Hello! My apologies for the lateness of this.

Trigger warnings: panic attacks, mentions of injuries

Varian hated magic.

Every time he encountered the blasted stuff, it always found a new way to ruin his already crumbling life.

Today was no exception. Why should it be?

Of course, a few months ago he would have denied that magic existed. It was just science that had yet to be explained. But he was certainly having trouble finding a scientific explanation for this.

He had woken up in a panic, clawed his way out of the crazy lady's arms, and had immediately taken off running, the sounds of the weirdos yelling close behind him. Something was off about him, but he could not tell what it was. He had let instinct and fear take over and keep him moving. Seeing a barn nearby, he had darted inside and curled up in a corner in the hay. The scene reminded him a lot of home, the scents and sounds of farm animals a welcome relief from the fumes of the knockout bomb and the grating voices of the weirdos.

Now if these children could just leave him alone!

He hissed in anger and clawed at the little hand stretched out towards him. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt a child, but he would not submit to being touched! The children had shown up not thirty seconds after he had found his hiding place and had proceeded to bother him to no end.

Something was wrong, though. He remembered being drugged, and then the hands had grabbed him and put something around his neck. Then he had changed somehow. Where was he, anyway?

And why were his nails so much sharper?

It only took a moment to determine the cause of his problems. And discover why the children, young as they were, towered over him. And why they wouldn't seem to stop trying to touch him.

Of course. Of all the things the weirdos had been able to do to him, they had chosen something they knew he would hate. They had turned him into something small children would love to pet and touch and hold.

"Kitty!" one of the little girls shrieked happily. She ran to the door of the barn and motioned to someone outside. "Sissy, come look! There's a kitty!"

A moment later, an older girl stepped into the barn and saw him. "Oh, poor thing! Here, give the little kit room to breathe." She shooed the other two children away, for which Varian was very grateful. "Don't crowd him. Can't you see he's scared? Run to the kitchen and get a saucer of milk."

The children rushed off. "Sorry about them," the older girl spoke softly. "They're just excited."

Varian drew further back into his hiding place. No matter how nice this girl seemed, he had absolutely no intention of leaving this spot until Hector came and found him, and he had no intention of allowing her or anyone else to touch him.

Please hurry!

O‴O‴O‴

Hector gritted his teeth as Artemis swept down from the sky and landed on his arm with a shake of her head. "Crap." He had searched the clearing top to bottom, but not a single footprint was left behind to point the way the kidnappers had gone. It was as if they had teleported. For all he knew, they might have.

With no way to track them, he had to resort to letting Artemis be his eyes in the sky while he, Ruddiger, Riki, and Kiki searched the surrounding forest. If they had teleported, however, they could be anywhere in the world. Hector was about five seconds from panicking. Varian was injured and defenseless against a couple freaks who had already demonstrated their willingness to do whatever they wanted, and he had no way to find them.

He raked his brain to try to find some clue for where they might have gone. Had they mentioned anything that could give a hint? They'd said something about a girl, right? One who had broken their stupid teapot. Was she someone from a nearby village?

"'Kay," he told Artemis. "New plan. Scout out and see if there's any towns or villages near here. We've got to find out if anyone knows anything about these guys. Maybe they can lead us to them."

Hold on, Varian. We're coming.

O‴O‴O‴

Turns out, Varian's determination to stay exactly where he was didn't last as long as he had hoped. The disturber of his resting place came in the form of another four-legged fiend.

Normally, Varian had no problem with dogs. He liked them.

Varikitty apparently did not.

As soon as the dog ran into the barn and spotted him, it started barking ferociously and charged him. Varikitty screeched, and instincts he didn't know he had kicked in. He scaled the closest thing he could find. That just so happened to be the girl. Before he knew what had happened, he had climbed up her leg and was nestled safely in her arms.

"Bad dog!" the girl snapped. "Back off!" It continued to bark and jump around her legs. It wasn't very big, but to Varikitty, it looked enormous. Its sharp teeth were bared, and its mouth looked large enough to swallow him whole. The girl quickly carried him from the barn, much to his dismay, and towards the house sitting nearby. The last thing he wanted was to go inside, but he didn't have the option of wiggling out of the girl's grasp unless he wanted to get eaten.

He looked around as she carried him away. The strangers were nowhere to be seen. Thank goodness.

The two children met them on the way and ran back inside with them. The older girl brought Varikitty into the kitchen. "You two go finish your chores. The kitty will still be here later."

Hopefully not.

With an abundance of complaining, the children sulked off. The older girl placed the saucer of milk the children had been bringing by the fireplace and set Varikitty down next to it. Grateful to have his feet—paws—firmly back on the ground, he curled up with his back to the fire and watched the girl carefully.

She sat in a chair nearby with a basket of clothes to repair and started humming softly. Varikitty looked around the room. She had shut the door behind her when they came in, and the window shutters were closed due to the rapidly-cooling weather. The place was small and homey, and the smell of something sweet came from a pot over the fire. Despite the peaceful scene, he would not relax. Nor would he touch the milk. It more than likely wasn't drugged, but he was not going to take that risk. Not after what happened in the woods.

I hope Uncle Hector's okay.

The second thing he did was to examine himself. He was hardly bigger than the girl's hand, with fur that matched the raven tone of his hair as a human. He wondered if he still had a blue streak over his eyes, but he couldn't see. His left forepaw was crooked slightly, and it hurt to put any pressure on it.

And he was still scarred.

Of course. They couldn't take that away, could they? They were intentionally being cruel.

Then he felt the collar.

In blind panic, he started clawing and scratching at the thing around his throat. This was what they had done to him! He had to get it off, had to get out, had to leave before they hurt him and he couldn't move and it was burning and it HURT SO BAD—

The girl gasped and quickly scooped him up, holding his paws away from his throat. "Stop that, silly! If you've got a collar, you might have an owner. Don't worry; we'll find them."

With an angry yowl, Varian wiggled out of her arms, trying not to scratch her. He landed back on the hearth and tried to still the frantic pounding of his heart. The fire behind him was hot against his back. He shuffled to the side to escape the burning sensation. The girl drew back. "Sorry, little kit. You're a skittish one, aren't you? I'm not going to hurt you." She settled back in her chair and kept sewing.

Varikitty's heart thudded painfully against his chest. He struggled to bring his breathing under control. There was no danger here. He wasn't back in Corona. They weren't hurting him. He was okay.

The girl continued humming, a soft tune that he vaguely recognized. The entire scene felt dreamlike and warm. As hectic as the last few days had been, what with his rescue and racing through the woods on the back of a bearcat and getting turned into a kitten, it couldn't be such a crime to relax for a minute, could it? What would it hurt? No guards were here to add new scars to his collection. No evil king watching him suffer in sadistic glee. No crazy psychos trying to turn him into all sorts of convoluted things.

But could he afford to let his guard down? He had done so in the woods, walking away without Uncle Hector. He had done so when he trusted her, and he had paid a hard price for that. No. As nice as this girl seemed, as comforting as this place was, he could not afford another slipup. He might not survive the next one. He just had to sit here and wait until Uncle Hector found him.

And how exactly is he going to do that? You're a cat!

The logical side of Varikitty's brain rapidly overtook the hopeful side. He was a cat. He had no idea where he was. He didn't know how to change back. How the dickens was Hector supposed to find him like this?

What if he had been changed, too?

Hopefully if he had been changed, he was a cougar or something strong enough to fight the weirdos.

Speak of the devil…

The door opened, and three people walked in. One of them was a woman who bore a resemblance to the girl, with red hair and hazel eyes. The other two were, unfortunately, the last people he wanted to see at the moment.

"Oh, and there he is now!" the crazy lady gasped dramatically as she saw Varikitty on the hearth. "Silly little kitten, running off like that!"

In shock, Varikitty made it all the way up onto the girl's shoulder before realizing what he was doing. He hissed angrily from his perch and glared at them, daring them to come closer and get within scratching range. His claws dug into the material of her dress.

"Easy, kitty," the girl said as she pulled him off her shoulder and cradled him in her arms. "What's got you all worked up?" Varikitty tensed at being held like that, but it was unfortunately the safest place to be at the moment, so he endured it. "They're just some friends of ours, that's all." She turned to the adults. "Is he yours, then?"

"He was supposed to be," The man sighed. "Unfortunately, he can't seem to stand us. We had hoped to keep him, but we thought maybe you children would like him instead."

She gasped. "He's for us?"

"Indeed!" the lady answered. "Careful, though. He does like to scratch." She directed a smile that was downright evil at Varikitty. He could see a slight discoloration on her face where she had apparently patched the marks he had left on her with makeup. He growled. If she got close enough, he'd do it again.

"Was he in a fight? He's a bit roughed up," the second woman, whom Varikitty assumed was the girl's mother, asked.

"We're not sure. When we found him, he was a stray, so possibly. He doesn't have a name yet either."

"I'll get the twins to help figure something out."

"Call them inside, please," the mom said. "Your dad, too. Supper's almost ready."

Varikitty looked through the now-open door to see twilight falling fast. How long had he been asleep? A few hours?

Over a day?

Where the dickens was Uncle Hector?

O‴O‴O‴

Hector swatted tree branches away from his face with his sword as he and his companions raced through the forest. Artemis flew up ahead, guiding them to the nearby village she had spotted from the air. "Hang on, kiddo, just hang on."

He had no idea what he would even do when they got there. What was he supposed to do? Go around asking everyone if they knew about tea-drinking lunatics in the woods? If that was what it took, then so be it. He would do whatever it took, track them as long as he had to, as long as he found his nephew.

And if it meant leaving the Tree unguarded? The princess was heading that direction. She could reach it before them if he didn't find Varian soon. Once past the Tree, there was nothing in between her and reaching the Moonstone.

A mission he had spent decades performing, or a nephew he had known for three days?

The question burned in his mind. He had sworn an oath to the Moonstone. He had vowed to keep anyone away from it, even if it meant laying down his own life. If the princess made it to the Moonstone, he would have failed. The entire world could be at risk. Was he going to risk all of that just to find Quirin's son?

They had time, though. The princess would not make it to the Tree for another few months. If he could find Varian soon, they would be fine.

The hunters reached the edge of the woods and looked out at the farming village. The houses were spread out, with stretches of fenced cropland between them where people were out working. Off in the distance was a small town square, where he could faintly hear the soft chatter of shopkeepers and customers. Toward the far edges of the town, away from the woods, were larger farms and houses.

They approached the first farm. The man working out in the field jumped in shock when he saw the wild man with a raccoon on his shoulder and two bearcats. "C—can I help you, mister?" he asked skeptically.

"Maybe." Hector tried to put a polite tone in his voice. As much as he despised them, manners had been a part of his training for years, and he still had a basic grasp of them. If finding Varian required the use of manners, then manners he would use. "I'm looking for some people. A rather posh-looking couple with a thing for tea, apparently. Seen anyone around here like that?"

The man shook his head. "Check some of the bigger farms. If they're rich, they either own land or are friends with people who do."

"Thanks."

Their next stop was at one of the larger farmhouses. There they met with an answer just about as vague. No one seemed to quite know, but maybe someone else might, sorry.

And so the search continued. Artemis and Riki went off to scout ahead while the other three asked around. Night fell, and they were no closer to finding their quarry. With nowhere else to turn, Hector found himself in the town square, standing outside a bookstore. If this couple was involved with magic, maybe something here could give him answers.

The elderly woman behind the counter waved as he came in. "We're closing in a few minutes, but feel free to look around. Anything I can help you find?"

"Maybe." He walked over and placed his hands on the counter. "I'm looking for anything on magical child-snatchers. Fairies, banshees, something like that."

"Well, if you're looking for something like that, fairly lore would be your best option. We have a section of that towards the back." She looked him over. "That's oddly specific. Any particular reason you're asking?"

He met her eyes with a dark look as he answered, "My nephew's missing. He was right beside me talking to some people, then he was gone. They were gone. Didn't even leave a footprint. I can't track them."

"Hmm." Her brow furrowed. "Strange. Doesn't typically sound like the way fairies operate. These people looked fairly human? And were they in the woods?"

"M-hm."

She bit her lip. "Okay. Here's what I can tell you. Bear in mind, it's only rumors. Years ago, people started disappearing. No one had any idea where they went. Like you said, they were completely untraceable. I think about three people disappeared from around here. For years, no one knew what to do. We all thought they died." She leaned closer conspiratorially. "Then, just a few months ago, all three of them showed back up. They were a bit scatterbrained, and all they could tell us was that they talked to some nice people in the woods. No one had any idea what happened. No one around here likes to talk about it, especially the families of the people. If you want to find out more, I'd suggest talking to Macy, who works at the bakery down the street. Her son was one of the kids who disappeared. If you go now, you might still catch her before she goes home."

Hector stared in shock. Finally, a lead! "Thank you, ma'am. How can I repay your kindness?"

She shook her head. "Find your nephew."

He nodded and bid her good evening before rushing out and heading down the street to the bakery. He found the woman, Macy, just closing up.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but do you have a minute to talk?" He asked politely.

She gasped at the sudden appearance of the odd warrior. "Just a minute. I have to get home."

He nodded. "You have a son, am I correct?"

Her eyes widened. "How did you know? Excuse me; I have to go."

Crap! "I apologize. I didn't mean to be brusque. I spoke to the bookseller, and she recommended I talk to you."

"What about?" She was glancing around the street as if to find someone to help her against this man. Could you be a bigger idiot? Of course she's nervous! Varian needed his help, though, and time was of the essence.

"She told me your son disappeared a few years ago and recently returned. I was hoping you could tell me something that might help me find my nephew. He disappeared in the woods."

Immediately her gaze softened. "I'm sorry to hear that. How long ago did this happen?"

"Just this afternoon."

She glanced around one more time before finally saying, "How do I know I can trust you?"

In answer, he slipped off his left glove to reveal the symbol etched onto the back of his hand. "You have my word as a knight and a concerned uncle."

This seemed to satisfy her. "Fine. Follow me."

O‴O‴O‴

He's not coming.

True, it had only been a few hours, but Varikitty had already resigned himself to that fact. Hector was not coming.

After his initial shock with the strangers, he had caused such a scene that the girl—Mandie, he had learned was her name—had been forced to shut him up in her room. This was fine by him. The further away he was from them, the better. Unfortunately, he also learned they were spending the night.

Mandie had rejoined him later, finding him huddled up under her bed. He would not move, even when she tempted him with bits of chicken. As hungry as he was, he was not moving. Finally, she had given up.

Now it was late at night, and he was prowling around his new abode. He was met with one rather pesky problem: the haze over his right eye that he had been able to successfully ignore for the last few months now stood at a sharp contrast to his new and improved night vision, resulting in him running headfirst into one of the legs of the table. Ouch.

He had discovered one other nuisance. He could not get the collar off. No matter how hard he scratched and pulled, it was fixed firmly around his neck and would not budge. It was loose enough that it did not strangle him, but just the fact that it was on him bothered him to no end. Eventually, he had given up and resigned himself to wearing it.

Stumbling through the room, Varikitty made his way over to the door. It was shut fast once more, effectively trapping him. He struggled to control the pounding of his heart. It wasn't so bad here, right? It was small but spacious, not at all like his cell. He would be okay. Right?

He explored every inch of the room. Not a single way out. The girl's bedroom had also been fixed shut. The open slats on the shutters allowed air in but were too small for him to wiggle through. He eyed the fireplace as if he could crawl the entire way up it and escape. Not a chance.

He limped over to the hearth and curled up, the embers warm near his fur. The realization that Hector was not coming did not surprise him. Instead, it fit perfectly, like a puzzle he would rather have not completed. Simply put, Hector had no reason to come. From the minute the warrior had found him, he had been nothing but a nuisance, a problem. He was distracting from his mission. More than likely, Hector was on his way back to the Tree to confront the princess.

And where did that leave him? This wasn't the worst thing in the world. Once the weirdos were gone, he could try to relax a bit. If this was to be his new home, perhaps he could start being a bit nicer to the children. As for being touched…well, he still didn't like that idea, but he would probably be forced to adjust.

He found there was no bitterness at the thought that Hector would not come. The man had better things to do, and he hoped he succeeded. Protecting the Moonstone was important. More so than a missing kid.

No, no bitterness. Just a deep, aching loneliness in his heart.

O‴O‴O‴

Macy led Hector to a small house just outside the town square. As they entered, Hector saw a young boy sitting at the table. His eyes widened as he saw the warrior. "Who're you?"

"Hector."

"I'm Abraham."

"Nice to meet you."

Macy shut the door and kept her voice low as she said, "Look, no one really likes to talk about what happened back then, but if you think it can help you find your nephew, we'll try." The two adults sat at the table with Abraham. "It happened about four years ago. Abraham went for a walk and didn't come back. When we went looking for him, there was nothing. It was like he dropped off the face of the earth. Then he showed back up a few months ago."

"What happened in the meantime?"

Abraham shook his head. "I don't know. I remember meeting some people in the woods, and then I came home, and Mom told me it had been years."

"What were these people like?"

He thought for a minute. "I can't really remember. They were rich, I think. They had a big house. Oh, and they were drinking tea. They gave me some."

Hector worked rapidly to fit the pieces together. Rich strangers in the woods who offered tea, people who disappeared and reappeared years later, the remark the man had made about a girl breaking their teapot…

"What do you remember after that?" he asked.

The boy shook his head. "I'm not sure. I remember being really happy over something, then I was going back home. I felt weird, though, like I couldn't walk right."

"They said other people disappeared and came back. Do you know if they know anything more?"

Macy shook her head. "Like I said, no one likes to talk about it."

"Is there anything more you can tell me?"

They looked at each other then shook their heads. "Sorry, mister," Abraham said. "Wish I could help."

"Thank you anyway." He stood to go.

"Wait!" Abraham suddenly gasped. "The dreams!"

"What?"

"After I got back, I kept having weird dreams. Like I was flying. Sometimes in my dreams I was a bird. Other times I had giant wings. I never got those dreams before. It felt right, almost. Like that was what I was missing when I tried to walk."

Dreams that occurred after a space of four years of memory loss… Struggling to walk but having dreams of flying… Physical transformation, perhaps, caused by drinking magic tea?

"You should probably stay here tonight," Macy said. "It's late, and you can't hunt anything in the dark."

Waiting grated on Hector's nerves, but there was no trail to follow anyway, and these people had more answers than anyone else. "Thank you."

I'm coming, Varian. Just stay strong. I'll find you.

I had planned to make this arc only two chapters, but it will extend into a third. This is mostly for the sake of exploring Varian and Hector's mindsets still. I plan to have quite a bit of exposition before the travelers reach the Tree, as that is when the action will become much more extreme. That's why I was willing to take more time on a minor arc. If anyone has any advice on pacing, I would greatly appreciate it. That's still what I struggle with the most.

As always, constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you and God bless!