Page 127 of Sigils & Spells

Not the willow trees.

Not the grass.

Would the stream burn if she ignited it?

“Meow.”

Pippa froze in shock as a small kitten rubbed its face against her knee, then climbed into her lap, stretched out and promptly fell asleep.

“What? Where’d you come from?”

The only answer was a loud rumble.

“Are you—are you purring?”

She leaned over and peered into the kitten’s face.

The rumbling got louder.

Itwaspurring.

Unbelievable.

Pippa glanced around, but of course, there was no one nearby and now she was trapped with a sleeping kitten in her lap, unable to move until it decided to wake up.

She let out a sigh of exasperation. “The least you could do was wait until I got comfortable too,” she informed the kitten. “After all, it’d be nice to take a nap with you.”

Maybe if she—

Pippa inched slowly to the right, freezing every couple seconds when the kitten seemed about to wake.

Finally, Pippa had managed to turn her body enough that she was no longer leaning against the trunk of the tree.

She then began the arduous task of straightening her legs without dislodging the kitten stretched across them.

That was an extremely lengthy endeavor because it involved slowly shifting the kitten as well until the kitten was stretched out lengthwise along Pippa’s legs.

She waited a moment to make sure the kitten wasn’t going to wake up, then slowly began to lower herself to the ground.

When the kitten let out a rumble of discontent at the movement, Pippa froze, halfway between sitting and lying down, holding her breath as the kitten shifted and stretched, all without opening its eyes, before finally falling quiet again.

With a sigh of relief, Pippa continued her slow descent until she lay flat on the ground.

She then closed her eyes and fell into a light doze as she pondered her well and the fact that it had fallen silent and the sizzle and burn that had scraped at her skin had mostly dissipated.

Endless, lazy moments later, she woke to the raspy feel of a kitten’s tongue scraping across her left eyelid.

“Ew!” She giggled, rubbing at her eye and scooping the kitten into her arms.

“Thank goodness my eyes were closed. I don’t think that would have felt great on my eyeball.”

She could have sworn the kitten smirked back at her, which was just disturbing.

“So where’d you come from anyway? Do you have a name?”

No answer, of course.

“Hmmm. Well, for now I think I’m going to call you Hocus Purrcus in honor of your ridiculously loud purr.” Cradling the kitten against her chest, she climbed to her feet.

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