Small Step for Cat-Kind...

[AdventWings]

((Closed Intro Quest. You know who you are))

"May Day! May Day!"

"Feris Eight to Mother Cat! May Day! I'm losing lateral thrust- Aw, hell, I'm losing all thrust right now! I'm free-falling in a white-and-blue coffin, fer Val's sake!"

"Feris Eight to Mother Cat! Dammi-! Zsstzszsztsztststztzzzztssssztstzs..."

***

Have you ever been in a situation so unbelieveable... so far-removed from reality you thought there was no way it was going to happen? Have you ever stared down the eyes of Death you thought you saw your soul swimming aimlessly in that abyss which laid before you? Ever wondered how painful or painless it would all end, once your frail body smash against the ground it was as if you were made of nothing more than thin glass?

Oddly enough... I was mere inches of experiencing such...

Mere inches...

Those thoughts echoed through my mind as I surveyed the wreckage of the applauded Valkyrie - or what remained of it, from what I could tell. The shatter-proof cockpit that could withstand vacuum was cracked, though intact enough I think I could manage some repairs on my own. The durability afterwards would be another cause for concern, though. Asides from that, the engines were busted - nothing left of its former self asides from the charred titanium hull miraculously still intact. Goes to prove that Felisionne-crafted Titanium is far superior to the natural alloys mined during the long journey. But it was useless now, even if the engines could have been restored to full working order. The left wing had gone completely missing and was left with a stub. I scanned the amazingly blue sky, trying to determine where on this rock that piece of metal could have gone. If it could survive Tritium-Powered Ion Engine blowout like the one that nearly blew my ship to smithereens, there was no way it could have burned away in the atmosphere.

Some winged creatures sqwauked off to my right and took off in a burst of black feather, startling the living daylight out of me. I was a fighter pilot, for crying out loud, not an outdoor kind of person. And even though we took Survival Tactics 101 back in Flight Academy before put into service, I was never good at this kind of stuff. Heck, I practically slept through that class.

After a few moments went by, me raking the nearby undergrowth with my deep chocolate eyes for any danger that might be lurking nearby, I finally let out a nervous sigh and wiped a sweat tricking out from the side of my head.

There was no way I would be getting off this rock soon. It probably would not be long as well before the local beasts end up gnawing my thighbone for a snack.

At least I have my black overcoat to keep the cold winds out and my trusty pair of switchknives, which Karen's brother liked to tease me by calling them "can openers." So what? That Feris One pilot probably had more than a few up his jacket sleeves as well.

But... How long would I last? I could only pray those guys up on "Pride of Felasia" knew I was down here...

***

"What do you mean, he's not coming back?!"

News travelled fast on board the "Pride of Felasia" and this was no exception. No matter what rank you were serving aboard - from the lowly but respected Mess Hall Assistant to the Admiral himself - there were ways to learn of events happening inside and outside of the gigantic starship's hull. Especially if it concerned the battlecruiser's only defensive fighter wing.

The Surveilence and Intelligence deck seemed overrun by a mass of fur-covered ears ranging from pale yellow to midnight black, busily moving from one end of the giant monitor-lined room to the other. Some wore special headsets and typing away on the console in rapid succession, sending intelligence reports to the upper command deck as well as the scout ships sent to find and retrieve the potentially space-flung fighter.

"Grampa! What did you mean by he's not coming back?!"

The sweet, plaintiff voice belonged to a light-grey feline still in her pilot uniform who followed behind a large tawny cat donning the outfit of an Admiral.

"I'm sorry, Karen. But from the debris we found, it would be unlikely that pilot would have survived at all - the Valkyrie was literally blown to pieces, just like what we saw."


"But... but-" Karen interjected, but halted when her superior held his ground with a stern gaze. "...I understand, Admiral Fadarel..."

His cold glare softened to a sympathizing frown as he placed a paw on her tiny shoulder. "We did what we could. All that is left now is for the recon ships to return for debriefing. I am truly sorry."

Karen kept her eyes trained on the floor as she exited the hectic room and into the relatively peaceful corridor outside. Her heart, though, still believed otherwise.

I know he's not dead... I just know it...

[Khalxaen]

Fatigue never went well with Khalxaen Spirits. This certain demon was usually in high spirits, accompanied with energy that never seemed to run out, but four days with no sleep and food could hurt anybody—and it certainly hurt Khalxaen. She couldn’t even remember why she was in this condition. If she tried hard enough to remember, blurry images of trying to fetch something for some elite group appeared in her mind. Wait, what group?

She could remember a girl named Ciel, though. Of course she wouldn’t forget that certain girl. The lady knight she had met was her complete opposite, yet Khalxaen admired her so much for some reason. Stubbornly though, Khalxaen would never admit that, especially to Ciel herself.

Khalxaen was disappointed. She wasn’t being herself at all—disappointed and tired. The demon had spent so much time trying to reach for a goal, and at the end, she had given it up for someone else. She wasn’t exactly the epiphany of evil, but never in her life had she imagined herself to do something so selfless; but that wasn’t the reason she was disappointed. She was disappointed because at the end, she had gained nothing but fatigue.

Almost nothing could stop her from taking a nice nap under a cozy tree and then going to the nearest place to find some food. Almost nothing, that is, because as she was walked through a clearing, she saw the oddest thing she had ever seen. It was a huge pile of what seemed to be foreign contraptions, and smoke rose from various places, as if it had just gone through an explosion.

“Damn it…” Khalxaen rubbed her scarlet eyes furiously. She needed sleep. Soon. Still, these… metal things in front of her quirked her interest, something which always proved to send her to extremities. Her curiosity for the strangest things always brought her to adventures. On second thought, maybe that’s why she speculated at the strangest things—because the thought of another exciting adventure was always on her to-do list.

It wasn’t her fault, after all. Althanas had too many strange occurrences, one after another.

“This isn’t the time for this…” She yawned widely, stretching her arms before her.

Her head quickly snapped as she heard something moving. Khalxaen’s long ears perked up as she noticed a sound that was different from others. It was the sound of an intruder. It didn’t even occur to her that she was the intruder, being the one inspecting a contraption that wasn’t even hers.

Alike to anybody who felt threatened, she shoved away her current exhaustion and brought out her sword. She circled around the machine, eyes squinting. She couldn’t see anybody, and she wondered if she was starting to hallucinate. Was it even possible to hallucinate through the ears? ’Great, I’m going crazy.’

Suddenly, her knees buckled. Her eyesight went blurry, but in the corner of her eye, she swore she saw a creature matted with fur and sporting an overcoat. Then her eyesight went black.

For the first time in her life, Khalxaen passed out.

[AdventWings]

"Aww, great... And there goes the Sun..."

I muttered in sheer exasperation as the glowing orange globe began to disappear over the impenetrable green foliage to what I presumed to be east. Of course, on this world east could be my west and my north could be my south. Wait... that did not make complete sense...

Hmm... If west is east... north is south...

Argh. Nevermind that. I never got high marks in Survival Tactics 101 except for staying alert, anyway.

But with the Sun setting fast, I had to act quickly. I remembered something in class saying that native creatures were more active after nightfall, which would be happening in only a few minutes after this. I had to find some place to hide out and get some shut-eye. Some place safe and warm. Some place cozy...

Karen...

Ugh! There you go again! Focus, darn you!

I slapped my head a couple of times and heaved a weary sighed. About the only place I could think of at the moment was the cockpit of my downed Feris Eight. The prospect of left-over drive fuel erupting and blowing this piece of junk sky high with me in it did not do good to promote its safety. I guess I would just have to make a fire and try to stay as awake as I could. Fire usually keeps the animals away, as far as I could remember. But how am I-

Of course! The engine cables!

Even though I did not have my survival kit stored inside the fighter like everyone else's I could still use the sparks to light a dry stick and bring the fire to a larger pile of... umm... leaves? Yeah... That's what the lecturer said... I think...

Leaves and branches catch fire if they're dry enough... I think that was what he said.

But before I could move to gather an armful of said organic material, I heard a chilling thud behind my back and some kind of shuffling in the green floor-lining things I was standing on. I thought I was done for - something had snuck up on me unaware and was probably seeing me as a perfect early dinner. My ears were perked and alert, bordering on "scared to death" and "get the freaking hell out of there" along with "what in Valena's name was that" all at the same time.

I constantly blamed this on the "curiosity" flaw that every Felisionne had in their blood, but I just had to see what got the drop on me. Slow and steady, I pivoted on the balls of my toes and glanced over my shoulder as my body slowly turned to meet my mysterious guest.

And when I finally got a good look o the "thing" that had startled my wits to death, I felt like flunking myself in that single category I had scored so high on.

Well, there goes that Top Marks for Alertness, Kitty boy.

It looked to be a young humanoid creature, clad in an odd outfit that appeared similar to old-Felisionne fashion that was starting to make a comback among the Retro Fashion group. Of course, denim was always in fashion because of its durability. The sword, however, was something new.

I looked at the... girl? Guy? I could not tell for sure with the person lying face-down on the green carpet. The figure outline gave me a few clues, but I was still unsure.

"Umm... Hello?" I craned my neck and muttered in a low voice, getting down on all fours and crept close to the stranger. "Are you alive?"

I inched forward little by little until I was only half a meter away. Even though if this was a trick, I was still certain my no-hand cartwheel would take me out of that sword's range. If it was not one of those extending power rods, that is.

The pointy-eared stranger was not moving at all, the scarf lying across half the face. Cautiously, I stretched out my arm and gave "it" a poke on the pinkish arm. Well, at least the creature was still warm. That would mean "it" was still alive. But... why is "it" lying so still?

Of course, that was when I heard the light wheezing tone of a cute "snore."

So... it's asleep...?

Well, that was certainly a relief. At least I was not going to be blamed for killing someone at first sight. It was not like this planet was at war with the "Pride of Felasia" anyway.

Well... No need letting this person fall asleep here... Might as well make a shelter for the time being...

***

It's a good thing she wasn't that heavy... I thought to myself as I glanced at the figure dozing listlessly under my black overcoat, her head propped on a pile of leaves I had gathered from the nearby trees. The loose power cables proved quite useful, if not a tad hazardous, for lighting the dried twigs on fire. It took me merely five minutes to get a good fire started and now I was certain some nocturnal hunters would not be getting the jump on me. Not for a second time.

Plus, I had found that secret stash of food I kept as in-mission snacks during long cruise flights through the uneventful vacuum. The tin compartment held a plethora of oatmeal and raisin cookies - the kinds I liked best. I remembered the day I had received them from Karen... How we were both glancing at each other awkwardly before the sortie alarm startled us into getting ready to take-off.

Wouldn't you love to hear that your cookies saved my life, Karen? I chuckled, staring up into the clear night sky. I knew the "Pride of Felasia" would not be quick to abandon me on this unexplored world. Not when I was one of their best, if not a bit reckless, defensive fighter in the fleet.

At least... She would not be quick to abandon me... Not her...

***

"L, this is K."

"Nrgh..."

A moment of silence passed in the small sleeping quarter aboard the "Pride of Felasia" as a light-orange catgirl dozed off noisily, to the dismay of her twin sister sleeping in the bunk above. The small room had only the ComLink screen illuminating the entire 3-by-6 meter area and the snoring was only making it worse for the catgirl sleeping above.

"Laria, wake up! Karen is on the Com!" The irritated feline whispered, only to be returned by the annoying mumbling from her sister.

"I said WAKE UP!"

The orange catgirl above threw her feathery pillow at her target, catching Laria by surprise and startling her awake.

"Wha- Who- Wha- OW!"

"L, are you there? This is K! I need your help!"

It took a few seconds before the catgirl known as Laria recognized the voice and bolted to the console despite the throbbing headache from ramming into the underside of her sister's bunk.

"This is L. Come in, K." Laria fumbled with the controls a few moments before bringing the display screen up to full width in front of her. "What's the urgency, K? Do you know what time this is?!"

Karen made a surprised look and checked her watch before returning her irritated friend an apologetic smile. "Umm... Yeah. We'll talk about that later. Can you do me a favor? I need you to find the location of Feris Katena Flight Designation Number Eight."

"What? Raven's new Valkyrie? Isn't it supposed to be in-" Laria took a few seconds blazing her fingers across the console before coming to a halt when a miniature screen appeared on the lower right portion of the large screen showing a missing space fighter.

"Boy, you sure are slow for a computer wiz, Sis." Laria's sister rolled her eyes and tugged the flung pillow back up to her roost. "Everyone on board already knew about the little accident."

"Oh, quiet, Mint." Laria snorted before returning to her friend on the other side of the Link. "How long ago was this?"

"It's been seven hours, L." Karen replied, hearing Mint giggle in the background.

"Seven hours... Aw, hell. How long is that, Mint?"

"It's only 0.4375 Cycles, sis." Mint giggled again and skillfully rolled away from a flying pen.

"Hmm... He shouldn't be too far from here, I suppose..." Laria muttered as she tapped away at her console, slipping by the starship's firewalls and defense protocols. "I'll see what's up in the Planetary Scans the ship made around the time your bee-ef disappeared."

"He- Hey! We're not- Well-!" The catrgirl on the other end stammered as she played with her fingers while her fluffy grey ears seemed to be spinning around itself. "I mean- Can you find him?"

"Well, that's odd... Awfully odd..." The computer wiz halted in mid-type, her eyes focused on a small screen next to her friend's face on the console screen.

"What is it, Sis?" Mint gazed at the data with her head hanging over the bunk edge, trying to read the captions upside-down.

"It says here there is a planet that's not too far away... Rich in natural resources both above ground and subterranean... But..."

"But... What?" Karen's eager voice sqeaked over the ComLink.

"...Scan says there's no other life forms aside from plant life." Laria looked up at Karen who had turned from optimistic to horror. "There's nothing alive down there. But how could that be?!"

[Khalxaen]

“Khal, wake up, dear.”

‘It’s that voice again…’

It had been months since Khalxaen left her hometown, where everyone was nice to her—nothing like the intense wilderness of the outside world. In the outside world, nobody really cared, save for the few which she had the chance of making friends with.

She would never admit it, but Khalxaen missed her town. She missed how everybody would fuss over her, and how she would refuse and insist that she didn’t need any of their help; and also, how intensely upset she became when nobody did fuss over her, satisfying her need to not be alone.

Only one person helped satisfy her need of companionship. She thought she had went past the stage where she felt guilty for leaving this person behind, but lately, the guilt was seeping back. After days of no sleep, she finally dreamt of this guilt again.

“Nnrrrgh…” Khalxaen stirred in her sleep, one of her hands reaching up to grab a pillow that she expected to be there. What her hand came to rest upon was soft, but it wasn’t anything like a feather-filled pillow, instead, it was a pack of leaves gathered to be able to rest her head upon. She opened one eye, and she saw silhouettes of trees, she could hear the noise of crickets, and she could feel a blanket on her and a fire nearby.

’I can’t remember… where am I? Did I check into an inn?’ She reached up and pulled her ‘blanket’ closer, seeking comfort in it.

’Wait… NO. I would never check into a roofless inn!’ With a quick start, she sat up straight. Her scarlet eyes stared widely at the black coat in her hands. ’This is NOT a blanket. Who the hell owns this?!’

The demon looked around quickly and in panic. She was in a makeshift camp and a feline-like creature was before her. Khalxaen had met one like him before, and for a second she contemplated if this was the same person. ’No, different color.’ It was dark, and only the fire was there to guide her, same for her eyes that could see in the dark.

She wasn’t sure if he had noticed her, and she just started blankly around. The demon massaged her temples. What was going on? She could remember fatigue and hunger… and a strange contraption that she tried to examine, but to no avail. Then she remembered darkness. Being someone who could see in the dark, she only experienced real darkness when she shut her eyes.

Right. She passed out. Right?

“Who are you?” Khalxaen asked stiffly. For a moment, she thought she was being too stingy. He obviously helped her when she had passed out, but she wasn’t a person to be thankful without an explanation first. “And where the hell is my swor—oh, never mind, here it is. Back to the point, who the hell are you?!”

His reply would be the judgment of how she would interact with him. She was a person of first impressions, after all.

[AdventWings]

I was lost in thought, gazing silently at the twinkling stars above that soundlessly mocked me for the unluck I was having. It was a lucky break that the planet had a breathable atmosphere and abundant plant life. If it had been a desolate, uninhabited rock somewhere in space I would have been long dead by now. I would not have time to reach for Karen's cookies as I plummet to my demise in a flying titanium coffin. I could have activated the escape pod, had the ejection controls not been fried during the mysterious explosion. But then I would be somewhere else... somewhere out there in the empty void littered with my ship's debris. Waiting for death to take me home.

A string of loud words and startled shrieks, or so I assumed, rang out from behind me and I literally jumped straight into the air with hair standing on ends. I didn't know what I did - all I could remember was a frightened yelp escaping my throat before I flew through the air and landed a few meters away, sweaty hands clutching the round tin box close.

Uh, oh. The local's awake... I thought, peeking over the top of my makeshift shield. The pointy-ear girl eyed me suspiciously and had apparently reclaimed her... sword? Well, it was something sharp and pointy, but I was not entirely sure. I was not about to bet that the metal thingy could not cleave me in half even for a thousand credits.

Then, I realized she was trying to communicate with me. Communicating with an Off-Worlder using her own tongue. Of course, I could not make out a single word she was saying - All I heard were a string of incoherent, odd-sounding utterance that reminded me of something sweet but strict at the same time. An interesting language to learn, I would say, had it been under better circumstances.

My mind went blank. What was she saying? She sounds kinda... angry... or something... but definitely NOT good... I was clueless when it came to First Contact. Now... What was the protocol when meeting with sentient beings from lower technology levels? Uhh...

...I could not think of anything. Anything that was going to be of any use for me under the current predicament, anyway. Well... there was one thing I could do. But I would not know the exact outcome of this action, anyway...

Still holding the tin container up against my face, I slowly raised my right arm up and opened my hand, palm facing the irate girl. My furry feline fingers held together and...

Waved.

I waved my empty hand at her, hoping to make peace. I was not about to make war with a race I had yet to understand, nor do I want them to face retribution from the "Pride of Felasia" if they had discovered my mangled corpse on this planet.

"Myao~?"

[Khalxaen]

“M…’Myao’?” Khalxaen repeated in speculation as her eyes widened in surprise. Her cheeks went bright red because of the meek sound he made, and it was too cute to be dangerous. It was like when you saw a cute toy being sold in a festival, and even though you know you’re too old, you still go red because you realize that it’s just too cute to ignore.

The creature in front of her didn’t seem to be a threat from the way it spoke in a language that she could only understand was a feline’s. She put her sword back in it’s sheath and slowly approached him, making sure not to make any startling moves.

Her anger slowly dissolved as she realized that the creature seemed lost, or at the least, confused. She stopped in front of him and examined him closer. He really was a strange creature, something that looked like a cross between a human and a cat. Khalxaen pouted out of habit, not really sure of what to do next.

“Hey, Kitty, what’s your name?” Khalxaen asked in a loud voice. She realized he probably couldn’t speak this world’s language considering he replaced a ‘hi’ with a ‘myao’, but she wasn’t one to stop trying. “Or maybe Myao’s your name. Want me to call you Myao? Well, it doesn’t matter. Are you lost? Do you want to go to a city? I’ll bring you there if you treat me to food.”

Silence. The demon glared at him, fully knowing that this was probably going nowhere. It was like when she met that Drow from before, Izvilvin. There was a thick language barrier in-between the two of them, but they pretty much survived being with each other from pointing and using a few syllables.

’Perhaps I’m just jumping to conclusions… Man, I would be so embarrassed if he could understand me right now. But he has such a confused look on his face, it makes me kind of guilty that I even pointed my sword at him… Hey, how do I even know this is a He?!’

“Khalxaen.” Khalxaen said, pointing at herself. “I’m Khalxaen. But you can just call me Khal… as in, Khal! Get it?” She stayed silent for a while. “Oh, and thanks for taking care of me, if that’s what happened.”

It was like talking to a baby, she realized. Then, she pointed a finger towards one direction. “Where are you headed, Kitty?”

((OOC: I’m so sorry I posted so late. I hope this is still ongoing. >_>))

[AdventWings]

((OOC: Yep, we're still good. :D))

My decision on using the native utterance of a feline nature worked in calming the girl, though I was not completely sure it had the intended effect. At least she lowered her pointed weapon-thing from my face, which I should take as a good sign.

Well, at least something went right this time.

Somewhere along the line, things started to be a bit less daunting and more of a funny act as the pointy-ear local tried to converse with me using her language. Heck, I couldn't even understand a single word she was saying!

In the barrage of foreign-sounding words, I kept silent and gazed back at her with confused eyes. I thought to myself that she must be trying to say something about where I came from or where I was headed. Well, I nearly scoffed and pointed my fingers to the crashed starfighter in utter defeat, but realized that she might not even know what it was.

Therefore, I just kept my mouth shut and sighed wearily, lowering the tin case of cookies down to chest level.

"Kalse-n" I heard the pretty girl with deep brown hair say the word as she pointed to herself. "blah blah bla-blah blah Kal. bhe-bla Kal. Blablah?

I blinked. She said a few more things, but my ears could not track the individual sounds that slurred together like a whirlwind of noises, both sounding sweet and cryptic at the same time.

So, this was how hard First Contact was.

A short silent followed after she had finished speaking, but I think I understood what her intention was. There was a similar circumstance written about it in a short novel I once read on the "Pride of Felasia." It had to do with a young adventurer catgirl who discovered a feral Felisionne in the forest and subsequently tried to communicate with him. The story was a favorite of mine when I was a mere kitten, and had always though it to be merely fiction. Now, it may have just been a real story after all...

The way the adventurer catgirl addressed herself to the feral catboy bore a striking resemblance to the way Kalse-n introduced herself to me. It could be just a coincidence, but I was willing to bet on what her intention was.

I looked at her curiously, mimicking the hand gesture and spoke slowly, wanting her to hear what my name was.

"Rae~Ven" I uttered, my throat pinching together just enough to pitch my voice a tad higher than I wanted it to. I then pointed to my Feris Katena 8, or what was left of it, and mimed the crash with my hands. I wanted to tell her I was stranded here and was simply waiting for the people high up to finally send a rescue team, but I did not think such a primitive world would understand even the context of the word.

My eyes followed her finger briefly, but saw nothing in that direction except for trees, trees and more trees- Oh, look! A bird! My eyes lit up at the brightly-colored winged creature, but I quickly snapped back to the local's effort at hand. No, hey, what? I'm getting off-track. Focus, Rae, focus!

I did not understand what she was pointing at, but I could tell she was hungry. My ears heard her growling stomach since nightfall while she was asleep. I wasn't sure what kind of food these people eat, whether they prefer juicy grilled chicken or just plain old salad. Or maybe they eat... fresh meat? Ick. I did not want to believe that. Besides, she looked too well-kept to be a cannibal. ...Right?

Well, there was nothing much I could do to extend my gratitude for not sticking me in the gut with that pointy metal stick of hers, except maybe offer her some of Karen's raisin oat cookies.

I inched forward and produced the tin container in front of me, a careful hand slowly opening the round red lid and revealing the mix of baked pastry dotted with raisin and oat grains.

Turning my eyes upward to meet hers, I let out a small "mew" as a sign of good will, ushering her to eat something before we head out anywhere. The night was deep and I was not about to leave the fire. I would rather wait for the daytime star to appear over the horizon first before even thinking about leaving my ship.

Either way, I do hope she enjoyed the cookies as much as I did.

[Khalxaen]

“Raven?” Khalxaen repeated softly while staring at him curiously. She watched as he mimicked her previous gestures, and she came to the conclusion that he had understood that she was saying her name, and now he was doing the same. “Your name’s Raven, huh? Cute.” The demon said bluntly while crossing her arms. She watched him try to tell her something through hand signals.

“Uh… then, it went boom?” The demon concluded, not really sure anymore on what was going on.

It was great that they could understand each other though, no matter ho vague. He was looking towards the direction she had pointed at. Maybe he knew where he was heading for? Maybe it was his answer that he was taking up her offer to be escorted to the city? She blinked as a hint of excitement appeared on his face, and she quickly looked at what he was looking at.

’It’s a… bird. Okay, so maybe we aren’t getting anywhere. Tough. Wait, is that… is that food?!’

“Thanks.” Khalxaen said brightly, taking one of the cookies and devouring it almost instantly. The food he had had offered were so delicious she could take the whole can, but she knew even she had limits to her rudeness. “These are so good…” The demon’s face was so lit up as she grinned back at him widely, two or three cookies in her hands. A good sleep plus good food was all she had needed, and she felt like she was back to before. The feeling of fatigue she had before falling unconscious was gone, and this made her more energetic than she had to be.

“Okay, for giving me food, I’m going to escort you to the town!” Khalxaen said, plopping down on the ground and stretching her arms. ’If he’s lucky, he’ll at least find somebody who can understand him. Althanas has a lot of strange folk, after all.’

Khalxaen started making gestures again. She pointed to the sky and made out something rising, which she meant the sun. When the sun rose, they were going to head out. Darkness in a forest was never safe, and she wasn’t about to take any chances trying to battle with a comrade that couldn’t even understand her. Plus, his fur was dark and that would make it just difficult to see him.

The demon stared at him, blinking. Now what were they supposed to do to pass the hours? She was thankful that he had built a fire as it made the forest more bearable. Her pointy ears were twitching and straining to hear the noises around, and she could sense two or three creatures moving in the dark. They weren’t heading their direction, though—no threat.

’I wonder… what’s he looking for, exactly? And what is he? I’ve never seen anything like that machine of his, even if it were in a billion pieces. Ugh. Might as well pass the time trying to talk to him, maybe it’ll get easier.’

“Raven, what are you?” Khalxaen asked curiously. She pointed at the ground and made shapes. A small body. A long tail. Four legs. Pointy ears. Then she pointed at him. “Human… cat?”

[AdventWings]

I listened with glee and excitement painted on my face despite the fact I could barely understand what she was blabbing on about. Something in her voice told me I was going to find help, which was such a good thing to believe. Besides, the more I look at her and the way she gobbled down Karen's cookies as if it was her favorite food as well, I believed she was not about to bring harm to me in any way.

Still, the language barrier between us was giving me a major headache. All the new words... All the new contexts and meanings I had to learn and memorize... All those strange sounding and the familiar ones I had to keep separated and organize...

Well, at the least we still had our sign language to use. Thank the stars for that!

Watching Kalse-n's hands move about in an arc and some more gestures, I realized she was giving me a sort of instructions. Leave in the morning? Sounds like a good plan to me. I nodded absent-mindedly as she ended her little mime and we merely stared at each other after that.

Just staring like two odd partners stranded in the middle of the... woods? Yeah, that's the word. Woods.

The crackling campfire illuminated the area around us with its amber glow, tossing our shadows here and there behind us as the flames danced the night away. Its warmth was a refreshing embrace in comparison to the misty air beyond the trees, the hair on my fuzzy ears pricking themselves up as a cold breeze swept over our heads.

Feeling a bit cold from being away from the fire, I inched closer and hugged my knees a few feet away from the bare flames and merely glanced around, making occasional eye contacts with my new camping friend. She uttered my name suddenly, snapping me out from a dreary daydream and prompting my feline mind with a mewing response.

My eyes followed her delicate pink fingers to the ground where she had scrawled a picture on the deep brown dirt. I admit that had there not been the campfire, I could barely make out what she was doing at all.

I traced the outline of the creature in the dirt as my mind raced through lessons of sign languages and cryptic pictures studied in my history classes. The thing looked vaguely familiar, as if I had seen it somewhere before.

Slender body... Pointy ears on the head... Long, elegant tail...

A cat?

She drew a near-exact replica of the drawings I saw from my history lessons!

"Mreow?!" I exclaimed, falling backwards with wide-eyes in realization. Was it possible that what could be my ancestors back on the Homeworld could have come this far into the stars even before the advent of the legendary Ark? Could this land actually be the fabled Homeworld?!

All I could do was nod in dumbfound silence, wondering where she had seen this oddly familiar being on this world.

[Khalxaen]

“H…huh?”

The demon stared at the feline-like creature, her scarlet eyes widened with question. She didn’t expect him to have such a reaction just from the mention of a cat. Besides, since he resembled one so much, she thought it was strange if he didn’t even know anything about it.

“I… see? Maybe there aren’t cats from your place.” Khalxaen said under her breath as she regained her composure. She stared at the dirt drawing she had made, then at Raven. At this point, all she heard from him were sounds that a cat would also have made, and he had also uttered his own name. That was all the syllables he had said to her. He was nothing like the other feline-like creature she met before, who could converse with her normally. ’This is going to be more difficult that I thought.’ The demon brought up a hand and scratched her neck in frustration.

“Cat.” Khalxaen said bluntly, pointing at the image. “Like you, Raven!” She said with a huge grin, using the same finger to point at him in an amused manner. After those phrases, she said nothing else, deciding to save her energy. She couldn’t tell how long she sat there in silence, but the first rays of sunlight that indicated that dawn was here finally came. The demon realized she must have been unconscious longer than she thought if it only took a couple of hours of darkness until dawn had come.

’Nice.’ She smiled to herself and stared around the forest, getting used to the gradual appearing of light on the previously shadowed places. She loved light, and she had always been thankful that she could see in the dark. Otherwise, she would probably go insane if all she could see was darkness.

The fire had been dispersed before dawn had come, and only ashes were left of it. It was a nice gesture of Raven to do since it resulted on neither of them getting frozen to death during the night. The demon looked around, trying to remember where their next destination was. She had been wandering in the huge forest for days now, not really knowing where the exit was. She heard there was a town in the middle of the huge mass of trees, but she hadn’t seen in it her whole time there.

Khalxaen smiled at Raven in a sheepish way. She had said she was going to lead him to a town, but she didn’t know exactly where that was. It didn’t matter, he didn’t need to know that.

“Let’s go.” She told him with a huge grin, heading north. She had entered through the southern forest, so maybe heading the opposite way would get them somewhere. ’Besides, I don’t want to go back where I started.’

[AdventWings]

"R... Ra~t?"

No. that not right. Uhh... Let's me try again...

"Cr... Crat? Crat. Mreo... Cat."

I practiced the word over and over again, my tongue slowly getting used to all that rolling and flipping inside my smallish mouth. And I had wondered for so long why the Felios verbal alphabet was so limited. Hehehe.

I nodded happily and patted myself in the chest as Kalse-n mentioned my name again soon after pronouncing my newly-learned word. Her voice was a melodic tune to my ears, not different from the pitch my fellow Felisionne pilots used when we spoke to one another. Similar to Karen's voice, even.

I absent-mindedly watched the glowing ball of light crane up from the horizon, noting its direction and wondering if it was the same direction as... Well, whatever direction one called the Place Where the Sun Rises From, anyways. The golden rays pierced the foliage and littered the campground, creating light patches in the dewy grass and setting the area to life with sparkles of the sun.

The heavy eyelids lulled me as the great beams of light began saturating the tiny camp, my dusty grey T soaking up the wonderful warmth straight through my fur. I was about to conk out when her dreamy chirpy voice pierced nature's silence, stirring me from the brink of sleep. I had realized I really had not slept much at all that night, but it was something I willingly gave up. Not worth complaining, I decided.

Stretching up lazily, I gathered my belongings and as stashed the cookie tin back inside my wrecked fighter as the cute local started to make her way in the direction I assumed would be North. I was not overly concerned if anyone would run across the Valkyrie and try to move it - I doubt these primitive locals had anything larger or more powerful than a wheelbarrow.

Slipping into my large, dark trenchcoat abandoned on the grassy bed, I hurried after the pointy-eared girl and leaving the crash site behind. Those guys in spece woud soon find my ship, but it was not like they would have a hard time finding me in a land like this.

"Kalse~n! Nyoar~!"

***

"Hmm... That is odd..."

The Bridge was bursting with activity once more after a certain young wizard made not of the planet to her superior, who also happened to be the very person in charge of the entire ship.

"Are you sure it wasn't just a glitch in your read out or some sort of electrical interference, Laria?"

The Admiral stroked his fuzzy brown chin, eyeing the series of screens and scan reports being displayed by the Intelligence and Reconnaissance teams. It really did not make any senses for a planet with plant life but no traces of any inhabitants...

"Well, if my scans are faulty, it's the ship's fault as well." A young feline girl crossed her arms in protest, the black patches of fur around her eyes making it difficult to discern whether or not she really had her eyes opened at all. "Besides, I worked on fixing the ship's scanners and radars in the first place."

Another feline girl joined in the lobby, still in her form-fitting pilot suit.

"Please, Grampa! I mean- Please consider the possibilities, Admiral, sir!"

The tawny commander of the ship made thoughtful glances from the plethora of screens to the three young teens, making low unaudible noises in his throat as he paced towards the command Deck.

"Captain Aerola. How many spare task forces can you lend me? I've decided to go planetside and I want you to hold the ship in orbit."

"Y-Yes sir, Admiral." The Captain acknowledged, though somewhat hesitantly. "But, really, sir. One pilot won't make much difference to our work forces in the long run, sir. We should just be on our way for-"

The words were stopped dead in the Captain's throat as he was met by the piercing glare of the Admiral, the latter's amber orbs drilling into the back of the Captain's mind.

"We are soldiers, Captain. It is our motto: No one gets left behind!"

[Atzar]

STORY

Continuity: 5 – This was pretty well done on Advent’s part. I knew where Raven came from, I know where he’s probably going. The bit about his ancestors possibly being on Althanas was a pretty nice touch. I had little to no idea of where Khalxaen came from or why she was there, though.

Setting: 6 – This was solid, for the most part. There were a few things missing, though. For one thing, almost the entire quest took place in that clearing. I would have liked to see a little more attention to detail. Some mention of the smoke from the fire would have been nice, and maybe you could have talked a little more about what the crashed spaceship looked like. Also, I didn’t really get much of a feel for what the Pride of Felasia looked like, either inside or out.

Pacing: 6 – This was paced well. It went by fast… but then, there wasn’t a lot that happened, either. More on that in a minute.

CHARACTER

Dialogue: 6 – This was funny. I loved how Raven’s ‘meow’ made Khalxaen melt. I thought a few of Khalxaen’s comments and thoughts – particularly early on – didn’t really mesh with the situation. Tired or not, my initial reaction to a downed spaceship wouldn’t be “Damn… this isn’t the time for this.” I would have liked to see a little more feeling from her. Other than that, well done… the language barrier was played well, even if it has been done before.

Action: 4 – I don’t know, it seemed to me like this should have been part of Raven’s history instead of a full-fledged quest. Nothing really happened, other than Raven’s arrival on the planet. Khalxaen’s involvement, while it was well-played for the most part, just seemed like it was forced, and the entire thing seemed a bit cliché to me. Remember that this is your quest, and you can go crazy. Maybe Raven takes off in single-minded pursuit of the bird that he saw, and Khalxaen starts laughing uproariously at his antics. I just think it needed a little something to spice it up and give it some more originality.

Persona: 5 – The characters involved conformed to their personalities, but there were a few things that I think could have been done better. Khalxaen seemed a bit two-dimensional throughout this quest… her character didn’t do anything unique or anything that grabbed my attention, although it wasn’t really her fault since the quest wasn’t really about her.

WRITING STYLE

Mechanics: 6 – Khal’s writing was nearly spotless – very well done. Advent’s pieces had a number of small grammatical and mechanical errors, but there was nothing that really killed the quest for me.

Technique: 8 – Kudos to Advent for doing the first-person point of view so well. That was probably the best performance I’ve seen from that perspective to date.

Clarity: 6 – No major complaints. It was a fairly straightforward piece.



Wild Card: 6 – I found this quest to be easy and readable, but I would have liked to see something unexpected happen somewhere along the line. The whole thing just seemed as if it had been done too many times before. That being said, it was well-written and I enjoyed the variation from the standard third-person shown by AdventWings. I’m looking forward to seeing the characters evolve and develop storylines of their own – I think that once they begin to mature and progress as characters, this score will jump.

Final Score: 58

I’m bumping the exp gains just a bit. They came out lower than I think you guys deserve, and you don’t have any other rewards.

AdventWings gains 530 exp.
Khalxaen gains 690 exp.

[Cyrus the virus]

EXP added! Good job my fluffy bunnies!