Chapter Text
His last thought before everything faded into a muted quietness was “I’m back”.
It was odd.
He wasn’t feeling very stressed and yet at the same time the idea of rest to his more human mind sounded pleasing.
And so Yudrein stress-shifted.
-
-
Gakane startled awake when he heard someone in the inn suddenly scream.
Then, he ran out of his rented room, rushing towards the female voice.
Seeing the inn owner on the ground, Gakane asked, “What’s wrong?!” Meanwhile, he looked into the open room that she was looking at.
If he remembered correctly, it was the room of a person around his age that he had suspected to also be here for the Cavalry recruitment and wanted to talk to later in the day.
The room was empty though so Gakane asked again in confusion. “Uh. Did something happen?”
He couldn’t understand why the lady had screamed.
The lady stared for a second longer before slowly shaking her head.
“No… It must have been my imagination. Yes… I must have still been dreaming. It really is too early right now. There couldn’t possibly have been a man-sized cat just now.” Standing up in a daze, the lady nodded and further mumbled to herself, “Yes. And even if it was a cat, there was no way that it would have jumped out of the window. It’s the third floor.”
But at her murmurings, the gears of Gakane’s mind slowly turned and he thought, “No way… right?” at the same time of “Oh. So he was an Awakener. But then does that mean he shifted?”
“Were you trying to find the guest renting this room?” Gakane asked, “I’ll go look for him for you. Do you know his name?”
“Ah.” The lady nodded, “If you could, that would be great. I was going to remind him that check out was in the afternoon if he wasn’t planning on staying another day. He has black hair and black eyes. The name he wrote in the guestbook was Yuder.”
“Yuder…” Gakane repeated under his breath before he nodded. “Alright. I’ll let him know when I find him.” Gakane smiled, making the lady blush vividly, before he left.
He hoped nothing had happened and everything would be alright, but there were few reasons why an Awakener shifted and too many things that could go wrong when an Awakener shifted, especially to an apparently big predator animal.
Gakane moved quickly, reminding himself, “Man-sized cat. Probably juvenile and black – Awakeners normally shifted into animals that resembled their human features. Yuder. I wonder what his ability is and why he had shifted. A nightmare perhaps? He didn’t look like he was doing well when I saw him last night in the hallway.”
That had been the reason why Gakane had wanted to ask Yuder to eat breakfast with him in the morning after Gakane had woken up.
Hopefully, that could still happen after he had found Yuder. Gakane would always love to talk to another Awakener, especially if they were going to the same place.
Truthfully, Gakane wasn’t sure if he would find Yuder and be back within the day. After all, just as Awakeners were new, the entire understanding of shifting that came along with supernatural abilities and second genders since the fall of the Red Stone was also new and uncertain.
And finding an animal with supernatural abilities and semi-subliminal human level intelligence that had run away from some factor of distress could be hard, if not dangerous.
Gakane could only hope nothing would go wrong.
-
Of course, things went wrong.
Despite how much he had asked around and looked, Gakane never found him. Feeling bad for his fellow Awakener who was probably still out in the capital in his semi-lucid animal form, Gakane instead asked if he could hold onto Yuder’s few possessions for him as another person asked for a room at the packed inn.
The female inn owner easily agreed and let him take them.
Gakane sighed as he placed Yuder’s bag next to his.
“She did say ‘man-sized cat’, right? Even if cats could be quite stealthy, how could no one have seen a man-sized cat today?” Gakane wondered what cat species Yuder was as he went down for lunch.
-
-
Meanwhile, in another side of the capital, a ‘brown-haired, brown-eyed’ man chuckled as he sneakily looked up from the papers again to see an adorable black feline stare at him from behind an alley wall.
It was too bad Nathan was still back in Peletta to take care of the remaining work to be done in the duchy. Kishiar quite thought that even his rather stoic adjutant would be amused by this adorable big cat spying rather obviously at them. Sure, its body was hidden, but if its head was not, then was it really being covert?
Kishiar found it adorable.
Judging by the size and how Kishiar had never heard of such a big and exotic cat species in the capital, the cat had to be an Awakener that had stress-shifted, right?
Unfortunately, although animals resulting from stress-shifted Awakeners retained a small fraction of intelligence and cognition from their origin, it wasn’t that much and it wouldn’t do to startle such a large predator species with unknown abilities in the still rather busy streets of the capital.
They had cleared out the area earlier to create a station for Awakeners to register, but the area was beginning to fill again with people wanting to join the organization that he was creating.
Kishiar wondered if the adorable cat who had been watching them since the start of registration was one of them as Kishiar finally got up from his seat, excusing himself for a lunch break. After all, he was pretending to be a normal employee just helping out with the first day of registration.
Everyone happily allowed him. Had he been less charming, they probably would not have been so happy with how busy the table was currently, more than half of the people there being commoners who did not know how to write their name, much less, fill out the form.
Kishiar eyed the big cat in the alley before experimentally walking towards the marketplace of the capital.
Amusingly, the big cat’s eyes tracked him, his paws finally stepping out of the shadows into view as he unconsciously followed.
Oh? So the cat was looking at him? Kishiar hadn’t know that his looks were pretty to cats too; he playfully joked to himself, happy to be the center of the adorable cat’s attention.
Now knowing that the cat wouldn’t run away or regard him warily if he approached, Kishiar turned to approach the cat.
Only to be surprised when the cat flinched full-bodily at his attention, ears instantly flattening, a low noise beginning to rumble in its throat in warning.
...Then had the cat truly not wanted to be seen while spying on him?
Kishiar frowned, not liking the sight of the beautiful beast being so wary of him.
Squatting down, Kishiar extended a gloved hand out.
“Do you mind coming closer? I promise I won’t hurt you.” Kishiar promised.
The cat bared its teeth as if not believing his promise, but Kishiar took how the cat hadn’t left yet as a win as he patiently waited. Somehow, Kishiar felt like he could wait forever for this beautiful cat.
Five minutes passed.
The cat stopped baring its teeth, but gave his hand an unpleasant look. Kishiar wondered why, but experimentally removed his glove.
To Kishiar’s delight, that was when the cat finally moved closer, one hesitant paw after another until finally, the big black cat placed its head in his palm, rubbing his cheek against the bare skin before moving closer to smell his neck and rub its head against him.
Kishiar slowly, but happily placed his arms around the now rather affectionate cat, patting his ungloved hand against its sleek black fur. The cat purred and Kishiar took that as permission to hug it even tighter.
Kishiar had never known that hugging a big cat could feel so pleasant – warm, comforting, and soft. He had tried to bring stray normal-sized cats home before – a semi-serious prank aimed at his brother and in-law for fun – but nothing could compare to the things he felt while hugging and basking in this cat’s warm fur.
Kishiar didn’t know how long they had stayed like that, the cat’s head buried in the crook of his neck and his head buried in the big cat’s own fur, but eventually, Kishiar had to part.
The day was busy, after all.
The cat made the mournful noise that Kishiar himself wanted to make as Kishiar reluctantly let go of the cat. Caressing the cat’s head as the cat tried to follow his bare hand, even gently try to take possession of his hand into its mouth, as Kishiar stood, Kishiar asked, a little sad that the hug that had been so healing to Kishiar hadn’t done as much to bring the presumed Awakener out of their second stage of stress shifting.
“Want to follow me until you return?” Kishiar asked, looking into the big cat’s soulful eyes. Although the Awakener seemed like he could take care of himself even in his stress shifting form and the cat was so nice, Kishiar would hate for the civilians to get scared, the knights to bother and even capture the cat, and the nobles to try to catch and tame the beautiful ‘exotic’ beast even if it was a suspected human Awakener.
It would be safer for the Awakener to stay with him until it recovered from its distress and returned to its human form.
Thankfully, the cat didn’t refuse. Rather, it bumped its head against Kishiar’s palm, meowing in concession.
Kishiar scratched its chin in amusement. “Then it’s settled. I’ll take care of you until your return.”