A few days after Diane's little encounter with Flora, the now kind of scary old lady, not really, and captain Jack's mother. She had gone back to lazing around. Sunbathing, eating and occasionally rubbing her head against the leg of some of the crew during their lunches in the hope of landing herself a few scratches behind the ear or under the chin. And that was almost a guaranteed hit, worked practically always. Though she had been too scared to try it with Flora, then the captain himself and then weird kid, Neo.
So far Diane had only spoken to Flora and Flora didn't seem to mind Diane keeping her skills a secret for now. So why should she, bother. The crew would probably treat her as some kind of freak if she suddenly started speaking and actually asking for scratches instead of just playing cute to get them.
But she was eating good. Gordon was making specifically for her, her own dishes she could eat and that according to Gordon at least where great for pregnant mothers. Not sure if that included cats or just humans.
That reminded Diane, she had been quite surprised when she learned that all of the crew on this ship were human, usually at least some of the crew would be an elf or from another such race.
Diane herself had grown up surrounded by elves. Purrt Royal after all used to be ruled by a branch of the royal family of the Elven empire so it was only natural most of the population still was majorly made up of elves. During some great war a long time ago many islands of the Elven empire, including Purrt Royal, faced revolutions. The local noble families were overthrown and more often than not executed, though on Purrt Royal they were allowed to continue living... In the end the Elven empire was beaten to the point they couldn't try claiming their old territories back.
But currently however Diane was laying on the hard wooden deck of the ship that surprisingly felt quite comfortable in the warm effulgent golden sunlight cascading on her and warming her up in the most comfortable of ways. She could honestly lay there for forever just enjoying the seemingly unlimited warm provided to her by the yellow miracle in the sky.
However, naturally not everything could last forever. Diane felt a shiver run down her spine as the feeling of cold started crawling up her from her tail and hind paws up her belly and back to her front paws before reaching her neck from which it covered her face.
Diane frowned and opened her eyes and looked up at the sky— A damned cloud had thrifted between her and the sun, blocking her warmth and happiness. Might as well say her meaning in life.
Then something in even worse happened. She felt something wet hit her nose. A water droplet. Then another hit her back. Another her stomach. Realising what's going on Diane jumped and rushed towards the great cabin where the captain resided. IT was maybe 10 meters away from her. She ran but water droplets kept dropping on her faster and faster and by the time she had reached the cover outside of the great cabin… She was soaking wet; her fur clung onto her skin and every move she made was accompanied by awfully sounding wet slats.
It was a real downpour, big droplets of water banging on the wooden deck as they fell. Visibility was immediately limited and Diane couldn't even properly see to the other side of the ship to Flora's little garden. So, she just jumped onto a table. Putting some more distance between her and the rain. Even if she was already wet, she could focus on drying up.
But I guess it was a nice change of weather to have some rain. For all of the voyage till now it had been either sunny with completely clear skies or partially cloudy skies. Now no hint could be seen, and a humongous cloud was hovering above them in the sky pouring down on them. They could gather some more fresh water which was a good thing.
The rain lasted for around 3 hours before subsiding and fading away into the distance. And slowly the clouds started parting again. Rays of the evening sun shone down on the horizon. Painting the horizon a beautiful red. Diane walked on the damp deck of the ship to the bow to look out into the open sea and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
She sat down and watched as the sun slowly lowered towards the horizon. She was happy. Life was peaceful on this ship and she was accepted. It felt like she was home for the first time in a long long time.
Then suddenly—
She felt a twist in her stomach—
An ache in her lower back—
Then something wet hit the floor under her. Diane froze. Slight panic flashing in her eyes before she rose and rushed to find Flora.
Flora was in her own cabin, located next to the captain's her sons one at the stern of the ship. She was reading a book called "Art of Gardening" by Sun Lin. She had just picked up the book when she was interrupted by knocks on her door… Quite the soft knocks. It was probably Diane again.
Flora stood up slowly in no hurry and slowly walked on over to the door and opened it. Only to be met by a panicked cat that slipped inside and looked up at her. Pleadingly
"Flora, you gotta help me nyah. It's time. My water broke."
Flora looked down at the cat sceptically for a moment before nodding and motioning towards the cat's bed that had been made in her room to accommodate Diane specifically.
Diane listened and went to lay on the bed while Flora walked to her worktable and took out some herbs from the glass cabinet above. She stuffed them into grinder pot then grinded them down into a mush before pouring them into a cup filled with cold water. She put her hand below the cup the water was in for a moment and then brought it over to Diane.
"Here, kitty, have a little sip. It'll take the edge off and help you unwind a bit."
Diane didn't question Diane and took a sip of the warm drink. Not questioning how it was the perfect temperature despite clearly not being heated anywhere before. It didn't even hurt her tongue when she used that to scoop up some of it.
Diane winced suddenly as another streak of pain tore through her. At the same time in the distance thunder could be heard booming. The storm was raging just a little far away somehow louder than earlier. It was bound to be a long night.
"Now, little kitty, don't you fret none. Just you take your sweet time, and Flora's right here to lend a hand. It's all going to be okay."
Yea… it was definitely going to be a long night.