Mummies Alive! meets Cats
Part 3: Let your memory
lead you
Oh, no. For gods' sakes, I don't want this dream, the same dream that I've had since I was brought to life in this modern, insane world. The dream is really inherited memory, of the illict birth of myself and my brother, inherited memory, because we are Taltos, we remember everything.
I remember all the last things of my mother and father's bloodlines merging. Touches, meant to incite the urge to mate and breed, scents, vile ones of uncleanness, dark sins and darker lusts, sights, of things that make me sick, because I can't even begin to imagine them, sounds, of lustful breeding urges brought forth, and tastes, things that make my own stomach twist and turn by the second.
Turning over on my bed, I reach for the trash can next to the nightstand, and am invariably sick. After five miserable minutes of retching and dry-retching, I finally turn on my back again. Now I understand why Samau never sleeps, even if a Crow doesn't need to to begin with.
"Maat?" I hear a voice which, for a human, would be slightly lower than the average voice of a man, IF it were human, which it isn't. Turning over slightly, I see a familiar black-and-white cat, with a black patch on the right corner of his mouth and over his left eye. One of my friends.
"Gods, Alonzo. You have no idea how good it is to see your black-and-white face again, my friend." I say as I reach out and pet him gently on the head.
"You always say that. The same dream?" Alonzo asks in his typical feline way.
"The same dream that's haunted me for almost a hundred years, m friend." I smile at him as I rise up from the bed. "But, the real world is always so much better, and it doesn't hold anything as truly unpleasant as that."
Following me out of my room and into the 'closet' room, Alonzo has a thoughtful look on his feline face. "You might not want to come back to the Junkyard. There are some humans we'll be having over as guests for a few days." I turn and smile at him.
"My Jellicle friend, I wonder how you and Munkustrap talked Old Deuteronomy into *that*." Finally pulling my shirt down, and tucking it under my belt with the skull-shaped buckle. "Anyhow, I only wish to keep Macavity off of what my brother and I consider our turf. You have nothing against that, since the territory we take care of is neither Jellicle nor stray territory." Looking down the hall, I call to my brother. "Samau, Jared and I are going on patrol, I'll see you later." My only answer is a muffled shout. I smile.
On the roof, Alonzo sits next to me as I test the air above London.
"You're sure you really want to go back to the Junkyard?" Alonzo asks me one last time. I grin this time.
"Certainly. Besides, life's been static up until now. I need a little change." I wave an arm to my Crow guide, and Jared flys off ahead of me. This is a promising night indeed.
***
I sit up on Pouncival's usual perch in the Junkyard, watching the others below. I don't really have much to do at the moment.
I think back to when Mystoflare and I left the house. Isabelle, our human, has named us, respectively, Kismet and Greebo. I always wonder what kind of crazy things are inspired by her Discworld books. I know that's where I got my first Name from.
Looking down into the clearing, I can't help but watch Mystoflare dance. While she's entirely white except for her left forepaw, colored black, like Mistoffelees', she's every bit as beautiful as her mother, Victoria. She's not the only one who looks like someone of the same gender in her family. Calica looks almost exactly like her mother, Cassandra, while her half-sister, Femima, looks like a younger version of Cassandra's mother, Exotica. Then again, Mystoflare's oldest brother, Alepho, is a Misto look-alike in a number of ways.
Hearing the sound of fur swishing against metal, I turn and see Femima, ever-grinning, with something mysterious always gleaming from her dark blue eyes. She's a lot like her mother, that's for sure.
"So. Did you tell her yet?" Femi asks, looking down into the clearing where Mystoflare is dancing still.
I shake my head. "I don't know if she feels the same way about me, and until I do, I don't want our friendship to change. Besides, I'm sure I can always find another mate." But I know I'm just lying to myself, something that gets me into as much trouble as Dad.
"A lot of queens certainly like getting attention from you, that's for sure. In fact, here comes some of your fanclub now." Femima grins and points to the other side of the clearing, where Calica, Sparkles, Joari and Pearl are arriving. Oh, good Heaviside, no! I mean, sure, they're my relatives, but it can irritating when they refuse to leave you alone most of the time.
"Um, if they ask where I am, tell them I just went home." I tell Femima as I slide down the tunnel hidden in the junkpile.
"They'll know you're still here, you never go home without Misty." She yells down the tunnel.
"Tell them that anyways!" I shout without looking back. Some people might argue that being an attractive tom is a nice thing to be in life, but I can tell you from personal experience, it's absolutely not a gift of the Everlasting Cat!
***
"You do realize, babe, that if Macavity's around, he and his new cronies will see you, and probably try to kill the both of us?" Jared says to me as I watch the quiet, empty streets below.
"For the third time tonight, Jared, don't call me 'babe'. And they can't get you so long as you say out of sight." I tell him.
"Sure, Maat. Whatever you say. 'Out of sight, out of mind', is that it, then?" Jared preens his feathers and looks at me with gleaming black eyes, vibrant with energy I've feel for decades.
"Jared, why don't you go back home and spend time with Benny? You know Alonzo won't pounce on you, since he and the Big Boys left earlier to go rat-hunting around town, and Samau's baby-sitting the neighbor's kids, they like the two of you. So go away, and I'll call if I need any help, all right?" I tell him.
"Sure, babe. Do I take care of you or what?" Jared rubs his beak against my cheek once before taking off. He's a jerk sometimes, but he's always stuck by me when I needed him, and sometimes when I didn't, but all the same...
Hmm, interesting. Black hair a bit past her shoulders, looks a lot like a mane, dark brown eyes, dark tan skin, a little over sixteen, if I'm any judge. Apparently a visitor to this part of the world...
And heading straight for trouble. Macavity and his henchCat cronies, along with a man in purple insectoid armor, and a chimerical creature I recognize as the Egyptian Devourer of Souls, Ammut. Well, it seems I'm in for more than I bargained for, thankfully.
Jumping in closer to listen, I can hear everything perfectly as things process.
"MACAVITY!" shouts the girl. She'd only know his name if she were able to understand the Jellicles, so I can guess how that might have happened. "When did you and Scarab join forces?" she asks.
"That would be my doing, young one, and I thank you for asking." I remember him, Sadat Khefu el-Saqqara, Femima's twin brother, Cassandra's half-human son, and an almost exact carbon copy of his maternal grandfather, Admetus. He's been working for Macavity for almost as long as I've been in this world.
"Well, maybe we could get rid of a few Mummies and Jellicles if we used her as bait, eh, Scarab?" Macavity turns to the man in the purple armor. Jared tells me all I need to know about him in a split-second. Then, I also note the look on Macavity's face, one that reminds me why he's called 'a monster of depravity'.
"NO!" I screech before leaping down from my perch. Whipping out my knife, I slash at several rats, and three fall on the first stroke, the rest of them have the sense to run, even the felines. Turning to Macavity and his remaining allies, I hold my knife up vertically next to my face, and I can feel the familiar yellow glow in my face.
"Listen, Mac, I don't give a hoot either way about who your new cronies are, but you just made a big mistake trying to attack this girl on our turf. So, I'm giving you a choice that I didn't give you before, either leave now of your own will and avoid having a new addition to your collection of scars, or I'll rip the fur off your tail and roast your furry behind over an open fire before tying you in a bag attached to a brick and throwing you into the Thames. Understood?" I tell him.
"For now, yes. Come, Scarab, we'll get to carry out our plans soon enough." Macavity says in his typically enigmatic tone of voice. Unfortunately, he sounds a lot like Plato, and I begin to realize why only Etcetera likes Plato at all.
Throwing down the knife onto the rat corpses, I can't say I'm very fond of iron and silver alloys anyhow, I turn to the young woman who was almost attacked and smile. "Don't worry. Any enemy of Macavity's is a friend of mine, I assure you." I tell her.
"Um, thank you?" she says timidly. Well, I can't here for being scared of me, I know that much.
"You're very welcome. I'm Maatsatisis. And you are...?" I prompt her.
"Cassandra. I'm, um, staying with some friends at the moment. We're not from around here." She bites her lip and I can see her the pupils of her eyes slowing shrinking back to normal size, Taltos notice subtle things like this.
"Apparently. You lack the English accent, and you're certainly not Cockney." Looking around, I hear Jared's high voice shouting a warning only I can understand. "Ah. Come then. It's not safe to be alone in these streets with sorcerers and feline crime lords about, is it?" I ask, extending a hand.
Cassandra accepts it, and I leap up to the roof of the building, carrying her as though she weighs less than a feather, which, as far as I'm concerned, is very much the case.
***
"So, in other words, we can keep the humans here tomorrow night?" I ask Old Deuteronomy, or, rather, grandfather.
"Yes, it might be interesting and informative for them, and an honor, if they accept it. Remember that most of the truly unique information won't be given away, even if they tried to get it from us." Grandfather says.
Oh, great. Now the humans will be trying to learn everything about us, humans are always a lot more curious than Cats, and I don't like thinking about what Rath might do if he learns all of our third Names. Call it a hunch, but for some reason, I just don't trust him at all, not to mention that Aunt Tantomile, she's Demeter and Bombalurina's younger sister, has been keeping her daughter, Crysalis, away from Rath whenever possible.
"Father, are you sure that's wise?" Father asks Grandfather. "I mean, how do we know that they won't tell the rest of the world about us?"
"I don't think they will." says a familiar female voice from above. Looking up, we all three see a human female, with dark tan skin, a black crow tattoo on her face, and another woman with her.
"Maat?" I ask hesitantly. I always have to be careful, there are sometimes when she acts insane, but that's normal for a Crow.
"I trust she's yours?" Maatsatisis asks, pulling the girl at her side to her feet. Then, we all see that the 'girl' is the human Cassie. And she looks like anyone else that Maat's ever saved in London, anyone who's lived because she managed to save them in time.
About then, some of the other Mummies, and Jellicles, to add to my misery, approach, and I naturally hide behind Old Deuteronomy and Munkustrap to avoid being chased by kitten queens again.
"Friend of the tribe, I presume?" Presley asks. Munkustrap and Maatsatisis both nod in unison.
Draven, Rath's son and Nyx's older brother, looks up at Maat and his violet-green eyes go big in surprise. "A Crow! A female Crow! In London?" he says in sheer shock.
Maatsatisis smiles. "Yes, a female Crow, almost been around for a full century, my friend. And cousin."
"You're also a Taltos?" Draven asks in some confusion.
"Taltos, Crow, Guardian, all of those and more. I 'remember' your father, for example, and I learned that you were sorcelled from your mother to save your life, though the same couldn't be said of your younger sister." Maat points her chin at Nyx, standing silently next to him.
"You're related to Rath, then?" Draven asks the female Crow.
"In a way, yes."
Then, Nefer-Tina comes in, with Ja-Kal, Samuel, and Apachetress. I slip into the hiding place next to the tire, as do Mystoflare, Femima, Coricopat and Tantomile. We know what's coming, and we don't want to get caught in the crossfire needlessly.
***
I look at the second-shortest mummified woman among them. Her! It's her! My mother, the whore who birthed us and seperated me from my twin, leaving me to die by hunger and thrist while floating down the Nile River! That woman is like the Whore of Babylon!
"You!" I shout as I see her, the short woman with the bear-like cat amulet and the gray eyes like polished ash. "Slut, tramp, trollop, whore! Guilty of birthing offspring, then abandoning them like mere objects in your possession!"
Jumping from my perch to the ground, I tackle her to the ground and try to get my hands around her neck. She has one hand pushing my wrist away, and one hand on my neck, and I can feel her foot probing for a spot on my stomach. Forcing my own leg up, I hit her in the torso, forcing the air out of her, then I get both my hands around her neck and pull her up so I am looking at her face to face, and I again feel the yellow glow on my face.
"Tell me, what does it feel like to know that the past has finally caught up with you? You didn't think I'd find you and cause you such trouble in the future, did you?" I say to her, my heart racing like light, and my muscles tense.
"Let me go! I don't know what you're talking about!" she says, struggling in my grip.
"Don't you? Mother?" I say just before I throw her back to the ground, and I notice the surprised faces of the others around her.
"Mother?" says one man, a mummified man with eyes the color of sapphire, and a rather humorous expression.
"Didn't know she made love to a man and bore a son and daughter, did you?" I pull my lips back in a grin. "Didn't she tell you that? She abandoned me and my brother three months after we were born so she could keep her secret and remain a charioteer."
For a moment, none of them, human or Jellicle, try to speak at all. Then, one man, with eyes the color of emeralds, a five-inch tall hat, thin body and a face like a sculpture, comes forward.
"If she is your mother, who is your father?" he asks. He also seems angry, as if he considers Nefer-Tina his mate, or at least, his concubine, the latter seems more likely.
"My father was your brother, Rath, a man named Daker, who discovered that Nefer-Tina was a woman, snuck into her quarters one night and spent hours making love to her. My brother and I are the offspring of this union, cursed by illict births, then as Taltos, and now both as Crows." Rath seems surprised that I knew so much about him and his family. I turn away, not wanting to look at Mother as she turns and stands up.
"Nefer-Tina?" A girl, living, with black hair to her shoulder blades, with a handful covering one eye, and green eyes like emeralds, probably Rath's daughter, asks timidly. "Is...is this really true?"
"Yes, did you really make love to Rath's brother, and then conceived a son and daughter you then abandoned?" Cassandra asks. The look on her face tells me she doesn't want to believe this unless it is absolutely true. How sad for her.
Mother then covers her face, and you can hear her breathing fast, she's crying. Taking her hands away from her face, she looks at her friends with tearing eyes, then looks down and nods slowly.
"Yes." she whispers very quietly. "Yes, it's true. Daker came to me one night, after the race I won, we spend hours making love, and a few months later, a doctor told me I was pregnant. My babies were worn high, so I didn't look like I was pregnant, and then I had to get rid of them to remain a charioteer, I gave my son to a couple I didn't even know, and my daughter...." Nefer-Tina's cut off by me.
"Your daughter, you put into a basket and set her adrift down the Nile, hoping that she would either die of thrist and hunger, or that someone else would claim her as their own." I finish for her.
One mummified woman, the shortest, with a spider-head amulet and eyes that are fawn-colored, shakes her head. "I can't believe this. That's worst than anything any of you ever accused me of. I'm sorry, Nefer-Tina, I don't know you anymore." With that, the woman runs off into the Junkyard, followed closely by Gabriel and Persephone.
Rath's daughter also shakes her head. "I thought that if you and Rath came to ever care about each other, you'd care about the rest of us. If you'd just threw away your own children..." She runs off into the Junkyard, towards the entrance, and a girl, the tallest of the mummified women, with sapphire eyes, runs after her, only pausing to look at Mother and shake her head.
Cassandra's brown eyes are welling up with tears, some already streaming down her cheeks. "Nefer-Tina, you were my friend, I trusted that you'd almost always did the right thing. But abandoning your own twin children...." Cassandra begins sobbing and runs away, with Mystoflare, Michael and several other Jellicles, old and new, following her.
The sapphire-eyed man shakes his head, but tries to reach out to Mother. "Nefer-Tina, why didn't you ever tell us...?"
"Do you think you would have trusted me if I told you I abandoned my kids, Ja-Kal? Do you?" Nefer-Tina practically screams at him. Turning, with tears welling her eyes again, she wraps her arms around herself. "Please, Ja-Kal, just leave me alone right now, will you?"
Ja-Kal turned away and left in the same direction that Rath's daughter and the sapphire-eyed girl when in. Shaking his head, he looks at me, then back at Mother, before turning away altogether and not looking back at all.
Rath, on the other hand, looks pretty dissed off, if I might say so. "I can't believe this, a friend of mine goes and...well, bears children to my brother." he says, shaking his head.
"And you're just so peeved because you didn't sire us instead?" I ask, standing back on the junkpile. "Then again, you wouldn't have cared either. You don't know how to respond to your illegitimate daughter, who was apparently abused in every possible way by her mother, what makes you think you and your manhood would have been able to handle having to raise more children?" I grin rather evilly this time, and Rath gets all huffy.
"My ability to father is not in question, young woman." Rath snorts and I laugh.
"Really? You think that even the most powerful minds can't sense that funny feeling in your belly whenever Nefer-Tina is around? I wonder if you even try to shield your thoughts, you're every bit as perverted and sick as my parents, but at least they might eventually admit it. You, on the other hand, won't even admit that your undead libido is going into overdrive whenever you see a woman. Frankly, I shudder to think what would happen if you ever lost control of that. Mark my words, Rath, that body of yours will get you into trouble very soon, if it hasn't already." I look at him, feeling the yellow glow on my face again, then, he vanishes from my sight entirely as I leave. I truly shudder to think of his future, so dark and bleak, it seems, what would be the light that illuminates it and chases away the demons of the past?
***
I look up at Cassie, the poor thing, she's practically crying her eyeballs out. And I would honestly do the same, in her place.
"Come on, Cassie, you can't just keep crying all the time, you know." Mystoflare rubs against her arms and is simply shoved away for all her troubles.
"Cassie, dear, you can't keep crying. You'll have to confront Nefer-Tina about this sooner or later, and tell her how badly it's gotten to you." Jellylorum tries to comfort her, but Cassie apparently hasn't really heard a lot.
"How can I even look at her now?" Cassie sobs, drenching Jellylorum's face in a matter of moments. "She was my friend, but finding out she has twins and abandoned them...." Cassie sniffles as Mistoffelees hands her a hankerchief. "If she abandoned her own children so she could remain a charioteer, what else would she do to keep her position?"
Femima, normally on the positive side of things, can only shake her brown and black head, and sighs. "We all know how much this hurts you, Cassie, but you can't just keep crying and sitting here. When you stop crying, you should talk to Nefer-Tina, she probably knows what everyone thinks of her now, and maybe she wants to be forgiven, even by Maatsatisis and Samau."
"They have names? And you know them?" Cassie asks, taking the scarf Misto's holding out to her and sniffling as she blows her nose and wipes her eyes.
All of us present nod. "We met them the first time when Maat found Alonzo and kept him with her until he healed, after a real nasty fight with Macavity. She even beat him, along with Gilbert, Griddlebone and that other Cat, calls himself Sadat Khefu el-Saqqara, or something close to that." Admetus tells her.
"Maybe Nefer-Tina didn't tell any of you that, but you should forgive her for making a bad call of judgment, any human would do that. So, maybe after you recover entirely, you and her could talk about it?" Mystoflare asks.
Cassie smiles, the kind of expression that I usually see on our humans before they decide to hug us to death, metaphorically speaking, of course.
Cassie picks up Mystoflare, with one arm holding her up, so her hindlegs are dangling, and with her other hand, begins petting her, closing her eyes and slightly leaning on her. Mystoflare, on the other hand, definitely does NOT look happy, making the rest of us laugh at the two of them.
"Maybe. I might, when I really get over it." Cassie sniffles, wiping her tears on Mystoflare's fur, and stretching out on the ground. Yawning, she says "Maybe after I get a little rest."
Jellylorum, Admetus, Femima, Jennyanydots, and myself, all curl up around Cassie, who is still holding a struggling Mystoflare in her arms. As Cassie closes her eyes, Jenny and Jelly both rub against her cheek before settling down around her belly. We might not be able to help her entirely, but we can help to alleviate her suffering.
***
After leaving the Junkyard, with Jared scouting ahead, I decided to make my way towards the West End Theatre to visit some friends of mine. Hanging upside down by a length of rope used by the window cleaners, I look into the window and grin to myself.
Two of my friends, Shesala-Merina and her twin brother, Aahotep-Djephariz, came from America about one and a half years ago, looking for a way to live here. I helped them to find a job, as singers, dancers and actors in a play that was remarkably accurate concerning the Jellicles, called, fittingly, 'CATS'.
Looking into the window, where Shesala is putting on street clothes and her brother is wiping the last of his Mistoffelees make-up from his face, I tap on the window loudly.
"Hey, you two going to let us in, or do me and Jared here sit outside shaking our tailfeathers off?" I shouted through the thin glass. Shesala-Merina opens the window for us.
"Maat! Good to see you again!" Shesala squeezes me so hard that if I still had lungs, she would have crushed them.
"Life been treating to the two of you pretty good?" I asked her. She smile and nods.
"Here and there, a lot of people came to see the play tonight." Aahotep says, his face dripping with water to get his make-up off.
"Funny that, tomorrow's the summer solstice, right? The Jellicle Ball's tomorrow." I tell them.
"Oh, we'd love to go, but we have to work tomorrow night. Maybe we can visit Nightshade and the rest of them later on?" Shesala asks.
"Anytime, you know Old Deuteronomy doesn't mind the two of you. Even if you would know too much for your own good if you were actually humans." I smile.
Turning to leave, Jared screeches for me to turn back to the twins, who are apparently expecting something.
"Jared says we ought to tell you something about some of the newer Jellicles. Some of them...well, they aren't entirely feline." Aahotep explains sheepishly. Then, he molds his face to actually resemble a lamb, very unusual.
"Like Ahmes, have you ever wondered why he's a better dancer than Calica, Azhdean and Joari combined?" Shesala asks and I can only shake my head.
"Ahmes was born from a human mother, she was a dancer, and he left her only child with terpsichorean powers, and he's not the only part-human one. Arcanic is Coricopat's son, he got his fuschia eyes and the enhancement of his magical powers from his mother, who is, biologically, the sister of your mother."
"In other words, Arcanic is my cousin, and his mother, my aunt?" I ask in some confusion. The twins nod as one.
"And if you ask Michael, he'll tell you that Tantomile's been keeping Crysalis away from the sorcerer of the group, he's the sire of Crysalis, that's why she's more powerful in magic than Arcanic, and also where she get her green eyes." Aahotep explains.
"But then that means that both Arcanic and Crysalis are my cousins! It also means that Crysalis is Nefer-Tina's niece, and Crysalis is Rath's daughter, and he already has a bastard son and daughter with your grandmother!" I point out to the twins. Jared informed me that Chontra is Draven and Nyx's mother, she is also Aahotep and Shesala's grandmother, maternal, I suppose.
"And..well, you know how Chontra is our grandmother, she's also the mother of the Rumpus Cat's daughter." Aahotep says slowly.
"Sekhandra?" I can't believe that that kitten queen is half-human, she looks every bit as feline as her aunt, Cassandra. "But then that means that Nyx and Draven are Sekhandra's older half-siblings, and you know how close-minded humans usually are. And I already figured out that Nightshade is Shade and Meccha's grandson, he acts the same way towards them that Michael acts towards Old Deuteronomy, from what I saw when they first arrived, so that makes him a werewolf, right?" I ask them.
"And part-Fay, Meccha was made a half-Fay in New York some years ago." Shesala adds. "And Pounciana and Arcanic are also half-siblings, they share the same mother."
"Wait, you're saying that Pounciana is also my cousin? How do you two know these things are true?" I ask them in confusion.
"We don't really know, but we do remember a two-fold vision of pink tourmaline, magic, golden chains and fuschia eyes. Anyhow, Nilalorum is also the only child of the ram guardian, the one you know to be Armon." Shesala begins again, then waits for me to say something.
"Which naturally explains why she's the strongest of the whole tribe, strong enough to break the Vicarage Wall once." I nod.
"Mironomy, as you know, is Plato's daughter, but also the daughter of a former love of the sapphire-eyed man Ja-Kal, her mother has the same lilac eyes as her. And Femima..." I interrupt Aahotep.
"Cassandra told me. Femima is her daughter, and Femima's fraternal twin brother works for Macavity. They're half-human and I did a bit of detective work on my own. There's a human in the Junkyard, Samuel Hawkes, who is the reincarnation of Padjet, also, coincidentally, Ja-Kal's firstborn and son, Padjet, as it turns out, is Femima and Sadat's father, making the two of them Ja-Kal's grandchildren." I nod thanks to them. "I'll tell them, both sides, if they want to hear it."
The twins wave good-bye to me as I jump back to the mass of London rooftops. The last thing I hear from them is "You can tell them, but they alone will choose whether or not they accept it as the truth, even if it really is."
***
A loud crash makes me wake up, and I don't like the reason that it I heard it. Creeping away from Cassie and the others, I begin moving towards the part of the Junkyard it came from.
As I move through the junkpiles, the others are either in their lairs, if they're strays, like Aunt Bombalurina and Mother, or back at the homes of their pets, if they've adopted humans, and I begin to hear voices from over a row of junkpiles about the average height of a human man.
"So, are you sure this will work, considering that they live here and all?" I recognize that voice as the voice of Griddlebone, the white persian queen nobody really likes, even her boss, Macavity.
"Yes, I am. I am a sorcerer, after all." That's a human voice, Ja-Kal and the other guardians told us that's Scarab, they say he's their enemy, but I'm never sure about who's who when it comes to humans.
"And are you sure this'll work, either one of you?" A strange ophidian voice, sounds like a human hissing. Wrinkling my nose, I can't place it, but I don't like it.
Climbing up to the top of the junkpile, making sure I don't make anything hit the ground, I finally pull myself up as I see Scarab, Griddlebone, Gilbert and Scarab in a circle. On the ground is a pentagram drawn into the dirt, and the air itself looks like it's glowing blue and purple and red.
I listen to them all chanting some strange incantation, much weirder than anything Mistoffelees or any of his kittens ever did, and I'm slowly forced to shed my eyes with my paws as red light becomes even brighter.
When it fades, and my vision clears, I look very carefully. It doesn't look like anything's changed, I guess their spell was a dud.
Wait, there IS something new. In the center of the pentagram is a..well, I suppose a creature, it's certainly not human, I can tell that right off the bat.
It looks a lot like a Cat, a part of me fleetingly comments that it's white, like Victoria, but with yellow feline eyes, and dressed in black, with some red and gold. Why does this make me think of the Mummies for some reason?
"Who summoned me here? Why am I here now?" Well, if it's a Cat, it's definitely a queen, from the sound of her voice. Only much higher than any of the Jellicles, it's almost painful to hear.
"We did, Bastet. We ask that you help us destroy those infernal Mummies and their new allies, called Jellicle Cats." Scarab says.
Something about the name rings a dangerous bell inside of me, but I don't know why. Then, it dawns on me. Bastet, the Egyptian Cat goddess. The Everlasting Cat?
"MUNKUSTRAP! We've got big trouble coming our way!" I shout as I run for my father's lair. I might be armed with certain psychic powers like the twins, Coricopat and Tantomile, but I just know when I might be over my head if I rush in. And I know when we're in VERY big trouble.
Note: While Ruka sends this, this is written by both Ruka and her friend Mystoflare, who can be reached, respectively, at shea14@hotmail.com and at mystoflare@hotmail.com
Part 4
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