Ni No Kuni: Neko Monogatari

Chapter 8- Al-Mamoon

The majestic city of Al-Mamoon would remind anyone from the real world one of the great cities of Arabia when they were in their prime, such as in the One Thousand and One Nights tale. The buildings were painted in orange and yellow colors, as well as few aqua greens. Most of the plants were palm trees and a few other desert bushes around. People wore plain colored robes, making Cloe wonder how was it they stood the heat.

She, on the other hand, was sweating like a pig. Her fur, for the first time, was making her body heat even more than it had to, and thus she was completely drenched in her own sweat. Even her clothes had a little of her sweat stained on it. She could see why her father and Maora had bickered over a fan when they brought her here. After a while, she wiped the sweat off her fur on her forehead.

"Here we are! Al-Mamoon! Beautiful!" Drippy spoke up.

Oliver looked around with curious eyes. "It's different from Ding Dong Dell, huh?"

"Well, of couse it flipping is! It's slap-bang in the middle of the desert for a start!"

"Seriously, how can these people wear those robes in this climate?" Cloe panted, her tail flicking in irritation. She noticed that women used pants and short sleeveless blouses, exposing their bellies. "If daddy caught me wearing one of those outfits, I'd never hear the end of it." Then a foreign but familiar smell invaded her nose. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Mmm? What's that delicious smell?" Oliver felt the same smell after a few seconds.

Drippy shifted around to look up at the boy. "That's the babanas, en't it. Babanas are what Al Mamoon's famous for, see?"

"You should really taste one of those delicious, gorgeous, heavenly fruits." Cloe licked her lips and twitched her ears. "Nothing can compare to them."

"Tell you what, Cat-girl. I'm starving! Fancy a babana split?"

"Babana split! Oh, yeah! I can even feel the sweet flavor in my mouth!" In truth, Cloe had only tasted a babana split once, and without her father even knowing. King Tom never let her taste it, claiming that sweets could be harmful at her young age, but she managed to sneak into the Cowlipha's palace's kitchen, where she ate a babana split without anyone noticing.

"They're that good, huh?" Oliver inquired upon seeing Cloe's face.

"Too flipping they are! This place was built on the babana trade- there's tasty for you!"

"Then let's try some!" Cloe chirped.

"Wait a minute, Cat-girl. Before we go babanas, we should try and find this Rashaad, en't it? It's what we came here for, after all." Drippy pointed out before he cat princess got out of hand emotionally.

Cloe's ears bent back in realization, "Oh, you're right." She nearly forgot they had been looking for one of the Great Sages.

"We should ask around and find out if anybody knows him." Oliver suggested.

Cloe noticed there was a weary-looking elderly man nearby, and she approached him. Usually, wherever she greeted someone, she curtsied and introduced herself as a question of etiquette, like she was aught as a kitten; however, right now it would give away her Royal status, so she simply spoke to call his attention. "Uhh, excuse me, sir… Do you know where we can find the Great Sage Rashaad?"

The old man turned to stare at the cat princess with squinted eyes. Luckily, he didn't seem to recognize her. "The Great Sage Rashaad?" He spoke in a rather confused voice. "It is a long time since he was called by that name. These days, you would do better to ask after 'Rashaad, seller of Babanas.'"

"He sells Babanas?" Oliver inquired. "You mean he's not a sage anymore?" The boy looked down at Drippy. "But getting him to teach me about magic was our whole reason for coming here…"

Drippy closed his eyes in thought. "Hmm, there's worrying… Still, we were after a babana split anyway, so we might as well stop by and see what's what, en't it?"

"Okay… Let's go find Rashaad!"

The trio headed down the street, passing by homes and shopkeepers on tents. Cloe was partly relieved that no one recognized her as the Princess of Ding Dong Dell, but then again, her father had not let her put a paw outside the Cowlipha's palace, so she wasn't really surprised. When they turned around a corner, Cloe spotted a babana shop, but what caught her attention was who was running it.

A dark-skinned man in about his forties, with dark brown hair and beard wearing a white tunic with a purple band wrapped around his waist. On the side of a babana box, there was a blonde girl wearing a short-sleeved dark purple and lilac blouse with a short purple blue short skirt and pink puffy pants. There was something in her stare that sent shivers down Cloe's spine.

"Excuse me…" Oliver hesitated for a while, but he had to do this. "Are you Mr. Rashaad?"

The man nodded. "Yes, I am."

"Mr. Rashaad, sir… I need you to teach me magic. I need you to teach me the most powerful spells there are so I can defeat Shadar!"

That name always brought chills down Cloe's spine.

Rashaad seemed a little taken aback by this. "Defeat Shadar? You?"

Oliver nodded. "Yes sir."

Cloe had a bad feeling about this. Her feminine intuition turned out to be right when Rashaad shook his head. "Your journey had been waste. I no longer practice the magic arts."

Cloe blinked. "But why not? You were one of the Four Great Sages who know everything there is to know about magic."

"It matters not what I was, I use magic no more." Rashaad replied rather shaply, before his gaze turned tender and he glanced towards the empty-stared blonde girl.

Oliver had a feeling to where this was going. "Is she…?"

The blonde girl slowly turned her head around to stare at them with an icy, emotionless stare. "… What do you want?" Her voice was as empty as a juiceless coconut. "Who are you?"

Cloe gasped in realization. "My gosh…"

"The pooer thing's brokenhearted, looks like." Said Drippy, peeking from behind Oliver.

Rashaad's voice had turned forlorn when he spoke. "Shadar stole a piece of her heart.. It was my fault." He looked away in anguish. "I defied him, and to punish me… he did this." The former sage loomed down. "That's why I fight no longer. I cannot risk my child's life- I will not. We must accept out fate and live out our days in peace."

Cloe wanted to give him a lecture for giving up so easily, but she didn't find it in her heart. After all, he was a father trying to protect his child. She was sure her own father would have done the same had he no other choice, just to keep her from being hurt. She was starting to understand why her father had been so overprotective the past years.

Oliver would not give up, however. "Mr. Rashaad, sir… You're wrong. She wouldn't want this."

"Huh?"

"She's not in pain because a piece of her heart was stolen. It's because… you gave up fighting-because you gave up on everything- that's why she's in pain!"

"Hm! You are sure of this?" Drippy and Cloe could sense anger starting to boil inside the former Sage's being.

"Yes, I am."

"I see…" Just as Cloe predicted, Rashaad stood from his seat and spoke in an irritated voice. "I see now that you would say anything to enlist my aid!"

"Oh, dear heaven…" Cloe sighed.

"Begone!" The old man spoke so silently they almost couldn't hear him. "Leave us in peace."

Oliver panicked. "You're making a mistake! I wasn't trying to-"

"Leave it, Oliver…" Cloe put a paw on his shoulder with drooped ears. "He's not going to help us. We'll have to find another way."

Reluctantly, the boy let the catnid lead him away from the babana post, Drippy following suit. It seemed like they would have to do something about this.

"Well, he wasn't wrong." Drippy spoke up, now a few blocks away from the babana post, pacing around in thought. "It loots like Shadar's stolen a part of the pooer dab's heart."

"But we have to help her!" Oliver exclaimed with determination. "We have to make her heart whole again!"

"I don't know, Oliver…" Cloe still trembled at remembering the empty stare in the girl's eyes, her emotionless voice. "It doesn't feel like when my daddy was brokenhearted, he was not like that. He was simply overindulgent, nothing more, not with the zombie-like expression."

"She's right on that." Drippy agreed with crossed arms. "This is different. Her heart's not just broken, it's closed."

Oliver didn't understand. "Closed? What does that mean?"

"It's like this, see… She's not just had a part of heart stolen, she's closed it up right, too- to keep the rest safe, like."

"You mean that we'll have to open it again before we even think about replacing what's missing?" Cloe inquired.

"And how do we do that?" Oliver asked.

"We go to youer world." Drippy explained. "If we find whoever she's connected to by there, we can work out what's going on with her by here. So we head over youer way and find her soul mate."

Oliver grinned. "All right! Let's do it!"

Drippy replied with a grin of his own. "Righto! Back to youer world, it is!"

"But wait a second!" Cloe stared in surprise as Oliver took her father's former wand and cast the Gateway spell. "What about the babana split?!"

Before she knew it, the white light enveloped them all, and within seconds she found herself back on the gray path, on Oliver's strange world.

"You remember how this works, en't it, Ollie-boy?" Drippy inquired. "It's all about spotting the similarities. Somewhere round by here is someone who's similar to young Esther in some way. Now, what girls do you know?"

Oliver grew nervous. "Girls?! Uh, I don't really talk to girls… I mainly talk to Phil…"

Drippy sighed in exasperation. Crikey, well, that's no good, is it? How are we going to do this, then?"

Cloe didn't say anything. She was trying to think what to do now, they were back in Oliver's world, but he had no idea where to start. Sincerely, she didn't either, she felt like a fish out of the water everytime they came here.

Meow.

Cloe's ears twitched when she heard that sound, she had heard that sound the last time! She quickly looked around for its source, and spotted the very same white cat from before, purple eyes and all, staring at her with raised ears.

"Guys…" Cloe spoke up in alarm. "There's that cat again…"

Oliver and Drippy noticed the white cat on the sidewalk, staring unblinkingly at them. "Hey, Cat-girl. Did you find a boyfriend here and you never told us?"

"What?!" Cloe snapped. "Mr. Drippy, just because I'm a catnid doesn't mean I will feel that kind of attraction to cats! Besides, that cat's a female!"

The white, spotless cat gave them one more meowing call, before running down the street.

"Cloe, Mr. Drippy, I think she wants us to follow her…" Oliver suggested.

"Crikey! Then what are we doing wasting ouer time here! Let's go!"

The three ran after the white cat; the cat stopped every now and then to make sure they were still following her, before starting to run again. After a while, they came to the place where Phil's garage was located.

"Here? Why would the cat bring us here? There's nothing around here other than people…" Cloe spoke up with realization, but when she looked around to see if the cat was still waiting for them to follow her, she realized the cat had mysteriously vanished once more.

"What was that all about?" Drippy scratched his head. "Where did she go? Is she a magician or something?"

Suddenly, a bell rang figuratively in Oliver's brain. "Hey, guys! I just remembered. When I used to come here to Phil's garage, there was a girl… She was always looking at us from her window…·

"From her window?" Drippy repeated. "Sounds like a proper shrinking violet."

Oliver pointed towards one of the windows in a white house. "I guess so. That's her window, up there."

With her sharp cat eyes, Cloe was the first to spot someone peeking through that very window. She nearly confused that person with Esther, for they very alike, especially in the hair. When she noticed Oliver (she couldn't see Drippy nor Cloe) had noticed her, she quickly went back into her room.

"Oh! That's her!" Oliver exclaimed.

"Flipping heck, Ollie-boy!" Drippy snapped in surprise. "Why didn't you think of her straightaway? She's the spitting image of her, mun!"

"Huh? Of who?"

"Esther, Oliver!" Cloe replied, rolling her eyes. "I nearly thought she had come over to this world when I saw her! She must be the one we're looking for!"

"It's that obvious?" Oliver blushed in embarrassment. "I… I never noticed. You sure have good eyes, Cloe. She was only in the window for a second."

Cloe smiled and puffed out her chest a bit. "never underestimate the razor-sharp eyes of a catnid!

"Sorry to interrupt youer showing-off, Cat-girl, but we should go and barge ouer way into her bedroom!"

"But wouldn't that be breaking into private property?"

They were already heading towards the blonde girl's house, and so with a sigh of resignation, she followed after them. When they came to the front of the door, Oliver knocked lightly, but a while passed and no one came to open the door. Oliver knocked again, but there was no reply. "It's no good. There's no answer."

Just then, a plump lady who was passing by noticed Oliver standing in front of the door, waiting for someone to open. "Is something the matter, dear?" she inquired in worry. "There's nobody home, you know."

Oliver turned around in confusion. "Uh, I need to speak to the girl who lives here."

"You're a friend of Myrtle's? Oh, you poor dear!" the lady's face contorted with worry. "You must be awfully worried about her!"

"Huh?"

"Oh, my! You haven't heard? Well, just between you and I, things haven't been going so well for Myrtle's family lately."

Oliver gulped. "How come?"

"Her father works every hour of every single day! Nothing but work, work, work! He's never at home anymore!" The lady sighed sadly. " Such a shame… Rusty was always such a devoted father. But something has happened to him. He's changed. I hear him shouting at them through the walls… I don't know how poor Betty copes, let alone young Myrtle… Such a shame."

Oliver connected the dots. "Betty is…"

"That's right, dear, she's Rusty's wife. And she's every bit as devoted to him as she always was. Why, only this morning, I heard her promising to bring his lunch to him down at the garage. All the love she pours into those sandwiches." The lady frowned. "It's enough to break your heart! Why, I'm welling up just thinking about it!" The lady's frown disappeared. "Such a kind soul… Poor, poor, Betty… I have half a mind to tell that Rusty Cartwright just how lucky he is!"

Oliver looked down. "Jeepers…"

"Oh, just listen to me gossiping on and on! Do ignore me, dear, I'm just a silly old woman! Say hello to Myrtle to me, won't you?" Saying this, the old lady walked away.

"Crikey, sounds like things are none too rosy in the Cartwright household, eh?" Drippy commented as he watched her go.

"Mr Drippy… We can't leave her like that. We have to help her. We have to help Myrtle…" Oliver added.

Cloe was staring at the door as she spoke. "How are we getting in there? Looks like she's not coming out, and we can't get in unless we can open the door magically."

Oliver's bulb lightened. "You're right! We should use magic to open the door! I'm the only onw who knows how! I'm the only one who can go in there and speak to her!"

"You sure you want to be doing this, mun?" Drippy inquired.

Oliver looked down once more. "When mom died, I… If you hadn't taken me over to your world when I thought I was all alone… If you hadn't helped me… I'd still be alone right now…" Oliver glanced at Myrtle's window. "That's why we have to help Myrtle. If we don't, she'll be left staring out of her window forever. All alone…"

"Well, I guess that's a good enough reason." Cloe grinned. "Let's get in there!"

Oliver nodded. "Okay.

While grinning, Cloe was starting to grow quite homesick on the inside. All this talk about Myrtle and her father made her think of her own father. She couldn't imagine what he had to be going through right then. She was pretty sure if she ever returned home, her father would ground her for the rest of her life.