The sun rises, shining, from the east and lights up the morning sky and the sleeping world lying under it. The morning rays enter through my little room's dusty, little window, and light up the mess of my books that was made by me last night, and are all over my room now.

There is nothing like the beautiful day ahead. Waking up, I stretch my body a bit while letting out a satisfying yawn, and then get out of my bed. Walking up to my mirror, I swing my lovely tail around. Still big, but not fluffy at all. Need to make it ready for the day. I put it in a big bowl filled with clean water. After soaking it, I swing my wet tail into my special stone that I was given to by my high princess. The big stone absorbs all the water from my tail and converts into a blue, water stone. The water stays inside the stone until I need it again. And when I ask for the water, it gives it to me after purifying.

I look in the mirror again. “Hello, there you are.” Now my beautiful tail is looking big and fluffy, a purrfect one for everyone to respect. Nobody has one like the tail I have. The other princesses have fluffy tails too, but in different ways. My white fur, hit by the sunshine, tells me how important I am. I look at the table messed up with bowls, feathers, herbs, and dead insects, “There’s still a long way to master this.”

I’m trying to make some elixirs, but I can not get it right yet. I have had a dream since kittenhood. That is, to own the biggest elixir shop in the history of my land. Yesterday I visited the only, little elixir shop in the big town. They are not selling much there, but I returned with three new elixirs. Hopefully, they can teach me how to make them right, and also, I can study them there.

Right next to the new elixirs on the table, there is… “Fish?! Not again…!”

Some travelers from the Southern Fish town gave me some fish. The cat-people from that place are really kind. Although fish is fine and is also always free for someone who is in my position. But, it is not the best meal one can have. Nothing can ever beat the fungus-milk. It is so nyummy and so tasty! I can drink it all the time, especially the blue one that they make in the new Fungus Milkbar. That is the best meal one can find on Obbisia.

I should put on some fresh clothes now. Today I'm going to wear a gray top and a short blue skirt. When I wear a short skirt, I can show my beautiful tail to others in the best way possible. But, on the contrary, I can't show off my tail at all if I wear a long skirt. That's why I don't like long skirts at all.

I go downstairs to the hall, take a deep breath, and then swing open the main door of my house. As soon as I open the door, before I can see anything, the bright sunlight blinds my eyes for a few seconds. After a couple seconds, my eyes get adapted to it. I slowly open my eyes and set my paw into the outside world.

Upon getting out of my house, the first thing I witness is the beauty of the forest in the morning. The fresh morning breeze is carrying the sweet smell of wild flowers throughout the forest. Birds are singing and little animals are running around. Everything looks so purrfect.

The day before yesterday was awful. Two rabbit-skvader were found lying dead on the grass at the edge of the forest. Well, my house is only about 30 meters away from the forest’s starting edge. But, I heard nothing. I don't know exactly what killed them either. But, after examining the wounds on the two dead bodies up close, it seemed like they were caused by something sharp.

But, today is a lovely day. The blue bird that lives on the big tree in my garden is already flying around. 

"Good morning, my little friend!"

My beautiful garden's trees are full of colorful flowers here and there. And in the middle of the trees is a small-tree sized fungus with a few gills hanging from it. There is milk inside them. I've got a lot of bowls ready to fill with milk. As I pierce open a few dots on these gills, the milk starts to flow out. I quickly place my bowls under them. Seeing that, some deers come closer to me. 

"Do you all want to have some milk too?" 

In reply to my question, they answer 'yes' by bowing their heads. They can't speak, but I know that they can understand me. I set some bowls filled with milk on the ground for them.

Today I should wander around in the forest and check if everything is in order. 

"My princess!”

“My princess!" 

A catlady comes running towards me with a fishing stick in her hand. She falls on her knees right before me and pulls on my clothes like a dying soul. The deers, in shock, spill the milk as they run away.

The catlady is wearing a funny fishing jacket with lots of pockets, and shoes that go up to her tail. She has something in a small bottle, hanging beside one of her pockets. A snail falls on the ground from her fishing stick right before the

catlady lets go of the stick and it lands on the ground.

"Princess Meow, I have seen a shadow-crawler."

"Please, my good fellow, sit down and tell me about this shadow-crawler. I haven't heard about them before."

She sits between two bushes, "My princess, I heard the magic tree casts some evil animals out."

"Yes, that's correct. But, the monkeymen should be the one to handle this."

"But, princess, I've never seen this creature before. It walks around in our forest. I followed the trail of the dead bodies of some skvaders. The trail led to that creature. The sight of it was so scary. After seeing it, I spun on my tail and ran away as fast as I could.

I take a bowl of milk and give it to her. Now she finally stops shaking and accepts the milk with a smile.

"Now relax. I, too, have seen some dead skvaders. The shadow-crawler seems to not eat anyone but just kill. Did I get that right?"

"Yes, my princess."

"No need to address me as 'princess' all the time. Just call me Meow. So, where did you see this shadow-crawler?" 

Suddenly, a catman jumps out from behind a bush at the speed of light.

"Princess Meow! “

“My princess!" 

He yells so loud that even the calm blue bird gets shocked and starts attacking him so hard that I have to interfere to stop it's attacks.

"My little friend, he is with me."

The bird flies to my shoulder while whistling.

"Okay, my friend. Stay here and watch my back."

"And you, my fellow catman, have some milk and relax."

He has longer hair than a catlady, and is wearing a fishing jacket too. After he takes a few sips of the milk from the bowl I gave him and calms down a bit, I ask him, "What tail is on fire?”

"Princess, I was on my way home from the Northern fish village when I saw it wandering around in the northern forest."

The catlady quickly turns towards him "The thing you saw, was it a shadow-crawler?"

"What! A shadow-crawler! How did he come here, in our forest? We only heard about them. Right, Mis? No no, I saw a furless. It was just a furless!"

"A furless, Kis? Really? They are just fantasy creatures!"

"Princess, I saw what I saw." he says at the end, while looking at me with his big eyes. 

"I remember having some drawings of a furless in my house. I also need to contact our high princess. Wait here for me."

"Yes, princess."

"Just call her Meow. That’s what she said to me."

Leaving them with their bowls of milk, I return to my house. So something is in my forest that is killing others for fun, and a fantasy creature shows up out of nowhere. And here I was, thinking that today is a lovely day. Looks like it's time to go on an adventure.

Putting my fine blue cape on, I kneel down, fold both my paws up together near my chest, close my eyes and pray, "High princess, please, hear my call."

To find the power of a princess, always look inside yourself. Finding your soul there, is what makes you unique. My princess soul is ready and smiling at me. I open my eyes and see my ghost-like shadow in front of me. I can feel and move my ghostly self. Next to me, the high princess shows up. She is so beautiful as always, with fur like the sunlight itself. And her tail will take more than one magic water stone to get fixed every morning. 

"Princess Meow of the forest, what do you need?"

"High princess, some catmen came running to me. They say that they have seen a new creature called ‘shadow-crawler' wandering around in our forest. One of them is saying that it came from the magic tree. That creature is killing innocent living beings in our forest only for fun.”

"I haven’t heard about that before. Seek this creature out and find out more about it. But be careful, and always be ready for everything. Have you learned the ‘Power of Earth’ as I told you to?" 

"I have. Although I'm not purrfect at it yet. But, I should be able to do the job."

"Good work, Meow. Now then, I shall go to Swing to speak to the monkeymen about this matter and see if there’s more of these. Contact me after you return from your journey." She disappears as soon as she finishes her words, and so does my princess ghost.

This beautiful morning just turned into a hunt down for a dangerous creature in the woods. I take a look at all my stuff. It is a good thing I bought some new elixirs yesterday. Never expected that I’ll be needing them so soon though. I put my belt on to carry the three elixirs from yesterday on it, together with three more elixirs that I have made. These three elixirs of mine are the best ones that I have made to date. I am taking my best princess-stick with me. It is as long in height as I am and was made by the magic tree itself to help the princess. This long stick of mine is actually a result of three small sticks combining together and making a single stick. 

Suddenly, the catman, Kis, jumping up, stands in front of me and asks, "Where is it?" 

"Huh? Where is what?" 

"The drawing of the Furless!"

"Uh, I kept it on the top of that shelf."

He quickly begins to climb up the shelf without moving a chair over. As soon as he finds a piece of paper, he lifts it up and unfolds it.

"It is her!" he screams and loses his balance. Falling from the shelf, he twists his tail and lands on all fours. "I’m glad to be a catman. Hehehehehe..." as he laughs out loud, while the only thing that crossed my mind righ now is…'stupid cat'. 

We move outside again and take the picture of that creature with us. In the picture, that creature is totally naked of fur, but is wearing clothes just like us. I don't know why, but sometimes I dream of them. In those dreams, I am a normal cat, living together with a female of their species. 

"My friends, there is no time to lose. We need to find the shadow-crawler before it finds the furless. And then we need to find this furless as soon as possible."

Suddenly a noise comes from the forest. The two catmen hurry and hide behind me. A lot of earlingers come out. Funny small animals they are. They do not walk as normal animals but roll around on their long ears. Their ears can even make them climb trees and get down from them. Going on my knees, I ask the earlingers, "What’s wrong, guys?"

They all stop to look at me. I swing my tail and show them who I am. Seeing me, they get down from their ears on their little paws. I have never seen one so close. They have fluffy fur like my tail, big, round-shaped eyes, and the size of a little skvader. Anyway, I’m sure that they were running away from something. 

"Was it an evil creature?" I ask them. By turning their big heads right and left they reply ‘no’.

"Then, maybe a furless?" I ask but they seem to not understand what I’m saying. Then I tell them to move inside my house. It’s safe for them in there.

Grabbing my stick I stand up and look at Mis and Kis. "Show me the way to the shadow-crawler."

We hit the forest road and start heading southeast. I still have that little blue bird flying over us as a scout.

"This shadow-crawler can’t be as powerful as you’re saying." I try to start a conversation to make them feel a little safer with me around them. But, it doesn't seem to work as they are terrified. They only answer with a ‘hm’ just because they should not ignore someone like me. As soon as we take a turn to the east at the end of the road, Mis suddenly stops. 

"It…It was…just over there. I-i-it just came out…o-o-of…a…black shadow fog."

"Hmm, like a portal? Did it seem like he came here through teleportation?”

"I don’t… know…" says Mis, hiding behind Kis.

I take an elixir I have made that restores one’s will or courage. "Drink this, but only half of the bottle each."

They hurry up and drink it. Then together we sneak over to the place where Mis indicates. There are some black drops on the ground. They look like black blood. But there is no track of the creature. Apparently, it walks very lightly. Mis gets curious and touches the blood thing, "So pretty" 

Kis laughs out loud while I hurry and put Mis’s paws away from it. We look at each other. 

"If I eat it, maybe it can show the way."

The courage elixir works fine on Mis. Then, as soon as I turn around to look at Kis, a shadow of fear falls upon my heart. 

"KIS? WHERE ARE YOU?" I shout as Kis suddenly disappears from behind me. 

"I'll show you my princess. Come, come this way." his voice comes from a bush further ahead. "Come after me, Mis." 

They’re almost running away from me. The speed of the catmen is incredible when we have the courage to do it. I set my stick on my back and go on all fours to catch up with them.