Story continued

Another, strange and seemingly misplaced creature, that was a “resident” of the castle, was a bat called Horrace. It seemed strange, because the bat appeared to be more fond of humans than its own kind. Apparently, not having a liking, for which some bats have the reputation, of a preference for human blood as their food, but rather, drank the nectar of various flowers. From time to time, Cook was also known to have given the bat, in a small bottle with a feeding teat, a special preparation of a sweet liquid, that the bat, named Horrace, seemed to enjoy, despite the mischievous look on its face.

“

The Professor had been alerted earlier in the afternoon, by the door bell, that the tutor, who introduced herself as Miss Vanessa, had rung when arriving at the castle doorway. Though the Professor enjoyed a modest amount of civility and ceremony, he was not a stickler for all the trappings of money and affect. He often, personally went to the door when guests arrived. He had looked out a window upstairs, quite by chance, and had seen a young, pleasant looking woman approaching, up the narrow road that wound its way to the castle. As he came down the stairway, he heard the doorbell ring, as the young woman pulled on the cord outside. He opened the door to see the woman standing there. She introduced herself, saying,

"Hello Sir, I am Miss Vanessa, come to stay for the school term to teach the young lady!"

to which he replied,

"Yes, we have been expecting you.”

and as she entered the doorway of the castle he continued,

“let me show you to your room."

They walked through the entrance way and into the grand foyer. They went up the curved staircase and down long corridors to the servants quarters. They finally came to a closed door. He opened the door and said,

“"This will be your room."

Then he said in a pleasant but precise manner,

"I will expect you to be at dinner at exactly 6pm."

And, with that, he was gone.

Vanessa entered the room. It was pleasant enough. A bed, a chair and a closet, with a small en-suite bathroom attached. There was a small window which overlooked the kitchen garden. She looked forward to dinner when she would meet her new student.

“

While it had, obviously, not been among the Professor's thoughts that evening, that other mischievous creature was down by the pebbled seashore. Sooty was playfully flicking pebbles into the water, when he considered the outcome of pebbles, either intentionally or otherwise, plinking an unaware Selkie on the head as she swam by. While he was amused at the thought, he was also aware that a Selkie, may not be so amused by such activity, and her justifiable response may be more than he could contemplate dealing with. With that thought, and those possibilities in mind, he hastily scrapped the plan and scampered up the beach. From a position of relative safety, he padded through the forest, with which he was very familiar, unlike his unfamiliarity with the realm of Selkies. The darkness and noises of the forest are, for most people and many animals, an eerie, weird place, where shapes were distorted and strange noises became even more strange and fearful. But for Sooty this was an environment where he felt reasonably at ease. It was he who could carefully, quietly, approach an animal, with more of an offensive than a defensive disposition. Normally, he was not in need of food, unless his adventures took him some distance from the castle. Consequently his ambles in the wood were more for his own amusement, as was intended in his contemplation of pebble plinking Selkies heads, from which activity, it is likely, that he very wisely withdrew.

“

It was not usual for Sooty to feel on the defensive when in the forest and woodland. And while contemplating in his mind, the sharpening of his claws, to emulate the effectiveness of samurai swords, his imagination produced images of battles with fierce trolls and giant ogres, something possibly akin, in the end, to the story of “Seven at One Blow”. He was not deterred by the incongruity of the disproportionate images. As he approached a particularly elegant looking tree, with interestingly shaped trunk and limbs, he considered the desired effect that dragging his claws, on the bark of the tree, would have on their sharpness and effectiveness in any confrontation. As he commenced dragging his claws down the bark of the tree, he heard a firm but gentle voice saying,

"Willst du Ärger?" (Do you want trouble?)

Well, unaccustomed as he was to the feeling of fear that entered his soul at that moment, he recoiled more than twice the distance that he had ever known himself to be able to jump – and this time it was backwards.

“

As he recovered his composure, Sooty looked around, but could see nothing that resembled a character that could make a noise, let alone speak. Looking up into the tree, he could just make out features that could, possibly, resemble that of a human face. The tree spoke to him again, and said,

"Touch me again little cat and I'll turn you into a mouse".

Now revengeful Selkies were one thing, but trees that speak, that was definitely something very new to Sooty.

“

Having said to the tree,

"Sprecken Englisch?"

In his best attempt at German, the tree responded, saying,

"Of course little creature".

Now, unaccustomed to the fact that spirits and trees could co-exist, Sooty, being so used to facing inexplicable events and experiences in his adventures, and being a cat that could himself speak, had quite so recovered his composure, that he was able to give a hearty sigh of relief at becoming aware of this new, apparently non-threatening addition to his repertoire of interesting experiences. He said,

"Well hello, tree spirit creature. My name is Sooty and I'm very sorry - I didn't mean to hurt you. I thought you were just a tree".

To which the tree replied, mirthfully, though with a somewhat sombre expression, that just hinted at its apparent amusement,

"You didn't hurt me, you just woke me from a lovely dream."

This experience, while initially unsettling, gave way to a more confident approach by Sooty. From other encounters, that he recalled, there were some experiences that he had had, not entirely unlike this one. So, with just a little deference to his tone and manner, for it would be wise not to underestimate any other potential capacities of a speaking tree, he asked,

"I hope I'm not being rude, but are you by any chance a dryad?".

Sooty was completely dumbfounded at what happened next. The tree seemed to shimmer, and from a slight haze that seemed to envelop the tree, the image of a strikingly delicate and elegant female figure appeared, still gracefully draped with fronds of bark and greenery, with a lovely lacy effect, standing where the tree had been. The creature said in a gentle voice,

"Well, Sooty, does that answer your question?"

"

“

Any apprehension, that remained for Sooty, evaporated in excitement at the awareness that he was actually speaking with the rarely seen forest tree spirit, called a dryad, of which he had only known from references in fable and legend stories. The wisdom of these trees is derived from what would, otherwise, be generations of knowledge for humans. However, in the gossamer like image of humans, in which they appear, they retain the characteristics of youth and elegance.

“

Sooty was now beside himself with delight and a desire to offer deference to the visage before him. While his previous experiences had given him opportunities to practice the arts of courtesy, respect and diplomacy, he engaged all of these in order to continue this special experience with the dryad “person”. He could feel that this spirit form emanated warmth, gentleness and kindness, the experience of which he wanted to retain for as long as possible. He said,

"May I know your name, as I must tell my friends all about you?"

With a pleasant grin, the dryad responded,

"Of course Sooty, as you've already introduced yourself. My name is Cenedra. And do you know what Sooty? I love cats, especially black ones, because they are lucky. So I think we'll be good friends from now on."

“

Sooty was, by now, accustomed to the directness and clarity with which the response was given. He reflected that her reply, incorporated the style he would know, to have attributed to Germanic origins. He was, however, also very accustomed to practicalities, of which his stomach, was at this very time, reminding him. He was a small creature, and small creatures can live on small amounts of food, but they have to be taken fairly frequently. With a certain sense of disappointment, that was only just eclipsed by his desire for food, he said,

"I think that would be wonderful, Cenedra. But I do have a confession to make...it's dinner time, and I'm starving. So if I don't get back to Dolgrens', the dwarf king's hall, I'll miss my dinner, so I had better be off soon."

Dolgrens was the way by which he identified the castle on occasion, as he thought would suit and be appropriate to the situation. There were also associations with special casks of dwarven ale and interesting and exciting war stories.

But Cenedra was aware of Sooty's intended diversions, as we would understand a spirit dryad to be and, with laughter sounding like tiny gentle bells, replied,

I wouldn't want you to miss Dolgren's ale, now would I?"

To Sooty's chagrin, the dryad had seen through his ploy and responded with humour that softened his regret at the attempted subterfuge. With his guiltiness showing in his avoidance of her gaze, he thought to himself,

“Dammit, too smart by half, for these wise dryads, Sooty.”

Cenedra's humour was still engaging and light, when she said, with a playful laugh,

"Be off with you Sooty...I know a lovable, but naughty cat when I see one. Auf Wiedersehen. Remember, Oktoberfest isn't too far away, and I'm sure I can find some bratwurst, sauerkraut and Schnapps if you need any enticing"

Again, summoning his best attempt at her language, he replied, with lightness in his voice,

"Auf Wiedersehen, Fraulein Cenedra,"

“Another friend to chalk up, and with excellent culinary taste.”

he reflected. As he waved his paw in a parting gesture, the gossamer visage melted back into the tree form from which it had appeared. As he also seemed to melt back into the forest, he thought to himself,

“Golly gosh!! A German-speaking dryad, called Cenedra. My friends will never believe it.”

“

The Professor was startled from his reverie by the chimes of the clock at

6:00 pm. He was only thus, aware of the time, the past few minutes having seemed as though having taken quite some time longer than he was aware. At the same time Vanessa entered the room and approached the long dark, polished table, at the head of which, the Professor was seated. He, being pleased by her promptness, motioned her to take the seat to his left. The little girl came bouncing in to the dining room, obviously happy, and took the seat to the right of the Professor, that being her usual place at the table.

“

Feeling at ease in her surroundings, Vanessa addressed the little girl,

“Hello young lady! I am Miss Vanessa and we are going to be great friends.”

the little girl feigned shyness and, though she nodded, did not attempt to meet Vanessa's gaze, or otherwise, offer any response.

“What is your name?”

asked Vanessa. At which point the Professor interjected,

“She doesn’t have a name.”

Puzzled, Vanessa looked at him quizzically. The Professor continued,

“Well, you see, ten years ago there was a knock on the castle door. By the time I had gotten there the person had left, and there was just a baby, wrapped in a blanket, left on the doorstep. I kept thinking someone would come back for her, so I didn’t think that I needed to give her a name, so I just never did! Now I don’t see why we should impose a name on her.”

“I see”

said Vanessa. With that cook bustled in with big serving platters on a trolley. There was roast chicken, vegetables, potatoes and gravy. The food was delicious and Vanessa enjoyed her first meal with the strange Professor and the little girl with no name.

“

Having enjoyed their evening meal, the little girl was permitted some time with Vanessa, with whom she was becoming more comfortable. While she did not, at this stage, tell Miss Vanessa anything about her nocturnal wanderings, she did say, that one of her quests was to find the secret chamber within the ancient castle. She understood that certain people had access to the chamber. It could only be opened by means of some sort of ring. Within the chamber, there were supposed to be messages and writings of great significance. Even a secret code, that could also be used to crack the information of messages that came into the castle, from other places. Vanessa took all this as part of a little girls, possibly, overactive imagination, but was careful not to admonish the little girl or show any sign of disbelief.

“

Before long, it was time for the little girl to go to her room and get ready for bed. Vanessa would follow shortly, to see that all was in order and to see that the little girl was secure and comfortable. Little did she know what happenings, in which she would be involved, would occur during the next few weeks. ...........

…....... “ ….......

“

With My Very Best Wishes to All

@HenryX