Usually, it takes years of living with people to notice their habits. Cain only needed a few encounters to realize that not all Jaguar people say nya. It was only Selena, which was a bit weird.
At first, when he heard her say nya, he thought about how he never knew that Jaguars meow. However, quickly shook the thought as he remembered the cheetahs. Those things chirp like birds so he might have learned something wrong about black jaguars. Trusting a live example (Selena) was better than his knowledge after all.
That was until now that he realized it. Other black jaguars talk like normal people. They do not meow. The only difference is that their voice is a bit deep and has a growl mixed in. Probably due to the weird anatomy of their jaw, throat, and neck. They can open their jaws wide enough to fit a human neck after all.
“So…Do you mind telling me why are you adding nya?” Cain asked as he relaxed in the bath with Selena. She sat close to him. This was the first time they bathed alone.
“It will be a long story…-nya.” Replied Selena, as she got closer to him.
Cain hugged her from the side, “We have the time, and I’m up for a long story.” His hand trailed up her waist.
“It happened about a week after I left home…” She started.
Selena was happily treading the forest looking for a mate. Her first hope was to find a strong regular jaguar, maybe a tiger. She wanted someone that looked more like her. That was because the Jaguar’s males had jaguar-like heads due to the strong beast blood they have. Other beast people did not suffer from this.
She walked and hunted on her way, ate, and slept in the trees. The wild nature of the beast land was something she liked more than staying in her village.
That was right; they were in the beast land. An untamed wild land where beastmen can live how they like. It was located at the border of the Ruris kingdom and was ruled by the might forest king.
The forest king had a few rules. The villages should not fight among each other. Do not disturb others’ hunting grounds. Do not destroy the ecosystem of the forest. Other than you can live, as you like, you do not have to pay taxes or care about anything else. It was a forest, and it belonged to everyone.
That meant he welcomed everyone in his domain. As long as they do not destroy the forest.
On her journey, she met a caravan of traveling merchants they were cat people. The moment they spotted her, they stopped the caravan and approached her with weary steps.
A Woman with brown and blond hair, blue eyes, and a thin build. A cat-woman took the lead.
“Madam. My name is Rahana, a merchant. I hope we haven’t treaded on your hunting ground-nya.” It was rare to see a black Jaguar for how rare they were. The merchants didn’t prepare how to deal with them.
“Don’t mind me, I’m just traveling,” Selena replied from the treetop where she was resting.
Rahana’s eyes glittered, a lone black Jaguar…” Would you mind coming with us? We have wares and we need a guard-nya.” It was known they are extremely strong and effective hunters. Rahana was hoping to hire her as a permanent guard to her caravan.
“Where are you heading?” Selena asked, she has been traveling alone for a couple of days and this was the first time she met someone.
Selena was thinking that if the caravan stopped at a tigermen village she might be able to find a mate.
“We’re heading toward the Ruris kingdom-nya. They are good to do business with.” Rahana said with a happy face, her eyes glittered thinking about the gold she could make.
“Why not? It might be a good thing to leave the beast land for a while.” Selena jumped from the tree.
From that day, she traveled with them for a while. Killing any small monster that approached the caravan so she was able to level up a bit. Selena spent her off time with Rahana. That cat woman was interested in the black jaguars and wanted to learn more about them. What they like, and what products they might need. Selena suggested many things from leather, clothes, mortar, medical herbs, and some weapons and magic items were needed.
Selena also told Rahana that she was looking for a mate.
“Won’t anyone in our caravan do-nya?” Rahana said, trying to find a reason for Selena to stay longer.
“They are weak, I looking for a strong hunter,” Selena replied. It was true that Cat people were just humans with cat features. They lacked all the strength wild cats have.
As the conversation dragged longer, Rahana suggested something.
“Listen, I heard some have a thing for our Nya-nya!” Said Rahana with excited eyes.
“What do you mean?” Selena asked with a confused look.
“We cat people are popular among all races, be it humans, beast-men, or elves. Most of them said that our Nya is a cute part they adore, how about you try that-nya?”
“Are you serious?” Said Selena. She thought it was ridiculous, how could such a thing have a charm?
“Trust me; try it at our next stop if you found someone suitable-nya!” Rahana said as she stood up. They were almost at their next stop.
After trying it out a bit, Selena found that it was actually effective. With her being brawnier than the other cat people, she was even more attractive to beast people.
From that day, Selena started adding nya in all her speech. Since it was effective.
In their travel, they passed by the lions’ tribe where she noticed their large pride. The strongest male always had more than ten lionesses around them.
Selena asked some of the lionesses about their relationship and they all said one thing. “A strong male is always a good thing, an easy way to determine one is by how many females are with him.”
To Selena’s bad luck, lions were prideful creatures and only took lionesses as mates.
“Don’t be sad, you learned some important things. One day you will find your perfect mate!” Said Rahana with a smile. “Our next stop is a human settlement called Furberg, it’s a long way ahead so get ready for some work!”
They embarked on their journey.
After a few days, it was noon. CRACK! A tree crumbled blocking their way. They were supposed to reach Furberg the next day.
“What is this-nya? A bad luck-nya?” Rahana yelled. It was strange for a tree to fall from nowhere.
“Be careful, we’re surrounded!” Selena yelled as she jumped from her seat.
“Hoy, hoy, better not resist. We only want your ware and the good-looking women.” A man walked from the bushes. He was wearing a brown gambeson armor and carrying a long sword. His hair was black and had a long scar on his ugly face.
“ROAR!” They were clearly bandits. Selena didn’t wait and bit the man’s face off immediately. Her claws mauled his neck before she retreated to let him bleed to death.
The bandits didn’t expect to have their man killed on the spot. Around forty of them appeared surrounding the caravan.
“We’re not going down without a fight. Men draw your blades-nya!” Rahana yelled to the other guards.
The battle started and the swords clashed. In melee combat, the cat people had the advantage with their agility. Yet they quickly started to fall when the bandits pulled their crossbows and started shooting them down.
“ROAR!” Selena was the only one giving the bandits a bad time. She dodged all of their arrows and bolts, mauled their faces, and didn’t seem to get exhausted at all.
“NYA!” Rahana growled as she pulled her dagger, she wasn’t a fighter but she needed to help. The man guarding her had just been killed so she needed to defend herself.
Taking a step forward, she swung her dagger at the bandit ahead of her.
“Whoa! Almost got me!” The bandit laughed at her feeble moves and grabbed her wrist. “Let me go-nya!” She cried. She felt as if her wrist was about to snap in his hand.
“Fine, go!” He kicked her in the guts. She rolled backward and puked blood.
“Look at you? Didn’t you want to go, run!” The bandit yelled at her swinging his blade.
Scared, Rahana turned around to run away and ended with her tail sliced off. The throbbing pain in her backside caused her to fall to the ground.
“See? You don’t really want to run away.” The bandit dragged her by the hair. “Let me go, let me go!” She cried.
“LET HER GO!” Selena roared as she tore through the hordes of bandits.
Just before, she could reach the man. [Sleep] She fell asleep under one of the mage’s spells.
“It took me three tries to take her down, what in the hell she is made off?” The mage wandered.
“Look, I caught a fine one, we can have some fun.” The bandit said as he dragged Rahana. “She we take her as well? She looks better than this one.” He added looking at Selena.
“Don’t, just tie her in a metal cage and don’t dare approach her. You will get bitten off.” The mage said as he shook his head.
“Can’t you just use your magic?” The bandits said in disappointment.
“Are you a bunch of idiots? This woman killed over twenty of you before I could cast my magic. If I didn’t she might have whipped you all out!” The mage yelled at them. There was no telling when Selena would wake up so it was safer to secure her first.
After throwing Rahana in a large bag, they brought a metal cage used to catch monsters and tied Selena inside immediately.
With this Selena quickly jumped to the point where he saved her. Yet, there was another side to the story. Rahana’s fate.
…
Rahana and some of the other cat people ended up as the bandit’s toys. After a while, they all had their tails cut off and were forced to join the bandits.
For the next week, Selena was kept starving in her cage while Rahana spent her time tending to the bandit’s whims. That had lasted until that fateful day.
An intruder appeared. He massacred everyone in his way, all the cat people who were sleeping with the mage had been killed at his hand.
“Kill him!” A bandit screamed as he pushed Rahana toward the intruder. Rahana wore leather armor and covered her head with a steel helmet. From how much dirt was on her from being kicked around, she looked like a dirty man.
“Please stop, I was forced to be here!” She cried as she saw the intruder’s blade coming at her. The fear in her eyes was genuine enough that he stopped. It was what the bandits aimed for.
Swoosh! An arrow hit the intruder’s thigh. He flinched in pain. Rahana realized that the intruder was going down, it was better for her to assist the bandits so she might avoid their abuse later. Gathering her courage, she stabbed the intruder in the side with her knife.
“Shit!” The intruder cursed as he swung his blade faster than she could see. The next moment she fell to the ground feeling a sharp pain in her stomach. She had been cut open.
“Mo…” Her vision quickly blanked out as cold engulfed her whole body.