The Chronicles of Ether Drive

  Chapter 16 On Monday morning, June 29th, Anemo and his furry crew were out in the backyard. They were gathered around the wrought-iron and glass table, sitting in front of the laptop and a cup of Anemo’s famous whipped-cream coffee with pink salt. They were on a video call with Professor Simoon, who was doing his absolute best to help them all the way from London. “Anemo, my boy, listen closely,” the Professor said. “I’ve been studying the map and consulting with my colleagues.” “But Dad, we have the map here with us!” Anemo said, looking confused. “I have a photo of it on my phone! There are two options... well, at least two that might actually work.” “Go on, Dad, tell us!” Anemo replied. “We’re all ears.” The kittens and Anemo were huddled together like they were posing for a group photo. Mistral was balancing perfectly on top of the fence. Bise was perched on the left armrest of Anemo’s chair, while Sirocco sat right on the writer’s right shoulder. Aeolus, being the smallest o...

  Chapter 15 As soon as the door of the house of winds closed behind the distinguished Daisy Queen and her little Lady Bell, Anemo collapsed onto the sofa and let out a long sigh, as if he had just escaped a siege. He ran a hand through his hair, feeling the fake smile he had put on for his guest finally melt away. "There was no FaceTime call with your dad, was there?" Aeolus asked, popping out from under the silk fringes of Mistral’s pillow with a complicit grin. "Not at all," Anemo admitted, turning the phone screen toward the fur balls. "The video call excuse was the only way to get the distinguished lady to pack up her silk parachute and leave. But the real message from my dad is of major importance. Don’t panic, Remi, it’s not necessarily bad news. Look at what he wrote to me." Anemo reached out from the sofa and placed his right hand on Remi-Bise's neck to reactivate the connection. The writer, her eyes wide with astonishment, read the text on th...

   Chapter 14 The study of world mythology and feline transformations in the house of winds was loudly interrupted by energetic knocks on the door from the distinguished Daisy Queen. "Her Highness Daisy has arrived with Lady Bell!" Mistral announced from the windowsill. "I’m not home! I don’t have time for her snobbery right now," Anemo said without looking up from his computer. "Don’t be like that, Anemo! Maybe the woman has something important to say. Maybe her information will actually be useful to us!" the white cat scolded him gently. "No, not today! It’s already too much for a single day, and it’s pretty late." "8:00 pm isn’t really that late, Anemo, especially on a summer day!" "It’s still Sunday! There should be a law against... against these unannounced visits on Sundays." But Daisy Queen wouldn't take no for an answer. She backed up her knocking with the metal door knocker, then the doorbell, and to help her out,...

   Chapter 13 Anemo’s two-week sleep actually lasted less than an hour. He wanted to gather his thoughts, to find some logic in the utterly incredible and fantastic events that had burst into his life without warning, notice, or anything to prepare him for what he would eventually call the adventure of his life. Perhaps the universe had finally given him what he had asked for so many times in his feverish searches for inspiration. Perhaps this whole mix of mythology, history, and magic was nothing more than the answer to his requests... or maybe it was just a dream, a nightmare from which he would bound to wake up... He went downstairs to the living room, grabbed his laptop, and sat straight on the rug, just in case the furballs showed up. His fingers typed rapidly: cat transformations, transformation portals, cat deification, white cat, spell... Everything the search engines found was read quickly in a whispered voice... To an outsider, Anemo looked possessed. That was how th...

   Chapter 12 On the morning of June 28th, since it was Sunday, Anemo figured that seven o'clock wasn't too early to call his dad. His heart was pounding in his throat, but he dragged his stationary bike out into the back garden, popped his headphones in, and after a couple of pedals, made the call. The fur balls watched the whole thing, lined up perfectly on the garden swing as if someone had ordered them to behave. "He's finally calling him!" Mistral muttered, knowing Anemo was too far from the collar to understand them. "Quiet, Mistral, don't start with your usual commentary," Aeolus scolded him. "The professor will probably come over, and then we'll see just how smart and clever you really are once we have an open connection with him!" "Shh, boys! Let me focus on Anemo!" Remi snapped. "If I stay a cat forever because of you two..." "But being a cat is awesome, Miss Remi! I mean... Bise. Look at me! I'm l...

   Chapter 11 Solstices and equinoxes After two gulps of the strong drink, Anemo finally came to his senses. He sat down on the carpet right next to the fur balls, keeping one hand on the white cat’s fur to make sure the connection stayed open.  "Agent 003.5, can you explain what on earth we have here? Because if you ask me, this looks like my dad’s random scribbles." Aeolus cleared his throat, which he had almost lost completely from all the excitement. He spoke in the serious tone of a teacher explaining things to his students. "The map, which the professor quickly copied onto this rough piece of linen, looks like a secret blueprint. It's geometric and mystical at the same time, mixing science with Ancient Egyptian cat magic. The Central Circle, also known as the Body of Nut: Right in the middle of the cloth, a large circle is drawn with a single stroke of charcoal, a bit lopsided because he was in a rush. This represents the belly of the sky goddess, Nut. In the e...

   Chapter 10 Since the summer solstice, the dynamics inside the house of the winds had completely shifted. The peace, the sweet, specific peace of our picturesque street was entirely gone, and Anemo's life had become an endless string of unannounced visits and unexpected phone calls from Arbalest or Trenci, or the distinguished Daisy Queen, who had made a habit of dropping by every time she took her precious dog, Lady Bell, out for a walk. On top of that, there was Fleur, who wasn’t exactly a nuisance but had turned into a sort of editor, almost as nagging as Archibald, and Noel's pigeons had become incredibly noisy, accompanied by Skye's barking; Aura Gale called him but also visited daily, threatening him with a fresh, textbook-perfect deep clean, and his inspiration had fled somewhere, God knows where, despite the hours he spent on the living room armchair in front of his laptop. Sleep eluded Anemo both night and day, leaving him with massive bags under his eyes. Life w...

  Chapter 9  Everything would have gone like clockwork at the House of Winds if the stars hadn't aligned in such a way that Anemo was present in the living room pretty much all the time. Of all the places to write, he had chosen the exact recliner armchair behind which the furries—or rather, Sirocco—had hidden the backpack full of clues. First, he and Arcibald Peter Stone had a discussion in the living room that was as long as a day of fasting. They went on and on about Remi, publishers, deadlines, magazines, meetings, Anemo’s coffee recipe, the weather, literary trends... "Mon Dieu, these two will retire by the time they finish this conversation. How can they talk so much? I truly do not understand!" Mistral grumbled. "Shh, calm down, Mistral! They might hear you. We still don't know for sure when humans can understand us and when they can't," Aeolus tried to soothe the chat noir. Just then, Arcibald’s phone began to ring, and he answered immediately: ...

    Chapter 8 While Anemo and Arcibald were in the kitchen discussing how... completely untraceable she was, Remi, Bise crept stealthily toward the coat rack tree. It was loaded even more heavily than a Christmas tree, and she needed to map out an attack plan. The backpack wasn't even visible anymore... actually, only a strap could be seen, a tiny piece of a strap. But that was enough for the sharp eyes of an Angora cat. "To free the backpack, I need to get up there! To get up there, right above the coat rack tree, I have to make a daring leap. I'll get a running start, like this, get a running start... I'll go up the stairs, and from there, I'll definitely reach the top. Thank Heaven I can still find a way!" Elegant and agile like a true feline, Remi climbed about seven steps. She practiced the leap a few times just in her mind, then gathered momentum and, with one single bound, landed right on top of the coat rack tree, making it wobble, but only a little. ...

  Chapter 7  Yeah, they don't 'emphafize' with girls like that... actually, they don't empathize with any kind of girls... they just won't admit it. Whatever, I can manage on my own. I plan to see what's in that backpack... maybe there's another collar that can turn me back... maybe I can somehow find a way to open that portal." Bise curled up on one of the black leather armchairs in the living room, brooding far away from the other furries, who were still upset with her over a joke. "It’s so boring to just vegetate here all by myself... I should at least read something. I think I know where Aeolus hides a book or two for reading, and I think he has a book of poetry..." Both the sofa and the armchairs in Anemo's house had these pocket-like pouches at the back that closed with Velcro. More than once, missing items from around the house had mysteriously turned up in those pockets... keys, the remote, pens, a wallet, and so much else. So, our...

  Chapter 6 Kidnapping a backpack from a coat rack tree is no easy mission, especially when clothes have been piled right on top of it. That morning, in the hallway of the House of the Winds, our furry crew had gathered at the base of the rack, eyeing it up like mountaineers before climbing a major peak. "So, what do we do now?" the white cat asked. "That backpack is so buried that we risk being caught in an avalanche if we 'kidnap' it, ma chérie," Mistral replied. "Maybe we should wait for a better moment... Maybe Mrs. Aura will come and tidy up, or maybe it will rain and Anemo will take some of those raincoats..." "Do you think so?" "Miss Remi... I mean Bise, now that you have the name of a wind, why don't you take a day off? We could go into the yard, and I could teach you how to hunt... I'm a very good hunter." Mistral, who had just looked away from the coat rack to admire his perfect claws, chimed in immediately: ...

   Chapter 5 During the summer, the night is never too dark on the island, especially if the sky is clear, and even more so for the eyes of our furry friends. Remi, newly turned into Bise, was just discovering how suddenly familiar she was with all the feline antics—Sirocco’s playfulness, Mistral’s aristocratic laziness, and the hunting of shadows, balls, slippers, or pencils chewed on by Aeolus or even Anemo during his feverish creative moods. All of this, and so much more combined, meant a unique, extraordinary, and fantastic experience for her. However, on the night I am telling you about, the plans were quite different, and the furry crew had to act with perfect, textbook synchronization. "Psst, Aeolus, take the helm!" the white cat called out in a whispered voice. But Sirocco, being Sirocco, got instantly excited, as if they were about to board a ship straight out of the movies. "Are we going on a ship like pirates?" "Not quite, little one," Mistral c...

   Chapter 4 In the kitchen of the House of Winds, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. Anemo paced back and forth restlessly, his bare feet cold against the tiled floor, completely lost in thought when the phone in his pocket gave a short buzz. He had received a notification. But before he could even unlock the screen or read the saving message sent in secret by the furry crew, the bronze lion-shaped knocker on the front door began to pound violently. "I'm coming! Hold your horses, the house isn't on fire!" "Are you sure about that?" Frost replied the moment the door swung open. "Have you seen the circus outside your place?" He had just managed to reach the door with great effort, sweaty and irritated under his long trench coat. Because of the chaos caused by reporters, who had completely blocked off Ether Drive with broadcast vans and tripods, the detective had been forced to park his car all the way at the other end of the street. H...