Monster Girls Book 1: A Tale of Tails! Chapter 10: Catnip leads to an unexpected outcome

So there he was with a cat girl squirming in his arms, giggling with her eyes wandering everywhere, waving her paws around as if welcoming every peasant or traveler passing by. Most didn't bother to take notice, one man in particular slipped around them with a hunch in his back, slouching forward with a permanent scowl on his face and a heavy sack over his shoulder.

Poor Felix hadn't a clue what to do with her, cursing himself for not putting his foot down and having her stay at the cabin. He knew the risks for bringing her along, the oversized cloak shrouding her feline features could only hide so much for so long. She threw her head back as her hood slipped off, exposing her cascading silver hair flowing back like the stream of the morning riverside. His heart jumped when he was her little white and brown cat ears in public view. With haste, he helped her up on her hind legs and pulled the hood back over her head. She giggled and fell forward, hugging him as the overgrown sleeves did good work hiding her furry paws.

"Okay, that's enough fun for today. We are going ho." He insisted, turning them around as she whined and shook her head. A tap on his shoulder brought his attention behind them as a fat man with a coarse beard pointed at the few apples that had dropped by their feet.

"Ye going to pay fer that, sir?" He asked in a raspy voice.

Felix nodded and released her, digging into his belt and reaching for his pouch once more. The man behind the counter tapped his fingers as he waited, watching this frail boy rummage through his pouch and counting to himself to confirm the amount of coin he had left.

"A sack o' five o' dem be fer two copper, or ye can 'ave ten o' dem for one silver token. Ye got dat?" His voiced seed loud and demanding as Felix shook his head.

"Just the spoiled ones for now." He confird, handing the man two copper tokens.

"Pleasure." He leaned back into his chair with his hands stuffed under his arms.

Felix fastened his pouch under his belt, his fingers dancing along the waist as he was in a nervous fit. "KuliKuli, we should leave now."

He turned around to see that she was gone.

"KuliKuli?" His eyes grew wide, he spun around, eyes darting left and right as the market began to grow more populated. It was around the ti in the spring, the fair weather provided a welco atmosphere for most families to migrate in search of a better live.

"Hey! You're paying for that!"

Felix held his breath and began to follow where that voice bellowed. There was quite a large crowd moving around by now, he was pushing through blindly navigating off a single direction while slipping through. He stretched his arm forward to act as a guide, shoveling deeper through from one person to another until at last his vision could see past the rags and cloaks of poverty and peasantry. There sat KuliKuli sat on the ground, legs folded under her, surrounded by a ss of pink juices and green waterlon chunks. She was eagerly nibbling on the waterlon bits held by her paws, paying no attention to the owner shouting at her.

The noise garnered so attention from nearby rchants, shop workers and people passing by. KuliKuli kept her eyes closed and silently scooped up a piece of waterlon with her tongue before chewing on it. Felix rushed in a near-panicked state, waving his hands in front of him to get the man's attention.

"I'll pay! I'll pay!" He shouted frantically as he reached for his pouch.

The owner crossed his arms, leaning back in his creaky wooden chair with his arms resting on his large belly. "Keep yer broad under control next ti or else!"

"Aaaaaaahhhhh!"

Felix looked back as a woman shrieked and pointed toward KuliKuli, her hood had slipped back and her tails slipped from under her cloak, waving over the dirt from side to side. She leaned back, eyes wide open and her ears raised and alard when she ca into eye contact with her.

"M-Monster! Monsterrrr!!"

Shit!

Felix swept in and scooped KuliKuli off her paws, carrying her in his arms and dashing through a crevice between two market stands.

"Hey! You co back 'ere and pay for this lon, ya THIEF!"

The owners words echoed in his ears, specifically that final word. He was no stranger to that title but had hoped he wouldn't be called that anymore. KuliKuli wrapped her paws around his neck, giving him a worried look. He focused up ahead, sliding from one stand to the next as people were beginning to talk and share amongst each other.

"Bad cat?" KuliKuli asked, her voice cracked and she hung her head.

Felix shook his head, looking back before finding themselves running into another crowd. These people were unaware of the situation and simply responded with unkind words. He was in such a hurry yet the road was so heavy with people that he stepped on a few toes while pushing forward. At last, he had found himself at the other end of traffic when he caught sight of so peasant and his wife communicating with a tall man wearing a clean orange tunic. They spotted him as the wife pointed with her finger shouting, "That's the one, over there!"

Without a mont to waste, the large man reached to his side and unsheathed a large sword.

"Bad! Bad!" KuliKuli cried out, burying her head into Felix's chest.

He turned around and ran back into the crowd, the ard guard following him.

"Make way!" He shouted, sword raised as more people began to clear a path for him.

"Over here! I see 'em, I see 'em!"

Felix rolled his eyes with KuliKuli breathing heavily. All she could see was bodies of small and large pushing past them, she hadn't the courage to turn around and peak past her master's shoulder. Her tails wrapped around her waist and she curled up in his arms, choosing to close her eyes and wish for the bad man to go away.

Please go away, please go away. Don't want to be hurt again, no more swords. Please!

Felix slipped between two market stands once more to evade the guards. Both roads were now searching for him, he needed to hide. He looked around, there was a very large white tent behind him, that could work. He held the Nekomata firmly before crawling under the white flap of the tent as if it were a curtain.

He was at the back of a fruit stand, this one larger than the rest with plenty of space to walk around. A won wearing an ankle length blue tunic under her chemise was slouched over a counter with a book wide open. She turned back and jumped before composing herself. "You two are not to be back here."

"Please-"

"Go, go! Get out and walk the other way around, just twenty paces down the corner where the custors co through." She stepped forward, pushing him back insistent that they leave.

"Look, I can't do that-"

"Do I need to call for a guard?" She asked, eyebrows scrunched together in a frown.

KuliKuli lifted her head, her cat ears in plan view as she batted her golden cat eyes toward the stranger and pleaded. "Please don't! Don't let them hurt ."

She gasped, stumbling back and leaning against the wooden table. Felix took a deep breath and stepped forward slowly, hoping- no, praying that she didn't scream her lungs out. "Please, I beg of you. I know what you think but she ans you no harm. She doesn't know any better, but she's in trouble. We are in trouble. All I ask is that you let us pass through."

The woman stared at him, bewildered by the situation as she kept looking between him and the Nekomata. She looked out to the front of the stand, seeing another guard talking to the soone at the stand at the opposite side of the path. He was waving his hand around, describing the individual in question while the man over the counter leaned in and shook his head.

She turned back to face Felix and KuliKuli.

"Get under the table."

"What?" Felix asked.

She lifted the tablecloth up and waved her hand frantically for them to crawl under. He moved in, carefully crouching so as not to bump into the surface. KuliKuli held onto him as the woman draped the tablecloth back down, doing an adequate job of hiding them under a table with baskets of apples sat on top. He held his breath as he could peak under the cloth to see a pair of leather shoes enter the stand followed by that familiar voice.

It was the sa guard who had spotted him before!

"You there! You work here?"

"I do." Replied the woman in a calm tone.

"Have you spotted a man around here holding a woman in his arms? Frail, short, hair like a brown mop head? The woman had silver hair-"

"Yes, I saw them a mont ago!"

KuliKuli squird as he held her tight, pressing his lips on her forehead.

"They ran down the path sowhere along that way."

"Haaa-ah! Just missed them I see, you have my gratitude, miss." Those sa pair of shoes turned around and hurried out of the stand. A mont later, he spotted the bottom of a white dress walked past them before closing up the entrance to the tent by drawing a curtain forward to shield them from prying eyes.

"You may step forward now." She commanded, her hands nervously shivering as she held them and pressed them to her waist in a traditional pose. "The shop is closed so expect so privacy from any wandering eyes."

"Thank you." Felix sighed, feeling ten stones lighter as he helped KuliKuli crawl from under the table.

"I want to see her."

He gave her a puzzled look. She cleared her throat and repeated herself. "I want to see her without the cloak. If it is not too much to request."

Felix turned toward KuliKuli as she nodded and brushed his arm. He breathed out moved behind her, helping remove the sleeves from her paws as she stepped out of the cloak, exposing herself.

The market woman blushed and shielded her eyes. "Okay, may have been wise to inform that she lay as naked as the day she was born under that cloak."

"Apologies, she prefers to be that way. I'm teaching her how to wear clothes but it's sothing I'm working on."

"You. You're a Nekomata, correct?" She gestured at KuliKuli who pointed at herself using her tails. "Yes you. Fascinating... I-I have read studies but to see a Monster Girl in person is beyond imagination. Words fail to capture the experience, although their description remains true. Four paws, two tails. Your eyes maintain that sa feature as if you remained a cat. Beautifully stunning, I must say."

"Aww." KuliKuli blushed while playing with her tails. "I don't know what stunning ans but I know the first word. Master, she calls pretty!"

"Master?" She turned to face Felix as he rubbed his head.

"It's a bit of a story." He answered back, helping her put her cloak on.

She shrugged and leaned back against one of the fruit stands, reaching for an orange as she begun to peel it. "No better ti to share stories then now. Those guards will be searching for a cat girl for so ti. Now, tell the story behind a boy and his pet cat girl."

He frowned upon hearing her refer to him as a boy but then shrugged.

Why not?