Luna the Magickless Fluff

“Well…” Luna began but paused when her voice cracked.

Oh, no. This was not okay. They could not upset Luna on her wedding eve, nor could they talk bad about my Merlin. I simply wouldn’t allow it in my presence.

Without giving it a second thought, I slammed the trash can lid down, startling them all into silence, then stormed back into the house.

4

Merlin and Mr. Fluffikins left shortly after dinner. While I was curious how the two young cat guys would celebrate their bachelor’s night out, I didn’t dare ask. As long as Merlin was happy and didn’t overhear all the terrible things some of Luna’s friends were saying about him, we’d be okay.

And this would all be over tomorrow.

I just have to get through the night.

With Fluffikins gone, the barrier he had erected had also dispersed, which meant I needed to get all the lady cats to stay indoors for the next few hours at least.

I clapped my hands together to get everyone’s attention. “Who wants to play a game?” I shouted with every bit of cheer I could muster.

Their eyes wandered over to me rather reluctantly, telling me my job would not be an easy one. Oh boy.

“Okay!” I called out with more enthusiasm than I felt. “This one’s called toilet paper wedding dress. We’ll split off into groups and each pick a model. You weave the toilet paper like this…” I paused to demonstrate by looping some double ply over my torso like a sash. “See? It’s easy, right? And whoever makes the best dress before time’s up wins.”

A Russian blue tapped my foot. “Wins what, human?”

I leaned forward, putting my hands on my knees. “Um, you can just call me Gracie, okay?”

“Okay, so what do I win?” the blue demanded again.

“Well, you win bragging rights, of course!”

She curled her lip at me. “A cat doesn’t need to prove herself in order to brag. What else you got?”

I glanced around the living room and kitchen, trying to think fast. “Uh, extra canned food to take home with you?”

A symphony of meows rose to meet my ears. Well, well, well. Suddenly they were very interested in playing my little game.

“Groups of five to seven, okay?” That should give us about six groups, which wouldn’t be too bad or cost me too much in toilet paper. “Luna and I will both be judges, but she’ll have the final say!”

Luna jumped up onto the kitchen table and motioned for me to join her. “I think I invited too many cats,” she whispered in confidence.

I kept my face as neutral as possible. It wouldn’t be right to shout “I told you so” at a distressed bride on the night before her wedding.

“Some of them are…” She trailed off, glanced toward the far corner of the living room, and sighed.

I tried to follow her line of sight, but there were just too many furry bodies moving about to be able to tell which of them she was looking at.

“Luna,” I said softly, placing a gentle hand on her back. “I know.”

I paused to sigh before revealing, “I heard them talking outside. They have no right to judge you or Merlin. You know that right?”

She shrugged delicately, as was her way since sacrificing her magic.

“They don’t know the two of you like I do. You guys are perfect for each other. I have zero doubts in my mind.”

She glanced at me through half-lidded eyes. “Do you really think so?”

And I gave her the biggest smile of my life. “I know so.”

We didn’t say anything more as we watched the cat-testants configure their toilet paper wedding gowns.

When I called time, a few of them hissed at me and demanded they be allowed to finish.

At Luna’s urging, I granted that request.

Unfortunately, that meant the game took an agonizing two hours to complete. I even had to run to the store to buy more toilet paper partway through. And since Luna was proving far too distressed to carry on much of a conversation, I ended up spending most of the evening playing a match three game on my phone. Not exactly what I had planned for the big night before, but I’d already learned more than once—and the hard way—that the act of planning when it involved magic cats was mostly time wasted.

After what felt like an eternity, the last of the groups announced that they’d finished, and I heaved a giant sigh of relief.

Now, at first, I tried to help Luna judge the various dresses, but none of the cats knew how to take even the slightest criticism. When an orange tabby struck at me with her claws for pointing out that the hemline was uneven, I decided to let Luna finish evaluating the toilet paper gowns on her own.

Of course, I’d forgotten to specify that they should use the provided material only when crafting their dresses. Many of the teams had trotted out their magic to create impossibly beautiful works of art. My personal favorite belonged to a frost witch who had adorned the entire bodice with tiny beads made of ice and the skirt with a subtle snowflake netting.

Ultimately, Luna declared everyone a winner, which meant I’d be traveling around the county tomorrow morning to buy all the pet stores completely out of their stock.

“I’d like the duck pate, please,” a black and white spotted cat informed me.

“And I’ll take the salmon cuts,” an orange Persian declared.

And then they all started mewling orders at me.

Oh, no. Oh, no. There was no way I’d be able to cater to all their special requests. Why had I ever thought a cat wedding would be a good idea? Luna was not a bridezilla, but all her guests were of the feline persuasion—and that was so much worse.

“I just need a minute to catch my breath,” I said, backing toward the front door and groping for the knob. I burst outside into the empty night and heaved another giant sigh of relief.

What am I doing here? Is Luna even enjoying this? I wondered as I thought back to our brief conversation at the table. I’m such an idiot for even suggesting this.

It would be okay, though.

It had to be.

Hopefully, nobody would remember the night before when they thought back to this occasion. Tomorrow’s ceremony would be a true thing of beauty, and I knew Merlin and Luna were looking forward to it after all the time they’d invested in watching wedding rom-coms the past week.

I smiled to myself as I crept around the house, making my way toward the gorgeous wedding garden I’d created. Looking at it would remind me of what was important here. It would give me the strength to make it through all the casual complaints and pointed demands.

It would…

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” I screamed into the night, no longer caring who heard it.

5

Only hours ago, my backyard had been a gorgeous oasis of flowers, herbs, and everything a former garden witch, who was also a future blushing bride, could possibly desire.

Now it all lay in tatters. The spell-casting herbs had been ripped out by their roots. The flowerbeds stomped into the dirt. Worst of all, though, the wedding arch had been shredded into confetti.

So much for wisteria keeping the demons away. Whoever had done this was a monster of the worst kind.

I stood silently, shaking with rage as I struggled to keep the tears back. It wasn’t just that all the hard work had been lost, but also the fact that Luna deserved a beautiful wedding to celebrate her love with Merlin and officially mark the start of their new lives together. He did, too.

Yes, someone had just selfishly and cold-heartedly ripped that away from them. I would find out who had done the deed and make sure they never received so much as a crumb of hospitality from me ever again.

I’d barely had time to take the whole scene in when a sparkling pink cloud erupted a few feet in front of me and both Merlin and Mr. Fluffikins leapt out, ready for a fight.

“What’s the matter, Gracie?” my cat asked, running straight to my side.

“We could hear your screams all the way on the other side of town. Or at least he could,” Mr. Fluffikins added with a sneer. Rather than approaching me, he turned to survey the scene.

And I could see the exact moment he noted the wreckage that surrounded us. His golden eyes grew wide before blinking hard and then darting wildly from side to side to take in the full extent of the damage.

Merlin’s attention, by contrast, remained focused solely on me. We shared such an unbreakable bond that he had felt the pain and anguish overtake me. This wasn’t a normal thing that happened with us, but it had occurred a couple times in the past when an emotion had come on especially sudden and strong for one of us.

And this time fear, anger, and sorrow had all collided on me at once. Now Merlin needed to make sure I was okay before he diverted his attention to anything else.

“Oh, Merlin,” I whispered, crouching down to stroke his head sadly. “Look behind you.”

As soon as he turned, he sunk low to the ground and pushed his ears back against his head. “Wh-what happened?”

I couldn’t hold back my tears any longer. They fell hot against my cheeks. “I worked really hard on preparing this place for tomorrow’s ceremony. It was such a beautiful garden, too. I thought it would help Luna feel more at home, but—”

“Someone destroyed it,” Merlin hissed, his green eyes glowing fiercely as they looked up into the night sky. “They destroyed my Luna’s garden, but I’ll make sure they don’t get away with this.”

I shook my head as the tears continued to fall. “I can’t remake it before tomorrow. I just can’t. I spent days tracking everything down. I—” My voice cracked, and Mr. Fluffikins moved to comfort me.

“There, there,” he rasped in that strange snake-like voice of his. “It’s a terrible thing, but we’ll make it right. First we need a barrier.”

No sooner had he said this than a rippling, translucent glow sped out in all directions and formed a dome around my yard. As soon as the shape had formed, the magic flashed and faded from sight. I knew it was still there, working to keep any would-be gawkers unaware.

Merlin paced around the yard, deep in thought. Occasionally, he muttered something under his breath, but not loud enough for me to make out. The poor guy. He was just as torn up about this as I was.

“Cut that out!” Fluffikins spat as soon as he noticed what Merlin was doing. “You’ll muddy up the paw prints and any other clues the culprit may have left behind.”

“Point taken.” Merlin dropped his butt to the ground and twitched his ears.

“Did you see some tracks out here?” I asked them. It was too dark for me to make any out, but their vision was infinitely better than mine.

“I haven’t had the time to look yet,” the black cat admitted with a frown. “But we’ll need some kind of evidence to help us find the responsible party, and paw prints are as good a place to start as any.”

“I can help bring them to the surface with my magic,” Merlin offered, rising to all fours to show he was ready to get to work.

“Then do it,” Mr. Fluffikins commanded, clearly used to being the one in charge.

I watched quietly as the cats worked out a plan, all the while wondering why neither Luna nor her guests had come out to investigate following my scream. Had they not heard, or did they just not care?

Merlin padded on the ground with his front paws, much like he did before settling himself on the couch. As he worked, little dew droplets rose from the earth and hovered a few feet above ground, creating a 3D replica of our yard.

Wow. I studied the image, looking for anything that stood out as unusual. Honestly, it was all unusual and astonishingly beautiful, too.

“Can you isolate the prints?” Fluffikins asked, coming to stand beside me as he watched Merlin work.

Merlin changed the speed of his padding maneuver, sending a majority of the dewdrops straight up into the sky where they instantly evaporated.

“Take out the human shoe prints,” Fluffikins ordered next. Then added a bit more politely, “And can you change the colors to differentiate each set of cat tracks?”

“I can try,” Merlin managed between clenched teeth. Mr. Fluffikins was clearly pushing him to the edges of his magic.

As a sky witch, Merlin often played with rain, wind, and thunder. In theory, he should be able to manipulate color, but it was something I’d never seen him do before. Still, he wasn’t giving up, and I admired him for that.

He struggled to find the right tempo, alternating his speed, direction, and even stomping patterns, until at last the dewdrops began to glow with new colors.

A set of yellow-hued tracks led up to Fluffikins.

A set of green made their way over to Merlin.

That left us with three others.

Blue. Purple. Red.

One of them belonged to our vandal.

Now we just had to find out which.

6

Mr. Fluffikins rose above the dewdrops and floated around the yard, studying each unique set of tracks without saying anything to us for a long time.

“Gracie,” he said to me at last. “Merlin and I will handle the crime scene. You may go inside and start questioning the suspects. We’ll reconvene at 0100 hours to discuss our shared findings.”

I looked to Merlin, but he was so focused on maintaining his dewdrop magic that he didn’t notice when I turned his way or even when I called his name.

“Okay, sure,” I said with a quick nod.

“And have Luna help you,” the bossy black cat added. “It takes a cat to know a cat. And besides that, she knows all the suspects far better than any of us do.”

“Who are our suspects?” I asked, wondering if he’d been able to determine something I hadn’t while studying the prints.

“Everyone,” he said with a grim expression.

I tilted my head to the side. “You mean all the guests?”

“No, I mean everyone. All of our prints are back here, too.”

I took in a quick, sharp breath. “So now I’m a suspect?”

“Not a likely one, I’ll admit. But we can’t rule you out yet.”

“Fine. Whatever. At least I know I didn’t do it.” I stomped off, once again overly emotional about something a cat had said. Yes, this was my life now.

“Oh, and Gracie?” Mr. Fluffikins called after me.

I stopped walking but didn’t say anything. I was happy to have his help but irritated by the fact he would consider me a possible suspect after all the work I’d put in to make tomorrow special for my two cat roommates.

“Make sure no one leaves until we figure out whodunnit.” His words echoed into the night. An order. A plea. A necessity.

I turned and offered him a quick salute, then ran back into the house.

Luna met me at the door. “What’s wrong, dear?” she asked, studying me closely.

“Is there somewhere we can talk privately?” I asked in little more than a whisper.

She looked past me, fixing her blue eyes on the door. “Let’s go outside.”

“Um, I’d rather not, if that’s okay.”

She frowned as she glanced around the main living area, which was positively overflowing with cats. “Well, I don’t think we’ll get much privacy anywhere around here, but we can perhaps try the bathroom?”

“Good thinking,” I said, picking her up and carefully weaving my way through the clowder of magical cats.

I did have to shoo away one overly friendly ragdoll, but once I did, Luna and I had the bathroom to ourselves. I lowered the toilet lid and sank down into a sitting position while Luna hopped up on the edge of the bathtub and waited for me to speak.

“There’s no easy way to say this,” I began as tears threatened to spill once more. No, I needed to be strong for Luna. The last thing she needed was for me to spoil her big day before it even arrived.

“I made a special garden for you in the backyard,” I revealed with a sniffle. “It’s why I didn’t want you going back there. It’s got some of the spell-casting herbs you had before, and there was this beautiful arch made of so many flowers.”

Luna’s mouth formed an O. “Oh my, dear. That sounds like a little piece of Heaven on earth.”

“It is. I mean, it was. Someone destroyed it.”

She gasped. “Destroyed it how?”

“They completely demolished it. Luna, I’m so sorry.”

She sucked in a deep breath. “But who would do such a thing?”

“It had to be one of the guests, especially after what they were saying about you and Merlin.”

She hung her head, speaking softly. “It’s bad enough that they don’t understand our love, but to try to ruin our wedding? Oh, dear. Perhaps it would just be best to call the whole thing off. I don’t want to get married in front of anyone who thinks that Merlin and I shouldn’t be together.”

I put a finger under Luna’s chin and tipped her head up. “I understand how you feel. Believe me, I do. But you can’t let one bad person ruin the most special day of your whole life. We’ll find out who did this and make sure they’re not here for the ceremony tomorrow.”

She stared at me with large, unblinking eyes. “But how? How can we possibly figure out which of the guests did this when so many had such terrible things to say?”

“Merlin and Mr. Fluffikins are seeing what they can pick up from the crime scene outside,” I told her, choosing to focus on what we could do to make things right.

“Oh, should we go help?”

“No, I don’t want you to see the mess. It’s absolutely heartbreaking, Luna.”

She mewed softly and reached out a paw to touch my thigh. “I understand, dear. Thank you for working so hard on your gift for me. Even if I didn’t get to see it, I can imagine how beautiful it must have been.”

“It really, really was. We have to find out who did this to you, Luna. Can you help me question the guests? Maybe we’ll catch someone in a lie.”

“Of course, I can help. You know, I’ve been much more observant of things like that since I lost my magic. It’s like my other five senses are working harder to accommodate for the loss of my sixth.”

I let out a sad little chuckle. “It’s kind of funny. Isn’t it? We’re the only two without magic, and yet we’re the ones taking lead on this investigation.”

“Better to laugh than to cry,” Luna agreed as she hopped down from the tub and padded toward the door. “You wait here, and I’ll bring in the first cat to question.”

I rose to unlatch the door for her.

It was a good thing Luna was choosing who we should question first, because if we had to talk to all forty-plus cats before finding our culprit, then we’d be up all night with this interrogation.