“So your tom-cat did come back after all…what a shame. After all that you went through and all that you sacrificed….”
Two cats sat alone in early twilight, a Siamese and a tom, gray and scruffy and somehow older then his physical prowess let on.
They sat along the jutting edge of the roof of the mansion, near the eastern edge, just where the corner protruded keenly enough to allow room for two without discomfort. The queen for her part allowed a lapse of time to pass while her friends statement sank into her heart like the tip of a scathing claw plunging ever so agonizing into what remained of her hopes. Her fears had been realized over the course of the last moon, and now that Denali had returned…..
She panted, taking deep breaths to calm herself.
“I don’t understand what to do now. I took every precaution. I made sure that it all worked out and that he would be safe!” Shivering she added; “ I just don’t understand how after everything I’ve been through he still has returned when things will prove the most dangerous for him….”
Giving her a wry look, the tom flicked his tail gently over her haunch in a comforting gesture.
“I suggest you do nothing and let things remain as they are Petal…”
“And what! Let him die!? Let him blunder into the very world that almost destroyed him!?”
“It is a crime perhaps that he is back…but there is nothing more that you could’ve done to ensure that he didn’t return. But because he has indeed come back to Mirii…I think there is still some part of you that wanted him to return.”
“Aristo, why? After everything that happened, I don’t want him here! I don’t have the power to…
“Save him? Petal he doesn’t need saving” Aristo growled firmly. “This is Denali, arrogant and so sure of himself…..always getting into trouble…
“That’s just it” Petal interjected her wide miserable eyes reflecting the moonlight. “I think that the reason for all of this, before the call, the reason I did what I did was that I felt that before…Denali stumbled upon something that could destroy everything.”
The hackles along the older males’ spine bristled and his whiskers twitched with apprehension although he nodded his head for her to continue.
“He kept talking about E’a’ and how he had found the source, the beginning…when he did I sensed something different, in his eyes, in his soul, the way he acted I knew that he had found something in Mirii that wasn’t normal, that wasn’t right…”
Looking away she sighed, her shoulders visibly drooping in defeat as she added almost in a whisper; “I think he found Naga-Skal…”
Silence hit sharp and thick. Somehow it was abbreviated further by Aristos’ quick intake of breath and Petal flinching slightly not entirely sure what effect her revelation would have on the older tom or if infact she should have just kept her fears to herself.
“That’s not possible Petal. Only one of royal blood, an heir to the throne of Mirii can use the Dark Call to summon those who came before. Even supposing that Denali somehow found some way to bypass that why would he bring back the shadow queen? Why out of all of the spirits who might call to him would he have listened to one of the most destructive and dangerous of our kind? She was powerful….but the place she was cast out into is one where none return, her kingdom in Novron, sealed, shut, unreachable…there would be no reason to traverse there!!!!”
“I…I know…but how else can you explain the spirits Aristo? How else can you factor in the watchers in the forest or the sickly scent on the air?” Petal hissed trying to keep herself calm. “It might not have been Denali…but then who in the royal family would be so crass and so ignorant?”
The tom shook his head grimly.
“How to know or learn that when so many have disappeared?”
“But…”
“Petal, for now we can’t do anything without first seeing. I need you to stay wary and diligent in watching for anything; the slightest hint, trace or any indication of these matters we have discussed here then I need you to warn me. There remain…things that I need to look into before we take any action” he mewed stoically raising to his forepaws.
“What should I tell the others? What if those from beyond are already out for revenge? They attacked me and Denali when we talked for the first time a week ago like they did before when so many of us were slaughtered…and I’m not so sure that they won’t again. It might be more this time….it might be worse this time! What am I supposed to…
“I don’t know Petal”Aristo growled cutting her off before she could continue. “Look, I’m sorry that you lost him, I’m so sorry my dear but I don’t have any answers to this riddle. All I know is that where I go now is too dangerous for you to follow, that you will want to but can’t. Mirii needs you to stay and protect the cats here - at least until I can gleam something more about this…”
The she-cat dipped her head sorrowfully though she still longed to question him more, even as his paw steps faded away into the night.
Shivering she swiveled her head back towards the forest and the stone slab marking the entrance to it amid the flagstones which marked the path through the hemlocks, the larkspurs and the magnolia trees-leaves blown about like the foaming waves of a windblown sea. Thunder rumbled and light illuminated the sky in a bright arch as rain softly began to empty from the storm pregnant clouds overhead.
Even though it wetted her pelt, soaking her through Petal stayed where she was contemplating pensively over her talk with Aristo.
Tonight was the gathering and he would be sorely missed absent as he would be, wherever that lead in order for him to find out more about the happenings around Mirii. Had she been right to hold back from him, to tell half truths? She knew more but what effect would it have on her home and on the cats she cared about? Perhaps she had doomed them all in not coming forward with everything that she had done in the name of her feelings for Denali…perhaps in time it wouldn’t matter….
