CATS: Looking For Etcetera

Chapter Twenty-Three: The River

Five cats sprinted like lightning through the city, their slick bodies merely blurs of colour against the blue of the evening sky. Tugger lead the way, Misto took up the rear. Arguments of the past didn't matter anymore. No-one asked where they were going. No-one cared. They all knew too well that it could be too late for the kitten. All the travelling, all the fights, it all came down to this. This could be all the difference between life and death. Blood still dripped from Plato's cheek, and Misto's side still burned from his wound. Demeter was still shaking and Bomba couldn't see straight, but still they ran. They dashed under cars, weaved through crowds of people, dodged Pollicles, jumped fences without a second thought. Nothing was going to stop them. Suddenly nothing else mattered. Plato no longer cared about defeating Macavity. Tugger no longer cared about impressing Misto. The magician didn't care that his powers were gone. Nothing else mattered. Etcy was all that mattered. They had to find Etcetera. Tugger couldn't remember the way to the river exactly, but his senses lead him on. The rest of the world was non existent. Soon, they reached a part of town they'd never been to before.

As the shops and flats thinned out, the smell hit them. The smell of salt. Sea salt, and the sound of seagulls cawing through the evening. All ears pricked up, all tails flicked back and forth. The Jellicles ran faster than they knew they could. Through the cobbled streets lined with neat brick houses. Past the parked cars and rows of dust bins. 

"There's a street down by the river."

"...an alleyway...just past the docks..."

"...flag post nearby..."

"...a smell you couldn't imagine-like rotten fish or something-..." 

"And a big drain on the floor."

Yeah, it was all set out for them. Past the docks. Past a flag post with a rag of red and white hanging from it. And a new smell hit them like a truck. Disgusting and old and rancid. Like...rotten fish almost. And down, down, down the cobbled hill...

Till Tugger skidded to a halt. A long, dark, narrow alleyway. Isolated from all the others.

"It's cold and dark and quiet..."

"Not a single cat there..."

"Just me and my magic and the sky." 

They'd found it. They'd found Macavity.