Clove & Moose: Moose Moment 3

Clove and Moose is a serial fiction story. If you want to get caught up on what came before, click one of the buttons below.

Previously, on Clove & Moose: After the mysterious Cataclysm dried up the earth and its magic, Clove and her cat Moose travelled to find and repair pools of corrupted magic left behind. She's picked up three companions: Marissa, Jasper, and his trusty horse Miss Delilah.

Everyone was ignoring Moose. He was a sweet beautiful boy who had never done any wrong, and yet no one was paying attention to him.

This was unacceptable.

“Meow,” he meowed. “Meow!”

“Shh, Moose, mommy’s busy,” Clove said. She didn’t even look at him! Such rudeness. She’d left him tied to a fence while she was investigating one of those funny glowing circles. How dare she.

“Meowwwwww.”

“It’s okay boy, we’ll be right back,” Marissa said.

“MeoooOOOOOOoooOOOwwwwWWWWWWwwwww!”

“That’s a bit much, isn’t it, little fellow?” Jasper cooed. 

Moose was not a little fellow. He was a big strong handsome man of a cat. How dare that insolent human speak to him this way.

“MEOW!”

Then someone snuffled him. Moose raised a claw before realizing it was his other friend, Miss Delilah. She licked his whole face and rumpled his fur with her disgusting slobber, but at least someone was paying attention to him.

He rubbed his head against her snout in appreciation, and she snorted at him. He sat down and washed her slime off his face while she nibbled at a nearby patch of grass. When she lay down in the field, he snuggled in beside her warm body.

A while later, the other humans finished with their silly magic circle and Clove finally came looking for him.

“Alright, Moosey, who’s ready for some pets?”

He flicked an ear in her direction but didn’t otherwise acknowledge her.

“I guess you found someone else to snuggle with. You’re sure you wouldn’t rather hang out with me? There might be treats.”

Moose didn’t give in to temptation. He was comfortable, and he wanted to show appreciation for the only real friend he had left. He stayed curled up with Miss Delilah until dinner time.

Thank you for reading! We'll come back to the main story of Clove & Moose soon enough, but I've been publishing a monthly fiction newsletter for five years straight and I need a little break. These shorter Moose Moments will be coming to your inbox instead for the next few months.

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Katie Conrad is a speculative fiction writer living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. You can find her on bluesky and instagram.