Cat-less Cat-owner

[Red_Tower]

"If I say you can go, will you come back? Or will you run off without me seeing you again?" Bill asked her, honestly not sure what she would say. He wanted to just believe that he could say goodbye without it being the last, but now he wasn't sure. He could understand Kano not wanting to bring him when she was running away, she probably doubted he could keep up, but still, he didn't want to lose her too soon now.

[Deleted]

"Yes I'll come back, I just wanted to know if I was confined to the bed." Bill looked nervous suddenly, Kano stopped giggling. "I wouldn't run off without saying something unless I had to, and I'm fairly certain I shook them quite a ways back. Also do you really know what you were looking at?" She gestured to the book with another grin though smaller than the previous one. 'I took a route that had the fewest people on it, skipping right around where he was in town... Maybe I shouldn't have...'

[Red_Tower]

"You're as free to go about as you feel you can. If you need help, I'll be there." Bill paused, grinning when she asked about the book. "I have a general idea, but I'll leave the watches to you." He told her, lightly tossing the book back over next to her. How many books had he read in his life? Far too many to.count, that was for sure.

[Deleted]

"It's not all watches, though whoever made those blueprints isn't very creative." Standing up Kano moved past his view to the ladder and hatch that couldn't be seen without entering the room. The wind wasn't to harsh and while she wasn't planning on running across rooftops quite yet she did feel a bit more comfortable up there. There had never been any trouble on a rooftop for her, falling was from walls and balconies, and not many followed her up there. Sitting on the leftmost corner the shifter grinned a bit, watching a red tailed hawk trying to decide if it wanted to take flight before the sun was entirely out or not.

There were lots of things Kano was familiar with, but the rooftop was almost always the same. It was amazingly consistent. Breeze, edges, height. It didn't matter the shape or time of day, they felt the same fundamentally.

[Red_Tower]

Bill watched her head up to the roof, letting her be for the time. She had enough time around him for now, and he knew Kano was just itching to move, do something. The mage grabbed his walking staff and headed out the door, heading into the nearby woods. Bill watched the rooftop, waiting until he was out of the shifter's view, before racing off into the forest, hunting.

[Deleted]

Spotting an Arabian Mau wandering the street Kano's grin became wider as it looked to her. Those cats knew what people were like, they lived in marketplaces and tailing trading caravans. Tuono was one of them, they were very smart and her entire life she was near one or more. A large grey spotted one had lived on the orphanage roof and had watched over her escape through the window and past his home. On the streets she had shared shelter with them and followed them to the cleverest hiding spots. As an apprentice she passed them daily and had befriended a few before her companion came onto the scene.

Now that she traveled they were consistent navigators, on the trail they knew exactly what they were walking to no matter where and in the marketplace they lounged about giving her a few extra seconds notice. Gesturing for it to come to her the clockmaker watched the brown stripped cat consider it a moment, then come trotting over and up onto the roof to meet her. "Hello, are you doing okay?" Petting the cat and examining it for any signs that it had been fighting something, just in case, Kano found nothing and pulled it into her lap.

[Red_Tower]

Bill worked quickly, leaping down from a tree branch onto the back of a deer, snapping its neck in an instant. He carried it back to the house slowly, where he would clean it and cut it up, and hopefully preserve it.long.enough so that they could use all of it and it last them.several day.

On the way back he glanced up at Kano, keeping an eye on her. She'd probably be curious how he could hunt down a deer so quickly, but he figured he could get out of.the question if she asked.

[Deleted]

Leaning until her back hit the roof Kano held the limp feline above her. "Either you're very trusting or it's just because I'm me." Purr. She chuckled a bit as the two pairs of golden eyes met. Pulling her legs back onto the stone the clockmaker sat up again placing the feline to the side. Looking straight down the street and towards a trail she hadn't touched the girl tried to figure out what was that direction.

'I thought that it was a factory town that way or maybe a mine, but the sky is to clear for that...' "Do you know what's over there? It looked like you were going that way." Mrr. That was unhelpful, and she had no clue how long it would take for Tuono to find her. On occasion when he was put somewhere he would go all the way back to Haribute, the clockmaker didn't know how but he did. After those trips the blue eyed cat would always have some sort of message to her from the Old Man.

[Red_Tower]

After he dropped the deer off at the house, Bill decided to scout around the area a bit. So he quickly took off for the treeline, keeping his eyes peeled as he began to work his way around the outside of the town. While he went about this, he couldn't help his mind from wandering. "So Bill, how's your 'friend'? She seems to be doing better... You keep losing your companions for one reason or another, getting a little scared? Not yet, I don't think she'll take off, and she's healing well... Where's this optimism coming from? Aren't you curious? What does she think about you, why didn't she ask you to run off with her? And why do people keep fading away from you? Shut up, they've had their reasons, or... Yes Billy, or they die. You need to accept you're dangerous company." The mage cut his thoughts off there, focusing on the task at hand.

He didn't really believe the patrol was necessary, but Bill wanted to make sure the area was still safe. Vigilance had become one of his most useful tools. There was a time when he was so absorbed by his mind that he couldn't grasp anything. It was a wonder he survived as long as he did before being found. He shook his head, trying to cut off the new train of thought.

[Deleted]

Giving little heed to the purring of the cat Kano stood, she was a bit confused as to what was over there. The clockmaker still couldn't tell when standing so sat back down. The cat pawed at her for a moment before sitting next to her. "You are very unhelpful." Mrr. The girl was getting bored again, the morning hadn't progressed very far and there was nothing to do on the rooftop other than stare. Spotting the previously hesitant hawk take flight she traised its path carefully.

"Where do you think Tuono is?" Silence, well that helped a lot.

[Red_Tower]

Bill was finishing his loop around the town, not seeing anything of real note. He stopped and sat down on the forest floor for a few minutes, thinking about what to do. "Why are you having trouble talking to her now? Is it because you feel abandoned like with your father? Shut it, everything is fine between her and I. Sure doesn't seem like it..." The alchemist thought, deciding then to go see how Kano was doing. He ran back into town, staying out of view of the roof of their house. Soon he reached the base of the home, leaping up swiftly and softly onto the rooftop behind her. "Hello, Kano." Bill said, starting to walk over.

[Deleted]

"Hello, it seems I have found a feline." The cat purred, glancing at Bill with a grin Kano tried to figure out what was over there. She was still a bit fixated on the fact that she couldn't tell. 'Maybe he knows? I... I doubt it, he did come here after me.' Two pairs of golden eyes settled on Bill as he approached, one a small bit uninvested in it. The brown cat wasn't sure what to think of the man as it had never seen him before.

[Red_Tower]

"So it would seem." Bill muttered, following her initial gaze off into the distance, making a mental note of it. He walked over and sat down on the edge of the roof near Kano, thinking for a second. "Uh, about earlier, with the whole meditation thing... I should have asked you first. There were some risks involved, and you were very exposed..." He told her, not looking at her. "My, my, my. Billy boy, did you just apologize for something? It's not that rare. Rare enough that I'm surprised you just did."

[Deleted]

"It's fine..." 'I've been exposed to plenty of things others say I shouldn't have. Also risk? You're talking to the person who's up at the top of clock-towers in pouring rain at some hour of the night on a ledge for a living.' Kano noticed he wasn't looking at her and decided to voice some of her opinion. "You do realize I often find myself on top of clock-towers in the pouring rain at the middle of the night on some very small ledges?" She wanted to laugh, the Old Man stopped working on the town's tower himself about half-way through her time with him and it had a very very finicky winding mechanism, so she was quite used to the altitude. Though maybe that wasn't very reassuring, at least she tried.

[Red_Tower]

"Plenty of worse things than death in this world... But I'm glad it didn't bother you too much." Bill said, leaning back and cocking his head to the side, grinning at her. He was glad to just someone to talk to, another soul around him. Of course, he didn't truly know if the feeling was mutual. But they continued to get along well, and he thought of her as a friend, which is saying something for him. He thought for a bit, coming up with plenty of questions, but nearly all of them pointless.