{C-12-A}

Neko-chan springs up toward the flames, but you catch him in mid air, clutching him tightly against you.

“I can’t let you get hurt, Neko-chan!” you cry.

“Let me go!” Neko-chan screams as he instinctively bares his tiny claws. You react by tossing him off of you. He flies through the flames and lands claws first on top of the basilisk. It flinches and looks right at the pet shop owner.

“No!” the Master yells after seeing the pet shop owner turn to stone. “There is not enough time to complete the ritual. I will have to wait another three hundred years. Enough!”

There is a brilliant light that emanates out of the Master’s hands. You suddenly feel cold as you realize that you are lying on the tile floor of the pet shop next to Neko-chan and all of the petrified creatures including the petrified pet shop owner.

“Is there a way to unpetrify them?” you ask Neko-chan.

“Weasels are the usual cure for basilisk curses,” Neko-chan says.

“Do we have any weasels?” you ask, anxiously.

“No,” Neko-chan says, excitedly, “but I have an idea. Come on!”

He takes you to another aisle of the pet shop where there is a cage full of slinky little ferrets.

“Ferrets aren’t weasels!” you say.

“No, but we are close cousins!” one of them says. “Not very far removed!”

The ferrets are so playful that it takes you awhile to get them to focus on the job at hand, but eventually, they manage to unpetrify the pet shop owner.

“Your Master seems to have abandoned you,” Neko-chan says, but the pet shop owner doesn't know what he is referring to. You realize that the pet shop owner must have been under a spell.

“He must have used me because I know how to unlock the power to talk to all animals,” the pet shop owner tells you. “You seems to be close to unlocking the complete power yourself since you have been talking to my animals here at the pet shop. Do you want me to teach it to you?”

You agree and learn how to talk to all animals wherever you go.

Destiny Discovered