The creatures of the forest were disappearing from my life. Winter sent them deep into the earth to sleep, and my sensitive pads told me where they were. Hungry, I circled the mouse holes and waited, but only the odd one popped out at the zenith of the day. I became dependent on the starlings. If they didn’t come, I had nothing.
I was getting thinner. My fur felt loose, and so did my bones. My whiskers drooped and I no longer had the energy to play.
My telepathic‘chat line’ to Vati seemed dead. Gloomily I speculated that Vati had actually died. Had he gone home to the spirit world, leaving me alone, the last of Solomon’s kittens? Was I too late?
But there was a voice in my mind. Why did I keep ignoring it? It was insistent.‘Timba. Timba. Where are you, Timba?’ Suddenly I came alive. I listened, not with my ears, but with my spirit.
‘Timba. Timba,’ the voice called huskily. Then it cried, and it prayed. Who was praying for me in that gruff voice? I sat up. My whiskers twitched, and my wet fur quivered as if an electric current had shot through me.
Leroy!
Was he searching in the forest? There was no smell of him, no running footsteps. He wasn’t there. Leroy was talking to me by telepathy. My heart leapt with hope.
‘I know you’re not dead, Timba,’ Leroy was saying. ‘Angie and I made posters and put them up everywhere. We are searching for you every day, and Angie taught me to meditate so I can talk to you. I’m talking to you now. Are you listening, Timba? I miss you, Timba.’
I was listening. My spirits lifted, and I sent a message back.‘I’ve gone to find Vati. It’s a long journey, but I will come home one day soon. Hang in there, Leroy.’
I sensed that he was crying hard. Had he got my message? Momentarily the crying stopped, and he said,‘Don’t forget the White Lion, Timba, and the lion in the sky. He’s made of stars and he’s in the south.’
The lion in the sky! Something clicked in my mind, and I remembered a starry night in the garden when Angie had shown Leroy the constellation of Leo, and on his paw was one of the brightest stars in the universe. Leroy had nearly burst with excitement, and every starry night he’d carried me into the garden and we’d faced south to find the star lion in the sky.
I yawned and stretched, and padded out into the glade. The rain had stopped. The magic was back. Between the bare trees I saw a blue-bright star. Was that the star on Leo’s paw?
I walked towards that star, and my tail was up for the first time in weeks. The tiny beings of light glimmered in the wet grass, lighting the way for me, their eyes winking from the darkest places. I walked a different way out of the glade. I paused and felt the energy with my pads, the way the Spirit Lion had taught me. It was strong. A definite subterranean tingle. Mindfully I followed it between the trees, and came out on a long straight track, leading south towards the star.
I had found a golden road.
Chapter Fifteen
CROSSING THE BRIDGE
In the morning I was on the golden road, the easiest journey so far. I relaxed and followed its arrow-straight track which cut through the forest, uphill and downhill. It wasn’t visibly golden. The ‘gold’ was a kind of song, deep in the earth, a song that tickled my pads with its own particular frequency. It reminded me of the way Graham sang one note for a long time and the glass and china rang with it for an even longer time.
Vati had told me certain notes were healing. So why wasn’t he being healed now, in Graham’s house? I knew the answer. Vati had closed down. He didn’t eat, he didn’t purr, he didn’t play. Vati was like a frozen cat. Dangerously close to the point of no return. The thought drove me on, even when I was tired.
Rain had plumped domes of moss to springy softness under my paws. In places there were clear, shallow pools of water that tasted good and rinsed the dust from my pads. Altogether a paw-restoring experience. I began to feel kittenish and joyful again. The winter sun glinted on my whiskers, and warmed my back as I reached the top of the first hill where a group of deer were lying in the sun.
In places the track plunged downhill steeply and became a sunken road with high banks and overhanging ferns. The magic was there, and the tiny beings of light watched me with eyes that gleamed like raindrops.
On the third hill, my fur bushed out suddenly. I sensed danger, and couldn’t identify what it was. I sat close to an oak tree, ready to climb into the safety of its branches if I needed to escape.
What spooked me was a change in the earth energy of the track. Something intrusive, a coarse thud-thudding vibration. Footsteps! Men, with heavy, stealthy boots, invading the forest. I could smell them, a leathery, fusty, smoky tang, and I could smell dogs too. Silent dogs, quivering with excitement.