Emma and the Box of Wonder by Matthew S. Cox

Author:Matthew S. Cox
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781950738588
Publisher: Division Zero Press

22

NOT A MOMENT’S REST

A while later, Ambril finally had the strength to sit up. She sighed at her ruined dress, more of it now black than peach-colored. To Emma’s surprise, she didn’t cry, merely gave a sad sigh. Perhaps she’d accepted the garment couldn’t be saved at this point.

Emma checked on Rin. She looked the same as she did hours ago, healthy but sleeping.

“Is this going to take much longer?” asked Kahavani.

“I’m not sure.” Emma pointed at the box. “We have to wait until it’s ready.”

“A shiny trinket?” Kahavani ambled over to Kimber and sniffed the box.

Of course, no animal could come within arm’s reach of the little redhead without being skritched.

Kahavani gave an annoyed grumble—however, he didn’t move away from her. “I do not think it will be long.”

“You know about magic?” Emma sat up.

“Some.”

Emma bit her lip. “If you are smart enough to know magic, why did I need the Wildkin Whisper to talk to you? You’re obviously much smarter than an ordinary cat.”

“Why do the two-legs use long, sharp pieces of metal to kill each other instead of swiping them dead in one paw stroke?”

“We don’t have big claws.” Emma made a clawing gesture at him. “Just itty-bitty nails.”

“Indeed. I do not have whatever it is you two-legs have in your throats to make those obnoxious noises.” He flopped down to recline near Kimber—who obligingly continued to scratch him behind the ears. “If we are to sit here for an irritating amount of time, you can at least amuse me by explaining what happened.”

Emma told him about the box, jumping across the world, meeting Rin, and her teleporting them out here as a desperate attempt to escape.

“I do not understand the two-legs.” Kahavani shook his great head. “Always trying to kill each other. They do not even eat their kills. How ridiculous. If one is going to spend so much energy killing something, at least have the decency to eat it.”

“Do you eat others like yourself?” asked Emma.

“No. I…” He swished his tail back and forth, then frowned. “My kind also do not kill each other.”

She tried not to laugh.

They talked a little more about him, Emma trying to understand what life felt like for a cat as smart—or smarter—than some humans who couldn’t speak. Kahavani explained his kind could talk, in a way. Only others of his kind could understand their language. To the two-legs, they sounded like big cats making purrs, growls, and other noises.

“Yes.” Emma laughed. “When I speak to animals, other people think I’m silly because I sound like the animals.”

Kahavani’s ears perked up, then rotated backward one at a time. “I would tell you to climb a tree, but you shouldn’t touch them. Do your best to stay alive.”

“What?” Emma blinked. “Stay alive?”

The cat zoomed away from the root dome Emma grew. She set Rin down and hastily crawled to stick her head out of the opening to look. Kahavani, already thirty or so feet away, mauled a pudgy, short, purplish-grey skinned goblin.

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