After arriving in their hut, the unlikely pair bid each other goodnight. Tarou quickly arranged his latest haul.
'Having a cat as a boss wasn't bad.'
The boss seems to have no interest in eating a mouse like him and is more interested in human food.
Feeling reassured the mouse drifted off to sleep right away. He even dreamed of conquering a rich man's kitchen with his new boss. He was smiling throughout the night thinking about all the cheese, meat, and delicious food he could loot.
Meanwhile, the cat boss stretched her front and hind legs on the ground while trying to process everything that happened.
The day's activities were tiring but her thoughts continued to drift back to her unique situation.
Everything felt surreal. Her initial assumptions appear to be correct – dying led her to a different timeline in a cat's body.
Everything still felt surreal. But she felt nothing but thankful if today is real. Second chances are hard to come by and it's even harder to start with a clean slate. She smiled.
She couldn't wait but to start her adventures as a cat. As a human, she never had the chance to follow her passions. She's going to be the one who breaks the mold.
For the first time, she was up late at night thinking about what to do with her life.
What will she accomplish in this life? In this world?
Mina remembered the statues sporting cat images in temples she read about in history books. The ancients treated cats. She's back to an earlier era.
Why not aim for being a goddess? Should my goal be world domination?
She snickered. World domination! She was destined for great things and she felt this opportunity is too tempting to pass. But maybe she was being too ambitious.
She just woke up in this world. It might be too early to set a goal.
First, she needs to know everything she can about this place. She will survey this territory tomorrow but the thought of planning to be someone great continued to nag at her.
Who knows she might just become the most powerful figure in history?
The loser who left her with a $15 million debt will read about her feats perhaps a hundred years from now.
Her name will go down in history while that loser is on the run. She might even have castles, songs, tales, and poems made in her honor.
'Me ruling the world. People at my beck and call.'
She smiled. Yes, she deserves to be someone important enough to decide someone's life and death.
Lost in her thoughts, her eyelids grew heavier. She felt tiredness creep in, and she drifted off to sleep.
--
That same night, another part of the forest was just as quiet. But it was far from peaceful. Tension lingered in the air as a group of three men sat in silence, hidden by the cloak of trees as if waiting for their prey.
No one dared to breathe loudly, afraid to give out their presence as they listened to the approaching footsteps. Twigs snapped with every step, the sound resounding into the night, announcing the impending arrival of at least two people.
Soon enough, two relatively young men appeared in the small clearing. Without a clue of the danger they were in, they sat down on the ground and started a fire.
Seeing the duo in a comfortable position, a man wearing a sedge hat stepped out of the shadows. His sudden appearance scared the young lads, one slumped into the ground in shock while the other clutched his chest.
The man seems to have no care about how stunned the lads were. He took another step closer. His face remained concealed but the young men could feel the intensity of his gaze.
Suddenly, a crisp voice broke the silence.
"He's not here."
A few seconds later, the man stepped back into the shadows and disappeared into the night. Two young lads were seen running out of the clearing a minute later, leaving all their belongings behind.
--
When Mina woke up the next morning, her first instinct was to check if she was still a cat. Everything was still and even her new subordinate seems to be out of the house.
Hungry from thinking too much the night before, she ate the piece she stole from the tent. Bored from staying indoors, Mina decided to explore the area.
Stepping out of the hut, she realized that she had no idea where this place is except that it was a lush forest with fresh air.
She could only detect the sounds related to nature – there was no hint of vehicles traveling on air or on the ground. Her senses were sharp last night. Her eyesight was sharper, and she could see the movement of small things better. Her ability to distinguish different scents was also out of this world.
After living as a cat for almost a day, Mina realized that being a cat feels like having superpowers.
The hut looked prettier in the day but there's nothing special about it. Some lavenders grew close to the hut, and she caught a whiff of these flowers yesterday. There were other plants in the vicinity but she was too bored to care. She even looked for new gang members but she didn't encounter any other animals either.
She felt tiredness creep in while exploring the area close to the hut and decided to just head home. Instinctively she followed a path and found herself back at home.
'As a human, I get lost inside a shopping center but as a cat, I know how to go home without wracking my brains out? Awesome!'
While she listed all the skills she discovered, she saw Tarou. The chubby grey creature was dripping wet, tracking water all over the grass, and muttering "Scum! Scum!" in an angry voice.
"Tarou, did you go for a swim?"
The mouse looked up to him with fire in its eyes.
"Ha! Swim! More like attempted murder! I will never trust a fish in my whole life! Scum! All of them are scum!"