Chapter 2

The elf exclaimed with joy when she found the source of the smell. After some chaos in the kitchen, he heard a sound right behind him. Every instinct made him shoot around so fast, he knocked the chair over loudly. His heart skipped a beat, reaching for his sword.

The eyes that stared back at him were the deep, ethereal blue of a glacier. If the creature had pupils at all, they were the same color as the rest of the eyes that glowed ever so slightly. The eyes were attached to a monstrous feline. Bigger than a tiger, its broad head was twice the size of his own and could likely fit his whole skull and shoulders in its mouth. Black as the night, there was not a speck of color in its thick, silky fur, the pincushions of whiskers as long as his arms, or the bumpy leather of its nose.

It had snuck up so close to him that it could have reached out and clawed him to shreds. Instead, the panther chuffed at him as though in greeting before its gaze moved toward the back.

“Yeah, yeah, hold on!” the elf called from the kitchen as if responding to the giant cat. “I’m not trying to take everything. You eat too much.”

Emerging from the kitchen, she carried the whole pot of steaming stew and set it before the cat, dipping a bowl into it for herself before the feline settled gracefully before it. “Be careful, it’s hot ... like our friend here.” She winked at him with a sweet smirk that sent a tingling jolt through his whole body.

Without waiting, the cat stuck its long, vivid pink tongue into the steaming liquid before jerking up with a pitiful yowl.

“Are you serious right now?” the elf frowned in disbelief and shook her head with disappointment. “I just told you.”

Letting that tongue hang out a moment, Roan could clearly see the cluster of terrifying hooks that only became more intense the further back the tongue went. The glow of the cat’s eyes grew a little brighter as magic coursed through it, and it let out a relieved moan, flicking its tongue a few times before returning to its meal.

“What is that?”

Peering over at Roan at his exclamation, she grinned. “He’s my pet.”

The panther stopped lapping the stew and glared death at her. Its broad muzzle wrinkled with a soft growl. Claws longer than Roan’s fingers dug into the wood.

The elf twitched and her hand shot up to rub her temple with a sour expression. “Ow, fuck. Saipaki, you are being a dick right now. I was only joking.”

Another low growl from the panther rumbled through Roan’s chest before he returned to lapping up the entire contents of the pot.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

Just as the elf opened her mouth, she twitched again, glaring at the panther that watched her back as it ate. Frowning, her face grew guarded before she answered. “A panther. Isn’t that what he looks like?”