<Sc'the>

The next month passed by extremely slowly for me. With Red being so heavily injured, Pops unwilling to leave her side the entire time she was bed-bound. I found them a few days after my evolution, it hurt—it hurt a lot, but the pain was nothing compared to watching another person I'd grown close to almost die.

I was starting to wonder if my very presence was a jinx: it seemed that nearly everywhere I'd gone up till now had been only accompanied by pain...and even more suffering. I'd startled Pops a little when I climbed onto his lap to rest, but I needed to touch someone else. I couldn't exactly be hugged like how I was so the next best thing was the pets Pops gave me then entire time Red was recovering.

The next few weeks after that we're incredibly stress-filled and when Redline was finally let go from the pop-up infirmary set up near the East Sanctuary neither me nor Pops would let her out of sight until she gave the both of us a stern talking to on the second week.

"I am not a kitten anymore!" She'd yelled, her limp was still slightly visible, but mostly healed by now. "You both are treating me like I'm just some fragile kitten that needs others help and attention all the time! I am not that! Pops you need to rebuild the house, and Sc'the I know that you can't talk yet but you need to realize that I'm supposed to be the one protecting you. I found you, not the other way around; that means I'm supposed to be able to take care of you until your old enough to either go out on your own or until we're able to get you back to where you belong!"

It was hard to find her after that. I think that she'd gone out of the city and taken some day-long quests, or she was just avoiding us for a while, but when she came back she apologized for blowing up at us, and admitted that she was starting to see me as more of a brother to her than a burden that they would only be dealing with short term—though she didn't say that in front of Pops.

I really wished I could talk to her then, but nope! The Voice had been suspiciously quiet for the entire time she was in recovery and while it was welcome to be able to just...be alone. I didn't want to be alone forever.

It was then that Red had promised that she would take me outside of the city to a Dungeon or 'Spacial Tear'...whatever that was.

That was a week ago.

So, as my new usual routine, I gave Red her usual five hours of sleep, and then I slowly peeked into her room, just in case she was already up...but the door opened, so she was likely not up yet. She locked it now since last time, even though that wouldn't really keep me out if I wanted to get inside.

I quietly passed into the room, eyeing the adorably small, flower decorated box in the corner of the room as I made my way over to it. Watching for any sign that she was up already and was just faking it to surprise me--that had happened a few times already since I started doing this.

I shifted directions to get on the side where she would be less likely to react as quickly, and pounced.

My leap through the air was silent, flawless, but when I landed on the bed I didn't feel the usual lump of Red under me, and something dark and ominous came from above. Something soft, yet deceptively strong surrounded the entire top of the box and there was a grunt as I head butted the it in hopes of escape, but alas. I was too late.

The heavy sheet of doom packed itself in around me, trapping me in the very box I'd planned an ambush. And there was a bit of hissing, maybe a swear as I hit something important, and I was lifted in the air with my entire body locked in an inescapable prison.

The light came on suddenly and I glared at the source of my predicament: she was rubbing her nose with a glare of her own directed at me. "How do you manage to kick me in the face every time this happens to you?"

I looked away with a snort, the ceiling was much more appreciative than a certain someone was being. Red let out a huff of her own as she came over and hauled me over her shoulder.

"You're the one that's been doing this for a week straight now. It's your own fault that you haven't learned to check the entire room before acting on a plan dummy." She opened the door and dropped me on the floor outside of her room. "If you can get out by the time I'm back I'll give you a good brushing after we're back from the dungeon."

As soon as the door behind her closed I wriggled and squirmed like hell to get out of the...wait, I have a useful Skill for this exact purpose! I focused for a second and the blanket fell through me onto the floor. Thankfully I didn't also fall through the floor this time, but by the time she'd opened the door I was already sitting on the mess of blankets looking at her with a visible grin.

Redline opened the door and looked at me, and then at the floor for a a second. Then she smacked herself in the head and dragged it down her face with a sigh, "Dammit. I forgot about your Skill...you better not get used to this you little devil—but you did get out before I did, so I'll brush you as promised when we get back."

I beamed, hopping up and down in front of her—stopping for a moment to think about whether I wanted to tackle her too or not...she decided for me. Moving down the hall at a stalking pace that I had to hope over to catch up to her.

It took Pops only a week to get the mansion re-built, and remodeled—it was insane: the place was probably twice as big now, with only two floors and two more sub levels; the first being the training area and the one below it was...just empty space.

I didn't actually know what Pops was aiming to make that room into, but it was as connected to the rest of the house as the upstairs stairs were, so it was probably going to be something decently normal compared to the rest of the house. Or it was going to be something incredibly cool; I was leaning on the latter with my hopes...I just hoped I got to see what it actually turned out to be instead of something else happening. Pops had probably remade the meat factory an entirely different area than underneath the house, and unfortunately for me, he didn't show me where it was. Every time I've tried to follow him he just straight up disappeared leaving me alone to check every possible area in that area for anything. But nothing was ever there!

I shook my head for a moment to clear my irritation. Red was making her way over to the new, but equally as large kitchen and unsurprisingly Pops was already there setting down large plates of breakfast for us both. Redline got a fish covered in what looked like peppers, with a second plate of eggs off to the side, and I got a mountain of eggs with what was probably this worlds form of beef or sausage mixed in.

We both came over and sat in our 'designated spots' right next to each other near the middle of the island counter and Red looked at her plate with suspicious anticipation. "You aren't making this just to reveal something incredibly annoying after we eat are you?" She asked, seemingly unable to take her eyes off of the fish.

"What?" Pops feigned a look of sadness, "Can I not make my recovering daughter's favorite morning meal? With how the past few weeks have gone I thought you'd—"

"I do. I do!" Red quickly grabbed both of her plates before Pops' hands could so much as twitch downwards. Mumbling a quiet "Thank you" to him before digging in. I watched her for a moment as she grabbed one of the pepper-like things and squeezed it over her fish: A jet of orange-red flame bursting from the pointy end of the pepper and turning the fish and some of the surrounding eggs almost black.

I watched dumbfounded as she did this for three more times before dumping all of her eggs on top of the extremely ashy looking fish and dug in. Her purring vibrating the table and nearby chairs enough that I could feel it without needing to touch the table. Pops had turned back to the sink where he started to clean the dishes used to make this and I swear I could see the slight hint of a smirk on his face as he peeked back at her.

There were still two more peppers on Red's plate that she hadn't touched yet, and when I reached over to grab one she slid her plate ever so slightly away. I looked over at her again, she wasn't even paying attention to me! She was just stuffing her face and I was completely invisible, so how did she do that?

I reached over twice more and she moved equally as far just the same. I was just about to jump over and tackle her to grab one when a large red hand holding a medium sized one appeared directly in front of my snout. I froze, realizing who it was and looked over at Pops confused. He was holding out one to me with a pretty large grin on his face, "Here. Her feline side doesn't even let me steal those from her meal, but you only get this one. Any more and I might have a crazy cat clawing at my arms..." He smiled wryly at me and I took the pepper from him and used (Spy) on it.

Torch-Pepper: A culinary marvel highly sought by chefs from all over the world, no matter the species. Found in the mountains in areas of a densely concentrated opposite aligned element to the plant itself, often in arctic dungeons at ranks above B tier beings.
This species of plant is rather plain in form, but rather volatile in nature. Unless handled in a proper manner the flames held within this Elemental Treat will rage wild and many have described the burns as 'basing thrown into a lake of lava' depending on the Peppers level of spice.
(Warning: Explosive plant. Do NOT store in a dry area. Do NOT store in any place with heat or light. Rated for safe storage in temperatures under -23 degrees Lunar)

I feel that's a decent place to end it. This is a slightly smaller chapter than I'd usually write, but I'm writing this on my phone so it's even more annoying than usual, plus I have to clock back in for work soon.

I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you in the next one!

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