I...am human.

  I may not be like other humans.

  But I am still... a human.

  Channel my inner human...and breathe.

  Breathe, and walk. Yes, step one foot in front of the other, and very soon, I'll be walking like it's nothi-

  *Plop*

  ...

  MRAAAHH! This is so annoying! My body walked just fine in the past! Walking like a cat didn't stop my memory of walking like a human, so why?! This stubby, tabby-like body!!

  Haah.

  Mrah. I lay down in my private clearing, feeling incredibly defeated. I've begun my special 'walking training' to move around like a human, but it feels impossible. But the magical sight I see after collapsing like this always pleases me.

  I was born able to see mana. I thought that was "normal" and that everyone could, until everyone around me, humans and cats alike, kept ignoring it like It didn't exist. Back in that Adventurer's Haven or whatever, 4 Pointy-eared people, either Elves or Dwarves, called it "Mana" when they caught me following the wispy energy trails with my eyes. It floats around in different colors, like a magical mist that pervades and wafts about in the very air we breathe. I think sometimes it enters people, and other times people release it. I don't understand anything about that, though.

  Usually it's as thin as a casual mist, but, sometimes...in areas like Dungeons (supposedly) or a forest like this, it is so thick and palpable that I can practically taste it. Whenever I come to this place, the small clearing at the edge of the forest, I try breathing it in, and I feel like my body recovers faster!

  And look! My body feels better! I don't fall over when I swing my sword for at least 30 minutes, and I've only training for 19 days like this! I have a routine that I perform every day now:

  Wake up with Rei.

  Eat something.

  Spend time with my "babysitters".

  Sneak off like a curious cat would...and come here.

  I breathe in mana while meditating...why? Because that's what I saw in the adventurer's guild, duh.

  Then I practice standing, my balance is key. At first, my body kept falling. Unlike a human, I have a tail. My legs are stubbier, too. Finding my balance was strange. But I can do it now for a little bit, enough to swing a stick!

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  ...Mrah. But it feels worthless in the end. Even if I continue like this, can I fight against that goblin with wobbly legs? Can I move like a human while fighting on two feet? Just standing and swinging a stick is this difficult, is it even possible to master two-legged combat with this body?

  I'm sad.

  But! I thought of something today! Maybe, MANA is the key! What if I master mana and, like...use it to support myself somehow? So from now on I need to try mastering mana, instead of breathing it in, maybe inhale it, then move it through my body? Something like that.

  *GRRUMBLE*

  Ah, my tummy. Time to eat! I roll over on my paws and hurry back home. I wonder if they have any more apples to share? Recently, I've gotten to know Saria's mommy. She says that Rei's father plans on taking the three kids to go fishing at the lake a little ways away from our village! I can go too!

  I smell something cooking, Is that meat I sm-?!

  ...huh?

  Why is there smoke? Coming from...the village?

  *GROOOAAAAAAAGGHHH*

  My fur shivers into sharpened bristles as I jump back involuntarily. The air vibrates with a furious abandon for safety, as I can see vases shatter around Rei's campsite, causing collected clean water to spill without restraint. The sparsely floating mana that lingers in the air outside the Forbidden Woods where I practice, spirals towards the far South of the village, directly opposite my location.

  A deafening roar from a powerful existence on that side of the village, followed by some sort of...suction force that gathered the lingering mana in the air?

  *BOOM!*

  The earth itself vibrates, and an intense heat can be felt from my position alone!

  Yet...the village remains undamaged?

  Curious, half of me wants to check. That must be the human parts of me. Bad.

  My cat instincts are screaming: DON'T YOU DARE GO OVER THERE! IT'S SUICIDE!

  Still, the village isn't burning or anything, I wanna know If I can stay here or not! My innate curiosity wins and I carefully make it across the village in about 3 minutes. After all, it's a small village.

  I peek out from some wooden walls that were quite obviously burnt by something...though strangely the fire didn't spread to the other wooden walls and only tore a giant hole in some of them...

  And what I see next astonishes me.

  A large, scaly lizard, NOT a dragon since I don't see any wings, But still massive in its own right as it's left foreleg rests atop a huge tree which seems utterly dwarfed by its claws. Its strange eyes look in all directions like a chameleon, but UNlike one, it has three rows of serrated teeth and a forked tongue that shoots out like a bullet, stabbing into a nearby boulder as someone barely dodges. A hybrid of snake and Chameleon? I don't know, but what's more astonishing is that there's a scary white mana oozing off of a single, concentrated point in its forehead...fore-foreheads...?

  WHY DOES IT HAVE 4 HEADS?

  "DAD!!!"

  Nya?

  "Stand back Roy!! This one's unlike any you've seen before!"

  "No way! I'll protect the village too! I won't-"

  "Rei! Grab Roy and run! Falias, COME!"

  "GrrrAOO!(Right!)"

  What? There was a DOG in our village?! And Why is it so huge?! More importantly, that man seems to be Roy's daddy? He seems like a strong guy...long blonde hair, a bit of stubble on the chin and a two-handed sword. Oh! He moved so fast and sliced one of its heads off-ah! He kicked off of the neck-stump and ran his sword through the brain of another! Succeeding that, he did some saw-looking blade technique and dug into the remaining two necks, all before it could respond!

  And from my eyes, I see mana inside his body, yet it behaves strangely. It's ...coursing through his veins or something, with central points where the energy coalesces. His body draws on that energy somehow...and coats his blade with it. That mana does something after exiting his body and...changes? It became a transcendent, blue flame that coats his sword, scorching the seemingly flame-resistant lizard's four necks!

  But now he's panting. And...and those heads he just cut off, grew back. The central point in their foreheads seemed to dodge his blade and shoot downwards into their neck as the heads were lopped off, then those weird gatherings of white mana glowed bright white as that happened!

  *GASP*

  Has he been doing this for a while?! Only now do I see over 20 of such heads around the village entrance!

  ...

  In hindsight, one would think that maybe cutting off their heads is NOT the right call after doing it more than twice.

  This former adventurer might be a little dumb.