The Fisher Cat

Stories for Another Day

If one day you happen to find yourself at the mudflats where the three great rivers meet, and you should happen to hear a low chuckling coming from somewhere near but out of sight, don’t be afraid, for it’s only the fisher cat. He won’t do you any harm at all, unless you happen to be a fish, of course.

In a kingdom far away, there was a ruler who had two daughters. The younger one, Nevis, was very pretty, with a sweet little nose and honey-coloured eyes, while the elder one whose name was Talana, was a strong, intelligent woman, brave and decisive.

Now their father died, and Talana, although she was still young, became queen. Immediately she she set herself to learn how to govern well so that she could take care of her people.

One of the members of the royal court was a nobleman named Selid. He had fine, flashing eyes and a way of tossing his cape carelessly over his shoulder that made all the ladies of the court sigh with longing. Selid’s ambition was to rule the kingdom, and the way to do that was to either marry the queen, or marry her sister and then dispose of the queen. The queen, Talana, was only interested in crops and education and health care. She hardly knew he existed, and if she had, she wouldn’t have spared him more than a look. Fine eyes and dark wavy hair held no charms for her, compared with good irrigation and new hospitals.

Selid turned his eyes to the queen’s younger sister, Nevis, who was as empty-headed as she was pretty. In record time he was engaged to her and they were married before a month had passed. Then his serious plotting began.

One night, in the cold, dark hours just before dawn, Talana’s maid shook her awake, whispering urgently, “Your majesty, please wake up! Your life is in danger!”

Talana stirred and opened her eyes. “What is it, Jinda? It’s not morning already, is it?”

Her maid said, quaking with fear, “You must leave now! Selid is planning to kill you!”

Talana sat up, fully awake. “What are you saying? Tell me, quickly.”

Jinda said, “My brother-in-law is Selid’s servant, and he heard him talking to himself this evening, after he had been drinking, saying that he means to kill you!”

“How could he kill me?” Talana said. “The royal guards are everywhere, and every one of them would give their lives to protect me.”

Her maid said, “As your sister’s husband, he can go anywhere in the palace. He has slipped a sleeping potion into the guards’ dinner tonight. He is planning to creep into your room just before dawn and drive a dagger into your heart! Then he’ll start shouting that an assassin has broken into the palace and killed you – but by then it will be too late! He will be king, which is all he has ever wanted!”

Talana couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “He would kill me? My own sister’s husband?”

“Please, your majesty, he could be on his way here even now!” Jinda pleaded.

Talana wasted no more time. She threw her clothes on, and she and Jinda climbed over the balcony as silently as they could, and then over the roofs of the laundries and the kitchens below. When they reached the ground, they ran through the palace gardens, towards the jungle that surrounded the palace.

When they reached the edge of the jungle, Talana glanced back, just once. She saw Selid framed in her window, high up in the palace wall, a knife glinting in his hand. Grabbing Jinda’s hand, she ran into the jungle.

The jungle was so thick that it was impossible to run for long. The two women walked for hours, pushing their way through dense bushes and even crawling in places, under the heavy vines. Tired and covered in scratches, they reached the banks of the broad estuary where the three great rivers come together and meet the waters of the sea.

“My family are fisher-folk in a village near here,” Jinda panted. “They will hide us willingly.”

“No,” said Talana. “Selid knows it was you who helped me, and your village is the first place he’ll look for us. We must find somewhere else to hide.”

“At least let us rest at my parents’ home, and eat something,” Jinda pleaded. They had been fighting their way through the jungle for hours, and she was exhausted. She led the queen to a tiny village on the very edge of the mudflats. The people were poor, living only on what they could grow and the fish that they could catch, but they were overjoyed to see their queen. The people prepared food while Talana and Jinda rested, then they all ate together, sitting around the fire.

“We cannot stay,” Jinda said to her mother. “The queen is not safe here.”

Her mother said, “You can’t hide in the jungle in such finery. Any hunter would see you a mile off.” She gave them clothes of her own to wear, and hid their silk dresses at the bottom of a cooking pot, covered in yams. But she did not notice that a strand of silk from Talana’s dress had caught on the rim of the pot.

Talana led the way along the banks of the river, stumbling and tripping over the mangrove roots that poked up like muddy fingers from the shallows of the river. “Oh, your majesty, you’re covered in mud!” Jinda wailed. It pained her to see all her hard work, keeping her mistress’s hair smooth and tidy and her hands and nails perfect, all ruined.

Talana laughed. “So much the better for hiding us in the mud flats,” she said. “The muddier the better!” And she lay down and rolled in the mud until she was covered from head to toe, and she made Jinda do the same.

Prince Selid had taken his horse and his hunting weapons and set out after them as quickly as he could. He went straight to Jinda’s village, as Talana had expected he would. “The queen must be here,” he ranted. “Jinda has kidnapped her and brought her here! Bring her out to me at once, or I will have your village burned to the ground!”

“The queen is not here!” the people cried. “We don’t know where she is!”

Selid refused to listen to them. He went from hut to hut, pulling over cupboards and slashing at beds in his rage, destroying everything he touched. Jinda’s mother’s hut was the last he came to. He upturned baskets and shelves but he found nothing, until his eye lit on the few strands of silk caught on the edge of the cooking pot. A cruel smile spread over his face.

He looked carefully at the floor of the hut and found faint marks of footprints that Talana and Jinda had left behind. He followed them like a bloodhound, along the banks of the river, through the mudflats, until he came to the mangrove forest. Then he crept along silently, his eyes everywhere, and his spear ready.

The women were deep in the forest, moving slowly, their feet cut and bruised from the roots and the shells that lay everywhere in the mud. Then Jinda heard a high, chittering sound. “Stop!” she hissed, putting her hand on Talana’s arm. “It is the monkey who warns the deer when the crocodile is near! He is telling us that Selid the hunter is close!”

Talana grasped her friend’s hand. “Hide yourself in the mud, deep in the forest,” she whispered. “I will climb one of the trees, and keep out of sight while I try to see where Selid is. Don’t make a sound!”

Jinda disappeared deeper into the forest, almost invisible in her muddy clothes. Talana climbed up the tallest tree she could find, and folded herself into a space between the branches. She huddled there, shivering with fear. Then she heard a sound like a quiet chuckle and she almost fell out of the tree with fright.

She looked up and saw the yellow-grey fur of the fisher cat. He was lying on the branch above her, slowly swinging his tail back and forth, and his eyes were fixed on her. With his dark spots and lines, he was almost invisible. He chuckled softly again.

“You frightened me, little brother!” Talana whispered. “Don’t betray me now. My life, and the kingdom, depends on it.” The fisher cat stared at her, and swung his tail silently.

On the riverbank, Selid had lost the trail among the mangrove roots and mud, but he kept searching as a hungry tiger searches for its prey. Then he found what he was looking for, traces of blood from the queen’s bleeding feet. He followed them, drop by drop, smiling to himself and muttering, “You thought you could get away, didn’t you? But I will never give up, until you are dead and your sister is queen, and I am king!”

The trail of blood led him straight to the bottom of the tree where Talana was crouched. He looked up and crowed, “I see you! Come down and meet your death!”

Talana yelled bravely, “Give up, Selid! My guards are all around you!”

Selid threw back his head and laughed. “Guards? I left them sound asleep in the palace. No-one can save you, foolish woman!”

He lifted his dagger, but then he heard a low chuckle. A small flame of fear leapt in his heart. Could Talana be speaking the truth? He heard another low chuckle on his left, and another behind him, then another and another. Seized with fear, he staggered back and started running away from the menacing voices. He tripped on the mangrove roots and went sprawling, his dagger flying out of his hand. Blinded by the mud in his eyes, he crawled into the river, where the crocodiles lie waiting with eager jaws and empty stomachs.

Selid was never seen again, and he was missed by nobody except his pretty wife, but she was soon comforted by another handsome nobleman. Talana returned to her palace and ruled wisely and well for many years. She made Jinda her Chief Advisor, and the people of Jinda’s village were rewarded with the right to hunt and fish along all of the three rivers, them and their children and their children’s children. But there was one animal that they and no-one else were allowed to hunt, and that was the fisher cat.