As I sat down with my dinner, which consisted of watered down mystery meat stew, I felt a familiar sensation. It was the same as when the cat-girl had snuck up on me. But it couldn't possibly be her again, this time it had to be a monster here to kill me!
"Mrow."
Instead of a scary monster or demon, it was the cat-girl again. Her tangled blond hair hung near her hair as she glanced up at me with wide eyed hope. She was sitting behind me looking very proud of herself and expectant of a reward. At her feet was something that looked like a red skinned garden gnome that had gone to the dark side.
"Huh, so you came back and brought me a present. Maybe you have more cat in you than I thought?" I moved to pick up the lawn gnome, curious about what it could be, but Elder Wevrik's booming voice interrupted me.
"Don't touch that!" The old dwarf stormed up to us like a force of nature. "Mogrim Lonnisson! Never touch demons with your bare hands! And you, beastkin, shoo! Shoo! Get out of here!"
The catgirl didn't 'get out of here' like I would have done if an irate dwarf had told me to leave. She simply whooshed behind me and proceeded to make faces at the elder. I don't know what you expect me to be able to do to protect you. He could break both of us with a flick of his fingers.
"Gather around, students." Elder Wevrik instructed, bearing little mind to the catgirl's antics beyond a disgruntled snarl. "This is a member of the beastkin race. A Nekonian, or catgirl in their simplified runes, distinguishable by their cat-like ears and tail."
"What's a cat?" One of the children asked.
"A feline mouse catcher humans keep as pets. If you want to learn more of them, seek out Runescribes who specialize in humanity. More importantly, beastkin like her used to rule these lands over five hundred years ago. Now they exist in the Demon Wastes as scavengers and thieves. Whenever you see one, scare it off as soon as possible or else risk waking up with all your possessions stolen."
"Where were the dwarves when the beastkin kingdoms fell?" I asked out of curiosity. The history books available to me were sparse on details not relevant to dwarves.
Elder Wevrik grimaced. Like any adult would who had to think back to their childhood lessons. There seemed to be something more there. "The story passed down from my grandfather's grandfather was that the High King of the time was dealing with several breakaway mountains who wished to use the Second Age of Judgment to secure their independence from the High King, while at the same time defending our borders from demons."
"And why can't we touch demons with our bare hands? And is that really a demon?" The specimen at our feet didn't look especially demon-ish. It was maybe a foot tall, with red skin, black hair, and a tiny crown of jagged horns on its head.
"It is indeed a demon. A very annoying, but nonetheless deadly, type of demon. It scurries under the shield wall in battle and will jab your legs and tender bits with its horns or tiny daggers. Distracting you long enough for its larger cousins to slay you. As for why you shouldn't touch it with your bare hands, well, experience is the best teacher."
At the Elder's prompting, we all began poking the slain demon. First with sticks, then with our bare hands.
When I finally had my turn to touch it, I really wished I hadn't. There was no physical damage to my hand. However, despite it appearing to be freshly slain, the reaction my brain had was as if I was running my fingers over the grossest moldiest piece of meat that had ever been lost behind the microwave. It was a stomach churning visceral reaction.
Wait a minute. Stomach churning… My dinner!
Unfortunately for me, I remembered too late that I had left my evening meal unsupervised. All that was left for me was an empty bowl and a satisfied cat-girl who was licking her fingers clean.
"Ha! Now you know why you should chase beastkin off as soon as they show themselves. Shoo! Go away!" Elder Wevrik attempted to scare the cat-girl away again, and she eventually obliged. Although she left with an attitude that wordlessly told him that she wasn't leaving because he told her to, but because she wanted to.
One of the dwarven students from the Warrior's Guild was irked by her demeanor. "Elder Wevrik, we should strike her down for stealing from us."
"Don't you dare!" Elder Wevrik moved quickly to prevent the student from drawing their weapon. "Beastkin are vengeful creatures. Harm one of them and you will be harassed every time you emerge from the mountain, no matter how many centuries elapse. Bear heed to this lesson, never hurt or kill a beastkin. Not unless you want gravel in your boots, sand in your flask, and bitter roots in your stew. They know not to slay a dwarf, lest they end up on our book of grudges, but they have no compunction over harassing us. Remember, these are their lands. We only tread on the surface because they have greater foes in the demons."
Another warrior provided a personal anecdote regarding a cousin who had thrown a stone at a beastkin that was stalking his party. It only took ten years for him to mentally break and move to a western hold. Fighting endless hordes of goblins was better than the continued harassment from the beastkin every time he emerged from the gates.
I munched on my rock hard stonebread that night while keeping watch during the evening shift. It wasn't the best meal in the world, but I would have preferred to have some stew to go along with it. And while I was dreaming of things I couldn't have, I'd love a burger, some fries and a soda.
Later, when I was supposed to be fast asleep, I woke up from a weight on my chest. The same cat-girl from before had somehow snuck into my one dwarf tent and was contentedly resting on top of me as if I was a mattress.
"How in the ancestor's name did you fit in here?" I asked the sleeping cat-girl. Naturally, I got no response aside from purr-like snores. It was too late and I was too sleepy to do anything. "Hmph. Just be sure to wake me if a monster comes near."
When I woke up, she was gone. For sure this time, I'd likely never see her again.
"Mogrim." Elder Wevrik greeted me as I approached the fire for breakfast. "Why is that beastkin following you?"
Turning around, I saw a familiar face in that of the catgirl. In her hands was another dead demon that she held out to me like a gift. Her childish face was the very picture of self satisfied pride.
"Seriously? Can't you bring me something I can eat?" She refused to look away from me and got angry when I tried to kick the demon away. So I put it in my bag with a stick, but was inspired by a brilliant idea. "Say, can you bring something that we can hunt for food? Even if you can't kill it then we can take care of it for you."
Of course, she didn't understand a word I said. So I attempted to mime out what I wanted. I probably looked very silly while doing so, if this worked then I'd be too happy to care. Fresh meat!
Either she got my message or she got tired of giggling at my hand waving, at least not more than she could have, she wandered off into the forest. I hoped she'd come back with a forest critter that was relatively tasty. Maybe this fantasy world had flocks of hundred pound rabbits that tasted similar to pretzels that would go perfectly with some mustard.
"Mogrim! Pay attention to the lesson." A supervisor whacked the back of my head later that day to make sure I didn't miss any of the riveting details of which plant would kill you and how. It normally would have been a very useful class, but after the tenth herb in a row where the warning was to not eat it or you will die, I had begun zoning out.
"This is the Red Lyrium plant." The scout droned in a self important tone. "As you can see, the name comes from the red coloration of the veins. This is from the miasmic taint of the Demon Wastes. If you sleep on a bed of this plant, you will die. If you eat this plant, you will die. If you use this plant as seasoning, you will die…"
This is so boring. I was beginning to remember how soul crushing childhood classes could be. Maybe dwarf high school will be better.
"Elder Wevrik!" Another scout burst from the undergrowth in a hurry. "A demon boar is headed this way."
Elder Wevrik's face blanched. "A demon boar? This close to the gates? Ancestor's beard, this does not bode well for the age. Everyone, prepare for battle!"
The previously boring atmosphere was shattered as dwarves rushed every which way in their haste to arm themselves. What I perceived as chaos only lasted a few seconds. In less than a minute, there was not a dwarf who wasn't completely prepared for a fight.
"What kind of monster is a demon boar?" I asked a warrior who happened to be nearby.
"A giant bloodthirsty ball of fury and rage." He replied in a grim voice. "Covered in spikes with bones tougher than stone."
Our conversation was cut off by a yellow blur. It was the cat-girl! She flew under my legs towards the safety of a tree while giving me a thumbs up gesture. Was this her attempt at luring food to me? If so, my hand gestures were really misunderstood!
"Ready yourselves!" Elder Wevrik boomed out. "Center of the line, prepare to fold! Flanks, ready your hammers!"
I realized with dread that I was in the center of the line of shields and was basically expected to dodge out of the way of the charging demon boar. Not the most ideal position for a ten year old without a bunch of spears.
The demon boar burst into view, absolutely furious. Its red eyes caught sight of us and that seemed to inflame its rage to new heights. With a snort and a few stamps of the ground with its hooves, it charged at us as the force of nature that it was.
"Please work." I prayed as I grabbed something from my pocket. "For the love of the ancestors, please work!"
With that prayer, I flung a rune covered sphere a few feet ahead of me. A wall of light appeared in front of the charging boar that it rammed into at full speed.
The sphere was my attempt at a personal mana shield. The reason why I didn't classify it as a full success became evident as the light wall flickered and dispersed into the wind. At least this time it took a single hit from a demon boar. Depending on the magical energy in the air it sometimes couldn't resist a sneeze.
"Mogrim! Fall back!" Elder Wevrik commanded. "Warriors, standard demon boar takedown. Smash the legs and slay the beast!"
Burly dwarven warriors rushed the stunned beast with massive battle axes in hand. Despite outnumbering the monster a hundred to one, it still took some time to kill it due to the demon boar being nearly the size of a Volkswagen Bug.
Finally it gave a death rattle and the dwarves erupted in cheers. The students included since we had been permitted to whack the beast a few times each.
It was the first time I had been able to actually utilize my months of training. I had to admit, it felt really good to use the muscles built through pure torture for their intended purpose.
"Huzzah! Fresh meat!" I took out a knife and was half tempted to eat the beast raw. Anything would be better than dwarven mystery meat.
"Wazzock!" Elder Wevrik grabbed my hand with a beefy mitt. "Do you remember nothing of yesterday's lesson on demons? Is there a stone where your brains should be?"
I then received a harsh dressing down. Along with a long lecture that tended to be a bit repetitive when it came to how poisonous anything tainted with demon energy was and how painful my death would be. It was around the fifty-ish mark when I lost track of how often he said the words death and wazzock.
To sum up the hour long harangue, if I tried eating the demon boar, cooked or raw, I'd die very quickly and very painfully. Symptoms would be similar to diarrhea and stomach ulcers combined into one very painful demise as if I had ingested blowfish poison.
"Understand, wazzock?" Elder Wevrik concluded. "We will strip the beast for meat and hide. But it will only become edible after years of purification at the hands of the priests."
Together with the rest of the students, I spent the rest of the day disassembling the demon boar. As you can guess, it was a very messy task that left me with very little appetite for either lunch or dinner. Which suited the catgirl just fine, she seemed to believe that she had held up her end of the bargain and gladly relieved me of both meals. Elder Wevrik gave up threatening her after just five hours of trying to scare her off. Or rather, he had other tasks to occupy his attention.
That night, she ended up sleeping in my tent again. If we were a little older that probably would have started some rumors. Since we were both ten, I shrugged and patted the tangled blond mess on her head. She responded with some light purring and a few sleepy words muttered in her language.
"Well, I finally found out what the mystery meat is. Random monsters turned into sausages, preserved for longevity, then purified for decades. There has to be some way to speed up the process. I really want a burger!"
"Mrow." The catgirl muttered something in her sleep and shifted a bit.
"I really should find out what your name is. Either that or give you a name."
The next day I managed, through similar gesticulations as the previous day, to convince the catgirl to bring back more prey. Maybe this time it would be something I could eat right away.
Unfortunately, I was not so lucky. Over the course of the week, the catgirl lured two demon foxes, a demon wolf, six demon squirrels, and three demon hares. None of them were as cute or friendly as their Earth equivalents nor could I eat them. I snuck a few samples of each into my pack so I could experiment on them back in my lab.
At the end of the training week, Elder Wevrik ordered us to strike our tents and prepare for the march back to Dul Vulkhan. An order that both students and warriors cheered for. They were proud of their performance against the demon beasts, but only a few of them were without wounds of varying severity.
"Home sweet home." I muttered as we passed through the gates into the darkness of the mountain tunnels. Instantly I felt more at peace and relaxed. "Even though I'll be leaving for more training for a month, I'll never take the mountains for granted again. I wonder if I'll see the catgirl again? Maybe we'll run into each other next month."
It was highly unlikely that a wild girl like that would stick around in one place. So I'd probably never see her again. I shrugged and tried to forget about those cute fluffy ears.