~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ Chapter 5: The Great Banquet~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Me(entering studio): Hi guys! I'm back!
Haru: Did you get your idea for the next chapter?
Me (smiling): Ya! But where are the others?
Haru (frowning): Muta's in the kitchen with some of the staff, including Toto, which is unusual, trying to stuff their faces off. The cameraman is in the bathroom because he accidentally ate some laxatives mistaking them for those chewy chocolates, and I asked him how come your stupid enough to think that there was chocolate in the bathroom and he said that Muta sometimes (scratch that always) hides them in hidden away nooks and crannies. Anyways, the Baron is still in his room reading his book. Hiromi is in the yard practicing lacrosse.
Me: *presses the intruder alarm*
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BRRRING BRRRING! (Everyone rushes to the living room (Including the cameraman who had to wipe his buttock at full speed))
Hiromi (Looking hysteric and waving lacrosse stick around): Who's invading our studio? Who? (looks at me) Did you see any shady intruder, Kuro?
Me (Smiling sheepishly): Heh heh. Nope. I was just trying to get everyone here.
(Everyone flops down on the sofa and sighs with relief)
Me (jumping up and down around the room, yelling): NO TIME FOR SLOUCHING AROUND! I JUST GOT HERE AND WE'VE GOT ANOTHER CHAPTER TO DO!
(Everyone gets up, sighs again, and head toward the studio room.)
ooOoo
The Baron picked up his beautiful diary. It was a diary with a soft leather cover. He ran a finger over the golden letters on it, which spelled "Hoc Itinere Vivindi", which was Latin for "Journey of Life". Then he filped through the ancient-looking pages of parchment as he inhaled the smells of fresh, cleansed parchment. He looked at the pictures and diagrams. After they had gone to the cat kingdom last time, he had drawn the majestic castle, with close-ups of the maze and the rebuilt (though when he drew it, it had collapsed) tower that lead to the human would. Then he began his new journal entry on a fresh new page.
"6/14 Today we had a great banquet with my old friends Lune and Yuki at the great cat kingdom castle..."
ooOoo
Haru
Haru was having a great dream. She dreamed that she was on a giant valley of beautiful grass and a cool breeze. She heard the song of the birds. All of a sudden, the Baron materialized next to her, as well as her other friends, including her mom and earlier crush, Machida. For a while, they chased each other around. Her mother did not see to have the fatigues like before and ran freely and looked very different, because she never look that happy and was constantly under the stress of work at home. All of the sudden, she heard a voice, a voice she remembered and sounded so calm but it was no one there that was calling , "Haru, Haru wake up! Wake up!"
Haru opened here eyes. Right above her was Kuro. She jumped up and looked at her surroundings. The walls were decorated with a soft yellow and with little red fish. She looked down at herself. She was clearly wearing a snowy white hospital gown. At that moment, Kuro said with an attempt for a calm voice, but sounded nevertheless worried and relieved, "You finally woke up! All of us were quite worried about you! Are your feeling okay?" Haru looked thoughtfully at him and asked, "Yeah, I'm feel in tip-top shape. Where are we?" Haru had an idea where she was as she asked that question. Kuro said, "We are in the infirmary in the great Cat Kingdom castle! Anyways, all the nurses are so worried that you might have had a bad case of mouse pox or something like that. Well, I'll go over and tell the nurses that your okay and your finally awake so they can stop pacing around their office." and with that, he stood up, stretch, and headed for the office.
Just then a beautiful Siamese cat servant entered the infirmary and headed towards Haru. She whispered, "Hello Miss Haru. King Lune and Queen Yuki would like to meet you and Mister Kuro in the royal sitting room." She then helped Haru up and together, they walked downstairs to the changing room. As they went down the stairs, Haru whispered in astonishment to the cat servant, "Wow! Lune really changed this place, did he, um..." She finished Haru's sentence, "My name Hikari, miss. And yes, King Lune use plenty of his time to once again beautify the castle. He even made a garden dedicated to Queen Yuki. It is just perfect. There is a little pavilion in center of it all were you can see all the beautiful flowers and fell the breeze..." Haru was deep in though about when she suddenly jumped and said, "Oh! I forgot to go and tell Kuro!" Hikari said in a kind voice, "It's okay. There will be another servant to get him. Now lets first get you out of this hospital gown. You can't possibly go meet the king and queen in it" as she finished the sentence with the air of laughter. Then she ushered Haru into the changing room.
The Baron
The Baron, who had just finished cleaning and changing into his normal, white coat, started his way down his way down the staircase when he saw Haru twirling her dress downstairs. He smiled. It was the same yellow dress she had worn during their last adventure here. As he got off the last of the stairs, he commented and clapped, "Well done with your dress twirling. Have you been practicing all day?" Haru who did not see the Baron coming, attempted to stop and reply, but instead, because of her leather high heals, she slipped. The Baron managed to catch her just in time. Haru looked away in embarrassment. After he made sure that Haru was still steady on her feet, he waited for a reply. After an awkward moment of silence were Haru was still looking away from the Baron with embarrassment and making sure no one had spied on them, the Baron said with a smile, "Well that is all right. I'm just relieve that you okay and out of the infirmary." Inside, Haru thanked the Baron gratefully for breaking the awkward silence. Then together they arrived at the sitting room.
Haru
On their way, they met Kuro with a servant helping him. Kuro exclaimed, "Ack! I just can't get used to these annoying leather shoes, but Yorokobi (nodding toward the servant and Yorokobi smiled) insisted it if I were to meet his majesty the King and Queen." As the Baron and Haru helped Kuro over to the room, the huge door swung open. The trio gasped in astonishment (though the Baron did not express his astonishment as plainly as the other two). The room was a large room with a golden wallpaper of cats and fish. Inside was a cozy-looking fireplace with firewood in it and there was a picture of Haru's friends Lune and Yuki and of what she recognized as a wedding picture. There was a giant, red, fuzzy carpet with a golden trimming on the floor. There was a coffee table in the middle with a bowl of fruit, a pitcher of steaming tea (you could see the upwards spiraling steam), a couple ceramic teacup on a small tea-tray. There was also a small plate of fruit tarts, which mostly were already eaten by the waiting Muta on the fancy, squashy-looking couch and licking his tart-covered paws, as well as Hiromi and Toto, and some other guest whom she did not recognize. But she did notice the couple in the front couch. There they were, King Lune and Queen Yuki, who had three little fur balls in her hands.
Haru bowed to the royal couple and said, "Hello, your majesty King Lune and Queen Yuki." Lune ushered them into the room and said, "Haru, we are friends. You don't need to call us "king" or "queen". Just call us by your name. As they settled into their seats, they began to greet each other. First, Lune said to Muta, "Hello, my dear friend Muta. Your still a real fur ball of a cat. What happened to your promise of losing weight?" Toto looked hard at his piece of mulberry fruit tart and managed to suppress a laugh. Muta looked like he was about to say something, but decided that he'd be better off chewing his words and didn't say a thing. Then Lune shook hand with the Baron, introduced himself and Yuki to Toto, and did once of those best friend attack hugs with Haru. The Yuki showed the kitten litter to them. There were two snowy white ones, just like Yuki, and there was another small kitten whom more resembled his father.
"What are you going to name them?" asked Haru curiously. As Yuki showed them to Hiromi, who looked curiously at them, she answered, "Well, two of them are girls and one of them is a boy. I've decided to call my female white kitty Snowy and call my female purple kitty Luna. I haven't decided a name on the boy though." Haru jumped up and down, saying, "Oh, I know! You can call him Shiro!" Yuki smiled and said, "That's a great name!"
Then they all sat down and started to talk among themselves. Haru whispered to Hiromi, "You know you've become a cat now, right?" Hiromi looked surprised and said, "No way! I check this morning and I wasn' -t" and stopped as she gazed into the now empty tart plate. There was a light brown tabby looking straight back at her. For some odd reason, it seemed to resemble her a lot. Hiromi asked, "Who is that brown tabby?" Haru sighed and said "Hiromi, don't you get it yet? That's you! JUst check for a pair of cat ears and look for a tail. Even your hand are paws now. Mine is." as she showed her own paws to Hiromi. Hiromi raise one paw and felt a little furry cat ear on top of her head. Then she looked back to find a tail on the couch, which seemed to belong to her. She gasped and almost screamed when Haru held a furry paw over her friend's mouth as she silently mouthed the word, "It's okay everything is fine."
Just then, Lune introduced the Duchess of Catsville to them. She was a slender but tall beige cat, who was very nice. Lune said, "Then are very generous and are our main provider for catnip." Then Yuki, after finally settling the kittens down in the big boxed in bed, called Hiromi and Haru to come over. Then she called for Natoru, saying, "Could you please bring the gifts to Miss Haru, as well as another one for Miss Hiromi?" Natoru quickly brought two small boxes to Yuki. She handed one to each of the girls (I mean cats, or girl or... I KNOW Cat-girls!) as they inspected the box. Yuki said, "Go on, open them." Haru open the box and so did Hiromi. Then they both pulled a beautiful necklace out of the box. It was a necklace made out of a strong but beautiful silver. Dangling from it was a perfectly polished sphere of cat's eye gem. It gleamed and looked as if it was staring at them. Haru gasped and said, "Yuki, sorry. I-I can't accept this." Yuki smiled and said, "Well, you will kind of have to keep it. Cat's eye, in this dimension, has the ability to keep you human as long as you wear it through the day (but you will still look like a cat-girl). In any dimension though, if you use magic to polish it, your will have the ability to teleport to anywhere. However, this one can only sustain 2 different place. I have already made them have the ability to teleport you to the Cat Kingdom. Where do you want the second one to be?" Haru smiled and said, "I want it to be the Cat Bureau." The stone glowed blue and reacted, as if it had heard where she wanted her second choice to be. Then together walked back to the crowded room
Kuro
Kuro saw the two girls leave and return. He also notice the new necklace. As they both sat down, he scooted over and was just about to asked them about it when Hikari, the Siamese servant opened the door and said loudly over the chatter, "The royal dining room is mostly ready, King Lune! You can now bring the guest there." The chatter immediately seized and it became quiet as she left the room. Lune stood up and, with a raised voice, said, "Excuse me, dear guests, I need to stay for a moment. Please go to the dining room and start without me." Then he called to Haru, the Baron, Toto, Kuro, and Muta to stay with him for a moment. As the other guests almost cleared from the room, Lune nodded to Yuki and she left the room with the guests. Then he led them into a nearby private study.
Lune lowered his voice and asked, "As soon as you came and landed, Kaze went to my room and reported that you were attacked during the ride here. Was it true (not that I doubt Kaze, who is a loyal subject)? Can anyone tell me what happened?" Haru took a deep breath, then started to tell the story, from when they got on the ride and till when they got off. She described the ugly crest of the enemy chariot and how they attacked, but she was careful to leave out the part were the Baron saved her (at that point she blushed a bit but left it out). The Baron helped her with the story here and there. As soon as they finished Lune looked very sad and grave. He sighed and said, "I would recognize that crest anywhere. That bloody rose is the crest of the mad dictator of the Magic Cat Kingdom on the other side of dimension, King Diablos. He was the same insane cat that had slain my mother."
Muta
Muta was so busy thinking about how hungry he was he almost missed the whole conversation. As soon Lune finished talking he complained, "Can we please go eat now? I'm so hungry I could eat a whole castle the size of this." Everyone looked blank. Toto tried and failed to hold in his laughter and said, "Muta, you fat cat, is food the only thing you think about? Seriously, your stomach is like a bottomless pit. It can never be satisfied." Muta huffed at Toto and said irritably, "Well you gargoyles never need to eat much, do you, because you all stone." As the two argued on, Haru's stomach growled and said, "You know what? I kind of agree with Muta. I'm hungry. I haven't eaten anything since the tea yesterday night." They all got up and went to the dining room, with the two still arguing as they walked there.
By the time they reached there the guest were already dining and the entertainment had already started. Everyone dispersed to find a chair. In a flash, Muta had already stuffed a whole pile of cinnamon rolls into his mouth, and started to devour all the food around him (except the catnip jelly, which he did not eat because it brought him back bad memories from his last visit here). Toto, who pecked at the fish on his plate, decided at last that it was okay to eat and started on his fish. The Baron was in a deep conversation with Lune, and Kuro was staring into space, occasionally stirring or sipping his fish stew with his spoon. Hiromi was still looking at her reflection with her plate. Haru was happily munching away at her fish, enjoying it much more than the last time she came here.
Haru
Soon, the musicians began to play a slow waltz. Lune and Yuki stood up, with Yuki's paw in Lune's paw, and stepped onto the dance floor at the center of the room. Then they began to dance to the music. The audience clapped (except Muta, who was still trying to stuff his face off and Kuro, who was still deep in thought). It wasn't very long before a few other royal couples decided to also dance and step up, like the duke and duchess of Catsville. Then the Baron stood up, and turned to Haru. He said, "May I offer you a dance?" Haru blushed and said, "Well ummm..." but the Baron did not give her time to finish. He dragged her onto the dance floor (and of course not too roughly). Then they began to dance. Many of the older guests, whom remembered this magical moment from began to clap loudly. Haru blushed. She felt the same tingling happiness from last time. Hiromi clapped happily for her friend.
Soon the dancing was over. All the guests returned to their seats. Lune coughed, stood up, and said, "My dear guests. Tomorrow we will be setting sails to travel to the island of CatStar. Please make yourselves at home today at my castle. My guests have already prepared your numbers. Please find my servant Natoru for your room number. Natoru was right next to Haru (on the other side of the Baron), so she quickly ran in front of the line. Natoru handed her a handsome golden key with a tag with the number "49". He said in his abnoxious voice, "Miss Haru (as he pulled out a map), your room will be room 49 on the second level. It is the room 2 left of the infirmary, right here" as he pointed to a room near the infirmary. She thanked him, and skip-walked to her room. It had been a fun, happy, and magical day, all rolled up into one. She closed the door, locked it, took off her dress, plopped onto the bed and fell asleep, dreaming about tomarrow's adventure.
ooOoo
The Baron set down his book and quill. He quietly sat on his bed. There was a knock on the door. He said, "Come in!" Toto came in. He asked, "Baron, can I borrow your extra toothbrush? I can't find mine." The Baron stood up, zipped open his bag, and handed him a toothbrush. As he did this, Toto asked him, "Today was a great day, wasn't it?". As the Baron handed his friend a toothbrush, he answered, "And so it was." Then Toto walk out, closing and relocking the door behind him. The Baron overthough today's adventure. Soon he had fallen asleep by the song of the midnight wind, just like his upstair's neighbooor, Haru.
ooOoo
Me: I have just almost died of trying to get this done. :,(
Hiromi: Poor you. But I never knew Haru could dance. How come you were always stumbling and taking clumsy steps when we did the dance class?
Haru (blushed): Hey, I can only do it with the Baron
Hiromi (singing): Haru's in lo-ove ~ Haru's in lo-ove~
Haru (chasing Hiromi with a lacrosse stick while Hiromi was still sing): Hey! That's not nice. How about you and Tsurge?
Hiromi (giggling): Okay, okay! I surrender to your (wait a minute, my) mightly lacrosse.
Me (looking blank): Wow, is this the only thing that girls do?
(Haru and Hiromi dive-bomb onto me and start attacking me with a lacrosse stick (DIRECTER ATTACK!))
Me (screaming at the top of my lungs): R&R PLZ BEFORE I DIE!
END OF CHAPTER 5
