Kai didn’t take his eyes off the st catgirl.

  She stood in front of him with her cws half-extended, tail bristled stiff behind her. She wasn’t attacking, but she wasn’t lowering her guard either. That was worse. Indecision was where mistakes happened.

  “What’s your name?” Kai asked, turning his head slightly toward Katherine without losing sight of the feline. His grip on the club tightened, ready in case that answer came another way.

  Katherine swallowed before speaking.

  “Sira,” she said quietly, lowering her gaze for a second like she’d remembered something she would rather forget.

  The catgirl let out a short ugh and shifted her weight, stepping slightly away from Ivark.

  “Of course you remember, Katherine,” Sira said, fshing her fangs in a crooked smile as she tilted her chin toward Kai. “You crawl away, and suddenly you come back with… that.”

  Kai noticed where she pointed.

  Not at Ivark.

  At him.

  As if the orc were just an accessory—and he was the real problem.

  “You had to bring a human and an orc just to get revenge,” Sira went on, raising her voice as she spread her arms like she was delivering a punchline. Her tail snapped behind her in agitation. “How pathetic.”

  Katherine tensed behind him. Kai didn’t need to turn to know.

  He felt it in the way the fabric of his shirt tightened when her fingers curled again. For a moment, he wanted to say something. Something fast. Something cruel.

  But anger didn’t conquer territory.

  Anger made you lose control.

  “I’ve heard enough,” Kai said, stepping toward Sira and lowering the club slightly, the way someone approached a biting animal. “Now tell me where your cn is.”

  Sira tilted her head, blinking with exaggerated offense.

  “My cn?” she repeated, pressing a hand against her chest. “Just like that? You think I’m going to walk you to the vilge like some sword-wielding puppy?”

  Kai watched her feet.

  Even while she talked, she kept adjusting her stance. Moving in a slow semicircle. Trying to keep a tree at her back and open ground to one side.

  Looking for a route.

  “Yes,” Kai said ftly. “I do.”

  Sira scoffed and gestured toward Katherine with her chin.

  “Look at her. She can’t even talk,” she said, turning her gaze back to Kai as if weighing him. “Is that why you’re here? For a broken pet?”

  Kai felt his jaw tighten. He forced himself to exhale slowly.

  “Your tongue works just fine,” Kai said, tapping the ground lightly with the club without striking it. Marking territory. “Your memory should too. Talk.”

  Sira opened her mouth, but the words didn’t come right away.

  Her eyes flicked toward the body Ivark had struck down. Then toward the other catgirl Kai had killed. Then back to him.

  Kai didn’t need her to say it.

  She was calcuting how much bravery was worth with an orc standing beside him.

  “I don’t know,” Sira said finally with a shrug, smoothing her hair with a hand that trembled despite her attempt to look rexed. “The forest’s big. You walk wrong, you get lost.”

  A lie.

  Not because Kai knew the truth.

  But because her body didn’t agree with her mouth.

  She didn’t move like someone who didn’t know.

  She moved like someone who knew too much—and wanted you not to know it.

  “Perfect,” Kai muttered, stepping back just enough to gnce at Ivark.

  Ivark stood ready, spear in hand, waiting for any order.

  Any order at all.

  “Shit,” Kai said under his breath, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Ivark, tie her up. Gag her.”

  Sira’s eyes widened.

  “What? No—no, no!” she protested, jumping back as her tail shed upward. “Don’t do that! I can talk! I can guide you! I can—!”

  Kai didn’t move.

  He didn’t need to.

  He had already given the order.

  Ivark stepped forward and grabbed her arm in one massive hand. Sira let out a sharp shriek that echoed through the trees as she twisted and cwed at him. It didn’t do much.

  He lifted her slightly off the ground like she weighed nothing.

  “Let me go, you brute!” Sira snapped, her cws scraping uselessly across his forearm.

  “Don’t break her. We need her,” Kai said, raising a hand like someone calming a fighting dog.

  Ivark loosened his grip slightly, but didn’t release her.

  He already had rope at his belt. It came free in one motion.

  “Kai! Kai, wait!” Sira said, leaning toward him as much as the grip allowed. “I know where it is! It’s just—if I tell you like this, Katherine’s going to—!”

  Katherine took a step forward, but stopped when Kai raised a hand behind him.

  He didn’t speak.

  Her tail stiffened anyway.

  “Too many conditions,” Kai said evenly. “You get tied. You walk. You help. You breathe. Otherwise, you get dragged.”

  Sira kicked at the air, gring at Katherine before turning back to him, ears tilted forward in sharp attention.

  Ivark bound her wrists and forced a strip of cloth between her teeth. She tried to bite down, but only managed a muffled, furious sound.

  Kai watched her for two more seconds.

  Anger wasn’t the problem.

  Energy was.

  Sira had too much of it.

  And impulsive decisions got people killed.

  “We move,” Kai said, pointing in a direction.

  It looked random.

  It wasn’t.

  He chose the path Sira refused to look at.

  Walking with a prisoner was slow. Ivark held her by the arm while she made muffled noises through the cloth, shaking her head every few steps.

  Katherine walked beside Kai, closer than before.

  Sira still tried things.

  Leaning toward Kai as if to fall on him by accident. Kicking leaves toward Katherine in passing.

  Kai saw everything.

  Patterns.

  Intent.

  She’s competing.

  Even tied up, in the middle of the forest—she competed.

  At one point, Sira turned her head toward a denser patch of trees and began making a sharp, insistent sound through the cloth.

  Kai stopped.

  Ivark stopped with him.

  Katherine halted a step ter.

  Sira jerked her head toward the opposite direction, trying to indicate something. Then made the sound again—faster this time.

  “What does she want now?” Kai asked without looking at her.

  Ivark leaned closer for a second.

  “She wants us to go that way, Master,” he said, pointing to the path she was indicating.

  Kai studied it.

  Cleaner.

  Easier.

  Also more obvious.

  An easy path in a hostile forest was an invitation.

  He looked at Sira.

  Her ears lifted slightly, almost proud.

  She made a softer sound through the cloth.

  She doesn’t want us going this way.

  A small, cold satisfaction settled in his chest.

  Then this is the way.

  “Well,” Kai said calmly, turning toward the path Sira had avoided. “Let’s go this way. Apparently, Sira’s an open book.”

  Sira froze.

  Then she began shaking her head wildly, eyes widening as she kicked at the air again in muffled protest.

  Katherine gnced sideways at her, tail flicking once, short and restrained.

  Kai didn’t ask.

  A few minutes ter, the forest began to change.

  Heavier ground.

  Cut undergrowth.

  Footprints.

  And a faint, lingering scent of old smoke.

  Kai noticed it—and tightened his grip on the club.

  Then he saw it.

  Between the trees, huts clustered together beneath thatched roofs. A wall of sharpened logs forming an uneven barrier.

  On top of it, a feline silhouette stood watch, spear resting against her shoulder.

  Kai stopped for a moment, measuring distance. Entrances. Blind spots.

  Sira stopped moving too.

  For the first time since being tied, she made no sound.

  [System][New Mission][Defeat the catgirl vilge][Reward: +200 XP][Current Level: 4][Current XP: 20/165]

  “Well…” Kai exhaled slowly. “Time to take control of this vilge.”