Roxana

Making his way up the stairs, Alexander looked upon Alan first. As lean and hungry as William Shakespeare's portrayal of Gaius Cassius Longinus and standing at a height of five feet and five inches, Alan was just one of many dwarfed by his uncle. His skin was ruddy, his red hair short and curly and he had heterochromia meaning his eyes were mismatched with the left being blue and the right green. In contrast to Captain Smith, his jaw was square, and his nose hooked. Currently, he was wearing a red-and-white-striped-pajamas while his usual attire consisted of a white shirt, black trousers and shoes and a red blazer.

The adolescent stared down at Alexander, before kneeling and saying: "Hi, Alexander!" Alexander meowed in response as Alan extended a hand to pet the caracal's head, an action that Alexander allowed, even purring when he felt Alan's hand upon his head.

Alexander next approached Nana Smith, a gaunt old woman of greying black hair. She was wearing a white nightgown. At five feet and eleven inches, she too was shorter than her son. "I hope you will forgive me if I do not kneel, Young Alexander. My knees are not what they once were." Said she. Alexander's response was to rub against her legs, still purring. "I must say, you are much friendlier than Roxana."

"Nana, when Uncle Kull rescued Roxana, she was derma and cartilage and could not expire properly." Commented Alan, watching as Alexander started to walk down the aisle of the second floor. "Given how Herr von Fell abused her, I'd say Roxana's current temperament is to be expected. If we give her time, she will come around."

All this Alexander had heard while he walked down the aisle, looking back and forth as he passed doors, one leading to the library, another leading to the second floor's office. He stopped at one point to scratch an itch yet continued, stopping again when he heard someone coming up behind him. Turning, he saw that it was Alan, following to keep an eye on him no doubt. Thus, did he continue his exploration of Quebec Castle.

Turning to enter a washroom, Alexander jumped up onto a sink and looked at the mirror. He saw what he knew to be his reflection. This was most certainly not the female caracal whose scent he had detected. He then exited the washroom and made his way into the parlour. On his left he could see an armoire and near it upon the wall was a photograph of Captain Smith with a bust of the Nineteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Merneptah and another photograph of Captain Smith on expedition in Egypt. Alexander then approached a dresser at the other end of the parlour and proceeded to rub his head against one of its corners, getting his scent on it.

Next Alexander approached the fireplace and laid before it. It was nice and warm, a very good place to spend the evenings, especially if others were present. Looking around from where he lay, Alexander could see a wee table before a chesterfield on the right side of the room and there he saw the female.

There did Alexander see Roxana.

In contrast to Alexander, Roxana's coat was uniformly sandy. As a female she was sixteen inches tall at the shoulder, had a head-and-body length of forty inches and a tail that was twelve inches long, meaning she was slightly smaller than Alexander. She did not seem pleased to see him, for she had been laying upon the chesterfield, yet had now risen, leapt from the chesterfield, and was approaching with ears flattened, eyes narrowed and a growl emitting from her throat. The moment she was three inches from Alexander, she hissed and took a swipe at him, something that the male caracal was quick to avoid. She was cantankerous, mean-spirited, barbaric and the comeliest animal that Alexander had ever seen.

Not long after avoiding her swipe, Alexander approached Roxana and proceeded to sniff her. Roxana on the other hand, had no interest in becoming friendly. She hissed once more and attempted another swipe, Alexander avoided and returned to sniffing her and this repeated two more times while Alan watched from the doorway.

When Captain Smith arrived and saw the scene before him, he said to Alexander: "She'll be alright." This was followed immediately by Roxana hissing at Alexander. Stepping into the parlour, he then said to Alan: "I take it Cnut is with the boys and Emma is with the girls."

"Yes, Uncle Kull." Alan answered.

"Good dogs, good loyal canines."

"I take it no one took Herod and Cleopatra out of their abode save to stretch their wings when I was gone?"

"Yes, Uncle Kull."

"I am glad." Stated Captain Smith, walking over to a curtain to the right of the chesterfield and parting it. It revealed the door to his bedroom. Opening the door, Captain Smith looked over to Alexander as his attention turned from Roxana to the room he had not known existed.

Entering his master's bedroom, Alexander found a place that seemed otherworldly for him. It was modelled after Egypt, yet an Egypt he did not know. It was modelled after room in a Cairo hotel that Captain Smith had once stayed in. In the middle of the room was a round table and to the right of it was a dresser and it was there that Captain Smith placed his hat. Above that dresser hung a scroll of papyrus depicting the coronation of Ramesses the Great. Captain Smith then walked over to his bed and looked at the bedside table to the right of the bed, his side. There was a picture of his late wife there and it was from the placement that Alexander knew that it was important, even if he did not who the picture was of.

Sniffing a palm tree and then rubbing his face against a box of drawers, Alexander proceeded to carry on with his exploration of his master's bedroom, all while Roxana followed him with her ears flattened and her eyes narrowed.

He first approached an alpenstock leaning against a corner. He sniffed it, then looked to his master as Captain Smith sat upon his bed and proceeded to take his boots off. Alexander's response to this action was to jump up onto the bed, proceed to sniff his master's left elbow, rub his head against it and then meow at Captain Smith.

At forty-five years and a height of six feet and four inches, Captain Smith towered over most people. He was a muscular man who was a quarter Algonquin, a quarter Cayuga, a quarter German, and a quarter Irish. There were three moles to the side of his left eye and two scars on the left side of his face with the most notable going through his left eyebrow. His black hair was long and Zeus-like, his handlebar mustache Wyatt Earp-like and his beard was a goatee. His attire was his uniform from the Second Boer War which he had turned into everyday wear, in contrast to his comrades who had survived the war and had put it on display in their homes. The uniform consisted of khaki coat and trousers, with a white shirt, black boots, and a Stetson hat, the last of which was now on a hat rack in the entrance hall.

Captain Smith smiled at the caracal and scratched the feline's chin, an action that Alexander greatly appreciated. Roxana, however, was not impressed. From the floor, she watched this whole thing and growled loudly.

Standing in the doorway of his uncle's room, Alan watched Roxana's reaction. Her body language, her vocalization, she was very clearly not happy about Alexander, her prospective mate… Then again, she had not exactly been happy when the students had arrived from their summer holidays. Given time she had gotten used to them, but still Herr von Fell's treatment of Roxana had affected her personality and yet Alan was left to wonder why with Alexander she did not just avoid him. She had avoided the students until she had gotten use to them, but with Alexander, another caracal, she was acting very… territorial… As wild caracals were.

Wild?

Alan could not understand it. Roxana was a tame specimen, wasn't she? Thus, did Alan ask: "Uncle Kull, where exactly did von Fell get Roxana? I can't rightly remember."

"He claimed India." Answered Captain Smith, leaning down and picking up Roxana. "There, there, Roxana. You are alright." Even in her master's arms, Roxana growled at Alexander while the male approached her and sniffed her.

"Did he ever say how he came to acquire her?" Alan asked. "Again, I can't rightly remember."

"He did not, but I do not think he got her legally. He probably stole her from a trainer rather than pay for her." Captain Smith replied.

"What exactly do we know about him?" inquired Alan. "All I, Gemma and others know is that he is a big game hunter and circus owner who is the rival of Theodore Roosevelt."

"I first met him eighteen years ago, Alan." Stated Captain Smith, gently stroking Roxana to calm her down. "It was the year before the Second Boer War. Captain Thorsen and I were in Tsavo."

"What?" asked Alan, surprised by what he was hearing. "Uncle Kull, eighteen years ago was when—"

"When the Tsavo Man-Eaters were doing their killing. I know, Alan." Replied Captain Smith as he let go of Roxana. "I was there. Me, Captain Thorsen, Herr von Fell and John Henry Patterson. Herr von Fell was rather open about his past. He talked about his service in the Franco-German War, how he fought at Saarbrucken, Spicheren and Bitche and how he had taken the head of a French soldier from each of those conflicts to have them mounted on his wall." Roxana jumped down from the bed and proceeded to make her way from the bedchamber, as Captain Smith continued: "He was also honest about how he killed his father and three brothers over the course of nineteen years in hunting accidents. He had no remorse about it, he just felt that I ought to know. When I asked why, he merely said that their deaths benefited his place in society. The man was absolutely enraged when Patterson managed to kill not one but both of the Tsavo Man-Eaters, even challenged him to a duel, something that Patterson saw no point in and I don't blame him."

All this Alexander listened to, even as he followed Roxana out of the chamber. The last thing he heard before leaving the chamber was Alan saying with a less than enthused tone: "And now he is a resident of the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham. Terrific."

Alexander had never seen Herr Ludwig von Fell before. With it being circus season, Herr von Fell's first focus would have been his circus' tour throughout the province of Ontario so it would be unlikely to have seen him outside of Canada during this time and Roxana knew perfectly well why. Herr von Fell was not only the owner of the circus, but he was also its ringmaster and animal trainer and when it came to the latter, he was as cruel as a Hellenic deity. Roxana had hated Herr von Fell and she had not been the only animal in the circus. Most animals either hated or could tell there was something anomalous, somehow evil about him. Horses would either try to kick him or grow nervous in his presence. Wolves and their various subspecies including the domestic dog would either grow violently aggressive, cautious, or outright frightened in his presence. Bears would grow apprehensive in his presence and all deer, even moose or elk, as they were called in Eurasia, would flee from him. Of all the animals in Herr von Fell's menagerie, there was one that did not hate him and that was Hermann the golden eagle, the only creature that Herr von Fell was ever kind to, yet even he was not the animal that was always with him, the creature that was in every photograph printed in newspapers and magazines. The creature was an albino chimpanzee named Beelzebub and he was Herr von Fell's closest associate.

Beelzebub was not a good animal. A wild born specimen that Herr von Fell had captured during a trip to the State of West Africa, a wasting sickness had stolen his massive form, but not his aggression and cruelty. The black leopard Muzaffar and the liger Otto would always find Beelzebub hurling rocks at him and be unable to reach the troglodyte as neither feline would be unable to get out of their cages and Beelzebub would always be a safe distance away with his small, beady, and red eyes glaring and his fangs bared. Roxana too had been a subject of Beelzebub's torment and so knew the expression well.

Now, Roxana was in a good home. A great estate filled with beauty, yet even then the Canada lynx Miltiades brought an element of danger to the place. As she walked into the aisle, Alexander following her, she made her way to the entrance hall and then walked down the stairs.

Alexander did not know where she was going. All he knew was that he was following Roxana and that she had been here longer than he had. As they walked down the stairs, Alexander took a moment to pause and stare at a painting hanging on the wall in the stairway. It portrayed a lion attacking a horse, one of English Painter George Stubbs' work. The painting had been one of the few belongings of Borna Thorsen, the previous owner of Quebec Castle who had disinherited his biological heirs. Captain Thorsen had died serving in the Second Boer War and had left the estate to the then Lieutenant Smith who had been his friend, employee, and second-in-command.

Roxana had seen the painting many times and so it meant little to her. She just made her way to an aisle here on the first floor, where the rooms of Mr. Cook and his daughter Gemma were located. She first peered into Mr. Cook's room and there he sat, reading a book. She passed the room and entered Gemma's while Alexander did not follow, but rather entered the room, looking to know who the occupant was.