Oooooh. This comforter under his paw pads was much softer than it looked. It might be the color of rock-hard stone and tucked in tight enough to bounce on, but it felt silky smooth and fluffy! Josh gave Kit a long look. It was best to think of him as ‘Kit Morrison’ rather than Drakon, the future duke, or the bloody dragon tyrant. Less scary, and less intimidating.

It also helped his brain to process the fact that a scary dragon liked a fluffy soft bedspread.

“Don’t shed on it,” Kit said in a soft tone as he closed the door. He wrote a spell across the threshold before going to the window and opening it to the fresh air. “I took you in because it’s useful and convenient. I’d rather not regret that choice.”

Since Kit wouldn’t understand Josh anyway, Josh explored the bed without answering. What would a cat say to that anyway? He sniffed at a pillow and placed a paw on it, but the pillows weren’t nearly as soft as the comforter. There were too many on the bed to be comfortable and as hard as Drakon’s sword. “What’s with these rocks?” he muttered. “Did someone think you needed a broken neck? I really hope there isn’t a maid that switches them out every night.” He needed that time to gather mana!

The comforter was too tightly tucked in for him to get under the blanket, so Josh tried for the edges of the bed. Eeek! “You need a ladder to get up here! How do you not fall out of bed every morning? I’ll slide right off the edge!”

“I won’t catch you if you fall,” Kit warned as he finished touching up the wards on the shutters.

Hmph. Josh had expected this sort of attitude if he ever met Kit, and it was good to see him show his true colors! All that compassion and concern were confusing. Kit was cold and heartless.

That tone was all too charming and just as confusing as before, but Josh knew to listen to the words and not the tone! Tone lied! That could just be the way Kit spoke: all smooth and slippery like a snake sneaking in through the cracks.

The floor was too far away to attempt jumping, so Josh backed away from the edge and went back to those monstrosities Kit used as pillows. He glared at the other man and meowed as sternly as he could: “These are rocks. Watch. I’m going to break a tooth on one.” He then laid down, took one tasseled corner in his mouth, and started chewing.

Eeeep! The pillow disappeared from under his belly!

“That’s not food,” Kit chastised as he grabbed the pillow from the air. The hover spell lingered a bit on the fabric, threatening to pull out of Kit’s hand, and made the pillow float when he tossed it into a corner. Kit picked Josh up and set the small body down on the carpet. “Wait here - and try not to eat the furniture please.”

“No way!” Josh scoffed as he scrambled after Kit. “I’m not waiting around for - ouch!” He jumped backwards with a small yelp when his nose bumped an invisible wall across the threshold.

Kit gave a darkly amused chuckle as he watched Josh press his two tiny paws to his poor nose. “Stay put.” As an added security measure, the man closed the door as he left.

Che! As if Josh was going to listen to those orders! Kit wasn’t the bloody emperor yet!

It could be a trick. Josh needed to be careful and watch out for those because Kit was super super smart. He could be waiting right on the other side of the door for Josh to do something revealing!

Josh tried to pace and stumbled over his own legs. A three day fast was too much, and one meal wasn’t enough for him to recover. He needed to gather more mana. It was getting rather urgent. This new hurdle complicated matters. No one would question if an abused animal ran away, right?

But Kit had warded the door and the window, and even closed the door. How Josh got out would make obvious he wasn’t an ordinary cat.

Josh came to the past to figure out the secret of dragon evolution. Once he did that he was supposed to run away and live a quiet life! They could search the whole manor and not find him.

Josh didn’t have that secret yet. Not even close.

Courage! Kit would return soon and Josh had to know how strong the wards were. Despite the risk of being discovered, Josh needed to gather mana and needed to know just how ‘caged’ Kit had left him.

A bit of concentration felt like breathing in human and breathing out a hairball. Josh shivered as his body adjusted. It grew in all the right places and shifted and shrank. Goosebumps popped out across his bare flesh. Kit had left the window open! Brrrr! It was so cold! Josh wasn’t one of those beastkin who could manage clothes, and even strategic fur was beyond his ability. He’d kept his ears once and his tail would pop out if he got excited, but it wasn’t intentional. His control was poor to the point where some wondered if he was really a beastkin at all.

It was the cold that made him tremble. Josh was sure! He wasn’t scared one bit when reaching his hand out towards that invisible barrier! Or maybe he was just weak. So long without eating had an effect! Nyah! It was too long for a little cat! Josh was terribly near sighted, and he didn’t even need his glasses to see his arms were too thin and his ribs far too visible to be healthy.

Right. Don’t focus on the body. That would fix itself with time and food and mana. He needed to test that wall!

Josh reached his hand out again and felt the wards. It would take his mage-sight and his glasses to read the spell, yet even without those he could ‘feel’ the basics of the magic. The spell was keyed to him! And - and!

The ward-buster Josh kept on his shoulder was missing.

“Damn sneaky dragon,” Josh grumbled as he tried to look over his own shoulder. He hadn’t noticed a thing, which meant someone had done it when he was napping! The copy-cat! When Professor Thomas cast the spell for the Duke and the vet, the blue on his shoulder was missing!

Sob! “I don’t have enough mana left for magesight, dismantling wards, and getting back into catskin! Sniff. I’m going to be stuck here and I don’t even have pants!” Josh paused on that thought, then looked over towards the open window. “Damn!” He scrambled to get under the bed where he wouldn’t be on full display for anyone walking by. This just wasn’t fair!