On the way to meet the Sage, I enjoyed a peaceful journey.
I wonder how long I slept. I woke up to the heat. The sunlight was blinding, and I had slept until around noon. But thanks to that, my fatigue was gone. Looking around, everyone else was dozing off like me. Their peaceful sleeping faces made me feel bad about waking them.
Then, I heard a rustling sound from somewhere. It sounded like something was being rummaged through. I remembered the time goblins stole my luggage a long time ago. I wondered if there might be some here too. I gently took out a dagger from my bag, not wanting to alert the enemy.
Listening closely, the sound seemed to be coming from the carrier that Elana was riding in. It was shaking slightly. I slowly approached without making a sound. Then, the carrier shook violently and tipped over.
What appeared from inside was a cat. Its cute tail was visible.
“Oh, you startled me.”
A sense of relief washed over me, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I never imagined a cat was playing a trick. What a mischievous child. I went closer and grabbed its hindquarters that were sticking out of the carrier.
“There, I caught you. What are you doing?”
As I turned it around, I locked eyes with its face. It was definitely a human face. I instinctively let go of my hand. I never expected a cat to have a human face, and cold sweat broke out all over me. As I backed away, the cat emerged from the tipped-over carrier.
A cat’s body with a human head… this is…
“Y-you found me. This is bad, I have to get rid of you. Sorry!”
Saying that, the Sphinx girl pounced. She was small, so she was probably still a child, but her sharp claws would hurt if they scratched me.
“Hey, wait a minute. You’re a Sphinx, aren’t you? I know.”
She stopped moving, standing perfectly still on her hind legs.
“So, so it is. My eyes were not mistaken. Who are you? If you say anything foolish, you won’t get away with it.”
She pointed her index finger—or rather, her front paw—at me sharply.
“We just want to pass through here. We didn’t know it was a Sphinx’s territory.”
“What? Liar. I marked it clearly.”
Marked? Does a cat’s marking simply mean peeing here and there?
“Sorry, I don’t really have a good sense of smell.”
“Smell? I’ve left my mark everywhere. Even if you can deceive the eyes of God, you cannot deceive my eyes. I’ve been following you the whole time.”
I was being followed all along. Could she be a scout? Even this small, is she trained? Sphinxes are amazing. Besides, they hardly ever appear in front of people, do they?
“Come on, attack me. Don’t underestimate me just because I’m small.”
She eagerly adopted a fighting stance, all by herself. At that moment, Elana appeared, wondering what was going on.
Sphinx Tribe Child
