Atem never took his job for granted,
but he didn't think much of traditional things, such as what was in
his garden, or what colors his hair was. Or how many cats he ha,d or
what color
But apparently, someone else did.
Collin
Edwards, some guy in a high office, had been getting on Atem's case
for weeks now.
He nagged Atem about how his ahir should be
completely black, and that he should start growing a beard so he
would look more menacing, and that he should put down some, if nto
all but one, or his cats.
"You should turn him into a frog." Francis, a slim tabby cat stated dryly to the warlock, who was painting gold letters on a board over his house/cottage. The board would say when finished: "NONE OF THIS NONESENSE, PLEASE"
"I
should turn who into a cat?" Atem asked the male cat. "That
Edwart wind bag. Or at least turn him into a rat. It's been a awhile
since I've chased a roddent out."
Atem glared at the cat. "You
had a chance yesterday when that dratted Gnome was sawing off one of
the supports on my front porch steps!" The cat huffed. "Gnomes
are not rodents."
Atem scoffed. "there just as bad, but worse
because you don't care for chasing them."
He just finished
painting the letter "S" in "PLEASE" on the board, when he
heard a very familiar chuckle from below.
Atem looked down to see
Bakura leaning on one of the board's study posts.
"Do you
have a moment?" Bakura asked. Atme nodded.
"Yes, give me a
second." Atem then slowly flew his broom stick down to the ground
and landed, Francis hopped onto Atem's shoulders, his claws digging
into the thick black robes the Egyptian wore, which protected his
skin from the tabby's claws.
"So, what brings the potion
maker to my abode?" Atem asked, putting the bucket of gold paint on
the ground.
"It's about the "Warlock's and Witches Garden
Growing Contest."
"Ryou needs some Invisible Choke-Vines. But
we can't find any, anywhere. Ryou remembered you had some a few years
back and asked me to come get some if you still had some." Bakura
explained in a bored tone of voice.
Atem sighed and shook his
head. "I'm afraid I don't. They withered, and I couldn't get any
seeds to try and replant it."
Bakura shrugged. "Oh, well,
worth a try. Ryou will be put out though." Bakura glanced at the
rose bushes and the cherry tree in Atem's garden.
"Have you been
getting calls from a guy about your way of magic? His name was
something like, what Edger?"
"Edwart." Francis said dryly. Bakura glared at him.
"Edward." Atem corrected. The albino warlock nodded. "That's the one. He's been nagging Ryou about the sunflowers and pears he's growing. The punk keeps telling him to rip them up and replace them with apples and Stink Cabbage." Atem sighed, feeling drained suddenly. "That guy is relentless. He called at least 50 time through my magic mirror the other day. The cats refuse to tell me what he said..."
Francis growled.
"You would too if you heard what he said!" Bakura sighed tiredly.
"I wish I could make a potion that would let me know what other
warlock's and witched cats say."
Atem scoffed. "Many have
tried, including me, Bakura. Don't bother with it."
Suddenly,
5 to 6 cat yowling and hissing noises could be heard, followed by a
very small, white blur speeding towards Bakura.
A second later, a
small white kitten, her fur bristled and her green eyes wide, climbed
up Bakura's own thick dark red robes and hid in his silver hair.
The
kitten mewled timidly as Bakura scratched between her ears.
Atem
turned to see Mrs. Perfectionist, Pegasus the second, Toby, and
Andrew Ragtails running over.
"Oh, what are you 4 punks
doing, scaring Rin?" Atem asked dryly.
Pegasus hissed. "She
was poking around the back garden." Bakura turned to Atem, "She
says she was running from something. Can't make out what it is, she
gets too quiet when she's saying it for me to hear."
Pegas
scoffed.
Rin hissed a little at Pegasus, then hid futher in
Bakura's hair when the black and white cat bristled and spat, "Oh
yeah?! Your grandpa wears boots!"
"Rin." Bakura said in a warning tone.
"Pegasus!" Atem scolded.
Atem sighed and turned to Toby, who was cleaning his face. "What was chasing her?"
Toby looked up at him in a bored tone and said in a very slow voice, "Something about a giant spotted rabbit..."
Suddenly, a 5th cat came
running, this one was a tortouis shell color. "Atem! There's
something eating the cabbage in the back." Atem groaned and turned
to Bakura.
"They say something's around back." The albino
rolled his eyes and pet Rin. "I'd love to see what is pestering
your cats, but I need to go home and help Ryou find a substitute for
Choke-Vines."
Atem bit his lip in thought.
"Try...
Fire-Swap-Weed. It's getting popular among warlocks."
Bakura
shrugged. "Worth a shot. See ya pharaoh." And with that, Bakura
went off into the Enchanted Forest.
Andrew sighed huffily. "Little suck up of a kitten." Atem glared. "But that's what she is, a kitten. Don't worry, Sophie(Rin's mother, Bakura and Ryou felt the same as Atem did about cats) will set her straight. In the mean time, Let's see what Rebbeca's found."
All of the cats and Atem went around, Pegasus and Toby dashed through the back garden and up onto the porch to sit on the railing and lick themselves of anything that might have caught on while they had chased the white kitten earlier.
Atem raised a quizical brow at something blue that was stuck in his black rose bushes.
He looked up to see Mrs. Perfectionist climbing up into the tree, and sitting next to a tomcat male named Joe.
"And what is that?" Atem asked,
pointing at the blue furry thing that seemed to begin struggling more
as he spoke.
Joe glared at it. "It's just one of the Kuriboh
brothers. The others are outside, looking for him."
Atem sighed tiredly, felling like a nap would soon be on his agenda.
"Alright, Francis, can you go get the other brothers
and tell them to wait by the gate while I get this fur ball
out?"
Said tabby nodded, leaped off his shoulders and dashed off
into the woods.
Atem then set to the annoying buisness of getting the Kuriboh out.
The hardest thing about this, was to
make sure the Kuriboh stayed clam enough to where if Atem touched
him, it wouldn't blow up in his face.
If the Kuriboh did that, not
only would Atem look unpresentable for at least 2 weeks(he'd have
black on his face, and would get very bad bruises), but his favorite
rose bush that Ishizu Ishtar gave him for his 18th
birthday would be ruined.
So he spent almost a full hour carefully getting thorny branches parted so the fur ball would get out.
When it was finally free, Kuriboh sped off to find it's
brothers while Atem nursed his thorn pricked fingers(his gardening
gloves had been reduced to cinders from Seto and Joey's last visit
when Seto had an allergy attack from a wizard's staff).
After
bandageing his battle scars, Atem went inside and shooed Tabatha and
Sarah off the couch so eh could sleep for awhile, when his mirror
signaled someone calling.
Atem went to his mirror and answered, "Hello?"
Collin Edwards' face appeared on the
glass, making the male want to groan in exhaustion.
He had no
energy left for this.
"Atem, I'm calling to speak about your cats." Atem frowned.
"Yes, what about them?" He asked slowly.
"You need to get rid of them! It's a disgrace to all
warlocks and witches." Atem raised a agitated brow. "Oh?"
Edwards
glared. "It's indecent for you to have so many, I mena, you have
what, like 20?"
"37."
For the next 45 minutes, Atem
and Edwards talked, if not almost argued, about the cats, until Atem
got so tired, and fed up with it, that without saying a word, Atem
ended the call. "I really am about to turn him into a
rat."
Interested cats glanced at him at these words.
He
turned the mirror on to silent so it wouldn't make noises anymore,
the turned to Sarah.
"Wake me if someone calls who is
important." Atem requested to the gray cat.
She blinked. "How important?"
"The end of the world, or Enchanted
forest in danger of destruction, important."
And with that, Atem
collapsed on the couch, one or two of the lighter cats jumped up onto
and laid on his stomach as he took his nap.
