GT - Chapter Eleven

When faced with an impossibility and an improbability, the impossible is almost always more entertaining.

-Lady Chatterwick’s Journey

Maria lay curled up on something soft and warm. As she blinked her eyes open, she realized that that something was Tia’s lap. The girl’s hand lay on Maria’s back, and her head was tilted back so a tiny snore escaped her lips each time she took a breath. As she thought this, Maria realized that her own breathing was no longer shallow and ragged. Hardly daring to believe it, she drew in a deep breath, smelling the lingering scent of some kind of herb or spice hanging in the air.

A rustling came from beyond Tia’s resting place, and Maria’s gaze shot toward it. She started to pull herself into a position that would allow her to flee, but quickly realized that not only could she not leave Tia behind, but her legs felt like over-cooked pasta.

A quiet voice crossed the dark space, and a middle-aged woman raised a blinkered lamp so that she could see Tia and Maria. It spoke to Tia’s exhaustion that the girl didn’t even stir as the faint light touched her closed eyelids.

“I told you, Fedder, the girl just needed sleep. Once she realized her pet was out of danger, she probably passed out. She won’t wake before morning.”

The dim light allowed Maria’s feline vision to pick out the shape of the same man who had found them in the forest. His unruly hair was now free of debris, and he no longer held a weapon, improvised or otherwise.

His voice was surprisingly light when he answered. Maria would have expected a deep bass to issue from such a large man, but the tone was not quite a tenor instead. “She’ll be all right, though?” He sounded genuinely worried, and his hands fidgeted at his sides as he started to reach for Tia, and then pulled them back awkwardly.

The woman smiled fondly at him. “She’ll be fine. She can tell us her story in the morning. Now, will you eat your supper like a good boy?”

He nodded, eyes dropping. “I’m sorry, Mama. I was just worried.” His fingers crept toward the fuzzy ear just poking through Tia’s fluffy black hair. “She’s so pretty,” he murmured.

“Fedder,” the woman said, chastising, as she gently took his hand in her free one. “Let the girl rest.”

His voice dropped to little more than a whisper. “Do you think she’ll let me pet her?”

Expression growing a little sad, the woman released his hand with a pat. “I don’t know, Fedder. You can ask her in the morning. Now, come eat some stew. It’s long after your bedtime.”

Without another word, the strange pair turned and left, pushing aside a door that swayed oddly. The ground shook as they left, and Maria nearly leapt out of her skin before realizing she and Tia were in a cart or wagon, and the ‘walls’ were canvas.

Tia’s breath hitched, and her muscles tensed beneath Maria. “Are they gone?” the girl hissed, without moving.

Maria mewed in startlement, but managed to say, “I think so.”

Tia sat up straight, pulling at one side of her makeshift burlap dress. “Ugh, this thing itches,” she muttered, scratching at her shoulder. She looked down at Maria, yellow eyes gleaming in the darkness. “Are you all right? Marfa poured all kinds of draughts into you, and then closed us in here with a pot of herbs simmering on a stove. Your breathing seemed better, and I must have drifted off.” She rubbed her eyes with a fist, yawning widely.

Maria nodded, then wondered if the faint light coming in through the crack of the canvas door was enough for Tia to see. “I feel a lot better. Whatever she - Marfa? - did, it helped. I thought I was going to… to…”

Tia’s wiry arms scooped Maria up, and she buried her nose in Maria’s fur. “Me, too,” she whispered. “I was so scared. If you… If anything happened to you, it would be all my fault.”

Maria felt her fur puff up in indignation. “It would not! It was that horrible boy, Thomas! Him and Myra, for putting us in those sacks in the first place. You saved me!”

Warm dampness soaked into Maria’s fur, and she realized Tia was crying. She patted the girl’s head with a trembling paw. “It’s okay, Tia. I’ll be fine. I just need a little time to get my strength back. Do you think we can trust those two?”

Tia lifted her head, sniffling a little, and Maria felt her skin shudder at the thought of what was probably in her fur now. No matter, though, the girl had saved her life, and Maria could clean herself thoroughly in a little while.

“I think so. Fedder seemed a little scary, at first, since he’s so big, but he reminds me of my brother, Danis. He’s six, and won’t even chase butterflies like the other kittens, because he’s afraid he’ll hurt them. Marfa is harder to read, but she helped you when Fedder asked, and I don’t think she’ll do anything that would upset him.” Tia sounded uncertain, but this matched what Maria had seen in the few minutes the two were there, so she nodded.

“There’s a whole camp here, with several wagons, but no one else really said anything, once they realized we weren’t a danger to them. Some of them were,” she hesitated, “strange, but they weren’t threatening.”

Maria’s ears flattened a bit. “Strange how?”

Tia shrugged, then scratched at her shoulder as the burlap sagged again. “There was a very short man. Shorter than anyone I’ve ever met before, who wasn’t a child. A woman with no legs. A man with tattoos all over. A person wearing a dress, but with a huge, long beard and curled mustache.”

“A carnival!” Maria exclaimed breathlessly. She read about carnivals in books, but of course, as a princess, she was expected to enjoy only the most refined of entertainments. Even poetry readings had grown boring after she attended a hundred or so.

“A what?”

“A carnival! It’s… They have lots of people who can do unusual things. Like a man who can swallow swords, or breathe fire, and a woman who trains snakes! There’s always one or two in town during Founder’s Day, but I’ve never gotten to see one.” Maria’s excitement lent strength to her shaky limbs, and she sat up, looking toward the door. “I wonder if they’re practicing now. I want to see!”

Tia hushed her. “They’re probably sleeping! You heard Marfa. It’s late. They looked like they were getting ready for dinner when I arrived, so I’m sure they’re in bed by now.”

Maria’s legs gave out as the thrill left her body in a rush. “Oh. That makes sense. Well. What should we do, then?”

Shrugging, Tia looked toward the door. “Are you well enough to run? If we run, do you think they’d follow? Do you think they’ll let us go if we stay? I mean, we obviously don’t have any money or anything to steal.”

Except you, Maria thought, but held her tongue. One of the reasons her mother wouldn’t let her or any of the children go to a circus or carnival was because they had a reputation for treating the law as more of a general guideline than an inflexible rule. People had tried to kidnap members of the royal family before, hoping to trade them for money or favors, and Mother insisted that none of them go anywhere their guards hadn’t cleared.

“I don’t know,” Maria offered hesitantly. “Marfa and Fedder seemed all right, and she did help us. I mean, as long as they don’t know you can turn into a cat, you can probably run away any time. Plus,” she attempted to stand, but found that her wobbly legs gave way before she could put her full weight on them. She sighed in defeat. “If we leave now, you’ll have to stay human and carry me, because I’m not strong enough yet.”

Tia nodded, a huge yawn splitting her face and showing off sharp teeth and a rough tongue. “Then we should get some more rest. You need to heal, and I’m very, very slee-” A small snore issued from her mouth, and Maria shook her head at the innocence of her… friend? Were they friends now? Maria hadn’t ever really had a friend, and if this was friendship, then it had started in a very unusual manner.

Maria reached up and patted a soft paw against Tia’s cheek. Still. The girl had exposed her secret to save Maria’s life. If only because of that, Maria owed her more than simple gratitude. But if they were friends; well, in Maria's books, friends did things like this for each other all the time. So, perhaps they were friends, after all.

Nestling her nose against her friend’s side, Maria began to purr, and, purring, fell asleep.