The striped Tom breathed out deeply. The sigh sounded shaky and frightened though he rather wanted it to sound cool and self-assured. His stomach was, as always, not cooperating, it turned in different directions while he thought of the things that we're behind the large door he was standing in front of. He breathed deeply again, even more shaking then before, and knocked on the big door. A guard opened the door, it was a strong and tall Tom who looked at him sternly. Mungojerrie carefully walked inside while he tried to ignore the guard's scary eyes. "Ah, Mungojerrie." The tall, red Tom sighed as the striped Tom entered the room. A white, furry Queen who sat on his boss's lap was signalled to leave. Macavity slapped the Queens butt when she moved her tail around his face. "What do you have?" Macavity asked irritated as he watched the white Queen leave. Mungojerrie emptied his sock but because of his shaking paws, almost everything fell off the table. When Mungojerrie started to put everything back on the table, the door flew roughly open. A brown spotted Tom came in, with a grumbling and struggling Queen in his arms. Mungojerrie couldn't see her very clear, but he noticed her beautiful coffee-brown eyes. They were full of frightening and tears. The poor Queen was wounded so Mungojerrie already knew what Macavity want to do to her. 'If he wants her as a worker he wouldn't have hurt her, that means... Poor Queen.' Mungojerrie thought and looked down sadly. "So this is the Queen you found?" Macavity asked smiling cheeky. "Yes, boss." The brown Tom answered while he tried to hold the Queen. "Alright, bring her to her cell." Macavity said and slapped the Queen's butt. Mungojerrie 's eyes followed the crying Queen while the Tom left. When her sad brown eyes crossed his, he quickly looked down, not wanting to feel even more terrible. "Where were we?" Macavity asked Jerrie, who suddenly looked up. "I showed you the stuff I've got." Mungojerrie answered a little hesitantly. Macavity nodded and checked the jewels. "Sir, may I ask something?" Mungojerrie asked carefully. "Of course." Macavity said as he placed the jewels with the others. "Why do you need that Queen?" Mungojerrie asked curious. "Well, Mungojerrie, I've send some of my catnappers on an assignment. They have to find a Queen for me and I choose the one I want to keep." Macavity answered. "You mean as a… Play-Thing?" Jerrie asked almost whispering. Macavity nodded a little laughing. "What are you going to do with the Queens you don't like?" Mungojerrie asked carefully. "I don't know, I think the Pollicles are kind of hungry." Macavity said with a horrible smile on his face. Mungojerrie gulped trying to swallow the anger in himself, those Queens didn't do anything to him and he takes them away from their family, friends and their tribe and then he kills them, like a life of someone else isn't important. "And what about the catnappers?" Mungojerrie asked further, hoping none of his friends were on the assignment. "I think I'm going to keep them, maybe I need a new Queen in a few weeks." Macavity answered and smiled more. Mungojerrie was disgusted but tried to hide it, what wasn't easy. "How many Queens you've got?" Mungo asked trying not to sound as worried as he was. "I don't know, four or something." Macavity answered nonchalant. Mungojerrie was even more disgusted of his Boss, taking away cats from their families and don't even care a little bit about them. Mungojerrie felt sorry for the Queens, but he had some experience with prisoners. If there's one thing you better can't do when you work for Macavity it's freeing a prisoner, especially when it's a Queen. Mungojerrie sighed sadly while he thought back at the beautiful and sad eyes from the Queen. He knew it wasn't fair against the other Queens, but he would do everything just to free her. Mungojerrie looked down and tried to hold his tears for his boss, everyone told him you can never show Macavity weakness, if you do, he might have some things for you in his mind. Macavity looked at him and understood his sadness. "Mungojerrie, you did a great job with some of the prisoners, so I want you to look after them. Ask the guard which Queens you have to take care of and you can get food for them by Unique." Macavity said, trying to help the Tom a little. "Alright boss." Jerrie said suddenly happy, bowed thankfully, grabbed his sock and walked outside the room, almost jumping happily.
After he dropped his sock at his room, Mungojerrie opened the door to the basement of the abandoned house Macavity found a few years ago. A guard stood right in front of him. It was a big and tall Tom with black fur. He had a few white spots on his muscled body and a squared and nice looking face. "Are you new?" Mungojerrie asked while looked at the Tom curious and the cat nodded. "Mungojerrie, right?" The Tom asked smiling. "Yea, but how do you know my name?" Mungo asked confused. "Well, I know a lot of names from thieves and catnappers." The cat answered smiling. "Alright… So what's your name?" Mungojerrie asked friendly. "My name is Scoundrel." The Tom answered, happy from Mungojerrie 's kindness. Mungojerrie understood his happiness, not a lot workers in this building were nice. Most of them were so hard trying not to look weak in Macavity 's eyes they started to get unkind and mean but Mungojerrie knew better. "Alright, Scoundrel, Macavity said I had to take care of the Queens he uses as a competition." Mungojerrie said a little sadly. "You do?" Scoundrel asked wide eyed and Jerrie nodded smiling. "Thank the Everlasting Cat!" Scoundrel said thankfully and led Jerrie to a cell. There were 4 Queens in it, one of them was the one Mungojerrie saw earlier. "Alright, whenever you need me just give a yell." Scoundrel said and let Jerrie inside. "Thanks." Jerrie said, waved at the Tom and Scoundrel closed the door. Mungojerrie looked at the 4 Queens, they were all scared to death. They were all pressed into a corner, and they all were wounded a little. One of them was clearly younger than the others. Mungojerrie thought she would be a kitten. The three others looked older, two of them looked a few months older than him and the last one a few months younger. "Just relax. I'm not here to hurt you." Jer tried to comfort them and carefully came closer. Once he saw they were more terrified, he carefully sat down, looking at them comforting. "Alright, I know you're scared but please tell me something about yourselves, I'm only here to help you." Jerrie said slowly and carefully. All of the Queens stayed where they were and looked at him full of fear. "Alright, I'll start." Mungo said smiling and pointed at himself. "I'm Mungojerrie." He said friendly. The brown Princess cocked her cute little head and looked at him like he had to tell more. "I work her since I was a kitten. I'm a burglar and a caretaker." He continued, smiling. 3 of the 4 Queens looked at him puzzled. "Caretaker, you're a caretaker? How much prisoners did you help?" The Queen he saw first, who didn't looked puzzled, asked quietly and a little curious. "Yea, not much, I think 4 Queens and 2 Toms." Mungojerrie answered smiling, but a little puzzled about her knowledge for Macavity 's workers. "What's a caretaker?" One of the oldest Queens asked the coffee-eyed Queen confused. "Someone who tries to get prisoners as comforted as he can." The Queen explained quietly. Mungojerrie looked up puzzled. He didn't know a Queen could know so much about Macavity and his workers. "Like us?" The younger Queen asked scared. "Yea, just like you." Mungojerrie said and smiled at her friendly. A red Queen came forward. "What is he going to do with us?" She asked pressing. Mungojerrie sighed sadly and the brown eyed Queen looked down, trying to hide her tears. "He's going to use you… He chooses one of you to stay." Mungojerrie answered sadly. "What will he do with the ones he doesn't choose?" The red Queen asked more pressing. Mungo sighed sadly again, looking at the coffee-brown eyed Queen for help. She smiled a little sadly at him and nodded approving. "He's going to do something I won't let him." Mungojerrie said reassuring. The Queens looked scared, except the brown eyed one. "I swear I won't let him." Mungo yelled and got up. "And how are you going to do that?" The Queen he saw at Macavity 's asked and crossed her arms. Mungojerrie looked at her puzzled. "Well, I don't know... But I'll only help you if you tell your names." Mungojerrie laughed. The Queens laughed a little, something what made Mungojerrie smile. The red Queen came forward. "I'm Bombalurina." She said smiling. Mungojerrie could see she was pretty, only she probably had a Tom. He could tell that because of her age, and how she acted. Another Queen came in front. She was black with gold and had sparkling blue eyes. "I'm Demeter, I'm Bombalurina 's sister." She said and glared at Bombalurina. The little brown with red Queen with livingly green eyes came jumping to him. "Hey! I'm Cherry!" She yelled happy. "Alright!" Mungo yelled also happy. The Queen he saw before stepped to them. She looked a lot like Mungojerrie although she was filthy and a bit wounded. "My name is Rumpleteazer." She said. She was pretty too, not as much as Bombalurina, but something about her made Mungojerrie curious about her. Mungojerrie smiled at the Queens. "Alright, where are you from?" He asked them curious. He always liked to hear stories about their tribes. "We're from the Jellicle tribe." Demeter said and looked at her sister. Mungojerrie nodded, he knew the tribe, Macavity hates them. "I'm- I'm from the tribe out of town, we don't have a name." Cherry said sadly. Rumpleteazer putted a paw on her shoulder because the little Queen sobbed a little, quietly. "Are you okay?" Jerrie asked worried. "Yes, it's just that I miss them." Cherry sobbed. "I understand." Mungo sighed. Rumpleteazer pulled Cherry into a tight and comforting hug. "But what about you?" Jerrie asked Rumpleteazer curiously. "Well, I just come off the streets." She answered simply while she comforted the Princess by humming a lullaby. Mungojerrie nodded understanding, although he didn't believed it. Mungojerrie watched Rumpleteazer comforting Cherry. He smiled widely when he listened to her beautiful lullaby, not noticing the two Queens who were giggling at the look he was giving Rumpleteazer. "How long do we have to stay?" Cherry asked Jerrie a still little crying, waking Mungojerrie up from his trance and Rumpleteazer stopped singing. "I don't know… I wish I did." Mungojerrie sighed sad and pulled her into a tight hug too. Rumpleteazer smiled widely and some kind of proudly at Mungojerrie and Cherry, who was feeling more comfortable because of the strong and protective arms from the older Tom, but the two sisters watched Mungojerrie puzzled. "What's up?" Jerrie asked while he pulled Cherry out of the hug and scratched her ear a little. "Nothing, I just thought workers for Macavity weren't nice and sensitive. But I think I was wrong." Bombalurina teased and smiled flirty to Jerrie. Demeter looked at her sister a little angry. "Well, Not everything is what it looks." Rumpleteazer said, kind of hurt while she walked to Mungojerrie who looked hurt too. "You can say that again." Bomba said and winked at Jerrie, who turned red. Rumpleteazer and Cherry started to giggle loudly while Mungojerrie 's face turned even more red. "What about Tugger?" Demeter asked angry. "He's probably missing you." Cherry giggled. "You know each other?" Jerrie asked puzzled making his blush disappear. "No, but we chatted a bit." Rumpleteazer explained still a little laughing. Scoundrel opened the cell smiling sadly. "Macavity wants to see you." He mumbled quietly. Mungojerrie nodded and turned back to the Queens. "I'll be back soon, please don't be too scared. Scoundrel and I are here whenever you need us, okay?" Mungojerrie asked worried about the Queens. Cherry nodded happy, Demeter nodded thankfully to the few months younger Tom, Bombalurina winked at him, what Mungojerrie ignored but instead he looked at Rumpleteazer who smiled proudly and touched about his worry. Mungojerrie smiled a little but then he turned back to Scoundrel. "Mungojerrie, he wants to see all of you." Scoundrel mumbled even more sad while he looked at the floor not wanting to see the frightened faces of the Queens. Bombalurina and Demeter started to rattle frightened while Rumpleteazer tried to calm Cherry down, who was shaking all over. "He won't do anything to any of you, I promise I'll protect you." Mungojerrie said while he hugged Cherry again, making her calm down a little. Bombalurina and Demeter grabbed one-another's paw tightly while Mungojerrie led all of them outside the cell.