Tales from Port Sky

The sun was shining down on another busy day in the seaside town of Port Sky. Towels and umbrellas line the beach while people bustle up and down the shopping districts excitedly. This was the usual for this time of year, as the snow melts away and birds come back out to sing and dance in the increasingly warmer weather. On a busy day like today, one particular downtown cafe is packed with customers. A hotspot not only just for tasty sweets, but for its selection of adorable kittens to play with, the Catnap Cafe was seeing a lot of business as the spring weather came out.

Felicity always looked forward to this - keeping the windows open to let the warm breeze through and spending her entire working day chatting away with her customers, some who she hasn’t seen in a while over the winter season. “Have a wonderful rest of your day, dear! Thank you for coming by!” she said with a smile, seeing off a customer. She makes her way back to the counter to rest a minute and watch over her other guests. When it’s this busy around town, she loves to watch people come and go outside the cafe windows. When she lived her life as an alley cat, people watching was her favorite, observing humans living their lives from the shadows of the alleyways. Her passion for watching humans hasn’t changed, except now she can do it from the comfort of her own cafe.

As the people of Port Sky pass by her windows, an interesting figure suddenly joins the passing crowd, and stops in front of her cafe, looking about the street. “Oh…? That hair…” Felicity said to herself quietly, her attention grabbed by the curly, thick, pink hair of the girl stopped outside her window. Felicity is partial to pink hair herself - and while you’d see it here and there in Port Sky, this particular set of locks has her intrigued. But why…?

The curly-pink haired girl turns around to face the shops on the other side of the street, and that’s when Felicity notices it-- or, them, rather.

“Ah…! Oh my GOODNESS!!” she says aloud, alerting her customers to fix their gaze to her. “Are you okay, Miss Shortcake?!” one concerned customer asks. Felicity clears her throat. “S-Sorry, dear! Something just surprised me, is all…” she reassured the customer, redirecting her sight back out the window. The girl outside indeed had a pair of large, fluffy ears upon her head, cutely flopping behind her head and blending in beautifully with her hair. “A bunny…?!” she thought to herself.

Felicity is unique - while she may know two other girls who can transform into animals, only one of them dons ears and a tail of their animal forms like she does. And that one doesn’t even come from Port Sky, as far as she’s aware. To see a cute bunny girl walking around the busy streets with her ears proudly on display for all to see… Felicity’s heart started to race! And then, as she brought her gaze downward, that’s when she saw it: a big, round, fluffy, irresistible tail. One that she would give anything to be able to run her hands through, or bat around and play with as a cat… she couldn’t help herself from staring for as long as she could.

Her loving gaze was cut short when suddenly, the bunny girl turned around -- and she realized Felicity was staring at her. “O-Oh!” The bunny girl smiled, and waved at her. An unexpectedly kind response when she was caught staring at her tail… “Oh my, she’s coming in?!” Felicity said, seeing the cute girl make her way towards the cafe’s entrance. Felicity quickly got up from her counter to go and meet her.

“Hello! W-Welcome to the Catnap Cafe, cutie! I haven’t seen you around before!” Felicity welcomed her.

“Woww, it smells so good in here! And you…” the bunny girl stared upwards at Felicity. “You’re soooooo tall!!” she exclaimed, sparkles in her eyes.

“Me? Tall?” Felicity responded, not expecting such a remark. “I suppose I do get that from time to time! But please, I’m not here to talk about myself. A lady like yourself should be off her feet and waited on, so let me get you a table~”

Felicity brought the visitor to a cute, rounded table and sat her down, handing her a menu adorned with pictures of delectable sweets and pastries. Kittens rushed around and found themselves sniffing at the bunny’s feet.

“What looks good to you? I’ll get you anything you like!” Felicity asked.

“Well, the thing I’d like the most right now… would have to be your name~” the bunny answered, winking.

Felicity giggled. “Well, my name is Felicity! And if you’re going to play that game, I’m going to need yours in return.”

“Loplyn!” she responded, almost immediately. “My name is Loplyn. But you can call me Loppy if you’d like!”

“Mmm, Loppy~ How cute!” Felicity smiled. “Now I won’t let you visit my cafe without eating something. Please, whatever you’d like!”

“Maybe you can surprise me?” Loplyn asked, trying to be cute.

“Oooh, how fun! I won’t let you down, dear!” Felicity said, leaving Loopy at her table and heading to the pastry display. As she propped open the back of the display, she looked up at Loppy once again, fixating her eyes on the fluffy tail…

“Would it be rude to ask if I could feel it, I wonder…” Felicity shook her head. “No! I mustn’t entertain such thoughts. I have to procure the best dish for her…”

Felicity’s eyes scanned up and down every shelf in the display, determined to pick something her guest would enjoy. “Wait a minute…” she said, as her eyes stopped upon the carrot cake on the bottom shelf. “Why, of course! She is a cute bunny, after all!”

The carrot cake is one dish that almost nobody ever asks for in her cafe. It would seem the people of Port Sky just have a taste for her sweeter, fruitier dishes, and the carrot cake ends up often forgotten. But that doesn’t mean Felicity puts her heart and soul into baking it for her cafe in the event that somebody ends up wanting it. And after all this time of having to eat it all herself after nobody takes any, perhaps she’s found somebody to enjoy it with her…?

From across the cafe, Loplyn sits at her table watching Felicity shuffle through the sweets. She can’t take her eyes off the incredibly tall cat girl, with her striking pink hair and thick tail that waves around in the air when she’s excited. “Port Sky is just filled with the prettiest, tall women…” she sighed blissfully to herself.

“Here you are, dear! I hope this is to your liking…” Felicity said, presenting a slice of carrot cake before Loplyn, cutely positioned on a tiny plate. Loppy excitedly picked up the cat-themed fork and tried a bite of the cake. Within seconds, her eyes lit up.

“OhmyGOSH!! This is SO tasty!!” Loppy exclaimed. “What do you call this?! I have to know, Miss Felicity~!”

Felicity’s tail perked up with glee over Loppy’s reaction. “Oh my goodness dear, it’s Carrot Cake! I’m so delighted that you like it!” She bashfully looked aside, proud of herself for a successful deduction. When she brought her gaze back to Loplyn, she was shocked to see that the entire slice was already gone! “D-Did you finish it already?!”

“Already…? It didn’t last long enough at all!” Loplyn said, her cute bunnyface pouting, disappointed that she ate her slice so quickly. “Y-You don’t think…?” she said, pleading adoringly up at Felicity.

“Oh my. Well, I simply can’t resist a cute face like that, dear. Another slice coming up!” Felicity turned to prepare another plate for her sweet customer.

“But wait a moment!” Loplyn exclaimed to pull Felicity’s attention back to her. “Surely you don’t think I would work you so hard without giving you a tip, riiight…?” she said in a sly tone, pressing her forearms gently against her chest, pushing and drawing attention to a $50 dollar bill placed gently in her cleavage. “It’s all yours, my cute waitress! But you have to get it out yourself~” Loplyn winked.

Felicity stared.

“Ohhh… my goodness! Not only are you so cute, but you’re SO smart as well!” She reached into her purse and pulled out a fake-looking $100 bill, placing it gently into her own chest. “Don’t worry dear, I have PLENTY of human money! Thank you for teaching me such a convenient place to keep it~ Now I might not even need to carry a wallet around!” Felicity happily trotted off back to the sweets display with money cushioned in her chest. Loplyn’s jaw fell open at the cat lady’s unorthodox response to her attempt at flirting. And then, she began laughing to herself. “What a strange woman!” she said with a smile.

---

“Thank you so much for all your wonderful service today, Miss Felicity!” Loplyn said, getting ready to leave Catnap Cafe. She gave Felicity another quick look, from top to bottom. “You know, I’d be SO happy if you ever decided to come by and visit my shop!”

“Your shop?!” Felicity inquired. “My goodness dear, I would love to! What sort of business do you run?”

“La vie en Lapin - it’s my very own lingerie store. If you’re interested, I have a very wide selection of super cute stuff, and I think some of it might be your style!”

Felicity’s eyes sparkled. “A lingerie store?! You don’t say… that sounds delightful! Do you think it would be okay if I brought my friend with me? I just think that she might enjoy your company as much as I do.”

“A friend?” Loplyn’s ears perked up ever so slightly. “W-Well of course that’s fine! But, erm-- is she… as tall as you are, Miss Felicity?” Loplyn shook her head. “Wait, nevermind. Silly question! I hope you will come by, friend or not~” Loplyn blew a kiss before turning and heading out back into the busy street. As she walked away, Felicity once again found herself mesmerized by her fluffy, bouncing tail.

“Perhaps next time… I could ask her if I can touch it.” Felicity turned, almost feeling exhausted. She meets so many cute girls in one day, but this one was certainly special. She almost felt intoxicated by her smiles, her soft ears, her gentle but energetic voice…

“Ah… right! There is no time to waste, Felicity!” she remarked to herself. I must tell my good friend!” She pulled out her phone realizing she had a total of seven missed calls from her vampire slash best friend slash vampire best friend Laine.

Ring, ring… Ring ring…

“Laine? What’s the matter?! You called me so many times! I was ever so busy with a cute customer!!”

“Felicity, my deepest apologies.” Laine’s voice sounded grimly serious from the other end of the phone. “You see… I was visiting the grocery store with Letty when I came upon the most fascinating discovery. A bag of cat treats that claims itself to taste of seafood. I thought to myself, No. That is impossible. Surely, these small brown treats couldn’t possibly taste anything like seafood. How could that be? I simply had to ask you. But to my horrors, I had deleted the ‘Messaging’ application off my cellular device earlier today. This terrible incident had completely slipped my memory… but I refused to give up. And so I called you seven times in a row in hopes you would answer. Unfortunately you did not. But if you were busy with a ‘cute customer’ as you say, I of course do not blame you.”

Felicity had to take a moment to take her friend’s story in. “Ohhhh! I see. That’s okay Lainey! Sorry I didn’t answer the phone, I would have loved to check out those treats for you!”

“Worry not!” Laine responded. “I purchased the Seafood treats. I am on my way to your residence as we speak on the phone. I do not believe I will rest well tonight unless I know whether these taste of Seafood or not.”

“Oh! You’re heading over?! That’s perfect! I was hoping you might want to go somewhere with me actually! See, there’s this girl I think you’d absolutely adore…”