23 Cats Can Dream Too

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After the conversation with Tarou, Mina sashayed towards a low hanging branch, finding the best position to scout the area. Mina saw how the colors in the sky changed as night melted to dawn and then she saw nothing but darkness.

Unlike before, Mina felt more comfortable in the dark but the pitch black environment she was in made her struggle. She tried to call out to anyone. It took her a moment to realize that she was calling out hello in her human voice. Stunned, she tried to get a feel of her surroundings. Her hand felt something cold and solid. She skimmed the surface with her hand and a panel lit up in front of her.

Slowly, a large square and several small squares appeared on the panel. Mina saw her human face in the large square icon. The image of the general wearing the sedge hat appeared on one of the smaller squares while Tarou appeared on another one. All the other squared were locked.

When she pressed the square with Tarou's icon, a stats page appeared revealing a string of information.

Character: Mouse

Weakness: Food, Poor Vision

Strengths: Photographic Memory, Unlimited Memory Space

She lingered on the buttons for a while before deciding to head to the main menu instead of choosing More. Curious, she clicked on the square with her image right away.

'This is so intriguing. I feel like I'm in a virtual reality game. This is awesome!'

Character: Cat

Weakness: Short term memory, Near-sighted, Far-sighted

Strengths: Super hearing, Night vision

Just when she was about to press the icon to show the general's stats, an earthquake happened. She tried to grasp on something to steady herself but she felt her world sway violently. Losing her footing, she struggled even more violently until she heard a squeal followed by another violent shaking.

Mina closed her eyes until the shaking stopped. She struggled again and this time, she finally broke free of the darkness only to be greeted by an almost blinding light.

When her eyes adjusted to her environment, she found herself in a satchel fastened on the general's horse. The other riders halted at their back and while she tried to make sense of what was happening, she heard another squeal from the general's horse.

Just then, she realized that her claws somehow damaged the satchel and dug onto the horse's side, causing the animal some level of discomfort.

"Nightmare."

Mina was about to meow apologetically explaining what happened when she heard the general's soothing voice.

As Mina retracted her claws, she heard a horrifying sound. Just a few feet away, giant rocks fell down the slope on the path they were supposed to take. The spooked horse calmed down when he heard the sound. Everyone's attention was diverted from the general's horse to the valley in front of them.

Still dizzy from all the earlier shaking, Mina's head bobbed out while her paws clung on the side of the satchel. The next thing she knew, she was retching her guts out, catching everyone's attention. The feeling was all too familiar to her -- motion sickness.

She lost her strength afterward and collapsed back into the bag. She struggled to get back up, to a sitting position. She wanted to hop on the saddle instead of being inside the bag. While she grappled to get out, she felt herself being lifted up. Scared, she moved her paws but she clutched on nothing but air.

Mina only felt herself calm down when she landed on something solid and realized she was right where she wanted to be. She eventually heard the general speaking in a soothing but accusatory voice only she could hear.

"You wanted to travel in that satchel."

Mina had no memory of making any demands on the general but she decided to let it go for now. After all, he scooped her out of the confining satchel.

As she tried to find a comfortable position, she detected Barca's approach. Mina's attention was quickly drawn to a little head sticking out from one of the bags tied to Barca's horse.

"Boss, how did you know that the mountain will collapse?" the mouse asked in awe, not caring whether the humans heard him or not. The squeaks drew the attention of the general's horse who was also looking at Mina with curious eyes.

Despite feeling a bit wobbly, Mina sat up with pride looking down on Tarou and the general's horse. She noticed that everyone else was staring at her with almost the same reverence Tarou did. She did cause a commotion and that saved them from being squashed by dislodged rocks.

'If not for that dream, I --along with these careless humans, could be under those pile of rocks.' Shaking her head, Mina decided to bask in the limelight.

"That's why I'm Boss and you are not," she replied shamelessly. It was all a coincidence but after puking last night's dinner, she wasn't feeling humble.

Not at all.

Mina barely paid attention while the men discussed alternate routes to the capital. She had her eyes set on the scenery before her. She tuned out all the human whispers and discussions as her eyes roamed the area. Some small rocks continued to trickle down the slopes. The area was totally unpassable. And then, another thought hit her.

'Today I learned cats could have such cool dreams!'

Now fixated on the dream, her mind couldn't help but ruminate.

'Too bad I couldn't click on this human's icon.'

Another silly thought popped up in her mind.

'Weakness: Mina'

She found herself smiling but quickly chased the ridiculous idea away.

'Scratch that,' she sneaked a quick look at her back and grinned, 'Human, I will be your strength.'