Chapter 8: Chapter 8 - Touching Ears
"Jade? Hey Jade, hello! Wake up Miss." After seeing her standing silent and unmoving like a statue, Stray had gotten up and wondered why she'd suddenly gave up on reality. Turning to the blue haired elf, he gave an awkward smile. "You mind keeping an eye on her? I'm gonna go in the kitchen and get myself a napkin." The girl nodded, and Stray went into the kitchen of the tavern.
As he felt like he was in a forbidden area, he quickly found a stack of napkins. Using some to clean his hands and mouth, Stray threw away the trash in a small trash bin before heading back to to his table. Seeing his friend still hadn't recovered, Stray looked at the elf girl, but she shook her head and shrugged, not knowing what to do either. Glancing at Jade's cat ears, he had an idea. Quickly blowing in one of them, her only reaction was her ear twitching twice.
Although he was worried about her, Stray decided this was the perfect time to do this. Using both his hands, Stray began to play with Jade's fluffy ears, which were amazingly soft to the touch. "Hey, hey! You can't do that, you seriously need to stop!" The elf girl said, scared that the cat girl would snap out of her trance and catch him touching her ears. Stray stopped and turned his gaze at her, then her pointy ears, and then her face with a blank expression.
Irritated at having her ears compared to the cat girl's, the elf tried to explain while remaining calm. "You don't get it, in Elven and Tabaxi culture, if a man is caught touching our ears then he has to marry us. If he doesn't, then he'll be killed by the family's tribe or clan." Stray nodded at her to show he understood, but didn't understand why that applied to him, considering he was a god and it didn't seem like many people were daring enough to kill a god. Sighing as her fustrastion threatened to explode, the girl gave Stray a threatening gaze. "In the case of dieties, the girls are considered holy maidens, and cannot ever be married, unless it's to the deity that touched their body."
Suddenly Stray felt like a pervert at the idea of him having to marry her because of him touching her body, due to the fact he technically did touch her. Quickly removing his hands from Jade's ears, gave a concerned look at Jade. "Well what should we do? It shouldn't be long till she needs to deal with more customers, I don't-" He stopped when Jade snapped back into reality, and gave a strange smile towards him. It'd been the first time Stray had seen her pupils turn into slits like a cat, and although she was smiling, he felt a chill down his spine.
"Stray, do you have a church?" She asked, however the tone was so commanding, Stray felt like he was under interrogation. "No, not yet. It should take around a week until it's ready." As her smile widened, he could see her tail flick from side to side. "Where is it going to be? Is it inside the town?" Stray nodded quickly, wondering why it felt it'd been dangerous if it wasn't.
"When it's finished, I don't mind working as a shrine maiden there. Since we know each other, it's best if you have a personal guide that you can trust to help you with everything you need, correct?" Stray was confused and wanted to speak up, but Jade pulled his face within an inch of her's with a surprising strength and speed. "Correct?" Stray felt as though she might not take no for an answer, as well as that girls are scary. "Yes ma'am." He answered, and she left him go.
Jade's eyes returned to normal as she turned to the adventurers at Stray's table. "As you seem to be unable to afford the same luxury's as my friend Stray, I'd personally recommend a Herbal Stew or a Smoked Crab. Which would prefer nya~?" There was a weird silence, and one of the males, a human with dark brown hair tried to say something, but the elf girl covered his mouth with her hand. "We'll all take the Smoked Crab. How much in total?" She asked with a smile. The two girls exchanged a silent look of agreement before Jade spoke. "It'll be 160 copper coins, or 16 silver coins." The elven girl nodded, and Jade walked to the kitchen.
Stray sat back down, and once Jade went inside the kitchen, left out a heavy sigh. "I feel like I was facing down some kind of monster, what was that?" He asked the blue haired elf. "I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure she's a Bloodline type Sorcerer. They carry the bloodline of powerful beings like dragons, Fey Royals, or even Anceint Elementals, and can emit the aura or use some of the abilities of their ancestor. Since she's a Tabaxi and how her eyes changed, I'm willing to guess it's a Sphinx of some kind." Stray was shocked, and wondered why she didn't stop the man from before that was hurting the other waitress, but put it in the back of his mind for now. After everyone at the table introduced each other, they had small talk while the adventurers waited for their food.
In their adventuring party was Gareth the party leader, a level 7 male Human Fighter, Lia, a level 5 female Elven Ranger, Lance, a level 6 male Human Wizard, Yuriko, a level 6 female Human Paladin, and Avitus, a level 5 male Mechani Rogue. Lia, the blue haired elf, explained that Mechani were a race of machines created over 3,000 years ago by Derandeer, a Goddess of Inventions when she saw Stray's shocked expression at Avitus.
Once Jade brought the food, Stray looked through the Store while they enjoyed their meal, sipping at the Merryweather for drink he forgot to drink during his meal. It tasted like a mix between a lemonade, a fruit smoothie, and a cotton candy soda. Not only was it a strange sense of delicious, but it increased his Intelligence stat by a single point after finishing the drink.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
StrayTheCat
StrayTheCat Should I make a section that shows an overview of all Stray's stats, inventory, and skills/abilities? I've been thinking about it, but I'm not sure.
Hope everyone is enjoying this so far! I've seen other authors on here ask readers for votes and powerstones and whatever, but I'm mostly interested in seeing whether people enjoy my novel.
Not bashing on them, I don't understand the purpose of asking for those things. Unless I can exchange powerstones for money, I don't really need them.
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