Apprentice Cat: Toby's Tale Book 1 (Master Cat Series)

by Virginia Ripple

  “When you finish,” continued Lilith. “You are to take your dishes to the dish washing room window at the back of the dining room and then proceed to your designated orientation classroom. You’ll find a list posted to the right of the entryway door with your name and finder incantation word. The finders are color coded to your class. If at anytime you get lost on campus, please do not hesitate to ask an apprentice, master or grounds keeper’s aid for assistance.

  “Getting lost, however, is no excuse for missing orientation. Those who miss any part of orientation will have penalties assessed to their final evaluation–”

  “Which will keep you from being chosen,” interrupted the tuxedo tom.

  “Which may keep you from being chosen,” Lilith corrected, glaring at the tom. M’festus glared back.

  “The only thing that will keep you from being chosen is getting into a fight.” The white she-cat continued to glare at the tuxedo tom as she spoke, then turned her gaze back to the gathered cats.

  “This will be your sleeping quarters for the duration of orientation,” Lilith continued. “You are encouraged to consider the bed you have chosen and the surrounding area to be your personal nest. We want you to feel as comfortable as possible during what can be the most stressful week of your academic career. If at any time you need assistance with settling in, please don’t hesitate to see either M’festus or myself. You are dismissed.”

  M’festus gave one last scowl and quickly turned his back on the gathered cats, walking out the door ahead of Lilith. The she-cat closed her eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, then left behind the tom. Toby watched her until her tail slipped out of sight around the door frame, then looked around at his fellow hopefuls. Some were busy tidying up their nests. Toby glanced at his nest. As far as he could see there was nothing to tidy since he’d brought nothing with him, unlike a few of the others. Those not trying to shove belongings into manageable heaps were already forming little groups and heading down to breakfast.

  It was apparent that Toby would not have been welcomed in most of the little groups since they were made up of cats from noble households. Some of the other groups looked to be made of cats devoted entirely to the intellectual side of magic or those who were here because they were forced to by a parent. Toby didn’t think he could keep up a steady conversation with the smart cats and wasn’t keen on listening to the endless complaints of a cat who would rather be elsewhere.

  “Excuse me,” said a timid little voice by Toby’s ear. Toby turned to see a small gray and white patched tabby. The tabby tom looked too young to be amongst the hopefuls, too young and very nervous.

  “Yes?” When the little tom shrunk in on himself, Toby made a mental note to speak softly to this particular cat.

  “Was there something you needed, friend?” he asked.

  “Well, sir,” began the patched tabby, “I was wonderin’ if I could come to breakfast with you.”

  Toby blinked in surprise. He’d never been called sir before. He wasn’t sure he liked it. It brought to mind images of some of the arrogant nobles that would stop by Master O’dorn’s cottage expecting the aging mage to drop everything to serve them. He looked back at a group of cats leaving for breakfast. They looked a lot like them, he thought. If they’re anything like those nobles, I know I don’t want anything to do with them. But who does that leave?

  “It’s okay, sir. I can see you’d rather eat with them. I’ll see if someone else would like to have breakfast with me.”

  “Wait,” Toby called to the little tom as he started to slink away. The little gray and white tabby looked back, a small glimmer of hope flashed in his eyes.

  “What’s your name, friend?”

  “Terence.”

  “Well, Terence, I think it would be nice to have breakfast together. That is if you still want to.”

  “Yes, sir,” Terence replied. The little cat wriggled, then his eyes widened. Toby could feel the embarrassed heat coming from the gray and white tom. He hid a smile of amusement.

  “Alright, then, let’s head down. And please, call me Toby.”

  “Yes, sir– I mean Toby.”

  The duo headed for the door. Toby couldn’t help noticing that his new friend’s coat was fluffed out and he was walking proudly, stretching to seem as tall as Toby. The tip of Toby’s tail twitched with pleasure. He glanced sideways at Terence. The little tom purred.

  “I hope they have tuna,” said Terence. “Momma used to snatch a tuna from the fishmonger every chance she got when we lived on the docks.”

  “Didn’t her master mage buy it for you?” asked Toby, shocked at the thought of a mage’s cat stealing.

  “Momma didn’t have a master mage. She said her family was too poor to even think about sendin’ her to the academy.”

  Toby suddenly felt ashamed. At least his mother hadn’t been forced to steal for them to survive. In fact, compared to Terence’s family, Toby felt like he had grown up among nobility. He wasn’t exactly sure what to say next. Thankfully, Terence seemed unaware of Toby’s sudden discomfort, and continued to chatter on about other things he was hoping for at the academy.

  The two new friends padded down the worn wooden stairs. Toby occasionally uttering a noncommittal grunt whenever Terence paused. Listening to the little tom was almost like trying to hear every note played in a symphony by every instrument. Toby had tried to keep up with him, but before they arrived at the first landing he decided it was impossible.

  Half way down the stairs the aroma of fried bacon, fresh roasted peanuts and creamed peas drifted up to caress the orange tom’s nose. It seemed an odd combination for breakfast, though the tom figured finding any combination that made sense when feeding such a diverse group of felines would be a challenge at best. Under the tempting smells he caught the tantalizing scent of fish. Toby took a deep breath and let the image of a large yellow-finned fish with a blue stripe down its side dart through his mind.

  “Looks like you’re in luck,” Toby said, interrupting Terence. “Unless my nose misleads me, we’ll be breaking our fast on tuna today.”

  “Really? How do you know that?”

  “I can smell it.”

  “You can smell it?”

  “Sure. Can’t you?”

  “No,” said Terence, lifting his nose to better sniff the air. “I can smell the bacon and... I think I smell some kind of nut, but that’s it. How do you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “How do you smell things so far away? Is it some kind of spell? Is it something I should know how to do? Do you think–”

  “Terence,” Toby shouted. He instantly regretted shouting when the little tom shrunk in on himself.

  “Terence,” he said, “It’s not a spell. I can just smell things better than most cats. I guess I was born that way.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. Really.”

  “So it’s not somethin’ you can teach me?”

  “No. It’s not something I can teach you.”

  “And you’re sure it’s not somethin’ I need to be able to do to get accepted?”

  “As far as I know, getting accepted into the academy is based on magical abilities and not strange things you’re born with.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  The two cats proceeded toward the dining room doors in silence. A muffled buzz grew as they approached, erupting into a racket when they pushed past the doors to get into line. It seemed every cat in the room was wailing to be heard. Toby flattened his ears, trying to dampen the volume.

  “Wow,” he called to his little friend. “It sounds like every cat in the nation is here.”

  “This is nothing,” Terence yelled back. “You should hear the din at the market on fresh produce day.”

  Toby didn’t think he wanted to be anywhere n
ear the market on fresh produce day if the noise was worse than this. The duo trotted to the rear of the breakfast line. Toby stretched on his hind legs to see how far away the buffet was. The line stretched around the wall of the dining room to the front, nearly the entire length of the room. He could just make out the cats getting their food. Toby sighed.

  “Looks like we’re going to be very hungry by the time we get our food. I just hope there’s enough time to eat it before we need to be in class.”

  “I just hope there’s enough food. I’ve never seen so many cats in one place before.”

  “Neither have I. My mother told me there would be a lot more cat hopefuls than humans, but I never could have imagined this.”

  As the line slowly snaked its way toward the buffet, Toby took the opportunity to look over his surroundings. Four ceiling to floor windows lined the opposite wall, giving the only illumination to the room. Beyond the windows was a stunning view of the academy’s garden. If Toby hadn’t known it was fall, he would have been convinced spring had already arrived. The garden was filled with herbs in full bloom. The indeterminate shade of brownish-red carpet worn to threads in the high traffic areas looked dull and pathetic next to the bright yellows, purples and reds of the flowers outside. Several long tables with benches were arranged to maximize the number of occupants the dining room could comfortably hold.

  When they finally made it to the buffet, Toby was intrigued by the set up. A set of cat-sized stairs led to a wooden ledge just high enough for a cat to easily see what goodies were available. Each food was clearly labeled, which was a really good thing considering some of them looked identical. That would be a nasty surprise, Toby mused as he noticed two pans of a brown meat-like substance. One was labeled chicken. The other rat’ler. I’d hate to have my mouth all set for chicken only to bite into a tough bit of snake hide.

  The noise level was quickly diminishing as the hopefuls left to find their way to their orientation classes. The two cats hurried to fill their plates. Toby nearly sent his bit of omelet flying over his ears as he tried to make his next selection while magicking the egg goody onto his plate. He mentally cursed himself for losing his concentration, then continued as quickly as he dared.

  There were only a few hopefuls left in the dining room when the two toms sat down to eat. Neither cat took the time to engage the booster seats, afraid they would be late to class, and took only a little longer in eating. It wouldn’t do them any good to choke on breakfast. As they dashed for the dishwashing room window, plates whizzing behind them, Toby wondered what his breakfast actually tasted like. He vowed to wake sooner and hurry down to eat tomorrow. The duo raced out the dining room doors and paused just long enough to find their names on the roster in the entryway.

  “GOO d’LORis,” said Toby, turning toward the door. Nothing happened.

  “GOO d’LORis.” Again nothing happened.

  “Oh great,” he cried. “I can’t even get a simple finder incantation to work for me.”

  “Let me try mine,” said Terence. “TE n’der GRAHshus.”

  They waited for something to happen. The entryway stubbornly remained the same. The toms looked at each other. Panic was beginning to set in. They were going to be late. Being late meant having penalties added to their final evaluation. Penalties on their final evaluation could mean not being chosen. Toby felt like howling in frustration. He’d just arrived and already he was behind. He caught sight of a white cat trotting by and turned to see Lilith heading for the entryway.

  “Wait,” he called. They ran to her.

  “Could you help us, please. We can’t seem to get our finder incantations to work.”

  His skin warmed. From the heat coming off his little friend, he guessed Terence felt the same. A finder incantation was one of the most basic of beginner spells every magic cat learned. Having to ask for help with one made Toby feel like an idiot, but that was better than being late to class.

  “Well,” said Lilith, “I’m really not supposed to help you with spells and such...”

  “Please, ma’am,” Terence begged.

  “We know how to do them,” Toby added. “It just isn’t working like it’s supposed to.”

  “You really know how to use them?” She looked at them through her eye whiskers. The image of Master O’dorn looking over the top of his glasses at him, eyebrow raised, flashed through his mind. He blinked the image away, glancing at Terence. The young tom was dancing from foot to foot.

  “Yes, ma’am. You think of what you want to find, say the incantation and concentrate really hard.”

  “And you have to be as specific as you can when you think of the thing you want to find.”

  “Hmmm... I think I have an idea,” said Lilith. “I can’t help you with your incantation, but maybe I can help you get it to do what it’s supposed to do. Follow me.”

  The she-cat flicked her tail to open the double doors and the toms trotted out on her heels. She stopped two tail-lengths outside the entry. If Toby hadn’t been watching her closely, he would have run into her. Terence did run into him.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled.

  “Okay,” said the she-cat as she turned to face them. “Try saying your words again.”

  The toms looked at each other. How could it make any difference to go just a little further away and say the incantation? Lilith whipped her tail to and fro, ears flattened.

  “Just try it.”

  The toms looked dubious. The she-cat rolled her eyes.

  “I’ll explain in a minute.”

  “GOO d’LORis,” Toby said. A bright green arrow suddenly appeared in front of him, hovering just at chest level.

  “That’s what I thought.” She looked at the toms with some satisfaction. “Apparently, no one told you about the dampening fields inside each of the common buildings.”

  “Dampening field?” asked Toby.

  “Yes, a dampening field,” Lilith said, her tone bordering on what one would use to explain something to a small child. Toby looked at Terence to see if he had any better idea of why there would be a dampening field on the common buildings. The young tom’s expression was as confused as Toby’s was.

  “Look, I could go into the details, but that would make you later than you already are. Suffice it to say that the fields keep any disagreements from getting out of hand.”

  “You mean it’s like a big bouncer at a pub that’ll throw you out if you start kickin’ up dust,” said Terence.

  “Huh?”

  “Something like that,” replied Lilith with a smile. “You two better get going.”

  “TE n’der GRAHshus.” A bright green arrow appeared in front of the young tom. “I’ll explain it on the way to class. Come on.”

  The little gray and white cat ran in the direction the arrow pointed, leaving Toby to hurry behind. Toby wasn’t sure he liked the feeling of being in the dark, though he figured it was likely to happen a lot while he was at the academy.

  “The field,” he called, catching up to the young tom. “You were going to explain.”

  “Oh yeah. Basically it does just what Lilith said, it keeps things from gettin’ too big to handle– magical things.”

  “I’m still not sure I understand.”

  “Let’s say you get in a fight with another student.”

  “Okay.”

  “Now let’s say that someone throws a magical punch.”

  “A what?”

  “You know,” coaxed Terence as they careened around a corner and up the stairs to a large brick building with lots of windows, still following their green arrows. “The magical equivalent to clawin’ someone’s ears off.”

  “Oh.”

  “Anyway, let’s say he throws some magic at you. The dampenin’ field gets between you and the magic. No harm done.”
>
  “I see. So the dampening field keeps students from taking out their anger on each other magically.”

  “Yep.”

  “How did you learn about that?”

  “Spent some time as a bar cat. Chased vermin out of the food stores. Overheard the owner tell a customer one day that he got tired of havin’ to repair holes blown out in his walls whenever some mage got mad ’cause his food was a little slow in arrivin’. He got someone to put a dampenin’ field on the pub.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah. Cost him, too. Had to get a loan to pay for it, but he said it was worth every penny.”

  The duo took the stairs to the classrooms as fast as they could, sliding around the corner on the polished wood floor as they reached the top. They stopped to catch their breath just outside the room the finders pointed to. They could hear a female voice through the door. Toby looked at Terence. He saw the dread he felt mirrored on the young tom’s face. Taking a deep breath, Toby gently flicked his tail at the door. The door opened just wide enough for the two cats to slip in. The voice didn’t pause. No one seemed to notice they had entered. Quickly they found seats in the back row squeezed between the door and the building’s chimney.

  “Nice of you to join us, gentlemen,” the tortoiseshell feline at the front of the class said without turning around. “I hope being late to class won’t become a habit.”

  Every eye in the classroom, save the teacher’s, turned to stare at the latecomers. Although Terence shrunk as low as he could, Toby kept still, looking only at the teacher. His heart beat fast until everyone was facing the front again.

  “Now then,” continued the she-cat, “if you’ll all turn your attention back to the board I am quite sure you may well learn something new.”

  Thankfully the rest of class went by uneventfully. Toby was beginning to enjoy the tortoiseshell feline’s dry sense of humor and her way of turning even the most tedious bit of learning into something more engaging. Before he was aware of it, it was time to dismiss for lunch.