Old Haunts
#1
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The ebony feline awoke one eye lazily, his tail draped around his paws as he sat on the window ledge in his favorite spot. Sunshine filtered through the clouds, shedding golden light on the cat's sable fur. He was poring over a particular book - an atlas, full of maps of the world. Element found travel to be extremely interesting, and ever since Leon's daughter had told him that she and her father came from Spain, he decided to dedicate a few days to looking and searching different regions around the world. He decided to start with where he was now - Nova Scotia.

He looked, bemused, as he spotted Halifax and the university in which he sat right now - it was interesting to see where he was on a map in relation to other areas. This map didn't have the packs on it, but through his travels he could tell where they would be relatively. He turned the page, this time looking at Europe.

He spotted Spain right away, and looked at where Nova Scotia was in relation to it; it was several miles away, and he wondered at how Leon and his daughter could have taken a boat and gone all that way. He imagined himself on a boat, floating up and down on the crests of the waves - it would be an interesting experience, but he enjoyed living inn his home in Halifax much better, with all his books. There was no way he, with no hands, could take all his favorite books with him on his travels.

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#2
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221

Over the past weeks Giron had enjoyed travelling throughout Nova Scotia, enjoying the climate. The past weeks he'd mostly spent traveling through nature, camping, exploring, and generally getting his fedora dirty. After doing this for two weeks, he had come to the conclusion that having his fedora so tattered was something he could no longer live with, and had set off for a city he could relax at. The moment he knew of the library, he had settled on Halifax. He missed being able to just sit and spend a day reading, letting his perception of time be controlled solely by print on paper. At the same time, he knew he had to control himself. Casual reading was different than reading case reports every waking hour, but to be found sleepwalking in a reenactment of a tale could be nearly as bad. Having tidied himself and got rid of nature's mark from his clothes, and more importantly, his Fedora, Giron was glad to be on his way to the library. His jaw hit the floor the moment he entered.

He got up quickly and massaged his bruised jaw, annoyed that he had fallen entering a library. At first he was happy, thinking nobody saw him. One audible sigh of relief later, his nose picked up the clear scent of a cat.

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#3
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The feline's keen ears weren't expecting a large, thumping sound hit the floor and resonated around him. Leaping to his feet, he spun around to face whoever had entered and made such a loud noise - green eyes rest on a strange dog, unlike any of the wolves or coyotes that he'd encountered in his life. This dog seemed to slouch as he picked himself off the floor - the fall was probably what had caused the loud noise that startled the ebony feline - and his ears hung down to near his shoulders, like hair, contrasting the perked ears that he most often saw on felines. The ears were also brown, as was some of this dog, excluding his face and hands.

The attire was something else that Element noticed right away; the dog was wearing a strange hat that Element didn't know the name of, as well as a strange coat that hung all the way down to the floor. The dog looked around once and sighed in relief, rubbing his jaw, thinking that no one had seen him. Element the cat silently leapt down from his spot on the window sill, padding up to the canine that had so graciously fallen into his home.

"Are you alright, my dear sir?" he asked curiously, tail tucked above his paws as he took his seat below the man. He was quite tall, he observed; but then again, most canines were, to Element.

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#4
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220

The scent had put Giron on edge once more, his memory flashing back to Kato, the Kitty Killer, one of his first few serious cases.A voice. An inquiry. Though the voice was kind, Giron's suspicion lead his reaction. His entire body snapped in the direction of the sound. "I'm fine - Aggh!" Giron screamed his reply, realizing his knee hadn't snapped along with his body. He managed to fall to his knees and not his face this time, though his distrust of the unknown feline stopped him from reaching out for help.

His old detective roots kicked back in, and he went into defense. With a brush and wiggle of his arm he covered more of himself with the trench coat and pulled down his fedora. He took a breath, and calmly got up, responded, "I'm fine, thank you for asking. Who are you?"

Covered by the shadow of his fedora, his eyes scanned the library. He didn't see any evident escape routes other than the door he came in through, but the various bookshelves would be suitable for losing a follower. Perhaps a feline follower? His eyes came back to the cat in front of him. Nothing of his demeanor particularly said much to him, and Giron's ability to read faces was mostly confined to his own species.

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#5
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The feline watched, bemused, as the dog snapped towards his voice - only his leg seemed to stay put, and he fell once again. Element watched as the man got up and looked around the library for a moment, suspicious, and eyed Element once again - did this man not trust him? He wasn't sure, but he did know that he was rather strange, stranger than almost any other canine he had come across so far, and all he had uttered were two words and a rather loud shout.

Element looked at the dog; in all his years of communicating, he had seen more canine face than cat, so he could read faces - and scent emotions - fairly well. He knew that this dog was, for some reason, suspicious of him, although why he was he did not know. The dog could hurt Element in an instant, although Element was more likely to run away before he could do so, and the cat could certainly do no harm at all to the dog. He tried to shrug off the feeling, however, as he asked who he was.

"I," the cat stated with a twitch of the whisker, "am Element. And who might you be?" he asked in return, eyeing the dog strangely. He had never had a conversation that was quite like this - it was like both though something of the other but weren't voicing it, rather preferring to keep a calm and normal demeanor while they thought their secret thoughts about one another. Element wondered if he was being paranoid, but banished the thought; cats were always right about these things, after all.

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#6
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207

"I am Giron Felorn, ex-P.I and current C.D.A. I came here seeking material for mental meditation, in the form of books. Who is the owner of this establishment?" Asked Giron, quite willing to cut to the chase and no longer have to deal with a cat. Everything about Element reminded him of Kato the Kitty Killer. His eyes, his pointed hears, the retractable claws, exactly like Kato! Being a detective might have taught him not to judge a book by its cover, but if the cover was a fur coat as black as the void that occupied feline's heart, cover-judging wasn't bad. Giron was quite content with his rationalization of ailurophobia.

Maybe the cat despised Giron, for some unknown reason, and had planned an attack on him from the beginning? For all he knew, the entire place could have been a trap solely to capture Giron, some revenge orchestrated by some long forgotten nemesis? The cat's eyes definitely showed thought, though Giron could pry nothing more. For all he knew, Element could be conspiring against him, leading hm to his downfall! Another thought struck Giron, was he being paranoid? He mentally waved that thought side; detectives were always right about these things, after all.

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#7
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The feline was immediately confused by this dog's abrupt and cold words - he knew that a PI was a private investigator, but what on earth was a CDA? And why was this dog acting so strange? Element had heard odd dialects in his lifetime, but he had never heard of the act of reading described quite like 'mental meditation in the form of books'. The cat stared at this dog curiously, trying to peer deeper and deeper into his eyes, as if he were searching into his soul.

"Well, Giron," Element said, "I consider myself the keeper of this library - I live in it and keep all of the books in good condition, you see," he stated, proud of his claim to the library. Of course, he would never claim to own the library or anything of that such matter, but he did keep the books in the best condition he could - he remembered when the snowstorm almost ravaged them and he took the ones in danger of getting wet and ruined into a dry nook until the storm was over, and how he looked over them with care and slept among the dusty pages each and every night.

He looked back to this strange, droopy-eared and droopy-eyed dog. "If you're looking for a book, there are all sorts here," he said with a wave of his tail. "There is the fiction, in that section of the library, which contains all sorts of books, such as fantasy, adventure, and even mystery if that interests you," he said, pointing with his tail to each section in turn. "And there is the nonfiction, which contains maps, anatomy books, and other such informational things," he finished, quite pleased with his description of the library, and quite forgetting, in his excitement about books, the strangeness that this dog emitted was forgotten.

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#8
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170. Close enough.

So the cat was the keeper of the books? Giron had to rethink his strategy, as it became obvious that there was no way to avoid dealing with the feline. Well, he might as well get right down to business.
"Kato, where are the books on botany?" A moment later Giron realized his mistake. "Element. I said Element. That is just exactly what I said, Element." He eyed the cat, confident that Kat-, err, Element had not noticed the minor slip up. Even if he had, he wouldn't connect the dots, or blame it on his own hearing, or whatever cats did to explain away the unknown. Probably choke on hairballs or something.

"So Element, how exactly did you come to be the keeper of the library? I'm sure you acquired it quite fairly." Giron asked, though his tone of voice made it clear he didn't think so. Maybe he murdered the previous honest canine to use the library as a den for all sorts of despicable acts of villainy.

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#9
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The feline was quite forced to remember this odd dog's antics, however, as the canine called him a strange name - Kato. He then corrected himself... if corrected was the right word for attempting to make Element forget that he had heard the name Kato. Element quirked one ear backward, his annoyance prickling through his usually cool and calm demeanor, although not much. Did this canine think him stupid? Why was he so suspicious of the cat, and so presumptuous that he was correct in his apparent belief that the cat was behaving suspiciously? Element's emerald eyes narrowed as Giron continued to speak.

He was about to point the dog to the right direction of the section on plants and get him out of his fur when the dog dropped a not so subtle hint that he thought that Element had acquired the library unfairly. Both of Element's ears dipped down backwards behind his head, and he stared at the dog coldly.

"When I arrived in Nova Scotia," he said icily, "I wandered for a while..." He trailed off, remembering who he had wandered with - Flower. The female cat he had accompanied through his ventures had been his friend - his love. The memory of her stopped Element in his tracks and he remembered her - remembered her image, her tabby fur, her sapphire eyes. He remembered the pain he had felt upon realizing that, rather than missing, she was dead, and the rage he had encountered after he learned who had murdered her, and had attacked Flower's murderer. All of these images flashed by Element's mind, and he tried to shake himself out of his stupor, erasing the look of wistful longing off his face and retaining his cold contempt for the dog before him.

"I wandered for a while, and then I came across this library - no one was living here and the books were dirty and uncared for, so I, in my love of books, decided to take care of them. No one comes here except to borrow books, and they don't stay long," he told Giron, quite annoyed that the strange-looking canine had accused him - Element, of all people! - of stealing the library unfairly. The thought revolted the cat, and he sat stiffly, perturbed.

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#10
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Dubya See: 272

Giron had little left to say, this cat seemed legit. Proven innocent, for the moment. That, and seeing as how this was the only library he had found, made him a valuable acquaintance whose animosity he'd rather do without. He may not have been very keen on cat's body language, but something told him Kat-, err, Element was not at all pleased. He seemed rather cross, actually. 'Did I cause that? Eh, probably just another catty being over emotional.' Thought Giron, making sure not to voice his concern.

"They don't stay for long, you say? Very well, I shall find the book and be off. Is this the only library in the region? It'd be terrible if something else happened to this library, such as a fire, where would people get their reading materials then?" As Giron voiced his question, he smiled as another memory came to him. He'd heard someone else say those very same words, but whom? He hadn't talked to any fire insurance salesman recently. Right, Marvin the Mafia Mastiff! Giron's neurons fired up like a rusty steam engine slowly gaining power. The way he had heard that sentence and how he had just voiced it was as a threat. He was still looking at Element smiling. After being suspicious and not at all kind. . .

"I don't mean it like a threat, at all! I was curious, making sure if you had any back up plans and.." The last few words came out as mostly a mumble, as he felt like he was backpedaling on a unicycle. As far as he knew, he couldn't not ride the unicycle.

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