Chapter 5: Chapter 5: The dark halls

‘This place sure could use some lamps...’ My mind complained at the scarce light in this hallway.

As if understanding something ordinary, my realization turned out to be out of place.

‘Don’t tell me they only have candles for nighttime.’ This thought was the birth of a chain of ideas that went beyond my imagination.

‘The room I was in didn’t have switches and it was a mansion! If the wealthy don’t have electricity, then no way anyone else would have, right?’ 

My hand slid as I moved on through the wall, in a way to hold myself in case I slipped on the long brown carpet at my bare feet, and also to find some equilibrium for my newly-obtained body.

‘My eyes are getting used to the darkness quite fast,’ innately, my race had a peculiarity of being able to see through the dark. From my past life, I knew that there were some animals with that talent. Cats in particular, some of them used to pass through the shrine looking for food, but wild as they were, most times they would escape whenever faced with our presences.

 It didn’t take me long to find a door to which my hands opened softly to avoid making any sounds. I peeked inside, hoping to find a bathroom or even a clue to some food. Yet, there was only a man sleeping soundly. 

‘I don’t know this one,’ with some effort I managed to close the door without making a sound.

“Phew,” my feet resumed my pacing.

“Where would they have their bathroom?” At the end of the hall, it further split into a bifurcation, leaving but a door in the middle. 

Before opening it, my head turned to both sides as if going through a zebra cross, only to not find anyone in the vicinity. Thus, my hand did what had to be done, and I went through. 

“Ah! Finally! Paradise,” I hastily walked to the furthest toilet, lifting its lead, appraising it.

“Looks pretty clean for a bathroom,” after paying attention to my surroundings, it felt like there wasn’t a single speck of dust, much less urine or any kind of dirtier substances. It was hard to describe how that made me feel, especially from the bathrooms I had seen in my past life, but without a doubt, it was good.

Whist seated, I took a hold of my fluffy tail, not wanting it to get dirty, and to avoid getting it wet, in case it decided to go underneath my ass. 

It was then that a distinct thought occurred.

‘Shouldn’t I have her memories?’ Aside from counting red moons and equalizing it to human years, there were no details of what I was doing before I found myself in the white plains.

‘Why was I there in the first place?’ The dripping began falling, like the sounds coming from a tiny spring.

 “Ah...” This felt the best, relieving oneself when we can barely hold it in, was a distinct climax all on its own. 

Inside my mind, after relaxing a while, there were tiny pieces of information lingering.

‘The red moon... the ceremony I undertook every year, and... My missing parents?’ My brain ached at these bits, blocking me from exploiting them.

“Just who was I?” My head tilted, confused.

“Just who am I?” I giggled at my own awkwardness from this messy situation.

“Grannie always told me to act calm no matter the situation, to process the information if I was ever lost, and to find help if necessary,” I placed my hands on top of my thighs, intertwining all of my fingers and smiling at her guidance.

‘I still can’t believe it. To think the shrine believers were right.’

One of the things discussed in the shrine was the reincarnation upon death, going as far as to end up not only as a different human but also as an object cherished by its owner.

‘I wonder if god tree was like that...’ I swayed my head at such thoughts. No way something like that was credible. 

‘Was I lucky to have been born again? In a different world at that?’ 

I extended my hand to the side, getting hold of some paper. There hadn’t been much to read in what came to fantasy. Most of it was related to a god, to heroes of past eras, to the samurai who wielded katana, to the vikings who brutally invaded their enemies with their big axes, to the gladiators of Rome who fought beasts, to Hercules and his twelve feats. The history of my past world was gigantic, incredibly lengthy. It held no bounds or races, all of it unique in their own way, all of it important. Yet none of it, as far as I knew, held a clue to my current state.

 ‘I guess believing that there was only life on earth was wrong,’ I didn’t remember whose theory it was from, but it was not like I could do anything about it. To bring the people from there into this world, it didn’t feel like a goal. Yet this idea by itself sparked a new one into my mind.

 ‘I should decide on what to do...’ after cleaning myself, my feet took me to the outside, further taking me to the right corridor. 

My stomach growled, causing my thoughts to focus on survival. 

It wasn’t bad enough that I would need to become cannibal like a zombie, but annoying enough to feel feeble and faint.

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 ‘I shouldn’t be wandering here at night.’ I started feeling like an intruder, having my curiosity fade, yet I couldn’t help myself. After all, it felt like eating a cow wouldn’t be enough to satiate my hunger.

“Hum!?” My fluffy ears twitched, as my nose picked on the scent of food.

“It smells good, but...” it didn’t bring me any nostalgia. In fact, while it was an aromatic scent to it, there was something amiss in comparison to the culinary that I knew. Yet, surely, it would prove to be worth eating it. At the very least, it would impede me from starving, and thus, I ran through the hall till I found a red-looking door.

‘Hum?’ Its color gave me some sanity and confusion.

‘Why is it not brown like the rest?’ 

Unable to contain my curiosity, I entered the room whose door was half-closed, and leaned my head forward, finding a figure asleep.

‘That person is!?’ It was he, the one who accepted to turn me into his guest and also the one who made me faint. My body shook, remembering that weird sensation, causing me to clench my hands into solid yet small fists.

 After enduring his presence for a while, I regained my usual calm self. It took me a while, but I managed. Be it as it may, he hadn’t hurt me. At least that’s what I told myself, going as far as to believe in it.

Remembering our meeting, I spoke for him to ear, in hopes he’d remember it by the next day.

“I bow not because I’m a slave but out of gratitude, since they abandoned me before, and yet you took the kindness to take me into your family, and for that, I’m truly grateful. Thank you, sir.”

My fingers clenched, getting a hold of my nervous self, and without waiting for the man to wake up and get scared by my presence, I turned around and left back to the hall.

Henceforth, I kept a hint of gratitude in my chest, going as far as to place my right hand over my heart, feeling the pulsations from within. From the touch and the feeling, my eyes hovered at it.

“Now that I think about it, they’re bigger than before,” forgetting about all the tension, I lifted both up each with a single hand, after placing the candle on the floor, feeling my fingers melt in its tender meat. 

And then, out of curiosity, I turned around to the door just in case someone could see, allowing me to leisurely squish them, causing an obscene sensation to pass through. It forced a soft moan to escape my tender lips. My tail twirled slightly As a response and waved furiously for a bit, almost as if approving of my act.

“Holy... but just how sensible am I?” There were some new sensations that I was slowly uncovering as time passed, and this hadn’t been the first one.

In fact, my eyesight didn’t get worse at this point. Once I came to terms with my own self, I retrieve the candle, only to find it devoid of a flame.

That was when my mouth opened, surprised at this realization. ‘Am I perhaps able to...?’

I dropped it midair, looking around in the dark, yet it was visible enough for me to wander without hitting my nose against a wall or a door.

“Foxes too?” My mind reminded that cats ran wildly during the night. And from the times I saw it, there was not one time where one of them hit anything in a way they shouldn’t. Yet, I wasn’t aware that foxes had this type of ability. 

I couldn’t help but smile. After all, for better or worse, this was a significant advantage to own.

Thus, my emeralds guided me through the darkness, towards the scent that returned to provoke me. A daring temptation that I couldn’t possibly refuse.

‘Just what in the world is this scent?’ Halfway through this corridor, I descended one floor through a curved staircase that, to my surprise, led both to an identical way up, and also a way down. If one were to climb the initial stairs, they’d end up faced with a bifurcation to the sides, for the front had a large picture of an old silver-haired man.

‘Who is he?’ Despite my wonders, there was no one around to my knowledge that could possibly reply to my question. Therefore, my feet descended fully, and I kept on following the scent, soon faced with a door, one that allowed an intense aromatic smell to go past underneath.

In a way, I didn’t instantly open the door. My heart was currently dancing at the wavelength of my excitement in a waltz with my long tail.

“What an impressive pair these two make,” I giggled innocently, placing a hand in front of my mouth.

Light appeared in front of me, as the door opened by itself, like magic without it creaking despite its looks, startling me. Once halfway open, I noticed a hand and a leg, then an arm, eventually an entire body.

We exchanged glances at one another and before I said anything, mainly due to bring shocked by his appearance, his arm shoved me aside, allowing him to go through.

“Ow. Hey that’s rude!” Despite my complaint, I received no answer whatsoever for the young man. He looked like a younger version of Astal, making me to think he was him for a second.

‘More importantly,’ My nose shivered twice, picking on the intensified smell of whatever meal was inside this place. Thus, bewitched by its pleasures, my feet took me to the inside of the kitchen.

“Welcome guest.” 

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