Elemental Cats
Chapter 12 It's Not A Ghost!

After the orb rolled to a stop in a corner of the cave Nil and Toz slowly backed away, Toz carrying Lucy in his arms. They moved carefully, to let the haunting soul rest in peace and not provoke an existence that shouldn't be provoked. Although ghost stories were usually fantasy, meant to scare children into bed in some places with especially dense lingering wills of the dead something akin to ghosts can appear. A lot of scholars have hypothesized that mana, that usually reacts to a users will, reacts to wills strong enough to remain with a person even in their death, and then that remaining will gathers and uses mana to express itself. But since the gathered mana is only built on the intent it lacks substance and sentience, merely looking like a soul with a grudge and without a body. However those theories all say that ghosts in the real world aren't actual souls, they only look like they are.

But since the egg wouldn't enter Toz's pocket it could only be because it has a soul, a soul that had entered the orb during the time it had been outside the pocket. The easiest reason for that happening, especially to a group that has read one too many ghost stories, is naturally a preexisting soul entering a suitable vessel it can use to interact with the physical world. As beings of the same physical world as the orb, Nil and Toz were especially careful since they didn't know what kinds of tricks a ghost might have up their sleeve.

The hustle and bustle of Nil and Toz being scared of the orb and moving to the edge of the cave had finally managed to wake up Lucy. Lucy, upon seeing the stiff faces of Nil and Toz got excited and jumped down from Toz's arms before looking at the orb with expectant eyes. He had previously been sad that there was no real treasure but now that it had scared his two friends, especially the often stoic Toz, wasn't it a better replace than what he had previously expected.

Unlike the two scaredy cats Lucy enjoyed ghost stories in a different way, he thrives on others fear and often laughs when others suffer, all in good harmless fun.

Toz and Nil were not surprised at Lucy's lack of respect for the dead as the tiny dark cat approached the orb. They wanted to stop him but they couldn't just leave the orb there forever and Lucy was naturally the most suitable to deal with it since even if a ghost showed up he would smack it back down into the ground and let it know the meaning of eternal in eternal slumber.

Although Lucy was unafraid he still knew some things need a tactful approach, as he slowly walked closer the orange ball. After reaching it he tapped it lightly. Nothing happened.

He tapped it harder. Still nothing.

Gathering some force in his paw he smacked it. The orb rolled a bit.

The careful approach had an anti-climactic ending as nothing really happened.

Seeing how the orb moved and the reflected light moved with it in a fancy display, Lucy let go of any remaining apprehension toward the ball and started playing with the orb. Pushing it here and there, rolling around with it and even running on top of it as it rolled around, looking like a professional clown. The fancy light show continued as Lucy moved the orb around inside the caves shadows and any stray rays of light that entered through the opening, bypassing Toz and Nil as they watched Lucy play with what they thought was a possibly dangerous and haunted orb.

However as Lucy continued playing wildly and nothing happened their wariness lessened. Maybe the orb wasn't dangerous and only had a calming effect on those already about to fall asleep. Since Lucy had proved they didn't need to worry about immediate danger they thought they might as well join the playful little cat in tossing around the orb.

After a few minutes of playing with the orb Toz thought the orb felt a little colder to the touch than it had earlier during the day. Since it was getting darker and the evening chill began to settle in it wasn't exactly weird for something similar to a glass orb to cool down. But as it grew even colder, and Toz remembered it had absorbed the warmth and mana in it's surroundings before entering it's current state, he realized that the orb wasn't getting colder, it was absorbing the heat he was emitting. With that realization in mind he asked Nil,

"Earlier when the orb tried to put you to sleep, what did it do exactly?"

"Hmph, it used pleasant feelings and memories to try and make me relax, like a sneaky little rat."

"Pleasant feelings related to warmth maybe?"

"Yeah, how didya know?"

"What if it wasn't a lure or attempt to trap you, what if it was a message? What if the orb wanted to tell you something with those feelings?"

"What could it want to tell me by wanting me to relax?"

"Maybe it was trying to tell you it wants warmth?"

"No way, I don't believe it."

Since the orb had sent feelings about different heat related experiences to Nil maybe it was expressing a desire to experience those things for itself, or a way to tell anyone close enough to hear that it needed warmth. Considering how it was rapidly stealing Toz's body heat when he continued touching it Toz didn't think he was far off the mark.

The only question left was what kind only wanted to feel warm, was it a poor fellow that froze to death? Toz looked at the orb in his hands with a pitying expression.

Since the orb was evidently harmless, and only wanted some warmth Toz decided to pull out a stack of firewood out of his pockets and got to work setting up a campfire. With Toz's skills it didn't long for a small but gradually growing flame to begin flickering about and filling the cave with fluttering shadows.

Toz placed the orb down next to the fire before sitting down next to it to begin heating some leftovers from their deer hunt for dinner. Lucy took his rightful place in Toz's lap to take a short pre-dinner nap. Nil laid down next to Toz, on the opposite side of the orb, with Toz left hand softly petting his silky fur in slow strokes.

The meat didn't actually need to be heated, but Toz liked it that way, especially since the air in the mountains had grown cooler after a certain nameless orb had absorbed all the heat and fire mana in the air. Unfortunately he was bound to be disappointed as all the heat that the campfire gave off was sucked away and absorbed by the orb before it could reach the meat.

Not only that but the fire attribute mana that the campfire had begun to draw to itself was drained away by the orb as well.

It didn't come as a complete surprise to Toz since it was because the orb seemed to want heat that he started a fire to begin with, but he was a little miffed that he had to eat his dinner cold. Nonetheless he still enjoyed sharing a small piece of jerky as an appetizer with Nil while watching the orb absorb all the heat as they waited for Lucy to wake up.

Lucy didn't disappoint as he woke up with a yawn, receiving a few pats from Toz before he cut the meat into several small pieces that he could put on bread and that the two cats could easily chew down. It wasn't as juicy and tender as it had been the first time but it still had enough flavor to eat with a smile on the face.

Since the orb seemingly wasn't satisfied with the small amount of heat generated by the fire Toz, under the encouraging gaze of Lucy piled on a bunch of firewood, turning the tiny campfire into a raging bonfire, lighting up the cave like a sun. But the only thing that changed was the brightness since every bit of heat generated was absorbed by the orb.

The orb continued draining the heat like a bottomless pit for several hours, it was enough to make Toz worried that his supply would run out if continued for much longer but eventually the orb stopped absorbing it all and the temperature in the cave increased bit by bit. As Toz stopped piling on firewood, the fire gradually calmed down and turned into a pile of glowing red embers, reminiscent of the ones attached to a certain type of deer he was familiar with.

As the orb stopped absorbing heat completely apparently satisfied it's surface had turned duller, no longer having that sheen that reflected light and made for an excellent toy for Lucy. The orange color had turned a shade darker and was no longer as vibrant. But the most remarkable change was the appearance of a murky shadow moving around inside the orb.