Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK.

The Show Goes On

3: Woes of a Skeleton

Shinichi winced and shied away from the screaming skeleton, clapping his hands over his ears. Beside him, Kaito only blinked.

"Please don't hurt me!" the skeleton screamed, cowering against the wall and shaking so hard that they could hear all its bones clacking. "I didn't mean to intrude into your home or anything! I honestly have no idea how I even got here and I'd leave if I could but I can't seem to find my way out and I've been looking for what feels like forever so I guess this house must be really huge and it's kind of built like a maze but I really—"

"Stop!" Shinichi exclaimed, hands still clamped firmly over his ears. "Please, just stop screaming already! You're hurting my eardrums."

"Oh. I—I'm sorry," it stammered, quieting abruptly. "I didn't mean to…"

Kaito chuckled. "That's all right. We didn't think you had. No harm done. Right Shin-chan? How're you feeling?"

"Better." Shinichi straightened, warily lifting his hands from where they had been flattening his ears to his head. Said furry ears twitched as though afraid they would be assaulted once more. When no more overwhelming noises were forthcoming, they stilled and Shinichi breathed a sigh of relief. Turning, he looked the cowering skeleton over, eyebrows drawing together. That voice… He could swear he'd heard it before, but he couldn't pinpoint where. And the bony visage didn't really have any defining features he could place.

The skeleton too seemed to be staring back. It didn't have any eyes, just dark, empty sockets, but somehow Shinichi could still tell that it was scrutinizing them. It was the same way he tended to know when he was being watched. It might actually have been a little creepy if the thing hadn't looked so obviously scared out of its wits.

"Ku—Kuroba-san?" it said suddenly, bony frame unbending slightly from its attempt to become one with the wall. "Is that you?"

"Yes, that's me," the magician agreed. "Have we met?"

"It's me, Akiyama Suzu! We met just yesterday."

Shinichi and Kaito traded glances before both their eyes went back to the skull face then the ribcage they could see right through. "…You're Akiyama-san?"

"That's right." If a skeleton could smile, it would have. Instead he grinned—not that he had much choice. Shinichi could already tell that this was also going to take some getting used to.

"That's right! Oh, and you're Kudo-san, right? Wow, you guys have no idea how glad I am to see you!"

"Are we the first people you've seen then?"

The skeleton nodded vigorously. "Yeah. I've been wandering around in this horrible place since I woke up like—like this." He shuddered as he waved vaguely at himself. "I thought that maybe someone was trying to play a joke on me and moved me somewhere else in the hotel while I was sleeping. But I kept searching and searching and didn't see a single person. I couldn't even find anything I recognized to help me find my way. And that was when I ran into these two massive suits of armor—you know, like the ones you see decorating castle hallways in movies—except they weren't just decorations because they could move."

Kaito nodded. "We've met a few of those ourselves. Not very friendly fellows."

"Yeah. They chased me for ages. I tried to reason with them, but they wouldn't listen to anything I said. I'd probably still be running from them if I hadn't tripped and fallen down this really long flight of stairs. I guess they must have thought that would be enough to finish me off because they left after that. Luckily for me I guess I have—you know, being like this and all—so much less mass now that I really didn't hit the ground very hard. One thing to be grateful for it seems… I was still knocked out for a while though. I was kind of hoping that everything would be back to normal again by the time I came to, but no such luck. I don't suppose either of you know what's going on?"

"We came up with a few different hypothesis. Either we're under some kind of spell, or we've all gone insane," Kaito replied cheerfully. "I'm inclined to think the former. Unless you're all some crazy dream I'm having, of course."

"There is always that," Akiyama sighed, sounding like someone trying not to hope too hard lest he be disappointed. Raising his bony hands, the skeleton man stared disconsolately at his fingers.

"Excuse me, Akiyama-san," said Shinichi when the skeleton was still staring silently at its hands a whole three minutes later. "But I was wondering, did you attend the ball in a skeleton costume?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, I did, but I'm pretty sure I changed back into normal clothes before going to bed. So when I woke up and saw this—this thing looking back at me I thought I'd just remembered wrong. But then I got a closer look and I realized I could see right through myself where the costume was supposed to just be black…" He sighed. "Every time I catch sight of my reflection I feel like screaming. And do you know what the worst part is? I can't close my eyes!"

Probably because you don't have any, Shinichi thought, but he refrained from saying it out loud. The poor man already sounded so depressed. That didn't, however, stop Shinichi from thinking it. He was still having a bit of a hard time wrapping his mind around the idea of a—a living skeleton. Or should that be an animated skeleton? It had no heart or brain, no muscles or tongue, yet it was moving and speaking and thinking. If that was because Akiyama Suzu's spirit was inhabiting it… Well, was he still alive? Had this bizarre transformation actually killed him? It was a disturbing thought. If the slight tremble in Akiyama's voice and the way he kept looking at his own bony fingers was anything to go by, the thought had probably crossed his mind too.

Sensing the tension in the atmosphere, Kaito cleared his throat and changed the subject. "Perhaps we should move this discussion outside? The air in here is rather stale. I would also like a look at this building from the outside."

X

"…Well, it's definitely a castle."

"And not our hotel," Kaito agreed, scanning the darkened windows dotting the craggy, stone edifice before raising a hand to point at the tallest of the castle's five towers. "I'm guessing that one's our room. The light's still on."

"That one might have been mine," Akiyama added in a small voice, waving a bony hand at the shortest of the towers. "Though I guess it could be the next one over too. I got pretty lost, but I don't think I was high enough up to have been in any of the others."

Shinichi frowned, blue eyes shifting to examine each empty window. "I don't understand why we haven't met anyone else yet."

"Perhaps we were the only ones brought here," Kaito suggested. "Wherever here is."

"If that's true, then why just us? It doesn't make any sense."

Akiyama chose that moment to let out a slightly hysterical laugh that made the other two stare. Sensing their gazes on him, he struggled to bring his laughter under control. He knew he probably sounded like he was losing his mind, but frankly he felt like he was. "I—I'm sorry, it's just… Do you really think there's some kind of reason to this? Nothing's made sense since I woke up! I'm a walking skeleton! We were chased by suits of armor that, according to you two, weren't actually on anybody! Not to mention we're either in some kind of other world or the hotel's turned into a castle and swallowed everyone else! How can you two be so calm? For all we know, we're going to be stuck here like this for the rest of our lives!"

As the skeleton's rant devolved into a frantic muttering, the detective and the thief traded glances. Shinichi wasn't sure he would describe his own state of mind as calm exactly, but the fact of the matter was that getting bent out of shape over the situation wasn't going to fix anything. He wanted answers, and answers couldn't be found by sitting around being upset. Then again, he supposed both he and Kaito were probably rather more accustomed to dealing with crisis situations and weirdness in general than most.

"I wonder if every tower has an actual hotel room at the top," Kaito mused. "If that's the case, then there should be a few more people in there."

"We didn't see or hear anyone else though. And Akiyama-san's already said he didn't either."

"Come to think of it, I hope they weren't those knights. Did you see any ghost knights at the party?"

"I saw a few knights, but I can't say if they were supposed to be ghost knights or just knights. Although since we've all kept our minds, I doubt the ones we dismantled were anyone from the party. If they were, they shouldn't have had any reason to attack us."

"I suppose we could always have missed them. The castle is pretty big."

"Or maybe…"

"What is it?"

"Our room," the detective said slowly. "Do you remember what the hallway our room was in was decorated like?"

"I remember a lot of black, leafless trees." Kaito paused, his eyes widening as he turned to stare at the black forest surrounding the castle. "Rather a lot like these."

Shinichi nodded before turning to the skeleton. "What about you, Akiyama-san? Where was your room?"

Breaking off his mumbling, the skeleton took a moment to think before answering. "I was also in the haunted forest hallway. Does that mean something?"

"This is all a hypothesis, but I think that it could be possible that the hotel didn't actually turn into the castle—as we originally thought—but into this entire world or dimension or whatever this place is." Shinichi gestured at their forms then at the forest around them. "We know we've all been turned into what we dressed up as for the party. We also know that our rooms were in the hall that was decorated as a haunted wood. So it would stand to reason that whatever caused this change not only transforms people into their costumes but places into what they were decorated to be. In which case we're not looking at our hotel but a handful of rooms, and this forest is the hallway that connected them."

The skeleton brightened at the suggestion. "Does that mean, if we can find the lobby, we might be able to leave through the front door?"

"Uh, well, I don't really know…" Shinichi trailed off. He didn't want to upset the skeleton again, but he had a feeling it wouldn't be that easy. "I was actually thinking that it might mean everyone else is here too, just not here."

"Then I say we do some exploring," Kaito declared. "There has to be an answer somewhere out there. And we're not going to find it by running our mouths here. Now that that's decided, we should pick a direction."

"Just a second." Rummaging through his pockets, Shinichi came up with a small notebook. He was immensely grateful that it hadn't disappeared and that he'd lucked out and his costume had functional pockets. "I think we should map out everything we find. It's too bad we don't have a hotel map, but if we use what we remember and what we find, we might be able to actually navigate this place."

Once Shinichi was ready, he, the vampire, and the skeleton turned and set off into the forest.

X

Bare branches stretched like spider webs over their heads, skeletal limbs entwined to form intricate patterns that might have been beautiful in a different setting. Here, however, they only added to the eerie ambience. It was like some kind of black cage hanging over their heads and blocking out the sky. A damp fog drifted between the trees, turning the brambles to hulking shadows and making it difficult to see exactly what lay ahead of them. With it came the tingling, feathery chill that only the touch of fog could bring. There wasn't much in the way of wind, yet they could still hear the occasional dry rustle. The sound reminded them all of the glowing eyes that had been placed amidst the décor back in the hotel and had them all giving their surroundings their undivided attention.

The lack of any way to keep track of time only fed the tension in the atmosphere. Shinichi had no idea if they'd been walking for minutes or hours. It felt like ages, but he knew from experience that this kind of strained alertness made even seconds last eternities.

It was almost a relief when something finally happened, even if that something was that they were attacked.

It came out of the fog like a breeching whale. It was shaped like a bear black as the shadows and just as silent but for the low, rumbling growl reverberating through its massive chest. Its eyes, however, weren't eyes at all but points of orange fire that appeared to be set somewhere deep inside its head—like its eyes were nothing but windows into a fathomless, fiery abyss.

Akiyama let out a strangled scream, turned, and fled.

Kaito leapt instinctively between the beast and Shinichi, mentally running through his inventory. He didn't have quite as much in the way of tools with him as he would have liked, but he also had a few new abilities at his disposal.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, a little voice mused about how he now wished he'd spent a little more time talking to Koizumi. Even after all these years, she still gave him the creeps, but she was also the only witch he knew. Did she know they were here? She did used to say that Lucifer told her things about the future. Too bad he couldn't call her now and ask if she knew how to get them out of here.

He ducked a swiping paw and took a step to the side as he moved to knock the monster's foot out from under it. He stumbled though when he met no resistance. Instead, a numbing cold raced up and down his leg as he passed right through the monster's body. Was it just an illusion? Some kind of gimmick to scare travelers?

Regaining his balance, he pivoted just in time to see Shinichi dodge around the monster as its claws ripped through the trunk of a black sapling. Wood splintered.

"But I went right through it," he thought out loud. As if on cue, the beast lumbered around and charged at him again. Indigo eyes darted to the ground where he could see the beast's claws leaving deep gouges in the dry earth. Had he only imagined passing through the thing earlier? Or perhaps it could decide when it wanted to be solid? Well, there was one way to find out.

Massive jaws snapped at him. He evaded the assault and lunged at the thing's exposed belly. Once again, he encountered no resistance. Yet he knew the instant he came into contact with the shadowy substance that formed the monster's body because of the icy wave that accompanied it. He rolled into a crouch on the other side of the beast, gritting his teeth against the biting cold. Two more trees fell victim to the shadow monster's vicious claws.

"Only its claws and teeth are solid!" Shinichi exclaimed from the other side of the forest's new monster-made clearing. "The wood chips flew right through the rest of its paws. And only the claws made any kind of mark on the ground when it lunged at you."

Kaito couldn't help the laugh that escaped him even as he leapt out of the way of yet another newly felled tree. "Now isn't the time for detailed explanations, Tantei-kun. The real problem is how we're going to get rid of it when we can't lay a finger on it. If it's anything like those knights, it's going to want to chase us until kingdom come, and it doesn't have any muscles to tire out either."

"It's coming back!"

Having finished its berserk tearing apart of the trees for the time being, the beast appeared to have realized that its prey wasn't amidst the slain saplings and their twisted boughs. Its head swiveled and fiery eyes focused once more on the (mostly) humans. With a mighty roar that made the leafless branches rattle, it charged again, building up speed with each step until it looked not so much like a beast as a black gust of wind.

Kaito grabbed Shinichi and ran.

X

Akiyama Suzu sprinted through the forest with the blind speed of terror. His mind was a complete blank and he barely even registered the brambles that crackled and thrashed at his passing or the black branches that clawed at him as though to drag him back. All he wanted was to run far, far away—run until he had left this nightmare behind.

His foot caught abruptly on a protruding root and the next thing he knew he was sprawled face down in the dirt. It was hard and dry and unforgiving, but the fall sent a jolt through his bony frame that yanked his mind back into functioning order.

What the hell was wrong with him? Okay, so he'd never been the bravest person in the world, but this was just ridiculous. He should be ashamed… Not only had he just abandoned his companions, but he had probably gotten himself hopelessly lost in the process.

He missed his dog and his rabbits and his birds. He even missed the parrot he'd just gotten who was always biting his fingers. What was going to happen to them if he really was stuck in this strange place? Many of them had been abandoned pets before he'd taken them in. He had promised them a home where they would always be treated well. If he couldn't get back… The best case scenario would be if his landlord found them new homes. The worst—he didn't even want to think about the worst. And even if he got back, would they recognize him like this?

He groaned, pushing himself into a sitting position. A quick look around confirmed his suspicion that he had no idea where he was. Although now that he thought about it, that wasn't much of a change from how he'd been before. He also couldn't see either Kaito or Shinichi anymore. Neither could he see any sign of the castle or which direction it might lie in.

Well, he supposed this was his punishment for being a coward and running out on his companions.

"Nothing I can do about it now," he mused, sighing again. "Might as well start walking."

He was about to stand up when, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted movement.

He immediately flopped back onto the ground and lay perfectly still. It crossed his mind that he should hold his breath, but on second thought he didn't think he'd been breathing to begin with. He hadn't thought about it consciously until that moment, but he didn't actually have lungs. Creepy as that was, it meant he didn't have to worry about his breaths giving him away.

A snuffling noise accompanied by footsteps drew closer and closer. Then something black and hairy appeared in his field of vision. Like the monster from before, it was black with eyes that burned. This one, however, looked more like a wolf than a bear. Its tongue lolled out of the side of its mouth in a mad approximation of a hyena grin. The sight sent chills down Akiyama's spine. It didn't seem to have noticed that he was anything more than a plain old skeleton though. It padded slowly around him, sniffing and nosing at him like a curious puppy. He was just beginning to relax when the creature's jaws closed abruptly on his right femur. The next thing he knew he was being dragged over the forest floor, bouncing and bumping over raised roots.

"H—hey!" he exclaimed. Tossing caution to the wind, he tried to kick the creature with his free foot. It ignored him.

"Let go of me, you mongrel! I am not some kind of chew toy!" He cut himself off with a yelp as the beast swerved abruptly, sending him careening into the trunk of a passing tree. Stars flashed across his vision and he let out a pained gasp.

That was when something brilliantly green flashed across his vision. He gaped as the glowing, green blade sliced cleanly through the shadow beast's midsection. It finally released him with an outraged howl as its body dissolved in the face of the light. In seconds, there was nothing left of the creature but the echo of a snarl. Then that too was gone.

Slowly, the skeleton sat up. The glowing blade responsible for the beast's destruction cut an almost blinding shape in the forest's innate gloom.

Following its length upward, he found himself looking at a young man with a dark complexion.

"Hey there, you all right?" the stranger asked with a distinct, Kansai accent.

X

Shinichi really had no idea how long they had been trying—and failing—to lose the shadow beast. They were fast, but it had no trouble keeping up, especially since—unlike them—it didn't have to go around obstacles. Therefore while they had to duck and weave between the skeletal trees and through jumbled, black brambles, all it had to do was charge right through. If it weren't for the fact that the creature seemed unable to turn mid dash, they would have been caught long ago. As it was, it felt like they were the stars at a bull fight, except they were the red flag and the bull was a carnivore.

Even as the thought crossed his mind, he and Kaito had to swerve sharply to avoid the beast as it blasted past them again.

Kaito cursed. "We can't do this forever. There has to be something…" He reviewed his supplies again, mind racing.

"Psst! Over here!"

Shinichi's head jerked around at the new voice. It took him a moment to locate the owner because he was hidden behind a particularly thick and prickly-looking bush. However, his nose was telling him that there was something there that wasn't plant life. It smelled like warm fur and soil. Then he spotted the gleam of yellow eyes from what appeared to be a tunnel under the bush and a beckoning hand—no, paw. It was definitely a paw.

He stared for a moment, but he could hear the monster coming fast. Making up his mind to think about it later, he tugged on the back of Kaito's cape.

"This way!"

The magician turned to him with a puzzled frown, but Shinichi only shook his head and gestured towards the underbrush. Not waiting for an answer, he ducked down low and crawled into the makeshift tunnel under the prickly bush, ignoring the way it pulled at his hair and scratched at his face. An extra long thorn tore at his left ear and he winced, trying to flatten them to his head as he ducked even closer to the ground.

"Hurry!" the voice from before whispered urgently.

Through the murky shadows ahead of him, Shinichi could see the swish of a tail as its owner darted this way and that, following some path only he knew through the brambles. Whoever or whatever it was, it was much smaller than he was. The narrowness of the thorny passage didn't slow it down at all. There were several times when the detective lost sight of it completely. If it hadn't been for his new sense of smell, he would never have been able to keep up.

Then the brambles disappeared abruptly as the ground beneath him dropped into a steep slope. Caught unprepared, Shinichi went tumbling down it with a yelp. The next thing he knew he was lying in an undignified heap at the bottom.

Having heard Shinichi's startled cry and seen the way his detective vanished so abruptly, Kaito was a little more prepared. He managed to stay on his feet as he slipped and slid after his companion. Fetching up beside Shinichi at the foot of the hill, he looked around quickly for their mysterious assistant, muscles tense and ready to spring into action should this turn out to be some kind of trap. Friendly or not, he doubted that anything that would live in a place like this could be harmless.

He saw the yellow eyes first. There were two pairs of them, both emitting a faint light of their own that drew the gaze like a fire would a moth. They were set into the faces of creatures that, no matter how you looked at them, could only be called foxes. Red foxes with white undersides and black tips on their ears. Except they were standing on their hind legs. Neither was very tall. The larger of the two only came up to his chest, and that was only if you included its ears. They were watching him and Shinichi with inquisitive and clearly intelligent eyes.

"Thank you for your help," he said politely.

He was rewarded with a pair of identical grins. "Don't mention it. That stupid bear's always fun to mess with."

"Lots of fun!" the other agreed, snickering as it did a little jig.

He raised an eyebrow at them. "Were you two at the party too?" They obviously weren't mindless like the ghost knights and that shadow beast had been, but their words made it seem as though they were natives of this place. Or at least had been here long enough to be familiar with the shadow monster and its behavior.

"Party? No one invited me to the party!" the smaller one exclaimed in indignation, rounding on its companion. "Why didn't you tell me there was a party, Ikko?! It isn't fair!"

"I didn't tell you because I wasn't invited either," the larger fox huffed, whiskers twitching.

"Aw, that's no fun. Why didn't anyone invite us? I love parties…"

"How should I know? Maybe it's because you always eat all the snacks so no one else can have any."

"What? I do not! Take that back!"

"Why? You know it's true."

"I don't, I don't, I don't!"

"Excuse me," Shinichi interjected. "But do you two live here?"

"Pretty near here, yep," the smaller fox replied, waving a paw at the trees behind it. "Right that way. Would you two like something to eat? I'm hungry."

Shinichi and Kaito traded bemused looks at the sudden change of topic. The two seemed to be easily distracted.

"I wouldn't mind something to eat," Shinichi told them.

The foxes cheered and darted off, leaving Kaito and Shinichi to follow at their own pace.

"Energetic little fellows aren't they?" the magician mused. "I wonder if we can trust them."

"They seem friendly enough. And they did help us get away from that bear thing."

"True."

Shinichi frowned at the strange tone in his partner's voice. "Why? Did you notice something suspicious?"

Kaito shrugged. "Not precisely. I simply think we should be cautious."

"Hurry up you slowpokes or we're gonna leave you behind!"

X

The two hyperactive foxes, Ikko and Nikko, led them to a round door set into the side of a hill half hidden between the roots of a particularly massive, black tree. Its surface was rough and textured like bark so that it blended in with its surroundings. The larger fox, Ikko, placed its paw on a spot to the right of the door and pushed, causing it to pop open as though propelled by a spring. Instantly, a warm, orange glow spilled out into the forest's natural gloom. The source of the light was revealed to be a small fire leaping happily within a quaint little hearth set into the side of the burrow. The furniture was made of wood and plain for the most part, but most of it was hidden under heaps of clutter. There were pots and cups, books and colored balls, scraps of cloth, strings of beads, toys, leaves, and more. Compared to that colorful chaos, the walls were almost shockingly plain.

"It looks like the stew's ready," Ikko announced as he peered into the bubbling pot in the fireplace.

"Stew!" the smaller fox cheered before darting around the room to find clean bowls. He fetched up by the pot a few seconds later and began ladling generous helpings of steaming stew into each. "We can all have seconds when we're done!"

"Actually, I'm not hungry," Kaito said quickly. "But thank you for the offer."

"Are you sure? It's really good."

"Yes, I'm sure."

Nikko let out a soft huff, presenting its back to the magician, and glanced at Shinichi. "What about you? It really is good, you know. It took me all day to get it just right."

"Oh, um, I'll have a half a bowl then."

The fox perked up immediately. "Half a bowl of Nikko's Homemade Stew coming right up!" The little fox proceeded to set everything out perfectly, completely ignoring Kaito's existence.

"Don't mind him," Ikko advised the magician as he added a fourth glass of water to the three the smaller fox had set out. "He's just a little too proud of his recipes."

Nikko sniffed but didn't comment.

"I wanted to thank you both again for your help earlier," Kaito began as the rest of the burrow's occupants started on their meals. "Shinichi and I are rather new around here and we got separated from the people we came with. I don't suppose you've seen anyone else wandering these woods?"

The foxes traded looks, ears twitching, then shook their heads in unison. "Nope. We haven't seen anyone new in a while."

"Then do you know where we might be able to go to get a map?" asked Shinichi. "Or find a settlement?"

"Settlement?" Ikko puffed out his cheeks. "You mean like the Court of Stars? I doubt your friends would've wandered all the way there already if you just got here. But we might be able to get you a map if you wanna go check."

"They have great food—but mine is better," Nikko added. "But I like it much better here. You guys should stay! We can go fishing and play tag and hide and go seek and stuff!"

"Er, thanks, but we wouldn't want to intrude in your home for too long. And we do need to find the others."

"Oh…"

"Well, it might take us a few days to get you a map though, so you might as well stay a little while. We don't mind. It's been ages since we had guests."

Shinichi shot Kaito a sidelong look but the magician only shrugged so he nodded. "I guess a few days won't hurt. Thank you."

Identical expressions of excitement stretched across the foxes' furry faces. "No problem!"

X

The guestroom was really nothing more than a hollowed out cave in the ground with a mess of mats and cushions strewn over the floor to make it more comfortable. The ceiling was so low that the two guests had to walk about almost doubled over in half. Lying on the mats, Shinichi felt a bit like they had slotted themselves into a padded cubby to sleep.

"Bit of a claustrophobia-inducing setup," Kaito mused, lying down beside him. Then he grinned. "It's a good thing I love you. It'd be impossible to spend a night in this cramped space with someone you didn't care for."

The detective snorted, though privately he agreed wholeheartedly. The lack of any windows didn't help. "At least it's safer than sleeping in the open."

"As far as shadow bears go, perhaps, but I can't help but notice how we've been stuffed into a room we can barely move around in that has only one small door."

"We could take turns keeping watch if you want."

"I was just about to suggest it. I'll take first shift. And I would recommend we direct our efforts tomorrow into finding alternative lodgings as soon as possible."

"We need to go back and look for Akiyama-san too."

Kaito sighed, folding his arms behind his head. "I suppose you're right. It's not going to be easy."

"I know, but we can't just leave him. Besides, the foxes did say they could get us a map."

"Hmm. Go to sleep Shin-chan. We have a lot to do tomorrow."

X

"I was thinking…"

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Wow. I'm amazed!"

"Don't be so mean! Why would you say that to me? I think all the time!"

"Okay, okay, calm down. So what were you thinking?"

"Won't the King want to know about the shift?"

"I'm sure he already knows."

"Well, yes, but he'll want to know about these two. I'm pretty sure there was something about that in the laws."

"True. I suppose I can take the message. Keep an eye on them until I get back."

"Yes Sir!"

TBC

A.N: Hmm, not the most eventful chapter in the world, but there was a lot of necessary setup. Anyhow, happy Halloween! Be safe and have fun. ^_^