Cat of the west forest

The garden was filled with bushes, berries, flower beds, trees and vine. It was like a little forest. In the corner near the wall was a pond which have fishes swimming around. Below the tree was bench, which where Lucy eventually sat as she swept away the fallen leaves.

Lucy leaned over to the back of the bench as she looked at the bright full moon and stars around it. It was pretty, in the place where she had live before, you could only see one star twinkling at night but in this world, the night sky was filled with them. She reached her hands up as she extends her fingers. The view was wonderful, if she could, she would love to get those twinkling lights and put them on a jar.

When Lucy was busy admiring the night sky, she suddenly heard a rustle coming from behind that made her startled and stood up. She turned around and quietly observed as she listen once again.

The silence was unnerving. Was it an assassin? A rabbit? A ghost? She doesn't know. Lucy sighed as she build up the courage to approach the rustling bush. Slowly and quietly.

As she was closing in, her heart was racing unbelievably fast. The rustling became more and more aggressive. Lucy gulp numerous times, and when she was right in front of the bush, something jump out of it making her to lost balance and fall.

"That hurt..." She hissed as she tried to get back up. Dusting herself and then turn around to see what kind of creature came out of that bush.

To her surprise, a creature with black fur, a sharp golden eyes and a round Golden circle attached on its forehead appear. It was a small little creature with whiskers.

"A Cat?"

A soft fluffy fur ball was resting onto Lucy's lap as she was sitting on the bench. She keeps on caressing the little creature feeling its soft fur, she's getting addicted to this feeling which reminds her of a blanket she grew up with since she was 3.

The cat was majestic. You could tell that it is either a divine beast or from a cat tribe of the west forest. Its sharp eyes was captivating that Lucy couldn't help but unconsciously picks it up, and was eventually scratched after. However, the little creature surprisingly jump into her lap and accepted her hand.

"Are you perhaps lost? Do you have an owner? Wanna stay with me?"

Lucy find it silly how she's asking such an absurd question as if the cat would answer her. If it did that'll honestly freak her out.

But really, she couldn't help but wonder, why would this creature be out here, not to mention in her palace. Assuming how she's a protagonist, perhaps this is where the heroine shall meet its magical partner or such. However, there's no such thing about Lucy having a creature in the novel, oh there was two actually, though she couldn't remember what magical creature that was.

Not too long enough, Lucy decided to pick the cat up and instantly went inside the palace.

***

It was already 9 in the morning, and Lucy is currently at the garden having tea with Ophelia and a boy with muddy colored hair.

Scents of roses and fresh mints can be smelled not from afar, the weather was sunny too, such a wonderful time to wander at the street. But not Lucy's mood.

Lucy had a scowl on her face since this boy arrived. Why? Oh perhaps it's because he introduced himself as the owner of Blackie-the cat she picked up from last night and eventually named it after.

"So... you're really blackie's owner?" Asked Lucy as she averted her gaze and too a sip on the tea in her hand.

The boy smiled warmly, "His name is yule. But I won't mind you calling him Blackie, your highness, and yes. I actually found him injured in a forest nearby the palace 4 months ago and he eventually had gotten attached to me. I'm Ian by the way. . ."

This boy flashed a smile once more, it's almost like a blinding light was on his back which made Lucy to make a more sour expression.

She was relieved that Blackie has an owner but somehow, something just doesn't sit right with her. According to the book she have read- also the knowledge she got from the original novel, cat tribes from the west are hostile against humans, whether they got a help from them, this beasts isn't easy to be tamed.

They're prideful and doesn't completely trust human. A book in the palace library has mentioned that it's because a human once tried to exterminate them and the other beasts as well, that is probably the reason why they are wary of humans.

Looking at Blackie, he was indeed a cat from the west forest. And assuming his color, he can control the shadows and such. There are different colors of cats in the west forest according to the novel. Orange is for fire, Red is for poison, Gray is for fog, and Black is for shadows.

There's no way he could've tamed it in such a short time, 4 months? Heck, even Lucy couldn't tame a red and black cat in more than a year. Oh right Lucy had two cat beasts!

Lucy's gaze fell into Blackie, remembering another contents of the novel. As far as she could remember, there was indeed a black cat that Lucy tamed, however, it was found injured in the center of the west forest. It was when Jazz got lost after finding a herbal plant to use for Lucy's injury.

[While in a search for jazz, going deeper into the west forest, a habitant of the cat tribes, Lucy who was sitting on a cuted tree trunk heard a sound like whimper. She couldn't help but get up holding her torso and walk towards the whimpering sound, limping as she roam her eye around.

Not too far from where she's at, something shine repeatedly and a dark kind of fog together appeared, this made her walk even faster. As soon as she got near that sparkle, there she saw a panting black cat with a golden circular jewel on its forehead. The poor creature was bleeding on its leg and neck, it seems to have been bitten by the same creature as it.

Looking at it, Lucy couldn't help but pity this creature and without hesitation, she crouched down and picked the fur ball up putting it on her arm. She jolted when she heard the others and instantly went back limping in pain, as she felt blood trickling down on her waist.]

Closing her eyes as she put her hand on her chin thinking that something seem to be amiss. The plot of the novel really is gonna go to a different path, some things that had appear in the novel are still happening they just had been jumbled.

Nevertheless, Lucy can't help but be wary of this man. Who is he to tame such a hostile creature such as this shadow cat? With a golden jewel at that.

'That cat was supposed to be mine.'

Lucy shook her head at that thought. Correction, the cat was supposed to be lucy, not hers. My, to think she would think of claiming that wasn't even meant to be hers, how preposterous.

"What...what was your name again?"

Goodness, she couldn't help but feel embarrassed as to when the boy looked at her with I-just-told-didn't-I? Look. But he soon smiled and answered her politely.

"It's Ian, Your highness." His tone was exaggerated, and his expression after was as if he was mocking her.

Ah.

What shall she do with this guy? Lucy can already tell that, she would never get along with this man.