Happy Thanksgiving Mah Turkeys!

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Tom woke up when his door got knocked by a heavy hand. It was a familiar sound, done rhythmically in precisely five times.
“Oh, little Tomcat!” chirped the voice of Miss Elefantus herself, “It is time to get up! Your breakfast is ready, and it is quite hot! This one is your favorite: eggs and whole-grain toast with a bit of butter! I added a tad bit more this time, just for you!”
Tom groaned, not quite taken in by the delicious description of his meal. He was far too busy trying to fall back asleep, in actuality. Still, he answered politely with,
“Thank you, Miss Elefantus! I’m getting up!”
The elephant lady left the door with hearty, heavy steps. While Tom felt a bit bad for lying to her, he was going to sleep some more anyway, he had a distinct feeling that she might be in any kind of bad mood for a while. Despite not long ago turning into a monster again, she rarely showed anything but beaming smile from every direction. It was as if, instead of the transformation ordeal draining her energy dry, she became like a newborn baby, invigorated to live again. Even her own son couldn’t handle her anymore, choosing to sit in the basement.
Tom buried his muzzle deeper into the pillow. It was strange how quickly he got used to not sleeping that much at night. Perhaps it was natural for a cat to be like that. Though the truth was partly from the talk he had yesterday. Getting information out of people was not his specialty, not unlike looking it up on the web for it to be seen.
Tom had thoughts about everything, and even the talk he had with Kage.
“Do you think, that Chester is probably right?” he asked his spirit, while he was on his computer.
The spirit gave him his usual thoughtful stare into somewhere. He probably agreed, but chose not to say anything, because there was no point in repeating the obvious. Even Tom knew the answer to that.
Speaking of Kage, he became quieter as of late. It felt like he was barely there, during the last time he appeared in his room. Then again, Tom always felt that they had some sort of a distance between themselves, compared to everyone else and their spirits. For one, his friends and their spirits could apparently “feel” one another, and even read each other’s minds. Kage told him never to share anything, but Tom couldn’t even share a thing, since he never learned much. That man was completely cut off, on just about everything that he did. Tom once tried asking Azure through Chester, but he didn’t get anything. And yet, in a weird way, he felt that he could trust him. Like he could rely on him, no matter what problem arises. Even when it came to his friend, Matthew, and what Chester told him.
“You wish to see him?” Kage simply said.
“I dunno, does he want to see me now?” Tom sighed, while getting ready to go to bed.
“He will,” Kage replied.
Somehow, he believed him.
Suddenly, the door got knocked five times again, with the same rhythmic sequence as before.
“Young man! Ten minutes passed! Are you not going to eat it today? Do you want me to put it away until later?”
“No Miss, I’m coming!” Tom exclaimed, springing himself out of the bed.
Ten minutes? He really was letting time just slip by. How embarrassing it was, to be up so late, and having to catch up with his everyday schedule. How Chester can live like this escapes Tom.
“Alright, I’ll wait a little while longer. Also!” Miss Elefantus continued, as Tom continued to look where his eyedrops were, “One of your friends is outside! Do you want me to invite her in?”
Tom furrowed his orange brows.
“Um, yeah…Who is she?”
“One of those who you play around with, um,” the elephant lady knocked on the wood to think, before responding with, “Barbie!”
She probably just came to visit him early, he thought.
“Alright! Thank you, Miss Elefantus!”
“No problem, Dear! Now, get out already, or no breakfast for you!” she said playfully at the end.
Barbie would constantly visit him whenever she came into the center of the town, probably because it was very close. Tom didn’t mind it the least. She was weird, at times, but he had no problem with her at all. They even hanged out together with his friends for a bit.
His friends…
Tom sighed, suddenly remembering Matthew again. He probably was still staying at his house. After everything that happened yesterday, who wouldn’t just take a time off from everyone. He would need some time before responding to anyone.
Tom took his phone again and checked for messages. The only ones he got was Eleanora’s apology for being late to respond, and Napoleon stating that he was too busy to answer.
Tom sighed.
“Hope he’s okay…”
…
At first, when Barbie told her the story, her mother didn’t immediately took it in.
Her father had come home for some time now, they just had a big feast, and they were all having lots of fun. He brought some presents for both of them, including a weird polka-dot blue shirt for Barbie and some jewelry for her mother. They both thought he was being too generous with gifts.
Barbie then showed him her room, introduced Flora to him, talked about her time at school, even about how she tried to act pretty on that day. Afterwards, they watched some TV, played some table games, and then ate their family special: chicken and rice in the pot. There were songs, there was laughter, and there was a lot of good feeling all around them. Even Flora got into it herself.
When Barbie returned once again to see them, she caught them with tears in their eyes. She did not understand exactly why, but she had a suspicion. It pushed her to reconsider her decision for a bit, until they mentioned how happy they are to have her. They said that, no matter what happens, they will always be together. No matter if disaster strikes, or a loss, they will never stop being with her.
And then, she revealed her secret. All of it.
Their reaction was to laugh a bit. Her father even pretended that he was a warrior, too. They thought that she was just joking around. Why wouldn’t they think it was a joke? But she insisted on it, telling them it was real. Her mother told her that she should go to bed. Barbie came in late with Flora, so the mother knew how tired she was from everything that happened.
Barbie tried to convince them a third time. It was then that they became more serious. They asked if something was wrong, if she was getting worried about something. They began saying that they believe her, that what she was saying was true. But Barbie knew it was only because they got worried for her. So then, she wished for Zamarad to appear next to her.
And so she did. And then they transformed. They were stunned at first, but the realization slowly came soon after. From there, Barbie could finally see that they believed her. She could feel that it was going to be easier from now on.
Frankly speaking, it did not become easier.
She had no idea exactly how they were supposedly going to react, but what they showed was a lot more complicated. Maybe it wasn’t a good a thing to do so soon. Her mother had seemingly “turned off,” becoming quiet for the rest of the night. Her father tried to understand how it happened and why. Maybe even speak with whoever responsible for it in the first place. Barbie had no idea how to deal with this.
Apparently, their discussion had not yet finished, but they decided to go to bed. Barbie returned to her room quiet. Even Flora was concerned over what happened, and thankfully Zamarad explained. Both her and Rose began discussing over this. It looked like as if Zamarad wanted to know how to resolve this herself.
“And then what?” Tom asked, very curious. They were walking now down one of the streets, away from Miss Elefantus’s house.
Flora sighed.
“It got…super awkward. I left early, and then after that, just…came here. A bit anti-climactic, I know.”
Tom shrugged, not particularly blaming her for her actions. He wouldn’t really know how to handle that himself.
“So yeah, pretty awkward…By the way, about yesterday, right? What did you learn about that cameraman? Barbie said you stayed back to talk to his friend, right?”
“Well, I tried to learn a bit,” Tom admitted, still looking downwards. “He…didn’t talk much, though. Apparently, me being a kid made it weird for him. Something about me asking him all these questions. I guess adults don’t like sharing secrets with kids, huh?”
“I guess,” Flora replied, shrugging.
“That said, I did learn something!”
“What?”
Flora quickly looked at both direction, right as Tom was about to answer. Wondering what she was doing, she then led him to nearby alley. They did not enter in too deep, but it became easier to see if they were being spied on.
“What was it?” Flora repeated her question. Tom took one more look, as well, before feeling confident enough to continue.
“So, as far as I understood, it all started in the fall, at the same time as the festival. They entered this town because nobody else wanted to, not sure what that meant.”
“Probably cause the bigger scoops were taken,” Flora posited.
Tom just shrugged. “Anyways, after the whole attack, his friends thought that they could hang around to learn more about the, you know, us. And then they met someone, and he began asking for them to search up for some…things.”
“Which ones?”
“Just stuff…like missing reports and stuff.”
“Missing reports?” Flora got really curious about that last part. “Wait…do you mean those three missing people?”
“I’m not sure. A man became missing during some expedition apparently. Nearby here, actually!”
“What man?”
“John Parent.”
Flora raised her eyebrow. “Parent?”
“It’s French. I think you pronounce ‘Pah-ran.’”
Flora didn’t say much to it. Tom just shrugged. That said, some thoughts began circulating in her head. Particularly that man they met in the cave.
“Did you…learn anything about him? The John Parent guy?”
“Not much. Just came from the city…and he worked for ARKYO.”
Flora nodded slowly. ARKYO again, she kept thinking. No matter where they looked or what they learned about, it all came down to that institute. Considering some of the things they learned about, this was probably no coincidence.
“Wait,” Flora said suddenly, “ARKYO is an archeology institute, right?”
“Yeah…why do you ask?”
Flora opened her mouth to say something, only to hesitate.
“Nothing, really.”
“You…sure?”
“Yeah.” Why did she remember that fact, she thought to herself. “Okay then. So, where does that leave us?”
“Um,” Tom looked up hard into his forehead, getting his thoughts straight. “Sooo, there’s ARKYO institute. They with focus on archeology and technology, including supporting botfights. It’s founder looks like Rose’s father, and it’s probably him, but we don’t know. We also don’t know where he is at the moment. Other than that, they apparently have something to do with ‘Cor’ that Mister Azure and the others talked about, some missing people, including one from here, and there’s a conspiracy.”
“What’s the conspiracy even about?” Flora wondered.
Tom sighed, and heavily raised his shoulders once more.
“There’s nothing on them. They look to be clean. I guess if you follow further down, you can find some political scandals, but that’s just the internet.”
Flora rubbed her chin, thinking deeply about it all. There was nothing but shadiness about this whole ordeal, and it was even beyond something simple as evil bad guys trying to take over the world. This was going deeper than they thought. Besides that, there was a giant cavern underneath their town, where the bad guys were apparently staying in, right under the mayor. And all he cared about was trying to keep a clean image. There were too many questions.
They were going to go to the city, if what Tom said was true. Perhaps they could learn more there.
“So…um, what about you Flora?” Tom asked, getting the deer to look at him quizzically. “Did you learn something? You said you were busy yesterday with that too.”
“Oh, well,” Flora sighed, unhappy with having to share this info, “I think I know what happened to my Mom.”
“Huh!?” Tom turned anxious. “What happened to her? Did something happen!?”
“Well…apparently she went missing on her way to the city.”
Tom’s jaw dropped.
“That’s terrible!”
“Don’t tell everyone yet. I have no clue how it happened, but I intend to learn more.”
“Can…can I help?” Flora saw Tom’s expression look sincere. “I can learn more if you want.”
“N-no, you don’t have to! Why do you think you can?”
“Well, cause I would’ve been scared if I were you!”
Flora stared at him for a bit, neither showing content nor discontent by his sympathy. In the end, she replied with,
“It’s fine, for now. If anything, I’ll ask.”
“Sure thing!”
The two nodded, as two diametric opposites do from their understanding.
Suddenly, a crashing noise came from down the alley. The two kids looked around, and then saw a group of young adults. They were smoking and drinking, it seemed.
“Let’s talk about this some time later,” Flora recommended. “I’m gonna check up on Fotia.”
“I’ll follow!”
“Thanks,” she said. “Thanks a lot.”
The two then left, leaving their questions unanswered for now.
…