A Quick Snippet of Kat Among the Pigeons

Just because I think it's a fun scene. Remember -- Kat can talk to cats and birds, and Cato is her cat companion.



"I thought he'd protest when Aletta chased me out, but he didn't," Cato admitted. "I really thought he liked me. I thought he liked you."

"Well, I pretty much screwed that up." I threw myself down in my chair. He leapt up on the arm and then rubbed his head against my shoulder, trying to be nice. I didn't wince, even though the shoulder still hurt. "I was trying to get him to leave for a while -- not long. Just while I got this mess cleaned up. And it is a mess, Cato. A really bad one. I was going to ask Aletta to help me --"

"You must be desperate."

"Yes. I am. I need back up on this. I can't handle it. But now... now I feel like I can't trust Aletta, and that won't help me. I have to be able to trust the person I work with. Why did she do this? David isn't even her type!"

"I could bite her on the nose if you like. Nothing looks good with a swollen nose."

He made me laugh a little. I reached up and rubbed his ears, and Cato jumped into my lap and settled there with happy pussyfoots. It helped. A happy cat always helps me to relax, and having him here meant a great deal right now.

I glanced at Shakespeare.

"Thine image and a name -- a name! Two separate -- yet most intimate things."

I sighed. This was my world, with a cat as my best friend and a crazed bird as my only other companion. I leaned back in the chair and forced myself to relax. I accepted that I had lost David. Maybe, after I got through the rest of this mess, I could somehow work things out, but right now -- right now I had far more important worries than my own romantic future.

"I think there might be dragons," I said softly, as though I didn't even want to admit it aloud.

"Like you think dragons might really exist, right?" Cato said, his head coming up, his eyes large eyes blinking. "Not like "I think there might be dragons here on this side of The Edge." Because if there are dragons out there, I'm never leaving the house again."

"I'll have some cases of food delivered for you, then."

"Oh." He lowered his head and tried to bury it in the crook of my arm. "I don't want to know."