Chapter 10 The Panthers

I awoke to Mery pushing my shoulder with her furry paws. I was still half asleep.

"I didn't know you could transfor..."

"Wake up!"

I fell back asleep. I saw darkness. It was all around me. I slowly spun in circles until I found the slightest of lights.

I ran toward it. It got brighter as I got closer. It was like a stage spotlight with no source. A lit-up area on the floor with an ambient aura of light coming up at an angle. It was still not very bright, but where else could I go?

"Hello?"

I got no response. I inhaled more air to begin another shout. Just before I let my voice go, I heard the faintest of sounds.

"...i..."

I thought I could make out a short shadow. There was too much darkness to see anything.

"Lake! Wake up, dummy."

My eyes opened to complete darkness.

"Am I awake?"

In response, I heard Mery's voice.

"Haha, What do you think you are? What, huh? Come on, Atouk might come in here to check on us any moment."

I was still laying on part of my clothes. I felt around the soft sand for my clothes and picked them all up. I brushed off sand and dressed as quick as I could in the pitch-black darkness.

"I still can't see, the green lights are gone. Where are you?"

I felt her brush up against my right leg. I reached down and found her fur covered back. I kept my hand there. As she moved, I followed. Eventually we were out into the first room of the cave. I could see a pale light peaking through trees from the entrance.

"Lake?"

"Yeah?"

"It's not that I am ashamed or anything. I am, so happy you decided to become my husband but, can you keep it a secret? Just for now? Can you?"

I put my hand on her head.

"I promise, I'll be a good husband for you. I'll start by keeping this a secret for however long you need."

She leaped up and put both front paws on my shoulders. The top of her head nuzzled underneath my chin. This time, I know I heard her purr.

"By the way, You are back to a panther form. Will you only be in a humanoid form when we... you know?"

She went back to all fours and began to walk out of the cave.

"I can transform at will, now that we are one. I basically borrow a human form from my mate, you. Without a mate, my kind can not transform and we can only transform into the race that we marry. If I go wandering around in a human shape, the secret would be out. Won't it?"

I began to follow her.

"I see. I'm sorry if I'm a bit thick about this sometimes."

"What do you mean 'thick'?"

"Where I'm from, It implies that I can be slow to understand some things."

"Ah."

She nodded in understanding. We both wandered out of the cave. The area looked the same as the day before, but all the life seemed to be sucked out of the trees. They were all brown and dying. All the leaves had fallen off. What happened? Atouk was nowhere to be seen.

"Let's head out to the path, he may be there waiting for us."

She sounded a bit worried. There is no way she had not seen the change. We began to make our way over to the path. As we got further from the cave, the trees began to liven up again. We were eventually able to see Atouk, who was standing on the path with a worried look about him. He was pacing.

"What happened! I thought you dead. I tried calling for you! The trees, they began to die so fast, I was afraid to get close to the cave!"

Mery and I looked at each other then ran over to him.

"We didn't know anything was happening. We went deeper into the cave. Mery found a spot that had soft sand that was easier to sleep on. I used the rock to bring out the green lights too but that was it. We talked and fell asleep."

"Maybe we were not affected because we were deeper in the cave. I don't know."

Atouk began down the path again.

"We should get out of here, who knows if it will happen again."

Mery and I followed. Another day of travel had passed. We found a stream and bathed in it. I washed my clothes as best I could without soap. When we all felt clean and ready, we made our way back to the path.

At this point, we were less than a day away from the panther kingdom. I had no idea what to expect. Mery, the Princess, was the only one to be nice to me from the start. I killed Atouk's partner. Even if she was not well-liked, would that weigh on the decision of the public opinion of me? Would they know? Will Atouk tell them? Did he tell Mery?

Many questions ran through my head. I decided to just go with the flow for now. Worrying about questions without answers wouldn't do anything.

Atouk looked back at me.

"Lake, we may start running into advance patrols. As long as you stay with Mery and I, you should be fine."

"Good to know."

It was probably another good hour before we ran into the first patrol. They were wary of me. I was allowed passage thanks to my company as stated by Atouk earlier. The next two patrols thought nothing of letting a human pass. The first patrols must have been the strict ones. If you can get past them, the rest is carefree.

"We must be about an hour's walk away. I can see the temples now."

Atouk trotted a little as he said it. Maybe he is excited to see his wife and show her he survived. At the thought of Atouk having a wife, I looked down at the female panther next to me. It feels surreal. I am married to her. I have a wife. Never in a million years would I have guessed this type of outcome. I reached down and pet her head a few times.

"Psst."

I stopped and leaned down to hear what she had to say.

"I don't dislike the head pats but, they are not something an outsider should be doing to a Princess."

She whispered.

"Okay, I got it."

As I stood up, Atouk called out.

"Let's go!"

We got closer and closer to our destination, we saw more and more panthers wandering. Most had some kind of red paint designs on their sides, faces and tails. Few had purple paint. Some sign of importance? Facial jewelry was never the same and rarely the same spot between any two panthers we passed. Some panthers even had some nifty backpacks that allowed them to carry items on the top, sides and even underneath.

I did happen to see a couple of different elves. I believe they were traveling traders. I think I finally saw my first troll who was also a trader. He had skins, bone tools and meats for sale. He was thick in muscle. His arms, legs, torso and even his neck were thicker than I would have imagined. About my height. Short jagged black hair. Honestly, nothing like my favorite race of trolls on the MMO I used to play all the time. I was kind of disappointed.

We passed by many large pyramid-shaped buildings. My first thought was that they might resemble Egyptian pyramids. There were massive trees all around aside from the regular forest trees. Some were taller than the pyramids themselves. This gave the pyramids great cover in the middle of a forest. Through the trees, the light seemed to almost hit a vast majority of the area with purple and gold colors while most of the leaves themselves were a vibrant green. A beautiful lush area for a tribe.

A large group of panthers showed up to take Mery back to her parents.

"I will come find you later!"

Mery yelled out.

Atouk had me follow him back to his home where I would stay until I knew what was happening with me. We eventually made it to one of the largest pyramids and had to make our way to the top. This was not Atouk's home. It was a place of worship.

He found a cage of captured birds. The cage was simple, the birds were stupid. Easy to get in for the birds but hard to get out. Anyone with brains can get the birds out. He brought the bird to an alter with its neck in his mouth. This alter was used many times, the stains were reddened over and over. He managed to unfold a wing with his paw and pin it down. He kept the neck in his mouth and jerked it away from the pinned wing. The wing tore off and the neck was crushed. He padded his paws with blood from the bird and mixed it with a powder in a nearby urn. The powder turned the blood a bright red and he panted himself as best he could. Some of this ritual was awkward.

I got the sense that these people... cat people were not here first. That they took over and made use of what was here. Either that or they were not panthers in the beginning.

"You saw what I did, yes?"

Atouk spoke up. I nodded my head yes.

"Before you leave this place, you may be asked to do a ceremony like this. If you become one of its people."

He finished up and began down the steps of the pyramid.

"Us warriors do the ceremony when we leave to purify our souls for the battle we are about to face. We also do the ceremony when we get back to cleanse our souls of the battle that has taken place."

After we got to the bottom of the pyramid, we took a path that brought us through a market of sorts. Not like the traveling salesmen, I saw earlier who had their own shops on wheels. These were the markets where individuals would sell things they made or food they had grown to survive. You could tell right away who was doing well and who was not. The selection and quality were upfront for all to see as they pass by.

We went a bit further past the general stalls to specialty ones. We came across a blacksmith's stall.

Fires were raging, steel was hot and hammers were sounding. Panther paws were not adept at this kind of trade. The proof was in the inhabitants of the stall. Of the five persons here, two were transformed panthers. Both of the panthers were transformed into a similar shape to the troll I saw before. One female, the other male. Both of them had skin texture like the troll but, their skin was a Jet black color. The female panther-troll was visibly smaller than the male. She had more muscle than an average humanoid female though. Two of the other inhabitants were male elves and the last was a race I had not seen before. My best guess is a golem. Rocks held together with mud or clay. He moved as smoothly as a living being. He had jewels and metal symbols embedded in his rock body all over.

Atouk went up to one of the panther-trolls.

"Atouk! You made it back home! Boss, I'm going on a break."

"Berthri!"

Atouk cried out. The troll-shaped panther shrunk down and hooked his blacksmith's apron up before he was too low to reach the hook. He was back to being a panther on all fours. He and Atouk made some moves like a secret handshake and bonked heads.

"Berthri. It is good to see you brother."

"The young Princess, did you find her?"

"We did not initially find her. We met up with her after we began our travels back home."

"You started to come home without her? Did Obani really let you come back without the Princess?"

"Obani was killed by a giant. Before we could get inside the inner structures."

He chose to lie for me.

"Oh no, I feel bad for her."

They both bowed their heads in silence for a moment.

"Can you move, please?"

I was unwittingly blocking a pathway between stalls. I moved out of the way and closer to the chatting brothers.

"I may not have found the Princess herself at first but, I found the next best thing. This human here. His name is Lake and he is the reason she is alive and well today."

Berthri turned around and looked at me.

"A human? A human saved our Princess? How, why?"

"I was in the prison when elves brought her in. They were going to let her starve to death. I gave her what food I had in order to keep her alive. A couple of other panthers showed up and got her out."

Berthri looked angry as far as I could tell. He got bigger and bigger. He stood on his hind legs and grabbed an apron to cover himself before his transformation back to a troll was complete. He raised his hand and brought it down on my shoulder with a loud slap.

"You saved the young Princess. You may as well be a brother to all of us. She means so much to our people. She cares for us little guys more than any other in her family."

And I happened to marry her, the night before last. Would he still be so friendly if that got out?

"I only saw someone in need and helped where others could not."

"You said you were in the prison as well?"

Berthri continued.

"How did you get in? And how did you get out?"

Atouk looked at me. I told him about how I was put there and was expected to spend eternity to keep the peace. I knew that look towards me was, for me to keep quiet about that info.

"It was about the same as the Princess, A hunting party found me and they didn't want to deal with me so they put me in a cage."

A bit of half-truth and half lie.

"A hunting party, eh? That's not how the Princess was captured. At the same time, we can tell when someone is lying. You aren't though, are you?"

He gave me a serious look now.

"That's what she told me when we first met in the prison. If she wanted to hide how she was caught, she was successful."

"Princess Mery was attempting to make peace talks with the elves. She wanted more connections with them than just the occasional neutral traders. It would better our people if we could get a major connection like that. She was on her way to meet a contact and he betrayed her. Probably a bounty hunter that captured and sold her to the elves. The only reason we knew she was captured was that an elf emissary came demanding ransom. He told her parents directly that she was being cared for. He also said that they would simply throw her into jail without food for five days If they did not satisfy the elf with riches. If she survived the five days, he would come back again and they could make another offer. Damn, elves. I know there are good ones but, this just fires me up."

"Believe me, I understand better than you know."

"Lake."

Atouk chimed in.

"Show him the rock. Do you still have it?"

I nodded and pulled it out. Berthri snatched it and walked it over to the golem. They began talking gibberish from what I could hear. Berthri came back over.

"Luck is with you, to find such a rarity nowadays."

I pointed at Atouk.

"He found it and told me to hold on to it, It's his luck."

Berthri walked up to Atouk, they did a high five between a troll and a panther.

"I can get you 50 gold for the entire rock."

"We were also hoping to make a LDB. We can then sell off the rest."

"Okay brother. I got you. I'll make the LDB first and get back to you on the remaining gold. Probably around 35 to 40 gold after it's made."

"Thank you, Berthri. I am going home to see Pinyola."

Berthri waved at Atouk. He then bumped my chest with the back of his hand.

"Hey, guy. My brother is one of the good ones. If he trusts you, I will too. Just try not to let him down. He usually does not ask for much but, he really gets down if he feels betrayed."

"I agree with you, he is one of the good ones. I don't want to let him down."

"Tell Pinyola I said hi for me, eh?"

I nodded and turned around so I could catch up to Atouk.

Another five minutes and we were walking through a collection of dwellings. They were fit to size. You could tell what dwellings had non-panthers in them because they were taller than everything else. They were not small but, in no way massive. The panther dwellings had ceilings about 6 feet high at the most. I followed Atouk into his house. My headroom had maybe 3 inches to spare.

"Pinyola!"

"ATOUK! Oh, my Atouk!"

She came running out from around a corner and pounced on him. He fell to his side as she nuzzled his face with hers. They were both purring at that point. When things began to calm down, Pinyola finally noticed me.

"Who is our guest?"

"This is my new friend. He saved my life multiple times, as well as Princess Mery's life."

She looked me up and down.

"Well don't be shy. What is your name, human?"

"Oh. My name is Lake. It's a pleasure to meet you. Also, Berthri said to say 'hi' for him."

"That Berthri."

I think I just witnessed a panther roll its eyes.

"Oh, how wonderful it is to have a hero in our midst."

Atouk put his mouth next to her ear. He whispered something I could not hear.

"I love it!"

She said. She turned and walked back around the corner where she came from.

"We will have a special dinner tonight. I hope you will like it."

I looked over at Atouk.

"Thanks for watching out for me, Atouk."

He shook his head.

"If I can't serve a life debt, then I will do the next best thing. I will help you wherever I can."

Pinyola poked her head around the corner.

"Did I hear something about a life debt? My Blackberry?"

He looked a bit nervous all of a sudden.

"No, no life debt. As a matter of fact, I cleared a life debt."

Her head disappeared back around the corner.

"Okay, Good. That's how it should be when you have a wife to take care of."

She spoke while in the kitchen. I leaned into Atouk's side.

"She has a point, you know."

I poked him with my elbow a few times. He knew I was teasing as he looked away and sighed.

"And what was that, 'Blackberry' business?"

I whispered to him.

"That is her nickname for me."

I nodded in approval.

"It fits."