The inn is warm and cozy.
The cat immediately jumps out of her basket and onto the table, where she flicks her tail and watches us with wary eyes.
"Aww, Miss Meowkins, you're such a good cat, aren't you~?"
Meera coos at her and reaches out to pet her.
The cat sniffs her hand, huffs, and flops down on the table, as if to say she'll accept the pets, but not enjoy them.
The room is small, but it's dry, and the beds are comfortable.
Not sure I'm the biggest fan of sharing one big room with everyone in it, but there are at least separate beds, so I suppose it's not much different from sleeping outdoors.
As I move to sit at one of the beds, the cat suddenly leaps up, and sprints at top speed.
Just to lay on the bed in my way.
"What the-"
"Ahh, she likes you, Ryo!" Meera laughs. "She doesn't like a lot of people, so it's a good thing."
"...Interfering with me laying down is her liking me?"
"Yep! She's a picky one."
I look down at the cat, who seems to be watching me with a smug expression, as if she's aware of how inconvenient she's being.
I reach out and scoop her up from the bed. It's not unkind or rough, at least not in intent, but the cat makes a dramatic meow as if I've deprived it of some beloved treat anyway.
I set her on the floor, and she immediately jumps on the bed again.
"Ah-no-...."
Never mind.
If the cat wants the bed, I'll just take another one.
She seems satisfied with her victory, and settles in, curling up and closing her eyes.
Which is good. Because I didn't have a plan for if she jumped into the second bed instead.
I'm not sure I'm happy about giving up ground to a cat, but there's only so much I can do to someone else's cat. Especially in front of them.
"Ohh, that's so cute. Miss Meowkins loves you!"
"What-?"
The cat nearly knocks me over, running between my legs.
I stumble, and the cat jumps onto the table, flicking her tail as if to say she wasn't the one who almost knocked me down.
"The hell-?!"
Meera chuckles, finally arriving to get her feral beast. "Sorry, she's just so attached when she likes someone!"
I glare at the cat, who seems content to ignore me and groom her paw.
...I feel like a fool.
It's a cat.
I'm not starting a rivalry with a cat.
I sigh and flop back on the bed. The one that the cat will apparently allow me to keep with a simple warning.
Meera scoops up the cat, hands under its front legs and begins kissing its paw pads.
"Who's got little toes?!"
I tense a moment, expecting to see the woman slashed in the face.
Instead, the cat makes a half-hearted attempt to twist out of her grip, but doesn't seem particularly bothered by Meera's affections.
"You do~! Mwah mwah! You're such a cutie!"
Meera kisses the cat's toes over and over, and the cat continues to not care.
So.
It's not a bad-tempered cat, just a fickle one.
Great.
At least it explains more how those two are joined at the hip, I guess.
Meera coos over the cat a bit longer, and then settles into a chair with it. "So, what should we do while we wait out the rain?"
"Sleep." I reply.
I didn't sleep last night.
"That's boring, Ryo~! We can sleep later!"
I'm not sure what to say to that, so I don't.
Meera doesn't seem to mind, though.
She settles back in her chair, and pulls a deck of cards from her pocket. "Ohh, I did bring these after all~!"
--That's right, I need to get more armor. Not just clothes.
The armor didn't actually do anything, though it's hard to say, apparently, whether that was because of the curse of that sword or because it was just woefully underpowered for the enemy I fought.
But I could go for heavier armor. Something plate.
It might weigh me down and give me a bit of a handicap, because the medium armor didn't do anything. I even forgot about it until just now.
And I only remembered just now because the cat smacked its own little leather 'cat helmet' off of its head.
"Elara, is there a blacksmith in this town?"
She nods. "There is, but..."
"But?"
"It's a bit expensive. We haven't earned anything since that last dungeon, so..."
"I've got a bracelet I can sell..." I dig it out of the pockets of this robe, opening the box to show it.
It's pretty, but I really don't care.
"That's elven magic!" Meera gasps, "You can't sell that."
I sigh. "Why not?"
"It's a precious artifact. Elves have been guarding it for generations. You can't just sell it."
"It's mine now. I can do what I want with it."
"That might be, but no one will accept an elven artifact. Especially not this town." Kael shakes his head. "They'll assume it's cursed if a human has it."
I stare down at the bracelet.
...Dammit.
I close the box.
I could try to sell it anyway. But if it's perceived as cursed, I'm not going to get any good price for it even if I manage to convince someone to take it.
Definitely not enough to pay for plate.
I sigh and toss the box at Meera. She acts as if it's both hot and made of butter. Her hands flail wildly, and she barely manages to catch it, stumbling back into the wall.
The cat meows in annoyance.
"Don't throw things at me!"
"It does illusion magic or whatever." I sigh. "Maybe you can use it. It's a magical item, so. Maybe it can be useful."
Meera's eyes widen. "You'd - just give me that?! Really?!"
"Sure. Don't need it."
I can probably use illusion magic already. Somehow. Pretty sure that's the case.
Even if it weren't, I don't like magic builds anyway.