Lovely Creation - Chapter 17 Idiot Bandits

“Timmy, we need to move to a new area,” Kitty stretched as he finished eating his breakfast.

The clothes he wore were way to big for him, and seemed to swallow him in fabric, but he was thrilled to have warm clothes, since the weather was starting to turn colder.

“Where are we going?” he asked, packing up the remaining food items he hadn’t used yet.

“I was thinking we would head East. I heard on the wind that the Demon King was in that direction, causing trouble.”

“Why would we head towards trouble?” he asked uncertainly, his movements noticeably slowing.

“Do you not trust me?” she asked, interested to hear his response.

“Of course, I do! I just wanted to know. Normally I would head away from trouble is all.”

She waited in silence as he finished packing, and had placed the sacks inside the pot. Hefting it on his own, she wondered how long he could carry it before he had to put it down to rest. This might be a long day.

“I am the chosen one, destined to kill the Demon King as per prophecy,” she said, turning away from him to lead the way. She heard him suck in air, in surprise, but didn’t stop.

He soon caught up with her, trying to hold the heavy pot as he stumbled along beside her.

“That’s fantastic! A cleric told my ma the same thing when I was born!”

Kitty paused to look at him, then chuckled. That was ironic, to her, that she had come up with that story, and then she would be the one to stumble across the actual person she was pretending to be.

“It would be fortuitous that we would meet then,” she said.

“What does a fort have to do with us meeting? Are we going to build one?”

“I meant, it was good that we met.”

They traveled throughout the day, stopping more and more frequently for him to rest, before finally getting to a road. It led away from the town she had been visiting, and headed south. After a moment of contemplation, she decided to follow it, if for no other reason than that is would be easier on Timmy to travel.

They camped that night, next to the road. Timmy started a fire without any problems. He was honestly getting better at it. She left long enough to catch a young deer, that had been separated from its herd. Judging from its coat, it was too young to be on its own and would probably die soon anyway, so she brought it back.

Timmy had gotten over his squeamishness when it came to cleaning game, as long as the animal was already dead when she brought it to him. They settled down to sleep next to the fire with full stomachs, and enough meat left over for breakfast.

A noise in the early morning caught her attention. Lifting her head, she saw three men moving slowly down the road. They were talking to each other softly.

“This looks like a good spot. People won’t be able to see us in the brush, and we should have enough time to finish our looting before anyone else shows up.”

“Hold up, it looks like someone’s camping there.”

“Why would they stop that close to the town?”

“Do you think they have the same idea as us?”

“Oh, it’s just a boy with his pet dog.”

Kitty’s fur raised in fury. How dare he call her a dog!

With a loud scream of fury, she launched herself at the offender, landing on his chest, and knocking him to the ground. She ignored the other two, who fell back in surprise.

Timmy jumped up, still asleep and oblivious to what was going on.

“How dare you insult me!” she growled deep in her chest.

The man promptly peed himself as he stared into her face, convinced he was about to die.

“We’re sorry! He’s sorry! He didn’t know what you were!” shouted one of the guys, from the bushes where he had fallen off the road.

“Right! Please, accept our apologies!” cried another, fear etched on his face.

‘I’m sorry! I didn’t mean nuthin’ by it!” he sobbed, shaking.

Backing off of him distastefully, she glared at him.

“What’s going on?” asked Timmy, finally clueing in, that something must have happened.

“They’ve insulted me!” she hissed. “They should die!”

Timmy’s eyes grew wide in surprise. “You shouldn’t have insulted her! Don’t you know she’s a goddess?”

They looked at each other in shock, and started groveling at her feet. All three of them crawled towards her, on their bellies, with their faces in the dirt.

It was obvious they didn’t have very much intelligence, and Kitty was wondering if she should just go ahead and kill them, when a thought occurred to her. What if she made them followers? As full-grown men, they could keep people from attacking her, and they could hunt for them, so that she didn’t have to.

“You shouldn’t crawl on the ground! It insults her even more!” cried Timmy, glancing between them.

“What do you mean?” asked one, hoarsely.

“If you are a follower of hers, and you crawl on the ground, you could get dirty, and that would look bad on her,” Timmy tried to explain, completely clueless on the fact, that they were not her followers yet.

“Oh!” they all cried, jumping up together.

She eyed them. They were covered in much, from crawling on the ground and one of them had peed his pants. She frowned in annoyance.

“What kind of goddess is she?” whispered one to Timmy, as if she wouldn’t hear him.

“She’s the chosen one, who will defeat the Demon King. All those who follow her will never get hungry.”

She waited for him to say that she would keep them safe too, but he left that part out.

The three men, looked at each other for a moment, then sheepishly looked back at Timmy.

“What do we have to do to become her followers?”

“Yea, none of the clerics we’ve ever met could promise us that.”

“Obviously, because she’s real. Those guys prob’ly didn’t know what they were talking about,” said Timmy rolling his eyes.

“I’m pretty hungry now, what kind of food will she feed us?”

“Oh, it’s not just free meals! You have to work to earn her loyalty. She’ll give you jobs to do, and if you do them, she’ll take care of you!”

“I don’t know about this. What kind of job does she want?”

“That sounds a lot like what the king wants us to do, then he takes our money to keep us safe from this demon guy.”

“Well, she said herself, that if you follow her, you’ll never have to pay taxes ever again.”

That’s not quite what she had said, but the three men were so willing to follow her at that, that she decided it would be alright.

“What jobs would you like for us to do, oh great Goddess?” asked one, bowing to her.

“First, you will all bathe. I will not have followers who stink.”

They looked at each other, then they all seemed to blush at their appearances.

“And after we’ve bathed?” asked a second.

“The three of you will show me how well you hunt.”