Another morning.

This was routine at this stage.

Even the people who had only been there for the week were getting used to waking up in a very fancy bed in an equally fancy bedroom. So fancy, in fact, it was like one of those five-star inns you often saw on the commercials.

Melor Horne, on his end, had grown used to waking up in a fancy bedroom like that, which he shared with his best friend and bro. He still felt like a king when he woke up in a mansion bedroom and allowed himself to pretend that it was his own mansion and that he had made it while still eighteen.

That was certainly a nice little fantasy for a guy his age to have.

However, like it usually happens with guys his age, his mother came in to shatter the fantasy.

"Wake up!"

That was the first thing Melor heard in the morning, as his whole cushion was flipped, and he landed heavily on the ground. By the side of his bed, Legoshi woke up in alert, looking to the sides and soon finding out the reason behind that screaming.

Melor did too, once he got to his feet and saw his mother and father standing by his bed.

"Mom!" Melor said, "I am not decent!" The hybrid was covering himself, as he was wearing only his underwear. Lumia, however, was not impressed at all with her son, and simply looked at him with crossed arms as she said:

"The day when you wake up decent will be a day I'll celebrate. Now go put your pants."

"What!? Why!?" Melor asked, and he noticed how dark it still was outside. "What time is it!?"

"Time for your morning exercises." Lumia said coldly. "Your pants. Now. You too, Legoshi. A little discipline will do you some good."

The following three hours were grueling. Starting with jogging through five miles. Then a hundred push-ups. Then a hundred sit ups. Then two hundred squats. Then another hundred push-ups. Then the two boys had to stand, their arms spread to the sides as they held buckets filled to the brim with water on their paws/hooves, and answer to an oral report about general knowledges in magecraft. Most specifically, on subjects that Lumia covered on her own lectures back on the Association's headquarters, of which Melor had been excused of attending because he was on this "camping trip" with Legoshi.

Then they did another hundred push-ups, a hundred squats, and a ten-mile race to finish it off.

All of that while everyone else on the mansion was sleeping soundly, and then waking up to the sound of their alarms and getting ready for a day.

They were back in time for breakfast.

"Hey, where have you been?" Hannah said as she saw the family coming in to join everyone for breakfast. "Why are you boys all sweaty?"

Melor said nothing, and he only sat on the table without saying a word, but he was wheezing a little bit. He always was left winded by his mother's Spartan-style training.

"What's going on?" Chandler asked as he looked at the hybrid and the wolf and saw how sweaty and tired the two of them were.

"Being in this mansion where he was served hand and foot has made my son lazy." Lumia said coldly. "He can no longer keep up with the morning routine. But I will fix that up."

Some people on the table shared looks, but no one said anything about it.

Melor was only glad that, this time, he did not have to sit with his parents by his sides. However, he was still sitting in a position where they were looking back at him from the opposite side of the long table. And she was still looking back at her son as she ate.

"I'm starting to like her." Yahya said as he ate another forkful of food, and Gosha, who was sitting by his side, could only tell him that Lumia had her own way of raising her son, and that she was quite strict with him in certain aspects.

"But she loves him dearly, I'll tell you that." Gosha said to Yahya, and the horse nodded. He could certainly tell.

He had seen a whole lot of parents on his time doing his job, and he could tell that Lumia Horne was not of the shitty kind. She could be hardcore, but she loved her son.

That was what Yahya's instincts and experience on the matter told him, and the horse had long learned to believe them.

So, breakfast proceeded, and everyone was soon forgetting the moment and talking about other subjects. One thing that everyone was always on the mood for doing on the morning was talking. Well, most of them, anyways, as Tibor was not the type to engage in small talk...

"So, you really teach on the Mage's Association's magic college?" Nick asked to the leopard, who looked back at him an indifferent expression, before saying:

"Yes."

"And what is it like?" Nick asked.

"Rewarding." Tibor said, looking at the fox. There were a few moments of silence, as Nick expected him to elaborate it further, but he did not.

"And, you find it hard?" Nick asked, "I mean, I heard it is hard to keep order in a classroom. At least that was the impression I had on my own classroom when I was in high school. Imagine trying to keep order in a room where all students can make things float, catch on fire or explode with a gesture of their paws. It must be a pain in the butt."

Tibor looked at the fox for a few moments, before shrugging.

"Sometimes."

Once more, no more elaboration on the subject. Only what he was saying and that was it.

Nick looked at him for a few more moments, before patting him in the arm.

"Nice talking to you, buddy. You certainly have a way with words."

And with that, Nick was back to chatting with the person right by his other side, who was Benjamin. Tibor looked at the fox for a few more moments, before he turned his attention back to the table and resumed eating his breakfast.

Meanwhile, Caitlyn was happily talking to her daughter and sons, all the while Carolyn, sitting by the side of her son Angus, was giving her glares. And there was Effie, who was looking in direction to the Clawhausers while she was sitting by the side of her husband, who as saying something that she didn't care about.

"Say, Ben?" Angus asked, "You liking the food? I ordered the cook to make it specially for you. It was your favorite five years ago."

"Yes, it still is." Ben said, and Angus smirked.

"Well, glad it is to your liking." Angus said, "Anything else you want? Just say the word and I'll get it for you."

"You trying to buy Benji's love?" Gabe said, quipping in as he looked at the horse with an angry glare. "It is not going to work. The mammals you knew might have been the materialistic kind that you could buy by giving them gifts, but Ben is way better than that."

"Hey, I am just trying to make sure that a dear friend of my is having a good time." Angus said, "And you should not be feeling as jealous like that. I mean, it is not as if you two are engaged or anything. Not anymore."

Angus said the last part with a shit-eating smirk, and Gabe looked back at him with murder. Suddenly, things on the table were getting quite heated, and the tensions were visibly growing.

"Okay, you both cut it out." Caitlyn said to the two prey males. "I prefer to eat my breakfast without a side of drama."

"Hey, I have done nothing." Angus said defensively. "I was just letting Ben know I can get him anything else he wants for breakfast. It was Mister Deerbroke there who decided that it was a good opportunity to try and start a fight. Seriously, Ben, what did you even saw on a guy like that? Good thing you didn't got married, I do not exactly see a happy marriage with a person who has such a short fuse."

Gabe looked at the horse with growing anger. Ben had to place a paw on his shoulder to keep him from getting up, as he knew that Gabe would probably do something if he was allow to continue with this.

"You are not in position to say anything about anyone not being a good partner, Angus." Said Gazelle, surprising everyone.

"Excuse me?" Angus said, "What is this sudden attack, Maria? Wait, don't tell me you are still bitter about the past? Girl, you gotta move on! It's been years!"

"And I still remember it very clearly." Gazelle said to the horse. She then turned to Ben.

"Benjamin, as someone who once dated this scumbag, I seriously recommend you not to get involved with him. He is lying and manipulative, and he will use emotional blackmail to make you agree with everything he says and will try and control your life and use you for sex!" Gazelle said, rather aggressively, much to Ben's shock.

"Why, you..." Carolyn started saying, but Angus stopped her. He had a smirk on his face as he looked at the popstar.

"So, you can hold quite a grudge, can't you, Maria?" Angus said, and the popstar glared at him.

"You tried to make me give up on choir and get me to join the cheerleading team only because you wanted to see me in a miniskirt, you pendejo!" Gazelle said to him, "And you made me miss my mother's birthday because you wanted to take me to a hotel, and you nearly made me ditch on my own grandmother's funeral because you wanted to take me to a party to show me around like I was a trophy!"

"Well, excuse me for thinking that you would have more fun in a party with a live chords quartet than in one with an open casket." Angus said with a smirk as he looked at her with crossed arms.

"You are totally unbearable!" Gazelle said, "I am so glad that I broke up with you when I did! I still regret I didn't do it sooner!"

Many on the table were sharing looks, as all of them were aware of how awkward everything was getting. Angus, on his end, just chuckled.

"Yeah, I still remember that." Angus said with a smirk. "I have to say, the way you broke up things was pretty surprising for me. Just when things were going well for us... I actually thought you could be the one, Maria."

"And I was." Gazelle said to him, "I was the first girl who broke up with you before you had the chance break up with me! And I am glad that the whole school saw me do it!"

Angus looked at her, there was a spark on his eyes as he glared at Gazelle. Tyson bared his fangs at him as he saw that hostility. However, Angus chuckled.

"Yeah, that certainly hurt a lot..." Angus said, turning his attention to the food once more. "So, I guess you can really understand why I did what I did..."

"What?" Gazelle said, looking at him. "What do you mean? What did you do?"

Angus looked at her again.

"You know, Maria, it really surprised me how you never noticed." He said to her. "I guess people were really careful not to say it within your earshot for the rest of the time you attended that school."

"What I never heard?" Gazelle demanded, wanting to know what in Zootopia Angus was talking about.

"You know, people always wondered why you had such big horns while being a female." Angus asked, "Even when you were a teen, your horns were even bigger than the guys'. This certainly surprised a lot of people."

"Well, it is because I have a recessive gene that I inherited from my mother. She has big horns too. So did my grandmother." Gazelle said, not seeing where Angus was trying to go with this.

"Yeah, I know that, you told." Angus said, "But, the rest of the school didn't know. So, since it was my last year, and I was going to leave the school and never go back, I decided to spin an... alternate version of why you had such big horns."

Gazelle blinked at him.

"Alternate... version?"

Angus' smirk widened.

"I spread to the whole school that the reason why you had such big horns... was because you were a guy."

To say Gazelle was shocked about what she just heard would have been an understatement.

"That's right." Angus said, "I spread to everyone that you were born a male, but that you identified yourself as female. You dressed and talked like a girl and you even took hormones to have a chick's body, but you still had big horns... and a dick."

"QUE!?" Gazelle said, standing up from her seat. Tyson stood up as well.

"You started that rumor!?" The tiger asked, and Gazelle then looked at the feline.

"Wait, you heard about it!?"

"Everyone in our high school heard about it!" Tyson said to her. Gazelle was in shock. However, her shock was not over yet.

"Wait a minute..." Nick said, "Everyone in my high school heard about it! You are Sahara Square's transgender choir singer!?"

"Dios mio!" Gazelle said, covering her face with her hooves, while Angus laughed hysterically at this.

"Oh, my god! I can't believe it!" Gazelle said, "Oh, but it explains so much! That's why the boys were all weird with me! And that's why all the other girls waited until I was done changing during PE before they changed!"

Angus could only laugh even harder, as he could enjoy the magnitude his little payback on the girl who had the gal to dump him had taken. A lot of people were glaring at him, many of them thinking what a jerk he was, what was just a confirmation to some of what they already knew about that horse.

Some, however, were looking at Gazelle. This included Melor, who was sitting by her side, and was looking very intently to the area of her crotch, what the popstar noticed.

"It is not true!" She said to the eighteen-years-old hybrid, who looked up at her. "There is nothing there!"

"I need to see proof." Melor said to her. Next thing he knew, he was being hit in the head by a bun, courtesy of his own mother.

"Tyson, you mean you and the others knew? Why you never told me?" Gazelle asked, and the tiger seemed awkward suddenly.

"Because... back then we kind of... thought it could be true... and that if we asked about it you would be upset and cry and... maybe want to show us..."

Gazelle slumped into her seat. Meanwhile, Blackson, who was on the table as well, finally spoke, saying how it was outrageous for those kinds of rumors to be spread, and that they were going to take legal action on Angus in the case any of those baseless rumors hurt Gazelle's reputation.

"Bite me." Angus said to the blackbuck in answer. Right when he was about to give a comeback, one of the butlers came to inform that there was someone one the phone.

"Oh, is it the person I called yesterday?" Adrian asked, but the butler shook his head.

"No, master Adrian." He said, very politely, "The call is for Mrs. Horne."

This surprised the ones on the table, and Lumia was soon getting up, telling her husband to "keep an eye on the two idiots" while she went to take on the call.

After she was gone, the subject on the table came back.

"I can't believe you told everyone I was male!" Gazelle shot to the horse, who still seemed to find the whole thing the funniest stuff ever. His amusement only made Gazelle even more irritated, as she started calling him names on her mother language, while other people tried desperately to de-escalate the situation.

Judy, feeling a bit uncomfortable, used the excuse that she was done with her food as and excuse to leave the table, saying that she was going to take her plates back to the kitchen herself.

She could still hear the swearing in Spanish as she made her way to the kitchen, as well as Blackson's voice demanding for Angus, as the one who started the rumors, to be the one to rectify the false information.

"Man..." Judy said to herself, "Things in this house are going crazy... but, seriously, how could Angus spread those rumors about Gazelle just because she broke up with him? What a scumbag..."

Judy was on her way to the kitchen, when she passed by Lumia.

"Okay, who the heck are you?" Judy could hear the gazelle saying with her sensitive ears. "How do you know those things about me? Did my brother made you call me? He told you to call me as a way of teasing me, didn't he? Ugh, that asshole! He is always finding a way to get on my nerves! I swear, one of those days I am just getting to that idiot and I will-"

She trailed, and then her next words came low.

"What did you just say?"

The way she spoke those words made Judy stop and her ear twitch, as she was hearing the words that the gazelle was saying in an angry voice.

"Don't you dare threaten my family, you piece of crap." She said, her voice carrying a veiled threat. "You as much as come near my son or godson, and I promise you that you will have no legs or arms left by the time I'm done with you, do you hear me?"

The way she spoke it made it clear she was not joking in the slightest. Even Judy felt scared, and the gazelle was not even aware of her presence.

After a few moments, she heard Lumia say:

"A meeting, you say?"

Judy heard very intently, and she could almost barely hear the voice on the phone, speaking to her to come meet them. It was too low and garbled for Judy to hear it properly, but the bunny was close enough that she could nearly hear the voice, which sounded masculine, speaking to Lumia, in a tune that nearly seemed challenging.

"Oh, is that so?" Lumia said, and the voice said something in return, which the gazelle apparently didn't liked hearing, for her next words carried the weight of a veiled threat.

"Alright then, I will go meet with you." Lumia said, each word slow and deliberate, nearly as if everything she said now was calculated. "Just because I want to look in the eyes of the mammal who has the gal to threaten my family. Wait for me, you jackass."

With this, Lumia slammed the phone down, and walked away with firm steps and a pissed expression.

That expression was noticed by Melor as soon as his mother made her way back into the room, and he immediately thought he was in trouble again because of that phone call.

"Whatever it was, it wasn't me!" The hybrid said loudly, interrupting the other talks (and discussions) taking place on the table, as everyone stopped to look his way. Even Lumia stopped for a moment to look at her son, before announcing:

"I have to go out for a bit. Tibor, could you watch the boys until I come back? Thanks, honey. I should take no more than fifteen minutes. Melor, don't get into any more trouble, I am not kidding."

With this, Lumia made her way out of the room, now going in direction to the door and leaving the mansion to deal with this little problem that had arise and that she wanted to see solved as fast as possible.

Right after she left, Judy came back to the room, still carrying her plates in her paws.

"Carrots' weren't you going to leave those on the kitchen?" Nick asked of her, and then his partner turned to him.

"I gotta leave for a while!" She pushed her plates on Nick's paws, and she didn't even wait for the surprised fox's paws as she went out right behind Lumia Horne.

Judy was sure that there was something about to happen. Call it a cop's sixth sense, or even a "Judy's sense", but the bunny was pretty sure that Lumia Horne was walking in direction to something dangerous and, as a cop, she could not just stand by and do nothing while a mammal is walking in direction to danger.

Little did Judy knew the danger that she would be putting herself into by following that gazelle...

This was dangerous.

Not only for him, but for other people as well.

If someone got seriously hurt, Eliot knew he would not forgive himself. He would not be able to live with himself if one of his friends ever got hurt in what he was about to do.

However, once more he was reminded that he did not had a choice in this.

"Are you sure this plan will work?" Eliot asked, looking at the fox who was standing by his side. "I have some doubts about it."

"It will work perfectly, don't worry about that." The fox said to him. "You just need to do as I told you, and you will be fine. You will get the package and you will be able to give it to Tasman and get this all over with."

Eliot looked down. It was obvious that he was still troubled by this whole situation, by the things that he would have to do, what included giving a scumbag like Tasman what he wanted.

For a bad guy to get what he wanted was something that just didn't sit well with Eliot. Bad guys should not get what they wanted in the end. They should get punished, not win. That was one of the reasons why Eliot became a cop, so he would make sure that bad guys did not won in the end, just like his father did back when he was alive.

"It is for your family you are doing this." Cornelius said, placing a paw on the wolf, and causing Eliot to look down at him. "Tasman got your pregnant wife with him. You need to remember this, Fanghanel. This is important, because it is the very reason why you are doing this. It is not because you are being bribed or paid. It is not because you suddenly decided to throw away your old bonds and betray what you once believed. You are doing this to save your wife and unborn child. No one would ever be able to hold that against you."

Eliot looked at him, and then he nodded, as he knew that the fox was right. This was why he was doing all of that. It was all for Chloe and for their little... Charlie? Amanda? Lucas? Cindy? Maybe Devon or Delilah? He would have to discuss names with Chloe after this was all over.

"Alright..." Eliot said, "But you better remember our agreement! No one gets seriously hurt! Especially my friends!"

Cornelius smiled at him.

"Yes, of course. Don't worry, I implanted the instructions on them already. They will not kill anyone, but they will certainly put on a fight if they try to stop them." The fox said as he gestured behind both him and Eliot, and the wolf looked back at those which he was gesturing.

Those things made him freaked a little bit. I mean, they were freaky.

The way they just stood there and then twitched every now and then. And the sounds they made while moving.

And that eerie little music that was playing...

"You know, I always found dolls creepy..." Eliot said as he looked at them. "Even before I watched the Woodchucky movies..."

Cornelius said some comforting words to the wolf, letting him know that it would be all okay. All the while, he was thinking on how everything was going according to plan.

To his plan.

Meanwhile, Eliot was unaware of the fox's inner musings, and he was too busy with his own, ignoring the creepy things standing behind him and how they made him want to run to his bedroom and hide under his bed. He had to focus on what he was going to do. On what he would have to do in order to save his wife.

Once breakfast was over, everyone went their own way, as everyone had something to do on the mansion.

This included Adrian.

"Where you able to confirm it was the same Klaus of Manechester?" Adrian asked to the person on the phone, and the person on the other side answered positively. Adrian nodded as he spoke to the person on the phone. "You checked the registers and everything?... Yes, yes, that's good to know. And you had the chance to check with White?... Yes, he is busy, I know. And the historical records?... Yes, good, very good. Keep investigating and then get back to me with the results. Add another zero to your bill for your troubles."

Adrian hang up from the phone, and he was about to make another call, when one of the butlers came to him, informing him that he had someone visiting.

"What, more people wanting to crash on my son's party?" Adrian asked. This seemed to be a trend now. "At this rate there will be no guest rooms left!"

"No, this is not the case, Master Adrian." The alpaca said to the horse. "Those two have come to see you specifically, sir."

With this, the alpaca moved out of the way, to allow the two newcomers to talk to Adrian, and both were already Adrian's acquittances. Not only because the two of them lived on the same neighborhood as him, with their mansions both being only a short walk away from his own, but because they both were regulars on most of Adrian's gatherings.

The first one was a cat, who should be around as tall as Officer Hopps, ears not included. He had black and white fur and a thick coat of fur and blue eyes, which was normal for his specific breed of cat. The angora was wearing a fine shirt and a pair of pants, as he walked forward to Adrian, his tail high as he walked forward in a sign that he meant business, as if the look on his face was not enough. This one was Donovan Meowman, a cat who made a fortune by being a great engineer and holding shares with some of the best companies in Zootopia. He certainly earned enough to own his own mansion there in Vole Gardens, albeit it was one considerably smaller than Adrian's.

Coming right behind him was another mammal, who seemed da lot friendlier. Well, capibaras were known for being friendly, after all. And this Capibara, wearing a coat for the cold, as he was a species native to the tropical climate, was as friendly as his species could be, as many could tell by his chosen profession. Lucas Cavirus was a very good doctor, so good that he was the head cardiologist on one of Zootopia's best hospitals and said to be in line to take over the hospital in a few years' time. And he was also one of Donovan's best friends, and the two often were seen together when they were not with their families or at their workplaces.

"Adrian!" Donovan said before Adrian could even say anything about their presence on his house or ask what it was about. "It's happened again!"

Adrian was surprised by that sudden outburst. He looked at the feline, who was calmed down by the capybara, until he was able to talk in a calm manner with the horse whose house they just entered.

"I wake up in the morning..." The feline said, "I have a nice breakfast with my wife and two daughters. I give the lab a call to make sure that everything is as we expected, and to let them know that I will be going back at work as soon as I am done recovering from that nasty case of furball, and then I go to my backyard to check on my birds. You know what I found?"

Adrian had a feeling he did.

"I found the door has been forced open again, and my birds were all in a panic!" The cat said, "I find out that one of them is missing, and that there is blood on the floor on a little puddle! And that there is a trail of blood leading around my mansion and then coming all the way here!"

Adrian closed his eyes, letting out a deep sigh through his nostrils, which flared.

Angus...

"What do you tell me about that, Adrian!?" The cat demanded. "You promised me that wouldn't happen again! Is it that wolf, isn't it? I heard that he often sneaks around the night during the night like he is looking for something in the grass! How does he keeps getting past my security system!? Are the rumors about him and that weird gazelle being mages true!? And what is that I heard about your son receiving a lot of people on this house for some kind of party!?"

Adrian just let Meowman go on with what he was saying. He knew that the cat only needed to work himself out when he was like that.

"You done?" Adrian asked him after nearly five minutes, and the cat seemed like he was done. "In that case, would you like to come with me so we can face the responsible and demand some satisfaction from him?"

Yeah, Meowman was certainly wanting that, and so he followed Adrian without questioning, just like Cavirus.

So Adrian made it across the mansion with the two of them on his tail, all of them unaware that, on another part of the house, a pair of maidens who were dusting the house, found the secret passage leading to the network of tunnels underneath Zootopia, which Yahya had closed up, bust open and with a lot of weird footprints coming out of it.

Had Adrian know, he would have been more than a little worried about it. Now, however, all that he was worried about was finding the one who he was sure was responsible for this.

"Someone peed on that wall..." Cavirus said after they passed by a hallway and his nose twitched as it picked the distinctive smell of urine. Adrian didn't slow down, and only continued his way as he looked for the one person with whom he was going to complain about all of that.

He found him with Gazelle's dancer, talking to him about a matter regarding their possible future partnership, and he was quite insistent in it. So much that it was causing the tiger to become uncomfortable.

Tyson could even feel glad when Adrian came and immediately confronted Angus about the dead bird.

Meowman and Cavirus could only watch in surprise as they saw Adrian screaming at Angus, who they both, like everyone else, thought was dead. Adrian knew that they both would be shocked to find out Angus was alive. I mean, he didn't expect them to already know, once Angus had only been back for the last two days. However, soon everyone would know, since the return of the forsaken, supposedly-dead Manechester child was a gossip big enough that it would eventually make its way to everyone Adrian knew.

However, Adrian could hardly care about that now, as he was much more focused on the problem of Angus still pulling things like that now that they found out about him.

"I told you it wasn't me, you old cot!" Said the younger horse at the older one. "I told you I never knew anything about dead birds and someone peeing on the carpets! I told you I never made it into the house until you found out about me! This is not my doing!"

"Then explain how those things keep happening!" Adrian demanded. "It wasn't anyone else on the house, and this leaves only you as the suspect!"

"I am not even a pred! Why would I kill and eat birds?"

"Because of that cursed thing!" Adrian said to him. "You are probably wearing it because you got addicted to the feeling of being a pred and so you indulge yourself by wearing it and going hunting! Does it feel good, you little creep!? Does it feel good to become a carnivore and prey on other creatures!? How long until you start hunting mammals!?"

"Screw you, old horse!" Angus said to his father, spite showing clearly on his voice. As the two of them continued discussion, the other mammals noticed something that escaped the two horses:

The sounds of footsteps approaching.

They all looked in direction to the door behind them, and they saw... something coming through it.

"Uhhh, Adrian?" Cavirus said, and this caused the horse to snap a "what!?" at him, only for him to gesture at the door, and for both him and Angus to look and see what was coming.

"What the..."

"Oh, great..."

"Say, Yahya..." Gosha said, as he talked to his horse friend. "Where did Adrian got that vase?"

"Which one?" Yahya asked, as he and Gosha both leaned over a window, looking outside. "He got a lot of them, you know?"

"That one that looks Greek." Gosha said, "And big enough that someone would fit in it. It is brown and black with white details and a crack on the side."

Yahya looked at him, before shrugging.

"I don't know, he probably got on an auction or something. I was never too much interested on Adrian's collection." The horse said, "Why do you ask?"

"Because... I thought I had seen a similar vase once..." Gosha said, and he seemed to be pretty vague about that. Yahya looked at him for a few moments.

"Well, it was certainly not while we were partners." Yahya said with sureness, as he was pretty sure that, back then, Gosha would never had paid any attention to some old vase. Neither of them was too interested in art back on the day, another thing they had in common.

Gosha looked down, and he then finally said something to Yahya:

"I'm sorry I left."

The horse looked at the wolf, as he continued to speak, saying that he truly never intended to leave, especially he way he did. He never intended to abandon his old friend like that. However, he had to do it.

"Do you remember of the weeks before I left?" Gosha asked, "Of how the cases we were investigating were getting weirder and weirder?"

Yes, Yahya remembered. He always had a good memory, and he could remember well how things seemed to be getting so weird that they were nearly crossing on the realm of absurdity on their cases right before Gosha suddenly told him that he had to leave.

Yahya had, more than once on the years the have been apart, wondered if those weird cases could have been the reason why Gosha suddenly decided to leave. That maybe he was leaving because things got so strange that they were disturbing to him.

However, he now had a different theory...

"We were starting to dip into the world of supernatural." Yahya concluded. "The world you belonged."

Gosha could only nod in agreement. Yes, that was what had happened. Even though Gosha was spending nearly all this time in the company of a non-mage, he himself was still a mage, and one from a family who had quite the reputation. Some said that mages could attract those kinds of things, as they were part of a world of mystery and mysticism, and they would inevitably lure other things from their world to themselves, either they wanted to or not.

They were navigating too close to the world of supernatural, and at some point, they would end up diving right into it, even with Gosha's efforts to keep them as far from that as they could while dealing with their cases as a pair of vigilantes.

"So, you left because the world of magecraft was pulling you back, and you didn't want me to be dragged into it with you?" Yahya asked, and Gosha could only confirm that this had been the case, saying that he would never have been able to forgive himself if something happened to his dearest friend in the world for ending up dragged into the world of mages because of him.

"Did you really thought I could not look after myself if it involved mages?" Yahya asked him, and Gosha said that it was not that he didn't considered Yahya strong or anything.

"Cases involving mages are much different from those involving commonplace matters." Gosha said to him. "Yahya, you have no idea of the things I have seen on my years as an enforcer. I saw bad things. Disturbing things. Things that good people should never have to come across."

"Sounds like the kinds of things we already saw on our time together." Yahya said to him.

"It is worse." Gosha said surely. "The world of magecraft is crawling with all kinds of dangerous mammals, Yahya. People who will kill and torture others and break any and all laws if this means getting what they want. It is a world filled with deceit and moral depravity."

"As if my world was any different." Yahya said to him, and the two friends traded a look.

"I just thought it would be better if I left before it got too dangerous for you." Gosha said. "I thought that, for your safety, it would be better if I cut off the cord between us before I ended up dragging you to the deep end of the supernatural with me."

Yahya looked at him, and he could see the sincerity and concern on the eyes of his former partner. Those unusual eyes that were angular and with grayish irises that were so uncommon for a wolf to have, and which now Yahya could notice were very similar to Ogami's, to the point where the horse felt like kicking himself for not having suspected of a possible connection upon seeing the young wolf for the first time.

"You could have talked to me before making that decision."

There was no resentment on the words of the horse. However, it was obvious from the way that he said those words that he was not exactly okay with the way Gosha chose to end everything, and that was for several different reasons.

"Yahya..." Gosha said, looking for the words to speak, when the door suddenly swung open with great force.

The two turn around immediately, to look as five figures made their way into the room.

"What is this?" Yahya asked as he looked at those figures that made their way into the room, and then that turned their heads to look their way.

Gosha blinked, his eyes becoming as wide as dinner-plates.

"Leano...?"

"Gosh, we finally lost him!" Melor said as he and Legoshi stood side by side as they rested, both unable to believe that they managed to pull out something like that. "Who knew your creepy crawlies could be good for something!"

"Uncle Tibor is gonna be so mad..." Legoshi said, worried. "Why did we had to do it, Melon?"

"Because I was tired of having someone breathing down my neck all the time!" Melor said, "Seriously, he was so close on me that I could bump into him if I moved suddenly! I needed some room to breathe!"

The two of them continued discussing, with Legoshi saying that it had been a bad idea and that they would be in even more trouble once Tibor found them. However, Melor kept telling him to calm down, saying that, if worst came to worst, he would say it was all his idea and take the brunch from it.

Legoshi was not sure, when just the day prior his hybrid friend had tried tossing him under the bus to save himself.

However, that was when both saw one of the doors opening, and something walking into the room with slow, deliberate steps.

"The heck?" Melor said as he looked at it, while Legoshi looked at this figure in shock.

"M... Mom?"

Around the house, others were having similar encounters.

Gazelle was talking to her manager about something important, which the blackbuck seemed keen on sharing with her, when they were interrupted by the coming of three figures right behind them, which shocked the two prey when they turned around to look at them.

In another area, near one of the side doors of the mansion, Benjamin with in the company of both Gabe and Penny, when they all noticed the approach of four figures, two coming through one door and then other two coming from another, surrounding the three of them as they moved around the small group.

Something similar happened with Marcy, Josh and Caitlyn, as the three doors of the room they were into suddenly opened, and several figures made their way inside, causing the three of them to look at them in surprise.

Tibor was walking across a hallway, trying to figure out where those two have went, when he came across two figures on the end of the hallway, which turned their heads at him as soon as they noticed his approach, and that caused his fur to stand on end as his claws unsheathed as he saw those entities.

Lastly, but not leastly, was Nick.

The fox was worried with the way his partner departed. He was worried because he knew from the look on her face that Judy was now in super-carrot-cop more, and that she would not stop what she was doing. He was also worried for the fact that she had left the mansion to follow a mage.

Sure, it was a nice mage, but their last times trying to sneak on mages didn't exactly had positive results.

He was starting to think that he should have gone with Judy, just in case she got into trouble for following Horne's mother.

That was when Nick nearly bumped into someone coming his way.

"Oh, sorry... miss?" Nick said, as he looked up at the figure. However, he soon realized that there was something wrong.

The figure was a wolf. A female one, at that. Nick could tell from the slender figure and the soft features and curves of the muzzle and waist. The first thing he noticed was that the figure was naked.

He wasn't that much shocked, once he was a regular at Mystic Springs and he was not as bashful to those kinds of things as his partner. However, as he looked at the naked form of the figure, he could notice something strange.

The fur seemed off. It looked like fur, alright, but for some reason it seemed off. Synthetic, nearly. It would look real from a distance, but once he was looking closely, since he nearly bumped into the "mammal", he could see that this fur didn't seemed all too natural.

Not only that, but there were areas devoid of fur. Namely, the areas around the joints. And said joints were artificial, seeming like the joints of a doll more than anything. Those were certainly not the joints of a normal, real mammal.

And there was the face which, while being the face of a very beautiful wolf, was so hard and unmoving that there was no way it could be a real face.

If anything, that looked like a very life-like mannequin.

"What the...?" Nick said as he looked up at the thing, which continued to look at him with its artificial, glassy eyes.

Then, the eyes suddenly changed color, turning bright red and glowing like Christmas lights at the fox.

With a click, a long blade slid out of the mannequin's arm...