Chapter 3- The Attack

Meh the Cat found the walking very uneventful. The two companions were simply walking and walking, as if there was no tomorrow.

"W-Where are we going?" yawned Meh the Cat. With another flick through her dictionary, TabbyCat replied:

"We're... heading over... to the... city of...the Meh... Team. They should... be able to... understand your... Meh language. I believe... it is called Mehton." Reverting back to her own tongue, TabbyCat groaned. "Boy, conjugating Mehnese verbs makes my life difficult." Meh did not question this outburst and followed the TabbyCat through the dense woods that seemed to spread out in every direction up to the horizon, whilst pondering the raison d'etre of the slimes. After a few minutes, which seemed like a whole epoch to Meh, they heard a faint periodic squelching sound. Squelch. Squelch. Squelch. It could only belong to a
glutinous organism which both cats were overly familiar with: a slime. The duo froze while scanning the shadowy undergrowth. Suddenly, the squelching sounds became much louder: it sounded like a whole legion of slimes was heading towards them at full speed! TabbyCat looked behind them to find a dozen slimes destroying the trail that they were on just moments before. Meh looked ahead and saw a score of slimes leaping over to them. Soon they were surrounded. Among the slimes was someone - or something! - wearing a long black cloak and hood which covered the face.

"You want to
prevent the beginnings of a new, glorious empire? I don't think so. Slimes, ATTACK!"
yelled the mysterious being in the black clothing. Meh panicked; she had never been taught how to fight, as a pacifist. But she yearned to kill the abominable slimes. Luckily, Ludwig van Beethoven had left her with a parting gift: a handheld taser. She held up the miniscule object in front of her, clutching it as if it was her lifeline. "Meh, do something!" yelled TabbyCat as the slimes closed in. Meh thumbed the trigger
of the taser, wondering what on earth the best fighter in the land had just said to her.

"Take this." And TabbyCat thrust a water gun into Meh's paws. Meh knew what Tabby wanted. Water dissolves slimes: TabbyCat wanted her to dissolve them! Most of them dissolved within minutes with little screams but the blue ones, somehow, grew in size!

"Don't squirt the blue ones, they are water slimes and, unlike most slimes, will grow or heal
when in contact with water!"yelled TabbyCat. Meh did not understand a word of it, but had found out with her common sense. She instead electrocuted the large blue slimes, which sent currents through their gelatinous bodies. But there were too many for just one taser.

"Aha, you slimes are dead now!" said TabbyCat as she turned around with a massive purple sword wrapped in prickly vines with odd engravings on it and an emerald encrusted in the hilt.

"TAKE THIS!" yelled Tabby as she slammed the sword point down into the ground. Meh thought she had missed but suddenly prickly vines, like the ones wrapped around the sword, erupted out of the ground aroung the slimes, closed tightly around the slimes and quickly killed them. Meh stared, completley stunned by the scene she had witnessed. She wondered how on earth that worked and what exactly had happened but then put her focus back onto the creepy person in the black clothing.

"You may have beaten me but next time I shall stop you. You have been warned!" said the
eerie person in the black clothing and she disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

"Oh my Meh-ness! That was amazing Tabby! How did you do that?" exclaimed Meh with
sparkling eyes.

"Sorry, could you say that slower, I need to flick through the dictionary to understand what
you're saying, remember." Replied Tabby

"Meh, I totally forgot that she doesn't understand the Meh language." Thought Meh. And so
with a slow repeat of what she just said and a flick through the dictionary, TabbyCat replied "It's just a special ability with this sword, different weapons have different abilities. Your taser there was displaying an excellent show of electric properties. I'll teach you more about it when we get into the city. Oh and can I have my water gun back?" replied Tabby as she stuffed the sword into her backpack.

As soon as the two got back on track, they once again continued their walk. Over this walk, Meh the Cat thought about how TabbyCat could fit the sword into her backpack and
what else she may have in there. She also thought:"This special-abilities-in-weapons subject is very interesting. It will come in handy in battle. I wonder who that person in the black cloak was. She definitely is working for the slimes, or maybe she rules them! I guess I'll have to wait and see."

Suddenly, a bird flew over the treetops, skimming low and letting out an ear-splitting shriek. "Ah! A messenger bird from Beethoven's village!" exclaimed TabbyCat happily, gesturing for the bird to perch on her shoulder. She quickly translated from the dictionary:"I wonder what's the matter? Beethoven usually keeps to himself. He's like a hermit." Meh was quite overjoyed that the musical genius had sent a message. She waited for TabbyCat to finish reading the letter, which was enchanted so that the letter translated itself to the language of preference of the reader. Suddenly, TabbyCat's pallor changed, and she fell over in a dead faint.

"TabbyCat!" exclaimed Meh, shaking her friend. She quickly grabbed the letter for herself,
and her eyes greedily scanned the parchment.

To TabbyCat and Meh,

Ludwig van Beethoven is dead.
He died on March the 26th, 1827. He was one of many casualties when the slimes
raided our village, knowing that you had been there. He has included you in his
will, as he had long foreseen his own death. He left TabbyCat with his wide arsenal
of weapons, but left to Meh all of his music and instruments. We have
dispatched a messenger with these items to the city of TabbyCat.

Yours faithfully,

Anton Schindler (village elder)

Meh soon joined TabbyCat on the dirt path, head spinning from the information. Why were the slimes set on finding them?

"It's our fault Beethoven's village was attacked!" sobbed Meh.

Ludwig van Beethoven, one of their meager number of allies, was gone.

By TabbyCat and LudwigVanBeethoven