My calling

Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

MAKAI! Seperates Paragraphs

Chapter 4: Stowaway

Aboard the Phantom Cat Mk. 2, traveling through the dimensional space between Netherworlds, Nelius was sound asleep in the cargo hold, catching up on the hours he'd missed. His mind was racing with many different possibilities, ranging from how different the Overlord was to meeting up with the locals. His next dream (or perhaps a vision) was vividly different, showing himself, but instead of having his regular demon wings, one of them had transformed into a black-feathered angel wing, with hsi other wing remaining the same as it was two chapters ago. His 'Dream Self' then jumped high into the Heavens, almost reaching Celestia itself, before two angels catapulted himback down toward the ground, at which he began spinning his body into a spiral, collecting demonic and angelic energy into himself.

"Spiraling.."

Nelius awoke with a start. He found himself wishing he had a watch to tell himself how long it'd been since he fell asleep. From behind the box where he'd fallen asleep, he snuck a peek around the corner... and quickly regretted coming aboard this ship.

From what he could see, the largest black jaguar he'd ever seen was commanding two fourth-tier Felynn demons, Tailrings, to begin moving several of the boxes from the other room into here. Though it would give him a cover advantage, if either of the Tailrings came over in this direction and saw him, everything he'd done up to this point would be all for naught. Basically, this meant cramping his already tired muscles even further, and keeping himself incredibly quiet.

For about ten minutes, things seemed to go smoothly, until Nelius' empty stomach began to complain. When one of the light blue/green Tailrings walked in his direction, alerted by the sound of his growling stomach, it had been through some type of divine intervention that the jaguar had called them both back for something else.

"Thank... the... fucking...Lord!" He gasped, reaching into his bag and extracting the last pack of dried meat he had. Being careful not to make too much noise, he opened the package and devoured the contents. Having nowhere else to place it, he put the empty packaging wrapper back into his bag, reminding himself to dump off any trash and get himself a tent as soon as he could afford one. His clothing and other travel items most likely had the smell of dried, seasoned meat eminating from them.

With stretching out of the question, and his stomach satisfied, he fell back on the only option he had left: go back to sleep.

MAKAI!

In Sirea's Netherworld, news of Nelius' disappearance was spreading much faster than wildfire. Already, in many towns, search parties had been organized by Sirea's vassals in attempts to loacte him and drag him back to the Overlord's castle under any cirumstances. Needless to say, they had absolutely no luck at all, and this infuriated the her even further. Her sheer level of anger even caused Cera to back down in fear.

'How could he escape?!' Sirea's mind was being driven in circles, trying to figure out how he slipped past any of the guards and got away. 'I thought the mark had been perfect in sealing him up; did it wear off earlier than expected?' She mentally cursed herself for getting far too overconfident. 'No matter what, I have to find him and readminister that seal. It'll be the only way to bring him to reasonable levels.'

She went to begin administering a new reward for his finding.

MAKAI!

A stinging sensation brought Nelius out of his self-induced slumber. Realising it was coming from his right hand, hidden beneath his A-Knuckle glove, he removed said glove, revealing some kind of inked seal. Furthermore, it was directly over the scar he'd had since his childhood days. Removing the Shatter Gauntlet from his left hand, he set it on the floor next to him before licking his left thumb and rubbing over the ink.

45 minutes, one smudged shirt and one very raw thumb later, the ink was cleanly smudged away, perfectly revealing the scar on his hand. The outline was a burning red, and the shape itself seemed to take the form of a circle or ring; it didn't appear demonic or angelic, it was simply some kind of spherical shape. It appeared that the ink was suppressing the now eminating pain, but only to a certain degree.

Now that he'd had time to think on it, he never did notice the scar on his hand, not even when he took off his glove before.

'Must've been suppressed by the ink; was it some type of seal?' He hadn't any extra time to dwell on this; with a shudder, the ship had landed somewhere. 'Looks like we've set down.' Equipping his gloves, he was mentally prepared, but his cramped muscles demanded that he get up and stretch. Checking around the general area for anyone, he cautiously stood up and stretched himself, loosening up his tightened arms and legs before bending backward to work out any kinks in his waist. The sound of approaching footsteps told him to get back into his hiding spot before he got spotted.

A moment later, the jaguar, Brad, entered into the storage compartment of his ship, accompanied by his Tailrings, and they began moving most of the boxes from the front of the area toward the back, completely passing Nelius by

'Either they know of my location or they want me to watch.' Not too long afterwards, the loading door opened, spilling sunlight into the cargo hold, forcing Nelius to squint; his eyes had been adjusted to the artificial light for so long, the appearance of actual light caused his eyes to ache before adjusting.

"OK," Brad's voice filled the room. "Start unloading." This spelt near doom for Nelius.

'Crap!' He knew that if they moved the box, he'd be found out, and he didn't even dare begin to imagine what would happen to him. He couldn't move, lest one of the loaders spot him. A relatively large crate was situated near him, and he didn't have to think twice, though he would soon wish he did; the box he pried open then slipped into when nobody was around was full of catnip. The box was lifted up and out of the ship.

"Geez, Brad, how much catnip did you grab this time?" A female voice, likely belonging to one of the two Tailrings, asked.

"The normal amount for the experiments, why?" He asked his own question.

"Certainly doesn't feel like the regular shipment; it's like carting around a demon inside this thing." That statement made Nelius' hair stand on end. He just slipped into a box full of catnip; at least it explained the plants. The catnip shipment was passed from her to Brad.

"You're right. It's a bit heavier than when I grabbed it yesterday. Wonder what could be inside this thing?" He made a move to open the box, but hesitated. "We'll open it back at the greenhouse."

Nelius gave a mental sigh of relief. He would stay alive, if only for a few minutes longer. He could only hope they would listen before they turned him into their next meal.

MAKAI!

An hour later, the box of catnip Nelius was hiding in was transported to a greenhouse. Using the small hole in the side of the box, he took a look at the interior. Plants of all different origins and types were here under study.

'Science, perhaps?' The plants around the room seemed to flourish, and many of them gave off a scent of fresh fruit, though none of them, from what he could see, were bearing any fruit.

"Now, to see what's causing this crate to be so heavy." One of the Felynn took off the top, and gave Nelius the only chance he had to escape. "Hey, there's something in this crate!"

Nelius stood straight up, revealing himself to the number of Felynn.

"I am not what you think I am." Keeping a straight, smiling face, he waved to them. They all stared at him. "I am an illusion caused by the scent of the aged catnip inside of this box."

"Aged catnip?" One sounded skeptical. "I thought catnip was universally the same."

"Ah, but there is a subtle difference between each world's kind of catnip." The gave him strange looks. "In one world, you may require a lot of catnip to get the desired effect, while in another, just being within the radius of the catnip, as designed by the area of this greenhouse can cause the effects you are all seeing." He climbed out of the box

"If you are an illusion, how come you didn't just pass through the box? And explain why you're not a cat!" Another skeptic demanded.

"What, and ruin the fun? Even we illusions like to have fun, too!" Nelius put on a fake pout. "Heck, sometimes we even turn material just to visit the Earthly realms." He had said it before he had even realised it, thus digging himself into an even deeper hole. 'Aw, nuts. I just gave myself away.'

"Well, I'll just have to put that theory to..." As one of the Felynn demons approached him, the scent of the catnip radiating from his body, combined with his own body scent, flowed through her nostrils, causing her to stop and begin falling under the plant's effects as her face flushed and she began acting giddy. The situation repeated itself for most of the other cats, until the greenhouse took on the appearance of a 70's stonerhouse.

Not evn bothering to question his own good fortune, Nelius slipped out of the greenhouse, reminding himself to find some kind of water and wash the scent of the plant from himself as he took off into the thick foilage of the trees.

Barely a minute after he got away, Brad showed up, only to see the greenhouse full of Nekomatas that couldn't stand up straight. One of them, a dark blue-furred Cait Sith, managed to get to her feet and saunter over to him, albeit in a clumsy manner.

"Heeey, Braad," The catnip's effects were ever present on her flushed features as she put an arm around his shoulder in order to balance herself, "What took sooo long? You missed the parrty!"

"All right, who got into the catnip this time?" He had been dreading that question.

"Ahh, who cares, let's party!" She threw her hands into the air, causing her to lose her balance and fall to the ground. Even after such a bump, she was still giddy.

Brad sighed to himself. Sometimes, there was absolutely no way to restrain them from getting into the stuff he reserved for his crossbreeding experiments. As he stepped into the room, careful not to step on any of the others, he picked up a small handful of the catnip he'd picked up and took a careful whiff. A lingering scent still remained on it; it was the scent of a humanoid, no doubt.

"He may hide, but he cannot run!" His eyes turned feral, but had a blue coloration.

MAKAI!

So ends another chapter.

For the record, one reviewer stated that it would be a good idea not to dwell much on the abilities of the character classes. I'm stating their abilities for those who have a limited knowledge of the game and the tiers of the characters to give an accurate description of what they look like, since each tier is the same sprite with a pallette swap.

I had to fix a little something in this chapter. Turns out the Tailring is fourth-tier, not third.

Until next chapter,

Cornell Valentine Gainsborough