The experience of traveling with Flora and crew was… interesting to say the least. They walked most of the day, seemingly not in a particular hurry, and it all felt very typical adventuring party-y. That is, the part of adventuring that actually is quite boring and usually skipped in things like DND and games. Reality tragically wasn’t kind enough to let them skip the tediousness of the adventuring experience. The nobles in the carriage stayed in it the entire time, Frank checking on them occasionally. They did encounter a few monsters, mostly goblin like creatures which hopefully weren’t sapient, which the group swiftly took care of, but other than that the day passed without issue. Catnip did manage to throw a rock at one of the goblinoid creatures, surprisingly killing it and gaining her the Throwing lvl 1/150 [Rank 0] skill, reassuring themself again that the creatures probably weren’t innocent sapient lives they were taking in ignorance. Catnip couldn’t process it if they really were - couldn’t forgive themself that they had thoughtlessly just followed the status quo and made assumptions about fantasy worlds instead of actually trying to be open minded and giving the potentially living, thinking, breathing, creatures the chance they deserved. How could they continue with their existence if they really did such a thing, when they couldn’t even rightfully end it for such a sin due to their own undying nature? Catnip knew they couldn’t, so simply pretending the thought process never happened was their solution for now, seeing the creatures as the RPG monsters they seemed like.
They didn’t level or anything once again from the experience, prompting Catnip to ask Flora if you needed a class to level. Turns out you did, although experience gained before you had a class would stack for whenever you got one apparently. Flora was extremely confused by how someone Catnip’s age could be without a class, but quickly moved on as she tended to do with most topics.
Flora was a good conversationalist. Her constant talking might be annoying to some, but Catnip was glad for it. They’d have taken any form of social interaction rather than once again fall into the state of loneliness and isolation Richard had, but Flora really was just a cool gal to be around. As the day had passed the reality of their situation sunk in more and more, including the fact that this may not be a dream after all, Flora being incredibly helpful for distracting from reality. She did ask a lot of weird questions like “what’s it like to bleed out” and “Do you think my plants would grow better with blood” but this was a fantasy world. Yes, she had some rather morbid fascinations, but fantasy worlds did tend to be quite violent. The plants Flora mentioned were referring to her method of attack, she was some sort of druid or plant witch who danced around and created vines and all that to attack. It was kind of cool and quite effective, though Catnip got the sense that despite Flora’s considerable combat ability, she had almost no actual experience with adventuring. Catnip did ask if she started learning plant based magic in reference to her name, but apparently it was a coincidence. She was however able to use her magic to produce some actual Catnip when they asked, which proved to be a somewhat bad idea as they didn’t really remember the next 10 minutes or so after being exposed to it. Hopefully they didn’t do anything embarrassing while essentially drunk and or high on catnip. Flora had said nothing on what happened, only giggling with mirth while looking upon them with strangely soft eyes.
Before long they were setting up camp that night, sitting around a nice little fire with a big bowl of ration stew with a side of hardtack to share. They still didn’t end up seeing whoever the Lady was, instead a man in a butler outfit exited the carriage and grabbed several bowls of food, taking them back into the carriage for their lady. Catnip wondered how comfortable it really was in a small covered carriage like that, staying there all day, but perhaps there was space expansion or something going on, or maybe noble pillows and blankets were just that good.
They silently pushed through the mediocre meal for a while, all staring at the fire.
“So,” Frank finally said, “We didn’t really get a chance to talk today, or introduce ourselves. I’m Frank, our melee fighter, that’s Jacob, our rogue, and you clearly already know Flora, our mage. To be honest none of us have known each other for long either.”
“Yeah,” commented Flora, “Frank and Jacob were just kind of passing through my home town a week or two ago and I needed a group to travel with. They seemed nice enough for a bit of adventuring, although this is our first job.”
Jacob nodded in affirmation, looking to Frank to continue the conversation.
“Yeah, me and Jacob have been traveling together for like a month or so. Neither of us has ever really stayed in one place and we both needed someone to watch our backs during our jobs,” he said, shifting a bit. “I guess what I’m saying is if you need a group to travel with, you’re welcome to join us. We need more people for our party and you seem okay I guess.”
Catnip considered this for a second. That did seem to be a fairly logical course of action, having an adventuring party or something. That was fantasy adventure 101! They seemed a bit naive, randomly picking up someone bleeding on the side of the road and immediately inviting them to join their group despite knowing nothing about them, but naivety was cool. It meant Catnip could make some friends that trusted them rather quickly, and they hadn’t had actual friends in a long time, making it a very tempting offer. They realized that their rather unique Undying skill might be something that it would be dangerous for others to know about, being the key to immortality and all, and it would probably come up eventually if Catnip was going to be traveling with them, but whatever. They could cross that bridge when it came to it, which was hopefully not soon since Catnip didn’t really want to experience dying again any time soon. After that last death from trying to land on their feet like a cat recklessly, they had decided to be much more careful. Imitating the saying about cats and landing on their feet had seemed like a fun idea at the time, but the experience had ended up being anything but.
“Sure, sounds good” they responded finally.
“Alright then. Though if we are going to work together, we do need to know what you can actually do,” Frank sighed. It was interesting that he didn’t just identify them. Catnip themself had been holding off on doing so in case it might be perceived as rude to identify people without permission, perhaps they had been right to do so.
“Catnip doesn’t have a class,” Flora giggled, “She’s cool though, we can probably figure something out.”
“Yeah to be honest I don’t even know how classes work.”
“She’s quite a confusing person, I have no clue how she was never taught all this stuff” Flora supplied.
“Alright, whatever, we’ll figure it out I guess. We all split our pay for each job equally, and as long as you pull your weight, you’ll get your pay too. Everyone good with that?” Frank asked
“Ye,” Flora said while nodding, turning to Jacob who hesitantly said “Um, yeah, um sure,” and nodded several times.
“Cool. Righto,” he said, and rubbed his hands together. “ I know we haven’t really actually talked about ourselves at all yet, or even asked where you came from, but I think we’re all pretty tired and I’m about ready for sleep. Flora, you take the first watch. Wake me up at some point.”
“Oh, can Catnip take watch with me! Showing her the ropes or something? Pretty please?” Flora interjected
“Sure, as long as she agrees.”
Catnip nodded, still not entirely tired despite the length of the day. They needed some time sitting around thinking about things and themself, maybe a bit of chill chatter over the fire with Flora would be good. Catnip realized they’d never corrected any of the group on using she/her for them, but after actually correcting them felt a little too painful to bring up. Catnip themself knew they weren’t a real girl, but others couldn’t really, and they really quite enjoyed being seen as a girl for some reason.
Jacob wandered off, setting up the tent with his pro rogue skills or something, Frank joining him in the tent soon after for the night. That left Catnip and Flora alone on watch, Flora surprisingly having been silent for a while now while the others went to sleep. It seemed her energy levels had finally started dropping after being rather hyper all day. For a while, they sat there in comfortable silence, only interrupted by the crackling of the fire. Until Flora migrated towards Catnip at some point without their notice, sleepily tilting to the side until she was leaning against the catgirl keeping watch beside her. They stiffened, the contact almost alien, and tried not to freak out. This was far more intimate human contact than Catnip had ever had in their entire life and previous life after all. Soon though Catnip relaxed and found themself leaning back into the sleepy druid, finding it kind of nice. It was strange how the simple human contact affected them, made them feel a tad more at peace. Catnip had never thought they were a particularly physical person, always too busy fearing that any sort of contact with someone like them would make others uncomfortable, but apparently there was something to it.
“It’s good to have another girl in the group,” Flora mumbled after a while, “I’m sorry if I’ve come across as a bit much, but I’m happy to have you here.”
“Hmmm, I’m not really - “ Catnip started, but hesitated to finish the sentence with ‘a girl’ as they had intended, as they were still quite enjoying the treatment of being seen as all girl. “ - um, bothered by your talkativeness. It’s fine.” Nice save!
“Hmm… that’s good. I wouldn’t want to scare you off,” she softly replied, “I think I might have underestimated this whole adventuring business.”
“Really? You seem plenty strong to me, and confident in yourself,” Catnip murmured, “You’re certainly more ready for adventuring than I am.”
“Yeah, I guess, but I think I’m starting to realize that I’ve really left my home behind for the first time, y’know?” She sighed. “I may seem confident and full of energy, which I don’t deny I am, but…”
“... This is the first time I’ve really left my home as well,” Catnip said, leaning a little bit more against Flora. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back either, and I’m not sure how to feel.”
“... Yeah. It’s weird, I never liked my hometown much. It always was a bit boring, and there’s nothing there left for me now. But… I can’t help but miss it all the same,” Flora continued.
“Damn you’re being really relatable right now.”
“Thanks I guess…” she said and drifted off into silence for a moment. “ So um, what do you want to talk about? I get the sense you don’t particularly want to discuss where you come from or your past. Which, well, I don’t really want to share too much about my previous life at home either, so I understand.”
Catnip actually did sort of want to talk about their past, but at the same time they didn’t. None of it would make much sense to a native of this world, and their Undying nature was something they probably shouldn’t talk about for now either. Opening up about their past was something they felt could be really helpful for them at least eventually, in order for them to process their emotions and failures in their previous life, but they just weren’t ready for it. They did want to continue chatting with Flora though, so they searched for something to talk about for a bit in silence. For a second they thought about asking about Flora’s strange morbid obsession with blood, but decided against it partially because they didn’t really want to know and partially because it might be a thing due to that past that Flora didn’t want to have to share. A strange focus on blood and morbid things seemed like something that didn’t just appear on its own, and may even be some form of coping mechanism.
“So um… Do you know if it’s taboo for people to scratch cat girl ears or something?” they eventually said, “Cause honestly I want to try having someone scratch my ears.”
“Shouldn’t you know that? Honestly I’ve never seen any other species besides humans until you and there wasn’t exactly a lot of information to study on the world in my village,” Flora replied with a questioning glance.
“Hmm… you’re right I don’t want to talk about my past for now, but just know that I basically know nothing about anything. I’ve never met another cat girl or beastkin or whatever they’re called here.” They wondered if they were sharing a bit too much. It was pretty suspicious for someone to have literally no clue about the world.
“Huh. Well, I dunno if it’s taboo or not, but is the offer for scratching your ears still open? I want to know what the fluff feels like.” Catnip nodded in response, and Flora wasted no time getting to scratching her ears and petting her head occasionally. It felt… nice. They were pretty sure they started purring at some point, and they sort of nuzzled into Flora’s side a bit more. She was a weird person, sure, but this was still the most actual human interaction and conversation Catnip had had since practically the start of Covid, so they didn’t really care about Flora’s quirks. God knows Catnip had enough personality quirks themself. Ultimately they spent the rest of their watch that way, kind of snuggled together while Flora scratched Catnips’ ears or Catnip pet Flora’s head, occasionally discussing inane things. Both of them almost fell asleep on each other, only barely remembering to wake up Frank when his shift came. They didn’t bother not snuggling together when they went to sleep in the tent, it seemed a waste to sleep separately at that point.
___
When they awoke, or well, when Flora did, Catnip having achieved a sort of meditative snuggle state over the night due to being unable to sleep, Jacob was looking hesitantly at them from the other side of the tent, seeming like he wanted to say something. They nodded and snuggled back up against Flora.
“Um… Breakfast is ready and umm… uhhh -”
“Spit it out already” Flora muttered, still nice and warm under the blanket she shared with Catnip.
“Uhh… you guys, um, you guys got really close already, huh?” he finally said, scratching his head awkwardly.
“Yeah I guess,” Flora muttered again, “Now let us sleep for a bit longer.”
“What about breakfast?” Catnip asked
“Our breakfast is always pretty bland and boring anyway, I don’t care if the oatmeal or whatever cools down a bit,” she explained
“Oh. Okay,” Catnip replied, agreeing with Flora’s analysis of the breakfast situation and deciding to remain nice and toasty under the blanket.
“Uhh… Okay. I guess, um you guys, can come eat later,” Jacob said, leaving the tent.
By the time both Catnip and Flora were actually ready to get up, the oatmeal did turn out to be extraordinarily cold, but neither of them really cared and they used eating breakfast as an excuse to not help out on cleaning up the camp. Catnip briefly felt guilty about this, similarly to how they frequently felt guilty about not cleaning their room, but their laziness ultimately won out. They still felt guilty about it though, adding to their ever expanding stash of self hatred that bubbled just beneath their surface.
It was a brand new day and Catnip was feeling pretty good about things, or as good as they really could be given the situation. Yesterday had been wild, but they felt like in the span of one day they had somehow managed to establish themself a bit in this world, and achieved human interaction that was practically greater than the sum of all of theirs in their previous life. Well, not really, but it was fun to exaggerate things. Surely they could just follow this adventuring party around for a while and everything would work out. Just like how the whole possibility of monsters being sapient dilemma would work out, with Catnip somehow magically discovering that their assumptions had been right and feeling less guilt over the situation. Hopefully.
The cuddles and conversation with Flora were a major bonus.
Can Catnip sleep? I thought the undying skill said that she doesn't sleep and can't lose consciousness.
I've been enjoying the story so far! :)
The power of cuddles defeated insomnia. Actually though I think that if Catnip's relaxed enough they can achieve something close to sleep, sort of like meditation, even if they're still somewhat aware and conscious. That's what they did this time.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww