After searching till most people had left Sara said "I think it's about time to give up the search for now Kitty."
Still shaking and trembling a little you said "...but... but... Emily..."
"Listen, tomorrow is a school day. The day begins and ends about the same time for all classes. Why don't you just spend the night at my house, we've had a couple beastmen over and they all found it exceedingly comfortable. I'll bring you back here tomorrow and you can go to the class that Emily goes to. I mean since you don't know the way home that's the best I can do." She leaned down a little and stretched out her hand and said "This should be fine, right?"
Hesitantly you gripped her hand and nodded.
After some a long walk you walked up to a rather large building. Sara held the door open for you, and when you entered you felt a warm breeze envelop you. Looking into the building you saw a bunch of large trees stretch to the top of the building. Not just that but even on the ground floor was teeming with life and berry bushes. The whole place just kind of felt like a healthy forest.
Sara tapped your shoulder and asked "So how do you like my home?"
you tried to joke a bit and said "I'm actually more of an indoor cat, but it's still nice."
"Even so, how about we get us to our room? That's where our food will be, as long as your fine with the roommates." Sara pointed to a door in one of the trees and then said "It'll be a small climb, but it'll be comfortable in there." She snapped her fingers and some fallen leaves gathered around her feet and she just started to walk up the trunk of a tree as if it were the ground. Looking up you tried to climb up, but you just wasn't able to grip onto the bark or make any progress. You looked up and saw Sara talking to someone who quickly scampered down the tree.
You saw him better as he got down to where you were. It was a catperson much like yourself but male, much older, his fur was a golden brown, and fur pretty much covered all his skin. The catman said "Grab onto me."
a little nervous you asked "What?"
"Grab onto me, I want to get dinner and Sara wants you up there before she gets the food." A bit nervous you grabbed on the catman's back and then he rocketed up the tree. It took only a few seconds for you two to get to Sarah's room, but you found yourself clinging to the catman's back even after he entered the room which was a hollowed out branch of the tree.
Sarah giggled a bit and said "I thought you may have been somewhat attached to Noro, but you can let go."
You pried yourself off of Noro and then said "Sorry..."
Noro just walked to a pile of soft leaves and then laid down and started waiting for food.
Sara barked "Noro, dont you have any manners?"
Noro said "No problem." You couldn't put your finger on it, but there was something that felt different about Noro.
Sara snapped her fingers and some fruit came out of a hole in the tree and fell onto the pile of soft leaves that Noro was laying on. Noro then took one of the fruit and took a few bites. You crawled to the fruit pile and grabbed an apple and then backed off from the larger catman. Having secured the apple you started nibbling at it.
Sara asked "Any questions so far?"
you thought and asked "Is there something odd about Noro?"
Sara sighed and said "well let's just say when people called you soulless it's because of the majority of beastpeople who don't have souls, Noro for instance doesn't have one. Usually soulless creatures are violent, but he's a bit of a familiar for me so he generally just kind of helps me. However you are different from him. The fact you can decide things for yourself proves you have the ability to choose, and your worry proves that you have the ability to feel emotions. don't worry about your existence."
looking to Noro you saw him just laying down and eating not really reacting to the conversation. After some more idle chatter about other things the three of you lay down on a lot more soft leaves and fell asleep. For some reason you felt a lot more warmth and comfort. When you woke up...