Mistoffelees' Strange Journey
By Tansyleaf
Part One
It was a warm in the junkyard that April morn. The wind was blowing in a soft breeze and some of the cats were asleep, but Mistoffelees was wide-awake. He was sitting perched on top of a shabby, old couch. His bright blue eyes were fixated on the beautiful white queen. She was practicing her caterwauling. Victoria's best friends Jemima, Etcetera, and Electra were lying down in a pile next to her; dreaming of sweet things that only sweet kit's could dream of. All of a sudden Etcetera call out in her sleep,
"No Tugger, don't run away. Wait! Please stop screaming. Don't leave me here all alone!" After being scared out of her wits by Etcetera's sudden out burst, Victoria jumped 5 feet in the air. Clinging to the lampshade that was over head she watched Etcetera roll over and fall back asleep. After that Victoria decided to join the fuzzball of sleeping kittens. She let go of her tight grasp she had on the lampshade and fell gracefully to the ground. Then the white queen curled up next to Jemima and fell fast asleep.
Mistoffelees wanted so much to tell her how he felt. But he didn't have the nerves. He took one last look at his beloved and walked away from them. He went and found his favorite spot in the junkyard; a rather small reddish-brown pipe, that he spent most of his time in. Mistoffelees was not a very social kitten and he liked being alone. He sat there for a while thinking about Victoria. The young kit grew tired and fell asleep.
~* >^..^< *~
He was asleep for about 20 minuets before the one and only Rum Tum Tugger singing off key rudely awakened him. He decided that there was no way to get Tugger to be quiet so he resolved his problem by relocating himself to another, quieter location. He started to walk towards the exit of the junkyard. He walked at a slow pace when he reached a old, run-down, apartment building. This was the perfect place to get some sleep. So he hoped into the window and collapsed on the beat-up, faded purple mat in the front hall.
Once again he was awakened but this time it wasn't Tugger's singing (that could brake the thickest of glass, it was so bad), it was the cat of his dreams. Victoria was shaking him wildly trying hard to get him to wake up. She had succeeded. He woke up in a start and put his hand on his head, because of the sudden headache he had acquired.
"Hey what's the big idea?" He loved her dearly but, geez, he just had to sleep!
"What's wrong Vicki?"
The white cat looked like she was about to collapse form exhaustion. She managed to let out a few words.
"Here take this, and don't give it to anyone!" she handed him a necklace. It was a cracked and ugly piece of metal in the shape of heart with rust stains all over it.
"What could anyone possibly want with this piece of junk" he thought to himself. At that moment a repulsive feline turned the corner. The cat looked like a mix between Macavity and Rum Tum Tugger, mane and all only he had dark yellow eye's and sharp claws. He swiped Victoria from Mistoffelees and ran out the front door. Victoria was screaming and kicking like there was no tomorrow; they disappeared into the night, Misto tried to run after them but he tripped on the mat that he was laying on. He fell face first onto the plush green-blue carpet...
"Hey," he thought, "Wasn't this a purple mat before?" He got up and took in his surroundings.
"Where am I?" he said aloud. He was standing in the middle of the biggest room he'd ever been in. Much bigger than the room in the apartment that he feel asleep in. The walls were made of stone, and the wooden doors were large and arch shaped. Misto couldn't believe what he was seeing. He shook his head thinking that maybe the strange happenings were just the product of lack of sleep. Nope! There was beautiful banners with pictures of fair maddens and royal kings. Mistoffelees walked in the direction of the door the floor was made of marble covered with splendid carpets that were pleasing to the eye.
He opened the main doors to the large building and proceeded out into the yard only to find that the front yard was a labyrinth of bushes and shrubs. A maze he had to find his was out of if he wanted to leave.
"This isn't happening. This isn't happening!" he chanted to himself over and over again. After a while of being trapped in denial, he began to accept his awkward environment and started looking for a way out threw the network of plants, that were shaped like walls and equally as strong. Misto walked on for what seemed like hours but was actually 47mins.He couldn't take it anymore! He had to sleep! He just fell to the ground and within seconds he was fast asleep.
~* >^..^< *~
The sun shone brightly through the trees. Mistoffelees rubs his eyes and yawned. He looked around and noticed that he was still in the labyrinth.
"I'm still here???" He said in disbelief. He got up and stretched like any feline would when they wake up, and he continued his journey to find Victoria and get out of the fantasy world he was trapped in.
After a few minutes of walking he came upon a clearing in the shrubbery, the room was circular with a small white pillar in the center. The pillar looked like it was of Roman design with a beautifully sculpted bottle on top of it. The bottle had little painted pictures on it. The pictures were of some pixies and a sorcerer. He investigated the bottle further and noticed they were having a conflict. It looked, from the pictures, that the sorcerer had been the victor.
Mistoffelees approached the pillar. He picked up the bottle and, being the curious kitten he is, opened it. In the moment he popped the cork off, three little flickers of light retreated from the bottle.
"What the..."
They were flying around furiously. There was red, blue and green light everywhere. Misto made a brake for it. He flew behind the shrubs that had led him in. Mistoffelees, being still scared out of his mind, peeked his little head around the corner to see if the light had stopped. And to his surprise it had. He got up and looked in the room, just than three little heads popped up. Misto was startled. He let out a very high pitched girly scream and fell over. Then he cupped his hands over his mouth, feeling rather embarrassed at his little outburst.
The three had an almost exact likeness to Etcetera, Jemima, and Electra. Only with wings and were much smaller. The Jemima look-a-like spoke first, as blue sparks flew out from her body
"Oh thank-you so much! We are forever in you debt" Misto looked at her a bit bewildered.
"What did I do?" he said unaware of the act he had performed.
"Uh, you set us free from the horrible prison, that Popcorn had trapped us in! Duh!" said the one that looked like Etcetera with a brilliant red glow to her.
"Huh??? Popcorn??? Who's Popcorn??? I don't quite grasp this! Could someone please explain this to me?" said Mistoffelees, completely baffled. Etcetera looked in the direction of Jemima. She whirled her finger around her ear, crossed her eye's and stuck out her tongue, but she did it so Mistoffelees couldn't see her. Jemima just laughed.
"Ok, look, it's like this," started the Electra one, and she of coarse would be the green one, "There's this guy that goes by the name of Popcorn and he's not a nice character! He had us locked us up in that bottle for 3 hundred years and all because we just wanted to play. I mean look at us were just kittens, playing is what we do! He said that if we wanted to play, we should play where we can't bother anyone. So he locked us up in that bottle for all eternity or until someone let us out. And that would be you. We owe you our freedom."
Misto examined the little Electra and said, "You have been stuck in that bottle for 3 hundred years and you're still a kitten?!?!?"
She looked at Misto and than looked at her friends and back at Misto and said, "Umm I think your getting off topic here."
"Electra's right! Now you're not here for nothing. What brought you to our humble labyrinth that we have called home for 300 years?" Jemima said with a graceful advance towards Misto's face. Mistoffelees looked puzzled not quite knowing himself he said
"Well...umm..." he began to tell the three pixies how he came to be there. Jemima, who by now was sitting on the pillar in deep thought said "That is a very bizarre story...hmm what did you say your name was?"
"I didn't, but it's Mistoffelees, and that's Mr. Mistoffelees to you." he said eyeing Etcetera who he has seen making faces at him during the time he was telling his story.
"MR??? Excuse me? Kind of short to be called Mr. Don't you think Lecky?" Electra just shrugged trying not to get in the middle.
"SHORT???? Look who's talking!!! You must be 3 inches tall!! I'm way bigger than you! A fly is way bigger than you." he said with a frown on his black and white face. Etcetera was just about to make a snappy comeback but Jemima cut her off.
"Ok, Ok brake it up you two. We need to find a way out of here" said Jemima 'the peace maker', but Etcetera replied with "What are you talking about? All we have to do is wing our way out of here."
"Yah, but what about him?" Electra looked at Misto with sympathy in her voice "He did, after all, set us free."
"Oh, I suppose we can take him with us." Said Etcetera with a sigh as she crossed her tiny arms.
"Gee! Thanks for your concern, but I don't need your help. I can get myself out of here."
He looked at Etcetera with a sneer and clapped his hand together to disappear, but nothing happened. Etcetera smiled and Misto tried again and yet again nothing happened.
"I don't understand! What's going on? I can't use my powers!" Misto said very disappointed. Etcetera started laughing so hard that she fell to the ground.
"Well then, I suggest we start walking because you can't fly and we very well aren't going to carry you." said Electra. Etcetera stopped laughing and looked up at Electra.
"You're kidding right? I'm not walking with him!"
"Etcetera, you don't even know him, and he just set you free, I think you owe him a little thanks." Etcetera looked Misto up and down and after a moment said "I'll work on it". They got up and started to make their way through the maze.
~*Hours later*~
They walked along in a row through the labyrinth. Etcetera in front walking very proudly with her chest all puffed up thinking she looked pretty tough. But she really she only looked like a silly cream puff. Electra and Jemima were walking side by side behind her, talking about how beautiful the world was and that they were so happy to be in it again. Mistoffelees on the other hand was not as happy to be there. He was walking in a sluggish fashion, complaining to himself under his breath.
"I can't believe I'm still in this dumb little fantasy world, and with out any of my powers to boot! I'm stuck here walking through a web of shrubs with three pixies... I never liked pixies anyway, maybe if they were brownies or something..."
*Swosh* Mistoffelees train of thought was suddenly derailed by a swift sword right in his face. It missed him of course but it still scared him half to death. After he regained his senses he took a look at his attacker. The black and white tom looked perplexed and afraid as he hid behind his sword.
"Who are you?" said a confused and frustrated voice from behind the large silver sword that had attacked him.
"Who am I???" Misto blurted out in frustration. He took a better look at the tom and noticed how familiar he looked... "ALONZO?!?!?!? Is that you?? Why did you attack me???" Misto said sounding very ticked as he glared at the American short hair.
"How do you know my name? I've never met you before."
Misto, looking even more flustered than he already was, said, "Then why did you attack me?"
Alonzo shuddered as he was afraid that Misto was going to strike him, but Mistoffelees just stood in front of him and tilted his head to the side. Alonzo searched for an answer to Misto's question and ended up saying...
"Uh... force of habit?" he said as he curled in to a ball in the corner of the shrubbery.
Misto gave him a weird look and he tried to explain. All the while the pixies were very amused with this little ordeal. Since they were so small Alonzo didn't notice them until after he had swung at Mistoffelees. They sat very silent so as not to disturb the two quarreling cats with giant smirks on their teeny, tiny, little faces.
"I've been stuck in this maze so long that I don't know what I'm doing. I haven't eaten in weeks and my water is just about gone... I haven't seen anyone in months and I guess I just can't remember how to act... I'm sorry," he said looking down in shame. Then Jemima stepped in.
"There is no need for your apologies," Misto rolled his eyes "would you like to join us? We are trying to find a way out of this maze." The warrior tom nodded and after a few quick glances over at Mistoffelees to see if the arrangement was all right with him, he added the party.
All 5 looked at each other as to say "Which way now?" so without words Electra flew over head and made her way threw the web with her eyes; concentrating very hard on her task. She fluttered up there for about a minute or two and came back down, very focused. The little green pixie looked at Jemima and Etcetera, her eyes were buried under the image of the maze. She pointed west "we go this way!" they just nodded and started walking.
~*^..^*~
They were all very occupied, Alonzo was telling Etcetera his war stories, and Etcetera, having a very short attention span was about to fall asleep with his boring stories. Electra's mind was centered on finding a way out. The little blue furball, Jemima was no help she was asking Electra all kinds of questions about what she saw when she was flying over head. Misto was walking behind them, all alone. He reached for his neck here he was keeping the necklace. It was hidden deep in his fur, so none of the other... uh...fellow travelers knew he had it. It was a heart locket with little words carved onto one side of it but they were all scratched up and he couldn't read what it said. Misto examined the locket and tried to open it but it was jammed shut and would not budge. It was very pretty piece of jewelry, He could see how it could be beautiful if it was not cracked and scratched. He held the locket close to his heart, looked up to the sky and cursed to himself for letting Popcorn capture Victoria. He vowed to himself that he would save her no mater what happed.
~*^..^*~
Finally the five travelers, after numerous stops to check to the area, found their way out. They were all very happy to be rid or the fear of walking forever, not knowing which way to turn. Even if 3 out of 5 were pixies they couldn't keep flying up and down, back and forth forever. They walked down the road they found themselves on for about half an hour before they came to an Inn.
"Look it's getting dark, I'm tired, hungry, and sore from walking all day lets spend the night here." Etcetera grumbled sounding quite drained and annoying. They all agreed and walked in the "The Black Dragon". The cats booked a room and spent the rest of the day.
~*^..^*~
The moon slowly crept into the velvet sky as the stars danced in clusters around it. There were no clouds tonight and the view was spectacular. The stars shone like tiny diamonds imbedded into a sleek black cloak that covered the land so elegantly. Mistoffelees tossed and turned on his sleeping mat. He kept seeing Victoria in a dream. She was drifting away into the darkness, calling out for his help, and he got very frustrated and angry when found that he was powerless to stop her. His eyes shot open and he was breathing deeply. A drop of cold sweat rolled down the side of his face. He wiped it way and sat up. Misto then grabbed the locket around his neck. He didn't care if he didn't know why he had it, or what its purpose was. All he knew was that Victoria had given it to him and so he treasured it with all his heart. Mistoffelees smiled to himself as he looked through the window onto the dark blanket that covered the earth.
The ever-graceful Mistoffelees got off his very conformable rug and stretched out. Then he, very quietly, walked out of the room and was headed to the bar. He was planning on a nice cold saucer of milk and a moonlit walk. He entered the Bar and glance at the designs on the walls. It was a very pleasant place to be, very high class but not too fancy.
"Bustopher Jones would like this place." he thought to himself. Mistoffelees' was not the only soul in the room. He turned to see a bartender cleaning the filthy mugs from the restless crowd before. She was a black wirehair with brown strips on her back. She was pretty small and had a white face that extended down to her chest. Her two front paws were white and she had a pink nose with dark brown eyes. Mistoffelees could not see past her waist so he had no idea what the rest of her makings where like. He went and sat down on one of the stools in front of her. She smiled and greeted him.
"Hello" she said in a sweet voice, "How may I help you?" as she finished putting the mugs away.
"Hi, umm...could I just have a small, cold, saucer of cream?" he said thinking how wired it was ordering his breakfast instead of finding it in a alley way. But, hey, he can't complain.
"Coming right up" She said and got busy getting the cream. "So what are you doing up so early?"
"Couldn't sleep" he said in a very quiet voice, looking down and fingering the heart around his neck. She slowly poured the cream and looked up,
"Well...It's none of my business but is there something wrong? Maybe I could help." as she handed him the saucer of cream, and put her paws under her chin and elbows on the counter to support her head.
"Well it just..." he paused and looked up her.
"You know what? I don't believe we have met. I'm Mistoffelees but everyone calls me Misto" he said as he extended a paw to the black-brown cat. She smiled, took his paw and shook it.
"I'm Tansyleaf but everyone calls me Tanz, It's nice to meet you Misto." She smiled as she handed him the cream and began to wipe the counter.
"Humm, Tansyleaf? That's a nice name." and he licked up the cream in no time flat.
"Why, thank-you very much! Hey you came in with those pixies and the short hair. Am I right?"
Mistoffelees nodded, "Yah, I did, but..."
She tilted her head "But what?"
"But I feel like I don't know who they are anymore. They seem so different then the last time I saw them."
"Really ? When was that?" she asked being very nosey.
He gave her a weird smile and said "well I saw them...only a few days ago and they seemed fine but then some thing very strange happened. I was sleeping in an old abandoned apartment building and when I woke up I was in this huge castle with all this fancy stuff in it, like gorgeous banners and an enormous stair case with the fanciest decorations on the sides." Misto was cut off but Tansyleaf.
"That must be 'Castle of Putney' that you're talkin' about. I used to live there a while ago, yup." Tansyleaf said with a sigh of happiness. "I was the Sorcerers apprentice. Life was great! I learned a lot of useful things working with him." She got up close to Misto and whispered in his ear. "He was kind of cute too." She smiled, sat back down and continued. "He told me that if I kept practicing that one day I could be great like him." An extremely goofy smile erupted from her face after she said that." Chef taught me how to cook. That's why I now own this bar. The blacksmith taught me how to make weapons, nothing big just arrows and simple swords, and the hero's of the land showed me how fight. Now I can defend myself against anyone." Her face turned from one of joy to one of anger. "I loved life in the castle until Popcorn took over and killed all the people I loved. He killed the King and the Queen. He took the castle and the land by force and pushed out all the people form the kingdom."
A tear rolled down her cheek and onto the counter. "That's awful!" Misto said, concern flooded his voice. "did anyone else get away besides you?"
"Yes, many people did, but they had no place to go after that. Popcorn took their homes and their families..." she could not finish, the wirehair lowered her head to the counter and started to cry. Misto put his paw on her shoulder to comfort her and she stopped crying.
"Goodness, I don't know what got into me! I'm sorry, I'm not supposed to cry in front of customers." Another tear fell from her face. Mistoffelees took pity for her and gave her a hug.
"It's Ok," He said it a soothing voice, "every thing will be ok. Don't worry! I'm here." He hugged her tight and she pushed away.
"I'm sorry! I...I...I didn't mean to.... It's just that I get kind of emotional when I talk about my past. Please forgive me" she wiped away her tears and apologized for interrupting his story. "Please continue with what you were saying before."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, please continue"