THE FALLING DARKNESS AND APPEARANCE OF MYSTERY CAT VIII

My sister stepped forward to examine the package more closely.
I could tell she was curious. I know the people animals think cats are curious
and sometimes it gets us killed. If they only knew how uninterested most cats are.
But I could tell Shadow was more than curious about this package.
Mainly because it bore the image of a cat that looked like her. A message from the
Cat God? In the moonlight beneath the sunflowers the mystery of this face before us
appeared even more mysterious.

Shadow sniffed the package as it lay upon the ground. This thing had many colors
on it. Bright yellow like the sunflowers above us. There was some green like the grass in
summer. The cat's nose was red. Hmmm. Shadow's was black. I wondered if she took
notice of this?

Shadow walked around the thing on the ground. She jabbed at it a few more times with
her paw. She sniffed it again and made a face.

"There is something wrong with this thing." she said.
"Look. Do you see the many short dark little tube things in the red paper? They smell the worst.
They are tied together by string. What in the name of Great Cat could they be?
They are not food. They do not smell good. What is their use?"

"I know you are fond of the people animals but they can be very crazy and
very mean. This thing is pure people animal. And they have used the
face of one of us to adorn it. This makes it even worse.There may come a time Clio,
when you must make a choice between us and them."

I was shaken by this. I knew of her dark distrust of the people animals.
She could not see the good they sometimes possessed. She was right though. They are
crazy at times. And mean. As I sat and listened to her and looked at the odd package
the wind blew ever so slightly again rustling the leaves above us. Animated points of light
from the moon above danced across the face of the cat on the thing making it appear
alive. Its angry looking face seemed to move and it seemed as if it was looking right at me.
 
I shivered and looked at Shadow. For a brief moment I could not tell her face from the cat's on the strange package.

NEXT: SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY...


-Jeff Falk