“Hey Slim! I was getting worried about you.” Jen said, as Slim walked into the kitchen and jumped up onto the counter and rubbed against her. Jen gave him a good scratching behind the ears.

Slim purred and flipped over for a belly rub as he said, “Wow, the mana feels amazing in here. It reminds me of some of the dungeons I was forced to go into.”

Jen was rubbing his belly and scratching his neck and replied, “Yeah, Sam built a mana filtering system for our home.”

Slim continued to purr but opened one eye and looked closely at Jen “You have five mana channels open! How did you do that?”

As Jen explained what she and Sam had been doing, Slim rolled over and took a closer look at her mana channels. “Your mana channels are beautiful! Not as amazing as mine, but quite lovely for a human.”

Jen laughed and scratched his neck even more, “You definitely have the ego of a cat! What have you been up to anyways?”

Slim was about to tell Jen his story when Sam walked in and said, “Hey Slim! It’s good to see you, Big guy!”

To Slim’s horror, Sam then proceeded to pick him up and sit down on the couch with Slim in his lap and then started scratching his neck. Jen completely failed to protect him, as she dropped down next to Sam, and both of them started to give him scratching and affection.

Slim whipped his tail with the indignity of his treatment by Sam, but then began to purr with pleasure as they both worked at scratching and cleaning his fur. Slim looked up at Jen and said, “Log is lucky that you do not wish him to be hurt, and that he is good at cleaning my fur!”

Sam said, “Hey, I can hear him, too!”

Slim looked annoyed at Sam’s outburst and said to Jen, “Did you just have to help Log improve his psych skill enough to talk?”

Sam laughed and said, “You are going to fit right in around here, big guy!” as he continued to scratch Slim’s chin.

Slim looked exasperated but continued to let Sam scratch his chin and said to Jen, “Just let me know if you would like to get rid of Log.”

Jen just chuckled and said, “Log makes lots of neat gadgets and jewelry for me, so be nice to him. Anyways, you were about to tell me what you’ve been up to.”

Slim was trying to stay aloof, but these two within just a few minutes made him feel like they had all been part of the same pride for years, and he didn’t really know how to feel about this, so he rolled onto his back for more grooming before telling them what he had been doing.

“Since you were both safe, I went to stretch my legs and ran into a couple of panther sisters. After a few weeks with them, I decided to head into the city, that’s when I ran into a caravan that had the most delicious smelling food. It turns out that these things called “donuts” are kind of addictive. After eating all of the donuts, I felt like taking a nap in the back of one of their wagons. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize the caravan was leaving the city, and when I woke up a couple days later, I was in a small city south of here. I’m sure you are aware of this, but female felines find me irresistible, and there was a literal plethora of all breeds, sizes, and shapes of female cats in that city. Unfortunately, they were all mind-numbingly basic and dumb, but their pheromones were intoxicating. I would probably still be there if I didn’t feel the mana bond tugging on me. Anyways, I found a wagon heading this way and hitched a ride back.”

Jen looked a little shocked at his sex-escapades but just shook her head laughing and asked, “Did you run into any trouble during your adventures?”

Slim rolled over and hopped down off of Sam’s lap, and as he strolled around taking a better look at the house, he laughed at Jen’s question, “None of these simpletons would even think of interfering with me! Why are the two of you still hanging out in the First Deck anyways?”

Jen replied a little sadly and said, “We won’t be here much longer. Sam’s a little bit psycho when it comes to over-preparing. He has been building enough log and crossbow bolt enchantments to supply an army, and he’s been working on decrypting some legacy technique spell scrolls. He is almost finished.”

“I hope?” Sam chimed in.

She then looked at Slim and asked, “Slim, do you need to be with us when we transport to the Second Deck?”

Slim kept looking around and said, “If you leave, I won’t feel your presence, and I will know to travel up or down the Decks, until I feel the pull of our connection. Anyways, I like the mana in this house. I’m going to hang here with you until we go to the Second Deck.” Slim didn’t admit it, but the family connection and acceptance he was feeling from Jen and Sam’s aura was…nice.

Slim nudged open one of the large spare warehouse rooms and announced, “This is mine. I’m going to take a nap.”

Sam asked, “Do you want some blankets or pillows or anything?”

Jen sensed something between her link with Slim and looked over at Sam and said, “No, apparently he does not sleep on cushions when claiming a den. This is going to be interesting!”

Slim circled the center of the room, unhinged his jaw, and “clean-vomited” out a pile of gold, jewels, weapons, armor, spell scrolls, beast cores, mana steel, and a whole bunch of other stuff in a pile the size of a minivan. He then jumped on top of the pile and nested in the middle of it.

“You’re like a walking space ring” exclaimed Sam.

Jen was a little stunned herself, but cracked up at Sam’s expression and said, “Apparently mana cats are considered to be loot monsters. He looted everything from Vicki Chang and every other adventurer he had to kill over the last 200 years.”

Sam finally found his tongue and said, “You’re kind of like a dragon in there sitting on top of all that loot!”

Slim hissed at Sam with anger and said, “I will excuse your ignorance this time but never compare me to those fat and lazy lizards!”

“Sorry, I don’t know what got into me comparing you to a fat and lazy lizard that likes to sleep on loot.” Sam replied sarcastically.

Jen cracked up at Sam’s joke, and Slim pretended to ignore the two stupid, but lovable maybe? humans.