You are a cat demon

"Black Panther, what are you doing? Hurry up!"

The man seemed annoyed by the slow-moving black dog behind him, and his voice gradually grew impatient.

Upon hearing this, the big black dog quickened its pace, dragging its dirty and disheveled body covered in grass and mud, and walked to its owner, lowering its head and whimpering pitifully.

"Holy crap, I told you not to mess with those goblins and you still won't—don't rub it on me! Get out of my way!" The man frowned, shoved the big black dog aside, and gestured for it to stay away from him.

You lie on the tree and observe secretly.

Perhaps it was some mysterious sixth sense, but the man suddenly looked up at where you were. He must have seen you; he paused, and you saw confusion and surprise in his eyes. The big black dog also smelled your scent and started barking at you.

Strangely enough, you showed no panic at being discovered. Your mind was unusually calm, like a pebble the size of a grain of rice thrown into a lake, creating ripples that quickly subside. No, your heart was completely still, like a stagnant pool. You silently watched the human and the big black dog, remaining motionless.

You stared at each other for a full two minutes before the man broke the silence by scratching his head. You thought he had fleas; after all, there are a lot of parasites this time of year, and fleas are everywhere. As if you'd caught it, watching him scratch made you feel itchy too, so you lifted a hind leg and scratched your neck.

Much more comfortable.

"Tsk, where did this stray cat come from? Hey, Mimi! Come down, come down, let me lick you!"

"Your eyesight isn't very good after all. You're a purebred cat demon, do you really look that much like a cat, a creature that shares the same character as you?" Well, you do look alike, I can understand that. You're in the tree, he's below; from his perspective, you do look quite small. He probably genuinely thinks you're a poor, homeless stray cat. But he's a hunter, is it really okay to be so careless? You're actually glad for him that you're just a tiny cat demon. If it weren't you lying there, but a much more ferocious monster, their fate would be unimaginable. And, "sniff sniff sniff"... in your mind, isn't that what you call a dog?

You've never been this speechless in your entire life.

The man called you a few times, but when he couldn't get you to listen, he opened the yellow cloth bag tied around his waist, took out a small piece of dried meat, and waved it at you.

childish.

You turned your face away, not even wanting to give me a glance.

The man called out a few more times, but seeing that you still wouldn't move an inch, and even lazily yawned, he looked at the jerky in his hand, seemingly giving up. Then, he glanced thoughtfully at the big black dog at his feet, its tail wagging like a flower as it stared at the jerky, drooling over it, and smiled before tossing the jerky into his own mouth.

The big black dog's tail immediately wilted.

That's actually quite interesting.

"Go! Black Panther, go!"

You watched them leave until their figures faded from your sight. What struck you as odd was that the big black dog, for some reason, while closely following its owner, would occasionally turn back to look at you, and it stopped barking.

What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a cat demon as handsome as you?

When you look back on that day, you feel a mix of emotions. You know you were courting death, that you were playing with your life.

You've never forgotten your mother's teachings: always stay as far away from humans as possible. Yes, that's what you've always thought until that day. But you realized then that your reason had vanished, without you even noticing. At that moment, you were like someone who had just been born into this world, completely bewildered and knowing nothing. Yet you've never interacted with any humans before, neither in the past nor now; who knows what you were doing then?

After staring blankly for a while, you finally climbed down the tree cautiously, took one last look in the direction the man and dog had left, and walked into the depths of the jungle with a heavy heart.