Adventure One: Here Kitty Kitty...
"Hey don't give me that look, I'm going as fast as I can!" Arme said, flipping through one of the many books that were currently sitting on one of the library's tables. The table would've been completely covered with books if it weren't for a young cat laying on it, staring at the mage intently and smacking it's tail repeatedly against said table in an annoyed/impatient sort of way. The cat was medium sized, not yet an adult, but not a kitten either. It had sharp, intelligent sea blue eyes and gray fur, and currently had it's chin resting against it's front legs.
"Mrow." It seemed to grumble, looking away from the mage in an annoyed sort of manner.
Arme stopped what she had been doing momentarily to reach over and scratch the top of the cat's head. "Aw, please don't be mad at me like that Lass. I said I was sorry, didn't I?" She said apologetically. "If I had known that you had been there I would've been more careful."
A few hours earlier, when the cat-now known to be Lass-had been walking down one of the corridors in the Grand Chase castle, when, unbeknownst to him, a certain mage had also been walking that same corridor a few feet behind him, nose buried in a book and obviously not paying attention to her surroundings. As such, she hadn't realized that a certain thief was in front of her. As a result of this, she had absently uttered a spell from the book she was reading to get a feel for saying said spell, and thus accidentally cast a spell on the aforementioned thief. It was only when she heard a surprised sound come from in front of her and looked up in time to see the white haired bishounen enveloped in smoke. When the smoke had cleared, all that was left was an unconscious cat.
When the cat had woken up, it had gotten a nasty surprise to find out that it was no longer human...and that it was laying on the mage's bed. Although he hadn't minded the latter of the two, as the bed had been warm and comfortable. After that, the mage had taken the thief-turned-cat to the library where she could hope to find a way to turn the cat back to normal. But so far, there was nothing to show for it, except for empty shelves and an annoyed kitty cat.
At the mage's words, the cat rubbed it's head against Arme's hand purring almost too quiet to hear. It was as if to say, 'Alright I forgive you...this time.'
At this Arme smiled. "Okay then, let's keep looking for that counter charm." She said, turning back to the book. It was several of many she had gone through so far-and none had turned up even the slightest hint as to how to counter the spell that had turned Lass feline. You would have thought that the same book that had the cat spell in it would have a counter for it, but no, it didn't. Which the mage found pretty ridiculous and a bit of an error on the part of whoever had but the book together in the first place.
But before the mage could continue looking, the doors to the library were thrown open and in bounced a girl with long pink pigtails and too cheerful for the cat's liking-Amy. The dancer bounded up to the table, stopping in front and trying to peer around the mounds of books to try and find the mage. "Arme you in there?" She called.
The cat put it's paws on it's head, ears pressed back against it's head as Arme replied, "Yes Amy, what is it?" She replied, suppressing a sigh and absently petting the cat.
"Have you seen Lass? We were going to drag him into our sparring match!" The dancer said enthusiastically.
"And who exactly is we?" Arme asked.
"Well you know, me and the others! Well, minus Sieghart, we can't find him anywhere in the castle...ohhh what a cute cat!" Amy finished, after finally managing to push through the books to see what the mage had been doing, in the process knocking several books to the floor. "Where did you find it? Is he yours? Can I play with him?" She asked, picking up the cat who failed to scramble away in time. She hugged the cat tightly, despite its protests, and rested her chin on top of the cat's head. "I promise I'll take good care of him!"
Arme looked at the dancer, and then at the cat, which was giving the mage what seemed like a pleading look for release. Arme just laughed and said, "Alright, you can take him for now."
"Yes! Thanks Arme!" And with that the dancer ran out.
"Just don't throw him at any monsters!" Arme yelled after the girl, unsure if she was heard. She sighed and shook her head, going back to flipping through her book.
It was some hours later, the sun had gone down, and it was almost time to go to bed. The mage was currently in her room, sitting on her bed and flipping through some books she had brought back with her from the library. She was half way through one of said books when she heard a scratching at her door, followed shortly by a cat's meow.
Placing the book down on the bed, Arme stood from the bed and went over to the door, opening it. What she saw was quite the comical sight-Cat Lass was standing there, with pink ribbons in his fur and a pink bow tied to his tail. But that wasn't the funniest of the cat's appearance; no, it was the fact that the cat was wearing a very frilly and bright pink cat sized dress. At the sight of the cat, the mage couldn't help but burst out laughing, causing the cat to grumble a bit as it entered the room. Arme followed the cat back in the room, still giggling as she watched him head towards the bed. At the continued laughing, the cat shot the mage an annoyed look.
"I'm sorry Lass," Arme said, trying to stifle her laughter, "but you just look so funny and cute."
"Mrow!" The cat said in an annoyed tone at the mage before turning and jumping up onto the bed. He then promptly began to try and get out of the dress, but wasn't having much luck.
Arme laughed a little more before going over to the bed and sitting next to cat. "Here, let me help you with that." She then proceeded to reach over and take off the dress that the cat had been wearing. "There, isn't that better?" She asked, before noticing something that was around the cat's neck. "What's this?" She asked curiously, leaning in for a better look. At it appeared to be, bows and a dress wasn't the only thing that Amy had stuck on the catified thief. A collar that was blue and surprisingly not pink hung about Cat Lass' neck. Although of course knowing Amy, there had to be something cute about it, which in this case, revealed itself to be a small golden bell attached to said collar.
"Mow." The cat said, almost in a way that seemed like he would've said, 'Stop gawking at the dumb collar and help me get the rest of these bows off!' as the cat was trying to get a bow off the top of his head but currently failing miserably at it.
The mage laughed once more and reached over, easily pulling the bow out. "There, that better?" She asked, petting the cat's head. Said cat looked about himself, checking to make sure that there weren't anymore and nodding to himself when he found none, he stretched before beginning to clean himself. Arme smiled and stood up from the bed. "I'm going to go get ready for bed, ok? And don't you dare peak." She said.
"Mow." Was the calm agreeing reply, the cat still busy cleaning itself.
By the time the mage was done getting ready for bed, she found the cat already curled up tightly by her pillow, fast asleep. She smiled and got into bed herself, falling asleep not too long after.
In the morning when she woke up she was expecting to find Cat Lass still sleeping by her pillow, only to find that the cat was no where to be seen. "Lass?" She asked, sitting up and looking about her room for any sign of said feline. She frowned when she revived no reply. "Now where could he have gone?" She asked out loud.
Meanwhile, said cat was currently wandering through the corridors, trying to figure out where he was in the castle. He had woken up hungry earlier that morning, and had decided to make a visit to the kitchen to see if he could could his hands...er...paws on something he could eat. But instead of making it to the kitchens like he had planned, he had actually managed to get himself royally lost.
Now normally, a thief like Lass with a pretty good sense of direction wouldn't have gotten lost so easily, especially in the place he lived. But this certainly wasn't a normal occasion, as being a cat had made everything seem quite a bit bigger then he was used to, which naturally caused things to look somewhat different, thus throwing his sense of direction off. At this point in time he wasn't even sure if he could find his way back to Arme's room, where the mage was probably either still sleeping or just barely waking up.
"Lalalalala!" An all too familiar sing-song voice suddenly sounded from somewhere father up the corridor. Instantly recognizing the voice as Amy's and not wanting her to dress him up again, the cat quickly hurried into the nearest open door and hid behind the first thing he found, not fully realizing where he was or really even caring as long as he was away from that crazy dancer. He definitely was not going to leave this spot until he was sure the girl had passed.
At least that was what he had been planning to do, anyways. Shortly after he had hid, his hiding place became non-existent as it was picked up, causing the cat to finally take note of what exacting it had been that he had been hiding behind: a shield. Which could only belong to one person; Ronan Erudon. Which also meant that this room must belong to said person.
Said Knight had noticed the cat, and keeled down to get a better look at it. "Hey, what are you doing here little guy?" The Knight asked.
Ignoring the question and peeking around the Knight to check and see if he could see the crazy girl. Too his relief, though, the dancer was nowhere in sight. He looked back over at the Knight as he said, "Mrow" in what he hopped would get the point across that he wanted to go to the kitchen.
"Hmm, what's that?" Ronan asked, looking at the cat.
"Mrow!" Kitchen, kitchen, kitchen, kitchen! Really, sometimes not being able to speak English could get quite frustrating.
"Are you hungry?" The Knight asked.
"Mow." The cat agreed.
"Alright then." Ronan said, picking up the cat. "Kitchen it is then."
On the way to the kitchen and higher up then he had been last time he had been in this corridor courtesy of sitting on Ronan's shoulder, the cat realized just where in the castle he was. He would've smacked himself if he could for getting as lost as he did. He really hadn't been that lost at all; as the Knight's room was one of the closest to the kitchen out of all of them. All that they would have to do was go to the end of this corridor, turn left, and then go to the end of that corridor and viola, the kitchen. At least no one had realized that it was he, Lass, that had been one to get lost as that was something that he would certainty never live down.
After the arrival at the kitchen, Ronan placed the cat on the wooden table and then went to get said feline something to eat. After a few moments a bowl of milk was placed in front of the the cat. "Sorry about that, but it's all we have for you right now, as Arme hasn't dragged Lass out to the market yet." The Knight explained. The cat rolled it's eyes, or would've if it could. Ah yes, the monthly visits to the market that Arme always managed to drag him on no matter how well he thought he was hiding. As it usually went the mage would do the shopping and he would hold the bags.
But that was besides the point. For now, the cat looked at the milk, contemplating how he was supposed to drink it. He couldn't just simply pick it up in his hands, put it to his mouth and drink it as he didn't have hands at the present. Finally he settled on lapping it up with his tongue, which he found to be surprisingly effective.
"Hey Ronan have you seen-" Came Arme's voice behind the cat, but she stopped herself short after seeing said feline. "Never mind, he's right here." She said, coming up and petting the cat.
"Is he yours, Arme?" The Knight asked.
"I found him yesterday and have been taking care of him since then. I was a little worried when I woke up this morning to find him gone." The mage explained.
"I found him in my room, hiding behind my shield." Ronan explained in turn. "He seemed hungry, so I took him here."At the mention of the cat hiding in the Knight's room, Arme gave the cat a curious look, who, in turn, purposely rang the bell about it's neck trying to mean that it had been hiding from Amy.
"So you've already got a collar for him, I see." The Knight noted.
"Actually that was Amy's doing. She took him off for a bit to play with him, and I'm guessing that's when she did it." Arme said. She then smiled. "You should've seen what else she had him dressed in! She-" But the mage was abruptly cut off from a loud yowl from the cat, and then a look given to Arme that seemed to say, 'You don't need to tell him that!' which caused the mage to laugh a bit. "Well let's just say that she dressed him up pretty." She said, causing the knight to chuckle a little. The cat however, now finished with its meal, sat there cleaning itself, seemingly ignoring the chasers.
Ronan laughed again. "I think he's mad at us now." He commented.
"Aw," Arme said, picking up the cat and hugging it. "Don't be mad, we were just having a bit of fun."
"Mow..." It said in a more calm tone, like if it could've sighed if it could. 'Alright fine.' Was was it seemed like it wanted to say.
The cat rubbed its head against Arme's chin as Ronan laughed at bit and said, "Seems he likes you, Arme."
"You think?" Arme asked, rubbing one of the cat's ears and gaining that same quiet purr as she had the previous day. She smiled slightly at the thought, but then changed the subject. "Well, as Lass is busy at the moment, I'm going to need someone else to drag to the market with me."
"Since when did Lass being busy stop you from dragging him to the market?" The knight stated more then asked. What he had said had been true enough; no matter what Lass would be doing around the castle when the need for a visit to the market arose, Arme would without fail manage to drag the thief with her.
"Knight Master sent him out on a mission, so I can't just go dragging him from that. Besides, it would be much faster to just find someone else that's in the castle, now wouldn't it, hmm Ronan?" Arme asked, speaking with such a tone that you just knew she was trying to talk you into something.
Ronan sighed, and swore he had almost heard the cat snicker. But that was impossible, wasn't it? He shook his head. "I suppose I should go with you then." He said, standing up from where he had been sitting at the table.
"Alright then let's go!" Arme said happily, turning and heading out the door, but not before the cat jumped up onto her shoulder.
When they were standing atop the hill that at the bottom of which held the small village, a surprise greeted them. People were running around in a panic, frightened by the goblins and orcs running about, who were causing mischief and mayhem.
"Stupid monsters!" Arme exclaimed, frustrated, running out to met said monsters, War Staff out and ready to attack.
Everything was going fine and neither the two humans or the cat had gotten hurt, until...
"Arme, watch out behind you!" Came Ronan's voice.
"Huh?" The mage muttered, turning around only to be met with an orc who was about to attack her. But before said monster could carry out with it's attack, the cat came out of seemingly nowhere, claws outstretched and it latched itself onto the orc, teeth biting deep into the monster's shoulder. The orc began raging around in pain,waving it's club around in random patterns as it tried to dislodge the cat from itself. Eventually it did manage to get the cat loose and fling it into a nearby building, but by this time Ronan had had enough time to come up behind it and spear it with his Tyrfing.
"Lass!" Arme shouted, running over to where the cat had been thrown. From the dust cloud that had appeared where the cat had been thrown, said cat could be seen slowly limping towards the mage. "Lass!" The mage exclaimed again, kneeling in front of the cat and picking it up in her arms. "I'm sorry..." She whispered.
"Mow." The cat said weakly, almost as if saying 's'ok...' before promptly falling unconscious.
Arme stood up carefully, cradling the cat in her arms and being careful of it's bad leg. Lass really was cute as a cat...she mused, a slight smile on her face. "Arme," She was cut from her musings as Ronan's voice broke in, "why did you just call that cat Lass?" The knight asked curiously, walking over to the mage, wiping the blood from his blade.
"Um, er, I, that is, uh....Lass, uh he's...well..." The mage stuttered at bit, unsure of what she should say before sighing. "This is Lass. I accidentally turned him into a cat when I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings..." She explained sheepishly.
The knight blinked. He certainty hadn't expected that. "If that's Lass, then what was he doing hiding in my room this morning?" He asked.
Arme giggled a little. "I expect he was hiding from Amy. She really did manage to dress him up pretty yesterday." She turned to head back for the castle. "C'mon, I want to get back so I can treat his leg." She said as she began walking towards the castle.
It was now a few hours later and the cat was still unconscious and laying on Arme's bed, it's right front leg now bandaged and and splinted as it had been deemed broken. Arme had managed to recruit Ronan with the helping in finding of the counter charm, and were currently in the mage's room going through the books as Arme wanted to be there when the cat woke up. Although as fate would have it, the cat didn't wake up until the next morning.
Arme had been sound asleep when she was woken up but the cat's pain filled yowl. She had sat up quickly, afraid that something more had happened to said creature. She panicked a bit when she didn't see the cat on her bed besides her pillow where she had last left him, but was then relieved when she looked around her room to find the cat on the floor not far from her bed. She laughed a bit as she got up from her bed and picked up the cat. "Forget that we have a broken leg, hmm?" She asked. The cat just looked away without saying anything.
And so another day of searching began, only to be interrupted by the searchers and a few others going on a mission, which left the cat by himself, although not for very long as he was soon captured by the pink haired crazy girl. By the time the others came back the cat was in a new set of bows and ribbons with a new frilly pink dress. Even the bandage on his leg had been turned pink from the white it had used to be. This was received by a fit of laughter from the mage and a very amused smile from the knight, as if he were trying to hold his amusement in.
Days passed, and still there was no counter found, and the cat was accepted by the chase as a pet, more particularly Arme's, as she had been the one to 'find and take in' the cat in the first place. Days turned into weeks and nothing turned up, except for the rest of the chase that didn't know the truth about the cat stop believing that Lass was just out on a mission and that's why he couldn't be found, which was confirmed by Knight Master, who deemed Lass missing in action. The cat, for want of better communication, learned how to write by taking a writing utensil in mouth. It wasn't the best writing, but it was at least you were able read it, after the cat got some practice, anyway. Weeks turned into months and nothi-wait...
"Arme, come take a look at this." Ronan said one day, after many hours spent in the library on day.
"What is it?" Arme asked, curious, coming over to where the knight was standing in the middle of one of the many rows of bookshelves, the cat perched on her shoulder. "Did you find something?" She asked hopefully.
"Is this the spell you used?" The knight asked, handing the mage an open book.
"Yes, yes that's it!" Arme said enthusiastically, excited that they might've found a lead to the solution.
"Then it doesn't seem like it's very good news." Ronan said, sighing.
"What?" Arme said, worried now. She looked down at the description of the spell to see what the knight could possibly mean. She frowned as she read a certain part of the description.
...commonly used against enemies or those that the caster wishes to punish. No known counter to date.
"Well, that's not good." Arme muttered. The cat almost seemed to sigh. "Sorry Lass." She said, scratching the cat's head. In turn, the cat rubbed its head against the mage's chin, giving a soft mow as if trying to say it was alright.
"Hey guys what are you doing still in the library? We've got a mission to run! LET'S GO!" Came Elesis' impatient voice.
"We'll be right there!" Ronan called back before turning to Arme. "C'mon let's go."
Arme nodded. "Alright. I'll just put Lass in my Room and then I'll met up with you guys after."
///////
It was later that night when Arme returned to her room to find the cat seemingly asleep at it's usual spot by her pillow on her bed. She petted the cat lightly before proceeding to change the bandages around the cat's leg, as it wasn't quite healed yet and still needed a few more months. As she was doing so, all she received was a soft, tired grumble from the feline. Once she was finished, she went and got ready for bed. As she was doing so, she was thinking about what the book had said. 'no known counter...' She frowned but soon after got a determined look on her face. She would not admit defeat!
Later on the next day the cat was sitting on Arme's bed cleaning itself when Ronan came. Seeing that the mage was no where in sight, he asked, "Lass, where's Arme?" The cat looked up at him in mid-lick of his paw and gave a look as if to say 'you interrupted me.' Before slowly making its way over to the bedside table where the necessary items to write were kept if he need to use them.
I don't know where she went exactly. The cat wrote slowly and carefully. She just said that she had something to do and would be back later. Why do you ask?
"Knight Master said there was a mission for her to do. But none of us seem to be able to find her. I was hoping that you'd have some sort of clue." The knight replied after reading what the cat had put.
Have you checked the library? That is her favorite place. Although I'm surprised she's not sick of the place with how much time we've been spending there...although if you ask me she seems to be taking this 'me being stuck as a cat' thing worse then I am.
"Checked there, multiple times." Ronan answered. "And my guess would be that she feels bad because it's her fault that your stuck like that."
The cat shrugged as best as it could and shook it's head. Tell me if you find her though, I'm curious as to what she's up to.
"Will do. Do you need anything before I go?"
Some food would be nice. Haven't been able to make to the kitchen with this stupid leg of mine. I'll be glad when it's finally healed.
"Alright then, I'll be back in a bit." And with that the knight left.
The cat laid there on the desk, wondering what the mage could possibly be up to. Could she actually still be looking for a sort of counter still? But that was crazy, what didn't exist didn't exist. The cat shook his head. But knowing Arme, she just might because she wasn't the type to give up so easily.
It wasn't until a few days later the mage finally made her presence known once again, releaving the others from the worry that she would become missing just like Lass was. Upon her return, the first thing she did was head for her room, where the cat was currently sleeping, curled up in small ball on its usual spot on the bed.
"Lass! Lass c'mon wake up I have something to show you!" She said, shaking the cat slightly. All she got was an annoyed grumble as the cat shifted positions. "C'mon wake up!" But the cat didn't budge, persisting in it's wanting sleep. "Fine, don't wake up!" The mage said frustrated. "I'll show you without you being up!" She then muttered something in a foreign language and there was a puff of smoke where the cat was.
"Mo-oof!" What started out as a surprised mow, turned into a human sound. After the smoke cleared, there was one Lass laying on the floor. On the floor because the spot by the pillow on the bed was big enough for a cat to lay without falling off, but certainty not a human.
Arme giggled happily. "Yes, it worked!"
Lass over on the floor, grumbled a bit. "Thanks for the rude awakening." He muttered before getting in to sitting position, and noticing something new. "Uh, Arme, what's this?" He asked, holding up the gray tail that he now possessed.
"It looks like a tail to me." The mage replied, sitting in front of the once again human Lass. She smiled. "You've got cat ears too." She said as she reached up and touched one of the aforementioned ears, causing it to flick a bit.
Lass shook his head. "Arme, what was wrong with make me all the way human?" He asked.
"Well, the ears and tail weren't intentional actually, it just happened that way. But isn't it just really cute?"
The thief just sighed. "Well, I guess the good part is is that I can move around again without having to worry about a bad leg." Which was true, as the leg that had been broken was a front leg on a cat, which meant an arm for a human.
And so Lass once again came into the chase, telling the others that he had been in the market on the day of his disappearance, and that he had been captured by same crazy old wizard. He said that it took him awhile to manage to escape, but he didn't manage it before gaining himself a pair of cat ears and tail. He wasn't about to tell them that he had been the cat (of which the others had been told that it escaped from the castle and the whereabouts were now unknown), as there were certain things that he knew he would never live down. Like getting lost a few times, and being dressed up by Amy a few times for instance.
And with that, a crazy adventure at Grand Chase comes to an end.
Well, I hope you enjoyed it, as I had fun writing it :) There'll be more of these in the future, a second (mis)adventure already in the works. Till next time!
-Xire