Latitudes & Cattitudes

Chapter Two / The Wharf

  Xander had been certain the pretty boy would only hang around as long as the ladies watched them from the shrubbery, then make up an excuse to back out. But the tom seemed serious about locating his sister, and hadn’t batted a whisker when they came to an old dock, which the dim moonlight made look more like dry rot than wood. As he set paw on it, Xander realized it felt as flimsy as it looked. In fact, if Merlin hadn't been purposefully hiking down the ramp, dragging the kite he had snagged from behind the nearby rubbish bin, Xander would have stopped to analyze the situation.

  However, Merlin's cattitude proclaimed that he knew this area well and that the rickety-looking dock was safe, so it was foolish to hang back and look like a 'fraidy-cat'. He was the Kamakazi and he had just won a very important match. He needed to keep up.

  Xander hurried to catch up.

  Still, why was Merlin hauling along that kite?

  As they neared the end of the dilapidated dock, Xander still hadn't seen any other cat, and was beginning to wonder just how well Merlin actually knew his sister.

  Merlin must have been having second thoughts, too, because he paused at a post to study an old hunk of shredded rope hanging from it. Then for a long time, he alternated between looking at the thin crescent moon and gazing at the water. Xander stared at the lapping water, too, but started to feel seasick.

  Closing his eyes, he blocked out the sight of the horrid wetness. Gradually, his stomach settled and he realized that Merlin was muttering to himself about idiots, the tide, lines and a dingy. Though Xander couldn't be sure, by listening to the tirade, he was fairly sure that the idiot he was muttering about was his sister and that a dingy must be some sort of boat, which she apparently liked to sunbathe on. Though why anyone would choose to come out on this nasty dock and get so close to the water to lay in the sun was beyond Xander's imagination.

  When he opened his eyes, Merlin was nose to frayed rope, half sniffing, half glaring.

  "What's with the rope?"

  "It's a line," Merlin said.

  Xander squinted at the old frayed hemp and cotton blend. "If you say so."

  "Boats use lines, not ropes."

  "I'll take your word for it."

  "Good, now be quiet and let me think." Merlin turned his back to him and resumed his close inspection of the old frayed 'line'. When Xander began to wonder what the pretty boy could possibly find so interesting about an old scrap of rope and rotting post, the boy began to make an odd whistling sound.

  Xander glanced around to make sure no one was watching. Thank Hathor the only things about were bugs, which seemed to be clustered around the distant streetlights.

  Closing his eyes, he listened to what he couldn't see. A distant hoot of an owl proclaimed that it was on the hunt for rats. Thankfully, he didn't hear any rodents nearby, but he did hear the chewing sound of termites. Add those to the dry rot of this little, abandoned dock and it was a mystery why Merlin believed this was a good place to look for his sister.

  He scratched his ear and tried to remember exactly why he had thought following a tom, who he barely knew was a good idea. Yes, he had claimed to know his sisters habits and where to look for her, which had made sense, since Xander was certain that if his own sister, Xena, went missing, he would have a good idea where to look for her. But was that true of all littermates? Was assuming that Merlin understood Cha-Cha as well as he knew Xena accurate?

  Or had he ended up on this horrid old dock just because of Merlin's confident cattitude?

  A rusting of wings brought his attention back to his companion, who seemed to be whistling to a bat. What in Hathor's name was with the tom? The bat flew out over the water and Merlin fiddled with the kite.

  No, the decision to follow Merlin had not been well thought out.

  Xander cleared his throat. "Were you just talking to that bat?"

  "Well, yeah. Gotta figure out where the tide carried the idiot You got a better idea of how to find her at night?"

  "Er, no." Xander scratched his ear. "Are you sure the tide took her?"

  "As sure as I am that I'm looking at you."

  "How do you know that?"

  Merlin gave him a disgusted look. "You don't know much about the sea, do you?"

  "No."

  "Well then, take my word for it that when my idiot sister sharpened her claws on the line, it weakened, then when the tide went out, the line broke and the dingy she likes to sunbathe on went with it."

  "So she's gone for good?"

  Merlin hissed a cuss-word that made Xander blush. "I don't know why Caruthers expected you to be able to find her, when you don't know zip about this latitude or even how the tide works."

  "Why is this tide stuff important?"

  "Because it's part of how nature works. The tide is sort of like breathing, except instead of air going in and out, water does."

  "Okay, so if it went out, it will come back."

  "More of less."

  "So the boat will come back."

  "Perhaps." Merlin hissed another cuss word. "Water is a little more complicated than that and it isn't a pendulum. Let's just agree that my idiot sister is probably still okay and there is a chance that I can save her from her own stupid choices."

  The bat fluttered back, or perhaps it was another bat. Merlin whistled and squeaked with it for a few moments, then sprinted toward the end of dock, kite flying close behind.

  Without thinking, Xander chased him. A leap before he caught him, the dock collapsed into the pounding waves. Merlin’s whoop of unbridled glee drowned out Xander's own screech of panic.

  He howled and it felt like he swallowed his weight in water before he managed to fight his way back to the surface. Eyes stinging with the salt, he glimpsed Merlin laughing above the white froth. Then, the frigid talons of water sucked him down into the cold darkness, again.

  He lost consciousness.