Abenti then made her way to the edge of the river and walked into the water. The water was cool to the touch and within minutes, her fur had been cleaned of any robin blood. Somebody leapt across the bridge, with a pickaxe in hand looking as if they were going to a mine. It was a young woman, and when she spotted Abenti's tiger form, she let out a loud squeal, and leapt into the air towards where ever she was going, as if fearing for her life.

Abenti blinked. "What ...hasn't she seen a tiger before?" she muttered to herself before going under the bridge and reverting to her normal form.

Within twenty minutes, a group of more people were coming back the way that the young woman had fled to. Abenti could hear the young girl's loud and high-pitched voice even without her feline hearing in effect. "I swear to God I saw it! It was like some large Rat-King, only it was orange and more striped like the Ratlings and Fire Spirits!"

Rat-King? Ratlings? Fire Spirits? What is she going on about? Abenti wondered to herself as she sat on the edge of the bridge.

An older male's voice said more clearly the closer they came, "Are you sure, Kenna? I didn't think such a creature existed I've heard rumors of a Gonmera or even a Titan, though but that's far as I know when it comes to a strange rare creature."

The mob came to stand on the bridge. There was an elderly man amongst them, who exclaimed at Abenti, "Hey you! Have you seen a weird creature swimming around in the river?"

"No, I haven't." she said. Technically, she told the truth since she had no way of seeing herself swimming.

The young girl, obviously named Kenna, stammered. "B-but I saw it! I know I did! It was so huge and everything! And it looked like it was swimming in the river to wash off blood."

"I've been here for roughly half an hour. I saw this woman crossing the bridge, but saw nothing weird in the river." Again, with the technicalities, since to Abenti, tigers were not weird at all... All of the creatures that were native to this reality were the weird ones.

A younger man scoffed. "This is a waste of time! Rat-Kings or any other breeds of rats cannot swim well! They would drown in the damn river! It was probably some water surface and lighting playing a trick on Kenna! You know how she has a vivid imagination."

"But. It wasn't my imagination, you got to believe me!" Kenna said, looking like she was about to cry.

The rest of the mob agreed with the young man, and went back to the mine. The elder man then patted Kenna's back. "Well, no harm done, eh? Now let's go back to the mine cave to earn our wages, huh?"

Kenna just jerked away from the touch and miserably walked back with the rest of the mob. She could be heard muttering, "But it was too real and solid to be just a mere odd water surface."

The elder man turned to Abenti, and bowed. "Sorry for this foolishness."

"No harm done." Abenti said with a smile.

The elder waved, and returned to the mine as well.

Mines, hmm? Too bad a tiger's claw isn't good against rock. Abenti thought. And I don't have a pickaxe. Not to mention I have no known reason to go there right now... that battle left me hungry.

The sky was growing yellowish, with some orange tints. A reminder that it was growing dark. Abenti considered going back to Ranmza's house, but saw something that caught her interest. As she approached it, she assumed it was an altar of some sort, but she was not sure what it could have been used for.

There were food offerings on the table, but nobody around. The food made Abenti's stomach grumble even more, but she paused hesitantly. The food had gone cold, so it was clear that somebody had left it there for an extremely long time. For how long, nobody knew, but possibly long enough to have most likely gone slightly bad.

"Why did they leave this stuff here?" Abenti said, as she got closer. "Who is it for?"

As Abenti stepped on the alter stones it seemed to pulse with a slight energy, but maybe it was just Abenti's imagination. Abenti decided against taking any of the food as she was not sure how good the food was...or how bad it was for that matter, and headed back towards Ranmza's home.

At the house, she could smell cooking coming out of the house. In addition, inside, she saw a pot of stew being cooked and a large strange looking creature roasting over a fire. Ranmza grinned up at her from her cooking.

"Hey! We have Pheasant stew and some roasted Rat-King for supper. I hope you'll like those. If you don't like Rat-King meat, then there's always the stew. Personally, I like the taste of Rat-Kings and some of the Ratlings."

"I was meaning to ask, what are Rat-Kings and Ratlings and stuff like that? There aren't any of them where I'm from."

Ranmza looked up. "Actually, I was in their territory when I was on my quest. It was there where I found you. If the Bandits hadn't gotten you, the Ratlings and the Rat-Kings would have. They are four legged creatures with long brightly colored ears and red fur with black stripes. Some are orange or blue colored though. The Rat-King is this spotty yellow and black thing. One day I'll take you where I found you, and show them to you. Some people think that they just look funny. I think their fur and stuff like that is actually somewhat pretty. They have those appealing patterns, you see. My husband thinks they're just ugly."

"Hmm...A woman claimed to have seen one south of here where I was fighting off some Robins."

Ranmza scoffed. "What? That's crazy. Why would a Ratling or even a Rat-King stray that far? They don't separate from their pack, unless they've been barred and shunned by their kind for some reason, unless they were sick and dying."

"I never have seen anything but those birds, the woman and a group of miners."

"Sounds like you had an interesting day hunting then."

"It was definitely something...Though by the time I went to get my kills they disappeared."

Ranmza then handed Abenti a bowl of stew along with a plate of Rat-King meat. "Well, you must be hungry. Go ahead and dig in!"

Abenti ate like there was no tomorrow. Soon enough, all three of them were full. Ranmza patted her stomach in a satisfied manner.

"Man, that was a good dinner." Ranmza yawned. "Well, time for me to hit the hay, so to speak. Have a good night, Abenti."

Alche nodded. "There are some cushions over there under the beechnut seat which you can use to make your own bed."

Alche went to join his wife in bed. Abenti pulled out a few cushions and propped herself in a somewhat sitting position near the door. It took her a while, but she finally fell asleep.

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