A Magic Book!

"So, what is it?" KuliKuli's tails wagged back and forth, the cat girl filled with immeasurable curiosity once her friends had returned with a new discovery. "Glad we managed to catch you two when we came back!"

"I thought we caught you guys?" Felix asked, noticing the puddle trail stemming from a certain kitty and wolf. "Diiiiid you two go swimming."

Reta flinched, twisting and squeezing her soaked dress onto the garden out front. Lucky she went out and not indoors, something which Janette was very grateful for. Speaking of, he could hear her coming down the stairs and tossing a pile of clothes to the Nekomata.

"Here, you two better clean up the wet mess when you're done cleaning yourselves. This stuff is pricy!"

"Ehh? It's just water, and we had a splash remember? It was an axe-indent?"

"Accident!" Reta bellowed from outdoors. "And no it wasn't!"

"Ignore her, she's grumpy." Said KuliKuli, putting on her cute smile as her cat ears twitched and her tails waved in the air like they don't care.

Janette shrugged, turning her head to notice the other family of Nekomatas laying around in boredom. "And how come you lot are dry, decided against swimming?"

"Hmph!" Dimyri pointed her nose to the skies. "We weren't invited to their little swim session. Besides, some cats aren't fond of water."

The little white cat curled up on the chair hissed at her sibling in return, sticking her tongue out. Her anger cooled down and soon she emitted a purring sound as her mother gently played with her fur, stroking behind her ear fondly in a way she knew her girl enjoyed it. Janette shook her head, setting the book atop the dining table and kicking a few chairs out of the way.

"So what's the magic behind the book about?" Felix asked, moving beside his friend. She hadn't explained to him the secrets kept within the book, too infatuated with its discovery that her hand shook with anticipation as she paid the librarian her share of coins. With all the build-up to this, he was hoping it would prove useful in their current debacle.

"Looks to me like a very rugged stack of messy pages, kept together with spit and soot." Reta muttered from behind, her comment earning a smirk from Na'Vi and a light giggle from KuliKuli and Dimyri. Both girls looked away when Janette scowled at them.

"Well this stack of messy pages is a lot more valuable then you or me combined. Observe!" She smirked, opening it and leaving the others to stare at fat, empty old pages. "Ask it something, anything that comes to mind."

Everyone looked at each other, no one was certain what the gimmick here was. It's odd isn't it, we are ever the curious creatures yet if we are put on the spot our mind goes blank. That seemed to be the case here, the response being an awkward minute passing by with the occasional throat clearing. At last, KuliKuli hummed to herself before leaning onto the table and speaking up.

"Magic book, what's my mate's name?"

Felix blushed as she hugged his arm, the rest of them inching closer to see how it responds. Nothing for a few seconds, until KuliKuli gasped as ink began to manifest onto the page. A blob of ink grew onto the surface before thinning itself as it began to move rapidly in a snake-like manner, dashing and making sharp turners as each letter formed before the snake disappeared once the answer was written.

5311X

"Whoa."

KuliKuli squealed after taking a peak at the response. "Eep! It did something, what did it do?"

Janette stared awkwardly at the kitty as she continued moving excitedly. "Oh right, you can't-whatever. It says his name."

"Wait, what's his full name?"

"Just some numbers."

"Oo-ooh." She spun around to face her mate. "What's numbers?"

"Why did it give out numbers, Felix?" Janette asked.

Felix rubbed his arm as the word remained as it was, no sign of change or addition to its response. "That's a bit of a story there-"

"Yea yea yea, very interesting. Hey book, who owns this house?" Reta leaned forward, raising an eyebrow herself upon the books response.

The letters disappeared, in its place formed ink from thin air before placing its written name for the rest to see.

J'NETTE O'LAV CICARRIO

"O'lav?" She smirked as Janette huffed away.

"Inherited family name, don't even! Gimme that, there so now we see that this is the real deal yea? So here's the plan, we get to know who it is we are up against and figure our way around this."

Dimyri raised her paw. "We're not... fighting him, are we? Because... I don't know how to."

Felix stayed quiet, actually everyone did as their gaze landed on Janette who seemingly shrugged. "I hope not, but it's a possibility. If it helps, we'll try every route we can before it leads to that. Hopefully, anyway." The Nekomata nodded before taking a seat beside her mother and sisters.

"If you don't mind, let's ask where this hunter is first?"

KuliKuli nodded, hugging and kissing her mate as Janette cleared her throat and asked.

"First thing, are there any Monster Hunters nearby?"

ELABORATE

"What's it say?" Dimyri asked, with Janette noticing all eyes on her. Suddenly a thought entered her mind.

"Wait a second, do any of you know how to read? Show of hands who knows how to read?" She frowned at Emyri who shyly shrugged and raised her paw, followed by a scoff from Reta who lifted hers as well. "Wait, Momma Kat can read but her babies cannot?"

"I learned when I was little from my mate, he was meant to teach them until well..." Eh, that again. Damn.

"A-Alright, fair enough." She brushed a bead of sweat before examining the ink on the page begin to fade. "Are there any Monster Hunters in our village?"

YES

She looked around only to find a room full of kittens behave seemingly stoic.

"It says he's here."

The kittens all gasp.

"How many?"

THERE IS ONLY ONE

"What is his name?"

"Can you tell us who he is?" Emyri asks.

Dimyri bounced with excitement as an idea entered her. "Oh oh, are there more monsters like us? Are there more Cat girls? Is Daddy okay?"

"Sh-shush! One question at a time, this doesn't work if you bombard it like that!" Janette barked at her, Dimyri's ears dropping as did her cheerfulness.

"Mew."

"Thank you. Now, where were we?"

"Can I-" Everyone spun around to see Reta with an awkward bit of hesitance on her, rubbing her arm and fidgeting with her clothes. "I..." She sighed. "Can I ask a question?"

She nodded, stepping aside as their friend stepped forward. "I don't want any questions, not now so please don't ask." Leaning forward, she breathed in before saying the words. "Is Xitlaly okay, is she hurt or safe?"

Janette raised her eye, but soon they had their response.

UNKNOWN

Reta felt a stabbing pain enter her chest, "What do you mean unknown? Is she safe?"

UNKNOWN

Felix heard her friend sniffle, her breathing beginning to be quicker, but she had one more thing to say.

"Is she alive?"

UNKNOWN

Everyone stood quiet as their cursed friend began to shake. Janette moved forward, reaching her with a touch to her shoulder.

"Reta?"

"Please, don't." She shook, hiding her face before walking out of the room. Everyone shared either concern or confusion, before Janette raised her head.

"I'll go, you guys go on ahead." She paused before exchanging looks with a worried KuliKuli. "Don't worry."

"I'll try not to." She mewed, hugging Felix's arm tightly. Syri squirmed out from her mother's petting hand, leaping from her lap and following behind her in a silent hurry.

"That was a lot." Felix said, his hand feeling the thin, ancient page of the book. So much information you could get from this, possible endless knowledge. Yet nothing popped into his head, and besides...

"So you never taught Nityri how to read?" He spun around to meet Na'vi's judgmental look.

"It's not that I didn't want to, I just don't know how to read myself."

"You... didn't learn how to read?" Na'vi asked with a raised eye. "Wow."

"Na'vi," Emyri began to say before KuliKuli stepped forward.

"I'm not mad." KuliKuli rubbed his chest to calm him down. "Don't be angry, he teaches me lots of things."

"Did he teach you how to fight, how to defend yourself? Where to hide in case of danger, what to do in case of a hunter?"

"Stop it, Na'Vi." Emyri stood up, noticing the confrontational cat's tails began to flex.

Na'Vi gave one final look at Felix before looking away in distress. "We should have known better than to gamble like this, we should be running. Not putting our lives into this boy's hands." She leaping onto the windowsill before turning back to look at KuliKuli. For a moment, her anger faded away and she felt a pain of guilt wash over her. Then with a mighty leap, she vanished into her cat form, obscured by the darkness.