My stomach hits the floor as Cato speaks.
"That's not an eyeball. That's a camera."
Oh. Oh no. A camera? This fox had cameras for eyes?
Father Time straightens his back, his face grim.
"That's what I thought." He looks at me. "You said that her ears would twitch and her head would move when you spoke or moved?"
I nod, my mouth watering unpleasantly. Oh, what have I done? I sink further in my seat as I stare at my mug. Did…Did the humans see anything? Was it streaming directly to them? My eyes widen and my fingers tighten around my mug as I resist the urge to yank on my bangs. Did they see me fly her to my house? They must have. Oh, oh no. That was why the fox's head was moving so much. She was tracking me! She was tracking everything! But I don't want to leave my home! I've had it for almost sixty years! I only just started finding furniture that I like.
A hand lands on my wrist breaking me of my thoughts. I look up at Father Time as he reaches over and rubs his thumb under my right eye. That's when I realize that there is a burning sensation and his thumb comes back wet.
Damn it, I said no more crying!
"Calm down, Frost," the entity of time says softly. "It's going to be all right. Don't work yourself up just yet. We still need more information about who did this and why. Were you the specific target? Or did you happen upon a science experiment?" Father Time rubs his thumb on my cheek again and I shakily nod my head.
Cato pulls the fox closer to them and examines the opening.
"If we open this poor little dear a little more, we should be able to see if the cameras were merely recording or if they were streaming everything the fox sees."
My fingers tighten on the mug to the point of nearly hurting.
"And-And what do we do if the humans were streaming everything she saw?"
"We'll cross that bridge when it comes, m'kay, Snowflake?"
Biting my lip, which I'm sure is beyond bruised now, I nod as I slide down in my seat. Sick of waiting for my tea, I frost the outside of it and take a large mouthful of the still too warm liquid. My cheeks balloon out as Cato continues to mutter to themself, poking at the wires.
"Cato," Father Time says, his voice straining and the corners of his mouth paling. "Must you really do that at the table?"
The keeper jumps, almost as if they forgot that we are still in the room with them. A sheepish smile appears on the ancient being's face and they quickly sit down.
"Sorry, darling, you know how I am with anything gadget-related."
Father Time hums, a slight nod before lifting his mug to his lips as he refuses to look at the fox or her wires. Forcing myself to swallow all of the liquid, a sudden thought hits me and I turn toward Ake.
"You never told me," I say, gaining the older being's attention, and a much-needed distraction from the pile of white fur still on the table. "Why did you stop by today? Was there something you needed from me?"
Ake chokes a little on his tea as both Cato and Father Time look over at the moon entity as well. He coughs a few times, shaking his head when I go to pat his back. Dropping my hand, I stare at the Man in the Moon, concern creeping into my gut.
"Are you all right?" I ask after a beat and Ake nods, sipping his tea again.
"Yeah, Ake," Father Time says, his voice light and casual. "Are you all right? Because Frostbite here is still waiting for an answer to his question."
Ake clears his throat.
"Y-Yes, just, ya know, swallowed wrong." Bright silvery eyes glance over at me. "W-W-Well, Snowflake, I was, uh, worried about what we learned yesterday and knowing that you're usually by yourself, I just wanted to check in on you. And maybe apologize to Wind for leaving behind a mess yesterday."
"Oh," I say, tilting my head, smiling. "Wind didn't really mind, they just wanted to make a fuss. They actually really enjoy getting rid of sand and dust from my room. I'm not really sure why, but I think it's because they can make tiny tornadoes out of them."
Ake smiles behind his mug as I sip my own beverage. Cato is staring at Ake with an unreadable expression and Father Time's fingers drum on the table.
"Really?" Father Time asks, gaining all of our attention, his eyes narrowing. "You're gonna stick with that story?" Ake stares at his sibling with wide eyes. "Are you sure that you weren't there to—"
"AND I think it's time we further examine our little fox," Cato states loudly, cutting the time entity off. "If the three of you would please follow me."
My eyebrows furrow as Cato stands, staring at the three of us expectingly. I quickly down the rest of my tea, wincing as it is still a little too warm for my mouth, and place the mug down onto the table.
Ake quickly follows suit while Father Time merely shoves his mug away and stands, still glaring at his sibling.
Obviously, Father Time thinks that Ake is lying. But why? There's no other reason for Ake to visit me. He saw how barren my home is yesterday, I have nothing to entertain him with. No games. No DVD player, even though I would love to have one just so I can watch some of those colorful cartoons that I sometimes see when passing people's windows. I don't even have extra food yet for a guest, let alone for myself. I really need to get on that.
Cato is eerily silent as they lead us back into the room with the large telescope. I try not to fidget as they stop next to the telescope and search through some drawers. I glance over at Father Time, hoping maybe he happens to know why Cato is acting so strangely. However, the timekeeper keeps his gaze trained on the memory keeper so I resign myself to waiting alongside everyone
"Aha!" Cato shouts as they pull out some wires from deep within the drawers."I knew that I had them laying around here somewhere."
I lean forward examining the black cables.
"What are those for?"
Cato beams at me as they hold the cables up for me to see.
"These, my dear Frost, are cables that will allow us to hook up your little friend's memory bank to a monitor so that we can see if she was streaming directly to someone or if she has a storage with files inside them."
Nodding like I understand, I merely watch as Cato takes the little fox from Ake and moves over to another small table. The keeper waves us over.
"Zaman, darling, will you go fetch some knives and my old blue tarp? I need to sanitize the station so I can access the bank inside her head."
Scrunching his nose, Father Time nods and sweeps away as Ake and I stand here awkwardly. Unease rolls in my stomach as I muse over Cato's words.
"Y-You're gonna c-cut open her head?" I ask, wringing my hands together. "Is-Is that a good idea?"
Please say no. Please say it was a joke.
Cato offers me an apologetic look, their green eyes dulling sadly.
"I'm sorry, Frost dear, but it needs to be done. The wires lead up to her head and with the cameras there, the storage should be there as well. But," Cato continues when I frown at them. "If it will make you feel better, you can go wait and read some of my books and one of us will come get you when all is done?"
Shifting, I sigh while nodding.
"Yeah, I think I'll take you up on that. Can I read any book?"
Cato smiles.
"Of course, my dear, help yourself. Just don't dog-ear the pages."
Smiling, I turn and head for the furthest bookshelf. I already lived this experience, I really don't care to relive it if it means hooking up that poor fox to more wires.