Chapter 148 - Hedgehog

"Now where should I go?" Petunia asked herself while peeking outside of the small concrete tube that she just randomly found in this winter forest after sneaking away from her teammates and going solo.

"Gahh, who knew walking could be so exhausting?" she complained and let herself lay back on the concrete tube that she was occupying on her own, taking a deep breath to tone her nerves down, but instead of feeling comfortable and having a more leveled mind, Petunia was suddenly brought back to her memory lane after smelling the familiar scent of slimes and their toxins that looked a lot like fairy houses in the forest.

"A slime," Petunia thought to herself before gathering the courage to open her eyes, and when she did, there were five baby slimes looking at her with their dotted eyes inside their semi-transparent goo bodies with a faint reflection of lights in different shades of blue, green, and pink on their skin's outer layer.

They were staring so deep into her that she almost thought she did something to offend them. But Petunia's speculation quickly came to an end when one of the baby slimes jumped inside of the concrete tube and closer to her while repeating the word, "Momma," which was then mimicked by his brothers not soon after.

And because of Petunia's instinct, she did not waste any more of her time and quickly looked around for a way to exit this one-way tube without getting in contact with any of them.

Slimes are one of the most toxic creatures to ever exist in the wild, and baby slimes were just the worst.

They couldn't understand anything and will do their best to make contact with her, especially now that they have mistaken Petunia as their mother who just left them in the middle of this wilderness.

"I'm not your momma, go to your momma kiddos, shoo!" Petunia tried to persuade them but instead of going away, the slimes just paused for a minute and continued what they were doing in no time. Locking Petunia inside this one-way tube without even being able to make progress on her own individual mission at this point.

"I miss my gummy cloud," Petunia said and pouted while grabbing a sachet of "Just in case of emergency," gummy cloud potion from the pocket on her cape.

"I really don't want to do this but you gave me no choice, kiddos. You're going to have some explaining to do to your mom," Petunia grinned behind her fake kind smile while facing the five little and innocent slimes lunging at her all at once for a hug which was immediately blocked by a thin layer of gummy that exploded from the sachet when she opened it at the correct timing.

"Take that!" Petunia said and used the gummy to its fullest by wrapping the small little creatures with it which made them less dangerous for an unarmed cat like her.

"I hate gooey creatures," Petunia shook her head while watching the five little slimes had the hardest time of their life for being gum-tacked to the ground using her alternative purple gummy "just in case of emergency" formula, "Especially small ones like you, so troublesome," Petunia said to the poor little slimed before deciding to just leave them there and continue on with her quest despite the disagreement of her now exhausted body.

"Monica told me to ask these animals about the place where no animal would dare go to because of the scary witch that was said to be living in there, but I can't talk to animals. How am I supposed to do this? It's not like those birds and squirrels could just suddenly talk or understand me too…"

"I just wish Monica was here with me right now… or even Gem. But Gem's going to be hard to escape with because of her size," Petunia thought and shook the negative thoughts out of her mind.

"First clue, the witch is in the north, hidden amongst the snow. Second clue, there are little to no animals in that area because of her tendency to torture them. And lastly, she's interested in interesting animals just like me. So it's either I should do something to grab her attention and let her do the finding for me, or I do it the other and harder way." Petunia filled her mind with thoughts about her plan in order to prevent herself from getting distracted by the precious herbs hidden just around this forest.

"There's a mountain over there, and the trees end there. I'm guessing the abandoned place where animals used to hang out was near a river which leads me to the next question. Where are there no rivers, lakes, or ponds that can be found in this area?"

"There's a small spring there where we get our water from up there. Wait, are you perhaps new here?" a voice suddenly said from behind which startled Petunia. 

When Petunia looked back, she immediately took a step back and away from the white hedgehog that was hiding it's presence all along amongst the roots of the trees and the snow that looked a lot like his spikes.

"You can also talk?" Petunia asked in confusion just to make sure if her speculations were correct.

"Of course I can, who doesn't?" the hedgehog replied while crawling out of the hole he created for himself to hide in on.

"Who doesn't? Are you seriously asking me that? Of course, there's a lot of animals who can't talk to humans! Way more than those who can even understand or converse with them!" Petunia unintentionally lashed out which caused the hedgehog to look at her with less respect than when he first started talking to her.

"What do you mean humans? You can talk to humans?" the hedgehog asked with his almost invisible eyebrows still in knots for being weirded about Petunia's unfriendly behavior.

"N-No," Petunia said, still in utter confusion about being able to talk to real animals, "Wait, are you a real hedgehog?" she followed up which confused the hedgehog once again.

"If not then what am I?" he asked while shaking his head as if he was done talking to a weirdo like her.

"I need water, you said you know where to drink water? I can't find a single drop of water in this place aside from all of this snow which isn't really safe to drink, so can you please help me out so I can finally quench my thirst?"

"Where did you even come from? It's not every day we have a guest, especially a well-groomed domestic pet like you." the hedgehog said, giving in to her request anyway as if he was trained to do this.

"I was lost, I ran away from home and I don't know where to go," Petunia lied, which sounded like the truth because of the parts that she actually did, but just in another context.

The hedgehog was continuously shaking his head in a way that made Petunia seem like this very disappointing niece of his which Petunia just decided to roll with instead of letting go of this golden opportunity of being able to talk to animals.

And although Petunia was relieved to be able to do that, a part of her was still worried about the possible causes of this weird ability that she did not have any control over.

She felt like it was a sign or a countdown of her human soul's departure from this feline's body that wouldn't be able to handle her human soul anymore.

And what more motivation to get to the chase other than feeling pressured and lost once again?

"Actually I have something to ask, do you know about that terrible witch who tortures animals in this area?" Petunia suddenly said which made the hedgehog stop climbing the slightly steep mountain where their only source of clean water was, although none of the animals living in this place really needed to drink clean water on an everyday basis, just one look at Petunia, Hodgewart was already sure she had to be one of those entitled domestic cats who think she should receive the best treatment in the world which Hodgewart had already seen a lot in the course of his lifetime.

But Petunia asking for that particular witch came as a surprise to Hodgewart. Not only because she sounded like she was looking for death, but because she actually came to the right place to ask about that particular topic that Hodgewart was very involved in.

"Her name is Heize and I'm Hodgewart, her old pet," Hodgewart said with pain evident in his eyes as if saying he didn't want to leave her but he eventually had to do so in order to live, which really froze Petunia in her spot for having to land on the jackpot.

"I knew it! Heize is alive!" Petunia burst out in happiness, almost even crying because of the revelation which made Hodgewart curl in confusion on the other hand.

"This cat is weird," he thought to himself before proceeding to lead Petunia into the little fountain of clean drinking water, just like what he promised.