Chapter 12: Kitty's

Unlike Dirk's unusually inconspicuous store, there was a saleswoman on the outside who was, like many around her, very vigorously espousing the fine wares of their store. She was very tall, even approaching Captain Crans height. Zel suspected that she was hiding some seriously tall heels or even stilts under the beautiful dark blue dress that she wore. The saleswoman noticed Captain Crans and the three of them as they approached and beckoned them closer. It became clear as they got within speaking distance that she too knew Captain Crans.

"Well if it isn't The Captain Crans himself!" She began, "What are ya here for tonight? Come to give Kitty a visit?"

"You could say that, Belle, two out of these three women here have, as you might be able to tell, a keen interest in dresses." Crans said, pointing out Zel and Jammy's clothes, "And as such, I thought I would make sure to put them into the right hands."

"Well, you know Kitty will be excited to see you," Belle said, "we've had a pretty slow one, so I'm sure you'll cheer her right up."

Belle led them over to the front door of the business simply called "Kitty's." Now that they were closer, Zel could see through the window the large variety of dresses that the shop had both on display and further in the store. It was unlike any other shop that Zel had seen before, however. The ones she had been too had little cards beneath them that explained what material the dress was, or the name of the color, or where it was from. Here there were cards, yes, but they had different kinds of information.

There was a beautiful white dress that claimed to enhance the physical prowess of the mana user who wore it, another exquisite black one that promised additional control of stone magic, and yet another that was a brilliant orange that was simply described as "lucky." One of the dresses that was a smoldering red caught Zel's eye. The card beneath that one in the window listed it as "100% fireproof!" She wondered what kind of person would need a fireproof dress.

Belle led them inside and gently closed the door behind them, before spinning around on her hidden heels and returning to her post, redoubling her effort to draw more customers to their doors.

"Hello, welcome in," A dreary looking Splitfolk woman was sitting behind the counter of the store. She was leaning on one arm and distracted while lazily reading a book that was held at a distance in her outstretched other arm, "let me know if there's anything that I can help you with," she said without looking up from her novel.

"I don't think we'll need any help at all, just take a look around before getting out of your hair," Captain Crans said, casually strolling to one of the walls of the store, eyeballing the various dresses and garments that were on display.

"Sounds good to-" The woman's sharp ears perked up as she recognized the voice. She turned around and saw Captain Crans, looking enthralled by a particularly lacey skirt on a dress. A huge smile crept across her face as she saw him.

"Crans!" She yelled as she vaulted over the counter in an instant. She got a running start before jumping into him and giving him a huge hug. Captain Crans was laughing as he hugged her back.

After holding the hug for a moment, Kitty suddenly pushed Crans away and reeled back with one of her fists. Kitty ripped a vicious right straight into one of his shoulders, she was definitely punching up, though, awkwardly aiming her fist diagonally to even reach the spot she wanted to hit.

"Ouch! What was that for?" Captain Crans asked with a tone that Zel now recognized as the voice he used when he was being an ass.

"That… was for never visiting me!" Kitty scolded, "Where have you been? You disappear for forever at a time, on missions or who knows what else. I know we don't get to see each other like we used to, but you live in the same damn town for fuck's sake. You gotta get down here more." As Kitty tore into the Captain more and more, Zel began to feel the creeping sensation that she would, in fact, get along with Kitty quite well.

"Aw, C'mon, Kitty. I'm a captain of the Academy, you know that I'm busy," Captain Crans said, quickly throwing together a weak excuse. "I got responsibilities and look! This year I got students too!"

"Fuck off, you tall flake!" She lashed back in response. Zel definitely liked Kitty.

"Alright, that's enough bullying for me," Captain Crans deflected, "I got some potential customers for you here, in case you hadn't noticed while beating me up. I was hoping you could take a look at them."

Kitty seemed to finally notice the three girls who had entered her shop along with Captain Crans. She saw Miriya, who was leaning against the wall in a corner of the room admiring her new bow, then looked at Zel and Jammy and noticed their dresses. She nodded to herself, confident that she had determined the two out of the three who were likely to be the actual customers. When she spoke it was suddenly and in a very serious tone that caught Zel and Jammy off guard.

"I can tell two things by the way that you two are dressed. One, you both have excellent taste and look amazingly cute in those dresses. Two, you've come to the right place. My name is Kitty. I'm an old friend of this massive lug over here, and an expert seamstress, if I do say so myself, and I do. Pleased to meet you." Kitty held out her hand and shook both Zels and Jammy's in turn.

Now that Zel had a better look at her, she was very pretty. She and Zel were almost the same height and Kitty only appeared to be a few years older than Zel was. Kitty had beautiful and flowing long dark-blue hair that reached down to her waist with colorful yellowish tips towards the end of the hair. It practically looked like a dress in of itself. The dress that she wore was unbelievably well made, not a single thread was out of place and if you told her that it was brand new Zel would believe it. It was a dress similar to Zel's, its black top hung loosely on Kitty's shoulders, Zels fitting in the same way. It seemed to be made out of some kind of silk and had intricate floral patterns all the way down to the skirt which stopped at Kitty's ankles. This is where Zel noticed something strange. The edge of the skirt where the dress should have stopped there seemed to be some kind mist beneath it. A moment longer of staring and Zel realized that it wasn't that the mist was beneath the dress, but rather that the dress was producing a steady stream of a blackened vapor. It blurred whatever it passed in front of, making it difficult to see Kitty's feet. It reminded her of the shroud that Captain Kartave was wearing during the exams.

Maybe they shop here too? Kitty noticed what Zel was looking at and smiled.

"Cool, isn't it?" She said, "my own little invention." She lifted up her skirt so Zel could get a closer look.

"The edge of the skirt is enchanted to produce an obscuring mist." She explained, "It takes a bit of mana from the wearer and makes it so your opponent can't see your feet. That's what I specialize in, clothing enchantments. Though more specifically, I like to enchant more formal clothing for those who want to present a certain style while in combat."

Zel was totally in awe, she had never seen a dress that was so well put together, nor had she ever heard of stylish combat. The dress that she wore was from her hometowns own seamstress who, while skilled, could never have made something like this.

The big city is truly full of infinite wonders, Zel thought to herself, her heart thumping with excitement. Then another thought occurred to her.

"Captain Crans," She began, "does the academy have some kind of dress code? Uniform? Anything like that?"

"Naw, despite our reputation, a lot of what we do can be a bit secretive. We don't really rule over Split Sky with an iron fist, we just go where the people need us. So we get to wear what we want. Case in point," Captain Crans gestured to himself and his unusual clothes that seemed barely able to fit at the best of times.

"We do have a badge and some official clothes for formal events, however," He added. "But if you want to fight naked, ain't nobody gonna stop ya."

"So I could fight in a dress?" Zel asked, she had never even considered the possibility before, consigning herself to the idea that soldiers would wear what they were required to and nothing more.

"If that's what you feel most comfortable fighting in. I don't see why not." Captain Crans said with a shrug.

"That's what I used to do," Kitty said, "I may not look it, but I've been in a fight or two over the years. I always fought in a dress like one of these, ever since I was a little girl."

"Why were you fighting as a little girl?" Miriya asked from across the room. She was still distracted looking at her new toy, but she had clearly been listening to their conversation.

Kitty seemed a bit hesitant to respond at this, suddenly going silent and her smile fading. Captain Crans quickly jumped in and changed the direction of the conversation.

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"A story for another time!" He said, "how bout you just let kitty show you some dresses that you two might like?"

"Excellent idea," Kitty said, clapping her hands together, "I think I have a rough idea of what both of you like, based on what you lovely ladies are already wearing, but why don't you tell me some of the things you appreciate in a dress and I can lead you in the right direction."

Zel and Jammy brainstormed together what kinds of things that they liked to have in a dress. Kitty could not speak Clicktongue, but with plenty of dresses in the shop to use as examples they were able to communicate effectively anyway. Zel preferred simple dresses with dark colors, little to no pattern with the lace being the one exception. Jammy was nearly the opposite. She loved bright colors with complex patterns. As they perused through the shop, both Zel and Jammy had all sorts of questions that they asked Kitty. She was clearly well equipped to deal with the curious customer, as she skillfully navigated the many questions that the two of them had. Zel was particularly amazed by her deep explanations of how her dresses were useful in combat, something that Zel had never even considered until she had walked into the shop.

"The mist dresses are an invention of mine that takes the disadvantage of a dress in combat, which is mainly an issue with mobility, removes that and adds the strength of your opponents being unable to watch your feet." Kitty explained, "The obscuring mist looks like it starts towards the skirt of the dress, past the knees, but it actually starts further up, towards where the dress connects with your waist, the whole thing is made of mana. Here, watch my legs."

Zel and Jammy did as they were told, looking down at Kitty's dress that hung low by her ankles before melting into mist. They didn't know what they should be looking for, but it did not take long for them to see. The mist began to fade away, but the dress went with it as well, revealing the slippers that Kitty was wearing. Slowly but surely the dress continued to deconstruct itself, climbing all the way up to Kitty's waist where it stopped, creating an obscuring mist like a belt. Kitty's bare legs were now exposed, and the absence of a dress revealed underwear as well as a strange disk of mist where the waist of the dress had been.

"So you see? There actually is nothing for your legs or feet to get caught on when you wear one of my dresses. It can make for some interesting options in combat if you're creative enough," Kitty explained, clearly very proud of her work.

"That's really amazing!" Zel exclaimed. Jammy was in a stunned silence, equally blown away. "What exactly is it, though?" Zel asked, looking at the belt of mist that was now obscuring Kitty's waistline.

"Give me just a second!" Kitty said, suddenly leaping over the counter top before hopping right back over with what appeared to be a solid black elastic band.

"This is what it looks like without any mana. I weave in some enchantments using mana infused silk, and then the wearer puts a little bit of mana into it and voila!" Kitty exclaimed and as she did so the band began to produce a mist that slowly fell to the floor, forming a new dress as it went, this time it was green.

"You can wear anything under it, really, and it will work just as fine either way. If you put enough mana into it, you can actually make the dress solid all the way down. Like this." Kitty closed her eyes and as she did so the dress that she was wearing began to regrow, the mist expanding down her legs once again. It crept down towards the floor, recreating the same pattern that it had when they first saw it. Just as she had said, it did not turn into mist around her ankles, instead appearing solid and completely obscuring Kitty's legs and feet.

"Woah!" Zel exclaimed while Jammy clapped next to her.

"As far as applications of that, though, it would mostly be for something covert, maybe you need to be seen by people who don't know the full extent of what you can do." Kitty continued. "It will look just like a normal dress to them. The only people who would be able to tell that there was something unusual are those with advanced manavision. And even then, they would only be able to tell that your dress was made of mana, not be able to see through it." Her dress returned to normal with the mist wrapping around her lower legs and feet.

"That's so cool! You're so cool!" Zel exclaimed, in a moment of embarrassing sincerity.

"Thanks! I've worked on it for a long time!" Kitty said, beaming. No doubt appreciative of having someone who was so enamored with her work. "Now, any idea which one you would like?"

Zel could not help but admit that it was the mist dresses that she was the most interesting, but it became quickly apparent that those, and most of the others that were special features in the store, were far beyond her price range.

"So what'll it be? Do you want to buy something cheaper tonight to get your dress fix, then come back for a different one once the academy money starts rolling in? I like you two, so even if you don't buy anything tonight, feel free to come back anytime. Even if it's just to chat." Kitty explained, giving Zel and Jammy a genuine smile that felt as though it were going to melt their hearts.

Zel and Jammy looked at each other and both nodded in a silent agreement.

"We'll each buy something tonight. Show us some dresses that we can afford. I think Jammy is in the same price range as I am." Jammy nodded, pulling out her wallet from her bag.

"Excellent," Kitty said, rubbing her hands together. "Then allow me to show you what we have in stock tonight."

Kitty, as they had requested, led them to the cheaper part of the shop that had normal dresses. It was quite the collection and difficult to choose, but eventually both Zel and Jammy had found two pieces that they liked. Zel decided on a dark blue dress much like her favorite black dress, but made out of a higher quality silk and it was a little bit longer, it reached the absolute extent of her budget, the last of the reserves her parents had gifted her before departing. Jammy apparently had a little bit more coin that she was willing to spend, and she opted for a yellow dress that Zel thought highlighted her dark and iridescent carapace well. After they finished shopping, it was time for them to head back to their dorms. They said their goodbyes to Kitty, who was sad to see them leave.

"You three have a wonderful rest of the evening out there! Remember that you can come back at any time! And tell Belle to get her butt back in here! It's closing time and I want to go home!" She shouted after them as they exited the shop.

Out in the specialty shopping district again, the girls were relieved that the busy street had calmed down significantly in the time that they had spent in the dress shop. Zel suddenly felt exhausted. It hadn't been the most intensive evening, but just walking through the city was draining on her. It was overwhelming even still. She wanted to return home and get some sleep, but she had one more thing she wanted to do first. When the crowd before the Captain cleared enough, she took the opportunity to dive in his way before they got too far.

"Captain Crans… thank you for all you've done for us tonight!" She exclaimed with a polite curtsy to the tall Captain, at least as best as she could manage with her hands full. As usual, the Captain's reply began with a hearty laugh.

"It weren't nothing at all, Miss. Like I said earlier, it was but a chance meeting. Though I am glad I caught you three."

"I don't want to just thank you for that though, Captain. I want to thank you for everything that you've done for us so far. The exams, helping us out here, we're just new students, so it's really nice to have a Captain welcome us like this," Zel explained, both Miriya and Jammy nodded in agreement.

"Well I'll take your thanks without quarrel, then," Captain Crans said, "Dream Academy is a bit of a weird place, I'm not sure that there's anywhere even a little bit like it all around the world, and I should know. I've been around most of the world! But I think you three will fit right in, no problem. Now, you should all go get some sleep, it'll be a long one tomorrow. I'll see you all during class and club selections, or better yet, maybe I won't!"

With that cryptic statement and one more hearty laugh for the road, Captain Crans broke off from them, peeling down the thinning street with a purpose, as if there were more shopping to be done. The three of them watched as he disappeared in the distance, leaving Zel, Miriya, and Jammy to themselves once more.

"He's right, we really should head back," Miriya said, looking at some Tiltwilt flowers planted along the side of the street that were fully wilted, their petals drooping sadly.

The three of them began the long trek back to their dorm rooms, but even exhausted the trip did not take long, and they were standing in front of the entrance to their dorm soon enough.

"So you won't be joining us tonight, right Jammy?" Miriya asked as they prepared to enter.

Jammy shook her head.

"Even if you don't come tonight, remember that we'll keep the bed warm for you. Hopefully there isn't any need for it for someone else," Zel said. Jammy nodded, but seemed sad.

She really does want to stay with us. Damn that big bastard, Zel thought to herself.

She really needed to find a way to figure out what was going on with them. What was their relationship with Jammy? Obviously they came from the same country, but why was he in charge of her? Zel didn't know what the correct way forward was in dealing with the large Clickfolk.

"How about we pay Flint a visit tomorrow so we can better understand why you can't room with us?" Miriya asked, almost reading Zel's mind.

Jammy seemed nervous to respond, however. After a moment, she nodded stiffly in agreement, and the three of them decided they would try and meet with Flint after they were done with tomorrow's activities.

Then it was time for bed. Zel and Miriya let Jammy enter first before following suit a while later, hoping the gap between their arrivals would keep Jammy out of any trouble. After they felt they'd waited long enough, the two returned to their dorm where, upon entering and closing the door, Miriya immediately crumpled to the floor.

"Ugggh," she said, as eloquent as ever.

"Good. I thought it was only me." Zel said

"Not built for the big city, sis. Gotta get back out to the woods," Miriya said, slowly inching her way across the floor, like some kind of fuzzy slime-creature.

"It was a lot," Zel agreed.

As Zel finished her bedtime preparations and got her sheets in order, she laid down and got comfy, only to hear a voice from just below her.

"...Hey Zel…" Miriya's voice crawled over the edge of the bed.

"Yeah Miri?" Zel asked.

"Do you mind if we sleep together tonight? I'm feeling a bit… anxious…"

"Of course, Miri." Zel remembered that, beyond the town itself, Miriya had had somewhat of an uncomfortable evening. Zel lifted up the covers for her sister. Miriya crawled up over the edge of the bed and snuggled up to Zel. Zel put the covers back down as Miriya got comfortable, and they laid in silence for a little while. Zel thought that Miriya had drifted off to sleep when she heard her voice again from under the covers.

"...Even though everything is new and scary, at least we still have each other, right Zel?" Miriya asked softly, half asleep.

"We'll always have each other, Miri. Always." Zel said.

After a while Zel could hear Miriya curled up at her side as her breath settled down and she fell asleep. Zel snuffed out the light and laid down. She looked at the ceiling, staring at nothing in particular and thought about everything that had happened.

She was tired, but her head was abuzz. The new school, the new places, the new people, everything was flying around her mind and it made her feel overwhelmed. She took a deep breath and told herself that everything important could wait, at least until tomorrow. Curling over on her side and facing the wall, Zel went to sleep.