So here we've fast forwarded a few months ahead after the events of It's Not Easy Being Giant the Federation wants to do something about Viola Strierra but fear of going so deep into Wrangler Territory have made them hesitant to even begin planning.
Spring turned to summer, it was now the middle of July the month when the Wrangler Invasion of Mizzer happened, and in that time, where the Fellowship Crew, they said they were getting ready but really they were mostly enjoying themselves, there was the adventure in Costa Rica where Don was made giant by a wish granting spirit and on Midsummer Night there was the Blue Moon Ball which I may tell you about some other time, but for now the story of the Rescue of the Mizzerans.
The Mizzer Humanimals assumed that once Gus reached Earth and found Marzipan than the rescue would surely commence in only a few days, so they waited...And waited...As the months went by it seemed the songs of hope had reached the ears of the other Wrangler Planets and they didn't like it, they had heard rumors that Lady Gloria was potentially 'going soft' and so they sent her niece and Edward Green's cousin Bimbolurlina to ensure that didn't happen.
Bimbo, as her name suggested had a reputation for being stupid, the joke of the Wrangler Empire, who was more interested in primping and finding a hunk of a husband than taking her job seriously, and it seemed she was a favorite joke among the Federation Humanimals as well, the stories of her defeats and the hands of the Fellowship crew had become legendary if I were to tell you some of the stories you might be wondering if you actually listening to a tale of Intersteller War, or one of those slapstick cartoons where the antagonists get anvils dropped on their heads.
Well it seems Bimbo had become aware of her status as the joke of the Wrangler Empire and she was determined to do something about it! So when she was tasked to make sure her entire family didn't turn traitor she was determined to take her job very seriously...
She announced her mission to Lady Gloria and Lord Sean and they trembled realizing they were essentually under house arrest and Bimbo was now the ruler of Viola Strierra in all but name! Now that she had the whip hand, Bimbo was determined to crack down on any Humanimal Conspirisies! The Underground Resistance had to be sneakier than usual to avoid the detection of admittedly very stupid human who was not loved by the human populace so the people were not enthusiastic to fullfill her decrees they only did so out of fear...
After only nearly two months of this the Humanimals weren't sure how much they could take, they went to Bumble, the Dream Weaver and begged him to find a solution, or at least why the Mage Monarch had not yet come!
Bumble having learned much since he began his Dream Weaver apprenticeship at eight years old, realized the situation was getting dire! So that night, he went to a quiet dark corner of the underground and meditated, he was connecting to the minds of various Mizzer Humanimals he had met and quite a few he had helped in their dreams...Though many of them were in different parts of the Planet he beseeched them for help! Together their memories of the horrors they had experienced on this planet would show Marzipan they really needed help!
On Earth, Marzipan's dreams her a horrible red bloody haze, she wasn't sure what she actually saw she felt it was just a spinning room of flesh and blood...
The next morning she woke up feeling horrible! She felt burning hot, she had nausea and a headache! When she turned her head she saw Ichabod sitting on the edge of the bed, he was only wearing a pair of shorts.
"Hey Ichy..." Marzipan said as she wiped the sweat from her brow "Why...Why are you shirtless...Not that I'm complaining..."
Seeing Marzipan was awake, Ichabod turned and felt her forehead "Your fever..." He said quietly "...You were so hot last night...I felt like I was melting as you were holding onto me very tight...I woke up drenched in sweat...Had to stand for a few minutes in front of the tower fan to both cool down and dry off!"
"Oh Ichy! I'm sorry..." Marzipan began to say
"Don't apologize..." Ichabod said tenderly stroking the fur on her cheek "You're can't help being ill...How to do you feel?"
"Other than feeling hot..." Marzipan said "I feel queasy and I have a headache..."
"Hmmm..." Ichabod mused as he rubbed his chin these symptoms plus her lack of congestion seemed this was neighter a cold nor simply a stomach virus...This was cause for concern as this mysterious illness seemed to come out of nowhere!
"Do you feel like you can eat anything?" Ichabod asked
Marzipan remembered her dreams of flesh and blood and at the moment the idea of eating meat made her want to wretch, however her mouth felt dry, what appealed to hew now was a cool drink...Something the opposite of meat.
"I do feel thirsty..." She said "...Could I have some grapefruit juice?"
Now maybe it wasn't great to have really acidic juice when you're feeling queasy, but since Ichabod knew Marzipan was a master of food, he felt she could trust her cravings better than other people, so he poured some grapefruit juice in one of those big colorful plastic tumblers Marzipan loved to drink out of...
Since performing the Flames of the Phoinix spell Marzipan had gained the ability to taste sweetness which seemingly no other Cat Humanimals could do, with this new ability she realized she had only been half-tasting the food she was making and she mused she had been like a half-deaf composer of symphonies...Which Beethoven was one so it's possible, as she gulped down her beverage she imagined the juice like liquified jewels washing out whatever toxins were in her body that were making her feel this way...
Ichabod began preparing a cloth soaked in ice water, as he mopped Marzipan's forehead with the cold cloth, Marzipan smiled in feverish bliss.
Ichabod was overwhelmed with tender feelings, and climbed back into the bed...
"Ichabod..." Marzipan purred "...Do you remember, that dream you told me about last year...That dream about your chest?"
Ichabod chuckled "Oh that dream?" He told her, before the Fellowship Crew rescued him, back when he was betrothed to the Mad Hatter''s Daughter Alice he had a romantic dream in which he was with Alice and he opened his shirt to reveal...A manly chest and in the Dream Alice nuzzled her face into his pectoral muscles, and while he had become fitter and healthier training with Humanimals obviously he was still incredibly skinny that's just the way he was built, but Marzipan pointed out his pecs had gotten some definition and she had asked if she could do what Alice did in the dream, at first Ichabod laughed "You want to nuzzle your face into these dinky little pecs?" But when Marzipan begun rubbing her face into his chest her feline whiskers tickling him made him burst into giggles and he had to pull away...
"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself..." Marzipan said as she placed her hand, with the pads on her palm and fingers being bare instead of covered with tickly fur "Of course your pecs won't be as large as Bill's he's a Bull! But they're just the right size for someone of your build..."
Marzipan's hand went over his heart, and Ichabod placed his hand over her's to hold it there, so she could feel his heartbeat, his natural music.
Marzipan was fasinated by his bare human skin, and he was equally enchanted by her soft rabbity fur, it was like a mircrocosm of Mizzer where the humans worshipped the Humanimals and Humanimals worshiped the humans and neither side knew they were being worshipped by the other.
The music of Ichabod's heartbeat and breathing relaxed Marzipan back to sleep, and there she had a doozy of a nightmare that would show her that like Hamlet had to learn Procrastination is not a victimless crime!
So tried to have things romantic but still tame also with all this out of the way the next chapter can be totally dedicated to the Nightmare Sequence which is another musical moment, her previous dreams were just 'foreshocks' and her symptoms as the result of Bumble and his friends causing her psychic pain also I chapter is to establish Ichabod has struggled with body image issues since at least puberty obviously sensitive about the fact he's a scrawny little nerd, while he has been getting better only using it for self depricating humor this is the foreshadow future events