A few days after my return to this strange age, my mistress performed a troubling act.
She placed me inside an iron cage.
It had little openings along its sides, through which I could see the world.
She carried me.
This distinction is important.
I protested loudly.
“It’s alright, sweetheart,” she said.
I have noticed that witches use this tone when things are decidedly not well.
Soon I found myself inside a great metal carriage.
There was no horse.
No reins.
No driver seated upon a bench.
Yet the carriage moved.
I pressed my nose against the little openings in my cage.
The road rushed beneath us.
Great machines passed on either side.
People traveled within them as though this were the most ordinary thing imaginable.
I began to suspect that I had not merely been reincarnated.
I had been cast into a kingdom of sorcery.
At last, the carriage stopped before a strange building.
Upon its door were painted the likenesses of a dog and a cat.
I knew immediately that this was a place of importance.
Perhaps a temple.
Perhaps a guildhall.
Perhaps a place where witches studied the secret arts of keeping beasts.
My mistress carried me inside.
The air was full of unfamiliar smells.
There were dogs.
Many dogs.
A woman spoke pleasantly to my mistress.
I looked at her.
She looked at me.
I did not trust her.
Then she reached toward me.
I hissed.
She withdrew her hand.
A small victory.
My mistress laughed.
“He's nervous.”
Nervous?
I was surrounded by strangers in a sorcerer's house.
I considered myself remarkably composed.
We were led into a small chamber.
There stood a table.
A very clean table.
Too clean.
I knew an altar when I saw one.
I climbed onto my mistress's shoulder.
She placed me upon the table.
I crouched low.
Then the door opened.
And the White-Robed Warlock entered.
He wore a white garment from neck to ankle and carried strange instruments of silver and glass.
At once I knew she was a person of considerable power.
“Hello, Perkins,” he said.
I stared at him.
He smiled.
I stared harder.
Then he touched me.
He examined my ears.
He looked into my eyes.
He lifted my tail.
He opened my mouth.
I endured these indignities because I am, by nature, a dignified creature.
Then he placed a strange little instrument against my chest.
It made a noise.
I sprang backward.
The warlock laughed.
I did not find this amusing.
He listened again.
“His heart sounds good.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“His lungs are clear.”
What manner of divination was this?
Then came the most terrible instrument of all.
A needle.
I knew its purpose at once.
The White-Robed Warlock tapped the needle.
My mistress held me down.
This was a betrayal.
I struggled.
The White-Robed Warlock held me gently.
Then, I froze.
That was all.
The warlock withdrew the needle.
I looked at him.
He looked at me.
I looked at my mistress.
No one appeared alarmed.
I had expected thunder.
Flames.
Possibly frogs.
Instead, the White-Robed Warlock smiled.
“Good boy.”
Then he gave me a small morsel of food.
I ate it.
He gave me another.
I ate that as well.
I began to reconsider my opinion of him.
Perhaps he was not an evil warlock.
Perhaps he was a benevolent warlock.
Or perhaps he had enchanted the food.
If sorcery was involved, I was willing to take the risk.
When our business was concluded, my mistress placed me once more inside my traveling cage.
The White-Robed Warlock gave her further instructions.
Something about medicine.
Something about parasites.
Something about returning.
I did not like the sound of that last part.
On the journey home, I sat quietly and contemplated the mysteries of this new age.
I had seen wonders no man of my former century could have imagined.
Iron carriages without horses.
Lights without flame.
Voices traveling through the air.
And White-Robed Warlocks who could listen to a cat's heart without cutting him open.
The world had changed greatly since my first life.
Yet some things remained as they always had.
A cat must remain suspicious.
Thus I have decided that I shall permit my mistress to keep me.
She appears harmless enough.
For now.
As for the White-Robed Warlock, I shall watch him closely.
For I am Perkins.
I have lived once before.
I have died once before.
And by some strange providence, I have been returned to a world where every man, woman, child, and beast appears to dwell by means of sorcery.