Mei groaned, her muscles aching.
Apparently, cutting down trees was harder than she thought. Seriously, though, it was just whacking wood with something!
But she had managed to do it. All twelve of them!
"My brothers will be so pleased," Mei thought happily, trying to ignore her aching muscles. "I'd better go find them!"
She skipped into the house, where she assumed her brothers were. After all, she didn't see them leaving. But when she got in there, the house was quiet.
Eerily so.
Where were her brothers?
Mrrrow.
A cat was rubbing her leg. It was white with black spots and had a ridiculously self-smug look on its face. For some reason, it also had a weird curl, and that curl had a… face in it?
Okay, that was weird.
And since when did they have a cat?
"Hi, kitty-kitty," Mei said, picking the weird cat up. "Do you know where my brothers are?"
Suddenly, there was a flash of light and a huge booming sound.
"That is your brother!" A dramatic voice declared as Mei was blinded by the incredibly bright light.
"Say what?" Mei squeaked, "Wow, my parents are even weirder than I thought!"
"No!" The voice yelled.
As the light subsided, Mei saw a figure. It was some guy with these feathered white wings and a tunic. In his hands, there was a wand with a star on it. He was wearing leather lace-up sandals. But none of that was anything compared to what lay on his face: Huge, giant, furry things.
"Who are you and what are those on your face?" Mei demanded as the cat began to spasm.
The spasms, for some reason, resembled laughter.
The man turned bright red. "Those are my exquisite eyebrows-"
"They look like caterpillars."
"How dare you? Those are the magnificent eyebrows of the Britannia Angel!"
"The Britannia Angel?"
"Yes, that is I! I have also been called The Eyebrowed One, The Lobster Back, and the Fairy of Plot Coincidences!"
"Plot coincidences?"
"Yes, plot coincidences. It is I that has guided you and your brothers along this journey!"
Mei gasped. "OMG! That explains everything."
The fairy/angel/lobster guy nodded gravely. "Yes, and I now come bearing bad news. Those trees represented your brothers, and by cutting them down, you have turned them into cats!"
Mei felt confused. "But… if I killed the trees, shouldn't my brothers have died?"
"Are you complaining?" The fairy/angel/lobster guy demanded.
Mei shook her head quickly. "No, it's just weird." She glanced at the cat in her arms, who was rubbing itself against her chin. "So… this is Yong Soo?"
The dude nodded.
"He's so much cuter this way!" Mei squealed, squeezing the cat tightly.
The cat wailed in protest and the fairy person looked shocked.
"B-but… aren't you going to… err… freak out?"
Mei pouted. "But he's so cute!"
The fairy smacked his head. "So… you don't want to turn him back?"
Mei shook her head. "Nah, I wanna. He's cute this way, but I miss him as a human."
The fairy nodded. "Very well then. In order to turn all your brothers back, you need to weave 12 skirts out of pine needles-"
"Like those Hawaiian skirts?"
"First off, yes. Second off, how do you even know about Hawaii?!"
Mei shrugged.
The fairy sighed. "Oh, bloody- Anyways, you also need to remain completely silent for four years."
"But four is an unlucky number!" Mei protested, "'Four' is a homonym with the word 'death' in Chinese!"
"Whatever. Okay, so, four years, starting… now!"