FELINE ONLINE AND THE MAZE OF THE MINOTAUR: Chapter Eleven
The Cats Make a Plan
Wadjet began her nightly prowls in Amanda’s kitchen. Now that her mistress had shut the door from the kitchen to the greenhouse, Wadjet was bored. She and Foo Foo had had such fun searching for bugs and scratching their nails against the branches, even playing hide and seek with each other.
Wadjet pulled on the wooden door, but it continued to hold fast. The smart cat knew that Amanda did not want her pets close to the deep hole under the Majesty Palm Tree. Since the humans had uncovered a stairway leading down into the tunnel that Wadjet had briefly explored. she had nearly become trapped. When she discovered the minotaur beetle tunnels she had clawed her way through them nearly to the surface. But Amanda’s arms were waiting for her when she had fallen back into the tunnel.
Minotaur Beetles with their treasures from the tomb
Wadjet had learned from the humans that she would have found her way to the surface within Amanda’s garden: an exciting but scary thought for the Siamese cat. She clearly remembered being in the garden months ago, outside of the house and free! That was the moment when a strange woman dressed in white swirling cloth had picked her up and returned her to a frantic Amanda.
But those days were long gone, and Wadjet no longer wanted to be free from Amanda’s comfortable home. If only she and Foo Foo could once again roam through the ferns of the greenhouse, all would be well again.
For now, Wadjet made her way to Amanda’s new computer and big screen where the machines were sitting on the dining room table. Wadjet could often spend her nocturnal hours typing in words and exploring the results. She enjoyed the entertaining movement of creatures, but she never again would try ordering a bird.
Tonight, Wadjet was curious about new words she had heard the humans speaking.: Ba and Ka. They were somehow related to the discoveries in the tunnel beneath the greenhouse.
Wadjet stepped on the mouse (which she liked to think of as her black beetle) and zoomed around through the search screens.
Ba was easy to spell and produced many results.
Wadjet read through a few, especially the ones with pictures.
Wadjet could sense Bastet’s presence nearby. She, too, might like to read what Wadjet had found. If her feline goddess, who had taught Wadjet how to read, was still searching for something. perhaps it was in the words on the monitor. Or perhaps it was in the tunnel.
Ba, said the words on the screen. Ba is the form within a carefully prepared mummy, which is free to fly like a bird. Bastet’s Ba could move through space and time, her ghostly spirit form could appear transparently or even within other cats at her will. The Ba was often represented as a flying bird.
Ba in flight
Wadjet nodded as she remembered the many times Bastet had appeared on the monitor, speaking to her as though she were just another cat in the room, but disappearing in an instant from the screen. Wadjet remembered how Emily’s new cat, Bes, had seemed to be another cat before she had settled into life as Emily’s devoted pet.
Wadjet leaned closer to the screen and typed in Ka, another mysterious word.
This Ka had a different meaning, different powers than the spirit Ba.
The Ka was within the mummy, it was her very essence. The Ka cannot travel like the Ba, but the Ka is essential to the completion of a cat as she enters the After Life.
Wadjet continued reading and learning. She was spellbound. It was only when the animal’s Ba and Ka were reunited could the animal regain the powers she had known in life. Her mummy could even become animated and seemingly alive.
At that moment, Foo Foo meowed from beneath the dining room table.
“Foo Foo, I thought you were sound asleep on Amanda’s quilt.“
Foo Foo blinked his blue eyes at Wadjet.
“I have a message for you, Wadjet,” the bluepoint Siamese meowed softly.
Wadjet stared at her companion who sat switching his tail. Wadjet jumped down from the table.
“Foo Foo, is that you?” she asked, squinting her eyes at the normally slow-moving, often lazy cat.
Foo Foo meowed, opening his jaws wide and shaking his head.
“We have work to do, my friend,” Foo Foo said. “We must find a way to enter the tomb the humans have uncovered. It is beneath the garden, near the Greek Statute.”
Wadjet growled.
“So, I see you have returned, Bastet, just as I was learning about your mummy.”
“You have done well, my clever cat,” the blue cat continued. “Together with the magic of our scarab beetle necklaces, you and I have restored much of our feline powers to the shelter cats. They have found their new homes with humans at the Pyramid Party. But there is much left to do.”
Bastet, speaking through Foo Foo’s mouth, meowed loudly. Her voice became animated and strange to Wadjet’s ears, as though she was a lion threatening its prey.
“Within the tomb is my own mummy! The mummy that humans so carefully prepared centuries ago! The mummy that must still contain my Ka. I must be reunited with my Ka to regain my full powers!”
Wadjet sat up on her haunches and switched her tail. Her tall ears turned to focus on Bastet’s message.
“I could not push open that stone door at the end of the tunnel,” Wadjet said. “Now the greenhouse door is shut and locked. And I cannot escape the house to dig in Amanda’s garden above your tomb.”
“Very well,” Foo Foo meowed. “The arms inside my tomb that guarded the stone door had fallen when the earth moved, many years ago. We must enter from above.”
With great effort, Foo Foo jumped to the chair and up to the table.
“You must find Emily’s words and send her this message on this machine,” Foo Foo continued speaking with an unearthly voice. “She and Mihos will help us enter the tomb. My mother, Isis, Goddess of the Moon will show us the way. In two days a full moon will shine on the opening above the tomb. It will show us the tomb below. I will see my mummy at rest with my name carved into the sacred cartouche. My name will proclaim my power when I meet my Ka!”
Wadjet used her paw to find Emily’s email address. She remembered how she had first learned how to use the machine to send words to Emily and Amanda.
emly Wadjet wrote, help uss isis moon full too days 2 days bring me bring Foo Foo to garden Mihos comes too. Wadjet hit SEND.
The cats looked up when they heard a noise from above. Amanda stood on the landing and stared down at her two pets.
“Well, my darlings, what are you up to this time? More birds? I think not.”
The cats watched as Amanda came down the stairs and turned off the computer. Just in time, Wadjet had moved her beetle to shut down.
Somehow Wadjet would have to find a way to read Emily’s reply.
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FELINE ONLINE AND THE MAZE OF THE MINOTAUR continues with Chapter Twelve, scheduled for Friday, May 16.
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CREDITS: Cover Illustration: Tamara Clark
Book chapter illustrations: Tamara Clark and Rosetta Clark-Smith
Drawings of Minotaur beetle tunnels, Bastet’s tomb and cartouche: Tamara Clark
Hypnotizing Hoopoe Bird Blog and Brilliant Beetle Blog (and more) include ancient myths and nature lore: Tamara Clark
Photos: Public domain