The Gardenkeeper's Daughters

Natrina- 14

The silver ears of a small cat twitch and for the fourth time this day, I must remind myself that this is actually my sister.

Lotus and Aislyn are scouting the land for the sixth consecutive day, but so far very little has happened. We're waiting on Vivian to come back with information on the natives before we head out. After all, even if we have all of our natural lifespans (and Aislyn may or may not be able to keep us practically immortal using a sophisticated form of the cloaking she uses to turn us into different species for our journeys) there's still no reason to waste time dawdling on a world where nothing is happening.

This is our third stop and on the first one, we found nothing, but the second one did have several Obsidians. We decided not to take them on- if the Obsidians find out that we're anywhere, they'll target our host planet. Instead, we've decided to stay silent. Teach the natives survival skills and move on. If there's already all out warfare, we might be willing to do something.

Aislyn, for our sake, is trying to find worlds that are far away from Dreamland as possible. Somehow, though, they always seem terribly familiar. A forest here. A face there. Perhaps a scent that my weary nostrils recall from only a few months ago.

Gash comes bounding up to me, tail waving in a way that probably indicates something hostile in cat language but only one of us has bothered to do any research into it. He's carrying a mouse in his mouth and his eyes are bright.

"I caught one! Are you guys proud of me?" Gash drops the mouse on the ground.

Aislyn looks up from ahead of us. "You did?"

"Yup! I say we split it down the middle. Nothing's delicious as fresh meat on a warm evening like this one, split between family and friends." Gash says happily.

"Speaking of family and friends, Vivian should be coming back tonight." Lotus sighs. "I hope she's alright. We don't know how friendly these natives are."

Aislyn takes a few small bites of the mouse before pushing it over to us. "Not hungry."

"More for us." Lotus takes her own bites, though her gaze is fixed on Aislyn's guilty face.

As we sit by our makeshift camp, my acute hearing catches the sound of clumsy footfall in the distance as Vivian, disgruntled and slightly battered, approaches the den.

"No one's recorded anything. We'll have to look elsewhere." Vivian mutters. "Let's get off this dingy planet and find somewhere with legitimate housing."

"What happened to you? You're all scarred up!" Lotus runs to Vivian, nuzzling her. Vivian loosens up a little at her touch.

"The natives are beginning to get suspicious. Apparently they have some form of the supernatural around here, even if they don't have magic or anything else even remotely useful."

"They hurt you?" Lotus asks, unsheathing her claws.

"Hold up there." Gash says. "Let's not get too hasty."

"Relax, they didn't hurt me. We were in the woods on some kind of... patrol? This huge black fox burst out of the woods. I tried to kill it because I thought it was an Obsidian. I didn't want to reveal myself, so I attacked it with pure brute strength. My claws went right through it. Apparently it's not an Obsidian and I learned a valuable lesson."
"Which was?" I ask.

"Don't piss off angry demons from other species' mythology." Vivian nods to Aislyn. "Well?"
Aislyn returns to her normal form, and the cat disguise falls from all of us as we return to our Canis forms. It feels nice to be in my own skin, even if it's only for transport. As the sun sets overhead, Aislyn closes her eyes and the portal opens wide. Vivian leaps through before anyone else has a chance, and the others shuffle along.