You know when you realize that you are acting weird and everyone is looking your way? That was how Yahya felt when Gosha said:

"Yahya?"

It was like this word broke some kind of spell and Yahya suddenly realized that he had an outburst and now had made a request to the wolf out of nowhere. Yahya's wide field of vision let him know that every single person of the room was starting at him, from all the guests to his own family.

So, the horse recomposed himself, and he said:

"You can stay here in the mansion. This way you won't have to look for a place to stay in the middle of the city."

People still stared at Yahya at this, there were some raised eyebrows looking his way, and one of them was Lumia's.

"Only him?" The gazelle mage asked to the horse, who took a moment to answer:

"It extends to you as well, Mrs. Horne, and to your husband."

"To us too?" Legoshi asked, and Melor, who was standing by his side, looked straight at the horse in expectation.

Yahya looked at the two of them for a couple seconds, before he answered:

"Yes, naturally, you two are invited to stay as well. Especially Legoshi, since, as a minor, he should not be left without the supervision of a responsible adult."

Melor knew the horse was sending him a message by talking about a "responsible adult". The horse had this way of making what he meant very clear to everyone who heard him.

Still, some people had something to say.

"Hold on!" Charlie said, gathering attention of the room for himself. "Yahya, you can't be serious! You can't want to keep those two in the house!"

Yahya ignored him.

"Father, he is right!" Adrian said to Yahya. "They both tricked us! They lied to us and took our money! You have decided to kick them out yourself!"

This time, Yahya answered.

"Yes, I did..." Yahya said, looking over his shoulder so he could make eye-contact with his son. "Because I thought they were both scammers. But now it is clear that they are just two stupid boys who made stupid choices. So long as their guardians are in here to keep an eye on them, then I think there will be no problem."

He shifted his face to make eye contact with Lumia next.

"There will be no problem, right?" He asked to the gazelle. To what she said:

"I'll make sure there isn't."

The way she spoke it made Melor nervous enough for him to swallow a lump that suddenly formed on his throat.

Suddenly he didn't want to stay on the mansion anymore... Until he remembered that, either he stayed or left, his mother would not be letting him out of her line of sight.

"Good to know." Yahya said, "Also, it would not be good to take away two of the contestants on Chandler's game."

"But, father!" Adrian tried to protest, but Yahya silenced him:

"They are staying, Adrian."

There was no way Adrian could protest when his father spoke like that. He knew he could not win when Yahya used this tune of voice. So, all he could do was lower his head. Meanwhile, Yahya looked back on Gosha's way.

"That is... if you want to."

Gosha looked at Yahya for a few seconds, before he looked over his shoulder at the others. Legoshi and Melor looked back at him. Lumia made a "you decide what we do" nod, while her husband shrugged by her side.

After a few seconds of deliberation, Gosha decided:

"We will accept your invitation and stay." The wolf said as he looked back at the horse. "If we are not too much of a bother."

"Not any more than those two have been since they arrived." Yahya said, "You can make yourselves at home. Douglas." Yahya was talking to one of the butlers, an alpaca who had been standing at the corner of the room until now and was genuinely surprised when Yahya Manechester spoke to him directly.

"Help them get rooms for themselves." Yahya said, "I'll go talk to the cook and let him know we will have more people for dinner. Be sure to have extra seats on the table."

With this, Yahya left, walking through the doors and leaving everyone to recover, some of them still wondering what the heck had just happened.

It was Melor who broke the silence, as he said that, since they were staying, they would be taking back their bedroom with view to the garden.

"Good to me." Lumia said, and she turned to the butler. "The room right by the side of it is vacant? Yes? Good, we will be staying there."

"Wait, what?" The hybrid said as he looked at his mother. "You will be staying by the bedroom next doors?"

"Of course I am, boy!" Lumia said, as she shot her hoof forward and grabbed Melor's ear, causing the hybrid to cry out in pain. "I won't give you any more chances to cause trouble."

She then turned to look at Legoshi.

"And the same goes to you!" Lumia said, as her other hoof shot to grasp Legoshi's ear, pinching it and causing the wolf to whimper.

"I hope you two have enjoyed the freedoms of adult life!" She said to the two of them as she continued to hold their ears on the iron grasp of her hooved fingers. "Because, from now on, I'm not letting either of you out of my sight for more than two hours!"

With this, she asked them to tell there where their bedroom was, and it was Melor who told her the directions. Next, the two younger mammals were being dragged by the ears by the gazelle in direction to the stairs.

"Mama!" Melor cried as his mother held his ear with an iron grip. "This doesn't hurts good!"

Tibor was soon picking up the luggage of the two boys and carrying it as he followed after his wife, leaving everyone to look the way they went.

There was a heavy silence left behind by their departure, which was starting to get unnerving.

"Sooo, is that grandson of yours really sixteen?" Nick asked. He was talking to Gosha, who looked at him in surprise, before confirming that Legoshi was, indeed, sixteen years old.

"Does this mean we should be expecting him to have a growth spurt anytime soon?" Nick asked, looking up and down at the wolf that was as tall as a horse...

Zootopia was a nice city. It certainly seemed like it had everything, not to mention how beautiful it was in there.

No wonder Judy chose to move in there.

The city certainly had very lovely sunsets. Harry did love the sunsets. The red and orange hues that came from the yellow sun disappearing in the horizon were just one of the loveliest things that one could see. Harry remembered that many times he would just sit on an old tree stump or in an old segment of their fence with a bowl of sliced up strawberries on his lap and just keep eating them as he looked at the sunset.

He still enjoyed watching the sunset, as he was sitting on a metal fence on the top of a small cliff. His feet were hanging over the edge, a small fast-food packaging of fruit and yogurt parfait from McDonkey, now empty as the bunny had eaten all its contents, and now he was just looking at the setting sun in the distance.

It was beautiful.

The setting sun was beautiful anywhere, if the pictures that Harry saw online from sunsets all around the world were anything to go by. However, he knew very well that seeing a sunset through a photo and actually being there to enjoy it was a totally different story.

One thing he could say for sure by sitting on that ledge and looking at the sun setting: it was pretty beautiful.

It was certainly helping distract Harry of the problems that were currently plaguing his mind now.

He could still not believe that his chance to learn magecraft had basically slammed the door on his face. Not literally, of course, as Sophie already showed that she was too kind to literally slam the door right on his nose. However, this was basically what had happened, as his one chance to learn more about magecraft and become a mage just refused him.

Harry had been really pumped up about learning. Like he had been about few other things on his entire life.

However, it seemed that Sophie was not keen on helping him learn anything, and Harry still didn't understand completely why. I mean, he got the gist, but it was still hard to understand fully, and people always told him how smart he was.

Maybe it was an ex-mage thing...

Either way, this didn't change the fact that Harry was now pretty much back to the stage he was before he had the idea of going for Sophie for their "talks" on magecraft. This was more than a little problem for the bunny who had been over the moon about learning new things.

Harry sighed as he continued to look at the sunset, taking in the beautiful shades of orange that were forming as the sun vanished out of sight. All alone on that little hill.

Except that he wasn't...

"Beautiful, ain't it?" Said a voice that surprised Harry. The bunny nearly jumped back as he looked to the side and he saw that there was someone in there with him.

H-how long as she been there!? Harry thought as he looked to the side, to the female fox who was leaning over the ledge as she watched with a smirk on her face.

Her fur was as white as snow, and she was wearing a form-fitting black dress that high-lighted all features of her body. Her bushy tail swished behind her as she watched at the sun setting.

"If you were to describe it over the phone to a mammal on the other side of the world, how would you describe it?" The vixen asked to the bunny, looking away from the sun to look at the bunny, her indigo-colored eyes were captivating, and they were as deep as the ocean.

"What words would you use to describe this sunset?"

Harry could only look at the vixen for a few moments, before saying:

"Who are you?"

The vixen chuckled at this, before looking back in direction to the setting sun.

"I have been called many things in my life, bunny boy." She said, as she rested her arms on the metal fence, leaning over to enjoy this natural sight. "Some were good, others were bad. For now, you may call me Vee. It is how my intimate friends call me."

She looked back at the bunny.

"I hope you can become one of them..." She said, and she winked at him in a way that Harry could only describe as "sensual".

Harry looked at her.

"Ooookay?" Harry said, as he continued to sit where he was. He remained in silence for a while, as the vixen only stood by his side, smiling as she looked at the same sunset that Harry had been admiring just a few moments before. And that now he could not admire so much now that there was a strange vixen standing right by his side.

Having her there made him nervous, for some reason. Could it be his natural fear? Harry heard that these kinds of things ran pretty deep. He liked to believe he didn't had trouble with foxes, but still, he knew that every mammal had this little deal of natural fear regarding certain other species. For prey, this translated as a natural weariness of predators of all kinds, especially the strangers.

That, at least, according to those psychology books that Harry read while he was trying to teach himself psychanalysis, before he eventually lost interest in it as well.

"I know what you are thinking, Harry." The vixen said, surprising the bunny. "Why is this vixen I never saw before approaching you and talking to you as if you are an old friend?"

"How do you know my name?" Harry asked, the vixen ignored him as she continued:

"There is a reason why I'm talking to you right now, Harry." She was still looking at the setting sun. "There is always a reason why mammals do things. Most of the times it is nothing more than pure self-interest. Nothing more than a way to get what they want by using someone else."

She turned to look at the bunny.

"There is a reason why I'm talking to you right now, Harry." She said, "Make no mistake, it is a selfish reason. However, I'm pretty sure that you will benefit from it as much as me. So, not entirely selfish, I think?"

Harry continued to look at her, and the vixen continued speaking:

"Now, answering your question, I know your name because I have been keeping an eye on you. Yes, I have been stalking you, sue me. I have been stalking you ever since the day I saw you using that spell on the alley. That is how I know who you are, where you and your family are staying, and that you have been going to see Sophie Wilde for the last few days in hopes that she could teach you more about magecraft."

Harry was surprised, to say the very least. However, before he could say anything about what the vixen just revealed to him:

"I also know how she refused to teach you more." The vixen smiling in a friendly manner, "That must have been so hard on you... having an opportunity for greatness just close the door on you... not all who just find out they are mages have a chance present itself to them only to disappear like mist in the morning. I know that it can be very hard."

She leaned forward, approaching Harry's face with her own, her muzzle just an inch away from his'. Harry felt like he could fall inside those eyes and never find the way out.

"And what a tragedy it would be for a talent like yours never achieving it's full potential..." She said to him. Something about her voice caused Harry's nose to twitch madly, as well as the look on her eyes as she seemed to be peering right into his soul with those penetrating indigo pools.

All his instincts were telling him to run while he could.

However, for some reason, Harry ignored them and stayed.

"Who... who are you?" He asked, and the vixen chuckled.

"Like I said, you can call me Vee." She said to him, and the she lifted her paw, so he could see it. "And, I am a mage..."

She said, snapping her fingers and producing a red flame on the palm of her paw, just for Harry to look with wide eyes.

"Just like you." She finished, closing her paw and snuffing out the flame.

"Now, for the reason why I'm talking with you..." She finally said, looking at the bunny. "I'd like to teach you magecraft."

"Wait, really?" Harry asked, and the vixen, Vee, nodded as he asked that, and she confirmed that she, indeed, wanted to take her as her apprentice and truly teach him magecraft, if he wanted to.

When Harry asked her why she was teaching him:

"Like I said, I'm doing this for selfish reasons." She said to the bunny, her smile never once leaving her muzzle. "And also, because I really think it would be sad for a talent like yours going to waste. So, what do you tell me, Harold Hazelnus Hopps? Would you like to be my student and learn magecraft from me?"

There was something off about this vixen. And it was not even the fact that she knew his embarrassing middle name.

Maybe it was his natural fear speaking, but there was something very wrong about that vixen. Something that just made him weary to even be around her. However, she was offering him a chance to learn true magecraft. A chance that Sophie already denied him, and that Harry wanted more than anything.

He was truly way more passionate about magecraft than he ever felt about anything he tried to study and learn in the past. Perhaps because, ever since he could remember, he had always been fascinated with the theme of fantasy and magic...

This curiosity made Harry put his worries aside and accept Vee's offer to become her student. This seemed to please the vixen, as her smirk widened ever so slightly.

"So, we start right now?" Harry asked, to what the vixen shook her head.

"The sun is already setting." She said to him, "I don't think it would be safe for you to be around me after dark. I haven't had my dinner yet... and you look quite tempting for me right now."

The way she spoke it didn't make it sound like a joke. That made Harry's nose twitch as she eyed him with hunger, his fur standing on end as his ears stood up in attention.

"Let's start tomorrow." Vee said to him. "I'll find you in front of your building in the morning. Not too early, I'll give you time to finish your breakfast. You can make an excuse to your family like you've been doing on the past week. Make sure none of them follows you or sees you around with me. Especially your mother. She won't be happy for seeing you with me, don't ask me how, but I know that she will. She will throw a fit like none you've ever seen before. So, see you tomorrow, Harry."

She said the final words as she booped Harry's twitching nose with her furry finger, before leaving with a smile on her face, as Harry could only look her away as she departed, her tail swishing back and forth behind her as she shook her hips with each step...

What... just happened? Was all that Harry could think, as his mind tried to take a grip on the events that took place just now.

Bogo was still taking a grip on everything that happened.

His talk with Marceli had left behind more than just a little tension between the two of them.

Bogo knew that it was hard to relive certain types of things. It must have been hard for Marceli to have relived what himself claimed to have been the worst experience of his life. Bogo knew that he would not want to remember having gone through anything like what the fox did.

Bogo realized, now that he thought back about it, that Marceli Mieczyslaw must have gone through a patch as bad as Tim back on that night. I mean, he watched his friends all get killed and nearly got killed himself, and all of that done by a crazy enforcer gone rouge whom he used to look up to and admire.

That was bond to leave more than a little mental scarring in a person.

As they both met with Emilia, she noticed their tension, and even asked them both what was it that there was between them. Both fox and buffalo decided to just ignore her.

She didn't like it, but it seemed that she had gotten the message, as she didn't press the matter any further. This meant that Bogo and Marceli could both continue their day without having to give her many explanations or asking too many questions to the two of them, which was probably for the best.

The day was fruitless in terms of finding new leads, and this did nothing to help the frustration on the two of them. So, there Bogo was, once more sitting on his office as he looked over the papers on his desk, while Marceli and his niece went to do God-knows-what now that they finished investigating for the day.

They still shared little to nothing with Bogo about their business, to the point where the buffalo wondered if they saw him as anything more than a guy to drive them around the city while they talked to people.

Darn mages and their secrecy… Bogo caught himself thinking, before his thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of his phone.

Oh, god, what now? Bogo thought to himself, wondering if this was another problem on the mansion. However, as he checked on the phone, he saw that the one calling him was not Wilde or Hopps, nor even Clawhauser.

It was his son, Zakia.

Bogo only took a second looking at the screen and wondering what his son was calling him for, when he remembered he had promised to take him to the arcade to celebrate his last perfect score on his geometry test.

"Shit!" Bogo said, not believing that he had completely forgotten about it. Why did he put his phone on silent!?

"Zak, I'm so sorry!" Bogo said, immediately as he picked up the phone, "I'm so, so sorry! I'll make it up to you! I'll take you anywhere you want next week, you just say it and I'll take you there!"

Meanwhile, the nine-years-old on the other end of the line simply told his father that it was okay, and that his mother had already took him to the arcade after Bogo didn't picked his phone on the first two times she called. He said it was fun, but he mentioned that it would have been a bit better if he was there to play the games with him.

The fact that his son was being so understanding with him only made Bogo feel even worse.

"I'm so sorry, Zak..." Bogo said, and his son once more told him it was okay, and that maybe they can go together another time. Bogo tried to promise him that they could go to a part next week, but Zak told him not to make promises.

Bogo tensed and felt even worse as those words left his son's mouth.

"O-okay..." Bogo said, "W-we'll try to find some chance to do something. Let's talk and we can agree on a time. Love you."

His son simply said "bye, dad" and hang up on him.

Bogo remained with the phone close to his ear, hearing the signal on the other end that meant the call was disconnected, as he felt like the world's trashiest father.

Okay, there were a lot of far, FAR worse fathers out there. Bogo knew that from his years as a cop. However, he could not help but feel like a complete failure as a father whenever he felt like he let his son down.

As a police officer, he had a duty with the city, and sometimes this duty ended up getting on the way of interacting with his family. This was not the first time that Bogo ended up having to change plans with his son, or even completely forgot the plans he had with him. This came with the job, and each time it happened, it made Bogo feel like the worse bastard in the world for having to let his calf down...

There was a reason why Bogo and his ex-wife decided it would be better if she had custody instead of him, with Bogo maintaining all visitation rights. It was already hard to be present in there when they were married, Bogo was pretty sure he would not be able to keep up with raising Zak while also having to work as the Chief.

This way was better for everyone.

At least, that was what Bogo initially thought.

Bogo could feel the distance forming between him and his son growing after the divorce. His job started demanding more and more of him, and now that his marriage was no longer there to actually tie him in place, it felt as if it had become even harder to actually be a family man.

Now that his marriage was no longer there, Bogo was dedicating himself even more to his job. It was not as if he didn't care about his son. Bogo loved him more than anything in this world, and he wanted nothing more than for his son to grow up happy and strong.

However, sometimes it was just hard to be a good father when you felt like you were responsible for keeping order in an entire city.

Especially on the recent times.

So many things happening one after the other.

Missing mammals. Bunnies joining his precinct. Mammals going savage. Protests. Unveiled conspiracies. Political instability. Civilian unrest due to worries about mages. Finding out that mages exist. More civilian unrest. Bellwether's case. Mage attack on his officers. Enforcers coming to form a team. Investigations on mages. An attack right on his precinct.

It all happened so fast and in such quick succession that Bogo felt literally dizzy. As if the world was spinning way too fast and Bogo needed it to stop so he could get down from it before he threw up.

Bogo wanted a break. He wanted vacations. He wanted to take some time to spend with his son without having to plan with weeks in advance only to have it ruined when a sudden problem comes to town. He wanted to be able to breathe at ease without having to worry about those kinds of things.

He wanted Benjamin. He wanted the bubbly and happy cheetah in there, making the whole place brighter with his mere presence, making Bogo feel a little better for him being around, with that cute pudgy face of his, without any of those stupid horses around to make his smile disappear...

Heck, right now he would give both his horns only to have something that he could smile about...

Right as he was thinking that, his phone buzzed to announce that a message had come to him.

Now what? Bogo thought, already foreboding even more bad news. However, this time he was pleased for being a message from Ben.

This is all on you, Chief :heart:

Bogo then saw the picture attached to it. It was a picture that Ben had clearly took while standing in front of the mirror, as he was standing there, holding his phone and wearing...

Bogo was surprised for a moment, but then he opened a smile as he looked at the picture.

Back at the mansion, everyone was, once more, gathered on the dinner table. Including the newcomers.

The Hornes were sitting on the table, and Melor was sitting between his parents, looking like a little lamb in between lions. His mother and father both had serious expressions as they sat on the sides of their son, as if they were in there specifically to keep that stupid boy from creating any more trouble.

And, of course, to eat their fill. Lumia had not eaten since they left Liondon, for there was no way she could put anything on her stomach while ridding on a plane. So, she was glad for finally having something to eat as the servants brought her some of that bowl full of potato gnocchi. Her husband also seemed to be enjoying the fried shrimp with mushroom and garlic.

"Is the food to your liking, Mr. Horne?" Adrian asked, to what the leopard only said:

"Yes."

And he said nothing more, as he continued to eat his food, to what the horse looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"So, you took your wife's name after marrying her, Mr. Horne?" Blackson asked, as he sat by the side of Gazelle and Tyson during dinner, just across the table from the Hornes. "Any particular reason?"

Tibor continued to chew on his shrimp and swallowed it quietly. Blackson was about to ask again, when the leopard finally spoke:

"Disowned."

Blackson blinked, looking at the leopard for a few moments, before grasping what he meant.

"Oh, you mean, your family disowned you?"

"Yes." Was Tibor's answer to this question. Once more, he didn't develop it further.

"Any reason for it?" Blackson asked, to what Tibor said:

"Lumia."

Gazelle, who had been having a spicy mango soup looked up to look at him.

"Wait, they disowned you for marrying a prey?" The popstar asked, and Tibor, once more, answered with a single word:

"Yes."

"As you may have noticed, my husband is a man of few words." Lumia said, after finishing her bowl of gnocchi and already ordering the butler by her side to bring another one. "Yes, his family was not really keen about our marriage. Heck, my own family was not keen about it, but they got over it already."

"Anyways, none of it stopped us." Lumia said proudly. "As if anyone could tell me who I can or can't marry. This leopard is better than any idiot that my parents could have fixed me up with, anyways. Right, honey?"

She had lovey-dovey eyes as she looked at her husband, who smiled softly as he reached with his paw to hold her hoof.

"Did you two needed to put me between the two of you?" Melor asked, as he seemed a bit disgusted by the lovey-dovey attitude of his parents. "And do you two have to be like that during dinner?"

Some looked his way. They could notice a change on the way the hybrid was speaking now to how he had spoke all the time they had known him. He sounded a lot less mature than he had been sounding until now. His voice also had lost that goofy tone that it had all the time. Now he sounded very much like a normal teenager.

The kid really could play the part of the mature adult if he wanted too. And, of course, there was his wolf friend, who was big and had an unusually deep voice for a sixteen-years-old. It was not hard for those two to pretend to be older than they were.

They certainly convinced everyone on the mansion.

Now, however, they all could see the two fools for the young idiots they were. That certainly made it easier for Adrian to look down on the two, what the horse admitted being welcome, after how impotent and weak that hybrid had made him feel.

"Say, has anyone seen Ben?" Asked the other hybrid sitting on the table, and it was Chandler who answered to Marcy's question.

"Said he had to prepare his backup costume and would join us as soon as he was ready."

And, as if he had just been waiting for Chandler to say those words, Ben made his way into the dinning room, and soon all eyes were on him.

The form-fitting demon costume, damaged by last night's events, was now replaced by a set of classical XVIII century's formal clothing, all in shades of golden, with glittery details all over it, and a jeweled ruby decoration on the tie he was wearing.

He even had a golden glittery mask to combine with the outfit, making Ben look like he was ready for a 1700s masquerade.

"So?" Ben asked, spreading his arms and giving a little twirl. "What do you guys think? Do I look okay?"

Everyone (or most of them) agreed that the cheetah looked very nice.

"But, out of curiosity, who are you supposed to be?" Melor asked looking at the cheetah, and Ben then said:

"Promise you won't laugh?"

Everyone said they would not, and that was when Ben said:

"I'm Belle."

There was a brief silence.

"As in, the girl from The Beauty and the Wildebeest?" Legoshi asked, looking at the cheetah with a cocked ear, and ben confirmed that. He explained better, saying that he was "male Belle".

"I was browsing online on my cellphone with B-" Ben hesitated, and then corrected "With a friend, when we came across the website where they offered costumes of gender bent versions of Disney characters. We came across this male Belle costume that I thought was just everything and... my friend said that would look cute on me. So, I kind of just... you know? Bought it. It was kind of an impulse thing."

"It looks great on you." Marcy said to her brother, and a lot of people on the table agreed.

"I can clearly see why your name means 'beauty'." Angus even said, causing some to look his way. Among them was Gabe, who was glaring daggers at the horse.

"But, I'm afraid that, beneath all of that, he is just weird." Said Carolyn, making all eyes turn to her. This time, a lot more people were glaring at her, including her own son.

"Weird, you say?" Caitlyn said to the mare, who looked her way. "Maybe that's just the alcohol talking. You drank over four glasses of that wine since the dinner began, after all. But, wait... you look like you drink like that every night, by the way your husband is reacting, so maybe that's just your normal state? Well, they do say that if you drink too much it scrambles your brain."

Caitlyn voice and expression were as sweet as poisoned honey.

"Do you even have a voice of your own left, of you just let the alcohol do all the talking?" She asked, "Maybe it is better so, because you honestly don't seem like the type who has anything interesting to say."

Some people gasped, others made "ohhh", and others simply raised eyebrows. Carolyn, on her end, could only glare a fulminating gaze at the cheetah, who continued to smile sweetly.

"Oh, sorry. You didn't like what I said?" Caitlyn asked in all innocence. "Well, I also didn't like what you said about my kitten. So, unless you are ready to hear things you don't want to, refrain from saying anything you want."

Carolyn glared at her even more, but didn't said anything to the cheetah, and only went back to drinking. Caitlyn smiled, as she saw she had won, and invited Ben to come sit near her and his siblings, and Ben did exactly that, and the dinner resumed without further incidents for a while.

People talked to each other, as Blackson was discussing with Gazelle some ideas he had to deal with the backlash that Gazelle's video in defense of her tigers had caused, and Gazelle was listening to it, but made it cleat that she would not go back on her word and would stand for the boys until the end. Legoshi was sitting on his chair and eating silently as he sat by the side of his grandfather, who was busy talking with Yahya as they both continued to remember the old times. Nick and Judy were both still talking about the game and about other serious matters, as they both had a lot to think about.

And Carolyn continued to sit silently by her husband's side, looking at the Clawhausers as they continued to eat on their corner of the table. She had quickly learned that she hated all of them. She hated Ben the most, but she also hated all his relatives, from the muscular pervert to the hybrid. And, after what just happened, she also hated his mother.

She saw as she was talking to her children as they ate, and how she talked to the hybrid, and even reached out to wipe the side of her face with a napkin, while the hybrid blushed like a small child.

"You know..." Carolyn said, her voice rising until it could be heard about all others. "I have to say, you show a lot of good will, Mrs. Clawhauser. More than I ever could."

All eyes were, once more, on Carolyn, some of them worried about what the mare was going to say next.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Caitlyn asked, as she looked intently at Carolyn, wanting to know what the mare had to say to her, and to decide how she would answer to that frigging wench.

"You show a lot of good will towards Ms. Foxgrove." Caitlyn continued. "You behave as if she is one of your own children."

Caitlyn looked at her for a few moments, before saying:

"Why would I not?"

"Why, because it is not expected for people to be so kind to a person who is a source of shame to them." Carolyn said without hesitation. Now a lot of people were glaring her way, telling her to shut up. Caitlyn, on her end, only rose an eyebrow.

"Source of shame...? What do you mean by that?" She asked, and the mare said:

"Oh, please, don't act like you don't understand."

She took another sip of her wine before continuing.

"A lovechild is always a source of shame for a woman. It is basically a living evidence that her husband didn't respected her enough to remain loyal." She said, looking at Caitlyn. "It is basically like him saying to your face 'you were not enough of a woman for me'. It is even worse if the child was had with a servant of the house, as I did understand was the case, from what my son told."

Chandler looked away. He so regretted having told his mother that now.

"I mean, he chose someone who cleaned the house over the woman who he married, that is more than just a little offensive." Caitlyn continued, heeding no mind to the many glares of the people that told her to stop talking. "And, as if none of that was enough, he brought his love child to the house."

"He might as well have just hung a sign on your neck with 'idiot' written on it." Carolyn concluded, looking straight at Caitlyn, just wanting to see what would be her reaction.

Would she growl at her? Would she threaten her? Would she leave the room out of embarrassment?

Carolyn was not expecting the cheetah to burst into laughing. Neither was anyone else of the table, as everyone just looked at her in surprise as she doubled up over her plate as she laughed her tail off.

"Oh, my..." Caitlyn said, recovering her breath from the intense laughing. "Okay, I see that Marcy and the boys didn't actually told you guys, did they?"

Carolyn looked back at the cheetah with a raised eyebrow of her own.

"Told us what?"

"Well, it is complicated to explain to most people..." Ben said.

"Besides, it was none of their business." Marcy said, with crossed arms. Caitlyn, on her end, seemed like she was still having a good laugh. This was ticking Carolyn off.

"Told us what?" She asked, demanding now, by the way she was speaking. Caitlyn, not fazed at all, decided to be the one to explain.

"Ben told you guys about my family's magecraft, right?" She asked, "About how my clan, the Pawla, specializes in tantric magecraft."

"Yes, magecraft revolving around sex." Carolyn said, and Caitlyn continued:

"That's just a part of tantric tradition. It mostly revolves around full domain of oneself, balancing one's own internal energies to be in perfect harmony. Like how you balance the masculine and feminine parts on yourself to achieve greater power and enlightenment. It is a type of magecraft that searches for perfectly refine one's domain over their own prana, what actually goes quite well with the Clawhauser mana vibration techniques."

"But, yeah, it does involve sex in certain parts." Caitlyn admitted, after a brief pause to eat a mouthful of food. "It is possible for two individuals to share their mana reserves and to pass mana to each other through the sexual act. Tantric magecraft explores this, and it has a number of rituals that can only be achieved by two or more partners sharing their mana reserves at once through sex."

"But, it is not easy, you know?" Caitlyn clarified, "It is not just do it anyway and then it magically works. You need a lot of discipline to precisely control your mana while you are 'going at it' with your partner. Especially if you are to synchronize your mana release with your orgasm, which is the one point when the mana will be at its peak. Not to mention the fact that you and your partner will have to synchronize your own orgasms to reach the maximum effect. If you succeed, you can really do some pretty impressive things."

Everyone remained silent, as they all looked at Caitlyn, who was explaining this as calmly as if she was explaining a cake recipe to a friend. Everyone had varying expressions on their faces, although most of them were of some level of awkward, embarrassed interest.

"But, that's to say, it is not that rare for unexpected things to come from those rituals." Cailtyn said, taking a sip from her wine.

"Thirty-two years ago, there was an important event happening." Caitlyn said, "I had just given birth to my first kitten, and I needed to perform this tantric ritual which required both a male and a female to work."

"Now, while most rituals are pretty strict on their conditions, that is not to say that there can't be some improvising." Caitlyn added with a mischievous smirk. "Especially if you are talking about tantric magecraft rituals."

Everyone looked at her, some of them already catching on what she meant.

"For the ritual, someone needed to be the female, and it didn't necessarily have to be me." Caitlyn continued, "Now, I didn't feel comfortable asking someone else to do it, but the ritual in question was pretty important. So, as I could not bring myself to bother strangers with this, I decided to ask one of our servants to do it."

"Luckily, there was one." Caitlyn continued, "A vixen named Miriam Foxgrove. She was a new hire, and she was the sweetest person you've ever met. She came to work for us after moving out of her old home after her husband's death. She was good at her work and very loyal to us. Believe me, it felt so awkward to ask her to do it for me, but she accepted, saying she would do anything to help me."

Caitlyn stopped for a moment, before she sighed.

"She was a great friend..."

Marcy, who was sitting by her side, placed a paw on Caitlyn's shoulder, comforting her. Some had raised eyebrows at this.

"Anyway, we did the ritual as planned." Caitlyn said, going back to the subject. "Miriam played her part on the ritual. She didn't had magic circuits, but she had an exceptional amount of raw mana on her body that made her perfect for it. The ritual was a complete success. Of course, we were all surprised when, just on the next week, Miriam had to go to the doctor because she had been feeling sick and was told she was pregnant."

"With me." Marcy said, lifting her paw for everyone to see, and other mammals on the table absorbed what they had just heard.

"I see..." Yahya said, looking at Caitlyn's way. "You needed this ritual to be performed with your husband's help, but you could not because you had just given birth. So, you resorted to have another female take your place on the ritual."

"Ms. Foxgrove is an unpredicted consequence of said ritual." Yahya concluded. "Those are some... unusual circumstances over her conception, I have to say."

"You definitely got it right, Manechester." Caitlyn said to Yahya, and then she continued:

"However, that was not the most unusual part."

Everyone was still looking at her. What was she going to say now.

"My husband was not part of the ritual." Caitlyn said, and that surely surprised everyone. "He had left the state in order to attend to some businesses, and he wasn't coming back for a whole month."

"Wait, what?" Charles said, and Adrian said:

"Are you saying she..." He pointed at Marcy, "Is not related to the Clawhauser family at all? What, you got someone else to play the role of the male of your ritual?"

Caitlyn looked at Adrian and she gave him the weirdest smirk.

"Yes, someone else played the role of the male..." Caitlyn said, looking at him. "I did."

Silence followed those words. Stunned silence.

"I had just given birth, but I was not going to let that keep me down." Caytlin said, "It was my ritual, after all. I had to be part of it. And since Miriam was the one who was the best candidate for the ritual, I had her be a part of it on the role of the female... while I played the role of the male."

Everyone looked at Cailtlyn, most of them with expressions of shock as the truth started to sink in...

"What." Was all that Charles managed to say, and Caitlyn, still smirking, said:

"Marcy is not my husband's lovechild. She is mine."

That... was not something most people of the table were expecting to hear, by the surprise, even shock, on their faces. The Manechesters, in particular, looked positively baffled. Even Yahya.

Angus, on his end, chuckled as he saw the expression of pure bafflement on Yahya's face. It was so rare to see the old horse lose his composure like that. Angus was able to enjoy it, as he remembered that he himself must have had a very similar expression on his face when Ben told him about Marcy's origins around five years before...

"No..." Was all that Charles managed to let out, seeing as it was pretty unbelievable. "Y-you're pulling our tails, right? T-there is no way something like that could... I mean, biologically speaking, it just can't..."

"If you want to speak biology..." Said Lumia, cutting the horse, who didn't seem like he would be finishing a complete sentence. "An embryo is the result of the combination of two parts, an egg from the mother and the seed of the father. They fuse, as they are two halves the are supposed to unite and form a whole."

"Now, under normal conditions, it is only possible for those two parts to fuse if they are different. An egg cannot fuse with another egg. That is what they say in biology books." Lumia continued, casually eating the food before her, and already ordering a third bowl. She was showing to be a big eater. "However, those who wrote those books, completely disregarded what can happen when magecraft gets involved."

"The inside of the body is simply the best place where magecraft can happen." Lumia said, "It is completely cut off from the outside. A fully controlled environment where all external variables are irrelevant. A place where doing impossible things is much easier, if you know how to, or are very lucky..."

She looked at Caitlyn.

"A place where two eggs can fuse to form a viable embryo."

Caitlyn looked back at the gazelle, before chuckling.

"Like I said, it was a surprise." Caitlyn said, turning her attention back to her food. "I mean, our cycles were synchronized. They had to for the ritual. And we both orgasmed at the same time. My egg ended up finding its way inside Miriam and met with hers' inside of her womb. And the amount of magical energy on the wake of the ritual was enough to induce the fusion of the two eggs. I mean, in theory, I knew that this could happen. I knew there was a chance, but it was just so small. Even if it was what we were trying to do, the chances of succeeding would have been one in five-hundred thousands, and that if we were the same species! For it to happen by pure chance between a cheetah and a fox..."

Lumia continued to look on Caitlyn's way, and she smiled.

"It was a miracle." The gazelle said, and Caitlyn fully agree.

"It sure was." She said, and she then hugged Marcy. "You were my little miracle, my little Mar-Mars."

"Moooom!" Marcy said, as she felt embarrassed by this, and Josh could only laugh at his family's antics, and Ben himself smiled.

The rest of the guests were all still processing what they just learned about Marceline Foxgrove.

The Manechesters were all reeling from finding out that it was possible for a female to be made pregnant by another female.

Euphemia, in particular, was in deep thought from this revelation, as she looked down on her plate, but seeming to have forgotten that she was supposed to eat what was before her...

After this, dinner continued, and the subject, as impressive and (for some of the presents) disturbing as it could be, was forgotten.

Soon, dinner was over. And everyone knew what this meant.

"Okay, everyone!" Chandler said happily. "Time to resume our game!"