Mummies Alive! meets Cats
Part 2: Eccentric confusions
I can't but wonder exactly where I am right now, but I know it's most certainly not London.
"Where's the sacred kitty? And who's that?" asks a young woman. I suppose she's about 16, or in her teens, at least, with dark tan skin, black hair a little past her shoulders, maybe, and brown eyes the same color as the fur of my mother, Exotica.
"Hey, she looks like one o' those...um, Je-lli-cle cats." says another woman. She looks very unusual, she has wrappings covering her mostly, with blue-gray hair to her waist tied back into a ponytail, and hypnotic violet-green eyes. I've never seen a human like that before, I must be honest.
"In fact, if I'm not mistaken, I believe that's the Jellicle Cat called Cassandra." says a man. He has very pale skin, almost albino, really, with hair the color of a clean cloud, and eyes the color of rubies. Another unusual human.
Standing upright, which any Cat can do, I look them straight in the eye, impossible, for some of them. "I am a Jellicle Cat, and my name is indeed Cassandra. How do you know so much, I would like to know?" I ask as calmly as possible.
The woman with the hypnotic eyes and the man with the pale skin begin backing away then. Is it possible they understand me?
"Um, you really oughta ask Nyx and Cassandra 'bout that, they've seen the video and the play." says the woman. Is it possible that her mind is that of a child?
"I doubt your friends can understand me, and while we're on that subject, how can you understand my words?" I ask the woman.
"Easy. My mother is...was a Fantasian, and Fantasia is the world of dreams and fantasies, a lot can happen there, that's not possible in this world, and I suppose being half-Fantasian means tha' I can understand languages just like m' luckdragon friend." says the woman. I just realized that she has a slight Cockney accent, listening to her reminds me of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, two Jellicle catburglars who also work for Macavity.
"And she's not the only one who can understand you. So can I." This woman is anther 'mummy', I suppose, with white hair slightly past her shoulders, gray eyes like polished ash, and blue-gray skin. "It's probably because of my link to the goddess Bastet."
Thinking for a moment, I remember that Exotica told me that Bastet is the Egyptian Cat goddess, and what the humans Named the Everlasting Cat. Interesting.
"Bastet is also a cat goddess who ensorcelled you once, remember?" This mummy is rather tall for a human, the wrappings cover his head and his eyes are the color of sapphires.
"Don't remind me, Ja-Kal." says the gray-eyed mummified woman, rolling her eyes in an expression I can barely remember seeing on any human face.
"And before you go off about some insane theory as to how Nefer-Tina can understand her, just remember that I can do the same, Ja-Kal." This is a tall and rather thin mummy, with loose gold-streaked white hair to her knees and violet-gray eyes.
"Yes, but you have feline armor, too, Jana." Ja-Kal answers.
"It's not a cat, it's a Kheran lava-leopard, remember that I *am* half-Kherubim, step-father." Jana says.
"Look, this is interesting and all, but I want to know how to get back to my home, and I heard you mention a cat you have, I'm sure you people want to get her back, as well." I interrupt.
"Well, maybe Kahti got teleported to wherever she lives. Where do you live, by the way?" Nefer-Tina asks me.
"London?" A living human behind Nefer-Tina takes on a horrified expression.
"London is in England! Kahti's in Europe!" says the black-haired brown-eyed human girl.
"Relax, Cassandra. We'll get Kahti back, and send her back to her home as well." This is a green-eyed mummy with features that make him look like a sculpture.
"Please tell the rest of your friends that my Name is Cassandra." I tell Nefer-Tina, looking her straight in the eye.
"She says she'd rather be called Cassandra, Rath." Nefer-Tina turns to the green-eyed human.
"Very well. And we'd better begin trying to get her home and Kahti back to us." Rath says. Something in his voice makes me very afraid, I begin to wish Alonzo was here.
***
"Hey, look! It's a Cat. Looks kind of like Granma Exotica, too."
I look up and can't help noticing that a large number of other Cats are looking at me. For some reason, I also get the feeling that they're like me, that they're Jellicles.
"She's beautiful." I hear a kitten say in awe. She's mostly the color of chocolate, with black on her head and a white pattern on her face similar to mine, though more subtle.
As this kitten begins to approach me, a pure white male kitten puts his hands on her shoulders. "Femi, be careful."
The chocolate-colored kitten creeps forward, almost entranced, she looks at me and rubs her head against my arm before she begins to circle me.
Another female kitten, white, but for her left forepaw, which is black, also comes forward. She rubs her white forepaw against my face before turning to the older Cats. Then, she sings a beautiful voice I wish I could hear again.
"Moonlight, turn your face to the moonlight. Let your memory led you, open up, enter in. If you find there the meaning of what happiness is, then a new life will begin."
A massive furry brown tom approaches me then. "Who are you? Are you a Jellicle, like us?" I notice that the silver-gray tabby tom is looking at him with an expression of 'is it wise to ask that?'.
"My second Name is Kianoi. I was, am and always will be an Egyptian Jellicle." I say, standing up as tall as possible, which is impressive for a Cat. "I was matriarch of my tribe and I mothered many kittens, in fact, some of your people look like they may have descended from my progeny." I tell him, gesturing to the chocolate-colored queen and kitten, as well as the brown queen with the white face and tan back and underside.
"I see. I am Old Deuteronomy, leader of this Jellicle tribe. This," the furry brown tom motions to the silver-gray tabby tom, "is my oldest son Munkustrap, he leads in my absence."
"Ah, that is interesting, really, but perhaps you can tell me where I am? I last remember being used as part of a spell by one of my human's protectors." I tell Old Deuteronomy.
"You're in London, England, a land in Europe." Munkustrap tells me in a surprisingly gentle voice.
"EUROPE?!" I shout. I remember snooping through Cassandra's school books, I remember vividly where Europe and America, where San Francisco is, in comparison to each other. "Good Heaviside, I'm half a world away from San Francisco!"
"San Francisco? What would an Egyptian Jellicle being doing in America?" This seems to be an intelligent queen, her face is mostly white, but she is mostly an orange-brown color.
"I, along with my human's protectors, was awakened in the modern world to protect the reincarnated Prince Rapses, son of Amenhotep. I also feel you should know that I lived a rather long time, before I was buried with the Prince and his guardians, by the human calendar, in 1525 BC, I lived for two thousand years, and not only was I there when the Pharaohs commissioned the Sphinx, I was also the Pharaoh's advisor, and suggested that she build it." I tell them.
I can't help noticing some expressions of awe on their variously-colored and -patterned faces. I can't entirely suppress a smile, then again, what Cat can?
"It seems that you were a help in protecting your prince. And I think I have some ideas of how to get you back home, Kianoi." This tom is mostly black, all of his paws, except for his left forepaw, as well as his face, neck, chest and tail tip, are white, frankly, I've never seen a funnier-looking Cat in all the time I've been alive.
"And you are...?" I ask carefully.
"The Magical Mister Mistoffelees, one of the tribe's original magicians. I can help you to possibly get home, if my magic cooperates, with a little help from Casandra," he waves his black paw at a sleek and graceful queen, brown, mostly, with white on her head, face and tail tip, as well as a tan underside and back, "and the twins, Coricopat and Tantomile." These two are indeed twins, black Cats with light tan faces, necks and paws, as well as an inpressive amount of silvery white and a bit of red.
"Very well." I nod. "Then, we shall see if your magic does cooperate and work." I can't help but get a funny feeling about this.
***
"Rath, are you sure this will work, and that we should be out here in the open?" I ask the mummified sorcerer as he is almost finished setting up for the spell he intends to attempt.
"Don't worry that much, Cassandra." I learned that the mummified young woman with the violet-green eyes is named Khetala. "Rath's mistakes can't be *that* bad, at the very worst."
"A-HEM!" Rath clears his throat. The mummified woman with the blue eyes, Talana, smiles.
"Oh, come on, Rath. Everyone makes mistakes, especially humans. What's wrong with letting Kheti point out yours? Even a sorcerer or a Guardian can make mistakes, only Guardians' mistakes have worst consequences." Nyx, the living girl with the caramel skin, black hair and green eyes, looks at Talana worriedly.
"I hope you'll never make a mistake like that, Tal." she says rather quietly. Talana just smiles at her.
"Anyhow, we know this spell will work on a human, but how can we be sure it'll work on a cat?" Samuel Hawkes, one of the living, with blue eyes and blond hair having red highlights, asks the sorcerer. Even though I am unfamiliar with Samuel Hawkes, I am familiar with Padjet, Ja-Kal's son and Talana's older brother, and I just hope I'll have to reveal the truth about my youngest kitten, Femima, to them.
"Just hope that it will, big brother." Talana affectionately pats Samuel on the shoulders and the two of them exchange a smile.
"Well, time to see if this spell works at all." Rath says. With a strange look on his face, I see several faces blurring for a moment, but those faces frighten me.
One has glowing red eyes and fangs, like a vampire, the second has eyes of darkness, black would be blinding white in comparison, the third...the third is the very face of evil, in any form.
"I really don't think-" I can get no more out as we are then attacked, by the strangest beings.
"Oh, no! It's him again!" Nyx shouts, looking up into the sky with an expression that, fleetingly, remind me of Coricopat and Tantomile.
"Yeah? Well, we'll see he wants..after we kick his tut!" Apachetress, the fourth of the living among them, jumps forward.
I cannot even begin to describe the savagery of the fight that follows. There is a man in a purple insect-like armor in the air, brimming with magic that even I, an mere adept of magic, can sense, there is also an unearthly hybrid of lion, crocodile and hippopotamus that I recognize from Egyptian myth. Ammut, the Devourer of Souls, and one of the deadliest creatures in existence.
Then, the human man in purple and Rath both fire their magics at each other, ripping open a hole in the very fabric of space.
"Rath? What the heck did you do?" Presley, the reborn Prince Rapses, shouts above the howling winds that threaten to drag us into the hole like a vacuum cleaner picks up dust.
"I'm not sure, my prince, but we certainly won't be staying heerrreeeeee!" Rath is the first of the Mummies and their allies to be pulled into the portal.
As I wait for it to pull me in as well, I realize my feelings about this turn of events are mixed. I might be going home again, I am glad, but I may also never get back to the Junkyard, and I am truly and deeply frightened for the first time in my life.
***
"Dad! DAD!" The white kitten with the black paw, her name is Mystoflare, I learned, among other things, tugs at the fur of her father, Mistoffelees.
"Mystoflare, please, not now." Victoria, her mother, and the tribe's only pure white queen, picks her up and carries her.
"Um. Misto?" Coricopat and Tantomile say in unison.
"Yes?"
The twins look to the sky, and I see expressions of amazement on their faces. "RUN!" they shout as they flee towards a junkpile.
Looking up into the air, I am almost immediately blinded by an intense flash of light, swirling purple, green and blue, I see in the moment before my vision goes white and my eyes burn.
A massive cloud of color and magic is brewing over London, and when the light clears, we can see that there is a hole in the sky, much as one could imagine the eye of a hurricane.
We see something coming through, and most of it is heading straight for us and the Junkyard.
"RUN!" Munkustrap shouts. All of us scatter and just as the last of us leap into hiding, there is an earth-shattering CRASH! to be heard, the impact shaking the ground in the entire Junkyard.
Looking up from my hiding place, I see a mass of human bodies, and see faces that I recognize. "Presley!" I shout, jumping out of hiding and running to the boy, unfortunately knocking him down in the process.
"Hey, Kahti, easy, girl." he says as he pets me. I don't care what he says, I'm just happy to see them again.
"Okay, now where are we?" This is Satyre, a relative newcomer who, I might mention, isn't really trusted that much, even if she is a part of the group.
"Um, I think we're in London, Sat. Unfortunately." says Cassandra.
"Good Heaviside! Humans, in the Junkyard!" I hear Femima screech. Turning around, I can see the Burmese kitten's face, with her mouth hanging open and her blue eyes wide with shock.
I then notice that Presley and all of the others are looking at the Jellicles. I fear what just happened and what the results of it are.
"Did I just hear a cat talk?" Cassandra asks.
"Yes, you did. And I hope you're not even thinking of harming my daughter." This queen is another brown one, with the same white face and tan underside and back as the younger one I saw before. Interesting.
"In other words, that mage-storm that Rath and Scarab created," here, Talana glares at Rath, "teleported us to where Kahti was blasted to, in this case, a junkyard?"
"What, like you could've done any better?" Satyre asks. Talana has the look she takes on before she jumps someone and Ja-Kal and Rath keep them apart.
"Satyre, please, this isn't the time, we have to figure out how to get back home." Ja-Kal says, glaring at both the merchant and his own daughter.
"That might be a problem, sir." Mistoffelees says. All of them look at him with expressions of outright surprise. Can't say I blame them, when one has a moment's thought.
"You see, that magic-storm really messed things up between here in London, and wherever you came from. In other words, it will be quite some time before we can help you get back to where you're from."
"Thank you, but we won't need your help, we have magic-users of our own." Ja-Kal says.
"Actually, Ja-Kal, my magic's been rendered useless by that storm." Rath says.
"What do you mean?"
Rath holds up his hands and there is no green glow that is the signature of his magic, only a shower of green sparks. "That is this the best I can do for right now. We're stranded here."
"Oh, boy. We're definitely in very big trouble, if none of us can possibly get back to San Francisco." Presley shakes his head.
"How long are you going to have to stay here?" Mystoflare asks.
"Our magic won't come back for at least three days." Mistoffelees shakes his head. "And that's just the beginning of both our problems."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kalia asks out of sheer curiousity.
"Well, where are you going to stay? Considering that you wouldn't exactly fade into the crowd and all." Mistoffelees stops there, leaving the rest up to them.
"And we need our sarcoughagi to recharge our powers..." Kalia shakes her head, but Misto has a metaphorical light bulb over his head.
"That's easy to solve, the magic tire might compensate for that. But the rest of your problems....well, that's up to you how you guys handle them."
Mystoflare tugs at Misto's fur again. "But the Ball's in two days, how can we keep them away from the Junkyard then?" she asks.
"Actually, the Ball's tomorrow." Nightshade says, sitting on a junkpile and shaking out his long fur.
"Nightshade?"
Nightshade points, and we can all see the sun rising over the horizon. It's dawn here, then. So, now what'll happen?
Old Deuteronomy stands up then, and I can tell he's going to say something. "For now, let the humans stay here, there's room enough, and some of us will be rather willing to shelter them in our hideouts, am I right?"
Nightshade grins, and approaches Shade, the pale-skinned undead werewolf with the skeletal dragon armor, and Meccha, the living immortal werewolf. "I'll be more than happy to let the two of you into my place, it's big enough to comfortably shelter three or four humans."
Shade and Meccha look at each other carefully, then turn back to Nightshade and nod, taking each other's hand as they follow him.
As everyone else disperses to find shelter for the day, I run towards the drainpipe, wanting to explore, and think.
"Kahti? Where are you going?" I look up to see Ja-Kal standing over me with his hands on his hips. "What's this all about?"
"These are my people and my descendants, Ja-Kal. Surely you can understand that, remember that Cassandra is Rath's descendant? Or better yet, remember that video and play that Nyx and Cassandra saw?" I ask him, and he nods.
"It was about cats. Jellicle cats." he says, but he apparently doesn't entirely understand what I'm saying.
"Exactly. I'm a Jellicle, I was there when the Pharaoh commissioned the Sphinx, and they are Jellicles, too. They're my people, I haven't seen another Jellicle in over three thousand years. You'd feel the same way if you never saw your son or daughter ever again, if you were buried with someone because people thought you were his pet! They're my people, and I deserve to be among them, don't I?"
Ja-Kal looks at me as though I lost my mind, but his expression softens when I give him a look of my own. "You're right, of course. I shouldn't keep you from them. If that's what you really want right now-"
"It is. I only ask to see the descendants of my grandchildren's grandchildren. But I'll come back when we return to San Francisco, that's a promise." Ja-Kal nods and I enter the drainpipe without another word. However, when I reach the end of it, I inwardly hiss, I did not like that look that Rath had on his face, a look that promised evil. Dark evil.
***
"Mama, where were you?" Femima asks as she curls up next to me. I can only smile with my kitten back in my arms.
"Somewhere, dear. I was worried for a while that I'd be stuck there for a long time, but I came back." I tell here.
"And we're all glad you did, Mom!" Azhdean slips under my arm for attention, grinning, always looking like Alonzo.
"Yes, we all thought we'd lose you, Cassie." Alonzo rubs his face against mine and I simply purr.
The sound of wings flapping catches our attention and makes us look up. We see Maatsatisis, a friend of ours, she rescued Alonzo when he was hurt over a year ago. Being silhouetted by the moonlight only confirms it, because we can see the black Crow tattoo on her face.
"So, you found some new friends. Funny, one of them looks rather familiar in a way." Maatsatisis smiles, her teeth practically glowing.
"What do you mean by THAT?" That's Ahmes, Alonzo's son.
"One of the mummified women looks a lot like my mother. That whore who abandoned us because she wanted to keep her secret." Maatsatisis looks distracted for a moment before looking back up with glittering green-gray eyes. "Ah, well. We'll see. See you tomorrow, then?" And just like that, she is gone.
I can't help shuddering at her words. Then again, being abandoned as an infant, and resurrected as a Crow, I can't really say I entirely blame her. I only hope she does nothing rash.
As I cuddle with Alonzo and our kittens around us, I try to forget, and think about the Jellicle Ball, the one that our kittens will be in charge of and also the sole attendants of. As I begin to drift into sleep, I can only smile at the thought of what the future might bring, be it good or bad, I think things will turn out just right.
Authors' note: In case it wasn't mentioned before, Satyre belongs to Seshat, owner of the Necropolis.
Part 3
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