Noir is an intelligent black cat with amber eyes who lives in a warm, watercolor-like world. His favorite spot is the top of an old bookshelf in his owner's study, which serves as his private 'castle.' One afternoon, Noir's owner discovers a mysterious golden bookmark—a magical item that causes the story within a book to slightly overflow into reality. When a sudden wind carries the bookmark out the window, Noir embarks on his first adventure outside the house. Following clues through the town,
Noir the Cat and the Vanished Bookmark - "Episode 11: Jenny"
April 1912. From Southampton Harbor in England, the RMS Titanic, the world's largest luxury liner, set sail toward New York. Beneath that colossal ship, hailed as "unsinkable even by God," amid the glitter of aristocrats adorned in elegant gowns and tuxedos, there existed a pair of amber eyes watching quietly. A short-haired black cat, her sleek coat dissolving into the ship's shadows, beloved by the engineers—her name was Jenny. This is the memory of a grand ocean liner swept up in history's great currents, and the small life that witnessed her final moments.
*The Unsinkable's Lost Child: The Black Luck of the Titanic*
The massive engine room, the very heart of the Titanic, was perpetually shrouded in coal smoke and the howl of scalding steam. The black cat Jenny moved with serene grace past the feet of perspiring engineers, her short coat rippling like velvet with each step.
"Hey Jenny, come over here. I've kept you a special seat," said Tom, a young assistant engineer, his soot-covered face breaking into a smile. Every evening, Tom would secretly bring Jenny the finest morsels of roasted beef from the first-class galley.
As Jenny narrowed her amber eyes and devoured the meat, Tom's rough, warm hand gently stroked beneath her chin.
"With you aboard this ship, we're protected. You're the lucky guardian spirit of the unsinkable ship."
A ship as massive as the Titanic required a ship's cat to guard the stores from rats. But beyond that necessity, for Tom and the others laboring in the dark, cramped hold for weeks on end, Jenny's purring and her warmth like sunshine were their only solace, a fleeting escape from harsh reality.
On the fourth night after departure. April 14th, 1912.
The sea lay mirror-still, and the sky stretched overhead crowded with stars. Jenny, as always, was curled at the foot of Tom's hammock.
—A dull vibration rippled through the ship's belly.
A tremor so subtle that humans wouldn't notice. But Jenny jolted awake, her amber eyes flying wide.
A scent filled her nostrils—different from any before. The freezing smell of seawater, and an ominous presence of tortured metal.
Soon the engine room erupted into chaos.
"We've struck an iceberg!" "Water won't stop coming in!" "Man the pumps!"
Tom desperately cranked the valves, fighting the rush of frigid water. The gentle smile had vanished from his face.
To maintain the ship's power, to get as many passengers as possible into lifeboats, Tom and the other engineers cut off their escape and worked on in the face of impossible odds.
When the water reached his knees, Tom glanced down. There, soaked through but meeting his gaze steadily, were Jenny's amber eyes.
"Jenny...! What are you doing here? Run!"
Tom scooped her up and tried to tuck her into his clothes. But Jenny gave a soft meow and licked his palm with her rough tongue.
*I'm not going anywhere, Tom.*
"No, you have to survive."
Tom, tears streaming down his face, cradled Jenny and scrambled up the ladder toward the upper decks still free of water. When he reached the first-class deck, it was chaos—panicked people and cold night wind swirling together. Tom spotted the last lifeboat being lowered and gently slipped Jenny toward a kind-looking woman in the boat.
"Jenny, live. You're our lucky cat."
Those were Tom's final words.
He turned about-face and descended back into the engine room below, still alight but steadily sinking, to rejoin his crew. To keep the power flowing until the very end for those left behind.
The boat pulled away from the ship.
On the cold sea, curled at the bottom of the lifeboat, Jenny simply watched the massive Titanic.
The ship's hull tilted rapidly. Then at 2:20 a.m., the world's grandest ocean liner split in two with a thunderous roar and disappeared into the cold, dark depths of the Atlantic. The moment the ship's lights went dark completely, the figure of the young man she loved was lost to Jenny's amber eyes forever.
Days later, Jenny was rescued and found herself in New York harbor.
An unfamiliar land, bustling streets. The woman who had found her was kind, bringing her warm milk every day.
But as twilight fell, Jenny would always climb to a quiet rooftop where the harbor was visible.
Her short black coat melted into the New York night's darkness.
Only her large eyes shone, amber and bright, gazing far eastward toward the cold Atlantic sky.
Jenny remembered. She remembered the kind young men in that unsinkable ship's depths who kept their lights burning until the very end. Even if her voice couldn't reach them, the taste of the roasted beef they gave her, the warmth of the hand that stroked her chin—all of it lived on in her heart.
"Meow."
Jenny called softly to the night wind.
It was the same warm greeting she had always given her beloved companion in the dark hold. Beneath the stars, the black guardian spirit of luck continued to offer her quiet prayers through the night, to those precious ones sleeping in that distant sea.
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