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Lizzy pawed against the mattress, claws snagging on it, tearing through it accidentally. She hissed at the rip, eyeing it evilly. She retracted her claws before she could do it again.
Mayoral duties had been taken care of, meeting these "hermits" had gone by smoothly, everything was complete. Lizzy had no fear of anyone walking in on her. Her empire was safe from all predators.
Even still, she’d have to fix this mattress and anything else she'd ruined in the area. It was an easy mistake. Lizzy was more used to her human form at this point, being partially or fully cat was harder to control now. Though, even in her human form she was rather clumsy.
She licked at the mattress, hoping it’d heal as all wounds did, before realizing the idea was stupid and also got wool all in her mouth. Absolutely disgusting. A moment later, she realized it needed to be mended with new fabric and thread. Potions and other means of regeneration didn’t fix these things, of course.
That meant she’d have to return to human, or at least half human form. And while she was tired, and keeping up that front was difficult, she had to fix what had been destroyed by her cat nature before anyone stumbled in uninvited. Lizzy transformed, quickly draping a cloak over her tail and plopping a sunhat over her ears. Not even a second in and she felt the exhaustion of magic in her bones.
She went on her way to the storage unit. There should still be plenty of scraps from banners, plenty of thread, yarn, and other crafty materials from her time decorating the kingdom. As she picked up the supplies, she had to fight instinct that wanted to fiddle with them. It’d be far too much fun to sit in the floor and paw at them until she fell to the draw of a quick nap.
But no! She had a mission! And Lizzy couldn’t get caught sleeping on the floor with a bunch of scraps anyway. This was silly thinking.
With a bag filled with new materials, she went back to her main house.
She roamed the streets, careful as to not bump into any of her fox villagers. Even they could not know her cat instincts. If one person knew, word could get out, and she’d be in danger to the entire server.
Lizzy quickened her pace, losing focus of everything around her. But she quickly stopped in her tracks when a voice called out, “Why hello, Lizzy!”
She’d thought she did her part to meet the new members, but apparently not. They just kept flocking back.
She turned to face the person there: Scar. He mocked her, wearing little grey and white cat ears. Disgraceful.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, ready force him out of Animalia.
“I am here to see what all the commotion is about! Lots of the hermits have been telling me all about your animal villagers! They’re so neat!”
She eyed him cautiously. He had cat ears, he was friendly, he spoke loudly. Mocking, suspicious, shifty. “Don’t you lay a hand on my foxes!”
“Oh! No, no. I would never. They really are cute!”
He was quick to correct, quick to say the right thing, probably just as quick to cause chaos.
“And why are you wearing cat ears?” At the question, she realized Scar would have no good reason to know she was a cat. If Lizzy had done her job, nobody knew.
“Never met a hybrid before, have you?” Scar asked, unoffended at her question. “Kinda funny, given how many different species live here. Lots of hybrids exist, you know, I’m just happy I got to be a cat. Lets me match Jellie.”
He seemed… very convincing with his words.
“Oh. I’ve uh… met hybrids before, I just– couldn’t be sure you were just… dressed up, like a cat.” It felt kind of stupid of an assumption, now that Lizzy thought about it.
“That’d be kind of rude, wouldn’t it? Pretending to be something you’re not. There’s not really a point in it, either.”
He had to be honest then, right?
“Yes, I was thinking that myself.” There was a small lull in the conversation. “Is there anything else in Animalia you came to see?”
“Not really, but I could sense some heavy magic coming from this way, and it felt a lot different from Joel’s lore.”
Lizzy nodded. “I’m far different from Joel’s–” she cut herself off. Even if Scar was a hybrid himself, her own secret needed to be kept. “The magic, you know, that keeps the animals walking. Very powerful stuff,” she added quickly before Scar could take note of her pause.
The animals were only an essence of it. Not really… magic. At least, not the magic he was sensing.
“And what about you? Some of that animal magic’s in you too, right?”
Lizzy looked at him confused.
“Might’ve been a misread. It’s hard to tell sometimes, sorry.”
She felt his eyes on her as she walked back to her base to put down all her materials. Hopefully when she came back out, Scar would have flown off. She quickly realized she would have to continue on with this. What she wouldn't give to stop here and lie down for hours in a patch of sunlight.
“You know, I really can’t shake the feeling, Lizzy. It’s like there’s magic in you or magic that’s in use.”
“Maybe you’re just feeling what’s in the air? Empires is all magical.”
“Yes, but it’s not nature magic. There’s a difference. This all around Empires lore magic thing feels… fainter. I almost don’t notice it. But this.” He stared at her.
“And what do you think it is?” Lizzy asked.
“I think you’re hiding something.” He didn’t say it with a threat, more cheerily.
“And why would I do that?” she defended.
“...I don’t really know, to be honest. But I can just tell.”
She could feel the magic tugging at her, wearing her down further.
“It’s taxing magic, isn’t it?” he asked after a long enough moment of silence, where he was just observing.
“What makes you think that?”
“You look overtired.”
She felt the magic slipping a bit more out of her control, further weakening her. She didn’t know how human she was anymore.
“Please leave, Scar,” she said tensely. She crossed her arms, keeping her hands that were slowly morphing back into paws out of sight. “I have things to get to.”
He watched her for far too long, eventually locking eyes with her.
“You’re a hybrid too,” he said.
“I don’t know how you’re still alive, walking around like being part cat is normal,” Lizzy responded.
“What kind of hybrid?”
“They tried to cage up my ancestors. They managed to declaw them. Being human is safer for me.” She turned away from him, taking a few steps toward her house. Scar followed. “I don’t know what world you come from, but for sheerly living as a hybrid, you and I are in danger.”
She shrunk a little, losing most of her human features. Eventually she was full cat aside from her face, leaving her with the only “human-like” feature of speaking.
“You’re always using the magic.”
“We can’t afford not to.” She pulled the ball of yarn she’d stuffed into her bag earlier. It didn’t matter now if Scar saw her in a pile of scraps or not. He understood well enough. “But it looks like you’re not fully cat?”
“No. It’s more instincts and nature of a cat than it is looking like one.”
Lizzy nodded, patting on the bed with her paw. Scar walked over, now on all fours instead. In some way it made her a bit more comfortable, knowing that she wasn’t the only hybrid here… that it wasn’t admonished for her leaning into catish instincts.
“I was going to fix this hole in the mattress, but I sort of… can’t now, with the whole, too worn out to use magic properly.” She gave a small mew, a bit of an annoyed one.
Scar “fixed” it, by placing a patch over it, though not sewing it in place. It was covered up at least.
“So since you’re all… anti being cat, do you ever lean into it?”
She looked over at Scar for a moment. “I try not to.” She fiddled with a ball of yarn between her paws.
“That’s sad. We’re going to change that, then. Right now.” He pulled out some things out of his inventory, one being a little laser, which he shown around the bed, letting Lizzy mess around and catch it. Then he pulled out a few toys and a crocheted blanket, curling up with them, leaving enough space for Lizzy once she got tired of the laser.
“So you just, always keep this stuff handy?”
“Well, all the other hermits are pretty open about hybrid stuff. Home’s safe for all of us. I don’t have reason not to.”
Lizzy purred. “Sounds nice.” She curled up against Scar, taking one of the toys into her paws, chewing at one of the corners.
“I’m sure we could find a way to make sure you can be safe as yourself here too.”
Lizzy nodded before letting herself doze off.
She wasn’t ready to think of a world that lovely yet, not willing to wish of something so good.
She was just grateful for what she had now. It was already saying a lot that Scar knew she was a cat and she still remained safe from cages or declawings.