Chapter 044: Cat Chase

The next morning arrived and the routine began. Wake up, brush teeth, wipe down, get breakfast, head to the guild.

"No! They're all garbage." Shelly complained seeing the Job board.

By the time Shelly reached the guild, all the early adventurers had snatched the higher paying jobs. Just then, Anna popped in the building with loud cheers.

"Mornin' Y'all!!!" She yelled.

"Morning." Many responded.

"Nya! Maou! Shelly!" Anna greeted.

"Anna? What are you doing here?" Shelly asked.

"I work here." Anna pulled out her silver guild card. "I'm C-2."

"That's amazing!" Shelly exclaimed with admiration. "How long did it take?"

"A year an' a half if you're lucky." Anna replied. "So what yall up to?"

"Picking the best job out of what's left?" Shelly answered. "Got here too late to snatch up one of the good ones."

"Oh shit! I'm late." Anna jumped. "Argh!!! I don't want any shuns."

"What are 'shuns'." Shelly asked.

"Jobs nobody wants." Anna answered. "So, what ya' picked?"

Shelly showed her a job for collecting herbs and insects located in nearby woodlands outside the city. Reward: 1 silver and 40 bronze.

"Nya! I remember those days," Anna said. "But think of it as warm-up. Stretch the muscles a bit. Y'know?"

Going through the South West City Gate, they arrived at a small woodland. Shelly collected the herbs using the teachings of Mother on botany. Maou and Anna snatched the insects while snacking on other edible insects, much to Shelly's disgust. Soon after returning to the guild, they collected their reward. By this time more jobs were posted to the board right around the time they returned.

"Oh My God! This one's for thirty six silver." Shelly exclaimed, excitedly gripping the paper.

"Nya! What is it?" Anna asked.

The cat of a merchant's wife went missing in the Upper West Wing. She's to be returned safe and unharmed to the Ansberg family. Reward: thirty six silver.

Immediately, Shelly signed for the job and received a portrait of a pink dyed Bengal cat named "Ms. Pinky" dressed in pretty pearls and pink painted claws. Anna still tagged along with the two on their second job.

"Wow! Is this the Upper West Wing?" Shelly asked. "The buildings are bigger here. Is this the rich side of town?"

"A lil', but the North Wings are fancier." Anna answered. "And I heard that Centre City is ten times richer an' fancier than all the Wings combined."

"What's Centre City?" Shelly asked.

"It's where all the nobles, royals and richest merchants live." Anna replied. "I only ever heard rumours bout there. Nya…. I wanna see it so bad."

"Nobles? So Arthur lives there then." Shelly thought to herself. "I wonder if he'll ever invite us to his house."

"Hey Shelly, how are we gonna find the cat? Maou asked.

"Uhm, I figured we'd just ask around till we find it and just capture it." Shelly answered. "Should be easy enough, right?"

In fact… it was far from easy. Six hours later and they made zero progress in finding Ms. Pinky. After questioning several people (some not so agreeable) and looking at multiple random stray cats with no success, they took a break in Mr Bumpy Nose Bakery eating cheap baked bread.

Shelly fumed as Anna and Maou sipped on water while Bumpy Nose fanned them.

"Argh!!! Why can't we find one dumb cat?!" Shelly raged. "It's PINK for crying out loud!!!"

"It's so hot, Nya." Anna groaned.

"I don't think we can find that cat." Maou commented.

"No! We can. It's just gonna take a bit more time than I first thought." Shelly responded, chugging her cup of water after.

"You just don't wanna pay the cancel fee." Maou commented, nibbling on cheap bread.

Anna chuckled at Maou's witty response and Shelly blushed from embarrassment.

"If you want to catch a cat, why not lure it out with food." Bumpy Nose suggested. "Cats love bread."

"That's a great idea!" Shelly jumped. "Now we just need enough bread."

"Well…" Bumpy Nose began rubbing his hands together with a opportunistic smile. "I have some damaged bread I could sell for a fourth of the regular price."

They left the bakery with five loaves of bread after muchore convincing by Bumpy Nose.

"So what now?" Anna asked.

"Feed a bunch of stray cats and hope that pink cat shows up before we run out of bread." Shelly answered. "We'll get this over with faster if we split up. I'll take Maou with me."

"I wanna go with Anna." Maou stated.

"What? Why her so suddenly?" Shelly asked a little jealous.

"Because she's funner." He replied, dragging his sentence a bit. "I promise I won't get lost."

"Okay… fine." Shelly sighed. "As long as you stay close to Anna and don't eat any of the stale bread."

"Yay! Thanks Shelly." Maou cheered.

He ran to Anna's side… a little too quick for Shelly's comfort. But nonetheless, the three split up, walking in opposite directions to feed stray cats in random alleyways.

"Sure yah wanna leave Shelly alone like that? I'm fine on my own." Anna asked, sensing Shelly's feeling of betrayal.

"Yeah, why not? She'll be fine." Maou skipped along while holding a loaf of bread.

"Okay…. If you say so." Anna answered.

In their first alleyway, four stray cats slept atop rubbish and old items like chairs and torn carpet. They instantly became on guard as the two approached them.

"Hissk!!!"

"Raaawr!"

"It's aight lil ones." Anna cautiously approached. "I'm not gonna hurt ya'. Have some bread?"

She broke off a few piece and tossed it at the ground close to them. They backed away at first but one slowly stepped forward, the scrawniest of the four. It's bones printed through its dirty, scarred and stripped grey skin. It sniffed the bread first before taking s lick then immediately chewing at the bread piece. The other three moved forward and pushed the small scrawny grey cat aside but would soon start to scratch at eachother.

"C'mon guys! Don't fight. There's enough for everyone." Anna broke off a few more pieces.

This all continued until the cats suddenly started loudly meowing. From every angle and corner popped out more stray cats, all in poor condition. From four to six to nine to twelve, they all gathered for food but none a pink dyed Bengal cat.

"We only have two loaves left already. Hehehe!" Anna giggled while breaking more bread pieces.

"So Maou, I heard you have a memory loss sickness. Is that true?" Anna asked, sitting on an old wooden chair. "No memory of family or friends. Must be sad."

"Not really. I don't remember them so I can't get sad." Maou replied.

"Ya' not wrong actually." Anna chuckled at his statement. "Well, wherever you came from must've been great. Bet'cha had a rich family too. You speak very good for someone your age an' you can read. You're betta than most already."

"If they had a lotta food, I'd be angry I left." Maou broke a bread piece and tossed it in his mouth. "Working to eat sucks! I wanna eat everyday without working."

"Hehe!" Anna chuckled. "Don't we all."

"So where do you come from Anna?" Maou asked.

"This this city." She answered.

"Wow! What was it like?"

"Nothin' special. Just poor all the time." Anna replied. "Father killed, mother a prostitute on drugs an' alla my siblings are either dead or missing. Probably sold off as slaves or something."

"Ehh?" Maou dropped his bread from shock.

"I'm kidding! Ahahaha!" Anna laughed hysterically. "My dad's a coal miner. Mom takes care of the house and sells soap. My siblings are all too young to work, so I help bring in some money."

"Aha…. You got me. I thought you were being serious. Hahaha!" Maou nervously chuckled.

"Shoulda' seen the look on your face. Hehehe!" Anna giggled. "But honestly, nowhere's perfect. You jus learn to live with it, yknow. This city is no different."

Lost in her speech, Maou didn't realize that a pink cat nibbled away at the loaf of bread he dropped earlier. Anna was also caught off guard as she jumped to her feet exclaiming while pointing at the cat they were all looking for.

"Ahhh! Ms. Pinky!" Anna shouted, frightening all the cats. "Maou catch her!!!"

Maou who was just a startled as the other cats accidentally kicked the bread, prompting Ms. Pinky to quickly back off. Anna not wanting to miss the opportunity, lunged at the wanted cat but only grasped air as the cat was incredibly swift in its reactions. Before they could get a second attempt, she scurried away from them down another adjacent alley.

"Maou come on! She's getting away." Anna yelled to him.

The chase began as the two dropped their bread, bolting after the Bengal cat in a slim alleyway. Unfortunately, the chase would last longer than they had expected. From dodging people and obstacles laying on the ground, taking sharp turns, running down uneven and muddy grounds as well as keeping up with a cat that did parkour every ten seconds into people's yards and rooftops.

"It's getting away." Maou commented.

"I know but can't think of a way to catch it without hurtin' the poor thing." Anna replied.

"So what? Are you just gonna chase it till it's tired?" Maou asked.

"That or till we corner her." Anna added.

As time passed, they slowly got closer and closer to catching the elusive pink creature.

"Sloooop!!!" "Slack!"

Anna slipped in mud, landing on her ass just as she felt the cats tail graze between her fingers.

"Maou! She's runnin your way." Anna shouted, splashed in mud. "I'm right behind–."

She slipped trying to stand up, getting even more mud on her.

"Why's dis mud extra slippery?!" Anna tried standing up. "Smells like crap too."

Once more she lost her balance but was caught by a tall slender man cloaked in black that hid most of his body.

"Take it easy. I got ya'!" He said in a slightly singing tone.

Anna stepped onto mudless land.

"Careful now. The mud here's got extra slip to 'em." He humoured.

Anna looked back to thank him but froze after seeing his face under the hood. A man with crusty lips and dark circles under his deceitful eyes smiled at her.

"You're welcome miss kitty." He said, rocking back and forth on his heels.

"Haaha! My bad…. Thanks bud." Anna nervously replied, overwhelmed by his creepiness and towering height. "Sorry, but I have to go. Bye!"

"Bye bye, miss kitty." He waved, titling his head uncomfortably to the side.

On the otherhand, in another alley, Shelly found only one stray cat to feed but that didn't really bother her as she used that one cat as a therapy talk session.

"Is it a stretch to think he's starting to like Anna more than me." Shelly sulked. "I mean it just makes sense…. Doesn't it? She paid for expensive dinners while I could only afford oats porridge in the morning and cheap fruits at lunch."

The cat angrily meowed at Shelly as she became too engrossed in her talking to feed the cat.

"Not to mention, I haven't been the best to him lately either. I lost him about three times since coming here. Even worse, the last time I didn't even notice." Shelly took a bite out the stale bread. "I bet they're having the time of their life together… without me… the not-so-fun one."

Kicking dirt on Shelly, the cat ran off, too annoyed to care for the bread anymore and leaving Shelly to sulk by herself.

"Wait! Don't leave me. I have bread." Shelly stretched out the stale bread. "Haaaaaa! What am I doing? This is just sad."

She stood up, brushing the dirt of her butt.

"I hope they found that cat already." She stretched. "I wanna get this over with and go–."

"Shelly! Watch out!" A familiar voice shouted.

Before she could process anything, Maou landed atop her. The sudden hit knocked her out while Maou held the pink Bengal cat, the two dizzy with stars floating above their heads.

"You caught her!" Anna yelled, jogging towards them. "Way da gooooo…. You two okay?"