Kelluvin ran his thumb over my lower lip as he looked down with me with a slight smile.

It felt really good, even if I didn't want it to.

His hands moved up to stroke the sides of my head, then scratched gently behind my ears. "You're such a good girl for me."

I was holding my arms behind my head, and it was a little uncomfortable, but trying to move them down reminded me that they were tied there. The ropes didn't feel that strong, but disobeying him... there was never any point to it.

He reached down and took me by my waist and dragged me a little closer, so my head was pressed right against his cock. It was hard and it smelled like him and sex, and I started getting wet-- probably because he kept touching me whenever sexual things happened.

"Such a perfect little mouth." Kelluvin sounded pleased with me as he pushed the head of his cock past my lips, grabbed hold of my head between his hands, and started gently fucking my mouth. He kept on throwing in little pets and scratches as he used my mouth for his pleasure, and he wasn't even being rough, so it was hard to get too mad.

His hard cock slid into my mouth again and again as I sucked on it desperately, trying to do my best to lick along the underside like I knew he liked, as he controlled the angle and speed at which he used my mouth.

His arms wrapped around me... was I so out of it I didn't realize he had shifted positions?

I blinked hazily.

He was behind me, and there were covers over us, and we were lying down, his hard cock pressed right up against my thigh... ah.

I had woken up from a dream.

I slowly inhaled and exhaled, trying to remain calm despite how close he was to fucking me.

I started to slowly wriggle out of his arms, trying not to disturb him too much or move much against his dick-- I didn't want him to wake up, or cause him to start having some sort of erotic dream with me in his arms.

But his clutch on me wasn't too strong, and he just let out a little indistinct throaty moan as I wriggled against his body and cock and away to freedom.

I slid down onto the floor and crawled out of the bedroom, then stood up outside of it to try to salve a little bit of dignity.

I leaned against the wall, and was reminded of how I had fur on my body and nothing else.

I could see better in the dark than I was used to, too-- there was no light except for a bit of moon coming through the clouds and into the window, and I could see the table that we had eaten at, and the bag in the corner that Kelluvin had gotten from that store while I waited outside.

...what was in that bag, though?

I walked over and sat down crosslegged next to the bag on the stone floor, and opened it up... a small orb somewhere between metallic and translucent, a long rope that seemed to be woven out of living grass that was surprisingly soft to the touch, and... a purple sculpture carved from stone... roughly in the shape of a dick...? Maybe a dildo...? I guess he had just gotten an entire bag of sex toys.

Digging a little deeper, I found... a bunch of leather loops and buckles attached into some sort of configuration? ...okay, I didn't even want to think about whatever perverted sex toy this was.

Even deeper, I felt a handle, and pulled out what looked a bit like a curved scalpel. Luckily I hadn't grabbed the pointy end.

Was he going to torture me for fun? Or do some sort of surgery on me? Inscribe runes into my flesh because the tattoos hadn't been enough? My comfort certainly didn't seem to be a big priority so far.

I realized I was hyperventilating.

Okay. Hurting him with it was a bad idea. Hopefully it was just for inscribing runes in other things.

I put the scalpel back in the bag before he saw me with it, then the harness or whatever it was, I didn't want to think about it, and then the ball too, because I didn't even know what to do with it... insert it somewhere? Maybe it was a vibrating orb. Not anything I wanted to or knew how to experiment with, though.

Trying to kill him with a scalpel would almost certainly get me killed, one way or another. Maybe if he had been nothing but utterly cruel, that'd be kinda tempting, but luckily it seemed like he was sort of trying to be nice to me in his own way. I still really wanted to live, even if it meant living like this. So back it went.

I wasn't going to tie myself or him up... tying him up would be an even worse idea than trying to kill him with a scalpel, logistically speaking. Back went the rope.

Which left the dildo. I couldn't be absolutely sure it was a dildo, but given the shape, I couldn't really imagine what else it was supposed to be-- the tip was a bit pointed, but otherwise, it was basically cock-shaped. I ran my fingers across it. The base of the dildo felt a bit like glass or polished stone, but the "cock" part felt even smoother, almost wet-- maybe some sort of magic? I measured it against my hand... bigger than three of my fingers. Still smaller than Kelluvin's dick, though.

He was definitely going to use it on me.

...maybe I'd have some control over the process if I did it myself? I could lose my virginity on my own terms.

I started rubbing my fingers against the outer lips of my pussy, which were still a little wet from the dream. It'd be more gradual to use them first, but I was afraid to actually penetrate myself with them... and that was the whole point, wasn't it? Last time I had been penetrated, my claws had come out, and I didn't want that happening inside of me.

Despite my fur, the cold stone floor beneath me was a little distracting, and I looked back over to the fur rug by the bed... that looked a lot warmer and more comfortable. All I'd have to do was keep my voice down, and I could do this fine.

I snuck over to the rug, and with my light body and presumably because of the pads on my feet, I could barely hear myself, other than the soft sound of my breathing... and that was with the better hearing, too. If I could get this collar off, I could sneak away, at least physically... but without any knowledge of the world or defenses, I'd probably get caught or worse. I had to wait until Kelluvin taught me magic to even think about that possibility, so I put it out of my mind.

And keeping on Kelluvin's good side meant learning to take a cock inside of me.

I started rubbing my fingertips against my pussy, being careful to angle them so even if my claws came out it wouldn't be dangerous, and I was already kind of wet, but the added danger of clawing myself wasn't exactly a turn on, so I switched to rubbing my pussy lips with the long side of the dildo instead.

I closed my eyes and my mind immediately went to Kelluvin rubbing his cock against my pussy as he got ready to penetrate me, but even though my body got wetter as it tried to protect myself, my pussy also tightened up, and I decided I'd be better off fantasizing about the woman with a cock I had seen in a dream the other day... or better yet, since that memory was sort of fuzzy, the woman with the bulge who had been flirting with her pet when we had been coming back yesterday.

I ran my free hand against my hip and along my side as I continued to grind the dildo against my pussy, trying to imagine if I was owned by a lady instead... surely she'd be a bit nicer than Kelluvin, right? Even if she wasn't, the idea of being attracted to a woman was far more comfortable than being attracted to a man, even if Kelluvin wasn't exactly unattractive for a man... well, he looked a little bit feminine, so that was probably the reason I could think about him while doing this and it didn't exactly interrupt my thought process.

I had to get used to him, right?

I cupped my breast and played with my nipple, and it felt nice, and not in the overpowering way when Kelluvin was rubbing my nipple after pulling on it.

I rubbed the tip of the dildo against my pussy and slowly pressed it inwards, and noticed I was starting to make little moany sounds, and covered my mouth... well, my lower mouth was also starting to make a little bit of noise too, with how wet it had been getting, but surely not enough to wake anyone up?

Due to the pointed tip, I managed to work the dildo a little bit inside of me, but it was harder to get much deeper-- maybe it was the position? Lying on your back wasn't supposed to be the way to achieve the deepest penetration, right? Nor the way women gave birth, but I quickly stopped thinking about that because that filled me with more dread than arousal, and I was focused on my goal right now.

I lifted my legs up against my side, but it was hard to keep them there, so I used the hand I had been covering my mouth with to hold one up, and that seemed to make it feel a little less impossible as I applied gentle pressure against my entrance with the head of the dildo.

I pressed harder and harder, determined to get the dildo in, and suddenly it popped inside me, which was overwhelming and a little painful, and my pussy clenched against the large, unfamiliar intrusion.

I lay there for a little while, panting softly, as I tried to get used to it inside me... slowly, I managed to relax my muscles again, and begin to rub it back in forth inside me. I was starting to make moany noises again, but they were pretty soft, so I doubt they'd wake Kelluvin, and I couldn't hold my leg up and cover my mouth at the same time... maybe...?

I rolled over on my front, pressing my face against the fur rug to muffle my moans, inhaling the slightly musty scent of the rug and the unpleasant dried cum smell from Kelluvin coming all over my face yesterday, but this made penetrating myself with the dildo awkward, so I pushed myself up onto my knees, giving better access to work the dildo in my pussy as my face and breasts pressed against the rug, rubbing my upper body against the fur slightly as I fucked myself with the sex toy, which felt nice... and so did the deep penetration too, right now.

I began to feel closer and closer to cumming as the wet noise of my pussy being fucked echoed softly through the room and my breasts got teased by the fur, which was a little scary, but also motivating... I could do this!

I needed more, though, so I fucked myself harder, intentionally rubbing myself against the rug, moaning into it and thinking about someone sort of feminine with a cock fucking me from behind, and I found myself letting out a sharp cry as my body tightened around the dildo... surely the fur had mostly covered that up, right?

I rested for a moment in that awkward position, panting, my butt settling down a little from it's raised position in the air, and I felt a hand stroke along my back, and started, my muscles clenching down on the large dildo inside of me.

"...shhh, it's okay...." Kelluvin's voice, he must've been watching me.

...maybe I hadn't been quite as quiet as I had thought.

He was naked, of course. He slept naked. Maybe he was about to fuck me.

I didn't make eye contact.

I rolled over onto my back, and slowly started to work the dildo out of me, but that just caused another moan to escape my mouth, so I stopped, letting go of the dildo for the moment.

I stared up at him, and it was hard to level my full anger at him with how relaxed and pleasured I was feeling right now, especially as his hand stroked my head and scritched behind my ears... he was smiling down at me? He wasn't even mad.

"Guess you got too horny to wait for further training?" Kelluvin just sounded amused.

I narrowed my eyes a little. "I wasn't too horny, I was trying to train myself so..." ...what? So I could take his cock? This felt even more embarrassing to admit.

Kelluvin laughed. "Such a good kitten, thinking only of how to train her body for me." He clearly didn't believe me, and he had guessed what I didn't want to say, too.

I tensed up a little, glaring at him.

He adjusted his position on the bed and leaned over me, rubbing my belly, which felt really really nice, and I couldn't help but relaxing as he slowly pulled the dildo out of me. He handed me the dildo, and I took it, then stared at it, then glanced up at him-- did he expect me to lick it clean?

He got off the bed and swept me up into his arms before I had decided what he wanted. "Your face is still all messy, I guess we should get you a nice bath."

Whose fault was that I had dried cum all over my face, exactly? But his body did feel really nice and warm, and I let him carry me off to the bathroom.

He walked over to the tub and kneeled down, sort of awkwardly holding onto me with one arm while his other arm went to touch the wall, and I wrapped my arms around the back of his neck so I wouldn't fall.

In a moment, the tub was two-thirds filled with hot water. He scooted me into a sitting position in his lap, and hovered his hand over a little picture of a full bathtub. "You touch this icon to bring hot water..." He put his hand over a little picture of an empty bathtub. "...and this to send used water away. Either will shut down if anything besides water is in the bathtub."

"...wow." That was even more convenient than the ones back in my world. He picked me back up, and settled me down into the water, and a sharp pain struck me as my pussy hit the water-- I hadn't even realized how sore I was. My claws clutched at air a little, but luckily I didn't hurt him or myself this time.

He noticed, though. "...we'll have to cut those."

I looked down at my hands. It was probably safer, but taking away what little modicum of defense didn't feel exactly great. "...yes, Master." The first shock of hitting the water was the most painful, but it seemed like my body was slowly relaxing into it. "...wait, is it safe to cut them?"

Kelluvin stroked my hand softly. "Blood does flow deeper within them, but as long as we don't cut them too short, it'll be fine." He glanced at me. "A bit surprised you don't know that."

Wait, how did I cover that up. I stared up at him, and realized I was holding my breath, and slowly made myself inhale and exhale. Was my body trembling? I shouldn't be trembling, if he caught on to my actual secret, it could be really bad-- vivisection wasn't out of the question for a really interesting specimen, was it? "I don't know... why would someone without a master need to cut their claws?"

Kelluvin nodded, seemingly satisfied, and started cupping his hands and pouring water over my head. It was nice and warm, and that and Kelluvin’s lack of suspicion was helping me relax a little, but I could feel my fur sticking to my body, and it was weird.

I looked down and had a bit of a shock to find that the fur stuck down there, which obviously would've happened, but I looked so much smaller with all my fur slicked down against my body. I had to try to act normal about it, though, since that's something that I should've known about even without domestication.

Being a pathetic wet catgirl with a guy who basically owned me running his hands over me was different from what I had imagined my life to be when I had asked to be catfolk, and I felt teary and like it was all too much. I didn't want to sob in front of him right now and look even more pathetic, though, or for him to get upset at me.

"Are you okay?" Kelluvin's voice was gentle. Concerned, even though it was his own fault.

"I'm fine, just a little overwhelmed. Not used to warm baths or y'know," I gestured vaguely to indicate dildo use, and Kelluvin laughed at me softly.

How dare he.

"Okay, I'll be sure to hold you close after you take my cock for the first time." There was a little amusement in his voice, but also a gentleness that was almost worse.

That sounded simultaneously potentially comforting and the absolute worst thing he could say right now. It's not like I could tell him that, though, so I just nodded a little. "...okay...."

He got some soap out, and I stood up and helped him lather my body up rather than bolting out the door and hiding under the bed or something... I wanted to at least keep the remaining scrap of my tattered shreds of dignity.

The warmth and the gentleness of his touch that I didn't want did make it easy to kind of dissociate once I slipped back into the water, and I mostly just let him rinse me clean.

He picked me up and placed me on the tile floor, and then some runes coalesced around his hands, and soft warmth flowed out from his hands that seemed to part and fluff my fur surprisingly quickly. The runes shifted around his hands in a strange pattern.

I looked at his hands with interest. "What's that?"

"It's Mispl, the whispering heat. Really good for drying clothes and pets."

"...why don't you have an icon for that?"

"Because it's a wind icon, you can't inscribe a wind icon." Kelluvin sounded amused by the very idea, almost patronizing.

I watched, trying to make sense of the rune as it spun around his hands... the number and length of the line segments seemed the same, just the angles and relationships between them were changing.

Is that what it meant to be a wind rune? Or was it a wind rune because of the way it was dispersing the heat?

I watched as my body went from bedraggled to somewhat respectable again, and as he finished up, felt really clean for the first time I had in days.

"I think you can learn to bathe yourself in the future, right? I just wanted to make sure I was here this time. But even if you can, don't do it without asking, because I might not always have the time to dry you off."

"...yes, Master." I wanted to sound sarcastic, but to my ears my own voice just sounded bratty. Ugh.
He stood up, and turned his hands and the warmth towards himself briefly, and sitting on the floor it was very easy to see that his cock was semi-hard, so I quickly stood up before he got ideas.

He reached over and ran his hand over my head and it felt stupidly nice. "Let's go eat breakfast."

Kelluvin turned away and walked towards the room we had eaten in before... dining room? It's not like I had seen any stove or anything, although I suppose if he did have a heat element, it'd be a rune.

My gaze lingered on his back for a moment. He was still so much taller and stronger than me. He always was, but the bath had reminded me of just how small I was.

He sat down in the chair at the table, and since he was still naked, I could see his semi-erect cock. Did he expect me to suck him off again?

He patted his lap.

I hesitated-- what if he had gotten turned on and decided to fuck me?

"Here, Alice." Kelluvin's voice was soft, but a bit commanding.

I reluctantly climbed up into his lap.

He pulled me closer to him. I could feel the hardness of his cock against the back of my butt as I had apparently pushed it up between us when I got on. "You need to get you used to being around me. And you need to trust me. I've been really gentle with you, haven't I?"

...he certainly hadn't, not the last time I had given him a blowjob, but that didn't seem wise to mention right now-- he might take it as pushing disobedience or something. I just nodded a little, and he petted my thigh idly.

I swallowed. It was hard to completely trust him. I was overwhelmed with just using the dildo earlier, and I knew that his cock was larger... but it seemed like he was being gentle and patient with me, at least by his standards.

I had no power, rather, every little bit of power I tried to seize with my claws or my mouth, he punished me for.

Runes -- some of which seemed a bit familiar to the ones formed when the bath water was turned on or the gruel was summoned -- appeared before me on the table, and a large plate with a slight upwards curve on the outside appeared-- or perhaps a rather flat bowl?

In the plate was what looked to be a single thick noodle spiralling from center to outside, half-covered with a creamy broth, steaming slightly.

Kelluvin picked up a spoon, and went to cut off a piece of the noodle, lifting it to my lips with a little bit of the creamy broth.

I realized I was in fact hungry, and let him slide the spoon past my lips, only to be a bit startled by the richness of the broth, and then more texture than I expected as I started to chew-- looking down at the noodle, it seemed to have some kind of filling, definitely meat or mushrooms or something, maybe some vegetables. It was savory and almost citrusy, although certainly a kind of citrus I had never had before, and a meat or mushroom of a kind I hadn't tasted either. It cut through the rich broth and as I chewed it, calmed down the overwhelmingly rich creaminess to something a little more bearable.

Was I purring?

Kelluvin got himself a bite of the noodle while scritching me softly under the chin, and that felt amazing too, in it's own way, clouding my head a little as he took a few bites for himself... maybe how good the food was had more to do with my more-sensitive body than with the food of this world.

If I could just be perfectly obedient, trusting, and loyal, he'd take good care of me, right?

...but that was probably impossible, wasn't it?

I didn't think my mind could ever get fully used to submitting to someone, especially a man. Being able to would be totally different from anything I had ever imagined myself as.

But humans -- or people, I guess -- were ultimately malleable, right? Someday, maybe, I'd become someone who was unrecognizable to myself… but there were plenty of people who were miserable despite being in their situation for a while, too, weren't there? I wasn't sure which thought filled me more with hope and despair.

Kelluvin fed me another bite of the delicious filled noodle, and for a little time I just lost myself in the hedonic desire of delicious food and comforting petting. As long as I didn't think, I'd be happy, right?

"Such a happy kitten... you're really enjoying my sausage, aren't you?" He sounded amused.

I tensed up a little-- did he really have to make it sexual? I tried to focus on the fact that I thought it was a noodle and he said 'sausage', which implied either my possibly understanding of the language was a bit off, which I guess wouldn't be surprising, or I had visually misidentified-- I heard growling and stopped thinking about it for a moment, only to realize it was my own.

"Wait, you understood that?" Kelluvin sounded surprised, maybe even impressed.

That didn't exactly make it easier to get my emotions under control. I briefly wondered if his conclusion had more to do with catfolk really not understanding the elven language that they were presumably around a lot, some sort of hearing differences that I didn't have, or Kelluvin's own prejudices.

"Well, no sitting in my lap or treats when you're growling." He didn't sound upset, just like he was... remembering something. Remembering how to tame cats, no doubt. He lifted me up effortlessly and set me on the ground. "Stop growling and kneel when you're ready to eat. Or you can go eat your pet food, of course."

I glanced over at the bowl that would distribute the thin, viscous, gruel, and kneeled, closing my eyes and trying to get my emotions back under control.

I could hear him just continuing to eat, which was super unfair.

I slowly breathed in and out. Kelluvin making a little innuendo wasn't the worst thing he had done, it was just that it was indignity after indignity heaped on me. I managed to focus on my breathing.

After a little while I stopped growling and opened my eyes, and watched him eat for a little bit, until my tummy let out a little growl of it's own-- I guess the couple bites of food hadn't been enough.

He looked down at me with a smile, and fed me another bite.

It was still excellent, unsurprisingly.

I tried to just focus on the excellent food, rather than anything else about my circumstances, but he wasn't petting me anymore, which made it a bit harder.

Soon enough, Kelluvin finished his food, and I was mostly full too-- full enough that the idea of pouring myself some gruel was completely unappetizing. He patted my head. "Be a good girl and go fetch the bag you took the dildo from earlier."

I hesitated, wonder what in there was he planning on using on me?

But what good did hesitation do?

I stood up from kneeling, and walked over towards bag, only realizing that standing up from kneeling was becoming smooth and easier as I crouched to pick it up. I carried it back to him, and held it up to him.

"Good girl." Kelluvin smiled down at me, then stared off into space for a moment, then nodded, and looked back to me, his smile returning a bit smaller, but with similar emotion. "This is probably going to be easiest for us on the bed."

We walked over to it, and I climbed up onto it, and he patted my back. "Lie on your stomach." I tried to think of it as a sort of masseuse thing.

He pulled the scalpel out of the bag, and I tensed up, taking a step back. "Wait, you're not going to cut them out, are you?"

Kelluvin shook his head. "That's bad for your bone structure. And besides, if I was going to do something like that, I'd have a professional do it." He looked down at the scalpel and took it near the handle by the blade end, and held it out to me. "I'm not going to hurt you."

I took the scalpel and looked it over, then handed it back-- I guess he was showing mutual trust, which was sort of nice. I got up on the bed and laid down on my stomach, stretching my arms out in front of me and trying to relax.

He started stroking my back, which made it easier, even made me start to purr a little.

Still... it was hard to completely trust his skill. "Are you good enough at trimming claws that you can use a tool like that?"

"Oh, I guess you wouldn't know about tools. The blade is set with Thertl, Caia and--" Kelluvin paused, then laughed. "...well, you wouldn't understand it, so... basically, once you start to make the cut, it keeps going at the right curve until it isn't against something or you stop moving it. Some professionals just use a blade without those icons, because they say they can get a better angle, but all I have to do is start in the right place, and it's perfectly safe."

I propped my chin up and watched him as he took hold of my index finger and pressed against a certain spot in my finger firmly until my claw came out.

He was still holding the scalpel, though. "Wait, I wanna do it."

Kelluvin paused. "You don't know where to make the right cuts..." He tapped his fingertip against the side of the handle a couple of times. "I'll let you do your other hand and your left foot, too, after you've watched how I do each-- but if you cut yourself or nick your vein inside, we'll have to take a trip to the vet, and you don't get to do this in the future. Deal?" A slight pause, and then he added, "Remember I do take promises seriously."

I lifted myself up onto my forearms a little and slid my legs under myself in a sort of crouching position so I'd have a better view of him clipping my claws-- managed to do it without moving my hands, too, which I was mildly impressed with myself for. "Deal."

He was very careful where he set the blade, holding it against my claw at an angle, then looking at it from a few angles of his own perspective before he slowly cut it with a gentle curve, cutting the sharp tip of my claw off, where it fell on the bed.

I watched the next four, seeing how he adjusted to each one, and then he held out the scalpel to me, and I took the handle carefully, wanting to be sure I wouldn't cut into his hand.

It took a few flexes of my fingers until I figured out how to get my own claws out just right out of intent rather than just anger -- I had never really had reason to try it before -- and I carefully adjust the angle so I thought it'd cut off just like Kelluvin had, and looked over at him where he was sitting next to my on the floor for confirmation.

He gave me a smile and a nod, so I looked back, to make sure I hadn't changed position, and sliced the tip of my claw off-- no bleeding, and it looked smooth now.

He leaned in, then nodded. "Looks like you got it." Mild surprise there, too-- I guess he had expected me to hurt myself a little, and for it to be some sort of lesson, which made me a little mad, but I had to set aside my emotions for now if I was going to get through this without cutting myself.

Between us, we got my foot-claws trimmed too. That done, he carefully gathered up all ten clawtips, depositing them in a carving of a stone creature, a gargoyle maybe, that was enlaid in the corner of the wall-- trashcan, maybe? A pretty small one, if so, I hadn't stood out to me as more than ornamentation, but maybe it's mouth (with liftable top beak) went somewhere.

Looking down at my trimmed claws, I felt a weirdly helpless. It's not like I could have won a fight with them against someone bigger and stronger, but it still meant that I couldn't fight back at all. I tried to remind myself that hurting someone accidentally was probably worse, but I had just become even more reliant on Kelluvin for safety than I already was.

Perhaps sensing my discomfort, or perhaps just feeling like it, he stroked my back, and I relaxed against him and lost myself in purring for a little while.

Finally, though, Kelluvin lifted his hand from my body. "I'm going to use my scribing table."

I sat up and looked up at him. "Can I watch?"

He stared at me for a long moment. "Sure, you can watch from the doorway. But if you come in or touch anything, your punishment will be more severe than you can imagine. If you're lucky enough to survive, of course. It's nothing particularly exciting to watch, but I am dealing with powerful icons."

I followed him to his room, where he put on some clothes, and then a door, where he unlocked it by tracing his hand in circles around a series of runes, causing some bands around the door to dissipate-- a lot like the front door, really.

He sat down at a table with an array of tools on one side, some of which looked more or less like woodworking tools I had seen before, and some of which I had no idea what they were.

I leaned on the outside of the doorframe-- I had to remain standing to see what he was doing at all.

Some shifting runes appeared around his hand as he cast a spell, and then a distortion appeared over his eye as he looked down at some sort of very large ring, or perhaps very small bracelet, and picked up a tool, tracing over it.

I squinted a little as I tried to make out what rune he was inscribing. "Is that supposed to happen with your eye?"

"Yes," said Kelluvin, a bit distractedly.

"What is it?"

Kelluvin didn't look up, and it took him a moment to respond, lifting the tool up from the ring slightly. "It lets me see my work up close."

I considered the shifting runes I had seen when he was casting it. "Is it a wind rune?"

Kelluvin paused, and looked over to me, an eyebrow raised. "Rune? But it's a wind icon, yes. How did you figure that one out?"

Maybe it would be better not to let on that I could see magic? I didn't know how rare that was, and being an anomaly might get me dissected or something. "If it's a spell you might use every day, I figure it would be a tool if it was possible."

He laughed softly. "Very clever." And with that, he got back to work.

I squinted, trying to make out what rune he was inscribing, or at least the shape, even if I couldn't tell what it was. I couldn't really, though. "What..." They were called icons, weren't they? "...what icon are you inscribing?"

Kelluvin set down his tool after a moment. "...bring the bag to the door." He didn't sound mad, exactly, just like he was running out of patience.

I went back the bag and brought it to the door, setting it outside it, and after a little more work, he stood up and walked over, picking up the bag and rummaging through it.

I stared up at him, tilting my head a bit to one side as I tried to make out his expression. He wasn't going to tie me up or something, was he?

He pulled out an orb, and it started to whirr and glow with a kaleidoscope of lights very beautifully and distractingly. He tossed it onto the floor behind me, and it started to roll on the floor, and I watched it, the tip of my tail moving reflexively.

"Isn't... isn't that dangerous? If... if it gets into the workshop...." The orb was scurrying around across the floor, and I couldn't take my eyes off it... it was taking all my willpower not to go after it, because I thought it could literally kill us... actually, maybe it would be better to catch it before it did harm?

"It has basic toy safety features, of course, it won't go through or even near doorways on it's own." He stepped back away from the door and out of the my sight.

Hunt!

Before I was sure I understood his words or not, I was dashing across the floor at the orb, which was meandering and letting out little pulses of light, unaware that it was about to become my prey.

I lunged across the floor to catch it between my hands, but it must have noticed me, as it flashed and spun back barely out of my reach, just barely escaping my grasp. I slid across the floor just a bit, my head and then body turning to follow the orb as it spun along the wall, and I dashed after it again-- one escape route had been closed off to it!

The moment I got close, the wily little morsel reversed direction, and slid past my arms and under my legs before I could course-correct properly, and I followed it, across tiled floor and underneath the table, bumping up against my food bowl.

It scurried behind the bowl before I could grab it, and when I jumped to grab it, ran back under the table, hiding behind the closest table leg, uncertain which direction to dash in. I chased it around under the table, but it had better purchase on the tiled surface than my paws as I ran after it with full speed, and it eluded me again and again.

It ran off into the bedroom, trying to hide under the bed, and I somehow managed to lower myself enough to slide under the bed at full speed at a lunge, coming out the other side as it skittered out of the way, and slamming my head into the wall, and letting out a sharp cry.

That hurt a lot.

I could hear the whirring of the orb behind and to the left of me, but with the pain, I was able to ignore it for a moment-- but if it got into my vision, no doubt I'd be chasing after it. I closed my eyes, turned, and leaped up onto the bed, landing on the soft surface.

...maybe that was a bad idea, it could have hurt more if I ran into the bedframe.

Either way, I heard it whirring still, dancing around under and out of the bed, taunting me, and I had to catch it...

I pulled a hexagon-patterned quilt off the bed, waited until my prey scurried out from under the bed, and tossed it over the orb, where it whirred, moving around under the blanket, the glow through the colored patterns on the quilt shining through.

I pounced, and with the blanket, was able to pin it down, and trap it, and bite it--- well, it wasn't exactly hard, but it wasn't that pleasant to bite into, either.

I had won, but my prey tasted unpleasantly like cloth-- and it was doubtful the orb tasted better.

As I held my prey prisoner, the light and movement died down, and I picked up both quilt and ball, carrying them to the bed, holding it close so it couldn't cast it's enchantment over me. I was unsure how much of what it was doing was some sort of magic on the orb versus my catfolk instincts... although the sheer joy of using the body I had wanted for something more than sex no had an influence as well.

Regardless, now that I was no longer in the moment, I realized my muscles were actually quite a bit sore... I supposed I wasn't used to using them like that, and I had gone full out with all of my might to try to catch that tricky little orb.

I found myself curling up half-inside the quilt and closing my eyes, and though I meant to just rest for a moment, I felt more exhausted from my chase than I had realized, and began to drift off.

I had dreams of chasing little animals, and finally I caught one, and it tasted like the sausage I had eaten earlier today, which made me realize it was a dream, because I imagined little animals wouldn't taste like that.

This caused me to wake up, finding I had the quilt in my mouth again. Still not a great taste. I let go of it, and stretched out, only to realize my muscles weren't sore anymore... so I stretched a little farther, and then relaxed and lay there for a little while.

Finally, I got back up, leaving the orb where I had hidden it. Part of me wanted to bring it to Kelluvin and show him I had defeated it, but he'd probably just find that funny, and might even make me chase it again.

I walked over to his workroom, where he was still working on something... inscribing slightly larger icons on a long strip of wood now, it looked like.

I leaned against the doorframe and quietly watched him work, although it was hard to make out anything, that's how language immersion learning worked, right? If I kept seeing runes, maybe I'd start to make sense of them more easily, or at least be able to distinguish them. It would've been boring if the keys to unlocking magic weren't being written right in front of me.

Finally, Kelluvin put down his tool, and passed his hand over his eye, dispelling the distortion. "That's enough for now." He smiled over at me. "You like watching your handsome master that much?"

I narrowed my eyes. "I'm going to learn magic, so it seems important to absorb everything I can."

He smiled a little. "There's no need for you to learn magic."

"You said you'd teach me magic." I stared up into his eyes. "I thought you took your word seriously."

Kelluvin loomed closer over me. "How dare--" He stopped midsentence, and stared down at me for a long moment with such anger that it became harder to meet his gaze, though I did, my body trembling slightly.

Finally, he nodded, though the expression wasn't entirely gone from his face. "Very well. You'll need to learn math first."

"Why would I need to do that? Besides, I already know math."

"Numbers are what underly the universe, you need to understand their relation to have any chance of doing magic correctly. It's far easier to learn math first..." He raised an eyebrow. "...unless you just want to be taught a single basic spell? Then I could teach you only the math you need to know for that."

"I know math," I repeated. "And I want to learn more than a basic spell."

"...Fine. Seven plus twelve."

"Nineteen." I didn't even need to think for that one.

Kelluvin blinked. "Seven times twelve?"

Seven times ten, seventy, seven times two, fourteen, so-- "Eighty-four."

"Degrees of the angle of a corner of a square."

Was he trying to trip me up? "Inside angle, ninety degrees, outside angle, two hundred and seventy degrees."

Kelluvin stared at me, but with interest, now. "...hmm. That is unusual."

"It's really basic math," I retorted.

He pet my head, and it was distractingly nice. "More than most cats know," he said softly, as if he was considering something.

Finally, he laughed. "Very well. I'll start teaching you magic. Since you're so advanced in math, we'll start off with Mispl, the whispering heat." He tapped a finger on my nose. "It would be convenient for you to be able to dry yourself, after all."

"...It feels like wind icons would be harder." Was he trying not to teach me anything again?

"Earth icons are essentially frozen moments of wind icons, people who learn them first tend to have trouble with wind icons later." He scritched under my chin. "Well... it'll be a miracle if you even learn Earth icons, so we might as well not complicate things. Let's see... if we were going to start with an Earth icon...." He trailed off, petting along the side of my neck as he stared into space.

It was taking a fair bit of focus not to start purring. "...let's start with Mispl, please."

He blinked, then smiled. "Very well, I'll let you give it a shot." He sat down on a rug, and took one of the book-boxes down from the shelf, and it opened up, flipping through pages on it's own until he pulled out a few pages, laying them on the rug in front of himself. "Sit down next to me."

I sat down by his side, looking down at the pages, which had a bit of scrawled writing and a ton of equations and geometric shapes on them.

Kelluvin petted me idly, hand wandering around my body in a way that felt really good, and sometimes a bit arousing, as he seemed to neither seek out nor avoid my more vulnerable areas. Possibly he was trying to distract me, but either way, I thought if I complained about it, it's likely he would claim I wasn't holding up my role as his pet, and wouldn't teach me.

"So, we're going to talk about the key angle first-- it's sort of arbitrary, but it's what we think of the rest of the icon as transforming around. Now, the speed of transformation can vary, but we're going to start with a transformation of about..." He slowly scribed his finger in a circle. "...at about that speed. The faster the rune rotates, the more powerful, but the less stable.” He paused. “Let’s see, what else would you need to know….”

I focused as best I could on his words with his hand wandering over my chest.

Kelluvin continued after a moment, “Ah, you have to know what the line segment represents, first. So, what we're basically doing is a condensation of the natural energy that exists in all things...."

It seemed he was getting more enthusiastic about teaching me now that he was talking about it, I guess it was a subject he was passionate about, but I also suspected he was pretty new to teaching by his rambling style, unless he was deliberately trying to make things difficult for me. I leaned against him as he stroked my arm, maintaining focus as best I could. I had the feeling it was going to be a long teaching session.