Chapter 40 The Enticing Bush

Evernya’s eyes fluttered open to meet the early morning sunlight. She groaned while rolling over to cover her head with the sheets, hiding from the offending light. The bright beams of light assaulted her poor body from every angle as she tried to return to dreamland.

After fifteen minutes she gave up, instead sitting up, stretching her arms above her head while yawning. Evernya immediately noticed a difference in how she felt. With crystal clear clarity, Evernya’s ears twitched as they picked up the chirping of birds through the open window to her right.

What’s going on? Why do I feel so different? Yesterday, I couldn’t walk. Yet today, I feel like I could run a marathon.

Evernya suddenly stilled, then looked toward the window while sniffing the air. What is that amazing smell?

Evernya climbed off her bed and trotted toward the balcony, mesmerized by the scent. She fell to her knees outside on the balcony, her eyes tightly shut and her hands covering her ears, overwhelmed by the scents and sounds. After a few seconds, her senses adjusted to the new environment, causing Evernya to breathe a sigh of relief.

That’s new, since when were my senses this sensitive? Thankfully, I seem to have an auto filter. I don’t think I could ever leave my room ever again if I didn’t. It felt like my brain was going to explode if it continued a second longer. All thoughts froze as her nose picked up the previous delicious scent. She jumped off the balcony, forgetting the fact she was on the second floor. Fortunately, she landed softly land on the grass below her balcony.

Cool, I can fall over four meters and land on my feet without a scratch. Is my body healthy now? Meira said it should take at least a month, but I feel great now.

Evernya continued to follow the intoxicating scent, leading her to a vast garden. It took a few seconds for Evernya to reacquire the scent with so many other amazing scents surrounding her. As she moved closer to her destination, the intoxicating scent mesmerized her.

By the time she arrived in front of the patch of plants with white and pink flowers giving off the scent, she was drowning in euphoria, forcing tunnel vision focused on the plants.

Ten minutes later, a distressed elf arrived at the scene, using the tracker on the cuff locked around her kitten’s wrist. She froze in shock when she spotted her escaped kitten.

After overcoming her shock, Meira burst out loud laughter, which she quickly muffled with her hand, as to not disturb the girl in front of her. While trying her best to resist laughing, she materialized a video camera to record the evidence.

In front of Meira was a naked Evernya purring loudly while rolling back and forth on a patch of plants. She was so intoxicated by the plants she didn’t notice the loudly laughing elf recording her.

After over ten minutes of recording the drugged girl, Meira decided to try to retrieve her. She first used her air magic to blow the scent away from Evernya before she collected her wasted kitten. Her kitten didn’t even notice being picked up and carried away from the now crushed patch of plants. Meira proceeded to transport the limp girl in her arms back toward the house.

When she was halfway to her house, the plastered girl in her arms descended from her high enough to be semi-aware of her surroundings.

She stared up at Meira with glassy eyes. “Pretty elf!” Giggled Evernya.

While smiling down at her kitten, Meira asked, “Hello there, Evernya. How do you feel?”

“Amazing!” Sang Evernya.

Evernya’s ears swiveled off to the right. “Pretty elf, put me down!” Ordered Evernya.

“No, you need to be in bed. You shouldn’t even be walking yet.”

“Pretty elf is mean!” Pouted Evernya.

Something off in the distance caught Evernya’s attention again. She twisted out of Evernya’s arms, landing gracefully on her feet before sprinting down the yard. She only covered five meters before the cuff on her wrist turned red, then shocked her. Evernya yelped in pain and fell on her ass, narrowly missing jamming her tail.

While sitting on her butt, Evernya glared at the offending object locked around her right wrist and growled. She tried to pry it off of her wrist with her other hand but failed. This failure increased Evernya’s frustration. She smashed it against a nearby rock, causing it to dent but remain secured around her wrist. Evernya glared at the cuff with hatred burning in glowing her eyes. A focused blast of force impacted the cuff, causing to deform. Egged on by her progress, Evernya released several more blasts of force on the offending object.

Finally, by the eighth blast, the cuff broke off her wrist, freeing her from the painful shocks. Evernya glanced behind her, finding Meira almost caught up, so she scrambled to her feet and sprinted off.

“Freedom!” cheered the drunken girl.

Upon reaching the fractured pieces of the cuff lying on the grass, Meira grumbled, “Crap, I should have used a silver cuff. I didn’t think she would try that hard to remove it.”

Meira searched her surroundings, trying to spot her fleeing kitten. “Fuck, where did she go! I can’t track her anymore without the cuff!” Meira panicked.

Meira used her air magic to float into the sky to get a bird’s-eye view. Once airborne, she spotted her target weaving through the trees on the left side of her yard. “Damn, she is fast! I can barely track her, even up here!” Meira exclaimed, while watching her kitten blur in random directions. She stopped randomly to sniff or stare at something only visible to her before continuing on.

“What is she doing? Is she hallucinating? If I try to capture her, she will probably fight back, so all I can do is wait for her high to wear off.” Meira mumbled to herself as she recorded her kitten’s adventure.

Over fifteen minutes later, Evernya stopped and fell over like a puppet with its strings cut. Meira rushed over to her fallen kitten, fearing the worst. She examined the unconscious girl and relaxed when she found Evernya had just passed out, but was otherwise fine. She picked up the unconscious girl and quickly transported her back to the house.

An hour later, Evernya awakened to find yourself back in her bed. She opened her eyes and tried to sit up, but immediately regretted it. She groaned in pain, causing her to give up trying to move.

“Return from cloud nine?” Teased Meira perched on Evernya’s couch to her left.

“What are you talking about?” Questioned Evernya.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Smiled Meira.

“Why does everything hurt?” Groaned Evernya.

“Well, spending over fifteen minutes, trying your best to imitate a pinball tends to do that. Fortunately, you didn’t injure yourself as far as I can tell. You’re just sore, which is a miracle.” Meira replied, enjoying her kitten’s growing confusion.

“What?” Evernya questioned, perplexed.

“I see, so you’re the type that doesn’t remember,” Meira commented, only adding to her kitten’s confusion.

“Just tell me what happened already!” demanded her annoyed kitten.

“What is the last thing you remember?” Meira asked, to draw out the suspense.

If every inch of her body wasn’t screaming in pain, Evernya would have hit her annoyingly smirking elf. Left with no other choice, she answered Meira’s question. “I was walking into your enormous garden following a delicious smelling scent after that, everything is blank.”

“Well, it would be a mercy to keep you in the dark, but you didn’t follow my instructions staying in bed, so think of this as your punishment.” said Meira, standing up from the couch.

Meira materialized a flash drive and plugged it into the large wide-screen TV in front of the couch. Once she had the video ready to play, she propped Evernya up into a sitting position.

She sat on the couch with her thumb hovering over the play button as she lectured. “Normally, I don’t like to punish someone who is already suffering, but you need to learn your lesson. First of all, you disobeyed my rules, then you made the mistake of being lured in by an unknown scent. One of the first things a shifter learns is to never allow an unknown scent to lure them. No matter how amazing it smells, if you do not know what it is, do not follow. Many shifters or any other race with a strong sense of smell face death after falling for an enticing scent.”

Meira delayed playing the video for several seconds, enjoying her kitten’s battle with confusion and curiosity. She materialized a bag of popcorn from her storage ring, then pressed the play button. Instead of watching the video, Meira observed her kitten’s reactions while floating popcorn into her mouth.

The video started with Evernya naked and rolling back and forth on a patch of plants while purring loudly. This soon cut to her dashing around Meira’s backyard like a lunatic. Finally, it ended with her freezing up and collapsing. During the entire video, Evernya was silent, frozen in shock, to Meira’s disappointment.

After overcoming her shock, Evernya entered rapid-fire question mode. “What happened? Why don’t I remember? Why the hell was I naked!?”

The amused elf floated a few more popcorn pieces into her mouth before answering. “Well, I wasn’t sure if you would inherit this particular allergy. Just in case, I probably should have moved that patch of plants somewhere you couldn’t smell. I’m surprised you didn’t notice them until now. As for the naked part, I have no idea that’s just how I found you.”

Sick of Meira’s vague answers, Evernya asked a direct question instead. “What is the plant called?”

“Catnip is the name of this particular plant, but there are other plants that can cause a similar reaction. Feline shifters from an early age learn the smell of these plants so they can avoid them. The effects differ, but most experience a strong high and memory loss if exposed to too much of it like you did. Even if you had a tolerance to it like you have for other drugs, you would’ve still had some affects since you were rolling in a damn patch of it. Fortunately, Catnip is mostly harmless besides the potential embarrassment or actions that you may take while under the influence of it. Many catkin have a stash for recreational purposes despite it being outlawed by humans.” Meira explained, finally indulging her kitten with an actual answer.

Evernya glanced at the now blank TV flashing back to the video. “I will have to avoid it. I don’t particularly like not being in control of my actions.” Remarked Evernya.

Oddly, I’m not embarrassed by my drunken antics, but just the thought of getting taken advantage of in a compromised state puffs my tail. It would mortify me when I was a human. That’s probably why I never drank as a human. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I ever eclipsed the legal driving limit. Evernya thought, showing little outward reaction to the video.

Meira deflated from her kitten’s lack of embarrassment, but still gave advice. “You should avoid any scent that compels you to follow. Unless you know for sure what is at the end of that scent trail, it is best to avoid it.”

Suddenly, a thought came to Evernya. “When I woke up this morning, why did I feel different? All my senses were sharper, and I felt much stronger. I thought you said it would take at least a month for my body to become healthy. Yesterday I couldn’t even walk yet today I could sprint around your backyard so fast the camera had trouble following me.”

“First of all, you were asleep for over six days. My theory for the reason you ate so much was your body was loading up on nutrients to enter hibernation to heal. You are draconic and we know Dragons tend to hibernate for periods to heal. The one month estimate was just our guess. To be honest, we had no idea when or if you would recover. With our lack of information, caring for you is a trial-and-error process. If only we had an instruction manual on how to care for someone like you.” Meira revealed, causing her kitten to freeze up, mouth agape from shock.

Amused by her kitten’s reaction, Meira continued to talk. “While you were sleeping off the catnip, I called Elizabeth to ask if she could visit to give you a checkup. She said she could visit tomorrow, so for the rest of the day, I want you to stay in bed. Besides, you have some reading to do.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t think I am going anywhere. Somehow even my ears and tail are sore.” Evernya groaned as her sore body made its presence known.

Meira‘s eyes sparkled in amusement at her kitten’s discomfort, hoping it would deter her from making the same mistake in the future. “That happens when you strain your body too much. I am surprised you didn’t pull something. Even though you have the capability of going that fast, it doesn’t mean you should until you are in better shape.”

Evernya glared at her smiling Elven caretaker. “I don’t feel lucky. I am back to being unable to move!”

“You will be fine by evening, maybe even sooner, if you take a nap. Even if you feel better later, do not leave the bed except for going to the bathroom. If you take another stroll around my backyard, I’ll chain you to your bed. I don’t want you to be moving until Elizabeth checks you out.” Meira assured threateningly, causing her kitten to slump in submission.

A few seconds later Evernya’s stomach growled, breaking the silence, prompting a chuckle from her Elven caretaker. “Don’t worry, I still have the other half of the buck. Unfortunately, I already made it into that liquefied stew. I didn’t expect you to hibernate for six days.”

At the mention of food, Evernya began to salivate as her fangs descended. “That’s fine. I don’t think I could eat solid food at the moment. I feel worse than I was six days ago.”

To distract herself from her growing hunger, she asked another question. “Where did that stupid cuff go?”

Meira glanced at Evernya’s bare wrist before responding. “Oh, I didn’t record that part. You destroyed it quite thoroughly before going zoomy. I won’t force you to wear another one, but please refrain from using magic until tomorrow.”

“I get it already! You just want me to sit quietly and read like a good girl.” Grumbled Evernya, throwing her arms up in their only to regret it immediately. A whimper escaped Evernya’s fanged mouth as her arms fell limply onto the bed at her sides.

Meira winced at her kitten’s pain while responding. “Sorry if I’m pesty. I just don’t want you to have another near-death experience under my watch. What if your body isn’t healthy and your next mana usage pushes it over the edge?”

“Really understand. I don’t want to die either. Could you please just give me my meal? I’m starving. I hate I am so dependent on you. I can’t even eat without you feeding me.” Grumbled Evernya, staring at her Elven caretaker with feline eyes and visible fangs.

Meira materialized the typical forty-liter tank and fed Evernya. After only five minutes, Evernya waved her hand to stop the pump.

Meira checked the tank with surprise. “Wow, what a difference! You only drank around 8 to 11 liters, less than half than before your hibernation! It’s still a ton of food, but at least it’s more manageable.” Exclaimed Meira.

Evernya burped loudly before her eyes drifted closed as she embraced her food coma.