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Chapter IV

Fred was dreaming.

He was chasing a spot of bright red through a forest of black and gray. In his dream, he ran on not four feet but two. The bright red thing kept just far enough away, no matter how fast he ran, as to not be clearly distinguishable. He knew he must catch this thing, he knew it meant everything to catch it. He whispered a spell to make his feet fly, and he finally gained on the thing.
‘HA! Now I've got you!’ he said voicelessly, as we do in dreams.
Just as he was about to seize its shoulder, it turned and there was a flash-

And someone was pulling on one of his large ears, quite rudely. He snarled and snapped, struggling to his feet. He blinked several times, slowly. The disorientation began to pass, and he realized that the red thing was actually magenta rippled with gold. Saure, the girl, pouting at him with adorable disapproval.
"We've slept in. It's much past noon, now. You're well due for your potion. How do you feel?"
Fred considered this, stretching his left foreleg to pull on his wound. "Not so bad, actually."
Saure looked nonplussed, and began to unwrap his bandages to check for herself. The wound had healed considerably, and was only slightly weepy. She nodded to herself, replacing the bandage.
"Let's get some of this brew into you, then we'll go down to the creek and wash. I know pumas hate the water, but you'll have to endure."
"Oh, I don't mind the wet." said he. "I quite enjoy a nice dip on a hot summer day." He smiled with his eyes, closing them at her for a moment, as cats do. She noticed now the delicate tattoo-like lines that trailed from the inner corners of his eyes to the sides of his dark nose. She looked at him sidelong, contemplating.
"You're an odd cat. I don't know what it is about you, but I'll know in time."

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After Fred had drunk his medication, they walked side by side down to the creek. Fred was limping only slightly, and seemed in a good disposition. This was mainly due to the combination of both potions. They dulled the pain but heightened happy spirits into whatever you happened to feed them.

Fred didn't bother wading; he leapt into the creek gladly and dunked his head under. He flipped his head back, dispatching a hundred bright water pearls into the clear noontide sun and laughed. Saure was, again, nonplussed. She tugged on his sopping bandages and scolded him for jumping in without letting her remove them.
"Fie, good nurse! I'm done with them, anyway! Stop your incessant mothering, I'm a grown man!"
"Grown cat, mayhap, but man I sincerely doubt. Silly thing…" she chuckled as she tugged off the bandages and let him prance about, chasing fish.
"Mind you don't stretch it too badly, you'll rue it thoroughly once the potion wears off…" she warned. It was highly amusing watching such a great, formidable beast pouncing and playing like a wee kitten, so she held her tongue after that.

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In the days that followed, Saure went down to Fred's cave and checked on him, brought him food and potions, and they became fast friends. He was moody quite a bit of the time (when he wasn't giddy on pain-killing potion), and Saure decided she would bring books down to read to him. He never said whether or not he enjoyed this, but Saure thought he took almost as much pleasure in it as she did.

Nag was getting very suspicious, however, about Saure's daily outings to the creek on foot. It was unlike her. She usually preferred not to walk quite so far, for her boots were very large and this caused her feet to blister. Nag had mentioned this fact to Saure on one of her morning outings, but she only replied that she had stuffed the ends of her boots with linen scraps, therefore ending the old hassle. Nag