Tsao and the Manticore's Mystical Journey

The rain picked up as we walked down the street. It was a light mist, but it was enough to have me shivering. The cold made my joints ache, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I was getting sick. I hugged my arms around my middle and glanced over at Mina. He hadn’t even bothered to cover his muzzle with his scarf, instead letting the rain soak him to the bone.

I sighed and looked ahead, trying to ignore the way my teeth chattered together. “Mina, can you tell me again how you were supposed to help find the thief?” I asked.

“I was tracking him scents when I noticed one of them smelled a lot like yours so I followed it until I saw you going into that alleyway so-” he suddenly stopped talking and turned around, noticing something behind us. “Tsao! Did you hear that?”

I turned around too, looking for what had caught his attention. “Hear what?”

He looked around, sniffing the air briefly before turning back to me and saying, “Nothing. Must have been a cat or something. Let’s keep moving.” His eyes flickered back and forth as he walked forward a few steps before stopping again, then walking forward again before stopping again. Then he sniffed the air a second time before continuing on down the street.

I frowned as I watched him go, wondering why he’d been acting so strangely all day. He wasn’t being very helpful in this investigation at all; first he wouldn’t help me at all after the last case went badly, only agreeing to lend me a paw this time if I took him along with me because he said he could smell things no one else could. And now he seemed distracted by…well, by whatever it was that bothered him earlier when there was nothing there in front of us but several cats sitting on a windowsill watching us walk by.

I shook my head and hurried after him, knowing that every second counted in an investigation like this where someone had been robbed and beaten within an inch of their life. But Mina kept stopping every couple of steps, sniffing the air or looking around strangely until finally we found ourselves far behind everyone else who were already at the scene investigating the crime scene where it happened. When we arrived they were all crowded around the alleyway entrance where an unconscious man lay crumpled against the wall while two guards stood overtop of him looking confused as to why they were there in the first place since they didn’t seem too concerned about whether or not they had apprehended the criminal they were sent to look for in the first place.

Mina pushed through them all and crouched down next to the body lying on the ground, sniffing him for a moment before glancing up at me over his shoulder with those intense golden eyes of his and asking, “Do you have any salve on you? He smells really bad from all this blood loss.”