Kind and Kin

Kind and Kin

It was just after midnight when Tabitha, quickly and silently made her way down the stairs. She paused at the bottom to listen. The house was silent apart from the rhythmic tick tock of the great grandfather clock in the hall. Everyone was sleeping.

She continued along past the dining room and down the two small steps into the kitchen. 

Making her way towards the back door she paused again to stand in the warm spot where the pipes passed underneath. It warmed her feet as she listened once again.

The fridge hummed and the digital clock on the cooker threw light across the cork tiled floor. Moving to the door she peered out into the dark and made out shapes of the garden beyond. 

“Are you going out?” Asked Rufus excitedly, causing her to jump in shock.

“What are you doing down here?!” She hissed angrily.

“I thought you might be going out, so I waited for you, are you going?”

“Yes I’m going. What are you doing?” She glared at him and let her heartbeat settle.

“Can I come?” He asked moving from the shadows to face her.

“No.” 

“Oh please. You never let me come. I promise I’ll be quiet. And I’ll do everything you say.” He lowered his face to look up at her with big sad eyes. Her eyes narrowed and they stared at each other for a minute.

“Oh alright.” She huffed “But you must be quiet.”

“I will be I will!” He gave a little jump of excitement.

“And you have to do as I say.”

“I know, I will!”

“And you’ll have to help me with the door.”

“Ok! I’ll help!”

“And for goodness sake, calm down!” She scolded him and he immediately stood up still and straight.

“Sorry.” 

“Ok, I’ll need the stool to turn the key quietly. Can you get the stool?” 

“Yes I think so.” He ran to the short wooden stool and started to noisily push it across the floor.

“Shhhhh! That’s too loud!” She spat and he stopped.

“Can’t you do it quietly?”

“No I don’t think so.”

“Then I guess you’re staying.” She turned to walk away and he rushed up to her.

“Oh please. I’m sorry. Hey can’t you stand on me?”

“Stand on you?”

“Yes. If I sit by the door you can stand on me.” She considered this and looked at the door and then back at him. He was looking at her with big eyes again. 

“Fine! But stop looking at me like that, it’s annoying.”

“Ok.” He felt happy again. 

The plan worked. She balanced on his back and carefully turned the key until it clicked. Then she quietly pushed down the handle and the door opened slightly. She climbed down and he let her go in front. Turning back she fixed him with a stare.

“No noise.”

“No noise, none.” He agreed eagerly. Tabitha, looked out from the narrow opening and listened before pushing through and out into the cold quiet night. Rufus followed clumsily knocking into the door as he passed. She gave him a furious look and he looked back apologetically.

“Come on.” She said, They made their way through the garden along the side of the lawn, passing the rhododendrons and down the path past the greenhouse and potting shed to a hole in the fence at the back.

They paused to look out across the meadow beyond. Dewy grass glistened in the moonlight. 

“Where are we going?” Asked Rufus suppressing his excitement as much as he could.

“The forest.” She replied coolly.

“The forest?!” He looked at the dark mass across the other side of the meadow.

“Problem?” 

“What’s in there?”

“Trees. Stuff. You know, you’ve been there.”

“Not at night. Is it different? Will anyone else be there?”

“Perhaps. You can go back if you want. If you’re scared.” She taunted. He thought for a moment and looked back at the house and back at the forest and then at her.

“No. I’m coming.” He replied determinedly.

“So let’s go.” She slipped through the fence and Rufus followed. They made their way up the grassy slope and as they got closer the blackness of the trees loomed towards and above them. Rufus, who had been behind, caught up to walk beside Tabitha. 

“What if there’s something in there?” He sounded worried.

“There’s lots of things in there.” She pressed on.

“But what if we find something, or what if something finds us? What would we do then?” Without stopping and continuing forwards she replied.

“If we find something we might want to keep it, we’ll see. And if something finds us… well you can run fast right?”

“Yeah I’m amazing at running!”

“I know you think you are, but how fast are you really? I bet you’re not faster than me.” 

“I am! I am super fast!”

“Then why are you still here?” She stopped and turned her head to look at him.

“What?” He looked confused. She smiled and then ran at top speed across the grass. 

He followed, chasing her madly and leaping over mole mounds. He gained on her quickly and soon they were running alongside each other over the vastness of twinkling grass, the moon was full and bright and seemed to turn and watch them run. The stars were bright and endless. 

“This is so much fun!” Rufus cried.

“And no one’s telling you to stop!” She called back, and they laughed as they ran. 

Tabitha suddenly slowed to a walk a couple of meters from the tree line and Rufus fell in line behind her panting for breath. At the very edge of the trees she stopped to listen, Rufus listened too. After a few minutes she spoke to him softly 

“Remember; be quiet. Even if you find something. And if something finds us, run. I won’t wait for you.”

“Ok. Where do we run?”

“What? Back to the house of course!” 

“Oh, Ok.” 

She sighed and cautiously stepped in amongst the trees.

It was dark and quite soon Rufus couldn’t even see the moon through the trees anymore. Something rustled to the left and Rufus jumped to listen. 

“Shhh. Leave it.” Whispered Tabitha strolling ahead. 

“Where are we going?” He whispered back.

“You’ll see.” 

They journeyed on through the undergrowth and things rustled leaves and wings moved in the trees and an owl called out and Rufus felt like the forest was watching them but he continued to follow Tabitha as she continued to remind him to. 

Eventually the trees began to thin and the grass returned underfoot and then it became smooth stone and Tabitha stopped. Rufus moved beside her and they stood on an outcrop of rock looking out across a moonlit valley. The moon was huge and the Milky Way wound its way across the heavens before them.

“Wow.” Said Rufus.

“Yup.” Tabitha sat down and he sat beside her.

She looked up to the moon and then to the stars and after a while she spoke.

“My people are up there.” She said,

“Your people? Where?”

“There. Those bright things, they are my people and my kind are there too. They look down here and I look up at them.”

“What are they doing up there? And why are they your people? Aren’t your people sleeping in the house?”

“No. Not those people, those are the people now but these are the people from before and my kind are there too.”

“What’s your kind?”

“Others like me, or where I come from. It’s a different time and place from here. It is colder here and there it was hot.”

“Have you been there?”

“No. But I know what it was like. It was much hotter than here and there were cities made from stones and my kind were worshiped by the people.

I come from a goddess.”

“No you don’t.” Rufus snorted.

“Yes. I do. She was a goddess that looked like me, or I look like her, and the people worshipped her and gave her gifts and my kind were invited to eat at the tables of great kings and queens and rulers of the land. They even had a festival for me.”

“For your kind?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know this?”

“Because I know. I feel it, I remember.”

He gave her a questioning look

“And the moon told me.” She added quickly.

“The moon? How did the moon tell you?”

“When I come out here the moon tells me things and the ones in the sky, they tell me things too.”

“You can’t talk to the moon!”

“Yes I can. Because I listen. You wouldn’t know because you only come out when the moon is sleeping.”

“Hmmm. Well I’m here now, will the moon tell me about my kind?”

“Your kind?”

“Yes my kind. I must have a kind too if you’ve got one, and people, I must have people. Maybe I’ve got more stuff.” 

“Ha! You don’t have things!”

“Why not?!”

“Because others don’t serve you as they have me, you serve others.”

“I do not.”

“Haha that’s all you do! Can I get this for you? Shall I get that for you?’ That’s you, serving. Have you ever seen me doing things like that?”

“You help Emily with her work. I’ve seen you.” 

“Haha no I don’t. I distract her, and I am helping. That’s different.”

“If you’re dis-tracking her, how is that helping?”

“It’s distracting, and I help because she doesn’t like working, she prefers to play with me. Anyway, you do everything James tells you too, in fact, you do everything everyone tells you to do all the time. I don’t do that, I do what I want.”

“Well I like doing things for them, because they’re nice. And that doesn’t mean I don’t have a kind and people and the moon won’t talk to me, because it will. 

Hey moon! Hey, where’s my kind Moon?”

“Here.” Rumbled a deep voice that seemed to come from the shadows rather than the sky. The two of them jumped and pressed against each other. 

“Here is your kind. You were once like me.” A large dark shape moved out from the shadows and made its way slowly towards them. They felt the hairs stand up from their spines and their minds were screaming ‘RUN! But every muscle refused to move as if rooted to the spot.

“I hear you speak of your peoples and worship.” Rumbled the voice 

“I too am worshiped, my people, although they now be few, they walk the earth still. And I speak with the moon, I call to her and she answers me.” A giant figure with shining eyes and teeth and thick fur that shone silver under the moon stood before them.

“My kind have been here since the dawn of time. We are feared and fearless and we have fought with gods and won and stood beside them in times of war for we bring strength to our people. We have cared for the people and we have slaughtered them for we serve no one unless we choose.”

There was a tense silence for what seemed like a very long time until it was broken by the distant call of an owl. And Rufus finally spoke.

“You say our kind fought gods and won?” 

“Yes, our great father killed the people’s great father. But our great father was also killed. And since then our sons and daughters have chosen to walk with our people in the gold of the sun or run with our own kind by the silver of the moon.”

Rufus thought for a moment.

“Well, I certainly like walking in the gold of the sun. And it’s getting pretty late and I’m pretty sure I’m going to do some walking when the sun arrives so, I should probably get some sleep before then.. Don’t you agree Tabitha?” Rufus turned to an empty space beside him. 

“Your companion has left you.” The voice deepened as it came slightly closer. 

“Yes, it seems that is true.” Answered Rufus not knowing what else to say. 

He thought about walking in the gold of the sun and how lovely that was, especially with James, and how he really wanted to do that again quite soon. That is after he had got safely home and stayed there for a bit and definitely never went out in the silver of the moon again. 

The dark mass moved closer, his breath was hot and he smelled of old wood and moss and blood and something faintly recognisable to Rufus’s nose that he couldn’t quite place. 

He breathed the words low and growling and Rufus felt the vibration meet his heart. 

“Remember Golden one, that your shadow self is silver. 

We are one and the same, we are kind and kin but light was born out of darkness and darkness can devour it again. 

Now return to your dwelling and serve your people, give them strength and show them courage for that is your path that you have chosen. Be loyal to it and to those around you.” Rufus, taking that as his cue to leave, slowly backed away. 

“Thank you.” He said before turning to go.

“Oh and Golden one.” Boomed the voice and Rufus turned to look again.

“Your friend, her kind is old too. She speaks truth and although it is in her nature to be distrustful and cautious, and at times self serving, she has loyalty for her people and her friends. You will find she waits for you on the edge of the wood.

Now RUN before I devour you both.”

Rufus ran faster than he’d ever run before. The forest ended in a flash and he burst out the other side and on across the meadow. Beside him ran his friend.

“Thought you ran home?” He called to her.

“I… got a bit lost.” She stammered.

“Haha, sure you did.” He laughed as they flew over the mole hills.

“But we’re almost home now.” She said as they jumped through the hole in the fence.

“Almost.” He answered as they ran along the path by the potting shed and the greenhouse.

“And won’t that be good?” She called as they galloped past the rhododendrons.

With Tabitha just ahead they shot through the open kitchen door and Rufus pushed it shut behind them. 

“Yes it’s good to be home.” He panted. Tabitha threw herself onto the floor and rolled on the warm spot in the kitchen. 

“It’s so good!” She sang with joy.

They both drank a lot of water before creeping up the stairs. On the landing they looked at each other before parting ways.

“See you in the gold of the sun.” Whispered Rufus.

“Yes, see you in the gold of the sun.” She smiled before disappearing into the night lighted room and up onto Emily’s bed where she curled up and purred and slept.

Rufus lay down on the sheepskin next to James’s bed and slept. He dreamt of walks and sticks and playing in the golden sun.

Written November 2017