"Dear cat," Bast said softly. "Leave this place. Your children are mostly gone now, run over on the road, dead from starvation, riddled with disease and suffering, their young stolen by hawks, shaken by dogs, tormented by human boys - and the few who remain healthy are breeding out of control. All of you barely manage to scratch out an existence. The Man and Woman here don't appreciate you. When is the last time they held you, or stroked you, or tended to your wounds, or buried your dead and mourned the loss? They throw you a few crumbs on occasion, but even on the coldest nights you must burrow into the straw for warmth. Come with me to my home, where you can warm your old bones on a hearth, where you will never again know the gnawing of hunger."
Mother blinked and the truth somehow made the world she called home seem barren and dilapidated. She swallowed hard before answering.
"Your Most Beautifulness, I can't deny that what you say is true, but I am needed here. Who will make sure the kittens don't stray into the fields and lose their way, or fall into the stream? What if a rat should appear, or a coyote - who would warn my family? What if the Man should fall ill or die? - maybe the Woman would need comforting."
Bast looked at her and narrowed her eyes to slits. She was more accustomed to commanding than conversing.
"Dearest Mother. You have earned a better place. You have nursed kittens until your breasts ached. You have watched the young you worried over die. The Humans are fools! They are blind to beauty and hardhearted. If they truly loved you, would you sleep here in the straw alone, without so much as a kind word or a caress? Come away with me to my temple of gold and live for all eternity in paradise."
Mother slowly shook her head "no." "I am sorry, Most Gracious Cat, but I cannot. This is my home, such as it is. I forgave the Man and Woman long ago. I belong here to these hills - these are my trees, my stream, my barnyard. My children and their children and their children need me. Please don't think me ungrateful, but I am, in my own way, happy."
Bast swished her tail. Not being obeyed was a new experience for her, but in deference to such honesty and loyalty, foolish though she thought it, she spoke kindly.
"It is clear, Dear Mother, that I cannot change your mind, but neither can I leave without rewarding you in some way. Surely there is something you want for yourself?"
Mother pondered a moment. She'd never had very much, that was true, but she also didn't have much of an idea of what else a cat could have, or would want.
Next > "Keep your claws, you shall Mother."
