Elemental Cats

Each time he did it, it grew increasingly easy for Toz to feed the woman and the kid with the meat he and the cats got from the void beasts that attacked their island of trees. And soon enough, color began returning to their cheeks. Their faces were still hollow and gaunt, but at least they didn't seem to be deathly ill anymore.

Although the kid didn't show much of a change aside from getting a slightly healthier look on his face, the mother had started showing signs of waking up. Slight coughing and clearing her throat and more vivid facial expressions as if she was dreaming. The woman had also started shifting around and relaxing her grip on the boy in her arms.

After they noticed that at least one of the two people they had rescued from the boat was about to wake up, Toz and the cats were almost constantly watching. If it had taken much longer, the cats might even have started betting on the story that sent the two people into the Void on a small rowboat with nothing more than cloth and a few bags of food.

Though just because they hadn't started betting yet didn't mean they didn't have their own theories. So far, Toz was most inclined to believe Nil's guess that the woman had been the mistress to a local lord of some type, and when it was discovered that she had given birth to a son that could threaten the legitimate inheritors' succession, she was thrown into the Void under the guise of an accident.

None of them had any real basis for their guesswork. It just made the day pass quicker when they had something to do and speculate about. And if their theories were refuted by the woman's story after she woke up, that would be it.

But the building anticipation as the woman started showing more signs of waking up had the cats restless. After all, they might be about to meet the protagonist of an exciting real-life story as soon as the woman wakes up. Their own lives might also be exciting, but that didn't cross the cats' minds as they almost stirred up a storm when the woman's eyelids trembled.

The woman's face scrunched up as she opened her eyes for the first time in quite a while. She covered her face with a bony hand to shield her eyes from the blinding light. Eventually, after a few moments and a heavy sigh, she opened her eyes enough to look around and see the warmly lit wooden interior of a small, simple house.

The last time she had closed her eyes had been in complete darkness beneath several layers of different fabrics tightly wrapped around her and her son, so the change definitely shocked her. But then she remembered her son and sat up and looked around frantically.

Even in her weakened state, the mother had no problem sitting up, and right as she was about to flip off the blanket and stand up, she felt the mass of skin and bones hugging her tightly. After securing and holding her son tightly, she started crying. Both because of how weak and malnourished her son had become and because he was still alive.

Toz and the cats had been standing outside or sitting in the hole in the wall that served as a window. They had been about to enter the house when they saw the woman wake up but felt like it wouldn't be proper to intrude on the crying mother hugging her son.

Although spirit beasts might not have the greatest of relationships with what could be considered their family in most cases, they still felt empathy and understood a mother's affection for their kid. Toz, who wasn't a spirit beast, on the other hand, started reminiscing about his own parents and mother. It was a lie to say he didn't miss them every now and then, but he knew what he had gotten himself into when he first set out for his journey.

After some time, when the woman had calmed down, and her tears had stopped falling, Toz knocked on the doorframe and entered. At the same time, the cats jumped down from the window, though Lucy jumped up to the shelf where he had placed his shadow figurines.

The mother looked at Toz with vigilance while occasionally glancing at the cats who were at various places around the only room in the house.

Toz had been trying to keep himself somewhat clean with various types of magic. Shaving and trimming his beard with metal and burning away the smell that started lingering around him if he wasn't careful. That didn't help when his only clothes were a pair of worn, torn, and dirty pants and a coat that wasn't in better shape, and he gave off a rather rugged impression, especially with his height as he practically loomed above the mother and the child.

Toz tried to put on a gentle smile, but that only made the shape of his vertical pupils protrude more. For some reason, eyes with vertical pupils weren't the eyes that garnered the greatest amount of trust. Something Toz could tell based on the woman's expression as she held her son tight. He was almost envious of how gentle and bright the mother's brown eyes were, despite the mixed impression of caution and dried tears on her face.

In order to not spook the woman further, Toz stayed right by the door, where he conjured a simple chair of metal and sat down.

Since he wasn't really sure how to begin the conversation, and since the woman didn't seem too keen on talking, Toz and the woman ended up just staring at each other in silence.

When the cats couldn't stand the awkwardness anymore, Nil, after an exchange of looks, cleared his throat and tapped Toz on the leg. That finally got Toz to react and open his mouth as he tried to find the right words.

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