The Road Less Travelled
Part Three: Fate and Circumstance
By Rheow
Midnight. The clocks chimed the hour.
There were two cats, padding down the sidewalk illuminated by the street lamps. Amberene had asked Zerehmir to walk with her. The tom thought she looked distracted and waited for her to speak.
"I have to choose," the queen began as they turned the corner of the street.
Zerehmir looked up. "Between us?"
"You know I would honour your wishes . . ." he said at last.
"Oh, Mir, I'm sorry--"
In the course of their discussion, they had strayed away from familiar territory. And as luck would have had it, they had wandered across the path of a small gang of Pollicles rooting about in the dustbins of a construction site.
"Oh--damn--run!"
It was a breathless chase through the streets and it was sheer luck that they found that warehouse with its shutters not completely rolled down. The gap at the bottom was just large enough for a cat to squeeze through.
And squeeze through they did--just as the Pollicles caught up and started worrying at the gap. They were all too large to fit.
Zerehmir looked around at the stacks of human goods around them and sighed. "Oh Everlasting Cat--what a night! We should be safe here--"
But Zerehmir had spoken too soon. There were two large toms in the warehouse and they were looking decidedly cross at the sight of the newcomers.
They were Lockely and Arfehul--Mathernon's sons checking out territory that they were intending to claim. But Amberene and Zerehmir did not know that--the other two cats just looked extremely hostile.
"Get lost--this is our property!" one of the toms said loudly.
"Or stay a while and play?" The other was looking at Amberene speculatively.
The Pollicles were still outside. If this was the time, Mir might have quoted that human saying--something about rocks and hard places.
"Amber, go now!" Zerehmir hissed as he bristled at the other two toms. "Find another way out of here--I'll hold them off--"
With an anguished look, the queen turned and ran through the many stacks of crates at his insistence. Mir backed towards the direction that she had fled to, hissing protectively.
Zerehmir might be one of the more passive cats in the junkyard, but he was no slouch when it came to fighting--especially when he was protecting someone he cared for.
The brown and yellow tom struck first and Mir lashed back, scoring a vicious scratch.
"You'll pay for that!" the tom hissed and leapt at him. They went down in a tangled heap--biting, scratching and yowling. It might have been a fair fight, but the other tom jumped in and Mir was getting the worst of it. He thought to disengage and flee with Amberene, but the lights suddenly came on and a tall figure came storming up the aisle.
It was a human--an angry one at that.
"Stupid cats!" the human yelled as he stamped about, scattering the knot of fighting cats. Lockely and Arfehul fled, for even they knew that some humans were bad news.
But Zerehmir's hind leg had been injured and he discovered that he could only limp. He tried to stagger away but the human was faster and brought an empty crate down over him. Mir hissed and spat his defiance as the crate slammed down.
"Shut up!" the man snarled and kicked the crate.
Some humans did not even bother to call the stray-catchers--Zerehmir had a feeling that this human fitted into that category. He was proven correct when the crate was suddenly upended and he fell into the musty darkness of a large sack.
He was being carried some distance--and then he scented dankness and heard the sound of water rushing by--
The sack was lifted and hurled. The tom squalled in pure terror as the sack hit the cold rushing waters of a drainage canal and was borne away by the torrent. Tossed about like so much flotsam, Mir yelled and tore helplessly at the sacking. There was an awful instant when he sensed that he was suspended in mid-air and then he was plummeting down, down, down . . .
The sack hit the waters of the river with a sodden smack and proceeded to sink.
Choking and thrashing, Mir knew what fear truly was as the cold water rose around him. The world was reduced to a black, airless void where survival instinct was pitted futilely against the inevitable black tide.
But perhaps the Everlasting Cat was listening to his screams that night. The sack heaved up and the cat felt himself crash into something with a bone-jarring thud.
A wave had thrown the sack he was in against some hard surface. And it continued to do so until the tom exerted all his flagging strength and found his footing at last. He had caught the scent of the wharves--which meant land.
After an eternity of struggling, the sack was no longer subject to the chilly grip of the waves and Mir felt solid ground under him.
With a cat's strong natural aversion to enclosed spaces, Zerehmir fought his way out of the sack, the fight ebbing from his body as he glanced wearily at his surrounds. He had washed up on a sloping concrete surface where the humans put their boats.
What an evening . . . A chase, a fight, nearly drowned--how many lives had he lost? But that really did not matter now, Zerehmire realised as he lay there, panting and wounded. He had known what she was going to say. She had chosen . . .
Hearing a faint rustle, Mir looked up--and saw the hundreds of beady eyes that were peering at him from the surrounding darkness.
Wharf rats. He had forgotten about them. Big as a cat and fierce. And hungry. They could tell that he was injured . . .
He closed his eyes and let the darkness come in.
^-^O~
In the junkyard, Avaleen jerked wake, driven from sleep by sheer, unadulterated terror.
"Mir!"
She had a horrible dream--Mir was all alone and death was closing in on him . . .
"Ava?" Jellylorum poked her head into the box where the black and white queen was resting in. "You were yelling . . ."
"A bad dream, Jelly," Ava gasped out.
"Well, all right then . . ." And the cream-coloured queen left her to mull over her dream.
It had been so real . . .
"Help!"
As highly-strung as she was, Ava jumped up at the shout and almost collided with Amberene as the tortoiseshell queen came charging in.
"Oh! Ava! Your brother--I think he got into a fight!"
Within moments, the junkyard was roused. Between Avaleen's hysterical insistence that her brother was in trouble and Amberene's narrative, Cateract, acting in his grandfather's stead, led his searchers on an expedition to find the missing Jellicle. Amberene led them to where site where they had been chased and then to the warehouse where they had encountered the other two toms and the human.
Zerehmir was no where to be found. Ava looked like she was walking in a trance as they hunted high and low for the missing tom.
If any one was near enough to hear, they would have heard her murmuring, "He's dead . . . he's dead . . ."
"What?" Amberene asked in shock.
"He's dead--oh Everlasting Cat . . ." Ava whispered. "He's dead . . ."
"Ava--you're in shock," Amber said in concern. "Someone take her back to the junkyard--"
"He's dead," the queen continued regardless of the concerned ring of faces around her.
At times like this, Cateract wished Mac or one of the older cats was there. They would know what to do or would think up of some plan. "We go back to the yard . . . call everyone in--it's an emergency this time," he said at last.
That was done and when Old Deuteronomy arrived that morning, the tale was retold again. The cats went out searching for Mir again and it was Amberene who approached the venerated cat and told him about Avaleen and her conviction that her brother had passed on. So Old Deuteronomy took the young queen to one side and saw how distraught she was.
"You think your brother is dead? Why do you say that, Ava?" the old cat asked her gently.
"I-I . . ."
Old Deuteronomy patted her paw gently. "You're so afraid of telling me?"
"Everyone would think me a freakish thing . . ."
"It's your secret to keep, Ava, but I'm here to listen to you." Old Deuteronomy was good at listening--cats invariably spilled all their woes and trouble to him eventually.
"I've had dreams--many dreams--t-they show me things . . . and they normally come true," Ava stammered out.
"Yours is the gift of foresight--you're a seer," Old Deuteronomy said after a moment's pause. "It is nothing odd . . . there are mystical and magical cats, my dear. You and your brother were twins--you might feel it very strongly if he has passed on."
Avaleen was taken aback. "B-but why?"
"Who knows? Who knows how the Everlasting Cat works?" The old cat looked towards where Jelly and Jenny were herding a number of kittens in for their nap. Amongst them were two identical black and white striped kittens. "Your cousin's children--twins like you and your brother--Tantomile and Coricopat, if I remember correctly . . . They too have the makings of mystics. It seems to run in the family--especially those with tendency towards twins."
And Avaleen was left with this news to ponder over. It troubled her badly--almost as badly as the loss of her twin. If she could see the future then those dreams meant only one thing . . .
^-^O~
Peace returned to the junkyard slowly. They never found Zerehmir--or his body--and his sister wandered around the junkyard like a ghost, withdrawn and silent most of the time.
Summer came and went, bringing with it the mating season. Pairings were inevitable. Unsurprisingly, or so the older cats thought, Macavity and Amberene made a charming couple.
They could often be seen sitting in the sun together or playing because they were still young. And one day when Macavity was waiting for her on top of the old car, his mate surprised him by leaping out from behind him. They mock wrestled for a while before drowsing atop the warm metal roof of the car.
"I was at Jelly's today," she began, "and you know what she told me?"
"Would *I* know anything about what queens say?" he asked with a smile. "Was it about me? I shall be most cross if you were telling all your friends about me--"
"Oh you!" She licked his face playfully. "Everyone knows what a handsome, fine cat I caught for myself--"
"Everyone except yourself it seems," he teased.
"You're impossible! But you might have to change, my dear--you'll be father soon," Amber told him and his heart nearly exploded for sheer wonder and joy.
The next few days, he really did look like he was walking two paws off the ground. So happy was he that when he met a certain young queen on the way to the junkyard one day, he did not turn her away.
"Mac! Macavity!" It was Estelle, grown from kitten to a young queen. Normally, he might have tried to get away from the queen's obvious advances but he felt safer now that he had a mate.
"Estelle? What are you doing here?"
"I was bored--and I'm old enough to go out on my own now!" she said proudly. "I wanted to see you again--you never came back to visit . . ."
Macavity did not want to lead her on any longer than he could help it. "I was busy, cats missing from the junkyard and all that . . . Would you like to come visit? My mate and her friends like having company over."
He had seen the disappointment in her eyes when he had mentioned Amber but she was queen enough not to show it.
"Oh, I would like to, but Daddy's not been well lately . . ."
Just then a brown and yellow tom came up the street and headed purposefully towards them. It was Estelle's brother.
"Estelle? Estelle, you're far away from home--" Lockely began.
"I'm not a child anymore!" she protested. She did not like her brother, that much Macavity could tell.
"But you're still far from our territory . . . we must go back. Good day to you," said the tom, acknowledging Macavity ever so briefly before he took his sister away.
^-^O~
Amberene was out walking with Avaleen, Vesta and Belinda. They had been trying to draw their friend out for weeks now--with very little success. Without her brother, Ava was like a ship without an anchor, drifting aimlessly round and round . . .
They had walks quite often, trying to get Ava interested in this and that, trying to chat about who was eyeing which tom and so on. Today, they were discussing Amber's pregnancy.
"She'll always be the luckiest one of us all--her kittens will come first," Vesta said wistfully.
"Oh you and Cateract will have your chance, soon," Amberene said with a smile. Then they were teasing each other about kits and their prospective mates.
"Who's that?" Avaleen asked suddenly as they came to a turning.
"What?"
"Over there--with Mac." The queen was looking down the street at a familiar red tom--and there was a delicate smoke-violet queen speaking with him. And suddenly a large brown tom approached the two. After a short exchange, the brown cat took the violet queen away.
"I-I've seen that cat before," Amberen said hesitantly.
"The queen?" Vesta asked, interested.
"The tom . . . I remember him from that night--" She hesitated, glancing uncertainly at Ava.
But the black and white queen seemed to be reading her thoughts. "That night my brother . . .?"
"Yes . . . I don't know how he knows Mac?"
"But does Mac know them?" Belinda wondered. "They might have just met . . ."
The queens returned to the junkyard, more than a little disturbed.
Over the next few days, Ava became even more withdrawn. She was thinking hard. She was watching Macavity and Amberene from out of the corner of her eye. Amberene had asked Macavity about that incident and he had told her that he had save the violet queen once and knew her family. Avaleen knew about that--she had a dream about those cats, more of an extended clan of strays . . . involved in shady business too.
What could this mean, the more Ava thought about it, the more the dreams nagged at her mind. But why? What motive would he--she glanced at Amberene--oh, but there *was* a motive . . .
And she started watching Macavity in earnest. The violet queen showed up sometimes, in the back alley behind the junkyard, waiting for the ginger cat. Ava might have thought Mac was having an affair behind Amber's back, but she knew that Mac was loyal to his mate and he never appeared to be overly friendly or close to the young violet queen. Ava wished it had been so, because the other alternative was too awful to think about . . .
But after a particularly horrible dream one afternoon, Avaleen awoke in the old oven, shivering. Her cries had brought no few cats to her side.
"I dreamed again . . . Mir . . . hurt, the rats . . ." she gasped as the queen comforted her. "And Macavity--I saw him again, pain and grief will follow him, I saw him leading a band of strays . . ."
"What are you saying?" Cateract asked urgently.
"He's clever enough to engineer it--" Ava stared around wildly, the terror in her eyes plain to all and sundry. "He knows those cats--he keeps contact with them--"
Amberene stared, confused and frightened. "What--"
"He did it for you!" Ava spat. "For the *love* of you! For you, he would do anything--even kill! Oh my brother!" There was pain and loss in those green eyes even as she glared at the tortoiseshell queen so intently that Amber was not just a little afraid. "I should not have kept your secret!"
"What secret?" Cateract asked, even though he really did not wish to know any more.
"She loved two cats--her mate and my brother! I saw it in my dreams--I saw Macavity and the shadow he cast was dreadful!"
"Avaleen has the gift of a seer, but we should be wary--those are only possible futures," Old Deuteronomy said carefully.
"But does it explain Macavity's involvement in Zerehmir's disappearance?" an older cat demanded. They were still calling it a "disappearance" after so long.
"He's dead!" Avaleen screamed. "The rats--he was injured and they ate him!" This caused even more heated discussions to flare up again and all was chaos until Old Deuteronomy called for silence.
"Peace," the Jellicle Leader said placidly. "If Macavity is guilty, then he shall be banished from the tribe."
The shouting started up again. "Old Deuteronomy, with all due respect, I know he is your grandson--"
"Only banishment?"
"What if it really was murder?"
"And what about his involvement with that band of strays?"
To one side, Cateract and his friends were watching the scene with growing disbelief.
"I don't believe this," Nic muttered.
"Do you believe it? Any of it?" Cateract asked desperately.
"We don't want to believe it . . ." Macavity was their friend--and now it seemed that everyone was against him. No one seemed to want to be calm and look at things reasonably. Mir's grisly end according to Avaleen had inflamed them. It was surprising for the Jellicles to act so.
But no one was more surprised than Macavity when he came into the junkyard that day. Old Deuteronomy had left for the vicarage and there were few who maintained as calm an outlook.
His mate ran to him as he came in via the back fence, looking far from her usual calm self. "Oh Mac--they're saying terrible things! You must go now--"
"Amber--what is the matter?"
"They said you had something to do with Mir's disappearance--they're going to exile you for conspiring to kill a Jellicle!"
"Jellicles are more reasonable than that!" Macavity protested, still mulling over this news. They had connected him with Mir's disappearance? But why?
"Not in this mood they aren't," Amber said. "You should go away for a while--wait until things cool down first--"
"What happened?"
"It's my fault Mac--I said that that cat I saw you with that day was one of those who had attacked Mir--a-and then Avaleen said that--"
But someone had seen them and raised the alarm. Avaleen was one of the first to react.
"Murderer!" she shrilled, still distraught.
The cry was taken up by more cats. It seemed like they were all swept up in some sort of frenzy as they rushed forwards.
He could not fight them--surely this was some bad dream? His own tribe turned on him? But when he felt the claws coming for him, he realised that this was *real* and more nightmarish than any dream.
He tried to defend himself, but that might have been constituted as an attack, so Macavity ran.
He ran from the cats who he had known all his life. Cats that had attacked him--cats who were driving him out of the junkyard and away from his mate. He ran through the familiar alleyways, confused and horrified. What was happening to his world?
"Mac! Here!" It was Estelle again--calling from the top of the fence. One friendly face and a possible escape route--he had to leave as Amber had said, wait for the situation to cool down and when the cats were in a more reasonable frame of mind . . .
Macavity leapt--
And he did not know that he was leaving more than just his mate behind . . .
^-^O~
Griddlebone's Narrative
Old Mather's body was not even cold when Lockely and Arfehul started disputing leadership. It was a bad time for the organisation as a whole--cats choosing sides and tensions overflowing all over the place . . .
Then *he* came again right in the middle of it all.
Like an ill wind blown into the old house as autumn encroached, he came in all dishevelled with marks of a fight on him. When Lockely and Arfehul had gathered the cats together to "discuss" the matter of leadership. Estelle had brought him--I knew she had gone often to see him. In the midst of all that quarrelling while her dad was fading away, she would go and confide in someone who was more like an older brother to her than Lockely and Arfehul. Now she had brought him back with her--was it another Pollicle incident, I wondered? And it could not have come at a worst time.
"Estelle! What did I say about bringing any more outsiders here?" Lockely asked when they came in. I had sidled closer and was listening in with a strange feeling of anticipation. Soon . . . something will happen soon . . .
"He was hurt and they--" Estelle began but her brother cuffed her roughly and shoved her aside.
"You're not welcome here," he said shortly. "Leave."
Of course, that was the wrong thing to say.
Here was a tom who had been pushed to the edge--any really observant cat could have seen the turmoil within him--and he was more than just confused and frightened, he was becoming angry. I saw the anger coming out, seeking a place to strike. And Lockely was kind enough to provide him with one.
"You . . ." Macavity seemed to be putting together the pieces of some puzzle in his head. "She said you were the ones who fought with Mir . . ."
"What the devil is he babbling about?" Arfehul asked irritably. His argument had been interrupted by Mac's arrival and he did not take it well.
"Tell me," the ginger tom asked intently, "did you once fight a black and white tom in a warehouse?"
"So what? We've fought lots of cats--now leave before we have to be impolite."
Ha! As though they knew what manners were to begin with. I watched the newcomer and I could see where this was going to lead to, oh yes I could . . .
"No."
"We have no time for this!" Lockely hissed. "Move yourself, Jellicle, this is no place for you!"
"It is my place to demand vengeance," Macavity said softly. "For my friend! And for myself . . ."
"No--"Estelle began--but they were already springing.
Battles were won in the mind. As Macavity leapt, time seemed to stand still. In those great yellow eyes, there was a terrible burning need for the fire within them to be released. In that moment, Lockely had already lost when he confronted that gaze.
They went for each other, spitting and hissing. It was brutal, neither cat giving way. Lockely might have thought it would a brief warm-up before he would fight his brother, but the ginger tom proved him wrong. They were fighting in earnest now. Macavity got the upper paw and grabbed Lockely by the scruff as he would a kitten. Lockely squealed and then was silent as his thick skull connected with the wall.
It was not Estelle who warned him of Arfehul's attack. I had watched the two brothers closely--they would stab each in the back any day but against an outsider . . .
"Behind you!"
The ginger tom spun around to meet Arfehul coming at him in mid-air. They rolled over in a deadly dance. Arfehul got a few good ones in before Macavity dealt with him as he had his brother. They were not dead, only stunned--though it would be safer the other way.
And then there was silence as the tom with a coat like fire stood panting in the middle of the floor. As though suddenly aware of all the eyes on him, the ginger tom sat himself down and very deliberately began to wash his wounds. It was a calculated move--any sign of fear or an attempt to flee would have been a mistake. Estelle approached him carefully and her presence brought some sort of order.
"So what now?" asked a large tom by the wall who had been checking on Lockely and Arfehul.
"He has won his right to stay by combat," I said. Any cat could see the sense of that--it was something primitive and instinctive. Leader of the pride . . .
"But what now?" some cat asked. Lockely and Arfehul were stirring from where they had fallen.
"Cast them out--they're nothing but trouble," I said quickly. There was still Estelle and as long as she stood with Macavity, he was safe. "Take them out now!"
Without proper leadership, most were willing to listen to the first viable idea thrown before them. This I learned as several cats nodded in agreement and started towards the downed toms. Everyone was fairly sick of the two brothers' bickering and scheming and if any still supported them, they were careful to keep their heads down. I would have to watch out for them later . . .
"Griddlebone! Lori! Help him! He's hurt" Estelle pleaded. Lori would have done it anyhow--she was that type. I nodded to Old Gaffer and we three followed the ginger tom as he got up and left the kitchen. We took him to an upstairs room and Lori checked him over. He fell asleep halfway through--exhausted by the fights.
He had to heal fast--his own survival depended on it. For things were moving very fast now, very fast indeed . . .