Aries wiped her brow and set the pickaxe down. It was rather warm in her cave, with blankets over both the entrances, working as makeshift doors. I really should get working on making an actual door. Of course, without materials…

It was honestly one of the weirder places she'd been. Not a single store there sold furnishings for a house! Sure, house-building wasn't exactly a common profession, but everyone needed a place to live. Where did the builders get their supplies?

"What do you think, Willow?" Her cat looked up when her name was said. Aries hadn't cast Commune With Beasts, so she wasn't able to talk directly with the animal (an activity she thoroughly enjoyed). 

"Meow?"

Aries sighed. That usually meant that the cat was hungry. "Well, I'd rather me go hungry than you." She quickly cast her spell, and a raw, yet skinned, fish appeared on the ground in front of the cat, who began eating happily. "There you are, my sweet kitten." Aries kneeled down and pet her. "I should probably go catch my own food, huh?"

Aries went to her fishing pole and was about to grab it. Actually… I think I'd rather hunt tonight. Maybe catch a rabbit or something. With a small moment of concentration, she reached into the Aether and brought her hunting bow out, along with a few arrows. Aries shook her hand unhappily. "Man, reaching in there is the weirdest feeling. You know?"

"Mew."

Aries smiled. "See you in a bit."

Aries crawled out of the small hole that was the entrance to her home. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately, when she wanted to head into the city), she was quite far from the main part of the city, where all the chemicals and degenerates lived. Glad I'm not heading into town today. Man, what a trek.

Aries stood and looked for a bit at the city in the distance. She could see a few of the larger boats floating around, and she felt a thrill go through her as she thought about the strange mix of magic and technology that allowed the airships to exist. That's what I want to do. Magic and science, mixing together; that's what life is supposed to be!

It bummed her out to see all the gross smog and whatnot crowding out the bottom of the city. She'd heard some of the unpleasant things that happened to those who stuck around it for too long. It's why she'd chosen a cave far, far from the main city. It may take an hour to walk there, but it was more than worth it. She was quite far from any of the alchemical vents that kept the city aloft– the closest was about a mile away.

She was considering joining some of the groups that helped out the unfortunate folks down at the bottom– everyone that wasn't in the prison, anyway. Aries wasn't entirely sure what kind of prisoners they kept there, but almost everyone she'd asked about it had some of the most violent and/or heinous criminals were locked up there. She shuddered.

The real bummer about living up there was that there was almost nothing to hunt. There were a couple of rivers that were supplied with fish– one that was, thankfully, near Aries– but pickings were scarce. To catch anything big, you needed access to the ground. Aries had thought of about a thousand different ways to build her own, private method of getting to the ground, but none of them were simple, or cheap. So, for the moment, she was– as it were– skylocked.

Still, though, there was the occasional wild rabbit, which is what Aries was hunting now.

Hunting, of course, being a loose term. Rabbits were just about as easy to catch as… Anything, really; it was only ten minutes of walking before she spotted one. Crouching low to the ground, Aries took a deep, silent breath as she drew her arrow as quietly as she could. Aiming, as she'd learned to do on the road, she released the breath and the arrow at the same time.

The poor rabbit never knew what snuffed out its life. It always made Aries a bit sad, but still, she had to eat. She always comforted herself with the fact that their brains were a lot smaller than humans (she'd killed enough rabbits to know that), and likely didn't have anything like the capacity to think and feel that humans did. She hoped. "Hope you have a good time in Rabbit Heaven, little buddy."

With her kill in hand, Aries began heading back to her cave, navigating the rocky terrain with ease.

After skinning and cooking the rabbit, Aries leaned back, patting her stomach. She was rather small in the stomach, something she thanked her lucky stars for; she'd heard some people could eat three rabbits in a sitting! That'd be difficult to hunt for. "It's a good thing I'm just hunting for two, huh, Willow?"

The cat stared. Feeling like she could use some company, and knowing the night was almost to an end, Aries went ahead and cast the spell that would let her talk to Willow. She repeated the question.

"You have more food?"

"Willow, you have half a fish left. Cats are supposed to like fish."

"I like fish. I also like other foods, though. Do you have any?"

"I'm afraid not, my feline friend. Just finish your fish, okay? It's really hot in here tonight, so I'll give you the blanket to sleep on."

"Thank you. The stone is very hard to sleep on. My bones ache from it."

"Mine too, Willow. Mine too." As they conversed, Aries went and piled the blanket into a small cushion-like mound, and Willow climbed onto it, staring unblinkingly at Aries.

"Why do you take care of me?"

"Well, 'cause, Willow; you're a good companion and all, you know? I get lonely."

"Can you not buy other humans, like you bought me?"

"Nah. Well, you can, I think– I just think it's unethical." The cat gave her a blank look. "Immoral." More staring. "Wrong."

"Well that's a weird way to feel. You bought me, and I'm as good as any human."

Aries disagreed. While Willow was a great companion, and quite a bit better to hang around than most humans, she was, quite frankly, on the dumb side of the spectrum. True, when Aries cast her spell, the two were able to talk and whatnot, but Willow was definitely not on par with a human. "It's different, Willow. Maybe I can hire some servants or something, give them food and a place to stay in exchange for… Something… I dunno what." 

They spoke for a few more minutes about inconsequential things (mostly Willow telling the harrowing tale of the mouse she chased for an hour) before the spell wore off. Aries climbed into her bed, ready to face the day tomorrow. She was going to get a nice job, one that paid more than pet-walking and garden-keeping.