"Cat, I want you to stay with Amaya. You know that cat purrs can be healing, and we both know that Vita isn't going to do it."
"Yeah, that's true. Alright, then who is going to walk with Kay?"
"I'm going to." she says before doing something that Kay did not know she was able to do. Where once there was a tail, there were now legs. It seems that more scales were along her arms and some around her eyes.
"Neat!" Kay says excitedly. "I didn't know that you could do that. There are so many things that I don't know anything about. Isn't that exciting!" Kay said, beaming from ear to ear. "I hope it isn't rude to ask, but why did you decide to have legs now? And if it is rude, I hope it is enough to make you forget my earlier comment.”
"Because there is a lot of uneven terrain. Also, it will bring less attention to us, which is what we want, right?" she asks Kay, curious how he was going to answer.
"Hmm, I suppose you're right? But at the same time, why? Rex is the only one that is trying to hurt us, and he already knows what I look like. And my hair makes me stand out already, which when you are my height is a very noticeable thing."
Emmie laughed lightly, her laugh akin to the sound of tinkling bells.
"You have a really pretty laugh, which only make sense since it is coming from such a pretty face." Kay says, accidentally cutting her off before she was able to speak.
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"Oh! Thank you very much Kay." she said and felt some warmth flood into her cheeks at the compliment. "Also, it is safer for me. People do not like beast-kin, and really do not like serpent-kin. We are seen as looking too close to the lamia monsters in the dungeon."
"Oh." Kay said, and let that thought sink in. He knew that half-elves were disliked, but he had no idea that beast-kin were even more disliked than half-elves.
"I want you to be safe and comfortable." Kay said.
They had light conversation on the way to his class. Kay learned that Emmie's favorite color was purple, favorite flowers were irises, that she preferred chilled lemon water to ice water.
"Why did you stop being an adventurer?" Kay asked, turning their light topics to a more serious one. But Kay really wanted to know. He really wanted to know Emmie, and he wasn't very good with tact.
"Well, Cat, Vita, Hille, Alice, Crestin and me were all in a guild, along with our guild leader. He was smart and brave, as well as extremely clever. We all adored him, and it was his charisma that had brought us together as a guild. We had all graduated from adventurer training together and he had the idea to have us become a guild. With all of our different talents, it made sense.
“From that day forward, we were inseparable. We had discovered the Paws and Claws Inn and Tavern, and that became our base of operations. Mama Tia seemed to have a soft spot for us and spoiled us a bit every time we were there. We really felt like a family.
“One day while we were in the dungeon the floor gave out beneath us and we fell down two floors. We got lucky that we all had high enough constitution to handle the fall damage. Well, we hadn't been on that floor before, so we were unfamiliar with it. We had a general idea of the monsters that we would find on that floor, and were careful with our exploration. Eventually we decided that the fights were a bit more difficult than we could handle and we began looking for the stairs in earnest.
“We found the stairs at the same time that the floor’s unique monster spotted us. Little did we know that this particular monster traveled in pairs. We were caught off guard and our guild leader died, and it wasn't an easy death either. Seeing that was too much. We hadn't lost anyone from our party before that. We always thought that we would be able to handle it. It was an impressive track record.
“Well, when we made it back to the surface and to the Paws and Claws Mama Tia took one look at us and knew. She somehow knew. She offered us jobs on the spot. The three of us took the jobs, Crestin and Alice became instructors, and Cat. Well, Cat was hurt the most by all of it. He was our tank, he saw it as his job to protect us from anything and everything. When Cat said he needed a break that solidified it for the rest of us."
By the time that Emmie had finished her story they had made it to Kay's first class. He thought that Emmie was going to leave, but the instructor allowed her to stay under the same rules that Cat had to follow when he shadowed Ami.
The day sped by, a blur. It was a fun surprise to see Emmie teaching Cat's class. Everyone was a bit surprised by that, but she did such a thorough job that everyone was impressed.
However, at the end of the day Kay encountered something that made him feel sick.
"Oh the hooded bitch? Haha, yeah it seems that she just wasn't a good fit for becoming an adventurer. Sad really. I hear that she might have gotten into an accident or something. So tragic, right?" Kay heard Rex saying, with a smug grin on his face. Why wasn't he kicked out yet? Didn't they have enough evidence?
Kay wanted to make Rex shut up, but there was nothing that he could say. He had no proof of her poisoning, and it would sound like he was making up excuses for her. Kay just had to grit his teeth and bear it.
The rest of the week went by just the same. He ate breakfast with everyone, went to classes, endured Rex and his vocal garbage, went home, worked at the Paws and Claws, and spent the night hoping Ami would wake up. By the end of the week he couldn't help but feel that Rex had won.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I lay there, and thoughts seemed to flow through me, never stopping on one long enough for me to recognize it as a thought. That was until I felt as though I was pulled into a memory, and not one of my own.
I was looking through the eyes of someone else.
"I did it! I created you! And you are by far the most beautiful thing that I have ever created!” I reach down petting two small piles of fluff.
“I helped make trees, and grass. Well, I kind of helped. I was there, some of my essence was used. But the two of you, the two of you are created mainly in my image, something of my own imagination, my own design, and you are wonderful!" said the voice of the person I was seeing through the eyes of. A rich male voice, one that sounded very familiar.
The two that he was talking about were clearly foxes. I could tell from the few times that I had accidentally entered into beast form.
'So these two are my ancestors.' I think to myself.
"I love you both so much! And of course as your creator you love me as well." said the voice. Zayne. It was Zayne's voice.
He spread his arms open wide and they leapt into his arms, full of love and adoration for the one who created them.
"I bless you and your offspring with some of my divinity, some of my essence, some of what makes me a god. This gift I freely bestow upon you and yours." he says and gives them both a kiss on the head. I could clearly see intelligence in those eyes. They were intelligent from the start. There was no development period.
"Follow me, let me show you everything! Just everything! You will live forever by my side. It is my wish that as long as you will it, we shall never part. As soon as you do will it though, I will let you leave with my love and blessing."
I followed after them as Zayne showed them his part of the world, its beauty.
“This is a tree, this is a flower, and this my little floofs, is a rock.”
As he talked with them, as he ate with them and played with him. He seemed very different from the Zayne that I knew, from the voice that I heard in my head, the one that I spoke to. The one chained at the bottom of a dungeon. The one that went insane.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I awake with a start. It was as though something jolted me, and I was suddenly able to use my body again. Cat jumped into the air when I sat up, then just stared at me for a moment before turning into a human and wrapping me up in a hug.
"I was beginning to think that you would never wake up." he said, and I could hear a hitch in his voice. Was... Was Cat crying?
"How long have I been asleep?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper, my throat burning a bit.
"You haven't opened your eyes in a week. You didn't toss or turn, you didn't even whimper. I would have thought that you had died if I hadn't felt your chest rising and falling."
"A week!" I said, completely startled.
'Did you finish what you were doing? Is that why I can suddenly wake up?' I ask him.
‘…’
‘Da, da, da, how does one make a drum roll in one’s own head?’
It seems that Zayne might have a hard time admitting to doing good deeds. I find that odd, but decide not to question him about it. The fact stands that he did do me a kindness. Now to find out how true it was.
"I am so sorry to have frightened you all. It seems that I am going to live after all. Zayne was helping in my recovery. That must be why my body was so still." I tell him.
"He's talked to me before. You think that he would have found it important to let us know that you were going to live, or that he was trying to save you." Cat said, grumbling.
"That would have been nice of him to have done, but for some reason I assume that he didn't even think to do that."
'You know Rocketta, I do believe that. I saw some ancestral memories of him creating my kind.'
I wait to see if they were going to say anything else before asking Cat, "Is there any way to check if I have gained poison resistance?"