Good Gravy and Potatoes!

Later after my odd encounter with the freakish one, Leaf, we ate a HUGE dinner. I was STUFFED! And, the food was delish. Very nice. We later flew up to our rooms, we all had separate ones! Sadly, there was a walking path, circling in a spiral way, passing each and every room, all 200 of them. There was no thrill. I was quite unhappy. We got to our rooms, furnished tastefully to my liking. There was a whole bathroom to myself! The bed was large enough for me to spread out my impressive 16 foot wings. They grew! I didn't have to hide anything here! I almost immediately fell asleep.

I woke up with a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Uh Oh. Good thing I have my own bathroom! I raced to the porcelain goddess and lost my huge dinner, or what my stomach didn't digest, at least. I retched a few times, but after, I felt just fine. I made the mistake of looking at what a mess I made and retched again. This time, with my eyes closed, I flushed the toilet before I opened them again. I took some deep breaths and walked out of the bathroom, slightly jelly legged. I plopped down on my bed.

"Max, are you ok? These walls are stone, but sure ain't sound proof. I was sleeping, and the sound 'ah you pukin' woke me." It was Gazzy. He came over to me, and layed down beside me. "What's wrong Max? Are you sick? I can go get Leaf…" He said, his voice trembling at the thought of me being ill.

"I'll go to her in a bit." Not wanting him to know that I was not liking Leaf, "I just am SO tired."

"I see…" He said softly. Gazzy turned his huge blue eyes on me. "Are you sure? How do you feel?"

"To tell you the truth, hungry!" I said, surprised. I sat up and he held my hand and we walked down the spiral ramp. I secretly changed my mind about this thing. It really is helpful. I don't really feel like jumping 50 stories down to the stone floor…

We FINALLY reached the bottom and Gazzy waved and went off to play with a light gray cat and a tan cat. I yelled, " WAIT! Who are you two?"

"Oh," said the tan cat, "Well, I'm Thorn, and he's Cinder. We really like Gazzy and Iggy. We have a lot of common interests!" Oh. Great.

"Like what?" I persisted. They looked mischievously at each other.

"EXPLOSIONS!" all three sang together. I should have known.

I found Leaf chatting with Fang in the center of the bustling open space.

"Ah! Max! You have woken. I would like you two to come with me to my den, if you don't mind." She was young, but talked like a granny. Just her speech. Not her voice! We followed her, and I was tired. She looked at me with a lively sparkle.

"So, Leaf, how old are you?"

"Oh. Um. 23." She said shyly. She was so young! I was shocked. She giggled and continued brushing passed the 40 some cats who had come to talk in the center of the huge cave.

"Why is like, everyone here?" I questioned. Leaf's eyes widened.

"It's time for sharing song. Where all of us gather in Greatroom to chat a groom each other before we eat! We say "singing" like "talking" just so you know!" She laughed. "I cannot believe Star didn't explain that! Well, now you know!" We reached her den's entrance. She motioned for them to go inside. We sat on some of her soft leather chairs, and she sat with her paws in front of her.

"So. Max, Fang, I have called you here today because of the Burden. AH!" my mouth opened as if I was going to talk. "I am going to explain. It is simple really. Not a problem. Honest! To say it simply, Max you are-"