When I got back to the cottage, Griselda happily took the bird from me.

“We are going to accomplish so much, Shadow! You are the best! I cleaned the fish outside if you want to get any morsels from that before Leonore or another creature gets it!”

I was surprised that I hadn’t smelled that, but then again, I had the blood smell from the bird in my mouth as I'd walked in. She had left the door open, so I scampered out now to find my snack. I saw a black form flutter nearby and Leonore perched on a table near me.

I hissed at the bird before sniffing through the fish innards to find some part to eat. I noticed the bird landed behind me, but was too far from my snack for me to worry. I was just finishing the nice bits when I felt his pointy beak nearly pinch my tail. I ignored him only to screech when he nipped me.

With a loud squawk, the greasy black form jumped into the air and began flapping back to the cottage. If they thought they could get away from me that easily, they had another thing coming! I hunched down and leaped after the bird, yowling and batting at their body.

We must have made quite the commotion because Griselda threw open the door adding her own voice to the fray. Her eyes were narrowed at us, but I gave Leonore a good swipe anyway. I hadn’t extended my claws, so he just wavered off course for a few feet before getting back on track and fluttering into the cottage through the window.

“What are you two doing?!” she was looking furiously at me, but I landed gracefully on all four feet and then strode into the cottage between her legs. She had to know I could have killed that feathery bastard if I had wanted. She huffed and followed me inside.

“We all need to work together,” she cried, pushing her hair out of her face. “We all need to concentrate for this spell to work. Shadow, sit on the table. Leonore, you can sit on your perch here with us.” She placed a heavy perch on the table. I reluctantly jumped on the table and eyed Leonore as the bird fluttered down onto the perch next to me. They cocked their head at me and opened their beak, mocking me. I opened my mouth to show my teeth. When Griselda sat down herself, I noticed we were all eye level with each other.

“Knock it off, you two! Concentrate! I don’t want to waste my spell components because you idiots don’t want to get along!” She huffed and placed some items in a bowl on the table. She looked at each of us in turn, then smashed the stuff in the bowl with a pestle and began to chant. With her hands, she sent sparks into the bowl and soon, smoke rose up and began to shift unnaturally. She stabbed the fresh wren and added it’s blood to the mixture. Much more smoke curled up above the table.

I found that I couldn’t take my eyes off of the wavering smoke as it drifted around, not up to the ceiling like it should nor pushed by the wind which would be normal, but moving and roiling above us. It was round and looked like a moon forming in the cabin. It was beautiful and frightening at the same time. Still, I knew there was no danger and I was not going to give Leonore the satisfaction of thinking I was afraid of some smoke.

Griselda’s chanting hit a crescendo and then she stopped, watching the orb in front of her closely. There were images in the orb. A small girl, a man with half a face, some other images which came and went too quickly, and finally a raging fire. As soon as the fire was in the orb, Griselda gasped and with a wave of her hand, the orb dissipated and changed back into normal smoke which slowly fell apart and drifted up to the ceiling pushed by the slight breeze from the window.

“Interesting… You both did very well and deserve to be rewarded,” she stated and I perked up. She stood and pulled something from a bag and dropped it in front of Leonore. The bird immediately began to eat the small, yellow bits eagerly. I sniffed, but it didn’t seem good to eat. She picked me up from the table and sat down on her sleeping shelf with me in her lap. I wasn’t sure if this could be considered a reward until she started petting me from head to tail down my back and occasionally rubbing my ears. That rumbling in my chest started again and I felt contented, both by her hands and also the warmth of her lap.

“So, it seems we will have a visitor tomorrow. I want you both on your best behavior! They are to be important for all of us. For some reason, Reggie factors in to this. I’m not sure how…” She glanced over at the snake in his glass container, immobile as usual.

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She shifted me from her lap to her bed and stood up, busying herself around the cottage. She set up the cauldron over a low fire after adding some roots, mushrooms, and herbs to it. Then, she pulled out what she had collected from her basket and stored or hung them in places around the cottage.

“Come then, Shadow! Let me introduce you to the Twilight Woods! Leonore knows these woods well and you will have to also to survive here. Our dinner will be ready when we get back!” She tapped her shoulder and Leonore flew up and landed on her. They both cocked their heads at me, so I meowed in agreement.

We left the cottage and went into what felt like deeper into the woods, away from the town. We started on a wide trail, but it narrowed and then petered out completely. I was a little annoyed that Leonore got to ride and I had to walk. Griselda snickered.

“Well, when I fly, you’ll get to ride and Leonore will have to flap to keep up! I want to show you something just a little further along,” she told me, chuckling.

We climbed a rocky hillside and came to a cave in the rock near the top. I smelled something familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

“This is a black panther lair,” Griselda explained. “They are cats, but much larger than you, dear Shadow. They can be called upon for help…sometimes, but their price is often high. They won’t attack us with me here, but don’t wander this way by yourselves. This is Panther Peak,” she clambered to the very top of the hill above the dark cave. “From here, you can see the village,” she pointed to where you could see smoke rising and occasional rooftops. “As well as the Glaxor River,” which looked like a silver road slithering between the hills around them. “My small stream feeds the river, of course, so you can get to it by following it downstream. And, finally,” here she pointed across the river to a mountain that towered above them with white covering the top, “The mighty Crown of Ice Mountain from which, it is said, all magic flows and to which all magic must eventually return. The forest of its foothills is said to be very dangerous. It’s not called the Dark Grief Heights for nothing. I get most of my supplies from near the cabin. Sometimes, I fly down to the River or across the river for some special plants and mushrooms that don’t grow on this side. Even less occasionally, I’ll go into the Heights. As long as you give this peak wide berth, you should be safe throughout the Twilight Forest. You will have my protection from most predators in these woods. The exceptions are these black panthers and humans, of course.”

I was shocked at just how big a world I lived in. The air was crisp and clear up here and I liked knowing where we fit into the rest of the land around us. We began the journey home. On the way back, Griselda stopped at patches of herbs and mushrooms known to her and began filling up her basket. The first thing in the basket was a bit of panther dung which had me sneezing the nasty smell from my nose. Luckily, she wrapped it in an oily cloth which prevented the smell from following us everywhere.

“It's very powerful, but evil. I like having a little on hand, just in case,” Griselda explained at my discomfort. Luckily, other scents soon invaded my nose and I could get the nasty one out of my memory.

The smell of our dinner stew was enticing as we approached, but not nearly as good as yesterday’s meal. Perhaps my disappointment could be seen in my demeanor since Griselda petted me to console me.

“It's not done yet,” she winked as she spoke. Leonore flew in through window, but I waited for Griselda and walked through the door with her. She shut the door, closed the window and covered it with the thick drapes before turning to our meal. She lit some candles and hummed as she picked out a few fresh mushrooms from her basket and some herbs. She had cleaned off the table before we had left, but now it was littered with new items, some of which had spilled out of her basket.

She muttered as she added things to the cauldron and, indeed, the smell grew more and more enticing. She winked at me as she pulled a linen bag out from the bottom of the basket. My attention zeroed in on it since it was that marvelous herb she had in her garden. She chopped some of it while I watched, then she stuffed the rest into a little mesh bag which she tossed on the floor. I dashed after it, afraid it might land in the fire. I pounced on it and Griselda laughed at me. I bit at it and some of the lovely flavors entered my mouth. I swatted it away from the fire place and chased it around the cabin for a while to the chimes of Griselda’s laughter.

When the finches started twittering uncontrollably, Griselda covered their cage to quiet them and only Leonore squawked at my antics from time to time. The only thing that kept me from my packet of catnip was when Griselda said it was time for dinner and placed new bowls on the table. My bowl had a sprinkling of fresh catnip on the top. I noticed that her’s didn’t. I hunkered down and selectively ate the bits of nip with the fish stew. It was heavenly.

She put more yellow kernels in front of Leonore and we all ate together. I felt badly now for the bird. Surely, its food couldn’t be nearly as nice as what Griselda and I ate. Clearly, I was the most important thing in her life now. She fed and rewarded me. This had to be the best cat life possible!

That night after Griselda went to bed, I looked up at the shelf where the woman lay. I hopped up onto it only to find it was soft under my paws. The closer I got to the woman, the warmer I was, so I crept into the circle made by her arms and legs, looking toward her head and allowed my eyes to close in slumber.