[Poor Grallus, the Rogue – 4]

“Why a cat?” he asks nobody as he looks down at the cute little black feline.

Bending at the knees to get on the animal’s level, he asks, “I mean with all these mysteries popping up around me, why not a tiger, a bear, or even some sort of blue-footed monkey beetle?”

The cat looks up with his bright orange eyes, gives a slight shrug as if being dismissive, and climbs to the top of the compost heap. Blinking rapidly and pointing, he exclaims, “Did he just shrug at me…? Did I just see that?”

“He’sa down there,” is suddenly heard off in the distance above.

Instinctively he and the little cat’s eyes snap together as the cat takes off running back into the deeper recesses of the chasm.

“You say he’s dead?” another voice is heard from above.
The familiar voice answers, “Yeah he’s gotta be, I mean he fell in dat big hole there.”
“He doesn’t fall, he must have jumped… but why?”
“But I got him wit an arrah I swear.”
“One arrow would never stop him, you know that. We gotta check it out.”

Frantically kicking dirt on the barely lit torch, he throws on the vest, straps on the small backpack and grabs the two matching daggers. With a dagger in each hand he can’t help but pause at their beauty, their unexpected light weight and how natural they feel in his hands. Turning them over he feels a slight warmth emanating from their hilts.

The smack of a rope is heard slapping against the rock wall.
“Meeeow!” Quickly looking over to a low hanging arch of rock, he sees the little cat inexplicably jumping straight up and down in place.

Whispering toward the cat, “Okay I’m coming, I’m coming.” Carefully gambling a glance toward the surface above he sees the two men arguing.

The smaller man seems exasperated, “Okay but one, he BETTER be down there, two, he BETTER have that damn spyglass, and three, I BETTER not break MY neck falling down this hole.”

Whispering to the cat, “Spyglass? I have a spyglass? Why?” The cat simply answers by backing up against the dark back wall of the cave and continues jumping up and down in place. Hearing the man hop to the stone floor he realizes quickly he is seconds away from being found. Intuitively he backs up against the cold stone wall as the man seems to walk straight at him. The man stops and is examining the ground not five feet from where he is pushing himself up against the shaded wall.

Calling up to the surface, “Well he was here not too long ago cause of this stomped out torch and you did get him cause there is a awful lot a blood all over down here!”
“I told ya I did!” came back.

Taking a step toward the back wall, “But I don’t see how he got out cause he’s not down here!”

Squeezing himself against the rock, eyes half-shut in fear of being seen, his body frozen but his mind continuing to race in confusion as to why the man can’t see him. His mind screaming, ‘He’s not even two feet away now!’

“Are you sure?!” from above.
Almost looking him directly in the face, the searching man yells, “Yeah I’m sure you idiot!” Turning away, “This whole idn’t that big, just deep.”

As the man walks back to the hanging rope he steals a look at the little cat down by his feet. Suddenly he realizes that the cat is barely visible. Then looking at his own legs he realizes that he is also almost completely transparent. Whispering, “What the hell?” The little cat turns his eyes upwards and almost seems to smile.

With his foot hooked in a loop at the bottom of the rope he yells, “Alright dummy, pull me up!”

As the man slides up the rock wall, he and the little cat take a step away from the back wall instantly becoming completely opaque again. Astonished he says, “That was really awesome,” and again the little cat oddly seems to nod and smile in response.

“You sure he wudn’t down there?” comes from above.
Yelling, “Yeah, I’m sure. No loot, no spyglass, and no damnable Grallus!”

Hearing the rope being pulled back up he looks to the cat, “Grallus, that’s me isn’t it?” As if in response the cat stands and rubs against his legs purring. Slumping to the ground and leaning up against the rock wall, he casually reaches out for the first time and pets the cat’s smooth head.

Off in the distance the voices are barely heard as they walk away, “The boss is gonna be mad huh..?”

Barely heard and fading off, “Hell yeah he’s gonna be mad, but hopefully he stays madder at Grallus then he is at us.”

The light in the pit is growing rapidly darker as he realizes the sun must be almost set.

“We gotta get outta here.”

[488] Words : This is treasure?