Cappucino Broad

Cappuccino Travels

By Carla Dumitru, Year 7V

I woke up all of a sudden and realised I was in a shelter under a rock. I looked around and saw everything covered in snow. The wind was roaring in my face and I could feel myself shivering. I make myself even smaller, so I don’t feel the cold anymore and start thinking about how I ended up here. I then remembered, I lived in England, at Oxford University, that’s why I knew about all of these words. The professors there always talked with grand words (another word I heard from them).

After a while, I decided to get out of there, to find out where I was and make my way back home. I walked out of the bush and found myself near a house with a frozen, clear lake behind it. This reminded me of how the teachers always went ice-skating in winter. I walked towards the house. It was so hard to head through the heavy snow and walk on the slippery ice. Finally, I got to the house and sniffed the air. It was really difficult because even though the wind wasn’t as strong as an hour before, the smell of snow hadn’t gone away. My nose was skilled in the art of picking up scents, quickly realising the house was empty, but for the scent of a cat. I went inside to explore.

As I pushed the rotten wooden door open, the wind rushed inside. Everything looked frozen, dust everywhere. There was a wooden desk with papers piled up on it and ink stains on the papers. In the corner I could see a spiral staircase heading upstairs.

Upstairs I detected the scent of recently cooked food. It smelled great. I looked around and saw a fireplace and a little sofa. On the sofa there was a blanket and… a cat. A cat. It was a black cat with a white spiral on it’s tummy. He was looking at me as though he had never seen another cat before. His eyes looked so… somehow empty. I could smell the arrogance in the air. I ignored it. I tiptoed forward and mewed:

“Hello? May I stay here? What’s your name? I’m Cappuccino.”

Then, the cat answered: “Hello. I am Nebula.”

I stared and asked again: “May I stay here?” Nebula nodded affirmatively, so I sat next to it on the warm sofa, thinking this cat was somewhat peculiar. Nebula then asked: “Are you an English? Your voice is different to mine.”

I answered: “Yes, I live at Oxford University in England. Where do you really live, this house doesn’t entirely convince me it is yours.”

“That’s right, this is not my house, I live in Florida, at NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) if you didn’t know,” mewed Nebula. When he said that, I was sure I had heard of it at the university. We talked a little longer and I found out that he was lost too.

I spent the night in the house. It was the worst sleep of my entire life. The wind had grown even stronger outside and I could feel myself shivering. On top of that, I could hear the creaking of the wooden roof and doors.

In the morning, I woke up next to Nebula, who was still asleep. This was really queer because at Oxford the teachers and staff woke up at 06:30. I’m not exactly sure what that is, but I understand it’s pretty early. “Americans!”, I thought. I slowly crept to the kitchen and found some chicken with parsley. That was exactly what Ms Lilacwood always gave to me as a special meal. She was definitely the best teacher in the whole college. She taught English Literature.

As I thought about my past memories, I found myself taking the chicken back to the sofa. I woke up to Nebula, who seemed really upset, and invited him to eat with me. After our meal, we headed out of the house, ready to find our homes again. I asked: “Do you know where exactly we are?”

“I’m not exactly sure, but I think we are somewhere in Canada judging by the weather”.

Canada was one of the countries I had never heard of. Despite that, Nebula and I decided to start walking, thinkng we would eventually find our way home.

After a few hours, we stopped for a break. We had advanced a lot and I could feel the temperature getting warmer. By now, I was really tired and my feet hurt a lot. To be fair though, I was pretty used to taking long walks because in the summer holiday, Ms Lilacwood and some other teachers took me on long walks to the park, monuments or restaurants. They said “It’s just so Cappuccino stays fit”, although I would never get fat like other cats in the neighborhood did.

Anyway, it wasn’t something very special for me, but I knew it would get worse as we moved further and further through the country. After a while, Nebula told me: “Just saying, I think that we left Canada. We’re most probably somewhere near the Niagara Falls. They are probably somewhere quite close to here because I can hear the loud noises of water falling. Perhaps we should go there? We might find another cat there to help us.”

I looked curiously at him and said: “I thought you live at NASA, and from what I know, the people there only work with stuff to do with space?”

Nebula then replied: “That’s true. Actually, before I lived at NASA, my home was in a geography teacher’s apartment. I must say, I’ve heard a lot about the landscapes in this world and other important geographical notions.” I completely didn’t get this whole bunch of nonsense he was meowing about geographical terms. I nodded and told him we could go see those falls the next day. Since we were somewhere at the edge of the city, I thought it was pointless to go searching for the falls when we were so tired. Instead, we found a little shelter next to some trees and grass and slept that night there.

To be honest, I thought that this sleep was way better than the one in the abandoned house. There wasn’t that much noise, only a few cars and the wind. Since I came from a country where it was already cold, I didn’t find it that cold, even if it was pretty chilly. Nebula did. He was constantly trying to get warm, but it was really hard for him. In the end, he gave up and we went to sleep feeling cold.

In the middle of the night, I heard a loud meow and woke up all of a sudden. I got on my feet and saw a little light brown cat being chased by two dogs. It looked scared, so I ran towards it and called Nebula, who immediately sprang into action, taking hold of the dogs, getting into a fight with them. He bit them and scratched their tummies; I could tell he looked like a skilled warrior. I could hear the howling of the dogs and the scratching of Nebula’s claws. I could feel the pressure in the air and see their bloody red on the pavement. I started to feel dizzy, and tried to focus on calming the scared cat down: “Are you okay? What happened to you? How did you end up with these dogs chasing you?”

The cat answered: “I’m sorry I woke you up. I’m Bamboo. I got lost and couldn’t find anything to eat. Finally, I managed to sneak into a Chinese shop and a really kind waiter offered me some pot stickers. Then, these dogs saw me eating the food and started stealing from it. I ran away with it and they started chasing me. And here I am.”

“I’m sorry. If you want, you can stay with Nebula and I; we got lost too and are trying to find our homes. I’m Cappuccino, I forgot to say,” I meowed.

I told Bamboo I had better go help out Nebula with the dogs. I wasn’t really a skilled fighter, but I wanted to help in some way. I told Bamboo to stay aside while we got rid of the ugly, scary, bloodthirsty dogs.

I rolled in a puddle of mud, to hide my smell, then crept behind the dogs and jumped on one of their backs, scratching it as hard as possible while they howled in the night. The two creatures jumped backwards, allowing Nebula to get underneath them and scratch their tummies.

In the end, the dogs were defeated and ran away. We sat together and rested.

Afterwards, I introduced Nebula to Bamboo and invited her to join us. We talked and ate from the meal Bamboo had brought and then eventually went to sleep.

The next morning, we set off again, with our new companion. We walked through the busy, crowded, and loud city for about five hours. Eventually, we stopped at the edge of the city and by a field. We walked onto it and saw a big basket with a huge round thing on top. It seemed like the perfect shelter to rest beneath.

“Are you sure this is a good place?” asked Bamboo. She was always scared.

I was really curious about her past, but I knew she wasn’t yet ready to tell me about it.

“Yes, I’m pretty sure it’s safe, plus there’s some warm air inside, so that should be nice,” I explained. We got into the basket, cuddled up, and soon fell asleep.

The next thing I knew, I was up in the sky looking at one thousand fluffy, white clouds. I was so scared, I almost screamed. Luckily, Nebula was there and made me shush. I asked him: “What are we doing up here? I’m pretty sure we were on a field before we fell asleep.”

He then answered: “Well, you see, I knew that the basket with the round thing on top as you call it was actually a hot air balloon. I didn’t say anything though because I know that this one belongs to NASA. See, it says it on it.”

I looked at him and couldn’t believe my eyes. He had been so nice when he saved Bamboo from those terrible creatures, but now he only cared about himself. I told him this and he told me that it was not the reason he wanted to get there. Nebula said that there are many ways of transport from Florida (where his home is) to any part of the world. After about an hour, I found that we were getting lower, and at one point crashed into a forest. But not just any forest. It was a rainforest, where some of the most dangerous creatures in the world lived.

A group of humans started shouting and tried to fix the balloon. It was pointless. We descended down, down, down, until eventually we reached the forest floor. I scooped up Bamboo, and called out to Nebula. He immediately rushed over and jumped out of the balloon to examine the forest around us. He waved his tail and I ran towards him with Bamboo on my back. She was so hopeless. Just a little kitty from China, lost in America. Nebula and I explored this new wild place. It was extremely different to anything I had ever seen: the grass was really wet like it had just rained three minutes ago and the trees were really bushy and extremely close to each other. I could hear the screaming of some weird animals, the fluttering of wings, and the rustling of the leaves. It was also really warm, the forest standing over us oppressively, making us feel small an inconsequential. There was nothing else to do, so we kept walking. Bamboo had almost fainted from fatigue, as Nebula and I grew ever more tired. We stopped near a huge river and found a tree near which there was a rock shelter where we slept for a few hours.

Suddenly, I woke up. There was a hissing sound close by. I looked behind me and saw a snake, no, a rattlesnake coming towards us slowly in a threatening, menacing manner. I woke Bamboo and Nebula up, alerting them to the danger.

“I have an idea!” screamed Bamboo.

“See that branch over there? It has almost fallen, so we can use that to capture the snake. Cappuccino, go and distract the creature, make it come this way. Nebula, come with me on top of the branch, you are really heavy and this should help. Also, take a few rocks with you.” I realized that even though she was really small, Bamboo was really good in quick situations. I ran towards the snake and started yelling:

“Catch me if you can, ugly, hideous snake! Are you ssssscared of me?” The rattlesnake was now furious, he slid towards me on the grass. I sprinted towards the tree branch, only slowing down as I got closer. Then, at the last moment, I went aside and watched the branch on which Bamboo and Nebula were proudly sitting fall on top of the ugly beast.

I ran towards them cheering. We were really happy. I congratulated Bamboo on her quick thinking and thanked them both for helping me throughout my journey.

The next day, we continued along our path, until possessed by hunger, and only then stopped to hunt. I didn’t know how to hunt, but had watched other cats for a long period of my life. I sniffed the air, detecting a bird sitting on a low branch, reached towards it, and jumped, catching it between my claws. Elated at my success, I showed the other two beaming a big chinchilla smile from ear to ear. Bamboo had also caught a squirrel, so there was enough food for the three of us.

We continued walking and hunting for three more days until we found a city. We crossed it like we had crossed many others, until we eventually reached a port. I explained to the other two cats that it was a place where ships were anchored.

I told them it would be great if we could jump on one. I boarded a large white ship and beckoned to Bamboo and Nebula to join me. The ship soon became crowded, a large sound bellowed out and we departed amidst an atmosphere of excitement and agitation.

Bamboo and I fell asleep under a bench, whilst Nebula remained awake and on guard. When I woke up, he was next to us asleep. I wandered in the boat in search of food, discovering the kitchen, where a lady very kindly gave me some food. She said it was noodles with chicken and veggies. I thought it tasted really good, even though cats don’t normally eat noodles. I took some with me and returned to Bamboo and Nebula. Bamboo told me that her owners from China feed her noodles all the time, and was happy to be eating noodles again. At one point, the boat stopped. We got off and found ourselves in an unusual village. Nebula told us that we were now somewhere in India. He said we would have to take a plane to get to China if we wanted to get Bamboo home first. We travelled through the village behind the buildings to avoid meeting humans. After many more hours of walking, our legs grew weak and trembled as our tummies grew empty.

Nebula led us toward the faint scent of food. When we reached the source, we discovered it was someone’s house. We crept inside watching the human closely. There was an old lady cooking something which smelled delicious. I walked towards her and meowed. She was really kind and gave us some slices of chicken (I think it was chicken - it was cooked in a delicious sauce!), which we devoured quickly.

We all purred thankfully, then left. We walked for a while, realizing at one point that we were once again walking through a field. We found a tree, sat, and rested.

Suddenly, I awoke to find myself in human hands. We were up in the air in a small vehicle. I saw a man with goggles who was driving it and a woman next to him. They seemed pretty nice, so I didn’t do anything. After a few hours, we reached our destination. It was a bushy forest next to which I could see a huge wall made of stone.

The shape of the construction reminded me of the rattlesnake we had fought, but the difference was that it stretched for miles and miles through the dark, dense forest. The two humans scooped us up and left us. Bamboo couldn’t believe her eyes. She couldn’t help screaming and started jumping around in a circle with delight.

“This is my home!! I can’t believe this! I’m actually back home!!” Bamboo yelled.

Nebula looked around and said: “From what I remember Professor Greenwood saying, this must be the Great Wall of China. Stretches for…hmm I think I forgot.”

“21, 961 kilometers, I know this,” I said. For the first time on our journey, I knew something Nebula didn’t. He was a very wise cat, despite his arrogance.

“Anyway, Bamboo, we are really happy to see that you have found your home, but also sad because we will miss you a lot,” I said, trying to hold back my tears. Cats don’t exactly have tears, but I heard that that’s what you say when you are really sad.

Bamboo announced that to get to her home, we just had to walk a little way through the forest and somewhere there we should find a small house which smelled like food. We quickly walked through the forest until we found ourselves in a meadow with more sunlight and birds chirping. There was a little stream flowing through the meadow with golden, shiny fish in it. I could feel the soft grass beneath my paws and see blue, clear sky above. In the corner of the meadow was an immense rock, underneath which I saw a shiny red creature with hard dry scales and two huge nostrils. It had black, beady eyes and a gigantic mouth.

I looked at Bamboo, feeling frightened, and she whispered: “It’s the Red Dragon, from the antique Chinese tales. It is said that once, before humans, there lived dragons, and on the territory of China, this one was king. All the other dragons were scared of him, so they refused to see him. But one day, a brave, rebel dragon, thought he would go and fight the dragon. He was called Xiu Pai. On his way to the Dragon’s Lair, he started to see that many of the dragons were passing out. This was because The Red Dragon was angry with him. But Xiu Pai was determined. He had flown a very long way and was ready to fight the dragon. But the young dragon’s secret was that he never fought the dragon. Instead, he gave him a potion from holly leaves that was supposed to make him sleep forever. Now as the legend goes, the Great Dragon sleeps the whole year except for one day, when he wakes up. That day is always the day when someone is in the Red Meadow.”

When I heard Bamboo’s words, I started shivering. I was so scared that the Dragon might wake up that I wanted to run away. I sprinted towards a bush so that I could hide and accidentally stepped on a branch. There was a creaking noise and I felt like the world was moving in slow-motion. The dragon suddenly jumped out of the lair and spat flames. I moved away and thought what to do. Suddenly, an idea came to mind. I told Nebula to try and keep the dragon away for a few minutes while I worked on my plan. I took Bamboo with me and asked her to show me a place where I could find bamboo. She showed me a corner of the meadow where the plants grew and I sprinted towards them. I bit the stems of the plants and bent them so that they formed a sort of cage. I worked for about ten minutes on this together with Bamboo. We looked to see how Nebula was and saw he was really struggling. I told Bamboo to take the cage inside the lair. Also, I screamed to Nebula and told him to run into the cage. I also told him to get out of it through the holes when the dragon was inside it.

He nodded and ran into the cage. The dragon chased him into the cage, and while at the back Bamboo and I closed the cage with a few other bamboo branches. We were now safe.

After two days…

Nebula and I left Bamboo’s house, thanking her for joining us on our journey. She thanked us too and we left.

Back on the Great Wall, Nebula led me to a place where he knew we could get a plane to our homes. He said it was called an airport. We both found a plane to our countries and jumped onto it. I hid in a woman’s bag while Nebula got into a man’s trolley. We bid each other goodbye and parted company.

The next thing I knew, I was back at Oxford in the English room near Ms Lilacwood’s chair.

TIV 1 2020-21 List of Contributors

Student Editor: Melissa Aydogan

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