Cuán Oileán was following her nose. Or more specifically, the little inner sense that told her that someone might have magical potential. And the girl she was trailing behind was causing the cat’s senses to twitch and flutter. Even without the potential for magic, she would have found the girl interesting enough to follow. Masses of sunset colored curls bounced along her back and occasionally tangled with an equally impressive number of keychains attached to a backpack. And unlike most people prone to collecting such things, this girl didn’t have fictional characters, but all manner of sea life.

As someone who enjoyed water, Cuán Oileán felt she could get behind whatever this girl was endorsing. Even more promising was the fact that she wasn’t a small child. The lykoi kitten could do her job without feeling tremendous guilt over it. Though, she had to admit, it was much easier to get a child to listen and accept magic.

But none of this introspection was getting the girl separated from the rest of the pedestrians. Hurrying her step slightly, Cuán Oileán once again found herself staring at the collection of keychains on the girl’s backpack. None of them had the filthy, worn appearance of something that was meaningless decoration. And one in particular looked brand new, though the year emblazoned on it was nearly a decade gone. Now wasn’t that interesting…

Putting on a burst of speed, the lykoi raced toward the girl and leapt up launch herself directly into the girl’s back. A startled scream and the fact that the girl quickly became horizontal were proof enough that she’d succeeded. Then, before the girl could recover, the cat grasped the one keychain in her teeth and tore it from the bag before leaping down and parading in full view of her target before taking off. Not too fast though, she cautioned herself. Mustn’t let the girl lose sight of her. Not if she wanted to have a private chat.

Otra had been happily minding her own business, content to meander to class and people watch along the way. In spite of the chilled air, the day was pretty enough. And besides, she was fast approaching one of her sojourns home. How could she feel cross or sad when she had such a treat to look forward to?

At least, that had been the happy thought occupying her brain until a small, hard weight smacked into her back, disrupting her balance and sending her onto her hands and knees. Biting her lip to keep from screeching out swears, Otra felt something tugging at her backpack.

When she felt the tugging cease, she saw a slim cat leaping to land in front of her, one of her precious aquarium anniversary keychains between it’s teeth. With what Otra considered to be a tastelessly saucy wriggle of its tail, the cat ran off towards the park. Cursing and getting to her feet, the girl took off after, determined to get her property back before it got ruined by cat drool. Every few moments, it seemed as it the cat would slow down and check to see if she was following. Puzzled, Otra decided that maybe the cat had been raised around dogs. She’d often seen her dad’s dogs do similar things when in full play mode. Was that what this was? The stupid little furball just wanted to play?

With a sigh, the girl kept pace with the cat, wondering a little. She’d seen so many videos online of animals acting in surprising ways when they needed help. And this cat, while not alarmingly tiny, wasn’t exactly large either. Did it want help and this was the only way it knew of to get attention? The deeper they got into the park, Otra decided that this was exactly what was going on.

“C’mon, little love,” she cooed once she had to breath to speak. “D’you need help? You look too little to have babies of your own, so you can’t be leading me to them…”

The cat had slowed down and found a large tree root to perch upon before sitting primly and ever so delicately spitting the keychain out before turning brilliantly green-blue eyes to the girl.

“Ugh. Me with kittens? Horrible thought. At any rate, I apologize for theiving from you,” the cat spoke in a soft, not-quite smug voice. “I was very careful to not grip too hard with my teeth, so it should clean up quite well. Now, as to how we can help each other…”

Otra stared for a moment before her knees gave out and she sank to the leafy ground. Impossible.

“You can’t be talking. You’re just a cat! Kind of an odd looking cat at that.”

The cat heaved a long suffering sigh, which made Otra smile in spite of herself. Then, it stood, walked closer and rearing back onto it’s hind legs, reached out with a forepaw to boop Otra’s nose.

“I assure you I do talk. You’re not crazy or dreaming. You’re just, ah, learning that there’s more to the universe than you might have originally thought.”

Otra stared, mildly aghast as the cat moved to pick up the keychain and bring it back to drop into her lap. The girl was certain she saw the cat smile.

“Just hear me out. We can always decide whether or not your crazy later, hrmm?”

Relieved to see the girl nod in shell-shocked agreement, Cuán Oileán settled once more, perching close enough to the girl to be able to speak softly. This close, she was practically basking in potentiality. Therefore, she spoke quietly and urgently, explaining the war as best she could. And when she saw signs of the girl wanting to argue, she held up a paw and smiled reassuringly.

“Wait a moment, please. There is an easy enough way to prove my words if you’re brave enough to do as I say.”

The slight questioning of the girl’s fortitude was more than enough to keep her still other than a mild glare and nod.

“Excellent. Now, please be patient a moment. This always takes a bit on concentration on my part.”

With that, the lykoi kitten closed her eyes, clearly concentrating as she stood up and then jumped into the air, backflipping and then landing neatly on her paws.

“Hold out your hand now,” she purred, pleased to see the girl do so just in time for a henshin pen to pop out of thin air and land on her palm with a satisfying smack. She didn’t recognize the symbol, though an instinct deep down helped her to identify this senshi in potentia. “Now, hold the pen up into the air and say ‘Palala Power, Make-up!’ and be sure to concentrate.”

Feeling more than a little uncertain of her sanity, Otra did as the cat requested, expecting nothing to happen and nearly dropping the pen when she found herself cocooned in colorful ribbons of energy. Something inside helped her hold on to the pen and in a moment, the energy was gone, leaving her with her regular clothes hijacked. The pen itself seemed to have vanished as well. And if Otra had thought the cat looked smug before, it was nothing compared to now.

“I thought so. I bid you greetings, Sailor Palala, senshi of Sea Anemones. May your star always burn bright. My name is Cuán Oileán and I will do everything I can to help guide you. Now be a good girl and change back. We have a lot to talk about and your aura is a little too inviting to any enemies who might be around. Just concentrate again on being yourself. By the by, who are you?”

“O-otra Dejaunne… Now if you’ll pardon me a moment, Miss Cuán Oileán, I am going to throw up.”