The raft is built, but Nero wonders if it will be sturdy enough. The Mousecateers need to try it out first before taking more passengers across. They all need to leave on the raft, as it will be too difficult for some cats to leave them in the hope of finding a rescue party.
The Mousecateers climb on board and push the raft off across the lake.
Their first trial of the raft almost ends in disaster. Swiftly, they retreat to the shore and assess what they can do to deter the attack of this large eel. They are uncertain whether the eel is just annoyed by the raft encroaching on its territory, or whether it is hoping to have a cat for lunch.
As they stand on the rocky ledge, their fur drenched by the splashing thrown up by the eel, Nero says, ‘Lucinda, I thought these eels mostly hunted at night. But we can’t take all the cats over to the other side of the lake with this creature attacking us. Even if it didn’t snatch one of us, it could frighten some of the older ones so much that they might fall off the raft.’
The others all agreed. Nero could see their eyes glowing in the faint light, and they all looked shaken. The older cats had hunched down, while some of the younger ones were striding around, brandishing poles they had shaped from the debris blown in by the storm.
‘The raft needs to be stronger and bigger,’ says Lucinda. ‘I can use my torch to frighten the eel away. If it sees our light and all the noise, it will probably be scared off, as it is used to chasing feeble prey, not fierce felines like us!’
‘I hope you are right about that,’ says Nero. ‘Let’s give it our best shot.’
So they lash on more logs and launch again with the Mousecateers aboard, Lucinda steadying her beam of light across the lake.
The images and videos were generated by AI from the author’s prompts.
