Climbing into bed for a much needed rest, Alice lowered the lamp when she heard something moving around in her room. Turning the light up thinking it was Tristan playing a prank on her, Alice was surprised to see that there was nobody there. However, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something moving amongst the shadows. At first she thought it might have been either a mouse or rat. However, it was too large for either. Smiling, she took the cup of warm milk she brought to her room and poured some into the saucer and watched as a very thin smokey grey cat slowly approached the saucer and began to lap up the milk. Slowly, she got up and snatched the cat up in her arms. At first it wanted to fight her by hissing menacingly and trying to scratch at her arms. Taking a warm towel and wrapping it up so no damage could be done by it, she whispered soothingly to it.
“From the looks of it,” she said softly “you have not had it very good here little friend. Settle down and I will take you with me to my home where you will get plenty to eat and a warm place to sleep. In the meantime, come and settle down with me for the night.”
Holding the cat in her arms and petting it gently, she felt it slowly begin to relax and before long as it nibbled at the dried pieces of fish Alice fed it from her traveling bag, the cat began to purr softly.
“If you are to come with me, you will need a name dear one,” she said as the cat looked into her eyes. “I know…I shall call you Shadow. It fits your color and quiet way you move around.”
Laying down on the bed, she felt Shadow wriggle free of the towel. Watching it, she smiled as it settled down and lay behind her legs on the bed and went to sleep. Soon the castle would have another soul living within its walls.
In the morning, she wrapped Shadow in a cloak she brought for chilly evenings. Leaving her room and heading to the main room of the small inn, the innkeeper’s husband was ready to snatch the cat from Alice.
“There you are you bloody nuisance,” he growled “now you will be out my hair forever!”
“Wait,” Alice said protecting the cat “it is obvious you mean this creature harm. So I have a bargain for you. I will pay you four gold coins if you will allow me to take this cat with me to my home.”
“Although we could use the coin miss,” he said calming down “you can keep the cat at no charge. One of our former boarders brought this mean thing here and left it behind. Ever since it has been tearing apart everything it can get its claws on and has scratched at me and the wife since. If you think you can do something useful with it…its yours.”
“It is no wonder with how you treat it and how scrawny it is. Did you not consider the damage is because it was looking for food and water and his attitude is only from the mean way you treated it and not to mention its former owner? I have had no problems all night with this one. Thank you for letting me take him with me,” she said paying for the rooms and adding in the extra five gold coins.
Heading to the coach, she asked the driver how long it would be until they arrived in the town in the shadow of the castle.
“We will be there by midday miss,” the driver said helping her inside. “Just please make sure that beast does not mess up the inside of the carriage.”
“I will make sure of it, but if he does I will pay for any damage as well as clean up anything that he might do,” she said honestly.
Just then Tristan came out of the inn carrying a small wooden box that contained a small pile of rags.
“I heard about our new traveling companion and thought this might be useful,” he said taking the cat from her and placing it in the box. “Just one thing…what will your father say about this?”
“Believe it or not,” she smiled he likes cats. “Besides…even if he don’t I will make sure he gets used to Shadow.”
Shaking his head, Tristan and Alice jerked in their seats as the coach started to move and the last leg of their journey began.
Comments are closed.