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Uuuuhhhhhgggg
Your blinding head. It hurts. You hate craft sicknessss why youuuuu.
This is your divine punishment for daring to wake up. How could you?
… but if you're awake anyway, you might as well read that book Mira got you. You reach over to the book on the nightstand, flip to your page, and begin reading. (Reading keeps away the bad thoughts.)
–-------------
You hear knocking on the door. “Siffrin?”
You jolt, before recognizing Mirabelle's voice from the other side of the door. “Come in!” you wheeze, instantly regretting using your voice, because apparently you have lost your blinding voice! Fun.
“Sorry! If I woke you up?” The door opens with a creak, and you wince from the noise. “Oh, I see you're reading the book I lent you! Do you like it?”
Instead of risking your already damaged voice, you deign to give her a thumbs up instead.
“That's great! Anyway, I brought you some soup Bonnie made, I hope! you!! Like it!!!” She sets it on your lap. “Also, I have a few more stories to share, if you're up to it?”
Yessss yes yes yes!!!! You nod your head excitedly.
You sit up, and start eating your soup as Mira starts telling you a story.
—----------
It starts with a stray cat. This stay is being fed by the townsfolk of Dormont, and is quite beloved.
This strays favorite spot ever is in the clocktower, in the inside of the clock. Now, to get there, it needs to get into the clocktower, which is often locked. So, it found a hole, in the side of the tower, that led inside. But it hadn't been inside in awhile, and since it had been in, some humans had seemingly moved in! Can you believe it? How could they!?
So, this stray needs to find some way to either sneak in, or get these humans out. Its first choice is obviously to try to sneak in. It's not dumb enough to pick a fight it can't win! So, it sneaks in, past someone on the couch, past the kitchen, up the stairs, and when it was almost there, a human suddenly came out of a door!
It ran into the first hiding spot it could find, which happened to be behind the door. Now this wasn't the best hiding spot it could find, far from it, and it was sure it was spotted, or it would be once the door closed, but, shockingly, even after the door closed the human didn't seem to see it.
So, the cat continued its journey up to the clock, with no more humans to avoid, and settled into its favorite spot, and it napped.
—----------
By the time you finished your soup, and the story was finished, you were sleepy, so Mira wished you goodnight, and snuck out. You were too sleepy to notice she left the door half-open, or the creak of the door being pushed fully open, or the creature that came into your room.
—--------
Man, you are hungry. So, you go to the dirty food human, and sit there staring at him, since that usually seems to work. It makes noises at you, including the noises that mean food, but doesn't give you anything.
So, you go to the pretty food human. It left for a long time, and you're glad it came home, so you give it extra scenting, but it doesn't give you anything either. You notice it's heading to the Clocktower. It's been hanging out there a lot more since it came home with its family unit…
But you're still hungry. So you go to your last resort food human. It's very scary, and has a dog of all creatures, but it usually gives you fairly good food, not as good as dirty food human though. But, you can't find it?? It's not anywhere???? So weird.
Well, with no food, you go towards the Clocktower. There's a new small food human there who sometimes gives you good food. But it's loudddd and you kind of don't like it. But it gives really good food…
So you go to the Clocktower, and you go in through your door. It's just a little hole in the side of the tower leading to the basement. You head up into the main room, and as luck would have it, new small food human is there in the food room making food! Lucky you! You sit and patiently wait for food, and as luck would have it, it has food for you! It's a sort of red liquid with small food chunks in it, and it as usual tastes delicious.
You also notice that pretty food human take some food upstairs, but you know it's eaten already… you've noticed stuff like this before too, with new big good pets human sometimes taking food upstairs after having already eaten its fill. Maybe they’re all storing extra food up there? You decide to investigate.
After eating.
—---------
After finishing your food, you head upstairs. You remember pretty food human coming out of a door up here the first time you found the family unit here. You think it was… That door, that's open. You've never seen that door open… if they're storing food anywhere it will be in that room.
You creep into the room, and immediately notice a lack of food. Interesting… There are human beds, and as you investigate, you realize there is a human in one of the beds! And it is sick! This must be who they're bringing food too. You decide that, since you're here, you might as well help. So, you jump onto the bed, crawl onto the sick human’s chest and start purring. You've noticed that when other humans are feeling bad, purring always helps, so why wouldn't it here.
Ohh my sick human is so warm!! You start to feel sleepy…! No! You need to heal it of its sickness! But slowly, you drift off to sleep, despite your best efforts…
—--------
… ughh your head hurts. But, as you slowly come too, you realize there is a weight on your chest. A very fuzzy weight. You vaguely recognize purring through your cotton filled ears. And though it's dark, you can make out the faint outline of a cat on your chest.
… Well, you know the rules. You cannot disturb the cat at any cost.
Slowly, despite the headache pounding at your head, or maybe because of it, you eventually drift back to sleep.
—-----------------
Your head feels filled with cotton. You can hear the pitter patter of rain outside your window. You really want to go outside, to feel the rain on your skin, but you know your family would stop you. But you really want to though…
But just as you're steeling your nerves to stand, you notice the cat make its way into your room.
It's an “orange tabby” cat, as you learned from a cat breed identifying book. You once tried to figure out what orange meant, but none of the colour theory books your family brought you said anything about it. You wish you could go and check yourself that no books were missed, but alas, you are currently under strict orders to remain in bed.
It meows once, then jumps up onto your bed and pins you down, almost as if it could sense you were about to make a bad decision. Of course, with how often the thing is in your room recently, it's probably a coincidence. Oh well, guess you're being put down for a nap. Probably for the best. Your head was really starting to hurt.
----------
You have officially been deemed clear for travel. Of course, the dang cat seems to disagree, and will not let you so much as stand up, and you doubt it will let you leave. Ughh you've delayed Bonnie's return for long enough, cat. Please.
The cat finally lets you up when it's lunch time, as you'd been cleared to walk around a week or so ago. But, as soon as you sit down to eat, it crawls onto your lap. Like a blinding nurse. As your family has pointed out. Numerous times.
“Still can't go anywhere without Nurse Goody, huh Sif?”
Sigh… “No Isa, it will not leave me the void alone.”
“You know, I heard that many animals, including cats, can smell sickness. Maybe it thinks your still sick”
“That doesn't help.”
“Maybe it needs proof you're really better! Like a gauntlet??”
“A gauntlet sounds like a terrible idea. But, what's the worst that could happen?”
“Well, I guess I haven't been outside since I could walk…”
“Maybe just seeing Sif outside will be enough for the Good Nurse?”
And so, you hatched a plan to prove to the cat you didn't need baby-sitting.
Once you were finished with lunch, you walked outside to begin the trials.
Basically what this encompassed was you walking around town and talking with the locals with Mira. The cat took it fairly well you think!
—--------
The sick human seems to have recovered, but you still have reservations about it walking around…
What if it hurts itself? Or gets sick again? Or or or?
At least it's bringing another human with it for its walk in case something happens. But you stick to its side like a mouse in a trap anyway, to ease your mind. Maybe you don’t have to keep it in bed constantly?
—-------------
With Goody no longer pinning you in bed at all times, you are free to leave whenever. As such, you and your family have begun the long and arduous process of packing. You've been here awhile! So you have a lot to pack.
The cat, however, doesn't seem too happy about it. It's been meowing incessantly since you started. It hasn't stopped you though, and you'll be ready to go by tomorrow!
—------
You’re ready to go! One problem, the cat does not seem to want to stay in town. It’s been following you for the past thirty minutes! It might not be able to find its way back to town at this rate! Plus, it’s constant meowing is getting on your nerves. But, at least you don’t have to say goodbye? Well, it looks like it’s going to stick next to you for a while…