Nya tried the handle and pushed the door open. "It's not locked." She walked into Ronin's abandoned shop. "Come on."
The rest of the group followed, Eagle Talon casting uneasy glances up and down the street before he crossed the doorway. Cole looked at the werecat and recalled that the last time Talon was here was when he has been pretending to be Jay.
The mere thought of the cruel deception made Cole's hands roll into fists. He still found the fact that bakeneko and nekomata could transform themselves into virtually anyone—provided they had a bit of their victim's stolen blood—unnerving. If Nya had not been close enough to realize Jay's eyes were the wrong color, for all Cole knew Black Blood would already have all the moonstones and everyone would be captured and cursed with the Dark Sleep.
Cole's thoughts were interrupted when Nya commented, "Looks like nobody's been here since we were."
The group scanned the silent shop, which was still and quiet, with nothing out of place since Matilda, Eagle Talon, Nya, and Liana were there—when Ronin had been abducted.
A few discarded fidget spinners still sat at the cash register atop scattered plies of receipts and lists. The twisted bird cages, ratty plush toys, and spiked bludgeons lay quietly on the shelves. Dusty cardboard boxes sat on the floor here and there, still waiting to be opened. An old cuckoo clock on the wall had stopped running, and now its thin gold chain hung uselessly above the wood floor.
Nya drifted over to a shelf and picked up a rusty dagger. "It's lonely," she murmured.
Matilda huffed, "Well, are we going to start looking for clues, or are we going to sit on our butts? Lloyd, Zane, there ought to be plenty of receipts and notes at that cash register. Liana, there's a large box to your left on the floor that could have old letters and such—Nya can help you read them. I'll look in the back of the shop. You lot make yourself useful." She strode away, not waiting for a reply.
Everyone exchanged uneasy glances, especially at Wu. They weren't sure if it was right for Matilda to be ordering them around as if she were a sensei—she had only shown up a few days ago and didn't really seem like the wise-old-master type.
However, Wu seemed unperturbed by the witch's behavior, and the ninja proceeded to search Ronin's shop containing clues to any relationship with Dog Bone.
Cole drifted alongside the shelves, shoving things aside here and there as he looked for a letter or a receipt or something that would give him a clue. Liana and Nya worked together to search the big cardboard box Matilda had suggested. Lloyd and Zane scrutinized the many papers sitting in disorganized piles on the desk.
"It's gonna take forever to find anything. Ronin may not have had anything to do with Dog Bone, anyway." Cole wandered the shelves, picking up and putting back shurikens and kunai knives.
He paused when he heard a strange chattering noise coming from the display windows. He ducked out from a shelf and was puzzled to see Talon standing there, back to the interior of the shop. The noise seemed to be emanating from him, and it continued.
Cole frowned and walked over to him. "Uhh... what the heck are you doing?"
Talon started a bit guiltily and whirled around. His slit-like pupils had turned huge. "Uh, nothing."
Cole glanced out the window and saw a pigeon wandering the street just outside the shop. It was a plump, simple-looking critter, and it was pecking at a stray piece of food wrapper. The bird was oblivious to the human and the werecat watching it.
Cole glanced back at Talon and saw him staring hungrily at the pigeon. His mouth parted slightly, and the odd chattering noise sounded again. It was a mixture of a cry and a squeak, a soft yet piercing sound.
Cole jumped at the noise and stared incredulously at Talon. "Wha— what are you making that noise for?!"
Talon glanced at him awkwardly, then shrugged. "I haven't eaten all day."
Cole blinked. "You haven't—? Oh. Right." He cast a glance at the innocent pigeon outside, then grimaced. "Cats eat... Ugh. You can have a quick snack, I guess. Just don't do anything—"
Talon was out of the building before Cole could finish.
"...weird."
There was a panicked squawk, and Cole forced himself not to look out the window. Trying not to think about Eagle Talon's unfortunate snack, he continued searching for clues.
Lloyd, searching the desk with Zane, glanced up from the pile of crumpled papers he held and glanced out the window. Seeing that Eagle Talon was busy, he chose that chance to ask, "Matilda, how many moonstone pieces are there?"
Matilda's voice replied from behind a cluttered shelf in the back of the room. "Seven, I think. Fitting, too," she added. "Seven Sorcerers; seven moonstones."
"So if the Moon Tribe has..." Lloyd counted under his breath quickly. "Four moonstones, then that means there are still three left. If we can get even just one, it should stop Black Blood from whatever she's planning to do with them, right?"
"One would assume," Matilda huffed.
A long silence followed, during which everyone continued to inspect the shelves and files for clues. Cole soon found himself growing tiresome of the silence, and finally cleared his throat. "How's Jay doing?"
"Ask Nya. She's the only one who was allowed to visit him in the ER," Liana replied from her place at the cardboard box, rummaging through its contents.
"Really?" Cole arched an eyebrow. "Why?"
He noticed Zane and Lloyd sharing an uncomfortable glance. Nya stiffened beside Liana. Lloyd coughed. There was an abrupt air of awkwardness in the room.
When for a few seconds there was no response, Cole said, "What?"
Nya sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I told the doctor that I was engaged to Jay."
Cole felt his jaw drop open. For a second, he couldn't speak, utterly stunned. Then he spluttered. "Wha— when did that happen?!"
"It was a lie!" Nya exclaimed indignantly. "I was desperate—I wanted to get in that room with Jay, and saying that seemed like the most logical solution! Jeez... you didn't think we were actually going to get married, did you?"
Zane, Lloyd, Liana, and Cole all breathed together in realization. "Ohhhhh...!" Then Cole exclaimed, "Sheesh, what is it with you and lying right now?! This is becoming a bad habit."
"Hey, I'm not trying to make this a habit! It just slipped out! And anyway, if I hadn't gotten in the ER, I would never have gotten that OWCH.14 stuff!"
"OK, but still—!"
"What's 'getting married'?" Eagle Talon's voice interjected.
Everyone spun around guiltily to the front door. Cole was afraid Talon might have figured out Nya had lied to him, but there was only faint curiosity in the his brilliant green gaze (as well as red stains and a single feather around his mouth, which made Cole's stomach churn).
Lloyd was finally able to answer. "Sorry...?"
"What you were talking about. 'Getting married'," Talon replied with a note of impatience. "What does that mean?"
For a few seconds, the humans glanced around at each other awkwardly. Conveniently, Wu was nowhere to be seen, and Matilda was acting busy looking through the shelf at the back of the room. Liana pretended to ignore the confrontation and continued rummaging through the box.
Lloyd finally nudged Zane and muttered, "You tell him."
"Fine." The nindroid looked up and said to Eagle Talon, "What we were talking about is marriage, which is the legally or formally recognized union of two people as partners in a personal relationship, historically and in some jurisdictions specifically a union between a man and a woman."
Eagle Talon blinked. "What?"
Cole sighed. "Never mind, I'll tell him." Looking up from the shelves, he tried to explain. "Getting married is when a guy and a girl fall in love and decide to, uh... you know... start a family together and live with each other. Like partners."
Talon frowned. "You call that 'married'?"
"No— I mean, yes— see, when they decide to do that, they have this huge ceremony called a wedding. That's when all their family and friends come for parties and when the couple make their vows to each other, which makes it official. You aren't considered married until you sign some certificate and have the wedding."
Talon looked startled. "Wait—are you telling me..." He fumbled for words. "...that when humans become mates, they make this huge ceremony out of it? It's like, a big deal?"
"Well, yeah." Cole shrugged. "It's not every day you decide to make your relationship official, right?"
Talon blinked rapidly, scrunching his eyebrows together. "Wow. That is really weird. Seriously, you can't become mates until then?"
"Well..." Cole replied a bit uncomfortably. "Most of the time. That's the most normal thing, anyway. Don't you do that? I mean, your tribe?"
"Ancestors forbid!" Talon exclaimed indignantly, drifting over to Cole. "That's beetle-brained! If you and a she-cat want to be together, you're together, and that's it. We don't make a big fuss out of someone's personal relationship, for crying out loud!"
Cole ran this through his head. "So... how does the rest of the tribe know if a couple are—you know, 'together' or not? Is it like a secret or something?"
"No," Talon replied matter-of-factly. "There's no ceremony or formal announcement, but sometimes a couple will tell their family or friends about their happiness, and word spreads. We all live together, so it's kind of hard not to know if a couple is 'together' or not. But," he added thoughtfully. "Sometimes we don't even know until the kittens are born."
Before Cole could respond, Talon continued. "So, I guess if Jay and Nya were in the Tribe of the Moon, you might not even know they're together until their kit—"
"OK, stopstopstop." Cole interjected hastily, feeling his face beginning to burn. "I'm sorry, this conversation just got too weird. Can we drop the subject?"
A funny little smile spread across Talon's mouth, and he looked at Cole as if he wasn't sure if he was making a joke or not. "Seriously? That weirds you out? Is a wedding really that important?"
"Yes," Cole hissed. "So can we just stop? Please?"
Talon shrugged good-naturedly. "All right. Whatever." He added, "Personally, I don't see what the big deal is."
"Well, you're a cat. I wouldn't expect you to."
"Technically, I'm a bakeneko-nekomata."
"Whatever."
Silence followed. Everyone else was trying to pretend they were ignoring the odd exchange, though Cole caught sight of Nya blushing furiously. He ducked behind the shelf he was searching and proceeded to rummage through a box full of odd items and ratty notebooks. Eagle Talon seemed a bit amused by the humans' discomfort, and the small smirk remained on his face.
Cole felt mildly irritated by Talon's entertainment. He shoved a weatherbeaten notebook into the werecat's hands. "Here. Make yourself useful."
Talon frowned at the book. "What?"
"You want to help us find Dog Bone, don't you? Help out and search for clues in these files." He turned back to the shelf and began shoving iron gauntlets aside to reach a messy stack of papers.
Talon flipped open the pages and looked down curiously at the scrawled writing. "What is this? I don't understand it."
Cole stared at him. "Wait—you can't read?"
Talon frowned. "No. Bakeneko and nekomata have no written language. How am I supposed to understand these weird markings?"
"Oh. Uh, well..." Cole took back the book. "I guess I'll just look at that."
Talon shrugged and scanned the shop with mild interest, not seeming to care about his illiteracy. Cole turned away from him, looked at the books and papers stacked on the shelf in front of him, then sighed, "This is going to take forever."
"Not necessarily." Lloyd looked up from the desk holding a thin brown notebook in one hand. He was staring down at the open page in front of him, which was yellow with age, and his eyes gleamed with victory. Beside him Zane looked equally triumphant.
Matilda and Wu peered over the shelves in the back of the room at the them. Nya, Liana, and Cole looked up at Lloyd expectantly, who said with barely-suppressed excitement, "I found something. We know where Dog Bone's hideout is. And get this," He turned to them.
"He has a moonstone, too."