Out from Quebec Castle

When the group arrived at the gates of Quebec Castle, Alexander paused at the threshold. While Alan, Gemma, Ian, Agatha and Hippolyta all crossed it, the caracal did not. He had come this far in his exploration of the grounds, yet he had never dared leave the estate. While the students would leave the estate at times with Ms. Burnett and Mr. Walters, Emma following after them, Alexander never dared follow. Quebec Castle was his home! Here was the grass and the trees! He was the river and the birds and the beasts! Here he was at home, out there in a city…

He had seen cities on his journey to Canada with Captain Smith and not all of them were to his liking. His master back in Egypt, the master of his parents, had not lived in a city. He lived on his own estate near the ruins of Memphis. The first time Alexander had been in a city had been with Captain Smith and he had been terrified. Captain Smith had said: "Stay close to me, Alexander" and he did. He stuck close to his master, all while staying alert in the alien world that was a city.

Sniffing the ground of the threshold, Alexander quickly looked back and forth. He noticed how his human friends had paused to watch him and meowed at them. He did not want them to leave him, yet he did not know if they would understand.

Alan said: "Stay close to me, Alexander" and that was the moment that the caracal ran across the threshold to join his human friends. He would stay close to his master's nephews, his master's gardener's daughter, his master's student and his master's daughter. He would be safe with all of them.

Rubbing against the legs of Alan, Alexander proceeded to walk by Alan's side when they all continued on their way down the dirt path. Being in the presence of others was something Alexander enjoyed, even if he did take time to explore or patrol the country house. He had joined the people of Quebec Castle a few times on their walks around the estate, even on his first day on the estate when he accompanied Alan, Ian and Hippolyta. It had been that day he first encountered the goose Lucifer, as well as learning that Ian liked his classmate Beatrice. That first night and day had been an adventure with him meeting new people and exploring his new home.

For a moment Alexander paused and stared some tall grass, wondering what could have been in there. When the wind shifted in their direction, the scent of birds was brought to him and immediately a feeling of excitement came over him. He charged into the tall grass and leapt up into the air as the birds went flying.

"Alexander! Come!" Gemma called. Returning to the group, Alexander rubbed against Gemma's legs and continued walking with her and the others. Gemma gazed down at the caracal and said: "He is so affectionate, isn't he?"

"I don't remember Darius being so affectionate." Ian commented. "But he did have his moments."

"He was still a friendly animal even if he wasn't as affectionate as Alexander." Said Agatha.

Alexander had not known his and Roxana's predecessor Darius, though he had heard him spoken of. Even Mr. Cook, Gemma's father, had made mention of Darius' apparition meaning that despite his death, the old caracal still walked Quebec Castle. Alexander had yet to meet this apparition, but he knew that some day he would, just as some day he would face the Canada lynx Miltiades, the feline responsible for Darius' fatal wounds.

Miltiades roamed the grounds of the heavily forested estate and was as much a monster as one could imagine. One could ask the question of what made a monster, but for everyone at Quebec Castle, Miltiades' fatal wounding of Darius more than made him qualify as one. He was both feared and hated with even Cnut, mighty wolfdog that he was, feeling uneasy even when there was a river between them.

As the group walked, Alexander's mind turned to Ahab and he wondered just what Ahab was. An ogre? Something like Black Shuck? What was Black Shuck anyway? Some abstract bogeyman that Ian spoke of? To Alexander it was nothing more but a name, not a name like Herr Ludwig von Fell, Alexander had heard that man spoken of enough to know who and what he was, not like Black Shuck. What was Black Shuck? How would Alexander know it when he saw it? Was Black Shuck a man? Was Ahab a man? Could a man be an ogre?

What was on Alexander's mind was the age-old question that Captain Smith had asked his students many times: what makes a monster a monster? Monsters were characteristic animals who existed to be antagonistic, forbidding, just to be dastardly, minatory or just downright abnormal. A monster was whatever seriously disgusted someone whether it only occupied the brain or coursed an accessible area. As for what made monster a monster, to some humans a beast may seem monstrous while to others it would seem awesome. The lineaments that agitated and alarmed were also the most absorbing. Some monsters were rare or visionary animals hiding in a calm mere or loch while abroad aggressive beasts made monsters of themselves on a circadian arrangement. To the caracals of the wild, the lion be it African or Asiatic was monstrous. The leopard, wolf, fox and hyaena were competing predators and the jackal an annoyance, but of all beasts it was the lion that was a monster. Whether a beast looked like a monster depended on how big it appeared in the fancy, even outside the fancy a lion was huge compared to a caracal, and divers a fabricated demon had its ancestors in wildlife, such as the Nemean lion that Heracles fought. Any beast could look a monster depending on one's angle and it was doubtless that from some angles the caracal was a monster. "Hazard hides globally." Captain Smith said. "In real life, the predator became the chased and we stay anguished." Humans had an adore-abominate relationship with monsters. As long as Darwinism persevered there would be other animate monsters that looked big, freakish or exceedingly aggressive besides the ones who came into existence only in the anomalous aspect of the brain, abode of the best monster.

Alexander had not yet seen a monster of any sort before in his life. One could make the argument he had seen giants, but he was twenty inches tall at the shoulder. A lot of living things were giants to him. He had never seen a snake or crocodile so one could not make the argument he had ever seen a dragon before. Yet now he had heard of Ahab, an "ogre" Alan said. Today he would see a monster.

Monsters were nothing new to Alan, Gemma, Ian, Agatha or Hippolyta. Going to sleep, children always feared monsters. Captain Smith had noted that girls always feared a monster under the bed, while boys had always feared a monster at the window. Since the acquisition of Cnut and Emma, the students found their fears laid to rest for the wolfdog would always spend the night with the boys and rough collie would always spend the night with the girls. Hippolyta would always go running to her father and in his absence her nana. As for Gemma, she had always gone searching for her father in her childhood. After fourteen years of such observations, Captain Smith had come to the conclusion that it was an "evolutionary souvenir", as Captain Smith put it. He hypothesized that early women would have been sleeping in trees and would have feared an attack from below while early men slept on the ground to defend them and thus would have feared an attack from the side. Regardless, if one told Alexander there was a monster under the bed or at the window, he would have believed it and would have taken whatever living thing was under the bed or at the window as said monster.

"Suppose we will see a dragon on our quest for the Holy Grail!" Hippolyta suggested as she walked. Alexander immediately looked to his master's daughter with interest. A dragon? He had heard the word, yet had little to no understanding of what a dragon was. He knew of the Leviathan from the Bible. Ms. Burnett had read it. Yet he did not know what a dragon was.

Ogres! Dragons! Black Shuck! All of these things Alexander had never seen before and while he knew he would see one on this quest to rescue the Holy Grail, he did not know if he would see the other two. Perhaps he would.