Chapter 178 - Lip-synching

"Shh, quiet! Anything on the left side?" Miss Nabi asked the bear named Poker while looking around the forest's edge cautiously.

"A lot of people and guards on patrol," Poker answered.

"Great, put Petunia down on their path, and let's watch until she's been brought to the headquarters," Miss Nabi said while positioning herself in Petunia's back.

Although her color was quite eye-catching when paired with Petunia's silver fur, Miss Nabi thought she should just follow them around in plain sight.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Miss Nabi?" Poker asked while carefully placing Petunia on the path of those guards who were patrolling the area.

And since the sun was already close to setting, hiding in the forest for Poker wasn't really that hard anymore, unlike what they had to go through earlier just to avoid the eyes of people.

"I need to do this, Poker, Shelby," she said while looking at the silent yet big-eyed squirrel on the back of Poker, "I'll be back before you know it," she added and hid on Petunia's fur even more.

"If you run into trouble just call us and we will get you both out of there, okay?" Poker said while looking dearly at Petunia.

"That's not going to happen, Petunia is a very important cat for the humans, and doing something to her might lead to this place's complete separation from Clandamascarene," Miss Nabi said while thinking about the conversation of the teenagers earlier.

"But if something did happen, I'll be sure to call your names out loud. Just try not to cause trouble while waiting for me, okay?" Miss Nabi added while waving goodbye to her two most trusted citizens.

"Bye Petunia, hope you won't forget us even though we've only spent a little time with each other," Shelby said while waving at the two of them whereas Petunia was just nodding at them.

"I feel like I had something to do while I was still in your village but I forgot what it was. It had something to do with a secret house and the big hedgehog was supposed to bring me there," Petunia said while thinking so hard about it which made Miss Nabi concerned for her health.

"Your health is more important than that, stop working your head too much."

"But I feel like it also had something to do with my health!" Petunia suddenly burst into annoyance which surprised Miss Nabi.

"How could a murderous witch help her cure her sickness?" Miss Nabi thought to herself while keeping her mouth shut about what Petunia was talking about.

"She's a witch and Petunia's friend, but looking at the circumstances and the number of times she could have gone to Petunia instead and cure her, I really think Heize doesn't consider her as a friend anymore. I did the right decision. Not putting Petunia in her door is just the same as saving her from an unfortunate crisis. This is for the best, Nabi. This is for the best," Miss Nabi thought to herself while taking deep breaths, trying to convince herself that she did the right thing.

"I-I'm sorry, I just really feel like something's wrong and I shouldn't be here right now," Petunia suddenly said in a polite tone which brought Miss Nabi back to reality.

"That's just your previous instinct talking but trust me. This is a better place for you to be in compared to where you wanted to go," Miss Nabi said and immediately covered her mouth after realizing what she just said.

"Where did I want to go? Where's that?"

"Nothing! Nowhere! I mean, there was a place where you wanted to go but you didn't tell us. You lost your memories before you could even tell us more things about yourself other than your name," Miss Nabi said and smiled to convince Petunia even more.

"Did you hear that?" a guard suddenly said from afar.

"I think I heard a cat meowing from this area," his partner responded while putting on an offensive stance.

"Do you think it's the cat that we're looking for?" the first guard said while trying to track where Petunia was.

"Should I talk more to call their attention?" Petunia asked after seeing Miss Nabi's reaction to the voice.

"Can't you really speak human anymore?" Miss Nabi asked while putting on a serious face in front of Petunia.

"I don't know, I'm talking to you now, but I don't know what language am I using," Petunia said regretfully.

"Okay, here's the plan. I'll do the talking for you and you just open your mouth to pretend that you're the one talking. Just don't make any sound like meowing, okay?" 

"Okay," Petunia said, "Are we going to start now?" she added while getting into position on the snow under the last tree of the forest.

"Let's go." Miss Nabi nodded and hid behind the tree's big roots not far from Petunia.

"Hello? Is anybody there? Help! I need help!" Miss Nabi said, which made the two guards run faster to Petunia's position.

When they arrived, Petunia immediately looked at Miss Nabi to ask what she's going to do next, and when she saw Miss Nabi's wings flapping as if telling her to go ahead, she looked back at the two guards and tried talking to them herself.

"M-Meow," she said and immediately shut her mouth tight when all she heard herself meow at them.

"Are you Miss Petunia? The missing talking cat from Leviathan?" the first guard asked while observing Petunia's situation on the ground.

"She fits the description perfectly, silver fur and a mean-looking cat face," the second guard said while comparing Petunia to the image in his stat-hut.

"Yes, that's me! I'm lost, can you bring me back to my teammates?" Miss Nabi said that Petunia immediately caught up and started lip-syncing.

Thank goodness the two guards were just overjoyed about being the lucky ones who will receive their raise if they found the missing member of Leviathan after believing that they got the most unlucky area of scouting earlier.

"Who knew we'd find her just beside the checkpoint?!" the first guard said while hopping happily and carrying Petunia carefully back to the checkpoint.

"Right! We're so lucky!" his partner said while trying to scratch the itchy thing in his head which was Miss Nabi trying to hide in his hood.

***

The long walk was finished, and although the two guards had asked a lot of questions to Petunia on the way, Miss Nabi only answered a few of the questions that she knew the answer to. Such as what happened to Petunia and why she suddenly disappeared from her teammates.

But the happiness of the two guards was suddenly outlived when they saw most of the guards inside the checkpoint building gathering around another cat with the same physique and silver fur as Petunia in the middle of the hallway.

All attention was focused on her and the story that she was telling that the people watching her didn't even notice the two guards holding the real Petunia come through the crowd just until they stopped in the middle of it all, holding Petunia and facing her to the fake one.

"What's happening here?" he said, which made the crowd silent and gasping for a long minute after seeing two Petunias in the middle of their HQ.

"What is that?!" the fake Petunia said and jumped off the sofa where she was standing earlier, using it as a stage while telling her story earlier, and glided down to the confused guard who was holding the real Petunia without his knowledge.

"Who are you?!" Miss Nabi said after having eye contact with Petunia and preparing for lip-synching.

"Why do you look so sick?! And why do you look so much like me?!" the fake Petunia said which garnered a lot of gasps from the people as they watched the two Petunias walk around each other slowly in an identical form as if they were observing each other.

"How dare you!" Miss Nabi said that Petunia lip-synched perfectly while still walking around the fake Petunia.

"What's happening here?" a loud voice suddenly thundered across the room, making most of the guards stiffen and salute as the commander in chief crossed his distance to the two Petunias.

"Why are there two of them? Did the Princess say we're looking for two cats?!" 

"No, sir!" The first guard who found the real Petunia said while keeping his eye on the Petunia that he and his partner found near the checkpoint.

"I'm the real Petunia! That one's a fake!" the fake one suddenly said to the commander which most of the people around them seemed to have agreed with.

"Liar! I'm the real Petunia!" Miss Nabi said from the guard's hood which made it a little bit obvious since the place was so quiet even though Petunia saw the sign and lip-synched to her words perfectly.

"What is happening here?!" the commander's voice thundered in annoyance again, "Where did you find these two?!" he asked which made the two guards who found the fake Petunia step up along with the two guards who found the real one.

"We found her near the lake, sir," the guard who found the fake one said, which discouraged the two guards who found Petunia near the checkpoint from finding her in such an obvious place.

"How about you?" the commander asked when the two who found the real Petunia did not answer.

"We found her near the forest, sir."

"Very well," the commander said, seemingly calming down from the unexpected situation, "we'll keep both of them until the Princess arrives. But until then, I want the four of you to come with me," he added and proceeded back to his office while the rest of the guards looked at them as if the commander just did something very stupid.

"Why would the commander let something so fake stay here?"

"Come on, Petunia. We'll take care of you until the Princess comes here," the female guards said to the fake Petunia after getting whipped from her story and attitude earlier.

"We're in trouble," Miss Nabi said to the real Petunia after realizing what the heck just happened.