Elemental Cats

Toz almost threw away the bundle in his hands when a woman's haggard face appeared beneath the layers of fabric. Though, since he could hear her shallow breathing and sensed she wasn't dead, he continued removing the fabric, bringing the woman and a young kid out into the light.

Both of them looked gravely malnourished and gaunt. The poor kid was hardly more than skin and bones. And neither of them hardly weighed a thing as Toz carried them to the house, where he placed them on a warm bed made of leaves. Though, now with the swathes of cloth, maybe they could prepare a proper mattress for even greater comfort.

The woman and what Toz assumed was her child held onto each other so tightly, despite not having any muscles, that Toz carried them together in his arms and placed them on the bed together. After wrapping them in a blanket from the pile of fabric by the boat, he started preparing an easy to eat meal they could consume even if they were stiff and starved.

After chopping the body of a void fish into tooth-sized pieces and placing them in a bowl, Toz got started with making the mattress. Although, it turned into more of a large cushion than a mattress since Toz sewed a large enough cloth together with metal wire and then filled it with leaves.

It was at least comfier than lying directly on the leaves, so Toz moved the mother and her child over to it.

During Toz's cushion making, the cats had scoured through the boat as they hoped to find food. Since humans needed food to survive, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect there to have been food along with the pair who had been in the boat. However, with how gaunt the two were, it would be weird for any food to be left. And it wasn't a surprise when the cats only found a bunch of empty storage bags.

Toz had expected storage rings since they were the most common small-size storage items he was familiar with, but he didn't pay too much attention to the storage bags. Maybe it was just personal preference.

Toz didn't know what to do now that he had placed the two people from the boat on the cushion, so while waiting for them to wake up, he and the cats continued with what they had been doing before the boat showed up.

Although the mood wasn't quite the same since all of them were curious about the first people they met in what felt like a year. But after taking guesses at their story or what could have happened to them, Toz and the cats got back to training, with a rotating schedule where one of them would check in on the two in the house regularly.

Toz had tried giving them some of the liquid they had squeezed out of the leaves, and a piece of the fish he had cut up, but it seemed like their tastebuds were too stubborn. Although they looked severely starved, it wasn't to the point where they would die before they woke up and could force the food down.

The two people Toz had saved from the boat had trembled occasionally right after they had been brought into the house, but that grew more infrequent, and the fretful expression on the mother's face also relaxed. But there were still no signs of them stirring.

At least the food didn't spoil quickly, so even if the two kept sleeping for several days, they would still have something to eat as soon as they woke up.

Although the cats had been watching and checking in on the two humans frequently since they were so curious, eventually, it became more boring than training or watching the plants grow.

After some time, Toz decided that letting them rest for much longer would only increase their risk of dying, so he gave another shot at trying to force-feed the mother with the soft morsels of void meat.

Toz took one piece at a time and brought the jiggling, translucent meat to the mother's head that he was raising with his other hand. After setting the piece of meat down in her mouth, he washed it down with some leaf water. He could see the woman's eyebrow set in a slight frown, but unlike the previous time, the food entered her throat, and it didn't look like she was about to throw up either. Her condition was probably so bad and malnourished that her body swallowed the food despite the uncomfortable and unfamiliar taste.

The kid, whose age was impossible to determine since he was so skinny, put up more resistance against the food, but after a few tries, Toz managed to squeeze down a morsel there as well.

But even after accepting some food, the two didn't seem too keen on waking up. And instead, Toz had another thing to add to his daily routine aside from training and inspecting how the trees were coming along with the absorption of his sword. A few times every day, Toz would feed the two a little void beast meat from different beasts.

Although it was mostly the meat from the void fish with sensitive eyes and sharp teeth since that was the beast that Toz and the cats encountered most often, it was the worst of the meat they had deemed edible, but it was the only thing they had enough off to live on.

While Toz wanted to save the woman and her child, that didn't mean spoiling them with the most palatable void meat that they themselves couldn't satiate their hunger with. And the main reason he wanted to save the woman and her child was that he was curious about their story and if there were any nearby planes that they would soon encounter. Though, it would also be nice with some new and varied company.

While Toz and the cats enjoyed each other's company and wouldn't grow bored of one another that easily, some variation would be nice. Though, it remained to be seen if the woman and her child would be pleasant company. Thankfully, it finally seemed as if the two were about to recover enough to wake up.

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