I have a disciple?

"A human?" One of the six tribe elders questioned surprised.

The six sat inside a simple hut that was decorated with the season's flowers as per their tradition. The cat race had always been friendly, and never held grudges against other races. But that had changed thousands of years ago when the powerful gods decided to turn them into familiars, a word better than...slaves.

   "He might be from the human village to the north," the fourth elder said.

  "These humans!" The third elder snorted annoyed. He cast his glare at the doorless entrance. "They have been invading our lands all because of the ice phoenix. Greedy bastards."

   "Calm down. We will make a decision once the human regains consciousness. He has been sleeping for two days," the first elder appeased. She was the head of the village and had been for over three hundred years. A normal cat person could live up to the age of two hundred years, but if he was enlightened, then he could up to a thousand years. The village head happened to have come across a rare technique from the humans and had practiced it for a few years, or so she told her tale.

   Even though she had been enlightened, she never had the chance to pass on the techniques for they were taught to her through the mind's eye without any physical writing.

     Her long brown hair flowed down her shoulders like rivers. Its edges rested on her cleavage, a sight that most of the cat men could only dream of seeing up close.

She was a beauty to behold. One that every male who laid eyes on her coveted.

--------------------------------

    The feel of a soft hand running down Surrdon's face drew him from his slumber. He was cautious of anything and anyone in this world. Danger was always lurking somewhere in the shadows.

  He suddenly grabbed the hand and pulled the person touching him before pushing them to the side and rolling on them. His left lower arm came crushing the person's neck. How dare they touch him?

But he was shocked to see a little girl, maybe fifteen years staring up at him I'm fear.

   Two cat ears were sticking from her head, their color matching her hair and eyes. Her skin was a dark brown that looked beautiful against his fair skin.

   "Who are you?" Surrdon questioned, not letting the beauty beneath him distract him. To survive, meant treating everything and everything as a threat.

   "Da-Dalie," the girl choked struggling to push the arm off her neck.

    Surrdon lifted his head and studied his surroundings. He was in a tiny hut that only had a door without a window. There was nothing more in it except for the mat he laid on and a short shabby table beside the mat.

Something slowly started surfacing, taking over his mind... information.

He immediately recognized who the girl was from her different physique; a member of a strayed cat tribe living north of Timen Gate Sect deep in the forest. According to his vast knowledge, they posed no threat unless they were under attack.

  Surrdon shook his head to the slight ache that had accompanied the sudden knowledge.

   "Sorry," he apologized pushing himself off of her.

  The little girl jumped on her feet terrified before running out, abandoning Surrdon to his pain.

"Anya?" Surrdon called out, his eyes sweeping the small hut for signs of the snake. "Anya? I need your help."

  He waited for a response, but nothing came. Surrdon stopped to think for a moment and then forced his weak body off the mat. A zap of pain shot down his spine from the countless hours he had laid on such a hard surface. "Argh!" He groaned doubling over to ease the tension.

    "I need some exercises," he said to himself as his feet headed for the exit.

A veil of sunlight welcomed him into the quiet outside. There were no loud noises around him. The only sounds that could be heard were the soft chirping of birds as they communicated. There were a few more huts surrounding the one he had been resting in, but nobody seemed to be in sight.

   "Dalie?" Surrdon called walking on the gravel path between the huts. "Dali-"

    A powerful blow from nowhere struck him. It sent him flying through the air like an arrow till his body hit a large baobab tree, leaving a dent on its surface.

  His chest was on fire, he could not take even a single breath without the urge to pour a river of water inside his lungs to quell the pain.

He coughed out some blood, his hand pressing his aching chest like it would fall off any moment.

    "How dare you touch my sister!" A young woman growled from nearby.

When Surrdon lifted his head, he saw a female who looked almost if not similar to Dalie, only taller and mature. She was perhaps in her early twenties.

    Surrdon collected himself off the dusty ground, blood dripping from his mouth and onto his chest. There was fury in his eyes and in his folded fists. He was angry at everyone bullying him due to his weak state. This anger aroused something from his abdomen, a warm fuzzy feeling that quickly spread to every bone and muscle in his body.

   He took an unsteady step forward, ignoring the subsiding pain.

    "Why have you attacked me?"

Dalie's older sister,  Taka, moved near Surrdon, a black whip in her hand.

  "You touched my sister."

Surrdon's eyes shifted to the smaller version of Taka who stood a fair distance behind among the gathering cat villagers.

   "It was an accident. I apologized," Surrdon noted, his anger evident on his striking face. Was there no reasoning in this world? People just attacked others without any conflicts!

   Taka snapped her whip and a terrifying crack resounded in the air. "I do not care!" She yelled warningly.

   Surrdon heaved a disappointed sigh, feeling already tired of almost everything that had happened so far. This was supposed to be an adventurous restart. Why was it starting to feel more miserable than Earth?

     "Kneel and apologize to her and maybe I will let you go."

  "Kneel?!"

Murmurs from the villagers rose in the air, carrying with them their fear.

  'He must be tired of living. He dared touch the chief's daughter.'

'Is he a human?'

'I feel sorry for him.'

   'Taka will make him crawl on the ground pleading for mercy.'

A dreadful aura engulfed Dalie, she rushed forward to stand beside her sister. Innocently, she tugged Taka's clothes for her attention.

    "Not now Dalie."

"He, he's not a bad human. He did say sorry."

  Taka turned her attention to Dalia.

"But he still touched you. Have you forgotten the rules Dalie?"

The rules?

Dalie shrunk away from her sister at the reminder of their tribe's rules. While she did not want to see the guest humiliated, she did not wish to be his bride.

It was according to their customs. Men were only allowed to touch a woman only if they were married. A woman's neck was the most intimate part of a cat female.

   And Surrdon had accidentally touched Dalie's. He had, according to them, tainted her.

       "Kneel or die!"

Surrdon's face remained hard, a deep glare in his gray eyes. He silently made a vow on his life, he would kneel for no one and he would not take any more humiliation.

   "Let me leave and we'll never have to see each other ever again."

  Taka cackled loudly and tightened her grip on the whip. She raised it in the air, transferring her mana into it for a deathly blow.

Surrdon prepared himself, allowing any mana residing in his body to flow to his fists. For once in both his lives, he would use the defense skills he had learned back on earth.

   The atmosphere turned tense as the whip was snapped in Surrdon's direction.

His hands began glowing bright white, preparing for a counterattack.

"Stop!" A female's voice boomed from above followed by a powerful mana blow that knocked Taka off her feet and sent her rolling on the rough ground.

From the west, six figures in the cat tribe's traditional clothes came flying. They landed between their subjects and the person who had been labeled an intruder.

The village's chief stepped forward, her eyes suddenly gleaming with life and a longing. She paid no attention to the gossip coming from the villagers and immediately dropped to her knees before kowtowing to Surrdon.

"Teacher, this student pays her full respect," she spoke tearfully.