A Cat, a Thief, and a Wizard

When we got to the Menagerie, we were greeted by a stranger. Seth was right, and Robin didn't work there anymore. I was devastated (not really) that I wouldn't be seeing Louis the Lionfish. It was wild to me that she even had a familiar like that. The fish was probably smarter than the deer.

Instead of lessons today, the students would be cleaning habitats. I had no intention of helping out, so I was fine when they stuck me, the deer, and Greenie the snake in the barn again. I saw no sign of Scorpius or any of the chickens.

I could hardly wait for the conscripted janitors (the students) to leave. I had no intention of cooling my heels here in the barn. I was going places!

"I'm blowing this clambake. Let's go, Ba'al. You coming Greenie?"

"Asclepius."

"What?" I turned to the snake. It was in its tank and arranging its coils on a branch.

"My name is Asclepius." I don't think I've ever heard condescension like I just did from the disgruntled snake. Greenie buried its head in its coils.

"Whatever. You coming?"

"Nope."

"Your loss." I opened the pens, and even propped the snake's tank open, just to piss it off more.

"I dislike you," the snake hissed as I sauntered out of the barn with my miniature demon lord in tow.

"I-I'm not so sure about this," the little deer said as we slipped out the barn door. It was such a nervous creature. It followed me anyway.

I headed for the main house. The Big House. The habitat habernarium prehence-ly a hominid holding house.

Hmm. I don't think those were all real words. Whatever. It sounded good. It was all in my head anyway.

"A-are you sure this is okay?" The little deer huddled up against my flank and stared suspiciously around.

"It's fine. Trust me."

Should I collect that listening stone first? Or wait til we were close to leaving? I didn't have pockets, and didn't want to carry it around. I could stash it in the carriage, but that would involve running back and forth. I'd run the risk of getting spotted and put back in the barn, maybe with a guard. Snookers.

I eyed my companion. I bet I could make him– was it a him? Did I care?– I could make him carry the stone for me.

But fetching the stone involved going swimming in the fountain. I didn't want to walk around wet. Or with a drippy deer following me everywhere. That sounded like an 'on the way out' activity.

Near the front door I paused by a shrubbery. I could saunter in the front door like I owned the place. Maybe no one would notice, or would just assume I'm doing a wizardly task. Or I could find a window and go in all sneaky like.

How would squirt the deer do climbing in a window? He pressed himself harder against me, making squeaky gasps and trembling. I was a little concerned the poor thing was going to hyperventilate and pass out. Also, the guy had hooves.

My first thought was that hooves would suck for climbing. No hands for gripping or claws for climbing. And then I remembered goats.

"Hey, how good are you at climbing? I'm thinking we go in a window."

"Oh, n-no. That would be a bad idea. What if we get c-caught?"

"Fair point. Follow me then." Dude was worried about getting caught? Exposure therapy! We'll go in the front door. The place we were most likely to be spotted.

And the dumb deer was fine with that. Wild.

Amazingly enough, there was no one in the atrium. The fountain dominated the center of the space, with a semicircle of ornate columns supporting the mezzanine upstairs. Swoopy staircases wound up to the second floor. The gates to the first floor wings were shut, so likely the second floor gates were also shut.

Ba'al, or should I think of him as Mouse? Whatever. The deer immediately scooted under a potted plant. There were plenty in here, especially around the big fountain my stolen stone was hiding in.

Then there was the shelf of familiar statues.

Previously, most of the statues were simplified representations of various animals, with a few highly detailed statues of animals on the verge of death.

There were more of the death statues this time. Over half the shelf now was the new artist's morbid creations. Some of the ones I remembered from last time, like the potato-looking dude with the swollen sting, were missing. They were replaced by different ones.

One of the new ones was a lifelike fox, mid-leap as something stabbed it in the side. Another was a chicken on its back with its legs up.

On the fox I noticed a brown collar that didn't look to be carved of stone. Once I noticed it, I looked at the other statues. They all had it. Well, the death statues anyway.

So creepy. If I ever found that artist, I think I might scratch out their eyes. I would be doing them a favor. Really. It would improve their art.

I headed up to the second floor and down one of the hallways. I remembered some points of interest in this place from the blueprints I'd seen some time ago. And as I recalled, Tom the cat had been sitting guard at one such point of interest.

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I wanted to see what he'd been guarding. We had a couple of hours before the kids would miss us. Plenty of time.

"How's it hanging, Turts?" I called to a turtle in a watery habitat as we strolled past. I got no answer. Rude.

"I don't think we should be d-doing this," the deer whispered as it scrambled after me.

"Relax, little guy. How do you expect to become a demon lord without doing lordly things?"

"I d-don't think trespassing is lordly."

"Of course it is! You just need to change your perspective. It's lordly to do as you please. It's the best perk of the position."

"I-I'm not so sure about that."

I stopped at the spot I'd met Tom before. At one point in time, this area might have been a closet. Right now, it was an alcove with a stack of boxes. Conveniently stagger-stacked boxes that could act like stairs for smallish creatures.

"Follow me!" I leapt up to the top box in a single bound. I easily shoved the ceiling panel out of the way and took a look inside.

It was the bottom corner of an air duct that fed into a reasonably sized hallway that ended in a set of doors on one end, and went round a corner on the other. This hallway was not in any janitor's work routine. It hadn't been swept in, well, long enough for the corners to spawn their own animal kingdoms from all the shed fur and feather bits.

I almost didn't notice it. The dirt and dust distracted me, but I did notice. There was just the faintest quiver in my whiskers as I crossed the threshold.

Magical doorbell. Had to be.

"Oh oh!" the little deer exclaimed. "How did you know this was here?"

I ignored the deer and focused my ears down each end of the hallway.

"Which way do we go?" the deer asked. "I smell something nice this way." He took a nervous step towards the door, but stopped when I didn't move.

I planted my butt and waited. I didn't know who that doorbell had rung up, and I wanted the hatch back to normal crazy land available if animal crazy land got too heavy on the crazy.

It didn't take long before the cat I wanted to see rounded the bend and was trotting down the hallway. He was an old, grizzled, black housecat. He had white hairs on his muzzle, and white hairs sparsely flecked his coat. He paused when he saw us.

"Unexpected guests!" Tom said, his anxious trot transforming into a confidant saunter. "I'm always happy to see intuitive and curious familiars. How did you know to come up here?"

"I knew you were guarding something the last time I was here. I wanted to see it," I said. I gazed around at the hallway. "I thought I'd be polite and wait for a proper tour. Something VIP."

Tom cocked his head. "I don't know what VIP is, but a tour can be arranged. But first, you two are both familiars, yes? Your bondmates are nearby?"

I liked that Tom didn't refer to Seth as my master. It wouldn't have been true, at least not in my mind.

"They are on latrine duty," I said.

"They are not latrining," the little deer said. "They are cleaning habitats."

Same thing. I had to struggle not to roll my eyes.

Tom just nodded. "I need you both to block your bond. Your bondmates cannot know where you are, or anything about what we are doing here."

Ooo, new thing to learn. "I wasn't aware that was a thing familiars could do?"

Tom glanced at the hatch, then sat before them. "I would have preferred to show you this elsewhere, but I suppose here is fine, if you both are quick learners. It is our goal to keep this completely confidential. That means secret. You don't talk about this place with anyone, at anytime. If you can't agree to that, go on back down."

I was game. Promises were easy to break anyway. If I wanted Seth to know, he would. If I didn't, he wouldn't. "I love secrets."

"I-is it safe? You won't eat me?" the deer asked.

Now that was a thing I hadn't really thought about. Both Tom and I were predators, and both of us were big enough to kill and eat the little deer. It gave me new appreciation for the deer's nervousness, and quite frankly, the creature's courage.

"I won't let anyone eat you," I promised the little deer.

Tom chuckled. "Nothing will eat you, either of you." He gave me a knowing smirk.

Either of us? Well then. It never occurred to me that I was a menu item to a bunch of critters. Humans don't think of themselves as food very often, and although I was a cat, I'd been a human a long time. But right now, I was a kitten, and I did count as food to a lot of other predators. Scorpius the manticore came to mind.

I was not weaponless or helpless. Anything that wanted to eat me would bleed.

"A-all right," the little deer said. "I promise to keep this secret."

"Excellent," Tom said. "Now, what you need to do is block off the magical exchange that is constantly happening between you and your bondmate through the link. The easiest way to do this is using your magic. Each of you should have developed a power. The existence of that power is one of the things that allow a bond to be made in the first place."

My power was stealing powers. I didn't think I should be advertising that one. Nor did I think I should be shoving it willy nilly into the familiar bond.

"Oh, yes! I can make things grow," the little deer said.

"Grow?" I asked. "Like make a larger size grow, or here's a new tree today grow?"

"I make plants grow." The little deer's tail wagged happily.

I knew somebody that could use some help getting a plant to grow. Would I be too much of a shit if I stole the deer's power?

I didn't like stealing from friends. I may not be friends with the little deer, but we were acquaintances. Almost coworkers. One of the fundamental rules of not fucking up your life was not shitting where you eat. Taking the deer's power was probably a step too far.

I'd think about it.

Tom was waiting for me to tell him my power. I just smiled blandly at him.

"Too young still? No worries. You'll figure it out," he said.

Like I didn't know my own magic.

Well, he was right. I only just learned a little piece of it. I was pretty sure I had more, or had the potential for much much more.

"Use the piece of yourself that contains your magic. Horns if you have them, usually, sometimes claws, fangs, or feathers, and use the magic within. Use that magic to form a block. It is a block within the soul bond, formed with your own magic."

That was an interesting idea. I could sense the bond with Seth. We'd used it for several purposes. Wordless communication over distances, signals for help or rescue, that sort of thing. It was a bond made of magic, so it wasn't that big of a stretch that magic could affect it.

Muting it was a possibility. Maybe that also meant enhancing it was also a possibility.

Muhahaha! I shall have a human puppet! I shall possess him and make him do embarrassing things like run through campus nekkid! Whoo! That would get him expelled for sure. Maybe something more low key, like publicly declaring his eternal love for a cactus.

"Are you paying attention?" Tom asked me.

"Not even a little bit."

Tom's sigh sounded more like a growl. "I'll say it only one more time. When the bond was done, there was a physical spot on your body that the connection was made. Humans use their hands, so their side is nearly always on their hand. But they could have put it anywhere on you. Focus on that spot, and use your innate magic to block it like you would block a stream."

I had no idea the spot Seth touched for the bond was actually important for anything. Where did he even touch me? I think it was the back of the neck. Now I'm annoyed because I can't look and see if there's anything funky there.

Now that I knew I could block it, and where to do the blocking, it was easy. No harder than kinking a hose.

It did make me think about why a physical spot was necessary for a soul connection. What would happen if Seth's hand was amputated? Would that sever the bond?

"I did it! I did it!" the little deer crowed. "He can't find me!"

That, for me, was mission success. All the rest was gravy.

Tom walked in a circle around us. What he was able to sense, I could only guess. After a moment he nodded.

"Alright. Let's show you two what we do here."