Chapter 4: A Golden Pyramid Scheme
A day or so had passed since the entire incident involving the undersea dragon palace and the near awakening of a potentially ancient evil. However, all was done and there was some peace to finally be had. Sure, the outside weather was rather stormy but the rest was a rather fine evening.
Though while things seemed merely like a quiet evening in, Lucas couldn't help but hear some kind of massive racket outside. It wasn't too far from home, and he was certain it wasn't just the loud pouring of rain or the occasional bit of thunder and lightning.
Usually the child was deathly afraid to check outside at night, but he couldn't help it especially with the loud banging at the front door.
Lucas made his way downstairs, making sure not to even think about a single step outside at this hour with this kind of weather. The wind nearly slammed the door right into his face as some of the rain water drizzled a bit onto the floor.
"Claus?" Lucas piped up, as the somewhat older child in question nodded. His usually spiked up black hair was wet and down, not to mention absolutely sopping wet. As a result of the cold, wet clothes, he was shivering a little bit. In his arms was a simple yet fluffy tuxedo cat with a red collar, yet no tag on it. The feline seemed fine, as if the young boy was trying to shield the cat from the rain.
"Sorry for crashing all the sudden." Claus apologized, sniffing a little. The cat purred in his arms as Lucas quickly let him in. Lucas went into the hall closet and grabbed a towel without a word and threw it onto Claus.
"Are you okay? W-What on earth happened?" Lucas asked the other.
"Not much, just some hooligans were messing with this cat, then it started to rain." Claus answered, shivering a little bit more. He set down the feline to huddle up a bit more.
The feline happily huddled up on a nightstand with a lamp in the living room. Perhaps the heat of the lamp caught the attention of the cat. They do like warm things, after all.
"I'd hate to ask, but do you have a change of clothes on hand?" Claus asked, it becoming more and more clear he had a pretty bad cold from the weather. "I was honestly not expecting to get so wet..."
"I think we might...Are you going to be okay?" Lucas asked the other boy concerned. "My father's working late again, and we have a guest's room for you to stay the night."
"That's good to know. Last thing I need is some old man back at home telling me that this place is dangerous or something." Claus added in, as Lucas went off to fetch some spare clothes for him to change into.
"Sorry I took so long, but I think these should fit...it's getting a little late now isn't it?" Lucas said, handing over Claus the set of fresh dry clothes. "It's nightwear so it may fit a little loose..."
"It's alright, don't worry about it." Claus responded, taking the clothes before looking around a bit embarrassed. "Uhhh...I'd hate to ask but where's the bathroom? I need to change and I don't want to wait until it's too late."
"Oh, it's down the hall, first door to the left." Lucas answered in a reassuring tone. "It shouldn't be that hard to miss, the hall lights are on."
"Got it." Claus sighed in relief, a brief "Thank goodness for hall lights..." could be heard under his breath as he went in to change clothes.
It didn't take too long for Claus to pop right on out, changed into sleepwear. The cat he brought in was still huddled up to the lamp, but followed him once he was out. Despite being in a fresher set of clothes, Claus still shivered and sniffled more.
"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Lucas asked, looking pretty worried. He quickly went around the house, finding a box of tissues and handing them to Claus. The latter accepted the tissues, grabbing a few to blow his nose.
"Thanks." Claus thanked, clearly sounding a bit sick. "As for the if I'm fine part...maybe this cold is worse than I thought."
Lucas paused to think for a moment, before looking over at Claus.
"Try to lay down in the guest's room, I'll go get you some cold medicine okay?" Lucas reassured, leading Claus over into the guests room.
It was pretty plain, then again it was a guest's room. If Lucas could recall, it wasn't really used all that much, as there wasn't much family he was aware of outside of his father. There wasn't much else, Claus pretty much instantly crashed onto the bed, wrapping himself up in the sheets. The sheets were surprisingly soft, almost freshly washed feeling despite being barely used most of the time.
The feline stepped into the room as Lucas rushed off to get some medicine, settling on a nearby dresser. There wasn't much, there was the bed, a nightstand, and a dresser. Rather bare-bones, but did the job.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, but just take some of this before you go to bed, you should feel better in no time." Lucas said, handing Claus a small pill of cold medicine and a glass of water. Claus simply eyed the medicine confused.
"...I would hate to ask this but, how do I take this?" Claus asked, trying not to sneeze all over Lucas. Lucas looked a little bit surprised at what Claus had to say.
"Oh umm, you just put it in your mouth and drink water to swallow it down..." Lucas answered, trying to hide the fact he was shocked about Claus. Was Claus just unfamiliar with simple medicines taken by the pill?
Claus nodded, following was instructed. It was a bit tricky not wanting to cough up the rather bitter tasting medicine, but it was quick and painless.
"That...wasn't too bad." Claus said, taking an extra sip from the glass of water. "Much better than taking some bitter powder, eugh."
"You're going to be alright for the rest of the night, right?" Lucas asked, as Claus grabbed another handful of tissues to blow his nose into.
"I think so, don't worry too much." Claus responded, trying his best to reassure Lucas even if he wasn't exactly in the greatest of conditions. "I'm a lot stronger than I look, I should be better in the morning."
"Alright, good night! I'll see you in the morning." Lucas smiled, feeling at peace knowing that Claus was hopefully going to be alright for the night. It would let him rest easy for the night for once, despite the strong storm outside.
Though he couldn't really shake off the weird feeling the cat Claus brought in was so...odd. It was probably nothing, it was getting rather late after all...
The morning sun had finally risen after an intense rainstorm from the rather eventful night. It wasn't as eventful as other nights, but it was something alright.
With that, the morning itself was rather uneventful. Lucas' father had already left, going as far to leave a note under his door saying how he would have to be gone for a few days. Perhaps having something to do with some kind of fair displaying new figurines for the upcoming year, and due to work reasons he was obliged to go. It was an odd thing Lucas could never quite understand.
Though now Lucas was finally up, making his way downstairs to the living room and kitchen to see if anything was going on this morning. Claus was short to follow from the guest's room. Looking a lot better than last night, but half awake at the most.
"Are you feeling any better?" Lucas asked Claus politely, wondering if the other was feeling any better from last night.
"Yeah, just a bit sleepy..." Claus responded sheepishly, yawning in-between some words. "Cat woke me up by stepping on my face, then there was the scent of pancakes."
Claus' observation was correct, as there was indeed the scent of pancakes, and not just one but a lot of them. Venoct was busy operating the stove top, avoiding trying to spill even the smallest drop of pancake batter.
"Venoct are those pancakes?" Lucas asked, catching the attention of the serpent scarf yokai.
"Yes they are, I got up at five in the morning and made all these pancakes." Venoct said bluntly, though all with good intentions.
"Why did you make so many, though?" Claus asked, still quite half asleep.
"I figured I would since you arrived, Claus." Venoct answered, getting all the pancakes distributed evenly to everyone. He had to keep his dragon scarf from nibbling away at one every now and again. "That and it's the only thing I know how to cook well."
The mysterious tuxedo cat walked out of the guest's room as everyone sat down to eat pancakes. The feline almost instantly caught the eye of Venoct.
"...Where did you find that cat?" Venoct asked, lowering a little to look at the feline more closely. The cat gave a simple yet happy little meow.
"I found her last night out in the streets." Claus began, shoveling in some pancakes into his mouth. "Though some thuggish yokai were after her for some reason?"
"That's strange, I don't know why thugs would want to mess with such a thing..." Venoct commented, secretly sliding the cat a small bit of pancake.
"Me neither, and it doesn't seem the cat has an owner despite wearing a collar." Lucas added in, looking at the feline as it purred next to his leg. "Are you planning on taking care of her, Claus?"
"Yeah, I think having a cat back home should be fine." Claus answered, still working on the pancakes. "I mean pretty much my nanny should be fine with cats, he has one follow him around just about everywhere."
Before another word could be uttered, the feline made her way in and out the window, grabbing a newspaper that had flown nearby the porch. How she was a swift feline in grabbing it without anyone noticing her leave was a mystery indeed.
It took a while but the three of them finally noticed the newspaper the tuxedo cat brought in. She proceeded to lounge around near the dining table, licking her paws.
"That's odd, it seems to be in the yokai language." Claus commented, spreading the sheet of paper onto the table.
"What does it say? I'm not exactly too fluent in it yet." Lucas asked curiously, as Claus analyzed the paper carefully.
"From what it says and wasn't blurred by rain water, it seems there was a pyramid found." Claus explained to the group at the table. "At least, it's saying that in rumors, so it isn't likely it's true."
The cat kept meowing, batting at the newspaper. Venoct squinted his eyes, as if he could understand the cat somehow.
"...You want us to find this pyramid or something?" Venoct asked the feline. It was odd, but the feline responded with a nod.
"Why do I hear a lot of talking and noises..." A tiny voice squeaked, a very sleepy Draggie walking down the stairs to enter the room. "And why do I also smell pancakes?"
"Seems we're going to have to go out and investigate rumors about some sort of odd pyramid within the Yokai World." Lucas answered, Draggie nearly dropping over the leftover pancakes he was grabbing.
"Again? It feels like we just did something like this not that long ago..." Draggie questioned, still a bit sleepy. "Also what's that weird guy from the nyan incident doing here?"
"Long story on that." Claus explained briefly to Draggie. "I should probably get dressed before we try to head on out however, though. I don't think it would be productive going out in pajamas."
Without much of another word, everyone ended up getting ready to head on out. Who knows how long they would all be gone for, but hopefully before Lucas' father returned home.
Soon enough everyone had left, not leaving much of a trace of the pancakes or feline hair about. Well, at least as best as they could, anyways. They even brought the weird newspaper with them since it may was well be a good hint.
"You know, I believe it might be a bit odd to leave the cat without a name." Claus said, the strange tuxedo cat he brought in not too far away from him.
"Good point, do you have any ideas then?" Lucas asked, as Claus quickly grabbed the weird yokai world news and looked around the sheet of paper until he found something that worked, with many "uhhs" heard about his vocal pondering.
"...Nox, maybe?" Claus finally concluded, still a bit unsure about what to say.
The cat, happily mewed with another nod. It seems she had accepted the name, at least for now.
"Guess her name is Nox now...I kinda like it." Lucas responded, as Nox purred happily before something caught the feline's attention.
"Nox, is something the matter?" Venoct asked, rather worried about the feline.
Moments of silence passed, Nox keeping her eyes out on something.
Before long, the feline darted off into her own direction without another word.
"Hey wait, slow down a little!" Claus shouted, Lucas and Venoct shortly following behind him. Soon it became an all out scramble to chase after Nox and just where in the world she was headed. At this point whatever rumors about ancient pyramids being uncovered in the Yokai World didn't matter anymore. Right now top priority was on the feline and just where she was headed.
It took a while of running, to the outskirts of town. There was an old abandoned house that had caught the eyes of Nox. More specifically, a set of cellar doors that had caught the feline's attention.
Nox, being the curious feline she was, focused her attention on the doors themselves. She quietly began to bat at the doors, as if she was trying to open them.
Things almost seemed a bit too late by the time everyone else had caught up. One of the cellar doors was already opened by the feline's flexible paws.
Everyone had taken a moment to catch up on their breath. It was quite the running pursuit after the feline, after all.
Naturally, being of the feline nature, Nox had already gotten curious about just what was in the cellar. With only the most natural of responses, jumping right on in without waiting for any response or word from the others.
"W-Wait! Nox, come back!" Lucas yelped, running in after the tuxedo cat. He wasn't exactly the most graceful runner, tripping right into the cellar. Though oddly, there wasn't any stairs, leading to a long descent and a loud scream.
"Lucas!" Venoct and Claus yelled in unison, not giving a second thought to dive in after the kid.
As predicted, it was a bit of a long descent downwards. Thankfully, there was not a crashing thud as one would suspect. It was rather soft, and much more graceful.
However, what was under this cellar was much more of a shock to the eyes. It was a room of an ancient temple, engraved with many hieroglyphs on the walls. Nox, was quietly waiting on everyone.
"Wasn't expecting such a smooth landing..." Lucas commented, slowly getting up. Venoct and Claus were soon to follow, Draggie as well, whom was rather quiet this entire trip.
"Who knew something like this was in some old house..." Draggie commented, waddling out of the way to investigate a little more.
"And it doesn't exactly look like we're going to be getting out anytime soon, I don't exactly see any way to get out from where we came..." Claus added in, quite puzzled by the temple in the cellar.
"My what a show the cat brought in, no pun intended." A mysterious voice said, catching everyone off guard. "I'm glad one of my envoys was not perished by the hand of something demented."
Presenting themselves was another nyan with dark brown fur and golden yellow flames at the end of her tails. She dressed in golden attire, with quite the Egyptian flair to her overall aesthetic. Nox stood next to the strange yokai nyan.
"For not introducing myself properly, I now shall make amends. I am Nyanset of not only the Shady Tribe, but one of the two leaders of the Mystery Legends." Nyanset introduced herself, looking at quite the assemble that stood before her. "This should go well without any flack, as I have quite the task."
"I wasn't expecting to see a Legendary yokai here of all things." Venoct said. "But, what do you want from us exactly."
"You see, this cat you call Nox, why a cat she truly is not. She is something else, but what she truly is beyond my guess." Nyanset explained. "I can break her spell, but there is bad news I must tell. I wield a staff of great magic, but rather nasty crooks took it from my hands thus making this situation quite tragic."
"Oh dear...Is there any way we can help with this? At all?" Lucas asked, as Nyanset nodded.
"I know the ones behind such an act that makes me quite furious. That being none other than the horrible yokai Awevil and Neighfarious!" Nyanset kept explaining, not stopping any of her rhyming anytime soon. "The temple we stand in has been taken over those two fiends. I can not believe they are in the same tribe as me!"
"So those two are the ones behind all this? You know the temple structure better than I do, so any idea where they'd probably be at?" Venoct asked the chocolate furred feline.
"Currently you are at the bottom of the pyramid, so going up is our only option. The heart of the pyramid is where they are at but enter with caution." Nyanset was willing to answer to the snake yokai with another nod. "Many traps and passages lay around. Some are spikes, others will make you fall down."
"Thank you for your insight, Nyanset. Anything else you need to say before we get going?" Lucas tried to finish things off.
"If you find one named Zurabis, tell him I said hi. But for now, we must say bye." Nyanset finished. "This may be a hard test for you all, so I wish you only the best."
"Got it, we will get a move on right now." Venoct finished, only for Lucas to look around a little.
"...Did Claus run off again?" Lucas spoke up quite worried. Nyanset looked around.
"Goodness that Claus, he ran off just like a mouse." Nyanset observed. "There are certain rooms not even I can break, but I sense something in that child without a mistake. I know my home well, but some things simply just don't ring a bell."
"Well, looks like we're going to have to find him before we can get your staff back..." Venoct shrugged. "Lucas, Draggie, Nox, let's get a move on."
"Right, we should be doing that." Lucas nodded. "Thanks once again, Nyanset!"
The three waved goodbye to Nyanset, starting to look for Claus. Who knows if he had already gotten himself lost or into some awful trap. Nyanset paused for a moment, thinking deeply.
"There truly are some treasures I can not obtain even in my own residence, perhaps those children are his descendants?" Nyanset questioned aloud to herself, watching the group already scamper off to regroup.