I woke up and pawed the gunk out of my eyes.

I’d spent the night under that green girl’s bed. Say what you want about her—she did, in the end, have a servant-like respect for me.

Hiding just underneath, next to the blanket’s edge with its frilly trim, I was only barely touched by sunlight. The rest of the room practically glowed. Of course it would, with all those whites and creams and pastel colors in it.

I crawled out and hopped onto the bed, taking stock of everything.

Incredibly, the girl was still here, and not on the bed, having fallen asleep in the rocking chair. So much for lace and decorum. Her hand was still holding the book. I wished I knew what that book was called…maybe it was something embarrassing. Surely I wasn’t the only one worthy of embarrassment in the whole cosmos.

Nah. I’d have to let go of that hope, since I couldn’t read the words anyway.

Or…would I?

I decided to try something. First, I’d check my own item stash to see if anything there had changed. Inventory!

Spellbook: Old Wembley’s Basic Fire Magic by Sir Wembley III
Thirty-three years old. Heavily rain-damaged.

Oh, that was disappointing. Sure, it was cool that it was a magic book, but the title and description didn’t tell me anything about its contents beyond the bare basics. So there was no solving my book’s deeper mysteries.

But I could solve different ones! I crept to the corner of the bed, getting as close as I could to the rude girl. Then I stared at her book and mentally shouted, Inventory!

Poof!

Book: Teatime in the Tropics – A Romantic Whodunit by Myrtle Farcrock
A common trade paperback about plucky middle-aged women.

Uh, hm. Well. That was less funny than I was hoping, but still a bit unexpected?

I un-Inventory’d the book and let it fall onto the bed. She’d probably assume that she put it there right before going to sleep. Nothing to worry about.

…Wow, was Ms. Prim-Perfect-Posture snoring?

I hopped off the bed and made my way to the closed door before realizing that I didn’t have opposable thumbs. Now that I’d slept, I certainly had the SP to Morph…but not the willpower. I’d do it if, and only if, I had no other way out.

Slinking back onto the bed, I decided to instead get a better look at the door—try and figure out if this lady had locked us in here. Sure enough, there was a big dramatic keyhole.

And I was not prepared to prance around this room just to figure out whether the key was in her pocket or a drawer or what. Instead, I’d just do what she herself had wanted me to: jump out the window.

Quietly, and all the while praising myself for my dexterity, I pushed the window open. It had been closed, but not latched shut, and while it taxed my Attack to slide the glass pane up, first with my paws and then with my back, I felt proud of the effort. Then, when the opening was just high enough, I put all four feet on the ledge and, with one final look back at my strange, begrudging savior, I dropped.

I didn’t get straight to the ground in one go. The second floor was smaller than the first, so a bit of roof stuck out underneath it, making a nice platform. I bounded off that and onto grass that glittered almost white in the sun. And then I sprinted off.

Now that it was daytime again, I felt so excited to be free from a stuffy room, to be out in the warm air, to be—to be a cat!

Though the sky was overcast, a whitish-gray light shone down over everything. After I’d gotten some distance from the cabin, I ran circles around birches and licked myself all over. I let myself fall in the grass, then roll and roll and just keep rolling.

This was a new body, after all! Why hadn’t I fooled around this way earlier?!

But I was interrupted.

Of course. It was still the wild, after all.

I rolled onto my feet and locked eyes with a raccoon.

Like facing the devil.

It felt like fate, is what I’m saying—a showdown with destiny. And destiny, as a reminder, is super-powerful. Even if one raccoon couldn’t take me, it probably knew four more. Or dozens.

The raccoon growled, then glowed with white aura. Their whole body flared and steamed, just like the beetles did. Only I had a feeling that this enemy was boosting Attack; their stance was aggressive.

And their little teeth looked sharp!

But I had sharp teeth too. And I had Swipe, which I activated. My claws could meet the challenge.

The raccoon lunged. I darted around them, then hid behind a nearby dogwood. I let the raccoon pace a little, size me up.

I wondered: would it be best to leave?

And watch the whole gang of raccoons target you? I practically hissed back at myself.

Well, maybe as a human.

You don’t need that! You just relied on human “kindness” last night, and it made you feel like a loser, didn’t it?

In some ways…

That raccoon was still pacing. I picked up a whiff of their scent and realized this really was one of the bunch that’d taken over my tree. That hit my heart where it was already wounded.

Practically speaking, killing this raccoon before they could get back to their group would send a message. If they found the body, it would tell them that I was strong, I wasn’t messing around, and I wanted my tree back. I could use the time in between to prepare myself, Level Up, try to explore this whole place and get the jump on them…

But more than that, it was a way to justify my feelings: my frustration at needing humans and goddesses to give me a leg up. I was aware of this reason, faintly. But only faintly.

The raccoon jumped again, and I happily raced back into battle. Battle was a thing I understood.

As they came at me, I activated Swipe. I reared onto my hind legs and clawed the raccoon with all five aura-steaming blades.

That was the good thing about going second: they were first to move, but I was first to react.

The raccoon screamed, blood running down their side. But that didn’t stop them. They kept up their offensive full-throttle, tearing into me with their own claws.

HP: 70% (42/60)
SP: 67% (30/45)

Now we were wrestling, and we fell onto our sides in a whirling, tearing ball of carnage. I reinforced my claws with a second Swipe, hoping not to need a third, and the raccoon glowed with newfound fury and strength.

HP: 42% (25/60)
SP: 33% (15/45)

My HP and SP continued to drop, but I knew theirs did too.

Finally, after taking a vicious hook in the throat, I realized how low my HP had gotten and knew this was it.

HP: 12% (7/60)
SP: 33% (15/45)

This had to be my final move.

I had to change tactics, or else this’d be the end of me.

—Holy crap, had I gone full offense? Why had I gone full offense?

As we slammed together against a tree trunk, my mind worked in a flash: Okay, focus on the present. What can I do?

Maybe my next Swipe would finish them, but there was no counting on that.

What about a different physical move? Like a headbutt? That would be cool in theory, but way too impractical to try here.

I could become humanoid. That would certainly confuse them. But again my feelings got in the way, and this time I was a touch more aware of it. I knew that there were only two reasons I was set against using Morph here: physical discomfort and petty revenge.

It all looked hopeless…and it would’ve been if not for the lesson that rude green-haired lady had taught me. Not last night, but that morning.

Inventory! Spellbook! I forget the name, but it’s a spellbook!

Poof—a weather-damaged old tome clunked the raccoon in the head.

They screeched, pulling their claws out of my hide in total surprise and sudden forehead pain. I whirled myself far away from their clutches and sprang away.

Only after three good bounds did I let myself pause and look back.

The raccoon was definitely not dead. Maybe they were dying? Those wounds looked nasty. Well, not the book wound. In hindsight, that must’ve only made the raccoon scream in surprise, not pain, because no way paperbacks were that heavy. In any case, the raccoon was moaning softly and struggling to get back on their feet.

Get out of the way, I thought. With a sudden burst of pride, I wanted my book back.

Victory!

Whuh?

I meant, “huh” minus the “w”?!

Level Up!

Lv. 3 → 4
EXP: 19% (114/600)

HP: 100% (80/80)
MP: 100% (65/65)

ATK: 12 (+1!)
INT: 6
DEF: 8
WIS: 5 (+1!)
SPD: 9

Well, cool! Pleasant surprise! Except the potential loss of the book. And the fact that the raccoon wasn’t dead yet and therefore could chase me to the ends of the earth. But still good!

Message from Sierra, the Goddess of Nekomata

As you can see, you don’t have to kill to gain Experience. You’ll also gain it by pummeling your opponent to within an inch of their life! Usually they’ll faint, at that point.

As if on cue, the raccoon several meters away from me fainted from blood loss. Something I didn’t have to worry about, since my wounds had spontaneously healed and I only had some nasty fur-blood to show for it.

…Neat, the book was free! I ran over and snapped it up into my Inventory again.

Then, on a whim, I tried Inventory-ing the raccoon too. Didn’t work.

Another way to gain Experience is by defeating people in friendly competition. This can happen when two warriors agree to the terms beforehand.

Interesting…useless, but interesting.

You never know.

And my Wisdom had gone up. That hadn’t escaped me. I was on my way up. I had always known I was impetuous, but now I was starting to catch myself—to think about the way I thought. That made sense, right? For me, it did. Slightly.

But the only implications of that I cared about right now were the Stat-based, immediate-survival-based ones. Maybe someday, someday soon, my SP growth would outpace my Skill costs and I could truly get comfortable using my arsenal.

New Skill!

Leap: Jump farther and faster than normal.

Cool! That seemed self-explanatory. I liked the idea of having more options for movement, not just power-ups.

But maybe I could see more info on all of my Skills? Maybe even how much they cost? Skills? Skills huh? Help Skills?

One of those commands apparently worked, because a new box showed up.

Skills:

Swipe
SP Cost: 20
Effect: Attack with powered-up claws.

Leap
SP Cost: 12
Effect: Jump farther and faster than normal.

Slowly my SP was creeping up past Swipe’s needs. Where before I could only have used Swipe three times on a full charge, now I could use it…still three times! Okay, not great, but getting somewhere. I was glad that Leap didn’t cost as much. In fact, I could use it…uh…five times in a row! I hoped I’d done the math right.

I gave myself a few more moments to sit and take a breather. Birds’ wings flapped in the boughs above. With my wounds now gone—and a lump sum of Experience that indicated I had just defeated a raccoon at a higher Level than anything I’d fought before—I walked off swaggering!

Until it occurred to me that I’d also done that thing I did when I was chasing the dragonfly: completely lose track of where I was.

Map.

Current Area: Taipha’s Home Base (S.3C)

Woah. I was actually close to the top of this place—I mean, the north edge of it!

No point stopping now.

I walked, then ran, then galloped and hop-skipped northward to discover the next part of the Vencian Wood. There was so much out there that needed exploring, and the thought made me ecstatic.