AN: Here comes the mystery, folks! I'd just like to say that despite this story being rated T for Teen, the next few chapters will get a bit dark in terms of...well, the goings on. Just thought I'd warn you guys. Also, the part where the Cat Bureau receives messages through their record player was based on author Catsafari's The Bureau Files series. Check it out for some incredibly varied adventures. Now then, on to the story!
Ch 3: Now Comes the Mystery
In the evening, Baron is leading the search for how to send William back to his own time. He's being assisted by the other feline Creation and Haru.
Muta is lazing about nearby, a smirk on his face every time he looks over at the ones who are searching.
Toto, noticing the fat cat's behavior, lands on the floor near him. "What are you so happy about?"
"Find out for yourself, Birdbrain."
Before the crow gargoyle can try digging further, everybody hears the record player kick on. Since the device is meant to pick up on those who need their help who can't physically get to the Bureau, they all keep silent so they don't miss anything.
What comes out is a loud, drawn out scream.
Everybody jolts at the ongoing scream, William's jaw dropping as he clutches his head.
Once the scream stops, it takes awhile for Haru to break the silence that follows. "That…sounded like a child."
William falls to his knees and shudders. "I could feel all the emotions behind his scream. Confusion. Fear. So much pain."
Baron immediately tracks the source. "The Dog Kingdom."
Haru rushes out of the room. "I'll get everything we need."
Toto flies up to the desk so he can be near Baron. "If we're dealing with a sentient being who's willing to hurt a child…"
"…then it is too risky to bring Haru along," the tawny cat Creation finishes.
William stands up while shaking his head. "I'm sorry, but I really don't think it's a good idea to leave her behind."
Baron glares at the younger Creation. "Is this another part of our earlier agreement?"
"No, I just wouldn't recommend trying to bar her from this."
Muta walks over. "I'm actually with the kid on this one."
"What?!" Toto squawks at the fat cat. "Have you finally lost your mind?!"
Muta growls at the crow before looking over at Baron. "Try telling Chicky she can't go." He smirks. "I dare you."
The tawny cat Creation stares at the mortal cat. "You dare me? What do you mean?"
Haru returns. "I've got everything. We ready to go?"
Baron hesitantly steps forward. "Haru…perhaps…for this particular case…you sit out."
The brunette's face goes blank as she stares at Baron. "What?"
"I'm aware previous cases had their risks, but the danger this time around seems a tad bit more…vicious. So, for your own safety, it may be best if you—"
Haru doesn't give Baron the chance to finish his speech as she grabs the front of his white jacket and brings him in so they're face to face. "You listen here, Humbert von Gikkingen."
The tawny cat Creation is left stunned and speechless by his human colleague's anger and use of his full name.
"If you think for one second I'd stay out of this after hearing a child scream like that, then you're the biggest idiot in all worlds." Haru's eyes gain more ferocity. "And don't even think of purposely leaving me behind here. If you do, I will make you regret it when you get back."
Baron's almost floored by the brunette's spirit. He feels impressed by her determination, shocked that she'd aim such anger at him, frustrated by her stubborn refusal to listen to him, and (rather shamefully) aroused by her overall forcefulness in this situation.
William, as an empath, can sense all the other feline Creation's emotions. The desire that Baron feels for Haru is one the younger Creation wishes he didn't sense. 'So awkward.'
When Haru finally releases him, Baron straightens out his jacket while clearing his throat before turning to the others. "Shall we all go then?"
As everyone leaves the building and approaches the archway, William leans in to speak to the other feline Creation quietly. "Sir, do you really think I should go with you guys?"
Baron glances at the younger Creation. "After what happened earlier, I don't believe it to be wise to leave you unattended."
"Fair enough."
"As long as you stay around us on this case and assist within reasonable parameters, there shouldn't be any risk to the future you know." Once the group gets to the archway, Baron makes the necessary adjustments. "There. Now we should be able to go right to the Dog Kingdom."
Muta groans. "I'm not looking forward to going there."
Toto smirks at the fat cat. "Why's that? Did you eat all their fish there like you did in the Cat Kingdom?"
"No! I"m a cat walking into the Dog Kingdom! There's always been bad blood between our species! Even if Baron and the kid aren't really cats, they look close enough where the dogs will probably try to take a swing at them!"
"I think we can handle a few rowdy canines," Baron says with confidence.
William smiles at Muta. "Yeah. I have faith you can too. After all, you're the muscle of the Cat Bureau."
Toto smirks. "More like the fat."
Muta growls at the crow gargoyle. 'You wanna go, Birdbrain?!"
"Stop!" Haru orders the bickering pair. "There's a child in trouble! Save it for later!"
Baron casts a translation spell on the brunette since cats are the only animals she can talk to naturally. "Haru. Similar to the Cat Kingdom, you can't stay in the Dog Kingdom for long.'
"Let me guess. I'll start turning into a dog and I have to leave before my world's sunrise or else I'll be stuck in that form forever."
"Precisely." Baron pulls out a watch and starts messing with it. "I'll go ahead and set an alarm to go off half an hour before the Human World's sunrise. That should give us enough time to find the return portal wherever we are."
As everyone heads for the portal, Haru has a thought. "Baron? What's the Dog Kingdom like?"
"I don't know. I've never been to the Dog Kingdom. However, I believe it's supposed to be the opposite of the Cat Kingdom."
"So, if the Cat Kingdom is mostly grassy fields eternally set at noon, then that means the Dog Kingdom is…" Haru waits for the group to go through the portal and arrive in the kingdom they're discussing to see if her theory happens to be correct (which it is). "…snowy forests set at midnight." The brunette starts wandering around the clearing, every step she's taking making the snow crunch. "It's beautiful."
William follows after Haru. "It really is."
Muta looks to Baron, only to become concerned. "Baron, what's up? You're freaking me out a little here."
Toto recognizes the terror he sees on the white suited Creation's face. 'He had that same look after waking up from his visions.'
Baron is looking around in a complete panic. 'It's all the same. The snow, the trees, even the moon is full as it was in the visions. If we were at a cliff…' "Haru can't stay here. Damn her vengeance. It's better than her death."
As the tawny cat Creation heads over to Haru, Toto and Muta glance at each other feeling surprised. Hearing Baron, the consummate gentleman, swear lets them know he's in no mood to be messed with.
William senses the terror and determination from the other feline Creation and can guess what his intention is. The young Creation knows this can only lead to a negative outcome, but he doesn't know how to stop this without making things worse.
The ears of William, Baron, and Muta all twitch due to a distant sound. All three of them look in the direction it came from, but the trees make it impossible to see very far.
The howl that follows soon after is heard by everyone.
"Baron?" Haru asks feeling unsettled. "Did that sound like a wolf to you?"
"It did," the white suit wearing Creation says with a nod.
"Do wolves live in the Dog Kingdom?"
"They're not supposed to." Hearing large footsteps, Baron rushes over to Haru. "LOOK OUT!"
The brunette human is picked up bridal style by the tawny feline Creation and carried off just as a large creature bursts through the trees.
William, Muta, and Toto all have to get out of the path of the giant brown wolflike beast.
"What was that?!" asks the fat cat.
"No idea," Toto says as he returns to the ground. "It looked canine, but I've never seen a dog look that monstrous. For that matter, not even a wolf has looked like that."
William is staring in the direction the creature ran. He's in shock, but not because of that thing's sudden appearance or what it looks like.
Baron is checking over Haru. "Are you injured?"
"I'm okay," the brunette says in a quiet voice. Despite being a woman of university age, Haru feels she is once again that blushing schoolgirl crushing on the tawny cat Creation with his dapper gentleman's suit, classy British accent, and heroic disposition. Her soft brown eyes meet his emerald green.
Baron finds himself lost in the spirited human's eyes. He could very well stare into them forever.
"Uh…you can put me down now."
The feline Creation blinks before finally processing the brunette's words. "Oh, right. Of course." He sets her down. 'Stop this, Baron. You can't do this to yourself. Haru has to be sent away from the Cat Bureau to keep her alive. A relationship would be disastrous. You were about to betray Louise as well. Even if she's not currently here, that is who you are meant to have as a romantic partner. Don't be a fool!'
The three with cat ears hear multiple footsteps approaching from the same exact direction the creature came from.
"Everyone, together!" Baron shouts to the others.
The whole group gathers, Haru surrounded by the three felines while Toto perches on her shoulder.
Out of the trees comes a large group of dogs. Most of the breeds in the pack are German Shepherds, Irish Wolfhounds, and various kinds of Retrievers. They completely surround the Cat Bureau. Two of the dogs step forward from the circle.
One is a poodle wearing thick robes to protect himself from the cold. He radiates an aura of magic which the three Creations can sense. The poodle scowls at the Cat Bureau. "And what are you outsiders doing in our kingdom? Up to no good I suspect."
"Horvath," the other individual admonishes the poodle. This one's a Siberian Husky with a brown cape around his neck and a crown on top of his head. He studies the group of five that's in front of him. "I am Ronan, Ruler of the Dog Kingdom. Who are you?"
Baron removes his hat and bows. "Your Majesty, we are the Cat Bureau. Our business is to assist those in need."
Laughter erupts from many of the dogs surrounding them.
"Why would dogs need cats' help?!" asks an unpleasant looking Boxer.
Haru steps forward to address the king. "Your Majesty, we received a message from this kingdom asking for our help. That message was a child's scream, or in your case, a pup."
Gasps and murmurs come from the dogs all around.
One of William's ears flicks and he glances at Horvath, the source of the sudden emotion he sensed.
King Ronan's face is a storm of emotions. "If that message came from who I think it did, then I'm afraid you're too late. Did you see a monster pass through here?"
"We did," Toto answers from his place on Haru's shoulder.
"That thing killed my son." The king's forced to grit his teeth to stop himself from crying in front of everyone. "Milo…was only a little pup."
Haru's devastated by the revelation of the boy's death.
"Our condolences, Your Majesty," Baron says quietly.
The king glares off into the distance. "I won't rest until the head of the monster that took my son rolls."
William gingerly steps forward. "Excuse me, Your Majesty, but…are you certain that the creature actually killed your son?"
Everyone stares at the sweater vest wearing feline Creation.
One of William's ears flicks yet again, but he keeps his eyes set on King Ronan instead of looking over at Horvath.
King Ronan is offended by the question. "Are you suggesting I'm lying?"
"Not at all, Your Majesty. It's just that…I'm an empath. I can read the emotions of those around me. When that creature passed us, I didn't sense any emotion that suggested it had killed or…feasted." William cringes at the last word. "All I got from it was fear and despair."
Horvath gets in the brown eyed cat's face. "I happened to be present in the prince's room to witness that wicked beast bursting through the wall and tearing him to pieces! Don't you ever accuse our king of speaking falsely again!"
William stares at the angry poodle.
"Besides, if it does indeed feel those things, the monster deserves to after what it did. So, since you all have already failed at what you came here to do and we don't need you to hunt that abomination down, I ask that you leave our kingdom before you insult the king further."
Baron has never felt like such a useless failure in all his years of existence. Despite that, a part of him is relieved to have an excuse to get Haru out of the kingdom which is the setting of his visions. The tawny feline Creation knows the human woman'll likely crumble over not being able to save the pup they heard screaming once they're back at the Bureau, so getting Haru out of here quickly so she doesn't start early is a priority.
"We don't want cats here in the Dog Kingdom anyway," says the same unpleasant Boxer from earlier. He smirks at Muta. "And we really don't want ones that look like hairy pigs."
The large cat glares at the Boxer. "At least I'm not an ugly mutt."
The Boxer growls and pulls out his sword.
Many make a move to stop the angry Boxer from attacking Muta.
"NO!" Haru screams.
The Boxer freezes, other dogs around him restraining him and taking his sword.
While King Ronan's busy chewing out the Boxer (who he calls General Ripper), all three Creations plus Horvath stare at Haru.
"Since when could you do that?" Toto asks the brunette.
"Do what?" Haru asks the crow gargoyle. She legitimately has no clue what he's talking about and why she's being looked at like this.
Baron places a gloved hand on Haru's unoccupied shoulder. "You just made that General Ripper fellow stop his attempted attack on Muta with a magically enhanced command."
"I did?"
William nods. "I sensed it."
Muta awkwardly looks away. "Uh…thanks for saving my neck, Chicky."
Haru looks at her hands. "I've watched Hiromi's new dog for her while she has been out. I did a few dog commands and he did all of them for me. I just assumed he was well trained."
Overhearing all this, King Ronan looks to Horvath. "Does the human have such power?"
The poodle nods. "I can't believe one of her kind has magic, but I did feel it."
The king turns back to the restrained Boxer. "General Ripper, we'll be further discussing the consequences of your attempted murder once we return to the castle."
General Ripper glares and quietly growls as Ronan heads over to Haru.
The Dog King stands in front of the human woman. "What is your name?"
The brunette feels nervous. "Haru Yoshioka, Your Majesty."
King Ronan takes one of the human woman's hands and clasps it within both of his front paws (Baron doesn't like this one bit). "Miss Haru Yoshioka, will you join our hunt?"
"WHAT?!" everyone else including Haru asks.
"I must protest—!" Horvath begins.
"Bringing humans is—!" General Ripper starts.
"Haru will not be—!" Baron tries to object.
"SILENCE!" Ronan orders all of them. Once it's quiet again, he returns his attention to Haru. "Miss Yoshioka, whatever that monster is, it seems canine. Perhaps your power will work on it as well so we can capture it."
The brunette frowns, not happy to be asked to assist in killing anything. "I don't know."
"Please. Help me for the sake of my little pup."
Haru thinks it over. "Alright. I'll do it."
Baron curses his luck. The longer the human is in the Dog Kingdom, the more likely it is the visions will come true and Haru will fall from a cliff to her death.
Toto flies over to Baron's shoulder. "Who'd have thought Haru had an ability besides her being able to talk to cats?"
William's the only one to notice the other feline Creation's distress since he's an empath. The best solution he has for this is to get Baron's mind focused on another important issue. With all the dogs moving away, the brown eyed cat Creation feels safe whispering to him. "I'm really suspicious of Horvath."
Pulled from his mental downward spiral, Baron brings his attention to William. "What?"
"Horvath's up to something. When Haru mentioned that message that we got from Milo, I could sense fear."
"Fear? That's an intriguing emotion to feel from that."
"When I asked the king if the creature was actually the culprit in the pup's death, Horvath was again afraid and also aiming such intense hatred towards me."
"While the hatred alone could be explained away as having perceived you to be accusing the king of lying, coupling that emotion with fear is grounds for suspicion."
"Even more damning, after I brought up being an empath, Horvath used magic to hide his emotions from me."
"I assume this means he's the true culprit behind the prince's death."
"Yes. Horvath's using that strange creature as a scapegoat. That could explain its lack of any emotions suggesting it had killed the prince."
"Excellent. We'll inform the king and we can remove Haru from here."
William grabs Baron's arm to stop him. "Despite how much you want it, it's not going to be that easy, Sir. The king trusts Horvath with the strength of years in each other's company. We are strangers he met minutes ago. Don't forget we have catlike forms, making the king and all of his forces have an inherent bias against what we'd say."
Baron has to keep himself from growling over his frustration at not being able to get Haru to safety.
"Also, I haven't been able to pinpoint anything due to how many dogs are here, but I was able to feel other members of this pack have similar emotions to Horvath."
"That means there's an entire conspiracy against the king. What do you suggest?"
"I say we go to the castle and investigate the prince's room and Horvath's if necessary."
"We won't be able to take Haru with us and I refuse to leave her alone."
"You're right that she shouldn't be alone. Muta and I will stay with her while Toto takes you to the castle." William walks away before Baron can protest.
Toto goes down to the ground and grows in size until he's large enough for his old friend to ride. "Ready to go?"
Baron sighs. "Yes." The white suit wearing Creation gets on the crow gargoyle.
As they fly away, Toto finally decides to voice concerns of his. "That kid William really worries me."
Baron, having been fretting over being away from Haru, has to take a moment to get what the crow said to make sense in his head. "How so?"
"He's clearly hiding things from us. You sensed his magical signature, right?"
"Of course. He's certainly a Creation."
"But that's not all you sensed, is it?"
The tawny cat Creation's frown grows. "No."
"I can't tell what's mixed with his Creation signature, but whatever it is, it's allowing for things that shouldn't be possible."
"Such as?"
"A regular Creation, as rare as we generally are, can't be an empath. An artisan just can't give them such a power, even if they imagine their Creation having it. Then, there's his family."
"The parents and two siblings he mentioned?"
"Baron, the most Creations one artisan can make in their life is three. An artisan gives us souls by unknowingly taking from their own. Three Creations is the most one can give and those artisans generally didn't live long after their third one."
The white suit wearing Creation grips Toto's feathers tighter. "What you're saying is that William either made up this family or he's not truly a Creation."
"He could be a mimic that can replicate your wooden state for cover."
Baron allows paranoid thoughts to enter his head. "William forced us into allowing Haru to stay despite my visions. He wanted her in the Dog Kingdom. He wants my visions to become reality! He wants her to die!" The fearful tawny Creation looks back the way they'd come from. "WE HAVE TO GO BACK!"
"BARON!" Toto screams over his friend's panic. "I know you're scared, but you can't forget why we came here in the first place! Horvath might have murdered the prince of the Dog Kingdom and an innocent creature could be killed over it!"
The tawny feline's ears lower in shame over his single mindedness. "But…Haru…"
"She'll be fine. Muta's with her after all. He'd crack the skull of anyone who'd even try to hurt Haru."
Baron takes comfort in the crow gargoyle's words. Then, he realizes something. "Have I gone mad or have you actually called our rotund friend by his preferred name and said something positive about him?"
Toto is embarrassed by this. "Don't tell the fatso. He'd never let me hear the end of it."
The two fly on towards the Dog Kingdom's castle.
AN: So...lots to unpack here. Haru having command powers over dogs is certainly one of the most surprising things (she still can't speak to them without a translation spell though). The idea of having the Dog Kingdom be an opposite of the Cat Kingdom just came to me. The movie's Cat Kingdom was eternally set on a summer's day at noon, so the Dog Kingdom being on a winter's night at midnight felt like the perfect contrast to me. As I warned at the beginning of this chapter, some of the content of this chapter is quite dark considering the death of a child (or a pup in this case) even if it happened away from our major characters' view. Some of you may not be seeing the mystery at this time, so I'll make it clear what it is. Was Horvath the true culprit in Prince Milo's murder instead of the wolflike creature? If so, how did he make it to where he could blame it on said beast? Also, what is that being and where did it come from? The answers to come in the coming chapters. We're already halfway through the story, so be prepared for things to ramp up! See you all Wednesday!
