"We need to solve this somehow." Simon Blackbuck said to Gazelle as they both walked away from the table. Tyson was coming in along with the popstar as the blackbuck talked to her.

"Honestly. Gazelle, I really wish you had talked to me before posting that video. It might not have been the brightest move."

"I had to, Simon." The popstar said to her manager, "I couldn't just stand by and do nothing after I found out what people were saying about the boys online."

"Yeah, I understand that, but still..." Simon said as he continued to walk right by the side of his star, the three mammals moving into another part of the house now that lunch was over.

And what an awkward lunch it was.

It was not that different from the breakfast, with the exception that, this time, Angus himself was present on the table, as he had decided that now he wanted to mingle with the people of the mansion.

And prove once more what an obnoxious jerk he was.

Nick was not surprised. He knew very well the firstborn of the Manechester family. He never talked to him in person before, for the horse was too good to mingle with a poor little fox like Nick, but the fox was able to hear enough to have a very vivid picture of how the horse was in his mind's eye.

And the picture proved to be quite loyal to the original. Not only Angus got his kicks out of making fun of those who were in the table, and seemed like he wanted to get a rise out of some of them, but that whole attitude he had of looking down on others that rich people were so famous for having just seemed to ooze out of his pores.

So, finally meeting him in person was as much of a bad experience to Nick as he had expected, so he wasn't that much fazed. His partner, on her end, seemed to be much more annoyed than Nick, as she herself had thought Angus just as annoying as Nick did, in particular when he started making some bunny-related dirty jokes that he thought to be funny, and that the bunny on the table didn't took in too kindly.

She looked like she was ready to jump over there and smack that stupid smirk off that horse's face.

Gazelle looked ready to do the same, as the horse seemed not to have a problem on talking of when the two of them were dating, how the "fabulous and talented Gazelle" had once been head-over-hooves for him. He made it sound as if she was the neediest girlfriend ever, and that granted him more than just a few glares from both Gazelle and from Tyson, who went as far as to growl at the horse.

Carolyn seemed happy for having Angus on the table, though, and she ordered all of his favorite foods to be brought on the table. She was clearly babying him, and Angus didn't seemed to oppose. Apparently, he thought it was better than the murderous glares his father was throwing his way.

And Yahya? He was ignoring it all, apparently more interested on his cellphone than in whatever it was that Angus had to say, and the horse had a lot to say.

Everyone was actually glad when lunch was over, and they all finally got to go their own ways, but not before Angus had a final thing to tell Gazelle.

"You should check your socials again, Maria." Angus said to the departing popstar. "Last time I checked, there were a lot of people saying that you might be involved in the Darkest Hour as well. Something about you having been the sponsor of the little ritual your tigers are accuse of having done, and that you were into the whole thing from the start. Some of them are saying you deserve to die."

The way the horse was smirking as he said that made it seem as if he thought the whole thing to be mildly amusing. Gazelle, on her end, was not smiling at all. Neither were Tyson nor Simon.

In fact, the tiger and blackbuck both looked pretty upset as they heard those words from the horse.

Meanwhile, Ben had a bad feeling as he heard that.

Ben has always followed Gazelle on all social medias. Not so much her dancers, although he felt a little bad about ignoring them. Which was why he only heard some broken information regarding people's suspicious that they had something to do with the Darkest Hour, once they were all on the city of Fangtropolis once it happened.

Ben really thought it was unfair.

However, only after Angus said that on the lunch table, Ben knew that he had to know in details what was going on.

He tried asking Gazelle herself, wanting to know if she was okay, and if people were bothering her. She looked at him, before smiling sweetly.

"Estoy bien." Gazelle said, to him, "Really, you don't have to worry."

She talked to him as if he was an old friend. Normally, Ben would be in cloud nine for having his idol talk to him so intimately. However, the way she spoke it made Ben think that it was not okay. He could also feel her thoughts, not intentionally, but he did felt how troubled they seemed as she thought of this subject.

She was anything but okay.

Tyson too, as he seemed to have a mind as troubled as her own, and as he manager, who had a troubled mind as well, with some of his thoughts seeming strangely turned to Tyson...

That settled it to Ben that he needed to know what was happening.

So, he rushed back to his bedroom, thinking on getting to his phone as fast as possible.

As he did, he caught the eye of a person. A person who had been waiting for something like that for a while now, and didn't wasted the opportunity that presented itself.

This person followed the cheetah.

And in doing so, the person in question caught the eye of a certain someone else. Someone who had antlers...

Ben arrived on his bedroom, and he rushed to the nightstand by the side of the fancy bed with expensive-looking sheets, where his phone was.

Once he had it on his hands, checked the social accounts and saw that it had a new post made by Gazelle just last night. He saw the video Gazelle posted on defense of her tigers online, and people's reactions to it.

Ben never had been so outraged on his life.

He felt like posting his own video berating everyone online for saying those things and demanding they left Gazelle alone, just like he did back during the Night Howler scare, when people started bashing her online for standing in defense of all of the predators of the city, Ben himself included.

Although what was supposed to be an angry rant at people for leave the prey popstar alone ended up as Ben bawling like a kitten while tears and snot ran down his face.

Ben couldn't help himself. He could not stand when people attacked Gazelle. She was his idol! Her music was one of the things that had helped pull him out of the pit he was in when he first abandoned magecraft seven years ago. It were her songs that gave him the strength he needed to pull himself together and continue moving on with his life.

She saved him, either she knew it or not.

That was one of the reasons why Ben admired and loved her so much. But not to the point of being obsessive, of course...

So, Ben would not just stand back and allow others to bash his idol without doing anything.

Fearing that another video could end up with him breaking down in tears and pathetic sobbing, Ben decided to instead post as many comments as he could. Comments in defense of Gazelle, of the tigers, and offering all kinds of justifications from the perspective from an ex-mage as to why they could not have been responsible for what happened.

Ben knew that this probably would make him a target as well, but he didn't cared. He just knew that he needed to defend Gazelle, because this was what a good fan does for their idol, the person they admire and love with everything they had.

He would keep posting commentaries on her defense until they blocked him for spamming.

However, before he could.

"Nervous over your star, Benji?"

Ben nearly dropped his phone when he heard the voice coming suddenly from behind him. He twirled around in fighting position out of pure reflex, and he kept this position when he saw the mammal who talked to him.

Angus had his arms crossed before his broad chest, resting casually on the threshold of the door as he looked at the cheetah with a mildly interested expression. However, by the glint on his eyes, his interest was anything but mild...

The fact that his mind felt like it was shining a spotlight in direction of the feline didn't helped at all.

"Angus..." Ben said, finally dropping his fighting stance.

"I have to say, I'm surprise that what is happening to Gazelle bothers you so much." Angus said, looking at Ben as he continued to casually rest his body on the frame of the door, looking at the cat. "Don't you think you are maybe giving her too much attention? Maybe more than she deserves?"

"If you are going to speak ill of Gazelle then you better stop now!" Ben warned the horse. It was rare to see Ben angry. When he had a genuinely angry expression on his face, then you knew that you had messed up, and that you better stop now before you said something he would never forgive you for.

Angus decided to do it.

"Okay, no need to be so nervous." Angus said defensively. He seemed to be very casual as he spoke that to the feline, but he was actually choosing his words very carefully now, making sure that he would not say anything that would put him in a worse position with the one mammal on that mansion in whom he was truly interested.

"I won't say anything bad about Gazelle. Honestly, she was a good girlfriend back when we dated, and her music is actually pretty good." Angus said to the cheetah, approaching him on the friendliest wat possible. He then said:

"So, how bad are the things online for our popstar? They seemed pretty bad last time I checked. The haters are surely having a field day with all of this."

Ben hated to admit that they looked pretty bad. With all of the hateful messages and death threats. It seemed that people were not holding back in attacking Ben's beloved popstar now that they had an excuse to do so, justified or not. That was one thing Ben always hated about the internet, the amount of people who so readily attacked others under the guise of anonymity and "freedom of speech".

Angus, on his end, was more than happy to offer his support to Ben, admitting how despicable people like that were. He completely ignored the fact that he himself had done things like that in the past...

From there, he was able to approach Ben by offering his support in a moment of need, and promising to be there if the cheetah needed help.

"I'll stand for you if you need me to." Angus said to the cheetah as he placed a hooved hand on his shoulder in the more compassionate way he could manage. "You can count on me to be by your side."

"For real?" Ben asked, and Angus flashed a smile with teeth. His teeth were still so white that they nearly sparkled, adding to the horse's natural charm.

"Yes, for real." Angus said to the cheetah with his best friendly smile. "You can bet on it, Benji. I definitely won't let you down. I wouldn't dare to after how much trouble I caused you five years ago."

Ben knew what Angus was talking about.

He was not only talking about at how at odds they had been right at the beginning.

The time when Angus first approached him to get Ben to cut ties with his brother, calling him some "opportunistic little parasite that was better dealt with before he could latch on to the family", and saying that he better look for another person to try and trick. The horse certainly didn't held back when calling Ben on his apparent ruse on trying to get friends with a rich people to try and have access to his money.

That was just the beginning of them being at odds with each other. And this only got worse after Angus was unwillingly dragged into the moonlit world.

Yeah, he certainly wasn't happy with Ben for having led him into signing a contract that placed a curse on him that prevented him from talking about magecraft to people. And this translated to his behavior regarding Ben in general, as he managed to, by finding one person in the moonlit world of Zootopia who would talk to him, discover the past of Ben's accusation, which he used as ammunition to confront Ben and try to get a rise out of him.

Ben could still remember how badly Angus accused him by asking him if his parents got him a deal to get him free of the accusation with the Association if he swore to never practice magecraft again. He seemed to be pretty aggressive back at the moment, and Ben could only vainly try to free his wrist from his grip.

To this day, Ben dreaded to think what could have possibly happened if Bogo had not come to his rescue in that garage, prompting Angus to run as fast as he could.

Ben had been, very justifiably, nervous when Angus approached him again. This time, however, the horse was much friendlier. Apparently, Angus realized that, if he wanted to talk to anyone who would give him the time of day, his only option was the one mage who didn't thought of him as a loser.

This was what prompted them to spend more and more time together over the course of weeks, until it eventually culminated with Angus inviting him to his favorite place in all of Zootopia, which happened to be one of the best and most expensive restaurants on the city.

Needless to say, that didn't ended well.

Bogo's surprise appearance and his subsequent discussion with Angus led to the horse attacking him with a bottle of wine, which in turn caused Ben to attack him with a Taser before taking Bogo out of there to be checked, with the horse recovering enough to see Ben and Bogo leaving the restaurant a bit too close for his taste.

As a result, they were, once more, at odds for a while. Until the day when Angus left the city, promising to come back one day.

And the day had finally back. Angus was back in the city, and finally talking to Ben once more.

And he was so glad he had the chance to...

"I would never have left if I had the choice, Ben." Angus said to the cheetah. "If my father was not threatening me to leave the city, you can be sure I would never have left it. I never would have left you."

Ben blinked as he looked at the horse.

"Ben, don't act surprised now." Angus said to him, "I think I've left my feelings clear enough by now. I do know that you understand how much you mean to me. How much you have meant since five years ago."

Ben looked at him for a few moments.

"Angus..."

"Ben..." Angus said, as he placed his hooves on Ben's face, and then closing the distance in between the two.

Well, trying to close the distance. Ben moved back, escaping his grasp.

"Angus, I think we shouldn't be doing this." Ben said as he looked at the horse, who looked back at him.

"Why?" The horse asked, "Why shouldn't we? Give me one good reason."

"Angus..." Ben said, but Angus didn't let him speak, and instead continued speaking.

"You changed my life, Ben." The horse said to him, "You changed it in the most amazing way I could have ever imagined."

"Angus, please..." Ben said, looking at him. The horse didn't relented.

"You showed me a whole new world. A world were the name Manechester meant close to nothing. I used to be someone big in Zootopia. So big I could do whatever I wanted and have anything I desired. But, after meeting you, I saw that there were places here in this city where being a Manechester meant as much as being just another regular nobody. I saw a world so much bigger than I ever imagined could exist. Like a goldfish dumped from his bowl into the ocean..."

"Angus..." Ben said to the horse, "I... I feel like I messed up your life by getting involved with you."

"Nonsense." Angus said to the cheetah. "If anything, you helped me escape from that little world I was stuck into."

"You lost everything." Ben said back, "You lost your place in your family and all of your friends."

"Friends?" Angus asked, "You mean, those little ticks who clung to me for my status and money and who didn't supported me enough to be on my side when things got tough for me? Those 'friends'?"

Angus looked at the cheetah deep in the eyes.

"Ben, you made me see how my life was empty." He said, "How all of those friends didn't cared for me. How all of the status that meant so much on my inner circles could mean close to nothing among people with real power. That the world is so much bigger than that little bowl I grew up into. So, so much bigger..."

Angus let out a snorting chuckle.

"I would have stayed a small and ridiculous goldfish for the rest of my life if you hadn't show me how big the ocean truly is, and I would have been happy with that... But don't you think I'm complaining."

"If anything, I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart." Angus spoke, "Now I know more than I did before. Now I am much more than I was back on that day. I have grown, and I'll continue growing. I'll become more than my father and grandfather and anyone else on my family has ever dreamed of being. And it's all thanks to you, Ben."

He sounded genuine as he said all of that. The smile he had on his face certainly didn't looked fake in Ben's eyes. Neither did the warmth in Angus' own blue eyes as he looked at the cheetah before him.

"I can't say how much I owe you, Ben." Angus said, once more closing the distance between the two of them, until he was standing very close to the cheetah. Ben tried to step back, but Angus stopped by putting an arm around the cheetah, his hooved hand resting on the small of Ben's back, right above the base of his tail.

Needless to say, it was the type of intimate touch that could make a mammal like Ben blush.

"Benji..." Angus said, looking the cheetah in the eyes. "I'd like to make a proposition to you..."

Ben blinked, feeling his stomach go weird as he heard the horse say that with that look on his eyes.

"W-what?" Was all that the cheetah could manage to squeak out as he heard what Angus said to him, and then the horse continued:

"I'd like you to..." He made a pause, approaching Ben's face. The cheetah's blush intensified.

"Be my magecraft instructor."

Ben blinked.

"Excuse?" He said, unable to say anything else as he looked at the horse.

"I still have a lot to learn." Angus said to the cheetah. "I am but a novice in magecraft. I only know the basic, and that is nowhere near enough to be able to say I'm a professional mage. I need to learn more. I need to so I can keep growing. To keep climbing up the ranks and show all of those long-lineage mages that I'm not a loser and that they better respect me."

"And for that, I'll need an instructor." Angus concluded, looking at the cheetah. "Someone... like you."

Ben was unsure of what to say. Still, he was able to let something out, saying that he was not good in giving lessons to others, and that he was not sure if he could be Angus' instructor...

"Then you can present me to someone." Angus said to him, "But, I would like it way better if it were you being my instructor. After all, you already was the one who introduced me to magecraft, and you did a pretty god job at it."

Angus placed a hoof on Ben's chin, making the cheetah look at him when the feline tried to look to another direction. It seemed Angus didn't wanted to lose Ben's attention now that he had it.

"I really want it to be, you, Ben." Angus said, "I want you to be the one to teach me. To help be grow and become all I can be. It would really mean a lot to me if it was you by my side as I grow to become the powerful mage I know I'm supposed to be. I know that, with someone like you by my side, I can reach all of it."

"Imagine this." Angus said, moving his hoof down, to hold Ben's paw. "The two of us, Benjamin Clawhauser and Angus Manechester, rising the ranks of the mages until we are standing above everyone else. Wouldn't it be glorious? Wouldn't it be a true tale worth telling?"

As Angus said that, he moved Ben's body with one hoof holding the cheetah's paw and the other on his waist. Ben, surprised by this, had no choice but to allow Angus to move him as if they were dancing tango.

"Oh, imagine how far we could go. Imagine where we could be five years from now." Angus said as he moved the cheetah around. "Imagine what we could achieve. What we could become. Me and you. Together becoming two of the most powerful mages of the world."

Angus seemed to be having fun imaging that. Ben, on the other hand...

"Angus, I'm not a mage anymore!" Ben said to him. "I renounced magecraft!"

"Forever?" Angus asked him, as if it was a genuine question. "I already heard many stories, you know? Stories of mages who renounced magecraft, but then decided to return to the moonlit world and take back from where they left. It can happen. Sometimes they are not really quitting, they are just taking a long vacation. This could very well be your case."

"Angus, don't do this, please..." Ben said, and Angus once more silenced him. This time, he did this by making a sudden movement, one that was like a professional tango dancer, with Ben leaning over while Angus held him up with an arm around his body. The fact that he was holding Ben's paw on his hoof certainly made the situation seem a little bit romantic.

"I'll protect you." Angus said to the cheetah. "I'll stand for you until the very end, and I'll never allow for anyone to hurt you. Anyone who tries will suffer at my hooves. This is a promise I make to you, and you can be sure that I'll be keeping it."

Angus spoke it with such conviction that caught Ben completely off guard. He could only stare at the horse, as the equine looked back at him with a smirk on his face, before flashing his pearly-white teeth to the feline once more.

"Don't be so surprised, Ben. It is natural to do it for the ones we love, right?"

Once more, Angus proved that he was a charmer. He could have a lot of flaws, as Ben had heard from a lot of people, but he knew how to be charming. In a way that it was nearly supernatural.

Enough to make Ben completely disarmed when he started using his charm against him just on the right conditions. It happened five years ago on that lunch with him with romantic music on the background at the Cheval Ardent, and it was happening now that Angus was holding him like the male lead of an old romance movie held the female lead before they eventually kissed.

And, like five years ago, the way Angus was slowly approaching his face suggested that this was what was about to happen.

"A-Angus..." Ben said, "Y-you should not... I-I shouldn't... M-maybe we should not..."

"Is that so?" Angus asked, looking at the cheetah as he spoke with a sultry, gentle voice that had the right combination of affection and passion. "Then tell me you don't want it. Say it right now. Tell me to stop and I'll stop."

He looked deeply into Ben's eyes. Ben looked down at those orbs, blue like the ocean, and so deep that Ben felt like he could fall into them and get lost forever.

He was unable to form any words of protest other than a weak mewl that hardly counted as protest at all.

Angus smirked.

"Just as I thought..."

And Angus started closing the distance, closing his eyes while Ben did the same, their lips coming closer and closer with each instant...

"Excuse me!"

The new voice made both of them stop. Ben immediately turned to look at the door at the person who spoke, while Angus could only groan internally.

Why? Why does someone always interrupts!?

"Gabe!" Ben said in surprise, as he saw who was at the door. The deer stood in there and he was looking at the two of them, and he didn't not seemed happy. For a moment, Ben thought Gabe was mad at him, but that was not true.

All of Gabe's hostility was turn to the horse currently holding Ben. And Angus looked back at him with similar hostility once he bothered to look his way.

"Oh... you." Angus said, and he spoke the word "you" in a way that made it perfectly clear that Gabe was all but his less favorite person on the entire planet at that very moment.

"You better get your hooves off that cheetah right now." Gabe said, not making any effort to hide his enmity towards the horse. Angus, on his end, only looked at him as he straightened Ben up and allowed the cheetah to stand by himself.

Not because Gabe told him to, but because this way he himself could tower over the deer without having to worry.

And he did towered over Gabe as the deer came closer to him, not showing any sign of being intimidated by the bigger prey.

"What kind of game are you trying to play here, Manechester?" Gabe demanded, to what Angus said back that he was not playing any game, but that he was up to it if the deer was interested.

"But, just for you to know, I don't usually lose any game I play." Angus said to him, "I always get the prize in the end."

Gabe would have growled and bared his fangs had he been born a wolf. Once more, the horse gave him reasons to despise him. He disliked the horse since the moment he met him. There was something about his attitude that just felt wrong with Gabe, and it was not only about how he acted with Ben (although that played a huge part in it).

It was about that arrogance that he showed. About the way he acted, as if looking down on others was a second nature of him. That way of always behaving as if he was superior to everyone around him. This aura of arrogance practically dripped out of his fur and pooled into the ground at his hooves.

It reminded Gabe so much of his brothers that it was completely infuriating.

Once more, Gabe felt like going into a fight with that horse, and Angus seemed only happy for taking in his call for battle, as he seemed to be aching for having a battle with another mage.

However, once more, they stopped out of consideration for Ben. The cheetah practically jumped in between the two of them, making sure that both of them stopped as he used his own bulky form to force them apart. Once more, seeing the look in Ben's face as he pleaded the two not to fight was enough to make them both stand down and hold back from attacking each other.

For now.

"I'll be available when you want to talk to me, Ben." Angus said, placing a hoof on his shoulder in a very tender way. "At any time."

With this said, Angus made his way out of the room, leaving Ben along with Gabe, who was still glaring daggers at the horse.

His expression softened when he looked Ben's way, and Ben could see ow much he cared about him with one single look on his eyes.

At that moment, Ben remembered all they went through in the past, and how much they lived together, and how much they meant for each other.

It caused his heart to warm up as he remembered of all of Gabe's love for him.

However, he then remembered Bogo. His boss on the ZPD, whom he admired and respected, and who became so close to him right on the first months when he joined the ZPD.

And now, there was also Angus, who formed a bond with him once he was dragged into the world of magecraft, and who had that charm that, as Ben had found, was nearly impossible to resist.

Ben was already feeling torn when it was only Bogo and Gabe. Now, however, he felt like he could be rip in three parts.

What a problem he was in...

He NEEDED to find out a way to solve this problem!

Maybe he could get some shovels and start digging his way into the mansion? No, that would take way too long. Besides, he didn't had much of a direction sense when he was underground. He needed to have the train schedule on his paws when he went on the subway, otherwise he would get the wrong one and end up on the opposite side of town in the middle of the night and have to call Chloe to come pick him up.

Maybe he could disguise himself as a delivery-mammal and wait for one of them to make a call for food so he could sneak inside. Or maybe he could pretend to be a delivery guy making a delivery. Or maybe he could BE the delivery! He could hide inside of the box and come out when they all forgot about it in the living room once they brought it inside. But he would need to set up a way to breathe while he was in there, and they could be suspicious if the box had a snorkel coming from inside.

He could even just call Nick and Judy and make up something about wanting to see the two. But that was not a good idea. Nick was still upset with him from the time he snuck into his house and filled it with roses thinking he and Judy had finally started dating and were moving in together...

Maybe he could-

"Excuse me!" Eliot snapped out of his thinking to look at the person who talked to him. That rhino with a face almost as grumpy as Chief Bogo's when he was on a bad mood looked at the wolf with a glare.

"You lost something, wolf?" The rhino asked, and Eliot looked at him for a moment, nearly as if he was wondering if he should or should not answer is question.

"Nnnnoooooo?" Eliot said slowly, and then the rhino snorted at him.

"Then you have no reason to be leaning over the bars of the Vole Gardens for the last one-and-a-half hour! Now beat it before I call the police!"

I am the police... Eliot wanted to tell him, but knew that it was better not. Eliot was out of his police uniform and dressed like a civilian. He didn't even had his badge on him. He would not be able to convince the rhino and he would be even rougher on him.

Worse than that. The rhino would actually call the police on him and they would confirm that Eliot was one of them, and then they would start asking him why he was lurking around one of the city's richest neighborhoods, and Eliot could not tell them it was because there was something in one of those houses that he needed to steal if he wanted to see his wife alive again.

So, the wolf did as the rhino told him, and walked away with his head down and his tail between his legs.

As he was on his way, he could hear the rhino speaking on his radio to a friend, and tell him to keep an eye for "some weirdo wolf who is lurking around the gates".

Great, now it would be even harder to come up with a way to get inside.

As if it was not hard already.

So hard that Eliot was having a real hard time even picturing himself actually getting inside and getting the thing for Tasman in time...

NO!

He would be getting it! He HAD to get it! He had to get it so he could save Chloe! So she could come back home safely, and tell him what was the important thing that she said she had to talk to him once he got back home! The message she sent to him through his phone made it sound like it was something really important.

Well, it had to be important, if she wanted to talk it in person instead of telling him through text messages or even through a phone call...

"Trying to figure things out, my lupine friend?"

That voice made Eliot jump back as he landed on fighting stance. Well, if you could call "fighting stance" standing with your paws in front of your body with the index and middle fingers stretched as if ready to deliver a nerve strike like on the old martial arts movies.

He looked to the sides, before he looked down, and saw the animal who talked to him.

The fox was sitting on the ground, which was why Eliot almost missed him.

For a moment, he thought this was one of the enforcers, until he realized that he both sounded and smelled different, even though he had the same black fur and eyes of a similar shade of yellow. His face was different, though. This one was surely not the Mieczyslaw guy.

"Who are you?" Eliot asked, "What do you want?"

The fox looked up at him, and he smiled.

"To make you an offer."

Eliot looked at him.

"Look, if you are trying to sell me something, then I don't have time, okay?" Eliot said to the fox, who looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. "I have been having very bad few days, and I have a huge problem to solve now. I really don't have time to whatever it is that you're trying to sell me."

Eliot was just about to leave, when the fox stopped him by saying:

"Not even if it's a way to save Chloe?"

Eliot blinked, and he looked at the fox once more.

"Wait, what?" Eliot said, as he looked at the fox. "Are you serious? You can help me save Chloe? Like, for real? I mean, not that I don't want help, I was freaking out so much... Wait, how do you know about Chloe? I don't know you..."

Eliot then looked at the fox with mistrust.

"Did Tasman sent you? Is he looking right now!?" Eliot looked to all sides, looking for anything that could be out of place, even though he himself didn't had the faintest idea of what could be considered "out of place" when you were dealing with a mage watching your every move.

"Relax, Mr. Fanghanel." The fox said to him, "Tasman cannot see us. I made sure of that. He has no idea that I'm talking to you. And I'm not sided with him, so don't worry about that."

Eliot looked at the fox.

"Who are you?" He asked, and the fox got up from the ground, allowing the wolf to take a better look on the clothes he was wearing, which actually seemed pretty nice, although they were a bit dirty.

"My name is Cornelius. I'm a mage, and I do not approve of what Tasman is doing to you. It is not elegant to resource to such tactics to get what you want. I would not stoop so low as to use one's loved ones against them."

"Good for you." Eliot said to him, as he was still weary of the fox. There was just something about him that felt off.

He had such a weird smell...

"Anyways, I'm here to help you with the problem you have at paw." The fox said, and Eliot asked him if he would be able to help him rescue Chloe. However, the fox shook his head.

"Unfortunately, I cannot help you with that." He said to the wolf. That smile never leaving his muzzle. "However, I can help you with the mission Tasman has given to you. I'll help you retrieve the object that Tasman want. Then you can give it to him, and he will, in turn, give you back your wife. This way everyone will be satisfied, right?"

Eliot was not sure about that. As he had time to think about that, he didn't thought that this would actually be a good ending. It didn't felt right that in the end the bad guy would get what he wanted. However, seeing that what was on the line was the well-being of his beloved Chloe, Eliot knew that he could just toss the other worries through the window.

As long as Chloe made it back to him safe and sound, he didn't cared about anything else.

Tasman could do whatever he wanted, as long as he didn't came anywhere near them ever again.

And, with the deadline Tasman gave him growing closer with each passing day, he was desperate enough to accept any help that he could get. Including the one from strange mage foxes approaching him very randomly and suspiciously on the street.

Which was why he said that he would accept the fox's help. And he was surprised when the fox said he would only be helping him directly by giving him a plan to follow.

A plan that including contacting Tasman.

"Do I actually have to?" Eliot said, the burner phone on his paw as he looked at Cornelius, who looked back at him with that same smile, and nodded at him.

"It will work, trust me. Now call that dog-faced bastard and say exactly what I told you."

Eliot didn't wanted, but he didn't had any other options.

"Doing this will surely allow you to see your wife again." Cornelius said to him, "Trust me in this and do as I told you. Everything will turn out alright, I promise."

Those words coming from the fox somehow put Eliot's mind at ease... somehow.

He dialed the number on the memory of the phone, and he felt anxious as he listened to the tune coming from the other end, until someone else picked up.

"This is Tasman." Said the voice on the other end. Even hearing his voice was enough to make Eliot cringe. That was the level of enmity that he would have for anyone who ever laid a finger on his dear Pumpkin.

Eliot had to consciously suppress his urge to growl, and instead only said that it was him.

"What do you want, Fanghanel?" Tasman said on the other end of the phone. "If you are going to ask me to let you hear Chloe's voice again you can forget it. I already allowed you to do it two times, and that was only because you were annoying me. Continue like this and I'll just cut all communication until you have the package."

"It's not that." Eliot said to him, even though he did wanted to be able to hear Chloe's voice one more time, just to give him enough strength to keep carrying on. "This time it is important. I need your help to get the package."

"Oh?" Tasman said on the other end, "Well, that was to be expected. So, what exactly do you need?"

Eliot looked at the fox, and the vulpine nodded at him.

"I... I need mammal power."

There were a few moments of silence, before Tasman said:

"Care to elaborate?"

Eliot blinked, once more looking at the fox, who then gestured at him to go on. Then Eliot took a deep breath, and he said exactly what Cornelius had instructed him to say.

"I have a plan to get the package, but I'll need some help to do it. It'll be better if it is the kind of help who follows all of my commands without questioning, and who will not betray me when I need it. They need to be able to do everything I tell them to, need to have no qualms about doing dirty work and they need to be able to deal with low-ranking mages on their own. And I don't plan to come back for them, so it will be better if they are disposable."

Eliot could not believe that the last part was actually coming out of his mouth. He was basically only repeating what Cornelius told him to say. Still, the wolf needed a lot of convincing to say that he wanted Tasman to send someone "disposable" to him.

There was a brief silence on the other end, which lasted just a few seconds too long for Eliot's taste.

"Okay." Tasman said on the other end, just about when Eliot was about to ask if he was still on the line. "You're in luck, Fanghanel. I might have exactly what you need. I'll make a phone call, and I'll get back to you soon. You just wait and don't do anything stupid."

And then, the male thylacine hang up on Eliot, but not before the wolf heard him mutter something to himself about "mundanes being useless".

Then, Eliot only looked at the phone as he processed what just happened.

"Well done, Eliot." Cornelius said to him, but Eliot still looked nervous, and he was looking to the sides and even up, as he remembered of both Nick's butterflies and Judy's crow.

"Don't worry, he is not seeing us." Cornelius tranquilized him. "He has no idea that we are talking, and neither he will find out. You don't have to worry about it. All you have to worry about is following my instructions, and you will be able to get that pretty thing and trade it for your wife."

He looked at the wolf in the eyes.

"Trust in me, okay?"

Eliot felt like he shouldn't. However, he knew that he had no choice...