Chapter 4
Oswald looked around the world they now walked through, the four coming around the alleyway the portal had spit them out in. They stepped out on a street similar to the business street in Mouseton as an Officer taking note of them from across the street caught his attention. "So how are we supposed to go about this?" Oswald asked, turning to Mickey as the mouse lifted the little girl back up onto his hip.
"If the family actually did lose her, I thought we'd check with the law and see if they have any type of missing person's list," Mickey admitted.
"You're in luck, one of them's coming this way," Pipwolf offered, drawing the brother's eyes to the one crossing the street.
Mickey looked up and smile at the dog in black crossing the red line in the center of the road. "Hello, Officer!" Mickey called out.
"Is this magson with you?" the office asked once his feet hit the sidewalk. He pointed towards Pipwolf with a frown on his face as if he already distrusted the werewolf.
"Pipwolf?" Oswald asked, following the man's motion. Remembering what Manny said he quickly turned back to the officer and said, "Yes, he's with us."
"I don't recognize you lot," the officer stated. "Just make sure he doesn't cause any troubles."
"Of course, sir," Oswald said, cringing internally at claiming anyone more than just family.
"Before you go," Mickey said, stopping him as he started to turn away. "On our way in to town, we found this little girl on her own. We were wondering if you could help us find her parents."
"I'm sorry, I'm just a beat cop," the officer admitted with a shrug. "But if you take her to the station they might be able to help you out there."
"Could you tell us how to get there?" Mickey asked.
"Continue down the street that way," the officer said, pointing towards their right, "and it'll be across the street from the city hall. If you hit the old railroad station, you've gone too far."
"Thank you, officer," Mickey offered, leading the group down the sidewalk in the direction the man had pointed.
The four walked in silence before Oswald mumbled, "This feels wrong." He caught another pair of pedestrians staring at Pipwolf like he was evil incarnate, mad at himself for not standing up for the werewolf.
"We're in no position to start a revolution," Mickey pointed out, noticing Oswald's anger.
Oswald gave the mouse a glare before letting out a sigh, his ears drooping in the process. "I know, but is it any better what we're gonna do if this girl's parents really did abandon her?"
"We'll find out what really happened and go from there," Mickey said, looking down the Saturday busy sidewalk. "Let's go ahead and cross. I think I see it just up there."
Pipwolf stood behind them as they checked the road, crossing in a break. As they crossed the black top he asked, "Do you think it's 'cause of her age that they can't tell she's magical?"
"That's a good a guess as any," Mickey said, looking at the girl in his arms holding tight to her teddy bear. She gave a scared look after looking around them before shoving her face into his shoulder. "It's okay, and hopefully soon you'll be back where you belong," Mickey wished.
Oswald bounded up the steps to the police department and held open the door for Mickey and Pipwolf before following in after them. He focused on looking for someone they could ask about the little girl when Pipwolf hid his mouth from view and started mumbling. "Uh, Oswald, I think next time I should hold the door."
"Huh?" Oswald looked up at the werewolf only to notice the looks they were receiving. He let out a grown before mumbling, "Right, forgot where we were."
"There, that looks like who we could talk to," Mickey said, leading them over to an officer at a desk. He stopped before the female bear's desk with Oswald and Pipwolf flanking him and asked, "Excuse me, who should I talk to about a missing person?"
The bear looked up from what she was typing, the device looking similar to an older computer, and looked the group over. "Magson or domestic?"
"Frankly unsure," Mickey admitted, looking at the little girl and her teddy bear in his arms. Looking back at the officer he said, "We found her on our way into town this morning."
"Did you check the area where you found her?" the officer asked, rolling her eyes.
"Yes?" Oswald said, crossing his arms over his chest. Mumbling under his breath he added, "You think we're stupid?"
With a sigh the bear reached over to a tower of plastic files and withdrew a few pages. She attached them to a clipboard and said, "Fill this out, we'll run your responses to those in the database and see if someone reported her."
Oswald took the clipboard, taking a pen from the cup on their side of her desk and turned to take in the room.
"Over here," Mickey said, leading them to a line of chairs against the wall.
"Well, can't answer the first one," Oswald said as he skimmed over the papers. He took a seat next to Mickey as he added, "We don't know her name."
Mickey rested the girl on his lap as she leaned back to look up at his nose. "There's not much we do know. She's around one year old but that's just a guess."
"Daddy!" the little girl said with a laugh as she pointed up at his nose.
Mickey put a hand to hers, taking her hand away from his nose, as he said, "No, Mickey. We've gotta get this straight."
"Bitsie?" a female voice asked, drawing the little girl's attention.
Oswald followed the girl's line of sight to see a mouse that looked almost identical to Minnie step over, fear in her wide eyes.
"Bitsie, is that you Sugar?" the woman asked.
"Mama?" the girl asked, holding both arms towards the woman.
Mickey quickly rose to his feet with the girl in his arms. He lowered her to her feet, letting her make her own way to the woman dropping to her knees. The girl quickly made it into the woman's arms as the older mouse cried.
"Bitsie, oh Bitsie, you're safe now," the woman said, petting the back of the girl's head. She held the girl tight a moment longer before raising her head to look at the three. "Thank you. Thank you so much."
"Of course, ma'am," Mickey said with a smile.
The woman froze, staring at them as her smile slowly fell. "What do you want as a reward?" she asked tentatively.
"Oh nothing," Mickey said, holding up his hands in defense.
"But... can't you see what I am?" the woman asked.
"Sorry, our family has an aura blindness," Oswald admitted with a shrug as he rose to his feet, leaving the clipboard on the seat beside him.
"But you own a magson," the woman said, nodding to Pipwolf as she rose to her feet.
"Maybe we should talk somewhere else," Pipwolf said, the last to rise to his feet.
"He's right," the woman said, steeling a glance around them to draw Oswald's notice to those watching them in the police station. "Come with me, there's a place we can talk just off the main road. Just don't follow too closely."
Oswald gave Mickey a glance as the woman got her head start out of the police station. Mickey gave his brother a shrug before silently leading the way out of the building. He caught sight of the similar ears and said, "I see her, this way." He led the group farther down the street than they had yet to see and followed her down an alleyway only to stop at the lack of life between dumpsters and trash piling against the sides of buildings.
"There she is, way down there," Pipwolf said, taking the lead.
"She sure is fast," Oswald mumbled.
Pipwolf led them to an old metal door where they came to a stop. "You think I should knock?" the werewolf asked as he raised up his hand to do so.
"She did tell us to follow her," Mickey said.
"This is getting really shady, real fast," Oswald said, starting to build up distrust towards the woman.
"Come in," the woman's voice said as the door pulled open.
"Are you sure?" Pipwolf asked, pushing the door farther opened.
"Quickly," the woman said, pulling the door from Pipwolf's hand. Invisible hands grabbed the three, dragging them inside before the door closed behind them.
"Hey!" Oswald exclaimed, the hand disappearing as his eyes adjusted to the dark room.
"I'm sorry, but I didn't want anyone to see you lingering," the woman offered. "You three aren't from around here, are you?"
"You could say that," Mickey said with a nod. "My name's Mickey, this is my brother Oswald, and my good friend Pipwolf."
"Ophelia," the mouse offered. "And Bitsie you know."
"It's nice to finally know her name," Oswald said, smiling at the girl playing with her teddy in a high chair at a table. He realized with a start this dark room was both bedroom and kitchen, a door farther inside hopefully leading to a bathroom.
Bitsie turned at the sound of her name and called out, "Daddy!"
"No, Mickey," Mickey tried again with a laugh as he looked at Ophelia.
Ophelia hid her laugh behind her hand before saying, "You do look an awful lot like my husband." Her hand dropped as her smile left her, saying, "Wait, you said Pipwolf was your friend?"
"I guess you should explain to her," Oswald said, looking at the two. He stopped before asking, "There isn't a rule about not telling people, is there?"
"Not really," Pipwolf offered with a shrug.
"Tell me what?" Ophelia asked in confusion.
Mickey looked at the woman, making sure he had her eyes, before starting. "We're not from here. Oswald and I'm from a world where magic is mostly non-existent."
Oswald cleared his throat, quickly looking up at the ceiling as Mickey gave him a glare.
Mickey quickly looked back at Ophelia and continued, "Pipwolf's from a small village in Monsterton. We found your daughter in my neighborhood."
"Bitsie," Ophelia mumbled, slowly turned to look at the girl as she was bouncing the teddy bear across the table before her to make it walk. The woman turned back to the three and asked, "She dimension jumped on her own?"
"That'd be my guess," Pipwolf said with a nod.
"Roger still struggles with that," Ophelia muttered more to herself. She looked back at the male mouse and said, "I guess it only makes sense I tell you what my family has been doing. You know that this world puts magsons- that is magic persons- as low as they can. In short we're trash to the domestics. We're working on changing that. My husband, Roger, is actually one of the leading forces in that revolution."
"See, you didn't need to start one," Mickey said, throwing Oswald a smile.
"But wait, if Bitsie's so powerful she can do something her father struggles with," Pipwolf started, "how come no one can tell she's a magson?"
"Aura's don't develop in a person until they're about two or three," Ophelia explained. "There's color to it that's defined by their personality."
"Do the domestics have auras too?" Oswald asked.
Ophelia nodded her head. "You three even do."
"But everybody here can see them?" Oswald checked, getting a silent nod from the woman. He crossed his arms over his chest as he said, "Than the domestics are hypocrites because they have their own magic."
"You've noticed something in one day that the politics here have been making sure doesn't get found out for decades," Ophelia offered with a sad smile.
"Please tell me you've had some luck," a male voice asked as the door to the home opened.
All eyes turned to see a mouse almost identical to Mickey stepping in dressed in a simple white dress shirt and tie with brown slacks. He froze at the sight of the three strange men in his home as he slowly shut the door behind himself.
