Whisper of The Cat

Return to the Cat Kingdom

Shizuku screamed as she suddenly realized that Muta was nearly twice her size and Baron was about her size. It was quite a shock. One minute they were normal size, the next they were huge, at least Muta was.

"What's happened?" she cried.

Haru chuckled. "Relax. We just shrunk. It's an affect the Cat Kingdom has on humans."

"An affect?" Seiji repeated.

Haru nodded. "Yeah, I told you this happened when I was telling you about my adventure here."

Shizuku thought for a moment. "Oh yeah, I remember now." She gave an embarrassed smile. "Guess I forgot."

"Wait!" Seiji cried, suddenly remembering something. "We're not going to turn into cats, are we?"

He shared a look with Shizuku, then the two of them turned to Haru for an answer.

"Haru?"

"Uh..." She really didn't know, so she turned to Baron. "Baron, are we?"

Baron shook his head. "No need to worry about that. A spell was placed on you the last time you were here. It won't happen again, don't worry. Although, nothing can be done about your sizes though. But don't worry, you'll go back to normal once you leave this world." He looked up. "Toto, are you there?"

The crow landed on the stone rim. "I'm here. Just wake me up when you're ready to leave."

Baron nodded. "We'll do that. Thank you, Toto."

The crow nodded. "Don't mention it. Good luck." He said, and turned to stone.

Baron turned back to the others. "Well, shall we go?"

They excited the tower. All the rubble had been cleared out, but the tower hadn't been rebuild.

"Hey Baron, why didn't they rebuild the tower?" Haru asked.

Baron thought about it a moment. "Hmm, I suppose they didn't want to move the portal again. There's no telling where the portal would have ended up. It may appeared in someone's backyard."

Haru decided that that made sense. "I guess. Yeah, that's a good point."

Muta snorted. "I would have thought that you were smarter than that. Let's see how fast you can get us through the maze."

Seiji blinked. "Maze? What maze?"

Haru waved it off. "The one that you have to go through to get from here to the castle. Don't worry about it though. Without those sneaky cats using fake walls, it's a clear path."

They saw that she was right. They didn't need to find their way through the maze. Without the fake walls, all they had to do was follow the path in front of them.

"Who makes a maze like this?" Shizuku wondered out loud.

"Normally when someone enter, there are cats carrying fake walls to block the way, but since we're uninvited guests we're in the clear." Haru replied.

After completing the easiest maze of their lives, they came to the back door of the castle. Two guards were there, guarding the door. When the others approached, the guards stepped in their way.

"That's far enough." The first guard said. "Do you have an invitation?"

"And if you do, why are you using the back door?" the second guard asked. "Wait, how'd you get back here anyway?"

Baron stepped forward. "I apologize for the intrusion. No, we do not have invitations. I am Baron Humbert von Jikkingen, and I have come for my fiancée, Louise."