The Adventures of Caterwaul the Cat by Damon Plumides Page A

you need anything done, see Caterwaul. I am leaving him in charge.”
    As she and her party had ridden away, she’d smiled at the sight of all of the new cats that had already taken up residence in her lands.
    If she had given it any real thought whatsoever, Druciah probably would have liked it better had she not added the part about Caterwaul being “in charge,” because once he regained consciousness, Caterwaul took it to heart. The way he looked at things, if he really was in charge, he was going to do things his way. You see, Caterwaul assumed that the queen and her party would fail. He knew what the forest was like, and he assumed that the queen would come running home before she got even fifty yards into the woods. Therefore, if she did not return within two weeks, he would assume it was because she couldn’t and had been killed by some forest peril.
    After two weeks and a couple of days had passed, the cat was sure they were all dead. That meant, or at least he assumed so, that Castle Cathoon was his to do with as he liked. Ever since he had arrived, he’d been dropping hints to the queen about redecorating at least part of the palace. Plus most everyone on staff heard that she had made him her heir. Now it was his chance to go all the way.
    He was sad that the queen had to die for him to get this chance. But such was life. If he had to wager on which of the perils got the travelers, he would have guessed Joffrey. That crazy Joffrey was always a snap-first-and-ask-questions-later kind of turtle. He kind of liked the idea of Warwick Vane Bezel III becoming turtle food, but not his friend, the queen.
    Nevertheless, it was now more than a month since they’d set out, and they were all dead to his mind. To a cat, a month was an eternity. There was no use in wasting valuable time grieving. He had brick masons coming over in the afternoon to build him a nice low bridge overlooking the brand new koi pond he had installed the day before. If there was one thing that Caterwaul really enjoyed, it was popping a big, ugly goldfish in the face with his paw.
    Pretty soon, most of the castle’s residents were also convinced that the queen was dead and that Caterwaul was now the new master of the kingdom. He decided to pull out all the stops in his attempt to remake Cathoon Castle in his image. He assembled the most talented builders, painters, gardeners, and artisans from all of the nearby villages and told them what he wanted them to do.
    First and foremost, he wanted to see color. All that time he had spent with the Witch in her dank forest cavern had nearly driven him insane. Now he was going to take these gray castle walls and lighten them up. That meant warm colors, such as yellows and oranges, and cool ones, such as light blues and purples too, all swirling around on fields of white. Since it was now “his castle,” he thought nothing wrong with any of the major changes he planned to make.
    He hired the most talented glass masters to replace the windows in the great hall with stained glass ones depicting scenes of his “heroic escape” from the forest. There was nothing Caterwaul loved more than to lie on the floor while the sun shone through the windows and onto him. He assumed that having stained glass windows of varied colors would vary the temperature of the rays, and he was right. He especially liked to lie in the sun first thing in the morning. Sometimes he would remain there for hours unmoved. Then he’d stretch a bit and shift positions to allow exposure of every part of his fur to the warmth of the sun.
    The outside of the castle grounds, he had manicured meticulously, and a hedgerow was planted in the form of a maze so that he could get his exercise for the day. He had ramps built, too, so he could run up and down on them, giving him hours and hours of enjoyment. Since he was a cat, he had special catwalks built to his design that spanned the castle both inside and