Prologue: Other's ask me often, what it is like to be taught by Mr. Mistoffelees and I told nobody yet. I have to admit that I never asked him whether I was allowed to tell it but on the other hand he did not forbid it. I will keep some secrets because magicians are not allowed to tell several magical secrets.
At first I need to tell you who I am. You'll not know me if you have not read my story about me becoming a Jellicle and so I'll tell it to you the shorter way.
My name is Jelcey Mistoline and I was born far away from the junkyard. My mother was Fellow Jeen, a magician female who knew Mistoffelees from a Magical Ball, where they had fallen in.... (ups, I may not tell that). He is not my father because I was born too late to refer it back to my moms and his relationship. She died because of an car accident and I knew I should go to the Junkyard and search for this "Misto" she had told me about short before she breathed her last breathe. Her last word which she could not speak to its end was "Misto..." and it was a kind of advice for me to search this cat. And so I started a journey to the Jellicle tribe, my mom had always bright eyes when she told me about the Jellicles.
I passed a long and hard journey, came to the junkyard and I found some food in a trashcan. There I fell asleep and when the cats came back to the junkyard they sensed me as something new, but did not find me...
I felt something going on outside and than they opened my trashcan and Jenny took me outside. I introduced myself to the cats and told them my name was Jelcey and my mother had advised me to search for Misto. Fortunately he was there and he remembered Fellow Jeen. Old Deuteronomy made me a Jellicle after Mistoffelees and Munkustrap had persuaded him that I needed to be in the tribe. He gave me a Jellicle-name - Mistoline and three teachers: Jellylorum and Mungojerry for lyrics and dances, and because Mistoffelees sensed that I could be magical, he was chosen to give me those magic-lessons... He said I had little magical facilities. Perhaps I am not really able to tell you what kind of a teacher he is. I never had magical lessons before and so I am not prepared to compare Mistoffelees with others. I do not like to compare him with Jellylorum or Mungojerry who taught me a bit of dancing and singing because you know: They are of a completely different type. I just can say how I feel Mistoffelees is and I have to say that he takes his job serious. He can be friendly if he feels like and he can also be firm. Stop that!I should begin with the beginning and not start in the middle of the story!
Before a magical cat can be a magical at it needs a special treatment. I never heard a name for it and I for myself just call it "the spot of magic". I'll call it "to spot" or "to alight" if I mention it in this story. Maybe there is no name for it, I do not know. Magical cats usually know what they mean if they speak about. There is hardly a reason to speak about at all.
This "spot" can be given to you at every age and from every magical cat. If you have magical facilities and grow old, you may meet a magical cat than and it gives you magic if nobody gave you before. That happens to the unlucky ones (what would you do with your magic when you are too old to discover it?). If I had not found Mr. Mistoffelees I would perhaps ended up like this. It was my mothers fault but I do not blame her. She maybe was only afraid when she refused to giving it to me as long as I was a kitten.
When a kitten of a magical is born it is perhaps a magical cat. The mother feels if it is not. My sister Chicapy for example was not magical. I never knew her because she left my mother and me (I was not born, my mom had been pregnant). I just know that she was a friendly cat who preferred living on her own and that my mother was very sad when she left.
I was a magical cat! Usually magician-mothers spot their kittens as soon as they are able to walk and exercise with them to make them magical cats. My mother was of a different kind! She did not want to alight me! Not until I were grown enough. And she let me suffer on waiting. It is true that magic could be dangerous but I grew and grew and she denied every time I asked about it to alight me with the magic. When she died I still was not spotted yet and so I had to pass the journey to the Jellicles without magic. She did not have the chance to do it to me before she was completely dead. I said I did not blame her, a friend's kitten died while his mother tried to give him "the spot of magic" because she calculated her magical powers wrong.
I wasn't completely without magic. I had the little magic every not-spotted cat has. This part of magic is just useful to make nonsense with it. I could make little flashes coming out of my whiskers and I could make someone scratching his tail but nothing really magical.
Now, you can imagine who made me completely magical. I am a lucky cat! I am really a lucky cat. There are not many cat- magicians in the world but I found one. It is possible that all magicians are from a big family and so I am maybe related to Mistoffelees even I do not think so because I did not know him at all.
I said my sister Chicapy who moved away from my mother before I was born. She was not magical like her father, a black and ginger tom. The reason for her non-magic could be - no not the reason but a sign for it - her fur color. She was a cat with tiger stripes and black and ginger patches. The possibility for you being a magical cat is higher if you are black mostly or if you have only one or two fur colors. It is only the possibility and it does not mean that black cats are better magicians than colored ones. Nobody knows why it is like this and we needn't know everything!
And it is right: In fur color Mistoffelees and I nearly look the same (I have four white paws and on my belly is a long silver-white line, that's why I am Mistoline). Of course, he is a better magician than I am (did I already mention that he is one of the best magicians I ever heard of?). And I do not say this because he is full magical and I am only a half-magical cat (as everybody says). It is not real that I am a half-magical cat or one with little magical facilities, I have more than only a half of all possible magic.
I do not think there are any cats existing who possess all possible magic but it's true that "magical Mr. Mistoffelees" has a quantity of it and is famous. Not only the Jellicles know him. You know those strays pass by sometimes and they are often asking for Mr. Mistoffelees before they go on with their journey. I have to admit that I adore him very much when he does his tricks. I know, I'll never reach his status. He is not only great. If he takes it too funny he may fail (He wouldn't admit it, but I noticed it). If he spends too much energy it does not work and that happens sometimes. He has a great way to make others believe that everything is alright... (It is like that hunting for mice,...just deceiving you into believing.)
I do not know if Mistoffelees has already taught any cats or kitten. He is a very young teacher and a very good one, too. If you see him, you may think he did not teach anybody yet because he looks very young. If you work with him it is as if he had experience: He seems to know exactly what he needs to do. Just one thing about him is annoying! He can be nasty... You will see it when I tell you how he let me suffer when my paws burnt!
He sometimes annoys me although I'll be never angry with him. I am very glad to have a teacher. There are two ways on learning magic. The first is the easier and safer way: You can be taught by another magician. I am taught and that is good, every cat would choose a teacher if it was able to choose because the other way is tough, dangerous and you may not find out everything you can do with your magic. The dangerous way is the way of "Find out yourself!". You just have the "spot of magic" and than you're left alone to find out what magic can do with you (or you with it). I wonder which way Mistoffelees took. He never told me! He hardly speaks about anything concerning his personal being. I could not figure it out. Perhaps it is this what makes him so mystical - he has always some personal secrets and he never will tell...
I think you are maybe interested in my first lesson and how I reached the spot of magic. Well here you are!!!
Mistoffelees had said that we wanted to meet at the Junkyard he wanted to collect me there. I was very excited! I could feel magic grumble inside me and waiting to come out. I wanted to make flashes, pick cards from a pack, and... The feeling was marvelous and I was very impatient sitting in the middle of the junkyard where everybody could see me and I was proud. I thought about teleport things, throwing my voice and I naively did not notice that it would last a while to learn this.
Suddenly there were some claws hurting my tail and someone stepped on it. I was just sitting there, covered in thoughts and suddenly my tail hurt and I felt someone breathing behind me.
"HEY!" I hissed and jumped around to beat the person who obviously wanted to annoy me or even put up a fight. It was Mistoffelees who had stepped on my tail and as far as I knew him he obviously did notwant to fight. But why did he step on my tail? I hissed at him before I stopped because of the strange look he gave me. I am always hissing if something happens.
"Oh-woh-woh!" he laughed. "Lady becomes evil, eh?" Lady? Evil? Haha, very funny, Mistoffelees, very funny!, I thought.
"You've to learn a lot, Mistoline!" he sighed as if he'd liked to say Oh my god, I'll have to work hard....and I suddenly felt all my magic disappear and blamed for not being magical enough (that was foolish, of course). I ducked.
"The first to learn is: Sensing everybody who enters the yard." And than poofhe was gone while I sat there hissing to the spot where he had been a second ago. I was angry (kittenish, of course, not really)! He made fun of me! I wanted to learn magic and not sensing cats on the yard. How unimportant!
I felt something moving behind me and turned around a second before the black cat was able to beat its claws into my tail. At first I was happy! He had not reached his aim to hurt my tail. My happiness disappeared when he just said "Earlier!" and than was away again with a poof.
Today I know that he was right. I wanted to be a magician and did not even sense him like a normal cat perhaps would have.
Now, I knew what he wanted to do and I was prepared. I sat up straight concentrated on the junkyard and waited for seeing, hearing or feeling anybody around. I waited for a very long time and it made me impatient and the concentrating made me tired. I wondered why there were no other cats except Misto and me but it was very early and not the right time to meet any Jellicle on the yard. I felt so impatient that it came up to my mind that he wanted me to give up concentrating and than he would come to win the game. Tricky catI thought but I am the better trick-cat!. I began licking my paw as if I had forgotten Mistoffelees and I saw him slowly appear in front of me. I had been right, he just had waited for the right moment. I stopped licking to concentrate again but as soon as I stopped he was gone. I licked again and when I saw him this time through the corner of my eye on the left I did no stop licking and he approached. When he was near enough I suddenly jumped on him and a few seconds later I sat proudly on Mr. Mistoffelees himself!
He smiled and it was not as teacher-like as he had been before and he even licked my ear. "Good! You are okay for the beginning, we will make that better during the time." He placed me on his back to take me with him and I was happy. To be carried by Mistoffelees was very nice and the sun shone on my back. The journey was not very long although I wished it had been. When we reached a backyard where we stopped I was nearly asleep and was gently purring on Mistoffelees back, my claws working delightful on his neck. He liked the massage and purred a bit too but than dropped me on the ground in a sunny spot, remembering why we had come here and that he was my teacher. He went away, I was still purring with delight.
It was all a trick! He wanted to test me again and approached from the back. He eventually hoped that I would not notice him while I was half asleep but fortunately I did. I knew that it was Mistoffelees and nobody else, I recognized his way of walking and so I wanted to pass the test "apathetic" and did not want to show my excitement.
"Mistoffelees, could you please appear in front of me? I needn't turn around to see you than and my tail would be safe!" I did not make any move and it must have looked very unconcerned and nonchalant.
"Respect, Mistoline!" he answered me while he walked over. It were still a few meters to me and so I was happy that I had noticed him so early. "You did well and it would even work better if you used your magic." he seemed to be very pleased with me. "That is not the aim, but a good beginning. The purpose is to notice anybody without knowing that he will come. You have time to learn that. Why didn't you use your magic?" I wondered if he wanted to judge me for not using my magic or if he just was interested or what else. In addition I did not know if he knew that I could not use my magic yet.
"Um,...er... I-I...I can't?!" I stuttered not aware if this was good or bad. "I am not...I haven't, I-I mean I wasn't..." he could not figure out how to tell him something that is not named.
"You mean, fellow Jeen did not give it to you?" his eyes widened, he was very surprised. Than he thought a moment, it was not normal that a cat at my age had not been already "alighted" yet.
"Typical!" he added in thought of my mom. "I have to do everything!" That stunned me. Was he angry? He noticed that I was perplexed and laughed: "It is not important. It may have lead you into trouble if she had done it. Let's do it. I hope it is not too hard for you the more older you are, the more you feel..."