Three Wise Cats Read Free Page A

small trickle of water, Asmodeus kept pace with the cats, grumbling to himself. Tsk, tsk. I should never have set out on this journey. What was I thinking of, to join this foolishness? Did I not have sufficient provisions to steal and enjoy back at the tower? Oh, my poor feet—they are throbbing and swelling so. It’s all their fault, dratted cats . If they hadn’t enticed me with their dreams of glory and descriptions of feasts so real it made my mouth water, I wouldn’t be here now.

    The next days passed fairly uneventfully; the resourceful cats managed several times to put fresh cream on their paws, and then as they kept walking, gradually the pads became tougher. The three grew used to being outside and to relying upon each other. They were together now, for ill or for good, a small band of comrades set out upon a grand adventure.

4
    T HEY OVERHEARD PEOPLE talking as they lay resting underneath a small bridge the sixth morning of their first week’s travel.
    â€œWe near Lepcis Magna,” said a woman’s voice. “I hope to earn our bread there by baking it.” The cats heard only a grunt in reply and peeked out to see a man yanking the bridle of a heavily laden donkey.

    â€œMove, you filthy beast!” He slapped the animal on its hindquarters, but it refused to move.
    Two extremely dirty little girls caught sight of the cats and made a squealing, excited dash straight for them. Kezia raced toward a rabbit’s burrow; Abishag scurried under a tree root; and Ira leaped behind the stone bridge support. The girls scrambled about on the dry creek’s banks and stones, driving Ira from his first hiding place and under some thorny bushes. Their mother screamed at them, threatening dire punishments if they didn’t rejoin their parents promptly. Finally the girls, arms and faces scratched from the bushes, gave up trying to catch the black male cat. They had turned back to the road, reluctantly following their parents, when the youngest shrieked:
    â€œOooh, a rat, a disgusting rat!”
    â€œSee, Mater? That’s why we need a cat for our new home,” the oldest daughter whined.
    â€œWe need no cat,” their father groused. “Leave it. And hasten yourselves, for this stupid donkey has decided to trot once again, and I will not halt it.”
    Once the family was out of sight, the three cats crept out from their hiding places and met on the now-empty road. They touched noses. “That was a close call,” Kezia said. “And what was that about a rat?”
    Ira was sniffing the air. “I think we may have company. That stink is too familiar.”
    â€œWhat’s that noise?” Abishag turned quickly and looked down the road. “I’ve never heard anything like that before.”
    An odd thumping, a jingle, and other sounds they couldn’t identify were moving toward them.
    â€œI think we’d better hide again,” Kezia said, and she fled back to the rabbit’s burrow she’d found so fortuitously.
    Abishag raced up the same tree whose root had sheltered her and sat on a branch close to the trunk, her black fur seeming to be part of the rough bark.
    Ira, fascinated by all the many noises, still sat in the road, turning his head, his upper lip flehmening.
    â€œGet out of the road!” Abishag hissed at him.
    Just then, a creature bigger than any of them had ever seen in their lives appeared. Whatever it was, it had fur and four legs—but it was far too huge to be any sort of a cat, or even the largest of dogs. It dragged some contrivance behind it that glittered in the sun—with a human standing inside. Ira stared until his ears hurt because his eyes were open so wide.
    A sudden rustling sound behind him, and Asmodeus streaked across the roadway and right under the nose of the creature. First it snorted and then it screamed. It suddenly stood on its hind legs, making odd moaning noises and striking out with its