Chapter 7
Despite the length of time it took us to get to the Saints Rise, we made it down the hill in record time, Keeks encouraging me to go faster with touching, Anna throwing me around like Keeks would do, acting as the captain, and Zelia's laughter from running down the hill, watching the wind go through her fur. Sometimes I would see small fluttering tiny wings around her as she lept and rolled in the fields. It's a shame she wasn't a butterfly, but moths were beautiful all the same.
We eventually made it back to the sign, Anna requesting her mount to help her get down, to her dismay , I let go of Keeks to make sure I could properly use both hands. "Ahem, thank you for that, it was… a lot of fun…" She looks away to the village, seeming to want to keep playing but forced through obligations from her sister, she sighs and turns back to us. "Shall we go nya?" She dusts herself off, turning this way and that to see if she's ready, sighs again and motions for us to follow her.
We oblige and she trudges off in front of us, trying to look the part of a holy saintess. Keeks turns to us and tries her best to whisper, not exactly having an inside voice. "She seems kinda down! Maybe she didn't get enough boobs before we came here, nye?!" I look at her, then look at Anna, thankfully before I can say anything that Keeks might feel bad about Zel pipes up.
"Probably something to do with responsibility in the village, such a title as Saint might be why this is a nightmare for her, something in the past that really hurts her. A kid having to be some kind of saint? Sounds horrible. The poor thing probably just wants to be a kid wan." Keeks seems to think for a second at this revelation and then shrugs.
"Look when I was her age I was obsessed with boobs, there was this lady with these huuuge bazonkas that my sister was friends with, I swear they were as big as me! She nearly suffocated me once when she hugged me… good times nye…" Keeks stares wistfully off in the distance, Zel and I look at each other, nodding and thinking the same thing. Yeah that's how kinks are made.
We arrive at some fields surrounded by white stone, the path curving around and around, off in the distance stand some buildings, too far away to see what they are for. In the fields are green vines growing upwards, blue fruits almost like capsicum but more full looking are hanging from the vines, each field contains rows and rows of this fruit, this seems to be their staple. As we walk past, an old cat woman with blue fur tinged with gray emerges from between the rows and bows at the little saint in front of us.
"Oh pure one please bless us so that we may be delivered from the sins of the world." Anna nods and makes a symbol on her chest with her tiny paws, a circle with a slash down the middle. The old woman seems to weep a little bit and then returns to the field, humming and muttering.
I furrow my brow and say what our trio seems to be thinking "That was weird… I mean worshiping fine, but weeping? She's just coming back from the forest moo?" Then I hear it again, and again. Blue cat folk coming out of the fields, saying the same thing and then weeping when she responds. Not fake crying either, a few of them seem to openly cry as if she was saving them with just one hand movement.
Although from the front Anna seems to be stoic and unfeeling, her tail seems to be tightly wrapped, almost panicked. The way I had seen Buta's when I first got them, It was so scared of the world and all it could do. This was not a good place for her, even someone as dense as Keeks could tell. Keeks hand was roughly grabbing my fur, slight panic on her face, Zel's hand holding her back from grabbing Anna and taking her away from it all.
After an endless parade of the same creepy happenings we make it to the village, as we enter a door opens to the left of us, a much older cat lady, her legs seeming to not work, sitting down at what could be a guard station. She bows the best she can, and instead of saying those creepy words instead requests something of us, something that I would rather not experience again.
"Welcome young saint, these weary eyes cannot fully see, but I can feel your radiance… and beside you… travelers no? Thank you for coming so far to our village, would you care to leave your weapons with me? This is a village of peace and such things of war are frowned upon."
I look at Keeks in panic and she looks back in annoyance. "Really again? Can they stop doing this to us! Are we just that unlucky that we found a second quest that makes us get rid of our gear nye?!" I shrug and sigh, motioning myself to block off Keeks from everyone else, she knows the drill and Zel wide eyed follows suit. The sounds of Keeks rifling and trying her best to hide her weapons, knowing that it's going to be one of those, no inventory places again.
I pull out my "weapons" and give it over to the old lady, she puts it in a box, the brass knuckles and a sword, Zel gives over her staff, not being able to figure out exactly how she was going to store that on her person secretly, the ends of it too sharp and… unwelcoming for any good thoughts. Keeks pulls out some random weapons from her inventory and throws them in as well.
"Thank you, I know it's hard to disarm yourselves as such, but in the last one hundred years of my life we have never had a death in the village." I take a second to ponder her words, does that mean people are killed outside the village? Maybe she's doing the whole, oh, we dont kill them in the village, we take them out to the fields to kill them, fufu technically I'm not lying! Not like it matters… I can protect myself without any sort of weapon, I am the weapon babbyyy! Gods I wish I said that where Zel could hear, I have to remember that one for later. In my rambling mind I hadn't realized we had already started moving into the village, banners over the main 'street', if you could call it that. A dirt road leading through everything, cabins to each side, at the end of the road is a gathering spot, so many tables laid out, covered in cloth, seats at each side.
Behind all of that rising up is a mansion in comparison to the rest, thankfully as we walk, people are only bowing to the saintess, not muttering that pure garbage and crying like they've just seen a god in the flesh.
"There you are, silly girl! You need to get ready for the party nya!" A pure white feline woman has popped outof nowhere. She is wearing the same dress type that Anna is, silver lining running along her dress. She crosses her arms as she berates Anna to her face, completely ignoring us. Anna pouts and gets her bag full of the white flowers, bringing it up to the woman.
"B-but sister I got the fl-" Her sister puts her finger on her mouth, stopping her from speaking.
"You've wasted enough time nya!" She grabs the bag from Anna and pushes her into the mansion before turning to us. "And you are nya?"
"What you gotta be all rude for! Nya! I mean nye!?" Keeks rushes forward pushing her nonexistent chest outwards. "We were just playing with Anna and helped her get those flow-nyaaa!?" Keeks recoils with the rest of us, a palm coming out and slapping Keeks across her face.
"You will stop speaking this instant! You are in front of the Saint of the village! Not some commoner! Thank you for taking care of my sister, please enjoy the feast. Nya." She turns around, all of us stunned into silence.
Keeks seems to blow up as she leaves. "What the fucking fuckfuck nye!?" I grab her by the scruff of the neck and lift her up, catching her just as she leaps forward, she starts swinging about, ready to bust into the mansion guns blazing.
"That was weird right moo?" I turn to ask Zel, Keeks still fumbling around in my hand, but eventually giving up knowing she can't escape the mumma grip. She nods back, brow furrowed, thinking intently. We had to look out for any weird things and turn around looking out on the village, the wide smiles on everyone's faces, everyone greeting each other as they pass. It's just… creepy. Everything seems to have a sense of underlying tension.
We see some new people coming into the village, what looks like merchants, they seem to find a place to set up their wares and are swarmed on all sides by villagers, then more people again and again.
"So… every 10 years people come to the village for a festival and to sell their wares… It looks like they are trading the blue weird fruits they were growing to the people for their wares, it must be some kind of delicacy, what about the flowers then that we got with Anna? It can't be a coincidence that her sister shut up Anna and Keeks just as they were talking about them wan." Zelia is in full focus ramble mode, muttering and trying to piece things together, I hold back the urge to hug her close, wanting her voice deeper in my ears.
"You can let me go now nye…" Oh, I put her down and she huffs at the mansion. "You think I'll get a chance to kill the saint nye?!" I shrug, not at all surprised that that's her first thoughts after getting slapped.
"Anything is possible, for all we know she is the nightmare herself or something, maybe we burn everything down to finish the dungeon moo!" Keeks just looks at me with wonder in her eyes.
She starts muttering and I instantly regret my words. "We burn everything down… nyehehe…"
I wonder if they sell leashes at the merchant stalls.