Jun's hand went still as she stared numbly at the cat sitting in her lap. Did it just talk?!
"Keep going. Behind the ears!" the cat demanded, rearing up on its hind legs and nudging against her still hand.
Absentmindedly, she listened to the cat's demands and scratched the cat at the base of its ears, eliciting a loud purr as her thoughts whirled. There was a cat on her lap! A talking cat! She was naked in another world with a talking cat sitting on her and demanding pets! She had to be going insane right? This had to be a dream? A sharp pain on her finger quicky disabused her of that idea as the cat bit her, pulling her out of her funk.
"Don't stick your finger in my ear! That tickles!" Carefully, Jun scratched the side of the cat's head before moving to stroke it along its throat. She could feel the gentle rumbling of its purr like a miniature earthquake.
They sat like this for an hour, the cat occasionally telling her to pet it in new places, biting or swiping her with its paws when she made a mistake. Eventually, the cat told her to stop as it laid down in her lap and took a nap. Jun sighed, remembering the internet rule that you're not allowed to move if a cat sleeps on top of you. She wondered if that still applied in another world with a clearly magical, talking cat. At least, petting this cat had helped calm her down and given her time to process all the changes she was suddenly facing. Careful not to wake the sleeping cat, Jun laid back in the grass, her skin now long used to the scratching sensation of her impromptu bed. Closing her eyes, she slowly drifted off to sleep, the cat's warm fur helping to keep her comfortable in the slightly chilly breeze.
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She wasn't sure how long she'd slept for, but it must have been awhile. The sky, bright blue when she'd first arrived, was painted the orange and pinks of sunset. Her lips were dry and her mouth still filled with the aftertaste of stomach acid as her hunger began to assert itself with a rumble. Her eyes snapped open as she felt something stepping up her body, followed by a pressure on her chest. Opening her eyes, she saw the same cat she'd been petting earlier sitting on chest and staring at her. "It's time for food. Follow." The cat stood back on all fours and leapt off of her.
Rubbing her chest in pain where the cat had pushed off of her, Jun shrugged to herself. It's not like I have anywhere else to be, and it's getting dark. Maybe the cat has an owner that will take me in for the night? With that optimistic thought in her head, she quickly started to follow the black cat as it trotted casually through the grass and into the forest.
Walking barefoot through the forest proved to be a surprisingly slow endeavor as Jun stumbled and flinched every time her un-callused feet met a particularly rough root, pointy twig, or sharp rock. Luckily, the cat seemed to be patient, always stopping a short distance away and turning to watch her as she struggled to follow it.
The sun had fully set by the time Jun, scratched, scraped, and battered from her surprise naked nature hike, followed the cat to the base of what seemed to be a large ridgeline. Thankfully, the cat stopped at small stream with hardpacked clay banks and a thin trickle of water and casually drank some water as Jun caught up. "Drink." The cat nudged Jun toward the thin trick of water. Half remembered biology lessons about the importance of sterile water and what kind of diseases could be found even in seemingly fresh flowing water sources were quickly banished by her extreme thirst. Gratefully nodding at the black cat, barely visible in the waning light of dusk, Jun quickly got on her hands and knees and cupped water to her mouth, her dry lips cracking slightly as she slurped the surprisingly refreshing and cold water up.
Drinking her fill, Jun glanced back up to see the cat had started following the stream up the ridge. With a groan, she pushed herself back up and started hiking, hoping that following this strange talking cat wasn't a huge mistake. A few minutes later, Jun crested the top of a small pile of rocks and entered a grassy clearing dotted with bushes surrounding a small spring that appeared to be the source of the stream she'd drank from earlier. The cat casually walked through the clearing and into a large cave in the side of the ridge. The cat's owner must live in there!
Mustering her strength, Jun quickly followed the cat into the cave. Placing a hand against the cave wall, she started following it only to stumble slightly as the cave made an immediate right turn and revealed a cheerfully burning campfire with a large piece of meat slowly roasting over it. The smell of roasting meat suddenly assaulted her, saliva pooling in her mouth at the thought of how delicious some barbecue would be after the day she'd had. Glancing around, she didn't see where the cat had gone, nor could she see anyone else in the cave.
"Hello? Is anyone here? Your talking cat led me here, is it alright if I come in?" Jun's calls echoed throughout the cave, but went unanswered. She was just about to try calling out again when she felt something furry rub up against her leg and she shrieked, jumping back as the cat laughed at her.
"Stop jumping at everything like a scared kitten and come eat. I could hear your stomach growling all day." The cat trotted up to the campfire and sat next to a wooden dish laying on the floor, throwing expectant looks between Jun and the large haunch of meat roasting over the fire.
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Needing no further invitation, Jun rushed up to the fire and after a brief search, aided by the cat's directions, she found a metal fork and knife next to a wooden bowl under a piece of cloth. She shaved off a few pieces of meat from the roast into the bowl as her stomach growled, before grabbing the cat's dish from the ground and shaving more roasted meat into it. The cat nodded to her as she set its dish back down next to it and started eating. Her fuzzy savior and host fed, Jun sat on the ground next to it and dug in to her own food.
The meat tasted like a gamy mix of chicken and pork, with a delicious smoky taste that reminded her of dry-rubbed ribs. She quickly devoured her portion then looked at the rest of the roast with a mix of embarrassment and greed.
"Help yourself to more. Kittens need to eat. I'm going to take a nap." The cat stretched fluidly before jumping up onto a previously unnoticed ledge and curling up to sleep.
"Thank you." Jun whispered as she carved another chunk of meat for herself. Several bowls later, Jun was stuffed. It wasn't long before she started nodding off as the day's adventure caught up with her and, mimicking the cat above her, curled up near the fire and fell asleep.
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A loud thump woke Jun the next morning and she scrambled to her feet, her heart racing. A backpack that looked like something out of a medieval fantasy movie lay on the ground next to where she had slept, the cat from the day before sitting on top of it and looking at her curiously. "You stink. You should go clean yourself." The cat looked pointedly at her as it poked a paw at a case hanging on the outside of the pack by a strap.
Opening the case, Jun found a misshapen lump of soap and a rough brush. She was being insulted by a talking cat in a fantasy world and told to go wash herself! Jun couldn't help but smile at the absurdity of her life already. If anyone else said stuff like that to her, she knew she'd be pissed, but for some reason it coming from a talking cat was just the cutest!
Remembering the spring outside the cave, Jun grabbed the entire backpack and took it outside to wash up. Looking around the clearing in the morning light, she was happy to find a wooden bucket next to the spring that she could use to splash water on herself instead of diving in and contaminating the clearing's water source with her filth. After a quick but thorough scrubbing and rinse with freezing cold water, Jun felt like a new woman!
Yawning, Jun stretched out on a flat stone at the edge of the clearing and soaked up the midmorning sun to warm up and dry. It didn't compare to the hot showers she'd had access to on Earth, but she still felt lighter and cleaner than she could ever remember feeling. She imagined this was what it must feel like to have a spa day. Muscles she hadn't even known she had slowly unwound as aches she hadn't even noticed the day before slowly vanished. As she lay nodding off in the warm sun, she couldn't help but think that while she didn't have the easiest time of things in this world so far, the forest had been surprisingly peaceful. Maybe that's why whoever owned the talking cat lived out here?
With a start, she realized she hadn't met the cat's owner yet. Surely they must be around right? Who else would own all the stuff she'd used? Who else roasted the meat she'd eaten the night before? Besides the all of the stuff, she hadn't seen a single sign of another person, just the talking cat. And she didn't even know the cat's name!
As if summoned by her thoughts, she felt a weight on her chest as the cat jumped on top of her and lightly pawed her nose. "You human kittens don't have enough fur. You'll get sick if you don't cover up. There's some of your fake human furs in the bag over there you should put on." With a sniff, the cat jumped off of her and casually started walking out of the clearing and down the ridge.
Jun sat up dumbfounded for a moment before her wits caught up to her. "Wait! I need to thank you! And ask some-"
"We'll talk when I get back. Take care of yourself Kitten." The cat gracefully slunk between a gap in the bushes around the clearing and vanished from her sight.
Dismissed by a cat who thought she was just a kitten. Jun sighed. In a lot of ways it was right though, she felt completely out of her depth here, and if not for the cat leading her here, and the cat's mysterious owner that she'd still not seen or heard a trace of, she would probably be starving and dying of thirst in the woods, if a random monster didn't eat her first. With that depressing thought, Jun opened the pack that she'd left at the base of the rock and pulled out a shirt, skirt, and a pair of undergarments. Stuffed under the clothes was a worn pair of leather boots with socks stuffed in them.
The underwear was weird, reminding her more of a cloth diaper like she'd seen some people online use over the more disposable ones. It seemed clean enough, simply smelling a bit old like it'd been washed and left for a few months. Figuring out the trick to putting it on took a bit, and in the end she felt less like a woman and more like an overgrown baby, but she did figure it out. The cloth wasn't as soft as the tighty-whiteys she'd worn on Earth in her former body and felt rough against her more sensitive spots, but it was better than running around with her ass out!
The shirt and skirt smelled like dust and old leather, so she shook them out. A surprising amount of dust came out of the clothes, but eventually she was satisfied they were clean enough and put them on.
Luckily, the socks and boots didn't need the same treatment and she slipped them on easily enough. The boots were a bit large for her feet, but seemed to fit well enough.
Fully dressed, Jun looked herself over. Her clothes wouldn't win her any beauty contests, but at least she had something to protect her dignity! Satisfied, she decided that once the owner of the cat who's name she still didn't know came back, she needed to make a good impression on them. She didn't have anything to gift them, but the least she could do is clean up after herself! Refilling the bucket she'd used with water, she grabbed the brush from the washing case and went back into the cave. The fire was still going strong somehow, the leg of meat still sitting on the spit over it. Grabbing the knife and fork from the night before, she cut herself off a small chunk to chew for breakfast then set to work cleaning up the mess she'd left in the cave from the night before.
It wasn't long before she ran out things to clean. Straightening herself after she finished cleaning the last of the muddy hand and foot prints she'd left the night before, she started looking around for something else she could help with when she heard a loud crashing sound in the clearing outside!