I watched Seth leave with the others and then glanced over at the chickens. Other than Twelfth, I didn't recognize any. There were no other non-familiar beasts in the barn with us.

I saw no reason to stay put. But I did want to check out the facilities here. Maybe they had something that would appeal to my feline sensibilities. I decided to wander over to the outdoor area attached to my holding cell. And if I happened to nibble at the meat in that bowl a little, well, I was a cat now. That makes that okay. And delicious.

Ugh. If I wasn't careful I'd be catching and eating live mice. I shuddered.

The tiny deer was in the fenced yard next to mine, munching on grass. A bit of a distance away, was the lion creature. A manticore, I think they called it.

And here would be the first mouse I don't plan on ever eating. I turned to the little deer and greeted it. "Hello Mouse. My name's Mau."

The little thing startled when I started talking to it. "I'm not a m-mouse! M-My name is Ba'al. I shall be the g-greatest d-demon lord of all!"

Well that wasn't what I was expecting. "Bawl? Like bawling your eyes out?"

"I knew I should have picked Diablo," the little deer muttered. Then it puffed itself up. "Ba'al! The g-greatest of all d-demons!"

Little dude was nutso. Was this a trend in magic beasts? The chickens were a different kind of whacked, but they were there too. "Never heard of you, sorry. Good luck on your journey to demonhood. Have you ever talked to a manticore before?"

"I- What? No I haven't."

"Thanks bub." There was a gate in the paddocks, so I walked up to it and right on out. It didn't shut behind me, I think it caught on the grass, but that was fine.

The manticore was pacing in a line on the opposite side of the pillar that tied him. I eyed the chain and stopped close to the edge of where it could reach. There I sat and waited for it to either look at or acknowledge me. As I waited I studied it.

In this world a manticore was a lion-bodied creature with bat wings, a weirdly flat tail that curled and an uncanny valley looking man's face. It reminded me of the chimera we'd gone over in one of Seth's classes. Add some reptile and goat into the creature blender and you were there.

What I found interesting about this was that this amalgamation creature was apparently naturally born this way. Like natural selection took the day off and let a bunch of super high monkeys decide the next creature design.

He noticed me. As we looked at each other, I got the sense that this guy was pissy by nature. That was fine. I just wanted a conversation.

He jumped up in the air and flew over to me. He was tethered still, so his flying was clumsy and awkward. I think he wanted to impress me with the fact he could fly, and swoop down and be all intimidating. Instead the chain tangled in one wing and he sprawled on his face in front of me.

"Fucking shit," he muttered and glared at me like it was my fault. Then he pounced at me.

I'd judged the distance correctly. The chain prevented him from reaching me. At least with his face or feet. His flat tail shot out to stab me. In that instant I realized it was flat like a scorpion's tail, complete with venomous stinger.

I squawked and dodged it. Like, out of the way in a blink dodged. Just like the chickens.

My surprise was mirrored on the manticore. "Did you just bawk like a chicken?" he asked.

I totally did. "No!"

"You did! I heard you!"

I had the chicken dodge power. Did that come from the berries? No way, it made me squawk like a chicken. I had to have gotten it from the chickens somehow. They squawked when they dodged too! I was almost as fast as First when I dodged– Hey! He tried to sting me!

"What the fuck did you try to sting me for, asshole? What did I do?"

The manticore shrugged. "I'm having a bad day and you were there. That makes it your fault."

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"What kind of bullshit is that? That's no reason to sting me. I came over to have a conversation. But I think I don't want to talk to you anymore." I made sure there was more room between us. I might have judged the chain length accurately, but I didn't judge that tail length or purpose well.

"Why would you want to talk to me?" The manticore sounded really baffled. His back end was all the way behind him like it should be. But that stinger was up in the air now. I backed up some more.

"I don't anymore. I thought you looked like an interesting person. Possibly smarter than a bunch of these other beasts. I don't think that anymore."

The manticore blinked, then growled and glared. "Did you just call me stupid?"

I walked away. I would rather puzzle out what I'd just done than navigate a contentious conversation with a murderous manticore. I could see the tiny deer watching me with wide eyes.

"Hey! Get back here!" the manticore yelled.

Nope! I didn't even bother saying it out loud. I just walked back inside, right out the door of my pen, and over to the cage with the chickens. "Hey, Twelfth. How do you activate your dodge power?"

I ignored the fish in his bubble. He was swimming back and forth in wide motions like he was trying to wave to me.

"Oh, I'm not Twelfth," the chicken said. "There's only five of us here, and I'm the best! I'm First Hen now!"

"I don't recommend that. I'm going to kick First Hen's ass. Do you want that to be you? Or should you just leave your name as Twelfth?"

The chicken looked blankly at the other chickens. "There's only five of us. How can I be Twelfth?"

"I'll change your name to Peabrain then."

"Oh. I think I like peas." The chicken frowned. "No I don't. I've never had peas. I don't think of them much so Peabrain isn't me."

"Are you thinking about them now?"

"Yes.

"Then your new name is Peabrain. It won't change. Okay? Now. How does your dodge power work? How do you activate it?"

"You are so rude," the green snake piped up. He was still in his tank, coiled up and draped over a large stick in the tank. "You can't just change her name."

"Stuff it, Greenie. I'm having a conversation here," I snapped at the snake.

"Stuff it, Greenie," Reginald piped up. "Stuff it, Greenie." I really think Reginald said some stuff just because he liked the sounds of the words. Fucking birdbrains everywhere.

"My name is not Greenie!"

The fish was still trying to herd me back into my pen. I still ignored him.

"You're a green snake," I said as I paced over to its tank. "You are Greenie now. Everyone here heard it."

The snake buried its head in its coils and muttered to itself.

"So. Twelfth. Peabrain. Chicken. How do you do that dodge thing? How does it activate?" I turned back to the chicken.

"I think AH! And get out of the way."

I stared at the chicken. The bird was probably being very literal. So, that meant the power probably activated on its own when the chicken was startled. I was startled when it activated. No, that couldn't be it. First Hen had used it to dodge around me when I had her cornered. Probably it was a reflexive action under most circumstances, and First Hen had learned to control it. I couldn't trigger it before because the instinctive action was either fear or startle based.

That was enough to work with. I could figure it out from there. I was smarter than a chicken. I let the fish in a bubble herd me back into a pen.

The next thing I needed to work out was how I got the power from the chicken. No, that wasn't next. More important than that was not bawking like a chicken every time I used it. Because priorities.

I shook off the water where Louis had been bumping me in his attempts to keep me where I was supposed to be. That's when the kids came back.

Robin led the way. She burst into the barn, quickly glanced around like she was looking for someone, and then sighed in relief. She started opening cages.

"Mau, Reginald, and Asclepius, I would like to ask you to help us find some missing beasts," Robin said.

Asclepius, huh? No wonder the snake didn't want to say it. What a mouthful. Greenie it will stay.

"We are looking for a fire hound, badger, fox, cat, and monkey," Robin continued. "If you are nervous, you can stay near your human the whole time. But if you hear or sense them, please help us find them."

"Hide and seek!" Reginald cried and swooped around Duvessa.

Robin took a moment next to the chicken cage to count them, gestured to Louis to follow, and rushed out the door.

Seth carried me as everyone hustled after Robin. In the back part of the property was a large building, what would have been the manor house if this was a rich person's home. The windows were tall but barred, the doors were wide and made of stone. This place had none of the bas-relief I was getting used to from the older parts of the city. It did have a moat. And a bridge.

Robin poked her head in and searched around before waving the students in quickly. She jerked the door shut the instant the last person was inside.

The foyer was grand, more like an atrium, and had sweeping columns up to a circular mezzanine. On the edge of the mezzanine was a shelf containing stone statues. Most were of plain brown stone, with detailed shapes of various beasts. In one section the statues were different. The artist for this section was significantly more skilled, and absolutely morbid. They were carved from the same brown stone as the other statues, but they depicted animals in the moment of death.

Hallways led off the mezzanine, both above and below. And down each hall were banks of cells.

I recognized this building. I had memorized its blueprint only a couple of weeks ago.