Loren stood up and went to the window again. She drew back the curtain and peered out. It was still raining and looked like it was coming down even harder. She groaned and then turned and saw that there was a coat that was hanging on coatrack near the door. It was brown and quite large with a hood. She walked to it and put it on. The coat was big on her but was very warm. She buttoned it up and then put on the black boots that were on the floor. The boots fit her perfectly and were quite cushiony. There were small spikes in the bottom of them which Loren figured was to help with walking up and down the valleys and hills.
The creature meowed and Loren turned to look at it. She smiled. "Yeah, I don't want to go out there either but I have to. I need to know where I am because this sure isn't Jackson Falls! And you should not exist, sweetie!"
The creature seemed to smile at her before it turned its head back to the food and resumed eating. Loren stared at its three tails that were moving about in unison. This is so amazing! She thought.
"I'll be back," She called out to the creature who did not look up from its food.
She slowly opened the door and felt a gust of wind. It caused the rain to pelt her. "Jeez!" She quickly closed the door. There was no lock on the door but the door seemed to shut firmly. She took a step back and looked at the house. It was completely wooden and small. Loren noticed that there was a small placard on the wall near the door and she leaned forward to look at it. It had her full name spelled out in cursive.
"Huh," She said. She could not make sense of this at all.
She struggled her shoulders and then she put the hood on her head and walked to the side of the house. Loren saw that the valley continued for several miles upwards as it seemed to touch the sky. She had a strong inclination to run up to the top and see what was beyond it but she would save that for later.
She began to walk down the valley. The ground was at a sharp incline which had Loren trying to move not too fast. She was afraid that she would lose her footing and roll down the hill.
The grass was wet and slick but Loren was able to walk without any problem. She glanced over to the right and gasped as in awe as she saw these huge blue mountains with caps of snow on them. The mountains were in the distance and were surrounded by gray clouds above.
She paused and stared at them for a moment. "Wow!" It was such an amazing sight to behold. She had never seen anything like them before. The blue color was similar to navy blue and it stood out against the dark green valleys.
"I gotta find out where I am. I can't stare at these mountains all day" She turned back and headed down the valley. Loren noticed that there were three wooden houses including hers in this particular area. Each house seemed to be empty as Loren did not see any lights, movement, or even smoke coming from the chimneys. She walked by the house where the two women had left and continued on down.
Loren noticed that there was a small path as she headed farther down. She entered it and kept going down a small curvy part of the valley and then entered a road and saw a village several yards before her. There were many wooden buildings that had lanterns on the windows. No one appeared to be out and about. The road was empty. Loren walked quickly toward the village. The ground was completely level now.
Loren entered the village and looked around her in amazement. There were shops with a variety of products on display in the windows or from what she could see from open doors. There was one shop where Loren saw a bunch of pots, pans, and other utensils. Many of them were made of wood but also marble. They were all intricately designed and had various different sizes.
There was another shop where Loren saw so many plants through the open door. The colors of these plants were similar to the ones in the house she had stepped out of. She could not call it "her house" because she did not have a house. She shared an apartment with her terrible roommate. There were several plants that were in one of the large windows that were complete purple with yellow leaves with golden flecks on them. Loren was amazed as she looked at the plants.
"What is that?" She whispered to herself.
Another shop was a bookstore with so many books that were on display in the windows. Loren walked up to a window and stared at the book covers. The artwork on them was astonishing as she saw many people and creatures on them. There was one book with the title "A Winter's Retreat" where two women with strange ears on top of their heads were cuddled up in a cabin. Loren leaned closer and saw that the ears on their heads were similar to that of a cat.
"Interesting," Loren whispered. She looked at the other covers on the books and saw that all of the human characters had cat ears or the ears of a fox. Some of them even had tails. There were a variety of genres that she could pick up from the books which appeared to be romance, science fiction, and even cookbooks. There were more romance books than anything else on display.
"Good morning, Loren!" Someone called out to her from the right of her. Loren turned at the sound and gasped as she stared at the person before her.