Ketsuki: The Cookie Hunter Vol 4

[Lunet_Moon]

~ A more formal thread with a little extra ~
Ketsuki The Cookie Hunter Volume 4
“In Search of the Trophy of Wind”

Prologue -
“It all started when...”

   A very sleepy raven haired cat-girl slept cozily on her bed, dreaming of various things she was to devour later that day, as a fluff-ball that resembled a stuffed animal struggled to wake her.  “Come on Master wake up already!”  The creature shook the girl as hard as it could but she wouldn't budge and simply murmured. “ Five more minutes...” she called as she rolled over to one side of the bed.  “That does it!” The fluff-ball declared angrily  “If you don't wake up I'll empty all the cookie jars into the dimensional rift and scatter them all over the cosmos!” The cat girl woke up with a start and stared at her companion. “You wouldn't...”  “Try me...” Her companion simply stared back at her, he certainly was capable of this as he had done it before. “Your friends are all here! Hurry up already!” The fluff ball then disappeared into another room while the girl grumpily got up and began to change.

   Meanwhile in the meeting room of the house, a rather large scale room with large chairs and a large table to match.  In the center stood a map of the known universe, while paintings of different exotic places littered the walls. In one corner of the room, a blonde haired cat girl stood wiping a lance with a cloth trying to clean it as best as she could. She was dressed in light robes covered in various colorful shapes. In two of the chairs near the northern half of the table two women stood happily chatting.  One woman had blazing red hair wrapped in a ponytail, she was dressed conservatively in light armor, a sword at her side.  The other young woman had glimmering brown hair, she was dressed in a   somewhat skimpy dancer's outfit, it showed off her figure relatively well. In the southern area of the room near one of the doors stood a tall black haired Elven man. He was wearing heavier armor than the red-haired woman, he stood admiring some of the paintings. Everyone immediately quieted down though as the last and most of all reason for their gathering arrived through the door.
   
   The raven haired cat girl now dressed in a green hunter's outfit with a beret on her head entered the room with a sheepish look on her face.  The white fluff ball that had awakened her earlier followed behind looking somewhat annoyed.  The one who spoke first however was the girl dressed in the dancer's outfit. “So Ketsuki..” she spoke in a relatively sweet voice “Care to explain to everyone else why we're all gathered here?”  They all somewhat knew the reason they were here but they wanted to hear the whole story from her mouth first.  Ketsuki shuffled her feet nervously and then began:

   â€œIt all started when...”


Chapter 1 - “The Incident”

   The incident began one lazy morning the fluff-ball was polishing the trophy the gang had recently acquired as a reward from a previous adventure.  Ketsuki had gone off as usual to procure some more cookie dough for her famous reward cookies.  However this one morning there was something she had completely forgotten to put away.  It was a very important item, one that could change the course of various destinies.  Well okay not really it was just a teleporter that when set to various coordinates could transport a person to certain areas already ventured.  It was a handy device and one Ketsuki held in various regard since it was built for her by a good friend.  However that friend also reminded her that it was a very dangerous object in the wrong hands.  In particular it was a bad thing to have in the presence of a certain trouble-making fluff-ball.
   
   When the fluff-ball had finished polishing the trophy to complete perfection he stood back and admired his work.  In the corner of his eye though he saw the teleporter.  His eyes shone in interest when he finally had lain eyes on it.  Ketsuki almost never let him see it because she always waved him off and said it was too dangerous for him to see.  He stared at the pretty flashing lights and various buttons on the device.  Unable to resist his fluff-ball curiousity any longer he began pushing buttons on the device.  The device began to glow to life, something that piqued his interest incredibly more.  He pushed even more buttons and the machine began emitting a strange radiating sound.  Suddenly the machine seemed to leap into the sky and fired a beam straight toward the trophy.  The beam hit the trophy squared on and in a flash of rainbow colored light the trophy vanished into nothingness.  The fluff-ball immediately flurried into a panic as the machine died down and began its cooling process.
   
   Ketsuki at that moment had chosen to come back from her shopping trip.  “Meow~ Kudan where's the trophy?”  Kudan the now named fluff-ball was casting a suspicious glance away as he began trying to float away without answering.  “Kudan why are you floating away without answering...” Ketsuki stopped herself when she saw the familiar glowing of the teleporter machine in its cool down process. She immediately rushed to the machine to see what had been set to it.  In mechanical letters the dimension meter read “Ocean of Stars” set as the destination. Kudan tried to float away but Ketsuki had already pounced on him to get a straight answer out of him.  “Kudan....” she started very angrily.  “Okay! Okay! I touched it! I sent the trophy to that dimension! I'm sorry!” Kudan finally relented and Ketsuki got off him and began to ponder what she would do.

   Ketsuki sighed as she began pacing back and forth between her living room.  If she didn't act fast who knows what could happen to the trophy.  However she couldn't go on this adventure alone, it was never safe to venture into other dimensions or galaxies on her own.  She learned that several years ago on one of her first adventures.  She began thinking to her friends to see if one of them had a ship that could help her travel.  She immediately thought of two people who could help her, but she realized one might not due to a past episode.  She quickly changed and then headed out the door again, making sure to this time place the machine under lock and key. No fluff-ball interference again, she wouldn't risk it.