There was not a single cloud in the sky, as it was a clear night. The wind was a bit chilly from the autumn air, but it was surprisingly warm, considering the season, so much that they didn't even needed jackets or anything of the like.
There was some illumination along the roads leading to in and out of the mansion of the Manechester family, mostly coming from lights on the ground or posts along the way.
The streets were mostly empty, but it was possible to see someone at a distance. Maybe a neighbor making a nightly jog? Maybe it was someone going to a party, or returning from some party? Maybe it was even one of Vole Garden's guards making their nightly patrol to make sure that everything was calm and in order. However, other than this occasional passerby, the streets of Vole Garden seemed to be deserted, showing that the place was completely at peace.
Still, none of the three cops let their guard down as Chandler led them outside. They couldn't afford to lower their guards and allow for someone to sneak on them. Of course, none of the other guests noticed that the three cops were on guard, and neither did the host. None of them thought that there was a reason for them to be so nervous about anything. None of them had any knowledge of the things that were going on around the Manechester house in the last days.
They didn't knew about the graffiti, about the signs that someone was lurking, about the fact that someone has been breaking inside the house and defiling it. They didn't knew that there was someone stalking the house, and that this person could be someone very dangerous. None of them had any idea of that, not even Chandler.
However, the three cops knew, Nick and Judy, in particular, had seen the video that Honey had of the one who was supposedly stalking the mansion, a big creature that she identified as "Bigfoot". They could still remember the appearance of the creature, and its eyes. That thing could very well be roaming around the residence at that very moment, and neither of the guests was aware of that.
Judy found hard to understand why Adrian Manechester was so keen on keeping so much secret about it. Well, it was understandable that he wouldn't want it to become some media circus, but keeping such an information from the rest of his guests? Keeping it from his own son, who was making a party in the mansion? Not letting him in on the possibility that some dangerous person could be roaming around the property, and that they could be a threat to the guests of his party?
This didn't fit well to her, especially since it seemed clear that he knew that his son planned to take the party outside, what would put both himself and his guests on a vulnerable position to whoever (or whatever) this stalker was. Didn't he thought of how they were all in danger by going out like that? Didn't he thought that he should inform his son and maybe convince him to do the whole party inside, where it was safer? Was he so keen on keeping it a secret that he preferred to let his son go outside with the possibility of the stalker being out there than to let him in?
That didn't sounded like what a responsible father would do, that much Judy could tell. Right now, she felt like she should tell Chandler and the others about the stalker, and try to convince them to go back inside. She was not the only one at that, as both Nick and Benjamin also wanted to share this with Chandler and convince him to return to the house. Benjamin, in particular, wanted to share with his friend about the danger that could be outside, and convince him to return inside, where it was safer.
However, none of them could say anything, once Bogo made it clear to them that Adrian had been really insistent on how important it was to keep everything in secret. None of the cops could actually say anything, although they clearly were currently questioning these instructions.
All that they could do now was keep their ears and eyes sharp in case anything would come their way, and if it did, they would be quick to get everyone safe and to assume the whole thing immediately. In the case of anything happening, the top priority would be everyone's safety, and Adrian's worry about his image be damned.
"Okay now, guys." Chandler said, looking at his guests as they walked outside of the mansion. "This is the next part of the murder mystery, and this is the part where everyone is a winner." He said, and turned to them, "And it all starts with this card." He showed a card, and everyone stopped and looked at it.
"Mr. Horne, would you please do the honors?" Chandler asked, offering it to the gazelle with the gasmask, who took it and looked at it for a few moments. He looked back at the horse, who nodded at him. The gazelle then looked back at the card, and started reading, his voice sounding muffled by the gasmask:
"In the deep darkness, something crawls." The gazelle said, his muffled voice sounding somewhat ghostly "You held it in your hand, and you can hear its calls. To return to their shelter is their only desire. Your help for such is what they now require."
The gazelle looked at this for a few more moments, before he looked back at the horse.
"That is a nice little poem, you wrote it yourself?"
"Actually, I did. Not a professional thing, but not bad, if I can say so myself." Chandler said, and everyone took in what they had just heard.
"So, this poem is our challenge?" Legoshi asked, looking at the horse. "We have to figure out what it means?"
"Yeah, that would be a good challenge." Chandler said, looking at him, "But, it is not needed. The answer to this rhyme is 'Spiders in the Hole'."
"Spiders?" Hannah said, "Now real ones, right?"
"No, not real ones, relax, honey." Chandler said, looking at them, "Just follow me, all of you." He said, and everyone soon was following the horse, walking around the mansion and into a small pathway, which led them all somewhere else within the property of the Manechester family. They had to walk for just five minutes before they arrived at the place that Chandler planned for them, and there was already something waiting for them.
There was what seemed to be a ramp in it, made from a quite large wood platform, so polished that it reflected the light of the lamp on the top of the post that offered illumination, put in an inclination, and on the very top of the ramp there was a hole cut into the wood. Everyone looked at the ramp, just as they looked at the podium in there with a bowl on top. Some of them were wondering what it was, but it was Judy who recognized the game, once she had seen it before.
"Cornhole?" the bunny asked, as she saw the familiar thing, that was so popular during autumn back in her hometown. "We are playing cornhole?"
"Indeed, we are." Chandler said, standing by the side of a podium, which contained a bowl that was fill with cartoony toy spiders, all of them looking like some small child's toys. "This is the first of the three games that we will be playing for the next part of the mystery, each one based on Halloween, this is the very first of them, based on one of the most classic Halloween games, with a little personal twists of my own."
"Toy spiders instead of little bags full of corn?" Nick asked, and the horse nodded. He actually seemed rather proud of what he was doing.
"Okay then, so we play some county fair game." Melon said, his muffled voice "Now, where is the part where everyone is a winner?"
"Oh, that is because in this part of the game the challenges are not the main thing." Chandler said, "This is the part of the game in which you get to know each other's motives for the crime."
Everyone looked at him as he explained:
"During the course of the three games that we are going to play, you guys get to chat with each other, and in this, you get to tell each other's your motives to want Simon Blackson dead." Chandler explained, "For those who have more than one motive, you don't have to tell all of them if you don't want to, but you must answer truthfully if asked."
Everyone listened to this, and soon everyone was looking at each other, some of them probably already thinking on whom they should ask first. Meanwhile, Chandler continued:
"Now, I am assuming that everyone knows the rules of the game, but in case you don't, it is a game that works by points." Chandler explained, "The goal of the game is pick little bags and slide them across the board, so they will either fall into the hole or stop somewhere along the board. A bag in the hole is three points, a bag not in the hole but in the board is one point, while a bag that has slid to out of the board is zero points. It continues until someone has reached twenty-one points."
"Now, for this game, I am tweaking the rules a bit. Instead of bag, it will be these adorable little guys." He said, showing off one the toy spiders, "And instead of sixteen for each, each one of you will have only three, and it will be a single round, in a way that the goal is to get the most of points possible until the end of the game. Now, does anyone has some question?" The horse asked, looking at his guests for a long time, before convincing himself that neither of them has questions "Great! Then let's start the game, now, who goes first?"
"Excuse me." Josh said, opening space among the other ones around. It was clear that he was going to be the first one. The muscular cheetah walked to the bowl on the podium and leaned over to pick up his three spiders. As he did, he stuck out his leather-clad tushy for everyone to look, his tail swirling over it, as if he was deliberating showing off. Some of the presents had the feeling that this was actually the case.
"Spot's twin likes to show off, doesn't he?" Nick commented, right after the muscular cheetah made a spin and tossed the toy spider backwards, and it slid across the board and fell right on the hole.
"Yeah, it seems that he does." Judy said, as the cheetah now repeated the feat, and this time tossing the spider from between his legs, and once more acing it. "He is quite good, though. But still a shown off."
"Yeah, his clothes are more than enough proof of that, right?" Nick said, and Judy blushed. The fox turned to her and asked:
"So, any chance that you could tell me your motives to want to ice Mr. Blackson?"
Judy looked at him, and she smiled, "Well, because he has ordered the murder of my first love. What about you, detective?"
"Oh, that would be because years ago, he murdered my fiancé himself." Nick said, looking back at her. "The classic case of the revenge of the ones who lost their loved ones, huh?"
"Well, you can consider it like that." Judy said, "In the case that either of us is the one responsible for this."
"Oh, yeah! Perfect score, cub!" Josh said, making a little victory dance, one that was quite lewd (and made more than a few mammals a bit uncomfortable), and soon, it was the turn for someone else. The next one was Marcy. She threw the first one too hard, so it slid right out of the board. She quickly corrected her strength, and was able to ace the next two.
Next it was Ben's turn, and the cheetah scored three perfect shots, now tying with his twin. Next it was Euphemia's turn, and she managed to land two, while the other one stopped in the middle of the board. Her husband was the next one, and he scored only two points, as the first one stopped in the middle of the board, the second slid right past it, and the last one stopped just a short distance from the hole, the horse grumbled something about it being a "stupid childish game" as he let someone else take a turn.
Meanwhile, the guests were talking to each other, and Gazelle told someone that she was (in the game) being harassed by Simon Blackson. The blackbuck was sending her letters that went from infatuating to creepy, had put someone to stalk her for him, and had recently started to send her threats with photos taken by the stalker, saying that he was getting tired of her ignoring him and that she better change her ways or there would be consequences. His harassment and stalking was leaving her on the level of despair and that, with his death, she felt like a weight had been take off her shoulders.
Tyson, who was with her, also told of his motives, which actually were the same. He knew that Gazelle was suffering from his stalking, as it was making her fearful and miserable. He couldn't stand that someone was making her like that, and he was frustrated that no one was doing anything to stop the bastard. When he saw him in the mansion the first time, he nearly jumped on him and forced him to leave, but only stopped because Gazelle herself stopped him. He hated the blackbuck because of how he was bothering the popstar, and that would be the reason why he would want him dead.
Now, Gazelle didn't said anything, but what Chandler had put for his reason for the murder actually didn't sounded so far-fetched. All of her tigers had always been protective about her, and Tyson was one that was particularly protective, ever since they first became friends back in high school. They didn't stood anyone badmouthing her or bothering her, and if someone was actually doing something like that to her... Of course, someone as kind as Tyson or as levelheaded as Tyrone wouldn't do that, but as for Tyler and Tyrell, the idea of them threatening someone into leaving her alone was not that much of an absurd, although she was absolutely sure that none of them would ever resort to murder.
Nick was on his turn now, and he said to his partner "Watch and learn", before he smugly walked to the board and slid his three spiders, one after the other. The first stopped just a few inches shorter of the hole. The second one slid right off the platform. Judy was giggling and apparently Nick picked up his pace, for he furrowed his brown and threw his last spider, which hit the first one and caused both of them to fall into the hole. Nick was already celebrating his six points, when Chandler corrected him saying that he only made four, for the first spider didn't fell on the hole on the moment he threw it.
"Yeah, I really learned something." Judy said to her partner, who said nothing as he was once more standing by her side. Soon it was her turn. The first one stopped by the side of the hole, but the two next ones fell right into it. Seven points.
Lastly, it was Tyson, and he scored three perfect landings on the hole, sealing him with a perfect score of nine points. With this, the game was complete.
"Alright them." Chandler said, "So, the final score is, Charles with two points." The other horse scoffed, looking away and mumbling of how dumb this was, "Ogami and Wilde with four points. Horne, Hannah and Gazelle with five points. Hopps with six points. Ms. Foxgrove and Effie with seven points. Finally, we have the Clawhauser twins and Mr. Tigereye tied on the first place, with a perfect score of nine points."
Ben and Josh did a fist bump, and Tyson stood in there satisfied. Meanwhile, Charles looked at the three of them, the cheetahs in particular, and said to his wife:
"I swear I don't get the musclebound pervert and the fatso being twins."
His wife said nothing in return to this, as her brother congratulated the winners.
"Okay then. One down, two more to go." Chandler said, looking at his guests, "Now, it's time for the second challenge..."
None of them noticed that someone was watching. That someone was looking and listening from afar, and that this someone was paying attention to everything that was happening, and to each one of the thirteen mammals of the group. The two cops who were standing together. The popstar and her bodyguard. The masked gazelle with his wolf partner. Euphemia Manechester and that money-mooching parasite whom she called her husband. Benjamin Clawhauser and his two siblings. They also noticed the girlfriend of the host, but they didn't truly had much interest in her, if any at all. They continued to hear.
"…and for it, I have another little thing. Does someone want to read it?" Chandler said, showing another piece of paper. Soon, the hybrid of cheetah and fox was walking forward and picking the paper, before she read it aloud for the rest of the guests. The figure was far from them, but they could still hear perfectly all that was being said. For someone with their skills, the distance wasn't much of an issue.
"Upon the plantations they stand their guard. To approach unnoticed is much too hard. If you wish to pass this grim resistance, you must draw their blood from a great distance." The hybrid read, and soon, the masked gazelle was saying:
"Shooting. We are going to be shooting at stuff." He said with his muffled voice. Chandler looked at him an nodded.
"That's correct. The next game is a shooting competition with paintball. Now, if all of you would be kind enough to follow me."
Soon they were following the horse, and so was the figure following them from a distance. It was hard, as they had to watch their step all of the time to avoid detection. It was annoying. However, they could not afford to be see now. Not when they put so much effort in passing unnoticed.
They were still able to pick up the conversations they were having as they walked. He heard someone (maybe the bunny cop), talking to Euphemia, and he heard she say something about how she hated Blackson for he had ruined the life of her first boyfriend to the point where he killed himself. Her husband also said something about the guy having severely bullied him in childhood, to the point where he spent years doing therapy.
Neither of that really interested them, but they still kept listening, just like they listened the rest of the mammals of that group talk to themselves about the little game that they were doing, what also didn't interested them very much. Still, they kept listening as they were careful not to be noticed.
They didn't liked having to hide. It made them feel like a coward. However, they knew that if they were seen then things would really become complicate for them, and they wouldn't have a chance of doing what they intended to do.
However, it was hard to rein themselves back when they saw that mammal. He was in there. He was just over there, within their reach, and it would be so easy to just go in there.
However, they couldn't. Not when there were so many mammals around who could easily get on their way.
Soon.
They would have their chance soon.
They just had to keep following them.
They walked for a few more minutes, and soon, they were arriving in an open field where the stage for their next game was set. There were twelve scarecrows, each one looking like a generic form of a mammal mounted on a cross and dressing hags, disposed at an even space of ten feet from each other.
Directly in front of the first scarecrow, approximately twenty feet away, stood a stool that had paintball guns at it. These guns looked similar; after all, they all were the very same object. However, they were different sized, as it seemed that they had been arrange for the size needs of the respective mammals that would use them. Most of them were on a size that would be good for big mammals, like horses and a tiger, some of them were of a "medium size", most adequate for gazelles and for a wolf, as well as by cheetahs and a hybrid, . Finally, two of them were considerably smaller than the other ones, certainly good to be used by a fox and a bunny.
"Okay then." Chandler said, as he looked at his guests. "As you have probably guessed, this next game is 'Shoot the Scarecrow'. In this, you will each receive one paintball gun and you will be shooting at the scarecrows. Your score will be determined according to your aim. You will each have ten charges to shoot, and you will get three points for the heart, two points for the head, and one point for a regular shot. I think I don't need to say that missing a shot means you get no points. So, anyone has a question?"
"I have." Marcy said, raising her paw. "Any could make it an archery contest? I don't have much practice with these things, but I am really good with a bow."
"Nope, it will be paintball. Sorry." Chandler said, and clapped his hooved hands, "Okay, now everyone find a gun that fits your size and get ready, you will all fire by taking turns. The ones who scored the highest in the previous game are gonna go first. Ben, Josh and Tigereye all got the perfect score, so they will be first ones, does any of you would like to go first?"
Josh nudged Ben in the shoulder, urging him to go first. The plump cheetah took it, and he walked forward, picking his gun and now he was standing in front of a scarecrow.
He looked a bit nervous, and he looked at his friends. Chandler was smiling at him, and so were Nick and Judy, the fox even gave him a thumbs up. Marcy and Josh both nodded at him. With this, Ben looked back at the scarecrow, his target, and he took a deep breath, before he let it out slowly.
"Okay now. Get ready..." Chandler said, and Ben got in position. Just like they taught him back in the academy.
"Aim..." Ben opened his eyes and held his gun just like he would hold a dart gun, all of sudden, he felt like he was back at the firing range of ZPD's Academy, looking at a target depicting a criminal holding a weapon at him.
"...Fire!"
Ben didn't hesitated. He didn't considered what he was doing. He didn't even thought. He just aimed and pulled the trigger. Again. Again. Each time a single plastic ball filled with paint came out of the thing and hit the scarecrow. Each bullet was aim at the place he was supposed to hit. He had heard him say that the heart was worth the more points, so he aimed at the heart, demarked by a red circle painted in the right side of the scarecrow's chest.
Ben only stopped when he pulled the trigger and the thing didn't fired anymore. In this moment, the cheetah let out a breath. He looked at the others, and saw that everyone was looking, many of them with amazed or even shocked expressions. Ben looked back at the scarecrow, and saw that the point where the heart had been marked in the scarecrow. It was now completely cover by the purple paint from his ammunition.
Ben hadn't missed a single shot.
Tyson whistled, while Josh gave his brother a thumbs-up. Even Euphemia seemed to be impressed, as she as clapping, although she was not showing much of emotion as she did, her husband looking dumbfounded as he stood next to her.
"Ben, that was great!" Chandler said, looking at his cheetah friend. "You got a perfect thirty points score!"
"H-How can that be?" Charles asked, his voice raising. "W-where did you learn to shot like that!?"
Ben flinched little at his question.
"Uhhh... at the police academy?" He said, and Euphemia soon was saying:
"He received training to be a cop and he passed, otherwise they wouldn't have gave him a badge." She said, looking at her husband, "Of course that one of the things they teach you is how to deal with a gun. This sounds obvious, doesn't it?"
Charles looked at his wife for a few moments, and he looked to be at loss (and maybe a little surprised that his wife didn't sided with him).
"W-well, it does, but... I mean..." He said, looking between his wife and the plump cheetah. "B-but he is a... I mean... He is not really... he is just a..." It looked like Charles was trying to find words, but he was not finding the right ones. Meanwhile, everyone was now looking at him.
"A what?" Josh asked, looking at the horse with crossed arms. The leather hood that he wore as a mask did not hid the fact that his expression wasn't friendly, and neither was that of Chandler, who was looking at him as if daring him to say anything offensive to Ben. However, the plump cheetah himself broke it.
"So, I am done here, ain't it the turn of someone else?" He said, and looked at his twin, "Why don't you try, Josh? You have been practicing your aim using guns, right? Oh, you don't mind letting Josh go first, do you?" He finished, asking Tyson, who shrugged and said that he didn't minded.
This seemed to be enough to get everyone's attention back at the game, and soon, Josh was taking his place as he aimed on the next scarecrow of the line, while the rest of the mammals stood waiting their turn to fire. Josh was taking considerably more time to shot than Ben did, showing that he didn't had the very same skill as his twin. He also didn't settled as much scores as his twin, but he was definitely not bad, as he ended it with a score of 21. Then it was Tyson's turn.
As the game proceeded, the guests continued to talk to each other, asking each other's the motives they would have to have committed the crime.
"So, Mister Oh-game." Nick said, making the wolf look at him.
"Uhh, its 'Ogami'. OH-gah-mee." The wolf said, correcting the fox.
"Right, sorry about that." Nick said, nodding, "Anyways, I'd like to know why would you want to murder that blackbuck."
"Well, no reason." Legoshi said, looking down at the fox. "I mean, I never met him until tonight."
Nick looked at him.
"You know you cannot lie, don't you?"
"I am not lying!" Legoshi said in his defense. "I saw him the first time tonight!"
"He means in the game, Legoshi." Melon said, turning to look at the wolf. He had to lean over a bit to look at him past Hannah, who stood directly in front of the wolf on the line they were forming. "That paper on your bed that told who you were in this game and why you hated the guy."
Legoshi blinked, and then he seemed to realize it.
"Oh, right!" He said, turning back to the fox, "Well, according to the paper I was angry at him because he threatened me when I refused to work for him."
Nick nodded, and Melon now looked at the fox.
"You will have to excuse Legoshi. Sometimes he is a bit slow." He said, and the fox looked back at him. He was about to ask another question, when Hannha beat him to it.
"And, why would you want to kill Blackson, Mr. Horne?" The mare asked, and the gazelle in gasmask shrugged.
"Well, back on my young years I lived in Zootopia. That guy humiliated me back on the day in front of my entire family, and this followed me for years. Never forgave him. You?"
"He ruined a business that my father had and made my entire family suffer in order to expand his own business." Hannah said, "Looks like it's your turn."
So the game went, with each one of the guests taking their turns firing paintballs at a scarecrow, until the last one had fired.
In this game, the ones who got the lowest scores were Gazelle and Charles. Gazelle even did better than Charles, who clearly had no idea how to operate the device, and nearly shot himself by accident. The others did reasonably well, with Nick and Judy having scored pretty good points (26 and 27, respectively), and Ben standing as the undisputable winner of the game with a perfect score of thirty points.
Everyone congratulated the cheetah for the perfect score and for his amazing aim (everyone save for Charles, that is), and this prompted Ben to blush and thank all of them.
"Okay then." Chandler said, getting everyone's attention. "Two down, one more to go, and this..." He said, pulling another paper, and handing it to Hannah. "Is the last one."
She took the paper and held it in her hooved hands, soon, she was reading from the paper for everyone around to hear.
"Deep into the labyrinth of evergreen, something moves, trying to go unseen. Beast hidden in the dark of the night. To capture it is your goal to end this fright." She spoke, and she then looked back at her boyfriend, along with the others.
Chandler only smiled back, and said:
"All of you follow me." He said, and soon everyone was walking after him. This walk was longer than the other ones. That was when Charles said:
"Hey, we are leaving the property of the mansion." He spoke, and Chandler nodded, before speaking back:
"That is because the next part of the game will happen somewhere else." He said, "It is the kind of game that we need to go to a specific place to play."
"We are going to that old abandoned place that you told me about?" Hannah asked, "That old ruined mansion where no one goes?"
"No, darling. That place is off limits for everyone." Chandler said, "We are going to the green maze."
"The green maze?" Euphemia asked, looking at her brother. "At this time of the night?"
"Come on, it is not that late." Chandler said, looking at his sister, "I already talked to the security guys letting them know that we would be using the green maze tonight, and they all agreed to allow me. Besides, it is not like it is forbidden to go in there, since it is a public place and all."
Everyone followed him across the streets inside of the vole Garden, and this time they had to walk a bit and, during that time, they continued to ask questions to each other.
"So, what were your reasons to want to kill Mr. Blackson, Ben?" Judy asked the cheetah, and Ben hesitated a bit, before he answered:
"Well, he was vandalizing the stores from my donut store franchise, to try to get me to sell it to him." He said, looking at them, and then he added:
"And, ever since he found out I was a mage, he was trying to get me to work for him." Ben said, "He started to threaten my loved ones and threatening to ruin their lives if I didn't became his magecraft professional."
Judy looked at him, and she nodded. That was when someone butted into the conversation.
"If something like that happened for real, you can be sure we would do something about that." Marcy said, looking at her brother, and Josh, who walked by her side, agreed. They passed by a guard who was making the night patrol, and Chandler gave him a greeting before the group continued. The guard looked quickly at all of them, his eyes bulged out when he saw costume that Josh was wearing, and he continued to stare as the muscular cheetah passed. Josh seemed not to notice, as he was soon asking the bunny and fox what would be their reasons to kill him, to which Judy and Nick said the same they had said to each other, and soon, he was telling his motives as well.
"He was the responsible for the death of a love interest I had in the past." Josh said, "I never forgave him for their death, according to that paper that they left in my bed."
"I was mad at him because he interfered with a job I was doing." Marcy said as Nick asked her, "I couldn't complete my mission and this costed me a lot of money, not to mention that it made me seen incompetent. Took me a while to rebuild my reputation because of him."
Judy and Nick both nodded as they were told that.
"Well, it seems that we have heard everyone's motives." Judy said, and the fox looked back at her, before looking ahead, to the front of the group.
"Have we, Carrots?"
They walked for nearly twenty minutes before they started to see the place that where they would be playing their game. It was a hedge maze, with the vertical hedges covered in leaves and vines forming the walls of the maze, and it looked to be big.
"I didn't knew there was a hedge maze in Zootopia." Judy said, looking at the place where they will be playing their next game.
"Oh, there is." Chandler said, looking at her, "It is a part of Vole Gardens, and it is rather popular, especially among the younger folks around here. Foals often come in here to play."
"Not to mention the teenagers who come in here when they want to have privacy." Nick whispered to his partner, making she look back at him. She didn't had time to formulate an answer to this, as Chandler soon was speaking again.
"Now, for the final challenge, we will be playing the game of 'Catch the Monster." The horse said as he looked at his guests. "For this game, one of you is going to be the monster, and will go into the maze. Everyone else will be looking for the monster and try to get them before they reach the center of the maze. Basically it is a fancy game of tag, if the monster reach the center of the maze without being tagged they win, but if you manage to tag the monster before they reach the center of the, then you are the winner."
He looked around, "Now, the one playing the monster will be the one who scored the highest on both previous games." He said, and then turned to the cheetah. "That's you Ben. You got max score in both games."
The cheetah was a bit surprised, but he nodded, and soon, he was getting in position at the entrance of the labyrinth of vegetation. Chandler looked at him.
"You are going to have a headstart." The horse said to the cheetah. "You will go inside and we are going to wait two minutes before we go inside and try to find and tag you. Make good use of the time you will have, alright?"
"Okay." Ben said, looking at the vegetation, and Chandler turned to the others.
"Everyone, your goal is to find Ben and tag him before he reaches the center of the maze. I just want to remember the mages that you should play without cheating, and this means not use location spells or anything of the like to try finding Ben, and no climbing the hedges to try to go over the walls. Everyone should respect the rules. So, does anyone has a question?"
"I have." Nick said, raising his paw, and everyone looked at him, "What would be your reasons to want Blackson dead?"
Chandler looked at him, and he actually smiled.
"Man, I thought no one was going to ask!" He said, looking at the fox, the only one who thought about asking for the guests reasons to commit the murder. "Blackson was sabotaging my stores in order to drive me out of business. He was doing that because when we were both young he said that I would never be able to succeed as a confectioner, and he'd rather spend a lot of money to drive me out of business than accepting that he had been wrong. Now, everyone get ready, the last challenge will be starting now." He said, and pulled out a chronometer from his pocket. "Ben, get ready... go!"
With this, the cheetah quickly sprinted into running, way faster than some of the presents thought was possible for someone his size. Well, he was a cheetah, after all.
Ben dashed across the entrance, and he made the first curve by the time he found a bifurcation. He turned another side, just to find himself in a dead end, what forced him to move back and look for another opening where he could ran into. Ben had to stop for a few moments to orientate himself inside the maze, and more than once, he was force to turn back and remake his steps after finding himself in a dead end. All the while he knew that the clock was ticking, and that the others would coming for him soon, so he had to try to go inside of the maze as fast as he could, so they would take longer to find him and he would have time to reach the center of the maze.
Ben continued trying to find his way, when he heard a distant voice. It was Chandler's.
"Okay, Ben! Two minutes are up! Ready or not, here we go!"
That was all of the warning that Ben needed to know that now it was definitely a race. A race that he had to arrive at the center before anyone else caught him to be able to win. And if he was caught...
Ben stopped for a moment, his heart quickening a little bit.
No! Stop it! Ben thought, shaking his head and taking deep breaths to keep his breathing under control. It is not like that. It is nothing like that. This is all for fun. It is all just a game... it is just a game.
Taking another deep breath, Ben opened his eyes and he started to move deeper into the maze once more, reassuring himself that he had nothing to worry about, for that was all just a game.
Little did he knew that, aside from the guests, there was someone else inside that maze.
Someone to whom it was not just a game.
"Come on, Legoshi." The gazelle with the gasmask said, looking at the wolf, who was kneeling on the ground and sniffing it. "How come you can't find his smell?"
"Sorry, Melon." The wolf said, looking up to him. "I am still recovering from that cold, my nose is still not a hundred percent."
The gazelle sighed. It has been nearly fifteen minutes since they had entered that maze to look for that fat cheetah. They should have found him by now, with Legoshi's keen sense of smell guiding them, but the wolf had come down with a serious cold right after they moved into the mansion and, while he had recovered, it was taking a while for him to recover his sense of smell fully. Because of this, it was being hard to follow the scent of the cheetah.
"You know what, screw this." Melon said, looking to the wolf, "Just use your familiars to find the cheetah."
Legoshi looked back at him.
"But Melon that would be using magecraft to win. Chandler-sama told us not to do that." The wolf said, and the gazelle scoffed.
"Oh, come on, it is no big deal." The gazelle said, looking at him through his mask. "You have been using them around us ever since we left the mansion."
"To keep watch for a possible attack, like Manechester-sama told us." The wolf reasoned, "I cannot use them to help win the game, he told us not to cheat."
"No one will know."
"I will know!" The wolf said, raising his voice slightly, and Melon looked at him for a few moments, before he sighed.
"You know, sometimes you are too much of a good guy."
"Well, I was raised like that." The wolf said, and the gazelle sighed.
"Yeah, but you could have a little bit more of a mean streak on yourself." Melon said, looking at the wolf. "Believe me; you would go a lot farther in life if you did."
Legoshi looked down. "I really don't know, Melon."
"You definitely need to learn a bit more on how to be a scoundrel." Melon said to him, looking at the wolf. "Maybe this whole situation will be good for you to learn that."
The wolf hesitated a bit, before he spoke to the gazelle.
"By the way, Melon, I've been meaning to talk to you about this." The wolf said, causing the masked gazelle to look back at him. "I think that maybe it would be a good idea if we forgot the plan and went home."
"What, now?" The gazelle asked, looking at him, "After how far we've gone and after all the risks we took to come here in the first place?"
"There are cops in here." The wolf said, sounding to be worried. "The bunny cop has been giving us looks."
"Oh, she is checking you up, ain't she?" Melon said, a smile hiding behind that mask he was wearing, "Bet you are loving it, right?"
"Melon, I am serious!" The wolf said, blushing. "She is suspecting of us! If she actually start to look on us..."
"Then we hypnotize her and make her leave us alone." The gazelle said to him, "We can do the same with the fox if he give us any problem. I told you, we don't have to worry about the regular police. It is the clans and the enforcers we have to be worried about."
"There is an enforcer in here." The wolf said to him, "As well as his cop brother, and his freelancer sister."
"Yeah, a member of the Berserker Squad." Melon said to him, "These guys are not as smart as the regular enforcer, and that is saying a lot. I mean, the guy didn't even figured us out yet."
"But he might..." Legoshi said, and Melon sighed, removing his mask, and looking the wolf in the eye.
"Legoshi, I know you are worried, but try not to be, okay?" He said, and the wolf looked back at him. "We are both doing a great job with this plan so far, and we just have to keep doing what we are doing and everything will go perfectly."
"They might find out." Legoshi said, looking at his friend, "That you and I are..."
"They won't." Melon said, back to him. "And even if they do, we will be long gone by then. Don't worry, there won't be any problem on our side, and if someone tries to make one, I won't let it happen."
There was a silence, and the wolf looked down. The horned mammal looked back at him for a few moments, before he pat him in the head gently.
"I'll always look out for you." He said, and the wolf looked back at him. "After all, I promised that when we were both kids, didn't I?"
Legoshi looked at him for a few moments, and he nodded. The horned mammal smiled back at him, before he started putting his mask back in place.
"We just have to remain focused and loyal to the plan, and everything will work out." He said, looking back at the wolf, now through the lenses of the mask. "Everything will go perfectly, and none of these suckers will know until we are long gone with the money."
There was another pause after this, before the wolf nodded. "If you say so..." he said, and Melon patted him in the shoulder.
"That's what I like to hear. Now, lets go. We have an unhealthily heavy cheetah to find." The masked horned mammal said once more, Legoshi was soon getting up and they both were now looking for the cheetah the traditional way, by looking through the maze.
Little did they know that, just by the other side of the hedge, someone had just listened to their conversation.
Marcy stood in place, her ears twitching as she caught the sound of their departing footfalls.
"Okay..." She said, as she turned around and started to walk her own way, "Now that is quite interesting..."
"He got to be here somewhere..." Judy said, as she looked around as she and Nick both walked across the hallway of green vegetation. Nick was bent over, with his nose close to the ground as he sniffed around, trying to pick up Ben's smell. However, he was once more proving to not be as good in it as a wolf's would be. Not only he wasn't used to follow Ben's scent, due to never having tried that before, but the scent of the product that they used on the plants was also getting in the way of the smell of the cheetah that he was trying to track.
"Yeah, that is pretty obvious, ain't it, Carrots?" Nick asked, looking at her, as he got up from trying to sniff the ground. "After all, we did saw him walk into the place. So, any more obvious things that you would like to point out?"
Judy said, nothing, and she looked away. She was not very happy with Nick's words, but she knew that she could not deny that he was right. However, she could also call attention to something else as she looked around.
"Didn't the configuration of the maze changed?" She asked, looking around, "Up until a while ago, the walls of the maze were on straight lines, but now they make curves."
"That's how the Vole Garden's green maze is." Nick said to her, "That according to what they told me. The maze has two parts in itself. The outer part of the maze was like a regular maze, with straight lines forming the pathways, but once you reach a certain point; you get into the inner layer of the maze, where it takes a circular pattern. They say that it was done to protect something that was originally hidden in the very center of the maze."
Judy looked at him. "For real?" She asked, and Nick shrugged.
"I am just telling them what they told me. I don't know much myself." Nick admitted, "You see, this green maze is actually nearly as old as the Vole Gardens itself. The place is over a hundred years old, and the maze has been a part of it ever since forever."
"Who planted it?" Judy asked, and Nick once more shrugged.
"No one truly knows. Some say that the same mammals who used to live on that old house in ruins that has been abandoned ever since before they built this gated community." Nick explained to her, "There are all kinds of theories about that, some of them even involving aliens."
Judy looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and a "you can't be serious" look.
"Hey, I am just saying what the guys told me." Nick said defensively.
"Did Honey told you that, by any chance?" Judy tried, and Nick looked at her for a few seconds, before saying:
"Maybe..."
Judy groaned, and she resumed walking, with Nick following right behind her.
"Any other more life-changing information that you want to share with me?" She said, not really expecting an answer. However...
"Actually, I have."
"Sweet cheese and crackers."
"Actually it is one about the game." Nick said, looking at Judy. "I've been working on a few theories for this up until now, and I think that I found one that maybe explains a few things." The fox looked at her, as she looked back at him. "Would you like to hear me out?"
Judy looked at him for a few moments, before shrugging. "Well, if one of us is going to solve this mystery, we might as well share out ideas, right?"
"So, what do you think?" Nick asked.
"Well, the fact that the victim was killed by magecraft indicates that the person who killed him had access to the supernatural." Judy admitted, looking at Nick. "Immediately, you think it might have been a mage, but still..." Judy stopped. She was remembering that her paper said that she had access to magecraft despite not being a mage, a fact that she was about to share with Nick. However, she remembered how the paper told her that it would be game over for her if anyone found out that she had been give orders to kill Blackson. Now, the bunny was not sure if this was literal, or if there was anything that would actually happen if she revealed this information to anyone, or if that was all to give more of a deep to her character to the game.
"Carrots?" Nick asked, looking at her, and the bunny looked back at him for a few moments.
"We... we cannot rule out the possibility that someone without magecraft could have found a way of killing him with magecraft." Judy said, deciding to stick to her character, and to the fact that he character would never reveal such a thing to anyone, much less a detective. "I mean, they could have used some kind of magecraft that they obtained from an actual mage, or something." Yes, that was something that she got from her paper, but that there was no problem in revealing.
Nick looked at her for a few moments, and he nodded. "Yeah, I can agree with you in that." He said, making her look at him a bit surprised. "My character apparently learned a lot about curses and magecraft from his mother, who is a retired mage." Nick admitted, and Judy looked at him, he looked back at her, and smiled, "So, it is safe to assume that someone else might have access to magecraft without being a mage."
"That is a nice deduction." Judy said, looking at him, and the fox smiled back at her.
"Well, I am a good detective, ain't I?" He asked, "Even though I never suspected that my mother was an ex-mage..."
"Aren't we divagating here?" Judy said, and Nick nodded.
"Yeah, sorry." He said, "So, you were saying?"
"That someone who is not a mage could have found a way to kill him with magecraft." Judy said, looking at the fox, "This means that we should not rule out anyone as a suspect. It could have literally been anyone... even the host. How did you think of asking Chandler if he had reasons to kill him?"
"This is not my first rodeo, Carrots." Nick said, "I've been a cop for long enough and watched enough police series and movies with you to know that it is not impossible for the host of the party to be the murderer. Also, the way that he asked for someone if they had a question for him was something that I found strange, as if he was expecting for a specific question to be asked. He was practically swinging the bait in front of us, so I took a bite."
Judy looked at him, and she as admired that he was able to notice that about the horse. Once more, she saw that Nick seemed to be quite good in reading others, despite this ability sometimes failing him when he needed it. Soon, she was returning to her line of thought, though.
"So, this means that anyone could have done that." Judy said, "Now, in the case that it was a non-mage, we need to figure out how they could have done that without magecraft."
"And also when they did it." Nick said, and Judy looked at him.
"What do you mean 'when'?" She asked, looking at him, "It happened at the dinner table."
"He died at the dinner table." Nick said, looking to his partner. "It doesn't means that he was actually cursed in there. Actually, I think it must have been before."
"Really? What makes you think that?"
"The descriptions of the curses." Nick said, Judy looked at him, and soon the fox was explaining:
"Don't you remember how the curses were described?" Nick asked her, "How the Heretic's Punishment 'gradually increased the temperature', and how Herculion's Demise 'steadily increased the PH', and I am pretty sure that the blood doesn't crystalize instantly with the effects of Mewdea's Revenge."
Judy looked at him, and she could, indeed, remember how the description of the first two spells said that they didn't worked instantly. It was also reasonable that the crystallization of the blood was gradual and not instantaneous as well. So, it seemed actually reasonable to assume that the curses took a while to kill the victim.
"Well, he did took fifteen minutes to drop dead, didn't he?" Judy asked, and Nick looked back at her.
"Yeah, but could he have been cursed right at the dinner table?" The fox asked her, "Someone pointing a finger at him and casting some curse would call a lot of attention, right?"
Judy put herself to think of it. In truth, she had not considered the very fact of the curse being cast into the victim. She had just assumed that it could have been something that could been compared to poisoning someone, that it was something that could have been done without calling attention. However, Nick was indeed raising a good point in there.
"So... the actual casting of the curse could have happened sometime before dinner?" She asked, looking at her partner.
"Bingo." Nick said, and Judy reflect on this.
"So, it could have happened sometime after he arrived at the mansion?" Judy asked, looking back at Nick. "Maybe it was during the fight that he had? The one that was described on the paper detailing his last steps?"
"Could have been." Nick admitted, "But, I have another theory about that." Nick said, and Judy looked at him.
"What do you mean?" She asked, and Nick then said:
"The first clue, Carrots."
Judy looked at him. She took a few seconds to follow his line of thought. When she did, her eyes widened.
"The Afurikan bug found on his clothing?" She asked, and Nick nodded.
"Yeah, it is really strange for a bug from another continent to be on his clothing." The fox said, looking at her, "So, I was thinking, what if the bug was actually the murder weapon?"
Judy followed what he was saying.
"The bug was carrying the curse?" She asked, more to herself than for him, but the fox still answered.
"If it is possible to create curses that do these kinds of things, why wouldn't it be possible for the curse to be put into someone by a bug?" Nick said, "Actually, it even makes some kind of sense. Many bugs have poison that can kill someone, and that one had a curse instead of a poison, and the bug, once finishing its mission, died and fell among the folds of his suit."
"But... he didn't complained to anyone about a bug bite." Judy reasoned, only for Nick to speak:
"He complained about some itching. Normally bug bites itch." The fox seemed to be sure of what he was talking about, or at least was very good in acting as if he did, "The description of the body also said that there was a bruise-like mark on his neck."
"Yes, a bruise that he got from fighting Horne." Judy said, but Nick shook his head.
"It didn't said that it was a bruise, it did said 'bruise-like'." Nick said to her, "Sometimes a bug bite can leave a place swelling and darkened, making it look like a bruise. Believe me, when we were teens, Finnick was bitten by a bug on his neck and the thing bruised so bad that he passed it around the other kids as if it was a hickey."
Judy continued to process all that Nick was telling her.
"But... wasps don't die after they sting someone." She said slowly, "Only bees do that."
"Well, maybe it works a bit different when it comes to magecraft." Nick said, shrugging, "But, one thing I am sure, that bug would not be the first clue if he was not important. I mean, not only it was mentioned on the paper of the challenge itself, but it was also the very first clue that we got? I don't know about you, Carrots, but I feel inclined to believe it is because the bug was actually the murder weapon. The thing that whoever did this used to infect the blackbuck with the curse."
Judy reflected on this, and she realized that all that Nick was saying made perfect sense.
"Of course. It all adds up!" Judy said, looking at her fox partner. "You really are a very good detective." She punched his arm playfully. Of course, her version of playful still felt a bit though to Nick.
"Ouch." He said, rubbing his arm. "You should do a little less working-out, Carrots. This way you will be strong enough to break my arm by accident."
Judy and Nick both chuckled at this (although Nick was half-serious himself) as they continued to walk across the green halls of the maze. As they passed, and their voices became more distant, someone peeked from an opening that they had passed and ignored.
The brown eyes of the chubby cheetah looked at the curved hallway as the two cops disappeared across the curve, before Benjamin leaned back and let out a sigh. The two had been very close to him, but luckily, Ben was able to avoid detection completely. He was practically holding his breath as the two passed by him, separated by nothing more than a hedge, and came very close to an opening into the maze that would lead them straight into Ben. The cheetah was fast, but he was sure that he would not have been able to outrun the two if they chased after him.
Letting out a breath that he had been holding, he leaned against the hedge, feeling it creak slightly with his weight supporting in it.
"Close call, huh?"
"Yeah, totally." Ben said, before his eyes widened and he looked to the side.
Josh was standing in there, just a few feet away from him, with his arms crossed over his chest and looking at him with a smile.
Oh, poop. Ben thought. If he could not outrun Nick and Judy, then there was no possibility that he could ever escape from his much fitter twin brother. Josh would catch up to him in just a few seconds if he tried to run away.
They looked at each other for a while.
In fact, a long while.
So long that Benjamin eventually had to ask.
"Are... are you not going to catch me?"
"Not really." Josh said, shrugging. Ben continued to look back at him.
"Wait, for real?" He asked, looking at his brother. "Don't you want to win the game?"
"Nah, I'm good." He said, "Besides, the goal of this is actually just to talk to each other and to find out our motives, right? I've got no reason to actually try to win." He spoke as if this was an obvious thing, and Ben actually felt a bit relieved that Josh didn't wanted to catch him.
Soon, the two brothers were walking side by side into the maze, chatting normally as they did.
"I have to say, I was surprised when you ran like that." Josh said to his twin. "Bet you haven't ran like that in a while, huh?"
"Well, I did had to run a lot to get a good headstart. But, I kind of lost some time recovering from that." Ben admitted, and Josh nodded:
"Yeah, that is a thing about being a cheetah, you can go from zero to a hundred miles in two seconds, but then you have to keep laying down for ten minutes to catch your breath."
"So, you heard what Hopps and Wilde were saying?" Ben asked, changing the subject, and Josh nodded.
"A part of it." He said, looking at his brother. "Kind of got along with my own theories. I figured out that the bug could have been use to carry the curse and place it on the victim. I've seen something really similar to it in a mission on Austroala. That was a crazy weekend."
Ben nodded. He often forgot how Josh's job in an elite team of the Enforcers often led him to travel the world in missions to everywhere the Mage's Association had authority, no matter how far. Austroala was included in that.
"So, you got some theories?" Ben asked, and Josh shrugged, looking up as they walked side by side.
"A few of them." He said, looking up, "Am working on a bit more of them now that I know which motives everyone's got."
"My own included." Ben said, and Josh chuckled, and he looked at his brother.
"Yeah, your own included." He said, "By the way, I am surprised that you decided to reveal both of your motives to want him dead. Both the donut thing and the blackmailing to work for him thing."
"Well, it seemed to be worth mentioning both..." Ben said, and then he stopped. He looked at Josh and asked:
"Do you... do you have more than one reason to want him dead?" Ben asked, and Josh was silent for a few moments, before he looked back at his twin.
"I found out that the guy was trying to blackmail you." Josh said, "According to my paper, it was after I overheard a conversation between Blackson and the Horne guy. I wasn't very happy for this. I reported to Mom just a few moments later and told her about it, and she wasn't happy about it either. She ordered me to do something about it as fast as possible, and so, I was just getting ready to do it."
Ben blinked, looking at his brother.
"So... did you...?"
Josh looked at him, and shrugged.
"Maybe. Maybe not." He said, seemingly completely unworried by it. "The paper didn't actually said that I killed him, it just said that I was 'ready to do something about it'. Honestly, I don't really know if my character did it or not."
Ben looked at him, and he could actually relate. His paper actually said something quite similar, as it had mentioned to him how tired he was of Blackson getting on to him, and how he had "devised a plan to get him out of his tail". However, it didn't said what such plan was, and neither what Ben (or rather, his character) was planning to do.
Ben honestly believed that there was a chance that he could be the killer in this game.
"You know, I am amazed on how close he was to hitting home." Josh said, causing Ben to look back at him for a few moments. "This is actually very close to what I or Mom would do if we ever heard of something like that happening to you."
"Josh..." Ben said, and his brother looked back at him.
"What? It is truth." Josh said, "After all, we, Clawhausers, worry very much about family, and you know how Mom can be when she is worried about us."
Yeah, Ben could not discuss with it. His mother could sometimes be much of an helicopter parent when she was worried about their safety. The Clawhauser clan was one famous for worrying deeply about their members, and for being tight as a family, something that not all mage families out there were. If one of them was in trouble, of course that the rest of the family would be ready to help, and their mother sometimes seemed to be the perfect example of this.
The two brothers continued to walk, and Ben said:
"So, anything else you want to talk?" Ben said, "Maybe tell me something about these theories that you have? I have some too, maybe we could compare, like Judy and Nick were doing." The plump cheetah looked as his muscled twin. In that moment, he could notice a shift in Josh's expression.
"Yes. Actually, there is. But it has nothing to do with the game." Josh said, looking at his brother, and Ben looked back at him, as Josh said:
"Penny asked me to say to you that she would like to come to visit you any time."
Ben flinched as he heard that name.
"I told her that she didn't needed since me, Mom and Marcy would be coming to check on you, but she has been thinking of coming to visit you for a while. More so after she learned that you have gotten hurt."
"I am fine." Ben said, looking back at his brother. "You can tell her that I am fine and that she doesn't have to worry about me, okay?"
"Ben, you two need to talk." Josh said to him, "It's been seven years. You can't keep avoiding her forever. You two will have to have a conversation at some point. Seriously, last thanksgiving when she appeared by surprise you didn't even made eye contact with her."
"I can't!" Ben said, blurting it out a little louder than he intended, and immediately covering his mouth with his paw. The twins looked at each other for a few moments, before Josh spoke:
"She is not mad at you." He said, looking at his brother, "She doesn't hate you or anything like that. Actually, I think she understands what you went through more than most of the others."
Ben didn't looked at his brother.
"She misses you, Ben." He said, looking at his brother, "She misses you, and she wants to talk to you. She will not yell at you or attack you or anything, and she will not explode if you come near her again."
Ben said nothing. Josh continued:
"You two haven't even properly talked before you left, and neither any time since." Josh said, "Even if you never get back to being a mage, you need to patch things up with her. I know that she would certainly want that. You two got along very well before... you know."
Ben looked away, and he saw that there was an opening into the wall.
"I... I better keep going towards the center of the maze." Ben said, "Before someone else finds me."
With this, Ben walked to the opening and Josh didn't tried to stop him, but he said:
"You two really should talk." He spoke to his departing brother, "She would really love that, and I think it would do you a lot of good as well."
Ben stopped for a moment, but he didn't turned to look at his brother, and instead continued moving inside of the maze, leaving Josh to sigh and go back to look at the sky, admiring how much of a beautiful night it was, with the clear sky.
Ben continued to move inside of the maze. All the while, he was immerse in thought. He barely even noticed where he was going, until he nearly tripped into the bench of the wide circular area that was at the center of the maze. There were a few benches in there, as well as three statues that looked like hooded angels (one of them seeming a Death Angel, as it was holding a scythe), and a pedestal right at the center that was empty, but that maybe someday held something in it.
Ben looked around, and saw no one else.
Yeah, it seemed that he had managed to do it. He arrived at the center of the maze without being caught.
Now... what?
Was he supposed to let out a scream and let everyone know that he was at the center of the maze? Or should he wait in there until someone else arrived?
"There you are." Said a voice from behind Ben, and the cheetah immediately turned around, half-expecting to see one of the other mammals he was playing with. However, this one was none of them.
That Germanein Shepherd stood around five feet tall, being shorter than Ben, and he was dressed in casual clothes, with a pair of long camouflaged pants and a dark hood. Still, it was possible to see his developed muscles through his clothing, letting it show that he was not weak, by any means. The parts of his body that the clothing allowed to see showed that his fur was of a dark-brown and brown, as the dark-brown was on his face and on his head while his muzzle was of a regular brown. He had a toothy smirk on his muzzle and his honey-colored eyes were focus on Ben.
"You are a hard mammal to track down, Mr. Clawhauser." The dog said, looking at the cheetah. "With a lot of friends, thought." He stopped for a moment, looking at the cheetah up and down. "Although, you are a bit different from what I was expecting."
Ben blinked, looking at the dog, and he asked the only thing that he could think of:
"Who are you?"
"The name's Sheppard." The dog said, "But, that is not important. You can hand it over now."
Ben blinked.
"Excuse me?"
"Look, I know that it is with you, okay?" The dog said, looking at the cheetah. "It would be far easier for both you and me if you just handed it over. It could be right now, but I see that you don't really have pockets... Well, you can just tell me where you hid it so I can go and pick it up myself."
"G-give you what?" Ben asked, looking at him. "What are you talking about?"
He and the dog looked at each other for a few moments, before the canine sighed.
"Okay... the hard way it is." He said, and rose a paw. Immediately, there was a flash of light, and now he was holding something on his paw. It looked like a short trident, its three metal spikes gleaming on the artificial light of the lamps on the center of the maze, and making Ben jump back.
"W-wow!"
"Now." The dog said, pointing the newly created weapon at the cheetah. "Tell me where it is, and I promise not to hurt you very much."
The shepherd was smiling as he said that, and it was almost as if he hoped that Ben was going to refuse and give him an excuse to attack. Ben looked at him, and he gave a step back as the dog walked on his direction.
"I-I don't... I don't know what you are talking about."
"Where is it?" The dog said once more, "Be careful, what you say decides how much of your blood will be spilling tonight."
Ben looked at the canine who was pointing that sharp object at him. His breath was getting quicker, as he was starting to hyperventilate.
"I-I don't know what you're talking..." ben said, getting increasingly nervous as he was being threaten, in a scene that actually seemed familiar to him.
It seemed very familiar, and that was why it terrified him.
"I-I don't even... I-I don't have... I don't... I didn't... I-I-I..." Ben backed away from the dog, until his back bumped against one of the statues, the one holding the scythe. Ben looked desperately scared.
"I didn't do anything..." The cheetah whimpered, and the dog looked back at him.
"Well, either if you did anything or not." The dog said; approaching him, as the short trident that he was carrying started to glow. "Neither of us will be leaving until you give me something."
With this said, the dog gave more steps in direction to the cheetah, causing him to whimper as he looked in terror at the dog.
Suddenly, a loud sound, some kind of feral screech, filled the air. The dog barely had time to react as something fell upon him, causing him to bark in surprise as something started to wrestle with him, while Ben looked in surprise and in shock.
Eventually, the dog was able to wrestle himself free from the thing that was trying to bite and claw at him, tossing it away from himself. He was soon getting back on his feet.
"Okay, what was the big... what the heck!?" The dog said as he looked at the creature that was now getting back on its feet as well.
This creature was huge, standing on around eight feet tall, and being buff and muscled. It was cover in long and wild grizzly fur, from the top of the head all the way down to the hooves that it had for its feet. Its arms were long and strong, and they ended in hands with three fingers and mean-looking sharp claws. The creature had a long muzzle, with the outline of its chin being cover in a thick fur that looked like a beard of completely grey fur. The creature's eyes were of a deep dark coloration, and they looked at the dog with hostility, while saliva drooled from its mouth filled with big fangs.
Both of the other mammals stared at this creature, as they both could now have a good look at it.
"Okay then..." The dog said, looking at his attacker. "I don't know who or what you are, but you will regret having gotten on the way of my work." With this, the trident on his paw was once more glowing, and the creature growled, before it once more jumped on him. As an answer, the dog swung his weapon at the creature, who dodged, right before it took a swung at him with its claws.
They remained like that for a few moments, with they both growling at each other as they tried to take swings at each other. At some point, the dog threw the trident, which the creature dodged. The trident flew past the creature and hit one of the statues. Once it did, it glowed, and the sound of an explosion filled the center of the labyrinth and resonated into the night. Ben squeaked in surprise as he heard this and looked over, to see that the explosion had destroyed the statue. The creature had also turned to look at it, before it looked back at the dog, who was smirking at it.
"Impressed?" He asked, raising his paw, and materializing another short trident in it. "That was intensity two, and it goes all the way to eleven. You still want to pick a fight with me?"
The creature glared at him and immediately snarled, once more going in his direction. They resumed swinging the blade and claws at each other, each one missing the other by mere inches. The dog now had one of these tridents on his other paw, and was using the two weapons to fight with the creature, who dodged or blocked his blows, right before it attempted to claw him once more.
At some point, the wolf threw another trident at the creature, and it jumped out of the way. The trident hit a bench and exploded, obliterating the bench and raising a cloud of dust. As the creature landed once more, the dog ran into another bench and climb in it. Once on the higher ground, he tossed his two tridents at the creature, who immediately dashed out of the way, moving much faster than it should be expected from a creature that size. The tridents hit the ground and exploded, producing clouds of dust that cleared to reveal craters opened by those explosions.
The creature immediately jumped after the dog, only for him to jump away, narrowly dodging a swing of the creature's claws.
"You are good, I'll give you that." The dog said, as he dodged. The creature was about to swing at him once more, when the dog rose his leg and kicked the creature hard on the side. In fact, it was so hard that the creature was sent flying, smashing through yet another of the angel statues and into the hedge.
"But I am better." He said with a smirk, before he turned his gaze back to the cheetah, who seemed froze in place.
"Now." He said, materializing yet another short trident on his paw. "Where were we?" he was now walking to Benjamin once more, and the cheetah was now hyperventilating.
"Hey!" A sudden voice broke Ben out of his state, as he looked over to see both Judy and Nick approaching. "You, hold it right there!"
The dog didn't even looked at their direction. Instead, he simply rose his paw, and the trident in it was glowing.
Just like it had glow before the dog started throwing them at the creature.
Ben's eyes widened. He didn't even stopped to think of what he was doing.
"Look out!" He cried out as he made a sudden gesture. A bench flew out of the place it was and flew into that general direction at the same time that the dog threw his trident. The bench of stone flew right in front of the trident, and the two objects connected. The result was an explosion that surprised the two cops, knocking them both down.
"Oh, so you do have some tricks, right?" The dog said, ignoring the two cops, but paying close attention to the cheetah. "Of course you do. If you did, you wouldn't be having that on you. That's good, I like a good challenge."
"Then you will love me..." Said a growling, guttural voice, and the dog didn't even had time to react before something slammed hard into his side.
The blow from the creature made the shepherd fly across the air, smashing into a hedge and bringing it down. As he did, the two horses who were coming that way were surprised, as Charles let out a neigh and stepped back, while Euphemia kept more of her composure, but she was just as surprised as her husband.
They looked as the dog groaned and got back on his feet, looking at the creature, who growled at him.
"Okay." He groaned, the pain from the blow starting to show. "Now I am mad!"
He materialized two tridents on his paws. These two were bigger than the previous opens, and their glow was more intense. The dog looked like he was ready to go head to head with the creature, who seemed just as ready to jump into him and start rending him to pieces.
However, they were interrupt by the voices of the other guests, drawn in that direction by the sound of the explosions.
"What's this?"
"What's going on?"
"What the heck is that thing!?"
The dog and creature both looked around, seeing that more mammals were arriving. Among them was Josh, who took off his whip and was holding it, ready to use it in a moment's notice. Marcy had also pulled her bow and her arrows (which were actual arrows!) and pointed them at the dog and creature. Nick and Judy both had gotten up, and they were also ready to do something.
"Okay..." Melon said, as he and Legoshi had just arrived, "I don't know what is going on, but if you guys came here looking for trouble, you have just found it!"
With this, the gazelle in gasmask slammed both his hooves on the ground, and the most amazing thing happened. The ground started to move and shift. The loose soil of the ground gathered in between his hooves and, as he pulled them up, the soil followed, as it condensed, changed shape and color, and became denser. By the time that the gazelle was done, the ground had turned into a spear with a stone handle and a metal head. An empty space was on the ground, made by the soil used to fabricate that weapon, which the gazelle now held on both of his hooves and was pointing in direction to the creature and the dog.
Even Legoshi seemed ready to fight, although he simply put his fists down in a pugilist stance, and this stance was quite awkward.
Looking around, at all of the mammals that were surrounding now, the dog decided that this was not the time for this.
"Another day." He said simply, and rose his tridents up (prompting everyone to get ready) to bring them down on the ground in front of himself.
The explosion was rather strong, and it raised a cloud of dust and sediment around the place. The cloud created would surely not last for a long time, but it was all that the dog needed to run away into the maze, vanishing from sight. By the time that the dust had cleared, the dog was gone.
The creature looked at the place he had been for a few moments, growling, before it turned its gaze in direction to Ben.
The cheetah tensed as he saw that creature look at him. More when it started to slowly walk to him.
"Hey!" Judy said, looking at the creature. "Stay away from the cheetah, you... animal!"
The creature ignored the bunny. It seemed to ignore everyone else, as it focused on Ben, even the fact that Marcy was pointing an arrow at it or Melon pointing his spear seemed not to phase the creature in the slightest. However, some of the mammals around seemed to be deeply phase by the appearance of the creature, the horses in particular.
"T-t-the Hound..." Charles said, looking at the creature. His wife stood in silence besides him, but she also was looking straight at the strange creature.
The creature looked at Ben, its feral eyes betraying something. It reached out a clawed hand on his direction...
*CRACK*
The creature immediately retreated its hand, letting out a screech as it held its bleeding hand. It then looked in the direction of Josh, who had just done that with a swing of his whip.
"That fat guy is my brother." Josh said to the creature. "If you try to lay a single finger on him, you can be sure that there will be hell to pay."
The creature snarled at him. The other ones around gave a step forward, ready for a fight. More mammals were arriving, a tiger followed by a female gazelle, and another horse. They all were surprise by seeing that creature.
The creature looked around, and its eyes once more landed on Ben.
Their eyes locked, and that was when Ben felt something as he looked in these eyes.
The creature then opened its mouth, as if it was about to speak. However, instead of words, a smoke started to come out of its mouth.
More and more.
More and more mist was coming out of the creature's mouth, and soon, it was becoming harder to see.
"What's this?"
"Where is it?!"
"Everyone, keep your eyes and ears open!"
Everyone looked around, trying to see through the thick mist. That was when Josh took action.
Holding his whip, he said a few words, before he swirled the whip and...
*CRACK*
As if a shockwave, a wave of wind parted from the point where the tip of the whip cracked, spreading out and carrying the mist away like water washing a stain.
Everyone was able to see once more. However, the creature was gone.
"Where did it go?" Legoshi asked, and Melon was looking at him.
"Why are you asking me? You are the one who's got your creepy crawlies all around the place! See if you can find it!"
"W-was it the Hound?" Charles said, looking at his wife. "Was that the Hound!? The actual Hound!?"
"We need to form a perimeter!" Judy said, quickly taking control of the situation. "We need to cover the area and see if we can find the dog and whatever that other mammal was." She said, and Nick and Josh both were soon nodding as both their police and enforcer trainings were kicking in.
Meanwhile, Marcy and Chandler were checking on Benjamin.
"Ben. Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Marcy asked, as she and the others checked on the cheetah, who was shrink into a ball near the only statue that was still intact.
"Benji?" Chandler asked, and this caused Benjamin to look at both of them. Right before he looked down once more, his mind still repassing everything that had just happened to him in there over and over like a the scene of a horror movie.
He wanted Bogo.
He wanted Bogo in there now.