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SNOWKITTEN BOOK TWO
Chapter Fourteen - January 2007
Story and characters copyright © Nicky "Eliki" Rowe
"My child,
You gave the past
The only reason
For coming back.
You hold,
Her far too late.
She finds a lie now
In all you say."
Indifference by The April Flowers.
**********
Jarret blinked as he looked up at the night sky. The far distant stars seemed slightly hazy and faintly violet tinted, and he was certain they were moving in a slow, insistent orbit around the full moon.
He looked along the deathly silent street, past the equally silent closed shops. Once again he found himself in a dream involving the much travelled route to school, and once again he appeared to be inexplicably making the journey in the middle of the night.
The last time he'd had this dream, he'd been five years old, but it had burned a permanent memory in his mind. This time round, he was well into his eighth year. The young snowkitten was a bit older, and if not necessarily much wiser, he was at least forewarned. In the dream, he had already turned the corner into Milton Street before he realised what he was doing, and ahead of him in the darkness, only faintly lit by the fake gas street lamp, was the park that didn't exist. Jarret remembered full well his encounter there with the sinister cowled beings, and this had shaken him up enough to ensure he knew he was dreaming. Despite that, he seemed unable to force himself to wake up.
So he turned away from the park, smiling slightly as he headed off in a very different direction. He retraced his steps around the corner quickly, down a silent Masonry Street. Jarret had no idea where he was meant to be going in the dream, but he knew he needed to put a decent distance between himself and that park. Looking back, he noticed with a certain amount of amusement that the moon was no longer full - it was barely a sliver now - and the purple stars now moved in an almost imperceptibly slow spiral around it. Jarret frowned, heading swiftly down another alleyway, far narrower here than it was in reality, and he stepped out at the far end, fully expecting to find himself in the rather more spacious Fountain Square.
To his surprise and dismay, the snowkitten instead found himself in the very park he'd been attempting to avoid. He turned round rapidly, intending to run, but instead of an alleyway, he was now faced with a locked metal gate and tall hedges, much like when he'd first experienced this dream.
Jarret turned around again and wasn't especially surprised to find himself surrounded again by the twelve tall, cloaked figures, faces obscured by the hoods, and each holding a long, jagged piece of pale blue glass. They stood in silence, swaying ever so slightly as though wafting in a non-existent breeze, but otherwise making no movement.
The previous time, an inner voice had told Jarret that all but one of the figures was an illusion. His attempt to fight them had been in vain, so this time Jarret stayed still, barely daring to breathe.
It's just a dream, he thought frantically. They can't hurt you really. They can't.
Oh they can, the inner voice told him. If they want to.
And then, in a twist to the previous incarnation of the dream, Jarret's eyes widened as he noticed a figure in the shadows, at the far end of the park, standing in front of the other gate. The figure sent even more of a chill through the snowkitten than the cloaked figures had managed, but he didn't know why. He couldn't identify the person, but it was definitely feline, dressed entirely in black, one hand badly burned or deformed.
And it began to walk towards Jarret. As it walked, every so often the being would vanish in a burst of noisy static, only to reappear a little closer. The cloaked being behind Jarret raised its long, jagged glass weapon, ready to strike, and Jarret was about to yell in terror when a voice in his head whispered...
"Trust us."
The creature lunged forward with a hiss, in a stabbing motion. Jarret had already closed his eyes but he found he could still see. But the strike never hit him. It passed through him as though he was made of smoke, the stab aimed at the tall, dark cat who had now reached the circle, and it struck home brutally, but not before...
Jarret shot up in bed with a gasp. It took him several minutes to catch his breath. He looked at the glowing green numbers on his spider-shaped clock, realising with a groan that it was only 4 a.m. A moment later, he realised that today was also the first day back to school after the holidays.
"Gaaahhh!" Jarret hissed. He didn't know if the dream or the thought of school in the morning was worse. Just to be awkward, his stomach rumbled with hunger. Briefly he considered sneaking downstairs to raid the biscuit tin, but he knew for an absolute certainty that one of the cloaked figures was down there, sat at the kitchen table, probably eating a snowkitten brain. He opted to stay hungry, rolled over, and attempted to go to sleep again.
**********
The following morning, Jarret begrudgingly trudged through a thin layer of snow towards school, with his twin sister Ailee. She was considerably less concerned - she loved learning new things and hearing new stories read to them by the teacher at the end of each day. In particular though, she was looking forward to showing off when everyone asked everyone else what gifts they'd received for Soleine. The twins were wrapped in several layers of clothing and scarves to protect them from the chilly wind, but they also knew there was a good chance of more snow later, so they'd been warned to be prepared. Jarret, however, felt so padded out that he knew if he were to fall over, he might never be able to stand up again.
As they approached the corner leading to Milton Street, just past a very old fashioned bakery, Jarret shivered and noticeably slowed his pace. Ailee fumed, "C'mon, stop clowning about! I want to tell everyone about my new computer!"
Jarret ignored her and peered carefully around the corner.
Ailee hissed with impatience. "What is going on with you?! I... Oh wow...!"
There stood the usual large traffic island, rather than the park Jarret had vaguely expected to see. However, around its circumference - having seemingly appeared overnight in a mocking gesture - were twelve small trees, each with pale blue fencing around them to protect the slender trunks and roots.
"Well, at least Phoenixbrook made an effort at last," Ailee told Jarret, before she realised he was no longer standing next to her. Seeing the trees, Jarret had paled under his fur, promptly backing away until he'd reached the nearby wall, at which point he sat down in the snow in case his legs collapsed beneath him.
Ailee knelt down in front of her brother, waving a paw in front of his eyes. "Ikkriat!! Jarret, what the heck are you playing at this morning?"
Jarret blinked. He wished their dad, Iskari, was there like the last time Jarret had dreamt of the park. Abrupt as their father could be at times, he never failed to offer sympathy when it was needed, along with sensible, calming words. However, though he always fetched them back from school, it had been agreed they should walk there themselves, as practice for when they started at "The Big School."
"I dreamt it..." Jarret said in a dazed voice.
"Trees? You dreamt of trees? Oh whoopee...," Ailee replied with a look of impatience.
The look was matched by Jarret's look of indignation. "No, not the trees. Well, sort of." And as they both sat against the brick wall, looking at the twelve new additions to the island, Jarret told Ailee about the dream and how sometimes they had a habit of becoming reality - or rather the dreams had strange links to real events that happened later, as if they were subtle warnings.
If anyone else had told Ailee the story (particularly complimented as it was with a comment about "the cobblestone jabbing my bum right now,") she would have refused to believe it, and more than likely would have spread it round school that there was a nutter on the loose. But when Jarret told her, she believed every word and it chilled her to the bone, even if she - like Jarret - didn't understand at all what the dream was trying to tell them.
In the end, she gave up trying to figure it out and settled for giving Jarret a piece of orange chocolate from her lunchbox ("for energy") and told him, "C'mon, nightmare kitty, let's shift our tails out of here... we're already late so we'll have to run."
Fine by me, Jarret thought. The sooner we can get away from that island, the better.
**********
The two snowkittens arrived at the school playground ten minutes late, just as a few flakes of snow drifted down, almost casually. It held the promise, or threat, of more to come.
Ailee scoped out the playground with military precision. "No sign of Ferris," she said with relief. They both hurried down the curving path, ducking low so nobody would see them through the classroom windows as they headed for the side entrance near the nursery. Jarret peered carefully round the corner through the glass of the door, and then silently gestured. They both slipped into the dimly lit grey corridor. The usual strange smell of poster paint combined with disinfectant welcomed them back, followed by a strong reek of stale coffee that offensively wafted towards them as they passed the tiny staff kitchen.
Just round the corner was the closed door of the headmaster's office, the words "Mr Jeremy Ferris" emblazoned across it in gold on black. When they'd started at the school, Jarret and Ailee had been in totally different classes, but this year they were both in the care of Mrs Parkes. Her room lay at the end of this long corridor, which then swept to the right where the classrooms for the eldest children waited ominously. If they could just make it to their classroom, they knew they might be able to sneak in, sit down, and beat the countdown to when the class register was begun - thus escaping anyone (except the nosey but obedient kids at the front of the class) knowing they were late.
Jarret and Ailee padded silently past the headmaster's office, inwardly thinking, "Yes! We made it!" A click of the door gave way to the sinking feeling of, "No, we didn't."
Mr Ferris leaned out of his office doorway, his large bear frame casting a bulky shadow across the twins. "Mr Jarret, Ms Ailee, how nice to see you again after the holidays. And my watch says you managed to grab an extra ten minutes of holiday too."
"But..."
Ailee's protests were in vain. "My office, please. Now."
Eventually the twins made their way to Mrs Parkes' room - half an hour late, but only a few minutes late for the actual first lesson - mathematics. As far as Jarret was concerned, he could quite happily have been another half an hour late for maths, but Ailee seemed to enjoy it, for reasons he couldn't understand.
Jarret, of course, hadn't told the headmaster about his semi-prophetic dreams. But with Ailee's support, he'd explained their lateness being caused by Jarret feeling very ill on the way to school. Being a brave little soldier, he'd decided that despite the odds he would still attend school because he had quickly felt better. That handy little explanation, and a particularly cute expression from Ailee, had narrowly avoided them both getting detentions, so the outcome was pleasing enough.
While the headmaster had briefly left his office to fetch his ledger (since all events, no matter how mundane, had to be logged in there) Jarret finally took the chance to find out what the trophies in the office were for. Using his powers, he floated several of them down and they floated in front of him in the air, while Ailee looked bemused, keeping a lookout for Mr Ferris. Jarret glared at the inscriptions, feeling very disappointed. They were not, as he'd hoped, awards for such things as "First pupil to run faster than the speed of light." They were instead for tedious sporting events the school had won. Jarret had attempted to stifle a yawn when the headmaster returned.
In the class, Ailee sat in her usual place a few rows from the front, while Jarret manoeuvred his way past school bags and sprawled feet, barely noticing the green painted walls and various gaudy paintings that decorated the class. He plonked himself down at his table right at the back of the class, next to Andrina.
She grinned so wide that Jarret feared her jaw might fall off. "I thought you weren't going to be in today. I thought you'd skived off, and the snow had made you all shivery so much that you couldn't even get out the front door and here and..."
Jarret blinked, attempting to decipher the onslaught of words before he asked, "Any trouble off Ben?"
Andrina replied, "Oh, I'm good. Well, goodish. Better than not good anyway and that's better than nothing even if it's worse than great."
Jarret felt the faintest twinge of a distant headache.
A few years ago, Mr Ferris had put Jarret in the enviable position (if you were Jarret) of stopping the class bully, Ben, from hurting Andrina. Of course, the headmaster was far from stupid, and he'd told Jarret that in no circumstances was he to ever use violence. Inevitably Jarret had asked if that meant it was okay to make things fall on Ben, such as cupboards, and was disappointed to find that this was also off-limits. "Indirect violence is also forbidden." Jarret had frowned at the word 'indirect' so the headmaster explained. "You are not to injure him at all. You do not hurt him or anyone else, or that makes you as bad as him. And I won't have that in my school. Not now, not ever. So be subtle."
And though something in Jarret kicked and screamed to convince him to fling an occasional energy bolt at the bully, he'd refrained so far. Instead, he'd opted for embarrassing him. Jarret had no fear of Ben at all, and knew for sure that he could kick him from one end of the playground to the other if he had to. But Andrina also didn't want the snowkitten to knock lumps off other people. So, for her and her alone, he'd been more imaginative, and each misdemeanour inflicted on Andrina by Ben was punished in like.
A humiliating grabbing and lifting of Andrina's skirt? Jarret had used a crafty spell to cause Ben's trousers to fall down. A day later Ben did it again, so Jarret used the same spell, and embellished it to suspend Ben upside down by his trousers from the school gate. It didn't take long for the bully's staunchest supporters to ditch him. They may have been afraid of Ben, but they were more afraid of what might happen to them if they were too near to him. Ben should have learned from it all quickly enough, but instead he simply carried on, seeing each attack on himself as a need for revenge. Jarret had been told to inform the headmaster of each Ben-related incident, which he had done, though it never really occurred to the snowkitten that he was doing Mr Ferris' job for him, and it wasn't really Jarret's responsibility...
Ben had torn a page from Andrina's library book, in the hope of getting her into serious trouble. So with a gentle nudge from Jarret, Andrina herself had used her increasingly powerful control over water to redirect a water fountain jet all over Ben's chosen book. That had been enough, Andrina had said, but Jarret didn't agree. Once neither of them were looking, he used a spell to cause one of Ben's other books to explode in a flurry of pages that floated and span down the corridors.
It took a while, but in the end, Ben had all but given up. However, he did take chances when he believed Jarret wasn't going to be around all day. It either never crossed his mind - or he just didn't care - that Jarret would find out anyway eventually. Whatever the case, that morning in Jarret's absence, Ben had deliberately swung the main entrance door back so that it hit Andrina, hard enough to knock her backwards onto the floor outside. Amid the giggles from some of the nearest children, all glad that it was her who was Ben's chosen victim rather than themselves, Andrina stood up shakily. Her fledgling healing powers had helped with the pain, but the inner hurt was untouchable, as was the thought of what else he might get up to that day. Of course, Ben hadn't allowed for Jarret simply being late...
So when Jarret pestered Andrina enough, as he always did, he soon found out about "the door incident" and knew why her face had lit up so much when he'd finally arrived at the lesson.
"I'll knock his block off..." Jarret began.
"Jarret, you little skrivvneck! Pay attention!"
A chorus of laughter followed the teacher's bellowed outburst, and Jarret glared at her. Mrs Parkes, a tall, thin snake with grey hair, was teetering on the edge of retirement, but somehow looked like she'd be far older. She could be all sweetness and light one minute, and bitterly angry the next, a lifetime of teaching insolent little children bubbling to the surface. In her eyes, the girls could do no wrong, so Andrina had escaped attention and Jarret had got the blame for talking in class.
The teacher returned Jarret's glare. "You will, of course, have memorised your times tables like I told you to over the holiday?" Before Jarret had a chance to tell her that he'd rather have scooped his eyes out with a rusty spoon, she snapped, "Eight times eight!"
"Sixty four. Ben's IQ." Jarret looked bored while the others giggled, except for Ben who, sitting right at the front of the class, raised a single finger at him.
"Less of that. Nine times nine."
"Eighty one. Your age." Jarret mumbled the last part so she couldn't quite be sure what she'd heard.
"Twelve times twelve?"
"Umm..." Jarret stalled briefly.
Mrs Parkes looked triumphant. "One hundred and forty four, you blockhead." She seemed a little less triumphant when Ailee made a subtle gesture, causing the heavy wooden blackboard duster to clatter on the floor, making the snake jump. Undeterred, she told Jarret to march to the front of the class and write his times tables, from one to twelve in their entirety, on the blackboard.
He did so quickly and smoothly, once he got into the swing of it. The numbers seemed to drift into his mind easily. As he turned back to face the class, Jarret bowed and he strolled back to sit by Andrina, while Mrs Parkes muttered and told them to do all the problems on page forty three of their blue textbooks.
**********
Before the final lesson of the day had ended that afternoon, Jarret had successfully paid Ben back on Andrina's behalf for what he'd done to her earlier. Due to the weather - the snow now falling far faster, but not enough for the school to shut early, much to the children's disgust - the boys and girls of Mrs Parkes class had been sent to the spacious gym for their P.E. lesson. The teacher, a muscly wolf called Mr Barnes, had created an obstacle course using the various climbing frames, ropes, benches and bulky blue exercise mats. Each pupil would start at a different obstacle, and work their way around the room three times, as fast as possible.
The obvious choice open to Jarret was to cause some of the equipment to collapse on Ben, or suddenly shift one of the safety mats. However, Jarret knew that almost certainly, the blame would get back to him eventually, if Ben were to be mysteriously left without his head, in some sort of freak 'accident' while doing chin-ups on a climbing frame. So instead, while the teacher was busy untangling Ailee from a rope swing, Jarret snuck out the gym and into the boy's changing room. Ben's clothes soon found themselves in the shower, soaking up plenty of icy cold water. Okay, it wasn't the most inventive revenge, but the outrage and disbelief from Ben half an hour later made it all seem worthwhile.
Once the school bell had rung and the inmates were unleashed, Andrina looked bemused at the sight of Ben heading home in the snow and cold, wearing just a coat over the top of his thin P.E. kit. She soon understood when Jarret explained. It was difficult to tell if she approved. Instead, she handed Jarret an apple from her purple schoolbag.
"What's this for?" he asked, looking at it warily as if it might bite.
"I don't want it. I don't like apples, but mum insisted I take it with me, just in case, but I don't want it because the last one she gave me had a worm in it, and you had that one too, but I think I forgot to tell you about the worm that time."
"Hmmm..." Jarret said, looking even more warily at the apple.
"And it's snowing heavier now too, so I might see you tomorrow, or, well I hope you do. I mean, I hope I'll see me tomorrow. Or you. Because if it snows too much I won't be able to get here without a shovel, or I might have to eat the snow, but you might not want to eat it so I hope you'll be here or they shut the school or something like that."
Ailee emerged from the school at last, having spent ages in the changing room brushing her hair. She pulled at Jarret's glove-clad paw. "Come on, you. Say goodbye to your girlfriend and shift it. Dad will be waiting!"
"She's not my..." Jarret knew he was wasting his breath, so he began the intrepid journey to the school gate, calling back to Andrina, "I'll be here if the school is open, so don't worry." He knew Ben would be certain to try something the next chance he got, and Jarret had no intention of letting him take that chance.
As they left the school, they noticed their dad, Iskari, a little further away, dressed in a long, black leather jacket, his black hair almost totally white from the snow that had landed on him. Ailee grabbed him round the waist in a hug and was intent on showing him the poster she'd made during the lunch break.
"Best not, eh? The snow will ruin it. Show me it when we get home."
Jarret looked over at the nearby van parked near the school gates. Similar to an ice-cream van, this one sold sweets and drinks during the winter. Jarret pointed at it, but Iskari was already strolling away in the direction of home, with his large paw wrapped around Ailee's smaller one. Jarret let out a single, quiet mew, took one last look at the van, and ran to catch up with his dad, kicking a large chunk of snow at a passing car to curb his annoyance.
About halfway back, Iskari had found himself forced to take a slight detour, when one of the streets had been cordoned off due to a gas leak. The snowkittens found themselves passing a large nightclub called "The Burrow." They'd only just reached the far end of the building when all three snowkittens stopped mid-stride, as a voice called out," Oy! Shaylanii! 'Old up will ya?"
Iskari gently ushered his children along, pretending he hadn't heard.
"Charming! I said hold up!"
"You said 'old up'" Iskari frowned, turning to face the short beige cat that he'd made sure to avoid a few years ago, and the same one who had watched Jarret from the school gates several times over the past few years.
"Boss wants a word. He wants to see young Carrot."
Jarret tugged at his father's sleeve. "Dad? Who is he? How does he know me?"
"Shush, Carrot... I mean, Jarret," his dad hissed.
The beige cat feigned disappointment. "Charming!" he repeated. "What a way to treat your old colleagues. You work with a guy for years and then he doesn't even tell his own kids about you!"
"Now see if you can guess why," Iskari snarled.
The beige cat subtly patted his blue waistcoat. Iskari knew there was some sort of weapon in the inside pocket. "The boss isn't gonna take no for an answer. You do realise that? Come on, it'll only take a moment." He reached for Ailee's arm.
Before even Iskari could retaliate, Jarret snarled, "Get off her!" A vivid white beam of energy blasted from both his clenched paws, striking the cat and hurling him backwards through the nightclub doors.
From inside echoed a rousing chorus of hoorays, followed by "Nice one, Jackson!"
Iskari, disturbingly calmly, said quietly, "You have no idea what you just did..."
"And I'll do it again if he tries to hurt you or Ailee."
The nightclub door swung open again, and the three snowkittens tensed. It wasn't the beige cat. This time it was his boss - a tall, grey and very imposing wolf, in a very expensive grey suit. A fireball burned in Jarret's paw, in readiness as the wolf began to approach them.
He just grinned. "Put that away. I've no plans to hurt you. Jackson isn't known for his subtlety. He had that coming a long time ago. Though... If you do ever attack him or any of my staff again, I'll rip your arms off..." Jarret just watched him warily and kept the fireball burning fiercely. The wolf put up both paws and stopped his advance.
"Your dad and I go back a long way. Used to work for me, he did. One of my best employees too, but then he gave it all up for good old fashioned 'honest' work."
Iskari hissed, "Don't you dare..."
The wolf just laughed, calmly brushing some of the snow off his suit. "Plenty of time for that. Jackson has reported plenty back to me about what he's seen at the playground, and that little demonstration just now from Jarret proves he has the potential we were hoping for. Go on, go home. But we will speak again, Jarret. Someday soon..."
Iskari put his paws on his children's shoulders, heading away. "Over my dead body."
"If we have to, the wolf grinned. As Iskari turned back round to face him, he shrugged. "Joke!"
"I doubt it," Iskari muttered, and they hurried away, the snow rapidly covering their tracks.
To be continued...
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This page was last updated on 19th January 2010
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