Chapter 10

The others had long since left in search for prey, leaving Munkustrap alone to fume about his injury and the limitations it opposed upon him. When he thought he could take it no more he spotted two fluffy, long eared gray rabbits nibbling on something that lay on the ground. With an evil smile he carefully got up, quietly rummaged through his baggage, and got out his hunting knife. He chased and quickly caught one, but when he went after another it sprinted away farther in to the woods. He ran after it muttering a curse then gave up when it plunged out of sight down in to a hole. He cursed again then turned to go back when his gaze fell upon a clothed figure a short distance away. Silently and cautiously he made his way to it.


~*~

Mistoffelees and Bombalurina advanced slowly. The large rather elegant horned, tan colored animal they were stalking would do nicely for a couple days meal. It looked something like an animal they hunted for food on their world, only this animal was far more beautiful and not as large. It chewed on the grass and the leaves it found looking around it every now and then for signs of danger, unaware danger was in fact a breath away.

Bombalurina looked at Mistoffelees who was hidden behind a tree and some shrubbery. He nodded and raised his spear into an attack position, as Bombalurina readied her crossbow. They waited mercifully for it to seem as though it had finished it's last meal then they sprinted out of hiding setting the animal into a startled run.

"Fast isn't it?" Bombalurina yelled to Mistoffelees who was running beside her.

"Yeah, but in this denseness not fast enough!!!" he called back then with a determined look on his face shot past her. She stopped her running with a shake of her head and a willingness to catch her breath. She knew she's never catch up him now.

Mistoffelees turned a corner and threw the spear at it launching himself on it at the same time, bringing it down to the ground in a painful struggle. With two clean swipes of his retractable claws he ended its misery with a slit to the throat. He got off of it feeling stiff and achy suddenly as the last convulsions charged through it. Bombalurina came walking to him a few minutes later as he sank to the ground to catch his breath and let the adrenaline wear off. He faced her with a confused _expression when he noticed she was carrying two long eared, large hind-legged, fluffy tailed, bloody and obviously dead objects.

"Where's you get that?" he asked eyeing them as he got up to stand.

"Well while you were chasing this... this... ah, whatever it is, I saw these over by some shrubbery. They're fast too, but a little more stupid." She answered holding the grey furry objects up to eye level. She took out a metal wire from her pocket that had a hook on it, wrapped the rabbits together at the ears with it and hooked it to her hunting belt.

"Here, help me with this thing. We need to get back to camp." Mistoffelees said grabbing its front legs. But Bombalurina didn't take the other half; instead she just stood staring in front of her. A building, white with wooden like paneling and windows and doors. It resembled the homes they had at home.

"Is that a house, do you think?" she asked Mistoffelees in wonder.

"I think so. HIDE!" he yelped as an auburn haired boy burst out of one of the doors and ran past the wood. Slowly they came out of hiding when he was safely out of sight.

"Was that a human?" she asked eyes wide.

"It appeared to be..." Mistoffelees stated with a puzzled look on his face.

"Rambunctious little kitten, wasn't he? Do you think all humans are like that?" she asked.

"I hope not. It's enough to give you heart failure. We'd better get back to Munkustrap." he told her, then picked up the legs once more, looked around for landmarks. He made a mental note of a few strange trees and shrubs. The two then hurriedly walked back to the campsite carrying their meal. When they returned, Munkustrap was no where to be found. "Now where'd he get to?" Mistoffelees exclaimed, clearly annoyed.

"Well, you know Munk; he can't stand not being helpful. He probably went hunting himself..." unable to finish her sentence as she looked up to her left, she saw Munkustrap coming towards them with a large Jellicle like object in his arms. Two more of the furry small animals hung from his hunting belt.

"What is that?" Bombalurina asked.

Munkustrap came to them and lay the object down gently on the blankets that he and Bombalurina occupied the night before as two came over to look at it. Munkustrap pulled away some straight auburn hair covering it's face, revealing a furless human face. They looked it over some more when all at once their attention was drawn to a necklace that hung about her neck. It had a pendant with the decorations of the moon and stars.

"It's our human. " Munkustrap replied tensely.

"We can't be sure of that. We haven't even watched her yet to see if she is the one we're looking for." Mistoffelees said, unable to believe they could have found her so fast.

"Then why don't we take her back to the house we saw and put her in to her room so she can sleep there, then we can sit back and observe? She'll catch something out here in this cold weather." Bombalurina suggested.

"What house?" Munkustrap asked confused.

"We'll tell you as we make ourselves more, ah..." Mistoffelees said looking at his dirty, blood-stained clothes, "presentable."

The toms nodded at Bombalurina's suggestion, then set about making themselves more presentable after they stored their prey into a safe hiding place in a hollowed tree. The queen and tom told their comrade about the house they found earlier, all the while keeping an eye out for other humans. Munkustrap then exchanged the information with how he found this human girl asleep on the edge of the wood.

After making their way back, they happily found the young woman still asleep. So they carefully started making their way back to the house, the two toms taking turns carrying her, because of Munkustrap's concussion. Mistoffelees was the last to carry her, despite Munkustrap's protests. Mistoffelees wanted to carry her the whole way for Munkustrap's benefit but he knew since the grey tabby had found her he felt the bulk of the responsibility to her. As they approached the house they kept on the alert for others, then made their way through the house and up the stairs. Out of pure, dumb luck they guessed the correct bedroom that she slept in. It struck them as odd and in a way relieving that the walls and floor didn't change color to reflect their moods as they moved through the interior.

Mistoffelees gently laid her on the bed and stepped away to get a better look at her. "She really is quite beautiful isn't she?" he asked more to himself.

But both agreed with him. Then out of curiosity about the human's surroundings started to explore her bedroom.

Munkustrap closed the door to the room when it became apparent that it did not close itself and started looking at the pictures and trinkets in her room. She had several pictures of kitlings on the walls and on shelves, as well as pictures of other humans in pink-laced shoes poised in dance positions. There were also posters of what looked like themselves from the musical "CATS," and various others of the same kind.

Bombalurina explored her wardrobe. The most interesting thing she found was what looked like a holder for a woman's breasts. After thinking it to be rather impractical and uncomfortable, she started looking at her other clothes and the designs that they boasted of on their material.

Mistoffelees took immediate interest in her books. She had some books on kitlings, though they were referred to as cats. To his amusement he found out as he rummaged through their pages that humans actually bred kitlings to look a certain way. //At least they can still have children.// He was lost in his thought when another book that lay next to the bed the human slept in caught his eye. It was intricately decorated on the front, with a flower of some sort on it. He walked over and picked it up, then opened it and read, "Beauty and the Beast." Curious, he looked at the first page and nearly dropped it out of shock at what he saw. His loud gasp of surprise made the other two Jellicles look up in worry.

"What's wrong?" Munkustrap asked as he stepped over to Mistoffelees side to look at the book. "Oh! By Heavyside!" he exclaimed next.

"WHAT?" Bombalurina demanded as she watched the two toms flip through the pages, read a couple lines, then stare at the book.

"Look," Mistoffelees told her handing her the book.

She took one look at the page they left it at and her mouth dropped open, her breath escaping her. Catching it again, she cried in disbelief, "This... this is... Siro's writing!"

All three in unison stared at the human who lay comfortably curled up in a mess of blankets and pillows.

"How'd this get here?" she asked hoping in vain for an answer.

"Don't know." Mistoffelees mumbled feeling a headache coming on. He sat down on the bed rubbing his temples then suddenly felt the girl's leg lightly brush against his scared back as she began to rouse. He yelped in pain and surprise before he could catch himself and stood up. The three stared at the girl in alarm. Slowly, they saw her open her eyes.

The first thing Sierra saw was her bedroom ceiling. Her brow creased in confusion. As she stretched a little and sat up she looked to her side where she thought she had seen out of the corner of her eye something unfamiliar there. Her eyes widened as her mouth opened to form words that didn't come out. Three half-human, half-feline people were standing and staring in front of her. Her eyes darted from one to the other. One was tall, with a pelt of silver and black stripes. Another was a female that boasted of curves to her shape with a fiery red coat to match. The last was black and white, and of the three the smallest built. All three wore clothing like those she'd seen male ballet dancers wear in the ballet version of "Romeo and Juliet," absent the swords. Finally, the black and white one spoke.

"We won't hurt you. Please don't be frightened. I know you're confused and scared but ah...." he seemed to be searching for what more he could say.

But for some reason Sierra realized she wasn't frightened. Confused and shocked but not scared. She found, that just like in the musical she so dearly loved, these cat people were beautiful and graceful. Her instincts were also telling her to trust them. So finally finding speech again, she stopped the tom's stuttering.

"I'm not frightened. Confused and shocked yes, but not frightened." She extended her hand out to them. "I'm Sierra."

The grey tabby took the invitation and stepped forward to grasp her hand gently. Only apparently they were not familiar with the handshake. He took it and brushed his cheek against it like a cat would.

"I'm Munkustrap. This is Bombalurina and Mistoffelees," the grey one said indicating the other two.

"Munkustrap? Bombalurina? Mistoffelees?" she repeated and laughed as if she thought they were joking. "You mean like in the musical CATS?"

"Yes! Do you know it?" Bombalurina asked having not noticed the poster on the wall. She sat down on the bed in front of Sierra, her tail twitching in delight.

"Yeah. It's my favorite musical. How can you be them? I mean it's not real...", Sierra asked looking from face to face, "is it?"

"No, at least not most of it. You see, we ARE called Jellicles and our names, fur patterns, and personalities for the most part are the same as the characters. But other than some other terms we use nothing else in it is. You see, we are not of your world." Mistoffelees explained carefully watching to see how she was taking each new piece of information.

"Not from my world? How?" she asked.

"We are from a planet called Tranon. On our world Pollicles and Jellicles do exist." he replied.

"I see, then how did TS Eliot and Andrew Lloyd Webber come to know about you? You visit them or something?" she asked hardly believing her ears.

"Sort of. Only... well... you know that theory you humans have about hearing something over and over again in your sleep then having it memorized the next day?" Munkustrap asked.

"Yeah?" she asked and answered in one, not sure where they were going with this.

"Well, it works. The true elements are what we planted in to the heads of the known parties."

"And when it became a musical, how did you arrange the costume designs and such to be correct?" she asked.

"Well, when the color designs came up for the costumes we sorta adapted them just by happening to leave patterns of our own design in the costume departments final drafts. Except for a few brief excerpts which were also achieved through sleep through method, the music is totally Webber's." Mistoffelees explained. "Over all both composers are the workers of the final conception of the products you know today. We just helped them out a little bit. You see, I'm a good example. In the musical I'm some sort of magical cat who shoots lighting bolts and blows stuff up. But I'm not really magical.

"No. But he IS magically smart..." Munkustrap replied rolling his eyes, as Mistoffelees shot him a dirty look.

"I see." Sierra said, hardly believing a word of it. But then she looked at the people in front of her. There was nothing fake about their eyes, ears, fur, claws, or tails. They were real, so it had to be true.

"Mistoffelees took the book from Bombalurina. "Where'd you get this?"

"My mother found it in the garage's attic, along with this necklace." She tugged the necklace out for all to see as she answered. "Why?"

They looked at each other and shifted in their places uncomfortably before Munkustrap answered, "You see, everything in this book is true."

Sierra couldn't believe it. It must have showed for Bombalurina looked around then spoke up to try and change the subject. "Um, we left some food in the forest. Before we go into a long explanation and possibly interrogations, I suggest we eat first." Bombalurina got up as she spoke then whispered to the toms." You can ask her about herself along the way." then started out the door hoping they got the hint.