At the end of the day, I'm a mammal. I have feelings. I get tired. I get sad.
Summer Prancer
Everyone was once again gathering into the main living room.
Some of them were standing, like Josh, who had a sour expression on his face. Others were sitting, like Gabe, who looked at his own hooves on his lap. However, all of them were in there, and all of them looked quite worried with one thing or another. Most of them were worried about Ben, after they all saw just the state that he was when he was back with the others.
They saw that he was still a pile of nerves, and that it seemed to get worse as everyone approached him. So much that Marcy had to tell everyone to keep distance while she and Yahya both took the cheetah upstairs.
"Is Officer Clawhauser going to be okay?" Euphemia asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had built on the living room. Josh was the one who answered.
"He will, but he will be nervous for hours now." The muscular cheetah spoke. "He gets like that when the subject of Fanwshope is brought up. Especially when someone openly accuses him."
As Josh said that, he shot an angry glare to Adrian, who was sitting in the couch. Others also gave a glare at the horse, including his own son. Adrian moved uncomfortably on his seat, and it looked like he was trying to make himself look smaller.
"He looked so nervous..."Judy said, and Gabe looked at her.
"You would also be if you were accused of something like that." The deer said, "It was seven years ago, and it still affects Ben whenever the subject is brought up. He gets so nervous and can't stand being around many people. It is like he is afraid that everyone is going to start blaming him for it, like they did back on the day."
More silence followed those words, and no one broke the silence this time. It lasted for two more minutes, before they heard the sounds of footsteps coming from the stairs, making everyone turn to look at Yahya and Marcy coming down the stairs.
"How is he?" Gabe asked immediately as he rushed to the stairs. Chandler was right behind him.
"How is Ben?" The horse asked, and many others were asking if Ben was alright, including Gazelle, who had become very worried by seeing that king cheetah in such a state.
"He is fine now. I think." Marcy said, looking at the ones at the base of the stairs. "He is sleeping right now."
The others got calmer hearing this, and some of them looked pretty relieve.
"You got him to sleep already?" Josh asked, looking at him. "Normally it takes hours to get him to calm down when he has an episode like that."
"Yahya drugged him." Marcy said in a deadpan tone, causing all eyes to turn to the older horse.
"He was extremely nervous." Yahya explained to everyone. "He could hardly form coherent words, kept repeating that he didn't do it. He looked like he could have another panic attack at any moment. So, I gave him one of your sedatives, Carolyn."
Yahya said that looking at his son's wife. She looked like she was about to say something, but seemed to change her mind and instead only looked away and took another sip from her glass.
"You gave him a horse medicine?" Judy asked, looking at Yahya. "I'm sorry, but ain't that dangerous?"
"It does sounds dangerous." Horne said, looking at the horse, and then smirking.
"You're expecting him not to wake up anymore, aren't you?" Melon asked, and this caused Legoshi to look at him with a surprised face. For a moment, the horse and the hybrid locked eyes, and Yahya said:
"It is just a sleeping pill, Mr. Horne."
They continued to look at each other for a moment, before Yahya turned his attention to the rest of the room. In particular, at Judy, who was still looking at him, worry clear in her features.
"Still, due to differences in immune system and bodily mass, a medicine meant for a horse can be considered strong for, let's say, a cheetah." Yahya said, "I gave him half of a pill. Still, it will probably make him sleep all night."
Everyone took in the news, and after a while, Chandler sighed.
"So, I guess that we won't be playing the game tonight." The horse said, causing everyone to look at him.
"What, after how much you said that tonight was going to be great?" Charles said, looking at his brother-in-law. "Didn't you said you have big plans for the game?"
"We can do it tomorrow." Chandler said, looking at Charles, and then at the rest of his guests. "It wouldn't be fair to let Ben out of the game. Besides, after all of this, I don't really feel on the mood for continuing the game tonight."
Everyone looked at the horse, and some of them had to admit that, after this whole scene, they didn't really felt much on the mood for games tonight. They all were still very worried with Ben.
"Well..." Adrian said, getting up. "If you want to end the game for tonight, then that is right. In fact, it is good to actually relax after such a tiring ordeal, right?"
Most of the presents glared at Adrian, Chandler including.
"You mean the ordeal you caused?" Chandler asked, using a very aggressive tone, what caught his father off guard. Adrian looked at him with shock, which soon turned into indignation.
"Chandler!"
"Don't you 'Chandler' me!" Chandler shouted back, making the older horse step back from the shock. Chandler's face was fill with anger.
"You are the one who caused all of this!" Chandler said, pointing a hooved finger at his father, nearly poking him in the chest as he did. "You are the one who brought up this story and you are the one who made all of those accusations on Benji!"
"I-I was just passing forward the information I was given." Adrian said, after a few seconds recovering from his son's outburst.
"You had to right to do that!" Chandler demanded, looking at him. "You had no right to expose Benjamin like that! You had not right to make those accusations and to put him through it!"
Chandler was very angry with his father. Angry like he had few times had been before. Enough to make his father very uneasy.
He was angry with his father for having pulling something like that on Ben, and he thought that the older horse had no right to have done something like that. And some of the presents clearly agreed with him.
"I... I just thought that the guests should know of this kind of information..."
"Why?" Judy asked, walking forward and causing Adrian to look at her. "So we would have a bad opinion on Benjamin? So we all would consider him a criminal?"
Judy looked as angry as Chandler as she looked at the horse.
"Did you really went through all of that only because you wanted to humiliate Ben?" She asked, and Adrian looked back at her.
"That was not my intention." Adrian said quickly, and now it was Melon's turn to talk.
"Wasn't it?" The hybrid said, "Because I kind of had the impression that this was your goal. You know, when you made sure that Chuckles there would tell us the story, and when you were saying those things about 'answering for his crimes', and when you told Hopps and Wilde to go and 'arrest that criminal'..."
"Be quiet, Horne!" Adrian said to him, and the hybrid stopped talking. However, someone else took his place.
"It really seemed that you wanted us to think bad about Officer Clawhauser." Gazelle said, causing Adrian to look at her.
"Was that it?" The popstar asked. "Did you really wanted us to think the worse of him?"
"It certainly is what it seemed." Judy said, "In that case, Benjamin could easily accuse you of defamation for wanting to affect his image with the spread of false accusations."
"What?" Adrian asked, looking at the bunny.
"Yes." Judy said, looking at him. "You basically made false accusations on him with the use of a third party."
"I'd be the third party." Chuckles said, raising a paw.
"This basically constitutes slander, and Benjamin could very well sue you for that." Judy continued, "You understand that you just did something very wrong to Benjamin, don't you?"
She spoke to him in the same tone that an adult would use when talking to a child who misbehaved.
Having anyone speaking like that to him was shocking to Adrian, and he became incapable of acting or answering for a moment, before he could formulate a response.
"Y-you... You..." Adrian was starting to get angry. He seemed ready to say something back at that bunny who dared to talk to him as if he was a child. However, he was stop by Yahya, who walked in front of him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Enough, Adrian." Yahya said to his son in a low voice and with a firm tone, causing Adrian to look at him.
"Calm down." Yahya said, looking at him. "Before you say yet another thing that will make you look bad."
Adrian then looked around, and he saw all the eyes on him.
Judging eyes.
From the eyes of the famous Gazelle who were now unsure of his morals, to the eyes of Officer Wilde, who seemed to be completely sure that he was as bad as he thought him to be. Even his wife was not supporting him, even though she was not looking at him reprovingly like the other guests. Even Charles, who was usually eager to be at his side, was clearly hesitant to say anything on his support.
This was enough to make the horse stand back, and so it was Yahya's turn to talk to everyone.
"I think we all have had enough for a night, don't you all think?" Yahay said, turning to the guests. "I assume that it is time for all of us to cool our heads. The bar is open for those who want to drink, and I believe all of you can find something to do, since there will be no more game tonight."
Adrian then turned to Chuckles.
"And you are going to the dungeons." Yahya said, to which the wolverine only shrugged. Yahya then turned to Nick and Judy.
"Could you two be kind enough to help them escort Clawed there? To be sure he won't try anything." He asked, and Judy looked about to say something, but Nick stopped her by placing a paw on her shoulder. Soon, the two cops were going their way, with Judy shooting a last glare to Adrian, who glared back at her.
"Adrian." Yahya said, looking at his son. "Come with me."
With this, the two horses were leaving the room, leaving the rest of the mammals in there to decide what to do. Soon, all of them had left that room, as they went to another part of the house to do something else.
"The nerve of that bunny!" Adrian said, "Talking to me like that! Does she knows who I am?"
"I am pretty sure that she does." Yahya said, "She might not know details, but she certainly looked at you like she knew enough."
"She said that Clawhauser could sue me!" Adrian continued. "Sue me! As if it was that easy to claim that I did that only because I wanted to humiliate him."
Yahya stopped, and turned around to look his son in the eyes. He could still see him clearly through most angles, with his 350° degree vision, but when he wanted to make a point to someone else or have a serious conversation, it was much more efficient do that looking face-to-face.
"Well, didn't you?"
It was a simply question, still, Adrian seemed confused upon hearing that.
"What?"
"Didn't you done it with the purpose of humiliating Benjamin Clawhauser?" Yahya asked, as direct and straight forward as he possibly could, a serious expression on his face as he looked at his son.
Adrian hesitated for a moment, before answering:
"I-I was not... I mean... that was not my intention."
"Don't lie to me." Yahya said, to which Adrian was quick to answer.
"I-I am not!" He quickly recovered, and proceeded to explain to his father.
"I just wanted to confront him about the subject, and make it clear to him that I knew it."
"In front of all the guests and of the family?" Yahya asked, looking at the younger horse, "If you wanted to confront him, why not simply call him to a corner and just do it? Why want to do such in such a way, with an audience to watch the entire thing?"
Adrian took a few moments to answer. During that time, he actually seemed lost, as he looked to the sides, as if looking for a way out.
"I... I did that for safety." Adrian finally said, making Yahya look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"After hearing about that accusation, I feared that confronting him about it would anger him." Adrian said, "I had just heard that he had murdered an entire village in cold blood, so I assumed that he would be dangerous. If I faced him in private then he could try something. Even if he didn't tried to kill me, he could try to use magecraft against me, perhaps try to hypnotize me. I feared for my safety in the case there was no one around."
Yahya looked at him for a few moments.
"So, doing it in public was for your own safety?" Yahya asked his son, to which Adrian nodded.
"Yes. I assumed that with many witnesses around he would feel less inclined to try anything violent." Adrian said, and he seemed to think that this explanation seemed to be perfectly reasonable. However, Yahya looked back at him.
"You heard that he had murdered an entire village." Yahya said, looking at him. "And you assumed that he would be stopped from being anything violent due to having witnesses around?"
Yahya looked at the younger horse.
"You assumed that someone who is powerful and cruel enough to murder an entire village all by himself would be stopped from killing someone else by witnesses." Yahya said, looking at the horse. "You assumed that, instead of assuming that he would murder all of the present witnesses in order to keep his accusation of becoming public?"
Adrian blinked, and he looked back at his father.
The way the older horse was glaring at him was enough to keep him from saying anything stupid.
"I really hope that you don't think like that. Even if you are only saying this to me as an excuse." Yahya said, looking at his son with reprobation, and Adrian looked down, as his father let out a snort.
"Honestly, Adrian." Yahya said, looking at his son, "You always had a knack for wanting attention. Since you were at high school. You just want to be the one everyone is looking at. You need everything to be a spectacle, don't you?"
Adrian said nothing to his father; he only continued to look down. Meanwhile, Yahya continued.
"This love for the theatric of yours has always been a problem. Especially when you involved others in your little shows." Yahya said, "Either was it by making others get involved to promote yourself, or be it making big scenes to humiliate others. You did it when your kids got into problem, or when you wanted to make a point and try to outsmart others. I remember how you arranged that entire auditorium of people to watch as you were getting revenge on one of your bullies. It was a lamentable show... even though I got impressed that you managed to get those pictures as evidence."
"And now you did it again." Yahya said, "Making up this whole spectacle with no other purpose but to humiliate Benjamin Clawhauser. And clearly not thinking of the incoming repercussions of it."
A few moments of silence followed, before Adrian spoke:
"It was not only to humiliate him."
Yahya looked at his son with a serious expression, and Adrian looked up to meet his eyes, but he was still intimidated by the way his father was looking at him.
"I just thought that everyone should know what kind of mammal he was." Adrian said, justifying himself. "When I heard about his crime, I just couldn't accept him to continue to be supported by everyone who thought that he was a good person."
"So, you did that so everyone would turn against him." Yahya said; looking at his son with his arms crossed.
"I wanted to show to everyone the kind of mammal he was!" Adrian said, looking at his father. "I wanted everyone to know exactly what kind of mammal he was! That was why I wanted them all to know about the crime he committed!"
"Yes..." Yahya said, "Except that he didn't committed any crime."
Adrian didn't had answer to that, he only looked down again.
"In the end, you ended up accusing an innocent." Yahya said, "Haven't I told you many times that you must not do accusations on others unless you are absolutely sure?"
"I was!" Adrian said, immediately wanting to justify himself to his father. "I was absolutely sure that he had actually did it! With all the things that Clawde spoke, I was sure that he was guilty! That stupid wolverine didn't tell me important details!"
"Because you didn't gave him the chance, did you?" Yahya said, "At least, that was what Clawde himself said. He tried to say something else regarding what he just told you, but you didn't let him speak up, did you?"
"I..." Adrian tried to say, but he stopped, realizing that it was truth. He could try to deny it, but he felt discouraged to say anything to Yahya, as the older horse looked back at him. "I... I..."
Yahya sighed.
"You did something like that without even having all of the facts." Yahya said in what sounded like disappointment. This caused Adrian to flinch. "You jumped to conclusions instead of having all the needed information to make proper conclusions, and this led you to do something stupid, just like when you were a teenager."
Adrian looked up at his father, and he seemed to be ready to try defending himself, but his voice got lost once his eyes met Yahya's.
"What, ain't it truth?" Yahya said, and Adrian looked at him, but didn't said a single word.
"How many times I have told you how important it is to have all the needed information?" Yahya asked him, "How important it is to not jump conclusions? To have not even a shred of doubt before you take needed actions?"
"And you did something like that, in order to satisfy your grudge." Yahya said, "Do you still hate Benjamin Clawhauser that much?"
Adrian once more said nothing, instead choosing to look away. Yahya continued.
"You saw an opportunity of hitting Clawhauser and you took it without thinking twice. You heard something you wanted to hear, something that was useful to you, and then you just leap into action. Dammit, you didn't even confirmed if the accusation was true!"
Adrian flinched. And he dared to look up to his father another time. They met eyes, and that was when Yahya said:
"Is because of things like that why I never considering making you my successor at Beastar Corps."
That hit.
It hit hard. Enough for Adrian to look down once more, his ears down as he looked at his own hooves as Yahya looked at him for a moment, before sighing.
"That love for show and theatric might be good for politics, but it might be troublesome for someone who works directly with the law, especially if it gets in the way of better judgement." Yahya said, looking at his son. "You were callous and impulsive in making an accusation like that. Be sure to say this when you are apologizing to Clawhauser tomorrow."
Adrian blinked, before he looked up at his father.
"What?" He asked, looking at his father. Yahya said nothing, simply looking back at him.
"You... you want me to apologize to..."
"Yes, I do." Yahya said, looking back at his son. "Like Hopps said, what you did can be labelled as nothing short of defamation. You need to give an apology for this. You can't do this today, since Clawhauser is already asleep, but you can still do it tomorrow. Preferable, during breakfast, when everyone is at the table."
Adrian looked outraged at this.
"Excuse me!?"
"You heard me." Yahya said, "After all, you tried to humiliate him in front of everyone. Nothing more appropriate than you apologize to him in front of everyone. Ain't that right?"
"You can't be serious!" Adrian said, "You cannot expect me to give an apology to that stupid fat cat! Not after-"
"Are you really going to bring that up again!?" Yahya said at him, making Adrian stop. "I am tired of you always bringing that up whenever Benjamin Clawhauser is mentioned!"
"But..." Adrian said, looking at his father. "But because of him..."
"I am aware of what happened." Yahya said to his son. "I was in there, remember? I know exactly what you blame Clawhauser for."
There was silence between the two horses, which Yahya broke.
"I know you are still trying to digest what happened. You are not the only one, believe me." Yahya said to his son. "I was salty about that for a while to. But I moved on. You should as well, instead of keeping into it, like a bird who insists in building a nest on an old and weak branch even though it is about to break and fall off the tree."
"This time your spite has led you to mistreat him based on an accusation that was not truth." The darker horse said, looking at Adrian. "You wanted everyone to get the impression that he was a criminal unworthy of respect. Well, you made him the victim on this whole story, while you came out of an oppressive tyrant who mistreats innocents. You saw how everyone was looking at you back there, didn't you?"
Indeed, Adrian had. He saw the looks that everyone was giving him. Clawhauser's siblings and ex-fiancé, in particular, were glaring at him as if they were hoping that he was going to explode in flames (could mages actually set someone on fire only with a glare?).
"That is why you need to apologize to Clawhauser." Adrian said, "Not only to try and prevent him from actually wanting to try legal action against you, but also to fix your image with the guests, even if just a little, especially with Gazelle. After all, I assume you still plan to get her support, right?"
Adrian said nothing for a while, as he looked at his father, before he sighed.
"I'll... be ready to apologize to him during breakfast." Adrian said, and Yahya nodded.
"Good." He said, looking at his son. "Now I have to call my secretary to check if everything is in order on the headquarters. You do whatever you want."
With this, Yahya went on his way, leaving his son behind, standing in there and looking down.
As he did, he was already working on his mind how he should apologize to Clawhauser on the morning. He was running a few scenarios on his head already, trying to pick up the one that would be the less damaging to his pride. It was something that he would have to do, even though that the mere thought of apologizing to that stupid fatso was enough to make his stomach churn in revulsion.
"That was pretty interesting, don't you think?" Chuckles said, as he was take across the house in direction to the dungeons. "I do love some drama, which is why I watch so many soap operas. But the drama of real life is always better, don't you guys think?"
"Yeah, I guess real life has as much drama as television." Nick said, looking at the wolverine. Normally he would be more humoristic on his remarks but, right now, he was still reeling from all that happened, so he was not in that much of a good mood.
He still wanted to say some things to that jerk Adrian Manechester for the things that he just put Ben through, and the look on Judy's face told that she probably wanted the same, as she seemed not to have become satisfied with how she had faced him just moments before.
Chuckles looked at them, and he saw that they both looked serious.
"Still worried about your big friend?" He asked, and Judy answered:
"Of course we are. Didn't you saw how Ben looked?"
"The panicked eyes and heavy breathing?" Chuckles asked, looking at the bunny. "Yeah, it would be hard to ignore. I actually felt a little bad for him."
Nick and Judy shared a look. During the time they were going after Chuckles, the wolverine proved many times that he was a sociopath, willing to manipulate everyone to get what he wanted and seeming not to care how many got hurt in the process. It was hard to believe that he actually felt bad for any misfortune that wasn't his own.
"What? I actually do." Chuckles said, looking at the two. "Clawhauser is a cool guy. You know, for someone who came from an old mage family."
"He was not supposed to?" Judy asked, looking at the wolverine, as they and the security officers of the mansion continued to scout him across the house, until they stopped in front of a big door, which was made of steel and looked quite heavily built, like the door of an actual dungeon. It was rather ominous, actually. One of the guards was working into opening it, while Chuckles answered Judy's question with a shrug.
"Well, most of the guys that come from old mage families tend to be snotty and full of themselves." Chuckles said, with his arms crossed. "All of them are like 'you know who my parents are' and 'I can destroy your entire clan if you anger me', and stuff. Kind of like many of those rich families. You get it?"
Surprisingly, Nick said that he actually got it, what caused Judy to look at her partner.
"Also, there was the fact that I heard all of those rumors about him." Chuckles said, "About how he killed an entire village and escaped with a slap on the wrist thanks to his parents. So, I just assumed that he was the worst kind of snotty, arrogant mage brat, the kind who would be like 'no one can touch me, my mommy and daddy take care of everything for me', and stuff like that. I was surprised when I talked to him and he was the exact opposite. Seriously, I didn't expected someone from a powerful clan to be so down to Earth, you know?"
"Yeah, right." Nick said, and he truly admitted that Ben was the complete opposite of he would have expected from some rich family. Not bratty or rude in any way, and a very humble and pleasant mammal to be around. Clearly not the kind who let money and position go to his head, as most of those rich bastards.
"But, how did you heard those rumors?" Nick asked the wolverine, as the door slammed open, and they were not going down a flight of stair. "And how you knew about this accusation?"
"Like I said, Wilde." Chuckles said, looking at the fox. "I grew up on the moonlit world. Once you are among mages, you hear all kinds of things that others don't. When the thing of Fawnshope happened, it was kind of a big deal, especially since it involved a member of a very important and influent clan as a suspect. Practically everyone in the moonlit world was talking about it, so I heard about it as well."
There was silence, and Chuckles sighed.
"Even though I was not a mage myself."
There was the most subtle note of frustration on his voice. Which made the two cops and some of the guards look among themselves as they scouted the wolverine all the way down the stairs, before arriving in the place where they were supposed to go.
It were really dungeons. Complete with stony walls and chains hanging from a few spots on the walls. The hallway looked like the place where the ZPD had their holding cells, except that it was much more ominous, as it had that "medieval dungeon" look, save for the electric lamps that were switch on, granting that the place at least would have illumination.
They scouted the wolverine to the first cell, opened the door, and made him walk inside, before locking the door and making sure that he would remain in there.
As they were ready to leave, Judy remained in there for a while, and she looked at the wolverine, before asking a question:
"Was it hard?"
Chuckles looked at her.
"Growing up with mages. Was it hard?" She asked, and there were a few moments of silence, before the wolverine answered.
"It was better than growing up with my parents. I'll tell you that." Chuckles said to the bunny, who looked back at him. "They all were nice to me, Nana and my adoptive brothers. They really considered me part of the family."
Chuckles then sighed.
"Still, I'd be lying if I say that I didn't felt out of place as the only one who could not do magecraft." He admitted, leaning forward and resting against the bars. "I really wish that I could do half of the awesome things that they could."
He then shrugged.
"Well, at least they never treated me like their slave or anything, like some mage families would have done." He admitted. "From what I heard, it is generally quite bad to be a mundane adopted by mages. Still, I assume it is better than being a fiasco."
Judy blinked, looking at him.
"A fiasco?"
"That's how they call when someone is born with lame magic circuits." Chuckles explained. "Of course, it is the kind of thing that you won't see in an official document, but it is a very used term among mages."
"The expected is that the circuits become better with each generation. Your children will be better than you, just like you are better than your parents, and their children will be better than them and so on. Still, sometimes it happens something like a fiasco." Chuckles said, "They are like, the opposite of a brute diamond, who is the guy born as mage in a family of non-mages."
"They are non-mages born to mages?" Judy asked, and Chuckles shrugged.
"Only rarely they completely lack magic circuits." Chuckles said, "Most of the cases they are born with circuits of inferior quality when compared to their parents. And I am not talking only slightly weaker than you mother and father, that happens nearly half of the time. Fiascos are when a baby is born with magic circuits that are much weaker than both of their parents. As in, they are born much weaker as a mage than they were suppose to. This thing is rare, but it happens. For children to be born with lower ranks."
"Lower ranks?" Judy said, looking at the wolverine. "You mean, social ranks?"
"I mean magic circuits ranks." Chuckles said, and he explained:
"Magic circuits are ranked by both their quality and quantity. There is an official ranking on the Association for it. Circuits can be rank from A to E. One can have an A rank in quantity of magic circuits, but have an E ranking in their quality. Of course, there are some 'sub-rankings', like 'A+' and 'B-', this kind of official stuff."
"If you are a mage with A rank circuits, and your partner also has A rank circuits, you will expect your children to at least have circuits of the same ranking, or only slightly lower. If your children is born with D or even E ranking on their circuits, they are basically a complete let down. A failure. A fiasco."
Judy kept hearing as the wolverine spoke that, and she reflected on all that she just heard.
So, mages could label their own children as failures if they were born with lower quality on their magic circuits?
"So, they won't love their children is they are... fiascos?"
"Some don't." Chuckles said to her. "Others do love their children, but they deem them as not being good heirs for the clan, and they move on and have other children. Now, not all who do that love their better children more than the fiasco, but most of them tend to pity their weaker children, as if they were born crippled or something."
Judy processed what she was hearing, and chuckles said:
"A perfect example of this is Dawn Bellwether."
"What?" Judy asked, looking at him.
"That's right." Chuckles said, looking at the bunny cop. "Dawn Bellwether is a fiasco. Maybe the most famous of them."
She looked at him, as he continued explaining:
"The Bellwether are one of the oldest and most powerful mage families around. They did their breeding right during generations so they'd only get the best descendants. Of course they expect their children to be born with the best circuits. So, you can understand their frustration when they examined that newly born small ewe, and saw that, in terms of quantity of magic circuits, her ranking was 'E-'."
"Now, even if you are born with a not good quantity of magic circuits, you can make it up with quality, sometimes. But that was not the case for that ewe. The quality of her circuits was the same as her quantity: 'E-'."
"She was basically so weak that she barely even classified as a mage. The average mage has twenty magic circuits on their bodies, but that ewe had three. And they are of such a poor quality that they could hardly conduct magical energy. It was a miracle that she could even do magecraft at all."
Judy reflected on this.
So, Bellwether was very weak, in mage terms?
But...
"But on the mall..." Judy said, "She actually did a lot. And she helped us fight. Well, she summoned creatures to fight for her, but..."
"She did it by herself?" Chuckles asked, looking at Judy. "Or did she used some mystic code? Some special object?"
Judy thought about it, and she said:
"She used some chalk."
Chuckles nodded.
"Yes, I heard about that. Those are her mystic codes. Apparently, the best she could do with her limited skills." Chuckles said, "Mages with weak circuits often try to compensate their limited power by using mystic codes. They also try to compensate by studying twice as hard as most other mages. But still, they are lucky if they can be half as strong."
"That is the case with Bellwether." Chuckles concluded. "She tried to compensate her weakness by being smart and using a lot of tricks to increase her skills, but her circuits won't improve. She will never truly be able to do anything greater than the most basic magecraft without external help. In fact, if she tried any of the bigger rituals on her own, they could put so much stress on her circuits that it could kill her. Or at least cripple her for real."
A few moments of silence followed those words, and the wolverine chuckled.
"Anyways, the fact that she is such a screw up for the Bellwethers is one of the things that makes that ewe so famous." Chuckles said, "They call her 'The Great Bellwether Fiasco'."
Judy looked down, taking in what she just heard.
Of course, she would never sympathize with Bellwether, after all that she'd done to her, to the city, and to what she tried to do to Nick. Still, hearing this kind of things, she couldn't help but think of the type of life she had. Did her family rejected her and loved her less because she was not born as they expected? Was she mocked by other mage because of it? And everyone actually called her a 'fiasco'?
"That's cruel." Judy said, looking at the wolverine, to which he just said:
"It's life. Magic circuits define your life as a mage. Or, the lack of them, as it is my case. If you are born without them, you won't grow them magically and become a mage, and neither you will grow more of them so you become a stronger mage. That is not how it works. It would be like expecting extra limbs to grow on you while you sleep. What you're born with, is what you're stuck with. You don't like it? Well, sucks to be you."
Silence followed those words, and Judy reflected on all she just heard. That was when Nick spoke:
"Well, that was really interesting, but we gotta go now. Enjoy your cell. Come, Carrots, this place is depressing me."
With this, Nick steered his partner out of the dungeons, and Chuckles stuck his paw out to wave at them, wishing them a good night as they walked up the stairs and eventually closed the door, leaving he wolverine alone in the dungeons.
So, here is the first chapter of the year. Sorry if it is shorter than the previous ones, but it turns out I finished all that was to happen in it in less lines than I expected.
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed it, and that you stay tuned for future chapters. I promise to start doing my best to write more things that you all will enjoy.