A tingling noise sounded, waking me from my sleep. Crawling out of the den I look around for the source of the noise. "Up here!" squeals a high pitched voice from the trees. Perched on a branch ten feet up is a cat laguz, a purple cat laguz. And tied to her tail are three bells that ring merrily with the swinging of her tail.

Suddenly she leaps from the tree towards me. Still half in the animal den I'm unable to dodge. She lands on my head, knocking me out.

Waking I feel tugging on my ears. My head is resting on the lap of the cat in human form. I look closely at her as she fiddles with my ears. She is the oddest laguz I've ever seen. Her hair is bright purple and long covering one of her eyes. Her ears are pierced with tiny bells that jingle as she moves her head. Her clothes are odd as well. She is wearing a vest that is cut short, showing her navel, and her pants are large and baggy like what you would see on a gypsy.

She notices my staring and stares right back giving me a good look at her eyes. They are pink; the irises of her eyes are pink. "Hi my name is Mingy!" she says with a large smile. I can't help but grin at the bizarre female. "Hey transform! I've never met a wolf before and I want to know if your ears are on top of your head like a cat or on the side like a tiger." She squeals with delight.

"Can't I'm naked" I really don't feel like being naked around this woman. "Oh I know!" she says, dropping my head and standing up. "I've got some clothes you could wear in my cave. Follow me!" With that she transforms and bounds off her bells ringing.

I follow at a more sedate pace. I need some clothes but can I really trust this creature? "Hurry uuuuuup." She whines while hopping up and down. Watching her I decide to pick up my pace I don't like whining.

I catch up to her outside a cave. She is staring in and hissing her fur standing on end. I look inside to see the source of her agitation, wary of what I'll find. There are three men in the cave looting what they can from various containers in the cave. The three men raise their axes and edge towards us.

I look for the cat but she is nowhere to be seen. No wonder the bandits are grinning. Bemoaning my bad luck of late I leap towards the first bandit fangs bared. He swings his axe in an over the head chopping motion missing me by a wide margin. I hamstring him and move to the next bandit.

He fares little better as I lock my jaws on his throat and shake, snapping his neck. The third seeing his comrades go down with minimal effort flees only to get pounced on by the cat. The first bandit is limping off his injured leg dragging behind him.

Seeing me looking at him he tries to pick up his pace. Looking at me he doesn't notice the cat till it is too late. Three dead bandits and a Mingy, it's been a weird day and its only just started.

"Put some pants on and help me move the bodies" She says while transforming. "They're in that red trunk over there" Following her finger I see the trunk. I walk over to trunk and transform so I can open it and look inside. Mingy has left the cave dragging out one of the bandits so I quickly look inside. There are various articles of clothing ranging from long coats to things that barely qualify and under garments, snagging a pair of baggy black pants I quickly dress before the cat returns.

"They're on your head!" yells the annoying cat. Suddenly I feel a pressure on my back as the short cat reaches to try and grab my ears. Turning around I grab her hands and say "Don't we have a mess to clean up?" "Oh" she moans a she lurches over to one of the dead bandits.

I walk over and lift the body of the one I had killed onto my right shoulder. Going over to the cat I lift the bandit she had been trying to drag. "Yeah" she chirps seeing she wouldn't have to move the body herself. "Follow me I show you were I put the other one" she says. Her tail wags merrily filling the air with the jingly of bells once more.

Come to think of it I hadn't heard the bells at all when she had snuck up on me in the cave. How had she done that? Pondering the strangeness of it all I don't notice that she has stopped and I walk into her. "Hey are you trying to push me in?" she yells. I notice we have reached a ravine in the foot hills of the mountains.

"Well throw them in already" she says indicating the ravine. Obliging her I chuck the two bodies in. "Hey I have a…" I begin to say till I notice she is already walking away. Growling with annoyance I follow her once more noticing that her bells are silent.