Chapter 1
One scorching
hot day, Mocha lay under a car, her usual shelter from the blazing sun. It was
quiet, as it often was lately. Everyone seemed to be cooped up in their houses
due to the unnatural rise in temperature.
Mocha sighed.
All her friends were on vacation at the moment, and here she was, stuck at home
with nothing to do. The most exciting thing that happened was the arrival of
lunch – but then again, she had the same lunch every single day, so it gets
pretty boring after a while!
The little
cat’s eyes drooped. Just as she was about to drift off, a movement in the
corner of her vision caught her attention. Whatever could it be?
Chapter 2
Mocha’s eyes flew open, bright and
alert. She stared at the figure perched on the roof of a nearby house. Its body
resembled a human, but it was too small and furry to be one. A long tail
swished back and forth like Mocha’s did when she was thinking.
“What on earth?” muttered the cat,
squinting in the piercing sunlight, too absorbed to notice the dark shape
creeping up behind her.
“BOO!”
“Arghh!” Mocha nearly jumped out of
her skin in fright. She spun sharply around and came face-to-face with a
grinning Snowfield.
“Hi, Mocha-” Snowfield began, but her
friend shushed her, cutting off her sentence. She lowered her voice, saying,
“What’s going on?”
Mocha jerked her head toward the
figure. “There’s something fishy about that thing,” she answered. A frown
crossed her face as a thought registered. “When did you get back?”
“Like, 5 minutes ago.” Snowfield sat
down and began washing his face. “I spotted you under this car when my human
was driving past. You looked awfully still.” She paused to glance at the
figure. “What is that, anyway?”
Mocha shrugged. “That’s what I was
trying to figure out – before you jump scared me,” she retorted, getting to her
paws. “Come on!”
“Where are we going?” asked Snowfield
in surprise.
“To find out what that thing is
up to, of course!” Mocha answered, like the answer was obvious. “Hurry!”
Chapter
3
The figure, which the cats had decided
to call “Abomination” (they didn’t know the meaning of it, but it had a nice
ring) was now perched upon the balcony. To Mocha’s horror, it reached out one
furry hand and actually attempted to open the window!
“Snowfield, we’ve gotta stop it,
fast!” she whispered urgently. “Ava’s family isn’t going to be happy about
Abomination breaking into her house!”
Her friend looked up at the creature
doubtfully. “How on earth are we going to do that?”
Mocha set her jaw determinedly. “I
have a plan,” she replied. “Now, here’s what we’re going to do…”
Chapter
4
As silently as she could, Mocha launched
herself onto one of the pillars surrounding the house using her powerful hind
legs. A metre above her head was the roof. She couldn’t
see Abomination, but, as she told herself, it didn’t mean he wasn’t there.
Directly
opposite her, she saw Snowfield leap onto another pillar. Her friend had never
been the best at balance, so Mocha was pleasantly surprised by her unusual
grace. Unfortunately, her admiration was cut short when Snowfield wobbled so
violently on her landing that Mocha was afraid that she would fall. But of
course, being a cat, she didn’t.
“Be
careful!” hissed Mocha. Snowfield gave her friend a thumbs-up. Was it though?
Paws made it hard to know, Mocha always thought.
Despite
this, she held up her own paw, showing three razor-sharp claws. A countdown.
3…
2…
1…
Chapter 5
Just as the
cats were about to pounce onto the roof, a black shadow swooped out of nowhere,
nearly sending the two tumbling to the ground.
“Hey,
watch it!” Snowfield cried out angrily, shaking her paw at the creature. To
Mocha’s disgust, the crow cawed mockingly at her friend and perched on a nearby
pillar. “You nearly made us fall!”
“So
what?” the bird retorted, ruffling its feathers. “You were about to attack that
poor monkey!”
“A
what?” Snowfield asked, visibly confused.
The crow
scoffed in disbelief. “Like you don’t know!” But when it saw that both of them
were sincerely puzzled, it sighed. “It’s the animal trying to open the window.
Ring any bells?”
Mocha slapped
her forehead as realisation dawned on her. “Oh, you mean Abomination!”
Now it was
the bird’s turn to look surprised. “Why on earth did you name it that, cat?”
“How’s that
your problem?” shot Snowfield. The crow glared at her.
“Abomination
isn’t a very nice thing to call anyone,” it said. Mocha could hear the
exasperation in its raspy voice. “Don’t you know?”
Snowfield
shrugged. “Nope. Anyway, it kinda suits it, as it’s trying to open the window
and all.”
Mocha paled.
“Wait, the window!” Without a second thought, she leapt onto the roof and
groaned at what she saw.
The window
was open, and Abomination was nowhere to be found.
Chapter 6
Mocha
froze, unable to process what just happened.
“Mocha?” called Snowfield, anxiously.
“Everything okay?” When her friend didn’t respond, she jumped onto the roof
herself, gasping when she saw the open window. Behind her flew the crow, calmly
assessing the situation. The black-and-white cat turned to it, furious.
“Look what you’ve done!” she shouted.
“Now Abomination’s in the house, and what do you think Ava’s family is
going to do when they find out?”
If the crow had arms, Mocha was sure
it would have crossed them then. “I don’t know. Why should I care, anyway?”
Snowfield stepped toward the bird
threateningly. “You stopped us from confronting Abomination and possibly
preventing this mess that you put us in,” she answered, eyes blazing.
Mocha had never seen her friend quite so angry before. Before the crow could
reply, she added, “If you’re smart, you’ll help us get it out! Or else, I’m
feeling pretty hungry, aren’t you, Mocha?”
Mocha, who had shaken herself out of
her daze, nodded. For the first time, the crow looked afraid. She saw its eyes
scanning the area, desperately seeking an escape route. Faster than the crow
could blink, she sprinted toward it and pinned its wing beneath her paw. “It’s
2 against 1, crow,” she spat. The crow gulped.
“So, will you help us?” Snowfield
asked. The bird nodded. It didn’t have a choice anyway. “Good. Mocha, what’s
the plan?”
Mocha didn’t even hesitate. “We hunt
Abomination down.”
Chapter
7
Silently, Mocha jumped through the
window. All clear. She beckoned to Snowfield, who was following closely behind
the crow to make sure it didn’t try to escape. She roughly shoved the bird,
causing it to stumble, then leapt in herself.
The room was gleaming white, but there
was a faint unpleasant odour in the air. Mocha’s sharp eyes spotted what looked
like a toilet bowl as well as a bucket sitting under a sink.
“Mocha, look!” Snowfield bounded over
to the middle of the bathroom and pointed at brownish footprints scattered
around. Judging by their direction and the open door, Mocha figured that it had
exited the room.
“Looks like we’re following those
footprints,” she announced. “Come on!”
“Wait.” The crow hopped in front of
the door. “This is a big house; the monkey could be anywhere. We’ll take ages
to find it. So, I suggest we go to the kitchen – that’s the most likely place
for it to be.”
Snowfield eyes the bird skeptically.
“Why on earth the kitchen?” she asked, incredulously. “Why not somewhere else?”
The crow let out an exasperated sigh.
“Well, the monkey would hardly break into a house for fun, right? It must’ve
come here for a reason, and I know for a fact that there aren’t any fruit trees
around here.”
Mocha shrugged. “As long as we find
it, I don’t care. I heard Ava’s father say they were going to the mall, and
it’s probably been an hour already. They’ll be back any second.”
“Okay, crow, lead the way,” said
Snowfield, impatiently. “If you even know where the kitchen is.”
The crow smirked. “That’s easy,” it
answered. “Follow me.”
Chapter 8
With the crow flying swiftly above and
the cat’s light steps, the trio made it to the bottom floor almost immediately.
The bird landed quietly in front of a huge glass door and gestured for the cats
to stop. Inside, it sounded as if chaos had been unleashed. The crashing and
banging made them wince, and Mocha fought the urge to yell at Abomination.
The crow’s beak moved, but the sound
was drowned out by the racket. Mocha shook her head and pointed at the door. Somehow,
she got the other two to understand that she wanted all of them to go inside
and corner the monkey together. They nodded.
Game on.
Chapter 9
Slowly, carefully, they
entered the dry kitchen. Up ahead was the door leading to the wet kitchen,
where Mocha assumed Abomination was.
Without a word, the three
rushed into the wet kitchen, dodging flying plates and utensils on the way
inside. There, they saw the monkey throwing things around like nobody’s
business, not caring where they landed. The bowl holding some potatoes had
crashed onto the floor, spilling its contents everywhere, while a mushy yellow mess
nearby seemed to be the result of bananas meeting their end.
“Hey!” Mocha yelled as
loudly as she could. “Stop it!”
By some miracle, the
monkey actually obeyed and turned around. Surprise crossed its face, then fear.
It was smaller than Mocha thought – just a child, really. It’s amazing that it
managed to hurl heavy things like plates around.
“W-What are you doing
here?” the creature stammered, trying to back away, but was blocked by the
wall.
Snowfield looked like it
indignantly. “What are we doing here?”
she practically yelled. “What are you
doing here? This isn’t your house, you know!”
The monkey opened its
mouth as if to retort, then thought better of it. “I was hungry!” it said
defensively. “It’s hard to find food in a city.” Suddenly, it slumped to the
ground and began to cry, sobs racking its body.
The other three turned to
each other, startled. Now what were they to do?
Chapter 10
Unexpectedly, it was the
crow that flew to the monkey’s side – the same crow that had been so hostile to
the cats. Circling a wing around the monkey’s heaving shoulders awkwardly, it
said gently, “Don’t cry, young one. You made a mistake, but it’s okay –
everyone does at some point.” It looked at the cats for support, who nodded,
now feeling sorry for the pitiful creature.
Together, Mocha and Snowfield
crossed the kitchen to the other two and crouched on the floor. “So that’s why
you broke in?” Mocha asked the monkey. “Because you wanted food?”
The monkey managed a
whimper, but eventually began to calm down. “I lost my way,” it murmured
hoarsely. “My family and I live in a forest. It’s nearby, I know, but I just
don’t know where it is. I’ve been alone for three days now, and I’ve only had a
banana.”
Sudden tears started up in
Mocha’s eyes. Here was a kid, barely twelve by the looks of it, having to fend
for itself. She looked over at Snowfield, who was gaping at the monkey,
dumbstruck.
“I’m so sorry,” her friend
said, pulling herself together. “It must’ve been terrible.”
The monkey sniffled. “It
is.”
The crow, which had been
deep in thought, let out a cry of triumph, making the rest of them jump. It
turned to the monkey excitedly. “Does your forest have a huge tree in the
middle? With vines and things hanging from below?”
The creature’s eyes lit
up. “Yes! You know it?” it answered excitedly.
The crow nodded. “It’s
super close. I’ve been there a couple of times to visit my kin. I can take you
there, if you want.”
The monkey practically
hugged the bird, saying thank you over and over again while the cats looked on,
too happy to speak. However, realization soon hit Mocha like a ton of bricks.
“Wait!” she cried. “We
have to clean this mess before Ava and her family gets home!”
Chapter 11
“You’re right,” groaned
Snowfield in dismay. “Crow, you’d better send our friend here back home,” she
continued. “But give him some food first.”
The crow’s sharp eyes
spotted a banana that looked relatively whole and passed it to the monkey, who
devoured it hungrily. When the bird was about to lead it home, though, it
refused.
“I want to help clean up,”
it said, shamefacedly. “This is all my fault.”
“Well, then let’s hurry
up,” Snowfield put in, briskly. “Chop chop!”
In no time, the kitchen
was sparkling clean, thanks to the hard work of the four. The moment the task
was done, the monkey opened a window, and together they left the house.