"Good job, good job! Excellent show! We might make circus-folk out of you guys yet! Whoo!" The clown clapped loudly at the defeat of the Cheshire Cat, which he had taken some part in doing. He had thought of crushing Elrond over and over again with his hammer, but it seemed as if everyone else already took care of it. At the suggestion of selling the creature, Dofun skipped to the magic cage and looked at the creature inside, from a safe distance of course. The mask helped against any cat infection as well.
"Weeeeeeeeellllllllllllllll, I don't know if we should sell it! After all, think of how much its worth! Do you how know much we could get for such a rare creature! We should sell it for all its worth! Why didn't you think of this earlier instead of your idea? Oh, sell sell sell, yes, that should get us quite a bit of mo-nay~
And yyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeesssssss, the cats are gone now! Well, except for this one, which we are about to eat! Who wants dinner?!"
Xing Qi closed her eyes in the chaos. She clutched her head, praying that everything would work out. The cat's words played out in her mind. She supposed maybe it heard about her family's bad reputation but she wasn't sure.
She sighed in relief when Elrond was free from Cheshire's spell. She sincerely believed before that he wanted her destroyed. To know he didn't mean it meant the world to her, though she reminded herself she only had just met the Guild Master that day.
Xing Qi looked up at Snake, whose hand was bloody. She cringed and gritted her teeth, feeling sorry the Spirit ever had to be hurt.
"I'm sorry, Snake," she said. "Could you please go back now?"
"Ruby," Snake said with a frown. "Are you sure?"
Xing Qi nodded. The summoner was incredibly weakened, but Snake's mere presence would deter her magic even more. The Celestial Spirit assisted her to her feet. She brushed her hair, fixed her hat and inspected the summoner for any damage. She then disappeared in a sparkling light.
The summoner gripped onto her cane and looked up at John.
"I'll take the Checker Cat," Xing Qi said nervously. "I'll pay whatever I can for him. I know we could use the money to fix the guild but... we don't know if this cat belongs to anyone or not. So long as we keep an eye on him, I'm sure it would be fine."
It was clear she wasn't fully aware of the contents of the note Elrond found. She glanced at Alden, who had just woken up, and then to Dofun, who unfortunately (to her) also suggested selling Cheshire.
"Do you have any training in animals from your time in the circus, Mr. Dofun? Although I think this one might already be trained. He... or she? can talk and use magic after all. Maybe you have an idea?"
Xing Qi gulped, trying to remain steady in her proposal. She was afraid the others might think her to be too soft.
"I think we should treat him or her as nice as we can. I have a feeling his actions are the result of a lot of pain."
She couldn't bear to tell them she desperately wanted to figure out how much the creature knew. She assumed it likely meant their guild was in danger as most guilds were in dark times. But in the rare instance this had something to do with Fable and Joan Ruby, well, Xing Qi wouldn't let the opportunity get away from her.
The punk seemed very confident of his success as without even looking at the Chelrond Cat and just threw something at it as his marbles were flying back to him and a rainbow colored text that read '12041 HIT COMBO - WO-WO-WONDAFABULANT!!!!' disappeared from the screen. That something the man threw was a business card, the card was blue and on the back it read JπT, written in golden letters. In the front it had a picture of the punk himself and it also stated the man's name to be 'Jupiter' and his occupation as a 'freelance mage'. It also had some contact information, including his fax number.
However as the punk, apparently named Jupiter, turned his head to look at the guild master infused with the cat and see what he had actually done he was in for a surprise. He knew that he had overdone; he did that a lot and so thought that Elrond would have gotten hurt quite badly from his attack, but luckily he wasn't, in fact he was barely hurt at all.
"What the... I could barely scratch this guy... He must be as tough as diamonds." Jupiter thought as he saw Elrond being perfectly okay, despite being pummeled by his marbles. However the cat did surrender, which was what Jupiter had been aiming for in the first place. Now all he had to figure out what to do next. Just taking the cat and running away probably didn't work and he didn't even feel like trying that.
"So many of us want to keep the cat, each for a different reason. That's why I think we should hold a competition and winner gets the cat and gets to do it whatever they want."
Puck landed lightly on his feet after all the combined magical attacks had struck Catrond, forcing the odd creature of their guild leader's body. Taking a single threatening step forward, the Dragonslayer had a crackling green flame balanced on the tip of his finger, ready to beat the cat into further submission.
Thankfully, it seemed the cat was out of strength. And it should have been! Puck himself was still a bit awed at the magical displays he had seen from all his new guild mates.
Now as everyone was discussing what to do with the cat, Puck remembered hearing one particular thing from the cat in the middle of the fight. Crouching down to speak with the Cheshire, Puck asked one question.
"You said you were destroying us, to spare us from the danger right outside these doors...what danger?"
Elrond listened to all of the different suggestions they had for the cat. Elrond considered them all, but he himself wasn't completely sure what to do. However, Puck brought up a good point. If they could determine what the cat meant, it might protect them in the future.
Elrond opened up the stone sphere that surrounded the cat. The cat looked exhausted, as if it would fall out of consciousness at any moment.
"You said that there are dangers right outside our door, right? Tell us what they are! Maybe you'll have a better life if you do."
The cat twisted its head, smiling its broad, creepy smile. "You want to know? You want to know my seeecreeeet. Hahahaha... HAHAHAHAHAH!"
"Tell us!"
The cat hissed at Elrond. It paused and looked around the room. Finally, it stopped on Alden.
"That's the one. That's the one you'll be afraid of when it's all over. Hahah... Hahaha... HAHAHAHA!"
Elrond closed the sphere around the cat, muting it's terrible laughter. Confused, Elrond looked over to Alden. He had only known the man for a short period of time, but he didn't feel any ill will. He was about to speak, to ask questions, but a sudden knock on the door caused him to stop.
"Uhmmm, I'll get that," said Elrond. He ran over to the door and opened it up. "Welcome, new mage, to the most powerful Guild on the entire planet! Renascene! Now, I'm sure you'd like to join, so just come on--"
"No thanks," interrupted the figure. Appearing at the doorway was a small young woman in a dark purple cloak. Her entire figure was hidden except for a small part of her face. She smiled and held out a flier.
Elrond, curious, took the paper from her. It was a wanted poster for a cat.
"I think you caught my cat," said the girl, smiling.
Elrond had a blank expression at first, then realized what she was talking about. "Oooh, your cat! The cheshire cat. Oh yes, uhm, we kinda... found it. I guess."
"I'd like it back, please," said the girl.
"Right... of course." Elrond spun around and made the rock sphere around the cat vanish. At this point, the cat was completely out cold. Elrond looked at the other mages. "Afraid there is a change of plans. We did this mission, so we have to hold true until the end. The cat is the girls."
And so Elrond gave the sleeping cat to the girl. She thanked them, then trotted off down the street, merging with the crowd.
Elrond faced his guild once more, smiling. "Well, we don't have a cat, but that's okay." As he spoke, magically the building began to repair itself after the carnage, just as it did when they first found the guild.
"But, we finished our first mission as a Guild! This is a great start! We'll be sure to become the best!"