Still hurting from things going badly with Dash, Catrina sets off her own, and finds a new friend.. who'll end up being a major part of AIL for several missions to come!

This is the first co write in AIL's history to this point not to feature Dash. Dash, of course, introduced us to Catrina, who returns the favor here by introducing Feena.

Editor's note: Until I finally caught the mistake, this page was originally replaced with a copy of Catrina's debut one mission ago! Sorry about that.

Feena's morning began with a rather abrupt start. Specifically, falling out of bed, which rather ruined a dream she was having. Cursing, the bunny begins her usual morning routine by getting dressed in her self-made priestly attire, combing her hair and praying to the supreme deity she refers to as the FSM. Seeking some adventure before she even remotely tries to find some real work for the day, she quickly made her way to the plains, looking to splash some Goblins with her magic.

Catrina awoke and stretched to try to get the stiffness out of her body. she shivered as she got up and moped about the camp, She took stock of herself at the moment.

She was cold- well, time and exercise would help that.

She was hungry- well hunting would give her exercise and food, which solved both problems.

Her Dash had gone -which made it all fall down again, as she suppressed another crying jag.

Well...she'd just have to work on what she could and pray to the Goddess for help with everything else. She went off, her nose taking the scent of the air until she picked up the scent of something yummy. She followed the scent to a hedge- and then pounced based on the scent alone.... Landing on a rabbit- in priest's robes?

Feena yelps loudly and tries to squirm away. "Don't hurt me!" she cries out, struggling in vain to pull away from the weight on top of her. Today just is not her day, a disturbed dream, a ruined battle, and to top it all off, she'd fallen prey to something much bigger than herself. "I... I'm only a priest of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, not a monster or anything else!"

Crap.

Today was just not going her way. First chasing off Dash, now hunting down a Sentient for breakfast. The place her nose had ended up after the pounce was, to say the least, embarrassing- and any attempts to move made matters even worse. "Sorry!...I'm sorry! I...I didn't know you were sentient..I was just hungry for bunny."

W...what are you?" The bunny manages wriggles away, pulling her legs closer to her body as well as her robes. "You'd better not be something...." Feena starts as she turns around to look at the offending party, finally noting a very large feline humanoid. "OH, DEAR FSM! Stay back, don't make me blast you with a minor ray of something, ... don't know what it'll be though..." She quickly raises a wand she keeps safely tucked away, holding back from actually attacking.

Catrina sat back on her haunches, a smile on her face as she watches the feistyness of the bunny...the bunny sentient that is. "Do not be alarmed, friend. Now that I know who..or what you are you have nothing to fear from me."

"Who... who are you?" Feena lowers her wand slowly, still feeling nervous.

Catrina smiled, then bowed to the bunny. "My name is Catrina of the Whiteclaw clan. What is yours?"

"Feena, Priestess of the Flying Spaghetti Monster." She offers a paw out in friendship. "You look a little familiar too, have I seen you somewhere before?"

Catrina looked at the bunny as she took the others hand in friendship - come to think of it...she DID look familiar.... A thought tickled at her brain that sent her laughing.

Feena looks on at Catrina curiously. "What's so funny?"

Catrina smiled, her laughter dying away enough that she could talk "The other day, my first back from the Island...you were that blur I saw leaving the clan hall!" Catrina remembered that day, when they all came home victoriously from the Island, carrying the petrified time with them, and she looked up to see a black and white figure beating a hasty retreat from the room.

"Blur? I was merely heading out to find a quiet place to lie down for a bit, didn't realize I was moving so fast."

Catrina nodded and smirked. "You sped up...probably when you saw the big white kitty coming to get you! RAWR!" With this Catrina broke down into more laughter.

Feena jumps a little, but giggles with Catrina. "Well, I suppose so. It's not my fault I'm so jumpy."

She giggles again and starts to stand up, dusting herself off. "What brings you out here other than breakfast?"

Catrina nodded, her laughter dying away as she touched on a serious matter. "True, but you have nothing to fear from me, I assure you." And I'm an adventurer, along with my friend D-" With that she stopped, and her face clouded up a bit.

Feena nods, knowing not to further pursue that train of thought, quickly changing topics. "What do you mean by Sentient?"

Catrina smiled, taking pleasure in speaking to someone, anyone as long as the topic of conversation didn't include Dash. "When the Goddess gave us dominion over our lands, she warned us that there were others out there like us- others that Her brethren had created in their images, just as we had been created in hers. These races became known as the Sentients to us."

"Ah. Now I know what you meant." The bunny seems rather content with her definition. "I get the feeling that the goblins are up to something, though. Usually they would take advantage of someone in a compromising situation around here."

Catrina laughed. "The goblins are ALWAYS up to something, hon. You can count on it! But they use this camp area as well on occasion, and aren't as stupid as to lose a good spot just to take advantage of you or me...Besides- they'd probably think I beat them to it..." With this she giggled again.

"I suppose so... Maybe we'd better get back to the clan headquarters and find out what's up. I have a feeling there's more going on than meets the eye."

Catrina nodded, standing up and brushing off her fur. That's when she noticed the man standing there. For a second she thought it was Dash, come back to her, but it just turned out to be some messenger who handed her and Feena messages...messages with the royal seal of Prince Blahking on them!

Catrina looked over the missive, turning it over in her hands again and again. She had never gotten one of these- but remembered the one that sent Dash and herself on the last mission. She used a claw to scrape the wax seal off the message intact- but whether as a stall to put off seeing the real message, or a desire to preserve it for memory's sake, she did not know.

Feena broke the seal off, and opened the missive as well. She quickly read it, confirming her own suspicions. "Well don't that just beat all, Catrina... The goblins are up to something. Maybe we better regroup."

Catrina shook her head. "If Toot has been kidnapped, there is no telling what the Goblins have planned for him! We need to start the hunt now, while the scent is fresh."

But her eyes were glued to the paragraph describing the fact that the Gobs had hired unknown elite soldiers... and her head rang with a certain Dragon's warning.

The perils I gave to you- that I gave to all- came from your own mind. If the peril I sent still exists in this world today- you must be wary of it still!

Still some tense confusion in this. Too much work to bother fixing, and I wouldn't know what to fix it to, anyway. I did add periods though!