Spiritmal, By The Light Of A Star

24. Battling with kitty cats

Felix shuffled the deck of cards, starting the game by placing down two hairy potato cat cards in the discard pile. I groaned, knowing what double cat cards meant. I fanned out my small deck of five cards, Felix picking a random card from my deck.

He got a Taco cat.

"Geez... I was hoping for your defuse." He commented, ending his turn by picking up a random card from the drawing deck.

"You know I wouldn't hand over my defuse card just like that. It's the only thing that keeps me in the game if I draw an exploding kitten!" I placed down a favor card. "A favor from you."

"Fine. You can have your Taco cat back." He handed the card over. I smirked, putting down two Taco cats.

"You think you can steal from me this easily?" He questioned, placing down a nope card.

"Yup." I answered, placing down a nope card of my own.

"Fine." He fanned out his cards. I took a good look at them, discovering and yanking out the card that was hidden behind another. "Got your diffuse!"

"That doesn't mean that you'll win." He simply replied, waiting for me to end my turn.

I ended it quickly, drawing my card from the deck.

"Felix! Use that card!" Topaz pipped up, pointing a paw at one of his cards.

"This one? Fine... I'm doing this to entertain you in the first place." He placed down a skip card, meaning that it was my turn once more.

I picked up the next card curiously, realizing that it was an exploding kitten.

"Oof." I commented, placing the kitten back at the top of the deck and discarding a defuse card.

"Felix nearly got exploded." Star remarked. "That was a close call for him."

"Sure was. On another note, have you seen him play this game before Star?"

"Nope. It was mostly training. Honestly he's mostly a stick in the mud."

"I see..." I replied, watching as Felix used a shuffle card to hide the exploding kitten somewhere in the deck once more. He picked up a card, gesturing to me to start my turn.

And so, the game continued until there was only one card left in the deck. The exploding kitten.

"Defuse!" Felix placed down a diffuse, having drawn it earlier from the deck of cards.

"Skip!" I replied. Topaz pulling out an attack card to counter it.

I was out of attacks, having to use two skip cards to end my turn. To my dismay, Topaz helped his trainer dish out yet another attack card. This time, I counted it with my last defuse card, groaning when the lionblitz placed down yet another attack.

"Double skip!" I placed down two skip cards, only to be attacked once more.

"Ok ok, I've lost!" I dumped down my remaining card, a shuffle.

"I told you that I was a master peasant." Felix smirked.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm sure Topaz is the one who's the expert, not you."

"Whatever you say." He replied, coughing a bit as he kept his cards.

I looked out of the window, looking at the fields that we have passed. A quick glance at a clock nearby told me that we still had an hour to go before reaching Rockin City, the city where the train was going to stop for a bit of refueling before heading on its way once more.

I decided to take a little nap, seeing that we still had time before arriving at Rockin. I was a little tired, especially since I had been pretty busy the past few days. Before I knew it, I felt my eyes closing, peacefully sinking into darkness.
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"EMILY! Wake up! I've counted fifty-five minutes while you were asleep!" Star's intense chirping woke me up. I blinked a little, waking up completely. Looking out of the window once more, I could see a gigantic mountain in the distance. It was a good sign, especially since Rockin City was set in a mountain, most likely the one we were heading for. I stretched a little, realizing that Winter, Topaz and Felix were all still sleeping. Waking Winter and Topaz up, I got Topaz to wake his trainer. He complied, doing so by sending a water gun in Felix's face.

"Topaz! What in the world are you..." he woke up instantly, grabbing a cloth from his bag and cleaning up. "They'll be no dinner for you today." He grumbled, trying to dry his dark blue hair to the best of his ability.

Meanwhile, Topaz whined slightly at the prospect of skipping dinner.

"Don't worry Topaz, I'll give you something to eat later." I whispered into his ear. "Besides, I don't think he actually means it."

Topaz gave me a smile. "Of course he doesn't, he must have said that a million times already. I'm just play acting to guilt trip him." He answered, starting to whine once more.

I could feel Star's amusement in my head, hearing her mutter something about Topaz being a tease at times and a sweetheart at others.

Just then, the train whistle blew, the scenery outside turning into that of a complex cave system. The train slowed, officially coming to a stop. I picked up Winter, alighting the train with Topaz by my side and a grumpy Felix behind us.

Rockin City was a weird place, entirely carved out of the mountain we were in. There was no sunlight in the city, the lights on the main paths all coming from the 'buildings' nearby. I knew that most of the rock-loving Spiritmals lived in the outskirts of the Town, most of the Spiritmals walking around having an owner of their own. There were exceptions of course, Minerglides flying all around like your average pigeon. The Minerglides were beautiful, their color palette being different shades of stones with a hint of colorful, shiny crystals in some parts of their rocky bodies.

"Hey there young girl, we meet again." An old lady approached us.

"Who's she?" Felix questioned.

"Ah." The old lady answered. "That would be for me to know and you to find out." She turned to me, pushing up her spectacles. "Remember me young lady? We last met at Seamon Town."
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Welp! I'm on a roll with these updates. At the rate I'm going, there's a slim chance that I may wrap up the entire book this week!

Anyways, until my next update, stay peachy everyone!