27 - The Patting of a Small Paw 

"Cronos?" The boy with the glasses looked at Ataz with contempt as he bent down to try to approach the cat.

Ataz looked at the boy, feeling almost revered. He realized that even though he was a cat, he had a different advantage now. Cats caused a strange feeling in people, who felt that they should serve and protect him only because of the cute and pleasant appearance he had.

However, even with that information, Ataz looked at the boy and growled, showing the sharp teeth of his mouth, indicating that the boy should move away from the small, furry cat. The boy backed away, frustrated, but he didn't look like he was going to give up on stroking Ataz anytime soon.

"Oh guys, for God's sake, later we can decide that. Let's play!" Ana said, shrugging her shoulders.

She went to the backpack and took out the object that Ataz was so interested in: the book.

The cat looked towards her, seeing the book being brought to the coffee table. He walked over to the small table and jumped up, curious about what the book was about. Ana looked at him, attentive to the cat's movements, wondering what he was trying to do.

Ataz stretched out his paw and fiddled with the book cover, trying to get the cover up so he could read. Ana thought the cat's reactions were cute and held out her hand, helping him to lift the cover.

When he opened it, Ataz expected the common smell of old leaves from yet another book of magic, but no, it had a strange, stronger smell. The pages were shiny; they didn't even look like straight paper. Even their thickness was strange. The pages were thicker and did not slide like paper; they were more slippery than they should be.

"Hmm, it smells like a new book. When did you buy it, Ana?" the boy with the glasses said as he sat down next to the girl.

"Ah, a week ago. It was on the internet," she said, looking at him, putting a mess of hair behind her ear.

Ataz looked at her, seeing the girl's attitude. 'Do you like him?' he thought, confused, 'He doesn't seem like your type. He's a little goofy.' The cat continued to think about it but soon redirected his mind to the book again.

On the first page of the book, an image of what appeared to be an extremely powerful wizard appeared, dominating the power of the underworld. The cat watched for a few seconds but then immediately reached up a paw, trying to turn the page, however, before he could touch the book, Ana quickly put her hand in front of his, turning the page and looking at Ataz, informing him that she would turn the pages for him, making sure none of the others would notice something strange. He looked back at her and nodded, giving the girl a slight wink.

'Summary' was written on the next page.

He started to quickly read the highlighted words as if they were the title of each paragraph, trying to find something interesting for him.

"How to use this book, blah blah blah, Creating Adventures, ok ok... Don't they talk about magic? Wait!" He continued to stare and read while the others were wrapped up in talking to each other and Ana kept her hand over the book, pretending to read while talking.

"Wait... 'Creating... from the Master' what is this next part?" Ataz said to himself, trying to read it completely.

Ana's hand was covering a few lines. Then the cat gently lifted its right paw and patted the girl's hand, indicating that she should take her hand away. Ana quickly looked towards the cat, confused by the soft fur she felt in her hand. Realizing what he meant, she moved her hand a little to the corner and turned her head to the conversation she was having with the boys.

"Here it is! 'Creating Characters of the Master' ... What the hell is this? Some kind of slave system?"

Ana looked at him forcing his vision, wondering if the cat had any problems with his eyes. She moved a little closer to the book, running her finger over where the cat was reading and moving to the page number it was reading. Then she took the pages and turned to the one the cat was so curious about.

"Okay, come on! Here we have 'Creating Encounters'. What does that mean? 'Individual scenes in a story'... Is this a game?" He lifted his head, looking at nothing, thinking about what it all meant.

"So, are we going to play?" one of the boys said.

"Come on! Nate, do you want to use your dice?" Ana said, looking at the boy with the glasses.

"I think Pietro brought his own," Nate said, looking up at the boy with a frown on his face, who was barely paying attention to the conversation. "Eer... forget it. Let's use yours!" He, smiled with an embarrassed expression as he moved his hand behind his head and fussed with his hair.

Ana smiled and got up, going to the backpack to get her data. Ataz continued on the table, looking at the book. Without realizing it, Nate nudged Pietro, moving his head towards the cat, noticing that he was distracted. Then the two carefully sat down near the table, getting close to the cat.

Pietro then rested his hand on the floor, breaking a piece of cheese biscuit that was lying there, causing a small noise. Ataz instinctively moved one ear towards the boy and directed his gaze to the boy's hand.

Pietro and Nate froze, caught in the act by the cat. They did not feel any kind of threat to the animal or expect it, they just wanted to approach the animal carefully so as not to scare it, and maybe to create some kind of friendship with the kitten.

Ataz redirected his gaze to the boys, but he didn't plan to hurt them. The cat did not want to cause problems; he just watched if any of the boys would try something inappropriate, however, watching the boys with that cold, penetrating look that the cat kept, he did not take his eyes off Pietro.

At the same time, Ana turned her head, noticing the cat's actions. Frightened by the scene she had witnessed earlier, and afraid that her friend would also lose his hand, Ana became nervous and walked quickly towards the table, placing the dice on the table, taking away the tension that was in the environment with the noise.

"So, shall we start?" she said with a smile on her face.

The two boys were startled by the noise, returning from their trance. Ataz turned his head towards the dice, trying to see what Ana had hit on the table. Soon after, the cat got off the table, giving the boys room to do what they wanted with the book.

"Thomas and Alex? Aren't you coming?" Ana looked at the other two boys, calling them to play.

"Oh yes, we will," Alex said, wiping his mouth that was stained with cheese biscuits.

Everyone sat around the table to set up the game. Some began to put on strange clothes and hats while they were assembling the game, while Ana arranged the dice on the table next to a board. Ataz didn't understand anything at all, so he approached Ana, sitting slightly against the girl's crossed leg as she herself was sitting on the floor.

Ana froze and looked to the side, seeing the cat having the least amount of contact with her. After discovering that the cat was not as common as the others, Ana felt insecure about treating him like an animal, or even a pet, so she avoided having physical contact with him as she did not know what the cat's reaction would be. She felt good having him close to her, but still, she avoided stroking him to avoid problems for the time being.

------- Read the author's notes here! nhaa :3 ↓↓↓

Hello,

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