Stalking a Mouse

By Donna and Abs

Mornings were the most hectic time of the day in the Camelot stables.  There were horses to feed and groom, stalls and stable yards to muck and sweep. Jeannette and Faline worked right beside the stable lads, doing just as much work as they did, even though they were girls. At first the knights of the castle were scandalized, but as time went by, accepted them as belonging there.

The only one who still seemed ill at ease around the pretty Stable Master’s daughter, Jeannette, was Vronsky.  But some suspected there was more to it than just objecting to women working in such a manner!

Jeannette was very confused by it. He had seemed uneasy around her when she was dressed as a boy, and now that she had let her hair down *literally*, he was even more so. She didn't understand why at all. Actually, he was relieved that she was, in fact, a girl.  But the fact remained that she reminded him far too much of someone else he'd once known, and loved.

But he didn't bother telling her that of course! Jeannette confided to her friend, Faline, who shook her head. "I think he likes you, but for some reason, he is like a cat with his tail fluffed out... like something has frightened him." The pretty tawny haired fae had her own problems. When Captain Navarre had come in for his horse one day and spotted her, his face had turned white as a ghost. And even her good friend, the Mouse (or at least he had been her friend when she was a cat!) was rendered completely speechless! Since then, both men had been avoiding her. Apparently she also reminded him of someone he had known, and loved!

But not knowing this, the two girls were only aware that the men were bothered by something. As they worked, they saw the Mouse slip into Goliath's stall, so after a whispered conversation, Faline and Jeannette decided to make him talk!

Of course he knew; at least the Faline part of it.  And he had been acting strangely around her ever since she'd turned human.  He was in the stall, talking to himself - or Goliath - when the girls snuck up on him.

"Looks like we have caught us a Mouse," purred Faline softly, making him jump and turn around quickly.

"You have been avoiding us," Jeannette said, a frown on her face. "And you know something. We want to know what it is!"

"Me? I don't know anything.  Ask anyone!  Not a thing!"

"Liar," hissed Faline, her eyes glowing golden in the dim light of the stall. "Talk!"

"You can look at this face and say I KNOW something?" he said, incredulous. "That's never happened before!"

She walked up to him, rubbing her body against his in a very catlike manner, a fierce, hungry look in her eyes. "I know lots of things, Mouse. Look into my eyes and tell me that you know nothing."

He gulped.  "So, okay, I know that. I mean, what to do with tha. . . . Navarre is gonna kill me!"

"Ever see the way a cat plays with a mouse? They toss them up and down, till they don't move anymore... then they eat them all up..." Faline purred deep in her chest as her fingertips ran across the back of the boy's neck. Jeannette, watching from the door, had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing at the sight of growing panic on his face.

"And Navarre was a wolf before he came here!"  It came out cracked, like his voice was changing.

"Yes," purred Faline even deeper. "I smelled the wolf that was part of him. But the smell grows fainter. He changes no more. Tell me, little mouse, why would a wolf flee from the presence of a little cat?"

"Not a cat, a hawk," he said, hoping she would not understand.

She looked puzzled. "There are no fae here that have turned from a hawk. Was this in the place that you have come from?"

"Ye-oh, damn!" said Mouse, as a large shadow filled the stall's doorway.

Jeannette yelped with surprise as she was pushed aside. Turning lightly on her feet, Faline turned to face the Captain, a slight smile twitching the corners of her mouth, as Mouse cowered behind her.

"You ask too many questions, Cat," he said simply but firmly.  He looked at Mouse with a dark scowl.

"It's in my nature to be curious," she said, her eyes glowing even brighter. "So, will you tell my why a cat reminds you of a hawk?"

He frowned, his eyes as dark and foreboding as death, and said, "A cat does not, you do."

Her eyes widened, then narrowed. "I see. But I am not the one that you remember. I am Faline! I am Cat!" The last came out in a low hiss.

"Exactly why I did not tell you about it," he said shortly and, pushing past, went to Goliath without another word to any of them.

Mouse shrugged.  "Lots of people look like other people here," he said.

"Yes, dear Mouse," she said, reaching out to stroke his face. "But most people do not despise someone simply because they wear the same face as another." With that, she left the stall without a backwards glance, her head held high.