It was unusual to see police cars in the area. Nor anything that looked like a police car.

I mean, those were Vole Gardens! One of the most sophisticated places in all Zootopia. The home for some of the richest and most influent people on the entire city! To have police come in there for any reason was just not something the inhabitants of this gated community, where they should be safe and sound, would expect to happen.

However, there they were arriving, black cars with their sirens blaring. However, those were not the white and black cars of the police. No, those cars were all black with purple lights and a siren that sounded just slightly different from the one used by the actual police. This was all enough for the people to know that this was not the police per-se.

Those were the vehicles of the Beastar Corps.

And they were stopping right at the house of Yahya Manechester, the founder and CEO of their private police company.

And it had been Yahya Manechester himself who called them in there.

As they arrived and entered the place, Yahya was at the entrance, receiving them and telling them what to do. He advised them to keep their eyes open, as they might have left one of them escape, even thought they screened the entire mansion and were sure they had caught all of them.

As for who "all of them" were, the members of the Beastar Corps who just arrived soon found out, as they found the traces of those things fallen everywhere. They looked like broken mannequins, and one of the younger members even ventured to ask Yahya what this was about.

Yahya gave them a quick rundown of what happened on the events that led for them being called.

If Yahya had said something like that to them back in January, they would have found it hard to take it seriously, even if all of them were keenly aware that Yahya never joked.

Now, however, it was not that much of a stretch. They had been on New Den Mall gathering the pieces of the golems that took the whole mall hostage, after all.

So, just like in that situation, they started to work on bagging and tagging all the things that their boss told them to do.

And, just like back in the mall, they didn't have any idea of what they were dealing with.

I mean, come on! At the beginning of the year none of them believed magic was even a thing! And now they were dealing with magic things twice on the same month? Of course they would have no idea of what they were dealing with.

Was this a part of the magic mannequins? Or was it a part of the decoration that broken during the fight? Were those things still magic, or had they gone inert? Would those things suddenly rebuild themselves and attack them? Or would the broken parts come together and form some kind of mutant monstrous mannequin that would try to kill them all?

They honestly didn't know.

"Captain Manechester, sir." Said the recruit, a young black panther whose name Yahya had not memorized yet. "I think that we should all just admit that we have absolutely no clue of what we are dealing with. We have no idea what to expect from it or what to make of it. Dammit, I don't think we even know what we are look at or for!"

The rest of the crew all looked at both the recruit and of their CEO, who they all were used of referring to as "captain", since he was the one in charge whenever he was with them on the field, and he was often on the field. They all could admire how much Yahya Manechester was a true leader, as he preferred to take the lead of the most important cases they had instead of just sitting behind a desk all day barking orders at his subordinates while not lifting a finger.

However, most of them were weary of voicing any protests out loud, once most of them were keenly aware of his temper.

Yahya looked long and hard at the rookie, some of the onlookers ready to see him admonish the young man to tears like he already did to other rookies in the past.

However, Yahya only said:

"You are right."

Everyone kept staring at him, before he just turned around and walked away, leaving the members of Beastar Corps surprised and looking at each other in confusion. Yahya ignored them and continued his way.

In another part of the mansion, all the guests were all gathered in a single room, as well as the other members of the Manechester Family.

Luckily, no one got anything worse than a twisted ankle or a bleeding forehead.

Not Carolyne, who had been drinking on the kitchen and barely even realized what was happening until the others came in looking for her. Neither Chandler and Hannah, who were upstairs, on Chandler's old bedroom, as unaware of what was happening on the rest of the mansion as Chandler's mother.

And certainly not Euphemia and Charles. Effie had been found all alone in a room, surrounded by two puppets who were just standing there and looking at her as they played their eerie music, only to turn their attention to the mages as soon as they made it into the room.

Meanwhile, Charles was found hiding inside of a closet on a completely different room.

Neither of them made any commentaries about how they ended in a situation like that, but everyone noticed that Effie was acting quite coldly towards her husband.

And, among the people on the room, there was a wolf who also didn't seemed to have any serious wound, even though his shirt was red with what could only have been blood. Gosha had been tending to him, and he was still asking Legoshi if he was okay, while the younger wolf continued to look down.

"T-they looked like her..." The young wolf said. "T-they looked just like mom... and they all were... were attacking..."

"Legoshi." Gosha said, "Legoshi, look at me."

The younger wolf said, looking at the face of his grandfather, as he told him, once more, that none of them was his mother. That they only looked like her.

"Your mother would never attack you, Legoshi." Gosha said. "She would never try to hurt you. Never. Okay?"

Legoshi looked at his grandfather for a moment, before he looked down once more. Some thought that the older wolf has had no success in making his grandson feel better, but those who knew Legoshi knew that the wolf was feeling just slightly better.

We are, of course, talking about Tibor and Melor, as the leopard father and hybrid son both looked at the interaction between the two wolves, and they knew that Gosha had managed to make Legoshi feel a little better.

That was when a phone rang.

It was Cavirus', and the capybara took the call, as he sat on the couch by the side of Meowman and of Adrian, both who, much like him, were still shaken after what had just happened.

"Hello, Cavirus' speaking." The capibara said as he answered to the call, and then he said:

"Oh, Luisa! Darling, you have no idea of what I just went through!... Oh?... Is that so?... I see... Yes, I see... But, in that case she should be going to see a doctor now... I see... Yes, I think I see her husband right now... Yes, I will let him know. Bye."

With this, the capybara hung up the phone, and then he took a moment to think, before he turned his attention to the leopard on the room.

"Excuse me, Mister Horne?"

"Yes?" Tibor and Melor said at the same time, as they both looked at the capybara, who them made it clear who he was talking with.

"Is Lumia Horne your wife?"

"Yes." Tibor said, looking at the capybara.

"It was my wife on the phone just now. She says that your wife is on her house, and that she has some pretty serious injuries." Cavirus said, and this caused a reaction from everyone on the room, especially Tibor, who stood up, and was now looking at the capybara as a strange growling sound was coming from his throat.

This kind of sound made Cavirus uncomfortable, even though the leopard was not showing any external signs of anger or aggression.

Call it a natural instinctual fear of a mammal of a prey species.

"She said that she found her wounded and trying to make it back to this mansion with the help of Officer Hopps. Apparently, they were both attacked." Cavirus said.

"Is Judy okay?" Nick immediately asked, suddenly worried with his partner.

"Officer Hopps is okay, according to my wife, but Misses Horne has both arms wounded, and one of them was fractured." He said, "She tried to get her to go to the hospital, but she refused. She only insists to have her husband go see her."

Tibor looked at the capybara for a few more moments, and then he shifted his gaze to Legoshi and Gosha, as well as to his own son.

"I watch the boys." Gosha said to Tibor. "Your wife needs you."

The leopard looked at him for a few moments, before nodding. Then Cavirus told him where the find his mansion.

He then looked at Melor, and said:

"Behave."

And with that, Tibor left the room with quick steps, practically kicking the door open as he made his way out of the room.

"He is in a rush, ain't he?" Charles asked, as he saw how quickly the leopard could walk.

"He is worried for his wife." Gosha said, "It is natural to be this worried about a mammal you love. To prioritize them above everything else and be ready to fight the world for them."

As he said that, some noticed that Euphemia looked away.

That was when someone came into the room.

"Gosha." Yahya said, as he walked straight to the wolf. "I need to talk to you about..." Yahya stopped as he caught a sight of Melor.

He had seen the hybrid already. However, he was still shocked by how different he looked in comparison to that morning.

His body, which was that of a gazelle, now seemed that of a leopard. His hooves had turned into paws, and his tail was long and swishing around. His muscular carnivore body, covered in spots, was exposed as the hybrid still had no shirt on his body since his last one got tore apart.

Melor Horne before looked like a gazelle with leopard's eyes and mouth. Now, he looked way more like a leopard with gazelle's ears and horns.

"Sup?" Melor said to the horse, who looked at the new appearance of the hybrid, before he eventually just ignored it and focused his attention back on Gosha.

"Gosha, I need you to come with me." Yahya said to the wolf, who looked at him with surprise. Some of the people around also looked at him with surprise.

"I need help from someone who knows about magecraft." Yahya said, "Preferably someone who has had a lot of encounters with dangerous magecraft. Like someone who once had been a member of the enforcers."

"I am an active enforcer." Josh said, while Marcy said:

"And I met a lot of dangerous magecraft."

Yahya looked at them from the corner of his eye, however, his attention remained on Gosha. It was clear that he still wanted his help. Gosha, however, seemed hesitant.

"Gosha, I really need some help here." Yahya said, "I can't do anything if I don't even know what I am dealing with. My own house got attacked, and this is not good for me. Not at all. I could really use some professional help. So, please."

Gosha looked at him for a few moments and, few minutes later, the wolf was going with Yahya.

Not only him, but a few other people were going as well. Namely, it was Nick, Ben, Josh, Marcy, and even Meowman going with them.

While the cat had been slightly traumatized by what just happened, he had also been fascinated, as an engineer, by those things that have come his way. I mean, those machines moved in such a fluid way despite looking like nothing more than mannequins. What was not for an engineer to be interested on?

Cavirus, on his end, preferred to stay on the room where it was safe. Adrian also stayed behind, as he had no interest in seeing any of those things. The horse pretty much looked done with life at this point.

Yahya's men were still looking through the materials, when their boss arrived with the other ones.

They all looked at the big wolf as he kneeled by their side and started to look closely on the broken pieces of the puppets.

"Those are quality puppets." Gosha said, as he checked on them, and he asked one of the officers to fetch something for him. They hesitated, but they did as Gosha requested once Yahya told them to follow the wolf's instructions. They soon were picking the pieces of the broken puppets and bringing it for him to check, and the wolf looked at them very clearly.

"Those were all made by the same person." Gosha said, looking at them. "You see this?" He showed to the people around him the materials he was holding, a broken arm and leg. "See the color and cut of the wood? The particular texture of the ceramic? All of that is like a signature. This is how he signs his own work."

"So, you know who did those." Yahya said, looking at the wolf, and Gosha nodded.

"I had an inkling when we were fighting them." He said, as he went through the ceramic and hardened wood. "But, now that I am seeing them up close, I have no doubt. Those..." Gosha paused for a moment, as he touched the head of one of the puppets, but he then recovered.

"Those are surely the work of Duboar."

"Duboar." Yahya said, memorizing the name, while also looking inquiringly at Gosha.

"Lamar Duboar, of the Duboar clan." The Komodo elaborated. "He is a mage from an old clan in France that specialized in creating puppets. The fake fur to give it a life-like look? That is also his signature. He is a very skilled puppet master."

"I'll say..." Meowman said, looking closely at the things, and seeing the complex machinery inside, most of which seemed to be analogic. He could hardly see anything that even remotely looked like an electronic. "Those are all pretty good."

"This is nothing." Gosha said, "Fake fur is only something minor when it comes to making puppets. Some mages, more skilled than Duboar, chose to cover their creations with other manners of synthetic tissues that they craft themselves. We are talking about fake skin, even fake flesh. They can make extremely realistic puppets that not only look like a normal mammal, but that also bleed, sweat and have bodily odors."

"Seriously?" Nick asked, finding the notion to be somewhat disturbing. I mean, thinking that someone could make some doll that looked and acted just like a real mammal...

"You can bet it is serious." Marcy said to the fox. "I've seen some of those. You can hardly tell they are not real mammals, at least until they suffer some serious damage or get a limb broken off, then you can see the machinery inside and tell they are not real."

"Puppets are actually easy to spot most of the time." Gosha said, "If you have a good eye, that is. As realistic as they look, you can notice something off about them. Maybe their faces are too symmetrical, or their eyes are glassy and empty. Maybe they move in a mechanical way that doesn't seem natural, or maybe they have a small detail that sets them apart that of the mammal whose likeness they are trying to imitate..."

Gosha was once more looking at the faces of one of the puppets, looking very intently at the face of the beautiful-looking wolf.

"You okay, Gosha?" Yahya asked, coming and placing a hoof on the wolf's shoulder. Gosha let out a sigh, and said he was fine.

"I just can't believe that the bastard made those puppets on the likeness of my daughter." The wolf said, looking away. "Next time I am near Volezelay, I'll be sure to pass by his state to give him a piece of my mind."

Everyone looked at the wolf, and they could clearly see the anger on his features as he spoke like that. Some of them shared looks among themselves, before Meowman asked:

"So... is that your daughter?" Meowman asked, as he looked at the features of the wolf puppet. She wasn't even his species, and even he could say she was beautiful.

"Yes..." Gosha said, "But, like I said, you can see the differences if you look closely. The lack of attributes is a major giveaway." Gosha was, clearly, referring to how the puppet didn't had any... reproductive parts. "But, you can also see how the fake fur only go so far on the surface of the puppet, and you can see that it is artificial. But, it would be convincing if you put clothes on them."

"And you said he could make them more convincing by covering them in synthetic organic material, right?" Meowman asked, his curiosity leading him to be very interested on the subject. "He could make them even more convincing, right? Maybe even make one of them look exactly like her? So much that even you would not able to tell?"

To that, Gosha shook his head.

"When you create a puppet at the likeness of someone else, there will always be something that sets them apart from the original. They will either be inferior or superior in some way." The wolf said, "It is impossible to create an exact replica of someone."

"Well, all of that is very interesting." Yahya said, "But it still doesn't explain why this Duboar would send his puppets to attack us."

"He didn't." Gosha said to his horse friend. "Duboar is known for selling his puppets, unless they are of fine working. He keeps the best of his puppets to himself while he sells his more rugged creations for a quick buck."

Gosha then went back to examining the puppets.

"So, those are the 'more rugged ones'?" Nick asked, and Gosha confirmed they were.

"But still, they are of quality, as one would expect from a Duboar puppet. He has a reputation, after all." Gosha said, "Just one of those would have fetched for half-a-million zollars easily in an auction."

This certainly shocked some of the presents. Nick even whistled at the number that the wolf had placed in one of those murderous things.

"Especially..." Gosha said, reaching inside of one of the puppets and pulling out something. "Due to this."

He held the object in the air, which looked like some small wooden music box.

"This was this puppet's power source." Gosha said, holding the object in the air. "I'm pretty sure each one of the puppets has one exactly like that inside of them."

"So, that is where the creepy music was coming from." Josh said as he looked at the box on the wolf's paw.

"So, those puppets were moved by music?" Nick asked, "Now that is pretty neat."

"They were moved by curses." Marcy said, explaining to the fox. "Those music boxes were pre-recorded with nihilistic poetry that acted like a powerful curse. As the box played the music, the poetry produced a karmic energy that was what made the puppet keep moving."

"You probably noticed how you guys felt strange when they were too close." Gosha said to them. "That is because the curses generated by the music box were so intense that they formed an aura around the puppets. If you stood too close, or if there were too many of them in a single place at once, the curses would leak out and start deplenishing the health of those nearby."

"I-is it safe to be around it now?" One of the members of the BC said as they looked at the object, and then at the other puppets, remembering that each one had one of those things inside of them, to what Gosha assured them it was okay. That they would no longer be moving now that they were broken.

"For how long that could have kept them going?" Another member of the BC, a rhino, asked to the wolf, as he crouched to take a better look at the object.

"Maybe forever, if they kept from using too much of the energy at once." Gosha said.

"Forever?" Meowman asked, "Well, that's certainly an exaggeration. I mean, the boxes would certainly stop by themselves at some point, right? I mean, they would stop on the batteries ran out. Those things need a source of energy to move as well, after all."

"Yes, they do." Gosha said to him. "The curses that they produce as they play is the energy that keeps them moving. Once they start playing, the very curses they produce powers them up so they can keep moving. And, as they spin, they continue to produce curses which keep powering them constantly."

Meowman blinked, and then he just stared at the wolf, his mind processing what he just heard.

"W-wait..." He said, as his brain, the brain of an engineer, wrapped itself around what the wolf had just said. "T-they produce their own energy...? And they can just... keep moving... indefinitely? A-are you telling me that..."

Gosha saw the look on the cat's face, and he saw that the feline had already grasped it.

"This..." Gosha said, as he showed the music box to the feline. "Is a type-A perpetual motion engine."

Meowman could not believe it.

He just couldn't.

I mean, the wolf was talking about perpetual motion! That was, like, the holy grail of engineering!

The cat could only stare at the music box in awe, while Yahya had more practical looks in mind.

"Type-A, huh?" The horse asked, "Does it means that are other types?"

"Perpetual motion machines are divided in three categories." Josh said, "The type-C is the most common. Those are modified machines that are made to produce a lot more energy from burning their respective fuels than it should be normal. You know how an engine goes for two hours with some regular fuel? Well, a type-C perpetual motion engine can go for ten or twelve hours with the same amount of the very same fuel."

"Then there are the type-B." Marcy said, "Those perpetual motion engines keep themselves moving by sucking the magic energy present on the environment, sucking it from the air and the soil around them to keep themselves working."

"They both are efficient." Gosha said, "But, neither of them can be truly considered perpetual motion devices. The type-C only burns their fuel more efficiently by distorting the thermodynamic laws, and they will eventually stop once they burned the last of their fuel. Meanwhile, the type-B rely on the magical energy of the environment, and they will stop if there is not enough energy on the environment to sustain their functions."

Gosha, once more, held the broken music box in plain sight.

"Only the type-A can be considered true perpetual motion engines. For they not only produce the needed energy they need to keep spinning, but they also produce excess energy that can power up anything they are wired into. They are the rarest of all three types."

"Well, not so rare." Yahya said, "Not if each one of those puppets had one inside of them."

"Is there any way to fix them?" Meowman asked, causing all eyes to turn to him. "The perpetual motion engines, I mean. Get them to work again and maybe repurpose them for something else? Like a car or maybe a household appliance?"

Gosha looked at him, and then he shook his head.

"There is a reason why type-A perpetual motion engines are the rarest." Gosha explained. "They are the hardest ones to actually make. Few of them are even functional, and we don't really know why. Even if they are perfect in design and viable in theory, they rarely come to function as expected. It seems that making a functional one depends on luck just as much as talent, and it takes a lot of talent to make one of those. And they are also unstable, once they stop spinning and producing energy, it is very hard to get them working again. If they break, fixing them is so hard that you'd have better luck just making another one from scratch."

"Wow... you know a lot about those things." Another one of the BC workers said to Gosha, and the wolf shrugged.

"Been an enforcer for over four decades. Saw enough things to know a lot."

Gosha even gave the device on his paw to Meowman, who looked at it as if it was a priceless treasure that had been tragically destroyed.

"Perpetual motion..." The feline said to himself. "Free endless energy... this could change the world... and some mage is using them to power up murder drones."

The people around could notice the light outrage on the feline's voice, as if the use they were making of it was something stupid for something that could have a lot more potential in the hands of someone who actually knew what to do with it.

"Well, in all honesty, puppets are not exactly murder drones." Gosha said, "They are familiars for everyday tasks."

"Is murdering people with their blades an everyday task?" One of the other officers asked, and Gosha said back:

"Puppets are a type of familiar that can be fabricated by someone who has the right skills and knowledge. Like golems. Of course, they are more complex to fabricate than the average golem, even though they don't come anywhere near being as complex as automata."

"But, just like golems and automatons, puppets can be made to fulfill all manners of uses that the manufacturer can desire, and they are often built to better fulfill those tasks. Those puppets would fetch half-a-million, like I said, but mostly due to their value as antiques, and they would most likely be used to tasks like cleaning the house, gathering firewood, or even cooking. For someone to actually have tried to use them as murder weapons..." Gosha said, "This mammal has to be quite twisted."

"I'll say..." Yahya said, as he looked at the puppets, as his men continued to tag and bag all of them. One of them was taking pictures with his phone.

"You know, I don't think they were actually trying to murder anyone." Marcy said, gathering the attention of the room to herself. "I mean, they didn't seem that they were actually attacking to kill."

"I'm sorry, were we both attacked by the same murderous creepy puppets?" Nick asked, looking up at the female hybrid.

"If they were actually trying to kill anyone, they would have done it." The hybrid said back, "But, it looked more like they were just trying to scare us. And the ones who cornered Effie didn't even hurt her. They just stayed around her and kept looking at her, nearly as if they were just making sure she would not go anywhere."

"One of them nearly killed Legoshi." Gosha said, bitterness clear on his voice.

"After Legoshi stopped it with a mana barrier when it jumped on him and his friend." Marcy said, "Sorry, but to me it sounds like the puppet was just trying to scare them away and it ended up stabbing Legoshi by accident during the process. I'm telling you, guys, I don't think those puppets were here to kill anyone. It felt more like..."

Marcy made a pause.

"Like they were trying to distract us..."

They all shared a look, but Marcy was looking at Josh. They soon understood what this was about.

"It's still here." Josh said, as he let out a sigh of relief, closing the box where he was keeping the package after confirming that the glowing rock was still there.

"Then what?" Nick asked, looking around on the room.

"Maybe Shephard didn't had time to take it." Ben offered, as he and the others continued to try and get some information, and that was when the officer of the BC that came with them, a jackal, sniffed the air.

"There was a wolf in here..." the jackal said, sniffing the air. "And he was here recently."

"A wolf?" Yahya said, "Ogami?"

Everyone looked at Josh, who immediately became defensive as everyone now seemed to be thinking that he brought a minor to his bedroom. He made sure to make it perfectly clear to everyone that the only one in recent days had been Melor Horne, and that Legoshi Ogami had not come anywhere near that room.

"He is right." Gosha said, as he too was feeling the smell. "That's not Legoshi's smell. But it is a male wolf. And he was here... less than an hour ago."

"So, while we were being attacked?" Yahya asked, although he already knew the answer. He also knew that it was about the passage being reopened. And he was soon telling the jackal to go there and try to find the smell of the wolf who invaded the place.

"But, are you sure it is a wolf?" Ben asked, "Shephard is a Germanein Shepherd."

"Yes, I am sure." Gosha said, "This smell is definitely from a male wolf."

"So, that rules out Shephard." Nick said, "Just like that other dog who I saw earlier."

"Other dog?" Yahya asked, looking at the fox. "What other dog?" That was the moment when Nick realized that he had not yet told anyone about the dog that rescued him from the puppets. So, he decided that now was a good time.

"Back when the puppets cornered me, this dog came out of nowhere and saved me." Nick said to them, "The sucker was pretty fast too. I swear he could run faster than my eyes could follow. And the way he tore those things apart, oof!"

They looked at the fox, and Yahya then asked Wilde if he could give a description of what this dog looked like.

"Well, he had white fur, but looked seriously matted. I guess the guy has not showered in a while. The short he was wearing was pretty dirty too. The guy kind of looked like a hobo." Nick said, "He should be around as big as a wolf, but I'm sure he was a little smaller. I couldn't tell right because the guy only stayed on all fours. He was also pretty muscular. Oh, and he had yellow eyes. His muzzle was shorter that a wolf's but he had a slightly bulbous snout black snout. And both of his ears kind of flopped around a little bit at the tips."

As Wilde described, one of the animals was having a reaction. Gosha's eyes were slowly widening as Wilde continued.

"Oh, and I could see that one of his fangs on the left side of his mouth-" Nick said, but that was when Gosha cut him off.

"The fang extends past his lips." The wolf said, looking at the fox. "It is the upper left fang, and you can see when it growls that the reason it extends out is because it is nearly twice as long as the right one."

Nick blinked, as he looked at the wolf.

"Yes..." Nick said, "How do you know that?"

"Gosha." Yahya said, looking at the wolf. "You know that dog?"

"No..." Gosha said, but it was not to Yahya. He was looking at the ground, seeming like he was processing what he just heard from Nick. "No, this can't be... it can't be him... I-its been over thirty years... no way he could still be..."

Gosha continued to mumble to himself, and this caused everyone to look his way. Yahya had a raised eyebrow as he was looking at the wolf, and about to ask him what was going on, when Gosha suddenly bolted out of the room, with everyone soon going all after him, all of them confused and wanting to know what was going on with him.

Yahya even called Gosha's name, but the wolf continued his way as he moved across the hallways of the second floor and then down the stairs, and then he went across the hallways of the first floor until he met the one room where everyone else was.

Gosha immediately went to Adrian and started asking him about a specific vase of his collection.

"Oh, that one?" Adrian asked, "I bought it in an auction house four years ago, costed me nearly sixty thousand zollars."

Gosha was soon asking where the vase was, and he seemed very much interested in finding it, for some reason. So much that Adrian could not help but look at him with a raised eyebrow.

As soon as Adrian told him where the find the vase, Gosha was going to look for the room where he was told. He already saw the vase before, but it was hard to remember where it was in such a big house. Gosha had been there for less than twenty-four hours, after all.

And everyone, and we mean everyone was coming right after him, as all of them wanted to know what the deal with the wolf was, and why he was so interested in a vase of Adrian collection all of a sudden.

As they arrived on the room, Gosha soon saw the vase he was looking for. It was a big vase, so big it was nearly a small barrel with a wide base and a smaller opening on top. It was made of ceramic, and it was black, red and light brown, with waves and circular designs all over it and big wings on the sides that served as handles.

It looked to be in a very good condition for something that was, supposedly, from the ancient Greece.

"I thought it looked familiar..." Gosha said, looking at the vase for a few moments, while Adrian was more worried with the many other broken vases that were surrounding it.

"Why must my collection suffer so much!?" Adrian lamented to himself, while Yahya could only roll his eyes at his son's antics.

"Yeah, that might have been my fault." Nick said, "I made one of the puppets bump in all of those."

Adrian looked at the fox with a dirty glare, before sighing.

"Well, at least this one was not damaged." Adrian said, "It is the more expensive of them, after all." He said, and he grabbed the vase by the handles, spinning it slowly to check if it was chipped anywhere.

That was when a loud growling sound came from inside the vase.

Adrian let out a surprised neigh, stumbling back while everyone else reacted as well.

"Who is there!?" Yahya demanded, pulling out a gun, brought by his men, and pointing it at the vase, ready to open fire if he had to. "Identify yourself and come out slowly!"

"Yahya, wait!" Gosha said, making the horse lower the weapon. However, Yahya didn't feel like doing so, as the growling coming from the vase became louder, and the vase started to shake slightly, as whoever was inside shifted around the vase.

Everyone was on edge, with some of them ready to fight. Gosha, however, slowly approached the vase.

Then, he said:

"Berserker?"

The growling coming from the vase grew ever so slightly, as the vase shifted a little bit more.

"Berserker, is it you in there?" Gosha asked again, moving closer to the vase with slow, careful steps.

The growling only grew stronger.

"Dogogenes?" Gosha asked, approaching the vase even more. Now the vase was trembling so much that some people had the impression that, at any second, it would break apart as whoever was inside would charge into attacking.

The loud growling coming from there certainly gave the impression that whoever was inside was ready to come out and tear all of them apart.

Everyone on the room was on their toes, ready to react to an attack, either by fleeing or by lashing out back at the attacker.

And Gosha? He only gave another step in the direction of the vase.

"Dogo, is that you?"

As soon as those words left Gosha's mouth, the growling stopped, and so did the vase stopped shaking.

For a few moments, the whole room was silent, as everyone looked at the vase, waiting to see what was going to happen next.

Then, out of the vase came a paw. A furry hand with four fingers, which gripped on the rim of the vase. Then in came a second paw, and this one gripped the rim as well.

Then out came a snout.

The snout held in place for a few moments, at then end of that muzzle covered in white fur, and then it sniffed the air.

Then the muzzle opened as its owner spoke:

"Master?"

A few more moments of silence, before the whole head poked out of the whole.

The dog blinked his yellow eyes, as he looked back at Gosha, slowly moving more of his body out of the vase as he was now staring intently at the bigger canine. Meanwhile, Gosha looked back at him with wide eyes.

"Berserker..." Gosha said, looking at him, and the white dog with floppy ears looked back at him for a few seconds, before...

"Master!"

Everyone was in for a scare as the dog literally pounced into Gosha, jumping out of the vase with such speed and skill that some of them took a few moments to realize he had done it.

Now he was on Gosha, who had fallen to the ground with the strength of the pounce. Yahya pointed a gun at the dog, demanding him back away from the wolf as he was... was...

Licking his face?

"B-Berserker. Berserker!" Gosha said, as he tried to battle the dog who was happily licking his face all over as his tail wagged at an impressive speed.

"Dogo!" Gosha said, as he finally managed to make the dog stop licking him.

"Master!" The dog said, "Master, you found Dogo! Dogo is so happy!"

"I-I am happy too." Gosha said, looking at him, still in certain awe. "But... how? I... I thought you died. I mean, after Assassin..." Gosha stopped, and he looked at his shoulder, at the many people in there, looking at them.

"Dogo hid in Dogo's vase!" The dog said, his tail still wagging. "Dogo hid in there and stayed real quiet! Dogo waited until Dogo healed, and then Dogo went to find Master!... But, Dogo no find Master..."

The dog looked down for a while, seeming sad at that memory. Gosha continued to look at him, seemingly as if he could not believe that he was meeting this mammal again.

"Gosha?" Said a voice, which caused the wolf to look back and see Yahya looking at him, his gun still on his hoof and seeming ready to point and pull the trigger if he had to. "Do you mind explaining how exactly you know this dog?"

"Gosha is Dogo's master!" The dogo said, his tail once more wagging rapidly. "We make pact!"

"Pact?" Yahya asked, with a raised eyebrow. Gosha then pushed the Dog further off his chest.

"Berserker... Dogo." Gosha said, in a whisper to the dog. "I am not your master anymore! See?" Gosha showed the back of his right paw to him, an act that caused some of the present mammals to raise eyebrows.

"Oh... no commands..." Dogo said, looking at the back of the paw. "Well, no matter! Gosha still saved Dogo's life and helped Dogo! Gosha still Dogo's master! Dogo is so happy for finding master again! Dogo so, so, so happy!"

And the dog was once more onto Gosha, licking his face and muzzle all over, while the rest of the mammals on the room could only look in bewilderment.

"Gosha!" Yahya said, "Explanations. Now."

Gosha looked at him, once more trying to push the dog off him as he tried to explain to Yahya, as well as to the other present ones.

"This... this is Dogo." Gosha said, "I kind of saved his life years ago and we took part on... well, it was an assignment from my superiors at the Association, back when I was still an enforcer."

"Dogo is Gosha's Servant!" The dog said happily.

"The point is!" Gosha said, cutting the dog when it seemed he was about to say something else. "Dogo kind of swore allegiance to me, we fought a few battles against some dangerous elements together and, at the end of it, I saw Dogo being mortally wounded and I thought he had died... but turns out he didn't."

"Dogo was hidden." Dogo said, and some people were trading looks as they took in this new piece of information.

Yahya, on his end, couldn't help but notice the way Gosha's eyes were darting about, focusing on him for a second to two and then darting to some other part of the room before focusing on him once more.

Yahya remembered that Gosha did it whenever he was choosing his words carefully.

When he was trying to conceal the whole truth from others by saying only half of it...

"Yeah, that is all very interesting." Adrian said, coming forward, "But that does not explains how that dog got inside this house! He probably was the one with the puppets, wasn't he?"

"No!" Gosha said, "Look, Dogo was not related to the puppets!" He then paused and turned to the dog. "You had nothing to do with the puppets, had you?"

"The enemies of wood?" Dogo said, "Dogo attacked them because they were being evil! They were attacking after invading! They knocked Dogo's vase and woke up Dogo while Dogo slept! So, Dogo attacked them back! They break very easy! Didn't bleed, though. Neither tasted good..."

This last part made Yahya more than just a little uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Gosha turned to Adrian, saying that he believed the dog.

"Then why is he inside my house!?"

"Because you brought Dogo inside."

"What!? No, I didn't!"

"You brought Dogo's vase." The dog said, pointing at the vase in which he had been hiding.

"What, so just because I brought the vase that I bought in an auction, you felt like you had a free pass to come?" Adrian demanded of him. However, some of the people around were already caught on what the dog meant.

"Adrian?" Nick asked, causing the horse to look at him. "Did you looked inside of the vase when you brought it inside? Or noticed that it seemed... heavier than it should be?"

"What? What are going on about..." the horse trailed, as his mind suddenly made the connection, and then he turned to the dog once more, who was looking at him with a slightly tilted head.

"Are you telling me..." Adrian asked slowly, "That, when I brought the vase inside my house four years ago... you were already inside of it?"

The dog's answer was as simple as it was happy:

"Yup!"

Adrian continued to look at him for a few moments.

"And you have been inside the house ever since?"

Once more, Dogo's answer was:

"Yup!"

Saying Adrian was baffled would have been an understatement. So was the rest of the Manechester family, and everyone else on the room.

"But... we never saw you around..." Was all that Chandler could say.

"Yeah! Because Dogo is a Servant!" The dog said back, "Servants are not supposed to be seem! So, Dogo stays out of sight! Dogo hides!" The dog covered his eyes with his paws. "Dogo waits till night, then Dogo sneaks." The dog said, walking on all fours with his chest close to the ground, as if demonstrating what he was doing. "Dogo walks around the house during the night, playing and exploring and rubbing!"

"Rubbing?" Gazelle asked, looking at the dog, and Yahya understood.

"The semen stains on the furniture." The horse said, looking at him, and everyone else understood following suit.

"That was you!?" Adrian said, and Dogo once more said:

"Yup! Dogo bored and upset sometimes, so dog climbs on couches and chairs and rubs. Feels good and Dogo feels better when he done."

"I told you it wasn't me!" Angus said to his father. "I bet he was also the one peeing on the walls and floor!"

"Yup!" Dogo said, "Dogo marking the house! So others know they cannot invade!"

"What?" Adrian said, to what Yahya then said:

"On the old days, most carnivore species tended to use their urine as means of marking their territory. The smell served as a warning for other carnivores to know that the area belonged to someone else and that they should not go inside unless they were ready to fight."

"Dogo marks so others know they can't come without permission!" Dogo said, "Some new mammals had been coming. Strangers. They enter the house and Dogo doesn't recognizes their smells. They intruders! So, Dogo marks the house so they know that Dogo here! So they know they should not cause trouble!"

"And Dogo also patrols" the dog said, now standing in attention, as if in a fighting stance. "To be sure house and horse family who lives in the house with Dogo are safe! And to be sure the strangers on the house are behaving! And then, when sun is rising, and everyone is waking up... Dogo runs back to vase!"

The dog then leapt into the air and, with an uncanny precision, landed right into the vase, entering it without touching the rims and causing the vase the shake only slightly.

"And Dogo sleeps inside until next night!" The dog's voice came from inside the vase, before he put his paws and head out again.

"Dogo's been doing it since Dogo poked his head out one day and found his vase inside big house!"

Everyone could only stare at the dog. Adrian's left eye was twitching as if the horse was having an aneurism.

"Get... get out..." Was all Adrian could manage to say. The dog only looked at him with a tilted head again.

"Get out. Get out now. Get out of my house!" Adrian said, his voice rising in volume. This caused Dogo to flinch, and his smile to faulter. Apparently, the Dog didn't like when people yelled at him.

"B-but... Dogo behave..." The dog said.

"Behave!?" Adrian shouted. "You live into our house with no permission and you violate our furniture! How exactly do you 'behave'!?"

"Dogo does as Adrian horse wants!" Dogo said, showing that he knew Adrian by name. "When Dogo hears Adrian speaking about mammals going around naked being wrong, then Dogo finds pants on the garbage and starts wearing them."

"Wait, what!?" Adrian asked, "You mean that, when you first started going around the house, you did it naked!?"

"Dogo... is a nudist." Gosha said, "He's always been."

"Clothes feel uncomfortable." Dogo said, "But Adrian don't like naked mammals on the house, so Dogo wears pants like Adrian wants. And when Adrian complained about food going missing, Dogo started looking for food to eat outside of the house. Dogo eats birds that he finds outside. And on the big cat house nearby."

"Big cat house?" Adrian asked, "Wait, you mean Meowman's mansion!?"

"So it's you!" Meowman said, pointing an accusing finger to the dog. "You are the one who's been killing and eating my rare and precious birds!" The cat came to him, and the dog looked at him for a few moments.

"Oh..." the dog said. Then, he dove back into the vase, and came out just a few seconds later, with a bunch of blood-soaked bones and feathers on his paws and offered it to the cat.

"They yours?" Dogo asked, offering the carcass of his last meal to the cat. Meowman looked at the skull of the bird and at the purple-colored feathers, his eyes widening.

"T-the orchid hoopoe..." Meowman said looking at the remains of one of his birds. "Found only on the forests of the sub-Saharan Afurikan continent, and one of the rarest birds of the planet..." The feline said, then he turned at the dog, "You ate the most precious bird of my entire aviarium!?"

Dogo's answer was to burp, letting a few feathers of the same purple of the blood-soaked ones on his paws.

Meowman yowled as he tried to jump at the dog. Someone was holding him back as the feline swung his paws, looking like he was trying to reach out for the dog so he could claw his eyes out. Meanwhile, Dogo looked at him with a tilted head, as if he did not understand why the cat was so angry at him.

"Donovan!" Cavirus said, "Donovan, please, calm down! Look, this dog is obviously mentally impaired! Perhaps he is not responsible for his own actions! Please, don't be mad at him!"

"Dogo only ate the birds because Dogo heard Adrian said he was not allowed to eat food from the house." The dog said, "He also said that he wants the house clean because he doesn't like bad smells. So Dogo goes out whenever he starts smelling bed and rolls on the nice-smelling flowers of the house near the cat's."

"Wait, what?" Cavirus said, turning to the dog.

"The house near the cat's." Dogo said, "That house has big garden in front with lots of flowers that smell very nice. So, when Dogo starts smelling bad, Dogo goes there and rolls on all the flowers so Dogo smells good!"

Cavirus blinked.

"So it's you who's been ruining my garden!"

Now, Cavirus was a nice guy most of the time, like most people expected capybaras to be. However, there were certain things that really rubbed him the wrong way. For example, when people messed with his precious flower garden.

"I've been trying to find out who was doing that for three years!" The capybara said as he looked at the dog. "And it happened just yesterday! All my precious begonias were all crushed! They were prized begonias!"

Dogo looked at Cavirus for a second. Then, he reached out for inside his shorts and pulled something.

It was a begonia, which certainly looked crushed, with a bent stamen and broken petals.

Dogo offered the flower to Cavirus, who could only look at it for a few seconds, before the whole head of the flower fell off.

"I'm suing you." Cavirus said to the dog, who once more tilted his head slightly to the side as the capybara pointed a finger right at his snout.

"Dogo..." Gosha said, causing the dog to look at him. "You... grew attached to Yahya's family?"

"Oh, Dogo close to all of them!" Dogo said to the wolf. "Dogo cuddles with them at night when they are sleeping."

"Say what!?" Adrian said, looking at the dog in shock.

"Dogo get's lonely at night sometimes." The dog said, "So, Dogo goes to horses' bedrooms while they sleep and climbs on their beds and cuddles them while they sleep. Sometimes they whine and move while they sleep, because they are having nightmares, so Dogo passes his paw over their manes and they get calm and sleep better."

The most shocking of all, as amazing as it seemed, was the extreme casualness that the dog said all of it. Nearly as if he was narrating something perfectly normal and he didn't saw anything wrong with what he just confessed to do.

He just smiled as he finished by saying:

"Dogo really likes being in big house with the horse family!"