Three Wise Cats by Harold Konstantelos Page A

campaign, standing regally in Gracus’s chariot and being admired by the crowd.”
    The picture the clever rat painted became very clear to Ira’s imagination. He envisioned himself and Gracus attired in new armor. The fact that he could not have borne the weight of the metal armor, even had it been made so tiny, never occurred to him. He basked in the imaginary adulation and reveled in his status as an acclaimed warrior. Bowls of heavy cream and plump doves would be his breakfast daily.
    â€œAnd you would forgo all of this, for a corner in a musty tower, glad to catch a handful of warmth from a stingy fire in the dead of winter.”
    Ira shivered, completely caught up in the rat’s machinations. I cannot return to that! I must stay with Gracus—he understands what a soldier needs. I cannot return to the tower. The girls will have to go without me.
    He turned and left the rat hole, thinking deeply as he retraced his steps to Gracus’s cabin. He didn’t hear Asmodeus snicker as he watched the young cat leave.
    Later that same morning, Kezia was having a fruitless search for a mouse. Although she wasn’t really hungry, she was bored and wanted something more challenging than her fifth bath of the day. She was down in the hold, searching and sniffing, when she heard Alexos’s step upon the ship’s ladder. Well, at least he will talk to me and pet me and tell me how pretty I am, the little tabby thought and ran out to greet the captain.
    He did see her, even in the poor light and with his limited vision. “Good morning, little lady!” he called across the sacks of grain. “I am but counting my stores—as you yourself are, perhaps?” And he chuckled, rightly assuming she was mouse hunting again. He started to move one of the grain sacks when he realized the leather thong at the mouth of it was untied. He climbed up on top of the neighboring stack of grain sacks so he could reach and retie the thong—and suddenly screamed horribly. A snake had stuck its head out of the mouth of the untied sack and was flicking its tongue at Alexos.
    â€œI am a lady cat, but I also know how to kill snakes!” Kezia cried, and it seemed as if she flew to the stack of grain sacks. She caught the snake before it could crawl away, seizing it behind its head and holding it firmly. The snake thrashed and fought, striking her several times with loops of its hard body. It flailed itself free of the grain sack and kept thrashing.
    Alexos, pale and sweating, looked around frantically for any sort of weapon. “I must not let the snake kill her!” He spotted a trident and grabbed it up. He slashed wildly at the snake, not even hearing the running feet of his men in his panic.
    Kezia nimbly sidestepped the trident hitting dangerously close to her and kept her hold on the snake. Finally, after being hacked many times by the tines and with Kezia’s sharp teeth penetrating its spinal cord, the snake died, and the cat dropped it at Alexos’s feet. He turned a ghastly shade of green but managed to stammer out, “Th-thank you, most honored lady! You have saved me from a terrible death!”
    Some of Alexos’s seamen ran up just then, panting, and the captain began relating the wondrous tale of the cat’s courage to his circle of listeners, who looked in awe at the tabby. Kezia purred and sat down to wash herself, for she felt she stank badly of snake. As she washed her right ear, it stung, and when she looked at her paw, it was covered in blood. Just then Alexos turned and saw her paw.
    â€œThe snake has bitten her!” he bellowed and rushed to her. Anxiously, he examined Kezia, searching for the marks of fangs. “Praise Poseidon! The snake has not harmed her—but I myself must have hurt her with the trident.” He knelt in front of her as she sat on some sacks of grain. “Forgive me, my little one. My witless attempts to help you kill the snake have