Wandering Paws [genshin impact x cat!reader]

Chapter 6 - Orphan Tears

'Thought'
"Speak"

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After Aether gained legal ownership of you, Barbara checked back on your wound too see the it was almost done healing. After replacing the bandages Aether had went back to the tavern to discuss about the holy lyre with the others. Due to Venti's allergies, he put you on the second floor where you watched them from behind the railings.

"So you Fluffy is now your pet cat?" Venti asked Aether warily eyeing you from downstairs. He sighed when Aether nodded. "Well, it will certainly be difficult for me to talk with you if they will be so close to you from now on." Diluc then proceeded to pull put the lyre and gave it to Venti. "Now about the lyre, it may be the real thing I doubt that it's going to work. As you can see, the lyre has been through a thousand years of history. It's anemo power has run dry. In this condition, you couldn't play music fit for even Diluc's tavern with it." He said as he looked towards Diluc. "Bards fight to get on the stage of my tavern. Don't make assumptions." He said as he glared at Venti. Paimon looked at Diluc. "Is that really important right now master Diluc?" She then crossedher hands as she turned towards Venti. "And you! Did you just borrow the Holy Lyre for drunkards to hear?!"

"Ehe"

"EHE TE NANDAYO"

You were a bit confused as to why Paimon suddenly started speaking Japanese but the meme was welcomed with open arms either way. Venti looked at the lyre in his hands "Anyway, we won't be able to call Dvalin with it. The lyre itself is fine, but the strings... You're up outlander!" He said as he turned to look at Aether. "Are you talking about me?" Asked Aether. "Relax! It's not broken. It's just that the intensity of it's anemo power has greatly diminished." He said as he gestured to the lyre with his hands. "Aether, do you still have Dvalin's teardrop crystal with you?" Aether nodded as he pulled out the purified crystal. "Great! Try to use it on the lyre."

After Aether took the lyre and used the tear on the it, the lyre's appearance changed to one of a more regal form with gold and white marble, the strings brightly glowing with anemo. You began to think of what would happen if you ate the tear. Would you get anemo powers? Who knows. "It worked as expected." Venti said as he smiled at the lyre. "This youthful glow..." Jean looked at the lyre in awe. Paimon then proceeded to roll her eyes at Jean. "Praising yourself? Really?" Jean looked back at Paimon to correct her about what she meant. "...I was talking about the holy lyre."

"Thanks to our traveler friend purifying the crystal, the holy lyre won't continue to lose power. That said, it's power is far from replenished. It would be great if we could get more tears." Venti said as he took the lyre back from Aether. "How do we make him cry? By hitting him?" Aether asked as Paimon looked at him with a horrified face. "I surmise that Dvalin will already be crying, suffering alone in some deserted place." Venti said as he looked solemnly at the ground, completely ignoring what Aether had just said about his bestie. "Dvalin..." Jean said feeling sad for the dragon. "This is not something that an honorary knight can handle alone. I will mobilize the rest of the knights to assist. When you get the teardrop crystal, please let our honorary knight perform the purification process." Jean said as she put a hand on her chest.

"Heroes supporting each other and setting out on a journey together... how exciting! Let me come up with a song for you," Venti exclaimed happily. "Is that all you're going to do? Just sing?" Paimon said as she side eyed Venti with her arms crossed. "Wouldn't be much of a bard if didn't now would I?" Venti said as he teased Paimon. "Hmph. You're so cheeky... you deserve an ugly nickname. Ooohhh~ Paimon knows! From now on, you'll be known as Tone Deaf Bard!" Paimon said as she smirked, Venti didn't didn't seem to give a shit.

You walked down from the second floor as Venti immediately threw himself over and behind the counter when he saw you. When you got closer to the group, you could hear Venti's continuous sneezing behind the counter. They all gave a weird look at the counter before Diluc went behind the desk to deal with Venti's continuous sneezing and wine theft. Aether looked at you after staring at Diluc and Venti for a while. "Time to find some crystal tears hm?"

~~~~~

After a long discussion on where they were, they decided to go to the thousand winds temple and look there first. On their way there you silently walked  the other way to go to dadaupa gorge. You knew one of them was there so you decided to go first without their permission. You simply chose the other path when they had crossed the bridge towards dadaupa gorge. Currently, you were hiding behind a bush just outside the hilichurl camp where Dvalin's tear was located. You could sense the corrupted energy from a mile away. Now, you had devised a plan as to how to get it. As annoying as stealth was to deal with, it was what you were going to do. If all goes to shit we move to plan B: stab all enemies with a rock and then grab the tear and dip.

Now you just needed to actually do that. You snuck over the fence and into a bush. Then, you climbed into a tree and began jumping from one tree to another. You quietly snuck past the hilichurl towers and then behind the large one at the back where the tear was. You climbed up another tree and walked to the edge of the branch. From there, you jumped and used your claws to hang onto the back side edge of the hilichrl tower. You then hoisted yourself up and properly onto the tower where you saw the teardrop in the middle of a pile of hay. It glowed a dark crimson red, and it only shone brighter as your got closer. You lightly tapped it with your paw to see if it would react in any way. When your toe beans made contact with the crystal surface you didn't feel anything. When you were sure that it was safe to touch, you picked it up and dipped.

~~~~~

You saw Diluc, Jean, and a very sad and guilty looking Aether approach the hilichurl camp. When they had noticed you, Aether ran up to you to make sure you were okay. When he was sure you were fine, he let out a sigh of relief. Paimon suddenly popped up behind Aether to scold you. "There you are! We all nearly had a heart attack when we noticed you went missing! We eventually had to give up looking and you made Aether really sad." She said as she gestured to the blonde who seemed to have already calmed down and looked as stone faced as ever. Until you meowed at him and smiled as he pet you. "Damn Aether, how does it feel to have pretty privileges?" He didn't understand your meows but continued petting you.

Diluc and Jean soon noticed the tear beside you. "Hold on, is that one of Dvalin's tears? How did they get it?" Diluc pointed out as he looked at you with distrust. Yeah, he definitely doesn't see you as just a cat anymore. "How exactly did they get it? And how did they find it?" Jean said as she looked at you. "Well either way, I applaud you for helping us find this tear Fluffy, just leave the rest to us for now." Aether then did what any cat owner would do which was praise their cat for doing something good, but the way he worded it made you choke. "Good job kitty." And choke did you do. Now a worried Aether, Paimon, and Jean were checking if you hadn't eaten anything you shouldn't have.

After that, you all made your ways to a. domain with you just laying in Aethers arms. The domain was being guarded by an eye of the storm so Aether put you down beside a tree and then went to help the others fight the eye of the storm. After defeating it, you walked towards the group as you all entered the domain. When you were all inside, you just silently followed them as they dealt with all the monsters in the domain. You didn't have to do any work :D When you had all reached the end of the domain, Aether had taken the teardrop crystal and put it away.

Paimon popped up in front of Aether and sighed. "We're done gathering! That was hard..." Paimon said despite the fact she literally didn't do anything. "It's too early to relax. We're still nit done with stormterror. Besides, the fatui could be plotting something." Diluc said as he began his walk to the exit of the domain. "Hey Diluc, I heard that the fatui have recently proclaimed you 'Persona Non Grata'." Jean said as she began to follow him, the rest of the group following suit. "Hmph. What an honour. Nobody has been proclaimed persona non grata by the fatui anyway." Paimon tilted her head at Diluc as she followed beside Aether. "The fatui? The diplomatic delegation of snezhnaya? What have they got against master diluc?" Jean was the person to answer her question. "The fatui are not only a problem for the knights, they present a real threat to the whole of mondtadt. And when it comes to threats against mondstadt Diluc is-" She was instantly interrupted be Diluc the moment she spoke those words. "Thats enough Jean. You knights are restricted to too many restrictions. You can't directly confront this so-called..."

And then you fell asleep.

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Sorry for short chap. Hell is real, and it smells like axe body spray. Scaramouche im sorryn't.