There was only a week left for Jove and he had no progress in finding the kitten’s mother or the owners. He had gotten attached to the kitten even more and now he was dreading leaving him or even finding his true owners. The kitten which he had not even named yet for the fear of finding the owners and then having to give it up. He would sleep in Jove’s bed at his feet, and he would be awake watching Jove when morning came, as Jove opened his eyes.
They had become quite close; Jove would wake and brush his teeth and the kitten would sit on the toilet seat cover watching this interesting ritual. Then they would go down and get breakfast, some milk and cereal for Jove and some plain milk for the kitten. There was usually more to breakfast then just cereal, his mom would make him different things depending on the day, it ranged from an omelet to French toast, with some orange or apple juice if they had some. All in all, it was a great breakfast every morning.
The fact that Jove would be leaving in a week had not escaped either Jove or his parents, the day was coming fast. He started getting what he would take with him together he wanted to make sure he brought everything he needed or at least what he thought he would need for the trip and the stay at his uncles.
The day passed with little notice; the routine did not change except that Jove’s mother would get something ready for the kitten at every meal. The next day came and went and everything was the same. On the third day a sudden coldness came over Jove at nighttime in his sleep. And then he found himself in a place that was not home, he found himself in a cave and a light that seemed to be coming from him illuminated the place, he looked down and noticed that it was coming from the amulet he wore around his neck, “You better not go out on me again like last time.”
He continued walking and further into the cave it seemed, he saw a light coming from around a bend in the cave and then a shadow. He slowed down and looked around the corner, crouching down by a fire was a small creature, well not exactly small but not big either it seemed to be about four feet tall. It was covered in fur, suddenly it went tense and lifted its head into the air and sniffed. Then the fire went out and the only thing that illuminated the cave was Jove’s amulet, when he looked again the creature was not by where the fire had just gone out.
“How dare you come into my home uninvited.” The voice came from in front of Jove. Then there was recognition in the voice, “YOU! Not again, I told you before not to come into my realm how dare you! No one, but no one comes here into my realm without my permission, and now you invade my home. You are a very rude human, but what can be expected by one such as you. You humans are all the same, you think that you can go anywhere you wish. I am surprised that your species has not killed itself off.” The creature stopped his ranting for a moment than picked up again. “Now how did you get in here? Only I know the way in. Only me, have you been spying on me? That must be it. I should have let the creatures in the forest eat you last time. Now tell me how you got in here before I feed you to the creatures out there.” He awaited a response that Jove did not really have.
“Well, I can’t really say. I was in my bed asleep and suddenly, I was here. How I ended up here is as much a mystery to me as it is to you.” And that was the honest true. “Now if you don’t mind can you turn the fire back on?” Jove wanted light because his amulet only provided a small amount of light.
“How dare you demand such a thing from me. I am not your servant, who do you think you are. Besides that, little stone should be just fine for you. Now tell me young human about how is it that you can make that stone give off light? I only know few humans who can do that, and you do not look like one of those.”
What was he talking about? One of what? What kind of human was able to light his amulet? Jove had no clue as to what or how the amulet worked, “I don’t know, it just happened.”
“Now I get it, your dream walking again, I thought I warned you against that, it is very dangerous to do that if you don’t know what you are doing. You should really get some training and stop invading my home. I do not appreciate it and it is dangerous for one that is a novice to be dream walking you could end up in the wrong place and really get hurt. How you keep ending up here with me, I would really like to know. Now I suggest you wake before you can’t find your way back.” Jove heard the snap of fingers and the light of his amulet started to diminish.
“No. Not again!!!” The light blinked out and he found himself in darkness. Not this again Jove thought to himself this occurred every time he was in these dream states, what good was this thing his uncle had sent him if it was going to go out when he needed it. He found himself walking in the darkness yet again, as he moved forward, he hit something that made him wince and close his eyes “Ouch,” what had he hit?
He started feeling around after opening his eyes, what he felt was a table and as he moved his hands around, he felt a lamp shade. Jove knew where he was at the touch of that lamp shade, he was back in his room. How did he get back here from that cave? The number of questions that Jove had where piling up and he was not happy about that. All these unknowns disturbed him, he was the kind of person that liked to know what was going on so he could act on it, everything that was happening now left him unsure of what to decide, he hoped to God that his uncle could explain these things to him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two days passed since the dream walk with that strange little man or whatever he was, and Jove’s life would get turned upside down yet again. It started that morning of the second day he started to hear little whispers and he thought to himself I must surely be going mad. Throughout that day he heard the little whispers looked at Max, yes, he had named it, no way it was him. Though the whispers coming were cat like ‘I could really drink some milk right about now.’ and ‘I got an itch behind my ear that I just can’t reach.’ Surely these whispers where not coming from Max, cats did not talk. At least they did not talk to humans, they could probably talk to other cats, but not humans, this was crazy.
Those whispers kept intruding in on Jove’s thoughts throughout the day, at one point he decided to ask who was there, “Who is there? I can hear you.” But no one answered and the whispers kept on coming to Jove’s despair. “Oh, I give up. What is it that you want? And who are you?” But no one answered his questions, he called Max over to him, “Here boy.” The kitten jumped up on his lap and laid down and started to bathe itself as any other cat would do. And the whispers stopped for a bit after max went to sleep.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Jove decided to read one of his many books, after he tired of sitting and reading, he picked up Max and with that he heard a whisper again, ‘I was having the most wonderful dream, I was hunting a mouse and I had him cornered and I was about to go in for the kill and you woke me up.’ Jove was so surprised that he dropped Max on the bed, he like any cat landed on his paws and sat and looked at Jove, “What was that for?”
Jove did not know how to answer, it was well impossible, cats did not speak, and it would be simply crazy to start answering his cat, but what did he have to lose? He was after all in his room with no one else. And the kitten just sat there looking at the surprised expression on what he thought was his mother, he did not really recognize the expression, but it seemed strange. Jove started to talk to his cat. “You surprised me, that why I dropped you.”
The cat nodded his head once, “I see, well I would appreciate it if you were a bit more careful with me mother. For being a mother, you are a little strange with some of your methods but hey we can’t all be perfect.” The cat took the conversation in stride like if nothing had changed at all. Though Jove felt awkward having this conversation, or any conversation whatsoever with his cat.
“How is it that you can talk? Cats don’t talk.”
The cat twisted its head to the side and looked at his mother, “What do you mean we can’t talk? Then how do you explain the conversation we are having?”
To this Jove of course had no answer, “I don’t know, I just know that cats can’t talk. I have never had a conversation with one and I don’t know of anyone that has or that would admit to having a conversation with a cat.”
To him this was a funny thought, cats not being able to talk who had ever heard of such a foolish notion, “Well, I can talk just fine. I mean after all we are having this discussion are we not?” Jove could not argue with that logic, though it was still felt strange to be talking to his cat. This feeling of course would change over time.
“Well, if you would stop talking to yourself, I been hearing you whisper the whole day. I mean keep it down a bit, I’m not trying to be mean or anything, but I was thinking maybe I was going crazy.” Max gave his mother a sideways look and then nodded. “Good because I have some stuff that I need to work out, strange things have been happening, this talking with you being one of them.” Max had no idea what he was talking about he did not find it strange at all to be able to talk to his mother. Maybe he could help his mother figure it out.
“Maybe I can help you. I don’t know what is wrong, but we can talk about it and maybe I have an idea as to what the problem is.” Max was sure he could help his mother that is what he was here for to help and to be petted and fed and sleep, yes sleep was one of the best things he could do, but he did not do it all the time which was irritating sleep after all was essential to a cat.
“And how is it that you are going to help me? I don’t know if anyone can help me. Well, I do know of one person, but he won’t be here for at least another week.” And that was true his uncle was due soon he had said a month after his birthday, but it did not mean he would be right on time.
“Well then there’s the answer for you, if he is not coming for a time then we can go to him. Where does he live?” Max knew he had it right if they were to go to this person’s house problem solved.
“There is one problem I don’t know where he lives.”
Oh, great how where they going to fix this problem if he did not know where this person lived. “You should have said that before.” Max thought for a moment, and then one of those brilliant idea’s that he always had, came to him. “Well let’s ask the lady that feeds us, she will know. Mother aren’t I a smart cat?” Max loved being praised it was one of his favorite things next to being petted and sleeping and eating.
“Call me Jove not mother. That lady that feeds us is my mother.”
‘Jove,’ yes Max liked that name it was original his mother had a good name. “That is a good name, it is a good cat name, very well Jove let us ask grandmother. Yes, family members are best they know things that others would not. After all you are my mother so that would make your mother my grandmother.”
Jove laughed at this comment, “You do that.” His mother a grandmother to a cat, it was a funny thought, how many cats thought about their owners as their mothers and their owners’ mothers as grandmothers. Probably all of them but it did not really mater Jove had someone that could at least listen to his problems even if they could not fix them. “I doubt that my mom can help us, she does not know either. From what I understand he is a very secretive and does not send return addresses with mail he sent.” Jove pulled on a chain and brought out the jewel amulet his uncle had sent. He still had no clue what it was supposed to do other than being a flashlight, a very unreliable one at that.
“Ah yes the amulet, very powerful, it used to belong to a great magician many centuries ago my great, great, great, great grandfather knew him well. Or was it Great-Great-”
Jove’s eyes got huge, “Wait you know about this?”
“We cats have long memories and they get passed on from one to another I have memories of naps since my line started many happy moments spent sleeping. I can remember one such nap where my ancestor laid on this comfortable rock just soaking up the sun. Of course, only those of us that are the chosen elite get those memories and I of course am a chosen.” He seemed very proud of this, he did feel proud of this as he did of those naps that he took and the petting he got and the wonderful food his grandmother made. “Ooh I remember another nap that one of my ancestors took he was on this comfortable bed and there was this skylight on the ceiling and a ray of light was coming in at just the right angle. Oh, it was wonderful.” With this Max yawned and laid down within minutes he was asleep on the bed.
Jove just stared at his cat Max, there was no way he was going to give him up now. The fact that he knew something about the amulet intrigued Jove, finally some one that could tell him something. He would not wake Max, he looked like he was enjoying his nap. He would ask later what else he knew about the amulet his uncle had sent him. He left the room to get something to eat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A day passed and he had many stories from Max and his ancestor’s naps, he also knew more about the amulet, not that it helped him a lot. He knew that the owner of the amulet had been a good man and that he liked his cat a lot. That he was revered as a healer and that he was respected by all those that where around the surrounding villages close to his home. And feared by those that did not know him at all.
There were many stories about him turning people into toads or into birds of one kind of another. Some stories claimed that he was an evil sorcerer and that he would lay traps for those unwary enough to go near his dwelling and sacrifice them to his gods. And that he had secret treasures and princesses hidden away. Max laughed at this, the ridiculousness of it all, his ancestor would not have stayed with him until the end of his days.
The man was called John of the Winds, for his wind magic was the strongest magic he commanded. It was said that he could fly with the birds and sleep in the clouds. This was an exaggeration of his talents Max assured him, he could fly but it took to much of his energy. He could ride the wind currents when the need arose, which from Max’s accounts from his memories was only twice that such an emergency arose.
John of the Winds died a content man his cat followed him beyond death’s door, passing his memory to one of his worthy offspring. Max remembered this as if it was yesterday. The amulet disappeared from the memory of men, not many knew about it and those that did forgot about it the day John died. A piece of magic he had worked before his death to protect the powerful amulet that had been entrusted to him.
Some of stories Jove was sure it was made up, wizard, towers, princesses? What was that all about, was he stuck in some form of fantasy novel? This was not Middle Earth, and he was not going to save the world with some trinket that would slowly drive him crazy, well at least he hopped not, it did not work out so well for Frodo.