Chapter 10

Artemis

Cali sat on Matilda’s lap. He loved the way the young girl stroked his head. Sometimes Matilda would stop, pick up Cali, give her a big kiss and put her back on her lap. As the days went by, everyone in the house got more and more used to each other.

Cali would get up in the morning and meow at the top of his lungs outside the girls’ bedrooms.

Matilda was the one who usually woke up. With her hair dishevelled and not quite awake yet, she put out his food and changed his water bowl. Then she cleaned the cat litter. Cali felt like the master of the house in times like these.

Pat usually liked to sleep. And because she was a heavy sleeper, she wouldn’t wake up even if Cali banged her head against the door.

When they both went to work during the day, it gave Cali the opportunity to fulfil his duties as an agent. If he got home late and the girls got home before him, he would somehow slip through the boiler pipe into the house and hide somewhere in it, waiting to be found. In the evenings they all lay on the sofa and watched television. Every day he got presents. One day it was a phosphorescent ball, the next a toy mouse, the next a cat tunnel, and so the days went by, and Cali learned something new about them every day. But he could not get Artemis out of his mind. She thought about what Dambla had told him that night.

Artemis’ was one of Kittlefdora’s best agents. Her mother was a shaman cat and her father a scientist cat. As a result, she was able to combine what she learned from them, making her more skilled than other spy cats. This is actually her nickname. Nobody knows her real name. She was sent to Earth on a secret mission.  She lost 8 of her 9 lives on Earth. She slipped on the roof of an apartment block and fell from the 10th floor. Her leg was broken. She was sure they’d send someone from Kittlefdora for her. Just like they sent you to find Kremlit. She was in great pain. She lay there for two days. But no one came. In the meantime, there was a cosmic storm in Kittlefdora, which happens once every 22 years. It’s a bad coincidence that the two coincided. As the cosmic storms disrupted the portal’s settings, the other agents sent to find her were unable to get to Earth. It was only then that a little girl found her by the side of the road. Artemis, desperately afraid of humans, gave in. The girl took her home. When her mother saw the cat at home, she immediately took her to the vet. There she was cured. Then they took her home and adopted her. It took a long time for Artemis to walk and become her old self again. The little girl and her mum gave love to her every day. They took her in their arms and sang to her. They stroked her, they held her to their bosom. As the years passed and the climate warmed, Artemis became afraid. Soon she feared that the way man was treating nature would lead to the destruction of the Earth. But as she did not want the people who gave so much love to the cats to face those days, she wanted the loving ones to be able to live in Kittelfdora. And she began to gather like-minded cats around her’.

Cali thought about Matilda and Pat for a moment. He was getting used to their affection for him. He thought of Dora when he was on Earth, but he often thought of the two sisters when he was in Kittelfdora.

And then, out of nowhere, it was there again. The red dot!

Today is the day I will defeat you,’ he thought in his mind. Once again, he found himself running after the red dot, which appeared and disappeared suddenly, skilfully dodging under his paw each time.

I’ll get you, I’ll get you, I’ll get you!

Pat laughed out loud again with the same stick in her hand. Then the red dot suddenly disappeared. Pat moved the stick in her hand from side to side as if it was broken. At that moment, Sambla’s words came to his mind and he looked at the wall behind Pat with a blank face.

Pat fiddled with the stick for a while, then admitted defeat, put it down on the coffee table and looked at Cal. She looked where Cali was looking, then at Cali, then at the empty spot on the wall again where Cali was looking. Then suddenşy she started to run towards Matilda’s room without looking back.

“Matilda, wake up. There’s a ghost in our houseAAAAARRRRR!!!’

While the two young girls searched for ghosts with torches in their hands, Cali licked his paws with glee.

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Tired  from the ghost hunt that lasted until late, the girls were fast  sleep, so Cali went through the portal back to Kittelfdora.

It was night-time in Kittelfdora. Cali decided to go to the shaman’s tent in the forest. Manga Shanga was the mother of the shaman cats. Normally no one could find this tent unless Manga Shanga wanted them to. When the Agent Cats wanted to see her, they would send a telepathic text message and Manga Shanga would lift the energy wall that blocked their brain signals.  Cali, one of the few cats who managed to use his instincts more than usual, found the tent after a long walk in the forest by listening to his inner voice.

I’ve been waiting for you,” Manga Shanga said.

“Who knows, maybe it wasn’t my instincts that led me to the tent,” he thought.

“Sit down, Cali.

How do you know my name? We’ve never met.

“I know everything,” Manga Shanga said in a calm and peaceful voice.

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Cali returned to his home on Earth with a box. It was still night and Matilda and Pat were asleep in Matilda’s bed, huddled together in the fear of ghosts. Cali hid the box in an alcove in the kitchen cupboard that neither of them knew about, then came and lay down at their feet. Pat opened her eyes and looked at Cali and said, “Protect us from the ghosts, OK cutie?” and then went back to sleep. Cali purred and fell asleep at their feet.

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