"What did it say?" Danika questioned.

"I don't know, it's weird, it sounded like it translated it, but the words sounded like 'tha theirig'," Kit replied.

"Yeah there go?" Danika asked. She looked at the snow leopard cub and said, "Well, it's still a baby right?" The cub glared at her, which was the most expression she'd seen from it yet.

Danika stuffed the rest of the piece of sweet bun into her mouth and chewed quickly while Kit petted the cub and told it, "We're going to do our best to get you home soon." She coaxed it, "Try to drink some of the milk?"

Danika told the cub firmly, "I'm going to try to heal you now, but you have to keep laying still and quiet."

The cub made another short rasping meow.

Danika looked at Kit who said, "It said tha."

Danika used her Restore prayer a moment later. Kit's eyes widened as she watched. The cub must have been really close to dead, Danika guessed, because its level was only 43 and it took 22 Karma to restore. The cub appeared to fluff up as they watched. His eyes glittered but he stayed quiet on Kit's lap.

"He just got heavier didn't he?" Danika asked ruefully. That side effect hadn't occurred to her, and she hoped that Kit's hawk form would still be able to carry the cub after she used featherweight.

"Yeah," Kit agreed.

Danika asked, "Can you buy more sweets to carry with us?" She turned and began gulping down the rest of her tea.

"Sure," Kit agreed. She stood and carried the leopard cub back to the shop counter. A few minutes later she returned with a small bag and set it on the little table beside ZipZing. "Little cookies," she announced.

Danika finished the last bit of tea, and thought again that it was a little funny that she had just eaten and drunk more than any real creature her size could hold. She peeked into the bag and said, "These look great, they are small enough that I can eat them while flying."

She took a moment to shuffle her inventory around so that she could get to the little tea biscuits without having to land, and then asked, "Are you both ready too?"

Kit nodded, and the cub made it's growly little meow noise.

Danika checked the party menu, but Aishin's name was still grey. "How long does reviving take?" she grumbled.

"Oh, right, you still have zero reincarnations," Kit replied. "I've only done it twice, but I bet it takes quite awhile at that guy's level, because you have to watch your life flash before your eyes before you return to the shrine."

"Oh," Danika replied as she flew back to sit on Kit's head again.

Kit walked to the door and took a deep breath before walking out. She jumped as the cub appeared to vanish and her arms curved oddly around its invisible figure, but after a moment she strode out onto the street and walked quickly away from the shop.

Danika whispered, "How much space will you need to take off? Would that alley work?"

Kit's head swiveled, and then she nodded and walked into the shaded area between two buildings. She transformed into her hawk about the same time the cub reappeared. Danika activated her own wings and cast the first featherweight on the cub.

Kit grabbed the snow leopard cub by the scruff of its fluffy neck and launched herself into the air with a string of apologies and complaints, "I'm sorry if it hurts. You are so heavy. Are you sure your spell worked Zip? I'm sorry, hold on little kitten."

Danika zipped after them in an awkward posture. She was trying to fly forward while watching behind. "You'll find out when it wears off," Danika told Kit a little grimly.

One of the arrows she had feared arched into the sky after them, but the archer wasn't as good as SaltySiamese, and it was obvious that it was going to miss. A shorter faster arrow followed it though, and Danika tossed several Wind Slashes at it before one hit and knocked the arrow away.

Danika glanced back and muttered, "I thought crossbows were supposed to be shorter range than bows."

Even so heavily laden, Kit's hawk form was fast. They were already over the forested hills before ZipZing's first featherweight wore off.

The snow leopard cub yowled in protest as Kit suddenly began to drop out of the sky, Danika zipped forward and touched the cub and recast the spell before they even touched the treetops, but the cub protested loudly for awhile.

Kit said, "Ok, the spell was working. And I don't think you want to hear what he's saying even though I can't understand it all." She flapped laboriously as she rose back into the sky. The cub dangled with his tail lashing as he growled and spat. He didn't make a very efficient kite tail, but he was definitely providing drag.

Danika chuckled and agreed, "Probably not. It sounds like it probably involves my ancestry and descendants to the 10th generation."

The snow leopard cub snarled.

--

Danika stuffed herself with tea biscuits between each casting, but they barely made it as high up the mountain as the rushing brook before she ran out. She warned Kit, "You should probably land before it ends, so that you don't crash."

Kit huffed a bit as she replied, "I think it's going to look a lot like a crash anyway."

Danika tried to picture the hawk landing with the cub in its claws and agreed. "Maybe if you just get really close to the ground and let it jump?" she suggested.

The snow cub made the short rasping meow that had meant 'yeah'.

Kit replied doubtfully, "Ok." She scanned for a flat area and turned and descended not in a hawk's neat dive, but in an awkward flappy flurry, like a duck landing on a tiny pond. She let go of the cub before it touched the ground and lifted back into the air and reoriented herself before dropping to the ground neatly beside the cub who was just standing up from where he'd rolled across the little meadow.

His whole posture radiated offended cat, and he sat neatly and began to rearrange his fur with his tongue.

Kit said worriedly, "I'm out of time, can you take him the rest of the way safely?"

Aishin's little bat arrived before Danika had replied. She snatched the message and read: "Don't come back to this town for awhile, I'm killing off the Envoy's guards that were following you. Everyone in our party will be flagged by the townspeople here for awhile for killing officials. All of their weapons are poisoned, so if any catch up, just try to evade them."

Danika replied: "Ok."

"I'll do my best," Danika told Kit firmly as her little bird flitted off.

Kit nodded and logged off without doing her usual string of transformations.

Danika looked at the snow leopard cub and said, "Well, let's go then, apparently we're still being chased."

The kitten growled at her and resumed adjusting his fur.

Danika growled back, "It won't matter how pretty you look if you don't get home. Nothing one does happens by accident." Apparently she could quote the way of the cat to a cat when no one else was around to hear her.

The snow leopard cub replied with his short growling meow and stood up. Then he looked at her. After a moment Danika realized he was waiting for her to lead.

"If we get separated," she informed him as she zipped between the trees with the cub chasing her (a scene that reminded her strongly of the wizard's cat in the beginner's vale), "you just need to keep going up. You lived on top of this mountain, if you keep going up, you'll get there eventually."