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When
the sun had reached its highest point, hanging beneath the sky, it was
accompanied by a terrible heat, wherefore the white ruby cat fled into
the pleasant shadows of the large maple trees seaming the southern area
of Eversun. It was hence a summer day and on those extremely hot days
everyone was too lamed to take care of any effortful business or
action. As the ruby cat's owner was relaxing near a little lake and did
not want to play with its pet, no matter how hard the little fellow
nagged, the cat felt boring quickly and did not know what to do with
itself. After hours of lying around a sound dragged its way to the
ruby's ears as it recognized the called name of its owner. A friend in
need had directed himself to her. Since she was a loyal person she did
not hesitate a second and followed her comrade in spite of the
suffocating heat. Left alone with its master's belongings the ruby cat
was so overcome by its boredom that it started to grub in the bags of
their camp. After some searching it found an emerald on a long silver
chain - and realized at once that it was the beloved and cherished
bequest that its shura friend had received after her mother had passed
away. It certainly meant a lot to her, it was not right to take it out,
the ruby told itself. But the incredibly beautiful sparks like
thousands of green shives that suddenly surrounded the cat like an
unknown and arcane magic caught the pet. It was paralyzed by the view.
And then the
necklace was gone. It was seconds after the ruby realized that its paws
were actually empty, gazing unbelievably at them. The dreadful laughter
ripped the animal out of his trance when it saw a gang of bad-bow-wows
running away with the jewellery, fleering in loud voices. Immediately
the ruby took off, sped up to pursuit the thieves. It had lost their
track visually but could still hear the laughter and so the cat gave
its best to outrun them. When it reached a huge rock, growing out of
the earth like a living-dead tree the bow-wows were so close the ruby
could even smell them. It passed the stone and drew back panically. In
front of itself it saw a pride of wild pupus, more or less fifteen with
brown fur and long tusks. There were no bow-wows in sight. The animals
were excited and surrounded something glinting in a green light. A
feeling of being lost climbed up the ruby’s little body, starting
at its feet and making its way up to the nose. Wild pupus were known
for being strong and when one member of the group was attacked the
whole pack would join to defend their comrade. It felt like the end of
the world. It had lost its master’s most important possession.
What would the cat say to its shura friend when it returned? And what
would she answer? There was no way; it had to gain the bequest back. As
fighting was senseless it had to trick them. Should it scare the pupus
away? But how, the ruby was not scary at all and the fire it could spit
would not impress a group of fifteen wild boars. Looking around hastily
to find an answer the cat’s eyes got stuck on a brown puddle.
This was the crazy and totally insensible idea. The jackpot. Although
it hated mud and dirt like almost nothing in the world, the ruby pulled
itself together and jumped into the puddle. The brown sauce splashed
around and being safe in the shadow of the big rock the pet took a long
and dirty bath until even the last hair was covered.
Walking towards the pack of wild
pupus the ruby tried to hide how timorous it was. Its heart was beating
like a drum and the pet almost believed that everybody must have heard
it, so loud it banged in the animal’s head. Right in this moment
it was very thankful for the wings it had, pressed to its body so that
nobody would see them. When it had obtained the emerald the cat would
just fly away and never return.
The wild boars had finally noticed
the intruder. Becoming excited and agitated they abandoned their
attention towards the jewellery and directed it to the ruby. A big boar
appeared in front of the pet, apparelled with long weathered tusks. One
of them already had lost its tip and several scars were showing
themselves through the thick and bristly fur.
“What do you want?” the boar asked with an ominous, deep voice.
Too afraid to speak properly the
painted cat squeaked: “E-I-I…Me-I” Suddenly another
voice, probably belonging to a female exemplar, cut through the scene.
“You, what are you doing
again? Are you bullying strange piglets again?” The pupu woman
pushed the boar aside and hissed: “Protecting our pack does not
mean to harass other groups’ children. Look at him, is he
dangerous or what?” Then she turned to the ruby.
“Are you all right, dear?” Her tone had changed into a motherly one.
“Ye-yes
ma’am”, the cat answered tremulously. It was now surrounded
by the group of wild pupus. The emerald was so close and unreachable at
the same time, lying some meters behind them, unprotected.
“Now, what are you doing here?” the female pupu contunied.
“Oh, well, I”, the cat
started “I was separated from my…mother…because of
some bow-wows that attacked us.”
“Oh, my my, we have met some
bad bow-wows”, the first pupu which appeared to be the
pack’s leader, interrupted the cat.
“They were so lovely, we gave them some hugs. The pupu
kind.”
“Oh. That’s
great”, the ruby answered with a forced smile and giggled
nervously to join the laughter that the leader’s joke had
provoked. Suddenly that was the chance the shura’s friend had
been waiting for. In this one moment, second, that everybody around it
had raised their heads, closed their eyes to share the packs gloating
the ruby splayed it wings, rocketed upwards and zipped towards the
emerald. It was almost there, stretched its paws to snatch the necklace
when a furious wild boar appeared underneath. It caught the bequest,
pulling it up in the air so that it dashed around. In the nick of time
the traitorous cat could catch the end of the silver chain and with a
strong jerk it tore its master’s possession out of the mouth of
the rampaging animal. Turning around in the air the cat saw the raging
crowd of wild boars, roaring like wrathful demons. It sped up as fast
as it wings could do and fled, as if the devil was up to snatch it. It
did not know how long it flew, nor had the ruby any idea whether the
boars were still persecuting the thief but eventually the blue lake
with their camp appeared in front of the pet. Being horribly exhausted
it landed. Its owner was not around. Quickly and still panting the cat
pushed the emerald necklace into one of the bag as if it had never been
taken out. Suddenly the shura’s shadow fell on him. Frightened
the animal turned around and raised its head, prepared for upcoming
trouble. But when its eyes met the shura’s it just gazed into a
face of sorrow.
“Oh, honey, what’s wrong
with you? You look so exhausted!” She lifted her pet carefully
and took a look at it. Then she smirked amicably and asked:
“And what have you done to
your fur? You’re painted brown from head to toe. Just like a wild
pupu.”
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