The Novelle Diaries & The Wampus Cub

Chapter 11: Discovery

The next morning, Wren awoke bright and early to go and check on the cub. Rosewaine had never been an early riser so Wren allowed her to remain asleep.

As usual at this hour, the corridors were deserted and even most of the portraits were asleep in their frames. When Wren opened the classroom door she could hear Chirrup calling to her in his little bird-like cries.

'I'm here Chirrup.' she crooned as she opened the door to let the little cub out. He bounded over to her joyfully and began to sniff about her robes, evidently hoping to find a hidden morsel.

'I'm sorry, little one. You're going to have to wait a little longer for food. I promise that I will feed you after breakfast.' Wren promised as she extracted the cub's head from the sleeve of her robe.

Over the next hour, Wren changed the now soggy towels for a litter tray that she had nabbed from a store room along the way, and sat playing with the cub. She hoped to tire it out enough that it would fall back to sleep until she could get it some food.

Chirrup enjoyed chasing her around the class and chewing on old discarded quills from around the room but his favourite game was chasing his extremely large, bushy tail. It was so large that it seemed to be the same length as the rest of the cub. Eventually the cub settled down in its box once more and nodded off letting Wren head across the castle for an early breakfast.

As soon as she arrived in the close to empty great hall she began to fill a drinks glass with sausages, kippers and bacon. She then grabbed another glass and filled it with milk. Finally she stashed a saucer in her robe pocket and shoved a croissant in her mouth before picking up the glasses and hurrying out of the great hall once more.

When she returned to the classroom, Chirrup was still asleep so Wren took some time to lay out the various tip bits she had brought. Wren wasn't quite sure what the cub was eating at this stage in his development so she had brought both milk and meat to cover all bases.

Soon enough, Chirrup's nose began to twitch as he came around groggily, brought to by the smells. Wren watched him trot over to the saucer of milk first and began to lap it up messily then his attention was caught by the small pile of assorted meats. He sniffed at it, then pulled a chunk into his mouth only to chew it and spit it back out.

'Milk it is then.' Wren giggled before filling his saucer back up and leaving him to his meal.

During break that day Wren ventured up to the library and checked out every book that she could find on Wampus cats. In her brief flip through some of the books before her next class she discovered that there were in fact several different species of wampus cats. The most common and well known species were found in the Appalachian region of America and resembled mountain lions in every way other than their extra legs. The species that Chirrup belonged to was the far rarer and more elusive tropical Andes wampus cat, only having been spotted in densely forested parts of Peru and Bolivia. Their strange deep purple coat acted much the same as the jaguar in camouflaging them in the dense jungle shadows.

Over the next couple of days Wren and Rosewaine spent every spare minute they could with the wampus cup, even bringing their homework to complete in the old classroom. They adored playing with him in the evenings and took turns on bottle feeding him from an old pumpkin juice bottle with a rubber pipet pump on its top acting as a teet. Chirrup gussled greedily from the bottle, making funny little grumbling sounds when the girls told him to slow down.

In the early mornings, Wren would bring him outside to explore and stretch his legs. At first she was afraid that he would run off but it soon became clear that he refused to leave her vicinity and she relaxed a little. Wren watched him snuffle about the piles of leaves and explore the bushes surrounding the castle. Wren always made sure to bring him places that weren't overlooked by many windows or masked from view by trees.