“What have you done with my mother?!” Katrina’s son asked me, in a dangerous tone of voice. His hand, which before had held gentle warmth and soft red glow, now glared brighter as he increased his flame jet’s power in a very threatening way.

This was problematic for me, I mean, obviously I didn’t want to get burnt, but I also didn't have much room to defend myself. If I did pull out Katrina from my dimensional storage, there was a good odds it would capsize the canoe. Or I could spill her out into the water, which would mean I would have to jump into the water to touch her to activate my dimensional storage skill, or wait for her to somehow clamber unto a tiny canoe, which could also capsize it.

I had no idea how much time she had left to live, a delay in putting her back in storage could mean her death. But the real risk, of course, was that I could get wet again.

My ears flattened against my skull and I turned to look at the shore. It was within reach of a mana boosted leap. With a mighty flex, I jumped as hard as I could, flying through the air to tumble to a rough landing on the sandy shore of the lake. The jump skill had failed to give me the traction to land neatly, but I’d not taken damage. Well, maybe some damage to my pride, since I was now covered in sand. With a sigh of disgust, I hoped on top of a squat mushroom tree and started grooming away the sand. I’ll probably have to cough up a gross hairball later to clear my stomach of all the sand I am eating, I thought to myself.

The canoe I’d leapt from, on the other hand, took a great deal of damage. The recoil from my leap shattered the fragile wooden hull underneath my paws, and water rapidly began to fill the small vessel. With a curse, Katrina’s son desperately rowed to shore, barely managing to beach the quickly filling canoe before it sank. He was the one who was soaked now, and it hadn’t improved his mood.

As he neared the shore, still swearing, teaching me a few words I filed away for later, I hopped back down from the mushroom tree and wrote in the sand. “I can not speak. Do you have a healing ability or potion?”

When the furious cat man stomped over to my location, he paused to read what I’d scratched in the sand. It was lucky that my default language was the system’s language, which was the default written language of everyone in this world, so he could understand what I’d written.

“What? I have a healing potion… but why should I share it with you? I’m going to barbeque you if you don’t start writing down why you have my mother’s necklace…”

Rather than reply, I simply plopped Katrina out of my inventory and let her do the talking. If either of the two had any wit, they’d save her life, if not… Well I’d have tried. I was feeling rather grumpy.

“Mom!” Katrina’s son yelled, shocked.

“Jason? How did you… where am… how did I get here?” She asked confused, then coughed up a gout of blood as she swayed, tipping over from a sitting position to fall to her side in the sand.

“3hp!? By the Great Tiger!” Jason exclaimed after examining his mother with what I assumed was the identify skill. Then he quickly dug through his pouch to produce a small vial filled with a red liquid. He promptly forced her to drink the healing potion, holding her head in his arms, as she swallowed weakly.

“Thank you,” Katrina said, forcing herself back up to a sitting position then giving her son a big hug as she began to recover. “Where have you been?” She asked roughly, her voice tight with emotion.

“I journeyed to the overworld for a mission, that’s how I got this tan. The Commander gave me my orders personally, told me to tell no one I was leaving. I finished my mission, just got back, and figured, on my way home, I’d do a little fishing. I though you could cook one of my favorite dishes if I came back with fresh fish. Then this tiny tiger cub landed in the lake near my canoe and I fished him out.” He turned to stare at me. “What’s going on? Why does he have your necklace, and how did he make you appear out of thin air like that? Why were you so hurt?”

After a flood of questions, Katrina settled in to tell the story of the last few days, “A few days ago, right after you disappeared, the Commander came and ordered our town’s militia to follow him in some sort of routine patrol. A few of us, myself included, protested that it was wrong to leave the town unguarded, that the Commander should leave at least some of our menfolk behind, but he insisted.”

“That same night, a massive horde of kobolds attacked. We tried to fight, but there weren’t many of us who had any real training in fighting. Your aunt and I,” Katrina paused, remembering her sister had died and been eaten, “we did our best, we were the strongest of those that remained, but they had a werewolf shaman with them.”

“Werewolves? Here? But the treaty…” Jason looked as if he thought breaking this treaty was the more serious crime, rather than the actual attack.

“Broken, but other than me, there’s no one who can bear witness to the fact.”

“No one?” Jason gasped, realizing what that must mean.

“You aunt is dead… I don’t know about the rest, but the kobolds were paid in flesh. I suspect those that survive are soon to be eaten as well.”

“Oh no, poor aunty.” Jason whispered, shaking his head sadly. After a moment of sadness he looked to be thinking furiously. “But what of the militia?” Jason asked, “They have to come back at some point and see what has happened. How can…”

“I suspect the Commander led our militia into some sort of trap, and they are not likely to return.” Katrina said heavily. “He is probably a traitor, why else would he lead them away right before a major attack? I would help you figure out more, but that werewolf shaman cursed all the prisoners before handing us over to the kobolds as livestock.” Katrina, leaned forward exposing a curious black tattoo on her back, in the shape of a wolf’s paw print. “It completely drains my mana. I’ve had 0 mana since then; I’m practically helpless. Unless you kill that shaman or find me a high level priestess, I’m of no use. You should just leave me here and go get some help. If you get reinforcements then track the kobolds, you might find some of the prisoners still alive.”

Jason shook his head, “There’s no time to go seek help! I just got back from the surface and there’s talk of a general mobilization, every free adventurer is signing up. There’s not going to be anyone willing to skip out on something that important just to come investigate a hidden town in a backwater Underrealm cavern like this one! And if the Commander is really a traitor, he’s likely to just have me silenced if I try to report the incursion to the military directly. No, I’ll do it on my own! Every minute we waste is another friend of ours that might be gettting eaten.”

Katrina opened her mouth to object, then sighed. She knew her son would dash into foolish heroics, was there any way to help him survive? That was what she was probably thinking.

What? I’m not a mind reader, but I could guess; her ears were twitching in annoyance like a mother cat watching a too brave kitten stray too far. Katrina turned to face me with a desperate look on her face. “What about you Onyx? Will you help my son?”

“What? Why should I take him?” Jason asked with a look of distain. "I don't see how risking the life of a tiger cub is going to help; it's no different than taking a child into battle."

“He’s not a cub… I’ve seen tiger cubs, he’s something else. His proportions are all wrong, tiger cubs have really big paws and heads for their size, and they are awkward and clumsy…” Katrina mused, while studying me closely.

“This feline just plunked himself into a lake, I’m not sure that’s a sign of coordination.” Jason argued. “And I’m ID’ing him as a level 5, not exactly remarkable.”

“Onyx has at least master level pounce, stealth and probably jump. He’s the one that rescued me from the kobolds, he wiped out a pack of five of them. That’s why I gifted him the necklace as a reward. He’s got some weird magic that lets him send exploding bugs long distances. He’ll be the perfect scout, or long range harasser. And he has whatever weird magic he used on me that teleported me here...” Katrina turned to Jason and said sternly, “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take him.”

Jason looked at me, then said, "Thank you for saving my mother's life." He bowed slightly, then added in a ever so slightly condescending tone. "I do not object to you recieving my family's heirloom as a reward, and I will allow you to accompany me on this mission, as she vouches for your ability."

I was incredulous, they were making a lot of assumptions about what I was willing to do. I scratched into the sand a simple question: “What’s in it for me?”

“Do you not care that fellow felines, women and children, will be eaten?” Jason asked, with indignant righteous disgust. I snorted.

“No.” I wrote in the sand. If it weren’t so laborious to write, I might have added that I didn’t really see him and his mother as felines. They were humans with strange ears, I didn’t understand why he’d assume that just because we had matching ear types, I’d automatically be on his side, part of his pack. Even if they were really felines, I still wouldn’t feel obliged.

Katrina looked consternated, then thoughtful. “You hate canines right? You have the title, “Enemy of Canines.” You will get to kill a lot of vicious dogs, and get bonus exp for doing so. If the two of you team up in a party, you could get several levels by killing your least favorite creatures. Don’t you want to make some dogs suffer for what they’ve done?”

Now she was speaking my language. Power and a chance for revenge? Hmm, I was feeling tempted. Rescuing some villagers had little appeal, but this, this I could work with. I scratched on the sand. “Offer more.”

“We don’t have time for this. Let the little mercenary be. Come on, mother, let’s go to the village.” Jason said angrily.

“Jason, I can’t run that far, no mana remember? I’ll only slow you down, and leaving me in a village where kobolds might show up and scavenge for loot at any time, isn’t wise. I’m safer out here in the middle of nowhere.”

“What of goliath beetles? And the mushroom ghouls? Rodents of unusual size, or spore wasps? This isn’t a safe place for someone with no mana to defend herself with.”

“We'll have Onyx put me back into whatever place he had me before. That’s what it is right? A storage of some sort, where time doesn’t pass?” She asked me. I was impressed that Katrina had worked it out so quickly.

I nodded, but tapped my words in the sand with one paw. I wanted a promise of some additional reward if she wanted me to clutter up my inventory in addition to all the other hassle.

“See, even with just that, he's well worth recruitiung." Katrina argued. Jason huffed, but looked like he didn't disagree anymore. He was willing to let his mother negotiate with me if it meant keeping her safe, I guess.

Katrina adressed me, "I promise to serve you as a servant, cook you any meals you want, give you all the grooming and care you could ask for, let you live in my home. If you help my son rescue my fellow villagers, I’m yours for a year. It’s a small price to pay if you help keep my son alive and help him save even one additional life.”

“Mom! That’s too much!” Jason protested, aghast.

“I’d be dead anyways without Onyx, one year of service is a small payment to offer.” she pointed out.

I thought about it for a while, then shrugged. I really did hate doggos, I didn’t need much encouragement to go kill a bunch of them, I decided. This would do.

“I accept.” I wrote.

You have demonstrated a mercenary attitude and a greedy heart. Haggling skill (journeyman) awarded.