Eventually, after nearly half an hour of using the inside of the boar's skull as a squash court, Fang managed to swat the marble in just the right way for it to ricochet out of a small gap on the far side of the boar's shattered skull. Fang immediately leapt after the glassy sphere, hopping up on top of the tree trunk that had finished off the marble's prior owner, and then leaping down at the blood-red speck on the ground, both front paws driving his prey into the loamy earth. Fang leaned down and picked up the marble between his teeth, gripping lightly.

He had made the mistake of biting down hard on his first marble, and his teeth still hurt just thinking about it. His left canine had chipped and his pet had to take him somewhere to get it fixed. He didn't remember what happened, but when he woke up, the tooth was as sharp as new, but it was a good bit shorter than his right, enough that it stayed hidden behind his lip while the right one protruded out. It had earned him the nickname Fang from his first pet. He had no idea what the word actually meant, of course, it was just his name.

So Fang was careful to grip the glass ball lightly in his teeth, and that care was the only thing that stopped him from swallowing it in surprise. The moment the red crystal touched his tongue, sunlight started flowing into him, tingling against his taste buds. It was a small flow, but it was enough to leave the already-brimming cat feeling warm and fuzzy the whole way back to his sunning spot. As he came to the clearing, he realized that the creek would be a much better spot for him to stay. It was close to water, there was plentiful prey, and it had better shelter from predators than an open field. But this spot was his, he had marked it after all. So without breaking stride, Fang dismissed those pesky logical thoughts and strode into his clearing.

The sun had well and truly come up while he was battling with the trapped marble and making the return journey, so the prime sunning spot at the center of the formation was already nicely lit up. Fang quickly hopped up onto the large stone dais and trotted over to the center, where he set down the marble and curled up around it. It continued to radiate after leaving his mouth, and the warmth nicely counterbalanced the usual disadvantages of sunning while curled up. Fang had the sun warming his flank and face, he had the marble warming his other flank, and he had a steady trickle of warmth coming from the carved rock beneath him. Fang's internal sunlight thrummed in response to the warmth enveloping him, which translated into a continuous, throaty purr of satisfaction. Fang purred himself to sleep, happily dreaming of chasing the sun through the sky like the world's best marble.

Fang woke to a tickling on his nose. He opened his eyes, and the world was a riot of bright yellow and orange. Fang jerked his head back, eyes wide and ears flat as he tried to make sense of the situation. The butterfly that was on his nose fluttered away, the world returning to fang as the wings covering his eyes were removed. Fang instantly recovered from his distress and leapt to his feet. He bounded after the flame-colored insect, chasing it around the clearing and swatting it around a few times. Finally, he managed to catch it in his teeth and chew it to death with a satisfying crunch.

Level Up!

Cat class has reached level 5!

Skill automatically selected:

Unlocked Supernatural Rebellion!

Stat points automatically assigned:

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

Supernatural Rebellion

Uncommon ★

Your contrariness defies comprehension. Persuasion, pleading, magical coercion, even reverse psychology, all are rendered moot in the face of your overwhelming distaste for doing as you are told.

Any mind-affecting effects targeting you are twisted to cause the opposite of the caster's intent.

CHA +8

Fang fluffed up his tail and glared at the blue boxes. The one with the usual squiggles had gotten bigger, and it had brought an even larger friend. He dispatched the usual visitor with a swipe of his claws, but he hesitated at its big brother. It was big. Would it act like the big boar had and get even bigger if he scratched it? Fang only had to ponder for a moment before he swiped at it. If it did, he could handle it. He was Fang after all. It fled just like the other though, surely intimidated by the sharpness of his claws.

Having dealt with the butterfly and the blue boxes, Fang turned back to his napping spot. It was a bit past noon, and the best time for sunbathing was wasting away as he dealt with those colorful invaders. However, as he turned he caught sight of the most colorful invader. The brilliant red marble sitting in the center of the dais, taunting him by claiming his sunning spot for itself. Fang sunk into a crouch and padded towards his rival. Once he was the proper distance away, he bunched up, gave his butt a wiggle as he gauged the distance, and pounced. One paw hit the marble a fraction before the other, sending it skittering across the hard stone. Fang tore after it without delay, the same etchings that gave him grip on the otherwise smooth rock causing the fleeing sphere to bounce unpredictably. Fang spent the better part of an hour hunting his favorite prey, pouncing and batting and chasing to his heart's content. In the end, he caught the marble when it strayed into a large patch of moss. Between its movements being slowed and a particularly good pounce, Fang managed to pin it and pick it up. He proudly carried his prize back to the center to snuggle with throughout the rest of the day.

The next time Fang woke it was something significantly less pleasant than a tickle on his nose. A shrill cry cut through the afternoon air, and Fang bolted to his feet in alarm, sending his marble skittering off to the side. He looked around for the source of the sound, especially upwards and to the south, where the call had originated. It reminded him of the hawks that had occasionally snatched prey he was stalking, except this sounded much, much bigger. The call had been ear-splittingly loud, and considering he couldn't see the source, that was the volume at a good distance. After a little while, Fang did see something in the sky. It was flying high over his clearing, but it was easy to see even at this distance. This was not because of Fang's exceptional feline eyesight, but rather due to the fact that the bird was a riot of bright and flashy colors.

It was that flashy sunlight bird! The one that had the gall to escape on his first night in these woods. The one that had trapped him on top of that pillar. And now it was taunting him by flying over his clearing as if it owned the place. Fang meowed at the flashy offender, complaining as it flew.

He was so fixated on the flying morsel that he almost missed what was flying after it. A whole flock of the flashy, annoying bastards was passing over his clearing, flitting and chirping like they hadn't a care in the world. And right in the center of the flock was the flashiest, annoyingest bastard of all.

It was so brightly colored it was painful to look at, and the colors wouldn't even stay in one place. Reds and yellows flickered along its wings like fire, blue and white fought for dominance on its throat and belly, and it had a rooster's crest with every eye-searing color of the rainbow flickering through it. It was clearly related to the flashy sunlight birds, and that alone made it annoying, but what made it the most annoying was the thing clutched in its claws. It was quite clearly carrying the boar Fang had killed the day before. The flashy bastard had stolen his prey! Never mind that it had essentially killed itself in its rage, or that he had left the corpse behind with no intent to go back for it. It belonged to Fang!

As Fang yowled curses at the sky, he chased after the birds; but as he crossed into the forest, a thought stopped him. The birds were high above the treetops, he had no way to reach them. It didn't matter though, he would just follow and insult them until they came down low enough for him to kill. Before he could continue, another thought occurred: that bird had easily carried the pig which had destroyed half the forest chasing him. Attacking it was a bad idea, he should just go back and sleep.

Fang decided the giant bird was too annoying to sully his fangs on and turned back. He made his way back to the dais and hopped up. He calmly retrieved his marble, in no mood for a chase, and settled down once again in his napping spot. The sun wasn't quite enough to wash away his irritation, but it was enough to lull him off to a dream of blood and feathers.

When he woke, Fang continued about his routine. He hunted in the mornings and evenings, he sunned himself in various positions during the day, and his nights were split between more sleep and exploring the surrounding forest. He stayed within his clearing most of the time. He only really left when he spotted prey in the edge of the woods and chased after it, or when he went to drink from the stream. The occasional bout of wanderlust took him out into the forest just to explore, but for the most part, he thought his clearing was the best place to be, barring necessary tasks like hunting and drinking.

He spent almost a week like that. The familiar blue box appeared twice, but its bigger brother didn't appear at all. Fang had clearly scared it so badly that it had given up trying to stalk him. As it should be. Fang was the apex predator of this area. Out in the woods, there were larger creatures that Fang didn't hunt, but naturally, this was only because he had deemed them worthy of life. There were foxes with various numbers of tails that burnt their prey with a bluish fire. Fang occasionally chased prey out in front of them and ate the leftovers. Some cooked meat was a nice bit of variety after all. He encountered a few more of the boars, but he left them alone. There was no need to destroy more of his forest. He also encountered some strange, large bugs, but their chitin was hard and they didn't smell of prey, so he ignored them and they ignored him.

Finally, on the seventh day of his stay in this new world, something broke Fang from his routine. He was grooming the blood from his fur after killing one of the earthy rodents when the floating blue box returned for the third time.

And it brought big friends.