Title: Tangled
Author: Eruanne
Disclaimer: CATS belong to T.S. Elliot & Andrew Lloyd Webber. Not mine... never mine. So don't remind me.
Summary: Misto tries that trick again where he's lowered from the top of the Junkyard on a piece of magical string... and it doesn't quite work the way it should. My first humor fic, so be nice! And review!
A/N: This is my entry for Mystitat's Fanfiction Contest!
Victoria, and Electra wandered listlessly around the Junkyard. They were feeling bored. Really bored. Jennyanydots was busy with her mice, who seemed to be having some problems with the new crocheting design she was teaching them. Skimbleshanks had to go back to the train station for some emergency. Jellylorum basically was busy. In short, there was no one to go to for entertainment.
"I'm so bored," sighed Electra, stretching out on top of the car boot. Etcetera climbed up to her, while Victoria and Jemima stayed below.
"Tell me about it," said Etcetera, yawning. It was already late afternoon, but there were very few cats in the Junkyard. Victoria nodded and looked around the area, searching for something, anything, that she could play with.
Victoria found a rather torn rainbow-colored ribbon. It was the one that Mr. Mistoffelees had conjured at the last Jellicle Ball. During that time, the ribbon was bright and clean, and shimmered with glitter. But now, several weeks after, the ribbon was dusty, faded, and had several holes in it, caused by the claws of the excited kittens who had played with it.
Jemima padded over to her friend, and listlessly twirled the ribbon through her claws. Suddenly she had a brainstorm.
"I have an idea!" she said excitedly. "Let's go over to Misto! Maybe he can do some magic tricks for us. I'm pretty sure he won't mind."
Etcetera gave a meow of approval, and slid off the car boot, Electra just behind her. Victoria abandoned the ribbon and quickly followed Jemima.
OOOOOOO
The search for the tuxedo cat didn't take long. The four kittens found Mr. Mistoffelees, along with his best friend the Rum Tum Tugger, in a back alley not far from the Junkyard. The two toms were surprised to see them.
"Hello, ladies," Tugger greeted them, suave as always. Misto, being his typically shy self, simply waved and smiled. The kittens waved back.
"Hi, Misto," Jemima said. "Hey, we were just wondering... would you mind doing a few magic tricks for us? Nothing really spectacular, just a few tricks."
The other three kittens joined in.
"Yes, please, Misto?"
"Please? It's not much..."
"Aww, come on..."
Misto smiled, and nodded. "Of course, my pleasure." The kittens smiled their thanks and sat down on the concrete floor of the alley, excited for the show of the Conjuring Cat to begin.
OOOOOOO
Misto began by making his ebony fur suddenly shimmer with glitter-like lights. The kittens meowed in awe, and clapped their paws in appreciation. Their eyes sparkled, eagerly waiting for the next trick.
Over the next ten minutes, Misto performed a variety of tricks. He made a bright red flower appear in Tugger's mane (which made the Maine Coone look rather odd), made little bolts of lightning sparkle from his paws, magicked bells onto the kittens' collars, and a lot more. Each trick made the kittens purr in pleasure and amusement.
"Hey, Mist," Tugger suddenly said, while removing the red flower from his mane and teasingly placing it in Misto's head fur. "Why not do that cute thing where you come down from the top of the Junkyard on a piece of thread? That would be fun."
"Sure, okay, Tugger. Just take this flower from my fur; it kind of makes me look effeminate," Misto said, grinning, and he pulled out the flower again and stuck it into the curl in Tugger's head fur. Tugger rolled his eyes, removed it from his fur, and handed it to Etcetera, who accepted it with an ecstatic squeal.
Suddenly, Misto vanished in a shimmer of gold and silver sparkles, but they soon heard his soft voice somewhere above them, whispering a sort of spell. Probably to conjure up the string.
This being Tugger's cue, he stepped toward to the kittens, and in a loud, showman kind of voice voice, proclaimed, "I give you, the mystical, magical... Mr. Mistoffelees!"
Then, down came Misto, holding onto a sparkling silver string. He twirled down like a graceful ballerina, the moonlight making the white of his face and chest glow. Tugger smiled and clapped, and the kittens enthusiastically joined in.
But suddenly, halfway down, Misto stopped descending. "What the heck?" he said, while Tugger looked up, startled with the change in the presentation.
"Tugger, the string is tangled, darn it!" Misto said. He pulled on the string with his left paw in an attempt to untangle it, but instead of loosening, another piece of silver string shot out from the main string and entwined itself in Misto's left paw. Misto let out a meow of surprise.
"Misto, what's going on?" Tugger asked, concerned now. More pieces of string were blossoming out of the original silver string, wrapping themselves around Misto's limbs. The kittens were no longer smiling; their grins had been replaced with looks of worry, as they watched Misto attempt to get his limbs untangled from the string.
"I don't know, Tugger! This is really creepy, this has never happened before! Maybe I got the spell wrong or something," Misto said, his voice quivery from fear.
But as the scene unfolded, the kittens couldn't help but giggle, as this was a highly amusing situation that they didn't expect.
"This is cool," Electra whispered to a giggling Jemima. "Misto looks like a cat puppet."
Jemima nodded. "And, you know, it kind of looks like, you know..." Her voice was soon lost in a wave of giggles, but Electra got exactly what she meant.
"How long do you think he's going to be stuck up there?" Etcetera whispered. Victoria chuckled, leaving the answer to Etcetera's imagination.
OOOOOOO
Etcetera and Victoria suddenly shrieked, as they saw the strings seem to loosen. "The string's getting untangled, Misto!" shouted Electra. A look of relief appeared on the black tom's face as he hear this.
Tugger quickly moved underneath the place where Misto was dangling from. "Just hang on a bit, Mist, I'm sure the string will loosen. I'll catch you when it does. Just hang on."
"That's a really weird thing to say, Tugger. 'Just hang on.' I'm tied up with strings and dangling 10 feet from the ground, and you tell me to 'hang on.'" Misto said cynically. Tugger allowed a grin.
Then, all of a sudden, without warning, the string gave and Misto fell with a crash, right on top of Tugger. The strings wound around their limbs and in their fur.
"Oww..." Misto moaned as he rolled off Tugger, but found that he couldn't get up. The silvery string was still wound firmly around his body, as well as Tugger's. The two toms tugged at the string, but it would not loosen at all. In fact, it seemed to get even tighter.
"Aargh... this is a really great situation you got me in, Misto," murmured Tugger while trying to get the string unwound from his leg. "Not only is this string mussing up my fur, you're cutting off my air supply."
Misto gave a weak grin and decided to concentrate on getting the string untangled. Slowly but surely, they made some progress.
OOOOOOO
The kittens sprang up to help them. They clawed desperately at the string with their sharp little claws, and after a while, the string began to loosen and fell away from the two toms. They got up from the ground in relief, and thanked the four kittens for their help.
Jemima, Electra, Victoria, and Etcetera smiled and thanked Misto for the um... entertainment. But before they left, Etcetera had one last request.
"Misto, may we keep the string? It's so shiny and pretty," Etcetera asked.
Misto looked uncertain. "Well, okay," he said at last. "But be careful, I'm not sure what else that string can do." Etcetera nodded in thanks and scampered to her friends. After a while, the kittens' retreating backs disappeared around the corner, leaving Misto and Tugger to begin the arduous task of fixing their fur.
OOOOOOO
Etcetera, Jemima, Victoria, and Electra sat down at the car boot, fiddling with the silver thread. "That was fun," commented Jemima, giggling. Soon all the kittens were laughing as they recalled how funny Misto looked dangling above them.
"I wonder what we can do with this string?" Electra said, peering at the string and admiring its silvery luster. Etcetera jumped abruptly, just as she did when she got an idea.
"Let's make some kind of trapeze, like the one I rode at the Jellicle Ball!" Etcetera said excitedly. Jemima and Electra meowed in approval, but Victoria seemed unwilling.
"I don't know, guys," she said. "Didn't Misto say to be careful with this? I don't think it's a really good idea."
"Oh, pooh!" Etcetera exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "I don't think anything weird's gonna happen! Let's go!"
OOOOOOO
Twenty minutes later, four kittens were found tied up with silvery strings, and dangling 10 feet from the car boot.
Fin