Chapter 3: Untangling The Threads


"But Mistoffelees, it's important!" Alyzria pleaded. Mistoffelees sighed. He hated it when his meditation got interrupted, but his affection for the young queen stopped him from throwing her out of his comfortable dwelling.

"Alright, what is it?" he asked, sighing heavily as he sat down on an old, worn sofa. Alyzria grinned happily at her success in making him listen, though a touch of worry could be seen in her creased brow. She grabbed his paw and hoisted the tom up off the sofa with a grunt, and led him out into the sunshine.

"I'd better show you," Alyzria said.


Mistoffelees bent down to examine the tiger-patterned cat more closely. He was startled at the intensity of the burns he saw. The bits of ashy fur next to her made him sneeze violently.

"Well, it's fairly obvious that these are burns."

"Duh," said Tantomile and Alyzria together, rolling their eyes at the informative statement.

"The shape of them is quite unusual though," he continued, frowning as he brushed away some scorched fur.

"What do you mean?" asked Tantomile, who had joined the pair in Jellylorum's den to examine the injured feline.

"Well, see how there's a really badly burnt bit in the middle, then the burns deplete in severity as they radiate outwards?"

Tantomile and Alyzria bent closer to inspect a particularly serious burn on the patient's right forearm and nodded, waiting for more information. The magical cat could be so obscure!

"Well, that's probably because she was hit by a firebolt. The fire hits the flesh, causing the worst of the burn, then diffuses outward as the flames die."

"But if she was hit by a firebolt, then she was fighting a magic cat," said Tantomile.

"Does that mean she could be magic as well?" Alyzria asked.

"There's really no way of knowing until you ask her," Mistoffelees replied, now with his back turned to the patient.

"And even if you did, I wouldn't necessarily answer you," commented the stranger, heaving herself up on the arm that wasn't too badly burnt and staring at the trio with her amber orbs.

"Nice to see you're awake," said Tantomile evenly.

"Just so you don't keep calling me "the tiger-patterned cat" or "the stranger" or "the patient", or anything of that description, my name is Rubena."

Mistoffelees blinked.

"Isn't that the name of a fruit drink that humans have?" he asked. Alyzria swatted him playfully.

"That's Ribena, you silly galoot!" she said, giggling. Rubena grinned.

"That's the first time I've ever been mistaken for a beverage," she commented with a wry smile. Within a few minutes, she had fallen into an exhausted sleep once more.


The black striped silver tabby paced around his den.

"Okay, let me get this straight," he said finally, sitting down on a sheepskin rug. "A tiger striped queen?"

"Rubena," Tantomile interjected.

"Rubena, whatever, came staggering into the Junkyard. She was badly injured, burnt and bleeding profusely. You cleaned her up and put her in the healer's den without consulting myself or Old Deuteronomy?" he asked in astonishment.

"Munkustrap!" Tantomile berated him. "How you could be so callous? She was dying, for Heaviside's sake!"

Munkustrap stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"That's different, I guess. Anyway, we need to speak with Old Deuteronomy before anything more can be done about her wish to become a Jellicle."

Alyzria rolled her eyes. Slowly, as though the leader's son was a rather dim kitten, she began to explain.

"Munkus, Munkus, my dear young kit."

Tantomile snorted.

"She hasn't expressed any wish to become part of the Jellicle tribe. In fact, she hasn't expressed anything much yet because she is unable to stay awake for over a few minutes!"

Munkustrap blinked.

"I didn't realize her injuries were that serious. Well, she can stay until she's up and about, but she'll have be dealt with by Old Deuteronomy when her injuries have healed up."

"Dealt with? You make it sound like she's done something wrong!" Alyzria growled angrily. "I doubt it was even her fault that she got into that fight, or whatever happened to her!"

Tantomile was inclined to agree, though she didn't say as much. Alyzria's mouth could often get her into trouble.

Munkustrap hastily corrected his error.

"What I meant was, she'll have to speak to him and explain what exactly happened, why she's here, and so on."

Alyzria pursed her lips, frowning. Jellylorum, who had kept quiet during this entire discussion, finally spoke up.

"That young queen won't be any state to walk to the Vicarage Wall for quite some time. If she needs to talk to Old Deuteronomy, he'd best come here."

With that, the brown and cream tabby left to tend to her patient.

Munkustrap sighed.

"I'll go and notify our leader that he is needed here."

Alyzria and Tantomile smiled.

"We should go and tell Bombalurina and Coricopat what's going on," said Alyzria, uncharacteristically serious.

Together, the young Siamese and the elder psychic feline went to seek the two cats who had been with them the previous morning.