We spent an extra day in that field outside of Perkikish, which was the first market town we encountered on our way to the Blazroggle district. The leadership of the expedition was hungover. I overheard one of the hobgoblins joking about Captain Girgut's pounding head this morning. All four real elves managed to redefine the meaning of grumpy and when I strolled past the round ear encampment, I spotted both the duke and prince looking rather green around the gills.

Cat Rider was not hungover at all though he certainly was drunk the night before. I commented on it. He winked at me, "Fuzzy, one of the best things about healing magic is that I'm my own hangover cure." Then he smiled with sweet innocence.

* You aren't offering your cure to your fellow sufferers? *

"Maybe in an hour or two." If he smiled much sweeter, the universe would collapse from the sugar rush.

Cat used the time to finish the two copies of the wyvern sections from Achflakalstrebr's Compendium. Then the two of us walked down to the Captain's tent to deliver his copy. While we were there, Cat had mercy on Girgut and cured his hangover. We walked up to the round ear encampment and delivered the copy for the duke and prince.

We found Willam on his camp cot, with red-rimmed eyes and a white face, shivering under a blanket. His red-haired friend Rendell was trying to convince Willam to drink some water.

"Highness, you are dehydrated. The sooner you get some water in you, the better you will feel. If you do it in little sips, you won't lose your stomach again."

The only reply that Willam gave was a low moan. I wandered up and sniffed. Sure enough, he smelled like a hangover too. It's not a pretty smell, being a mix of the runs, barf, and alcohol-tainted sweat.

Without moving his head at all, Willam's blue eyes shifted to look at me, "who let that spirit monster in here, Rendell? It's come to eat me and put me out of my misery."

Cat laughed, "Fuzzy goes wherever she likes. Don't worry about being eaten. She doesn't like the taste of most humans."

"Come to mock my infirmities, have you, Cat Rider?"

"No, not at all," Cat's innocent smile deepened. "I'm done with copying the wyvern notes I made when I read the Compendium. I decided to deliver them myself since we're staying here for the day. Would you like some help with your hangover, Highness?"

Rendell looked at Cat like he was a holy man, "please!" Willam just groaned again. Cat had mercy on his younger brother and cast the healing spell.

"Oh," Willam blinked. "OH! That's amazing!" Willam sat up, grabbed the mug of water from Kendell, and drank it down. "I am so thirsty. Rendell can you get me some more, please. Cat Rider, can I hire you? I pay excellent wages and would allow you to set up a practice on the side in Tammerhof. You could be a wealthy elf!"

Cat shook his head, "no, I would miss my family."

"Bring them with you! I'll pay the moving expense!"

"I don't think my father, the Elven King, would like that much."

"Oh, yeah," Willam considered it, "he probably wouldn't." He popped back up, "so, where are the wyvern notes?"

"Right here," Cat pulled an old-fashioned scroll from his wyvern-skin coat pocket.

"Oh wow, a real scroll," Willam undid the tie and unrolled the first bit. He read the first few paragraphs. "Unbelievable! I didn't know they only see motion! This could save hundreds of lives. Cat Rider, thank you for this," he looked up from his cot with real gratitude. Then he switched to a conspiratorial smile, "are you sure I can't get you to come and work for me?"

Cat laughed and shook his head, rolling his eyes.

"Tell you what, Cat Rider: I'll get your sister Roaming Wren to marry me. Then you'll have family in Tammerhof. That would work, right?"

"Highness, my sister is a whole head taller than you, and she has no tolerance for human courtly pretense, as she calls it. I doubt she'd even look at your proposal other than to laugh at it."

I leaned over the side of the cot so my two big front fangs were prominent, and growled softly.

"Besides," Cat continued, "Fuzzy doesn't approve. It's never a good idea to go against an emissary of the gods."

"Well, Lady Fuzzy," Willam wore a charming smile, with all the sincerity of a peddler selling a miracle cure, "what if I gave you your own farm and filled it with more deer than you could hunt or eat in a lifetime? Would that change your mind?"

* Should I assume that you have just tried to bribe an emissary of the gods? In front of witnesses? Isn't that sacrilege? *

Willam laughed, "you are a funny cat, but you do take good care of your people." He reached out and scratched under my chin. Oh yes, my chin. My hard-to-scratch chin. Yes, my itchy chin, my lovely chin chin chin chin. I'm not sure how, but it was only a moment later that I was on my back and Willam was scratching my chest and tummy. The bliss! The Joy! The Ecstacy!

"Who's my big kitty? Who’s my big kitty cat? Who's a purring pushover. Yes, you like it. You know you like it, you big overgrown kitten, you." Yes, I was purring by now. I just couldn't stop myself.

"Pssst, Frederick," I heard Rendell call someone over. "You gotta see this!"

I had no idea what "this" was. I was too busy being scratched.

"I didn’t know that mountain cats purr," Willam said. He didn't stop scratching.

"She can meow just like a house cat too," Cat Rider added.

"Amazing," he was working on my neck in all the spots I couldn't reach to scratch.

"So, Lady Fuzzy, how about that deer farm and a full-time scratching team as a sign-on bonus?" Willam cajoled.

* You're now adding carnal temptations to the aforementioned bribe? I think we may have passed sacrilege and moved on to unforgivable sins! *

"I have to stop," he got up off his knees. He was dressed in just his nightshirt and braies. "My arms are about to fall off. You're a big kitty, Lady Fuzzy."

* You stopped. I might eat you now. * I gave him what I hoped was a menacing look.

"Oh, alright, just a little more," he went for the chin. "You are so lucky, Cat Rider. Spirit beasts are so rare that people thought they were just a peasant tale. How did you find her?"

"She found me," Cat Rider shrugged.

"How long has she been around?"

"She wandered into Elvenhome about three and a half years ago," Cat said fondly. "She had a lot of arrows shot at her, even after it got around that a divine beast was living at my father's home."

"Is there a lot of upkeep?"

* Cat! Willam! I'm right here, you know. *

"Hush, silly feline," Cat bopped my nose with his boot tip. "It turns out that Fuzzy brings in more meat than she consumes, so there is a net gain. She's also available for removing dangerous wildlife in the areas where we graze our livestock. And since she is a mage, she often rescues travelers and visits out-of-the-way settlements to provide healing services."

* Will you two nubbins stop? This is getting embarrassing. *

Willam did stop. An expression of sorrow crossed his face and then was gone.

"That was a strange face," Cat remarked, having seen the same thing I saw.

"For a moment," Willam was whistful, "what Fuzzy said reminded me of my late sister, who I miss a lot." He smiled again, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud, "what's it like, living with a spirit beast?"

"It's like living with this really big cat," Cat Rider grinned, "who can talk. Not only can it talk, it can nag," he rolled his eyes. The round ear soldiers listening in laughed. "Cat Rider, measure out those medicines. Cat Rider, you need to do your homework. Cat Rider, you did that problem wrong."

"You have school assignments?" Willam looked puzzled.

"I used to. Elves do school our children. We are a literate people," Cat explained. "I'll have school assignments again if I decide to study healing in more detail. The world needs more healers. There are never enough. Though I don't need to decide about the study of healing until the year after I finish adventuring.

“Before you go, Cat Rider, can you take care of my poor uncle?” Willam asked.

“That’s where I’m going next.”