Anam Cara

The Champion Learns the Ropes

Sarah tugged open curtains and windows, airing out the spacious masculine room, discovering a wall of glass panes with double doors that led out to an opulent balcony in the process. The spacious area was framed with a curved balustrade. An iron worked table and chairs sat to the left where the shade would allow one to spend their morning watching the world awaken before the sun rose too high. The walls were covered with creeping vines filled with blossoms that perfumed the air.

She stepped outside, welcoming the breeze that greeted her with a gentle caress across her cheek. The sun casting its golden rays down on her. Though the weather was beautiful, bringing a much-needed calm before the upcoming storm she was sure would brew later, the real beauty was the view that came into sight as she approached the railing.

The Labyrinth sprawled before her, the twists and turns stretching across the horizon. The majority of the landscape in the distance was cracked and desolate. Dangerous. But closer to the castle, hedges and gardens brought vivid hues into the world. The flowers in the beds mixed with tall grasses like someone tried to contain the meadows of the wild. It was hard to believe she had made her way through and defeated that ten years ago.

Going back inside, she pulled a table and chairs to the threshold. She moved the furniture until a sitting area was rearranged to her content. Fresh air and sunshine would do him some good. She would make sure he didn't waste away in the darkness any longer, but let him stay indoors until he adjusted to the light before forcing him outside.

A creaking piqued her curiosity. Scanning the empty chamber, she saw the bedroom doors open just a crack. An eye peered in the sunlight reflecting back at her causing it to glow.

"Hello?" Sarah asked cautiously, approaching the entrance. The door swung with a slow creaking on its hinges. She froze, her jaw dropped as three creatures walked into the room. Her mind screamed, a frenzy of excitement overloading her synapses. She didn't know what she had expected. Fae...dwarves...goblins, maybe, but not kitties.

They walked much like Sir Didymus, upright on what would be considered in her world their hind legs. Their toe beans masked any sound from their steps. The one in front carried a stack of neatly folded linens. The two behind shared the weight of a basket carried between them.

For one agonizing moment, Sarah lost all ability to control her face. As much as she had loved Merlin and his shaggy constant companionship when she was a child, she had always wanted a cat. Her father even took her to the musical, Cats, complete with souvenirs.

But Linda was allergic. She gifted Sarah the sheepdog then left a few weeks later. Sarah often wondered if she had done that to give her something to remember her by or to keep her father from giving her what she truly wanted.

As an adult, she was never home enough to allow for a pet. She was always at auditions, acting classes, or work. That was no life for a pet. Always alone. Waiting for her. She couldn't do that to another living being.

"Pardon, my lady," spoke the tabby with long gray fur. "My name is Phaedra. We were summoned to change His Majesty's linens."

Phaedra's forehead was marked with dark brown stripes that created a pattern reminiscent of the scarab beetle Sarah's grandmother once wore on her old Egyptian-inspired costume jewelry. A cream color circled her lilac eyes. Her pink nose sat on a white muzzle with long whiskers spreading out on either side. Her hands–or were they paws–were white giving her the appearance of wearing dainty gloves.

"Oh, yes. Of course." Sarah felt herself nodding dumbly. Of all the things she had seen and experienced here, this was by far the most surprising and the hardest to keep her composure over. There were walking, talking kitties addressing her with a slight purr to their speech.