The Jellicle Chronicles - Year One

My Favorite Things

As the Jellicle’s Sentinel, Munkustrap spent most of his time prowling the grounds. His gray and black stripes helped him blend into the various piles of cast-off material. Stopping still as a statue, the odd shadows made him invisible. Still, to another Jellicle, he could be seen, if one concentrated real hard and wanted to see him. 

      Near one of the big pipes that entered the Yard, he picked up an odd sound. His tufted ears swiveled in that direction, and he crouched down unto all fours. Carefully, he eased through a set of human chairs, now broken and nearly useless. The sound came clearer, now. Someone was crying. 

      Easing gracefully out from the chairs, he nearly ran into the source. Or rather, he nearly bumped into someone crying and someone else trying to help. A flash of scarlet and black whipped around, and a whisper of air just missed Munkustrap’s nose. A hiss followed, and then everything went still. 

      “Oh, it’s you, handsome,” came the husky voice of Bombalurina. 

      Munkustrap rubbed a paw across his nose, and checked the fur. No blood. His reactions were still good, even after the last scrap he had with Macavity. The long and sensual Scarlet Queen came back to another Queen, just slightly smaller than she was. 

      “What’s wrong with Demeter?” 

      Bombalurina glanced over, noted the rise of fur along the silver tabby’s back, and then sighed. Males, she thought. “I don’t know. She’s started crying just as I came in. Maybe you can find out what’s bothering her.” 

      As Munkustrap passed by, she rubbed her shoulder against his, stopping him in his tracks. His eyes opened a bit wider, forming question marks without actually asking. 

      “Do you want to be alone?” 

      He grinned slightly, a smile that did not show any teeth. “You’re impossible. You know that, don’t you?” 

      “A girl has to keep trying,” she added with a slight trilling purr. Then, she went totally sober. “Help her? Please?” 

      Munkustrap nodded, the smile remaining on his mouth. Bombalurina was the flirtatious Queen of the Jellicles. Each action was gauged to arouse the male she set her eyes upon. Each gesture was a tease. When she went serious like this, however, the mask fell away. Why she befriended and protected the younger Queen, Muskustrap had literally no idea. Whatever it was, he was glad to see it. 

      He eased over where the smaller Queen was curled into a ball. He circled her until he could cuddle close to her without threatening her. As his body came close, she stiffened. He went still, waiting until her face came up. Seeing him, she burrowed into the fur of his chest, tonguing the ruff fur at his throat. 

      “What is troubling you, my pet?” 

      “I can’t find them,” she sobbed into his ruff. 

      Oddly, though muffled by his fur, he could still understand her. “Them?” 

      “My silk gloves.” That came out clearly as she sat up. “I wanted to look pretty tonight, and I went to get my gloves. I know I put them here. And they’re gone!” 

      Munkustrap looked up and noticed Bombalurina had lain down on a board plank next to them. An uplifted set of eyebrow whiskers appeared on the Queen forehead. 

      “So that’s what this was all about,” she said, soothing back her cheek fur. “I thought I had upset her with my crack about Cassandra and her necklace.”