Journeys Pt 7.

I'm on a roll at the moment and kicking on with the next chapter. Hopefully I'll get it up tonight or tomorrow night. (3 in 2 days?)

Oh I noticed in the last chapter that I didn't include the pollicles in the descriptions of the group. Please just take it as said that they are there, it's just easier to call the group the cats.

…

The Cats made their way to the gangway to the P&O cruise ship, the Pacific Pearl, nervously. There was just something about all that water that was freaking the Jellicles out. Times like this Toby really wished his brother was in his place, he was the water crazy one after all. One of the ship officers, a large man sporting a Scottish accent, upon seeing the nervous expressions of the cats approached and began to reassure the group.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I am Peter Shanks, the second officer of the Pacific Pearl and I couldn't help but notice that you were not looking that comfortable with the idea of a cruise."

Jericho glanced at the anxious cats and laughed with the officer. "They're not that happy about being on a big metal tube in the middle of billions of tons of water" and then in a much lower voice "only a couple of the group can swim you see. We'd have preferred to fly to our destination but that is not really an option."

"Ah I see" Peter said. "Let me assure you all that The Pearl is one of the finest ships in the P&O fleet and has never had so much as a breakdown let alone a major problem. You are perfectly safe on board and the crew will do everything in their power to ensure your comfort. May I ask what cabins you have been assigned?"

Jericho went to Toby and took the travel documents out of his hands. "Um. If I'm reading this correctly we are in 11128 to 11140."

"Ah. Then you must be the dance troupe that we've been told to expect?" said the officer, the senior officers took pride in knowing the details of the guests that were staying in the suites.

"Yes, we're the Jellicle group" answered Jericho with a slight grin at his leader's in house joke at the cover story they were using to travel.

"Jellicles? Like the poems?" asked Peter.

Jerrie upon hearing this approached the pair, "Poems?"

"Yes the poems by TS Eliot about the Jellicle Cats. I believe it's called 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats' we have a copy in the ships library if you would like to see it?" said Peter.

"I'd like that. We didn't actually know where the group name came from. It has kind of been passed down to us; the troupe is kind of a family business." Jerrie admitted.

"That is not a problem at all sir. I will have some of our crew show you to your cabins and another go to the library and bring the book to you." Second officer Shanks then looked around and spotted one of the porters. "Gregory. I have 14 of our priority guests ready to board. Gather some porters and escort them to their cabins please."

Gregory a small Asian crewman jumped to obey the order and together with half a dozen other crew took the bags and the group of cats to the cabins that they had been assigned, leaving them in their rooms to freshen up and settle in whilst the rest of the passengers boarded, a process that took several hours.

Shortly after they had settled into their cabins a knock was heard at the door to the one occupied by Jerrie. He opened the door and was presented with a large book, thanking the crewman he went to the bed and with the help of Teaser began to read. After only a couple of pages he became amazed and then alarmed at what they found. The book, though old, was about them. Or, rather, it was about the Jellicles years ago. It had stories on Old Dueteronomy, Munkunstrap, Demeter, Jenny, even Misto and Macavity, but how could this be? He looked at the clock and quickly worked out what the time would be back in London, 5 pm Brisbane time was 6 am in London, before reaching for the phone. Before the cats had left a mobile phone had been sourced in case of emergency and the group needed to contact the tribe in London. It was to be left in the care of Old D as most of the other cats had duties and responsibilities that would preclude their keeping the phone with them.

Old D answered on the third ring. "Yes? Who is this?"

"D. It's Jerrie and I think we have a problem." Jerrie went on to explain, "You see we have found this book that has all the Jellicle cats in it. It's pretty old but it describes most of us perfectly?"

Old D replied over the phone. "Does the author go by the name T. S. Eliot by any chance?"

"Yes, yes he does."

"Well that's ok then. Mr Eliot was a human that discovered us back, oh about 80 years ago. We managed to cast a spell that made him think he dreamed it all, and last I heard he wrote up a series of poems that he believed he thought up. It was after that when we created the sanctuary spell for the Junkyard."

"So we're ok then?" Jerrie asked.

"Yes it won't be a problem. Is there anything else? No? Well good luck." After that Old D hung up the phone.

Jerrie turned to his mate "Did you understand that then Tease?"

"Yes darling, but we'd better let the rest of the group know about it in case they get asked."

Jerrie called the group together and explained the situation.

Just as he finished there was a loud blast of an air horn outside and the ship began to move. They were off.

…

The first night on board the ship was horrendous. Just about all the cats were ill. The only one seemingly immune was Nix. The shadow cat had just finished her transformation and was making her way to see someone on the crew to find out if there was anything they could do about the sea sickness.

She came across the officer Peter Shanks, who had met them on the docks prior to boarding and asked him for any help he could give.

"Well, Ma'am. The most common treatment is ginger, however normally you begin taking that up to a week before boarding and continue while on board and it's a bit late now. One thing I do swear by is these little acupressure wrist bands that you wear. I don't know how they work but I know that they do. I can have a crewman bring several to your cabins and we can see if they have any effect."

Nix was extremely grateful. The noxious odours in the room she was sharing with Gemma was starting to get to her. Shortly after the wristbands arrived and she was able to get one on all the group their stomachs had subsided enough for them to transform and rest. Once they'd regained human form the wristbands were worn again and continued to help with the queasiness, after another day they could be safely removed as the cats had found their sea legs.

Once they were feeling better the cats explored the ship, most of them finding something that would engross them for the journey. All the queens decided early that a spa treatment and make over was required and the toms decided to utilise the on board gym and running machines. Toby approached their new friend, Peter, to ask if there was any type of open space by which they could practice their dancing and maintain their flexibility. They were given time in the ships auditorium to practice when it wasn't being used for any of the other activities on board. The cats were very grateful to the crew for the opportunity to maintain their fitness and would often have an off duty crewmember or one of the on board entertainers stop by to watch them practice.

A few days after leaving port a small storm blew up and the seas became slightly rougher. The cats still a little nervous were sitting together in one of the cabins playing cards when the ship suddenly and violently heeled over to one side, tumbling the cats off the chairs and beds into the wall. Luckily no one was injured, just scared. A few minutes later the voice of the Captain came over the shipwide intercom assuring the passengers that everything was fine and that the ship had just been hit by a freak wave caused by the storm and if anyone had been injured to please see a crewmember immediately.

The storm blew itself out rapidly and the waves became calm once more. The cats went down to the auditorium for their daily practice and halfway through their dancing were approached by Peter Shanks and another human who'd watched them practice a few times but had never approached them before. Peter explained that the woman, whose name was Jo Lorum was the ships artistic director and she had a problem that the group might be able to help with.

The cats gathered around to hear the issue.

Jo explained that her regular troop of entertainers were practicing their routines when the wave had hit, ships dancers must be able to cope with nearly any type of conditions, and several of them had been hurt and were not able to perform for a couple of nights.

The cats confused a little asked what this had to do with them.

Jo took a deep breath. "I've approached the Captain and asked if I could approach you to see if you could perform for the ship. I've watched you practice and you guys are good. Better than the dancers I have her to be honest. I wouldn't have done this but I'm a little desperate. With the injuries I have a 45 minute break in a 2 hour show that I need to fill. The Captain has told me that he will comp your return journey if you can help us out, he knows that you are leaving us at Lifou but we would be extremely grateful if you could do a show a night until we get there. With luck our regular performers will be back on their feet after that."

Toby spoke up. "What do you expect us to perform? Something of yours or ours?"

"You can do whatever you like as long as you fill the time in" assured Jo.

"Give me a few minutes to discuss this with our group." Toby led the cats to the back of the stage and asked, "What do you think? Should we do this?"

"We're supposed to be a dance and singing troupe. How would it look if we didn't take an opportunity to perform?" said Kamira. "And it's only for 2 more nights."

"That's true" murmured the group.

"What would we perform though?" Christo asked.

Toby sat there for a minute. "I know. How about we …? And we can do our costumes up like this." He went on to explain his idea and smiles began to spread across the faces of the cats and pollicles.

Toby went back to the two anxious humans and told them that they would perform in the show. He told them that they'd bring their own music and perform some original material.

…

That night the word had gotten around that there was a problem with some of the entertainers and that a group of the passengers had stepped in to fill the gap in the night's performance. As such the auditorium was packed.

Toby looked out through the curtains. "Bast but there is a lot of people out there." He turned to the other cats, "are you ready?"

…

The stage lights dimmed and a figure made his way out of the side of the stage, half crawling, half sliding along. Upon getting about a third of the way across he stopped and stood with his arms out stretched. As he stood there, several other figures crept out of the wings converging in various darkened poses on the stage.

A spotlight clicked on the original figure to reveal a dancer done up in some kind of cat suit and face mask. The costume was so realistic that some of the audience could swear that they saw the tail move by itself and the fur and ears ripple independently.

"Are you blind when your born?" sang Toby.

Another light clicked on "Can you see in the dark" sang Dominica.

The rest of the cats joined in and began to sing various parts of the songs performed every year at the Jellicle ball. They sang the Greeting song, the Naming of Cats, The invitation to the Jellicle Ball performed by Olive and Christo. The Welcome of Old Deuteronomy with Jericho dressed up like the Jellicle leader. Gemma reprised her mother's song "Moments of Happiness" and Jerrie and Teaser performed their signature song and dance.

They finished with a standing ovation from the audience and after taking their bows moved directly into the dressing rooms where they proceeded to change back to their human forms. Dom embraced Toby in excitement and the other cats congratulated him on the idea to perform in their hybrid forms, just adjusted to a larger size. After a suitable amount of time the group emerged to an astounded Jo Lorum who immediately wanted to offer them a permament berth on the ship which they regretfully declined.

The performance was repeated the next day after they were convinced to do a midday and mid afternoon show before a final performance at night. The cats, far from being upset at being asked to perform, loved the attention and lapped up the chance to sing and dance.

But all things must end and the day after their final performance, the ship arrived at the island of Lifou and the group departed the ship. With there being no dock at the island capable of handling the ship the passengers were ferried to the shore by the ships tenders, small boats capable of carrying about 75 passengers on the 5 minute transit. The cats made their way to the tender for their departure and were astounded to see passengers and crew lining the walkways giving them a rousing round of applause as they left. It was all quite touching and brought a tear to many of the queens eyes.

Once they'd been ferried to the docks they were approached by a dark skinned islander who'd been hired to take the group out to a nearby island. He ushered them onto a local fishing boat for the 2 hour cruise and they set off. It was during this trip that the cats, all of them this time, found out how grateful they should be for the size of the ship they traveled on before as the small boat bobbed and swung even in slight swells, resulting in them all adding a long stream of burley to the water and the delight of the fishermen who immediately took advantage of the feeding frenzy trailing the small boat.

After what seemed an interminable trip the fishing boat approached their destination and the cats were offloaded on a small jetty of a tiny island. They made their way up the beach to the bordering palm trees and were greeted by a familiar grey skinned figure.

"Welcome my friends to the Dolphin tribe!" said Kwaksel.

They'd made it.

…

done

They probably won't be on the island for long. I honestly don't have a lot for them to do there so if anyone has any suggestions then please let me know.

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Thanks.