Chapter 2
The princess had been very generous to these kittens now acting as her personal guard, and had three beds built to their odd height specifications of not even having reached two inches.
Timmy was suddenly glad she had been so nice, though, and that there were also covers embroidered with the same print as was on their uniforms, their print now, on them.
Somehow when you were lying awake in the middle of the night and a dark room, the very simple act of pulling the covers close to your nose and having them as a sort of shield felt more secure than if you'd had nothing, like Timmy would have had he just had a cat bed or something.
"Gonzalo..." he whispered once more, peering back out and turning to glance to his brother's bed across the room. He had figured out a while ago, though, that Gonzalo had fallen asleep. Timmy turned to look at the ceiling once more.
There was nothing to be afraid of, nothing was in the castle he told himself, Gilles was just insane or messing with them, as Gonzalo had said. Closing his eyes, Timmy tried to get back to sleep.
That's when he heard the loud bang, perhaps exactly what Gilles had heard before and spoken off. Timmy shot up in bed, "Gonzalo! Did you hear that!". The orange kitten just rolled over, muttering something yet not moving.
"Gonzalo!" Timmy called again, but his brother didn't move. Timmy sighed. Ok, odd noise in the middle of the night, whatever other terrible possibilities ran through his head, he knew his duty as a guard stated he should check that the princess was still alright.
With Gonzalo asleep, he guessed he was on his own in that. Giving a gulp, Timmy slid out of bed and set his paws on the floor, tip-toeing across the room. He eased open the small door to the princess' room and peered in. All seemed fine and nothing was out of place. The princess was snoozing and slightly snoring.
Timmy sighed, oddly both relieved and more confused now. He wondered if Perla had heard anything. Tip-toeing across the princess' room now, he eased open the small door to Perla's room.
"Perla..." he whispered. He found the same situation, though, his sister asleep. Maybe he had imagined it, Timmy was just thinking, when suddenly the thud sounded again, just outside Perla's door, it seemed.
Timmy jumped at the sound. He also wasn't sure, but he may have heard maniacal laughter! How was everyone sleeping through this?
Though he wanted to hide, he also just needed to see what this was. He rushed over to open the nearest door to the outside hall, Perla's. Thankfully his night vision all cats had enabled him to see without having to get a candle that might also alert his presence to whatever it was out here.
He was still hesitant to exactly leave the room, and instead tried to peer out as far as he could with his back feet still in Perla's room as his front feet gripped the door. This only half worked and after leaning so far, he lost his grip and went tumbling into the hallway.
Shaking himself, he stood and glanced about. Everything seemed normal and ordinary. Timmy sighed, "It was nothing" he told himself, "you just...".
A sudden sound, off to his right, a fluttering of some kind, suddenly drew Timmy's attention. Drawing his wooden sword he hadn't removed in his nervousness when going to sleep, he pointed it towards where the sound came from. The window at the far end of the hall was opened, something Timmy thought not very good, and a lone blue bird sat perched on the sill.
Timmy lowered his sword. "A...bird?". He gave a small laugh, "it was only a bird".
Putting his sword away, he gave a small smile to the creature, "Hey birdie...", Timmy walked forward, "Don't worry, I won't eat ya. We eat the princess' food. It's good, and there's often lots of desserts".
As he walked forward Timmy found himself rambling a bit due to his fear and then relief. "Did you scare Sir Gilles yesterday too birdie? Well, you probably didn't mean it I know, but you've caused a lot of trouble" he said, stretching one small paw out and hoping he could maybe get the bird to trust him enough to light on it.
The noise that did, finally, awaken Gonzalo, Princess Alessandra, and Perla, was that of Young Sir Timoteo Montenegro III's yells from out in the hallway.
"Timmy" Perla bolted over to her already opened door and out into the hallway. It was empty. Gonzalo darted out of his room next as well and the Princess appeared at the doorway to her room.
Quick as flash, Gonzalo darted about the hallway, doing a thorough examination. "No sign of him" he reported to Perla, flipping to land next to her. "But I doubt he would have just left without a good reason".
"Yeah, same here..." Perla examined the floor, and finally, the first concrete evidence of something bigger being behind all this was found, Timmy's sword lay in the middle of the floor, broken in half.
"D-Did he hit something with it, you think?" the princess asked.
"I don't know" Perla said, before standing, "but Princess, I suggest you get back inside your chambers until we return, and close both your door as well as our small ones. We shall be back once we figure out exactly what is in here and find our brother".
With a nod, the princess obliged, hoping nothing had happened to the little gray kitten.
"Come on, Gonzalo!", the words were barely out of Perla's mouth before she was darting down the hallway.
"Oh, I should have known..." she sighed. Going over the regret she now felt at having pushed aside Timmy's fears when there might now be something to them.
At the base of the stairway, Perla and Gonzalo found themselves back in the throne room and they scanned about.
"Perla! Here!" Gonzalo darted over to the big doors of the castle, the one's that lead to the bridge. Perla rushed after him. The doors being opened was a very bad sign, and she couldn't imagine Timmy would have foolishly darted out through them, since even he would know of the security breech that would cause.
If he had...then he must have been terribly frightened. But of what? Still she tried to remind herself that with his lacking attention span, Timmy's own imagination could sometimes over frighten him.
She and Gonzalo went through the doors and scanned about the grounds. "Timmy" Perla called.
"If you don't come out, I'm gonna use your hat you left behind as a trough to feed the horses in" Gonzalo called in teasing, trying to hide his own fear of both the unknown and for his brother behind it.
"Gonzalo, stop, you're not helping the situation" Perla resorted to slapping her brothers again as she hit his arm. She suddenly caught a slight sound, from over near a pile of hay in a wagon that had yet to be wheeled back to the stables. It sounded like sniffles.
She walked closer, Gonzalo right behind her. "Timmy..." she called, softer this time since they were right there.
"Careful, it could still be anything" Gonzalo said. Perla climbed up on the horse hitch of the wagon and over into the straw. Moving aside some, she soon uncovered the little gray kitten that they had been looking for.
She sighed, "Timmy...what are you doing out here?".
"I...I just wanted to see what it was doing there, it seemed like such a nice little birdie...but it wasn't!" Timmy semi-rambled, still not having noticed his sister.
"Timmy!" she touched his shoulder. The gray kitten jerked, glancing up and now noticing her.
"P-Perla..." he whispered. He suddenly launched forward and hugged her.
Perla glanced back to Gonzalo, as if seeking answers to their brother's strange behavior. Gonzalo had nothing in way of theory though, and just shrugged, looking just as lost as her.
Timmy didn't let up on his all but death grip of a hug on his sister, yet glanced up to scan the skies. "W-where'd it go..." he whispered.
"Where'd what go, Timmy?" Gonzalo climbed up into the wagon now, "What was it?". The gray kitten just shook his head, not saying anything else.
"Maybe we should talk about it in the morning" Perla said, "Come on, Timmy, let's get inside".
Timmy nodded, liking this idea, yet he still scanned the skies as they walked in, walking close to and not leaving his siblings' side.
Princess Alessandra sighed in relief as they all three came back into the hallway. "Well, are you alright?" she bent to glance to Timmy. The kitten just nodded, glancing down, and then about.
The princess frowned, glancing to the other two, "What...happened, what is it?".
"We don't know" Perla sighed and shrugged, "but it shook him up pretty bad".
With a nod, the princess sighed, "Well, given the circumstances, perhaps you children should sleep on the couch in my chambers tonight, just to help your brother out".
Perla nodded, "That sounds good, thank you, Princess. Come on, Timmy". She and Gonzalo lead their now very very quiet brother into the Princess' chambers and over to the couch. They eventually got him to settled down to sleep, right next to them, though, but first more banging was heard that night as Timmy nailed the windows and closet of the princess room shut.