[Congratulations Simile, you are now a (Bipedal Rashmere Panther - Child{D})]

{Skill: [Nibble: Level 10] has evolved into [Bite: Level 2]}

{Skill: [Southern Rashmeric Language: Level 10] has evolved into [Rasmeric Language: Level 6]}

{Unlocked skill: [Languages: Level 1]}

{Skill: [Stealth(Racial): Level 10] has diverged into Ability: [Hide Prescence(Racial): Level 1] and Skill: [Stealth(Racial): Level 11]}

{Skill: [Running: Level 10] has evolved into [Sprinting: Level 1]}

It was painful, really painful. It was not painful physically, but emotionally, as the feelings I felt I had locked away finally open.

I'm not sure if it was because I had a small head as a kitten, but I never really thought much. Why am I a reincarnator? Why do I just accept things? Why must I be a damn kitten when I was human extremely recently? None of thouse thoughts entered my head, as life was pretty simple, just eat, play and sleep right? The problem runs deeper.

I cannot go home, ever. Well, maybe someday if I'm lucky, but I doubt anyone I know would still be alive at that point. I still had a life on Earth, I hadn't even reached the peak of my career yet, for the better or worse. I haven't met my best friends, or any friends of that matter for the past 3 years, the most social interaction I've had is with a bunch of animals, while being an animal myself.

It seems my siblings haven't awoken, understandably as they didn't dream nightmares themselves. My parents are already here... If I can really call them that. They barely take care of me at all, my mother seems to do it out of duty and my father does it completely reluctantly.

"Wuuuh" I start crying... like a toddler, which is what I am now I guess, I should have expected it, but I am too dazed to even consider small things right now. When I do realize what I am doing, I immediately stop wailing of course, as I am a grown man... woman. I am no longer myself.

I lost my career, my life, my humanity, my home, my gender and my only talent; music. It feels like my head was finally hit by a hammer as I really can't stop myself from realizing how bad this is. I am nothing now, I am just a cat-toddler thing. Why am I here? Why did I die; well, I know that, but why. Why must I of all people lose everything, especially for such a redundant cause like tripping on a wire.

While in theory, being reincarnated as a cat doesn't seem all that bad... until you compare it to being human. I shit in a litterbox, I sleep for 16 hours in a day, I can't cry...

I only realize it now, but I can actually cry in this body now, which is honestly a pain as all it does is wet my fur. Compared to when I could just use my hand, not this hand-paw thing I have now, I try to wipe the tears away, but now they just stick and leave an obvious impression on my fur.

I try to call for my mother but then I realize I haven't really learned the word for "mom" yet, so I'll just do the next best thing.

"Mithrei" I tried to say Mislei, but I guess I haven't gotten used to this body yet. She and my dad have just been looking at me for the past few minutes but I guess me trying to speak my mother's name surprised her. "Yes Simile?" she responded. I was going ask her something; but I honestly forgot, so I just stand up, and try to walk over to her, only to fail spectacularly, falling face flat on the ground.

Why can't I walk? Despite not having done so for 3 years being the reason, which shouldn't be too big a problem. The main perpertrator occured to me, which reveals itself when I look at my behind. I have a tail still. I honestly should have noticed this sooner with my parents as an example, but I felt like crying again as the only thing that allowed me to even have a semblance of humanity was just taken from me. But it'd be pretty pathetic to do so in front of my parents, who are now laughing at my failure.

"Simile, let me help you," My dad whispers to not wake up my siblings, for me to only now realize that I was not the only one to evolve. Snapping out of my tiredness, as my dad picks me up by my paws... I'm not sure if I should call them hands or not, as they are far too thick and unversatile to call them that. I look at my siblings behind me in the bed.

They look like cats. Honestly very little has changed, only their arms have moved to their shoulders, legs have moved a bit farther back, and the tail sticks out of the wall of the lower back, rather than at the butt. Honestly, they look like the cats in Puss in Boots, and subsequently I do too.

My parents don't seem very excited, I guess it may have worn off a while ago, but this is something I should have expected from them, seeing how generally unemotional they act. At least they are kind, while rich; they tend not to be too overtly snobby.

Honestly, maybe I should start looking at the bright side. Knowing absolutely that I've been intellectually challenged for the past 3 years is a shock, sure, but it's not like I didn't have an intuition of that being the case before. What I should truly focus on is that I am atleast a step closer to human.

"Mithlei, Amir, I can thpeak now" I say to my parents, barely.

"Yes you can Simile, and surprisingly well too." My mother answers, this time with a smile.

"And walk on two legth" I continue, holding my dad's arms as support while I try to walk. I honestly can't help but smile at the fact that I can actually stand on two legs now, instead of the stretch-stand I did as a kitten. The tail will probably be a problem, as it accounts for like half my balance, yet I am not used to having one in a form like this, ever.

"Thank you," I tell my dad, not slurring my words this time.

"When did you learn to talk Simile?" He questions.

Whoops, I may have messed up, I shouldn't be able to talk, should I? Well now I'm not really sure what I should do, because it was pretty easy to act dumb when I was literally stupid; well, I might still be, considering I'm still 3 years old, or 2 and a half in this world's terms. Do I keep up the act, or do the more dangerous option? I honestly would rather the latter, as thankfully my parents are not very emotional types. Are they emotional at all? Well, yeah, they are. I may have asked a stupid question, but they shouldn't be too distraught.

"I was re-" A fear grips my heart.

[Do not speak, you will be hunted.] The system cut me off.

"I jutht know." I finish my death sentence.

What in the fuck was that?!?

It wasn't The Tool that told me to shut up, but the system. Nevermind the fact that it doesn't allow me to explain my existence, did it really have to give me a heart attack? I guess I should have expected that I couldn't speak about this, but to be hunted for it aswell? By whom?

"Huh," My dad replies unconvinced.

"When will they wake up?" I point towards my siblings, my dad still supporting me on two legs, walking being far more difficult than I thought.

"After about 4 hours, you should go back to sleep Simile." My mother answers.

It seems my dad likes helping me walk, but he reluctantly seems to agree with mom, letting me walk back to the bed with him.

Honestly, I don't feel like sleeping with the thoughts on my mind, but it's honestly better to listen to my parents, and it's not like it's not easy to fall asleep as a cat in the first place.

 

-----

 

"Say mama" My mother tells Emilis, finally letting me know the word "mom" or atleast a version of it.

Right now, my parents are essentially going through speech therapy with my siblings; Emilis and Ismile. This experience made me realize something I really regret not realizing sooner. My siblings are human too. Wait no, not human, intelligent too. I can't blame myself from thinking that way, considering the only thing I could identify them by was their smell, but truly seeing the fact that I have cats as siblings seems to only make myself feel more inhuman.

"Mama!" Emilis replies with a shout. It's honestly kind of cute, but feels really uncanny, seeing what still looks quite like a cat, atleast compared to my parents, speak.

I learned that despite being in this form, I can still walk quadrupedally, though when I asked my parents about it, they told me that I will lose that ability when I evolve later. So, when I am not being supported by anyone, I am forced to still walk like a cat I guess.

"Say papa" My dad tells Ismile, for some reason they both chose one child instead of teaching them together, while they are leaving me alone in the meantime since I can already speak. I've learned that my siblings don't only have problems speaking, but that they never really learned the language much, thanks to the fact that they couldn't speak at all for 3 years. I always kind of assumed that they were as good as me, as they tended to be better when we were younger, but it is apparently rare to evolve the southern rashmeric language during the first evolution.

I asked my parents about skill evolutions, and my dad told me that I should have evolved [Observe] and [Jumping] but it wasn't too important. One good thing to come out of my skills was the ability [Hide Prescence] which my siblings didn't manage to get, as my parents failed to teach them how to hide properly, when they hadn't even learned object permanence yet.

Speaking of evolutions, I had gained 3 new evolutions when I reached level 30. They were honestly useless, all variants of the (Rashmere Panther - Young adult{D}) A Scholarly, A Warrior, and Kleptoparasitic, the last one was kind of offensive, as I had only stolen once, yet the system deemed me the same as a racoon. All of the evolutions are still D rank, but they give bonuses in their specialty and overall. I don't have to worry about that though, as since I'm a bipedal panther, I can now gain classes which correspond to all of those options later in life.

Well, who really cares? Atleast I don't have to shit in a litterbox for the rest of my life, and that's good enough at this point.

 

-----

 

Whether it's a blessing or a curse, the "celebration" is happening in 5 days. The same one I've been going to every year, is apparently a revealing of kittens that have evolved into bipedal forms. It'd be a blessing because we don't have to wait as long, but a curse because my siblings are totally not ready for it.

It's been about 24 hours since I evolved, and I sill cannot stand properly, but my poor siblings can't even speak yet, and I doubt they'll be able to on the day of celebration. So, my parents have chosen to tutor us as much as they can to "look" presentable, rather than actually being so. That being; walking on our own, bowing on our own, not being nervous in front of crowds, wearing clothes and getting a haircut, and speaking a very basic and short script.

The third being the most important; as they brought the [M̶̟͋ą̴͌g̴͙̏e̵͍͊] to help with that, by hypnotizing us. I don't know what the hell he did, but he made me see myself on a stage in front of a bunch of unknown pathers which I could not smell, tasking me to read my script. The illusion was not perfect, the most glaring flaw being the fact that not being able to smell the fake people made me extremely anxious for some reason.

I guess it contributed to the fact that I'd be speaking to strangers, but I am not a person that's not used to speaking to people, in this case being bipedal cats. Honestly, it feels like nothing this [M̶̟͋ą̴͌g̴͙̏e̵͍͊] does is done competently, even if supernaturally. Only useful thing being his use of electricity without light switches, but for all I know he could just be using a scanner.

"I can't smell them and it's making me nervous." I tell the [M̶̟͋ą̴͌g̴͙̏e̵͍͊].

"I'm sorry, but I can't fix that Lady Simile." He answers uncaringly. "Try practicing anyways, and just ignore the crowd."

"Fine." I answer. "Hello, My name ith Thimile Garner, and I thank you for inviting me to thith thelebrathion."

That's it. That's the entire script, and I'm likely going to continue practicing this for hours because I can't pronounce my s' outside my head, and I have a weird speech pattern after living as a human for more than 30 years.

This is going to be a long couple of days.

 

-----

 

"Listen, after saying your speech you shall wait for the [Royal Analyst] to finish and the host to usher you away from the stage, alright?" My dad tells us.

"""Yes""" We answer in unison.

Currently we have just arrived in our carriage at the [Marquis's] mansion and our dad is prepping us on how to act in case any of us have forgotten. I am listening attently- just kidding, I already know all this. I am sitting in a fine golden dress and uncomfortable shoes, and yes, I said dress. I feel incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of wearing a dress for the first time in my lives, but there's not much I can do about it, since in everyone's eyes I am now a girl.

The celebration starts immediately, where each child is revealed before anyone has a chance to glance at them at first. Which is kind of disappointing, as that means we'll have to be hidden in blankets still, though atleast we can walk this time.

We walk towards the right hand back of the estate and enter towards the back of the audience chamber, where a mess of smells and sounds can be sensed. I had thought that I had gotten used to the fact that I was a cat, but my extremely keen senses tend to catch me off guard, especially in situations like this. I am starting to feel like I may not be as comfortable to be on stage as I initially thought myself to be.

We finally get to take the blanket off our heads and we are greeted with a backstage dressing room filled with about a dozen children, along with parents and servants. All the children are being tended at seperate mirrors by maids, and I assume that we'll be next.

"Amir Garner and family, Welcome!" A well dressed man greets us along with the scowling woman whom I recognized as Sebastian's mother.

"Thank you for the welcome and invitation, [Marquis] Stefan, and [Marquise] Gertrude." My father replies in etiquette.

"It's great to have you enjoy this Celebration with your mostly beautiful children! Please, I shan't trouble you longer, you can find yourself a seat." He ends by pointing towards the corridor of mirrors and tables while uncomfortably glancing at me.

We walk past them and head towards one of the stations where I, Ismile and Emilis get treated to all sorts of touching up on our looks that we had prepared long beforehand. Despite the similar clothing, it helps that being a cat discounts the feeling of being dressed up as a woman. I prefer to keep my identity crisis suppressed when possible.

About 10 minutes later we move away from the stations to the door to the stage. We'll be entering it when called, arriving one at a time instead of as a collective due to the limits of the [Royal Analyst] and the general audience's experience.

To my right stands a boy with a familiar scent but not a recognizable face. The boy is Sebastian of course, and it seems he is actively avoiding me for obvious reasons. I want to apologize; but this is not the right time nor place, as right now the host - the [Marquis] - is announcing the start of the Celebration.