Mythlands: THE HEIST

Shrine

Griffin knew he only had a short time to satisfy his curiosity, so he snuck out of the hut and under cover of darkness began to make his way cautiously down the hill and into the sloping forrest. He weaved in and out of the trees, covering ground quickly and always in a downwards direction. At times his nimble paws threatened to slip beneath him, but by moving at a brisk pace, he kept his footing.

Then he was at the bottom and on a road. The ground was even now and Griffin was able to make good time across the fields and lowlands. He knew he could get to the other side of the valley in under an hour - this was a route he'd taken before and his cat instincts allowed him to find his way in the moonlight. Soon he was ascending another tree covered slope and heading upwards through another dense forrest. Somewhere up ahead would be a plateau and the hunting lodge was situated there. Griffin had spied on this place several times now, but he had never been inside. Tonight, that would change.

As he ran, the cat from the mortal realm thought about the events of yesterday evening and today.

Last night the sinister looking dummy known as Punchinello had arrived via teleport accompanied by a being known as The Gingerbread Man. Apparently the Glass Cat had an ally who could teleport inorganic beings by magic and they wouldn't register on any magical radar set up by Narnia.

Bungle himself was made mostly of glass but his internal organs were organic. He would be arriving the very next day, the wooden puppet had informed them. This meant a hard trek, four hours to the far side side of the mountain where they had headquarted - they had arrived at a spot where land ended and the desert abruptly began - the desert that separated Narnia from lands such as Oz and Elephantland.

It was a hard crossing without the aid of magic, but it seemed that the Glass Cat had thought of that. Even Griffin had been impressed when the two supercats, Atom and Cosmo had swooped out of the sky, carrying a large see through crystal box apiece.

Each box must have weighed close to a ton and contained bolted down furniture that had passengers strapped on.

The Hare emerged from the first box, looking decidedly green about the gills - his first action was to throw up and he remained heaving while an attractive red headed lady rubbed his back as an elegantly clothed upright fox smoked a cigarillo and joked.

For a minute it looked like The Hare was going to punch the fox but then the almost invisible door of the other box opened and Bungle came out, followed by others. The Hare forgot his quarrel with Renard and with a look of delight on his face, shouted 'Goosey,' and ran towards the biggest goose Griffin had ever seen - more like a swan or ostrich and with a golden glow to him to boot!

The redhead had spotted a blonde in khaki shorts, boots and a cut off top and they too embraced. The blonde had flipped back her hat which was on a string that settled round her neck and greeted her more stylishly dressed friend who kinda looked like an old time movie star even though her attire was tastefully dressed down.

Others had disembarked and The Cheshire Cat had used some kind of magic to shrink the two cubes to the size of dice. Renard put them in his pocket.

What had intrigued Griffin was the identity of the blonde ... he'd read about her in Mia's books.

On their return to the hut Bungle had said something about her being doubly valuable when it came to the target. Griffin had tried to resist his curiosity but couldn't in the end ... hence this midnight excursion.

Now he had arrived. A cat could get in places others would fail and so it was the work of mere minutes to find a way inside the hunting lodge and locate the quarters of Uncle Andrew.

Slipping inside, he padded along and was suddenly startled when someone behind him picked him up! Had his senses failed him somehow or was a magical charm at work and ...

'Well now, you're a fine looking fellow,' the skinny wild white haired old man was saying, but it wasn't his words that gave Griffin pause. Or his 'capture,' as he instinctively knew he could get away at any time.

What had startled him was the room they had entered, moments after he'd been picked up. It was covered in hundreds of pictures of the same young woman, some sketched, some photographs and others paintings that had obviously been done by Andrew himself, among other trophies and knick knacks.

It was a shrine to the blonde he had met earlier. Uncle Andrew had her name scrawled everywhere with hearts stuck or painted nearby.

He was obsessed with Goldie Lochs!