It was nearing down, Selena racing the wind following the scent she found on Cain.
The first time Cain ran through the forest at night he had to actively avoid monsters, but this time it was different! The mere smell of a black Jaguar’s sweat and blood was enough to keep the weaker monsters at bay, even the stronger ones avoided them as it might be a needless fight.
Of course, they are a tribe that once lived in the forest, so being like that can be problematic. Thankfully it only worked with monsters who had an intelligence lower than 3! A dog would have an intelligence of 4 and a cow 2 for reference.
It didn’t take her long to reach the city walls, Selena didn’t even bother thinking about what was in front of her, she just climbed the wall in one go!
Squatting on top of the wall with Cain dangling on her back, she took a deep breath as the threads of dawn were piercing the sky!
“I can smell it, I can smell it-nya!” She said eagerly, “Master’s mate, I gotta reach her-nya!”
Selena jumped from the wall to the nearest rooftop and started hopping from one building to another like a cat chasing a mouse.
“That’s gotta be it-nya!” Selena has reached a certain window, standing at its frame she stared at the girl sleeping inside.
Sofia who was sleeping didn’t wake to the monster sitting on her window, she was drowning in her dreams.
“Did my nose make a mistake, Master’s mate can’t be this weak-nya! She isn’t waking up even with his blood being this close-nya!” Selena quickly changed her mind, ‘No, humans don’t have strong noses like us, they have different standards-nya!’ She thought.
Selena gently placed Cain on the ground and started shaking Sofia, “Wake up-nya! Master is injured-nya!”
“Naa…another five minutes!” Sofia said half-asleep, This had angered Selena.
“Lazy female-nyaaa!” Selena dragged Sofia from her leg, dropping her from the bed onto the ground.
“Ahh!” That had forced her awake, upon opening her eyes, she saw Selena’s angry and bloodied face.
“Hey you, you’re finally awake-nya!”
Sofia screamed, for a moment she wished this was just a dream. Selena was starting to get annoyed, she unsheathed her claws in Sofia’s face.
“Master is hurt, do something about it! Or do you want me to tear you face-nya!” This was the moment when Sofia finally noticed Cain.
“What happened?” she finally calmed down and tried to access what happened.
As she was checking Cain’s body, Sofia asked Selena for an explanation, albeit she first accused her of being the one who hurt Cain.
I had been captured by the bandits, they managed with this wicked magic, it put me to sleep! Leaving me chained and starving for days just so I won’t run, slowly I reached my limit, almost giving up. But then I smelled their blood filling the air.
Master had entered the room where I was locked, looking at me in the eyes! The bandits usually avoid that because they get scared. I understood their feeling, cause when I looked at Master’s eyes I could feel my insides shivering, I couldn’t understand if it was fear or something else, but I didn’t want to lay my claws on him!
To my surprise, he did free me, but sadly at the time I was starving so I instinctively went for the food, ignoring him! He left with simple words, asking me to run with my life!
After eating, I returned to my senses. I tried to run as he said! The bandits had that mage who could put me to sleep, I will be just a hindrance to Master!
As I was running out, I stopped at the carnage master left, tens of bandits were dead. Between them, I could recognize the mage who I was scared of! Master had already killed him!
‘What I’m doing? I left the tribe looking for a mate, why I’m running away now?’ I could feel my claws and fangs tingling, they were yearning for blood.
We Jaguars are no lions, but still, we want a strong mate. ‘If I ran now, I wouldn’t be able to face him again!’
Following his smell to the deepest part of the cave, I suddenly smelled his blood.
I didn’t think that much after that, just wanted to tear the bandits apart! This happened because I didn’t follow him right away!
‘Stay away from my mate’ Selena proceeded to mauled every single one there.
…
“And with that, let me join the pride-nya!” Selena said, staring directly at the confused Sofia.
“I checked Cain’s body, his wounds are closing, he must have used healing magic and fell asleep due to MP depletion!” Sofia said as she stood up.
“What does that mean?” Selena asked.
“He is just sleeping from exhaustion, he might wake up soon! You stay here and guard him, I will go bring some hot water to clean him up!” Sofia said as she exited the room.
Selena stayed staring at Cain’s sleeping face.
“Master’s name is Cain. The female, what we her name again, Sofia, she ignored my question about the pride-nya!” Selena realized.
It didn’t take long for Sofia to return, she had managed to heat the water quickly thanks to her using [Firebolt] to strengthen the fire.
“Move away, It’s hot!” Sofia said as she brought the big boiling pot.
Sofia brought with her two clean towels, “Here, clean yourself from the blood!” she threw one at Selena as she started cleaning Cain’s body.
It didn’t take her long to finish, both Cain and Selena were cleaned from the blood. Sofia gave Selena a change of clothes, she as well checked Cain’s body for his room key, she eventually found it and gave him a change of clothing as well.
“Aren’t you going to call a healer-nya?” Selena asked with interest, sniffing Cain.
“One, don’t sniff him! second, he has gone through the trouble of going in secret, I can’t just call someone now!” Sofia said, thinking hard about what she should do.
“But will he be okay?” Selena asked, her ears dropping down.
“He will be! As long as his wounds aren’t bleeding it’s alright! He should be waking up soon and there we will talk about how to fully heal his wounds!” Sofia said as she stood up going to the door.
“You stay here and watch him, I will go and prepare breakfast for us!” Sofia said as she left the room. The breakfast was usually downstairs, with Cain being injured it is better to prepare something light for him.
“Nya!” Selena gasped as she realized something. breakfast meant food, food meant prey!
‘I was just guessing but it’s really like lion’s pride! Females have to hunt to prove their worth!’ Selena thought as she felt left behind.
“I will hunt something right away-nay!” Said as she jumped from the window, leaving Cain asleep.
…
“You’re a hard-working girl, waking to cook right after dawn!” Mabel said to Sofia as she saw her in the kitchen.
Sofia just laughed it off, she had to sneak the bloodied water earlier so she was still on edge.
just a few minutes later, as they were still cooking.
“Sofia, got a prey can you cook it-nya?” Sofia heard a familiar voice behind her followed by Mabel’s scream.
Selena was standing on the kitchen window with a dead goose in her mouth, her eyes sparkling as she put the thing down.
“This is the closest prey I found beside humans, I’m going out again-nya!”
“Who is this girl, why is she biting a poor bird?” Mabel asked, questioning what she saw.
“Wait there Selena, this is enough so just sit still!” Sofia called to her before she could leave.
“Mabel, this is Selena an old friend of Cain! Selena this is Mabel, this place owner’s mother!” Sofia tried to introduce them as a way of clearing Mabel’s suspicions.
“So why is she biting a raw bird?” Mabel’s suspension didn’t stop. that sharp old lady.
“Can’t you see her ears and tail? she is a demi-human and this is something some of them do!” Sofia tried to explain the situation as best as she could.
“So she is a cat? those ears look similar!” Mabel wasn’t stupid, she had heard of demi-humans before and she could at least tell that, it still didn’t make sense to her that Selena was biting a bird though.
“I’m no cat-nya, I’m a Jaguar-nya!” both Sofia and Mabel didn’t know what animal was that. Mabel simply put it that Jaguars are demi-humans that bite birds.
“So what brought you here? I’m sure you weren’t registered in the inn yesterday?” Mabel was getting even more suspicious.
“I wanted to join Cain’s pride alongside Sofia-nya!” This was Selena’s response.