StarChaser: Another (18+)

“It’s a swarm mouse, Ingrid! Get rid of them!” Siria said, recoiling in her seat. Zefir was laughing. Of course Ingrid just had to adopt the first random fluffy mammal that acted friendly towards her.

“Never! They’re cute!” Ingrid said, cuddling one of the mice to her chest. The dog-sized otter- or possum-like creature reciprocated by putting its paws on her cheeks as it licked her face, causing her to purr like a big cat. They had white fur with black tips and dark eyes, their ears were big like possums and they had prehensile furry tails.

“It’s useless, guys!” Zefir said “Ingrid’s been tamed by their toe-beans! They’re our friends now!”

Toebeans? Kvaris thought. She’s heard of Swarm Mice before; they were natives of the Western Isles, very intelligent and their swarm-like behavior allowed them a limited form of hivemind-like intelligence. Despite Siria calling them dangerous, they were friendly and reasonable creatures and in their native habitat they’ve built a good relationship with people. She figured that these mice must have been descendants of either stowaways or those that were brought in by sailors as either friends or pets.

Privately neither she nor Kinu were disturbed by them. She knew them well enough that they’re social animals and because they had chosen Ingrid as their pack leader, they’ll definitely behave themselves.

“They’re intelligent creatures, if they’ve cozied up to Ingrid, then by extension they’ll see us as friends and will behave themselves.” Kvaris told the rest of the team.

“They’ll be good company.” she added, beckoning her hand towards one of the mice looking her way. The booth was a little crowded so Kvaris gently pulled in one of the mice and sat it on her lap. The warm, cuddly creature squeaked happily and sniffed her before going to Kinu’s lap to accommodate the next mouse.

“Huh, they smell exactly the same.” Kvaris said as she and the next mouse touched noses, giggling a bit as the mouse licked her nose.

“I mean, they’re called Swarm Mice for a reason. I guess they just huddle together a lot.” Cecil said but Kinu shook her head.

“Even Kvaris and I have distinct scents, it’s like we’re detecting the same individual.” The younger garm explained. “We can’t tell them apart.”

“Cecil!” Siria said, suddenly remembering something. “You said, no single living thing can enter your room, right?”

“That’s true, why… ooooh…” Cecil suddenly realized what Siria was suggesting. He hovered down to Kvaris and waved two stubby little arms to the mouse. “Come here buddy! See if you can come in.”

Surprisingly. It did. Without any issue, the mouse clambered easily into Cecil’s room and sniffed him as Cecil gave it a hug. Another mouse joined, also not hampered by the limitations that Cecil’s room possessed and joined the other in affectionately kneading Cecil who had a pleased expression.

“I guess because they’re ‘swarm mice’ that means they all count as a single entity.” Cecil said, sighing pleasedly as the mice shower him with affectionate cuddles and the kneading of his soft squishy slime body. They curiously sniffed at the room before returning to the tavern to eat. Only one mouse was not able to enter, at least not fully.

 

“They’re using the forks and knives!” Ingrid said with wonder. The mice have only seen the Whales use their utensils once and were now carefully assimilating them, even more interesting was how mindful they were in using them, not flailing around and accidentally poking someone with it.

“They’re intelligent creatures,” Kvaris said, gently scratching her mouse’s bulging cheeks as it gleefully chowed down on the food. Viel too had a mouse sitting happily on her lap and it was sharing food with her, using a knife and fork. That got everyone’s attention for sure.

“It’s like they’ve realized that Viel’s our teammate that needs to be protected the most.” Sammy said, petting both Viel and her mouse, both made adorable sounds.

“Protected the most? I don’t think our mice are exactly combat-worthy..” Siria began but the earthlings all looked at Ingrid, who’s eyes were gleaming with delight.

“We have enough guns…” Philia said, looking at Ingrid meaningfully. Zefir and Cecil nodded. “Zefir learned how to shoot when he was a boys scout…we can teach them.”

Ingrid’s eyes shined and sparkled as she rubbed her mouse’s belly “Yes! Please do!”

“Ummm… is there something I should know?” Siria asked. She was the most out of the loop. As she spoke, the mice shifted around to greet the other members with mousy hugs and nuzzles. Siria giggled as a mouse cuddled up to her, eager to know her scent and imprint on its mind that she was a friend. The elf responded by happily rubbing its cheeks, which caused it to squeak in joy.

“Zefir, Cecil and I have been using a weapon similar to a crossbow, but far more powerful and convenient to use. It lets us shoot multiple times before we need to reload our weapons, as opposed to loading one arrow at a time.” Philia explained, both hands scratching behind her mouse’s ears as it nibbled on her food.

“Philia recreated these weapons from our homeworld.” Zefir added, rubbing his mouse’s belly and head “Ingrid, Cecil, Philia, and I aren’t from Terragalia, not from some far-away country but somewhere beyond that. How we got here isn’t exactly well-known, all we know is that we’ve all died and ended up here. I was just an ordinary human in my previous life, though you could say I was a fan of the three-”

“...until I got corrupted.” Philia cut in, after she finished eating some cheesy steak her mouse fed her. “The rest of us died as a result of my corrupted self attacking them. Ingrid must've separated me from whatever took me over…but my circumstances upon rebirth were different. Ingrid and Cecil arrived here only a few days ago, Zefir has been here for a year, while I had to relive my entire life from the moment I was born. It took a few months however to realize that… I have to tell you, having to relive your life as a baby gave you a lot of reasons to cry like one.”

She sighed, hugging her mouse tighter for comfort, who returned the gesture with some affectionate nibbling, causing her to laugh a little at the ticklish sensation. “Awww… I love you.”

“That’s all pretty hard to believe…” Siria remarked. Her mouse held up a fork and with cheesy steak on it and she obliged, ruffling its head affectionately. “Thank you, little one. You’re sooo cute!” she said, and the mouse replied by rapidly squeaking, turning around to give her a hug.

Ingrid wondered if the mice were simply picking up on what other people were doing to express affection and were just smartly using it to ingratiate themselves with the group. Although whatever thoughts she had were interrupted by her own mouse nuzzling her ear, leaving her in a chuckling fit as the chubbly little rodent showered her with attention which she repaid with back rubs.

“True.” Kinu said. She didn’t realize it but she and the mouse on her lap were completely in sync as they ate the same food, chewed and spoke/squeaked at the same time. “But the things our so-called otherworlders have shown have been remarkable. Ingrid’s ability to use the ether has been something we’ve never seen before. If she was an Elion-Noscoite kill-hound then this knowledge would have been widespread, and then we’d all be in trouble from that detestable kingdom.” She paused to ruffle her mouse’s head as it busily chewed on its food.

“Also...” She continued, “Zefir’s house while looking on the humbler side puts every royal palace to shame, you can bathe there alone and come out looking like you were washed by an army of slaves, and then there’s Philia’s devices all of which are far too advanced… and let’s not forget how she, Zefir, and Cecil used their weapons with the same finesse… this couldn’t have been some novel device Philia created and the other two to just have picked up in only a short time after meeting each other, these had to be commonplace tools from where they come from.”

A passing waiter, who had earlier seen the mice had come back and laid on the group’s table a delicacy; and entire wheel of stuffed cheese, which the mice excitedly squeaked over. Laughing, Ingrid sliced the wheel and passed each slice to the group, who made sure their cute mice had the first bites.

“And then there’s how they all were able to use the amenities of Zefir’s house without needing his instruction.” Kvaris added “Philia especially. She was among the latest in our group to join yet when she was brought into Zefir’s house, her only reaction of surprise was the fact that he was able to bring one here. I’d like to think they’ve all just met Philia years ago but the way they operated and inspected their weapons suggest a familiarity one would only have if they’ve spent a lifetime of using them.”

“Speaking of which…” Sammy cut in “Thank you Philia for providing us with these amulets, it was fortunate of us for you to give them.”

Philia waved her hands “It’s not a coincidence, Sammy. What I’ve given to you, Kvaris, and Kinu are the results of my work for many years. The chance that I would not be able to summon the weapons from my world were very real so it was only natural that I would busy myself making enchantments for weapons that already exist here, like spears and swords.”

“Smart” Zefir remarked. He was busily feeding the mice as he listened to Philia’s story, and the chubby little creatures patiently took their treats in turns rather than fight over it. This definitely cemented the idea that they can be trained to use firearms. “...and that paid us a lot in return.”

“Miss Philia, if nothing, is quite efficient with her time,” Gwen said, showing the mice how to apply the condiments to their food. This further invigorated the rodents’ gusto. To Ingrid’s amusement, these little guys seemed to have bottomless pits for stomachs.

“Definitely.” Kinu said “I just wanna go out and fight again with these wonderful artifacts…” she contented herself by giving cheekrubs to one of the mice as it nestled back on her lap.

Phili nodded and continued “It was fun to keep making them. If anything, I would find my meeting of Sammy and Viel to be a stroke of luck. Viel’s raw talent got the rings to work in the first place. I had trouble setting up the storage point for the weapons you see, and she effortlessly solved it just like that. If she hadn’t showed up I would’ve just sold those rings to some unworthy buyer…”

Viel shyly bowed her head and blushed as Sammy ruffled her hair, causing her to giggle as the mouse gently nibbled on her ears.

As the team continued to speak, the mice continued to eat while squeaking amongst themselves, each taking time to socialize with each member of The Whales, who responded with cuddles, ear-scratches, cheek rubs, and belly rubs. Even Siria, the newcomer, felt at ease with them once they started cuddling up to her.

“As a matter of fact…” Philia said “Sometime after tonight I would suggest we all take a side trip to where I buried the rest of my things, we might be able to find some more weapons to help us in our travel to Teth-Odin…the Red Moon has just passed and they will be calling for adventurers from all over to help them with the population explosion in their dungeons.”

“We’re going dungeon-crawling?” Ingrid asked with excitement. Philia nodded, indicating she was interested.

“You’re the leader, Ingrid, you wanna go? It’s a profitable but dangerous business there.” Kvaris asked, she and Kinu looked quite excited however, they were definitely looking excited to fight with their newfound toys and earn a lot in the process.

Even the mice looked at Ingrid, they looked much smarter than they were letting on, she wondered how much they understood from their conversation and if they grasped the rewards as well as the risks of going to the dungeons to explore. Ingrid gave her mouse’s paws an assuring squeeze.

Ingrid composed herself and looked at everyone. “Who wants to go? Keep in mind that we need to pick up Philia’s things first.”

Nobody dissented, the decision was unanimous.

“I’ll handle the paperwork with Guildmaster Tibbles then.” Siria volunteered.

Ingrid, who was drinking, and knew that the Guildmaster was a big giant talking cat and only knew his name right now, sprayed ale out of her nose, coughing.

Tibbles! The name of the big kitty is Tibbles!

“So they really have RPG dungeons in this world?” Cecil asked. “Sorry for asking again but the times they’ve been mentioned and we got answers they tend to get fragmented or highly abridged.”

“Yeah, I suppose I should talk about them now…” Zefir said “As you know, we got these Rifts that pull in monsters from all sorts of different dimensions. For some reason many of them occur deep underground. In order to control the flow of monsters pouring out of caves and canyons or wherever else, people build these huge and sturdy labyrinths and then connect them to where the rifts are. Building them is really dangerous work, especially when it comes to connecting those Rift-chambers but people get it done.“

He about to say more but a new mouse jostled up to him to give mousy hugs. Zefir cuddled the friendly giant rodent, patting and rubbing it’s back. “Fluffy lil’ guy you…”

“They’re dungeons because they’re a prison for monsters.” Philia continued for him as he was too busy rubbing noses with the mouse “...so long as we adventurers do our job by acting as wardens, so to speak. The dungeons do have various features to passively keep the monsters down. For one, they’re extremely large and labyrinthine in nature, so monsters end up getting lost and starving to death or you get hungry monsters bumping into each other and causing a lot of in-fighting.”

“A lot of times they don’t have to be hungry to fight with each other.” Siria added. “Because they come from different worlds, that’s enough for them to be at each other’s throats. Quite a lot of very territorial creatures come through these Rifts, eager to claim parts of the dungeon as their own. “

As Siria spoke she gave her mouse some ear-scratches, causing it to chirp rapidly, it sounded like laughter and the mouse turned around and put its paws on her cheeks and rubbed them, squeaking affections as it nuzzled her nose. Siria returned the affection before resuming her speech.

“Aside from that there’s also the various traps the builders have placed in there, as well as some advanced teleporters that let the unwary traveler loop around the same length of corridor for an eternity, some are even more advanced such as letting a section of the labyrinth have a section of the maze bring you back to a random part, making it look like an endless maze of no return.”

“Sounds quite dangerous even for us adventurers if it’s filled with booby-traps” Cecil remarked, but Philia shook her head.

“On the contrary, those trapped areas and teleporter loops are well marked. The dungeon is built for adventurers after all, it’s hard to get lost when you have a diagram for the labyrinth marked at every interval, and there’s lots of smaller escape corridors one could take to either launch ambushes from or use to make a quick getaway.” She explained “That said, despite all these advantages built into the dungeon for us adventurers, we all need to be careful, these monsters are dangerous after all.”

“And now there’s more of them poking out of the Rifts thanks to the Red Moon.” Zefir said. “I won’t be surprised if the Guildmaster asks The Whales to help considering we’ve eliminated most of the monsters.”

“It’s also the best time to travel too, we won’t be expecting another Red Moon for at least another month or two, if at all.” Philia reminded them. “If we’re going to be dungeoneering, picking up my stuff will definitely prove to be helpful.”

Ingrid nodded “You have a tracker for your stuff, don’t you? She pointed at Philia.

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

“I can go pick it up. I’ll take Viel and Zefir with me…” Ingrid suggested. “That way the rest of you can deal with the distribution of rewards. Siria can handle the paperwork and put us in the short list if any for volunteers for Teth-Odin. We’ll meet back here tomorrow. Zefir, keep Autumnhollow on and let Cecil use it to teach the mice how to shoot.”

“Yes’m” Zefir saluted. “It’s easy for me to set Autumnhollow to be seen only by us, it just takes a few minutes to do.”

“We’ll also need to register these mice as your familiars.” Siria added “We could put some scarves around their neck to easily identify them as familiars and not wild monsters…”

“And cute brooches to tell them apart!” Ingrid added. “I’ll put a letter from our alphabet as short-hand to know who’s who.”

“You already have names in mind?” Zefir asked.

“Saber. It’ll stand for Sully, Arthur, Brody, Eli, and Ralph. What do you think guys?” Ingrid asked, the mice excitedly squeaked in assent, liking the names, and took turns giving Ingrid fluffy mousy cuddles in return. “Awwww!!! Love you guys too!”

____

An hour later, The Whales had boarded Philia’s wagon and were making their way back to the forest.

Anyone who asked where they were going were answered with a preference for sleeping out in the stars, a preference while odd, attracted no undue attention as those who were out were busying themselves with hauling away the monster carcasses to be brought into town.

Gwen, Zefir, and Kinu rode up at the driver’s seat, a mouse cuddled on their lap, while the other two peeked out the back of the wagon to be snuggled by another member of the Whales. Zefir provided directions for an ideal place to set up camp while Kinu kept watch, keeping an eye for any hostile monsters that may still be loitering. At the back of the wagon, Sammy, and Kvaris kept an eye on the wagon from behind, each cuddling their own mouse.

Ingrid smiled as everyone had found the mice adorable, and while she didn’t have any mouse to pet she and Philia were lovingly patting Cecil.

“Why am I getting the cuddly pet treatment?” Cecil said as their hands petted him, although he wasn’t complaining.

“Something, something the world’s bravest slime brought us together.” Philia said, her face closed in bliss as she felt the slime’s soft jiggly body.

“Yup.” Ingrid nodded.

“Nooooo…! I’m a cool slime! Not a cutesy slime!” He protested but his tone was melting with delight as the two starchasers showered him with affection. “This is kinda morbid, girls, considering what we did to get here…”

“Doesn’t matter.” Philia said. “New life, let’s apply what we’ve learnt in our old one to our new one here...”