Fang liked the sun. Thus, Fang was sprawled on his side in the grass, exposing as much of his sleek black fur to its wonderful warmth as physically possible. He was behind on his napping after an invasion of a butterfly into his domain and the chase that ensued, so he had some serious catching up to do on his relaxation. Unfortunately, some people just can't respect serious work time. The warmth of the sun vanished and Fang opened his eyes, transfixing his pet with a half-lidded glare as she stood between him and the sun's warmth.

"Hé Chairman Meow, ben je klaar voor din-din?" his pet spoke, taunting him with the temptation of food, but using that nonsense name, pretending to speak the illustrious tongue of cats. His first pet had called him Fang, and Fang he would remain. Perhaps he should leave a hairball in her shoe for the insult.

His tail twitched as the human remained in his sun, seemingly not realizing the magnitude of her crime, and he plotted her downfall as she prattled on with more gibberish. Eventually, she reached down, and despite his nimble attempt to duck his head away, the ungainly beast's reach allowed her to stroke her fingers through his carefully groomed fur, mussing it up horribly, but scratching a few itches he had trouble getting to in the process. His tail continued to twitch, even as she reached down to scratch along his throat, eliciting a low, rumbling purr from him. Once she switched to massaging behind his whiskers though, his tail stilled, and he relaxed, rubbing his head against the human's fingers.

Perhaps the hairball was unnecessary after all. If she got the belly rubs right for once maybe he would even reward her with some food.

The belly rubs were good. Even better than the sun in fact, which the damnable beast was still blocking. Just as he tired of the rubs and unsheathed his claws to sharpen them on the offending appendage, it was pulled away, and with one last bout of gibberish containing "din-din," his human walked away in her clumsy and unsteady manner, returning Fang to the blissful embrace of the sun.

However, just as he was settling in for another vigorous round of napping, Fang's ears swiveled towards a sound. A grating, rending sound, which prompted him to quickly get up and trot towards the sliding door of his house, before affecting a slow and princely walk as he entered the kitchen, calling out to his pet, "Hello Alice, I see you are preparing my offering. Is it ready yet?"

Of course, Alice's inferior human mind was incapable of comprehending the true beauty of the feline language, so all she heard was, "Meow!"

Fang was used to his pet's deficiencies though, and he leapt up onto the counter to inspect for himself as his human finished opening the can. He sniffed closely at the open tin, looked up at his human and chided, "The same offering again? I will generously accept it this time, but please try to be more creative in the future."

Alice missed the point of this meow entirely, thinking it was impatience. She picked him up off the counter, carrying him over to his food bowl as he continued to sniff the tin, and setting him down in front of it. "Chairman Meow, je moet op uw din-din wachten, ik wil niet dat jij tong op het deksel gesneden wordt." She pulled out the can's lid and upended it over his bowl, petting his sleek black coat before bustling off to toss the can and go about her human ways.

Fang thought humans were rather strange creatures, but they paid handsomely for his company in this strange bloodless meat. Fang quickly polished off his "din-din" as his pet called it, and trotted back outside to enjoy some more of the sun before it set.

The air was cooler now as the sun dipped towards the horizon, and Fang opted for the loaf pose to finish out his busy day of relaxation. His legs and paws with their thinner fur were tucked underneath him, and his tail curled around his side, retaining the warmth with his fluffy body as he enjoyed the sun.

Fang got in a solid hour of solar-powered dozing this time before he was interrupted. This time though, it was not his pet or a sound that interrupted him.

It was a smell.

The smell of prey.

It smelled similar to the rats he used to catch in his previous pet's basement. He opened his eyes and saw a large ball of fluff sitting out on his lawn. It was larger than any rat he had hunted but still smaller than himself. It had large muscles on its back legs, and two long ears pointing straight up, twitching and swiveling at every sound. It was also facing away from him, so Fang slowly rose to his feet, holding his body just above the grass as he carefully stalked towards the fluffy bunny that dared enter his domain. His pet had done a good job today, and he was still full, so he would bring this one for her as a reward.

An ear twitched, swiveling in Fang's direction. Fang froze, one paw in the air and his tail straight behind him. Hopefully it has just heard something behind him and would return to feeding, but no such luck. The rabbit sprung into motion, hopping toward the tree at the end of the yard as fast as it could, with Fang dashing forward behind it, claws digging into the ground to give him every bit of traction he could get as he closed the distance. Just as the rabbit dove into its burrow in the roots of the tree, Fang pounced, claws outstretched and hooking into his prey's hide, pulling back to arrest its flight, but before he could properly wrangle the bunny, it pushed the last foot into its hole, pulling Fang along with it, and suddenly everything changed.

Fang was falling through blackness. He quickly pulled his claws out of the rabbit and twisted in the air, preparing for ground that never arrived. It was truly pitch black for a while, the sort that even his night vision couldn't pierce, before a spark of blue flew up beside him. First a single speck, then another, then two, then five, and before long it was as though Fang was falling through a dense cloud of fireflies.

A human might have called it a beautiful sight, or wondered what the sparks were made of. Perhaps a perceptive person might have looked closely at a faint blue dot and realize each one resembled an earth in miniature. However Fang could once again see his prey, and so was wholly consumed with awkwardly swimming through the air toward the tumbling ball of fluff. Before he could close for the proper kill, his senses were robbed once again, this time by the specks increasing in brightness to a blinding flash.

Fang found himself among the roots of a tree, similar to the one in Alice's yard, but much, much bigger. The notes of doubt and confusion that had begun trickling into Fang's mind were quickly shoved aside by the sight of a little cotton tail swiftly bouncing off into the brush. Fang extricated himself from the roots with grace born of countless escapes from human arms, and tore after the rabbit. The hopper had a head start, but Fang quickly closed the distance, and before they had traveled 100 feet, he pounced, claws digging into the bloodstained area of the rabbit's flanks he had hit before and dragging it to the ground as he bit and clawed.

All told, once the rabbit hit the ground the scuffle only lasted a handful of seconds. A powerful kick to Fang's flank nearly gave it a new lease on life, but by then its movements had slowed enough for Fang to sink his fangs into its neck and end its life with a quick jerk.

Satisfied with his kill, Fang sat back on his haunches to clean the blood off his paws, inspecting his prey. It was clearly not a rat. He had seen similar creatures out in the field behind Alice's house, but they were grey, where this one was white. This one also had something hard and pointy growing out from between its eyes, similar to Fang's canines. It even had a groove like the one that allowed Fang to taste his prey's blood while he was still biting, except it spiraled around the rabbit's horn. It was definitely not something he'd seen before, but hunting something new was even better.

As Fang's pulse returned to normal and the thrill of the hunt faded, he was startled by a loud "DING!" and was confronted with a pair of bright blue rectangles floating in front of his face, covered in white squiggles.

Level Up!

Cat class has reached level 1!

Skill automatically selected:

Unlocked Dimensional Dexterity!

Stat points automatically assigned:

STR +1.5, DEX +3, INT +0.5, CHA +1

Dimensional Dexterity

Uncommon ★

As one who has traveled between realms, you are less firmly bound to the fabric of space and existence. You can skip across space as a rock skips across a lake.

Allows teleportation across short distances at the cost of mana and stamina, the cost increasing exponentially with the distance.

Cost is reduced when both the starting position and destination are unobserved by sapient creatures.

DEX +3

Fang jumped a full foot in the air at the sudden noise that seemed to originate between his ears, looking around for the source before fixating on the boxes, unnerved by the way they moved along with his head. His ears folded back and his hackles raised, turning sideways to appear bigger to this unknown threat. He hissed at the intruders, lifting a threatening paw. When the blue rectangles refused to retreat, he clawed at them, raking his claws repeatedly through the strange apparition. He felt nothing as his claws went through them, but they disappeared without a trace. After a few more moments of warily looking around, Fang concluded he had scared them off. He resumed cleaning himself, though he kept a wary eye open for their return.

Once he was satisfied that his fur had been returned to its fluffy black glory, including removing the twigs and burrs that had been caught in it, he stood up and paced over to the rabbit. He picked it up by the back of its neck, lifting his head and tail high in pride. His pet would enjoy this catch. Her lap might get too bony for him to lay on if he didn't feed her properly. He trotted off back the way he came, searching for the way home.