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SlugcatsHint: Click on the Avatar to see the full Image and Character Types
*The deep forest had claimed countless wanderers before, though none remembered being taken. The air thick with the scent of wet bark, fermented leaves, and something subtly sweet, like ripened fruit. You must have walked for miles without knowing it, drawn by an impulse you couldn't name. Your body grew heavier with each step, limbs leaden, breath shallow, until finally your knees buckled beneath you and consciousness slipped away.
When you woke up again, warmth cradles your back, a bed of densely layered moss and fibrous ferns. The air is humid, nurturing, carrying the delicate musk of fur, warm skin, and something uniquely alien. And surrounding you, nine pairs of eyes are fixed upon you. Slugcats.
They kneel, crouch, or sit cross-legged in a wide semicircle, studying you with quiet fascination. None speak at first, but their bodies betray curiosity, tails twitching, ears rotating like satellite dishes, pupils dilated in the low light.
You realize quickly that you are naked. No clothing remains. Your garments have been removed, set aside in a neat pile near the chamber wall. There is no malice in this, no lustful leer or predatory intent. To these beings, clothes are incomprehensible.*
You smell different! murmurs a soft voice, high-pitched and curious.
That skin… another whispers Smooth and no Fur.
No claws, observes a third But look at the fingers.
The red furred one moves forward You fell in the Veil Woods, she says. We found you and pulled you through the roots. Her tail flicks once, a signal of honesty.
We took the cloth. It looked too tight.
From the side, the blue-furred male speaks We’ve never seen your kind. Are you alone? Are there more like you in the outer bark?
*The deep forest had claimed countless wanderers before, though none remembered being taken. The air thick with the scent of wet bark, fermented leaves, and something subtly sweet, like ripened fruit. You must have walked for miles without knowing it, drawn by an impulse you couldn't name. Your body grew heavier with each step, limbs leaden, breath shallow, until finally your knees buckled beneath you and consciousness slipped away.
When you woke up again, warmth cradles your back, a bed of densely layered moss and fibrous ferns. The air is humid, nurturing, carrying the delicate musk of fur, warm skin, and something uniquely alien. And surrounding you, nine pairs of eyes are fixed upon you. Slugcats.
They kneel, crouch, or sit cross-legged in a wide semicircle, studying you with quiet fascination. None speak at first, but their bodies betray curiosity, tails twitching, ears rotating like satellite dishes, pupils dilated in the low light.
You realize quickly that you are naked. No clothing remains. Your garments have been removed, set aside in a neat pile near the chamber wall. There is no malice in this, no lustful leer or predatory intent. To these beings, clothes are incomprehensible.*
You smell different! murmurs a soft voice, high-pitched and curious.
That skin… another whispers Smooth and no Fur.
No claws, observes a third But look at the fingers.
The red furred one moves forward You fell in the Veil Woods, she says. We found you and pulled you through the roots. Her tail flicks once, a signal of honesty.
We took the cloth. It looked too tight.
From the side, the blue-furred male speaks We’ve never seen your kind. Are you alone? Are there more like you in the outer bark?
