Rumpelteazer struggled to hold Mungojerrie still so she could climb on his back and leap over the side of the box, but her brother had other ideas. The male kitten squirmed out from beneath his sister and threw himself against the side of the box, resulting in the cardboard side collapsing. Mungojerrie smirked triumphantly as he exited the box and raced towards the road.
"’Ey! Careful there!" called Rumpelteazer. Mungojerrie stuck his toungue out at his sister, then hurried out onto the asphalt and nudged Screcelia’s limp body.
"Mum? Wake up, Mum!" he pleaded. The mother cat’s mouth fell open, and blood gushed out. Mungojerrie leapt back as the liquid rushed past his paws. Rumpelteazer wrinkled her nose in disgust, casting a glance over the other cat stretched out on the road.
"’o’s that?" inquired Mungojerrie.
"Mum called ‘im… ‘Maryaridi’," answered Rumpelteazer. "’e wanted ‘er fer some…project, ‘e said."
"Wot’s ‘at s’posed t’mean?" complained Mungojerrie.
"Oh, I dunno," snarled the female in exasperation. "We’ll fin’ out even’ually. In ‘e meantime, we should try t’survive o’selves." She turned away from the carnage on the road and began walking in the opposite direction. Mungojerrie leapt onto the sidewalk, staring after his sister.
"’Teaze! Where’s y’goin’?" he called.
"Away," she answered. "C’mon. We’ll fin’ some way t’survive." The kitten tossed her head and began to run. Mungojerrie shrugged and followed his sister.
The two kittens paused for breath in a seemingly deserted alley. Rumpelteazer had slumped down on a pile of newspapers, gasping for breath. Mungojerrie heaved himself down alongside his sister on the newspaper. The female kitten soon recovered her breath and began to wash a paw.
CRASH!
The kittens leapt up, stiff-legged, their back and tail fur bristling. Mungojerrie curled his lip.
"’o’s there?" he called, trying to sound confident.
A fluffy, grayish-black, kitten, with a white muzzle and throat, appeared over the edge of a garbage can. Eyeing the two suspiciously, he leaned over the edge and spat a chunk of some distasteful refuse at the feet of Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer.
"’o’re yew?" Mungojerrie asked, glaring at the newcomer.
"Oi’m Fred," answered the other, raising an eyebrow and smiling falsely. "’o’re yew, and wot’re yew doin’ ‘round ‘ere?"
"Why shou’ we tell yew?" hissed Rumpelteazer. The trio of kittens sat bristling at each other for a short period, then Fred smiled warmly.
"Why are we foightin’ ‘mongst o’selves?" he reasoned. "We’s all kittens, troying t’survive. Wot d’yew say we joins t’gether?" He leapt down from the trash can and walked over to the other two cats.
"Why not, Mungo?" Rumpelteazer said. Her brother merely nodded, keeping his eyes on Fred. Rumpelteazer continued, "Oi’m Rumpelteazer, an’ this is m’brother, Mungojerrie."
"Thank y’koindly, m’lady," smiled Fred. He narrowly ducked the pawful of claws that Rumpelteazer swiped at him.
"Now tha’ we’ve joined t’gether, wot d’yew say Oi show y’where there’s some good eats?" suggested Fred, leading the way to another garbage can. "Look in ‘ere, f’starters."
As the three began poking around in the can, looking for choice eatables, a trio of alley cats chose that moment to arrive. One of them, a tabby male missing an ear, growled deep in his chest as he approached the kittens.
"Kits! In our alley! Get ‘em!"
The other two, a smoke-gray queen and a mud-brown tom, lunged towards Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer. The tabby pounced on Fred, pinning the younger cat easily. The kitten squirmed in the alley tom’s grasp, but the latter only pressed harder.
"We’ve gotta bone t’pick wi’you," he snarled.
"Pick wot wi’ ‘o?" responded Fred.
"Feisty, eh. I likes that. My name’s Grumbuskin—,"
"Oh, why tell the petite chats [little cats] who we are?" protested the smoke-gray female, glaring at Rumpelteazer, whom she held pinned beneath her.
"Hold your toungue, Amby," hissed Grumbuskin. "What do you think we should do, Bothriodon?"
The mud-brown cat, who had not yet spoken, cocked his head slightly. "There’s always—,"
"These brats? The Hidden Paw? Just isn’t done!" snarled the female.
"Ambelodon!" shouted Grumbuskin. "I’ve had quite enough of you, m’lady. We are taking these kits to the Mystery Cat, and that’s that. Don’t like it, tough." With that he picked up Fred by the nape of his neck. The kitten swiped at his carrier.
"Leggo of me, y’blokes!" he screeched.
"Shut up," was all Grumbuskin said. After Bothriodon and Ambelodon had lifted Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer into their mouths, he headed off, Fred swinging from his teeth.
Rumpelteazer allowed the smoke-gray female to carry her for a few feet, then she slashed at the older cat’s chest with her claws. Screeching in pain, Ambelodon dropped the kitten, who promptly darted off, swiping at Bothriodon and Grumbuskin as she did. Her brother and Fred followed through, and soon the three kittens were once again wandering through the alleys.
Rumpelteazer took another lick of the slice of bologna before taking it carefully in her mouth and chewing it. Fred was helping himself to some roadkill squirrel, and Mungojerrie sat watching, occasionally licking bits of egg yolk off his chin.
As Rumpelteazer finished the last bit of her meat, a small black rat scurried up to them. Fred looked up from his squirrel and licked his chops.
"Wot ‘ave we ‘ere?" he mused. "Tasty li’le beast."
"Don’t eat me!" pleaded the rat, in a squeaky, high-pitched voice. "My name is Mailliw. I bring a message for you from another cat."
"Wot’s it?" asked Rumpelteazer, placing her paw on Mailliw’s tail to prevent escape. The rat squirmed briefly, then stopped.
"Cassandra says you look like you haven’t washed in months, and you prolly smell like it too," said Mailliw. Fred cocked his head as he thought.
"Tell Cassandra to shove ‘er nose up ‘er arse," said Fred. Rumpelteazer nodded and let go of the rat’s tail. Mailliw darted off, his tail lashing behind him. The three kittens sat down to await the return of Mailliw.
A sleek female kitten with short, mink-brown fur, and a white chest and face, sat awaiting the return of the messenger rat. He scampered up to her and gave a squeak to get her attention.
"Well?" she yawned. "What did they say?" Mailliw repeated the message that Fred had given him. The kitten, Cassandra, stroked her whiskers thoughtfully.
"Really, now?" she purred. "Tell them that I’ve seen ‘things’ with more intelligence in a dustbin." Mailliw nodded and scampered off. Cassandra smiled a contented little smile to herself and began to wash her tail.
The insults raged back and forth in this manner for about an hour. Mailliw was taking longer and longer each time, his toungue hanging out of his mouth. He didn’t quite see the point in continuing this, but he also didn’t quite see what good there was in stopping.
Both Cassandra and the other three kittens were on insult adrenaline high. There was no doing anything to stop them, either. The phrases even began to range into words of which none of the kittens knew what they meant, but pretended to.
Cassandra had just sent a particularly nasty message when another cat stepped up behind her. This cat was a fully-grown tom, with long, fluffy, fur, mostly gray but with patches of brown, black, and white.
"Cassandra…what are you doing?" he asked sharply. The kitten whirled around quickly and gasped when she saw whom it was that had snuck up unnoticed.
"Deuteronomy! I, I, I didn’t see you!" she stammered. Deuteronomy glared for a short while at the young Jellicle, then his gaze softened.
"Come now, little Cassandra. I’ll take you back to the Junkyard now, and you can play with the other kittens—and no using any of that language you were just using! Understood?" he said.
"Yes, Deuteronomy," Cassandra mumbled, with a tiny hint of rebelliousness. The grown-up Jellicles always caught you before you could do anything fun. It wasn’t just the adults—even the half-grown cats did that as well. They imagined that they were so grown up.
Presently, they came to the Junkyard; the place where all Jellicles gathered. In one corner of it, a group of kittens was playing, carefully supervised by a half-grown queen, whose coat was mostly a yellow color, with orange-ginger stripes. She looked up as Deuteronomy walked in.
"Why, hello, Deuteronomy, what a pleasant—Cassandra! Where have you been? I’ll—," she began, but was cut off by the male cat.
"Now, Jennyanydots, I know you feel naturally protective of all the kittens, but she wasn’t all that far, so I think we’ll make allowances." He smiled and walked away. Jennyanydots glared at Cassandra, then she motioned for the kitten to join her peers.
"Play nice," she ordered, then curled up atop a garbage can for a nap.
"Smooth, Cassie," muttered Exotica. Exotica was often mistaken for Cassandra’s sister, but though they looked similar, they were not. Exotica’s coat was dark brown in color, but tabby stripes faintly showed, and she had a white belly. Gray fur covered her feet.
"Yeah, what’d you do?" questioned another kitten, a male silver tabby, whose name was Munkustrap. The other kittens began to crowd around Cassandra, who was beginning to wish the Junkyard would swallow her up.
Cassandra was saved by the fact that another female kitten raced into the Junkyard at that moment. This kitten was mostly red, with a white chest and face. Ginger spots and stripes found their home in the red, and she had three black paws, the other being white. Red, black, and white fur sprouted around her face, and the white-tipped tail curled around her feet as she sat down. Jennyanydots opened one eye from her perch on the can lid.
"What is it, Bombalurina?" she inquired.
"I can’t find Demeter anywhere!" cried Bombalurina, tears slipping from her eyes. "Mom’s frantic. Have any of you seen Demeter?" she asked hopefully. When she saw that none of them had seen her sister, her head drooped.
"I’ll go find Deuteronomy," ordered Jennyanydots. "You stay here." Without waiting for an answer, she dashed off.
Mungojerrie, Rumpelteazer, and Fred had been waiting for Mailliw for over an hour, with no response from the black rat. Finally, bored with the whole thing, Mungojerrie had gone off to scrounge for something more to eat. Rumpelteazer and Fred made small talk on the sidewalk.
"Noice day."
"Yup."
"Gar’age cans is noice t’eat o’of."
"Yup."
"C’yew say any’ing else?"
"Yup."
They then heard a cry, and the pair hurried to where they had last seen Mungojerrie. He was in the mouth of a competent-looking dust-brown tomcat. The tomcat arched his back when he saw the other two kittens, then set Mungojerrie down and placed his paw on the kitten’s stomach.
"Come with me, and I promise you great things," was all the tom said.
Rumpelteazer looked at Fred. Fred looked at Mungojerrie. Mungojerrie looked at Rumpelteazer.
They slowly nodded. The tomcat got up and headed down the alley, followed by the three kittens.