Vyacheslav Miroshnikov - Cat Marquis De Richelieu

“If you do not want to tell, then don’t!” said the man, with some boredom in his voice, wanting to nevertheless draw a new fellow traveler into the conversation.

“Well, why not?” answered the cat hastily, throwing a straw aside. “I have no secrets! And I can tell you about my origin and my royal pedigree!”

6

“We have lots of time!” said Bogdan with interest, looking at the cat lying comfortably, as if he was at home. “But first, I would like to know how you learned to talk?”

“This is an old story related to one royal family, which had one big secret related to our cat dynasty. Like all my other brothers, sisters and distant relatives, I descend from the Marquise of Lavroix-La-Pargenier, my great-great-grandmother. Her portrait was painted by the most famous painter of those times, who received a very good reward for doing it.

“And how was your great-great-grandmother different from all those other cats that roamed the attics and basements at night in search of mice?” asked the horseman with a grin.

For some reason, it was at this moment that a huge brown fly landed on De Richelieu, the very fly that ran over Lisa’s buttock a few moments before. The marquise was very unpleased. He wanted to catch her, but as a mirage the fly flew between his paws, mocking his patience.

“Oh, you…,” Marquis did not manage to say what he wanted, because just before his nose flew the tip of a whip, which caught a boring fly and nailed it directly to the wooden board.

“At first she bothered Lisa, and then she would not let me listen to what you were trying to say!” Bogdan said.

Having pulled back the whip, he winked at the cat and again turned his face towards the road.

“Come on, my new found friend, tell me!”

But then all of a sudden the cart rushed forward, and although the man attempted to pull the reins and slow down at that very moment, it would not help. The horse, no matter what, only ran faster. What is the matter with her, the man thought, and accidentally glanced up out of the corner of his eye. His face twisted.

“Zaldan! This is Zaldan!” he cried excitedly. “Lisa, run faster into the forest! We need to make our way there before he flies out of the clouds!”

De Richelieu stared in horror at the rapidly darkening sky. It was covered with clouds, but those were not rain clouds, but rather something kind of artificial in appearance. There was something intimidating and menacing in them. But not only that. At the same time, a black dot appeared on the horizon, very rapidly growing in sizes, and then it was already circling above the forest in front of them.

“Faster, Lisa!” shouted the horseman, and cut the air with his whip. “Speed up, we are almost there!”

7

Lisa dashed the best she could, and literally in a moment later they were in the dense shadow of the nearest trees. They had no other protection at that moment. De Richelieu was seriously scared. And his fear got only stronger, his paws trembled, his ears stuck up, his mustache was moving. His heart was pounding furiously, and in the usually reasonable head of a talking cat there was a feverish thought: no forest could save us; we need to run and run as far away as we can, or like a mole, dig ourselves deep into the ground.

“My sweet mother Marquise!” the cat whispered with trembling voice, seeing how quickly the plain-looking black dot not simply grows in size, but turns into a huge and mighty bird.

It was an outlandish black eagle about twice as large as a horse, with an immense wingspan, and with knife-sharp claws. And the size of each claw was far bigger than the size of a small cat. His eyes were bright green, and it seemed that they pierced right through this dense dark forest.

And yet, our fugitives managed to dodge the merciless predator. They literally crashed into a loophole between the densely growing trees, but the eagle did not calm down and kept ramming the branches of tall trees at the same tremendous speed, trying to reach the people and animals he had chosen as his victims. At some point, he almost made it, and yet a densely overgrown forest protected the fellow travelers. The angry eagle flew up sharply again in no mood to let them go, and again began to look for an appropriate crevice between the trees.

“Zaldan is already above us! Quicker, quicker into the forest!” the man continued to scream, hurrying a horse who already was choking from running, “Quicker!”

And events were taking an ever more dramatic turn.

De Richelieu also saw how Zaldan rushed down straight at them. However, fear did not make the cat defenseless, but, on the contrary, woke up his instinct of self-preservation. Without hesitation, De Richelieu jumped off the cart and immediately ran as fast as he could, not knowing where, just to get away from this impudent and importunate bird, from these terrible gloomy clouds, which could be the only shelter of the black eagle. Marquis turned back only once to see what was happening behind his back. He saw the horseman jump off the cart and run away, and the horse rushed to a huge oak tree and jumped into a deep moat together with the cart.

“Zaldan! Zaldan!” Marquis continued to yell meanwhile, as if he wanted to warn the inhabitants of this whole forest about the terrible danger that threatened them, but, to his surprise, not a single animal was at his sight. I was as if they all knew in advance and hid all as one in a timely manner.

Real clouds began to quickly overtake the sky; somewhere high above flashed a lightning, and then rolled a thunder. De Richelieu was still rushing between the trees and just when he wanted to stop to find shelter, again he saw a huge shadow, as if it was pursuing him. Yes, it was the same Zaldan with his terrible green eyes. Marquis immediately lost the desire to stop and seek shelter. Fear drove him forward, and he ran over hedge and ditch and not knowing where, until he finally crossed the forest. Ahead of him some houses appeared on the outskirts.

8

“Here it is, my salvation!” a thought flickered in the head of the cat, and he immediately felt how tired he was. But it was too early to relax. And who knows what new dangers may await him here. Marquis jumped up to the tree, then carefully ran along the swaying branch, finally reached the roof and immediately climbed under the reeds into the attic. Marquis felt how warm it was here. Rain pounded the reeds and drops immediately flowed down. I was very hungry, and Marquis crawled cautiously to the stairs, which went down into the room. He carefully moved his paw to the upper stair and slowly descended on it. Instead of at least some smell of food, a sharp smell of bitterness, heat and steam hit his nose. Fortunately, the stair right under the very roof was very broad, and he could freely sit on it and watch what was happening, without any fear of being noticed.

The things happening downstairs struck him so much that he froze as if rooted to the spot with his mouth slightly open in amazement. Marquis saw an elderly woman, dressed in some kind of rags, repeatedly pounding something in a small bowl, while at the same time constantly pronouncing some words. After a short while, she took a yellow maple leaf from the table and dipped it in boiling liquid. After holding the leaf in a bowl for several seconds, she took it out and threw it onto a chair, where a large yellow-brown spider was sitting.

“Tarmiz!” she cried out loudly, and at that very second the spider turned into a beautiful peacock. To Marquis’s surprise, the creature remained in place, allowing the woman to do her magic over it.

“Meow,” heard De Richelieu. Peacock slightly pecked the woman’s hand, and again Marquis heard, “Meow…”