Leo Reveals A Secret!

Chapter Two

Leo reveals a secret

The clock struck 9:00 pm and Nadia made her way downstairs to the laundry room. She hasn’t been sleeping with Mandy like she usually does, instead she’s been hanging around the laundry room window for about a week in hopes that Leo would return.

An hour passes, and she still doesn’t see him. She wonders what could’ve happened. Did he get hurt? Did he carry on his search elsewhere? Did he find the doorway and leave her behind?

Thoughts a million miles a minute made it difficult to sleep but not impossible. After about what seemed like a few hours she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer and fell into a trance-like state of watching the fence line until her eyes finally shut.

She opened her eyes, four eyes watched her from the fence line. Wait, no, two sets of eyes rather. The figures neared the window. Nadia was frozen, but not by fear. She physically couldn't move, all she could do was watch as the eyes came closer. Then the one on the left spoke first.

“You’re not supposed to be able to see past the veil.”, said the cat seemingly to Nadia as he walked across the air off the top of the fence toward the window she was frozen on.

“Azara, are you seeing this?” he asked the other set of eyes as he neared, “ I thought you said they can’t see in this state.” Azara rolled his eyes and stretched out his arms and began arching his back to the sound of cracking.

“No, Anubis, I told you not always.”

“What should we do about this, this one’s not documented.”

“Maybe her eyes are just fluttering.”

“Still we better keep tabs on this tabby. I smell his scent here, but faint. He must’ve been here then headed in this direction.”

“Let’s get moving then before we lose the trial.” The two cats began to make their way in the direction that Leo had left from.

Nadia was still frozen but the scene was beginning to feel like a dream. She couldn’t tell if it had happened or if she imagined it.

The night was over just as fast as it began. Nadia’s eyes opened, but this time she could speak and move her body. She got up and stretched and meowed to see if anyone was around, but no one answered. She jumped from the window ledge to run upstairs, it just felt like it was time to eat.

She made it upstairs and spotted the door to Mandy's room slightly ajar. Making her way in she found Mandy on her bed under covers.

Hopping on the bed and meowing as if declaring its breakfast had no effect on Mandy’s sleep. Nadia laid for a bit on the bed, still to no avail. Nadia got up to stretch and meow again until she spotted a water cup on the nightstand. Walking over to the glass to inspect just how much water is inside she determined it would be enough to awaken her caretaker, she carefully started pushing it toward the edge. After a minute she gave up on pushing with her paw method and jumped off the small nightstand hitting the glass with her body causing it to roll on its side to another edge closer to the bed and ended up falling onto the bed.

Mandy woke to a cooling sensation that quickly grew uncomfortable. Lifting her head then her body to a sitting position. Still processing what happened she looked at the area she normally lays her head to see it was soaked looking to her left the culprit was still at the crime scene now meowing.

Sigh

“There goes my dream..” Mandy began to utter as she checked her phone for the time, “I guess it’s time for breakfast. Maybe you can come up with a different way to wake me next time.”

Meow

“Sounds good,'' Mandy said in response.

Finally Mandy found the strength to get up out of the bed and head to the bathroom to change her clothes to Nadia's disappointment as she thought everyone was headed to the kitchen.

Nadia paced outside the bathroom door until Mandy revealed herself in dry clothing.

“Okay we’re off!” Mandy announced as she made her way downstairs with Nadia skipping her way passed Mandy to get to the kitchen first.

Upon making it to the kitchen Mandy began opening a can of wet food to Nadia’s delight. While picking out a food dish Mandy’s phone rang. It was her friend Joonie. Mandy answered to find an excited voice.

“Are you ready for tomorrow!” screamed Joonie.

“Yeah, of course, I just have to pick up my shoes later from Decca’s.”

Meow

“Oh I guess that’s why you didn’t come in today. And I didn’t know Decca even did shoes. The strap on my second favorite sandals broke, I’ll take them there sometime soon.”

“Yeah I’ll be in tomorrow. What time are you coming tomorrow?”

Meow

“It’ll take half an hour to get there.”

“So, how’s a little after six? We still have to sign in to get our flowers.”

“Yeah sounds good, I’ll swing by to grab you then!”

Meow!

“Okay I’ll talk to you later, it's past breakfast time for the pumpkin and she is getting sassy.”

“Bye!”

“Bye!” Mandy said as she hung up so she could finish feeding her not very patient companion.

Upon receiving her food, she made a happy not quite meow sound. Mandy left to lay treats around the house before leaving the house.

“I covered your spill with a towel. I’ll be back soon, try not to make a mess please.” Mandy said to Nadia as she left through the back door.

Nadia waited in her usual spot after breakfast. Her eyes started closing slowly, but opened wide after she saw a gray tabby making his way down the fence line toward her.

Leo appeared in front of her with a look that made you feel like he had a treasure map or maybe even the treasure.

“I found out!” Leo started out excited.

“That’s great!” Nadia said, sharing the excitement, “where is it?”

“Oh yea, so I sorta found it.” The excitement died down as he said that.

“What do you mean ‘sorta’?” Nadia asked, bringing her tone down to match Leo’s.

“So I overheard these two older cats in an alley talking about a merchant that can give you an in. They were saying how a doorway only lasts so long so you have to request one or you have to find one that's available.”

“So how do we find the merchant?”

“I know of two locations for tomorrow night.”

“Oh how many merchants are there?”

“There’s only one.”

“Do you know which one we’re going to?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet but I know another cat that can help us!”

“Who?” Nadia doesn’t know any other cats; most of the neighbors have dogs.

“Simon, he lives just over two blocks. I think you can see his house from the other side of your house. It's the really tall one that you can see towering over that house across the street.”

Nadia left her usual post to go check another window on the other side of the house. Sure enough, looming over a relatively small house was a part of a white house with black trimming with a large circle window in the center. Nadia thinks she can make out the outline of a cat sitting on the sill of the window. She rushed back to where she found Leo waiting for her.

“Okay, how is this Simon going to help out?” Nadia asked curiously.

“Well, Simon is the smartest cat I know, if anyone can figure it out it’ll be him.” Leo presented a matter of factly.

“When should we contact Simon?”

“We’ll do it tonight! There’s a dog that lives there as well so we have to wait until nightfall so he is not in the yard when we get there otherwise he’ll blow our cover.”

“Okay, I have to wait until night anyway because I have dinner time later and I don’t want to miss that!”

“I wouldn’t want to either, so good plan I'll come back when the sun goes down.”

“Don’t take long this time.”

“I won’t.”

Dinner time came and went. Nadia returned to her post awaiting a promise. After what seemed like forever, Leo appeared walking down the fence line toward Nadia.

“So, I found an exit point for you it’s arond the back you have a window open in a room downstairs.” Leo declared.

“I’m not allowed in that room.” Nadia said in hopes Leo would have another plan.

“It’s your only opening that I saw, unless you know of another one that I didn’t see.”

“Okay, I’ll be out in a minute.”

“I’ll wait by the window for you.” Leo said as he left to go wait by the opening.

Nadia sighed knowing it probably was the only way she’d be able to leave. She got up and made her way to the green room in the house. Upon making it inside she couldn’t help but play just a little bit with some of the leaves from the fun plants. After she decided it was enough there was a small bite and claw marks on the bark of some small plants and bitten off leaves.

Nadia approached the window that Leo had told her about but hesitated a moment before jumping onto the ledge and slipping through the small exit.

Leo greeted Nadia when she reached the ground. Leo began walking in the direction of the tall house, Nadia followed closely by his side. The two of them made their way down the street in silence absorbing their surroundings.

Then they were there looking up at Simon’s window.

“We’re going to have to climb a tree around the back that leads to the roof where Simon hangs out the most.” Leo said, finally breaking the silence.

“Okay.” Nadia said just enjoying her adventure.

They made their way to the tree and began climbing. At the top they followed a branch that extended out to a part of the roof. Jumping off the branch Leo jumped a final time to a higher spot just behind the tower part.

“I should probably tell you now that Simon is…peculiar.” Leo said but didn’t offer much after that.

“What do you mea-” Before Nadia could finish Leo was walking around the tower on a very narrow ledge. Nadia followed they made it to the front where there was a Cornish Rex laying loaf style looking at them. Before Nadia could say hello the new feline spoke.

“Leo, I’ve been waiting here for you. Also someone else came here looking for you. I got what you asked for. I see you also brought a friend.” said the peculiar cat.

Leo looked at Nadia and smiled, then back at Simon, “Whoever it is can wait. Well let’s see it, I’ve been dying to catch this merchant.”