Elemental Cats

After securing their hideout, Toz and the cats didn't immediately begin training. Nil fell asleep since he had to recover from his injuries. But the others, while tired, weren't going to do boring things immediately.

Toz, Nil, Lucy, and Mindle talking about their adventure around Sleepless Brights before Scrael joined them sounded a little interesting. Toz and the others had given each cat a rundown of what had happened up to the point that they joined them, but never in thorough detail.

So when Toz and the first three cats talked about it, the other two instantly grew interested. Toz and the cats greatly appreciated the chance to take a break from the intense atmosphere of the battlefield and happily delved into story-telling.

They still kept some attention on their surroundings, but Toz talking about their exciting adventures was inevitably more interesting. Even after he finished embellishing the story of them eradicating an entire species just for money, like some kind of lawless, money-hungry rogues, he kept telling other stories of their previous adventures.

Nil and Lucy had been a part of everything since they first set out on their adventure, but they still enjoyed Toz's stories. Nil had said he was going to sleep when they first started to hide, and he did have his eyes closed, but it was evident he was still paying attention to Toz's words.

After telling the story of the Stone Balls, Toz recounted their entire adventure from the beginning.

Toz told them about Mindle's birth, the Scorched Earth Rats, the Forest Janitors, their windsurfing before Roaring Skies, and then their adventures there on Roaring Skies. After that, he also what they did while stuck in the Void, not that their experience in the Void was very exciting.

The first half of Toz's storytelling was a little more interesting since Toz was a little distracted by his thoughts after talking about their trips into Treblor Forest.

Remembering the enslaved wild beasts that the demons used to infiltrate the City of Dormant Thunder made Toz think about Beltor, the slave master of Starsling Kingdom. He felt like he was on the verge of discovering something that he shouldn't know. But his first thought that the Starsling Kingdom was involved with the demon realm didn't sound quite right. He didn't know what it was, but he instinctually felt that that wasn't it.

His thoughts distracted him from the storytelling a little, but the cats still listened intently to his rambling retelling.

Eventually, since he couldn't confirm anything, Toz stopped thinking about it. The mood grew a little somber when they came to the point where they met Asilean and Taienra since it reminded them of what had happened with Yill and that Taienra was in trouble.

But Toz quickly restored the suspenseful mood by telling the cats about his life before he even met Nil, the first cat Toz bonded.

However, before Toz could tell them anything truly interesting or juicy, he changed the topic again. The cats' disappointment was immeasurable, and even Nil opened his eyes and glared at Toz.

Nil came from the same city as Toz, and Lucy had been there since Toz picked him up until the three of them left for their adventure. They had met his parents several times, but they still didn't know much about Toz's life before them.

They knew where he had lived and some of the people around Toz. They also knew what he usually did day-to-day. They were even involved with his side business. But there were still a lot of things to be curious about regarding Toz's past.

All the cats looked forward to finally finding out what he had done as a kid. What he had been like, and so on. So when Toz stopped talking and instead changed the subject to Lucy and his fight with the buffalo leader, the cats didn't hide their disappointment.

The only thing that stopped them from jumping on Toz was the more recent curiosity about what Lucy had done to so quickly emerge victorious over his opponent.

Toz played the part of a brick wall and refused to answer any of their questions about his past. And the cats eventually gave up.

They were curious, but if Toz was adamant about not telling them, there was nothing they could do about it. They could, however, try to persuade Lucy to explain to them what he had done to his buffalo opponent.

Lucy was giddy about the attention and that he managed to do something outside the other cats' expectations. He did want to keep it a secret for a little longer. But if he delayed telling them for too long, they would lose interest and wouldn't be eager to hear what he had to say.

In order to build tension and excitement, Lucy began from the beginning. Not when the fight started, but from when he first came up with how to proceed, which was during Toz's planning.

Lucy did his best to ignore the pointed looks Toz gave him during that part of the story. A few beads of nervous sweat dripped down. Lucy ignored those as well.

Since he told the cats about what led to his idea, which was a pebble next to him, it was obvious how little attention he actually paid to Toz's planning. The others were more surprised that Lucy managed to follow along with the plan's steps than they were that he defeated the buffalo so quickly.

"There were several steps?"

However, Lucy's question to them pointing out that he had still followed the plan, despite not listening to Toz, alarmed them. It was practically a miracle that disaster didn't strike them in the middle of their fighting with the buffalos.

"H-how?"

Lucy tilted his head in response to Asilean's confusion.

"How what?"

"How did you know what to do?"

"What do you mean? Wasn't it obvious?"

Asilean was about to continue questioning Lucy when he noticed the others' exasperated sighs.

Since Asilean was the most recent addition to their group, he hadn't had quite as much time with Lucy as the others, so he didn't quite understand the eccentricities that Lucy had. However, the others were a little more used to Lucy's antics.

He was smart, but he sometimes didn't rely on his thoughts to exhibit his intelligence. He was intuitively smart and did things by instinct that others would take months or years of training to do. And since he just did things by doing them, he didn't have a way to explain them to others.

He couldn't understand why others couldn't understand obvious things and concepts, but he also couldn't understand the way others thought and acted, so it was pretty even in the end. But it was just that his way of being was clearly pronounced sometimes and made itself especially noticeable when someone questioned his behavior.

Asilean wanted to try and get some understanding of how Lucy could commit to the plan flawlessly without barely even listening to a word of Toz's plan, but he eventually decided to give up. The gazes the others gave him told him that it was futile.

And it wasn't like he had to know how he had done it, especially not when it was finally time for Lucy to explain how he took down the buffalo.