Animal Amulets (10)
Being a human who had never conversed with other humans nor read a book written by another human being meant Tiger had some trouble adjusting to his new body image. He had to go to the toilet so he ran over to a sand heap, did his business there and then covered it up by kicking sand over it with his foot. As he was doing so he realised from the disapproving looks of the neighbours and the twitching curtains from across the road that humans just didn´t do this. He would have to be much more observant of human behaviour. He picked up the banjo and headed into the house and downstairs into the dreary basement where the Pied Piper´s lab was.
He knocked three times on the steel door. This was the secret knock they had for each other so the Pied Piper was terribly startled when he opened the door and spied a pair of barefooted feet there. He looked up and almost fell back when he saw an old, badly dressed man with very long white whiskers flying out from his face standing there with his shirt buttoned badly and an amber amulet floating over his hairy white chest.
“Get out of my clothes!” was the first thing that shot out of his mouth. Then he made a few hesitant noises because he was unable to comprehend what was going on and couldn´t finish a sentence. The cat-man did it for him.
“Yes it´s me all right, I´ve turned into a human,” he muttered “now let´s get down to business. I have a little job for you. I want you to make a potent poison or disease that will rid the entire world of mice and rats. You will be rewarded well if you accomplish this task and just as a motivational present I´d like you to have this banjo.”
The cat was right. The Pied Piper was a sucker for musical instruments. He agreed to do the job and he added that he had almost finished making a disease that would do the job and not affect any other creature that came in contact with it.
“Sounds wonderful!” said Tiger cheerfully. Then he added, “have you any clothes in your wardrobe that are not for skinny people?”
“No, I´m afraid not.” replied the Pied Piper as he put the banjo down beside the cages and got back to work with added fervour. The cat-man went out to the garden to see if he could catch himself a snack.
It was night when The Pied Piper finished his diabolical formula. He put it in a test tube and dropped it into his coat pocket then he turned off the lights and closed the heavy steel door behind him. The banjo started to hop. Molly moved closer and stuck her paws out as far as possible and plucked the banjo´s strings.
“Undo one of my strings and you can use it to pick the locks on the cages,” plipped the banjo.
“Genius,” said Molly as her little hands went to work. It wasn´t long before the room was full of free mice and rats. Some of them were quite nervous as the had never tasted freedom before. Molly did her best to calm them. They headed towards the windows and the ventilation and cracks in the wall to escape their jail but not before thanking Molly and the banjo. Molly put the string back on the banjo and plucked a few strings. The banjo sang, “Now we need a good plan.”
The lab was empty. Only Molly and the banjo remained. If they were going to come up with a good plan to stop Tiger and the Pied Piper it would have to be a really good plan.