The Rum Tum Tugger raced down the alleyway, kicking up rubbish as he turned a corner and slipped sideways into a shopfront alcove to hide. The furious Tom chasing him went flying past, eyes wild with outrage.

Heh, so that was where Silverfrost was getting his treats from. No wonder he didn't want anyone else to know! Tugger stepped out from his shelter, looked to make sure ol' Silver was gone and sauntered back the other way, a jaunt in his step that said all was right in this curious cat's world.

Tugger noticed with some pride that he was hardly out of breath, despite the desperate race he had just won. All that dancing with Mistoffelees was increasing his already legendary stamina – he felt like he could run for days.

Not that he hadn't been fit before – you don't travel as far as he had, fight as often or climb as many buildings, fences and trees as he did without gaining a certain amount of muscle. He doubted any of the other Toms could lift another male as easily as he now could, for such prolonged periods.

Yep, the Tugger was growing in his achievements daily. Now, to share Silverfrost's secret or keep it deliciously to himself? That was the question.

A glint from a deep hole in the side of the road caught his eye, and ever curious, Tugger went to investigate.

.-.-.

Later that day Tugger related his adventures to a restless Mistoffelees as he waited for Jennyanydots to come in and finish applying herbs to his healing paws.

"… and that's when I saw a hole in the road," Tugger revealed, giving the sleepy Mistoffelees head a thoughtful lick. He had the other cat semi pinned under his weight and was going to make sure the elusive cat stayed put until he had finished his story. The other cats kept pulling him away for their ridiculous puppet play and Tugger was getting annoyed by it.

"I looked in the hole and at the bottom was something sparkling. This made me think …"

"What was it?' Mistoffelees asked, refusing to go for the cheap joke about Tuggers thinking.

"What?" the Tugger gave a slow blink, his train of thought wrecked.

"What was sparkling?"

"Oh - um, just some human necklace. Not pearl like Rumpelteazer loves, it was made up of shinny gems."

"Oh, okay," Mistoffelees nodded.

"Anyway, it reminded me of your magic. You've always led up to magic with a dance, or put it in a circle to keep it focused. Why not get the others to make a circle you can look at the puppets through. Look at the dens entrance through my paws," and he held his paws so they made a circle near Mistoffelees eye.

Mistoffelees did, and immediately saw what the Rum Tum Tugger meant. Using this method he could make bigger magic not by using a bigger circle (which had worked for the retrieval of Deuteronomy under the blanket, but was proving not so great with the puppets. There had been puppet parts all over the place when they tried roping off a large enough circle), but by placing the circle near his eye a bigger area was kept in a small one. Wow!

After a second or two of amazement Mistoffelees turned to the already preening Tom. "How did you come up with that?"

"Well, I may have fallen in the hole, which could have been deeper than I thought and hard to get out of. And I may have spent a long time looking up through the hole at the sky, and the clouds, and started to yell, because I was getting hungry and I said I'd be here to see you and ... well. Anyhow a human heard me and got me out. They seemed to like the necklace I found down there. I gave them an extra special head rub as a thankyou – I'm sure they appreciated it, they seemed very happy. Do you like my idea?"

Mistoffelees leant up and gave an extra special head rub of his own. "Yes Tugger – I like it. We'll have to practice and see how it works."

/Yes!/ thought the Rum Tum Tugger, /And I will get to spend more time with you, because I am your magical helper!/ and they both began to purr.