Anna Petracci, Fantasy Author

Ashra woke to the sound of birdsong outside the window. She blinked her eyes open sleepily and lifted her head. Judging by the light coming through the window over her bed, it was mid-morning. 

“Good morning, Lady Cat!” the robin sitting on the branch outside the window chirped in Common Passerine when he saw that she was awake. 

“Good morning, Cheerki,” Ashra replied, also in Common Passerine. “How are you this morning?”

“Lovely as always, Lady!” he chirped back. Since the “sh” sound in her name didn’t exist in Common Passerine, the birds had taken to calling her Lady Cat, or just Lady for short. “Now that you’re awake, I’d best be going! The blackberries are at their peak right now, you know, and I want to make sure I get there before everyone else gets the day’s best ones.”

“That sounds good,” Ashra replied. “That reminds me I should probably pick and preserve some before too long.”

“Maybe I’ll see you there!” Cheerki waved his wing farewell, then flew off. 

Ashra stood and stretched, then looked around her little house. Come to think of it, there really wasn’t anything she needed to do today. She might as well go ahead and pick blackberries now. It’s not like I have a job to go to… She sighed, then shook herself from her momentary melancholy. Right. Blackberries it was, then. 

She stepped over to the shelf that held the basket harness she’d made– two baskets connected to each other by straps that went over her shoulders and around her chest– and pulled it on. Then, with nothing else that needed done, she headed out. She’d eat blackberries for breakfast.

Ashra paused briefly on the path leading from her front door to glance back at her house. She felt a brief rush of pride at the sight of the small, neat structure with its wooden walls, pink curtains, and thatched roof. She had done a good job on it for a cat with limited building experience. Not that she’d say all that aloud, even if there was anyone to listen. She didn’t want to become a braggart. She turned and continued walking. 

Her destination was a thick tangle of bushes that grew at the forest’s edge. Just beyond it, a grassy meadow stretched to the base of a small hill. This was the perfect place for berry picking. So, being careful to watch her step to avoid any thorny vines on the ground, Ashra slid out of her basket harness, leaving it on the ground in front of the berries. She sat down next to it and called up her magic. It illuminated the bushes even more brightly than the sunlight as Ashra directed it to neatly pick the berries from the bushes and send them flying to land neatly and gently in her baskets. 

***

Meanwhile…

Coal walked wearily through the cave, putting one foot in front of the others more by habit than anything else at this point. The cut on his right shoulder twinged at every step, but it wasn’t bad enough to be concerned about. Not that he could do anything about it, or his other wounds, if it was.

There was no light in the cave to see by, but Coal didn’t need it. Between his ears picking up the way even his soft footfalls echoed against the rough stone walls and his whiskers telling him that the passage was still quite wide, he was getting along fine. Getting along to where, though, was the question. He’d been walking for how long now? And he had yet to see so much as a glimmer of light since he’d left.

He wasn’t quite sure when it happened, but eventually Coal started to notice a shift in the darkness of the cave. He thought he was imagining it at first, but then he realized that he could see his paws. There was light coming from somewhere. Much of his weariness seemed to leave him as he picked up his pace a bit, still being cautious lest something less-than-friendly awaited him ahead. He smelled something lovely in the air; a fresh scent of green growing things and air that had been in the sunlight. 

The tunnel curved, and then Coal saw it. A beam of light, shining down from a large hole in the ceiling. He approached it slowly, his pupils narrowing as they adjusted to the light. The light shone on a low boulder that jutted up from the otherwise rather level ground. And above the boulder? Blue sky, ringed by grass a brighter green than he could remember ever seeing. It was so close. But it was just high enough that he wasn’t sure he could jump to it. But he was hardly going to give up now. 

Coal stepped onto the rock, wanting the highest point possible. Then he crouched down, staring up at the hole and willing himself to make it. Putting all the power he could in his legs, he leapt. He soared upward, stretching his paws out to try and grab the edge… and then he was falling, back down to the ground, the edge of the hole so near his claws and yet just beyond his reach. 

He landed lightly on the ground, not ready to give up yet. Again he jumped, and again, and again. Every time, though, his paws never even touched the rim of the hole, the bright green of the grass taunting him with how close it was. 

Exhausted, his paws sore, his wounds throbbing, Coal sat on the rock and stared up at the hole. He was so close to freedom, so close to leaving the cave and finally seeing the world outside after so long. Yet it was just out of reach. No, he thought suddenly. No. I’m not giving up yet. One last try. I’ll give it everything I’ve got. I haven’t come this far to be stopped now!

Once more he crouched, gathering his paws underneath him and preparing for one final, mighty leap. He took a deep breath, wriggled his back end, and then he jumped. 

Once more the hole in the ceiling nearly met him. But once more he felt himself begin to fall to the ground.

“No!” he shouted, but it was no use. He landed back on the cave floor he’d started on.

***

Ashra was licking the juice of her blackberry breakfast off her paws when she heard something. She paused, her tongue still out, and pricked up her ears, but all she heard was the wind and the birds chatting with each other in the trees above. 

“What was that?” she asked aloud, though as she was speaking Cat, no one responded. “It sounded like someone was in trouble,” she mused. 

Or had she imagined it? None of the birds had paused their chatter. But she was pretty sure she had heard the faint yell. Even if it does turn out to be a false alarm, I should investigate. There were caves around, after all, and Ashra knew all too well what sorts of things lived in the darkness. Likely it was nothing, but it was better to be safe than sorry. 

She left her baskets behind; if it really did turn out to be a fight, she wouldn’t want them weighing her down. Then she set off at a brisk but steady pace somewhere between a jog and a trot, heading across the meadow toward the hills, in the direction she thought she had heard the sound come from. There was no sign of trouble yet, but she carried on. 

It was when she reached the beginnings of the sloped hillside that Ashra saw something. It looked like an unusually dark shadow until she drew closer and could see it for what it was: a hole in the ground, dark and deep. She approached cautiously, readying herself to use magic if it turned out to be necessary. When she reached the hole’s edge, she peered over. Another set of eyes met her gaze.

***

Coal stared up at the cat whose face had just appeared at the edge of the hole. The other cat stared right back. 

The other cat was the first to speak. “Hello.”

“He–hello,” Coal replied. 

“Are you the one I heard shout a bit ago?” the other cat asked. Coal thought she was a female. 

“I– yes,” he replied. “I guess so.”

“Are you stuck down there?” the other cat asked. 

“Yes!” Coal responded. 

“Want me to help you get out?”

“Yes, please!” Coal replied, relief flooding his voice. 

“All right,” the other cat replied. “First, though, there aren’t any cave monsters down there with you, are there?”

“No. Not that I can smell.” Not since the one he’d fought earlier. 

“Good. I’ll create some stairs then.”

Coal tilted his head to one side, confused. Create stairs? But before he could ask what she was going to do, a brilliant light shone from where the other cat stood, creating a white-gold beam that somehow seemed to solidify before his eyes into the shape of a set of stairs. He jumped back, stunned.

“What…?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Maybe I should have warned you. Have you not seen magic much before?”

“No… What was that?” Coal asked breathlessly. 

“Magic,” the other cat replied simply. “Some cats have it, you know. You can climb out now; the stairs will hold you.”

Hesitantly Coal stepped forward, wondering how light was supposed to hold his weight. But when he reached out a paw, the stairs felt as firm as stone beneath his paw pads. Cautiously at first, then more confidently as the stairs remained solid with no hint of vanishing, he climbed. At last he stepped out onto the grass, soft and warm beneath his feet. He raised his nose to the air, sniffing all the scents that were carried in the light breeze that blew over the wide open space. Finally, at long last, he was free.