Cat on a Mousey's Back
Caleb Ross said flatly, "You'd better be."
"Oh—right, I forgot to ask—what happened while your livestream was down? If anything went wrong, tell me in advance. I'll prep contingency plans on my end."
Please, no more surprises.
"It wasn't anything huge. We found a merman sealed beneath the lake at Moon Bay—he's been trapped in a sealing formation for over two hundred years. The reason the stream was cut was that people from Precinct One came and took the merman away to secure him. Oh, and Grace Jiang, Anna Lang, and Mason Yu know about the supernatural now. I probably can't schedule anything else for the next couple days—when you land, take them straight to Captain Harper."
A merman?!
Like the merfolk from legends—human face, fish tail?
Caleb felt oddly unsettled. He was usually terrified of monsters and ghosts, yet at the mention of a merman—something that kept popping up in movies and shows—he felt no fear at all. Only curiosity. Maybe because he'd seen so many mermen tropes in film.
"Wow! He must be handsome, right? Any photos? Is he interested in entering showbiz?"
Ollie was used to his manager's industry instincts. At Caleb's prompt he suddenly realized Finn Brooks could actually be a good fit for Finn's—no, for Finn Brooks's—career potential.
"Yeah…appearance shouldn't be a problem. But Finn's been sealed for centuries and he never went through his coming-of-age ritual—he's stuck in a child's form. Caleb, have you ever managed a child actor?"
Stuck in a child's form?
Uh oh. Is this one of those careers where someone shows up on set as a kid and then suddenly ages into an adult? Better to watch this one first.
"Ask if he's even interested. If he is, arrange a meeting for me. With a merman's voice, he might do well as a singer."
"Oh—and your brother asked me to tell you to come over for Mid-Autumn dinner. And Zane West wants you to shoot the music video for his new single—details when you're back."
Ollie thought of ZeeZee and felt a warm glow. ZeeZee used to be unstable in his shapeshifting—no one would vouch for him, not even his own brother—so he'd stayed put in Northridge. Recently some poachers had been circling Northridge and ended up catching ZeeZee, who'd been fishing nearby, thinking he was a wild fox. Otherwise Ollie might not have seen him so soon; he would have had to go up to Northridge.
Some creatures just clique together for a reason. Ollie had even planned to introduce ZeeZee to some local food spots when they met.
"One last thing—has your uncle contacted you? I let him stay at your place. I was gonna get a cook to pop by, but he said no—he'll just order takeout."
Caleb glared at a chicken photo Quinn had just sent. So petty—quasi-human uncle ordering takeout from the mountains, thinking Ollie couldn't get delivery up there? Rude!
"Don't worry about him, Caleb. Handle your work. If he causes trouble, get my brother to deal with it or tell the boss."
Quinn was old school; most small spirits couldn't handle him. You needed a beast that was at least a thousand years old to rein Quinn in. Still, Quinn had lost face on that variety show—he'd probably quiet down for a while.
They hadn't been able to reach each other for two days and one night; that really bothered Caleb. He bundled up a bunch of work items and they jabbered for almost two hours until finally ending the call after eleven.
Ollie's bag was packed. Tomorrow morning he'd be out the door. He plugged in his phone, walked to the windowsill…then shrunk into his hamster form and scampered down.
Under a big tree in the yard, a tabby cat with a complicated coat had been waiting, eyes bright like tiny lamps. Right before midnight, the little hamster arrived—fashionably late.
"Meow meow meow!" Jade Hayes's cat voice said. "Ollie, you're so slow! Hurry up—ten minutes left. If I sprint, we'll make it!"
You had to harvest moonvine at the midnight hour for it to work properly.
"Squeak!" Caleb's voice chided him—sorry, sorry, let's go already.
The hamster scrambled onto the tabby's back. His faint gray streak stood out against the darker fur.
Jade made sure to present her back, giving Ollie less stress and reducing his instinctive fear. She was practically floating with delight. "Ohmygod, he's so cute! I want to steal him home…"
She fastened a small restraint so the hamster wouldn't fall off when she bolted into full speed. Just as she was about to hit maximum velocity, a hand reached out of the dark and grabbed her tail.
"Meow!!" Jade yelped. Who—who's there? Is this haunted?
She launched upward in fright, nearly into the tree. The person who grabbed her tail clearly hadn't handled cats before; they didn't realize how terrifying that would be. Panicking, they clumsily caught Jade as she tumbled down.
"Jade Hayes, what are you doing out so late? Where are you going?"
Julian North's room looked right at the tree. He'd noticed a cat sitting under it and thought nothing of it at first. But something nagged him, so he pulled out his camera and snapped a picture. Only after scrutinizing it did he realize it really was Jade.
"Hmm? What's that on your back? A hamster? Is that your snack?"
Ollie: "???"
Julian, what are you like?!
This human was so terrible!
"No, no, no! Not at all—no misunderstanding! Julian, this is Ollie! We're just collecting moonvine for a lab experiment. I'm a benevolent spirit! I don't eat other spirits, I swear!"
Pushed into a corner, Jade slipped into speaking with human words in cat form without time to shapeshift back. Ollie, who'd been worried around her because she was a tabby, thought of her as a good cat—he didn't want to be disliked by someone so cute.
Although Julian had guessed that weird things were possible before, hearing it aloud still shocked him. He carefully cupped Ollie in his palm and, by the faint moonlight, examined the tiny bundle cradled there—the small mousey biscuit.
"It's Ollie?" Julian's voice softened. "Ollie, you're so adorable—come shake."
He offered his pinky. The tiny hamster obediently reached out a tiny paw and tapped Julian's finger.
"Squeak~" Yes, Julian~ it's me~
Julian could hear both the hamster's little squeaks and Ollie's voice echoing in his head. He'd already had his worldview blown apart by a certain fox, but even so, encountering two different supernatural beings at once made his chest buzz with excitement.
"Is the place you're going dangerous? It's so late—if you want, I'll come with you."
Darn exams. What kind of school test sends a tiny hamster out to gather lab materials? This place was ridiculous—he's just a baby!
Thinking about all the people online who'd called Ollie illiterate only made Julian angrier.
"No need, Julian. I'm fast. I'll be right back. The terrain is rough for humans; don't worry—we're not human."
If humans couldn't traverse it, whatever they were after was probably clinging to a cliff face.
Julian was worried but knew he couldn't do much, so he placed Ollie back on the tabby's back.
The two furry creatures—big and small—waved their paws goodbye, and the tabby vanished into the night so fast it was almost invisible.
Julian stood downstairs for ten more minutes before returning to his room. He grabbed his phone and messaged the night-owl fox he'd been recording variety shows with.
[Julian North: The kid on the show with me is a gray hamster—so fluffy, just like you.]
The fox was indeed still up and replied instantly.
[ZeeZee: ! A hamster! It's Ollie! He's my brother! We grew up together—my squeaky baby. Julian, can you steal him for me? I miss him.]
ZeeZee's brother?
Julian paused, then remembered the trending list he'd glanced at: Zane West had publicly acknowledged that Ollie was his brother, and Ollie did look a bit younger than Ezra West.
[Julian North: No way, ZeeZee. You can't just snatch someone's sibling. If you miss him, call him.]
ZeeZee, whose childhood tactic was snatching creatures to claim as siblings, felt stabbed.
[ZeeZee: QAQ I don't have his number! Julian, can you send it to me?]
His brother was always traveling—gone on business, back briefly, then gone again. ZeeZee never had the chance to get Ollie's contact.
Even though there was a streamer Ollie liked going live today, ZeeZee still squeezed in time to watch Ollie's stream. What a terrible variety show—look what they did to the little guy! Once Ollie gets back to Ashford City, ZeeZee was going to find him and drag him to the big city for all the good food.
Ezra West sent Ollie a friend request, but Ollie hadn't responded. Ollie and Jade were still struggling with the moonvine.
Night air was cool, but both of them were furry and comfortable. They crouched on a cliff's edge, waiting for two patches of moonvine across the way to ripen fully.
While they waited, they inevitably talked about what had been sealed under Moon Bay. Jade realized, only now, that the other end of the formation that had nearly trapped her actually had something locked within.
"From what you described, it sounds like someone tampered with the original sealing formation," Jade said. "The outer array shouldn't actively lure living things in. Whoever set it up wouldn't want people to find this place—which is why it makes no sense that the outer formation would be designed to attract and trap creatures."
Jade had found many bones in the formation that had confined her. The bones were human-shaped, half-beast, and animal—probably victims the array had lured in and drained until they died.
"Maybe the array doesn't generate enough energy on its own, so it needs to periodically devour life to power itself?" Ollie said, thoughtful. The idea made sense. Whatever the case, Ollie was pretty certain the formation had been meddled with.
—