The road from the caravan's turnaround point, the town of Elefar, was surprisingly well maintained considering its distance from any large cities. Once Kal and Kashka caught up with the slower-moving merchants, they learned each of them paid a tax on goods passing through Elefar that went almost entirely toward maintaining the road to the seaport on the eastern coast.
Kal asked if the tax also paid for protection from bandits as he nodded toward the guard riding alongside the merchant and the man laughed at him.
Kal remembered seeing a group of large, well-armed men in town as they searched for Kashka's new daggers but hadn't bothered to ask about them. Out on the road, he saw quite a few of them were hired as guards. Each man carried a sword, a large shield, and a longbow at the ready as they constantly scanned the savannah's tall grasses.
The security wasn't for marauders, but for wildlife.
The grasslands were home to many large cats such as lions, the insanely fast cheetahs, and leopards. If those weren't dangerous enough, there were also hyenas and wild painted dogs to worry about. Elephants, their larger cousins the oliphaunts, and the horned rhinoceros also called the savannah home. Thankfully the oliphaunts stayed in the southern end of the region, where temperatures were cooler, and water was more plentiful. Although elephants and rhinoceros weren't predators, their size made them just as dangerous as anything with fangs and claws.
With so many threats, hiding out on the savannah while waiting for a merchant to plunder was often more dangerous than it was worth.
The savannah itself wasn't very exciting since it was mostly grass as far as the eye could see. Kal had seen enough grass to last a lifetime while crossing the Lantaran Death Plains. Unlike the Death Plains, the savannah had some shrubs and trees dotting the landscape to break the monotony.
Another difference was the large herds of animals they occasionally ran across, sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands. Aside from protecting the merchant's wagons from predators, it appeared the guard's other purpose was to swat the herd animals' hindquarters with long, willowy sticks to get them off the road.
They did run across a few monster girls traveling with the herds, but the women were given the same treatment and swatted with the sticks until they left. However, the guards tended to aim for parts without a layer of protective fur. He and Kashka saw quite a few of the large, herd-animal monster girls running away from the road holding their breasts and bottoms.
After the barrenness of the Death Plains, Kal was amazed at the sheer variety of life on the savannah. One of the herds they encountered on the first day was immense. Stretching nearly to the horizon, it consisted of several different types of animals, from the wildebeest and buffalo to the striped zebras and a huge variety of deer.
While waiting for the hired hands to clear the road, the merchant explained that many of these herds stayed further south but came to the region during the wet season when the savannah turned green from the summer rains.
Once past the gigantic herd, the merchants who didn't have people walking beside or behind their wagons pulled to the front and began leaving the slower carts behind. By sunset of the first day, the staggered line of wagons stretched as far as the eye could see.
After an unusually awkward night with Kashka, Kal started checking out the wares of merchants traveling around them. Most were carrying spices, oils, various decorative woods, and other things he had no interest in.
"Kal, do you think any of these merchants might have some boots like yours?" the cat-girl asked as the sun approached midday.
"I didn't see anything like that. Why?"
"I'm not used to walking for so long on cat legs, and it was making my thighs and hips sore. I switched back to human feet, but they are already hurting, and I'm not sure why. I never wore shoes back in Fazal."
"You've also hardly been on your feet for the past month. Let's see what we can find."
He couldn't just heal her soreness away because it would also erase any tolerance she built up for the rigors of traveling on foot. They first tried the Sandwalker boots, but they didn't get small enough to fit her. After checking around for a bit, only one of the nearby merchants had boots for sale, but nothing close to Kashka's size. Unfortunately for Kal, his Boots of the Traveler did shrink far enough. Kal wasn't exactly happy about the problem's solution, but it was all they had at the moment.
Kal kept glancing at the cat-girl's feet and frowning as they walked. The Sandwalker Boots he had on were nice, but they weren't 'his.'
They continued approaching different merchants throughout the morning. Even though Kal didn't hold out any hope of finding boots for Kashka, he was still curious about what kinds of wares they offered. It was kind of like a long, traveling bazaar. Most welcomed him and were happy for the opportunity to make some coin on the road, but several waved him away after taking one look at Kashka. In Fazal, turning away a customer because they owned a slave was a quick way to ruin your business. However, they weren't in Fazal anymore, and whether they assumed Kashka was a slave or simply because he traveled with a monster girl, they weren't required to do business with him.
The cat-girl became more despondent each time someone shooed Kal away because of her. Then again, it would have been a lot easier if he just quit talking to her while chatting with the merchants. It wasn't until they started wondering who he was speaking to that they noticed her
"What are you looking for?" asked Kashka after a merchant flicked his driving whip at the mage and told him to go elsewhere with his cat-whore.
"Nothing really. We have everything we need as far as I know," he replied as they let the creaking wagon pull ahead.
"Then why keep looking?"
"Because occasionally I get a really great deal, like those boots on your feet."
"Maybe I should stay further away. You keep asking me about things and that defeats my cloak's magic."
"I value your opinion more than theirs. If they have a problem with you then it's their loss, not ours."
"But that's limiting who you can talk to because of me."
Kal chuckled, "Limiting? Kashka, do you remember when we first met face to face?"
"Yes."
"Do you remember saving Shakri's son and how we got to her house?"
"Ye--" the cat-girl's eyes widened, "You can fly... Why... You should just leave me here. I'll catch up with you later, or maybe I can just run along below. I'm pretty fast on all fours."
"No, Kashka, I'm not abandoning you out here," said Kal, shaking his head, "and you would collapse from exhaustion within a few days if you tried to keep up with me."
"You should just leave me then," she said, looking away.
Kal stopped and stared at the feline. "What is wrong with you women? First Sera and now you..." His eyes narrowed as she turned to look at him, "Wait, is this your way of saying you are ready to strike out on your own?"
