Chapter Four - Kitty Cat
Crossover: Stray Cat Strut by RavensDagger

***

“This both sounds and looks like a fantastically terrible idea,” Daphne judged judgmentally.

Dreamer liked Daphne. The noblewoman was generous with her food, and she loved Abigail, which was a mark in her favour. Abigail loved and trusted her too. Other than Dreamer, Daphne was the only person Abigail ever hugged, and sometimes Dreamer overhead Daphne and Abigail whispering things about marriage and stuff like that before they’d both stop because they had that thing where their faces were too red for them to talk.

Still, Daphne could be a big old kill joy sometimes.

“It’s just a summoning portal to some other time and place,” Dreamer said. “We need someone to do renovation stuff, and this is less expensive.”

Abigail and Daphne had gotten an estimate on how much it would cost to replace all of the furniture in the cafe, and it was a big number. It was almost like Daphne didn’t understand how many pretty dresses and food they could buy with that money, instead of buying stuff like chairs.

No one ate chairs, not even Dreamer. People put their butts on those!

“It’s not going to, ah, explode or anything, right?” Abigail asked.

They were in the little yard at the back of the cafe. Dreamer thought that the best place to summon someone would be inside, but Daphne put her foot down and said that they’d summon people outside, not in.

It didn’t change much for Dreamer.

“It’s fine,” Dreamer said. “I’ve done this one time before.”

She had her circle laid out before her, same as last time. The contents of the magic circle were different, of course. This time she needed someone who was good with furniture and stuff like that. So in one corner they had a whole desk from Daphne’s house that Dreamer had exploded once. On the other corner, they had some torn clothes that had been serving as the curtains in the kitchen.

She didn’t know what else to add, so she tossed in a hammer to one side, because she wanted someone like that. And she placed a crossbow she’d found in the arms of some city guard on patrol in the other corner. The circle was on a patch of grass, with a few tufts of feral cat hair left here and there, but Dreamer figured that was okay.

“Right, I’m ready to do this,” Dreamer said.

“You are aware that none of that counts as a reagent, right?” Daphne asked Abigail. “With the possible exception of that cat hair.”

“Let’s give Dreamer a chance,” Abigail said. “If it doesn’t work, then we’ll just hire a carpenter like you said. Okay?”

“Fine, fine,” Daphne muttered. “Why is it so easy for you to convince me to do such foolhardy things?”

Abigail giggled and bumped her shoulder against Daphne’s.

Dreamer refocused on her magic circle. Summoning was a bunch easier than unsummoning, and even that wasn’t too hard. She still had to focus.

Abigail had told her that some people pinched their tongue when they focused, so Dreamer got two tentacles next to her mouth, stuck her tongue out, and pinched it.

It didn’t help much, but she managed to summon anyway.

There was a big poof, and lots of dust and smoke filled the yard. Dreamer guessed that some stuff from the void between places had come along and it didn’t like the stuff this planet was made of, so it poofed on contact.

“What the hell?” someone in the smoke asked. They coughed, and Dreamer saw a strange metal hand waving around to dispel the smoke. “Myalis, what’s going on?”

Dreamer grabbed the smoke and tossed it aside, leaving her summon standing in the middle of the courtyard.

It was a girl! A human girl at that. She had pale skin and brown hair with pink bits in it. Dreamer didn’t know that was an option for humans, but then again, her last summon had bunny ears and a tail so she decided not to judge right away. Then Dreamer noticed the cat ears on the girl’s head. Weird.

The girl blinked at them, one eye looking all pink and strange, with a vertical slit in its middle. It sat on the side of her face that was covered in old burn scars.

“Uh,” she said. “So, what’s the likelihood I’m tripping balls next to a renfaire?”

“Ah, hello!” Abigail said. She bowed, hands clasped before her. “I’m... oh, I should have thought of this before. My name’s Abigail, this is Daphne, and this is Dreamer, and, um, hello.”

The girl waved one hand, the meaty one. “Hey,” she said. “Care to explain? Because I was just getting home and I had plans that didn’t involve... where the hell am I?”

“You’re behind the cafe,” Dreamer said with a gesture towards the cafe in question.

“Thanks pipsqueak,” the girl said.

“No, I’m Dreamer,” Dreamer corrected her. She eyed the girl more carefully. “What’s the person living in your head?” There were a lot of little waves and beams lancing out from the girl’s head, but not from her meat-head.

One of the girl’s eyebrows rose. She casually reached a hand into her long coat. “That’s Myalis. My AI. I’m a samurai... which doesn’t seem to ring any bells. Myalis?”

The girl frowned, then both of her eyebrows rose.

“We’re not on Earth?” she asked.

“We’re standing on grass,” Dreamer said. This girl was a bit dumb.

“I meant my home planet.” She shook her head. “You guys look human enough. So I didn’t get kidnapped by giant plant monsters, that’s cool. Can you tell me what’s going on or will I have to find out the hard way. Hard for you guys, not me.”

“We’re really sorry,” Abigail said. “I... this is my fault. I should have considered things from the summoned person’s perspective. I’m truly sorry.”

“Uh huh,” the girl said.

Daphne stepped up. “We, or rather Dreamer here, summoned someone who could help us with renovations. Might we have your name, by the way?”

“I’m Cat, Stray Cat,” the girl whose name was cat but who wasn’t a cat said. She did have cat ears though, and a tail was moving under her coat.

Dreamer wondered what it was about her summoning that kept grabbing people with animal bits.

Or maybe it was more of a problem with the mortals who like sticking animal bits onto themselves.

She decided that must be it. “So, can you help us renovate?” she asked.

***