| Euphoria, Town of Purrnaire, A few days ago |

"Someone say something!"

A light brown-haired woman with cat ears whisked her tail in agitation. She stood across the table looking at two males with shocked expressions. A girl on the side of her with light-brown hair had her ears padded back, she sat with her head down playing with her fingers.

"Our little girl's made up her mind, there's nothing else, too, say." The man in front of her rubbed his head while wearing a nervous expression. He looked over to the girl.

"I think she's up to the task."

An older man with grayish-white hair stroked his beard enthused. The perkiness of his ears showed that the left had a cut on the tip. His tail laid curled by his side.

The woman sighs and sits with her hands in her lap. She turns her head to the young girl who immediately responds by sitting straight and looking her in the eye.

"I'm serious Ma, I really think I can do this!" The young girl smiled showing her tenacity, but her hand was hidden under the table shaking.

The gray-haired man stood from his seat picking up a cane that was leaned on the wooden table.

"I'm just terribly sorry we have to ask this of you… It isn't right to put such responsibility in our youth's hands."

The younger couple looked down. They shared the same concern for their daughter's safety.

"Mimi."

The younger girl looked over to her mother, her head still down as beads of water onto her white apron. She looks up smiling while tears run down her face.

"If it isn't too much… Could we count on you just this once?" Her mother held one hand over the other, clenching her dress while pleading to her child.

The young girl stood up from her chair and put a hand over her chest. Her tail stood high in the air with her brown ears perched.

"You can count on me Ma!"

"Well, that settles it." The white-haired man walked towards the door of the cabin.

The cabin's brown wooden-floored creaked as he made his way towards the exit. The house had a stairway showing the second floor where all the rooms were held. The main floor was where a small kitchen with a nice pastel exterior where a table with four chairs resided. Pots and pans expanded across the walls as the countertop exposed a freshly baked loaf of bread with one slice evenly cut for consumption. Fruits and grains lined beside the bread giving the room an earthly aroma.

"Village Chief!" The young girl pushed her chair away and ran towards the older man. His ears perked up as he turned around.

She wrapped her arms around him, he put his arms up in shock and warranted a soft smile.

"You're doing this for all of us kid." He wrapped an arm around the sobbing girl patting her head with the other.

"Make us proud."

. . .

A bright light eludes from the sky. Fields of growing rice and other vegetables bask in the sunlight as a trail of dirt separates the greenery.

"You've got some food for the road?" Her mother pried with worry.

"Yes, Ma. You gave me plenty." A young girl pats her brown leather bag tied together with brown lacing.

"How about a weapon? You should be able to handle a small dagger right? " Her father pleads while displaying a small metal blade tucked into a scabbard.

"No Pa, I've got the spirit of Kailo. I can handle any danger myself." The girl sighed.

"And make sure to make a few friends in the big city. Try not to do stuff on your own." Her mother warned.

"But not too many, you know how those city folk be." Her father added with his finger pointed in the air.

"And—" Her mother started to speak.

"Ma! Pa!" The young girl's tail flicked with vigor. "I've gotta go… The walk is two days from here… I can't waste too much time…"

The concerned parents nuzzle their daughter's cheeks with their own on each side of her.

"We know dear. We just want you to be safe." The mother stops purring and rubs the girl's head. She backs away and starts to wave along with her husband.

"Bye Ma! Bye, Pa!" The young girl waved with both of her arms as her leather boots trod across the dirt path. The fields of green being the last she'd see of her town. She turned back and looked down the path to her home. Straw-roofed houses with logs for bearings spread across a green plain. Cat-people with long tails and feline ears walked and smiled in the pastures.

"See you guys… later." She turned her back on the town and made her way down a path retreating into the tall-wooded forest.

After walking down the path she meets a crossroad. She turns to both sides with a confused look on her face.

"Where ya headed?" A female with light-brown skin approached her.

Her dark hair was long reaching all the way to her waist, with a bit of it weaved into a bun at the top, the ends of it tinted white. Her clothing consisted of a red dress that had a large collar covering her neck and some of her face. The sleeves were outlined in white, along with the area around her breasts and an elegant fabric wrapped at an angle stretching around her curved figure. Her boots matched the same color as her dress with her red and white striped socks being laid bare.

"I'm trying to get to Phoenia but… I don't know the way." The young girl said as her ears flattened on top of her head.

"You're kiddin'! That's where I'm going!" The stranger's ears perked up and her tail flickered in excitement. "Wannabe traveling buddies?"

"Sure!" The young girl's ears poked from her head.

"We should take the left path, this other path leads to Voma… And trust me, you do NOT want to go there." The black-haired girl walks past the girl and starts making her way down the leftmost path. "What's your name anyway?"

"My name's Mimi." The young girl treads to the side of her new companion.

"Well hello there Mimi, my name's Zara!"

The two follow a dirt path as the trees separated by the road dance in the wind. The sun shines intensely making the horizon look hazed.

. . .