Altaica's Story-Part Twelve-Reunited
Author's note: Okie, Alta, Engle, Ocenir, Sarge, and Trista are MIIIINE, Ruffles and Truffles belong to L and Mell, the rest belong to RUG. The song is called I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables, and....well, enjoy!
Alta rolled over, smiling in her sleep. A sliver of light shone through the opening of the pipe, but it wasn't enough to merit the start of another day. Her paw crept to the circlet that rested beside her head and she sat bolt upright, suddenly wide-awake.
"Sarge?" she half-whispered in the dew of the morning.
"Alta!!" he sounded weak, and the connection wasn't strong. She placed her head in her paws, fighting to strengthen the thread.
"What happened to you? Are you alright?" she said both in her mind and aloud. Outside, Misto paused as he passed by the pipe on his early-morning rounds.
His voice started fading "I...fine....Trist....she's hurt, Alta....she needs you...."
"SARGE!" she cried, fighting with all her strength to reconnect. "SARGE! Who's got you?! SARGE!"
"Can't.....Alta....come ho.." the connection broke. Alta hung her head, allowing tears to fall down her cheeks.
"Sarge...." She whispered, staring out of the pipe entrance. She jumped when she saw a black-and0white face peek around the corner.
"Hey, Alta," Misto said, picking his way into the pipe. "What's wrong?"
"It's Sarge....he got through to me somehow, but it was too weak...it broke off," she muttered, fingering the circlet lightly.
"What did he say?"
Alta took a deep breath. "He said....that Trista's hurt, and she needs me....his last words were 'come home'."
Misto sighed. "That bites," he said simply, and Alta had to nod. They sat in silence for a few moments before Alta looked up at Misto again.
"Why'd you come here so early, Misto?"
He sighed. "Well, Munkus told me about the...whole....Engle thing that you told him....hope you don't mind."
"As long as the world doesn't know, I don't really care," she said flatly, looking over Misto's shoulder, out of the pipe.
He nodded. "Right. Well...did you think about...you know...?"
She locked eyes with him and when she spoke, it was in a whisper. "Did I think about whether or not I still love him? Yes.....and I'm still not certain. I mean...everything he did....but I think I stayed because I could remember him before..."
Misto frowned. "But what about Ocenir?"
Alta turned on him, her eyes blazing. "What about him?"
Misto was taken aback, to say the least. "It's obvious that he adores you....." he said, as though speaking to a three-year-old.
Alta rolled her eyes. "Haven't you heard? Love's a two-way street."
Misto laughed, the laugh of someone who couldn't believe what they were hearing. "And you truly think that with Engle you had a two-way street? Open your eyes, Alta! He's dead and he never loved you!"
Alta froze and her shoulders stiffened. Misto groaned. "Alta, I'm sorry.."
"Get. Out." He had never heard her voice so cold. He backed toward the entrance, tripping over the blanket.
"Alta, I didn't.."
"OUT!" she screamed, whirling around with her claws extended. Misto fairly flew down the junkpile.
Back in the pipe, Alta sat down heavily. What had she almost done? He was probably right....why spoil what she had?
What did she have, really? A few friends, the awe of the Tribe....the kits, she thought, a smile coming to her lips. Ruffles and Truffles...nobody could make her laugh more than those two. And then there was Ocenir. Ocenir...who ever knew what was going on in his mind? He was closed up tighter than a tomb. Maybe he did adore her, but she was merely grateful to him for helping her so many times.
She stood, reaching for a small sack. That's all she felt...gratitude. She wouldn't put him through that, she decided, beginning to place items in the sack. That's the most she could do for him...spare him some torture of the heart.
She tied the neck of the sack into a tight knot before flinging it over her shoulder. A note...she should leave a note, she decided.
Grabbing a broken ballpoint pen and a sheet of paper, she began to write.
Across town, Engle smiled grimly. His recovery had gone well...stupid Jellicles, thinking that they could finish off the one and only Engle by merely dumping him in a pond! Horrendous imaginations...lacking brutality, he thought as he stood.
He had made mistakes, he knew that now. He hadn't treated Altaica like she deserved to be treated. She truly was an Empress, he mused as he set off toward the Junkyard. She deserved to be treated like one...deserved his apology, even if he never said that he was sorry before...he was sorry now. He knew that he deserved to die....and that he should have, but he wouldn't...couldn't...not until she knew.
I don't even care if she kills me on the spot, he mused as he carefully crossed a street. At least I'll die near her...
Alta folded the note once, placing it in the center of the pipe. There, she thought. Nobody can miss it.
She turned and left the pipe, staying in the shadows, heading for the airport.
A soft knock sounded on the side of the empty pipe some time later. "Alta?" Ocenir asked, poking his head in.
She wasn't there, but there was a single sheet of paper lying in the middle of the floor. He frowned and walked over, thinking that she had dropped it. He picked it up, and the idea started worming its way into his mind that she hadn't dropped it...she had left it.
He sat on the blanket, unfolding the paper as he did so. He read it and his eyes grew wide. He leapt to his feet, the sheet of paper clutched in his paws. "MUNKUSTRAP!"
The silver tabby looked up as Ocenir burst from Alta's pipe. The silver tabby looked up from where he was talking to Demeter. "What's wrong, 'Cenir?"
"THIS!" Ocenir cried, shoving the paper under Munkustrap's nose. Munkus pushed it away a little for his eyes to adjust and began to read Alta's slanted handwriting.
He looked up from the paper to see Ocenir standing there, anxious. He then turned to face the rest of the Jellicles that were in the yard at that point in time. "Has anyone spoken with Alta since last night?"
Misto raised a paw. "I did, this morning. Early."
"What did she say?"
The black-and-white tom shrugged. "Sarge had gotten through somehow....said that Trista was hurt and needed Alta's help."
Ocenir turned to Misto. "They're alive?"
"Apparently. According to what Alta said, Trista needs help pretty badly. She wouldn't have gone to the wharves this time...she'd be going to the airport."
Munkustrap nodded and was about to organize the Tribe into groups when a shout from the fence made them run over.
Alonzo was attempting to keep a much larger black tom from entering the junkyard. Ocenir felt a growl low in his throat. "Engle! What are you doing here....not to mention doing alive?" he spat, motioning for some kittens to stay back.
Of course, Ruffles and Truffles never listen anyway.
"Hi uncie scary kitty-katty!" Truffles said, innocently bouncing around Ocenir.
Ruffles appeared out of nowhere, surveying him from all angles. "HE'S A BOMB-LIKE OBJECT! TAKE COVEEEEEEER!"
Truffles gasped and ran up a tree. Ruffles found a hacksaw and began to cut the tree down. "Take cover means hit the ground, you eejit!"
Truffles hit the ground....with the tree on top of her.
While Tugger cautiously checked to see if the kits were okay, Munkustrap turned back to Engle. "If you've come for Alta, you're too late."
Engle frowned. "What do you mean, too late? She's not dead, is she?"
Misto slipped through the crowd, heading back to where Munkustrap had dropped the note. Nobody noticed. Ocenir spoke to Engle again.
"No, not dead. Gone. Besides, even if she were here, we wouldn't let you within ten feet of her. What do you think, boys? Should we kill him here and now?"
Engle sighed and looked away. "Then I'm too late."
"Too late to kill her? You bet..."
Engle whipped around and glared at the insolent patched tom, who flinched. "No, not to kill her, you twisted little boy!"
Ocenir growled again, and Munkustrap grabbed his arm before he did something rather stupid. "Then what?" the tabby asked kindly, shooting a warning glance at Ocenir.
"To...make it up to her, somehow?"
Ocenir laughed, a hard, metallic sound. "How were you gonna manage that one, big fella? Suicide?"
Engle shrugged. "Sounds good to me about now."
Misto crept away from the small gathering on the edge of the yard, hoping that the wind hadn't gotten a chance to blow the note away.
He found it about three or four feet from where Munkus had set it down. A light wind had blown it against a toaster. Misto grabbed the note and climbed into a detergent box for privacy while he read it.
"Dear friends,
I've decided to leave. Don't come after me, please, someone back home needs my help. I may come back someday, but Misto was right...I've been stupid. I need to get away, and I suppose that home is the only place to go. I love you all very much, and I'll never forget you.
-Altaica.
p.s. Tugger, watch out for Ruffles and Truffles for me."
Misto sighed and folded the note. "I wasn't right, I was wrong," he murmured before climbing out of the box. "And she isn't going alone."
Alta was nearing the airport when another connection broke through to her. "Alta!" Sarge's mind-voice called again for the second time that day.
"SARGE! I'm coming!"
"NO! Alta, don't! Trista's fine, he made me say that..."
"WHO? Who made you, Sarge? SARGE?"
"Alta...." Was all he said before the connection was broken again.
"Sarge..." she whispered, dropping the sack with her belongings. She sat by the fence, looking up at the runway. She could go home still...she was so close, and Misto was right....or...
She looked over her shoulder in the direction of the junkyard. Was Boston still her home? She'd been away for so long...a year at least! Would she still know her way around?
She sat by the fence, staying in place although the sun was setting. Where should she go? Engle was still alive....she could feel it in her bones...and in her heart.
"Do I love him?" she whispered to the stars. She bowed her head, tears flowing into the thick fur at her neck. "Yes...."
She sat there for a long time, not caring if anyone came for her. She could become one of the strays, or find a wealthy owner. Something. Anything.
She started talking to herself. "Maybe I really am going insane.....maybe nobody does care," she said, watching the progress of the newest plane down the runway. She remembered things from long ago....she remembered songs that her mother had taught her in her childhood. One was especially prominent.... "Mama sang it a lot," she said, remembering with a smile.
She stood, hefting the sack once more, walking down the fence. She dragged her fingers along the chain links, looking to the stars as she began to sing.
"There was a time when men were kind.
When their voices were soft and their words inviting.
There was a time when love was blind
when the world was a song and the song was exciting...
there was a time, then it all went wrong!
"I dreamed a dream in time gone by.
When hope was high and life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die!
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.
"Then I was young and unafraid
and dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung no wine untasted.
"But the tigers come at night
with their voices soft as thunder
as they tear your hope apart
as thy tear your dream to shame!
"He slept a summer by my side
he filled my days with endless wonder
he took my childhood in his stride
but he was gone when autumn came!
"And still I dream he'll come to me!
That we will live the years together
but there are dreams that cannot be
and there are storms we cannot weather...
"I had a dream my life would be so different
from this hell I'm living, so different
now from what it seemed!
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed....."
She sat with her back to the fence, tears flowing down her cheeks once more. "Mamma, did you know?" she whispered harshly, looking to the sky once more. "Did you know that what happened to you would happen to me, too?"
It was dark at the Junkyard, also. Engle wanted to help search for Alta, but Ocenir put it rather bluntly that he was going to do no such thing. Misto stayed behind, also...nobody noticed.
The search parties had left, some towards the inner city and some towards the docks. Nobody left for the airport. Engle sat in a corner of the Junkyard...nobody noticed. Misto crept over to him and sat beside him.
"Where's she gone?" Engle asked quietly, his voice choked with unknown tears.
Misto bowed his head with a sigh. Wearily, he rubbed his temples. "I believe that she's gone to the airport....but nobody believes me, and I'm not sure if she's gone already...."
Engle sprang to his feet. "Well, we can check, can't we?" he asked, almost eagerly.
Misto rose more slowly. "Yes, I suppose we could..." he said, and the two departed.
It was nearing dawn when the search parties left the docks empty-handed. A sliver of red light was on the horizon when the parties met again at the Junkyard.
"Where's Misto?" Munkustrap asked, looking around the sleeping Junkyard.
"For that matter, where's Engle?" Ocenir asked sharply.
"You don't think that Engle...." Tantomile began.
"Nah, Misto could zap himself out quick enough," Coricopat assured her.
"So...where'd they go?" Munkustrap asked again, looking out across the street.
Coricopat frowned and closed his eyes. "The airport," he announced finally.
"The...airport?"
The dark tom nodded. "And if we want to fins Alta...that's where we should go, too."
The group looked at each other for a moment before they were off again, this time heading for the large airport. It was a long trip.
Alta watched as the sun dawned over the airport. She hadn't moved from the spot she had assumed after realizing what her mother's song had meant, and she intended to stay there.
Misto and Engle turned the corner and saw her there, curled up with her head resting on her knee. Engle felt faint. "I can't do this," he muttered, starting to back away. Misto had explained the whole situation to him on the way.
Misto sighed. "Sure you can. If you don't, she goes back to the patched boy scout," he muttered, casting a glance over his shoulder. They were coming....
Engle nodded. "Right....come with me?" he begged.
"Sure. I'll come. Let's just get this over with," Misto said, half-pushing the larger tom toward the fence.
Alta stirred and looked up as they drew closer. Seeing her eyes as they looked made Engle falter. They were still enormous and dark blue, but they were empty. Devoid of feeling. Even the terror...it was gone.
Misto saw it too and nearly cried. Alta's eyes wee always full of SOMETHING, but now...they were flat. Still....he knew that she had decided, and that she knew now. What she knew, Misto didn't know, but there was a slender chance...
Engle fell onto his knees about two feet from Alta. "Alta, I...." His voice cracked and he looked swiftly at the ground. "Oh, Bast, I'm so sorry! I don't care what you do with me....let them kill me for all I care! I wanted you...needed you to know that I never stopped loving you....never! It was the alcohol, it was! Sorry doesn't begin to say...it wasn't me, I swear! Alta..." she cut him off by edging forward slightly.
"Engle...." She said softly, laughter starting to edge her quavering voice. "Whatever happens and whatever you need to say, you always need to look me in the eye."
He looked up then, his golden eyes meeting her blue. Her eyes weren't blank anymore, but full of something...something he hadn't seen since he was young. He nearly broke down, but he swallowed hard and continued on.
"Alta....oh, Bast, this is going to come out sounding like a cheesy Hallmark greeting card, but.....I love you, I truly do." He reached past her to where the circlet lay on the ground. She had flung it away during some point of the night, and he picked it up gently, almost crying. She had kept it through everything that happened....he came back around and held it out to her.
"Altaica....I love you more now than I ever have before," he began, turning the circlet over in his paws. "And I understand completely if you hate me and would love seeing me dead in the street....but...if you want...." He sighed deeply. "We could just be...Engle and Alta again...Empress."
Alta reached out, touching his face gently with her paws. "There will be no Empire, no drinking, no drugs, no catnip," she began.
"None," he said, looking up at her, begging.
"Just...." She swallowed hard. "Just us."
"Just us," Engle whispered, bringing the circlet up to rest it on her head. "Empress."
`"Engle," she whispered, the tears in her eyes overflowing as she felt his embrace again. It had been too long since he was himself...too long since she had loved him, even though she always had. She heard an amplified sniff from partway down the hill, and they broke apart, laughing.
Misto wiped his eyes. "What? Can't I cry too?"
"Of course you can," Alta said, going over to hug him, also.
Misto grinned cheekily and pretended to faint, causing more laughs.
"Uh-oh..." Engle said suddenly from the fence.
"Spaghettiohs," Alta and Misto added in a monotone.
That stopped Engle for a moment. "Say what?"
Alta waved a paw. "You'll understand at the Junkyard. What's the problem?"
Engle pointed. "We've got company...."
The search party was coming around the corner, a wave of Jellicles perfectly willing to tear Engle to shreds. Alta and Misto stood slowly, and Engle hefted the sack. Misto took it form him with a smile.
"They won't attack me, but they will you," Misto explained as the wave came to a stop at the bottom of the hill.
Engle stepped down to stand beside Alta. He took her paw and squeezed it gently. She sighed. "I guess it's time to face the music..."
Engle smiled. "Misto, you go first...." The smaller tom nodded and started down the hill.
"Facing the music is better with two than one," Engle said, helping Alta down the hill. "Empress."
Alta nodded and lifted her head. One of the sapphire teardrops caught the light of the rising sun, and a gasp echoed through the crowd. Ocenir at front looked furious.
"Come, Engle....I think we owe an explanation."
He smiled and they came to a stop before the crowd. It would be hard to explain, and many wouldn't understand...but Misto did, and Munkustrap looked as if he knew and accepted it, and Ocenir would some day. Alta paused before speaking to collect her thoughts.
'Thank you, Mamma....it all worked out for me as well,' she thought before beginning to address her Tribe.
Author's note: Okie, Alta, Engle, Ocenir, Sarge, and Trista are MIIIINE, Ruffles and Truffles belong to L and Mell, the rest belong to RUG. The song is called I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables, and....well, enjoy!
Alta rolled over, smiling in her sleep. A sliver of light shone through the opening of the pipe, but it wasn't enough to merit the start of another day. Her paw crept to the circlet that rested beside her head and she sat bolt upright, suddenly wide-awake.
"Sarge?" she half-whispered in the dew of the morning.
"Alta!!" he sounded weak, and the connection wasn't strong. She placed her head in her paws, fighting to strengthen the thread.
"What happened to you? Are you alright?" she said both in her mind and aloud. Outside, Misto paused as he passed by the pipe on his early-morning rounds.
His voice started fading "I...fine....Trist....she's hurt, Alta....she needs you...."
"SARGE!" she cried, fighting with all her strength to reconnect. "SARGE! Who's got you?! SARGE!"
"Can't.....Alta....come ho.." the connection broke. Alta hung her head, allowing tears to fall down her cheeks.
"Sarge...." She whispered, staring out of the pipe entrance. She jumped when she saw a black-and0white face peek around the corner.
"Hey, Alta," Misto said, picking his way into the pipe. "What's wrong?"
"It's Sarge....he got through to me somehow, but it was too weak...it broke off," she muttered, fingering the circlet lightly.
"What did he say?"
Alta took a deep breath. "He said....that Trista's hurt, and she needs me....his last words were 'come home'."
Misto sighed. "That bites," he said simply, and Alta had to nod. They sat in silence for a few moments before Alta looked up at Misto again.
"Why'd you come here so early, Misto?"
He sighed. "Well, Munkus told me about the...whole....Engle thing that you told him....hope you don't mind."
"As long as the world doesn't know, I don't really care," she said flatly, looking over Misto's shoulder, out of the pipe.
He nodded. "Right. Well...did you think about...you know...?"
She locked eyes with him and when she spoke, it was in a whisper. "Did I think about whether or not I still love him? Yes.....and I'm still not certain. I mean...everything he did....but I think I stayed because I could remember him before..."
Misto frowned. "But what about Ocenir?"
Alta turned on him, her eyes blazing. "What about him?"
Misto was taken aback, to say the least. "It's obvious that he adores you....." he said, as though speaking to a three-year-old.
Alta rolled her eyes. "Haven't you heard? Love's a two-way street."
Misto laughed, the laugh of someone who couldn't believe what they were hearing. "And you truly think that with Engle you had a two-way street? Open your eyes, Alta! He's dead and he never loved you!"
Alta froze and her shoulders stiffened. Misto groaned. "Alta, I'm sorry.."
"Get. Out." He had never heard her voice so cold. He backed toward the entrance, tripping over the blanket.
"Alta, I didn't.."
"OUT!" she screamed, whirling around with her claws extended. Misto fairly flew down the junkpile.
Back in the pipe, Alta sat down heavily. What had she almost done? He was probably right....why spoil what she had?
What did she have, really? A few friends, the awe of the Tribe....the kits, she thought, a smile coming to her lips. Ruffles and Truffles...nobody could make her laugh more than those two. And then there was Ocenir. Ocenir...who ever knew what was going on in his mind? He was closed up tighter than a tomb. Maybe he did adore her, but she was merely grateful to him for helping her so many times.
She stood, reaching for a small sack. That's all she felt...gratitude. She wouldn't put him through that, she decided, beginning to place items in the sack. That's the most she could do for him...spare him some torture of the heart.
She tied the neck of the sack into a tight knot before flinging it over her shoulder. A note...she should leave a note, she decided.
Grabbing a broken ballpoint pen and a sheet of paper, she began to write.
Across town, Engle smiled grimly. His recovery had gone well...stupid Jellicles, thinking that they could finish off the one and only Engle by merely dumping him in a pond! Horrendous imaginations...lacking brutality, he thought as he stood.
He had made mistakes, he knew that now. He hadn't treated Altaica like she deserved to be treated. She truly was an Empress, he mused as he set off toward the Junkyard. She deserved to be treated like one...deserved his apology, even if he never said that he was sorry before...he was sorry now. He knew that he deserved to die....and that he should have, but he wouldn't...couldn't...not until she knew.
I don't even care if she kills me on the spot, he mused as he carefully crossed a street. At least I'll die near her...
Alta folded the note once, placing it in the center of the pipe. There, she thought. Nobody can miss it.
She turned and left the pipe, staying in the shadows, heading for the airport.
A soft knock sounded on the side of the empty pipe some time later. "Alta?" Ocenir asked, poking his head in.
She wasn't there, but there was a single sheet of paper lying in the middle of the floor. He frowned and walked over, thinking that she had dropped it. He picked it up, and the idea started worming its way into his mind that she hadn't dropped it...she had left it.
He sat on the blanket, unfolding the paper as he did so. He read it and his eyes grew wide. He leapt to his feet, the sheet of paper clutched in his paws. "MUNKUSTRAP!"
The silver tabby looked up as Ocenir burst from Alta's pipe. The silver tabby looked up from where he was talking to Demeter. "What's wrong, 'Cenir?"
"THIS!" Ocenir cried, shoving the paper under Munkustrap's nose. Munkus pushed it away a little for his eyes to adjust and began to read Alta's slanted handwriting.
He looked up from the paper to see Ocenir standing there, anxious. He then turned to face the rest of the Jellicles that were in the yard at that point in time. "Has anyone spoken with Alta since last night?"
Misto raised a paw. "I did, this morning. Early."
"What did she say?"
The black-and-white tom shrugged. "Sarge had gotten through somehow....said that Trista was hurt and needed Alta's help."
Ocenir turned to Misto. "They're alive?"
"Apparently. According to what Alta said, Trista needs help pretty badly. She wouldn't have gone to the wharves this time...she'd be going to the airport."
Munkustrap nodded and was about to organize the Tribe into groups when a shout from the fence made them run over.
Alonzo was attempting to keep a much larger black tom from entering the junkyard. Ocenir felt a growl low in his throat. "Engle! What are you doing here....not to mention doing alive?" he spat, motioning for some kittens to stay back.
Of course, Ruffles and Truffles never listen anyway.
"Hi uncie scary kitty-katty!" Truffles said, innocently bouncing around Ocenir.
Ruffles appeared out of nowhere, surveying him from all angles. "HE'S A BOMB-LIKE OBJECT! TAKE COVEEEEEEER!"
Truffles gasped and ran up a tree. Ruffles found a hacksaw and began to cut the tree down. "Take cover means hit the ground, you eejit!"
Truffles hit the ground....with the tree on top of her.
While Tugger cautiously checked to see if the kits were okay, Munkustrap turned back to Engle. "If you've come for Alta, you're too late."
Engle frowned. "What do you mean, too late? She's not dead, is she?"
Misto slipped through the crowd, heading back to where Munkustrap had dropped the note. Nobody noticed. Ocenir spoke to Engle again.
"No, not dead. Gone. Besides, even if she were here, we wouldn't let you within ten feet of her. What do you think, boys? Should we kill him here and now?"
Engle sighed and looked away. "Then I'm too late."
"Too late to kill her? You bet..."
Engle whipped around and glared at the insolent patched tom, who flinched. "No, not to kill her, you twisted little boy!"
Ocenir growled again, and Munkustrap grabbed his arm before he did something rather stupid. "Then what?" the tabby asked kindly, shooting a warning glance at Ocenir.
"To...make it up to her, somehow?"
Ocenir laughed, a hard, metallic sound. "How were you gonna manage that one, big fella? Suicide?"
Engle shrugged. "Sounds good to me about now."
Misto crept away from the small gathering on the edge of the yard, hoping that the wind hadn't gotten a chance to blow the note away.
He found it about three or four feet from where Munkus had set it down. A light wind had blown it against a toaster. Misto grabbed the note and climbed into a detergent box for privacy while he read it.
"Dear friends,
I've decided to leave. Don't come after me, please, someone back home needs my help. I may come back someday, but Misto was right...I've been stupid. I need to get away, and I suppose that home is the only place to go. I love you all very much, and I'll never forget you.
-Altaica.
p.s. Tugger, watch out for Ruffles and Truffles for me."
Misto sighed and folded the note. "I wasn't right, I was wrong," he murmured before climbing out of the box. "And she isn't going alone."
Alta was nearing the airport when another connection broke through to her. "Alta!" Sarge's mind-voice called again for the second time that day.
"SARGE! I'm coming!"
"NO! Alta, don't! Trista's fine, he made me say that..."
"WHO? Who made you, Sarge? SARGE?"
"Alta...." Was all he said before the connection was broken again.
"Sarge..." she whispered, dropping the sack with her belongings. She sat by the fence, looking up at the runway. She could go home still...she was so close, and Misto was right....or...
She looked over her shoulder in the direction of the junkyard. Was Boston still her home? She'd been away for so long...a year at least! Would she still know her way around?
She sat by the fence, staying in place although the sun was setting. Where should she go? Engle was still alive....she could feel it in her bones...and in her heart.
"Do I love him?" she whispered to the stars. She bowed her head, tears flowing into the thick fur at her neck. "Yes...."
She sat there for a long time, not caring if anyone came for her. She could become one of the strays, or find a wealthy owner. Something. Anything.
She started talking to herself. "Maybe I really am going insane.....maybe nobody does care," she said, watching the progress of the newest plane down the runway. She remembered things from long ago....she remembered songs that her mother had taught her in her childhood. One was especially prominent.... "Mama sang it a lot," she said, remembering with a smile.
She stood, hefting the sack once more, walking down the fence. She dragged her fingers along the chain links, looking to the stars as she began to sing.
"There was a time when men were kind.
When their voices were soft and their words inviting.
There was a time when love was blind
when the world was a song and the song was exciting...
there was a time, then it all went wrong!
"I dreamed a dream in time gone by.
When hope was high and life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die!
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.
"Then I was young and unafraid
and dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung no wine untasted.
"But the tigers come at night
with their voices soft as thunder
as they tear your hope apart
as thy tear your dream to shame!
"He slept a summer by my side
he filled my days with endless wonder
he took my childhood in his stride
but he was gone when autumn came!
"And still I dream he'll come to me!
That we will live the years together
but there are dreams that cannot be
and there are storms we cannot weather...
"I had a dream my life would be so different
from this hell I'm living, so different
now from what it seemed!
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed....."
She sat with her back to the fence, tears flowing down her cheeks once more. "Mamma, did you know?" she whispered harshly, looking to the sky once more. "Did you know that what happened to you would happen to me, too?"
It was dark at the Junkyard, also. Engle wanted to help search for Alta, but Ocenir put it rather bluntly that he was going to do no such thing. Misto stayed behind, also...nobody noticed.
The search parties had left, some towards the inner city and some towards the docks. Nobody left for the airport. Engle sat in a corner of the Junkyard...nobody noticed. Misto crept over to him and sat beside him.
"Where's she gone?" Engle asked quietly, his voice choked with unknown tears.
Misto bowed his head with a sigh. Wearily, he rubbed his temples. "I believe that she's gone to the airport....but nobody believes me, and I'm not sure if she's gone already...."
Engle sprang to his feet. "Well, we can check, can't we?" he asked, almost eagerly.
Misto rose more slowly. "Yes, I suppose we could..." he said, and the two departed.
It was nearing dawn when the search parties left the docks empty-handed. A sliver of red light was on the horizon when the parties met again at the Junkyard.
"Where's Misto?" Munkustrap asked, looking around the sleeping Junkyard.
"For that matter, where's Engle?" Ocenir asked sharply.
"You don't think that Engle...." Tantomile began.
"Nah, Misto could zap himself out quick enough," Coricopat assured her.
"So...where'd they go?" Munkustrap asked again, looking out across the street.
Coricopat frowned and closed his eyes. "The airport," he announced finally.
"The...airport?"
The dark tom nodded. "And if we want to fins Alta...that's where we should go, too."
The group looked at each other for a moment before they were off again, this time heading for the large airport. It was a long trip.
Alta watched as the sun dawned over the airport. She hadn't moved from the spot she had assumed after realizing what her mother's song had meant, and she intended to stay there.
Misto and Engle turned the corner and saw her there, curled up with her head resting on her knee. Engle felt faint. "I can't do this," he muttered, starting to back away. Misto had explained the whole situation to him on the way.
Misto sighed. "Sure you can. If you don't, she goes back to the patched boy scout," he muttered, casting a glance over his shoulder. They were coming....
Engle nodded. "Right....come with me?" he begged.
"Sure. I'll come. Let's just get this over with," Misto said, half-pushing the larger tom toward the fence.
Alta stirred and looked up as they drew closer. Seeing her eyes as they looked made Engle falter. They were still enormous and dark blue, but they were empty. Devoid of feeling. Even the terror...it was gone.
Misto saw it too and nearly cried. Alta's eyes wee always full of SOMETHING, but now...they were flat. Still....he knew that she had decided, and that she knew now. What she knew, Misto didn't know, but there was a slender chance...
Engle fell onto his knees about two feet from Alta. "Alta, I...." His voice cracked and he looked swiftly at the ground. "Oh, Bast, I'm so sorry! I don't care what you do with me....let them kill me for all I care! I wanted you...needed you to know that I never stopped loving you....never! It was the alcohol, it was! Sorry doesn't begin to say...it wasn't me, I swear! Alta..." she cut him off by edging forward slightly.
"Engle...." She said softly, laughter starting to edge her quavering voice. "Whatever happens and whatever you need to say, you always need to look me in the eye."
He looked up then, his golden eyes meeting her blue. Her eyes weren't blank anymore, but full of something...something he hadn't seen since he was young. He nearly broke down, but he swallowed hard and continued on.
"Alta....oh, Bast, this is going to come out sounding like a cheesy Hallmark greeting card, but.....I love you, I truly do." He reached past her to where the circlet lay on the ground. She had flung it away during some point of the night, and he picked it up gently, almost crying. She had kept it through everything that happened....he came back around and held it out to her.
"Altaica....I love you more now than I ever have before," he began, turning the circlet over in his paws. "And I understand completely if you hate me and would love seeing me dead in the street....but...if you want...." He sighed deeply. "We could just be...Engle and Alta again...Empress."
Alta reached out, touching his face gently with her paws. "There will be no Empire, no drinking, no drugs, no catnip," she began.
"None," he said, looking up at her, begging.
"Just...." She swallowed hard. "Just us."
"Just us," Engle whispered, bringing the circlet up to rest it on her head. "Empress."
`"Engle," she whispered, the tears in her eyes overflowing as she felt his embrace again. It had been too long since he was himself...too long since she had loved him, even though she always had. She heard an amplified sniff from partway down the hill, and they broke apart, laughing.
Misto wiped his eyes. "What? Can't I cry too?"
"Of course you can," Alta said, going over to hug him, also.
Misto grinned cheekily and pretended to faint, causing more laughs.
"Uh-oh..." Engle said suddenly from the fence.
"Spaghettiohs," Alta and Misto added in a monotone.
That stopped Engle for a moment. "Say what?"
Alta waved a paw. "You'll understand at the Junkyard. What's the problem?"
Engle pointed. "We've got company...."
The search party was coming around the corner, a wave of Jellicles perfectly willing to tear Engle to shreds. Alta and Misto stood slowly, and Engle hefted the sack. Misto took it form him with a smile.
"They won't attack me, but they will you," Misto explained as the wave came to a stop at the bottom of the hill.
Engle stepped down to stand beside Alta. He took her paw and squeezed it gently. She sighed. "I guess it's time to face the music..."
Engle smiled. "Misto, you go first...." The smaller tom nodded and started down the hill.
"Facing the music is better with two than one," Engle said, helping Alta down the hill. "Empress."
Alta nodded and lifted her head. One of the sapphire teardrops caught the light of the rising sun, and a gasp echoed through the crowd. Ocenir at front looked furious.
"Come, Engle....I think we owe an explanation."
He smiled and they came to a stop before the crowd. It would be hard to explain, and many wouldn't understand...but Misto did, and Munkustrap looked as if he knew and accepted it, and Ocenir would some day. Alta paused before speaking to collect her thoughts.
'Thank you, Mamma....it all worked out for me as well,' she thought before beginning to address her Tribe.