Chapter 15
The snakes still hanging their heads in shame, we followed Mozo up the slope. The climb felt quite a chore, and Mozo didn’t look like he was enjoying it either. He seemed to have gone down to the snakes only because of us.
“You have been living here for long?” I asked Mozo.
He nodded. He squinted his eyes in pain. He held up his hand at me, indicating that he would give me the answers later on.
Following Mozo for nearly half an hour, we reached a cave.
“Welcome to my home,” Mozo told us with an effortful smile. We went deeper into the cave. Were my eyes fooling me, or were the cave walls actually glittering? Mozo lit some torches that were perched on the cave walls and lo! When the cave lit up to its full glory we saw that there were diamonds embedded all about the walls of the cave.
I couldn’t help but exclaim with wonder.
“I have never seen so many diamonds,” I said.
Mozo brought us some chairs and gestured us to sit.
“The snakes are my friends,” he told us. He then rolled his eyes, “Well at least most of them. It’s quite a long story really about how I happened to become friends with them. A long time ago I got into a quarrel with my father and left my old village. My wanderings brought me to the land of snakes. I almost died when I first encountered them and only barely managed to escape, but I stumbled upon this cave filled with diamonds one rainy night searching for shelter. And from that day onwards the snakes became my friends, because they need the diamonds. I am now known all across the land of snakes as the dealer of diamonds.”
“But why do the snakes need the diamonds?” Junaki asked. She had a point, I thought. The snakes wore jewellery?
“The snakes are superstitious,” Mozo answered. “They believe diamonds bring good luck if you consume the precious stones. The snakes also believe that diamonds are the frozen tears of a god that sometimes fall from the heavens with the rain. I have used this myth to my advantage, telling the snakes that I have gifted eyes that can easily spot diamonds falling from the sky. Fortunately, no snake ever came to this cave before me, although the snake is at the heart of snake territory so they do not know the truth behind the diamonds.” Mozo then sighed. He looked at the two of us with much desperation in his eyes. “Now, if I may ask you two, would you please do me a favour?”
A favour? The cat that had authority over all the big snakes asking us for a favour?
“Please say,” I said. “You saved our lives from the snakes. We’ll be glad to return the help.”
“I have been in great pain for a few weeks,” Mozo answered. “There is a fish bone stuck in my throat and I have no idea how to get rid of it. The snakes cannot help me for they do not possess hands… but you two, you can help me. Please take out the fish bone from my throat. My craving for fish has cost me dearly.”
A message popped up in my vision.
New quest available!
Mozo has asked to remove the fish bone from his throat. Relieve the poor cat from his misery and roam snake land with no fears!
Rewards: 100 luck, no fear moving around snake land.
“I guess we can help you,” I answered, a bit unsure. But at the same time it explained the look of pain that Mozo seemed to bear on his face all the time. I accepted the quest. The rewards were quite big considering we only needed to perform a small task to get the rewards. After all, how difficult could it be to remove a fish bone?
“Thank you!” Mozo said, his face lighting up. “Would you please come in to my bed room? I can lay down then and it will be easier for you to remove the fish bone stuck in my neck.”
We followed Mozo to another room located deeper into the cave. At countless spots along the cave the walls glittered and I realised that the cave was a diamond mine. Mozo could simply pluck a diamond from the wall and give it to the snakes and win their allegiance.
Mozo’s bed was quite large, considering there were no other cats living in the cave. Mozo brought a tray from his kitchen and then he lay down on his bed.
Mozo opened his mouth wide. Junaki plucked a glowing torch from the wall and held it next to his mouth, so that the insides of Mozo’s mouth were lit up. I swallowed. I had never put my paw inside the mouth of another creature. Wait… paw? Wouldn’t it be better to use Human Hands ? I casted the spell and watched as my paws became like the hands of a human.
I put my finger inside Mozo’s mouth. His mouth didn’t exactly smell nice and I had to stop breathing both to steady my hands and to not have to breathe in the smell.
As I entered deeper into his mouth, I accidentally touched his uvula. Mozo gagged and bit my hand, so that I had to pull it out.
“Are you okay?” I asked in concern, as Mozo coughed wildly, tears in his eyes.
Mozo held out a hand. He coughed a few more times, and finally started to breathe normally.
“I guess I will have to control my reflexes,” Mozo said, his face convulsed with pain.
“Let’s try a second time, eh?” I said. Junaki helped Mozo to lie down again.
In my second try, I again touched Mozo’s uvula. It was no possible to not touch it and make my way down his throat. He coughed again and gagged so that I had to pull my hand out.
“I can’t help it,” I said. “You have to control yourself if you want to get rid of the fish bone.”
In my third try I was more careful. I tried to avoid the sensitive parts of Mozo’s throat, and he too tried his best. Tears rolled down the sides of his face as he did his best to control his reflexes, grabbing the mattress of the bed and making tears on it in his attempt. I felt around his throat carefully. It took me a handful of seconds to locate an object in his throat that was bony to touch and didn’t at all felt like it belonged to his throat. The object also had many sharp ends. I knew instantly that it was the fish bone. I carefully grabbed it with my fingers and pulled. Mozo’s eyes went wider with the pain, and his paws dug deeper into the mattress.
In a few moments I had brought out the fish bone and had it on display in my hands just above Mozo’s face, who was gasping for breath. But the pained looked had abandoned his features, and a look of great relaxation had come over him.
A message popped up in my vision.
Quest Completed!
Congratulations! You have successfully removed the fish bone from Mozo’s neck.
You receive 100 luck.
Be careful to use it only in circumstances where you are in great danger.
You also receive the ability to roam the land of the giant snakes without any fears of being eaten by them.
“Th… thanks,” Mozo said. “You don’t know how much you have helped me.”
I placed the fish bone on the tray that Mozo had earlier brought. Some of the smaller bones were red with Mozo’s blood. I washed my hand in the kitchen that was the room adjoined to the bedroom and also brought a glass of water for Mozo to drink. The later took the gulps of water with great pleasure.
“I do not know how to return your help,” Mozo said as he placed the glass of water on a nearby table.
“Well, it’s us returning the help,” I said, “You saved our lives from the snakes.”
Mozo suddenly pulled out a bracelet that he had been wearing. The bracelet seemed to me made entirely of diamonds.
“Take this bracelet,” Mozo said, handing me the glittering object, “when any snake sees this on you they will realise that you are a friend of mine and they would not harm you.”
I ended the Human Hands charm and put the bracelet up my paw. Mozo was fatter than me, and the bracelet fit well only higher up my forearm.
Mozo seemed to consider the two of us for a moment.
“Are you two mates?” he asked.
Junaki made an abrupt sound. But she didn’t say anything.
“Um… no,” I said with much unease. I recalled Junaki expressing her love to me before she had tumbled down the slope and also when the two of us had nearly been crushed to death by the tight
grip of the snake. That had been no joke on her part, right? I didn’t know what I should tell her in return. A small part of me wanted to accept her, but I didn’t know if I had other lady friends in my past life. What if I met them again? I didn’t want to cheat on any one.
Thankfully, Junaki never brought up the topic again for a long while. Maybe she wanted to give me time to think over it? Either ways, I was thankful to her for that. I really needed time.
***
General Information
Name
Kitty
Level
2
Sex
Male
Race
Cat
Health
160
Mana
50
Strength
18
Stamina
17
Luck
120
***
Chapter 16
We left Mozo’s cave giving him much thanks. It was not hard for us to then find the way back to the path we had been following to get us to the river of milk. For five additional days the two of us trudged through the rolling hills of snake land. There were several circumstances when we would come face to face with a snake. Once I even accidentally sat on the body of a sleeping snake at night mistaking it to be the trunk of a fallen tree. Thankfully, none of the snakes harmed us. When they saw me wearing the bracelet, they immediately knew that we were friends with Mozo, their supplier of diamonds.
I didn’t know if Mozo’s accomplishment of forging a friendship with the snakes was any good. He had left his home to live alone in a place where there were apparently no cats. Well, at least, he had made the journey through snake land easier for us. Along the way my conversations with Junaki kept becoming less and less. All we talked about was food and the river of milk. Thankfully, she no longer behave in an overly girly way, and had resumed her original behaviour, which was good.
It was Junaki who shook me awake on the morning of the sixth day and pointed me the great flowing river down ahead. The previous night we had heard the sounds of the river and even felt the strong breeze that the river brought with itself, but we hadn’t been able to see it because it was dark and because it was a considerable distance away.
It was like a dream to rest my eyes on the great river of milk. The realisation that the no water flowed in the river struck me hard. My mouth watered seeing all the milk flowing in the distance.
“The river of milk,” I said.
“It feels like a dream, doesn’t it?” Junaki said. The sunlight of the morning sun that was being reflected by the fast flowing waters of the white river gave it a truly heavenly feel making the river a candy to the eyes.
“I hope it tells me more about my past life,” I said.
Junaki smiled.
“Don’t worry, it will.”
***
It took us about four more hours to reach the river and by then it was already noon and my stomach was grumbling with hunger. But seeing the river of milk flow just a couple of hundred feet away all hunger fled my stomach. I gladly ran the short distance to the river from the bank, Junaki coming along at a more relaxed pace. I leapt into the river.
I gulped the milk by the gallons. It was truly milk, not just water that had been mixed with some white sediment that gave it the particular colour. The milk was tasty to my tongue and I relished it.
“It’s really milk, right?” Junaki cried from behind me.
“Of course, why don’t you come and drink it?”
Junaki came to the very edge of the river and licked some of the milk. Her face lit up and she drank more and more. The milk was almost addictive. The last time I had drunk milk it was at the wizard’s tree home and it had not been more than a glass.
Finally I was full and I made my way back to the bank and lay down on the soft sand beside Junaki. Even she had a big tummy now. I thought she looked beautiful. I was about to open my mouth to speak to her about what she had told me back in the day when we met Mozo, but she spoke before I could.
“So did you come to know anything?” she asked me.
“Know what?”
“About your past.”
It was like a blow to the face. I recalled that the wizard had told me to dive into the river and make a wish. I had been so consumed by my thirst for milk, that I had totally forgotten that. I grimaced at myself. I had come such a great distance only to forget the reason why I had come upon reaching my destination.
I stood up. My stomach felt heavy and I uneasily made my way back to the river. I jumped into it and dived down. I couldn’t see anything under the water. Every way I looked it was white. My lungs wanted me to return to the surface instantly but I willed myself to remain down. I closed my eyes and made my wish, clearing my mind of all other thoughts.
“Please help me regain my memory back,” I thought.
A pop up appeared in my vision instantly, surprising me, so that I almost inhaled the milk flowing all around me.
You have made a wish at a sacred place.
Your wish shall come true but it will depend on your determination.
Your previous decisions have already increased your chances of achieving your wish by 25%! Congratulations!
The pop up vanished. I was glad that I had stuck to making decisions that I believed I would have made in my previous life as well. I was about to kick my legs and swim back to the surface when suddenly the current of the river became very fast, so that I was taken along by it like a mere object with no power at all. I kicked my limbs hard, struggling to return to the surface even as the current hit me against rocks. My lungs cried for air and I it was only with great will power that I prevented myself from breathing in milk, which would have sealed my fate.
And then, suddenly, the current slowed down. I swam back to the surface. Even though it was white all around me, the surface was brighter than the bed of the river. I gulped in air as I surfaced. This was one crazy river for sure. I saw that I had come a long way away from the place where I had first dived. Junaki was a mere spot in the distance and she seemed to be looking the river up and down, searching for me since it had been quite a while since I had dived into the river.
Somehow, I managed to wave at her. She saw me, thankfully, and hurried towards me. I meanwhile made my way back to the bank. I let myself fall on the soft sand. I was totally exhausted of all energy. My health and stamina bars had also gone considerably down. I heard Junaki reach me.
“Are you all right?” she cried, kneeling beside me. Her face was one of utter terror.
“Yes,” I said weakly.
“What happened?”
“I made a wish and the next moment the current of the river became very strong and I was swept away.”
I pulled myself up to a sitting position.
Just then my eyes fell on something that was lying near a bush in the soft sand of the river bank. Why, it was a pigeon! And it was moving only so slightly as though it barely had the last ounces of life still left in it. I pointed the pigeon out to Junaki, who gasped. She picked up the pigeon, cradling it.
“It seems to have a letter tied to its leg,” Junaki said, placing the pigeon carefully on the sand near me. The pigeon tried to flap its wings but seemed too tired. It was considerably wet. I wondered if the pigeon had somehow fallen into the river of milk. And then the pigeon stopped breathing.
“It’s dead,” Junaki said.
I removed the letter that was tied to the pigeon’s leg. It had been placed inside a small hollow piece of bamboo stem. I took out the letter from it and read the letter.
The dogmen will not stay true to the truce. They plan to attack Duarga and this time they will come with large forces. Either get the chieftain to prepare for a battle or prepare to flee. Even if you cross the river of milk and go to snake land you will have higher chances of survival than if you stay in the village. I am journeying far north. Hope you all survive.
The letter was not signed by anyone
. A quest message appeared in my vision.
New quest available!
Deliver the letter to the chieftain of Duarga and warn the village about the plans of the dogmen.
Reward: 10,000 gold
That was a big amount for sure. I almost felt inclined to immediately accept the quest. But I was afraid. From the letter I could gather that the village of Duarga was probably on the opposite bank of the river of milk, as the place we were in belonged to the snakes. The river had a great width, and I couldn’t imagine myself or Junaki simply swimming across it. The bank on the other side was at least three or four kilometres away.
I told Junaki about the quest message, not dismissing it yet as I wanted to know what she thought about it. After all, if we embarked on the quest of warning the village of Duarga about the impending attack, then it would consume quite a good amount of time— time that Junaki could use to go to her uncle’s kingdom instead.
Junaki seemed thoughtful, seemingly calculating the time we might require. She looked into my eyes finally and grimaced.
“Why do you always give me the tough decisions?” she said to me.
“I just wanted to know your opinion,” I said a bit uneasily.
Junaki sighed.
“Of course we warn the villagers. What else? Besides, look at the events that have taken place. You went to the river and asked for a wish to regain your memory. And then you are swept away from where you initially dived by the river current, only to come to the place where there is a pigeon with a message to warn a village.”
Catheroes Page 9