Chapter Three
"Mom, you can open your eyes now."
"Are we there?" Naoko had kept her eyes firmly shut the whole flight.
"We are." Toto landed softly so that the trio on his back could slip off. The redhead immediately fell to the ground and embraced the cobblestones.
"Sweet, sweet ground, you don't know how I've missed you!" Baron looked questioningly at Haru, who had walked over to her mother and laughed nervously.
"She's afraid of heights." Her mother looked up at her girl's face, confused.
"You were too, not too long ago." Haru shrugged.
"I got over it."
"You better of, considering what happened." Toto chuckled.
"What? What happened, Haru? Why are you on speaking terms with…" not being able to find a word for them, she gestured to Baron and Toto. The cat doll smiled at the women consolingly.
"I think your mother would benefit greatly from a cup of tea."
"Good thinking." Haru pulled her mother off the pavement and led her behind Baron. "Wait till you see what his place looks like, Mom. It's so elegant."
Naoko dropped her lower jaw when she entered the Bureau, noting with interest the chandelier and furniture as Baron placed his coat, hat, and cane back on the rack and started another batch of tea. Toto flew in from the balcony window.
"Are we going to hear about what just happened yet?" He was still a little shell shocked that Baron had shrunk two humans, something he had never done before. He assured the crow.
"In due time." Haru stretched her arms out and sat on the couch.
"It sure is easier to get in here this time."
"Haru…" Her mother had sat down next to her, her mind still not functioning properly. The brunette caught the unspoken question.
"To cut to the chase, Baron and Toto helped me get out of an arranged marriage with a cat prince I saved a few months ago. Plus the piggy cat previously mentioned." Naoko looks over at Baron, a different expression on her face.
"He seems familiar, somehow." The doll turned to look at her.
"Do you care for milk or lemon with your tea, Mrs. Yoshioka?"
"Lemon, please. And it's Ms."
"Milk for you, Haru?"
"Of course." After another moment, he walks over to the women and gives them each a cup before fetching one for himself. "Baron, how did you shrink us?" He sighed before sitting in his favorite high back chair.
"I only gave the command, Haru. You were the one that actually did it." She gave him a funny look.
"What, how?"
"Did you feel anything well up inside you a split second before you shrunk?"
"Yeah…it was really weird. But what does that have to do with it?" Baron took a sip before answering her.
"I have mentioned the artisan that made me, have I not?"
"Just that he named you Baron Humbert von Gikkingen." Naoko had taken a sip from her cup.
"Haru, this tea tastes like yours." She rolled her eyes.
"Who do you think gave me the idea for mine? Go on, Baron."
"Well, he was a powerful magician, and owned a small green stone of immense power. I had thought that the stone had been lost forever, but when I felt the tremors that only the stone can give, I followed them straight to you." She thought about his words.
"Tremors…Mom, why did I wake up on one of the beds I had just barely made?"
"Sweetheart, you had another seizure." She blinked.
"Oh. In that case, I'm glad I don't remember anything except that weird dream."
"Haru, why didn't you mention that you're prone to seizures? You could have been in a lot of trouble." Baron thought of all the running they had to do in order to get out of the Cat Kingdom.
"I'm not prone to them Baron, I just had one several years ago."
"I see. You mentioned a dream, Haru?" Baron placed his cup down to give her his full attention.
"It wasn't anything to worry about."
"But if it was brought on by your seizure, it very well could be." Haru slumped her shoulders after taking a sip of her own.
"It was just an old man taking a paintbrush to me and telling me not to be afraid." He cocked his head at her.
"What did he look like?"
"He looked like a friendly old man that loved children. He had a snow-white beard and a tan apron decorated with wood shavings and paint streaks."
"Did he wear a red cap?" Haru nearly dropped her teacup, but succeeded in spilling some of the tea on her uniform. Baron gave her a napkin, an intent look on his face.
"He was, wasn't he?" She attempted to mop up the mess while looking at him.
"Yes, but how could you have known?" Just then, everyone's favorite white cat burst through the door.
"No one again, Baron-hey, what with this?" He stared at the two girls on his couch. "How'd you get tiny, Chicky? And what's with the outfit, did Baron break you out of a loony bin?" Haru glared at him.
"No, this happens to be my uniform for working at the hospital." Naoko stared at the giant cat, which was standing on his hind legs.
"That is without a doubt the biggest, fattest cat I will ever see in my entire life."
"Excuse me?!" Muta walks up to the couch with a raised fist, and Naoko shrinks back as Toto laughs his head off.
"My, Haru, she's as likable as you are!" The brunette had stood up and was standing between Muta and her mother.
"No offense, Muta, but she was probably telling the truth."
"Did she have to say it like that, though?"
"I pretty much said the same thing when we met."
"No, you just called me a fatso!"
"And you ran me through a suburban labyrinth to punish me."
"Did I?" Purring amusedly, he sat down on the vacated couch. Haru turned to her mother, who was almost cowering in the corner, staring at her daughter.
"Mom, you don't have to worry about Muta, he's just sensitive."
"You…understand him?"
"I already told you I can talk to cats."
"I thought that was a running gag!"
"Well, it's not." Firmly taking her mother's arm, she steered her to another chair and sat her mother down. "Where were we again?" Baron jogged her memory.
"The man from your dream."
"Oh, right. How did you know he had a red cap?"
"The artisan who made me always wore one." She stared at him.
"So why am I dreaming about him?"
"For the same reason that you shrunk. The green stone I keep mentioning had been inside his family for generations, and had disappeared after his death. For some reason, you now have the power of that stone." Naoko interjected.
"That can't be right. If she had a strange power, why did it surface now?"
"You mentioned that this isn't the first time that she's had a seizure?"
"Yes. She wasn't the same afterwards." Muta snorted.
"She's had a seizure? That explains a lot."
"Watch it, pork chop! This is serious." Toto shot at him.
"That was uncalled for, Muta." Baron wasn't pleased by the poor attempt at humor.
"What did he say?" Naoko was a bit confused.
"Never mind, Mom. Just what does the stone do, Baron?"
"It's as limited as the bearer's imagination. The reason you haven't been able to do anything is that you have to know about the Cat's Eye in order to use its power. And the group of men that were breaking into your hospital room were probably the magicians that activated its power and triggered your seizure." Haru's eyes widened, and she started to rock gently on her feet.
"Uh, oh." She whispered.