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Hello there, readers! I'm happy to bring to you chapter 21 of The Keyhole! Once again, this chapter was proofread by my very good friend, Trismegistus Shandy! I hope that you enjoy it!

Baily recited his favorite poem as he laid out a spread before himself. Since today had been a relatively slow day for the shop, he had decided to practice with one of the other tarot decks that were available for demonstration. This one had different dragons depicted on each card, which naturally drew his attention. He had just turned over the three of swords when the bell for the door chimed.

"Welcome to Eyevory Tusks," Baily said, looking up to see a familiar lion face.

"Ah, Barry!" Leodore took off his coat and hung it on the rack by the door. "Just the mammal I was looking for!"

"It's actually Baily, sir," Baily said.

"I was looking to get some otherworldly input on some plans of mine, Barry," Leodore said, having not been listening. Baily had quickly learned from Phyllis, as well as from his own experience, that the former mayor was the type of mammal to speak at someone, rather than to speak with them.

"How can I help, sir?" Baily asked, noticing the thick manilla folder Lionheart was carrying under one arm.

"I have with me my plans for my heroic climb back on top, which I figured I could bring with me today and, after consulting with you of course, make notes and tweaks as necessary." Leodore affectionately patted the folder.

"Oh... well, sir, I would be happy to give you a reading, but I'm not sure if--"

"For instance," Leodore cut Baily off, setting the folder down on the counter and flipping it open to the dead center, "my brilliant plan to rise to the top of the waste disposal union has... well... not been going as smoothly as I had initially hoped. For starters, they actually expect me to handle other mammals' refuse. I mean, I was aware that I had to become a... garbage mammal... to even join the union, but I figured that I could just be the driver. But not only was that idea an apparent no-go, when I attempted to throw my hat into the ring to be voted in as the newest Union President, I was informed that I lacked the knowledge and experience for the position." Leodore huffed and shook his head. "Apparently being mayor doesn't automatically qualify you for some of the more menial jobs these days..." Leodore grumbled.

The red-headed human, whose hair had now grown to tickle the back of his neck, noticed some newspaper clippings sticking out at odd angles, including one with the lion before him presenting something to a bunny in a police uniform on a stage of some sort.

"And after I created the Mammal Inclusion Initiative..." Leodore grumbled some more before perking right back up. "Anyways, Barry, I was hoping to pick your brain... or pick the... whatever of the aether on what my next move should be."

"W-well, sir, I promise to do the best that I can," Baily said, remembering Phyllis' advice when it came to dealing with certain customers... and her additional advice for when he had to deal with Lionheart. Appreciating the distraction from his thoughts about the upcoming gathering of Sophia's family that he had been invited to, as well as the distraction from his anxiety over meeting everyone, not counting her grandfather, for the very first time. Baily shuffled the deck he had been using before grabbing one of the small sack cloths holding the rune stones, and started to lead Lionheart towards the back room for readings.

Elsewhere...

"I'm not getting a signal," Mike said as he stood on top of Eli's head. They were in the cage, Mike having helped Eli to calm down after he had awoken.

"D-do you think that they'll find us?" Eli asked, nervous.

"Well of course," Mike said, making himself sound confident in the hopes of keeping Eli's spirits up, "your mom and dad are practically supercops. Plus, I was able to give directions, sorta, from the locations I was able to see before my phone cut out."

"Where are we?"

"Somewhere in the Rainforest District. I think I saw some canals, but I'm not entirely sure," Mike said, trying his phone again, only to sigh at the utter lack of a signal he was getting. They both froze when they heard a loud slamming sound not too far off, along with some muttering. Mike quickly dove from where he had been standing into Eli's open shirt pocket, just as Honey returned, dragging a folding chair behind herself. She smiled viciously as she saw Eli.

"Good, you're awake," she said as she set the chair up close to the cage. She held up a taser and fired it up for a few seconds, smiling smugly at the shrinking back Eli did as she did so.

"Don't worry. I have no intention on using this on you, provided you follow the rules," she said.

"Wh-what do you want?" Eli squeaked out in a small voice.

"RULE NUMBER 1!" Eli flinched as she screeched before she calmed herself down and took a seat on the chair, grabbing a tape recorder. " I'm the one asking the questions here."

Eli said nothing and waited. Honey tilted her head as though waiting for him to respond, and nodded approvingly before she continued. "And what I want is for you to answer my questions." Eli nodded as he felt Mike carefully reposition himself in his shirt pocket.

"Rule Number 2 is don't try to escape," the deranged badger said as she hit the record button.

"This is Doctor Madge Honey Badger, beginning the questioning of the alien entity known as Eli Hopps," she spoke into the recorder before turning it towards the cage. "Now, how did you arrive here on this world?"

"I-I d-don't kn-know!" Eli said, tears beginning to well in his eyes.

"Do you expect me to believe that a member of a space-faring species has no idea as to how they arrived? Especially when that member is the very first one?" Honey asked incredulously.

"I s-swear!" Eli said, flinching at the sound of the taser going off again.

"I'll ask you again," the badger said once the buzzing stopped, "how did you get here?"

"We-we aren't space-faring! I was hiding in a subway when I found a strange hallway! I followed it and it came out here! And when I turned around to look back down the hall, it was gone!"

The badger roller her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. "Alright, we'll circle back to your method of transportation. Instead, how about you go ahead and start explaining some of the details of your invasion."

At that very moment...

"Chief, please!" Judy said as Nick gently wrapped an arm around her shoulder and flicked his tail around her legs, offering her comfort. "He has my kit!"

Chief Bogo looked down at his bedraggled officers and frowned. They were living a parents' worst nightmare. "Hopps," he said in a voice softer than usual, "you know that I cannot do that. Ralph and Nadine are already with him in interrogation. They'll find a way to get where your son is out of him, I promise."

Judy's shoulders shuddered, and Nick held her close. Bogo looked at the fox who, while comforting his mate, looked just as distressed. "C'mon, Judy," Nick said, starting to lead her back down the hall of the police station, "Ralph and Nadine are experts when it comes to questioning suspects, and Mike gave us some great directions to go by. The whole force as well as your family, not to mention my parents, are already searching the areas that were described. We'll find them."

"Nick... I just... I was standing right there... I promised him that he was safe..." Judy started as they walked out into the atrium, fighting back from outright breaking down.

"He will be, Judy," Nick said, internally feeling the exact same way. The moment he had learned that Eli had been abducted, Nick felt something he had never felt before. It was as though his insides had dropped out, leaving him hollow, before the pain and fear and everything came rushing right back. Clawhauser looked down from his desk at the two, feeling awful for them. He was about to offer Nick and Judy some words of encouragement when someone cleared their throat to get his attention. The portly cheetah looked down to see an armadillo standing before him, wringing his paws nervously.

"Hello there," he said, "my name is Charlie Shellison... I was informed that my brother was involved in... uhm... a potential kitnapping..."

Judy's ears had flicked right up and, in the literal blink of an eye, she was standing right next to the armadillo, who jumped back a little, before recognizing the bunny officer.

At the Otterton Residence...

"But Mommy," Sarah whined, "you promised we could go to the park!"

"I know, sweetie," Mrs. Otterton said to her youngest, and largest, child, "but we can do something else around the house today instead, and then go to the park some other time, okay?"

The little human pouted but nodded. "'Kay..." Sarah said, disappointed, before hugging Princess Gracey close and making her way to her room. Mrs. Otterton frowned, hating to disappoint Sarah, but fearful after watching the news about the human child abduction a little while ago. She had called up Emmit, who had agreed to pick up the boys from school, and who had also agreed that it might be too risky to take Sarah to the park.

At the Spitz's...

"I'm home!" Russell called out as he stepped through the front door. As usual, he looked down to see a certain grey little fox kit, latching himself to his leg.

"Hiya, Ethan," he said, bending down low to ruffle the kit's headfur.

"Wussel!" Ethan yipped excitedly. Just as the human teen was shrugging off his backpack, Mrs. Spitz hurried in from the kitchen.

"He just walked through the front door," she said before hanging up her phone. She then rushed over to Russell and wrapped her arms around him in a hug.

"Sweetheart, I was so worried!" she said, tucking her tail between her legs.

"I'm sorry," Russell said, confusedly, "there was some road work going on, so I had to take a detour."

"Oh, sweetheart, it's terrible!" Patricia said with a whine.

"What happened?" Russell asked, feeling a sense of dread.

"I just heard on the news that a human pup was abducted today! And when you were late, I just started to worry." Russell looked down into the face of his legal guardian before hugging back.

"I'm sorry," he said once again, feeling another quick squeeze from the husky, who let go to quickly wipe away a tear from her eye.

"That's alright, sweetheart, I was just worried is all." Patricia felt something on her leg and looked down to see Ethan frowning and hugging her. She cooed and reached down to pry him off and scoop the little kit into her arms.

"It's alright, Ethan, it's all going to be alright," she softly murmured, looking back up at Russell as she said the last part.

Meanwhile...

"I am very disappointed, Eli," Honey spat the human boy's name. The questioning had not been going as well as she had hoped.

"But it was to be expected. The first footsoldier in the invasion of our world would of course withhold information. Still though, I'm holding out hope that we can be civil about this."

Eli tried not to let out a whimper as he sat curled up in a corner of the cage, terrified. He flinched when Honey hopped off her chair and stretched a little.

"So I'll tell you what. I'm going to go and get something to eat, maybe calm myself down a little, and during that time, you can sit there and think long and hard about the consequences for not telling me what I need to know. And trust me," Honey said, leaning in menacingly close to the bars of the cage, "there will be consequences. See you in a few."

Eli watched the badger saunter off and out of sight. He held his breath after hearing a door slam, letting it out just as Mike popped his head up from his pocket.

"Okay, so she's crazy," the mouse boy said, clambering out of Eli's pocket. "I think that it's time we take our leave."

"B-but..." Eli said, motioning to the cage around him. Mike nodded and slipped through the bars, walking around to the latch and the lock. He held up two paper clips that he had retrieved from Eli's pocket, and started to unfold them.

"Watch closely, buddy, because I'm going to teach you how to earn your lock-picking badge."

Eli nodded and smiled tentatively. "Y-yes, Troop Leader."

Mike smiled back as he finished unfolding both paperclips, and inserted both ends into the keyhole of the lock. After a few seconds, there was a click, and the latch was unlocked. Eli quickly scrambled out, Mike scaling his friend to sit on top of his head.

"Okay, since she went that way," Mike said, indicating a door at the far end, "let's go ahead and try a different exit in the opposite direction." Eli followed Mike's directions, especially when they both agreed to be silent as they made their way out. More than a few times, Mike would give Eli's hair a little tug to indicate a change in direction. Soon they found themselves standing outside, looking over a river that was flowing sluggishly beneath the steps they were standing on. They both started to feel a sense of relief before freezing at the abrupt and all too familiar screech coming from back inside the warehouse. Mike directed Eli down the stairs and out into the trees themselves while he tried his phone again, still not getting a signal. Mike looked around, noticing a lack of anyone else nearby.

Okay, this is a pretty run-down area. But we can't be far from a public place. If we follow the river, we're going to find a densely populated area, plus it can help cover our tracks, Mike thought to himself as he kept a level head, and directed Eli accordingly. They had just made it into the trees when they heard her.

"YOU BROKE RULE NUMBER TWO!!!" They could hear Honey screech from where they had been after first emerging from the warehouse. She looked around for any sign of Eli, and let out a snarl before she started to sniff the air and, recognizing the familiar scent of the human, started to track where he had gone.

With a sharp tug of his hair, Eli was spurred into action as he started to follow the river, trying to keep out of sight of the badger.

Looks like Eli will be earning his captive escape badge today, Mike thought to himself, thinking back on what he'd learned when he had earned his.

And that, dear readers, was chapter twenty-one! I hope that you enjoyed it! And feel free to let me know what you think!