Sarah walked quietly with the four cats, hoping her sister really was ok at the strange house. Once they got there, Jade opened the door and they all went in, Sarah examined the inside of the house. The front door they entered was in the kitchen, there were the usual kitchen appliances and some nice decorations. She noticed that they had glowing crystals instead of lightbulbs for their light. The next room outside of the kitchen was the dining room and after that was living room. "Chryssy?" Sarah called to her sister. She soon heard the thud of running footsteps before her sister came crashing into her with a hug. "Did you get a concussion??" The younger sister bursted in concern. She shook her head in response and hugged her back. "Nah, Just a headache Cave Child," The cats blinked at that. "Well duh," Duck meowed "Why are you stating the obvious? We all live in a cave!" Stump started to laugh at Duck"s statement "Oh my Herat, I didn't know you could be funny!" The brown tom wheezed out through laughter. Duck just grunted and left the room. Jade rolled her eyes slightly at that and went over to the fridge."Go ahead and find something to keep yourselves busy while I decide what to do for Lunch,"
Stump and Tawny quickly grabbed the two human girls and chattered excitedly about the fun games the four of them could play together. They were now in the living room, it was very homey looking with a comfy couch, a tall lamp and a wooden cabinet that held various things. Many of these things were books, puzzles, papers, pencils, games, and even a toy or two. Along the wall were various pictures of the family, Sarah noticed that some of the cats in the photos weren't present in the house. She assumed they moved out since they seemed the eldest out of all the kits Jade had. Chryssy was keen at finding out what all these games were, she eventually pulled out a puzzle, the box claimed there were a thousand pieces. Sarah's younger sister always liked to prove things wrong, she most likely wanted to put the puzzle together so she could count them to see if the manufacturer had lied. It didn't take Sarah long to learn her assumption was right, considering Chrysanthemum asked the two cats with them to help her put it together and count. Sarah soon paid no attention as she examined what kinds of books were on the shelves. There were a few cookbooks and other tutorial based literature. Soon she found another copy of that book in Hazel's room that claimed magic factual. Slowly, she picked it up and sat on the couch; Now beginning to read this book.
'-Souls are the very being of us all, they can portray where we will fall to when we die. We could end up with Diabolus or with Herat, of course there are the unfortunate types who become lost in the inbetween of these great powers and are left to disappear. Though most are granted the mercy of one's soul being consumed by a soldier of Diabolus. Souls are much more than keys to the afterlife, they are what provide our magical essence. Without them, we wouldn't be able to teleport (see page 53 for more information), fuse to become stronger (see page 82 for more information), or summon our bonded weapons (see page 12 for more information)'.
Sarah was very intrigued by this all, though she saw no mention of the magic that Hazel used, whatever he did to change his appearance wasn't listed in this section. She looked to see how the three were doing with that a thousand piece puzzle. So far they had only fit together ten out of a thousand. Sarah wondered how long it would take them to complete that as she turned to page 12 of this book.
'-When cats are born, their souls are automatically linked to a certain weapon. Usually by age fourteen, they will have learned to summon their weapon that the soul has chosen to bond with. These weapons usually are similar to their family members, sometimes even the same. Soul bonded weapons can be destroyed, but the owner can resummon them soon after in replenished condition. Cats are most likely going to use their bonded weapon since they will have a natural fitting towards it, but it isn't rare for cats to use more than their summoned weapon or not use it at all'.
Sarah now turned to the next section she was interested in, but was interrupted before she started reading again. "Will you help us Sarah? We need some more hands and minds with this!"
It was Chryssy who had asked her to help. She slowly set down the book with a nod before she slid off the couch and began helping, so far they had eighty-six done. Luckily after an hour, Jade called everyone into the dinning room for lunch. The kids of course had eight hundred and eighty more pieces of the puzzle to go. It didn't take long for everyone to be seated at the table with the exception of Haze. Sarah looked to the food and didn't quite recognize what it was, Chryssy and her had never eaten this dish before. Chryssy poked the food with her fork a bit before trying the new food. "If you don't like Fajitas, I have some microwave macaroni I could pop in to cook for you," Jade offered as the others ate. Chrysanthemum happily kept eating, she must have liked it. "Same offer goes for you Sarah."
Sarah slowly took a bite of the food and reassured Jade that she'd eat it. A few minutes later, Haze showed up and started to eat as well. Of course, the she-cats stay was short since she went back to work with this Spotted lady after everyone finished eating. Chryssy now had the three of us, excluding Duck who went back to his room, help make more of the puzzle. It took only a little bit before I became lost in thought whilst counting and putting together the puzzle pieces. "One hundred and twenty-one, one hundred and twenty-two, one hundred and twenty-three, one hundred and twenty-four, one hundred and twenty-five.... Two hundred and fifty-eight, two hundred and fifty-nine.... Five hundred and sixty-" Jade interrupted us. "Stump, could you go to the market place for mama? I have some stuff I need but I've already got dinner on the stove,"
Stump nodded, seemingly happy to have an excuse to leave the puzzle counting; Sarah wanted in on that escape. "Could I come?" she asked, not letting her sister know how hopeful she was to get away from this. The dark tom gave a nod and helped her up, he quickly grabbed a large satchel and the list of things Jade needed bought. Then, Stump grabbed Sarah's hand and led the way out the door, going down the path of stone towards the market place. She looked to his paws that acted as feet. "Doesn't walking on stone hurt?" He shook his head. "Nope, Obsidianite pawpads are able to hold up to rocks and other sharp or hard places. If a Sandite were to come down here, their paws would be so soft from the desert sand that they'd bleed and probably scar their paw pads. Of course, the sand would most likely burn the paws of cats who aren't used to the desert!" That was a very detailed explanation that Sarah had no need for considering she doubted she'd ever be able to leave these caves. Though, it'd be interesting to hold up a conversation once in awhile. Sarah was brought back out of her thoughts when Stump asked her a question. "How come you aren't limping with shoes on? Do they not squish everything together and snag on your claws? And on your hands, where are your pawpads? Or would they be called hand-pads?" He seemed quite curious about this, then again Sarah and Chrysanthemum are probably the only humans he's ever seen. "No, our feet look more like a monkey's, same for our hands," Yeah, that was the best way to describe it, and yeah, her biology grade sucked. "Ooohhh, neat!" he meowed, hopefully understanding what Sarah meant by that. For a little bit, there was a silence between the two as they walked.
Stump had them stop at a bland, dark building. The pounding of metal could be heard inside. "Could you wait out here? I gotta get some things from Thunder, he's got our soul weapons right now... You know what those are right? Cause you were reading that book?" Sarah nodded "Yeah, how long are you gonna be in there?" she asked him before he went inside, but the tom didn't know, so he just shrugged. The smell of ash and molten metal burned her throat for the few moments that the door was open, once it was closed she was relieved of the horrid scent. At least ten minutes went by and Stump hadn't returned from the building, Sarah was sitting on a bench farther down the path from the blacksmiths. She passed the time by watching what seemed to be the daily lives of the cats around her. There were many ear flicks and tail swishes, as well as purrs and meows. Sarah stood up once her dark chocolate colored friend appeared, he now held her hand as he walked in the lead again. "Sorry it took so long, he forgot to print off the paperwork," he meowed in explanation to her as they came up to a large building, it was actually quite beautiful.
There were huge quartz pillars with crystals decorating the outsides, flowers and other plants growing and weaving around these captivating shards. The roof was a dome shape of stained glass that seemed to glow like the crystals that illuminated the caves they were in. Stump brought them up the stairs and into the building. It was just as gorgeous inside as it was outside. The main room had a desk with a calico she-cat reading a book, and many many shelves filled to the brim with more books. Many flowers decorated the sides of everything, the whole building smelled of a springtime field. Stump happily went up to the cat at the desk. "Heya Autie! Do you think ya could show me where to find animal anatomy books?" The she-cat was startled, but slowly got up with a nod. "O-of course Stump... A-any animal specifi-s-specifically?" Her bright amber eyes seemed to be nervous, her posture was tentative and the flowers tucked by her fluffy ears seemed to reflect her withdrawn personality... Chryssy and her could probably get along. "Monkey's, or if you have anything written about humans that are accurate, I wanna get to know Sarah's species better! Oh yeah! Autumn, this is one of the humans. Her name is Sarah!" She carefully waved a hello to the sheepish she-cat. Autumn gave a slow smile before she walked off in a direction. "I believe they're o-over here."
They left the library after checking out a couple of books, some for the cats and a few for Sarah and Chryssy. Sarah looked forward to reading a few of them, though she wasn't sure about the one that seemed a bit religious. Then again, it might not be even if it seems to be talking about rulers of the afterlife, Herat and Diabolus. A bright light up ahead was bugging Sarah until she realized what it was. The sun. They were at the exit to the caverns! "I thought there were only caverns here!" she looked to Stump, the tom had an amused look on his face. "Most of the kingdom is underground, but the guard stations, taverns, markets, farms, and a lot of the housing is above ground. We are mostly known for mining, but we are also the best location for all non-tropical crop growing," He purred in a smug explanation, he was probably smug since he didn't get to inform a lot of people or something. He didn't seem like a smart allec. She smiled at the fresh air, despite it being cold, it felt nice and soothing to her lungs compared to the caves of the kingdom. Pine needles crunched under her shoes as she walked on the stone paths with Stump. They passed several buildings before the duo came upon an open area filled with kiosks and concession stands, possibly a few large tents like a circus. Each one was bubbling in activity, vendors making sales, customers asking questions. It was a controlled chaos called a market square. The bark colored tom brought her outside a small building, cats entering and leaving slowly. "You wanna come in with me?" Sarah shook her head. "I was thinking that I could go explore," He paused and thought for a second. "Uh, ok I guess," He handed her a pouch "Here's some money if you see anything you like," "Oh! Thank you, but I'm fine without it," he made her take it anyways. "Trust me, you're gonna find something you like."

Sarah was walking around boredly, now having explored all of the marketplace, and Stump was still shopping! She heard an odd walking on the stone behind her, it seemed almost hollow in a way. Sarah almost jumped out of her skin when a paw grabbed her shoulder, she spun around to look at her adversary. It was a light grey tom act, his eyes were surprisingly a pale red. He wore short shorts and had on a maroon-velvet jacket of some kind that showed he wasn't wearing a shirt. It was scandalous and he actually seemed to pull the look together nicely. She also noticed there was a hollow sound in his step because he was using a stiff prosthetic leg, it attached to the middle of the thigh on his right leg. The prosthetic seemed to not be very flexible and must be a pain to drag around, it was definitely some kind of hollow plastic or silicone. "Hello Sarah," He purred in a twisted tone, he sounded very full of himself. Sarah took a few steps away from him. He chuckled and moved with her so their distance didn't change. "Oooh, how rude of me. I should introduce myself to you before addressing your name Ms. Orelander," he cooed. She paled, he said her last name, HE SAID HER LAST NAME! "I am Lezah Dorfonze, I am a magician in a way. But I am certainly the best at anything I do," Sarah turned and started to walk away, but he was in front of her when she turned around as well. She was getting more red flashing lights were in her head about this guy and went to go the other way, he was in front of her again. "Remember? Magic sweetheart!" He chuckled more. "Besides, it's very rude to leave in the middle of a conversation," He held out a card to her. "If you need any answers, just give me a call Sarah," Lezah chuckled, he waited for her to take it from him. Sarah carefully took it and shoved it deep into her pocket, wanting him to go away, she was starting to prefer Hazel over this guy. Once it was in her pocket, he hummed and hobbled off, walking in an odd limping fashion. She stayed put until she couldn't see his pale grey fur within the crowd of cats before she walked back to the store Stump was in and waited there.
Stump soon came out, by now Sarah was calmed down but she still had her thoughts racing through her mind. "Find anything out there that you liked?" She shook her head 'no' to his question and held out the bag for him. "Keep it, we're gonna pass some places outside of the market that you might wanna get," He meowed, and with that last sentence he grabbed her hand and headed off. They were quickly out of the market place and he stopped by a strongly built, cramped building with a large watchtower attached to it. Stump brought her inside. There were cats sitting at tables, laughing loudly and scarfing rum. A few were standing by with uniforms on that had what she assumed was the Obsidianite symbol on them. A few noticed her but only paid small glances to her, Stump walked up to a familiar fluffy tabby. Gorse happily gave him a sealed envelope. They were only in there for a few seconds after that, so Gorse only waved to Sarah before she left with Stump. She noticed that they were headed back to the caves again. She honestly wanted to stay out here longer, but she wouldn't know what they could do. Do cats know what soccer is? Is that a possibility? She never did get a chance to ask before they headed down that polished marbled rocks of stairs, spiraling down and down in the caves below them. When they got back, Jade was using the groceries Stump bought to make them dinner, thankfully Tawny, Haze and Chrysanthemum had finished the puzzle a few minutes before they entered and settled. As Sarah suspected, there really were a thousand pieces to the puzzle. Stump sat down on the couch and started reading the books he had checked out at the library. Duck wasn't here for dinner time, he was having art lessons somewhere. Chryssy now worked on putting the puzzle away with the help of Tawny, meanwhile Haze sat with me and Stump and started to ramble about plants and cats throwing their toys over the stone walls of the royal garden. Apparently kits keep doing so and crushing the growing flowers. "Spotted was thinking about setting a request for the wall to be higher, but we shouldn't have to since kits are supposed to have some common sense!" she huffed in exasperation. Stump nodded lightly, pretending to be listening. She continued "I suggested we teach them a lesson! Scare em or something, the cat version of a scarecrow, so instead of scaring crows, they scare children!" She meowed proudly of her idea. "I don't think that's how it works Haze.." Tawny told her sister. " Just cause it's a scare-kit, doesn't mean they'll actually be scared... if they do, it'd be funny if their name was crow!"
"Tawny,"
"Yeah?"
"Leave the bad jokes to Stump,"

After dinner, Tawny showed Sarah and Chrysanthemum to their bedroom, Chryssy liked the idea of bunking with her sister. She thought of it like a sleepover, though Sarah was less ecstatic about the situation. They got into pajamas, brushed their teeth,and washed their faces before they climbed into the well cushioned beds and fell to sleep.