章 251: To a Cat's Eye

Without warning the snow leopard leapt gracefully out into the darkness beyond the soft glow of ZipZing's wings. He landed without a splash.

SaltySiamese activated a skill that made her eyes glow softly. "That's cheating!" she complained.

"What is?" Danika asked.

Kit peered into the darkness and reported, "It looks like he landed on something that's moving away from us."

"Quickly use that lightness spell on me," SaltySiamese demanded before Kit could explain.

Danika cast featherweight on SaltySiamese without asking why, and the elf backed up the slope a little and then leapt out into the water. She landed with a splash, and a series of softer splashes followed, interspersed with mild curses.

Danika didn't wait any longer, she zipped out over the water until she caught up with the elf. In the soft glow of her wings she could see Salty Siamese dashing forward across the water with a determined look on her face. She was using some kind of quick movement skill like Aishin used, and combined with the featherweight spell it was enough to let her run across the surface.

It only took them a moment to catch up to the snow leopard who was gliding effortlessly across the water without any obvious movement on his part. SaltySiamese exclaimed, "Ha! Made it!" She made a last leap forward to land beside the snow leopard. Her foot slipped on the slick surface or maybe the surface rolled beneath her as she landed, because the snow leopard shifted his position as SaltySiamese slid into the water beside him with a splash.

He laughed a silent cat's laugh at the sodden elf who surfaced a moment later and swiftly fell behind. Danika turned and zipped back to SaltySiamese and suggested, "Get in the garden and I'll carry you?"

"Just refresh the spell," SaltySiamese argued.

Danika said, "Sorry, I'm going to store the mirror for now."

"It's ok, we can't really see what's going on anyway," Shrubbery replied promptly.

Danika tapped her storage ring and stowed the mirror, then darted down to touch SaltySiamese. She recast the featherweight spell just as Kit caught up to them. The druid had shifted into her own blue toned fairy dragon form.

Both fairy dragons watched in amazement as SaltySiamese pulled out her bow in the water and began to sink. A moment later she fired some kind of magical shot downward and her body was lifted up out of the water beside them by the recoil. She was already dashing forward again by the time she hit the surface of the water.

They caught up with the snow leopard again and this time Danika refreshed the featherweight spell before Salty leapt, in case its expiration had affected her landing, but the elf still slipped off of the surface and into the water.

This time Danika wasn't as worried that the elf would be eaten or left behind, so she zipped forward, and used her light cantrip to see what the leopard was riding across the underground lake on.

At first she couldn't make out anything, he just seemed to be effortlessly gliding along on the pale wave riding the surface. She rose higher, trying to get a better view and bounced off the ceiling. It startled her so much that her wings stopped beating and she fell onto the cold wet surface beside the leopard with a splat.

The cat laughed at her this time, but Danika ignored him and used her animal identification on the surface below her. "Giant Widemouth Blindcat," stated the information screen. "A top predator in its environment," added the description. She wondered why it was calmly acting as a ferry instead of trying to eat them.

She glanced at the snow leopard. The King of Cats had powers over all cats, but did that really include fish with cat in their names? And was he really the King if he didn't know that he was the King?

"Zip!" Kit called out from behind them.

Danika realized that she'd forgotten to renew the featherweight spell on SaltySiamese as she launched herself back into the air and zipped back to where the elf had sunk back into the water. On her next try, the elf launched herself over the snow leopard and landed in front of him instead of behind him, and this time she didn't slide back into the water.

SaltySiamese tucked the long wet strands of cream colored hair tipped in chocolate brown back behind her pointed ears and straightened her tunic. She ignored the leopard behind her and looked forward.

The snow leopard said clearly in the common tongue, "Jump now."

SaltySiamese was turning to glare at him when she suddenly sank into the water as the enormous fish below her feet dove. The snow leopard leapt forward gracefully, and pushed off the top of her head with his toes as he passed. He landed neatly on a dark ledge just above the place where the cavern ceiling lowered to touch the water in places.

Danika expected SaltySiamese to curse again, but she didn't, she surfaced a moment later and used her magic arrow to launch herself out of the water once more. She scrabbled inelegantly for purchase on the rock, but once she stood securely upon it, she simply asked, "Where next?"

The leopard narrowed his eyes at her and then shifted his own form back into the little silver housecat, and walked into the stone behind him. SaltySiamese reached forward and patted the dark stone, and then turned and glared at the two fairy dragons hovering beside her.

"I don't know," Danika admitted.

"I can still see his glow," Kit said as she landed and shifted back into her own cat form. A moment later she walked into the stone.

Danika asked, "Does anyone else glow? Do I glow?"

Kit's voice replied from nearby, "You always glow, because of your wings. Salty doesn't glow. And as to what you asked before, the only vision skill I have active is my Territorial Vision."

"Can an avatar be a territory?" Danika wondered aloud.

"No idea, but I'm going to lose sight of him if I don't follow now," Kit replied hurriedly.

Danika landed and patted the solid stone wall. "Go on then," she agreed. She activated her light cantrip again and a brighter band of light reflected from the dark stone at the back of the ledge, like a cat's eye.

"I guess only a cat can pass through," SaltySiamese complained as she poked the dark eye. She sighed and reached out to touch the pebble strapped to ZipZing's back.

After Salty entered the stone space, Danika used her once a day shapeshift to shift to her own little cat form. She blinked as the ledge darkened as it lost the glow from her wings and the eye brightened until it looked like a distant beam of sunlight shining down a dark tunnel.

Danika walked forward, and then trotted quickly down the narrow tunnel. It seemed just like the one they'd entered the dark cavern from, except that it gradually grew brighter ahead.