Bliss woke up in a strange forest. She slowly blinked, warily looking around. Then she stood up and stretched as she yawned.
The nap had been a truly epic one.
She walked, following a faint path in the woods. After a few moments, a wall appeared. Bliss examined it with great curiosity as she walked along its length.
The wall was made of ragged stones piled on top of each other, held together with a crumbly grey substance. It felt quite good to pry at it, the texture very satisfying.
When Bliss reached the end of the wall, she found a gate. Two men in uniform stood on either side of the opening.
"Aren't you the pretty one," one crooned as he saw Bliss.
Bliss tilted her chin up arrogantly as the man patted her head. Then he knew just the right spot to scratch.
"Leave the little one alone, Ralph. The horde is going to descend in a few minutes," the other guard said, glancing over.
"In you go, then," Ralph said, jerking his head in the direction of the bustling town beyond the gate.
Bliss walked into the town, head swiveling to take in all the new sights and sounds.
The town was full of people, and some of them looked quite unusual with different colored skins and differing heights.
She paused by the doorway of a shop.
"Looking for a quest, little one?" The shopkeeper who was sweeping the step asked.
Bliss kept a wary eye on the broom and glanced at the shopkeeper, a nice seeming person. Bliss knew better than to get within arm's length of nice seeming people.
"How about this? I need the mice in my storeroom chased out. Do it, and I'll give you Diplomacy." The shopkeeper leaned on her broom.
Bliss jerked as she heard a faint 'ding.' She looked around to see where it might have come from, but it didn't repeat.
"There's an entrance towards the back you can use," the shopkeeper said, resuming her sweeping.
Bliss watched her for a long moment before sauntering towards the back of the building. Honestly, she didn't understand much of what the shopkeeper had said other than 'back,' 'building,' and 'mice.'
She paused, trying to remember what the other people had been doing. Every so often, random ones would stop and mutter 'status.'
Bliss thought about it, and a screen popped into existence in front of her, causing her to jump back.
Bliss stared at the screen. She knew that individual. Those long, lithe lines, those perfect ears, those sparkling eyes and most especially those 'crystal' whiskers her Person was so fond of saying. In other words, she knew that pretty, fierce, ferocious 'huntress baby' pictured on the screen.
There were two little balls sitting next to the fake Bliss. They moved every so often, catching her attention.
Then there was the little line of mice sitting underneath, nibbling at something.
Bliss' eyes narrowed at that. They were obviously being saucy and not giving her face.
She approached the screen and batted at one of the mice. A blinking arrow appeared on the ground by her front paws. It moved as she neared it.
Bliss followed the arrow to a cracked window just big enough for her to fit. She paused for a moment before hearing a chittering sound.
Hah! Obviously, she wasn't the only one who had fake versions floating around.
***
"I see you caught them all," the shopkeeper said.
Bliss washed a paw. She couldn't figure out how they disappeared from right under her paw every time. She examined it carefully as she washed. It seemed like the same old everyday paw she'd had since forever.
She humphed irritably.
The shopkeeper waved her arm, and the tricky mice were there! Right there in front of her face with their tricky little ways! Bliss' eyes narrowed just a bit.
"And now for your reward," the shopkeeper said with a hint of indifference.
Bliss blinked. For the briefest instance she saw a shiny toy flash in her vision before it was gone.
"And what about our reward? It's not like we're not done yet!" The squeaky little voice belonged to one of the mice.
"Talking, tricksy little toys," Bliss snarled, not lowering her paw.
"Cat! Talking cat!" The mice squeaked in surprise.
They scattered, sometimes running into each other in their haste to get away. Bliss stared at them for a startled moment before her tail lashed. She picked out a target as the mice reoriented themselves towards various directions.
One paw slammed down on a skinny tail as the mice finally started running.
"What did you mean?" Bliss asked, only slightly surprised that she'd understood both the mice and the woman.
"About what?" The mouse twitched, trying to pull its tail free. It resorted to sitting on its hind paws and tugging at the trapped appendage.
Bliss watched for a second before lifting her paw as it tugged particularly hard. The mouse rolled over like a ball, squeaking in surprise.
"What did we mean about what?" The mouse asked, head weaving as it blinked wide black eyes.
"Reward?" Bliss prompted.
"Oh, yes! We deserve our reward! We're done!" The mouse promptly squeaked, turning towards the shopkeeper who had a suspicious look on her face that reminded Bliss of the one her Person had had when she was caught dangling from the curtains.
As if Bliss could have known that it was only a shadow! It had been obviously some tricky thing trying to infiltrate her cozy den!
"Of course, I owe you brave mousekins a reward," the shopkeeper said. She made a gesture with her hands. "See? Am I not nice?"
Bliss looked from the shopkeeper to the mice and back again. The mice seemed happy and strange. Far too strange for another attempted capture.
Bliss took an unobtrusive step backwards, resettling herself with her tail neatly wrapped around her paws.
"Mapmaking! I've got mapmaking!" One of the mice was squeaking by the corner.
"Hah! Nothing! I've got treasure finding!" Another one boasted from the shadows.
Bliss listened to their nonsense for another moment before deciding to dismiss all of this and return to her nap. There was an eave just a little bit away that was calling to her.
"Wait, wait! Fierce kitty, wait!" The mouse she'd trapped said, bouncing in front of her.
Bliss took a step back, startled. She fought down the urge to smack it with her paw. The last time she'd hit something like that, she'd gotten evil, nasty goo on her paw, and her Person had muttered dire things as she cleaned it off, resulting in her not getting her daily munchies for an entire two days! If not for her food bowl, she'd have starved!
"Let me add you. You're clearly an interesting being," the mouse said, doing something strange with its paws. "There! Let's discuss another day, right?"
Bliss watched as the mouse scurried into the shadows. Its little gaggle of mice brethren gathered around it, squeaking.
Bliss dismissed the matter from her mind once again. She'd only taken a couple of steps before she heard her Person calling her.
She closed her eyes, concentrating on the voice.
With a decided click, she was back in her new sleeping spot.
Bliss crawled out, jumping to the floor. She cast a sniff towards her sleeping spot which still smelled of the Intruder. Then she trotted in the direction of her Person.
"Ah! There you are! Look, look! Mom has bought you not one, but two new feathers!" Her Person waved two giant, ornate toys around, immediately catching Bliss' attention. "See? Gonna catch it?"
Bliss paused, watching the giant eyes wave in front of her eyes. Finally, the temptation to teach those tricky feathers just who was boss was too much. She pounced!