Chapter 18
Every morning it didn't rain, summer or winter, coffee at the House of the Winds was served in the backyard, at the glass and wrought-iron table. Anemo drank his from a clay mug, while Aeolus, as you already know, slowly nibbled on his coffee bean, breathing in and enjoying every bit of the perfectly roasted aroma.
“Today is twice as important,” Anemo said after his first sip of coffee. He was talking to his new best friend, Bise, who was almost always by his side to help Anemo talk to his furry companions.
“Please don’t remind me about the vet, let me just relax. I can’t sleep or eat, it’s all I can think about. And Fleur... how did I even manage to give her that... superpower?”
“Speaking of superpowers,” Anemo said thoughtfully, looking at a small scratch Bise had given him recently, “why do you think it doesn’t work on me? How cool would it have been to understand you guys without depending on this collar! What does Fleur have that I don’t? Why does she understand furry friends now, and all animals for that matter, while I can’t even understand you?”
Sirocco, who deep down was just a little kid curious about grown-up business, was listening to their conversation from the kitchen through the open door. Of course, his tongue was itching to say something too.
“Mr. Anemo, the tufted one is a girl, she’s a 'she', you know? And all those Shees—I mean, those girl-shees—have that swarm... how did Fleur put it? A swarm of ants or wasps?”
Hearing Sirocco, the white cat chuckled quietly at first, then cleared her throat and said, “You’re right, kiddo! Women’s minds are different from men’s. They have a swarm of bees... Bees sound much nicer than wasps or ants, don’t they? And please, don’t call us Sidhe. The Sidhe are beautiful but very mean, and we... are we mean, Sirocco?”
“No, Miss Remi, you are good fairies!”
The ginger cat popped just his head out of the house to see Anemo. Wanting to show off how much he knew, he spoke to him directly.
“The professor is coming tonight and bringing us gizmos... What do you think your dad is bringing us from the big city, Anemo? This gizmo around Bise’s neck was so nice and well-behaved! It’s so good that he brought Bise to us!”
“What do you mean 'so good'? What are you talking about, kiddo? Are you happy this happened to me?”
Sirocco jumped right onto the table, almost spilling Anemo’s coffee, and stopped right in front of the white cat, staring bravely straight into her eyes.
“Didn’t you say it’s the adventure of your life? You’re going to write a beautiful book about it, and Anemo will get jealous again and write... something totally awesome!”
Deep in conversation, neither of them noticed that Fleur had taken her spot on the fence and was listening to them.
“Ahem... Good morning! Miss Remi, don’t you want me to come to the vet with you too? I think it’s better to have a girl by your side...”
“You’re more than welcome, Fleur! Anyway, Anemo is more sensitive than the two of us combined. He might start giving a speech about 'vaccines and hermeneutics'. Do you remember?” Remi burst out laughing, thinking back to the confusing speech from the night of the “great shoe-taking-off.”
Anemo blushed instantly but didn't back down.
“Please don’t laugh at me, okay? Right now, the whole house is studying ancient Egyptian hermeneutics, and even Celtic hermeneutics.” He paused for a few seconds to look at his entire “audience,” including Mistral, who was lazily bringing his precious black fur outside into the fresh air. “I’d say it was a prophetic speech!”
Everyone burst out laughing—not just a little bit, and not in a polite, quiet way, but a belly-aching kind of laughter. They even started mimicking how our friend stumbled over his words on that famous Wednesday evening... in Mrs. Aura’s garden.
Sirocco was laughing out loud too, but I think he was just laughing because the others were laughing, since he had no idea what “hermeneutics” actually meant. Between laughs, he didn't even catch a moment to ask Aeolus about it.
*
Before reaching the vet clinic where Gill worked—Noel’s daughter and the childhood partner-in-crime of the two writers—she called Anemo to let him know she wouldn't be there in person. However, she said her colleague, Aisling, knew all about it and would handle everything professionally.
Both Remi and Anemo breathed a sigh of relief. No matter how much they loved their friend, it was much better not to drag her into all this madness.
At the reception desk, they took Anemo’s details, gave him a number, and he took a seat in the waiting room alongside Fleur and the white cat.
Thanks to her new superpower, Fleur could hear all sorts of conversations among the pets waiting with their owners, conversations even wilder than Anemo’s speech. Her face twisted as she tried to hold back her laughter, but every now and then, she just couldn't help it and burst out giggling. People looked at her like she was a bit crazy...
Anemo listened too, smiling and occasionally making an imaginary sign of the cross, glad that his own pets were actually well-behaved.
A huge hound had swallowed his owner’s electronic car key just so the owner would have to take him everywhere. Now the dog was exhausted, because for a whole week he had been going to work every single day with his owner, who was a taxi driver and couldn't risk his job between the time the key was swallowed and the medical appointment.
“I’ve been to the airport every single day!” the dog said. “I even 'worked' at night! Wouldn't I be much better off at home? I’ve lost so much weight!”
“It shows, you look like a scrawny hound, Paul!” a boxer named Nipp said, teasing him. “My humans think I have a cold, but I think I’m just allergic to that stupid orchid the owner got as a gift from that goofball.”
“I’m allergic too,” a British Shorthair named Miss chimed in. “I’m allergic to the lover’s perfume. My clueless owner has no idea that I only sneeze on the days the other guy visits... Humans are so naive!”
“You should bust them!” Bise suggested.
“I already tried... I stole his lighter and left it right out in the open during dinner, but... nothing happened.”
An assistant invited Anemo into the exam room.
“The doctor is waiting for you!” she said, leading them into a fairly large room where a gorgeous blonde woman in a white lab coat was waiting. She shook the man’s hand firmly while checking him out.
“I’m Aisling, nice to meet you! Gill already told me you’re planning a trip to Egypt.”
The doctor smiled warmly at Anemo as she adjusted her stethoscope. She put on her gloves, then ran her fingers through Bise’s white fur, accidentally touching the Collar of the Two Skies to listen to her heart.
“What a gorgeous cat, Mr. Gale! You can tell she has a highly cultured owner like yourself...”
Remi shot her a hostile look. “Cultured and single... right?”
The doctor turned halfway toward the assistant, who was fixing the microchip three steps away with her back turned. The doctor just swallowed hard, saying nothing.
Anemo had no idea what kind of jealousy was brewing inside the white cat’s head, but Fleur noticed right away and grinned from ear to ear.
“I love to read, you know, Mr. Gale,” the doctor added, picking Bise up to place her on the stainless-steel exam table. The cold surface made the white cat squeeze her paws together, throwing an even sharper look at Aisling. In the background, the assistant opened the sterile microchipping kit with a quick rustle. She pulled out the syringe with its long, thick needle, placing the electronic scanner on the edge of the table. Aisling put the stethoscope in her ears and pressed the chest piece against the cat, trying to focus again under Anemo’s smile. “Alright, let’s see... a steady heartbeat. She’s a very delicate cat, I bet she’s only used to the very best!”
Remi-Bise felt this doctor was going way too far.
“Listen to her... 'she loves to read!' She probably just reads whatever she finds on social media... all the gossip rags!”
Aisling turned toward the assistant once more.
“Ciara, do you have a problem with me? What’s with these comments?”
“Excuse me? I didn’t even open my mouth, my dear!” the assistant said, coming closer with a tray holding the microchipping tools.
“Just get on with those procedures already and stop staring like a cat at a mousehole!” Remi-Bise added, completely ignoring the fact that she was causing total confusion with her comments.
“I have to say, I didn't expect this from you, Ciara! We’ve been working together for two years... but I’d better just hold my tongue right now!”
“But I didn’t say anything, I swear!”
Anemo bit his lip to keep from bursting into laughter. Even though he wasn't touching the troublesome collar, he knew exactly who was responsible for the misunderstanding. He looked at Remi-Bise, who sat on the stainless-steel table with a face of perfect calm, though her tail seemed to be saying, “na-na-na, na, na-na.” Then he looked at Fleur, the one with the superpower, and noticed the girl’s face was bright red, her ears were burning, and her eyes were practically popping out of her head from trying so hard not to laugh. He felt he owed them a life-saving lie.
“These walls are pretty thin. You can hear all sorts of chatter from the other side... People get bored while waiting... We should probably just microchip her so nobody complains that we’re taking too long!”
Ciara shot him a grateful look, but Aisling just nodded, internally convinced that her assistant was being rude and jealous of her professional success, or maybe... who knows, her success with men.Still, she adjusted her gloves with a short, decisive motion, trying to regain her air of impeccable professionalism.
"You're right, Mr. Gale. Let's get to work," she said, though she was still casting suspicious glances at Ciara.The assistant deftly pinched the scruff of Remi-Bise’s neck while Aisling brought the syringe with the thick needle closer. At that moment, a complete silence fell over the office, interrupted only by Anemo's tense breathing and the beating of Fleur's heart, who was praying in her mind that Remi wouldn't make a scene.To everyone's great relief, the white cat just closed her eyes tightly and let out a short, muffled growl as the needle penetrated her skin.
"There, it’s all over, you're a brave girl!" Fleur whispered to her, and Remi-Bise instantly relaxed her muscles, though the glare she shot at the doctor after being released from the grip could have melted the stainless-steel table.Aisling quickly passed the microchip scanner over the cat's back, and the device emitted a short beep, displaying the unique numerical code on the screen that officially turned Remi into "Bise," a feline with proper papers, ready for her international passport.
"Perfect, the microchip is in place!" Aisling said, passing the electronic reader, which gave a short beep.
"Now, Mr. Gale, for Egypt, things are a bit more complex. You won't get off with just the rabies shot; the authorities in Cairo require a complete medical file." Remi-Bise perked up her white ears, and her tail began to thump nervously against the stainless-steel table.
"Meaning... how many more needles are coming?" she meowed in a panic, looking at Fleur. Fleur instantly translated it in her mind and burst into laughter again, but Aisling, completely immune to the feline's protests, continued to line up the vials on the table:
"We need to give her the feline polyvalent vaccine – the one that protects her from panleukopenia, calicivirus, and rhinotracheitis. Without these recorded in the passport, plus a health certificate signed by me no more than 14 days before the flight, they’ll put her straight into quarantine at the Cairo airport. Not to mention the mandatory treatment against internal and external parasites, parasites that we must officially declare absent with proper paperwork."
"Listen to that, just listen! Parasites on me ?!"Remi-Bise snorted, her womanly pride deeply insulted, as she stood up on her hind legs on the table.
"Anemo, tell this... reader that I... take a shower every single day! Meaning... I used to!"
Anemo intervened quickly, trying to mask the cat's scandalous meows:
"Of course, doctor, put everything necessary in the file. We don't want to have any trouble at customs. Give her the polyvalent shot, the deworming, the whole protocol!"
The journey to Cairo was proving to be a true ordeal for her dignity and patience as a temporary feline, but she was Remi Storm after all; she couldn't give up over a few vaccines, even with those terrifying needles. So, she behaved like a true lady, except that after that entire nightmare, on the way to the car in Anemo's arms, she felt her strength leaving her.
She only had enough time to see the street, the car, the passersby, Anemo, and Fleur being swallowed by a milky fog, and to hear the little girl's voice saying something... something completely unintelligible.
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