Age Recommendation: 18+
Catgirls, dragons and more, celebrate a winter festival at the behest of their enigmatic Empress.
Lori was confused. She didn't smell Maddie, and as she looked around the forest around her, it wasn't right. The grass was too vibrant, and the trees were the wrong species, it felt like a dream, almost real but not quite. Something must have happened with the teleportation spell, and her ears perked in an attempt to find where Maddie may have ended up.
Instead she heard a faint scuttle, and looking down noticed an ebony black scorpion scurrying through the grass by her feet. They sometimes wandered this far up north from the deserts, she used to hunt them when she was a kit, but it was still strange. She let it be, beginning to step forwards when her furs bristled and her tail stiffened, she caught the scent of a mage, sulphur with a strong current of copper, her claws extended as she crouched herself down, noting a more subtle, harder to identify smell she thought to be magic.
She slowly turned her head, she felt like she was being watched, and soon she caught a quick movement of golden light to her right. She focused her senses, and the golden light began to expand, ebbing and weaving, covering a larger aura of deep crimson.
She rarely saw merged auras like that, especially when only celestials held gold auras, but she continued to turn her head, not wanting to give away the fact that she had spotted their exact location. "Person watching Lori better stop. Something weird is happening to Lori right now and she doesn't want to kill someone."
She let out a hiss to accentuate her words, crouched in a combative stance, ready to pounce.
The aura did something that Lori had never seen before, twisting back and forth, folding inwards and layering in concentric circles, before collapsing in on itself like it had never even been there. As it turned inside out and made her feel slightly nauseous, a person popped into being. Clearly not that intent on hiding.
It was a woman, with long black hair down to her waist, wearing a dress of silk and royal purple that shimmered in the bright light. The dress had holes around her stomach and sides, letting Lori see many small scars that didn't quite fit with the otherwise regal appearance.
Two deep red eyes flecked with black specks glared at the half-fae from across the strange clearing she had found herself in, as the woman growled at her in turn, "A neko. She's a damn kitten. Then she should be fucking smarter than to try and kidnap empress! Toofy going to fucking kill you!"
Lori's ears twitched as the other woman spoke, Toofy apparently. Her voice carried a confident authority, one not born of arrogance. The gold and crimson aura growled with her, making her agitation all the clearer. Lori resisted the urge to flatten her ears against her scalp, and focused on the mention of empress.
The only empress Lori was aware of resided a continent and two oceans away, and was an oni. Lori now noticed the shifting ears. Silvery furred nekomimi poking up through the black hair, swivelling back and forth, listening for other dangers. Even whilst threatening Lori, they weren't making the assumption she was the cause, or the only cause, of why the two catgirls were standing here. Her aura betrayed that much.
Lori soothed her own aura, and raised her positioning slightly, though she did keep her claws extended. She didn't want to fight, she had never seen another neko before. Before she could speak though, Toofy seemed to notice something. "Wait. Is that freaking scorpion?" The neko spun her head and glared into the grass, before letting out a long moan, "Oh, for love of void! Toofy not want to play, bitch goddess! She too busy for this shit!"
Lori quickly glanced back towards the scuttling creature, it smelled normal, but now that she looked more closely it had a hint of a pure gold aura surrounding it. Not enough for it to be magical, more like it had the residue of some incredibly powerful aura lingering on it.
She looked back towards the other Neko, not entirely sure what to make of the arachnid. "Other Neko called Toofy? Lori be entirely honest, she never heard of Toofy, let alone want to kidnap. She also has shit that needs to be done, no idea even where she is."
She spoke with a less hostile tone, tilting her head in mild confusion about the outburst involving the scorpion, but more worried about not fighting a pissed off neko who seemed more experienced and powerful than her.
This got the other catgirl's attention, who was still muttering a string of curses directed towards some fox or something. She had stopped growling, that was good. "Lori expects Toofy to believe her? She not in mood for dealing with dumb cat. Her stupid Sai stinks like dog girl, and Saia's magic tail isn't enough. Nevermind fucking empire."
She spoke in a still annoyed tone, brisk words with few pauses, but her frustration wasn't directed at the other neko anymore.
© Copyright 2023, James Milne