“Is he back yet?” said Trivus.

He never took off the hood of his cloak. He saw it as a crown, signifying that he was the head of the delegation. Summer or winter, the cloak and hood were always intact.

“No“, said Drombis.

“It’s been five days. There’s nothing wrong with the portal, is there?”

“‘No”, said Drombis. “We tried it yesterday and it still worked.”

“Hmmmm… Call Cali.”

Just as Cali was about to tell Dora what he meant by the scream, his eyes opened wide without blinking and began to roll. Dora looked at him, stunned.

“Dora, I got a message and I have to leave right away.”

“A message?”  Dora was surprised. “I didn’t hear the phone ringing…”

“I got a telepathic SMS. The delegation is calling.”

In the depths of the woods, Cali, Trivus and Drombis stood before the magnificent portal that cast blue glow on the green and purple trees.

“I know this is your first time through the portal, but there is no one else we can send to Earth at the moment. Everyone else is in the field. You’ve been trained for this. You have nothing to worry about.”, Trivus said.

Cali looked at the portal. Even with his tail tucked between his legs, he looked pretty cool. Still, he couldn’t stop his legs from shaking.

“And remember, if you go through the portal, you will lose your powers. But Kremlit still hasn’t returned, and we need to find out what happened to him. It’s your job to find him and bring him back.”

He handed Cali a piece of paper. “This is where he was last seen.”

Cali looked at the portal door. The day he had waited for so long had come. It would be the first time he would see the humans he had heard so much about. He put his arm through the portal, then pulled it back. His arm was wet. He hated that feeling.

“What’s that?” he looked at Trivus, confused. Trivus and Drombis burst out laughing.

“It’s your unlucky day, Cali, it’s raining on Earth”, he said.

Cali put his arm back in and Drombis looked at Trivus. Trivus nodded “Yes” with a smile. Drombis pushed Cali through the portal with his butt.

Cali suddenly found himself in the middle of a heavy downpour. He saw a lorry coming towards him and immediately tried to fly, but failed. Every time he imagined flying in Kittelfdora, he started to lift himself up, but it didn’t work in this new world for him. He then ran to the pavement. Trying to make sense of what was happening, this time he was caught in the middle of the fast moving human footsteps.

Running again, he found himself in front of a shop window. There was a small shop tent that kept the raindrops from falling on to him. He tried to figure out where he was. He looked left and right but got terribly confused. He looked at the window behind him and saw another cat. But it had neither elf ears nor the purple colours that surrounded it. He wondered who it was and approached the window to find out.

The other cat approached too. He tried to touch it with his hand. The other cat did the same. Soon he realised that the cat he saw was his own reflection. He touched himself. His ears, his back, his tail… all looked different… He looked totally different ! He saw other cats around him. Some of them were on the ground-floor balconies of different apartments, others had taken shelter on the edge of a rubbish bin.

Whoever he looked at, they winked at him. At that moment, one of them looked familiar. The cat with the Sherlock Holmes hat and the magnifying glass in his right pocket smiling at him was none other than Sambla, his old friend from the Academy.

“Welcome, mate“, Sambla said. “You’re one of us now. You went through the portal, huh? Hahahahahahha…” he let out a loud laugh.

“Come here”, he said. Cali followed him, marvelling at the new world he had stepped into. It was noisy, chaotic, but very exciting. Stepping through the portal and onto Earth was a kind of promotion in Kittelfdora.

With Sambla in front and Cali behind, they began to walk for a while, dodging the raindrops. Cali would stop and try to shake the water off his paws. Sambla laughed and said, “You’ll get used to it in time, mate”.

Eventually they came to a huge villa. They entered through the hatch at the bottom of the door, which only a cat could push open.

From there they went into the kitchen. Eat something,’ he said, pointing to the bowls on the floor.

Cali stared at the food in the bowl in front of him. Then he put one in his mouth and tasted it.

“Wow, that’s delicious”, he said. Then he dipped his head and started to eat the rest.

“Be careful”, Sambla said. “This is human food, you will gain weight quickly.”

After eating, they went into the lounge. Sambla jumped onto one sofa and Cali onto the other. They started to purr.

Cali asked, “What am I doing?”

“You’re purring…” Sambla replied.

“Aaaa very strange, this is very strange, why is this sound coming from me?”

“Because it is usually very difficult for cats to find peace in this world… And when they do, they make this sound. And it is usually found in humans’  homes… Well, at least in the homes of those who are still kind to cats, and unfortunately there are very few of them left…”