Written by Christine Wichman c. January 14, 2018
I am sure you have heard of those dastardly villains Boris and Natasha, but I bet you have never heard of the Russian dynamic duo Vladmir and Veronika.
Vladmir and Veronika were two unsung super heroes, who went virtually unnoticed from the early seventies to the late nineties. That is because they were not your typical villains, they were “Good” villains, along the same vein as Robin Hood or Joan of Arc, a saintly pair of sinners who would do anything for the Underdog. However their main objective was to keep their identities and their goodly deeds completely anonymous.
Therefore without notice, or any witnesses they carried on saving the world from their Castle in the Clouds.
Castle in the Clouds
The Dark Staircase
Down the long hallway just past the dark staircase, they sat by the fire enjoying some warm milk and biscuits.
“Vlad do you think it will snow tomorrow?” inquired young Veronika.
“I’ve no idea My Dear, but I do know it is your Twenty-ninth birthday again, so perhaps we should have a party,” he said licking his paw.
“If I’m twenty-nine then how old does that make you? I feel we’ve been retired for ages…I want a new adventure. I fear I’m having wanderlust again.”
“Well it is 2018…it has been a long time since we saved the world from destruction. Although I’d love to keep calm and carry on with this delightful retirement of ours. I must admit I too am a twinge bored. I miss our old life of Catburgling and James Bonding all over Europe.”
A small snicker escaped Veronika’s curled lip. “You amuse me Cat.”
“Dance Like Nobody’s Watching, that was my “Cat”ch phrase!”
“No one was watching,” teased Veronika.
He was a silly thing. Something wild and completely unbelievable had anyone ever known he existed. A six foot tall, black, short haired feline, believed to originate from a nuclear power station just outside of Yekaterinburg.
Veronika too was a bit wild. A wily orphan, who escaped a doomed fate at the age of nine by running away from a cruel Yekaterinburg hospital that taped the abandoned babies mouths shut to prevent them from crying. It was while roaming the dark forest she discovered Vladmir who lead her to an abandoned Castle. There he took her in and raised her as his own.
Over time they discovered not only were they both unusually tall and unusually strong, but neither was aging past their prime. They chalked it up to their strange origins in Yekaterinburg, a place known for nuclear experimentation.
“More milk My Dear?” Vladmir raised the white hobnail pitcher toward Veronika.
“Yes please,” she offered him her ornate pewter chalice, “I’m so thirsty today, must have been that Himalayan salt bath I took this morning.”
“That will do it. I’m so glad I’m a self bather,” smiled the Cat.
Just then a piercing alarm sounded, echoing throughout the Castle. “Annt.. Annt.. Annt”
Vlad covered his ears with his paws, “Make it stop!”
“It’s coming from the Power Plant!” Veronika leapt to her feet and made her way up the tower steps to the outside balcony.
Vladmir nervously followed on two legs, human mobility served him best.
They stood staring over the balcony for a good thirty-eight minutes before the alarm ceased. They saw no signs of Nuclear destruction, no mushroom clouds or shattered buildings, just silence, deadening silence.
“Do you think it was a false alarm?”
“Humans pffft,” Vlad raised his arm and waved it in disgust.
“I think it’s time for us to get back in to action,” Veronika mused.
Vladmir sighed, “I fear you may be right My Dear.”
Vladmir and Veronika
The End for now…
Two Weeks Later….
Awoken by a cacophony of crows, so chaotic they could only portend a death. The dark winds swept up from The Church on Blood through The Forest Park of Foresters and circled the Cloud Castle. In her half sleep Veronika could hear the Romanov’s screaming.
cacophony of crows
“Veronika, Veronika wake up,” Vladmir was shaking her bare shoulder with his furry black paw. “You are having nightmares again. Wake up!”
“What? No I was dreaming of the tree in the middle of my garden. My childhood garden…”
“Are you sure?” bantered the cat, “Your lost childhood could hardly bear memories, and you kept screaming ‘In or out of the money!’
“I did?” Veronika threw back the satin duvet and heaved herself from the soft bed, her long black negligee trailing as she put on her black velvet robe and rushed to look out the tall castle windows, “They’re real” she whispered, “Those birds and that wind, it is all real.”
Veronika
“Were they in your nightmare as well?” Vladmir pounced down from his side of the bed and brushed his forehead against her hip, scenting her for the day while offering comfort should she need it. Then he rose to a two legged stance and gazed out the window with her.
It was still so silent and eerie and desolate.
Vladmir
“No matter what is going on, everything is grace,” Vladmir stated.
“I still cannot believe they are all gone. Not one human left, only us,” she glanced at the Cat, “Well technically, only me.”
“Are you sure about that? Perhaps this finally proves it,” mused the Cat.
“Proves what?” Veronika was bewildered.
“That perhaps My Dear, you are not at all Human,” he looked her in the eye as he let that revelation resonate.
“You mean because I was immune to the annihilation?”
“Well yes, as we have learned only the animals, plants and trees survived whatever that mysterious purge was. No signs of human life, no bodies, not even evidence of their existence or inventions. Only nature. Only us and this strange castle. Doesn’t it make you wonder? I mean of course we are different you and I. Look at us. We are living an odd life of preservation and supernatural strength. Do you even remember having parents? Where and what exactly are our origins?” the Cat continued, “My first memory is drinking from a bowl of milk in the seventh sector of a Nuclear Power Plant.”
“And my first memory is of a beautiful woman feeding me nothing but milk and kindness beneath the tree in the middle of my Garden.”
“Tell me what did she look like?”
“She was saintly and glowing with the innocence of a child, and she was surrounded by apples fallen from the tree, red luscious apples with blushes of gold. She smelled of honey and felt like warmth.”
Mother
“What else do you remember?” Vladmir was curious.
“Nothing, after her. Nothing but a long stretch of cruelty until I found you in the Forest.”
“Exactly. No true origin, only a mystery, lost innocence and a cruel, cruel world. But look Veronika, look out into that vast white blanket of snow and wind and birds and trees. It is a blank canvas, a clean slate…a world for us to create anew.”
Veronika sighed and smiled, “A whole new beginning.”
Castle in the Clouds
Story written by Christine Wichman c. January 21, 2018
*Photos taken from Pinterest
Sleeping Queen Publications 