A Cat, a Thief, and a Wizard

Decision made, I wasn't fighting. But that didn't mean I was going to pass up on all the delicious things here. I just wanted less personal risk.

I was a thief, not a fighter.

If I wanted to make swiping neato talents a habit here, I needed to know more about this place. What was where, who was around, and how to get in or out.

I wandered off from my spot watching the little deer's rigged practice bout. I decided to start with seeing what was where.

The arena itself occupied most of the huge underground chamber, but not all of it. It was surrounded by bleachers with an upper balcony. One end had an open space. If this was a place for humans to watch sporting events, I'd expect that space to be filled with food stalls. Right now, it had a few random tables without chairs and a handful of familiars talking or demonstrating moves.

This was the size of an indoor … something sport I'd seen before. I couldn't quite grasp it. What I was looking at wasn't close enough to whatever I was trying to remember for it to come to me. Without that 'This is this specific thing' component, my stolen memory stayed gone.

I didn't want to get too distracted being angry at the bastard memory thief, so whatever.

The lighting in the chamber was from crystals in the ceiling and sconces along the walls with either naturally glowing stones or light spells cast on them. In other words, this place was well lit and shadows were not common.

But that didn't mean there weren't any shadows to hide in. I stuck to the wall as I meandered around the chamber. Since most of the sconces threw light up, the shadows beneath them were the best place for me to be overlooked.

I explored for a while and got a sense of where the animals hung out. Most didn't live here and just used the place for training or combat, but there were a few long-term residents. There were humans here, too.

Down a ramp near the entrance to the arena itself, I saw the profile of a man wearing a deer skull as a mask. Seth had mentioned a guy in a skull mask talking to the new Menagerie director.

I wondered if this was the same guy, or if they used the mask as an easy way to become interchangeable. It was such a curious wardrobe choice. Who would think that hiding your identity with such a distinctive and jarring affectation would be a good idea? What was their goal with that?

My curiosity piqued, I watched him. I got a sense of his height and build, and his manner of standing and moving. Body language was such a distinctive trait. The way he stood with one knee bent and his toes on that leg cocked at an angle, his spine slightly curved and slouching, I was confident I would recognize Deer Skull Mask Guy later. That was a mouthful. Brainful? Whatever. Deer Mask.

I scooched closer to see around the bend. Lo and behold, Deer Mask was talking to none other than Professor Mick, the magic school combat teacher.

Fuck. I was an easily recognizable familiar. I couldn't let Mick see me.

He didn't pay much attention to me in class, not since Seth didn't measure up to his expectations, so I didn't think I'd stand out much to him. But no need to take unnecessary risks.

Deer Mask handed Professor Mick his own deer skull mask. Professor Mick inspected the mask skeptically, clearly not keen on the design. He heaved a big sigh and then put on the mask. So then. Professor Mick was now Masked Mick of questionable loyalties.

I knew this had to be the group responsible for the missing familiars. It was interesting to me that Professor Mick was joining the kidnapping side. Joining? Could he be infiltrating?

A lot of the professors at magic school had side hustles. Professor Isolde of Ritual Geometry ran a familiar capture and resell business, and was also investigating the familiar disappearances. Either Mick here was assisting her in that, or he'd joined the other team.

But wait! There was more. Mick wasn't with us on the way to the Menagerie. That meant there were other ways to this place. Oh, sure, he could have taken a different carriage and not the punishment wagon, but I thought that unlikely. My money was on other wardrobes. Familiars had gone missing in the school too, so that other wardrobe was probably on school grounds somewhere.

Finding it was just a matter of time and perseverance.

Professor Mick headed to a group of five familiars that were waiting for him. Poor things. Mick the Mighty thrived on mayhem a little too much to be a good teacher.

But then, these familiars were probably battle maniacs of a similar bent. They'd be fine.

Deer Mask watched Mick and the familiars for a couple of seconds before heading off. Two tasty targets. Do I follow Deer Mask and see where he goes, or keep an eye on Mick and find out how he gets back to the school?

Suddenly, the flaming wolf in the arena started barking. "Help! Before he turns to stone! I didn't mean to kill him!"

Deer Mask switched directions and headed to the flaming wolf. I darted up the ramp and leapt straight up onto the stone ridge separating the arena from the bleachers.

The weasel the fire hound had been fighting, and shaking vigorously, was lying limp and bleeding on the sand with little curls of smoke rising from its body. Only a dumb dog could do that and then be surprised the poor creature was dying.

Deer Mask scooped the dying weasel up and headed straight for the Gracious Lady statue.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

The flaming wolf whined as it trotted after him. I was up out of its line of sight. When it passed by it paused and sniffed the air. Instinctively, I jumped up to the balcony and scooched back to where I was better hidden.

"Hey!" the wolf said. "Maximus? Are you here?" He sniffed the ground and then the air. First, he turned away from me, and then directly where I'd been a moment ago. Who the fuck was Maximus? Another cat like me?

The wolf glanced after Deer Mask and the weasel, then took another sniff in my direction. I realized it was actually a fire hound–probably the same one that had gone missing the last time we were here. It didn't look very hound-like to me, but it had the nose of one.

I suddenly remembered the two caravan guards who had gone down the cliff where Seth and I had climbed up. They said that all the spiders and the bodies of the leopards down there had been burned. I also remembered having heard barking when Seth and I climbed up.

This fire hound might be a former member of the pack that did the burning.

My instincts were to keep out of sight and away from the dog. I hated dogs.

Maybe that was too harsh. Dogs were inconvenient. I disliked them. A lot. Eh, fuck it. I hated dogs.

Was I mature enough to put aside my dislike and have a conversation with the dog? Sure, I could. But I was a kitten and didn't feel like being mature. Yet, I wanted to know who Maximus was. However, this was not the place for that kind of conversation. There were too many beasts around to have any kind of discussion that might touch on my background. Ugh.

I wondered how much of that thought process was me not liking dogs, and how much was actual concern for secrecy.

It was out of my hands, at least for the moment. The dog gave one last look in my direction and scrambled off after the injured weasel. I looked up and around, looking for a way to follow the wolfish fire hound without being seen.

A flash of light in the arena grabbed my attention. A scan of the arena told me it came from a parakeet who was facing off against an owl. The parakeet had little motes of light still hanging in the air around it. The owl was currently shaking its head and blinking rapidly.

Nope, nope, nope. No distractions. First order of business is recon. I needed to know what was here and how to get back. Maximus and the hot dog were a later thing. Making my Christmas List and watching entertaining and magical monster battles can happen on my next visit. I didn't have time to indulge right now.

By now, the kids had to be completely freaking out, and Tom would be checking up on me soon.

There was so much going on here. I dismissed the dog, the birds, and the other interesting side quests from my mind and focused on getting my recon done.

Not long later, I was finishing up my mental map of the place. Design wise, this was very similar to the arena in the school, with enough similar elements I was convinced they were built around the same time by the same people. That meant this way should be an out of the way changing room.

I was right. There was a changing room here, with cubbies. And the thing I was looking for. Three of them. Wardrobes.

They were nearly identical to the one I'd arrived in, including the bad paint job that hid the star heartwood patterns. That meant there were at least four places total that this place had connections to, and there might be more.

I heard someone coming, so I jumped up on top of one of the wardrobes. Deer Mask stalked right up to the center one with the urgency of someone heading to the loo, and snapped the door shut behind him without so much as a glance in my direction. My whiskers told me he was gone a moment later. Without a sound.

Well, that confirms these are teleportation furniture too. I hopped down to get a better look. I left the wardrobe door open so I didn't accidentally send myself to the moon.

The inside wasn't painted at all, and the carvings in it were subtle. I could see a formation that surrounded the interior of the wardrobe. The formation would only be complete with the door shut.

There was no obvious way to choose a destination from inside. My guess was each wardrobe was keyed to another wardrobe. I didn't know if it was always one to one, but it was looking that way to me.

Feeling contrary, I left all three doors cracked open. I considered doing more permanent vandalism, but one of these might be the one to the school. Also, I didn't want to strand any of the animals here. They didn't deserve that. Except Scorpius. He could rot.

I had an idea how to use these now. I'd need to practice Tom's trick of using aspected mana, and figure out what aspect that was, but I could probably do it. I would make finding the matching wardrobe at school a priority, even if I had to babysit Professor Mick for a week.

This place was such a riot of interesting things. I had so much to think about and so much more to discover. Alas, I was running out of time.

Swiping a power while I was here was probably off the table. It would take planning I didn't have time to do.

As I headed back to the arena, I thought about Deer Mask.

What was with the skeletal motifs around here? We had the Skull Gang, a band of street thieves and thugs, and now these morbid and scary Deer Skull Gang people running an animal gladiator ring.

And this new gang was weirdly well funded. Who just randomly had their own private teleportation network? Unless I had the wrong idea, and magic chachkies were far more common than I thought, somebody with deep pockets was involved. And teleportation wardrobes were a fair bit more than little trinkets.

I passed a chicken and a lizard in the hallway. They were both wearing collars. I thought that was the same chicken that was sparring with the potato dude. They nodded at me. I ignored them.

Based on what Thurstan was spending in Laureli, I didn't think he had the pockets for this.

This was an entirely different thing, too. Weirdly, and in an ass-backwards way, this operation was uplifting familiars who wanted it.

So why the secrecy then? It's not like modern mores would apply here.

I thought about the blueprints I'd seen of the Menagerie. That place had been a prison, and it had ways of getting prisoners in and out. I bet there used to be human on human battles in that arena, and I bet the 'Gracious Lady' wasn't present at that time.

This fighting ring could have existed for a long time in different forms.

Yeah, I bet that was it. Everyone 'knows' that this is here, and they're fine with it because it's always been here. Before it was prisoners, and now it was beasts. Maybe the Deer Skulls were just new management.

There were some weird connections going on, too. Like the similarity between the Deer Skull Masks and the Skull Gang. And the connection between the star wood wardrobes that could teleport you to another wardrobe, and the dining tables at school that could teleport you lunch.

Crazy magic land. What shit.

I got comfortable in my spot in the bleachers, figuring Tom would be by any minute.

I watched the wooden potato guy become a bigger potato guy. Oh, was that what potato dude could do? Adjust his size? Maybe I could keep myself small enough that I could stay on Seth's shoulder. I'd never have to walk anywhere again! Stealing it might be easy, too. It would depend on whether the talent that did it was in use whenever the guy was larger, or if it was only in use as he changed size.

Taking something that was always in use would be easy. Getting away after stealing it would be hard.

I watched Tom come back into the arena and scan the bleachers for me. Instead of leaping straight up like I did, Tom made several smaller jumps on top of things along the wall before he made it to the bleacher level.

He made his way over to me. "Enjoy the show? It's time to head back."

I decided it was time to ask a question I'd been wondering since I saw the statue.

"So, Tom," I asked. "How come you're not wearing one of the special collars?"