Cat-less Cat-owner

[Deleted]

Kano had done it again. She got her tools set her cat up somewhere nice and ran. Not that there was much choice in the matter, the split from the sea-side town had been sudden with little to notify Bill except her personal watch hanging from a windowsill as the shifter scrambled away. The strap had torn after the girl defended herself with her arm and began the race to get away. The windowsill wasn't far from Bill's room as well.

Worse was the fact that she had returned to lying, once again with little choice. Her usual coat has been exchanged with her thinner white asymmetrical one to help cope with the summer and shake off any who would recognize it. It had been several weeks with her different skill sets coming into play often. This was Kano when she had to fight to survive, not when she was ecstatic at the fact that she had company.

The lockpick rolled over her left hand fingers with ease as the clockmaker wandered about the abandoned village near an equally desolate quarry, it was mostly silent the sound of dry grass from the surrounding hills easily filtered out by her mind's rambling. Approaching a door she chuckled, the sound different from genuine amusement, the cat carving on the porch serving to provide a marker for the house. The chuckle had been bitter and breathy.

It was quick, the lock was simple and poorly made, the one coat tail on Kano's left side made it in with her before the click of the door closing resounded. The interior was nice enough, desk over there with lots of papers, shallow well opposite, and a closed off living area. Riffling through the desk the clockmaker found it to have been previously home to some kind of scholar with three copies of each book in different languages. Huffing she moved to the living quarters, brushing past the cloth hanging in the door way. Kano paused, she heard something. Not a clue what though.

[Red_Tower]

"Did you have a plan? Of course not, where's the fun in that?" Bill thought to himself as he travelled down the dark graveled road. He had found Kano's watch hanging in the window and paused but a moment before heading after her. He had been tracking her scent for awhile now, getting close several times, but finding himself always a few steps behind her. "Not this time though, this time I think I'll catch up. I hope I catch up..." The alchemist started running down the road. He ran quicker than seemed natural for the crippled man, faster than many athletic men in fact. "Where are you Kano?"

[Deleted]

Shrugging it off as it didn't continue the clockmaker found a nice set up further into the house, this place would serve as an excellent hidey-hole. Walking back out into the desk area she grabbed a book on mechanics, she most likely knew everything in it but it didn't hurt to check. Promtly returning to the mattress back behind the cloth and aiming for some much needed down time. Kano was an excellent tracker and had pulled all sorts of tricks as she went on, the pockets of hers emptying and throwing false trails. The clockmaker had even abandoned her knife to the top of a cliff, anything to throw them off. Tuono was safe and for now so was she. The blueprints in the book were all basic and everything that had occurred was piling up.

It was tiring to say the least.

[Red_Tower]

Bill began to approach a small, apparently empty town. He didn't need to rest, but he wasn't sure what he was going to do if she was here. So slowly and quietly the mage walked into the village, finding an abandoned building near the middle of town. He didn't understand why he was going after her. But he knew that if he didn't continue now, he would regret it. He was wearing his solid black coat again, moving around like a shadow in the night. Bill made himself a makeshift bed for the night and rested on it for a bit, trying to decide what was next.

[Deleted]

Flipping through the book she found nothing of intrest and placed it back where it was as she moved to lock the door. The town's houses were mostly flat roofed with a splotchy grey stone most likely from the quarry. The picks made a gentle click as she undid her previous action of unlocking it. Another huff. Scanning over the books again she grabbed something that appeared more advanced once again returning to the bedroom. Everything was becoming dull, this success in shaking the group pursing her since town left her some time for pause.

Eyeing the blueprints she sighed again, "These are clever, and I am clever, but escaping was not clever." Mute to the world thanks to a lie that reached no one the girl slammed it shut in frustration. Kano placed it within arms reach and let herself fall into a very carefully light sleep.

[Red_Tower]

Laying back in bed, Bill worked about cleaning off every single thing he had in his pack, for the sixth time that day. As he went about recleaning all of his things, his mind continued to wander and race around; some of his thoughts brilliant, some incomprehensible, and most about Kano. "Why did she leave? I guess that's really my only question for her, but I feel like there's something... More." Bill muttered to himself as he worked. Hours passed by, and eventually he had cleaned it all again. With a sigh he flopped back in the bed and just waited until dawn.

[Deleted]

Bolting upright at what she assumed to be five, Kano huffed again. Digging though her pockets for a malleable metal to make a key for her adoptive door. Everything remained fast paced. The girl had sold all her watches so it was time to hunt for broken ones again and the interesting unrefined blueprint she recalled seeing would have to be ignored for now given she lacked watches to experiment on. Not knowing the time was frustrating and it was a little before dawn still.

Slaming the book shut and huffing once again, the feline-eyed shifter vaguely recalled how irritated the Old Man would get when she was like this. 'Time to tear apart the desk then.' The dark cloth moved for her and the next half hour was spent mentally cataloging what she had at her disposal here. This mostly consisted of books the knew the contents of and ones in other languages. She found a couple maps to be examined more carefully and a pair of small daggers in the bottom left compartment. Huffing for however many times she had done it this morning the vague sensation of sleepiness was long gone. Sitting down on the wooden chair Kano began comparing the maps with what she had in her head already.

[Red_Tower]

Bill eventually got up, groaning that he got up before dawn. He paced around the room for nearly and hour before heading outside and leaping up on top of the roof. From here he started to scan the area, trying to find some sign of life in the area. "Not like it would be that easy; this is Kano we're talking about." The mage tried a few spells to see if they could detect anything, but nothing seemed to be around him. Still, he knew he was close, closer than he had been yet, and he would find her. He paused for a moment, before grinning a little. With a quick spell, he cleared his throat and shouted. "Kano! It's me, Bill! I'm here..." His voice resonated throughout the valley, amplified, blaring out through the entire town and a good ways beyond. "Guess I'll see if she's here and if she wants to even see me again..."

[Deleted]

The resulting crash as Kano leapt backwards into the bookshelf from the chair was startling and painful. The illusion shattering and books falling onto her were all covered up by the echo of Bill's shout. Coughing and cringing into her hand the clockmaker pried herself off the floor wiping the blood onto her black pants in favor of staining the white coat. 'He's going to get me killed doing that.' The illusion returned almost immediately and she opened the door a crack peering out to see if she could spot him. No such luck, truly it would have been nice to have him back but the girl wasn't taking any chances.

Pulling the door shut again and locking it the real Kano cringed again, she hadn't really been taking as good care of herself on the run so the sudden break of illusion was quite a bit more painful than usual. Invisible chapped lips pressed together firmly as she began placing the books back a bit more roughly than necessary. The illusion that no one was looking at due to lack of windows gave the perception of her usual state, considerably more healthy and far less tired. Placing one of the knives next to her she began examining the maps again, biting her lip in an attempt to ignore the urge to run outside and see if Bill was really there.

Yet another huff.

[Red_Tower]

Bill waited for an hour, continuing to scan the area and use whatever magic he could to look for some sign of her. Nothing. So he decided he would start searching the houses, jumping off the roof, and heading to the far side of town, planning to work his way back, checking each and every house. This would likely take him all day, and if she wasn't here it would be a complete waste of time, and put him at least another day behind her. But he had a good feeling about this place, could swear she was here somewhere. "I'll find you, even if you don't want me to..."

So the mage began his search, checking every room of each house he entered, trying to go quickly, but still look around thoroughly. He knew that it wouldn't be easy, and if she was using her illusions it would be next to impossible. But he pressed on, breaking the locks on all the doors that still had them, looking under beds, desks and counters, and going up on the roof of all of them. It was only a matter of time, he hoped.

[Deleted]

That was a sound she knew, the door of the house to the left had just been broken in, there was no way she would let that happen to this one. Kano moved with speed, locking the door behind her and scaling the building with less ease than normal. The small knife she had found sat next to her on the ledge, the illusion was practically playing with its copy of the thing and sat a good foot to her right. The clockmaker was playing with a chance she didn't want to. Ten or so minutes passed, huff and back inside for her.

Door unlocked so it wouldn't be broken and map of false interest the position here was nerve wreaking. For all she knew she could have simply thought she shook the group. 'Maybe I shouldn't have stopped... Um what do I do? Book. Book. Knife. Maps. What sort of language is that suposed to beeeee. Very thick sharp edged book on the history of the clockmaking guilds. Book. Wait a minute..' Picking up the large volume and finding it of reasonable throwing weight the shifter opened it up to the middle, skimming over the pages of what looked like one of the books the Old Man had kept by his workbench. The lie was far more invested in this action than she was really, as well as less anxious.

[Red_Tower]

Bill finished searching a small house and went to the one next door. The door was unlocked, so he simply pushed it open. He walked inside, doing a quick scan of the room, taking in his immediate surroundings. "Kano, are you here?" Bill called out as he entered, walking further into the room, glancing around doorways and corners as he walked int the middle of the room.

[Deleted]

'Are you blind or something?' "Over here." The book that she had been carefully holding to see if it was required that she threw it was placed to the side. The illusion made it seem like she was smiling and happy to see him. Well she was happy to see him and the altered view he got emphasized this, but really she placed her head on the desk with an unheard groan and huffed again. The maps she had found were to the right on the desk the book was shoved in the opposite direction carefully. 'So there was no reason to worry... Hm, maybe I need to get better at shaking people seeing as Bill wasn't fooled by any of it well I wasn't aiming to shake him.'

"Sorry for having left so suddenly."

[Red_Tower]

Bill blinked for a second as he turned around and saw her right there. "You suddenly go blind Billy? You could have noticed her two..." He thought to himself for a moment. "Kano, why did you take off like that? A goodbye would've been nice at least." He asked, walking towards her slowly. He wasn't sure what to say, what to think even. But he was glad to have finally found her at least.

[Deleted]

"Do you remember the conversation we had about my eyes?" Peering up from her arms the currently invisible girl watched his approach, it seemed measured, almost like he was expecting someone else and she had surprised him. "I had to bolt, I wasn't going to get me or anyone else killed over it. Also how did you follow me all the way here? I didn't even bother to count how many different kinds of false trail I left." Kano was having one of those moments where she was glad for her eyes, despite how much trouble they caused. Bill would be worried if he saw how run down she was from the many week burst of near nonstop activity, though it seemed he might already be...