Clove & Moose: Moose Moment 4

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.

Moose could smell that terrible scent. It burned at the back of his throat and made his nose twitch. He hated it.

Usually Clove found the smell and made it go away, but today she was distracted talking to the other humans and not paying attention. That was okay. Moose could make her pay attention. He’d led her to the smell once before, though he hadn’t gotten much thanks for it.

Moose crossed to the front of the wagon and stood on his back legs so he could paw at Clove’s elbow where she sat on the driver’s seat. 

“What’s up buddy?” she cooed. “You getting bored? Don’t worry, we’ll be there soon.”

He meowed and pawed her again.

“Aww, little guy,” Marissa said. She was in the back of the wagon with him. “You need a snuggle? Come here.”

She lunged for him, and Moose jumped away. He couldn’t let her capture him. The smell was getting worse and he wanted it to stop.

Moose hissed.

“Moosey?” Clove asked. She was looking at him, not the source of the smell. “What’s up?”

Moose pulled his rope as far as he could go in the direction of the smell, and meowed louder.

“Hey, wait,” Marissa said, pointing. “Is that-?”

Clove finally looked in the right direction. “Oh. OH. Moose, did you find that? Did you lead mommy to the bad magic?”

“He did!” Marissa said, crawling to sit next to Moose and rubbing his head. “What a smart kitty.”

“My handsome son is a genius!” Clove declared. “Jasper, can we get over there?”

“On it,” Jasper grunted, sending Miss Delilah in that direction at the next turn in the road. 

The humans didn’t seem to understand the urgency of the situation. There was a smell that Moose didn’t like, and he wanted it to stop. But finally, they arrived, and Clove made the smell go away. By the time she was done, Moose had taken her seat and was sound asleep. He deserved the best spot in the wagon. After all, he was a genius.

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.