[Poor Grallus, the Rogue – 6]

As he starts repacking the backpack he notices that the little cat is asleep, curled up in a tight ball on the woolen cloak, “Alright… Punkins was it? We gotta get outta here.” Touching the cats silky black fur, “Time to go little guy,” he says as he tugs the cloak out from under the cat. The cat’s eyes twinkle bright orange in the torchlight as he casually watches him pull the wool cloak over his head, over the backpack and down his body.

Pulling his head through the hooded opening he says, “Okay little guy, so how do we get outta here?” Looking around the cat is no where to be seen. Grabbing the torch, “Where’d you go?” As he walks toward the opening above he sees Punkins leisurely sitting at the bottom of the rock wall. Talking directly to the cat almost assuming at this point he may even answer, “So what? Do you know a way out of here?”

Suddenly the cat jumps up and right, then up and left, again up and right, with agility only a cat can have he continues finding the tiniest rock outcroppings zipping back-and-forth straight up the wall. Within just a few seconds the little cat is sitting at the top of the wall looking down, his little eyes glowing orange in the darkness.

“Wow, that was great but how does that help me?” Looking up at the cat all that is seen and heard are the bouncing orange eyes and the rapid thump, thump, thump sound of his feet as once again he is obviously jumping up and down. “Aw come-on that is around eighteen feet straight up. I can’t do that!” Then as if to answer his question the cat jumps back down the wall to his left, then down to his right, then repeats the way back up to the top where he jumps up and down in place with one big motion, ‘Thump.’

“Okay then, if you are telling me that I can do this well then, uh… yeah…” he says holding the torch closer to the wall. He squints his eyes hard examining the wall. Without explanation he realizes he is seeing detail he hadn’t before, detail in the rock face, the smallest of surface detail now resonating in his mind. His heart expectantly starts to speed up in anticipation, or maybe it is just the sound of that cat jumping up and down overhead. Without a second thought while holding on to the torch, he jumps up the seemingly sheer wall in eight steps with the same amount of effort it would take to casually walk forward.

Realizing he is suddenly at the top of the chasm, he looks back down the pit wall, then down at the little cat, “YES! Holy crap how did I do that?!” he yells pumping his fist in the air. Bending down closer to the cat he says, “You are really an amazing little guy.” The cat jumps up on his arm sliding his body down and around his shoulders. As he stands back up the cat positions himself perfectly around his neck purring into his ears.

Looking to the right where the cat’s head is nestled in his neck, “So I’m apparently Grallus, and you are also apparently my little friend Punkins.” Holding up the torch high in the darkness, it does little to illuminate much of the dense shadowed forest ahead.

A slight wind blows causing Grallus to noticeably shiver. At the chill he also notices the cat reacted by tightening up around his neck.

“So…, where do we go now?”

[522] Words : Conduction