The Unsuspecting Mage - Brian S. Pratt [116]
There they find Gunter distributing feed for the horses.
“Good morning sirs,” he says as they enter. He takes a moment to pour feed from the pail he carries into a stall’s feed trough for one of the other horses before coming over to them. “How may I be of service?”
“We are leaving today,” James replies, “I’m here to collect my horse. Did he give you any trouble last night?”
“Of course not sir,” he says. “He has been well behaved the entire time. He’s a good one, he is.”
“That’s good,” James replies as he reaches his horse’s stall.
Seeing that he’s not going to be needed, Gunter resumes distributing grain to the rest of the horses.
In no time they have the horse saddled and ready for travel. Then they lead him out to the inn’s courtyard with a friendly wave of goodbye to Gunter as they leave the stable.
“Come again,” Gunther cheerfully hollers after them.
The streets are quite busy for so early in the morning so they decide to lead the horse instead of riding as travel through the crowd is slow at best. They slowly wind their way along the congested streets until finally passing through the gate which leads into the outer ring.
After traveling several blocks, from out of nowhere a rock appears and strikes James on the side of the head. Luckily it was a small rock and only caused minor stinging. He looks over in the direction from which the rock originated and sees several boys standing near a building as they look up into the eaves overhanging the front of a store. One throws another stone at something hidden up in the eaves. The boys laugh as an animal cries out.
Curious, James makes his way over and looks up into the eaves to see what they are throwing rocks at. To his amazement he finds a furry, yellow cat meowing pitifully as it clings to the eave for dear life. “I think we may have found Furball,” he tells Miko. “Run to the Dancing Squirrel and find Inius, tell him to hurry and get here before she runs off again.”
Miko turns and cuts through the crowd as best he can, quickly disappearing out of sight.
The boys continue to laugh, enjoying the sport of tormenting Furball. Another boy throws a small stone and strikes the beam not two inches from the terrified cat.
“You almost got him that time,” one of the boys says.
“I’ll knock him off this time,” another boasts as he picks up a stone and prepares to hurl it up at poor Furball.
James comes over and grabs the boy’s arm saying, “That’s enough of that. Leave the cat alone.”
The boy turns and confronts James, his buddies gathering in behind him. “We ain’t hurtin’ nuthin’ mister,” he says. “Just having some fun is all.”
“Yeah!” one boy chimes in. “After all, it’s just a cat.”
James looks at the boys disapprovingly, “Being mean is never acceptable, even to animals.” Pointing to Furball he says, “That cat up there is scared and frightened, but you boys think it’s just fun. One of these days you may be in a similar situation where you are being tormented and can’t get away. Then you will understand what you were doing here today.”
Not looking very convinced, one of them says, “Come on guys, let’s go somewhere we can have some fun.”
Several of the other boys reply, “Yeah,” as they turn and stalk off down the street.
James looks up at Furball who is still hanging on for dear life. “Its okay, Furball,” he says soothingly to the cat. “Inius will be here shortly.” He waits several more minutes with Furball before Miko appears with a concerned Inius following close behind.
When Inius sees Furball his face shows the relief he feels at seeing her alive. Coming up to James, he says, “Thank you for finding her for me.”
“We just happened by and saw her up there,” James explains, leaving out the part the boys had played. “We thought you might want to come and get her.”
“Furball!” Inius says to the cat, “you come down here right now.” The cat seems to relax some at the sound of Inius’ voice,