9: MERLIN

 

   The Mighty Mousers spent a good deal of their school summer holidays helping Merlin, the magician cat. Merlin lived on his own in a big draughty shed filled with strange and wonderful machines that sometimes worked, but very often just sat there gathering dust, and spent most of his time locked in a secret workshop on one side of the shed, working on strange and magical projects. The kittens did his shopping, and dusted the dustier machines, and generally tried to make themselves useful, and Roxanne, who was learning how to cook, made tasty little snacks.

   From time to time Merlin would come out of his workshop and have something to eat and drink. Roxanne, who was really rather an astute kitten for her age, suspected that he spent a good deal of the rest of his time watching kitten programmes on Cat-tv, or playing adventure games on his computer. But she was much too polite ever to suggest such a thing.

   One day he came out of his workshop beaming right to the tips of his whiskers. ‘I've finished,’ he purred at the kittens with the kind of squeaky purr that cats keep for their very best occasions. ‘I've done it, and it works.’

   He twirled around on his tail in a kind of little dance, and the kittens all burst out laughing, because they had never seen him so happy.

   Merlin blinked at them. ‘You must all close your eyes very tightly,’ he said. ‘Then I'll bring it out, and if you are all as good as gold, I might even take you for a ride on it.’

   The kittens were enchanted, and all shut their eyes up as tight as could be. Well, all except Nathaniel, who could sometimes be rather a cheeky and disobedient kitten. But Merlin looked at them hard before going back into his workshop, saw one of Nathaniel's eyelids twitch, and put a low-level spell on him, just enough to make sure that he would not be able to see anything for exactly the next four minutes.

   Four minutes later he stood in one of the few clear spaces in the middle of his shed and coughed proudly. ‘Ahem, ahem.’

   The kittens opened their eyes. Merlin waved a paw at the ground, and they all looked down, and then back at him. Somebody had unrolled a rather dusty carpet, about four or five cats square. But it was hardly something to get very excited about.

   ‘Looks like a very dusty carpet to me,’ Nathaniel miaowed, in a tone that suggested it might just as well have been an old rag. He had a feeling that Merlin might have magicked him, and was not in a very friendly mood. The other kittens waited politely - though all four of them thought rather much the same. Oliver felt his stomach start to rumble, and wondered when Roxanne would produce her next batch of snacks.

   Merlin smiled the smile of a magic cat who knows things other cats can only dream about. ‘This, kittens, is a magic carpet.’

   The carpet twitched a little as he spoke, as though a mouse had crawled underneath, and then rose slowly into the air.

   The kittens watched open-mouthed. The carpet flew slowly up to the roof of the shed, and then floated slowly back to the ground, stood on its side, rolled itself into a ball, and flew round and round in a circle, making them quite dizzy as they tried to keep up with it. Then it began to fold itself into a kind of rod pointing at Nathaniel.

   Nathaniel stared, his eyes very big and black, and flattened his ears on the back of his head. The carpet came lower and lower, until its tip was barely three paws from his whiskers, and he arched his back and hissed.

   Merlin laughed. ‘Do you still think it's just a very dusty carpet?’

   Nathaniel backed away, still hissing, and Merlin waved his paw. A moment later the carpet lay flat on the ground again.

   The kittens eyed it doubtfully. They were all mightily impressed, but also a little frightened. They had never seen a carpet nearly attack a cat before, and it was an alarming thought.

   Merlin stepped onto the carpet, blinking at them. He was plainly very proud of his new invention, and in a very good mood indeed. ‘I'll take you all for a ride, if you like.’

   He made himself comfortable in the middle, curling his tail neatly around his front paws, and the carpet rose just the length of a mouse.

   The kittens hesitated. Salem took a small step forward, because he owed it to himself as the biggest and bravest of the Mighty Mousers. But he had never flown before, and he was not convinced it was the right time to start.

   Merlin muttered something under his breath, and suddenly five little saucers of tuna snacks and five little saucers of cream appeared on the carpet in a half circle around him. ‘I can even supply in-flight catering.’

   The sight of the snacks and the cream was too much for Oliver. He put out one front paw, then the other, hopped onto the carpet, and a second later he was licking busily at one of the saucers, without even being invited to start.

   Salem followed almost nose to tail - he was not a kitten to be second to anyone - and Jack was close behind him. Roxanne hesitated for a moment, wondering how Merlin had managed to do it, but the tuna snacks really smelled very tasty, and a second later she was sitting at the fourth pair of little saucers. Only Nathaniel held back. He had come very close to being attacked by the carpet, and he was a proud kitten. But Merlin made the fifth pair of little saucers edge right to the very edge of the carpet, right under Nathaniel's little pink nose, and he gave in.

   The carpet flew up, and straight out of the shed. The kittens twitched a little, because the ground seemed to be passing very rapidly underneath them, even though they felt as though the carpet was standing still. But Merlin explained that it possessed its own special invisible canopy to protect passengers against wind and rain, and stop them falling off if it took a bend too fast, and made Roxanne screech with alarm by banking the carpet over sharply to one side for a moment, just to prove his point.

   The carpet sailed down the main street of Catsville, well above the traffic, and all the cats on the pavements stopped to stare. A van delivering catfood to a cat supermarket had to brake sharply to avoid crashing into the back of a cat police car, and the cat police driver - who was rather an unpleasant marmalade tom - reached into his fur for his notebook, with the intention of ordering the carpet to stop, and booking its driver.

   But Merlin had already moved on, and a moment later the carpet circled the Catsville town hall, to pause for a moment outside the window of the town hall conference room, where a number of important cats were holding a meeting. The meeting broke up in disarray as all the important cats crowded to the window, and Merlin put the carpet through a little exhibition dance. Then he flew back to his shed.

   The magic carpet was already the talk of the whole of Catsville, and a big crowd of cats sat waiting outside the shed, buzzing with excitement. A camera team from Cat-tv stepped forward as Merlin brought the carpet gently down to the ground, and a photographer from the Cat Gazette snapped busily. Several young girl cats who fancied being in the news gave Merlin bunches of catmint, and all the waiting cats cheered.

   Every cat in Catsville wanted to ride on the magic carpet after that. But Merlin stuck a notice on his shed door saying that the carpet was still only an experiment, and took nobody except the five kittens whilst he practised his flying.

   This soon proved to be a rather touch and go matter. Being a magician cat, Merlin always had a great deal on his mind, what with ideas for new inventions and spells, and always flew with a notebook by his side. However jotting down ideas can prove rather dangerous when you are heading straight for a clump of trees, and the kittens often found themselves pulling hard on his ears in a bid to bring him back from his daydreams into the real world.

   The sparrows and pigeons living in the Catsville trees were also forced to spend a growing amount of their time watching their wingtips, and complained bitterly about Merlin's lack of air sense.

   Two rather cheeky sparrows with carpet bruises on their beaks even flew down to perch on a tree outside his shed a few days after his first flight. Both held little placards saying 'Stop flying blind', and they persuaded Merlin - after some discussion - always to fly straight up into the sky, when taking off, until he had climbed well above the Catsville birds' normal flight ceiling, and to land by dropping straight down from the sky, like a lift. The kittens thoroughly approved, because it saved them having to panic and pull his ears. But Oliver also wondered to himself whether sparrows might be tasty.

   Then the school holidays came to an end. The kittens went back to school to perfect their stalking and pouncing, and wished secretly that they might one day be given a chance to learn flying as well.

   Merlin vanished into his shed with a big pile of tinned catfood, and told visitors that he had begun weaving a second magic carpet capable of carrying up to fifty cats at a time.

   Nobody saw him from dawn to dusk, but Catsville began buzzing a few days later with strange tales of bright lights crossing the sky at night, and the kittens knew that he had finished the second carpet and begun test flights.

   Then, one evening, a pigeon rapped at Salem's bedroom window just as he was on the point of going to sleep.

   ‘Wake up, wake up.’ It was the big pigeon who had talked to Salem and Roxanne when they first met. ‘Something dreadful has happened.’

   Salem leaped out of bed.

   ‘The flying cat has run into a gaggle of geese out on a training flight.’ The pigeon sounded on the point of tears. ‘He mowed down a whole family of goslings, and their parents are desperate.’

   Salem had a vision of Merlin crashing through the geese, mind busy with all sorts of other things, and shivered. ‘I'll go and tell the other kittens,’ he miaowed.

   ‘No need. I've already sent messengers to tell them to wait for you by the flying cat's shed.’ The pigeon ruffled his wings. He failed to mention that he had sent a pigeon apiece to wake Roxanne, Nathaniel and Jack, but five of his bravest friends to wake Oliver, who had a bad reputation up in the tree tops. ‘Do be quick.’

   The five kittens raced to Merlin's shed, to find the magician cat brushing goose feathers from the edge of a giant carpet. ‘Dratted birds,’ he grumbled as they reached him. ‘Never look where they are going.’

   Salem quickly told him what the pigeon had said.

   Merlin's mouth dropped open, and his whiskers quivered. The kittens saw tears form in his eyes, because he was really a very kindhearted cat, even if his flying left a lot to be desired, and he looked very guilty. ‘Oh, dear. Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear. What shall I do?’

   Roxanne, who was a very practical kitten, and had just gained a star in her school first aid course, took charge. ‘You must turn the flying carpet into a flying ambulance,’ she miaowed. ‘Take us down to the cat hospital to fetch a doctor, and then the pigeon can guide us.’

   The pigeon looked doubtful. He was not convinced that damaged goslings would be very safe on a cat flying carpet, especially with Oliver around. But Roxanne gave Oliver a very stern look, and made him promise to behave himself, and the pigeon relented.

   Then they all stepped onto the magic carpet, Merlin muttered to himself and made a special late supper appear by magic - with a special saucer of corn for the pigeon, and off they flew. It was only a matter of moments before they collected a cat doctor and a couple of cat nurses, and then they were off again, with the pigeon guiding the carpet, and two groups of pigeons flying either side as escorts.

   The pilot pigeon steered them to a field just outside Catsville. Several goslings lay on the ground looking rather battered, and grown-up geese had formed a protective circle around them. The geese began to cackle angrily as the carpet slowed to hover just above them, and the pigeon spent several minutes cooing busily. It was plain that the geese were very angry and upset, and that the pigeon was trying to make peace.

   Then the geese began to back away from the goslings, though one or two continued cackling a little behind their wings, and the pigeon let out his breath in a very long coo.

   ‘They say you can look at the goslings now,’ he told the kittens, and then eyed Oliver. ‘But they want the skinny kitten to stay on the carpet.’

   Merlin magicked up a special second helping of supper for Oliver, to soothe his hurt feelings, and brought the carpet down very gently. The cat doctor hopped off to begin examining the goslings, and the two nurses busied themselves making some stretchers ready.

   Then the cat doctor stood up with a big smile. ‘They're bruised, but I don't think anything is broken,’ he purred, closing his medical bag. ‘They just need a good night's sleep.’

   The geese all began to gabble excitedly. The pigeon gabbled back a little, and then ruffled its feathers apologetically. ‘They say they're most grateful,’ he cooed. ‘But now they'd like to go home, and they expect the flying cat to carry their goslings.’

   There was another burst of gabbling, and he lifted his wing to calm the geese down. ‘They also say they'd also be happier if all the other cats stayed here until he comes back,’ he explained.

   Merlin looked at the cat doctor, and the doctor shrugged. He had seen the look in Oliver's eyes, and he quite understood. So the two cat nurses stretchered all the goslings onto the magic carpet, and a moment later it set off, with the geese all flying neatly in formation behind.

   The kittens sat around sleepily until it came back, and then dozed off on the carpet as it took the cat doctor and cat nurses back to the hospital, only waking as it dropped them off at their homes. Soon they were tucked up comfortably in their beds again, all fast asleep.

   But Merlin stayed up, talking for quite a while with the pilot pigeon. The pilot pigeon gave him a good lecture on respecting the rights of other animals, and Merlin promised faithfully to mend his ways. In fact he left his notebook in his shed from that day on, always took another cat or a kitten with him during his day flights, and never flew at night again. So he never had another accident, though once or twice he did have a near miss or two.