A new realm (some entries might get adult sometimes)

So, well, some time ago I was going through my old back-up files, and I found the start of what was to become a story series I began on for an adult feline stories group several years ago. I never got past that first story, though.

Finding it back was nice, and it made me decide to completely refurbish that story series and see if I could make something productive out of it. I left the mainland on which the first story took place, and created a whole new continent where the new stories will take place on, with only one or two species instead of numerous; and these species, at least one of them, is pretty unique as well.

I have written a few installments already which got posted in my FurAffinity gallery; I figured to post them here as well so I can see what you guys think of it! =~.^=

So here we go, I will post as responses the first four stories that I have written about the refurbished realm I created so far. Let me know what you think, alright? Smile

Positive

This is the first story of the new, refurbished version of my realm, taking place on the continent of Nezinoma Salis. Here we will first meet the two main characters.

BANG! CRASH! The night had fallen. In the far outreaches of the Minnaluna Archipelago, that tended to happen suddenly and loudly. The light between the thick trees of the dense forest disappeared completely. The usual sounds of the day stopped almost instantly. Here and there, a last Jorble could be heard, uttering a final peep before some shuffling sounds indicated also these colorful birds had roosted for the night.

This part of the land was extremely wild. The vegetation looked almost primeval, growing thick and lush in the warm, damp climate for hundreds of years undisturbed, untrodden. Almost all of it was uncharted territory, home to the most fantastic of beasts, and home to many creatures of mystique and fantasy. No one had ever seen the creatures said to roam the dense groves and wide plains, but that didn't stop anyone from making up the most fantastic stories and renditions. The vast lands were on the charts as a large white splotch, officially documented as Nezinoma Salis, although under the mainland Minnaluna population it was more romantically known as the Forgotten Realms.

Not much was known about the vast expanse of land. What was known was that it was similar in size to the Minnaluna mainland; if not even larger. What was also known was that it was inaccessible, and uninhabited. Or at least, that last was assumed, since no evidence was ever found to prove the opposite. Still, history told of civilizations having lived and thrived in Nezinoma Salis, before some sort of disaster apparently wiped them out. The reconnaissance water-planes of the Minnaluna Meteorological Institute had reported spotting what seemed to be leftovers of settlements when flying over the land. It was also because of those reconnaissance flights that the people of Minnaluna knew the Nezinoma Salis held vast stretches of dense forests and groves, as well as large, wide plains, mountains, valleys, and of course beaches and bayous since it was surrounded by the ocean.

But the knowledge stopped right there. If there were tribes or civilizations living in the stretches of the Nezinoma Salis land, they remained hidden and sought no contact with the Minnaluna mainlaind. And no one seemed to particularly mind or even care about it. The general train of thought seemed to be; we have all we need here, if there are tribes there they apparently have all they need there, and what doesn't seek contact with us, cannot fight us.

* * *

But... if no one lived in the vast lands of Nezinoma Salis, then where were those voices coming from? In the deep darkness between the trees, after the sudden and loud nightfall, voices rang out. Female voices. Arguing.
"Are you sure this is the right way to get home?"
"For the hundredth time; I'm positive! Alright? Will you stop griping about it already?"
"I'd say I have all reason to! You know how fast it gets dark! I kept telling you we shouldn't have gone into the woods that deep! And now we can't even see our paws before our face! You'd better had known darn well where you're leading us!"
"Look, just shut up, okay? For the last time; I'm positive this is the right way. I've been here so often I know this place like the back of my paw."
"Fat lot of good that'll do us. You can't even see the back of your paw in this darkness."

A small light bobbed into view. A lantern? No, on closer inspection, it was a flame. A flame... that floated in the air, without any means of support. And wrangling their way through the dense growth of the forest, following the floating flame, were... two creatures, the two females who were arguing with one another.

They more or less looked like the mainland Minnaluna felines, those elegant quadruped felines known as Flamelins. Except larger, about a time and a half as large. And where the neck and head were supposed to be, these creatures had... a torso like the mainland Minnaluna humans, from the waist up, but covered all over in the same fur as the quadruped bodies they were attached to. The head that crowned these torsos, however, again were much like the heads of the mainland Flamelins, except for the fact that from the top of the head, the fur growing there was much, much longer, and often of a contrasting color, like the head hair of the humans.

History and tradition was not all wrong. The two females were Mry; a species said to have evolved from the first mixing of the humans and quadrupeds common to the Minnaluna mainland. No one knew if the tales about these creatures were true, as no one had even seen them. But they were real, alright. And still arguing.
"Why do I have the feeling you're only leading us further astray?" said the one who had been questioning the way they were going, a female covered in sleek, dark honey-colored fur, which darkened into a ruddy brown on her four legs and two arms.
Her long hair, however, was of a much brighter red color. She carried a long, slender bow made of wood, and a quiver of arrows was slung across her back, over a small short-sleeved leather-like vest that covered her upper chest, breasts and midriff.
"Because you're a cantankerous wench?" the second one, whose fur was a deep dark storm-grey, crisscrossed with many thin stripes of an almost silvergrey color, like bolts of lightning, answered with a half-sneer.

The hair crowning the head of this second female was as long as that of the first one, but tied into a ponytail, and of the same silvery tint as the frilly stripes in her dark grey fur. She also carried a long bow and a quiver of arrows, and under the vest she was wearing also was a leather belt, at about the position of the waist of her humanoid upper torso, holding a sheathed dagger and a couple of pouches. At her somewhat snide answer, the first female let out a growl.
"Okay, I've just about had it, Skyfire! This is the last time I let you lead me into these woods after sun-high!" She pushed her way over to the base of a gigantic tree and settled down on the squishy cushions of moss between the enormous tree roots. "I'm not moving another step from this spot! You obviously have no idea where we are, or where we're going, and I'm not going to trudge around in circles any longer!"
"Will you just grow up?" said the second female, aptly named Skyfire after the lightning-like pattern in her fur. "Just try and stay positive, like me! We'll be out of here and back in the valley before you know it! My nose tells me it's not far anymore to the edge of the woods."
"Your nose is a big fat liar," the first female, whose name was Sunfire after the flaming color of her hair, huffed. "We are no closer to the edge of the woods than we are to the Sand Shores. I'm staying here until Sister Sun has traded places with Sister Moon, and if you know what's good for you, you'd stay here until then too."
It was obvious she was not going to budge. With a sigh, the dark grey female turned and also stepped over to the tree, snapping her fingers to make the floating flame follow her.
"Fine, have it your way. I can't leave you here by yourself, it's not safe to go through these woods all alone. But I still say we might as well keep going because it's not far to the edge of the woods anymore. If you would just be a bit more positive..."
"If I hear you say that word one more time..!" the honey-colored female growled, pointing at the dark grey female's face with one of the branches she was collecting to build a fire with. "I swear I'll rip off your tail and strangle you with it!"

The dark grey female just smirked and remained silent, concentrating on lighting the stack of dead branches. When the fire was going, she took off her quiver of arrows, leather vest and belt and lay them aside after pulling something from one of the pouches on her belt. It turned out to be strips of meat. She handed a few to the honey-colored female, who accepted them with a grumble, chewing on them while she took off her own quiver of arrows and leather vest.

After some time, the honey-colored female Mry named Sunfire stacked a circle of stones around the fire and added several thicker branches to feed the flames for the rest of the night. Then both she and the dark grey female Mry named Skyfire wrapped their vests around their quivers and used them as pillows as they settled down for sleep, curling up much like any quadruped feline did. Soon after, the only sounds were those of the fire crackling, and the calm breathing of both female Mry.

Well, at least it was positive that some sort of tribe lived in the vast expanse of the lands of Nezinoma Salis.

The Survivor, part 1

This is the first part of a very, very long story in which we will meet some more of the new characters, and another brand new character is already introduced. This new character was imperative, because there is a lot to tell and explain about the Nezinoma Salis continent, and the best way to do that, I found, was through an exploration where a new arrival would be shown around the lands and towns and be told of the history by the Mry themselves. This story is the first part of the tale where this new character is found.

Again; it's long!

Dawn broke dripping wet and windy. A stiff breeze chased dark clouds through the slowly lightening, leaden sky over the Minnaluna Archipelago and the Nezinoma Salis continent. Rain was still falling, a steady but light drizzle being scattered by the wind, making the vegetation bow and drip. Every now and then, the sun began to break through the chasing clouds, casting her first rays of the day over the dripping trees, bushes and flowers, and the damage that was caused by the storm which had whipped the continent over the past night.

By mid-morning, the last rain had dissipated, and the wind had settled down after chasing the last dark clouds from the sky. The sun rose higher, her rays growing in strength, striking multi-colored flashes from the drops of water dripping from the vegetation and drawing up wisps of fine mist from the swollen streams and creeks and small ponds and larger lakes.

In Viola Valley, the rays of sunlight gradually filtered through the canopy of branches and leaves that hung over the bowl of the valley, shielding from view the small town that was located in this valley. Despite the almost primeval wilderness of the Nezinoma Salis continent, this small town looked remarkably modern; the houses and other buildings were built of some sort of brickwork, the roofs covered in stone rooftiles, the windows had glass panes in them. The streets were neatly paved as well, illuminated by streetlamps that had electric candles in them. It was in this town, named simply Viola Town, where the taur-like feline creatures called Mry were living.

At the end of a small street on the outside of the town, in the garden of a house the grey stone walls of which were covered in a sort of plaster with a mustard-like brownish yellow color, the dark honey-colored Mry named Sunfire was looking at the sun climbing higher into the sky, drawing in deep breaths of the fresh, rain-washed air. Moments later, she was joined by her sister Skyfire, the Mry with the dark storm-grey fur that was crisscrossed with numerous thin stripes of silvergrey.
"That was quite the storm last night, wasn't it?" she said as she handed her sister a mug.
"It most certainly was," Sunfire agreed, taking a sip from the milk in the mug. "But from the smell of the air and the warmth of Sister Sun, I would say today will be a very nice day indeed." She turned to look at her sister. "Say, what do you say we take the autocart out to the Sand Shores? After such a storm, there's bound to be a lot of interesting stuff washed up from the ocean."
"That's a good idea," Skyfire nodded. "Yes, let's do that. I'll go get the bags if you get the autocart ready."
Sunfire drank the last milk and handed the empty mug back to her sister.
"I will. I'll meet you by the road in a moment."

Both Mry walked back into the house, closing the door behind them. While Sunfire walked to the front door, Skyfire stepped into the kitchen to rinse the mugs from which they had been drinking their milk, placing them upside down on a rack next to a somewhat primitive but no less effective sink. Then she walked out of the kitchen again, stopping by a large closet which she opened and leaned into, rummaging around. After a moment or two, the storm-grey Mry pulled a few large leather-like bags from the closet, which looked quite like saddle bags. With these she walked out the front door, closing and locking the door behind her and tucking the key securely into a pocket of the vest covering her upper torso.

At the end of the small path leading from the front door to the street, Sunfire was already waiting by what they had referred to as the 'autocart'. Amazingly enough, that was nothing more nor less but a 1940 Chevrolet Master Deluxe two-door sedan car, in a dark terra brown color. The only thing different to this car was that it had no front or back seats, but instead had thick padded rectangular cushions to accommodate the large quadruped lower body of the taur-like Mry.

Sunfire had already opened the trunk, helping her sister to stow the large saddle bags in there, after which she closed the trunk and climbed behind the wheel of the car while Skyfire climbed in on the passenger's side. The motor started running with a nasal rumble as Sunfire turned the key and pushed the starter button, operating the pedals with the front feet of her quadruped lower body.
"Did you put in enough of that petro-oil to get us all the way to the Sand Shores and back, Sunfire?" Skyfire asked as the honey-colored Mry turned the steering wheel and drove the car out of the town.
"Yes, I filled it all the way to the top," Sunfire nodded, crunching the gear. "And I brought an extra container, just to be sure. It's in the back."
"Ah, good. Which of the Sand Shores are we going to? The wind was coming from the west during that storm last night, and it was still between west and southwest when we were out in the garden just now, so the Sand Shores on the west side would be the best choice; if the storm washed up anything, it'll be there."
"True. I was thinking we'd go to the Rock Point. We can reach that fairly well with the autocart, and it will give us a good vantage point to look out over the Sand Shores from there and see if there is anything worthwhile washed up," Sunfire said.
"Sounds good," Skyfire agreed. "I wonder if we'll find anything interesting. Ships don't often pass by on the west side, it's dangerous there with the reef and those rocks."
"We'll just have to see, don't we?" Sunfire remarked with a shrug. "There might not be anything like timber or chests or urns or anything, but at the least there'll be fish."
"I guess you're right. And I brought a bag of salt for when we find fish."

Sunfire nodded, and they lapsed into silence while chugging along calmly as Sunfire steered the car out of the valley via a pass in the mountain ridge at the west side. There were no streets outside the valley, but a few relatively clear trails showed that several routes were traveled fairly regularly. The car bumped and bounced a bit across the grass and through the ruts and tracks, but Sunfire was a good driver, the ease with which she steered the car through the landscape proving that she was used to doing it. Therefore, it wasn't too long before the two Mry reached the western coast of the continent, pulling up to a high, protruding clifftop that gave a wide view over the beach below.

After parking the car, both Mry got out and stepped to the edge of the cliff, gazing out over the beach. Skyfire had brought a brass telescopic monocle which she swept around in a slow, wide arc as she peered through it, letting out a sudden cry of joy.
"Oooh! Sunfire, jackpot! I see rolls of fabric, several amphoras and some crates!" She handed her sister the monocle and pointed. "Look, over there where the black rocks reach into the water, see? Looks like maybe a merchant ship was wrecked close by last night in that storm."
Sunfire nodded as she peered through the monocle.
"You're right, I see it too. Looks like a very good catch, we're definitely in luck." She lowered and folded the monocle and handed it back to Skyfire. "I wonder why any merchant ship would have come around this side of the coast, though."
"Perhaps they were trying to avoid pirates?" Skyfire offered. "Or maybe it even was a pirate ship filled with loot that got wrecked."
"Could be, that's not such a strange idea," Sunfire said with a nod. "But either way, it's a stroke of luck for us. There's so much there we might even need to come back two times to take it all home."
"Well, let's not waste any more time and go down there to grab it, before anyone else shows up!" Skyfire said, walking around the car to get the large saddle bags from the trunk.

Sunfire gave another nod of her head and also walked to the back of the car, turning and rising up high on her four legs as Skyfire lay the saddle bags over her sister's feral lower body and secured them with the leather belts. When she was done, she turned and rose up high on her four legs herself to let Sunfire do the same to her, giggling and squirming as the honey-colored Mry strapped the belts around her lower body's chest, behind the front paws.
"Will you hold still, you weirdo?" she grunted amicably. "Stop squirming, I can't fasten the buckles like this."
"Eee, hee, I... can't help it, you're... hee hee... tickling me, Sunfire!" Skyfire giggled, lashing her tail left and right.
"So? You tickled me too, and you didn't see me squirming about like a moron, did you?" Sunfire smirked.
"Yeah, but I'm ticklish! You know I am!" Skyfire giggled, sticking out her tongue at her sister.
Sunfire gave another playful grunt while she fastened the last buckle.
"There, finally done," she announced, rising up and giving her storm-grey sister a teasing smack on the rump. "You sure don't make things easy for me, weirdo."
"Oh, look who's talking!" Skyfire chuckled, lashing her tail again. "Well, race you to the shore! See if you can keep up with me, you grouch! I'm so much faster than you, and I'll get the nicest stuff from that loot down there! Finders keepers!"

And with that, she was off like a flash, galloping down a rocky path that ran down towards the beach along the cliffside. Sunfire huffed and shook her head with a chuckle, breaking into a run after her sister. Moments later, they were down on the beach, trotting over to where huge black basalt rocks lay across the sand and extended into the ocean. Indeed a lot of items were washed up onto the beach around that area; wood crates, earthenware amphoras and vases, wicker baskets, large rolls of fabric rolled around wood poles, metal dishes and plates, and boxes and chests of several sizes. It was clear that Skyfire's assumption was correct; obviously a merchant ship carrying wares had been wrecked in the storm, and most probably quite close by the coast, judging by the amount of items that had washed up on the beach.

The storm-grey Mry was already rooting around between all the stuff, digging amphoras and vases out of the sand with her forepaws and checking them. Some were broken and empty and got airily tossed back into the ocean, but many of them were undamaged. Without checking the content, Skyfire simply loaded the amphoras into her saddle bags and continued on her search. They could always see what was in them when they were back home again, after all. And she did not spend too much time with the earthenware anyway, her attention quickly drawn towards the rolls of fabric scattered here and there in the sand. It were quite exotic fabrics; silk, velour, velvet, in bright colors and patterns of stripes, dots, diamonds, or even more intricate patterns. With happy croons and murmurs, Skyfire trotted from one roll to the other, picking them all up and strapping them to both her feral lower back and her anthro upper back, seemingly unhampered by the weight, and the fact the fabric was soaked.

Sunfire every now and then looked at her sister with a cheery grin, shaking her head. That Skyfire sure was a weirdo. Alright, so she herself was quite excited with the amount of usable and even valuable items that had washed up on the beach as well, but at least she simply collected them calmly, without hopping about like a Hoppy kit that's seeing sunlight for the first time. Putting a few silver dishes and goblets that had spilled from a cracked wood chest, and a couple of urns stoppered with corks into her saddle bags, Sunfire slowly walked up to a large wood crate lying some way furtheron. She stepped around it, examining it from all sides. It was closed, and pretty much undamaged, and there was some sort of writing on one side which the honey-colored Mry could not make out. She pushed against the crate; it was quite heavy. She knocked against the planks; solid. Giving a shrug, Sunfire leaned over and picked up a large rock from the sand, using it to punch out a few of the planks in the side of the crate so she could see what was inside. As she pulled out the cracked planks, she quickly averted her head and made a face.
"Aw, yeagh!"
From some way down the beach, Skyfire looked up at her sister's outcry.
"What is it, Sunfire? Whaddaya got there?"
Sunfire waved both her paws back and forth before her face, quickly turning away from the crate.
"I think, herbs and spices, but they got all soaked by the ocean water and mixed into a very gross goop. You don't even want to know what it smells like!"
"Ha ha ha!" Skyfire laughed. "Aw, that's too bad though! Remember those jars of spices we found last Season? I don't know what they were, but they sure made our food taste delicious!"
"Yeah, well, not this stuff, I'm afraid," Sunfire smirked. "You found anything good, aside from all that fabric?"
"Yeah! A box of weapons! Daggers, short swords and long swords, and bows! Kind of strange shapes, but beautifully decorated!" She motioned at several sheathed swords and bows strapped around her anthro waist and the shoulders of her feral lower body. Some of the sheaths and scabbards were indeed intricately decorated with carving and inlaid with gemstones. "And I found some golden sickles in that box too! I wanna bet we could get some extra treatment and lessons for Fleetfire if we offer those to doctor Healsong!"
"Oh, that's great!" Sunfire said with pleasant surprise. "Good going, Skyfire! Keep at it, I'm going to look on the other side of those black rocks to see if there's anything there."
"Alrightyroo, will do!" was the cheerful answer.

Skyfire cheerfully trotted off to search between some barrels that were lying half in the surf. A lot of them had cracked, however, and were empty, the potent scent still lingering inside proving that they had held some kind of alcohol. Skyfire smirked funnily as she twitched her whiskers at the smell. Well, it didn't matter most of those barrels were empty, they had no use for alcohol stuff anyway. Only doctor Healsong could use it. Although... The storm-grey Mry ran a paw over her whiskers in thought. Perhaps... they could try to see if their autocart would run on it? Alcohol was easier to make than the petro-oil they used to run their autocarts was to find. Mmm, that was a thought worth trying out. She'd have to talk to Sunfire about that.

Finding two barrels which were still full, the storm-grey Mry therefore rolled them out of the surf and set them in the protection of the dunes. Even if they couldn't use it for their autocart, it would still be worth saving; she could tell doctor Healsong about them, and then the doctor could pick them up. Turning around, she walked back to the shoreline, looking around a bit to see if there was anything else of value she could find. Already her saddle bags were filled to capacity and then some, and she had at least a dozen rolls of different fabrics strapped to her upper back and her feral lower back, but this was just an opportunity that didn't come by often, and she had to grab what she could. And... ooh, wait, what was that?

Skyfire quickly trotted over to where a wood chest was lying on its side in the surf. The lid was slightly open, and something colorful was bobbing back and forth just behind the lid in the surf that was lapping at the chest. Kneeling down, the storm-grey Mry pushed the lid further open and grabbed the colorful thing before it could float away. Awww! It was some kind of doll or something, looking a bit like a feral lioness, made out of yellow and red velvet, with in black a pair of eyes, a nose and a mouth embroidered on the front of the head, and it was filled with something soft. That was so cute! It would be a perfect gift for Fleetfire! Okay, so it was completely soaked, but it could be easily dried out and washed with fresh water to get rid of the salt. Skyfire squeezed the toy to get most of the water out of it and shook it before carefully putting it in one of her saddle bags. She turned the chest over and looked inside. Oh! There was another one! And that one was made of blue and green velvet. With a soft giggle, Skyfire took that one as well, squeezed the water out of it and tucked it into her saddle bag.

"Skyfire! Skyfire!"
The storm-grey Mry suddenly looked up as she heard her sister yelling for her.
"Over here! What is it?"
"Skyfire, come here, quickly! You have to see this!"
"What? What is it?" Skyfire called back, rising up.
"Just come here, fast!"

Looking surprised, Skyfire turned and quickly trotted towards the row of large black rocks. She lightly leapt over them, looking around her to see where her sister was. A little way away, she spotted the honey-colored Mry, who was kneeling down on her forepaws, leaning over something that was lying half in the surf. It looked like a roll of fabric, and... something else. With a few large steps, Skyfire was next to her sister, looking down at what Sunfire was leaning over.
"What have you found here, Sunfire... oh good goddess!"

It was a small feline. A small feline that looked just like them, apart from the fact that it did not have the quadruped lower body. The little feline's body was humanoid, covered in a very sleek and smooth, light cinnamon-colored fur, although the fur on the arms, legs, tail, ears, and in the face was of a very dark mahogany brown, as well as the long hair that ran down from the top of the head to a little below the shoulders. Some rags of clothing were still on the small, slender body, the eyes closed, the arms tightly wrapped around a roll of blue velvet and a large wood plank.
"Sunfire... what is this?"
"I don't know," Sunfire said, without looking up from the small feline. "It's not a Mry, look, it only has two legs. But for the rest it's definitely feline, though."
"Is it... dead?" Skyfire asked softly, also kneeling down on her forepaws.
"I'm not sure. I don't feel any breathing."
"Let me check." Sunfire leaned over the small body, very gently running her paws along the sunken flanks. She very carefully rolled the small feline over onto the back, pulling away the rags that were hanging around the little body. "Oh. It's a girl. Gaw Sunfire, look at that, she's just a kit! She can't be any older than Fleetfire!" She leaned over deeply and placed her ear against the little feline's chest, listening intently. "I can't hear any heartbeat... but it's hard to tell, with the noise of the ocean and all. Oh, wait, I have an idea." She sat up a bit and turned her upper body, rummaging through one of her saddle bags and pulling out a small round mirror which she carefully held under the small feline's nose and muzzle. After a moment, she breathed a sigh of relief. "She's alive. Look, there's a very little bit of condensation appearing on the mirror. Thank the goddesses."
Sunfire nodded slowly, beginning to gently take the little feline's arms off from around the roll of fabric and the large wood plank.
"Let's take her home. When doctor Healsong brings Fleetfire home from her lessons, she can look at this kit and hopefully heal her."
"Yes, please, let's do that," said Skyfire. "The poor little thing. How'd she get here?"
"How should I know?" Sunfire said. "I'd say, she was on that ship that got wrecked in the storm last night, since she was holding on to this plank and this roll of fabric. That must have been what saved her, washing her up on the shore here."
"Yeah..."

Skyfire shook her head a bit, letting out a soft sigh as she looked down at the small feline girl. Leaning over, she unrolled some of the blue velvet from the roll and wrung the water from it, then very carefully lay the small feline on it and wrapped her in the fabric so only her head was visible. Using the rest of the roll as a support for the little feline's back. Skyfire slowly and carefully lifted both the roll of blue velvet and the little feline with both arms, rising up on her four feet. Sunfire also rose up, giving Skyfire's arm a soft, gentle squeeze as they turned and started walking off the beach, forgetting about the rest of the items that were scattered about in the sand.

Walking carefully but quickly, they followed the rocky path along the cliffside to where they had left the car. Sunfire opened the doors and the trunk, taking out a length of rope. While Skyfire stood still with the little feline in her arms, Sunfire unstrapped all the rolls of fabric from the storm-grey Mry's upper and lower back and tied them to the roof of the car, before unbuckling and lifting the saddle bags off Skyfire's feral lower back and putting those in the trunk. When she was done, she took over the small feline wrapped in the roll of blue velvet so Skyfire could unbuckle and remove her saddle bags and put them in the trunk as well. The storm-grey Mry also took off all the long and short swords, daggers, sickles and bows she was wearing around her waist and the shoulders of her lower body to put them in the trunk, before very carefully taking back the small feline and climbing into the car with her. Sunfire got in behind the steering wheel after closing the trunk, digging the key from her vest pocket, sticking it in the keyhole and turning it while pushing the starter button to start the motor. At the somewhat nasal sound of the motor rumbling to life, Skyfire let out a soft sound as well as she looked at the small feline.
"She twitched. There's life in her yet, Sunfire. She might make it."

She sounded very relieved. Sunfire sent her sister a soft smile as she turned the car around carefully to drive back home. All through the ride back, both Mry remained silent, Sunfire concentrating on driving the car back to Viola Valley quickly but carefully so the bumps and shocks when the car trundled through the ruts and clumps of grass on the hardly visible trail would not disturb the small feline, and Skyfire keeping a close watch over the little feline, holding her steady while softly and gently brushing her fingers along the little feline's cheek, murmuring comforting sounds at her.

They arrived at their house in the valley not long after. Sunfire parked the car by the little path that ran from the street to their house and turned off the engine.
"You get her inside, Skyfire," she said as she got out of the car. "Put her down someplace comfortable. I'll bring in all of the stuff we found, okay?"

The storm-grey Mry nodded silently and carefully got out of the car as well, holding the small feline with roll of velvet and all cradled in both arms. Sunfire followed her with all the weapons they had found in her arms and opened the door for her sister, putting the swords, daggers, sickles and bows down on the floor and stepping back outside to get the rest while Skyfire carried the small feline into their house. Going through the living room, she walked into a room that was just as large, and only dimly lit as the curtains before the windows were still drawn. There were large numbers of very big pillows laying on thick rugs on the floor, most of them situated around a fireplace, proving this was a bedroom. Along the far wall were two very low, wide beds, also holding a number of large pillows and a few thick blankets. Skyfire walked over to the bed, leaning over to very carefully lay the small feline down on one of them.

She gently unwrapped the damp blue velvet she had bundled the small feline in, sliding the entire roll out of one of the windows to let it dry. Using one of the blankets, the storm-grey Mry began to carefully dry the small feline's sleek fur and hair, smiling softly when she noticed how her gentle rubbing slightly increased the little feline's almost nonexistent breath rate.
"Sunfire?" she called across her shoulder when she heard her sister stepping into the house again.
"Yes?" came the answer from near the front door.
"I found two cloth toys just before you found this kit, Sunfire. They're in one of my bags. Could you rinse the salt water out of them and set them in the window to dry, please? I wanted to give one to Fleetfire, and I think this kit can do with one when she wakes up, too."
"Oh. Alright, I'll do that first."
"Thank you."

Skyfire turned her look back to the small feline, brushing her fingers along the girl's cheek very softly for a moment before rising up and stepping to a small table in a corner of the room, from which she took a soft brush. Sitting back down by the bed, she started gently brushing the small feline's hair and sleek fur, softly murmuring under her breath all the while.
"You poor little thing... whatever happened to you? I sure hope you will be alright. Such a lovely girl... look at that beautiful fur. So soft, so sleek... these color changes are very lovely, too. It looks a bit like Sunfire's fur, but yours is a much stronger contrast, and she only has it on her arms and her legs, not on her tail and her sex and her ears and in her face too... I wonder where you come from? I never saw a feline like you, with a body like this... I hope you'll be okay, and I hope you can speak and understand our language, so we can talk."
"Like her not knowing the language would stop you from talking... you've been talking non-stop already," Sunfire's voice sounded from the bedroom doorway with a soft chuckle.
Skyfire looked around and let out a soft chuckle as well, sticking out her tongue at her sister.
"So what? It helps me put my thoughts in order, and the sound of my voice seems to relax her."
"Fine, fine, I didn't say it's anything bad, is it?" Sunfire said, stepping into the room. "How's she doing?"
"Still out, but her breathing is a bit better. Hanging on to life, she is, it looks like. Brave little kit."
"That's good." Sunfire sat down next to her sister and put a paw on Skyfire's shoulder. "I'll watch her for a while so you can go clean up if you want. You've got sand and salt all over your back from carrying those rolls of fabric."
"Thanks," Skyfire smiled, rising up. "You're a grumpy grouch, sis, but at least you're a sweet and thoughtful grumpy grouch. At times," she added with a giggle.
"Yeah yeah yeah," Sunfire said with a good-natured smirked, waving a paw. "Just go and clean yourself up already, before I change my mind, okay?"

Skyfire giggled softly again and playfully ruffled her sister's hair with a paw as she turned and stepped out of the bedroom, undoing and taking off her leather vest while she walked. Sunfire shook her head, running her fingers through her hair to brush her mussed-up bangs back behind her ears, looking at the still form of the little feline laying nestled in the pillows on the bed.
"You must have one heck of a story to tell, kiddo," she murmured, touching the small feline's cheek. "I hope you'll live to tell it."

The Survivor, part 2

This is the second part of the very long introduction story for the new character who will be shown around the continent so that everything about my new realm can be told and explained. A bit of explanation about a few things is already given in this story.

And... this is even longer than the first part! =~.^=

The morning and afternoon passed calmly. The sun gained strength, drying up the last of the rain that had drenched the land and the vegetation of the Nezinoma Salis continent that night in a violent storm, and drying the yards and yards of colorful fabrics that were spread out on the grass around one of the houses in Viola Town, the small and remarkably modern-looking village in the hidden Viola Valley.

Sunfire was busy unrolling all the rolls of different colorful fabrics, draping them over lines supported by wood poles, over bushes and simply flat out on the grass. She had taken them all to a small creek that flowed into a pond in the form of a low waterfall just outside the village to wash the salt ocean water out of the fabric, and now she was making sure the sun could dry out all the fabric evenly so they could use it to make clothes, pillows and curtains, and trade the rest for other items. While she was draping one of the lengths of fabric over the lower branches of a tree, the honey-colored Mry was singing a song to herself.
"Oh high upon a lonely moor, a widow lived alone. An inn she kept, and as she slept, the pillow heard her mourn. Oohh, many is the trav'ler, who spent the night with me. But..."
"But you do know that only the bards have a right to sing out in the open, don't you, Sunfire?" a voice cheerfully interrupted her.

Stopping her singing, Sunfire looked around. Another Mry had walked up the path to their house, holding by a paw a second, much smaller Mry who was obviously a young one. The one who had spoken was completely white of fur from head to toe, with long white hair and light silvergrey eyes. Instead of a leather vest, this Mry was wearing a white robe that flowed from her shoulders all the way down to the feet of her feral forelegs on the front, and it was draped across her feral lower back behind her. In her free paw, she was holding a long staff made of ebony which had artful carvings of quadruped cats and intricate runes along the entire length, while around her anthro waist was a belt of fine white leather from which several pouches, a silver dagger in a white leather sheath and a golden sickle were hanging. Side bags of the same fine white leather were draped across the back of her lower quadruped body, held in place by white leather belts with silver buckles.

The small, young Mry she held by a paw had light yellow fur, with in it a pattern of tabby stripes in light orange, which swept from the top of her head down across her anthro upper back and arms, and from there along the back and sides of her quadruped lower body, all the way to the tip of her tail and down to each of her four quite dainty feet, the backslant to the position of the frilly stripes making it look like flames in a breeze. This young Mry also was not wearing a leather vest, but a short top made of dandelion-yellow fabric that reached to the midriff of her upper torso, and in her free paw she was holding a short sort of staff made of white birch wood, artfully carved along the top with small figures of quadruped cats. The thing, however, that caught the most attention about this young Mry were her eyes, which were a pale blue hazed over completely with a cloudy, milky white, indicating the little Mry was blind.

Sunfire let out a soft chuckle as she spotted the two of them, turning around to step over to them.
"Well good afternoon, doctor Healsong. Glad you're here," she said. "And isn't it so that this silly notion about only bards having a right to sing was declared void ages ago already, allowing everyone else to sing while they are doing chores, or to lull their young to sleep, or things like that?" She leaned over a bit to stroke the young Mry's head. "And hello to you too, kiddo. Did your lessons go well?"
"Yeah!" the little Mry said, nodding happily. "Miss Windsong said I have talent for playing an instrument; she might teach me." She purred softly while she nuzzled against Sunfire's paw, tilting her head a bit. "Have you been to the Sand Shores, Sunfire? I smell salt on your paws."
"Yes, Skyfire and me went to the Sand Shores today, kiddo," Sunfire smiled. "We found a lot of nice stuff."
"Like that fabric?" the white Mry, who was indeed Healsong, the village doctor, said, adding with a chuckle; "And by the way, you're right about the singing, I was just teasing you a bit."
"Sounds like my weirdo sis is rubbing off on you, Healsong," Sunfire smirked cheerily. "But yes, all this fabric is one of the things we found at the Sand Shores. We found something else, too, though... and that is why I'm so glad you're here, because we need your help."
"Hmm?" Healsong said with surprise. "My help? For something you found at the Sand Shores?"
"Yes. Come along inside, and I'll show you," Sunfire nodded.

She led the way into the house for the two Mry, holding the small yellow and orange tabby Mry by a paw. The little one happily trotted along, keeping her feral lower body pressed against the side of Sunfire's lower body a bit, seemingly unhampered by her blindness.
"I liked your singing, Sunfire," she crooned, lifting her head to turn her unseeing gaze up to Sunfire's face, her small ears constantly flicking and swiveling in every direction. "It sounded very nice, you're good at it."
"Thanks, kiddo," Sunfire smiled as she led the way into the living room. "Now, you go sit by the window and be a good girl, Fleetfire, alright? I have to take doctor Healsong into the bedroom for a while. Oh, and Skyfire has something for you; she'll give it to you in a moment."
"Goodie!" the young Mry, named Fleetfire, said happily. "I'll be good, Sunfire! I'll sit by the window and listen to the birds, and I'll wait patiently till you and miss Healsong are done!"

She let go of Sunfire's paw and stepped further into the living room, lifting her head and sniffing to locate the open window Sunfire had indicated, using her small white staff to find her way around the furniture. The two adult Mry smiled softly as they looked for a moment at how the young one found her way to the pillows by the open window and sank down on them, leaning on the windowsill to sniff up the breeze, her ears perking and swiveling back and forth.
"Any news on her eyes, Healsong?" Sunfire asked as she led the white Mry to the bedroom door.
"Not much," Healsong replied with a shake of her head. "There's no real visible progress, but on the other hand, it hasn't worsened either, so there's still good hope she might heal."
"Let's pray to the goddesses she will," Sunfire said.
Healsong nodded.
"I have good faith, Sunfire. Now, what was it you needed my help for?"
"This," Sunfire said, stepping into the bedroom, where her storm-grey sister Skyfire was sitting by the low bed at the far wall. "Skyfire, Healsong and Fleetfire are here. How's the kit doing?"
Skyfire looked around.
"Oh, hello doctor Healsong." She shook her head a bit, but with a light smile. "The kit's still out, but seems to be sleeping calmly. Her breathing improved even more, luckily." She rose up and half-turned. "Can you take a look at her and help her, doctor Healsong?"
She motioned at the bed, in which the small cinnamon-colored feline girl with the dark brown arms, legs, tail, ears and face was lying. The white Mry stepped forwards, her silvergrey eyes widening at the sight of the strange little feline in the bed.
"By the goddesses," she said softly. "What is this?"
"We have no clue," Skyfire said. "We found her on the western Sand Shores when we were collecting items that had washed up after that bad storm of last night. She was clutching some driftwood and a roll of fabric, and she was hardly breathing." She reached out and put a paw on the white Mry's shoulder, her dark blue eyes shadowed with worry. "Can you help her, doctor Healsong?"
"I'll... see what I can do," Healsong said softly, stepping closer to the bed.
"Yes. Please. Help her as best as you can, doctor Healsong," Skyfire said softly. "Don't let her die. She's just a kit... she still has her whole life ahead of her, she should be able to live her life. Please help her."
"I'll do my best, Skyfire," Healsong smiled. "Give me a bit of room?"

Skyfire nodded and stepped away from the low bed, letting the white Mry sit down next to it to examine the small feline. Leaning her staff against the wall, Healsong leaned over the low bed, slowly running her paws flat across the small feline's chest and sides while pressing her ear against the girl's chest. With a soft nod, she lifted her head again and touched her nose against the little feline's almost black nose, her white whiskers quivering lightly. Again she gave a soft nod of her head, rising up a bit to very gently roll the small feline over onto her side so she could press her ear against the girl's back, before carefully laying her on her back in the pillows again..

Reaching into a pocket on the chest of her white robe, the white Mry took a small silver pocket watch, flipping it open and checking it while she held the small feline's wrist in her other paw. Every now and then she hummed quietly to herself, closing and putting the small watch in her robe pocket again and bringing her paws up to feel the small feline's nose and rub the girl's quite large and pointy dark brown ears between her fingers. Slowly lowering her paws again, Healsong sifted her fingers through the small feline's very sleek fur from her ears down along her arms to her almost delicate paws, and all the way down along the slender legs to the girl's dainty, somewhat narrow feet, feeling softly across and around the dark brown pads, again silently humming to herself. Leaning over again, the white Mry brought her paws back up to the small feline's head, supporting the head with one paw while she pressed a finger of her other paw between one of the small feline's upper lips and her lower lip at the side of her slightly narrow, pointy muzzle to open the girl's mouth and look inside, nodding her head with another soft hum.

All the while, Sunfire was sitting on her haunches near the head of the bed, while Skyfire was sitting on her haunches by the foot of the bed, fidgeting a bit, twirling her fingers in and out of each other repeatedly. As Healsong rose up and turned her upper torso to reach into one of the white leather bags at her side, the white Mry caught sight of Skyfire's almost nervous twitching, her lips curling into a smile.
"She will be alright, Skyfire," she said, taking a small bottle out of the bag. "She has a little hypothermia and suffered from shock, and she's rather undernourished, but she will live. Have you fed her anything yet?"
The storm-grey Mry breathed a deep sigh of obvious relief.
"Oh, thank the goddesses." She shook her head. "No, I haven't fed her anything yet. She has not been awake since we found her. All I could do was sit here and watch over her, and I've been rubbing and massaging her chest a bit to help her breathing get better."
"I see," Healsong nodded. "You did well, Skyfire. When she's awake, feed her light things; warm milk, porridge, or soup, and work up from there to bread, and eventually vegetables and meat or fish. She will most likely have a good cough at first and a sore throat, possibly trouble speaking; she has ingested quite some salt water which has hurt her throat and probably her lungs a bit, but it'll heal quickly. You can help her in that by adding some honey to the milk you feed her."
"Thank you, I will keep that in mind." Skyfire lowered her head and looked at her paws, twirling her fingers into each other again. "Doctor Healsong, could I... do you think it would be possible..." She looked up again. "Could I maybe feed her my own milk?"
At the head of the bed, Sunfire quirked an eyebrow, and Healsong tilted her head a bit, looking at the storm-grey Mry's anthro chest and breasts, which were uncovered as Skyfire had not put her vest back on after washing the sand and salt from it and herself earlier.
"You have not nursed before, Skyfire," the white Mry said, not as a question, but in the manner of stating a fact. "It's obvious, because you only have the single pair of breasts. How do you suppose to nurse this kitten? I see no objection to it, but how do you think you could do that since you have never nursed before?"
"I know, but..." Skyfire said softly. "I... I heard that even if you have not born young nor nursed, when you let a kitten suckle, it will, like, activate the production of milk so your second breasts grow and you can nurse the kitten eventually. And... maybe... like, isn't there... I don't know, maybe some kind of potion or something to stimulate the milk production, doctor Healsong?"
The look she sent the white Mry was somewhat hopeful. Sunfire was still looking at her sister with one eyebrow quirked and her head a bit tilted, but Healsong hummed softly to herself and ran a paw over her whiskers.
"You are not incorrect about the suckling stimulating the milk production, Skyfire," she said at length, nodding lightly. Again her lips curled into a smile. "And in fact you are right; there also exists a potion to instigate that process." She lay a paw on the storm-grey Mry's shoulder. "Do you really want to do this, Skyfire? I must warn you; the first few times it can be a tad painful, and once the second pair of breasts have grown in due to the production of milk, they will not disappear anymore after you stop nursing; you will have them for the rest of your life."
Skyfire nodded.
"I know. And... yes, I really want to do this, doctor Healsong. Honest."
"Right," the white Mry said with a smile. She turned back to the small feline, pulling the stopper out of the neck of the small bottle she had taken from her bag and gently opening the little feline's mouth with two fingers, dripping a few drops of the bottle's content into the feline's mouth after which she gently massaged the girl's throat to make her swallow. Stoppering the bottle and putting it back into her bag, Healsong then smiled at Skyfire. "I will come back tomorrow to see how she is doing, and then I shall bring with me a potion for you to activate your milk production. Until then, if this kit wakes up before that time, just feed her warm milk with some honey in it, alright?"
"Alright," Skyfire nodded, smiling softly. "Thank you so much, doctor Healsong."
"You're quite welcome, Skyfire," Healsong smiled. She took her staff and rose up. "There is nothing more I can do for her at the moment, so I will go now. Just keep her good and warm and watch over her to see when she wakes up, and I will check her again come the morrow."
"Thank you again, doctor Healsong," Skyfire smiled.

She stepped closer to the bed, taking one of the thick blankets to gently lay it over the small feline, tucking it in snugly at the girl's sides. The white Mry nodded and turned to walk out of the bedroom. Sunfire saw her to the door and also thanked her, before walking back into the living room.
"Has miss Healsong left, Sunfire?" asked Fleetfire, who was still sitting by the opened window, though she had turned her head to send her sightless gaze in Sunfire's direction.
"Yes, we're all done now, kiddo," Sunfire smiled. "She will be back tomorrow, though."
"But there are no lessons tomorrow?" Fleetfire said.
"Ah, but Healsong's not coming for you tomorrow, kiddo," Sunfire chuckled. "Come, we have something to show you. Give me your paw."

Yes, she said 'show you' to the blind young Mry. Fleetfire was not born blind, and as doctor Healsong had said, there was good hope that the young Mry might see again, so Sunfire and Fleetfire found no use in treating their baby sister any differently for the duration of her blindness. At the honey-colored Mry's remark, Fleetfire smiled and rose up from the cushions, holding out her little paw. Sunfire took the small paw in her own and slowly walked into the bedroom, where Skyfire was once more sitting next to the low bed, murmuring a melodious tune while she very gently ran her fingers through the wavy dark brown hair of the small feline in the bed. At the sound of her two sisters stepping into the bedroom, however, she looked around, and smiled softly, giving Fleetfire a soft hug as she and Sunfire stepped up to the bed.
"Hey baby sis," she crooned softly. "How'd your lessons go today?"
"Good, Miss Windsong may teach me to play an instrument," Fleetfire smiled.
"Doctor Healsong's sister? The bard?" Skyfire said. "That's great news, Fleety, she is very talented."
Fleetfire nodded happily.
"I hope she will teach me. I like music." She lifted her head a bit and sniffed the air, turning her head in the direction of the bed. "Who else is here? I heard you talking about someone when Miss Healsong was here, and Sunfire said you had to show me something?"
"Yes, we found a little girl when we were at the Sand Shores today," Skyfire said softly. "About your age, I would say. C'mere, step a bit closer, put your forefeet on the edge of the bed and give me your paw." Fleetfire did as Skyfire said, and the storm-grey Mry gently took her baby sister's little paw and carefully placed it against the cheek of the small feline laying in the bed. "See?"
Fleetfire leaned over a bit, her ears perked forwards, her whiskers fanned out, sniffing at the air a bit while she carefully ran her fingers along the small feline's cheek and muzzle, and from there up across her forehead, through her hair and along the large, pointy ears.
"Ohhh, her fur feels so soft and smooth," the young Mry cooed softly. "Her muzzle is quite long, too, and her ears are big." She turned her head towards Skyfire. "Is she sick?"
"She almost drowned," Skyfire nodded softly. "It even looked as if she was dead when we found her, but we found out she was still alive, so we brought her home to nurse her back to health."
"Ohhh," Fleetfire said again, with a note of compassion in her voice. "Poor girl. I hope she will be alright." She ran her paw down along the small feline's cheek until she felt the blanket that was tucked securely under the girl's chin, using both paws to gently pat the blanket, feeling the outline of the small feline's body under it. After a moment, the young Mry's face adopted an expression of puzzlement. "Where is the rest of her body?"
On the other side of the bed, Sunfire chuckled behind a paw.
"There is no rest, kiddo. She only has two legs. The part from here..." She drew her finger down over Fleetfire's side from where the young Mry's anthro upper back met the shoulders of her quadruped lower body, to the point just below and behind Fleetfire's feral forepaws, then ran her paw flat along the little Mry's side backwards to her tail. "...all the way to here is not there on this girl. She only has two legs, and her tail is at the bottom of her upper back."
"That is odd," Fleetfire murmured, running her paws over the blanket again. "I have never seen anyone looking like that. I mean, I know there's the felines who walk on four feet, but I've never seen any felines who look like this girl."
"Neither have we, nor doctor Healsong, and I daresay any Mry in this land, kiddo," Sunfire chuckled softly. "She looks very special alright, and she probably came from a land very far away from here."
"Yeah," nodded Fleetfire. "Wow, I hope she can tell us all about it. It must be so exciting!"
"We'll just have to wait until she wakes up and is healthy again, kiddo, alright?" Sunfire smiled. "And we'll have to hope she can understand and speak our language." She took one of Fleetfire's paws. "Come now, let's go back to the living room and let this girl sleep, alright?" She looked past Fleetfire at her storm-grey sister. "That goes for you too, Skyfire. There's not much you can do for her now, so just leave her be and come into the living room with us. We still have to sort through all that stuff we found on the Sand Shores, and besides, there's something you have to give to Fleetfire, remember?"
"Ohhh, yes!" Fleetfire said, turning her head towards Skyfire again. "Sunfire said you had something for me, Skyfire?"
"Ah yes, that's right," Skyfire smiled, rising to her four feet. "And you are right too, sister. We do still have to sort through all that stuff, and I can do that sitting by the door to the bedroom so I can hear it when this girl wakes up."
"Of course I'm right," Sunfire chuckled.

She lay a paw on Skyfire's shoulder and gently pushed her storm-grey sister out of the bedroom, holding Fleetfire by her other paw. In the living room, they all three settled down on large, soft cushions, Sunfire near the large stone fireplace where all the urns and vases and amphoras they had found were lying or standing in holders, Skyfire, after taking one of the cloth toys from the windowsill where they had been drying, next to the doorway to the bedroom, and Fleetfire settled down next to Skyfire, with an expectant expression. The storm-grey Mry smiled as she turned to her young sister, taking one of Fleetfire's paw in her own and placing the small feral lioness made of red and yellow velvet into Fleetfire's paw.
"I also found this at the Sand Shores, Fleety," she cooed at her baby sister. "Look, it's a little kitty toy, I thought you would like to have it. It's yellow and red, just like you."
Fleetfire smiled brightly while she ran her fingers over the velvet toy, exploring the shape of it with her fingertips.
"It's so cute!" the young Mry crooned, turning a bit to give Skyfire a hug. "Thank you so much, Skyfire! I love it!"
"You're very welcome, sweetie," Skyfire cooed. "I also found one that is green and blue; I will give that one to that other girl when she is awake, but this one is for you." She pulled near all the weaponry they had found on the beach with her forepaws. "Now, I also found a lot of very nice weapons, swords and daggers and sickles, and I'll have to clean them and sort them, so you just sit here and play, and be careful, okay? We don't want you to accidentally cut yourself."

Fleetfire nodded happily and sat back a bit, purring softly to herself while she explored the toy, rubbing it, feeling it, every now and then bringing it up to her face to sniff it - it still smelled slightly of salt and brine - or softly squeezing it. Eventually, she turned to the side a bit, facing Skyfire's large quadruped lower body, making the toy lioness 'walk' over the storm-grey Mry's lower back this way and that. Skyfire giggled softly, giving her tail a light lash now and then while she sorted the weapons, laying them sort by sort before taking each one from its sheath to clean it with a rag. By the fireplace, Sunfire had taken a coal and split it, using one half to write something on each amphora after she had uncorked it and smelled at the content. She grinned a bit as she looked at Fleetfire walking the toy lioness all over Skyfire's back, inventing and speaking out loud a whole story right on the spot about a hunting lion who was prowling the land, and suddenly encountered a very large snake, oh no! The 'snake', of course, was Skyfire's tail.

After a few hours, darkness began to settle in as the day drew to a close. Having finished their supper, the three Mry just sat together calmly in the living room. Sunfire was by the hearth again, in which a fire was burning, laying on the cushions in a relaxed pose, her feral hindlegs stretched to the side of her lower body and her tail draped over them, while Fleetfire was laying on her back in the embrace of Sunfire's forepaws, nestled against her big sister's anthro upper chest and hugging the yellow and red velvet lioness toy in her arms as Sunfire was reading to her from a book. Skyfire was still laying by the doorway to the bedroom, now carefully polishing the leather sheaths and scabbards of all the weapons they had found, and their belts, with some oil from one of the amphoras. All the while, she kept her perked ears turned in the direction of the bedroom, every now and then looking up from her work to glance through the doorway at the low bed in which the small feline was lying.

Suddenly, she sat up with a shock and leaned over, flicking her ears as she looked into the bedroom when a soft mewing sound rang out.
"I think she's woken up!"
She jumped up and hurried into the bedroom, switching on a small electric lamp standing on a cabinet in between the two low beds. Indeed, the small feline in the bed had woken up, looking around her with surprise and anxiety, mewing softly and a bit hoarsely. She had quite large eyes of an intense, deep blue color, which widened when she saw the large storm-grey Mry stepping up to the bed. Crawling backwards a bit, she clutched the blanket in both paws, holding it up over her muzzle while pressing herself with her back against the wall the bed was standing against, gazing at Skyfire anxiously.
"Don't be afraid," the storm-grey Mry cooed in a soft, friendly voice, laying down on her feral chest and belly by the side of the bed. "I won't hurt you. Can you understand what I am saying?" The small feline nodded very lightly, not taking her intensely blue, wide-eyed gaze off Skyfire, who nodded with a smile. "Good. Can you tell me your name, little one?"
Again the small feline nodded very lightly, keeping most of her face hidden under the blanket and not saying a word. Skyfire giggled very softly behind a paw.
"Alright, then what is your name, sweetie?"
"I... name... Lucinia," came the somewhat hoarse, squeaked answer from under the blanket. The small feline pronounced it 'lu-chee-nee-ya', the word making her cough a bit.
"That's a very beautiful name," Skyfire smiled. She placed a paw on her chest. "My name is Skyfire." She noticed the small feline's eyes widening again and look past her, so she turned her head, seeing Sunfire stepping into the bedroom as well, holding Fleetfire by a paw. "This is my big sister, Sunfire," she added, pointing at Sunfire, and then at Fleetfire. "And that is our little baby sister, Fleetfire."
"Sister..?" the small feline squeaked from under the blanket, coughing again.
"Yes, we are all sisters," Skyfire smiled, flicking an ear at a light grumble sounding under the blanket. "Are you hungry, Lucinia?" The small feline nodded ever so slightly again, her deep blue eyes now less anxious, but still wide. Skyfire looked at her sisters for a moment. "Sunfire, would you go and get a mug of warm milk, please? And put some honey in, like doctor Healsong said? Oh, and bring the other toy, please?"
"Sure, sis," Sunfire nodded, sending a smile at the small feline. "You don't have to be afraid, kiddo. We won't hurt you; you're safe here."
She turned and left the bedroom, while Fleetfire stepped a bit closer to the bed, holding the velvet toy in one paw and holding her other paw on Skyfire's back for direction. The small feline in the bed looked at Sunfire leaving, then at Skyfire and Fleetfire by the bedside, very slowly lowering the blanket a bit so her pointy muzzle became visible again.
"Safe..?" she squeaked softly.
"Yes, Lucinia, you are safe here," Skyfire cooed. "No one will hurt you here, and we will take good care of you." She reached out to lay a paw against the small feline's cheek. Lucinia drew back at first and closed her eyes, but opened them again and even very lightly leaned her cheek against the storm-grey Mry's paw after a moment. "Can you tell us where you come from, and what kind of girl you are, Lucinia?"
The small feline nodded a bit again, once more closing her eyes.
"I come... land, Salori. Desert land." She opened her eyes to look at Skyfire. "I not know... what you mean, what kind girl?"
"I meant, what do they call your people, sweetie?" Skyfire cooed softly. "See, my sisters and me, and all the others who live in this town, are called Mry. What do they call your kind?"
"Oh," Lucinia said with a cough, thinking for a bit. "I... Kattin." She shook her head a bit. "I not know, Mry."
Skyfire shrugged lightly, letting out a soft giggle.
"That doesn't matter. We have never heard of Kattin either." She splayed the fingers of the paw she was resting against the small feline's cheek, giving a soft caress. "Can you tell us what happened to you, Lucinia?"
The small feline shuddered softly and closed her eyes again, nuzzling her face into Skyfire's paw.
"Bad men come," she squeaked in a whisper, her hoarse voice quavering. "Burn village, kill men, steal women." She sobbed softly. "Men... kill mama. Take me... make slave. I... put on boat, sell as slave," she whimpered, shivering. "Then... big storm. Much noise. Boat break... I hold wood... float. So cold, so wet. I think... I dead."
She started crying softly, interspersed with coughs.
"Sunfire, that's... that's awful!" Fleetfire mewled, clutching her toy lioness and pressing herself up against her sister's side tightly.
"Yeah..." Sunfire said softly, stricken by the small feline's broken tale. She leaned over and gently pulled Lucinia into a warm embrace against her anthro chest, rocking the small feline in her arms. "Aw, ssssshhh now, sweetie, ssssshhh now," she murmured softly. "It's okay. You're not dead, you're safe here with us, and we will take very good care of you and make sure no one will ever hurt you again."

The small feline kept crying softly, pressing herself up close against Skyfire's chest, her head buried in the storm-grey Mry's bosom and her arms wrapped tightly around Skyfire's upper body, seeking protection and comfort. Skyfire gave her just that, holding the little Kattin in a warm embrace, gently rocking back and forth with her head a bit leaned down to softly nuzzle the girl's large dark brown pointy ears, murmuring soft comforting purrs into them. Sunfire, returning into the bedroom with a mug, looked at it with her head a bit tilted as she sat down by the bed.
"What's the matter?"
Skyfire cast her eyes up at her sister without lifting her head away from the crying Kattin's ears. With a few short words, she explained, repeating the story Lucinia had told them. Sighing softly, Sunfire shook her head, gently stroking the small feline's wavy brown hair with a paw.
"Good goddess, that's terrible," she said softly. "But my sis is right, kiddo; you're safe here, no one here will hurt you. We will see to that, and we will take good care of you."
"Yeah," Fleetfire piped up, stroking Lucinia's arm. "You'll live here with us now, and you can be, like, our sister too." She leaned in to softly nuzzle the small feline's cheek. "Hey, here, you want to hold my kitty?" she said, holding out the red and yellow velvet lioness. "I called her Sunburst. Isn't she pretty?"

Very slowly, the small feline's crying died down. She stirred in Skyfire's arms, rolling and lifting her head a bit, sniffing hard while she ran the back of a paw along her eyes, then along her nose. Nuzzling her cheek against Skyfire's breasts, she looked at the toy Fleetfire offered, hesitantly reaching out a paw to touch it.
"Pretty... kitty," she mewled hoarsely, the very corners of her lips lifting a bit in a tiny smile at the unintentional rhyme. "Is nice... I thank. You... sweet, Fleet... fire?"
"We have one for you too, sweetie," Skyfire murmured softly, lifting her head a bit to look at her honey-colored sister. "Sunfire..?"
"Yeah, I got it right here," Sunfire nodded with a smile, lifting her other paw in which she held the green and blue velvet lioness, handing it to Lucinia. "Here you go, kiddo, this one's for you. And here's some nice warm milk for you, too," she added, offering the mug.
The corners of the small Kattin's lips lifted a bit further as she took the green and blue toy.
"I thank," she squeaked, letting out a longing mewl. "Milk. I hungry."
Skyfire took the mug and gently brought it to the small feline's lips.
"Here you go, sweetie, drink some. There, small sips, that's it, nice and steady now."

The small feline drank gratefully, her eyes closed, clutching the green and blue toy with both paws. When she had finished half of the milk in the mug, she averted her head a bit, mewling softly.
"No more... I sleepy..."
"Yes, we'll go sleep now, sweetie," Skyfire cooed, handing the mug back to Sunfire. "Sleep is good for you. Tomorrow, the doctor of our town will come to look at you and make sure you are healthy, and from now on, you will live here with us, and we'll take care of you." She looked up. "Sunfire, I won't sleep on the pillows, I'll be in the bed with her tonight. Mind the fire when you and Fleetfire go to sleep, alright?"
"Sure, sis," Sunfire nodded. "We won't make it too late, it's been a long and eventful day after all." She softly stroked Lucinia's head with a paw. "Sleep well, kiddo. There'll be no more worries for you, promised." She wrapped an arm around Fleetfire's shoulders. "Come Fleetfire, let's go back to the living room and let her sleep now. I'll read you some more, and then we'll go to bed too, okay?"
"Yeah," Fleetfire nodded. She reached out, her paws finding Lucinia's shoulders and sliding over them so she could give the small Kattin a hug, leaning in to press a soft kiss on Lucinia's cheek. "Sleep well, Lucie. You're our sister now, and we'll always be here for you."
"Thank..." the small feline murmured softly with her eyes closed, nuzzling against Skyfire's breasts, still clutching the toy lioness in both paws against her own chest.

Sunfire smiled and wrapped her arm back around Fleetfire's shoulder, gently leading the small Mry out of the bedroom. Holding Lucinia cradled in her arms, Skyfire climbed into the low bed, laying down on her side with her forepaws and hindlegs drawn against her feral chest and tummy while she cradled the small Kattin against her anthro chest, pulling the blanket over them wit one paw. After switching off the small light on the cabinet, she leaned down her head and pressed a soft kiss in between Lucinia's ears, curling herself around the small feline's body protectively, giving her head a last soft shake before closing her eyes.

Not long after, Sunfire and Fleetfire returned in the bedroom as well. Not turning on any lights, they settled down in the large heap of pillows and cushions laying on the thick rug by the bedroom fireplace, snuggling against each other to go to sleep as well. It had, like Sunfire had said, been a long and eventful day, after all.

Vision

A new story, shorter than the previous ones, in which even more is explained already. The new character is now accepted into the timeline and will settle down, and in this story we learn a bit more about her, as well as about the Mry, and specifically little Fleetfire's blindness.

Just a word of warning; the original story series was initially intended, as I mentioned, for an adult feline stories group, so it was intended that all stories I'd write for the series would have sex scenes in them. in this new, refurbished version of this realm, I have not used any sexual scenes yet, but eventually, there will be sexual scenes, and just as an extra warning, there will be ones between Fleetfire and Lucinia, and between them and the others. So be warned! However, a warning about scenes of such nature shall be put in red at the top of the post,, in these preliminaries, so you'll be able to tell which story will have naughtiness in it and will be able to skip it if that's not your thing to read about =~.^=

A new day dawned bright and sunny over the Minnaluna Archipelago. Rays of sunshine warmed the land, the vegetation and the animals, drying the dew on the grass and the foliage and striking flashes of emerald, ruby and sapphire from the little drops of moisture. Jorbles started singing in the trees to greet the new day, a flock of Warbles flew overhead with their strange hoarse screeches and alighted on a small lake just outside Viola Valley in a spray of water.

Inside the valley, under the canopy of overhanging trees, the small Viola Town was coming to life as well. The Mry awoke to the light of Sister Sun and began preparing for the new day. Groups of the taur-like felines were seen converging at the large lake and waterfall at the foot of the mountains enclosing Viola Valley at the south side of the town, carrying towels over their lower backs, gathering for the communal morning bath; socializing through things like these was a big part of Mry culture. However, a few of the Mry were conspicuously absent.

In the mustard-colored house at the edge of the town, these three Mry had also awoken as the new day started, yawning and stretching like any quadruped feline. A fourth feline, simply anthro without the quadruped lower body, was gently woken up as well.
"Pssst, Lucinia? Wake up, sweetie. Sister Sun is up," Skyfire smiled as she gently ran a paw along the cheek of the small anthro feline with the very sleek, light cinnamon-colored fur and deep dark brown arms, legs, tail, ears and face. "It's time to take our morning bath."
The small feline, a Kattin as she had explained was the name for her kind, stirred and mewled softly. She yawned, rubbing her little fists into her eyes and looking up at the large storm-grey Mry with the frilly pattern of zig-zagging silvergrey stripes in her fur.
"Bath?" she said with a soft cough.
"Yeah, we always take a bath together in the morning, sweetie," Skyfire cooed. "Come, let's go, it'll do you good."
"We'd better not join the communal bath at the Big Lake though, sis," said Sunfire, rising up from the heap of pillows by the bedroom fireplace. "That might be too much for her yet, all those big and small Mry gawping at her like she's some kind of freak show. And you know they will; they're still not through staring at Fleetfire here, some of them aren't, so let alone what they'll do at seeing a girl of a completely unknown kind none of us has ever seen before."
"I guess you're right," Skyfire nodded. "What do you suggest then?"
"Why not go to Pine Pond instead? Just the four of us. It's close by here, it's not very deep, and it's big enough for all four of us to bathe in."

Skyfire agreed. She walked out of the bedroom, holding the small Kattin by a paw, stopping by a small room next to the kitchen to take a few large towels and some brushes from a cabinet. Sunfire followed, holding Fleetfire by one paw and a bag with some bars of soap in her other paw. Leaving through the back door, the four of them walked out of the garden and headed to the west side of town instead of to the south.

Not long after, they reached a small pond, fed by a low waterfall through which the creek ran into the pond. Along the eastern shore was a row of pine trees growing on the edge of the shallow bowl in which the pond was, giving the little body of water its name of Pine Pond. Skyfire lay the towels and brushes down on a flat rock next to the low waterfall, smiling at the small Kattin as she led her into the water.
"Come, sweetie, I'll wash you first, and then you can help me, okay?" she cooed, wading over to the low waterfall. "Usually, we all go to a much bigger lake at the other side of town to bathe together with all the other Mry living here, but we won't do that for the coming few days. They would all stare at you, because no one has ever seen a girl of your kind, so you first need to get all strong and healthy again, and all the others need to first be told that you're here now."

Lucinia nodded softly, looking around her a bit apprehensively at the water she was led into with her large, intensely blue eyes somewhat wide. It was understandable; she had almost drowned in the ocean after all. But at finding the water was still and did not reach any higher than her midriff, the young Kattin relaxed a bit. Eventually, even a very soft purr began to sound in her throat as Skyfire scooped pawsful of water over her hair and started rubbing her hair and fur with a bar of soap Sunfire had handed her, although even the light purr caused the small feline to cough now and then.

All the while, Skyfire was softly murmuring while she washed the girl, sifting her fingers through the Kattin's wavy dark brown hair and smooth, sleek fur, gently rubbing in the lather she worked up from the bar of soap and massaging the small feline's skin underneath.
"There, nice and steady, that's it. You don't have to be afraid, you won't drown in this pond, and we're here with you to help you. This is nice, isn't it? Out communal baths are a big social gathering, you know. It's how we maintain such a nice, close bond with one another."
Lucinia nodded silently, relaxing under the storm-grey Mry's gently rubbing and massaging paws. Feeling Skyfire was done with her hair, she opened her eyes and turned her head a bit.
"Is... much Mry?"
"You mean if there's many of us?" Skyfire smiled. "Yeah, there's a couple dozen of us in this town, but there's several thousand of us in all the land of Nezinoma Salis; that's what this land is called, you see. They live spread out all over the land, in small villages and a few large towns. When you're all strong and healthy again, and you got used to everything, we'll show you around the land a bit more to see the other towns and such."
The small feline nodded again.
"Is only Mry?"
"Mostly, yes," Skyfire nodded with a smile, beginning to rinse the lather out of Lucinia's hair and fur. "On the mainland, called Minnaluna, there's a lot of different kinds of folk, but here on Nezinoma Salis, there's almost only Mry."
"There's a group of Flamelins in Mountain City, though," Sunfire said, looking up from washing Fleetfire's back.
"Oh yes, that's right," said Skyfire. "They're descendants from a party of Flamelins who were shipwrecked and got marooned on the eastern Sand Shores of this land ages and ages ago." She chortled softly, stroking Lucinia's head. "Kind of like what happened to you, actually."
The small feline scrunched up her nose, looking puzzled.
"Fla-muh-lins?" she repeated slowly. "I not know?"
"They look a bit like us, sweetie," Skyfire explained with a smile. "Only they don't have the extra body like we have, see? Around here..." She wrapped her paws around her own waist, where her upper torso met her quadruped lower body. "...we have this upper body, but with Flamelins, their head is here."
"Oh. Like lion!" Lucinia said, right after going into a fit of coughing from suddenly using her still quite hoarse voice with such enthusiasm at understanding something.
"Oh, easy now, sweetie, easy now," Skyfire said, softly patting Lucinia's back to help her stop coughing. "But yes, I guess you could say Flamelins look a bit like lions. They don't have manes, though. And their fur is very special; they have amazing patterns in their fur, and they can also be of very special colors like blue or green or purple."

The young Kattin nodded a bit, still coughing. Skyfire kept softly patting her back until she had stopped coughing, then gently rubbed the small feline's back with a smile, handing her the bar of soap and showing her how to work up a lather with it so she could help the large storm-grey Mry with washing. It took a little bit for the young Kattin to grasp the concept, but quite soon she had found out exactly how to work and she started smiling as she waded around Skyfire to wash the storm-grey Mry's large lower body. Every now and then, she drew a finger along one of the frilly narrow stripes of silvergrey crisscrossing Skyfire's dark grey fur.
"You nice look," she said softly. "Much stripes. Much much stripes. I not see stripes much."
"Don't your people have stripes in their fur, sweetie?" Skyfire smiled.
Lucinia looked at Skyfire's face and shook her head.
"Kattins no stripes. One color fur, or two color, like I. No stripes." She slowly waded around Skyfire's feral lower body to get to her other side. "You very big."
Skyfire giggled softly at that.
"We are a quite large kind, yes."
"Here, I'll help you!" Fleetfire said happily, splashing over to the two of them with another bar of soap in her paws. "I'll do her upper back, and you do her lower back, okay?"
"Thank," Lucinia said with a soft smile, looking at Fleetfire. "You not so big."
"I'm still young, like you," the yellow and orange tabby Mry giggled. "I'll still grow, and someday I'll be as big as my sisters!"

The small Kattin nodded with another soft smile, turning her attention back to Skyfire's feral lower back. With Fleetfire's help, the storm-grey Mry was quickly washed all over, and after rinsing the soap from her fur, she helped Lucinia wade out of the water. On the shore, the three Mry stepped away from the rock where the towels were on, shaking themselves to get most of the water out of their fur.
"Eek!" Lucinia squeaked, ducking and shielding herself with her arms as she was showered with a rain of droplets. But then, for the first time, she giggled softly as she saw how the vigorous shaking left the fur of the three Mry a bit poofed out. "Hee hee. Funny."
"And that's why we brought the brushes, sweetie," Skyfire chortled. "But first, we'll rub ourselves completely dry with these." She took one of the large towels. "C'mere, I'll help you dry off."

Lucinia nodded again and stepped over to Skyfire, closing her eyes and swaying lightly as the storm-grey Mry began to rub her with the towel, a soft and slightly broken purr sounding in her throat. When she was dry, she helped Skyfire rubbing the last water out of the fur of her quadruped lower body, smiling.
"Bath nice. I like."
"It's a very pleasant experience, isn't it, sweetie?" Skyfire cooed. "That's why we enjoy bathing all together so much, helping each other, socializing and bonding. Quite soon, we'll go to the communal bath in the Big Lake again, and then you can meet all the other Mry of this town." She led Lucinia over to a stump of a tree. "Here, sit down on this, sweetie, and I'll brush you."

The small feline sat down on the tree stump, her broken purr deepening a bit when Skyfire began to brush her hair and her fur with a soft brush. Her sleek, narrow dark brown tail swished and flicked back and forth, her tiny, delicate dark brown toes curling into the grass now and then while she supported herself on the edges of the tree stump with both her paws.
"Mmm. Nice..." she crooned softly.
"Mm-hm," Skyfire nodded with a smile. "Here, stand up so I can do your legs?"

Lucinia did as Skyfire said, leaning one paw on the storm-grey Mry's feral lower back for support, lifting her left and right leg in turn as Skyfire brushed down towards her dainty little feet. When she was done, she softly stroked the Kattin's cheek and lay her paw on the girl's shoulder.
"There, all done," she smiled, tilting her head to the side a bit. "Gosh, you're such a beautiful kit. Just look at you."
"I want to," Fleetfire giggled, stepping up to Lucinia and touching her shoulder. "Can I look at you?"
The young Kattin scrunched up her nose in wonder as she looked at the yellow and orange tabby Mry gazing towards her.
"You... look already?"
Fleetfire giggled cheerfully and shook her head, lifting both her paws.
"I have to look with my paws, Lucie, because my eyes don't work anymore."
"Eh?" the small feline said with surprise. She looked at Fleetfire's very pale blue eyes with the milky white haze over them. "You eyes... strange," she said softly, tilting her head. "You no see?"
Fleetfire shook her head again, smiling.
"No, I can't see. Three Seasons ago, me and some friends were playing by the edge of the forest on the mountainside, and we accidentally disturbed a nest of yellow Buzzies. We had to run like crazy! But some of us got stung anyway. Those yellow Buzzies are fast! I got one in my eye, and it stung me in my eye." She shrugged. "In a few days, my vision went blurry, and then it just... went. I can only see black now, or at best dancing spots of colors when Sister Sun shines in my face."
"Oh..." Lucinia said softly, her large pointy ears wilting to the sides. "That sad. I sorry."
"Hey, you don't have to be!" Fleetfire smiled. "Miss Healsong, the doctor, takes care of me and helps me, and she says there's a good chance my eyes will heal again, and then I can see again. And I learned to see with my paws in the meantime."
"How?" Lucinia asked curiously.
"Simple, I touch you, I run my paws all over you and feel the shape of your body, and then I can form a vision in my mind of what you look like," Fleetfire smiled. "And my nose and my ears and my whiskers tell me a whole lot too, you know. I can smell and hear and sense where almost all things are, so I won't bump into things or fall over things."
"Really?" Lucinia said softly.
"Yeah!" Fleetfire nodded. "Here, I'll show you." She took the young Kattin by a paw and started stepping around the shore of the pond, swiveling her ears this way and that while keeping her head lifted up with her whiskers fanned out and her nose in the breeze, navigating flawlessly around the rocks and bushes, and eventually stopping at the edge of the shallow bowl in which the pond was. "Okay, here the ground goes upwards, and I smell pine and hear rushing water, so we're at the side where the waterfall and the trees are. There..." She pointed at the waterfall, "...is the waterfall, and it's coming from the creek that flows between the trees over there. The rocks are there, and..." She sniffed and pointed at a large, flat rock. "...that's the rock on which Sunfire laid the soap when we came here to take our bath." One of her ears suddenly perked and flicked, and she turned her head upwards, pointing up into one of the pines. "Oh! And there's a Jorble in that tree. Can you see it, Lucie? It's a colorful bird."
Lucinia looked up into the tree Fleetfire pointed at, peering between the branches. After a few moments, she indeed saw a small bird with bright yellow feathers sitting on a branch.
"I see. Is nice," she said, impressed. "So good! You no see, but you know place everything."
"I learned a lot," Fleetfire smiled. "Tell me about that Jorble? Is it a yellow one? They're usually yellow, but some are light green or orange. I like the orange ones best, they're so bright!"
Lucinia looked up into the tree again.
"Is yellow. Sing nice." The bird suddenly fluttered off. "Oh. It flew."
"They do that," Fleetfire giggled. "They're birds, after all." She turned her face towards Lucinia. "Can I look at you now? Skyfire says you're very beautiful, I wanna see for myself."
"Yes, good," Lucinia nodded.
"Thanks," Fleetfire smiled happily. "Stand still, okay? I'll be careful."

Lucinia nodded again, standing still and looking at what Fleetfire was going to do. The young Mry reached out, placing her paws on the sides of Lucinia's head, beginning to gently run her fingers over and through the Kattin's wavy dark brown hear and along her large pointy ears. Slowly moving down, she stroked along Lucinia's cheeks and the top of her narrow, pointy muzzle to her nose, then back to her cheeks and once more to her nose and her delicate whisker pads.
"Your hair is very lovely. So soft, and a bit curly. You have quite big ears, though, and your face is much different than mine," she commented, tracing the tips of her fingers along Lucinia's narrow cheekbones and around her small whisker pads. "Your muzzle is long. Ohh, and you have very long whiskers, very nice."
Lucinia twitched her whiskers a bit and scrunched up her nose.
"Tickles," she mumbled softly.
"Sorry," Fleetfire giggled.

She ran her fingers further down over Lucinia's face, along the sides of her neck and following the line of her narrow shoulders. Using both paws, she stroked along the length of the Kattin's right arm until she reached Lucinia's right paw, taking it in one of her own paws while running the fingertips of her other paw along and around the Kattin's slender little fingers and soft, small paw pads, taking in each little detail. Then the young blind Mry ran her paws back up along Lucinia's right arm and traced the line of her collar bone towards her left arm, doing the same to the Kattin's left paw. Returning once more to Lucinia's shoulders, Fleetfire then ran her paws flat along the small feline's slender chest and somewhat sunken sides towards her narrow hips. Lucinia wriggled a bit, every now and then letting out a soft giggle each time Fleetfire's exploring fingers tickled her.
"You're quite thin," the small Mry said with a note of surprise in her voice. "I hadn't expected you to be so thin." She ran her paws along Lucinia's sides and chest again, keeping her fingers a bit curled. "I can feel your ribs, too. You must not have eaten much lately, right?"
"No," Lucinia said, letting out another soft giggle at the ticklish feeling of Fleetfire's fingers tracing along her ribs. "Bad men on boat not nice. Treat slaves bad. I got not much food. I always hungry."
"That's such a crime," Fleetfire said, shaking her head. "Well, but don't you worry, Lucie! We'll give you all the food you can eat; you'll be fattened up nice and proper in no time!"
"I like," Lucinia smiled, swishing her sleek, pointy tail when Fleetfire's paws ran down over her hips and her rump.

The small red and orange tabby Mry nodded with a giggle while she lay down on her feral chest and tummy, her hindlegs tucked under her belly and her forepaws supporting her as she leaned over to run her fingers along the delicate curves of Lucinia's slender rump, running the Kattin's rather thin, sleek tail between her fingers from the base all the way to the pointy tip.
"This is so odd," she remarked with a soft giggle. "From the waist up, you look just like us, but from your hips down, you're so different! Even your tail is not like ours!"
"All Kattins tails pointy," Lucinia said, letting out a sudden squeak when Fleetfire's fingers ran across her crotch and thighs. "Eek!"
"I'm sorry," Fleetfire said, lifting her head upwards a bit. "Did I hurt you?"
"Uh... no..." Lucinia squeaked. "I... surprised. Not expect touch."
"Oh, okay. Sorry," Fleetfire giggled. She took one of Lucinia's paws and lay it on her shoulder. "Here, lean on me a bit so you can lift your leg, so I can look at your legs and feet?"

Lucinia did so, even leaning her other paw on Fleetfire's other shoulder as the small Mry slowly pulled up the Kattin's left leg, running her paws down along Lucinia's thigh, knee and calf, all the way down to the elegant, slender little foot. She traced her fingers along the Kattin's ankle and over the top of her foot, cupping Lucinia's heel in one paw while she trailed her fingertips over and around the petite toes at the upside, then along the underside, moving towards the small pads under Lucinia's foot. The small feline giggled and squirmed, swishing her pointy tail and shivering, her small toes curling under Fleetfire's manual scrutinizing. Eventually, she couldn't stop herself and rolled over in the grass, hiccupping as she giggled and coughed at the same time.
"Eee hee... hac... hee! Fleet... fire! Tickles!"
Fleetfire laughed cheerfully, leaning over to take Lucinia's paw and help her sit up.
"I'm sorry, I just couldn't help it! You have such lovely little feet and toes! So dainty, so elegant! Our feet and toes are much rounder and fuller of shape." She smiled and leaned over again, wrapping her arms around the small Kattin in a hug. "Skyfire was right, you are indeed very beautiful, Lucie! Thank you for letting me look at you. Now I have a lovely vision in my mind of how you look, and someday when I can see again, I can look at you to see how right I was at how beautiful you are."

At the other side of the pond, Skyfire smiled as she looked at the young Kattin and her baby sister while she collected the towels and brushes. Sunfire also smiled, taking her storm-grey sister by a paw and gently pulling her to her four feet.
"C'mon sis, let's go home. Let the kits socialize. Fleetfire knows her way home."
"Yeah," Skyfire nodded with a smile. "Good to see the little one loosening up a bit. She'll be back to health in no time."

Sunfire nodded in agreement and wrapped an arm around her storm-grey sister's shoulders, calmly walking away from the pond and back to their house, leaving the two young kits to play in the shadow of the pine trees. Their cheerful giggles danced through the air as they rolled and romped through the grass. Just two happy kits, playing, from nothing showing that one of them had been at death's door from drowning a mere day before, and that the other one had no eyesight.

The Survivor, part 3

And this is the third part of the "Survivor" story. A few last things, amongst other about Mry culture, are explained in this rather long part of the story, plus I still had to have doctor Healsong check up Lucinia. That's all done now, so all the preliminary about Lucinia getting into the Nezinoma Salis continent and being more or less adopted by Skyfire and Sunfire is now done, and from here on, the coming stories will be loose stories. They will still sometimes tie into one another or refer to things that happened in a previous story, but they won't be as direct sequels of one another like these last three were.

Sunfire's songs, I found online. The first song she sings at the start of the story is "Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament", and the original words were "Baloo my boy", but I changed them to "Minou. my kit" to make them more fitting for a feline character. The song was done in the 18th century, both by Barry Taylor and Lesley Nelson-Burns.
The second song at the end is "Will ye go lassie", © Robert Tannahill (1774-1810). Obviously, I swapped the word "lassie" for Fleetfire's name in Sunfire's version of the song.

A soft, gentle song with a slightly mournful tone to it rang out from the garden of the mustard-colored house at the edge of Viola Town, dancing away on the breeze.
"Minou, my kit, lie still and sleep.
It grieves me sore to hear thee weep.
If thou'lt be silent, I'll be glad.
Thy moaning makes my heart full sad.
Minou, my kit, thy mother's joy.
Thy father bred me great annoy.
Minou, Minou, Minou, Minou.
Minou, Minou, lu-li-li-lu.

O'er thee I keep my lonely watch.
Intent thy lightest breath to catch.
Oh, when thou wak'st to see thee smile.
And thus my sorrow to beguile.
Minou, my kit, thy mother's joy.
Thy father bred me great annoy.
Minou, my kit, lie still and sleep.
It grieves me sore to hear thee weep."

It was Sunfire, singing in a clear voice as she collected all the fabric that had been spread out in the sun to dry. She moved calmly through the garden, taking the yards of fabrics and rolling them up again into neat rolls, her tail contently swaying on the rhythm of her song.
"Twelve weary months have crept away.
Since he, upon thy natal day.
Left thee and me, to seek afar.
A bloody fate in doubtful war.
Minou, my kit, lie still and sleep.
It grieves me sore to hear thy weep.
If thou'lt be silent, I'll be glad.
Thy moaning makes my heart full sad." She carried an armful of rolls of fabric to the house and set them upright against the wall, never missing a beat in her singing. "I dreamed a dream but yesternight.
Thy father slain in foreign fight.
He, wounded, stood beside my bed.
His blood ran down upon thy head.
He spoke no word, but looked on me.
Bent low, and gave a kiss to thee.
Minou, Minou, lu-li-li-loy.
Thou'rt now alone thy mother's joy..."

Her voice trailed off as she finished her song, leaning over to begin rolling up several yards of white and blue striped velvet that lay spread across the grass. Another voice ringing out caused Sunfire to perk an ear and rise up, turning around to find the fully white Mry in the white robe, doctor Healsong, standing by the corner of the house, looking at her with a chuckle.
"I told you only the bards had the right to sing out in the open, Sunfire, didn't I?"
"You said it right; had," Sunfire grinned. "Are you gonna pester me about my singing every time you come here, Healsong?"
"I might, so long as you keep giving me a reason to," the white Mry said with a chuckle.
"I'll try and not sing around the times you usually come to our house, then," Sunfire chuckled, rolling up the last of the white and blue striped velvet and laying the roll across her shoulder. "I take it you came to look at that kit we found?"
"Indeed, and I brought that potion for Skyfire. How's she doing?"
"Who, Skyfire or that kit?" Sunfire teased.
Healsong laughed.
"Is that to get me back for teasing you about your singing?"
"It might be, since you gave me a reason to."
"Touche," Healsong said with another laugh. "But anyway, yes, I meant that kitten; how is she doing?"
"Much better," Sunfire smiled, collecting all the rolls of fabric under her arms. "She woke up last night. Hoarse, like you said, but she can understand our language and more or less speak it a bit too, though her speech is a bit messed up. But she could tell us she is a Kattin, coming from a far-away desert land called Saloria, and that her name is Lucinia."
"Saloria?" Healsong ran a paw over her long, crystalline whiskers. "I've heard tales about that land. How'd she get all the way over here?"
Sunfire smirked.
"Apparently, the village she lived in was attacked by bandits of some sort who killed all the men and sold the women as slaves. The kit's mother was also killed, and she was taken to be sold as a slave, but lucky for her the ship crashed in that storm of the other night and she was washed ashore here." She gestured at the rolls of fabric she was holding. "I assume all the stuff we found on the Sand Shores, which came from that ship, is all loot from plundered villages."
"Could be, could be," Healsong nodded slowly. "What a crime that those things still happen. That poor little kitten." A smile broke through on her muzzle. "But she's been very lucky indeed, escaping with her life and being found by you and Skyfire. So she woke up alright? I take it that's why you weren't at the communal bath this morning, right?"
"Indeed, we thought it was better to not subject the kit to the stares of all the others for a few days yet, so we took our morning bath in Pine Pond, and we'll continue to do that until she has gained back her health and strength."
"A wise decision," Healsong smiled. "Well, I'll have a look at her to see how her health is. Is she inside?"
"No, she's still at Pine Pond," Sunfire said with a smile. "Fleetfire wanted to look at her when we were done washing, and we left them there to play and socialize; they were hitting it off rather well. Should I call them in?"
"No, that's alright. I can check up on her by the pond as well." A wider smile curled Healsong's lips. "Besides, it will be a good chance to observe her for a bit before I give her a full check-up."
"That's true I guess," Sunfire nodded. "Well, give me a moment to put these inside and get Skyfire, and we'll walk to Pine Pond together."

She carried all the rolls of fabric into the house through the back door, calling out for her sister. Moments later both Mry stepped back outside, Skyfire greeting Healsong with a smile and a hopeful look as she asked the white Mry if she had brought the potion. Healsong laughed softly and nodded, handing Skyfire a small flask she took from one of the white leather bags at her side. Skyfire happily tucked it into one of the pouches hanging from her leather belt as the three of them walked out of the garden and covered the few yards of ground between the house and the small pond with the low waterfall.

The closer they got, the clearer they could hear the voices of Fleetfire and Lucinia carrying through the air in happy tones and cheerful giggles, and a few feet away from the pond, Sunfire halted and stopped the two other Mry with a gesture while she lay a finger over her lips to indicate them to be silent as she nodded her head in the direction of the pond with a smile.

In the shadow of the row of pine trees along the eastern rim of the shallow bowl in which the pond was, Fleetfire was laying on her side in the grass while Lucinia was sitting up on her knees, reaching out for the young yellow and orange tabby Mry with her large deep blue eyes kept tightly shut.
"I look you, Fleet Fire. Like you look, no eyes."
"Isn't that sweet," Skyfire smiled in a very low voice as she watched Lucinia beginning to run her paws all over Fleetfire's face and upper body. "She's trying to learn what Fleety has to go through."
"That's cute," Healsong agreed. "Her voice sounds better than I had expected, too."
"Well, we did give her a mug of milk with honey in it when she woke up last night, like you suggested," Skyfire smiled.
"Good, good," Healsong nodded. "Well, I'd better go and give her a full check-up."

The three Mry walked the last bit of distance towards the pond where the two kittens were once more rolling through the grass, giggling and tickling each other. Fleetfire became first aware of the three Mry approaching, and as she sat up, so did Lucinia, looking at the white-furred Mry in the white robe curiously while Fleetfire turned her sightless gaze towards Healsong with a smile.
"Hello, miss Healsong! Sunfire said you would be coming today." She turned her head towards Lucinia. "Look, Lucie! This is Miss Healsong, she's the doctor of our town! She's treating me for my eyes, and she and her sister, Miss Windsong, are giving me special lessons and everything. Miss Windsong is a bard, you know, and she's the teacher of this town, but since I can't see anymore, I can't have the normal lessons, so I'm getting special lessons. It's cool!"
"I'm glad you appreciate it so much, Fleetfire," Healsong said with a soft chuckle. "But today, I did not come for you, but to look at this little girl here and see if she has not been left with anything from almost drowning."
"Sunfire said that, yes!" Fleetfire nodded. She took one of Lucinia's paws. "She looks real special, doesn't she, Miss Healsong?"
"She does indeed, Fleetfire," Healsong smiled, turning to the small Kattin. "Hello dearie. Your name is Lucinia, isn't it?"
Lucinia nodded silently, looking up at the large white Mry in the white robe with a tad of apprehension.
"You doctor?"
"That's right, dearie," Healsong nodded, smiling. "I came to give you a full check-up, to see if you're good and healthy after what you've been through. You don't have to be afraid, I won't hurt you."
Lucinia gave another soft nod of her head, though she crept back a bit, towards Skyfire, taking one of the storm-grey Mry's paws in both her own while she looked at Healsong, dipping her large, pointy dark brown ears to the sides.
"Is... much gold?" she asked softly.

That question caused a bit of surprise. All three adult Mry looked at the young Kattin with their heads a bit tilted. Sunfire scratched herself behind an ear. Skyfire wrapped her arm around Lucinia's shoulders. Healsong leaned over a bit.
"What do you mean, dearie?"
Lucinia twirled her fingers into and out of each other, looking down at her paws with her ears still dipped sideways.
"In town I lived..." she mumbled softly. "Is doctor. Doctor look you, cost gold. Much gold." She lifted her head a bit, hanging on to Skyfire's paw. "Sky Fire, Sun Fire, I like. They sweet. I not want... be bother, cost much gold."
"Well, I'll be," Sunfire smiled, shaking her head lightly, while Skyfire lay down on her feral chest and tummy, leaning over a bit to lay both her paws on Lucinia's shoulders.
"Aww, aren't you a sweetie," she purred. "But listen, Lucinia, you don't have to worry about that at all. Firstly, we really like you too, and we want the best for you, no matter what it might cost. Secondly, it's true, we have coins of gold, silver and copper to pay for things, but that's almost only in the few big cities that are in this land. In the small towns like ours, we pay for things by trading, see? When we need items or services from another Mry, we give to them in return an item or service they might need or want, to pay for what we got from them. In some cases we even pay for items of services with sexual intimacy."

Lucinia listened silently to Skyfire, slowly nodding as she understood what the storm-grey Mry was telling her. At Skyfire's last words, however, a look of puzzlement slid over the young Kattin's face, her nose scrunching up a bit in thought.
"Eh?" she said softly. "I not know... what is... sexual, in... in-ti... ma-cy?"
Fleetfire got a gigglefit.
"You don't know what sexual intimacy is? Hee hee! But you're almost as old as I am already! How can..."
Sunfire lay a paw on Fleetfire's shoulder.
"Never mind now, Fleetfire. We'll talk about that later." She smiled at Lucinia and softly stroked the small feline's curly brown hair. "And you are such a little darling, worrying about what it would cost us when Healsong checks you up. But you really do not have to worry about that, Lucinia. Healsong does not charge much for her services, and even so, we have enough items of value to pay her with."
"Oh..." Lucinia said, a slow smile crossing her pointy muzzle. "I glad."
"And you know what, dearie?" Healsong smiled. "Because I think it's so very sweet of you to worry about it for Skyfire and Sunfire, I'll do your check-up for free. No cost, see?"
Lucinia smiled a bit wider as she looked at Healsong, her ears lifting back up at the white Mry's words.
"Is nice. I thank."
"No problem, dearie," Healsong smiled. "Now, come here if you will? In the light of Sister Sun, so I can see better?"

Lucinia nodded and followed Healsong into the sunlight, standing still with her arms dangling along her sides as the white-robed Mry began to check her over. Laying on her feral chest and tummy, Healsong leaned over a bit towards the little Kattin, taking each of Lucinia's large pointy ears between her fingers and looking inside them, carefully pulling down the girl's eyelids to look into her large blue eyes and gently lifting her upper lips to look at Lucinia's teeth, softly tapping the extended claw of her forefinger against the girl's teeth here and there, nodding to herself.
"So far so good," she smiled. "Lean your head back a bit, dearie, and open your mouth so I can look inside, okay? Say ahhh."
Lucinia did so, squeezing her eyes a bit as she leaned back her head with her mouth open, letting out a soft and long-drawn "ahhhhhh..." while Healsong looked into her mouth and throat.
"Mmmyes, a bit irritated, that was to be expected," she nodded. "Alright Lucinia, I'm done, you can close your mouth again." She pressed an ear against the small Kattin's chest. "Breathe in deeply. Like that, good. And again? Good." Turning Lucinia around, she pressed her ear against the girl's back as well. "Take another deep breath. And another one. Yes, good, that's it. Sounds alright to me," she smiled, sitting back up and turning Lucinia back around to face her once more.

Calmly, the Mry doctor began to run her paws across Lucinia's slender chest and sunken sides. Just as when Fleetfire had done it, Lucinia squirmed a bit and giggled every now and then at the ticklish feeling. With a smile, Healsong took each of the kitten's small paws in her own and examined the pads, applying a bit of pressure with one finger to make Lucinia flex and extend her claws so she could examine those as well. A squeak escaped the small Kattin when Healsong ran two fingers across her smooth dark brown labia and parted them to look inside her vagina, then lifted the girl's thin, pointy tail to check her anus. Lucinia shivered and wriggled, but the next moment the white Mry's paws had already traveled down to lift Lucinia's legs one by one and examine the pads and claws of her small feet.

Finally, Healsong rose to her four feet and softly stroked Lucinia's hair, smiling at the kitten.
"All done, dearie. You're looking fine and healthy to me. A bit scrawny and undernourished, but that's nothing a good couple of meals can't fix, and I'm sure Skyfire and Sunfire will take care of that."
"You can count on that," Sunfire nodded with a smile.
"And... about feeding her, doctor Healsong," Skyfire said, looking at the small flask Healsong had given her. "How does this work exactly? I mean, I should drink it, obviously, but... can I nurse right after?"
"Not quite. It's not like when you drink that potion, you'll go 'ka-bloing', and the second pair of breasts will be there immediately," Healsong chuckled, shaking her head. "It'll be a process of a few days. That potion will stimulate your milk glands into production, which will cause your upper pair of breasts to increase in size a bit, and the lower pair of breasts to grow in."
"Right, yes, I sort of thought so," Skyfire nodded. "So, if I drink this, like, right now, then when will I be able to nurse?"
Healsong shrugged lightly.
"I couldn't tell you with any certainty, Skyfire. It differs from Mry to Mry. But if you drink that potion right now, you can try and let the kit suckle tonight at your upper breasts and see if you already give some milk. In any way it can't do harm to let her suckle tonight, even if there's no milk yet, for the suckling in itself will help to stimulate your milk production even better."

Fleetfire's ears pricked up with interest at the conversation. She took a step or two forwards and stroked Skyfire's arm, turning her unseeing gaze up to the dark grey Mry's face.
"Are you gonna give milk, Skyfire?" she crooned. "Cool! Can I drink it too?"
Skyfire chortled softly and looked at Healsong for a moment.
"Could she, doctor Healsong?"
"Sure, I don't see why not," Healsong smiled. "When you have both of them suckling you, that's only all the more stimulation, and a higher chance of your milk glands stirring into production faster."
"That makes sense," Skyfire giggled. She pulled the stopper out of the small flask. "Well, bottoms up, I guess."

She brought the small flask to her lips and tilted back her head, drinking down the potion in a few gulps. Lowering her head again, she made a face and smacked a couple of times, her whiskers twitching.
"Bluah, it tastes like cooked Foofle feet," she smirked, handing Healsong the flask back.
Sunfire laughed softly. Fleetfire got another gigglefit, and Healsong grinned a bit while putting the empty flask back into her side bag.
"Well, it's medicine, Skyfire, and no one said medicine is supposed to taste nice." She took her long, carved ebony staff. "Anyway, my work here is done for today, so I'll get going now. The girl is healthy enough, so just feed her well and she should be alright in no time. If her voice doesn't improve in the next few days, let me know and I'll give her something for that." With a smile, she stroked Lucinia's head, and then Fleetfire's head. "And I'll see you aftermorrow when I come pick you up for your lessons, Fleetfire, alright?"
"Sure!" Fleetfire nodded, taking Healsong's arm in both her paws and nuzzling her cheek against the white Mry's paw for a moment. "Are you gonna teach Lucie too?"
"We'll talk about that when she's fully back to health and more settled, dearie," Healsong smiled.
"And we'll walk you as far as our house, Healsong," Sunfire said. "That goes for you too, kiddos. It's time to eat."
"Yeah! I'm famished!" Fleetfire announced with enthusiasm.
"I hungry too," Lucinia said in a much softer voice.

Sunfire smiled and took both kittens by a paw, walking back to their house together with Skyfire and Healsong. At their garden, they said goodbye to the white Mry and went inside, where Skyfire heated up the Ruku soup she had made that day while Sunfire cut slices from a loaf of bread and covered them with slices of cooked sausage. Fleetfire ate with the ravenous appetite of a child having played outside in the fresh air, and Lucinia also ate with quite a deal of enthusiasm, although Skyfire kept an eye on the kitten to make sure she did not strain herself too much yet.

After eating, they sat together for a while in silence, content after their meal, just relaxing while the light of day slowly began to shift to the dusk of evening. Skyfire was laying on some large soft pillows at her steady spot by the bedroom door, her feral lower body laying relaxedly on its side with forepaws and hindlegs stretched out while her upper torso was comfortably propped up on one of the pillows, her arms cradling Lucinia against her upper chest. The kitten purred softly, her large deep blue eyes half closed and her arms wrapped around Skyfire's waist as she snuggled close. Fleetfire however was laying in the curve of Sunfire's lower body on the pillows by the fireplace, her own upper torso pressed against Sunfire's upper torso. She also purred softly as she unlaced the honey-colored Mry's vest and slid it off Sunfire's arms to nuzzle her head against Sunfire's breasts, using them for pillows to rest her cheek upon while she turned her face upwards to Sunfire's face.
"Sing me a song, Sunfire?" she purred.
Sunfire smiled, running her fingers through Fleetfire's hair.
"Sure, kiddo. What song would you want to hear?"
Fleetfire closed her eyes and nuzzled her face into Sunfire's bosom.
"Mmm... the one of the thyme and the heather, I like that one," she murmured softly.

Sunfire smiled again, nodding softly before leaning her head down to press a soft kiss between Fleetfire's ears. She leaned back in the pillows a bit, her arms wrapping around Fleetfire's upper torso to cradle the young Mry against her chest while she folded her feral forepaws around Fleetfire's feral shoulders and chest. After a moment's pause to collect her thoughts, the golden-furred Mry half-closed her eyes and leaned back her head a bit, beginning to sing in her calm, clear voice.
"Oh the summertime is coming.
And the trees are sweetly blooming.
And the wild mountain thyme.
Grows around the blooming heather.
Will you go, Fleetfire go?

And we'll all go together.
To pluck wild mountain thyme.
All around the blooming heather.
Will you go, Fleetfire go?

I will build my love a tower.
Near yon' pure crystal fountain.
And on it I will build.
All the flowers of the mountain.
Will you go, Fleetfire go?"
Fleetfire purred happily as she snuggled close against her large honey-colored sister, keeping her eyes closed and her head resting on Sunfire's breasts while she sang along softly with the chorus. Sunfire smiled at it as she continued the song.
"And we'll all go together.
To pluck wild mountain thyme.
All around the blooming heather.
Will you go, Fleetfire go?

If my true love she were gone.
I would surely find another.
Where wild mountain thyme.
Grows around the blooming heather.
Will you go, Fleetfire go?

And we'll all go together.
To pluck wild mountain thyme.
All around the blooming heather.
Will you go, Fleetfire go?"

Skyfire hummed along as well with the last chorus as it was sung by Sunfire and Fleetfire, rocking Lucinia in her arms on the rhythm of the song. The young Kattin had her eyes completely closed now, but the slow swiveling of her large, perked ears showed she was listening to the singing, her lips curled into a smile. When the song was done, Fleetfire rolled her head on Sunfire's breasts to turn her face up to her sister's face with a purr, lifting a paw to stroke Sunfire's cheek and whiskers.
"You sing so well, Sunfire. You should have been a bard," she crooned.
"Thanks, kiddo," Sunfire smiled. "I'm real happy to know you think my singing is good enough to be a bard." She chuckled. "And well, me becoming a bard would probably stop Healsong from teasing me each time she hears me singing."
"Miss Healsong does that?" Fleetfire giggled, feeling with her paw on Sunfire's cheek how Sunfire nodded in response. "Ohh, naughty Miss Healsong! I'm gonna have to tickle her for that!"
"Sure, kiddo, you do that," Sunfire grinned. "But for now, first go to sleep, hm? It's bedtime for kittens."
"Yeah," Fleetfire nodded. She turned her head in Skyfire's direction. "Can Lucie sleep with me, Skyfire?"
"I don't think that's a problem," Skyfire smiled. She leaned down her head. "Do you want to, Lucinia?"
"Yes," the little Kattin nodded, yawning a bit. "I like."
"Come, then," Skyfire smiled, rising up to carry Lucinia into the bedroom.

Sunfire followed with Fleetfire. The young yellow and orange tabby Mry found herself a spot in the heap of large pillows by the bedroom fireplace, nestling herself into them and reaching out for Lucinia. Skyfire gently lay the kitten down in the pillows as well, smiling as Lucinia cuddled up against Fleetfire, being hugged into an embrace of the young Mry's arms and feral forepaws simultaneously. The two kittens soon fell asleep, tired out from all their playing in the fresh outside air and all the new explorations they had made.

They were followed soon after by Skyfire and Sunfire, who both curled their large bodies around the sleeping kittens protectively. Another day had drawn to a close, and after the initial worry for the almost drowned kitten they had found, the Mry sank into a peaceful sleep now that they knew Lucinia was healthy and would not have any lasting damage from her ordeal. Within moments, the sound of four calm, purring breaths were the only sounds filling the air in the bedroom as darkness descended over the lands of Nezinoma Salis.

wow your deep i like

Geepers, I can't believe I forgot to update his thing with the few stories I wrote since January... well, here we go:

So here is another story of the three Mry sisters and their new, adopted Kattin step-siter Lucinia. This takes place a little while after the "Survivor" story, when Lucinia has recuperated enough to join the Mry sisters in some expeditions and see the surroundings a bit.

This story was inspired by the Thursday Prompt word 'silver', and it kind of ran away with me; it's one of the longest stories I've written in this series. It wasn't actually intended to become this long, but near the end I got an additional idea that was too good to pass up, so I added it to do a little something nice for poor Lucinia =^_^=

Silver

The morning sun had climbed into the sky to illuminate a warm, pleasant day. The gentle rays mixed with a soft breeze that rustled through the foliage of the trees, carrying the chirping and singing of Jorbles, interspersed with the languid cooing of a couple of Rukus. In the warm light, Skyfire and Sunfire were laying in the soft grass of their garden, content after a good breakfast. Sunfire was softly singing to herself while she tended to a vegetable patch, pulling weeds and checking on the growth of several different vegetables and herbs that grew prosperously in the rich Nezinoma Salis soil. Skyfire was sowing a short dress of purple satin for Lucinia, as the young Kattin had no clothes to wear. Not that that was a problem now that spring was well underway, but for the colder days, and for when they would mingle with others, Lucinia would need some clothing that would cover not just her torso, but her lower half as well.

Every now and then, both adult Mry looked up with a smile. Lucinia and Fleetfire were playing together, inventing entire adventures for their velvet toy lionesses that had them in peals of giggles time and again. Lucinia's voice was improving by the day, and even her speech got better the more she talked and listened to the others, picking up on their language more and more. She still pronounced their names as two separate words, and her grammar was still broken, but there was definite progress. The kitten was gaining weight, too; thanks to the potion from doctor Healsong, Skyfire's lactation had set in, and the rich milk coupled with the hearty cooking of the Mry were having a visible positive effect on the small and somewhat scrawny Kattin.

At a pause in their game, Skyfire called Lucinia over to her to fit the dress. It was a bit wide around the shoulders, chest and waist; Skyfire had made it for the kitten to grow into, but with one of Fleetfire's leather belts it was still a good fit. It billowed smoothly around her body, flattering her lanky form, reaching down to just above her knees and with a narrow split in the back to accommodate her sleek, thin tail. Lucinia was very happy.
"Is very beautiful! I not have dress this pretty before!" the kitten purred, giving Skyfire a big hug. "I thank you, Sky Fire!"
"You're very welcome, sweetie," Skyfire smiled, sliding the dress off Lucinia's body again. "Now, let me just hem it, and it'll be all done, okay? Then at least you'll have something nice to wear while I work on some more clothes for you."

Lucinia nodded happily, sitting down in the grass near Skyfire to look at the storm-grey Mry put the finishing touches to the dress. Skyfire smiled at her again while she hemmed the dress with neat little stitches, in the process applying a nice embroidered pattern along the hem with the white thread. Fleetfire also lay down near the two of them, playfully tickling Lucinia's side.
"You've been real lucky that ship you were on crashed and you were found by my sisters, aren't you, Lucie?"
"Yes!" Lucinia nodded. "I real happy I here now! You all so sweet for me!"
"Don't mention it, sweetie," Skyfire smiled. She looked up from her stitching for a moment. "That reminds me, though, I've been wondering; do you know why that ship that took you came around the west side of this land? It's very dangerous there, and I thought that was general knowledge. Why would they have taken the risk to sail around the west side?"
"I know," Lucinia said. "I hear men on boat talk. They talk of little boat they want take before. Boat has silver, in blocks." She held her paws about ten inches apart to indicate what she meant. "They chase boat, want steal silver. Worth much. But boat break and sink. Men say, at... shark tooth? I not understand. But they come around west way again, want look for sunken boat to take silver, but then storm, and boat break too."
"I heard that story," Sunfire said, looking up from the vegetable patch. "Breezecatcher said she had seen a small ship being chased by a larger ship some time ago, until it crashed onto the Shark's Tooth reef. They had to give up lest they would crash themselves."
"I think I heard something about that too," Skyfire nodded.
"Yeah, miss Windsong told us about it, in a lesson about why the ocean at the west side is so dangerous, with all the reefs and rocks and stuff," Fleetfire said, making a face. "She said the crew of that small ship got onto a lifeboat when they crashed, but those pirates picked them up and killed them all anyway! Mean buggers!"
"Pirates aren't exactly known to be very compassionate, Fleety," Skyfire said with a very soft chuckle. Done with hemming the dress, she bit off the tread and slid the dress back over Lucinia's body, adjusting it a bit here and there while humming thoughtfully. "Mmm..."
"Uh oh," Sunfire chuckled, shaking her head. "I know that look on your face, sis. Don't tell me you're thinking of undertaking another adventure again? You're not considering going out to the Shark's Tooth reef to see if we can find that sunken ship, are you?"
"Actually, that was indeed what I was thinking about," Skyfire giggled.
"You are such a weirdo, sis," Sunfire said with a cheery grunt. "How do you even figure to do it? In case you had missed the point, but it's dangerous out near the Shark's Tooth reef. You can't even sail close to it unless you're in a flatbottom boat, and even then you have to be mighty careful."
"So?" Skyfire shrugged. "Come on, sis, we know our way around Shark's Tooth, we used to go diving for pearls there all the time."
Sunfire rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, when we were eighty-four seasons old, weirdo! That's ages ago!"
"So?" Skyfire said again. "We only stopped doing it because you thought it would be easier to just scrounge the Sand Shores after storms instead."
"As I recall, that also was one of your ideas, sis," Sunfire smirked. "And as for this idea; forget it. I'm not going along in it."
"And why not?" Skyfire said. "We're still good divers. We can borrow a flatbottom boat from Wavewatcher. And it's a lovely day today, we don't have anything to do; it'll be nice to go for a swim, and even nicer when we return from that swim with a couple of cases of silver."
"You've got it all figured out already, huh?" Sunfire said. "Do you even have a plan for this?"
"Sure. It's simple, when you think about it."
"Oh, of course. It's simple. Everything is simple if we can believe you. But sometimes I wish you would actually think about those wacko expeditions you have us undertake." Sunfire rubbed her whiskers with a huff. "So how simple is this plan of yours, miss weirdo?"
"Easy as pie," Skyfire said, unperturbed. She started ticking off on her fingers. "We go to Wavewatcher's wharf in Oceanside with the autocart. We borrow a flatbottom boat from her. You and Fleetfire bring the boat around to Black Rock Point at the west Sand Shores, while me and Lucinia take the autocart there and meet you there. Then we go out to Shark's Tooth, find the sunken ship, dive to it and bring up the silver, which we will then bring back to the autocart. When we're all done, Lucinia and me will take the autocart back to Wavewatcher's wharf while you and Fleetfire take the boat there, we'll pay her with one of the silver bars, go home, and presto! One day well-spent, with good earnings in the end."
"Yeah!" Fleetfire chimed in with enthusiasm. "Come on, Sunfire, it'll be fun! And I haven't been to the ocean in like forever! Please can we go? Pleeease?"

She turned her face in Sunfire's direction and batted her eyelashes, bringing an as begging as she could manage expression to her face. The honey-colored Mry huffed and rubbed her whiskers again, smirking.
"I can't believe I'm letting myself be talked into one of these Hoppy-brained adventures again."
"So that's a yes?" Skyfire chuckled.
"Yeah yeah yeah," Sunfire grunted. "It's alright already, let's do it. I know you two wouldn't give me a moment's rest anymore otherwise."
"Yay! Wheee!" Fleetfire cheered, flinging her arms around Sunfire's neck. "You're like the best big sister ever, Sunny!"
"Yeah yeah yeah," Sunfire grunted again, though a smile did crack on her muzzle.

Skyfire giggled softly as she stood up and led the way into their house. Fleetfire followed happily; Lucinia followed with surprise stamped on her face, and Sunfire brought up the rear, shaking her head. In a matter of moments, all preparations were made; a big basket of food to bring with them, large saddle bags, several thick coils of rope, and their old diving gear, which consisted of thick belts with large, closeable pouches and several metal weights hanging from them were collected and carried out to the small open building on the side of the house where their car was stored. Lucinia looked at the large, dark terra-colored vehicle with large, surprised eyes.
"What that?"
"This is our autocart, sweetie," Skyfire smiled as she set the basket of food and coils of rope in the trunk. "Do you know what a cart is?" Lucinia nodded silently. "Right. Well, this is the next step, you could say; it has a roof and windows so you're shielded from the weather, and it doesn't need horses or oxes or whatever to pull it, there's a thing in it called a motor, which makes this thing go by itself, or automatically; that's why we call it an autocart."
"Oh," Lucinia said, nibbling a fingertip while she stared at the vehicle. "You make this?"
Skyfire laughed softly.
"Goddess, no! I couldn't possibly make one of these! In fact, no Mry could at first, but when we came to this land, we found these old villages and cities, you know, and there were all kinds of things there which we had never heard of. Like that prickly invisible stuff from electric eels; there were machines that could harness it and catch it from running water and so, and we can make lamps burn with it. Or windows and bottles and such from glass; did you know that was made from sand? Well, and in the big city we call Mountain City, there was a great big building where these autocarts apparently were made; the first Mry coming here found them, and from everything they found in that building, they learned how to make them."
"Oh," Lucinia said again. "How it work?"
"We'll show you," Skyfire smiled. "Hop on in."

Fleetfire was already in the autocart, sitting up on her briskets behind Sunfire who was behind the wheel. Skyfire helped Lucinia get in before climbing in herself and closing the door. The little Kattin looked around her inside the car with surprise, suddenly wincing when Sunfire turned the key and pressed the starter button to start the engine. At reassurance from Skyfire and Fleetfire, and after seeing nothing bad happened despite the noise, she calmed down again however, looking very surprised and impressed when Sunfire drove the car out of the small building and down the road.

She began to quite enjoy herself after a while, pressing her nose against the window to look at everything they passed by as Sunfire drove them past the village and out of Viola Valley. The lush, green landscape with its forests and meadows was certainly very different from what Lucinia was used to in her home land which was mostly desert.

After a long but calm drive, Sunfire steered the car into a small town nestled against the cliffs at the south-eastern shore of the continent. Again Lucinia gazed around in wonder at everything she saw; the buildings, the many Mry of all kinds of different colors and patterns milling about in their daily routines, and indeed more of the same cars, mostly in tints of blue or yellow, riding around or standing by the houses. Skyfire answered all of the small Kattin's questions with a soft giggle, and even Sunfire chuckled softly to herself over the kitten's enthusiasm while she carefully drove through the streets towards the beach.

There was a small harbor right below the cliffs. It was quite busy; several boats with colorful sails were coming in or going out, male Mry were shouting at each other as they unloaded nets full of fish from their boats with screaming seagulls wheeling overhead to catch any spills, here and there were stands where fish or other wares were sold. Sunfire parked the car by a small wharf with a weather wood sign reading "Wavewatcher's Boats" over the entrance, leaving the motor running while she opened the left door and looked at Skyfire.
"Alright, here we are then. I'll go talk to Wavewatcher and borrow a boat from her. We'll meet you at Black Rock Point, like you said. Be careful as you drive to there, okay?"
"Always," Skyfire said with a wink. "You know me."
"Yes indeed, that's why I worry," Sunfire smirked, getting out of the car. "Coming, Fleetfire?"
"Yeah!" the young Mry giggled, giving Lucinia a hug. "See you in a little while, Lucie!"

She climbed out of the car after Sunfire and took her big sister by a paw. Skyfire scooted over to the spot behind the wheel and closed the door, looking after her two sisters for a moment as they walked onto the wharf and started talking to a leopard-spotted female Mry wearing a blue and white striped top. Then she smiled at Lucinia again and turned the car around, driving away from the wharf and out of the small seaside town.

It was another quite lengthy drive to the west shore, but as Lucinia was firing question after question at Skyfire, asking about everything she saw on the way, they had covered the distance before they knew it. Skyfire giggled softly as she parked the car in the shelter of a couple of trees and walked down to the beach with Lucinia, seeing still some empty crates and chests laying scattered around, and even the two barrels containing some sort of alcohol which she had put against the side of a dune a few days earlier, that fateful day when they had found Lucinia on that very beach.

Just as they walked up to the enormous stretch of huge black basalt rocks reaching into the ocean, they saw a low, flatbottomed ship with a single sail coming from the southeast. Skyfire waved at it as it headed towards the strip of basalt blocks, lowering her feral lower body down onto the sand and smiling at Lucinia.
"There they are already, see? Come sweetie, you can sit on my back and hold yourself around my waist. I won't let you fall, promise."
"I trust you, Sky Fire," Lucinia said with a small smile.

She was a bit wary, but did indeed trust the large storm-grey Mry's promise that nothing would happen to her. Seated securely on Skyfire's back, she wrapped her arms around the Mry's waist and nuzzled her cheek against Skyfire's upper back, giggling softly to herself as she found riding on the back of one of these large feline taurs was rather amusing. Skyfire smiled and softly patted Lucinia's leg as she carefully climbed onto the huge black basalt rocks and picked her way towards the end of the strip, where Sunfire had meanwhile moored the flat boat.

Getting aboard, Skyfire sat down and let Lucinia slide off her feral lower back. Almost right away, the small Kattin was taken into a hug by Fleetfire, who offered her a roasted fish.
"Here Lucie, you gotta try this! They're yummy! And still a bit warm!"
"I thank you," Lucinia smiled softly.

She nibbled on the fish, cuddling up against Fleetfire's side, both out of affection for her new step-sister as for comfort, still looking around a little warily when Sunfire loosened the boat and sailed away from the strip of basalt rocks. It was smooth sailing, however; there was just enough wind for the boat to sail at a calm but decent pace, but not enough to create too high waves, so the small feline settled down quickly. Besides, her attention was continually drawn by Fleetfire's enthused chattering.

Before too long, Sunfire lowered the sail and brought out a pair of oars as they approached a number of large, jagged and spiky rocks sticking up from the surface of the water. The water foamed and swirled between them in the current, small waves breaking against the rocks, sometimes drawing them from view. Seen from the side, the cluster of rocks looked like a row of sharp, large teeth sticking up from the lower jaw of a shark; this was the dreaded Shark's Tooth reef. Reaching one of the rocks which stood a bit apart from the rest, Sunfire took a rope and fastened it to the rock to keep the boat in place.
"Right, this is as close as I'm gonna get us here," she said.
"It's close enough," Skyfire smiled.

She rose up on her four feet, standing high on her hind feet while she planted her front feet on the rock, looking out left and right across the ocean and the row of rocks with a paw over her eyes, pointing with her other paw and making a wide sweeping motion.
"Let's see. With the prevalent wind, and the current around here, ships passing around this side have to come from there and sail by in that direction in a wide arc to skirt the reefs. That means that small ship has come from there and passed by this way as it was chased by the pirate ship. Seeing as how the crew escaped in a lifeboat when the ship crashed and were picked up by the pirates, that means they can't have come too far into the range of Shark's Tooth, otherwise the pirate ship would have crashed or gotten stuck as well because of how shallow it is around here." She ran her paw over her whiskers. "Mmm. They'll have crashed near that small group of rocks over there to the side." Getting her entire lower body back into the boat, Skyfire sat down and took off her vest, belted on one of the thick belts with pouches and weights and tied her hair into a pony-tail. "I'm going to take a look. When I find the ship, I'll tell you the best way to get close to it."
"You mean, if you find the ship," Sunfire remarked dryly.
Skyfire stuck out her tongue.
"I mean, when I find the ship. Just have a little patience."

She climbed out of the boat and onto the rock again, and from there she lowered herself into the water. Pushing off from the rock, she swam off around the jagged rocks towards the small cluster she had indicated just now. Lucinia looked at it with surprise; the large Mry was surprisingly agile in the water, despite the strange shape of her body.
"Sky Fire swim good," she said, sounding impressed.
"Yes, we got a lot of practice," Sunfire nodded. "Back when we were younger, we used to go swimming and diving a lot around here, collecting pearls and such."
"Pearls is nice," Lucinia nodded. She looked at Sunfire. "What we do now?"
"Now we wait," was Sunfire's answer.
"No, now we fish!" Fleetfire giggled. "Look, we brought fishing poles! Have you fished before, Lucie?"
Lucinia shook her head.
"No. In my land, is no big water."
"Ohh, then you really gotta try it! It's fun!" Fleetfire smiled. "It's quite simple, too. Here, look, this is a fishing pole, see?" She took one of the fishing rods laying on the bottom of the boat and showed it to the Kattin. "There's a line on it with a hook on the end. Now, you take a little piece of bread and squeeze it into a ball, and you put that on the hook. Careful, it's like real sharp! And then you simply toss the line and the hook into the water. When a fish eats the bread, you feel it pulling on the line, and when that happens, you give a quick pull up, like so, and then you pull in the line, and you'll have caught a fish!"

She showed Lucinia how to bait the hook and cast the line. The small feline followed the instructions with interest, quite impressed at how Fleetfire managed it all without seeing a thing. With Sunfire's help, she tried it herself as well, and soon enough the two kittens were sitting side by side at the back end of the boat, chatting and giggling while holding their fishing rods. After some time, Lucinia suddenly squeaked.
"I feel pull!"
"Pull up!" Fleetfire said. "Short and sharp! Like that, yes." She could feel Lucinia's motion next to her. "Now pull in your line, slowly and carefully."

Lucinia did as Fleetfire told her, leaning back ever more as she pulled in her line. A few moments later, she pulled a small sea bass into the boat, looking at it flopping about.
"I caught fish!"
Fleetfire reached down and touched the bass, smiling.
"You did! Your first fish! Congratulations, Lucie! I'm so proud of you!"
"I thank you, Fleet Fire!" Lucinia beamed. She looked at the flopping fish. "How I get it off?"
"Let Sunfire do that," Fleetfire smiled. "It's a bit tricky, and you wouldn't want to get that hook caught in your fingers or something. That hurts!"
Lucinia nodded and looked at Sunfire, who smiled and softly stroked the Kattin's hair before reaching down and taking the fish off the hook.
"You did well, kiddo."
"I thank you," Lucinia smiled, looking at her fishing rod. "And now?"
"Now you put another ball of bread on the hook and do it again!" Fleetfire giggled. "Let's see how many... whoop! I got one too!"

She gave a short tug on her rod, then jerked it up energetically, pulling a fish out of the water and into the boat in a high parabola. Lucinia giggled cheerfully as the fish landed on the bottom of the boat with a wet splat, where Sunfire picked it up and took it off the hook.
"This funny! I like!"
"Yes, it's real nice, isn't it?" Fleetfire smiled. "Come on, let's see how many you can catch!"

They cast their lines again, giggling and talking happily. Sunfire looked out over the water for Skyfire, every now and then helping the two kittens as they caught several more fish. Just as Lucinia was about to cast her line again, she looked up with her ears perked when a cheery shout rang out from a little way furtheron.
"Oohoo!" It was Skyfire, holding herself up by one of the rocks and waving at them. "Guess what?"
"You found a catfish that told you a joke about two starfish making love and getting themselves tied into a knot?" Sunfire called back with a grin.
"Very funny, sis!" Skyfire called out. "But as a matter of fact, I also found that ship! It's right here below me, wedged between this rock and that one!"
"Well, congratulations," Sunfire said. "And now what?"
"Now I need you to bring the boat over here!" Skyfire called. "I checked out the ship; it's ripped open along the entire side, and I can easily get to the cargo hold! There's five chests in there, holding the silver! I can pull them out and tie a rope around them, and then you can haul them up into the boat! I need your help for that, sis, because they're too heavy for me to push up to the surface by myself!"
"Oh, right, right. Well, I'll see what I can do for you, sis," was Sunfire's dry answer.
"Make it snappy, will you?" Skyfire chuckled. "The water's chilly out here! My nipples are about as hard as this rock!"
"I'd better hurry, then, before you use those things to poke holes in me," Sunfire grinned. She winked at Lucinia and Fleetfire. "Sorry kiddos, but you have to stop fishing for a while."
"No problem!" Fleetfire giggled. "Do you want me to help you row?"
"You could do that," Sunfire nodded with a smile.

She untied the boat and took one of the oars, while Fleetfire happily took the other one. With the young yellow and orange tabby Mry calmly rowing, Sunfire used her oar mostly to steer the boat around the jagged rocks, every now and then sticking it down into the water to feel for rocks under the surface. They reached the rock Skyfire was holding onto without any accidents.
"Is that ship very deep down, sis?" Sunfire asked as she tied the boat to the rock.
"No, it's laying right on the mussel bank," Skyfire said. "If the mast hadn't snapped, you could see it sticking up out of the water." She took the end of a rope Sunfire handed her. "I haven't looked at how much silver blocks are in each chest, but they're in there, alright! You shouldn't have much trouble hoisting them aboard, they're quite narrow chests."
"Right," Sunfire nodded. "Well, I'll just wait for your signal, then."

Skyfire nodded, pulling in a few deep breaths and holding the last one as she dived down into the water. Her form remained visible for a while until it disappeared in the shadow of the rocks, trailing the rope along which Sunfire calmed eased off, until she felt it going slack. Waiting calmly, the honey-colored Mry held on to the rope loosely, looking down into the water. Only a few moments later, there were two short tugs on the rope. Bracing herself with her front feet against the low side of the boat, Sunfire began to haul in the rope, eventually pulling up a narrow wood box with a flat lid which was being pushed up from below by Skyfire, who broke the surface the next moment, breathing deeply and shaking the water off her head.

It was indeed an unusual shape for a chest; a little over a yard long and only a foot wide, and two feet high. On the four corners were metal rings, through which Skyfire had looped the rope. Sunfire untied it and gave it back to her sister, who once more dived down underwater with it. Meanwhile, Fleetfire and Lucinia started examining the box, opening the lid to look inside. There were two rows of silver bars along the length of the box, five behind each other and two next to each other, stacked five high. Each bar was about eight inches long and four inches wide, and two inches thick, weighing almost two pounds each.
"Much silver!" Lucinia exclaimed, impressed.
"Yeah, look at this, Sunfire," Fleetfire said enthusiastically. "There must be a hundred pounds in this box!"
"In a moment, kiddo," Sunfire said between deep, controlled breaths as she hauled in the second box. "Let's first get'em all up here."

Three more times Skyfire dived down below their boat with the rope, three more times she had Sunfire hauling up one of the narrow boxes. After the fifth one was aboard, Skyfire climbed into the boat herself as well, wringing out her hair and shaking herself a bit.
"That's all of them," she said, gasping lightly. "I checked the rest of the hull of that ship, but there wasn't anything useful down there. They were hauling barrels of something as well, but those were right along the side that got sliced open by the rocks, so they were all smashed."
"Well, I would say this is more than enough already," Sunfire said, rolling up the rope.
"Yes, not a bad result for a Hoppy-brained adventure, is it?" Skyfire teased.

Sunfire didn't bite. Instead, she continued to calmly roll the rope onto a coil and lay it down on the bottom of the boat, taking one of the oars again to row the boat away from the jagged rocks. With a cheerful giggle, Skyfire took the other oar and helped, until they were far enough from the reef to hoist the sail again and sail towards the strip of basalt blocks. This time, Sunfire ran the boat towards the beach until it scraped across the sand, hopping overboard to pull the boat further towards the shore so it wouldn't drift off again.
"I'd say we deserve a good meal now," she commented. "We didn't bring all that food for nothing, after all. And we can even fry some of the fish the kiddos caught."
"Yes!" Lucinia said happily. "Look, Sky Fire! I caught fish!"
She pointed at the number of fish laying in a small heap near the stern, looking up at the dark grey Mry for approval with a happy smile. Skyfire smiled, softly stroking the small feline's curly hair.
"That's very good, sweetie," she said. "Have you fished before?"
"No," Lucinia shook her head. "First time! No big water in my land."
"Then that's extra good, for your first time," Skyfire smiled. "I'm proud of you, sweetie."

Lucinia beamed and purred happily. She took some of the fish and carried them to the beach, carefully laying them down on the sand. Fleetfire brought the rest of the fish, and the saddle bags and diving belts which she carried draped over her feral lower back. Together, the kittens looked at Skyfire and Sunfire carrying the basket of food and the five boxes full of silver bars out of the boat. They made quite handy seats for the four felines to rest upon while they ate, now diving into the basket full of food instead of into the ocean. Sunfire dug a small hole in the sand and built a circle of stones around it, filling the hole with dry flotsam and dry helm grass, making a small fire over which they roasted some of the fish as well.

When all the food was gone, the four felines sat together for a little while more, listening to the surf and the cries of the occasional seagull.
"So," Skyfire said after a while. "Shall we go home?"
"Sounds like a plan," Sunfire agreed.
"Do we do it the same way? You and Fleetfire take the boat back to the wharf, me and Lucinia take the autocart to meet you there?"
"I had another idea, actually," Sunfire said, picking her teeth with a fishbone. "Look, there's still a bunch of rather good stuff laying around here, right? And over there..." She nodded towards one of the dunes, "...are those two barrels you spoke of the last time we were here. Why don't we, now that we're here anyway, have a good look around and see if there's any more items that are useful? Then afterwards, you, Lucinia and Fleetfire can take the boat back to the wharf, and I'll take the autocart. You're better at sailing against the wind than I am anyway, and if I ride in the autocart by myself, there's plenty of room left for those two barrels and any other stuff we might find."
"You know, sometimes you have good ideas, sis," Skyfire chuckled. "You do realize, though, that once we're at the wharf, we will need to get all four of us into the autocart again to get home? How would we do that if it's filled with you and those barrels and other stuff?"
Sunfire grinned and poked her sister's bare chest with a finger.
"Unlike you, I do think my plans through, sis. For one, at the wharf there's plenty of strong paws available to help us get those barrels onto the roof of the autocart. For another, we could sell or trade those barrels at the wharf or in Oceanside itself. And for a third, I can very easily first drive home, unload the barrels and everything else, and then drive to the wharf to pick up you and the kiddos."
"Okay, okay, you're right," Skyfire giggled. "That last option sounds like the best one, actually. There's some kind of strong alcohol in those barrels. I don't think we'd drink it, but it might be of interest to doctor Healsong so we could quite likely get a lot of extra lessons for Fleetfire and Lucinia if we offer it to her, and we could even try to see if the autocart runs on it. You know alcohol burns the same way like the lamp oil and the petro-oil we use in the autocart does. And if you stop by our house first, that would give the girls and me some extra time to look around in Oceanside. That would be nice for Lucinia, too."
"That's how we'll do it, then," Sunfire decided, nodding. She rose up and extinguished the fire, smiling at the two kittens. "Alright kiddos, go on and have a good look around, see if you can find anything useful or anything you'd like."

Fleetfire and Lucinia cheered and jumped up, running off across the beach with happy giggles to browse between the scattered items that were still left in the sand. The two adults smiled at it for a moment before taking the boxes of silver bars and carrying them to the car. Both barrels were also rolled to the car and stowed inside. As they walked back onto the beach for the third time, Skyfire looked up at an outcry from Fleetfire.
"Ohh! Lucie! Come here, you gotta see this!"

Lucinia, who had been poking around between the shards and pieces of pottery in a tipped-over wood box full of vases and urns, hopped up and ran over to where Fleetfire was sitting.
"What you have, Fleet Fire? Oof!"
All of a sudden, the small Kattin got caught on something and fell over, landing face-down in the damp sand with a thud. Immediately, Skyfire and Sunfire broke into a run, dashing over to Lucinia who was slowly scrambling up, sneezing and spitting out sand.
"Goddess, are you alright, sweetie?" Skyfire said, kneeling down on her forepaws. "Did you hurt yourself? What happened?"
"I fall," Lucinia coughed, wiping her sand-stained muzzle with both paws vividly. "Foot stuck."
Sunfire tilted her head a bit.
"Looks like you tripped over something, kiddo." She started ran one forepaw along Lucinia's leg towards her foot. "Hey, what's this?"

The young Kattin's dainty, slender foot had snagged in a large, heavy metal ring, causing her fall. Sunfire gently disentangled Lucinia's foot, shoveling the sand around the ring aside with her forepaws. Slowly, a corner of a wood chest became visible, buried under the sand.
"Looks like you also found a prize, kiddo," Sunfire said with a soft chuckle.
She rose up on her four feet, digging more energetically into the sand with her forepaws, gradually bringing up a fairly large wood chest with a half-round lid and heavy ironwork, and a big padlock on the front.
"Check that, looks like you found a big prize," Sunfire grinned.
Digging around the chest, she freed it up so she could grab the ring that had caught Lucinia's foot with both paws and pull the chest out of the sand. From one of the pouches on her belt, she took a small, thin knife, using it to pick the lock, after which she opened the lid, letting out a chuckle.
"I don't believe it!"
The chest was filled to the brim with silver coins with a number 10 on one side and a picture of a canine-looking animal's head on the other side.
"Well!" Skyfire laughed. "It seems this day certainly has a very thick silver lining!"
Fleetfire, who had gotten tired of waiting by whatever it was she had found and had called Lucinia over for, trotted up to them with her ears curiously perked.
"What have you found?"
"Is coins!" Lucinia said, looking into the chest quite stunned. "I fall over box, Sun Fire dig up box and open it, is much coins inside!" She took one of the coins, looking at it. "I not know picture. Is not from my land. In my land, is only gold coins."
"Wow!" Fleetfire said, dipping her paws into the chest and letting the coins slide through her fingers with numerous tinkles. "There must be hundreds and hundreds of them in here!"
"I reckon that's soldier's wages or something," Sunfire mused, running a paw over her whiskers. "Most likely looted by pirates."
Fleetfire hugged Lucinia.
"Wow, that's an awesome find, Lucie! You really seem to have good luck in everything, don't you? First you escape the slavers and are found by my sisters, then you catch more fish than me on your first time of fishing, and now look at what you found!"
"I not find box, I fall over box," Lucinia said, rubbing her foot.
"Same thing," Skyfire giggled. "The best and most precious things are often found through sheer dumb luck because you trip over them."
"And fair's fair, kiddo," Sunfire grinned, softly stroking Lucinia's head. "We always use the stuff we find on the Sand Shores for ourselves or trade them for other goods we can use, so we always share them with one another, but not our own first valuable finds. This is your first find of value, so it's all yours."
Her mouth sinking open, Lucinia looked up with wide eyes, letting out a squeak.
"Wha?"
"That's right, sweetie," Skyfire giggled. "We always share everything we find for common use, but when Sunfire and me first started combing the Sand Shores for useful or valuable items, we made an agreement; the very first valuable thing each of us would find, we could keep for ourselves." She gave Lucinia a soft hug. "Well, you just lucked out again that your first find of value turns out to be a big chest full of silver coins. Congratulations, sweetie."
"Yeah, congratulations!" Fleetfire giggled. "Think of all the awesome stuff you can buy with all of this!"

Lucinia gasped in bewilderment, unable to let out any other sounds but squeaks as she looked from one Mry to the other. Sunfire grinned softly and leaned over, scooping a pawful of coins from the chest and filling one of the pouches on Lucinia's belt with it before closing the lid of the chest and softly stroking the Kattin's head again.
"When you and Skyfire and Fleetfire wait for me in Oceanside, get yourself some nice things, kiddo." She looked at her storm-grey sister. "You might want to have them valued, Skyfire. These coins are larger and thicker than our silvers, and what with that number ten on one side, I think it's a fair guess they might be worth ten coppers instead of the five coppers that ours are worth."
"You're probably right," Skyfire nodded. She helped Lucinia to her feet with a giggle. "Come, sweetie. I think we found more than enough for now. Sunfire will bring everything home, and you, me and Fleetfire will take the boat back to the wharf, and then we'll go shop in Oceanside a bit, alright?" She giggled again. "With these coins, you can even buy yourself some nice clothes."

Lucinia nodded mutely, still quite dazed over the news that the entire chest full of coins was hers to keep. While Sunfire brought the chest and the rest of their finds to the car and drove off, Skyfire brought Lucinia and Fleetfire to the boat and calmly sailed it around the west side of the continent back to the wharf at the small town on the south-east side where they arrived just as the sun began to sink down towards the horizon. It had certainly been a very, very rewarding day. Like Skyfire had said; it had a very thick silver lining.

Well, it was about time Lucinia got to see the town she had been taken up in, and to meet all the other Mry living there! That what I wrote this story for; after a week or two, the little Kattin has recuperated enough to be introduced to the rest of the populace of Viola Town. As the Mry have a very nice, social bonding ritual, consisting of a communal bathing in the Warm Lake at the edge of their town, that was the scene for where Lucinia would be introduced.

Be forewarned; it's a really long story, and I'm pouring a ton of info over you! =~.^=

And lookie lookie... not only do we get to meet a whole lot of important Mry citizens of Viola Town, but we also get to meet ourselves a little antagonist! Yes folks, Morningdew is a nasty little girl, and we have definitely not seen the last of her! Like Skyfire said; "She's a troublemaker". And she will definitely make more trouble in future stories!

And to add to all the info...

Mry time-counting works in Seasons. There's four Seasons in a year; New Season (spring), Grow Season (summer), Harvest Season (autumn), and Sleep Season or Cold Season (winter). That last one is a bit tricky as Nezinoma Salis is laying in a tropical hemisphere and therefore not really gets a real winter.
So, when Lucinia says she is forty-two Seasons old, that means she is ten and a half years old in our counting.
A Cycle is one month, counted from harvest moon to harvest moon.
A half-Cycle is two weeks, and a quart-Cycle is one week.
They also say today, yesterday and tomorrow, and additionally, they say foreyester to denote "the day before yesterday", and aftermorrow to denote "the day after tomorrow".

More words used by the inhabitants of Minnaluna and Nezinoma Salis:

Jorble: A wild canary
Ruku: A pigeon
Hoppy: A rabbit
Swimmer: Spelled with a capitol, that denotes an otter. Spelled without a capitol, it means a swimmer =~.^=
Foofle: A cute little raccoon-like animal native to Minnaluna and Nezinoma Salis
Hissy (or Hissbeast in Saloria): A snake
Squeaky (or Squeakbeast in Saloria): Any type of mouse (in Saloria, it denotes a jerboa)
Buzzy: A stinging insect. Usually distinguished by color; a Yellow Buzzy is a wasp or Yellowjacket, for instance
Screechbird: A vulture
Runbird: An ostrich or emu

Faekitty: ...you'll see =~.^=

Viola Town

A fine morning mist hung over the valley, quickly being dissipated by the rising sun. Flowers rose their heads to the light, Jorbles, Rukus and other birds stirred awake and started greeting the new day with chirps and tweets and other calls, and Mry awoke and had their breakfast.

In the mustard-yellow house at the west corner of Viola Town, three Mry and a Kattin sat together in the kitchen to have breakfast together. There was a slight sense of excitement in the air; after two weeks, Lucinia had fully recuperated from her ordeal and gained a decent bit of weight on Skyfire's milk and the wholesome cooking of both the storm-grey Mry and her honey-colored sister Sunfire, and this day, for the first time, Lucinia would get to meet as good as all the other Mry of the town, besides doctor Healsong. After having taken their morning bath in the small Pine Pond which lay a few yards behind their house, Skyfire and Sunfire would from this morning on re-join the communal bath in the large Warm Lake again with their little sister Fleetfire, and Lucinia.

It would be a new experience for both the young Kattin, as for all the other Mry living in Viola Town. Except for doctor Healsong of course, who came by the yellow house daily to pick up and drop off Fleetfire, and who had also examined and treated Lucinia, no one in the town had ever seen a feline like Lucinia, who lacked the quadruped lower body. And Lucinia would for the first time get to meet a group of Mry that was way larger than three adults and one kitten, and witness the daily ritual of such a large group sharing a communal bath.
"Is much Mry in town, Sky Fire?" the slender kitten asked as she ate the last piece of her bread.
"Well, Viola Town is a relatively small town, but there's a decent-sized population here, yes," Skyfire nodded with a smile. "There's a couple dozen of us in this town. I'd say... oh... seventy, eighty of us, all in all."
"That's about right," Sunfire agreed. "There's room for a few more, but not all the houses in town are occupied."
"All big Mry?" Lucinia asked.
"Most of them are adults, yes," Skyfire smiled. "But there's a few of about Fleetfire's and your age, too."
"Yes, twenty-two, or twenty-three when counting you!" Fleetfire nodded. "We differ a bit in age, though. The youngest kit here in town is Moonlight, she's only twenty Seasons old, and the oldest kit is Morning Glory, she's sixty-eight Seasons old. You should see her! Her fur is so funky! It's all purple, a nice dark purple with light purple markings like flower petals! And her hair is purple too! Really beautiful! But anyway, so she's the oldest kit; she's actually almost an adult already. All the rest of us are kinda in between with our ages, and most of us are around forty to forty-eight Seasons old, like me, I'm forty Seasons old too. Well, actually, forty-one, if you count this Season."
"Oh. Is nice!" Lucinia smiled. "We same old, almost, I forty-two Seasons old. In my land, we count Seasons too."
"Cool!" Fleetfire said. "You like gotta tell us all about that land you come from! It sounds so interesting!"
"Yes, we'd love to hear about it, sweetie," Skyfire smiled, rising up. "But for now, let's get going to the Warm Lake, alright? It's about time." She softly stroked the Kattin's curly hair. "After the bath, when we've stopped by home here to dress, we'll walk Fleetfire to school, and then we'll show you around town, alright?"
"Yes!" Lucinia nodded happily. "I like see town!" She canted her head a bit, thinking on something. "I not go school too?"
"We'll talk to Windsong and Dreamweaver about getting you into their class, kiddo, but as it's the middle of the Season now, you'd have to wait till the start of the next Season at least," Sunfire said.
"Oh."
"And you know what's cool?" Fleetfire giggled. "What with you coming from a whole other land and such, you probably learned other things, so you might need some special lessons to get used to everything of our land! And that means you'll get into my class, because I get special lessons too since I'm blind!"
"That's very well possible," Skyfire nodded. "But like Sunfire said, we'll talk about that with miss Windsong or miss Dreamweaver after we dropped Fleetfire off at school. Come, let's get going now."
"Yes," Lucinia smiled, standing up. "I get dress and follow, Sky Fire."
The dark grey Mry smiled.
"You don't need to get your dress, sweetie. None of us bring our clothing to the communal bath, since we don't bathe with our clothes on, after all. We only need to bring our towels, some soap and brushes, that's all. After the bath, we'll walk home to get dressed, and those who work pick up the things they need for their work as well at that time. It's handier, because that way you don't have to carry too much with you when you go to the bath."
"Oh," Lucinia said again. "I understand."

She giggled softly as Fleetfire took her by a paw and started pulling her out of the kitchen and to the front door, following Skyfire, while Sunfire grabbed the small bag with pieces of soap and brushes and a few towels from the small room next to the kitchen. With the towels draped over their backs, and Lucinia holding hers over her free arm, they walked to the street that ran between the houses. The mustard-colored house in which the three Mry lived was the last in a row of fairly large houses, and a street paved with flat grey stones ran in two directions from right in front of their house; straight ahead towards the pass in the mountains enclosing the valley on the north-east side, and towards the right in between the row of large houses on the right side of the street, and a row of large-size cottages on the left side of the street.

Lucinia saw how the first three rather large houses after the house of Skyfire and Sunfire were uninhabited, although from the fourth house three Mry were coming; one adult female with a grey-blue fur and black hair, one female who seemed somewhat younger, and who had the fur in two tints of purple and the purple hair that Fleetfire had described when mentioning the Mry named Morning Glory earlier, and the third one was an even younger female with a deep yellow-ochre fur and blonde hair.
"That's Mountain Glory, Morning Glory and Golden Glory," Skyfire smiled when she saw Lucinia looking at them. "They're sisters, like Sunfire and Fleetfire and me are. Most of the couples you'll see in this town are sisters, although a few of the younger Mry are daughters of the older ones instead of sisters."

Lucinia nodded silently at Skyfire's words, too busy with looking around her to speak. Other Mry were coming from the large cottages on the left side of the road as well, all walking down the street that led further into the valley, in the direction of the mountains at the south-east side. The larger houses on the right side of the street ran all the way to the end, but on the left side, there were only a few cottages. Closer towards the end of the street was a very large building. It was twice as high as the houses, and several times as large. The small Kattin gazed at it with wide eyes.
"Wow... big house."
"That's the hotel," Skyfire said with a soft giggle. "There's a whole lot of rooms in there for Mry to sleep in. Sometimes, some of us in town want to spend a few nights together in another place than our own house, you know, and then we can use a room in the hotel. And we get travelers here too; Mry from other towns who bring items and food to the stores in our town here, and once every Cycle we have a market, and the merchants who come to sell things at the market can stay at the hotel afterwards so they don't have to travel back to their own town in the middle of the night."
"And right behind it, see that long white building?" Fleetfire, who was holding Lucinia by a paw, giggled. "That's doctor Healsong's hospital. When you're sick or injured, you can go here to have doctor Healsong make you better. I've spent a few nights and days there right after I got stung in my eyes by that yellow Buzzy." She giggled louder. "There's like real super-comfy beds and stuff there! It's all so nice that you would almost want to get sick or hurt just so you can spend some time in there!"

Lucinia let out a soft giggle of her own while she nodded a bit to Fleetfire's statement, looking at the indeed rather long, single-story building covered entirely in white plaster; even the roof tiles were plastered white. Walking in between Skyfire and Fleetfire, the small Kattin pressed herself up a bit closer against her protectors and step-sisters. Understandable, because by now a number of other Mry had joined them as they walked down the street, and of course all of them were staring at the little feline walking on only two legs. Many questions were asked, and while Skyfire was happily ready to give the same answers over and over as more Mry joined them, Sunfire took the lead and simply held up a paw.
"Look, we're almost at the Warm Lake, and everyone will be there, so that is where we will give all the answers to your questions, alright?" she stated. "That way we only have to tell the whole story once, instead of eighty times over."

Well, that was very logical, of course, and accepted by all the Mry who had joined the little group, although it did not stop them from looking at Lucinia and talking amongst each other. Still, they gave the small Kattin a bit more room, and as they reached the end of the street, Lucinia looked ahead of her with a soft gasp and her deep blue eyes wide and round. The street turned sharply to the left and to the right, leading to a bridge across a wide stream and through a gap in the mountains on the right, and towards a corner with another street running parallel to the one they had walked down on the left. Across from the street, however, a large stretch of grassland ran towards the wide creek, behind which the forest began, covering the last part of the level ground and running up along the side of the mountains, all the way to the top. The creek was coming out of an enormous lake to the left, which in turn was fed by a broad, high waterfall coming from the mountainside.

The lake was easily as large as half the town, and the waterfall was even twice as high as the hotel they had passed by on the way. Lucinia gasped softly as she looked at it; she had never seen anything like that in her entire life. Lush green forests, large lakes and waterfalls did not exist in the Kattin's desert-like homeland. She even stopped so abruptly in her tracks that Fleetfire felt a tug on her paw, which caused the young tabby Mry to turn her head in Lucinia's direction.
"What the matter, Lucie?"
"Is... so beautiful!" Lucinia gasped, staring at the lake and the waterfall, where a large group of Mry with all kinds of fur colors and patterns were converging. "So big water! Fall from mountain, so clear, so sparkling!"
"Ohh," Fleetfire giggled as she understood Lucinia's sudden stop. "You've never seen a waterfall?"
"No," Lucinia shook her head softly. "We not have in my land. Only small watering holes in... oasis. No rivers, no water falling from mountains. Is so beautiful!"
"Well, come on then, let's go look at it from closer by!" Fleetfire chortled. "All the others are already there too, I can smell it. You'll get to meet everyone, and you can feel how nice and warm the water is!"
"Yes, let's go, sweetie," Skyfire smiled.

They walked further towards the large lake. Lucinia could see how indeed the water was a bit warmed somehow; ever so slight tendrils of thin steam drifted up into the brisk morning air, quickly dissipated by the breeze. The air was filled with the sound of the rumbling and splashing water of the waterfall, and the voices of many Mry talking cheerfully with one another as they bathed in the lake, washing each other, in pairs of two or more, even in small groups. The voices gradually died down however as Skyfire, Sunfire, Fleetfire and Lucinia approached the lake, all heads turning to look at the so strange and unusual-looking newcomer with her pale cinnamon-colored fur, deep dark brown arms, legs, tail, ears and face, large blue eyes and significant lack of a quadruped lower body.

Soon enough, a barrage of questions rose up, water splashing as Mry stepped towards the shore to get closer to the sight. Lucinia shrank back a bit under all the stares, squeaking softly while she pressed herself up against Skyfire's side, half hiding behind the storm-grey Mry with her large pointy ears dipped sideways and her sleek tail drooping, almost tucked between her legs. Skyfire smiled and softly wrapped an arm around the Kattin's shoulders, giving a reassuring squeeze, while Sunfire, after stroking Lucinia's hair and ears, climbed onto a rock and stood up straight, facing all the Mry.
"Sisters!" she said out loud. "Undoubtedly you have noticed Skyfire, Fleetfire and I have not joined the communal bath for the last half-Cycle, and you may have wondered why! Here you see the reason, and no doubt, judging by your surprise, you are all wondering who, and what, this girl is! I shall explain to you the story, which will answer most of your questions!" She looked around, seeing all Mry now looking up at her. "As you all know, a half-Cycle ago, there was a big storm! The next day, Skyfire and I went to the west Sand Shores to look for valuables that would have washed ashore. We found many things, and imagine our surprise when among the items that we found, was this little girl! When we found she was still alive, we brought her home with us and had Healsong examine her. Fortunately, we found her to be in good enough health, and during the next days, we nursed her back to health. However, as we knew you all would be very surprised at the sight of her and would most likely group all around her, we decided to take our morning baths in Pine Pond for a while, until we were certain that this little girl was completely back to health and strong again. Now then..!" Again Sunfire looked around her at all the others, laying a paw on Lucinia's shoulder. "This girl here is named Lucinia. She understands our language and speaks it rather decently as well, thus she has managed to tell us her name, and that she is a Kattin, coming from the land of Saloria. Her village was plundered and she was taken to be sold as a slave, but the ship she was taken on was wrecked in that storm and Lucinia here managed to keep herself from drowning by holding on to some driftwood, eventually to be washed ashore near Black Rock Point, where we found her. She is forty-two Seasons old, and we have adopted her as our step-sister, so she will live with us right here in Viola Town. So from today on, you will be seeing her a lot more. And let me tell you this; she may look different from us, and she may talk a bit differently, but she isn't different, so we do not wish to see any of you treating her differently. Alright?"
There were murmurs and nodding of heads in the large group of Mry. Sunfire also nodded, curling her lips into a smile.
"Good, I am glad to hear that." She looked over at two Mry, one with a pale silvergrey fur, the other with a fur in a very special tint of light skyblue, streaked with a pale, light lilac color like fleeting clouds. "Windsong, Dreamweaver, we will bring Fleetfire to school ourselves after the bath, and we'll be wanting to talk to you about getting Lucinia into school when the next Season starts, okay?"
"I don't think there would be any problems with that, Sunfire," Windsong, the pale silvergrey Mry said with a smile. "We'll be glad to have her."
"Good, thank you," Sunfire nodded. She looked at all the others again. "Alright, this should have answered most if not all of your questions. Let us commence with the bathing now. If there are any further questions, we will be glad to answer them, but I say again; Lucinia may look different, but she is no different than all of us, so there will be nothing out of the ordinary about the situation; she is just another girl who has come to live in Viola Town."

There was more murmuring and nodding of heads, accompanied by the sound of splashing water as the Mry began to disperse again to resume their bathing. Many of them still gazed at Lucinia as they went, curiously, but with friendly smiles that worked a lot for the Kattin's peace of mind. She stopped hiding behind Skyfire, looking around herself at all the wet taurs with equal curiosity, her ears slowly pricking back up. There was one thing in particular that caught Lucinia's eye.
"Sky Fire?" she asked as the storm-grey Mry calmly led her into the, indeed pleasantly warm, water of the lake. "All Mry... is girl Mry?"
Skyfire giggled softly and nodded.
"Here in Viola Town, there's only females indeed, sweetie. There are male Mry, you probably noticed a number of them in Oceanside when we went to Wavewatcher's wharf to borrow a boat, and there's a good lot of male Mry in Mountain City too, and in Lake Town, and I believe there's even only males in Arrow Reef Village, but here in Viola Town, there's only females."
"Oh," Lucinia said. She smiled a bit. "Is nice."
"Yeah, it's real nice!" Fleetfire giggled, taking Lucinia by a paw. "C'mon Lucie, come wash me, okay? I'll do you. And you can come meet my friends!"
"Yes, I like," Lucinia smiled.

She followed Fleetfire a little way along the shore of the lake, to a shallow spot where a couple of other smaller, young Mry were gathered together, helping each other with their washing. There was the one with the deep ochre-golden fur and blonde hair they had seen walking ahead of them in the street; there were two who looked remarkably alike, both with brown fur decorated with a pattern of grayish black tabby stripes; the only differences between them were that one had dark brown hair and the other had black hair, and the brown-haired one's striped fur also paled to a cream-like white color on the chest and tummy of both her upper torso and her quadruped lower body. A somewhat small but lanky Mry girl had a simple black fur and black hair, and Lucinia smiled a bit when she saw how the last of the Mry kits in the group looked a bit like her; the same pattern in her fur, although her fur was white, with her arms, four legs, tail, ears and the mask in her face being of a light grey-blue tint with an almost lilac sheen to it.

All of them looked up when Fleetfire stepped closer with Lucinia, smiling and calling out.
"Hey Fleetfire!"
"We missed you the last half-Cycle!"
"How are you doing?"
"Is that your new sister? She's pretty."
"Isn't she?" Fleetfire giggled, still holding Lucinia by a paw. She moved her head from left to right, sniffing at the air before pointing to each of the other young Mry with her other paw. "Lucie, these are Golden Glory, Cloudchaser, Dartfoot and Fleetfoot, and Nightshade. They're friends of mine."
"It's nice to meet you, Lucinia," Cloudchaser, the white Mry with the grey-blue markings, said with a smile. "That's a very pretty name, too."
"I thank you," Lucinia said, canting her head a bit as she looked at the girl. "You look nice. Your fur look like fur my mother."
"Why, thanks," Cloudchaser smiled.
The small and lanky black one, Nightshade, giggled.
"You talk funny. Do all people of your kind talk like that?"
"No, Kattin talk other language. But I live near sea. In school, we learn talk of coast folk, they talk like you," Lucinia said with a soft purr as Fleetfire began to wash her hair and rub her shoulders.
"You come from Saloria, Sunfire said, right?" Golden Glory asked while she washed Cloudchaser's feral lower back. "My mom heard tales of that land when we lived in Oceanside. What's it like there?"
"Is much desert," Lucinia said, squeezing her eyes under Fleetfire's rubbing paws. "All sand, much much sun, very hot. No big water or falling water, like here. No big trees, too. We have long trees, thin, have big long leaves and big nuts on top. Is milk in nuts, sweet milk, very nice."
"Oh yes, I've seen those nuts on the market in Oceanside," Golden Glory nodded. "Those come from Saloria? That's awesome, I never knew that."
"Hey, Lucinia?" Fleetfoot, the brown tabby Mry with the brown hair and cream chest and tummy, said, looking up from washing her sister's black hair. "Can you hunt?"
Lucinia looked around, canting her head a bit.
"Hunt? Uh... no? I not learn, hunt."
"Ohh, we gotta teach you, then!" Fleetfoot said. "It can be real exciting, you know, and it's important, too; hunting is the way you get food. Of course, you can just buy it in the stores here in town, but it's much nicer to catch something yourself."
"Oh, like fish?" Lucinia said, her eyes lighting up a bit. "Fleet Fire teach me catch fish with pole."
"Yeah, and she's real good at it, too!" Fleetfire giggled. "On her first time out, she caught more fish than me!"
"That's cool," Dartfoot smiled, shaking out her wet hair when her sister was done with it. "We'll teach you to catch Hoppies, too; they're tasty, and there's lots of them outside the valley. And there's bunches of Swimmers in the marsh at the end of the valley. They're much harder to catch, but the effort is definitely worth it! They taste very good, and their pelts are quite valuable too."
"Are there like many animals to catch where you live, Lucinia?" Fleetfoot asked.
"Is Hissbeasts," Lucinia said with a nod. "They strange, look like big big long tail with only head on end. And is Squeakbeasts, very small, but funny, with big long legs and big ears, and long tail with plume."
"You have Hissies and Squeakies in your land?" Cloudchaser said. "We have those here too. There's Hissies in the marsh. Different ones, too; some live in the trees, but there's good swimmers too that live on the ground and in the water. They look rather nice, with all their colors and all, but they're dangerous."
"Yes, Hissbeasts dangerous," Lucinia nodded in agreement. "Not hunt Hissbeasts, but I learn kill them. Is needed. Hissbeast bite you, you go dead." She canted her head. "Hissbeasts here too? They make rattle sound too?"
"Rattle sound?"
"Yes. In my land, Hissbeasts have thing on tail. They shake, makes rattle sound."
"That's odd," Cloudchaser giggled softly. "The Hissies here don't have that. But they're still dangerous, alright, when they bite you, you will die too. But if you can kill them, you're lucky! That skin they have is very precious. I heard that in Mountain City, they pay three to five gold for Hissy skins."
"Are there birds in Saloria too?" Nightshade asked.
"Yeah! Screechbirds! They nasty, they eat dead people." Lucinia made a face, then giggled softly. "Is funny birds too, Runbirds, with big long legs and big long neck! They no fly, but run fast! And when they scared, they go; flop! Stick head in sand!"
The others all laughed and giggled.
"That's so weird!" Fleetfoot giggled.
"Well, what did you expect?" a new voice sounded. "Everything about this one is weird."

Lucinia and some of the others looked around. The new voice belonged to another young Mry, who certainly looked quite unusual herself, as her fur was quite thick, and a deep green in color, about the same shade of the pine trees growing on the mountainside. Random patches of lighter green and light brown mixed with the dark green color in a tortoiseshell pattern, and the girl's hair was the same tint of brown as some of the patches in her fur. She was rather short for a Mry; her four feral legs were shorter than usual, as was her tail, and her upper torso was very compact in build. One might even say; stunted.

Fleetfire smirked when the green-furred Mry broke into their conversation, and Lucinia noticed the other Mry girls also weren't exactly looking very pleased.
"Hush up, Morningdew," Fleetfire said with her ears half flattened. "No one asked you."
"What, can't have it someone says the truth about your little freak friend?" Morningdew sneered. "You can't deny it; she is weird. Look at that, she has the tail of a Squeaky!" She pulled Lucinia's tail, then smacked the Kattin's rump. "And look at that thin skinny ass!"
Lucinia squeaked and backed away from the green-furred Mry, while Fleetfire reared up and slapped Morningdew's paw away with one of her forepaws.
"You're one to talk about looking weird, stumpypaws!" she growled. "Leave her alone!"
"Oh boo hoo hoo. Are you gonna make me, blindface?" Morningdew said in a challenging tone.
"If she won't, we will," said yet another new voice behind Morningdew.

The green-furred Mry cringed just a bit. Behind her were standing Sunfire, and another adult Mry with a fur in a similar golden color, but even brighter, and the same tint all over her body. It was that second Mry who had spoken up, her ears flattened, an eyebrow quirked and her paws on her hips as she looked down at Morningdew, her tail swinging in an agitated manner.
"I told you to stop harassing others," the golden Mry said coolly. She grabbed Morningdew by an arm and pulled her away from Fleetfire and Lucinia. "Go get dried off, and don't let me catch you pestering them again."
"Yes mom," Morningdew huffed. It didn't sound very remorseful.
As she waded away through the water, the golden Mry turned back to Lucinia and smiled softly.
"I'm sorry about that, dear. I hope she didn't hurt you?"
"Uh... no," Lucinia said softly, stepping out from behind Fleetfire. "I just surprised, not expect hard touch."
"Oh, alright," the golden Mry smiled. "If she pesters you again, just let me know, okay?" She offered a paw. "I'm Honeydew, by the way, Morningdew's mother."
"I Lucinia," Lucinia said, putting her paw in Honeydew's paw. "Nice meet you, Honey Dew."
"It's very nice to meet you too, dear," Honeydew smiled. "And forget what Morningdew said; you don't look weird, I think you look very pretty."
"I thank you," Lucinia said with a soft smile.
"You're welcome, dear," Honeydew giggled softly. "Well, I'd better go see what kind of trouble she's getting herself into now. See you around, okay?"
"And we should be going too, kiddos," Sunfire added. "It's time to get dried off and go home to pick up Fleety's things for school."
"Alrighty!" Fleetfire smiled. She turned her head to the other young Mry. "See you all in a bit! I'm bringing some extra fish for lunch, we can trade! I hope any of you will bring Ruku legs or wings, mmm!"

She waved cheerfully at the others, taking Lucinia by a paw to follow Sunfire back to where Skyfire was waiting for them with the towels. Lucinia waved at the other young Mry as well, smiling.
"You friends nice, Fleet Fire," she commented as she stepped out of the water to let Skyfire dry her off. Her nose rumpled a bit. "Not Morning Dew. She not nice."
"Yeah, Morningdew's a rotten egg," Fleetfire smirked. "She's not my friend, in fact, she's nobody's friend. No one likes her, because she's a stupid..."
"Fleety, mind your words," Sunfire admonished, though she couldn't help one of her upper lips curling into a half grin.
Fleetfire chortled softly.
"Sorry. But she just is a rotten egg."
"Yes, I feel sorry for Honeydew, she has bunches of troubles with that kit," Skyfire said, brushing Lucinia's hair. "Best try and stay away from her a bit, sweetie; she's a troublemaker."

Lucinia nodded, looking up and waving with a smile when some of the other young Mry she had met stepped past them, accompanied by one or two adult Mry each, and waved at her and Fleetfire while calling out cheery greetings. A moment later, Skyfire and Sunfire took her and Fleetfire by a paw and started walking back to their house, where they dressed in their leather vests, while Fleetfire put on a green shirt and white belt, and Lucinia put on the purple dress Skyfire had made for her and the broad brown belt she had gotten from Fleetfire. Skyfire also took the rest of the roll of purple satin she had made Lucinia's dress out of, plus two of the larger swords and one of the gold sickles they had found on the beach two weeks earlier, and she smiled at Lucinia, nodding at the large chest full of silver coins that Lucinia had found.
"Fill a pouch with your coins and bring it with you, sweetie," she smiled. "When we show you around town, you might see some things you like in the shops, so it'll be handy to have some silver with you."
"I'm bringing some of these too," Sunfire said, putting two of the silver bars from one of the boxes they had salvaged from the sunken ship by the reef in one of her saddle bags. "She'll need a bow. We can get one at the metal shop, but I'll have Fireglow make a bow for her from this silver too."
"Good idea," Skyfire nodded. "Fleety, do you have everything?"
"Yep, all ready!" Fleetfire giggled, patting her saddle bag with her short white staff.

Skyfire chuckled and nodded, taking Lucinia by a paw again, while Sunfire did the same with Fleetfire. They walked back out and down the street, but this time, at the end of the street, they turned left and followed the street into town. Lucinia saw that behind the hospital, at the corner of the two streets, was a rather large building, with a large open side on one end, and a door on the front. There were three cars in the building; a black one without doors and wheels, standing on stone blocks, a white one of which the hood was opened, and a green one, also with the hood opened, and a black and white Mry in a leather vest and apron leaning over under the hood, doing something inside the car.
"That's the repair station for our autocarts," Skyfire smiled when she saw Lucinia looking at it. "When an autocart is broken, we can bring it here, and Dawnbreak will fix it. She studied in Mountain City, where autocarts are made, and she can fix any problem."

They walked around the building, seeing two other buildings at the other side of the street. One was a very small building, the other was rather long, with half of the front being open, giving way into a large floor space with an enormous fireplace on one side and several large tables along the walls, with racks holding tools against the walls above the tables. In the middle of the floor was a large anvil with a vat of water next to it, and a tiger Mry, with deep, bright orange fur and black stripes, also wearing a leather apron that went from her upper chest all the way down to her feral forepaws, was holding a glowing piece of metal between tongs onto the anvil, hammering on it, sending sparks flying everywhere. She stopped for a moment to wave with the paw in which she was holding the hammer when the three Mry and the Kattin passed by the shop.
"That's Fireglow, the metal smith," Sunfire explained. "She can make anything from every kind of metal." She smiled at her sister. "You walk on to the school with the kits, sis, I'll talk to Fireglow while I'm here anyway and ask her to make a bow for Lucinia from the silver blocks."
"Alright, we'll meet you outside the school," Skyfire nodded with a smile.

Sunfire nodded and gave a wave with her paw, stepping into the smithy, while Skyfire led Fleetfire and Lucinia further down the street, which opened onto a large open space paved with the same flat grey stones. Skyfire pointed out a few of the other buildings as she walked across the large square; the herb shop next to the smithy, and the weapons shop next to the repair station. A larger shop on the right of the square, next to the small herb shop, had a few stalls in front of it, displaying crates of fruits and vegetables, and next to that was a smaller shop of which the door was open, showing a calico Mry, white of fur with orange and black patches, laying on her feral chest and tummy on a low table, sewing a shirt from a piece of yellow fabric while humming a tune to herself.

Lucinia saw how more adult Mry were accompanying younger ones to the large building that was sort of wrapped around the corner of the square. The light silvergrey Mry named Windsong was standing in front of the building, waving at Lucinia as Skyfire led her towards the building. The other young Mry also greeted Lucinia and Fleetfire cheerfully as they stepped closer.
"This is the school," Skyfire said. "Miss Windsong is the bard and teacher of Viola Town, and she teaches lessons together with miss Dreamweaver, who's our town's story-teller."
"Miss Dreamweaver tells awesome stories!" Fleetfire chimed in. "Even if you're not in our school yet, you should really come here at story day and listen to one of miss Dreamweaver's stories! They're amazing!"
"I want," Lucinia nodded with a smile. "I like stories."

She looked up when the Mry with the light skyblue and lilac fur stepped out of the school building as well. Skyfire let Fleetfire walk up to her friends together with Lucinia while she herself stepped over to the skyblue Mry, talking to her softly. Every now and then, they looked over to where Lucinia and Fleetfire were talking and giggling with the other young Mry. Eventually the light blue Mry nodded and shook paws with Skyfire, who walked back to Fleetfire and Lucinia.
"Well, miss Dreamweaver will be happy to take you into the school at the start of the new Season, sweetie, and she agreed that it would probably be better to have you in a separate class for the first few Seasons until you're all up to date on Mry culture and history and everything," she smiled.
"Awesome! We'll be in class together, Lucie!" Fleetfire said happily.
"You will indeed," Skyfire nodded. She leaned over to press a soft kiss upon Fleetfire's forehead. "Now, have a good day at school, Fleety, alright? Doctor Healsong will bring you home, like usual."
"Okie dokie!" the yellow and orange tabby Mry said cheerfully. She gave Lucinia a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. "You have an awesome day too, Lucie! Have fun exploring the town with Skyfire! There's lots of cool stuff to see!"
Lucinia giggled softly.
"I thank you, Fleet Fire. You have good day too. I tell things when you back home."
"Great! That'll be fun!" Fleetfire smiled. She turned her head around with her ears perked when Windsong clapped her paws and called all the young Mry to attention. "Well, gotta go now. Bye! See you later!"

Turning around, she joined her friends who were all walking to the main entrance of the school building, following Windsong and Dreamweaver inside. Lucinia and Skyfire looked at it for a moment, then the storm-grey Mry turned to Lucinia with a smile and took the Kattin by a paw.
"Well, let's show you around town a bit, sweetie. We'll wait here for Sunfire to come back from the smithy, but I can already show you a lot of things. Look..." She gestured around her with her free paw, indicating the large square they were standing on. "This is our town's market square. When there's a market, Mry from the shops here, and traveling merchants, set up stalls all over this square to sell their goods. It's always very busy and very nice, and you can find and buy things that are not usually found in this valley." She pointed at the small building next to the school along the long side of the square, and another building next to the school at the short side of the square. "You already saw the tailor shop; that's where Dapplepatch makes clothes, from fabrics and from leather. She also makes belts and pouches and the backpacks and side bags we wear to carry things in, and protective carrying bags for musical instruments for instance, and sheaths for weapons and such. That other building there is the bread shop and bakery; Morningcloud is our baker, and she makes delicious bread and cookies and cakes."
Lucinia looked over at the bakery and stuck her nose in the air, sniffing deeply. Indeed there was a smell of freshly baked bread drifting out from the shop's windows.
"Smell nice," she smiled with a soft purr.
"Yes, the smell of Morningcloud's baking can make you really hungry," Skyfire chuckled softly. "And see that big building next to her shop? That's the inn. We can go there to have a drink and talk with others, and to listen to Windsong play and sing or Dreamweaver telling a story, and there's also a few rooms where you can sleep or cuddle with someone. They're smaller and cheaper than the rooms in the hotel, and usually only used for one night, but they're very comfortable."
"And you get a nice view over the creek from the rooms in the back," sounded Sunfire's voice from behind them.
They both looked around, and smiled at the honey-colored Mry stepping up to them.
"Ah, Sunfire, you're back," Skyfire chuckled. "What did Fireglow say?"
"She was impressed with the quality of the silver blocks. It's not gonna be a problem to make a very nice bow out of one of them, and she'll make arrowheads and buckles for the straps of the quiver out of the other block I gave her," Sunfire told them. "Have you talked to Windsong or Dreamweaver yet?"
"That's good," Skyfire smiled, nodding her head. "Yes, I spoke with miss Dreamweaver, and she'll take in Lucinia at the start of the coming Season, putting her in the same class as Fleetfire for a few Seasons to let her catch up with all the culture and history and stuff, and then Lucinia can join the others in the regular class."
"Good good, that's all taken care of, then," Sunfire said. "Here, you know what? Give me those swords and the roll of satin, and I'll go talk to Dapplepatch and to Eveningstar over in the metal shop and see what I can trade them for, and you can show the kiddo around town."
"We'd best go together, sis. I was thinking we might get some clothes and an iron or wood bow for Lucinia with some of this, and both Dapplepatch and Eveningstar will need to get her size. Besides, it'll be nice for her to pick out some things she'll like herself," Skyfire brought up.
"Sometimes that noggin of yours works half decently, sis," Sunfire grinned. "That's a good idea. Alright, let's go."

They turned and stepped into the small tailor shop next to the school building to talk with the calico Mry, who was now sewing sleeves to a blue shirt. A good trade was made for the roll of purple satin, and although there of course were no clothes that were really suitable for a Kattin as all clothing was made for Mry, Dapplepatch offered a long grass green shirt she had once made for Healsong, which was so large that it came down below Lucinia's hips like a short dress. After taking the little feline's sizes with a tape-measure she had hanging around her neck, Dapplepatch promised to alter the green shirt so it would fit Lucinia like a decent short dress, and she let the Kattin pick out a few more items, like a belt in blank leather that went quite well with her pale cinnamon-colored fur, and a small backpack in fine white leather. Lucinia also found a hat she loved very much; a small half-ball of light blue cotton with a wide, floppy brim and a very big, luscious blue feather stuck behind the darker blue cotton band that adorned the ball of the hat.

Stepping out of the tailor store, Skyfire and Sunfire took Lucinia down the street that ran in front of the inn. On the left were several large cottages; on the right was a building that, judging by the rolls of sausages and such displayed in the window, couldn't be anything but a butcher shop. While they were there anyway, Skyfire bought some meat for dinner, and Lucinia bought a spicy sausage to nibble on while she followed the two adult Mry around town, beguiled by the herbal smell of the sausage.

A small side street ran between the butcher shop and another shop that was closed down, the windows shuttered; it had apparently not been used for quite a while. Skyfire walked into the side street a little way, pointing out another small side street and a few buildings. The building on the right, flanking the stream, had a gigantic water wheel, and there were lightningbolts drawn on the door and the walls.
"Remember that prickly invisible stuff we make our lamps burn with that I told you about?" Skyfire smiled at Lucinia, who nodded with her mouth full. "It's made from the movement of the water in that building with the big wheel over there. That other building, with the small wheel, is the grist mill; that's where the grain and corn and wheat that's grown on the farms outside of town is ground into flour and all. Morningcloud sells it, and she also uses it to bake bread and cookies and so with. That really big building next to the mill is a warehouse where we store supplies, like grain and corn from the farms, and stone from the quarry which you can see on the other side of the stream, and processed timber from the lumberyards that are also outside of town, near the marshland."
"The lumberyards are not in full use, though," Sunfire added. "There's no one working there every day, it's more that when one of us has a need for timber, like planks to build something with, they go to the lumberyard, use the tools from there to cut down a tree in the forest, and process it into planks and such in the lumberyard building." They walked back down the small street, and Sunfire pointed at the empty, closed-down building across the street from the butcher shop. "This is why the lumberyards are not in full use anymore. This building is the carpentry; it used to be operated by Moonglow, Fireglow's sister, but she died a few Seasons ago, unfortunately. It's really a shame, because Moonglow used to make amazing furniture like cabinets and closets and tables and such; they were so good and so beautiful that even Mry from other towns came to Viola Town to buy them."
"Yes, Moonglow's carving work was renowned," Skyfire nodded. "She made Fleetfire's walking staff, for instance."

They walked further down the street, passing a number of large cottages that were on the right and the left of the street, until the street ended at a wide road running from left to right along the town. The road was easily wide enough for three cars to ride on side by side, and it also was paved with the flat grey stones. Halting on the corner where the town street connected to the road, Skyfire placed a paw on Lucinia's shoulder and pointed with her other paw down the road to the north-east, where it crossed the stream via a wide, low bridge and ran past a very large building and through the gap between the mountains enclosing the valley. Right in front of hem, across the road, was a field of very short grass with several neat rows of flowering trees; wide, round trees with pink flowers all over them, and a few rows of narrow trees with strange bulbous trunks and purplish flowers on them. More to the left, rows of fresh green conifer trees fenced off fields of tall green plants that calmly swayed in the breeze. Two narrow paved streets ran towards the end of the valley in between the fields.
"Look," Skyfire smiled. "Over there is the main entrance to Viola Valley, and those big buildings are the quarry, where they get the stone that all houses are built from, and the streets are paved with. There's also a clay pit, near the stream, see? They get clay from there that is made into bricks, and also into vases and urns and pots and stuff, and it's used to cover the walls of the houses with to make them look smoother. That big road opposite the buildings leads to the lumberyards." She pointed to the neat, straight rows of flowering trees right in front of them. "That's the fruit orchard. In Grow Season, those big round trees get full of apples and cherries and pears, and those weird thin trees get oranges and lemons on them."

Just as Skyfire was explaining that to Lucinia, a Mry wearing a blue shirt and a straw hat appeared between the trees, pinching away flowers here and there from some of the thin trees. Her fur was a light russet orange, paling to white on the chest and tummy of both her anthro upper torso and her feral lower body, and random patches of white were all over her anthro upper and feral lower back, sides, tail, arms and four paws. The left front foot and right hind foot of her feral paws, and her right paw, were also white, and there was a white spot over her muzzle and right eye. Skyfire giggled softly.
"Ah, and that's the orchard keeper, Applesauce."
Lucinia snorted a giggle, looking up.
"What?"
Sunfire grinned a bit, giving her storm-grey sister a playful swat over the ears.
"Don't teach the kit such silly things, you weirdo." She winked at Lucinia. "That woman's real name is Orangeblossom. But Skyfire is half right; everyone always calls her Applesauce, because she makes delicious applesauce. She doesn't mind if you call her Applesauce, either; she thinks it's rather funny, and she even calls herself that."
"See, so I wasn't teaching Lucinia anything silly," Skyfire chuckled, sticking out her tongue at Sunfire. She turned to Lucinia with a smile. "Applesauce lives in the farm at the end of the orchard, and her fruit is sold in the fruit store in town. You can't see it from here, but those two streets lead to the farms on the other sides of those fields, and around Applesauce's farm, she has a whole lot of berry bushes, too. Lots of different berries; cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, currants, you name it! And she even has a few banana trees, and she grows pineapples and grapes and several kinds of nuts, too! The soil in this valley is very nutritious, see, and at the very end there is the marshland, which gets the most sun because there's almost no mountains there, and all those fruit trees grow like you wouldn't believe down there."
"Yes, and on the other farms, they grow what you can see in those fields behind the conifer trees there; grain and corn and wheat and barley, and closer to the farm houses there's big vegetable patches where they grow carrots and lettuce and cabbages and beans and onions and garlic and several kinds of herbs, and actually too much to sum up," Sunfire said. "Those two farms are operated by the largest family of Mry living in Viola Valley, the Flower family; Daisyflower, Sunflower, Flaxflower, Orchidflower, Irisflower and Reedflower."
"And don't forget their little sister Cauliflower," Skyfire giggled.
"Oh hush, you weirdo," Sunfire sniggered, giving Skyfire another playful swat over the ears before looking at Lucinia. "They do have a little sister, but her name is Cloverflower, not Cauliflower."
Lucinia nodded with a soft giggle. Munching on the last piece of her spicy sausage, she slowly licked her paw and rubbed her whiskers, canting her head a bit in thought.
"I notice..." she said slowly, looking up at Sunfire. "Last part of name same, then they sisters? Like, they all called Flower, is sisters. You Sun Fire and Sky Fire and Fleet Fire, is sisters. Miss doctor Heal Song, miss teacher Wind Song, is sisters. So, last part of name is same, then Mry sisters?"
"Very clever!" Skyfire smiled, stroking Lucinia's hair. "Indeed, sweetie, when the second part of the names of two or more Mry are the same, then they are family, usually sisters, or mother and daughter. Or brothers, or mother or father and son, of course, in the towns where also male Mry live."

Lucinia nodded again, smiling while she took Skyfire's paw. They calmly walked back into town, this time following the street that ran in between two rows of large cottages, while Sunfire explained that on the back side of the Flower farms, facing the marshland, Reedflower took care of several unusual beds of sugar reeds and such, and that next to the Flower farms, close to the side of the mountains, was one other, smaller farm where a Mry named Dualtone herded several kinds of animals like cows and goats, of which the milk, and the butter and cheese made of it, was also sold in town.

Once more reaching the town square, they turned right and walked to the metal shop next to the large hotel. All kinds of items made by Fireglow in the smithy were sold there; tools for all kinds of jobs, from gardening to wood working to stone cutting, parts for the cars the Mry drove, and weapons, mostly swords and daggers and such, but also bows made of several types of metal, and different kinds of wood. Even though Lucinia had never held a bow before, she needed one to practice with as it was a craft she would need to learn, and with the help of the white with silver tabby patches Mry named Eveningstar, the shop's proprietor, they selected a nice small shortbow of beech wood with a decorated copper grip in the middle for the young Kattin, along with a brown leather quiver. Lucinia beamed when Eveningstar complimented her on the cute blue hat she was wearing.

All done in the town, the three of them stepped past the hotel and through the narrow street that ran along the side of the hotel, coming out on the street along which the large houses were. A brisk walk later, they were back at the house at the outer west corner of the town, going inside to make and have some food. The town was not very big, but after walking all through and around it, it was time for lunch.

To give you a bit of a visual aid; I drew up a quite detailed map of Viola Town =~.^= This is it:

The legend is as follows:

1: Quarry building
1a: Quarry processing building (here the stone is worked into usable bricks and such)
b: Clay pit
2: Small cottage for single persons
3: Large cottage for two persons/a couple
4: Large house for families of more than two persons
5: Carpentry (abandoned)
6: Butcher/meat store
7: Inn with private rooms
8: Bakery/bread and pastry store
9: School
10: Tailor/fabric store
11: Fruit and vegetable store
12: Herb store (like said; that's separate as herbs are also used for potions and medicin)
13: Smithy or forge
14: Autocart repair station
15: Metal store (for weapons, tools and autocart parts)
16: Hospital
17: Two-story hotel with private rooms
18: Warm Lake and waterfall, where the Mry have their communal morning bath

S: Warehouse for storage of supplies
M: Grist mill
The building with the lightning bolt on it is the electricity building.

This is as good as certainly the final version of this map =~.^= I might still do a smaller map to show the rest of the north end of Viola Valley, where the lumberyards and the farms are, but I'm not sure. In any way, this is what Viola Town looks like!

I suck at scale, so it's not in scale! As a guideline; the narrowest alleys between the cottages labeled #3 are wide enough for a Mry to walk through, the two streets are wide enough for two cars to pass each other, and the road coming from the north-east entrance into the valley is wide enough for three cars to ride side by side on.
Also; the alleys between the cottages and the stores are of stamped earth (looks a bit yellow)
And those little protruberances on the houses marked #4; those are the small open 'sheds' in which the Mry park their car.

Also, a larger version of this map, which will show you more clearly what and where everything is, can be seen in my FA gallery, right here:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3359365/

Another Thursday Prompt inspired story! The word in this case was "the box". Now, as I mentioned before, technology on the Nezinoma Salis continent is not so very far advanced yet. The Mry themselves have a technology level that's roughly the same as that of the ancient Romans from about 1 A.D. Yes, they do have cars, and electricity, but that is only because they found the abandoned villages and towns in Nezinoma Salis, where technology had advanced to about the level of the 1940's, and they simply took over what they found (though it doesn't mean they understand everything =~.^=)

The song Windsong sings is "The Women All Tell Me", first appearing in Chappell's "Popular Music of the Olden Time", published in 1859. I find almost all the old folk songs and ballads I have my Mry singing on www.contemplator.com which I find is an amazingly great source for songs from before the 19th century =^_^=

Listening to the box

While the day started calmly, it also started a little ominously. Even before sunrise, it could already be heard; a low, occasional rumbling in the distance. It was vague, coming and going, and always around the same strength; not getting closer, not moving away. When the sun finally did rise, it was clear that the animals felt it too; Jorbles were quieter than usual, Rukus were not heard at all. And the sky was not blue; it was tinged with grayish clouds, outlined in a flat yellow from the sun behind them.

At breakfast, Lucinia was surprised that her Mry adopters and step-sisters did not seem to notice it, or at least didn't comment on it.
"Sky Fire?" she asked when the wildly patterned dark grey Mry handed her a slice of bread. "What that sound?"
Skyfire perked and swiveled an ear.
"That rumbling, you mean? Nothing special, sweetie, it just means the goddesses are having a bowling tournament again."
Lucinia blinked in even more surprise, Fleetfire snorted a giggle, and Sunfire made a funny face at her sister.
"Don't be such a weirdo, sis," she admonished with a good-natured grunt, turning to Lucinia. "It's just thunder, kiddo. It means a storm is brewing somewhere over the ocean. It's probably very far off yet; sometimes we hear rumbling for a day, two days, before we actually get a storm."
"Oh," Lucinia said.

She fell silent while she nibbled on her slice of bread covered with butter and a few slices of sausage. Skyfire smiled and softly stroked the Kattin's hair after filling their milk mugs.
"Nervous, sweetie?"
Lucinia looked up and silently nodded a little bit.
"Storm on sea bad. I on ship, storm come, break ship, I almost drown."
"Awww, you don't have to worry about a thing, sweetie," Skyfire soothed. "For one thing, you're not on a ship out at sea, you're safe here with us. It's true, the storms of New Season can get quite violent at times, but we're quite deep inland here, and we're protected by the mountains around us, so you don't have to be afraid of anything." She softly stroked Lucinia's ears. "Or are you afraid of thunder and lightning?"
Lucinia nodded a little bit again.
"We not see in my land. I only see once, on ship. And... that end bad."
"I can understand that, sweetie," Skyfire smiled softly. "But like I said, you don't have to be afraid of a thing."
"No, we'll be with you all the time!" Fleetfire said. "We'll totally hug you and cuddle you and keep you safe between us, Lucie, promise!"
"And besides, storms often bring us lots of good things," Skyfire smiled again. "Rain for the fields and the plants, and lots of handy and valuable things that wash up on the Sand Shores. And look! It also brought us the most precious thing we ever found; you!"

Lucinia smiled a little bit and leaned over to the side, softly nuzzling against Skyfire's side. The large storm-gray Mry smiled and softly hugged Lucinia with one arm, leaning down her head a bit to press a soft kiss between the Kattin's large pointy ears. Across the table, Sunfire emptied her mug, shaking her head a bit.
"Nevertheless, I think it would be a good idea if we go to the inn after we pick Fleetfire up at school and listen to the box. Minnaluna will have one of their fly-crafts out to check for the storm, and you can be certain they will say something about it on the box."
Again a look of surprise slid over Lucinia's face at Sunfire's words. She looked up questionably.
"What box?"
"Ohh, that's something really special!" Fleetfire piped up with her mouth full before either of her two older sisters could react. "Goldstar, of the inn, has this awesome weird box! She got it on the market in Oceanside; it comes from Minnaluna, you know. It's a very special box!" She swallowed her bite of breakfast. "It has knobs and stuff, and a light inside, and there's music coming out of it! And also announcements, we can hear when the people of Minnaluna have found out about a big storm that's coming or something; they tell the other people about it on that box, and we can hear it over here too. Of course, we always already know when a storm is coming, because we can feel it and smell it, but those people in Minnaluna can go out over the ocean and see it, and they can say how long it will take before the storm will reach land, or how big of a storm it's gonna be."
"That's right," Skyfire said, softly chuckling over Fleetfire's enthused answer. "When we notice a storm is coming, for instance from that rumbling we keep hearing right now, we often visit the inn so we can listen to the box and know exactly when the storm will reach land, if it will even reach land, and if it's gonna be a big storm or not. For most of us, that's just handy to know in case we need to put shutters before the windows of our houses for instance, but for Sunfire and me it's even more important, because it will give us information about which of the Sand Shores will be most likely to have lots of stuff washed up on them."
"You look for stuff on shore much?" Lucinia asked.
"Yeah, it's kind of our work," Sunfire nodded. "We make our living that way. First we used to dive for pearls and valuable items from wrecked ships, but for a while now we mostly search the Sand Shores for items of value after storms."
"Ohh," Lucinia said, nodding in understanding. She smiled a bit again. "I hope is storm, so you find lots."
Sunfire chuckled, and Skyfire let out a soft giggle.
"That's sweet of you." She started collecting the plates. "Are you done? It's time for the communal bath."

Lucinia nodded, drinking the last of her milk and handing Skyfire the empty mug as well. After collecting all the dishes, the storm-gray Mry took the small bag with pieces of soap and brushes, holding Lucinia by a paw as they walked down the street to the Warm Lake. Other Mry greeted them cheerfully, chatting calmly while they walked to the large lake and waterfall at the south side of town. One of the main topics of conversation was, of course, the distant rumbling in the air, indicating a brewing storm.

At the Warm Lake, Skyfire left Lucinia to be taken by Fleetfire to the small group of the flame-striped Mry's friends. The other young Mry greeted the two of them happily, talking amongst each other while they washed themselves and one another, giggling and splashing up water. Lucinia stayed closer to Fleetfire this time, though. The yellow and orange Mry could feel her adopted step-sister trembling a bit while she helped Lucinia with her washing. The others noticed it as well.
"Are you not feeling well, Lucinia?" Nightshade, the small, fully black Mry asked as she washed Lucinia's slowly twitching tail.
"No, I okay," Lucinia said. "Is just, rumble in sky. Make nervous."
"Aww, is the baby freak scared of a little distant thunder?" the sneering voice of the green-furred Mry Morningdew sounded from behind them.

Fleetfire turned her head with a growl, but before anyone could say anything Morningdew was shoved aside, so roughly she lost her footing and toppled over sideways, submerging in the water of the lake. When she came back up, coughing and spluttering, she shook herself and sent a scowl in the direction of Cloudchaser, the slender white Mry with the grayish blue markings similar to Lucinia's markings, who was stepping closer with a head full of foam.
"Hey, can't you watch where you're going, you idiot?"
"Sorry, got soap in my eyes," Cloudchaser said dryly. She took Lucinia's paw. "Can you help me rinse the soap from my hair, Lucinia?"
"Yes," Lucinia said, sending a sideways glance at Morningdew. "Is no good get soap in your eyes. You walk into blockheads, maybe hurt yourself. I help you, Cloud Chaser."

All the other younger Mry burst into snorts and giggles at Lucinia's offhand remark. Morningdew scowled again, but since Lucinia simply turned her back and waded towards the waterfall together with Cloudchaser and Fleetfire, there was nothing the green-furred Mry could do but look angry.
"That was a good one, Lucie," Fleetfire giggled. "Set that numbskull in her place, she deserves no less."
"Yes. She not nice," Lucinia said with a smirk.
"No, she's a little bitch alright," Cloudchaser said, leaning her head back under the waterfall with her eyes closed. "Always making trouble, and it seems like she's chosen you to pick on because you're so different than us."
"Yeah, and because she knows we're not easily impressed anymore," Fleetfire added, washing Lucinia's back while Lucinia helped rinsing Cloudchaser's hair. "But you really handled her very well, Lucie."
"You certainly did at that," Cloudchaser giggled softly, opening her eyes again. "And don't worry about her too much, we'll protect you from her a bit when you come into school." She leaned forward to drape her hair over her shoulder and wrung it a bit. "Are you coming into our school, by the way?"
Lucinia nodded.
"I go school at new Season. But other class first, with Fleet Fire, to learn Mry things. I learn other things on school in my land."
"That makes sense," Cloudchaser smiled. "The lessons we get wouldn't make much sense to you if you haven't learned about basic history and culture and such first. But I suppose you did learn how to read and write and all?"
"Yes, I learn read and write," Lucinia nodded. "Two languages, too."
"Two languages?" Cloudchaser said, looking up. "Wow, that's impressive! What languages did you learn?"
"Own language, of Saloria," Lucinia smiled, looking a bit proud. "And village I live, is two day travel from sea. We get lot sea folk in village, we learn language of sea folk too. Is same your language. Fleet Fire give me old school books, I read, is same language."
"That's really awesome," Cloudchaser said. "Sounds like you're quite ahead of us in some things already."
"Yeah she is!" Fleetfire giggled. "You should see her do math! She's amazing at math! Much better than I am!"
Cloudchaser giggled and teasingly poked Fleetfire's tummy.
"Well, that's no wonder, you suck at math, Fleetfire. Always have. Even before you went blind, you couldn't see the outcome of two plus two even if it stared you in the face," she teased.
Fleetfire laughed and swished her tail, splashing water into Cloudchaser's face.
"Oh, like you're such a genius! It took you six Seasons to master A is for Apple, you dimwit!" She turned to Lucinia and gave the Kattin a hug. "Here, you show her how much smarter you are, Lucie! Do, uhm... sixteen times thirty-one, divided by eight, plus fifty-nine!"
"One hundred twenty-one," Lucinia said after a moment's thought with her eyes half closed.
"Wow... geepers!" Cloudchaser said, looking quite perplexed. "It took you, what, three seconds to think of that? Good goddess, you are smart! Can I ask you a sum too?"
"I thank you," Lucinia smiled. "Yes, you ask sum, I say outcome."
"Okay, uhm, let's see..." Cloudchaser looked up along the waterfall, running a paw over her whiskers. "A hundred and sixty-three times nineteen, plus... uhm... seventy-six, divided by... eleven, minus four."
Lucinia thought for five seconds this time, squeezing her eyes while she soundlessly moved her lips, counting in herself.
"Two hundred and eighty-four, and forty-fifths of one hundred."
"Golly!" Cloudchaser exclaimed, stunned. "You're not just smart, you're a frikking genius, Lucinia! I can't believe it! How old are you again?"
"I forty-two Seasons," Lucinia said, beaming proudly.
"Damn!" Cloudchaser shook her head. "Only forty-two? I'm fifty-five Seasons old, and I sure can't do math that fast! I even need an abacus for sums like the one I asked you just now, I definitely can't do them right from the top of my head!"
"That's my sis!" Fleetfire giggled. "She's gonna grow up to be the genius leader over all of Nezinoma!"
"Hee! No, I not be leader, is silly," Lucinia giggled, shaking her head.
"Not as silly as you might think," Cloudchaser smiled. "You're really amazingly clever, Lucinia! I bet you could indeed grow up to be someone real important."
"Aw, no," the little Kattin blushed.

Fleetfire and Cloudchaser both giggled softly at Lucinia's shy response, although the Siamese-patterned Mry could see Lucinia was secretly glowing proudly at the praise they were giving her. They talked a bit more about the different things Lucinia had learned in the school she'd gone to in Saloria, and the things they were taught in the school of Viola Town, relaxing under the splashing, pleasantly warm water of the waterfall, until Sunfire showed up to tell them it was time to dry off and go home to get Fleetfire's things for school.

Only a half hour later, at the school, Lucinia was again praised like mad to Windsong and Dreamweaver by a cheerful Cloudcatcher who hailed the small Kattin like some kind of hero, causing Lucinia to blush so much it almost showed through the deep dark brown of her facial fur.
"Bye Lucinia! See you in our class next Season! Can't wait for you to embarrass us all like heck with your super math!" the Siamese-patterned Mry cheerfully called out as a parting remark when Windsong brought them into the school.
Skyfire giggled softly as she and Sunfire turned to walk back home with Lucinia.
"What was that all about?"
"Cloud Chaser... she impressed I fast with math," Lucinia said, still blushing a bit. "At wash, she ask sum, I say answer, very fast." She shrugged a bit. "I know numbers. I not know why that special?"
"I guess it's because you're still rather young, kiddo," Sunfire smiled. "And math isn't a very strong point with us Mry; it takes several tens of Seasons for us to get good with numbers. Our expertise is more in nature; biology, potionry, herbology, those kinds of things, you know?"
"Oh," Lucinia said simply, not really knowing anything else to reply.

Sunfire grinned lightly and gently ruffled the slender feline's curly brown hair with a paw as they walked home. They spent the day relatively calmly; Skyfire cleaned the house a bit before going to work on making some more clothes for Lucinia, who helped Sunfire in the golden-furred Mry's vegetable garden, pulling weeds and tending to the young plants. When they were done, Sunfire took Lucinia out to the back of the garden, where she had a few targets set up. Sunfire was a good archer, and she had taken it upon herself to teach Lucinia the finer points of handling a bow and arrow. Lucinia was still practicing with the wood bow she had gotten at the metal shop, even though the silver one that had been made for her was finished as well. She learned fast, showing a talent for straight aim and even a few trick shots already that Sunfire taught her. When complimented on her fast progress, Lucinia blushed and just shrugged it off by saying she had to learn how to aim very well with throwing rocks at deadly snakes and other animals in her desert home land, since it was simply a matter of life and death there.

All through the day, the rumbling in the sky never ceased. In fact, it seemed to be coming closer. It was felt in the atmosphere; birds were silent, the sky was a deep gray-blue tint instead of its usual brilliant blue, and the warmth was all but stifling in its dampness. Over the trees crowning the summit of the mountains around Viola Valley, puffy clouds with a sickly yellow glow to them could be seen sailing through the sky.

Sunfire consulted a silver pocket watch she fished up from a front pocket of her vest after she had collected the arrows from one of the targets in the back of the garden.
"Right, let's call it a day for now, kiddo," she smiled. "School's going out in a little while, we'd better walk over there so we can pick up Fleetfire." She handed the small arrows back to Lucinia and stuck the longer ones in her own quiver. "You're doing very well. In a day or two, we'll practice with moving targets, okay?"
"Yes. Sound fun," Lucinia smiled, shouldering her bow. "What kind targets? Like animals?"
"That comes later," Sunfire chuckled. "There's a difference between target practice and actual hunting, you know. For hunting, you need to know a lot of extra techniques only to already even get close to your prey without scaring it off. But for practice, we'll use balls. I have a bunch of small balls made of twine and cloth for just that."
"Oh." Lucinia tilted her head a bit. "How they move?"
Sunfire chuckled again.
"Simple, kiddo. I toss them, simple as that. I throw the balls into the air at random, you shoot them."
"Oh. Of course. That logical," Lucinia nodded. She looked around when Skyfire stuck her head out a window.
"You done out there? It's time to walk to the school and pick up Fleetfire."
"Yes, I was just telling Lu we should get going," Sunfire said, wrapping an arm around Lucinia's shoulders, walking into the house with her.

Mere moments later, the three of them were on their way down the street towards the town square. The rumbling in the sky was louder now, causing Sunfire to nod her head upwards.
"The goddesses are sure making a lot of racket with their bowling tournament, aren't they?"
"You're a weirdo," was Sunfire's dry response.

Lucinia giggled softly, although she kept pressing herself against Skyfire's side, every now and the nervously looking up at the sky which was turning a deeper shade of gray. It was getting close to the hue of Skyfire's fur already. The rumbling was less distant, and more frequent. Sure enough, every now and then even a momentary lightening up of the sky could be seen as a far-away bolt of lightning crossed between the clouds. Still, though Lucinia was visibly nervous, she kept bravely walking along with her two large step-sisters and adopters, talking a bit and sometimes giggling when the two Mry teased each other in their good-natured manner.

At the school, they met up with a number of the other adult Mry who were there to pick up their younger sisters or daughters. The talk was, again, about the weather, with many a confirmation that most of them would be going to the inn so they could listen to 'the box'. For a moment, though, the talk wavered when the school went out and the group of adult Mry was joined by the group of young Mry coming out of the school building, chatting and giggling and greeting their older sisters or mothers. Their voices were louder than usual, partly of pent-up excitement that came with the building of the storm, partly simply to be heard since the wind picked up, blowing loudly through the trees on the mountains and ruffling fur and hair.

Fleetfire had happiness beaming off her face as she was walked over to where Sunfire, Skyfire and Lucinia were waiting for her by Healsong.
"I take it you had a great day at school, kiddo?" Sunfire grinned. "Your smile is practically too wide for your face."
"Yeah!" Fleetfire said. "Miss Windsong gave me lute lessons! She let me practice a bit on her lute! It was so totally awesome! I want one too!" She grabbed Sunfire's arm with both her paws, lifting her head to send a begging expression up to Sunfire's face. "Can I have a lute too, Sunfire? Please please please?"
"We'll see what we can do, kiddo," Sunfire promised with a grin. "There's definitely a big storm coming, so we'll be most likely finding lots of good stuff on the Sand Shores come morrow, and it's market day in Mountain City at the end of this quart-cycle, so we'll be going there with the things we'll find tomorrow and see if we can find a nice instrument for you, okay? What does Windsong say about it?"
"Yay! Awesome! Thanks!" Fleetfire cried out happily, almost hopping up and down on her four feet like an exuberant kitten. "Miss Windsong says I have talent! Honest! She says with some lessons, I can come to play as good as her!"
"Really, now?"
"Yes, I did say that, and I meant it too."
They looked up to see the pale silvergray-furred Mry Windsong having stepped up to them. Sunfire smiled.
"So it wouldn't be a bad idea to get the kiddo a lute of her own?"
"No, that wouldn't be a bad idea at all," Windsong smiled. "She really does have talent. It's the blindness, I wager. She can't see what her fingers are doing on the frets and the strings, so she has to do it all by touch and hearing, and those are still some of the best teachers. So yes, I think getting her a lute would be a good investment. I know they can be a bit expensive, but it'll be worth it." She chuckled lightly. "I'd gladly give her my old one, but I'm afraid it has a crack in it."
"So?" Sunfire said with a cheerful grin. "The fairest maiden of Viola Town has a crack in her, and there's sure no complaints there."
Windsong and Healsong laughed, while Sunfire shifted her four feet at a shove she got from her giggling sister.
"And you call me a weirdo."
"Sure, that's because you are one, sis," Sunfire chuckled.

Lucinia also giggled, although she didn't get the joke Sunfire had made. Her ears were attentively perked to the conversation between Sunfire and Windsong, her big blue eyes growing a thoughtful sparkle as she was looking from one to the other, until she looked around when another voice cheerily called out to her.
"Hello genius!" It was Cloudchaser. "Are you coming to the inn too?"
"Yes, I think?" Lucinia said, waving at the white Mry with the grayish-blue pattern. She looked up at Sunfire, who nodded, then back at Cloudchaser with a nod of her own. "Yes, I come too."
"Good! All the others are coming too! We'll play Beads! You ever played that before?"
"No?"
"Oh. Well, no worries! We'll teach you! It's easy, and it's fun too! I bet you'll beat us all!"

Lucinia smiled and looked up at Sunfire again, who sent a smile back down at her and wrapped one arm around the Kattin's shoulders, her other arm resting around Fleetfire's shoulders. Together with all the others, they walked off the town square, past the bakery and into the inn, of which the sign reading "The Last Leg Inn" was creaking in the ever increasing wind. Already, in the streets and along the square, other Mry were busy fixing shutters before the windows of their shops and cottages.

The inside of the inn became quickly crowded with about half the town suddenly coming in there. Oil lamps were burning all over the place; fixed from sconces on the walls, set on the tables, and three large circles of them fixed to wood wagon wheels hanging from the ceiling by thick chains. It gave a very cozy atmosphere. Behind the bar, the innkeeper, a large female Mry with a burly build and a strangely inverted leopard-like fur - yellow rosettes in black fur, which explained her name of Goldstar - shook her head cheerfully at the large group of Mry crowding into her establishment.
"Can I take three guesses what y'all are coming in for? Betcha it ain't my sparkling presence, now is it?"
"Well, that too," Sunfire chuckled. "But you're right, we did mostly come to listen to the box. Have they said anything about the weather yet?"
"Yes, you just missed it," Goldstar nodded. "They'll make another announcement, they said, though, so you'll just have to wait for..." She dug a gold pocket watch from a pocket of her vest, opened it and glanced at it. "...oh, about an hour or so."
"Oh. Well, good, we'll just have a drink in the meantime, then," Sunfire said.

She looked around to ask Lucinia if she wanted something to drink, but the young Kattin was already whisked off to a corner of the inn by Fleetfire and Cloudchaser, joining the other young Mry who were laying down on the floor on the chest and tummy of their feral lower bodies, dividing a number of colorful little glass beads they had taken from a box in one of the inn's open cabinets. Lucinia was listening attentively as the others explained the game of Beads to her, nodding in understanding of the rules. Sunfire smiled and gave a light shrug, sitting down around a table with Skyfire, a silver-white Mry with a Siamese patterning of very pale light gray named Moonchaser, who was Cloudchaser's older sister, and a black Mry whose fur had a faint dark green sheen over it, named Forestshade, Nightshade's mother.

Goldstar was filling the orders for drinks, helped by Silverstar, a somewhat smaller Mry who had a similar fur pattern, black with light rosettes, though the rosettes in her fur were of a grayish white color. She was probably Goldstar's sister, although she could also be her daughter, since the double pair of breasts on Goldstar's anthro upper chest denoted she had born young once. Also helping out were Mountain Glory and her younger sister Morning Glory, the Mry with the spectacularly purple fur and hair, both of them wearing an apron under their vest that showed they worked at the inn.

The air was filled with cheerful talk and laughter, and before too long, a shout rang out that was quickly met with other shouts of approval.
"Windsong, can you sing us a song?"
Rising up from the large cushion on the floor that were the regular seats around each table, the pale silvergray-furred Mry unstrapped her lute and checked the strings while she stepped up to a small podium at one end of the room.
"By all means. And since we are all here having a drink while we wait for storm news on the box, I shall sing you a drinking song," Windsong announced with a cheerful wink.

She sat down on her feral haunches, curled her tail around her front feet, checked the strings of her lute again, re-tuned one, and started drawing a merry tune from the instrument, her clear, obviously trained voice following shortly after.
"The menfolk all tell me I'm false to my lass,
That I quit my poor Chloe and stick to my glass;
But to you gals of reason, my reasons I'll own,
And if you don't like them, why let them alone.

Although I have left her, there truth I'll declare;
I believe she was good, and I'm sure she was fair;
but goodness and charms in a bumper I see,
That make it as good and as charming as she.

My Chloe had dimples and smiles I must own;
But, though, she could smile, yet in truth she could frown,
But tell me, ye lovers of liquor divine,
Did you e'er see a frown in a bumper of wine?

Her lilies and roses were just in their prime;
Yet lilies and roses are conquer'd by time;
but in wine, from its age, such a benefit flows,
That we like it the better the older it grows.

They tell me, my love would in time have been cloy'd;
And that beauty's insipid when once 'tis enjoy'd;
But in wine I both time and enjoyment defy;
For the longer I drink the more thirsty am I.

Let murders, and battles, and history prove
The mischiefs that wait upon rivals in love;
But in drinking, that heaven, no rival contends,
For the more we love liquor, the more we are friends.

She, too, might have poison'd the joy of my life,
With nurses, and babies, and squalling and strife:
But my wine neither nurses nor babies can bring;
And a big-bellied bottle is a mighty good thing.

We shorten our days when with love we engage,
It brings on diseases and hastens old age;
But wine from grim death can its votaries save,
And keep out t'other leg, when there's one in the grave.

Perhaps, like her sex, ever false to their word,
She had left me, to get an estate or a lord;
But my bumper (regarding nor title or pelf)
Will stand by me when I can't stand by myself.

Then let my dear Chloe no longer complain;
she's rid of her lover, and I of my pain:
For in wine, mighty wine, many comforts I spy;
Should you doubt what I say, take a bumper and try!"

Laughter and cheerful shouts rang out when Windsong finished her song, glasses and goblets were raised and clinked together. The younger Mry in the corner, who had stopped their game of Beads to listen to the bard's song, also giggled.
"She never sings songs like that in the school!" Fleetfire chortled.
"Gee, I wonder why," Sunfire sniggered. She perked an ear when Goldstar turned a dial on the wood box that was standing on a shelf above the bar, and held up a paw. "Oh, shush now, here comes the news. Goldstar, can you turn it up a bit, if you please?"
The gold-speckled Mry obliged, turning another dial which made the voice that sounded from the box come out a bit louder.
"...report from Minna One," the voice was just saying. "You have probably already felt it, and it is official now; a storm watch is in effect along the east and south coastlines of all of Minnaluna as a heavy storm is approaching fast, having formed as a tropical storm in the south-eastern regions of the Subterra Ocean and converged with a front drifting past the south-western region of Kotjonok Island. It is expected that the storm will graze the coastline of Minnaluna at the south side, bringing severe thunderstorms and rain, possibly hail, and winds of seventy to ninety miles per hour, gusting to one-ten. After passing the Minnaluna coastline, the storm is expected to then pass over the south end of Nezinoma Salis, with any luck staying just south of the mountains and cliffs and veering off to sea without doing any damage. Nevertheless, warnings are issued for the towns of Merian, Fandago and Klifina in Minnaluna, and Oceanside and Mountain City in Nezinoma Salis, which are expected to receive the brunt of the storm. Moving at an estimated five to seven miles per hour, the storm is furthermore expected to pass by the Minnaluna coastline around early evening and Nezinoma Salis at mid-evening, probably leaving the area around early morning tomorrow."

Goldstar turned the dial on the box to lower the volume back down, and murmurs rose up all over the room from the assorted Mry who began to talk among themselves.
"Well," Sunfire said to her sister, "sounds like the eastern Sand Shore is our best pick for tomorrow, sis, and perhaps the small stretch near the southern cliffs, past Oceanside, although I think the people from Oceanside will be going there already."
"Yes, there may be a ship wrecked near the reefs west of here, but with the wind coming from the south-east, anything that's swept off will float away from the shore there instead of towards it," Skyfire nodded. She ran a paw over her whiskers. "Tricky situation; on the one hand I hope the wind will be more from the east so the storm passes by on the sea side of the cliffs behind Mountain City, but on the other hand I hope the wind will be a bit more from the south so anything that washes up will be pushed towards the Sand Shores, however that would also bring the storm to the inside of the mountains and right over the land."
"Yes, well, still not far enough inland for us to worry about," Sunfire pointed out. "If the storm comes along the inside of the mountains on a south-easterly wind, it'll pass right over Mountain City and whisk out to sea again somewhere past Black Rock Point, just over or perhaps just inside of Cluster Reef."
"True, true," Skyfire nodded in agreement. She had to raise her voice more and more to be heard over the din of the wind. "Well, I think we'd better go home now and just to be sure, put the shutters over the windows, right?"

Sunfire nodded. Many of the others were already leaving as well to do the same. On the way home, Fleetfire babbled happily about the game they had played, mostly to distract Lucinia who was now visibly nervous as the storm was clearly moving in. The trees creaked and groaned in the rising wind, the sky was leaden in color, repeatedly shot through with purplish blue lightning bolts which were followed shortly after by rolling claps of thunder. Skyfire however looked up at the magnificent spectacle with sparkling eyes; this was the savage power of nature displayed in the wild pattern of her fur, the very power of nature from which she took her name.

Fortunately they reached their house rather quickly, taking a shortcut between the rows of cottages and the small street past the side of the hotel. Fleetfire took Lucinia inside and cuddled the nervous Kattin on the rugs before the fireplace, talking of the things they'd done in school and telling stories and jokes to make Lucinia feel more at ease while Sunfire and Skyfire went around the house, placing heavy wood shutters before the windows and securing them. When the last one was in place, they found their way inside as well and lit several oil lamps to dispel the darkness, and so they wouldn't see the lightning too clearly.

It was impossibly to tell the time; with the shutters in place and the sky so dark, it could have been night as easily as day. Faster and faster lightning and thunder followed each other as the storm drew closer. Skyfire read stories from books out loud, Sunfire sang songs, all the while cuddling close together with Fleetfire and a trembling Lucinia. As the storm reached the Nezinoma land, it brought rain as well; thick sheets of rain whipped by the wind, clattering against the sides and the roof of the house, eventually making such a racket that neither Skyfire's voice nor Sunfire's singing could be heard over the noise anymore. Refraining from speaking, the four of them just huddled even closer in the nest of pillows and cushions on the thick, soft rug before the fireplace, holding one another close.

Hours passed like this. The room grew slightly dimmer as one or two of the oil lamps burned out, but neither of the adult Mry rose up to refill them, staying on the rug with their younger sisters to comfort them. Lucinia had almost buried herself under all the pillows, her face pressed firmly into Skyfire's tummy and her arms wrapped tightly around the dark gray Mry's waist where her upper anthro torso met her lower feral body, trembling and shivering in the embrace of Skyfire's arms and forepaws.

Slowly, very gradually they could feel and hear the storm passing. The rain still all but bombarded the house, but there were longer pauses between the thunderclaps, the flashes of lightning grew weaker. The wind seemed to die down a little as well, making conversation possible once more.
"It was more severe than I'd expected, from what I heard on the box," said Sunfire.
"Wind must've been more south than we thought," Skyfire nodded. "Sounds like the storm came along the insides of the mountains, alright. Can you imagine how bad it must have been in Oceanside and Mountain City?"
"Yeah, they probably got it right over their heads. I wouldn't be surprised if we'd see some damage when we go to the east Sand Shore tomorrow, and probably in Mountain City as well when we visit the market the day after aftermorrow."
Skyfire nodded again, looking down at Lucinia pressed up closely against her body. She softly rubbed the bases of the trembling Kattin's large, pointy ears which were flattened flush against her head, while Fleetfire rubbed Lucinia's back and nuzzled her neck.
"You okay there, Lucie? It's alright, it's passing over, you don't have to be afraid."
"C'mere and drink some, sweetie," Skyfire purred in a calming tone, lifting Lucinia up a bit towards her dual bosom. "It'll do you good."

Without opening her tightly closed eyes or even loosening her embrace around Skyfire's upper torso, Lucinia crawled upwards a bit, now burying her face into the cleavage of Skyfire's double pair of breasts while she closed her lips over one of the dark purple nipples, suckling with a soft, chirping sound. The process and the taste of the dark gray Mry's rich, warm milk soothed her and relaxed her somewhat, enough to stop shivering. Fleetfire crawled up against her, still rubbing Lucinia's back and softly nuzzling her neck with calm purring tones as she murmured gently into one of Lucinia's flattened ears. Sunfire smiled and softly stroked the slender feline's curly hair while she rose up and extinguished the oil lamps, save for two of them which she merely turned down low.
"We might as well try and get some sleep," she said calmly, checking her silver pocket watch which she had taken from her vest that was draped over a low table. "It's a few hours past dinner time, and it looks like we will have a very busy day tomorrow."
"You're right," Skyfire agreed, hugging Fleetfire and the still slowly suckling Lucinia against her upper chest. "Handy to know that in advance, too. Goddesses bless Goldstar for bringing that strange box."

Sunfire nodded her assent while she lay back down with her sisters, curling herself around Skyfire's front to let Fleetfire and Lucinia snuggle backfirst against her feral chest and tummy. With the thunder now only an occasional rumble in the distance and the rain no more than a calmly pattering rhythm on the roof and against the shuttered windows, sleep came soon for all four of them after a long day filled with strong experiences.

And yet another Thursday Prompt inspired story. I was already planning a story that would feature a drawing in it, and as the word of the week was "painting", I simply switched the drawing in my original story into a painting to make it a fitting Thursday Prompt story =~.^=

As you see, it's titled "Market Day part 1". The story I was having in mind would feature Lucinia being shown around the largest market in Nezinoma Salis; the market of Mountain City. And since I got several more ideas for that story, I decided to split it up into two separate stories so it wouldn't get too long =~.^= This is the first part; the second part will be up as soon as I have written it all out.

Yet a little more additional info about the Mry culture and language; as mentioned before, they count time in Seasons, with four Seasons going into a year, three Cycles (or months) going into a Season, and four weeks going into a Cycle, denoted separately as quart-cycles, which are one week, or half-cycles, which are two weeks.
The weeks themselves are divided into seven days, as in human time counting. However, due to the rather simplified technological and cltural level of the Mry, these days are simply named as follows;
Oneday is Monday
Twoday is Tuesday
Threeday is Wednesday
Fourday is Thursday
Fiveday is Friday
Sixday is Saturday
Sevenday is Sunday

Simple as that =~.^=

This is the last story for now; I am actually still working on Market Day - Part 2. I have a lot of it written out on paper already, but my writing got put on a bit of a backburner as I've been too busy with real-life stuff, among which preparing for EuroFurence =~.^= However, there will be a couple of nice surprises in that second part of the Market Day story!

Market Day - part 01; Painting

Doctor Healsong had spent the night at Sunfire's and Skyfire's house. She did that more often, especially when there was a special reason for it. This time was one of the times there was a special reason for it.

Sunfire and Skyfire had spent the previous day at the east beach of the Nezinoma Salis continent, looking for useful items that would have washed ashore following the severe storm that had swept the ocean and the land a day earlier. Their day had been highly successful; not only had they needed to fasten a large wood wagon behind their car to transport all the goods, they even needed to make two extra hauls. Despite the storm warning, which had obviously been heeded by many ships, the violent storm had churned the currents of the ocean in such an unusual way that older wrecks had shifted and torn, releasing whatever cargo they were still holding under the water, and the waves crashing onto the beach, swept up to almost the dunes by the hard wind, had unearthed several more treasures that had washed up in earlier times but had been buried under the sand since.

Of course, among the flotsam was lots of rubbish; seaweed, old, gnarled wood, even branches with strange leaves and some large nuts of some sort that were thought to have come from the vegetation on the small Kotjonok Island, and lots of dead fish. But as much of the debris washed ashore was usable and sometimes even valuable; barrels and vats of spices, foods and liquids, both liquors and volatiles like scent waters and lamp oil, wood chests and crates filled with a variety of items; clothing and fabrics (although a lot of it was torn and tattered), weaponry, jewelry, glass bottles and earthenware bottles and amphoras, one chest filled with books written in a language that Lucinia recognized as Salorian, and a chest filled with books written in a language neither the two Mry nor the young Kattin recognized. And even money; this time it was Sunfire who found a small chest buried in the sand near the shoreline, filled with gold, silver, bronze and copper coins which were easily identified as older, but still valid, currency of the Minnaluna mainland.

One of their stranger finds were five large square wood crates stamped with words in a language that, again, neither Sunfire nor Skyfire nor Lucinia could decipher. The crates were very tough and sturdy, and undamaged, although one could tell they had been submerged for a long time already since the wood had turned green with algae and some of the sides were covered in mussels. They must have been held in place under the water by being inside the hold of a wrecked ship, which had now, after the severe storm, ripped open somehow to release the crates, which turned out to float easily on the water. And that was because of their content. Upon inspection, the two Mry found that the crates were filled with hundreds upon hundreds of small white balls, about the size of a large walnut, and made out of some sort of hard plastic.

Mystified about the purpose of those small white balls, the two Mry nevertheless thought they could most likely sell or trade them on the Mountain City, Oceanside and Viola Town markets as game items. The balls, when facing a hard surface, bounced pretty good, with funny, somewhat hollow, ticking sounds, even though they were so light that they also scattered easily in a breeze.

Having had such a very successful day of beachcombing, even though nearly all of the things they had found had been churned up from old shipwrecks which showed in the quality of a lot of it (or in the state of decay, in some cases), Sunfire and Skyfire had decided to this time take a full stall on the Mountain City market so they could present their wares. However, this meant they would have to be in the town at a quite early time, which in turn meant they would have to leave Viola Town even before Sister Sun would have risen. So they had asked doctor Healsong to spend the night with them. On the day they would have to leave for the market in Mountain City, the white Mry could then take Fleetfire to the communal bath and to school, and look after her until Sunfire and Skyfire were home again. Lucinia, who still was not due in school for a few weeks yet, was coming along with her two large Mry step-sisters and adopters to the market.

It was going to be an awesome experience for the young Kattin. The market in the shoreline town of Oceanside might attract the most varied of visitors, from Mry of all over Nezinoma Salis to Flamelins, both from the few that were living on Nezinoma Salis as from the Minnaluna mainland, to exotic folk that came from other lands. But the market in Mountain City was the largest in the whole land of Nezinoma Salis. Lucinia showed a great deal of excitement about joining her Mry step-sisters in going to this market. And she was not the only one.
"You're going to have so much fun, Lucie!" Fleetfire crooned at the very early breakfast they were having. "It's too bad that the market only lasts one day, because you would need a whole quart-cycle to see all of it! There's just so much to see!"
"That's true. There's merchants from Oceanside, Viola Town, Big Lake Town, Arrow Reef Village, even from Cliff City; they have to travel for almost two days to reach Mountain City, but they still do it! And there's merchants from Minnaluna, and some traveling merchants from other lands, although less than on the market in Oceanside, which is kind of logical because Oceanside is much more reachable for them, with its big harbor," Sunfire summed up.
Lucinia looked up at Sunfire with a faint sparkle in her very large, intensely blue eyes.
"From Saloria too?"
"I... don't know, actually," Sunfire said, slowly running a paw over her whiskers. "I can't remember having ever seen Salorian merchants on the Mountain City market. In fact, you're the very first Salorian anyone here in this land ever saw, for as far as I know." She smiled at Lucinia. "However, there might be goods from Saloria that you might recognize."
"Yeah!" Fleetfire nodded happily. "Remember those big nuts with sweet milk in them you told us about? Golden Gory said she'd seen them on the Oceanside market, and I remember you can find them on the Mountain City market too! So there's probably much more from your land that's sold on the market!"
"I like," Lucinia smiled, nibbling on a slice of bread with butter. "I look for Salorian goods." She smiled at her blind step-sister. "I bring you gift, Fleet Fire, yes?"
"Ohhh, that would be so cool! Thank you so much, Lucie!" Fleetfire crooned with a giggle. "Hey, could you look out for something specific? There's something I'd love you to bring me from the market in Mountain City! Mountain Munchies!"
"What that?" Lucinia asked with a look of surprise.
Fleetfire giggled.
"Snacks! Mountain Munchies are like these special little sausages, rather thin but almost as long as your tail! They're made with two or three different kinds of meat and some special herbs that only grow in the mountains behind Mountain City! Really delicious! They come in packets of five; could you bring me a packet? Please? It's been ages since I last had Mountain Munchies! They cost two copper coins per packet. Here, wait..." She turned away from the breakfast table and with her short white cane, found her way to where she had left her shirt and belt the night before, beginning to feel along her belt with her paws. "Now where is it again... ah! Here!" She located one of the pouches on her belt and opened it, feeling inside and after a moment extricating two copper coins which she offered to Lucinia. "Here, take these, and please buy me a packet of Mountain Munchies with them?"
Lucinia smiled and softly pushed Fleetfire's paw back.
"You keep, Fleet Fire. I buy for you." She giggled softly and patted one of the pouches on her own belt, which was filled with two large pawfuls of silver coins from the chest she had found on the west beach. "I have lots coins here, I buy munchies for you. You no need pay for." She giggled again. "They so good like you say, I buy for me too, I think."
"Ohhh, you're the sweetest, Lucie! Thank you so much!" Fleetfire purred, leaning aside to take the slender feline into a big hug and kissing her cheek. "Yes, you should totally bring a packet for yourself too! You'll love them! They're so totally delicious! Myum myum!"

Lucinia giggled cheerily about Fleetfire's enthusiasm, hugging her flame-tabby step-sister back. The three adult Mry around the table chuckled softly as well.
"While we're on the subject of bringing things from Mountain City," Healsong said, taking a small bottle of ink, a dip pen and a small notebook from a pouch on her belt. "If you have the time, could you look out for a couple of things for me as well while you're there? There are several things I need or simply could use." She started scribbling things on a page of the small notebook. "You don't have to bring all of it, and I can even understand when you don't have the time to look out for any of it at all, because you will be busy enough selling your own wares. But if you could have a look around, I would be much obliged."
"No problem, Healsong," Sunfire smiled, taking the list. "Most likely, we'll be manning the stall in shifts, so one of us can take the kiddo around the market in turns and have a look around for ourselves as well."
"Thank you, I appreciate that."
"Like I said, no problem at all." Sunfire rose to her four feet. "Well, we'd better get going, it's a long ride. You got everything you need, kiddo?" she asked Lucinia.

The small Kattin checked herself. She was wearing the purple satin dress Skyfire had made for her; it was the fanciest item of clothing she had. Around her waist, she was wearing a broad white leather belt with several pouches hanging from it, most of them empty but two of them filled with the silver coins. Next to the thick cushion that was her seat at the table, her white leather backpack was lying, and she shouldered it.
"Yes, I have all." She looked at Sunfire questionably. "I need bring bow?"
"No, why?" Sunfire said with a soft chuckle. "This is market, not a hunt."
"Yes, at the most, you'll be hunting for bargains," Skyfire added, giggling.
"Oh," Lucinia said. "I thought I need. On market in Saloria, you need have bow or sword. Some folk, they rob."
"Not here in Nezinoma Salis, sweetie," Skyfire smiled. "You don't need to worry about that."
"No, that's true," Sunfire nodded. "But if it makes you feel safer, here, take this."

She rummaged through a small pile of weapons they had found and cleaned, pulling out a short iron dagger with an ornate brass hilt and a strangely waved blade, sheathed in a simple but elegant white leather scabbard. Bending over, Sunfire fixed the sheathed dagger to Lucinia's belt, at her right hip.
"There, now you look like a very capable little princess," she smiled.
"Thank you!" Lucinia said happily. She turned to hug and nuzzle Fleetfire. "Bye Fleet Fire. You have good day in school. I bring you lots gifts."
"Hee hee! Just the Mountain Munchies would be awesome already, Lucie!" Fleetfire giggled. "But of course, more gifts is even more awesome!" She laughed. "Hey, if you're going on a shopping spree anyway, you might want to bring something for Cloudchaser; it's her birthday next quart-cycle."
"Oh!" Lucinia smiled. "That nice! Yes, I bring gift for her too!"
"She'll love you to pieces for that!" Fleetfire predicted with a giggle, giving Lucinia a big hug and a smooch. "Mwwah! You have a totally awesome day on the market, Lucie! I'll see you tonight! Can't wait to see what you bring for me!"

Lucinia giggled and returned both the hug and the big slopper of a smooch before following Skyfire outside. Sunfire was already there, on the road in front of their house, checking over the car which was loaded to capacity, and then some. A couple of large chests and crates were tied to the roof, the lid of the trunk was leaning on a couple of wood boxes that were sticking out of the trunk, secured with rope, and behind the car was a very large wood wagon, as large as the car itself, and also fully loaded with crates, chests, barrels and whatnot. It looked like a nineteenth century hooded cart, except that the large wood wheels had been replaced for the same kind of wheels that were under the car, and the shafts where normally a horse was strapped between had been replaced for some kind of hitch that connected to a similar hitch on the back of the car.

Inside, the car was also stuffed to capacity, leaving barely any room for Sunfire behind the wheel and Skyfire next to her. Lucinia couldn't even sit in the back since all space was occupied; she had to sit on Skyfire's feral lower back. The young Kattin looked out the window as Sunfire drove the car down the main road past the town and out of the valley, but there was not much to see since it was still so dark. So instead, Lucinia talked with Skyfire about the market, asking lots of enthused questions which were answered by the large storm-gray Mry with soft giggles. Sunfire wasn't speaking very much, as she had to concentrate three times as hard as usual to drive the car over as good as invisible trails, in the darkness, and with the large wagon behind it.

It was, like Sunfire had said, a long ride, but Lucinia didn't notice much of it, bustling with energy and excitement as she was. Their arrival at Mountain City was perfectly timed; just as they pulled up to the main road into the town, the sun rose over the mountains, showering golden and orange beams over the landscape and the buildings. Lucinia gazed at it with her eyes wide and her mouth hanging a bit open. If she was already impressed by the sight of Oceanside, this was even ten times as impressive! Mountain City was the largest city in all Nezinoma Salis, its most prominent feature being an enormous cluster of huge buildings at the side of the city, with an enormous yard filled with row after row of the 1940 Chevrolet Master Deluxe cars in all kinds of colors.

Skyfire giggled again when Lucinia smooshed her nose against the side window of the car to gawp at the enormous group of large buildings and the endless rows of cars.
"That's the autocart factory," she explained. "All the autocarts you see in Nezinoma Salis are made here. In that factory alone, more Mry work than there are Mry living in Viola Town."
"Two or three hundred, I believe," Sunfire nodded. "And there's almost three thousand Mry living in Mountain City."

Lucinia just nodded, with soft gasps as she took in all the incredible sights when Sunfire slowly drove the car through the town gates. From all directions, cars were approaching, pulling wagons loaded with wood boxes and crates, although some of the cars were merely transporting one or two Mry, sometimes more than two; early market-goers. It was stop-and-go for a while as each car stopped near a large black male Mry dressed in something green that looked a bit like a uniform, who was carrying a wood board with papers on them. Eventually, also Sunfire stopped by this Mry, rolling down the window in the door to speak with him.
"Your names, please?"
"Sunfire, my sister Skyfire, and our step-sister Lucinia."
The male black Mry concealed his surprise as he caught sight of Lucinia, merely continuing his questions and scribbling Sunfire's answers on a sheet of paper.
"Your wares?"
"Miscellaneous."
"Do you sell edibles?"
"No, no edibles. We do have some drinkables, though."
"Where are you coming from?"
"Viola Town."
"Regular merchant?"
"No, occasional."
"Right. Full stall, half stall or shared stall?"
"Full stall, if possible, please."
"Right." The male black Mry beckoned another Mry, a smallish tiger-striped female in a similar green jacket, then turned back to Sunfire with a friendly smile. "Follow miss Dawnbright, she will show you to a vacant stall. Have a good day, ladies."
"Thank you," Sunfire smiled back.

She started following the tiger-colored female Mry, who led the way with a lantern. As she was driving at walking pace now, Lucinia got the perfect opportunity to gaze at the streets and the buildings with awe, taking everything in with her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide and round. Everything was so big in this city! The streets were much broader, the buildings were much larger and much higher, and there were so many more Mry walking and driving around. The tiger-striped Mry led them through a couple of streets, in a half-circle around the giant market square in the centre of the city, so that they approached a long row of wood stalls from the rear. Holding up the paw in which she held the lantern, she stopped Sunfire and pointed.
"There is your stall. You can turn around here so you can drive your autocart to it backwards for easy unloading. Have a successful day, ladies," she smiled.
"Thank you very much," Sunfire smiled. She turned to her sister. "Skyfire, can you get out and direct me? I can't see out the back window very well with that wagon behind the autocart."
"Sure thing," Skyfire nodded, getting out of the car.

She stepped away while Sunfire swung it around, walking behind it while waving her arms to show her sister how to drive backwards towards the stall they were designated. It were large stalls consisting of long wood boards on legs, with a plank canopy above it supported on four poles on each corner of the stall. Oil lamps were hanging from a cross-beam under the wood canopy for illumination, although the light of the rising sun was gradually growing stronger, pouring warmth and golden light over an enormously busy bustle of Mry merchants unloading cars and wagons and setting up their stalls with the most varied of goods.

Lucinia found herself having a couple of pairs of eyes and ears too few to take everything in. Voices both male and female filled the air with cheerful talking and shouts, here and there even with song. There was music and the calls and screeches of different animals. Smells too many to name, and some even completely unfamiliar, drifted up all over the gigantic market square over which their stall was looking out. A vast crowd of Mry was milling about on the market square, walking around the stalls to display their wares in appealing manners or looking at the displayed goods and talking to the merchants. Lucinia also noticed a few creatures that clearly were not Mry; they looked similar, walking on four feline feet, but instead of the anthro upper torso, these creatures simply had a feline head on their feral shoulders. She pointed at one while looking up at Skyfire.
"What they, Sky Fire?"
The wildly patterned dark gray Mry looked up and smiled.
"Those are Flamelins, sweetie," she smiled. "Remember we told you about them? There's a number of them living here in Mountain City, and that's what they look like."
"Oh yes," Lucinia nodded, looking at the pair of Flamelins again. "They look nice."

Skyfire nodded with a smile while she helped Sunfire loading all their goods onto the stall and sorting them out. Even while they were busy with that, there were already Mry coming to their stall to look at their goods and buy some. Curious glances were, of course, given to Lucinia, but there were much less questions of stunned surprise; the folk of Mountain City apparently was more used to seeing unfamiliar creatures.

The sun had risen fully over the mountains when they were done with putting their goods on the stall. Sunfire blew out the oil lamps and turned to her sister with a smile.
"Well, that's that. I can handle things here for a while by myself, if you want to take the kiddo out onto the market."
"Yes! Can we go, Sky Fire? Please?" Lucinia begged.
Skyfire giggled.
"How could I say no to those begging kitten eyes?" She took Lucinia by a paw and stepped around their stall. "Come on, let's go and have a look around, alright? But first..." She turned to face their stall and pointed out a few landmarks, "...take a good look at this; this is where our stall is. One of us will always be here, so if we get separated on the market, or you go to look at something by yourself, you'll know where to find our stall back."
Lucinia nodded eagerly, tugging slightly on Skyfire's paw. Sunfire grinned lightly at it.
"Will you go already, you weirdo? Look at the poor kit; she's almost hopping to go exploring!"
"Alright, alright, we're gone," Skyfire chuckled. "I'll look out for something for us to eat for lunch too, since we'll be here all day."

Sunfire nodded and turned her attention to a customer who expressed interest in one of the swords on their stall. With a smile, Skyfire took Lucinia's paw again and started walking along the rows of stalls with her. Lucinia happily trotted along, her somewhat wedge-shaped head whipping left and right as she tried to look at everything at once; the stalls with all the varied goods on them, the large buildings of the town, the many, many Mry milling about, talking, laughing, praising their wares and discussing prices. She noticed how there were also a lot of obviously young Mry out and about.
"They no go school here, Sky Fire?"
"Not on market day, no," Skyfire smiled. "They do have schools here, several different schools even, but on market day, the schools are closed. You'll see that's the same in our town; no school on market day."
"That nice!" Lucinia smiled. She suddenly whipped her head around again, her whiskers twitching as she sniffed the air, and she started tugging on Skyfire's paw again. "Oh! Sky Fire, look! Munchies! I buy for Fleet Fire!"

Indeed, a little way furtheron was a large stall in front of a butcher shop on which several kinds of meats and sausages and such were displayed, and there even was a large sign on the front of the stall saying "Here the real Mountain Munchies!" in bold lettering. Skyfire giggled softly, letting herself be pulled over to the stall by Lucinia, who looked over all the food on the stall eagerly, sniffing with happily twitching whiskers. Behind the stall were two Mry, a red tabby male and a white with red tabby patches female, both wearing red-stained aprons. The male was tending to a customer, but the female turned to Skyfire and Lucinia with a smile.
"Can I help you, miss?"
"Yes! I buy munchies!" Lucinia said with quite some enthusiasm.
The female Mry behind the stall let out a soft giggle as she looked Lucinia over with a slight expression of wonder.
"Well well, seems like there's already folk from outside Nezinoma Salis coming for our treats," she chortled. "We're getting famous, I see. Have you had our Mountain Munchies before?"
"No," Lucinia shook her head. "I buy for Fleet Fire. She my walk sister, she say is yum!"
"I daresay your sister is correct," the female Mry behind the stall smiled. She did send Skyfire a questioning look. "Walk sister?"
"She means step-sister," Skyfire giggled. "Fleetfire is our younger sister, and Lucinia here is our step-sister. We found the poor girl washed ashore on the west Sand Shore after that big storm about a half-cycle ago, and we adopted her as our step-sister. She's from Saloria, and although she does speak our language rather well, every now and then she mixes something up."
"Ohh, I see," the female Mry giggled, turning back to Lucinia. "Well then, miss Lucinia, if you have never had our Mountain Munchies before, would you like to try them?"

She took a tray which was filled with small chunks of thin sausage and held it out. Lucinia happily took one of the small chunks and stuck it in her mouth, chewing with an expression of rapture.
"Ohh! Mmh! Oh!" she mumbled with her mouth full. "Fleet Fire say is yum, I not know is so yum!"
"Seems like we converted another one," the female Mry giggled. "So I can safely assume you'll want a packet, miss Lucinia?" She set down the tray and took a long, narrow packet from a stack. It held five of the sausages, which were only an inch thick, but almost two feet long. "Five in a packet, two coppers per packet."
Lucinia nodded eagerly, slowly swallowing her mouthful of sausage.
"I not have copper coins, I have silver. Is worth ten copper coins. See?"
She reached into one of the pouches on her belt and took one of the silver coins from it, holding it out to the female Mry behind the stall. The female took it and looked at it from both sides.
"Oh yes, I have seen these. Well, then you can either buy one packet and get eight coppers back, or you can buy more than one packet, up to five of them. What will it be?"
"I buy ten!" Lucinia smiled, taking another silver coin and handing it over. "Fleet Fire five, I five. Is fair divide."
"Very well," the white and red Mry smiled. "Do you want a sack to carry them in?"
"Uhm... yes, is good," Lucinia nodded.
With a smile, the female Mry took a fairly large bag made of cotton, which had a long strap on it. She packed ten of the packets of sausages into it and leaned over the stall to hand it to Lucinia, who happily took it.
"I thank you!"
"You are welcome, miss Lucinia," the female Mry smiled. "Anything else?"
"I'll have two packets as well," Skyfire smiled. "And two of those fried Clucker legs, if you please."
The white and red Mry nodded and filled Skyfire's order as well.
"That'll be six coppers, please, miss."
Skyfire paid with one of the regular silver coins that were worth five copper ones, and one copper coin, sliding the packets she was handed into one of her side bags.
"Thank you, and have a nice day."
"Likewise," the female Mry smiled. "And to you too, miss Lucinia. Hope to see you back again sometime."
"Yes!" Lucinia smiled, giving a wave. "Bye miss!"

She started happily trotting along with Skyfire again, holding the large strap of the cotton bag over her shoulder. They walked across the market calmly, halting by a stall every now and then to look at the wares that were sold. At a stall selling weaponry, Skyfire remarked with a giggle that the found swords and daggers they had on their stall looked better. Somewhere on the middle of the square, near the front of a large town house, they stopped again to look at two Mry dressed in funny hats and brightly colored coats who were entertaining; one was juggling no less than eight colored glass balls while dancing this way and that on the rhythm of a musical tune the other was piping on a flute. Lots of other Mry and a few Flamelins were looking at them as well, cheering and applauding when the two Mry were done and tossing coins into the hat of one of them as she went around. Lucinia also clapped her paws and dropped some of her silver coins in the Mry's hat.

Looking up, the young Kattin noticed Skyfire was talking to a female clouded leopard Mry she seemed to know quite well. For a while, Lucinia waited patiently, but when it took too long for the enthused little feline, she stepped up to Skyfire and gently tugged on a slip of the storm-gray Mry's vest.
"Sky Fire, I go look market, yes?"
Skyfire looked down and nodded with a smile.
"Of course, sweetie, have fun. Don't stray too far, okay? Stay on the square. I'll call for you when I go back to our stall."

Lucinia also nodded and gave Skyfire a soft hug before beginning to slowly step across the large market square, stopping by each and every stall to look at what kind of things were displayed on them. A lot of the things, she had never seen before, although at some stalls, she also found items she did recognize as coming from Saloria. She bought some of them; small, sticky nuts and strange star-shaped apple-like fruits at a fruit stall, and at a book stall she bought two books, one a story book containing bedtime stories and folk stories for children, and one a book on the history and landscape and cities of Saloria, with many quality lithographs in between the pages of text. She bought two of those books; one for herself, and she figured to give the other one to the blue-point Siamese-patterned Mry Cloudchaser for a birthday present, since Cloudchaser seemed to have a lot of interest in Saloria, always asking Lucinia lots of questions about her homeland.

Beaming with excitement, Lucinia kept drifting from one stall to the next, letting herself be beguiled by the scents of baked goods or other foods (and tasting samples offered to her by the proprietors), gazing open-mouthed at some very fine silver and gold filigree jewelry, flickering and flagging her ears at the squeaking and screeching and squawking of many different kinds of birds fluttering around in twig cages.

Just as the slender little feline was standing by a stall that sold fishing wares, wondering about the strange combination of fishing poles, hooks and nets for fishing, and colorful glass balls for playing that were sold on the stall - she did not know the actual purpose of the colorful glass balls, apparently - and paying the male Mry behind the stall for a small shrimp net she was buying, she suddenly perked her large ears at a shout coming from somewhere behind her.
"Oh! A Salorian! I say, girl! Girl! Nena!"

It was the word 'Salorian', and mostly the word in her own language, that made Lucinia wheel around to look at who it was who said that. She saw it a moment later; a tall, slender female Mry with a magnificent cornflower blue fur that was dotted with spots of a lighter blue color, sitting between a few crates against and upon which paintings were displayed; paintings of landscapes and seascapes, paintings of Mry and of Flamelins, and also of other creatures. The woman was beckoning Lucinia, who slowly stepped over to her.
"You call me?"
"Yes!" the blue Mry said with some excitement. "Oh, I can't believe it! You're from Saloria, aren't you?"
"Yes? You know Saloria?" Lucinia asked, tilting her head a bit.
"Well, I've never been there, but I've heard of it! I've seen pictures, and once I was lucky enough to meet someone from there. I can't believe I'm now seeing another Salorian! And such a pretty one, too!" The blue female Mry cleared some space on one of the crates. "Would you pose for me, girl? Would you let me paint you? Please?"
Lucinia looked at the paintings that were resting against the crates or standing on top of them in holders. They were very nice paintings, very lifelike.
"I Lucinia," she said, looking back at the blue Mry. "You paint these?"
"An enormous pleasure to meet you, Lucinia," the blue Mry said. "Such a lovely name, too! My name is Bluehour." She nodded. "Yes, I'm a painter, I make all these paintings. Will you please let me make one of you, Lucinia? Will you sit for me for an hour so I can paint you?"
The slender Kattin tilted her head a bit again while running a paw over her whiskers and muzzle as she thought.
"Is... much gold?" she asked softly, almost apprehensively.
"Oh! Yes! Anything, dear, anything you want! Just tell me, and I'll get it for you, if you just will let me make a painting of you!"

For a moment, Lucinia blinked at the blue Mry's reply to her question. She ran her paw over her muzzle and whiskers again, tilting her head to the other side. Very slowly, a sparkle appeared in her large, deep blue eyes as she realized she would not have to pay the blue Mry to paint her, but the blue Mry would pay her. Lowering her paw, she nodded and stepped over to the collection of crates.
"Is good," she said. "Is few things I want. You get me things, I sit for you."
"Anything!" Bluehour said. "Just let me know what you want, and I'll get it for you."
"Come. I show," Lucinia said with a smile, taking the blue Mry by a paw. She led the way to a stall a few steps furtheron, where musical instruments were sold; harps, lyres, lutes, things that looked like trumpets, wood and silver flutes, and more the like. "Is lute, see?" she said, pointing at two fine lutes that were displayed on top of their soft leather carrying bags. "Is this lute, and that, I want. You get, yes?"
"Sure! No problem," Bluehour said. "I wonder, though... why two?"
"Is for sister," Lucinia said. "Fleet Fire, my sister, she blind. She get music lessons, need lute. I want take music lessons too, I need lute too. So, is two."
"Oh, that's so sweet of you! Thinking of your poor sister like that!" Bluehour purchased both lutes Lucinia had indicated, including their carrying cases, and handed them to the Kattin. "Is there anything more you'd want?"
"Is one thing," Lucinia nodded. "For Fleet Fire. Come." She took Bluehour by a paw again and walked back to the bird merchant where she had been looking at all the birds a little while earlier, pointing at one of the cages. "That cage, is orange Jorble in. I want for Fleet Fire. She say, she like orange best."
"You are such a sweetie!" the blue Mry said. "Most girls I know, they would have asked for things only for themselves!"
"I have something for self," Lucinia stated simply as Bluehour purchased the cage with the orange Jorble in it. "I have lute."
"Well, you're still a sweetie," Bluehour smiled. "Is this all? Or did you want anything else?"
"No, is all. I sit for you now."
"Alright! Thank you! Just sit here, upright, okay?" Bluehour smiled as she walked back to the collection of crates and paintings, and parked Lucinia on one of the crates. "Sit like that? Look at me. Your paws in your lap, like that, yes. Your legs crossed, maybe? Oh, yes, yes, that's perfect! Hold that pose!"

She grabbed an empty canvas and quickly laid down a sketch with a thin stick of charcoal, every now and then looking up at Lucinia, who sat as still as she could. Setting the canvas on a low easel, the blue Mry then took a palette and some tubes of paint, squeezing several colors onto her palette and taking a brush to begin painting. She worked fast and concentrated, looking past the canvas to Lucinia from time to time. The young Kattin kept sitting as still as she could, smiling, moving only her ears which flagged and swiveled to the many sounds around her, and the voice of the blue Mry constantly talking to her.

Gradually, the painting began taking shape. The blobs and streaks of color flowed into one another to form a picture of a cute slender Kattin with pale cinnamon-colored fur and a deep dark brown face, ears, tail, arms and legs, wearing a purple dress, sitting on a rock, against a background of trees and flowers. Bluehour worked with the tip of her tongue sticking past her lips, looking past the canvas, then diving back behind it, hunched over a bit, mumbling to herself or speaking to Lucinia.
"I sit long more?" Lucinia asked after a little more than an hour. "Leg tingle."
"Almost done, dearie, almost done," Bluehour said from behind the easel. "Just a little while longer. Oh, this is beautiful! My best work yet!"

Lucinia nodded a little bit and shifted slightly to stretch her sleeping leg, but she made sure to return to her original pose. However, a few moments later she perked and swiveled one of her large ears when a voice rang out above all the hubbub of the market.
"Lucinia! Where are you, sweetie? Lucinia!"
"Is Sky Fire!" Lucinia said. "She call me. I got go. You finished?"
"Almost, almost!" Bluehour said. "A few more minutes."
"Oh," Lucinia said. "I sit. I call Sky Fire, yes?" Bluehour nodded, and without altering her position, Lucinia called out. "Sky Fire! I here! I sit for Mry, she paint me!"
"Really, now?" Skyfire's voice sounded out. "That's nice. Where are... oh! There you are." Skyfire stepped into view and smiled as she saw Lucinia sitting on one of the crates while Bluehour was working with high concentration to make the finishing touches to the painting. "Getting your portrait done, are you?"
"She ask me," Lucinia said without moving. "She want paint me, she give me things, I sit for her."
"That's nice," Skyfire smiled, stepping around the easel. "Mind if I take a look? Oh! Oh my, that is very good! Beautiful!"
"Thank you," Bluehour smiled, brushing a few last little strokes onto the painting to add a little light. Then she sat up and wiped her forehead with a small cloth. "There! I'm done, you can move now, Lucinia."
"Okay," Lucinia smiled, stretching and sliding off of the crate. "I look, yes?"
"Yes, come and have a look, sweetie," Skyfire smiled. "This is really looking beautiful!" She noticed how Lucinia stumbled a bit as she stepped closer. "Are you alright?"
"Leg tingle," Lucinia said, rubbing her left leg. "I sit still long."
Skyfire giggled.
"I see. Yes, that happens sometimes. Here, let me help you."
She helped Lucinia step over to the other side of the easel and softly rubbed her leg while the Kattin looked at the painting with a happy smile.
"That me! Is very good, miss Blue Hour! I like lots!"
"Thank you so much, dearie!" Bluehour smiled. "I'm very very happy with how it came out, too! Definitely my best work ever! You're a fantastic model! I sure wouldn't mind making more paintings of you."
"Mmm." Skyfire ran a paw over her whiskers. "Say... Bluehour, is it? Right. Are you coming to the market in Viola Town, by any chance?"
"Viola Town? I've never been there before, but I heard of it," Bluehour said, putting her brushes in a jar. "Isn't that a small town inside Viola Valley? What's it like?"
"Is nice town! I live there, with Fleet Fire and Sky Fire and Sun Fire," Lucinia smiled. "Lots friends too! All girl Mry!"
"That's right," Skyfire chuckled. "Viola Town is a female community. We're having our market in a half-cycle from today. If you'd come there too, I think we'd like you to stay for an extra day and paint a portrait of the four of us; my older sister Sunfire, our little sister Fleetfire, Lucinia here, and myself."
"That sounds very good," Bluehour nodded. "A female community, huh? I like the sound of that. Is there a good place to stay there after the market?"
"There's rooms at "The Last Leg Inn", and we have a fairly large and luxurious hotel," Skyfire smiled. "But you could stay with us as our guest too, if you'd like."
"That sounds even better." Bluehour wiped paint off her fingers with a soft chortle. "I like that. Yes, I like that a lot. I think I'll be there. And if you let me paint another portrait or two of Lucinia, I'll do the one of all four of you free of charge. When exactly is your market? At what day, I mean?"
"It's on Threeday, a half-cycle from now. So that's the second Threeday after today. Do you know where to find Viola Valley?"
"Yes, I passed by there several times during my travels between Big Lake Town or Cliff City, and Oceanside or Mountain City. Is it a big market? Many out of town merchants?"
"Well, Viola Town is not a very large town, so the market is not that large in comparison. It's not like the market in Oceanside, or this one. But yes, we get several out of town merchants, some from other towns, and a couple of traveling merchants."
"Right. Well, that sounds really good to me. I'll be there, and I'll certainly be looking forward to doing more paintings of Lucinia."
"She is a lovely girl, isn't she?"
"That she is! And such a sweetie!"

All the while, as Skyfire and Bluehour were talking with each other, Lucinia was standing behind the easel, looking at the painting Bluehour had made. Happiness and some pride were beaming off her face. She was in a real painting!

And a bonus! I have acquired a number of sketches from the lovely and talented Laura Millington, who can be found on FurAffinity under the name of www.furaffinity.net/user/lokis ! So I can show you what exactly my three Mry sisters and Lucinia look like, too! Smile

Sunfire:

Skyfire, with her insane lightningbolt pattern:

Poor little blind Fleetfire:

And of course Lucinia:

Aren't they lovely! =^_^= I hope to have all these girl rendered in full color sometime soon, too! Smile