Dolce's Story Chair: The Ones-Who-Came-Before

Dad: Well, Dolce, I am home so you don't have to teleport to be with me.
Dolce: I so happy you're home.
Dad: It was a very sad day.
Dolce: It was furry, furry sad.
Dad: So here is the story I promised you.
Dolce: Thanks Dad. I love you.
Dad: And I love you, Dolce.

Elbereth stood in the meadow next to the Rainbow Bridge and watched with a broad smile as a small band of cats chased after a ball that had been thrown by one of the many Cherubim that walked amongst the animals. The ball disappeared in a rolling tumbling mass of fur. All pain and illness had been forgotten. A small tug at her being reminded Elbereth of her True Purpose.

She walked to the Boundary of the vast heavenly meadow and prepared to cross over to Earth. She felt a strange pressure on her ankles. She looked down and saw two cats sitting primly and properly next to her on either side. One was a sleek tuxedo female and the other was a rather plump ginger male. Elbereth spoke to the two cats at her feet in the langauge of cats.

"What are you two doing?" Elbereth asked.

"We feel a tug." the ginger male said.

"It's more like a pull." the tuxedo female corrected.

"No." the ginger male replied. "This is definitely a tug. A pull is softer, less keen."

"I didn't like your attitude on Earth and I find it just as annoying now." The female snapped.

"No fighting is permitted here." Elbereth commanded. "Now I must go. A beloved one is about to come home."

"We know." the ginger male said somberly. "It is my litter brother. I left him many, many years ago when we were both young."

"You know the one I go to find?" Elbereth was taken aback.

"He is tied to us as much as he is tied to the human that loved us." the tuxedo stated. “I was his foster mom when his own mom didn’t want to take care of him.”

"Can we come with you?" the ginger male asked. "He was always the more skittish one of the two of us. I worried about him when I had to leave,"

"It is not permitted for you to leave Heaven." Elbereth stated.

"We don't want to leave." the female said. "We want to help you bring our brother home."

Elbereth regarded the two cats sitting at her feet. What marvelous creatures God has created. Willing to return to the Earth to bring a beloved brother and foster-son. Elbereth pulled two feathers from her wings. She knelt done and held the feathers out to each cat. The ginger and the tuxedo took the feathers in their mouths

“You must not lose these feathers.” Elbereth warned. “Without them you will not be able to find your way back the Rainbow Bridge.”

The ginger and the tuxedo nodded. They both looked up as the tug became stronger. Elbereth felt it too. She picked up the two cats and held them in her robe. The two cats held the feathers in their mouths as tightly as they could.

Elbereth was pulled to a quiet sterile room. There, sitting next to a clean white wall, were two humans stroking and nuzzling the still form of long haired ginger cat with white mits and a thick, ruffled bib. The astral form of the cat was sitting on the floor watching its human comfort its old body.

“Hello, Beloved One.” Elbereth smiled as she picked up the mitted ginger cat. “It is time for you to come home.”

“But I don’t want to leave.” The mitted ginger cat replied. “I want to stay with them.”

“Don’t be scared, brother.” The ginger male wiggled his way out of the folds of Elbereth’s robe and talked around the feather he held in his mouth. “Where we go there is no pain or sorrow.”

“My little boy, you’ve grown so large.” The tuxedo gushed through her feather. “Elbereth is going to help our humans find us. But it is going to hurt them.”

“No, please don’t hurt them.” The mitted ginger cried.

“It is the price.” Elbereth said softly and sadly.

Elbereth reached out her hand and drew a thin tendril from each of the humans. She was shocked to find other tendrils appearing in the air in front of her. Unmistakably, these were from other humans who had felt a deep connection to the mitted ginger cat. How special of a cat to have touched so many humans so strongly. Elbereth took each wisp of energy and cast it about the mitted ginger cat. The humans clutching their beloved pet felt the hollowness form next to their hearts.

The tuxedo suddenly jumped from the folds of Elbereth’s robe and walked towards the humans.

“No.” Elbereth commanded. “It is not permitted.”

“The humans have to know.” The tuxedo replied past the feather in her mouth.

The tuxedo tried to brush her head against the female human’s arm to let her that her once beloved pet was also nearby. The tuxedo’s head simply passed through the human’s arm. Dejected, the tuxedo brushed her head against the human male’s hand, but this time the feather that allowed her to return from Heaven touched his hand. The human male gave a bit of a start as he felt something faint and soft brush against his hand.

“We are the Ones-Who-Came-Before.” The tuxedo tried to explain, but the humans could not hear her. “Our brother is going to come home with us and we will wait at the Rainbow Bridge for you.”

The tuxedo walked patiently back to Elbereth and stretched herself up to be picked up. Elbereth smiled as she tucked the tuxedo in next to the ginger male and the mitted ginger. Elbereth looked at the release that human male seemed to carry in his eyes. Somehow he knew they were there and that his beloved cat was in good hands.

Elbereth pulled a feather from her wing and crushed it to a fine powder in her hands. She blew the powder into the air and watched as it drifted out on unseen gusts of air.

“Now all cats who are Ones-Who-Came-Before will know what you have shown me, beloved Tuxedo.” Elbereth said, “The knowledge of feathers is now known to all catkind. As all cats grow, they will practice this and learn how to carry the feathers in their mouths. And when the time comes for them to return with me to Earth and bring their beloved friends, they will know how to tell their humans that they are loved and safe.”

For Buzzerbee and Chatham and Suzanne:

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