Alan Foster - Kingdoms of Light

"Looking for what?" Spreading his hands in an unconsciously perfect human gesture, Cezer eyed her questioningly. "Even if we found something, how would we know what we were looking at? Cats can't read."

"I have this inescapable feeling that we can now, just as we can speak." The older woman tossed a sealed jar in his direction.

Catching it effortlessly in one hand, Cezer glanced at the handwritten label. "Sweet pickles. I hate pickles." His eyes widened as he realized what he had just done. "Fssst, you're right! We can read!" He examined the warm, familiar kitchen anew. To the usual sights and smells, little had been removed while much had been added. "I wonder what else we can do?"

"Besides babble inanely?" Cocoa was helping Mamakitty with her search. "Why don't you help us and find out? There must be something the Master left behind that will tell us what to do next." In a cheerful daze, the long-haired young man proceeded to join in the search for they knew not what.

Leaving Samm to cope by himself for the moment with the complicated and somewhat daunting business of learning how to use hands and feet, Oskar started to join the others, only to be stopped by a plaintive voice from overhead.

"Hey—what about me?"

Despite the human words, there was no mistaking the golden, mellifluous tone. Glancing up, Oskar saw a very slim, very pale blond young man clinging rather desperately to the highest rafters of the kitchen.

"Hello, Taj, and welcome to the world of human form. Come down and be with the rest of us."

"Come down—how?" Extending a slender arm, the former songbird fluttered fingers with extreme rapidity and to absolutely no effect. "My wings are gone! In their place I have these—these finger things. Good for picking up seed but useless, I fear, for flying."

"It's only a short drop. Just let go and land on your feet."

"Easy for a dog to say," the former canary grumbled. "If I come down, you promise to keep the cats from attacking me?"

Oskar shook his head resignedly. That gesture, at least, felt wholly familiar. "As you can see, everything's different now, Taj. You're as big as any of the cats-that-were." This human speech, he reflected, was much more efficient for purposes of communication than barking. The only response barking at Taj, for example, had ever provoked was a squirt of something from the high-hanging cage that was not especially eloquent.

"Yes, but not as strong, I fear."

"Well, you can't stay up there." Mindful of Mamakitty's directions, the dog-man bent and began rummaging through the lower kitchen cabinets.

Taj waited another couple of minutes before hanging momentarily from his hands and then dropping to the floor. He landed without difficulty on his bare feet. "Say, that wasn't so bad."

"I didn't think it would he. Master Evyndd caused us to be changed, not helpless." Oskar looked back from where he was searching. "Now, help the rest of us look."

"What are we looking for?" Taj ambled close to peer over the other man's broad shoulder.

"Something to tell us what we're supposed to do next."

"What makes you think we're supposed to do anything next?"

"Because…" Oskar hesitated. It was not an unreasonable question, and it took him a moment to come up with an answer. "Because Master Evyndd wouldn't have caused this to happen to us without there being an important reason behind it. I don't recall him ever doing anything without a reason."

"Then maybe we're looking in the wrong place." For a mere bird, Oskar felt, Taj had often demonstrated exceptional intelligence. "Shouldn't we be searching the study?"

The study. Oskar tried to twitch his tail at the thought of it. The absence of a tail was disconcerting. Still, he mused, there were other appendages he would have missed more. Be grateful for what you have, he told himself. While Evyndd's pets had been allowed in that sanctum sanctorum, it was only when the Master was present. Woe unto any animal who was caught there without permission! Mamakitty relieved him of the need to contrive a response.

"Taj is right. The study is where Master Evyndd kept all of his most important things. We should look there." Turning, she gestured with a hand as fluidly as if she had been doing so all her life. "Everyone follow me."

Oskar was more than willing to let the senior cat go first. As they stood confronting the open portal, ingrained training warning them to stay back, he observed that Cezer was standing very close to the equally tall but much less muscular Taj.

The former songster finally noticed the other man's intense, unwavering stare. "Is there something on your mind, cat-man?"

"Yesst. I have this overpowering urge to rip your throat out and gnaw on your brains."

"Repress it." Oskar felt no compunction at intervening. "If we're going to survive what's happened to us, we're going to have to rely on each other's help."

"Besides," declared Taj boldly, "I'm big enough now to fight back."

Eyeing the other male, Cezer let out a disdainful snort. "Maybe."

A heavy hand fell on his shoulder. Looking up and back, Cezer's eyes widened to take in all of Samm, who had come up quietly behind him. Even in his new, massive man-form, the former snake moved with uncanny silence.

"Leave him alone," the giant hissed threateningly. "Remember—if given a chance, I would also kill and eat cats."

"All right, take it easy, musclehead!" Shrugging off the oversize hand, the irritated Cezer stepped aside.

"Quiet, all of you!" Cocoa's attention was focused on the interior of the sacrosanct chamber. Crowding close together in the doorway, they stared in silence as Mamakitty tentatively but with increasing assurance moved into the study.

The manifold shelves that lined the chamber were crammed to overflowing with books and beakers, fragments of unknown creatures dried and jars of organic matter preserved. In the center stood a table of polished dark walnut. Boxes of strange powders jostled for space with bound bundles of desiccated plants and twigs. High overhead, a single stained-glass dome of singular design allowed wan sunlight to penetrate. It was as gray as everywhere else, and the magnificent stained-glass segments were likewise utterly devoid of color.

Finally, Mamakitty rested both hands on the back of the high, thickly upholstered chair. "I think it's safe. It looks safe. It smells safe. Everyone, come and help search."

They filed into the room, still uneasy at the thought of rummaging through the Master's belongings. Only Taj seemed at ease. But then, Oskar remembered, the Master had often taken the canary into his study to entertain him with song. For that reason, Taj was probably more familiar with the study and its contents than any of them. As they hunted and the floor did not fall away beneath them, their confidence grew. But loose papers yielded no immediately useful information, and none of the hundreds of books and scrolls glowed with revelation.

"There has to be something." Mamakitty wiped a forearm across her face. The advent of perspiration was another new, and unpleasant, consequence of their recent transformation. Wherever her much less flexible neck would permit it, she licked the salty droplets from her bare skin.

"If I have to look through one more moldy old book, I think I'll throw up." Cocoa took a deep breath. "This room stinks of age. Besides, all this work is making me hungry. The bookshelves are full of wonderful mouse smells."

"I'm hungry, too." Oskar brightened. "Wait a minute. If I remember right…" Walking back to the Master's desk, he started pawing at the drawers on the right side before he remembered to use his fingers.

"I've gone through those already." Mamakitty made the comment idly. "There's nothing in there."

"No? What about this?" Triumphantly, he held up the opaque glass jar of tasty snacks from which their smiling master had so often dispensed special treats. Grinning, he started to bite the top. Remembering how the Master had done it, he carefully unscrewed the lid. "Couldn't do this with just paws." Reaching inside, he grabbed a couple of favorite pieces and popped them in his mouth. As he chewed, his expression faltered.