Fergus view

"Wow, we are all here," I commented to the men assembled, "How strange is that? We all went looking, and all ended up here at this place in the middle of nowhere."

The men nodded in agreement before being interrupted.

"Mearow," said the grey cat sitting in the middle of the road, licking its paw.

Xin (Baba), Bao, Wei, Bryce, Maelgwyn, and I looked down at it.

"Isn't that your cat?" Wei asked Baba.

"It looks like it," Baba agreed.

"Where did it come from?" I wondered.

"More importantly, how did it get here?" Maelgwyn asked.

As none of us had answers, we just looked at the cat. Soot, realising he had all of our attention, stood up, stretched, turned, and sauntered down the road towards the Palace in the middle of nowhere. 

Soot stopped and looked back at us, "Mearow," he said again as if he wanted us to follow him.

"I think he wants us to follow him," Maelgwyn said and kicked his horse into a walk.

"I think so too," I agreed, following his example.

"Ridiculous," Snorted Bao, and the rest followed anyway. 

The cat turned back and, seeing that we were following, nodded and then broke into a run before stopping on the edge of the road some distance ahead and looking at us. His body was angled as if he was going to go off-road. He waited until we caught up before heading off into the bush.

We followed at a walking pace as the ground was uneven. The cat led us to a clump of trees and bushes, at which point he sat down and waited, looking at us.

We stayed astride for perhaps half the day before I had enough, I was hot and bothered, and the cat was not going anywhere. In fact, it had decided to clean itself. We were closer to the palace, but we were astride in the sun. I jumped down and led my horse into the shade. The cat sat back up from its ministrations to itself and nodded to my action.

"I think he wants us to dismount," I commented to the rest.

"Well, he certainly ignored us until you did," Maelgwyn said, "Let's go with that then." They all dismounted then and headed into the shade.

The cat once again stood up, stretched, and walked down away before looking back at us.

"It seems the premise is true," Baba said, "Let us follow him." 

So we all lined up in a row and followed the cat with our horses pulled behind us.

We followed the cat about 10 meters before the cat looked back at us and hissed, marching straight back to the trees. We had no choice but to follow it back.

"What do you reckon that hiss was about?" Bryce asked, seeing the cat lie itself back down behind the shrubs in front of the grove of trees.

"Well, let's look at the facts," Maelgwyn suggested, "First, it meowed at us to follow it and nodded when we did. Then it waited until Fergus got off his horse and went into the shade. It sat up then and nodded. When we all came into the shade, it got up and indicated for us to follow it. Which we did, but something was not right about our following it."

We sat down and thought about the problem before Wei suggested, "Maybe it is the horses. Maybe it wants us to leave the horses here."

"That would make a little sense," agreed Baba, "We cannot see the palace through these bushes, and the horses could be tied to the trees. How about we try that?"

So, we agreed to that, tied up our horses, and went to the gap where the cat first took us.

"Meow," The cat said and started leading us again.

"I guess that is it, then," Wei said somewhat unnecessarily, but it was good to hear.

"Mhmm," we all nodded our agreement.

The cat stopped again behind another group of bushes, quite near the Palace, but it gave us a direct view, "Meow," he said again and sat down. 

We all squatted in a line behind the bush, and the cat started going again. We went to follow, but it hissed at us instead, swatting the nearest leg.

We stopped, not understanding, so the cat went back behind the bushes and waited. We headed back. The same thing happened three times before Maelgwyn figured out it wanted us to watch from behind the bushes while it showed us something.

When we stayed behind the bushes, the cat ran off, looked over its shoulder, and nodded before disappearing into the building with its tail in the air.

"Soot went to that room," I pointed out to Baba, "Do you think Mama is being held there?"

"I do not know. Let's just watch for now as the cat wanted." So, we sat and watched.

We all started getting hungry, so it was decided that we would split into "Watch shifts" some of us would rest while two of us would watch the palace. Bao and I went back to the horses and set up camp. We lit a small fire and set it so it would not be seen from the distance, but we still could cook on it.

It took us two days of observing before we were confident enough that we could overpower anyone in that palace if need be. It was time to act and get Mama back.

A/N If you enjoyed this chapter, please take the time to vote by pressing the star. Please let me know if you see any errors, as this is unedited.