CHAPTER 5: Discovering Secrets
Tatiana awoke the next morning to squeals of delight. Slightly curious as what could possibly be happening, Tatiana crawled from her bed and ambled on over to the tyre. Before she reached her destination, however, she accidentally sourced the cause of the squeals.
The Maine Coon purposefully swung his hips, paws hooked through a silver belt, as he flirted with the young queens. Every time he so much as moved his hips, Etcetera screamed. When he patted her head, she almost fainted. When he flirted with or touched one of the other kittens, she gave them a deathglare, even though she was close friends with them.
Revolted, Tatiana almost turned away from the sight of Tugger and his flirtatious ways, but stopped when she noticed Munkustrap standing nearby, watching the scene. She giggled when he rolled his eyes.
"'Ard ta believe they're brothers, eh?"
Tatiana jumped, as she hadn't heard the tom come up from behind her. She stared at Mungojerrie blankly. "They are?"
Mungojerrie nodded. "Yeah, oddly enough."
"They certainly are different, then."
There was a few minutes' silence as Tatiana stared at Munkustrap. Amazingly, to anyone who bothered to watch him intently enough, it appeared as though he was trying to suppress…laughter. Tatiana smiled at this. "Brothers?" she repeated disbelievingly as she watched him turn and walk away, shaking his head.
"As Oi soid…"
"I'm starting to feel quite sorry for him," Tatiana said, laughing lightly.
Mungojerrie sighed inwardly. He really liked Munkustrap, but had, of late, found himself becoming rather jealous of him. Blast that Munkustrap. 'E's got the 'andsome looks, the accessible yet protective personality, a moite…and Tatiana's 'eart.
"What's the matter?" Tatiana asked, noticing Mungojerrie looking slightly despondent.
"Nothin'," was the muttered reply.
Tugger had noticed Tatiana nearby and had considered having another shot at softening her, but discarded the idea when Mungojerrie sat down beside her. Little lover tom is protecting her again, eh? he thought, grinning to himself. Ah, well, bide my time and I shall get my chance. Tonight.
And so it was that night that the Rum Tum Tugger sauntered into the forest after Tatiana. "Hey, cutie!" he called cheerfully as he approached Tatiana.
"Oh, no, not you again," Tatiana spat.
Tugger was rather hurt by the way this young queen seemed to loathe him, but he smiled at her nonetheless, turning on his usual charm. "Yes, it's me again. What's a beautiful, young queen doing out here in the middle of the dangerous forest this late at night?" He stuck his hips to the side, his action accentuated by his paws looped through that silver belt.
"What's a foolish, old tom like you doing following me into the middle of a dangerous forest this late at night?" she countered, her patience wearing thin. She crossed her arms and copied his pose mockingly, not realizing that it made her look more attractive to the flirtatious tom than ever.
He purred audibly. "Come here, you sweet little –"
"NO!" Tatiana screamed, scratching his advancing paw.
"Ouch!" Tugger licked the blood from his paw, looking rather bewildered. "What was that for?"
"If you don't know, then you're more stupid than you look," replied Tatiana, her voice shaking with anger and contempt for the repulsive beast towering in front of her.
Tugger's face displayed a look of shock and growing anger. How dare she not like him? How dare she treat him like this and talk to him in this fashion?
However, before he could do anything about it, another voice came from behind Tatiana. "Tugger, I thought we discussed this earlier. Leave her alone."
Tatiana whirled to see Munkustrap standing behind her.
"But I wasn't going to –"
"Tugger." Munkustap's voice was quietly warning. "I've told you. I don't care how much you flirt with the queens, but trying to force someone to like you is going too far. So don't."
Sulking and nursing his injured paw, Tugger stalked off.
Before Tatiana could get over her surprise from seeing Munkustrap come to her rescue, Munkustrap looked at her. "I apologize for my brother. I had already commanded him not to come near you, as I knew you grow uneasy around him, but he doesn't like taking advice. He didn't hurt you, did he?"
Having almost fully recovered, Tatiana slowly shook her head. "No. If anything, it was I who hurt him. Thankyou, Munkustrap."
"My pleasure," grinned Munkustrap. "I'll leave you to practise." He started to leave.
"Wait!"
Munkustrap turned back.
"How – how did you know?"
"A certain tom informed me of the situation. He seemed rather worried." With a wink, Munkustrap disappeared.
I wonder who that could have been? pondered Tatiana, although she already knew the answer. Surprised that Munkustrap hadn't seemed affected by the knowledge that she didn't have natural terpsichorean powers, she made her way to the cave and began her dancing practice.
Half an hour later, she heard the sound of clapping. She turned quickly to see Demeter standing at the entrance to the cave. The black-and-gold queen walked towards her. "Very good! You've advanced quickly," she observed.
"Uh, thanks." Tatiana shyly dropped her gaze to the ground. "You're Demeter, aren't you?"
Demeter smiled. "Yes. And you're Tatiana, the new Jellicle member."
"Yes, that's right."
"Nice to meet you. Are you enjoying your time with us?"
"Yes, very much, thankyou." She really is a lovely cat, Tatiana realized. She is so lucky to have Munkustrap…and I guess that Munkustrap must be lucky to have someone like her, too.
"That's good." There was an uncomfortable silence. "I didn't mean to interrupt," Demeter said in an effort to break the ice.
"Oh, that's quite alright," said Tatiana pleasantly.
"I often come here when I need to think or when I want to be alone," the older queen explained.
Tatiana chuckled. "It seems that all of the Jellicles do."
"Oh? What do you mean?" inquired Demeter curiously.
"Well, you come here, I come here, Mungojerrie does and so does Mistoffelees. And, when I was coming here tonight, I passed Munkustrap, and he appeared to have been coming from this direction."
"Really? That's interesting. I never knew that." She paused. "I didn't even know that Munku came here."
Tatiana laughed. "It's often surprising how much one never knows about someone else, even though one may think one knows the other very well."
"I suppose that's true," admitted Demeter, laughing also. "Well, I'll leave you to finish your practise. Feel free to come and talk to me any time you wish," Demeter told the younger queen as she turned to leave the cave.
"Thankyou," Tatiana called after her.
"'Mornin'," greeted Mungojerrie.
Tatiana fought the strong urge to burst into song at that statement and managed her own greeting.
"Foine doiy, ain't it?" he asked, stretching his arms towards the clear, blue sky.
"That, it is," agreed Tatiana. She turned to the stripy tom. "Um, I have something to ask you." She gulped nervously at Mungojerrie's expectant stare. "Uh, well, the fact of the matter is…well, Tugger was bothering me again last night, and Munkustrap came along and told him to get lost, and I asked him how he knew how I felt about the situation, and he said…" She looked down at her paws. "…He said that someone had told him, a tom, and I was wondering if…if it might have been…you?"
To Tatiana's relief, Mungojerrie chuckled. "Good old Munku. Thank goodness he stopped the Tugger and his tricks. Yes," he said in answer to the queen's question, "Oi did tell 'im. Oi thought moiybe 'e could do somethin' 'bout it."
"Oh…well, uh, thanks." Tatiana blushed.
"Nothin' ta thank me fer," stated Mungojerrie graciously. The two sat in an uncomfortable silence for a while. Finally, Mungojerrie squinted up at the sun. "Do ya wanna go and catch somethin' ta eat?" he asked.
Tatiana nodded her consent. "Sure."
The felines wandered companionably out of the junkyard and over to the river where Mungojerrie had first taught Tatiana how to catch fish. They caught their meal and ate it together, just enjoying each other's company in silence. As they were padding back through the forest, Mungojerrie stopped and looked at Tatiana. "So, are ya okoiy now?" Tatiana looked confused, and it was Mungojerrie's turn to blush. "Oi mean, after the 'ole Tugger thin'…"
"Oh," Tatiana's brow cleared. "Yeah, I'm alright. I still don't like him, though."
Mungojerrie grinned at her. "Good ta 'ear that." He took a step towards her.
Tatiana's breathing quickened. What was happening? What was he going to do?
Mungojerrie stopped himself. Don't be such a fool, Jerrie, he reprimanded himself. Ya'll scare 'er off. If ya love 'er, ya can't scare 'er off. Woit…love 'er? Do ya love 'er? Yes, ya do… With this sudden realization, Mungojerrie just smiled.
Tatiana hesitantly smiled back. Phew, I've avoided it, she thought, relieved. She turned away slightly, trying to settle her nerves.
As Tatiana turned away, the tag hanging from her collar glinted in the scattered sunlight and caught Mungojerrie's eye. He reached out a paw and touched the loveheart-shaped tag, squinting at the word engraved on it. He frowned. "Oi don't know what yer tag soiys," he said, "but it looks too short ta soiy 'Tatiana'."
Tatiana suddenly looked downcast. "You're right, it is too short. It says 'Bella'." Her eyes grew misty.
"'Bella'?" Mungojerrie repeated, confused. "Whoiy does it soiy that?"
"It's…that's what my human used to call me…" A single tear rolled down her cheek.
"Oh…Oi'm sorry Oi asked, Oi didn't mean ta moike you sad…" Mungojerrie's heart was in torment as he watched the tear make its way down the crevices of her beautiful face.
Tatiana shook her head quickly. "You didn't know," she whispered.
It was true enough, but Mungojerrie still felt bad. He gently wiped the tear from her cheek. "Oi'd give ya an 'ankerchief, but orll Oi 'ave ta offer at the moment is moiy toil."
Tatiana laughed. "I'd take up the offer, but I don't want to get it wet."
Mungojerrie laughed, too. "Well," he said seriously, "if ya ever wanna talk 'bout it, Oi'm 'ere."
"Well…" Tatiana looked hesitant, as if she were making a decision. "They do say that it's always better to talk about things, don't they? Maybe I should…you know, talk."
Mungojerrie nodded and led her over to a large, flat rock. The two cats sat down and made themselves comfortable before Tatiana began her story.
"It was just a few days before I came upon the junkyard. My human, Emily, and I had gone to the park to play on the…'playground', I think she called it. She's only a young human, and I'd been with her ever since she found me…" Tatiana's voice choked up with emotion, but she continued her story. "My mother died when I was a kit," she explained. "My father was killed before I was born, and my twin sister died when my mother was having us. I think I have an older brother somewhere, but I don't even know his name. Anyway, Emily and I were at the park when two Pollicles came near us. They were fighting quite viciously, and looked like they would harm anything in their way. So Emily and I took off…but we got separated. I got lost and couldn't find my way home. I wandered around town for a few days, until I came upon the junkyard." Tears were streaming down her face by now.
Mungojerrie felt like his heart was breaking for this poor cat. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled his love close. He'd had no idea that her history had been so…gutwrenchingly awful.
Tatiana finally composed herself and pulled away from the embrace to look up at the tom. "Now that you know everything about my past, are you going to tell me more about yourself?" she asked with a mischievous twinkle in her eye that reminded Mungojerrie of himself.
He laughed. "Okoiy, fair is fair. But Oi'm afroid ya won't loike it…"
"I'd still like to hear it," pleaded Tatiana shyly.
"Okoiy, well…Teaz and Oi were practically orphans. Our Mum doied when we was only toiny kits, so we 'ad ta moike our own livin'."
"How?" asked Tatiana.
"Well…" Mungojerrie looked really embarrassed. "We kind of…stole things. We only stole from 'umans, moind, but still…that was the only woiy we could survoive. But when we got a little older 'n' a toiny bit woise, we decided ta join the Jellicles instead. Well, Teaz decoided. Oi followed 'er."
Mungojerrie was too embarrassed to look straight at Tatiana, but watched her out of the corner of his eye. To his great surprise, she did not look shocked, but, in fact, seemed to take the new information in her stride.
The queen nodded. She would have expected herself to suddenly become wary and distrusting of someone who'd had such a past; however, all she felt was sympathy for the formerly-misguided tom.
"Ya prob'ly won't loike me now…" muttered Mungojerrie sadly. He stood. "Ah, well..." He started to leave, but stopped when he felt a paw on his leg.
"No, I still like you," Tatiana said softly. "We all make mistakes."
Mungojerrie turned around slowly. "Do ya mean that? Ya still loike me?" he asked in disbelief.
Tatiana nodded. "Yes, I do. I like you, Mungojerrie. And you're not a criminal anymore."
Mungojerrie flinched at the word 'criminal', but smiled. "Oi dunno what ta soiy, Tats…"
"Well, if the Jellicles could accept you and your sister after everything, then I should be able to as well. I'm a Jellicle now, too," she reminded him. "Besides," she added in a whisper, "I believe I would like you even if you still were a criminal."