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Wemmbu pushed open the door to Parrot's personal headquarters without knocking. Why would he knock? Parrot had made it very clear that his friends could come and go as they pleased.
The room was a mess—papers scattered across the desk, maps pinned to the walls, a half-empty mug of something on the nightstand. The blanket on the bed was... moving?
Wemmbu stopped, staring.
The blanket was definitely moving. Writhing, actually, like something was trapped underneath it. There were small sounds coming from it—frustrated yips and the rustle of fabric.
"What the—" Wemmbu approached cautiously, reaching for the edge of the blanket.
A black nose poked out from underneath, followed by a pair of bright white eyes that blinked up at him with obvious distress. Then the rest of the head emerged—a black fox with distinctive white eyes and what looked like a rainbow-colored headband tied around its head.
The fox made a high-pitched whine, its paws tangled in the fabric. When it saw Wemmbu, it immediately started yipping rapidly, the sounds urgent and expressive.
Wemmbu stared at it for a long moment.
Then he started laughing.
"Oh my god," he said, his voice breaking with amusement. "Oh my god, how did you even—"
The fox whined louder, more insistently, trying to free itself and only getting more tangled. Its tail was wrapped around one corner of the blanket, its back legs caught in another fold. It made more yipping sounds, faster now, like it was trying to explain something very important very quickly.
"Hold on, hold on," Wemmbu said, still laughing as he reached down to help untangle the mess. "Calm down, whatever you are—"
The fox nipped at his finger—not hard enough to break skin, but sharp enough to communicate hurry up. Then it started yipping again the moment Wemmbu pulled his hand back.
Wemmbu snickered, amused. "Okay, okay, almost got it—"
He carefully worked the blanket free, pulling fabric away from paws and tail until the fox could finally scramble free. It shook itself vigorously, the rainbow headband staying miraculously in place, and immediately launched into what sounded like a very long, very animated explanation consisting entirely of yips and whines and head movements.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you have a great story," Wemmbu said, picking up the fox. It was surprisingly solid for how small it looked, and it didn't stop making sounds even as he lifted it. "But I can't understand you, so—"
The fox made more sounds, its white eyes wide and expressive. Its tail was moving constantly, swishing and wagging and flicking.
Wemmbu held it at arm's length, studying it. Black fur, white eyes, rainbow headband. "...Spoke?"
The fox's ears perked straight up. It yipped once, very emphatically, then launched into another series of sounds like it was trying to get across everything that had happened in the shortest time possible.
"Holy shit, you are Spoke." Wemmbu brought the fox closer. "What happened to you?"
Spoke made a long series of sounds, his head tilting at different angles, his ears moving, his whole body language trying to communicate. He was clearly trying very hard to explain something complex.
"Dude, I literally cannot understand a word you're saying." Wemmbu settled the fox in his arms. "Where's Parrot? Does he know about this?"
Spoke yipped several times in quick succession, in a Spoke-like way that said: “I don’t know! But I’m going to keep talking—“
A loud thwack sound made Wemmbu's head snap up.
A blue and gold macaw had just flown through the open window at high speed, clearly not expecting anyone to be standing there. It veered wildly, wings flapping in panic, heading straight for Wemmbu's face.
"Shit—" Wemmbu ducked, and the macaw's trajectory changed at the last second. Instead of hitting him in the face, it landed on top of his head, talons scrabbling for purchase.
Spoke yowled in surprise as Wemmbu tried to stay balanced with a fox in his arms and a bird on his head. The macaw was struggling to stay upright, its wings flapping against Wemmbu's ears, its clipped wings not quite giving it enough control.
"Get off—stop—" Wemmbu tried to reach up with one hand while keeping Spoke secure with the other. The macaw squawked loudly, its talons tangling in Wemmbu's hair.
Spoke was making excited yipping sounds, looking up at the bird on Wemmbu's head, his sounds rapid and overlapping like he was trying to talk to both Wemmbu and the bird at once.
Then Wemmbu went very still.
Blue and gold macaw. Clipped wings. Flying through Parrot's window into Parrot's room.
He looked down at the black fox with white eyes and a rainbow headband in his arms.
Looked up at the macaw currently using his head as an emergency landing pad.
"Oh," Wemmbu said slowly. "Oh, this is perfect."
The macaw finally managed to get stable footing on his head, though it was clearly undignified about the whole situation. It made a sharp clicking sound, then a series of squawks that sounded distinctly irritated.
"Parrot?" Wemmbu said, his grin widening. "Is that you up there?"
The macaw went very still. Then it squawked once, sharply.
Spoke made several sounds that seemed defensive but came out as rapid yips. His tail was moving constantly, swishing back and forth.
"This is the best day of my life," Wemmbu announced. “The king of the server is a bird—"
Parrot squawked in irritation, his talons tightening slightly in Wemmbu's hair in a way that was definitely on purpose.
"I'm just saying what we're all thinking," Wemmbu said, completely unbothered by the macaw pulling at his hair. "This is objectively hilarious. How long have you two been like this?"
Both animals made sounds at him—Spoke yipping in rapid succession, trying to communicate something, and Parrot squawking with clear frustration that Wemmbu couldn't understand them.
"I'm sure it's a very interesting and long story," Wemmbu said. "But all I'm hearing is animal noises, so—"
And then the world shifted.
It wasn't gradual. One moment Wemmbu was standing there with a fox in his arms and a bird on his head, and the next his perspective was dropping rapidly toward the ground. His hands changed, his body compressed, reshaped itself into something smaller and four-legged.
Spoke and Parrot both tumbled from his grip, landing in a heap on the floor.
Wemmbu blinked.
He had paws. He had paws. And a tail—he could feel it, thin and pointed, swishing behind him. And when he looked down at himself, he saw dark fur and the distinctive body of a cat.
"Oh come on," he hissed.
"Hah!" Parrot's voice came from somewhere to his right. Wemmbu turned to see the macaw had managed to right himself and was now looking at him with obvious satisfaction. "Who's laughing now?"
"Oh dude, you can talk now!" Spoke's voice was energetic as he scrambled to his feet, shaking himself off. "Finally! I've been trying to tell you what happened but you couldn't hear me and I was stuck in that blanket and it was the weirdest thing, bro, like my phasing powers just didn't work on the fabric for some reason and I kept getting more tangled and I had so much to say and you just kept laughing—"
"Because you were stuck in a blanket," Wemmbu said flatly.
"It was a really weird blanket!" Spoke defended, his words coming fast. "The fabric got all twisted and I couldn't phase through it and I tried like five different angles but nothing worked and then I got my tail caught and—"
"Spoke," Parrot interrupted. "Focus."
"Right, right, sorry, I just—it's been a weird morning, you know? And I couldn't talk to anyone and—"
"This is—" Wemmbu looked down at his paws again, then at his tail. "I'm a cat."
"You were making fun of us for being animals like two seconds ago," Parrot pointed out, hopping closer. His tone carried distinct satisfaction. "How's it feel, bro?"
"Terrible," Wemmbu said.
Spoke was pacing now.
“Spoke.” Parrot called. He didn’t seem to hear in his thoughts. “Spoke.”
Getting frustrated, Wemmbu crouched low, his tail lashing.
Wemmbu pounced on Spoke.
They collided in a tumble of fur and yowling and barking, rolling across the floor. Spoke was slightly bigger, but Wemmbu had claws and the righteous irritation of being turned into an animal and his ego hanging on the line. They wrestled, neither one actually hurting the other but both of them completely committed to winning.
Spoke managed to pin Wemmbu for a moment, but Wemmbu twisted and got his back legs up, kicking the fox off. They separated, circled each other, and immediately launched back into the fray.
"Stop!" Parrot's squawk was sharp and authoritative, carrying the full weight of someone who was used to being listened to.
Both Wemmbu and Spoke froze mid-wrestle, Wemmbu's paw on Spoke's face, Spoke's teeth very close to Wemmbu's ear.
Parrot waddled over to them with as much dignity as a macaw could manage. “We need to focus. You two, get off eachother.”
Slowly, reluctantly, Wemmbu and Spoke separated. Spoke shook himself, his headband somehow still perfectly in place. Wemmbu sat down and started grooming his ruffled fur with pointed irritation.
"You want us to go somewhere?" Wemmbu drawled, his tail curling.
“Yes.”
"Where?"
Parrot gestured with his wing toward the door. When neither of them moved fast enough, he made a tsk sound with his beak and hopped faster.
They made it to the door, which was thankfully slightly ajar. Parrot squeezed through first, his clipped wings making it awkward but manageable. Spoke followed easily, his fox body slipping through without issue. Wemmbu had to flatten himself slightly, his whiskers brushing the doorframe.
The hallway was empty, which was good—the last thing they needed was someone seeing the king of the server as a macaw. Parrot led them down the hall with surprising confidence for someone who was hopping rather than walking, heading toward the main area of the headquarters.
That's when they heard it.
Barking. Loud, frantic barking, getting closer.
And voices. "There it is! Grab it!"
"Don't let it get away!"
"Someone get a net!"
Around the corner came a medium-sized dog, running flat-out. It had scruffy fur and wore a black blindfold tied around its tail.
Behind it were three players, gaining ground.
The dog skidded around the corner, nearly crashing into them.
All four animals froze.
The dog's head tilted toward them, its nose working. "Oh thank god, you guys—"
"Flame?" Spoke's ears perked straight up. "Dude! You're a dog! And your blindfold's on your tail! That's—how does that even work—"
"I'm aware!" Flame barked, looking back at the approaching players. "Been running from these idiots for like ten minutes, bro—"
Parrot made a sharp sound and immediately started hopping back toward his room. "In here, now!"
They ran—or in Parrot's case, hopped frantically—back down the hallway. The players rounded the corner just as Wemmbu's tail disappeared through Parrot's door. Parrot flapped onto his desk and Spoke scrambled under the bed while Flame and Wemmbu pressed against the wall.
"Where'd they go?"
"Check the rooms!"
"Not that one, that's the king's personal quarters. We can't go in there without permission."
"But the dog—"
"Dude, that's Parrot's room. You want to explain to the king why you were searching his bedroom?"
A pause. "...Fair point. Let's check the other rooms."
Footsteps retreated.
Inside Parrot's room, four animals were catching their breath.
Flame shook himself out.
He turned toward where Wemmbu was standing, his frustration of being chased for ten minutes getting the better of him, snapping at the first person he saw. "Of course you're here."
Wemmbu's ears flattened. "Of course you showed up."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Flame growled.
"Means you always make things more complicated, bro."
"Oh, like you're so simple?"
"I'm better at this than you!”
Flame lunged at Wemmbu without warning.
They collided in a tangle of fur and snarls, rolling across the floor. Flame was bigger, but Wemmbu was faster and had claws. They wrestled with the particular intensity of two people who had history, snapping and growling.
"Really?" Parrot said from his perch on the desk. "Right now? We're doing this right now?"
"He started it!" Wemmbu yowled, getting his back legs up to kick Flame off.
"You called me out!" Flame barked back, immediately lunging again.
"Guys, guys, this is not the time—" Spoke started, pacing near them, his voice rapid. "We're all animals and something's clearly wrong and we should be figuring that out instead of fighting and—"
Flame managed to pin Wemmbu for a moment. "Give up, bro?"
"Never," Wemmbu hissed, twisting free and immediately pouncing back.
They rolled into the desk leg with a loud thump, still wrestling.
"I could just leave you two here," Parrot said.
"Don't you dare—" Wemmbu growled, getting Flame in a hold.
Flame twisted out of it with a snarl. "You wish you could leave, bro—"
They separated for a moment, circling each other, both breathing hard.
"Okay so like," Spoke said, still pacing, "clearly we're all cursed or something and we need to figure out why and—"
Spoke stopped mid-sentence. His white eyes locked onto Parrot, who was still perched on the desk. A mischievous gleam appeared in those eyes.
"Spoke," Parrot said warily. "What are you thinking?"
"Nothing!" Spoke said, but he was already moving toward the desk. "Just noticed you're right there, and you're a bird, and we're all predators, and—"
"Don't even think about it."
Spoke's mouth opened, and in one quick motion, he lunged forward and grabbed Parrot's tail feather gently in his teeth.
Parrot shrieked, wings flapping in panic.
Spoke started backing up, dragging Parrot off the desk. His words came out muffled around the feathers: "Guys! Guys, stop fighting, I got something better—"
Flame and Wemmbu both froze mid-grapple.
They looked at Spoke, who was dragging Parrot across the floor.
They looked at each other.
And then, in perfect unison, they released each other and looked up at Spoke with immediate interest.
"Oh we're doing this?" Wemmbu said, his rivalry with Flame instantly forgotten.
"Yeah, we're doing this," Flame said, his tail starting to wag.
Spoke released Parrot in the center of the room. "Okay, okay, hear me out—truce between all of us. We share the prey."
"I'm listening," Wemmbu said, his purple-black eyes gleaming.
"I'm so in, bro," Flame said, grinning.
Parrot scrambled to his feet, staring at the three of them with wide bird eyes. "Don't you dare. I am the king—"
All three of them moved at once.
Parrot screeched and took off, his clipped wings flapping frantically. He couldn't fly, and he couldn’t hop extremely fast, but he made a break for the cabinet in the corner.
"Get him!" Spoke yipped, right behind him. "He's heading for the corner—"
"On it!" Wemmbu moved to cut him off, his cat body low and fast.
"Block the other side, bro!" Flame called.
Parrot managed to scramble up the side of the cabinet, his talons finding purchase in the wood. He made it to the top and immediately turned to glare down at his three pursuers, his feathers ruffled with indignation. "This is mutiny, bro!"
Below him, Spoke, Wemmbu, and Flame sat in a semicircle, looking up. All three of them were clearly delighted with themselves. Spoke's tail was swishing rapidly. Wemmbu's tail was curling with satisfaction. Flame's tongue was hanging out in a canine grin, his blindfold-decorated tail wagging.
"You know we can't actually reach you up there, right?" Flame said.
"Doesn't matter!" Spoke said, his energy boundless.
"I hate all of you," Parrot said flatly. "When I'm human again, I'm going to remember this."
"Worth it," Wemmbu said. His eyes tracked Parrot's movements with predatory interest. Then, before anyone could react, he leaped.
He didn't make it anywhere close to the top of the cabinet—cats could jump high, but not that high—but the impact of him hitting the side made the whole thing shake violently.
Parrot squawked and flattened himself against the top, his talons digging in for purchase. "STOP! Wemmbu, stop!"
Wemmbu landed back on the floor, immediately crouched for another attempt. His tail was lashing with excitement. "No promises!"
"Dude, yes!" Spoke yipped, bouncing in place. "Do it again!”
"You guys are terrible!" Parrot shrieked from the top of the cabinet.
Wemmbu jumped again. The cabinet shook harder.
"Stop! I'm serious!" Parrot's squawk was shrill. "I'm the KING OF THE SERVER!"
"Doesn't count when you're a bird, bro!" Flame called up, his tail wagging.
"Totally doesn't count!" Spoke added.
Wemmbu jumped a third time. This time he actually managed to get his front paws onto a lower shelf, though he immediately slid back down with a frustrated yowl.
"This is the best!" Spoke said, pacing in excited circles. "We should do this more often—I mean not the being animals part but the hunting part—wait no that sounds weird—I mean the teamwork part—"
"I'm going to have you all arrested when this is over!" Parrot yelled down at them.
"For what, playing?" Spoke yipped. "We're not even hurting you! We're just—we're just having fun! And honestly you'd probably do the same to us if the positions were reversed—"
"I absolutely would not—"
"You totally would, bro," Flame said. "Don't even lie."
Wemmbu crouched for another jump, his eyes locked on the top of the cabinet. "One more try—"
The cabinet shook again as he leaped, and Parrot pressed himself as flat as possible against the top.
"I hate this!" Parrot squawked.
"Aw come on, it's not that bad!" Spoke said, still pacing. "We're just messing around! And like, this is probably good for team building or something—wait, are we a team? I feel like we're kind of a team now—"
"At my expense!"
"Well yeah," Wemmbu said, settling back on his haunches. "But you'd do the same."
"When I'm human again—"
"Bro, you'll remember this, we know," Flame said. "We'll deal with that when it happens, bro."
Parrot glared down at them, his feathers still ruffled. The three predators sat below, looking up at their treed prey with varying expressions of satisfaction.
Wemmbu's tail swished one more time. "Okay, okay. We've had our fun."
"Really?" Parrot said suspiciously.
"Maybe," Wemmbu said. Then his eyes gleamed again. "Or maybe—"
He jumped one more time.
The cabinet shook violently, and Parrot's shriek echoed through the room.