The Bureau Files: Series 5

by Catsafari

Haru Yoshioka is back with the Bureau (again), and consequences from her year away are finally catching up with them. But even without the Sanctuary, the Bureau still has its purpose, and there are plenty of cases to solve. Warning: Here there be dragons. Cover art by Angie/drawerofdoodles.

2. One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing (Part 2)

The Bureau Files: Series 5

ooOoo

Episode 2: One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing (Part 2)

"I don't like this."

Haru stood outside the Guertena Art Gallery and fought the urge to turn around and walk away.

From outside, it all looked very nice. There was a garden with a few statues and some obligatory fountains, and people milled about in the way that people do when it's an unusually nice day in early spring. The inside wasn't too bad either, really – as long as freaky headless statues and abstract art that made you feel something, you just weren't sure what, were your kind of thing.

It hadn't really been Haru's thing before she'd first entered the Guertena Art Gallery.

It definitely wasn't her thing afterwards.

"I don't like this," she repeated, just for good measure.

"So you said," Toto replied.

"Jus' for the record, I ain't so keen on this either."

"You're not allowed in," Haru reminded Muta.

"Oh. Right. Then I see nothin' wrong with this plan."

"This isn't a plan. This is a disaster on helter-skelter skates," she said. She glanced down to Baron, who was occupying her bag. "Baron, you can't be serious about this."

Baron looked faintly insulted. "Out of the myriad of improbably situations and hastily-formed plans we've faced over the years, this is the one you object to?"

"I'm not a thief! My skills include world-hopping and staying alive – not pickpocketing."

"Technically, you'd be nicking from her bag, not her–"

"Not now, Muta!" Haru ran a hand along her face and released a defeated groan. "Fine. Fine, we're doing this, but I am saying this now, this isn't a plan. This is improvising, at best, and if I get in trouble for this, you'll never hear the end of it." She huffed and started towards the gallery doors. "If I see a single statue move, I'm outta here," she muttered.

She swung her bag to one side – today, Baron was the sole occupant, save for water and a – and found herself halted by a security guard. He pointed to a sign. "Sorry, miss, but no large bags allowed."

"It's not that large–"

"You can leave it in a designated bag area and collect it at the end of your visit," he continued, unconcerned with what was probably a common complaint. "Now, do you want to enter or not?"

Haru quickly calculated how long it would take to get home and back to exchange a smaller bag, and concluded that time would not be on her side. She shrugged it off her shoulder, already counting off the ways that Baron's plan was falling apart. "It's a secure room, right?"

"As secure as can be."

It took a moment for her brain to convince her hands to release the bag. "Fine," she said eventually. She offered a smile that she hoped didn't look as fake as it felt. "It's just an art gallery, after all. Don't really need my bag for that."

ooOoo

On the edge of the Guertena Art Gallery gardens, just beyond the wandering eyes of passers-by, sat a cat and a crow. When several minutes passed and anything of note failed to happen, the cat rose to its paws with a sigh, and stretched.

"Well, I don't hear the sounds of a dinosaur rampage. Things must be going better than usual."

Toto broke his careful watch of the gallery doors to scowl at Muta. "And where do you think you're going, puddingbrain?"

Muta finished his stretch and settled his fur back into place with a loose shake as he walked. "Anywhere I like. And right now, that's away from you."

"We agreed we'd meet up here after Baron and Haru had investigated the art gallery."

"And I'll do just that," Muta retorted. "But I reckon I have some time before they're back, and lunch is calling." He was forced to stop when Toto landed in front of him. "Move, beaky–"

"We stick to the plan."

"When have we ever done that? Better yet: When has it ever worked?"

"That's not the point–"

"Then what is the point? It's just a flippin' art gallery."

"One with a shady Creation past and possibly a dinosaur. We don't know what we're dealing with here."

"Yeah, we do. You just said it yourself – one shady history and one dinosaur. Maybe. Jury's still out on that last one. Anyway, what's your problem? We've jumped into worse situations before."

"But always together," Toto said.

Muta snorted. "No, we haven't."

"Never without a near calamity." Toto was silent for a moment, and for once Muta didn't take the chance to hijack the conversation. Several long heartbeats passed before Toto continued. "In Moreau's world, we were split up and Haru was nearly irreversibly changed in a half-human beast. From his time alone in CAP's world, Baron returned back scarred. Even the last time we were here, we were separated and our ignorance almost cost Baron his life. I could go on."

"What I'm really hearing from this is that Baron and Chicky can't go one case without disaster," Muta said. "Sounds about normal. And relax. We always survive, don't we?"

"This is serious!" Toto snapped. "Do you think we'll always be that lucky? One of these days our luck is going to run out – it almost did with Haru – and there'll be consequences even we can't undo. I can't…" Toto shook his head abruptly and started into the air. "Forget it."

ooOoo

In his adventures with the Bureau, Baron had been in many worse places. Prisons, pirate ships, bellies of beasts, literal bellies of beasts, haunted restaurants… But still, nothing felt quite as undignified as being assigned to the baggage room.

Once the door locked shut after the security guard, Baron carefully clambered out of Haru's bag. The room was dark, so Baron summoned a small sphere of light which confirmed that, yes, he was in a glorified cupboard. He exhaled and settled back down on top of Haru's bag. There were pros to being a foot-high cat figurine. But easy access to public places was not one of them.

After some time – during which he had paced the room twice and comprised a mental list of how things could go further wrong from here – the door opened once again. Baron dimmed his light and ducked behind a satchel to watch the security guard dump a bulky orange knapsack in the corner. A familiar sketchbook peeked out of the top, between rolls of canvas.

It wasn't going to be that easy, surely?

ooOoo

It was quiet inside the gallery. People drifted from exhibition to exhibition in hushed tones reserved for museums, libraries, and holy places, faint echoes reverberating off the off-white walls. Much of the gallery was what Haru recalled from her last, less-than-pleasant experience, save for one of the rooms being converted into a temporary exhibition for local artists. A few people lingered before the artworks, but no Ursula.

This plan was getting shakier by the minute.

She was just wondering whether to proclaim this plan a complete bust when she turned the corner and came into sight of a large, fantastical painting featuring none other than their missing dinosaur. She stopped in her tracks.

"Bingo."

She approached the artwork, glancing quickly around to establish she was alone before brushing a hand over the glass separating them. She felt no tinge of telltale magic, but that didn't mean anything. Her abilities lay in sensing portal magic, not Creation magic, after all.

"Hello?" she whispered. "Are you alive?"

The painting didn't move.

"I'm here to help. I've come with Creations – just like you – who know what you're going through. If you're stuck or scared, we can help, I promise."

"They say art speaks to people, but I never thought I'd see anyone take it quite so literally."

Haru jumped, and jolted back from the painting. Standing at the corner junction was the artist herself, dressed in much the same way as she'd been at the museum. But no sign of the wanted sketchbook.

"Ursula! Hi, I was just… I mean–"

"Although it is one of my better pieces, even if I do say so myself." The woman grinned and winked, adding, "Which I do."

Haru grinned back, relieved at the option to veer the conversation onto less embarrassing topics. "It's certainly unique," she agreed. "What… what prompted you to choose a dinosaur skeleton as the centrepiece?"

"Oh, I know, right?" Ursula laughed. "Usually I like to work with living subjects – there's just something about trying to capture the movement of something on a motionless medium – but with this…" She shook her head. "Well, it once moved, right? Does that count?"

"So would you say you wanted to see it move again?" Haru asked, and she was rewarded with a strange look from Ursula for her troubles.

"That's a rather odd way of putting it."

"Is it true?"

"Yes."

ooOoo

"Kitty!"

Muta jolted up from where he lay in the weak spring sun. He was rolling onto his paws when a pair of chubby little arms pulled him into a hug, and he only just managed to curb the cuss in time. Through his own sputtering, he could hear what sounded suspiciously like crow laughter from above.

"Piggy kitty!"

"Why is that everyone's first response?" Muta grumbled under his breath. He squirmed in the kid's grip, but found himself tightly held. Something in the kid's hand dug into his side. It felt hard and spiky and, most notably, uncomfortable.

"Emi, you can't go round hugging strange cats."

What was hopefully the responsible adult arrived – the girl's mother, probably – and set to releasing her daughter's robust grip. "Not all cats are like Jiji, Emi," the woman admonished.

Muta was freed, and he dropped back onto all four paws with a solid splat. He turned to make a face at the kid, when he recognised her as the niece of the artist they had come to check out.

And in her hands was a little toy dinosaur skeleton.

ooOoo

Baron pulled himself up to the knapsack and hauled the sketchbook out. Almost larger than he was, he was forced to set it down on the floor and flip through each sheet individually. Pages of rough work and reference material – birds, trees, cabins – adorned the book, until finally he found the one he was looking for.

The diplodocus.

He stepped back at first, afraid his own Creation magic would stir the creature back into life, and waited.

Several seconds passed.

More seconds passed.

A minute went by, and now Baron was beginning to suspect that he was staring at just an ordinary picture. He approached the book and ran a gloved hand over the sketch. Nothing. He removed the glove and tried again, in the vain hope that somehow he had missed it the first time. Still nothing.

The Creation wasn't here.

ooOoo

"But isn't that the idea of art? To create something that seems to be more than the sum of its parts?" Ursula continued. "To give the illusion of life to something that is nothing more than paint and canvas?"

The illusion of life.

Something Haru took a moment to register as doubt trickled into her system. True, she didn't have Creation magic, but surely she should have felt something if the painting was one. Maybe it was still trapped in the sketchbook. But that didn't feel right either. Wouldn't the artist herself know that there was something… different about this painting, even if she didn't know of Creations?

"Well, thank you for coming today – if you have any other questions, feel free to find me later–"

"Creations."

Ursula stopped, midway in turning to go. "What?"

"I mean," Haru backtracked, reddening at her outburst, "that's what I would call them. If art was capable of coming alive – truly alive – because their artist put all their heart and soul into making them. That's what I think they'd be called. Creations."

Ursula's gaze flickered across the room, either as if trying to discern exactly which patch of air Haru had just plucked that line of conversation from. Then realisation dawned on the artist, and she grinned. "That's quite the imagination you've got there." The smile widened. "Is this a story idea? Are you a writer? Is that what this is all about?"

Haru grinned back, but she could feel the blush spreading to her ears. "You got me," she said. "I'm a writer. Just… doing writer research." Her ears were burning now, almost painfully so.

Ursula turned back to Haru, her face moved in thought but no sign of recognition from the description. "I believe that art can feel alive to those who view it," she said. "Everyone takes something different away from it, so in that way, it's alive." She grinned. "I suppose that's why some people take to talking to the artwork."

Haru smiled weakly back, reddening a little. "Sometimes, I find art talks back," she said and, hiding the disappointment, she left.

It looked like they were back to square one.

ooOoo

"The Creation isn't in her sketchbook."

Haru sat down on the corner steps to the gallery's entrance and set the bag on her lap. She could just about see Baron in the recesses of it. "I figured," she said. "Ursula doesn't seem to know anything about Creations, and I didn't get a sense of the actual painting with the diplo… the dinosaur being alive either." She rubbed at her earlobes, which still felt almost scalding to the touch. "I can't believe we chased all this way after the wrong lead. The Creation's probably long gone now."

"The trail may have gone cold, but I doubt such a Creation will stay unnoticed for long," Baron replied. "If we keep our ears to the ground, sooner or later we're bound to hear something. Speaking of ears…" Baron tilted his head to one side, "is there something amiss with yours?"

Haru immediately dropped her hands away. The dismissive laugh she tried for fell flat on her lips. "Nothing but good old-fashioned embarrassment. It's fine."

"Did something happen in the gallery?"

"It's nothing," Haru repeated. She started to tug on her ears again, and then dropped her hands when she realised she was doing it. "Okay, so I may have tried to casually bring up Creations to Ursula but… kind of failed in the casual department."

Baron took a moment to mentally translate this. Then, "Verbal missteps are not an uncommon occurrence, Haru. I'm sure Miss Ursula did not hold anything against you for it."

"That's not the point."

"Then please help me understand what the point is."

Haru looked at him for a long moment, and then away. "Nothing," she muttered. "It's just been a weird year, that's all."

Baron looked like he was about to pursue the issue further when a wail rose through the air. A moment later, Muta skidded past them. "Move!" he snapped. He sounded like he had something in his mouth. "Now!"

Haru grabbed her bag – including Baron – and jumped after the fleeing cat. "Muta, what's going on? What did you do?"

"Who thayth I've done anythin'?"

There was a shout from across the gallery garden and Haru briefly glimpsed a young woman slow to a halt at the garden's edge, a bereft child held in her arms.

"Did you attack a child?"

"Wha'? No!"

They rounded a corner and Haru stopped behind a set of dumpsters lining an alley. "Then what the heck was all that about?"

Muta spat out what he'd been holding, and then looked to Haru with far more smugness than the situation called for. "You're welcome."

There was a clatter as Toto joined them, landing on the dumpster lid. "Congratulations. Just when I thought you couldn't sink any lower, you stole a plastic toy from a kid. What's next? Candy from a baby?"

"You stole from a kid?" Haru echoed.

Baron hauled himself to the top of Haru's bag and spared Muta the best withering glance he could give after being dishevelled by the bag ride. "Really, Muta. How could you?"

Muta huffed, and nudged the toy. "You'd think I get a little more gratitude for having found your missing dinosaur, thanks."

Haru squatted down and tentatively picked up the toy with the tips of her fingers. There was still some saliva on it. "Are…? Are you sure? Because it definitely looks like you just stole a cheap toy from a child."

"Look, I know what a plastic toy smells like. That – smells off. Plus the kid is the niece of the artist you were all up in arms about. I'm telling ya, that's the Creation we've been looking for."

Haru eyed Muta, and then doubtfully passed it across to Baron. "What do you think? Any magic on it?"

As Baron's glove brushed the dinosaur's foot, a wave of magic – so thick that even Haru felt it – rippled out from the toy. A moment passed. Two.

"Okay, so what did you just do?" Haru whispered.

"It's awake," Baron said.

Haru gingerly reclaimed the toy, cradling it in her fingers as she waited for it to squirm to life. It felt cool and quiet though; much the same – saliva and all – as before. She looked to Baron. "Look, I know I'm still relatively new to this whole business, but aren't Creations meant to… you know… move?"

There was a crash outside, followed by a scream. And then several more screams.

Haru closed her eyes and sighed. "Please tell me that has nothing to do with us."

Toto hopped along the dumpster to peer into the street. "How does a lie sound?"

"Make it convincing." Despite the gnawing knowledge that she was going to regret it, Haru edged over to the alley's opening and followed Toto's gaze. She nearly dropped her bag. "Just so we're clear," she said, "we're all seeing a giant ghostly dinosaur, right?"

"Yeah."

"It would appear so."

"Yes."

Haru inhaled slowly. She'd seen the empty space for the dinosaur back in the museum, and even then the size of the intended exhibit had been imposing. But there was nothing to impress upon just how large a 100-foot dinosaur was quite like seeing it occupy a high street. It was skeletal and – to the luck of downtown – incorporeal, its long, spiny tail swaying through whole apartments with nary a brick out of place.

"We've just set a dinosaur loose in modern-day Japan," Haru said.

"This isn't one of the Bureau's shiniest moments, true," Baron admitted.

"A dinosaur. In the 21st Century."

"So it would seem."

Haru gestured fruitlessly towards the creature in question, words beyond her for several seconds. Then, "What, the flying flip, are we going to do?"

"Get a really big net?" Muta offered.

"We still have the toy," Haru continued, rattling the miniature in one hand, while its larger counterpart ambled around a street corner and out of view. "How do we still have the toy if the Creation is out there making headlines?"

"Gist," Toto said. "It's a Gist Creation."

To Haru's surprise, Muta groaned, and even Baron looked a little uneasy. Her heart sank. "What's a Gist?"

"A pain, that's what," Muta supplied.

"Imaginary friends," Toto amended.

"Half-Creations," said Baron.

"I might need a little more than that."

Baron seemed to consider this, and Haru wasn't quite sure what to make of how he obviously had to think before proceeding. Eventually, he settled on, "You probably had a favourite stuffed animal as a child, correct?"

Haru raised both eyebrows and tried to bite back the somewhat embarrassed smile. "I had a giant patchwork turtle that I tried to take everywhere with me when I was five."

"Not dissimilar to most children," Toto noted.

"It was huge," Haru said. "I mean, we're talking can't-fit-through-a-door big. I'm pretty sure it was actually meant to be a bean bag…" She looked back to Baron. "What of it?"

"And this turtle probably had a name and, in your mind, a personality? A story."

"Sure. But don't most kids do that with their stuffed animals?"

"Yes. And in many cases, it will produce what is known as a Gist. Generally, these are mass-produced toys with no Creation potential, but one that a child pours enough imagination and personality into them that they become halfway real."

Haru stared. "Are you telling me that all my stuffed animals are alive?" A beat passed. "They've been boxed up at the top of my cupboard for the past ten years."

"They're not alive," Toto reassured her. "Gists aren't full Creations, after all."

"They're not?"

"They're a variation of Creation," Baron explained, "but one that is fuelled entirely by the child's belief. They usually can't exist outside the child's mind, and are more like an extension of the child's soul than an independent being."

"And, unlike Creations, Gists' physical forms remain inanimate," Toto said. "Like the toy – or, to be more accurate – the shrunken diplodocus cast we still have. Instead, their soul becomes an intangible presence that, normally, only the child can see."

"Okay, but we all saw the giant dinosaur ghost walking through town, right?" Haru asked. "And, judging by the commotion earlier, I'm guessing this isn't just a Bureau-Sanctuary side effect."

Baron shook his head. "This Gist was formed from an individually-crafted cast so it was possibly an almost Creation to begin with. That would probably explain its irregular trait."

"Let's just hope that's the only thing irregular about it," Muta grunted.

"Only?" Haru echoed. "What do you mean by that? What else can they do?"

Muta grinned with the bitterness of experience. "Let's just say, Chicky, that there's a reason creepy dolls have a reputation for being haunted."

"Oh." Suddenly she was very aware of the toy she still held. She gingerly settled it inside her bag. "Have I mentioned how much I hate ghosts?"

"Not before now, but we'll take note," Baron said. With a pull of his cane, he swung up onto the bins and onto Toto's back. "But don't worry; we're dealing with a Gist, not ghosts."

Haru glanced to Muta and judged that, by his expression, there wasn't much difference.

ooOoo

"It's a dinosaur. How can it possibly have vanished in five minutes?" Haru flicked through her phone as she walked, tracking through the social media updates as news of the dinosaur spread. "Sure, there's a couple of videos of it by the gallery, but they all seem to peter out once it gets past the first street. Perhaps we should have followed when it first appeared…"

"Yeah, good idea," Muta snorted. "Let's just confront the huge glowing dinosaur that everyone's filming and hope no one notices the talking animals or cat in a top hat."

"Alright, rein in the sarcasm. I guess I'm just not used to our cases being quite so out in the open as this." Haru huffed and refreshed the page again. "It's no good. All I can find is a variation of the same video. It turns the corner and – bam – no one even seems to see it down the next street." She replayed the video, and then abruptly halted. "Oh no…"

There was a clatter of talons hitting alley bins, and Haru dashed down the side street to where Toto and Baron had landed. "There's no sign of it," Baron said. "It shouldn't have been able to get so far at the pace it was setting–"

"Look at this." Haru shoved the phone in the Creations' direction. "That's the dinosaur after it passed the gallery." She played the video, paused it, and then zoomed in. Just visible was a mop of short, brown hair on the creature's back. "It has the kid. The dinosaur has the kid."

Baron looked at the image for a long moment, his expression suddenly unreadable. "The child should be in no danger–"

"Should?"

"She's the one who brought it to life. Its soul is joined to hers; it'll respond to her wishes." Baron's gaze glanced away from her face, and it took Haru a moment to register that he had noted her empty hands. "Haru, do you still have the physical form of the Gist?"

Haru withdrew the toy – or, as Toto had noted, the shrunken form of the dinosaur cast. "You mean this?"

Baron nodded. "We will need to return to your home to fetch a tracking crystal, but once that is done, it should be easy to locate our missing Gist – and its passenger."

ooOoo

Haru tapped an uneasy beat with the bottom of her mug, the remnants of tea dregs swilling at the base. Updates from social media had now added 'kidnapper' onto the impossible dinosaur's headlines as discovery of the disappeared child spread, and Haru was having to do everything in her power not to scroll meticulously through it each time.

Her mother dominated most of the tiny kitchen table with miniature patches of quilt, her own tea mug long empty. Eventually she looked up to her daughter and, more notably, the incessant tapping. "Are you sure the gallery visit went okay?"

"Yeah. Fine. Why?"

Naoko pointedly looked to Haru's cup. "Oh, no reason."

Haru saw this, and made an effort to halt her impatient tick. Did tracking spells always take this long? Perhaps it took longer when out of the Sanctuary. Or perhaps something had gone wrong. Perhaps the tracking crystals weren't working, or the toy didn't have the right type of magic–

Naoko's own phone beeped, saving Haru from having to look innocent for much longer as Naoko's attention turned to that instead.

Baron had said that the girl would be okay – that the Gist wouldn't harm the person it was linked to – but there were exceptions to every rule. And Muta had mentioned the haunted doll thing–

"Haru," her mother said slowly, "you wouldn't happen to know anything about a mysterious dinosaur roaming the streets, would you?"

"What?"

"Apparently there's some commotion after a giant dinosaur was seen walking through town." Naoko lowered her phone. "Dinosaurs. In the 21st Century."

"That's what I said!"

Naoko didn't break her gaze. "Haru…"

"It's not our doing." Haru paused, and decided not to elaborate on Muta stealing it, or Baron's magic possibly waking it. "Look, some kid has brought it to life through their imagination, and we're just trying to fix things before they get any worse."

"Is that why you went to the gallery today?"

Haru grimaced. "To be honest, Guertena's style isn't really my thing."

"And the museum?"

"That actually was coincidental."

"And what are you doing back home, really?"

Haru winced. "The rest of the Bureau are working on a tracking spell to find the dinosaur," she admitted.

Naoko sighed, and Haru felt like she had let her mother down somehow. "Haru, I wish you wouldn't do this–"

"I didn't go looking for this. We found it, and now we're trying to help."

"But why you? This isn't your world – talking animals and living dolls and now, this… dinosaur ghost – these aren't problems you should have to face. Why does it have to be you?"

Haru almost laughed then. Not her world? When her father had come from another world entirely and created Baron? When his meddling had left her with cat-speaking abilities and his best friend a cat for life? When her own heritage gave her the power to open dormant portals? When she had spent a year caught in worlds of her own creation?

Sometimes she wasn't sure which world had sway on her more.

Instead she shook her head and said, "It has to be someone."

"But why you?"

"Why not me?" Haru asked back.

"It's dangerous–"

"So are a lot of jobs! What if I wanted to be in the police, or work as a firefighter, or in the army? Would you still have a problem?"

"Haru, you vanished for a year," Naoko stressed. "And the only explanation you've been able to give me is that you were trapped between worlds. That's not normal. At least an ordinary job would have rules and regulations – things to keep you safe…"

"The Bureau–"

"The Bureau is the reason you're doing this in the first place! Look, Haru, I know what it's like to be young. You think you're invincible, but you're not. You're just human."

Haru's hand ran up along her arm that was scarred with too many close shaves. She tugged at her sleeve. "You think I don't know that?" she asked quietly. Her fingers curled tightly around the fabric, her knuckles going white.

"I think sometimes you forget."

Haru shook her head, words lingering on her tongue. At the sound of movement upstairs, the moment passed and she leapt to her feet. "I have to go. I'll be careful – I promise."

"As careful as you were when you vanished?"

At her mother's words, Haru hesitated at the kitchen door. "I'll be careful," was all she could say, and she shut the door behind her. Toto landed on the stairway banister with Baron. Muta was still noisily descending the stairs.

Toto tilted his head to one side, his beady eyes not missing anything. "Everything alright, Haru?"

She ignored the question and grabbed her jacket. "What took you so long? I was beginning to worry the tracking spell wasn't gonna work."

"Apologies," Baron said. "There seems to be a strain of foreign magic in the mix. As such, the tracking spell was being drawn in two directions."

"Foreign magic? What does that mean?"

Muta jumped down to the last step with a huff. "Someone else's magic, Chicky. What'cha think it meant?"

"I figured that out, Muta. What I meant was: why?"

"Hopefully we'll find those answers alongside our missing dinosaur," Baron said.

"And where is that?"

"Someplace you know well."

ooOoo

Haru looked across the lake, her heart finding new depths to plummet. "I swear today is like a This Is Your Life: The Scarring Edition." She eyed the glassy expanse, and glanced back to the Bureau. "Please tell me it's not in the Cat Kingdom."

"The Cat Kingdom has considerably changed since Lune took the throne," Baron assured her.

"Yeah. 100% decrease on the kidnapping brides policy," Muta guffawed.

"There is that," Baron admitted. "But we are not reacquainting ourselves with the Cat Kingdom today. At least, I hope not, otherwise King Lune and Queen Yuki are going to have their paws full. No, today our attention lies on the forest about Cat Paw Lake."

A shiver passed through the ground. A footstep. Impossibly large for this day and age. Then a long, creaking groan rose through the forest, and Haru's mind reluctantly recognised it as the sound of a tree falling. She swallowed nervously.

"That…" Haru said after a dubious moment, "sounds very solid for an intangible soul."

"It shouldn't be," Toto said. "It's a Gist Creation."

"Yeah, well I don't think it much cares for what you think," Muta said.

Another crash. Uncomfortably close.

"Please tell me we have a plan," Haru whispered.

"Do ya really need to ask, Chicky?"

"We located it," Baron said. "That part of the plan has, at least, worked."

"It's not the finding part that worried me," Haru replied, "as much as what happens after."

The giant footsteps were nearing, and now trees along the lake's shoreline were visibly shaking. Ripples pooled across the water. Haru was beginning to rethink facing this particular Creation at all when there was a scream.

A child's scream.

Haru kicked into a sprint before she could stop herself, disappearing into the forest's long shadows. The initial cries of warnings from her companions quickly faded. Ahead was a ghostly glow. The outline of the Creation's body cleared just as someone small cannonballed into her. Haru grabbed the girl and hauled them both behind a tree.

She offered a shaky grin to the girl. "Hey, kid. I've got you now."

"It… He…"

"Deep breaths. It's all gonna be alright."

"He was meant to be my friend," the girl gasped. "But he's not listening anymore!"

Haru watched the dinosaur skeleton push its way through the forest, and then looked back to the child. Tears were spilling from her eyes and she looked on the verge of hyperventilation. Haru began to wish she'd kept her bag. At least she had some water in there. She knelt down to the girl's level and gave her best 'adult with the situation under control' smile. It wasn't her forte. "Hey, what's your name?"

"Emi." The girl hiccupped and the near-sobs momentarily ceased.

"Hi, Emi – I'm Haru. My friends and I often deal with things like this, so you're gonna be fine. Can you tell me what happened?"

"He… It… It threw me off. He's not listening to me anymore!"

"Did anything happen just before?"

"No. I don't know why… I want to go home."

"And you will." Haru looked away from Emi as she heard the flap of wings approaching. She fixed both Creations with a look as Toto landed. "I thought you said that Gist Creations did what their child wanted," she immediately said. "That thing," and she motioned in its general direction, "just threw Emi off and now it's out of control. Plus it's taking half the forest with it when it's meant to be intangible. What's going on?"

"Something must have altered it from an ordinary Gist," Baron said. "It could have been an almost Creation to start with, or it might have been the foreign magic."

"You think someone made this happen?"

"I don't know. But we can't allow it to continue like this." Baron looked to Emi. "Regardless of what caused it to act out like this, it should still be connected to you. It needs you."

Emi started to look like she was on the verge of tears again. Haru drew her into a hug and spared another look at Baron. "We're not letting it get near Emi again."

"We won't be able to keep them apart. Gist Creations cannot exist outside the imagination of the child that made them. It makes them just as much as the physical form it was created from."

Haru's eyes widened, and she brought the tiny skeleton replica from her bag. "You mean this?"

"Yes. Gist Creations need both their inanimate form and the child that believes in them to exist."

The tree they were sheltering behind splintered into a thousand pieces, and in its place loomed the skull of the Gist. It swung from side to side, taking in Haru lying where she had been flung from the blast, and then to the rest of the Bureau, who had managed to haul Emi out of the way. It took one slow, long step towards Emi.

Haru pushed herself onto her back, winded and gasping for air, and the world spun about her. There was shouting. Baron trying to rationalise with the Creation. Muta threatening. Toto coaxing Emi away from it. Nothing was working.

Haru stumbled to her feet, and her hand found the fallen dinosaur toy. A plan shambled together. Not a flawless plan, not a definite plan, but something. "Keep Emi there!" she ordered the Bureau, and she ran out into the exposed clearing. She brought the toy into the light. "Hey! Hey, you! Big, ghostly, and ugly! Look what I've got!"

Distantly, she noted the outcry from the rest of the Bureau at her exceptionally bad idea, but it was too late now. She just hoped they had enough faith in her to keep Emi away.

The skeleton swung its long neck in her direction and the two sockets where eyes should have been fixed on her. It started towards her. One giant step. Two giant steps. She saw Baron begin to move to her, and she gestured furiously for him to stay back.

"You need this, huh? This important to you?" Her hands were sweating now, the toy slippery in her grip. Had her nerves always hit like this? Did her heart always beat so beyond control on cases before she was lost? "You want this?" she shouted, and she heard the quiver in her voice. "Yeah? Well, come get it!"

Without looking to see if it was taking the bait, she turned and sprinted for the forest's edge. A moment later, the thud of footfall told her it was in pursuit – and gaining fast.

"Gotta go faster," she muttered to herself. "Gotta go faster."

The ground beneath her shifted from muddy forest to sandy beach, each footstep sinking and slowing her run. The shadow of the skeleton loomed over her. She reached the lake's shoreline and kept on going, the water coming up to her knees, and then her thighs, and now it lapped at her waist as the waves from the Creation's approach hit her.

Her footing slipped; she stumbled. Something – something large and bony – smacked into her side and she went under. The air rushed out of her in one pained gasp and she watched as one skeletal foot came down. She scrabbled at the sandy lake bed, pulling herself to one side just in time, and she felt the displacement of water roll through the lake.

She pushed herself back up to the surface, snatching a desperate breath before the dinosaur's neck slammed into her again. She went down, and this time she didn't move in time before the foot came down on her leg. She screamed, and now her lungs were burning, pain splintering through her head as the last bubbles of air slipped through her lips.

Trying to find something – anything – to battle against the pain, she dug her fingernails into the lake bed, blood drawing as she scratched against rocks beneath the sand – and there! She felt the glimmer of magic in the water around her. The portal potential of the lake called out to her and she responded in kind, pouring out her magic, pouring out everything last vestige of power she had, and the world was full of light.

ooOoo

Baron arrived at the lake's edge just in time to see the Creation knock Haru into the water. She appeared briefly, thrashing for air, and when she was slammed back down, the dinosaur stepped where she had fallen.

Everything went white.

"Toto," he said, and distantly he noted that his voice had gone deathly calm, "get me to Haru."

Above the lake, above the Gist, above where Haru had fallen, Baron watched as the whole lake lit up into an ocean of stars and its inhabitants vanished.

ooOoo

Haru bobbed up to the surface, the first deep breath shuddering through her. Above her was the clear blue sky of the Cat Kingdom, tranquil and completely unaware of the chaos about to be brought upon its doorstep. She tried to tread water, and nearly sank when her leg screamed out in pain.

She let her useless left leg dangle, and instead slowly paddled her way to the shoreline.

A roar of water behind her announced the arrival of the Gist Creation. She pushed onwards as fast as she could with one limp leg and one hand still grasping the dinosaur toy. She felt the waves hit her as the 100-foot dinosaur skeleton thrashed in the lake. Could skeletons even swim?

She felt ground beneath her feet and she dragged herself to the shallows where she finally allowed herself to collapse. She rolled onto her back and watched her pursuer attempt to follow.

Eventually the Creation's size weighed in its favour and its long legs found purchase on the lake floor. But even now it struggled. Its limbs moved erratically, its form crackled, and it slipped between solid and mist. It approached her, and its leg gave way.

She smiled weakly at it. "Not so tough now, huh?"

Across the lake, a black streak slipped through the last glimmer of the portal and flew up into the blue sky. It soared over the Gist, and Baron leapt down from Toto's back. He landed between Haru and the dinosaur. Haru began to call his name, but she faltered. There was something in the hold of his shoulders, the tilt of his head, which seemed… off. He stepped towards the Gist, and Haru propelled herself forward to grab his hand.

"Baron! It's fine. I'm fine."

He looked back to her, and for a moment she didn't think he saw her. Then the look cleared and he glanced between the dinosaur and Haru. "Haru. You're okay." He looked back to the skeleton. "We have to stop this, Haru. Whatever's happened to it, it's out of control."

"We have stopped it," she said. "Look." And as she nodded at it, the Gist's form collapsed entirely and the magic receded back into the toy in her hand. She grinned. "You said it needed both Emi and its physical form to exist. So I separated it."

"That… was very clever."

"I know."

"And also exceedingly foolish."

"It worked, didn't it?"

"You had no guarantee it would."

"Sounds about as valid as your plans then," Haru said. She tried to get up, and yelped when her leg reminded her of its injuries. Baron caught her before she hit the ground.

"You're hurt."

"I can hold my head up high as the first human ever to get stepped on by a dinosaur." She winced and leant her weight against Baron. "I'll live."

"We'll get you to the palace, and the doctors there will be able to heal you."

"Are you sure? I mean, they're cats." Haru paused when Baron looked to her. "I mean, you're a cat too, but, you know, with actual experience dealing with humans."

"One broken leg is much like another. Anyway, it'll be faster than getting you back to a doctor in the Human World – unless you're able to open up the lake portal again?"

Haru eyed the lake. "Honestly, even if I did have the energy, I'm not sure I want to go anywhere near it. Heya, Toto." She offered a tired grin as the crow landed before them. "You're huge!"

"I think you'll find that you're the one who has shrunk," Toto amended. "Congratulations on stopping the Gist, by the way."

Baron started towards Toto, but halted as his shoe knocked against the dropped toy. Haru watched his gazed passed over it, and that strange, alien look filled his eyes. She tightened her grip on his arm as his foot lifted off the ground. Towards the remains of the Gist. Above it. "So," she chirped, "what are we gonna do with it?"

Baron blinked, and that look was gone again, but still he took a few seconds too long to reply. He tore his attention away from the inanimate Gist form and Haru could almost convince herself she'd imagined it all. He stepped back. "Having brought it here, there may be a chance that it has permanently broken the link between it and Emi," he said. "If that's the case, then it won't be able to revert to a Gist state. We should be able to return it to the museum, where the little magic it has shouldn't be enough for it to change back into a Creation. Regardless, we should keep an eye on it for the foreseeable future."

"We'll drop you off at the palace," Toto said, "and then we'll get to returning Emi and our dinosaur friend back to their proper places."

"That's a point. Where is Emi? Did you leave her with Muta?"

"Time was of the essence," Baron said.

"You left her with the cat that stole her toy in the first place," Haru stated. "Right. Because that's a wise idea."

"We came to help you."

"I had things covered."

"You were stepped on by a creature that's been extinct for over 150 million years," Toto reminded her.

"Oh, sure. Throw that in my face, why don't you?" Still, Haru couldn't resist a smile as she relaxed into Baron's hold. "Thanks for coming after me."

ooOoo

Inspired by: One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975). Produced by Disney. Because I was forever disappointed to learn that this film wasn't about a dinosaur skeleton coming alive and running off, and instead being about it being stolen.

References: Jurassic Park. (Gotta go faster.)

ooOoo

Next Story: The Neural Horizon.

Teaser: In hindsight, Morgan Yu later reflected, her first clue that something was amiss should have been waking up in the trauma centre with no recollection of how she got there. / "Holy… Space. We're in space." / "They want to live inside us. Like a disease." / This thing – this monster – was larger still, larger than a human, with glowing white eyes and a body formed of a black, tendril-like substance. / "They're… They're people," Haru managed in a horrified whisper. "They're changing people."