FELINE ONLINE AND THE MAZE OF THE MINOTAUR
Chapter Thirteen: Moonlight and Danger Within the Mummy's Tomb
“What did Wadjet’s email to you say?” Mike asked Emily as the two friends stood on Emily’s front porch. A full moon had begun to rise, lighting up Amanda’s garden next door. Her white flowers glowed from the moon’s blueish radiance.
“Wadjet can’t spell very well, but she said we must help her and Foo Foo enter the tomb! And quickly, with the moonlight to guide us.”
Mike nodded and became thoughtful.
“This will be very tricky. Amanda would never allow you and I to carry her precious cats into the tomb in her garden. Gosh, not even with cat carriers! Are you sure the cats must be present in the tomb?”
“That is my impression,” Emily answered.
“Mike, what are we to do? Can we just ignore Wadjet’s message?”
A cloud passed over the moon, darkening Amanda’s spacious garden. But in the center of her Victorian design, the Greek maiden statute glowed with the ghostly image of Bastet.
“There’s our answer,” Mike said, pointing to the maiden.
He sat on the top step of Emily’s porch and studied his sandaled feet.
“These papyrus sandals of mine have walked through many digs, many caves, up many mountains and into many river valleys,” Mike said slowly. “It’s time for another journey. Are you ready, Emily?”
He smiled as the cloud passed.
“There is more to to our adventure, I’m afraid, to be found within this ancient power struggle,” Mike explained. “I know that Sekhmet, the Lioness-headed Goddess, will try to block us from entering Bastet’s tomb. But if the Cat Goddess succeeds she will surely be reuniting her ghostly Ba with her other half, her Ka, that has been trapped within her mummy. That is why she sent the message to you via Wadjet’s use of your email address. We must help the two cats enter the tomb together and be vigilant about what tricks Sekhmet might play.”
“But why is Sekhmet so angry with Bastet?” Emily asked. “And how do you know all of this stuff?”
“You have heard my name, Mihos. Mihos, the son of Bastet, who is the daughter of Isis, Protectress of Hearth and Home, Goddess of the Moon! My story goes back thousands of years, though I stand before you now as a human boy. My skin can bleed, my feet can get bruised. As you look at me I am just a boy who loves sports and games. I especially love cats and have centuries of knowledge within my young boy’s little brain.”
“Wow, that is so cool and creepy,” Emily said. “But where do you live?”
“Shh,” Mike whispered. “We must help the cats while the moon is full. If it was Sekhmet who caused the earthquake over one hundred years ago we must pay attention to every noise, every change in the earth or sky.”
Just then, from across the garden, Amanda’s front door opened. She called out to the children.
“Oh, Emily, Mike! I know it’s late. Have you had your dinner?”
Mike and Emily nodded.
“Well please join me for cake if your folks say ‘ok,’ Emily. Mike, you remain a puzzle to me, but you, too, are most welcome.”
Emily opened her front door and called in to her mother that she and Mike would be at Amanda’s for a few minutes.
“Be right there!” she called to Amanda, who had closed her front door to keep her cats from running outside. Mike stood up and followed Emily along the winding path through Amanda’s flowering shrubs.
Emily noticed Mike stopping at the Greek statue, which just looked ordinary to her. She saw no ghostly images of a cat woman, no glowing lights hovering over the maiden. But the moon had begun to drape her bluish light around the statue’s stone garments. Mike knelt for a moment as he studied the statue.
”Yes! I understand!”
He turned to Emily, “Let’s go!”
When the children were inside Amanda’s front hall, their neighbor put her finger to her lips.
“Quiet, my friends. Thank you for coming over so quickly. I’m afraid my two cats are bewitched. They are both acting very strangely. I’ll show you.”
The three humans moved through the living room into the hallway and around the corner to the sliding doors of the dining room.
Amanda’s computer and monitor were still set up on the table, but her two cats were not lounging on the dining room window seat. They were both sitting at the monitor screen, intently watching images of cats go by. Wadjet would sometimes move her beetle mouse over an image and click on it.
nothr smrt cat to rite to, she wrote into an open email screen. lng hairy
Foo Foo acted as if he understood by batting the screen.
“What is going on?” Amanda asked. “I have never seen Foo Foo act as if he could read or understand any of this nonsense. I know Wadjet can read. I do know this, but now I think the situation is getting out of hand.“
Mike nodded.
“Amanda, it’s possible your cats are not themselves. There is much ancient magic behind Wadjet’s learning to read, behind her ability to set up the pyramid party, even with the help of us humans. Will you allow Emily and I to possibly get to the bottom of this mystery?”
Emily laughed. “The bottom, indeed. We must reenter the tomb in your garden, Amanda! And we must take Wadjet and Foo Foo with us!”
“Oh, no!” Amanda exclaimed. “I cannot allow that.”
Just then Wadjet turned her brown head away from the monitor screen and stared at her mistress. Foo Foo did the same. Amanda clutched her apron.
“I don’t know what is happening! I am overwhelmed when I see these behaviors from my precious pets.”
“Amanda, if I may?” Mike hesitated. “If I may, do you believe in magic?”
Amanda stared at Mike, then her eyes moved to her cats, sitting in front of the monitor.
“Monitor sounds like minotaur,” she whispered to herself.
“Your cat Wadjet can read! Amanda, your cat can read! Why if this news got out, you would never have any peace from the outside world!” Emily offered.
“Amanda,” Mike said, “I can assure you that we will not allow any harm to come to your kitties. You can come along. You will hold Wadjet or Foo Foo. I will hold the other. The drop down into the hole is only a few feet. We don’t even have to enter the tomb again.”
“The walls are already cracking,” Mike mouthed this last warning toward Emily as he shook his head.
“Please?” Emily asked. “If you allow your cats to be in the tomb with Bastet’s mummy, it may put an end to all of their strange behavior.”
Amanda gazed at her garden for several minutes.
“Very well,” she sighed. “When do we do this?” she asked.
“The sooner the better,” Mike answered. “How about right now?”
It took only a few minutes to wrap the cats in towels. They seemed surprisingly willing.
Not ten minutes later, the three humans peered into the hole above the tomb. Mike carefully unwrapped Wadjet. She jumped down and landed precisely on the stone platform where Bastet’s mummy rested.
Amanda did the same with her big old bluepoint, Foo Foo. He, too, jumped down, landing a bit more heavily on the platform.
Thunder shook the sky as clouds moved in, but they still seemed far away. Branches began to sway and flowers danced to the increasing winds. Small crackling noises came from within the walls of the tomb.
“Yes, we must hurry,” Mike said, as he reached his hands into the hole.
The full moon had risen. Her radiance shone throughout the inner tomb. The humans watched as minotaur beetles scuttled for dark corners, some still holding their jeweled treasures in their clutches or pushing them like balls of dung to various hiding places deep within their hidden tunnels.
“Look,” Emily whispered. “I see torn pieces of linen wraps in the jaws of the beetles. They have been working on this mummy for years to line their own nests!”
As moonbeams filtered through the hole, the humans watched, astonished, at the cats’ behaviors.
Wadjet sat a the foot of the ancient mummy, looking unconcerned as ever, even licking her paw at times. But her eyes glowed with moonlight reflections. Sparks of gold darted from her eyes as she focused on Foo Foo.
“Look at Foo Foo, Amanda! He is not the same cat that sprawls on your dining room window ledge.”
Amanda stared down at the unfolding drama. More cracks appeared along the tomb walls.
“Please, hurry!” Amanda sobbed. “This is looking very dangerous.”
And then it happened. Foo Foo, obviously possessed, crept up to the mummy’s face and leaned over, kissing the mummy gently. A blue energy streamed out from the mummy of Bastet. her linen-wrapped body seemed to lift up and off of the stone platform. Foo Foo looked up at the three humans. his meow became louder, sounding like a much larger cat than he was.
Amanda shivered as she watched.
In an instant a ghostly image arose from the mummy, hovered over Wadjet and Foo Foo, then disappeared.
Small chunks of a wall in the tomb corner began to tumble to the floor, covering Bastet’s mummy with dust.
Mike waved his hands and reached down into the hole. Wadjet had gathered herself for the leap into Mike’s arms. Foo Foo, needing a bit of a push, stood up on his two hind legs. While Wadjet jumped from Mike to Amanda’s waiting arms, Mike crawled over the edge of the hole and lifted the big blue cat away from the growing danger.
Thunder erupted from gathering clouds. Cracks appeared everywhere within the tomb as the humans scrambled for the safety of Amanda’s house. As they ran past the Greek maiden, her statute cracked and she fell in pieces into a flower bed.
The storm broke just as Amanda pulled open her front door. The children, now holding the cats tightly in their arms, ran into the entry hall as Amanda shut the big door.
From the garden they could hear the sound of cracking stone blocks, of earth moving bushes and and tree roots, even of glass in the greenhouse shattering.
The three friends stood in the entry way of the large Victorian house, trembling at the shock of witnessing these events.
“Did we do that?” Amanda asked.
“We had better leave your house at once!” Mike said. “And warn Emily’s family!”
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THANK YOU to all of my new and current readers! A special thank you to my educator and student readers from around the world!
FELINE ONLINE AND THE MAZE OF THE MINOTAUR continues with Chapter Fourteen, scheduled for Friday, May 30. Now that Bastet has regained her ancient powers, where will she appear next? What caused the earthquake that destroyed Bastet’s tomb?
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CREDITS: Cover Illustration for above titles: Tamara Clark
Book chapter illustrations: Tamara Clark and Rosetta Clark-Smith
Drawings of Bastet’s image on statue, tomb magic at Bastet’s mummy, and cat eyes: Tamara Clark
Victorian house photo: Elyse Cregar
Cat on computer photo: JohnnyMrNinja.2009. Commons.wikimedia.org
See my posts on this site, More Cats, Please!, about ancient Egyptian burial practices:
Cat Mummies of Ancient Egypt: December 13, 2024
Cat Mummies: After the After Life: December 30, 2024