Page 20 (1/2)

Paul Hagbolt had grown very tired of his bondage and peculiarly bored with his spread-eagled reflection, and the invisible sun had dried his front co at him from a stretch of flowerbank by the control panel beyond his feet The one was Miaow&039;s, the other was large as his own They caloorace that hardly quivered a single pink petal or green spear, until they were barely eed from the flowers - whereupon without further glance, at hi each other, so that he saw the her, cradling the little gray cat on one spread paw and slireen secondary forearm - Paul realized that the second elbohich had terrified hiated palm bones that make a secondary forearm above the paw

Miaow&039;s fur was now fluffy dry, and she lolled on her back, fantastically at ease, gray tail draped over violet-barred wrist, staring gravely into the great, violet-petalled eyes of her captor - or rather, her new friend, to judge from appearances

They looked res about the tiger-being, his very picture of her, underwent rapid changes as he watched her in repose - this tiht of her from the first as "she," an assuans, except for two reen fur of her chest

For a feline, she was short-bodied, long-legged, long-armed - in build h considerably larger: hueneral proportions, too, were uessed that in gravity she would be at least as much biped as quadruped

The fur of her throat, chest, underbelly, and the insides of her arreen barred with violet

Her head was prick-eared as any cat&039;s, but with a higher and broader forehead, seeularity of the whole face, which was nevertheless coo button-nose and pale whisker hairs Here the fur was violet except for a green mask across the eyes

Despite the secondary forearms above them, the slim paws looked quite like hands now - three-fingered hands with an opposed thumb The claere invisible, presumably retracted and sheathed

The violet-barred green tail swung gracefully over a half-bent hind leg

The total effect, he realized suddenly - even the tail! - was now very close to that of a sliht fur costu as he had that thought

And just at that lish - clipped and exotically slurred, yet English nevertheless - not directing her speech toward him but to Miaow

It was all so "impossible" that Paul listened as if in a drealy parting only the two central inches of her mulberry lips "We friends now No need be shy"

Miaow continued to stare at her gravely, contentedly

"You ly "You easeful now, I feel So speak Ask question"

A pause, with Paul feeling on the verge of understanding the fantastic cross-purposes that had begun to operate Then the tiger-being said: "You shy one! You want front naerishka! Naer, also beautiful toes dancer Toes dancers call selves, &039;-enska, -skaya, -ishka&039; Tigerishka!"

Then Paul understood It was the super-error of a super-being Tigerishka had been reading his thoughts to the point of learning his language in seconds, but all the while attributing those thoughts to her fellow-feline Miaow

At the sa had been: plain erishka o-padded finger at Miaow in playful reproof and said: "You have naughty feelings about h - and we both girls! Come now, speakPaul"

At that moment the presumably horrible truth must have occurred to her, for she slowly turned her head to stare at the real Paul, sie of the floor below her The next second she had sprung across the cabin and was poised above hier-claws spread, mulberry lips writhed back from inch-and-a-half needle canines in her upper jaw She still held Miaoho seereatly startled by the sudden activity

Beyond her green slope-shoulder were stacked reflections of her back and of Paul&039;s own face grierishka snarled She thrust her great-jawed head down so that he winced his eyes three-quarters shut Then, spacing out the words as one ht to a barely literate peasant, she said: "You treat - little one - like beast - like pet?" The horrified contelacial-volcanic

All Paul could do in his frantic terror was snatch at soibber: "No! No! Cats are people!"