Now a Bit of Fiction "Lost and Found" by Jeanne Buckhalter

Lost and Found
A short story by Jeanne Buckhalter

The woman was working in her garden, the sun beating down on her skin glowing a pinky gold, a sheen of fine perspiration on her brow, the rays of the sun highlighting the white streaks in her golden hair. She stopped pulling the weeds at the sound of the tiniest silver bell chiming to look and see a handsome Siamese male cat walking carefully down the rows of carefully tended flowers, looking as if he was a cat on a mission. Cara sat back on her heels, waiting his arrival, almost as if she waited for him to speak. The silence grew, as do all silences when cat kind are involved, and finally Cara spoke. “Well, Sir Cat, what brings you here, just a casual visit? New to the neighborhood? Need to borrow a can of salmon?” She laughed softly as a person who is doing something idiotic and hopes no others hear, reaching out to pet the magnificence of Royal Catliness who sat before her. “Mmmmm a tag on your collar, let’s see who is fortunate enough to have you living with them?” Her brows rose as she read his name, murmurring "That's a language I haven't heard in a while." The Cat smirked, laughing deep inside so he didn't insult the two-leg woman.

His Royal Catliness, Xia Que according to his collar, permitted her to carry him in her arms, purring madly, smelling the delicious scent of female Siamese on her skin and clothing and a familiar, almost clove and rose scent, similar to that of the one he permitted to live with him.

Once within her abode, he saw HER, the most magnificent Siamese female ever birthed. Oh how her fur shone, her perfect points, the azure of her eyes, the trilling voice. He straightened in the woman’s arms, demanding to get down, arranging his fur neatly and presenting himself to the vision in fur before him. The vision fluffed and made herself absolutely adorable to him and he sat as befitting Royalty meeting Divinity, presenting his whiskers and ears at the perfect, appealing tilt he knew other intelligent feline could not resist, and carefully wrapped his tail around his paws as he had been taught long ago in kittenhood.

The woman did what they do with telephones, contacting his so-called “owner” and discovering his address. She glanced in the mirror to assure herself that none of the garden loam was on her face, her hair was reasonably groomed and buttons fastened. She dithered about changing her clothes, decided against it before Bastet got any ideas of the kitten kind since the visiting male was fully male and obviously interested in her little darling Bast.

As both cats could hear the thoughts in the woman's head, Bastet rolled her eyes and sighed, quietly apologizing to her visitor. "I'm terribly sorry. I haven't owned her long enough to do much good." Xia Que nodded his head in understanding, for his human was also a sore trial at times, though he had hope.

The vision in fur decided that she too would accept a ride with the two-leg female and the greatly acceptable male who had been kind enough to visit her. She walked out of the house, each foot placed precisely and delicately, causing Xia Que to moan softly in his throat, causing the two-legged female to stroke his fur soothingly.

He sat next to Her on the back seat, permitting the female to drive without telling her what she was doing wrong, getting to know the Vision. She inclined her head regally; he cleaned her ears, eyes closing in rapture, his tail flicking gently back and forth. “Divine One, tell me, what is your name?” Her purr was bliss, a delightful music to his ears, “Bastet, but please, call me Bast.” Xia Que gave a catly chuckle, “Appropriate; your pet has a sense of what is suitable.”

The drive was far too short, but Xia Que and Bastet had time to discuss Euclidean Theory, astrophysics, assorted tricks in getting around having to do all the piddly calculations necessary to use a tesseract for interstellar jumps, the deplorable habit of humans to neglect the purchase of fresh tuna from the grocer, and the possibility of getting their pets together. His pet answered the door and Xia Hue moaned in his throat, apologizing to Bastet for the creature’s sad appearance, with the smudges on his face and wrinkled clothing. Bast, being a cat of good breeding, forgave him, commiserating on how difficult it was to make them at least maintain the semblance of good breeding.

“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you bringing my naughty boy home. Please do come in for a drink, some fruit juice, something?” Xia rolled his eyes, sad at the obvious efforts of the man, but giving him some credit for at least trying. Bastet smirked as only cats can and took matters into her finely shaped paws, jumping from her pet’s shoulder and racing into the house, Xia close on her perfectly tipped tail. Xia Que discovered that the view of The Vision was as perfect and perfectly enticing as was her front, as Bastet already knew. They

“Bastet! Come back here right now!” Cara blushed a bright red, “I don’t know what has gotten into her, let me get her out of your hair.”

One thing led to another, the two cats managing to hide in plain sight and the two rested in the living room, tall glasses of cold fruit juice in their hands, talking. She taught, he wrote, oh really, what, oh I love those books, chatter, chatter, chatter. Their conversation being a boring one, the two in fur discussed the latest appropriations before Congress, the ethical dilemma of cloning Siamese, comparative religions, and the innocent pleasure in hiding some small thing of the pet, such as the car keys. The pets made food, ate, remembered their owners, fed them some lovely tuna with grated egg yolk and a spoonful of caviar...sadly not Beluga…and fresh water.

On her third visit to Xia’s home, the female two-leg was shown the pool, a vast, indoor extravagance that made her gasp and squeal in delight. Dan, his pet, hemmed and hawed, managing to, with a complete lack of grace on his part, not invite her for a swim, no matter how much she mentioned loving swimming. Bastet made a delicate “Tcha” of annoyance, knowing that once in the water, things would finally progress to the place where Xia and she wanted them, namely with their two pets as interested in denning together as were they.

Things progressed too slowly for the cats. Normally of the greatest patience, they were ready to pull their whiskers out in frustration. Cara and Bastet visited often, or Dan and Xia visited but the two cats just could not get them in the water together. Dan had Cara come to the house while he was out of town signing at another book sale, and she made liberal use of the heated indoor wonder then, but never, ever when Dan was home.

“Well, that’s over finally.” Dan had returned home on an afternoon flight, throwing his car keys on the table and removing his jacket. He sounded tired, and Xia despaired for his pet. The female rubbed his shoulders, and Bastet nodded her head in satisfaction. “Did they accept your title?” Xia listened to her voice, approving it; the pitch was a little low for his liking, but after all she was not feline. “Yes, finally, 'The Dragon in Los Angeles' is in their hands now.”

Cara smiled a dreamy smile, “I love that one, but my favorite is still 'The Dragon Awakes'.”

Dan laughed, “The reviews for that were terrible.” He assumed a high falsetto, “The premise that a dragon, a mythical creature at best, could exist and live unseen among humans is far beyond even this reviewer’s ability to believe.”

Cara laughed softly. “I don’t care, I still love that book.” The cats, with their greater abilities heard the unspoken words she only thought, ~and I love the author even more.~

That night Cara slept in the same bed with Dan and the two cats purred mightily, congratulating themselves on at least this small success. Bast yowled “But they still haven’t gotten into the pool together.” Xia sighed deeply, cleaning Bastet’s face with his raspy tongue, earning him a few catly kisses and cuddles in return. He began thinking of kittens and Bastet agreed, with the proviso that their pets were finally living together and in a stable relationship.

The next morn Dan and Cara cuddled and snuggled, displaying fine mating behavior with Xia and Bastet watching critically. Suddenly Bastet stood, her hair fluffing around her neck, “I can’t take one more minute of this nonsense.” Saying this she suddenly yowled loudly, screaming as piercingly as only a Siamese can and ran around the room a few dozen times, knocking over lamps, potted plants, books from the bookshelves and nonsense from the tables before running through the door to the great indoor pool and flinging herself into the water.

Cara screamed “BASTET!” running after her and diving into the pool to save her presumably drowning feline. She stroked to Bastet who purred wetly in her ear, to return her to the side of the pool, laying her on the tile. Cara looked at herself, groaning as she realized that in the water her transformation back into dragon was automatic, and dropped her head as Dan rushed in to see what was going on.

She slapped the surface of the water hard with her opalescent white tail, delicately glistening scales shining with the coating of water, “Go ahead and say it.” She growled deeply, agony sounding in her ears folded back along her head, her lovely white fangs showing along her delicately shaped snout.

Dan crouched down, wrapping the madly purring Bastet in a towel, “Say what?” His voice was calm but held an undertone the cats understood, one of great excitement.

Cara snarled, her long, forked tongue hissing out of her mouth in exasperation, “Say, are you going to eat me? They always do, you humans, either that or run to get a camera to try for a picture for the National Babbler or some such. DAMN now I have to change names, get new identification, change jobs, move. DAMN! DAMN! DAMN! With each roaring DAMN she slapped the water again and again, diamond bright sprays of water going everywhere. Xia and Bastet made a strategic withdrawal to a dry spot to further watch what they knew was coming. They exchanged frankly smug expressions and Bastet began thinking of appropriate names for their kittens to be.

Dan laughed softly; smiling that gentle smile he saved only for Cara and stood. “Why should I do that?” He removed his shirt slowly, his eyes locked on the golden orbs of hers.

“Because you are human that is why and all you humans are alike. DAMN!” If a dragon of great years could weep, Cara was weeping, for she had broken an old law of the Draconic Kin. Never, but never, fall in love with a human.

Dan grinned and Xia and Bastet exchanged lightning quick glances, congratulating themselves on their efforts. Dan removed his trousers and slipped into the water, groaning as his body changed, long tail growing, snout, long white fangs sprouting along the side, the gleaming red scales whispering over his body. His tongue flickered lovingly over her head in a gentle caress and Cara moaned softly, her golden eyes closing in delight.

Dan laughed; his laughter a deep rumble in the cavern of his chest. “I have the title of the next book. At her look of question he replied, 'The Dragon finds Love'.

Xia Que groomed Bastet slowly, telling her how brave she was to jump in the pool, how beautiful, how absolutely perfect she was in every way as the dragons cavorted in the pool. Bastet agreed, accepting his caresses and leading him from the pool area. After all, humans, cat-kin and dragons all appreciated time apart with their chosen one.