Page 10 of Cats Never Fly

“Whydon’t we have our clothing?”Okay.Thatwasn’t the most important questionIcould have asked, but sitting here with all my bits on display was annoying.Notto mention thatIwasn’t all that eager to see all these strangers’ bits either.

“Weused to…”Morgan’sface paled. “Buta few of the others used their clothes to hang themselves…”Heshivered as he spoke.

Iwas sorryI’dasked.

“Shutup,” the woman demanded again.

Morgan’scheeks darkened at the angry woman’s reprimand, which at least brought a bit of color back into his cheeks.

“It’sokay,Tammy, we’ll be quiet,” the unicorn said.Heshot me an apologetic smile and stared ahead again.

Fine.

MaybeMs.AngryAssacross the way would fall asleep soon and we could chat then.

Idrew in a deep breath and closed my eyes, suddenly wishingI’dlearned to meditate.Icould use someZenin my life about now.

WhowasIkidding?

Beingmellow was not my thing.

Maybea little pick-me-up would be better.Yeah, that was the answer.Inever left the house without doing a little shimmy to a good song. “GreatBallsofFire” was myfavorite becauseIcould punctuate the verses with blasts of actual fire.Whenthat song was first released, every dragonIknew, me included, picked up the single.Itset my mood for the rest of the day.Icouldn’t dance in the cage, but there had to be something we could do.

Frowning,Iscanned the room again.Noone succeeded in this morose atmosphere.Itlooked like it was time for a little sing-along.

Ihummed asIfiltered through the songs in my head until one made me smile.Perfect.The‘50s were a fantastic era for music.Seriously.Likewhat’s not to love about “Lollipop” or “ThePurplePeopleEater.”

Isat up, crossed my legs—since that’s the only wayIcould fit them in here even thoughIwas a little on the, ahem, petit side—and leaned against the bars.Themagic on the crate tingled along my spine, butIignored it.Trueperformers didn’t let a minor discomfort interfere with pleasing their audiences.

Myfingers snapped four quick beats into the oppressive quiet to get the timing.Someonecried out.

Acrossthe aisle from me and beside the angry lady, a phoenix went up in flames.Oops.Iwaited for the smoke and flames to die down before doing anything more.Well, that was one way to find out there weren’t any fire alarms or sprinklers in here.

Whena mature human figure emerged from the ashes in the other cage,Iwaved at them.Theirskin was rosy from regeneration, which made their scowl look fierce.Theydefinitely didn’t look like someone who would have a heart attack and die so easily.Andif they were, theregeneration probably did them a world of good.Clearout the arteries.Startfresh.Allthat.

“Sorry,”Icalled out. “Didn’tmean to startle you.Justthought we could all use a few tunes.”

Thephoenix muttered angrily, butIignored their complaints.Ihadn’t scared them on purpose, andI’dalready apologized.Whatmore did they want from me?

“Okay, folks, let’s try this again,”Iannounced loudly.Ididn’t need anyone else to freak out.

Isnapped my fingers again in a quick one, two, three, four…ThenIbelted out the opening lines of “AllShookUp.”

Bythe timeIwas on my sixth tune, the mood had improved a lot.

Theadorable, dark-haired unicorn in the crate beside mine was happily singing with me in all his rainbow glory.Whenhe forgot a line, he laughed freely, sending little iridescent bubbles shooting out his mouth.Unicornswere strange little creatures, but his happiness was infectious.Severalpeople were bobbing their heads now and joining in on the choruses.Itwas great.Ofcourse,Istayed away from the somber tunes like “Leaderof thePack” and “TellLauraILoveHer”, so that helped.Noone needed morbid ballads right now.

“Whatthe fuck is that noise?”

Theshout came from a troll of shockingly diminutive size.Shelumbered across the room toward me.Well, to clarify, she wasn’t smaller than me, but compared to other trolls, she was tiny.Thismust have been the trollMorganhad mentioned.

Insteadof showing my fury at my situation,Ibeamed at the newcomer and waved.Myunicorn buddy wasn’t laughing now, and that made me want to hurt the intruder.Somethingabout the little guy made me want to protect him.

Actually, now thatIthought about it,Irealized most of the beings in the crates were smaller than what was typical of their species.Hadour kidnappers intentionally chosen the smallest of our kind to nab?Didthey think we were weaker because of our size?Ifthat was the case,Ilooked forward to proving them wrong.

“Oh, hello,”Isaid asIwiggled my fingers at the troll. “We’resinging a few songs to pass the time.Doyou want to join in?Ithink everyone knows the lyrics to ‘SplishSplash’.Ifyou don’t,Ithink you’ll pick them up quickly.”Istarted the song, ignoring how my fellow prisoners gaped at me and pushed themselves up against the backs of their cages, away from the troll as she stalked toward me.Acattle prod dangled from one of her long arms.

“Shutup.”Thetroll glared at me.