Alright guys. Sorry about the month long wait. Let's just say Spring is not my time of year. In fact, I will prove it mathematically. Bad Sinuses + Severe pollen allergies+ Sinus infections = A very unhappy Spring for Copper!
Crap…. It was all Fido could think as he felt his heart sink. He just stared at the black cat as she rose from her bow and looked at each of the faces before her calmly. For a moment as she looked in Fido’s direction, their eyes locked, and he was surprised to see her display no emotion at all. Nothing in her face changed except for a small smile that appeared as she looked toward Peanut and spoke.
“Tarot has been expecting you for some time now. She is still communing with the spirits right now, so if you will please follow me, we can wait for her in the living room…” Sabrina spoke with a soft yet firm voice. It was a voice of gentle command; one Fido knew well. It almost insisted that they follow her as she turned around and walked into the interior of her and Tarot’s shared home.
Fido couldn’t help but stare at Sabrina as they followed her through the twists and turns of her odd home. He just couldn’t shake the feeling of nervousness from earlier. He was still shaking slightly from the stress of being at the front door. Now being in his secret girlfriend’s home for the first time was putting him back on edge. Sabrina seemed to be calm, but that just made Fido even more nervous. He could never read her, so he didn’t know what she thought about him suddenly showing up. He was so nervous, in fact, that he accidentally kneed King in the back as they walked.
“Ow! Hey! Would you watch where you’re going!?” King said grumpily as he rubbed the small of his back. “Me being small is no excuse for you to just bowl over me like that! What’s wrong with you!?”
“Oops! Sorry King. I guess I am just really tired. I just got off from patrol, and I could really use a nap about now.” Fido said quickly.
At the mention of the K9 unit, King went wide eyed and turned around so fast he almost fell a second time. “No problem,” He mumbled “Just watch where you’re going next time.”
They journeyed in silence for a couple minutes, lost in the spell of the ever winding path before them, until Max broke the silence and spoke up. “Hey, uh, Sabrina? Shouldn’t we have gotten there by n-“
“Would you please hold your questions until after I have started the water for the tea, Maxie?” Sabrina said in her voice that insisted upon itself, again commanding full attention. “All of your questions will be either answered or forgotten by the time the water has boiled.”
Max looked as though he had a riposte for Sabrina, but quieted down after she shot him a glance. Fido couldn’t help but notice that her eyes wandered his way as she turned back around with a satisfied smile on her lips.
“Ah! Here is the living room!” Sabrina said with some satisfaction in her voice. “I was wondering where it got to.” She went to a red door on her left and opened it, revealing a very normal looking room with matching blue couch, love seat, and chair arranged around a large circular coffee table. The table itself had puce cushions for pets to sit on placed around it on the floor. There was no television, but it did have many rather large bookshelves with mysterious looking occult books filling them.
Peanut would have a field day reading all of those books! Fido thought to himself, watching Peanut stare awe struck at the number of new books before him. That naïve grin of his seemed to raise Fido’s spirit a bit and break him from his nervousness for the moment.
“Please sit down on the cushions. I will be right back, I just have to put the water on the boil,” Sabrina bowed and left the three dogs and Max to figure out the seating arrangement. As it turned out, King would sit between Fido and Peanut, with Max on Fido’s other side, and a vacant cushion was left out for Sabrina between Peanut and Max. Fido noticed that he was directly across from Sabrina as he took his seat.
The group of males had just settled down when Sabrina returned from her errand. “It is good to see that you are all settled in.” Sabrina said to them, “And it was awfully nice of you to leave a cushion out for me. Thank you for that.”
“Now,” Sabrina said as she settled down, “The pot will take ten minutes to boil. You may ask me any questions you like in that time, and I will try to answer them the best that I can.”
“Yeah, I have a question for you!” Said an annoyed Max, “How big is this place? We must have walked a mile in that hallway. I don’t ever remember your place being that big!”
“Oh, maxie, you should know the answer if you have come to us for help.” Said Sabrina with a cheshire grin that mimicked Max’s almost perfectly. “That ‘hallway’ was nothing more than a gateway to other dimensions. Did you not notice that the door to the living room was the only one in it? The distance to that door was so great because we were all being distracted. If we had focused on the living room, the door would have appeared before us a long time ago. Those doors just love to move around!”
“okay….” Said Max. “But what is a dimensional por-“Max said, but was cut off once again by Sabrina.
“Oh, Max; if you don’t already get it you never will, so please don’t harp on it. Are there any other questions I can answer please?” Sabrina said in a brusque tone.
“Yeah, I have one” Fido said a little nervously. “How did you know we were coming?”
“Well, Fido,” Sabrina said as that Cheshire grin returned, “Tarot said that a very strange group would be heading our way this afternoon, and be prepared to meet them…”
SMACK
Fido’s hands hit the table hard as he felt something brush up against the bottom of his outstretched footpads. It was just a light brush, but he knew that something had touched him.
What the heck was that!? Fido thought as everyone’s attention once again turned to him.
Oh no…
He had just noticed Sabrina looking at him with sparkling eyes and a mischievous grin. He knew that look. It was the look she got when she wanted to have fun. And like all cats, her fun involved messing with others.
“Fido, are you sure you’re okay?” Peanut asked as his head cocked to one side. “Maybe you should go home and rest. We can probably handle this.”
“Yes, Fido, are you okay?” asked Sabrina in a mock worried tone. “I hope you won’t leave. Tarot wanted all of you to be here when she came.”
Fido felt Sabrina’s tail brush against his footpad again, this time slower. It was tickling him.
She’s not going to stop…. Crap.
“Y-Yes, I am okay, just almost fell asleep again. I should be fine… *snrk*” Fido managed to spit out before Sabrina’s tail went by his foot again.
“If you say so Fido. Maybe the tea will help perk you up.” Sabrina offered before continuing with what she was saying. “Now, tarot said that a group was coming while she was busy with the spirits, and to show you here for tea while we waited for her.
“Yeah, you said something about the spirits before. What exactly is she talking to them about?” asked King a little frightened. He still remembered the last time he met the Cosmic entities, including the Kitsune’s warning to the Spirit Dragon about helping King out.
As Fido tried to stifle a laugh from Sabrina’s constant attacks with her tail, she answered King’s question. “Well, King, I have no idea. I assume it has something to do with why you all are here. She is never this long with her meditations, so it must be very important.” Sabrina smiled watching Fido squirm.
“Hey!” said Peanut quietly, his eyes a little downcast, “Do…Do you know why we are here?”
“No, Peanut, I can’t say that I do. Tarot didn’t mention why you all were coming, just that you were.” Sabrina was a little shocked at seeing Peanut so down, but she soon recovered, and wore her grin again as she asked, “Okay now, what else have you got to ask?”
But Fido didn’t hear that query. He was in agony as Sabrina’s tail swiped again and again at his feet, each brush by sending more waves of ticklishness to his brain. He had been prepared at the academy for almost everything, but this tickle torture was beyond anything he imagined could happen. He had a stony countenance on the outside, but on the inside he was cracking up. The need to laugh was building up, pushing Fido’s limit. He was about to explode any minute now.
Please… Fido thought as he looked at Sabrina with whimpering eyes.
Please stop this!......... I can’t take much more of this….. Please, something, anything, make this stop!
PHWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
“Oh! The tea kettle! The water must be ready!” Sabrina jumped up and headed for the door. Fido was quietly thanking whatever had made that happen and promising to do it a favor later.
Sabrina stopped at the door and turned around to look at Fido. “Fido, would you mind helping me carry the tea tray in here? A good walk and some tea would be just the thing to wake you up.”
“Sure thing, Sabrina,” Fido said immediately getting up to help. “I’d love to!” He wanted to say something to her alone, and this was the perfect opportunity.”
Just as Sabrina and Fido closed the door, they heard Max say “goody goody Fido off to help again!”
Fido was surprised when he saw a slate grey door in front of them. Sabrina just opened it to reveal a modern kitchen with stainless steel appliances and a faux marble countertop.
As soon as the door closed Fido started in on Sabrina. “Sabrina! What were you thinking! You could have exposed us! You have n-“
Fido was interrupted by a passionate kiss from Sabrina. When they parted, all Fido managed to say was “ABAH FLUBBA WHAAA?”
Sabrina giggled. “Oh Fido, would you calm down? Tarot told me you would be in the group, and to be prepared. I was going to ignore you for the most part, you know, go through the whole routine, but when I saw how nervous you were at the door, I couldn’t help myself! You set yourself up for that!”
“It wasn’t funny to me.” Said Fido, “But you more than made up for it just now! Where’s Spo? I thought for sure he’d pop his head in and ruin everything.”
“Oh, I put him down for a while. The little guy was as tired as you when he got here. You know, you really could use some tea,” Sabrina said as she placed some cups, the tea kettle, and some tea bags onto the tea tray along with some sugar and cream. “You really did look tired in there.”
Fido just laughed for a second before answering, “After all of that tickling, I don’t think I could go to sleep if you tried to make me! Now come on,” Fido said as he picked up the tray, “Let’s head back in their before they wander if we got lost in that hallway of yours.”
A short walk to the living room later, and Sabrina and Fido joined the rest of the group. Fido gave everyone a tea cup with a tea bag in it as Sabrina followed with the kettle, pouring the hot water over them. A few minutes of silence followed while they drank some of the tea.
Peanut was the first to speak up. “Hey, Sabrina. Do you know if Tarot is going to help us?”
Sabrina opened her mouth, but was interrupted by a voice from the door.
“I think I can answer that one, Sabrina,” said a golden Pomeranian who was lazily leaning against the door jamb.
It is so much fun messing with Fido!