The Talking Cat, By Laura Beasley

Editor's note: Laura Beasley has managed to create a fairy tale that is uniquely her own, yet still manages to evoke all the elements of fairy tales we love: Talking animals, an orphaned child, royalty, character tests and a happy ending.

The girl had been raised by a cat. But not an ordinary Cat. The Cat was able to speak and walk on his hind legs. Cat wore proper boots and a cap with a feather plume as befit his status as a skilled hunter. The girl’s father had been killed soon after he’d met and impregnated her mother. Theirs had been a passionate teenage love affair and her mother had died in childbirth. Cat had found the baby girl and provided for her. He made sure she had goat milk or sheep milk or pig milk to drink. The baby slept cuddled amongst litters of kids or lambs or piglets to keep warm at night. The farmers were none the wiser because Cat removed the girl from the barns before sunrise. After she was weaned, he caught rats, mice and sparrows for her to eat which they roasted on sticks over a campfire. He told the little girl how to start a fire because although Cat was clever, he still lacked opposable thumbs. He had read extensively in the noblemen’s libraries and knew many things. He shared all he learned with he girl.

By the age of five, she knew more than any other child of her age. She could dance ballet and play the harp. She spoke French, Latin and Arabic. She was skilled in spinning, weaving, knitting, quilting, crochet, needlepoint and cross-stitch. And yet, you can learn only so much from books and even the best teacher. She wanted to ride, jump horses and shoot arrows. Disguised as a boy, she became a page and learned chivalry from the knights as she helped them at the tournaments. Every night, she returned to Cat where she would build a fire at their campsite. He would tell her stories until she fell asleep at night. As the years passed, Cat’s face grew grizzled and his breathing became labored. He needed to walk with a cane. Cat told her that he could not care for her much longer.



Fire Fancies, by Arthur Hacker

Meanwhile, stories had spread about this exceptional young person. Every one in the village was impressed that someone so young could be so smart and so skilled. The king and queen invited her to high tea on her twelfth birthday. They were incredulous to learn that she had been orphaned by peasants and raised by a cat.

 “Cats are disgusting filthy creatures,” said the queen.

“Cats are incapable of speech,” said the king.

Cat had been sunning himself in the garden and he overheard everything the monarchs said. He retrieved his boots and cap which had been hidden in the bushes and dressed before entering the castle.

"I had thought that you might be adequate parents for my daughter but your prejudice troubles me. You will need to prove yourselves by successfully completing three challenges,” said Cat.

The queen who had been unable to have a baby had fallen in love with the adorable child.

“We will do anything you ask of us, Cat,” said the queen.

After the girl left with Cat, the king and the queen wondered what the challenges would be. The queen consulted with her household staff. In order to feed the girl, she had her Royal Cook plan a year’s worth of suitable menus. In case the cat wanted to ensure the girl was comfortably housed, the queen ordered the Royal Decorator prepare an entire suite of rooms painted in pinks and lavenders. The queen hired tutors and teachers and ordered more books for the Royal Library. The castle was filled with flowers and all sorts of girlie decorations in anticipation of the arrival of their new daughter.

The king prepared as well. He knew that the girl was interested in horses and archery and typical masculine pursuits. She was a well-rounded girl who might have been called a tomboy. He bought a dozen new horses so that she might choose the one she liked best. He hired coaches and trainers for archery and fencing as well as riding instructors. The king and queen thought they were prepared for anything that Cat could ask of them. They had more than enough money to be the perfect parents.

Everyone knows that money attracts the poor. A poor woman came asking for alms. It was the practice in the castle to give each beggar a few hay-pennies, a bit of broth in their bowl and a hunk of bread. Because this beggar seemed unusual, the guard informed the king. When the king went to the gate, he noticed the green eyes of the woman and the odd way that she stared too long which reminded him of Cat. He welcomed the woman into the throne room and sent a message to his wife to join them. The queen agreed that this situation represented a challenge from Cat. The queen invited the woman to stay with them in the castle and be provided a hot meal and clean clothes. The queen served the woman breakfast in bed day with her own silver tea service the next day.

After a few days, the beggar woman’s healthy had improved. So much that she made unreasonable demands of the servants. The queen liked to cater and take care of the beggar woman, however the king had changed his mind.

“It was fine in the beginning, when she was dirty and hungry and needy. Now she is healthy and strong. It’s time for our guest return to the world. She can find her own way,” said the king.

They gave the beggar woman a basket of cheese and bread. The queen hugged her goodbye and told her that she could visit again another time.

Cat returned to the castle the next day. They sat together at tea which Cat poured and served to the two monarchs. The queen took two sugars and cream in her tea as always. The king had nothing added to his tea.

“You have successfully completed the first two challenges,” said Cat. “You have shown that you can be nurturing and attentive when it is necessary. You have proven that you can be respectful and place limits when you need to.”

“I knew that we could meet your demands,” said the king.

“What is the third challenge and when will we be able to adopt our daughter?” said the queen.

“Never,” Cat said and left abruptly.

The queen cried for forty days and forty nights and seemed inconsolable. The king could not understand. Since they had been married at sixteen, he had never seen her act this way. She had been a determined woman yet the loss of this child had destroyed her spirit. The king woke up each day determined to find new ways to comfort and love his bride. Despite his frustration, he continued to dry her tears and listen to her moans.

He told her, “Even if you cry every day for the rest of our lives, I will be here to try to help you. You have given me so much happiness, I owe you my life. I don’t understand why you are not getting better, but I am willing to be here with you forever.”

The room filled with green smoke and they heard laughter. They turned to see Cat and girl standing in front of them. Cat looked old but happy.

Cat spoke, “You have completed the final challenge and proven that you can be successful parents. You truly love each other. I poisoned your wife with crying cream in her tea. She was forced to cry for the forty days and nights in order to test your love. No one should parent in the absence of a strong marriage. My ninth life is ebbing and this child needs the best parents possible and I know that you will love her almost as much as you love each other.”

The girl became a princess who lived happily ever after.

Laura Beasley, the Mother who Tells Stories, has lost 190 pounds and lives beyond cancer. After raising their three children in California, she and her husband live with their whippet in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The Prince and the Sky-Maiden, By James Hutchings

Once upon a time, long ago, there was a crone named Dokka. Dokka was the cleverest crone that ever there was. If a women who was barren went to her, why by the time Dokka got through with her that woman would lie with her husband in the night and have ten strong babies by morning. A pregnant woman could go to her, and just by looking Dokka could say if her baby was going to be healthy or sick. If there was a thing she couldn't do, I'm sure I've never heard of it.

But Dokka was so clever that she saw a great danger coming, which no one else could see -- or if they could see, they certainly didn't know what to do about it. It was a great evil, with no shape and no sound, and if it had a name only Dokka knew it. It had more power than anyone, even Dokka herself. It wanted only to kill every man, woman and child on the earth, and those it did not kill it wanted to turn into monsters.

At last Dokka told her granddaughter, whose name was Gloria, to come to her house. She cast a spell on Gloria, so that every time she awoke she would be awake a day, yet every time she went to sleep she would sleep for a hundred years. Then she put Gloria in a tower in the middle of a great forest, as high as the sky, and bid her sleep. Then she set soldiers to guard the tower, who never died. She said to these guards that they must not let anyone in the tower, other than a true-born man. Last of all she set a talking stone at the base of the tower, which would tell anyone what lay within.  Last of all, Dokka herself drank poison, so that the great evil could not turn her into a monster.

Now the evil came to the earth, and worked its will. Everyone it could kill it killed, and those it did not kill it turned into monsters. But Gloria slept in her high tower, and she never knew the evil had come, and it never saw her. At last there was no-one on the earth, other than monsters, and the evil went away. For years and years there were only monsters, until at last some true-born men and women came out of the ground. But Gloria slept on, only waking up for one day every hundred years, and the stone warned the monsters not to enter. And those who didn't listen? Well, you may be sure that the guards chopped them up.

One day, many centuries later, a prince was riding through the forest. And what do you think - he came to the tower, and the talking stone.

"Now stone, tell me what lies within this tower?" said the prince.

"Now prince, Gloria lies within. She is more beautiful than any maiden you have seen, and her hair is as golden as the sun," said the talking stone.

"But what do you mean, 'as golden as the sun'?" the prince replied.

"Well now prince, many centuries ago the sun was gold. And that is why these times were called the Golden Age," the stone said.

The prince was greatly taken with the idea of a golden sun, and of a beautiful maiden with hair the same color. So he asked the stone if he could go inside. But the stone told him, "Only a true-born man may go within."

"Again, what do you mean?" the prince cried angrily. "I am indeed a true-born man, and a prince at that!" But the stone was silent.

Now the prince was as angry as if he'd sat on a hundred thistles. But he was no fool, this prince, and he knew that anyone who could build a tower that high and set a talking stone at the bottom, that wasn't someone you could just beat by running at them with your sword. So the prince sat at the base of the tower, deep in thought. Now by chance, Gloria had woken up from her hundred-year sleep that very morning. She was looking out of her tower, down at the clouds, and feeling pretty lonely up there all by herself. Just then she heard the prince, talking to himself about one plan and another to get into the tower.

"Oh, who is down there?" Gloria shouted down.

"A prince of this land," said the prince.

"Ho now prince, why don't you come up here? I'm so lonely," said Gloria.

"Well now I would," said the prince, "but this stone down here tells me I can't come in, for not being a true-born man."

"I know!" said Gloria. "Why don't I send down a lock of my hair? You show that to the guards, and they'll think you're a true-born man."

The prince thought this was a fine idea. So Gloria cut off some of her hair, and threw it down, through the clouds, and down to the prince. And the prince saw this hair, which was like gold, and he thought that if her hair was this beautiful then Gloria herself must be the most beautiful woman in the world.

So the prince went into the tower, and he saw the never-dying guards. But he just held up a fistful of Gloria's hair, and they let him go right on through. Up, up and up went the prince, higher than the birds, higher than the clouds, high as the sun almost. And at last he came to Gloria's room. He opened the door, and when he saw her...

Oh! She was so ugly. Both her middle limbs were missing. There was no hair on her body at all - and yet hair covered her head! The prince realised where the lock of hair he held had come from. He was so disgusted he couldn't even breathe.

"Don't you come near me!" he said, and he was so sick he didn't want to live any more. He jumped right out of the tower! Down he went, down past the clouds and the birds, and at last he landed in a thorn-bush, and that bush scratched out his eyes, and he was blind.

Now Gloria was scared that the only person she'd ever seen would die. So she ran all the way down the stairs, and there he saw the prince, all bloody and blind.

"Oh woe is me! No one's going to want me with no eyes! I won't even be able to find food for myself!" the prince said.

But Gloria said, "Well now, you were damn rude to me prince. But I guess I don't want you die." So Gloria gathered berries and mushrooms for the prince to eat.

The prince stayed with Gloria. And since he couldn't see her, it didn't matter that she was so ugly. And as for Gloria, she'd never seen anyone else. So after a while they got married, and they had children. And that's where we all come from; you and I, and everyone else, and all the true-born men and women that ever have been and ever will be. So I guess that shows that Dokka was the cleverest crone that ever there was, and that even great evils will be beaten in the end.



James Hutchings lives in Melbourne, Australia. His work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction and fiction365 among other markets. His blog, http://teleleli.blogspot.com, is updated daily.

The image, which has been altered to fit better with the story, is by Arthur Hacker, and was painted in 1902.