Life is a Beautiful Thing, Book One
Author: Harmon Cooper
Date: 2015-04-24 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction; Cyberpunk; Dystopia; Fiction
Description: Hallucinatory cyberpunk. Meta sci-fi satire. The future is futile. 2083. A pollute-addicted therapist named Meme battles his way through his mind and LA at the seat of his pants alongside a beautiful android escort with a surprising secret. With the Federal Corporate Government hunting him, will he make it to safety in time? The hunt is on. Part techno thriller, part dystopian science fiction, Life is a Beautiful Thing is a series that questions what it means to be human; a collection of novels that offers a shocking glimpse into a dark future fueled by corporate deceit and high-end intoxicant
Publisher: Boycott Books

Sacred

Cat

Island

(Book One)

By Harmon Cooper

Copyright © 2020 by Harmon Cooper

Copyright © 2020 Boycott Books

Edited by Celestian Rince

Proofed by Adam Luopa

Cover by Daniel Kamarudin; Font Design by Shawn T. King

Audiobook narrated by Travis Baldree, produced by Podium Audio

www.harmoncooper.com
writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com

Twitter: @_HarmonCooper
Harmon Cooper’s Patreon

All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Sacred Cat Island is dedicated to my father, Gary, my younger brother, Brandon, and my cat soulmate, Tuck.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

.Chapter One.

.Chapter Two.

.Chapter Three.

.Chapter Four.

.Chapter Five.

.Chapter Six.

.Chapter Seven.

.Chapter Eight.

.Chapter Nine.

.Chapter Ten.

.Chapter Eleven.

.Chapter Twelve.

.Chapter Thirteen.

.Chapter Fourteen.

.Chapter Fifteen.

.Epilogue.

Back of the Book Content

.Chapter One.

The train settled, the gears below locking into place as a hissing sound filled the cabin. It was the last stop.

Ganix smiled at his two sons. “We’re here.”

Main Quest: Adjust to island living

Rowan Toragan didn’t like the look of the quest that flashed before him, nor did he like the way his dad grinned at Rowan and his little brother.

“We don’t want to go,” said Rowan, even though this hadn’t worked earlier.

“We want to stay,” Toro told their father.

“Boys, I’ve already been over this…”

Their departure really had come as quite a shock. One minute they were waking up to start yet another summer day, the next their father was telling them to pack, that they were leaving.

Ganix grabbed a leather suitcase with faded stickers plastered across it. He set the suitcase on the floor of the train. “Get your luggage, you too, Toro. We don’t have very far to go.”

Their father led them off the train platform, through a small crowd of people preparing to head toward the city.

“There’s the dock,” said Ganix as they crossed a one-lane street lined with flowering trees, past people seated at coffee shops and enjoying a nice summer breeze.

A man in a striped shirt approached them. “Where are you heading?” he asked, waving at them with his corncob pipe. “Plenty of islands in the sea…”

“Sacred Cat Island,” Ganix told him.

“Come again?” The man looked at Rowan and Toro’s father incredulously. “Why would anyone go to that run-down island? If you’re looking for a real vacation…”

“We’re not looking for a vacation,” Ganix told him, a sudden twitch at the corner of his eyes catching Rowan’s attention.

“Suit yourself.” The man in the striped shirt moved on. It wasn’t long before Ganix came to a stop in front of a boat with a green hull. The water rocked the boat back and forth, and the waves were a bit frothy, but they weren’t too strong at the moment.

“Wait here,” Ganix told his two sons.

He set his luggage down and approached the boat.

Rowan crossed his arms over his chest, and stopped his luggage from rolling off the dock with his foot. “This is so stupid.”

“I don’t want to go,” said Toro.

“Of course, you don’t want to go. You don’t want to go because I don’t want to go, because no one would want to go.”

“No, I don’t want to go because I don’t want to go,” Toro said.

“Enough,” Ganix called over his shoulder.

“But—”

“No more complaining, Rowan. At least wait until we get there. It won’t be so bad.”

“Ganix Toragan?” A man with leathery skin popped out of the chair at the back of the boat. He wore a straw hat and a loose shirt, only half of the buttons done up. He looked the exact opposite of Rowan’s father, whose polo shirt was tucked tightly into his slacks, a pair of old loafers on his feet, no socks.

The skipper’s social status flashed before Rowan and he saw that the man was just a few years older than his father:

Name: Cameron Jinn

Age: 51

Occupation: Skipper

They certainly didn’t look the same, the skipper thin and sinewy, a sparkle to his eyes that his dad didn’t have.

“Nice to meet you,” Ganix said as he extended his hand to the skipper. Rather than shake it, the man pulled Ganix into the boat, startling him. The skipper hopped off and grabbed his suitcase, which he tossed onto the boat before moving over to Toro.

“Let’s get you in there, kid,” he said as he lifted the boy onto the boat.

“I can do it myself,” Rowan told the man once he returned for him.

“Suit yourself, kiddo,” said the skipper as he turned back to the boat. “Just be careful. The boat is rocky.”

Rowan saw both his father and his brother look at him. Not wanting to appear weak in their eyes, but certainly feeling some pressure, he stepped to the side of the dock and jumped onto the boat.

The skipper laughed. “We’ve got a jumper!”

He tossed the rest of their luggage into the boat and whistled to himself as he went about removing some of the mooring. After giving the thumbs up to Rowan, he hopped into the boat himself. He flipped the fenders inside and pushed off from the dock, starting the motor, a big grin on his face.

“Anything I can do to help?” Ganix asked.

The skipper laughed again. “Not at the moment. Just hold tight, Mr. Toragan, and we’ll be there in no time. I’ve got to tell you, just in case you didn’t already know, you three are going to be the talk of the island,” he called over the roar of the motor. “Believe you me.”

“Why’s that?” Ganix asked.

“Toro…” Rowan motioned for his younger brother to follow him to the front of the boat. Once they settled, the two looked out over the water, a few seagulls overhead, the waves choppy now that they were away from the port.

Rowan remembered he was supposed to be upset about going to Sacred Cat Island, but the breathtaking view and the sweet-smelling breeze had him feeling slightly better in no time. Being on the boat was fun as well, something that Rowan had only experienced a few times.

“What’s it going to be like?” Toro asked, the boy now looking to his older brother, his hand on his brow and casting a shadow over his face.

“I don’t know,” Rowan told him. “But it’s probably going to be boring.”

“Do you think there will be cats?”

“Why would they call it Sacred Cat Island if there weren’t any cats?”

“Good point,” said Toro. “At least we will have the beach.”

“But it could be a rocky beach.”

“I didn’t think of that. Well, hopefully the weather’s nice.” Toro glanced up at the sky and took a deep breath through his nostrils. There were just a few white clouds overhead, the sun bearing down on them.

Rowan shrugged. “It’s probably going to rain a lot.”

“Do you think there will be any monsters?”

“Actually…” Rowan tightened his mouth and narrowed his eyes, causing Toro to laugh long and hard, his shrill laughter catching Ganix’s attention.

Their father came to the front of the boat to check on them. “Everything all right up here, boys?”

“Rowan is turning into a monster,” said Toro.

“No, I was showing you what the monsters on Sacred Cat Island are going to look like. That’s what they’ll look like!”

“Monsters? What? No. Stop filling his head with those kinds of things, Rowan,” Ganix said, thumping his oldest son on the arm with his finger. “There aren’t any monsters there.”

“Sorry, Dad.”

Ganix took a seat next to Toro and exhaled deeply, enjoying the view for a moment with his sons.

Rowan watched him as he did this, noticing just how tired his father looked. He’d had patches of gray in his hair ever since Rowan could remember, but the gray seemed to have spread over the last few months. His father looked heavier too, something different about the way he filled his shirt.

His father’s social status appeared before him and faded away:

Name: Ganix Toragan

Age: 45

Occupation: Former Proxima Database Administrator/OMIB DevOps

There was one word that caught thirteen-year-old Rowan’s eyes, one that had recently changed in his father’s social status.

Former.

Up until just a few weeks ago, Rowan’s father had been gainfully employed. Now, they were moving to an island, one that Rowan had never even heard of.

Rowan was too young to fully process all of the pieces that had to fall into place, or perhaps fallen out of place, for this chain of events to occur. He also wondered why their mother hadn’t joined them, his father murky with the details to that particular question and certainly not saying anything about how she’d left a few days back.

Rowan returned his focus to the water, and the way the boat bounced up and down as it hit each wave.

Sometimes, it was hard for him to imagine how the two could be related. His father with his white beard stubble, pepper and salt hair, long arms and big hands. He looked nothing like Rowan, who was small for his age, with dark hair, his defining feature being a small scar above his lip from falling as a child. Ganix also looked nothing like Rowan’s younger brother, Toro, whose dark hair was short and spiky, the ten-year-old boy scrawny, freckles and moles dotting his skin.

“Dolphins,” the skipper called out, pointing to the west after he cut the engine off.

“Rowan, look!” Toro cried.

Rowan turned and saw a pink dolphin with a yellow tail fin lift out of the water. It slipped back beneath the surface, and as it did another dolphin, this one also pink with a yellow tail fin, did the same.

“They’re coming over here,” the skipper announced, excitement in his voice. “I haven’t seen this happen in years.”

As the dolphins reached the boat, they quickly went back under. Rowan looked over the edge, his heart leaping into his throat as he caught the face of a cat staring back at him from beneath the water.

Startled, Rowan tried to push away, but ended up losing his footing and falling forward instead.

Rowan was beneath the surface of the cool water in a flash, pink and yellow on his periphery. Even if he was under the water, he could clearly see in front of him, and what he saw sent a shock of terror down his spine. He was only under for a few moments before bubbles spun around him, an arm hooking across his chest.

He broke the surface of the waves and took a deep breath in, the skipper transitioning Rowan to a white floating device.

“You’re okay,” the man said, his arm around Rowan’s chest. “You’re okay, kiddo. You can swim, right?”

“I…” Rowan gulped in air. “Yes.”

He looked up at the boat to see his father standing on its edge, holding Toro back, who looked to be on the verge of jumping in after him.

“He’s okay,” the skipper called up to them. “He’s okay.”

The man guided Rowan to the back of the boat and helped him get in. The lanky skipper pulled himself up next, and put away his flotation device as he let the boy go to his father.

“Rowan, what happened?” Ganix asked, his hands on his shoulders now, Rowan sopping wet, his eyes stinging from the saltwater. The skipper tossed a towel to his father, and he wrapped it around Rowan’s shoulders.

“I’m sorry,” Rowan said, feeling both frightened and embarrassed at the same time.

“What happened?” his father asked again, a fear in his eyes that Rowan had never seen before. He hugged Rowan, not at all concerned that he was wet. He pressed away, staring at him intensely.

“There was…” Rowan pressed away from his dad. He shook the water out of his clothes, and ran his hand through his wet hair. “There was something down there, a person, no, a cat monster. I saw something down there, some kind of cat monster. A cat with the body of a human…”

Toro gasped. “A cat monster?”

“Rowan, I told you…”

“Dad, I’m serious,” he said, rubbing his eyes now. “I saw something down there. And I tried to move away. I ended up falling instead.”

Side Quest: Discover what you saw beneath the waves

Rowan ignored the prompt that floated before him and continued: “I swear I saw something, Dad.” He looked to the skipper, hoping the man would confirm that there was indeed something beneath the water. But all the skipper could do was turn away, moving back to the motor.

“Sit here this time.” Ganix led Rowan to one of the chairs in the center of the boat. “And don’t scare your little brother,” he said under his breath. “That’s the last thing we need. Behave until we get to the island, or I’ll give you and your brother a Dad Quest.”

Rowan groaned playfully. “Not a Dad Quest.”

“Keep it up,” Ganix said, patting his son on the back of the head. “The more you complain, the harder the Dad Quest will be.”

Rowan kept to himself for the next thirty minutes, occasionally scrolling through his personal attributes, which hovered before him.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 285/335

Intelligence: 23.46

Willpower: 10.31

Empathy: 6.01

Charisma: 11.84

Strength: 5.41

Dexterity: 7.24

Luck: 3.31

He never questioned why he had these stats, or why everyone else had stats, which floated before a person and were translucent unless he focused on them.

While he could see someone’s social status, Rowan couldn’t see other people’s personal attributes.

Personal attributes were private.

At any given time, Rowan had three skills he was able to level-up and swap out for other skills. These were also private, Rowan glad that his dad and his brother couldn’t see the three things he had been hoping to improve over the summer before being whisked away to an island.

Drawing / Level 3

Playing Guitar / Level 1

Talking to Girls / Level 4

While his personal attributes could change daily, his skills were the only thing he was able to actively level up, and his overall level was tied to his age, only changing once a year.

His dad, who was forty-five years old, was Level 45. His younger brother Toro was a measly Level 10.

Only leveling up once a year wouldn’t have bothered Rowan had it not come with a setback: a person’s age matched the number of items possible for storage in their inventory list.

This was one thing he looked forward to every year once his birthday came around mid-summer. An additional slot in his inventory list was always handy, and he couldn’t wait until he reached his twenties, when he’d be able to carry twenty or more items in his list.

Naturally, because he was already looking through his stats, Rowan moved to his inventory list.

Wooden Sword

Knit Hat

Deck of Playing Cards

Drawing Paper

Pencil Set

Comic Book

His father told them to pack lightly, that they would collect more things on the island than they could possibly imagine. But Rowan wasn’t so sure of this. Most of the items he saved to his list came from playing with his friends, which would be impossible on Sacred Cat Island.

Rowan turned back, realizing he could no longer see the mainland. For some reason, this made him miss his friends even more.

Still a bit cold, Rowan went ahead and equipped his yellow knit hat, which appeared in his hands as if it had been there all along.

“Good idea,” Ganix told his oldest son. “Make sure you don’t catch a cold. Put something on your head too, Toro.”

Rather than equip his hat, Toro exploded to the front of the boat.

“I can see it!” Toro shouted.

Rowan looked out over the bow to see a patch of green grow out of the water behind an old lighthouse perched on a mound of rocks. In a matter of moments, the patch expanded in size, Rowan now seeing a couple of mountains pop up in the distance, and a cliff with oddly shaped rocks jutting out of the water beneath it.

The boat began to arc toward the land. It straightened again as they moved along the contours of the island, where they came to an old dock with ample housing behind it that hugged a cobblestone road.

“Is that it?” Toro called over the roar of the motor, the young boy looking back at his father.

As it did with all brand-new locations, the words flashed in front of Rowan’s eyes.

SACRED CAT ISLAND

Ganix stood, his hand on the metal railing, a glimmer of something in his eyes as he looked to the island. Rowan didn’t know what was going on in his father’s head, but there was something hopeful about the way he stood, his shoulders back, his features softening just a little.

Rowan didn’t share his father’s hopefulness in seeing the place.

His first reaction was one of disappointment, the island not at all tropical, which was what he expected. At least there could have been some coconuts on the trees, or some colorful birds. But from what he could see as they grew close to the dock, the trees were mostly of the oak and pine variety, the birds were all seagulls, and as he had jokingly mentioned earlier, the beach that was visible was quite rocky.

“Well?” Ganix asked his two sons. “What do you think?”

“What are we going to do here all summer?” Rowan asked as he caught sight of a large cat statue, one that was facing the dock and covered in moss.

“Yeah, what are we going to do here?” Toro joined in.

“Well, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of Dad Quests for you two, and you never know what you’ll find on the island…”

“Why are we coming here again?” Rowan asked his father.

“No complaining and no questions until we at least get to where we’re staying tonight.”

“Fine…”

The boat pulled up to the dock, the waves gently grazing against the black rubber bumper. The skipper expertly tied it off, wasting no time in unloading the cargo.

Aside from a few cats, which had yet to take interest in them, the docks were pretty quiet. There wasn’t a lot of space for boats, and the only other distinguishing features were a few large crates and a storage shed near the stairs that led up to the village.

“Are these the cats that they named the island after?” Toro asked.

Rowan looked to the cats, a limited amount of information floating above each of their heads.

Tabby, Level 6

American Shorthair, Level 3

Bengal, Level 3

Persian, Level 5

“Probably not,” their father said. “Do you need any help?” he asked the skipper.

“I’ve got it, Mr. Toragan, but thanks anyway.”

Once the boat was stable, the boys were the first to make it to the dock. Leaving their luggage behind for a moment, Rowan and his brother took a step closer to the cats, Toro naturally lowering his shoulders as if he planned to stalk them.

The tabby, which was dark green with a strip of gray on its belly, playfully pawed at the midnight-blue Persian. The other two watched Rowan and his little brother curiously.

“Come here…” Rowan got down on his knees and motioned for the cats to come to him.

The one closest to the two boys, a white shorthair with a strip of red running down its coat, started to flit its ears back. It hissed, spooking the other three cats. They took off together, running behind a stack of crates at the entrance of the dock.

“Now hold on a minute. Who is scaring away the cats?” An older man in light-blue overalls and an orange knit hat stepped out from behind one of the crates. He carried a net with him, and as he looked at the boys, his social stats flashed before him and faded away.

Name: Chodak Murdan

Age: 68

Occupation: Fisherman

“What did they do?” Ganix asked him as he slid around Rowan. He placed his suitcase down on the dock and approached the older man, extending his hand.

“For one, they scared the cats,” the old fisherman grumbled. “And for two…” He smiled a toothless grin as he slapped his calloused paw into Ganix’s hand. “They still haven’t said hi to me yet!”

“Hi!” Toro said.

“Hey…” Rowan started to say.

Chodak slowly bent toward them. “Well, if no one else is going to say it, I guess I should be the one: welcome to Sacred Cat Island, and its most humblest of villages, ahem, Sacred Cat Village. We don’t normally have visitors.” He coughed in his hand and waved at the skipper, who was just about to start his motor and leave. “But you’re more than welcome. May I ask who you are visiting? The only kid that ever comes around here is Doyona’s granddaughter, Olivia, and that’s not for another week or so.”

“We’re not visiting anyone,” Ganix told him.

“Do you…” The old man tilted his head as he looked at Rowan’s father. “Do you have a place to stay? There aren’t any hotels on the island, not anymore, but there’s ample camping if you head toward the East Docks, past the orchard. We’re at the West Docks, if you hadn’t already figured that out. I really wish there was a place for people to stay. There used to be a motel, the Sacred Cat Motel, but it has since closed down. Or the owner died. You know what? I think it was both.”

“My uncle was Turni Toragan.” Ganix gestured to his two sons to grab their luggage. “And…”

“Really? You’re Turni’s nephew?” Chodak took off his hat and held it over his chest. “I’m sorry for your loss. That man was a blessing to this island, and without him…” He shook his head. “Well, you’ll see. About the only place to get food and supplies these days is at the Sacred Cat Restaurant, or down here at the docks when some of the skippers decide to throw us some fresh supplies.”

“I plan to change that,” Ganix said.

The fisherman looked at him again, clearly reading his social status. “You’re a developer, right?”

“Was a developer.”

“DevOps. Database administrator…” Chodak whistled. “I can’t say I know what those things are, or what it is you did exactly, but it has got be harder than running a store. You’re just going to need some supplies. You’ve already got built-in customers. You’ll also need to clean the place up a bit. No one has been in there since Turni’s death.” The old fisherman ran his hand along the contours of his chin. “Say, do you have any proof that you’re supposed to take over the store? I’m not trying to doubt you here; I know that we’ve barely met each other, but…”

“Sure,” Ganix said as he approached him. He equipped Turni’s will from his inventory list and showed it to the old fisherman. “I have a key too.”

“I didn’t know he had a nephew,” Chodak said as he looked over the piece of paper, squinting at some of the passages. He handed the paper back to Ganix. “It isn’t very far from here, just right up these docks, first building on the left. I always thought that it was a smart place for the general store. Easy to get shipments aside from those damn steps, plus you can see the bay down here,” he said. “You boys are in for a lucky surprise. The place has a small balcony with a nice view. You’ll be able to see the lighthouse from there too.”

“Good to know,” Ganix said as the piece of paper returned to his inventory list. He kept the keys in his hand however, the key ring dangling from his finger.

“I guess I should be on my way. These crabs aren’t going to cook themselves, and if they did, we’d be in some trouble! I’ll see you boys around, and if you ever need any little Side Quests,” he said, winking at Rowan and Toro, “be sure to find me. You can find me here, or at the East Docks. Sixty-eight years young and I’m still a-fishing, if you can believe that. I thought by now I’d be at a home somewhere in Any_City, but here I am.” He laughed at his own comment, but it was a sad laugh, one with a melancholic undertone. “Bye, for now.”

Chodak flung the net over his shoulder and turned away from Ganix and his children.

“So everyone on this island is old, right?” Toro asked after Chodak was out of sight.

“I believe so, yes,” Ganix said. “And you shouldn’t go around saying things like that. People are sensitive about their age.”

“Are there any kids here?” Toro asked.

Ganix shook his head. “Maybe not. From what I know about this place, it’s mostly just retirees. Some of them have lived here their entire lives, and others, like my uncle, moved here when they were older.” Ganix took a deep breath, his nostrils flaring open. “It is peaceful though, isn’t it? And just smell that fresh air.”

“If by peaceful you mean boring,” said Rowan, his eyes darting up to a seagull that swirled in above them.

Toro snickered. “So peaceful it’s boring, Dad.”

“It’s not boring, and just because something is peaceful doesn’t mean it’s boring. Rowan, don’t say things like that.” Ganix took another deep breath in and grabbed his suitcase. “Let’s get a move on. We need to have dinner soon.”

Rowan, Toro, and their father stood before the general store with their luggage. The building was two stories high, and the wood it had been constructed of was weathered by the wind and sun.

“This is it?” Rowan asked.

“Yes,” Ganix said, a hint of uncertainty in his voice now as he opened the door. He ushered the two boys in, not giving them much time to look at the other houses in the village that ran up a small hill.

“It’s so dusty…” Toro waved his hand in front of his face.

“It smells like mothballs in here,” Rowan added. It was dark in the store, the hair on the back of his neck standing as his father locked the door behind him. Toro took a step closer to the aisles.

“Do you think this place is haunted?”

“Rowan,” Ganix said. “Don’t start putting thoughts into your brother’s head.”

“Yeah, don’t put thoughts in my head,” Toro said, laughing.

Rowan glanced around, from the dark aisles to the long countertop, the register on it covered in cobwebs. “When did he die again?”

“Between three and four months ago,” said Ganix. “I never said anything about it at the time because, frankly, you two never met him before. I wasn’t that close to Uncle Turni either, to be brutally honest. In fact, I hadn’t seen him in twenty years or so, maybe longer. I think it was…” He swallowed hard. “My dad’s funeral. That’s when I last saw him.”

Toro took another step forward. The floorboard creaked, the sound startling the boy. There was enough light coming in from the setting sun to see that there was a stairwell that led up, Rowan assuming that was where they were going to be staying.

“This should help,” said Ganix as he went for the light switch. He flicked it on, and for a moment, nothing happened aside from a buzzing sound.

“Ummm…” Rowan started to say.

The lights over the register flashed on, and a kitten hissed from one of the shelves. Rowan jumped backward and tripped over his luggage. He fell onto his back, his dad rushing to him while Toro went after the kitten.

“Careful,” Ganix said as he helped Rowan to his feet.

“I’m telling you, Dad, this place is haunted,” Rowan said, annoyed and embarrassed.

“It was a cat, just a kitten, Rowan.”

“I’ve got it!” Toro cornered the kitten behind the register, the kitten hissing and swatting its tiny paws at him.

Even though his back still hurt, Rowan was now more interested in seeing the kitten than he was whining about his fall. He crept around the register, peering over Toro’s shoulder.

“He’s so little…”

“I think he’ll be nice to us if we are nice to him,” said Toro as he got down on one knee, and slowly extended his hand to the kitten, which was orange with white rings around its tail.

Its stats appeared before it, and Rowan saw that it was also a young tabby.

The kitten stopped hissing, and slowly extended its head forward, smelling Toro’s hand.

It wasn’t long before Toro was holding the kitten in his arms, the kitten’s purrs loud enough for Rowan to hear them clearly. Rowan petted the kitty’s head, the two boys simultaneously looking to their father.

“Yes, we can keep it,” Ganix said, accepting the inevitable.

“Uncle,” said Rowan. “Let’s call him that.”

“Uncle,” Toro repeated as he petted the cat behind its ear.

“It is a little odd, but it is my uncle’s store, so sure, I’m fine with that name. That or Turni, but you guys can name him whatever you’d like. Let’s get upstairs. We’ll deal with the store itself tomorrow,” Ganix told his two sons. He took his luggage upstairs, Rowan dragging both rolling suitcases up so Toro could hold the kitten.

As soon as Rowan caught sight of the upstairs dwelling, he once again felt a surge of disappointment. “This is where we’re going to be living?”

“It’s not so bad…” Ganix said.

The upstairs apartment featured a kitchenette to the left of the entryway and a rather large living room with a couch and a couple of chairs against the far wall. There was a balcony overlooking the West Docks, just like the fisherman named Chodak had mentioned, a restroom, and another bedroom. The walls were sparse, the place smelled like a thrift store, and it was stuffy, like a window hadn’t been opened in a long time.

“You two can take the bedroom.” Ganix opened the balcony door to let some fresh air in.

“Let me check it out.” Rowan slipped past his brother to see the bedroom, which he found utterly underwhelming. The bed pressed against the back wall seemed dwarfed by the large space. The only other furniture in the bedroom was a dresser and a small footstool, a wood floor beneath.

Rowan looked back to the living room and saw that there was a tattered old carpet running under the couch, one that looked like it had seen better days. By this point Ganix was already checking the kitchen, noticing that they were going to need to get some new things.

“I can’t believe this was how he was living,” Rowan heard his father say under his breath.

Rowan returned to the living room to find his brother seated on the couch and playing with the cat. Toro seemed entirely distracted by the creature, oblivious to their dismal surroundings.

Rowan felt his stomach rumble. “Dad, I’m hungry,” he announced.

Toro looked up. “Me too!”

“I brought food,” Ganix said. “Hopefully, there’s a farmers market, or some place where we can get fresh food tomorrow. If not, we’ll be eating Proxima stuff.”

Ganix accessed his inventory list and three warm Proxima dinners appeared on the counter.

They had been eating these things for the last few nights, ever since Mom left, and Rowan was growing sick of them. They looked delicious, but the taste was off, something unauthentic about the flavor.

“Come on,” he said to his little brother, who was still fixated on the mewing orange kitten.

Rowan approached the countertop and tried to hide his disappointment as he looked down at the slice of ham, grainy mashed potatoes, green beans, and a scoop of gelatinous cranberry sauce.

“Yummy…” he said under his breath.

“I’ll be back, Uncle.” Toro set the kitten on the couch and came to the counter. “Wait a minute… we have to eat standing?” he asked.

“We’ll get chairs,” Ganix assured his younger son.

“But I can barely reach my food,” said Toro as he drummed his fingers on the counter.

“Let’s fix that.” Ganix dragged his suitcase over to Toro. He flipped the case on its side, and patted it twice. Toro stepped up on the luggage, suddenly given a bit more height.

“Thanks, Dad.”

“No problem. Now, let’s eat before the food gets cold, and then it’s time to get ready for bed. We have a big day tomorrow.”

“Where are you going to sleep?” Rowan asked.

“On the couch.”

“But you’re too tall for the couch,” said Toro. “I can sleep on the couch; you can sleep on the bed.”

“I think the bed is big enough for all three of us to sleep on,” Rowan said. “Or maybe one of us could sleep on the floor in the bedroom. It might get cold, though, because it’s made of wood.”

“We’ll figure it out,” his dad assured them. “Eat. I still need to think of a Dad Quest for you two.”

Rowan groaned, and as he did his younger brother laughed. The three heard the squawk of seagulls and turned to the balcony. “On second thought,” Ganix said, “how about we eat on the balcony tonight?”

Who knew cats liked mashed potatoes?

Toro ended up giving most of his potatoes to Uncle, the kitten happily lapping it up, purring as the young boy petted him.

The three spent the rest of the evening on a balcony that overlooked the docks, the smell of brine heavy in the air, the top of the lighthouse blinking in the distance. It was nice watching the sunset and its pink and orange reflections on the water, waves lashing against the rocks that surrounded the docks, no city in sight.

Rowan had wrongly assumed that he would be able to see Any_City from the island, or at least some of its oceanside suburbs. But all he could see on the horizon was a sparkling expanse of water, Rowan truly coming to understand just how far away they were from the mainland.

Eventually, their dad told them it was time to call it a night.

After brushing their teeth, Rowan and Toro changed into their pajamas and hopped onto the bed, Uncle the cat curling up next to Toro.

“The bed isn’t so soft,” Rowan informed his father.

“You’ll get used to it.”

“Where are you going to sleep?” Toro asked.

“I already told you; I’m going to sleep on the couch.”

“Why don’t you sleep in here?”

“We’ll get the sleeping arrangements figured out in the future, but tonight, I’ll sleep on the couch. It’ll be fine.”

Once he was sure that they were in bed, Ganix said goodnight to the boys and closed the door behind him.

“Are you awake?” Rowan asked after what felt like thirty minutes had passed.

“I’m trying to sleep,” Toro said with a groan.

“You’re actually tired?”

“Sort of…”

His younger brother yawned and turned away from him. Rowan decided to focus on something else instead. He accessed his quest menu, and viewed the two Main Quests he currently had active at the moment:

Adjust to island living

Read assigned summer books

He went ahead and canceled the second Main Quest, Rowan purposely leaving the books he’d been assigned back on the mainland. He was already familiar with the texts, having read ahead during the school year. He would be able to skim through them at a later date.

Rowan moved to his Personal Quests.

Figure out what happened between Mom and Dad

Try to be nicer to Toro

His second active Personal Quest had been on his list of things to do for quite a while. He was more or less nice to his brother, but he always kept it there as a reminder.

This left the first task, the one Rowan had been trying to figure out over the last week.

Their mother had woken them up a few days back to tell them that she was going to her parents’ home for a while, that Rowan and his brother were to stay with their father, that everything was and would be fine. Around that time, their father’s social status changed, the word former appearing before his job title.

He still hadn’t explained to them why he was now listed as a former Proxima database administrator, but that wasn’t unlike their father. His work was quite secretive, and he had never been forthcoming about it.

Not long ago, Rowan had overheard a conversation his father was having over the phone.

Rowan had heard a term during that phone call that he still had been meaning to ask his dad about ever since. He heard his father say something along the lines of, “I know that we’re all NPCs, but why does that even matter at this point? What’s the point anyway?”

“What’s the point anyway?” Rowan whispered to himself as he focused on his newest Side Quest, the only one active at the moment.

Side Quest: Learn more about what you saw beneath the water

As if thinking about this conjured the creature, Rowan could practically see it floating before him. It had all been so sudden, but as he thought about it more and tried to decipher what he witnessed, he could have sworn he’d actually seen a woman wearing a cat’s mask.

Rowan was wide awake now, and rather than pretend to be asleep until he tricked himself into slumber, he decided to check on his father.

Careful not to disturb Toro, he quietly set his feet on the cold wooden floor and went to the door, and slipped into the living room. The balcony door was open, the drapes moving slightly in the wind. He could hear the sounds of a few seagulls and the soothing roll of the waves hitting the docks.

Rowan looked to the couch, expecting his father to be there.

When he didn’t see him, he tiptoed to the balcony. Rowan could now see the outline of his father, the man seated in one of the chairs, gazing at the dark horizon. A sweet scent came to him as he approached, a smell he had come to associate with his father, especially late at night.

He announced himself by clearing his throat, not wanting to startle his dad.

“Rowan?” Ganix asked, stiffening up all of a sudden.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

His father cleared his throat.

“Can I sit out here with you?”

Ganix considered this for a moment. Finally, he nodded.

Rowan joined his father, and for a few minutes, he was quiet, trying to mirror his dad’s behavior. It was nice sitting on the balcony with him, listening to the dock creak, Rowan hypnotized for a moment by the blinking lighthouse in the distance.

But Rowan had other things on his mind, and now that he was alone with his dad, he thought it was a good time to ask. “Dad, what exactly is an NPC?”

“What?” Ganix asked, surprised at the question.

“What is it, an NPC?”

“Where did you hear that term?”

“I heard it from you, on the phone. You said something about it to someone, about how we are all NPCs.”

“You aren’t supposed to be listening to my phone calls,” his father finally said after a long pause. “Those are private.”

“But what does it mean? I tried to look it up at school, but I couldn’t find anything about it.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know, and sometimes…” Ganix shook his head. “That’s not the way I wanted to start this conversation. Let me try again. Sometimes, it’s best not to know things for a while, maybe a long while. That term is never going to affect your life, and isn’t really something that’s going to help you, or hinder you by knowing. Actually, it may hinder you if you know more about it. Sheesh. I’m even confusing myself here. Here’s what I would say: it doesn’t mean anything. And it’s something you should forget.”

“Something I should just forget?” Rowan shook his head. “You just told me that I don’t need to know what it means, and that I should forget it, but how can I forget it after you said that?”

“Rowan, I’m not going to argue about this with you.”

“Does Mom know what it means?”

“Rowan, enough.”

“Just tell me what it means. Otherwise…” Rowan bit his lip. “Otherwise, I’ll just ask people on the island. I’m sure someone knows.”

His father sighed. “Fine, do you really want to know what it means? I’d rather you not pester people on the island about it. If you really want to know more about it, I’ll tell you. Is that what you want?”

Rowan was surprised that his father had capitulated so easily. “Yes…”

“NPCs is a word that developers use. It’s another word for what we are, for humans. It’s an operating term that we use to classify information when we edit the OMIB. That’s all.”

“That’s what you do, right? Something with the OMIB.”

“Did,” his father said. “I no longer do that job anymore. I’m sure you’ve noticed.” Ganix gestured in front of him, which was a common way for someone to refer to their social status.

“You lost your job, right?”

“Something like that,” his father said.

“Why?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Are we going to be poor?”

“Not exactly.”

“How did you lose your job?”

“Rowan,” his father said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Let’s talk about this later.”

“Okay, then. What’s the OMIB, anyway?”

Ganix laughed. “Again, it’s complicated. Maybe one day I’ll explain it to you, but for now, just think of it as a code word for the galaxy as a whole. And ‘NPC’ is a developer term for people like us, like everyone you’ve ever met.”

“Why is it secret then? Why couldn’t I find any information about it?”

“A lot of the terms we use are words and phrases the general public doesn’t need, so the information isn’t published. We only use these terms when we talk to each other.”

“So Toro is an NPC as well?”

“I said all of us, and don’t teach him that word.”

“But he’s pretty weird,” Rowan said, trying to make a joke.

“Be nice to your little brother. He’s the only little brother you’ve got.”

He knew what his father meant by this comment, and rather than press him any further, he relaxed some, once again hypnotized by the blinking lighthouse.

The two were silent for a spell until Ganix spoke again. “I think I’m ready to head in. Are you coming with me, or not?” he asked, his voice soft now. “We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow.”

Rowan feigned a yawn. “Sure.”

“Good. We’ve got to get this store up and running. And remember what I said: don’t teach your brother that word. Promise?”

“Promise,” he said, his voice with a hint of hesitation to it.

“Yes?” Ganix asked.

“You’ll tell me more later, right? About other words, and the OMIB, and why you lost your job, and what happened between—”

“—Yes, everything in due time,” his father said, interrupting him. “But for now, let’s get inside.”

The first thing Rowan did every morning was check his personal attributes, just to see if anything had changed.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 335/335

Intelligence: 23.56

Willpower: 10.31

Empathy: 6.10

Charisma: 11.84

Strength: 5.41

Dexterity: 7.24

Luck: 3.31

+ .10 Intelligence!

+ .09 Empathy!

It was unnecessary to check one’s personal attributes more than once a day. They updated overnight while a person was sleeping, and refreshing them didn’t do anything aside from increase or decrease a person’s hit points, depending on their energy levels.

In reviewing the prompts, Rowan saw that his intelligence and his empathy had gone up by a hair, but not by much. He had purposely set his personal attributes to the hundredth decimal point, so he could monitor small increases. He knew that others didn’t do this, these people only getting notifications once they moved up an entire point.

Rowan had found, even at the young age of thirteen, that incremental advances encouraged him to do better, even if they came randomly or not at all.

He felt something strike his foot.

Rowan looked down to see Uncle swatting his little paws at him, the cat on his back, his tail curled in the air. Careful not to wake his younger brother, Rowan slowly rolled out of bed and lifted Uncle, holding the kitten in his arms as he stepped into the living room.

He glanced around and noticed that his father was gone.

Rowan looked to the balcony to find it empty. The bathroom door was open, which meant there was only one place for him to go.

With the kitten in his hands, Rowan headed downstairs to the general store.

“We don’t have a police force around here, but I can round up a few of the men,” Rowan heard a woman say.

He found his father standing with the front door open, Ganix in his sleep shorts and a loose tee. Since he was still out of view, Rowan paused and listened in.

“That won’t be necessary,” Ganix told her. “I inherited this place from my uncle, Turni, like I told you.”

“It says here that you are a database administrator, a former one, not a general store manager.”

“Yours says that you are a retiree,” Ganix snapped back. “Is that all you do around the island?”

“Of course not, Mr. Toragan,” she said, her voice growing thin. “I am an active member of the community here, on the board of every organization, and head of the village council.”

“There are organizations here?” Ganix asked skeptically.

“Why, yes, the Sacred Cat Village Council, the Sacred Cat Island Council, the Council of Sacred Cat Retirees, the Committee for Island Excellence, the Committee for Village Expansion, the Committee for Island Beautification. Just to name a few,” she said, pride in her voice. The woman had an almost shrill voice, one that reminded Rowan of a teacher he hated at his school.

“Here.” Ganix handed the woman a copy of his will, the same one he’d shown the fisherman at the docks.

Another sound reached his ears, Rowan recognizing it as the mew of several cats. Like it would for any thirteen-year-old, this commotion caught his attention, and it wasn’t long before he was standing next to his father at the door, peering around him and looking for the cats.

“What’s this?” the older woman asked, her eyes falling upon Rowan. Her skin had been leathered by the sun. She had dry, bleached blonde hair, her face done up in makeup, the woman going heavy on the blue eyeliner. “You’ve brought children to the island?”

“Is that a problem?” Ganix said as he swiped the will out of her hands. Rowan could tell by the sound of his father’s voice that he was growing agitated.

“I… My Olivia…”

Rowan looked past the woman to see five cats hovering around the front porch of the general store, each of varying color and size. One of them seemed to notice that he was looking at him, an American shorthair, the gray cat with black-and-white stripes meowing even louder.

“Well, I suppose that’s fine,” the woman said with a huff. “My granddaughter will visit in about a week from now, and hopefully, your son here will be polite to her.”

“I have two sons,” Ganix told her.

“You brought two boys to this island? You do realize this is an island for retirees, do you not?”

“Not according to any information I’ve found. It isn’t a retirement community just because retirees live here.”

“Some of the islanders don’t take kindly to strangers…”

“You said earlier you live next door to me. We’re not going to be strangers for very long,” Ganix told her.

“Yes, I do happen to own the home that’s next to the general store, but we have a pretty expansive yard between your house and ours, and there’s a fence, and I don’t want you or your brother playing inside our fence,” she said, turning her attention back to Rowan. “This is not an island for children. There… there are monsters in the woods outside of the village.”

“We’ll be careful, ma’am,” said Rowan, as the woman’s social status flashed before him.

Name: Doyona Bold

Age: 68

Occupation: Retiree

His father placed his hand on the tops of Rowan’s shoulders, and patted him, letting him know that he was proud of his son for being polite. He tuned Doyona out as she continued to speak, Rowan’s mind already running wild at the mention of monsters.

“Look, I need to get the day started. It was nice to meet you. Have a good day,” Ganix said, interrupting Doyona after she’d gone on and on about the dangers of the island and how there weren’t any other children here.

His father gave her a brisk wave and shut the door. “Jeez,” he said under his breath.

“What about the cats?” Rowan could still hear them mewing on the other side.

“What about them?” Ganix placed a hand on the counter and started drumming his fingers.

“We should feed them; I think they’re hungry.”

“We don’t have any cat food.”

“There are cats out there?” Toro asked, the younger boy standing at the entrance to the upstairs apartment, a pillow tucked under one arm.

“Yeah, there are a bunch of them out there,” Rowan told him.

“We should feed them!”

“Like I was saying, we don’t have any cat food.”

“There’s probably some here somewhere.” Rowan motioned toward the main room of the store. It was stacked full of boxes, enough that it would be hard to get to the back wall of the space.

“We’re not going to search through all those boxes for cat food,” Ganix told his sons. “Not today, anyway. Well, maybe later today once we start trying to organize the place. But not right now. Boys, what do you want for breakfast?”

“What are our options?” Rowan asked. “And do you have anything that we could feed the cats in your inventory list?”

“We’re not wasting human food on the cats,” Ganix said with finality, his voice sterner than he would have liked it to be. “Sorry, that woman just got under my skin. Doyona Bold, huh? She sure fits the definition of her last name. I can’t believe she has the audacity to come over here and threaten me, threaten us, and then…”

“I heard her say there were monsters,” Rowan told his younger brother.

“Monsters?”

“Rowan, don’t start telling your brother things like that. There aren’t monsters on this island. She’s exaggerating. Monsters don’t exist in our world.”

“But Dad, I literally saw something under the water yesterday. There are monsters.”

“That was a figment of your imagination, Rowan. There aren’t monsters on this island. Trust me. I’d know.”

“How would you know?” Toro asked, challenging his father. “You haven’t been around the entire island yet.”

“It’s not even that big of an island, and…” Ganix shook his head. “Toro, as much as I’d like to believe in them just to make things more interesting, monsters don’t exist. We can go around the island to confirm this later, after we’re set up here. Believe me, if there were monsters, I would let you know. It’s my job to look after you. I wouldn’t be doing my job if there were any and I didn’t warn you about them.”

“I can look out for myself!” Toro said, pumping his fist in the air and laughing.

Ganix swooped over to his smallest son and picked him up. “Oh yeah?” he asked with Toro under his arm now, Ganix playfully grinding his knuckles into the boy’s head as Toro laughed and squirmed.

“Let me go! Let me go!”

Ganix set him down before things could get out of hand. “Anyway, let’s not worry about the cats outside yet. Let’s get some food in our own stomachs, and then we can go from there. I saw a restaurant across the street, and it says it’s open.”

“What kind of food do they have?” Toro asked, his hair a mess now.

“I don’t know, but we’re not going to have as many options as we had in Any_City,” Ganix told him. “Go upstairs and get dressed, you too, Rowan, and then meet me down here. We have a long day ahead of us, boys.”

Rowan and Toro did as they were told, both of them going for a pair of jeans and T-shirts. Rowan’s T-shirt featured a logo from an Any_City football team, and Toro’s was a Proxima T-shirt that he had won at their father’s last company picnic.

If Ganix had any feelings about his youngest son’s T-shirt being from his former employer, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he dangled a set of keys from his hand as soon as they returned. “Rowan, this is your set.”

“Do I get a set?” Toro asked.

“I only have one, but I will get another one made for you. I promise.”

Ganix tossed the keys to his oldest son. Rowan looked them over to see that there were two keys on the ring along with a wooden keychain shaped into a cat.

Once Rowan put the keys in his inventory list, the three stepped outside the general store. It was a clear day, and a slight breeze had rolled in from the sea.

It was the first proper look Rowan was able to take at Sacred Cat Village.

He now saw several houses clumped together, and as the woman next door had noted, there was a high fence separating Doyona’s home from the general store, vines draping to the ground. Rowan noticed a chill to the air, and he saw smoke coming from two of the chimneys. He also came to see that the general store was at the bottom of a slight incline, Rowan not able to deduce how many homes there were in the village.

As Ganix locked the door, Toro crouched, a few of the cats cautiously coming over to him.

Basic stats hovered over each of them, Rowan seeing that they ranged in age from one to six years old, their breeds mostly shorthair, aside from a male tabby and a female Maine coon.

“They’re all so pretty,” Toro said, reaching toward one of them.

“Don’t…” Ganix grabbed his youngest son’s arm.

“But I want to pet them.”

“You don’t know where they’ve been.”

“You let Uncle sleep with us last night,” Rowan reminded their father. “We don’t know where he’s been. Maybe he’s one of their kittens.”

“We should find Uncle’s parents,” Toro chimed in. “Quest alert!”

“You two are so close to getting a Dad Quest, keep it up.”

“Booo…” Rowan said.

“Boo is right,” Ganix said. “Let’s get some breakfast.”

The three crossed a cobblestone street to find six more cats, all of them scattering as they approached.

“There are so many cats here!” Toro said.

“That’s why it’s called Sacred Cat Island, dumb-dumb,” Rowan told his brother.

“Don’t call him that,” Ganix said as they came to the door of a restaurant with a moniker above it that read Nedman’s Sacred Cat Restaurant. The paint around the door was fresh, but Rowan could tell by the marks in the wood that the place was old.

The door chimed as it opened, Rowan seeing that there was only one other person in the restaurant… or was it a person?

He took a step back.

“A panda!” Toro gasped.

Sure enough, seated at the bar with his back to them was the famed creature, white and black fur tucked into a knit shirt, smudges of dirt on the back of the panda’s head, one of his ears slightly bent forward.

“Welcome in,” said the man who stood behind the counter. He was just about to launch into the specials when he noticed the boys looking at the panda. “Gonpo, it looks like you have some fans.”

The panda turned, Rowan now seeing that he wasn’t actually a panda, that he was a man in a panda costume, just the bottom part of his chin and his bloodshot eyes visible. Rowan also noticed that the costume was in dire need of a cleaning, patches of grime in the fur and some of the hair matted flat.

As if to confirm that he was human, the man’s social status also flashed over his head.

Name: Gonpo Gonpo

Age: 60

Occupation: Former Pandas’ Mascot

“Hey, boys,” Gonpo said with a grunt and a short wave. And with that he returned to his meal.

“I can’t say that I recognize any of you,” said the man behind the counter. “You don’t happen to be tourists, do you?” he asked, his eyes lighting up with delight as his social status appeared in front of him.

Name: Nedman Gobi

Age: 62

Occupation: Nedman’s Sacred Cat Restaurant Owner

“We’re definitely not tourists,” Ganix told him. “I’m taking over my uncle’s shop.”

“What’s that? Hold on a minute. You… you are Turni Toragan’s nephew?” Nedman asked as he stepped around the counter.

“I sure am.”

Nedman offered Ganix and his sons a genuine smile. He seemed like a cheery fellow, his shoulders wide and inviting and a sparkle to his eyes, Rowan feeling like he could instantly trust the man. Nedman wiped his hands on his apron and shook Ganix’s hand. “Honey,” he called over his shoulder, “you aren’t going to believe this, but someone is finally taking over the general store.”

“Who?” a woman’s voice rang out from the kitchen.

“Turni’s nephew is taking over the general store!”

“Good to hear!”

This was followed by the sound of pots and pans moving around, the woman clearly engaged with whatever she was cooking. Rowan stole a glance at the rest of the restaurant and saw that everything was old, from the wooden chairs to the tables that were covered in checkered tablecloth protected by a plastic layer. There were faded pictures on the wall, old tourist posters, and fishing guides.

“Boy, am I glad to see you, then,” Nedman told Ganix. “I’ve been doing double duty around here, well, me and the missus have. The thing is, your uncle’s store was the only store in town, and once he passed, people have been coming to me for everything. There’s another restaurant near the East Docks, but Tunga doesn’t sell sundries, just fish. Sometimes the skippers bring things, but they charge a premium. That’s why you see this stuff over here.” Nedman motioned toward a stack of supplies that included everything from toilet paper to candy bars. “Basically, I’ve been running the restaurant and the general store. Profits are great, but boy could I use a day off.” He shrugged. “I’m so glad you’re here. Any idea of when you will open up?”

“I’m assuming it will take us at least a week, if not longer,” Ganix told him.

“A week, huh?” Nedman shook his head.

“Yeah.”

“Nope. Sorry, that’s too long. I need you up and running in two or three days tops,” he said, joking. “But seriously, the sooner you open, the sooner I can stop carrying the weight of this island on my shoulders. It’s not a very big island, but boy is it heavy.” Nedman made an exaggerated gesture like he was lifting weights. “I know all the suppliers, and I can get you in touch with all of them. In fact…”

“Actually, we’re here for breakfast,” Ganix said. “We didn’t bring much food aside from some Proxima stuff in my inventory list.”

“Understandable. You can’t feed a pair of growing boys processed Proxima food. Sorry, where are my manners?” Nedman laughed nervously. “Let’s get you three a proper breakfast, and then I’ll put you in touch with everyone you need to know.”

“Thank you.”

“Now, what will it be, boys? We’ve got two options for breakfast today: Cat’s Benedict or French Cat Toast with a side of bacon.”

Toro started laughing.

“You like the names, do you?” asked Nedman, his eyes lighting up. “All of the meals here are named after our island’s most famous residents, the real celebrities around here, if you ask me. You know, probably before both of you were born…” Nedman quickly glanced at both boys and nodded. “Definitely before both of you were born, this island used to be a famous tourist destination. People would come from every suburb of Any_City for a taste of my wife’s yummy delicious amazingly fantastic Catsghetti. In fact, I was thinking to ask her to whip some up tonight. What do you say?”

“Is it made of cats?” Toro asked.

“Ha! Only the finest cats on the island!” Nedman declared. “I’m kidding, of course we’re not eating cats here. What kind of barbarous cretins do you think we are?”

“What’s a barbarous cretin?” Toro asked Rowan.

“I think it’s a bad word…”

“It’s not a bad word,” said Ganix.

“Rest assured, no cats were harmed in the making of our delicious meals, but we try to keep the names as cat-friendly as possible. Did you see my little meow-friends outside the restaurant?”

“They looked tough,” said Toro.

“They are! I’ll introduce you to them later, but just so you know, they are Roman, Sophia, Sabine, Catriona, Danira, and Amethyst. Are you taking notes? Kidding. You know…” Nedman bit his lip as he considered something. “I have something for you boys, but I’ll have to get it later, when I take my break. What? You don’t think I get breaks around here? Stop back by when I take my break later in the afternoon, and I’ll give you something that will make your cat-experience that much better. But anyway, listen to me over here; I’m talking way too much. Less talking, more eating, as my wife likes to say! You three gentlemen take a seat anywhere, and I’ll be right out with your meals.”

“We never told you what we wanted,” Rowan said.

“Ha!” Nedman laughed at himself. “I suppose I should start there, shouldn’t I? The customer is always right! I’ll get this serving thing down one day, probably the day after I retire.”

The door chimed, and Rowan turned to see the panda mascot exit, the heavy man dragging his feet. He had been so focused on Nedman that he hadn’t even seen the man slip around them.

“Don’t mind Gonpo,” Nedman said with a big grin on his face. “He’s just upset because he missed yesterday’s daily prize.”

“Daily prize?” asked Toro.

“I’ll let you two find out for yourselves,” Nedman said, rubbing his hands together. “Please, take a seat. Wait, order first. Let’s start there.”

A Side Quest popped up while they waited for breakfast.

Side Quest: Learn more about the daily prize and speak with Nedman Gobi

As if their father could see Rowan’s prompts, he cracked his knuckles, which was something he often did before giving them one of his infamous Dad Quests.

“Oh, no,” Toro said, intuiting what his father was about to say.

“That’s right, it’s Dad Quest time. After we finish up here, I’m going to speak more with Nedman about arranging product shipment. Maybe I can also buy what he already has here as well. Now, here’s where the Dad Quest comes in: while I’m doing this, I need you two to tackle those boxes in the store.”

“But there are so many,” Rowan whined. “Where would we even start?”

“That’s part of the Dad Quest,” his father told him. “I want you guys to figure it out. Break them down and get them sorted out.”

The prompt flashed before Rowan and slowly dissipated:

Dad Quest: Go through the boxes and start to clean the shop

Toro groaned.

“Yeah, I’m not happy about it either,” said Ganix. “But someone has to give out Dad Quests, and that person is me. Of course, when I’m finished at the docks, I’ll join you. Just think of it like this: the faster we get it cleaned out and organized, the faster we can get the shop up and running.”

“Why do you even want to do this, again?” Rowan asked. “What’s the point in getting the store up and running?”

Nedman came over with a pot of coffee and poured a cup for Ganix, who thanked him before he left.

“I don’t know how to tell it to you other than this…” Ganix took a sip from the coffee and nodded, happy with the flavor. “This is where I’m going to live, boys. I’m going to run the store here on Sacred Cat Island.”

“And what about us?” Rowan asked.

“Yeah, what about us?”

Ganix laughed softly at his two sons. “Well, for this summer, anyway, you two are going to help me run the shop. And then…” His smile faded. “I don’t know, but this is what I’m going to be doing from now on. In fact…” Ganix was quiet for a moment. “There. Look at my social status.”

Rowan did as instructed, and saw that his dad had changed his occupation to General Store Owner.

Name: Ganix Toragan

Age: 45

Occupation: General Store Owner

“You can change your occupation?” Rowan asked. “Even I didn’t know that.”

“Yes, I can change my information, but you can’t,” said Ganix. “Maybe I’ll tell you how to do it when you’re older. Anyway, it’s a hack I picked up while working at the Proxima company.”

“So that’s it?” Rowan asked. “You’re just going to give up and move to this stupid island?”

Ganix was quiet for a moment, not sure of how he should respond. “I’m not giving up, I’m starting over. Those are two very different things. I want you and your brother to remember that: giving up and starting over might seem the same on the surface, but they aren’t. And the island isn’t stupid.”

“How is starting over different than giving up?” Toro asked.

“Starting over is something that’s based in hope, giving up is something that’s based in despair. Maybe this is too complicated of a conversation…”

“So you’re just going to move to the island?” Rowan asked. “What about our home? What about Mom?”

“We’re going to figure everything out,” Ganix assured him as he took another sip from his coffee. “But I don’t have all the answers just yet. I don’t want you to think that I’m giving up, though. I need something different in my life, and as you can see,” he said, gesturing toward the restaurant and its strange decor, “I want you two to be part of it.”

The food came, Rowan and his brother going for the sugary French Cat Toast, and their father the Cat’s Benedict. They didn’t say much as they ate, Rowan’s thoughts revolving around several things at once, from what his father had just told them to Nedman’s mention of a daily prize, and eventually back to the entity he’d seen beneath the water.

He heard the mean lady next-door neighbor say that there were monsters on the island. Could this be what she was referring to?

After they ate, Rowan and Toro exited the shop, Nedman reminding them to stop by later.

As before, they ran across half a dozen cats at the front door, all of them mewing, a few approaching in a friendly way, arching their backs, curling their tails.

“I wonder how many cats there are on the island,” said Toro.

“There has to be like fifty, or a hundred.”

“Or a hundred and fifty,” Toro said. “Or two hundred.”

“That makes sense,” said Rowan as he saw the statue he’d seen the previous night, the one shaped into a cat and overlooking the docks. It was about eight feet tall, the cat quite the chonker. There was a wreath of flowers around its neck now, one that hadn’t been there the previous night.

“They sure like cats around here.”

“Obviously,” said Rowan.

The boys turned to the right, where they saw a series of smaller cat statues with offering bowls before each of them. A woman was hunched before the small statues, putting food in the bowls.

Her social status hovered over her head for just a moment before fading away.

Name: Tuya Muryan

Age: 76

Occupation: Retiree

If she noticed the boys, she didn’t say anything.

The two brothers made their way up a short incline, quaint houses on both sides of the cobblestone road.

“Maybe that’s Uncle’s mom,” said Toro once he spotted a dark-blue level 6 Abyssinian.

“Then how did he get in the store?”

“I don’t know. Cats are small when they’re kittens. It’s easy for them to fit into things.”

“Maybe,” said Rowan, his thoughts returning to the lady they’d just seen putting out cat food.

How many retirees lived on the island?

It seemed that there were enough houses for a lot of people, but several of the homes looked abandoned, and many were protected by gates.

“Whoa…” said Toro, stopping dead in his tracks.

Rowan, who had been looking to his right, followed his younger brother’s gaze to an enormous amount of discarded items, stacked almost like the skyscrapers in downtown Any_City.

It took him a moment to find it, but there was actually a house about seventy-five feet back from the road, more mounds of trash behind it and beyond the home, enormous trees, the peaks of a couple mountains in the distance.

“Look at all that garbage,” said Toro, his eyes increasing in size as he looked at the garbage.

“There’s so much,” Rowan told him. “How could anyone live like that? They’re definitely hoarders.”

“That one kind of looks like a cat,” said Toro, sheer wonder in his voice as he gestured toward one of the pillars of trash in front of the home, which had been shaped into a feline form. “I wonder who lives there.”

Rowan looked back to discover that they’d come further than he’d thought, the two practically on the other side of the village. He was just turning back to the hoarder’s home when he gasped, Rowan taking a full step back.

“What is it?” Toro asked.

“There’s something…” Rowan shook his head. “There’s something there!”

“Where?”

Rowan pointed to a spot just past the hoarder’s home, to a path of grass and bramble that led deeper into the forest, the surrounding trees starting to grow toward the main road.

A woman floated above the pathway, her long robes draping from her arms, a stylized cat mask over her face. The mask was white with red and black accents, its ears pointy, the ends of the cat’s mouth extending up its cheeks.

“What is it? I can’t see anything,” Toro said.

“I don’t know what it is…” Rowan said, feeling dizzy all of a sudden. He blinked a few times and rubbed both hands over his eyes. The cat-masked woman came into view again, her robes dancing slightly in the breeze.

He was almost certain she was the same woman he saw under the water, and she was much clearer now.

“What do you see?”

“A woman in a cat mask,” he finally told his brother.

“A ghost?”

“It has to be.”

“What do we do?” Toro asked, alarm in his eyes. “Should we go after her?”

“Let’s go.” Rowan took off after the apparition, Toro on his heels.

As he ran, Rowan tried to ignore the way his heart now thumped in his chest, his desert-dry mouth, the strange sensation rolling down his neck, the tingling sensation he felt in his hands.

The woman in the cat mask watched him curiously for a moment. As he reached her, she shot into the air, her robes ballooning around her body as she vanished.

“Where is she?” Toro asked, just about to jump into the brush when Rowan stopped him, his hand on his brother’s chest.

“She’s gone,” he said, catching his breath.

“She must be around here,” Toro said as he looked around. “Where did she go?”

Rowan tried to put words to what he had just seen. “She was floating right there.” He pointed toward the ground. “Right there. Then she just lifted up in the air and whoosh, her robes expanded and she was gone.”

“I wish I could have seen it,” Toro said, looking up to his older brother with true belief in his eyes. “If only I could see it. I could help you. What did she look like?”

“She had these long robes,” said Rowan, gesturing over his arm to indicate how they hung from her wrists. “And a cat mask, like I told you, one that looked kind of happy, but also kind of evil.” He shook his hands out. “Ugh. That was so freaky.”

“A floating woman with a cat mask? It has to be a ghost.”

“I don’t know if she was a ghost or not. Maybe she was just a spirit.”

Toro started pacing back and forth. “Do you think the island has spirits?”

“I don’t know.”

“And what’s the difference between a spirit and a ghost?” Toro asked, concern in his voice now.

“I don’t know!”

“Maybe we should ask Dad…”

“He’ll just tell me to stop scaring you. No, we shouldn’t tell him what we saw, what I saw. Don’t tell him anything, Toro, I’m serious.”

Toro swallowed hard. “I’m not scared of ghosts.”

“Dang,” Rowan said, suddenly remembering now that they had an assignment. “Our Dad Quest! We were supposed to go straight back to the store…”

“Maybe he’s still at the docks,” said Toro.

“Maybe. Race me there?”

“See ya!” Toro took off, laughing as he tried to get a head start.

Momentarily forgetting what he had just seen, Rowan chased after his brother. They ran past the hoarder’s home, and several other places, Rowan realizing as they ran just how far they had wandered from the store.

Cats scattered whenever they caught sight of the two boys.

They were almost neck and neck now, Toro not at all paying attention to the cobblestone road before him when his foot got caught on a rock.

“Toro!” Rowan shouted as his brother hit the pavement. He quickly circled around to see Toro lying on his back now, the ten-year-old holding his bloody knee, wincing, trying not to sob.

“You’re okay, you’re okay,” Rowan told him as he crouched next to him.

“It hurts…”

And with those words Toro let out a sound with his throat that was followed by a rush of emotion, the boy crying suddenly. Toro stopped just about thirty seconds after, quickly wiping up his tears, sniffing, and trying to hide his pain from his older brother.

Once he was able to stand, Rowan helped his younger brother limp back to the general store, ignoring the cats and the rest of their surroundings. They reached the store, Rowan fumbling with the keys when the door swung open.

Ganix stood before them, a bandanna tied around his face to protect against the dust, a look of disappointment in his eyes.

“Sorry,” Rowan said, as he began shuffling his feet.

“Toro?” Ganix asked as he saw his youngest son’s bloody knee. “What happened?”

“We were racing and I fell,” said Toro, his lip quivering as he tried not to cry.

Ganix shook his head. “Get in here, now. I told you two to come back here and…” He sighed miserably as they stepped into the general store.

“I’m sorry, we just went up the hill a little bit and…”

“Rowan, no excuses. Toro, sit there,” Ganix said, pointing to an overturned crate. “We’ll get your knee cleaned up.”

.Chapter Two.

Once they ran out of rags, Ganix moved to his inventory list to equip a couple of his old suits, which he tossed onto the counter of the general store.

“What are you doing?” Rowan asked as he looked up from the wall he was cleaning. They had been scrubbing for an hour now, and he was at the point where he was just rubbing a dirty rag on any surface he could find in an effort to look busy.

“I never liked these suits anyway,” Ganix said as he found a pair of shears in a drawer. He began cutting them up, which captured Toro’s attention, the young boy dropping the box he was carrying.

Uncle, who was looping around Toro’s feet, scattered once the box hit the ground, barely avoiding having his tail caught beneath it.

“I want to cut up my clothes too,” Toro said.

“No, you need your clothes. These are the clothes I used to wear to work.”

“I remember those,” said Toro.

“Why are you cutting them up?” asked Rowan.

“We need more rags. There aren’t enough here, and there are plenty of other surfaces, including the surfaces upstairs, that we’ll have to clean over the next few days.”

“So much cleaning…” Rowan whined.

“It’s good for your personal stats,” Ganix assured him.

“Really? Which ones?”

His father smirked as he cut another pant leg. “Cleaning improves your intelligence, your empathy, your strength, your dexterity, and if you guys clean enough, it may even improve your charisma.”

“How could it improve our charisma?” Rowan asked.

“Is that the one that means people like you?” asked Toro.

“Sort of.” Ganix cut one of his sleeves into squares. He did so with a satisfied look on his face, a look that Rowan perhaps would have recognized as cathartic had he known the definition of the word.

Uncle mewed.

“He’s hungry, Dad,” said Toro as he bent down to pet the kitten.

“I’m sure he is. He’s been trapped in here all day watching us clean.”

“Should we let him outside?”

Ganix paused and looked at his youngest son. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea; he may not get along with the cats that hang out in front of the store.”

“Only one way to find out.” Rowan went to the door and opened it. “Come on, Uncle.”

The kitten’s ears perked up and he took a step closer to the open door.

One of the larger cats that hung out in front of their place ignored Rowan and continued licking his paws. As Uncle approached the door, the big cat stopped licking himself and looked intently at him, almost as if he was daring the kitten to come outside.

“That’s enough,” said Ganix.

Rowan shut the door just about the time Toro swooped the kitten up into his arms.

“Maybe it is time that we get dinner going,” said Ganix, setting down his makeshift rag. “Rowan, while Toro and I finish up here, I want you to go to Nedman’s place and pick up a family-sized portion of the spaghetti.”

“You mean catsghetti?” asked Toro with a grin.

Ganix shook his head. “I’m not calling it that.”

“But, Dad, I don’t have any money…”

Ganix took a wad of Proxima dollars out of his pocket. He placed about thirty dollars’ worth on the counter. “That should be plenty. And I want change.”

“Okay,” said Rowan.

“Can I go with him?”

“No, I need you to stay here and help me,” Ganix told Toro.

Excited for a sliver of independence, Rowan stepped out of the store before his brother could respond.

He saw Nedman’s Sacred Cat Restaurant across the cobblestone street; he was just about to head there when something else caught his attention. Turning in the direction of the hill, Rowan noticed the man in a panda costume tracking something in the sky.

“Hey kid,” Gonpo said as Rowan joined the former Pandas’ mascot, the man gripping a large fishing pole. He returned his focus to the daily prize, which floated above him and was affixed to a red balloon. The present was wrapped in shiny blue paper with a yellow ribbon. “Where’s your brother?”

Rowan’s nose curled as he noticed a sweet smell around the man, something like old sweat, or gym clothes.

“He’s at the store. Do you know what’s in the box?”

“I couldn’t tell you.” Gonpo grunted. The man jumped, his girth bouncing as he tried to swat the present out of the air. “Dang thing is too high up there,” he said. “It’s been like that the last few days.”

Rowan noticed that the prize was floating toward their neighbor’s wall. He knew if the woman saw him she would be angry, but it was worth a shot.

“I’ll see if I can get it,” said Rowan as he turned to the wall.

Gonpo followed him over and watched as Rowan climbed the fence. He now sat with his feet dangling over the side.

“Hurry, kid, we’re going to miss the prize,” said Gonpo as he gave him his fishing pole.

“Just… have to reach it…”

“You’ve got this,” Gonpo told him as Rowan slowly raised the fishing pole into the air, his focus now on the balloon and not the present attached to it.

It floated just a little closer to him, and he took his first swipe, Rowan connecting the end of the fishing pole with the balloon.

Pop!

The present fell to the ground.

“What are you doing up there?” a voice scolded him from the inside of the wall. “Don’t do that!”

Rowan turned to see Doyona coming out of her home, the woman weaving her way down a rock path that was lined with flowers. Her hair was wrapped in a towel, and she wore a terry cloth robe, white cream smeared across her face.

“Sorry,” Rowan said as he dropped to the ground on the other side of the fence.

“She’s coming,” he told Gonpo, who immediately looked to Doyona’s gate.

“I’ll handle her,” he said with a grunt. “You take the present and run.”

“But we can share the prize,” said Rowan.

“Share it? This one is all yours, kid. Take it and go. There are plenty more prizes in the sea. And next time I get one, well, just you wait. It’ll be a celebration. Now, go, before she comes out here.”

Rowan grabbed the present and tucked it in his inventory list.

He took off toward the restaurant, and burst inside once he reached the door.

“Whoa!” Nedman said, the man so startled that he almost fell backward.

“Sorry,” Rowan told him as he caught his breath.

He glanced at the door. “Who are you running from?”

“Doyona. I was climbing on her wall to help Gonpo get the daily prize.”

Nedman laughed. “Well, was it worth it? Did you get the present?”

Rowan nodded.

“Good. Be sure to open it up around your family, and then you’ll get three of whatever is inside.”

“Really?”

“Sometimes it works that way, sometimes it doesn’t. But it’s worth a shot,” Nedman said as he wiped his hands on the front of his apron. “Believe it or not, I’ve been on this island for over thirty years now, and I’ve never caught the daily prize.”

“Why don’t you try to catch it?”

“I’m usually here,” he said with a shrug. “Anyway, I’m glad you stopped by.”

“I’m supposed to pick up dinner.”

“Sure, we’ll get to that, but I have something for you and your brother first.” Nedman went behind the counter and returned with a tiny metal sphere. “Do you know what this is?”

Rowan nodded. He had seen his father with these things before. “It’s an old-school app.”

“Old school? Ha! Is that how you’d describe it?” Nedman asked as he examined the tiny sphere. “I suppose it is rather old, but there is nothing school-related about it. A guy on the island named Ringo whipped it up. He’s an old coder, you know. Your daddy would probably like to meet him considering his former career. Anyway, this app right here, boy if it isn’t something.”

“What does it do?”

“That’s what I’m getting to,” said Nedman. “I’ve lost cat, I mean count, of how many cats there are on this island. All of them have names, except for some of the kittens, and some of them are even related. This app will allow you to see this information.” Nedman pinched the tiny sphere, and as he did it floated into the air, a light appearing on top of the object.

“Go on, touch it.”

Rowan reached out for the sphere and as soon as he touched it, a prompt flashed in front of him.

Catpendium activated!

“Catpendium?”

“That’s right. And I want you to let your brother have access to it as well. Return it to me after, would you? It’s one of the best things in my inventory list.”

“What about my dad?”

“If he’s interested, sure.”

“What does it do?” Rowan asked as he continued to hold the tiny sphere. A quest prompt flashed in front of him and fizzled away.

Side Quest: Learn more about the daily prize and speak with Nedman Gobi (complete)

“I’ve already told you what it does. If you don’t believe me, go take a look for yourself while I get your dinner ready. You did come for my wife’s famous catsghetti, right?”

Rowan nodded.

“Great, it’ll be ready in about five or ten minutes. Go outside and check the cats. You’ll see what the Catpendium does.” When Rowan didn’t do anything, Nedman gestured toward the door. “Well? What are you waiting for? You’re going to love this app!”

Rowan left the restaurant, and looked up the street to see that Gonpo was gone, Doyona too. The streets were relatively quiet aside from a breeze that blew past, rattling some wind chimes on one of the homes.

One of Nedman’s cats caught Rowan’s eyes. As he focused on the cat, information materialized in front of him.

Name: Roman

Breed: Persian

Sex: Male

Color: White

Age (Human Years): 4

Age (Cat Years): 33

Known Associates: Sophia, Sabine, Danira, Catriona, Amethyst

Offspring: Danira, Amethyst, Catriona

Rowan scanned through the information, and looked to the next cat that joined him, this one with cream-colored fur and black boots.

Name: Sabine

Breed: Siamese

Sex: Female

Color: Cream

Secondary Colors: Black

Age (Human Years): 2.6

Age (Cat years): 27

Known Associates: Sophia, Roman, Danira, Catriona, Amethyst

Offspring: Amethyst

“I get it,” he said to himself as another cat appeared, this one also with cream fur, the child of the first two he’d seen, Roman and Sabine.

Name: Amethyst

Breed: Persian Siamese Mix

Sex: Female

Color: Cream

Secondary Color: Black

Age (Human Years): 1

Age (Cat Years): 15

Known Associates: Sophia, Sabine, Danira, Catriona, Roman

Another one came, this one a great Persian with a black tail.

Name: Sophia

Breed: Persian

Sex: Female

Color: Gray

Secondary Color: Black

Age (Human Years): 5

Age (Cat Years): 37

Known Associates: Roman, Danira, Sabine, Catriona, Amethyst

Offspring: Danira, Catriona

There were two more cats now, a light-blue Persian and a gray one, both kittens.

Name: Danira

Breed: Persian

Sex: Female

Color: Light Blue

Age (Human Years): 0.6

Age (Cat Years): 9

Known Associates: Sophia, Roman, Sabine, Catriona, Amethyst

Name: Catriona

Breed: Persian

Sex: Female

Color: Gray

Secondary Color: Light Blue

Age (Human Years): 0.6

Age (Cat Years): 9

Known Associates: Sophia, Roman, Danira, Sabine, Amethyst

“This is awesome,” Rowan said as he finished skimming through their details. The Catpendium that Nedman had given him allowed him to see the cats’ personal stats, and with it he would be able to keep a fairly good record of their relations as well.

He couldn’t wait to go home and show it to Toro and his father.

Rowan forgot about the daily prize as he rushed to the general store with the tray of catsghetti, hoping his dad didn’t say anything about how long it had taken him to get the food.

The cats that hung out in front of the store fanned out, Rowan ignoring them as he fumbled to open the door with one hand, while holding the tray of food with the other.

He almost dropped it, but caught the tray in the end.

“Whew,” Rowan said as he stepped inside, movement to his right catching his eye.

He could have sworn he’d seen something, but the aisles were all dark now, and he couldn’t quite make out what the movement had come from. A chill running down his spine, Rowan quickly took the stairs to the apartment up top.

“Food is here,” he announced, trying to be as cheery as possible once he saw his dad hunched over the counter, a sullen look on his face. Toro, who had been on the couch with the cat, hopped up and ran to the bar. He stepped on his dad’s luggage so he could better reach his meal.

“What took you so long?” Ganix asked.

“They were really busy…” Rowan lied.

“Really?”

“Not exactly, but trust me, this will be worth it.”

“Rowan…” Ganix said as he took plates from the cupboard. He set one in front of Toro, and another in the spot where Rowan would stand. “You know what? I guess it doesn’t matter now. Get silverware for you and your brother. Me too.”

Rowan did as instructed, his father dishing out the catsghetti.

For once, the three ate in silence, their father’s disposition improving as he ate. “Sorry,” he mumbled at some point. “I didn’t realize how hungry I was.”

“My HP was low too,” Toro said.

Ganix laughed. “Well, you should be topped off now.”

Rowan continued to funnel the spaghetti into his mouth. The sauce was great, and there was just enough meat to make it chunky.

“Let me get something to drink.” Ganix accessed his inventory list, equipping a bottle of caffeine-free Proxima soda. He grabbed three glasses and poured them up.

“Delicious!” Toro finished his glass of soda in a matter of seconds and tilted his glass toward his father.

“You’ve had enough,” his father said.

“Please…”

“Just one more. Otherwise, you’ll be up all night going to the bathroom.”

“No, I won’t!”

“Yes, you will,” Rowan said.

“Fine,” Toro muttered, Ganix filling his glass to the halfway point this time around.

“And drink it slowly. Enjoy it, Toro.”

“Will someone please ask me what took me so long out there?” Rowan asked, after he finished his soda. “I can’t believe no one has asked me yet.”

Ganix gave him a funny look. “So you are admitting to taking longer than you should have?”

“I thought I would try to make it a surprise.”

“Did you see another ghost?” Toro asked.

“Rowan, I thought I told you not to tell your brother those kinds of things.”

“No, and I haven’t been,” Rowan said, his voice with a sharpness to it to let Toro know that he wasn’t supposed to mention what he’d seen earlier. “And that’s not what I’m trying to tell you here. Two very interesting things have happened since you last saw me.”

“Two?” Toro asked.

Rowan nodded. “One…” He waited for just a moment to drum up anticipation.

“What?” Toro asked, his face now covered in catsghetti sauce. “What?”

Rowan grinned cheek to cheek. “I got the daily prize.”

“You did?”

“What is that exactly?” asked Ganix.

“The daily prize is something that happens on the island, well, daily,” said Rowan, not sure how he should explain it. “Nedman mentioned it earlier when Gonpo left.”

“Oh, that. Wait, who is Gonpo again?”

“The guy in the panda costume,” Toro told him.

“Right, strange bird.”

“More like strange panda!” Toro said with a cackle.

Rowan cleared his throat. “The daily prize is a present that floats in the air, tied to a balloon. If you knock the present down, then you get the prize. Nedman told me that if I open it while all three of us are together, we could all three get a present, rather than just one of us.”

“It sounds like some forgotten Proxima gimmick,” Ganix said. “Maybe something to keep the former tourists that used to come here happy.”

“But that doesn’t make sense,” Rowan told him. “If there aren’t tourists here, why would there still be presents?”

“It’s a glitch, Rowan.”

“I got a real present. It’s not a glitch.”

“Fine, what’s your other announcement?” Ganix asked, gesturing with his fork for his son to continue.

Rowan returned his attention to his younger brother. “Announcement number two: Nedman gave me something really cool.”

“What’s that?”

“He calls it a Catpendium. It’s an old-school app that allows a person to see more details about the cats on the island. I can see everything now, from their name to the breed, to their age in human years and cat years. I don’t understand the difference between human years and cat years yet, but I can at least see them.”

“We have to try it on Uncle,” Toro said as he hopped down from the luggage.

“Toro, finish your dinner,” said Ganix. “Eat first, then we’ll test out this app. I would like to look at it as well.”

“What about the daily prize?” Rowan asked.

“We can open that too. But eat first. One thing at a time, boys. Let’s finish eating, and then clean up, especially you, Toro. After that, we can open the present and check out the app. Dinner first.”

Toro wiped his face with his arm, and looked down to see his arm now covered in catsghetti sauce. “Oops,” he said before he started licking it off.

“No, don’t do that. Use a napkin.” Ganix glanced around for a napkin and realized he hadn’t put any out.

“The food came with some napkins,” Rowan told him.

Ganix stuck his hand in the bag and returned with a napkin, but by this point Toro had managed to lick up the spaghetti sauce on his arm, some of it re-transferring to his face.

“Hold still,” Ganix said as he helped his youngest son clean up. He eventually went to the faucet and wetted the napkin, returning to wipe up more of the sauce.

“Eat slowly, and eat over your plate. Don’t take big bites.”

“Okay, Dad,” Toro said, already with another fork full of catsghetti in his mouth.

The two boys finished their meals, both in anticipation of opening the daily prize. Once dinner was over, they gathered around the couch, Rowan and Ganix sitting, Toro standing.

“First, presents,” Rowan said as he moved to his inventory list and equipped the gift.

“I can’t wait, I can’t wait…” said Toro.

“Who wants to do the honors?” Ganix asked, with a tone that almost told Rowan that his father wanted to open the present too.

“Rowan should open it. He’s the one that hit it out of the air.”

“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Rowan said as he undid the yellow ribbon and lifted the top of the blue box.

The box disappeared in a puff of magic, leaving three yellow rain jackets, three pairs of rain boots, and red rain hats on the small table in front of the couch.

“Rain stuff?” Rowan asked, disappointment in his voice.

“We are on an island,” Ganix reminded him. He took the largest rain jacket and tried it on, the hat as well. “Well? How do I look?”

“You look cool.” Toro also put on his rain jacket and his hat and admired it. He slipped into his rain boots and nodded, glad to see that they fit.

Rowan, who was disappointed with the prize, simply placed the items in his inventory list, mentally noting that they only took up one slot. He only had thirteen slots to work with, and now nine of them were filled.

His inventory list fizzled away as he equipped the Catpendium app.

“Here it is.” Rowan showed his dad and his brother the small silver sphere.

“I’m touching it first.”

Toro took the app from his brother. The sphere glowed as he pinched it with his thumb and his pointer finger. He immediately turned around, looking for Uncle the cat. In the process of doing so he dropped the sphere, which rolled under the couch. Uncle, who was under the couch, batted at the sphere, allowing Rowan to spot it, retrieve it, and hand it to his father.

“Interesting,” Ganix said as he looked at the marble-sized app. “They don’t make these anymore.”

“That’s what I said,” Rowan told him, hoping his dad was proud that he had recognized the older technology.

“Whoa, this is crazy,” said Toro, who now held the orange kitten with both hands, examining him. “There’s so much information here.”

Rowan took a look at Uncle, the cat’s stats flashing before him.

Name: Uncle

Breed: Abyssinian

Sex: Male

Color: Orange

Secondary Color: White

Age (Human Years): 0.3

Age (Cat Years): 4

“He’s an ah-ah-bis-ean?” Toro asked.

“It’s Abyssinian,” Ganix told him. “And it would appear so,” he said, their father now staring curiously at the kitten. “And you said this works on every single cat on the island?”

“So far it has,” Rowan said. “I only tested the cats in front of Nedman’s restaurant. I didn’t test the ones that hang out in front of our place because I was trying to bring the food upstairs.”

“Well?” Ganix asked. “What are we waiting for, boys?”

“I have to give the app back to Nedman,” Rowan told his dad.

“Don’t you worry about that. I’ll give it back to him tomorrow. I would like to examine it a little more. I haven’t seen anything like this since I was…” Ganix considered this for a moment. “I can’t remember how old I was. Believe it or not, this is technology from when your grandfather was a child.”

“It looks pretty sophisticated,” said Rowan.

“Sure, but everything is digital now,” he said with a sigh. “This right here is a way to manually augment your D-NAS.”

“D-NAS?” Toro asked as he set Uncle down on the couch.

“Digital Neuronal Autoconstruct System. But never mind. Let’s get outside and check out the cats that usually hang around. After that, it’s time for you two to get ready for bed.”

Once the three stepped outside, Rowan placed his hand over his brow and peered into the darkness. The streets were much darker than he thought they would be. There were no lanterns, and the only thing that lit the cobblestone path that circled around the village were the lights coming from individual homes.

“This place needs streetlamps,” said Rowan.

“This place needs a lot of things,” Ganix said. “But that is sort of its charm, is it not?”

“What do you mean?”

“When you see something that could be fixed, your natural instinct should be how to fix it. This doesn’t work for everything you’ll encounter in life, but…”

“I see a cat,” Toro said, interrupting his father.

Rowan turned to the cat just as it peeked out of one of the shadows.

Name: Quantum

Breed: American shorthair

Sex: Male

Color: Gray

Secondary Color: Black, White

Age (Human Years): 5.9

Age (Cat Years): 40

Known Associates: Meme, Ryuk, Zaena, Fiona

Offspring: Rocket

“The cat’s name is Quantum?” asked Ganix. “That’s a strange name for a cat.”

“Offspring means his kid, right?” Toro asked.

“That’s right.”

“So he has a kid named Rocket?” Toro laughed. “What kind of dumb name for a cat is that?”

“They all have dumb names,” Rowan said as the cat known as Quantum sat and licked his white paws. “Meme, Ryuk, Zaena, Fiona? Who named these things?”

“There’s Zaena,” Ganix said as another cat came out of the shadows, this one an olive-colored Maine coon.

Name: Zaena

Breed: Maine Coon

Sex: Female

Color: Olive

Secondary Color: Gray

Age (Human Years): 2.3

Age (Cat Years): 26

Known Associates: Meme, Ryuk, Fiona, Quantum

Offspring: Chase, Oric

“I don’t understand their ages,” Toro said.

“Have you ever heard of dog years?” his father asked.

“No.”

“For every one human year…”

“I thought we were NPCs,” Rowan quipped.

“That’s just a technical term, like I told you. Forget about it. Now, for every human year, they say a dog ages seven years. There is debate on how a cat matches up to human years, but the general agreement is the first human year is worth fifteen cat years, and the second is worth ten. So, a two-year-old cat would be twenty-five.”

“And after that?” Toro asked.

“Well, let’s do the math with that one,” said Ganix, pointing at Zaena. “It says here she’s twenty-six cat years, or 2.3 human years. That would mean that each cat year after two years is worth four years.”

“Wait. How did you figure that out?” Rowan asked, suddenly confused.

“If three months makes her move from twenty-five to twenty-six years old, then that would mean a three month-period is worth one human year. How many three-month periods are there in a typical human year?”

“Four!”

“Good, Toro. So for 2.3 human years, we get twenty-six cat years. Don’t get frustrated,” Ganix told his oldest son, who had started to bite his lip. While Rowan excelled in most subjects at school, math was not one of them. “Just think of it like this. The first two years are worth twenty-five human years. After that, each human year is worth four cat years. So a three-year-old cat would be equivalent to a twenty-nine-year-old human. Whoever designed the app did complicate things to a degree by listing each cat year after the first two years as equivalent to point three, but that seems to be a design choice. Nevermind the fact that to move to the next official human year would be point twelve with the app designer’s system… Ah, well. Don’t let this bother you. Here comes the next one.”

“There are two of them,” Toro said excitedly.

Discarding the math for a moment, Rowan saw a female cat with white hair, and black and gray accents.

Name: Fiona

Breed: Exotic shorthair

Sex: Female

Color: White

Secondary Color: Black, Gray

Age (Human Years): 1

Age (Cat Years): 15

Known Associates: Meme, Ryuk, Zaena, Quantum

The Catpendium said she was only a year old in human years, which was fifteen in cat years. Rowan saw another cat, this one with a silver coat and no secondary color.

Name: Ryuk

Breed: Exotic shorthair

Sex: Male

Color: Silver

Age (Human Years): 4.3

Age (Cat Years): 33

Known Associates: Quantum, Zaena, Meme, Fiona

“That’s almost all of them,” Ganix said. “I counted five out here earlier. Can you tell which one is missing?”

Rowan and his brother both looked through the cats’ known associates for the missing name.

“Meme,” Rowan said. “I wonder if that’s a boy or girl?”

The four cats focused on Ganix and his sons. Three of them were sitting now, and the youngest, Fiona, was circling around Quantum, who appeared to be the leader.

“Come here,” Ganix said as he got to one knee and held his hand out.

Quantum took a step forward and examined him for a moment, but didn’t come any closer.

“You have to give them some food, Dad,” Toro said. “I don’t have any in my inventory list.”

“We had some spaghetti left over,” Rowan suggested.

“Should we really be feeding the cats spaghetti?”

“Catsghetti,” Toro said. “It’s called catsghetti.”

“Should we really be feeding them catsghetti?” Ganix asked.

“Come on, if it will make them become friendly, we totally should,” Rowan said.

“Okay, but just this once. We can’t waste food like this, not until…” His father didn’t finish his sentence, equipping his tray of catsghetti instead. “Let’s just see if they like it.”

He set the tray on the ground; the cat known as Quantum took another step closer to it. Suddenly, a fat orange tabby burst out of the shadows and practically dove into what was left of their dinner.

“That’s Meme!” Toro said, laughing.

Name: Meme

Breed: Tabby

Sex: Male

Color: Orange

Secondary Color: Yellow

Age (Human Years): 5

Age (Cat Years): 37

Known Associates: Quantum, Ryuk, Zaena, Fiona

The hefty tabby’s actions startled the others at first, but when they saw that he was getting all the food they also came forward, the cats pressing next to one another as they ate from the tray. Quantum hissed at one of them, and it looked for a moment like he was about to smack Ryuk.

“Well, I believe that’s enough excitement for the night,” Ganix said as the cats finished up their meal.

“Wait,” said Toro, “they’re being friendly now.”

Sure enough, Fiona and Zaena had made their way over to the young boy, the two weaving between his legs. He bent down slowly so he could pet them, Zaena arching her back as she purred.

“We can pet them tomorrow,” Ganix told his youngest son, his hand now on his shoulder.

“Fine… see you tomorrow, kitties,” Toro said.

“You too,” Ganix told Rowan, who was just starting to approach the cat known as Quantum.

The three headed back into the general store, where they found Uncle waiting for them at the foot of the stairs, curious about the cats outside.

“You’re too little,” Toro said as he scooped the kitten into his arms. “They will beat you up.”

“You don’t know that,” said Rowan.

“They have their little pack out there,” Ganix told him as he ushered his boys up to the apartment. “We don’t know how they’ll react to Uncle here. It’s best that we wait until he is a little larger before we let him out.”

“See?” Toro told his older brother.

Once they’d settled upstairs, Rowan was the first to take a shower.

As the warm water ran over his shoulders, he started thinking about the woman with the cat mask. Rowan and his little brother would need to investigate the forest, but if they did so, they would need to be prepared.

It could be dangerous.

A knock at the door from his father signaled that he needed to hurry up. Rowan finished up, toweled off, and changed into his sleep clothes.

As Toro bathed, Rowan sat on the balcony with his dad, both of them silent as they listened to the waves and watched the stars, the lighthouse blinking in the distance.

Eventually, Ganix spoke. “You really don’t get to see stars like this in Any_City.”

“That’s not true,” Rowan said.

“Did you ever see anything like this?” he asked, gesturing toward the darkened sky.

“A few times when we went camping. Speaking of which, we should totally go camping here,” he said, hoping to learn more about the island in the process.

“Camping, huh?”

“Why not? You said the island was small, right? Let’s go around the entire island and see what it’s like. There’s got to be more than just this little village. I saw the mountain, and…” Rowan almost told his father about the woman in the cat mask but stopped himself just in time. “There seems to be a lot of places we could explore, especially in the woods around the village.”

“So…” Ganix cleared his throat. “You like it here, then?”

Rowan hadn’t actually considered if he liked being on Sacred Cat Island or not. It was interesting, sure, and there were plenty of things to do…

“I don’t know,” he finally said, realizing the power his answer was going to have on his dad. He didn’t want to hold anything over him, but he hadn’t yet decided how he felt about the island, especially with some of the things he had learned about it, that there could possibly be monsters here, and that there were definitely ghosts.

Plus, he still felt like their father was not telling them everything, like what happened with Mom and why she had left, and why he no longer worked for the Proxima company.

“How about this? I’ll check back in on that question in a week or so and see how you feel. As for camping, sure. We should do that. Once we get the store set up and running, let’s go camping. We can ask around to see if there’s a good spot.”

“Or we could just find a beach somewhere,” said Rowan. “That would be awesome.”

“A beach would be nice too. Now, go check on your brother. It’s bedtime.”

Rowan had no problem falling asleep that night.

He woke up the next morning a bit cold, a breeze coming in through the single window in the bedroom, which was opened just an inch or so.

His mind started racing as soon as he was up, Rowan first going through his daily ritual of checking his personal attributes to see if there had been any changes.

He yawned as his stats appeared in front of him, prompts letting him know that he had experienced some changes overnight.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 335/335

Intelligence: 23.56

Willpower: 10.50

Empathy: 6.10

Charisma: 11.84

Strength: 5.41

Dexterity: 7.30

Luck: 3.46

+ .19 Willpower!

+ .06 Dexterity!

+ .15 Luck!

His father had explained his personal attributes before, telling Rowan that they really were a “low-stakes game,” as he had described it. Once Rowan reached a whole number, he would get a prompt with the level up, but they rose so incrementally that he never actually felt much of a change.

Still, it was nice to see that he was improving slightly, especially when it came to luck, because that was always helpful. He assumed the luck increase happened from catching the daily prize, the dexterity as well. He didn’t know where the willpower increases came from, but maybe it was his brave charge into the forest after the lady in the cat mask.

That really wasn’t like him.

Rowan hadn’t spent much time on the skills he had been working on back at their home in the suburbs of Any_City. His drawing ability was still at Level 3, his guitar playing ability was a measly Level 1, and his ability to talk to girls was still at Level 4, which had improved mostly because he’d been part of a group project with three girls at his school.

As he glanced from his personal attributes to his three skills, Rowan realized he would probably need to cycle something out of the skills he was working on, especially while he was on the island.

After all, there were no girls here.

He was just about to run through his inventory list and his active quests when his father called for Rowan and his brother.

“Wake up,” he told Toro, who was curled into a ball, Uncle the kitten near to his face.

“Wh-what? I want to sleep longer…”

“Dad is calling us.”

“Rowan, Toro, get in here!”

“Fine, I’ll go, but you need to wake up,” Rowan said to his brother.

He slipped out of bed and paused before he reached the door. Rowan took a deep breath, yawning one last time before stepping into the living room.

“I have to get down to the docks,” his father told him.

Ganix was in a green jacket that Rowan had seen him wear before and a pair of khakis.

“Okay,” Rowan said with a yawn. He noticed that there were two breakfast sandwiches on plates, the Proxima logo seared into the buns.

“We’ll have a better breakfast next time. The skipper, you remember him, right?”

“Yeah, but I don’t remember his name.”

“Cameron was his name,” said Ganix. “Anyway, there was a big sale at Proxima Wholesaler and I had him order a bunch of items. He should be here…” Ganix checked his watch. “Any minute now. Make sure your brother eats, and I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

“Dad?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we go out? I mean, after breakfast, can we go out?”

His father tilted his head for a moment as he considered this. “Sure, of course you can. Just come back in a few hours, and don’t go bothering the elderly. We are really going to tackle the downstairs today. We need to get all the dust out of there. I want to open this week, maybe even tomorrow.”

“That soon?”

“Possibly. We have the supplies, and we might as well get the shop up and running. But we’ll talk, just…” He looked to the bedroom door. “Make sure your brother eats.”

“Okay,” said Rowan as his father headed down the stairs.

Being the older brother that he was, Rowan’s first response was to go to the cupboard and find a pot. He then located a wooden spoon. He already started laughing as he made it to the bedroom door, where he struck the pot with the spoon, announcing that it was time to wake up.

“Up, up, up, it’s time to get up!” he sang.

The cat took off; Toro shot out of bed, the young boy with an irritable look on his face as he got his bearings.

“I was trying to sleep…”

“Dad said that you had to eat. Actually, he said that we both have to eat. But he also said we could go out. So let’s eat, and go out. Two birds, one… pot!” Rowan struck the pot again.

“But I’m not hungry…”

“Look at how little you are. You’re so thin because you don’t eat enough. Come on, eat. Don’t make me beat this pot again…” Rowan said playfully.

“I’ll beat you with that spoon,” Toro told him as a smile stretched across his face.

He charged after his older brother.

Rowan made it to the kitchen before Toro and threw the pot and the spoon into a cabinet. He stood in front of the cabinet, his hands up. “Eat first. Then we’ll go out and see if we can find the daily prize or…”

“You think you’ll see the ghost-lady again?” Toro asked, lowering his hands.

“I don’t know. Hopefully. And this time, we can do a better job of following her.”

The two boys ate their soggy breakfast sandwiches, Toro giving some of his meat to the kitten.

Once they were finished, they got dressed and headed out, Rowan locking up behind him. As soon as they stepped out, Rowan and Toro were greeted by the five cats that hung out in front of the general store. Referring to his Catpendium, Rowan identified them as Quantum, Meme, Ryuk, Zaena, and Fiona.

As it had been the previous night, the younger cats were a bit friendlier, the older ones staying back.

“I bet they would be our friends if we had food for them,” Rowan said as Toro tried to pet Zaena. The olive-colored cat played coy with him, coming forward as if she would let him pet her and then quickly running off.

Eventually, Toro gave up and the two headed up the cobblestone path that led to the center of town.

As Rowan had noticed before, everything in the small, oceanside village was in need of work. Many of the houses looked like they could use a fresh coat of paint and new roofs, all aside from Doyona’s home, which looked nicer than all the homes around it.

As they passed in front of the place, a trio of cats came around the corner, Rowan instantly able to identify them.

Name: Manchester

Breed: Abyssinian

Sex: Male

Color: Brown

Secondary Color: White

Age (Human Years): 8

Age (Cat Years): 49

Known Associates: Micah, Lady Cassandra

Offspring: Micah, Uncle

Name: Lady Cassandra

Breed: Abyssinian

Sex: Female

Color: Dark Blue

Secondary Color: Red

Age (Human Years): 5

Age (Cat Years): 37

Known Associates: Manchester, Micah

Offspring: Micah, Uncle

Name: Micah

Breed: Abyssinian

Sex: Male

Color: Dark Blue

Secondary Color: White

Age (Human Years): 2

Age (Cat Years): 25

Known Associates: Manchester, Lady Cassandra

“Wait a minute…” Rowan started to say.

“What?”

“Don’t you see?”

“See what?” Toro asked.

“Those ones, the brown one and the dark-blue one with red on her tail. Those are Uncle’s parents.”

“And the other one?”

“That one must be his brother,” said Rowan as the three cats stared at him curiously. He heard a door open behind the gate, and grabbed his brother’s wrist. “That’s probably Doyona. Let’s keep moving.”

“Okay,” Toro said as he let his brother drag him away.

The two reached the top of the hill, where they passed the hoarder’s home. There were other houses around it, and people that lived in the surrounding homes had grown hedges to prevent them from seeing the hoarder’s trashy estate.

“You two should be careful of that place,” a voice said from behind them, startling the two boys.

They swiveled to find Gonpo standing there in his Pandas mascot uniform.

“We were just going…” Rowan started to tell him.

“I’m not trying to scare you,” Gonpo told them. “It’s just, there are two brothers that live there. One is friendly, the other not-so-much. The place should be condemned,” he said. “I’m just glad I have a hedge between their home and mine.”

“Some of the trash is kind of cool,” said Toro, who was looking at the particular piece that stood almost ten feet tall and was shaped into the form of a seated cat.

“I like that one too,” Gonpo admitted, “but most people don’t. There’s a lot of people that say…” He cleared his throat. “You know what? Nevermind. I’ll see you boys around. Good luck if you see another daily prize. What did it turn out to be, by the way?” he asked Rowan, his voice softening as a sense of wonderment came over him.

“Just a bunch of rain gear,” Toro said.

“You got the rain gear? I keep trying to get those,” the mascot told them. “But I never get that lucky.”

“What’s so great about the rain jackets?” Rowan asked.

“You’ll find out when it rains,” he said, waving his hand over his shoulder as he turned away from them. “Cats and dogs, as the old saying goes. Except there are no dogs here, so just cats.”

Rowan and Toro continued down the hill, where they came to a dock that they hadn’t seen before. It was then that Rowan realized the village was in a horseshoe-shape starting on one side, the West Docks near the general store, and ending here, which must have been the East Docks. He saw that there were several houses down here and a path that led into the woods.

Rowan recognized the older man in an orange beanie and yellow overalls heading in their direction. He was the fisherman they had encountered on their first day, and as soon as he saw the two boys, he motioned them over.

“Just what I was looking for…” Chodak said. “Some help.”

“You need help?” Toro asked.

“I sure do. I pulled in quite a haul this morning, and all my buddies are taking the day off. Look, boys, there’s two buckets down at the docks…”

A prompt appeared in front of Rowan, and he could tell by the way that Toro’s eyes darted left and right that he had received the prompt as well.

Side Quest: Help Chodak with his daily catch

“We can help,” Rowan told him.

“And there will be something in it for you in the end, if you do. I’m not going to ask you to help me out and not give you something in return,” said Chodak. “Just bring them there.” He gestured toward a home with a short wall in front of it.

The place was set back off the main road, and now that Rowan took another look at it, he could tell it was where the fisherman lived. The yard was filled with things he would need for fishing, from extra chairs to coolers, spare rods, and an actual harpoon.

“Will do,” Rowan said.

The fisherman wiped his brow. “It might be a little chilly this morning, but whew, that didn’t stop these fish from fighting.”

“They were fighting?” Toro asked.

“They always are.” Chodak reached into his bucket and came out with a sea bass. “I haven’t seen them this big in a while,” he said, eying the silvery fish. “Some red snapper out there too, but I didn’t get that lucky this morning.” He dropped the fish back in the bucket. “Anyway, enough out of me. I’ll let you two get to it. I appreciate it, boys.”

After a quick trip down a flight of creaky wooden steps, Rowan and Toro spotted the two buckets at the far end of the docks.

“What kind of reward do you think he’s going to give us?” Toro asked as a white pelican landed on a post sticking out of the water. The large bird, which had a yellow face and a brown tuft of feathers sticking out of the back of its head, picked at its coat for a moment and then took off.

“No idea, but this is definitely the easiest quest ever,” Rowan said as they turned to the buckets, ignoring the waves lashing against the dock. There was no lighthouse here, at least not one Rowan could see at the moment.

“Definitely.”

Had Rowan paused, he would have noticed the waves were much stronger on the side of the island, and that the rocky shoreline was much more dramatic. But Rowan wasn’t focused on his surroundings, he was focused on the two teal buckets filled to the brim with fish.

He grabbed the first bucket, and was reaching for the second one when Toro took it.

“I want to carry it,” said Toro.

“Go ahead, muscle man.”

Toro lifted the bucket as if he were curling a barbell. “Arrgh! It’s heavy.”

“You sure you don’t want any help with that, Muscles McToro?”

“I’ve got it, Muscles McRowan.”

The two were just stepping away with the buckets when a whirlpool caught Rowan’s attention.

Whoosh!

An enormous catfish leaped from the water and flopped onto the dock.

The catfish was easily the size of a car, and as it opened and closed its mouth, its whiskers took on a life of their own. The whiskers curled, their tips turning to Rowan and Toro.

Rowan dropped the bucket of fish, which by chance didn’t topple over.

The giant catfish smacked its gums, and as it did Rowan watched his brother go from scared to brave, the young boy placing his bucket down and lifting his fists.

“What are we going to do?” Rowan asked.

“We have to fight that thing,” said Toro, his nostrils flaring open. “Come on, we can do it!”

Inspired by his younger brother’s fearlessness, Rowan equipped his wooden sword and brought it to the ready. He was surprised to see his brother equip a broom.

“When did you add that to your inventory list?”

“Back at the store,” Toro told him hurriedly. “I figured it would help me get the daily prize.”

The catfish smacked its gums and scooted closer to them.

“Okay…” Rowan took a quick look around. “Let’s… let’s try to knock that thing off the docks!”

Rowan bolted forward and as he did, one of the catfish’s whiskers shot at him. He struck the whisker with his wooden sword. The catfish let out a terrible moan, the dock quaking, water lashing against the wood.

“I’m going to stab it!” Toro charged the catfish while holding the broom as if it were a javelin. He jammed it in the catfish’s mouth, the creature’s giant lips collapsing onto the broom and lifting Toro into the air.

“Toro!” Rowan shouted.

His younger brother fell onto the catfish’s head, and as he tried to scramble off it, Toro managed to kick his foot against the creature’s bulbous left eye.

Toro jumped to the dock and landed on his feet, barely avoiding one of the catfish’s whiskers.

“I’ve got it!” Rowan stepped in front of his brother and swatted at the creature’s whiskers, protecting Toro while he got his bearings.

“What else do you have in your list?” Rowan asked.

The catfish sent both whiskers forward, Rowan able to smack them away.

“Nothing much,” Toro told him. “Dad told us not to bring anything!”

“We’ve got to get this thing off the dock!”

The catfish flapped its head against the dock, and ended up swallowing the broom whole.

As Rowan stood in front of his brother, the catfish started to choke on the broom, its body rocking back and forth, the waves now coming up and over the dock, spilling water at the boy’s feet.

The catfish instinctively tilted to the side and fell back into the water, leaving Rowan and his brother on the dock, which swayed violently for a moment before settling.

“Whoa…” Rowan mumbled as he finally lowered his sword.

“My broom…”

“We can’t tell Dad about this,” he said suddenly. “Seriously, Toro. We… have to keep the giant catfish a secret.”

“Why?”

“He’ll never let us come out again. Instead…”

Rowan’s heart jumped as the catfish popped out of the water, the broom flying out of its mouth and landing on the dock as it dove back beneath the waves.

“I’ve got Chodak’s fish.” Rowan handed his wooden sword to his younger brother and took the two buckets. “You get the broom.”

Once Rowan had the two buckets, the two ran up the dock, and reached the safety of land.

They turned, looking back out toward the sea, no visible sign that the catfish had existed at all. Rowan did, however, see some cats scattering. He got the feeling that they had been watching them the entire time. He didn’t know why he felt this way, but it was something about the way they scattered only when the boys spotted the cats.

“Okay,” he said, finally catching his breath, “like I said, we can’t tell Dad. If he knows that these things exist here, he will never let us come out again, never. We’ll have to spend the whole summer upstairs. Ugh, what is wrong with this island?”

“What do we do then?” Toro asked, his hands on his knees he looked up at his brother. He set the buckets down and Toro handed Rowan his wooden sword, which he sent back to his inventory list.

“This island is freaking crazy. First spirits, ghosts, or whatever, and now this? What do we do? We need to get some weapons, just in case. I have my sword.”

“And I have my broom,” Toro said, even though it was a little sticky at the moment.

“We’ll figure it out,” Rowan told his younger brother with a firm nod. “We’ll just have to be careful.”

“Should we tell the fisherman about it?”

“Chodak?” Rowan considered this for a moment. “Sure, let’s go tell him now. Maybe he knows about catfish.”

.Chapter Three.

Rowan and Toro found Chodak in front of his home cleaning fish and tossing the fresh fillets into a smaller bucket. There were several cats around, all of them interested in the remains. Rowan was too distracted with what he was about to tell Chodak to check the cats’ stats, but he did note that two of them were quite furry and seemed mischievous.

“There you boys are,” said Chodak, the old fisherman offering them a toothy grin. “Just place the buckets right here.”

Side Quest: Help Chodak with his daily catch (complete)

“There was something down there…” Rowan said after the prompt faded away.

He looked to his brother, who nodded in confirmation.

“What do you mean something was down there?” Chodak asked as both boys set their buckets down.

“We were just grabbing the buckets when…” Rowan relived the moment that the whale-sized catfish hopped out of the water, his heart racing for a moment before settling.

“Go on…”

“The biggest catfish in the world jumped onto the dock,” Toro told him.

“The biggest catfish, eh?”

“It was…” Rowan pointed for his brother to go stand across from him. Toro ran to the spot Rowan was pointing at, the young boy nearly knocking over a spare cooler in the process.

“You boys are telling me a catfish practically the size of a whale jumped out of the water and onto the dock, huh?” Chodak started to snort. “Now that is quite a yarn. I’ve heard many a-tale of strange things that happen at sea, but a whale-sized catfish? Phooey.”

“It’s not phooey!”

“It’s true,” Rowan said, trying to cover for his brother. “We had to fight it.”

“Fight it?” Chodak laughed. “What part did you fight, its fin?”

“Its whiskers.”

“We’re not lying!” Toro shouted.

“Listen, boys,” Chodak said, a stern look coming across his face. “I like a sailor’s fib as much as the next fisherman. Heh. You should hear some of the stories Tunga down at the Fisherman’s Restaurant bakes up after he’s had a glass or two of ‘shine, Lonnie too. But what you are telling me here is…” He paused, considering how he should phrase this. “Do you two know how long I’ve been fishing?”

“Forever,” Rowan said, growing annoyed.

“Ho! You aren’t wrong there. And in that time, forever, as you called it, I’ve never encountered anything like that. There are catfish out in the sea, but certainly ones not as big as what you’re describing.”

“We saw it,” Rowan said.

“It lifted me up.”

“And how’s that?” Chodak asked.

“I tried to hit it with the broom,” Toro told him, “but the broom got stuck in its mouth.”

“All right, all right, so you saw a giant catfish,” the older fisherman said, giving up on the argument. “Come get me if you see it again, and I’ll do what I can do round the other fishermen up so we can catch it. Saltwater catfish are mighty good eating, but they sure are hard to clean and prepare.”

“You don’t believe us, do you?” Rowan asked.

“Believe you? What is there to believe? That you saw a creature that doesn’t exist? Sure, if you want me to believe you, I believe you, but until I see it with my own eyes, well, I guess I don’t believe you.” He laughed again at his own statement. “I guess that doesn’t make much sense, but I was never much of a philosopher. Now, I promised you two that I would give you something for bringing up these fish.”

Chodak told the boys to wait as he went inside his small home.

“I can’t believe he doesn’t believe us,” Rowan said with a scowl. “No one is going to believe us…”

“Not even Dad?” Toro asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think so. Like I said down there, we have to keep this a secret. I guess everything that we see here we have to keep a secret.”

“It’s kind of not fair.”

Rowan nodded in agreement. “It’s not. There’s something happening here on this island, maybe even something magical. You saw the catfish.”

“I saw it.”

“We both saw it. It almost ate you,” Rowan said.

Toro laughed nervously.

“We still need to be careful, and we will need to think of better weapons we can use next time we encounter something.”

“Do you think we will see it again?”

Rowan shook his head. “I don’t know, but we should avoid the docks, at least in the East Docks, just in case.”

“Or go back when we’re ready.”

Rowan smiled at his younger brother. “Yes, maybe we should do that. I like your thinking style.”

Chodak’s front door flew open and the older fisherman stepped out with a teal clamshell. “I bet you have never seen one of these before,” he said, showing it to them.

“It looks like a clamshell to me,” Rowan said, still slightly agitated that Chodak didn’t believe them.

“This is no ordinary clamshell, it’s a lucky clamshell,” Chodak told him. “Only one like it on the island.”

“How was it lucky?” Toro asked.

“You have to figure that one out for yourself, but since you’re the oldest.” Chodak turned to Rowan and handed the clamshell to him. “I’m going to give it to you. Now, I have to get back to dealing with these fish, unless you two want to help me.”

“Help you kill them?” Toro asked.

“I’ve already killed them, or oxygen did. Now I’m cleaning them up. You can’t eat them like they are. Well, you can, but most people don’t like them like that around here. Maybe if you go a little further out, to some of the folks who live off the grid, you’ll find a few of them that eat the fish whole. To be fair, I like it that way as well, but most people on the island just want the fillets.”

“We have to get back to the store,” Rowan said, placing his hand on his younger brother’s shoulder.

“Makes sense. Your daddy is probably wondering where you are by this point. In that case, stop by whenever you have free time, and I’ll give you a quest. I have plenty of gifts lying around that I need to get rid of, and I sure would prefer to give them to you boys than just die with them,” he said with a dark laugh.

Rowan and Toro said goodbye to Chodak, and once they reached the main road, they turned back toward the general store. It was a lot warmer now than it had been earlier, Rowan definitely feeling the heat on his face. Glancing skyward, Rowan saw that it was almost an entirely clear day, and from their current vantage point near the hoarders’ home, he could make out the dark-blue line of the sea in the distance, the lighthouse ever present.

Rowan noticed that there were two paths that led into the forest, the two seemingly curving around the hoarders’ expansive estate packed so high with junk that it created quite the shadow, which reminded Rowan of some of the taller buildings in downtown Any_City.

“Should we check it out?” Toro asked as he pointed to one of the pathways that cut into the forest, one that they hadn’t been on before.

“Let’s check it out,” Rowan said, making a split-second decision. “We will try not to take too long.”

The two boys quickly moved from the village to the forest, the occasional painted stone marking the path leading up a rocky hill covered in roots. Rowan could smell the trees now, the forest carrying just a hint of brine to it from the ocean at their back. Birds chirped in the canopy above, one of them drilling its beak into the trunk of a tree.

“Look,” said Rowan. “A woodpecker.”

“I’ve never seen one of them before. Why does it do that?”

The two boys watched the woodpecker fly away, just a hint of red on the back of its black head.

“I think they’re searching for food,” Rowan said as they turned back to the path.

He equipped his wooden sword just in case, Toro going for his broom. As they walked, Toro held the broom so it rested against the front of his shoulder as if he were carrying a rifle.

“How big do you think the island is?”

“Didn’t someone say it would take three hours to walk around?” Rowan asked. “I can’t remember. So maybe not so big.”

“Three hours? That’s not a very long walk. I think it’s bigger than that. Who said that?”

“I can’t remember,” Rowan said. “I could be wrong.”

“Maybe when we go camping with Dad, we can see how long it takes to go around the entire island.”

“That’s if we can go around it,” Rowan told him. “If the cliffs are too rocky, we’ll have to find a different path.”

“Do you think we could jump from the rocks?”

Rowan considered what this would look like. “I don’t know…”

The two boys came upon Gonpo the panda mascot, the heavy man seated on a stump and pouting. He caught sight of them and looked up. “Sorry…”

“What’s wrong?” Toro asked.

“What’s wrong? I’ll tell you what’s wrong. I chased a daily prize all the way up here, and it got away. What a waste.”

Rowan could tell that the man was winded, and he imagined it was incredibly hot inside his panda uniform, sweat dripping off his exposed chin. “Why don’t you take your mask off and air out?” he asked, trying to be kind.

“My mask?” Gonpo shook his head. “The mask doesn’t come off.”

“Ever?” Rowan asked.

“I keep trying to get that present,” said Gonpo, ignoring his question. “Every single day, I chase it up and down the streets in the village, and sometimes even into the forest.”

“How many times have you caught it?” Toro asked.

“Just a few.”

“You need something like this,” Toro said, showing Gonpo his broom.

“I was wondering why you were carrying that, and here I thought you were planning to sweep all the old leaves out of the forest.”

“Why would anyone do that?” Rowan started to ask as he saw another man jogging in their direction.

He hadn’t seen this islander before, and once he was close enough, Rowan read the man’s social status.

Name: Argat Pongano

Age: 59

Occupation: Retired Athlete

Argat was shirtless, his skin tan from the sun and his muscles tight and sinewy. He wore neon shorts and a fanny pack, his shoulder-length hair kept close to his forehead by a sweatband.

“Gonpo,” Argat said as he slowed down. “I don’t believe I’ve met you two,” he told the boys. “You’re the sons of the guy revamping the general store, right?”

“I’m Rowan.”

“Toro,” said his younger brother, tapping his hand against his chest.

“Looks like you two are ready for war,” Argat told them with a grin. He lifted his water bottle and squeezed some into his mouth. “Just finishing up my jog here…”

“We know,” Gonpo told him.

“Anyway, I’ve got to get back to it. Never can be too healthy. Look, boys, I have something I’d like you to do, if you don’t mind. Tomorrow morning, let’s say around eight, I’m going to do a little calisthenics in the town square. Do you know where it is?”

“I think I saw it,” Rowan said, recalling a path going in the opposite direction of the hoarders’ home.

“It’s at the dead center of town; you really can’t miss it. There’s a great overlook there as well. Anyway, see if you can get some of the villagers to join us. You too, Gonpo.”

The prompt appeared before Rowan:

Side Quest: Join Argat for his morning exercise and recruit others

The prompt was gone just about as soon as Gonpo started grumbling. “I’m not joining you. How many times do I have to tell you that?”

“Bring your costume too. Talk about a way to work up a sweat.” Argat gave him the thumbs up and offered the boys a wink. “All right. I’ll see you three bright and early. Let’s get this island back in shape!”

“No one’s going to go,” Gonpo said once he was gone.

“We should still try to recruit people,” said Toro. “It’s a quest.”

“Ha! You two still go on quests?” Gonpo asked.

“You don’t?” Rowan asked. “What’s the point in being alive if you’re not going on quests?”

“The point…” Gonpo looked up as if he were imagining a floating present. “The point is the ultimate quest, which is the daily prize.”

Rowan and Toro reached the main street of Sacred Cat Village. Before going door-to-door telling people about Argat’s morning fitness class, they decided to check out the town square first, which was down the road from the hoarders’ home.

It was clear that there used to be a fountain here, and a few abandoned booths made it obvious that they once had a farmers market as well. There weren’t any government buildings, not like they had back in Any_City, but there was a building with a sign out front advertising the next Sacred Cat Village Council.

“This place is so dead,” Rowan said as he swept his hand over the town square. “You would think with a magical island like this that there would be tourists or something.”

“Yeah,” said Toro, who was in the habit of agreeing with most of the things his brother said.

“I mean, look at this.” Rowan gestured toward the fountain, which was completely dry.

“I wonder where the water went.”

“I honestly can’t figure this place out.” Rowan moved past the fountain to the railing, and saw the deep blue sea beyond, light cutting through a gray cloud that signaled rain may be coming soon. He felt his throat constrict as he looked down and saw the water far below, frothy waves lashing against the rock.

“But you do like it here, right?” Toro asked.

“I miss my friends, and Mom.”

“I miss Mom too.”

“But…”

“Do you think something happened to her?” Toro asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. What could have happened to her?”

“Do you think she’s dead?”

Rowan punched his younger brother in the shoulder. “Don’t say that.”

“I’m just asking!”

“She’s not dead; you know that. I’m sure we’ll talk to her soon.”

“But how? We don’t have a telephone.”

“Don’t worry. There has to be one around here somewhere. Maybe Dad will get one. Let’s…” Rowan realized he didn’t want to talk about these things with his younger brother, not until he had more answers, not until he could steer the conversation a little better. “Let’s just go and tell everyone we can about the fitness guy’s morning class.”

The two ran back toward the cobblestone road, and once they were there they went to the first house, a small home with a red roof and a fresh coat of white paint, flower boxes on the windowsills.

Rowan knocked. He turned to his brother to see that his shirt was bunched up and pulled it down, fixing it for him.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“Pay attention to your clothes,” Rowan told him.

“I am.”

The door opened, and an elderly woman peered out. She wore a floral handkerchief around her neck and a pair of overalls, her blonde hair short and frizzy, a sun hat on her head.

Name: Tuya Amlagan

Age: 76

Occupation: Retired Widow

“Hi,” Rowan said. “We’re here to tell you…”

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Tuya asked.

“I’m Rowan, and this is my little brother.”

The woman squinted at the two boys as she read their social status. “Toragan? Your last name is Toragan?”

“That’s right, ma’am,” said Rowan. “Our dad took over the general store. It belonged to his uncle, Turni.”

“Oh, Turni’s great-nephews,” she said, her face lighting up.

“We are great,” Toro said with a grin.

“How wonderful, such a funny boy. I wish I could say I’ve heard all about you, but Turni didn’t really talk much about his family. So then, you have moved to the island?”

“Just this summer,” said Toro.

“We don’t have a school,” she said, seemingly ignoring Toro’s comment, “but we do have a former teacher and a principal, believe it or not. I don’t know what kids your age would do in the winter. It gets pretty cold. I suppose you could be responsible for shovelling some of the snow. I sure know I could use the help, Zola too. She’s the lady that lives next door, a friend of mine.”

“We’re only here for the summer,” Rowan said, a little louder this time.

“Oh, the summer. You’re here for the summer. Well, isn’t that special? It sure is a nice time to visit. We used to have tourists, but they stopped coming here, and, well, you can probably see why.”

“Because only old people live here?” Toro asked.

“Toro,” Rowan said, jerking his younger brother’s arm.

“Oh, my,” the woman said, laughing. “What spirit you two have! There’s only one person your age that comes to the islands now, and that’s Doyona’s granddaughter, Olivia. Some may not agree with me, but I think it will be a nice change of pace to have some rowdy boys on the island. I’m sure you’ve met Doyona by now. She lives right next door to your store.”

“She’s pretty mean,” Toro said.

This comment seemed to delight Tuya. “There are some that believe that. Once you get to know her, she’s…” The woman considered this for a moment. “She becomes tolerable. Well, now that you two are here, I really could use some help.”

“We’re here to tell you something,” Toro said. “Argat wants you to come to his fitness class tomorrow at the town square.”

“Fitness?” Tuya laughed again. “I’m almost twenty years older than Argat, and I believe we have different definitions of fitness. Just being able to tend to my flowers keeps me busy enough.” She swept her arm out. Rowan followed her hand to her yard, noticing just how many flower beds she had, bees buzzing around them. “I sure could use some help planting some new bulbs I had one of the skippers bring up. I need to get them in today while the soil is still soft.”

“We’re supposed to tell other people about his fitness class,” Toro said.

“No one ever goes to this class,” she told the younger boy, waving his concern away. “We’re all too old for Argat’s exercise routine. Most of us are up at that time, but I don’t plan to be jumping and kicking around at eight in the morning, not if I can help it. It will only take a few minutes,” Tuya said, showing them the bag of bulbs. The prompt flashed before Rowan and he dismissed it.

Side Quest: Help Tuya plant her flowers

“It won’t take very long,” she assured them. “I have plenty more to plant. These tulips just need to get out today because they love to soak up the rain. Follow me.”

Tuya led the two boys over to one of her numerous flower beds, where they found a couple dozen freshly dug holes, a floral scent in the air.

The woman pointed at a piece of plastic to rest her knees on, and Toro went for it. He placed it on the ground in front of her and she kneeled down onto the soft plastic. “All you do is just put it in like this, and cover it up. I try to plant as many as I can every year. This year I want to plant over two hundred new flowers. This should be just the start. And you two can help me.”

She stood, wincing at the pain in her leg.

By the time she was up, Toro was already down on the ground planting the first bulb. Rowan joined him, not sure as to how she had so easily roped them into the task.

In the end, Tuya was right, it didn’t take them very long to finish the task.

The two boys stood, Rowan’s hands and knees stained with dirt.

“There will be plenty more flowers to plant, so stop by whenever you like.” Tuya peered up at the sky, the sun hat she was wearing casting a shadow over the top of her forehead. “Rain is certainly coming soon, I can feel it in my bones. Where was I? Oh, you two should probably wash up. The faucet is right there.”

Rowan and Toro washed up, and once they were done they waved goodbye to Tuya.

“We can’t accept any more Side Quests from these people until we finish the ones we already have,” Rowan said as soon as they were away from the gardener’s home. He noticed that this particular quest hadn’t been completed yet, which meant that they would need to help plant more.

“They seem to like giving us Side Quests.”

The two were passing the hoarder’s cluttered place when two cats caught their attention. An American shorthair with brown hair and a yellow strip on his belly tore out of the garbage, chasing after a white Birman with a pink tail.

“They have funny names,” Toro said as he watched the two cats tumble around and swat at one another.

Name: Rocket

Breed: American Shorthair

Sex: Male

Color: Brown

Secondary Color: Yellow

Age (Human Years): 1.3

Age (Cat Years): 18

Known Associates: Hiccup

Name: Hiccup

Breed: Birman

Sex: Male

Color: White

Secondary Color: Pink

Age (Human Years): 2.6

Age (Cat Years): 27

Known Associates: Rocket

Offspring: Spewy

The one named Rocket tackled the cat named Hiccup, the two knocking over a stack of crates that caused a domino effect, more of the garbage collapsing around them. Dirt and debris kicked up into the air as the garbage was rearranged, partially blocking the entrance to the hoarder’s home.

Toro placed his hands over his mouth as he heard a roar of disapproval come from the home, someone yelling and cursing as they stormed toward the two brothers.

Rowan instinctively got in front of his brother as a tall man in a shabby, three-piece suit stepped around one of the crates. “No, no, no!” He looked to them, rage in his eyes. “What? Who are you? I demand an answer!”

“We’re…” Rowan gulped.

“I said, who are you, and what have you done to my things?”

The man had long arms, his potbelly causing the buttons on his vest to protrude. He had a hooked nose and wispy gray hair, the face of a vulture.

Name: Garner Sarax

Age: 68

Occupation: Retired Banker

“Um, we’re just here to tell you that Argat has a fitness class tomorrow in the town square,” Toro said, stepping around his older brother.

“A what?” Garner asked. “Who did this?”

“Your cats did it,” said Rowan, his brother’s braveness inspiring him as it always did. “Rocket and Hiccup.”

“Rocket and Hiccup? How…? How did you know my cat’s names? Did my brother tell you?”

“We’ve never met your brother,” Toro said. He then turned to Rowan. “You didn’t meet him, did you?”

Rowan shook his head. “We were just walking by and your cats knocked over your junk, honest.”

“It’s not junk. I’m going to do something with these pieces, boys.” Garner huffed as he looked at all the scattered items. “You know how long it is going to take me to clean this mess up?”

Rowan looked up at the giant sculpture in the shape of a cat, which had been made out of discarded items. He then looked to the house, which he could barely see because of all the trash.

“Which part of it?” he asked, instantly regretting that he put words to this question. Rowan definitely did not want to see a Side Quest pop up instructing him to help the man and his brother clean the place up.

“Bah! Run along. I have to fix this, and you can tell Argat that Alto and I are busy tomorrow morning, and we won’t be attending his little fitness ritual. That is what it is, you know? A ritual to himself. He thinks he’s so handsome and fit, and he wants us all to look like him. Well, we’re not going to look like him! We look like this.” He pointed his finger at his own face. “Now go, and I don’t want to see either of you playing with my things, I mean our things, ever again.”

As if on cue, the cat known as Rocket popped out of an abandoned cooler, Hiccup taking off after him. The two collided with a jug filled with sand dollars, which spilled out onto the cobblestone road.

“Go!” Garner said, waving Rowan and Toro away.

Rowan and Toro raced to the general store, where they were greeted by the five cats who lived outside, the two females coming forward.

“Remember, you can’t tell Dad about the catfish.”

“And we can’t tell him about the lady with the cat mask that you saw,” said Toro as he petted the cat named Zaena.

“We probably shouldn’t tell him about how crazy the hoarder guy is either. He’ll find out soon enough.”

“Anything else we can’t tell him?”

Rowan wanted to say they should withhold as much information from him as possible until he told them a little about what was going on, but he focused on his personal attributes instead. He saw that his HP had dropped considerably, which was likely because of his hunger and the energy he had expended fighting the enormous catfish.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 214/335

Intelligence: 23.56

Willpower: 10.50

Empathy: 6.10

Charisma: 11.84

Strength: 5.41

Dexterity: 7.30

Luck: 3.46

“I need to eat,” he told his younger brother.

“Me too. I’ve lost like fifty HP…”

The two boys entered the store to find their dad setting something up near the front counter, a dial tone reaching Rowan’s ears.

“You got a phone?” he asked.

“Of course, I did,” Ganix told them. “You need to be able to call your mother, and I have business I may have to handle on the mainland. Plus, it’s easier to call the skipper than go down to the dock and hope that he shows up. Wait a minute, where have you two been?” he asked, noticing that both looked a little dirty.

“We just went around,” Rowan told him. “As usual.”

“Just went around, huh? Anything interesting happen?”

“Nope,” Toro said with a big grin on his face. “We did find the town square, though.”

“The town square…” Ganix scratched the underside of his neck. “You know, I really haven’t checked around much of the village yet. I didn’t even know there was a square.”

“It’s not so far from here,” Rowan said. “We’re hungry.”

Ganix equipped a pair of packaged Proxima hamburgers. “I know, I know, we need to eat better food, but this should get us through the afternoon. Tomorrow is a big day.”

“Are we opening tomorrow?” Toro asked.

“No, our soft opening will be the day after tomorrow,” said their father. “But we are getting our first shipment in, and so we need to finish cleaning up the shop.”

“That’s not so fun…” Rowan started to say.

“I can hear a Dad Quest coming on…”

“Nooo…” Toro moaned.

Their father laughed. “Fine. Eat your burgers, and then we’ll get started.”

Rowan and Toro tore the packaging on their burgers, and as they did the burgers instantly warmed up to an optimum temperature. Rowan ate his quickly, recognizing the familiar flavor.

Everyone knew what Proxima food tasted like.

Some people liked it, and others despised the flavor. But it was quick and convenient, which was important in Any_City considering just how busy people usually were.

“I don’t want my pickles,” said Toro as he removed the top bun and set two pickles on the counter.

“Don’t set them there,” Ganix started to tell him.

“Maybe the cats will eat them.”

“We really shouldn’t feed these cats anything aside from actual cat food,” said their father.

“Where’s Uncle anyway?” Rowan asked after he swallowed a bite of sandwich.

“I haven’t seen him. I’m pretty sure he’s upstairs sleeping, which is what I would like to do. In fact…” He shrugged. “I think I’d like to take a nap.”

“And you’re going to leave us to clean up down here?”

Ganix nodded. “It’s mostly just dusting now; I’ve removed almost all the boxes. Don’t you see?”

Rowan looked to the aisles and saw that they were less cluttered than they had been earlier.

“And I know dusting can make you sneeze, so that’s what these are for,” Ganix said as he placed a pair of sleeves on the countertop.

“These are the ones you cut from your suit jacket,” Toro said, his mouth full of food.

“Swallow before you speak,” Ganix reminded him. “You could choke.”

“So what do you want us to do exactly?” Rowan asked. “Use these to dust?”

“No, these are to tie around your faces so you don’t inhale the dust. The dusting supplies are there,” he said, pointing to rags which also used to be his work clothes.

“That’s not fair, Dad,” Toro said.

“You guys have been outside playing all day, and I’ve been in here working. I’m tired, I didn’t rest well, and I’d like to take a quick nap. All I’m asking for you to do is dust down the shelves and the back room. Try to get as much of the dust as you can. We want this opening to go well. I want to do right by my uncle, and…” Ganix trailed off. “We just need this to work. Okay, I’m going upstairs. You know what to do.”

“Totally not fair,” Rowan said after their father was gone.

“Yeah, not fair.”

“At least he could help us clean…”

“It won’t take so long,” Toro said as he finished his burger. “Now I have energy.”

“I think I have energy too,” Rowan said, flexing. He looked down at his tiny muscles.

“We have so much energy!” said Toro as he too flexed his tiny muscles.

“Let’s make this a game; let’s see who can remove the most dust.” Rowan grabbed his father’s sleeve and wrapped it around his face, tying it off the back.

“Time for some cleaning karate,” said Toro as he did the same.

The two pretended they were ninjas as they moved through the aisles. Rowan slowly reached down and picked up one of the rags, which he twirled with one hand. He dipped it in a bucket of water that their father had set on the ground and wrung it out.

“Hai-yah!” Rowan slapped the wet rag against one of the metal surfaces, a poof of dust moving into the air as the shelf collapsed.

The two boys exchanged glances, trying not to laugh.

“Don’t break anything!” they heard their father call from above.

Toro quietly came forward and chopped at the air. He spun, stopped, and politely cleaned off a different shelf.

Rowan laughed and tried to do something similar, making a big gesture as if he were going to attack. He came to a halt at the very last second and cleaned in a stilted way, as if he were a robot.

Rowan fixed the shelf he had knocked down, Toro moving even faster as he whipped up dust.

“Where does it all come from?” Rowan asked once they were about halfway done, the two cleaning for a good thirty minutes by this point. They still had the back room to clean. At least it was smaller.

“The dust?” Toro shrugged.

“Maybe it’s our hair. You think…”

“This is dead people’s hair?” Toro asked.

“Maybe? Or it’s our skin.”

Toro shook his head. “It doesn’t look like skin. It’s mostly gray and sometimes it’s fuzzy.”

“I wish there wasn’t dust. I don’t like it.”

“I don’t like it either.”

Rowan pulled down his face covering and took a deep breath, his cheeks flushed. “This thing is annoying.”

“But it does make us look cool.”

“Since when did you care about looking cool? You always wear the same colored shirts, blue jean shorts in the summer, and long jeans in the winter. That’s your style.”

“What are you trying to say?” Toro asked.

“I’m just saying, it’s your style.”

“You wear the same stuff too.”

Rowan looked down at himself and back to his younger brother. “I think you’re right…”

The two boys started laughing.

Rowan affixed his mask over his face again, noticing that the fabric smelled just a little bit like his dad. Or at least, how his dad used to smell. Rowan’s father didn’t seem to wear this particular cologne anymore.

As he continued cleaning, Rowan thought about what had happened, and why they had actually come to Sacred Cat Island. Something wasn’t right. Not only had something happened between his parents, but something definitely happened to his father’s job. Maybe he quit, or maybe he was fired.

“Do you think Dad was fired?” Rowan asked, wishing as the words left his lips that he hadn’t brought this to his younger brother’s attention.

“Fired? For what?”

“You’ve seen his social status.”

“Former administrator,” Toro said, “and a bunch of other stuff. I can’t wait to be an adult and make my status say ‘former child.’”

Rowan grinned. “Former island boy.”

“I’m not an island boy.”

“You’re a boy, and you’re on an island.”

“We’re only going to be here this summer,” Toro reminded him.

“Good,” said Rowan. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to be on this island all year round. The flower lady said there was lots of snow.”

“Tuya…” said Toro. “Her flowers were pretty. I wonder what she’ll give us if we help her plant them all.”

“Probably nothing, but whatever it is, it’ll be better than that clamshell. We fought a giant catfish…”

“I know!”

“And all we got was this clamshell. Chodak didn’t even believe us about the catfish. He’s been fishing for longer than we’ve been alive, and he’s not going to believe us? Why would we make that up? That catfish almost…” Rowan bit his lip.

“It could have killed both of us.”

“It could have swallowed us whole, and then we would have had to live in its stomach.”

Toro laughed. “That would have been so gross.”

“And we would have to eat whatever it ate. It would be cold, and dark, and…”

The two boys heard movement in the back room.

They paused, Rowan slowly lowering his rag. He nodded to his younger brother as he equipped his wooden sword.

“Just in case.”

Toro equipped his broom. “Yeah, just in case.”

The boy slipped into the back room to find a girl made of dust floating in the center of the space, the hairs on Rowan’s arms standing to attention as soon as he spotted her.

The girl wore a summer dress and her hair was tied off in a ponytail. She had her back to them, her head down slightly as if she was worried about something.

Before Rowan could say anything, Toro charged forward with his broom, which he swatted at the floating dust girl.

His broom went right through her as she lifted in the air. Her body reformed, a shocked look spreading across her face.

“Easy,” Rowan said as the dust girl grew angry, her brow lowering. “Easy…”

She charged after him, and Rowan jumped out of the way just in time. He was up to his feet in a matter of seconds, following her into the other room, Toro close behind him.

“Hey!” Toro cried out.

The dust girl was gone, but she had left them a parting gift: the aisles were all covered in dust again, more than there had been before they started.

“That’s not fair.”

“We just cleaned all of that,” Rowan whined.

“Was that a ghost?”

Rowan felt a shiver run down his spine. “I… I don’t know.”

The two boys heard the stairs creak, indicating that their father was coming back down.

Ganix reached the store and sighed once he saw the mess that lay before him. He looked from his sons, with masks on their faces and Rowan with a wooden sword in his hand, to all the dust still in the room.

“Rowan, Toro…”

“The room was clean,” Toro said.

“It was, I swear. And then…”

Ganix lifted his hand. “It’s fine, I feel better now after lying down. I’ll help you to finish up.”

“Stupid dust girl,” Toro muttered under his breath.

“What was that?” Ganix asked.

“Nothing.”

In the end, the shop was really starting to take shape, the aisles clean, the supplies that Rowan and Toro’s great-uncle had left already on display. Most of it was fishing-related, but there were a few canned goods that hadn’t expired, and they had already been priced as well. Naturally, the boys found the price gun fascinating, Ganix eventually having to stash it in a place they couldn’t readily get to it.

“I want both of you to get dinner tonight,” he said once they’d finished up. He handed Rowan some Proxima dollars. “We’ll call your mom after dinner.”

“We get to talk to her?”

Ganix gave Toro a funny look. “Of course you do, that’s why we got the phone. I would install it upstairs but there isn’t a phone jack. Have either of you heard about any carpenters, mechanics, or electricians on the island? I’m sure there’s one here, probably a retired one. We could use someone like that around here.”

“We haven’t met anyone yet,” Rowan said.

“How many people do you think live on this island?” Toro asked.

“I asked Nedman about that,” said Ganix. “He claims that there are over fifty, plus a handful who live off the grid outside of the village.”

“How can you live off the grid when you are already off the grid?”

“Funny,” Ganix told Rowan. “And we are not off the grid. It’s less than two hours to Any_City.”

“Is Mom coming then?”

“No,” Ganix told Toro. “Enough questions, boys. I don’t know about you two, but I’m seriously hungry.”

“I’m seriously hungry too,” said Toro, drumming his fingers on his belly.

“Don’t take too long,” their father called after them as the two skipped out the door. The cats in front of their home scattered, Toro and Rowan quickly making their way to Nedman’s Sacred Cat Restaurant.

“Look,” Rowan said, pointing to the horde of cats outside the restaurant. There were six in total, mostly female.

“Roman, Sophia, Sabine, Danira, Catriona, and Amethyst,” Toro said, reading their names off the Catpendium. “Those are some strange names.”

“Like I said before, all the cats have strange names here,” Rowan told him as they entered the restaurant. They still hadn’t had a chance to discuss the fight they’d had with the dust girl, which was something Rowan really wanted to unpack.

He didn’t know if it was a ghost or a spirit, or what the real difference was between the two, but he didn’t like how she’d left the place and was fairly certain they’d run into her again.

“Boys,” said Nedman, who had just been leaning against the counter, yawning. “Sorry about that. We just had a rush of customers. Anyway, how is the Catpendium treating you?”

“It’s awesome,” Rowan said. “It tells us so much information.”

“Ringo is the name of the old coder who put that together. Maybe your dad would like to meet him at some point. I do like to use it from time to time, especially with all the cats around. Anyway, what brings you in?” Nedman laughed. “Of course, you’ve come in for food, you didn’t come in to talk to me.”

“Our dad sent us for food,” said Toro, “but we’ll talk to you if you want.”

“Well, let’s put your order in first, and then we can chat while it’s being made. How’s that? We have a special tonight, catsbury steak with mashed catatos.”

Toro snickered. “Catatos?”

“The very best in the village, young man, although Tunga over at the Fisherman’s Restaurant makes some pretty good cat chips. He doesn’t call them that, of course, he just calls them chips. But where’s the fun in that? That’s why we lost so many tourists, you know. We stopped catering to visitors and just catered to ourselves. Sure enough, a few people died and, well, you’ve seen what the place looks like.”

“It’s not that bad…”

“Honey, I need a special for three people,” Nedman called into the kitchen. “Sorry, I hope you don’t mind if I ordered for you. We really don’t have anything else tonight.”

“No, that sounds fine. I think. What is, um, catsbury steak again?” Rowan asked.

“Like a hamburger without the bun, and with a nice sauce on top of it. Trust me, you’ll like it. Now where was I? The island. You know, I’m actually glad you two showed up tonight. This island needs a breath of fresh air, it needs youth, and I’m not talking about Doyona’s granddaughter. What do you boys think?”

“About what?” Rowan looked at his brother and registered the confusion on his face.

“You know, cleaning this island up and returning it to its former glory. Getting it up and running, if you will, a revolution. That sort of thing. You three are the first people to move here in, gosh, it must be five years now. Let me check.” Nedman moved back to the kitchen. “Honey, how long since the last person moved here?”

She yelled something, Rowan not able to discern what she said.

“I was right, five years,” Nedman said as he returned to them. “Maybe others will come now that you’ve come, and we can turn this island around. We can reopen the school, bring in tourists, get the orchard up and running, the farmer’s market, you name it. You know, if we get them planted soon enough, we will have apple-peaches in just a few weeks. They really grow that quickly, believe it or not. Have you ever had one of those?”

“No,” Rowan said.

“I haven’t either,” Toro chimed in.

“They don’t have them on the mainland. Think of, well, think of their name. They give you what you like about apples, and what you like about peaches, and mix them together. Apple-peach. What you get is something that’s delicious to eat by itself, or to put in a dessert, or even a salad. We used to have them, but the people that ran the orchard passed away,” Nedman said, trailing off. “And it’s not like anyone has kids that want to take over their businesses once they pass. We work so hard to build this place up and then our kids just want to get a job in Any_City and want to live in one of those high-end Proxima neighborhoods downtown.”

“Uh-huh,” Toro said, Rowan not so sure if his younger brother was following along.

“I guess…” Nedman pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know why I’m telling you two this. It’s just been a long day. What I wouldn’t give for there to be a little excitement here once again. Fireworks, a concert, tourists, people for me to talk to other than the same old folks every single day, not that I mind them.” Nedman chuckled to himself. “They are, after all, my customers. I guess what I’m trying to say is this: maybe you two, and your father, are what this island needs. I know you just moved here, but you three are the youngest people on the island.”

“Even our dad?” Toro asked.

“That’s right. And if you three can live here, others can. We can get this place popping again.”

“We’re only going to be here—”

“We’re going to try to do the best that we can while we’re here,” Rowan said, cutting his brother off. “We’ve already started helping some of the neighbors.”

“That’s definitely a start. If they start to like you, maybe they’ll get more active in the community,” Nedman said. “I’m always here, so it’s hard for me to be as active as I would like, but you two can get something up and running, get some revolution started…”

A short woman wearing a hairnet and an apron stepped out of the kitchen. She placed a brown paper bag on the countertop.

“Did you just say revolution?” she asked.

Her social status appeared and flashed away as she continued speaking.

Name: Mel Gobi

Age: 64

Occupation: Nedman’s Sacred Cat Restaurant Owner

“What’s wrong with that?” Nedman asked.

“Don’t go telling these boys about your ideas of some revolution that this island doesn’t need. People are happy here.”

“Come on, Mel, you know people aren’t happy. Sometimes they’re friendly, but that doesn’t mean that they’re happy.”

“I’m sure these two have other things to do with their dad rather than be part of whatever revolution you’re planning.”

“Come on, Mel,” Nedman said again, quieter this time.

“Your food,” she told the two, pushing the bag toward them. Rowan handed over the money.

“I’ve got to get a new batch of salisbury steak whipped up,” she said as she spun back to the kitchen.

“Catsbury steak…” Nedman called after her. He turned back to Toro and Rowan. “Anyway, give it some thought. This is your island now as much as it is ours. What can you do, what can we all do, to make it better, to bring people back and return some of the joy that this place once had? You guys wouldn’t believe how fun this place used to be.”

“Really?” Toro asked.

“Really. There was always something going on, and people were friendly, and we had plenty of tourists in the summer to pad our wallets for the long winter months. We actually got to work less, if you can imagine that, because we were able to hire people to help. I know it’s hard to tell now,” Nedman swept his arm across the restaurant, and its old posters and grimy tables, “but this place used to be brand-new. I guess, just don’t forget that. Everything that is old was once new, including me,” he said, showing the boys his bald spot. “I didn’t used to have this.”

“Okay,” Rowan said, not sure how to respond to the way the man was looking at the two of them.

“We’ll keep trying our best and we’ll keep you updated,” Toro said cheerfully.

This brought a smile to Nedman’s face. “That’s good to hear. I guess I’ll see you two tomorrow night.”

“Or in the morning, if we’re lucky,” Rowan said. “You make the best breakfast.”

“I just sell the breakfast, she makes it,” said Nedman, pointing his thumb toward the kitchen. “Well, that’s not true, sometimes I make it too. Anyway, have a good night, boys.”

Rowan and Toro moved outside, the cats outside of the restaurant running off as soon as they saw them.

“That was strange,” Rowan said once the door was shut.

“What was?”

“Didn’t you listen to what he was saying in there?”

“Sort of. He seems sad. I think he was missing what the island used to be like.”

“Yeah,” Rowan said. “Maybe there’s…”

He never finished the sentence as he looked up to see a daily prize floating above them.

“I wonder what’s in there,” Toro said as he followed his brother’s gaze.

“I don’t know, but…” Rowan looked to a trash can. It quickly became clear to him that he could climb the trash can and use it to get to Nedman’s rooftop, where he would be able to hit the balloon out of the air, just as he had done the other day for Gonpo.

“Give me your broom and take this,” he said, handing his brother the food.

Toro equipped the broom. “I don’t know,” he said as he gave it to Rowan. “It seems pretty high up there.”

“We need to figure out a better way to get those prizes down,” Rowan said. “A slingshot would do it. But I don’t think Dad would let us have a slingshot. Let’s worry about that later. You stay here.”

A couple of the cats moved out of the way as Rowan hopped to the trash can, and slowly stood. He placed his hands on the rooftop and looked around, seeing if anyone was watching him.

Once he was on the rooftop, Rowan crouched and turned his attention to the daily prize, which happened to be a white box with the red ribbon wrapped around it, suspended by a blue balloon.

Rowan reached the broomstick out, just to test and make sure he was stable. Once he was sure, he reached it just a bit further, the balloon just a foot or so away.

“Almost there…” Toro said.

One of the cats hopped up onto the trash can, appearing in Rowan’s periphery. The movement startled him, causing him to slip forward.

Rowan fell from the rooftop and landed on his back, everything flashing black.

Rowan blinked his eyes open and groaned. His HP flashed before him, letting him know he was down a hundred points.

“He’s awake,” Toro said, the young boy racing over to the couch.

Ganix joined him, his face overcome with relief.

“My head…” Rowan said.

“I can’t believe you and your brother…”

Uncle hopped onto Rowan’s chest and peered down at him.

“Toro, get your cat,” said Ganix. “I just can’t believe you would go and do something like that,” he started to scold Rowan.

Rowan slowly sat up, wincing as he felt the pain shoot from the back of his head. “Did I get the prize?”

“Did you what?” Ganix shook his head incredulously. “Enough. I want you two to stop trying to get this daily prize. It’s not worth it. The last one was a set of rain gear. Is it seriously worth killing yourselves to get these things? Your brother says you jumped off the roof.”

“I didn’t jump, I fell,” Rowan said. “Seeing one of the cats threw me off balance.”

“I just can’t believe…” Ganix massaged his temples for a moment. “I don’t want you climbing on things to get these presents. Think of another way to get them down if you’re so interested.”

“A slingshot,” Toro said.

“I would prefer if you two didn’t have slingshots, because inevitably, one of you would shoot the other, and you could hurt your brother,” he said to both of them. “You remember what I told you about my brother, right?”

The two boys nodded.

“You’ve told us several times,” Rowan finally said.

“He’s the only brother you have. If you lose him, or if he loses you, that’s it. You don’t have another one.”

“Sorry, Dad.”

“Yeah, we’re sorry,” said Toro.

“Let’s just…” Ganix settled his breath. “Let’s just eat dinner, and then you two need to get ready for bed.”

“What about calling Mom?” Toro asked.

“Tomorrow morning. It’s been a long day.”

The catsbury steak and catatos were now cold, Ganix not offering to warm them up. Rowan and Toro didn’t say anything as they ate the cold food. A picky eater as always, Toro eventually put his plate on the ground for Uncle, who seemed to enjoy it.

“We have cat food coming tomorrow,” Ganix said, finally looking up from his food. “A lot, actually. Apparently, it’s a big seller around here.”

Rowan and Toro washed up after dinner, Rowan still feeling the pain from his fall. He lay down on the bed and closed his eyes, going over everything that had happened that day.

It had been an epically long day, some of the highlights being their battle with the giant catfish, working in Tuya’s garden, meeting the grouchy hoarder known as Garner but not his brother, encountering the dust girl, their conversation at Nedman’s restaurant, Rowan injuring himself while trying to get the daily prize.

As he stared up at the ceiling, he thought about what Nedman had said.

At first it seemed like some type of fantasy. How could they really do anything on the island in such a short amount of time? How could they really improve it? Thinking about it conjured more ways to improve the village, which would make everyone happy.

Well, maybe not Doyona and Garner, but the entire island would benefit from tourists. It would be great if there were other kids around.

“What if the island is trying to keep people away?” Rowan asked aloud, his brother stirring.

“What?”

“What if the island has pretty scary things—like the thing I saw under the water, or the dust girl, or the giant catfish—to keep us away? I mean, not us. Although we didn’t really have a choice. I mean other tourists, and people that would visit. What if the island is actively trying to keep people out?”

“I don’t know,” Toro said with a yawn.

But Rowan wasn’t done turning this idea over. He thought about it more and more as his brother drifted off to sleep, Rowan wondering if perhaps they did have a reason for coming here, that they could somehow fight the island and make it nice again, tame it in some way.

Eventually, he turned his attention to his stats, and from there to his active quests.

Main Quest: Adjust to island living

Side Quest: Learn more about what you saw beneath the water

Side Quest: Help Nedman Gobi catch the daily prize

Side Quest: Help Tuya plant her flowers

Side Quest: Join Argat for his morning exercise and recruit others

Personal Quest: Figure out what happened between Mom and Dad

Personal Quest: Try to be nicer to Toro

At least he had completed a few quests since arriving on the island; he had a feeling as the days progressed there would be plenty more.

Suddenly wanting to be around his father, Rowan quietly slipped out of the bed and tiptoed to the door. He made his way in the living room, and looked to the couch to see Uncle resting on his side. The kitten looked over to him, yawned and relaxed his head again.

Rowan checked the balcony, but didn’t find his father.

The bathroom light wasn’t on, so he wasn’t in there, and the only other light on in the home was at the bottom of the stairs, in the store.

Rowan gravitated toward it like a moth to a flame. He reached the store and paused, his breaths suddenly short and staccato. He got this feeling that he was being watched, the hair on the back of his neck standing as he tilted his head to the left, all but expecting to see the dust girl.

But from what he could tell there was nothing there, and he was just about to take a step forward when the door slammed shut.

Rowan jumped back, gasping as his father entered from outside.

“What are you doing?” Ganix asked, a sweet smell reaching Rowan’s nostrils.

“I was coming to look for you.”

“I was just outside for a moment,” his dad said, clearing his throat. “Come on, let’s go upstairs.”

He placed a hand on Rowan’s shoulder and guided him up the stairs, his dad’s grip tight.

“You really should be sleeping,” his dad told him.

“I was thinking about things and…”

“Yes?”

“What were you doing?”

“Rowan, like I said, I went out. Just for a minute. I just wanted to check on the cats out there, and I ended up walking down to the statue near the docks. I saw your daily prize out there, floating near the neighbor’s fence.”

“You should have gotten it,” Rowan said as they stepped out onto the balcony and sat.

“That likely won’t happen, but I do understand its allure. I’m fairly certain that this is just a glitch in the system…” he said to himself.

“A what?”

“It’s probably something the Proxima company did years ago when this was a tourist destination and for some reason, they didn’t stop doing it.”

“But who is letting them out? I mean, who’s tying the presents to the balloons?”

“No one. Well, someone. I’ll explain it to you when you’re older.”

The two were silent for a moment, the sounds of the waves reaching Rowan’s ears. It was absolutely beautiful by the shoreline, and just hearing the sound made Rowan feel drowsy. He was just about to stand and head to his bedroom when something he’d been thinking of earlier came to him. “Dad?”

“Yes?”

“I have a strange idea.”

“What’s that?”

“One of the reasons it took us time to get food was because Nedman was talking about the island and what it used to be like.”

“He’s talked to me about it as well. The glory days. Nostalgia can be toxic, never forget that.”

“What’s nostalgia?”

“Nostalgia is…” Ganix thought for a moment. “You remember what it was like at the start of the last school year? When you got to see some of your school friends again, and you got back into the routine of being a student?”

Rowan nodded.

“Do you miss it?”

“I miss my friends.”

“Nostalgia is sort of like that. Not exactly, but close. It’s when you think of the past in a sentimental way, but sometimes the way you are thinking about it is tainted by unknown variables, things that made that specific point in time the way it was, things that cannot be replicated.”

“What?”

“I’ll try to explain it to you another time. Just think of it like this: what Nedman told you about the island is him viewing it through the lens of nostalgia. Who knew if the place was actually like he says it was.”

“But why would he lie? It sounded like it was pretty nice. He said there were concerts, and tourists, and that the place was lively.”

“Maybe to him, but maybe other people didn’t like it.”

Rowan was quiet for a moment.

He wanted to argue with his dad, but he didn’t know quite how to make his point. Eventually, he decided to circle back around and focus on the idea that was starting to percolate in his mind, rather than Nedman’s nostalgia.

“How about this: what if we tried to change the island?”

“Change the island?” Ganix looked over to him, no judgment in his eyes.

“Maybe the island could be better, and since we’re here this summer, maybe we can make it even better during this time. Nedman said that there was an old farm that they used to have apple-peaches on, an orchard or something. Maybe we could get it replanted. There has to be other small businesses or shops or whatever that could make money for people. But we would need to bring tourists.”

“And you would want us to bring tourists?”

“Maybe there’s a way that we can get people from the mainland interested in coming here over the summer,” Rowan said, everything clear to him at that moment. “I mean, you want to make money at the store, right?”

“Enough to survive, yes.”

“There’s only like fifty people that live on this island. How much money can you make off them?”

Ganix smirked. “I suppose…” He looked up at the darkened sky for a moment, a shooting star passing by, Rowan catching it as well.

“Did you see that, Dad?” Rowan asked.

“I did. And, you know what? Maybe you’re right. No. Maybe I’m just…” He shook his head. “No, we already have a store to run. But…”

“We can do something, Dad,” Rowan told him. “I don’t know what it will do, but sometimes it’s the little things that make a difference. Mom always used to say that.”

“I’m well aware,” Ganix said in a low voice. “Let me think about it. Let me think about if this is something that we are capable of doing. Let’s start with just getting the store set up. That’s one thing I learned as a programmer. One piece of the puzzle at a time. It’s good to understand the whole concept of what you are trying to build, but sometimes thinking about the big picture makes the day-to-day operations seem daunting. What I’m trying to say here is this: one step at a time.”

“One step at a time,” said Rowan. “I’ll keep thinking about it too.”

“Good. Then we’ll talk about it again soon. Now, you really should go in and get some rest. It’s getting late.”

Toro accidentally kicked Rowan, waking him up, the young boy whimpering as he had a nightmare.

“Hey,” Rowan said, shaking his brother’s shoulder.

“No, no…” Toro blinked his eyes open. He sat up rapidly and took a deep breath in, startling Uncle, who was resting at the edge of the bed.

“You’re having a nightmare,” Rowan said.

“A nightmare?” Toro nodded. “Yeah, yeah. It was a nightmare. It was that catfish. It…”

“What?” Rowan rolled out of bed and stretched his arms over his head. He was cold, mostly because Toro had taken all the blankets and curled himself up into a ball, which was the normal way he slept.

“The catfish swallowed me. And then I equipped my broom inside its mouth and tried to fight my way out, but I couldn’t.” Toro shook his head. “It was scary…”

“Boys? You up?” Ganix called from the living room.

“Yes,” Rowan called back.

“Get out here, I have to go.”

“Where’s he going?” Toro asked.

Rowan sat down on the corner of the bed and reached for Uncle. As he petted the kitten, he quickly checked his personal attributes.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 335/335

Intelligence: 23.65

Willpower: 10.67

Empathy: 6.45

Charisma: 11.84

Strength: 5.41

Dexterity: 7.30

Luck: 3.46

+ .09 Intelligence!

+ .17 Willpower!

+ .35 Empathy!

Rowan nodded, surprised to see his empathy move up by so much. His dexterity definitely hadn’t changed any, and he was lucky it didn’t go down after yesterday’s fall. He had yet to see an attribute decrease, but that didn’t mean it was impossible. If anything, the last few days had shown him that the realm of possibility was more fluid than he had originally thought.

Rowan went to the closet and grabbed a dark-blue shirt that read Any_City Pizza. He slipped into a pair of shorts, just as their father called out again.

“Boys!”

“Coming, coming,” said Rowan as he reached the door. As soon as he was in the living room, he caught the familiar scent of Proxima pancakes, which came baked with the syrup already inside.

“Can’t we get something fresh? From Nedman’s?” he asked.

“We are saving money today,” said their father. “I just paid for a big shipment of things and we’ll need to recoup some costs before we start having breakfast out every morning. Besides, we can have Nedman’s for dinner. How’s that?”

“Fine.”

“Pancakes!” Toro said as he ran out of the room, holding Uncle in his arms. He dropped the orange kitten on the couch and once again climbed on top of his father’s luggage so he could stand at the bar and eat.

“We’re going to get a table soon,” their dad said, “or bar stools. Don’t you worry.”

“It’s not so bad to stand,” said Toro. “Keeps me on my feet.”

Ganix stopped arranging the pancakes on the plate in front of him and looked at his son. “That was funny,” he said.

“Here’s an idea: you can become the island comedian to make us money,” said Rowan, his eyes narrowing a bit on his brother. “You’ll be our big attraction. People will come from all over to see you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I can see it now: funny island boy.”

“I’m not an island boy!”

“Rowan, don’t tease your brother.”

“I’m not teasing him, I’m saying I will be his manager, Dad. He needs a manager if he’s going to be famous.”

“I don’t want to be famous…”

“Rowan, enough. Eat your pancakes. After that, we’re going to go downstairs and call your mother. I’ll have the supplies delivered at that time. I may get a little golf cart or something eventually to bring the supplies up. Can you imagine carrying them up every day? I think Uncle Turni used a wheelbarrow, but that doesn’t seem very practical.”

“We’re getting a golf cart?” Rowan asked.

“Well, eventually. To be honest, I’m surprised I haven’t seen any on the island. In fact, there are no cars.”

“I noticed that too,” Rowan told his dad. “Maybe they’re banned.”

Ganix considered this as he set the pancakes before Rowan. He set another plate of pancakes in front of Toro.

“Perhaps. They’re having a village meeting a few days from now; maybe I’ll ask about it then.”

“Good idea,” Rowan said, wanting to restart the conversation they were having last night about revitalizing the island.

In the end he didn’t say anything, Rowan eating his breakfast instead.

The pancakes were good, but he noticed that there was something off about their taste, something that was less wholesome than the food they got at Nedman’s. He hoped they could start cooking in the future as well, once things got settled.

After breakfast, and after scrubbing the syrup off their plates, Ganix led the two boys downstairs, Uncle following after them. Their father picked up the phone and dialed a number.

“Maryam?” he asked. “Hey…”

Rowan saw his dad bite his lip in that moment, his eyes lowering just a hair. “I’m doing fine. Everything is fine. The boys are here and they want to talk to you. I have to go pick up a shipment for the store. Okay… All right… Sure, here’s Rowan.” Ganix placed his hand over the receiver. “Talk to your mother, and then let Toro talk.”

Rowan took the phone, his heart leaping into his throat as he heard his mother’s voice.

“Rowan? Are you there?”

Ganix waved goodbye to the boys and stepped out of the store.

“Mom,” said Rowan, his voice cracking. “Hi.”

“Hi, Mom!” Toro yelled.

“How are you two?” she asked, Rowan noticing something in her voice that he couldn’t quite place, almost as if she were choking back a sob.

“We’re good,” Rowan told her. “The island is… Interesting. We’re still getting settled in.”

“Tell her about the dust girl and the lady with the cat mask and the catfish…”

Rowan shushed his younger brother and turned away from him. “Are you coming to the island?” he asked his mother point blank.

“I wasn’t planning to come there, no, Rowan.”

“Why not? Why are we here? And what happened to Dad’s job?”

“Your father and I have agreed to talk to you about this later,” she said. “I’m sure he’s told you that. And if you want to know about his job, you need to ask him. But I don’t want to talk about those things. I want to know about you. How are you doing? Are you eating okay?”

“There’s a pretty good restaurant on the island. Actually, I think there’s two, but one is mostly just for fish, so we haven’t eaten there yet.”

“Is your father cooking?”

“Not yet, but that’s because we really don’t have supplies. He’s going to get them right now. He wants to do a soft opening for the store tomorrow. I think things will settle down in the next few days. We’re going to go camping, too.”

“That sounds exciting.”

“Where are you? Are you at home?” Rowan asked.

“I was at your grandfather’s for a few days, but yes, now I’m back at home.”

“Have any of my friends stopped by?”

“They have, and I told them that you’ll be back after summer. Is your brother okay? How is Toro holding up?”

“He’s not too bad, I think he’s getting a little taller,” Rowan said, turning back to his brother.

“Really?” Toro asked.

“Is he standing right there?” asked their mother. “Because if so, I want to talk to him too.”

“Mom wants to talk to you,” Rowan said as he handed the phone to his younger brother.

Rowan moved up and down the aisles of the store as his brother spoke on the phone, Toro always closer with their mother than he was. He saw some cobwebs in the corner that weren’t there yesterday and he returned to his brother, asking for the broom.

“Hold on, I’m giving Rowan the broom,” Toro told their mother. “Yes, we’ve been cleaning a lot. But it’s hard because…”

Rowan shook his head. “Don’t tell her.”

“Um, it’s hard because there is a lot of dust.”

Rowan took the broom from his brother and returned to the cobwebs. He was able to get them down, and was just making sure that there weren’t any new ones in the back room of the store, when Uncle suddenly hissed.

A pile of dust on the ground swirled into the form of a young girl, Rowan’s grip on the broom handle tightening as he realized that Toro wasn’t there to charge forward as he normally did.

Swallowing his fears, Rowan swung the broom at the dust girl, his broom passing right through her.

Dust scattered to the far corners of the room. The debris was sucked back up into her form, a terrified look on her face as he swung the broom again. She charged toward the exit, making her way into the main space of the general store, Rowan hot on her heels.

“You will get out!” he cried, swinging his broom again and again.

“It’s her!” Toro shouted, dropping the phone.

“Out!”

Toro looked for a weapon and found a hammer, the ten-year-old boy charging after the dust girl as well.

The two heard an ear-piercing scream as the dust girl slammed into the door, her form going straight through it, everything suddenly still.

“She’s gone,” said Rowan as he lowered his broom. “We took care of her.” He turned to his younger brother. “Wait. You were going to hit her with a hammer?”

Toro shrugged. “It was the first thing I could grab.”

“Mom’s still on the phone…” Rowan stepped past his brother and grabbed the phone, which was attached to the wall by a plastic cord. “Mom?”

“What happened? What are you two getting into? Are you okay?”

“It was nothing,” Rowan said, his eyes falling on Uncle. “One of the cats from outside got in, and we had to chase it out. You wouldn’t believe how many cats there are on this island. In fact…” An idea came to Rowan, one that would quickly change the course of their conversation. “This guy that lives on the island gave us a Catpendium. It’s so cool. We’re able to see all the details of the cats on the island. We also have a kitten now…”

Rowan continued.

Even though his voice was jovial, he was still alert, expecting the dust girl to burst back into their store at any minute.

They had to be ready for anything on Sacred Cat Island.

.Chapter Four.

It was hard for Rowan to sit patiently inside the apartment while he waited for their dad to sort out the order at the West Docks. And even though he knew their father would probably need help putting the things up, he also felt like stepping out and discovering more about the island.

He got the notification of a Side Quest, one that seemed apropos:

Side Quest: Find out if there is magic on the island

Of course, this was something he was already interested in doing, Rowan quickly scanning through his active Side Quests to see if he could strike any others off the list.

Side Quest: Learn more about what you saw beneath the water

Side Quest: Help Tuya plant her flowers

Side Quest: Join Argat for his morning exercise and recruit others

Side Quest: Find out if there is magic on the island

His eyes moved to the Main Quest that he still had active: adjust to island living. Like most of the quests he’d encountered, they were satisfied when they were satisfied, and he generally didn’t receive much information on how to clear them.

Rowan never questioned this; he had lived this way his entire life, entirely used to the system by this point.

Of the active Side Quests he currently had, the one regarding what he saw beneath the water was going to be hardest to discover, even if it was simply the woman in the cat mask. Perhaps it was related to his latest quest. If he found out what kind of magic was happening behind the scenes on the island, maybe this would naturally answer the question of the first quest.

As he skipped past planting flowers, at least for now, Rowan’s eyes fell on the quest they’d been given by Argat, the island’s former marathon runner.

“Remember the exercise guy?”

“Yep, Argat.”

“His class is right now. Let’s go.”

“I thought we were supposed to stay here…”

“I thought we were supposed to stay here,” Rowan said, mocking his brother. “Come on, we’re really just going to sit here all day? There’s magic in the air, or dust.” He laughed at his own joke.

“And you don’t think Dad will mind?”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine. He can’t expect us to stay cooped up in here all day.”

“Don’t go anywhere, Uncle.” Toro placed the kitten on the couch and joined his brother. Once they put their shoes on, the two boys went down the stairs to the general store, Rowan locking up behind him.

They were greeted by the cats that lived outside of the general store, all of the meowing seemingly at once.

“They seem hungry,” Toro said, as the two females came forward.

“We’re probably going to have to feed all of them, Nedman’s cats too.” Rowan gestured across the street to the six cats outside the restaurant. He quickly read their names: Roman, Sophia, Sabine, Danira, Catriona, and Amethyst. His focus then turned back to the cats in front of the general store and their names: Quantum, Meme, Zaena, Ryuk, Fiona.

He still didn’t quite know where the names came from, or why they were so strange. Rowan was just about to turn to Doyona’s house and check on her cats when he spotted Gonpo.

The man in the panda costume lumbered in their direction, the part of his face that Rowan could see dipped into a frown.

“What’s wrong?” Toro asked, also picking up on the former mascot’s melancholy.

“Nothing, other than the fact I just missed the daily prize. Hopefully, it will come back around again.”

“If we ever see it, we’ll help you get it,” Rowan offered.

“You will?” he asked, looking up at them.

Rowan and Toro nodded.

“Thanks, boys, it’s nice to have some people who care on the island.”

“You should come with us,” Rowan said to Gonpo.

“Come where?”

“To Argat’s class.”

The large man kicked at the cobblestone street for a moment. “I’m not really interested in that. It’s not…” He placed his hands on his belly. “Let’s just say I used to look a little different, back when I was younger, but I’ve always been big.”

“So you weren’t always shaped like a panda?” Toro asked, not realizing how harsh his question sounded.

Luckily, Gonpo didn’t take it this way. “Not quite. I used to have a bit more muscle under my girth. You wouldn’t believe it by seeing me now, but I used to be able to do all the things that mascots can do, backflips and cartwheels, you know, those sorts of things. But you get older, and as you get older the weight piles on and it gets harder and harder to lose it. Anyway, I’m just going to head to Nedman’s for a little breakfast. I’ll see you two around.”

“Hey, before you go,” Rowan started to say. “This is going to sound kind of strange, but… have you ever heard about any magic on the island?”

As soon as the words left his lips, Rowan felt like an idiot. This wasn’t a question he would have asked his dad, and the only reason he asked the man in the panda costume was because of what he was wearing, that maybe he wasn’t like other adults who didn’t believe in stuff like that.

“Did you say magic?”

“Yeah, magic,” said Toro.

“I can’t say that I’ve ever heard of anything like that, but it’s a strange world out there, boys, and Sacred Cat Island definitely has some secrets on it,” he said. The man’s frown lifted into a grin. “You haven’t really explored the island yet, have you?”

“Just around here,” Rowan told him. “But we’re supposed to go camping with our dad soon.”

“There are some pretty strange folks on the other side of the island. You’ll see. There’s one guy who lives on a cliff rising out of the water,” he explained, making the gesture with his hand. “Old Man Stellars. He owns a lot of the island. You have to take a bridge to get to his place. Strange stuff. There’s also the cat shrine up in the mountains, which is strange. There’s another guy whose house is attached to his bicycle. Definitely weird. But magic? You are asking the wrong guy. Anyway, it’s breakfast time,” he said as he patted his panda belly. “Have a good day.”

Rowan and Toro continued toward the town square, where they hoped to catch the end of Argat’s exercise class. They weren’t expecting to run into Doyona, their neighbor powerwalking in a pink tracksuit, two neon-green weights in her hands.

“Boys,” she said, instantly scowling at them. “I take it you two aren’t getting into any trouble, are you?”

“There’s no trouble to get in on this island,” Rowan said, grinning at her.

“I can think of plenty of things you two could do that would disrupt the way of life around here. We’re a retirement community. You know that, right?”

“Nedman said that this place used to be a tourist destination, that people from all over came here.”

“Nedman has been saying that since before I moved here. Let me guess, he went on about a revolution, right? I can tell you this, it hasn’t been a tourist destination in the last decade, and if I have my say, which I will considering I am the, ahem, head of the village council, it won’t become one. The last thing we need around here are tourists. I find it almost absurd that you would even mention that to me.”

A cat ran by, startling her. Embarrassed by her sudden outburst of emotion, Doyona huffed away.

“Why does she hate us?” Toro asked after she was gone.

Rowan thought about this for a moment, and as he did he took in his surroundings, the sounds of the ocean carried up by the breeze, the squawk of seagulls and pelicans, the smell of the ocean mixing with Tuya’s epic flower beds.

“I wish I knew,” he finally said. “We are going to have to keep an eye out for her. She’s the kind of person that would tell our dad things about us.”

“What kind of things?” Toro asked as he started up again.

“Lies, or maybe even the truth. Maybe she would tell our dad that we fought a catfish.”

“But she wasn’t there.”

“I’m just saying, if it was something she saw, she would tell him. That kind of thing. And then we have to stay in the apartment all summer and our already-boring summer would be ruined.”

Toro snorted. “The summer is not boring.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Rowan said, not able to stop the grin from spreading across his face. They came to the road that led to the town square, which sat on the cliff, overlooking the water. They would have continued to Argat’s class as well had it not been for a strangely dressed woman waving them down.

The two turned in her direction, and as they neared her, they saw that it wasn’t a woman at all.

Name: Alto Sarax

Age: 68

Occupation: Retired Entertainer

“That’s the hoarder guy’s brother?” Toro asked once the man’s social status faded away.

Alto wore a turquoise three-piece suit with a paisley pink tie that matched his socks, shiny orange loafers on his feet. As soon as he spotted the two he smiled. “I don’t believe we’ve met,” Alto said in a jovial voice, not like the husky voice of his brother. Rowan noticed that he had the same hooked nose that his brother had, the wispy gray hairs on his head held back by a tiara.

Toro took a step back from him, not sure of how he should address the man.

“Well if you aren’t going to speak, I will,” said Alto. “I know, we can see each other’s details, so you already know my name.”

“We’ve met your brother,” Toro said.

“Have you now? Well, I’m sorry to hear that, ha! Kidding, but Garner sure is an angry fellow, isn’t he? He’s my twin, and we live in this place together…” Alto looked at the mounds upon mounds of junk that surrounded their home. “I do suppose it could benefit from a little spring cleaning.”

“But it’s summer,” Rowan said.

Alto laughed. “Precisely. I suppose next spring will come eventually, right? And who are you two? I don’t remember seeing anyone your size on the island, aside from a lady who died a few years back,” he said with a chuckle. “I guess there’s Irma too, she’s short like you boys, but she lives up in the mountains and hardly comes down.”

Rowan introduced himself and his brother, explaining how they had arrived on the island and how they had come to live at the general store through their great-uncle.

“So the general store is opening back up?”

“Soon. The soft opening is tomorrow,” said Rowan.

“I do like soft openings. There’s always some type of special food, some hors d’oeuvres. You know, back when I was in the theater in Any_City, we had all sorts of openings. It was quite the time. But anyway, where was I? Ah, yes, living on the island. Store opening. Uncles. We inherited this place from our uncle. Like you.” Alto fanned his face with his hand. “It’s not often that I meet people under the age of forty-five. I used to entertain children, you know? Well, that was before I was an actor, when I performed at a circus. I was a clown, believe it or not.”

“You were a clown?” Toro asked.

“The best clown. The happiest clown, the saddest clown, the craziest clown,” he said, throwing his hands up in the air. “Just a decent clown. No, the best!”

Toro laughed at the way the older man pointed his finger in the air.

“Anyway, I believe it is one of the ironies of ironic ironical ironies that we both have come here, forced here even, because of our uncles. Did you know your uncle? Did you know Turni? I was so sad to hear he passed. He was always nice to my brother and me.”

Rowan and Toro shook their heads.

“Unfortunately, I knew mine, and he was a miserable old…” Alto offered the two boys a toothy grin. “Well, we don’t have to get into that. But he did leave us his home, and we have since collected a bunch of garbage to decorate it with.”

“Why do you have so much garbage anyway?” Toro asked.

Hiccup and Rocket, the two cats that lived at the hoarders’ home, raced out from beneath a pile of old wooden chairs. They chased after one another, Hiccup eventually colliding with Rocket and tumbling into a discarded bedpan.

“That bedpan is not supposed to be there…” Alto said as he walked over to the cats and shooed them away. “Bad, Hiccup. Bad, Rocket. Behave, kitties, behave around our guests.” He picked up the bedpan and tossed it over what was once the gate, but was now so completely covered on both sides with junk that it was hard to tell that there’d ever been a structure standing there.

“Rowan, look,” Toro whispered.

Sure enough, Rowan glanced to the pathway that circled around the hoarders’ home, to see a daily prize floating into the woods.

“Sorry about that,” said Alto as he joined them again. “So you’ve been on the island a few days now, right?”

“Yeah,” said Rowan as he watched the present floating away.

“And who have you met so far?”

“Tell him, Toro, you’re better with names.”

“Let’s see, we’ve met Nedman, Chodak, Doyona, Gonpo, Tuya, Argat…” Toro bobbed his head left and right. “Nedman’s wife, Mel, and the skipper who took us here, Cameron. Your brother too.”

Alto shrugged. “Once you have a brother, you’re stuck with him. And congratulations on being so social. It’s quite a good haul,” he said, winking at the boys. “Sorry, poor fisherman’s joke. I’m just glad that you’re getting around and meeting people.”

“There are lots of cats, too,” Toro said.

“It wouldn’t be Sacred Cat Island without our little kitty friends. Anyway…” Alto turned to see what Rowan was looking at. “The daily prize. Well, I won’t get in your way. I know how fun it is to chase after that thing. Go, and god speed! Next time you’re around, be sure to say hello. It’s always nice meeting new people.”

“See you!” Rowan said as he took off, his brother following behind him.

They ran up the hill, the prize no longer visible. The two stopped and looked around, Rowan finally spotting it off to their left, the prize floating deeper into the woods.

“That was kind of strange, right?” he asked his younger brother.

“You mean Alto?”

“Yeah. He seemed a bit crazy.”

Toro laughed. “He was funny. I bet he was a good actor.”

“Of course, that explains it. He used to be an actor.”

“And a clown apparently.” Rowan pointed at the balloon, Toro equipping his broom. “Let’s get the prize!”

From what Rowan had seen, there were two paths that moved into the woods behind the village, both of them running on opposite sides of the hoarders’ home. One was rockier, and the other had less of an incline, with the occasional root jutting out of the forest floor, a little muddy too. The other was much smoother.

Rowan and Toro took the smoother path as they followed the daily prize, Rowan looking for a good place for them to try to hit it down. He thought about throwing his wooden sword at it, but he was never that great of a throw, and he didn’t want the sword to get stuck in a branch or something.

After his fall the previous day, he was hoping not to have to climb anything for a while.

They eventually got to a point where it looked like they would be able to reach the prize. Toro jumped into the air and swiped his broom at the floating present. He was still a few feet off, but it looked like Rowan would be able to get it if he really put some force behind this jump.

“Switch me,” he told Toro, the two exchanging their gear.

Rowan tried to swipe it out of the air with the broom, and landed harder than he would have liked. The boy stumbled forward, the impact making his knees hurt.

“It’s too high up,” Toro said, his hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun, which trickled through the canopy above.

A gust of wind picked up, lifting the prize even higher. There was no way they were going to get it now unless they climbed to the top of one of the trees.

“Dang,” said Rowan with a shake of his head. “We were so close too.”

“I wonder what was in there.”

“Hopefully not more rain coats.”

“Does it even rain on this island?” Toro asked. “I haven’t seen it rain. Tuya said it would rain soon, but it seems pretty dry.”

“How do you think these trees grow if it doesn’t rain, dumb-dumb?”

“I’m not a dumb-dumb…”

“Hey,” Rowan said, noticing the sound of some water. “I think there’s a stream or something nearby.”

“I was wondering what that noise was.”

The two boys quickly located a stream, which they followed until they came to a rocky outcrop featuring small waterfalls and shallow pools of water that looked perfect for swimming. Lying on his stomach on one of the rocks in a pocket of sun was a man with tanned skin. He was oiled up, and his head was resting on his arms, facing away from them.

Rowan and Toro approached him, his social status appearing before them.

Name: Vicar Bold

Age: 65

Occupation: Retired Proxima Investment Banker

Rowan was just about to ask where he had seen that last name before when Toro started speaking to the man.

“Hey,” his younger brother said. “You’re Doyona’s husband, right?”

The man turned his head to them, squinting for a moment. “Ah, hello, boys. I’ve heard all about you.” He pressed off the mat that he was lying on and sat up, the man surprisingly muscular. He grinned at the two of them, his demeanor clearly opposite of his wife’s. “Call me Vicar, and you are… Rowan and Toro. Interesting names.”

“Thanks,” said Toro.

“So have you enjoyed the island so far?”

“It’s interesting…” Rowan told the man.

“I’m personally glad to see the general store nearly up and running. Another day or so, yes?”

They both nodded.

“We sure need it around here. I hope your father stocks plenty of snacks. Actually, maybe it’s best if I stay away from the sweet stuff…” Vicar motioned to his physique. He was a thin man with a head of silvery hair, tan with a tattoo on his arm indicating he had served in Any_War III. “You don’t reach the young age of sixty-five looking like this if you’re constantly stuffing your face full of snacks.”

“I think he’s getting a lot of Proxima things,” Toro said.

“Of course he is. That’s all anyone ever has. If I were him, I would look more to the local resources. But that’s just me. As long as there are snacks, and there are supplies and options other than going to Nedman’s or the Fisherman’s Restaurant—even though I like their food—I’ll be happy. You know, it’s an interesting island to live on, but there aren’t a lot of options.”

“How long have you lived here?” Rowan asked.

“About ten years. After I retired, my wife and I decided to move here. It was mostly my idea. I visited when I was a child, back when it was a tourist destination. To be honest with you, I’m lucky she came along with me…” he said, his brow furrowing just a bit. “But we’ve come to an agreement, and we take frequent vacations in the winter, so she’s happy enough.”

“Is there magic on the island?” Toro asked, just coming right out with it.

“Magic?” Vicar thought about this for a moment. “I can’t say that there’s magic, but there are strange things that happen. I would have to think about it, because they don’t happen every day, and ten years is a long time to be living somewhere. There’s a coder that you guys should talk to about the island. His name is Ringo Pullna. He’s one of the older residents on the island, been here forever. He’s a little old-school, but he had a theory about it once.”

“Where does he live?” Toro asked.

“He lives down by the East Docks. Not far from Gilda’s place. Have you met Gilda?”

“I don’t think we’ve met her yet,” said Rowan.

“She’s the one that used to run the bakery. I tell you what, boys, if she ever got to baking again commercially…” Vicar pulsed his biceps. “Say goodbye to these guys.”

Toro flexed his muscles, both fists held high as he tried to pulse his biceps.

“Not bad,” Vicar said with a laugh. “I apologize. I can be a little vain, and I’ve been told if I apologize after saying something like that that makes me more approachable. Twenty years of therapy will do that to you. But hey, at least I can recognize it. Anyway, I’ve got to finish tanning here. You two be safe if you go any further into the forest. I mean, I like adventuring as much as the next guy, but I’m sure your dad would say something like that to you.”

“And you said that this coder lives near the East Docks?” Rowan asked again.

“He sure does, in a red house with a gray roof. Ringo Pullna, good man. He’s always home. If you want to know a shortcut, just take that path right there.” Vicar swept his hand to the right. “It’ll go by a cave that is pretty interesting. Then you can take the rock path back down to the village.”

“Thanks,” Rowan said.

“I’ll see you two around. Let me know if my wife ever gets angry at you. She’s not as bad as she may come off; it just takes her a while to get used to someone, and she’s never trusted children, aside from our granddaughter, Olivia. You’ll get to meet her too, she’s coming pretty soon.”

Vicar lay back down on his belly and let out a long sigh.

Rowan and Toro followed along the path that Vicar had pointed out, which had enough foot traffic on it to keep the bramble from growing too thick. They came out in front of a cave, Rowan and Toro just about to head down toward the village when Rowan stopped.

He threw his arm out, slapping his brother across the chest.

“Hey!” Toro started to say, but then he registered the look on Rowan’s face. “What is it?”

“It’s her…” Rowan said, his mouth slowly starting to open as he took in the woman wearing the cat mask. She floated at the entrance to the cave, just a few feet above the ground.

Rowan’s mouth was suddenly dry, a tingling sensation moving up his arms as the woman slowly turned her head to him.

He couldn’t decipher the expression on her face because of the mask, but it was clear that she was looking at them. The cat-masked woman gradually raised her hand, and gestured for him to come forward.

“What’s happening?” Toro asked, his voice edged in fear.

“She wants us to… She wants me to come into the cave. I think. Both of us. I don’t know if it’s you or me.”

“We have to go in together if we go.”

“I don’t know if we should go in at all,” Rowan said as he looked to the entrance of the cave.

“Come on,” Toro said, charging forward.

The woman disappeared just as Rowan caught up with him, the two about to step into the cave when they heard a loud, high-pitched noise.

A pair of bats flew over their heads, startling both boys, who bolted down the rocky hill in front of the cave. It took Rowan and Toro a second to slow down because of their momentum, but eventually they did, both stopping to look back up at the cave.

“Do you see her now?” Toro asked, catching his breath.

Rowan was quiet for a moment as he focused on the cave. “No, she’s gone. Let’s head back to the village. We will figure this out later.”

Rowan and Toro headed back down the rocky path that wrapped around the hoarders’ home. They spotted the resident known as Argat, whose morning exercise class they’d just missed.

“Boys…” Argat sat on the ground, his face awash with pain. “I am so glad to see you two. Anyone, really.”

“What happened?” Toro asked.

“Twisted my ankle jogging down the rocks here. You know, I take this dang path every day; you’d think that my mind is sharp enough by now to navigate it. Yet here we are.”

He wiped sweat from his brow. As he had been the last time they had seen him, Argat was wearing neon athletic clothing, this time with a headband around his head and reflective sunglasses shielding his eyes.

“Do you want us to go get someone?” Rowan asked.

“These old geezers?” Argat laughed. “Kidding, kidding, we’re all around the same age.”

Rowan saw that Argat was fifty-nine years old, which put him at what looked to be the median age for people on the island. “What would you like us to do then?”

“I think I got it,” he said as he started to press himself off the ground. After getting his balance, he limped forward. “To be honest with you two, I need to be more careful, especially when I go on these jogs by myself. No, I don’t need help,” he said as Rowan tried to offer him a hand. “I’ve got to be able to do this myself. What were you two doing in the woods anyway?”

“We found a cave,” Toro said.

“Ah, so you’ve discovered the cave, huh?” Argat took off his headband and ran his hand through his hair. “Better. Where was I? Yes, cave. You found the cave.”

“We did. There were some bats there.”

“Bats, huh?” Argat asked Toro. “I haven’t seen any bats…”

“What about something magical? Have you ever seen anything magical happen on the island?” Rowan asked.

“Magical?” Argat said the word again, as if he were repeating it just for himself. “Sometimes there’s comets out, shooting stars and whatnot, I guess that’s a little magical. In the winter someone makes snowmen with cat ears at random. I’m pretty sure that’s Nedman; I’d say it’s pretty magical to wake up in the morning and find one in your front yard. But actual magic?”

“Yeah,” said Toro. “Actual magic.”

“Magic doesn’t exist, not in this world, not in any world. But you know what does exist? Taking care of yourselves. I suppose you could say that’s magical, becoming a human machine who is in tune with their body. Speaking of which, you two missed my exercise class this morning.”

“We got caught up in some things,” Rowan told him.

“It’s important to start your morning with stretches. That’s the best time to get the old ticker wound up for the day and the limbs loosened up,” he said as he tapped on his chest. “You know, it might not look like it, but I wasn’t always this fit…”

A bird with red tail feathers caught Rowan’s attention as it flew from one tree to the next. As Argat gave them a pep talk on the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, Rowan briefly tuned him out. He’d heard these types of talks before, mostly from his gym teacher. At the moment, exercise was the last thing on his mind, especially after seeing the woman with the cat mask once again.

What was in the cave? What was she hiding from them?

Rowan kept expecting a Side Quest to pop up asking this very question, but it never did; he supposed in the end that it was more or less related to the active quests he already had.

While part of him still wished he was on the mainland, having a good time in the suburbs with his friends, at least the island was interesting. He wasn’t quite at the point where he would admit that he understood the appeal of living here, but there was something peaceful about it, the island life less stressful than the lives he’d seen many living in Any_City.

“Have you two been out to the old orchard?” Argat asked, this question catching Rowan’s attention.

“I don’t think so…” Toro said.

“No, we’ve only been around here,” said Rowan. “But we’re supposed to go camping soon. I think in a day from now, after our soft opening tomorrow.”

“Soft opening, huh? I ought to stop by and check it out, then. I’ll be sure to remember that. But back to the orchard. I moved to the island just before it shut down, and let me tell you, there was a good time to be had by all there. They gave tours of the orchard, had tastings, you could even take part in the apple-peach stomping. You know, the summer is when apple-peaches grow, and if someone actually took the initiative and got the seeds planted in the next few weeks, it would be ready in a month.”

“Ready for what?”

Argat glanced down at Toro. “For wine, but other things too. Apple-peaches grow fast. You can make pies out of them, you can make juice, they are full of fiber, and I’ve heard, although I don’t know who told me any longer, that they used to sell our apple-peaches on the mainland.”

Sure enough, at the mention of this a Side Quest appeared in front of Rowan, which fizzled out as they reached the village.

Side Quest: Get the apple-peach orchard up and running

He didn’t know the first thing about operating an orchard, but the more he considered the quest, the more it sounded like something that would help the island.

“Did it bring tourists?” Rowan asked.

“Are you kidding me? It was one of the main reasons people came, but then the owners got sick, or well the wife did and she died. The husband moved back to the mainland, and none of us have heard from him since. His name was Samten Jivmon. Jivmon’s Apple-Peach Orchard. I used to have a running shirt with their name on it. Maybe I’ll be able to find it.” Argat placed his hands on his waist and smiled at the boys. “Well, thanks for walking down with me. I’ll stop my babbling and let you two get on your way. See you at the soft opening tomorrow.”

Once he was gone, Rowan and Toro turned to the East Docks, where they had fought off the giant catfish. They spotted the house with the red roof, the one that belonged to the former coder named Ringo.

“Maybe he knows something about the magic on this island,” Rowan said as he approached the house. “Also, did you get a quest?”

“A Side Quest?”

“No, a Dad Quest. Of course a Side Quest.”

“Yeah, one about the orchard.”

Rowan nodded. “That’s weird.”

“Do you think we should get the orchard up and running?” Toro asked, as if it really were that easy.

“I don’t know anything about running an orchard, but I guess we can talk to Dad about it. Maybe when we go camping. I want to get a little more information together first.” Rowan looked at his younger brother. “I’ve been getting some ideas about things we could change around here, you know, maybe help out in some way. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just letting my imagination run wild.”

Rowan knocked on Ringo’s door, and waited.

“Do you hear anything in there?” he asked after he knocked again. Toro closed his eyes as he listened for any sounds.

Eventually, the younger boy put his ear against the door, Rowan doing the same.

“Now, what are you two doing?” a female voice called from the road.

They both jumped back, Toro nearly colliding with one of the chairs on Ringo’s porch.

“We were just seeing if Ringo is home,” Rowan told a woman, her social status appearing in front of her.

Name: Gilda Matna

Age: 64

Occupation: Baker

“You’re the baker,” he said as he moved closer to the woman. Rowan grabbed his brother’s arm so he would do the same.

Gilda wore a summer dress and elaborate jewelry, many of the pieces two or three times the size of any jewelry that he’d ever seen before. She was thin with loose jowls, which dragged down the corners of her smile.

“You must be the new boys on the island,” Gilda said. “Rowan and Toro. Those are interesting names. And your daddy runs the general store?”

“That’s right,” said Rowan.

“You know, I just got done baking something, and I was planning to take a walk so it cools off. But muffins are just as good when they are hot. Would you like to try my sweet potato muffins? I actually grow these potatoes myself in my backyard. You could bring some to your dad as well; I’m sure he would like some real food.”

“How did you know we weren’t eating real food?” Toro asked as they followed the woman into her quaint little home, which was a single-story place with large windows, the outer walls painted light blue. There were four cats in front of the home, all lazing around an empty bird fountain. Their details appeared in front of Rowan and he quickly scanned through them as Gilda opened her door.

Name: Danzen

Breed: Korat

Sex: Male

Color: Dark Blue

Secondary Color: Gray

Age (Human Years): 7

Age (Cat Years): 45

Known Associates: Aya, Sterling, Carmen

Name: Carmen

Breed: American Shorthair

Sex: Female

Color: Yellow

Secondary Color: White

Age (Human Years): 5.3

Age (Cat Years): 38

Known Associates: Aya, Sterling, Danzen

Name: Aya

Breed: Ragdoll

Sex: Female

Color: White

Secondary Color: Dark Green

Age (Human Years): 1

Age (Cat Years): 15

Known Associates: Carmen, Sterling, Danzen

Name: Sterling

Breed: Russian Blue

Sex: Male

Color: Dark Gray

Secondary Color: Dark Blue

Age (Human Years): 11

Age (Cat Years): 61

Known Associates: Carmen, Aya, Danzen

An absolutely amazing smell met Rowan’s nostrils as soon as he stepped inside. He exchanged glances with his younger brother, Toro licking his lips in anticipation.

Gilda guided the boys into her kitchen, which was filled with everything she needed for baking on an industrial level, several of the items ones Rowan had never seen before. His eyes narrowed on two dozen plump sweet potato muffins, which sat on a couple of trays on the center counter.

“Can I have one?” Toro asked.

Gilda chuckled. “Of course, you can. That’s why I invited you in. Please, have a muffin. You too, Rowan. I’ll get some packed up for your father. And if you really like them, go ahead and have more than one. I always bake too many.”

Rowan didn’t know how many muffins he had by the time they left Gilda’s place, but he was definitely stuffed. They had stayed longer than he would have liked, the two helping Gilda start another batch. At least they had something to show for it, Rowan now holding a small wicker basket full of muffins.

“We’d better hurry,” he told Toro as soon as they reached the main road. “Dad is going to be wondering where we are.”

“In that case…” Toro took off. “I’ll race you there.”

Rowan chased after his brother, too busy keeping up to have time to check out the social status of some of the faces they passed. There were still plenty of people he hadn’t met on the island, and many of them were out, a few watching the boys run, Rowan with the small basket gripped tightly in his hands.

Someone even cheered for them.

They reached the front door of the general store and the cats fanned out. Toro burst inside, his arms over his head as soon as he came to a halt. “I won!”

“There you two are,” said their dad, who was crouched in one of the aisles, arranging canned beans on a bottom shelf. “Rowan…”

“Sorry…” Rowan said. “But before you get upset, check out these muffins.”

“Muffins?”

His dad stood, making a sound with his throat as he placed his hand on his lower back. “You two are doing the rest of the bottom shelves,” he said as he pointed to a series of crates. “I have them all set up where they’re supposed to go. All you need to do is arrange them. Then we’ll put more prices up.”

Uncle came tumbling down the stairs, Toro laughing as soon as the orange kitten landed. “Look at Uncle,” he said, pointing his finger at him.

“He’s been acting crazy all day.” Ganix came to the checkout counter, where Rowan had placed the basket of muffins. “You would think there is catnip in the walls.”

“The muffins are from Gilda,” said Rowan. “She’s the one that used to run a bakery.”

“Really?” he asked as he took one of the muffins. Ganix’s eyes went wide after he swallowed his first bite. “This is amazing.”

“I had like five,” said Toro.

“No, you had two or three and I had three or four of the small ones. Maybe four and a half.”

“You two ate how many of these muffins?” Ganix asked.

“She kept feeding us. What were we supposed to do?”

“What about dinner?”

Rowan pretended to check if he had room in his stomach. “I think we still have room for dinner.”

“I definitely do,” Toro said as he drummed his hands on his belly.

“Wow, these really are good,” Ganix said as he finished the first muffin. “Okay, I already told you what I need you to do. Finish these lower shelves, okay? And make them look nice, you know, the front label facing outward.”

“Most of the labels are the same,” said Toro as he picked up one of the cans of Proxima corn.

“Be that as it may, I still want everything facing out.”

“What are you going to do?” Rowan asked.

Ganix laughed. “What am I going to do? I’m going to go upstairs and eat these muffins while I think about our soft opening tomorrow. Then it’s time for some camping. I talked to Cameron down at the docks, and it will be another day until I get the rest of the supplies I need.”

“You mean this isn’t everything?” Rowan asked, taking a look around the shop, which was about half full now with items for purchase.

“Bountiful shelves give people the idea that there is an abundance of items, and as long as it is tidy, they may purchase more. These muffins…” He took another bite. “We have to sell these. Or something. We’ll figure it out.”

“Did you say camping?” Toro asked, getting excited. “So we’re really going?”

“Yes, tomorrow will be the soft opening, then we’ll go camping for a day, then we’ll come back and get the shop open for good. I want to get the camping out of the way now before we really get up and running.”

“Where are we going to go camping?” Toro asked as he got down onto his knees and began placing the cans. Uncle weaved in and out of his arms as he did so, the cat eventually falling to his side and pawing at Toro.

“We’ll just explore the island, maybe walk all the way around it. I’ll ask some people about good camping spots. I’m sure someone has a tip or two.”

“We found out that there used to be an apple-peach orchard here,” said Rowan. “Maybe we should check that out.”

“Sounds like a plan. But I want you two to get all the cans up first, and then we can discuss our trip later. I don’t know about you, but I would like to take the rest of the night off, and I’m not able to until these cans are up and the boxes are out of here. Also, good job dusting earlier; the place looked really clean.”

Toro shot Rowan a glance, who simply nodded as he got down and started taking more cans out of the box to hand to his little brother.

“Should we tell him?” Toro whispered once their father was upstairs.

“No, he wouldn’t believe us anyway.”

It took the two boys about an hour to put up all the canned goods, and while they both had eaten their fair share of muffins, they had definitely worked up an appetite.

Once the boxes were broken down and placed into a back room, the two headed upstairs, Uncle tucked under Toro’s arm. They found their dad with a large Proxima rotisserie chicken, which was already hot inside its plastic bag.

“I thought we could have chicken for dinner tonight,” said Ganix.

“That looks great,” Toro said.

“I’m so hungry.” Rowan stood at the counter, his brother getting on top of their father’s luggage so he could stand and eat. Equipping a knife from his inventory list, Ganix began slicing up the chicken, which he placed on plates that already had mashed potatoes and roasted cauliflower on it.

“And before you ask, yes, Toro, you have to eat the cauliflower.”

“But it tastes like hair.”

“It what? It doesn’t taste like hair,” Ganix said. “I don’t know where you got that description.”

He made a plate for both of his boys, and then one for Uncle. As his sons ate, Ganix picked at the chicken’s carcass.

“So what did you two get into today anyway?” he asked. “You were gone most of the day.”

“No, you were gone most of the day,” Rowan told him. “We waited for you for hours.”

“You did not wait for me for hours, well, maybe two hours. But as to what I was doing: I started talking to someone down at the docks, a couple of fellas, actually. The island doctor and a carpenter named Dorno were there to take a quick trip to the mainland with Cameron. Have you two been to the East Docks yet?”

Once again, Toro looked to Rowan, expecting his older brother to answer.

“We sure have,” Rowan said. “We met a fisherman there and he gave us a clamshell. From Chodak.”

Rowan equipped the teal clamshell and placed it on the counter.

“That’s some piece,” Ganix said as he examined it. He set it back down. “There sure is a lot to explore on this island. I wish I wasn’t so busy here…”

“That’s what camping is for,” Rowan told him. “Maybe we can go camping once a week, or something, at least while the weather is still pretty nice.”

“The whole point in opening the store is to, well, keep it open. But yes, maybe we can go out once a week, only open in the morning or something. We’ll just have to see how business goes.”

“You got all the camping supplies, right?” Toro asked.

“I have everything I need in my inventory list, yes. It would be nice to get some real food to take with us.”

“You mean like Nedman’s food?” Rowan asked.

“Exactly. I haven’t been to the Fisherman’s Restaurant, but I have heard it’s pretty delicious.”

“We haven’t been there either,” said Toro. “Maybe we can find some food in the forest, and then we can eat that instead of this Proxima stuff.”

“You don’t like your chicken?”

Toro shook his head. “I love the chicken. But not the cauliflower.”

Ganix laughed. “Just eat it. Dip it in your mashed potatoes and eat it like that. You need your nutrients.”

“Can’t I just take vitamins?”

“Eat it, Toro.”

Rowan’s younger brother started to pick up the cauliflower, eventually using his fork to cut it into tiny little bits that he could mix in with his potatoes. This seemed to do the trick, Toro finally able to finish the cauliflower.

“See?” Ganix asked. “It wasn’t that bad. Now, I’m going to clean these dishes up, and I want you two to get ready for bed. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow. We’re officially opening our store.”

“Does that mean we have to be here all day?” Rowan asked.

“No, I wouldn’t torture you like that. But I do expect you to help out some. Just think,” he said after he washed his hands in the sink, “we are about to be small business owners, boys. Well, we already technically are, but we’re about to officially open.”

“But I thought you said it’s just a soft opening…” said Toro.

“You know what I mean.”

Rowan took a shower first, Toro following after him.

Figuring he could practice his drawing skills for a little while before bed, Rowan equipped his pad and pencil set and got in bed.

Now lying on his stomach, propped up on his elbows, he flipped to a clean page and started drawing the woman with the cat mask. It wasn’t easy drawing a female, Rowan’s image looking much more angular than he would have liked. He did get the mask correct though, the mysterious eyes, the expressionless face, the whiskers and accents of the mask.

He attempted to draw the giant catfish and its killer whiskers beneath the woman. He even tried to put it on a dock, but had issues with the dimensions.

“What are you drawing?” Toro asked as he came out of the bathroom, the youth’s hair spiky and wet.

“What does it look like?” Rowan showed his brother the picture.

“Not bad,” Toro said. “Can you draw me a picture of the catfish?”

“I’ll think about it,” Rowan said as he returned to his drawing. He used the side of his pencil to shade in the catfish’s underbelly, his brother watching over his shoulder. Rowan playfully turned away so his brother couldn’t see; Toro crept around so he could watch him draw again.

“I wish I was as good at drawing as you are,” Toro finally said.

“You just have to practice. And I’m not so good. See?” He showed Toro a picture he had drawn back on the mainland of a car.

“Why did you scratch it out?”

“Because it looks wrong. I didn’t get it right.”

“Time for bed, boys,” Ganix said, announcing himself with a knock. “What are you drawing over there?”

“Nothing.” Rowan sent his drawing pad back to his inventory list, along with his set of pencils. He got into bed, Toro doing the same.

“But I’m not tired…” Toro said as his father came and tucked them in.

“Sure you’re not. Remember, tomorrow is a big day, so it’s important for you two to get some rest.”

Toro started to snore.

“Exactly, do that.”

Rowan pretended to snore as well.

“Your brother’s is better,” Ganix said as he came and tucked Rowan in too.

Rowan was getting to the point where he felt he was too old to be tucked in, but there was no one here to judge him, and so he let it happen.

He tried to sleep after their father left, he really did. Rowan tried not to look at his personal attributes, or check out any of his active quests.

Eventually, he was able to drift off, only to be woken by bats flying at them, Rowan nearly jumping out of the bed when he heard a loud sound in the living room.

“D-did you hear that?” he asked Toro, shaking his younger brother.

Toro merely turned to the other side and continued sleeping.

Afraid that the dust girl had perhaps returned, Rowan equipped his wooden sword and crept to the door.

He was going to have to do this alone.

Settling his nerves, he slowly opened the door, Uncle running past and grazing his leg.

Rowan jumped back and would have fallen had it not been for his proximity to the wall. He shot his hand out and caught himself just in time, Rowan once again focusing on what was happening in the living room.

Keeping to the shadows, he crept around the doorframe, gasping once he saw his father lying on the ground.

“Dad…” He rushed over to Ganix, who was halfway in the bathroom and halfway in the living room, his arms stretched wide.

He paused once he saw that his dad was chuckling, that for some reason he hadn’t noticed Rowan yet.

“D-dad?” he asked a little louder this time.

“What?” His dad looked at him. “Rowan, I’m…” He quickly stood, the man a little wobbly. “Sorry, I slipped and…” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “What are you doing up anyway?”

“I was having a dream, no, a nightmare, and then I heard you fall.”

Once again, Rowan noticed the sweet smell in the air, one that he didn’t normally smell around his father.

“Just had a little fall, that’s all,” Ganix said.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m great. Come on, let’s go sit up on the balcony.”

Rowan followed Ganix to the balcony and watched his father plop down into his seat. It was breezy and dark out, the waves just a bit louder than they normally were.

Before Rowan could speak, his father looked out at the stars and lifted his hand in front of his face. “I can see it now,” he told his oldest son.

“See what?”

“Sacred Cat Products.”

“What?” Rowan asked.

“The muffins. Other things. We were talking last night about ways to get this island running again. What if…” Ganix shook his head. “What am I saying? I don’t really have experience in doing any of this.”

“What about Sacred Cat Products?” Rowan asked. “What do you mean?”

“All I’m saying is that if people could, well, I don’t even know if they’re interested…”

“You mean selling stuff from here on the mainland?” Rowan asked.

“Yeah, that’s what I mean. Sure, we can sell some things here at the general store if anyone has something they want to sell, but I’m talking about using the skippers that come to maybe set up some type of shop at the port, a pop-up shop, or find a seller there. We’ll just have to see where it goes. You know, there’s that shopping district there, and they sell all sorts of local products. People like local products. This stuff sure beats the Proxima brand, and it supports local businesses…”

“I think it’s a great idea,” Rowan said.

His father looked to him, his eyes a bit glassy. “Do you? Because I don’t know if I’m just talking out loud here, you know, just to hear myself talk. Maybe I’m crazy…”

“It’s a good idea, Dad. And it’s catchy: Sacred Cat Products. You need to bring this up at the village council meeting. We should be back from camping by then. Some people may not like the idea,” Rowan said, thinking of Doyona, “but I bet most of the others will.”

“We have to be very careful,” Ganix said, growing serious. “We’re newcomers on this island, and for us to show up with all these ideas…” He was quiet for a moment. “Think about it like this: the island may be boring to you…”

“It’s not boring,” Rowan said, interrupting him.

“Well, sometimes older people like a relaxed, you know, somewhat slower environment. A quiet place. If tourists started coming back, it could bother some of the residents. I know some want them to come back, like Nedman, but others may not feel the same way…” He paused for a spell and finally spoke again. “All things we can continue to discuss. I’ll think about the village council meeting. You’re right, it may be a good place to see what’s going on, and I think it’s important for you and your brother to at least experience some kind of civic engagement. Yeah, we’ll do that. In the meantime, we can keep talking about it, you and me. How does that sound?”

Rowan nodded. “It sounds great, Dad.”

.Chapter Five.

The next morning came faster than Rowan would have liked.

“Boys!” his dad called from the other room. “Breakfast!”

Toro yawned and rolled over onto Uncle, who quickly bolted to the door. “It can’t be morning already…”

Rather than say anything, Rowan sat up, his eyes immediately jumping to his personal attributes.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 341/341

Intelligence: 23.78

Willpower: 11.02

Empathy: 6.45

Charisma: 11.84

Strength: 5.41

Dexterity: 7.30

Luck: 3.51

+ .13 Intelligence!

+ .35 Willpower!

+ .05 Luck!

+ 6 HP!

The prompts faded away, Rowan seeing that he had gained a full point in his willpower stat, which explained how his hit points had increased. This was one of two ways to gain hit points, the other was simply having a birthday.

It was surprising to him to see that his willpower had increased so much, but perhaps had something to do with some of his encounters the previous day, and what he now wanted to do…

Sacred Cat Products.

There was something strange about his dad last night, something almost spacey and lucid about the way he was acting. But he did have a good idea about selling products from the island, and was something that was worth exploring further. Rowan had seen firsthand how popular local items were on the mainland. Something like Sacred Cat Products could be insanely successful.

After rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Rowan scrolled to his two active Personal Quests:

Personal Quest: Figure out what happened between Mom and Dad

Personal Quest: Try to be nicer to Toro

The first Personal Quest wasn’t going to happen until his dad opened up. But he could play a role in the second. He would have to try harder when it came to dealing with Toro.

From there, he scrolled to his active Side Quests:

Side Quest: Learn more about what you saw beneath the water

Side Quest: Help Tuya plant her flowers

Side Quest: Join Argat for his morning exercise and recruit others

Side Quest: Find out if there is magic on the island

Side Quest: Get the apple-peach orchard up and running

Rowan went ahead and canceled the Side Quest that revolved around finding magic on the island. It was clear that there was some kind of magic here, or at least something happening that was unexplainable. He was also fairly certain that no one in the village believed that there was magic, and if they did, they probably weren’t going to tell him.

It was pointless going around and asking everyone about magic to complete a Side Quest.

“Boys!”

“We’re coming…” Rowan groaned as he placed his feet on the ground, the smell of bacon coming to him. Toro joined Rowan, the two finding that their dad had already warmed up some Proxima breakfast sandwiches.

“Did you get the ones with maple syrup?” Toro asked as he climbed up on their father’s suitcase so he could eat at the counter.

“Yes, those are the ones you like, right?”

Toro shook his head. “I don’t like the ones with maple syrup. I used to like them, but I don’t anymore.”

“Just eat your food.” Ganix placed the piping-hot breakfast sandwich on a plate. They looked perfect, the egg cut to match the contours of the circular sliced bread. Even the bacon slice was round, and while it smelled good, it didn’t taste all that great.

It did, however, taste familiar, Rowan eating his quickly and starting on his hashbrowns in the time it took for his younger brother to try to scrape off the maple syrup from his breakfast sandwich.

“You’re not going to be able to scrape it off. Just eat the sandwich.”

“I don’t want to eat the bread,” Toro told Ganix.

“Then…”

Ganix took the two slices of bread, leaving the bacon and the circular egg on Toro’s plate. He ate the bread quickly, Toro picking at his hashbrowns with his fork.

“What time does the shop open?” Rowan asked.

“As soon as I get down there,” his father said. “And I want you two to make yourself scarce for the first hour or so, if you don’t mind. I’d like to make sure I can get everything set up on my own without any distractions. Sorry, I work better that way sometimes. I’m sure there’s plenty to do on the island. But, just in case there isn’t…” Ganix drummed his fingers on the island countertop.

“No…” Rowan said, a smile forming on his face. Toro laughed as well.

“Are you ready for it?” Ganix asked, still lightly drumming his fingers.

“Just tell us already,” Toro told him.

“Dad Quest! I’m giving you two a Dad Quest. Your Dad Quest is as follows: go find Gilda and bring her by the store. I want to talk to her about her muffins.”

Sure enough, a prompt appeared.

Dad Quest: Find Gilda the baker and bring her to the store

“Nooooooo…” Rowan said again.

“Yessssss…” his father replied. “I just want to talk to her a little bit about what she’s actually able to bake in terms of quantities, that sort of thing. I would go there myself, but I’m going to be running the store. Soft opening, boys…”

“Okay,” Toro said, agreeing to the quest.

“You idiot, you never asked what the reward would be.”

“Rowan, don’t call your brother an idiot,” Ganix said sternly.

“Sorry…” Rowan dipped his head a little. He was never going to complete his Personal Quest to be nicer to his brother if he lashed out at him like that.

“Don’t apologize to me, apologize to your brother.”

“Sorry, brother,” Rowan said.

“It’s okay, brother,” said Toro, mirroring his inflection.

“As for your reward? How about a limited edition Proxima bar.”

“Candy?” Toro asked.

“Not just any candy, limited-edition. I’ve been saving these in my list, and I figure if you two can grab Gilda for me, we’ll share one of the bars.”

“It’s a deal,” Rowan said.

“Yeah, deal!”

After they helped their father clean up, the two boys got dressed and ran downstairs, exploding out of the front of the general store.

The morning air was thick with humidity. It was also a bit cold, Rowan equipping his knit hat and placing it on his head. After greeting the five cats outside the store, and scouring the air for a potential daily prize, the two boys headed up the hill toward the town square.

They kept an eye out for Doyona, who they knew would probably be working out at some point in the morning, doing her power-walking. It wasn’t long before they came to the first path that led up to the caves, the one that ran next to the hoarders’ home.

“Should we go up there?” Toro asked. “It is sort of on the way.”

Rowan understood what he meant. If they took the first path, they could loop around and take the second path down, which would lead to the other side of the village, where the East Docks were, and where Gilda lived.

The two boys heard some commotion to their right, both of them looking to see two men doing jumping jacks in the town square.

“That’s right…” Rowan said, remembering the Side Quest. It was also one he probably should have deleted, but if they simply attended Argat’s morning workout, the quest would probably complete itself.

To test out his theory, he headed in the direction of the town square, Toro joining him.

They reached Argat, and as they did Rowan checked out the social status of the man who had joined the retired athlete.

Name: Curtis Herms

Age: 58

Occupation: Researcher

“Boys!” Argat said as he continued to do jumping jacks. “Join me. Let’s go! One, two, three…”

Toro started up, Rowan eventually joining his brother.

“You can do better than that. Don’t make your jumping jacks sloppy! We’re almost finished here. Just a final round of squats left…”

Argat started doing squats, Curtis, Rowan, and Toro copying his movements.

“Keep it up!” Argat said. “We can do this, we’re almost there! Push through to the other side!”

“Whew…” Curtis groaned.

The researcher was heavy around the middle, and his gray Proxima University shirt was stained with sweat. He had a little orange mustache and he wore glasses, his thin hair matted to his forehead.

“Keep pushing!” Argat said, a wicked grin on his face as he started going even faster. “Let’s finish with a burnout. Do as many as you can for the next ten seconds.”

“Whew, whew…” Curtis said, sweat beading on his forehead.

Rowan felt like collapsing, his thighs burning as he tried to pick up his pace.

“Keep going!” Argat shouted, his neck strained now, his face red. “Almost there…”

They finished their squats, and as they did, Argat began loosening up his shoulders by pumping them up and down. “Cooldown time, everyone.” He stretched an arm in front of his chest. “Don’t forget to cool down. Deep breaths.”

He reached for a towel and wiped the sweat off his face and arms.

“That was hard…” Rowan said as a prompt told him that the Side Quest had been completed.

Side Quest: Join Argat for his morning exercise and recruit others (complete)

Toro bent forward, his hands on his knees. Suddenly, he jumped up and started doing more jumping jacks. “Here we go again! Second round!”

Argat and Curtis laughed, Rowan smirking at his brother.

“I didn’t know there were children on the island,” said Curtis, his voice with a slight accent to it that made him sound intelligent. Rowan didn’t know what kind of accent it was, but it matched his occupation as a researcher. “I don’t believe we’ve met,” he said once Toro stopped doing jumping jacks. “I’m Curtis Herms, and you are?”

“You can’t see?” Rowan asked.

“I can see your social status, yes, but I prefer to ask people their names because it is polite. Manners are important; I’m sure your father has taught you that,” he said in a nice, yet biting way.

“Rowan and Toro Toragan,” Rowan said.

“And do you live on this island?”

“At the general store,” said Toro.

Curtis removed his glasses, which had fogged up a little. He cleaned them on a dry part of his shirt. “The general store.”

“Speaking of which, we’re having a soft opening today,” Rowan told the two men.

“I’ll have to stop by then,” said Argat.

“I believe I will as well. You don’t live on the island all year round, do you?”

“No, just the summer,” Rowan told Curtis. It was weird to think of it like that. They hadn’t been on the island very long, but it was starting to feel more and more like home, their suburbs in Any_City so very far away.

“I see,” Curtis said as a pair of seagulls squawked above them. He ignored the birds as he continued to look at the boys inquisitively. “Well, I have plenty of small tasks available if ever you need a Side Quest or three. I’m here visiting a friend named Ringo.”

“The coder?” Toro asked.

“Yes, former coder. I’m actually staying at his house. I arrived yesterday.”

“We knocked on the door yesterday.”

“Knock louder next time then.” He placed his hand on his stomach and bent slightly toward Argat. “Anyway, I appreciate the fitness instruction, and I will surely join you again tomorrow morning. Although, if I may ask, can we go easy on the squats? I have a feeling I’m not going to be able to stand later.”

“You’ve got it,” Argat said, his face radiating with pride.

Curtis turned back to the boys. “Come visit me sometime, brothers Toragan. Like you, I’m only here for the summer as well.”

“You’re doing research?” Toro asked.

“I sure am. This is a very interesting island, and it’s a stain on academia that more haven’t visited this location to research its unique inhabitants. Anyway, you know where to find me.”

Rowan and Toro were just leaving the town square when they spotted Alto Garner, the more flamboyant of the two hoarders. He was in a deep purple V-neck shirt that showed a few of his scraggly chest hairs and silk jacket embroidered with moons, his legs covered by a long black skirt.

“Boys!” he said, waving them over.

“Let’s make this quick,” Rowan told his brother. “We have to finish this Dad Quest.”

“Well?” Alto asked as they approached.

“Well what?” Rowan asked the hoarder.

“Are you enjoying the island?”

“Just about as much as we were the other day…”

Alto crinkled his nose at Rowan. “I have to admit to both of you, I miss being your age.”

“You aren’t that much older than us…” Toro told him.

“I’m sixty-eight and you’re ten,” said Alto with a cackle. “Believe me, I’m much, much older. But this is where life has taken me, and this is where I will die, on Sacred Cat Island, of all places.” His eyes filled with sadness.

“Why are you wearing a dress?” Toro asked.

“Because it’s comfortable,” Alto told him. “Have you ever worn a dress? It’s a skirt, by the way. That matters to some people.”

Toro shook his head.

“Men wear them in some of the less populated subdivisions of Any_City, on the outskirts near the borders. A skirt on the outskirts, ho! Truth be told, I wasn’t always one for the dramatic arts,” he said with a bit of flair. “In my youth, I was stationed near the border, right before Any_War III, if you can believe that. What a time to be alive…” he said, starting to trail off.

“So that’s why you’re wearing it?”

“Precisely. It can be quite hot in the border region, so all the men there wear the skirts to keep their legs comfortable. I’ve been doing it ever since, and was known for it back in the drama communities of Any_City. But those are stories for another day. Now I am here, retired, and there is no theater.”

Hiccup and Rocket came running out of his yard, some of the garbage toppling after the two cats.

Even though he was approaching seventy, Alto swooped down with grace and grabbed Rocket, the brown cat twisting and turning before finally relaxing in his grip.

“Why don’t you behave?” he asked the cat, who meowed in a cute way. Alto couldn’t help but smile. He kissed the cat on the forehead and set it back down so it could join its counterpart.

“Well, we better get going,” Rowan said.

“Wait, before you go…” Alto swept his hand toward a yard full of garbage, some of it stacked so high that it was taller than their actual home, which was hardly visible anyway. “I have a question for you. You boys like quests, don’t you?”

“Sure we do,” Toro said.

The quest flashed in front of Rowan:

Side Quest: Find collectibles on the island and bring them to the hoarders

“Just like it says,” Alto told them. “And I don’t want garbage, what I’m looking for here are collectibles.”

“Is there a difference?” Toro asked as he eyed some of the items in the hoarder’s front yard.

Alto laughed. “I suppose there isn’t, but what I’m trying to make here is another cat sculpture. You can see the first one, which my brother and I worked on for years. We need the right pieces to make the second one, and so far I haven’t found any of the right pieces. That explains a lot of this junk,” he assured them. “Contrary to popular belief, I’m not a hoarder.”

“Okay…” Toro said, unable to hide the skepticism in his voice.

“So if you see anything that you think could be added, or which we could use to really get the statue going, lug it over here. I’ll give you a reward for whatever you bring.” He offered the boys a wave. “I’ll let you get on your ways now.”

Rowan and Toro headed toward the East Docks, towards Gilda’s home. They were just about to turn to her place when a voice called out to them from across the street.

“That’s the researcher guy,” Toro said as he stopped, the young boy placing both hands on his waist. “Hi, Mr. Herms!”

“Please, call me Curtis.” The man whom they had met at Argat’s fitness class stepped off the porch and headed in their direction. “I didn’t know you two were coming this way. I would have walked with you.”

“We have to do something for our dad,” Rowan told him.

“I see, the old Dad Quest, huh?”

“How did you know?” Toro asked.

“Just a wild guess. I suppose I’ll let you get on with it then. I’m just over here with Ringo enjoying some iced tea. Have you two ever had iced tea?”

Rowan looked to the front porch of the home to see a stocky little man sitting in a rocking chair. He hadn’t noticed him before, mostly because Ringo’s house had red accents and the man was wearing a red jumpsuit. He also had a pair of glasses on that enlarged his eyes.

Even though he was a fairly good distance away from Rowan, the man’s social status was still visible.

Name: Ringo Pullna

Age: 77

Occupation: Former Proxima Coder

“Come say hello, Ringo,” Curtis said, motioning his friend over. “I’m sorry, he’s a little bit antisocial and he could use the exercise. But he warms up once you get to know him. Ringo…”

“I’m coming.” Ringo shuffled off the front porch of his home, walking slower than any resident Rowan had encountered yet.

“Boys,” he said in a gruff voice, the man barely lifting his hand to wave at them.

“So you’re the coder?” Toro asked. “Nedman told us about you. We’re using your Catpendium.”

“You are?” Ringo blinked several times, which looked funny considering the way his glasses enlarged his eyes. “I… I didn’t think anyone ever used that thing aside from old Nedman.”

“We’re using it, and our dad has it as well.”

“Their father runs the general store,” Curtis explained. “He’s having a soft opening today. We should head over there after our iced teas.”

“At the West Docks?” Ringo asked.

“That’s right,” said Rowan.

“Too far. If there was a delivery service or something…”

Rowan nodded, seeing in that moment opportunity. “We do have a delivery service, or, we will as soon as we’re officially opened. I mean, I think we will.”

“A delivery service, eh?” Ringo considered this. “You know, they have apps for stuff like that in Any_City, but we don’t have anything like that here. Perhaps…”

“I think that’s an excellent idea,” said Curtis, “and it will put your skills to the test. Use them or lose them, right?”

Ringo scoffed at this remark. “Put my skills to the test? I could develop an app like that in a matter of hours while solving a crossword puzzle with the other hand.”

“You really should talk to our dad,” Rowan said. “I’m sure he would be interested in something like that.”

“Our dad was a developer too,” Toro told Ringo and Curtis.

“He was?” Ringo asked.

“Yep, he was a Proxima Database Administrator/OMIB DevOps, whatever that is,” Rowan said, reciting a title he’d read hundreds upon hundreds of times.

“He worked in OMIB DevOps? I’m surprised he can’t develop a code himself, then again, they don’t make them like they used to,” Ringo said, the statement eliciting a cluck sound from Curtis. “And while I’d have to tap into the OMIB to create the app, most of my work would be done with the code here…”

“Come on,” Curtis said. “Don’t bore the boys with your technical nonsense. Let’s pay the man a visit today. We’ll have our teas, and then we’ll head over.”

“It’s a long walk…”

“And it’s good for you, you need to stay active,” Curtis reminded him. “Use it or lose it.”

“Fine, we’ll head over as well, but after that I’m going to get an app up and running so I can order from the comfort of my own home.”

“That settles it, let’s finish our drinks,” Curtis said, leading his friend toward the porch. He looked over at the boys and gave them the thumbs up.

“Dad’s going to be so proud of us,” Rowan said as they turned back to Gilda’s home.

“An app is a great idea. I can’t believe Dad didn’t think of that.”

“I sort of thought of it. And trust me, Dad and I have some other ideas…” Rowan said, referring to the conversation he had with his father last night, about Sacred Cat Products. “But I’ll tell you more later.”

They reached Gilda’s front door, Rowan licking his lips as he smelled something baking inside her home. He knocked, and she eventually came, the woman with her hair tied back by a bandanna, long loop earrings hanging from her ears.

“Just in time to help me get something out of the oven,” she said, ushering the two in.

“What did you make?” Toro asked.

“I made raisin bran muffins. Bran muffins are nice to eat, and they scrub out your insides. At least that’s what bakers tell people to get them coming back for more,” she said with a little laugh as she led them past the collection of family photos.

Once they reached her kitchen, Gilda slipped her arms into some long oven mitts and got out the first batch. She placed it on the counter and tested to make sure the inside was completely cooked. When she was sure, she went for the second batch as well.

“What do you want us to help with?” Toro asked.

“Actually, I guess I can handle this for now. But I was planning on making a pie next, so you two could help me with the dough.” She nodded over to the dough, which sat on a large wooden board.

“Our dad wants to meet you today,” Rowan told her. “That’s why we came here.”

“Today? No, I can’t, I was planning on doing some more baking, and then cleaning up a little outside.”

“He sent us to get you; he’s going to give us candy if you stop by the store.”

“Plus, we’re having a soft opening today,” Toro chimed in. “You should come by anyway.”

Gilda considered this for a moment as the two boys approached the large amount of dough.

“Actually, I think that can happen. It still isn’t too warm out yet, and I do like taking a morning walk. I’ll tell you what: if you do me a favor, I’ll do you a favor to get you that candy.”

“They’re limited edition Proxima bars!” Toro said.

“I’m sure they are, dear.”

“What would you like us to do?” Rowan asked.

“It shouldn’t be very hard, but it would help me out considerably: Sweep off my back porch,” she said, nodding to the back door, a bit of light coming through the drapes that covered it.

“That’s it?” Toro asked.

“Sure. I’ll head over there now, and make this pie when I come home.”

“Are you going to bring him some muffins?” Rowan asked, his mouth watering as he looked to the raisin bran muffins that were now cooling on the countertop.

“Sure, and I’m guessing that you two would like some as well, right?”

Rowan and Toro nodded.

“That settles it then. We’ll eat some muffins, and I’ll bring some over to your father. In the meantime, you two can sweep the back porch for me. Just let yourself out through the back gate when you’re finished.”

“This is going to be so easy,” Toro said as they stepped onto Gilda’s back porch. He equipped his broom, while Rowan grabbed a broom that was leaning against a stack of wooden crates. “There’s hardly any dust out here.”

“If the lady wants her back porch swept, that’s what she’s going to get,” Rowan said as he started batting the dust away.

Toro joined in, the two making record time as they swept their ways across her back porch. Gilda had a nice backyard with seating in the corner. Rowan was able to see the deep blue ocean on the horizon, just a few clouds sitting in the sky. There were flowerbeds as well, which Rowan assumed had come from Tuya the florist.

He didn’t know what kind of flowers they were, but they were beautiful, and they did cause him to pause for a moment, Rowan lowering his broom and admiring their colors.

Whoosh!

A swell of dust blew past him, nearly whipping the broom out of Rowan’s hands. Toro dove out of the way just in time for the dust to slam against the side of Gilda’s home, where it reformed into the body of the dust girl.

“It’s her…” Toro said as he brought his broom to the ready.

He thrusted his weapon at the dust girl; her body separated into dust again and whipped up into the air, a laughing sound meeting both of their ears as she reappeared behind Toro.

“I’ve got her!” Rowan charged forward, ready to swat the floating dust girl out of the air.

She slammed into him and sent Rowan stumbling backwards, the dust blowing into his eyes, wind screaming past his ears. He spun around and she did the same again, Rowan eventually diving into the yard so he could regroup.

Toro came in hot, the young boy leaping into the air and swinging his broom with all of his might. He cut right through the dust girl, laughter sounding off in their ears as she reformed.

Now gripping the end of the broom shaft, Rowan swatted at her as if he were trying to catch a butterfly, and ended up smashing the end of Gilda’s broom against her porch.

The adrenaline raced through him as he watched his younger brother try to hit her again, the dust girl always on the move, always on the rebound.

Sometimes Toro connected, and when he did the broom simply passed right through her, the girl reforming. Other times she swirled up and over him, taunting the boy, Rowan growing angrier and angrier as he watched her taunt him.

He charged up the steps of the porch and tried to hit her, missed, and lost his balance instead. Rowan fell, nearly cracking the side of his head against one of Gilda’s pots.

This was a wake-up call. As he was up, watching his brother still struggle against the dust girl, Rowan realized they weren’t going to be able to win this fight.

“Toro, let’s go,” he said suddenly.

“What?” Toro asked as he tried to hit the dust girl again.

“Let’s go; we’re out of here!”

Rowan dropped Gilda’s broom and ran toward the back gate, Toro quickly joining him. They burst out into the cobblestone streets, which were quiet, Rowan immediately looking around to see if anyone had noticed the commotion.

But Sacred Cat Village was sleepy as always, and aside from a few of the village’s most famous residents scurrying under porches and hiding from the two boys, no one saw them.

Rowan turned, half-expecting the dust girl to come charging out after them. She never did, giving him a moment to finally catch his breath.

“She’s going to keep doing that,” Toro said, an angry look on his face. “And people are going to think that we don’t know how to clean up some stupid dust.”

“Agreed. We’re going to have to think of a new way to get her to leave us alone.”

“I can’t believe no one here has ever seen her before.”

“We don’t know that,” Rowan said. “But…” He shrugged almost as if he was settling the statement in his own heart. “People here just don’t see what we see as kids. That would be my guess.”

“Where should we go then?” Toro asked.

“Come on,” Rowan said as he turned back toward the general store. Only, he wasn’t ready to go home. He knew as soon as they did, their dad would put them to work somehow, especially if he had visitors and needed to talk business with them at the store.

A distraction eventually presented itself, Rowan and Toro coming across Gonpo chasing after one of the daily prizes. The man in the panda costume wheezed as he turned up one of the two pathways that led to the caves in the forest beyond the village. “I’ll get you…” he said, sucking in breaths as he watched a floating present tied to a purple balloon.

“Maybe we should help him,” Rowan said.

“He deserves the prize,” said Toro as he re-equipped his broom. He handed it to his older brother.

“I think I can get it.” Rowan took off, charging up the rocky pathway and running past Gonpo.

The wind pushed the balloon down just a bit just as Rowan launched himself in the air.

He slapped the broom against the present, and he was able to bring it down to the ground. Toro hopped onto the present before the balloon could lift up into the air again. He ripped the cord attaching the balloon to the prize, and let the balloon go.

“That was…” Gonpo lowered his head, his panda ears pointing right at them. “You caught it, and that means it’s yours.”

“No,” Toro said as he came forward with the present. “We caught it for you.”

Gonpo looked up at them again. “For… for me?”

Toro and Rowan nodded.

“Then…” Gonpo bit his lip and nodded. “Then I need to give something to the two of you. I have just the thing.”

Two pairs of sunglasses appeared in his hands. They were stylized to look like a panda’s face, with little black ears attached to the tops of the sunglasses.

“Those are so cool,” Toro said as he exchanged the daily prize for the sunglasses. He handed Rowan his pair and they both put them on.

“You two look great,” Gonpo said. “Those should definitely keep the sun out of your eyes.”

“So…” Toro asked, looking at the daily prize. “Are you going to show us what’s inside?”

“I can’t open it here,” Gonpo said. “Not until the party.”

“Party?”

“I’ll explain later. I’ve got to get home so I can put this present up. You two have a great day, and thanks again.”

“Wait,” Toro called after him as Gonpo started to turn. “The general store is open today, so be sure to check it out.”

“It’s open already?” Gonpo bobbed his head left and right. “In that case, I will have to stop by.”

Rather than head back to the store, the two boys, who still wore their panda sunglasses, ran up the rocky incline instead, toward the cave.

“We’ll just check real quick,” Rowan told his younger brother.

“Yeah, real quick. And if that bat is there this time, I’m going to hit it with my broom.”

Toro ran even faster, Rowan having to call to him to slow down so he wouldn’t hurt himself.

They reached the cave, and as they did, the woman with the cat mask started to materialize into existence. She was semi-translucent, and as she hovered before them, she looked down at the two boys.

“She’s here,” Rowan announced to his younger brother, his heart suddenly in his throat. “I can see her.”

Rowan took off his new sunglasses and sent them to his inventory list, Toro doing the same. The woman looked the same as she had the last time Rowan had seen the woman in her flowing robes, her cat mask with shades of white, black, and red on it.

“Where?” Toro asked, his broom already in his hands.

“She’s not trying to fight us. She…” Rowan watched as the woman gestured toward the cave opening. “I think she wants us to go inside…”

“Should we do it?”

Rowan looked to his younger brother, his wooden sword appearing in his hand. “Just get ready to hit that bat if it flies out at us.”

“I’m ready. If that bat attacks us again, I’ll hit it harder than I hit the dust girl.”

The two boys approached the cave, and the woman vanished. They ducked down a little, ready for the bat to fly out, Rowan hardly noticing the stale air inside the cave, the strong scent of stone. He placed his hand on the rock wall and scanned the ceiling, looking for the bat.

“I don’t think it’s here,” Toro whispered.

“Maybe not…”

Rowan gasped as he caught sight of the woman once again. She now sat in the air as if she were seated on a bench, her finger pointing toward a hole in the cave wall.

“Look,” Rowan said as he took a step toward the hole.

“Where do you think it leads?” Toro asked as soon as he spotted it.

It wasn’t a very large hole, but it was certainly big enough for the two boys to fit through. The rocks around it were smooth, so moving through the hole wouldn’t be very difficult. The more Rowan looked at it, the more he realized an adult could probably fit through it as well.

Suddenly, there was light shining from the other side.

“Do you see that?”

Toro nodded.

They heard a noise in the cave, both of them startled. Rowan dropped his sword, and when he bent down to pick it up, he saw the woman’s face now pressing out of the hole, her cat mask tilting left and right.

“I don’t know about this,” he started to say, all his nerves firing at once as he pressed away from the hole.

“What did you see?” Toro asked.

“The… the woman is in there.”

“In the hole?”

Rowan nodded.

“Then…” Toro got down on his knees. He shoved his broom into the hole and as he did he was sucked forward.

“Toro!” Rowan started to backpedal. He resisted the natural inclination to run, especially as a new instinct took over, one to protect his only sibling.

Rowan practically dove into the hole.

“Rowan?” Toro asked just as soon as he appeared on the other side.

Except, it wasn’t the other side.

They were in the same cave, and everything looked the exact same as it had just moments ago.

Everything except his younger brother.

“Toro?” Rowan gasped. “You’re…?”

“Why are you a cat?” Toro asked, alarm in his voice.

“I’m a cat? You’re a cat!”

“No, you’re a cat!”

Rowan looked down to see that he had paws now, four of them to be exact.

Tensing his paws, he found that he could produce claws, and there was also the matter of the hair that covered his body, which was dark brown with white socks just above his ankles. His brother was a similar color, but rather than having white socks, he had a white tip at the end of his tail.

Speaking of tails, Rowan’s tail appeared in front of him, and he found that he could move it just as easily as he could move his arm.

“We’re… cats?” Rowan asked, barely able to get the words out.

Rowan focused on his brother for just a moment to check his social status, seeing that everything was the same as it was when they were human.

Name: Toro Toragan

Age: 10

Occupation: Student

Rowan then brought up his own attributes, only to find that everything was same.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 341/341

Intelligence: 23.78

Willpower: 11.02

Empathy: 6.45

Charisma: 11.84

Strength: 5.41

Dexterity: 7.30

Luck: 3.51

Rowan shook his head, now noticing that everything around them was several times the size it had been when they were human.

“We’re not cats…” Toro said.

“We’re… kittens.”

“What the heck!?” Toro shouted, his voice tinged in laughter.

Rowan turned back to the hole, a light glowing on the other end.

“As much as I want to figure out what’s going on here,” he said in a shaky voice, his little cat heart thrumming in his chest, “I need to make sure that we can become human again.”

“Let’s try.”

Toro charged back into the hole and Rowan did the same, both of them suddenly back in the cave, now in their normal bodies and clothing.

Rowan looked down at his hand, and then touched his lower back, feeling if he still had a tail or not. He glanced at his younger brother and his spiky brown hair, Rowan shaking his head as he tried to make sense of what was happening.

“The hole allows us to become cats,” Toro said, verbalizing what Rowan was trying to put to words. “We can change back and forth.”

“We…” Rowan looked back at the hole. “Should we go back?”

“Let’s try again.”

Toro got down on his knees and once again slipped into the hole, Rowan following behind him. He appeared on the other side in the exact same cave, except they were now kittens.

“Look at my claws,” Toro said. He swatted at the air and laughed. “These are awesome. Where’s the dust girl now? She wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“Are you sure?” Rowan tackled his brother, laughing as they rolled around on the cave floor, the two swatting at each other.

“This is great!” Toro said as Rowan’s tail whipped at him, Rowan eventually sinking his teeth into Toro’s neck. “And it doesn’t even hurt that bad!”

They continued to play fight for a moment until Rowan stopped, growing serious all of a sudden.

“We can play later,” he said almost coldly.

“Come on…” Toro said as he pressed his weight forward and prepared to pounce again.

“Think about it. We’re cats now. We’ll have plenty of time to play around.” Rowan examined his tail once again, noticed some dirt on it and licked it off.

“Wait. Why did you do that?” Toro asked, laughing.

“I… I don’t know…”

Toro tightened his two front paws again, looking down at his claws. “They’re so sharp.”

“They are,” said Rowan as he examined his claws as well. He felt agile in that moment, and he desperately wanted to move about, to get used to being on all fours. Rowan turned toward the exit of the cave. “Come, let’s go explore.”

“You mean go down to the village?”

He nodded, his tail naturally hooking in the air behind him. “We’ll make it quick. As long as we can get back to the cave, we’ll be able to be human again. In the meantime, try to keep up.”

“Race you down there!”

Rowan took off, Toro quickly joining him as the two cats raced to the exit of the cave.

While Rowan felt that he was faster as a kitten, he also noticed that it took him longer to travel distances, and that small things, like a root or an overturned rock, presented much larger obstacles.

But these obstacles were fun, and he quickly adjusted to traveling on four legs. His sense of smell was heightened, as was his hearing, Rowan picking up small noises he would have never heard every time he stopped. A mole rustling through the leaves, a beetle landing on a branch, a bird cleaning its wings—everything came to him at once.

But it wasn’t as overwhelming as it should have been. Even though he hadn’t been a member of the feline species for more than five minutes, he had already adjusted to the change.

Or so he thought.

The two stopped about halfway to the village, both of them looking to the right.

Rowan got down and started to creep toward the noise, Toro following after him. There were plenty of leaves on the forest floor, blades of grass poking through as well, which brushed against his belly.

He paused, and slowly lifted his head out of the leaves.

“It’s a frog,” Rowan whispered after the creature hopped away.

Toro laughed. “He was singing such a stupid song.”

“Singing?” Rowan asked. “It just sounded like a frog to me.”

“He was singing about the forest and how it’s nice and cool in the morning,” Toro told him.

“Let’s find another animal and see if you understand them.”

“What about the other cats?”

Rowan hopped out of the leaves and moved back to the main trail. “Good idea. Let’s go down to the village.”

He started running again, his brother quickly catching up with him.

“Being a cat is so cool,” Toro said. “I’m so much faster now!”

His younger brother sped ahead, Rowan seeing an opportunity to pounce. He shot forward and landed on his brother’s back, the two tumbling toward the village, laughing as each tried to get the upper paw.

They stumbled right into Doyona’s husband, Vicar heading up to sunbathe by the waterfall. The shirtless man paused and looked curiously at the two brown kittens. “I don’t believe I’ve seen you two around before…”

“Let’s go!” Rowan said as he whipped past the older man, Toro on his tail in a matter of seconds.

The two brothers charged toward the village, the two eventually slowing when they reached the start of the hoarders’ home. They paused to take a breath, Rowan noticing he still had plenty of energy.

“We should go see Dad,” Toro said, the brown kitten with a white tip on his tail turning to the right.

“Wait,” Rowan said. “That’s the last person we should visit. At least right now. He won’t believe it’s us anyway. I mean, maybe. I really don’t know how he’d react.”

“We should see what the Catpendium says.”

Rowan nodded. “That’s not a bad idea…”

“But it’s not working for me right now. It just shows me your social status.”

“Same. Maybe one of us will have to be human, and the other will have to be a cat for it to work. But…” Rowan thought back to how the transformation had taken place, his brother slipping into the hole and then Rowan going in after him.

They would have to experiment a little when they went back to the cave.

He shook his head, noticing something about his whiskers, a sensitivity that he didn’t normally feel on his face. Rowan sat on his hind legs and saw a smudge of dirt on the outer side of his paw, which he instinctively began licking.

“You’re cleaning yourself again,” Toro said, laughing.

Rowan stopped what he was doing and started laughing alongside his younger brother. “You’re right… I didn’t even think about what I was doing.”

“So…” Toro looked at him with concern in his green eyes. “We shouldn’t tell Dad, right?”

“Not yet. We’ll do some tests first, and…” Rowan bobbed his head left and right as he thought things through. “Maybe this is the secret of the island. Maybe we have discovered it…”

“We have definitely discovered something.”

“We’re NPCs,” Rowan reminded him, even though he didn’t quite know the definition of the term.

“Yeah, but still, it has to be magic. What about the dust girl? And the lady with the cat mask?”

“Is this another ‘spirits or ghosts’ question? I canceled the magic quest anyway.”

Rowan hadn’t received any prompts that told him that he had completed a Main Quest or Side Quest, which he took to mean that they still hadn’t solved anything really. They’d only discovered something.

His thoughts were interrupted when a rumbling in front of him caused Rowan to duck down, his brother doing the same.

Hiccup and Rocket, the hoarders’ cats, tore out of a pile of trash, the two cats a bit larger than the brothers, especially Hiccup, who was full-grown.

Their information appeared, showing Rowan that the Catpendium worked when viewing cats that weren’t related to him.

Name: Rocket

Breed: American Shorthair

Sex: Male

Color: Brown

Secondary Color: Yellow

Age (Human Years): 1.3

Age (Cat Years): 18

Known Associates: Hiccup

Name: Hiccup

Breed: Birman

Sex: Male

Color: White

Secondary Color: Pink

Age (Human Years): 2.6

Age (Cat Years): 27

Known Associates: Rocket

Offspring: Spewy

“Who are you guys?” Rocket asked, the cat the same color brown as Rowan and his brother, albeit with yellow stripes.

“Us?” Rowan asked.

“Meow-no, the cat standing behind you,” Hiccup said, Rowan realizing in that moment that he could definitely understand them. The white cat with the pink tail took a step closer to them, sniffing the air.

“We’re Toro and Rowan.”

“I haven’t seen you around before,” Rocket told Toro, his voice a little scratchy. “I’m Rocket, by the way. And this is Hiccup.”

Rowan nodded, confirming that their names matched what was listed on the Catpendium.

“Meow-yes, I’m Hiccup,” said the other cat, who had a peculiar accent. “Now, where are you two from? You can’t be from the village.”

“We’re from…” Rowan thought about what he had already heard, about living off the grid around the island. “We’re from another part of the island,” he finally told the two as they approached.

“Another part?” Hiccup asked. “Which part?”

“The other side,” said Toro.

“The other side, meow? I haven’t been there in forever,” Hiccup said, relaxing his shoulders a little. “Well, any-meow, welcome to the village.”

“What do you call the village?”

“We call it what everyone calls it,” Rocket told Rowan. “Sacred Cat Village.”

“So we are sacred around here, right?” Toro asked.

Hiccup and Rocket exchanged glances. “I guess so,” said Rocket, “although it seems like the humans live better than we do.”

“Stop your meow-complaining,” Hiccup told his counterpart. “The humans are all close to dying, and this place is pretty boring for them.”

“Some of them enjoy the solitude.”

“Some of them enjoy collecting mounds and meow-nds of trash,” Hiccup said, nodding his head toward the hoarders’ home. “Like our people.”

“What’s with these hoarder guys anyway?” Rowan asked, trying to sound casual.

Hiccup tilted his head left and right as he considered how he should answer this. “It’s a long story, one for another day. Let me say this, there are some things in that garbage that would blow your meows. Lots of passageways and little tunnels. There are some nasty rats down there as well.”

“We keep trying to kill the rats,” Rocket added, “but they always come back.”

“Maybe we can help you fight the rats someday,” Toro suggested.

Hiccup and Rocket once again exchanged glances, their tails bobbing in the air behind them. “We could always use help clearing out the rats,” Rocket said. “Right now, they have mostly retreated to the depths of the garbage, but they’ll be back.”

“They always come back,” said Hiccup, finishing up his sentence with a short mew. “Since you are new here, we should introduce you to some of the other cats in the village. Most of them aren’t so bad, and a few of them…” Hiccup frowned, his whiskers turning down. “I don’t like them, meow.”

“I don’t like them either,” Rocket chimed in.

A prompt flashed in front of Rowan, offering him a new quest.

Cat Quest: Join Rocket and Hiccup to meet some of the other cats on the island

This caused him to see his other quests as well, including the Dad Quest, which still hadn’t been marked for completion because they hadn’t returned to their father. Rowan thought of their father, who was probably wondering where they were by this point.

He felt guilty all of a sudden, and as much as he wanted to continue to hang out with the two cats, he knew it was better for them to get back to the shop to see if their dad needed help.

“Next time,” Rowan said.

“Next time?” Toro asked.

“Yeah, next time we’ll go on a tour with you. We have to head back to the forest. We have, um, some things we need to do.”

Hiccup nodded. “Well, then do what you have to do, meow. There’s always time when you’re a cat.” He turned back to the hoarders’ home, Rocket saying goodbye before doing the same.

“Why didn’t we go with them?” Toro asked once they were gone.

“I think we should get back and see if Dad needs our help,” Rowan told him. “Just a gut instinct.”

“But…”

“I know, we just got here. But if all we have to do to become cats is climb into that hole, then we can do it anytime.”

“What if the hole is gone next time we want to become cats?”

“I don’t know. But…” Rowan thought of the woman in the cat mask. “I don’t think it will be gone, and if it disappears for some reason, I think she’ll lead me to it.”

A seagull flew overhead and landed at the edge of the hoarders’ home. It pecked at the ground for a moment, and turned to the two kittens.

“See if you can talk to it,” Rowan told his brother.

“Hey,” Toro called over to the seagull. The seagull narrowed its beady black eyes on Toro. It squawked, Toro taking a step back.

“What does it say?” Rowan asked.

“It said that…”

The seagull squawked again and flapped its wings.

“We need to run!”

Rowan jumped just in time to avoid the bird, which flew right at them.

He followed his brother up the path that led to the cave, the seagull now hovering above them, its shadow looming over their heads. Rowan had never been chased like this before in his life. He alternated between paying attention to where he was running and looking over his shoulder, hoping to spot the seagull before it swooped down at them.

He then realized he could watch the shadow, and as it grew closer he picked up his speed, Rowan able to dodge its next attack, the tip of the seagull’s wing touching his tail.

He ran faster than he had ever run before, Toro just a few steps ahead of them as they burst into the cave. They saw the hole and dipped into it, the two emerging on the other side as humans.

The seagull landed.

Toro equipped his broom and swung it at the bird, managing to hit it once before it was able to fly away.

The young boy lowered his weapon, and let out a deep breath.

“That was insane,” Rowan said, his eyes wide for a moment. “What did it say to you?”

“It said that we looked delicious.”

“Seagulls eat cats?” he asked, looking for the bird again and failing.

Toro shrugged. “I don’t know, but it was trying to do something to us.”

“I guess it could have lifted us into the air and then dropped us,” Rowan said. “But don’t cats always land on their feet?”

“I think so. But if it dropped us from high enough, it probably wouldn’t matter.”

Rowan nodded. “Well, good job hitting it with the broom. I bet it wasn’t expecting that.”

Toro snickered. “I sure hit him good.”

“You sure did.” After reenacting the strike a couple of times, both boys turned back to the hole in the cave. “Well? Should we see how this works again? I’ll stay on this side, and you go through this time.”

Toro got down on his knees and crawled back into the hole. It took a few seconds, but he eventually emerged, now as a cat.

“That’s amazing,” Rowan said as he picked his brother up, Toro mewing in his hands. “Hold still for a second.”

Name: Toro

Breed: Shorthair

Sex: Male

Color: Brown

Secondary Color: White

Age (Human Years): 10

Age (Cat Years): .08

Known Associates: Rowan

In looking at the information the Catpendium provided, Rowan quickly realized that they were going to have to be careful around people like Nedman, who he knew had the app and for that matter, they’d have to be extra careful around their father as well. They’d probably need to be careful around Ringo the coder too, as Nedman said he was the one who had created the Catpendium. It was odd that the Catpendium didn’t work if he was looking at his brother while he was a cat. It did, however, seem to work on other cats.

“Nod if you can understand me,” he told Toro.

His younger brother nodded, Rowan smirking at the fact that he was holding him in his hands.

After patting him on the head, Toro once again mewing, Rowan placed his brother back on the ground and pointed to the hole. “Go ahead and switch out; we’ll head back down.”

His brother did as instructed, and soon he was crawling out of the hole, human again.

“Did it work?”

Rowan nodded. “It lists everything, which means we’re going to have to be super careful.”

Both boys were silent for a moment, Toro finally speaking: “That was seriously the coolest thing we’ve ever done.”

“Seriously.”

The two boys headed down the hill, choosing the dirt path with crisscrossing roots on it that passed along the right side of the hoarders’ home. It was the same path they had just come up as cats, Rowan appreciating just how different it was to travel as a human.

As a cat, he was fast and agile, but as a human he felt more powerful, his perspective allowing him to see further ahead.

He caught Garner shuffling in their direction, the angrier of the two hoarders wearing a tweed jacket over a pair of trousers. His shirt was tucked in and he had a cravat tied around his neck.

“Hey,” he called to the boys.

“Have you come to the store yet?” Toro asked him as he slowed to a stop.

“I’m not going to no store. I’ll let my brother go,” Garner said with disgust. He turned to a mound of garbage and nudged some of the things closer to his property line, ignoring the two.

Rowan saw Hiccup and Rocket watching the strange man, recalling that he had literally been talking to the cats just a few minutes ago.

He felt the urge to return to the cave and transform again, but he knew it was best to check on their dad.

“Come on,” he said as he turned to their home.

Rowan ignored the cats that scattered as they saw the two boys running, the two exploding through the door, where they found their dad standing behind the counter, a surprised look on his face.

“I was wondering when you two would come,” he said.

“Dad…” Toro snapped his mouth shut.

Rowan sensed that his younger brother was about to tell their father what had happened, but he stopped himself just in time. He took a quick glance around the store and saw that many of the items they had set out had already been purchased.

“Dang…” he started to say.

“Dang is right,” said Ganix as he came around the register.

He grabbed Uncle, who had been sitting on the counter, and placed him on the ground. Toro scooped him up, and did so in an almost alien way. He was probably thinking the same thing Rowan was thinking, that it was strange to be holding a cat after having just been one.

“And thank you,” his dad told the two. “Because of you guys, and the conversation I had with Ringo, we’re going to get an app going so people can have items delivered. And you know who my first two delivery boys are going to be?”

“Not me,” Toro said as he ran into the other room, playfully hiding behind a wall.

“Are there any other boys on the island? If so, I’ll find them and they can be your delivery boys,” Rowan said.

“Nope, you two. It’s a family business, after all. So we’re going to get the app running as soon as possible. Also, I spoke to Gilda, and she’s interested in selling pastries here. I have to get a little stand for them, but that’s something I can work on later. And then the other thing we talked about…” he told Rowan, referring to Sacred Cat Products. “She’s interested in that as well.”

Dad Quest: Find Gilda the baker and bring her to the store (complete)

The quest prompt faded away as Toro spoke: “What did you and Rowan talk about?” he asked as he came around the counter, still with Uncle in his arms.

“It’s a secret,” said Rowan.

“It’s not that big of a secret…” Ganix smiled at his two sons. “Basically, I’m thinking that once we get the general store running, we can start selling items from the island on the mainland. Also, don’t let me forget I owe you two some Proxima bars. Maybe we’ll eat them tomorrow when we’re camping.”

“What kind of things do you want to sell?” Toro asked.

“Well, pastries for one, but that means they have to be delivered there every morning. I want to get a better sense of who is on the island, and what they’re able to do. Once I do, that will help determine what we could sell. The company would be called Sacred Cat Products, and the funds would obviously go to whoever made the item, plus a commission for us. Maybe once it really gets going, we can use it to…” Ganix paused. “I’m getting ahead of myself. One step at a time, boys.”

“I thought you were going to be mad at us,” Rowan admitted.

“Mad? For what?” his father asked.

Once again, Rowan could tell that there was something different about their dad, something lighter about his steps and the way he smiled at them. The stress seemed to have melted away; Ganix even looked like he was standing a little taller than before, like he suddenly had a purpose.

“Because we were gone for too long…”

“You two were gone for longer than I thought you would be, but that’s fine, you’re boys on an island.”

“Island boys?” Toro asked with a playful groan.

“Something like that. I was busy talking to people and making connections, which was one of the reasons I wanted to do a soft opening anyway. Did you see how many things we sold?”

“How much money did we make?” Toro asked.

“A couple hundred Proxima dollars, that’s for sure. Now, that’s not exactly what we made because we have to factor in our costs, but for a soft opening, it does give me hope that this will be profitable. Since most of the clients seem to be older, I think that we could just be open in the morning, maybe with a few hours in the afternoon, or maybe open back up around dinnertime for a couple hours. I don’t know. It’s kind of strange to space out your workday like that.”

“If we’re only open in the morning, then that’s when people will come.”

“You’re not wrong,” Ganix told Rowan as he stepped behind the counter again. He pressed the button on the register and it popped open. His father took out a few bills and handed them to his oldest son. “Run over to Nedman’s and get us some dinner. I want to save the Proxima stuff I have for the camping trip.”

“We’re still going?” Toro asked as he set Uncle down.

“Of course we’re still going. We’ll go camping, and open the store up officially when we get back. I want to get this trip in before things really start moving.”

“I’ll be right back,” Rowan said as he turned to the door.

As soon as he opened it, the cats out front slipped away, Rowan now looking forward to meeting them in his feline form. Maybe he could tell them to be nicer to the two boys who now lived in the store…

As usual, the village was pretty quiet and the streets were empty. For once, Rowan appreciated this. He even stopped to admire the place, turning up the hill and confirming that no one was out.

This was the exact opposite of what it was like to live in the suburbs, especially the busy ones, which always had cars on the roads and pedestrians in public transportation. It was peaceful here, and just looking at it made him want to take a deep breath and relax.

Rowan was startled when a cat ran up to him and rubbed its body against the side of his leg. He looked down to see one of the female cats that hung out outside the general store, the one named Fiona. She had short white hair that was splattered with black and gray, and as she rubbed her body against him, Rowan slowly bent and ran his hand over her back.

She was purring loudly now, which was another thing Rowan would have to learn how to do in his cat form. He didn’t know how much purring was necessary, but it seemed like a pretty cool trick to know.

He quit petting her and crossed the street, heading straight into Nedman’s restaurant. Nedman stood behind the counter, his arms crossed over his chest, his head bent forward.

“Nedman?” Rowan asked once he didn’t look up at him.

“What? Oh, hey,” he said, sniffing as he blinked his eyes open. “Sorry about that. I got a little sleepy there and, well…”

“You can sleep while you’re standing?”

Nedman looked around. “Apparently I can. So, what’ll it be? The special or the special?”

“What’s the special?” Rowan asked.

“Catloaf and grilled catsparagus.”

“Sounds…” Rowan considered this. He was pretty sure Toro wouldn’t like it, but maybe their dad could convince him to eat. “Sounds great.”

“One special coming right up. Family-sized, right?”

Rowan nodded.

Nedman called the order into the kitchen and his wife responded.

“It’ll just be a few minutes. She just wants to grill up the asparagus, I mean catsparagus, so it’s nice and hot. Anyway, how are things? How’s the island treating you? Any revolutions to report?”

“It’s not bad,” Rowan said as he took a seat at one of the tables closest to the counter. “And no revolutions.”

“Too bad. I was over at the general store earlier; I’m glad to see that it’s opening up again. It will allow us to close a little earlier, and take breaks in the afternoon now. We still got a few things we need to get rid of,” he said, nodding toward some of the supplies in the back corner of the restaurant, which included a pallet of toilet paper. “But your dad already said he’s interested in purchasing it.”

“We’re going camping tomorrow,” Rowan said.

“Camping, huh?” Nedman considered this for a moment. “There are some strange people that live on this island, so be aware out there, but I’m sure you’ve already discovered that.”

Rowan didn’t say anything. Instead, he rocked back and forth on the stool.

“You’ll find them or they’ll find you,” Nedman said with an ominous chuckle. “I would recommend taking the trail that juts off the entrance to the East Docks; it runs right along the orchard. There are some strange rock formations out that way. I’d never seen anything like it, and I’m sure you haven’t either. That’s where Old Man Stellars lives too.”

Nedman pointed to a picture on the wall. It was faded, and a bit yellow, but Rowan could make out several giant rock structures that were jutting out of the water, a single mansion on top of one of them.

“Someone actually lives there?”

“Someone sure does, Joshnam Stellars. He’s pretty secretive, so if he wants to come out, he’ll come out and introduce himself. If not, you’ll see his place and stare at it in wonder. But I would recommend taking the bridge that leads across the water. It’s not in this picture, but he has a bridge there now.”

“What does he do?”

Nedman shrugged. “You’ll have to ask him that yourself. Stellars doesn’t visit the village very often, maybe once or twice during the winter just to pick up some supplies. Like I said, a lot of the people that live off the grid are like that.”

“Is there magic on this island?” Rowan asked.

Even though he had canceled out this quest earlier, and had since crawled into a hole in a cave to become a cat, he still wanted validation from an adult.

Nedman smiled. “That depends on who you ask. Keep exploring, and I’m sure you’ll find some interesting things.”

“I already have,” Rowan told him.

“Have you, now? Then I would suggest keeping those things to yourself and not telling anyone about them. Sometimes it’s better this way. You don’t want any magic you find to lose its luster.” A bell dinged from the kitchen and Nedman turned away. “Food’s up. Keep exploring, and we’ll talk later.”

After dinner, which turned out to be great even for Toro, Rowan and his younger brother got cleaned up ready for bed.

“Good night,” Ganix told the two boys as he tucked them in.

Rowan waited for the door to shut and then turned to his brother. “I can’t believe we were just cats.”

“I can’t stop thinking about it,” Toro said excitedly.

“I just hope the hole is still there when we come back from our camping trip.”

“Me too. I want to go on the tour with Hiccup and Rocket.”

“Yeah, they seemed pretty nice.”

“This island is interesting, isn’t it?”

“It’s okay,” Rowan said, once again trying to put on a cool guy act. Of course he thought the island was interesting. A faint voice at the back of his head had already started telling him to enjoy it while it lasted, that summer would eventually come to an end.

This was definitely something he didn’t want to happen, but he knew it was impossible for them to stay on the island past the end of summer. There were no schools here, and there were no other children. And what about their mom? Why wasn’t she here?

Their father had told them that they were going to call their mom before heading off to the camping trip, and while Rowan looked forward to hearing her voice, he also knew that she wouldn’t tell him what happened. This disappointed him. He didn’t remember hearing his parents fight or anything; all he remembered was her leaving and their dad saying that they were going on a trip.

Rowan wished now that he had protested more, perhaps asked questions or maybe got a little angry when she announced her departure. That surely would have gotten something out of his father.

His brother yawned, always quick to fall asleep.

Rowan didn’t know how he was able to sleep with what had happened since they arrived at the island, especially over the last day.

It seemed like a dream now, crawling through a hole and coming out the other end as a cat. But they’d done it enough times for it not to be an illusion of any kind. It had really happened. He had seen his own paws.

Another idea came to him as he lay in the bed, staring at the darkened ceiling.

Once they got more comfortable as cats, maybe they could use this to their advantage to learn things about some of the islanders. Maybe even…

“Help them,” Rowan whispered.

But would this be a betrayal of trust? If they were spying on people as cats, wouldn’t they be violating their privacy, even if it was with good intentions?

That would be something Rowan would have to think about at a later date.

After lying awake for another forty minutes or so, he quietly got out of bed and slipped into the living room. Once again, he found the balcony door open. He could see his father’s outline, the man seated in a chair and staring out at the stars.

Rowan picked up Uncle the cat, and held him in his arms as he stepped out onto the balcony.

“Rowan?” his dad asked as he lowered something metallic, which quickly disappeared.

A sweet smell met Rowan’s nose as he sat down next to his father, Uncle happy to be cradled like a baby.

“You are supposed to be asleep,” his father said.

“So are you.”

“No, I’m an adult, I can go to bed when I want. And I was just about to, but decided to sit out here and just go over some things instead. Isn’t having this balcony nice?” he asked as he looked to his son, his eyes a little more reflective than normal.

“It’s great.”

Rowan meant this. The sound of the water lashing against the rocks made him feel melancholic for a reason that he couldn’t quite explain. The water came and it moved away again. Rowan was too young to understand how much this was a metaphor for life, but he appreciated something in that moment, even if he wasn’t able to define it.

“And you and your brother have been getting along, right?”

“We have.”

“I’ve noticed that you haven’t been picking on him as much as you used to.”

“I don’t pick on him that much…”

“During the last school year you did,” Ganix reminded him. “But that’s what brothers do. You’ll see. One day you’ll be my age…” His father choked up all of a sudden. “Sorry. One day you’ll be my age, and you’ll be glad you have a brother. You know what happened to mine. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about how my life would have been different had that not happened.”

Rowan knew what he was referring to, his dad mentioning it every now and then. He was about to say something when his father continued:

“Family is all we have. And I know it sounds strange saying that, but once I die, and your mother dies, your grandparents as well, your brother will be all that you have. Of course, by then, maybe you’ll have your own family, but you still have your brother, someone who remembers things that no one else can remember. Someone who knows who you really are. I’m sorry,” Ganix said as he touched his face for a moment, as if he were wiping a tear away.

Rowan couldn’t actually see the tear; he was pretty sure he’d never seen his dad cry.

“It sure is nice here,” his father finally said, switching the subject. “I just keep thinking about what it was like to live on the mainland, and our little backyard.”

Rowan nodded, recalling just how small their backyard was, with a new tree in it and enough grass that they could roll around, but not much else.

“The same backyard that everyone else had in the neighborhood. All of our backyards pressed up against one another, the view from the back window being our neighbor’s fence. I don’t know. I’m rambling here. This is just so much nicer, I feel so much more…” His father smiled. “I was going to say human but…”

“NPC?” Rowan asked.

“Yeah, that.”

“I still don’t know what it means.”

“I’m surprised no one has mentioned it in school. It is sort of one of those things. Those who know about it don’t really talk about it, and those who don’t know about it have all sorts of conspiracies and whatnot that they associate with it. When you do learn the definition, just know this: we are alive just as much as anything else in any other world. If you cut me, I bleed, and if you swim out of that ocean right now and keep going, you would eventually drown, just like anyone else, like any animal or person.”

Rowan almost told him in that moment. What would it be like to show his father the hole that they had crawled in, that they could transform? What if they could transform all together? Would he play with them? Would he be more shocked than they were?

Rowan ran the scenario in his head. He knew that his dad wouldn’t believe him, but what if he took him there and physically showed him the hole, and he crawled in it just like Toro had done earlier?

What then?

“Dad…”

“Yes, son?” his father asked after a long pause.

“Never mind. I was just thinking about Sacred Cat Products.”

“Yes, it’s something very interesting to think about. When we get back from the camping trip, we’ll have our opening and we’ll go to the village council meeting. Hopefully, there will be people there who can make some kind of artisanal product,” Ganix said, nodding enthusiastically. “Mainlanders will love it. I can just see it.”

“I can see it too.”

“We can revitalize this island, maybe even get more tourists here.”

“That might be complicated…”

“I agree, and I thought about that too. I know that some of the people on this island like the quiet, but I think it would benefit everyone. But maybe that’s just me coming at this as a newcomer. I don’t know. We will see how they feel at the meeting. It doesn’t mean that it has to be a tourist destination all year round. Maybe just during the summer, or the spring, like it used to be.”

“And what about the orchard?”

“That’s right,” his father said, scratching the back of his head. “We should check that out.”

“Nedman recommended taking a path near the East Docks that goes by some interesting-looking cliffs,” Rowan said. “I think the orchard is near there as well. Maybe we could check that out too. There is still time to get started on the apple-peaches.”

“Gilda mentioned that to me today. She said her apple-peach muffins were an island favorite. But there are no apple-peaches without the orchard, aside from ones that grow wild. The thing is, I don’t know anyone here who knows anything about the orchard.”

“Maybe someone at the village council meeting will know more about it.”

“Maybe. Someone has to own the property.”

“Do you think we could run both?” Rowan asked.

“You mean run the general store and manage the orchard?” Ganix considered this for a moment. “I don’t know. I don’t know what we will have to do to run the orchard aside from watering it and possibly dealing with pests and other animals. There has to be more to it, obviously. But anything is possible. Let’s just see what happens at the village council meeting. Anyway, I think it’s time we head to bed. We have a busy day tomorrow.”

.Chapter Six.

Rowan woke up before his brother. He quietly slipped out of bed, his personal attributes appearing before him.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 341/341

Intelligence: 23.78

Willpower: 11.02

Empathy: 6.65

Charisma: 11.84

Strength: 5.47

Dexterity: 7.41

Luck: 3.66

+ .20 Empathy!

+ .06 Strength!

+ .11 Dexterity!

+ .15 Luck!

He briefly scanned through his active quests, his eyes falling on the Cat Quest.

This got Rowan thinking. No one was up right now, and if he made a quick trip up to the cave, he’d be able to see if the hole was still there. The only difficult part would be sneaking past his father. But once he got to the stairs, it would be smooth sailing from there.

Rowan quietly put his shoes on, Uncle joining him, and weaving between his legs. He placed the orange kitten on the bed and pushed his hand down on Uncle’s back.

“Lie down,” he whispered.

The cat didn’t listen, but it also didn’t follow him out of the room either, Rowan easily able to make it past his snoring father and to the stairs. The door creaked as he opened it, Rowan pausing and swallowing hard. If his dad woke up now he could just say something like he wanted to grab a bite to eat from the store below, or he wanted to check on the cats outside.

But in the end he didn’t have to lie to him, Ganix still snoring as Rowan crept down the stairs.

Once he was outside, the cats that normally gathered in front of the general store swarmed Rowan. He ignored them as he took off up the hill.

The sun was just starting to come up, casting a bright-orange hue on some of the homes, a chill in the air that he wasn’t used to.

He reached the first trail that led up to the caves, his eyes moving up the cobblestone road just a bit to see someone slowly moving in his direction. Rather than wait around to find out who it was, he took off, Rowan extra careful not to trip as he charged up the incline covered in loose rocks and roots.

He almost fell, which made him hyper aware of his surroundings and the quiet of the forest.

If something attacked him…

He equipped his wooden sword, the teenager nearly jumping out of his shoes when something moved to his right. There was enough light coming through the tops of the trees for him to see the white underside of a deer’s tail, the woodland creature scurrying off into the forest.

He lowered his sword and continued.

Rowan reached the cave and took a quick glance around, once again confirming that he was alone. He crouched down a little, his sword over his head just in case the bat flew out.

When it didn’t, he continued deeper into the cave until he found the hole. Before crawling in, he took one more look around to see if he could catch the woman with the cat mask.

Once he confirmed that she wasn’t there, he got on his belly and slipped into the hole.

Rowan emerged on the other side.

He looked down and saw that he once again was a cat, his fur brown, white socks on his legs, claws and a tail. While he wanted to explore a little, he also knew that his family would be up soon. Besides, this was just a mission of confirmation, and it was clear that he would be able to transform into a cat again.

He crawled back into the hole and came back out as a human, his wooden sword lying on the floor of the cave.

Rowan grabbed it and turned back to the path that led to the village.

He reached the hoarders’ home, and was just about to turn right when someone called out to him.

Rowan stopped dead in his tracks, his arms tensing as he recognized the voice.

“What are you doing up so early?” Garner asked, the meaner of the two hoarders in a pair of pajamas and a maroon dinner jacket. He was shirtless, and so thin that Rowan could make out all of his ribs.

“Just going home,” Rowan said.

“You shouldn’t be out this early,” Garner told him, his voice tinged in animosity.

“Sorry.” Rowan took off, ignoring Garner as he called out to him.

He reached the general store. One of the cats came forward, Rowan recognizing him as the proverbial leader of the pack.

“Hi, Quantum,” he said as he petted the chubby gray cat, which was the first time the cat had been friendly to him. The cat continued to purr, Rowan remembering that he wanted to give purring a shot but had yet to try it out.

The door flew open and his dad stepped out, still in his sleep clothes. “Rowan?” he asked, letting out a deep breath. “What? Where…”

“I was out here petting the cats,” Rowan said, registering the concern on his father’s face.

“Son.” Ganix massaged his temples for a moment. “You can’t just leave like that. Your brother woke up and you weren’t there, and then he came running out of the living room yelling, and…” Ganix grunted. “It’s fine. Come on in here and eat breakfast so we can get on our way. The sooner we start up, the better.”

Rowan and his brother had Proxima tarts for breakfast, their dad also surprising them with Proxima chocolate milk.

“Can the cat have chocolate milk?” Toro asked as he looked down to Uncle, who was pawing at the suitcase Toro stood on to eat at the counter.

“That’s probably a bad idea…” Ganix turned his hand around, palm up as a small paper carton of regular milk appeared. This was something that people did often, no one thinking twice that they could magically spawn items from an inventory list.

“Come here, Uncle.” Ganix retrieved a small bowl and poured some of the milk into it. The orange kitten lapped it up, his eyes pressed shut as he did so, his tail slightly curled.

Once again, Rowan was reminded this was now an option that was open to him. He could become a cat, just like the one currently drinking from the bowl of milk.

A thought occurred to him as he finished his Proxima tart.

Did Nedman know that this was a possibility? Rowan recalled the way the restaurant owner had looked at him last night, almost as if he knew…

As he chewed, Rowan once again focused on his father, who sipped from a cup of coffee. He had never seen his dad go so long without shaving. It looked like he was growing a bit of a beard, and it was interesting to see that there were white hairs in it, his dad older than he thought.

His father’s social status appeared.

Name: Ganix Toragan

Age: 45

Occupation: General Store Manager

It was strange to think that he was thirty-two years older than Rowan, and even stranger to think that he would one day be the same age.

His dad set his cup down on the counter. “Well? Are you boys ready to go?”

“Do you have all the gear?” Toro asked.

“Does a cat beg for food in Sacred Cat Village?”

Toro laughed in a way that told Rowan that his younger brother didn’t quite understand the joke.

“And be sure to bring your raincoats,” their father told the two of them. “They’re in your inventory lists, right?”

“Yes,” Toro and Rowan said at the same time.

They followed their father downstairs, Ganix checking the store before locking up.

“And who’s going to feed Uncle?”

“You didn’t see me leave some food out for him?” Ganix asked Toro. “It was in the kitchen.”

It was a clear day, just a few clouds in the light-blue sky. The day was a little warmer than it had been earlier, and as they started up the hill, toward the center of the village and the town square, Rowan realized that they hadn’t actually walked this path with their father yet.

It also showed on Ganix’s face, the man occasionally making a noise in his throat as he looked around and took in his environment.

“That’s the town square,” Rowan said, pointing to the right, figuring their dad could use a guide.

“I see.” Ganix’s eyes lowered onto the hoarders’ home and their enormous mounds of trash, one of which had been fashioned into the shape of a cat. “Do you know who lives there?”

“Garner and Alto,” Rowan said. “They are brothers. Twins.”

“One is mean and old, the other one is old and strange, but also nice,” Toro added.

“Toro…” Ganix said under his breath. “Let’s not describe people in that way, especially on an island of older folks.”

“Sorry, Dad,” Toro said.

“And that’s where Gonpo lives, and that’s where Tuya lives,” Rowan said, pointing to the home with all the flowers. “Gilda is just a few doors down. Oh, and that’s Ringo’s house. The researcher guy lives with him.”

“Curtis,” Toro said, always good with names.

“You boys really have gotten around, haven’t you?”

“And that’s Chodak’s place.” Rowan pointed to a house that had a short wall surrounding it and seating in the yard, Rowan instantly reminded of the giant catfish.

“Hmm,” Ganix said as they reached the East Docks. Even though Rowan knew that they were heading in a different direction, he got a little antsy, half-expecting to see the catfish hop out onto the docks.

They turned onto a well-maintained path instead, the exact opposite of the two pathways that led up to the cave. While there were a few trees covering the entrance to the path, it opened up relatively quickly, revealing a small plot of land that had been clearly cultivated.

“This must be it,” Ganix said as he found a trail that led toward the entrance of the orchard. There was no fence or anything around it, but there were rocks arranged on the perimeter, which Ganix guessed had something to do with irrigation.

“At least that’s what it looks like,” he said as he stepped over the rocks. He made his way around a small tree that looked all but dead.

Ganix equipped the pocketknife and cut into one of the trees, noticing that it was alive inside. “I think the plants here are still good to go. Maybe they don’t need to be planted, they just need someone to actually maintain them and some water. Has anyone said anything about this to you guys?”

“I thought they were all dead,” Toro said.

“Same,” Rowan said, now interested in the trio of buildings overlooking the orchard. He wondered if he would see the dust girl, and what their dad would do if she attacked them.

His father turned toward the buildings, Rowan getting the urge to equip his wooden sword. He hung back just a few steps, ready to go for his weapon if the dust girl attacked them for some reason.

“I think the people lived in this one,” Ganix said as he came to the largest building. The bushes out front needed some work, and the rocky pathway wrapping around it was covered in grass. Even with nature starting to creep back in, it was a quaint home with large windows and a stunning view overlooking the orchard. Next to the house was a building for processing the apple-peaches, and there was also a red barn.

Ganix confirmed all of this verbally as he moved from building to building, either peeking in the windows or, in the case of the barn, opening it up and taking a look inside.

“I wonder why they just abandoned it,” Toro said.

“That’s the way things go sometimes, son,” Ganix said as he placed his hand on his youngest son’s shoulder. “Especially if they didn’t have someone to hand it down to, or if someone else owned the land. I wonder who owns the land now,” he said as he turned back and looked out at the orchard. “It’s a nice plot. And you can tell that someone hasn’t taken care of it for ages. You see that?” He pointed to a wooded area on the other side of the orchard. “This whole area used to look like that until someone made it like this.”

“And it will turn like that again if someone doesn’t take over the orchard,” Rowan said, almost cynically.

“It already has,” Ganix told him. “Don’t you see all the bramble and other plants that have started to grow in between the rows?”

Rowan looked again and saw what his father was talking about, now aided by their position on the hill overlooking the orchard. That would be where some of the work was, clearing out the rows to make them walkable again.

“Do you think we can buy it?” Toro asked.

“Buy the orchard?” Ganix ran his hand on his chin. “I don’t know who owns it, first off. And…” He bobbed his head left and right as he ran some numbers. “I really don’t know, son.”

“Then we could own the store and the orchard,” Toro said.

“We’ll be like the Proxima company,” Rowan added, a quip that made his father guffaw.

“Yeah, that’s exactly who we would be like. Anyway, let’s keep moving, and maybe we can ask around a little bit.”

“Someone has to know at the village council,” Rowan said.

“Likely. We’ll figure it out. I don’t know about taking on a task like this, not without some help.”

“We’ll help you, Dad.”

“I’m sure you will, Toro. But I don’t know if the three of us could get the orchard up and running in time for harvest. And it’s not like we could hire anyone on the island.”

“Some of the older people are pretty fit,” Rowan said.

“Argat and Vicar definitely are,” Toro told his father as they headed away from the three buildings, back toward the main trail, which was easy to spot because it ran along the outer rim of the orchard. “Tuya and Gilda too. Not Ringo, and definitely not Gonpo. Maybe Curtis.”

“You boys really do know everyone around here, don’t you?”

“Not everyone,” Rowan said. “There are still a bunch of houses full of old people we haven’t met.”

“Let’s not call them old people.”

“But that’s what they are,” Rowan said.

“Rowan…” Ganix shook his head as they breached the main trail. “If we were to get the orchard somehow, I don’t think we’d be able to hire villagers, but…” He paused and equipped a water bottle, which he took a sip from before handing it to his sons. “Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We haven’t even asked people if they would be interested in Sacred Cat Products.”

“I’m interested,” Toro said.

This made their father chuckle. “That’s good to know. That does remind me, though. There was another person that I met who might be a prime candidate for Sacred Cat Products. He was down by the docks the other day with a fellow named Raydoh. Anyway, this guy’s name is Dorno, and he’s a carpenter.”

Ganix reached into his pocket and came out with a pair of tiny cats carved out of wood. “He gave me these to give to the two of you.”

He handed the figurines to his sons, Rowan looking his over. “It’s so little…”

The figurine, which was no larger than a pebble, was expertly crafted. Rowan’s featured a cat lying on its stomach, and Toro’s cat was sitting up.

“People like these kinds of things,” Ganix said. “And it would go with the overall line. Anyway, as I keep saying, maybe we are getting ahead of ourselves. We need to start at the village council and go from there.”

Rowan was just sending his figurine to his inventory list when he spotted something on the trailhead. It was a dark object that resembled a rock, and upon further examination he saw that it had a tail.

“It’s…” Rowan pointed at the creature.

“That’s a big turtle,” their father said as he stopped to admire it from afar.

It was certainly the largest turtle Rowan had ever seen, nearly as long as his arm, with a sharp beak and long claws.

The only problem was, the turtle wouldn’t move off the trail.

“Let’s see if we can find a stick…” his father said.

“How about this?” Toro asked as he equipped his broom.

“That will work,” Ganix said as his younger son handed the broom to him. He took a look at the piece and noticed that it was a little worse for wear. “What have you been doing with this broom, anyway?”

Toro laughed. “Hitting things…”

“Apparently,” Ganix said as he approached the turtle.

At first he tried to sweep at it with the broom side, but when this didn’t work he ended up turning around and using the pole end to slowly push it off the trail, the turtle protesting the entire way.

Toro and Rowan laughed as the turtle eventually scurried down a hill partially covered in leaves and sand.

“That was something else,” Ganix said as he handed the broom back to his youngest son. “Who knew that creatures like that lived on this island? Heh. There’s no telling what’s out there.”

Toro and his brother exchanged glances.

“I suppose we should press on. I’d like to get at least halfway around the island before we set up camp. I’m expecting a shipment tomorrow by noon, and I need to be back to pick it up.” Ganix equipped his water bottle again and took a sip from it before handing it to his two sons, who did the same. “Let’s explore, boys.”

Ganix and his two sons came upon a staggering view once they reached the edge of the woods. A rocky path in front of them opened onto a magnificent cliffside that overlooked the ocean, Rowan able to see cylindrical rock formations jutting out of the water, waves lashing against their lower halves.

He imagined being a bird standing on the edge of one of the sea stacks and jumping off, able to glide his way down. His eyes naturally settled on a mansion sitting on one of the formations, a raggedy bridge connecting it to the mainland.

“Whoa,” Toro said as he spotted the enormous estate. “Who do you think lives there?”

“That’s him,” Rowan said, “Stellars. There’s a picture of his home in Nedman’s Restaurant.”

“Stellars, huh?” said their father.

“Old Man Stellars is what people call him,” Rowan said, glad to be the one with information for once.

“Why’s that?” Ganix asked.

“I think he’s the oldest guy on the island, or something, the richest too.”

A wind picked up as the three walked along a rocky incline, Ganix reminding Toro to be careful. Rowan’s younger brother was fearless, but he wasn’t stupid, the youth taking extra precautions not to walk too close to the edge.

This was one problem that Rowan had noticed about himself. Whenever there was an edge, or something that he could balance on, he naturally took to it even if a perfectly good path was available.

Sure enough, he caught himself walking way too close to the edge of the cliff, Rowan suddenly feeling a tingling sensation in his legs. He stepped as far as he could to the left, glad that his dad hadn’t noticed. A fall from these heights would have certainly killed him.

They paused once they reached a series of large rocks, the two boys leaning against them.

“And before I forget…” Ganix equipped two Proxima bars, which he gave to his sons. “Rewards from the last Dad Quest.”

“Yes!” Toro ripped the packaging away and quickly ate the chocolate. Rowan did the same, taking his time with it.

He was definitely hungry; they had walked for well over two hours now and the island was starting to heat up. He knew they still had a long way to go, and he looked forward to it. It really was nice being able to explore with their father.

Ganix equipped a bandanna and tied it around his head. “How do I look?” he asked his two sons.

“You look like a pirate,” Toro said.

“You look like…” Rowan laughed.

“What?” Ganix asked.

“One of those biker guys that ride motorcycles in our neighborhood, you know, the ones that come out during the summer. The loud ones.”

“I almost became one of those guys, you know,” Ganix said as he bit into a snack bar that he’d equipped. “I was going to buy a motorcycle. Your mom didn’t want me to; I’m sort of glad I didn’t.”

“Why?” Toro asked.

“Because we had you instead. It was a bike or a kid. We chose to have another kid.”

Rowan smirked. “What kind of decision is that?”

Ganix shrugged as he took another bite of his snack bar. “We didn’t have as much money at the time, and your mom basically gave me an ultimatum.” The smile on Ganix’s face started to fade. “I know how important it is to have a brother, so we had you,” he told Toro.

“Couldn’t you have just bought the bike and then had him later?”

“Well, yes,” Ganix said, “but we wanted you two to be close to each other’s ages. We didn’t want one of you to be thirteen, and the other be five. It’ll make more sense when you’re older,” he said, “trust me.”

He collected the boys’ trash and sent it to his inventory list, Ganix hiking ahead. Toro and Rowan soon joined him, Ganix once again curious about the things they had gotten into on the island. “Did you meet the doctor yet?”

“I don’t think so,” Toro told their father.

“He was briefly down at the docks on one of the mornings. Very nice guy too, Dr. Restivo.”

“Most people seem to be nice except for Doyona,” Rowan said. “She has already yelled at us.”

“Has she? She’s been standoffish to me too.” Ganix shook his head. “Well, she is our neighbor, so there’s not much we can do. What I don’t want you two doing is playing pranks on her, or antagonizing her, anything like that. We need the island residents to like us, not just for our business, but what we plan to do, if they’ll allow it.”

“Even if she’s mean?” Toro asked.

“It doesn’t always work, but sometimes the best way to deal with a difficult person is to just accept them for who they are and move on. If she yells, be polite and go on doing what you are doing. If she comes and talks to me, I’ll do the same.”

“But her husband seems okay,” Rowan said, recalling the man with the silver hair who they’d seen sunbathing.

Ganix nodded. “If there’s only one bad apple in the village, then we’ll be lucky.”

They reached the bridge that led out to one of the sea stacks. Rowan could see the enormous mansion across from them now, surrounded by a stone wall, easily three or four stories tall.

Toro moved to the bridge to take a step onto it when his father stopped him.

“Let’s not,” Ganix said.

“I just want to see how sturdy the bridge is,” Toro said.

Ganix laughed. “Let’s find out more about Stellars before we do that.”

“I wonder how many other people live off the grid,” Rowan said as their father guided them back onto a path of sorts.

“There’s no telling,” Ganix said.

They had long since left the manicured trail, their path increasingly rocky and unpredictable. Things started to smooth out after another thirty minutes, and it looked like they would eventually come down onto a beach.

“Maybe some of the people that live out here will come to the village council meeting,” Ganix said as they continued on, the three circling under a palm tree that had grown up not far from the side of the cliff. It was an anomaly, no others like it in the vicinity. Ganix looked up at it and nodded. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“It’s tall,” said Toro.

“It sure is, son.”

Eventually, they wound their way down to a white sand beach. From the beach they could see the sea stacks, the water at low tide at the moment, allowing them plenty of space to run out and observe things that had been washed up.

They found a dead jellyfish, Rowan and Toro poking at it with his wooden sword until Ganix told them to cut it out. There were seagulls about, picking at anything they could, two of them fighting over a clump of seaweed.

After a while mulling about for thirty minutes or so, their dad led them back to the shore, where he equipped the blanket and set it out. “Let’s rest here for a while,” he said as he lay down on his back.

Toro and Rowan did the same, their blanket covered with shade due to the location their father had chosen.

It was as warm as it would get now, and Rowan found himself growing tired.

He didn’t normally nap during the day, but listening to his dad lightly snoring and seeing that his brother had also fallen asleep had an effect on the teenager. Soon, he was yawning, and it wasn’t long after that he fell into a light slumber, only to be awoken an hour later when his dad told him it was time to leave.

Ganix stood now with a firm smile on his face, drinking from a travel mug. “Let’s go a little bit further, and then we’ll set up the campsite,” he told them. “As nice as it is, I was hoping to camp away from the beach, closer to the forest.”

Rowan couldn’t resist himself. He slowly stood as not to wake his brother and then turned to him, laughing as he dove on top of Toro.

This startled his younger brother, Toro coming awake and immediately hitting his fists against Rowan’s back.

“Hey,” Ganix said as he frowned at them. “That’s not how we wake our brother.”

Rowan started laughing. “I just had to. He was lying there, it was just…” He stood, still laughing and turned away from his younger brother.

As soon as he did he was tackled from behind, Toro slamming into him and bringing Rowan down to the sand.

Rowan swiveled and accidentally struck his brother in the face with his elbow.

“Rowan!” his dad shouted, separating them.

Toro started crying, but also tried not to cry at the same time, the youth glaring down at the white sand.

“You have to be careful,” Ganix said, his hand on Rowan’s shoulder now, squeezing it just a little tighter than he normally would. “You could have really hurt him.”

“It was an accident,” Rowan said.

“It didn’t start as an accident.”

“I was just playing…”

“Look what you’ve done to him,” Ganix said, pointing at his youngest son, who had walked away from them, his lip curled.

“He’ll be okay.”

“Rowan, go over there and apologize to him. Now.”

Rowan kicked the sand.

“I’m serious. Don’t ruin this camping trip for us. Go apologize and we’ll be on our way.”

“Fine,” Rowan said as he started to stomp over to his younger brother. “Toro?”

“Go away.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t…” Rowan shook his head. “I was just…”

“You were just what?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you. Really.”

His younger brother turned to him; Rowan could see that the side of his face was red where his elbow had struck him.

“Are you okay?” he asked, no longer able to look at his younger brother.

“It hurts,” Toro said.

“I’m sorry.”

Toro nodded and turned back to their father. “It’s okay.”

The three were silent as they moved away from the beach and back toward what resembled a trail. It wasn’t long before it became a lightly wooded area, the forest a mixture of palms and deciduous trees, many of them with what was left of their spring blooms drooping from their branches.

The dead blooms and the briny smell from the sea swirled into something that Rowan would come to associate with Sacred Cat Island, a sweet smell to it with a hint of something pungent. As they walked, he thought of what it would be like the day that he left the island.

That day would come. Sooner rather than later, he would be on a boat heading toward the mainland, the island growing smaller by the second.

For some reason, this thought made him shake his head. Even though he knew plenty would happen between now and then, he didn’t want to focus on the end, especially so close to the beginning.

Their dad paused; he stuck his arm out to prevent his sons from going any further as he looked off to his left.

“What is it?” Toro asked.

“I think…” Ganix approached the shrub and stuck his hand in. He pulled his hand out, gripping a red fruit.

“Is that the apple-peach?” Rowan asked.

“I believe so. They are already growing out here in the wild.” Ganix equipped his water bottle and washed the fruit. He brought it to his lips and took a bite. “It’s a little ripe,” he told his sons after he had swallowed, his face puckering. “But it’s good. Really good.”

“I want one.” Toro circled the bush and found one of the fruits. He was just about to take a bite from it when his dad stopped him.

“Wash it first.”

“Sorry,” Toro said as he brought the apple-peach over to his father. Ganix cleaned it off for him and Toro took a bite, nodding with satisfaction.

“I should get one as well,” Rowan said after he realized he was the only person that wasn’t eating one now. He washed one of the fruits and took a bite, noticing that it was a lot sweeter than he thought it would be. It was indeed a little too ripe, but it was also refreshing, like any fruit he had ever eaten.

“Well, that settles it,” Ganix said as he tossed the apple-peach core into the forest. “We have got to get that orchard up and running.”

“Where would we live?” Toro asked as they continued on their way. “Above the store or at the orchard?”

“That’s a good question. The orchard would be more comfortable,” their father said. “But I do like the sound of the ocean from the apartment. I don’t know. We still don’t know who it belongs to or if they’re willing to sell it, and for that matter it may be out of our price range.”

“But you would buy it?”

“We’ll have to see,” their father finally said as they came down an incline with roots jutting out of it. Rowan almost tripped on one of the roots and barely caught himself, his hand landing on his brother’s shoulder. “Saved you,” Toro said, offering him a toothy grin.

“Not much further now,” Ganix said.

“How do you know where we are?” Toro asked.

“I have a map of the island,” Ganix told his youngest son as he tapped the side of his head. “Ringo gave it to me. There should be a spot…”

They came out of the woods to find themselves on a flat, rocky surface. This turned out to be a cliff, the ocean to their right, a flock of seagulls swirling over the water. They enjoyed the view for just a moment, their dad looking out to the sea, his hand over his eyes.

Following Ganix, Rowan and Toro walked back toward the forest and took a dirt path that opened up onto a lush glade, a line of trees cutting down on the wind from the sea.

“This is the spot,” Ganix said. “Look around for a flat surface.”

Rowan and Toro moved around the space, Toro noticing that there were grasshoppers leaping away from them. He chased after one and quickly caught it, the grasshopper easily as big as his hand.

“Those things are humongous,” Rowan said as he reached his brother.

His younger brother tossed the grasshopper into the air and it flew away.

“You’re supposed to be finding a camping spot,” their dad said.

“This spot seems good,” Rowan said as he found a place that seemed relatively flat.

“Let’s check it out.”

Ganix approached his sons and nodded once he had made sure it was flat enough for a tent. After instructing the boys to stand back, he equipped a large tent that was already assembled, which fell perfectly into place, the stakes pressing into the ground.

“Awesome,” Toro said as he took in the large orange tent with wonder.

While the middle portion of the tent had the traditional peak, the outer edges were designed to resemble a round circus tent, providing plenty of space inside.

“Before you go in,” Ganix said, stopping Toro with his hand, “shoes off.”

Toro took his shoes off outside the tent and then hopped inside, Rowan doing the same.

The smell of plastic met his nostrils, Rowan seeing the familiar Proxima logo stitched across the ceiling. There were flaps to allow the breeze in, and there was even a way to remove the inner surface of some of the ceilings, to allow for star viewing.

Once Ganix stepped in, he equipped a set of sleeping bags, which he instructed his sons to roll out. He then summoned a cooler, which he placed on the other side of the tent.

“This is going to be awesome,” Toro said as he took one of the folding chairs his father had spawned outside of the tent. He set it up, and stepped back in, still with his shoes off.

“Stop,” Ganix told him. “The whole point of taking your shoes off is not to track any dirt inside, but you went outside without putting your shoes back on.”

“Oops,” Toro said as he removed his socks and set them outside of the tent.

Rowan laughed. “You idiot…”

“Hey,” Ganix said, shaking his head at his oldest son, “let’s not start that up again.”

Once Toro saw that Rowan was handled, he went about setting out more chairs outside of the tent, putting his socks and shoes on each time as he came in and out.

Rowan relaxed during this time, lying on his sleeping bag for a moment and just staring up at the ceiling, his eyes tracing over the Proxima logo again and again.

“You can rest later,” his father eventually told him as he was just about to step out of the tent.

“Sorry,” Rowan said. “Maybe it’s the sun.”

His dad nodded. “It can make you tired, that’s for sure. Come on, let’s set up the grill.”

Rowan’s eyes lit up. “We’re having barbecue tonight?”

“We sure are,” Ganix said with a smile.

The two set up the grill and Ganix filled it with charcoal, which he piled up on the one side. He lit the charcoal after dousing it with lighter fluid. “Remember, we got to get the coals hot and then we’re going to slow cook it on the side,” he told his boys. “That’s how you make good barbecue. You don’t want to put it directly over the heat. Sure, you’ll cook the meat, but it’s not going to be as flavorful. You want it to cook for a long time, coals on the other side of the pit.”

“So when are we going to eat that?” Toro asked.

“It’s going to be a couple of hours…”

“Ugh… what are we supposed to do until then?”

A grasshopper hopped in front of them and landed on their father’s leg.

“Well, for one, you could go after some of these grasshoppers.”

“We can’t eat those things,” Toro said, laughing.

“I didn’t say we would eat them. There are other things we need to do for the food,” their dad told him as another cooler appeared.

Rowan felt the pang of jealousy when it came to inventory lists as his father went about preparing the food.

Ganix was able to summon so many different items, the size of his list tied directly to his age. Rowan couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have access to over forty items at once, especially when compared to his measly thirteen items.

Feeling like being alone, Rowan once again returned to the tent and sat on his sleeping bag, his drawing pad and pencils taking shape in his hands.

It was nice to escape the heat, and eventually Rowan got onto his stomach so he could sit up and draw using the ground as support for his sketchpad.

He closed his eyes, trying to remember what the mansion on top of the sea stacks had looked like. He began sketching it, erasing his mistakes every time he messed up one of his lines. The perspective wasn’t great, but he was able to get the shadow right, Rowan imagining the sun not quite at its apex in the sky.

He worked on the bridge and then the home beyond, which he couldn’t really remember much of aside from its enormous walls. He wondered how windy it was on the sea stack, and if the winds were strong enough to actually blow it away.

His imagination taking off, Rowan started drawing action lines, swooping the mansion away from its rocky perch. He drew it again, this time almost sideways in the air, and then once more, further back, the house upside down.

“Dad’s cooking,” Toro said as he popped his head in the tent. His younger brother got out of his shoes and socks and came in to see what Rowan was drawing.

Toro laughed almost instantly.

“What?” Rowan said, starting to cover his drawing with his hand.

“That’s so funny. I was wondering that too. Why doesn’t the house just blow off the rock?”

Rowan removed his hand from his picture and let his brother see it.

“I like it,” Toro said. “Can I show Dad?”

“Sure. I’ll…” Rowan smiled at his younger brother. “I’ll come with you.”

The barbecue was excellent, the three now seated around the grill, the temperature dropping rapidly.

“We could start a fire,” Ganix suggested as he picked at a sliver of meat stuck between his teeth. “I don’t know if it’s cool enough for that, though.”

“I’m fine,” Rowan said, who now wore his yellow knit hat. His younger brother had equipped his rain jacket, mostly because it also could protect against the wind. Even though there was a line of trees separating the three from the sea, the wind still was able to get through, and every now and then it was downright chilly.

“We have plenty of blankets for the night,” Ganix said. “I don’t know about you two, but I like sleeping in the cold.”

“Not me,” said Toro, which was something Rowan had heard before. “I’d rather be hot than cold.”

“And I’d rather be cold than hot,” Rowan said.

“Sometimes you boys are like salt-and-pepper,” their dad said, chuckling to himself. “The exact opposite.”

“But they’re both spices,” Rowan reminded him.

“Very true, very true.”

“We can come to the village council meeting with you tomorrow, right?” Toro asked their father.

“Of course, I thought I already told you that. It’s important that you two understand civic engagement.”

“That’s right,” Toro said. “I remember you saying that now. And you’re going to tell them about your idea?”

“It was my idea too,” Rowan told his younger brother. “I had the idea first.”

“He’s not wrong. I did notice that there was something missing on the island, but Rowan was the first to really put the pieces together for me. I can see it so clearly in my head,” Ganix said. “Sacred Cat Products. We just need to find out who’s able to make something around here.”

“We need to find out about the orchard too,” Rowan added.

“That’s for sure. And then also if there are other ways that people would be interested in changing the dynamics of the island. We need to be cautious, boys. People may not be interested in what we have to say. We are outsiders. I’m sure after I’ve been here a year, I’ll still be considered an outsider.”

“You’re going to stay here for that long?” Toro asked.

“I…” Ganix took a sip from his Proxima soda. Rowan and Toro had already finished theirs, Toro going for the cherry cola, and Rowan for the cream soda. “Son, I’m not going back to the mainland. I thought you understood that.”

Rowan was fairly certain of this, especially with how happy his dad seemed here, but he had yet to hear his father say the words.

“But… but what about us?” Toro asked.

“You’re going back at the end of the summer,” their dad told them. “I wish you could stay here, but…”

“What about Mom?” Rowan asked, his voice edged in agitation.

“I told her she could come here,” Ganix said under his breath.

“She wouldn’t like it here.”

“Sure, she would… maybe not the apartment. Okay, definitely not the apartment. She would like the orchard. You know, we were married for nearly ten years before we had the two of you. We used to take vacations, and we once spent the weekend at an orchard. There’s just something really peaceful about them. Anyway, she would like the orchard. Trust me.”

“Are you going to tell us what happened?” Rowan asked, not able to suppress the urge to challenge his father. He was sick of being told that he would learn at some point, or that it was complicated. He wanted to know the truth.

“Let’s just focus on the now,” Ganix said after a long pause.

“If you move here for good, what about us?” Toro asked again.

“Like I said, I wish you two could be here the entire time, but you’ll have to go back to go to school. There’s no school here.”

“But what about you? You’ll be here all alone.”

“I’m starting to make friends,” Ganix said.

“This is so messed up.” Rowan crossed his arms over his chest. “You won’t even tell us what happened between you and Mom, and now you’re saying you’re going to move to this stupid island. Who cares about this island?”

“Who cares? If I remember correctly, you’re the one that wants to rejuvenate it. You were just claiming the idea for yourself.”

“That’s because it’s a stupid island!” Rowan stood, and glared his dad down.

“Sit down, and stop yelling, Rowan. You’re going to disturb the animals.”

“I don’t care about the animals here!”

“I don’t care either!” Toro said, also standing.

“Boys…” Ganix pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know that this isn’t ideal, but we’re going to get everything figured out.”

“Why don’t you have them make a school on the island?” Toro asked.

“Who is them?”

“The village council. If they’re so powerful, why don’t they just open a school? Then there will be more young people.”

“Open a school for just the two of you?”

“Doyona has a granddaughter too,” Rowan said, still standing. His arms were at his side now, his hands clenched into tight fists.

“This is not the time to have this conversation,” Ganix finally told his sons. “I don’t want to get into it with the two of you. We’re having a good night camping, and I was planning for us to make s’mores next and get a little fire going. I don’t want to argue about these things. My decision is made. I inherited this place from my uncle and, well, you’ll understand one day. But sometimes you just need a change.”

“But that change means that you’re leaving us,” Rowan said.

“Do you think that’s what I want? If there was a school here, I would gladly enroll you. But there isn’t, and we have your mom to think about. Plus, it’s an island for retirees, at least at the moment.”

“Well, we’re trying to change that.”

“I know we’re trying to change that,” Ganix told his oldest son, his voice growing louder. “Don’t you understand why I’d like to change that? Don’t you get it? If there were more people, maybe there could be a small school, and then you two could come here. I would much rather you grow up here where you’re part of a community where you know people, where you can run around and go on adventures and play with all the cats. You know what I mean. It’s a much better life than being in the suburbs of Any_City. The air is fresher, it’s less crowded, and…”

“Do something about it!” Rowan said as he stormed away from the grill. He kicked his shoes off and burst into the tent, where he quickly got in his sleeping bag.

It wasn’t long before his brother joined him, Toro’s voice soft as he spoke to his brother.

“You hurt Dad’s feelings,” he whispered.

“I don’t care,” Rowan said, his face buried in his hands. He was starting to feel emotional, and he really didn’t know why. The urge to cry had already swelled up within him and he’d sucked it down, definitely not wanting to go that route.

But he couldn’t help but feel both angry and bad for yelling at his dad, and he didn’t know how to release these emotions aside from burying his head in his arms.

Toro lay down and looked at his older brother. “I don’t want to leave the island.”

“I don’t either, dumb-dumb. Why do you think I’m so angry?”

“Boys, get out here!” their father called them.

Rowan sat up and looked at his brother, his eyes going wide.

Their dad sounded angry.

“Maybe we should just stay in here,” Rowan said.

“You started this, and…” Toro glared at him. “You called me dumb-dumb.”

“I didn’t start this. I was simply asking a question. And… I’m sorry.”

“It was your question that started it,” his brother hissed at him.

“I didn’t mean to.”

“But you did.”

“I didn’t mean to, Toro,” Rowan said, his voice growing louder.

“Boys, get out here!”

“He’s less mad at me; I’ll go first,” Toro said as he crept over to the entrance of the tent.

Rowan followed behind him, the two finding their father seated before the grill, his elbows on his knees and his face buried in his hands. He glanced up at his sons. “Look…” He shook his head. “Sorry to yell. Sit down.”

Rowan and his brother took their seats.

“Your mother and I…” Ganix bit his lip. “I’m going to tell you everything sooner than later, but I don’t want to do it tonight. I just want to enjoy tonight. I don’t know how often we’re going to go camping, but every one of these trips is going to be special, just me and my two boys. Things change, you know. And in a year from now you’ll be fourteen, and you’ll be eleven. Two years and you’ll be fifteen, and you’ll be twelve. It doesn’t seem like much, but eventually it’s ten years, and you’re twenty-three, and you’re twenty. Then it’s twenty years, and you’re thirty-three, and you’re thirty. By that time, I’ll be getting closer to seventy. The point I’m trying to make here is that time matters, and there’s plenty of other opportunities to discuss what happened, and what’s going to happen. But sometimes, the best thing is just to enjoy the moment. I’m sorry if that’s not a great speech. I just want to enjoy this moment.”

“Sorry, Dad,” Rowan said, still looking down at his feet.

“It’s not your fault. You do need to watch your temper, but you have a reason to be upset. It’s not your fault, it’s my fault. I’m being honest with you. If there’s anything I want you to be when you’re grown men, it’s honest. You have to be honest with people. But sometimes…” He shook his head. “Sometimes there’s more to it than just that. I know I sound like an idiot here telling you to be honest when I’m not explaining everything that has happened. I just want more time to process it, and more time for your mother and me to figure it out. Can we agree to that?”

“How much longer?” Toro asked.

“Soon. Much sooner than you think.”

“Okay,” Rowan finally said. He turned to his brother and nodded, letting Toro know that he could forgive their father as well.

The three were silent for a couple of minutes.

Eventually, Ganix equipped a log from his inventory list. He removed the cooking grate and placed the wood in the charcoal. A small fire started up. Ganix summoned a Proxima s’mores package, and handed each of his sons a skewer.

It didn’t take long for Rowan and Toro to temporarily forget what just happened, the two now interested in getting the marshmallows just right before they added them to the graham crackers and the chocolate.

“So good,” Toro said, his fingers gummy with chocolate and marshmallows.

After they finished all the s’mores, Ganix announced that it was time for bed.

They’d forgotten to bring their toothbrushes, so he had them use mouthwash instead, the two boys spitting the excess liquid behind the tent.

For once, Ganix went to bed when his sons did, their father crawling into the tent after them and quickly falling asleep.

Normally, Rowan would spend this time obsessing over his day and checking out his quests. And he even tried to go through his normal routine, Rowan remembering how he had snuck out of the apartment earlier in the morning to visit the cave, confirming that he could still turn into a cat.

This was something he hadn’t told Toro, but maybe he would at a later date. Now it didn’t really matter.

Just as he started thinking about being a cat again, and some of the things he planned to do next time they transformed, a deep sleep fell over him. He would wake up in shock in just a few hours, but for now, he slept peacefully.

Rowan was awoken by the sound of bells.

The wind howled outside the tent as he rolled over to see that his dad was awake too, Toro fast asleep.

“Do you hear that?” his father whispered.

Rowan nodded. His father, who was in a black T-shirt and a pair of shorts, crouched as he made his way over to the entrance of the tent, the bells still ringing outside.

Rowan did the same, his wooden sword appearing in his hand.

“What’s that for?” his father asked as he equipped the flashlight.

“Just in case.”

His father gave him a strange look as he started to unzip the tent. Once it was open, he stepped out, Rowan following close behind him. Ganix traced the flashlight along the perimeter of the campsite, Rowan all but expecting something to pop out at them.

What they found instead was an equally jarring visual.

Rowan brought his wooden sword to the ready as his father stopped his flashlight on a thin man in a bomber jacket with goggles on his head.

The man smiled, clearly missing some teeth, his long gray locks framing his face. He stood before a bicycle, which was attached to a medium-sized camper on a track of wheels, with numerous features including an outdoor hand washing station, a grill, and awning, as well as what looked like seating on top.

His information appeared.

Name: Redi Taka

Age: 70

Occupation: Mechanical Engineer

“Can I help you?” Ganix asked.

“Sorry to wake you,” the man said, his voice high-pitched and a bit raspy. “I saw someone camping and I wanted to check it out, but then the wind kicked up and it rattled all my bells. I figured rather than ride off and spook you, I would stay out here to let you know it wasn’t a ghost or anything. Trust me, there are some strange things on this island. I’m sure you’ve already checked out my information by now, but I’m Redi, roaming off-the-grid camper at your service. And you are?”

“Ganix, my uncle used to run the general store and has since passed, so I’ve taken it over.”

“Turni’s nephew, huh? Well, that’s good to know. I don’t ride into the village very often, but when I do, I need to stock up. So you’ll see me around from time to time. And this is your son?”

Ganix nodded.

“I can see the resemblance. Believe it or not, I was a friend of your uncle’s. Turni came out biking with me from time to time, slept on the roof,” he said, nodding to his camper that was attached to his bicycle. “An all-around great guy.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“It was sad to see him go, but you’re here now, so maybe it’s good for all of us. A new beginning. And you have just one son? I’m sorry, I never get into town, so I don’t really meet any newcomers.” The wind picked up again, and Redi tapped on his goggles. “That’s why I wear these.”

“I have another son,” Ganix said. “Toro, he’s asleep.”

“That one can sleep through anything, ha! Reminds me of one of the Proxima power stations I worked at. Those places are loud, and if it weren’t for earplugs…” He whistled and shook his head. “Anyway, I worked with this guy who could sleep through anything. Unfortunately, we had a malfunction and he didn’t hear the siren and…” He trailed off. “Well, that’s not a great story for this early in the morning.”

“It’s fine,” Ganix said with a yawn. “Be sure to stop by the store next time you’re in town. We’re officially opening once we get back from this camping trip.”

“That’s good to know. I guess I won’t hold you any longer. I usually keep to the western side of the island, so if you ever need anything, just take a trip out that way, not far from the outpost. Listen for my bells,” he said as he got on his bicycle. The bells hanging from the rooftop of his camper made just a little noise, but nothing like they’d made when the wind was blowing earlier. “It’s always good to have alarms.”

“Nice to meet you,” Ganix said. Rowan waved as well, his sword already back in his inventory list. He had no idea what to make of the man named Redi Taka, but he seemed harmless. It also seemed like it would be lonely just to constantly ride around on the island.

Redi stopped, and placed a foot on the ground to stabilize himself. “One more thing. If you and your boys ever get bicycles, let me know. We’ll go on some rides, I know some really nice trails. Plus, I’m pretty handy with a bike, and can fix them up if you ever get in any trouble with one.”

“That’s good to know,” Ganix said. “I hadn’t considered bikes, but now that you mention it…”

“That would be so awesome…” Rowan said. He hadn’t even considered what it would be like to bike around the island.

In that instant it was settled: whatever he had to do, they would definitely need to get bikes. And as Rowan had noticed many times before, putting a wish like this out to the universe often caused a quest to spawn.

Side Quest: Figure out a way to get bikes

He could see it now, racing up to the cave and stashing the bikes at the back while Rowan and his brother morphed into cats. If his father was able to purchase the orchard, it would be easier for them to get from the general store to the orchard and back, and it would also make any quests that they took faster, especially if they required traveling some distances.

Redi was gone by the time Rowan looked up again, his mind awash in the possibilities of owning a bike.

“Dad?”

“Already on it. And I agree, bikes for you and your brother would be ideal, especially once we get the delivery app up and running. Ringo is on board with it, if I didn’t tell you already. And as soon as we get back, I’m going to be meeting with Ringo to go over its limitations and tweak its code. Even if we aren’t able to get Sacred Cat Products off the ground, and the village council isn’t interested in newcomers or tourists, we will still have the app. And having bicycles would be great for delivery.”

“We don’t want to work all the time…” Rowan started to say.

“I know, no one does,” Ganix said with a chuckle. “Maybe we would just have deliveries during a certain time of day. I’ll get myself a bike at some point too. When you two aren’t here, I’ll deliver items after I close the store.”

This last line caused a hiccup in Rowan’s throat. Once again, after being on the island, he couldn’t imagine not being here. He also hated how confident his father was in saying that there was a future in which they wouldn’t be on the island.

He was glad in that moment that it was dark outside, that his father wasn’t shining his flashlight on Rowan’s face.

He experienced a surge of anguish when he imagined going back to the mainland, to the point that he was almost embarrassed how much he liked it here on Sacred Cat Island. He had friends on the mainland and his life was in Any_City, but there was something about this place, something truly incredible.

Rather than say anything else, Rowan returned to the tent and got back in his sleeping bag, only noticing then that it was chilly out, that his hands and his feet were cold.

It didn’t take long for Rowan to fall back asleep, ignoring his troubled thoughts as best he could.

He awoke the next morning to find Toro already up, Rowan the only person in the tent. Rolling to his side, the smell of bacon reached his nostrils as Rowan performed his daily personal attributes check:

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 341/341

Intelligence: 23.83

Willpower: 11.08

Empathy: 6.65

Charisma: 11.84

Strength: 5.70

Dexterity: 7.54

Luck: 3.68

+ .05 Intelligence!

+ .06 Willpower!

+ .23 Strength!

+ .13 Dexterity!

+ .02 Luck!

Rowan nodded, surprised to see that he had almost hit a homerun, which was how some people referred to improving every stat in a single day.

This was sort of his fault; had he not caused trouble by teasing his brother the previous day, he probably would have improved his empathy and perhaps his charisma.

“Next time,” he said to himself as he slipped out of the tent to find his dad and his brother seated around the grill, Toro wearing Ganix’s green jacket almost as if it were a blanket.

As soon as he saw Rowan, his younger brother turned to him. “We’re getting bikes,” he announced.

“Aware.” Rowan remembered that he was trying to be nicer to his brother. “I’m so excited,” he said in an attempt to change his tone. He took a seat as well to find his father grilling up bacon and eggs, the smell absolutely wonderful.

“Rain is coming.” Ganix nodded up to the sky, blackened clouds gathering overhead. “We’ll eat quickly, pack up, put on our rain gear, and head back to town. I wanted to walk along the western side of the island on the way back, but I’d like to see the orchard again, so we’ll just go back the way we came. It’s going to be a busy day, boys. Let’s see what kind of damage we can do,” he said, a snarky grin taking shape on his face.

.Chapter Seven.

Ganix and his two sons got lucky. The rain didn’t really start up until they had nearly reached the orchard, the three making the journey in record time. This was mostly due to Ganix, who was keen to get back to the village.

When it rained on the island it apparently poured, the heavens opening up and quickly saturating the ground, leaving behind mud, huge puddles, and plants saturated to the point that they were droopy.

Rowan was happy he had a rain jacket, boots, and a hat.

It was fun to lift his hand and see the water run off his fingers, to be able to flick the rain at his brother, who did the same back to him. Toro also had the clever idea of shaking a small tree, the leaves above unleashing a torrent of water onto his older brother.

“Stop messing around,” Ganix said over his shoulder.

Rowan slipped and caught himself just in time using his younger brother’s arm for support.

“This rain is crazy,” Toro said as he looked up to the sky, the water splashing against his face.

“Ha! You dumb-dumb,” Rowan said.

His younger brother shoved him and Rowan thought about pestering him some more but stopped, remembering that he wanted to be nicer to Toro.

Luckily, his father didn’t hear what he’d said, Ganix too focused now on the orchard, water draining around its edges. The three stood on the embankment that ran around the space, Rowan noticing that the water had run off into a ditch so it wouldn’t flood the orchard.

“It would be really nice,” Ganix said, his hands on his hips as he looked out at the orchard. He was in the same yellow raincoat and yellow rain boots as Rowan and Toro sans the red rain hat.

“You are going to ask someone about it, right?” Toro asked. Thunder sounded off above, the young boy jumping. “That was loud.”

“I will definitely ask about it. Now, come on,” Ganix said, motioning his sons toward the village, “we need to get down to the docks to pick up the shipment.”

While it was wet, the path closer to the village was much less muddy, Rowan wondering who kept it nice and tidy. They reached the East Docks, heading past Ringo’s and Gilda’s places, Rowan wishing they had time to stop by the baker and see if she had made anything…

They saw Gonpo in the streets, the man in the panda costume with an umbrella that was way too small for his body. As usual, he tracked the sky, ignoring them as they passed. As they came closer to the town square, Rowan spotted the hoarders’ home, which was nestled between the two paths that led up to the cave.

He had a feeling they would be able to transform into cats later, but to do so, they would need to help their dad first. Rowan caught his younger brother looking up to one of the paths just a little longer than he should have, and assumed that he was thinking the same thing.

They reached the front door of the general store to find the cats that normally hung out all hiding from the rain.

“Toro, you’re going to stay here,” their father said once they were inside.

“But I want to come with you.”

“Not this time. Stay here, and make sure the place is in order. And feed Uncle while you’re at it,” he said, nodding down to the small cat, who was already approaching Toro, mewing.

“See you in a minute,” Rowan said as he proudly followed his father out.

It felt good to be wanted, but when Rowan finally reached the docks and saw a pallet full of items wrapped in plastic and covered by a wet tarp, he realized that his younger brother had the easier job.

“There’s a dolly in there,” Ganix said, gesturing toward a shed near the entrance of the docks. Rowan moved over to the shed and found that the door was opened, the space cramped inside. He grabbed the dolly and joined his father, who began stacking boxes as it thundered overhead.

“Let’s hurry,” he said as he dragged the dolly over to the stairs that led down to the dock. Rowan got in front to make sure the box didn’t fall as they moved up the wet steps, his dad smiling as they did so.

“Always an adventure,” his father said. “And I’m glad to see the rain is letting up.”

“You think?”

His dad glanced up at the sky. “It’s way better than it was before.”

“We need a ramp,” Rowan told him as he dragged the dolly toward the general store. He opened the door, and his father pushed the boxes in.

“Start unpacking them,” he told Toro, who nodded and immediately got to work.

Now dragging the dolly behind him, Ganix moved back toward the dock and the two loaded up once again. “A ramp would really be nice,” Ganix said, nodding toward the side of the stairs. “I’m surprised they don’t have something like that here, even a handicap ramp would do.”

“Maybe it’s something we could build,” Rowan asked, even though he had no concept of how to build a ramp.

“Not a bad idea. That’s another thing I’ll bring up at the village council meeting. Hey, I just got a quest prompt,” he said, which was a bit out of place for their father. He rarely talked about any prompts or personal attributes with his children.

“One more trip,” Rowan told Toro, who had already unpacked one of the boxes. Once again, Ganix and his son went down to the docks and loaded up the final boxes, Ganix placing the additional tarp that had been provided in the shed. They took the boxes to the top of the stairs, and to the general store.

“Now we have one more trip,” Ganix told him.

“To where?”

“Nedman’s. I bought his extra supplies.” Ganix looked up at the sky, smiling. “The rain has officially stopped; we might as well do this right.”

They went to Nedman’s and quickly collected the toiletries and assortment of goods at the back, loading them onto the dolly even as Nedman tried to strike up a conversation. Once they were finally inside the general store, Ganix unbuttoned his rain jacket. He reached his hand into his pocket and got some money, which he handed to Rowan.

“Take the dolly back to the docks and pick up lunch at Nedman’s. Whatever the family special is. Don’t take too long. We need to get these boxes unpacked. I don’t know about you two, but I’m hungry.”

“I’m starved,” Toro said as he arranged packages of flour on the aisle furthest to the right.

Rowan raced back out to the rain pushing the dolly.

He reached the steps that led down to the dock and dragged it down, the wheels making it pop up with each rung. Once he put the dolly away, he stood on the docks for a moment, looking out at the sea, a mist starting to spread across it. Somewhere across the body of water was Any_City, his mother, his real life.

Rather than dwell on these thoughts, or worry about what would come next when the summer ended, he made his way to Nedman’s restaurant, none of his usual cats outside.

“There he is for the second time,” Nedman said, a smile taking shape on his face as he saw Rowan. “If it isn’t our little revolutionary back from the rain.”

“Sorry I’m so wet,” Rowan said as he approached the counter.

“Getting wet is part of living on an island,” Nedman said. “Anyone around here will tell you that. Now, what can I do for you? Are you here for breakfast or lunch? We just started serving lunch, by the way.”

“Lunch. Whatever family special you have today.”

Nedman took off his hat and placed his hand on the back of his bald head. Rowan didn’t actually know he was bald, the man’s hair long and full at the sides.

“You’re in for a treat, then. Today, we’re serving my wife’s famous cobb cat salad and tuna cat sandwiches.”

“I thought you said the catsghetti was famous…”

“It’s famous too,” Nedman said with a chuckle. He called the order back to the kitchen and Rowan settled the bill.

“You said you went camping?”

“That’s right, to the other side of the island.”

“And how was it?”

“Interesting…”

“Did you see the mansion?”

“We did.”

“Old Man Stellars,” Nedman said. “Talk about a recluse. He is the oldest resident on the island; his family has been here for generations, but he’s the only one that’s left.”

“What does he do out there?”

“I think he just reads a lot.”

“Is he friendly?”

“I wouldn’t call him that. But he’s not that bad. Rarely comes into town, like most of the people that live off the grid.”

“We met Redi as well.”

“Ah, Mr. Redi Taka. He’s a very nice man, used to be a mechanical engineer. I’ve gone on a few bike rides with him. I believe he knows every nook and cranny on this island. He usually keeps to the western side, but you can find him pretty much anywhere. You’ll hear him first…”

“That’s what happened,” Rowan said as he explained how the man had shown up in the middle of the night.

“He’s a bit nocturnal; I hope he didn’t alarm the three of you too much. He’s harmless.”

Rowan heard the ding of a bell in the kitchen. Nedman retrieved the food and brought it to the counter, smiling at the boy. “Well, enjoy your lunch.”

“Are you going to the village council meeting tonight?” Rowan asked.

“I wasn’t planning on it, why?”

“My dad’s going to make a bunch of proposals, some of the stuff that you are talking about, you know, making the island better, he’s going to talk about that. I thought you might like to be there.”

“Is he now?” Nedman asked, running his hand along his chin. “Looks like my plans for this evening just changed.”

“See you there,” Rowan told him as he headed to the exit.

“Tell your dad I said good luck.”

Once they finished their sandwiches and salads, Rowan and his younger brother were itching to get out. Luckily for the two boys, their father had no problem with them leaving for a few hours.

“Just be back before dinnertime,” Ganix told them. “I want a moment to go over the notes for tonight’s village council meeting.”

“Will do,” Rowan told his dad as the two headed out the front door of the store.

The sky was clear and much of the ground was already dry, the air heavy with humidity. Rowan already felt sweat on his brow by the time they reached the hoarders’ home. He wiped it away with the back of his hand and took the first path that led to the cave, both Rowan and his brother excited to become cats again.

They were about to the halfway point when they saw a man they hadn’t seen before. He had thick black hair with lines on his forehead. Rowan could make out the outline of tattoos on his arms, but his skin was dark, making it hard to decipher the art.

The man carried a wicker basket, and as he looked up to see Rowan and Toro, he waved them over.

Name: Raydoh Erdene

Age: 59

Occupation: Retired Soldier

“Boys,” he said, smiling at the two, his teeth shiny and white. “I met your daddy the other day, and I figured I’d see you at some point. The name’s Raydoh.”

“Hey, Raydoh,” Rowan said.

“My wife is Kay, if you ever see her. Raydoh and Kay. How easy is that?”

“Super easy. What are you doing, by the way?” Toro asked as he looked at the man’s basket. Raydoh had collected a few twigs, and it looked like there were some pinecones in there as well.

“Just out here doing my thing,” he said. “The best time to look for stuff seems to be after heavy rain. You wouldn’t believe what the waters can shake loose from these trees.”

“Why are you collecting them?” Toro asked. “Just for fun?”

“Not exactly, I make wreaths. Actually, I was meaning to tell your daddy about it…” Raydoh lowered his head a little. “Although, I don’t know if this would be something he’s interested in.”

“You mean your wreaths?” Rowan asked.

“Yeah, he mentioned to me his idea of Sacred Cat Products down by the docks, but I didn’t tell him about this yet. I figured I would make him one, so he knows what they look like. That has always been my philosophy. Don’t tell someone what you can do, show them. About the only time it backfired on me was in Any_War III,” he said, his voice trailing off. “But that was a long time ago, and I was just nineteen at the time. Not much older than you,” he told Rowan.

“We can help you find things,” Toro said, not registering the direction the conversation could have gone.

“Help me? Sure. It’s not that difficult. I basically collect interesting-looking twigs, pine cones, vines, anything that looks like it could be twisted together to form a wreath. On second thought, it would probably be best if you do it on your own, a solo hunt. Or together.” Raydoh scratched the back of his head. “What I’m trying to say here, boys, is that I like the peace and quiet I get when I’m hunting alone. So if you ever find anything, just bring it by my place. I live next to Dorno.”

“Dorno?”

“He’s the carpenter. His home is next to Nedman’s Cat Restaurant. I’m surprised you haven’t met him yet.”

“We have some of his figurines,” Toro said as he equipped the tiny cat statue their father had given them.

“That’s definitely one of his pieces,” Raydoh said after he examined it. “He’ll be at the village council meeting tonight. Are you planning on going?”

“We’ll be there; our dad has some interesting stuff to say,” Toro told him.

“Then I look forward to it.”

Rowan and his younger brother were just stepping away when the prompt appeared in front of them, yet another Side Quest.

Side Quest: Collect items for Raydoh’s Wreaths

The two continued up the path until they reached the cave. They confirmed that the hole was still in place, Rowan still not telling his brother that he had already checked it out by himself the other morning.

“Anything?” his brother asked, looking up toward the ceiling of the cave.

“What do you mean?”

“The lady with the cat mask. Do you see her?”

Rowan shook his head. “I haven’t seen her since the first time we became cats. Maybe this was all she was doing, just leading us here.”

“Maybe. But what about dust girl?”

“That, I don’t know,” Rowan said, recalling the female made of dust who had caused them trouble a few times now.

“Do you want to go in first?”

“No, you go ahead.”

Toro got down onto his knees and crawled into the hole first, his brother quickly following after him.

Rowan emerged on the other side as a kitten. He saw his brother already checking himself out, Toro with his brown hair, green eyes and a white tip on his tail.

“This is so fun!”

“It really is,” Rowan said as he started to stalk his brother. He pounced, Toro jumping up to meet him. The two collided and rolled around in the dirt for a moment.

Rowan paused and tensed his paws, his claws emerging.

“I wish I had these as a human,” he said as he sat on his haunches, Rowan noticing a bit of dirt on his paw. He instinctively started to lick his paw, and then looked up at his brother, who was doing the same, albeit with his tail.

Rowan started laughing.

“We’re cleaning ourselves,” Toro said, laughing too. “How gross would that be if we were human?”

“I never really consider just licking myself,” Rowan said.

“It’s really strange to think about.”

Rowan nodded. “Let’s head out.”

He made his way toward the exit of the cave, his brother quickly catching up to them.

“What should we do?” Toro asked as the two of them stepped out, and looked through the trees and down the pathway toward Sacred Cat Village.

“We do have that Cat Quest we need to handle…”

“That’s right, a tour. They’ll introduce us to some of the others.”

“Let’s go find Hiccup and Rocket,” Rowan said as he took off, his brother quickly catching up with him.

As they traveled down the root-covered incline, he kept an eye on the canopy above them, Rowan remembering that a bird had attacked them last time. They were almost to the village when they saw the man named Raydoh Erdene step out of the woods, his basket full of sticks and other items he had collected.

He turned to the two of them and smiled.

“I haven’t seen you two little kitties before,” he said, a big grin stretching across his face.

“Do you think he can understand us?” Toro asked.

“Probably not.”

“We just met you,” Toro told him. “Don’t you remember?”

“Such cute little kitties,” Raydoh said. “And this one talks a lot.”

Rowan started to laugh. “He definitely can’t understand us.”

“We already have enough cats at my place, otherwise I would bring you two home,” he told them. “But if you get hungry, stop by around five. There’s always extra food. Maybe I can convince Kay to let me have another cat…” Raydoh waved goodbye to them and continued down to the village.

“Wait.” Rowan stopped his brother before he could continue toward the hoarders’ place in search of Hiccup and Rocket.

“Yeah?”

“Remember how you can understand other animals?”

Toro nodded.

“And I can’t.”

“What about it?”

“Do you think the other cats can understand humans?”

“That’s a good question,” said Toro.

“Because if they can’t, and we can, maybe we’ll be of help to them in some way. You know, they’re going to give us quests, maybe in exchange for things or information, we can listen in on what the humans are saying for them. I don’t know. It’s worth a shot.”

“Translation services,” Toro said.

“Yep, translation services.”

“Well, we’ll have to see what Rocket and Hiccup say. If they can’t understand humans, that’ll be an advantage to us.”

“It sure will,” said Rowan. “Now let’s go find them.”

Hiccup and Rocket weren’t very difficult to find, the two cats always somewhere around the hoarders’ cluttered estate. Hiccup was the easiest to spot, with his white coat and pink tail.

“Hey!” Rowan called over to him.

“Well, meow to you too,” Hiccup said, grinning. Rocket popped up from a small pile of trash, a discarded banana peel on his head.

“How do I look?” he asked Hiccup, as he ran his paw over the banana peel.

“Meow-tiful!”

Toro laughed. “It really does look like human hair.”

Rocket fell backward, laughing as well. He popped back up, and smiled at Rowan and his younger brother. “What brings you two cool kitties to the neighborhood?”

Rowan stepped forward. “We’d like to go on a tour with you, like you offered last time.”

“A tour, huh? Are you busy, Hiccup?”

Hiccup shook his head. “Let me check. Nope. I checked. Definitely not busy, meow. You?”

Rocket bobbed his head left and right. “I think I can make some time.”

“Let’s do it,” Hiccup said. “Follow me, boys, and I’ll introduce you to everyone you want to know on the eastside, meow. We don’t really venture to the west side.”

“That’s where we live,” Rowan whispered to his brother. “I wonder why they don’t go there?”

“Speak up, meow-please!” Hiccup said.

“Nevermind,” Rowan told him. “Let’s start the tour.”

“Well, as you can see, this is where we live, home of the hoarder.”

“You mean hoarders?” Rowan asked.

“Huh?” Hiccup shrugged Rowan’s statement off and continued. “Anyway, it’s not so bad. There are some pretty killer rats in there, especially when they join forces. Not inside the house, well, maybe inside the house.”

“Definitely inside the house,” said his counterpart.

“We don’t go in there very often, but they’re around. You’ll see them if you go exploring.”

“The panda man lives there,” Rocket said, nodding toward Gonpo’s house. “He has two cats, Oric and Michelle.”

“We haven’t met them yet,” Toro said.

“They usually hang out in his backyard. Have you seen him around yet?” Rocket asked Rowan.

“Yes, several times. He’s always looking for the floating prize.”

“He sure is. Kind of a sad guy, if you ask me.”

“He’s not sad,” Hiccup said. “Meow-no. He’s just a bit lonely, but he catches the presents every now and then and is happy for days, weeks even, just like me if I get a bite of fish.”

“Can you understand humans?” Toro asked, coming right out with it as they continued toward the East Docks.

“You mean understand their speaking?” Rocket shook his head. “All I can really get out of them are certain sounds and gestures.”

“We can understand them,” Toro said.

“How’s that?”

“Um, our owners talked a lot and we listened to them,” Rowan said, not sure if the explanation would work. But it didn’t seem to faze Hiccup or Rocket.

“Good to know. They sure like to gesture, a lot of them smell too.”

“Especially the one lady, meow,” said Hiccup. “The flower breeder.”

“Florist?” Rowan asked.

“Meow-sure, you can call it that. She smells like flowers. You can smell her from a mile away.”

“I can smell her from here,” Rocket added.

“We’re less than a mile away from her house.”

Toro sniffed the air and shrugged. “I can’t smell her.”

Argat came jogging in their direction, the rail-thin man in a tank top and a pair of neon shorts.

“This one is always running,” Hiccup said. “I don’t know what he’s running from, meow. Maybe he’s practicing survival skills just in case humans are ever hunted.”

“Humans are so stupid,” Rocket added.

“Most certainly,” Hiccup agreed.

Rowan could see the East Docks now, which reminded him of the catfish that they had fought. “Have you ever seen a giant catfish?”

Rocket and Hiccup stopped and exchanged glances. “A giant catfish? Who would name a fish after a cat?” Rocket asked Rowan.

“Meow-crazy!” Hiccup said, laughing to himself.

“We saw one once,” Toro said, “and we sort of had to fight it off.”

“With what?”

“Our, um, claws,” said Rowan. “So you never heard of anything like that?”

“I sure haven’t,” Hiccup said. “Meow-no. But you’re asking the wrong cat, we should ask Cuthbert.”

Before he could say anything else, a pair of cats he had never seen before sashayed toward them.

Rowan’s Catpendium quickly gave them the details he needed, the information materializing into existence in front of him.

Name: Nadine

Breed: Ragamuffin

Sex: Female

Color: Gray

Secondary Color: White

Age (Human Years): 1

Age (Cat Years): 15

Known Associates: Yuri, Lhandon

Name: Yuri

Breed: Ragamuffin

Sex: Female

Color: White

Secondary Color: Gray

Age (Human Years): 1

Age (Cat Years): 15

Known Associates: Nadine, Lhandon

“Meow, meow,” the white ragamuffin known as Nadine said. “Who are your friends?”

“Careful with these two,” Rocket said, stepping in front of Rowan and Toro. “They can…”

“We can what?” the cat known as Yuri asked.

“We don’t want any trouble,” Hiccup told the two of them. “We’re just giving these two a meow-tour.”

“A meow-tour, huh?” Nadine asked in a sultry way. She came forward, and lifted her gray tail into the air.

“The twisted sisters,” said Rocket under his breath. “That’s what we call these two.”

“Nadine, and my sister, Yuri,” said Nadine as she smiled at Rowan. “And you two are?”

“Rowan and my brother, Toro.”

“Meow, meow, meow! Two handsome brothers, young but not too young,” she purred, “with beautiful brown coats.”

“Don’t listen to them,” Rocket said, his ears flitted back now.

Nadine stepped past him, thrusted her hips wide, and knocked Rocket to the side. He hissed, but didn’t attack her.

“Look at you, meow, meow,” she said, her eyes flickering as she took Rowan in. “I’ve never seen one like you around here.”

Yuri was at her side in a matter of seconds, pushing past Rocket and Hiccup. “The little one is cute too, meow, meow,” she said.

“Meow, meow,” Nadine responded.

“Very meow,” said Yuri.

“We are hungry.”

“Excuse me?” Rowan asked Nadine.

She frowned, her whiskers drooping as well. “The old man has brought some fish up from the sea, but he won’t give us any. The stubborn old fool.”

“Wh…which old man?” Toro asked.

Nadine gestured with her tail toward Chodak’s home. Rowan recalled that the fisherman prepared the fish in his yard and took them to another restaurant on the island, the one run by a person they hadn’t met yet.

“We’re so hungry,” Yuri said as she lightly circled around Toro, tapping him with her tail. “Meow, meow.”

“I wish there were two brave cats who could get us some fish…” Nadine said. “Meow?”

“Two strong, brave cats…”

“No one is getting the two of you any fish, meow-no,” Hiccup stepped forward and hissed at the two of them. “These guys are new to the village. Don’t pester them. They’re our friends.”

“Come on, it won’t be very hard.” Nadine looked at Rowan with pleading eyes. “We’re so hungry, and he has plenty of fish. All you have to do is get one.”

Rowan bit his lip. There was something enticing about the way she spoke to him, something almost hypnotic. He found himself nodding, the words leaving his lips before he could really process them.

“Sure, we’ll see what we can do,” he said.

He ignored Rocket and Hiccup as he took a step forward, Toro quickly joining in.

They approached the low wall made of brick that had been constructed around Chodak’s place. Rowan’s ears twitched as he heard the man whistling in his front yard. He could smell the fish now, its scent much more overpowering than it normally was.

Rowan licked his lips, he turned to see his brother doing the same.

“Are you sure about this?” Toro asked.

“It’s just a little fish.”

Rowan looked over his shoulder to see the two female cats sitting next to each other, their tails waving in the air behind him. Hiccup and Rocket were near the two, both with frightened looks on their faces. Rocket made eye contact with Rowan and once again shook his head, but they were too far away now to hear what he had to say.

“How should we do this?” Toro asked.

“It really smells good, doesn’t it?”

Toro nodded.

“Fish is okay, but it has never smelled this good before,” Rowan said, all sorts of scents coming to him at once.

“I know what you mean.”

“No wonder cats like fish so much. Who wouldn’t like it?” Rowan asked. “Sorry, the plan. Follow me…” He crept forward just a little and peeked around the low wall to see Chodak hard at work scraping the scales off a fish.

“You run and distract him, and I will steal the fish.”

“Why don’t you distract him and let me steal the fish?” Toro asked. “I don’t want to be the distraction.”

“You’re a better distraction. You’re smaller, and you’re faster.”

“We are practically the same speed,” Toro said. “Actually, we’ve never truly raced in this form. I don’t know who’s faster.”

“You want me to distract him?”

Toro nodded. “I’ll get the fish, you distract.”

“Okay, I’m fine with that, but once we get out here, I get to carry the fish over to the two girls.”

“That’s fine by me,” Toro said.

“All right, I’m going to sneak in there now, once I distract him, you hop up on the table and get the fish. Meet me here, on the other side of the wall, and drop the fish. I’ll grab it and we’ll both run over there.”

“This is going to work,” Toro said.

“It will definitely work.”

Rowan looked back once again at the two female cats and nodded, psyching himself up.

He slipped around the short wall and kept low to the ground as he approached the fisherman. He saw Chodak in his plastic overalls, the man humming up a storm as he continued to prepare the fish. He seemed oblivious to Rowan, fully engaged in what he was doing.

Rowan got around to the front of the table and looked for something to knock over. There wasn’t much in the yard aside from the table Chodak was currently seated before and a birdbath that didn’t have any water in it. He spotted a harpoon leaning against the house, but that wouldn’t make as much of a racket as he liked.

It would have to be the birdbath.

Rowan pressed his body weight against the birdbath, a momentary relapse in which he thought he had the same strength he possessed as a thirteen-year-old boy. He soon discovered that he wasn’t going to be able to topple the birdbath as a kitten. Instead, Rowan hopped up into the birdbath and tried to get Chodak’s attention by calling his name.

“Chodak, Chodak, Chodak,” he called, which he assumed sounded like he was mewing to the human.

Chodak looked up, his orange knit hat sitting low on his brow. “You’re not going to get my fish,” he said.

“Chodak, Chodak, Chodak,” Rowan continued.

Chodak laughed. “Let me guess, you want me to come over there and then you’re going to try to run over here and take one of my fish. Not today, little kitty. I’ve been tricked plenty of times before, plenty of times.”

“Chodak…” Rowan tried to get louder, feeling the strain in his voice. “Chodak, Chodak, Chodak.”

“Enough with you,” Chodak said as he came around the table and tried to shoo Rowan away. Toro started to claw his way up the leg of the table, which caught the fisherman’s attention. Chodak turned and spotted Rowan’s younger brother. “You two think you are clever, don’t you?”

Chodak reached for Toro and managed to grab him, the fisherman much faster than Rowan would have assumed. Toro’s first response was to turn around, claws out. Chodak tossed him to the ground before he could scratch the older man, Toro landing on his feet and slipping away.

“And as for you,” he said as he grabbed one of his fishing poles.

He swatted it at Rowan, the end of the fishing rod clipping the tip of his tail. Rowan exploded off the birdbath and hit the ground. He charged toward the opening at the front of the home, where he came to the other side of the short wall.

Once Rowan was clear, he looked to his brother, who was panting now, his ears flitted back.

“I thought he was going to kill me,” Toro said, panting now.

“He hit my tail.” Rowan sat on his haunches and pulled his tail around, wincing as he looked at it.

His concern for his own bodily injury dissipated once he heard the shrill laughter coming from the two twisted sisters. Nadine and Yuri were on the ground now, rolling around and laughing as Rocket and Hiccup scowled at them.

“Come on,” Rowan said as he charged in their direction. He ran right past the two female cats.

“Where are you going, meow-boys?” Hiccup called after them, concern in his voice.

But Rowan didn’t respond.

He was too embarrassed now, practically to the point of tears as the females’ laughter continued to berate them. He bolted toward the hoarders’ home, Toro not far behind him. They turned onto one of the paths that led up to the cave, slowing once they were in the woods.

“Stupid sisters,” Rowan said.

“They tricked us,” said Toro.

“Clearly.” Not knowing how to release the anger and frustration he was feeling, Rowan slapped both paws against the ground. “Let’s go back to the cave. We’ll deal with those two later.”

It was strange to be human again, or NPC, whatever that was. Rowan shook his arms out, his little brother doing the same.

“Those dumb-dumbs,” Toro said again, clearly trying to egg his brother on in a way, to get him to say or do something.

Rowan shook his head as he thought of the two twisted sisters. “Just give me some time to think about how we can get even with them.”

“We could chase them off with our weapons right now,” Toro suggested.

Rowan considered this. He imagined what it would look like to show up at Chodak’s home with his wooden sword, Toro with his broom, the two swatting at the cats. It definitely wasn’t a good look.

Toro picked up on this. “Maybe it’s not fair if we attack them as humans.”

“You’re right, there’s too much of a size advantage. But we will get even eventually,” said Rowan. “Like I said: just give me some time to think about how we’ll do it.”

Toro jumped up and down for a moment. “It’s so cool jumping as a cat. I feel like I can jump so much higher. Did you see how I landed on my feet when Chodak dropped me?”

“I sure did.”

“Cats never land on their backs, right?”

“I’ve heard that before,” Rowan said as he gestured for his younger brother to follow him out of the cave. The two brothers made their way back to the village, taking the rocky pathway on the far right, which looped around the hoarders’ home.

Dark clouds once again appeared overhead, cooling the day off to some degree. The forest floor was still a bit muddy from the earlier rains, Rowan and Toro actively avoiding puddles as they made their way down. They reached the village and hung a right, moving onto the cobblestone road that led to the general store.

The front door was open, allowing the breeze to come in, the cats that lived outside curiously peeking in until Rowan and Toro showed up.

Once again, the Catpendium told Rowan the cats’ names were Quantum, Meme, Zaena, Fiona, and Ryuk, Rowan wishing they had come this direction instead of following Hiccup and Rocket earlier. He also wanted to meet Uncle and see what his personality was really like.

Their father, who stood behind the counter, smiled at his two sons. “I was wondering when you would come back.” He handed a bag of Proxima chips to Toro, who gladly took them.

“Were you expecting us for something?” Rowan asked. He realized this question could have come off as rude and rephrased it. “I mean, did you need help with something?”

“Actually, I wanted you to run the store while I went over my notes for tonight’s village council meeting. Let me show you how to use this thing,” he said, motioning for Rowan to come around the counter. “It’s not very difficult.”

As Toro ate chips, Rowan watched his father key in numbers on the register. There were already Proxima coins and dollars in the till, his father explaining how people paid with credit as well, by placing their finger on a little pad. Rowan was familiar with this method of payment. It was something he did often in Any_City, which seemed to be much more of a cashless society than the island.

“It shouldn’t be very hard,” his father told him once he had finished his demonstration.

“I think I’ve got it. If not, I have my handy little assistant here.”

Toro laughed, spitting some chips in the air by accident. He wiped his mouth. “I’m his assistant.”

“Which makes me the manager,” said Rowan.

“And it makes me the assistant to the manager,” Toro chimed in.

Ganix shook his head a little. “To think that you two are already talking about middle management…” His smile slowly faded. “Well, I need to go prepare. It shouldn’t take me very long, but I do want time to make sure I’m getting my point across at the council. Don’t break anything,” he said once he reached the stairs.

“Hey…” Toro started to call after Uncle, who followed their father up the stairs.

“Let him go,” said Rowan. “He clearly wants to keep Dad company.”

Toro turned the bag of chips to his older brother and Rowan ate some. They were barbecue flavored, and he soon found his hands covered in oil. He wiped them with a tissue, and tossed it into the bin beneath the counter.

“I thought it would be busier than this,” Toro said. He now stood next to Rowan behind the counter, shuffling his feet.

“Maybe it was busier earlier.” Rowan swept his eyes over the aisles and nodded. “It sure looks like he sold a bunch of stuff. It’s weird to think we are officially open now. Why don’t you go out there and straighten some things?” Rowan asked him. “Make sure everything is front facing.”

“Sure!”

Eventually, Rowan got out his drawing pad and a set of pencils.

As he stood at the counter, he began drawing Rocket and Hiccup in front of the hoarders’ home. He made sure to sketch out the giant cat statue crafted from trash, and he was just about to shade in some of the shadows, Rowan imagining the sun shining from the left side of the paper, when Gonpo entered.

“Boys,” he said, a half-grin taking shape on his masked face. His panda costume looked clean for once, the white much brighter than it had been the last time they’d seen him. “Tomorrow is the day.”

“Day for what?” Rowan asked.

Gonpo grabbed a can of soup and a bag of chips, and brought them to the counter. “My daily prize party.”

He placed his finger on the scanner, letting Rowan know that he planned to pay with credit.

“What’s that?” Toro asked as he joined the two of them.

“Well, for one, you and your brother are invited, your father too. As you know, I never open the daily prizes when I catch them. I save them until I have several, and then I open them all at once and have a party. Sometimes, the people at the party get extra prizes, but even if they don’t, I make sure it’s a good time.”

“You never told us you had a party,” said Toro.

“I guess it’s better late than sorry, right? And I invited you, didn’t I? Go ahead and come on over to my place around five or six tomorrow. There will be cake baked by Gilda, food provided by Nedman. It will be a grand old time. You two are coming to the village council meeting tonight, right?”

Rowan nodded. “We are. Our dad has some speech he has prepared.”

“Really? About what?”

Rowan and Toro exchanged glances.

“Come on, you can tell me,” Gonpo said with a big grin. “I love a little village gossip.”

While he was technically smiling, it was hard to truly understand the expression on his face, especially due to the fact Rowan could only see his lips and chin. The rest of his face was covered, so his grin could have been sinister, or it could have been genuine.

“Just some plans he has, and some ideas,” Rowan said, going for an answer that could be interpreted in any number of ways.

“In that case, consider me excited. These meetings are usually pretty boring. And if you didn’t know already, Doyona runs the village council with an iron fist. Tuya is the secretary. You’ve met her, right?”

“The florist,” Toro said. “We helped her plant tulips.”

“That’s her. She’ll be at my party too. She sometimes makes an arrangement. The final person on the council is Tunga. He runs the Fisherman’s Restaurant.”

“We still haven’t checked that place out yet,” Rowan said.

“You haven’t?” Gonpo shrugged. “Well, it does make sense; you are, after all, across the road from Nedman’s spot. You should check it out sometime, though. Tunga’s fish is simply amazing. He does great seafood boils as well. Anyway, I won’t bother you any longer. I need to eat my dinner here before the meeting starts.”

Rowan found the paper bags his dad had shown him under the counter. He was about to bag the items up when Gonpo stopped him.

“I’ll carry it. No sense in wasting any paper. And if for some reason I don’t see you there tonight, I’ll definitely see you tomorrow. Maybe I’ll even get lucky and catch another daily prize before the party starts.” Gonpo turned to the exit and waved his hand over the shoulder as he left.

“Why didn’t you tell him about Dad’s plans?” Toro asked after he had gone.

“Maybe it’s best for Dad to explain it,” Rowan said. He had this feeling that he couldn’t trust anyone on the island, not until their dad’s public revelation. “From now on, let’s try to keep things as secret as possible. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“You guys don’t mind, do you?” Ganix asked as he equipped a Proxima pizza. It was already piping hot, that familiar smell of cheese and tomato sauce reaching Rowan’s nostrils. They were in the upstairs apartment now, the sun starting to set, the lighthouse in the distance nearly to the point where it was going to blot out the sun.

Once again, Toro stood on his father’s suitcase. “We love pizza,” Toro said.

This was a relatively true statement, the two boys did enjoy pizza. But something about its smell was off to Rowan, something almost plastic about it. He hadn’t thought much about the Proxima food they consumed on a daily basis, but he could definitely taste the difference between the stuff that came from his dad’s inventory list, and food made from scratch, like the stuff at Nedman’s, or the pastries that Gilda made.

“So your notes are ready?” Rowan asked.

It was strange to see his father dressed up, Ganix in a pair of ironed slacks he used to wear to work and a suit jacket, his shirt tucked in. Rowan hadn’t seen him with a shirt tucked in since they arrived on the island. And even though they hadn’t been here very long, it was clear now that he had lost a few pounds. Maybe he was just standing differently, his shoulders pressed back, something about his father exuding the confidence of a new man.

“I sure have. I’m going to lead with the products. I think that that is important, and it will get people interested who want to potentially take part. I’ll mention that we are officially open now, just in case someone doesn’t know. Then I’ll talk about the beautification, and I’ll definitely mention that a ramp is a necessity. There doesn’t seem to be anything on the island for disabled people, which is a shame considering the average age here in the village.”

“We bring down the average age,” Toro said.

“You sure do,” Ganix told his son. “Good on you for understanding the math behind averages.”

Rowan rolled his eyes.

“Gonpo invited us to a party tomorrow,” Toro told his father as he took a bite from the pizza.

“Did he, now?”

“He’s having a daily prize party. He saves all the prizes he collects and then opens them all at the same time.”

“And apparently has a party when he does it,” Rowan said, interrupting his younger brother. “We’re supposed to come, you too.”

“Sure, I’ll come to the party with you. After what I have to say tonight, it may be a good place to network with people and hash out my ideas with some of the other villagers…”

“And there will be cake. Gilda’s.”

Ganix smiled at his youngest son. “Then I’ll definitely be there.”

After their pizza, Ganix told the two boys to go to the bathroom and clean up.

“What do you mean?” Rowan asked.

“Fix your hair, make yourself presentable.”

Rowan grumbled as he joined his younger brother in the bathroom. He ran his hand through his hair, applied water to his hand, and did it again, so it was slicked back. Toro laughed and used water to spike his hair even more. The two ended up tucking their T-shirts into their jean shorts, both walking out of the bedroom at the same time with their hands on their hips.

Ganix took one look at them and smirked. “I guess that will have to do,” he said as he motioned them following.

“Can Uncle come?” Toro asked, going for the kitten.

Ganix shook his head once. “Uncle doesn’t need to come with us.”

“But he’s our mascot,” Toro said, playfully showing their father Uncle’s little face. The kitten meowed in protest, not at all happy with the way Toro was holding him.

“Put him down; let’s go.”

The three left the general store and headed up the hill, Rowan half-expecting to see other people out, everyone making their way toward the village council building. But the streets were empty, aside from a present attached to a balloon floating overhead.

They turned to the town square, and came to the only building that looked active, the lights on inside, a few villagers standing near the entrance.

Their social statuses appeared before Rowan.

Name: Dorno Scott

Age: 69

Occupation: Carpenter

Name: Dr. Bernard Restivo

Age: 66

Occupation: Retired General Practitioner

“Nice to see you again,” Dr. Restivo said as he extended his hand to Ganix. The doctor wore a fresh lab coat and was clean-shaven. His skin was darker than Rowan’s hair, and there was a hint of blue to his eyes, his voice just a little scratchy.

Ganix shook his hand and then turned to the other man, the carpenter.

“Boys, this is Dorno,” he told his sons. Dorno was in a pair of overalls and had tattoos on his arm that signaled he was part of the carpenter guild. He was muscular, with a long beard and a mess of hair he kept up in a bun.

“Wait, I think I have something here,” Dr. Restivo said as he reached into the pocket of his lab coat. He returned with two lollipops, which he handed to Rowan and Toro. “I always carry a couple with me, just in case.”

“Thanks,” said Rowan.

“I just hope they have enough sugar to keep you up during this meeting. They can get pretty boring, and that’s coming from a guy who has been to…” He counted the number in his head for a moment. “Hundred? It must have been over a hundred conferences. I was quite active back on the mainland. I still head out to a conference from time to time.”

“Thanks,” Toro said as he took the wrapping off and popped the lollipop in his mouth.

“Well, I guess we can have a chat later,” Ganix said as he motioned everyone into the building.

Rowan and Toro let the two older men go first and entered after them, their dad following close behind. They came to a room with a series of chairs set up around a table, Doyona already seated at its center, Tuya on her left and Tunga on her right.

Pretty much everyone Rowan had met so far was already in the room, but only one of the hoarders had shown up, Alto in a pink plaid suit and matching fedora. Rowan noticed Gonpo seated at the front, the man in his panda costume definitely blocking Gilda the baker’s view, who was seated behind him.

He also saw Raydoh, the guy they had met earlier in the forest. He was seated next to his wife, Kay; Nedman and his wife, Mel, next to them. Before Rowan could finish scanning the room, Doyona called everyone to order by clapping her hands together.

“I keep meaning to get a gavel,” she said in a snippy way, the older woman in a crisp maroon outfit accented by a gaudy broach. She sat before a giant quilt that formed the outline of the island, Rowan clearly recognizing the upside-down U-shaped road of the village, as well as some of the sea stacks on the northwestern side of the island, where Old Man Stellars lived.

“I’ll start,” said Tunga, who ran the Fisherman’s Restaurant. Chodak, who sat in the back row, gave his friend a silent fist pump. “Not much has changed since our last meeting,” Tunga said, “aside from the reopening of the general store thanks to Turni Toragan’s nephew and his two sons. Please stand.”

Ganix stood, motioning for Rowan and Toro to stand as well. The residents that were more flexible than the others turned and looked at them; others continued to face forward.

Tunga shrugged. “That’s it for updates.”

“That’s it?” Rowan asked as he sat back down.

“In that case,” said Doyona, “I believe we will take comments from the audience now.”

The first person to stand up was her husband, Vicar. He wore a dark-blue dinner jacket over a pair of black trousers and a crisp black shirt. “I would like to register yet another complaint against the Sarax household,” he began.

Rowan took a quick look around the crowd to see who this was. His eyes fell upon Alto, the hoarder slowly lowering his head so the brim of his hat covered his face.

“You may proceed,” said Doyona.

“As has been stated plenty of times before, the house is an eyesore. It decreases the property value of anything around it, and it is a stain on our village, especially so close to the town square. I am encouraging the council to have a vote to force them to clean up their home or leave. This is a respectable village, and this situation has gone on long enough.”

Rowan looked to Alto again to see the man shrinking into himself. Rowan didn’t know how to put words to what he saw, but it reminded him of what someone who had been bullied looks like, someone who was struggling with something.

As Vicar continued, Rowan felt worse and worse for Alto.

“And do you have anything to say, Mr. Sarax? Where is your brother?” Doyona eventually asked.

“Garner is not feeling well tonight,” Alto said in a voice just above a whisper. “And I don’t have anything to say.”

“I would like to ask the council to have a vote at the next meeting to condemn the Saraxs’ home,” Vicar said.

“Yes, I believe this is necessary.” Doyona looked to the two other councilmembers around her, both of whom continued to stare forward, without saying anything. “Is there anyone else that would like to say something?”

“Ahem, I would like to say something.” Ganix reached into his pocket and came out with some of the notes he had prepared. He stood, and after clearing his throat, he began: “I know that I am a newcomer to this island, but I can’t help but see some of the talent and potential here. Along with opening the general store, which is officially open as of today, I am starting a company called Sacred Cat Products. I would like to work on exporting our products, whatever you islanders can create, to the mainland. I will also sell the perishables in the general store, such as Gilda’s muffins. Sacred Cat Products will be set up in a co-op fashion, so we can all share in the profits.”

This caused a murmur to fill the room.

“Once I get the business model down and we get some distributors on the mainland, I would like to use some of the revenue to improve the island, and to spread awareness of the island to potentially bring in tourists again.”

Rowan glanced over to Nedman to see him with a big smile on his face as he nodded.

“Come again?” Doyona asked, suddenly interested in what their father was saying. At the start of his statement, she seemed to be staring off in the distance, not at all paying attention. But the mention of tourists had certainly piqued her interest.

Ganix lowered his notes. “I think this island is due for a makeover, facelift, whatever you want to call it, folks.”

“Agreed!” Nedman said, clapping.

“Quiet,” Doyona hissed, pointing her finger at the people seated before her. “We’re not having a vote right now, and it is uncouncil-like to show your affinity this early. Is that all you would like to say, Mr. Toragan?”

“No, there’s more,” Ganix said, just a hint of agitation in his voice at the way she was speaking to everyone. “There are many things that need to be done on this island, from street lamps to ramps put in for the disabled. What about the farmer’s market? What about events? This island used to be a tourist destination over the summer, now hardly anyone comes. Look around and ask yourself why? I’d like to…”

“This is a retirement community now,” Doyona said, a vein pulsing on the side of her neck.

“Aware, and you could still be that to some degree. What I’m saying here is this: what if we breathe new life into this island, our community? Right now, my boys are the youngest people on the island, and oddly enough, I’m the third-youngest person at the tender age of forty-five,” he said to a few chuckles, most notably from Chodak and Dr. Restivo. “We aren’t going to live forever, none of us. If we start thinking about what we want the island to look like in the future, and work together as a community to fix it, change it, or do whatever we need to do, we can assure that there is some future for it, rather than a bunch of abandoned homes.”

Ganix paused, waiting for Doyona to interrupt him. When she didn’t, he continued.

“So that’s what I would like to talk to everyone about. First, if you have a product that you think we could sell and would like to take part in Sacred Cat Products, let me know. Second, if we are having a vote at the next council meeting, as you mentioned for Mr. Sarax over there, then I would like to vote on how we can go about improving the island, and…” He paused for a moment as he tried to find his words. “I’m looking to figure out the best way we can go about doing so, starting with what is most pertinent.”

“You do not call votes, I call votes,” Doyona reminded him. “But if you really think that someone who has barely been here a week knows more about what the people of the island want than those who have been here for a decade, like myself, sure, let’s have a vote. Let’s see what the people have to say.”

“That’s all I ask. And another thing, since I have everyone’s attention. I am interested in the apple-peach orchard. If anyone knows who I would talk to about perhaps purchasing it, or even leasing it and getting it up and running again, let me know. The orchard is another thing that makes this island unique, and it’s a shame to see it go to waste.”

“Well, I think that’s quite enough, Mr. Toragan,” Doyona said as she sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. “Does anyone else have a concern that the council should hear?”

Gonpo stood. “I’m having a party tomorrow, everyone’s invited.”

This elicited a few more laughs from the audience, Rowan happy for the attention to be shifted away from their father for a moment. He could tell by the way his father was tapping his foot on the ground that he was going through something at the moment. It was a human expression that Rowan understood.

Unbundling one’s nerves was never easy.

Their father led Rowan and his younger brother home, just a bit of bounce to his step. He reached the door and the cats fanned out as Ganix fished in his pocket for his keys. Once they were inside, Rowan scooped Uncle into his arms and handed him off to his little brother.

They took the stairs to the upstairs apartment, Ganix flicking the light on.

“Go get ready for bed,” he told his sons.

They did as instructed, showering and brushing their teeth. Once again, after he had pretended to sleep for twenty or thirty minutes, Rowan got out of the bed to join his father on the balcony.

His dad didn’t have that sweet smell about him this time, and he seemed genuinely happy, his eyes fixated on the blinking lighthouse in the distance.

“I was wondering when you would come out,” he said softly.

“I don’t fall asleep as easily as Toro,” Rowan said.

“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“How do you think you did tonight?” Rowan asked, which was a question that had been on his mind since the end of the meeting. “Do you think that they will vote yes?”

“That’s sort of the problem.” His father licked his lips and continued. “I was so jazzed to say what I wanted to say that I didn’t really consider when and if they would vote, or what exactly it was they would vote on. I kind of winged it back there. Even the notes I prepared, and my strategy for delivering them, didn’t come out the way I wanted.”

“I thought you did fine.”

“Maybe. But, at least the word is out now, and I’m sure things will materialize over the next few days.”

“You can talk to people tomorrow at Gonpo’s party.”

His father sighed. “It looks like we’re going to have to do a little politicking.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sure some of the residents aren’t so keen on opening up the island to tourists.”

“Couldn’t tourists just come here anyway?”

“You make a fair point. I suppose they could, but if we opened it up, we would have to do some advertising, and get the word out. Now, that is one thing that Sacred Cat Products are going to be able to do. People are going to wonder where they came from, so there may be some tourists just from that. But we’re going to have to clean the place up a little first before people start really showing up. And to be clear: I don’t think this place is going to become some crazy popular tourist destination, and I certainly wouldn’t want that. But some modest tourism could really help…”

“What about Alto and Garner’s home?”

“You mean the hoarders?”

Rowan nodded. He felt the breeze roll in from the ocean, the moon light reflecting off the surface of the water.

“I thought that was cruel how Vicar called them out like that. I understand that their place is a little bit hard to look at, but…” Ganix shook his head. “You know, there are people in this world that have issues, emotional issues and whatnot. They act out in different ways, and I don’t think that we should scorn those two men. I don’t think it’s going to help them get any better.”

“What should we do then?”

“As hard as it is, sometimes you have to get to know someone and understand why they are the way they are before you can develop a strategy for helping them. I don’t know. I’m not a psychologist over here, just a former administrator. But that’s what my gut tells me.”

“What happened to your job?”

Ganix went silent. “It doesn’t matter now. The point is, and what you should take away from what happened today at the meeting, was that Vicar was being cruel. Maybe he thinks that calling the man out in front of a crowd will help, but I don’t think it will help one bit. Perhaps he was egged on by his wife, we’ll never know.”

“How can we bring tourists to the island with their house the way that it is? It is literally in the center of the village,” Rowan said. “I’m not trying to be mean to them either. If it was on the outskirts or something…”

“I do like the giant cat statue that they have. Maybe there is something there,” his father said with a yawn. “Anyway, we can speculate more tomorrow.” He turned to his son, and locked eyes with him. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“I’m glad I’m here too.” And in that moment Rowan almost told his father how much he wanted to stay on the island, how he never wanted to go back to the mainland. But he didn’t. He already knew their future departure was going to be painful; there was no sense dwelling on it now.

.Chapter Eight.

Rowan woke up the next morning, actually able to remember his dream for once. He was back in the village council room, the tapestry on the wall behind the desk at the front swirling with life. Dust girl was there, twisting in the air, the room slowly filling with trash as if it were water.

After he sat up, Rowan rubbed his eyes for a moment, and noticed that he had gained some HP, which had apparently come from advancing in his empathy attribute.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 348/348

Intelligence: 23.96

Willpower: 11.08

Empathy: 7.02

Charisma: 11.84

Strength: 5.70

Dexterity: 7.54

Luck: 3.68

+ .13 Intelligence!

+ .37 Empathy!

+ 7 HP!

Toro was still asleep, and rather than wake him, Rowan slipped out in the living room to find Uncle resting on his father’s pillow, Ganix already out on the balcony enjoying a cup of coffee.

“Picking up right where we left off, huh?” Ganix asked as he lifted his cup to his oldest son, toasting him in a way.

“It looks like it,” said Rowan.

“Do you want some coffee? I can make you one as well.”

“I don’t know…” Rowan started to say.

“Here, take a sip.”

His father handed him his cup of coffee. Rowan noticed that the mug was warm, the coffee a light shade of brown from the creamer his father added. He took a sip of it, and was about to wince when he found himself begrudgingly accepting that it wasn’t half bad.

“You’ll like it when you’re older,” Ganix assured him. He sighed audibly. “This really is the good life, isn’t it? This breeze, this view. I can see why people retire on this island. You know, an oceanside balcony in Any_Port that has a view like this would cost a fortune. It would take me two lifetimes to be able to afford something like that. Have you ever thought about that?”

“About what?”

“Working two lifetimes to afford a nice view,” his father said.

“No.”

“You should think about it sometime.”

“Okay…”

They were quiet for a spell until his father spoke again: “I really want to start having better food around here, and if we keep up the sales of the store, maybe we can eat out more at Nedman’s. His stuff is always so delicious and homemade. I have Proxima tarts today, but soon, we will start doing things differently.”

“Where’s my coffee?” Toro stepped out of the balcony, the young boy with a blanket over his head and shoulders as if he were wearing a cloak.

Ganix jokingly handed him his coffee, and much to Rowan’s surprise, Toro took a big swig of it.

“Yuck,” he said, making a face as he handed the coffee back to his dad.

“You’ll like it one day,” his father assured him.

He motioned for his sons to follow him into the kitchen, where he produced a toaster from one of the cabinets. He placed the Proxima tarts in and started toasting them. “One more thing, boys. After breakfast, you’ll need to call your mother.”

“And then what?” Toro asked.

“And then, you can go out and enjoy your day. I don’t know what you guys get into during the day, but you look like you’re having fun, and I don’t want to stop you. Also, of course, if you meet any residents who want to talk about what I said at the council meeting yesterday, tell them to come on by.”

After breakfast, the boys went downstairs with their father and fed the cats out front. Ganix then called their mother, speaking to her in hushed tones before handing the phone off to Rowan.

“Hi, Mom,” Rowan said, already starting to play with the phone cord.

“Rowan, how are you?”

“Good.”

“That’s it?”

Rowan felt the urge to ask his mother what was really going on, why she wasn’t here on the island with them, and what had happened between her and Dad. But his dad was standing right there, and he knew it would be awkward.

“We went to a village council meeting last night, and we went camping, let me see…”

“Tell her we’re going to a party tonight,” Toro said.

“We’re going to a party tonight,” said Rowan.

“A party? What kind of party?” she asked.

“This guy on the island collects daily prizes, but he only opens them all at the same time.”

“Daily prizes?”

“Every now and then, there’s just a present floating in the air that’s attached to a balloon. We don’t know where they come from. We hit one down one time,” he said, skipping over the story on how he had injured himself trying to get one of the prizes, “and we got rain outfits.”

“Rain outfits?” she asked Rowan.

“A hat, rain jacket, rain boots, that sort of thing. But this guy never opens the presents. Not until he has a party.”

His mother laughed. “That seems very strange.”

“What are you doing?”

“Yeah, what are you doing?” asked Toro as he pushed himself toward the phone’s receiver.

“I’m doing…” She paused for a moment. “Not a lot, at the moment. But I’m doing well. It’s so nice to hear both of you. I can’t wait to see you.”

Rowan swallowed hard. He knew exactly what this meant, that they would have to leave the island.

Luckily, Toro was already taking over the conversation.

Rowan gradually handed the phone to his younger brother and stood beside him while he spoke to their mother. He looked to his father to see Ganix with his gaze cast down a bit, as if he were ashamed of something.

Once his father sensed that Rowan was looking at him, he busied himself at the register by popping open the cash drawer and counting the money, trying to make it seem like he wasn’t listening to their conversation.

Rowan’s thoughts continued to drift, only coming back to the conversation when Toro handed him the phone to say goodbye to his mother.

“Bye, Mom,” he said.

“Bye, Rowan. I miss you, and I love you. Don’t forget that.”

The two boys headed out, immediately turning toward the cave. It was a breezy day, and from the front of the general store, Rowan could hear the sounds of the waves down at the docks.

As they passed in front of Doyona’s house, Rowan saw her three cats lying on their sides, their tails occasionally lifting and slapping back down to keep any stray flies away.

Name: Manchester

Breed: Abyssinian

Sex: Male

Color: Orange

Secondary Color: White

Age (Human Years): 8

Age (Cat Years): 49

Known Associates: Micah, Cassandra

Offspring: Micah, Uncle

Name: Lady Cassandra

Breed: Abyssinian

Sex: Female

Color: Dark Blue

Secondary Color: Red

Age (Human Years): 5

Age (Cat Years): 37

Known Associates: Manchester, Micah

Offspring: Micah, Uncle

Name: Micah

Breed: Abyssinian

Sex: Male

Color: Dark Blue

Secondary Color: White

Age (Human Years): 2

Age (Cat Years): 25

Known Associates: Manchester, Lady Cassandra

Once again, Rowan was reminded that Manchester and Lady Cassandra were Uncle’s parents, which would make Micah Uncle’s brother. As he watched the cats laze about, an idea came to him.

“We should come see what Doyona’s deal is,” he told his younger brother.

“What do you mean?”

“As cats, dumb-dumb, spy cats.”

“Don’t call me dumb-dumb!”

“Have you ever thought about how catchy your name is?” Rowan asked, changing the subject. “Toro Toragan.”

“No.”

“It’s super catchy. Like a celebrity catchy.”

Toro snorted. “I don’t want to be a celebrity.”

“The boy who can turn into a cat,” Rowan said with a gesture. “I can see it now, and it looks beautiful.”

“I don’t want to be a celebrity…”

“Boys!” The two turned to see Dr. Restivo coming up a stone path wrapping around the house next to Nedman’s restaurant. Rowan and his younger brother hadn’t taken this path yet.

“I could use your help,” the man said once he reached them, a black medical bag in his right hand.

A prompt appeared before Rowan.

Side Quest: Help Dr. Restivo with his house visit

Even though they were planning to become cats to do some spying, and they still had other things they wanted to do, such as collect items for Raydoh’s wreaths, Rowan figured they would tag along for a little while. It would be interesting, and it would allow them to meet more of the villagers.

“Sure, what’s up?”

Dr. Restivo grimaced. “Well,” he said in his scratchy voice, “it’s not pretty. It really isn’t. But you should see it anyway.”

“What’s not pretty?” Toro asked.

“You know what? I should have phrased that differently…” He stuck his hand in his pocket and confirmed that he had candy in there. “And if you help me out here, I’ll give you some candy. How’s that? Besides, I think you two would do good to see something like this.” Dr. Restivo turned toward the hoarders’ home, motioning for them to follow him. “You saw some of the residents of the island last night, but you didn’t see all of them. There are those that are unable to attend the village council meetings.”

“Why?” Toro asked the doctor.

“Well, for one, the village isn’t so accessible for those who are disabled. This is one thing I liked about what your father said last night, about improving it. It makes no sense to me that we don’t have more things around here to help the population as they age. Clearly, your father has my vote. I’d like to see this island improve.”

“Do you think most people will vote for him?” Rowan asked.

“That, I don’t know. You’d be surprised how many people view change as a double-edged sword. Let me put it differently. A lot of people want change, but once it is offered to them, they come up with some reason as to why they no longer need it. I saw it all the time in my patients. They came in with some ailment, and I told them how to handle it, and half the time they never followed through. But, there are some diseases that don’t have cures. Are you two familiar with digital neuronal dementia?”

The older man paused and turned to them, placing both hands behind his back. Dr. Restivo wore a lab coat, a bow tie and a plaid shirt, the retired general practitioner dressed nicely as he had been the previous night. His hair was gray and short, the darkness of his skin making his hair even more vibrant.

Rowan shook his head. If he didn’t know what digital neuronal dementia was, Toro certainly wouldn’t.

“The man you are about to meet is suffering from this terrible condition,” Dr. Restivo told them. “He and his partner live in a place just behind Tuya and Zola’s homes. Have you met them?”

“Tuya is the florist,” Toro said.

“That’s right. And Zola makes candles. I wouldn’t be surprised if she comes around your father’s store today. Zola’s the type that would benefit from his Sacred Cat Products idea. Anyway, we’re going to see a man named Ari Tanner. His wife, Maeve, takes care of him.” Dr. Restivo lowered his gaze. “Ari has a very serious condition, boys, and I need you to be extremely careful. I also don’t want you to say anything. If you think of something, or have a question, maybe wait until after to ask it.”

“What is digital neuronal dementia?”

“That’s a good question,” Dr. Restivo told Toro. “It’s a progressive dementia that causes motor impairment, speech difficulty, hallucinations, and other things like extreme muscle rigidity. It’s a relatively rare thing for someone to have.”

“And all NPCs can get it?” Rowan asked, trying to sound smart.

“Who told you that term?” Dr. Restivo answered his own question with a nod. “Ah, yes, your father was a former OMIB developer, or something of the sort.”

“He was a Proxima Database Administrator/OMIB DevOps,” Rowan said, reading off the words he had memorized from his dad’s social status before he changed it.

“I see. So he was both, or was capable of doing both.”

“What’s an OMIB anyway?” Toro asked.

“Orthogonal Matrix Inverse Base. You know what? Maybe that’s something you should talk more to your father about. In my profession, I need to know about these things, but I also don’t spend too much time learning them because the medicine I practice happens on this plane, rather than another.” He smiled at them. “Ignore everything I just said. Let’s just go check on Ari and his wife. Maeve does a good job of taking care of him, but sometimes it’s difficult.”

The two boys followed Dr. Restivo to a rather large home with flower boxes out front, which Rowan assumed were maintained by Tuya. The doctor knocked on the door and waited for a response. When one didn’t come he knocked again, just a bit louder this time.

“Coming,” they heard a female voice call from the other side.

A woman opened up and smiled at the doctor, curiosity coming across her face once she saw Rowan and Toro.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” she said as her social status appeared in front of Rowan and faded away.

Name: Maeve Tanner

Age: 71

Occupation: Retired Principal

“The general store is open now, if you didn’t know,” Dr. Restivo told the woman. “These are the owner’s two sons, Rowan and Toro. I thought that they would join me today, and it would be nice for your husband to meet them.”

“Yes, that would be nice,” said Maeve as she smoothed her hands down the front of her shirt. The former school principal was in a pair of shorts and sandals, her button-up shirt tucked into the front, but loose in the back. As they entered, Rowan noticed a faint vanilla smell and quickly pinpointed the culprit, a candle that had just been lit.

The home was tidy, and the wood floor was covered by a patchwork of carpets. From the foyer, Maeve led the three into the living room, where they found a man with a very stiff posture seated on the couch.

Name: Ari Tanner

Age: 73

Occupation: Writer

“Ari,” Maeve said. “Ari. Hey, it’s me,” she told her husband as she squeezed his shoulder. Ari blinked his eyes, his mouth falling open a little as he tried to look at his wife. “Sweetie, Dr. Restivo is here to see you.”

“Doctor?” Ari asked, his voice uncertain and soft. “Hello,” he said, just barely turning his head toward Dr. Restivo. “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine, Ari, how have you been?” the doctor asked as he set his medical bag on the mantle.

“Stiff,” Ari said, trying to smile. While his words had felt uncertain just moments ago, there was a hint of clarity behind them. It was clear he had mobility problems, but there seemed to still be a spark behind his eyes.

“Let’s check your personal attributes first,” Dr. Restivo said as he equipped his clipboard. “HP?”

“Seven-ninety-eight…”

Dr. Restivo nodded as he scribbled a number down. “A little under eight hundred out of four-thousand-twenty-three. It looks like your HP is rising. That’s good.”

“Hopefully, it will stay that way,” Maeve said for her husband.

“Intelligence?” Dr. Restivo asked.

“Two-thirty-nine-point-fifty-two…”

“Good. Willpower?”

“Forty-five-point-thirty-two,” Ari said. He still hadn’t looked at the two boys, the man unable to turn his head far enough to the right to see them.

“It’s expected for this to continue to drop, but at least it has dropped steadily. Strength?”

“Six-point-four-one.”

“It’s dropped by a hair, but nothing to be too concerned about,” Dr. Restivo said as he scribbled this information down. “Your dexterity?”

“Four-point-one-one.”

“I see, same as last time,” Dr. Restivo said as he sent his clipboard back to his inventory list. “Let’s get him up.”

“Do you think you can stand up?” Maeve asked her husband. “Ari, do you think you can stand up?”

“I think I can…”

Maeve moved to one side, and slowly placed her hands under her husband’s arm. Assuming that she needed help, Rowan stepped forward as well, only to be blocked by Dr. Restivo.

“Let him try on his own,” he told him. “I’ll let you help next time.”

Rowan watched Ari slowly struggle to stand, his wife beside him, providing support and encouragement. Once he was on his feet, Dr. Restivo asked Ari to take a step forward. It was then that Rowan noticed the living room had been set up in a way to prevent any and all obstacles. No coffee table, no sharp edges, nothing that could hinder Ari’s movement.

“I’m coming,” Ari said. “Just a bit slower than normal.”

Ari was just about the thinnest person Rowan had ever seen.

He looked almost like a skeleton with skin stretched over it, the man with his head sunk between his shoulders, an absent look to his eyes, beard stubble in patches on his face. His hair was white with hints of brown and it was perfectly combed, parted at the right.

“Has anything else changed in his condition since my last visit?” Dr. Restivo asked Maeve.

“He had another one of those hallucinations,” Maeve said. “Woke up trapped in his own body.”

“Trapped in my own body…” said Ari.

“And he was just making a noise with his throat that I interpreted as a scream. But you’re better now, aren’t you?” she asked. “Just a bad nightmare.”

“Bad nightmare,” said Ari. “Yes, Doctor, I’ve had another hallu…” His voice trailed off.

“Hallucination,” Dr. Restivo said, noting this.

“Yes, hallucination. Thank you.”

“He’s such a pleasure to be around,” Maeve said. “Never complains, and still has his wit. He was known for his humorous writing, you know.”

“I’m aware,” Dr. Restivo said.

“Anyway, he’s…” Maeve swallowed hard. “He’s all yours.”

Dr. Restivo turned to his medical bag and opened it up, placing plastic gloves on his hands. He also gave a pair to Rowan and Toro, along with spare surgical masks.

“It is important that we do our best to prevent any of our own potential illnesses from reaching him,” he told the two as if they were medical students, motioning for them to come closer now. “Mr. Tanner, can you lift your right hand?”

It was then that Ari started to turn to the boys, his interest piqued by Dr. Restivo’s comment. “Who… who are they?”

“They are new to the island,” Maeve explained to her husband. “The doctor and I thought you would like to meet them.”

Ari tried to smile, but he couldn’t, the corners of his lips twitching. Dr. Restivo motioned again for the two boys to join him, who both were hesitant. He took a step back, allowing Rowan and Toro to shuffle in front of him.

Rowan felt anxious all of a sudden. He had never seen someone like this before, someone so visibly close to death. He was frightened by the man, and didn’t know where he was supposed to look, if he was supposed to make eye contact, or just keep his head down.

“I’m Toro,” his younger brother said with a wave. “This is my brother, Rowan.”

“Brothers, ha? That’s very nice,” Ari mumbled. “And you are new to the island?”

“Yes,” Toro said.

“Our dad owns the general store,” Rowan said, feeding off Toro’s confidence.

“Who used to own the general store?”

“You remember,” Maeve told him. “Come on, we went camping with him once.”

“Turni Toragan,” Ari finally said. “He passed, didn’t he?”

Rowan and Toro nodded.

“I’m sorry to hear that, boys.”

“Their father inherited the general store,” Maeve told Ari.

“And it’s open?”

“We just opened,” Rowan said.

“And how is business?” Ari asked.

“Pretty good,” Toro told him. “The people here really needed the store. Before they were getting everything at the restaurant or at the docks.”

“I’d like to go there,” Ari said. “Some fresh air. Shopping.”

Maeve laughed. “You want to go shopping?”

“Maybe it would be nice for him to get some fresh air, but he should wear a mask if he goes out,” Dr. Restivo said. “It’s better to be safe.”

“It would be nice,” said Ari. “I haven’t been shopping in…”

“You haven’t been shopping in a long time,” Maeve told him. She was next to her husband now, one hand on his back acting as support, prepared to catch Ari if his knees buckled.

“I would like to go,” Ari said. “You boys are here for the summer? Who is your father?”

“Ganix is our father,” Rowan said. “Ganix Toragan.”

“And he is related to Turni?”

“Turni was his uncle.”

“That’s nice. Do you miss the mainland?”

“Not much,” Toro said. “It’s so fun here. There are so many…” He snapped his mouth shut.

“Interesting things and people,” Rowan said, taking over. “But I guess we have to go back at some point…”

“There’s no school here,” Maeve reminded her husband. “If there was, I would be the principal of it.”

Once again, Ari tried to smile. “Some principal you would be. You boys… you boys are lucky she’s not the principal, she can be like a drill sergeant…” Ari tried to laugh, but all he could mutter was a single ‘heh.’

“Don’t tell them that,” Maeve said, smiling. “I wasn’t too harsh, unless the children got out of line. But I have a feeling you two are pretty good at school, right?”

“Sure,” Rowan lied.

“Let me rephrase that: I believe you are well-behaved at school,” Maeve told Toro, “and you do well in your classes, but you’re a bit of a rebel.”

Rowan felt his cheeks growing red. “Maybe…”

“Leave them alone, Maeve,” Ari said. “You’re going to scare them off…” His eyes darted left and right as he thought of what he was going to say next. “And… That’s my job.”

“We’re not scared of you,” Toro told him.

“I would be scared of me, heh. I can barely move, and my thoughts…” Ari stopped mid-sentence and changed the subject. “How is the weather today? Is it warm?”

“It’s breezy,” said Rowan.

“I always liked the breeze on the island here. So nice, even in the winter.”

“It’s freezing in the winter,” Maeve told her husband.

“But I still like it.”

Dr. Restivo cleared his throat. “Why don’t you step aside, boys, so I can run a few of my tests?”

Toro and Rowan did as instructed, both keeping their gloves and masks on. Rowan watched as Dr. Restivo approached Ari and slowly wrapped his hand around his wrist, taking his pulse. Rowan had seen some doctors do this before, others using a stethoscope.

Dr. Restivo closed his eyes, and breathed softly as he monitored Ari for a moment.

“He’s just so stiff sometimes,” Maeve said. “I feel so bad for him…”

“I feel bad for you,” Ari told his wife. “You wouldn’t have married me if you knew that you were going to have to do this.”

“Nonsense. I would have just gone on more vacations with you before your diagnosis.”

Once again, Ari tried to smile, and while he couldn’t fully perform the gesture with his lips, something softened in his eyes as he looked at his wife. “I miss going on vacations.”

“Maybe we can take a vacation down to the general store,” Maeve said as she looked up to Rowan and Toro.

“He should come,” said Toro. “I’ll make sure the aisles are clean so he can move around easily.”

“He won’t be walking, but he will be in a wheelchair.”

“We have an app too,” Rowan said. “We will be delivering stuff soon if that helps.”

Maeve nodded. “That would be quite helpful.”

“Ah, that reminds me…” Dr. Restivo explained to Maeve and Ari what Ganix wanted to do with the island, and how he wanted to make it more handicap accessible and that they were going to have a vote on it.

“I’ll be there,” Maeve said. “And if I can bring Ari, I’ll try.”

Ari nodded his head ever-so-slightly. “It would be nice to go out.”

Rowan and Toro stepped out the home alongside Dr. Restivo, a prompt appearing in the air:

Side Quest: Help Dr. Restivo with his house visit (complete)

The two waved goodbye to the doctor after he gave them candy and collected their masks and gloves. Dr. Restivo turned to the East Docks, continuing with his house calls.

“Ari was so stiff,” Toro said, standing in a rigid way, a lollipop in his mouth.

“It’s not funny,” Rowan told him.

“I wasn’t trying to make fun of him. How does he even go to the bathroom like that?”

Rowan shook his head. “I don’t even want to think about that.”

“Me neither.” A look of worry spread across Toro’s face. “Do you think Dad will become like that? I really hope not. I don’t know how to take care of someone if they’re like that.”

“I don’t know,” Rowan said, truly not wanting to dwell on what they had just seen. This did get him wondering about some of the other residents on the island, the ones he hadn’t met. How many were disabled in some way?

Rowan took a look around, seeing Tuya’s home, Gonpo’s place across the street, the two brothers not far from Chodak’s walled-in yard. From their current position, Rowan could see the blue line of the sea beyond, a few clouds casting shadows onto the waves.

There really wasn’t anything set up for a person who was handicapped, and the cobblestone road was rough, which would make a wheelchair difficult to use. The fact that Sacred Cat Village was built on a hill only made it more inaccessible.

“What are you thinking about?” Toro asked, looking up to his brother with a hint of fondness in his eyes.

“We really are having an interesting time here, aren’t we?”

“Yep. And now…” Toro nodded, Rowan knowing exactly what he meant.

His younger brother took off, Rowan following close behind him.

They reached the top of the hoarders’ home and took their first right, moving on to the rocky path, Rowan completely ignoring everything around him as he followed his brother. They were about halfway up the pathway when Toro stopped, noticing an interesting-looking pinecone.

“We still need to collect stuff for Raydoh’s wreaths,” he reminded Rowan.

“That’s right,” said Rowan, quickly accessing his Side Quests.

Side Quest: Learn more about what you saw beneath the water

Side Quest: Help Tuya plant her flowers

Side Quest: Get the apple-peach orchard up and running

Side Quest: Find collectibles on the island and bring them to the hoarders

Side Quest: Figure out a way to get bikes

Side Quest: Collect items for Raydoh’s wreaths

“There’s a lot we still need to do…” Rowan thought about canceling a few of the quests—such as getting the orchard up and running because that involved their father, finding collectibles for the hoarders, and Tuya’s, which seemed to be a repeating quest—but he kept them in the end, realizing that he could handle his Side Quests later.

Rowan and his brother reached the cave. As he had done before, he looked up, hoping to spot the woman with the cat mask. He never saw her, and by the time he gave up his search, his brother was already getting down to his knees to crawl through the hole.

Rowan did the same, the two emerging on the other side as kittens.

“What should we do now?” Toro asked, lashing his tail against the ground. “Should we go find Hiccup and Rocket?”

“No,” said Rowan. “I have a different idea. I want to check on something…”

There were two paths that led to the cave, and because they had come from the East Docks, they had taken the left path. It was easier to reach their home by taking the right path down, the two boys traveling on all fours now.

It was still quite the sensation to be able to move like this, but Rowan was getting more used to it, his agility as a cat extra heightened, a lightness to his steps. They didn’t run into any villagers on their way down, and as soon as they reached the main road they turned right, heading past a few homes until they saw Doyona’s place.

As there had been earlier, there were three cats outside, all three abyssinians. The male was named Manchester, and he was almost the same color brown as Rowan and Toro. Leaning on him was a dark-blue abyssinian female named Lady Cassandra, which seemed like a ridiculous name for a cat. Finally there was their son, Micah, who was the same dark color blue as his parents.

“That’s Uncle’s parents, right?” Toro asked.

“And his brother,” Rowan said. “We should ask them why Uncle doesn’t live here.”

Manchester and Lady Cassandra didn’t seem to mind that Rowan and his brother had shown up, but Micah wasn’t having it. The younger cat stood, and immediately flitted his ears back.

“Who are you?” he asked with a growl.

“We live with some of the…” Rowan shook his head, gathering his wits. “We live in the forest. We are just visiting. Do you know—”

“—Then keep visiting, but not here. Move along.”

Rowan looked to the high fence that blocked off the view of Doyona and Vicar’s home.

“What should we do?” Toro whispered to him.

“We need to get over that fence,” Rowan said.

“Micah, leave those boys alone,” his mother said, too lazy to actually sit up all the way to scold her son.

“Micah, listen to your mother,” said Manchester.

“These two cats show up out of nowhere and now they want to hang out? No,” he said, hissing again. “No, no, no. Not on my watch.”

Micah shot forward, Rowan barely able to sidestep his first swipe. Rowan was surprised to find that his instinctive response was to fight back, that Toro was doing the same, both of them hissing and batting their claws at Micah.

Even as his little heart thumped faster than it ever had before, Rowan and his brother held their ground, Toro chomping down on Micah’s leg while Rowan went for his jugular.

The three rolled around for a moment before Manchester finally got to his feet, the bigger cat coming over and breaking them up.

“Enough. Micah, leave them alone,” Manchester told his son, “and you two, whoever you are, just get out of our sight.”

Rowan turned toward the fence surrounding Doyona’s yard. He threw himself into the air and extended his claws, latching onto it. He climbed quickly and pulled himself up to the top, looking down to see his younger brother doing the same. Once they made it to the top of the fence, the two dropped into a hedge on the other side.

“Wheee!” Toro said as they crawled through the hedge, Rowan the first to pop out, laughing.

“That was crazy,” Rowan said as Toro joined him.

“Yeah, so crazy.”

Rowan looked up at Doyona’s strikingly yellow home, his ears flinching a little as he heard a patio door open on the other side of the house.

“Come on,” he told his brother.

Rowan and Toro kept close to the side of the home, creeping along until they were able to see Doyona and her husband, Vicar. The two were seated at a table with a glass top, slats from the pergola above casting shadows onto their faces. Doyona was in a flowing summery dress, one leg crossed over the other while her husband wore khaki shorts, his blue shirt tucked into the front. He too had one leg crossed over the other, black leather sandals on his feet.

“You are right,” he finally told his wife. “It would be best for us to get there before Ganix is able to. Last I heard, Old Man Stellars was becoming senile. To be honest, I really don’t know how he lives out there on his own in his condition. He hasn’t been to the village in ages.”

“I don’t know how any of them live out there,” Doyona said with disdain, “practically like animals. Who was the one that bicycles around? Has the trailer?”

“Redi Taka.”

“Yes, him.” She took a sip from her glass. “I’m not going to get into a fight with you about living on this island.”

“That’s good to know, dear,” said Vicar.

Rowan and Toro exchanged glances. Rowan had definitely heard his father’s name, and he was hoping they would get back to what they had just been discussing rather than arguing.

“You’d better take me somewhere nice this winter,” she said, her eyes narrowing on her husband. Eventually, she smiled, but it was one that looked almost wicked, Rowan not liking the way it made him feel.

“Well, I would take you to a tropical island, but…” Vicar motioned around their yard.

“Please, this island is hardly tropical. You know the kind of place I’d like to visit.”

“The big city? Nice hotel with a view? Loads of shopping?”

“You know me so well. Who would have imagined that? After being married to you for forty years… Maybe we can go skiing too.”

“That would be nice. We can do that here, you know…”

“I’m not going skiing in the mountains here. First of all, there is no lift, so we have to walk up there ourselves.”

“Or camp,” Vicar suggested.

“Please.”

“I’ll take you anywhere you want, you know that, Darling.”

“Of course I do, and I know that tomorrow you’ll go to Old Man Stellars and make him an offer on that orchard of his.”

“As you wish. Later today, I’ll head to the town square and see what it was last appraised at. It can’t be much. Nothing on this island costs very much.”

“I would say that’s one of the only benefits of living here,” Doyona said as she took a sip of her wine.

“Be kind. The island isn’t that bad.”

“They want to buy the orchard?” Rowan whispered to Toro. “Make an offer… Yeah, yeah I think they do…” He tuned back into what Doyona was saying.

“Be sure to make something up like we are trying to protect the sanctity of the island, no, that sounds too ridiculous,” she said. “How about this? We are considering starting a preservation society, and the orchard is one of the things we’d like to preserve. Or, make up some lie, something about what we would like to do with it. Be creative. I know you can be devious.”

“You’re not going to find me working on that orchard. Just so we’re clear.”

“Aware, dear,” said Doyona. “I’m just telling you things to say so he will sell it. We can’t have Ganix and his two wild boys owning the orchard and trying to start a revolution on our little island paradise here.”

“Personally, I don’t see what’s the problem with letting them try to rejuvenate the island,” Vicar said. “It’s not like anyone’s going to cooperate with them anyway.”

“Absolutely not. But therein lies the problem: if we give them this, who knows what they will try to change next. Those two boys are already running around like they own the place, and letting their father buy the orchard will make it much worse. The people on this island don’t want change, and these three show up…” She shook her head.

“The boys aren’t so bad,” Vicar said. “They seem helpful, too.”

“Ha! Just you wait until tomorrow when Olivia shows up, then you’ll be thinking twice about the boys, especially the older one when he sees just how beautiful our granddaughter is. I promise you, a week from now, you’ll be changing your little tune.”

“I don’t see a problem with letting them play, as long as they don’t go too far into the woods…”

“What?” Doyona scoffed. “We cannot allow Olivia to play with those boys. She’s not here to play anyway, she’s here to visit us.”

“So what are you going to do? Keep her locked in the house here?”

“No, she can go out, but she should be preparing for her fall studies and practicing her singing.”

Vicar grimaced. “I don’t know why you and our daughter insist on Olivia taking singing lessons. The poor thing can’t carry a tune to save her life.”

“You will not tell her anything like that,” Doyona hissed.

“I got it, I got it,” said Vicar, raising both hands. “So tomorrow, I’ll go see about purchasing the orchard.”

“Yes, you will. We will buy it before our idiot neighbor even knows it’s purchasable. Then, at the next village council meeting, we will announce our purchase. In the meantime, I will start meeting with some of the locals who will be easier to convince for the vote. It’s amazing, you know, how simpleminded these villagers can be.”

“Now, honey, it’s best to not look at them that way. Remember, you want to…”

“I know, I know, I want to blend in with them, to make them think that I am ready to hear them out. We’ve been over this before. It’s the wine talking.”

“Yes, we have,” he told her. “And yes, it is.”

“If we play our cards right, we’ll be able to…”

A grasshopper landed in front of Toro and he stepped back, bumping into a birdfeeder staked to the ground. He wasn’t large enough to knock the birdfeeder over, but he did cause some of the birdseed to spill out, which caught Doyona and Vicar’s attention.

“Run…” Rowan started to say.

“How did those two get in here?” Doyona asked as she slowly stood. She reached for a rake and grabbed it.

“Run, Toro!”

Rowan slapped his paw onto his brother’s back and tossed him forward, taking off as well. The two bolted toward the front entrance of the home, Toro the first to leap and dig his claws into the fence. He scaled up to the top, Rowan doing the same.

It was only when they reached the top that they realized just how much faster they were than Doyona.

The woman hadn’t even cleared the side of the home.

There was only one part of this equation left to figure out now. Rowan looked down to the other side of the fence to see the cat known as Micah glaring up at him, waiting.

“It’s hard to imagine he’s Uncle’s brother,” Toro said, peering down at Micah. “No wonder he ran away.”

“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do…” Rowan said, relaying his plan to his brother. They started to move along the fence line toward the center of the village, Micah stalking them. They reached the edge of Doyona’s fence, and Rowan nodded.

“You jump first, and I’ll jump second. He’ll probably go for you, and I will come down on him from behind.”

“Got it,” Toro said, preparing to leap.

“Just keep running. We’ll meet at the caves if we have to.”

“I’m not leaving you behind.”

“Just keep running,” Rowan told his brother.

Toro crouched. Once he was ready, he jumped into the air, Micah tracking him. As soon as Toro was about to reach the ground, Micah sprung forward.

Rowan launched himself off the fence, and came down right behind Micah, nearly landing on his tail. He lunged toward Micah and dug his claws into the cat’s thigh.

Micah came around to swat at him, only to be struck by Toro, who flung himself into the air and latched onto the side of Micah’s neck with his jaw, giving Rowan a chance to swat at the cat from another angle, both of them hissing.

Toro let go of Micah’s neck and circled around, now standing behind his brother.

“Leave us alone!” Rowan screamed, his ears flitted back.

“Next time I see you…” said Micah, the cat’s hair standing to attention.

“Hey, hey.” The two cats looked to see a man in a panda costume moving in their direction, Micah instantly recognizing him as Gonpo. “No fighting,” he said as he stepped between the three cats. “Run along. We don’t fight here.”

“Let’s go,” Rowan called to his younger brother, who was just creeping around him, preparing to attack again. He took off, leaving Gonpo standing in front of Micah.

Rowan felt a hint of pride once Toro caught up with him. He always was fearless, but to see him sneaking back around to fight again made him incredibly proud. Rowan wanted to tell his brother this too, that he was incredibly brave, but he didn’t say anything until they reached the first path that led up to the cave.

“I hate that cat,” were the first words out of his mouth, Rowan skipping the praise.

“Yeah, I don’t know why he’s always messing with us.”

“And how are we going to check out the store now as cats if he’s guarding Doyona’s place?”

“We could always go to the other side and try to move along the fence, or find some back entrance.”

“Good call.” Rowan turned to Toro, and got a small glimpse of himself and his brother’s eyes.

“What are we going to do about Doyona?”

Rowan thought about this for a moment. “If we tell Dad, he’s going to wonder where we got the information.”

“We could just say that we overheard it at the party…”

“We could…”

Rowan usually had a one-on-one session with his dad late at night anyway. Perhaps he could tell him then, after Gonpo’s celebration.

“I wish we could tell him that we can become cats.”

“That would be…” Rowan thought about this for a moment. What would it be like if their father knew they were able to transform? Could their dad even fit into the hole?

“Yes?”

“As much as I don’t want to, I think we have to keep it a secret,” Rowan finally said. “I like your idea though, of saying that we overheard it at the party. What if we followed him tomorrow instead?”

“You mean out to Old Man Stellars’ home?”

“That’s exactly what I mean. We should still tell Dad we overheard it at the party, or maybe from someone in town, but we should see what Old Man Stellars says. Maybe he doesn’t want to sell the orchard. If he does, maybe Dad can buy it first.”

“Do you think Dad has enough money?” Toro asked.

“I have no idea how much money he has. Let’s be spies for just a little bit longer. Then, when we have all the information, that’s when we will strike.”

Toro nodded. “I like that idea.”

“I thought you would. Now, let’s go change back into humans.”

Before heading back to the general store, Rowan and Micah foraged through the woods, collecting anything and everything they could for the wreath Side Quest.

“Do you think this is enough?” Toro asked after they had collected for what felt like an hour.

They had amassed quite a bit, which they were using Rowan’s rain jacket to carry. He folded the sides over and hoisted it into his arms, nodding at his younger brother. “Now we need to find their home.”

The two brothers made their way back down to the village, and as they reached the main road, Rowan spotted one of the hoarders. Alto paced back and forth in front of his home, his hands behind his back. He was dressed colorfully as always, in a pair of purple slacks and a yellow jacket, an oversized checkered scarf covering most of his neck in the front of the shirt.

“Oh, my,” he said as Toro and Rowan stepped out of the woods. “I wasn’t expecting to see the two of you there.”

Hiccup took off as well, scurrying into the debris. Rowan glanced around to see if Rocket was somewhere nearby, but the cat never popped his head up.

“What are you carrying there?” Alto asked, looking at the bundle that Rowan held in his arms. “That isn’t something for me, is it? Because there’s plenty of room here…” He laughed and then lowered his head a little.

“It’s for Raydoh,” Toro told him. “For his wreaths.”

“They really are quite wonderful, have you seen them?”

“Not yet,” said Rowan, “but we’re going to drop these by his house, so maybe we’ll see some then.”

“He doesn’t live very far from your store, just across the street and a few doors down. Oh, boys,” Alto said as he brought the back of his hand to his forehead. “I am at a loss for words.”

“About what?” Rowan asked.

“Yesterday’s debilitating and humiliating humiliation,” he said, lowering his head again. “I know my place is a little messy, but all these things are important to me,” he said. “Like…” He walked over to a stack of some of his junk and pulled out a toaster. “This toaster here. I used to have it when I lived near the border. I had such a small apartment, with nothing in it, and nothing to cook with aside from this toaster.” He tossed the toaster back into the junk and went around the fence, returning a moment later with a parking cone. “Do you see this traffic cone?”

Rowan and Toro nodded.

“This is in case they ever allow cars on the island and we need to protect our parking space.” Alto set the cone down and took out a long pole. “And this pole? This used to be a flagpole. I thought about using it to give the cat,” he said, motioning toward his cat statue made of garbage, “a flag. But we need to decide on an island design first. You would think we have our own flag, but we don’t. And this?”

“He’s going to show us everything, isn’t he?” Rowan said under his breath.

“Maybe…” Toro told him.

“This is part of a guitar. The other parts are somewhere…” He placed his hand on the back of his head. “Well, it’s around here somewhere. I’ve been meaning to put it back together.”

“We have to get going,” Rowan said. “Are you coming to Gonpo’s party later?”

“He’s having a daily prize party, huh?” Alto started pacing nervously again. “I really don’t know. I went to his last one, but I don’t want to be a bother, and…”

“You aren’t a bother,” Toro told him.

The older man stopped and looked at the young boy. “You think they would mind if I came?”

“He invited everyone.”

“He did tell people about it at the door yesterday…” Alto placed his hands behind his back and smiled at them, his teeth a bit crooked and slightly yellow. “Sure, I’ll try to make it, and if not, I’ll send Garner in my place.”

Rowan and Toro headed toward the general store, eventually locating the wreath maker’s home, which was surrounded by a white picket fence with a sign in front of it that read Kay and Raydoh’s. They didn’t see any cats as they approached the door, Rowan knocking quickly.

“I always wondered who lived here,” said Toro as he looked at the wreath on the door.

“There’s a sign out front.”

“I didn’t notice it.”

“Maybe we should go door-to-door one of these days and meet every single person in the village.”

It wasn’t long before a woman came to the door.

Name: Kay Erdene

Age: 58

Occupation: Retired School Teacher

“You are Ganix’s boys, aren’t you?” Kay asked. She wore a black leather jacket and had a book in her hands. Her hair was dyed black, and dimples formed on her face when she smiled.

“That’s us,” said Toro.

“It’s so nice to meet the two of you. Raydoh told me about running into you in the woods.”

“That’s actually why we’re here,” said Rowan. “We brought some supplies for his wreaths.”

“Did you?”

Rowan lifted the satchel he had made using his rain jacket.

Kay laughed. “I was wondering what that was. Well, if you didn’t know, Raydoh can be very serious when he is crafting his wreaths, and that’s what he’s currently doing now. I can bring the supplies to him, but I’m afraid he may not want to speak to anyone at the moment. Not even me.”

“Really?” Toro asked.

“It’s fine, I was a schoolteacher for a long time, and artists are all different. They all have their ways of creating and processing things. Let me get a basket.” She returned a minute or so later, Rowan emptying everything they had collected in her basket. “He’s really going to like this stuff…”

Side Quest: Collect items for Raydoh’s wreaths (completed)

“I’ll see you boys at the party tonight, right?” she asked.

“We’re going there soon,” Rowan told her. “But we have to check on our dad first.”

“Your dad seems to really care about what he’s trying to do here. I hope someone takes notice, and I hope…” Kay bit her lip. “I just hope that doesn’t get turned into something ugly by certain members of our little village here. Anyway, I’ve said enough. I’ll make sure Raydoh gets his stuff, and we’ll see each other tonight.”

Rowan and Toro reached the general store, the cats out front zipping away as the two brothers charged through the front door.

“Whoa!” their father said, his hand coming to his heart. “Don’t burst in like that, please, boys.”

“Sorry, Dad,” Toro said. “Are you ready for the party?”

“That’s right…” Ganix rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m a little tired, to be honest with the two of you. I’ve been on my feet all day. I need to get a stool, in fact…” He nodded. “I know who to talk to about that. It’s time for some stools around here.”

“So you aren’t going to come?” Rowan asked.

“Yes, I’ll come,” he said. “I’m going to head upstairs for just a minute, and I’ll be back down.”

“The party doesn’t start for another hour,” Rowan said.

“In that case, you two look after the store and let me rest for a moment. Also, check this out,” he said, motioning toward a basket on the counter. It was filled with individually wrapped muffins, all from Gilda. “We’ll get a display case at some point. But it’s a start. Anyway, just give me a little time to relax.”

While Ganix rested upstairs, Rowan and Toro took care of the store, Rowan mostly staying behind the register while his brother tidied up the aisles. Rowan saw that his dad was working on the cash totals, and to help out, he took the money out of the register, counted it, and arranged it.

It took every ounce of willpower he had not to eat one of Gilda’s muffins, but he managed to resist.

Once Uncle started to mew at Rowan’s feet, he picked the cat up and placed him on the counter. As he petted Uncle, the cat moved back and forth in a small circle, purring.

“I wonder what he’s really like,” Rowan said once his brother approached the counter again.

“Me too.” Toro started petting Uncle as well. “Poor guy, you have a mean brother.”

“Yeah…” Rowan thought of Micah the cat and how they were probably going to have to fight him again. “Some of these cats are just so…”

“Mean?”

“Sure, mean, but I’m looking for a smarter-sounding word.”

“Grumpy?”

Rowan shook his head. “Ornery.”

Toro cackled. “That word sounds so stupid.”

“No it doesn’t, it sounds…” Rowan thought about it for a moment. The word did sound a little stupid and it was strange to pronounce. “Nevermind.”

“It looks like Dad is selling a lot of stuff,” Toro said.

“I don’t know who’s buying it all.”

“Maybe more people that live here are like Ari, and they can’t go out.”

“You mean handicapped?”

Toro nodded.

“That was sad,” Rowan finally said.

“I feel bad for him.”

After an hour had passed, the two boys went upstairs to join their father. They found Ganix seated on the balcony and enjoying the breeze. He was so focused on the horizon that he didn’t notice them until Rowan stepped out onto the balcony.

“Dad?”

“Hey. Are you ready?”

“We are.”

“You’ve sold a lot,” Toro said as he came out onto the balcony as well.

“It was a fairly busy day. It is going to be even better once we get the app running a day from now. I hope you two are ready to do some deliveries.”

“Booo…” Rowan started to say.

“Don’t boo me,” Ganix said, a tight smile taking shape on his face as he led the boys inside. “It’s a good way to meet people as well, and a great way to build strength and dexterity. Also a nice excuse for a Dad Quest. You two do like meeting people on the island, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” said Toro, “but sometimes it can be sad.”

The three headed downstairs and out the front door, Ganix locking up behind him.

“What do you mean sad?” he asked as the keys returned to his inventory list.

“Today we met a guy who was crippled.”

“He wasn’t crippled,” Rowan said, “he had digital neuronal dementia.”

“Oh, my. What’s his name?”

“His name is Ari. His wife takes care of him,” said Toro. “The guy’s mind seems to be okay…”

“But his body doesn’t work any longer,” Rowan said. “Well, it works a little. He can still stand, but…”

“I know exactly what digital neuronal dementia is,” Ganix said. “I had a friend whose father died from it. It only gets worse.”

“So there’s no cure?”

“There is not, even trying to modify his code…” Ganix trailed off. “I can’t really explain it, but no, it’s not curable.”

“Well, they liked the idea that you had, about making the island more accessible,” said Rowan.

“I wonder how many people on the island have some sort of disability.”

“We were just talking about that,” Toro told their father. “There are a bunch of houses here.” The younger boy gestured toward the homes that lined the cobblestone road. “But we haven’t met these people yet.”

“Hopefully, when the village council meets again, they’ll vote in favor of working to change the island,” said Ganix. “I have a few ideas that would help, and we can form a subcommittee that is tasked with just getting the place up and running. I don’t know. But either way, by then, I should have some information on who owns the orchard and if it is even purchasable.”

Rowan bit his lip. He could feel Toro’s eyes on him, but he didn’t look at his younger brother. They knew something that their dad didn’t know, and tomorrow they planned to see just how far it went.

This made him despise Doyona and her husband, but mostly Doyona because she seemed to be the instigator. Rowan couldn’t understand why she wanted to keep things the way they were. She seemed to hate the island. Why wouldn’t she want there to be some change? It really made no sense, and he was starting to realize more and more that she was going to be a thorn in their side.

They passed the hoarders’ home and reached Gonpo’s place.

His house was quite small, and there were enough balloons tied to the railing of the front deck to make the place float. There were a few people outside, Nedman and Dr. Restivo, as well as Chodak, who wore his fishing gear.

“Well, if it isn’t the talk of the town,” Chodak said as Ganix and his boys approached. “Quite an inspiring speech you gave yesterday. And believe me, I’ve heard enough proposed solutions and empty promises at these council meetings that they usually cause me to roll my eyes. But you, sir, you inspired me. And you are right.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” said Nedman as he approached Ganix and shook his hand. “I know you and your sons haven’t been here for very long, but boy, you sure have stirred up quite the fervor.”

“That really wasn’t my intention, but…”

“I haven’t been this hopeful in years, I’m sorry,” Nedman told him. “No pressure.”

Rowan and Toro turned to Dr. Restivo, who was fishing in his pocket to see if he had any candy. “Nope, I don’t have any this time. Sorry, boys, but there’s cake inside.”

The doctor led them in the house, which they found to be quite tidy, just a red couch, a bunch of mascot pictures on the wall, a pretty extensive library, and a coffee table piled high with presents.

Gonpo stood in the kitchen behind a spread of food and cake that had already been cut. Gilda saw Rowan and Toro, and motioned them over to her.

“You boys have to try this cake,” said the baker as she placed a slice on the plate. She gave the first plate to Rowan, and the second plate to Toro. “It’s a new recipe.”

Rowan’s mouth was already watering by this point as he looked the cake over, with its orange and brown interior, and creamy white icing covered in sprinkles. He took a bite and noticed that it was a bit spicy, but exceptionally delicious, the icing especially sweet.

“It’s so good,” Toro said with his mouth full.

“You made it to the party,” Gonpo said, approaching them. He was still in his Pandas uniform, but he wore a bowtie this time.

“We told you we were coming,” Rowan reminded him.

“And your father?”

“He’s outside.”

Rowan saw Raydoh and Kay, both in matching leather jackets.

Raydoh approached them with a big smile on his face, tattoos visible at his neck line. “Going straight for the cake, huh?”

“It’s so good,” Toro said.

“It looks great, but before I do that, I’m going to hit up Nedman’s wings.”

“Cat wings?” Rowan asked, looking to the rest of the food that was out. He saw a tray of chicken wings but…

“Cat wings,” Raydoh said, “you got that right. And thank you again, the stuff you collected was excellent. My next batch of wreaths are going to look great. You’ll see.”

Raydoh moved past them and grabbed a plate, which he filled with cat wings and celery. After they finished the cake, Rowan and his brother did the same, the cat wings sweet and savory.

The other fisherman that Rowan recognized, the one named Tunga who owned the Fisherman’s Restaurant, showed up with a huge metal tray. Tunga lifted the covering to reveal a large fish that had been garnished with lemon and other herbs.

“I can still see its eye,” Toro said, making a disgusted face.

Tunga laughed. “That’s the best part, boy,” he said with a toothy grin, a few of his teeth missing.

Ringo entered, and rather than greet anyone, he immediately shuffled over to Rowan’s father using a walker this time around, likely to talk about coding the app they were working on. As usual, he wore a red jumpsuit. He was joined by Curtis Herms, the well-dressed researcher approaching Rowan and his brother.

“How have you boys been?” he asked. “Enjoying the island?”

“Yep,” said Toro.

“Did I hear that you two recently went camping?”

“That’s right,” Rowan said as Dorno the carpenter entered, waving at a few of the other people in the room. Following him was Tuya the florist and a woman that Rowan hadn’t met before, her details appearing before her.

Name: Zola Freen

Age: 76

Occupation: Candle Maker

Zola was in a necklace made out of shells that matched her bracelets. She wore a flowery dress and her hair was cut short, framing her face.

As Toro continued to talk to Curtis about camping, Rowan slipped away, approaching Zola.

“Well, hello,” she said when she saw him. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“Rowan,” he said.

“That’s right, you’re Ganix’s son. I was just at the store today.”

“So he’s already told you his idea, about Sacred Cat Products?” Rowan asked, taking a double look at her listed occupation.

“He’s one step ahead of you,” the candle maker said with a little snicker. “Is that why you came over here to meet me?”

“Yeah…” he said, suddenly feeling ashamed.

“It is something I’m definitely interested in. And I don’t just make candles, I can make soap as well. How are you enjoying the island?”

“It’s fine…”

Rowan saw Gonpo step to the front of the room with a glass in his hand and a fork in the other. He clinked the fork against the glass three times to get everyone’s attention. He was just about to turn to his prizes when the door creaked open once again, Alto stepping in the room.

The hoarder had changed clothes since earlier, now in a lime-green suit with a yellow shirt underneath, blue patches on the elbows of his jacket. His wispy gray hair was slicked back, and he sheepishly looked around the room until he spotted Toro and Rowan.

“Hey,” Toro said.

Rowan joined his younger brother and waved as well. “You came.”

“Yes…” he said, folding back into himself a little. “I thought it would be nice to get out for a little while.”

“There’s really good food over there…”

“Great, I’ll get some.”

“It’s time,” Gonpo announced, clinking his fork against the glass again. “As you all know, I take these daily prizes very seriously, maybe too seriously,” said the man in the panda costume. “It brings me joy to bring all of you together to witness the un-boxing. And sometimes, if we’re lucky, we all get presents when we open them like this. Shall we begin?”

“Open it, open it,” Nedman chanted, a few others joining in with him.

“The first prize up…” Gonpo reached for a present wrapped in white paper and tied with a yellow ribbon. He took the top off, a new grill appearing in a puff of smoke. Everyone took a step back to make room for it, Gonpo nodding at the prize. “Not a bad grill.”

“Not a bad grill?” Nedman asked. “You know what kind of damage my wife could do on this thing? You could cook…” He shook his head. “This is a great grill.”

Gonpo shrugged. “Then it’s yours.”

“You mean it?”

“I sure do. Next prize!” he announced, pointing a finger in the air. Gonpo reached for his next present and opened it to reveal a large wool blanket with a cat face on it.

“That’s a great blanket,” said Kay, Zola and Tuya clucking in agreement.

“I’ve been needing a new blanket. It appears that the daily prize gods have looked favorably upon me,” Gonpo said as he set the blanket on the couch. “Next prize!”

Gonpo opened the third box, and when he did Rowan and Toro gasped as another puff of magic appeared in the room, revealing a large vanity mirror.

“A vanity mirror,” Gonpo announced, “which is something that I don’t need because, as you all know, I already look good.” A few of the people gathered around him laughed as Gonpo lifted his arms out wide and slowly made a full rotation. “Who needs a mirror?”

“I do,” Rowan heard Alto say, but he wasn’t loud enough, the mirror going to Kay instead.

“Next prize!” Gonpo looked at the two boxes left on the table. He picked the first one up, shook it, and placed it back down. He then picked the second one up and did the same. He opened the second box, revealing a pair of dangling diamond earrings.

He jokingly brought them up to his panda ears and posed with them. “Gilda, these are for you.”

“Me? Why me?”

“Because your cake was delicious,” Gonpo said with finality. “And you like jewelry.”

He gave the earrings to her, and Gilda used Kay’s vanity mirror to put them on.

“Final prize!” Gonpo announced.

He rubbed his hands together for a moment, as if he were waiting for a drum roll. When one didn’t come, he opened the box, but rather than pull the item out he looked inside and nodded.

“What is it?” Toro asked, unable to contain his anticipation.

“It’s for you,” Gonpo said. He motioned for Toro to come forward, and when he did Gonpo handed him the box. Toro reached inside to pull out a red cape.

“For me?” Toro asked, jittery with excitement now.

“Yes, for you.” Gonpo cleared his throat. “Thus concludes the prize-opening portion of this party. Eat all of the cake, and the cat wings, and enjoy yourselves. Thank you for coming,” he said, offering the villagers a tiny bow. “Now, be social, and be merry!”

.Chapter Nine.

Rowan went through his normal routine the night after Gonpo’s party, which included obsessing over his active quests and the day’s events long after Toro fell asleep. As usual, he eventually joined his father on the balcony, where he watched the lighthouse blinking in the distance until he grew tired.

Surprisingly, his brother was already up the next morning.

Rowan rolled to his side and looked to where Toro slept, the window partially cracked because it was warm last night, a breeze coming into the room. As he rolled out of bed, his personal attributes flashed before him.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 348/348

Intelligence: 23.96

Willpower: 11.08

Empathy: 7.15

Charisma: 11.84

Strength: 5.70

Dexterity: 7.54

Luck: 3.68

+ .13 Empathy!

He had only edged up a little in one of his stats, which he was fine with. Entire weeks would go by back on the mainland without any change, especially once he got into the groove of things—wake up, school, home to study and eat dinner, go to bed.

He yawned as he looked down at his feet, how easily he was able to stand. Rowan remembered Ari and his digital neuronal dementia, how debilitating it was for the older writer. He felt blessed in that moment, his thoughts quickly skipping to what was in store for them today.

Today, Rowan and his brother would follow Vicar.

He knew it would be easier for them to do it as cats, but they would still have to keep some distance, just in case Doyona’s husband spotted them.

Rowan entered the living room to find his brother already standing on their dad’s suitcase, his red cape draped over his shoulders.

“I was just about to call for you,” Ganix said, their father in his green jacket and standing near the sink. “We could have Proxima tarts for breakfast, or if you and your brother are interested, you two could head over to Nedman’s and eat there.”

“That would be awesome,” Rowan said.

“Good. Then I will meet you two down at the docks afterward. We shouldn’t have too much to unload today.” Ganix handed Rowan a wad of Proxima dollars. “That should be enough for breakfast.”

“What about the cats?” Rowan asked.

“Already fed them.”

Once Rowan was ready, he motioned for his brother to follow him, the two heading down the stairs, and out the front door of the general store.

As soon as they stepped outside, he noticed it was going to be a humid day, the air thick, the sun already warming up the street despite the breeze.

It was what Rowan saw next that caused him to take a step back.

A girl in a pink dress turned in their direction, her long, dirty blonde hair in a single braid. Her skin was just a shade darker than caramel, and she carried a basket filled with flowers.

Name: Olivia Bold

Age: 12

Occupation: Student

“Hey,” Toro said, once Rowan didn’t take the initiative.

Olivia glanced down to her basket of flowers, and then back up at the two boys. She opened her mouth like she was going to speak, no words coming out.

Rowan and Toro exchanged glances.

“You must be Olivia,” said Rowan. He followed this up by introducing himself and his brother, explaining that their father owned the general store.

“I…” Olivia swallowed. “Sorry. I just wasn’t expecting to see anyone my age on the island.”

“Your grandmother didn’t tell you we were here?” Rowan asked, feeling almost hurt that Doyona wouldn’t even warn her granddaughter about the two boys.

Olivia shook her head. “I’m usually the only kid on the island.” She brought her hand up to her mouth like she was going to bite her nails and stopped. Once again she glanced down at the basket, and then up to Rowan and his brother. “I collected some flowers,” she said.

“Did you get those from Tuya?” Toro asked.

She nodded.

“What part of Any_City do you live in?” Rowan asked. “We live in the Oh Nine.”

“Which is?”

“Suburb 8675309.”

“All the way out there?”

Rowan felt defensive all of a sudden. “It’s not that far out.”

“That’s like…” Olivia bit her lip.

“Exactly one hour and twenty-three minutes from downtown,” Toro announced.

Olivia laughed, Rowan slightly jealous at how she had reacted to Toro’s statement.

“I live in Midtown.”

Rowan nodded. Midtown was one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Any_City. He was starting to feel like Olivia was going to be a snooty rich girl, perhaps a bite-sized version of her grandmother.

“Do you like the island?” she asked.

“It’s…”

“It’s okay,” Rowan said, interrupting his brother. “It can be a little boring, but we have found some things to do.”

“There is always something to do here, but I agree, I wish I could just stay in the city. But usually, after a few weeks, I actually like being here. What do you do for fun?”

Once again, Rowan and Toro exchanged glances. A wind picked up, moving past the ends of Olivia’s pink dress.

“We help our dad,” Rowan said.

“Sometimes we go on adventures,” said Toro.

Olivia laughed at Rowan’s younger brother. “Is that why you have the cape?”

“Yes…” he said, placing his hands on his hips.

She blushed. “It’s cute. I wish my grandmother would let me wear a cape.”

Rowan felt the sting of jealousy. “Well…” He was about to tell her that they needed to leave when he was interrupted by Doyona, who seemingly sneaked up on the three.

“Olivia Bold,” said the older woman, Doyona decked out in her neon power-walking gear. “What are you doing?”

“I’m talking to them,” she said, looking back at her grandmother. Olivia’s posture stiffened and relaxed, but it was still more rigid than it had been just moments ago.

“Your grandfather and I are waiting to have breakfast with you. You were supposed to collect flowers and come straight home.”

“But…”

“Do not argue with me, young lady.”

“I was just talking…”

“Olivia, enough.” Doyona pointed at her home. “Get inside, we’ll talk about this there. Rowan, Toro?”

“Yeah?” Rowan asked.

“Behave yourselves.”

Olivia followed her grandmother back to their home, leaving Rowan and Toro in the streets. They heard the front door of the general store shut and looked to see their father, who wore a pair of shorts and a loose shirt that read The Loop.

“I thought I told you guys to get some breakfast.”

“We are. Um, we just wanted to see the cats…” Rowan lied. “We’ll meet you down there.”

Rowan and his younger brother took off, practically bursting through the front door of the restaurant.

“Boys,” said Nedman, making an exaggerated gesture. “I thought a hurricane had just come in for breakfast.”

“Sorry!” Toro hopped up onto one of the barstools, Rowan next to him.

“So you two are going to eat up here today, huh?” Nedman asked. As usual, he was in an apron, his wide shoulders making it look larger than it actually was. He didn’t wear a hat today, his bald dome and the wispy hairs on the side of his head catching Rowan’s attention.

“What’s for breakfast?”

“Well, the wife wanted to take the day off, so I’m running a solo operation. Luckily, I can cook out here,” he said, gesturing to the stove behind him. “For breakfast, we’re going to do a Kitty Cat Snack Attack.”

“A what?” Rowan asked.

“It’s a classic around here, trust me. Just hang tight, boys, and I will cook it up.”

Nedman went to work. Just about the point that Rowan placed his elbows on the countertop and leaned forward, Nedman was back with two glasses of orange juice, which he slid in front of the boys. “Drink up, and if you want more, I have it.”

“I don’t like Olivia,” Rowan said once Nedman turned away again.

“What?” Toro asked. “Why?”

They could now hear the sound of sizzling bacon, Nedman moving gracefully around the stove.

“She thinks she’s better than us.”

“You think so?”

Rowan nodded.

Toro observed his brother for a moment and nodded as well. “Maybe. Yeah, I think she’s rich or something.”

“I don’t even know if it’s that; it’s just the vibe I got.”

“But she seemed nice.” Toro shook his head. “No, you’re right.”

“And Doyona is so mean. I hate her.”

“I hate her too.”

“What’s this about hate?” Nedman asked as he brought over some silverware. “Did I hear you two say something about hating Doyona?”

“She’s so mean to us,” said Rowan. “And we saw Olivia out there and…”

“Olivia is so sweet,” Nedman told him. “She’s been coming here for four years and I look forward to it every year. I’m surprised she hasn’t stopped by to say hello yet.”

“She’s not mean like Doyona?” Toro asked as if to confirm something he was already sensing.

“What? No, certainly not. She’s as nice as they come. Doyona doesn’t let her come out much, but when she does, she’s a pleasure to be around.”

He returned to the stove.

“See?” Toro asked.

“Shut up,” said Rowan.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter,” Toro said after finishing his glass of orange juice. He licked his lips. “Doyona is never going to let her come out and play with us anyway.”

“You’re probably right. I wonder what she does when she’s cooped up in the house all day.”

“Didn’t Doyona say she studies and sings?”

“We can always check it out as cats,” Rowan whispered. “I’m up to hear some bad singing.”

“But then we’d have to fight Micah.”

“I hate that cat.”

“Me too,” Toro said.

The breakfast was good, the Kitty Cat Snack Attack consisting of bacon, toast, and two eggs over easy. Once they were finished, and after another glass of orange juice, Rowan paid the bill and they headed down to the docks.

It took them about an hour, but soon, they had helped their dad bring all the items up to the store and restock the shelves.

The day was now theirs, and as soon as they were free, Rowan and Toro turned in the direction of the cave.

Rowan and Toro raced up the first path that led into the woods. It was hot out, Rowan glad to be under the canopy of the forest. They weren’t far from the cave when they spotted Argat jogging back toward the village.

He called over to them, the exercise guru quickly reaching them. “I haven’t seen you at my morning class,” he said as he jogged in place. “You know, children your age should be getting exercise at least twice per day, for a total of fifty minutes.”

“We do exercise,” Rowan told him. “We helped our dad carry items up from the docks earlier.”

“I like the sound of that, sort of a variation of a high-intensity interval training. And just so you know, I agree with what your dad said the other day at the village council meeting. This island really could use some work. You know what else it could use?”

“What’s that?” Rowan asked.

“A proper jogging path. Just imagine if we had a trail that went to these woods and perhaps wrapped around the orchard and came back to the village,” he said, still jogging in place as he made a gesture to indicate what he was referring to. “Heck, you can even send one over to the western beach.”

“That would be nice,” said Toro, “especially if we got some bikes.”

“Bikes would be great. If you had bikes…” Argat took a swig from his water bottle. “You two would be zipping all over the place. That’s a great cardio workout too; it will really get the blood pumping. Well. I’ve got to get back,” he said as he checked his watch. “I’m taking a trip to the mainland later today so I can get a sports massage and pick up some training gear. I’ll see you fellas around. Wish me luck!”

He took off, disappearing back into the woods.

“Are you ready?” Toro asked as they stood there for a moment, looking at each other.

He still wore a red cape; Rowan realized it was odd that when they transformed into cats, they didn’t bring their clothing with them. He hadn’t tried equipping something while he was in cat form, but he was pretty sure it wouldn’t work.

They reached the cave, Rowan once again looking around for the woman in the cat mask. After it was clear that she wasn’t there, the two crawled into the hole and transformed into two brown kittens.

As soon as they reached the other side, Rowan tried to equip something from his inventory list.

The comic book he’d been meaning to read appeared in front of him.

“So, that works,” he said to himself as he placed his paw on it and it returned to his inventory list.

“Where to first?” Toro asked, a big smile on his whiskered face.

“We need to get into a place where we can watch for Vicar. There’s only one way he can go, so as long as we are near the East Docks, we should be able to find him. I’d rather not wait outside their home. Micah will be there.”

Toro nodded. The two kittens made their way down the rocky path to Sacred Cat Village, where they immediately hung a left and ran into Hiccup and Rocket.

“Meow-nice to see you,” said Hiccup, a sympathetic look coming over his face. “I’m sorry about what happened the other day with the twisted sisters.”

Rocket stepped forward. “They’re always trouble for us as well.”

Rowan recalled the two ragamuffin cats named Nadine and Yuri, and how they had convinced them to try to steal a fish from Chodak, knowing that the old fisherman would spot them.

“It’s okay,” he told them.

“We never had a chance to finish our tour,” Hiccup said. “I find that a little unacceptable, meow. Also, you had a question about a catfish, and I know just the guy you need to talk to.”

“That’s right!” Rocket chimed in. “We need to take you to Cuthbert, the oldest cat on the island. At least he’s the oldest we know of. Who knows? There could be an older cat somewhere else.”

“Where does he live?” Rowan asked.

“That way.” Rocket nodded toward the East Docks.

“Perfect, we will go see him then,” he said.

Seeing the oldest cat would certainly be advantageous. For one they would be near the path that Vicar would later take, and aside from the catfish, Rowan could also ask the cat about the cat-masked woman who had led them to the cave.

Hiccup and Rocket bounced forward, Rowan and Toro chasing after them.

Rowan spotted Tuya at the house next to hers, which looked to be Zola Freen’s place, the candle maker seated on the front porch with Tuya, both enjoying iced tea. Zola pointed at them as they ran by, Rowan assuming that it was cute to see two smaller brown cats following behind the hoarders’ pets.

“He lives here,” Hiccup said as they came to the home next to Zola’s, which was small and well-kept. It had a side yard with exercise gear stacked under a canopy, Rowan recognizing the place as belonging to Argat, who apparently wasn’t back from his jog yet.

“Not so fast!” a cat cried, Rowan turning to see a European shorthair, running around the corner, his coat red, and his belly cream.

The cat’s details appeared before him.

Name: FeeTwix

Breed: European Shorthair

Sex: Male

Color: Red

Secondary Color: Cream

Age (Human Years): 1.3

Age (Cat Years): 18

Known Associates: Cuthbert

“Oh, whew, it’s just you guys,” he said with a bit of a lisp. “I thought it was…”

“The sisters?” Rocket asked.

“Yep, they were around here the other day and I chased them off.” FeeTwix swatted his claws in front of him and made a noise with his mouth. “Who are the newcomers?”

“Rowan, and this is my brother, Toro.”

“Rowan and Toro, huh? What part of the island are you from?”

“We live past the forest.”

“Why have you come all the way here?” FeeTwix sat on his haunches and started licking his paw. “Sorry, I hate it when my hair is out of place.” As if they weren’t there, he then brought his tail around and began licking it as well. “Appearances are important,” he said after he’d been licking himself for too long.

“They are,” Rocket agreed, who started licking himself as well.

“You two are so meow-vain,” Hiccup told them.

“You lick yourself too!” Rocket told him.

Toro laughed. “It’s fun being a cat!”

The three turned to him and gave Rowan’s younger brother a funny look.

“Never mind him,” Rowan said, running his shoulder into his younger brother. “Don’t say things like that,” he hissed under his breath.

“Let me guess, you’re here to see Cuthbert, right?” FeeTwix asked.

“That’s right,” Rowan told the red cat.

“And you two are giving them the old tour, right?” he asked Hiccup and Rocket.

“We love giving tours,” Rocket said. “Besides, what else is there to do?”

“What else is there to do? You live at arguably the finest home to explore in all the island,” the red cat said, referring to the hoarders’ cluttered place.

“But the rats there are mean,” Hiccup said, “meow-mean.”

“I’ll take meow-mean rats over living near the twisted sisters any day of the week.”

“Just tell us where he is,” Rocket said.

“You’re in luck. Cuthbert’s in his usual spot, you know where.”

Rocket and Hiccup nodded. They led Rowan and his brother back to the front of the house, to a drainage ditch that overlooked the road. Rowan was glad for this; it would allow them to catch Vicar once he passed.

They came to an older cat, his coat white and his tail big and fluffy. He wore a collar with something hanging off it that almost resembled a whistle. The drainage ditch he was in seemed to extend indefinitely, the other end dark, just a bit of light reflecting off a puddle of water and framing the older cat.

Name: Cuthbert

Breed: Turkish Angora

Sex: Male

Color: White

Age (Human Years): 21

Age (Cat Years): 101

Known Associates: FeeTwix

Offspring: Michelle

“Cuthbert? Meow-hello?” Hiccup asked.

“Who? Ah…” Cuthbert rolled over and gazed at the four cats, his eyes with an amber hue to them. “Hiccup, Rocket. Newcomers, I see.”

“They’re new to the village,” Rocket said.

“Yes, I already said that,” Cuthbert said with a sigh. “And you are giving them a tour?”

“The tour is now officially over,” Hiccup announced, and as the words left his lips, a prompt flashed in front of Rowan.

“That’s right. These are all the cats we know,” Rocket said proudly.

Cat Quest: Join Rocket and Hiccup to meet some of the other cats on the island (complete)

“You two sure are young,” Cuthbert told them.

“We are brothers,” Toro said.

“Always good to have a partner in crime. Now, come closer so I can take a look at you.” The older cat got to his feet and peered forward, his opal eyes narrowing as Rowan stepped up to him. “Never seen eyes like yours,” he finally said. Rowan wanted to ask him if he could even see, but refrained from the question. He stepped aside instead, allowing his brother to step forward. “Very intriguing, very different.”

“They have different eyes?” Rocket asked.

“Perhaps a breed I haven’t seen before,” said Cuthbert.

Hiccup threw his head back. “A new breed, meow-wow!”

“But maybe I’m wrong,” said Cuthbert. “My mind isn’t what it used to be.”

“Do you know anything about a giant catfish?” Rowan asked, hoping to steer the conversation in a different direction.

Rocket and Hiccup snickered. “I don’t know why they keep calling it that,” said Rocket. “But we figured you would be the person to ask.”

“He exists, and he is not friendly,” Cuthbert said gravely.

“We saw the catfish down at the East Docks,” Toro said.

“Did you? I suppose you could have reached there by the path that wraps around the orchard, rather than going through town. Yes, that makes sense,” the old cat said. “I’m surprised the catfish made his presence known.”

“So they weren’t lying?” Rocket asked.

“He most certainly exists, and the cats have tried to fight him before, a couple of years ago, after he managed to swallow one of our brethren. It is troublesome to hear that he’s making his presence known again. You should be careful if you go down there again.”

“What if we fight him off?” Toro asked.

“Heh! A little cat like you take on a giant fish like him? I’m not one to say something is impossible, but it’s highly unlikely that you would win.”

“I have another question,” Rowan said, moving on. “I’ve seen a ghost here on the island, a woman with a cat mask. Actually, I’ve seen two ghosts, one made out of dust, and the other with the cat mask.”

“A ghost?” Cuthbert shook his head. “I can’t comment on the one made of dust, but the one with the cat mask isn’t a ghost at all. That is the spirit of the island that you saw. Why, I haven’t seen her in…” He squinted for a moment as he tried to remember how long it had been. “It must have been years ago when I last saw her. But she’s not a ghost, she’s a spirit, and not just any spirit.” Cuthbert cleared his throat. “That woman you saw is the essence of this entire island, and while some of the older cats are familiar with her, the humans have all but forgotten this. She used to have a shrine, you know, in the mountains. I believe it’s still there. If you want to know more about her, it might be a good place to visit. I am rather curious as to why she’s making herself known to you.”

“Does she have a name?” Rowan asked.

“Does she have a name?” Cuthbert asked, repeating Rowan’s question. “That is something even I don’t know. I’m trying to remember what I know about her, but it has been years since anyone has even mentioned the spirit of the island. I’ll have to think about it, dream about it. Maybe I will have more information for you. But, you should visit the shrine in the mountains when you get a chance.”

Cat Quest: Visit Sacred Cat Shrine

“That sounds like it will be an adventure,” Rocket said as the prompt faded away.

“It certainly would be. Cats don’t normally go very deep into the mountains, unless they are trying to visit the shrine…”

Throughout their conversation, Rowan had been taking glances over his shoulder just to see if Vicar was coming along. The strategy paid off as he caught the man heading toward the East Docks, Vicar in a plaid shirt tucked into his khaki shorts, a bag slung over his shoulder.

“You two sure are curious,” Cuthbert said. “Not only do you show up speaking of the catfish, but you also mentioned the spirit of the island. And that’s just the first visit I’ve had with you.”

“We’re just two curious kittens,” said Toro.

“Yes, it seems that way…”

If they’d had more time, Rowan would have asked more questions, but with Vicar now moving past him, he knew it was time to catch up with Doyona’s husband before he got too far ahead.

“Thanks for taking us here,” Rowan told Rocket and Hiccup. “And thanks for the information. We have to go. We’ve been… Um… Watching this guy, and we want to see where he’s heading.”

“By all means,” Cuthbert said. “Stalking is one of the best parts about being a cat. Come back and visit next time you’re around. I suppose I should get going as well,” he said, turning to the darkened end of the tunnel. “FeeTwix, you’re in charge.”

Rowan and Toro followed a few paces behind Vicar, the two keeping to the wooded area so he wouldn’t see them. As they kept up with him, Rowan thought about what Cuthbert had said. It seemed like the old cat knew more than he was letting on, especially with that last statement about stalking something as a cat.

Rowan wouldn’t say something like, “the best part of being a human is being able to stand on two feet.” Why had Cuthbert phrased stalking this way? Could he perhaps know that Rowan and Toro were actually human?

He got the same sense from him that he got from Nedman, like he knew more than he was letting on.

Vicar stopped and started to turn, Rowan and Toro both pressing closer to the ground, leaves all around them. He knew it was easy enough to hide from the older man, but he also didn’t want to be seen. It dawned on him that this would probably have no effect on Vicar, but Rowan couldn’t help but feel human in that moment as he watched Doyona’s husband burp and move on.

“That was a big one,” Toro said.

Rowan laughed. “It really was.”

“Do you think cats burp?” Toro asked.

“I don’t know.”

As they continued to follow Vicar, Rowan tried to force a burp, but couldn’t.

It would have to be another mystery for now.

As he had noticed before, it was different traveling as a cat, especially when keeping up with the human. Rowan was faster as a cat, but a human’s steps were wider. Toro appeared to have a bit more stamina than Rowan, and by the time Vicar reached the bridge that extended from a cliff to the sea stack where Old Man Stellars lived, Toro was several paces ahead.

His brother was just about to charge out of the foliage when Rowan reached him, grabbing onto his tail with his claws.

“Hey…” Toro said.

“Let him go first,” said Rowan. “Once he gets to the other side of the bridge, then we will go. If we go now, he may see that we’re following him.”

Toro nodded as the two waited for Vicar to make his way across the bridge that led to Stellars’ enormous mansion. Before stepping out on the first rung, Vicar tested it for stability, the older man settling his breath and shaking his hands out for a moment. He gripped both sides of the rope railing and went for it.

About halfway across he picked up his pace, now confident in the bridge’s stability.

Rowan noticed that it was windier now than it had been earlier, the bridge shaking just a little. As Vicar reached the other side, the two brothers came out onto the rock. They approached the bridge and looked down at the structure, realizing that they were going to have to hop from rung to rung.

Rowan felt a tingling sensation in his paws as he licked his lips and glanced to his brother, Toro already creeping forward, low to the ground.

He smiled, appreciating his brother’s braveness, and also finding it strange to see his brother in this form. Even if they had transformed several times now, it still took him off guard every time he looked at his brother to see that he was a little brown kitten with a white tip on his tail.

Toro took the first couple of rungs, and then paused, turning to look back at his brother. “Are you coming?”

“Yeah,” Rowan said, remembering why they were doing this.

Doyona and Vicar were trying to buy the orchard solely to prevent their father from purchasing it. The information they gleaned from the conversation between Vicar and Old Man Stellars would give their father a leg up.

With this in mind, he took a step out on the first rung, noticing that it trembled beneath him when a gust of wind blew past the bridge. Summoning courage that came from watching his brother’s boldness, Rowan continued across the bridge. He got the hang of jumping from rung to rung, and even though the bridge shook, he did his best to ignore its movements.

Toro reached the other side and turned to him.

“You’re almost there,” he said, offering Rowan encouragement.

Rowan paused near one of the last rungs and looked to his paws, seeing the water far below. He also noticed that there’d been previous bridges built that had collapsed, their loose ends batting against the side of the sea stack every time the wind picked up. There were seagulls and pelicans below as well, a few flying high enough that they were almost at the same level as the bridge. He also thought he saw a pipe jutting out of the side of the cliff, but he couldn’t be sure.

“Come on,” Toro called him.

Relaxing just a little, Rowan took the last few rungs and finally made his way to the other side.

He looked up at the absolutely enormous estate, which was easily the largest place he’d seen in a long time. The walled-in grounds filled with flowers and other plants produced a sweet scent in the air, which was at odds with how formidable the home looked.

“It’s huge,” Toro said.

“It really is,” Rowan told him as they made their way up the path to the front door. Vicar was already inside, so they would need to find another way in. Following close to the home, Rowan moved to the right side of the house and under a trellis, where he saw that a window was open.

He looked up to the windowsill. It wasn’t going to be easy to reach the ledge.

“How should we do this?” he asked, only to find that Toro was already in the process of climbing a small fruit tree outside the window.

Rather than comment on his brother’s ingenuity, Rowan did the same, the two coming out onto a branch overlooking the window. It was going to be a bit of a leap, and they also had to be careful not to cause a commotion when they landed.

Toro jumped first, landed on the edge, and scrambled up. He looked back to see his brother preparing to jump as well, Rowan hesitant to leap. But then he remembered that cats always landed on their feet, and all he had to do was focus on the landing.

With this in mind he took to the air, and landed on the windowsill next to his brother.

“Now we have to sneak inside,” Toro said.

Rowan looked through the window to see that it opened onto a dresser. He hopped down onto the dresser, motioning for his brother to follow him.

They appeared to be in a guestroom of sorts, Rowan making this assumption once he saw a bed that looked like it hadn’t been slept in for ages. He also noticed that the door was shut, and the door handle wasn’t one that they could easily manipulate.

“We may need to find another way in…” he suggested.

“Wait,” said Toro, his ears twitching. “Can’t you hear them?”

Rowan paused, the low tone of the men’s voices coming to him.

“Let’s get closer to the door.” Rowan jumped from the dresser to a pillow on the bed, and from there to the floor.

He trotted over to the door, his brother quickly catching up with him. He glanced behind him to confirm that they had a clear exit. Rowan saw that they would be able to climb the blanket, move to the pillow from there, reach the dresser, and finally the open window.

Once an escape plan was established, he got down on his belly, listening through the crack at the bottom of the door.

“… You’re not listening to what I’m trying to say here,” Vicar told Old Man Stellars.

“I hear you loud and clear, you want to buy the orchard. But why?”

“No one’s taking care of it.”

“And you and Doyona are going to take care of it? No offense, Mr. Bold, but I don’t think you or your wife are equipped to handle something like that. Why would you want to? It’s quite the undertaking.”

“It’s just sitting there…”

“I’ll get to it at some point. I have other things I’m worrying about right now.”

“You want me to be honest with you?” Vicar asked.

“I expect you to be honest with me. What kind of question is that?”

“I didn’t want to concern you, but, if it helps any, you should know that some newcomers are now calling the island home. Remember Turni Toragan?”

“I remember, and I was sad to hear that he passed.”

“His nephew, and his nephew’s two sons—which are a pair of wild boys if I’ve ever seen some—are now living in the apartment above the general store. His name is Ganix, and his sons are Rowan and Toro.”

“Has the store opened back up?”

“Yes, just a few days back.”

“Well, good for them.”

“The reason I’m mentioning them is because they want to change the island,” Vicar said.

“Change the island? What do you mean?”

“You own the most land on the island, so I figured this information would be pertinent to you. We islanders have a particular way of life, as you know.”

“I’m aware.”

“And these three come in from the big city looking to change everything up, especially their father. You should have heard them at the village council meeting yesterday. He wanted to put an amusement park here, an arcade, one of those generic shopping centers like they have in Any_City. You should have heard the man,” Vicar said with feigned disdain.

“Such a liar,” Rowan hissed.

“Yeah, what a liar,” said Toro.

“Don’t you see the problem here?” Vicar asked on the other side of the door. Rowan could tell he was pacing now, the man’s feet pattering against the wood floor. “This island is special, as you know.”

“It’s more than that,” said Old Man Stellars.

“Sure, it’s more than that.”

“It is, Mr. Bold. There isn’t another island like this in the entire world. It is magical here, it is a sacred space…”

“I know, I know, you’ve told me, and I’ve been up to the shrine before, so I saw what it used to be like.”

“It could still be like that.”

Vicar’s tone of voice changed. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m trying to say here. If these three have their way, especially their father who seems to want to meddle in our affairs, they are going to change everything about the island. It’ll lose its legacy, and the people that have lived here for years will be unhappy. You don’t want that, do you?”

Old Man Stellars sneezed. “Of course I don’t.”

“And that’s why I’m asking to buy the orchard. I would like to prevent them from buying it.”

“And you are sure this is what they want to do?”

“Yes, this is what Ganix announced at the village council meeting. He said it was a perfect place for an amusement park, a couple roller coasters, that sort of thing.”

“We can’t have an amusement park there…”

“No, no we cannot.”

“Although, it would be nice to have tourists again.”

“The residents don’t want tourists,” Vicar said. “They want peace and quiet. We are a retirement community.”

Old Man Stellars sneezed again. “That’s it, I know that sneeze.”

“What?” Vicar asked.

“There are cats around. I’m allergic, you know.”

“Cats here?”

“Deathly allergic.”

“I swear I didn’t bring any cats with me, and I wore clean clothes with no cat hairs on them.”

Old Man Stellars sneezed again and again. “They are here in my house, I can sense them.”

“We need to leave.” Rowan pressed away from the door.

He bolted toward the bed, his brother the first to reach it. They climbed up the blanket and from there to the pillow. Toro took a running leap and missed the dresser, falling back to the ground. He was just scrambling up the blanket again when the door started to open.

“Hurry!” Rowan shouted as he jumped to the dresser. He pulled himself up and turned just in time for his brother to make it. Rowan bit down on the back of Toro’s neck and helped him on to the dresser.

The door opened just as the two kittens reached the windowsill.

Rather than try to make it to the tree, they jumped to the ground, the impact causing Rowan to nearly buckle. But he had landed on his feet, Rowan and his brother able to reach a hiding space beneath the leaves of a flowering bush just as Vicar came to the window.

Rowan and Toro were absolutely still as Doyona’s husband scanned the ground, looking for any disturbances. When he didn’t see any, he shut the window behind him, Rowan finally able to relax for a moment.

“He lied about everything,” Toro said. “Everything. Our dad isn’t trying to bring an amusement park here, or any of that other stuff.”

“I know.”

“Why do people do this kind of stuff? Why would he lie like that?”

“I don’t know,” Rowan told his brother, “calm down.”

“It’s just not fair.”

“But now we know, and now we can tell Dad, and he can do something about Vicar’s lies. That’s the advantage of being cats,” Rowan said, the power of his transformation dawning on him in that moment. “We can learn things that we wouldn’t normally be able to learn as humans. Just imagine. We couldn’t have snuck out here as easily if we hadn’t been cats. And we wouldn’t have heard Doyona and her husband talking about coming to visit yesterday. Imagine…”

He heard voices at the front of the property, Rowan nodding for his brother to follow him. They snuck through Old Man Stellars’ flower beds to find Vicar standing on the front porch, speaking to the owner of the home.

“We’ll be in touch,” Vicar said as the door started to shut. “Let me talk to my wife about it, and please, visit town soon. People would love to hear from you. And think about it, would you? For the community.”

With that, Vicar turned away and headed back toward the bridge.

Rowan saw the bridge quake, a wind spiraling up from the sea below nearly causing Vicar to fly over the edge. Now holding onto both sides of the rope railing, Vicar began to rush to the other side.

“Maybe we should hurry,” Rowan said, watching as the wind continued to lash at the bridge.

“Do you think he’ll see us?”

“It doesn’t matter if he sees us now.”

Tired of his brother always being the one to act first, Rowan took off toward the bridge.

“Hey!”

“See if you can catch up!” Rowan called over his shoulder as he reached the first rung. He hopped the second rung and then the third, picking up his pace as he moved.

The wind was blowing hard enough that he had to dig his claws into the wood to keep from flying off the bridge. Regardless, Rowan pressed forward, not wanting to look weak in his brother’s eyes yet still afraid for his life. He assumed that he would be able to swim as a cat, but he was pretty sure that the impact would kill him.

Toro reached him, and just as he did, the two of them heard a loud snap.

Rowan looked up to see that the wind had torn through the center of the bridge, that the bridge was collapsing.

“Don’t let go!” Rowan shouted as he dug his claws even deeper into the wood. Their side of the bridge started to swing downward, where it struck the side of the rock. The wind slammed the collapsed bridge against the rock a second time, Toro losing his grip.

Holding on with one claw, Rowan managed to grab his brother and throw him back toward one of the wooden rungs. Toro dug his claws in, both of them catching their breaths as the bridge finally settled.

“We need to climb,” Rowan said, his voice quivering, every muscle in his body tense as he looked up to the top of the sea stack.

Toro was the first to make it to the next rung of the collapsed bridge, Rowan once again inspired by his brother’s action. He started climbing as well, ignoring the razor-winged moths twisting within him every time he happened to glance down, the water below whipping against the rocks.

Climbing as a cat wasn’t as hard as climbing as a human, Rowan not having to rely completely on his upper body strength. He had claws on all of his feet, and once he got the hang of it, he found it relatively easy to make his way up the rungs, pausing just twice for the wind to settle.

The two brothers reached the top and immediately looked to the other side of the expanse to see Vicar sitting there, both hands behind his head as he caught his breath. The older man glanced at the sky, clearly thanking his lucky stars that he had been able to make it before the bridge collapsed.

Even though Rowan didn’t like Vicar, especially after what he was trying to do and how he was lying about their father, he felt relieved to see that he’d made it. He could only imagine how hard it would have been to try to run across a falling bridge.

“How are we going to get to the other side now?” Toro asked, which was a question that hadn’t quite crossed Rowan’s mind yet. Now that his brother had put words to it, Rowan felt a sinking sensation in his chest.

It really did look like they were stuck.

He glanced back at the mansion and started considering their options.

There was no way that they were going to be able to do anything like scale down the rock, make it to the sea below, and then swim back to the village. They could try writing a message for Old Man Stellars, but he was allergic to cats, and he probably wouldn’t believe his eyes.

Rowan sure wouldn’t.

“Maybe we can make a parachute or something out of my cape,” Toro suggested.

“That’s not a bad idea…”

Toro equipped his cape and stood on it so that it wouldn’t fly away. Just seeing how large it was made Rowan quite certain that they weren’t going to be able to make a parachute out of it, at least not in their current form. He began pacing back and forth along the edge of the rock, considering their options as his brother did the same.

Rowan checked out his inventory lists, well aware that there was nothing in his list that would help them at the moment.

Wooden Sword

Knit Hat

Deck of Playing Cards

Drawing Paper

Pencil Set

Comic Book

Set of Keys for the General Store

Yellow Rain Jacket, Yellow Rain Boots, Red Hat (Rain Set)

Teal Clamshell

Panda Sunglasses

Perhaps the rain boots could float, but it would still be quite a drop for them to make it to the sea below.

Rowan caught something out of the corner of his eye. He walked to the edge of the rock and slowly looked to the other side, and saw a few birds circling below.

“I’ve got it,” he told his brother.

“What?”

“Let’s try to get these birds’ attention.”

“Last time we tried to talk to a bird, it attacked us,” Toro reminded him.

“They can’t all be the same.” Rowan looked down again, noticing that two of the birds were seagulls, and one was a pelican. “Hey!” he started to shout. “Hey, birds. Hey!”

The two seagulls flew off, but the pelican drifted just a bit higher, Rowan calling out to it again. The pelican swooped up into the air and landed in front of the boys. The bird was mostly white except for a tuft of brown at the back of its head, its face a burnt yellow.

“It’s so big…” Toro started to say, backing away.

“Talk to it,” Rowan told him. “Remember? I can’t understand the animals, but you can.”

“Hey, Mr. Pelican,” said Toro. The pelican merely lowered its head a little, its eyes locked on the boys.

“Does it look hungry to you?” Rowan asked.

“We got stuck on this rock,” Toro said, his voice just a little shaky. “Can you help us out? Can you fly us back to the mainland?”

The pelican made a sound with its throat.

“Yes, to the village. That would be great.”

“What’s his name?” Rowan asked. “Is it a he or a she?”

“I think it’s a he,” Toro whispered. “What’s your name? My name is Toro, and this is Rowan.”

Once again, the pelican made a noise. It opened its beak and grumbled a bit more, its neck swelling as it did so. It truly was a majestic creature, its feathers slick, something calm and all-knowing about its eyes.

“His name is Logan. I think that’s what he said.”

“Hi, Logan.” Rowan turned back to his brother. “Tell him that I can’t understand other animals, but you can.”

Logan once again made more low noises with his throat.

“He can understand you,” Toro translated.

“What gives? Why can other creatures understand me, but I can’t understand them? It’s not fair.”

“Well, you were the only one that could see the island spirit lady,” Toro reminded him.

“I would take being able to talk to animals over seeing one ghost lady any day of the week, or spirit, or whatever.”

Toro laughed, the pelican doing the same.

“Laugh it up,” Rowan said, glaring at both of them.

Once again, the pelican grumbled a response.

“He says you take yourself too seriously.”

“You know, we could find another…” Rowan took a quick look around. No, they weren’t going to be able to find another way down, and he stopped himself from saying something that he would regret. “Never mind. Can he help us?”

“He says he will,” Toro said after the pelican answered Rowan. “Umm…” Toro glanced down at his red cape. “I’ve got an idea.”

Rowan joined his brother at the center of the cape after helping him spread out its corners. The pelican lifted one side with his talons and flew to the other, lifting it in his mouth, and transferring it to his talons as well.

“We’re ready,” Toro told the pelican once they were tucked in the center of the cape.

Logan started batting his large wings, lifting the boys off the sea stack, and higher into the air.

“We’re actually flying!” Rowan called to his brother.

It was by far the most exhilarating ride he had ever taken, beating any amusement park, or skiing trip, or freefalling in a dream. The mansion grew smaller, the blue sky larger, the sea further and further away as Logan the pelican lifted them higher into the air.

“This is so cool!” Toro shouted.

The pelican began to lower toward the island, but rather than drop them off, he carried them over the trees, Rowan able to see a view of Sacred Cat Village in a way he’d never seen before, one that gave him a full perspective of just how isolated it was. He saw the woods behind the village, and the mountains beyond that, Rowan vowing to make it up there and visit the shrine that the old cat named Cuthbert had told them about.

The pelican glanced down at them and spoke to Toro.

“Where do you want to be dropped off?” Toro translated.

“Um, the woods outside of the village. We need to get back to Dad and tell him what we learned.”

“We can’t tell him that we became cats.”

“I know, I know, I’ll think of something. Let’s just get back to the caves and transform first.”

“Okay,” Toro said as he explained where they wanted to go to the pelican. Logan turned slightly and soared in a wide downward spiral. As he started to approach the canopy, Rowan felt the tinge of fear in his heart.

His apprehension was over in a flash, the pelican dipping his wings behind him as if he were diving into the water. Logan burst through the canopy and then flared up again, setting the boys down safely on one of the paths that led up to the cave.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Toro told the pelican.

“Logan, you are the best pelican I’ve ever met,” Rowan said, the big bird making a noise with his throat.

“We really owe you one,” said Toro.

Logan spoke for a moment, Toro’s ears twitching as he listened carefully to what he was saying. When he was finished, he turned to his brother to translate. “He says that he’ll give us a ride anytime we would like.”

“How are we supposed to get a hold of him?”

“That may be a little more complicated. Maybe if we got a whistle or something.”

“A whistle? Is that your suggestion or his?”

“His.”

“How’s a cat supposed to blow a whistle?”

“I’m pretty sure I could do it,” Toro said, puckering his lips. “That’s what he said, anyway.”

Sure enough, the quest appeared then fizzled away.

Cat Quest: Find a whistle to use to call Logan the pelican

“Okay, then I guess we will try to find a whistle. And also tell him that if he ever has something that he needs us to do, we’ll do our best to help him.”

“A pelican quest?”

Rowan nodded. “Exactly.”

Toro translated the message and the pelican shrugged, as if he were indifferent to the suggestion. Logan started to flap his wings, and soon cleared the canopy, heading back toward the sea.

“I seriously cannot believe that worked,” Rowan said. “And what was he saying up to the last minute there? Anything else important?”

“Nothing much. He seemed like a nice pelican. We will have to try to find a whistle so we can call him.”

“If we can call him,” Rowan reminded his younger brother. “We haven’t actually tried that yet as cats.”

Toro’s cape disappeared, back to his inventory list.

“I’m so glad you got that cape,” Rowan said.

“Me too.”

Rowan and Toro were just reaching the village when they ran into Garner, the meaner of the two hoarder twins. He wore a dark-brown three-piece suit that looked to be made out of polyester, a grimace on his face as he locked eyes on the boys.

“What kind of trouble are you two getting into?” he asked.

“The best kind of trouble,” Rowan said, a smile on his face.

He noticed a twitch at the corner of Garner’s eye. “A clever boy.”

“We’re sorry that people embarrassed your brother at the village council meeting,” Toro said. “I don’t know why people are mean to him.”

“Not just him, to both of us, but they know better than to be mean to me, which is why I may go to the next one. I can’t trust my brother to handle himself in a firm,” he said, placing his hand on his chest, “but an equally diplomatic way. He always acquiesces.”

“Acquiesces?” Toro looked to Rowan and his older brother shrugged.

“Did he tell you about what our dad would like to do?”

Garner’s throat quivered for a moment. “He did, and I don’t think it’s a bad idea. As long as people leave my home alone, the island could do well to have a few tourists. We could certainly use some renovations. I’ve been complaining for years that it isn’t accessible enough for those with disabilities. It would give us a reason to finish the next cat statue as well.”

“Boys,” they heard a voice call out.

They looked to see Tuya coming up the hill, a bag of cat food in her hand. Rowan remembered seeing her putting cat food out on the altar set before a couple of smaller cat statues, and assumed she had come from there. The gardener wore overalls, a wide-brimmed sun hat casting shade over her face. There was also a handkerchief tied around her neck. “I could use your help,” she said as she reached them. Tuya smiled at Garner. “Nice to see you, Garner.”

“I’ll get going then.” Garner lowered his gaze and shuffled off.

“It’s flower planting time.”

Rowan recalled that she had given them this quest previously. “How many do you have to plant?” he asked.

“There are always more flowers to plant,” the woman explained, “and now I’m trying to plant some of the prettier and more late summery ones. Zola and I are going to work together to create candles that are infused with flowers’ scents, you know, for your dad’s business proposal. Soap too.”

“Sacred Cat Products,” Toro said proudly.

“That’s right, your father is a clever man,” Tuya said, motioning for them to follow her. “And I agree. This island really could use some love.”

Even though it wasn’t what he thought they would be doing, and even if Rowan was more interested in getting back to his father and telling him what they had learned at the mansion, Rowan and Toro ended up helping Tuya for several hours.

They did everything from dig holes, to plant flower bulbs, even trimming some of the flowers to put into a vase for Gilda the baker. Tuya explained when and how to water them, and she got emotional at one point when she remembered her deceased husband, and how helpful he had been in the garden.

By the time the two finished, Rowan and Toro were covered in dirt, beads of sweat on their brows.

“You’ve been such a help,” Tuya told them. “Really. Thank you, boys.”

Side Quest: Help Tuya plant her flowers (complete)

After thanking them once again, she said her goodbyes, letting Rowan and Toro know that she was planning to go to Gilda’s so they could have dinner at the Fisherman’s Restaurant.

It was after she had taken a few steps away that Rowan noticed just how hungry he was.

“We should have just stayed as cats,” Toro said, Rowan yet again recalling how it had been to fly through the air, held by the pelican. He looked up to the sky at that moment, hoping to see Logan.

But there were no birds from his current vantage point; the only things he could see were a few wispy gray clouds on the horizon, the sun slowly starting to set.

“What are we going to tell Dad?” Toro asked as they started back to the general store.

“I’ll handle everything,” Rowan said.

They passed Doyona and Vicar’s place, Rowan hoping that Olivia would step out, even it was just for a brief appearance. He then remembered that she found Toro funny, Rowan once again feeling a pang of jealousy.

He also saw Micah the cat out in front of their home, and recalled what it was like to fight him. There were now a couple of cats, Micah and the twisted sisters, that were going to be a thorn in his side until he figured out a way to handle them.

The cats that lived in front of the general store scattered as Toro ran up to the front door. He swung it open and stepped inside, announcing their arrival.

“I was wondering when you two would come,” Ganix said as he looked up from the pad he was scribbling on.

“Sorry, Tuya wanted us to help her plant flowers,” Rowan explained.

“And that would explain why you are so dirty. Well, I figured we could cook something tonight. What do you say?”

“Cook something ourselves?” Toro asked.

“Sure, I have a recipe in mind, and it should be pretty easy to make with what we have here in the store. Toro, grab two cans of beans, and one of the small sacks of rice.”

After he locked the front door, Ganix led the two boys upstairs, where Toro immediately went to Uncle, who was resting on the couch.

“Don’t sit on that couch with those dirty pants,” Ganix started to say.

“Fine.” Toro stepped into the bedroom and returned seconds later. This was one thing that was advantageous to having an inventory list. If a person put their clothing in the inventory list, and returned the clothing onto their body, it would come back clean. This made it so no one ever needed to wash clothes, unless they really wanted to.

Rowan did the same, while Ganix opened the cans.

“It’s a simple meal, but it should do the trick. We just have to season it correctly.”

He boiled water on the stove and added a cup of rice to it. He then started to warm up the beans.

“Rice and beans?” Toro asked.

“It took you this long to figure that out?” Rowan asked him.

“I didn’t know what he was going to make.”

“You got rice and beans from the store, dumb-dumb.”

“Rowan.”

“Sorry, Dad.”

“I’m not a dumb-dumb.”

“I know, I said I was sorry.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“I said I was sorry,” Rowan told Toro. “I’m trying to forget the word.”

“Enough,” said Ganix. “Let’s not call each other names. Remember, you’re brothers. You are all you have in the world.”

“We have you and Mom,” Toro said.

“Yes, but we will die at some point, likely before the two of you. I’m sorry, I know that sounds grim, but there will be a point when all you have in the world is your brother. So be nice.”

Ganix was draining the rice when Rowan cleared his throat. “Dad?”

“Yes?” he asked, looking over to him.

“We found something out that you need to know.”

Rather than say anything, Ganix finished what he was doing, and then used a large spoon to scoop rice onto the three plates. He used the same spoon to put beans on the rice, a packet of spice appearing in his hand, which he sprinkled over the top. He told his boys to stand at the counter where they normally ate, and brought them their food.

“Now, what’s going on?” he asked, a hint of seriousness in his eyes now as he took Rowan in.

“Like I said earlier, we were gardening with Tuya today, and we heard some rumors. But, it’s not really a rumor…”

“Because it’s true,” Toro said. “She was talking to Doyona about it. We overheard her.”

“About what?”

“Doyona told her husband to go to Old Man Stellars’ mansion because he owns the orchard.”

“He does?”

Rowan nodded. “He was renting the place to the family that lived there before. Anyway, Doyona wants Vicar to buy it so you can’t buy it.”

“What?” Ganix let out a short exhale. “What’s the point in that?”

“We also heard that they were lying about what you wanted to do to the island, telling people that you wanted to build an amusement park, and bring all these tourists, and that sort of thing,” Toro said.

“They are going around saying that?”

Rowan and Toro exchanged glances. “I think so. That’s what they were talking about.”

“Then we need to visit this man,” Ganix said.

“I don’t…” Toro shut his mouth and looked down at his food.

“Yes?”

“Sure,” Rowan said, taking over. “We should visit him and tell them the truth.”

“It’s his decision what he wants to do with his land, but he should at least know the truth,” Ganix said.

“I hate Doyona and Vicar,” said Toro.

“Now…” Their father bit his lip. “I don’t think that we are supposed to hate other people,” he finally told his two sons. “I told you before: people don’t like it when new people come in with new ideas. Even if those ideas can help them in some way, they always look for the negative. I saw this…” Ganix ran his hand through his hair as he looked up at the ceiling for a moment. “I can’t tell you how many times I saw this when I worked at the Proxima company.”

“You did?” Rowan asked.

“People get stuck in their ways, and it isn’t often they are self-aware enough to realize that change could help them. I don’t think that we should always assume that change is good, sometimes change can be bad. But as I was saying, they get stuck in their ways and they don’t want things out of place, if that makes sense. It seems like Doyona has quite a bit of power on the island.”

Rowan nodded as he took his first bite of the rice and beans. It was good, much better than he thought it was going to be. “She’s on so many committees.”

“Exactly. She’s powerful, and she sees us come in, newcomers, and views us as a threat to her power. But I don’t want to be on a committee like that, really. I actively avoid those kinds of things if I can help it,” Ganix told them. “So that’s one option. We can let her know that this is how we are, and how we feel. But that may not work.”

“So even if you tell her that you don’t want any island power, you don’t think it will work?”

Ganix smiled at his younger son’s verbiage. “Sure, we can call it island power. And no, I don’t think it will work. We have to see what the people say, first of all. If enough people say they want change, then she has already lost her power. We can also lead by example. That’s something you two did today by helping Tuya with her flowers. She didn’t pay you, right?”

Toro and Rowan shook their heads.

“We live in a small community now, and the more we can help the people around us if we have the time and the ability to, the better it will be for the whole community. Some people can’t help others,” he said, “you know, some of the older residents.”

“So what can we do then?” Toro asked, as if he hadn’t interpreted everything his father just said.

“We start simple. We lead by example, we continue to be nice to people, and we don’t talk bad about people, even if we don’t like them. Tomorrow, we will take a trip to Old Man Stellars. I’ll try to talk to Doyona and Vicar if I can, but…” The optimism in his voice started to fade away. “I don’t know how useful that will be.”

Rowan wanted to confess everything in that moment.

He wanted to tell him about their ability to turn into cats, and how they’d been rescued by a pelican named Logan. He imagined the two boys showing their dad the cave, and their dad becoming a cat as well, a big brown one, the three of them adventuring together.

But he didn’t say anything.

Instead, he continued to eat his rice and beans as their father changed subjects, now talking about Sacred Cat Products, and how he hoped to have the first batch of products soon and that the app would be up and running tomorrow.

It was an uneventful night after that, Rowan and Toro both getting cleaned up before bed. Rowan fell asleep relatively quickly, even though he wanted to stay awake and hang out with his dad alone on the balcony.

The last thing he remembered before dozing off was the pelican lowering them into the woods, how fast it had been, how they’d suddenly gone from the air to the ground.

It really was magical.

.Chapter Ten.

Rowan knew that his personal attributes took a while to tick up. Some of them rarely changed, others changed a little more frequently. They never went down like they were for the old writer named Ari, and there had been times where he had gone weeks without seeing an increase.

From what he understood, they were based on his actions in the previous day. He was well aware, mostly from some of the boys he went to school with, that they could be gamed in some way. Spend most of the day exercising and lifting things and your strength attribute would increase, your dexterity as well. Volunteering could increase empathy. Do something brave, and your willpower may move up a little. Read a book and you could augment your intelligence. Charisma changes seemed to be tied with willpower and intelligence, in the same way that strength and dexterity were lumped together.

But by far, the hardest attribute to increase, at least for Rowan, was luck.

How did one manufacture luck?

Luck was something that happened when a person put themselves in a situation with an outcome that they had no control over, like Rowan and Toro being trapped at the mansion after the bridge collapsed, and how Toro just so happened to be able to communicate with other animals.

The actions of the previous day had quite an effect on his personal attributes, Rowan happy to see that he not only increased his strength and dexterity, but he had also increased his luck.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 348/348

Intelligence: 23.96

Willpower: 11.08

Empathy: 7.15

Charisma: 11.84

Strength: 5.75

Dexterity: 7.85

Luck: 3.90

+ .05 Strength!

+ .31 Dexterity!

+ .22 Luck!

If he kept this up, and he certainly intended to keep up what he was doing, he would gain some hit points very soon. He now had five different attributes that were closer to leveling up: intelligence, charisma, strength, dexterity, and luck. He would receive more HP with each full point increase, which would make him stronger overall.

Rowan noticed that Toro was already up for the morning. Once he reached the living room, he found his younger brother with a blanket over his head, seated on the couch with Uncle in his arms, the orange kitten mewing and batting his paws at Toro.

“I was wondering when you’d wake up,” Ganix said, who was in the kitchen and drinking from a cup of coffee.

“Long day yesterday,” Rowan told him.

“Tell me about it.” He set his coffee down and smiled at the two boys. “As I told you last night, the app is up and running now, so it would be nice if you two could make a few deliveries for me. Anyone up for a Dad Quest?”

“Nooooo…” Toro groaned.

“Why don’t you tell me how you really feel?” Ganix asked. “It won’t be too difficult, and after you’re done, and we close up here, we can head out to Old Man Stellars. How does that sound? Maybe we’ll have lunch on the beach near there as well.”

Rowan and Toro exchanged glances, neither wanting to tell their dad that the bridge had collapsed. Maybe, by chance, it would be up and it would be something they didn’t have to deal with by the time they got there.

But if the bridge was up, would it be safe?

Rowan had become increasingly aware that he was much more agile as a cat. If the bridge collapsed while his father and his brother were on it, he didn’t know if they would be able to make it to safety in time. He also didn’t know if any of them had the upper body strength to climb up the rungs and reach the cliffside.

Toro, maybe, but Rowan certainly didn’t, and while his father was starting to look a bit healthier, he still had a bit of a gut.

His thoughts were interrupted when they heard a banging downstairs.

“Someone must really need something…” Ganix said as he turned to the sound.

“I’ll see who it is!” Toro threw his blanket off and shot toward the door, startling Uncle, who clung onto the couch for dear life.

The ten-year-old boy charged down the stairs before his father could stop him. Rowan rushed after him, Ganix doing the same, and telling both of them not to answer the door until he got there.

“I really need to get some glass on the door,” Ganix said as he pressed past his sons, the person outside beating their fist against the door once again. “I’m coming, hold on!”

Ganix unlocked the door and opened it, a funny look coming across his face as he tilted his gaze down to find a young girl in a light-blue dress accented with white frill, a straw hat on her head.

“Olivia?” Rowan asked as he stepped around his father.

“What’s she doing here?” Toro asked.

“Was I too loud?” Olivia’s face went pale. “I knocked lightly at first, but no one came…”

Ganix laughed. “You got quite a fist on you there.”

Olivia placed her hands behind her back. “I’m sorry. I was seeing if Rowan and Toro wanted to come out. My grandmother isn’t feeling well, so…” She glanced up at Rowan. “I’m free for a little while.”

Ganix put little effort in hiding the smirk taking shape on his face. “Is that so? Well, I did have a task I needed them to do for me. Maybe you could join them.”

“Is that okay?” she asked.

“It’s certainly okay,” Ganix said as he put his hand around Rowan’s shoulder and patted it a few times.

Rowan was suspicious at the tone in his father’s voice. It was one he hadn’t heard before, a sort of knowing encouragement that made him feel like his father was hiding something.

“How about this? Make some deliveries for me and I will buy the three of you breakfast,” Ganix suggested.

“Who do we need to make deliveries to?” asked Olivia. “I mean, sure, if that’s okay with you…”

Rowan didn’t know how to interpret the way she was looking at him, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt to be nice as long as Toro didn’t get all the attention. Rowan had been working on talking to girls and he was currently at a level 4, which didn’t mean much when it came to dealing with the opposite sex. This skill didn’t seem to scale as well as others, and while he wasn’t exactly good at it yet, he was better than some of his friends back on the mainland.

“Sure, but it’s going to be hard work,” he said with a smile.

“It won’t be that bad,” Ganix told him as he waved Olivia into the store. Rowan and Toro’s father led the three of them to a back room, where he had set up a shelf with items grouped together on it. “This first one needs to go to Gilda,” he said, motioning toward a ten-pound bag of flour, a five-pound bag of sugar, vanilla extract, baking powder, and several bags of chocolate chips.

“That one looks big,” Olivia said as her eyes fell on the bag of flour.

“There should be enough room in all of your inventory lists. If not, you can make several trips. Now, to Ringo and Curtis,” he said, motioning toward a box of crackers and peanut butter, as well as some of Gilda’s muffins that had been wrapped in plastic. “Finally, the canned goods are for Ari and Maeve.”

Toro took a step forward, the cans disappearing. Rowan put the ten-pound bag of flour and the bag of sugar in his inventory list, as well as the boxes of crackers for Ringo and Curtis. Olivia equipped a basket that matched her straw hat, where she placed the rest of the items for Gilda.

“Thanks again,” Ganix told him as he got his wallet out. He handed Rowan enough Proxima dollars to purchase three of the breakfast specials and walked into the door. “This really is exciting,” he said once he opened it for them.

“How can delivering food be exciting?” Toro asked their father.

“Just think of it like this: you’ve helped your dad here launch a new business, and now he’s launching an app to support that business. One day, when we’re able to streamline these deliveries, you’ll be able to look back and say that you were instrumental at the very beginning. In fact…” Ganix equipped his camera. “Say cheese.”

Rowan smiled, Toro threw his arms out wide and opened his mouth, and Olivia lowered her head a little, flashing the peace symbol.

“That’ll be a nice picture,” Ganix said after he put his camera away. “Anyway, I won’t hold you any longer. Good luck on the delivery. And I’ll see you boys around noon.”

They stepped into the streets, the cats scattering in front of the store. As soon as Ganix shut the door, Olivia turned to them. “What are you doing this afternoon?” she asked as they started moving up the hill that led to the center of the village.

“Nothing,” Rowan said, just as Toro was about to answer. He shot his brother a look. “I mean, we’re maybe going to have lunch with our dad on one of the beaches.”

“That sounds like fun.”

“Do you have a Catpendium?” Rowan asked as they passed Kay and Raydoh Erdene’s place. He saw their two cats resting on their front porch, their tails occasionally swatting at the air. As he looked at them, their information appeared.

Name: Veronique

Breed: Ragamuffin

Sex: Female

Color: Gray

Secondary Color: White, Blue

Age (Human Years): 4

Age (Cat Years): 33

Known Associates: Jelmay

Offspring: Nadine, Yuri

Name: Jelmay

Breed: Bakeneko

Sex: Male

Color: Black

Age (Human Years): 5.9

Age (Cat Years): 40

Known Associates: Veronique

Offspring: Nadine, Yuri

“You got one of those from Nedman too?” Olivia asked as she looked at the cats.

“Sure did,” Rowan said, recognizing the two cats as the parents of the twisted sisters.

“It comes in handy, doesn’t it? There are so many cats that I can barely keep track of them. Some are nicer than others,” she said, a hint of hesitation in her voice.

“What do you do when you come here?” Toro asked, interrupting her train of thought. “Just sit in the house?”

“I sing and read, and…” She shrugged. “Mostly just sing and read. My grandmother lets me go out in the mornings, but usually not for very long. And in the afternoons I generally hang out with my grandparents. Sometimes we go on walks, and my grandpa and I have been on a few camping trips, but Grandmother doesn’t like going on those.”

“Ugh… That sounds so boring,” Toro told her. “We have already explored most of the island.”

“No, we haven’t,” Rowan told him, thinking of the western side of the island, and the mountains where the shrine was supposed to be. He had a feeling that there was still a lot of unexplored territory.

“But we get to go out more than her,” Toro said.

“That’s true,” said Rowan.

“Sometimes…” Olivia bit her lip. “You know what? Nevermind.”

“What?” Rowan asked as they made it to the top of the hill, the hoarders’ home on the left, and the town square on the right. Hiccup and Rocket came out to the streets, looking to be petted.

Toro crouched down and started petting Rocket, Olivia doing the same with Hiccup.

“I like these cats,” Toro said. “They’re so nice.”

“And dirty,” said Olivia. “But I guess that’s to be expected considering where they live.”

“Do you know them?” Rowan asked, motioning toward the hoarders’ home.

“I have only met Garner. Alto doesn’t come out very much.”

“What? Are you serious? Alto is the one that we see the most.”

“Really?” She looked up at Rowan. “I’ve only interacted with him a few times. But Garner seems to be out a lot. Such an angry old man.”

“Alto is the better of the two,” Toro told her. “And he has such colorful clothing.”

The three continued on and reached Ari and Maeve’s place. Rowan knocked on the door, Maeve eventually answering. “Thank you,” she said as Toro started handing her the canned goods she had purchased through the app.

“How is Ari?” Olivia asked.

“He’s…” Maeve ran her hand through her gray hair. “He had a rough start this morning. You want to come in and say hi?”

“Certainly, if it doesn’t take too much of your time,” she said politely.

Olivia, Rowan, and Toro entered the home to find Ari seated on the couch, stiff as ever. Since they didn’t have masks, they kept their distance, the three standing on the other side of the room. He slowly tilted his head in their direction, life burning in his eyes. “Thanks for delivering, boys,” Ari said slowly. “I would stand, but…”

“It’s okay to sit,” Rowan told him, “we were just stopping in to say hi.”

“What do you have planned for today?” he asked, Ari trying to smile but unable to do so, his lips twitching.

“We’re going to have a picnic with our dad,” Toro told him.

“Picnic, do you hear that?” Maeve asked her husband. “We should have a picnic today. In the backyard.”

“We could have a picnic right here,” Ari said, a hint of humor in his voice. “The most important thing about… having a picnic is the people you have it with… not where you have it. Well…” He made a sound with his throat. “I’ll let you three get on your way. Enjoy your day.”

They left the house, and as soon as they did, Olivia wiped a tear away with the back of her hand.

“Are you crying?” Toro asked.

“He’s just getting so much worse,” she said, trying not to sob. “When I first came he could still move around and talk. He was still writing at that time too. I wonder if he even writes now. Now it’s like he’s stuck in his body or something.”

Rowan got this overwhelming sense to put an arm around her shoulder but didn’t, letting Olivia suffer alone. Maybe once they knew each other better, it would be something he did.

“I can’t imagine being that stiff,” Toro said as he looked down at his hands. “Digital neuronal dementia, that’s what it’s called, right? Does everyone get that stiff?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t think so,” Rowan said. “Maybe we could ask Dr. Restivo.”

“Sorry,” Olivia said as she wiped her face with her sleeve. “Let’s finish the delivery so we can have breakfast. I’m hungry.”

“I think Gilda’s house is next, right?” Toro asked.

“Just follow your nose,” Rowan said as he turned to the East Docks. It wasn’t long before an absolutely wonderful scent reached his nostrils. They stepped up to Gilda’s door and knocked. It took her a moment, but she eventually came to the door.

“Lifesavers,” she said, the woman in an apron covered in flour. “I’m baking some biscottis for the first batch of Sacred Cat Products! We need something that’ll last a little bit longer until we can get some traction on the mainland, then I can make fresh things. I’m thinking about making dog biscuits as well.”

“What about cat biscuits?” Toro asked.

Both Olivia and Gilda laughed at this, Olivia’s laughter irking Rowan some as he wished that he was the one who had made her laugh.

“That’s not a bad idea,” she said. “If you two just bring the stuff in, I’ll handle it from there. I’m sure you have other things to do. More deliveries, right?”

“Just one more.” Rowan equipped the ten-pound bag of flour and followed Gilda into her home. Rather than make it magically appear in her kitchen, he carried it for a little bit, hoping to impress Olivia.

Once all the supplies were out, Gilda checked everything, the woman practically giddy with excitement. “I just love this new service. I really don’t have to leave the house anymore!”

They left her home and turned to Ringo’s place, where they found the retired coder seated on the porch, Curtis the researcher not far from him. As usual, Curtis looked like a professor in his tweed jacket and his polkadot bowtie, his glasses sitting on the tip of his nose. Ringo was the exact opposite in his red jumpsuit, his glasses enlarging his eyes to the point that it almost looked comical.

“Now that is service with a smile,” Curtis said as he placed the book he was reading down on his lap.

“The app works, just like I told you it would,” Ringo told him.

“I knew it would work; I just didn’t know you would have it up and running so quickly.”

“It’s a rather simple application…” Ringo said before launching into an explanation on how it worked. The only word that Rowan recognized in his explanation was the word OMIB.

“Where do you want us to set the crackers and peanut butter?” Rowan asked. “We have Gilda’s muffins too.”

“Why…” Curtis looked to the small table next to them. “I want you to set them right here. I’m making peanut butter crackers and I’m eating muffins. Care to join us for some?”

“We have to get to breakfast,” Toro said.

“At Nedman’s?”

“That’s right.” Rowan placed the crackers on the small side table, Olivia setting the peanut butter next to it and the muffins.

“I really could go for a real breakfast…” Curtis said. “Ringo?”

“I’ll stay here.”

“Of course, you will, my good man, and I will keep you company. Care for a peanut butter cracker?”

Ringo grumbled a response.

“That’s what I like to hear,” Curtis said as he equipped a butter knife. “Brothers Toragan, Olivia? Thank you so very much for your delivery.”

Rowan and Toro raced to Nedman’s restaurant, Olivia calling out to them just as they passed the hoarders’ home.

Rowan waited for her to catch up.

“We can’t go this way,” she said, “not right in front of my grandparents’ home. If my grandma sees me, she will make me come inside.”

“Then which way do we go?” Toro asked.

“Just follow me…”

For a moment, it felt like Olivia was going to reach out and take Rowan’s hand. But she didn’t, and instead motioned them to the other side of the street.

“There’s a path behind Tuya’s place,” she said as she moved toward the woman’s sea of flowers. More had bloomed since the last time Rowan had really taken a look at them. It was clear that the woman knew what she was doing when it came to planting and cultivating.

They passed by an old fence, Rowan hearing a seagull squawk overhead. It landed on the fence and watched them for a moment before flapping its white wings and taking flight. They took a path that cut into a narrow lane with houses on either end, the homes here pressed tightly together.

“We’ve never been over here,” Toro said.

“These are the older homes on the island, but some of them are really nice,” Olivia explained. “Like Dr. Restivo’s place. It took me a while to actually meet everyone on the island. Some of the villagers aren’t as social as the others.”

“So you’ve actually met everyone then?” Rowan asked.

“Some, but not all. There is a little outpost on the western end of the island that is popular with some of the people that live off the grid, and I don’t know most of them. Sometimes they come here, but they can also go there to pick up things the skippers bring from the mainland.”

“Another village?” Toro asked.

“Not exactly.”

“Does it have a name?”

“Sacred Cat Outpost. I’ve only been there once.”

Eventually, things started to look just a little more familiar, and after turning down a short alleyway, the three came out in front of Nedman’s restaurant, his horde of cats looking up at them and turning away.

“Olivia?”

Rowan winced as he heard Doyona’s voice from across the street. The older woman was just stepping out of the general store, a small package in her hands.

“Grandma,” Olivia said, her lip quivering. “We were just going to have breakfast, then I was going to come home.”

“Nonsense.” The older woman approached the three of them, offering Rowan and his brother a tight grin. “Your grandfather is cooking breakfast. Your favorite.”

“Pancakes?”

“No, those are too sugary for you. Egg and toast, with a side of tomato sauce.”

Olivia’s shoulders sank just a little. “I guess I’ll see you two later,” she told Rowan and Toro.

“Bye,” Toro said, not quite picking up on the dynamics of the interaction.

Olivia joined her grandmother and they turned back to their home, Rowan catching Micah the cat watching them. He lifted his fist and shook it at the cat. Doyona turned at the exact time he did this, catching Rowan with his fist in the air.

She lifted her chin and moved on with a huff.

“Dang it,” Rowan said as he placed his hand behind his back.

“What?” Toro asked.

“I was shaking my fist at Micah the cat, but I think Doyona thought I was shaking it at her.”

Toro squinted as he looked across the street to see the cat that had assaulted them the other day, Micah with his dark-blue coat and strip of white on his chest, proudly strutting about.

“Well, I guess they both deserve it,” Toro said with a chuckle.

The two went inside Nedman’s restaurant to find the broad-shouldered man behind the counter polishing a glass. He saw them, smiled, and launched into the day’s specials. Figuring it would be a quick meal, Rowan and Toro both chose the break-cat sandwiches, Rowan going with eggs, bacon, and cheese; Toro with eggs, sausage, and cheese.

They ate quickly, and for once, Nedman didn’t spend too much time talking to them.

After their breakfast, they returned to the store, the cats out front staring at them curiously for a moment before Fiona and Zaena came forward.

“Such good kitties,” Toro said as he petted them.

“We really need to get over here as…”

“Cats?”

“It’s like you’re reading my mind,” Rowan told his younger brother. They entered the store to find their father just finishing going over an order sheet. He looked up at the boys and smiled. “How did the deliveries go?”

“Great,” Rowan told him.

“Well, we don’t have as much time as I thought we would to visit Old Man Stellars,” said their father. “I’m supposed to meet with everyone who wants to take part in Sacred Cat Products later this afternoon. Our first offering is really starting to look up. Tuya and Zola are doing candles with flower essence; Raydoh has some of his wreaths; and Dorno makes those little cat sculptures. Plus Gilda’s biscottis. More good news: Dorno is going to make us some stools as well, so we’ll talk about that.”

“Did you know there was another part of the island where people lived?” Toro asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know if people live there, but Olivia told us about Sacred Cat Outpost. She said it was on the western side of the island, where some of the people that live off the grid go to buy things, I guess.”

“I did not know that.”

“We also discovered a new road today too,” Toro told their father. “There are more houses.”

“You mean the one that runs behind the restaurant?”

Both boys nodded.

“Yes, I’m aware of that one. And you are right, there are more villagers. At some point, I might just have to go door-to-door to meet everyone, but I’m doing well enough to keep track of the people I’ve met just over the last week.”

“We saw Doyona in here,” Toro said.

“Yes, she needed to buy some cat food.”

“I think I may be in trouble with her,” Rowan told Ganix.

“Why’s that?”

He quickly glanced at his brother and looked away. “One of their cats is mean. She was walking back to her house with Olivia, and I shook my fist at the cat. Doyona turned, and maybe she thought I was shaking my fist at her.”

“Well, she’ll get over it,” Ganix said after a long pause. “Are you two ready? Let’s go there and then, like I said, I’ll have to head back to town. I don’t want you guys going all the way out to the beach we went to over there, but you could hang out in the orchard or something, if you’d like, and eat something there. I know I promised you lunch, but I’ve gotten busy.”

“It’s okay; we had a good breakfast,” Rowan said as he handed their father the change.

Ganix pocketed the money and motioned to the door. Once they stepped out, he told Rowan to lock up.

“I still don’t have a key,” Toro said.

“I’ll get on that at some point here,” Ganix told him. “It’s important you have a key as well.”

The three made their way up the cobblestone hill, Rowan already starting to feel hot as the sun continued to rise. At some point, he placed his hand over his brow to shield his eyes for a moment, a cat suddenly racing in front of them.

They passed the hoarders’ home and the town square and made their way down the hill, Tuya, Zola, Argat, and Gilda’s homes on the right, Gonpo, Chodak, Maeve, and Ringo’s homes on the left.

Rowan could smell fried fish as they turned toward the orchard, their path finally shaded by some trees. The three were relatively quiet, Ganix eventually whistling a song that Rowan recognized as something he used to sing when they were younger.

They stopped at the orchard just to take a quick look at it, Ganix leading them through the rows and up to the buildings that sat on the hill overlooking the apple-peach shrubs.

Once again, Ganix turned to look out over the orchard, the way the sun was hitting his face making him look majestic in that moment. Rowan almost copied the way his father stood but stopped himself just in time, especially once he caught Toro looking at him.

From there they continued back to the woods, following a loosely cut trail until they came to a rockier surface, the trees folding away, and the cliffs opening up.

Rowan could hear the sea now, and he could smell it too. Part of him wanted to rush to the side of the rock and look over, to see the water below and the mist lifting off it, the waves crashing against the jagged rock and spritzing the air with foam.

But he knew not to do anything rash, especially because he had a feeling that the bridge wasn’t going to be up, and that he would need to maintain a lie.

They walked for just a little bit longer before they spotted the mansion out on the sea stack, the place like a castle lifting out of the middle of nowhere.

“The bridge is down,” Ganix said.

Rowan glanced to his brother, his eyes flaring wide as he telepathically reminded Toro not to say anything about what had happened to the bridge. Toro immediately looked away, but not before giving Rowan a quick nod.

Truthfully, Rowan wanted to tell his father what happened, how they were able to transform into cats, and how they’d actually come across information that Vicar was planning to purchase the orchard by spying on him. And even though he had just told his brother through a quick glare not to say anything, Rowan was on the verge of saying something himself when his dad spoke.

“I hope he’s okay out there,” Ganix said, his hand shielding his face from the sun. He crouched and looked down at the base of the sea stack. “Do you think…” He turned to Rowan and motioned for him to come to him. Rowan crouched and approached his father, looking over the edge as well.

“It looks like there’s some type of cave down there, and I’m pretty sure that’s the start of stairs…” Ganix said. “Maybe there’s another entrance. Maybe…” Ganix slowly stood, and motioned for Rowan and Toro to follow him. He walked until they were just a bit behind the man’s mysteriously isolated mansion, where he confirmed his premonition.

“There is a dock at the back,” he said, pointing to the base of the rock structure. “And a door. There must be a stairwell cut into the rock.”

Rowan peered over the edge and saw what his father was pointing at. There was a single boat moored there, which he assumed was what Stellars used to come to town.

“So we need to take a boat to go there?” Toro asked.

“Actually…” Ganix turned to them. “Maybe we could do it together. I’ve piloted a boat before, you know, back when I was a teenager. Your grandparents and I spent a summer at a lake house that belonged to a friend, and I learned how to pilot a boat there. I know that there are some extra boats down there at the dock, and I’m pretty sure one belongs to Chodak…”

“Are you saying that we could go by boat?” Rowan asked.

“Sure, why not? Just the three of us. I’ll ask Cameron for a quick refresher tomorrow, and I’ll speak to Chodak about borrowing his boat later today or sometime tomorrow. He stops by from time to time because he likes fishing off the West Docks. The only tough part is going to be going to those rocks over there,” he said, once again sweeping his hand over the misty waves below. “We could always go around it entirely, but it looked like going through the passageway was a possibility.”

“Let’s do it,” Toro said. “That sounds so fun.”

“Rowan?”

“Yeah, Dad.”

“One other thing,” Ganix told him as he turned back toward the orchard. “Doyona was kind enough to tell me that they are going to have a village vote two days from now. We just need to speak to him,” he said, gesturing toward Old Man Stellars’ mansion, “before that vote. We’ll head out in the morning two days from now, which gives me tomorrow to secure the boat and take a quick lesson,” he said with a lighthearted chuckle. “I know that is cutting it close, but I don’t want to give Vicar a chance to respond to our little strategy here, so we’ll wait till the morning of the meeting. Sometimes, you have to outfox the fox.”

Rowan imitated his father overlooking the orchard, his hands on his waist. He and his brother were alone now, their father heading back to the village to meet with some of the locals about Sacred Cat Products.

It had turned out to be a bright day, the sun high in the sky now, not a cloud in sight. It was starting to feel humid, and while Rowan could no longer smell the brine of the sea, he was able to pick up something almost sweet in the air, a hint of nectar to it.

“I hope Dad gets to buy this place,” Toro said.

Rowan turned back to the large home that overlooked the orchard. He could imagine living there, and how nice it would be. It really was different from their home in the suburbs of Any_City, neighbors all around him, everything instantly accessible. If they lived out here, he would have to walk to the village unless they had bikes. It would also put them further away from the sea, Rowan no longer able to enjoy sitting on the balcony with his father and enjoy the breeze and the lighthouse in the distance.

There wasn’t a balcony here, but there was a patio that would be equally nice to sit on. He imagined it got pretty dark at night; he could hear the crickets chirping now in his head, everything serene, perfect.

“Hey,” Toro said, snapping Rowan out of his reverie.

“What is it?”

“I think…” Toro scanned the orchard again and nodded. “It’s her!”

Sure enough, a cloud of dust kicked up, Rowan making out the form of a young girl in its center. Even worse, the cloud was heading their way.

He immediately equipped the panda sunglasses that Gonpo had given them. “Protect your eyes,” he told his brother, who also equipped his sunglasses. Rowan’s wooden sword appeared in his hand, and Toro went for his broom, the two standing stoically at the top of the hill, waiting for the dust girl to reach them.

The cloud of dust that surrounded her lifted into a ball and came slamming down on top of the two of them, Rowan swatting his sword at it, Toro doing the same with his broom, the young boy’s red cape flailing in the calamity.

Rowan lunged forward and tried to hit the center of the dust storm, only to be blown back, and tossed off his feet. He saw Toro charge ahead with his broom, and swung wide, his younger brother throwing every ounce of strength he possessed into his attacks on the dust girl.

This had the effect of shifting the dust to the side just a little, Rowan surprised to see that it had an actual effect.

“Keep hitting it!” he shouted as he came forward again, both hands on the hilt of his wooden sword. He swung with all his might, Rowan not paying attention to his surroundings as he launched his next attack.

He had forgotten they were standing on a hill, Rowan immediately losing the ground beneath him.

He tumbled down the incline, just barely managing to get his hand up in time to protect his head. Rowan landed in the bramble below, his adrenaline shooting him back to his feet.

He could hear his brother above him still fighting, the dust thick enough that Toro likely hadn’t seen Rowan’s fall. After a quick check to make sure he wasn’t bleeding—which he wasn’t aside from a few scratches on the arm he used to protect his head—Rowan scrambled up the hill. It would have been easier to go around, but the incline wasn’t too steep, and he was now focused solely on reaching his brother.

He made his way up to the top and swatted at the cloud of dust, his sword overhead. He put all his might into it as well, noticing that each strike sent the dust trailing away from them.

The glasses were helping. While everything was tinted now, he hadn’t gotten any sand in his eyes yet, which allowed him to see that they were making some progress, the cloud of dust slowly shrinking.

“Keep attacking!” he shouted to his brother.

While Toro swiped his broom from the front, Rowan circled around to the back of the cloud of dust, once again seeing the outline of a girl within it. He shouted as he swung his wooden blade, Rowan sending it to the air again and again.

The cloud of dust swooped up, swirled once, and came crashing down onto the ground, both Rowan and his younger brother thrown off their feet.

Rowan was just scrambling to get back up to go after the dust girl again when he stopped, his head tilting to the side as he saw that the air was no longer granulated.

The dust girl sat on the ground, sobbing.

“Don’t,” Rowan told his brother, who was creeping up on her, about to hit her with his broom.

“Hey,” Rowan said, still with his sword at the ready as he tried to get the dust girl’s attention.

She kept sobbing.

“Can you understand us?” Toro asked.

She paused and looked over to Rowan’s younger brother, her brow burrowing. “Of course, I can understand you,” she said with a bit of a lisp. “Why did you hit me?”

“Why did we hit you? Why do you keep attacking us?” Rowan asked.

“I… I was just playing around.”

“You attacked the inside of our store, you attacked us at Gilda’s place…” Rowan shook his head. “How is that playing around?”

“I’m sorry, okay!”

“What are you, anyway?” Toro asked.

“I don’t know, what are you?”

“I’m a boy,” he said.

“A little scrawny, but…” She lifted her chin just a bit. It was hard to make out her true features, but her outline was visible, the bits of dirt sparkling in the sun. “I suppose you are a boy.”

“And I’m a teenager,” Rowan said, almost proudly.

This caused a grin to take shape on the dust girl’s face. She stood, her head tilting a little to the right as she observed them. “I was once a teenager.”

“So you are a ghost?” Rowan asked. “Or are you still alive?”

“Yeah, are you still alive?” Toro asked, chiming in.

“You are talking to me, aren’t you?”

“But you’re made of dust…”

“We’re all made of the same thing,” she said to Rowan, seemingly annoyed at his comment. “I shouldn’t have spoken to you…”

“Why do you keep bothering us?”

“Aren’t you going to ask me my name?” she asked Rowan, offended now as she pressed her hand to her chest.

“What’s your name?” Toro asked. “I’m Toro, and this is Rowan.”

“I know,” she said, Rowan noticing that she didn’t have a social status. Nothing floated in front of her letting him know who she was, which was likely the reason he hadn’t asked for her name. It wasn’t normally something he asked a person when the information was readily available.

“My name is Blanche, and I have lived on this island for a very long time.”

“How long?” Rowan asked.

“Since Any_War III.”

“That is a long time,” Toro said, still with his sunglasses on just in case she flared up again. “Our dad was only five years old when the war started.”

“So you are old,” Rowan said.

“Old?” She stood and took a step closer to him, and as she did her leg started to disappear. “I’m dead. What part of that do you not understand?”

Rowan swallowed hard, not daring to move away from her as she neared him. “So you actually are a ghost?”

“What’s the difference between a ghost and a spirit?” Toro asked.

Blanche turned to him. “I don’t know.”

“Wait, would that mean you know the spirit of the island, the lady with the cat mask?” Rowan asked.

“The spirit of the island? Of course I don’t know her. I’ve never even seen her. I’ve only heard about her from…”

“From who?” Rowan asked, entirely confused at this point.

“People used to talk about her, and she has a shrine in the mountains.”

“So you aren’t a spirit, you are a ghost, which means you’re dead, which means you’re not supposed to be here,” Rowan said. He made sure not to be too firm with his words, realizing that they were having an effect on her.

“Fine, I guess I’m a ghost,” she said, sulking. “I just thought it would be more interesting to you if I was a spirit.”

“What is the difference between a spirit and a ghost again?” Toro asked.

“Later,” Rowan told him, feeling like he had made a connection with Blanche. “We think you are interesting already,” he said in a more diplomatic tone. “After all, you can turn to dust. All we can do is…”

She giggled. “Turn to cats? I’ve been watching you, and I think the two of you are cute when you’re cats. Two cute little brown kitties.”

“You’ve been watching us?” Toro asked.

“It’s really easy for me to get around,” she said, gesturing toward her legs, which were now translucent. “I only wish I had discovered the cat trick when I visited the island.”

“You died here?” Rowan asked.

“I did. The island was different then, and even though there was a war going on, we had more tourists, and people trying to get away from the battle on the borders,” she explained. “That’s why my family was here, the Stellars.”

“Wait, you’re related to Old Man Stellars?” Toro asked.

“It’s weird that people call him that now, especially because the island is full of old people. But he is older than all of them, and he was here before probably half of them. There are some people who have been here their entire life, however, like the fishermen. Anyway, he is my grandfather. I came here because my dad was serving in the military, and he wanted me to stay in a safe location. The house that he lives in, the mansion on the rock, is really large and there’s plenty to do inside. But one day, I got bored, so I was playing on the bridge.”

“You played on that bridge?” Rowan asked, recalling how it had snapped.

“I did, and I saw what happened to you two yesterday. You are quite lucky that you were in your cat forms. I wondered how long you’d be stuck there, and I thought about trying to help you in some way, but I thought I would scare you…”

“So you attacked us here…”

“Like I said, I was playing,” she told Rowan with finality.

“So you fell off the bridge?” Toro asked before Rowan could say something about her playing style.

“I did, and I actually survived the fall, but then I tried to swim to shore and ended up getting swept under the sea. I drowned, believe it or not, because of the currents. They found my body on the western beach.” She started to get sad again. “They searched for days…”

“That sounds terrible,” Rowan finally said after giving her a moment to collect herself.

“Things changed after that,” she said. “My grandfather owns a lot of the land on the island, and he gradually stopped selling it or paying people to look after it. The war ended and other tourist destinations popped up, so people stopped coming here. Then the school shut down, so any families left that had children had to go back to the mainland. And now, here we are, with the two of you.”

“And Olivia,” Toro added, “she’s a kid too.”

“She’s less adventurous than you two are, but she can get into some mischief. But I’ll let her surprise you, rather than tell you what I know.”

“I don’t mean for this to sound weird,” Rowan started to say, “but why are you here? If you died, why are you still here?”

“Oh, that. I’m looking for something,” she said. “There was something that was really important to me, and I lost it. But I think it’s somewhere on the western beach.”

“What is it?” Rowan asked.

“A locket. It had a picture of my mother and my father, and it was given to them by my grandfather. If I can find it, I won’t have to be here anymore. At least this is what I hope happens.”

Rowan and Toro exchanged glances. “Maybe we can look for this locket for you once we get out that way,” Rowan said. “We haven’t been to the western side of the island yet, but will hopefully get bikes soon, and once we have bikes, it might be easier for us to get over there.”

“You would look for my locket?” she asked.

“If it’ll make you happy…”

“You know, I’m not the only spirit…” She stopped speaking and placed her hands behind her back, smiling, a bit of dust falling from the corners of her cheeks. “Ghost, I’m not the only ghost on the island looking for something. But I’ll let them reach out if they want.”

“So you actually aren’t made of dust?”

“No,” she told Toro. “But it’s easier for me to show you my form in this way.”

“We were calling you dust girl,” Rowan told her.

“I’m aware, and I don’t like the name. I prefer you call me by my real name, Blanche.”

“Okay, Blanche,” said Rowan. “We’ll try to find the locket for you.” As the words left his lips, the prompt for a Side Quest appeared, Rowan briefly scanning over it.

Side Quest: Help Blanche find her locket

“I can help you with something too…” she said.

“What’s that?”

“In fact, I can help you with a lot of things. Let’s start small. I was following you two the other day when I saw what happened with those two female cats.”

“The twisted sisters,” Rowan said. “There’s another cat that bothers us too, Micah.”

“We can deal with him later, but, I think it’s time we pay those two a visit…”

Blanche turned in the direction of Sacred Cat Village. She started to float in the air and stopped when she realized that the boys hadn’t started following her yet.

“Aren’t you coming?” she asked, turning back to them.

“To the caves?” Rowan asked.

“Correct. I hope you two are ready for a little prank.”

Rather than go through the village, Blanche led the two brothers deeper into the woods, Rowan sensing that they were taking a shortcut to the caves. The bramble here was thick, and Rowan had to be extra careful not to cut himself on one of the thorny branches, or trip over any of the roots jutting out of the soil.

Blanche made it look easy, the ghost floating just a few feet above the air, nothing stopping her from racing ahead. As she moved, leaves and dust swirled around her, Rowan realizing that to an older person passing by, she would look somewhat like a small gust of wind.

As they carefully navigated the woods, he thought about what she had told them, and how she had fallen into the ocean and later drowned. He wondered what effect this had on her grandfather. It must have been traumatic for Old Man Stellars.

They reached the caves, Toro crawling in before Rowan. As they had before, they emerged on the other side as little brown cats, Rowan instantly familiar with being in this body.

“So cute,” said Blanche as she lowered before them, placing her hands under her cheeks. “Especially your white socks, Rowan.”

“We are not cute, we’re tough,” Toro said, getting into an attack posture. Rowan fell over laughing, and it wasn’t long before Toro pounced on top of him, the two play-fighting for just a moment.

They rolled out of the cave, Blanche laughing as she floated over them.

“Your little brother is going to beat you,” she said, which made Rowan fight just a little harder. He bit down onto the nape of Toro’s neck and tried to toss him onto his side, only for Toro to swat him in the face with his paw.

His strike came too close to Rowan’s eye, causing him to take a few steps back. “Enough,” he said.

“You hurt my neck,” said Toro as he lifted his head back, a pained expression taking shape on his face.

“Are you two here to fight each other? Or are we here to take care of the twisted sisters?” Blanche asked.

“The sisters,” said Rowan.

“I have to tell you, it is so nice to be able to talk to someone. You would…” Her form solidified just a little more, her eyes suddenly large, and almost droopy. “It’s really hard being alone and not having anyone to speak to.”

“You can’t talk to anyone?” Toro asked as they started down the hill. They were on the second path that led up to the caves, which ran along the right side of the hoarders’ home.

“Just some of the other ghosts,” she told him.

“So there really are other ghosts?” Rowan asked, following up with something she mentioned earlier.

“Yes, I told you there were. But some aren’t as friendly as me.”

“And what about monsters?” Toro asked. “Are there any monsters?”

“There are…” Blanche stopped floating for a second and turned to them. “There are some strange things out there. I can say that. A few things can even scare me, believe it or not. This island is unlike any island in our world.”

“Have you been to any other islands?” Rowan asked.

“Yes, when I was a child, I went to Vicaria Island. So there, I’ve been to more than one,” said Blanche as she lifted her chin just a little. “And this is the strangest one, believe me.”

“Out of two?”

“No, out of everyplace,” she told Rowan pointedly. “You’ll see. The longer you stay on this island, the more it will make sense. Well…” She considered how she just had phrased this. “The more sense it makes, the less sense it makes. No, that is confusing as well. Um… You’ll just have to find out yourself. Are you two living here permanently?”

Rowan felt a sinking feeling in his chest. “We’re supposed to go back to the mainland for school at the end of summer.”

“Really? I guess there is no school here any longer, so the mainland is the only option.”

“I’d like to stay,” Toro told Blanche. “What about you?”

“I don’t know,” Rowan lied.

The conversation made him want to speak frankly with their father, for Ganix to tell them everything that had happened. Rowan had been so distracted as of late by the sheer wonder of being on Sacred Cat Island that he was starting to feel like he had let his father off the hook when it came to telling them the truth about his job and their mother.

That would have to change soon.

“Come on,” Blanche said as she continued toward the village. “Those cats aren’t going to prank themselves.”

As they passed the hoarders’ home, Hiccup ran out to greet them. “If it isn’t my favorite two meow-brothers,” he said, Blanche disappearing.

Rowan was just about to ask where she’d gone when he heard a whisper in his ear, causing him to stand on edge. “Just take me to the sisters and I’ll do the rest,” Blanche said.

“What’s gotten into you?” Hiccup asked.

“Nothing,” Rowan told the cat with the pink tail.

Rocket crept out of a pile of overturned desks. He stretched his front legs forward and arched his back. He then reversed the posture, lifting his front and lowering his back.

“Come on,” Toro told him. “We’re going to pay the twisted sisters a visit.”

“Why would we do that?” Rocket asked as he approached them.

“Because, we have a little surprise for them,” said Rowan, his whiskers twitching as a smile took shape on his face. “You’re going to want to see this, trust me.”

Rocket bounced on his feet for a moment, testing his own springiness. “Just getting ready to run away once they attack us…”

“Not a bad idea, meow,” said Hiccup, the white cat with the pink tail quickly mirroring his peer.

“These two cats are so dumb,” Blanche whispered to Rowan. “Easily the dumbest cats on the island.”

Rowan hid his smirk by turning away from the two, who were bouncing up and down as if they were on a trampoline.

“Nothing like a little calisthenics, or catisthenics, meow,” Hiccup said, “to get the blood flowing.”

“Does it really work?” Toro asked.

“Of course it works. You are looking at two of the smartest cats on the island. We know all about feline physiology,” Rocket said.

Blanche laughed in Rowan’s ear. “Real idiots, these two.”

Rowan started to trot ahead, Toro quickly catching up with him. “Blanche is still here, right?” he asked.

“She is,” he assured his younger brother.

“I hope you’re right about this,” Rocket said once he reached him, Hiccup on his tail.

As they moved down the cobblestone road, they ran into Tuya and Zola, who stood in front of Tuya’s home discussing flowers. Rowan offered them a short meow and they continued on their way.

The four cats were just about to reach Chodak’s fence when Rowan stopped, a thought coming to them.

“We want to get petted,” he told Hiccup and Rocket.

“Petted?” Rocket peered at him curiously, as he sat, his tail lapping against the ground. “Oh, you mean a massage? Sure. Just go over to those older ladies over there, they’ll pet you. Loosening up before you attack the twisted sisters, eh?”

“Something like that.”

“Good meow-call,” Hiccup chimed in.

The four of them headed back over to Tuya and Zola. Spry from all her gardening, Tuya was quick to bend down and start petting them, Rowan feeling her hand moving over his back, the sensation quite relaxing. He was a bit surprised to find that it was almost like a massage, just as Rocket had said.

It felt great too, especially when she started scratching behind his ears. Rowan found himself purring, and he would have continued getting the attention had it not been for Blanche’s voice again.

“Hey, what are you doing?” she asked sharply.

The sudden appearance of her voice in his head startled him, Rowan bolting across the street. Toro quickly joined him, his actions also inspiring Hiccup and Rocket, who ran to them as well.

“These cats scare so easily,” Tuya said as she slowly stood. “You’d think that people are mean to them or something.”

“What are they talking about?” Rocket asked. “Are they saying nice things?”

“They are just talking to talk,” Rowan said as he turned back to Chodak’s place.

He could smell fish in the air; as soon as they stepped around the fence he saw that the fisherman had recently cleaned up his catch, and that he had left some of the parts on the ground for his cats to eat.

Rowan’s eyes narrowed on the two female ragamuffins, Nadine and Yuri. Chodak’s third cat, Lhandon, was there as well, and it was unfortunate that he was going to be in the line of fire for whatever was about to happen.

“Hey, raga-dumb-dumbs,” Rowan said, his legs out wide as he got into a battle stance. “We’re back.”

“Yeah, raga-dumb-dumbs!” said Toro.

“What was that, meow-meow?” Nadine asked as she turned to the two of them, the cat licking the blood off her lips.

“You two think you’re so tough,” Rowan said, his leg shaking a little now, “but you never battled with brothers like us before.”

“We’re the Toragans, raga-dumb-dumbs!” Toro added.

“They look angry, guys,” Rocket said as he backed away. Yuri joined Nadine, the two cats with their ears flitted back now, both baring their teeth.

“What are you going to do about it?” Rowan asked, his knee starting to shake just a little. “Where are you?” he whispered to Blanche.

“You want us to do something about two runts like you?” Nadine came just a bit closer, now crouched and ready to attack.

Rowan swallowed hard. “You wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“Yeah, raga-dumb—”

“Enough,” Rowan told his brother, mostly to calm his own nerves. It seemed like they were about to be the ones who had been pranked.

“Not so tough now, are you, meow-meow?” Yuri asked this as she crept toward Rowan, the older cat noticing that he was starting to backpedal.

She pressed off her back legs, and as she started to make it into the air, a gust of wind swept forward and sent her spinning into her counterpart. The wind kicked up more dust, and pelted the two ragamuffins, Nadine and Yuri scattering as Blanche chased them.

Lhandon, the other cat that lived at Chodak’s place, ran toward the home and slid under it, hiding as Nadine was lifted into the air by yet another gust of wind and dropped to the ground.

“That’s right!” Rowan said, feeling emboldened by what was happening.

The wind forced the two female cats to collide, both finally getting their bearings and running as quickly as they could in the opposite directions.

“Let’s go,” Rowan said, taking off.

Rocket, Hiccup, and his brother quickly caught up with him as he ran back toward the hoarders’ home, the four of them laughing along the way.

“I don’t know how you did that, meow, but that was the best thing I’ve seen all month.”

“All year!” Rocket added.

“Thanks,” Rowan said, not mentioning how worried he was for a moment there when Blanche didn’t respond. “Those two really had it coming.”

Rowan and Toro returned to the cave. Rowan would have preferred hanging out with Hiccup and Rocket for a bit longer, but he had this itching feeling that they needed to get back to the general store.

“I guess this is it,” Blanche said, the dust girl floating before them. The two had just transformed back into boys. They stood in front of the cave now, Toro once again wearing his red cape.

“We will try to find your locket,” Rowan told her. “Promise.”

“And I’ll be around. It was fun scaring those cats.”

Toro laughed. “Yeah, it was. Raga-dumb-dumbs…”

“If you ever need me, call me,” she said as she slowly started to fade away.

“I’m glad we don’t have to fight her any longer,” Rowan told his younger brother as they headed through the woods, taking the path on the far right.

“I wonder how many other ghosts there are on the island,” Toro said.

“Beats me,” he said as they started to move a little bit faster, Rowan feeling the urge to race his brother. He remembered what happened last time they did that, and decided against it.

As they reached the main road, Rowan saw an oddly shaped shadow heading in their direction. He looked up to spot the daily prize, and noticed that one of Tuya’s cats was watching it as well.

“It’s too far up,” Toro said, the young boy squinting at the prize.

“I suppose we could follow it,” said Rowan. “Maybe the wind will bring it down a little bit. But I don’t know. It’s pretty high up there. Even if you got on my shoulders and used your broom, you still wouldn’t be able to reach it.”

“Next time, then?”

“Next time.”

Rowan and Toro made their way down the cobblestone hill, past homes that they were becoming increasingly familiar with. The two stopped in front of the general store, the cats that were normally out front coming to them. As usual, the two females, Fiona and Zaena, weaved through Toro’s legs as he petted them, or massaged them, as Rocket had said.

The three males, Quantum, Ryuk, and the overweight tabby known as Meme, weren’t as social. At one point, it seemed like Meme was going to let Rowan scratch his fat belly, but in the end he ended up swatting at him and scurrying away.

The door of the general store popped open and Rowan saw Dr. Restivo standing there with a bag in his arms and a smile on his face. He could see other people behind him, Dorno and Tuya joining their father at the counter.

“Boys,” Dr. Restivo said. “We were just talking about the two of you.”

“Really?” Toro asked.

“That’s right. We were talking about how I could use your help carrying my bag to my home,” Tuya said.

“Rowan, Toro,” said their father, who stood behind the counter. “Help Tuya here with her bags. Also, I have another delivery for Ringo and Curtis.”

“Hey, boys,” said Dorno as Rowan and his younger brother came into the store. “I hope you are ready to be seated…”

“You’re really making stools?” Toro asked the carpenter. Rowan’s eyes fell on to Dorno’s faded tattoos, which were now covered by thick hair. The other person he’d met with lots of tattoos was Raydoh, Rowan wondering how many each man had and if they hurt.

“I sure am. You won’t have to stand on a suitcase anymore to eat your supper.”

“That’s great,” Toro said.

“What do you say?” Ganix asked him.

“Thank you!” Toro ran into the back room of the store to pick up the delivery for Ringo and Curtis. He returned quickly with another bag full of cookies. “More? We just delivered something to them this morning.”

“Let me take that bag from you,” Rowan told Tuya after his father gave him a subtle nod.

“Thank you, young man.” The gardener handed him the bag, which was much heavier than Rowan thought it would have been. He almost dropped it on the floor but managed to catch himself just in time.

He looked up to see Uncle the cat now seated on the stairs and looking at them. “Hi, Uncle,” Rowan said, surprised to hear the cat meow back at him.

“You named him Uncle?” Dr. Restivo asked as he fished in his pocket for a lollipop. “I’m fresh out, boys, sorry.”

“It’s okay,” said Toro. “And yep, we named him after our uncle.”

“Great-uncle,” Ganix reminded him.

“He sure was great!”

Dr. Restivo laughed at Toro’s joke and placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You got a sense of humor, don’t you?”

“The family comedian,” said Ganix. “Boys, hurry back and we will have dinner.”

“Ooo… dinner. I like the sound of that,” Rowan said, trying to be funny as well. But no one laughed at his statement. He turned to the door rather than show any disappointment on his face. He was a few steps ahead of Tuya when she called out to him.

“Don’t go too far,” she said.

Rowan paused, giving her time to reach him. Toro caught up as well, carrying Curtis and Ringo’s biscuits.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard by now,” Tuya began, “but the village council meeting has been set for two days from now. There will be two votes…”

“Yep,” Toro said. “We heard.”

“Believe me, Doyona is going to do everything she can to get her way. She’s not…” Tuya paused, not sure of how she should phrase things. “She’s not a terrible person, but she’s unhappy, and she brings her unhappiness to others as a way for everyone to share her suffering. It’s complicated. I’m sure it sounds complicated.”

“People here would be idiots not to want to improve the place,” Rowan said.

Tuya paused. “I would be very careful going around using words like that,” she finally said. “Not that I disagree with you, but people generally have an aversion to having the light shone on them. Let me rephrase: you two need to be on excellent behavior for the next few days, just in case anyone was thinking of voting with Doyona, which means you should be careful what you say.”

“Sorry,” Rowan told her.

“No need to apologize to me, just mind your Ps and Qs for the next two days. Can you handle that?”

“I’m sure we can,” Toro said confidently.

“Good…” Tuya reached her fence, the floral scent hitting Rowan as bright-yellow bees buzzed about. Her cats approached, their information appearing before Rowan.

Name: Frances

Breed: Shorthair

Sex: Female

Color: Burnt Orange

Age (Human Years): 3

Age (Cat Years): 29

Known Associates: Dorian, Ozella

Offspring: Rocket

Name: Dorian

Breed: Bengal

Sex: Female

Color: Yellow

Secondary Color: Orange, Brown, White

Age (Human Years): 2.3

Age (Cat Years): 26

Known Associates: Frances, Ozella

Name: Ozella

Breed: Singapura

Sex: Female

Color: Light Brown

Secondary Color: White

Age (Human Years): 5.3

Age (Cat Years): 38

Known Associates: Frances, Dorian

“Singapura,” said Toro, clearly reading the information on the Catpendium.

“How did you know?” Tuya asked. “Oh, you’re using Nedman’s Catpendium, aren’t you?”

“We sure are,” Toro said.

“That’s nice. I tried it out, but I found it to be tedious. I lived in the city for most of my life, and I’m used to being bombarded with information. That’s one reason I like it out here. It’s just…” Tuya glanced up at the inner rim of her straw hat for a moment as she searched for the word. “Tranquil. That’s all.”

“Do you want us to bring them in?” Rowan asked once they reached her front step.

“No, I can take everything from here.”

Rowan handed her the bag, and once he did, Tuya thanked them again and stepped inside her home.

“Up next, a delivery,” Toro said. “Want to race?”

“You remember what happened last time we raced, right?”

“Okay, how about this. We will make a delivery, and then we will race up the hill. But not down the hill.”

“You’re on.”

Rowan and Toro rushed to the East Docks, where they made the delivery of cookies to Ringo and Curtis, who, as usual, were seated on the front porch enjoying iced tea. The men didn’t say much to them, the two having a heated discussion on some place he’d never heard of.

Rowan and his younger brother stepped back out into the street, the buttery smell of baked goods coming from Gilda’s home, Rowan’s mouth watering.

“We should have dinner soon,” Toro said.

“Good call.”

Rowan got in a running position. “On your mark… Get set…”

He took off, yelling go! once he was a few paces ahead of his younger brother.

“Cheater,” Toro cried as he quickly caught up to his brother. He surged forward, making it to the top of the hill before Rowan could. Once Rowan joined him, he dropped his hands to his knees, taking in exaggerated breaths.

“You’re so fast…” he said, a grin taking shape on his face.

“And you cheated.”

“I didn’t cheat, I was merely getting a head start…” Rowan laughed, his brother laughing as well. “Come on. Let’s go bother Dad about dinner.”

“Good idea.”

They headed down to the general store. Rowan could now see a few gray clouds in the distance over the sea, the light dancing against the tops of the dark-green waves, a flock of seagulls circling the water. He wondered where Logan the pelican was at that moment, reminded that they needed to get a whistle to try to call him.

“Wait a minute,” he said, stopping in his tracks. Rowan had to blink twice but he was certain what he had just seen.

“What is it?” Toro asked.

“Look…” Rowan pointed to the water, his younger brother following his finger just as one of the pink dolphins with yellow fins broke the surface and dove back in.

“It’s the dolphins!” Toro said.

“Let’s see if we can get down there…”

Toro caught up with him, and soon, the two stood at the top of the stairs that led down to the dock, near the giant cat statue covered in moss. It was a little bit harder to see the dolphins from here, but eventually they saw one of them come up from the water and go back under.

“Should we go down to the docks?” Toro asked.

Rowan hesitated. The last time they’d been down to the docks, they had faced off against an enormous catfish. There was no telling what they would encounter this time.

“Let’s just stay here. In fact…” An idea came to Rowan. “You know, if we really wanted weapons to fight the catfish…”

“You mean the giant one?”

He nodded. “Exactly. As I was saying, if we really wanted weapons to fight it, we should talk to Dorno. I’m sure he has some spare wood lying around that he could make into even better swords. I’ve been saying we need to upgrade our weapons for a while now…”

Rowan recalled his sword, which he had picked up at a renaissance faire near their suburb. It wasn’t very large, and it certainly wasn’t sharp, but it did work as a blunt object.

“I sort of like my broom.”

Rowan laughed. “You can keep the broom as well, but better swords could really help us.”

“Do you think Dorno would really make them for us?”

“That, I don’t know,” said Rowan, once again looking out at the water, the waves lashing against the dock. “Probably. I mean, we’re kids. And we could just say that we want to play with wooden swords, or that only I have one, and we would like matching ones. Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s tell him that.”

“Right now?”

“Maybe. Although, he might still be at the general store.”

“We don’t want to tell him in front of Dad.”

“Not if we can help it,” Rowan agreed. “We’ll figure it out. Let’s go check with Dad at the store, and then we can go from there. And we’ll get dinner too. I’m hungry.”

Rowan and Toro entered the store to find their dad standing at the counter, his arm stretched over his head as he yawned. There was now a picture on the wall behind him of Rowan, Toro, and Olivia making the first delivery, Rowan wondering what Doyona would think about it next time she came in. Ganix was alone, and by the looks of it, he had just finished closing up shop.

“Hey, boys.”

“We’re hungry, Dad.”

“I figured you would be,” he told Toro. “But I’m not interested in eating Proxima food tonight, and Nedman’s is closed.”

“Permanently?” Toro asked.

“No, nothing like that. Just for tonight. Everyone needs a night off.”

“Then what will we eat?”

“Well, I know you two have been back and forth to the other side of the village several times today, but I was thinking about seeing if there was something good for us at the Fisherman’s Restaurant. We haven’t eaten there yet, and maybe it would be smart for me to strike up a conversation with Tunga. After all, he’s on the council.”

“Sounds good,” said Rowan.

“How’s the weather out there?” their dad asked on the tail end of a yawn. “Sorry about that.”

“It was warm earlier, but it’s starting to get breezy,” Rowan said.

Ganix equipped his green jacket and he slipped his arm into it. “When we get back, you’ll need to call your mother as well. I’m sure she would like to hear from you two.”

“What about you, Dad?” Toro asked. “Wouldn’t she like to hear from you as well?”

“Sure, we’ll all talk to her,” he said as he came around the counter and let his sons outside.

The three left the general store and started up the hill, Ganix holding his head high, his nostrils flaring open a bit as he took a breath of fresh air. “It’s been a long day,” he told his sons, “but a good day. Lots of good conversations.”

“How did the meeting go?” Rowan asked, referring to the gathering he hosted of people that were contributing items to Sacred Cat Products.

“Great. There’s still some more room in the storage area in the back of the store, so people will start bringing things tomorrow and we’ll get everything stored and ready to go to the mainland. They are excited about the vote in two days, so that’s good.”

“Everyone is going to vote to make the island better,” Toro said.

“You would think that. But, like I said, there are a lot of people stuck in their ways here,” he said as they came to Gonpo’s home. The former Pandas’ mascot was outside, a fishing pole on his shoulder as he kept his eye in the sky, hoping for the daily prize.

Tuya’s home was on the right, as was Zola’s place. Argat’s home was next to Zola’s, the fitness guru waving them down.

“What are you doing?” Toro asked Argat as he placed an orange band over his shoulder.

“Resistance training, boys. I picked this new band up yesterday at the Pier. Mr. Toragan, nice to see you,” he said, coming to the front of his property. “I’ve been meaning to tell you, I completely agree with what you said the other day at the meeting, but, as hopeful as it sounds…” His voice lowered a little. “The people here aren’t so keen on change. So be forewarned.”

“I’ve got some backup plans if it doesn’t go my way,” Ganix said. “And eventually, we’ll get the place back in shape.”

Argat laughed. “Hey, that’s my line. And I agree with you. You know what would be really nice? Some trails to the woods. Sure, I can make do with what we have, but if there were trails and possibly railings, you may be able to get some of the older residents out. Just a thought.”

“Thanks.”

“And, if the three of you are ever free in the morning, you know where to find me.”

“We do?” Ganix asked.

“Well, your boys do. I lead a little exercise class in the town square.”

“Hey, one more thing,” Ganix said just as Argat was turning away. “All those old booths in the town square, those are for a farmers market, right? I saw them the other night.”

“They sure are. We used to have a nice little farmers market when I first moved here, but the couple that ran it, well…” Ari shrugged. “You know how it goes on the island.”

Ganix ran his hand over his chin. “Maybe that would be a nice place to stir up a little buzz for Sacred Cat Products.”

“It would be a great place for something like that, but you would have to get approval from one of the committees or councils. I forget which one does what. If you haven’t figured it out already, Doyona is in charge of all of them. Let’s see, there is the Sacred Cat Village Council, the Sacred Cat Island Council, the Council of Sacred Cat Retirees, the Committee for Village Expansion, the Committee for Island Excellence, and the Committee for Island Beautification. Although, those last two are merged, if I’m not mistaken. None of the other ones really meet, but…”

“Yeah?” Ganix asked.

“Expect them to try to do something if you get your vote. There are other ways to block your vote. Hopefully, things will go your way and you won’t have to worry about politics. All this to say: if you want to have some kind of release party, you’d be best to do it on some turf you control. Word to the wise.” Argat checked his watch. “I’ve got to get back to it, I’m trying to do a quick evening workout just to get the blood pumping.”

“Sorry to bother you,” Ganix said as the three continued toward the restaurant.

“All those councils and committees sound like they could just be one council,” Rowan said once they were a few steps away from Argat’s property.

“Sometimes the best way to make someone feel useful is to put them on a committee. Ironically, it is also one of the best ways to clip their wings if they are being a little too ambitious. Sorry, just something I experienced in the past…” Ganix said ominously as they nearly reached the East Docks. They turned to the right, heading down a pathway to what reminded Rowan of one of the food truck parks they had back in Any_City.

Tunga came out from behind the stand, the man in a lobster-red apron that looked as if it had seen better days.

“We’re here for dinner,” Ganix announced. “What’s good?”

“Well, today I’ve got a shrimp boil going,” said Tunga as he crossed his big arms over his chest. His skin was dark, which offset the white of his goatee, something almost whimsical about the way he was looking at them.

“So that’s what that smell is,” Toro asked, his nose crinkling a little bit.

“It sure is. Delicious and spicy, right? I’ll get everything ready. You fellas just take a seat there, and make sure you cover the table with paper. I’m going to come out here and dump everything on there in just a moment, and you’ll be glad that you covered it.” He stepped back behind the counter and went to work, Rowan not able to see exactly what he was doing, but definitely hearing some clank of pans as the fisherman chef went to work.

“What are we eating?” Toro asked, hesitation clear on his face.

“Just give it a try, I’m sure you’ll at least like some of it.”

“I don’t think I like shrimp.”

“How do you know that you don’t like shrimp?” Ganix asked as he covered the table in paper.

“I don’t even know how to eat shrimp.”

“That’s what your old dad is here for. I’ll teach you how. It’s not so difficult.”

The three waited, Rowan taking a look around the place and seeing that Tunga had strung some lights along the pergola on the opposite side of the space. There were nets as decoration, and an anchor was affixed to the bottom of the light-blue food shack, which Rowan assumed was supposed to be some kind of joke.

“Get ready,” Tunga said about ten minutes later. He approached the table with a giant pot of food, a toothy grin on his face. He motioned with his head for them to take their arms off the paper and once they did, Tunga slowly dumped the steaming hot contents onto the table. “That’s the stuff…”

“Whoa…” Rowan said as he saw the glistening ears of corn, shrimp, thinly sliced sausage, and little potatoes appear out of a cloud of steam.

“How am I supposed to eat this?” Toro picked up one of the shrimp and examined it, making a disgusted look with his face.

“I’ll leave that to you,” Tunga told Ganix as he stepped away. “Enjoy!”

Ganix showed his youngest son how to pull the head off the shrimp to eat it, Toro not having one bit of it. Rowan, however, saw a chance to impress his father, and went about doing just as he had shown them.

He ate his first shrimp and noticed that it was spiced in a way he had never tasted before. It was good, savory in a way that left him wanting more. He quickly moved to the next shrimp, Toro sticking to potatoes, corn, and the occasional sausage.

The spice was hot enough that it made the sides of Rowan’s lips burn. Even with the slight pain, it was addictive, delicious, Rowan going to town as Tunga brought a big pitcher of tea over to their table.

He looked up at his father to see that Ganix was enjoying himself.

It felt wonderful to be on the island with him, so far away from civilization yet still in a homey environment. Once again, he felt a tinge of sadness as he realized that it would end at some point, that nothing could go on forever, no matter how hard he tried to hold onto the moment.

Their father eventually stood and walked over to Tunga to strike up a conversation, leaving his two boys to finish what was left of the boil.

“Those shrimp are gross,” Toro said, his lips covered in a bright-red sauce, “but everything else is okay.”

“The shrimp are great.” Rowan grabbed one of the last shrimp and shook it in his brother’s face. “Eat me, Toro, eat me.”

“Ewwww… look at its little eyes and its beard.”

“It’s not a beard, they’re like tentacles or something,” Rowan said as he looked back at the shrimp he was holding.

His brother wasn’t lying, it did look disgusting. But it tasted delicious. He pulled his head often and dropped it onto the table, Toro snorting at his brother’s sudden action.

“It’s a lot of work for a little meat,” Rowan told him, “but it’s worth it.”

“If you say so.”

Once they got back to the general store, Ganix instructed his sons to get ready for bed. Rowan took a shower first, his brother heading in second.

As Toro showered, Rowan stretched out on the bed with his sketchpad. This time he tried to draw Blanche, Rowan shading in the outer edges of her form. He lay on his stomach as he did this, kicking his feet, oblivious to his father, who had just entered the room.

“What are you drawing there?” Ganix asked.

“Nothing,” Rowan said as he started to put it away.

“No, let me see.”

“It’s a secret,” Rowan told him.

“A secret? Is that a picture of Olivia?” his dad asked with a sly grin.

“Olivia? What? No. Why would I draw her picture?”

“No need to get defensive…”

“I’m not trying to be defensive…” Rowan sat up, his drawing pad going straight to his inventory list.

“Well, anyway, once your brother is finished, come downstairs with him. I’m going to call your mother now, and you two can take over after Toro’s done showering.”

“Okay,” Rowan said as he watched his dad turn away, not able to decipher the new look on his face. There was a bit of reluctance with the way he announced he would call her; Rowan hoped that it was because his father missed her, that she would be on her way to the island soon.

Rather than wait for his brother, Rowan snuck into the apartment, and from there down the stairs as quietly as he could as his father made the call. He stood in the stairwell, Uncle in his arms as he listened to his dad on the phone.

“Maryam, it’s me.” After a long pause, his father started speaking again. “I know, you said that. But I really had no other choice. Yes, yes…”

Uncle started to wiggle. Rowan eventually dropped the kitten, letting him do whatever he wanted. Rather than go to the general store, Uncle headed back up the stairs to the apartment.

“The boys don’t know. I don’t know how to explain it. No, it’s not as easy as that. Yes, I want to be honest with them. I just don’t think…”

Another long pause.

“I’m aware,” Ganix said, his voice growing thinner. “This isn’t my… I don’t want to rehash…”

Rowan tried desperately to hear his mother’s voice on the other line, silent enough now that he could hear his own heartbeat. He wanted to spring out and demand that his dad tell him everything. Maybe Toro didn’t need to know what was going on, but Rowan needed to know. It wasn’t fair to take them all the way to this island without telling them the truth.

He grew angrier and angrier as he waited for his father to say something.

Finally, Ganix spoke again: “I don’t know what that would be like. I’m trying to just take it one day at a time. And what I’m doing here isn’t frivolous. I have meaning in my life now,” he said, his voice starting to strain again. “I’m trying to do something different, I’m trying… No, I haven’t been drinking. I’m completely sober right now. You’re not listening to me, Maryam. I never wanted…”

“Rowan?”

Rowan looked up the stairs to see his brother standing there, Toro shirtless and in a pair of shorts, a towel draped over his shoulders. Rowan pressed his finger to his lips, but it was too late. Ganix had already picked up on their presence.

“Rowan? Toro?” Ganix came around to the stairwell, stretching the phone cord just about as far as it could go.

“Hey, Dad,” Rowan said, “we’re here.”

“How long have you been standing here?” he asked, his hand on the receiver.

“Um, just got here.”

“Rowan, don’t lie to me.”

“We just got here,” Toro chimed in.

“Maryam?” Ganix asked as he removed his hand from the phone’s receiver. “They’re here.”

He handed the phone to Rowan and headed up the stairs, walking past Toro.

“Mom?”

“Hi, Rowan,” she said, something a bit haggard about her voice.

“What’s going on? Why aren’t you here with us?”

“Yeah,” Toro asked, loud enough to be heard on the other line. “Why aren’t you here?”

“Boys, it’s not…”

“Stop lying to us,” Rowan said. “You and Dad need to stop lying to us. Tell us what’s going on.”

“I promised your father that we would talk to you about this together.”

“How are you supposed to talk to us about this together if you aren’t here?”

“You should come here,” Toro said, Rowan now crouching a little so they could both speak into the receiver at the same time. “Just take a boat. It’s not very far. There are dolphins.”

“Boys, can we talk about this some other time?”

“What other time is there?” Rowan asked.

“We are not talking about this now,” his mother said sternly. “Now, tell me about your day. What did you do today?”

Rowan realized it was useless to try to get information out of her. In person it would be easier, but being on the phone made it much harder to gauge how willing she was to speak.

The two brothers talked to their mother for about thirty minutes before saying goodbye, mostly explaining what they’d been up to and leaving out a few key details.

They headed upstairs, where they found their dad seated on the balcony. Since he appeared to be in a foul mood, they headed straight into their bedroom, Rowan shutting the door behind him.

They crawled into bed, Toro once again falling asleep before his older brother.

Rowan couldn’t help but twist and turn as he tried to decipher his father’s conversation. If only he could have heard what his mother was saying on the other line.

Eventually, he decided to check on his dad, even if he seemed to be in a bad mood.

He snuck out of the bedroom and found his father seated in the same place he had been earlier, staring out at the ocean. Rowan approached, and cleared his throat to announce his arrival.

“You need to go to bed,” Ganix said, not looking back at him.

“I want to sit out here with you.”

His father didn’t protest, so Rowan took the seat next to him. He looked over to his dad and saw that he was hunched over some, Rowan once again smelling the hint of something sweet in the air.

“How much of our conversation did you hear?” his father asked after a long pause.

“Not much. I just came down the stairs,” Rowan lied.

“You need to tell me the truth.”

“No…” Rowan felt emboldened in that moment, and interpreted his dad’s current posture as a sign of weakness, the man hunched over and afraid of the world. “No, you need to tell me the truth.”

“You… you better watch your tone with me.”

Rowan swallowed hard. “Dad…” He said, his voice a little shaky now as he tried a different approach. “Toro and I like being on the island, but we don’t like that we don’t know why we’re here. We don’t know what happened to your job, we don’t know what’s going on with Mom, or when we will see her again…”

“Why can’t you two just enjoy this time?” Ganix asked with a huff. “The island is peaceful, and calm. It’s so nice, and it can be so much better, and I have so many plans for it that…” His eyes lit up for a moment, brimming with a strange joy Rowan had not seen from his father before. “Lately, it’s all I’ve been able to think about, how to make this place better for everyone.”

“That’s nice, but you can’t…” Rowan didn’t know how to phrase what he was thinking. He wanted to tell his father that Ganix was so interested in cultivating the island that he was abandoning his personal relationships, but these weren’t words that Rowan put together easily, certainly not with the tension he was feeling.

“Do you want to know why I quit my job, son? Why I am no longer a programmer at the Proxima company?” Ganix asked suddenly. “I can tell you that.”

“Yes.”

“Do you know how long I worked there?”

“Your entire life, right?”

“That’s just something I liked to say,” Ganix said, grinding his teeth a bit. “Actually, I worked there since I was nineteen, so over twenty-five years.”

“That’s a long time.”

“It is a long time, and you would think…” Ganix shook his head. “You would think in that time that things would change, that there would be promotions, and with those promotions would come less ridiculous paperwork, and all the other things I had to do. But it never gets easier, it only gets harder, and when you work in one of these companies, when you’re one of their peons, new things keep coming at you that you have to adapt to. One of the things that I had to adapt to lately was this culture of…” He waved his hand in the air. “I don’t know how to describe it. Culture of culture.”

“Culture of culture?”

“No, that’s not it. Culture of self-accountability, maybe. A self-accountability that had me constantly doing projects and tasks about my own personal development. I don’t mind wasting time at work developing myself, whatever that means, but my job was important, and all of these extra activities made it so I had to stay there longer and longer. Then we had a new boss, who didn’t want people leaving until he left, and he would always leave later than everyone.”

“So that’s why you were coming home so late,” Rowan said, recalling that over the last year their father had rarely eaten dinner with them.

“That’s exactly why. I tried, Rowan, I really tried,” said Ganix, his gaze dimming on the horizon. “I wanted to do it for you and your brother, and your mother. It’s important that you two are able to go to good schools, and have everything that you need. But it was killing me. And I shouldn’t say that, because I know people in this world have been through things that I can hardly even imagine, I mean look at people like Ari. To suffer like that makes my suffering seem pathetic. People have it way worse.”

“NPCs…”

His father laughed bitterly. “Well, when you put it like that, I guess it really doesn’t matter, does it?”

“What do you mean? I thought you said everyone was an NPC.”

“Everyone is. And that’s not the conversation we’re having right now. I don’t want to get into all those things with you, and already told you that it was just a term we used. You asked me why I quit, so let’s focus on that. It came time for my yearly review and the Proxima company gave me all this paperwork to fill out about how I had improved over the year, and how I would rate myself, and how I would rate my team members. It just went on and on…” He shook his head. “I couldn’t fill it out.”

“That sounds easy.”

“It was easy,” Ganix said, a mirthless grin coming across his face. “I could literally just make up things. But I didn’t have the willpower to do even that. I couldn’t lie anymore, I couldn’t be this person that I’m not supposed to be, this cog in the Proxima company’s giant machine. They own this world, Rowan. The Proxima company…” He shook his head. “Never mind. The point is, it was just so trivial to me considering what I am, and how long I’ve worked there, to continually rate myself. And I knew the process because I had done it before. First I would do the rating, and then my boss would have to do it. I knew he didn’t like me, so I knew it was going to be brutal and I just…” Ganix pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Yeah?” Rowan asked after a long pause.

“I just walked out. And I was going to walk back in, believe it or not, I really was. My plan was to go home, take the day off, and fill the form out later. Back into the swing of things. But I came home, and I checked the mail, and I found the letter from Turni. And here we are. My new life. Just like that, that’s how quickly things can change. An uncle that I hardly knew had given me a way out. So that’s why I had to come here. And now that I’ve been here for a little while, and I see what can happen and how things can improve…” Ganix shook his head.

“What?”

“I’m just thinking aloud now, but maybe I’m no better than the Proxima company in the end. I see room for improvement here, and I asked for it. I mean, look at me, just going to the council meeting and riling everyone up. Some newcomer. Maybe I’m wrong.”

“But the place does need help,” Rowan said. “And some of the people really need help, like… like Ari, and maybe the hoarders. I’m sure there are others. I don’t think you are like the Proxima company.”

“I’m not?” Again with the mirthless smile on Ganix’s face. “My first reaction was to get the store up and running and then start selling local products. I’m no different than Proxima, really, they just operate on a scale that you wouldn’t believe,” he said, a dark look coming over his face. “Maybe I’m being too hard on myself.”

“You quit because you couldn’t do it anymore; now you have this job. Do you like this job?” Rowan asked, not quite understanding what his father was hinting at, or how the words he had uttered exposed him to the truth in a way that he hadn’t considered before.

“Running the store? Sure. I set my own hours, I’m on my feet, but I get more exercise that way. It’s nice talking to some of the locals, and it seems like there’s always something to do. And with Sacred Cat Products, and what I’d like to do on the island…” Ganix shrugged. “It’s maybe ambitious, but I think it will make a lot of people happy in the end. I’m sure some of the folks here could use extra income, and there really could be some improvements, even if they are small, like street lamps.”

“Why didn’t you just tell us this, about your job? It doesn’t seem so bad.”

“I didn’t want you to…” Ganix mumbled to himself for a second. “I was just ashamed at how weak I was. How hard is it to fill out paperwork? I acted like I was being forced to do something incredibly difficult. I didn’t want… I don’t want…” He looked to his oldest son, something flaring behind his eyes. “I don’t want you to be like me. I don’t want you to have a job like I’ve had, or be treated in such a menial way. I’m not saying you have to stay here on this island, but I just want a better life for you and your brother. You deserve it. You’re both really good boys,” he said, a tear rolling down his cheek. Ganix wiped the tear away immediately and turned back to the ocean. “Sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

“For all of this, for not telling you everything that was happening, and…”

“What about Mom?”

“We’ll get to that. I’ll try to convince her to come here,” he said suddenly. “How’s that?”

“You’ll try to get Mom to come here?”

“I will, I promise. Now, before it gets too late…” Ganix stood, and turned to his son, darkness hiding his expression. “Let’s get you to bed.”

.Chapter Eleven.

Rowan couldn’t help but wake with questions on his mind the next morning. Even though his father had confessed to why he’d lost his job, there still was the conversation he overheard between his parents, especially the part where his dad swore he hadn’t been drinking.

Rowan didn’t know much about alcohol, only that when adults drank they sometimes lost their inhibitions and acted like children. He had never tried it himself aside from a single sip of beer his dad let him have last summer while they were on vacation.

This led them to wondering about the reason that their mother wasn’t with them, and why she left a few days before they came to the island. Was she mad at their father for quitting his job? Did it have to do with alcohol? Was it about money?

As he slowly came awake, his eyes fell upon his personal attributes, where he saw that he had increased a point in intelligence, and also gained a few hit points.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 352/352

Intelligence: 24.09

Willpower: 11.29

Empathy: 7.15

Charisma: 11.84

Strength: 5.75

Dexterity: 7.85

Luck: 3.90

+ .13 Intelligence!

+ .21 Willpower!

+ 4 HP!

The smell of sizzling eggs and bacon met Rowan’s nose. He sat up and quickly tapped his brother’s shoulder.

“What?” Toro started to ask. Uncle, who was curled up next to his younger brother, yawned and turned the other way.

“I think Dad’s cooking breakfast…”

“I want to sleep more.”

“Come on…” Rowan stuck his finger in his mouth and put the wet finger in his brother’s ear, Toro coming alive. Toro punched at his older brother a few times, Rowan able to block the attacks.

“Whoa, whoa,” said Rowan after they hopped out of bed, both hands up as Toro approached him with his fists drawn.

“Don’t bother me when I’m sleeping,” Toro said.

“Sorry,” said Rowan, both wanting to laugh and continue pestering his brother at the same time, only to remember that he was working on trying to be nicer to Toro. “Sorry,” he said again, meaning it this time.

“It’s okay,” Toro said with a big yawn. He returned to the bed and grabbed the blanket, which he wrapped around his body and put over his head, eventually taking Uncle in his arms. Toro went to the living room like this, the blanket dragging behind him, and plopped down on the couch.

“Who is ready for breakfast?” their dad called out. “It will be finished in just a few more minutes here…” Ganix used a spatula to flip one of the eggs he was frying. “Rowan, can you feed the cats outside? There’s a bag downstairs.”

“Okay,” Rowan said as he headed down on his bare feet.

He found the bag behind the counter in the store, and as he reached the door, Blanche took shape.

“Hey,” Rowan said, startled to see her floating there, barely visible, just slightly outlined by dust.

“Good morning,” she said in a sweet voice.

“You scared me.”

“Sorry. What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” he asked, showing her the cat food.

“Right, let’s go feed.”

Rowan stepped outside, the five cats that lived in front of the store coming out of their hiding places. The two female cats, Fiona and Zaena, had been hiding behind the trash can, while Quantum and Ryuk were lying in the road. The final cat of the group, the orange tabby known as Meme, was sleeping right next to the food bowl.

Meme didn’t move as Rowan started to fill it, only springing to attention once the bowl was full, hissing at Fiona and Zaena as they approached.

“Some funny cats,” Blanche said as she crouched before them. The cats didn’t seem to notice her presence, or if they did, they weren’t overly concerned.

“We still haven’t met these ones properly,” Rowan said. “Maybe that’s something we can do today. Plus, I want to go to the shrine in the mountains, and…”

“Look for my locket?”

“That’s definitely on my list of things to do,” he told her. “It’s not going to be easy to get to the western part of the island, not in the time that we have.”

“That’s true,” she said, a hint of sadness to her voice. “How about I show you where the shrine is? There’s a lady that lives there, she takes care of it. Don’t be scared by her.”

“Is she scary?”

Blanche shook her head. “No, she just is kind of a mountain woman, a bit more rugged than the people down here; I don’t want you and your brother getting scared.”

“We don’t scare easily,” Rowan lied.

“You just said I scared you. Did you forget that you just said that?”

“I mean, yeah, you just appeared out of thin air, and you’re a ghost.”

“Well, when you say it like that,” she said, her hands going on her hips.

“Sorry. I’m…”

“In a bad mood?”

“Maybe.”

“This is about the conversation with your dad last night?”

Rowan glared at her. “How many of my conversations have you been listening to?”

“Just put yourself in my shoes for once,” Blanche said as she turned away, the ends of her dress flailing in the wind. “I’ve been watching the same residence for years, decades. It gets boring and lonely, you know. Then, two people my age show up. So of course I like to observe them and get to know them.”

“I didn’t mean to offend you,” Rowan started to say.

“It’s fine. I guess it is kind of strange.” She turned back to him and smiled, Rowan able to see clearly through her, just a bit of dust outlining her form and glittering in the morning sun. “Anyway, I can take you and your brother up to the shrine. I actually haven’t been inside before, believe it or not.”

“Why not?”

“It was just never something I was interested in. I have visited the lady that lives there, who I was telling you about, but that was only because I was observing her. She does take care of the place, so that’s good.”

“Yeah,” Rowan said as he started to pet Fiona, who had just finished eating. The white cat with black and gray features purred as she moved back and forth in front of him.

“I guess I’ll see you later then. I’ll try not to bother you,” Blanche said.

“You aren’t bothering me. And I told you I would find your locket. It’s just going to take me some time.”

“You promise?” she asked.

“I promise,” Rowan said as he lifted his hand, and extended his pinky.

Blanche gave him a funny look before extending her hand as well, wrapping her pinky around his. He felt a slight tingling sensation, almost as if he had been shocked by a bit of static electricity.

She was gone in a flash, the streets quiet again aside from the cats that were finishing off the bowl of food.

Over breakfast, Ganix explained that they had a busy day ahead of them, and that he was going to take a boating lesson at the docks after breakfast.

“My only request for you two today is to not get in trouble, and to continue to meet people on the island and see how they’re feeling, and what they think about what we’re trying to do here. Don’t be too obvious about it. Just…” Ganix bit his lip. “Nope, I can’t use you two as political pawns. Just continue to do what you are doing, and try to be home this afternoon.”

“And you’ll run the store?” Toro asked.

“Limited hours today, boys. But when you get home, I may have a delivery for you to make.”

After breakfast, Ganix left for the docks. Rowan and Toro went out as well, Rowan locking up behind them. Before heading toward the shrine, they figured they would pay the carpenter a visit.

Dorno the carpenter lived next to Nedman’s restaurant, his home behind a well-maintained fence that was about hip height. As soon as they stepped inside the fence, they were greeted by two fluffy cats, one cream-colored with bright-blue eyes, and the other with gray fur and a bushy tail.

Name: Angel

Breed: Himalayan

Sex: Male

Color: Cream

Secondary Color: Lavender

Age (Human Years): 2

Age (Cat Years): 25

Known Associates: Wolf

Name: Wolf

Breed: Norwegian Forest Cat

Sex: Male

Color: Dark Gray

Secondary Color: White

Age (Human Years): 4.3

Age (Cat Years): 34

Known Associates: Angel

“These ones are friendly,” Toro said as the two male cats let him pet them. While his brother greeted the cats, Rowan made his way to the front door and knocked.

Dorno eventually came, the man with his shirt off and wearing a pair of jeans. Rowan saw now that he had even more tattoos aside from the ones he had already noticed on his arms. His tattoos were quite random as well, seemingly placed on various spots around his body.

“Hey there, Rowan,” he said, a cup of coffee in his hand. He took a long sip from it. “How can I help you? Is this about the stools? Because they’re almost ready.”

“No, something else…”

“Go on,” Dorno said, picking up on Rowan’s tone.

Rowan equipped his wooden sword. “Could you make us something like this, but better, and two of them? We only have one, and we like to use them to play,” Rowan lied.

“Right now, I have to use a broom,” said Toro, who was still petting the cats.

“You want a pair of wooden swords, huh?” Dorno asked, leaning in. “Does your daddy know about this?”

“No…”

“Then count me in,” he said. “As long as you don’t hit each other with them. You promise not to actually hit each other? I don’t care if you hit wooden swords against one another, but I mean each other’s bodies. Do you promise?”

“I promise,” Rowan said.

“I promise too.”

“Good, good. Then it appears that we are in business. Now, I’m going to need something from you if you’d like me to make these swords.”

“What’s that?” Rowan asked.

“I haven’t thought of it yet, but when I do, I’ll let you know. A quest of sorts. I’ll get started on the swords, though. Anything else?”

“No,” Rowan said, surprised at how easy that was. Then again, he hadn’t learned yet what Dorno would have them do in exchange for the weapons.

“In that case, I’ll let you two get to it. Have a good day, and maybe I’ll see around later.”

“You’ll definitely see us at the meeting tomorrow night,” Toro said.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

The two boys left the carpenter’s home, Rowan happy to have secured the weapons. As they passed Doyona’s place, Rowan wondered what Olivia was doing in that moment, and if she was perhaps watching them from one of the windows that looked out on the street. He waved casually just in case.

They came to the first path that led up to the woods, Rowan spotting Alto in front of his cluttered home, the hoarder sifting through some of the garbage. He wore a red suit today that had been cut into shorts as well as a yellow kravat. He had a backpack on, and both Hiccup and Rocket were in the backpack, neither bothered by being carried this way.

“Boys,” Alto called over to them, a jagged smile taking shape on his face.

“What are you doing?” Toro asked.

“I am looking for something. I had this book on some of the famous Any_War III battles. I thought I had it in a trash bag out here somewhere.”

“Why don’t you have it in your home?” Rowan asked.

“Like on a bookshelf,” said Toro.

“To be honest, there’s not much room in there. No room, really, especially for a bookshelf. I know, I know, I need to do some spring cleaning,” he said, dipping his head a little.

“Summer cleaning,” Toro chimed in.

“Heh, you aren’t wrong there,” he said, the man’s nostrils flaring just a bit as he backed away from the two. His disposition soured. “Especially with the vote coming up. Anyway, I guess I shouldn’t bother you any longer. You two look like you’re busy.”

“We’re heading up to the cat shrine,” Rowan told him.

“Now, that’s an interesting trip. I really should do that more often. It’s been…” Alto cracked his knuckles as he tried to remember how many years it’d been. “Actually, I can’t tell you. I’ve been up there before though, Garner too.”

“Where is your brother?” Toro asked.

“Sleeping. He always sleeps later than me.”

“I know the feeling,” Rowan said.

“Personally, I always try to get up bright and early when it’s still cool out. There are less people moving around the village as well. Not that we have that many residents…” He turned back to his junk. “Anyway, I’ll see you two soon. Tell Irma I said hello.”

“Irma?” Rowan asked.

“She’s the woman that looks after the shrine. I’m sure you’ll see her up there.”

“What’s the easiest way to get to the shrine?” Rowan asked. “I just assumed we head left through the woods until we reached the mountain.”

“Close,” said Alto. “Go up this path, and hang left at the waterfall. There’s actually a sign there if you look for it, and trail markings. There’s also a sign that points to the western beach, but you’ll want to follow the one to the shrine. Just follow the path and the trail marking, and you’ll get there eventually.”

Rowan and Toro did as instructed, and sure enough, as they passed the waterfall they saw an old wooden sign that pointed up a rocky path, moss on some of the stones. As Alto had said, there was another sign pointing toward the western beach as well.

Blanche took shape, the dirt swirling at her feet.

“Hi, Toro,” she said, bending over and smiling at Rowan’s younger brother. She floated until she was completely horizontal, Toro making a funny face at her.

“What?” he finally asked.

“You two are so cute, but cuter when you’re kittens. Let’s go,” she said as she whirled around and started up the rocky path.

There was still tree coverage, but Rowan could tell that they were moving higher and higher, that they would soon be able to see over the canopy.

“How many people have you met on the island?” Blanche asked as they walked.

“Let’s see, there’s Chodak and Tunga, both fishermen,” said Toro, “and maybe some others that we haven’t met.”

“Yes, you’re missing Lonnie and Murni. But they don’t fish as much as they used to.”

“There’s Vicar, Doyona, and Olivia,” said Rowan.

“And Nedman and his wife Mel. Gonpo the mascot, Garner and Alto. Um… Gilda the baker, Zola and Tuya, Curtis and Ringo the coder,” Toro said.

“I don’t like his beard,” Blanche said. “And he always wears those weird red jumpsuits and his weird glasses. Curtis seems nice, though.”

“Dr. Restivo,” Rowan added, he was one of the newer people they had met. “Dorno the carpenter, Raydoh and Kay. Who was the bicycle guy?”

“Redi Taka,” said Blanche. “He’s been out here for a long time with his bike.”

“And Argat, the exercise man,” Toro said. “Wait, we’re missing Maeve and Ari.”

“You two really have met a lot of people. That’s like half the island.”

“And your grandfather,” Rowan added, “but we haven’t met him yet. We’re going to meet him tomorrow.”

“You’re taking the boat, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Good, because the bridge is still down. It’s a nice boat ride. I’ll be there with you for it, but, of course, your father won’t be able to see me.”

“Could he see you?” Rowan asked as they curved around a rock formation. There were trail markings painted on it, letting people know to continue forward.

“If I showed myself to him, yes, but I don’t usually show myself to adults. It always scares them.”

“Have you shown yourself to Olivia?” Toro asked.

“You would have to ask her,” Blanche said with a snooty shake of her head. “I feel sorry for her, though, always having to deal with her angry grandmother.”

“We really don’t like her,” Toro said.

“I can’t blame you. Doyona was worse when she first got to the island. She’s actually better now than she was before. I think that she has just accepted that this is where she has to live part of the year.”

“So she goes back to the mainland for winter?” Rowan asked.

“That’s right, a few of them do.”

“Maybe it is worth staying on the island,” he joked, Toro laughing along.

“Look at that,” Blanche said as they reached the top of the trees, where they were presented with a stunning view of the village and the sea beyond it. Rowan spotted the town square, and some of the buildings and homes that ran behind the main street. He could also see the West Docks, and the big cat statue that sat there. There was a boat in the water, Rowan squinting, finally able to make out his father.

“That’s Dad,” he said, pointing to the boat.

“Is it really?” Toro asked as he placed his hand over his brow, squinting as well. “I think he’s wearing a green jacket. Yeah, that’s Dad.”

“Our dad is getting boating lessons today,” Rowan told Blanche.

“Boats are fun, but it’s easier just to float over the water,” she said, turning back to the trail. “Shall we continue?”

“So you really have never been inside the shrine?” Rowan asked as they made their way up an even steeper path. He was starting to work up a sweat now, his breaths shorter and shorter with each step.

“Nope, why would I want to go on that dusty old thing? I don’t worship cats.”

“So it’s really a shrine for cats?” Toro asked.

“It sure is, and who knows when it was built. Well, maybe Irma does considering she’s sort of its caretaker.”

The three continued, Blanche humming a song that Rowan was unfamiliar with. They reached a summit, Rowan seeing even taller mountains around them, three peaks to be exact.

Rowan equipped his knit hat and slipped it over his head, Toro doing the same. “Does anyone else live up here?”

“I think so,” said Blanche. “I don’t ever come up here. It’s much more interesting down there. The only thing you’ll find up here are mountain goats and ghosts.”

“Mountain goats and mountain ghosts?” Toro asked.

Blanche laughed.

“There are ghosts in the mountains too?” Rowan asked.

“There are ghosts everywhere on the island. Maybe one day I’ll introduce you to some of the better ones. There are scary ones too.”

“What about monsters?” Toro asked. “Are there monsters? Because that’s what we have been told.”

“You’ve already asked me this, and I told you, there are scary things,” Blanche said as they continued forward. They came to a small home with a black roof and siding that was the color of the rocks. It was almost camouflage.

“The rest is up to you,” Blanche said, starting to disappear. “But I’ll be around. Maybe I’ll even check out the shrine with you.”

Rowan approached the door, and after clearing his throat, he knocked three times. He felt nervous for a moment until the door popped open and a stocky little woman with gray hair appeared, her hair arranged in a long braid that reached past the small of her back.

Irma’s social status appeared in front of her as she looked the boys over.

Name: Irma Magna

Age: 70

Occupation: Former Police Officer

“Rowan and Toro Toragan,” she read, her voice firm and not at all shaky. “You must be related to Turni.”

“Yes, we’re his great-nephews,” Rowan said. “Our dad has taken over the general store.”

“Has he? That’s good to know, I have been meaning to get down there. I was so sad to hear about his passing. Such a kind man,” she said before coughing into her hand. Irma’s face was weatherbeaten, her cheeks rosy red, her nose a similar color. Her eyes were little beads, crow’s feet anchoring their sides, and she had thick gray eyebrows.

“We have a delivery service as well, but this may be…”

“It’s a bit far to deliver, I know. I wouldn’t expect you to come all the way up here. Most people don’t. But I do go down to the village from time to time to pick up supplies, usually in bulk. I sure wish that there was a hotel or something for me to stay out there, but I always find a place.”

“There used to be a hotel, right?” Toro asked.

“There sure did. But the owners died and, just like everything else on the island, once dead they usually don’t grow back.”

“The plants in the orchard seem to be growing back,” said Rowan.

“The apple-peaches, yes. Well, they may be growing, but no one’s taking care of them if that’s the case. Sad, too. They really are something special. Anyways,” Irma said, “what brings you boys all the way up here?”

“We wanted to see the cat shrine,” Toro said, the young boy shifting from foot to foot.

“You want to see the shrine, huh? Well, this is the place to do that. Let me get the keys and I’ll take you over there myself. It’s only about a five-minute walk from here.”

She stepped inside her home and returned with a ring of keys. “You two came on a good day to see the shrine. It rains up here, more than it does down in the village, plus it’s colder. Some days, even I don’t want to go outside.”

“You live up here during the winter?” Rowan asked as she led them around a large rock that was blocking the view on the other side.

“I sure do. It’s nice and cozy in my home; it can get downright toasty in there. I usually have to crack a window in the middle of the night,” she said as they came to a gate, Rowan noticing the shrine beyond it. He didn’t know what to expect, but he definitely wasn’t prepared to see a dome-shaped structure with cat ears, eyes for windows, and a large mouth that was stylized into an entrance.

“There aren’t any cats here?” Toro asked as he took a look around.

“Actually, I do have a cat, but she stays inside my home. The cats don’t like it up here. It’s a little too cold. But sometimes they visit to pay their respects,” she said as she opened the gate.

There was a bell to their immediate left and a giant pole sticking out of the ground to the right, a few flags dangling from the top.

“What’s the pole for?” Toro asked as he looked up to the top of it, the structure easily thirty feet tall.

“It’s for the cats to climb on,” said Irma. “Well, that and people used to walk circles around it and pray, back when the island was more active. That was before my time up here, though. I took over from the old caretaker.”

Rowan noticed that the bell on his left was also shaped like a cat, with two ears and stylized whiskers. The bell housing was also covered in carved cats, but these ones didn’t look like any cat he had ever seen before. They were painted in a way that made them look almost ferocious, with straight lines and little shading.

Rowan sketched one of them on his leg as Irma continued to tell them about the place. “There’s not much to it, really, but it used to be quite active. I was told that people take pilgrimages to the shrine, and bring their cats with them. I think there used to be lodging right there,” she said, pointing to a pair of buildings that had been knocked over by the wind. “And, they used to hold festivals during harvest season. When I first moved here, I found a supply room with some of the old masks and costumes they would wear. It’s very interesting.”

“Did you keep the stuff?”

“I sure did. People don’t make these kinds of things anymore, you know. Anyway, I’ll show you the inside and then, well, that’s about it. This is the shrine.”

She led them to the main structure and up a small flight of stairs that entered into the cat’s mouth. Irma opened the door and motioned them in, a quest prompt appearing before Rowan and fading away.

Cat Quest: Visit Sacred Cat Shrine (complete)

Rowan and Toro stepped in to find an enormous stone statue of the woman who wore the cat mask, Rowan’s limbs suddenly going numb for a moment. She was seated, her arm resting on a rock. There was a tunnel carved into the rock, his eyes tracing over it as he let out a deep breath.

“It’s her…” he whispered to his brother.

“That’s where the cats go when they come up here,” Irma said as she pointed at the hole in the rock, which rested under the statue’s arm. “They come in through there,” she motioned to a stairwell cut into the top of the dome, “and they circle their way around to get to the bottom here. And then they come out of the hole and leave. It’s kind of strange, but they don’t come that often.”

“Do you know what’s in there?” Rowan asked as he approached the statue.

“No, I don’t know what’s in there. I tried to shine a flashlight in once, but I couldn’t see through to the other side.”

Rowan exchanged glances with Toro.

He knew exactly where they needed to come the next time they transformed.

He peered back up at the statue, confirming that it was the exact same woman he had seen several times now. While the statue was a little dusty, the mask was the same, and she even had the long flowing robes with small flowers carved into them.

The inner dome was covered in paintings, and as Rowan looked at it he quickly interpreted what the paintings meant. There was a cave, there were humans going in and cats coming out. There was dancing, there was laughter, but it turned dark, images of dying, and becoming spirits.

“Well, what do you think?”

“I think…” Rowan once again looked to his little brother. “I think it’s amazing.”

“Yeah, amazing.”

“Do you mind if I make a sketch of the pictures?”

“Make a sketch…” Irma looked up at the art and chewed on her lip for a moment. “The caretaker before me didn’t let people do things like that…” She shrugged. “But you know what? Why not? I’ll leave you here, and be sure to lock up when you leave and bring me back the keys. Don’t touch anything that looks like it shouldn’t be touched. Can I trust you boys?”

“You can trust us,” Toro said eagerly.

“Fair enough. Don’t make me regret this,” she said as she handed Rowan the keys.

Irma stepped out of the shrine, Blanche taking shape as soon as she was gone, her form barely visible. “So this is what’s inside,” she said, looking up at the inner dome and the old frescoes.

“Uh-huh,” said Rowan, who had already taken a seat on the stone floor and equipped his sketchpad.

He looked up at the dome and started drawing what he saw. It was painstakingly clear, at least in the mind of a teenage boy, that this was a message that people could turn into cats. How no one on the island had figured this out was beyond him. Then again, it was so fantastical that they were able to transform into cats that he could understand how people would write it off.

Perhaps the older islanders interpreted the drawings as a cycle of life, from human to cat.

“Can you check what’s in the hole?” Toro asked Blanche, motioning toward the statue, to the entrance that Irma had said was just for cats.

“Sure.” She swirled into a spiral and disappeared, returning a few moments later.

“Well?” Toro asked, looking up at her.

“There’s just another shrine in there,” she said with a shrug. “But it’s smaller than this one. And there’s a face carved into the ceiling as well. I don’t know. There’s nothing that great about it.”

“We definitely have to come back as cats to check it out,” Rowan said, focusing again on his sketching.

“Definitely,” said Toro. “This place is kind of strange, right?”

“Kind of?” Blanche asked. “It’s really strange. Maybe that’s why I don’t come up here.”

“I thought you don’t come up here because it’s not interesting.”

“I don’t come up here for a lot of reasons,” she told Toro sharply. “Am I allowed to change my reasoning?”

“Sure,” he said, giving her a funny look.

“You two don’t understand what it’s like to be a ghost. Sometimes it’s interesting, especially when you know some secret someone else doesn’t know, and you get to watch them find out and all the trouble that comes from it. But most of the time it’s boring. I get soooo bored,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “I just want off this island.”

“Why don’t you try to go to the mainland and haunt there?” Toro asked.

“Um, haunt?”

“You know what I mean. It’s not very far, only about two hours to get there.”

“Every time I try to do that, I’m only able to make it halfway before I reappear on the island,” she said. “Other ghosts have tried too. Believe me, if I could go to the mainland, I would. There’s plenty more to do there, there has to be more ghosts, and it’s just more interesting. What’s so interesting about this place? An island that used to be a tourist destination that is now filled with grumpy retirees? Spare me. And I don’t haunt people.”

“You haunted us.”

“No, I was just playing…”

Rowan continued his sketch as Blanche complained about Sacred Cat Island and debated haunting with his younger brother. He could understand how it would feel to be here for so long and not be able to really communicate with anyone aside from other ghosts, and apparently a couple of kids. Once he was done with the sketch, Rowan sent his pad back to his inventory list, not showing anyone what he had drawn.

“Should we head out?” he asked. They approached the exit of the shrine and once Toro was out, Rowan shut the door behind them, only to be blasted by Blanche, who pressed through the wooden surface and gave him a dirty look.

“You were just going to lock me in there?”

“You can move through walls and doors,” he reminded her.

“Still, it’s rude.”

“Sorry,” Rowan told her, her form becoming increasingly transparent.

“Nobody likes me…”

“What? We like you,” Toro said, turning back to the ghost.

“Really?” she asked as she became increasingly visible. Rowan still couldn’t make out features like her hair color, but she was more tangible now than she normally was.

“Really,” said Toro, beaming a smile to her.

As they made their way back to Irma’s home, Toro assuring Blanche they did indeed like her, Rowan examined Irma’s keyring, noticing that the keys looked unlike any he had ever seen before. They were long and handmade, with blemishes and imperfections. They were nothing like the perfectly manufactured keys he had seen in Any_City.

They reached the gate of the shrine and exited, Rowan locking this as well as Toro continued to heap praise on Blanche and their affinity for her.

“Okay, I believe you,” she finally said. “You’ve convinced me, Toro. You practically love me.”

“Love? What!?” Toro started laughing.

“Yes, love, and it’s nice to have some more friends on the island, some people my age.”

Rowan knocked on Irma’s door and she eventually came, the pudgy little woman holding an overweight cat in her arms this time. “Here are your keys,” Rowan told her as he noticed the cat’s details.

Name: Celia

Breed: Maine coon

Sex: Female

Color: Red

Secondary Color: White

Age (Human Years): 5.6

Age (Cat Years): 39

“Thank you, boys, and I’m assuming you locked up.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Rowan told her as Celia yawned, the cat’s long tongue falling out of her mouth. “You are such a sleepy thing,” Irma said as she kissed Celia’s head.

The fluffy red cat started licking her cheek like a dog.

“She loves to give me kisses,” said Irma. “Well, I suppose I should let you two get back to the village.”

“There is a village council meeting tomorrow,” Rowan said. “They are voting on something important. My dad wants to revitalize the village some, and they’re having a vote on it. So if you want to come down…”

“Come to the meeting?” Irma considered this. “I could use some supplies, and I have a freestanding invitation to stay at Zola’s place. You know what? Sure, sure. I’ll try to make it.”

Once her door was shut, and the two brothers had started on the trail that led to the forest below, Blanche reappeared. “Did you see how fat her cat was?”

“It was mostly fur,” Rowan said.

She snorted. “Since when did fur look like fat?”

“She looked cuddly,” Toro said.

“I agree. She’d be a great pillow. I wish there were ghost cats.”

“There aren’t any ghost cats?” Rowan asked Blanche.

“No, but some of the ghosts that live on the island like to pretend they are taking care of the cats. But they’re not; the cats are mostly scared of us. Dumb cats.”

Rowan worked up a bit of a sweat on their way down and ended up removing his knit hat, which he sent to his inventory list. They reached the woods and he noticed a subtle drop in temperature due to the shade, yet it was still warm.

They started moving faster now, Rowan tuning Blanche out by this point as she continued to pick apart her opinions on cats and their sizes to Toro. Rowan almost tripped, and caught himself just in time. At some point during their journey back to the village, Toro charged ahead, his red cape beating in the wind behind him.

“Hey, not too fast,” Rowan said, both for his brother and for himself.

They were just reaching the waterfalls when Rowan spotted Olivia perched over the water and poking at it with a stick. She looked up to them, Rowan glancing to his right to see that Blanche had vanished.

“What are you doing?” Olivia stood, now holding the stick behind her back. She was in a paisley dress that seemed out of place in her current surroundings, a flower tucked behind one of her ears.

“We went to the cat shrine,” Rowan told her.

“You did?”

“It was nice,” Rowan said. “I made some sketchings of the art inside. Want to see?”

She nodded but didn’t leave her rock. Rowan came to her, Toro not far behind. After he equipped his sketchpad, he flipped to the page he had been drawing on and showed it to Olivia.

“You’re good,” she said, nodding as she looked at his drawings.

Rowan tried to hide the pride he felt at receiving the compliment. “Yeah, I try…”

“What do you think the art in the shrine means?” she asked.

“We don’t know,” Toro lied.

“Maybe it means people die and become cats, or something like that. Some stupid old religion,” said Rowan.

“I don’t think it’s stupid. It would be nice to be a cat, don’t you think?” Olivia asked, looking up at him, just a few strands of her golden hair falling into her face. Her hair wasn’t braided like it had been the last time they had seen her. She looked different now, just a bit older.

“I don’t mean it’s stupid, I just mean…” Rowan scratched the back of his head. “You know what? Never mind. What are you doing up here?”

“Yeah, shouldn’t you be grounded or something?”

“I’m supposed to be at Nedman’s,” Olivia told them. “He always talks for so long about revolutions and things like that. It buys me some time. I’ll still stop by, but I’ll just eat quickly and then return home. I wanted to go on a walk, and I wanted to see the waterfalls. My grandfather comes up here sometimes, and he showed me this swimming hole.”

“We know, we’ve seen him,” said Rowan.

She dipped her head some. “Probably sunbathing.”

“It’s like he found the perfect spot.” Rowan looked up at the canopy and how the light came through, hitting just a few of the rocks that surrounded the waterfall.

“Sometimes he swims too. The swimming hole is deep enough that you can dive from that spot over there,” she said, pointing to a rock closer to the waterfalls with her stick.

“We should go swimming,” said Toro.

Olivia giggled. “You’re wearing jeans and a T-shirt; I’m wearing a dress.”

“So? I can take off my shirt, and my jeans can get wet.”

“She’s wearing a dress,” Rowan told his younger brother, careful not to call him dumb-dumb this time.

“But I can change. I have a swimsuit in my inventory list.” Her eyes lit up. “Let’s do it. Let’s go swimming. Turn around. Both of you turn around.”

“Are you sure?” Rowan asked.

“Yes, let’s go for a quick swim. I want to dive.”

Rowan and his brother turned around, and just to make sure Toro wouldn’t see anything, Rowan placed his hands over his younger brother’s eyes.

“Hey, I wasn’t going to peek.”

“Just in case.”

“Okay, I’m ready,” Olivia announced.

Rowan let go of his brother’s head, Toro instantly taking off his shirt.

Olivia was now in a blue one-piece bathing suit. There was a dolphin motif running along the sides of the suit with white and yellow accents.

“Last one in is a…” She bit her lip. “I don’t know.”

“A stupid dumb-dumb fluffy fat cat!” Toro took off toward the rock she had pointed out earlier. He reached it, and quickly removed his socks and shoes, hopping up and down from foot to foot because of the temperature of the rock. Without looking at his brother or Olivia, he dove into the water and came back up.

“Brrr! It’s so cold!” he said, gasping for air for a moment.

“Make room for me,” Olivia said as she pinched her nose and jumped into the water.

Rowan tore off his shirt and dropped it to the ground. He kicked out of his shoes and socks. He reached the rock and looked down at the two, both of them laughing at him.

“Okay, it looks like I’m the fat cat…”

“I believe it was stupid dumb-dumb fluffy fat cat,” said Olivia.

He jumped in, bubbles exploding all around him as he came up for air, Rowan shivering until his body adjusted to the temperature of the water.

“This is fun,” Olivia said as she slapped her hands against the top of the water.

Toro splashed her, Olivia laughing as she kicked up onto her back and began splashing him using her feet. Soon, Rowan joined in and attacked both of them.

They swam for a good thirty minutes, laughing and splashing, until Olivia announced she should probably head back.

“I’ll have to go down alone,” she told Rowan and his younger brother, “just in case.”

“We’ll stay here in the water for just a little longer then.”

“I love swimming,” said Toro.

“Let’s try to hang out tomorrow if we can…” she started to tell Rowan.

“Sure,” he said, ignoring the fact that Toro was splashing him again. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to tomorrow, but we’ll try, and if not, definitely the day after.”

Rowan and Toro swam for a little while longer, Rowan mostly floating on his back and looking up at the clear blue sky. As he floated, he thought about a number of things, from the conversation he’d had with his father last night to the cat shrine. He still hadn’t told Toro what their father had said regarding the reason he lost his job.

He had a feeling Toro wouldn’t really understand it anyway.

This feeling mostly stemmed from Rowan not understanding it himself. How hard was it to fill out some self-evaluation? He had to fill these things out at school all the time. They weren’t difficult, and if they filled them out in a satisfactory manner, the teacher would give them bonus points.

Did his dad receive bonus points for evaluating himself? Could he simply make stuff up to make himself look better?

Rowan had a lot of questions about the practices of having an employee evaluate their own performance. Maybe it was a way to take the burden off the manager, which was something he had sensed when it came to filling the evaluations out at school regarding his teachers. Maybe they just passed the work onto him, so they didn’t have to do it themselves and all they had to do was agree or disagree with his own self-assessment.

No, their father’s job loss was too complicated to explain to Toro, and Toro didn’t seem to care much about their father’s employment anyway. However, once Rowan finally learned what happened between their father and their mother, even if he was sworn to secrecy, he would tell Toro.

Toro deserved to know.

The two were swimming back to the shoreline when Vicar approached, the older man already with his shirt off, his chest oiled up.

“It’s a good swimming hole, isn’t it?” he asked them, jovial as the first time they met in the very same place. It seemed like he was different now that he wasn’t around Doyona, a little more himself.

“It’s nice,” Rowan said, wondering if Vicar had seen Olivia on his way up. If he had, he didn’t mention it.

“Big day tomorrow,” he said as he laid his mat out on a rock that was getting plenty of sun, a smug smile on his face.

Rowan and Toro got out of the water. “Yeah, big day.”

“You know, your daddy isn’t wrong to want to change things up, but he needs to know a little bit more about how the island works before he comes at us with these big ideas. Just remember that,” he said as he relaxed onto his mat, and placed his hands behind his head.

“Yep.” Rowan motioned for his younger brother to follow him toward the village, both going barefoot this time.

It wasn’t until they reached the trail heading down that Rowan spoke. “Vicar thinks he knows everything…” he said under his breath.

“He has a mean wife,” said Toro.

“Just wait until our dad talks to Stellars. They are going to be in for a big surprise at the council meeting tomorrow. They think that they’re going to surprise us, but they’ll see.”

“Yeah, they’ll see.”

The two brothers reached the hoarders’ home to find Garner out, the cranky old man bent over a little as he looked at something on the ground, his hands on his back. He was in a gray suit that was a little scruffy, a bit of spittle on his face as he turned to the boys.

“Put a shirt on,” he bellowed, pointing his finger at Rowan.

Rather than say anything, Rowan started running even faster, even though he was barefoot, Toro keeping up with him. They slowed once they were far enough away from Garner that they could no longer see him.

“Alto is so much better,” Rowan said.

“Yeah,” Toro agreed.

They reached the general store and went inside to find their dad speaking to Dorno.

“Looks like you two went swimming,” Dorno said, smiling at Rowan and his brother.

“It was great,” Toro said.

“Boys, thank Dorno for making you stools,” Ganix said. “He made me one as well.” Their father lifted the yellow wooden stool from behind the counter to show them what he meant.

“Who wants to eat standing up when you can eat sitting down?” Dorno asked, the tatted carpenter with a toothy grin on his face. “The stools are upstairs. Check them out.”

“Put clothes on,” Ganix called after them as Rowan and his brother took to the stairs.

Toro scooped Uncle into his arms as soon as they reached the upstairs apartment.

“The stools are nice,” Rowan said as he sat on his stool and leaned back, keeping himself from falling by putting his hands on the countertop. Toro set the orange kitten down on the countertop as he tried out his stool.

“Better than standing, right?”

“Definitely,” Toro said, petting Uncle, who purred louder and louder with each stroke.

“I wonder how much longer Dad is going to talk to Dorno?” Rowan asked.

“I don’t know.”

“I’m going to change and go down there and find out. Aren’t you hungry?”

“I’m so hungry!”

Rowan went to the bedroom and took off his clothing. He knew by putting the clothing in his inventory list that they would dry immediately, which was precisely what he did, back in the same jeans he had worn earlier. He slipped his shoes and socks on and headed down the stairs, Toro still seated at the counter and petting Uncle.

“Rowan,” Ganix said as he entered the store below to find his father still speaking with the carpenter. “Head over to Nedman’s and pick up some food for us.” His father handed him a wad of Proxima dollars. “I was thinking of cooking tonight, but Dorno here tells me that Nedman’s baked clam cakes are to die for.”

“They sure are. Almost as good as his wife’s spaghetti, or catsghetti, as they call it,” said Dorno.

“Baked clam cakes?” Rowan gave his father a disgusted look.

“Don’t judge them until you try them,” his father said, waving them toward the door.

Rowan stepped out and ignored the cats outside the store as he looked in the direction of the sea, the sun setting, the waves hued with subtle raspberry tones. He wanted to sit by the docks for a while and just listen to the water, but he was also hungry, and he figured he wouldn’t loiter this time.

He entered the restaurant to find Nedman seated at the counter, the older man getting to his feet as soon as he saw Rowan.

“Well if it isn’t our little island adventurer himself,” Nedman said. “Come for the special?”

“I guess.”

“You guess? Have you ever had baked cat clam cakes and catsparagus before? Because if you haven’t…” Nedman popped his head into the kitchen and told his wife to whip up a special. “It won’t take very long, they just need to bake for a little bit,” he said as he motioned for Rowan to take a seat at the counter.

“We went up to the cat shrine today,” Rowan told Nedman.

“You did? I haven’t been up there for ages. It’s so peaceful up there. Did you see Irma?”

“We did. She says she’s going to come down tomorrow to the council meeting.”

“Such an important vote,” Nedman told him. “But I’m trying not to get my hopes up over here. You wouldn’t believe how many people don’t want progress. It’s insane, if you ask me. Without progress, what is there? Look at this island…” For the next fifteen minutes Nedman rambled on about how the island used to be, and how it could improve. By this point, he was speaking to a converted audience, Rowan in complete agreement that the island could be better.

But he was also starting to understand how people could like it just the way it was. The village did have its own charm, and its secluded nature wasn’t actually that bad. But Nedman was right about a lot of things, especially making the island more accessible, and basic improvements like that.

The food eventually came, Rowan trying not to open the bag and smell it just to get a hint of what it would be like. The cats outside of Nedman’s Restaurant swarmed around him once they smelled the baked clams, mewing, friendly for once.

“This isn’t for you,” he told them as he headed back to the general store.

“You’re back,” Toro said as soon as Rowan reached the apartment. His father stood in his usual place on the other side of the counter, Toro on his stool.

“Well, one thing is for certain,” Rowan said as he set the bag down. “The cats really like the smell of this food.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Ganix said as he took the bag from his son. “And tonight, all of us need to get to bed early. Tomorrow is a very important day. And it starts really early, earlier than it normally starts for us.”

“So you really got a boat?” Toro asked.

“I already told you I got a boat, one of Chodak’s. Tomorrow is going to be a bit of an adventure, if I do say so myself. Let’s just hope Old Man Stellars is willing to hear our side of the story.”

.Chapter Twelve.

Rowan was too tired from the trip up to the shrine and the long time spent swimming to stay up that night with his father. He fell asleep relatively easily, and woke up the next morning upon hearing their dad call out for them.

“Boys! We’re on a schedule,” Ganix said as he peeked his head in the room.

Rowan sat up and rubbed his eyes for a moment, and as he did he got a glimpse of his personal attributes.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 352/352

Intelligence: 24.09

Willpower: 11.29

Empathy: 7.15

Charisma: 11.84

Strength: 5.78

Dexterity: 7.91

Luck: 3.95

+ .03 Strength!

+ .06 Dexterity!

+ .05 Luck!

He hadn’t increased too much, and he was a bit annoyed with this fact, especially being so close to leveling up several of the attributes. But he was almost there, and he figured it would be just a few more days before he was pushing three hundred and sixty HP.

Rowan briefly scanned through his quests as he waited for Toro to stir, where he also noticed that he had leveled up in his drawing ability.

Drawing / Level 4

Level up!

Playing Guitar / Level 1

Talking to Girls / Level 4

He was happy to see this. While he had advanced his drawing ability relatively quickly because of an art course he was taking at school, he hadn’t leveled up all year. Once again, he felt the urge to switch his skill focus to something else, especially because he didn’t even have a guitar here.

But what could he swap it out for?

He was also a little skeptical now of his skill level in talking to girls. It seemed like Toro was way better at that than him, or at least making them laugh…

“Wake up,” he told his brother, tapping him on the shoulder a bit rougher than he should have.

“Hey…”

“We’ve got to go; Dad is calling us.”

“Fine…” Toro said as he rolled out of bed, startling Uncle. The orange kitten squirmed away, getting tangled in a blanket before falling to the floor.

Both Toro and Rowan laughed.

“Boys!” their dad called again, his voice followed by a crashing sound from the living room.

Rowan and Toro barely had time to exchange glances before they popped out of the bed, racing to the living room. Rowan was the first to reach the door, just as a flash of white twisted across the living room.

“A seagull?” Toro asked, Rowan noticing that it had collided with a lamp, that their dad was trying to shoo it out of the apartment.

“He flew in,” he told his sons, nodding to the open balcony door. “Stay in your room. I’ll try to get it out.”

“I’ll help!” Toro said as he equipped his broom.

Stepping around his older brother, Toro charged into the living room after the seagull. He swung his broom and missed, the younger boy stumbling forward and cracking his knee on the coffee table.

“Toro!” Ganix came to his son, waving his hands in the air above him to bat the seagull away.

Rowan took a quick look around, not sure what he should do. The seagull continued to fly in the small space of the apartment, Ganix protecting Toro, his younger brother’s face red now as he held his knee, trying not to sob.

Rowan spotted his father’s pillow and lunged for it.

Holding the pillow, he got onto the couch, where he watched the seagull fly around the room at an increasingly frenzied pace. He bent his knees and jumped toward the bird, swiping it out of the air with his pillow.

The seagull hit the ground, and Rowan was just about to hit it again when Uncle came tearing out of the bedroom and pounced on the seagull. The bird flapped its wings as it tried to get off the ground, Uncle now hanging from its body.

The seagull managed to shake Uncle off, just as Rowan was coming forward to hit it again with the pillow. It took off, flying out of the open balcony door. Rowan reached the door and shut it, sucking in deep breaths now as he looked to his father and brother.

Just a moment ago, Toro had looked to be on the verge of crying. Now, he couldn’t stop a grin from spreading across his face, Toro launching into a fit of laughter that drew Ganix in as well.

“Rowan Toragan, seagull hunter,” Ganix said, Rowan starting to lift his chest a little, proud to have ‘rescued’ his family members.

“That was awesome,” Toro said, no longer concerned with his knee. “You whacked him with that pillow. That must have hurt!”

“I don’t know if I would describe that as awesome, but you sure taught that seagull a lesson,” Ganix said as he helped Toro to his feet. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Toro said, making sure his knee still worked. “I’m fine.”

“Good. We need to eat quickly,” he told the two of them. “I would like to be back as soon as possible.”

“What’s for breakfast?” Rowan asked as he returned the pillow to the couch.

“Proxima tarts and a fried egg. How does that sound?”

“Sounds okay,” Toro said as he took a seat on the stool.

“Do you want your Proxima tarts hot or cold?”

“Cold,” said Rowan.

“Hot.”

Ganix laughed softly to himself. “You two really can be polar opposites, you know that?”

He set a plate before each of his sons and dished out the Proxima tarts, both of which were strawberry flavored. While they ate, Ganix fried up three eggs, serving each of them and keeping one egg for himself.

“To the docks,” Toro said as soon as he was finished eating.

“Well, almost,” Ganix started to tell him. “Get dressed; before we go to the docks we need to pick up some muffins from Gilda.”

“Why?” Rowan asked.

“For Stellars. I talked to Gilda yesterday and she said that he liked her carrot muffins. Since we are going to ask him a favor, it will probably do us well to bring some type of offering.”

“Do we get to eat some of the offering too?” Toro asked.

“I’m sure that can be arranged. Get changed. I’ll meet you two downstairs. I’m going to feed the cats outside,” Ganix said as Uncle approached him, meowing. “And yes, I’m going to feed you too.”

Rowan and Toro changed in their bedroom, both going with long-sleeve shirts, which Rowan rolled up to the elbow, his younger brother copying him.

Once their shoes were on, they headed downstairs to find their father outside of the store, petting the two female cats, Fiona and Zaena. As usual, the orange tabby known as Meme was hogging the food bowl, while the other two male cats, Quantum and Ryuk, held back.

“Ready?” Ganix asked his two sons.

“Ready,” they said at the same time.

“Lock up, Rowan.” Ganix turned toward the center of town, and after Rowan locked the door, he joined his father and his younger brother.

It was a nice morning, a mist sitting over the village, a bit of moisture in the air. Once they got to the top of the hill, Rowan saw that the sky was clear, that it was going to be a nice day. They passed the hoarders’ cluttered home, neither brother outside, and then started down the hill, Tuya and Zola’s places on the right, followed by Argat’s home and finally Gilda’s home.

As he had before, Rowan could smell whatever Gilda was making from the streets. Even though he had just eaten, he was increasingly excited about having some of her muffins.

Ganix approached her front door and knocked. Gilda came just a few moments later with a basket covered by a cloth. She wore an apron that had flour sprinkled across it, and a bandanna to hold her hair back.

“Thanks again,” Ganix told her as he took the basket of muffins.

“Yeah, thanks,” Toro said, Rowan simply offering her a nod.

“My pleasure. I wish you luck today, and be safe out there if the waters are choppy.”

“We’ll do our best,” Ganix said.

“I’m sure you will. You have my vote tonight,” she said, her eyes softening on the three of them. “I’m so excited to explore the possibilities of this island.”

Once his sons were in the small boat, Ganix undid the mooring and had Rowan and Toro help push the boat away from the dock. He started the outboard motor, and began steering it toward the sea.

Toro joined him at the back of the boat, Ganix with a firm smile on his face as he turned in the direction of the sea stacks. They would have to travel around the island for a little bit to reach them. As the boat glided through the water, Rowan stayed at the front, holding onto the railing as he looked out, the cool wind hitting his face.

He saw a couple of pelicans lift from the water, and he wondered if one of them was Logan, the bird who had saved the boys a few days back. Rowan remembered that they needed to secure a whistle so they could call him.

The water grew choppier, Rowan tensing up until Toro joined him, his younger brother not at all bothered by the tumultuous waves.

For a moment, the mist was thick enough that Rowan couldn’t see to the other side. He felt a sense of panic rise in his chest as he glanced back at his father, who continued to steer the boat with a firm smile plastered across his face.

The mist started to pull away, as if someone were sucking it through a straw. It lifted into the air and came back down, sweeping out again, forming all sorts of shapes, a few of which actually looked like cats, at least according to Toro.

Once the mist dissipated, Rowan was able to get a glimpse of the village from a different angle. He saw the cliff on the other side of the town square, how the homes moved up the hill and dipped back down the other side, to the East Docks.

He imagined the orchard beyond a tuft of trees, Rowan aware of the path that they had to take on land to make it to Stellars’ epic mansion. A large wave came their way, Ganix cutting right through it. Both of the boys were splashed in the face with saltwater, Toro roaring with approval.

Rowan wiped his eyes, feeling an instant sting, as well as the taste of salt in his mouth. He spat over the side of the boat, and felt a hand landing on his back as he did so, grabbing onto his shirt.

“Let go,” he told Toro.

“I just don’t want you to fall over the side,” Toro called over the engine and the sound of the waves as they continued to tear through them.

“Thanks…”

“Rowan, look!” Toro pointed at a school of fish hopping out of the water. The boat started to arc away from the fish, the two boys gasping as one of the pink dolphins leaped out of the water and came back down. Rowan then saw a dolphin fin moving through the waves along the outer perimeter of the fish.

“Breakfast, I guess.”

Toro laughed. “Everyone has to eat breakfast.”

Ganix steered the boat just a bit closer to the island, more mist appearing over the water forming all sorts of shapes. The mist pressed away, and Rowan spotted Old Man Stellars’ home on top of an enormous rock jutting out of the water, his secluded mansion only visible from their current position because of its sheer size. There were other sea stacks around them, smaller ones, Ganix careful of any rocks sticking out of the water.

They reached the point where he was worried that the propeller would hit a rock. He turned the engine off, and told his sons to grab the oars that were kept inside the boat.

“Going to steer toward the rock, and then around,” he told them. “You need to work together to do this.”

It took them a moment to get the rhythm down, but eventually Rowan and Toro, along with their father, were able to find a rhythm, the three guiding the boat around the seastack, to the dock at the back.

There was a free space next to Old Man Stellars’ boat, separated by a wooden platform. Ganix guided the boat to it and successfully docked.

“Toro, you’re up first,” he said as he helped his youngest son out of the boat.

“I can do it myself,” Rowan said.

Once he was standing on the dock, he turned back to take the basket of muffins from their father, which had been protected from the water by the fabric covering.

“All right,” Ganix said as he reached the dock as well. He looked back to the small boat, and then rubbed his hands together. “Let’s get up there and have ourselves a chat. Remember, don’t mess with anything in his home, and…” He gave his two sons a loving smile. “Just try to behave.”

Ganix and his two sons were surprised to find an entryway cut into the rock. Rowan hadn’t really thought about how they would get from the docks up to the mansion, but now it made sense. The door led to a set of stone stairs inside the sea stack.

“Fascinating,” Ganix said as they made their way up the inner spiral staircase. The stairwell was illuminated by natural lighting, someone going to the trouble of actually cutting windows, albeit very small ones, into the stone.

“This must have cost a fortune,” Ganix said once they reached the top of the stairs, where they entered into a small booth with a door and some seating on the side.

They stepped out of the booth, the three of them looking up at the enormous mansion, which was easily four stories tall, almost reminding Rowan of a castle. The stonework was mostly gray, and it was surrounded by gardens. There was a bluestone pathway that wrapped around to the front, Ganix motioning for his sons to follow him.

They passed under a pergola covered in vines, and moved under another metal entryway adorned with flowers. They came around to the front entrance, Rowan noticing just how different it looked from the perspective of a human. It was still awe-inspiring, but it seemed a bit more manageable as a human.

“Let me have the basket,” Ganix told Toro.

The young boy handed the basket to his father and Ganix rang the doorbell.

The sound that emerged was unlike any bell Rowan had ever heard before, almost as loud as a church bell, the tone echoing in the walls surrounding the mansion.

“That was crazy,” Rowan said, Toro nodding confirmation.

“Remember what I said,” Ganix told him.

It took a moment, but eventually the door started to creak open, the three greeted by an older man who was hunched over and wearing a black trench coat. The few strands of hair he had on his head were swept over to the left, and his skin was covered in age spots, his eyes a glowing amber.

Name: Joshnam Stellars

Age: 101

Occupation: Retiree

His social status began to fade away as he peered at the three of them. “Can I help you?” Old Man Stellars asked.

Rowan’s father cleared his throat. “Hi, my name is Ganix Toragan, Turni Toragan’s nephew. I’ve taken over the general store, and I thought I would stop by and pay you a visit. Your bridge is out, but I’m sure you know that by now. We came by boat.”

“Ah, by boat. How was the sea?”

“Not too rough. And I brought muffins from Gilda.”

Old Man Stellars’ eyes filled with delight. “Now, I’m listening. Come on in.” He stepped aside to let the three enter his home, Rowan immediately running his eyes up to stairwells that twisted to the next floor up, another stairs going to an additional floor.

Everything in the home seemed handcrafted to some degree, made from a variety of expensive stones and dark wood. The air was stuffy, and as Rowan looked at some of the portraits on the wall to his right, he spotted a familiar face.

“Toro,” he said, tugging on his brother’s sleeve.

“It’s Blanche,” Toro whispered to him.

“What was that?” Stellars asked, pausing. He turned back to them and looked at the portrait of Blanche, the girl looking just as she did now, aside from the fact that she was alive when the picture was painted, and her form was actually tangible. “Ah, my granddaughter. She died years ago. Worst couple of weeks of my life.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ganix said. “I lost my brother when I was young; I know how it feels.”

“Your brother?”

Ganix nodded, Rowan suddenly on edge, surprised to see his father tell the stranger this. It was something he rarely spoke about.

“It was a long time ago,” was all he could say.

Stellars offered a grunt in response. “Understandable. This way, to my kitchen,” he told the three of them. “The seat of my home.”

They passed what Rowan recognized as the guest room that he had once been in with Toro, when they were both cats. It was close enough to the kitchen that they would have definitely been able to hear Vicar’s conversation.

The kitchen was clean and organized. The countertops were stone, an island in the center was made of wood and steel, everything immaculate, thought-out in design.

Ganix set the basket down on the counter. Stellars licked his lips as he removed the cloth covering the muffins. “Gilda always makes the best muffins. I swear, I would buy these from her every day if she had a way to deliver them to me.”

“It’s going to be hard to get anything to you with the bridge down.”

“I have some people coming to fix it today,” Stellars said as he took a bite out of a muffin, clearly not concerned with the bridge. “I’m too old to handle things like that myself. Same with cleaning this house.”

“Who cleans it then?” Toro asked.

“People from the mainland. There’s a helipad on the roof. They fly in from the other side of the island so they don’t disturb the villagers. Twice a week at the moment. Like I said, they should be here later today to repair the bridge. I’ll make sure the next one is sturdier. It would be impossible to maintain a place this large on my own without outside help.”

“Have you lived here your entire life?” Ganix asked him.

“No, I moved here when I was about your age. Hard to believe that was sixty years ago, but time flies when you’re stuck on an island,” he said with a chuckle. “Back on the mainland, I had some services that I created that were integral to the Proxima company’s newest rollout at the time. They paid me a pretty penny for it, and I moved here and started buying up property. The rest I used to invest, which is…” He took another bite of his muffin. “I suppose you didn’t come up here to learn about my wealth. I’m sorry to talk so openly about it. I haven’t spoken to anyone for a couple days now.”

“It’s fine,” Ganix said. “I wanted to come up here to tell you what I was hoping to do, and just to clear up any rumors you may have heard.”

“Go on…” Stellars said as he went for another muffin.

“I was formerly an administrator for the Proxima company, DevOps, that sort of thing. I worked mainly with the OMIB, if that means anything to you.”

“It means a great deal to me,” Stellars said, a slight twinkle in his eyes as he looked Ganix over.

“My uncle died, as I’m sure you know, and I found out that I inherited his store. I came here looking for something new.”

“I can appreciate that.”

“Once I got the store up and running and met some of the people, I started to notice that there were some things around the island that could be better, things like streetlamps at night, maybe with motion sensors, although the cats would just turn those on all the time. Ramps for the handicapped; I saw that the farmer’s market was down, and then there’s the orchard, among a number of things that I would like to improve. I’m starting a company, in the process of starting it anyway, called Sacred Cat Products, which will allow some of the residents to sell their items on the mainland, at the Pier.”

“That would be a great way for some of the people here to bring in a little income.”

“That was my thought, and I also thought that it would…” Ganix bit his lip for a moment and continued. “This island is amazing, and I can see the potential of it, and I know that some of the residents aren’t very keen on tourists suddenly coming back, but others would welcome travelers. I figured if we were able to, I mean, if I were able to make Sacred Cat Products successful, people would wonder where they came from, and maybe more people would visit the island during the summer months and bring in some much needed Proxima dollars.”

“So your timeline to get this island up to shape would be a year then?”

“That’s one timeline I thought of,” Ganix said, going into much more detail than he had gone into with Rowan. “But another thing I wanted to do in the meantime was get the orchard going again, especially as everyone keeps telling me that now is the time to get apple-peaches planted.”

“Yes, apple-peaches. Amazing fruit, if you ask me. Many are already planted, but if someone doesn’t take care of them, they will just die off.”

“So that was another thing that I wanted to get involved with. I saw that there is a home there on the orchard and processing facility, and I have since discovered that you are the person who owns the property.”

“I am. I’ve owned the orchard for fifty years now.”

“What about the family that lived on it before?” Rowan asked.

“Rowan…”

“No, it’s fine, that’s a good question,” Stellars said. “I bought it from the family that lived on it before, but other families have lived on it since. So which family are you talking about?”

“The last ones to live on it.”

“Ah, yes, the Jivmons. They were such a nice family. You know, they kept that orchard up for fifteen years, no, twenty. Somewhere between fifteen and twenty years. I have to check the paperwork. Anyway, they rented it from me.”

“So you wouldn’t be interested in selling it?” Ganix asked.

“That would have to depend on the offer, but I like the orchard, and I like it being here, and I don’t want it to be cleared away for something else.”

“I like the orchard as well,” Ganix said, “and I see it as a key to profitability for Sacred Cat Products in the future. In the fall, once the apple-peaches are ripe…”

“They’ll be ripe in a month if you plant them now. They really do grow that quickly.”

“Even better. I thought it would be something that we could introduce to the mainland in the fall, jams, dried apple-peaches, wine, other spirits maybe, those kinds of things.”

“You’d love what Gilda can do with apple-peaches.”

“I’m sure I would. Anyway, that’s what I want to talk to you about. The orchard. Just so you know, there’s a vote being held tonight at the village council in regards to my proposals for the island. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, but I would like you to know that I believe, and hope, that I can make the place better for the residents. I’m going to live here…” Ganix swallowed hard, and in that moment Rowan felt that he wanted to look at his sons but couldn’t. “I’m planning to live here the rest of my life, and I would like to see the place grow into something new during that time.”

Stellars nodded after a long pause. “Thank you for coming by, Mr. Toragan.”

“Please, call me Ganix.”

“Joshnam. Although everyone here calls me Old Man Stellars considering I’m the oldest resident on the island.” He smiled. “Thanks for bringing me muffins. It will save me a trip.”

The waves picked up, lashing against the boat once again as they left Old Man Stellars’ secluded mansion.

Rowan noticed that the mist had settled, allowing him to see some of the moss-covered rocks that jutted out of the water. As he stood at the front of the boat, he started wondering again what had just happened back in the kitchen. Had Stellars agreed to not sell the land to Vicar? Had he agreed to sell it to their dad? Or to at least let him rent it?

It was really unclear to him, and Ganix was tight-lipped as always about the interaction, once again retreating into himself rather than being open with his sons.

“I don’t know what he’ll decide,” was all he had said once they pressured him for an answer.

Was Stellars a coder? This was another question on Rowan’s mind as the boat picked up speed, the wind hitting his face. He must have made a lot of money from the Proxima company to be able to afford to live the way he did. And helicopters? Rowan looked back at the home, hoping to see a helicopter landing.

What he saw instead were seagulls flying in a circle above them, a pelican or two, Rowan once again thinking of Logan.

“What are we going to do now?” Toro asked, interrupting his thoughts.

“Unless Dad needs our help, maybe we can go to the cave.”

Toro wrapped his red cape around his neck so it operated as a scarf. “Sounds good to me.”

The boat ride back to the West Docks seemed much faster than their earlier trip. They didn’t see any dolphins along the way, but they did see another school of fish swimming in a tight circle.

Ganix cut off the engine once they neared the dock and used the oar to steer them closer. After he dealt with the mooring, he helped Toro up first, and then gave Rowan a hand, Rowan once again climbing up himself.

“Do you have anything for us to do?” Rowan asked, hoping that the answer was no.

“Actually, you two are free for the afternoon. I want some time to take care of the store and go over some notes I have for tonight’s vote. Are you hungry?”

“I’m not,” Toro said.

“Neither am I.”

“In that case, come back in the afternoon and I’ll cook up some dinner.”

“What are you going to cook?” Toro asked as they took the stairs that led up to the cobblestone path, the large cat statue on the right.

“Chodak dropped off some fish yesterday. I was planning to bake that and serve it with beans.”

“Fish and beans?” Toro asked skeptically.

“It will be fine, trust me,” said Ganix as he turned to the store, the cats out front coming to greet him.

Rowan and Toro continued up the hill, Rowan pausing for just a moment in front of Doyona’s home, wondering yet again if Olivia was watching them through a window.

“I hope that Stellars lets Dad take over the orchard,” Toro said as they continued along, his red cape back on his shoulders now.

“I wish he had been clearer about what he wanted to do…”

“Yeah, me too.”

They took the first path that led up to the cave, and along the way they encountered Argat, who jogged at a slow pace.

“Boys,” he said as he stopped to talk to them. He wore neon-pink shorts and held a water bottle that spelled out the word ‘runner’ in bubbly text. “How’s your day going?”

“We took a…”

Rowan stepped in front of his brother. “It’s going fine,” he said, not wanting to reveal that they had been out to Stellars’ home.

“Good to hear. I’ll see you tonight,” Argat said as he checked his watch. “I’ve got to get back to it. This heart rate isn’t going to keep itself up.”

He jogged away, Rowan and Toro continuing up the path toward the cave. For a moment, Rowan thought about taking a quick swim before morphing into cats, but they could always do this later, so he turned to the right instead.

They reached the cave.

Rowan looked up to the space he had once seen the woman in the cat mask. He now understood that she was the spirit of the island, and that she had a shrine inside the shrine which they definitely needed to check out.

But before they did that, he wanted to go down to the village and do a little snooping.

Toro crawled into the hole first, Rowan going in second. They emerged on the other side as brown kittens, Toro sitting and flexing his claws immediately. He curled his white-tipped tail around and looked at it for a moment.

“It’s so cool to become a cat,” Rowan said, waving his tail in the air as well.

They trotted down the rockier path that led to Sacred Cat Village, Rowan leading the way. It wasn’t long before the two reached the hoarders’ home. They were about to turn right when Hiccup ran toward them, the cat with the pink tail carrying a distraught look on his whiskered face.

“Rowan, Toro! Meow, am I happy to see you!”

“What is it?” Toro asked.

“There’s been an attack…”

Rocket tore out of a pile of trash and joined them. “Hey, fellas.”

“An attack?” Rowan asked.

“FeeTwix was attacked. He’s the cat that lives at the same place as Cuthbert. We should go there now.”

“Attacked by who?” Toro asked Hiccup.

“By the catfish. You two were right, meow. Follow me.”

The four cats quickly made their way down the cobblestone path, eventually coming to Argat’s place. The fitness guru was out front in push-up position, sweat dripping off his body as he stared down at a timer.

“This guy is crazy, meow,” Hiccup said as they turned toward the drainage ditch.

“I think he just likes to exercise,” Toro said.

“Poor humans don’t get enough exercise just being humans,” Rocket said. “Not like us cats. We get plenty of exercise just being ourselves.”

They entered the long drainage ditch to find Cuthbert, the white Turkish angora looking down at FeeTwix. Lying on his side, the red cat took in shallow breaths. Another cat that Rowan and Toro hadn’t met before appeared, a dark-blue korat named Danzen.

“I came as quickly as I could,” Danzen said in a low voice. “What happened?”

The Catpendium gave Rowan this cat’s details, but he didn’t know who the owner was.

Name: Danzen

Breed: Korat

Sex: Male

Color: Dark Blue

Secondary Color: Gray

Age (Human Years): 7

Age (Cat Years): 45

Known Associates: Aya, Sterling, Carmen

“He’s one of Gilda’s cats,” Toro whispered to him, almost as if he had intuited what his brother was pondering.

“Let me look at him,” Danzen said as he came forward. He crouched before FeeTwix and sniffed him. He then licked his head for a moment, FeeTwix blinking his eyes open.

“What happened?” Danzen asked.

“The catfish…”

“The mighty king catfish strikes again,” Cuthbert said sadly. He lowered his head, Rowan once again seeing the whistle-like object that hung from his collar.

“I was down there to try to steal one of the fisherman’s fish. He…” FeeTwix blinked a few times, his whiskers sagging. “He jumped out of the water and swallowed me. I scratched the inside of his throat and he spit me back out. I started to crawl back here, but…”

“Let me see,” Danzen said as he observed the rest of FeeTwix’s body. Using his paw, he tested the red cat’s legs and his tail.

“Oi, oi, oi, oi!” FeeTwix moaned in agony.

“It’s your tail.”

“Is it broken?” Cuthbert asked.

“I don’t believe so. If you’d landed just a bit more to this side,” Danzen said, placing his paw on FeeTwix’s thigh, “we would have a different scenario entirely.”

“Somebody needs to do something about that stupid catfish, meow,” said Hiccup, his lips curling into a snarl.

“We may just have to stay clear of the docks for good. We can’t risk one of our own getting killed,” Cuthbert told them.

“We’ll do something about it.” Toro stepped forward, defiance in his eyes.

The cats in the drainage ditch all looked at the tiny brown kitten, including FeeTwix, who swapped a pained expression for one of confusion.

“You?” FeeTwix asked.

“You saw what we did to the twisted sisters,” Rowan said, feeling the urge to defend his brother. “We’ll do the same with the catfish. In fact…”

“You are too small to deal with a creature of that size,” Cuthbert said.

“But we know someone who can handle it,” Toro said. “I can understand their language. I am able to communicate to some degree with the humans.”

“Nonsense,” Danzen said. “In my years of tending after cats on this island, I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“Just trust us,” Rowan said as a quest appeared before him. “In fact, we’ll see what we can do right now.”

Cat Quest: Deal with the catfish

“We’ll go with you,” Rocket said.

“We will, meow?” Hiccup asked.

Rowan shook his head. “No, we need to do this alone. All of you should stay here and look after FeeTwix. We will handle it and report back.”

“That’s insane,” Danzen started to say.

“No, let them go,” Cuthbert told the group, a hint of something in his honey-colored eyes now that Rowan didn’t quite recognize. For a moment, he felt that the older cat knew more than he was letting on, but then the sparkle left, and he looked back down to FeeTwix. “We’ll stay here. Good luck, boys.”

Rowan shouted Blanche’s name as they raced up to the cave. He had an idea in mind, but they were going to definitely need some ghostly assistance.

“Blanche!” Toro shouted as well, mimicking his brother.

“You called?” the dust girl asked as she formed into existence above them, the outline of her form sparkling in the sun that cut through the canopy.

“We need your help to fight a giant catfish,” Toro told her.

“A giant catfish?”

“The catfish attacked one of the cats,” Rowan explained as they reached the cave. “We told him we would help.” It dawned on him in that moment that they still didn’t have their new wooden swords from Dorno. There really was nothing they could do now. This needed to happen.

“Well, it’s not like I have anything better to do,” Blanche said, a hint of disdain in her voice. Rowan and his brother quickly crawled into the hole, morphing back into their human forms.

Toro shook his arms out as Rowan approached the ghost. “I saw your picture today.”

“You did?”

“We visited your grandfather’s home,” Toro said quickly. “I don’t think I’ve ever been in a home that big.”

“Oh, that place. Yeah, it’s big and boring,” Blanche told him. “I check in on him every once in a while, but being in that place makes me sad, especially seeing all the pictures of my family. Hard to imagine that everyone is dead except for him. I don’t know who the oldest man in our world is, but if he keeps at it…”

“So you’ll help us?” Rowan asked as he turned back toward the village.

“I thought I already said I would help you.”

“No, you said you had nothing better to do,” Toro told her. “That’s different.”

“That basically means I’ll help you, as long as you get my locket.”

“We will,” Toro assured her.

“Good. Now, what’s your plan? Don’t tell me you’re going to equip your wooden sword and your broom.”

“Actually, it worked last time,” Rowan told her, “but I have a different plan now. I saw something the last time we visited Chodak’s place. If we’re going to deal with this catfish, we need to end it once and for all so it doesn’t bother anyone any longer.”

“You mean you want to kill it?” Toro asked.

“I don’t think we really have another choice.”

Rowan and Toro started to run faster, Rowan so pumped full of adrenaline that he didn’t realize just how quickly he was running, or how they would have looked to any of the villagers. Luckily, it was afternoon and no one was out, most of the residents napping or having an early meal by this point.

They reached Chodak’s home. Rowan entered the man’s yard and peeked around in case Chodak was on the other side of the fence. He saw the twisted sisters, the two cats hissing at him before running away.

“That’s right,” he said under his breath as he grabbed Chodak’s harpoon, “run away.”

Rowan met Toro back at the street, his younger brother’s eyes going wide as he took in the weapon.

“You’re going to stab it?”

“No, I’m going to spear it. And I’m going to need your help,” he told Blanche.

“How?”

“You seem to be able to control the wind to some degree. I only have one shot, unless we can somehow get the harpoon back.”

“What about Chodak? Won’t he wonder where it went?” Toro asked.

“It is sort of rusty,” Rowan said as he looked down at the piece. “I don’t know if he actually uses it or not.”

“If we use it to kill the catfish, we have to get it back,” Toro said.

“You’re right, okay, that’s going to complicate things…” Rowan examined the harpoon and saw that the end was fashioned in a way that would allow someone to thread a rope through it. “Let’s try to find some rope down there. There has to be something at the dock. I will throw it, Blanche will give it power, and then after I have speared it…”

“You aren’t strong enough to pull that back out of the catfish,” Toro said.

“Well, if that’s the case, then we will find him another harpoon. I’m sure there’s one somewhere. Maybe the hoarders have one.”

“Are we done discussing this?” Blanche asked, her arms crossed over her chest as she floated before them. “I was summoned to help kill a catfish, and that’s what I would like to do.”

Toro gave her a funny look.

“What? It has been a boring day.”

“You are always so bored,” he told her.

“You wouldn’t know the first thing about being a bored ghost floating around on an island all day, would you, Toro?”

“If I were a ghost, I would do all sorts of interesting things.”

“You don’t know that,” Rowan told him as they reached the East Docks, the two boys heading down the wooden steps.

Blanche turned to the water. “So, how are we supposed to get this catfish here? I’m guessing it doesn’t have a name.”

“It attacked one of the cats,” Rowan said as he brought the harpoon to the ready. “It also attacked us. We have to take it down. Toro, equip your broom.”

“Will do,” said Toro, his weapon appearing in his hands. He spun it once and pointed the pole end of it at the water. “Show yourself, catfish.”

Blanche burst out laughing. “You two are so cute, really. I wish we could have been alive together. We would have gotten into so much trouble on this island.”

“We don’t want any trouble,” Toro told her. “We just want to fight the catfish.”

The water started to stir before they could find a rope for the harpoon, Blanche zipping over to the disturbance.

“Is this it?”

“Get ready…” Rowan said as he steeled himself. His hands were tingling now, but he knew not to give into this fear, he knew that the catfish needed to go. “Here it comes!”

The enormous catfish burst out of the water and landed on the dock in front of the two boys, its whiskers going wild as they tried to grab Rowan and his brother. Toro batted its whiskers away, Rowan having to do the same with the harpoon.

Rowan swatted the largest whisker only for it to come around and try to strike him again. The water splashed down onto the catfish’s head, Blanche’s doing.

“This fish really is big!” she said as she dipped back beneath the water and tried to conjure a wave to flip the catfish onto its back. But she didn’t have that much force, and while their opponent seemed annoyed by the water that was striking it, the catfish also seemed laser-focused on capturing the boys.

Rowan took a few steps back and started to run at the catfish, the harpoon held over his shoulder. One of the catfish’s whiskers took his legs out from beneath him, Rowan slamming into the dock, landing on his side.

Pain ballooned within him, but he pressed back just in time to avoid another wet whisker.

“Leave my brother alone!” Toro said as he charged toward the catfish with his broom overhead. He smacked an incoming whisker out of the way and spun once, swatting another whisker down, anger filling the catfish’s eyes.

Feeling a surge of energy, Rowan pressed back to his feet and tried to get just a little bit of distance. “Blanche, I need you!” he shouted. Once again, he started charging forward with the harpoon, only to be struck so hard this time that he went flying into the water.

Everything went dark for a moment.

“I’ll help you,” Blanche said as soon as he came up out of the water. An enormous wave lifted Rowan out of the sea and deposited him back on the dock, where he found his brother with both legs wide, swatting his broom left and right at a frenzied pace.

“Step aside, Toro!” Rowan said as he charged forward again this time, preparing to launch the harpoon.

Rowan felt a gust of wind behind him just as soon as he let go of the weapon, which spun into the air and dug into the catfish’s forehead.

The beast stopped trying to fight them.

Its whiskers drooped, and its eyes turned upward a little as a trail of blood appeared, dripping down from its forehead.

Cat Quest: Deal with the catfish (complete)

“Boys!” Rowan turned to find Chodak and Tunga standing there, the two fishermen with shocked looks on their faces. There were also cats watching them, a few of them scattering at the sound of Chodak’s voice.

“I’ll let you clean this up,” Blanche whispered as she faded out of existence.

“I’ll get Lonnie and Murni,” Tunga said as Chodak made his way down the steps to greet Rowan and Toro. Rowan was frozen in that moment, afraid that he was about to be yelled at for borrowing the harpoon without permission. Instead, the fisherman in the orange knit hat seemed absolutely ecstatic with what the two boys had done.

“You weren’t lying,” he said as he placed his hands on his hips and looked the giant catfish over. “That thing could swallow me whole!”

“What do we do with it?” Rowan shook his arms out, still sopping wet from being tossed into the sea. He started wringing out his shirt. Once they got inside, he could send the clothes to his inventory list to dry out.

Chodak laughed. “What do you want to do with it? I think you two are going to be the talk of the village, for one. In fact…” He didn’t have a wristwatch, so he looked up at the sun and squinted at it for a moment, not at all bothered by its brightness. “I think we have enough time.”

“Enough time for what?” Toro asked, the youth still tightly gripping his broom.

“Well, there’s a village council meeting tonight, and I’m guessing your daddy wants to impress the town. What if his two sons show up with a giant catfish ready to be served?”

Tunga came down the steps and onto the docks, the older man slightly out of breath. “Lonnie and Murni should be here in a minute.”

“How long would it take you to cook this big guy?” Chodak asked him.

“A fish this big?” Tunga squinted at the enormous catfish. “Are you going to help me cut it up?”

“Heh. That wasn’t really my plan, and you know that catfish can be…”

The catfish let out a gasp, water bubbling out of its mouth. This startled Rowan, who nearly fell off the dock had it not been for Chodak, the older fisherman catching him by the arm.

“Careful,” he said.

Tunga stepped closer to the catfish and looked it over. He placed his hand on the side of its face and nodded. “Who would have thought a catfish could get that big?”

“I have to admit I was wrong,” Chodak said, dipping his head a little. “The boys came to me about this catfish a few days back and I didn’t believe them.”

“I wouldn’t have believed anyone that told me they’d seen a catfish this big,” Tunga said, “including you.”

“Yeah, but I still feel bad. Boys, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Toro told Chodak.

The wind had picked up just a little, and Rowan was starting to feel the coolness of his wet shirt. He crossed his arms over his chest to keep warm.

“Wait a minute. Are you serious?” a voice asked from behind them.

Rowan turned to see two men approach, the voice belonging to the fisherman named Lonnie. The men’s social statuses appeared and faded away.

Name: Lonnie Wonder

Age: 63

Occupation: Fisherman

Name: Murni Joa

Age: 66

Occupation: Fisherman

“Look at this thing,” said Murni as he stepped past Rowan and rubbed his large, calloused hands together. Both fishermen seemed like they could be brothers with their thick gray beard and weathered faces. The only real difference was their size, Lonnie being tall and thin, Murni being short and stout.

“Are you sure this isn’t a whale?” Lonnie asked.

Murni laughed. “It sure looks like one…”

“Unless you boys want to see us cut this thing up, you should head on back to the village,” Chodak told Rowan and his brother. “We’ll be serving it up tonight.”

“You’re putting a lot of pressure on me to cook this catfish,” Tunga told him, a smirk taking shape on his face.

“What else were you going to do today?”

“I was reading one of my romance novels, I’ll have you know,” said Tunga, no hint of shame in his voice.

Murni and Lonnie laughed.

“You’re still reading those things?” Lonnie asked as he took the enormous catfish by the pectoral fin. Murni came to the other side and the two started pulling the catfish up the dock. It would take more than two men in the end, Tunga also helping out while Chodak made sure the three of them weren’t going to fall.

“There’s no way I’m going to be able to drag this thing up to my restaurant,” Tunga said as he caught his breath.

“Well, if we had some cars around here, or golf carts or something…” Murni said.

“Island rules,” Tunga reminded them. “Same with dogs. You’ve been to the mainland. Do you want this place to be overrun with vehicles, people honking their horns, all of that.”

“But golf carts…”

“Let’s talk about it later. Let me see here…” Tunga took a look around and shrugged. “I guess I could butcher some of it here. It will make it easier to carry out.” He ran his hand over his chin. “Yeah, let’s do that. You know what? Let’s make it a surprise. Don’t tell anyone about your catch,” Tunga instructed Rowan and his brother.

“What about our dad?” Toro asked.

“Sure, you can tell him, but keep it secret from the other islanders. Let’s surprise them. And one more thing…” Tunga motioned for the boys to stand in front of the catfish. “Let me get a picture of you to the front of this thing. I’ll be sure to get a copy to your father.”

“Okay,” Rowan said as he stepped up to the catfish, Toro joining him, still with his broom in his hand.

“Look tough, boys,” Murni said.

Rowan lifted his fist, and Toro held the broom out as if he were going to strike at one of the fishermen.

Tunga retrieved a camera from his inventory list and took a few pictures. “This is going to look great.” Once he was finished, he stepped aside, motioning for the boys to clear out.

“See you tonight,” Chodak called after them, Rowan and Toro turning away.

“I can’t believe we killed the catfish,” Rowan said once they were halfway to the center of the village.

“That was crazy,” Toro said. “You went into the water…”

“I thought I was going to drown. Speaking of which, Blanche?”

“You called?” the ghost asked, swirling into existence, her form just barely visible.

“Thank you for saving me from the water. And for helping me with the harpoon.”

“You are really thanking me?” she asked, seemingly surprised by this.

“Of course I am. Why would I not thank you? We couldn’t have done that without you.”

Toro nodded in agreement.

“If you two weren’t brave enough to do it, I wouldn’t have been able to help you…”

“It’s because of your help that we were able to do it,” Rowan told her. “Now, what should we do? Back to being cats?”

“It would be good to tell the others what happened, but I’m sure they saw,” Toro said.

“They did see,” he told his younger brother. “There were cats watching it happen. I didn’t notice which ones were there, though.”

“How much longer do we have before you think we should go back to the store?” Toro asked.

“I think we could make a quick trip up to the cave, turn to cats, and come back down again. What do you think?”

“Yes!”

Toro and Rowan made their way up the rocky path. They were just reaching the cave when they spotted Olivia, Blanche immediately disappearing.

“Why are you wet?” Olivia asked. Doyona and Vicar’s granddaughter was in a pale-blue dress and a matching bonnet. She had a basket in her hands filled with twigs and other things she had picked up in the forest.

“You’re not going to believe what happened…” Toro said.

“You’ll find out later,” Rowan told her. “What are you collecting?”

“I’m helping Raydoh with his wreaths. He’s quite picky about what he makes them with, you know. But you still haven’t explained why you are all wet. Did you go swimming?”

“No…” Rowan said.

“Because if you did, you’re coming from the wrong direction. What were you coming up here for anyway?” Olivia asked, taking a step closer to them.

Rowan glanced around for a moment and recalled that they had once encountered Argat on this very trail after spraining his ankle. “We were just exercising.”

“Yeah,” Toro said, pumping one of his arms. “Fitness is important.”

“If we take our health seriously now, then we won’t be old and frail,” Rowan chimed in.

“So that’s why you’re up here?” she asked, the tone of her voice indicating to Rowan that she didn’t believe him. “Hmmm. Interesting.”

“What’s so interesting about exercising? Or do you mean this forest?” Toro asked. “It’s just the forest.”

“Nothing,” she said as she started down the rocky path. “But it can be scary when you’re alone. Will you walk with me?”

Rowan and Toro exchanged glances.

“You were already up here alone,” Rowan told her.

“I know, but…” She turned back to him and offered Rowan a sweet smile. “Please? My grandmother is resting right now, so she won’t see the three of us together.”

Rowan nodded, figuring they could turn to cats later. “Sure, we’ll walk with you. We should probably head home and check on our dad anyway.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Olivia said. “Don’t you want to dry your clothes before we go?”

“Where?” Rowan asked.

“You can send them to your inventory list in the cave up there,” Olivia said. “Toro and I can wait here.”

“Okay…” Rowan said as he left the two of them.

It only took him a couple of minutes to reach the cave. He approached it cautiously now that he was alone, expecting to see the woman in the cat mask. But he didn’t see her, and after checking to make sure the hole was still there so they could transform into cats at a later date, he quickly sent his clothing to his inventory list and then reequipped it, everything dry.

“I’ll be back,” Rowan told the cave as he trotted back down the path to join Olivia and Toro.

“Dad!” Toro shouted as he burst through the door of the general store. “We killed a giant catfish!”

“You what?” Ganix asked. He was perched on a stool behind the counter and going through an order sheet. He looked up at his two sons, not able to hide the grin on his face as he noticed their excitement.

“It’s a surprise,” Rowan said, stepping in front of his younger brother. “Not for you, I mean for the rest of the village. There was a giant catfish at the East Docks and we fought it. I threw a harpoon at its head.”

“You did what?” Ganix asked as he came around the counter, his face suddenly a mixture of surprise and horror.

“What I just said, Dad, I threw the harpoon and it killed the giant catfish. Chodak and Tunga are dealing with it now.”

“And Lonnie and Murni, the other fishermen,” Toro chimed in. “They’re going to prepare it for the village council meeting tonight.”

“Let me get this straight: you saw a giant catfish and you killed it with a harpoon?”

“Yes, Dad, how hard is this to understand?” Rowan asked.

“Hey, don’t talk to me like that. What you are saying is unexpected and I’m just trying to clarify. Why is it taking four men to deal with this catfish?”

“Because it’s huge, Dad! It’s, like, this big.” Toro tapped his foot on the ground and then ran a few paces into the store and circled back around.

“Easily five hundred pounds,” said Rowan, having absolutely no idea the weight of the catfish. “Easily. No, bigger. Maybe a thousand.”

Toro gestured with his hands. “Its mouth is this big. It could swallow you, Dad.”

Ganix shook his head. “Boys, there’s no need to exaggerate.”

“We’re not exaggerating. Tunga took some pictures, you’ll see,” Rowan told him. “It really was as big as Toro is saying. We’re not lying, Dad, in fact…”

It was on the tip of his tongue.

Rowan wanted to tell their father everything, but he knew better, and he also knew it would lead to other questions and there was even a chance Rowan and his brother would get in trouble. He didn’t know why, but there was always this chance with adults.

“Dad, we’re not lying about anything,” Toro said, growing angry. “We don’t lie! We don’t have any reason to lie. The catfish is the biggest catfish Chodak has ever seen, and tonight, they’ll serve it at the meeting. That’s what they said.”

“He’s right,” Rowan added. “I don’t know if this will help with the vote, but it may.”

“Actually…” Ganix ran his hand through his hair. “You’re not wrong there. People are always easier to bribe with food. I don’t know why. It’s not like there isn’t food abundantly available that can be stashed away in inventory lists. Speaking of which, Gilda just dropped off some items,” he said, motioning to a basket near the register.

“So you believe us? Also, can I have a muffin?”

“Yes, you can have a muffin. But just one. And yes, I believe you,” Ganix told Toro. “And speaking of food, I was planning to cook tonight. Do you two mind tidying up the store while I start dinner?”

Rowan and Toro exchanged glances.

“Is this a Dad Quest?” Toro asked.

“Does it need to be?”

“No…” Rowan moaned.

“If it were a Dad Quest and it came with a prize, would that make it better?”

“Depends on the prize,” Toro said.

“I still have a few more of those limited edition Proxima Bars.”

“I don’t know…” Toro told their dad. “What else do you have?”

“I have something else in mind, but I don’t physically have the items just yet.”

“What is it?” Rowan asked.

“Tidy up the store and you’ll find out soon enough,” Ganix told them as he turned to the stairs.

Dad Quest: Tidy up the store

“This better be good,” Rowan said with a playful groan. After they shared one of Gilda’s muffins, he grabbed one of their father’s old jacket sleeves. He began wiping the counters, while Toro swept the floor. The two worked in silence until Toro pretended that the broom was a polearm, the ten-year-old boy spinning it once and striking an attack pose.

“Take that, dumb-dumb catfish!”

Rowan twirled his cloth like a ninja and nearly knocked over a bottle of olive oil. He caught it just in time and quickly wiped it down, as if this was what he meant to do the entire time.

“Better be careful,” Rowan said, not able to contain his laughter, his brother now with a goofy grin.

The two kept cleaning, Toro now detailing the countertop. He cleaned the register while Rowan arranged the items so they were all facing outward. As he did this, he remembered their dad saying something about the appearance of abundance, which was why they had to stock so much in the first place.

Uncle came stumbling down the stairs, the orange kitten running over to Toro. He swept Uncle into his arms and began kissing the kitten on the forehead.

“Stop kissing him,” Rowan said.

“Why?”

“We can turn into cats; imagine someone kissing you repeatedly.” Of course, telling his younger brother to imagine this caused Rowan to visualize it, Rowan instantly seeing Olivia holding him in her arms and kissing his forehead. He shook his head, disappointed in this thought and where it had possibly come from.

“Ugh, I don’t want anyone kissing me,” Toro said as he set the kitten down. “Sorry, Uncle.”

They cleaned for twenty more minutes until a prompt flashed before Rowan, letting him know the Dad Quest was complete.

Dad Quest: Tidy up the store (complete)

The prompt faded away and they headed upstairs to find their father looking over some notes. He stood at the kitchen counter, beans boiling on the stove and fish in the oven, the smell strong but certainly good.

“Take a seat,” he told them without looking up from his notes.

“What are you reading?” Toro asked.

“Notes for tonight. Just in case I need to say anything. Ideas too.”

“I know something this village needs,” Rowan said.

“Oh yeah? What’s that?” his father asked, looking up at him.

“For one, it needs some kind of hotel. It really needs somewhere for people to stay when they visit.”

“Hotel,” Ganix said as he jotted down the idea. “Not a bad idea, but someone would have to run it. So that means there would have to be someone interested in running it.”

“It also could use a theater. Alto keeps talking about the theater,” Toro told him.

“Theater,” Ganix said as he wrote a different word. “Entertainment. This island could use entertainment for some of the residents. I know there are only fifty of us, but if there was something, a coffee shop that had musicians every now and then, a play, some event. Maybe…” He squinted for a moment. “Maybe that would be a way to engage residents who don’t want change.”

“What do you mean?” Rowan asked.

Their father checked his watch. He took the fish out of the oven as he spoke. “People like Doyona.”

“Is there anyone else like her?” Toro asked jokingly.

“You’re not wrong, but what I’m saying here is that people like her may enjoy something like… I don’t know… a ball or something.”

“A ball? I can’t see many of these people dancing,” Rowan said, only realizing after he said it that it could come off as cruel.

“Some event,” said Ganix, “maybe a fundraiser? Maybe the solution for Doyona is to get her involved in a different way.”

“She hates it here,” Toro said.

“Yes, that may be true, but what about the island does she hate? If she hated it so much, why would she join every group possible?” Ganix asked as he transferred the baked fish to several plates. He then put a scoop of beans on each of the plates.

“She just wants to be in control,” said Rowan.

“Maybe, or maybe she once had hopes of change but wasn’t able to see it through, but she gained some power, so she’s holding onto that.” Ganix set a plate in front of Rowan, and returned with a plate for Toro. “Back when I worked at the Proxima company, one of the things I often did was try to predict and understand people’s behaviors in the office. Office politics are a real thing, and since I spent most of my time at a desk in a glass cubicle, I could see many of the people interact. It was one of the only things I liked about the job.”

“Watching people?” Toro asked as he picked at his fish.

“Eat your fish, Toro. It’s good for you.”

“I don’t…” Toro begrudgingly tried a bite of fish and nodded, surprised that he liked it.

“See?”

“It’s good,” Rowan said, now on his fourth bite.

“Yes, watching people. I hated being at my desk. Who wants to be stationary all day? Why would anyone in their right mind want to sit for nine hours a day when there are so many better positions?”

“Like lying down,” Toro said.

“Sure. Or just being free to move however you’d like. Sorry,” Ganix said as he started on his own plate. “Back to what I was saying: watching people. I did a lot of that, and it sort of related to what I did anyway regarding my workload, although that dealt with larger groups.”

“Of NPCs, right?” Rowan said, interrupting him.

“People, Rowan, people. Anyway, I like the idea of entertainment. You know what would be nice?” Ganix asked. “What if we debuted Sacred Cat Products to the island where the old farmer’s market used to be? There could be some entertainment, food, beverages, and our new products? That’s an idea. Or what if…” He shook his head. “You know what? Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. We should probably see how people vote tonight before making big plans.”

“Everyone is going to vote to improve the island,” Rowan said. “I just know it.”

“People have to,” Toro added.

The smile on their father’s face thinned. “Let’s hope that’s the case, boys.”

There were more people gathered at the meeting hall than there had been last time. Rowan recognized many of the faces, from Dorno the carpenter to Gonpo in his panda costume, but there were still others that he’d never seen before. The room was crowded, that was for sure.

Irma the shrine caretaker was there, who Rowan assumed represented the people who lived off the grid. He also saw Curtis, who spoke to Argat, and Alto, the hoarder in a tuxedo jacket and a long black dress, his brother Garner nowhere in sight. While he would have loved to check all of the social statuses of the people he didn’t recognize, he was too distracted by the trays upon trays of catfish fillets that Chodak and the other fishermen had just brought in.

“Attention,” Chodak said. People started to turn to him as he was helped onto a chair by Murni.

“Careful there, old man,” Murni said.

“Old? We’re both in our sixties,” Chodak said before turning his focus back to the villagers. “This catfish is for everyone to enjoy! Believe it or not, it was caught by our island’s newest and youngest residents, Rowan and Toro Toragan, and it came from a single fish.”

Some murmuring from the crowd caused Rowan to tense.

“I have the picture to prove it.” Tunga equipped the picture and passed it around. “And don’t worry, Ganix, I have one for you too.”

“They caught that thing?” Gonpo asked as he looked at the picture.

“With a harpoon,” Chodak told him, beaming a smile over to Rowan.

Rowan had never felt prouder as people started to turn to him. His dad placed a hand on his shoulder, which had the effect of snapping him out of his spell of jubilation.

“We didn’t catch it, we fought it!” Toro said, a few of the villagers laughing.

Rowan turned to see Maeve and her husband Ari, who was in a wheelchair, his hair combed to the side, a surgical mask over his face. Rowan also saw Tuya, Zola, and Gilda, who were talking amongst themselves, and Nedman and his wife Mel, who stood next to Raydoh and Kay. Dr. Restivo was at the back near Dorno the carpenter, the two quietly discussing the catfish picture once it came to them.

It was then that the doors swung wide open, signaling Doyona’s appearance. She walked into the room like royalty, Vicar and Olivia with her. As soon as she saw the enormous tray of catfish, her eyes scanned the crowd until she caught sight of Tunga, who was just approaching Ganix to give him the picture.

“What is this?” she asked, her presence shifting the energy of the space.

Tunga cleared his throat. “The boys caught it today, and by boys, I mean Rowan and Toro over here.” He showed her the picture as evidence.

“You caught all of that?” Olivia asked.

Vicar nodded, clearly impressed. He stopped nodding once his wife shot him a dirty look. Doyona, who wore a maroon pantsuit and had done something with her hair that had puffed it out, slowly started to shake her head.

“This wasn’t approved by the council,” she finally said.

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” Tunga told her.

“And this was your idea?” she asked, glaring at Ganix.

“Not at all,” he told her. Rowan looked up to his father in that moment, hoping he’d say more, that he’d stand up to her to some degree, but he remained quiet.

“Can… can we eat it?” Gonpo asked.

“You know what?” Nedman said before Doyona could speak. “Of course we can eat it. The boys caught it, Tunga prepared it. It’s for the community. Let’s enjoy it. I’ll serve the food.”

“Mr. Gobi,” Doyona started to say.

“Nope, I don’t need to have this conversation with you,” said Nedman as he approached the table. “I’ve been on this island longer than you, and if someone shows up with just about the biggest catfish anyone has ever seen and offers you a taste, you taste that damn catfish.”

Doyona took a step back, Vicar placing his hand on her back.

He whispered something in her ear as people started to approach the catfish, half of the fillets baked and the other half fried. Nedman began handing out servings using plates he kept in his inventory list. Soon, other islanders pulled items from their lists. Zola retrieved a few bottles of wine while Gilda set out cookies she’d baked.

All of this happened quickly, Rowan feeling almost lost in the crowd of adults until his father spoke to him.

“I stand corrected,” Ganix said, picture in hand as he turned to his sons. “You really did catch that catfish, huh?”

“Why didn’t you believe us, Dad?” Rowan asked. “Why would we lie about that?”

“It just seemed fantastical. Again, I apologize.”

Rowan and Toro exchanged glances.

“Are you going to try it?”

“Sure,” Ganix said as he moved into the crowd. “I’ll bring you two some as well.”

Rowan felt a tap on his shoulder.

“I can’t believe you caught that,” Olivia whispered, who had used the crowd as a buffer to disappear to some degree. She was still in the dress she wore earlier, but no longer had the bonnet on her head. Rowan looked around to see Vicar not far behind her, but he seemed distracted with Doyona, who still wasn’t happy to see people enjoying the catfish.

“We didn’t catch it, we fought it,” Toro declared. “We don’t know how to catch a fish.”

Rowan smiled at Olivia. “He’s right, we didn’t catch it, we fought it. It was bothering some friends of ours.”

“Friends? Who?”

Toro looked to Rowan.

“Never mind,” both of the boys said at the same time.

“Is that why you were wet earlier?”

Rowan nodded. “I just didn’t want to tell you because it was supposed to be a surprise.”

Eventually, the commotion started to die down.

The council members—Tuya, Tunga, and Doyona—took their seats at the front, Doyona announcing that they would be taking comments from the audience before voting began. Rowan and Toro now sat at the back with their father, Olivia seated across from them with Vicar.

“I’d like to comment,” said Nedman, a plate still in his hand.

“I’m sure you would, Mr. Gobi, you have two minutes.”

“I won’t need that long. For all of you that have been on this island as long as I have or even longer,” he said, gesturing toward Chodak, “you remember what it was like. Everything used to be better. Our profits were higher, our residents were happier, and even the cats seemed fatter. Then things started to change. Shops and businesses closed, people died, and now we’re down to the last fifty of us, maybe less. I’ve lost count. Needless to say: this place is falling apart. Things can’t go back to the way they were, but they can change into something new. We may not have the same kind of tourists we once had, but even a trickle of interest would support businesses such as Gilda’s bakery. I don’t think what Mr. Toragan wants to do here is drastic. I also don’t think it would adversely affect any of us. I say vote yes.”

“And I don’t think that’s a great idea,” Vicar said, taking the floor before Nedman even sat down. “The island is the way it is because it’s the way it is. Why change that? We’re all happy. You know how mainlanders can be these days. If we start inviting them to come here, we’ll have to have more services than we’d like. Security, compliance with mainland laws, that sort of thing. Our way of life will change, and that’s why I’m voting no.” Vicar sat and gave Doyona a firm nod.

“I don’t think we’ll have to deal with any of that,” Maeve said, the former principal standing. She kept his hand on Ari’s shoulder as she spoke. “Mr. Toragan is merely suggesting that we revitalize the place and make it handicap accessible. If we can get even a little interest in the island, it will lead to more businesses and more visitors. We can address issues as they arise, but I don’t for a minute believe it would require all that much of a sacrifice. I mean, it’s not like he wants to add an amusement park.”

“I heard he wants to add an amusement park,” said Murni, the fisherman standing. “Now, you all know I don’t speak much at these things, but I heard that. Lonnie too.”

Rowan turned to his father, who shook his head. Where Rowan would have said something in that moment, Ganix was quiet, stoic as ever until he was called upon.

“Is this true, Mr. Toragan?” Tuya asked from her council seat. She was clearly trying to make it look official, even though Rowan was pretty sure she knew that his father would never suggest something like an amusement park. “Is this something you intend to do?”

“Absolutely not. I have no interest in an amusement park, and I believe this is a rumor going around. All I have suggested are a few changes like street lamps, getting the fountain running again, the farmer’s market, handicap accessibility on places like the docks, and to create a fund using profits from Sacred Cat Products to rebuild the community. I don’t even need the council’s permission to do this last part, it is just part of what I’d like to do. There are other projects I believe would be nice long term, such as a way to host or bring entertainment, and trails in the woods that are safer to walk on.”

“Entertainment?” Doyona asked, her nostrils flaring open.

“Yes,” said Ganix. “I know that there are talented people on this island and there are a number of ways we could have monthly exhibitions, concerts, dramas, that sort of thing. We could also bring in acts from the mainland for a night, especially if we got a hotel going.”

“We need a hotel,” someone piped up from the audience, Rowan recognizing this voice as belonging to Raydoh. “Every time my brother visits, he has to stay with me, and I don’t like that in the least bit,” he said, a few in the crowd chuckling at this statement.

“There used to be one,” Ganix continued, “and if we had a place where people could stay, it could serve as a place for guests invited by the island as well. I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but I couldn’t help but think of this the other night while my sons and I had dinner at Tunga’s place. What if there were music, a live band, even if it only happened once in a three-month period? Just a reason for everyone to go out and be together. So that’s what I mean by entertainment. And I don’t want that to be confused with an amusement park. I have never suggested anything like that.”

Rowan tuned out the next few comments as he looked up to his dad, who remained calm. His father wore his green jacket, and he’d shaved, his hair combed for once. As Rowan observed him, he wished he had the courage to say something to the crowd, to add to what his father had said.

But that moment passed, and once there were no more comments from the audience, Doyona spoke again.

“I’m glad everyone was able to make their feelings known. Before we get to the vote, I want to have the vote on Alto Sarax,” she said, looking down at a piece of paper as if she really needed to read his name aloud, “and his brother, Garner Sarax, to condemn their place.”

“We’re working on getting it fixed up,” Alto said, his voice much weaker than it normally sounded. Gone was the flamboyant former actor, replaced by someone feeble and ashamed. “Another cat statue…”

“The island has plenty of cat statues,” Doyona said coldly.

“It’s called Sacred Cat Island,” Nedman chimed in. “What do you expect?”

“That’s just an old name that doesn’t mean anything.”

“It means something!” Rowan said, suddenly wishing he hadn’t spoken. His father shot him a look, but he was already in this deep, and as people started turning to him he continued: “There’s a shrine here, Irma looks after it, um, and there’s the art inside that shows people becoming cats when they die,” he said, Rowan barely able to string words together now. “There are all the cats here, and it is named Sacred Cat Island. Alto’s statue is important. The island is called Sacred Cat Island for a reason.”

Rowan looked down at his hands, his breaths so short now that he thought he was going to pass out.

“Thank you,” Doyona said shortly. “As you all can see, the Toragans have a way of making their presence felt even after they’ve said plenty.”

“I vote we move to condemn Alto and Garner’s home at the next meeting,” Tuya said, interrupting. “If they say they’re in the process of fixing it, then let’s see the progress.”

“I agree to this,” said Tunga.

Doyona’s eye twitched as she spoke this time, clear as day that her colleagues hadn’t confirmed this with her. “In that case, we will address Alto and Garner’s home at the next meeting, I suppose. It is time something is done about it. Now, to the vote, we will take a simple room vote, and if it appears that the results are too close, we’ll move to a ballot system. I will also remind you that this vote would be more appropriate for another island committee I am the head of, the Committee for Island Excellence, but any vote here may have to go through that committee anyway. All in favor against Mr. Toragan’s sudden proposals to complicate our ways of life…”

A few people started to raise their hands until they realized how Doyona had phrased it, leaving just her husband with his hand up.

“I see,” she said as she scanned the crowd. “In that case, it seems that the majority of you are in favor of what Mr. Toragan has suggested. Unfortunately, island improvements don’t really work this way, so we’ll have to take this to the Committee for Island Excellence, which won’t be meeting until after the summer. From there, it will have to be approved by the Committee for Island Beautification.”

Nedman stood. “That’s nonsense, Doyona, and you know it. You run all of these committees. Everyone on those committees is here right now. We, the islanders, have voted. This shouldn’t have to wait until fall.”

The crowd started to murmur in agreement.

“Mr. Gobi, I will remind you that the council has bylaws and procedures that we have to follow…”

“I don’t care about your procedures,” Nedman said, his wife now with her hand on his wrist to encourage him to sit back down. “Everyone on those committees is here right now and they all just voted to improve the island. Why is this such an issue? And why do you get to be the person that decides if we’re for or against it? We’ve voted, Doyona, and you know it. Prolonging this is needless.”

“Nedman, I think it’d be best to sit,” Vicar said.

Nedman whipped around and glared at Doyona’s husband. “I think it’d be best for you to…”

But Nedman would never finish this sentence. The door opened and Old Man Stellars slowly shambled in, the man walking with the help of a wooden cane. He wore a suit that had been pressed, and rather than sit, he walked to the front of the room.

“Mr. Stellars,” Doyona said, a grin lifting her cheeks. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

“I wasn’t planning to come here, but my bridge was just fixed, and some things have come to my attention that I’d like to say a few words about.”

“By all means,” she said with a quick glance over to her husband, who nodded.

“This morning, I was visited by Mr. Toragan and his boys, and I saw in this man something I recognized in myself when I first came to this island. As you all know, I purchased a lot of the land at the time, and funded a good number of projects. But then my sweet Blanche drowned and…” Stellars’ voice quivered. “Things changed. This entire island has changed, and I’m not foolish enough to believe it can go back to the way it should be, but I’m also not foolish enough to try to hold back progress.”

The smile on Doyona’s face started to harden.

“This island needs work and it needs help. This island is dying, and at the current rate of newcomers arriving here, it will be all but dead sooner than later. We must attract more attention, and I think it is important for all of us to be part of that discussion. This starts, however, with improving what we have. In the spirit, I’ve decided to fund all of Mr. Toragan’s endeavors to fix the island up. If you need something, or the island needs something, go to him.”

Rowan glanced to his father just in time to see his eyes widen.

He expected his dad to be happy, but the look on his father’s face was anything but; it was the visage of a man who had just realized the extent of what he’d done. This look quickly faded, Ganix once again carrying a firm expression, as if he had just affirmed to himself that he could indeed do what he was called upon to do.

“But the committees…”

“I’ve never once played my hand in these committees even though I fund them,” Stellars told Doyona. “You know that to be the case.”

She begrudgingly nodded at this statement.

“I’ve always been a silent investor, and if you check the bylaws, you’ll see that I have the power to remove people from their positions. But I believe you were already aware of that. I’m not here to exercise this power. I just want the island to prosper, and to rediscover its past as it prepares for its future. I am on my deathbed; this is something I’ve seen very clearly, and before I go, I want to see this island become something that none of us could have imagined. Actually, I shouldn’t say ‘none of us.’ Ganix and his sons have seen its potential, and this is why I’m also going to allow them to take over the orchard for the summer. If they can get it up and running, I will lease it to them. After all, who doesn’t want a few apple-peaches?”

It was hard to fall asleep after all the excitement of the council meeting. As he often did, Rowan eventually rolled out of bed to check on his father. He found Ganix seated on the balcony, the balcony light casting a pale-orange light on him as he jotted down some notes, moths buzzing around.

“Dad?”

“Rowan?” His father looked up at him and smiled.

“What are you doing?”

“Just trying to wind down. Sorry. I wasn’t expecting the council meeting to go the way it did.”

“You weren’t?” Rowan asked as he sat down next to him. “But you won. I thought that’s what you hoped for.”

“Yes, but I didn’t even expect that to happen. I figured I’d have to first show that Sacred Cat Products could be profitable and then reinvest some of the funds in the community to show people I was serious.”

“So… you were expecting to lose?”

“Not lose, but prove that I really was trying to become a member of the community, and that I was willing to put in the work to do so. And for Stellars to just show up like that…”

“I thought you knew he’d show up.”

Ganix turned to Rowan. “How did that thought even cross your mind?”

His father looked tired, his eyes a bit bloodshot at the moment.

“I don’t know,” Rowan said, feeling foolish for even suggesting it.

“Sorry, that came out harsher than I would have liked. Stellars has basically written a blank check for me to do what I can on the island,” Ganix said, his voice soft now. “Add the orchard on top of that.”

“I thought you wanted the orchard.”

“I do,” he said, “I really do. But now that…”

“Yeah?”

“Have you ever eaten too much candy and regretted it after?”

“Maybe…”

“I’m sure you and your brother have done this before,” Ganix said. “That’s how I feel right now.”

“Sick to the stomach?”

“Not exactly. I just feel like I may have taken on too much. But…” Ganix looked out at the water and nodded. “I think it’ll be okay. I’m sure in the morning, or once I get things figured out a little, that I’ll be in a much better place. I’m just feeling the pressure at the moment. I’ll have time to think about it tomorrow.”

“Why’s that?”

“I didn’t tell you? I’m going to the mainland with samples of Sacred Cat Products. I’ve got some appointments lined up with a few sellers and a company that rents out booths for pop-up shops. I’ll probably have to go to the mainland a few more times before everything is set.”

“What about Toro and me?”

“I figured you’d want to stay here.”

Rowan nearly started to protest, but then he surmised that this was true. He did prefer to stay on the island.

“You should come on one of these trips, though,” Ganix said. “You and your brother. I still can’t believe you two caught that catfish. I’ll get a frame for the picture on the mainland so we can hang it downstairs. You are the one who hit it with the harpoon, right?”

“Yep,” Rowan said, trying not to sound too proud of himself.

“Was that the first time you encountered that catfish?”

“Actually, we dealt with it another time. That’s why we came prepared this time. Last time all we had was a broom and my wooden sword.”

“You what?” Ganix shook his head. “I’m glad you were able to do what you did, don’t get me wrong there, I just want you and your brother to be careful.”

“We are being careful.”

His father couldn’t help but laugh. “Why do I get the feeling the exact opposite of that is true? Let’s both get to bed. I’ll stop fretting over plans until tomorrow. The boat ride to the mainland and back will give me some time to think about how I want to go about things. We’ll check out the orchard tomorrow afternoon.”

.Chapter Thirteen.

Rowan figured there’d be a change in his personal attributes the next morning, and he was surprised to see just how big that change was. His stats were the first thing he checked upon waking up, Rowan noticing that he had gained nine hit points overnight and increased in two of his attributes.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 361/361

Intelligence: 24.22

Willpower: 11.34

Empathy: 7.15

Charisma: 11.91

Strength: 5.78

Dexterity: 8.02

Luck: 4.01

+ .13 Intelligence!

+ .05 Willpower!

+ .07 Charisma!

+ .11 Dexterity!

+ .06 Luck!

+ 9 HP!

He rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling, Toro still asleep next to him. Rowan kept half-expecting their father to call out for them, and when he didn’t, he drifted back to sleep for what felt like hours but really was just a few minutes.

He awoke and blinked his eyes rapidly as he sat up, which startled Uncle. The orange kitten hopped off the bed and went to the door, where he started mewing.

“I’ll feed you,” Rowan grumbled as he got out of bed. He hated falling back asleep after waking up; it always left him feeling groggy.

Rowan found a note from their father on the countertop along with a small wad of Proxima dollars. There were also two packages of Proxima tarts. Rowan read the note, which simply said that their father had gone to the mainland, that he’d be back later today, and that for breakfast they could have Proxima tarts or go to Nedman’s.

“Easiest decision ever,” Rowan said as he returned to the bedroom to change into his shorts. Uncle followed him, his mewing eventually waking Toro.

“Where’s Dad?” Toro asked as he noticed Rowan stick some cash in his pocket.

“He went to the mainland to deal with some things. He’ll be back later. Wake up. I’ve got cash for Nedman’s.”

Rowan headed back into the living room and fed Uncle. He petted the orange kitten for a moment and then headed downstairs, grabbing the food bag their father kept behind the counter. Rowan stepped outside to see that it was a gray day, a hint of moisture in the air.

The five cats that lived outside the general store spotted him and immediately made their way over to Rowan, Fiona and Zaena weaving through his legs, while the fat tabby known as Meme hogged the food bowl.

“Save some for the others, Meme,” Rowan said as he nudged the cat with his foot.

“That’s what I want to do,” Toro said. He now stood behind Rowan in his red cape, ready to start the day.

“Eat cat food?”

“No, just eat.”

“Let’s do it then. After that, we can head up to the cave. I want to visit the shrine today as a cat.”

The two crossed the street and entered the restaurant. Gonpo was seated at the bar munching on a breakfast sandwich, Nedman wiping his rag across the counter.

“Boys,” Nedman said with a big grin.

“He’s really excited today,” Gonpo said without looking over to them. His mascot uniform looked clean, Rowan wondering if he’d finally sent it to his inventory list and reequipped it.

“You should be too,” Nedman told him. “The island is on the verge of change. I can feel it in the air. Can’t you?”

“I can smell your wife frying eggs, and there’s a bit of a draft, but that’s about it, Mr. Revolution.”

“Did you miss your prize yesterday?” Nedman asked playfully.

“Yes, but I’ll get it today,” Gonpo mumbled.

“What’s the special this morning?” Toro asked.

“This morning…” Nedman looked to a chalkboard where he normally wrote the specials. “I forgot to write it, didn’t I?”

“Looks like it,” Gonpo said before taking another bite of his breakfast sandwich.

“Today we’re serving scrambled cat eggs and kitty sausage.”

“Kitty sausage?” Toro asked.

“The best kitty sausage on the island,” Nedman said with a wink.

“We’ll have two specials,” Rowan told him.

“Two specials,” Nedman yelled into the kitchen.

“Got it!” his wife replied.

“Please, follow me,” Nedman said as he came around the counter. He led the boys to a seat near the window. Unfortunately, the glass was too old and murky for them to see out, but it did let in some light.

“Thanks,” Rowan said as Nedman set silverware down.

“And you both want juice, right? Or coffee?”

“I’m not old enough to drink coffee,” said Toro. “Besides, I don’t like the taste.”

“I’ll prepare it in a way that you’ll like it. How does that sound?”

Toro looked to Rowan for approval.

“Sure, two coffees,” he said.

Nedman stepped away, Toro immediately looking to Rowan.

“Are you sure this is okay?”

“I won’t tell Dad if you won’t tell him,” Rowan said.

“Deal.”

“Besides, he let us have a sip of his coffee the other day anyway…”

Nedman returned a few minutes later with two cups of coffee with whipped cream and chocolate drizzle on top. “Be sure to mix the whipped cream in,” he said, “it’ll add to the flavor.”

“Will do,” Rowan told him.

“What a night last night, huh?” Nedman asked as he wiped his hands on his apron. “Who would have thought that things would go that way?”

“Our dad was saying that,” Rowan told him.

“He was?” Toro asked.

“I spoke to him after you fell asleep,” Rowan said before turning his attention back to Nedman. “He definitely didn’t expect Stellars to show up.”

“No one did. He hasn’t been to one of these meetings in years,” Nedman said. “But if it takes the rich man that pretty much owns the island to kickstart our revolution, then so be it.”

Gonpo snorted at this comment.

“Got something to say?” Nedman called over to him.

“Just weird, that’s all.”

“People voted before he showed up; we already talked about this today. You yourself voted to improve the island.”

“Who wouldn’t vote to improve this dump?” Gonpo asked.

“Come on, you like it here. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t like it.”

“I like the daily prizes.”

Nedman laughed. “You can get that kind of thing anywhere. Admit it.”

“Admit what?”

“You like it here. You like the cats and the tranquility.”

Gonpo shrugged. “I do like the cats…”

“Yeah, yeah, you do,” Nedman said as he turned his attention to Toro.

“How’s the coffee?”

“I mixed it all up, but I haven’t tried it yet.”

“Why not?”

“I thought I was supposed to wait for the food to come.”

“You can drink coffee any time,” Rowan said, almost calling his brother dumb-dumb.

“That you can. Try it; I want to know what you think,” Nedman said.

Toro tried the coffee, his eyes going wide with delight. “It tastes like warm chocolate milk.”

Rowan immediately tried his coffee and nodded. “It’s good. It’s really good.”

“I thought you boys would like it,” Nedman said as the three heard a ding from the kitchen. “Food’s up.”

He returned with scrambled eggs and sausage, each plate coming with a slice of buttered toast. Rowan and Toro ate quickly, and as they were finishing up Dorno entered the restaurant.

“Just who I was looking for,” the carpenter said as he spotted the two of them.

“Are our swords ready?” Toro asked, jittery with excitement due to the coffee.

“They sure are. Let me place an order, and then we can head over to my place to get the swords. Sound good?”

“Sounds awesome,” Rowan said.

Rowan and his brother moved through Dorno’s home, which was pretty bare aside from a leather sofa and a few of the small wooden sculptures he made. Rowan recalled that he had one of the man’s tiny cat sculptures in his inventory list, but he hadn’t looked at it for several days now.

“My workshop is out here,” the carpenter said as he opened the door to his backyard, where they found a shed nearly the size of his home. “It helps me separate work from leisure having the space detached,” Dorno explained as he slid open the door to his workshop.

He paused in front of his workbench, admiring the wooden swords he had created.

He wasn’t the only one. Rowan and Toro stood off to his left now, both of them in awe at how beautiful the wooden swords looked. They were made of a dark wood, and as Rowan slowly reached for his and took it in his hand, he noticed that it was heavier than the shoddy wooden sword currently in his possession. The hilt had been sanded down and Dorno had even carved his initials at the start of the blade, Dorno’s branding of sorts.

Rowan really wished he could have used it against the catfish.

“Now, I don’t want you two hitting each other with these. They are sharp, although they may not look like it,” Dorno started to say, “you could hurt someone.”

“I promise we won’t hit someone with it,” Rowan said as he took a few steps back. He moved the blade through the air, getting used to its weight. Dorno had made Toro’s blade just a bit smaller and as Rowan’s younger brother looked it over, a huge grin painted across his face.

“Is it okay?” Dorno asked.

“I love it,” Rowan said.

“Me too,” Toro chimed in.

“Just remember, don’t hit each other with them.”

“We promise not to,” Rowan said.

“Good. Now, as payment for these two wooden swords, I need you to do something for me.” Dorno motioned for them to follow him out of his workshop. Once they were in his backyard, the tattooed carpenter gestured toward a large pile of wood. “I dragged these down from the forest and cut them up. I need you to stack them now, biggest ones on bottom, smallest ones on top,” he said, motioning back toward his shed. “Stack them here, so it’s easy for me to come out and grab one and go back in.”

“And that’s it?” Rowan asked as the Side Quest prompt appeared.

Side Quest: Help Dorno stack his wood

“That’s it. Once you’re finished, you’re free to go. You can head on out to the house there, because the fence is locked. Now, as for me, I’m ready to have my breakfast. Maybe I’ll see you two when I get back, but if you’re fast, then have a good rest of your day.”

Once the carpenter was gone, Toro and Rowan turned to the pile of wood.

They then faced each other again, both boys with the wooden swords in their hands. Toro slowly started to lift his, Rowan doing the same. But rather than swing it at his brother, he sent it to his inventory list, realizing now that he had two wooden swords, one of expert craftsmanship and the other one much shabbier, but still usable.

“Let’s get started,” he said as he passed in front of his brother and began searching for the larger pieces of wood. Rowan was careful, and at some point he ended up having to equip his older wooden sword, just to move some wood out of the way in case there was something hidden beneath the stack.

Sure enough, as soon as he moved some wood to the side, a bluish crab stepped out and began walking sideways, holding its claw in the air.

“A crab,” Rowan said, Toro immediately approaching it, but keeping his distance. They followed the crab for a moment until it reached the other side of the yard. It turned back to them, Rowan wondering how it got into the yard in the first place.

“Let’s leave it alone,” he said as he placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder.

“Fine,” Toro said.

They turned back to the pile of wood, the two checking on the crab every now and then as they sifted through the pile and located the larger pieces. They didn’t find any other crabs, and once Rowan’s old wooden sword was back in his inventory list, he carried the first piece over.

He placed it on the ground next to the shed, just as his younger brother dragged an equally sized piece over and put it next to Rowan’s. They continued like this for thirty minutes, the pile starting to get smaller and smaller. Once they finished, the quest prompt appeared in front of Rowan and faded away.

Side Quest: Help Dorno stack his wood (complete)

“That was easy,” he said as he turned back to the crab, who was still trapped in the corner of Dorno’s backyard. Once again, Rowan and Toro approached the crab.

“I wonder if I can talk to crabs as a cat…”

“Probably,” Rowan said. “You seem to be able to talk to everything else. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Rowan had just reached the back door when he saw a flash of something to his right. He glanced to see a small yellow kitten slip over the fence, Rowan getting a good enough look at it to see the details on his Catpendium.

“No way…”

“What?” Toro asked. “What did you see?”

“Come on, we have to hurry!”

Rowan grabbed his brother’s wrist and ran through Dorno’s home, practically exploding out of the front door. He turned to the right to see the yellow kitten running up the hill.

“Catch that cat!”

Without questioning his brother, Toro took off toward the kitten. He dove forward and missed, the kitten running even faster as Rowan passed his younger brother.

“Stop running!” Rowan said, but the kitten wouldn’t listen. He eventually dove for it as well, finally able to catch the kitten.

“Did you get her?” Toro asked, breathless now as he caught up with his brother.

“Olivia, stop,” Rowan whispered as she scratched and bit him. “We know it’s you. We can transform into cats too.”

Confirming what he already saw back in Dorno’s backyard, Rowan’s Catpendium spelled out her details, clear as day.

Name: Olivia Bold

Breed: Tabby

Sex: Female

Color: Yellow

Secondary Color: Brown

Age (Human Years): 12

Age (Cat years): .11

“Just stop attacking me,” Rowan told her. “We can turn into cats too. Let’s go to the cave now. I’ll…” He realized how weird this would sound. “Hold you? Yes, I’m going to hold you so you don’t run away.”

Olivia relaxed in his grip, and gave Rowan a grumpy look, her whiskers tilting downward.

“I can’t believe she’s a cat,” Toro said as he shouldered in next to Rowan to take a look at her. “And a yellow cat too, just like her hair.”

“It makes sense,” said Rowan as he recalled the two brothers had brown hair, and as cats they had brown fur. It made even more sense that Olivia’s coat was yellow.

Olivia relaxed even more in his arms as they headed up to the cave, the two boys taking the first path that was less rocky. As they walked quickly, they saw a man coming in their direction, Olivia tensing once again when she spotted him.

“He doesn’t know,” Rowan said, assuming that Vicar didn’t have the Catpendium app.

“Boys,” Doyona’s husband said as he spotted them.

“We’re just going on a walk,” Toro said, trying to sound inconspicuous and failing.

“I see,” he said as his eyes fell to the kitten in Rowan’s arms. “I haven’t seen that one before.”

“Yeah,” Rowan said with a nervous laugh, “there are all sorts of cats on this island.”

“That there are. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t think that yesterday would play out the way it did,” he said, the man placing his hands on his lower back and stretching. “And I certainly didn’t think that Stellars would show up and throw money around. But I guess he has that power and that right. Considering he funds everything when it comes to all the committees and councils, and does so without ever flexing his muscles I should add, it makes sense. I’d hate to be in your father’s shoes right now, though,” Vicar said as he started walking again. “That’s a lot of pressure.”

“Your grandfather seems nice sometimes, but he’s also mean,” Toro told Olivia once Vicar had stepped away. The kitten flitted her ears back and hissed.

“Don’t be angry; you know he’s right,” Rowan told her as they continued up the hill. They reached the cave and quickly found the hole in the ground. “Stay there,” Rowan told Olivia as his younger brother crawled to the hole and returned as a brown cat, Rowan doing the same.

“You didn’t have to carry me all the way up here,” Olivia said, now that they were all three cats.

“I thought you would run away,” Rowan told her, her green eyes even larger now that the two kittens were around the same size.

Her hair stood to attention, and it only started to relax after she sat. Olivia began cleaning herself, licking her shoulder with her tongue and then her tail. “You got your woody hands all over me. I just cleaned.”

“Why didn’t you tell us you could transform?” Toro asked.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you could transform, mew-mew?”

“Because it’s a secret,” Rowan said, noticing that she had a peculiar speaking style as a cat, sort of like Hiccup.

“And it’s a secret for me as well.”

“How long have you been transforming?” Rowan asked her.

“Since I started coming to the island, mew-mew. It’s the only thing that makes being here enjoyable, but I can’t do it too often…” Her voice softened, back to the Olivia that Rowan was used to. “It’s too bad. I get so bored sometimes, and I’d do anything to be a cat in those moments.”

“So you saw the lady in the cat mask too?” he asked.

She nodded.

“I haven’t seen her,” Toro said, “but I can understand other animals, not just cats. Can you understand other animals?”

“I can’t,” Olivia said.

“It’s true, he can,” Rowan told her. “We once got a pelican to fly us around.” He purposefully left out the detail as to why this needed to happen, because they had been stranded at Old Man Stellars’ home.

“You did, mew-mew?” she asked, looking up to them.

“I can talk to anything,” Toro said. “Except plants. Maybe not insects. But we were going to try talking to a crab and see if that worked. Crabs are kind of like insects, right? They kind of look like insects. Have you ever thought that it’s weird that people eat things like that?”

Olivia started to laugh at Toro. “You’re so funny.”

“Why were you spying on us?” Rowan asked, wanting a compliment himself.

“I heard your voices, so I climbed up the fence to see what you are doing. I didn’t know that you were helping Dorno out, mew-mew.”

“He made us some swords,” Toro explained, “so we stacked wood for him.”

“Swords?”

“We needed them. We have already fought a giant catfish.”

“So that really was you, mew-mew?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” asked Toro. “Didn’t you already know about it? There’s a picture of us with the catfish.”

“All the cats are talking about the humans who killed the catfish.”

“Yeah, that was us,” Rowan said. “Everyone was talking about it last night at the council meeting.”

“I missed that part,” she said. “Or… I was too focused on everything that was happening. I felt sorry for Alto. My grandparents are so mean to him,” she said, her lips curling some. “Anyway, what are you planning to do today? Were you planning to become cats, mew-mew?”

“We were. We wanted to go up to the cat shrine, because there’s a smaller statue inside the larger statue that’s just for cats.”

“There is?”

He nodded. “Also, while we’re on the subject, do you know Blanche, the dust girl?”

“Of course she does,” Blanche said as she appeared, some of the dirt in the cave swirling around her and giving her just a hint of solidity to her form.

“Why didn’t you tell us you knew her?” Toro asked Blanche. “Or that she could transform?”

“It’s a secret,” Blanche said, Olivia nodding in agreement.

“Everything can’t be secrets,” Rowan said.

“Well why didn’t you tell her about me, or that you could turn into cats?” Blanche asked. “It’s the same.”

“Well, now that the secret is out of the bag,” Rowan said, before a grin took shape on his face. “I mean, the cat’s out of the bag.”

“Who put the cat in the bag?” Toro asked, which elicited a chuckle from Blanche and Olivia.

“How long does it take to get up to the shrine, mew-mew?” Olivia asked.

“Not so long,” Rowan told her. He actually didn’t know how long it would take them to get there as cats. As humans, it hadn’t been that long, but it certainly was a bit of a hike.

“Then I will go too.”

“All four of us will go then,” Blanche said. “While I’m not so interested in the shrine, I’ve got nothing better to do.”

Blanche swirled ahead of them, Toro not far behind her, leaving Rowan and Olivia at the back.

“How many of the cats have you met in the village?” Rowan asked her as they made their way up to the cat shrine.

“How many have you met?”

“Not so many…” Rowan thought of the cats that they had already interacted with. Since it wasn’t a large number, he went ahead and rattled off their names. “Hiccup, Rocket, FeeTwix, the twisted sisters, um, Cuthbert and yeah, I think that’s it. Wait, a few more. Danzen but just briefly. Micah, Manchester, and Lady Cassandra too.”

“That’s all? Out of all the cats?”

“We don’t get to transform into cats as much as we’d like,” Rowan admitted. “We always have something we have to do with our dad, and now that he has a delivery service, as you know, we’re doing that as well. Plus, there are all the Side Quests.”

“Mew-mew, I know. Old people love to give Side Quests.”

“Why do you talk like that?”

“Talk like what?

“Say ‘mew-mew’ after everything you say.”

She threw her head back a little and tilted her chin up as they trotted along. “It’s a style. It’s supposed to be cute. Do you think it’s cute, mew-mew?”

“Not really.”

She laughed. “Well, I do. And to answer to your question: I’ve met most of the cats. I should take you around sometime and introduce you to my friends.”

“You said you’ve been turning into a cat for four years, right? That’s how long you’ve been coming here, correct?”

“That’s right.”

“So since you were eight years old?”

“I only changed once or twice that year when I was able to sneak away. Usually, I try to sneak out at night after my grandparents have gone to sleep. You know, there are cats that come out during the day, and cats that come out at night. I usually come out at night.”

“But none of the cats have wondered about you? Or why you are always a kitten?”

“No one has said anything. That’s the advantage of being sweet to people, or cats.”

Rowan looked up to see Blanche lift higher into the air and swirl down to the ground, blowing past Toro, who held his ground, laughing the entire time.

“Can any of the adults turn into cats?” Rowan asked, once again fixated by her striking green eyes.

“Not any that I’ve ever met.”

“Which of the cats are your friends?”

“The ones in front of your store are my friends, Fiona and Zaena. They are so nice. Have you met them?”

“You know, we actually haven’t met the cats in front of our store as cats, but as people, those two are the friendliest. We met your grandparents’ cats. We even fought Micah after he tried to bully us.”

“Micah can be a little ornery, but he was probably just being protective. He’s like that.”

“Well, I didn’t like him.”

“I’ll talk to him,” she said as they reached an overlook, Toro already seated and looking out at Sacred Cat Village. Blanche floated next to him, her hands clasped together behind her back. The sun was tucked behind a cloud now, the water on the horizon calm and sparkling, almost white.

“Someone should build a house right here,” Toro said. “Then they would get this view every day.”

“You could always live up here,” Rowan joked. “Then I would get the bed to myself.”

“It’s a huge bed,” Toro reminded him.

“Nope, just for me.”

“Mew-mew, you two are funny.” Olivia sat next to Rowan, and lashed her yellow tail against the side of his body.

“Hey,” he started to say.

“What are you going to do about it?” she asked.

“Um…”

“Are you going to fight me?”

Rowan exchanged glances with his younger brother.

“I wasn’t planning to…”

Olivia tackled Rowan, the two of them rolling into a rock before she hopped off at him and ran away, playfully preparing to pounce.

She didn’t expect Toro to come out of left field, Rowan’s younger brother slamming into her.

“Hey, I was fighting her…” Rowan said as he took off toward the two, also jumping into the fray, Olivia laughing as she bit Rowan’s leg. She managed to get away again, the brothers cornering her.

“You two are beating up on a girl,” she said, turning away, and lifting her tail as she continued up the rocky path.

“You started it…” Rowan began to say. Blanche laughed and joined Olivia.

“Girls are so strange,” Toro said under his breath.

“They only get stranger,” Rowan told him as the two caught up with them.

It wasn’t too much longer before they reached Irma’s home, Rowan not able to decide if they were going slower or faster as cats.

“Have you ever met her?” Toro asked, nodding toward Irma’s door.

“As a human, yes, but not as a cat. Actually, I haven’t been up here,” Olivia said.

“Why not?” Rowan asked. “Why doesn’t anyone come up here?”

“Because it’s old. Why does anyone need to come up here?” asked Blanche. “Have you seen the villagers? Most of them are over sixty. They don’t want to walk all the way up here.”

“Some of them could walk up here,” said Toro, “like Argat, or your grandpa. He seems pretty healthy.”

“He’s very healthy,” Olivia said.

They hadn’t yet discussed last night’s vote, and while Rowan wanted to bring it up now, he ultimately decided against it.

He didn’t know where Olivia stood on the spectrum of wanting to improve the island, or keeping it the way it was. He assumed that she wanted to change it, to make it better for people of all ages, but he had a feeling that now wasn’t the time to press it.

They didn’t have to wait for Irma to open the gate this time, the three kittens merely squeezing inside. Rowan spotted the pipe that doubled as an entrance for the cats, the shrine’s building with its two pointy ears looking so much larger than it had been when he had visited as a human. He ran to the pipe and entered it, followed by Toro and Olivia.

“I’ve never done this before,” Olivia said, her voice echoing up the pipe as she laughed, the three crawling their way toward the entrance to the shrine.

“I wish we could do this as humans,” said Toro.

“That would be so fun, mew-mew!”

They reached the top of the pipe, and from there walked along the plank that led to a small opening at the side of the shrine.

Once again, Rowan went in first, followed by Toro, and then Olivia. He traversed a diagonal staircase on the inner dome of the cat shrine, noticing it had been built in a way that allowed him to take the path without falling. It was almost as if the stairwell had been carved into the wall, one side tilting higher than the other to prevent spillage. They wound their way down to the front of the main statue, where they met Blanche, who was already standing there, her arms crossed over her chest.

“You three sure are having fun,” she said with a pout.

“You could have gone through the pipe with us if you wanted to,” Olivia said. “You can do anything you want, mew-mew.”

This statement seemed to please Blanche. “That’s right, I can do anything I want.”

Rowan looked up to the statue of the woman in the cat mask, and from there to the smaller entrance just under her arm, the tunnel carved into the rock.

“Well?” he asked Olivia and his younger brother. “Are you two ready?”

As much as he wanted to be the one that led the way, Rowan stepped aside to allow his brother to pass. Toro moved into the hole, Rowan heading in next, followed by Olivia. The tunnel was long, the three crawling for a minute in the dark until a rim of light appeared, signaling an exit. Rowan noticed ridges along the inner wall that would allow them to crawl back out.

“Almost there,” Toro said as he moved even faster, Rowan increasing his pace to keep up with his younger brother.

Toro dropped down into a small space, followed by Rowan and Olivia. Blanche was already there, seated, her legs drawn into her body.

“It’s too tight in here,” she said.

Rowan now saw the miniature version of the statue that Blanche had told him about in their last visit. It looked the exact same as the one in the main shrine room. The woman in the cat mask was still seated, her arm on a rock, the only thing different between the main statue and the statue in the smaller space being the smaller statue didn’t have a hole for them to crawl into.

Rowan saw that there was a bit of light coming into the ceiling, and looking up, he noticed a few small openings drilled into the ceiling, which he assumed must have been carved into the back of the larger statue.

Whoever had designed this must have known about the transformation process. They designed it with both humans and cats in mind. Another thing that caught Rowan’s eye was a plate in front of the statue, something that he assumed would be useful for an offering.

“This is it, mew-mew?” Olivia asked.

“I already told you this was what was in here,” Blanche reminded Rowan. “I don’t quite understand why you traveled all the way up there to see the same thing that you could see as a human, but here we are.”

“It really is the exact same, isn’t it?” Toro asked as he took a step forward. He looked from the face of the statue to the offering plate. “Except for that.”

“Should we make an offering?” Rowan asked.

“You mean just leave something there?” asked Olivia. “I have a few things in my inventory list, mew-mew. I don’t know if it is worthy of a statue like this.”

“What do you have?” Toro asked.

“A hair clip, some lip balm, sunglasses, nail polish, a tote bag just in case I need to carry something, my hat, a bracelet from my friend, rain gear…”

“The statue doesn’t want any of that girly stuff,” Toro said.

Olivia laughed. “How do you know what the statue wants, mew-mew?”

“He’s a statue expert,” Rowan explained as he also cycled through his own inventory list. The only thing that he had that may be worthy of an offering was the tiny cat sculpture that Dorno had crafted, that or the teal clamshell Chodak had given them.

Rowan decided on the small statue, which he equipped. It appeared before him, plopping down onto the stone floor.

“Here’s an offering,” he said as he picked it up in his mouth and took it over to the plate. He set the tiny cat sculpture on the plate and returned to the others.

“Now what?” Blanche asked. “We’re just going to sit here, look at it, and make a wish?”

“I don’t know,” Rowan told her honestly.

“Maybe we need to say something,” Olivia told him after they were quiet for a moment. “I’ll try. Hello, lady with the cat mask statue. We don’t know who you are, but you are the one that showed us that we could turn into cats, so thank you for that. It’s nice to be a cat. It’s also nice to be a human. I wish everyone could be both. Anyway, mew-mew, thank you again for showing us this unique ability.”

“You’re welcome.”

Rowan nearly jumped out of his fur when the statue slowly lowered her head to them, her robes relaxing some. She had been stationary just moments ago, but now it appeared as if she was alive, her chest moving up and down as if she were breathing. She tilted her head just a little as she looked at them.

“You’re alive?” Toro asked.

“I’m getting out of here…” Blanche started to say.

“No, my child, you should stay as well,” said the woman. “Do you know who I am?”

“The Spirit of the Island. At least that’s what Cuthbert said…” Rowan told her, recalling the older cat and their discussion.

“That is correct, I am indeed the spirit of Sacred Cat Island, and have been since its creation. The three of you have discovered the secret of the island. It is the only place in our world where a person can become a cat,” she said, her soft voice soothing Rowan even though he was still on edge. He had seen some strange things now on the island, but he had yet to see a statue come to life.

“Thank you for showing yourself to us,” Olivia said, her manners suddenly on display. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you.”

“This is the only place on the island where I can still make my presence known in a physical way. I can appear for people and guide them, as I have done for the three of you, but I am unable to speak, only gesture.”

“Why?” Toro asked.

“You’re quite the curious one, Toro Toragan,” she said, tilting her head to him. “Brave as well. To answer your question, my limitations are due to the nature of the island and its inhabitants. While the plant life and many of the creatures started to flourish, the residents have started to dwindle. I am kept alive by a combination of belief between the animal kingdom, and humans. The humans used to respect me, and freely embrace the uniqueness of the island and what it allowed someone to do. But that has since changed, and I am on the verge of being forgotten.”

“We won’t forget you,” Olivia said.

“You would be surprised at what little it takes to keep me alive,” the Spirit of the Island told them. “But the three of you are here now, and I feel stronger than I have in years. Your father,” she said, returning her focus to Rowan, “is exactly who this island needs to prolong its life.”

“Then why don’t you show yourself to him?” Rowan asked. “If you show yourself to him, he could become a cat and then come up here and speak to you.”

“I’ve tried, believe me, but it has yet to work. Children are more susceptible to my appearance, although some of the islanders are able to see me,” she explained. “Your minds are less rigid, and they are open to new and exciting things. I don’t believe I will ever be at the same level I was years ago, when I was an active participant in the islanders’ lives, but I would like to see the island usher in a new wave of growth and prosperity that begins with what your father hopes to do.”

“Sacred Cat Products?” Toro asked.

“Partially, but also the energy he brings into revitalizing the place, starting with the orchard. I’m aware that your father has no experience in managing an orchard, but I will do what I can with some of the influence I have in the plant kingdom to help him along the way. It is the first of many steps in revitalizing this island, in preparing it for a new and exciting future.”

“What about me?” Olivia asked. “My grandparents don’t want anything to change.”

They still hadn’t spoken about this, Rowan interested now to hear her take on Doyona and Vicar’s behaviors.

“They have their reasons for wanting things to stay stagnant, and they aren’t the only islanders or entities on this island that would prefer there be no change. You will soon see, once you head toward the far reaches of the island, that there are much worse things than stagnation. We have reached a point where things will either change for the good, or where they will change for the bad.”

“What about me?” Blanche asked. “I’m just a ghost here.”

“Ghosts are as important as the living, my child,” the Spirit of the Island told her. “Especially on an island as magical as this one.”

“So there is magic here?” Toro asked.

“No, kids can just change into cats on any island,” Rowan said under his breath.

“I’m just asking.”

“There is something beyond magic on this island, which few people understand intimately, and others avoid actively. I do not have control over that aspect of it. None of us truly do, but some are able to at least utilize it to their advantage. Thank you for visiting me today, and I do hope you join me again at another point in the future. Before you go, I will answer one question that may be troubling you.”

Rowan thought for a moment about the question he wanted answered. He still wanted to know why their mother wasn’t here, and what happened between her and their father. But for some reason, he didn’t want to hear this from the Spirit of the Island. He wanted to hear it from his father.

When Olivia didn’t say anything, and Blanche was uncharacteristically quiet, Rowan took a quick look at his active Side Quests, to see if there was something there that she could answer. Doing so caused a prompt to appear and fade away.

Side Quest: Learn more about what you saw beneath the waves (complete)

He nodded at this. He truly had learned about the Spirit of the Island now. While he could have asked how she knew they were coming, or how far her reach extended, he focused on another quest that he’d been meaning to get to the bottom of.

“Where is her locket?” Rowan said, nodding his head to Blanche.

“Yeah, where’s my locket?” asked the ghost.

“Your locket is at Alto Sarax’s home.”

“The hoarders?” Blanche shook her head. “Great. How am I supposed to find it in all that mess?”

“You won’t be able to find it by yourself, unfortunately,” the Spirit of the Island said. “But you have friends now who can help you. Be forewarned, the debris around and inside their home has made it incredibly dangerous to navigate, and you won’t be able to do it as humans.”

“Then we’ll do it as cats,” Rowan said.

“That is one advantage of being able to transform. I encourage you to continue to be part of both the cat and the human community. I will do my best to help you if I can, but there are many decisions that lie ahead that you will have to make on your own. The four of you do seem well-equipped to see them through, however. Have faith in each other, have faith in the vision of a better tomorrow, and don’t hesitate to return if you have any more questions.”

The statue was suddenly still, the woman in the exact same pose she had been in earlier before coming to life. Rowan was just about to turn away when he saw that the cat sculpture offering was gone now.

“Look,” he told Toro and Olivia. “Did you see it disappear?”

“I didn’t,” Olivia said. “Is it back in your inventory list, mew-mew?”

“It isn’t,” Rowan told her after a quick check.

For once, it was Toro who beckoned the others to follow him as he turned to the exit. “We should probably get back to the village,” he said. “I’m sure our dad will be at the store soon, and your grandparents are probably wondering where you are.”

He made his way out of the space, Olivia following behind him. Rowan turned to see that Blanche was already gone, leaving him alone with the statue. He looked up to it one more time and smiled, his whiskers lifting.

“Thanks,” Rowan told the statue. “We’ll do our best.”

Rowan, Toro, and Olivia hurried down from the mountains, Blanche following close behind them. As they grew closer to the forest, Olivia became increasingly worried that she had been out for too long.

“They’re going to be so angry… They’re going to be so angry…” she said as she sped ahead.

“I can go there and do something to create a distraction,” Blanche offered.

Olivia looked up to her. “Would you?”

“I have before, haven’t I? There’s nothing I enjoy more than messing with your grandparents,” she said with a yawn. “After that…”

“Ghosts rest too?” Toro asked.

“No, we don’t rest, but I still try to just because it’s nice to not be up all the time.”

“Do you dream?” Rowan asked.

“Only of being off this stupid island.”

“It’s not stupid,” Toro said.” It’s magical.”

“Maybe for you three, but I’m not able to change into a kitten, and I can’t enjoy all the benefits of being a human, like food, or birthday parties, or sleep…”

“Do you want us to throw you a birthday party, mew-mew?” Olivia asked.

“No, I want you to get my locket back so I can get off this island.”

“We already told you we would get it,” said Rowan.

“Good, that’s all I ask. Now, as for your grandparents…” Blanche rose into the air and then spiraled backward, disappearing.

“She’s done this before, right?” Toro asked Olivia, Rowan’s younger brother now seated on his haunches, his tail flicking against the ground.

“More times than I can count. She usually just rattles a door or bothers my grandmother in some way, which gets my grandfather involved, then she knocks something over.” Olivia laughed to herself. “That sort of thing.”

“They must think the house is haunted,” said Rowan.

She continued snickering. “They do, well, Grandma does, but Grandpa doesn’t. Anyway, mew-mew, we should hurry down.”

“I think I understand the difference between a ghost and a spirit now,” Toro said as they followed Olivia, who moved faster now, her yellow tail bobbing in the air she ran.

“What’s that?” Rowan asked.

“A ghost is a single person, while a spirit can be a bunch of people, or even an entire island.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Olivia said, Rowan nodding in agreement.

The three paused once a woodpecker flew overhead.

“Hi!” Toro called up to the woodpecker. The bird, which was black-and-white with a red tuft at the back of its head, looked down at him.

“How are you doing?” Toro asked the woodpecker.

Olivia gave Rowan a funny look, which made him laugh. “Trust me,” he told her, “he can communicate with other animals.”

The woodpecker finally spoke before flying off to a different branch.

“What did it say?”

“It said it was well, and that it was hungry,” Toro told Olivia. “I hope you find some good food,” he called up to the bird.

“That’s so adorable,” Olivia said, her eyes locking on Toro in a way that made Rowan feel jealous. Rather than say anything, he continued forward, telling them that they needed to hurry. “That’s my line,” Olivia said as she caught up to him.

The two began racing, Rowan sometimes getting the lead, only for Olivia to slip ahead. They passed the sign that pointed to the western beach, then the waterfall, the three eventually reaching the cave.

Rowan was just about to race into the hole when his brother beat him to it.

The three came out on the other side, all laughing until a serious look came over Olivia’s face.

She stood, and smoothed her hands over her dress, making sure it was clean. “Well, I should get going. I will see you two later; just wait a minute before you come down to the village so we don’t come out of the forest together.”

“Will do,” Rowan said as he turned to Toro, who had already reequipped his red cape. They watched Olivia leave, Rowan not comfortable standing inside the cave for too long. Not only did it smell of dampness, but there was the bat they had to fend off that one time.

“What do you think we will do the rest of the day?” Toro asked.

“Whatever we can do to help our dad,” said Rowan. He hadn’t had a lot of time to process what the Spirit of the Island told him, but he knew it would begin with the orchard, and there would be a lot of work to do there.

Once they figured they had given her enough time, the two brothers made their way down the first path that led to the village, the trail covered in roots. As usual, Sacred Cat Village was quiet, no residents in sight. Rowan and Toro quickly headed down the hill.

As they passed Olivia’s place, Rowan glanced toward the windows, wondering if she was watching.

“Rowan, look!” Toro shouted.

Rowan looked ahead to the store to see two bikes parked out front, both of them yellow with black wheels, helmets hanging from their handlebars.

“No way…” Rowan rushed over to the bikes, Toro on his heels. “No way!”

A Side Quest appeared before him and quickly fizzled away.

Side Quest: Figure out a way to get bikes (complete)

Rowan was just about to get on one of the bikes when Ganix stepped out of the general store, a big smile on his face. “I thought you two would enjoy riding around the island,” he said. “Oh, and this is the reward for the Dad Quest from yesterday.”

“You got us bikes?” Toro asked. “For a Dad Quest!?”

“You’re looking at them,” Ganix told him.

“We can go anywhere now…” Toro lifted both fists into the air. “Anywhere.”

“I can’t believe you got us bikes,” Rowan said, looking up at his dad. His hands were already on the handlebars. All he needed to do was put the helmet on and press the kickstand away.

“Unfortunately, we have a lot to do today, so there’s not going to be much time to ride around. But I do have a delivery for you to make to Dr. Restivo.”

“We can ride our bikes there, right?” Rowan asked.

“I was hoping you would, and then I need you to meet me at the orchard. I’m grabbing Gilda and Tuya along the way, which means Zola will probably come as well. They’ve already stopped by, offering to help me in any way they could. At least we can get some planting advice from Tuya, but Gilda seems to know about planting as well.” Ganix scratched the back of his head. “We’re going to have to learn as we go, but we can just focus on the small things for now, like cleaning up the orchard. I have gloves for the two of you, so when you ride over there, be ready to work.”

“We’re ready,” Toro said after he strapped his helmet on.

Rowan did the same, pedaling away without saying goodbye and leaving Toro to collect whatever item they needed to deliver.

Eventually, he reached the top of the hill, a little out of breath from the ride up. He turned to see his brother coming up after him, standing as he pedaled. Toro reached him, an absolutely enormous smile on his younger brother’s face as he spoke: “This is going to be so awesome.”

Rowan and Toro saw Hiccup and Rocket looking over at them, the two cats obviously curious about their new bicycles.

“Do you think one of them would go on a ride?” Toro asked.

“That’s probably a bad idea,” said Rowan, who realized now that they hadn’t yet visited the other cats since their battle against the catfish. He wondered what they would say once they finally returned, especially the older cat known as Cuthbert. For some reason, Rowan found himself wanting the older cat’s approval.

“You’re probably right,” Toro said as they turned toward the square. It didn’t take them long to find the small street that ran behind the main road of Sacred Cat Village, the two having to close their ranks a little bit to reach Dr. Restivo’s home.

Once they spotted it, Rowan sent his back wheel forward a bit by pressing his foot onto the ground, skidding to a halt. This kicked up a small cloud of dust, Toro performing a similar maneuver. They both used their feet to push their kickstands out, and approached the doctor’s front step.

“I was wondering when you would get here,” Dr. Restivo said as he opened the door. “I was just about to make a house call.”

“To who?”

“I have several, actually. First Ari and Maeve Tanner. Then Karno and Maldonya.”

“We haven’t met them,” Toro said.

“They keep to themselves, and Karno can’t really get around all that well with his handicap. Anyway, you boys care to join me?”

“We’re supposed to get to the orchard after we make your delivery,” Rowan said.

“It’s on the way,” Dr. Restivo assured them, a big grin on his face. Rowan nodded to his brother, who took the doctor’s package from his inventory list. They were mostly canned goods, but there was also a box of cereal and one of Gilda’s muffins.

“Great,” the doctor said as he took the package from Toro and set it inside his home. “Shall we?”

The two boys walked their bikes behind Dr. Restivo as they followed him to the town square, where they hung a left, and then turned to the East Docks. They found Ari and Maeve’s home, Rowan noticing that a small patch of green grass in front of it had been recently mowed, a sweet smell heavy in the air.

Maeve came to the door, and invited them into the home, the gray-haired woman in an apron that read Tip the Chef. They found Ari where he had been the last time they’d seen him in the home, seated on the couch. He trembled a little as he turned his gaze to Dr. Restivo, who equipped a clipboard after putting on his mask and gloves.

“You want me to help stand him up?” Maeve asked.

“In a minute. Let’s just get his vitals first. Hit points?”

“Eight-hundred… one,” Ari said.

“Eight-oh-one out of four-thousand-twenty-three. Not bad,” Dr. Restivo said. “You went up three points since the last time we met. You were at seven-ninety-eight then.”

“Intelligence?”

“Two-thirty-four point sixty.”

“Hmmm. I see. Willpower?”

“Forty-four point eighty-eight.”

“Strength?”

“Six point zero five,” Ari said.

“Dexterity?”

“Three point eight seven.”

“And what about your empathy and luck?”

“Negligible change,” said Ari.

“Well, the good news is it appears that you have lost less hit points today than you had in our last visit, but everything else is down, and what worries me is the decrease in your intelligence by almost five points. Everything else could bounce back, but that’s quite a drop.”

“I don’t feel any dumber,” Ari said slowly.

Rowan shook his head, suddenly feeling bad for calling his brother dumb-dumb on occasion. He had never actively seen someone’s personal attributes drop, and even though he knew Ari’s condition was serious, it was even clearer to him now.

“Okay, let’s stand you up and run a few tests. I know you boys need to get to the orchard,” Dr. Restivo told Rowan and his brother, “but if one of you could help me for just a moment longer…” He got out some PPE, Rowan putting on a mask and gloves. “Come stand on the side here,” he told Rowan, who followed the doctor’s directions. “I just want you to stand there, and help keep him stable.”

“Sure,” Rowan said, doing as instructed.

Maeve helped her husband stand, and Rowan kept his hands out, making sure that he remained stable. Dr. Restivo then went over a few exercises that tested Ari’s reflexes. Once he was finished, he had Ari sit again, and thanked the boys for helping him.

“Good luck out there today,” he told Rowan and Toro as Maeve came around, leading them to the door.

“Thanks for coming with Dr. Restivo,” Maeve told the two boys. “I understand what Dr. Restivo is trying to do here, that he wants you two to learn about these things.”

“Are you worried that his personal attributes dropped?” Toro asked her.

“They have dropped before, and a few of them have risen a couple of times. I’m worried. I’m always worried, but…” She ran her hand over her mouth. “This is what it means to love someone and take care of them in old age. He would do the same for me.”

“But he can’t get better, right?”

“Toro,” Rowan whispered.

“No, it’s okay. You know, back when I was a principal, I had students like you that always ask the tough questions,” she said with a chuckle. “There are always miracles, and you have to take the good days with the bad. So to answer your question, no, he can’t get better, but he can stabilize, and that’s worth all the hardship, at least in my opinion.”

“You shouldn’t have asked that,” Rowan told his brother once they were outside again, both boys mounting their bikes after putting their helmets on.

“I wasn’t trying to be rude. I’m just trying to understand it more.”

“You have to be more conscious of what you do and what you say. You’re getting older. It’s okay when you’re young, but…” Rowan couldn’t help but think of himself when he said these words, realizing that this also applied to him, that he too needed to be more cautious. “You know what? Never mind. Let’s just get to the orchard.”

Rowan and Toro started riding their bikes toward the East Docks. They spotted Ringo and Curtis on Ringo’s porch, the researcher waving them over.

“Got some new rides, I see,” Curtis said. “Not bad, boys.” He was dressed a bit oddly this time, the researcher in a tweed jacket, shirt tucked into his shorts, long brown socks, and white tennis shoes.

“Pretty cool, right?” Toro asked.

“Pretty cool? They’re great. We should get some bikes, Ringo.”

“I can’t ride a bike,” the old coder said. As usual, he wore red overalls, and had a cat in his lap this time.

“Maybe I could get a bike and get a little sidecar for you.”

“Ha! You fool, you really think that would look funny, wouldn’t you?”

“I’m just trying to be helpful. Nothing wrong with a sidecar,” said Curtis, a grin on his face.

Rowan focused on Ringo’s cat, trying to remember where he’d seen the name before.

Name: Spewy

Breed: Birman

Sex: Male

Color: Lilac

Age (Human Years): 1

Age (Cat Years): 15

“Is that Hiccup’s son?” he asked Toro.

“It sure is,” Ringo said, peering over at Toro, the size of his eyes amplified by his glasses. “Using the Catpendium, right?”

“It’s awesome,” Toro said.

“You hear that?” Ringo barked over to Curtis.

“I know you can program,” Curtis told him.

“But you have insinuated that I don’t have the same touch I used to have back in the day. Well, I’m here to tell you otherwise.”

“Back in the day? Pfft! I’ve never questioned your skills.”

“Sure you haven’t, and yes, Spewy here is Hiccup’s son. I got him from Garner six months ago. Or was it Alto? One of the two.” Ringo scratched the cat behind the ear, which caused it to arch back up into the air. “He’s a little feisty, but he’s a good kitty. Aren’t you, Spewy?”

“Where you boys heading?” Curtis asked.

“To the orchard. We’ve got to get it up and running before it’s too late to get the harvest going, or something,” Rowan said, not sure of how to do what it was they were trying to do.

“I see, well, in that case, I’ll join you. I feel like doing a little manual labor.” Work gloves appeared on Curtis’s hands, his tweed jacket disappearing. “Ringo? Do you feel like getting a little dirty?”

Ringo snorted. “I’ve never been a gardener, and I’m not going to start being one at the tender young age of seventy-seven.”

“Fine, but I’ll be back later, and I expect to enjoy some iced tea on this porch with you at that time.”

“Just don’t wake me up from my nap.”

Rowan got off his bike, Toro doing the same so they could walk alongside Curtis.

“You two can ride ahead, if you’d like,” Curtis told them. “The orchard isn’t too far from here.”

“Are you sure?” Rowan asked.

“I’m sure. I’m guessing you just got those bikes, right?”

Rowan and Toro nodded.

“In that case, go enjoy them. I will get there when I get there.”

Rowan hopped back on his bike and took off toward the orchard, Toro keeping up with him.

They hung a left at the East Docks, exploding onto a path shaded by trees, Rowan feeling it was time to really put the bike to the test. He steered off the path and into the woods, in the direction of the orchard. Toro called after him, but stopped when Rowan got too far ahead, his younger brother doing his best to keep up.

He rode over rocks and roots, Rowan glad once he started to move up a small incline, which had a natural effect of slowing his speed. He burst out of the brush and onto the embankment that sat along the outer perimeter of the orchard, where he spotted his father and a few of the villagers at the opposite end.

Toro quickly joined him, and the two rode through the orchard, making a beeline toward their father. Ganix stood in front of a table with a large umbrella attached to it, Gilda, Zola, and Tuya seated.

“I was wondering where you guys were,” he said as they rode up the hill, Rowan just about to hop off his bike and let it run its own course for a moment when he decided against doing this. Although it was always fun to do a bike trick or two, now wasn’t an appropriate time, especially after he just told his younger brother to behave.

“Dr. Restivo wanted us to go with him to Ari and Maeve’s place,” Toro said.

“Oh, poor Ari,” Gilda said. As usual, she was in her exaggerated jewelry, as well as a pair of overalls. Other than the jewelry, all three women were dressed similarly, looking like they were prepared to do some manual labor. On the table before them were a couple of pitchers of iced tea, as well as oatmeal raisin cookies that Gilda had baked.

“He’s doing okay,” Toro said, not going into detail.

“It’s just such a terrible illness,” said Gilda.

“Digital neuronal dementia,” Zola said with a shake of her head. “I lost a friend to that. It was so sad to see her at the end when she started losing her memory.”

Rowan wondered if this was why Ari’s intelligence attribute had started to drop. It made sense. If it kept falling, his memory would suffer.

“Well, I suppose since the crew is here, we should go ahead and get started,” Gilda said.

“Curtis is coming too,” Toro told them. Sure enough, they looked out over the orchard to see the researcher walking in their direction.

“I was really just looking for guidance,” Ganix started to tell the women again. “You don’t have to help.”

“Nonsense. We’re going to help, and we’re going to enjoy our tea and cookies from time to time. This orchard was one of the most wonderful things on the island when it was active,” Tuya said. “It is going to require extra hands to get it up and running.”

“They grow in the wild too, right?” Toro asked.

“Apple-peaches do, yes, but they only grow on this island,” Tuya said, “either cultivated or in the wild. It really doesn’t matter. I thought about planting one of the shrubs in my backyard. I may do that. The only thing is, they don’t bloom or anything, and I would prefer plants that bloom.”

“You and your flowers,” Zola said, teasing her friend.

“If I do it right, and I do it right most of the time, every week or so, something new is blooming. The old ones die off, and the new ones come in. You’ve seen it. All year-round I have flowers,” she said, as if she had explained this before.

“All year-round,” Gilda said. “They are a joy to see.”

Curtis made his way up the hill and finally reached them, his brow covered in sweat. He took off his glasses and wiped his face, his eyes falling onto the cookies and tea. “You mind if I join you?” he asked the three women.

“That’s what it’s here for. Refreshments.”

“But we haven’t even started yet,” Toro said, laughing.

For some reason, this statement caused all the adults to laugh as well.

“He’s right, you know,” Tuya said. “Maybe we should enjoy refreshments after we’ve started cleaning this place up.”

“I’m all for that,” Curtis told him, “but it is hot out here, and I am thirsty…” He equipped his own cup. “Plus, I brought my own supplies.”

“Let’s get you topped off,” Zola told him, “and then we can get started.”

“What exactly are we doing out there today?” Rowan asked as he turned back to the orchard.

“You see all the branches and leaves and twigs and everything in the aisles,” Ganix told his son. “We’re going to take all of that, and we are going to put it in that corner over there. That’s going to be our burn pile.”

“We get to have a bonfire?” Toro asked.

“Something like that,” Ganix said.

It surprised Rowan to see how helpful the older residents could be, the three ladies doing much of the clearing, leaving the dragging over to the burn pile for the men. By the end of the first hour, Curtis had equipped a sweatband that he used for Argat’s fitness classes, both Rowan and his brother now shirtless.

The dragging part was fun; there was something almost meditative about the process. Every time Rowan came back to get more, he felt a strange satisfaction in knowing that he was helping, the results increasingly visible. It wasn’t long before the front of the orchard was much tidier, the group making their way back up the hill to take a break.

“We’re about halfway there,” Ganix said. “And I can’t thank all of you enough. Really.”

“You’re going to be sharing those apple-peaches with us,” Gilda reminded him.

“And you owe us dinner,” said Zola.

“I’d love to buy everyone dinner,” Ganix said, before he was interrupted by Curtis.

“Actually, how about you buy dinner tonight, and I will buy dinner tomorrow night. What’s the best place on the island?” he asked jokingly. “Nevermind, we don’t have that many options.”

“How about both of you buy a big dinner tomorrow night at Tunga’s place,” Gilda suggested. “We actually made something for tonight.”

“You did?” Rowan asked as his father handed him a water bottle. Rowan drank most of it, and then handed it off to his brother.

“Hey, I want more,” Toro said.

“Here’s one for you as well,” their father told him as he equipped another bottle and gave it to his youngest son.

“We figured we would have a picnic tonight,” Zola said.

“I made casserole,” Gilda announced. “I’ve also got some ice cream.”

“I brought the bottle of wine,” said Zola, “and a potato salad.”

“I made a salad,” Tuya said. “I also brought a bottle of wine.”

“Can we have some wine?” Toro asked their father.

Ganix and the other adults chuckled. “No, but you can have some grape juice. Actually, I don’t have any grape juice, but I do have some Proxima soda.”

“Cherry cola?”

“Yes, and cream soda for your brother.”

“Yessss,” Rowan said.

“But we’ll have everything after we’re finished. We’re almost there.”

“It’s good to see that the plants are ready to go,” said Tuya, “that they just need to be watered and taken care of. We’ll have to figure the irrigation system out…”

Ganix looked over to the system, which had a small station on the opposite side of the orchard.

“Or we just wait for it to rain,” Curtis said.

“These plants need water now,” Tuya told him.

“Do you know who designed the system?” Ganix asked.

“It was Redi Taka, if I recall,” said Zola. The other two women confirmed this with a nod.

“The gentleman that lives on his bicycle?” Curtis asked.

“Yes, that’s him,” Gilda said.

“Dad, do you think me and Toro could go find him tomorrow?” Rowan asked. “We’ll be safe.”

“Tomorrow? We kind of need to go to the mainland…”

“What?” Rowan asked, his heart sinking for a moment.

“I didn’t tell you? We’re delivering our first batch of Sacred Cat Products tomorrow. I was able to find someone who wanted to put our stuff up at her booth. Tomorrow we’re going to drop off candles, biscottis, wreaths, cat figurines, and cat food.”

“Cat food?” Toro asked.

“From Chodak. He claimed to have a recipe using some of the scraps from his daily catches. He even has some canned up, and he has a stamp we’re putting on them.”

“You never told us about that,” Rowan said.

“I thought I did. But it doesn’t matter. You two are gone a lot of the time. What do you think I’m doing when you’re out?”

“I don’t know,” Rowan started to say.

“I can’t wait to see what people on the mainland think,” Tuya said, Zola nodding along. “These are the best candles we’ve made.”

“They really are. Next up will be a batch of soap,” Zola added.

“And we’re going to figure out a way to get fresher pastries over there,” said Ganix. “But we’ll start with the biscottis first, because they have a longer shelf life.”

“So we’re really going to the mainland tomorrow?” Rowan asked.

“Yes, in the morning. I thought that you would like to see the Pier and help out.”

“What about when we come back?”

“We need to tackle this place when we come back,” Ganix said, nodding to the home and the processing facility behind them.

“Are we moving in there?”

“Stellars said I could, and I thought…” Ganix bit his lip. “You know what? We can discuss that later, but that was the plan for tomorrow.”

“Well, it sounds like your plans need to change,” Tuya said, butting into their conversation. “You need to get this place watered quickly, Ganix. I’m surprised the plants are still alive. The only reason they are is due to the rain we had several days ago. But they haven’t started sprouting leaves yet, which is troublesome. They should have sprouted some by now.”

“Then…” Ganix nodded. “Maybe we can do a little bit of both tomorrow. Go to the mainland, come back here and check the place out, and then try to find Redi Taka.”

“But you don’t have a bike yet,” Toro told him.

“Well, I’ve been meaning to get one, so maybe we can pick one up at the Pier. It will make deliveries easier in the winter. Or I’ll just send you two.”

The mention of winter reminded Rowan that there was a finite amount of time he would have on the island. This caused him to turn away, looking back out of the orchard. He suddenly wanted to get to work, to be distracted so he didn’t have to think about what happened next.

Rowan was the first to reach the orchard, where he started grabbing any debris he could find and dragging it over to the burn pile. The others soon joined him, Zola commenting on his work ethic. Normally, this would have made Rowan happy, but he couldn’t help but think about what it would be like to leave the island.

This was home now.

The longer he was here, the more interesting it became. When he had first arrived, it was boring, but now that he had been here a little while, and especially since he had met the spirit, the island had truly opened up to him.

That was another thing he thought about as he helped his brother drag stray branches over to the burn pile.

The Spirit of the Island said she would help in some way; she also wanted them to help revitalize the place. How would he do that if he was on the mainland?

Eventually, Rowan focused on the task at hand, moving even faster, which inspired his dad and his brother to do the same. Curtis still moved at a leisurely pace, the researcher occasionally speaking with Ganix, the two of them using technical terms that Rowan had never heard before.

He didn’t know if Curtis was a coder, but his knowledge base was certainly something that their father found interesting, Ganix pausing every now and then to strike up another conversation. Rowan wished he could understand what they were talking about, but the words they were using were foreign to him, acronyms and technical terms that he’d never heard before.

It took them another hour to remove all the bramble from the orchard, the burn pile easily six or seven feet tall by the time they finished.

“I can’t wait to light this thing,” Toro said, his hands on his hips.

“Another time,” said Ganix. “Maybe we can make a little event of it, you know, invite some of the villagers.”

“I think that would be an excellent idea,” Gilda said. “We’ll just have to check the weather. We also don’t want it to be too dry…”

“That’s right,” Tuya said. “That could spell disaster for the orchard.”

They made their way to the home at the top of the hill, Zola and Tuya placing quilts on the ground.

“This is something we like to do in winter,” she explained as she admired the quilt.

“You made this?” Ganix asked.

“I sure did. Zola made that one,” Tuya said, nodding to the other blanket stretched out over the soil.

Curtis sat down and kicked off his shoes. “Whew. That’s some hard work, let me tell you. It beats being in the lab.”

“Wine?” Zola asked.

“Don’t mind if I do,” the researcher said as he equipped a coffee cup, Zola laughing as she filled it up.

Ganix gave his two sons a pair of sodas, reminding them to drink them slowly, especially Toro. It didn’t take long for Gilda to start dishing out the casserole, the baker now seated on a large cushion. Potato salad was added to the plates, as was Tuya’s salad, which had juicy red tomatoes and carrots, and was covered by a light drizzle of raspberry dressing.

The group ate as the sun started to set, enjoying the view of the orchard as deep blue shadows began to creep over the shrubs. The adults finished two bottles of wine between the five of them, Ganix eventually equipping a lantern.

“We should head back,” he said, illuminating the path forward. “We have another busy day ahead of us tomorrow.”

.Chapter Fourteen.

Rowan went through his normal morning routine upon waking the next day, first checking his personal attributes and seeing that his hit points had increased by seven points.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 368/368

Intelligence: 24.22

Willpower: 11.45

Empathy: 7.22

Charisma: 11.91

Strength: 6.02

Dexterity: 8.09

Luck: 4.01

+ .11 Willpower!

+ .07 Empathy!

+ .24 Strength!

+ .07 Dexterity!

+ 7 HP!

He then briefly checked his active Side Quests.

Side Quest: Get the apple-peach orchard up and running

Side Quest: Find collectibles on the island and bring them to the hoarders

Side Quest: Help Blanche find her locket

Rowan thought about canceling out the Side Quest that centered around finding collectibles and bringing them to the hoarders, but ultimately decided against this just in case he did actually find something.

Rowan still had the same Main Quest that regarded adjusting to island living, plus there was his Personal Quest of figuring out what happened between his mother and father and trying to be nicer to his younger brother.

He looked briefly at the skills he was focused on—drawing, playing guitar, and talking to girls—and decided in that moment to trade out the playing guitar skill. He thought about adding gardening as his new skill but then he thought of Dorno’s workshop, and all the tools in there. With what his dad was trying to do on the island, maybe it would be better if Rowan learned a little bit more about construction. He settled on a skill and selected it, the prompts fading away.

Drawing / Level 4

Talking to Girls / Level 4

Basic Construction / Level 1

Their apartment had been warm last night, and they had cracked the window, Rowan noticing a breeze circulating through the room. His brother was asleep, as was Uncle, and rather than try to wake them up, he got out of bed as quietly as he could. He was just about to make his way to the living room when a folded piece of paper at the end of the bed caught his attention.

He unfolded the paper to find a message from Olivia:

Meet at the cave tonight.

- Mew-mew

Rowan felt his heart skip a beat as he immediately started to wonder what time he was supposed to meet her. Clearly she meant after dark. Or did she? Night could be any time. He turned the message over to find a clock that she had sketched out with a pencil, both the hour hand and the minute hand pointing to twelve.

“At midnight,” he whispered.

Rowan thought about keeping the letter, but then he got paranoid that someone would learn about it, even if they didn’t have access to his inventory list. He read the message one more time and then tore it up into tiny pieces, depositing the remains in the trash can in the bathroom.

“Rowan?” Toro asked as he stepped back into the bedroom. His younger brother was now seated on the bed, the blanket over his head.

“What’s up?”

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing. Let’s go find Dad.”

Rowan stepped into the living room to find their father still asleep on the couch, a book open on his chest. It was a book on gardening that Tuya had given him, and he looked to be about halfway through it.

“Dad?”

“Wh-what?” Ganix asked as he pressed himself up. “Sorry, I was reading late and…” He glanced at his watch. “Yeah, it’s morning, we need to get started.”

“What’s for breakfast?” Toro asked, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“What do you want for breakfast?” Ganix replied.

“I want all the good stuff,” Toro said. “All of it.”

“Eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, toast, pancakes…” Rowan said.

“Potatoes, cereal, yogurt, fruit…”

“How about this?” Ganix asked as he stood. After a long yawn, he continued: “We’ll have something simple for breakfast this morning, like Proxima tarts, then we have lunch on the mainland, at one of the restaurants at the Pier. What do you say?”

“I guess that’s okay,” Toro said. “As long as we have something delicious.”

“There are many options there, much more options than there are here,” Ganix told him as he stepped into the kitchen, a cup of coffee appearing in his hand. He took a sip from it and then got some plates out of the cupboard. He popped the Proxima tarts in the toaster, and motioned for his boys to sit at the counter.

The boys ate, and once they finished and dressed, they headed downstairs to the store, where their father got some cat food for the strays that lived out front. As usual, the chubby orange tabby known as Meme shouldered his way past the others to eat most of the food. Quantum, the gray leader of the group, let Rowan pet him, while Fiona and Zaena allowed Toro to pet both of them. Only Ryuk held back, the silver, shorthair cat timid.

“When are we supposed to go to the mainland?” Rowan asked.

“Well, that would be whenever Cameron gets here,” Ganix said. “We could head down to the docks…”

The three of them saw Dorno approach, the man with some boards tucked under his arm.

“Hey, Dorno,” Ganix called over to him.

“Just the guy I was looking for. I decided to get started,” he said. “I’ve got some loose wood, and it’s time to get working on the stairs down at the dock.”

“You mean building a ramp?” Toro asked.

Dorno, whose long white hair wasn’t tied back for once, nodded. “It’s better to work early in the morning before it gets too hot.”

“We haven’t really discussed the things that need to happen on the island yet,” Ganix said. “And Stellars hasn’t transferred the funds…”

“He’s the richest man on the island by a long shot,” Dorno told him. “I’m not too worried about funding. I figured I would get started, so we can show the other villagers what this will look like.” The carpenter turned toward the center of town. “We’ll work our way up with improvements, and then our way back down toward the East Docks. The hoarders’ home is going to be a bit of an issue, and I don’t quite know what the vote to condemn it is going to actually do, if people actually vote. It has been condemned before.”

“It has?” Ganix asked. “I was wondering about that.”

“Yes, they get it condemned once a year or so, usually during the summer months when people are more active. But nothing ever happens, because we have no real way to enforce anything on this island. Maybe we could just build a high wall around it.”

“I don’t know about that…” Ganix said. “There has to be something, though. I think you’re right in starting down here. That makes the most sense to me. And then we can work our way up. Who else in the village do you think would be handy with any type of carpentry work?”

“Well, there aren’t many, and the ones that are capable are out fishing. For today, the three of you could help me,” Dorno said.

“Sure,” said Ganix. “Let’s do that.”

“We have to go to the docks anyway,” Toro told the carpenter. “We’re going to the mainland today.”

“I know, taking some of my kitty sculptures with you,” he said, a smile lifting the ends of his beard. They followed Dorno down to the West Docks, past the moss-covered cat statue.

“Do you know anything about the statue?” Rowan asked him.

“About this statue here?” Dorno shook his head as he looked it over. “I think it’s one of the oldest ones in the village. There are probably some older ones on the western side of the island, or maybe up in the mountains.”

“I like it,” Toro said.

“You aren’t the only one. People used to put flowers in front of it and wreaths around its neck. But now, only a few of the women put out offerings to the island.”

Rowan nodded, recalling Tuya placing flowers before the smaller statues not too far from their home.

Dorno shrugged. “I wish I could tell you more about it.”

“Well, it certainly is a centerpiece,” Ganix said, “something that I think is great for people to see when they first visit the island.”

“I can’t disagree with you there.” Dorno set the wood on the ground and equipped a blueprint from his inventory list. He lifted it into the air and flattened it, the blueprint now floating before him as he showed Ganix his plans.

Rowan rarely saw people using a skill like this, which was something only certain jobs required, like carpenters.

It allowed the carpenter to view the blueprint in front of whatever it was they were modifying, to match up the lines and make sure everything was set in place before they got started. From what Rowan could see, not much would change about the actual stairs aside from the wood being replaced. There would be a ramp with railing that circled along the right side, and looped in front of the cat statue before it came out to the main road. It looked like it would require concrete and other supplies.

“And you have everything?” Ganix asked.

“I sure do. I’ll just keep a tab of what I use and then you can send that to Stellars to reimburse. It’s about time he takes an interest in the village,” Dorno said in a low voice. “He funds all the committees and the councils and owns most of the land, but seems to be perfectly happy staying in his mansion and not having to deal with any of us. That’s just my opinion, but somehow, you were able to charm him.”

“I still do not know how.”

“Well, whatever you said, it worked.” More construction items appeared on the ground. “I can do most of the woodwork myself, which I should finish today if I really get moving. Since you’re here, we can set the lines for the concrete,” he told Ganix as he equipped a hammer. A nail appeared in his other hand and Dorno hammered it into the ground, to the right of the stairs.

“Can I help?” Rowan asked.

“Actually, yeah,” Dorno said as he equipped a tape measure.

He tossed it to Rowan and instructed him to measure out a few points. Rowan did as he was told, Dorno checking measurements and coming around and putting nails in the ground, explaining that this was what they would use to set their string for the time being.

Rowan enjoyed the work. He wasn’t good at the math part of it, Dorno occasionally getting out a calculator and typing up numbers even though Ganix reminded him several times that there was probably an app that would do it.

“I know, I know,” Dorno finally said. “But I like to do things this way, it gives me a sense of ownership over my work. If I make the mistake, it was because of me and I can’t blame something else.”

They were just starting to lay some board to use as the perimeter for the concrete when Rowan looked up toward the general store, Doyona approaching with her arms crossed over her chest.

She was in her morning workout gear, and as soon as she spotted them she turned her focus to Ganix. “Mr. Toragan, might I have a word?” she asked, something almost wicked about the way she was looking at him.

“Sure.”

Ganix joined her, Rowan trying to get close enough to their conversation that he could hear them.

Unfortunately, their dad led Doyona away from the construction area, back toward the general store. Rowan thought about pretending he’d left something in the home, but didn’t want to bother his dad, especially when he seemed to smooth out some of her concerns, the older woman eventually nodding and leaving.

“She’s going to be all over this project,” Dorno said once Ganix returned. “And by this project, I mean anything we decide to do here in the village.”

“I’ll figure out a way to use that to our advantage. And oddly enough, that wasn’t about what we’re doing here…” Ganix paused for a moment, clearly not ready to get into the rest of the conversation he’d had with Doyona.

“Cameron is coming,” Toro said as he pointed out of the water. Rowan placed his hand over his brow, now able to see the skipper making his way toward them, the water making a frothy white letter V behind his little boat.

“I would say that we could help you more when we get back,” Ganix started to tell Dorno, “but I’ve got to try to find Redi Taka today.”

“Ha! Good luck there. He could be anywhere on the island.”

“It’s about the irrigation system at the orchard. He’s the one that designed it, so we want to know how to use it correctly before we turn it on.”

“I wish I could help you there. If you can convince him to stick around the village for a while, or at least come by a little more often than he does now, it would be helpful in some of these projects. He was a mechanical engineer, after all. Also, I know a guy who does street lamps. Should I give him a call?”

Ganix considered this for a moment. “Yes, I believe it’s time to get all the supplies we need. Stellars told me after the meeting the funding would be transferred today, so I should be able to cover invoices starting tomorrow.”

Rowan could tell something was wrong with their father as they headed toward the mainland. It was the way he was staring down at his hands, not all that interested in the sights and sounds around him. Toro was at the front of the boat this time, Rowan at the back with Cameron the skipper, his father seated next to them, the smell of gasoline overpowering when the wind changed directions.

Eventually, he turned to his dad and came right out with it: “What’s wrong?” he asked over the roar of the motor.

“Doyona,” Ganix said.

“She’s already complaining?”

“Oh, she’s always going to be complaining, it was what she told me…”

“What did she say?” Rowan asked.

“I’ll tell you once we get to the Pier.”

Now Rowan wished he hadn’t asked his father, the anticipation keeping him guessing until he saw the mainland, Rowan experiencing a sudden flash of fear.

Even though he knew they were going straight back to the island, he imagined what it would be like when they had to leave the island for good, which bothered him to some degree, Rowan wishing there was a way that they could just stay on the island and live there permanently. He would miss his friends, but there was something about the island and the village that made him feel whole, complete in some way that he couldn’t quite put words to.

He joined his brother at the front of the boat, Toro excitedly pointing at the Pier.

“We’re going to eat some real food,” Toro said. “There are so many restaurants there!”

“We have real food on the island,” Rowan told him.

“You know what I mean. There will be more choices.”

“I don’t care,” Rowan said.

“What’s wrong?” Toro asked.

“Nothing, it’s nothing.”

Rowan looked out at the Pier, and the people moving through it, the brick buildings cobbled together behind them. The Pier was an old shipping yard that had been revitalized years ago, all of the shops either inside a few of the large buildings, or under canvas-covered booths that lined the street. Its defining landmark was a giant anchor, and as they approached, Rowan saw that there was a bascule bridge as well, more shops on the other side.

Once the boat was docked, they headed out, Ganix telling Cameron that it wouldn’t take them more than an hour.

“I’ll be here,” the skipper said as he lowered a hat over his face and placed his hands behind his head, his feet already kicked up on the dash, sandals off.

“We’ll bring you something to eat,” Ganix told him.

“Even better. You boys have fun.”

“Let’s go meet the seller,” Ganix said, “then we’ll grab a quick bite and take a look around.”

“Are you going to get a bike?” Toro asked him.

“Maybe not this time. I’ll be having to come back soon, so I’ll grab one then.”

“But what about finding Redi Taka?” Rowan asked. “Don’t we need him to help with the irrigation system?”

“We do, and I thought…” Ganix turned to his two sons just as a group of children passed by, all wearing matching shirts indicating they were members of a summer camp.

Rowan remembered what it was like to go to summer camps; rather than feel a sense of longing to be with his peers, he felt glad to be away from them, to be able to do what he wanted on the island rather than what the camp counselors had planned for them.

Ganix scratched the back of his head, as if he were deciding if what he was about to say was a good idea or not. Finally, he shrugged. “I thought I would ask you two to find Redi Taka.”

“You mean, go out on our own?” Toro asked. “To the western part of the island?”

“Sure, there has to be a way to go there from the village.”

“There is,” Rowan said. “There’s a path, um, on the way to the shrine. We just have to ride to the woods, up to the path and then we will be on our way.”

“Maybe it’s a bad idea…”

“No, we’ll find him, and will definitely be back before dark,” Rowan said.

“Even so, I may give you some camping gear just in case you need it. I don’t want you two camping though, unless…” Ganix shook his head. “You know what?”

“No, Dad, we can do it,” Rowan assured him. “You deal with the orchard when we get back, and we will go find Redi Taka. Teamwork.”

“Sure,” their father finally said with a nod. “Teamwork.”

“One more thing,” Rowan said before he would continue.

“What’s that?”

“What did Doyona tell you?”

Ganix frowned. “Right, I promised I’d tell you. She spoke to Stellars after the meeting last night as well, and now he wants part of the budget for island renovation to go to dealing with the hoarders. So I have to figure that aspect out now as well. But you know what? Fine. I’ll figure it out. There has to be a solution.”

He led them toward a side street with cars parked on it, not a lot of space for passing vehicles in the center lane. From there they took a small flight of stairs and entered into the back of one of the giant brick warehouses.

“Why didn’t we just go in the front entrance?” Toro asked as Ganix led them down the hallway, advertisements posted to the walls around them. Some of them were for particular shops, like a bridal salon or bakery, and others were maps with the various stores on the first and second level of the building.

“Less people this way,” Ganix told him as they pushed through an emerald-green double door and entered into a wide open space filled with booths, some of the shops actually built into the structure of the warehouse with their own walls and doors. Ganix motioned to these shops. “I was going to ask one of these owners, but then I decided on something out in the open.”

“Where?” Rowan asked.

Ganix grabbed Toro seconds before he ran into a display of antique shipping equipment. “Careful. There’s the shop,” he said, pointing to a spot ahead of them.

Rowan’s eyes jumped from the tip of their father’s finger to a food court in the center of the space, with columns around it, vines hanging from the tops of the pillars and basking in the light coming from an opening above. Many of the shops were just opening up for the day, but it was clear where Sacred Cat Products would be sold: one of the shops that faced the food court had a cat statue out front, not unlike the one on the island near the docks.

“This is it,” Ganix said as they approached the booth.

“Where did…?”

“The statue was already here,” he told Rowan, anticipating his question. “That’s one of the reasons I chose the place. Destiny, right?”

Ganix peeked his head into the booth to see a woman arranging handmade postcards with cute cat drawings on them.

“You’re here,” she said, her personal attributes materializing in front of her.

Name: Rinda Chibley

Age: 49

Occupation: Chibley’s Owner

Rowan then saw the sign at the front of her shop, listing her last name in cursive letters. Rinda wore a sleeveless black dress, which matched her necklace and earrings. She had dark hair, and blue eyes, just a few wrinkles appearing at the corners of her lips as she smiled at Ganix and his sons.

“I’ve brought everything,” Ganix told her.

“Then I guess it’s time for this…” A large sign appeared in her hand that read Sacred Cat Products Sold Here. She walked to the front of her booth and strapped it around the neck of the cat statue.

“Do you need my help arranging things?”

“I have my ways; you can just place everything on the table there,” she said as she turned to Rowan and Toro. “Hello, boys. I’m Rinda.”

“Hi, Rinda,” Toro said.

“I’ve heard so much about you from your father,” she said, smiling again.

“You have?” Rowan asked. “I hope they’re good things…”

She laughed. “Mostly… Actually, everything was good. You two are having quite the adventure on Sacred Cat Island this summer, aren’t you?”

“We sure are,” said Toro.

“That’s good. I haven’t been there for ages, since…” She looked up for a moment. “I must have been a child the last time I went.”

“How about you two go look at the food?” Ganix asked as he handed Rowan a wad of Proxima dollars. “Grab something for me as well. We’ll get something for Cameron on our way back to the boat.”

“I want to see the products,” Toro said.

“You do?” Ganix asked.

Rowan’s younger brother nodded.

“Well, we have some of Raydoh’s wreaths,” said Ganix, equipping and showing his son one of the wreaths, which were also decorated with coral.

“That reminds me…” Rinda turned her hand around and a handful of price tags appeared, each of them printed on a nice piece of paper.

“You got them,” Ganix said, a smile taking shape on his face. “I was hoping you would.”

“We’re partners in crime here, Mr. Toragan,” she reminded him. “These are really nice pieces as well. I had a friend hand-make them,” she said as she gave him one of the price tags, also handing one to Rowan and Toro to look at.

The price tags were yellow, and there was a stamp on the front of the outline of a cat’s face, the words Sacred Cat Products running along the contours of its chin. On the back was space to write the actual price.

“I love them,” Ganix said.

“What else are you selling?” Toro asked as Rowan handed the price tag back to Rinda.

“I’ve already told you,” Ganix reminded his youngest son. “We have the wreaths, some of Chodak’s cat food, Dorno’s cat sculptures, biscottis from Gilda, candles from Tuya and Zola.”

“It’s a start,” Rinda said, “although you didn’t say anything about cat food.”

“It’s canned,” said Ganix, “and he sort of sprung it on me as well.” He equipped one of the cans and showed it to her.

“Not bad, and I like the cans that he’s using.”

“He says he knows a guy. All these fishermen seem to have connections,” Ganix said with a shrug. He equipped one of Tuya and Zola’s candles. “I have lots of these, and they’re quite fragrant. Hopefully, they will draw some people in.”

“They smell great,” Rinda said after she took a sniff of the candle he was holding.

“I want to smell,” Toro said. Rinda handed him the candle, Toro taking a big whiff before giving it to Rowan.

It smelled like flowers, which was what he expected considering it came from Tuya, but there was also something else to it, a hint of vanilla and honey, something sweet that made his mouth water.

“Well, I guess we should go to the food court,” Rowan said as he gave Rinda the candle back.

“Don’t be too long,” their father called after the boys as they turned away.

The food court was directly in front of Rinda’s shop, Rowan and his brother quickly navigating the tables as they headed toward the food stand.

“What should we choose?” Toro asked as he came to a donut shop, the donuts made to look like other types of food. There was a donut shaped like a hamburger, one fashioned into a bowl of spaghetti, and another meant to resemble a hot dog.

“We should start with donuts,” Rowan said.

“Dessert first?”

“Normally, I would say no, but…”

“It’s not like he can see us anyway,” Toro said as he looked in the direction of their father, who was blocked by people, tables, and a condiment station.

“We’ll eat it quickly,” Rowan said as he stepped up to the register, and selected the donut shaped into a hamburger.

“It looks so good,” Toro said once the two stepped away, a plastic container now in Rowan’s hands.

He opened it to reveal a donut that had been split in half and covered in orange icing and black chocolate sprinkles on top, chocolate cream in between the slices of doughnut, plus caramel meant to represent either cheese or mustard, Rowan didn’t know.

He took a bite of it and handed it to his brother, who also took a bite.

“Mmmm!” Toro said, his eyes lighting up. “So good. Soooo good.”

Rowan nodded in agreement. “It’s amazing. Why doesn’t Sacred Cat Island have donuts? I wonder if Gilda can make donuts.”

“I bet she can make donuts. She can make anything.”

“You’re probably right,” Rowan said as he took another bite. He handed the donut to his brother, who took a smaller bite this time.

“What kind of food should we get for lunch?” Toro asked as they turned back to the food stands.

“You got icing on your face,” Rowan told his brother. He went for a napkin at another condiment station and handed it to Toro, who wiped the icing off his cheeks.

“Sorry.”

“Do I have any?”

“Just a little on your lips,” Toro said.

Rowan wiped it on his arm and Toro laughed.

“As for lunch…” Rowan looked up at some of the places.

There were hamburgers and food that had been stir fried; there were also turkey legs and corn on the cob slathered in butter. He saw a place that sold noodle dishes, as well as a spot selling sandwiches and potato salad.

They ended up choosing the sandwiches, Toro getting a panini that was definitely too large for him, and Rowan getting two of the club sandwiches, one of which he planned to give to their father.

They returned to the booth to see that Ganix and Rinda had finished displaying the products.

“What did you get?” Ganix asked as Rowan handed him his change.

“Just some sandwiches.”

“I got a panini,” said Toro, showing their dad the extra-large sandwich, which was wrapped in foil.

“There’s no way you’re going to be able to finish that.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” said Rowan. “I got you and me a club sandwich.” He showed his dad the bag.

“You know, maybe we should give one of those club sandwiches to Cameron and I’ll eat what’s left of Toro’s panini. We should hurry anyway.”

“Back to the island?” Toro asked.

“Sure. We’ll eat on the boat.” Ganix turned to Rinda and told her goodbye, the shop owner smiling at him and waving to Rowan and Toro.

Once again, they took the back entrance out of the old warehouse. They transferred to a side street that looped around the building, back to the docks after passing the giant anchor statue. Along the way they picked up a frame at one of the booths for the catfish photo, Ganix saying he would display it once they returned to the island.

They found Cameron in the same place he had been last time, seated in his chair, his feet propped up on the dash, his boat gently rocking back and forth.

“That wasn’t long,” he told them. Cameron was just about to hop out of the boat to help them when Ganix took the initiative, putting Toro in first, and then assisting Rowan while he jumped in. Ganix got in next, Cameron nodding as he went to the mooring.

“We got you a sandwich,” Toro told the skipper.

“A sandwich, huh?” Cameron smiled. “How did you know I wanted a sandwich?”

The trip back to the island was one filled with anticipation. Rowan was so ready to get on his bike and head to the western part of the island, to explore, to see what they would be able to uncover, that he was barely able to focus. They reached the docks to find that Dorno had made some progress on the ramp he was building.

The carpenter waved them over, and was just telling them how he could use some help with the concrete when Ganix stepped up, telling the boys they could go.

“I’ll meet you at the orchard later,” he told Rowan. “I’m trusting you. Don’t be gone for too long, don’t touch anything that could hurt you, and I want you to be back within the next three hours.”

“That’s not enough time to find him,” Rowan said.

“You don’t know that.”

“You’ll probably find Redi Taka by then,” Dorno said. “Once you hit the western side of the island, it’s pretty much beach, well, at least the start of it. He’s pretty easy to spot with that big camper of his. Plus he flies flags sometimes, so look for those. And then there’s his bells…”

“We’ll hurry,” Rowan assured his father.

“Take this,” Ganix told him, giving him a bundle of supplies. This included a tent, flashlight, and granola bars, all of which Ganix was able to condense into one slot in Rowan’s inventory list. Rowan didn’t know how he did that, but he had seen him do it before.

“We’ll be safe, Dad, we promise.”

The two boys ran up to the general store and after strapping their helmets on, they hopped onto their yellow bikes.

They took off, Rowan looking over his shoulder as they passed Doyona’s place. He recalled the letter that Olivia had snuck into their room. He certainly planned to meet her later, wondering why she wanted to meet him in the first place.

They started to make their way up the hill, Rowan standing as he pedaled. The hoarders’ home loomed into view, and with it came Garner, who angrily paced out front.

Rowan wanted to continue into the woods, only to be stopped by Garner, who waved the two down. The cranky man was in a three-piece suit, brown socks and a fedora on his head with a broken peacock feather sticking out of it. His almost snazzy outfit did not at all match his bitter demeanor, the man chewing on his cheek as he approached them.

“It’s my right to live like this,” he said, pointing at his home. “Your father wants to change that.”

“It’s not his fault, it’s Doyona’s fault,” Toro said, stepping off his bike. “She’s the one calling for the vote. Our dad doesn’t want to change it. He’d like you to clean it up a little bit, but she’s the one that is putting pressure, not him.”

“If your father didn’t show up here…”

“Come on, Toro,” Rowan said, guiding his brother away from Garner.

“Hey, you listen to me,” he started to say, Rocket and Hiccup coming out from behind an overturned table to observe the boys.

By this point, Rowan was already back on his bike, heading up the path that ran to the left of the hoarders’ home, where they would continue past the waterfall, and onto the trail from there. His brother quickly caught up with him.

“I don’t know what our dad is going to do about them,” Toro said, his face a bit red from pedaling to keep up with his brother.

“Me neither,” Rowan said as he hopped over a root, continuing on.

They came to the waterfalls, Rowan recalling the swim they’d had the other day with Olivia. They needed to go swimming again. It was nice and relaxing, but that would have to wait. The path became a bit rockier, Rowan and Toro eventually coming to a sign that pointed toward the shrine, another one pointing down a pass that led to the western side of the island.

“Let’s see what this is like,” Rowan said as he steered his bike down the second pass, the wind hitting him in the face as he picked up speed.

Once he felt like he was going too fast, he clamped down on the brakes, Rowan gritting his teeth as his brother passed him, Toro oblivious to the speed.

“Slow down!” Rowan started to call after him.

They came to an incline that shifted back up, the terrain naturally slowing his younger brother. Rowan pedaled harder, his calf muscles on fire for a moment as he caught up with his brother. Much of their view was still covered by foliage, but it wasn’t much longer before they started to see more light up ahead, signaling the end of the path.

Both Rowan and Toro skidded to a halt at the same time.

“Well, well, well,” Rowan said as his eyes fell upon an enormous beach, long enough that it seemed to stretch for miles.

His hand over his brow to shield him from the sun, Rowan traced his eyes along the beach until he thought he saw what looked like a structure. “Do you think that is the outpost that Olivia mentioned?”

“I can’t see it,” Toro said, squinting.

“You can’t? It’s right there. Follow me.”

Since this was a proper beach, one with sand that was almost white, Rowan and Toro ended up walking their bikes toward the shoreline, where Rowan figured it would be just a bit easier to ride.

“We should have camped here with Dad,” Toro said as they started to ride up the wet sand, the boys having to work even harder to pedal their bikes. Still, it was a bit faster than walking, and it was easier than riding on the dry sand to their right.

Rowan looked out to the sparkling blue sea, recalling how they had just been in a boat not too long ago. It was strange to think the mainland was so far away yet so close. He glanced over his shoulder to see Toro pedaling hard, his helmet just a little loose.

They stopped pedaling after fifteen or twenty minutes, both needing a break.

Rowan suddenly found himself thirsty, and was glad when he checked his inventory list that their dad had put a water bottle in the camping pack for them.

“Drink this,” he said, handing the bottle to his brother.

Toro started chugging it, Rowan having to stop him once he had finished more than half the bottle.

“Save some for me…”

“Sorry,” Toro said, as he handed his older brother the water bottle. He wiped his face and looked ahead.

It was still hard to make out because of the position of the sun, but it was clear now that there was a structure built on the sand, with a partially submerged dock on it as well. Rowan couldn’t tell if it was abandoned or not, but if it wasn’t, it would be a good place to ask about Redi Taka.

He started pedaling again, Toro quickly catching up with him.

Every now and then, Rowan would check over his shoulder, realigning himself to the point where they had come from. He knew it wasn’t going to move, but he wanted to make sure it was there for when they eventually headed back.

As they drew closer to the waterside structure, Rowan saw that it was a home built on stilts with a wooden ramp that led down to the sea.

It looked abandoned, but he knew from being on the island that this wasn’t necessarily the case. It was a bit out of place, not that it was strange to see a house with its own dock on a beach, there was just nothing else around. No sign whatsoever that people lived here.

“Should we knock on the door?” Toro asked.

“I don’t know…”

Just a month ago, Rowan certainly wouldn’t have gone up to the house and knocked on the door, especially as it looked creepy and abandoned.

But he had changed since coming to Sacred Cat Island. He had fought a giant catfish, turned into a kitten, and even…

“Wait,” Rowan said. “Blanche, are you around?”

“Good idea,” said Toro.

“She’s gotta be around here,” Rowan said.

“Blanche!” Toro called out.

The sand started to swirl around them, Rowan assuming that this was the ghost they once referred to as dust girl.

It quickly became clear that whatever had heard them was not Blanche.

The white sand continued to twist in the air as it formed an enormous wall, easily ten feet high. It slammed down onto the two boys, sand filling Rowan’s mouth and ears, twisting inside his nostrils.

He had lost hold of his bike by this point, Rowan practically swimming through the sand as he reached out for the handlebars, as he tried to find his brother.

But the sand was too thick now, and Rowan could no longer use his vision anyway.

His eyes clenched shut, he summoned all the strength he had to press himself to his feet and push forward, Rowan mentally screaming his brother’s name as he reached a hand out, hoping to find him.

As his heart raced in his chest he started to feel dizzy, Rowan now suffocating, the sand whipping all around him.

He had to save his brother.

He staggered forward until he hit what he felt was a solid mass. Panic caused all his nerves to fire at once, Rowan brought his fist back and punched at it. His punches were weak, his lungs almost out of oxygen, but he kept at it until he broke through.

A hand came to Rowan’s shoulder, one he didn’t recognize.

The hand yanked him away, light coming to him again as he was dragged off, Rowan still clutching the handlebar of his bike.

“Stay here,” said a familiar voice, Rowan now noticing that the sand was no longer moving, that he was on stable ground.

He started to cough and tried to blink his eyes open. Everything was blurred and the sand in his eyes was scratchy. Tears came, Rowan able to get a blurry view of what was happening.

“Toro?” he asked as he saw Redi Taka heading in his direction, the odd biker carrying Toro in one arm and holding his yellow bike with the other. The older man wore his goggles over his head, an indecipherable look on his face as he deposited Toro next to Rowan.

“Here’s some water,” he said, handing a fresh bottle to Rowan. “Wash out your eyes, and your brother’s too. Let’s get away from here. I’ll answer questions in a moment.”

Redi Taka pedaled his home on wheels through the sand, Rowan now noticing that there was a series of chains that made it possible, the engineer working something out that allowed him to move the large camper with ease.

Rowan wished he had his stamina.

He was still reeling from what had just happened, his body still covered in sand. It occasionally fell on his face, no matter how much he tried to shake his hair out. He could feel it in his ears, in his socks and shoes.

He walked next to his brother behind Redi Taka, both not able to pedal with the density of the dry sand. Both still had their helmets on.

“Are you okay?” Rowan quietly asked Toro, who pushed his bike with one hand and rubbed his eyes with the other.

“I think…”

The sand swirled in front of Rowan. He squeezed the handlebars of his bicycle as he braced for some kind of impact. Blanche formed, immediately bringing a finger to her lips, Rowan able to relax just a little. His relief quickly gave way to anger. “What was that thing?” he asked her, glaring at the dust girl. “Where were you?”

He knew that Redi Taka couldn’t hear them; the bells on his rig and the gears were loud enough to drown out anything Rowan and Toro would say in that moment.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Blanche said. “I was mad at you because you haven’t tried to find my locket yet, I should have…”

“Was that you?” Toro asked her.

She shook her head. “No, there are other things like me on this island, I told you.”

“An evil ghost?” Rowan asked.

Blanche nodded, and she was just about to say something when Redi Taka stopped pedaling. She disappeared, Rowan stepping through the space where she once stood.

“We can pause here for a moment,” Redi Taka told them as they approached a clearing. “If it will make it easier for you two, I can hook your bikes up to the back and you can hang out on top,” he said, motioning toward his camper.

“You could pedal us and your camper? Even with all this sand?”

“I sure can,” he told Toro. “With engineering you can do anything, including using a bike this size to pull an entire home,” he said, motioning toward his camper. He still had goggles on his face, which he quickly pushed up to his forehead. “What were you boys doing out here anyway?”

Rowan saw that Redi Taka’s face was quite wind beaten, the circles around his eyes a lighter color than the rest of his skin, which was a blend of red and brown from constantly being outside.

“We came to find you,” Toro said as Redi Taka equipped another water bottle and handed it to them.

“Drink up, share some with your brother. I have more if you want more.” He exhaled audibly and turned back to the beach, licking his chapped lips for a moment.

“What was that thing back there?” Rowan asked, even though he already knew the answer now.

“I could tell you some story about how what just happened there was an anomaly, and things like that never happen around here. But that would be a lie. I have a feeling you two may have already figured it out by now, but this island is…”

“Magical?” Toro asked.

“Sure,” Redi Taka said. “Let’s call it that. Some look at it that way, others with a more scientific background would think of it as something else. But either way, magic works in describing Sacred Cat Island. Now, before you say anything,” he said as he lifted his hands, “I’d rather not know some of the things you have discovered. Those that have figured out some of the secrets of the island have made a pact to keep it hidden.”

“Why?” Rowan asked. “If everyone knew…”

“Word would get out and people would flock from all over Any_City to visit this place.”

“So you don’t want tourists?” Toro asked the old engineer.

“No, I don’t mind tourists, but what I don’t want is crowds upon crowds of people, adventure seekers and the like. So that’s why we keep it a secret, and that’s why you should as well.”

“Who else knows about the secrets?” Rowan asked.

“Shouldn’t the people who know about a secret also be a secret?” asked Redi Taka with a smile.

“Nedman knows,” Rowan said.

“Are you sure?”

“I think so.”

“You have a good head on you, kid.” Redi Taka took off his goggles and used the underside of his shirt to clean the lens. “What do you think you saw out there?”

“It was a ghost,” Toro said with finality.

“A ghost, huh? That would be one way to describe it,” Redi Taka said as he put his goggles back on. He wore a leather jacket that was covered in age lines, a few patches on the sleeves, one of which looked like it was starting to come off. “Sure, let’s call it that.”

“Why did it attack us?”

“The one that lives here gathers around that abandoned home,” Redi Taka said, pointing to the house on stilts near the water, “a particularly nasty one too. If you just keep to this part of the beach,” he said as he motioned to the current path, “and you didn’t ride down by the water, it wouldn’t have bothered you.”

“Is there something in that house?” Rowan asked.

“Beats me. I generally try to avoid it, that was, until I saw the two of you going down there.” He placed his hand on a pair of binoculars, which were around his neck. “It’s too bad. It’d be a nice beach without that kind of terror.”

“So that’s how you saw us,” Rowan said.

“It sure is. If you’re going to be traveling out here on the western side of the island, you’ll need a pair of these. In fact…” He stepped up to his camper and opened the door. They heard a little rummaging around inside, Redi Taka returning with two pairs of binoculars, both in red casings. “Do you have room in your inventory lists for these?”

Rowan quickly checked his inventory list, seeing that he had one more spot left.

Wooden Sword

Knit Hat

Deck of Playing Cards

Drawing Paper

Pencil Set

Comic Book

Set of Keys for the General Store

Yellow Rain Jacket, Yellow Rain Boots, Red Hat (Rain Set)

Teal Clamshell

Panda Sunglasses

Dorno’s Sword

Camping Gear

He could always carry something on his person if there wasn’t a spot, and there were things he could get rid of, like his deck of playing cards, and perhaps his original wooden sword.

“I have space.”

“Then here you go. Next time you come out here, be sure to take a long look at where you’re going. Also, this goes without saying, but you probably shouldn’t tell your dad about what happened out here. It’s better that way, that is, unless you two are honest with him like that. But I have a feeling that you want to do some more exploring. I know I would, and if you tell him…” Redi Taka shook his head.

“We weren’t going to tell him,” Rowan said, confirming the statement with a nod to Toro.

“Probably for the better. Like I said, there are some people on this island that know, but the majority don’t. Maybe it’s better that way. Now, what brings you all the way out here?”

Rowan started to explain what had happened since they’d last met on their camping trip, how the village had voted for improvements based on their dad’s suggestion, and that Old Man Stellars was funding it. He told Redi Taka about the orchard, how they were getting it up and running and the other projects soon to be happening in town.

“So that’s why you came…”

“But mostly for the orchard,” Rowan said. “You designed the irrigation system, and we need it to work again.”

“It’s a good system, and…” Redi Taka bobbed his head left and right for a moment. “Sure,” he finally said. “I’ll help you get it working again.”

“Dorno also wants to talk to you about some projects,” Toro told him.

“Dorno, huh? I knew he would need an expert at some point,” he said with a grin. “We like to tease each other. He’s good with the hands-on kind of things, but I’m better with the bigger picture, the mechanics of it all. That’s just the way things are. You know, you can’t be good at everything.”

“So you will come?” Toro asked.

“Sure, but I have to leave my camper here, near the beach. There’s a spot not far from the entrance of the forest where I leave it.”

“And you ride back at night to stay?”

“No, Dorno has an extra bed for me. Your store is open now, right?”

“It is,” Rowan said.

“Good, I can use this little trip to stock up as well. What other kind of projects do you have going in town?”

“Dorno was working on a handicap ramp today down by the West Dock. I believe he’ll put one near the East Docks, they want to put streetlamps in, and make the village more handicap accessible. I don’t know what comes after that. They probably need to get the fountain going again…”

“I have to eventually take a trip up to the power plant,” Redi Taka said, motioning toward the mountain, “just to make sure all the wiring is in order for streetlamps. I’m sure it is, but I should at least check with the guy who lives up there.”

“There’s a power plant here?” Rowan asked.

“There sure is, hydroelectric. It runs on its own, but one of the guys who lives off the grid is responsible for maintenance. He used to be an electrician, his name is Marty Cape, but I can deal with that later. Let’s head to the village, and you two can take a dip in the waterfalls there to wash all the sand off. I’m sure it’ll be itchy by then.”

“Can we still ride on top of your camper?” Toro asked.

Redi Taka laughed. “Sure, kid. But I’m going to have to unhook the camper anyway when we get to the entrance to the woods. Go ahead and put your bikes on the rack in the back.”

Toro and Rowan walked their bikes to the back of the camper and saw that there was indeed a rack for them to put the bikes on. Rowan lifted his first and hooked it in place. He then helped his brother do the same. From there, they took a ladder to the roof, where they found two chairs that were bolted in place.

“Hold on,” Redi Taka said as he exhaled audibly and began pedaling. He pushed forward, changing gears starting up, the entire craft moving, almost as if it were floating over the sand. Rowan looked back to the beach and shook his head.

He couldn’t help but remember how they almost just died, that the sand ghost had seriously tried to kill them.

They really were lucky that Redi Taka had been watching them.

Rowan equipped his binoculars and turned in the direction of the home on the shoreline, observing it from afar. He wondered where the outpost was in relation to the place, and he was also curious about the electric station, Rowan looking in the other direction and at the mountains now, scaling his binoculars up and down their peaks.

Every time he thought he knew something about the island, it presented something else to explore, something new and exciting.

He shivered, once again remembering the sand piling on top of him. He wondered why the Spirit of the Island hadn’t intervened. Surely she had some influence over something like that. Then again, she had said that she didn’t have much power.

Redi Taka slowed to a stop, his camper now parked on a flat space near the entrance to the woods. Rowan hadn’t noticed the space when they had come out earlier, but looking at it again, he could tell that it was man-made, probably by the engineer himself.

The two boys climbed down from the top of the camper and removed their bikes while Redi Taka went around his home, securing it to bolts on the ground. He unfastened the harness that connected the camper to his bike and motioned for the two to follow him.

They rode up a rocky incline, the canopy above casting shadows on the terrain once again, Rowan glad to be out of the sun. The three continued onward, eventually coming to the fork in the road, one of the paths leading up to the shrine.

“Have you been up there yet?” Redi Taka asked them.

“We have,” Rowan said.

“Did you go inside the shrine?”

Rowan nodded, a smile taking shape on Redi Taka’s face. “It’s a great place to make an offering.” He pressed off again, moving deeper into the forest. They eventually reached the waterfalls, the man placing one foot on the ground as he looked over at the two brothers.

“Go ahead and get cleaned off, and I will ride into town.”

“Our dad is at the orchard,” Rowan said.

“Then that’s where I’ll head. I can always catch up with Dorno later. I have an open invitation to sleep on his guest bed.”

“We’ll meet you there,” Rowan said.

“Good, see you in a few.”

Redi Taka pushed off again, heading toward the second path that led down to Sacred Cat Village, the one that passed in front of the cave.

Rowan stepped off the bike and put the kickstand in place, his brother doing the same. He removed his helmet and looped the strap around the handlebar of his bike.

“That guy is strange,” Toro said.

“He totally knows about becoming cats,” said Rowan. “He has to know.”

“But he didn’t say…”

“It was the way he was talking to us…”

“Do you think Nedman knows as well?”

“I’m pretty sure.” Rowan took off his shirt. He then removed his shoes and socks and turned to the water, only to take a step back as his brother rushed past him. Toro jumped off the ledge, his splash nearly reaching Rowan. “I see how it is,” Rowan said as he took off after him and jumped in as well, landing next to his brother.

The water was freezing cold, but was nice to cool off, and it was especially nice to get the sand out of his hair.

“Turn around,” Rowan said as he did the same, both brothers sending their wet clothing to their inventory list, where it was dried before returning to their bodies.

They turned back to each other just as their shirts appeared, socks and shoes on their feet.

After putting their helmets on, the two started down the rockier path that led back to the village, Rowan eventually telling his brother to hop off his bike, especially once Toro nearly flew over the handlebars.

“This path is too rocky for us to ride down,” Rowan said. “And we don’t want a flat tire.”

“I’m sure Redi Taka could fix that.”

“Probably,” Rowan said as they pushed their bikes forward, eventually coming to the hoarders’ home, the town square beyond. Rowan saw the cat statue now casting a shadow onto the streets, the sun setting in the next hour and a half or so.

They were just starting to turn left when they heard someone call out to them.

Rowan swiveled his bike around to find Garner creeping in their direction. “I knew he was going to say something,” he grumbled as he approached the boys. “Your dad stopped by; they want something done about this place. All this work,” he said, motioning toward his home, spittle flying from his lips, “and they want to change it. Well, I’m not going to change anything. This is my home. It’s my right to live like this.”

“I don’t think our dad wants you to change it,” Rowan said honestly, “as much as he wants you to just clean it up. The whole village wants it.”

“But these things…” Garner grabbed the box and emptied it on the ground, random children’s toys spilling out. “You see these toys? They are from my childhood. Where am I supposed to put them?”

“Your house is pretty big,” Toro said, looking toward their place, which clearly was one of the larger homes on the island aside from Old Man Stellars’ mansion.

“There are other things in there,” he growled. Rowan placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder and slowly backed away.

“I’m sorry,” Garner said, his voice changing for just a moment into something a bit lighter, something that resembled Alto’s voice. “I know it’s not your fault. I’m just…” He grumbled as he looked up to the sky. “I don’t…”

“Boys,” Tuya said as she approached from across the street. “I was just going down to the orchard. Care to join me?”

“Sure,” Rowan said.

“We’re supposed to grab Gilda along the way.”

“What about Zola?” Toro asked Tuya as they started to move down the hill, away from the hoarders’ home.

“She’s already down there with Redi Taka and your father,” Tuya said. “I had to water the plants in my backyard before I could join them.”

They approached Gilda’s home, and as they did, they heard some commotion from across the street, Curtis waving from the front porch. Ringo was there as well, the bearded coder in his red overalls as always, his cat in his lap.

Curtis came over to them, the researcher approaching Gilda’s home with a big smile on his face. “I suppose we are heading to the orchard, are we not?”

“That’s the plan,” Tuya told him.

“And tonight, dinner will be on me. As promised. I’ve been wanting to go to the fisherman’s restaurant for a couple of days now. The last seafood boil I had there was excellent.”

“Tunga does know how to cook,” Tuya said as she knocked on the door. Gilda answered, the baker in overalls and the diamond earrings that Gonpo had given her at his daily prize party.

“I suppose I should put these away,” she said once she saw Tuya look from her face to her ears. “I just have nowhere to wear them.”

“That’s not true,” Curtis told her. “I’m taking everyone out to dinner tonight. You can wear them there.”

“We have to dress up too?” Toro asked.

Curtis chuckled. “That’s not up to me, but I would say no, no you do not.”

Rowan and his brother walked with the three adults toward the orchard. They took the path that jetted off the East Docks, and once they came to a clearing on their left, they transferred to it, moving past the burn pile.

“There they are,” Tuya said as she spotted Redi Taka, Zola, and their father on the far side of the orchard, not far from the hill where the house was set.

As they approached, Rowan saw Redi Taka with his hands on his hips, shaking his head. His arms were covered in grease, and there were half a dozen tools lying around.

“There you are,” Ganix told his two sons. “I was wondering when you would get here.”

“Hey, boys,” said Redi Taka, giving them a look that told them not to mention what had happened on the beach.

“The irrigation system isn’t working?” Rowan asked as he removed his bicycle helmet.

“Unfortunately, it isn’t,” said Redi Taka. “But I’ll be able to fix it. I just need to borrow some tools from Dorno. It should be up and running in the morning. As soon as we water these things, you’ll see, they will sprout.”

“That fast, huh?” Curtis asked.

“They are the fastest-growing plants I’ve ever seen,” Tuya told him. “But they’re thirsty; you have to water them before they will reveal themselves to you.”

“They will definitely be watered by noon tomorrow. I know what I need to do,” Redi Taka said, before launching into a technical explanation at what was preventing the water from flowing.

“Anyway,” Redi Taka said as he finished his technical explanation, “I won’t bore you with the details.”

“You already did,” Zola said, Gilda and Tuya chuckling.

“I found the explanation fascinating,” said Curtis. “And I would love to hear more… Over dinner. Everyone, well, everyone that didn’t walk over here with us, I’m taking us out to dinner tonight. Let’s go to the Fisherman’s Restaurant and have an absolute feast. And I know that there was talk yesterday that you and I would split the bill, Mr. Toragan, but I insist on paying. My treat.”

Curtis loved to entertain, the researcher guiding most of the conversations on the way over to the restaurant. Tunga, who was behind the food stand, greeted all of them and motioned toward a chalkboard, where the day’s specials had been written. He came around and cleared off one of the larger tables, Rowan noticing that there was a romance novel on the table as well.

“I’ll whip something up for you,” Tunga told Toro, remembering last time that the youngest Toragan wasn’t interested in a seafood boil. Everyone else went for the boil aside from Zola, who opted for the baked fish instead.

As they had the previous day, Tuya and Zola equipped bottles of wine, the adults all spawning glasses aside from Redi Taka. “I don’t partake,” he said, “but I will drink some water. I have to be honest, I’ve been craving apple-peach juice.”

“You’re not the only one,” Tuya said, Zola nodding in agreement.

“I can’t wait to bake with it again,” Gilda told the group as they waited for their food to come, Rowan and Toro seated next to each other on the far end of the table. “Expect some delicious pastries,” she told the group.

“Speaking of things to expect,” Zola said, looking to Ganix. “I’ll have soap for you to take with you next time you go to the mainland.”

“Great, anything to add to our product base and create a scent in the air. I noticed the candles were already doing that around the booth.”

“I need to go to the Pier and see what it looks like,” Tuya said. “Maybe we should take a ladies day to go shopping. Perhaps bring Maeve along as well. I know she could use a break.”

“I would like to go as well,” Curtis said, “but if you need your day…”

“Nonsense, you can come with us,” Zola said. “Have you been to the Pier?”

“Actually, I have not, aside from navigating it so I could take the boat here.”

“Just make sure you have extra room in your inventory list,” Tuya said, Zola and Gilda giggling.

“I have to get over there at some point as well,” Redi Taka told the group. “I try to do a big stock up once or twice a year, once if I can manage it. I don’t like the boat ride.”

“The boat ride is the best part,” Tuya said.

“For you, maybe, but I prefer being on the bike.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t engineered a bike that can paddle you over there.”

Redi Taka looked to Gilda and nodded. “That’s not a bad idea. I’ll get right on that,” he said, the table laughing.

The food came, Rowan mostly tuning the adults out.

As he ate, he thought of what had happened on the western side of the island, and how it was strange that Redi Taka was here with them now, no mention whatsoever of the entity they had encountered. He also thought of Olivia, and the message she had left behind, about meeting later.

He was going to have to figure a way to sneak out of their apartment…

Rowan tuned back into the adults once they finished their meal, all of them working on another bottle of wine, the researcher’s cheeks red as he spoke. “…And another thing. I would like to propose that we host a little celebration at the orchard tomorrow night, after the irrigation system is up and running. Think about it, we could put some chairs up, some lights, maybe even have some fireworks.”

“Some fireworks?” Toro asked.

“It’s been a while since I went to a party,” Redi Taka said, scratching the back of his head. “But I was planning to stick in town anyway to help with renovations.”

“That’s so nice of you,” Tuya said, offering him a toothy grin. “Dorno needs all the help he can get.”

“Believe me, I know he does.”

Gilda, who once again wore the diamond earrings that Gonpo had given her, nodded in agreement. “This whole place could use some work, but somehow,” she said, turning to Ganix, “you have inspired change. So…” She raised her wine glass. “To Ganix, and to Sacred Cat Village.”

The adults clinked their glasses together and after another thirty long minutes of conversation, Curtis finally left the table to settle the bill.

The walk back to their home was relatively swift until they came to the hoarders’ place, Rowan and Toro pushing their bikes.

“That was quite the conversation today,” Ganix said, mostly for himself.

“What happened?” Rowan asked.

“I feel sorry for Alto and Garner, but as I explained earlier, I have been told that part of the funding I’m receiving to improve the village is based on if I’m able to get them to budge a little. I was reminded of it earlier, when the first payment came through. The village council has already condemned their home before, which has no real meaning, but…” He shook his head. “There must be something we can do.”

“There has to be,” said Toro.

“The problem is, they need to be willing to make the change, and they are not. I wish they would just focus on the art aspect of it, like the cat statue,” he said, motioning toward the statue the two brothers had created out of rubbish. “Those are rather unique. I’ll keep trying to work with them,” he said as he motioned for his sons to follow him. “I’m too deep into this to give up now.”

They came to the store, and took the stairs up to the apartment, Toro immediately going for Uncle. He held the orange kitten in his arms as their father instructed them to get ready for bed.

“But it’s not that late,” Toro said.

“It’s been a long day, and we probably have an equally long day tomorrow,” Ganix told him. “After you two get ready for bed, I’m going to get ready. No balcony tonight,” he said to Rowan. “All of us need sleep.”

Rowan didn’t contest the statement, actually hoping that his dad would fall asleep as early as possible. Once the boys were in bed, Ganix tucked them in, and closed the door behind him.

He almost told his younger brother what he planned to do tonight, how he was going to sneak out to become a cat with Olivia.

But he decided not to.

The message seemed like it was for him, and he could bring Toro another time.

It wasn’t difficult for Rowan to keep awake, his mind racing as he went over his personal attributes and his active quests. He didn’t have as many quests now as he had when they first came to the island, but he knew how to get more if he wanted to. It was easier to focus with less quests anyway.

To stop himself from sleeping, he sat up, quietly moving to the floor.

“Toro?” he whispered, his younger brother not responding. Uncle was in the room as well, sleeping near Toro’s face. The cat looked up to Rowan as he approached the window. Olivia would come at some point, and he would have to sit here until she did. Or he could try to meet her outside…

Rowan quietly opened the window and peeked out.

He had never looked out before to see if there was a way down. Rowan was pleasantly surprised to find that the window opened onto a rooftop, which he knew to be the far right side of the general store’s back room.

After putting his shoes on, he slipped out of the window, wishing he had come this way the last time he’d snuck out. He waited here until he saw a yellow kitten winding down the cobblestone road.

“Olivia,” Rowan whispered to himself as he peeked over the rooftop. It was clear that it was going to be easy getting down. Getting back up would be much harder.

He took a quick look around and saw that there was an old barrel behind the general store that he could move into place, which would allow him to crawl back onto the roof, and from there to his window. He could also make his way through the general store and upstairs, but that would be riskier.

Once his plan of return was set, Rowan hopped down to the ground, Olivia as a kitten approaching him.

“I need to transform,” he told her.

She nodded and turned her back to him, Rowan not interpreting what she wanted him to do. She looked over her shoulder at Rowan, bobbing her head up and down.

“Oh,” he said, “carry you.”

He lifted Olivia and she quickly turned to his chest. She crawled up his clothing and took a spot on his shoulder, perched there as he made his way up the hill, toward the forest. As he approached the hoarders’ place, Rowan recalled the quest to help Blanche find her locket. After what had happened earlier at the beach, he was a bit reluctant to take it, but he’d known since the start that Blanche was difficult and he actually wanted to help her.

While night wasn’t perhaps the best time to go creeping around their garbage, with Olivia around, it would make him look brave, and they could always get some guidance from Rocket and Hiccup.

Rowan moved to the forest, not at all concerned with the darkness.

He still had the camping kit his father had given him, and after checking it, he found the flashlight. He flicked the flashlight on, a cone of light now lighting their path.

Rowan reached the cave, and lowered to the ground, Olivia hopping off his shoulder. He put the flashlight back in his list and crawled into the hole, appearing on the other side as a cat.

“Mew-mew, you got my message,” she said.

“I did.”

“We can finally hang out as cats for a while. Any plans?”

“I think we should go after Blanche’s locket,” Rowan suggested.

“Not a bad idea, mew-mew. I also wanted to introduce you to Micah, Manchester, and Lady Cassandra. You said that Micah fought you and your brother, right?”

“He did,” Rowan said, recalling the cat, Uncle’s brother.

“Why didn’t you bring your brother?”

“He’s a heavy sleeper,” Rowan told her, realizing now that the message was meant for both of them. This dampened his hopes a little bit, but Olivia didn’t seem to mind that they were alone.

“That’s fine, if he needs to sleep, he needs to sleep, mew-mew.”

“Yeah,” Rowan said as she started off down the hill.

He quickly caught up with her, noticing that everything was much easier to see now that he was a cat. He certainly didn’t need a flashlight; everything was illuminated in a strange way, almost as if it were glowing. They reached the village and turned right, heading toward the general store.

“While we’re at it, I want to meet the cats that live in front of our store too,” he told her. “I’ve been meaning to do that.”

“Sounds like a plan. Then we can check out the hoarders’ place on our way back.”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to find Rocket and Hiccup around there. They don’t seem to venture very far.”

“They’re so friendly, mew-mew.”

The two reached Doyona’s home, Rowan spotting the three abyssinians that lived out front, resting next to the fence.

“Do they ever go inside the fence?” he asked her.

“Sometimes, but they prefer to be out here. It allows them to see what’s going on in the village.”

Micah immediately pressed off the ground and approached them, looking like he was preparing to pounce on Rowan.

“I told you…”

“Micah, no,” Olivia said.

“What are you doing with this guy?” Micah asked. “He fought me, him and his little brother.”

“You two got off on the wrong foot,” Olivia said, “and I’m here to make the peace.”

“You only show up during the summer and you think you can just go around the island making peace?” Micah sat and licked his paw for a moment. “I don’t like that.”

“Someone has to do it,” she said. “You’re welcome to come to the western side of the island, if you think you can handle it, mew-mew.”

“Think I can handle it?” Micah scoffed at the statement. “I’m the toughest cat…”

“Oh yeah?” Rowan asked as he stepped forward. “I seem to remember two kittens beating you pretty badly just a few days back.”

“Rowan,” Olivia said under her breath.

“You do, do you?” Micah pressed to his feet and took a few steps closer to Rowan.

Rowan suddenly wasn’t feeling as brave as he had just moments ago, and he wished his brother was there to sneak up on Micah from behind. But he was the one that had challenged the older cat, Rowan keenly aware that he had brought this upon himself.

“There’s no need to fight,” Olivia told the two of them.

“Micah, why are you constantly bullying other cats?” Lady Cassandra asked as she approached, Micah’s mother carrying a blank expression on her face. Rowan couldn’t tell if she was annoyed with her son, or simply felt like getting up and walking over to see what the commotion was about.

“This is the cat that attacked me,” Micah started to say.

“He’s my friend, and you have to be friends as well,” Olivia told him. “Everyone knows you’re the toughest cat around here.”

“Toughest cat?” Rowan asked under his breath.

“They do?” Micah asked.

“Yes, mew-mew, they do. You are my friend, correct?”

“I think.”

“Of course, you are,” she said offering him a diplomatic smile. “And he is my friend. Therefore, you are not enemies.”

“Says you.” Micah lunged for Rowan, and quickly brought him to the ground, the larger cat trying to pin him. Rowan twisted out of the way and swatted at Micah’s head with his paw. Micah hit him again, cracking Rowan so hard across the face that everything went black for a moment.

Rowan slipped out of the way just in time to avoid Micah’s next attack.

Smaller and faster, Rowan tried to transfer to his back, where he hoped that he could bring him down. This turned out to be the wrong move, Rowan quickly tossed onto his side, Micah just about to bite into him when Olivia stepped in front of the cat. “I told you…”

Micah struck Olivia.

“Mew-mew…” she said as she fell to the side, Rowan’s fury reignited by the attack.

He charged at Micah, Rowan hitting the cat hard enough in the face that Micah stumbled backwards a few steps. He kept up the attack, Rowan feigning a strike, and then coming in again for another, baring his teeth as he did so.

“You monster,” he said as he struck Micah again. “You don’t hit a girl!”

Micah managed to get another hit in, his claws coming dangerously close to Rowan’s eye.

Surging forward again, Rowan leaped into the air and wrapped both claws around Micah’s neck. He bit into the side of his face as Micah dug his claws into Rowan’s side. Ignoring the pain, Rowan sunk his teeth in even more, Micah eventually letting up.

“Let me go…” he said. “Let me go.”

Rowan pressed off him, his shoulders lifting over his head for a moment as he stared the larger cat down.

Rather than say anything, Micah slinked away. He reached Doyona’s fence and crawled over it, finding safety on the other side.

“Are you okay, mew-mew?” Olivia asked Rowan.

“I think I’m bleeding, but…”

“That’s okay,” she said. “Let’s just get out of here.”

Rowan and Olivia reached the general store, where the cats named Fiona and Zaena came forward. Rowan recognized these two as friendly from the beginning, and he was pleasantly surprised to see that they liked him.

“Who’s he?” Fiona asked as she rubbed the side of her body against Rowan, startling him for a moment. Zaena did the same, the two circling around him.

“He’s my friend,” Olivia said.

Rowan looked to see Quantum, the leader of the pack, who slowly moved out of the shadows toward them.

“In that case, welcome to the island,” he said, a gruff tone to his voice.

“He lives near me,” Olivia said, which was actually the truth, even though she was referring to the lie that they told as cats, that they were either from the forest or somewhere else on the island.

“Good to know,” Quantum said as he turned away.

Rowan knew there were two more cats that hung out in front of the store, Ryuk and the hefty tabby named Meme. Ryuk never came out, but Meme did, the fat cat lumbering forward, a big grin on his face.

“Did you bring me any snacks?” he asked Rowan in a low, jovial voice. He started laughing. “I’m kidding, if you had any snacks, you should eat them yourself. You’re too small.”

“I’m a kitten,” Rowan said.

“We’re both kittens, mew-mew,” said Olivia.

“You two are so cute, mew-mew,” Zaena purred. She alternated between rubbing against Olivia and Rowan, Fiona doing the same, both of them quite sweet.

“Well…” Rowan looked up just as the light came on inside the store.

His heart froze in his chest as he realized his dad may have checked on them and found Rowan missing.

“Is that your dad?” Olivia whispered to him.

“It has to be. Toro never gets up in the middle of the night.”

“What do you think he’s doing?”

The other cats peered up at the window.

“It sounds like one of the humans is up,” Meme said, licking his lips. “Maybe he will feed us.”

“Has he ever fed you this late?” Rowan asked.

“Once or twice. He’s been down a few times, talking to himself.”

“Talking to himself…” Rowan started to look around. There had to be a way to get into the store. Uncle had done it, which meant that there must be a crack or something that he would be able to slip through.

“Do you know a way we can get in there?” Rowan asked.

“You? Yes. Me? No,” Meme said. “I’m too big.”

“So you know a way, mew-mew?” Olivia asked.

“I sure do.”

“Are we going inside the store?” Fiona asked.

“No, just us,” Rowan said, surprised that she listened to his command. Fiona pressed away, joining Zaena near the cobblestone road and sitting, the two leaning against one another.

Meme lumbered to the side of the store and nodded to a small hole in the bottom of one of the wooden planks.

“I’ll go first,” Rowan said as he squeezed into the hole, finding it much easier to travel this way than he would have thought. He had already forgotten about the injuries he’d sustained from his fight with Micah, Rowan solely focused now on hearing his father.

Now inside the wall, Rowan could see just a bit of light ahead. As he approached it, he noticed that something had fallen in front of the opening, which would prevent him from actually entering the store. This must have been what had trapped Uncle inside. At least he could hear his father clearly now, Rowan pausing as Olivia joined him.

“… They are asleep,” Ganix said. “We have a big day ahead tomorrow. I swear, Maryam, I say that every day and it’s true. Every day on this island is filled with something new…”

“He’s talking to my mom,” Rowan told Olivia, who leaned against him now, also listening through the wall.

“So he’s not talking to himself?” she whispered. Olivia tried to peer through the crack to get a better view of what was happening, but she was unable to, Rowan tuning back into the conversation.

“Yeah… I know… Look…”

Rowan almost jumped back as his father took a step forward, his movement vibrating the floorboards.

“I think it would be best if you came here, if you saw this. I know…” Ganix was quiet for a moment before speaking again. “It just might be, gosh, Maryam, I don’t really know how to explain it. Yes, the boys are happy. The happiest I’ve seen them in a while. I’m happy, and I think…”

“I wish I could hear what she was saying,” Olivia said, clenching her eyes shut as she tried to hear his mother’s voice.

But they were too far away from the phone, and even if he had a heightened sense of hearing, Rowan wasn’t able to pick up on anything.

The next words that came out of his father’s mouth caused all of Rowan’s nerves to fire at once.

“You will? You will come here? That’s great,” Ganix said. “I’m going to need a few more days to get everything set up. There’s an orchard, and should be livable by the time… Yes… No, I won’t tell them. We can make it a surprise. If they ask questions? We can discuss that later, in person. Yes, this is…” It sounded like his father was going to get emotional but he didn’t in the end. “Great news. I’m sorry to call you so late, I just wanted…”

“Your mom is coming here?” Olivia asked.

Rowan didn’t know what to say.

He didn’t know how to react to the news, especially now that he had heard it while spying. He certainly didn’t want to tell Toro, otherwise his brother may be upset that he turned into a cat without him. But how was he going to keep this information to himself?

“A few days,” Ganix said. “The irrigation system should be up and running tomorrow, and I’ll have the boys help me clear out the house on the orchard. You don’t want to stay in this apartment. As you know, I’ve been sleeping on the couch here. There’s a really nice view, but it’s not the most comfortable place. We’re going to have a little get together at the orchard tomorrow evening. You could come to that… No? I understand, maybe that’s a little bit too much for your first introduction to the island. Okay, then a day or two after that. I’ll come to the mainland and get you. Maybe we can surprise the boys. I can’t wait for you to see this place, Maryam, I really can’t.”

It was only after they left the general store and started up the hill that Rowan noticed he was in pain. Even then, the pain was minimal, his focus on what his father had just said, that his mother would be coming to the island in a few days.

“Are you all right?” Olivia asked him as she turned back. “You look injured.”

“Micah got me pretty good,” Rowan said, checking his HP.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 274/368

Intelligence: 24.22

Willpower: 11.45

Empathy: 7.22

Charisma: 11.91

Strength: 6.02

Dexterity: 8.09

Luck: 4.01

He saw that he was down by nearly a hundred points, some of that likely because he needed to rest for the night. But there were still other things to do, and as he smiled at Olivia, Rowan called Blanche’s name aloud.

“I was wondering when you would say something,” Blanche said, the dust whirling around them for a moment before settling.

“I haven’t forgotten what you did to us earlier,” Rowan said, “leaving us out there…”

“What?” Olivia asked. “What happened?”

Rowan explained what had happened on the western beach, how they had been attacked by a violent ghost and were rescued by Redi Taka.

“That’s terrible, mew-mew,” Olivia said.

“And she could have helped us…”

“But I was angry at you for not getting my locket, is that what you want to hear? Because I’ve already told you that. You said you would help me. I overreacted. I’m…”

“We are busy sometimes,” Rowan told her. “And we’re going to try to get it tonight, Olivia and me.”

“I’m…” Blanche lifted up into the air, staring out at the stars overhead, the light of the moon reflecting off the dust swirling around her form. “I am…”

“What, mew-mew?”

“I’m sorry. I should have helped you, Rowan, you and your brother, and then it was too late.”

“Do you know who that ghost that was?” Rowan asked. “It almost killed us.”

“I don’t and…” She started to fade away.

“No, tell me,” Rowan said.

Her form solidified again. “It’s too scary for me out there too. That’s why I stay around here.”

“We can figure this out later,” Olivia said. “Let’s find your locket.”

She turned to the hoarders’ home, and as they approached it, Olivia called for Hiccup and Rocket.

A trash can lid fell over, Rocket stepping out from behind it. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“We need to find something,” Rowan told him.

“Meow-good evening,” said Hiccup, who had been resting in an old bathtub.

Rowan took a look over her shoulder to see that Blanche had faded away some, hoping to remain hidden.

“We’re looking for a locket for our friend, it’s…”

“Gold,” Blanche whispered in Rowan’s ear.

“It’s gold.”

“Gold, mew-mew,” said Olivia.

“A gold locket in all of this mess?” Hiccup considered this. “You know, the rats have been acting up again, and there’s one in particular who would probably know where the locket was, but he’s a little harder to find. Speaking of animals acting up, you guys weren’t lying when you said that you could kill the catfish, meow.”

For a moment, Rowan was worried that they knew that he could change forms, but Rocket quickly squashed this fear.

“I don’t know how you convinced those two smaller humans to go and fight the catfish, but you did, and wow.”

“Meow-wow,” said Hiccup. “You and your brother are the talk of the East Docks now. Everyone wants to meet you over there. Where is your brother, anyway?”

“My brother is sleeping right now,” Rowan said.

“Well, whenever you get a chance, you should go down to see Cuthbert. He wants to congratulate you in person. Now, as for this locket…” Hiccup looked up at the hoarders’ home. “Most of the good stuff is kept in the home, things like jewelry.”

“Is that where we should go?” Rowan asked.

“I think so, meow-yes. It can be difficult to get in there. We don’t actually ever go in there.”

“Not if we can help it,” Rocket added.

“Why not?” Rowan asked.

“Because…” Hiccup shook his head. “The smells.”

“Everything,” said Rocket. “All of it. You’ll see what we mean.”

“What’s the best way to get in there?” Rowan asked.

“Follow me,” said Rocket as he slipped into the garbage.

They crawled through a crate with a hole in the bottom and transferred into a space protected by the bottom of the tub that Hiccup had just been sleeping in. Movement on Rowan’s right caused him to tense up, Olivia brushing past.

“Don’t be scared, mew-mew…”

“I’m not,” he told her as they emerged into an opening in the yard, where there was a mound of rotting sofa chairs surrounded by buckets and other discarded building materials. Rowan once again found himself wondering how the two hoarders could live in such filth. This was just their backyard; he could only imagine what the inside of their home looked like.

He turned when he saw movement and spotted a rat, one almost as large as Rowan.

The rat lunged for him, and as it did a gust of wind knocked the rodent to the side, courtesy of Blanche. Hiccup and Rocket turned to see Rowan and the rat, Rocket charging toward it. He jumped onto the rat and wrapped his teeth around its neck, the rat trying to scratch at him.

The rat managed to buck Rocket off; it was just about to charge to the safety provided by an overturned table when Rowan went in for the attack. He swatted his right claw at the rat, hissing as he did so. The rat tried to tackle him, only to be struck by Hiccup this time, who kept his jaw around the rat’s neck, shaking the life out of it.

“No,” Olivia said. “Don’t kill it.”

“Don’t kill it?” Rocket asked, turning to her, an incredulous look on his face.

Hiccup dropped the rat to the ground, and with a wheeze, the creature scurried away.

“Why did you let it go?” Rocket asked his counterpart.

“I don’t know, meow,” the white cat with the pink tail told him. “She…”

“Why are you listening to her?”

“She’s sweet,” Hiccup said, Rocket laughing at this statement.

Cats couldn’t really blush, but if they could, that was how Olivia reacted to what Hiccup had said. “You shouldn’t…” She shook her head.

“We shouldn’t do what?” Rocket asked. “Kill the rats? They’re terrible. That’s why the hoarder keeps us around, so we can kill the rats.”

“Hoarder?” Olivia asked. “I thought there were two…”

Rocket and Hiccup exchanged glances.

“You didn’t know?” Hiccup asked.

“Know what?”

“One of them is dead,” he explained, “the other one just dresses as both of them. I guess no one really knows. I never told anyone.”

“Me neither,” said Rocket.

“I just figured everyone had figured it out.”

“What?” Rowan asked, so stunned by the statement that he felt his knees buckle.

“One of the hoarders died in the house,” Rocket said, nodding to one of the windows upstairs. “The other one can’t get to him, so he just dresses as both of them because he doesn’t want other humans to know.”

“Which… which one is alive?” Rowan asked.

“The more flamboyant one. He was an actor or something, that’s why he is so good at playing his brother.”

“Alto…” Rowan said under his breath.

“There’s a dead man in the house?” Olivia asked, her voice filled with alarm.

“There sure is,” said Hiccup. “Want to see him?”

Rocket looked up at the large and cluttered home. He took a running leap and jumped onto a partially broken bookshelf, and from there to a stool. Hiccup did the same, followed by Olivia and then Rowan, Rocket looking for another platform to leap onto.

“This is where it gets tricky,” he said as he hopped from the stool onto a coat rack sticking out of the debris. He ran along the coat rack and jumped off its end, taking to the air once again and using his claws to hook onto a drape hanging over the side of a large shipping crate covered by a tablecloth.

“Here goes…” Hiccup did the same, using the coat rack to springboard himself up to the hanging tablecloth. He climbed it and met Rocket at the top.

“You can do it, mew-mew,” said Olivia.

Rowan leaped onto the coat rack, traveling down it and noticing how shaky it was before he used his momentum to bounce back into the air. He barely caught onto the ends of the tablecloth hanging over the storage crate, Rowan swinging for a moment before he was able to pull himself back up.

He reached the top of the crate just as he felt the tug below, Rowan looking down to see that Olivia had made the transition as well.

“That’s where we’ll get in,” Rocket said, nodding toward a window that was partially cracked. “One last thing though, before we go in…”

“Yes?” Rowan asked him.

“Be prepared to breathe out of your meow-th,” Hiccup said.

“I’m ready,” Rowan said.

“Me too, mew-mew.”

Rocket launched himself off the platform and landed on the windowsill. He squeezed inside, Hiccup doing the same. Rowan was up next, followed by Olivia, the foul scent meeting Rowan’s nostrils as soon as he crawled into the room.

“What is that?” he asked, trying not to gag.

“You are about to find out,” Rocket said as he peered off into the garbage. He approached a crevice in the junk, a small opening not unlike the hole back in the cave. He crawled through it, Hiccup next, his pink tail flickering in the air as he pushed into the hole.

Rowan was just about to do the same when the debris shifted, an old doll with a cracked face falling in front of him. He stepped back, and bumped into Olivia, who gasped.

“Mew-mew, that thing is terrible!”

The doll was missing much of its hair, and as they stared at it, Rowan could have sworn that its eyes twitched.

His skin crawling, he made his way over the doll and slipped into the hole behind it, just as he heard Hiccup call for him. Moving through the garbage really was like crawling through a tunnel, but Rowan didn’t like the way the outer sides of the tunnel felt, some of it wet and moist, other parts simply cloth, and still other parts hard and rough, with abrasive surfaces.

They came out to a small clearing, which was mostly protected by a large oil painting, the shelter beneath just large enough for the four cats to fit.

“This is so gross, mew-mew,” said Olivia.

Rowan took a look around, and even though he tried to breathe out of his mouth, he could still smell the terrible stench. He still didn’t know how to process what Hiccup and Rocket had told him, that Garner was actually dead.

And he didn’t have time to ask any more questions either as Rocket peered around the edge of the painting and slowly lifted himself up, slipping back into the trash.

Hiccup followed him, Rowan moving quickly to keep up with them this time.

“Wait for me, mew-mew,” Olivia called after him.

Rowan couldn’t tell where they were going now, and he started to fear that they wouldn’t be able to make their way back. But he trusted Hiccup and Rocket, and as long as they didn’t get stuck inside the home…

The debris shifted again, Rowan fearing that they may be trapped.

“The rats are back,” Rocket said, moving even faster.

“What?” Rowan’s ears twitched as he continued to crawl after the two older cats. He heard scratching and noises all around him, a spark of fear traveling down his spine. It sounded like whatever it was was directly to his right, Rowan stopping for a moment, Olivia colliding with him.

“Keep going,” she said.

“Sorry, sorry…”

“Rats,” Rocket called back to them.

Rowan saw light ahead and moved toward it.

The hole had apparently been chewed into the surface of a plastic container, another one on the other side to allow passage.

“We’re close,” Rocket told the group, his ears flitted back.

“What about rats, mew-mew?” Olivia asked.

“It’s because you let that one get away,” Hiccup whispered. “We’re probably going to have to fight our way out of here, meow.”

“Blanche,” Rowan whispered. Hiccup and Rocket moved to the next hole, just as Blanche’s head lifted from the ground, a disgusted look on her face.

“Ugh! I hate it in here…”

“We’re going to try to find your locket…” Rowan said, still trying to breathe through his mouth. “But we may need your help.”

“We can always come back tomorrow night,” Olivia reminded him.

“Hopefully we don’t have to.”

“I’m ready to help you when I need to,” Blanche told him as Rowan started off down the passageway. “Just say my name.”

Rowan quickly caught up with Rocket, something wet touching the side of his face. It was oily, Rowan continuing forward and at the same time trying to wipe his whiskers on his shoulder.

“Left,” Rocket called back as they came to a fork in their passageway.

“Left,” Rowan called back to Olivia.

“Thanks, mew-mew.”

Rowan heard a scratching noise above him, and looked up just in time to see a small crevice in the debris, a beady-eyed rat staring down at him.

He pressed ahead.

The scratching seemed to go in another direction as they took a twisting passageway that opened into a larger space, this one cleared off by what looked to be a collapsed door.

It was then that Rowan saw Garner.

Leaning against the underside of the door was a skeleton, clothes loose on his body, much of the man’s flesh rotted or chewed away. He was partially curled up, as if he had died trying to keep warm. The floorboards around him were stained, and the smell in this space was even stronger, Rowan starting to gag again.

“How long has he been in here?” Olivia asked, her cheeks puffing out as if she wanted to vomit.

“Quite a while,” Rocket said. “The other hoarder can’t get to him. There’s things on the other side of the door that are too large for him to move.”

“How… how did he get in here in the first place?”

“Just like us,” Hiccup said. “There used to be tunnels that the two men used to make their way from room to room, but this one collapsed and he got stuck in here.”

“That’s so horrible!”

“Where does the other hoarder stay now?” Rowan asked.

“At the front of the house. It’s the only place where there’s still space. He has a mattress there.”

Rowan shook his head. He knew that he needed to do something about what they had just discovered, but he didn’t know what to do.

But now wasn’t the time to figure it out, especially as rats filed out of another hole on the opposite side of the space, led by the rodent whom Hiccup had nearly killed earlier.

There were at least a dozen of them, all large and ravenous, too many for the four cats to fight.

“I think this is it…” Rocket said, hissing at the rats.

“We can find the locket another night,” said Olivia.

“Good idea, meow…”

“Run!” Rather than engage the rats, Rocket took off toward the hole they just traveled through.

Rowan and Olivia joined him, Hiccup making up the rear as they traveled back through the passageway. The rats scampered into the hole, some of them moving up to another passageway. Rowan could hear them all around him now, terror causing him to run even faster now.

“Right,” Rocket called back to them.

“Right,” Rowan called to Olivia, who did the same for Hiccup.

They came out to a different space, Rowan not at all recognizing the area. Hiccup seemed to have a clear idea of where they were though, the white cat hopping onto a small rocking horse and from there into another hole in the debris.

Rowan was just about to do the same when a rat burst out of the trash and collided with him, another one coming from the other side, both sinking their teeth into Rowan.

He struggled to get free of their grip, and managed to finally get away when another rat jumped on top of him. Olivia swatted at this one, Rocket coming around for the save as he slammed into a few of the rats.

“Go!” he told Rowan and Olivia.

Rowan leaped onto the rocking horse and reached the hole, only then noticing a pain moving through his side.

“Are you okay?” Hiccup called back to Rowan. They reached another clearing, Rowan noticing just a bit more light now.

“I’m fine,” he started to say before losing his grip and nearly falling. Hiccup caught him by the nape of his neck and stopped him from slipping into a gap in the trash.

“What happened, mew-mew?” Olivia asked as she reached him.

“Injured…” Rowan said, everything flashing around them.

“Just help us get out of here; I can fix this,” Olivia said.

“Are you sure?” Hiccup asked.

“Positive.”

“I can walk…” Rowan took a stumbling step forward, the other cat going in front of him.

“Stay close to me; bite my tail,” said Hiccup as they went into another tunnel of trash, Olivia behind Rowan, and Rocket following up the rear.

“I hate these rats,” Hiccup said as they heard more scratching all around them, a deafening screech meeting Rowan’s ears as everything flashed.

They reached the windowsill and crawled out, cool air meeting Rowan’s face, the stench moving away as he threw his body forward and landed on a platform, just like Hiccup had done. He spilled off to the side only to have the larger cat stop him from falling.

“We’re almost there,” he said, the older cat taking a quick look around and seeing another way down. “Follow me.”

Rowan did as instructed, delirious now, a hint of yellow on his peripheral vision as Olivia reached him. He could hear rats around them, or at least he thought that was what he was hearing, and it wasn’t until Olivia said something to Rocket and Hiccup that he tuned back into what was happening.

“I’ve got it from here,” she told them. “Just stick with me,” she said to Rowan.

“So you want us to stay here?” Rocket asked Olivia.

“I’ve got it, mew-mew, we’ll be back tomorrow night.”

“Come on.” Olivia nudged her body into Rowan, eventually getting him to follow her to the cave with her, Rowan stumbling even more and nearly losing his footing. He reached one point where he thought he was feeling better only to be hit again by sudden pain in his side, each breath shorter than the last.

The two kittens reached the darkened cave and Olivia nudged him toward the hole.

“Go, mew-mew, it’ll be okay…”

Rowan came out the other side suddenly feeling…

Refreshed.

He sat up and looked down at his hands, and then pulled up his personal attributes, seeing that things weren’t looking as bad as he’d thought.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 236/368

Intelligence: 24.22

Willpower: 11.45

Empathy: 7.22

Charisma: 11.91

Strength: 6.02

Dexterity: 8.09

Luck: 4.01

“What… What happened?” he asked as Olivia emerged from the hole in the cave, the twelve-year-old girl wearing a set of blue pajamas.

“When we change forms, our bodies heal some,” she said.

“Really?”

“It’s something I discovered my first year doing this…”

“How bad off was I?” Rowan asked, once again taking a look at himself.

“You were bleeding pretty badly.”

The dust swirled all around them, Rowan on edge until he recognized the form. “I tried to help this time,” Blanche told them. “I was able to take out some of the rats by collapsing the trash…”

“Thank you,” Olivia said. “And I’m sorry we didn’t get your locket this time.”

“That was terrible,” said Blanche. “I didn’t know that he was just lying in there as a skeleton…”

“Does Garner have a ghost on the island?” Rowan asked.

She shrugged. “Not that I know of.”

“What a night…” he said as he brought his hand to his head.

“We should both get to bed,” Olivia told him. “We can try again tomorrow night.”

“We can,” said Rowan. “and this time, we should bring my brother. Maybe he can communicate with the rats. We definitely need a plan.”

“Or we go see Cuthbert and get a little backup…”

Rowan nodded. “That’s not a bad idea.”

.Chapter Fifteen.

Rowan had been lucky enough to sneak back into the store the previous night without waking his father or brother, opting for the front door rather than trying to scale to the window.

An idea came to him as he made that decision, one that he remembered instantly upon waking the next morning, a way to hopefully avoid some of the rats the next time they tried to get the locket. It would take a little coordination, and he needed to find a particular object, but it could be a solution.

If it worked…

After last night, and how bruised and battered Rowan was before transforming back to a human, he knew that the stakes were higher than they had been previously, and that risking another trip to the mansion could prove fatal.

Rowan hadn’t even checked his personal attributes yet when a flash of Garner’s skeletal face painted across his mind’s eye.

He shuddered, again going over the deception that Alto had pulled off. Alto was an actor, and since his brother’s death, he had been acting as both his brother and himself. That meant every time that Garner was irritable with Rowan and his brother, it was actually Alto…

And it made sense now.

Rowan had never actually seen them together, and he recalled a few statements from Hiccup and Rocket now that seemed rather ominous. Perhaps Alto had hinted at it as well. Rowan couldn’t be sure.

After a long yawn, he focused on his personal attributes, seeing that he’d hit a homerun.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 376/376

Intelligence: 24.27

Willpower: 11.60

Empathy: 7.26

Charisma: 12.00

Strength: 6.17

Dexterity: 8.14

Luck: 4.08

+ .05 Intelligence!

+ .15 Willpower!

+ .04 Empathy!

+ .11 Charisma!

+ .15 Strength!

+ .05 Dexterity!

+ .07 Luck!

+ 8 HP!

Rowan had also gained a point in his charisma attribute, which increased his hit points. It was quite the haul.

“Not bad,” he was saying to himself when Toro burst into the bedroom, raspberry jam on his face.

“Dad made toast. The jam is from Gilda. It’s so good. Come on…”

“Coming,” Rowan said as he pressed out of bed, leaving Uncle the kitten behind. He still had yet to meet their pet in the form of a cat, and it would be impossible to get to the home now unless he figured out a way to scale up to their window and enter from there.

Then again, Olivia had managed to do it somehow to deliver the message to him…

The sunlight reached him as soon as he entered the living room, Rowan seeing that the balcony door was open, the sea a bit calmer than normal. His brother turned to him and smiled, jam still smeared across his face.

Rowan knew that he was going to have to confess to what happened last night, but he tabled this thought for now, simply approaching the counter and taking a seat on the stool.

“Just in time,” their father said as he slid a plate of toast in front of Rowan.

Ganix was in his green jacket as usual, a bit peppier than normal. Of everything that happened last night, Rowan felt ashamed that he hadn’t thought yet about the revelation he had heard through eavesdropping, that their mother was coming to the island at some point.

This was something he wouldn’t be able to tell his brother.

It would have to remain a secret, so at least one of them was genuinely surprised when their father finally told them the good news, or showed up with their mother, as he said he would do.

Rowan was just finishing his first piece of toast when they heard a knock on the door downstairs.

“That was…” Ganix looked to his oldest son. “I think that might be for you.”

“Olivia?” Rowan asked.

Their father shrugged. “It sounds like her. She sure does like beating on doors.”

Toro laughed. “I bet I could beat on the door harder than she could.”

“Maybe,” Ganix said.

By this point Rowan had already reached the stairs.

“Hey, I want to come,” Toro called after him.

“Just give me a moment,” Rowan called as he raced down the steps.

He went to the door and opened it to find Olivia standing on the other side, the green-eyed girl in a white dress that buttoned at the front, the material on her shoulders inflated to the point that it made it look like she was hiding muscles under there.

“We need to go,” she said, grabbing Rowan’s wrist.

“But I’m still in my pajamas.”

“Can you change quickly?” she asked.

“If I go back upstairs, my brother will want to come.”

“You haven’t told him what happened yet?”

“I was going to tell him when we are alone. We haven’t been alone yet. And I’m not going to tell him about my mom,” he said, his voice lowering.

“That…” Olivia bobbed her head left and right. “That makes sense.” She glanced at the shirt and shorts that Rowan was wearing. “Just wear what you are wearing. It won’t take long.”

“But I’m barefoot…”

“You want me to equip some of my shoes for you to put on?” she asked with a playful laugh.

“Fine,” Rowan said as he quietly shut the door behind him. He knew it was going to draw questions later from his dad and his brother, but he would be able to handle that.

He followed Olivia across the street, and it was only then that he realized she was taking him to Nedman’s restaurant. They entered, Nedman looking up from his normal position behind the counter. He’d been working on a book of crossword puzzles, the glasses on his face disappearing as he smiled at them.

“Looks like someone’s dressed for breakfast…” Nedman said as he looked Rowan over. “I would say something about no shoes, no shirt, no service, but it’s an island and…”

“We need to talk,” Olivia said, a seriousness to her expression that caused a vein to appear at the side of her head. It disappeared as she relaxed a little, smiling. “Please.”

“We do, do we?” Nedman asked. “In that case…” He came around the counter and locked the front door. After flipping the sign around so it read closed, he turned to them, motioning the two toward a table.

Olivia sat, Rowan taking the spot next to her.

“What about your wife?” Rowan asked.

“She took the morning off, so we’re fine,” Nedman said as he took a seat as well. “What’s up?”

“We discovered something last night,” Olivia began.

“Did you?”

“We went to the hoarders’ home searching for something for a friend,” she began. “As cats, of course.”

“Of course,” Nedman said, not at all fazed by what she had just told him.

“I knew it,” Rowan said, interrupting her. “I knew that you were aware that people could turn into cats.”

“How hard is it to figure out?” Nedman asked. “You have been up to the cat shrine, have you not?”

Rowan nodded.

“The pictures are right there on the wall.” He gestured to the opposite side of the room as if they were in the shrine itself. “That’s one of the things that makes this island unique. Now, if you haven’t figured it out already, it’s obviously a secret that most people don’t know about. But, some of us do know.”

“Which is why we’re here,” Olivia told Rowan. “Can I finish now?”

Rowan nodded. “Sorry.”

“We were looking for a locket for someone when the cats out front told us that one of the hoarders had died.”

Nedman steadied his gaze on the girl. “Hiccup and Rocket said that? You’re kidding…”

“Apparently, he was crawling through one of the tunnels when it collapsed and got stuck in a room, where he died,” she explained, Nedman’s expression growing more serious.

“Which brother?”

“Garner, and Alto has been impersonating him ever since,” Rowan said.

“That…” Nedman slowly shook his head. He took off his hat, and ran his hand along his bald head. “I guess that does make sense. I haven’t seen them together in a year or two, and Alto was an actor before…”

“We saw a skeleton,” Olivia said with a shudder, “and we need to do something. I don’t think it was Alto’s fault. He just never told anyone, he is so embarrassed…”

“We need to have a burial for him,” said Nedman, “and we need to…” He placed his hat back on and rubbed his hand over his face for a moment. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting this this morning.”

“We should talk to Alto,” Rowan said.

“No, you should not, I should,” said Nedman. “And your father. I’ll figure out how to approach him.”

“Why my father?” Rowan asked.

“Because he is supposed to do something about that place anyway, and he seems gentle, like he wouldn’t judge Alto.”

“My dad lost his brother too, before I was born,” Rowan said. “He knows what it’s like.”

“And Garner has been in there the entire time…” Nedman grimaced. “Gruesome. Really. This is a very sensitive matter, and I’m glad you two came to me first. We need to do something about it. Now that I think about it, maybe this was why Alto has been so reluctant to clear out the garbage. You two didn’t know the brothers as well as I do, but it was Garner who was the hoarder, believe it or not. Alto just accepted it and has learned to adapt and sort of absorbed those tendencies as well. He’s very fluid like that, very much a sponge. But clearing all the trash out would reveal his brother’s dead body…”

“So what should we do then?” Rowan asked.

“Like I said, your dad and I will talk to him. Today. No, this morning,” he said, his bushy eyebrows narrowing some as he looked from Rowan to Olivia. “None of this is going to be easy, but it starts with a gentle conversation. Do you think Alto knows where the body is?”

“I don’t know if he knows,” Rowan said.

“Do you know?”

Olivia bit her lip. “It’s like a maze in there. We entered through a window, but I can’t tell you which part of the house we found him in.”

“Maybe Alto knows, and if he doesn’t, if you two can at least point me in the right direction…”

“You want to get the body out of there?” Rowan asked.

“Of course I do. A proper burial, that’s what we need here. There’s a cemetery, you know, not far from the cave.”

“There is?”

“I’m surprised you haven’t seen it,” Nedman told Rowan, “considering how many times you’ve been up there. If you just head to the right, you’ll find it. There are still plots left, and I’m assuming Alto would like to have a proper burial for his brother.”

“I knew I needed to come to you with this,” Olivia said.

“Yes, that was the right thing to do. Since your father,” he said, refocusing on Rowan, “has pretty much unlimited funds, now would be the time to take care of the home, if Alto agrees. But we must move carefully and thoughtfully.”

“And if he doesn’t agree?” Rowan asked.

“We’ll have to think of another strategy at that point,” said Nedman. “But I know him quite well, like I said, and I think that he will agree. This must be eating on his soul, and…” He shook his head. “I should have figured something was up. I can’t believe I didn’t see it.”

“We’re coming with you,” Rowan said suddenly.

“What?”

“We want to help too.”

He assumed Nedman would disregard the suggestion, but instead the restaurant owner pursed his lips for a moment, puffing his cheeks out as he considered Rowan’s statement. “You know what? Yes. You can come, but keep your distance at first. Let me be the one that talks with him, okay?”

“Okay,” Rowan said, exchanging glances with Olivia, who also nodded.

“Now, let’s go get your father.”

Once they reached the general store, Rowan went up the stairs to get his father, leaving Olivia and Nedman waiting outside.

“There’s something important that Nedman needs to talk to you about,” he told his dad, who had been focused on Toro when Rowan entered the apartment. “He’s downstairs.”

“Really?”

“It’s about the hoarders,” Rowan said.

“What about the hoarders?” Toro asked, looking up from his stool.

“You’ll find out soon enough. Get dressed,” Rowan told his younger brother.

“I guess I’ll head down then,” Ganix said, a solemn expression on his face as he turned to the stairs. As soon as he was gone, Rowan entered his bedroom to pick out some clothing for the day.

He saw that their bicycle helmets were on the ground, neither boy having room in their inventory lists for them at the moment. Eventually, he chose a plaid button-up T-shirt and a pair of jean shorts, Toro going with something similar until Rowan told him to change shirts so they didn’t match.

“Before we go,” Rowan said as Toro turned to the door, “I need to tell you what happened…”

Rowan gave his brother the quick synopsis of how he had snuck out of the window last night, turned into a cat, fought Micah, and what had gone down at Alto and Garner’s place while looking for Blanche’s locket.

“So he’s dead…” Toro looked to the window. They couldn’t technically see the home from their bedroom, but he was looking in the general direction. He returned his gaze to his brother. “He’s really dead in there?”

“Uh-huh. And his brother has been impersonating him.”

“Because he’s an actor; Alto is an actor.”

“That’s right,” Rowan said as they turned to the door. They headed down the stairs, Uncle following after them until Toro lifted the kitten into his arms and brought him back up to the apartment, shutting the door behind.

Much to Rowan’s surprise, Ganix, Nedman, and Olivia were already gone. A little annoyed that they had left without him, he locked the door and turned to the center of town.

“Should we take our bikes?” Toro asked.

“It would be faster…”

“But our helmets are upstairs.”

“We can bike without helmets, just be careful.” Rowan was just about to get onto his bike when he thought of what their dad may say if he saw them biking without helmets, especially on a day like today. “Let’s just go on foot.”

The two started up the hill, Tuya waving at them once she came into view. The gardener was laying out floral offerings in front of the smaller cat statues, her eyes filling with curiosity after she realized she had just seen their father, Nedman, and Olivia go by as well.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Rowan said.

“What’s going on?” she asked again, slower this time.

“One of the hoarders is dead,” Toro told her. “Garner died.” Rowan turned to slug his brother and stopped at the last second, realizing that Tuya was going to find out anyway, that Toro was just trying to be polite.

“Really? I’ll… I’ll head up there with you,” Tuya said.

“It’s fine…” Rowan started to tell her.

“Nonsense, the brothers live across from me; I need to know what’s going on.”

They could see Nedman, their father, and Olivia once they reached the top of the hill, Nedman and their dad still discussing how to go about handling Alto.

Ganix turned them. “Boys, I figured you’d be coming up here. Olivia, please join them. We need to do this carefully, just the two of us,” Ganix said, looking to Nedman.

“No, Nedman and I need to do this,” Tuya said flatly. “I know Alto better than you.”

“Makes sense,” Ganix said, the look on his face telling Rowan that he was almost happy not to have to get involved with what was clearly going to be a rough conversation.

Nedman glanced up at the cluttered home as if he were trying to figure out a way to get to the door so he could knock on it. Luckily, Garner stepped out, or better, Alto dressed as his brother Garner. He was in a pair of black slacks and a black jacket, the man not wearing a shirt beneath his jacket.

Alto-as-Garner approached Nedman with an angry look on his face, as if he was wondering why they were all standing in front of his property. His expression changed once Nedman started speaking. For a moment Alto looked like he was going to stomp his feet, but then he relaxed some, folding into himself.

Rowan didn’t know how this was going to play out, and he didn’t know what Nedman was telling him. He didn’t expect Alto to bury his head in his hands and start to fall to the side, Tuya there to catch him, the gardener helping him stand.

Alto began to nod, tears appearing in his eyes, and once he did Nedman turned to Ganix, motioning him forward.

“I wish we were cats right now,” Rowan said after all the adults were away.

“I wish I knew what they’re saying,” said Olivia.

“I can’t believe you two went out last night without me,” Toro said.

“You were sleeping like a little baby,” Rowan told him. “I didn’t want to wake the baby.”

“I’m not a baby!”

“Don’t argue with each other right now,” Olivia said. “Toro, you can come tonight. We still need to go back in there, believe it or not.”

“We’ve got to find her locket, we promised Blanche…” Rowan took a look around. “But it isn’t easy.” He saw the dust swirling to his left, her form taking shape for a moment, the dust girl blowing raspberries at them before disappearing.

“She’s so much trouble,” Olivia said, trying not to smile.

Rowan watched as Alto turned back to the home and pointed a shaky finger at one of the rooms on the second floor. He then returned to the downtrodden posture he had been making since the conversation started, his head sinking further and further into his shoulders.

Ganix jogged over to Rowan. “I need you to go get Dorno,” he said quickly. “We have to get that body out of there.”

“You’re going to get it out of there now?”

Ganix nodded. “Going to try. We don’t want too many people in the village finding out about this. We want to get the body out, and then take it up to the cemetery. We’ll need to…” Ganix shook his head. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we’ll need to dig a hole.”

“What about a coffin?” Toro asked.

“There’s not really a place to store the body right now and…” Ganix ground his teeth for a moment. “I’m guessing it is rotted to a point that we wouldn’t want it anywhere that’s visible. I don’t know how Nedman found out about this, but I’m glad he came to me. I will divert some of the funds Stellars has given me to help…” Once again, Ganix shook his head. “Just help. I don’t quite know how we’re going to do it yet, but we need to get over this hump first. Please, go get Dorno, and if Redi Taka is there, grab him too.”

“How did he do it?” Rowan asked his father.

“Do what?”

“Change his social status? Alto changed everything each time he switched, even the name.”

“That’s not very hard to do,” Ganix said hurriedly. “He probably got an app or something on the mainland that allowed him to switch it out. But that’s neither here nor there. Go get Dorno and Redi Taka, and thank you.”

Rowan, Toro, and Olivia were just turning away when his father called them again.

“And Rowan?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t tell anyone else about this, anyone.”

“Let’s go,” Rowan said as he took off down the hill, naturally moving faster because of the incline. He saw his brother press ahead and he eventually called out to Toro, letting him know not to run too fast, that now wasn’t the time for an injury.

They reached Dorno’s house and Rowan knocked. “I’ll explain everything.”

Olivia and Toro nodded as the door opened, Dorno standing there in his robes, a cup of coffee in his hand.

“You guys are up early,” he said.

“Something…” Rowan shook his head, not knowing how to start the conversation.

Luckily, Olivia jumped in: “Alto’s brother is dead. He has been dead for a while, his body was trapped in one of the rooms. Ganix wanted us to come get you and Redi Taka, to help get the body out so we can bury it.”

Rather than say anything, Dorno took a long sip of his coffee as if he were trying to test them to see if they were making some kind of macabre joke. Finally, he spoke: “In that case, give us a moment to get dressed.”

The carpenter shut the door, leaving the three in the streets. Rowan kept waiting for someone to come by, and as he did he tried to fabricate a lie in his head. What would they say? How could they steer someone away from the center of town? A shadow caught his attention. He looked up to see a daily prize floating in the air, the present in a white box, the balloon turquoise.

“That one looks big,” Toro said, momentarily distracted by it.

“Have you ever got one?” Rowan asked Olivia.

“Yep,” she said with a nod. “That’s how I got my summer hat.” She equipped the hat and placed it on her head. “I got some makeup one time too.”

To respond, Toro equipped his red cape, which appeared on his shoulders. “I sort of got this from one of the prizes. Actually, Gonpo gave it to me at his prize-opening party.”

“Those are so fun…”

The door opened.

Dorno and Redi Taka stepped out, both men wearing work boots and jeans, Redi Taka in his leather jacket with goggles on his head.

“What about a coffin?” Dorno asked them.

“We don’t have one,” said Rowan. “They were just going to dig a hole in the cemetery.”

“They what?” Dorno and Redi Taka exchanged glances. “Nonsense,” said Dorno. “I have one; it should fit him.”

“Why do you just have a coffin?” Olivia asked.

“I built it for myself. I figured there would be something poetic about being buried in something I made. But I can always make another,” he said with a dark chuckle. “It’s in my inventory list. Once we get him out of there, we’ll put him in the coffin and take him up to the cemetery. We need to go by Dr. Restivo’s place too.”

“We’re not supposed to tell anyone else,” Rowan started to say.

“He’s a doctor. He’ll be the person that confirms that Garner is actually dead.”

Rowan swallowed hard. He’d seen the body and could certainly confirm that Garner was dead, but this wasn’t information that he was supposed to admit to.

“Come on,” Dorno said, heading down the passageway that ran along the side of his home. “Let’s grab the doctor.”

Dr. Restivo was slightly surprised when he opened the door. After Dorno explained what was happening, the doctor crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. “Okay,” he said, “give me a minute.”

He shut the door and returned a minute or so later in his white lab coat, shirt tucked into his pants and a tie around his neck. He handed out masks to the five of them, Rowan immediately strapping his on, Olivia and Toro doing the same.

“I have more for the others,” Dr. Restivo said. “Everyone have gloves?”

“We have plenty of work gloves between us,” Redi Taka told him.

The six of them took the path that led from the town square directly to the hoarder’s home, Alto now seated on a wooden chair outside, one of his hands on his head as Tuya spoke quietly to him.

“Doctor,” Ganix said as he came over to them. He took a mask from the man and put it on, Nedman doing the same.

“Remember,” Ganix told Dorno and Redi Taka as Nedman led the doctor away, “we are just trying to get the body today. We’ll deal with the debris later. The quicker we can get in there, the better.”

“Why didn’t Alto get someone once he found out his brother was stuck?” Toro asked, going with a question Rowan hadn’t considered.

“He was away from the island at the time,” Ganix said, “visiting a sister on the mainland. Apparently, he came back and was too late…” He sighed. “How horrible.”

Tuya approached them, a concerned look on her face as she glanced at the masked children. “They can’t be here for this,” she said.

“We’ll be okay,” Rowan told her, Olivia nodding in agreement.

“Actually, she’s right,” their father told them.

“Let’s head up to the cemetery,” she said. “We can pick out a plot for Garner.”

“We want to stay,” Toro said.

Ganix approached his youngest son and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t want you to see this, okay? I know you’re tough, and I know that you are probably the bravest boy on the mainland. But you don’t need to see this. It’s better for his body to be in the coffin, you’ll be able to see the coffin at the funeral.”

“But…”

“Toro, enough.”

“Maybe I should go back home,” Olivia said, removing her mask. “My grandmother’s going to be wondering where I am soon.”

“Good idea,” Ganix told her. “You go back home, and we’ll take care of this. The funeral will be tonight.”

“What about the party at the orchard tonight?” Toro asked.

“The party?” Ganix shook his head. “There isn’t going to be a party now. We can’t have a party the same day that this is happening. Maybe later, but not tonight.”

“We should tell Curtis and Gilda,” Rowan said, “and some of the others.”

“It’s not a bad idea,” Tuya told him. “How about this: the three of us can go around talking to a few people—people I know who have had interactions with Alto and Garner—and we’ll meet everyone up at the cemetery. How about that?”

“And I can go home. I won’t tell my grandparents anything yet.”

“Thank you, Olivia,” said Ganix. “Your grandmother will surely want to be involved when she finds out about this now. If we can get the body out, and get it up to the cemetery before people start to get involved, we can go from there. That gives us a little bit better of a story, rather than that he’s been…” Ganix looked at the cluttered home. “Well, you know.”

“Dead in there for a long time?” Toro asked.

Ganix nodded. “A year, he’s been in there over a year. That’s not the story we’re going to go with. We’ve already spoken to Alto about it. The official story is his brother died last night, and it’s not an open casket funeral. That’s what we’re going with.”

Tuya nodded. “That sounds like a believable story to me. If it makes the process easier, and it cuts down on rumors, I’m all for it.”

“That’s the plan,” Ganix told her.

Olivia waved goodbye to them and started down the hill, toward her grandparents’ home.

“We’re going to walk slowly,” Tuya told Rowan and Toro after their father left, Ganix rejoining the men at the front of Alto’s home. “In fact, maybe we should step into my house for a minute and grab a few things I was working on. I was working on a bouquet for Gilda, and that will buy us some time.”

“But…”

Tuya shook her head at Rowan. “You’re not staying here. You’re too young to see something like this. Please, just understand, we’re not trying to be mean to you here. Also, take your masks off. You don’t need them anymore.”

“I know,” Rowan told her, “but I want to help. That’s what I’m trying to say. I…”

Ganix saw that he was putting up a protest and approached them again. “Rowan…”

“Dad, I’m old enough to help with this. Toro can go.”

“If he stays, I want to stay.”

“Neither of you are staying. This is going to be dangerous, and it’s going to be…” Ganix looked to Tuya for some help.

“You don’t want to see inside that place, boys,” Tuya said. “Not until we get it cleaned up.” She placed a hand on Rowan’s shoulder and squeezed it. “Now, let’s go and work on a bouquet for Gilda. You know what? How about a quest? Let’s work on bouquets for tonight as well.”

Side Quest: Help Tuya create bouquets for Gilda and for the funeral

Rowan felt like he was being cosseted.

He knew what to expect in Alto’s home, and he had already seen his brother’s body. As he was led into Tuya’s place, where there were already flowers set out on wax paper on the dining room table, Rowan thought about turning back and running out the door.

It wasn’t like she was going to be able to catch him.

“Why did he keep him in there for so long?” Toro asked Tuya, his brother oblivious to what Rowan was feeling.

“There are probably a number of reasons,” she said, her voice soft now and a bit reflective. “Part of it is likely due to being embarrassed. There also isn’t a way that Alto could have got him out of there himself, especially with all that trash. I would say there’s some mental illness there as well, but that’s not really my place. It’s a terrible occurrence, boys, to be sure, but…” She lowered her gaze a little onto a picture on the wall. Rowan turned to see a younger version of Tuya next to a man he didn’t recognize, which he assumed was her late husband. “The end of life can be just as chaotic as the beginning. Now, let’s get a bouquet ready for Gilda, and we can make some for the funeral later as well.”

Tuya stepped out of the room for a moment to grab a few supplies, Toro immediately turning to Rowan.

“What did it look like?” he asked carefully.

“What did what look like?”

“The body. You saw it.”

Rowan shivered for a moment as he recalled Garner’s darkened corpse, a very small part of him suddenly glad that he hadn’t decided to stick around to see it again. While he wanted to be brave, and he wanted to be a man and do what the other men were doing, he knew what was in store for them, and how terrifying it was.

“It was mostly bones, and the smell…” Rowan cringed, as he relived the experience. “I’ve never smelled anything like that before. I think it’s called decomposition.”

“Decomposition,” Toro repeated.

“What was that?” Tuya said as she came back into the room with extra scissors, mason jars, and tweed string.

“Nothing,” Rowan said for his brother.

For the next thirty minutes, the three worked on flower arrangements, Rowan going through a host of emotions from agitated to mollified due to the task he was performing, which had a calming sense about it that he wasn’t quite expecting.

They placed flowers in the mason jar for Gilda, Tuya arranging them in a way that presented a splash of a variety of colors, light blue, bright yellow, a strong red, and orange, peppered with hints of green.

For the funeral bouquets, she went mostly with white and pink flowers.

“It’s going to be a rough day for Alto,” she told them as they finished up. “He always was a fan of vibrant colors, but we can’t be too vibrant for a funeral, hence the pink. Plus, it symbolizes hope.”

“So what do we do now?” Toro asked, a prompt appearing in front of Rowan and fading away.

Side Quest: Help Tuya create bouquets for Gilda and for the funeral (complete)

“Now, we head to Gilda’s place. We’ll go out my back door. I want to alert Zola on the way.”

Carrying the two mason jars filled with flowers, Rowan and Toro followed Tuya out the back door, through a side gate that led to Zola’s home.

“Stay here,” she told them, motioning toward a bench in Zola’s backyard.

Tuya knocked on the door, and once Zola answered, she quickly explained what was happening, Zola gasping.

Tuya returned to Rowan and Toro once she was finished.

“We’ll grab her on the way back around.” They headed across Zola’s yard and into another side gate, where they turned onto the main road. “Let’s keep moving,” she told Rowan and his brother as they started to look toward the hoarder’s home.

They reached Gilda’s place, Rowan noticing for once that there wasn’t the smell of baked goods heavy in the air. Tuya knocked, and Gilda came to the door still in her robes.

“I was up late last night making tarts,” she explained before Tuya could tell her what happened. Once Tuya was able to tell her the truth, rather than the agreed-upon version of what had happened, Gilda slowly lowered her head, speechless for a moment.

“I’m going to speak to Curtis and Ringo next,” Tuya said.

Rowan could see them out on Ringo’s front porch, Ringo once again with his cat Spewy in his lap.

“We haven’t discussed a wake yet,” Tuya said, “maybe it would be something we could do after the funeral tonight.”

Gilda crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “It’s just so terrible to hear. And he was trapped in there the entire time?”

“As far as I know, yes.”

“His tunnel collapsed,” Rowan said.

“Tunnel?” Gilda asked.

“Because they had so much junk, they had to create little passageways to move through the rooms, and he got stuck in one. Alto was away at the time, visiting a relative on the mainland,” said Tuya. “I’m not supposed to be telling you this. The official version is that he died overnight, but… I just wanted you to know.”

“Understood. What a horrible way to go, and a horrible thing to experience. As much as I know everyone wants to talk about what should happen next with their home, I think today we should try to be as supportive as possible and focus on the mourning process. Have you spoken to Maeve?” she asked.

“Not yet,” Tuya said, “I’ve only made my way back around to the other side of the street.”

“I’m sure that Ari would be able to write some words for someone to say. I know that they were quite friendly when they first arrived on the island. I’ll tell Argat the simplified version of what happened as well. Thank you for the flowers. Really,” she said as she sniffed one of the bouquets. “They are always so beautiful.”

Ringo and Curtis were certainly alarmed at the news, the researcher deciding to go with them to Alto’s home, even though Tuya wanted to hang back for just a little while longer.

“I would go,” Ringo said, his cat, Spewy, purring on his lap, “but you know I’m not so mobile these days.”

“It’s fine,” Curtis told him. “As long as you can come to the wake later.”

While it hadn’t been confirmed with Alto or anyone dealing with getting the body out of the home, Tuya and Curtis had already briefly discussed the wake, and how they could use the food they had gotten for a celebration at the orchard for the wake instead. They would have it at the town square, depending on the weather, as long as Alto agreed.

“Just let me grab my jacket,” Curtis said as his jacket appeared on his shoulders. He slipped his hands into it and zipped it up, the researcher in a tie and dark-brown khakis, his shoes polished. “How did we figure this out anyway?”

“What do you mean?” Tuya asked Curtis.

“Who did Alto tell?”

“Nedman found out,” Rowan lied. “Alto came to get him in the morning once he discovered the body.”

Nedman had said that he would handle everything, and so he figured he would let Curtis grill him if the researcher really wanted an answer. For a moment, Rowan wondered if Alto also knew that people could turn into cats. How else would Nedman have found out? Perhaps Nedman knew Alto well enough to just come out with it, saying something like he hadn’t seen him and his brother together for a while, that sort of thing.

Along the way, they stopped at Maeve and Ari’s place, Tuya knocking on the door.

Maeve eventually came, her eyes heavy with concern once she read their expressions.

Tuya briefly explained what happened, going with the agreed-upon story, Maeve gasping soon as she finished. Rowan heard Ari say something from the other room.

“I’ll be there in a moment,” Maeve called over her shoulder. She returned his focus to Tuya. “We were closer to them when we first moved to the island,” she said, “at least Alto. I’m sure Ari will want to write something for the funeral.”

“I thought that may be the case,” said Tuya. “I know he won’t be able to make it up to the funeral, but there will probably be a wake.”

“And we’re going to have it in the town square,” Curtis said. “Weather and brother permitting.”

Maeve nodded. “Sure, that’s something Ari can actually attend. I’ll put him in the wheelchair and take him over.”

“Great, and I’ll be by later to get whatever he has written.”

They reached the hoarder’s home to find Dorno and Redi Taka carrying a coffin toward the woods, while Nedman and Dr. Restivo spoke quietly to Alto.

“Boys,” Ganix said as he saw the small group. “We’re going to need to head on up to the cemetery with them. We need all the hands we can get.”

“Okay,” Rowan said. He glanced at Alto, who had his arms crossed over his chest. He couldn’t imagine what the man was going through, from shame to sadness, possibly even relief that this was all over now.

“Let’s head on up,” Redi Taka said, Curtis already at his side, helping with the coffin.

Both Redi Taka and Dorno still wore their masks, neither saying much as they took the first path that led up to the cave, Curtis chipper as always.

“Can we help?” Rowan asked, interrupting the researcher.

“Just run ahead,” Redi Taka said, “and make sure there aren’t any branches or twigs in our way.”

Rowan and Toro did just that, taking a few steps in front of the men and making sure the path was clear. Rowan got to the top before Toro and turned to look back, seeing the three men carry the coffin, bits of light coming through the canopy adding a surreal twist to it.

Once again, Rowan remembered what he had seen last night, Garner’s dead body, and how horrifying that had been.

With a deep breath out, he tried to forget the image.

They passed the cave, Rowan doing everything he could to make it not look like he knew anything about the place. He focused on the rocks ahead of the group, kicking away any ones that looked large. They found the path that circled around the cave and eventually came to a cemetery sitting on the top of a flat hill.

He turned back just in time to see that Redi Taka was about to step on an overturned root, Rowan calling to him.

“Thanks,” Redi Taka said as the three men came to the cemetery. There were several plots, as well as a little hut at the back.

“Someone used to take care of it,” Redi Taka explained once the men finally set the coffin down on the ground. “But like most things here, it has been abandoned. There are still plenty of plots.”

“The last person buried here was your great-uncle,” Dorno said, nodding to a particular tombstone.

“So you want to just dig a hole then?” Curtis asked.

“That’s how it works. We’ll save a space next to the plot for Alto,” Redi Taka said. “It was his one request.”

“Do you have a shovel?” Toro asked.

“We have shovels, and…”

“We need to dig quickly. I still have a shipment coming in,” Dorno said as he wiped his arm across his forehead. “Some of the street lamps are coming in today.”

“That fast, huh?” Curtis asked.

“When Stellars opens his pocketbook, things tend to happen.”

“You don’t say,” Curtis told them as he took a step forward, the man clasping his right wrist behind his back. He turned to Redi Taka and Dorno. “We were thinking of having a wake tonight. And now, I’m wondering how easy it would be to get these street lamps set up. I’m imagining something in the town square, something nice and small, and a well-lit wake. Please, tell me now if I sound crazy. I don’t want to put any additional burdens on you.”

“In the town square?” Dorno asked.

“Aside from this, my only other plan today was to get the irrigation system running. Which I need to do next,” Redi Taka said. “I got the pieces I need now, so that shouldn’t take very long. If we get the street lamps set up after, they should be ready to go by sundown.”

“I am, of course, able to help in any way possible,” Curtis said. “I might not have the know-how that you gentlemen have, but, I can at least offer an extra set of hands.”

“We can help too,” Rowan said.

“I think your daddy may have other plans for you,” said Dorno. “He’s wanting to get the house at the orchard cleaned out. Looks like you three may be moving in there.”

Tuya, Nedman, and Ganix joined them, their father the first to reach the cemetery.

“Where’s Alto?” Toro asked.

“He’s with Gilda, Zola, and Dr. Restivo,” Nedman said. “They’re keeping him company for now.”

“I say we just follow the rows,” Dorno said, looking at the grave markers that were already out. “We can put Garner here, and then save this spot next to it,” he said, motioning toward a clear swath of land, “for Alto, whenever that time may come.”

Ganix walked over to a stray branch and placed his green jacket there, returning to the group.

“Let’s get started,” Redi Taka said, equipping a shovel. As they dug, the group discussed the wake and where Alto would be staying that night.

“We have an extra bed that he can stay in,” said Nedman. “He’s actually stayed there before, one of the times he got in an argument with his brother.”

“I just want him to be comfortable, that’s all,” said Tuya as she monitored the men. “If anything, he needs us right now. I think it’s better for him to be around people rather than cooped up in his cluttered home.”

Once the hole was dug, Redi Taka and Dorno used ropes to lower the coffin in, Curtis and Ganix assisting them.

“This is such short notice,” Curtis said, shaking his head after they’d finished up, a smudge of dirt on his cheek. “Not at all how it’s supposed to be done…”

“But it will do,” Ganix said.

“We will all meet here again tonight,” Nedman said, “and anyone who wants to say anything can at that time.”

“And I’ll have a eulogy from Ari,” Tuya reminded them.

“Great, I’ll talk to Alto about reading it.”

With the grave dug, the group headed down to the village, Ganix and his two sons turning to the orchard, Redi Taka joining them. Curtis and Dorno headed to the West Docks, to pick up the shipment of street lamps. Saying that she needed a small little break, Tuya went home, Rowan seeing her cats come to greet her as soon as she stepped onto her front porch.

“I got sandwiches for us,” Ganix said as they approached the East Docks, the four making their way onto the path that cut into the woods and circled around the orchard on its way to Old Man Stellars’ mansion.

“What a day so far,” Redi Taka said, shaking his head. It was too warm for his leather jacket now, the man in a plain black t-shirt.

As he normally did, the strange engineer wore his goggles, which made sense along the western beach where someone could get attacked by a wall of sand. It made less sense here in the village, the thin bicyclist definitely a character. But he was kind as well, Rowan already starting to pick up on his true nature, and his selflessness in the way he helped others.

“Ah, Jivmon’s Apple-Peach Orchard,” he said, once he caught sight of it. He stood for a moment, fondness in his eyes, Redi Taka clearly remembering something.

“We were set to have a fire tonight,” Ganix explained, motioning toward the burn pile.

“It’s not going anywhere,” Redi Taka said with a chuckle.

“You’re not wrong there. Let me take my sons up to the house first so they can start cleaning. Then I’ll join you over at the irrigation system,” Ganix said.

“Sounds like a plan, and no need for the sandwich,” Redi Taka said as an apple-peach appeared in his hand. “This will do.”

“Where did you get that?” Toro asked.

“They grow wild, and some of the people that live off the grid have little farms where they grow them. I bartered for this one at a trading post.”

“What did you barter?”

“My mechanical expertise,” Redi Taka said, tapping his finger on the side of his head.

“Come on, boys,” Ganix told them as he placed his hand on Toro’s shoulder, steering his youngest son toward the house.

“I want to see the irrigation system,” Rowan said.

“We have a lot to get done today,” Ganix said, “and we need to get this house in working order, especially if we are going to be living here for a while.”

“So it’s decided?” Toro asked.

“We’ll talk about it later.”

Rowan knew what this meant.

He knew that this meant that their mother was coming to the island, and Ganix preferred that they should stay in the home on the hill rather than the apartment above the general store. He also felt bad that he hadn’t confessed what he heard to his brother yet.

Rowan was going to have to feed off his brother’s excited energy once he heard the news.

Ganix opened the door to the home and slowly peeked inside. He reached for a light and flicked it on, allowing Rowan and Toro to pass in front of him.

“It’s nice,” Rowan said as he took in the place and its large space and high ceilings. It was built almost like a lodge, a staircase at the back leading to two bedrooms upstairs. There was a bedroom downstairs too, ample seating through a pair of leather couches, plus a dining room table with a great view of the orchard, and a kitchen off to the left of the entrance.

“It’s nice,” Ganix said, noticing that the walls were empty, all the pictures gone. There was something a little creepy about the space, something that told Rowan that it hadn’t been lived in for a while.

“Uncle will love it.” Toro ran his finger along the chair, seeing just how much dust there was.

“This is going to take us forever to clean,” Rowan told their father.

“We will take it in stages then. I have two sandwiches for you guys, so you can eat them now, or clean a little and then eat them. As for rags…” Ganix placed the sandwiches on the table, both of them wrapped in Proxima wrapping. He then equipped a bucket and a collection of his cut-up suit jackets. “I would stick around, but I should go and see about using this irrigation system. Feel free to look around.”

As soon as he was gone, Rowan turned to Toro. “I think we could use a little help,” he said, loud enough to get the dust stirring.

Blanche formed, a smile on her face. “Did you call?”

“Actually, we did,” said Rowan. “We need to get all the dust out of here, so…” He went over to a window and lifted it, noticing that there was a spider on it. The spider hopped from the windowsill down to the ground, Blanche shrieking.

“I hate spiders,” she said.

“You can just blow them away,” Toro said, laughing.

“I…” She shrugged. “I suppose you’re right.”

“What a day, right?” Rowan asked Blanche, who had been part of what happened last night.

“I’m just glad that something is finally happening,” she said.

“So you actually knew about the body?” Toro asked.

“No, I didn’t. Do you think I want to go floating around that nasty home? No. I found out about it last night too. I honestly thought both of them were still alive, although I did wonder why I never saw them together, because I used to see them together. Usually bickering, like brothers do.”

Rowan and Toro exchanged glances.

“Yes, you two as well. But you seem to be friendly most of the time. As for this dust…” Blanche took a look around the room. “Go ahead and stand back, near the kitchen, I owe it to you. Get your sandwiches too.”

Rowan and Toro grabbed their sandwiches and went to the kitchen. Blanche started to zip through the home, the dust picking up into tiny tornadoes as it was sent out of the open window. By the time she finished the entire living room was dusted, most of the upstairs as well.

“Bedrooms next,” Rowan said. “Let’s eat our sandwiches first.”

“Not even a thank you?” Blanche asked. “I saved you hours of work.”

“Thanks,” Toro said, offering her a grin. “We’re going to find your locket tonight. I promise.”

The bedrooms were quiet and equally dusty until Rowan opened a window and allowed Blanche to swirl the dust out of the room.

“You should clean everyone’s house,” Toro said, watching her work, the dust spiraling out of the window.

“Do I look like some kind of maid service to you?”

Toro laughed. “Not really, you look like a ghost.”

“Careful,” Rowan told his younger brother, noticing the dirty look taking shape on Blanche’s face. He turned to the door and moved to the balcony that overlooked the living room, admiring it for a moment, Rowan imagining what it would be like to live in the home.

For some reason, this triggered a hint of worry, Rowan once again aware that their time here was limited, that as much as he felt at home on the island it was only temporary, even if their mother was coming.

He knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t want to stay forever. At least he thought this was the case.

His younger brother was already down the stairs by the time Rowan pressed himself away from the spot, trying to focus on the now, on what was happening today.

“What are you thinking about?” Blanche asked, startling him a bit as she appeared next to Rowan.

“Leaving,” he admitted to her.

“You don’t want to leave?”

Rowan shook his head.

“Come on down, guys,” Toro called up to them.

“Open some more windows,” said Rowan. “Let’s air this place out a bit.”

“Okay.”

“You really want to stay on this island?” Blanche asked once his younger brother got to work.

“I don’t know,” Rowan said.

“Why can’t you just be honest about it?”

“Look, I want to stay, but I also miss some of my friends on the mainland and being at home, at least a little. I like it here, though. Yes, I would stay if I was able to.”

“Then why don’t you make it so you are able to stay?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“There used to be a school; there are plenty of old people here with nothing better to do than teach. Maybe there could be a school again, maybe you could stay.”

“I don’t think it’s that easy…”

“Look what you’ve already done in coming here,” Blanche said, waving her hand out before her. “You’ve convinced the village of stubborn old people to change; your family is in the process of getting this orchard up and running again; and you’ve managed to become a cat and befriend a ghost and a spirit, a very nice and beautiful ghost, I should say.”

“I wouldn’t say the spirit is our friend,” Rowan said. “She hasn’t really done anything since the conversation we had. She could have helped us back there on the western beach, when we were attacked. As for the ghost, she’s all right…”

“The ghost is your friend and you know it. As for the spirit, she’s not exactly able to do stuff like that, at least from what she said,” said Blanche. “I think she can do bigger things than that.”

Rowan looked down at his brother, who was now eating a sandwich.

“The sandwiches are good,” he said. “Come eat.”

“That’s odd.”

“What is?” Blanche asked.

“He’s usually a picky eater.”

Rowan took the stairs to the lower floor, where he found his brother now seated at the table, nearly finished with the sandwich. Rowan unwrapped his sandwich and took a bite, noticing that the meat was cold. There was a slice of white cheese on the sandwich and a crisp piece of lettuce.

Once he was done eating he turned to the door, motioning for his brother to follow.

He noticed his spirits were a little better after he stepped outside to see a light mist hanging over the orchard, the shrubs being watered. His father and Redi Taka had gotten the system working.

Rowan turned to the barn. Using Redi Taka’s and his father’s voices as a guide, he found the men in front of a large pump connected to a series of tubes that went into the ground. Redi Taka leaned with his arm on the pump, a satisfied grin on his face.

“Look at the system,” Ganix said as he saw his two sons. “Isn’t it great?”

“Can I run through the water?” Toro asked their dad.

“Sure, just…” He smiled at his younger son. “Be careful.”

Toro took off down the hill, and ran through the rows, water misting in the air around him.

“To have that much energy again,” the engineer said as he watched Rowan’s younger brother.

“I’m struggling to keep up with you,” Ganix told him. “You seem to be doing just fine.”

“I have my days.” Redi Taka took one more look at his irrigation system and nodded. “We should be good to go now. Dorno knows how to fix some of the smaller things that may go wrong, so go to him first if I’m not around. Anyways, I need to head back and get these street lamps set up. At least we can get the ones in the town square going for tonight.”

“Can I go?” Rowan asked. “I’m trying to improve my construction skill.”

“You can help next time,” Ganix told him. “I want you boys to hang back with me a little bit and go through this house.”

“We already cleaned it,” Rowan said.

“I’m sure you did,” said Ganix. “Still, just hang back.”

“Okay,” Rowan said as Redi Taka turned away, the man just about to walk down the hill when he stopped, a red bike appearing next to him.

“Might as well make a joyride out of it,” he said as he got on the bike and took off.

Ganix called to Toro and his youngest son eventually came, his hair and shirt wet now.

“Dry off, and then let’s head inside.”

“When will the sprinklers turn off?” Rowan asked, noticing that the mist was creating a small rainbow.

“They are on a timer. Everything is automated, and the system is solar powered. Redi Taka is…” Ganix shook his head. “The man is a genius. I mean, when I saw his bike set up, I could tell that he knew a thing or two about physics, but he’s pretty well-rounded, everything from the wiring to the actual mechanical aspects of it.”

They entered the home, Ganix nodding when he saw how clean it was. “You two really cleaned this place fast…”

“We’re getting better,” Rowan lied.

“I’ll say you are. I don’t believe there’s any dust in the room at all.” To test his theory, Ganix walked to a windowsill and placed his finger on it, running it down the side and seeing if he came back with any dust. He then did the same on one of the light fixtures. “Impressive. Really. I should have made a Dad Quest out of it so I could give you a reward…”

Toro laughed. “You can still give us a reward.”

“Let me see what I have…” Ganix pretended to look in his inventory list by closing his eyes. He turned his palm around and a Proxima candy bar appeared. “How about this?”

“Delicious,” Toro said as he swiped it from his father’s hand.

“Hey, half of that is for your brother.”

“Fine.” With the candy bar in its wrapper, Toro broke it in half, handing one half to Rowan after he’d opened it and taken his portion.

Rowan ate the chocolate slowly, enjoying its nutty flavor with just a hint of gooey caramel.

“It also appears that the home is missing one thing,” Ganix said as he equipped the photo of his sons with the catfish. He found a nail already sticking out of the wall and hung it. “Better. Now, the reason I called you boys in here was…”

Rowan thought their father was going to tell them about their mother, that she was coming to the island.

He felt his nerves all fire at once, anticipating Toro’s reaction.

Instead, their father took a seat on one of the leather couches and motioned for them to sit as well.

“I think it’s important that we rest,” Ganix said. “Today has been challenging, all of it. Remember, as strange as Alto’s situation is, that was his brother. I lost my brother, and one of you will probably pass before the other. I don’t mean to be dark here, and I’m not saying I want you to reflect on that now…” Ganix said, registering the strange look on his youngest son’s face, “I’m just saying that it is something that will eventually happen. And with all the excitement, I think it’s important for us just to hang out for a while. What do you say? Let’s just hang out here and keep each other company.”

“Want to play cards?” Rowan asked, after he could no longer stand the silence in the room. Toro didn’t like the silence either, the boy seated on his hands as he kicked his legs up and down.

“Play cards?” Ganix nodded. “Sure, let’s play cards and lay low for the afternoon. We’ll head to the funeral, then the wake, and then back to the apartment.”

“We’re not sleeping here tonight?” Toro asked.

“No, not yet,” Ganix said, his eyes lifting to the rafters. “I want it to be special, and it’s not ready just yet.”

“But it’s clean,” Toro said.

“It sure is,” Ganix told him as Rowan got out his deck of cards. “But it’s not ready just yet. Trust me.”

Rowan fell into a deep sleep, his brother and father doing the same. The three woke up several hours later. Ganix was sprawled out on the leather couch, Rowan on one of the sofa chairs, and Toro was lying on the thin wool rug, his arms out wide, his mouth opening as he lightly snored.

It took Rowan a moment to realize where he was. He glanced around the room, still not used to being in the space, the rafters seeming higher than they should be, all the woodgrain in the home sparkling.

“We need to go,” their dad said, getting to his feet after rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “We should head to the store first so we can change.”

“Come on,” Rowan called to his brother.

Toro rolled to his side. Rowan had a notion to go and nudge him with his foot but decided against doing this, allowing their father to wake him up softly.

“I want to go back to sleep,” Toro said, his spiky brown hair a mess.

“No, no, we have to go to the funeral. It should be starting soon. We overslept.”

The three left the home, Ganix locking up behind him. They walked through the orchard, Rowan noticing that the ground was soft, glimmering water droplets still on a few of the apple-peach shrubs.

They headed into the woods and took the path that wrapped around to the East Dock, where Rowan caught a brief glimpse of the sea, the frothy white waves lashing against the dock. Once they reached the center of town, Rowan looked to see that nothing had changed at Alto’s cluttered home, not that he was expecting it to in the short amount of time since the revelation. He was just starting to look left toward the town square when his father motioned them forward, telling them they needed to hurry.

They reached the general store and quickly went upstairs, where Rowan and Toro changed into the nicest clothes they had brought to the island. For Rowan, this was a pair of black jeans and a white button-up shirt. For Toro, it was dark-gray jeans and a light-green, short-sleeve button-up.

“I wish we had brought more than this,” Ganix said, who wore a pair of black slacks and a black dress shirt.

“You’re going in all black?” Toro asked.

“It’s a funeral, it’s normal.” Ganix looked down at his shirt. “Well, I do have another shirt that I could change into.” A navy-blue button-up appeared on his body and he rolled up the sleeves. He buttoned it all the way to the top, tried a few ties, and then decided against it.

“I want to wear a tie,” Toro said.

“All of my ties are too big for you,” he said, a dark jacket taking shape over his arms.

“Can I wear my cape?”

“I…” Ganix glanced up at the ceiling for a moment, considering this. “It’s probably not a good idea, Toro.”

“Okay…” Toro walked to the couch and picked up Uncle, who had been resting. The orange kitten’s eyes came alert, noticing that the boy was now holding him. He softened his posture some, trusting Toro as he carried him around the apartment.

“Remember, this is a funeral we’re going to, so no talking, and no laughing or anything like that,” Ganix said once he came out of the bathroom, his hair now combed to the side. “I realize you two have never been to a funeral before…”

“Why didn’t we go to Uncle Turni’s funeral?” Toro asked.

“Actually, that’s a good question. I didn’t know he died until I got the letter. Maybe before we leave the cemetery, we can pay his grave a visit. I meant to do that earlier.”

“What about at the wake? Can we talk there?” Rowan asked.

“Sure, just be polite, and don’t tease each other or anything like that. This is serious. A man has died.”

Once they were ready, Ganix led his two sons out of the store, the cats out front coming to greet them.

Toro crouched in front of Fiona, and was just about to scoop her up when his father told him to keep up with them. They walked up the hill, and as they did they saw Curtis, who wore a tweed jacket with black elbow patches, pressed slacks, and an olive dress shirt.

“Ganix, brothers Toragan,” he said, smiling at all of them.

Rowan expected the researcher to launch into a conversation, but he merely said that the wake was set to go, and that he’d already seen some people making their way up to the cemetery.

The four walked quietly through the woods, and as they passed the cave, Rowan had the urge to stop his father and tell him about their discovery. He knew better than to actually do this, but the urge was there, Rowan glad when they saw some of the villagers that the hope to confess subsided.

The three women who normally hung out together—Gilda, Tuya, and Zola—all wore dark dresses, each holding a bouquet, Gilda in the diamond earrings Gonpo had given her. Kay and Raydoh were there, Kay in a gray dress with a bouquet in her hands, Raydoh wearing black jeans and a dark-gray button-up.

Gonpo stood off to the side, Rowan and Toro surprised to see that he wasn’t in his Pandas costume. Instead, the former mascot wore a fitted black suit, Rowan staring at his face way longer than he should have. While he was heavy, Gonpo was quite handsome, with crystal-blue eyes and blonde hair that had hints of gray in it.

The four fishermen were there, but none of them had dressed up. Chodak stood in front of Lonnie and Murni, as if he were representing them, Tunga not far behind him. Dorno and Redi Taka were there, both looking a little haggard after a long day of work. Still, they managed to clean up, both in slacks and dress shirts. For once, Redi Taka didn’t wear his goggles, his hair long and stringy and pulled into a withering ponytail.

Rowan also saw Dr. Restivo, who quickly was joined by Curtis, both men speaking quietly to one another as Nedman approached Ganix.

“Where is he?” Ganix asked.

“He’s there,” Nedman said, gesturing toward the far side of the cemetery, where they saw Alto pacing back and forth. He was joined by Maeve, the former school principal offering him support. Rowan turned to see Argat, noticing that he wore a fitted blue suit, his hair slicked back.

“Maeve is going to read something from Ari,” Nedman explained. “And then we’re all going to use the shovel to toss dirt in. Dorno and Raydoh said they’d finish that part up. After that, we’ll head down to the wake, where my wife is making sure all the food is warm and ready to go.”

“Right,” Ganix said, glancing to Alto once again. “How has he been today?”

“He’s had his moments, but…” Nedman nodded slowly. “He realizes now that this was something that needed to happen; I think he’s ready to get rid of some of the clutter. I haven’t pressed him on anything, but he can’t go back to living like that.”

Ganix’s face flashed pale for a moment. “No, he really can’t.”

Alto turned to those who had gathered, a surprised look coming across his face. Rowan followed his gaze to see Vicar, Doyona, and Olivia coming up the hill, Vicar wearing a suit, Doyona in a black dress and a funeral veil and Olivia in a dark-green dress, a black headband holding her hair back.

Rowan knew there were a few more villagers that weren’t here, people like Ringo, who couldn’t get around very well, and Ari, who couldn’t get around at all. Old Man Stellars wasn’t there, but Rowan really didn’t expect him to come anyway. Other villagers were absent as well, a few faces Rowan had seen at the council meetings but who weren’t very active in the community. The last person to join the procession was Irma, the former police officer who took care of the cat shrine.

For a moment, Rowan wondered how she had heard, but then he saw Redi Taka approach her, and figured he had taken a bike ride up there to let her know.

“Thank you all for joining us,” Maeve began. “Before I open the floor to anyone who would like to say something, my husband wrote a message, and I would like to read it now.” An envelope appeared in her hand and she opened it. “Everyone who has lost someone anticipates what it will be like to lose another. We are joined, then, in our fear of the unknown and what rests beyond the great divide. Human, we remain. And regardless of the state of our remains, or the circumstances in which we depend, all of us share a common goal of prosperity, the desire for love, and the hope to be understood, to be recognized by who we are as much as what we do.”

Maeve paused and continued: “Garner Sarax lived a fine life. One spent among colleagues and a brother who cared for him deeply. Everything around him mattered greatly to Garner, and he found it hard to let go, memories tied to every item he ever owned to the point that it was contagious. Oftentimes, the hardest parts of life are in letting go, be it an item infused by a memory, or the wrinkled hand of a loved one. Let us remember Garner Sarax today and through his memory, let us keep our loved ones in our hearts, their imperfections far outweighed by the grace they bring our lives and bitter longing we feel in their absence.”

Before heading down to the village, Rowan, his brother, and his father paid their respects to Turni Toragan, Tuya appearing just in time to hand him a bouquet to place on his grave.

The wake was a relatively happy affair, even with the tragedy of Garner’s bizarre death looming over those who knew the truth. Rowan noticed that people were quite supportive of Alto, who sat at one of the tables that Curtis and Dorno had set out. Ringo had made it to the wake, and Maeve had brought Ari as well, pushing her husband in a wheelchair, his hair combed and a mask on his face.

Olivia never spoke to Rowan, and for a moment he wondered if they were even going to speak. At some point, while her grandparents had a conversation with Dr. Restivo, Olivia snuck away, heading toward the buffet. Rowan did the same, and once they both reached it, she placed a piece of paper on the table, the blonde-haired youth ignoring him as she did so.

Once he made sure no one was looking at him, Rowan took the piece of paper and read the message, which told him that she would meet him outside the general store, that she would be with Fiona and Zaena.

He turned to her and nodded, even though she wasn’t looking in his direction.

He knew she could sense it, and he wondered for a moment why she was playing with him.

After the sun set, Ganix led his sons back toward the general store. It was nice seeing the town square lit up by the glow of street lamps, many of the adults staying out later now that there was light. Before they left, Rowan saw Zola equip a couple of bottles of wine. He didn’t know if a wake could turn into a party, but it sure looked like it would.

“What a day,” Ganix said as they reached their home. “I want you two to head upstairs and get cleaned up and ready for bed.”

“This early?” Toro asked.

“It’s not early, it’s already dark out, and by the time you two are cleaned up, it’ll be time for bed.”

“And what are we going to do tomorrow?”

“Well, for one, we’re going to go check on the orchard,” Ganix told him. “And we’ll continue to get the house out there in working order.”

“It seemed nice enough to me,” Rowan said as they took the stairs. He wanted to compel his dad to tell Toro the truth, that their mother was going to come, and that’s why he was so keen on cleaning up the house.

But Ganix never said anything, he simply led them into the apartment and went straight to the balcony.

Once Rowan and Toro were in their bedroom, his younger brother turned to him.

“We’re still going out tonight, right?”

Rowan nodded. “Shhh. You just have to wake up when I wake you. Okay? No protesting.”

Toro nodded.

Toro was the first to shower, Rowan joining his father on the balcony, the two of them staring out at the sea, the lighthouse blinking red every so often, the water calm. Rowan wondered if they could take the boat out there someday and see what the lighthouse was actually like, if there was a place to dock it.

Ganix didn’t say much, only mentioning that the funeral service had been quite touching, and that he was glad that they could help Alto put this chapter behind him.

“Are you going to get rid of all that trash?” Rowan asked.

“It’s going to take a barge,” Ganix said to himself. “Actually, there’s a way to get it all out, but we’ll have to have his approval first.”

Thunder in the sky signaled the start of rain, Rowan surprised how quickly the downpour started. One moment everything was clear, and the next, it was storming quite hard.

“That was unexpected,” his father said. “I guess it wasn’t the right night to deal with the burn pile.” He scooted his chair away from the railing where the rain was starting to splash on his feet.

Rowan showered next, once again going over everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, now focused again on getting back into the mansion. They had to find Blanche’s locket. But there were too many rats, which meant they were going to need to call in some friends.

An idea he had earlier that day came to him. He remembered that the older cat named Cuthbert wore a whistle around his neck. Perhaps he would let them use it to call Logan the pelican. It would be helpful to have air support, and if they could get some friends to join, it would be an all-out war against the rats.

“Promise me you won’t leave me here tonight,” Toro told Rowan once he got into bed.

“You’re definitely coming. We need you.”

He meant it, too.

While Rowan wouldn’t have admitted it aloud, it had been a mistake not bringing Toro with them the first time. His brother’s boldness was inspiring, and perhaps if he had been there last night, things would have turned out differently. Rowan had no way of knowing this, but it was something he suspected.

Their father eventually came to the bedroom to tuck them in.

“I’m proud of both of you,” he said, his features dark, Ganix framed by moonlight coming in from the balcony. “Today was a tough day, and both of you handled it very maturely.”

“You did too, Dad,” Toro said, eliciting a chuckle from their father.

“Thanks, Toro. Good night.”

Just about as soon as their father shut the door, Toro turned to his older brother.

“What do we do now?”

“Now we wait, and try not to fall asleep.”

Lightning outside added a flash of the room, rain lashing against the window.

“Are you sure it’s okay to go out?” Toro asked.

“I’m sure a little rain won’t stop Olivia,” Rowan told him. “She’s quite brave.”

“But cats hate the rain…”

“I didn’t think about that,” Rowan admitted.

He lay still for a while, waiting for the time to come for them to leave. At some point, he turned to see that Toro was asleep, Rowan waking him up.

“Wh-what?” Toro asked.

“You’re not supposed to fall asleep. Trust me. You want to be awake for what we’re about to do.”

Eventually, it came time for them to leave, Rowan once again waking his brother.

“Come on,” he told Toro as he shook him. “Wakey, wakey.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

Toro equipped his raingear, Rowan doing the same before opening the window and heading out. He hadn’t thought about this yet, but if they moved to the orchard, it was going to be a longer trip for them to get to the cave, unless they learned the path that Blanche had once taken them on that cut through the woods.

“Just follow me.” Rowan showed his brother how he got down from the rooftop from their window. From there, he hopped to the ground, where he landed in a puddle, Rowan glad to be wearing rain boots.

“How did you get back up last night?” Toro asked him.

“Through the front door. We’ll sneak back in.”

Toro popped down as well, laughing as he landed and hit his knee.

“Oh, it hurts so funny…” he said, clutching his knee, cringing as he snickered.

“Are you okay?” Rowan asked him.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

Once Toro could use his leg again, the two slipped around to the front of the store, where they found Olivia crouching under some cover, Fiona and Zaena next to her.

Rowan swept Olivia into his arms and then tucked her into the front of his rain jacket.

“Come on,” he told his brother, turning to the center of the village.

They reached the cave, Rowan setting Olivia on the ground while his brother crawled inside and came out as a brown kitten, Rowan doing the same. It was still raining and thundering, Rowan hoping it would let up soon.

“So as for the plan…” he said, turning to Olivia, the yellow kitten with green eyes beaming what looked like a smile at him.

“You two go to Cuthbert with Hiccup and Rocket and see who they can round up, I will bring Micah and Manchester to help with the rats, perhaps Lady Cassandra, mew-mew. That is what you were going to say, right?”

“Actually, yeah,” Rowan told her. “Something like that. Do you think you can get Micah?”

“I’m sure I can.”

“But Micah hit you yesterday…”

She shrugged. “It isn’t the first time we’ve fought. Besides, if his father comes along, which he will, Micah will follow.”

Blanche took shape, the sudden appearance of her voice making Rowan’s ears twitch.

“I’m here if you need me,” she said.

“We’ll definitely need you later on, mew-mew,” Olivia told her.

The three kittens headed to the village together, Toro splashing through a puddle and laughing as he did so. They reached Alto’s home, Rowan immediately scanning the trash for Hiccup or Rocket, expecting one of them to pop out as they normally did.

When that didn’t work, he simply called their names.

“Psst. Over here!”

The three of them turned to see Rocket across the street near Tuya’s place, Hiccup quickly joining him.

“What are you three doing, meow?” asked the white birman with the pink tail.

“We still need to get the golden locket,” Rowan told Hiccup as he approached the two cats.

Rocket shook his head. “It’s a mess in there. The humans found out the one hoarder died, and they cleared out his body.”

“They did?” Rowan asked, feigning ignorance.

“How sad, mew-mew.”

Rocket nodded. “Everything is even more disorganized than it normally is, and the rats are out in force tonight.”

“And the other hoarder?” Olivia asked.

“He’s not there,” Hiccup said. “Somewhere else, meow.”

“We want to fight the rats too,” Toro announced.

Hiccup and Rocket considered this, Rocket the first to say something. “It’s not a bad idea; they are starting to get too powerful, and we can’t control them on our own. But we’ll need more recruits.”

“Here’s what we want to do,” Rowan told the two, quickly going over his plan to battle the rats while they searched for the locket. He left out the part where they were going to try to get Logan the pelican to help them. Rowan was now worried that with the rain, the bird wouldn’t be able to hear the whistle, and that was if they could even get a whistle.

“A midnight war, meow?” Hiccup asked. “This must be some locket.”

“It’s for a very dear friend of ours. We can help in the fight as well after we get it,” Rowan started to say.

“I think I know a few people we’ll be able to round up, FeeTwix for sure. Maybe the twisted sisters,” said Hiccup.

“They would actually join us?” Toro asked.

“They hate rats more than we do,” Rocket said. “It is a unifying thing amongst our kind.”

Rowan looked across the street to Tuya’s home. He recalled her having three female cats, but he couldn’t remember their names at the moment. “What about the cats that live there?”

“No, this isn’t their kind of fight.”

“I’ll get some cats from the West Docks,” Olivia said in a tone that told Rowan she was ready to wrap this up. “I think I can get more than three, mew-mew.”

“Who else?” asked Toro.

“Quantum, Ryuk, and maybe Meme. Fiona and Zaena as well,” the yellow kitten said with a firm nod. “Meet me here in about ten or fifteen minutes, mew-mew.”

Without another word, Olivia turned toward the West Docks, the yellow kitten running into the rain.

Rocket shook the water from his fur. “She sure is ready for war, isn’t she?”

Hiccup nodded. “It seems like it. Let’s see who we can round up on our end.”

Rocket led them to Chodak’s place, the brown cat avoiding many of the larger puddles, Rowan and Toro following suit. Once they reached the short wall that lined the fisherman’s place, Hiccup went forward, telling the three of them to stay behind.

“They probably hate all of us,” Hiccup said, “but they will be nice to me. You know, we could probably grab my son too, Spewy.”

“He’s at Ringo’s, right?” Toro asked.

“Who?”

“Old guy with a beard and big glasses who always wears red…”

“Meow-yes. Just stay here for a moment.”

“We also need to get a whistle,’’ Rowan told Rocket after Hiccup had slipped over the small wall in front of Chodak’s home.

“A whistle? What for?”

“It’s sort of a long story, but we can ask Cuthbert for it.”

“He may have something like that,” Rocket said. “If not, I don’t know what to tell you.”

It wasn’t long before Hiccup came around the wall with two female ragamuffins in tow, one of them gray with white features, the other white with gray features. They did not look amused to see Rowan and his brother, Nadine instantly taking a step back and hissing.

“Easy, meow,” Hiccup told her. “We have a common enemy tonight.”

“What kind of sorcery did you attack us with last time?” she asked Rowan.

Yuri stepped forward. “Meow, meow, these two don’t have any magical abilities. It was just the wind.”

Nadine scoffed at her counterpart’s suggestion. “How could the wind do something like that?”

“Now’s not the time,” Hiccup said. “Tonight, we go to war with the rats; we need everyone to work together. I’ll go grab Spewy, meow, and you get FeeTwix,” he told Rocket.

“Right, and a whistle…”

“Meow-what?” Hiccup asked Rocket, confusion painting across his whiskered face.

“They want a whistle,” Rocket said.

“Why would you need a whistle, meow, meow?” asked Nadine, her eyes narrowing on Rowan. “What kind of trickery are you up to?”

“Long story. We’ll just see if we can get it,” Rowan said.

Rocket led the way to the drainage ditch near Argat’s home, the brown cat hopping over a puddle along the way. “Cuthbert? Are you in there?” he asked, once he reached the ditch.

“It’s just me tonight,” FeeTwix said, the red cat coming out of a tunnel, where he’d been avoiding the rain. He motioned for them to follow him in where it was dry, which happened to be along the sides of the drainage ditch, water already racing into it. “What’s going on? Why are you all together during a storm?”

Rocket quickly explained that they were going to war with the rats tonight, about the attack that had happened, and how Rowan had nearly been injured.

FeeTwix nodded. “Somehow, you and your brother were able to get rid of the catfish who attacked me, so I’m in. All of the cats of the East Docks, at least, owe you for that. Let’s make sure there are no rats left in the village after tonight.”

“Where’s Cuthbert?” Rowan asked him.

“He’s not here right now.”

“He has a whistle around his neck; I need his whistle.”

“A whistle?” FeeTwix asked. “What for?”

“Can you get one?” Rowan asked, suddenly remembering something. “Your owner has one, I think.”

“My owner?” FeeTwix asked. “You mean the exercise human?”

“Yeah, him. He has a whistle. Maybe we can get it.”

The blue korat known as Danzen showed up, Rowan remembering that he had been the one who had taken care of FeeTwix after the catfish attack. The older cat carried a stern, yet concerned look on his face, his whiskered eyebrows furrowed.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “I saw you all gathering.”

“We’re taking on the rats tonight,” FeeTwix said as he slinked past the older cat. “You don’t have to come.”

“I will come and tend to the wounded,” he said.

“There won’t be any wounded, meow-meow,” said Nadine, her counterpart, Yuri, nodding in agreement.

“You’d be foolish to assume that,” Danzen told her coldly. “We must be vigilant; we must look after our own kind.”

Hiccup showed up with his son, Spewy, the lilac birman just around the same age as Rowan.

“Are you sure I have to come, Dad?” Spewy asked, an annoyed look on his face. He had an exorbitant amount of whiskers that made him look funny, his ears a bit pointy, and he was a lot fatter than Rowan.

“I wouldn’t have come for you if I didn’t think this was important, meow.”

“What about the whistle?” Rowan asked, recalling that Olivia was set to meet with them at the center of town.

“I’ll get it,” said FeeTwix. “The exercise human keeps it in the backyard.”

FeeTwix circled around Argat’s home, leaving Rowan and Toro with Danzen, Rocket, Hiccup, Spewy, and the twisted sisters. Rocket greeted Spewy, collapsing into him as they rubbed shoulders together.

While they waited for FeeTwix, Nadine and Yuri approached Rowan, the two ragamuffins eyeing him suspiciously.

“Meow-meow. How do we know this isn’t a trap?” Yuri asked, her eyes flaring with fury as she glared at him.

“Why would it be a trap?”

“Why do you want the whistle?” Nadine asked.

“Because…” Rowan figured he would just go ahead and come out with it. “We need something from inside the home. It may be easier to come from the rooftop than fight our way through all the garbage outside of the place. We know a pelican who said if we whistle for him, he will come for us. So we’re going to get dropped off on the rooftop.”

Nadine snorted. “That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard, meow-meow.”

“You’re a raga-dumb-dumb,” Toro said, growing defensive.

“No, it’s possible,” Danzen told the group. “Cuthbert also knows a bird.” The older cat nodded toward the end of the drainage pipe. “I’ve seen it.”

“Where is he anyway?” Spewy asked, sniffing the air.

“Out for the night,” Danzen said. “Here comes FeeTwix now.”

FeeTwix returned, the red cat sopping wet, a string in his mouth with a whistle on the other end. He deposited it in front of Rowan just as the quest prompt appeared and fizzled out.

Cat Quest: Find a whistle to use to call Logan the pelican (complete)

“Let’s get to the center of town,” Rowan said as he picked the whistle up with his teeth. He started to run toward the west, and ended up tripping over the string, Rowan landing face first in a puddle. The twisted sisters started to laugh, but the other cats simply moved on, Hiccup helping him get back to his feet.

The rain picked up, Rowan soon forgetting about his embarrassing misstep just moments ago as he raced to the meeting spot. There was water running on both sides of the road now, Rowan hoping that the thunder and occasional lightning didn’t wake their father and that if it did, he wouldn’t come check on them.

He saw Olivia sitting in the center of the road, several cats joining her. All of the cats that lived outside the general store—Fiona, Meme, Quantum, Ryuk, and Zaena—were there, as were Micah, Manchester, and even Lady Cassandra.

Nine cats total, to join the seven cats that were accompanying Rowan and Toro.

A cat army.

“What’s the plan?” Quantum asked as he came forward, the gray cat raring to go. “I was born to murderize rats.”

“Can we please get out of the rain?” Lady Cassandra asked in a haughty voice.

“You’ll be okay, meow-meow,” said Yuri. “You barely have any hair. Not like me and my sister.”

“Hey, don’t talk to my mom like that,” Micah said, the cat taking an aggressive stance.

“That’s not what we’re here for,” Quantum told him.

“We’re here to take on the rats,” said Rocket, coming forward. “They attacked us and injured one of us last night. They are getting too strong, and we must fight back.”

Several of the cats meowed loudly in response.

Olivia came to Rowan. “You got the whistle?”

“I did. Let’s hope it works.”

Rowan moved away from the clowder, joined by Olivia and his younger brother.

“Okay, how to do this…”

For one, the rain was loud, and then there was the thunder. Rowan also knew he didn’t have the lung capacity to really blow the whistle. But there was no other option now aside from fighting with the other cats and entering the home the same way they did last night, which wasn’t ideal.

Using his paws, Rowan positioned the whistle so he could blow on it.

His first attempt wasn’t very loud, but the second one caused several of the gathered cats to turn to him, observing what he was doing. This also caused their conversation to stop, the rest growing curious.

Rowan did it again, louder this time, and as he did he looked up to the sky, hoping that Logan the pelican could somehow hear him.

The twisted sisters started laughing after nothing happened, Rowan slowly pressing away from the whistle.

“This is a dumb idea,” he started to say.

“No, try again,” Toro told him. “Logan said this was how to reach him; you have to try.”

Rowan looked to Olivia, the yellow cat sopping wet and shivering a little, yet still carrying hope in her vibrant green eyes.

“Fine, I’ll try again.”

Rowan got the whistle in position and blew on it once more.

He glanced to the blackened sky, occasionally lit up by purple-white flashes, desperately hoping to see some sign of Logan.

The twisted sisters started to cackle again, Rowan looking over his shoulder and scowling at the pair.

He watched as the expressions on their faces started to change, several of the other cats backing up as well, all aside from Danzen and FeeTwix, who didn’t seem fazed by what was happening.

Rowan followed their gaze to see a large bird approaching, excitement filling his chest as Logan landed, the pelican carrying a calm look on his face.

“We need your help,” Rowan said, recalling that the pelican could understand him. “We just need to be dropped off at the top of that house,” he said, using his tail to point to the cluttered home.

Logan said something. Toro quickly equipped his red cape, which he set out on the muddy ground. Toro got onto the swath of fabric, Rowan doing the same.

“Come on,” he told Olivia. He glanced at the other cats, focusing on Hiccup and Rocket. “One of you needs to come,” he called to them.

“I’ll go,” said Rocket. “You can fight with your son.”

“But I know the house better,” Hiccup told him. “You keep an eye on Spewy.”

Hiccup approached his son and the two pressed their heads together. Once he was finished saying a few words, he joined Rowan, Toro, and Olivia on the cape. As he’d done before, Logan picked up the corners of the cape, and was soon lifting into the air, the rain slicking off his wings.

Rowan managed to look down just as the cats all turned to the hoarder’s home, led by Quantum and Rocket, only a few waiting behind for a moment to watch them fly.

Lightning cracked in the sky above, startling Olivia, who pressed her body next to Rowan, the kitten clearly not enjoying the ride.

“We’re almost there,” Rowan told her as they rose higher and higher into the air. “Hiccup, tell him where he should set us down. He can understand you.”

Logan circled over the home, thunder sounding off above them. Hiccup was now at the front of the group, his head peeking out of the increasingly wet cape.

The pelican said something, Toro quickly translating.

“He says it’s getting heavier. We need to pick a place to land!”

“There’s more than one entrance into the home, meow,” said Hiccup. “Just tell him to lower us to the roof. I’ll figure it out from there. It’s easier that way.”

“Lower us to the roof, mew-mew!” Olivia called up to the pelican.

Logan followed her instructions, and as he was reaching the roof, a bolt of lightning caught the bird by surprise.

He released the cape by accident.

Hiccup landed on the rooftop, and he managed to stop Olivia from sliding down one of the shingles. Toro stopped himself, but Rowan was unlucky, his shingle loose, Rowan taking it with him as he slid toward the edge of the rooftop.

“Rowan!” Olivia cried out.

He tried to throw himself forward, to grab on to something else, but was unable to, the water running on the rooftop making it harder for him to dig his claws in.

He hit the edge and started to fall, Rowan turning around just in time to land on Logan’s back. The pelican lifted him back up into the air and circled down to his friends. Rowan hopped off the pelican’s back, landing safely this time.

“You’re okay,” Olivia said, coming forward.

Rowan exhaled audibly and sat for a moment, catching his breath as lightning cracked in the sky again.

“Thank you,” Rowan told Logan as the pelican touched down near him, batting his enormous wings. He spoke to Toro for a moment before taking off again, leaving the red cape behind, which Toro quickly sent back to his inventory list.

“He said to whistle for him again if we needed to be picked up,” Toro said.

“My whistle…” Rowan found that he still had his whistle; in his slip from the rooftop, his whistle had somehow wrapped around his neck, almost like a collar. It was still there, however, giving them an even better option of escape.

“Follow me,” Hiccup said, using the arc of the roof to keep stable.

They reached the edge and peered over, into the side yard where the fight had already begun. Flashes of lightning gave them a brief visual of what was happening, dozens and dozens of rats facing off against the cats, Rowan able to see, much to his surprise, the twisted sisters doing a lot of damage.

After taking a quick look around, Hiccup settled on a way in. “There’s a gap in the attic,” he explained as he peered over the edge again, this time focused on what was directly beneath them, rather than the fight raging below. “A raccoon used to live there. Follow my lead.”

Hiccup started to bend forward, his pink tail up in the air. He stuck his claws out and grabbed onto an electric wire that was hanging off the home, and used his momentum to swing himself forward and then backward toward the gap.

“I don’t know if I can do that,” Rowan said once he saw that Hiccup was able to turn midair and fling himself into the attic.

“It’s our only way.” Toro bent over the roof, grabbed on the electric cord and practically tossed himself backward into the gap, where he turned midair and pulled himself up.

“You can do it, mew-mew,” said Olivia.

“Yeah…” Rowan bent forward and started to reach his claws out and managed to grab onto the cable. His body came around, Rowan letting go of the cable as he tossed himself backward.

He spun in the air and caught onto the ledge, pulling himself up into the gap, his heart racing for a moment then settling. With a deep breath out Rowan looked out to see Olivia just about to do the same. Lightning struck and she shrugged it off, the yellow kitten eventually joining him and the others.

“Good, meow,” said Hiccup as he started off into the attic.

It was stuffy in the space and it smelled terrible, like moldy cheese. Toro started to cough, Rowan feeling like doing the same.

“It’s definitely strong,” said Hiccup. “Meow-strong.”

He found an opening at the top of one of the boxes and pressed into it, Rowan following after him, then Olivia, then finally Toro. They came to an open space with a board jutting into it, which looked to move to the room below the attic.

“How is this even possible?” Toro asked.

“The house is falling apart,” said Hiccup as he took the board, black plastic trash bags making it so they had to squeeze through the passageway.

They heard movement around them, Rowan tensing up once he sensed the rats were closing in. Hiccup seemed to do the same, and he was just turning his head to let them know to get ready when a rat tore out of the trash, shredded paper and dust filling the air as it collided with Hiccup.

Even though they were operating in a very confined space, Rowan threw himself forward and drove his claws into the rat’s back, the rodent screeching and turning to him, just as the plank they were on gave way.

The four landed on the ground, Toro immediately coming to Rowan’s aid and attacking the rat. Olivia went to Hiccup, checking on him, the bigger cat taking just a moment longer than he should to get up.

They had a bit more space in this new room, but it was dark, Rowan noticing that the room was covered in boxes and large statues.

Another rat had appeared, and was just about to jump at him when Rowan struck it in the side, hissing as he did so.

The two rats joined together and took off, Rowan and his brother immediately giving chase.

“Wait…” Hiccup started to call after them.

The floorboard shifted again, Rowan glancing up to see that one of the statues was starting to fall, the boxes and trash bags coming down with it.

Rowan lunged for his brother and covered him, the floor beneath collapsing.

Everything went black for a moment as they fell, Rowan assuming that they would be crushed under the weight of the statue.

“I’ve got you!” he heard Blanche call out at the very last second, the dust girl appearing over him in a gust of wind which pressed everything away from the two for a moment as they smashed into another floor below, and finally hit a solid stone structure.

“Move, move…” Blanche told them.

Rowan panicked for a moment, not knowing which direction to go.

His wits caught up with him and he saw that there was a large oak desk just a few feet away that would definitely provide shelter. He grabbed his brother and ran toward it, just as Blanche finally let go of the debris, all of which crashed into the space, kicking up enough dust that it was hard to see.

Rowan and his brother started to cough, a sense of dread spreading through him as he peered ahead. Luckily, Blanche took care of this, their visibility enhanced just a few moments later after she swept the dust to the far corners of the room.

“Where are we?” Toro asked, looking at what felt like a wall of trash.

Wherever they were, it seemed like they were stuck.

“Are you two okay?” Blanche asked. Since they were low to the ground, the ghost was partially submerged in the floor, only her head and shoulders visible. “This is bad. This is all my fault. I should have never suggested… I’m…”

“It’s okay,” Rowan told her. “It’s okay.”

“Wait a minute…” Toro peered ahead, his hair standing to attention.

An older rat shuffled toward them, his whiskers long and droopy. Before they could engage the rat, the rodent started to speak.

Toro relaxed his posture a little.

“What did he say?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Toro told the rat. “He asked me if I can understand him, and he says his name is Zinger.”

“Zinger?” Rowan asked.

The rat nodded. Unfortunately, animals didn’t have social statuses, so Rowan was unable to see any more information about what was clearly an older rodent with spots of gray on his body. There was something about the rat that he trusted, even though Rowan wasn’t able to pinpoint what it was. Zinger seemed nothing like the two rodents that had attacked Toro and him just moments ago.

Zinger spoke for a moment longer, Toro nodding carefully.

“He wants to know why we’re here,” Toro translated.

“We’re looking for a locket,” Rowan said hurriedly. “One that has a picture of a man and a woman inside. Blanche?”

Rowan glanced around, but the ghost didn’t appear while his brother translated. She didn’t normally appear when others were around, and he assumed this was the case. He heard a voice in his ear seconds later.

“It’s gold, everything else you said is right.”

“It’s gold,” Rowan told the rat. “A golden locket with a picture of a man and a woman inside.” Zinger made a gesture indicating that he could understand the two kittens.

“I don’t get why the cats can’t understand other people,” Rowan said, “aside from you.”

“I don’t know,” said Toro.

The rat started speaking again, his voice just a bit hoarse.

Toro turned to Rowan, excitement in his eyes. “He has the locket.”

“You have it?”

Zinger, who now sat on his rear and held his hands close to his chest, nodded.

“How…” Rowan rephrased the question running through his mind. “What can we trade for it?”

Once Zinger finished speaking, Toro translated. “He says he’s a collector, that’s why he lives down here in the basement. It’s quiet down here, and the other rats don’t bother him.”

“We’re in the basement?” Rowan asked, glancing up. He spotted where he assumed was the space they just came from, too much clutter for him to really figure out where he was.

“We are,” said Toro. “And he said he would be willing to trade for it. He likes your whistle.”

Rowan looked down at the whistle that was wrapped around his neck. “But we need this. What about…”

Rowan pulled up his inventory list.

Wooden Sword

Knit Hat

Deck of Playing Cards

Drawing Paper

Pencil Set

Comic Book

Set of Keys for the General Store

Yellow Rain Jacket, Yellow Rain Boots, Red Hat (Rain Set)

Teal Clamshell

Panda Sunglasses

Dorno’s Sword

Camping Gear

Red Binoculars

He was pretty sure that Zinger wouldn’t have any interest in his original wooden sword, same with his knit hat and the deck of playing cards. The rat had no need for his art supplies, and he probably wouldn’t want the comic book. Rowan needed his keys for the store, his rain gear…

“What about this?” he asked, equipping the teal clamshell that they had been given by Chodak for helping him with his daily catch.

Zinger’s squinty eyes filled with surprise as he came forward and examined the clamshell. He sniffed the piece for a moment and then finally dragged it over to where he had just sat, wearing what looked like a satisfied grin on his whiskered face. The older rodent spoke to Toro, the younger boy quickly translating what he said.

“He says he likes it, and he wants us to wait for a minute.”

They heard a concussive noise outside the walls of the basement, Rowan shuddering at the sudden sound.

“How are we going to get out of here?” he asked Toro.

“Blanche,” said Toro. “Do you think you could guide Olivia to us?”

“I think so,” said the ghost, her voice sounding as if it were right next to Rowan’s ear. “I can at least try. Just wait here.”

Toro and Rowan waited patiently in the dark, more sounds reaching them.

For a moment, Rowan thought that Zinger wasn’t going to appear, but eventually the older rat shuffled out of the shadows, coming from a direction off to their left, Rowan’s senses tingling for a moment before he recognized him.

Zinger held a golden locket in his mouth, which he deposited in front of them. A quest prompt appeared in front of Rowan and fizzled away.

Side Quest: Help Blanche find her locket (complete)

Zinger spoke for a moment, and then turned to Toro, waiting for him to translate.

“He wants to know if we need help getting out of here…”

“Our friends are supposed to be coming,” Rowan assured the rodent.

Zinger took a look around, as if he were wondering where they would come from. With a shrug, and without saying another word, the collector rat shuffled off into the darkness.

Rowan and Toro waited, Rowan sending the golden locket to his inventory list, where it replaced the teal clamshell.

“I can’t believe that clamshell finally came in handy…” Rowan muttered to himself.

“I hope they hurry,” Toro said, more noises meeting their ears.

“Blanche said she’d guide Olivia to us, we have to trust her,” Rowan said, even though he was secretly feeling doubts that Olivia would be able to find them.

There was also a smell in the air now as well, Rowan instantly recognizing the scent.

“Do you smell that?”

Toro started to nod. “It’s…”

“Smoke,” Rowan said, finishing the sentence, not sure of what this meant.

They heard some rustling in the garbage in front of them, something giving way above them and falling onto the top of the desk that they continued to hide under.

“Rowan?” Olivia asked, her voice strained. She dropped down from the desk, a panicked look in her big green eyes.

“Olivia!” Toro said, coming forward.

“We have to go; Hiccup’s waiting on the other side. There’s… a fire.”

“A fire? How?” Rowan asked.

Blanche appeared, once again pressing out of the detritus, her face wrought with worry. “The rats chewed through an electric line and it started a fire in one of the bedrooms. It’s spreading.”

“Do you think we can get out?” Toro asked.

“Hiccup says he can figure it out, mew-mew,” Olivia said as she hopped back onto the desk. Rowan followed, Toro leading up the rear once again as the three moved through an angular passageway.

They reached a wider opening, Rowan stepping aside so Toro could pass in front of him.

The three kittens continued onward, over an old radiator, crawling through the hole in the picture frame before dropping down into a large frying pan and scaling a box fan that sat sideways across a basket and a flower vase, allowing them to move onto another passageway.

The smell of smoke grew stronger, and it wasn’t long before they reached Hiccup, who nervously paced back and forth.

“You’re okay, meow,” he said with a sigh of relief, his shoulders relaxing some, his tail dropping. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“We got what we came for,” Rowan told him, “from a rat down here. He traded it for something I had.”

“Zinger?”

“How did you know?” Toro asked.

“I know Zinger, he’s a good rat, a collector that…”

Hiccup’s sentence was cut short when the ceiling shook, a sofa sliding forward and into a hole near them, smashing into the table they had just been hiding under.

After everything settled, the dust and some of the smoke magically disappearing thanks to Blanche, Hiccup started leading the way.

“We can talk later,” he said, Toro quickly joining him, Olivia and Rowan at the back. They were able to find their way up a flight of stairs, where they came into what Rowan assumed was the kitchen based on the linoleum flooring.

Not only could he smell smoke now, but he could also see flames ahead, the wallpaper peeling, turning black, ash in the air.

“This is bad, this is bad…” Hiccup said. “Meow-bad, this is meow-bad.”

Since there was no other way to go, Hiccup led them toward the fire, where he veered left, once again finding a clear passageway. It was starting to get hotter, the sound of the fire crackling all around them, something shifting off to their right.

Rowan began to get dizzy.

The smoke was too much, and he felt for a moment like he was lost, no longer able to see anything in front of him.

A flame shot out, Rowan jumping back.

He saw Olivia’s face press out of the smoke around him, relief coming over her face once she saw that he was okay.

“We have to keep moving…”

“Right.” He followed after the yellow kitten, stepping around flaming bits of lumber, Rowan being extra careful with his tail now.

Olivia started coughing, Rowan nudging her to go forward. “Keep moving,” he told her, “keep moving.”

“Trying, mew-mew…”

“Do you see Toro?” he asked, panic moving from his chest all the way down to the tip of his tail as he too started to cough.

“I… no…” she said, coughing again.

“We have to keep going,” he said, feeling like he was choking on the smoke himself, his throat dry and scratchy. “Come on.”

“I don’t know where they…”

“Come on,” Rowan said, nudging her again as everything started to spin. “We can do this.”

Olivia collapsed, her head falling to the side.

Rowan grabbed her by the nape of her neck with his teeth, and started dragging her forward into the black smoke.

His legs grew heavier with each step, his eyes stinging, the heat all-encompassing.

“Keep going,” he heard Blanche say.

The smoke and ash spun all around him, Rowan able to see clearly for just a moment. He guessed that they were near the entrance of the house, Rowan able to catch a door and a small pathway leading away from it.

He couldn’t see Hiccup or his brother.

Something worse than panic came over him, Rowan trying desperately to scan the smoke as Blanche fanned it away, the oxygen thinner and thinner, practically nonexistent.

He was just about to call Toro’s name when the door kicked open, flames licking up around it, Rowan’s eyes falling on a thin man in a gas mask.

The man came forward and swooped down, grabbing both Rowan and Olivia.

With the two kittens in his arms, he took off toward the exit.

They burst out into the rain, and as they did the man placed them on the ground. “Stay here,” Redi Taka said, looking back to the open doorway, smoke billowing out of it.

The engineer steeled himself and charged in again, emerging just moments later with Hiccup and Toro, both of whom looked to be dead.

Rowan felt his throat tighten, every muscle in his body freeze as he saw Toro’s lifeless form, his head bent forward, no sign of movement.

“Nooo…” he managed to whisper.

Redi Taka grabbed Rowan and Olivia and headed away from the home, toward the woods, everything flashing around them as the rain continued to pour down. Once they were on the trail that led up to the cave, the older man crouched down and placed Hiccup on his side. He did the same for Toro, both Rowan and Olivia going to his younger brother, Rowan barely able to focus now.

“Wake up,” Rowan told his brother. “Wake up, Toro!” He tugged on his brother’s ear with his teeth. “Wake up,” he said, tears starting to stream down his face. “Please…”

Hiccup started coughing, the normally white cat black from the soot. He sat up, took one look at Redi Taka in his gas mask and, after blinking a few times, took off in an unknown direction.

“Toro,” Rowan said again, nudging his brother now. “Please, wake up.”

“We need to hurry,” Redi Taka told Rowan and Olivia. “I know you can hear me, I know you can understand me, and I know who you are. I’m going to carry you again, your brother too.”

Rowan ignored Redi Taka as he tried to press his ear against his brother’s chest, listening for a heartbeat.

He couldn’t hear one, not even a faint murmur. But his perception was also off, and the rain was heavy enough that it was drowning out some of the sound.

Rather than explain what he was trying to do again, Redi Taka scooped Rowan and Olivia up, finally grabbing Toro. He took off toward the cave, still in his gas mask.

The older man nearly slipped and caught himself, cursing under his breath as he stood again, rain bouncing off the outer shell of his leather jacket. He reached the cave and crouched before the hole. “Take him into the hole, you have to. Trust me, Rowan, do it.”

Rowan remembered in that moment that the transformation process had a healing aspect to it, and it was with reignited hope that he grabbed Toro and dragged him into the hole, Rowan no longer able to see, everything a blur.

Rowan came out on the other side to find himself clean and dry.

His focus immediately shifted to his younger brother who crawled out next to him and stood, a befuddled look on his face as he examined his hands.

Toro glanced up to Rowan, and from there to Redi Taka, who stood before them, his gas mask pressed to the top of his head now. He had a headlamp around his neck now, which he’d since turned on, the light forming a half moon around his feet.

“If you haven’t figured it out already, when you transform, you heal,” Redi Taka said, pointing to the hole.

“I remember,” Rowan told him, not knowing how to react in that moment. He wanted to throw his arms around his brother, but he was also still shocked, his limbs feeling numb, the pain in his chest subsiding.

Olivia, who stood behind Rowan and Toro in her pajamas, was the next to speak. “H-how did you know we were in there?”

“She told me,” Redi Taka said hurriedly.

“Who?” Rowan asked, assuming that it was Blanche.

“The Spirit of the Island. I believe you’ve met her,” he cleared his throat. “This goes without saying: what happened here tonight is something we have to keep between ourselves. Got it? Now, be honest with me, did one of you start the fire?”

“What? Of course not,” Olivia said. “It was the rats. They chewed through some of the wiring.”

Redi Taka nodded. “Ah, I didn’t consider that. Of course. It makes sense. Sorry to accuse you.” He bit his lip before continuing: “Not many people know about this whole transformation thing, and while we’re on the subject of island magic, as you called it,” he told Toro, “I can’t keep saving you. Please keep that in mind.” Redi Taka wiped sweat off his brow with his hand and flicked it to the ground. “Of course, if I’m around, and I’m able to get there in time, I’ll do my best. But what happened tonight could have been… you three could have died.”

“Sorry,” Olivia said.

“No need to apologize. Luckily, the Spirit of the Island came to your rescue.”

“Did she tell you to get us at the beach too?” Rowan asked. “The Spirit of the Island?”

Redi Taka nodded. “She has her ways of making herself known. Anyway, listen, this is dangerous, and it’s not the only place on this island where one can transform,” he said, pointing to the hole again. “But I understand the appeal, and I’m not going to stand here and tell you not to explore and enjoy being friends with some of the island’s other residents,” he said, referring to the cats. “But you have to be careful. The three of you could have died tonight. No one would have known what happened to you. A few of us would have assumed, but we would have no way of actually knowing.”

“We’re sorry,” Olivia told him. “We were looking for something for a friend.”

“A friend? Who?”

“Me,” Blanche said, swirling into existence with a boldness she hadn’t exhibited since she first appeared to Rowan and Toro in her true form.

“Where do I recognize you from?” Redi Taka asked, not at all startled by the appearance of the ghost.

Rather than use dust to show the outlines of her form, Blanche pressed back into the water dripping over the entrance of the cave, which gave her a slick, glossy look as the water rolled down her body.

“I’m Stellars’ granddaughter,” she said. “They were looking for something for me, for my locket.”

“Your locket?”

Rowan equipped it and showed it to Blanche and Redi Taka.

“I’m trying to get off the island,” she said. “I was told that this would help by one of the others… like me.”

Redi Taka slowly started to shake his head. “The locket is not going to help you get off the island. It’s a nice keepsake, and I’m sure it has sentimental value, but it’s not going to help you.”

“Really?” Blanche asked, a frown forming on her face. “They could have died because of me, and… and for nothing?”

Redi Taka nodded. “I’m afraid so. There may be another way, but finding this locket isn’t going to be…” Redi Taka tilted his head for a moment as he considered something. “Let’s just say that there’s more to it than just this. I’ve got to get down to the village. People that live around the home likely have smelled the smoke by now. I’m not too worried about the fire; it’s raining too hard for it to really spread.”

“And the cats that were there, are they all safe?” Rowan asked.

“That, I don’t know. But now is not the time to check on them. Get home, and hopefully your father, and your grandparents,” he told Olivia, “aren’t up. Make your way back down the path on the right there, keep to the side, be careful. Don’t let anyone see you.”

With that, Redi Taka turned away, leaving the four of them in the darkened cave. Rowan accessed his inventory list and went to his camping gear, where he equipped the flashlight. He aimed it on the ground in front of him, only then noticing that the whistle was around his neck on its thread.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Olivia told Toro, turning to him. She hugged Rowan’s younger brother, squeezing him so tightly that he started to push away from her. “We thought…”

“I don’t remember anything,” he said, once he realized she wasn’t going to let go. “I was just trying to follow Hiccup’s pink tail, and then I was coming out of this hole.”

“That was so stupid of us,” Rowan said, guilt washing over him. He felt like going to stand out in the rain for a moment, to feel the cold again. He had put his younger brother’s life at risk, and he didn’t yet know if any of the cats had been injured.

This was too much.

It really was a situation that could have been avoided. And he felt like it was all his fault.

“We had to do it for Blanche,” Toro said, as if he had sensed what his brother was feeling.

“No, you didn’t,” Blanche said, the ghost starting to sob. “It’s not going to work. I’m stuck here. I’m stuck on this island forever and I… I almost killed my three best friends!”

“That’s not true,” Olivia said as she approached her. “Redi Taka said there may be another way. He seems like a very smart man; I don’t think he’ll let you down.”

“I wish someone could hug me,” Blanche said, still crying.

Rowan took a step forward and hugged the ghost, his form pressing through the water dripping down from the mouth of the cave.

“We’re okay now,” he said, pretending to pat Blanche on the back. “We can regroup tomorrow.”

“We should go,” Olivia said, rain boots appearing on her feet and an umbrella shaped into the head of a cat forming in her hands.

Toro and Rowan both equipped their rain gear, and once they were ready, they headed down the hill, Rowan turning off his flashlight once they neared the village, the smell of smoke heavy in the air. They kept to the far side of the path, creeping quietly as they turned toward the West Docks.

Rowan wanted to go back to make sure the cats were okay, but he knew that the most important thing for him to do now was to get home safely.

They reached Olivia’s home, her three cats nowhere to be found. She turned to Rowan and Toro.

“Good luck getting back in,” she said, also coming forward to hug him, which startled Rowan.

“I’m so glad we made it,” she said, squeezing him tightly.

“Me… me too.”

Once she was inside her gate, Rowan led his brother to their front door, still no cats in sight. He opened it as quietly as he could and shut the door behind him, his rain gear quickly returning to his inventory list.

“As quiet as possible,” he told Toro.

His younger brother nodded.

“Pretend you’re a cat.” Rowan bent forward and placed his hands on the ground.

Toro started to giggle a little until they reached the stairs that led to the apartment, the two of them quietly going up on all fours. It was still raining outside, Rowan waiting at the top of the stairs until he heard thunder.

He used this opportunity to open the door, Rowan peeking around the corner to see his dad on the couch asleep, turned to one side, his back facing them.

Rowan tapped his brother on the shoulder and went forward, still crawling on all fours. If their dad woke up now, he could simply say that they couldn’t sleep because of the thunderstorm, that they were just playing.

But Ganix never woke, Rowan and Toro able to reach their bedroom, where they found Uncle crashed out on the bed, the cat hardly bothered by their reappearance.

Toro collapsed onto the mattress, his arms out wide. “I am so glad to be here.”

“Me too,” Rowan said as he kicked off his shoes. He equipped his comic book and placed it on the nightstand, sending the whistle to his inventory list to replace it.

“What a crazy night,” Toro said with a yawn.

“I’m just so glad all of us made it out alive.”

“I hope the cats are okay…”

“Me too. We’ll check in the morning.”

.Epilogue.

Rowan awoke to the sound of rain lightly pattering against the window. Toro was still asleep, and for a moment he placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder, glad that he was there with him, still alive.

In his panic last night after being caught in the fire, Rowan had forgotten that going through the hole in the cave healed a person to some degree. He had really thought that Toro was dead, and even now, as he could clearly see his brother next to him, could feel him breathing even, Rowan started to tear up when imagining what that would be like.

He had to protect Toro better than he had last night.

They had gotten extremely lucky, and if it hadn’t been for the Spirit of the Island and Redi Taka, things would have turned out quite differently.

Rowan sat up and found Uncle at the foot of the bed, the orange kitten lying on his side and looking at him. He heard some commotion in the living room, and what sounded like his dad going downstairs.

Before he did anything else, Rowan took a quick glance at his personal attributes as per his normal morning routine.

Rowan Toragan

Level 13

HP: 376/376

Intelligence: 24.31

Willpower: 11.75

Empathy: 7.50

Charisma: 12.02

Strength: 6.27

Dexterity: 8.20

Luck: 4.21

+ .04 Intelligence!

+ .15 Willpower!

+ .24 Empathy!

+ .10 Strength!

+ .06 Dexterity!

+ .13 Luck!

He had almost hit a homerun, his eyes jumping from his personal attributes to his active quests:

Main Quest: Adjust to island living

Side Quest: Get the apple-peach orchard up and running

Side Quest: Find collectibles on the island and bring them to the hoarders

Personal Quest: Figure out what happened between Mom and Dad

Personal Quest: Try to be nicer to Toro

Rowan went ahead and canceled out the quest asking him to find collectibles for the hoarders. That was definitely out of the question now.

Soon, he would likely complete his Personal Quest to discover what had happened between his mom and dad. He would keep the Personal Quest of trying to be nicer to his brother. It was important that he was reminded of this every time he checked his quest alerts, especially after what had happened last night.

He cycled to the three skills he was working on, surprised to see that he had leveled up.

Drawing / Level 4

Talking to Girls / Level 5

Level up!

Basic Construction / Level 1

Rowan didn’t quite know how he’d leveled up here, especially as he was sure he had been awkward last night when Olivia had hugged him. Maybe the level increase was through a combination of everything that had happened, and how their relationship had evolved. It could have also come from the hug he’d given Blanche’s ghost, which was another thing he wouldn’t have done had they not just gone through such an intense experience together.

“Boys!” he heard their father call from the living room.

“We need to wake up,” he told Toro.

“But I still want to sleep…”

“You can sleep tonight. We won’t go out.…” Rowan nodded to himself. “We definitely won’t go out tonight.”

He hopped out of bed, and after changing his clothes, he came out of the room to find their father pacing back and forth.

“What is it?”

“Redi Taka just stopped by. Something has happened,” Ganix said. “There was a fire at Alto’s house last night.”

“Did it burn down?” Rowan asked, trying to gauge the level of his voice, hoping he sounded surprised.

“The outside is still standing, but the inside is completely ruined; maybe we should go take a look at it. I need to see this for myself.”

“I’ll get Toro,” Rowan said before Ganix could change his mind.

“I’m awake,” said Toro as he came into the living room, a blanket draped over his head. “What happened?”

“Come on, we need to get dressed…”

Once they were in the bedroom, Rowan reminded Toro that they had to act surprised at what had happened to Alto’s place, that they had to let the adults figure it out. He was sure that Redi Taka had already explained things to their father; Rowan and Toro would need to rely on the adults to let the other villagers know the fire was caused by rodents.

“What do you think Alto is going to do now?”

“I don’t know…” Rowan said honestly. “I really don’t know.”

They met their father downstairs, Ganix just coming in from the rain with the bag of cat food.

“I’m going to have to feed them later; it’s raining too much for me to do it now. Speaking of which: rain jackets on, boys, boots too. Let’s go.”

“Were…” Rowan swallowed hard. “Were all the cats out there?”

“What do you mean?”

“Were they out there?”

“All five of them, yes. Why?” Ganix asked.

“Never mind.”

Rowan and Toro’s slick rain jackets appeared on their bodies, their boots taking shape over their feet. They stepped out into the rain, Rowan noticing that it was much lighter than it had been the previous night, no lightning or thunder either. He could already see the sun behind the gray clouds overhead, the rain likely letting up soon.

The downpour had brought with it a heady scent of soil and wet stone, the smell reminding Rowan of life, and how beautiful the island was even with some of the tragedies that were buried beneath the surface. They had encountered one such tragedy with the Alto situation, and he knew there were others, and that wasn’t to mention the darker forces at play, like the ghost they had encountered on the western beach.

There was still so much to explore.

Up the cobblestone hill they went, Ganix leading his two sons toward the center of town, where they found Redi Taka and Dorno observing the home.

“What do we do now?” Ganix asked.

“Now?” Redi Taka turned to him, the engineer with a black umbrella over his shoulder, his trademark goggles on his head. “Now, we wait for the rain to let up. It’ll be done soon; I can feel it in my bones. There are boats coming later today to start taking care of some of the garbage outside of the home. Dorno here arranged for that.”

“I know some trash removal people that have hacked inventory lists,” the carpenter explained to Ganix. “I already spoke to Nedman and Alto about it as well for approval.”

“Hacked inventory lists?” Rowan started to ask.

“Don’t worry about it,” his father told him.

“The loaders should be able to get most of the stuff out in a day or two,” Redi Taka said. “The mud is going to make it a bit worse, but hopefully, it’ll be all dried up by the afternoon.”

“Just be sure to leave the cat statue.” Ganix looked up at the statue Alto and Garner had built out of garbage. It towered over the estate, and from what Rowan could tell, it was structurally sound, the debris patched together by concrete. “How is Alto anyway?”

Dorno shook his head. “I can’t get a read on him. Nedman and Mel are trying to keep him away from the home for now, just giving him the time he needs to relax and lick his wounds a bit. They also don’t want him trying to go in there and hurt himself somehow. But he knows about the fire, that’s for sure, and they have already been by this morning to take a quick look with him. He’s well-aware.”

“I wonder how he’s going to take it in the long run,” Ganix mused.

“That, I couldn’t tell you. But we need a solution soon.”

“Dad, what about…”

“Not now, Toro,” Ganix told his son. “A solution, we definitely need a viable solution, something that will help him move on. I’ll try to think of something.”

“More street lamps are coming today too,” Dorno told Ganix.

Rowan caught something floating out of the corner of his eye. He looked to his left to see a daily prize getting battered by the rain. It seemed to be heading toward the eastern side of the island, the balloon bright red, the package blue with yellow ribbon. Toro noticed it as well, both boys concluding that it was too high up for them to try to get even if they wanted to.

Rowan tuned back into what Dorno was saying. “…And I think it’s time we have a sitdown meeting with some of the villagers and figure out some of the improvements that we can work on now that we have funding. The fountain, I know you’ve mentioned that. There needs to be a ramp at the East Docks, and I still need to finish the ramp at the West Docks, but keep getting distracted. If it dries up enough, I might be able to do that into the evening. It will be cooler later today. If not, tomorrow morning.”

“We should have it done by tomorrow afternoon,” Redi Taka said.

“Great,” Ganix told them.

“You missed it last night,” said Dorno. “Some of the villagers were talking about having an actual celebration once we get some of the renovations done. So we should talk about that as well. It would be nice to have something. Maybe we could use the old farmer’s market as a location.”

“That’s been mentioned before.”

“…Get some musicians, some food, some prizes, some games. Something.”

“Not a bad idea,” said Ganix.

It was clear to Rowan by the look on his father’s face that he was more focused on how they were going to handle Alto in the moment. He kept looking at the burned-out shell of a home, pain in his eyes, his father trying not to carry a grim expression on his face.

“Let’s have some breakfast,” Rowan said, interrupting the men. “Once we do that, we can figure out what’s next. We’re starving…”

He was surprised to find that this worked, his father turning to him and agreeing. “Not a bad idea, actually. I need something in my stomach too. Let’s head to Nedman’s. Care to join us?” Ganix asked Redi Taka and Dorno. “We can discuss this more there.”

“We’ve already had breakfast,” Dorno said. “But we’ll meet up with you again later today.”

After saying goodbye to Dorno and Redi Taka, Ganix led his two sons down the hill and to Nedman’s Restaurant, the three returning their rain jackets to their inventory lists once they stepped inside. Nedman stood behind the counter, frying up an egg for Gonpo, who, as always, wore his Pandas uniform.

“Gentlemen,” Gonpo said with a nod, returning to his glass of orange juice.

“Hey, guys,” Nedman called over to them. “It’s just me today, so I’m keeping it simple. Fried cat eggs, catatoes, cat sausage, and gravy. Sound all right to you?”

“That’s fine,” Ganix told him. “A coffee for me as well.”

“We’ll have coffee too,” Rowan told Nedman.

If his father thought anything of this, he didn’t put words to it as he motioned them to the nearest table.

“Coming right up,” said Nedman.

Ganix approached the counter, Rowan assuming that he was going to talk to him about what had happened at Alto’s home.

Nedman slid a plate with a fried egg on it over to Gonpo. “I’ll bring you your coffees; we can talk there.”

Ganix returned to the table and sat across from his two sons, letting out a deep breath as he placed both hands behind his head. It wasn’t long before Nedman approached the table with three coffees, Toro’s and Rowan’s doctored with whipped cream and chocolate.

“So this is what you have been feeding them,” Ganix told Nedman.

“Only on special occasions. I feel like today’s a special occasion.”

“Why’s that?” Rowan asked.

“Terrible things have happened over the last few days, but the revolution has started, and we will persevere. The village is coming together, and the improvements have already started. As for Alto,” he said, turning his attention to Ganix, “he was doing a little bit better last night, and it seems like he wants a new start. But now, with his home ruined…”

“It’s maybe just too much to handle,” Ganix said with a sigh.

“Something like that. I know he has a relative on the mainland. Maybe it’s best if he goes back there…”

“Dad…” Toro said.

“Not now, Toro. Let me finish…”

“I have an idea, Dad. Just hear my idea.”

Ganix turned to his youngest son, Nedman tilting his head toward him as well.

“Alto was an actor, right?”

“Everyone knows that,” Rowan told his brother, not sure of where he was going with this.

“Why don’t you ask him if he wants to turn his home, or what’s left of it, into the village theater?” Toro suggested. “He could live above it, or build a new place next to it. I don’t know. But it’s a…”

“A village theater?” Ganix asked, glancing from his son to Nedman. “Do you think that is something that he would…?”

“I don’t know if it dampens the fact that his home has burned down and the whole situation with his brother, but maybe…” Nedman bobbed his head left and right for a moment as he considered Toro’s suggestion. “It might be the distraction he needs. And the village would certainly benefit from something like that.”

“And we have the funding. Part of the funding is tied to getting that place fixed up. If I propose a theater, I’m sure…” Ganix bit his lip. “At least I hope that Stellars would fund it.”

“I don’t think it would take much convincing. It would be nice for the rest of the village, and I believe that it could help Alto heal. He ran a theater, you know, back in Any_City. He wasn’t just an actor, he actually ran one. He doesn’t mention that fact, mostly because he likes to make it seem that he was always on the creative side of the spectrum, but that’s what he was doing before he moved here. I remember him talking about it.”

“It’s definitely an option. And Toro,” Ganix said, looking back to his youngest son. “Sorry for not hearing you out earlier.”

“It’s okay, Dad,” Toro said as he took a sip of his coffee. His eyes lit up as soon as the sugar hit his tongue. “So good…”

Rowan and his brother followed their dad up the hill, the town square on the right overlooking the sea, Alto’s home on the left, a mist sitting over the scattered debris. The rain had started to let up, the sun peeking through gray clouds in columns of light. It was going to be a warm day, humid too, but there was a breeze coming down from the mountains that would cool the village off later that evening.

Rowan had already confirmed that Micah, Manchester, and Lady Cassandra were okay, the three abyssinians relaxing outside Diana’s fence. His father had seen the five cats that hung out in front of their store, Quantum, Ryuk, Meme, Fiona, and Zaena.

But there were more cats he needed to check on.

He stopped in front of Alto’s home, his dad taking a few steps ahead before he saw Rowan looking out at the garbage, Toro by his side.

“Come on, we need to get to the orchard…”

“You think they’re okay?” Toro asked so only Rowan could hear.

Sure enough, some trash spilled over and a brown cat stepped out, Rowan confirming that this was indeed Rocket when he saw the cat’s name appear on his Catpendium.

“Whew,” he said, relaxing a little. “That’s a relief.”

Where there was Rocket, there was usually Hiccup, the white birman with the pink tail also appearing, the two turning to Rowan and his brother. Hiccup still had some black smudges on his body, but he looked cleaner than he had last night, the cat staring curiously at the two brothers as their dad called for them.

“Boys…”

Rowan turned back to their father, Toro doing the same.

They passed Gonpo’s place and came to Chodak’s home, Rowan once again stopping until he saw the twisted sisters, Nadine and Yuri, sleeping peacefully on the porch. He caught up with their dad before he could call his name, Rowan now looking to Argat’s home, to the drainage ditch. He saw a flash of red, confirming that FeeTwix was there, Rowan then looking toward Gilda’s place and spotted the dark-blue korat known as Danzen.

There was only one cat remaining, Spewy, who they found in his usual place on Ringo’s lap. The old coder waved to Ganix as their father approached his front porch.

“Where’s Curtis?” Toro asked.

“Believe it or not, he decided to sleep in today and miss his exercise class,” Ringo said, peering at the two boys with eyes amplified by his spectacles.

“Well, let him know I’m at the orchard whenever he wakes up,” Ganix told.

“Will do.”

They continued on toward the East Docks, where they made their way on the path that cut through the woods, Rowan wishing that they had brought their bicycles. It was nice to walk with their dad, though, and after what had happened last night…

Rowan glanced over to his brother and smiled.

His brother didn’t see him at that moment, Toro too distracted by a fuzzy pink caterpillar on one of the trees.

“Look at this one,” he said, pointing it out to their dad, laughing.

“That’s quite some color,” Ganix said as he placed his hand on his younger son’s shoulder.

They reached the orchard and walked up the embankment, making their way down to the rows that separated the apple-peach shrubs, Ganix and his two boys gasping at what they saw next.

Every one of the shrubs had started to bloom, green leaves where there had been none the previous day. A prompt appeared and quickly faded away.

Side Quest: Get the apple-peach orchard up and running (complete)

“They really do grow fast,” Ganix said as he went to the first shrub and examined it, carefully turning one of the leaves over in his hand.

“We’re going to have so many apple-peaches,” said Toro. “I can’t wait.”

Ganix nodded, a smile taking shape on his face as he carefully made his way through the rows, pointing out muddier spots to his two sons.

They reached three buildings that sat at the top of the hill, Ganix placing his hands on his waist as he turned to his sons. “I have some news,” he said, nodding to himself, confirming something in his own mind.

“What kind of news?” Toro asked, looking up at him.

Ganix glanced back to the orchard’s quaint home. He returned his gaze to his youngest son, and from there to Rowan.

“Your mother. She’s coming…” he said, letting out a sigh of relief. “I was going to keep it a surprise, but I don’t think that’s fair to you two, especially after all I’ve put you through.”

“Mom’s coming… here?” Toro asked, letting out an excited shriek. His eyes immediately shot to Rowan, who feigned surprise.

“When is she coming?” Rowan asked. He found that it was easy to lie in that moment, his voice trembling, a fluttering in his stomach. He truly was excited for their dad to deliver the news, and for their mom to see the island.

“Not today, but maybe tomorrow or at the latest, the day after.” Ganix looked back out at the orchard. “I think she’s going to like this place.”

Rowan followed his father’s gaze to see that the daily prize they’d seen earlier was now floating over the orchard, suspended by a bright-red balloon. A gust of suspicious-looking wind tinged with dust brought it down just a bit closer to the ground.

“Can we…?” Toro asked their dad.

“Sure, but only if you let me help you.”

“You will?”

“Let me have that broom of yours…”

Toro equipped his broom and handed it to their father, who made his way back down the hill toward the daily prize.

A second prompt flashed in front of Rowan, one that he wasn’t expecting.

Main Quest: Adjust to island living (complete)

He had done it.

But before he could celebrate, another prompt took shape, this one instantly making Rowan think of the western side of the island, where the wrathful ghost lived, where there were still mysteries to be had.

Main Quest: Discover the secret of Sacred Cat Island

“I’ll do my best,” Rowan said as the quest slowly faded away, particles of light filtering through the words.

After taking one more look at the blooming orchard, Rowan took off down the hill to join his brother and his father, their dad seconds away from catching his first daily prize.

It was going to be a great day, and hopefully, there would be time to become cats later in the afternoon.

The end

I truly hope you enjoyed Sacred Cat Island. It is unlike any book I have written to this date, and it is the first all-ages book that I have penned. I would like the second installment to be even longer, with more cats, more magical scenes, and more intrigue.

The success of this book depends on your reviews, especially if you are reading it close to its initial release date. I will start writing the second installment once Sacred Cat Island hits 150 US reviews, so please take a moment to review the book, either by just rating it or actually writing a review. Both help immensely. Let the world know what you think, and no spoilers!

You can review the book here.

If you live in the US, I have custom postcards designed by my wife to send you as thanks. These are limited. To get one, simply review the book and message me on Facebook (Harmon Cooper) or send me an email writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com with your review link and address.

Continue on for a little more information about this book and some great links.

Back of the Book Content

Reader,

I wrote Sacred Cat Island after Covid-19 shutdown most of the world during the year 2020. My goal in writing this was to give you a long story to escape into, to help forget about all the chaos of the world, and to encourage faith in community and what brings us together, rather than what can divide us.

Lofty goals, I know.

But hopefully it brought you some joy, and if it did, please tell a friend or share it with a loved one. There is a story here for everyone, from the complications of aging, to the naivety of youth, even the intrigue of magic and technology, and how in this world, they seem to have a common thread.

If you’ve read my other works, namely The Feedback Loop, Fantasy Online, but really anything else, you’ll see that I named all the cats on the island after characters from my other books. There are more Easter eggs hidden in the text as well, including a big reveal that you may have missed…

Thank you again for reading Sacred Cat Island, and please take a moment to review it. Don’t forget to send me a link of your review so I can send you a postcard!

Yours in sanity,

Harmon Cooper

Writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com

Here are some Facebook pages you should join:

My Facebook Group (join this to get exclusive content, giveaways!)

Cultivation Novels Facebook Group

Western Wuxia

LitRPG Books

GameLit Society

Here are some other ways to support my books:

1)    Join the Proxima Galaxy on Facebook where I look for ARC (advanced Review Copy) readers and give away audiobooks and other cool stuff.

2)    Review the books, which generates more interest from other readers, which makes me write faster because (carrot dangling from the stick!) – I want to please you all!

3)    Join the Harmon Cooper mailing list.

4)    Join my Patreon where you can read exclusive content (from cover design to future release ideas) AND all chapters before they are published.

Other Books by Harmon Cooper

I have written over fifty books (whew). Here are some of the highlights!

Witcher meets John Wick meets Inuyasha in this bestselling cultivations series.

https://geni.us/PILGRIM

A man becomes the grim reaper and introduces game mechanics to the role. DO NOT miss this book.

https://geni.us/DeathsMantle

A fantasy harem adventure inspired by Pokemon Go!, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and the Persona family of video games. Check out this Amazon best seller!

https://geni.us/MonsterHuntNYC

What if Ready Player One was a multi-part epic? Gritty LitRPG action, gamer humor, fantastic fantasy worlds, and a killer MC.

(This one is related to Monster Hunt NYC)

https://geni.us/TheLoop