Chapter 248: 73: The Elder’s Challenge

Danika blinked and squinted against the daylight that lit the exit of the tunnel, and jumped when a scraping noise sounded above her. When she spun to face the noise, she heard a familiar huff from behind her. A big fluffy cat smirked at her from above the tunnel exit, and the little cat who'd led them to this place sat on a low wall to one side.

They seemed to be standing in a narrow courtyard created by the meeting of three stone walls and the cliff face of the hill behind them. There were no visible human sized exits but there were a number of paths besides the small sloped tunnel that they'd come up through. There were also a number of cats.

They were presided over by an ancient scraggle eared cat with a greying muzzle, who complained in the odd half silent communication of a cat, "You brought more fake cats?"

Danika edged over to sit beside Kit and the silver cat form of the snow leopard. She pulled out the mirror so that the three party members inside the garden would be able to hear what was going on.

"I brought the ones who answered the quest," the little cat replied serenely.

"More fake cats?" Danika asked in cat.

The elder pointed his nose at a cat that Danika had assumed was sleeping beside one of the walls, and she blinked as she saw that it was actually a player. Her Analyze Target showed that the player was heavily injured, rather than sleeping. She narrowed her eyes and trotted over without asking.

Nimitz squinted at her warily, but didn't hesitate to snatch the healing potion that Danika pulled out of her inventory and pushed over to him with her paws. His face was strange, with scales around his eyes, and he had little fuzzy horns beside his ears. His back was long and had an extra set of shoulders attached to small tattered wings tightly furled and tucked back along his spine. His paws also had opposable thumbs.

She turned back to the elder and objected, "He's not a fake, he's a half, and what happened to injure him this badly? Those don't look like wounds from claws."

"That one was too slow, but at least he was smart enough to make it all the way here, unlike some of the others," the elder replied sourly. He raked his eyes over them again and asked, "So, which of you fakes will be the first to try my challenge?"

Kit whispered, as Danika returned to her side, "What does he mean, the leopard isn't a fake cat?"

"I guess he means housecat," Danika replied.

"I'm certain that only a true cat will be able to acquire my legacy," huffed the elder.

"Don't need it," declared the silver cat beside them firmly to the elder.

"What are you here for then?" the little cat who had guided them asked in a scandalized tone. "How can you not value the elder's legacy?"

Kit turned and asked, "If you value it so, why haven't you completed the challenge?"

The little cat turned its back on them without answering.

"He failed," Danika guessed. She stepped forward and said, "I'll go first then, I don't have long to remain a cat."

"Fake," grumbled the elder. He squinted at her but then admitted, "but since you know the way you may have a small chance."

"Remove your equipment and then choose your rooftop," instructed a tortoise shell cat from a high position. "Once you are both in position, then take your stance, the first to drop their gaze will lose."

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"That's it? I could have done that even while injured," Nimitz complained as Danika removed her pebble's harness and her storage ring, and placed them beside the mirror.

"Try next," huffed the silver cat beside Kit.

The Dragon's cuff on her other wrist wouldn't come off, so Danika ignored it. She also ignored the fact that the leopard assumed that she would fail, and eyed the available paths upward. She cheated by using her featherweight spell on herself to make the jumps easier. She felt a bit chuffed when she cleared the roof that she'd been aiming for without any embarrassing scrabbling, but the watching cats regarded her with eyes that said that anyone could do that much.

The elder waited until she was in position before standing and elegantly making his way to the rooftop across from her. He met her gaze just as SaltySiamese exited the garden below them.

Salty told the little cat who had led them, "I want to try the challenge too!"

The little cat protested in cat, "You're not even any sort of cat."

"What?" SaltySiamese asked blankly.

If Danika had been on her phone, she'd have tapped the sweat drop emote. Her own companions were making it difficult to focus on the elder's indifferent gaze.

Her ears told her that Shrubbery had also exited the garden, as she whispered to SaltySiamese, "You'll distract ZipZing, and it said that you're not any sort of cat."

Danika kept her gaze locked on the elder's when her transformation wore off a few minutes later. His tattered ears showed his surprise but his gaze didn't waver. If it had been that easy though, any of the cats might have already obtained the legacy.

"Why does it matter if the cat was fathered or carries a god's luck?" she questioned.

The elder ignored her, but from below a familiar voice instructed indifferently, "Look properly."

Danika didn't understand what the leopard was trying to tell her, and it was becoming very difficult not to blink. Since it was VR there was no actual physical need for the blinking reflex, but her instincts were screaming that she needed to blink.

She gritted her teeth and focused on the elder's eyes. They seemed to grow larger, which sounded like it would make them easier to focus on, but the expanding eyes triggered other reflexes that told her a predator was going to eat her if she didn't run.

Danika's eyes watered and her little claws gripped the roof tile she stood on hard enough to crumble it in her claws. The elder stood suddenly and turned his back on her. Danika gasped as she realized with the release of his gaze that she'd already lost focus on his eyes, even though she'd never blinked or looked away.

She zipped down to where her party waited with a feeling of deep chagrin.

The elder huffed as he leapt down, and said, "Too bad you are not really a cat."

The other cats gazed down at her with strange expressions, but each one looked away before she could meet its gaze. The silver cat beside her met her gaze, but only huffed a breath at her.

Kit said, "I think that means that you did pretty well? Good try."

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