I Become the Baby Tiger in a Beast Taming World-Chapter 73: The Beast Detective Agency Rides Again
In the human world, I used to watch all those crime and mystery shows like CSI ( Crime Scene Investigation) that focus on forensics. As a law student, I wanted to know what the forensics people knew, because if I went into criminal law (not my first choice), I’d need to understand forensics and how crime scenes work and how they are processed. How evidence is collected. What really happens in an autopsy and what those dead bodies really tell the police.
We don’t have a body here, thank whatever God is at work, and thank the Primal Beast, too. Lamant is resting in the Healing Wing under Master Taba’s care. Gussie, not trusting Master Taba to properly look after Lamant, is staying right by her tamer’s side. She will also be our eyes and ears about anything medical.
Lobo, Demos, and I have joined Peridot and Niall for our own Beast Detective Agency CSI in Lamant’s study. Although the room is familiar to us by now, we attack it with fresh eyes and noses and everything else we’ve got.
Niall watches Peridot meander around the room, wiggling into places that we could never reach. "She’s an excellent hunter," he remarks.
Demos stands up on his hind legs to reach the desk. Nothing has been disturbed. Crime scene left as is. And this is a crime scene, an attempted murder. At the very least, attempted sabotage. I peer over the desk too. I’m almost tall enough to reach it standing on my tiptoes.
Books and scrolls and tablets spill across the desk, a tidal wave that almost engulfs a perfectly ordinary brass drink tumbler next to a couple of beakers. Nothing out of the ordinary in the beakers, from the smell of them. They smell of normal herbs and magic. Because i don’t want to disturb anything, I growl, pointing at Niall and then at the beakers. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂
Picking up both beakers, Niall sniffs, too. "Nothing here, but I’ll have these tested. Sometimes, poisons, spells, and other substances are odorless and colorless. And certain herbs can mask a funny taste. Magic can also muddy the waters." He hands them to a Riddlehoeven aide. "As for this tumbler, it contains Lamant’s normal drink of choice during the day, cold spiced cider."
Hold on. Don’t criminals usually poison whatever a victim habitually drinks? All those crime shows and some criminal justice classes have paid off. Plus, I confess to being a fan of Dame Agatha Christie, not that anyone here in Tanglewood has heard of her.
I nudge Demos. [The tumbler! The tumbler!]
[What about it?] Demos concentrates. [Maybe there’s something in these books and papers. If only we could read.]
[Peridot!] I hope she can hear me, wherever she’s crawled to. [Tell Master Widdershins--]
[Niall.] She responds, clear as a starless night sky. [He wants me to call him Master Niall. Or just Niall. What about him?]
[Tell him I think I smell something in the tumbler.]
[What?] Demos bumps up against me. [Why do you always have to complicate everything?]
Lobo woofs. [He saved ME. I say you should listen to your packmate.]
My brother Damon. Backing me up even when he’s playing a wolf. I so owe him. More than I can ever repay. But I can help him in the game.
At the moment, I defer to Demos. [Lobo’s right. I’ve rarely steered you wrong.]
Although he’s all about efficiency, Demos admits that Lobo and I have a point. [Fine. Peridot, tell Master Niall.]
Peridot slides out of a hidey-hole in the corner. [Fine, but you wouldn’t believe what I found on the other side...]
Demos flicks his brown ears in acknowledgment. They’re getting bigger and furrier. [Tell us later. Right now, Master Niall needs to know what Blaze just said.]
Peridot slinks up to Master Niall and has a conversation with him. Of course, the beast/master bond is private, but I’d give anything to eavesdrop.
Immediately, Niall seizes the tumbler and hands it to another aide. "Have that tested." He points to the table where Lamant usually brews his potions, and where a cluster of aides is gathered, diligently testing evidence, their entire world shrunk to the beakers, magical and chemical tools, and the instruments of investigation.
Peridot sways from side to side. [You are so clever, Blaze...]
I try to be modest. [It was nothing. I was lucky.]
She’s barely listening to me. [But you need to see what I found on the other side of the hole...]
With her tail, she points to a shadowed alcove, narrow and slender.
I demur. [I’d love to, but we can’t fit through there, I’m sure.]
Oblivious, Peridot swats me with her tail. [I helped you, now help me out.]
[It’s impossible.] I line up my thick furry body with her slender serpentine one. [You see the size differential? You may want to rethink this plan.]
Demos and Lobo both back me up. Both of them chorus, [Right. We’re too big.]
Peridot shakes her body, ribboning on the floor, a turquoise banner. [Why so timid? You are fierce beasts! You caught me in the jungle. I tell you, you can fit. Come on!]
She rises off the ground a few inches and glides toward the alcove. Obviously, we’re not going to get any peace until we do as she bids. So, we follow her to the darkened alcove that I haven’t noticed before. Set in the alcove is a dim, sputtering torch that doesn’t provide much in the way of illumination, but does shine the light on the hidey-hole or narrow crack that Peridot slipped through. Certainly, unless someone uses a 2D flattening spell on all of us, we won’t fit through there, but good luck convincing Peridot of that, at least with words.
[There.] Peridot points with her nose. [Through there. You will see.]
Perturbed, Demos gives an "ufff." [Very well. And YOU will see how wrong you are. As the senior beast here, the one with the longest time in this household, it falls to me to go first. If I can handle the Agility Training from Purgatory, I can conquer this.]
He steps up to the plate, or rather, the hidey-hole. It’s a round opening narrowing to two slits on either side, just barely big enough for Demos’ paw. Nevertheless, he sticks his paw into the almond-shaped opening, and grunts in dismay. [Stuck! You see, Peridot?]
[Have faith!] Peridot uses her tail in an endearing fashion to try and push Demos’ paw through the opening. [You will see. I cannot describe what’s on the other side. I just know it is BIG. A whole space. A room.]
Hello, what’s this? A room behind Lamant’s study? Everything just got more interesting. Maybe that is how he got poisoned? Or maybe a servant or someone disguised as a servant is responsible? Maybe that servant hid inside the room to avoid suspicion? Or there could be something even more sinister lurking there.
That piques Demos’ interest. [There are hidden rooms in this house, Peridot.]
[Of course!] I growl in agreement. [We looked for several of them. We investigated them when we were trying to discover how someone kidnapped Judo and Memo--for your information, Peridot, those are the beasts that used to belong to Master and Mistress.]
[But I did not know about one attached to Lamant’s study.] Demos sniffs the alcove. [There is a musty smell, but only half musty. And a mix of smells. Too many to identify.]
I nuzzle Peridot’s scaly skin. [I’m sorry we ever doubted you.]
Lobo woofs. [You were right. This is big. Now if we can just get behind this wall...]
Niall, behind us, is practically jumping out of his skin. His hair even sticks out further. In a word, he is excited. He loves this kind of thing. "Peridot says the room is large. There must be some way to open the wall.."
[The torch!]
Maybe I watched too many old movies/TV shows/anime and read too many novels, but the torch seems to stick out. There are no other torches in the entire room. Everywhere else, lamps light up the study.
Demos tries to grope around in the whole, to no avail. He pulls out his paw with a frustrated grunt. [The torch? What are you on about, Blaze?]
I growl, pointing up at the torch with my nose. [Pull the torch.]
Of course, Peridot says something to Niall, because seconds later he takes hold of the torch and pulls it downward, then releases it in the down position.
CRAAACK.
Incredibly, the alcove and the wall surrounding it swing open. We barely step back in time to avoid getting hit by the door.
Lobo howls, Demos and I growl, and Peridot hisses. A mix of elated and surprised sounds. Also, instant wariness. Whatever lies on the other side, it’s unknown.
Our noses don’t reveal much more than they did before the secret door opened. Even Niall hesitates at the threshold, staring into the gloaming.
Do we dare investigate?
Do we dare not to?
What do we do?
