Disclaimer: All things Twilight belong to Stephenie Meyer. Of course.

Shoutouts: 1pepsi1obsessed, BerryEbilBunny, Lady Dragona, Mander13, LibraryChild and of course, the cat. You know the one I mean.

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Chapter 10 – The Cat's Familiar

Waking up to see Mike Newton kissing her lips was not something Princess Bella wanted. So, like all princesses when faced with such a situation, she ran around the room screaming. The sound alerted the guards who ran in to see the girl running around. They shrugged in unison like a good troop and then went back to their posts.

When Bella felt calm enough, she tried to think. Her memories were coming back in small snippets. She remembered burning herself and going to Esme's, she also remembered using the ointment and falling asleep. The worst memory, however, was knowing that Edward had gone with the witches.

Bella needed Jessica. That thought made her wonder where Jessica was. It was very unlike Jessica to have a life of her own. She put on some clothes and hurried out of her bedroom. The corridors were starting to gather darkness and the sky outside the castle was now a royal blue colour. It suited Bella, or she thought it did.

She hurried down to the servants quarters and found Jessica's room. It was empty. She searched all the other servant rooms and still found no sign of Jessica.

"Meow!" The sound startled Bella. She looked down. Sooty was weaving between her legs, vying for her attention.

"Not now, Sooty, I'm looking for Jessica," she muttered. She decided the next place to look would be the kitchen.

Nanny Swan was in the kitchen, preparing food for the ball. She was humming as Bella entered.

"Hello, dear. Just making food preparations. Glad to see you awake." Bella nodded.

"Have you seen Jessica anywhere, Nanny?" she asked politely, not being able to deviate from the tone when she was around Nanny Swan, because it was Nanny Swan who had raised her.

Nanny Swan put down her knife and turned to Bella.

"Last time I saw her was when she was greeting the paparazzi about half an hour ago, but I wouldn't worry about her. She can take care of herself. Why don't you come and help Nanny?"

Bella paused, certain she saw something shift behind Nanny Swan's eyes.

"It's okay, Nanny, I really must be preparing for tomorrow evening," she replied and hurried out. Sooty was still following her, meowing as he went.

They walked down a corridor covered in tapestries and Sooty stopped to scratch one of them. Bella turned and picked Sooty up, knowing that her father would blow a casket if he found another ruined tapestry. He stopped meowing and sat in her arms with his head sticking out, watching the walls go past like an inquisitive child. He meowed when they passed a wooden door.

Bella paused.

"You were being nice and quiet then, what's wrong?"

"Meow!" His paw pointed to the door and he started struggling. Because Bella wasn't getting the hint—and because he felt like it—he bit her.

In an instant, Bella dropped Sooty, who did a backwards somersault in the air and landed on his feet by the door. He started scratching at it.

"You can't go for a wee through that one, it leads down to the dungeons," said Bella.

"Meow!" Sooty continued to scratch at the door.

Like all good cat owners are supposed to, Bella walked back up the corridor and tried to ignore Sooty. Sooty didn't like that. He stopped clawing the door and galloped down the corridor. He liked to pretend he was a horse on occasion. When he reached Bella's long, flowing skirt, he dived on it. He'd had much practice with rats and skirts alike and easily got himself up onto Bella's shoulder.

"Meow!" he said when he caught Bella's attention.

"I hate cats," she said to him. In response, he hissed at her and jumped off her shoulder. This time he did an acrobatic star jump in the air before landing on his feet. He galloped down the corridor to the wooden door again and looked at Bella.

"Meow!"

In the Kingdom of Forks, they didn't have televisions so Bella had never had the opportunity to watch 'Skippy' or 'Lassie' or 'Flipper' therefore she had no idea that kangaroos, dogs and dolphins could go on rescue missions. Bella had, however, read 'The Cat in the Hat' and was aware that cats could have human personalities.

"You want me to go through the door," she said. Sooty gave her a disapproving look--the one he gave everyone--and twisted his head so he could lick his bum.

By the time Bella opened the door, Sooty had also cleaned his ears. Why he did them in that order, we'll never know.

Sooty hurried ahead through the dark passageway, although it wasn't too dark. The torches had been lit. It gave Bella an eerie feeling. Someone had been down to the dungeons recently. Bella followed the black shadow of Sooty until he stopped outside the torture chamber. Bella's heart was pounding and she could taste metal on her tongue. She was afraid that zombies would come out of the darkness and eat her. She'd seen a re-enactment of it once, although she knew that for it to be re-enacted it actually had to have happened.

The keys to open the chamber were hanging on an iron nail above the door. Bella picked up the keys and heard a muffled sound from inside the chamber.

"Jessica?" she whispered shakily.

There was another muffled noise.

Bella started using the keys in the lock, hoping that one of them would open the door, although she was frightened of what she might find in the room.

Jessica was on the other side of the door, pulling at her arms and begging them to be free. Nanny Swan had paid her another visit and found her trying to get to the knife she had dropped. As a result, Nanny Swan had blindfolded and gagged Jessica and left.

Bella found the key she needed and the lock clicked open. She pulled down the brass handle and pushed open the heavy door. She gasped when she saw Jessica. Sooty followed her in and went searching for rats.

Bella picked up one of the knives and cut off the blindfold. The first thing Jessica saw was the blade. She let out a muffled scream before she saw Bella's face. Bella took off the gag and got a pair of pliers for Jessica's hands. Who said Princesses weren't resourceful?

"She's going to poison...prince to become king...her grandson..."

"You're making no sense," Bella said as she tried to take most of Jessica's weight and lead her to the door. They got out of the chamber and Bella locked the door again. Sooty had already got himself out.

Footsteps echoed down the corridor.

"Other way," mumbled Jessica. Bella started walking further down the corridor which turned to the right to lead onto the dungeons.

Bella tripped on one of the stones and dropped Jessica before she fell to the ground. When she next looked up, a figure was standing above her.

"Curiosity killed the cat," said Nanny Swan.

~*~

Alice woke up as soon as she caught the scent of the clove. She smiled at Esme and said, "That was some Cheese String."

Esme sighed and turned to Edward and Carlisle.

"Do you think you can get my son safely to the ground with that thing?" she asked, pointing to the staff.

"Of course I can, woman, this staff is in fine working order. He struck it against the ground and the symbols reappeared. He grabbed his son and they disappeared.

Alice jumped onto Esme's broomstick and they zoomed towards the ground. For the first time since Esme had acquired the broom, she put it into fifth gear. It even had power steering.

They got off at the bottom of the mountain and met up with Edward and Carlisle.

"Esme, you're broom is much better now," said Alice.

"Thank you, Alice," said Esme.

"But it could do with a few minor improvements." Esme scowled at Alice.

"What minor improvements?" she asked.

"Well, some bells for a start..."

They walked towards the forest where Alice had left her broomstick. She opened up to her power and listened to the trees for information of where her broomstick was. The patch of moss was barely four metres away. Alice called to her broom and felt it in her hands before she opened her eyes. The four of them walked on through the forest, well aware that it was barely twenty four hours until the ball.

"Are we going to start flying yet?" asked Edward, although he wasn't overly keen on either method of transport his parents offered.

"In a minute," said Esme, "We've got to pay the toll charge first."

They walked through the expanse of trees and came to a stone bridge that crossed a large river. Various means of transport were stopping at the bridge and paying the charge. The witches, wizard and pre-prince pushed into the line. They were stood behind a gang of thieves. The queue had stopped.

Esme tapped the shoulder of a burly-looking man who had 'thug' tattooed across his forehead. No, he really did—and she asked, "What seems to be the hold up?"

The thug turned to Esme and in a high, womanly voice said, "Well, there's this brawd arguing with the troll about the fee and the troll won't let them through because you have to be accompanied by an adult to cross the bridge and they both look like children."

Esme rolled up her sleeves and handed her broomstick to Edward.

"Alice," she said. Alice looked up from wherever it was she was looking.

"Yes, Esme?" she asked.

"We have some work to do." Alice kept hold of her broomstick and walked through the waiting figures.

When they got to the front, they saw a boy who was wearing a green outfit, tights and a hat. The girl with him was about six inches tall and hovering in the air. She was a fairy.

Esme walked up to the troll. "What's going on?" she asked.

The troll scratched his chin. "These minors want to cross the bridge and I haven't got a clue what the chicky is trying to say."

Esme gave the boy a long look. "Don't I know you?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," he said, "I meet a lot of people in their childhoods."

"Yes, you took me on my first flying lesson. Broke my heart when I couldn't go on any more. Well, I'm a witch now, and I have a broomstick to fly me places."

"It has five gears and power steering," interrupted Alice.

The boy raised his eyebrows. "Does it have bells on it?"

Esme made an abrasive sound. The boy turned his attention back to Esme.

"I remember you now. You were the one that locked Tinker in a box." Esme nodded. Tinker, well, she tinked.

"Anyway, I'm not here for none of that now, I'm here to get this line moving." She turned to the troll. "I can assure you that this boy here is old enough to be my granddad."

"What about the girl? I need confirmation from her."

Tinker tinked angrily.

"I can't understand a word she's saying," said the troll.

"Maybe I can," said Alice. She stepped forward with her broomstick. It started twinkling now that people were looking at it.

Tinker looked at Alice in disdain and crossed her tiny arms. She started glowing and glitter fell to the ground.

Alice tried to communicate. She shook her broom. "Twinkle, twinkle."

Tinker stamped her foot. "Tink!"

"Twinkle?"

"Tink, tink, tink!"

Alice turned back to the troll. "Well, sir, she thinks your service has been awful and she's been trying to explain to you that she is a fairy and therefore does not age. She is offering fairy dust as payment for the toll charge."

"Right, okay then." The troll accepted the fairy dust, which he put in his pocket, and the boy and fairy crossed the bridge. The line started moving again.

Alice and Esme got back into their place in the line. Esme turned to Alice.

"You got all that from rattling your broom?" she asked.

"Oh, yes," said Alice. "It's simple when you know how."

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A/N: What did you think of that chapter? Reviews are greatly appreciated!

Oh, and I'm thinking of ordering some of those CheeseStrings Alice had...they sound like fun...