It's All About That Kitten Charm!

The streets are swarmed and confusing. Maybe it’s my panic making things worse, but I feel like everything is spinning as I race along the side of the road. People tend to move out of my way as I’m running blindly in a direction I think is right. Eventually, I slow down, out of breath, and take a seat to regroup my thoughts. Looking around, I don’t really recognize where I am, but I think this is the right street. If I keep walking, I should see the manor. Well, only one way to confirm. I get up and walk slowly down the side of the street. It takes another turn around a corner or two, but the manor does come into sight.

Thank god.

Now, relax, Princess! Let’s be careful here. I approach the manor with caution, but the grounds seem rather calm for the circus I just ran from. Good grief, the sun is already starting to set! Okay, okay, let’s focus.

Patience is key! All I had to do was wait by a door to slip inside unnoticed. The people inside don’t seem to be in a frenzy like at the Palace, so I don’t think anyone will notice. Really, though… Where do I go from here? Should I just wander around? It’s not like I know Marius’ daily routine. Hiding behind an ornate side table, I spot a lone maid pushing through the halls with cleaning supplies. Slowly, I inch towards the lone maid, just to be a bit further away from people. I’m not very familiar with the layout of this place… Even when I was here before, I didn’t exactly memorize anything about the manor. Kinda preoccupied when that happened.

But it is oddly empty here. Did most of the servants go with Janice? Or is something else going on today?

Somehow, and god knows how I ended up here, I ended up in what looks like a fancy living room. Couches, bookshelves, a giant TV, other furniture that don’t look like they serve a purpose. It’s not… really all too impressive compared to what I see daily in the palace. But there are a couple of doors attached to the space, so maybe I can go in one and it’ll lead to a different hallway..?

One of the doors open, making me jump. I scramble to hide under a couch, watching as a pair of shoes walk out, followed by another two pairs.

”Thank you for the help.” A gruff voice says. “You’re shaping up to be a fine young man.”

”Thank you, father.” That’s Marius’s voice! I scoot a bit closer to the edge and peer up at the people in the room. Marius, a man who I guess is his father, and a woman stand in the middle.

”My, what a proper child!” The woman coos. “I appreciate the time you two have made for me. Apologies for coming on such short notice.”

”All is good.” The man says. “We shall see you next week, yes?”

”Yes, of course.”

”Marius, I am going to escort Madam May out. Do you have anything else you need to do?”

”Yes, I do. I hope you have a good night, Madam May.”

The group part ways, Marius going one way and the other two going back the way I just came from. Perfect! With Marius separating from the group, I follow him through the door that he left through. Since I see him right in front of me, screw it! Even though there’s a few servants and maids cleaning in the hall, I meow as loud as I can, running down after him. It startles everyone, and Marius turns around to watch me run right up to him.

”What the—“ Marius balks, kneeling down when I reach up and paw at his leg. “What are you doing here?!”

”My lord.” A servant approaches hesitantly. “Do you need someone to remove this cat…?”

He shakes his head, lifting me off the ground. “N-No. I’ve got her, so carry on as you were.”

The servant bows, walking back to where he came from by the window. When I look up at Marius, he looks just as confused as he probably should be. He real quickly ducks into a room further down the hall, locking the door and placing me on the floor. It looks like a bedroom. Is it Marius’s? It’s a chaotic mess in here, good grief.

He turns to me, kneeling down with a serious look on his face.

”What are you doing here? How did you get here? Heck, even how did you get inside?” He quizzes. “Did something happen?”

I simply stare at him, slowly blinking as he fires off questions. For, you see, I am a cat. I cannot speak. As we stay in our stand off for longer than I’d like, I just meow at him, and that seems to snap Marius out of whatever he was thinking of.

”Oh. Right. Cat.” He frowns to himself, closing his eyes to think for a second. “Okay. Yes or no questions. Uhm… For yes, move your tail right, and for no, move your tail left…?”

He doesn’t seem sure, but I’ll roll with it, so I swish my tail to the right. It seems to make him relax a bit, like he now knows he’s no longer being crazy.

”Thank god… okay. First question.” Marius says, completely serious. “Did something bad happen?”

Immediately I move my tail right, making Marius frown.

”Okay… Did something bad happen to you?” Again, to the right. “What about Val? Did something bad happen to him?”

He doesn’t seem happy I keep moving my tail right.

”Does… Val know you’re here?”

When I move my tail left, he pulls out his phone. It looks like it’s turned off.

”God… okay. Let me call him and figure out what’s going on.” He looks at his phone when it lights up and frowns, scrolling through messages. “I missed a lot… Why was today so hectic? Okay. Gimme a second.”

Hahah, I see. Janice didn’t do anything to Marius. If there’s anything, maybe she filled up his schedule for today to distract him. He holds his phone to his ear, waiting patiently before he perks up.

”Val? Is everything okay?” His face relaxes a bit, smiling into the phone. “Good, I was worried. Um, your cat is here. I don’t know, she just kinda popped out of nowhere. Is something going on? Yeah, I get that… Should I bring her over?”

Quickly, I paw up at him, fussing and frantically swishing my wait left and shaking my head. Marius stumbles a bit.

”Er, actually, uh… maybe you should come here? She doesn’t seem to want to leave right now, I’m having trouble getting her to calm down. Awesome, see you soon then.” He hangs up, glancing down at me. “…Are you avoiding the palace?”

When my tail swings right, he scratches his head.

”Why? Why are you avoiding the Palace?”

When I don’t respond to him, he sighs. Honestly, I’m also frustrated. I wish I could explain everything! Val doesn’t know about the charm. In his mind, everyone is just being cruel to him today, not listening to him at all. No rhyme or reason! I hope when Marius called, Val was still un-charmed. I doubt he would be coming if he was, I imagine Janice would make him stay put where she can see him. It’s a relief… huge relief…

”Okay, just stay here until Val gets here. I’ll try to figure out what’s going on from him.”

He stands up, leaving the room with a purpose. I’m left all alone… which means it’s time to snoop! Hehe~

The room is smaller than Val’s. It has a section for seating and a TV, but no desk or anywhere to work while in here. Probably for the better. No clue about Marius, but Val’s a workaholic sometimes. Maybe he should take notes.

I leap onto his bed, snooping on his nightstand. There’s a drawer, and I look around quickly before pawing it open. It’s mostly niknaks, things that look kinda cool, but don’t look like they serve an obvious purpose. There’s a lot of them though. One catches my eye, and I fish it out. It’s… the charm from the fortuneteller we visited.

…Wait, that gives me an idea.

Curling up at the foot of Marius’s bed, I tuck the charm under myself so it’s not immediately obvious, and wait. Patience. I’m good at that. I am! Even if I fidget, I can wait.

After what feels like forever, the door opens again, and Marius leads Val inside. When Val lays eyes on me, relief washes over his face as he runs up to the bed.

”Oh thank god!” He says, lifting me off the bed. “I thought something bad happened! How did you get here? I feel so bad just leaving you in my office like that. I’m so stupid, I shouldn’t have let my anger get to me like that…”

Val cringes at himself, frowning as he holds me closer. Eek! I eye the charm on the bed, just barely visible from under the top blanket.

Thankfully, Marius doesn’t wait and taps on Val’s shoulder.

”So, what happened? Why’d you leave her alone?”

”Um…” Val pauses, turning to face Marius. “Well, I got into an argument with my father. He wants me to marry Janice, regardless of what I tell him…”

”What? Is that where Janice has been all day?!” Marius growls. “She dumped all her work on me today saying she had an important meeting!”

”He won’t listen to me!” Val snaps. “I’m so frustrated. He’s so insistent on this. It doesn’t matter who I would have invited to that stupid dinner, my father is just using it to sell me off. Seriously, what’s with him?!”

When Marius steps forward to try and calm Val down, I leap from Val’s arms back to the bed. I think now is the time to speak up. Picking the charm up, I meow to get the both boys' attention, presenting the charm to both. Val seems confused, but Marius’ face falls.

”Hey, that’s—“ He reaches out for the charm, which I let him take. Val leans a bit closer to look for himself.

”What is it?”

”A charm I got from a fortuneteller. At the book fair. It’s supposed to help me keep a clear head, or something like that.”

”So there’s magic embedded in it?”

”Supposedly. I didn’t buy it, they just kinda gave it to me. They had others for sale. Expensive ones.”

”Then… has the charm helped much?”

”Maybe, I’m not sure…” Marius pauses, meeting my eyes and glancing back down at the charm. “…Janice was at the same booth that day, I was told. She also got a charm from there…”

”What?” Val frowns, puzzled. “What kind of charm would she even be using? Something that makes people like her? Is that what you’re suggesting?”

”…Call me crazy, but that might be what your cat is suggesting. Do you think she might have ran off cause Janice was at the Palace?”

”…She really doesn’t like Janice.” Val admits. “If she ran into her, Janice might have spooked her. So it’s possible.”

”Then if she saw Janice, maybe she saw her with a charm like this one.” When Marius glances back to me, I swish my tail to the right, and his gaze hardens. “We have to confront her. I’ll get her to back off.”

”Okay, wait.” Val pinched the bridge of his nose. “Let’s say she does have a charm. One that can change people’s minds or whatever. What’s stopping her from using it on us?”

Marius frowns, looking from Val, to me, to the charm. When he looks back to me, I paw at the charm around my own neck. I think this is the answer. He gets it.

”If this charm is real, then I don’t think we will have an issue.” Marius says, resolute. He reaches his arms out to Val, one hand coming to rest on his shoulder. “It’s too late in the day, though. The sun’s already gone, and I don’t want you being alone in that place. Stay the night. Tomorrow, I’ll go with you to that dinner and we can confront my sister and your dad together.”

“…Okay. I’ll stay. We can do that.” Val nods, leaning into Marius and accepting the hug the other offered. “…I hope that’s what’s happening… I don’t want everyone to hate me… even if I did screw everything up…”

”We’ll fix everything. Promise.”

The pair stay like that for a while, and I feel as though my job here is done. We’re mostly on the same page, I’ll have to find a way to sneak into that dinner so I can claw some faces off if they try anything funny!!