Chapter 04

As I had expected, the gecko person did not accept our findings.

“Of course she exists!” he stubbornly claimed. “How else could there be four different voices in Cat Nights songs without her?!”

Naturally, I couldn’t argue back. I don’t know what’s true or not since I wasn’t familiar with the idol group until he told us about it. But, he was convinced the member called Felis existed and the auction of her rare trading card was going to take place.

“Moreover”, he continued his rant as he produced a hologram and proceeded to show us clips from multiple videos. “There are always silhouettes of someone in Cat Nights music videos, but the shape of the person doesn’t resemble Leo, Lionor nor Lyn!”

Sure enough, there were silhouettes of what looked like a human girl sporting long high twintails and pointy cat-shaped ears on top of her head. But, what caught my attention more was the appearances of the three alien girls.

Two of them were lion-like humanoids and had manes similar to Streillaeth. One is just a head smaller than the other.

The third one had no mane but was still a feline-like being standing on two feet. She had a spotty orange fur and it looked like she had overgrown sideburns due to how it grows sideways on that part. At first I thought it was her in the silhouettes since she had similar pointy ears, but this girl only had short fur and cannot logically have long twintails unless she wore a wig.

The gecko person continued, “And in their latest video, they show a girl completely different from the other three.”

My eyes widened. There was a fourth girl. What amazed me more was that she was the most human-like out of the girls in the video as she had no fur. There was only the long black hair on the top of her head and her eyebrows, plus she had light skin similar to a human’s. Apart from her triangular cat ears, which were the same color as her hair, the only non-human parts were her eyes and hands which looked like cat’s eyes and paws respectively.

She had a small face and looked very pretty. If my junior was still attached to me, I’d probably have been convinced then and there and asked where I could meet this girl in person. For better or for worse, I could not think with him right now so I remained focused.

The more I watched, I noticed she wasn’t sporting a twintail as her hair was down the entire video. Not only that, she wasn’t even dancing or singing with the other girls. While she does appear to be singing at parts, the scenes where she does have different backdrops from the other Cat Nights members. The only real similarity that ties her to the silhouettes is her cat ears and I’m more likely to think she’s an actor for the music video.

“Are you deaf and blind” asked the gecko person. “Listen closely, this girl is shown to be singing during Felis’ parts!”

But, I couldn’t hear it. The singing voice sounded like one of the three known Cat Nights members. If I had to guess whose, I'd say it's the short lion girl.

He then produced two holographic images, one with a silhouette of a head from one of the previous videos, and one with the head of the girl from the last music video, and placed them on top of each other. “The shapes of their heads match!”

However, I still wasn’t convinced. That could easily be a coincidence or a trick of the camera.

Seeing the doubts in my face, the gecko person said, “Do you want to find the rare species shop or not? There’s only an hour left before the auction closes! Hurry out and find that shop or else I will tell every merchant in this rock to blacklist you”, he threatened.

He kicked Tank Top and I out of his store.

Figuratively.

We were already outside. The gecko person was a money lender and his shop was a small booth with only a glass and a short wall separating it from the street.

But, instead of returning to search for clues, I led Tank Top back out of the bazaar and stopped at a place with a bench.

Why are we stopping here? Tank Top asked me.

“A break!” I said, frustrated. I sat down on the bench and reiterated, “I want a break!”

But the time limit for the trading card…

“Do you even believe the gecko person? The proof he’s given us of the existence of this Felis person is flimsy at best!”

Then what do you propose we do now?

“I’m thinking of going back to our original mission; we still haven’t asked around the services and hardware streets”, I replied as I rummaged through the food we bought earlier. I continued, “But I’m tired of all that walking around, so I want to eat and recharge for now.”

I took two meat skewers from our shopping bag and handed one to Tank Top.

No, thank you, he said.

“You know”, I said, leading to some small talk. 

I took a bite off the unknown meat. Initially, when we were buying these earlier, I had no intention of eating them due to its unknown origin. But, food is food when you're starving. 

I then asked Tank Top, “How do you eat anyway? What do you do for food?”

My kind doesn’t feed like most beings, our sustenance comes from others feeling of fullness.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

If you feel full from eating food or drinking beverages, then I will have my fill as well.

I paused to imagine how that would work.

“Is it like an ‘If you’re happy then I’m happy’ kind of thing, or is it like you’re absorbing some form of life force out of me?”

He didn’t answer immediately.

We stared at each other for a moment as cold sweat ran down my spine at the thought of the alien in front of me treating me as food.

I assure you it's nothing like the latter, Tank Top finally answered, but without making eye contact.

I wanted to take the conversation further, but him looking away made me look in the same direction he faced. That’s when I spotted the back of a short person with a spiky brown tail walking into the bazaar.

I immediately recognized it as the same person who I had chased hours before at the bar, the poacher. The one who robbed me of my junior.

Quickly finishing my skewer, I jumped out of my seat without getting rid of the sticks. I felt I might need them as weapons or something, but I didn’t give it further thought.

Wait, where are you going? Tank Top asked, understandably confused.

Still, he followed me after picking up our shopping bag.

Luckily, the poacher didn’t notice me running towards him. I was able to immediately catch up before he could pass through the arch which serves as the bazaar’s entrance.

I caught him by the shoulder prepared for a scrap and declared, “I believe you have something of mine.”

He looked back at me and I noticed he had a head similar to a velociraptor from the Jurassic Park movie series, except he had brown skin… or scales. My head was immediately filled with regret as I didn’t have the confidence of fighting him based on looks.

His eyes widened as he seemed to have recognized me. But, it didn’t take long for him to regain composure as his expression immediately turned combative.

Fortunately, his hands were occupied by a large box so he wasn’t able to throw at least one fist like he did when I chased him at the bar’s parking lot. All he could do was intimidate me with a glare.

It made me flinch.

But, I knew Tank Top was behind me so, even if the mean look worked on me, I stood my ground and kept my hold on the dino person’s shoulder. 

Unfortunately, despite his long legs, Tank Top was a slow runner.

The dino person sensed I had backup before Tank Top could catch up. He barged his shoulder onto me and fled into the bazaar.

I gave chase, but it was difficult running through the crowded street. His short height also enabled him to hide in a sea of alien beings. Luckily for me, he created a momentary trail with the parting crowd, so I managed to keep on his tail, figuratively speaking.

I chased him until the hardware street where the foot traffic got less congested. But, just as I was about to catch up to him, he stopped and whipped his tail at me.

That caught me off guard and sent me flying sideways. I thought I would hit one of the stalls, but something soft and squishy got in between me and some fragile-looking vases.

“Hey, watch it! These are antiques”, I heard the person who caught me say.

It was the jellyfish person from earlier, but I wasn’t sure who exactly it was. I was more interested in resuming my pursuit of the thief who stole my junior.

However, he was no longer in sight. A crowd had gathered around to gawk at me so I couldn’t track him the same way I did earlier.

“Where did the guy I was chasing go?” I asked someone from the crowd.

“I don’t know, man I just got here”, was the nervous reply I received.

I asked a few more, but got the same response, if they answered at all.

It didn’t take long before the crowd dissipated and the street went on business as usual.

I considered continuing in the same direction I was running at before. But, before I could make the first step, I couldn’t help but overhear, “Yeah, I’d like to continue our discussion about the Felis trading card auction.”

That caught my full attention.

I noticed it was some human-sized cucumber person who said that to the jellyfish person. Or, at least, he was some sort of long green being with arms and legs.

“Right, let’s discuss your bid inside”, the jellyfish person replied to him.

“Hey, wait a minute!” I couldn’t help but interrupt. “You said the Felis from Cat Nights was a hoax!”

The jellyfish person then turned to me and said, “First off, I didn’t tell you that. Secondly, it's your fault for choosing the wrong answer.”