“If
I'm going to go on this quest for you,” said Fishback the Cat to
the god of boxes, “isn't it customary for me to get some sort of
cool thing. A magic sword. A fairy guide? All the good quests have
magic in them.”
Boxtet, the god of boxes, briefly considered reminding the cat that he was taking the quest for his own benefit and not for anything the god needed or even wanted, but being wise, he knew there would be no sense in arguing. Cats were notorious do-as-they-pleasers and believe-what-they-willers. To get the feline on his way faster, Boxtet rifled through his god-like pockets for any scrap bit of magic that might impress a cat. He didn't dare trust Fishback to summon bits of string, lest the whole world become a tangled mess of yarn. Nor did he want to give the cat-
“I'm waiting,” said Fishback, with an impatient swish of his tail.
“Oh, very well,” said Boxtet, and he grabbed the first piece of cat appropriate magic he could find. “This spell will let you move water. You cats hate water, right?”
“With the fire of a thousand suns,” said Fishback.
“Good. Then move water you shall, but it will only work three times.”
“Three? Don't you know who I am? I am Fishback the Cat! King of this whole house and the surrounding yard! I am on a quest to learn to subserviate humans, and you give me only three uses of your water spell?”
Boxtet, the god of boxes, briefly considered reminding the cat that he was taking the quest for his own benefit and not for anything the god needed or even wanted, but being wise, he knew there would be no sense in arguing. Cats were notorious do-as-they-pleasers and believe-what-they-willers. To get the feline on his way faster, Boxtet rifled through his god-like pockets for any scrap bit of magic that might impress a cat. He didn't dare trust Fishback to summon bits of string, lest the whole world become a tangled mess of yarn. Nor did he want to give the cat-
“I'm waiting,” said Fishback, with an impatient swish of his tail.
“Oh, very well,” said Boxtet, and he grabbed the first piece of cat appropriate magic he could find. “This spell will let you move water. You cats hate water, right?”
“With the fire of a thousand suns,” said Fishback.
“Good. Then move water you shall, but it will only work three times.”
“Three? Don't you know who I am? I am Fishback the Cat! King of this whole house and the surrounding yard! I am on a quest to learn to subserviate humans, and you give me only three uses of your water spell?”
“That's
the way these things work, I'm afraid,” said Boxtet. “Three is a
magic number.”
To
satisfy his own curiosity, Fishback bent away the water that a
particularly dirty pan had been soaking in. True to Boxtet's word,
the water did just as Fishback wanted.
“It will now only work two more times.”
“It will now only work two more times.”
Originally
mailed to M. Bennett of Plano, Texas
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