Flying Cats

Dalaran was a prosperous city protected by the mages' spells. Because of its location and the status of mages, it had become the most unusual city in human society at this time.

It was both the dream paradise of mages and the peaceful haven most coveted by ordinary human commoners. It was also a place of decadent pleasure for the nobility.

Before Dalaran's destruction and rebuilding, if one ignored the Kirin Tor-controlled areas centered around the Violet Citadel, the rest of the city was an unadulterated capital of indulgence.

The laws here naturally favored mages, and since most mages came from noble backgrounds, they naturally favored the nobility as well. At the same time, because the city was so prosperous and held an inherent attraction for commoners, it was also an ordinary human's dreamland.

The only people not welcome here were the royal families and royal members of several kingdoms.

Dalaran set the trends of the human world; Dalaran was the largest trade hub among the northern human kingdoms; Dalaran was also the cultural capital of humanity at this time.

This was a massive city with a permanent population of over two hundred thousand, more than three hundred thousand people in the surrounding area, and a daily floating population exceeding two hundred thousand. At this point in time, Dalaran was unquestionably the most prosperous city.

Where there was prosperity, darkness was bound to breed beneath it.

In the blind spots of the mages and city administrators lay a gray-black district known as the Dalaran Sewers, occupied by a band of the cleverest, most cunning, and most secretive thieves in the human world.

Moros was one of them.

With a clever mind, powerful equipment from head to toe, and exceptional skills, Moros was a recently risen star of the Dalaran Sewers. He had gathered a large number of thieves and thugs around him, running rampant through Dalaran's gray-black underbelly.

Yet this rising sewer star was currently holding a sheet of paper and scratching his head in bewilderment. Even the eyes and brows visible above his scarf-wrapped face were furrowed.

"Boss? What's wrong? What's got you looking like that?" one of his trusted men asked quietly.

Moros shook his head.

"Boss, did the Golden Sand Gang steal our turf again?"

Moros still shook his head.

Before his men could question him again, he crumpled the paper in his hand into a ball and ground it beneath his foot. Then he said, "Not that. We scared those bastards badly enough that they haven't dared reach over here lately. Come on, boys, gather around. I've got a profitable job for you. Get over here."

Several dozen skilled thieves, thugs, and rogues hurried closer to their boss. Once everyone could presumably hear him, Moros said, "A mage wants to buy a whole lot of owls! Let's go catch owls!"

"Catch owls? We're not hunters. We're thieves, rogues! Boss, how can we do the sort of thing farmers and hunters do?"

"Yeah! And there aren't any owls in the city. You only find them in the mountains and wilderness."

"I caught owls when I was little. Those beasts are hard to catch. They fly high and fast, and they only come out at night."

"That's right! Some breeds are terrifying. Even Hillsbrad lynxes are their prey! Boss, why do you suddenly want us to catch owls?"

"..."

They might all be thugs, burglars, and rogues, and they might admire Moros's abilities, but when their own safety was at stake or there was no profit to be made, these disorderly rabble naturally could not be completely obedient. Of course they had their own opinions.

In response, Moros quietly raised one finger. "One Dalaran gold coin. One live owl. That mage is offering one Dalaran gold coin for each one!"

His words made the underlings erupt with a boom, and the noise became lively again.

"Gold coins or not, whatever. I was born to be a hunter. So, Boss, how many do you need?"

"Boss, one owl can really sell for one Dalaran gold coin? Really?"

"Where do we sell them? I'm going to catch one right now!"

"I really messed up, Boss. There are two young owls with no sense of decency that come harass my house every day. I told them to behave themselves, but they wouldn't listen! I'm going back to catch them right now! Boss, wait for me!"

"..."

Driven by profit, the thieves went wild. One Dalaran gold coin for one owl—what kind of heavenly price was that?! A thief risked losing his hands every time he stole, and might only pick up a few gold coins in one job.

Now they could get a gold coin just by catching an owl. Only an idiot would refuse!

Moros smiled smugly. He knew this would be their reaction. Though he had no idea why his young master wanted owls—was he planning to eat them?—he still carried out his master's orders, catching as many live owls as possible to deliver to him.

"Alright, alright! Get over here, this is real! One live owl—the younger, the better—is worth one Dalaran gold coin! One good owl egg can sell for twenty Dalaran silver coins! Bring them to me after you catch them, and trade them for money."

"Remember, they have to be alive! Alive! I don't want dead owls! Go, go! I only want two thousand live owls, or five thousand good owl eggs! Go! Go!"

The thieves scattered with a roar, leaving the city to catch owls outside.

Elsewhere.

Orendo Seferosa announced his new idea to his friends.

"Domesticate owls? Make them magical pets or messengers..." Kel'Thuzad frowned as he considered its feasibility.

Owls were large birds, and in Azeroth, they were even smarter and stronger than their counterparts on Earth. In the legends of the more mysterious Kaldorei to the west, owls were even messengers of the gods and protected animals of the Night Elves.

Yet Orendo was now proposing the large-scale magical domestication of owls, turning these intelligent and powerful birds into mages' magical pets or messengers.

"Think about it!" Orendo explained his idea to his friends.

"Every month, when The Secrets of Severosa goes on sale, several thousand owls can fly out from here and deliver copies directly to the homes of mages who subscribed to the monthly magazine! You won't have to deliver them one by one anymore!"

"And smart owls can understand some simple human instructions with magical assistance. In the future, we can run our own delivery and logistics service, using owls to deliver small packages or letters for people."

"They fly much faster than messengers can walk on the ground or ride on horseback."

"What? What's delivery? Oh, delivery means helping people transport things and charging them money. Um... it's similar to being a messenger."

"The elite among those owls, the smartest and most outstanding ones, might be used as magical pets for mages. At the very least, plenty of nobles would be willing to buy pets like that!"

"And... Kel'Thuzad, don't you think owls are actually a lot like cats? They're flying cats!"