Author's note: I'm sorry for the long wait, but I couldn't get that chapter out for some odd reason. For more complete author's note, please go to the end of the chapter. :)
Muta: You do know that you are practically forcing them to read, don't you?
Ellenlome (raises an eyebrow): And tell me how that is a problem?
Muta (looking utterly contempt): because of your horrible writing of course. The poor guys will probably be traumatized by the end of it for the more sensible, most likely after a few paragraphs for the others.
Ellenlome (furiously glares at Muta, with a dark aura thingy starting to glow around her): WHAT! (smoke starts coming out of her ears)
Toto and Baron: (rushing in and grabbing advancing Muta, dragging him out)
Baron (over his shoulder): Don't mind him too much, I think he's been spending too much time with my human counter-part as of late.
Ellenlome (calms down instantly): human counter-part?
Sherlock Holmes (strides in, deerstalker and all): I believe he is talking of me.
Ellenlome (eyes wide): Uh?
Muta (snickers and murmurs): The most intelligent comment of the year. (snickers again)
Sherlock Holmes: Eyes and brains, my dear, eyes and brains! All the facts are here to tell that….
Ellenlome (finally overcoming her shock): What ARE you doing here?
Holmes (completely non-plussed): I came for the disclaimer; besides, you brought me here.
Toto: She did?
Holmes: She's been a tad obsessed with fanfiction from my section of lately.
Ellenlome (grumbles): damn smart detective. (louder) Then do the disclaimer and get out of here, it's not even your fandom!
Holmes: Ellenlome doesn't own "The cat Returns" or me for that matter, she just owns the plot of the story and all original characters in it. (sighing) no one appreciates my true value around here. (disappears)
Muta: You must really be out of ideas to bring characters from over fandoms to make the disclaimer.
Ellenlome: ….
Whispers of a distant land: Chapter seven
"BARON!" Haru rushed to his side (AN: how funny must that look like. Girl rushing to the side of a cat…ok, so it's cute, I said it, you happy:P ), lifting his head gently from the ground. "What happened?" her eyes were darting around, wide with worry.
"I don't know; he looked fine for most of the fight!" answered Toto, flapping his wings nervously. "And the blood loss can't be enough to make him faint like that!" The crow was frustrated. Things weren't going well at all, and it was also the first time he ever saw Baron loose consciousness, and he couldn't do anything about it.
"Alright, that's it! You've better tell us what ya did to him now monkey-boy!" Muta said, punctuating each of his words by a small (for him) shake, making Fento's head bobble.
"He can't answer if you're shaking like that Muta!" said Toto, quite amused at the face the creature was making at being treated like a sack of potatoes in a transporting cart. Muta stopped shaking the monkey-creature, but it didn't stop him from glaring at him.
Seeing that the fat cat had stopped shaking him, Fento straightened his tunic a bit, chuckling all the way through. He would probably have laughed out loud at the ridiculously worried faces the baron's friends were making, but one meeting with Muta's fist had convinced him that it wasn't the wisest of moves in the fat cat's vicinity.
"Answer him," and Haru's voice was as cold as ice this time. They didn't have time to waste. Fento raised an eyebrow in amusement.
"Threatening me, are we? How amusing. You know, it's not the wisest thing to do, considering I have the only known antidote in my possession."
"Antidote?" Natoru was a bit perplexed by the whole thing.
"He poisoned Baron" answered Toto without turning. Then to Fento: "And I suppose you want to trade that antidote for your freedom?"
"You surprise me; I didn't expect any of Baron's friends to be that intelligent." Fento smiled slightly, a strange expression on his now bruised face. He didn't look like a trustworthy ambassador anymore. The smile would have disappeared, had he been able to see Muta's face.
"Not a chance," came Haru's voice. I haven't known you for long, but there is no way I would trust you. Miss Myril, do you think you can take care of that creature? From what you guys have told me, it would be good for us to have him back at the Cat Kingdom."
"Sure enough, Miss Haru! We'll take him right there!" replied the advisor with a smile.
"But what about Baron? You don't have the antidote, and I doubt that snake has it either." Said Myril. Haru quickly reviewed the situation and their options. It wasn't how she would have acted usually, but this was no ordinary situation either. First off, there was the matter of the war between the Cat Kingdom and the Empire of Birds (which she had never heard of, Toto being the only bird she talked to, and obviously creations weren't counted as citizens of the various kingdoms and empires, so he had never mentioned the Empire to her). That problem could possibly be solved if the monkey creature was taken to the kingdom to admit his sins, which she doubted he would, but it was still worth a try. Besides, she hoped King Lune and Yuki would work out a plan to stop the war if the creature didn't.
Secondly, and first of all in her heart, there was Baron. She looked down at the cat. If she didn't know he had been poisoned, and if not for the numerous wounds he had, she could have sworn he was sleeping. But, of course, she was quite sure that the monkey-creature - who was obviously something like an arch-nemesis to Baron – would not let Baron die peacefully, so it was more than likely that his current state was just a cover-up for the upcoming fever and whatnot that was usually associated with deadly poisons. How was she supposed to deal with that? She sighed quietly. And then Myril said something that gave the young human some hope.
"There may be a way to cure him, if you are willing to take on a journey."
Haru looked up, and she thought, not without some amusement, that, had she been a cat, her ears would have perked up. She turned to the eagle. "Tell me."
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King Lune was worried almost to death. He wasn't pacing, or doing any of the stupid things a worried person (or cat in this instance) usually does. No, Lune was worried, but his worry was his and his alone. Not even to Yuki had he told anything, he didn't want her to be troubled with the problems of the kingdom more than necessary, despite all she said. The Heavens knew that she already had enough to deal with when it came to their three kittens. The two-color eyed cat smiled slightly at that. The three would already be grown cats if they had been born and living in the human world, but as was the case with all the cats living in the Cat Kingdom, they aged about the same speed as humans, perhaps even a bit slower, which made them toddlers and thus very hard kittens to deal with, albeit very cute ones.
Lune shook his head discreetly and brought his attention back to the present. He was in the palace library, a place where he often came when he was troubled and wanted to be left in peace, as was the case right now. The library wasn't anything lavish or grandiose as one would think fitted a palace, for Lune's father had never been much into the studying arts. It was small, very welcoming with its elegant Victorian-style decorum and comfortable reading-sofas sitting by the numerous fireplaces, providing the quiet and relative intimacy any reader or writer liked from time to time. Lune didn't recall seeing many people using the library, for the cats were not very well suited for books with their paws. He did remember seeing advisor Natori once or twice thought, but never for long. The grey cat left the room as soon as, as a prince, Lune entered the room, obviously not wanting to interfere with the royal's business. Aside from Natori, the only other person Lune ever saw there was his mother.
His memories of her were quite clear. She had been a mix-blood, a cross between a Russian blue and a Siamese. She had been very beautiful and highly intelligent too. It actually was for her sole profit that the King had the library built, so she would be able to have her beloved books nearby. Lune remembered quite fondly there chess plays too. Did Natori play chess? Or Baron?
Baron. His wandering thoughts had unconsciously brought back his worry's subject. He had sent the orange cat to Raïtal nearly a week ago now, and still no news. Of course, Lune knew of the travel times required in-between, but still, the baron should have reported by now. He should have reported a day ago actually. What could have kept him in Raïtal for more than twenty-four hours? Could matters be even worse than they had foreseen?
Lune frowned. He didn't like that at all. As a king, it was his duty to protect his people, and to foresee things on a reasonable level was very important. Playing chess was good practice for that, you learnt to plan your moves and your opponent's actions and reactions, always at least two paces ahead of him. Right now, Lune wasn't the one ahead. He was the one that was two paces behind, and Baron's warning about Fento didn't help him in the least. That creature was cunning if nothing else, and his Intelligence service had already reported to him that they were "on into locating him", which in clear words meant that they had lost his trace and thus had no clue as to his whereabouts. The king sighed. He really couldn't blame them. They were a newly reactivated service of the court, one that had been dismantled years before by his grandfather. Seeing as Lune's father himself had never been a serious politician, much less so after the Queen's death, he hadn't felt the need to reinstate the I.S and so it had been up to Lune to dig up the old records and put it back into place. Problem was, he hadn't known of the I.S until a year ago, and thus they were only recently back in service, which meant that the cats in it still weren't trained sufficiently enough.
Another sigh. Lune could feel a headache coming; his head was already throbbing mutely. Knowing that he was most likely going to be up the entire night, it was something he could have done without.
Another problem, one that didn't bode well at all, partly because of its nature, and partly because of its almost certain connection to the other two. In the past three or four days, the birds had been acting…strange, to put it bluntly. They hadn't done anything out of place, as far as Lune knew, actually, they hadn't done anything, and that was bothering him more than any skirmishes that may have occurred. They acted casually, almost like the birds portrayed in human books, completely mindless. No fights with cats, not even a snide comment. They kept to themselves, and avoided any contact with the Kingdom's citizens. There was no noticeable activity, no sudden outburst, nothing. It was as if there was no tension between the two realms, as if cats and birds were at a total peace. But Lune knew otherwise for, as Natori had so calmly noticed, they had reacted quite violently at the news of the "assault" on their prince.
The cat turned back to the discarded reports on the table in front of him and the one between his paws. As asked, his agents had reported to him all birds' activity for the past week, and that report was something about how many birds of which species had been spotted and where. As he examined it for the umpteenth time, a line caught his eyes:
Species: city pigeon...numbers last week: about 3540…………...numbers this week: about 10,000………..Activity: Nibbling on
But Lune never read what the pigeons had been doing. What he noticed however was that their numbers had almost tripled in a week, and that definitely wasn't something good. He had read somewhere that city pigeons were the most effective and less conspicuous of the Empire's spies. Could it be…? Lune had a sinking feeling in his stomach. Something was wrong here, very wrong, he could feel it, he knew it and the worst was, he couldn't do a damn thing about it; all because he had no proof. I sincerely hope Baron comes back soon with some information, I don't like this feeling at all.
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Haru was cold. She could barely feel her fingers as she ran through the streets of the city and towards her home as fast as she could, holding tightly to the cat figurine she was clutching to her chest. She hoped no one noticed anything strange in the "doll" she was carrying – the last thing she needed right now was questions from passersby, questions that a girl carrying a cat in a blood-stained white suit would have more than likely raised had she not wrapped him up in her scarf. And as she ran through the cold night air, she was glad for it.
A storm had suddenly started brewing in the now darkened skies, and a hard wind was now blowing at her face, scattering leaves and papers around. The streets were starting to empty as people slowly retreated to the safety and warmness of the pubs, restaurants, and their homes. Haru almost wished she could have a quiet evening as they did, be an ordinary girl among ordinary people with ordinary people. But no, she was Haru, the girl who saved a cat prince and was now deeply connected to the magical world existing right alongside the human one, and she would not change it for a million dollars. Not when she had Muta, Toto or all of her new friends. Not when she had Baron.
Baron. She hoped she would be able to save him. Or rather, that she could bring him to the lady Myril had spoken of, the healer that lived, retired, up in the mountains north of here. The sea eagle had said that the healer was actually one of the few humans that actually spoke and listened to what animals had to say, healing them and nurturing them back to health whenever an injured animal came to her home. She wasn't very far from where they were located, and Myril had even proposed to carry Baron to her, but Haru had refused. It wasn't that she didn't want to help the Baron, but they also had the matter of the war to take care of. Natoru had to go back to the kingdom of cats, and Muta absolutely refused to go there or even leave Baron's side, which meant that Myril had to make sure the monkey-creature didn't escape, being the second strongest in the little group. It had settled the matter, and Myril and Natoru were now off to the Kingdom with a very unhappy Fento, while Haru and the team from the Cat Bureau made their way to the healer's house, set with very precise direction from the eagle as to how to get there.
Lighting flashed silently overhead, followed a bit later by thunder, and Haru lifted her head a second, hoping that Muta and Toto were alright up there. They had all silently agreed that the two would follow overhead so as not to draw any unnecessary attention to Haru, and that they would all meet at Haru's house. She wasn't very far from her goal now, only a few more blocks. Why was the trip back so long? It hadn't been so when she went to the park earlier that evening. Why did things always seem to take longer when she needed them to go faster, and faster when they should be slower? If she hadn't been busy running, Haru would have sighed in exasperation, but she had always been not very good at sports, so she kept her breath for a more important use.
She held Baron a little closer as lighting flashed again. To try and make time go faster, she mentally prepared what she would need for the upcoming journey, since Myril had told her that, as a human, it would take her at least a day to get there, and Haru didn't know how long she would be staying over at the healer's house. I'll definitely need to take my umbrella and raincoat, and a change of clothes. My first aid kit too, you never know when it can come in handy. Mmh, what else? A note in case Mum starts worrying. Her mum; that was another problem; how was she supposed to explain to her what the heck was going on? She could still pretend that she was on a trip for her university work, but what of the university? Haru didn't have a cell phone, and she couldn't very well tell Shizuru where she was going, so the woman was more than likely going to call the university for some info. Maybe I can have Hiromi cover up for me? I'll tell her to tell my mom I went to the nearby mountains, should be enough. Yes, but Hiromi won't be fooled. Should she tell her best friend about her secret? Haru shook her head. No, not yet. She had stumbled on the magical world by luck, and she wasn't sure she was allowed to divulge such a secret to anyone. She would just have to ask Hiromi to trust her then. Haru silently promised herself that after all that, she would find a way to tell the other girl of the cats and Baron. She hated lying to her best friend.
Finally, her home came into view and Haru slowed down to a jog, to finally stop right in front of her doorstep. Her mom was sleeping – it was almost midnight – and Haru had no desire to wake her up, for obvious reasons. And she had to get to her room discreetly. She unconsciously winced, for that was the tricky part: her front door's hinges hadn't been oiled for some time, and in the silence of the house the creak would be deafening. Her mom, a light sleeper, was more than likely going to wake up. How was she supposed to sneak in? Haru turned to the right and towards the kitchen window – in vain hope, for it was securely locked, as always. Guess mom hasn't lost her mind yet. Haru smiled wryly at that. The door it is then.
The young woman concealed the cat as best as she could with her scarf, in case her mother came down, and then softly turned the key she had gotten out of her jean pocket into the lock, softly pushing the door open. The creaking sound it let out was even louder than what she had expected and from upstairs came a sleepy voice:
"Haru? Is that you?"
Tbc…
Author's note (again!):
Hey guys! I'm truly sorry about the long absence. It looks like, as much as my muses harassed me for the precedent chapter, they seemed to abandon me for this one. I don't feel like I can do anything right as of late. It's a really odd feeling, I don't know what's going on. It's the holidays, but I'm just plain bored right now.
Thankfully, my muses decided to come back (they didn't tell me how I offended them in the first place, damn) as I was listening to a CD called "Back to Love", a collection of groove music and others from the 80's. We made the silent agreement that they would help me if I put that music on, so right now I have it blazing in my ears. :D Yes, I talk to my muses. Not outloud of course, and seeing as you guys have no idea who I am, I can! Mwahahahahah! (cough) haha. Hum. Anyway.
The part with Lune wasn't originally in there, but I added it as an after thought after rereading the other chapters and realizing that I actually hadn't talked of the situation in the Cat Kingdom at all for quite a while. I was a bit horrified that my fic was leaning towards a Haru/Baron centered fic. Don't misunderstand me, I have nothing against H/B centered fics, it's just that I try to not make it a habit of centering whatever I'm writing on solely one or two people. Hey, you're an author, so omniscient here, so why not make full use of it? (wink) lol :D. Yup, still crazy. Ok, review responses time! (A loud bell is heard in the background)
michievious-lil-kitsune: :D Your review made me laugh so much! Thank you! - I actually don't like cliffies, but, as politics, they are a necessary evil I guess. :) Hope you like this chapter as well!
Earthangel: My fav reviewer! (hugs Earthangel) Thank you so much! I guess this chapter answer your question (smile). Anyway, don't worry about that question, it's not a problem for me. Yeah, I am in Australia right now, but I'm actually from Mauritius (small country lost in the middle of the Indian ocean. If you don't know where it is, I won't blame you, most people don't :). You are quite on the other side of the planet. Damn, I wish I was there too. I so want to see that movie. Hum, I'm wandering off again. Hum. The war….well, I haven't decided yet if I'm going to stop it or not. I don't even know HOW to stop it. (Great, I write the story and I don't know what to do with it).
e-chan: Thank you! And you're not bugging me, gotta love reviewers! I'm actually working on about four stories at the same time, many of which will probably never be published 'cause I can't finish them. But I'll be posting the first chapter of a series of unrelated drabbles on "The cat Returns" soon, so watch out for it:)
Phantom Ange: You really think so? Wow. Thank you. I thought I had screwed up the fighting scene 'cause I've never been good with them. It helps a lot to know that it was ok. If you have any pointers as to how I can improve it thought, they would be welcome. Highlander? Yup, I've seen that. I quite like it. And I made all creations immortals in this story because of their nature itself. I mean, a stone statue doesn't age, right? Lol. That would be a bit creepy. And you're right: there really should be more fics for this movie! (waves a little flag with "Fics for the Cat Returns!" written on it)
Yes, I'm insane. Anyway, until next time, thanks to all who reviewed,
Ellenlome