Welcome to the new adventures of Mark, Maggie, and Edmond the talking cat. There are three sets of adventures on the Joyously Prolific Blog. You can find them by searching for Surviving Elsewhere, Journey to Somewhere Else, and Saving Elsewhere -- or you can find the entire set here: Tales from Elsewhere -- and you can buy the book for $1.99 with this coupon code WN38F (not case-sensitive) which you enter prior to completing their checkout. (Good until December 31, 2020 -- pass it around to your friends!)
Are you ready for more Elsewhere adventures? Cats who can talk and have wings? What could go wrong?
I should have seen the disaster coming. What else could you expect with six furry, hyper three-month-old kittens -- especially black kittens who could talk and who had wings?
We'd had some calm days lately, though. That lured me into staying calm. Edmond and I had taken the kittens into a magically-made playroom where they could fly, leap, jump, and attack each other -- and wear off their excess kitten energy without getting away from the two of us. No one wanted that to happen again, and even my father, who housed us in his castle, was happy with anything we did to wear out the little ones each day.
They were growing fast. Soon we would need better distractions and more teaching. If you think flying cats sound bad, just consider hordes of flying kittens. The playtime also gave me a much-needed break from lectures and training of my own, though. I had to learn magic and the rules now that I lived in Elsewhere.
I'd made the glowing walls soft so flying kittens could hit and bounce off, which was a game they loved. They had toys and a cat condo to climb. Their enthusiasm was fun to watch.
After about an hour, tired kittens began to get cranky. Edmond, their father, tried not to get annoyed at his screaming children. I was surprised that Edmond hadn't just disappeared on us. I wasn't sure you could call Edmond responsible, but he stuck this out.
"Number Two, if you don't stop grabbing your sister's tail --" Edmond shouted.
Two kittens parted in midair, one flapping fast to bounce off the wall and the other gliding down to where I sat on the floor. Five was usually the quietest of the group, but Two had been teasing her for days, and Five now had fur fluffed out in indignation. She settled in my lap with her ears back.
"He's not nice!"
"Two is just trying to play," I explained. "But he doesn't know when to stop."
Five huffed a little, but she settled down a moment later. The kittens would be ready for dinner and sleep soon.
"How is it you know so much about young ones, Mark?" Edmond asked. He even sounded reasonable -- and very tired. The kittens hardly let him sleep ten hours a day lately.
"Mostly cousins," I said and let Five settle into the pocket of my jacket -- a favorite place for the little furballs. I'd soon be covered in them trying to win the coveted pockets. "And my mother's friends had kids sometimes. It turns out talking, flying kittens are not much different from human toddlers. Except there are more of them all at once."
Three had lost control and began heading for another head-first landing. I reached out with a bit of magic and snared him before I set him on the floor. The kittens had learned that they didn't get to fly much except in this room, and if they didn't obey that rule, they didn't get to come in and play. I hated doing that to them, though. There is nothing more pitiful than a kitten crying when the others go off to play. In fact, Five had stayed behind more than once, so the bad kitten wasn't alone.
They amazed me some days.
They didn't like to stop when they were here, but One -- the other female -- had taken up her role as the chief herder and began chasing the others down toward the floor. We had another squabble in the air. Three and Six were flying circles around One began to lose her temper. Edmond sighed and stood, stretching before he started to climb the cat condo. Four got out of his father's way, and Two landed so quickly that he did a flip -- and then laughed, took off, and did it again.
"All of you -- down now!" Edmond ordered from the top of the condo. "If you don't, I'm going to launch --"
Kittens dropped to the floor with a series of distinct little thumps.
"Okay," I said and stood, trying not to laugh.
"I learned something today," Six said, and he sat up straighter. "Can I say it, please?"
"Yes, of course," I said and smiled. Six was our scholar. I was starting to picture him in little wire-rimmed glasses sitting on an open book while he read.
"I read this in a book," he said, which didn't entirely surprise me. "Something I found the book in the library!"
He began to speak.
It took me a few seconds to realize he was not speaking English and that the words were magic.
I leapt at him. Edmond swept down at him. Six was so startled that he squeaked and took to the air, trailing magic with every move, a whirlpool of power that began sweeping up paper and cat toys. I shoved kittens into the cat condo --
"Hold on!" I shouted.
And someone opened a magical door into the playroom.
"No!"
Too late. I saw Maggie's startled face as she started to take a step inside, but her magic to open the door and the kitten-made magic collided. The whirlpool grew larger and dangerous. Six was mewing in panic, flying one way and another, the power reaching up for him.
Edmond grabbed him and threw him at the condo where he grabbed hold. Maggie was trying to contain the whirlpool, and I moved to help her --
And Edmond got caught in the powerful magic that began to pull him in.
"Edmond!" I shouted and leaped forward, reaching for Edmond's legs.
"Mark!" Maggie cried and grabbed my arm just as I caught hold of Edmond.
I hoped it was enough to pull us back out -- but no. The whirlpool dragged at Edmond, and I would not let go of him. I almost tried to shake Maggie off, but that was stupid. We needed to stick together because we were all going ... elsewhere.
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