Familiar Travels

by Taki Drake

  Reeling in shock and the fractured hurt that goes with betrayal, TT only dimly heard the instructions that Lady Rosemary gave to Drew. As she heard what had been a beloved voice saying hateful and hurtful things, the fracture in her heart and mind grew larger and larger. She could feel the chilling of the Familiar bond as the Witch deliberately, cruelly, choked it off.

  For a while, it felt like her breath was being choked off too, but TT remembered some of the lessons that Dascha had her practice at the Trials and counted her inhalations and focused on the beat of her heart. Her pulse steadied a little bit, but it was not enough to block out the knowledge that her Witch had thrown her out of her rooms and that she had given Drew instructions to throw her in with the kenneled dogs.

  There would be no comfort for her aching body. There would not be a tasty meal and a warm bed. Instead, she was being put into a room with the large hunting hounds. Something that frightened her terribly.

  Did her Witch want her dead?

  Chapter 3 – Kenneled

  The next hour was one series of talks after another. Not only was TT thrown out of her room, but she was forbidden entry into the house. Instead of being treated with respect and kindness, the small cat was rudely grabbed by the back of the neck and handed off to one of the apprentice gardeners to deposit with the kennel master.

  TT knew that she could have fought back. She could’ve run away, or hidden. But her Witch would still find her. Even though the Lady Rosemary denied the Familiar bond, it was still there, lurking at the back of TT’s mind. Until the death of one of them caused them to part, that connection would be there, unless a major spell was worked to remove it.

  It was as if these horrible things were happening to somebody else. TT had retreated behind a wall in her mind so that she could observe what was going on, but the emotions that hammered at the shell around her could not get to her. The cat didn’t think she could bear to actually feel the sense of betrayal and the hurt anymore. If she was supposed to focus on breathing, then the crushing pressure against her spirit and splintering of her mind was going to have to be held at bay.

  When the gardener had carried her into the kennel, the huge hounds there had barked and bayed. In the enclosed building, the sound was so large and loud that it frightened her terribly, intimidating her by the lethal force promised in the aggressive voices of the big dogs.

  Underlying it, there were the sharper yips of the ratters and other vermin catchers. These small and agile dogs were even more dangerous than the larger canines. More stubborn than the big dogs and far speedier, they were a bigger danger than the big ones to any cat.

  Either way, TT knew she was in trouble. Unless there was someplace she could climb and hide, her life in the kennel would be very short.

  Even in the middle of her angst, the Persian cat had a flash of sympathy for the young gardener boy. Apparently, he was frightened of the dogs too because the shaking in his limbs rattled the cat around enough that she was aware of the depth of his terror. Even in her own numb state, TT was aware of a splash of sympathy for him. She thought to herself, I am not sure why I’m feeling sorry for him because he can get out of here. I probably should reserve that for myself, but Dascha taught me better.

  “What you have there, boy? And what are you doing in my kennel?!” demanded the kennel master. A gruff older man, he was still nice-looking as humans went, even at his early 60s. While many masters of the hounds had scars that proclaimed their occupation, this one had flawless skin and took care to maintain that situation. Right now he was staring at the boy who held the white cat out by the scruff of the neck on a trembling arm.

  “It’s the old Familiar, sir,” shakily said the boy, “I was told to bring her here and that she had to stay in the kennel.”

  TT heard a slight lessening of the irritability in the man’s voice as he asked, “Why would you be bringing me the Witch’s Familiar?”

  “I don’t know, sir, but the ladies maid, Drew, told me what had to happen and that this cat was no longer allowed in the house.”

  Cradling his big hands around TT’s limp body, the hound master murmured in a very quiet voice, “Here now, little one. Let me see what’s going on with you.”

  Holding her securely, the man who smelled like dogs moved gentle hands over TT’s body, checking her limbs and pausing when he came to the wound in her side. Uttering a quiet sigh, he said, “The situation is now becoming clear.”

  Looking up, the hound master saw that the gardener boy was still standing there. “I’ve got the cat now, young man. You can go back and report to your boss and get back to gardening. I will deal with the Witch’s Familiar from now on.”

  “But, sir, I heard Drew telling another one of the servants that the Witch’s Familiar was dead. This can’t be the Familiar if the Familiar’s dead.”

  Through the dense gray fog that rose all around her and stole her sight and breath, TT heard the hound master say to the boy, “Then I will deal with this small cat.”

  Watching the boy as he quickly escaped from the kennel, the hound master turned to his loud chorus of canines and made a strange little whistle. Instantaneously, all of the dogs stopped making noise. Holding the cat now securely in his arms, the hound master set her on the ground and called one of the dogs over to him.

  “Adelphia, come.”

  A huge deerhound bitch immediately came to the hound master’s side. TT would’ve been shaking if she had any coherent thought at that moment. Instead, the realization that her Witch was saying that she was dead had stolen the last energy from her body. Her mind had shattered at those hateful words. The exhaustion in her body was so deep that she could never remember feeling this badly before. Depleted and in shock, the white Familiar was without an anchor.

  A head the size of TT’s body carefully sniffed her from end to end. The whole while, the hound master was crooning to the huge dog, “That’s it, my beauty. Check this little one out. She’s been hurt and hurt badly if I am not mistaken. First with whatever did these horrible wounds on her side. And then, I think her heart is broken.”

  The dog seemed to be talking back to the human, although TT knew that was impossible. Dimly through her evaporating grip on consciousness, the little white Familiar heard vague discussions and partial sentences. None of it made any sense to her right now. Nothing made sense. Her world had been torn apart, and as braced for it as she had been, there was no way for her to have predicted the pain that would come with her Witch’s rejection.

  <<<>>>

  Princess Tamora Titania, Princess TT, now TT. How the overly prideful could fall. Emerging from the exhausted abyss into which the accumulated shock had thrown her, TT had a moment of clarity. Was this balance for earlier hubris? Was this some sort of cosmic payback for an attitude on her part that might have looked down on others? She wasn’t sure if there really was some great being keeping track. She supposed it didn’t really matter.

  The small cat was slowly waking up. TT could feel the echoed pain in her bones, and the ache that radiated through her chest every time she tried to breathe. Somehow, yesterday her injured side had been mistreated, and it was certainly telling her about it today. Oh, she longed for the comfort of the healers at the Trials. They could numb the pain and make her feel just enough better that she could move around without hurting herself.

  Instead, every step toward full consciousness was paid for by the acceptance of another incremental burden of pain. Several times, TT lost her determination and slid back into the comfortable dark where nothing hurt and where she could pretend that when she woke up everything would be fine. But then some part of her would push through her resistance and urge her to wake up again. The Persian knew that she should be acting rather than reacting, but the trip to full awareness was almost more than she could manage.

  This time, she got closer to the edge of that shadowed, clinging fog. Hearing her name, she pushed her way past the threshold of sleep into full consciousness. The first thing that she noti
ced was that her body was warm. There was prickly straw poking her underneath, but she was no longer chilled. TT could tell that her fur has been cleaned even though it had traces that smelled of dog.

  Normally, the fastidious cat would have thoroughly objected to a perfume that was so redolent of questionable foods. However, the relief of being clean and of being warm was so great that TT could not muster the energy for any outrage.

  Straddling the brink of true consciousness, TT luxuriated just for a moment in the feel of warmth. It was just a momentary easement of the coldness that she knew would surround her when she fully awoke. That icy, amputated pain was the frigid wind of an unkind spirit even more than the temperature.

  The cat was conscious of a dull thudding sound that somehow was comforting. It took her a moment to realize it was the beating of another heart. The beat was strong and regular. It formed the foundation of an even cadence underneath the voices that rose and fell around her. Buoyed by that beat, the voices suddenly started to make sense.

  “… poor thing. To be injured and then to have that sort of shock is terrible, Lori. I’m surprised that she was still alive when they dumped her out here on me.”

  A different voice, sounding like an older female, answered the male voice that TT now realized was the hound master. It had been confusing because had he sounded so different when he had been talking to the gardener’s boy.

  “Norbert, you know as well as I do, that there probably was another reason for that, something delivered.”

  “Shush! Lori if anybody heard you, you wouldn’t last long.”

  “I know that. If I didn’t feel a sense of obligation to her ladyship’s parents, I would have been long gone. And I know, if I talk to anybody else, I’m probably not long for this earth.”

  There was a pause, and TT strained to hear more words. Finally, the woman started to talk again, “I am not sure how many more of these poor animals I can see sacrificed like this. It just breaks my heart. They are such beautiful cats, and then they come here and adore her. Each one of them is only here for a brief time, and then they slowly wither away. At some point, they are just gone. A brief while later, we have a new happy little cat that is so full of life and energy. The cycle just keeps repeating.”

  “That is why I stay with my dogs. They are only good for window dressing right now. The late Lord was a good hunter, and the dogs were his pride and joy. The stables and his hounds were much of his life. But when he and his lady wife died, that all changed. I know that we are only here because all aristocratic houses have hounds and stables. However, Willis, the stable master, and I have tried to make contingency plans. One day, we and our animals are going to be too much trouble, and we want to be able to at least save some of them.”

  The man’s voice sounded sad, and TT wanted to comfort him. He had been rough but kind to her, and she savored every drop of kindness that was coming her way. Where once she would’ve disdained the prickly bed and the strong smell of dog, now the kindness of the man and the comfort of the warmth and protection that the dog offered made her eyes sting with gratitude.

  An unexpected, rusty-sounding fragile purr worked its way up through TT’s chest and resonated through her body. In the relative quiet of the area, even that faint sound could be heard.

  The woman exclaimed, “My goodness! It sounds like she’s waking up. Such a sweet thing. Norbert, you keep her safe, please. When she wakes up the rest of the way, here’s some leftover fish. I will bring more if I can, but I know that it’s hard for cats to go from one diet to another. The food that you feed those big hulking, drooling monsters of yours would be hard for such a little cat’s stomach immediately. Give her some of this when she can eat.”

  The man laughed, and said, “Your heart is as big as your tush, Lori. Which is saying a lot! Thanks from the kitty, who I’m sure would be very appreciative.”

  “That’s why I’m leaving now. The little one should not know that it’s me, or God forbid she might be accidentally friendly to me in front of others. That would be dangerous for both of us.”

  The hound master’s voice suddenly was serious, “Lori, please be careful yourself. Things are getting worse, and I worry about you all the time.”

  “You be careful too, Norbert. We’ve had too many decades of being friends for me to want to go to your funeral, or worse, just have you disappear.” The woman’s voice was very sad, and once again TT was surprised by a wave of sympathy.

  The little Persian could hear rustling as the woman prepared to leave. TT could also smell the wonderful odor of fish, and her stomach let out a small gurgle.

  “Norbert, if you have any way of trying to prevent anybody other than you or me from feeding the cat, I think it would be a good idea.”

  “What you mean? I always prepare the dogs’ food. Comes from the days where the noble house hound masters tried to poison each other’s packs or drug them.”

  With all humor leached out of her voice, the old woman said, “If you can, make sure that the cat takes nothing from her mistress or any of her handmaidens. Nothing to eat, nothing to wear.”

  “I will do what I can,” responded the man in equally serious voice.

  TT had a sudden blinding flash on what they meant. Why would someone want to harm her? That didn’t make any sense! Just that little bit of confusion and the echoes of emotion reached up from the depths of the cat’s consciousness to slam her with another body blow. Thrown from her precarious journey to consciousness again, TT fell into the depths of the black abyss. As she fell into the fuzzy state of non-feeling, the small cat had one last thought. This meant that just for a few moments she could avoid dealing with the heartbreak that was her life.

  Chapter 4 – Beware of Gifts

  The next time that TT awoke it was to the sound of whimpering little puppies as they nursed, interspersing sucking and little grunting sounds. Opening her eyes past the crust that had formed while she slept, the automatic reflexes of a Persian kicked in, and TT found herself quickly scrubbing her face. The familiar motion of licking her paw and rubbing it across her eyes gave her a short flash of normality. That ended when she opened her eyes fully to see the filtered sunlight in the kennel.

  She was in what looked like a whelping area. There were two dogs a few yards away from her, both nursing puppies of various ages. One of them kept a wary eye on the cat as she cleaned her very tiny puppies. The other totally ignored her.

  TT realized that her back was still warm and that the deep comforting thud of a heartbeat was still there. Craning her neck slightly and suppressing a mew of pain when her stiffened body protested, TT saw that she was nestled against the large frame of the older female dog that she had seen when the gardener’s boy had handed her over to the hound master. Straining her memory, the cat remembered the dog’s name, Adelphia.

  For a moment, TT just studied the huge canine. The animal was immense in size and extremely fierce looking. The cat suspected that the nuances of nonverbal communications were very different between cats and dogs. Where she could read another cat by their posture and the position and control of their tail, she certainly could not do that with dogs.

  The Persian gingerly straightened up, coming to a sitting position but still nestled against the barrel of the female dog. Her motion drew the attention of the two other mother dogs. While one of them, a small terrier-type with black eyes and a gray and black coat simply looked at her, the other dog acted more protectively. Even though she did not stop in nursing her puppies, her hackles rose, and her lips pulled back from her teeth in a frightening snarl.

  In her life before the Familiar Trials, TT would have been terrified. But that was before her world had gotten a rude readjustment. Now, she calmly looked back at the dog and thought as clearly as she could toward the animal, << Peace, mother. I intend no harm to your puppies. >>

  The nursing bitch stared deeply into the cat’s eyes for a moment. Apparently seeing something that satisfied her, the mother dog curled over her puppie
s and resumed her blissful contemplation of her babies.

  TT had an unexpected pang of emotion slide through her. She could not remember having a parent look at her with that peaceful look or even the feel of the protective body arch curled around her. Why couldn’t she remember? Her memories of many other things from when she was a kitten were very clear. The light as her eyes opened the first time, the feel of her brothers’soft fur under her paws. But nothing about a mother’s care.

  A rumbling background noise started to vibrate TT’s back. Momentarily, she was concerned, thinking something had happened to the building, but then quickly realized that the dog that was cradling her, much like the mother dogs were cradling their puppies, had started to growl. Dragging her body to a more upright position, TT turned her head toward the door of the kennel. Whatever was coming, she wanted to face it squarely, not cower before it.

  Adelphia stood up and moved away from TT. Positioning herself with the other large female dog, the immense hound laid flat on the ground and stared at the cat. Slowly and obviously, her right eyelid closed briefly and opened in an unmistakable wink. A thready, weak and unused mental voice pinged on the surface of TT’s consciousness. << I think it is the evil one that lives in the big house. There is no resisting her so we will pretend to be angry at you. You can pretend to be frightened. If she thinks you are at risk, she may enjoy the situation and leave you alone. I am worried that if we show that we are caring for you that she will do other damage. >>

  TT was stunned to the point that she had no response. The whole time she had been with her Witch, she could not have thought about anything like this happening. How could anyone fear or hate her Witch? Shaking her head slightly in denial, the white cat could tell by the lessened Familiar bond that she was about to get a visit from the person that she loved the most.