Just like with Yuri, Tilly woke up as we reached the border between the sandy grasslands and the muddy swamp, and this time I was even more cautious of our surroundings. I even had her bring out her spirit companion, hoping to scare away any of the weaker spirit beasts and spirit seeds that lived in the periphery of the spirit mires. I was rather surprised to see she had a temporal wyrm as a spirit companion, as not only was it a rare time-attributed spirit beast, it also was one with the potential to evolve into a dragon - and the ethereal silver dragons, the kind innately attuned to time, were one of the strongest species of dragon in all the nine realms.
“Sadly, he’s not all that strong. Sure, he can manipulate time to some degree, but being limited by my level and lifespan means he’s almost certainly not going to reach his full potential. The emperor did prepare my first three spirit rings very carefully, so those are about as good as they could be, but even so... even if we survive this, I doubt I’d be able to break through to tier 6 so I could leave this realm, and he’s not going to be able to use his full potential until tier 7 or 8 at minimum. Maybe if Yuri breaks through, she could take me with her... but she’s got an earth nymph as her spirit companion, so...”
“So, odds are she’s going to be landlocked like Master was with his continental crusher. But as you said, if we survive this is in question, so let’s not think about the distant future like that. For now, take a left... oh, hold on, what’s this?”
I paused, having noticed something I wasn’t expecting: the severed back end of a blue-scaled snake. It looked as if it had been bitten off by the stoneskin crocodile that lay dead not too far away, and there was a trail of blood leading into the brush. I hesitated for a moment, then followed the trail, finding exactly what I thought - the phantom god viper I’d met on my first trip to the spirit mires, bleeding out from where her tail had been.
“A perssson... but you don’t sssmell like one”
[I’m the cat you bit a week ago]
“Sssso that’sss what I thought wasss familiar. Curiousss... but it mattersss not, for I am about to perish”
[Do you want a healing pill? It might save your life]
“It won’t. I’ve lossst too much blood, and I’m weak from laying my eggssss. I can’t recover from thisss”
[Then... may I know where your eggs are? I’ll take care of them in your place, it doesn’t sit right with me for a clutch of yours to freeze to death]
“I... I sssee. If I don’t, my eggssss will not sssurvive. If I do... I leave their fate in your handsss. Very well. Go in the direction I wasss headed. When you find a tree sssplit down the middle, turn left, go around the bog, and look for a pear-shaped boulder. Below it isss my clutch. One looksss different from the ressst, but don’t doubt that I laid it”
[I’ll look after them well, at least until they hatch]
“Thanksss...”
And with that final drawn-out word of gratitude, the snake died, just as Tilly came through the brush after me.
“Tama? What’s going on?”
“That there is a phantom god viper, or it was. I have decided to take care of her eggs. Who knows, we might be able to tame some of them”
“A very interesting idea. I’m not opposed to it if you can find the eggs”
“She told me where they were, so I was going to head there now. Come with me”
We walked for about ten minutes before finding the tree in question, at which point we turned left, encountered a bog, and located the boulder as described. Sure enough, sheltered from the wind and rain by the rock walls and roof, there was a group of eleven blue-grey eggs - ten about the size of my fist, and one maybe half that size with a slightly purplish tint. I picked them up and transferred them to a padded basket - the basket was one normally used to hold pill bottles for display in the Association’s outward-facing store, and the padding... it was just a blanket I liked to sleep on - which I then handed to Tilly to carry while I, in cat form, led the way back to the marked path by scent.
Along the way I explained my first encounter with that snake to Tilly, and after half an hour or so of walking, we arrived at the clearing where Yuri had set up camp. Upon seeing us coming, she got up from where she was tending the fire and tackled Tilly with a hug, making me glad I’d had her hand me the basket once we were back on the trail of Nothing-marks. What mildly surprised me, and Tilly too, was Yuri immediately going for the longest, deepest kiss I’d ever seen... not that I’d really seen many kisses of any kind.
[Leon, remember how you’d suggested I might end up as some kind of royal consort? I feel like the chances of that are 0 no matter how you slice it]
[Tama?]
[Yes?]
[Shut up]
[Don’t quote me to me]
As I bickered with a copper kitten-
[I heard that!]
I made my way into the tent and picked a corner to set the basket of leathery eggs, shifted to cat form, and gingerly settled into the basket to warm the eggs. Assuming they’re like many other snake eggs, they didn’t need much warming, but they needed some periodically, as the ambient temperature was a bit too cold for them to develop properly.
After a few minutes, the lovebirds came into the tent to discover me, in loaf position, on the basket of eggs. Tilly knew there were eggs in there, and started laughing, as I later learned, because she thought I looked like a brooding hen. Yuri, meanwhile, was confused more than anything, and became even more confused due to Tilly’s laughter.
“What’s wrong, have you never seen a loaf in a basket?”
“I’ve seen breadbaskets, I’ve seen cats - well, mostly this cat - in the bread position with their paws and tail tucked under their bodies... but I’m just wondering... where’d the cat come from, and where did the human go?”
Tilly looked at her, then her mouth fell open as she turned to me with amusement shining in her eyes.
“Wait, did you never tell her? In all this time? Tama, really?”
[It slipped my mind]
“For over a month, it slipped your mind?”
[No comment]
This conversation only served to befuddle Yuri further, so I left the basket and shifted to human form.
“Tada... there’s your answer. There is no human, there’s only cat”
“Wait, you’re a cat? A walking, talking, shapeshifting cat? Not a human who learned how to become a cat?”
“If a human can learn how to become a cat, why can’t a cat learn how to become a human?”
“I... oh. You have a point”
“That I do. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some eggs to keep warm”
And with that, I returned to bread my egg basket. Tilly explained the eggs, the snake, and before she finished I fell asleep. When I awoke, it was night time, Yuri was sleeping on Tilly’s chest, and the eggs were plenty warm - maybe even slightly too warm - so I left the basket and... just curled up in the crook of Tilly’s arm, then went back to sleep. 30 hours of sleep per day is a fine goal to have, even if it literally can’t happen.
Now these points of data make a beautiful line
And we're out of beta, we're releasing on time
So I'm glad I got burned; think of all the things we learned
For the people who are still alive
Thanks for the chapters. It was quite a surprise coming back after a couple months without checking and seeing two chapters even if they are shorter. Would it help to use speech to text to avoid using your wrist or is it the other issues that make a bigger impact.
guess this
one of my favorite characters
should be a baby snake?
Per Tama's HORRIBLE naming sense, Snek
Thank you for the chapter.