A despondent Sooty

Sooty's last story for a while

One day, Sooty, the black cat was feeling, well very cat-like. What shall we do today? he thought to himself. Feeling a bit bored, Sooty decided a bit of mischief was in order.

Sooty was wandering around the castle hallways and decided to visit the Professor in the library - Maybe I can get some ideas from him as he's always studying something interesting.

Sooty nonchalantly strolled into the library where he could see the Professor hunched over an ancient tome, reading by candle light. Sooty hopped up onto the large oak table. The Professor absent-mindedly gave Sooty a few pats without taking his eyes from the large book he was reading. Sooty peered at the book and read a few lines - Latin he thought to himself, and read on.  He realised that what the Professor was studying was something familiar. Then it came to Sooty, it was the Malleus Maleficarum, a treatise on witches.

Sooty pondered this for a while, then it came to him. Brilliant he thought to himself, and off he jumped and slinked his way out of the library. Sooty made his way down the hallways to the deepest part of the castle when he came to a set of stairs. He knew where these led, down to the castle's dungeon. Sooty reached into his little adventure backpack that he always carried and pulled out a tin of sardines. Humming to himself, he used a sharp claw to pry the ring-pull up on top of the can and pulled out a sardine and laid it on top of the first step.  Sooty proceeded down the stairs leaving a sardine every few steps. Once in the lower hall of the dungeon, Sooty proceeded to leave a trail of sardines right into the castle's only dungeon - a solid iron alcove with a thick iron door that was quite gloomy and dark.

Sooty smirked, this shall be fun. Sooty slunk out of the prison cell and found a small box to hunker behind and wait. Some hours passed, and then he heard a slurpy-crunch sound coming from the top of the stairs. Sooty waited and watched, hunkered in the gloom of the dark gallery as a black cat with blue eyes was eagerly following the trail of sardines, munching his way along the trail right into the cell.

There was a stool next the cell door. The cell door was only slightly ajar, just room for a cat to fit through. Once the foreign cat had entered deeply into the thickly barred cell, Sooty pounced onto the stool, and deftly closed the door. Sooty reached the key still in the lock, with a quick twist turned the lock and jumped back off the stool holding the key with one paw. He could hear a yowling from behind the cell door. Sooty placed the key into his backpack then pulled out a piece of chalk and began inscribing strange symbols outside the cell and its door. Sooty then chanted a strange language for a few minutes, made the sign of the cross and walked off up the stairs to find the girl with no name.

As Sooty wondered off into the upper reaches of the castle he pondered why anyone would not want a name. Sooty turned this idea over in his little mind. A problem for a another day he mused as he went in search of the girl with no name. He found her in one of castle turrets gazing out a window arch across the lake surrounding the castle. Sooty, entwined himself around her legs then sat back and reached into his backpack and pulled out the dungeon key. He looked at her with steady green eyes and said "your friend, you know the strange black cat with blue eyes...I've locked him up in the castle dungeon." The girl with no name looked at Sooty. "Oh you naughty cat; why on earth would you do such a thing!" she exclaimed. Sooty looked at one of his paws, and studied his claws for a moment before looking back at her. "It's pretty obvious, isn't it. Everyone knows there is only room for one black cat in any castle, so I've trapped your little friend in the dungeon, and placed an enchantment around it. You can let him out whenever you want, but when he crosses the enchantment, he will be turned into something else." The girl with no name looked outraged. "How could you Sooty! That is so mean!" Sooty looked at her deadpan. "Not really, just having some fun. Of course, you can go chat to the professor, he will know how to undo the spell. It's up to you to let the cat out, but I'd chat to the Professor first and see if he wants to remove the enchantment as well. It's all the same to me."

With those parting words, Sooty sauntered back down the spiral stone stairs of the turret. Time for some food he thought, I wonder if Cook is down in the kitchen? She always has some yummy treats if I smooch around long enough.