Chapter Eight: A Path Chosen

The huge wall faded from view, becoming just a line along the horizon as the cat woman ran for at least another thirty minutes. No longer, being dragged along by her tail I flew along beside her, my wings letting me keep pace with her loping run. Mid stride the cat woman began to shutter and convulse, Zazjek leapt from the cat woman’s back with Leema in his arms, as abruptly the cat woman shrank to her normal form. She gave a shuttering whimper, her legs gave out and her face slammed into the ground, her remaining momentum beading off as she slid along the ground. I flared my wings and banked back around landing next to Zazjek. Looking around I saw that we were in what looked to be an alfalfa field or something like it.

Knowing nothing of cat woman biology I still tried to assess her state. Kneeling down next to her I could see her chest rise and fall. Checking for a pulse I held her wrist in my hand. I could feel her pulse racing but was starting to slow. Hopefully she’d be back to whatever passed for her normal rate soon. Laying her arm back down I turned and looked at Zazjek and Leema. “Zazjek, how’s Leema doing? The cat woman seems to be mostly alright.”

After carefully laying Leema out on the ground, he sat down on the ground next to her then he responded, “the elder seems to be alright, she’s been sleeping since we passed through the Wall. And she’s a Panthera, not a cat woman. Though why a Panthera would be in the city or helping us I don’t know.”

“Are they not friendly?” I asked, looking at the face down woman.

“They rarely if ever come to the city. They are some of the fiercest and most insular of the Yamaki, they live in the forests of the safe zone and rarely interact with those not of their tribe or those who are proven warriors.” He replied. “They can’t speak any of the common languages only their own, and almost no one can speak or even understand their language without a spell so there have been many ‘misunderstandings’ over the years.” He looked at the collapsed woman and sighed. “Their ability to transform themselves into the hulking war beasts gives them a prowess as warriors that many envy.”

I could tell from the way he said it that he was one of those envious ones. “Then it’s good that she seems to be on our side. Kneeling down I grabbed the woman’s now slight shoulders and started to turn her over onto her back when her eyes flashed open. She let out a haunting yowling roar and extended claws from her fingertips and pulled back to swipe at me. “Woah there!” I shouted leaping backward with a thrust of my wings to give me the most distance possible. “Easy, easy, we’re all friends here.” I said as calmly and as soothingly as I could. Locking eyes with me she retracted her claws and sighed. “Thank you, for getting us out of the city…” I paused, “I never did get your name.”

“Abeta,” she offered, nodding her head slightly.

“Well, Abeta thanks for the save.” I gave her a small bow and a smile. “I think you already know but I’m Vet-vek, pleasure to meet you.”

“Yes, Prince Vet-vek,” she sat up, “never expected to meet the Yamakai Prince, and certainly didn’t expect to drag him through the city ahead of a mob ready to tear him apart by my tail.”

“Not exactly how I expected to spend my second day in a new reality either. Can’t say it’s been real fun getting the shit kicked out of me and then run out of town, really hoping we’re going to be on the uphill swing of things.”

With a squint eyed look at me she just nodded her head sagely before saying, “Ymata, is like that. A city overrun by assholes.” Her ear twitched, “Elder Summoner you of course are an exception,” she said without turning her head.

Taking my eyes from Abeta I saw that Leema was awake and standing with the help of Zazjek.

The two took a few steps towards us before Leema pulled herself away from Zazjek’s aide. She gave him an appreciative look before looking at the Pantheren woman, Abeta began to speak but Leema interrupted, “One moment please I have regained just enough mana to cast a spell that will allow all of us to understand one another at least for the next few hours.” Moving her hands in a particular pattern and chanting a light blue mist began to envelop us all eventually sticking to our mouths and faces and ears before fading away. As the last of the mist faded Leema slumped tiredly. “There, that should do it.” She took Zazjek’s offered arm and said “I thank you, without your help we would not have been able to escape that ambush so easily.” Leema with Zazjek’s help once again began moving towards us, she gave the cat woman an appraising look. “It is rare for one of your kind to visit the city and while I’ve had good relations with the few Panthera I’ve known over my many years, none have ever gone out of their way to involve themselves in the politics of Ymata.”

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“I was tasked to the city on tribe business, Elder Summoner that is why I was in the city but I was given a Quest to assist you and the Prince.” She said, the spell giving an odd doubling to her voice as I could still hear her growls, hisses, and meows as well as the common language laid over top.

Giving Leema a concerned look before shaking my head and looking at the group as a whole and saying, “So where are we? Other, of course, than in a field? And, where are we supposed to go since the city is pretty much a no go zone at least for now?” Leema opened her mouth to speak when a body shaking lowing reverberated through the air. Jumping nearly out of my skin I frantically looked around for the source of the sound. A massive shaggy brown monster the size of a double decker bus rose up out of the field a dozen yards away. It had the mouth of a hippo with a great white shark's smile. It looked in our direction with a double set of triple eyes in a triangular configuration. "Oh shit?" I yelled jumping into the air with several hard flaps of my wings. " Monster! Coming our way." Looking back and forth between my party and the monster I realized that my party was unphased by the monster's appearance.

Zazjek shook his head laughing at my reaction. "It's just a Nomfurm, it's a Dungeon Beast. It won't hurt you unless you attack it."

“A Dungeon Beast,” I asked?

“A Dungeon Beast…is a…” Zazjek started but Abeta interrupted.

“A Dungeon Beast is a Dungeon Monster that has been taken from its floor and brought here to a safe zone and made docile with spells or abilities and then bred.” The translation spell gave her a scholarly tone at odds with the fierce growls and hisses she actually spoke.

The absurdity of the conflicting sounds made me giggle, then laugh at Abeta’s confused expression. The tension of the night’s fight and flight broke at that moment, I dropped back to the ground and doubled over in laughter soon everyone joined in. A sense of relief settled over me for the first time since I'd been summoned to this world. “I may be a stranger in a strange land but at least I’m not totally alone.” Looking at the people who had risked life and limb for me I hoped that this was a sign of things to come.

“To answer your question before the Nomfurm interrupted, we are in one of the City Farm’s fields. We will have tripped their wards by running through their fields, their Wardens will have ignored us while we kept moving but now that we’ve stopped and in the Nomfurm’s range they will take much greater notice and direct action if we don’t move along shortly.” Leema said. “We will need to move on but before we do we need a destination.”

“Elder, where can we go if Elder Rastlith has turned the city against us?” Zazjek asked with concern evident in his voice.

“We will have to work outside the city,” Leema turned to look at Abeta, “your tribes exist largely outside both the city and the Council's politics, would they take us in?”

“I wouldn’t expect any sort of welcome among the tribes. Relations between the city and the Tribes have soured further in recent years as your Council has turned a blind eye to the encroachment of our lands by Delvers and Gatherers. The Dungeon Beasts and the fruits of the forests are ours but the Council will not enforce the accords.” Abeta replied, her brow furrowed and her ears partly laid back. “Coming from the city it is more likely that we would be attacked, perhaps killed or at best captured. I have not been in the forests since I earned my name some years ago and even then there was talk of dealing with the intruders permanently instead of turning them back to the city.”

“If we cannot find respite with the tribes we will have to make our way on the lower floors.”

Letting out a hiss and laying her ears back Abeta said, “I’ll not let you throw mine or the Prince’s life away! You may be powerful but I saw what your display in the city cost you. You would need to perform the same feats constantly to protect us on the twenty-ninth floor let alone lower and your state conforms it's beyond you. The youth and the Prince are both Tier zero and I’ve only reached Tier two challenging a floor is beyond reason or possibility.”

“There are only a handful of places on this floor that are outside the city’s influence and if the Tribe’s lands are denied us we are without options.” Leema replied, sighing heavily.

“There is one other option.” Abeta paused before continuing. “There is a Delver who has no love for the City and with whom the Tribes have an agreement. But I see no reason why she should involve herself in our plight.” Abeta’s ears drooped forward as she finished speaking.

“Do you know the master’s name?” Leema asked.

“Oliveda.”

“Oliveda!” Zazjek gasped. “Elder we cannot go to her, she is an enemy of Master Kakajik. She is known for attacking any delver, sect or school member. She will kill us as surely as the twenty-ninth floor would. We should try to send a message to my Master. He can help us I’m sure. He has influence in the City and it is known he has the ear of several members of the Elder Council, including yourself, Elder Leema!” Zazjek finished with desperation in his voice.

“He has the ear of many, that is true, Zazjek, but most of those who have his ear are members of Rastlith’s faction. That is why I cultivated the relationship with him I have in the hopes of offsetting that influence.” Leema said resignation in her voice. “I fear that if we were to reach out to your master we would all too quickly find ourselves in the hands of Rastlith. No Zazjek, I fear that all doors in the city are closed to us.”