“Wow,” Lindsay breathed, her hands resting on the steering wheel. “Now, that is what I call a kitty cat. It’s beautiful.”

  Even Angie seemed captivated, her fear momentarily forgotten. “It looks… majestic. Like it was born from the forest itself.”

  “Oh, it must be so confused,” Aura’s whispered voice filled their minds, laced with a sense of awe and recognition. “It is the child of a Kageyasha. A shadow spirit. I have only heard about them in the oldest of stories among my people. They were another group of rulers, like my family, but their territory was far away from our own. They were said to be guardians of sacred places, beings that walked between the physical world and the world of shadows. The ruling family was always fairly small, making them incredibly rare, even in lands with high qi density. To find one here where… on your world in an area with such low qi…” She trailed off, her own astonishment clear.

  Nate processed the new information. A guardian spirit. He supposed that could fit with the rumors of it watching but never attacking, it was patrolling its territory. “Does that mean it is indeed a hybrid then? There must be another portal to your world around here.”

  “That is my assumption, but I don’t know enough about them personally. All I know comes from the stories I was told when I was younger.” Aura replied sadly. “I wonder what happened to its parents? Such a creature would naturally be drawn to a place of power, and yet its child is still here.”

  The Shadow-Cat took another step forward. It lowered its head slightly, a gesture that seemed inquisitive rather than submissive. It was clear the next move was theirs.

  “I think it’s waiting for us,” Nate said softly.

  He looked at the others. The fear that had plagued them since the mill was still there, but it was being overshadowed by a powerful sense of wonder. This was why they were out here. Not just for the exploration, but for moments like this. The discovery of something new, something magical.

  “I think… I think we should go out there,” Angie said, surprising everyone, most of all herself. “Aura is with us and can talk to him, her?”

  Nate met her eyes and saw a flicker of her old self, the adventurous spirit that had been dampened by their recent trauma. He gave her a small, encouraging smile. “Okay, but we take this slowly, no sudden moves. Lindsay, you, and Angie stay close to the door. Aura, you come with me. Mika, you stay with them.”

  Mika gave a small squeak of protest but stayed on Lindsay’s shoulder.

  Nate opened the Overlander’s door, while Aura continued talking to the Shadow-Cat.

  The kitsune stepped out into the rain first, with him right behind her. He left the door of the RV open, letting the cool, damp air flood the interior as the girls watched them. The air carried the scent of wet earth and leftover leaves from years past. It was a smell that Nate personally loved. The best part was that the rain in this part of the States was warm, and not cold like it would be in Colorado.

  The Kageyasha tensed the moment he appeared behind Aura, its twin tails going perfectly still. Silver eyes remained locked onto him for a moment, then shifted back to Aura. A low sound, a soft chuffing noise, rumbled in its deep chest. It was not a growl of aggression, but a sound of acknowledgement.

  Nate patted Aura’s side, urging her onward. He had come outside to act as her backup, nothing more. It wasn’t as though he was able to speak with the Shadow-Cat like Aura; he also wasn’t strong enough to fight it either. Regardless, he couldn’t let her come out here alone.

  Aura deliberately placed herself slightly in front of Nate, forcing the Shadow-Cat's attention back on her. She let out a low growl and fanned out her five tails.

  “Greetings, child of a Kageyasha,” She sent, projecting her thoughts not just to the Shadow-Cat, but also to her human companions. Have you claimed these roads as part of your domain? If so, know that we are just travelers and mean no harm to you or your domain.”

  The creature’s tufted ears twitched. It remained silent, its gaze unwavering. For a full minute, the two intelligent beasts stared at each other in silence, then finally, the large cat began to make some noises. From that moment on, Aura’s mental projections took on a distinct hum of concentration. She was sending the Shadow-Cat countless images of her homeworld, explaining to it the truth of its parentage. Gradually, she moved on to their own history and the reason for their journey in the Overlander.

  She was showing it who it really was, and who they were.

  At the same time, she had also been teaching it how to communicate in the same manner as her. Acclimatizing the Shadow-Cat to the new method of communication. It would take some time to properly teach it how to use the skill; however, they were able to use a workaround of sorts.

  Finally, the cat responded. It didn’t speak in words like Aura. Instead, a series of powerful images and feelings flooded the group's minds, channeled through their connection with Aura.

  They were seeing the forest, not as a human saw it, but as a vibrant tapestry of life and energy that their human minds struggled to fully comprehend. They could feel the flow of the world’s qi as it cycled through the trees, the ground, the water, and the very air they were breathing. In the Shadow-Cat’s view, the highway was a scar of odd rock upon the land that carried strange boxes.

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  Nate staggered back a step, bumping into the side of the Overlander. His mind reeled from the onslaught of images and sensations that poured through Aura's link. She rarely pushed the connection that hard. They hadn’t experienced just sight this time; it had been full immersion. A raw flood of perception that bypassed the senses they were used to.

  And it had benefited them, if only temporarily. The forest pulsed around them, alive with qi in ways his human senses had never been able to grasp. Those senses would come with time, but they would need to raise their cultivation tier several times before they reached that point.

  Qi threaded through every leaf and root in invisible veins. Each carrying the essence of power and growth and decay in endless cycles. The rain wasn't mere water; it was a cleansing force, washing away stagnation and nurturing hidden potentials beneath the soil.

  He blinked hard, steadying himself against the Overlander's doorframe, his enhanced sense of the world around them already beginning to fade. It had been overwhelming, but so beautiful at the same time. It wasn’t something he would forget, and it was knowledge he could use in his Meditation Models and Arts.

  In fact, perhaps if he really wanted to get exotic, he might even be able to use the information in the design of the dungeons.

  The Shadow-Cat remained motionless, its silver eyes unblinking, as if assessing whether they could handle more. Aura's tails quivered slightly, her own breath coming in shallow bursts. She had borne the brunt of the translation, filtering the cat's wild, untamed thoughts into something their minds could process without shattering.

  "That... that was intense," Lindsay murmured from inside the RV, her voice a fragile thread in the quiet. She was leaning heavily against the counter, her legs trembling, Mika's long body trembling on her shoulders. The weasel's eyes were wide, her usual chatter silenced by the weight of the shared vision.

  Angie nodded slowly. She had held up the best of the three humans. The encounter had stirred something in her, a reminder of the wonder that had drawn her to Nate's side in the first place. "It's like seeing the world through a different lens. Everything is connected. No wonder it's out here alone."

  Aura dipped her head, her silver fur slick with rain. She projected a gentle acknowledgment back to the Shadow-Cat before sending back a series of images from her own memories. This time, she made sure to exclude the others as the vast, qi-rich forests of her homeworld made an appearance alongside the playful romps she had once experienced with her kin, and the ache of loneliness that came from being different after being bound to the dungeons and Nate.

  "You are not alone anymore, neither of us is," She sent, her mental voice warm yet laced with shared understanding.

  The Shadow-Cat's twin tails flicked, one coiling around the other in a gesture that felt almost contemplative. Another wave came, gentler this time, and slightly more controlled. Images of a shimmering portal hidden deep in the woods, a tear in reality that pulsed with foreign energies. Interposed atop the portal were different beasts, many of which Nate recognized from Aura’s dimensional zone. Many of them possessed a darker tint to their fur, hinting that they were nighttime stealth predators.

  One of them in particular was larger than the rest and more ethereal in nature. It was the Kageyasha parent, Nate realized. It had claimed this stretch of land, birthing the Shadow-Cat in a union with a local puma that had awakened to qi. However, both of them had vanished sometime before. Time was a somewhat fluid concept to the Shadow-Cat, so the exact timeframe in which it had happened was unclear, only that it was several seasons before.

  The cat had grown in power since then, continuing to patrol the scar in the land, which it now knew was a road. Following their strange noises and the qi it could sense inside them. Curiosity had become its constant companion, a way to fill the void left by its loneliness. Like Aura, there was no one like it in the area. There were animals and beasts who could absorb qi, but none of them were as smart as it. None who understood the world.

  Nate felt a pang of sadness in his chest, the large cat’s own desire mirroring Aura's earlier longing. This creature wasn't a threat, not to them. "Your parent came from the same world as Aura," He said aloud, his voice steady despite the rain pattering on his jacket. He couldn’t project the words mentally and depended on Aura to handle the translation, which she did seamlessly. "We can help you understand more about where you come from. Perhaps even find a way to connect with others like you."

  The beast community outside the first dungeon was filled with beasts that could speak with people. Some of them had come through with the knowledge already, like Aura, while others had needed to be taught the method after becoming members of the community.

  The Shadow-Cat tilted its head, ears flicking forward. It took another step onto the gravel, its paws barely disturbing the wet stones. Up close, its presence was… different. Not in size, though it was plenty tall, but in the way it seemed to bend the light around it. Shadows clung to its fur like liquid, making its outline hard to make out even from a few feet away. The silver glow in its eyes softened, curiosity shifting toward tentative trust.

  Aura advanced a few steps, her posture relaxed but alert. She glanced back at Nate, wanting to make sure she had understood his intentions correctly; he nodded at her. She sent an image of the group traveling together, the Overlander cutting through the wilderness. The Shadow-Cat running alongside them, not as a shadow, but as an ally. She finished it with one last image of the cat riding along inside the vehicle.

  “Will you join us on our journey? We can offer companionship, along with the possibility of learning what happened to your parents. The odds of that one are small, but they’re better than staying here.”

  The response came as a burst of emotion; hesitation mingled with yearning. The cat had watched humans for years, seen their rigs rumble by, carrying lives it could never touch. But this group was different. They carried intelligent beasts like itself, and they even spoke in the language of the mind, which was new to it. A low rumble emanated from its throat, vibrating the air. It padded closer, stopping just a few feet from Aura. Its tails extended, brushing lightly against hers in a gesture of greeting.

  Nate held his breath, the rain tracing cold paths down his neck. This could go wrong in an instant. The Shadow-Cat was still a wild beast, no matter how intelligent, and as such carried instincts honed by survival. But Aura's calm radiated through their bond, easing his tension. She leaned forward, touching her nose to the Shadow-Cat's in a brief, ritualistic contact.

  Images flowed between them freely now, a rapid exchange that she shared snippets of with Nate. Memories of hunts under moonlit skies, the thrill of shadows weaving through trees, the quiet ache of nights spent alone. It was settled; the Shadow-Cat was coming with them. They had another companion, and now neither the cat nor Aura would be alone anymore.

  Thank you to all the people who have taken the time to rate the story and to my latest Patrons! I have other stories up on my Patreon, including my current WIPs. Which are now Created G.H.O.S.T. System(My Cyberpunk story), WetWorks2, plus The Restaurateur and His Daughter and DungeonFall. :)

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