23 Cat Nap

As I regained consciousness, I noticed a pain all over my body and it was hard to move. I shakily opened an eye to see the face of Ren walking forward with his teeth clenched and his eyes glazed over. It seemed like I was being princess carried by him. I tried my best to wiggle out of his embrace before he laid me down.

Thud.

" Young.. Mast..er… You are awake.. Thank.. The heaven...s.." Said Ren weakly before he collapsed.

I quickly shot up ignoring my pain and saw we were on some sort of dirt road. Ki had been slung over the pack animal and a little cat-like creature was in a bag hanging off the animals neck sleeping.

I rushed over to Ren, he was covered in wounds, I spotted a rather nasty gash on his shoulder. He was sweating profusely and had passed out cold.

[ What do I do?!]

I walked over to the pack animal and searched for a bandage. Reaching into my hip holster I grabbed the ointment mother and father had given me. I wrapped his wounds as best as I could and dragged him over to the pack animal.

Using every last bit of strength I had, I pushed him onto it next to Ki.

I was sweaty, covered in my own blood and the blood of Delta, in an unknown place while Ki and Ren were very unwell. I too was covered head to toe in bruises and for some reason, my stomach felt particularly bad.

I had never been this terrified in my life. I felt like I was about to have a panic attack.

[ Did Ren lead us out of the forest himself?! ]

Breathing in and out taking long deep breaths, I calmed myself down. I gripped the lead that was attached to the pack animal and slowly started walking in the direction that Ren had been taking us. To try and keep myself awake I counted each step I took and just focused on the ground ahead of me.

I walked for so long I had lost count on the number of steps I had taken. Losing my stamina rapidly, I called for Kibbles in my mind.

" Meowster you don't look so good," Kibbles said as it appeared next to me walking at my pace. Kibbles them jumped on the pack animal and looked at the cat-like creature who was sleeping.

" Meowster.. I think that creature is about to die" Said kibbles in a melancholic tone.

[ Is there anything I can do? ]

I couldn't even speak at this point due to the exhaustion.

" Hmm I could always take over its body Meowster… but I won't be able to do it to anything else." Kibbles responded.

[ I don't know if it was Ki or Ren, but that creature was important enough to save.. Please do what you can ]

" It will cost all of your Doki Dollars are you sure? You could spend them right now on yourself so you could walk better" Kibbles said as it purred.

[ This bit of pain is nothing. Just save it ]

I don't know if it was guilt from killing someone or the feelings of regret I had but my soul felt numb. I couldn't help but think of how Ki and Ren were injured for my sake.

[This, all of this was my fault.]

{ 105 DD deducted | 0 DD Remain | commencing system change}

I stopped for a moment and started at kibbles. It licked its paw before it rubbed itself behind its ear. Its eyes began to glow red, green and then black. It shot off like a blur before seeming shooting itself inside the sleeping creature.

It jolted for a minute and startled the transport animal. The creature then jumped out of the bag it was carried in before it seemed to cry a little. Its red fur turned a shade darker, its cat eyes turned bright green and the dark patches around its eyes turned pitch black.

" Meowster, it has pretty bad internal bleeding, I am going to repair my new host. So I need to rest.. Goodnight meowster," I heard Kibbles voice in my mind.

The cat-like creature took one last look at me before jumping back in the neck holster. I sighed a little in relief. I looked over to see Ki and Ren still sleeping so I tightened my grip on the reigns and walked forwards.

{ Abrupt mission capture a feline in Tama Woods completed 50 DD rewarded}

Time seemed to stagnate as everything slowly faded in and out in my vision while I kept walking on and on, In an endless march to civilisation and help.

By the time the sun was well over above us, I heard a shout in the distance. "HALT OR WE WILL USE DEADLY FORCE!".

I looked up to see that I had somehow reached a fortress of some kind. Two guards with arrows nocked and drawn in my direction were staring straight at me.

" Please .. My friends help them," I said in the loudest voice I could muster.

" This is the Royal Tama Forest Fortress, civilians are not permitted entry! Begone!" Said the guard on the right.

" I am Aikyo Yuki. Grandson of Reo Aikyo and Son of Tenma! You must let me in… My friends might die!" I implored with a voice full of determination.

" Right haha and I am the uncle of the king! Do you have any proof?!" Said the guard on the left.

I clenched my fist angrily. The dried blood on my hand began to crack.

[ Proof ?]

I shook my head solemnly. I thought for a moment before mustering all my courage.

" You dare to face my grandfather if I am turned away?!" I said trying my best to sound like a rich kid from the novels I had read.

" You two what is happening?" came a third voice. A man in full silver amour carrying the royal crest could be seen with a red cape flowing on his back.

" My friends you must save them" I begged once again to the third voice.

" Cap'n he says he is Tenma's little brat." Said the guard on the right to the man who seemed to be in charge.

"Does he have proof?" said the man called captain in response.

" Doesn't look like it" said the man on the left.

The captain looked me up and down and then looked at Ki and Ren on the pack horse.

" Bring them in and treat them, put a few guards on the door and keep an eye on them. I'll send a letter out and get this mess sorted" Said the captain before striding off.

" OPEN THE GATES" Shouted the guard on the right.

I sighed in relief resigned to whatever fate lay ahead of me, I finally collapsed smiling.

I awoke to find myself in a building of some sort, my body seemed to be in a medical bath. The stench of herbs was thick in the air.

" Oh, Kid your awake," said a man who was checking my pulse.

" Ki? Ren? Are they okay!?" I said struggling to move.

" Woah! I wouldn't get out of the tub if I were you. Your magic organ is damaged if you move now you will never be able to cast again. Nasty wound you got! Don't worry your friends are over there resting!" Said the man in response.

He seemed to be scarred all over and his face had a patch over one of his eyes. His voice was soft and calm giving him a rough but gentle aura. I looked over seeing them bandaged and resting before finally relaxing.

The pain in my stomach seemed to come back in full force and assaulted me. I clenched my teeth and wrapped my hands around my gut.

" Told you not to move!" said the man who then shoved some green liquid in my mouth. It flowed through my organs granting me some relief.

" You're a pretty lucky kid! A bad heart and a torn magic organ and you somehow got to this base." The man said sighing.

[ Magic organ what the heck is that? ]

The man seemed to sense my confusion he looked at me before saying " The magic organ is like your heart or lungs.. But it seems to build up what we use to cast magic. Humans have essentially the same organ but for some reason, they collect different energy. Your wood organ seems pretty badly damaged though." Said the man.

" Wood organ?" I meekly replied

" Well yeah it seems you have wood magic, did you know?" Said the man in response as if he was looking at an idiot.

" Uhh nope" was all I could muster in return.

Just then a knock at the door was heard before the man in the red cape from earlier entered.

" Doctor Tau, what's your report?" The captain said.

The doctor saluted before saying sharply " Reporting to captain Rain. The young woman seems to have been stabbed by some form of earth elemental magic, the young man across from her has some infected cuts from multiple magic beast bites and is suffering a fever" Tau said and then paused.

" This young man has flesh wounds, a heart problem and an injury to his magic organ" Tau finished and saluted again.

" A heart problem, red hair and two brats with him. Seems like the reports match…" Captain Rain said out loud.

" I got a message from your father... He said your mother gave you something, where is it?" Rain looked at me and said.

" In my clothes, my mother's good luck charm is in my clothes!" I said quickly.

Doctor Tau went to my clothing as I was still in the murky medical bath and pulled out my mother's good luck charm before he handed it to the captain.

The captain took a few seconds to look at it. He opened it up to see my mother's hair locket. He then stood up straight and saluted.

" It is an honour to have an Aikyo family member in our humble base! Rest well, we can talk later about what happened!" Rain said.

Tau seemed rather shocked and saluted too before Rain abruptly left.