Skitter skitter! (We love the dark, but we can’t see what’s flying toward us when the sun’s setting like this!) the amblypygids worried as they chased after the three cats.
“Myah!” (Not to worry!) said Guan.
“Myah myah!” (Cats have good night vision!) added Zhang.
“Myah myah!” (Besides, we can just go with our gut even if we can’t see!) said Liu.
Skitter...skitter? (Your...gut?)
The amblypygids couldn’t understand what she meant by that, but then they looked at the sky.
Skitter?! (Something’s coming!)
Skitter skitter! (I think something’s coming this way!)
As a result of the training the amblypygids had been put through to defeat the owatas, that gut instinct that Liu was talking about was working quite well for them.
“Myah myah!” (That’s right! Don’t think! Feel!) commanded Liu, like a well-known martial artist.
“Myah... Mrowr?” (But...that looks a bit too high up for us to jump...) cried Zhang as he ran. Even with how high a kitty could jump, this Mystery Object X was so far up in the air, it didn’t seem they could possibly reach.
“Myah myah! Myah?” (George always says that the match ends the moment you give up!) Guan said. But then he noticed something blocking his path.
“Myah... Myah myah...!” (Wh-Why...what a perfect place for our trampoline!) Zhang cried in surprise. The thing blocking their path was a trampoline that Joshua had brought them recently. The armored boar leather stretched across it made it exceptionally sturdy. Just as Zhang had said, the trampoline was in a surprisingly perfect place for them to catch the Mystery Object X.
“Myah!” (This’ll do the trick!) Guan said, then jumped on the trampoline to launch himself high in the air toward Mystery Object X. The bounciness of the armored boar leather had Guan getting right up to the perfect height to catch the mystery object, but...
“Myah!” He’d gotten right in front of the object, but just as he was about to catch it, his whiskers and nose twitched. This smells like gunpowder... I can’t catch this! he thought. His instincts had him making a split-second decision to give up on catching it and instead hit it with a kitty bap.
“Myah myah ruff myah!” (Here comes a rough spike!) Guan shouted as he silently smacked the mystery object with a powerful smack.
The mystery object that had been making a beautiful arc toward the castle had been knocked completely off its path and was now falling straight toward the Stewart family’s yard.
“Myah?!” (No way!) Zhang cried from below and covered his head with his front paws.
“Myah?!” (It’s coming this way!) Liu cried and covered her head with her front paws too.
S-Skitter?! (E-Everyone run!) said the amblypygids, and they scattered like baby spiders, but they wouldn’t make it.
The moment Mystery Object X hit the ground, it exploded and the ground shook slightly.
“Myah myah!” (That scared me... You have to tell us before you drop it our way, Guan!) Zhang whined.
While most cannonballs in this world would unleash metal shrapnel, this one had been especially designed to explode so it would more easily envelop the kingdom in a sea of fire. The cannonball landed near Zhang. Normally, they wouldn’t have had the time to complain, but for some reason, the cats and the amblypygids were all unharmed. What was even more unusual was that even though the shock wave from its landing had been enough to make the ground shake a tiny bit and the blast rustled their whiskers, there had been no sound.
“Myah myah myah! Myah myah!” Liu looked around and saw that there was a plume of smoke rising up out of the circular tower they’d made out of owata bits, also known as the owatower. (So that’s where it fell! That really scared me!) Liu said, sighing with relief.
The tower—made out of materials from the ridiculously hard plant monsters that had troubled the Eastern Empire—didn’t even move an inch under the force of the Western Empire’s cannonball. It even had a muffling effect.
“Myah, myah myah!” (But if I’d caught it, my whiskers mighta burned off...) Guan apologized to the other two as he landed.
Skitter? Skitter skitter? (What? You were just worried about your whiskers burning?) The amblypygids, who had been running to and fro this whole time, were absolutely stunned.
“Myah myaaaaahn!” (But it was a ton of fun!) Guan said, looking up as the smoke steadily began to fade from the owatower.
“Mrooowr!” (It’s no fair that only you got to play, Guan! You think any more will come this way?) Zhang whined, looking hopefully in the direction the cannonball had come from.
“Myah myah!” (If any do, make sure you drop them in the owatower, okay? It’ll be way too dangerous otherwise.) Liu warned Guan and Zhang.
Skitter skitter! (Good thing we built it to be so sturdy!) the amblypygids boasted proudly.
“Myah myah?” (By the way, did I happen to hear you say “ruff” earlier?) Zhang asked, looking at Guan.
“M-Mrowr...” (N-No... You just imagined it...) Guan looked away awkwardly.
“Myah?” (You sure about that?) Zhang asked.
“Myah... Myah...” (Y-Yeah. I am...) Guan responded.
Then they heard another kaboom from the same direction as the first cannonball. And this time, there was more than one.
“Myah! Myah myah!” (I heard some more kabooms! A bunch are coming now!) Zhang said, listening closely for each boom as it came.
“Myah myah, myah myah myah!” (Oh my. That’s a lot. Amblypygids, I’ll help you jump, so you can play too!) Liu said as she pointed to the seesaw looking toy that Joshua had brought them.
S-Skitter skitter?! (W-We’re playing too?!) The amblypygids were taken aback.
“Myah!” (Of course! You can leave the aiming to me!) Liu replied.
Skitter skitter...
The amblypygids couldn’t disobey the cats, so they dutifully lined up to get on one side of the seesaw like Liu had asked them to.
“Myah myaaaah?” (A-Are you doing the Lickable Kitty Treat formation?) Zhang asked the amblypygids excitedly as they all got in a line.
Skitter skitter... But to the amblypygids, they felt more like a bunch of criminals on death row lining up for the guillotine.
“Myah?!” (Well, looks like we won’t be bored tonight, huh?) Liu said as she bounced the amblypygids on the seesaw. (You two go have fun too!) she said to the other two.
Pow! Pow! Pow!
“Myippee!”
“Myippee!”
(Yippee!) Guan leaped onto the trampoline and Zhang came soon after.
The kitties sank cannonball after cannonball into the owatower with their toebean spikes, and the amblypygids put their front legs together to make a double axe handle to knock the cannonballs in as well. These strange balls that were flying toward the capital were dropped one by one into the owatower by the cats and amblypygids. They were all enjoying this spontaneous, late-night, hit-the-target game.
And so, the capital was saved from being turned into a sea of flames without anyone ever knowing. Juana wouldn’t find this out for some time after.