…
Varvara took in a deep breath, and held it for a six seconds. She exhaled it all in under five. This was supposed to help her with stress. Then again, Flora gave that as a suggestion.
She stood in the doorway, still waiting for her courage to finally move her further into the kitchen. Instead, she just stood motionless like a plank, watching her parents busy themselves with the dinner. Her mother, humming a melody, was stirring the pot, already in the middle of preparing her renown vegetable broth. Occasionally she took a sip, and added a bit more spices, just like she liked it. All the while, the smell of sweet cabbage pie was coming from the oven, filling the room up with that very same aroma that Varvara knew and love. Her father helped by cleaning the dishes. It wasn’t a lot, but that was his main duty, even though he hated it. He’d try to excuse himself, or even try to put her in place under the “man of the house,” she’d always reply by pouring on him a list of demands. This included a new shower curtain, fixing a hole in the wall, getting new pots and pans, making the floor less lumpy, fixing the leaky faucet…
“A man should keep the house clean!” she would always say. In the end, he choose to settle down and quietly do his chores.
And they loved each other very much. Varvara had no doubt about it. And they loved her too. She understood it all well. She also loved them very much. Maybe that was what the problem here was. Could she, somehow, make them all love each other less, so this could’ve been easier?
<Surely, you jest?> Zamarad asked her.
Varvara hummed pitifully. Even she couldn’t take that notion seriously.
“Oh, look who we have here,” her mother said, without turning her head. She took a sip from the pot. “Could you come over and taste this, Varavarasha?”
The young lizard gulped down something dry in her throat. She did not dare to look back even once. She got near her mother, and tasted the bit of soup she was given. She gave a look to her mother.
“Need more salt,” the latter said, and opened the cupboard.
“Are you going to help or not, Varavara?” her father asked her.
Varvara opened her mouth, but left it hanging open. She could not see his eyes yet, as he kept them down the whole time. He didn’t need to look at her to make her feel small. She knew exactly what he wanted from her even when she wasn’t in his view.
“Help your father clean the dishes, he is terrible,” her mother said bluntly.
“I am not terrible!” he replied indignantly. He leaned over her ear, “Why does mother lie about father? He has good hands, does he not? Are my hands not the greatest?” He was asking her very sweetly, almost in the same manner as when she was ten.
“Your hands are good at many things, but not cleaning! Now let your daughter work at the faucet,” her mother demanded, making him grumble at her. 
He quickly mocked her under his breath as he passed by Varvara.
“Couch!”
“My dragost!”
Her mother turned off oven, leaving only the pie inside to be baked. She promptly left the kitchen without looking at the direction of her father, who was trying to embrace her back into good graces. With that proven futile, he dejectedly sighed, and looked over to his daughter, whom barely moved from her spot near the faucet. He motioned with his eyes to her mother, as if to make a point about her.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about my brother! I’m sorry for not telling you, or mom, about my adventures! I’m sorry for getting myself into danger, and fighting monsters, and I-“
“Shush now,” her father waved his scaly hand to her, moving over to find a seat at the dining table. 
There was a pile of walnuts on it and single pocket knife lying on it. He grabbed the knife and began promptly sticking it into the walnut. These were his favorite snacks to eat when he was at home.
“There is nothing for you to apologize about. You’ve made your decision,” he said, opening another nut in a single motion. He put the kernel on the edge of the table, before reaching the next one. The kernel was meant for her to take.
“I will keep on fighting,” she said, after taking it.
He paused in the middle of the stab. Then afterwards, he sighed and shook his head.
“I know,” he said, opening the next one. “I should’ve known. My children are very much like me. You…and your brother.”
Pulling off the shell, he took a good look inside of it. The walnut’s kernel ended up much smaller than the shell it was in. Varvara was staring at it too, but then reached out and grabbed it out of his hands.
“I have very good friends,” she told him. 
He gazed up into her eyes. Varvara didn’t realize how little trouble it was for her to look at him in that instant. Maybe because he wasn’t trying to see through her, this time. Instead, it was bit on heartfelt, like he wanted some consolation. That said, she followed it up without thinking much.
“I trust them with my life.”
He sighed and nodded. The older lizard scratched a spot under his chin, going into a deep thought. 
“There is a goal, to which you are aiming for, correct?”
Varvara nodded confidently. They were going to stop Lord Vaco, and all of his evil forces. Once they do, they can return back to their lives, like nothing happened. Zamarad believed that they could doubtlessly achieve it. And so, the young lizard believed in that too.
“There is!” she added.
“Very well.” He gave to her another walnut kernel. “You have your mind set on it, then. Now, how about you clean the dishes? Or your mother will keep on complaining about how I clean,” he said, going into a laugh.
Varvara laughed too, feeling levity in her chest. She could never feel about around her parents. As such, she was happy it all ended well.
She even glanced to her spirit, who looked just as pleased. 
“Also, I’m probably leaving for the city, for a short while,” Varvara quickly remembered. “It’s actually backed by our school! I’m helping my friend with his project. We might also have to deal with evil Lord Vaco there…There’s a lot going on.”
Her father looked at the nut again, finding the shell a tad bit more harder than the others.
“Do I need to sign anything?”
“Oh!” Varvara gasped. She immediately went out to get her computer, just as her father told her the form.
Zamarad watched it all wistfully. There was still a future to behold for these children, she kept on thinking. 
…
Flora waited at the very same corner she was in the other day. While she wasn’t surprised by the rendezvous choice, she very much did not appreciate the cold weather she had to deal with on top of that. It was way too cold to stand outside with a single, sleeveless jacket, pairs of earmuff, and boots made for quick walks, that is to say, not to keep warm. It was even worse standing next to the entrance of the alley, where that fox decided they should meet up, where the wind would blow right into her face and add more frigidness to her experience. She sneezed once, then tried to wipe her runny nose off with hands that were too numb to even bend at the knuckles. Trying to straighten her hands out, out of personal interest, the failure of this simple task caused her to, so to say, reach her boiling point.
“W-w-w-where ar-r-r-re you M-m-maaandy!” she bellowed out into the air, finally letting the cold get to her. When she heard nothing, the young deer continue on, moving further away from the alley as she did, “I’m frrrrrrreezing here! I’m literrrrally going to die of frrrrrostbite!”
She then huffed some air out, visible to the eye as vapors. At least she got her frustrations out, if anything. She considered reorganizing her wardrobe so as to not deal with looking for the right clothes next time.
“Don’t be such a baby.”
Flora turned to the entrance. Peeking inside the darkness was the white, fluffy fur of the alpha fox herself. She also wore a coat and pair of thick boots, which warmed Flora on looks alone.
“W-w-wow, M-m-mandy!” Flora tried to say, but her lips stopped moving. They have probably gone frozen, she thought.
“Shut it,” Mandy told her off. “I’m not very much at all interested in whatever you think or say, or show, about me.”
“Orrrr what?” Flora replied.
Mandy looked at her incredulously.
“Seriously, that’s what you want to go for?! Ugh, why did I think of ever coming to talk to you in the first place?!”
“I think I frrrrroze it s-s-solid. C-can you move out of the alllley?” 
Mandy huffed. “And be seen talking to you? No thanks.” 
The two girls stood in their places: Mandy, in the alley with her fur and toasty clothing, and Flora, slowly turning into town’s very first deer-sickle. Flora thought for a sec if she should look up that fact if it were actually true, and there were no other deer-sickles before her.
“Ssss-so what do you want?” Flora asked. Her teeth felt like ice cubes chattering inside two trays. Mandy rolled her eyes, then picked up her phone to scroll through. After a while, she put it away, and Flora’s own dinged as it receiver a message.
Flora looked at it, holding her device with pair of cupping hands. She then tilted her head.
“They are after my Dad,” Mandy explained. She quickly peeked out of the alley and checked both sides, as if to see if anyone watched them. Considering how far deep between the buildings were, there was barely anyone, and if they were, they would’ve seen them. “They are after him because he…owes that POS of a mayor. He has to follow orders, otherwise, he’ll be in a lot of trouble. Which is why he…you know…”
Mandy became unusually reserved, which Flora understood immediately why.
“He is underrrr….st-trrress?”
“Of course he is! Every day, morning to the evening, he goes from one dumpster to another, and it is SO embarrassing, I can’t take it!” Mandy slapped her own forehead and huffed. “Poor Daddy, they are literally BULLYING him, and he can’t do anything! They even threatened me! Can you believe that!?”
“Yess-s, I was-s there,” Flora agreed.
“Do you know how bad it was for him when he heard that!? He is going to have a heart attack, and I can’t have my Daddy die when I’m still in middle school! That is so messed up!”
Flora glanced down at the message she got again. The picture was of a computer screen, that of a long-paragraphed email message. She couldn’t exactly read it, but it did have the gist of what Mandy was saying.
“What do they want from him?” she asked.
“How should I know?! I’m totally unaware of anything. Like, at all…” 
Mandy looked over both her shoulders, then motioned Flora closer with her finger. Flora checked around herself, instinctively, before taking only a few steps forward. The wind from the alley was still freezing, but the fox didn’t seem to care for it. When Flora hesitated for a second too long, Mandy gave an audible whisper of “Get over here!”
Regretting for ever thinking she’d never buy a baggy coat in her life, the deer placed her ear next to fox’s mouth.
“They want him to get rid of someone. They are from school staff.”
Flora raised one eyebrow. Few images flashed in her head, including the time she spoke to Barbie about someone with a “beak.” She kept her expression neutral, but with her trip on the way, she made the connection rather easily. And if anything, considered for a moment why Mayor LionHeart spoke to her earlier. In the end, that was likely just because of Mandy, and that she was with her at the time.
In the end, moving away from Mandy, she said, in an even tone, “Iss that all?”
Mandy gasped at her.
“Are you serious!? Someone is making Daddy into a hitman! Aren’t you, like, even a little bit aware of what that means on him? I swear, I’m like the only person who even cares about actual important stuff.” Mandy huffed, throwing her hands exasperatingly.
So, what was with the secrecy beforehand? Flora wanted to ask, but instead, moved her attention to Mandy picking up her own phone. There was only a glimpse, but Flora figured who it was.
“Still can’t get-t in touch with Daphphne?”
“She was supposed to sent me money!” Mandy exclaimed. “You know she owes me some!”
Flora furrowed her brows. “But wha’ about Angel? Isn’t she the one with money?”
“She can’t anymore,” Mandy retorted bitterly. “Her parents found out and blocked her bank account, completely. What a load of BS, you know that? I’m just tired of all of them thinking about themselves. I’m literally dealing with money shortage, and I can’t ask my Daddy, because he has enough problems…I just can’t deal with this!”
Flora sighed and shook her head. Some people are truly incorrigible.
“Ssso why t-tell me all of this? You want me to help you? Or...?”
Mandy looked at her with an unimpressed side-eye. Flora knew this look, as it meant she had a totally “obvious” plan that was obvious to everyone if they paid attention to it. Better soak it in.
“Um, you are superhero now, right? And you are going to the city, where the whole ARKYO thing is located. Right?”
Flora eyes, the only part of her body still capable of movement, looked surprised. That fox always managed to do that. Of course she told her about her being a warrior, but about the city? And ARKYO of all things?
“Ok-k-kay…” Flora carefully answered. Mandy didn’t seem to notice her hesitation.
“So, here’s what you do,” Mandy went on her phone again, “One, you get in touch with the representative of the university. They are the ones who always talk with Daddy and the mayor.” She showed a name on her phone, which was Reggie Cervantes. “It is their money that funds all of the school. Do it as a superhero, and try to become best buds with him. Use him to get info on the mayor, and use that to blackmail him in return. Do you understand it?”
Flora lightly tilted her head. She really gave a very simple view of the whole situation, not that there wasn’t a reason for why. But in a fight between conspiracies and evil world destroyers, Mandy was still playing with school cliques.
“Seriously, I can’t do all the work here! Hello!!!”
“Oh, of course,” Flora blurted out and bobbed her head, as much as she could. “Is that everything?”
The fox looked at her phone. After sighing and rolling her eyes, she said, painfully, “Can I borrow some money?”
“Don’ have any.”
“Thought so,” Mandy said, wistfully. “Anyways, that’s about it. I need to go, but I want you to SWEAR to me, that you will help my Daddy out of this mess.” Mandy looked deep into Flora’s eyes. “Is - that - clear?”
Flora bobbed her head again. She realized that at some point, she couldn’t use her own mouth anymore. 
“You swear to me!?”
Flora bobbed again, putting more force into it. Mandy took it.
“Good, now get out of here, I can’t be seen with you.” 
And just like that, the fox turned around, and went into the alley. The white, fluffy fur shining brightly within the darkness, illuminating her presence no matter what. Flora exhaled a bit, thinking back about how it all changed. Gone away that alpha, who was on top of every kid at school, and who could play her around like a fiddle. Now, here was a spoiled, egoistical little girl, who was begging her for help.
People rarely ever change. But things around them do. Maybe that was the secret ingredient? Or perhaps she just needed to change her surroundings to somewhere hotter, as the cold was now freezing her brain functions. Flora turned away and began to head to Barbie’s home. She wasted enough time as it is.
“Good luck with your mom.”
Flora and looked behind her again. The fox was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps, these were never meant to be seen.
What an odd cold night.
…
“They are after you.”
Jacques Mouton chuckled to himself. He was leaning away from his desk, taking a good look at the message, done in large, simple font that could only have been sent by none other than the foxman himself. He took a sip of his evening milk-tea, and then took a bite off of his favorite creamy, white cheese. This was going according to plan. 
All that was left was to get to the main ARKYO Institute himself. He had gathered enough information to make them beg on their knees. Who would think, an unremarkably philanthropic university, one which allowed that goat-head to finally reach the relevance he always wanted, partook in some backwards shady dealings? He figured it himself rather easily. Money laundering, artifact stealing, bribing, blackmail…it was all there. And they had use that power before. They had used it on him. 
It took a long way to finally reach this point. 
He heard the door being unlocked at the entrance, so his computer then blacked out immediately. The children were making some progress for him, and apparently, they were getting rid of the…special people that his good friend had employed in these past few months. 
The mayor won’t be able to do anything to him. His biggest concern was just the public image, and that no one would ever question the safety and prosperity of their town’s future. Well, sadly, that just meant he was too little too late in stopping him. All he had to do, was get there at the right time, at the right place.
“I’m home, Father.”
“Very well son,” Jacques came out of his office in their house. He shook hands with Pierre, before lightly hugging him. His other hand was occupied with the cup. “All is going well on your front?”
“Quite,” Pierred admitted.
“I do hope my absence yesterday wasn’t too much of a hassle to you,” Jacques said, taking another sip. “You see, I was in another one of my…meetings. The trip required some finalizations, and you know how it is with ‘talks’ and whatnot.”
Jacques then gave his famous chortle, to which Pierre nodded, without saying a word.
“Do understand, my boy,” Jacques continued, “I really am very sorry if you needed me. I’ve seen your messages, but I am not sure I understood the whole deal about having…cataracts?”
“No worries, Father,” Pierre replied simply. “I met Miss Vulpine, who wanted to tell you about the funds getting transferred. Here is the letter,” he then pulled out an envelope.
“That’s wonderful!” Jacques grinned from ear to ear, swiping the envelope from his son’s hands, then entering back into his office. “Now, off to your room. I shall order us a table for today. I am feeling quite peckish, so expect something exquisite.”
The father closed the door on him. Pierre, without another word, headed to his own room in turn. His business was done for today. 
<Your father is awfully egoistical, is he not?>
Pierre wouldn’t reply. He figured the fact that he didn’t bother telling his dad about nearly losing his soul because his best friend decided to play a cup game with a clown demon. At least he was happy he didn’t need to hear all the grumbles that old cat lady would go on about. She was surprisingly talkative for someone so tight-lipped.
<Are you sure you still do not wish to inform your friends?>
What a great idea! “Hey guys, I’m a spy, and I’ve been ratting you all out behind your backs!” I’m sure Chester will surely love me, and not use this opportunity to use my beak as his backscratcher! 
<Pierre…You cannot continue to live another one’s life.>
Not until I get what I want.
<And what you want is?>
Pierre grumbled, and then plopped into his bed. At this point he wasn’t sure. Yes, turning people into Torques and then curing them could potentially rid them of bad habits, akin to a speed therapy session…but as Principal Vulpine showed, it could also potentially do nothing. It might even make it worse. Pierre knew nothing about his father, and all of this was going to drive him desperate.
<You ought to think less, young boy.>
And be more like you? No thanks. Now get ready, I’m gonna meet the others tomorrow, and you’ll need to learn as much as you can from them.
Fotia sighed, <Suit yourself.>
That better not be a smile! I know when you smile, Fotia!
The spirit said nothing. 
Pierre clicked with his beak, and after a full minute, gave it all up. The guy was way too good at keeping cool. 
…