The herbs that Rena pointed out left a pungent, stinging scent in the air. The plants, clusters of fern-like things, grew along the bank of a shallow river, its clear water flowing over a bed of smooth rocks and silt.

“We were here…” Rena made her way to the riverbank where the plants stood. “And, um, then monsters popped out of the trees over there!” She pointed to the trees beyond the river. “They tried to attack us, but Belle fought them off and went running after them.”

“So what sort of monsters were they, anyway?” Dubhan asked.

“Um…” Rena’s eyes scanned the tree canopy above as she thought. She held her hands up and apart and pantomimed a circle shape. “They were sort round bulby things with leaves on top, like… Like turnips with legs! And long arms or… vines or something.”

Dubhan nodded, hand to his chin as he tried to piece the details together. “A turnip-like monster, huh? Kind of sounds like… Oh! A mandrake!” He declared that cheerfully, only for that cheer to turn to a grimace on his face as he realized what he’d just said. “A… mandrake.”

Allouet shared the same look with Dubhan. Clearly he knew well what a mandrake was.

“Oh, you’re right!” Rena replied. “I read about mandrakes in a book once, their roots are good for certain curatives. I didn’t even realize that those were…” Her face fell as well as she spoke. “C… Creatures that hear a mandrake’s scream die, don’t they?”

That was accurate. Even Dubhan wasn’t stupid enough to go blindly fighting mandrakes.

“Maybe… Maybe it didn’t scream?” Rena said, though her voice was quiet.

Dubhan considered that. “The way to fight a mandrake is to kill it before it screams. If Belle’s a tough enough kitty to have some running for the hills, she could’ve managed that!”

“She could have?” Allouet gave a skeptical look.

Rena clapped her hands together with a renewed enthusiasm. “Oh, you’re right, she could have! She’s really tough, and she always defends me from monsters when we’re out and about!”

“The… cat does?”

“So, with that established,” Dubhan pointed out towards the trees across the river, “we have a cat to find!”

Regrettably, even with a reasonable starting point to begin a search, it did not change the fact that the Yggdrasil labyrinth was a large place, to put it mildly. Finding a single lost kitty cat in the Forest of Dawn would be no simple task, and that fact made itself readily apparent as the hours dragged on. Eventually, with the sun setting in the sky, Guild Shiragiku and their guest sat down for a campfire dinner of roasted hedgehog.

“I had no idea you were so good at cooking, Allouet,” Rena said, though in this case what she referred to as ‘cooking’ was Allouet’s diligent and efficient removal of hedgehog quills. Her attitude had grown more downcast with the passing time, and it was readily apparent that her bringing up the topic was more an attempt to distract herself than anything.

“We have many of this aggressive species of hedgehog where I come from as well, so I’ve prepared meals from them before, that’s all.”

“Allouet’s just good at all these practical things,” Dubhan added in. “He’s the one keeping us on track, really.”

“A statement I may take with humility had you ever thought to carry a map…”

“I didn’t need one!”

Allouet looked up at the darkening sky. “That aside… I do worry we’re not equipped to remain here after nightfall.”

Dubhan had been considering that as well, as much as he was reluctant to say anything about it. Rena’s face fell to the ground, though she nodded slowly.

“I understand this must be difficult for you,” Allouet said. “I’ve never had a pet before, but she must be very important to you.”

“She’s my best friend…”

“I get that,” Dubhan said. “I had a tortoise when I was a kid, he was my best pal.”

“A tortoise?” Allouet questioned.

“Yeah! His name was Shelly, he was great.” Dubhan looked out into the trees. Even if there were any chance a cat had survived in the labyrinth up until now, time surely must be running out. “Maybe… Maybe we can keep looking a bit longer. I think we can cover some more ground before we have to head back.”

Rena and Allouet both looked back at Dubhan. “Are you sure?” Allouet asked, his tone concerned as he looked around the darkening forest. “I can see rather well in the dark, but what of you two?”

“It doesn’t have to be too long,” Dubhan said, “but Belle is Rena’s best friend. Whether she’s a cat or a person, we should do everything we can, shouldn’t we?”

Rena smiled. “Thank you, so much.”

A small hill rose up in the forest, covered in trees. The mouth of a dark cave led into the hill’s side. In the light that was almost entirely gone, a detail was almost missed—a pink ribbon hanging on one of the sharper rocks at the cave’s mouth. Rena gasped when she saw it. “Belle! That’s Belle’s ribbon!”

Dubhan tried to peer into the cave, but his eyes could make out nothing in the darkness.

“This… May be a problem,” Allouet said. He was knelt on the ground before the cave, inspecting the dirt. “Here.” He pointed out several tracks in the dirt. The footprints of tiny creatures wandered in and out, accompanied by dragging trails. The vine-limbs of mandrakes.

“That’s not good.” Dubhan gripped his scythe tightly in one hand.

Rena clutched at her bag, mouth drawn taut with worry. “Oh, no, Belle…”

The mouth of the cave was small. As Allouet conjured a mote of controlled flame in his hand to shed some light within for the three, it became obvious that the interior was cramped and small, little more than a winding tunnel in the soil that soon curved, leaving what lay beyond out of sight. There was just enough room for someone to move along the tunnel, and not much beyond that.

Dubhan thought. They could enter single-file, but if something happened, all three of them fleeing may cause problems in this tight passage. “I’ll go in.”

“What?” Allouet shook his head, “No, that’s too dangerous. There’s no room to fight if you’re attacked. If only one of us is entering there, then—“

“Allouet,” Dubhan cut in, “I’m not putting you in danger like that.” Dubhan let his scythe rest against the nearest tree and placed his haversack onto the ground, checking through it before retrieving a small lantern. “And if anything in there gives me trouble, I’ll whack ‘em with this.”

Dubhan ensured his tone made it clear he wasn’t going to accept any arguments, and with the lantern lit, began the walk down the cramped cave tunnel despite the apprehension obvious on Rena and Allouet’s expressions. As Dubhan rounded the turn in the tunnel, the little remaining light from outside faded, leaving him with only the lantern. His foot hit something, and he stopped to look down.

For an instant, Dubhan was prepared to back away and make a swift exit when he saw the shape at his feet. The root vegetable-looking form of a mandrake stood before him. Or he thought it did, until he realized that it was lying on the ground, unmoving. Now that Dubhan saw it fully, the creature was missing a rather large chunk of its body with marks sunk into it like some huge beast had sunken its fangs into it for a bite. Wonderful.

Just ahead, the tunnel opened into a wider cavern underground, providing more room for Dubhan to move about, yet simultaneously meant ends of the cavern were hid in shadow outside the lantern’s reach. Dubhan saw a few more of the dead mandrakes here, scattered about and splattered on the ground like half-mashed potatoes. He stepped forward and nudged a few of the mandrake corpses with his foot to get a better look at them, seeing more of those bite marks in them. There were even holes in the ground where mandrakes hadn’t even managed to fully pull themselves out of their resting spots before being slice or crushed or chomped.

Dubhan did not need to wonder what had done this. Something in the darkness shifted, answering his question for him. He held the lantern out in the movement’s direction, revealing just enough to catch a glimpse of a muscular beast stalking the dark edges of the cavern, and a pair of saber fangs in its mouth. This was the victor of whatever battle took place here.

Dubhan took one step back even before he got a clear look at the monster, hoping to leave this place before it labeled him as prey. But it was too late. The beast pounced forward, its height almost matching Dubhan’s and weight most definitely exceeding his, allowing it to easily knock him off his feet and onto the ground.

Dubhan landed with his back hard against the ground, forcing a pained grunt from him as the lantern clattered to the ground, its light flickering and threatening to go out. He raised arms up in front of himself in defense, as if that would do anything against the overwhelming power of the monster. Already its breath was hot on his face, its mouth opened and revealing more sharp teeth to devour him.

Or… to begin licking him.

It took Dubhan a second to understand what was happening when he felt a huge, rough tongue dragging across his face. He wasn’t being attacked at all. “Wait—ugh—stop, wait!”

He placed a hand over the nose and muzzle of the beast, stopping its licking, and saw more clearly now the huge feline creature before him. Some sort of saber-toothed cat?

Wait. The connection finally made itself known in Dubhan’s mind. “B… Belle?”

The giant cat began purring. It rubbed its face affectionately against the side of Dubhan’s head as he sat back up. Dubhan returned the affection with a scratch behind the cat’s ear. “Geez, you can’t just do that to people.”

“Dubhan!” The voice was Allouet’s from the tunnel, and the warlock soon appeared with fire in hand, Rena not far behind him. “We heard noises and—“ When he laid eyes on the giant saber cat, Allouet let out a shout of surprise and the flame in his hand grew larger.

“It’s alright, Allouet,” Dubhan said quickly, “I think this is—“

“Belle!” Rena shouted. She sprinted past Allouet, arms spread wide as she practically tackled the big cat with a hug. A sob was muffled into the cat’s fur. “Oh, Belle, I… I thought I lost you!”

Dubhan stood from the ground, dusting the dirt off his clothing and fetching the lantern. He watched the reunion between the two for a moment, then said, “I guess you were right. She really can handle herself here, huh?”

Rena lifted her face from Belle’s fur, wiping some tears from her face and nodding. “Thank you… Thank you both, so much! I never would have found Belle without you, I owe you both so much!”

Dubhan grinned. “Don’t worry about it. The money you listed in the request is fine, don’t go out of your way for anything more than that. I’m just happy to see you two back together. Right, Allouet?”

Allouet had stood frozen in the same spot the entire time, the fire still held in his hand and eyes frantically moving from Belle to Rena or Dubhan. He finally allowed the fire to return to a smaller size suitable for light. “I… Rena?”

“Yes?” Rena was beaming with joy.

“You’re, um… Aware that Belle is a saber-toothed beast rather than a house cat, yes?“

“Yep! I met an adventurer once who raised her but couldn’t keep her, so I adopted her inste—“ Rena paused, realization dawning on her face. “I… Never mentioned that in the request, did I?”

“Or anytime when we were talking,” Dubhan added.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I completely forgot, I’ve gotten so used to her I didn’t think it was strange at all!”

Dubhan shrugged, nonchalant over the whole thing. “Eh, I get that, people seem to think having a tortoise was weird but I never thought twice about Shelly.”

Allouet looked bewildered at Dubhan. “Tortoises are not the same as saber-tooth cats, Dubhan!”

“Anyway,” Dubhan continued, “How about we all get out of here? I’m sure Belle’s hungry and I could go for some dinner that’s not hedgehogs, too.”

Belle showed her agreement with that statement by ramming her head into Rena’s shoulder and licking her face. “Okay, baby girl,” Rena said to the cat, “that sounds good to me too, let’s go.”