Charr - Chapter 4
Grizabella sat in the doorway of her parents' home for hours. The sun had gone down and the stars were twinkling in the heavens before Mainard found her there.
"Oh my love, what happened here?" he asked, gently placing his paws on her shoulders.
Griz turned slowly, as one in a daze, to face Mainard and looked up at him with glazed eyes. Then she turned her gaze back to the gruesome sight before them, a slight shudder passing through her body.
"Griz?" Mainard asked softly. "Griz… you ok?" He took her by the shoulders and shook her gently. Only at this did he get a response.
"Oh Mainard," Griz moaned and collapsed in his strong arms. He lifted her up and carried her back to their homebox where he laid her on the bed and covered her with the warm quilt her mother had made for them. Then he sat on the edge of the bed and took her paw in his, gently massaging it as he whispered words of comfort to her.
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The warm early fall turned quickly into a cool autumn and then a frigid winter. Grizabella did not leave her homebox, but spent her time grieving her loss. Mainard stayed close to home that winter and tried to make himself forget that he was the one who had told Macavity the whereabouts of the Jellicle Junkyard, and so it was his fault that his young wife had lost so much. He cut his ties with Macavity, although it pained his heart to do so. He really did love Macavity with a strong brotherly love, and to realize that his closest friend was also now his worst enemy broke his heart.
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February 14 of the new year dawned bright and spring-like. Mainard crept out of the homebox before dawn to gather a bouquet of wildflowers to bring his young bride. He returned triumphant as the sun streaked the blue sky with pink, crimson, and orange streaks of fire and light.
"Happy Valentine's Day, love," he whispered as he crept back into their bed and tickled Griz's nose with the flowers.
Griz turned and smiled softly. "Thank you sweetie," she murmured, breathing in the fragrance of the delicate blossoms. "We appreciate it immensely, don't we lovey?" she crooned as he rubbed her softly rounded stomach and the growing kitten inside. Mainard leaned down and kissed the soft curls covering the hard belly. He couldn't wait to have a son of his own.
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Charr opened his eyes and yawned, stretching his dark gray body on the soft moss covered bed. He stood and shook himself. 'So Old Exodus found out that Dad had been duped by that rascal, Macavity, and kicked us out,' he thought as he padded towards the firepit and started an early morning blaze. Then he poked his head out of the cave mouth and breathed the fresh morning air. The dew was heavy this morning and Charr's fur was becoming damp as he stood in the open air. With the dampness, it began to wave slightly, one of his characteristics from his mother. He smiled and headed off for the morning hunt.
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'Maybe I should go to this Jellicle Junkyard and meet my own kind,' Charr wondered as he lay sprawled by the fire after breakfast. 'If the Junkyard even exists.' He kicked some dirt on the flames and watched them go out, then smoothed his fur and began his trek through the woods to the spot his father had once shown him. 'This was the place where we entered the forest,' his mind told him as he began to sniff the ground for some sign of an entryway. A bird flew close to his head and swooped suddenly up. Charr's eyes followed the winged creature. Suddenly the bird disappeared! Charr's eyes widened and he slowly climbed the tree nearest the place where the bird had vanished. As he approached the spot, Charr began to notice an opening, hidden by leaves and vines, that he had never seen before. He reached up and tore away the foliage to reveal an old rusty pipe opening. Charr took a deep breath and climbed into the opening. Suddenly, daylight seemed to turn into darkness as the gray cat crept forward in the tunnel. He dug his sharp claws deep into the slime coating on the bottom of the pipe and climbed the steep incline until he reached a level place where the tunnel branched off. Now which way was he supposed to go? He pricked his ears and listened carefully, his forest trained hearing picking up every slight sound. He could hear water trickling from somewhere to his right, and as he looked down at his feet, he could see a small stream of water running slowly down the pipe and disappearing off to his left. He turned his head to the left and listened, straining to hear something to tell him he was on the right track.
"Hey, that ball is mine!" The whiny voice drifted up the tunnel and pricked at Charr's sensitive ears. He turned to the left and ventured towards the sound. As he rounded a slight bend in the pipe, he could see light. He headed eagerly towards that light and reached another pipe opening, this one rust free and seemingly used often. He poked his head out of the pipe and a wondrous scene unfolded before his coal-black eyes. Cats and kittens were milling about, some playing, some chatting, others dozing or bathing. They were all in this wide-open space, filled with things the likes of which Charr had never seen before. Was this the Jellicle Junkyard??
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