The Land of Miu (Land of Miu, #1, 2nd ed.)

Chapter 4

“Purr-please,” whispered Jasper.

The girls rose to their feet. With one quick glance over her shoulder, Kate hurried Emma down the tunnel.

A moment later, they stepped into another cavern. Twice the size of the previous one, rocks and boulders lay strewn across the floor. A high, jagged ceiling loomed over them, making Kate nervous. What if another section of rock fell? In the middle of the tumble of stone stood another dais, the flames reaching high into the air.

“Are they always lit?” she asked Jasper.

Kate watched the flames dancing in Jasper’s eyes.

“They are called Fire Wells,” he said. “They use an energy which lies deep within the earth.” He pounced onto the closest boulder, leapt to a higher rock, then jumped across a wide gap and landed on a flat platform. “The dais was built around the opening to the Fire Well. Long ago, our people used to use these places to worship, and draw on the Power.” He paused. “Now we have other ways of obtaining the Power.” Head low, he walked lazily along the platform and pressed his little orange nose onto something Kate couldn’t see.

Boom!

Kate and Emma jumped.

They turned around. A thick stone door slammed shut and a heavy wooden bar fell into place. The door could not be opened from either side without the bar being removed first.

“A door? In a tunnel?” Kate looked up at Jasper. “What is this place? Who is Min? Why are we being chased?”

“We will not linger here for long,” said Jasper from the platform above the door. “Min will have to go a long way back and around, through many other tunnels, to find his way to the other entrance, but this will give us an advantage.”

“Where’s Sophie?” asked Emma.

“I am here.”

Kate and Emma turned around and gasped. Standing before them was a young girl, but she was no ordinary girl—she was cat-like.

The girl stood eye level with Kate, and she looked to be about the same age too. They stared at one another. Kate could not deny seeing that same mysterious look she had always seen in Sophie’s eyes, and those eyes were still the eyes of a cat. Long-slit pupils surrounded by the colour of emerald above a flat, orange cat-nose. A pair of pointed ears twitched on top of her furry head. However, no fur could be seen on the lower half of her face and beneath the cat-nose a human mouth smiled at them. It was the strangest sight.

Kate glanced at Emma and found the little girl’s eyes gleaming in awe. Her mouth hung open and she stood perfectly still.

Kate’s attention turned to Jasper. He sat quietly at the base of a rock. Was he grinning at her? Kate quickly returned her gaze to Sophie.

“I don’t know what to say,” said Kate. “Who are you?”

Sophie continued to smile. “My real name is Alara, but I want to thank you for purr-picking such a beautiful name for me. I love the name Sophie, but now that I am in my true form, you must call me by my true name.”

Alara turned and walked gracefully away. A strip of the silver-tipped, light-grey fur covering the top half of her face also ran down the back of her neck and disappeared into the top of the leather jerkin hugging her body. Yet her arms appeared to be free of fur and she had hands and fingers instead of paws.

Jasper sprang up and trotted after Alara, his nose almost touching the knee-high boots she wore.

Kate and Emma followed.