Chapter 22 - Caught in the act
When Mr Arnold left the shop to go home, he was in such a fluster about Tressa and Idiya, he forgot to shut the door on the cage. The kittens sat side-by-side staring at the opening.
'We should get out and explore,' said Smudge, with a mischievous grin.
Torbjorn looked around the shop. It was growing dark and shadows were beginning to appear.
'I'm going to wait here,' he mumbled, moving to the back of the cage.
'Me too,' said Flinch.
'Suit yourselves,' said Smudge, walking towards the cage door, but he stopped when he heard a pitter patter on the other side of the shop.
Torbjorn could hear sharp, squeaky voices arguing. He slid on his belly towards the front of the cage and stared down at the floor. The bags of dog food were stacked next to the cat cage but he couldn't see anything moving among them.
'What's that noise?' he whispered.
'I don't know,' said Smudge. 'The same thing happens each night and in the morning Mr Arnold has to fixed ripped bags and clean food off the floor. He moved the bags beside our cage today. Maybe he thinks we can protect the shop.'
Flinch crawled to the front of the cage and peered into the darkness. ''How?'
'We could sneak up and pounce on whatever is in here,' grinned Smudge. 'Once we show them our sharp teeth they'll never come back.'
'Not me,' said Torbjorn. 'I couldn't do that.'
'But you're a Skogkatt,' said Smudge 'You're born to protect?'
'All I do is make mistakes and get into trouble,' said Torbjorn. 'I'll never be brave enough to be a Skogkatt.'
Flinch began to tremble as shadows with sharp claws and pointy teeth appeared beside the shelves. They grew bigger the closer they got.
'I told you there were monsters,' he whispered.
Torbjorn's heart pounded against his chest. He was about to run to the back of the cage when the shadows slid around the corner. He stopped and stared at them in surprise.
'What?' he gasped as four, small, hairy creatures scurried across the floor. 'They're not monsters. They're rats.'
The rats paused briefly when they were halfway across the floor. They looked left and right with their beady eyes, before hurrying the rest of the way on their little legs. Their black whiskers twitched as they sniffed the air. When they came to the bags of dog food, one stood on its back feet.
'We found the food boys!' It squeaked.
They began gnawing and nibbling at the bags until they'd made a small hole. They scratched at the bag with their sharp claws until an avalanche of pellets poured out onto the floor. The rats scooped handfuls of food into their mouths.
'What are rats?' whispered Flinch, sniffing the air. 'They smell familiar.'
'The Skogkatts protect the farmer's grain from them at home,' said Torbjorn. 'Tomten said rats don't work for their food, instead they sneak around stealing it.'
'We can't let them steal Mr Arnold's food,' said Smudge.
'But there's four of them and three of us,' said Flinch, trembling. 'What if they attack?'
'Flinch is right,' said Torbjorn. 'We're kittens, not trained guard cats.'
'Maybe not, but if we work together we might be able to stop them,' said Smudge.
Torbjorn still wasn't sure.
'If we don't try, we'll never know,' said Smudge, moving towards the cage door.
'What will we do?' said Torbjorn.
'I think you should growl at them like you did when the troll was threatening Mr Arnold,' whispered Flinch. 'You scared me.'
Torbjorn wasn't sure how he'd managed to growl earlier. It had just happened. He watched the rats ripping holes in Mr Arnold's bags of pet food, and a loud rumble started in his throat. The rats stopped eating and their paws began to tremble. Their eyes widened as they saw the kittens staring down from the open cage.
'Ah! Cats! Run for your lives!' they cried, dropping the food and running across the floor.
'Get them!' cried Smudge.
Torbjorn was the first to leap from the cage. He chased two rats towards the front door while Smudge and Flinch raced after the others. Torbjorn dropped a paw on one rat's tail and caught another with his teeth.
'Nice kitty, please don't eat us,' cried the first rat.
'We were only trying to find some food for our supper,' whimpered the second, as he dangled from Torbjorn's mouth.
'I promise we won't ever steal again,' mumbled the first, and rolled onto his back in surrender.
Torbjorn dropped the second rat onto the floor. Before it could run away, he trapped it under his other front paw. He looked up and saw Flinch had blocked the hole in the wall with his body so the other two rats couldn't escape. Smudge had them cornered beside the fish tanks.
'What should we do with these thieves,' asked Torbjorn, 'eat them?'
Smudge nodded. Torbjorn hadn't eaten a rat before. He opened his mouth and the rats closed their eyes.
'If you're going to eat us, please make it quick,' begged the first rat.
'And don't play with your food before you eat it,' cried the second.
Torbjorn leaned down, but stopped as his teeth touched the first rat's ears.
'Am...am...I alive?' mumbled the rat, peeping out between his claws.
'You're still alive,' growled Torbjorn, 'for now. But you'd better stay out of Mr Arnold's shop or next time we won't be so nice. Understand?'
The rats nodded and their teeth chattered.
'Now, scram before we change our minds,' said Torbjorn.
Flinch moved out of the way of the hole and the rats scurried across the floor and disappeared behind the wall.
'We did it,' cheered Smudge, bounding over to the others.
'We protected Mr Arnold's shop,' laughed Flinch, rolling onto his back and wiggling his body with joy.
'We sure did,' smiled Torbjorn. 'Now I understand what Tomten and my parents mean about working together as a team.'
