Caligula Filcher

Caligula Filcher had been a long-time annoyance to the inhabitants of Quebec Castle. A former employee of Captain Borna Thorsen, the previous owner of the heavily forested estate, that had been fired for stealing from others who resided in the country house, Filcher just kept coming back, avoiding justice thanks to some family connections in the local law enforcement. He had learned to fear Captain Smith, Captain Thorsen's friend and successor, as well as Darius, resulting in any of his visitations to Quebec Castle being scheduled for when Captain Smith was out of town and had taken Darius with him. Now that Darius had passed on, Filcher did not think he had anything to fear. After all, he was Caligula Nero Filcher! Greatest thief in Oshawa!

If only.

Had he been a character in a work of fiction, Filcher would have been a blackguard who was both ineffective and agreeable. While he was ineffective, and somewhat amusing, if he was agreeable was an academic matter just as if the sea cow was uglier than the walrus. He was not even particularly threatening and Alexander had no reason to believe him so.

In Captain Smith's office, Alan sat with Gemma by his side. Alexander set before the two, staring up at them, rubbing his head against Alan's knee to comfort him. There were a few chairs in Captain Smith's office and there did the two redheaded adolescents sit, before Captain Smith's desk where another chair was located behind. Alexander had lay in that chair on a few occasions since his arrival, which his master had responded by staring at him with raised eyebrow.

"The family loving cup…" Alan uttered in disbelief. "I can't believe it! When did Filcher get so lucky? I thought he would have learned his lesson after Nicole closed a door on that carrot that he calls a nose!"

"I'm sure you can get it back, Alan." Gemma said, placing a hand on Alan's arm. "In our childhood games we always pretended it was the Holy Grail and that you were on a quest for it. Now it seems you really will be on a quest for it, to bring it back here to its kingdom."

"It will be a short quest, Gemma." commented Alan, looking Gemma in the eye.

Gemma Cook was sixteen years old and was an inch taller than Alan. She was a slender girl with light skin, large reddish-brown eyes and red hair that was long and straight. She had an honest face and a cute mouth and was overall considered fairly attractive, but to Alan she was as comely as Helena of Lacedaemon, known as Helen of Troy more commonly. She was wearing a blue kimono and shoes and a pink turban. Childhood friend to Alan and Captain Smith's other adolescent pupil, Gemma was many things to Alan, just as he was many things to her. In their childhood games, Alan had always been a banneret and Gemma a gentlewoman, he had been the Wilfred of Ivanhoe to her Lady Rowena. Now it seemed he would be a banneret and she a gentlewoman once more.

"A short quest but a quest still, Alan." Gemma took hold of Alan's hand and smiled at him. "I will be glad to join you."

"Gemma, no, you cannot. To go into Filcher's store where he sells his stolen wares is to risk Ahab's wrath. Besides, what happened to 'I'm sure you can get it back'?"

Ahab? As Alexander hopped onto his master's desk, he wondered which Ahab was being spoken of. Ms. Burnett, one of the teachers, had been reading from the Bible to the students who attended boarding school here at Quebec Castle and Alexander had heard the name of a king named Ahab. He had also heard the name of Ahab again in regards to a captain when some of the students had been reading a book called "Moby-Dick" together. Was it the king? Was it the captain? Alexander did not know what had happened to either of them. Where were they now?

"Well, as the banneret it is up to you to retrieve the Holy Grail, but that does not mean I cannot accompany you." Gemma explained.

It sounded logical to Alexander. He meowed at Alan who looked to him with a small smile, Gemma as well, and proceeded to scratch the northern caracal's chin and say: "Alright, both of you can come with me to get it back."

"Where are you all going?"

Alexander looked to the doorway to see three people standing in it. The first was Ian Smith, Captain Smith's younger nephew from Britain. He was ten years old, like all of the forty students attending school at Quebec Castle and the only one who was related to him by blood. The second was Agatha King, another of the students. The third was Hippolyta Smith, Captain Smith's daughter from his late wife, a girl of six who was as excitable as she was little.

It had been Ian who had spoken, and so Alan answered his cousin: "To Filcher's shop to get the family loving cup back."

"Oh, no, he got away with it?" Ian inquired, tugging some of his short black hair as he spoke. As Captain Smith's nephew, Ian came from the union of a father who was a quarter Algonquin, a quarter Cayuga, a quarter German and a quarter Irish while Ian's mother was Gujarati. While having the black hair, green eyes, hooked nose and square jaws of the Smiths, the latter two features shared with the men of the Carter family, Ian could have easily been mistaken for his maternal grandfather at the age of ten. He was attired in the uniform of the male students, wearing an orange shirt and a pair of red trousers. When out he would be wearing a red jacket with a black cap, for that was what the boys wore when out.

Alan and Gemma could only stare at Ian. Did he see the loving cup anywhere in the room?

Alexander understood the reason for their staring and as soon as Roxana entered the room, he leapt from his master's desk and approached her. As soon as he got within ten inches from her, the female turned her head and hissed at him before taking her own place atop their master's desk and proceeding to clean herself.

The Asiatic caracal's actions took the interest of Agatha, who approached and took hold of the paw that Roxana was using to clean herself. Roxana's countenance took on an expression most shocked, as if asking "By what right do you place your hand upon my person?"

Taking a close look, Agatha then uttered: "There is blood upon Roxana's claws! She scratched Filcher!" A growl from Roxana telling Agatha to unhand her quickly lead to the girl letting go of Roxana's paw and apologizing to the Asiatic caracal. Roxana would never scratch or bite any of the children, but she would bat them with her paws if they were annoying her, always giving a growl as a warning before she did so.

Agatha had copper bright orange hair and black eyes. She was attired in the uniform of the female students and thus wore an orange dress with a white collar and cuffs, a red belt and a red bow tie. When out Agatha would be wearing a red straw hat with a red ribbon, white gloves and a little cape that reached her elbows.

"Then maybe Filcher didn't get away with the loving cup!" Ian suggested.

"Oh, good lord!" Alan exclaimed, his eyes wide and his voice sounding frightened. "What if it is broken?" He soon leapt up and ran from his uncle's office, Alexander following close behind to Gemma's amusement, as she had noticed the northern caracal's tendency to follow Alan or Captain Smith out of a room, provided Alexander had not exited before they had.

Alexander followed Alan to the entrance hall of Quebec Castle where Mr. Walters, another teacher of the students, was closing the left of the two front doors, the rough collie Emma nearby him. At sixty years of age, Mr. Walters had always been a teacher by profession, but had been conscripted to fight in the Mahdist War and after it had been sent to fight in the Second Boer War where he met Captain Smith. He was a clean shaved, grey-haired man with black eyes and an average build, not muscular, not athletic, but not overweight either. He was a jolly looking, grandfatherly fellow who had grown distant from his own children and knew not his own grandchildren and so had come to view the students as if they were his grandchildren and loved them as such. From the leash in Mr. Walters' left hand, Alexander could tell that he and Emma had returned from a walk off the estate.

Seeing Alan and Alexander, Mr. Walters held up a hand and said: "Alan, I know what happened and I saw him! Filcher got away with your maternal family's loving cup!"

"Then it is undamaged?" Alan inquired. "He did not drop it when Roxana scratched him?"

"Oh, did he do that?" Mr. Walters asked in surprise. "I did not see that. I saw him run from the estate entrance as if the hounds of Acheron were after him though! Must have been a cat instead." He looked down at Alexander with a smile, who replied by walking over and rubbing against Mr. Walters' legs.

Alexander then walked straight towards the front doors and began to paw at them. He wanted to go after Filcher immediately! The Holy Grail had to be returned to its rightful place at Quebec Castle! Turning to look at Alan, Alexander meowed at him as if saying: "Lets go!"

"Alright, alright! Be patient, Alexander!" Alan exclaimed, turning around to see Gemma and the others enter the entrance hall as he ran a hand through his hair. Alexander meowed again, to which Alan replied: "Shoosh!" To Mr. Walters Alan then inquired: "You wouldn't happen to know where Filcher's shop is do you, Mr. Walters?"

"Somewhere near Saint Gregory's I believe." Mr. Walters answered as he walked past Alan, Emma following him, in order to call Captain Smith and report to him what had happened. He knew all too well what Alan and the other young people would be up to. It was best that Captain Smith knew.

To Gemma and the others, Alan then said: "Alright, the loving cup is undamaged, so we can go and get it, meaning Alexander, Gemma and I."

"We are coming with you!" Agatha insisted. "Ian and Hippolyta are your cousins and I am your uncle's student! We have every right to come with you and get the Holy Grail back!"

"No!" Alan exclaimed, unable to believe what he was hearing. "I am not bringing you three, especially not my six-year-old cousin, to a place where that ogre Ahab is!"

Alexander's ears immediately perked up when he heard Ahab referred to as an ogre. He thought of when he had heard the word "ogre" used previously. They had referred to monsters such as Humbaba from the Epic of Gilgamesh, which he had heard Captain Smith read aloud in the parlour, and the man-eating giant that the sailor Sinbad had encountered in the Andrew Lang translation of "Tales from Arabian Nights", itself having been read to the children by Mr. Walters.

"Ogre?" Ian asked, completely astonished. "More like a—"

"I'll be fine, Alan!" Hippolyta said, jumping up and down. "So, what if he is like that old Black Shuck that Ian always talking about? Let's go get the Holy Grail back!"

"Clearly, I have mentioned how the family loving cup was used as the Holy Grail one too many times." Alan commented with a blank expression.

"And I have only spoken of Black Shuck once or twice!" Ian exclaimed, very unhappy at Hippolyta's exaggeration.

Alexander did not know who Black Shuck was. Ian said he had spoken of this figure once or twice, yet clearly it had been either been before Alexander's arrival to the estate or Ian had spoken of Black Shuck when Alexander was not present.

"I don't really think comparing Ahab to Black Shuck is a good comparison considering that Ahab is not black." Agatha commented.

With eyes half-closed, Gemma inquired with a flat tone: "This is a conversation that must be held this very moment?"

Alexander was in semi-agreement. He stared with his eyes narrowed at the three children, yet even then he was learning about Ahab. Ahab was not black, so what color was he? What colors could ogres be? Could they be any color under the sky?

Sighing, Alan said: "Come on, Gemma. We will let them have their argument on what best to compare Ahab too."

Walking towards the doors, Gemma inquired: "Do you think they will still be arguing on what to compare that brute to when we get back?"

Shrugging, Alan opened the right door, causing Alexander to walk out and down the front steps to the dirt path that led to the estate's entrance. The Northern caracal looked back as the two redheaded adolescents exited Quebec Castle, his master's nephew saying: "Oh, who can say? I don't doubt such an argument can be short, but it can also be long. My uncle and my nana did once argue for an entire month so I should say that Ian could argue all day if he put his mind to it. I myself too maybe I'd wager. All I want to think of is getting the Holy Grail back and my uncle not knowing about this." Alexander meowed in agreement, to which Gemma gave a smile as the three set out to Filcher's shop to rescue the Cup of Christ.