Finally, we got to the capital. It was really big and shining, with white stone streets and walls everwhere and high, towering towers. It was so bright it hurt my cat eyes, I thought while squinting at it. Hmm, I wonder if this world invented sunglasses. Maybe I could invent them and get rich! Huhuhu…

Alto dragged me along until we got to a big building. I was really distracted by all the sights and smells! There was a roasted fish smelling stall that smelled so good! I wanted to go but Alto said I couldn’t go, and that I was already too heavy. Meany!

The big building had yellow banners on the front, with a symbol of a tree and a rock on them. One per banner, not both on one banner. But there were was more than one banner.

We went inside, where two regal-looking people were sitting on giant marble thrones. One looked humans and the other like an elf. They were both dressed in fancy, expensive-looking clothes, and both very attractive. I-I mean, not that I find guys attractive. Nope, totally heterosexual guy here! Even if I did read those BL manga… it was for the plot, okay!

Alto went and talked to the two fancy people while I went and licked some milk out of a nice bowl they put on the floor for me. It was a shiny gold color, maybe even actual gold? The milk was really tasty, too!

A man wearing a suit but, like, medieval came up to me. He had a thin mustache. “Would mistress like a refill?” he inquired.

Ha! Me, being addressed as mistress? That didn’t feel right. Obviously I should be-er-master! Yeah, master!

“Yes,” I said enthusiastically. “What kind of milk is it, anyway? It’s really tasty!” I added.

The butler guy nodded softly. “I thought you might enjoy it,” he said. “It was produced by a fellow beastkin--a cow, of course, we wouldn’t try to milk a cat.”

Why not? I wondered. That didn’t sound so bad!

Uh… forget that last part. Haha!

Alto came back over. “The king and queen will lead us to the royal vault,” he said. “It necessitates the blood of both royal lines before the powerful ancient magic will yield.”

Whoa! Blood? That was scary, but also cool! Maybe I could help out by scratching them?

We followed the fancy-looking people to a big golden door with mysterious symbols etched on it and some kind of big clockwork mechanism. The king and queen cut their hands with some kind of small ceremonial dagger--aw, lame--and pressed them to the door, and the mechanism sprang to life.

The impressive doors swung open, revealing a huge vault full of shining treasure and ancient scrolls and stuff. They walked over to a pedestal and there were two shining balls of light under a glass cover. They opened the cover up and handed the balls over to Alto. Haha, balls.

Alto took the balls and nodded solemnly. “Thank you, your majesties,” he intoned seriously.

Well, that was easy!

Then we left to go look for the next balls.