Exodus from Capricorn

“He’s dead!” said Mars, craning the neck muscles of his out-stretched black furry torso to sniff the prone body, the stench pervaded everywhere like a fog with a hangover. In the enclosed and covered space, the obnoxious smell of stale alcohol, and urine, unwashed clothes, and the decaying smell of a man who had misused his body for a long time lingered in the air menacingly. The vagrant had mandated his future; a living zombie walking trance like towards death’s door.

“No, it’s not – look at the chest moving, it’s alive. Be careful. If Ba is here, there might be others.” Said Sun trying to take control of the situation in the absence of Pluto.

“If we stay here long enough, Ba could be good to eat” Ventured Mars. Still sniffing over the stinking human body.

“We’ve never tasted Ba.” Said the twins, Saturn and Jupiter, with complete innocence and absence of any moral thought – true primitives. Natural born savages.

“We don’t do anything until Pluto returns, understand!” Commanded Sun. The word understand; was emphasized with an impatient hiss. Sun was getting uncomfortable with his delegation, Pluto was the leader, not only that, but he was also the father to all seven cats. Father to all and always the only mate to all the females. Venus and Moon were both his daughters, Mercury his granddaughter – if necessary, he would take all by force at any time when he was in the mood, or when all the girls started to arch their backs, as the hormones raging inside their hot estrus, itched with readiness and wanton penetration from a male – any male. It was a primitive nature personified. Every living specimen succumbed to its hypnotic mantra, the sweet melody, the chant of procreation. All seven were the result of Pluto’s avid probing of his hungry erect penis and the subsequent ejaculation of his potent and fertile sperm. No one questioned Pluto, but the reason for his leadership of the group wasn’t only his fathering of the entire group. Pluto was older and more experienced and being older by a season or two carried a lot of weight in their vulnerable short-lived community, and in the wider community of stray animals.

Let’s define those words and make a distinction about stray animals. Stray animals are a separate group from wild animals or domesticated animals, it is an in-between house frequented by those with lost souls, most times ejected from a previous domiciled life by selfish and uncaring owners, but to stay alive they must possess the mind and body of a fit athlete. Stray animals must stay strong or die from neglect.

The relationship of the group of seven cats was becoming an increasingly complex issue. Pluto had so far commanded the attention of all three girls; Mercury, Venus and Moon, as the young boys of the group looked on enviously, waiting for their time. It was an unusual situation in this immoral, selfish and incestuously close community. It would not last forever, the closeness of the sibling group was misleading in the sense of community comfort in numbers. Growing up together, with memories of their blind group suckling on the tits of their mother would not be a comforting thought for long in the savage life of a stray cat. No moral values would last in this be killed or kill primitive environment.

It was unusual to see seven cats huddled together in the shelter of the dilapidated corrugated structure, which had once been constructed as an outbuilding. It had other uses now, never perceived when it was built. Shelter and hiding place for a smelly homeless drunk, sleeping it off, and seven stray cats with a purpose, on an odyssey to find new permanence, and safety. Safety from the increasing threat of the wild fox-wolves. Where the main house had been knocked down, bulldozed to the ground by the authorities as the owner had not applied for planning permission, the outbuilding remained small but defiant on the empty site like an orphan without its dead parents. The cats huddling together trying to distance themselves from the prone body of the drunk vagrant. They hadn’t any understanding about building regulations, or planning permission, they lived in a parallel world of survival, living on their basic instincts. They only knew and understood the outbuilding was useful for stray animals, a shelter, a refuge, out of sight, where humans were normally absent. No Ba around, meant less trouble, a semblance of peace in a stray cat’s existence. Ba was the enemy, and yet the friend. Each of the seven cats had different memories, different experiences of Ba, but there was one general basic instinct and a cardinal rule for all the stray cats had about Ba. Never turn your back on them, always be on your guard. Always, keep them in straight and level sight - always.

Far back in time, the spirits of their ancestors had handed down those warnings, always hide in those camouflaged places ready to pounce on the previously vulnerable Ba, but nowadays it was best to stay hidden. Ba was like an ever-expanding plague, somehow, they had evolved and transformed, they owned the earth now, and the stray cats had become temporary and peripheral residents. Far down the pecking order of all life forms. Stray cats may have been related to the Lion kings of the African savannah, but here in the rural backwaters of ancient Lycia the Felis Catus were and never had been kings of their environment.

Unfortunately, for stray cats Ba ruled everything in the world now, it was their world, together with their machines.

Then Pluto appeared, with Jason and Jude.

Pluto arrived with two huge white dogs Mannulus-Canis, from Korfez Firin the local bakery. Both dogs, the Mannulus-Canis, smelt like the bakery. They smelt like fresh bread and bleached flour, which they both carried in the pores of their skin, as well as all the sweet flavours that drift around the blasting fires of the hot bakery ovens. Then with the gradual cooling process, the sound of a soft sighing song, mixed with the evaporating smells as the dying embers of the baker’s oven as the fire rested and settled in the huge hearth. Jason and Jude smelt of fresh powdered flour and dough mix, which never returns in the bakery, but transforms, leaving behind only the hint of fragrances. Just memories, vapours of its rising and forming presence, making Ba’s daily bread; evidence of yet another Ba miracle machine, and the instrument of the oven’s fire with its purpose in supplying Ba’s daily sustenance.

The two Mannulus-Canis; stood tall either side of Pluto, the black cat leader in contrast against the clear dark night sky, their flour white appearance shone, they looked like two personal guards at Cleopatra’s tomb, guarding her cadaver for eternity. Although tonight they only needed to escort the group of stray cats to a new home and safety.

“This is Jason and his cousin Jude; they sometimes speak to the Lady in the mountain. They know the direction to Kubbeli Evler.” Pluto introduced the two huge dogs.

“They will take us to Lady. But hurry we must go in the half light, before dawn. The foxes will return fearlessly to Capricorn seeking our lives. When they don’t find us there, they will hunt us tonight. They have tasted both the blood of Venus, and the blood of Wizard the Ba. They will be stronger, vengeance is strong in the moonlight night air, their confidence is expanding, tinged with the setback of last night the foxes will become overwhelmingly more dangerous. They must take life, and let’s make sure it is not ours.” Pluto concluded.

Before he could finish, the large fox wolves stepped out aggressively into the open space in front of the outbuilding. They appeared in the open space like bestia del infierno onto the living stage, from behind the curtains of undergrowth at the edge of the leveled area that had been bulldozed by the machines of Ba. Their red eyes glinted under the luminous beaver moon, their saliva dripped onto the ground, as all five foxes grinned, their upper lips tightened in anticipation, to show white fangs glistening in the bright moonlight. Unbeknown to Pluto, Jason and Jude, they had followed the trio from the bakery, waiting for the precise moment when they could attack the entire community of both the stray dogs and cats.

Before the five foxes attacked, the comatose vagrant suddenly popped up like a jack-in-box from his prone position and moved into a sitting position. Through his blurry drunken state, yet startled with unbelieving eyes, he looked around at the scene in front of him. He saw through the entrance of the outbuilding dogs and foxes, and a black cat, and then to his side inside the outbuilding numerous cats all huddled together. His sudden movement was a surprise to the foxes. One made a diversion into the outbuilding to attack the unsuspected drunk, while the others attacked the tall white dogs. The night’s fragile peace was shattered, as within seconds the noisy mayhem fractured like a thunderclap, the horrific mixture of sounds; howling, barking, the hissing and growling from the cats broke the still of the night. The foxes pounced, charged and bit into the legs of the dogs, the dogs spun and kicked out at the invading foxes, but the defenseless vagrant was helpless in the sudden attack from one of the foxes. The fox grabbed his throat in a deadly grip, tearing away flesh instantly, and the resulting gush of blood flooded out of the large open wound.

Fortunately, all the cats had avoided any engagement with the invading foxes. They jumped and scattered in all directions. Getting outside of the confined space of the outbuilding created a safe distance for a possible escape in multiple directions. Pluto’s high-pitched hiss followed by a deep throaty growl was a recognizable and reassuring sound, amongst the cacophony of noise surrounding the scene. The seven cats recognized the sound of Pluto, and all headed in that direction, behind the outbuilding, there was narrow distance which allowed the cats in single file to move away from the attacking foxes, and soon they found a small hole in the fence, which led into a neighbouring field, an olive orchard, where they could make their escape.

*Ba is the name given in general terms for all human life by stray cats.