The gray tabby was taken aback by what she said and just gazed at her in compassion. Suddenly his whiskers twitched and he swiveled his head about when a hidden voice rang out, "Isn't this sweet? The great Munkustrap and the Lady! What's the matter, kittens, are you poor children lost? A bit out of your territory, perhaps? Too bad!"
Munkustrap recognized the voice and a low growl started in his throat and he hissed, baring his teeth in challenge to the unseen foe. "Macavity! Come out, you coward! Face me!" he shouted but empty silence greeted his words. He turned to the female and saw that she had hunched herself into a small tight ball, shaking so hard that she could hardly breathe.
"Go, find your way back to the others. Just follow this street for ten blocks, then turn right and go another twelve and then turn left and go another eight. After that you turn right again and follow the moon for sixteen blocks and that will take you to where you should be. Go now, before he returns with his band of bullies," she told him in a whisper.
"If you know your way, why didn't you go there?" he asked curiously.
"I was on my way when they attacked me. I know what he wanted, but he didn't get it," she told him and then fell silent. He gently stroked her head and she spoke once again, "When I wouldn't comply, they hurt me and left me alone. But he said they'd be back later. I was trying to find a place to hide when I knocked over that box and you woke up. I know I can’t make the distance but I didn't want them to find me."
"I can't leave another Jellicle to the likes of them," Munkustrap declared softly. "I'll stay and try to help you get to the Ball." The moon glittered in his eyes and made the gray fur turn silver. Now more than ever he wanted to get rid of Macavity, but he couldn't leave this defenseless one on her own. He looked around and located a sheltered little area that would serve to hide them until he could come up with a plan of action.
Turning back to her, he saw that she had fallen asleep from the exertions she had been through. Not wanting to wake her and yet knowing that they had to hide, he wondered what to do and then he remembered how his mother had carried him when he was small. Delicately, he picked her up by the nape of the neck and carried her gently to the hiding place and softly put her down, trying not to jar her injured frame.
She didn't move, just lay where he put her down and he scooted her over until he could get in beside her, shielding her from sight with his own body. He mulled over his thoughts as she continued to sleep alongside him, her side growing warm from the heat of his body. Slowly she uncurled and her breathing grew easier. Wondering what it was about her that tugged at his heart so insistently, he fell into a light doze of his own.
The other Jellicles gathered about, greeting each other and all asking the same question of each other, "Where’s Munkustrap gotten to? What could be keeping him? He's always the first one here." After the first joy of meeting had passed, the idle curiosity turned rapidly to worry when Old Deuteronomy arrived and one of his sons wasn't there to greet him. "Where’s Munkustrap?" he wondered aloud and looked around at his clan.
They all looked back at him and none of them had an answer for him. His wise old face sagged in sadness at the thought that his son had abandoned their tribe but his heart would not believe it. The lad had shown too much devotion to them, had cared too deeply to just cast off the bonds of love so lightly. Something had to have happened to him to stop him from being there. Maybe he was somewhere injured or had somehow gotten lost.
The incident from the year before had not left his mind and a sudden thought struck him so hard that he had to sit down. Munkustrap had always felt a deep sense of honor and duty to his kin and he may have felt that it was up to him to avenge the insult to his father when he'd been kidnapped by Macavity.
He raised his eyes and looked at the young faces that were gathered around him, waiting to hear his wishes. There were new faces this year, Victoria had become a mother after the last Jellicle Ball and was accompanied by four younglings, but a look of sadness creased her features as well. He leaned toward her and asked, "What is it, child? Why do you look so sorrowful? You have a fine family with you tonight."
"They are wonderful children, but one of them has not come. I fear she may be lost to us. The family she lives with has moved away and I miss her."
His reply was lost to her when Rumpelteazer came scrambling up, calling, "I think I have news! Macavity attacked a foreign Jellicle not but three hours ago! He and his band of fiends hurt her pretty badly! What can we do?"
Rum Tum's scornful voice came back, "What can we do about it unless you know where she is now?"
Rumpelteazer turned and hissed at him, and went on breathlessly, "It happened not too far from my home! Mungojerrie is trying to find out more! I can take you there and we can look for her!"
"What are we going to do about Munkustrap, though?" Skimbleshanks wanted to know. "If something is going on against Macavity, he should be informed of it."
"If we can't find him, how can we tell him?" Demeter asked softly. She still remembered how he had fought the ginger tom the year before and how much the gray tabby hated the other for what had been done to his father. She also remembered how much that fight had taken out of him, physically and emotionally. He'd been pretty battered and had taken a while to recover.
"Why don't we ask Mr. Mistoffelees?" Rum Tum asked impatiently. He hated the thought of his brother Jellicle being missing, even if they never had been all that close. The gray tabby was too serious in his opinion, but he was devoted to his family and that excused many of what the younger and wilder cat thought of as character flaws.
Expectantly, they all turned to the magical black cat with questions on their faces and in their eyes. With a slight flourish, he bowed and looked into a clear pool of rainwater, concentrating on seeing the cat he was searching for. Slowly, he said, "I see him, he's asleep under a pile of boxes, but the neighborhood is strange. I've never seen it before. He's in trouble, Macavity is sneaking up on him, it's an ambush. No, he's awake now, they're fighting! Get him! Get him! Watch that left paw! Oh, he's hurt! Wait, he's got Macavity down, he's, he's killing him! He's killed Macavity! Look out, he wasn't alone! He's driven them off, but he's hurt, he's bleeding. He's crawling back to the boxes, he's crawling under them. He can't stay awake, but he has to." The black cat's voice broke off when the Rum Tum Tugger shook him and he looked at the other cat in confusion.
"Can you conjure him here? Can you bring him home?" he asked in a voice rough with worry.
"No, something's blocking me, let me focus on what’s going on," was the reply and the magical cat turned once more to the pool of water. "Oh, my, that's why I can't get him, he was protecting someone. It's a strange female. He's bringing her out from under the boxes like a kitten and he's trying to carry her. They're both hurt but he's trying to get her to safety." His voice trailed off and he looked at Old Deuteronomy in sorrow.
"Unless someone gets there to help the two of them, they aren't going to make it here. I can't conjure more than one adult a night and he isn't about to abandon her, he cares about her," Mr. Mistoffelees told the old Jellicle quietly.
The elder sagged in defeat but Demeter turned to Rumpelteazer and said urgently, "You said that the foreign female wasn't far from your home; this could be the same one. Can you lead the other toms there?"
"Yeah, and glad I will be to do it," the other female answered her.
"What are we waiting for, then, let's go!" Rum Tum shouted impatiently. He turned to his father and gave him a look of appeal which the other answered with a look of permission.
"Go, bring them back," the wise old cat urged them in melancholy tones. "Bring our wayward kindred into our assembly once more, where they belong. No, Victoria, you stay here with me. These others can do more good than you can and your children need you now. Stay with me child, as I stay behind as well."
The white cat bowed her head as the males went off in search of their wounded brethren, following the lead of the female from Victoria Grove. In her heart she grieved for the two lost members of their tribe and hoped they would be found before anything else befell them.
Munkustrap could barely stand, let alone walk, but he gallantly struggled on in the direction the new female had indicated before she had fallen asleep. He was sore from where the other tom had battered him and he bled from small wounds on his muscular body, but he had to get the two of them out of the territory that was so alien to them.
He stumbled, almost dropping his burden but caught himself in time. Macavity had found them as they slept and the battle had been fierce. He had won but had almost been done in when the fiend's followers took up where their leader had left off. The gray tabby was almost totally sure he'd killed the ginger cat, which was another reason to get out of the area as quickly as he could. The rat flunkies would be out for revenge and he was in no shape to fight now. And if there were Pekes or Pollicles around, that could prove disastrous as well.
His vision blurred and a wave of dizziness swept over him. He wished she would wake up, but really, all things considered, it was better that she sleep. Feeling his strength drain away, he looked for a dark corner to hide in. Seeing one within easy reach, the injured tom made his way carefully toward it and gently placed his companion down. Stretching out gingerly beside her, he rested his weary head on his paws and tried to fight off the urge to fall into a deep sleep.
The effort was futile and he could feel his eyes closing against his will when a sudden yeowl split the air, bringing him to full alertness as the adrenaline coursed through his hurting body. Without bothering to see if she had awoken, he scooped her up and ran down the street, not knowing just where he was headed and not caring at the moment. Anywhere to get away from the animal who had let out that unholy screech.
Munkustrap ran for three blocks before he was halted by the sight of three of Macavity's cronies waiting for him. Gently he put his comrade to the side and prepared to give battle, grimly determined that she wouldn't be hurt any more than she had been.
"Aw, ain't that sweet," one of them scoffed. "Like we ain't going to do to her what we're going to do to you once we finish you off. Get him, boys!"
Munkustrap braced himself as the three of them rushed him at once and he was fighting for his life. Dimly he heard a feline cry of rage and knew that someone had joined the fight at his side, but he had no time to see who it was, he was just grateful for the help. Blow after blow landed and was repaid in kind as the battle went on without any quarter given or asked.
Blood flowed from the combatants as claws flashed in the moonlight and he became aware of a furious streak of black that fought at his side, darting in and out too quickly for the eye to track. A crushing blow landed on the side of his head and he staggered, almost losing his grip on consciousness and going down. The black form at his side gave a blood freezing screech of fury and launched itself at his assailant, taking a death grip on the assassin's throat.
He surged back to his feet when he recognized the smaller form of his compatriot and he lurched to her assistance. Vaguely he heard a cacophony of angered cries from other cats but he was too busy trying to help the female to take in what was going on around him until he saw the big tom she had attacked throw her small body away from him.
She landed hard and stayed down, tumbling into a bundle of ragged fur that didn't move. A scream of outrage and sorrow burst from his throat, causing total silence to fall over the area for thirty seconds. The gray cat threw himself on the other, determined to tear his throat out, seeing nothing through the haze of red that hung over his senses until a familiar face thrust itself into his vision and he felt himself being pinned down by familiar bodies. Bodies that smelled of home and family; of Jellicles like himself.
Weakly, he subsided until he remembered her flying off to the side and he wriggled out from under the cats holding him down and he scampered to her side. Gently, he nuzzled her inert body, willing her to be alive. Getting no response, he lay down beside her and curled around her tenderly, rubbing his head against her own as tears glimmered in his eyes.
Rumpelteazer caressed his battered head and stroked her cheek against the black form, listening for any sound of breath in the battered body that the tom cradled against his own. His distress touched her deeply; she'd always known that he cared fiercely for his family and tribe but had never seen him display such caring as this to any female before. He'd always treated them each with respect but had never gotten too close to any of them emotionally. The only one who he had treated with such kindness had been his father.
"I think she'll be fine if we can get her to the junkyard," she whispered to him. "Can you move?"
"I'll have to," he said in a grim voice. His eyes were like green ice and she shivered at the despair reflected in his tone. He regarded the body so close to his own with awe and looked up at the other female. "You should have seen her fight, she was a fury."
"We did see her, we saw both of you," Skimbleshanks said quietly. "The fight was almost finished when we got here. The sound of the two of you led us right to you. We knew your voice, but we'd never heard hers before. Once she heals up, she's going to be formidable. I think she could have killed her target if she'd been in full health."
Munkustrap looked his uncle full in the face, feeling hope stir in him at the other's words. For some reason this female had wound her way around his heart so fast and he knew that he was caught. He, who had always been careful to never get caught by anything more than casual friendship except with his father, he was now bound by a different kind of love.
"Do you think she'll be alright?" he asked quietly.
"She will be once we get her to the Ball," came a surly voice that he knew well. "If you'll get your lazy hide up and moving, we can be there in time for the rest of the party." Rum Tum's voice covered a deep well of concern. Munkustrap was in worse shape than he was apparently feeling at the moment and he needed to keep moving before his injuries caused him to stiffen up to the point where he was unable to move under his own power.
He was such a large cat that it was doubtful any of them could carry him very far. The slight prodding had the intended effect and the other tom slowly got to his feet after carefully uncurling himself from around the body of the black female. As he did so, the full extent of his injuries were revealed to the others and Mungojerrie let out a choked noise of sympathy at the sight. The others were no less appalled but concealed it better.
The prankster stepped forward to pick up the battered female but Munkustrap stopped him with a look. "This is my responsibility," he told his friend firmly. It was clear the other cat wanted to argue with him, but Rum Tum gently butted him and gave him a look that clearly read that they had best indulge him. They'd get nowhere if they argued the matter with him, but if he passed out while carrying her, Mr. Mistoffelees could always conjure him to the junkyard.
Slowly, the victorious Jellicles made their way to the Ball, Munkustrap carrying the only slightly more injured body of the female delicately. But the closer they got, the more he started to weaken and stumble. The others silently pressed in closer, adding the support of their bodies to him as unobtrusively as they could.
Finally, they reached the site of the Jellicle Ball and they parted from around the two injured cats so Munkustrap could place his burden down on a soft cushion. Once he had done so, he then turned to his sire who had watched his son's progress in sorrowful silence. Shakily, Munkustrap swept into a deep bow and said in a voice that could barely be heard, "Forgive me for being so late, but I had something that I couldn't abandon, a Lady I couldn't leave behind me."
Going to his son, Old Deuteronomy caught him as the sight fled from his eyes and he collapsed into a crumpled heap at his feet. Carefully, he eased the battered form to the old quilt that Demeter brought him and regarded the injured young tom with affection.
Victoria had rushed to the side of the foreign cat and swiftly checked her injuries. Seeing that she would recover in time, she spun around and demanded of the other toms, "What happened? Who did this to her?"
Alonzo answered her somberly, "The original injuries were caused by Macavity. Munkustrap killed him, but they were attacked by his rat followers and one of his cat cronies as he was bringing her here. She fought alongside Munkustrap and almost killed the cat herself until he was able to throw her off. I've never seen him act like that, he went crazy when he saw her go flying. He defended her with his life; it took all of us to pin him down once the fight was over."
Rum Tum took over and told his father quietly, "He wouldn't leave her side. And he wouldn't let anyone else touch her, he insisted that he carry her back by himself. I never thought I'd see the day."
Mischief twinkled in the elder cat's eyes as he regarded his perverse son but all he said was, "It happens to all of us at one time or another. I just wondered if it would ever happen to him. I know that many have been interested in him at one time, but he kept his distance. Tell me what happened," he said in a low voice as he led his usually unruly son to the side as the females attended to their injured members.
Turning to the little black shadow that followed the Tugger everywhere, he gave her a smile and a pat on the head, telling her, "Sootaput, this may not be fit for you to hear. Would you do me a favor and keep an eye on Munkustrap for us?"
The cute little black cat pouted a moment but agreed when Tugger gave her an appealing look all of his own which never failed to work. She just could not resist that look and the big fluffy fink knew it, but she supposed that if it had to do with Macavity, she'd end up having nightmares for a week if she heard the tale that explained the wounds the older cats had on their bodies.
Quickly, the son told his father what he had witnessed, including the rage of both male and female when they had seen their comrade injured. He actually shuddered as he described the howl his brother had let out when she had been flung to the side. The horror of that uneven fight would never leave his memory even though he would never speak of it to anyone ever again. By the time they had reached their kin, rats from the whole area had joined in the fray and were pounding into them with a ferocity that went beyond hatred.
Munkustrap had lost any shred of his normally civil manner and fought like a demon unleashed once he had realized that he wasn't fighting alone. The two of them had fought as a team, automatically guarding the other's back and protecting their compatriot's flank. He'd never seen his brother in a berserker fury, for all he knew of his safeguarding manner of others.
He and his father turned to Jennyanydots as she came up to them and said, "Given time to rest, the two of them will be fine, but he has some serious bruising to the ribs and I'm worried about that head wound. Someone hit him rather hard and I think it might be wise to keep him awake until morning. If we can wake him up."
"What about the female? Will she be alright?" the old cat asked in concern.
"She'll be fine, she's awake and asking for him. Pretty thing, no wonder he's so taken with her. Should we let her know where he is?"
"Let her go to him if it will help to wake him," she was advised by the patriarch.
Smiling, she nodded and went to tell Victoria what had been said. The two toms met the gaze of the other and smiled gently at each other. Old Deuteronomy was slightly startled when the younger one brushed up against him lightly but it warmed his heart; he hadn't done that since he was a kitten. Without a further word, they made their way to the bedside of Munkustrap.
He lay where his father had put him, eyes closed tightly against the pain of his wounds that seeped through even as he slept. Silently, his black companion came to his side and caressed the side of his head with her own. His eyes flew open in surprise and he tried to rise to his feet to greet her but she batted him back with a paw.
He cocked his head at her in puzzlement and she curled next to him, brushing her head under his chin as she settled in against him, delicately avoiding the most tender spots. "Stay awake," she advised sternly in her softly husky voice.
He regarded her in amusement and said, "How can I take orders from you when I don't even know your name?" He smiled a bit and remarked humorously, "We haven't really been introduced, you know."
"Does it really matter that much after what we've been through tonight?" she asked bluntly.
"Well, I'd like to know the name of the female I'd like to make my mate," he told her and watched her eyes widen in amazement.
"You heard Macavity use it; my name is Lady. And what do you mean, the female you'd like to make your mate? Considering what has happened, we already are mates. Now, be quiet and watch," she advised as the others began to dance and sing.
Laughing quietly to himself, he curled tighter about her and rested his chin upon her head as he watched his family cavort and caper about in happiness. He'd never felt like this toward any female and this just seemed predestined because it felt so natural and right. At the same moment, they each began to purr along with the song of the other Jellicles. Maybe they couldn't celebrate in the same manner, but they could recognize and rejoice with them.
And it added a flavor of extra joy to the others to know that the big brotherly Munkustrap wasn't alone, he'd finally found someone who loved him as much as he loved her.
end
