Cat Core, Chapter 35 + Epilogue.

We've reached the end of Cat Core, I'll start to post Derelict tomorrow. 

Chapter 35.

“Miss Valentine, can you hear me?” A voice called to her. Florence felt weak, it was a familiar weakness, even if it was one that she hadn’t felt in a long time. Her eyes popped open, the light causing her to squint. Wait, why was she squinting, a core gem didn’t squint.

“Good, you’re awake, tell me, are you in any pain?” A man asked, her vision was fuzzy, and she couldn’t make out who it was.

“Yes, I hurt all over, what happened? Why can’t I see?” She asked, starting to panic a bit.

“Oh, do we have her glasses?” The man asked. Florence could feel someone place glasses on her face, causing the blurred vision to focus. She was in bed, in the hospital.

“I know you’re probably confused; you’ve been in an accident and took a pretty good blow to your head. While there shouldn’t be any permanent damage, you’ve been unconscious for three days. I think you’ll be fine, and we should have you back on your feet and out of the hospital soon. I’d like to keep you under observation for a bit, just to be safe,” the doctor said.

“My home, is Doug okay?” She asked, her mind still fuzzy.

“Your home should be fine, one of your friends has her grandson looking after it and your pets. I’m not sure who Doug is,” The doctor said, looking at the nurse.

“I don’t know either doctor, she hasn’t had any visitors named Doug,” the nurse replied.

“Doug is my assistant, my home, my gem,” she stammered.

“Don’t worry about your things, they’re being looked after. It’s going to take a little bit longer for your mind to focus, but don’t worry, you’re going to be fine. I’ll check back in on you when I make my rounds later,” the doctor said, excusing himself.

“You do have a visitor if you feel up to it. Your friend has been here every day since your accident,” the nurse said. Florence nodded, still trying to come to grips with what had happened. Had her whole death and rebirth as a core gem been a trauma-induced dream? Was this even real? No, she could feel this was real, all the old hurts, aches, and pains she had gathered over the years were back. But her new life had seemed just as real to her.

“Oh, Florence, it's good to see you awake,” someone said. Looking over at the door to her room, she saw Tabitha Long and her good-for-nothing grandson standing there.

“Tabitha, why are you here?” She asked. It sounded rude, but she was having trouble filtering her speech, not that she ever had much of a filter to begin with.

“I’m your neighbor and neighbors in Logan County look out for each other. You just focus on getting better, Jake here has been looking after your cats while you’re been in here. I know they’re important to you, so I had the locksmith open the door so we could make sure they’re fine,” she said.

Florence didn’t know what to think, she had never been very social and didn’t think very highly of Tabitha, she thought that the woman was nothing but a busybody. But instead of gossiping about her, Tabitha had done everything she could to help Florence. Even her good-for-nothing grandson, Jake, had pitched in. Perhaps Florence had been wrong about her neighbor, and if she had been wrong about Tabitha, might she have been wrong about other things?

“I’ll let you get your rest and will check back in on your tomorrow,” Tabitha said.

“Thank you, both of you, I appreciate your help,” Florence said. She wasn’t much for throwing out thanks, but they had done her a good deed.

She had plenty of time to think in the hospital over the next couple of days. It turned out she was in the county hospital that had all the cable tv channels to watch, but somehow, her old shows didn’t seem all that interesting anymore. After all, she had defeated monsters and created kitties with merely a thought in her other home. Those memories faded a bit as well, that life became a strange, yet somehow comforting dream that stuck with her.

Thinking about all those kitties she had created forced Florence to think about her pets. She was getting on in years and couldn’t take care of them as she should. Her babies were all good kitties, but was it fair to them if she couldn’t care for them properly? Perhaps it was time to give them up to the shelter for adoption. The thought should have horrified her, but Florence found she wasn’t quite so attached to her pets as she had been a few days ago. The doctor said she had been out for only three days, but somehow it seemed much longer.

It hurt to give them up, but it hurt strangely less than she thought it would. Tabitha’s grandson had been kind enough to take them over to the adoption shelter. She had enough in her savings to make sure they were all taken good care of, and she was sure assured they would all find new homes, homes where they would be loved and cared for in a manner they deserved.

After final tests were done, the doctors released her to go home. Things were just like she had left them, save for being a lot cleaner now that her cats were gone. Tabitha had organized some of the ladies at the senior center to come over and help give her home a good deep clean before she came back from the hospital. Florence was grateful, but also a bit suspicious that many of the ladies saw it only as a chance to go through all her stuff while she was gone.

It should have been unbearable for her to stay there all by herself without her kitties to keep her company, but instead of wallowing in boredom, Florence got out and visited her new friend Tabitha nearly every day. She was even planning on putting in an appearance at the senior center the next day. Tabitha would meet her there and it was potluck lunch day, which was always a good day for gossip over who made what and whose kitchen wasn’t one you wanted to eat the food from.

The potluck was a rousing success, Florence was spared from having to bring a dish due to her recent accident, and she had a grand old time critiquing the dishes the other seniors had brought. Old Karen Sartosian had brought that horrid concoction she called ambrosia again. It was nothing more than a couple of cans of mixed fruit with some whipped cream stirred together. Imagine, calling something that low effort creation their signature dish. Reminiscing about her day was cut short when Florence drove past the shopping center where her accident had occurred. On a whim, she pulled into the place without being sure why.

This time, the handicap space was open, but Florence was feeling good today, so she parked further back in the parking lot. As long as her knees weren’t a botherin’ her, she wanted to enjoy the exercise. Randalph’s store was still gone, of course, and that there game and smoking place was still there, busy even at this time of day when young men should be at work if they were gainfully employed. She got out of the old Buick and walked her way into the store, not entirely sure why she was drawn to the place.

“Welcome to Mad Dog’s Games and Vaping…hey, you’re the one that fell in the parking lot. Are you okay, as soon as I saw you fall, I called 911?” The clerk asked. Florence thought she detected a hint of fear in his voice like he was worried she was going to cause some more trouble. She thought about it for a minute, but the young man hadn’t really done anything to bother her, at least not today.

“I’m doing fine, thanks for calling the ambulance for me,” Florence answered.

“Good, well, uh, can I help you find anything?” The young man asked.

“Don’t be so skittish young man, what is your name anyway?” Florence asked.

“I’m Bobby, the manager here,” he replied.

“Good to meet you Bobby, do you mind if look around a bit?” Florence asked.

“Oh, not at all, just let me know if you have any questions,” Bobby told her, glad to have escaped without another tongue lashing.

Florence walked around the store, finding much of the area was taken up with gaming tables, only a few of which were being used this early in the day. The young men playing the various games tried to avoid eye contact as she perused the store. Florence was shocked, many of the games featured things she remembered from her other life. Had her mind somehow gathered up images she had caught of glimpse of in the shop to shape her dream of being a core gem?

“No, Mike, I don’t want to be the dungeon, the odds are stacked against you,” one of the players said, drawing her attention. They were playing some strange game that involved cardboard tiles on the table to represent rooms, but they also had decks of cards and piles of dice for some reason.

“Hey, young man, what is that you’re playing?” Florence asked.

“This is Dungeon Delve, it’s a hybrid TCG and RPG game,” he replied.

“How do you play?” She asked, intrigued by the game images. The dungeon tiles on the table looked a bit like the dungeon she had seen in the experience shard.

“Well, you can play cooperatively, but it usually works better if one player controls the dungeon. The others play as a party of adventurers that have been sent to kill the dungeon to prevent it from sending monsters out to attack the town,” he replied.

“What kind of stupid dungeon sends monsters out to attack the town, don’t adventurers just want to delve for experience and rewards? Killing the dungeon would kill their livelihood,” she said.

“Woah, you’re a gamer? Not that someone your age can’t be a gamer, but I just wasn’t expecting, you know?” The young man stammered, trying not to offend her. Before her accident, she would have given him what for, but now, she found she was a bit more lenient.

“No, I’m not a gamer, I just happen to know a thing or two about dungeons,” she said smugly.

“Well, do you want to join us? We need someone to run the dungeon parts if you’re up for it,” the young man asked. Well, she didn’t have anywhere to go, and playing a dungeon game might be more entertaining than watching reruns on the TV at home. Even if these young men looked a bit shifty, they had been polite enough.

“Sure, just give me a rundown on how to play,” she replied. The rules were fairly simple, but there was a lot of complexity in the game as she learned more and more about it. She had limited resources and could place new dungeon rooms, traps, and defenders just like her old life. The cards gave the game a more random aspect, and since she never had no luck with cards, the adventuring party quickly overcame her dungeon design, despite her throwing them a few curve balls they didn’t expect.

“Durn it, I guess I didn’t do too well,” she said as her dungeon core fell to the party.

“No way, you did great for your first time. I bet you’d be great at this if you had time to learn all the rules and build a deck of your own,” the kid said. It was true she was using a dungeon deck and tiles that another player had brought. If she had her old cat dungeon, she would have torn the party to shreds.

“How do I go about getting my own set of cards?” She asked.

“Bobby, do you have any starter decks? How about some dungeon booster packs?” The young man named Mike shouted. Bobby, sure enough, dug around in the overly jumbled mess of game supplies behind the counter coming over with a small box and several sealed packs of cards and tiles for her.

“The starter decks are free, but the expansion tiles and booster packs are five bucks each, but since you’ve been really cool, these are on the house,” Bobby said, dropping her a nice sized pile of gaming stuff.

“We have weekly tournaments every Friday night if you’re interested. You can bring your new dungeon and have a chance to win some booster packs if you do well,” Bobby offered.

“I don’t think I have any plans this Friday, I’ll see you all then, and get ready to face the ultimate dungeon,” Florence said as she left the shop. Them young men had been much nicer than she remembered, some of them even giving her cards and tiles they had duplicates of. For the first time in a long time, Florence was looking forward to getting together with folks. Her accident had given her a new lease on life, and she planned to enjoy it.

It was later than she thought as she pulled into her driveway. Looking at the clock she was shocked to see that she had been playing Dungeon Delve for over three hours. The time had flown by, and she had enjoyed herself. It had been a good day, the potluck at the senior center followed by learning a new game and meeting new people. Things were looking up for Florence Valentine.

She went about some household chores, but the place was still pretty clean now that her cats were gone. Jake was supposed to come over tomorrow morning to clear out the rest of the cat supplies she had stored in the closet and bring them to the shelter. There was quite a stack of canned food and some extra litter and boxes that her old cats didn’t like, but the shelter might need. Heating some of the potluck leftovers, Florence sat down to watch her shows, one of the guys in the shop had recommended she look up a movie on demand about some short guy and a ring. It was supposed to have magic and dungeons and whatnot in it. She was just about to start watching when she heard a noise at the door.

It took Florence a minute to place the sound, but it was most definitely a meow coming from outside her front door. There must have been a stray in the neighborhood, or maybe one of her babies had run off from the shelter and wandered back home. She opened the door and looked around, surprised to see a little white kitten shivering in the cool evening air.

“Why, aren’t you a precious little one, a bit dirty, but precious nonetheless,” she muttered to the kitten in what she hoped was a comforting voice. The little white kitten was streaked with grease and dirt, and she would have a devil of a time getting him scrubbed clean. “We’ll get you cleaned up and fed, but it's off to the shelter for you tomorrow little one, I don’t need to restart my collection again,” she said, more to herself than the kitten which surely didn’t understand her.

It was going to be hard, but she was committed to not fall into the same patterns she had lived before. No pets, and more time spent with her friends, that was the plan. She decided if she missed her kitties, she could volunteer some time over at the shelter. It would be a good way to spend time with cats, while not having the burden of keeping them in her home.

“Florence, would you mind putting me down. I do say that whatever you’ve been cooking smells delightful, I’ve never eaten before and I had a horrible time finding you,” the cat said, the voice all too familiar. She was going crazy, the bump on her head must have been a lot worse than the doctors had told her.

“Doug?” She asked.

“Of course, who did you think I was?” The kitten replied.

“I’ve lost my mind, kittens can’t talk, I better call the hospital,” she muttered to herself, trying to find the phone.

“I’m not a kitten, I’m your assistant. Well, I was until your core gem was shattered. That elixir that Bartleby sold you worked, even if might not have been exactly as advertised. Now before you freak out, let me explain,” Doug said.

“Woah, you’re telling me this is real, everything that happened, no way, I was only unconscious for a few days, this is all in my head,” Florence replied, staring at the kitten, and seeing the resemblance to Doug under all the grime.

“Your core gem was destroyed, and my employers saw fit to grant you a reprieve from your dungeon duties while your gem reforms. They ordered me to tell you that this will conclude any compensation for errors made in the initial selection process,” Doug told her.

“But, only three days have passed, you said it took years to form my gem,” Florence argued, with herself as much as with the kitten in front of her.

“You know that my employers can pull a soul from across the universe and turn it into a living dungeon core gem on another world, but you don’t think they can manipulate time when it serves their needs? This is a second chance to finish up your human life, it’s part of the special starting resource reward that they mentioned at core creation. The resource they granted you is the time to live out the rest of your old life, should certain conditions be met,” Doug said. She did remember that her starting bonus had seemed a bit weak, maybe this was what they planned all along to make up for their, and Doug’s, mistake.

“I suppose you have a point. What made them change their minds about sending me back? And just what happened to you, I thought you were dead until you came to life and retrieved a piece of my gem,” she asked, confused, but starting to believe the kitten in front of her was her friend and advisor, Doug.

“The Lich’s gift, the collar, revived me, and I ran your surviving core shard down into his domain. He was able to keep your memories intact while we waited on the final decision about returning you here. There are some stipulations with this decision that you should know,” Doug told her.

“I knew there would be a catch, what is it,” Florence said.

“You get to live your life here on earth until you pass from natural causes. No effort will be made to influence the natural progression and end of your life. Once you expire, you will be reinstalled into your core gem to serve once more as a dungeon in the world you were previously placed with. There will be no other interaction with your life on earth and any further appeals based on mistakes made in your initial incident are summarily rejected,” Doug said, sounding like he was reading from a disclosure, which she guessed he was.

“What about you?” She asked.

“I have been remanded into your custody for the remainder of your life. My physical form will age, but my life as a domestic house cat will extend to match your own. There is another teeny catch to this whole deal,” Doug added.

“Fine, let’s hear it,” Florence replied.

“I had to cut a deal with the lich for his help. Once you’re back in your gem, we will owe him a favor and if I know liches, the favor will be a big one. There was no other way for me to keep you around until your revival into your old life could be processed,” Doug said.

“You just said that returning to this life was part of my compensation, why did we need that licking skeleton guy’s help anyway?” She asked.

“Your return to this life was guaranteed but retaining the knowledge and memory of your life as a core gem was not. If it had taken longer, you wouldn’t have remembered anything about our home, and we would have to start all over again when you returned to your gem. The lich used his magic to keep you and everything you knew inside that small fragment of your core gem. Even now, he’s keeping it safe while you live the remainder of your life here,” Doug told her.

“So, we get to live out our lives, then go back to our home on the other planet and live as a core once again? What happens if my core is destroyed again?” Florence asked.

“I have no idea; my task was to create soul gems for dungeons. I’m sure there’s a whole reprocessing department or something, but I can’t really say,” Doug answered.

“So, what happens now?” Florence asked, finally deciding that the kitten was Doug and that what he was saying was true. After all, the only other alternative was that she had gone bonkers. Florence Valentine may be many things, but she is not some crazy person.

“I suppose we get on with our lives, and my first meal if you please. My body does have physical requirements for nutrition now that you’re no longer providing core energy for me to subsist on. And since I’m on the subject of bodily needs, you don’t happen to have a litter box stashed somewhere handy? I really have to go, which is a decidedly unpleasant part of being alive in your world,” Doug said. Florence went to the closet to find a litter box for Doug, she supposed she could have just sent him outside, but that wouldn’t be very polite.

“So, Doug, you ever hear of a game called Dungeon Delve?” She asked.

“No, but it sounds intriguing, perhaps you can teach me how to play?” Doug asked. Florence smiled and nodded, glad to have her friend and advisor for company. When she thought about it, Florence got exactly what she had asked for in the beginning. She was back to her old world and her old life, but she had to admit that she was a little excited to become a core gem again. It just goes to prove that demanding to speak to the manager always fixes your problems.

Epilogue:

The complete darkness of his laboratory didn’t hamper Berikoz in the least, he no longer saw things with his eyes and instead sensed them with his mana. His focus was divided among several experiments, along with the ongoing torture of an adventurer that had wandered a bit too close to one of his other locations. While he had no desire to inflict pain on the scrawny human mage, he also had no reason to dampen the agony caused as his lifeforce and mana were drained away. The man had trespassed on his abode and would face a slow and painful demise as just recompense for his offense.

Another of his future projects blinked in the dark, causing Berikoz to turn a fragment of his attention to it. No, it was far too soon for that one to be ready. Plans for its use were already in the making, plans that would certainly be opposed by other, more powerful foes than a simple party of adventurers.

“My dear neighbor, Florence, enjoy your little vacation back in your old life, we have so much to do when you return,” Berikoz said as he continued with his work.