Урсула Ле Гуин - Wonderful Alexander And The Catwings

What could an ordinary cat do for a cat with wings?

He sat with his tail around his paws and watched Jane soaring high, high above him, playing with the swallows in the sunlight of spring.

He went and ate some kibbles — he was always hungry these days — and then trotted to their favorite play-place near the woods and called, "Jane!"

She came swooping down on her beautiful black wings, landed beside him lightly on her little black paws, and smiled at him.

"Jane," said Alexander.

"Purr," said Jane.

"Jane, you can talk."

Jane stopped purring. She lashed her tail.

"I know you were terribly frightened when you were little," Alexander said. "Thelma told me how you and your mother lost each other, and how you hid all alone in the attic of a deserted building and had nothing to eat. And then machines tore down the building. It must have been awful. But there must have been something even worse — something so bad you can’t talk about it — something so bad you can’t talk at all. But if you don’t talk, Jane, how will we ever know what it was?"

Jane said nothing and did not look at Alexander. She began to stalk a grasshopper in the tall grass.

"You showed me that I could get down from that pine tree," Alexander said. "I know you can get away from the bad thing. But I can't help if I don’t know what it was. You have to tell me, Jane."

Jane went on stalking the grasshopper. Alexander put a paw on her tail so that she had to stop. She growled at him.

"You can growl all you like," he said.

"I'm going to stand on your tail till you talk to me;

Jane growled again and bit Alexander, hard enough that it hurt.

"Don’t!" Alexander said. "Don’t bite!

Talk! Tell me. Tell me what frightened you in that attic!"

"HATE!" Jane said, with her eyes round and staring, and her fur all on end. "HATE! HATE!"

"Hate what? What did you hate?"

Jane’s back arched and she stared at Alexander with such rage and terror that his fur, too, stood on end. "Jane!" he said. "Tell me!"

"Rats," Jane said in a strange, hissing voice. "Rats. There — were — RATS — there."

She began to shiver all over, and Alexander curled himself around her to comfort her.

"Rats, much bigger than me," Jane said in a hoarse, weak voice that grew stronger as she spoke. "They were hungry, too. They hunted me. All the time. They would wait. They whispered to each other. I couldn’t get to the water in the gutter. They’d wait there to catch me. I could only fly a little. I hid in the rafters. But they climbed up there. I found a place, an old mouse nest in a box. They couldn’t get in there. But they waited outside it, and whispered. I didn’t know what to do. I would call to my mother. But the rats would answer." And Jane hid her face in Alexander’s warm, furry side.

He washed her back and her neck and both her ears with his rough pink tongue, and purred to her. "It’s all right. You got away from them. You don’t ever have to be afraid of them again. You have wings, Jane. You can fly anywhere."

"I love you, Alexander," Jane said.

"I love you, Jane," Alexander said.

"I wanted to talk! I just couldn’t."

"Let’s go show the others," said Alexander.

They hurried off, Alexander trotting along with his tail high, and Jane loop-the-looping overhead, to the old barn.

"Thelma! Roger! Harriet! James!"

"Yes, Alexander," said the brothers and sisters, who had been asleep in the loft. They came popping out of the pigeonholes. "What’s up?"

"That wasn’t me calling you," said Alexander.

"Me!" said Jane. It was me! I can talk!"

They all gathered around her while she explained.

"I was afraid if I talked, the only thing I could say would be the bad thing — the rats. And then they’d be real again. But I know it’s all right, and I can talk. Because Alexander showed me."

"If a rat ever came here," said little Harriet, "it would find out what an air raid is!"

"We’ve got to pay another visit to Mother," said James. "It will make her so happy when you talk to her, Jane."

"Alexander," said Roger very solemnly, "you are wonderful."

"Yes!" said Jane. "He’s wonderful!"

"I know," said Alexander.