“Um… Anna… How would you feel about… Maybe being in a chair?” I asked Anna, who was sitting raised up in her sheets, which wrapped around he like swaddling over her sleep clothes.

I had just come back inside after dropping the tub, and my clothes in the tub on the front porch. You know, on account of there being a fairy tale and a half worth of animals in the front garden, each patiently waiting for someone that was very obviously not me.

“What was this about there being something?” she asked tiredly.

“Well… I don’t know how to say this… But there are like 50 or more animals sitting outside, like right outside on the front lawn, and I think they might be here for you,” I told her awkwardly.

It was incredibly weird, weirder even than my instinct’s current verdict on Anna, who looked like she was currently considering the merits of adding a few hundred pounds of raw meat to the pantry. It was a truly unnerving look on her face was bad. A really unnerving one for a normal person was bad, it was made all the worse by her because she was so calm and kind.

“That’s a scary look on your face,” I told her careful not to get her to turn it to me, “I could tell them to go away, somehow…”

She sighed, “No… No, no need. I’ll go talk with them. Sorry about the face, just… Annoyed is all.”

I nodded, “I can tell, and no need to apologize, your emotions are valid, annoyed or crying, they’re always ok, it’s better to show than to keep them bottled up. I just hope I never, ever, make you annoyed enough to turn it on me.”

She looked at me, eyes partially lidded, and smiled. “Then don’t annoy me.”

I was about to agree, but for some reason, I stuck a foot in my mouth instead.

“Well, stop being so cute when I tease you, and I’ll stop teasing you.”

She sighed, “There goes my chance of being called beautiful all the time. Come on then, lift me up, I don’t think I can walk all the way there and your big strong arms could use the exercise.”

I did so, holding her like an oversized baby, head held to my chest.

“You know you’re always beautiful… and you know you’re more than slim enough to not weigh a thing,” then to maybe buy me brownie points, I added, “And you know you’re more than beautiful, your gorgeous, even wrapped up in a bed sheet,” and I gave her a kiss on the forehead.

She mumbled, “Flatterer,” and nuzzled her head into my boob and continued, “your warm, and soft.”

“And so are you. And you’re the perfect height to snuggle with.”

She mumbled, “I’m short.”

And I told her, “Your normal height, I’m just freakishly tall.”

I kept consoling her while I walked out and over to the front door, keeping my stride short to not jostle my important cargo.

The moment I got to the door, and she looked out and saw the animals, she huffed. They were chittering amongst themselves, going back and forth in groups. The birds were chirping at one another, the foxes were yipping at the dog and wolf. The deer, sturdily annoyed by none of this, was chewing on the grass while the mother bear grunted at her cubs.

It was a minor miracle they were being so polite, in literally any other instance, they would be hunting one another, but in the grove, with it focusing inwards, it highly incentivized them not fighting. Nature it… Her… Themselves? Being present and focused led the animals to only be on their best behaviour.

“Land, are you more of a her?” I thought to her.

“I am me,” She told me, unhelpful to my thought process.

I brought Anna out and placed her in her seat, she observed the animals like they were an unruly court, and she, a fairy tail princess, for all that her throne was a wood chair.

“Ahhem, do you need me to help? Or do you think you have this?” I asked her, candid in my confusion about how this was going to go down.

“I think I have this,” she told me, “You can continue, go on, wash your clothes. Just don’t… wash yourself without telling me first. I can, how do I put it… I can see everything in the grove now if I don’t look away now, or I’ll be able to when it stops being all funky, I suppose. Just something to be aware of in the future. For now, it’s just hazy.”

I nodded my head.

I would do that, or maybe not, depending on if I wanted to tease her, but for now, I would. If I was here and there on actually getting together in the biblical sense, I wasn’t going to go flashing myself.

I could understand how funky sense skills were, sometimes you spotted something and wouldn’t even notice it unless you spotted it, it was like knowing you have three extra teeth in your mouth and then thinking about it and finding out consciously that you had three extra teeth and going, ‘holy hells I have three extra teeth.’

She nodded back, squinting and then nodding her head in return before asking, “Did you just nod your head, or am I crazy?”

“No, I did, don’t worry. I get it, I have a lot of sense skills,” I told her before continuing, “Good luck with your court, my wonderous princess.”

I walked over to the bin as Anna called back, “That’s technically treason against the emperor,” playfully, and she started calling out to the animals, who obliged, coming up to make random noises at her.

I, for my part, washed my clothes as best I could and then practiced pulling out water like Anna did using [Cantrip]. It was like plucking a loose strand, but I pulled away thimble fulls of water, some of which was stained red-brown with blood.

But I slowly but surely got most of it out, by the end, I had a minorly damp set of clothes that I had a stupidly hard time drawing water mana out of, but they no longer reeked of iron and sweat and death and rot, which was a significant plus.

Now it only smelled slightly of those, and would likely not be detectable for a normal human nose. I gathered my stuff, ready to set out and hauled the basin back inside only to see Anna grousing with the squirrel thing muttering about some snake of some kind. I dropped the basin and left the clearing, making sure to bring Anna her mug, which she politely thanked me for.

The last I heard was of her talking with the dogs, “So little Timmy fell down a well? What do you want me to do about it? Well, I suppose I can write a note. No, no, you would have to deliver it. Well if you care about Timmy so much, then it shouldn’t be a problem… I can’t run faster than yo-”

And I was down the path and amongst the trees.

It was a bizarre sight. And it was only made stranger with the total lack of animals everywhere else.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I sped along the ground to my first destination, my feet slamming into the dirt of the path, then the grass. I pushed myself to run as hard as I could, as fast as I could and enjoyed the ability to just run around a little and get some of my energy out and stretch my legs.

I made it into town, not in record time, but still fast enough to get caught in the morning rush, which was mostly working folks trying to get stuff done before they started working, each person moving to and fro with purposeful steps.

As I made my way to the [Tailor], I did my customary paranoid tick of looking over my shoulder and covering my ass, but even fewer people cared to even look at me than last time.

There was something both soothing and disappointing about no one paying attention to me, everyone was just too busy on their own thing to pay attention to a tall person.

It should have been freeing, but I didn’t pick up their uncaring movement, I was still caught up in what had happened.

So I made my way down streets, on uneven cobbles that no longer could trip me, and moved away from the bustle, down side streets and away from the feeling of invisible prying eyes that didn’t exist.

As I did, I came across the furred body of a cat, or a cat as big as a small person. It was the size of a dog and thrice as harry. And it sat in an alley, blocking the side as it lay there. It had eyes and a space where a mouth could be spotted if you had a keen eye and old notched ears. It watched me calmly, like it was the one here that was the greatest threat, and it did not so much as mew or hiss. It looked at me expectantly, its eyes were hidden behind its great big poof of hair and barely spotable. It was yellow and brown, in a pattern that made it look like long grass and leaf litter.

“You're rather big; you’re more of a people size than a cat. I suppose you’re the [Rat Catcher]?”

The look it gave spoke of dissatisfaction with my lack of difference, like most cats, it was unimpressed with me.

“Well, I’ll be on my way, just passing by, I’ll stay out of your hair,” I told the miniature mountain lion.

When I made it to pass it, though, it stood and blocked my way. Moving it’s the bulk between me and my path forward.

It was only an alley, a small one, between two buildings. A path between one more major road and another.

“I could jump over you, you might be a [Rat Catcher], but I’m no rat,” I told the cat as I stopped moving forward, my movement blocked by the pure girth of the cat.

It was a big cat

It had more in common with a lynx than a common house cat.

I checked behind me, and it was open, so I could back out, all I had to do was weigh the choice of walking through the cat’s territory and going back out onto the street instead of down this alley.

It looked at me with an unnatural intelligence, which was normal with cats, as far as I had seen.

Cats were freakishly smart, even though they were animals, they were smart animals. But the eyes that looked at me were too smart, too intelligent.

“Listen, I’m not trying to cause you any problems,” I told it, putting a bit of backbone behind my voice, “I’m just trying to go get my clothes patched up, so I'm going to walk past you, and I’ll push you out of the way if I have to.”

The cat blinked.

I blinked back and started walking towards it.

It continued to block the alley with its girth, but even with its size, it couldn’t stop me from going through. So I came up to it and pushed its rear out of the way with my leg.

I walked on by and turned back to see it annoyed by my impertinence. The hair on its back was standing on end.

I decided to confront the cat on its level. I shifted around, changing my poster to be aggressive but defensive. I was going to leave, and it was going to leave me be, or we were going to have problems, which was what I showed it.

It hissed, and I hissed back, which took it off guard and bought me time to turn and leave.

Confidently, I paced away and towards where the tailor’s shop was. It was a few more side streets over, but the cat didn’t charge at me. It did follow me, its eyes visible in small patches of shade, reflective eyes, glaring hateful amber pointed towards me.

I knocked and received an “I’m open, come on in” from the kind [Tailor] and promptly entered.

It had been a little awkward last time, I didn’t even remember his name, which was the worst part.

“Hello, I’m here to see if you can fix my clothes,” I told him as I came into his shop.

It was much like last time, him in his fancier clothes, a prim and proper Human man.

“Oh, Miss Annabeth’s friend. Have you gotten into another scuffle then?” he asked, raising one eyebrow.

“Ahh… Yes.” I told him awkwardly, “I scuffed up my dress again, can you fix it?” I asked.

“I’ll see what I can do, hand it here…” He told me, waving me over to him.

I did, bringing my clothes over, and placing them on a desk.

They were ruffled and damp, but he gave the dress a thorough look and nodded to himself regardless, humming a little.

“It is ever so painful to look upon my work damaged so, you really ought to keep them out of harm’s way. I can fix this,” he told me, nodding to himself before placing it on the counter and turning to look at my tunic.

“Who’s work is this… Goodness. How on earth… Were you wearing this when you were…” He didn’t finish his question, focusing instead on the damage and trying to figure out if he could mend it or not, if it was too destroyed to even be fixable.

I could see his eyes flick over it, over and over, noting things I couldn’t about the fabric. His mouth moved, speaking silent, breathless words for a few moments before he nodded and said, “I can stitch it up, but it won’t be pretty. It’s a damn shame… I’ll do what I can miss. Would you be against a patch?”

“No, a patch is fine, thank you.”

“It’s not a problem miss, It’s a passion of mine, fixing clothes, not as much as dressmaking. But we can’t do what we want to do all the time, now can we? Beggars can’t be choosers.”

“I suppose so…” I told him, even if It didn’t feel like it to me.

I was far more free now than I had ever been before, I had grown up in a rigid system, and now could get up help do some work, and do other things as I wanted, when I wanted.

Maybe I should ask Anna if she’s ok with a schedule… Then again, we do have one of a sort. We get up, wait for sunrise, and tend the garden… It’s enjoyable, even if I don’t want it to be what I am for the rest of my life. Tending a garden with Anna almost makes me want to.

I waited and watched as he did his work, his hand moving like a sewing machine, going up and down so quickly that it couldn’t be seen as anything but a blur. He used skills to make the stitching nearly invisible, I could only spot it because I knew where it was, at least for the dress.

It was a bit hypnotizing.

He continued on with my tunic, taking cuts of similar fabric and patching the holes as well as he could. He managed to stitch a design into the tunic that managed to hide a few, it wasn’t any single thing purposefully, but more like lines to draw the eye.

It took a while, his hand guiding thread into the garments over and over. I could see why a [Tailor] might like this sort of work, it was satisfying to look at and watch.

I paid him as he finished, and gathered my now-mended cloths. They were not perfect, I could feel the tiny edges in the fabric, but it was far and above what I had hoped for.

“Thank you, you’re an exemplar for your craft,” I told him.

He gave a brittle smile, as he looked at me, though he couldn’t quite meet my eyes as he told me, “It was no problem. Just try to keep them out of danger.”

“I will certainly try,” I told him, “Speaking of that, I’ve been thinking about stuff. I don’t suppose you work in armour?”

That brought him up.

“I’m sorry,” he said, confused, more of a question than the statement it was meant to be, “You have a bit of an accent, did you ask if I work with armor?”

I nodded, “Armour, not the metal stuff, that would be quite outside my range of means, I think, but cloth or leather, or whatnot, something made to take the hit instead of my clothes and me.”

He nodded in comprehension of what I talked about but shook his head once he did.

“I am guild certified, miss, I can not. I make clothes, making something like armor would put me in breach of the guild charter. I would risk reprisal. I also do not know how to make any, I am afraid,” he told me warily like I was pressing him on his whereabouts after a murder.

“Do you know another who could make some?” I asked him, not pressing the obviously weary idea of making. I didn’t understand this guild charter business, but if he told me no, I wasn’t going to go pushing him on it, especially if he could face ‘reprisals,’ whatever they may be.

He shook his head again, “No, I’m sorry. They may both have cloth, but I’m sorry to say the city is not much of a place for armor, or honestly, all that much when it comes to fighting at all. You might be able to find where the [Hunters] or [Guards] get their armor, or you might go to the caravansary to see if any of the travelling merchants have any.”

Well, that’s highly unfortunate… Although, I suppose I do know a [Merchant] now. I wouldn’t say we’re friends… but I know her, and that might count for something. And she loves money, so I doubt she will say no. And I might be able to get some of the other things I was looking for there, too.

“Thank you for your time regardless. I think I have an idea of where to go next.”

He smiled again, in that way that looked only a little uneasy, “You’re more than welcome, and thank you, for your business and for spending time with Miss Annabeth. She always seemed so very lonely.”

“I enjoy my time with her quite a lot. I would be with her now, but she has [Druid] stuff going on, so I’m on errands today.”

“Indeed? Well, give her my regards,” he called as I moved to leave, the tint of freight from me gone from his voice.

“I will if the [Rat Catcher] doesn’t eat me first,” I called back to him before muttering, “The city must be full of rats with a cat that big.”

As I left, I got a chill as he spoke something to himself.

“That’s funny, I don’t remember there being a [Rat Catcher].”