It was a moment before we could get rid of the soldiers. Junaki led as she ran, for she knew the way through the kingdom. I stole a glance behind and saw that the stunned soldiers had revived and were hot in our pursuit.
Thankfully it was the dead of the night, and the soldiers were the only people who were still awake in the town. So we didn’t meet any resistance from other cats that we would have definitely met had we fled during the day.
My stamina went down after a period of racing through town. In the distance I could spot the outline of the wall that surrounded the town.
“Quick,” Junaki said, noticing that I was slowing, “once we cross the walls we can get rid of them.”
I nodded and put my remaining energy into my paws. Soon we reached the wall. Junaki helped me climb up and then she easily climbed it herself. We jumped to the other side. It was no cat’s land from here.
“We’ll have to climb up a tree,” Junaki said. “Search for a tall one, one with many branches.”
I looked around. The perfect tree awaited us just a few metres away and I pointed it to Junaki.
We climbed up the tree. We made our way to the top-most branches just as the soldiers who had been pursuing us climbed over the walls.
“Where the heck did they go?” the soldiers asked each other. “They couldn’t have gone far.”
“Use your noses, idiots!”
Junaki suddenly slapped her forehead.
“What if they are able to smell us out?” she mouthed to me.
That was a problem.
I looked around the spot in the branch where we were. The branch had many fruits. I didn’t know if they were edible, but I plucked one of the fruits. Next I threw it with all the force I could muster. It made a considerably large sound when it hit the ground tens of metres away.
“You heard that?” one of the soldiers said.
“Yes, it can be them.”
“But I am getting their smell from this direction not that.”
“Your nose has stopped working, Brandok.”
The soldiers moved towards the spot where I had thrown the fruit.
“Let’s get moving now,” I whispered to Junaki. I leapt from the branch we were on to another branch of a different tree. Junaki followed me suit. And thus we kept moving from branch to branch for hours, stopping every now and then to replenish our stamina.
It was twilight by the time we finally decided to stop. We were so exhausted that we just closed our eyes and the next moment we were in the land of sleep.
***
It was noon when I awoke. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my burnt fur had been completely replaced by new fur! I reckoned the enjoy-the-fire potion also acted as a healing medication, otherwise there was no way I could have gotten new fur so fast. My stomach groaned. I saw that my health had fallen. I needed to eat something. There were fruits growing almost at paw’s reach. Juicy looking fruits that seemed to exist so that I could put them in my mouth. But I wasn’t sure if they were edible.
Junaki was curled up and snoring lightly. I thought she looked beautiful.
My body ached, and I stretched and yawned.
Junaki opened her eyes a chink.
“Is it morning yet?” she asked me.
I laughed.
“It’s noon, my dear.”
She grimaced and closed her eye. She opened them after a few moments and stood up. She stretched herself and curled her tail and sat down.
“You’ve got new fur,” she observed.
“Is it the magic of the enjoy-the-fire potion?” I asked. She nodded.
“It speeds up the healing process,” she said. “After all, the point of the potion is to make you enjoy being burnt. If your fur and skin remains black for long, that wouldn’t be quite enjoyable, would it?”
I recalled earlier that Junaki had sent me messages when I had been tied to the stake, but I had not been able to reply to her. I asked her why this had happened.
“You need to acquire the Message spell if you want to send messages,” Junaki replied. “But the spell comes with quite a few drawbacks. You cannot send messages over long distances for example. And the person whom you are sending the message should be in sight. You have to shoot the message at the person as if you are shooting an arrow. And if the message hits the wrongs person, well…”
Just then my stomach groaned again. I blushed.
“You seem to be hungry,” Junaki said.
Barely had she said that when another stomach groaned. And it wasn’t mine.
Junaki looked away, embarrassed.
“I guess both of us are hungry,” I said. I pointed at one of the fruits of the tree, “Edible?”
“Those fruits are abundant in this forest, but nobody eats them,” she said, “maybe they cannot be eaten? Even I am not sure”
My eyes fell on a nest a few trees away. It had eggs. I pointed it out to Junaki.
“Now that’s edible,” she said.
So it happened that our breakfast (or lunch, whatever you call it) ended up consisting of bird eggs and some squirrels. It was my first meal ever since I had respawned, and though it was not something that I would call delicious, it was quite okay. And it helped stabilise my health which had been declining steadily because I was hungry.
Once our stomachs were quite full, I asked Junaki what she planned to do next.
“I think I will travel to the Kingdom of Noria to the North,” she said thoughtfully, “it’s a long way away and I have never been there in my life. But it’s the kingdom of my mother’s brother who once came to our town and who was a pretty good person. He might help me take back my kingdom from my evil family. I am quite sure that my father is under some sort of a charm. I just refuse to believe that he has suddenly become so cruel.”
I didn’t comment on her plans. I was beginning to wonder what I should do.
“Would you like to travel to Noria with me?” Junaki asked. I considered the offer. My main goals were to regain my memory and complete whatever quest I had died without completing in my past life. Would it be a wise decision on my part to travel with Junaki or would I be straying from my goals?
A message window appeared.
New quest available!
Junaki wants you to help her get to her uncle’s kingdom.
Rewards: 1000 gold
Do you want to accept the quest?
Yes/No?
“I think I’ll do that,” I finally decided. I reckoned had I been offered a similar quest in my past life to help someone regain their kingdom, I would have accepted it. Plus, who in their right mind would reject an offer of 1000 gold?
“Thanks,” Junaki said.
Your relationship with Junaki has improved from ‘he seems like a good guy’ to ‘he is a good guy’
Chapter 7
We began our journey north, trekking through the flora. Our meals mostly consisted of small animals. At nights she would begin rambling about her past. She really seemed to miss her mother and her childhood.
Then on the third day since I accepted the quest, something happened that would take our lives in an altogether different direction. It was noon and since we had been on the move since the morning we decided it was time to rest for a while. The sound of sobbing made it to my ears.
“Do you hear that?” I said to Junaki. She frowned and strained her ears.
“It sounds like a lady is crying,” Junaki said.
“You think she is in need of help?”
“Why else would she cry?”
“Well, let’s check it out then,” I said and I promptly got up. But Junaki seemed to hesitate.
“I don’t know, Kitty,” she said. “What if it’s a monster pretending to be a lady? This forest contains creatures that are of evil intent.”
“But what if it is a lady?” I argued.
Junaki sighed.
“Fine. Let’s go and check.”
What we found out was that it was a lady cat and not a monster. But… it w
as a lady of stone. Well, at least half her body was of stone.
“What happened to you!” I exclaimed the moment my eyes fell on her.
“Could you help me please?” she begged. The lower portion of her body had turned to stone and it was her upper body which was still of flesh. I focussed at her and came to know her name was Ferrima.
“But how did your lower body turn to stone?” Junaki asked.
“I failed to keep a vow,” Ferrima said. She was a middle aged cat. Her face was black while her torso that hadn’t turned to brown stone was white. “There is a wizard I promised to help, and then I disregarded my promise to him. This is all a result of that. If someone else doesn’t do what I promised to him in a few days, then my entire body will turn to stone.”
Junaki perhaps knew what would come next from the woman and she looked at me with an unsure expression on her face.
“What was the promise?” I said.
“A dogman stole a precious stone from the wizard. The wizard needs the stone to be near him at all times otherwise he falls sick. The wizard had helped me on countless occasions before… but I still decided to disregard my promise to him. Could you please get the stone for me because otherwise I would turn to stone entirely? If you do not then I understand because it is not easy for a cat to enter a dogman village and return alive.”
A window popped up in my vision.
New quest available!
Ferrima needs you to help her by getting the precious stone of the wizard.
Would you like to help her?
Warning: This quest might conflict with an earlier quest that you accepted that hasn’t been completed.
Do you still want to accept this quest?
Yes/No?
Rewards: Unknown
I turned at Junaki.
“Please give us a moment,” she told Ferrima, who looked down in a sad manner. Junaki pulled me a few metres away from Ferrima.
“Are you sure you want to help her?” she asked me. Her eyes desperately searched my face for a “No”.
“I don’t know, Junaki,” I said. “It will be a sin if we just let her to turn to stone.”
“It’s a result of her own doing,” Junaki tried to argue.
“But she seems to regret it,” I said. It would be a stupid and time-eating decision if we went about helping Ferrima. But deep inside my heart a voice said that doing so might take me a step closer to regaining my memory.
“Are you sure?” Junaki asked again.
I looked into her eyes.
“You decide,” I told her flatly.
She glared at me, now that I had given her the burden of deciding. I thought her glare made her cuter and I suppressed a laugh.
“Fine, we’ll help her,” she said.
Ferrima was delighted when we told her that we would help her. Tears of thankfulness rolled down her face.
“But how will we get to the dogman who stole the precious stone?” I asked.
“There is a compass that the wizard gave me,” Ferrima replied, “it’s in my pocket.”
Junaki retrieved the compass from Ferrima’s pocket.
“But how’s this going to help?” she asked with a frown. I looked at the compass too, it was pointing to the west. Weren’t compasses always supposed to point North?
“It is pointing in the direction where the dogman is,” Ferrima replied. “You just have to go along the direction that the compass points and you would eventually reach him. The wizard earlier told me that the dogman lives in a village that’s about forty kilometres from here.” Ferrima bowed down her head, avoiding her eyes. “I was planning to sell the compass. I deserve the state that I am in right now.” She sniffled.
“It’s okay,” Junaki told her, “we all make mistakes. We’ll bring the stone for you and then you would be all right.”
***
Junaki was rather silent as we moved along the direction that the compass was pointing.
“Are you angry with me?” I asked with some hesitation.
She shook her head. Then she suddenly whirled around. She slapped me with her paw.
You have been slapped!
You receive -15 health
I massaged my cheeks, looking Junaki in the eye.
“I hope you feel better?” I said with some sarcasm, managing a feeble smile.
She grimaced.
“From the next time on, we are not going on side quests, you understand?”
“I’ll help anyone who needs my help,” I said. I felt my anger rise, even though I was trying to be cool. “If you don’t want to help Ferrima you can go North for your uncle’s kingdom.”
Junaki glared at me for a moment. Was she going to slap me again?
“You speak too much,” she said. “Freeze.”
And I felt myself go rigid all of a sudden. I couldn’t even breathe, neither was my heart beating. I was like a dead cat. Except I could think.
Damn, I shouldn’t have made her take the decision.
Observing me, a slight look of guilt came over Junaki’s eyes. Maybe she thought she had gone too far and shouldn’t have used paralysis on me? But then she turned away with a ‘Humph” and folded her arms.
A minute passed.
I recalled that the effects of the spell had ended much faster on the soldiers whom Junaki had paralysed in the kingdom. Perhaps that was because she had used the spell on multiple people at once. I had now taken the full blast of the spell.
I was pulled out of my thoughts, when out of nowhere a great beast leapt into the scene. It was a monster wolf. One with red glowing eyes.
As if that wasn’t enough, another wolf leapt onto the scene.
Junaki let out a shrill cry. The wolves approached her from both sides. Perhaps because I was paralysed the wolves totally ignored me. I watched helplessly as the wolves cornered Junaki against a tree.
“Climb up the damn thing,” I thought. But she was so scared that she forgot to climb up, Instead she pulled out her sword from its scabbard with shivering hands. One of the wolves pounced on her, but she leapt away just in time and evaded its massive jaws that could have torn her apart in a single bite.
Junaki scrambled up and sprinted away, the wolves hot on her tail. She tried to shoot the air arrows at the wolves, but missed most of the times, and the few times that she actually hit them, they were stunned for mere moments, since they were so much larger than cats. I could have bet my whole life that Junaki had never battled wolves before. I was sceptic she had even seen them. But I had… in a previous life. Perhaps I had even killed them, for at that moment I received the fragment of a memory of me holding a bloodied knife over the carcass of a wolf.
Junaki and the wolves disappeared from my sight. The jungle was thick enough that I could only hear them. At that moment, the paralysis spell ended on me. I could breathe again, and my heart resumed beating.
New quest available!
Save Princess Junaki from the wolves.
Rewards: The spell Human Hands , plus an unknown reward.
This quest doesn’t conflict with any previous quest of yours.
Do you want to accept the quest?
Yes/No
Of course, I selected yes as quickly as possible.
I sprinted towards the direction that the wolves and Junaki had gone. Finally I saw them. Junaki had landed a great cut on the face of one of the wolves and it seemed to have only infuriated the beast more. I watched as Junaki backed away as the wolves went closer to her, growling under their breath. A root.
Junaki tripped and fell.
Darn it.
“Hey!” I yelled at the top of my voice to the wolves. “Over here. Eat me!”
The wolves turned their massive heads towards me. Thankfully, Junaki used the distraction to scramble away from the wolves and by the time the beats realised it, she had gone away a considerable distance. Heck, the wolves were closer to me now than they were to her.
“Come get me!” I cried. I whirled around and ran.
The wolves took to chasing me. One leapt and took to the air. Very soon it landed in front of me. The other wolf was just behind me.
I leapt to one of the trees, but I had only climbed a few metres when one of the wolves hit my stomach with its paws and I was thrown off the tree and landed roughly on the ground, my stomach bleeding profusely. I was sure I had only bare moments to live now.
You have been injured!
You receive -50 health
Just then I saw that the forest seemed to abruptly end a short distance away to my right. Could it be a cliff by any chance?
There was a slight possibility and I had to stick to it. My health and stamina levels had dropped steeply over the last few minutes. With sheer might of the mind, I pulled myself up. One of the wolves pounced to end my life with a final bite, but I evaded the jaws of the monster by mere inches, getting behind a tree in just the nick of time. I began to run.
My stomach felt like it was going to fall out of my body but I just kept pushing on. The wolves probably thought I would die anyway and then it would be an easy meal, so they didn’t pursue me with all their speed.
Very soon I realised that the edge of the forest was indeed a cliff, and a smile crept onto my lips. Just then the worst thing happened. My stamina depleted altogether. I gritted my teeth. Even if I ignored the pain in my stomach, my body felt so heavy like it was a boulder.
The stole a glance back. The wolves were coming for me.
Damn it, Kitty, I thought, it’s your body. Pick it up.
Come on.
It’s so heavy.
Pick it up! It’s your body.
And then something strange happened. I let out a yell and began to run.
Congratulations!
You have unlocked a new skill: Determination.
It allows you to move despite the lack of stamina for a time being.
Catheroes Page 4