Crimson Rose: The Crooked Man and the Crooked Cat

Chapter 9: Nursery to Cursery?

"Our?" Annette questioned. Noir turned to her with a puzzled expression on his face. "Yes. 'Our.' Did you really think I'd let you go on your own? Those creatures would slaughter you without a guide."

"Well, that's very comforting." thought Annette. "At least, the cat didn't intend to throw me to the metaphorical wolves. Or literal, whichever how it goes."

"So...who are these 'creatures' anyway?" she questioned her feline companion once more. Noir turned to face her. "Have you ever heard of a woman named 'Mother Goose'?"

Annette smiled at the name. "Yeah! I heard about her. She was one of the greatest nursery rhyme writers."

An angry hiss tore through Noir's throat. He whirled around, faced Annette and put his clawed hands on her shoulders, his eyes blazing in golden fire.

"Don't you EVER praise that vile woman!" he screamed, causing Annette to back a great deal up. Her eyes widened with fear.

Realizing he was screaming, Noir shook his head, closed his eyes and tried to calm down. "That woman is an evil witch who preys on the suffering of the people here. Every story was a person's life or an innocent spell she corrupted."

Annette couldn't believe what she was hearing. "What?! What are you talking about? Her stories were always nice, bright and happy, like Humpty Dumpty."

Noir shook his head, once again dismissing those claims. "You don't understand. Humpty Dumpty was not nice. He wasn't even an egg. He was a greedy, selfish man wrapped in bandages.

He was so gluttonous that instead of feeding on food, he devoured little children. And that wasn't a wall he fell off, it was a window he was pushed out off."

Annette was shocked. An indescribable fear ran through her. "Gee! I don't believe it. That's impossible!" She was so confused. "Mother Goose is an evil witch? No way..." she thought anxiously.

"But what about the other nursery rhymes?"

"They're called Cursery Rhymes here, and very few have happy endings. It's our job to destroy them and cure them." "Wait, what?" Annette looked at him in disbelief. "Seriously? That's our job?"

"Yes." said Noir with a nod. Annette thought for a moment. Then she looked at Noir.

"What rhyme are you from?"

"What?" The suddenness of the demand shocked Noir a little. He thought that he had scared Annette away for asking such questions. She didn't need to know what the cat had done. "You heard me. What's your rhyme?" She didn't need to know, she wanted to know.

"Perhaps she'd be too ignorant to know....Wait, that's it!" Noir thought.

Annette knew only her nursery rhymes, not his Cursery rhymes. "I'm the Crooked Cat." he said simply. "Really? From the nursery rhyme 'The Crooked Man and the Crooked Cat'?"

Noir nodded.

Annette thought for a moment. Then she nodded toward Noir, accepting his answer. They resumed their walking, fast approaching a clearing up ahead. All the while, Annette was reciting the rhymes from memory.

"There was a crooked man

And he walked a crooked mile.

He found a crooked sixpence

Against a crooked stile.

He bought a crooked cat

Which caught a crooked mouse,

And they all lived together

In a crooked little house."

She smiled at the rhyme she silently recited. It calmed her nerves and she relaxed more. "So Noir's master was the Crooked Man? That's interesting." thought Annette as they walked towards the edge of the wood. "That nursery rhyme was my favorite ever since I was little." said Annette. "Really?" asked Noir.

"Yeah, my mom often reads it to me before I go to sleep. Now that I mention it, I'm starting to miss her. I really wish I could get back home."

Suddenly, Noir abruptly stopped in the last shadow of the last forest tree.

"I'm afraid I'm not always going to be around to help you." he said. He pointed at the moonlit clearing ahead of them. "Get across this field on your own, I'll see you on the other side."

Annette stared at him. "What? You're not coming with me?" she asked, slighted shocked.

"You certainly don't need me to hold your hand. Get moving." said Noir simply. Then he shifted into his cat form and darted away into the bushes.

Annette was alone. Alone in the Crooked Forest of the Crooked Cat. All she had were her thoughts, a sword in her hand and a direction to walk in.

An odd combination, honestly.

Nevertheless, she started her lonely stroll through the moonlit field; questions kept racing through her mind. "Why does Noir need me? What are the Cursery Rhymes like? Surely that mangy feline won't abandon me, will he?"

As she walked, she tried to hatch a plan. She needed to get better answers from that strange cat.

Noir raced through the woods to the other side of the clearing. The bell was a hindrance to him; his weakness to moonlight was still active. Making sure that Annette didn't see his weakness would be a project all on its own.

Weaving in and out of the dark-colored or dead foliage, he was nearing the edge of the clearing when a loud shriek made his blood run cold.

"NOIR, HELP ME!!!"

Launching to the edge of the clearing once more, he saw his new playmate had found herself in a rather nasty situation.

An enormous spider was cornering her, its venomous fangs poised to strike. The spider was the size of a horse, with eight glowing green eyes and very ugly pincers dripping with poison.

Glowing eyes narrowed as Noir growled, the moon was still out and towering right over Annette is the "Itsy Bitsy" Spider. "Itsy Bitsy" had been a spider that Noir befriended, but she and Noir never got along very well.

Before the Cursery Items, his master Edmond showed Itsy Bitsy to Blake. As a kitten, Noir would often tease the spider and the spider would tease back by webbing his tail.

When Edmond was given the cat bell, Noir and Itsy Bitsy were present.

Itsy Bitsy sensed something was wrong with the cat bell, but when Edmond gave Noir the cat bell, she left them and started to live in the woods. After Noir hurt her, she swore revenge upon him.

Apparently, it seemed she fell victim to Mother Goose's tainted magic, causing her to grow to an enormous size.

She even had the nerve to blame Noir for Edmond's death. No one really knew that the Crooked Cat was a lifeless puppet at that time, so when he was resurrected, she was furious.