Once more, the mammals of the mansion were gathering on the table of the dining hall to share lunch.

The Manechesters and all of their guests were once more sitting together on the dining table to eat a finely prepared lunch. Once more, the guests of the mansion noticed just how close it was to a restaurant in there, including a menu for them to choose, and the many servants who came and went with plates and trails to serve the food.

There was a waiting time for getting the food ready, but the ones present didn't really minded waiting. They were able to pass their time by talking with each other while they waited for the food to be ready, and they had many things to talk about with each other.

Starting with Judy and Nick, who shared with everyone the fact that was on the table the recent news on the cops who had been take to the hospital. The two cops had talked to Chief Bogo, who had talked to the doctors, and informed them that the cops on the hospital were steadily recovering, and would be dismiss in the following day, after spending the night on the hospital for good measure.

These news were well received by everyone at the table, who were glad that the cops were not suffering from anything serious. Gazelle, in particular, demonstrated to be very relieved for knowing that the cops of the ZPD were going to be okay. Right on cue, the food started arriving, and everyone started eating.

There was some nice food for the prey on the table. For exemple, the mushroom risotto with truffle oil that Chandler and his girlfriend shared, or the blackened carrot with daikon and pomegranate salad that Judy and Yahya both had. There were also options for the predators, of course.

Nick, for example, was tasting some of that honeyed roasted duck, and he found it nice, but a bit too sweet for a protein. Meanwhile, Josh and Marcy tasted the snake soup, made with python meat. Ben, on the other hand, didn't wanted to eat that (it reminded him too much of Zass and Slizz, and it made him feel nauseous), so he preferred the duck Nick was having. Tyson, on his end, decided to try those crocodile tail kebabs.

As they ate, the conversations on the table continued.

"...and that's why I'm not allowed in Pumatra anymore." Josh said to Melon, who laughed hard before taking another bit of that crocodile steak. A quite vicious bite, was to be added.

"You know, for someone who doesn't feel taste, you eat with a certain enthusiasm." Josh mentioned as he saw how the hybrid tore off a piece of that crocodile before swallowing it whole.

"Well..." Melon said, looking at the muscular cheetah, who was wearing jeans and a light shirt that showed off his muscular arms. "I have to eat. My body needs food to work, like everyone else's. I just can't enjoy it like most mammals do. But, I can still enjoy it my own way. I just have to focus on things other than the taste. For example, how good it would feel to sink my teeth in the neck of a person I really hate."

"Wow, you are a bit of a psychopath, aren't you?" Josh asked, and the hybrid smiled at him.

"Well, sue me." Melon said to him, "Besides, I am sure that I'm not the only one who enjoys having something on his mouth."

"Yeah, I can attest to that." Josh said, smiling at him. "I know of a few things that would be good to have on your mouth. As long as you don't chew on them."

"Why would you not chew on something in your mouth?" Legoshi asked, leaning over to look at the cheetah. "I mean, if you put something into your mouth you are going to eat it, right?"

Josh chuckled, and said on how "cute" the wolf was, what caused Legoshi to look at him with a cocked ear. Meanwhile, Melon seemed to understand better what the cheetah was intending.

"Mr. Clawhauser, are you suggesting some special activity for me to enjoy?" the hybrid asked, and the cheetah smirked back at him.

"Sure. If you are interested, Mr. Horne."

"I am always open for experiences to enjoy." Melon said to the cheetah, a smirk like Josh's on his feline mouth. "Especially the ones who will give me a certain level of... enjoyment."

They both smirked at each other, with Josh emitting a certain purr-like sound from his mouth, as he approached the hybrid's face with his own.

"Hey!" Someone on the table said, "Get a room, you two!" It was Nick who had spoke.

"Yeah!" Charles said in agreement. "Save that creepy flirting for when you're alone! Some of us are trying to eat!"

This caused Josh and Melon to separate, but they still looked at each other from the corner of their eyes, and both of them still had suggestive smiles as they looked at each other. Josh took spoonful after spoonful of his soup, while Melon continued to rip out pieces of his crocodile and chew them quite noisily.

Meanwhile, others on the table were talking among themselves. As it was the example of Euphemia and Marceline.

"So, you have your own personal code of honor." Euphemia said to the hybrid, who took a spoonful of her soup, taking a piece of snake meat within the spoon and munching on the chewy meat. "Even though you are a mercenary?"

"What, because I am one I cannot have a code?" Marcy said to the mare.

"I assume you can." Euphemia said, "But, do you really attain to this code? Even if the payment is good if you give up on it?"

"There is no point making a lot of money if you can no longer face yourself on the mirror." Marcy said, sounding very serious as she said that to the mare. "There might be freelancers who have no qualms about giving up principles all for some change, but I am not one of them. I don't believe in getting rich through any means necessary."

"Self-respect is the most important things a mammal can have." Marcy continued, "I am not willing to give up mine for money. That is why I have a code."

Marcy turned completely to Euphemia, and started counting on her fingers.

"I never do anything that knowingly harms innocent people. I don't deal with anything that will ruin good mammals' lives. And I never cover up for someone if I know they are doing, have done or plan to do anything on the lines of the two above. As long as I stick to my code, I'll still have enough self-respect that I'll be able to look myself in the mirror on the end of the day."

"Of course, money is always good, but it doesn't replaces principles." Marcy concluded, and Euphemia looked at her, before nodding.

"I can surely agree with that." Euphemia said to the hybrid. "It is truly admirable to remain loyal to your beliefs."

"Like I said, money is not worth much if you can't face yourself in the end." Marcy said, "But, I don't really have to worry about that much. I am a good enough freelancer that I have a lot of work whenever I go, and I can afford choosing who I work for."

"Are you really that good?" Euphemia asked, to which Marcy asked:

"One of the best around. You have anything you need recovered or found? You have someone who you wish to find, or something you want to take from a rival? Or maybe you want someone to cover your back while you're working? Marceline Foxgrove is the one for the job. Guaranteed satisfaction for you as long as the payment is done on time and on the right measure. But, I do demand my payment to be on time and in kind. No checks, no cards, no promises and no excuses."

Euphemia looked at the hybrid for a few seconds. Yahya, who was sitting on the other end of the talking hybrid, seemingly focused solely on his carrot salad, said:

"That is an interesting way of working." Marcy turned to the dark horse by her other side. "Sounds pretty much like tax evasion."

"Mages do their business like that, in general." The hybrid said to the horse. "Nothing strange in the world of mages."

"Well, that's interesting..." Yahya said, and went back into eating his food, leaving the hybrid and his granddaughter to resume their conversation, what they both did.

Meanwhile, Charlie, who was sitting by his wife's side, was eating his food, seemingly without a care. Gabe was sitting right by his side, and he was looking across the table to Ben, wishing that he were sitting by his side. He looked to the side, seeing that Chandler and his girlfriend were still talking to each other, then he turned to look at Charles and he thought about talking with him.

"Hey..." Gabe said, and Charles turned to look at him.

"Hey." The horse said, before looking back to his meal and trying to focus on it. Gabe wasn't really sure what to talk about with the horse, so he decided on something that he noticed that morning.

"So... why were you sneaking around this morning?"

Charles stopped, and he turned to look at the deer.

"What?"

"This morning." Gabe said, looking at him. "I saw you sneaking around a room. You didn't saw me, but I did saw you. You were definitely sneaking, and it looked like you were trying to not let anyone see you."

Charles' face took a panicked expression for a moment. He looked at the side, looking at his wife, who was still entertained in a conversation with Marcy, and at Yahya, who seemed too focused on his own food to give anything else attention.

"I..." Charles said, turning to Gabe, before lowering his voice to nearly a whisper. "I wasn't sneaking!"

"Well, it looked like you were." Gabe said, at a normal volume. "You were tip-toing on your hooves, and you kept looking over your shoulder, as if you wanted to be sure that no one would see you. Well, you didn't do a very good job, since I saw you..."

"Why were you spying on me!?" Charles demanded, still whispering. "What, is it a thing that mages do? You spy on people?"

"I was not spying." Gabe said. "I was walking around the house early when I saw you. I guess you were so focused on not being seen that you didn't noticed I was there. By the way, you were all dressed up. Were you coming back from somewhere? Were you out?"

"That's none of your business!" Charles whispered, causing the deer to stare at him. Charles looked around once more, seemingly to see if there was anyone looking their way. There wasn't. "I was... I was out taking care of some business."

"Business?" Gabe asked, and Charles, who looked like he wanted to end that conversation really fast, said:

"It was a meeting with an investor!" His whispering was a bit urgent. "I met with him last night and it lasted longer than I anticipated. It was late and I decided to spend the night out. I came back early to avoid waking anyone up."

"On the first floor?" Gabe asked, "I mean, if you were doing that on the second floor where all the bedrooms are it would make more sense, but here on the first floor, with no one around to awake? By the way, you were not dressed like you were having a meeting with an investor..."

"Will you let it go!?" Charles said, raising his voice slightly, and then lowering it again, looking to see if anyone had looked his way, before looking back at Gabe.

"Look, what I do on my own time is no one's business but my own." He hissed to the der through clenched teeth. "It is certainly not the busy of some nosy mage who arrived at the mansion without even being invited and thinks that he has the right to sneak around the house the spy on people. So you better start minding your own business and stop poking your snout around, otherwise you might find yourself losing it."

Gabe looked back at the horse, not wavering for a second.

"Are you threatening me?" Gabe asked, in a low but serious voice. Gabe was a chill and calm guy most of the time. But, as he grew up into a mature mage, he learned that it was important to let others know that you were not one to push around easily. His father made sure to teach him and his brothers that, so they would always know how to stand their ground when they needed to, and, in the world of mages, you needed to stand your ground quite often.

One single cold stare into the eyes of the horse was enough to make him back down.

"J-just stop meddling in my business." Charles mumbled, going back to his food. Gabe continued to glare at the horse, before he returned to his own food, having lost all intention of engaging into conversation.

At least with Charles.

And like that, lunch continued. From first course to second course, the meal proceed, until it ended with some nice dessert. Following this, the servants came to remove all the plates and clear the table.

At this moment, Melon called one of the servants close, and placed a hundred bill on his pocket.

"Your tip. You were great, dude." The hybrid said, showing a toothy grin to the servant, who was a donkey butler. This only looked back at the hybrid for a few moments, before saying:

"How generous of you, Mr. Horne."

"Oh, I am a generous guy, my friend." Melon said to the butler, actually sounding a tad bit conceited as he spoke that, before he turned his attention back to the muscular cheetah who had been sitting by his side all the while and was now standing right next to him.

"Now, I believe you and I were having a little chat about 'pleasurable experiences', Mr. Clawhauser." Melon said to the cheetah, who smiled at him. Soon, the hybrid and the cheetah were walking away to a side, as Melon told Legoshi to "stay out of trouble", and the wolf was only able to look with a confused expression as his hybrid friend and the muscular feline went their way.

Everyone at the lunch table was going their way, eventually. Even Benjamin was about to go his way, to see if he could maybe have a word with Chandler. Ben felt like he should apologize for having panicked like that and forced him to cut the game short. He had the feeling that Chandler would say that it was not his fault, but Ben still felt somehow responsible for what happened, somehow, and that he should apologize to Chandler.

However, before he could reach the horse, he felt a hoof landing on his shoulder. Ben looked over his shoulder, to see Gabe's face looking back at him.

"Ben, can we talk?" Gabe asked, as his hoof rested on Ben's shoulder. The cheetah looked at him for a few moments, before he said:

"Yes, of course."

"Outside." Gabe said, looking at the cheetah, and Ben blinked, looking at the deer.

"You... want to talk... outside?" Ben said, tensing.

"Yeah." Gabe asked. "It's a beautiful day."

"But... why go outside?" Ben asked, looking at Gabe. "I mean, we can just talk in some room of the house."

"Ben..." Gabe said, looking at the cheetah. "Do you remember those days when we talked while walking under the sun back in my house?" He asked, and Ben nodded. He remembered that. He remembered it all too well.

"It is a nice day today." Gabe said to the cheetah. "Like it was back on those days when we walked under the sun."

"I..." Gabe hesitated for a moment. "I want to walk with you under the sun again. Like we did back then."

The two locked eyes.

"Please." Gabe said, and Ben looked at him deeply in the eyes. Eyes that he had once knew too well, and could spend hours looking into, wishing to get lost in them.

Ben was worried about going outside. He was worried because of all that was happening in the mansion and around it, and that Gabe, like most other guests, knew nothing about. About the figure that was stalking the house and maybe even invading it prior to their arrival. And he was also worried about that dog that tried to attack him a few nights previous.

However, he once more found himself caught on those eyes. Those round eyes to which he found out he could not say "no" to.

Well, it is still clear day. Ben thought to himself, as he considered the whole situation. Mages are always instruct to never act out in the open during the day, as there could be too many witnesses. Magecraft may not be a secret anymore, but still, I am sure that most mages would be hesitant to act in the middle of the day like that. So, I guess there is no problem.

With this thought in mind, Ben accepted to have a chat with Gabe while walking outside. This caused a smile to appear on Gabe's face, a smile that Ben was also familiar with, and that the cheetah found out that he had missed seeing.

The two found their way outside passing by the rooms of the house until they came out through the main entrance.

Gabe was right. Indeed, the day was beautiful. No clouds in the sky. Sunny. A slight breeze. It was a lovely autumn afternoon.

Just like it usually was back on the Deerbrook mansion all those years ago.

Ben remembered the times when, after lunch, they would just walk across the garden, sometimes holding paws/hooves, and just talk about things. Just talk about anything that came into their minds while enjoying the weather back at the Deerbrook County and enjoying each other's company.

This time, the deer and cheetah were not hoof-in-paw, but they were enjoying the weather as they walked and talked about whatever it was that came to their mind.

"... you should see how they started acting after they saw how much money I was putting in my account." The cheetah said. "I mean, it was so sudden how they changed."

"Money does that to mammals." Gabe said, "It is nothing new, and is something that people from rich families should actually expect."

"Yeah, I know, but it was so sudden." Ben said, as the two walked near the mansion, not getting to far from it, but more like walking around it. "It was just like Mr. Littlefield, my landlord. He started calling me 'dear' all of sudden a be all sweet and stuff. I never seen him been so sweet with anyone or calling anyone 'dear' other than his daughter. And he definitely never acted like that with me."

"I guess finding out that you receive a lot of money due to your patents made him realize that he should try to be on your good side as much as possible." Gabe said, looking at the cheetah as they walked around the place. "He probably will try to take advantage of your money in one way or another, but according to what you told me about him, I assume he will try to be subtle. You should be ready in case he starts mentioning that the building needs renovations or starts adding extra taxes to your bills."

"Yeah, I guess..." Ben said, looking down. "Honestly, I kind of already knew that money could cause others to act like this. But... I guess I kind of forgot. I mean, after so long living with a regular salary... I'm kind of scared that some of my friends at work might start acting like that too."

"If they do, then they probably don't value you enough." Gabe said to him, "If they are willing to value your money more than you, then they don't really have the right to be your friends."

Ben looked at Gabe.

"You just spoke like Mom..." Ben said, and the deer looked back at him for a few moments, before he shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess I did, didn't I?" Gabe said, casually. "I guess that is from all the time I spent with your family. I did used to go at your house at any chance I got, right?"

He smiled as he remembered of those old, good times.

Gabe enjoyed visiting the Clawhauser house. It was big and very welcoming. Their servants were always smiling and being welcoming, unlike the servants of the Deerbrook, who were serious and nearly robotic. The Clawhausers themselves were very receptive of him, and treated him like a member of the family.

If he was being completely honest, Gabe actually liked Ben's family better than his own.

"I did spend a lot of time with her when I went to your house. I mean, not as much as with you, obviously, but she was always playing the part of my mom when I was in there." Gabe said, "I did spent a lot of time hearing her to don't forget to wash my hooves before dinner and to lower the seat of the toilet when I was done. Just like I spend a lot of time hearing your father's stories, and playing chess with Jace, and also trying to avoid..."

Gabe stopped talking realizing that he was about to go into a very bad direction now. Ben was looking at him, seemingly not understanding why Gabe had stopped talking suddenly. The deer used this chance to try and save it.

"Anyway, I liked staying with you siblings much more than with my own." Gabe said, as he checked carefully on Ben's reactions, and he noticed that he didn't seemed that he noticed where Gabe had almost went. The deer let out an internal sigh of relief as he avoided problem, and he just continued.

The talk moved from Ben's family to Gabe's own, and to how they currently were.

Hugo and his wife were expecting their first fawn, and Gabe's sister-in-law was very happy with this, along with her own clan. Gabe was also a little excited for the birth of his future nephew or niece, and he looked forward to being an uncle. Of course, Hugo still didn't liked getting along with Gabe, but he certainly seemed to be willing to let his brother visit in the future. At least, he didn't openly opposed the idea.

As for Gabe's other brother...

"Did Adam actually did that!?" Ben said, sounding in utter disbelief. Gabe could only nod at the cheetah.

"In front of us and of the other two clans, and he did that without stuttering. You should see how full of himself he was at that moment." Gabe said to the cheetah. "Of course, that only lasted for about half a minute, before he realized how furious dad was with him. Then he immediately stood down. I guess that's when he must have realized how stupid he looked, because he quickly left looking very ashamed. Of course, dad cleaned up the mess he made, and later made sure to scold him real hard for what he did. Dad looked furious! Seriously, few times I've seen him so angry, or heard him scream so loud. It was scary, actually."

Ben nodded. He knew what Gabe was talking about. Gabriel Deerbrook Senior could be very intimidating when he was angry. Ben knew because he had to face his anger in multiple occasions during the years he was engaged to his son.

"Did Adam really did that?" Ben asked, still not believing that Gabe's brother would ever do something so stupid. "I mean, he always seemed like he had so much good sense..."

Ben and Gabe both stopped on their tracks, right behind the mansion, and looked at each other for a few seconds, before they burst into loud laughter.

"Good sense?" Gabe asked between fits of laughter. "The guy who tried to bring that ancient tree our mother loved down because he thought old wood would make his fire magecraft more potent?"

The two continued to laugh, as they remembered how Adam had tried hard to bring down that old tree with nothing more than his magecraft and his own focus, and how proud he had been of himself, until his parents had come and saw what he had done to the beloved tree. As well as the damage the tree had caused to their storehouse when it fell, running the ritual that Gabriel Senior had been doing on the inside for the past three days.

Ben was never one to rejoice on someone else getting into problem, but the quickness with Adam's smug expression morphed into fear, and the sequence of events that led to it... even Ben found it hard to keep a straight face at that moment.

He was only nine when that happened, anyway.

As they laughed, they remembered other things that happened that made them laugh. Things that they saw and heard. Things that they were together to see happen and that made both of them laugh together.

Ben laughed along with Gabe, their laughter meshing into a single one on his ears.

Ben missed that.

He missed that so much in the past seven years...

Gabe, on his end, was very happy for them laughing together like that. Like they did back on the day.

Like they did before the series of events that took Ben away from him. As they laughed, Gabe leaned closer to Ben, until his hoof brushed on Ben's paw.

Before Gabe himself could think of what he was doing, his hoof was holding Ben's paw, their fingers intertwining.

Ben's laughter died down, and he looked down at their intertwined hands, before looking back at Gabe.

He blushed and looked away, but he didn't tried to pull his paw away from Gabe's hoof.

To the deer, that was yet another good sign.

"I really missed hearing your laughter, Ben." Gabe said to him, and the cheetah's blush deepened.

Gabe looked at him, before looking up at the sky.

"Check that cloud." Gabe said, making Ben do so. "Doesn't it looks like an ice cream?"

"Yeah... and that one looks like a cake slice."

They continued to do that for a few minutes. Looking at the clouds, and pointing out when one of them looked like some short of food.

"And that one looks like a jumbo milkshake!" Ben pointed at the cloud that rolled by just above the skyscrapers' line.

"Yeah, I totally see it." Gabe said. There was a little silence as they looked at that milkshake cloud, before Gabe once more spoke:

"Remember when we would spend hours laying on the grass and looking at the sky to find the food clouds?"

Ben looked at the deer. He nodded.

"Yeah, I do... Mom scolded me for getting late to lunch for that."

"And my father always scolded me for wasting my time looking at clouds rather than studying." Gabe said, looking at the cheetah. "But, I didn't cared what he said about it. It was not a waste of time."

Gabe looked at Ben in the eye. "Because back then, I did that with you... and spending time with you was never wasting it."

Ben said nothing, and only looked back in Gabe's eyes. The deer looked back at the cheetah with fondness.

"Every moment I spent with you ever since we met, was never a waste. I never thought of it that way..."

"Gabe..."

"Because, every second that I spent with you." Gabe said; using his hoof to touch Ben's cheek as his other one held the cheetah's paw tighter. "Each one was a memory that I would hold and treasure for many more years to come."

For a moment, it seemed that everything around them had disappeared.

There was no mansion. There was no garden. There was no wind blowing around and no sun shining above. There was only the two of them. Looking deeply into each other's eyes, and moving closer and closer.

"Gabe..."

"Ben..."

They leaned closer and closer together. Their muzzles getting closer by the second, they held on each other's hands hard as they leaned closer and closer to each other.

Their lips were about to touch, when Ben blinked.

He moved back suddenly, something that Gabe immediately noticed, causing him to look at the cheetah.

Ben looked back at the deer with wide eyes, and there was a pained expression on his face.

"Ben..." Gabe said to him, and Ben looked at him for a few moments, the pained look on his features growing.

"Gabe I..." Ben said, his lip starting to quiver, he looked away, finally pulling his paw away from Gabe's hoof.

"I can't." Ben concluded. "I just... I just can't."

Gabe could not accept it.

"Why?" The deer asked, looking at the cheetah.

"You know why, Gabe!" Ben said, louder than he had intended. His voice sounded as hurt as his features.

"I... I can't go back."

"You don't have to." Gabe said, causing Ben to look at him. "I'll renounce magecraft too."

"What!?" Ben said, sounding genuinely surprised, even shocked.

"That's right." Gabe said, without a shred of doubt on his voice. "If you can't be with me because you don't want to return to the world of magecraft, then I'll leave it to join you."

"Gabe, no!" Ben said, looking at him. "You can't!"

"Of course I can!" Gabe said, looking at him, "If that's what I have to do for us to be together, then that's what I'm gonna do."

"Gabe, you can't just do that on a whim!" Ben said, "You'd be renouncing your entire life so far."

That could sound strange from someone who did the very same thing seven years ago. However, Ben's case was different from most other cases of ex-mages.

When you renounced magecraft, you renounced everything that was relate to the world of magecraft. This not only meant you renounced your researches and the quest for the ultimate power that all mages seek. This meant you also gave up your clan.

Ex-mages lost contact with their families after they renounced magecraft. Most mage clans, especially the traditional ones, thought that it was disgraceful for one of them to give up magecraft, and renounce for everything that they and their ancestors fought so hard for. No matter what the reason was, giving up on the future of the lineage was unacceptable. Many even saw that as a betrayal.

For that reason, renouncing magecraft was not an act that should be done lightly, for being doing so, your own family would consequently shun you. They would cut all ties with you and leave you on your own, and you would no longer be one of them, but a stranger with whom they have nothing with.

It was a "you turn your back on us, we turn our backs on you" kind of thing.

Of course, that didn't happened to Ben. Not a single member of his family shunned him or turned their backs on him. They didn't told him to never come back after kicking him out with only the clothes of his back. They didn't disowned him. They didn't threatened to attack him if he ever set foot on their property again. Actually, they all did the exact opposite of that, and all of them still saw him as family.

Of course, that was because the Clawhauser clan was very different from most mage families. They weren't keen on tradition as most mage families, so they didn't renounced their own son just because he decided to renounce magecraft.

The Deerbrook clan, however, was definitely a traditional clan.

If Gabe went to them and told he had decided to renounce magecraft, they would definitely not like that. His father, in particular, would not be happy about that. Not in the slightest.

"I can do that." Gabe said, looking at the cheetah. "I can pass the crest to Adam... what am I saying? I can pass it to Hugo. He was dad's second option after me, anyway. And he is about to have a son, it can work out. He will definitely like being the heir of the clan. He might even thank me for renouncing and letting him have the crest, even if he will have to pass it to his child in just a few years. He will certainly like the idea of being the new head of the clan until his son is old enough."

"But then you'll never be allowed in the Deerbrook Mansion again!" Ben said to him, "They will kick you out! You will probably never get to know your nephew!"

"I don't care." Gabe said, looking at him. "I mean, it is sad that I'll never meet my nephew, but I am totally fine with being kicked out. I can get a regular job and make a living, like you. Maybe I could even become a cop!"

"Gabe, this is serious." Ben said, "Giving up magecraft is not an easy thing. It is not a small thing! Gabe, I can't let you do that on a whim."

"You did it!" Gabe said.

"After I thought really hard about it!" Ben said back. "I thought really hard on what I was doing and what would happen after I did, and in the end I decided that it was the only choice for me! I didn't made it out a whim like you are planning to! Gabe, I can't let you do it!"

"It's not on a whim, Ben!" Gabe said, looking at the cheetah in the eyes, seeming very serious as he was saying that. "I actually thought of it many times in the last seven years."

Ben looked at Gabe, as the deer continued:

"Ben, the moonlit world doesn't means anything to me if you are not in it. Being the head of the Deerbrook clan means nothing if I can't have you as my husband. We planned to age together back then. Being the future leader of my family feels empty if you are not in there to share it with me."

"Gabe..."

"Ben, I want to be with you." Gabe said, holding the cheetah gently by the shoulders. "You mean much more to me than magecraft, than the Deerbrook clan, than the Root. I want to be with you. I have wanted to be with you for all those years, and even that letter you left telling me to move on and find someone else to be happy with didn't changed that. I know won't be happy with anyone other than you."

Ben said nothing, and he looked down. Gabe placed a hoof on his chin and made the cheetah look up at him.

"Gabe I... I didn't wanted to leave, but..."

"But you had to distance yourself from the moonlit world." Gabe said, "This meant you could not be married to a mage. Honestly, after all that happened, I don't blame you. No one does, other than my father."

Ben looked away again.

"So, if this is what is getting on the way, I am going to give up being a mage." Gabe said, looking at his dear cheetah. "I'll just renounce magecraft and join you, so we can be together. If we are both ex-mages, then we can be together. I mean, it is the only thing that would be in the way."

"It is not the only thing!" Ben blurted out.

Silence followed, as Gabe looked at the cheetah, confusion on his expression.

"What?"

Ben looked at him for a few moments, there was an expression of guilt on his face, before he spoke:

"Magecraft is not the only thing between us, Gabe. It was back then but... it is not all anymore."

For a long moment, Gabe just looked at the cheetah, nearly as if he didn't understood what the feline just told him. However, it took only a few seconds before realization filled his features.

"There is someone else, there isn't?" Gabe said, not sounding angry, nor even surprised. He sounded simply... sad, in a way.

Ben found out that he could not look into his eyes.

"Is that 'Bogo', ain't it?" Gabe asked, still sounding somehow sad, but also conformed, in some way, and Ben still didn't had the courage to look up, as he said:

"Gabe... if things have been different, we would have been married, and I would be very happy with it. Noting would have make me happier than having been married to you and staying with you for the rest of my life."

That was not the tone of someone who was declaring love. It was the tone of someone who was apologizing for something.

"But... things just happened." Ben said, looking down.

"And now you don't love me anymore?" Gabe asked him, sounding really hurt.

"I do!" Ben said, "I do love you Gabe. As much as I did back them. I just... I just..."

Gabe knew what was coming

"You love Bogo as well." He deer said, and Ben said nothing. He was looking down, and the expression on his face said that the cheetah preferred to be anywhere doing anything other than this.

"I-I have been working with him for five years now." Ben said, "And it just... I mean, he is my boss, and neither of us actually made a move before, and I'm not even sure if he would ever be interested in me, but..."

"But you are attracted to him." Gabe concluded, and Ben remained silent after this, before nodding meekly.

"More than you ever were to me?" Gabe asked, and ben immediately looked up.

"No!" He said quickly, and the deer said:

"So, you would chose me over him if you had to?"

"No... Yes... I..." Ben said, looking as if he was trying to find either a correct answer or an escape route from that conversation. He found neither, so he said:

"I don't know."

The deer could do nothing more than to look at the cheetah, as he fought the feeling building up inside his chest, as if his heart was tearing itself apart. Gabe was not sure if he could keep hearing more. However, his ears twitched as they picked another sound, making him turn his head slightly.

"Gabe, I am so-"

"GET DOWN!" Gabe said, as he immediately tackled Ben, making both of them go to the ground just in the moment something flew in the air, hitting the wall right on the place where Ben had been standing just a second before.

Ben was confused, but he was quickly recovering, as both he and Gabe looked up to see what it was and where it came from. They found that, respectively, it was a trident and it had been throw at their direction by someone.

"First one was a warning." The Shepherd said as he approached the two mammals, as he rose his paw and another trident materialized in it with a flash. "Consider it a courtesy."

Neither of them could consider a trident thrown exactly at Benjamin's direction a "courtesy" of any kind.

"Who the hell are you!?" Gabe demanded. The dog looked at him, before dismissing him with a head gesture and saying:

"You should leave while you can, this has nothing to do with you."

"You tried to kill Ben!" Gabe said, getting up and glaring at the dog with hatred, while Ben was still trying to get up. "I'd say it has a lot to do with me!"

"Oh, really?" the dog said, sounding only slightly amused at this, and he pointed at the deer with his trident. "Well, in this cause I guess I have to deal with you as well, won't I?"

"Leave Gabe alone!" Ben shouted at the dog, getting up. He was still in shock for being target like that. And at broad daylight, no less. "What do you want?"

"You know what I want." The dog said to the cheetah. "And, in case you don't, I'm saying it: the thing you are currently protecting."

"What?" Ben asked, looking at him with a confused expression.

"Playing dumb, huh?" The dog said, looking at the cheetah, his trident still ready on his paw. "Well, I don't have time for this. My client is pressing me a lot to get the thing for him before tonight. He will probably want the money back if I fail to get it, and since I need it to pay an urgent debt, it would be pretty bad for me if he did, right?"

"So, if you could cut the B.S. and just hand it over to me I will be going my way and we can avoid more problem." The dog concluded, "You can make up some excuse to them about why you lost it later, I don't care."

"Hand what over?" Ben said, looking at him and still having a confused expression. "What are you talking about? What do you want?"

The dog looked at the cheetah for a few moments, before he sighed.

"Okay, the hard way it is." The dog said, adopting a more aggressive stance, as he rose his trident, which was starting to glow slightly. Ben immediately gave a step back, while Gabe positioned himself between the cheetah and the dog.

"Not a single more step forward." Gabe said to the dog as a warning. The dog stopped for a moment to look at him.

"Oh, you mean, like this?" He dog said, putting a single foot forward, before he dashed in direction to the two mammals, his trident ready to fight and glowing in a way that was perceptible even during the day.

Ben gave a step back in reflex, while Gabe immediately went into action, raising his arm and pointing his hoof at the dog. In that moment, his circuits activated and a single flame formed on the palm of his hoof. Then, balls of flames came out of the initial flame, flying straight at the dog.

The shepherd, however, didn't stopped or even slowed down. He simply swung his trident, intercepting each ball of fire with the blades of his weapon, causing them to explode in flames and sparks without stopping him. As he continued to advance, Gabe pushed Ben back with his other hoof, as the flame on his right hoof projected forward, like a blowtorch shaped like a blade, and he charged to the dog.

One of the worst mistakes one could make was to assume that, due to having magic powers, mages were physically weak, like in the games where mages are thinkers instead of fighters. Yes, mages mostly relied on their magecraft. However, magecraft could only take you so far before you had to put your body on the line. As a result, all mages knew at least a little bit of direct combat, and were good paw-to-paw (or hoof-to-hoof) combatants. Gabe was no exception.

Gabe ran to the dog, the canine swung his trident at the deer, and Gabe ducked with surprising speed, before retaliating with a swing of his flaming dagger-blowtorch.

The dog, caught off-guard, immediately stepped back as he felt the tip of the flame lick on his body. He stepped back fast enough so he was not truly burn. However, the tip of the flame burnt through his shirt and even charred his fur underneath it. The dog looked at the newly made burnt marks, before looking back at the deer, who was already charging at him again, swinging the flame he wielded as his weapon once more, forcing the dog to once more step back and to move out of the way of the attacking flame.

For around twenty seconds, they swung their respective weapons at each other. They tried each to attack the other, dodging the enemy's blows while trying to land their own. Of course, Gabe's only "successful" hit was the first one that charred the dog's shirt and chest fur. Meanwhile, the dog managed to cause a bit more damage to the deer, as Gabe was fast enough to avoid serious hits, but the dog still managed to open a few scratches, on Gabe's arm, leg and on the side of his neck (this last one having gotten dangerously close of having caused some real damage).

That was when Gabe decided to go for a direct attack, using the chance of when the dog left his guard open and thrust his hoof forward. The blowtorch on his palm aimed directly at the dog's chest.

It would have caused some serious damage if it hit. However, the dog was faster. He grabbed the deer's wrist with his other paw, making the flame of the blowtorch stop less than in inch away from his body. He could feel the intense heat coming from it, but it was not burning him.

Gabe's eyes widened and he tried to force his arm free, only to find out that the dog had an iron grip. As Gabe rose his eyes, he saw the dog getting ready to strike back, before he thrust his trident into the deer.

Gabe didn't had time to react, and the blades of the trident moved in direction to his exposed neck.

And stopped just an inch short of it.

The dog looked, confused, and tried to move the trident, only to find out that it wouldn't budge.

He then stepped back, moving away from the deer. His trident remained exactly where it was, floating with its blades an inch away from the deer's neck, before the trident moved away, and flipped itself, so it now was aim at the dog.

The two mammals looked at the floating weapon that seemed to, all of sudden, have turned on its own owner, before they both looked to the side. They saw Ben, with a raised paw in their general direction, a serious look on his face as he looked in their direction, and his look was particularly turn to the shepherd, who looked pretty surprised.

"You..." The dog said, giving a step before him, but was forced to step back as Gabe started attacking him again. He immediately materialized another trident on his paw and tried to attack Gabe, only for the trident under Ben's control to move and block his blow, forcing him to back away.

Gabe then attacked again, but the dog easily dodged. Then Ben tried to subdue him with the trident he was controlling. The dog saw it, the trident on his paw started glowing, and he swung it at the other trident, shattering it to pieces before it had the chance to touch his body. Ben didn't relented, and once more used his telekinetic magecraft to take a grip on the new trident and pry it out of the dog's paw. The trident stopped glowing, and the dog immediately had to dodge another charge from Gabe.

Now the dog had to fight the cheetah and deer at the same time. Gabe would be fighting him close with his flame, swinging it at the dog as if it was a blade, and the dog would try to attack him with his trident, which Ben blocked with the tridents he stole. If a trident was shattered, Ben would simply take the new trident from the dog's paws, prompting the dog to materialize yet another one.

They kept doing this for nearly a minute, before the dog said:

"Enough of this!"

He swung his paw, materializing three tridents, which all flew at Ben at once. Focusing the cheetah to use his magecraft to defend himself. He placed both paws in front of his body, forcing the three tridents to stop on midair.

This gave the dog the opening he needed to finally swing a blow at that deer with all his strength.

"Gabe!" Ben cried in horror, as the trident formed an arc in direction to Gabe.

And hit his antler.

The sound of the impact was loud, however, the antler held firm.

When Gabe saw that trident coming to him in a cleaving motion, he immediately sent magical energy up his head and into his antlers, hardening and strengthening them at the same time he strengthened the muscles on his neck and shoulders, which supported the head and the antlers.

The result was that, even if that trident had a lot of power behind itself, Gabe was able to parry the thing with his antler alone.

The dog did not expected this, if the surprised expression on his face was any indication. Gabe used this on his favor, and made a jerk of his head to push the dog back, before he proceeded to attack again. This time he was attacking with both his flame and his antlers, while the dog attacked with a trident. Gabe used his antlers to block the blows, which resounded like the sound of metal hitting metal, like the clashing of swords, but much louder.

The dog clearly didn't expected the deer to be able to fight so hard, so he was having a hard time defending. Especially as he had to fight against antlers and flames all at once. He even materialized a second trident on his other paw and started fighting with two weapons, but it was clear that he was no use to fight with two hands, as one of his paws had less skill and strength as the other one. Still, he was able to handle his own against Gabe.

Until the deer made a mistake.

Gabe decided to try trusting his antlers into the dog, what proved to be a mistake.

The dog sidestepped, making the deer thrust his antlers into empty space. As that happened, Gabe's neck was left completely unprotected.

"Ha! I got you now!" The dog said, raising the trident high, ready to bring it down on the deer's neck. However, he didn't had a chance.

At that moment, a paw came and grabbed him by the wrist, while another grabbed his other wrist. The two paws squeezed surprisingly hard, forcing the dog to let go of his tridents, before he was all of sudden flipped and forced down into the ground, and he immediately felt a huge weight landing on top of him as Ben placed his knee on his back as he held both of the dog's paws behind his back.

Ben let himself go after becoming a mage. However, some of the Greco-Roarman wrestling that he learned while growing up remained with him even after so long. It also proved useful to him after he decided to become a cop. Now, at that moment, both mage and cop training kicked in and allowed him to overcome that dog and force him into the ground.

Gabe recovered and looked over, to see Ben placing the dog down, and the canine was trying to escape, but failing, as he was unable to get the heavy cheetah off his back.

The dog stopped struggling completely when he felt something cold and hard being press against is neck.

"Stop..." Ben said, in an unusually cold and hard voice, as he held the blade of the trident against the neck of the dog. This finally caused the dog to stop, as he saw himself in a complicated situation.

Gabe looked at Ben as he held the dog down. Ben had all of his attention into the dog, but he was able to talk to the deer.

"Gabe." Ben said, with a very serious expression as he held the dog down, causing the deer to look at him. "Go call for backup."

"Huh?"

"Go into the mansion and get the others." Ben said, "Get Hopps and Wilde. And Marcy and Josh too. I'll hold the dog."

"What? No! I'm not leaving you!"

"I'll be fine." Ben said, sounding very serious. "We need to make sure he won't try anything, and for that we need backup."

"But-"

"Gabe!" Ben said, turning his head away from the dog for a moment, to look at the deer. "I am a cop. I know what I'm doing. Please, go call the others while I hold him down."

Gabe looked at Ben, and the cheetah thought that the deer would complain once more. However, the cervine nodded, and soon, Gabe was making his way back to the entrance of the house, leaving Ben to hold down the dog, who was once more trying to free himself from the cheetah, but Ben held firm.

"Get off!"

"No." Ben said, being sure to keep the dog down for all the time he would take for backup to arrive.

The dog stopped once the blade of the trident was once more press on the side of his neck.

"You know that this won't last long, don't you?" The dog said, "It is just a projection. It will vanish and you will be disarmed."

"But I'll still be standing over you." Ben said, pressing his knee harder into the dog's back, causing him to grunt in pain.

"Yeah, hard to move with two hundred pounds over my back." The dog said, and the cheetah only remained standing over him.

"Gotta say, the way you sent me down was pretty impressive." The dog said to the cheetah. "Totally didn't expected that."

"Well, I might not be a mage anymore, but I am a cop." Ben said, and the dog grunted.

"Yeah… You're... definitely not as much of an easy target as I thought." The dog admitted, looking over his shoulder at the cheetah. "I guess they knew what they were doing when they gave it for you to keep safe, didn't they?"

Ben said nothing, and only continued to hold the dog down.

He still didn't knew what the canine was talking about...