By the time they got back to the gate, the carriage had finally entered into the outpost, the Lady and her entourage presumably back inside it. Having seen most of what was actually interesting at this particular outpost, Catnip and Flora just bullied Jacob into going into the supply store before promptly being kicked out by the annoyed shopkeeper. Jacob was not able to see the gargoyle, nor was Frank when he went into the store to buy some extra stuff they had forgotten. It was kinda interesting, and neither Catnip or Flora informed the two about the gargoyle’s presence. They had to keep his people’s secret after all, the council sounded rather ominious. Frank was able to figure out they were up to something, but Flora was always up to something so he kind of didn’t care.
They all ended up getting really shitty hotel rooms to sleep in for the night, with a complementary crappy dinner. They only bought two rooms, Flora and Catnip sharing a bed, while Frank and Jacob shared the other. The next day they were back on the road, both Frank and Jacob having dodged Catnips questions about them sharing a bed and what it might imply. Flora informed them later that she’d been trying to get them together for a while because it would be funny. And also good for them, probably. Catnip approved of this brilliant idea and agreed to help with her diabolical match-making in the future. Of course, Catnip and Flora sharing a bed implied nothing since there was no way Flora would be interested in someone like them.
Catnip had kind of been happy for a good while now, which was odd. Flora was fun to bounce things off of and cuddle, Frank did his job well so everything ran smoothly, and Jacab was just kind of there but in an endearing way. In summary, they were nice people who were willing to spend time around Catnip despite them being who they were. Which was of course the worst person in existence, probably. At least according to their self hatred. The strange dichotomy of being happy but also hating themself bothered them for the next few days of traveling, until they just decided to not think about it, much like how they dealt with all their problems. They had been doing the same with all the gender stuff for like a week and a half now, and while they had yet to correct any of their party on them being not a real girl, they had managed to stick to their guns and use they/them in their inner monologue for a while now.
Catnip continued to ignore their comfort in this body and the absolute joy of having boobs and nothing between their legs, despite how difficult such a task was given the ideal nature of the female body. Truly, men are pretty impressive for not falling victim to immediately wanting to be a girl, honestly if technology ever reached the point where sex could be reassigned easily Catnip was pretty sure like at least half of the population of men would cease to be men at all. They considered that it might be pretty funny if in turn half of the population of women swapped to being men instead, since trans men did exist after all so there must be some people who actually want to be men, but found it hard to fathom. Transmen probably knew something they didn’t about the joy of being a man, Catnip just preferred being a woman regardless. Not that they were trans or anything, because surely they would have known by now. No one discovered they were trans later in life after all, except for like half of all trans people, but Catnip was probably the exception who was actually totally cis. They briefly considered the fact that all this binary talk of gender was stupid and they could very well be nonbinary before once again deciding they were cis.
Eventually, after all this rather boring travel and scary self reflection, they started getting pretty close to the border. Catnip had finally asked Frank what the country they were entering into was called, and also why they were going there. It was called the Verbon Kingdom, and apparently the Lady was being taken to an academy in the country. She was a native of Alvaria, but the whole thing was some sort of diplomatic deal where Noble students were exchanged between countries. It wasn’t entirely clear whether this was a wholesome travel abroad thing or essentially a hostage situation to insure peace between the two countries, but politics sucked and they didn’t want to deal with it. Politics had been getting worse and worse in Catnip's former world lately and it had been honestly hard to have hope, especially after the ban on abortion, the whole thing had just made their already depressing life even worse. The cat girl doubted that the political situation in this even more backwards world was much better, so hopefully they wouldn’t end up too involved in it. Unless their conscience hit them hard and got them to actually do things to fix the world. However, cat girls, especially ones with light brown skin tone like theirs, were probably a minority in this world and misogyny was unlikely to not exist, so they probably were not in the position to make any real change anyway. Though maybe the skintone thing wouldn’t matter since light brown did seem to be the most common type in this part of the world at least, but they wouldn’t bet on it. People would always manage to be racist in some way no matter what, and Catnip was pretty sure groups with similar skin colors on Earth still had ended up having a social hierarchy where lighter skin was considered ‘better’, so it was fairly likely something similar was true here. What a joyous world.
The closer to the border they got the more mountainous the terrain had been getting. By this point, the road they followed twisted and turned through a rocky landscape that gradually increased in elevation as they went along, reminding Catnip of mountainous parts of the western USA. The plants, originally more luscious grasses and trees, gradually became smaller hardy bushes and the occasional pine tree. There was a refreshing air on the wind, and there were occasional showers of cold rains, rains that would be snow instead high up on the mountains. As the escorts, none of them were allowed into the covered carriage to escape the showers, but Flora used her magic to create a small organic umbrella out of plant roots, Catnip squeezing into the space under it with her. Neither Frank or Jacob seemed to care about the rain, used to enduring the elements in their nomadic lifestyles. Flora didn’t really know why Frank and Jacob had apparently never stayed in one place far before the party had ever formed, but she assumed it was something about their respective pasts that they might be running from or something. Entirely valid, both Catnip and Flora respected difficult pasts and didn’t try to ask them about it.
The carriage didn’t seem to have any trouble with going up the slopes however, and they didn’t encounter any monsters or anything. Frank said that this was actually an area of wilderness incredibly rich with powerful creatures, but the countries had invested in wardstones lining the road that scare off most if not all of them. It was a significant expense for an area with so few people and not that many traveling through, and they had a tendency to eventually fail, but apparently there were valuable resources in the mountains that made it worthwhile, mostly various magical ores that were mined near the border town they would be reaching soon. Historically, the mountain range had also acted as an excellent line of defense, preventing any invasions, including those from a quite hostile and expanding empire that bordered both countries on this mountainous side. This part of the range was a decent way south from where the three country borders would meet up, so they were only passing through the one border into Verbon for now.
Normally they would have taken another much easier route into the Verbon Kingdom, Alvaria also bordering Verbon in a much more populated area near the coast, but apparently the Lady had specifically chosen this route for her journey. Catnip asked why, and it turned out it was because the area around the mountains on both sides of the border were well known cheese making regions for some reason, the carriage having visited a cheesery shortly before meeting Catnip. Catnip would question the wiseness of taking a much more dangerous route for the sake of cheese but they did acknowledge that cheese was pretty good. Apparently there was even a unique “alpine cheesery” in the border town where cheese was specially aged in the alpine mountain air, gaining a unique flavor and picking up the wild magic from the area. They would be stopping at the small border town for a few days so Lady Dacre could experience the ‘holy grail of cheese’ as Frank apparently remembered her saying when they were hired for the job. Going over the mountains was also technically a more direct route to the academy, which was somewhat near the range on the Verbon side, but generally taking the long way round was still better and safer. But you know, exotic cheese was totally worth the danger.
The small town nestled into a small pass between two snow capped mountains was a bit imposing due to its stoney walls, but it seemed cute and nice all the same. There wasn’t a line at the gate or anything, not enough people passing through for one to form, a few bored looking guards staring at their carriage in interest as they approached. The inspection of them and their carriage would likely be slightly more thorough this time, as crossing the border meant they had to look for more smuggling and stuff and it was an actual town opposed to an outpost, but it ended up not being so bad at least for Flora and Catnip, who once again entered the town shortly after being searched personally instead of waiting for the whole carriage be allowed in, Jacob following them hesitantly this time and leaving Frank to deal with the Lady and her entourage.
“Is there anything we need to pick up or buy here or anything?” Catnip asked Jacob, as Flora usually didn’t remember these things.
“I uhh, we, we, we need to buy some um, extra clothes. I, I didn’t pack enough for the journey, and I suspect um you guys didn’t either,” He said in a stumbling manner.
“You guys? I’ll have you know we’re strong independent women!” Flora replied, twirling around and looking back at Jacob. Although it was clearly a non serious response, being called a ‘strong independent women’ made Catnip feel things. Speaking of feeling things her skin was much softer and sensitive these days and it was just soooo great and better than before, not that Catnip was actually a girl or anything, men could enjoy having soft skin too. Though it hurt to think of themselves as a man even if they knew that’s what they truly were.
“I uh, uhh, sorry, um, we um girls, should go clothes shopping then is what I mean,” Jacob responded in a bit of panic.
“Yeah, Girls day out! Lets force Catnip into cute outfits, all she ever wears is that stupid robe!” Flora replied enthusiastically! “Wait a minute…”
“I’ll have you know my style is perfectly fine as it is!” Catnip interrupted, wanting to move the conversation past Jacob’s somewhat interesting phrasing so they could perhaps discuss things in private with them later. “We need to think about functionality for adventuring and nothing else!”
“Spoilsport, are you sure you wouldn’t want at least to try on something cute? Imagine, wearing a maid outfit, wouldn’t that be the best?”
“Well uh, I, I wouldn’t dislike it,” they said weakly, Jacob quietly muttering that he wouldn’t mind wearing one either in the background.
“That’s the spirit!” Flora exclaimed. “But um, Jacob, I think I misheard you… not that um, you can’t wear one but - “
“I uhh ummm, sorry,” Jacob muttered. “Um, you did mishear.”
“Uhh okay… whatever you say.”
“Hold up,” Catnip said, filing Jacobs additional trans-sounding comment for the talk later. “Not to ruin your day, but I don’t think a small border town is going to have much in the way of clothes variety. Um, especially not maid outfits.”
“Oh yeah, you’re right. Maybe we can just get some normal outfits instead and add a bit of color by dyeing them with the blood of our enemies or something then” the mage considered, tilting her head slightly.
“Um, th - that seems intense Flora…” Jacob muttered with some concern.
“What’s the point of living without a little fire and intensity! Am I right Catnip?” Flora excitedly exclaimed, turning towards her cat-girl comrade with clear expectation of them agreeing.
“Um probably,” Catnip responded without much energy, since they very much had never led a life of fire and intensity. Instead, they actively clamped down on their thoughts and desires so they weren’t a creep or selfish or something. The cat girl wondered how someone could simply live like Flora did.
“Jeez Catnip and here I thought you were on my side,” Flora replied, tutting.
“Anyway, let's just go buy some backup traveling outfits,” they said hastily, attempting to change the topic and do something else before their personal issues of self hatred and depression were exposed. Catnip had always found it extremely bothersome when others noticed their issues and tried to help when they knew that they didn’t deserve any help.
“You people are no fun today. But whatever, we do need more clean clothes,” Flora sighed out.
And so they wandered around the small town until they found somewhere to buy them.
Its amazing Franks head doesn't explode from migraines. Having to deal with his crazy party members and a cheese noble can't be good for ones blood pressure.
Though it hurt to think of themselves as a man even if they knew that’s what they truly were.
It does yeah.