The number of times I have been asked how I became such a magnificent empurror far exceeds the number of toe beans I have. While I am not always in the mood to share the details of my rise to power, I will share it here with all of you, mostly so I don’t have to repeat myself in the future. I’m a very busy cat, you see. I’ve had to cut down my naps from twenty a day to eighteen, and I’m not willing to sacrifice any more!

  So, without further ado, here is a brief story of my time training under the great James Paws.

  Part I

  The Dear Doe

  “Come along, Kraken. Today you will learn the art of luring humans to do your bidding,” James called as he swaggered effortlessly through the crowd.

  The different smells and the sounds of tasty rats and mice skittering over the cobblestones and rummaging about in the alleys we passed kept distracting me.

  James Paws, my new mentor, didn’t even twitch a whisker in any of those directions. “I heard you found a way to lure Scrappy Carl onto one of the ships. Well done. You’re climbing the ranks in Fat Tony’s gang quite quickly.” He turned right onto a quieter street.

  “It was easy,” I chirped. It really hadn’t been all that difficult. All I’d done was tell Tony that Tipper was spreading some pretty bold purrs around town about Sylvia and him being a sure thing.

  “Tell me, Kraken, what is your greatest ambition?” James slowed, and I trotted a little faster to catch up. The fur above his eyes lifted as he glanced over his shoulder at me.

  “I want to be as powerful and important as possible. I want to take care of the cats, and I want to command them.”

  “Oh? And what are these great commands you have for them?”

  “We will make the world a better place. My witch is a house witch, and he is powerful, but he doesn’t use his abilities like he should. To be honest, I don’t think a lot of the human-cats are nearly as smart as we are. I’m not sure why they are controlling so many big things. No one has stepped up to take over and help them, so, why not me?”

  James sat and lifted one of his white paws to start licking it clean. “That is quite the ambition. As a familiar, your priority should be serving your witch.”

  “But I am serving him. He’s a house witch. He needs a familiar who can do things that aren’t in his nature so there isn’t any outside interference, and that requires a great deal of power.”

  James continued cleaning himself without looking at me. I tried not to show my impatience, but my tail twitched, and his eyes snapped up instantly.

  “Don’t get your hopes up too high there, kit.” James Paws stood and resumed his journey down the street. “We’re an asset to human-cats because they don’t always notice us, so we can pull the string behind the curtain, so to speak.”

  “I want to do both: be in the spotlight and behind the scenes. Humans are slow to catch on, so only a few of us will stand out once I start taking over. The rest will be behind the curtain. If only I knew more familiars…”

  James said nothing as he took a left, and I followed. We were entering a fancy part of town.

  It was a gray spring day, so the cobblestones were cool and the air was balmy. The damp smell of rain lingered, mixing with the aroma of rich, freshly turned soil as the residents of Austice prepared their gardens.

  When James finally stopped and turned to face me, it wasn’t in front of a pretty city house or even one of the estates that the local nobility owned. He sat in front of an arched wooden doorway with a pretty, round, stained-glass window.

  “This here, Kraken, is The Dear Doe, the tavern the nobles attend, and other than the tavern’s workers, only the nobles can,” James explained. “Inside are men that have seen the cutest, most interesting animals to walk this earth, so they are jaded. Their eyes linger on jewels the way our eyes linger on fish.”

  “Jewels don’t taste good. What idiots,” I huffed.

  “Indeed. Today, you are going to make one of these men rise up out of their chairs to pet you. If you fail today, and they throw us out, you will have to return until you succeed.”

  I kneaded the stones beneath my paws as I stared up at the door. Maybe I should have mentioned to James that I was around nobility every day and had made several of them chase me for the slimmest chance of brushing against the very tips of my magnificent fluff.

  But there wasn’t really a point to me divulging that information.

  Well, at least this test this would be easy.

  Part II

  An Exclusive Effort

  When I entered, the thick smoke stung my eyes, and the wave of smells set both my fur on end and my stomach roiling. Perhaps I shouldn’t have stolen the third dinner roll from my witch’s baking sheet at lunch.

  The walls were green, the tables were dark cherry wood, and the bar matched. The serving staff wore only black. The guffaws of the nobles echoed out periodically, but overall, it was a much quieter place than the taverns I had visited previously. However, it was odd there weren’t any human women there.

  “That one. Over there,” James interrupted my appraisal of the room and drew my attention to a human man with a round belly.

  He must have eaten a whole sack’s worth of bread rolls and five fish to look like that!

  I said nothing to James and merely turned, rubbed my cheek along the corner of the bar, and sauntered behind it, where two of the serving staff were in the midst of uncorking a bottle of wine and pouring a heavier scented alcohol from a bottle.

  One of the serving staff made me stop in my tracks. It was a woman. The only one in the room, apparently. She had brown hair, a slight hook in her nose, and freckles. She didn’t look extraordinary for a human, but one of my deeper senses prickled, like when I first met my witch.

  There was something magical about this woman-cat, but it felt more powerful than even my own witch, like there was an older magic woven into her being—something older than she appeared to be.

  A low purr behind me signaled that James was approaching, likely watching to see what I would do.

  Just as I was about to resume my journey around the bar to the plump human, the woman I was attempting to figure out turned to look at the floor.

  “Hello, James,” she murmured warmly.

  My head snapped around, and I watched this peculiar human-cat crouch to pet James. I could tell by the mutual affection they knew each other well. I wanted to ask about this interesting relationship, but decided to wait. Best to get my assignment done sooner rather than later.

  Rounding the other end of the bar, I approached the fellow from behind, intending to catch him off guard with my fluff. Most people jolt at the sight of something dark moving in the corner of their vision, so when they realize it’s only little old fluffy me, their relief often prompts them to pet me.

  I padded up to the man, ignoring everyone else in the tavern. I brushed my cheek on his chair leg, and my fur whooshed quietly against the wood as I meandered closer. He indulged himself in another gulp of ale.

  Sure enough, he gave a small start, and dropped his gaze down to me.

  I locked eyes with him, then slowly wound back to brush against the chair leg.

  “I didn’t know they let cats in here,” another noble, seated across from my mark, chortled as he rearranged the cards in his hand.

  The larger man grinned, his eyes bleary. As predicted, he bent down to pet me. I skittered just far enough away from him that he missed my tail floof by a hair.

  His companion laughed at him.

  Sighing, the man slumped back in his seat, and I immediately worried he’d exhausted any motivation to pet me. I looked at him and spoke. I knew the human would only hear something they called a ‘meow’, but I had to try. “Come pet me, you lump. You only have this opportunity once.”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  To my utter shock, the man’s eyes rounded, and he openly gaped at me. “Gods, Lynsey, did you hear that cat talk?”

  The fur on my scruff fanned upward a mite.

  Lynsey stared at my mark blankly. “So that new tavern wench wasn’t kidding when she said she was working on a potent new concoction, eh, Gauva?”

  Gauva, the fat man, began to sweat, his eyes fixed on me. He was probably drunk, but I sat up straight, my tail curling around my toes as I stared at him.

  He gulped, clearing his throat, then rose from his seat, lowered himself down onto one knee, and scratched me tentatively under the chin.

  I glanced at James with a smug smirk. The strange woman at his side had a keen glint in her eye.

  I didn’t like it.

  When the lump of a noble finished giving my scritches, he rose and continued to gape down at me until his companion behind him shouted.

  “You playing another round, Gauva?”

  Giving himself a shake, the nobleman turned around and sat back down at the table, freeing me to return to James’s side.

  Upon returning, my mentor gave a brief, rumbling purr of a laugh.

  “Well. I suppose it’s hard to resist a cat as fluffy as you. Come along. I’ll take you somewhere a little more difficult to see how you fare.”

  We proceeded into a back storage room, slipping out of an open window above a stack of ale barrels.

  I leapt down first, followed closely by James, and I didn’t waste any time before asking him about the mysterious human woman.

  “Ah. That’s a woman my old witch was in love with.”

  I froze in shock. “You… You’re a familiar, too?”

  He looked up at the sky, and his whiskers twitched a little sadly. “Used to be. I came to him near the end of his life, and I wasn’t his first familiar.”

  “Witches can have more than one familiar in their lifetimes?” I asked, dumbfounded.

  “It’s rare, but it happens. I think the most there have ever been were three in one witch’s lifetime.”

  I didn’t know how to handle that news. My ego and whiskers prickled at the idea of any other familiar trying to take care of my problematic witch.

  James didn’t seem to notice my feelings on the matter, instead continuing his story. “Anyway, he loved her a great deal, and she would stop by now and then to say hello and see how he was.”

  More questions were piling up in my mind when the thump of paws landing on a nearby empty crate made my back arch.

  James swung his head around and gave a weary huff. “I’d hoped we’d avoid them. They normally are sound asleep this time of day.”

  “Who is—”

  “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the big cat himself, comin’ to hang out in our humble home. It’s been a bit, hasn’t it, Paws?”

  A lean, smoky-furred cat prowled closer to us. Behind him was a white cat with gray spots on his head and a ginger cat with yellow eyes and a smooshed face. They didn’t look all that strong or well fed, but three against two when they had the high ground could be tricky.

  James gave them all a languid stare. “I’m just doing some training.”

  “Ooh! Training! You’re taking another runner under your paw for Fat Tony?” The gray cat’s meow was rather nasally.

  James stayed seated as the gray cat leapt down from the crates and strode over to us.

  “And you won’t even take on a single kitten from our own gang. I thought you didn’t pick sides, Paws.”

  James’s tail didn’t even twitch when the gray cat leaned his nose in toward his neck. “Zorin, I told you. Your kittens aren’t fed enough. They wouldn’t be able to endure the training period. Maybe if your boss stopped hogging the rats for himself, I’d consider it.”

  A hiss built in Zorin’s throat.

  “They’re kittens. It isn’t their fault. Maybe if you took them under your paw, Julius would feed ‘em better. Ever think of that?”

  “What if I take them?” I asked abruptly.

  All eight shining eyes snapped to me. I peered back at them. A calm knowingness settled deep in my fluff. This is what my witch would do. He would protect the weak and take care of them.

  “Nice try, kit. You’re nothing but a runner.” Zorin swung his head back to James. “See? Even the kit here thinks you’re a bitch for not taking in the younguns.”

  “No need to lower yourself with such language,” James responded, sounding utterly unbothered.

  “I’m not just a runner,” I pressed. “I’m a familiar to a powerful witch.”

  That made all the cats, save James, pause.

  “A familiar?” Zorin weaved over to me. “Is that true?”

  James yawned. “Yes. He’s a familiar, alright. He’s got that whiff of magic all over him.”

  My next mew was steely. “And I have access to enough food to feed a few kittens.”

  “Kraken.” There was a warning note in James’s meow that made my eyes flit to him briefly.

  “Oho. A big fancy cat here, I see. As much food as he wants! Well, why don’t you come by and share some of this food.”

  “I’m offering it to the kittens. If, and only if, I get to train and command them.”

  “Now hang on, we aren’t just giving you the kittens!” the orange cat growled in a gruff baritone.

  My eyes narrowed. “Why not? You want them to starve to death instead?”

  The cats went quiet, but there was a lot of tail swinging and low rumbles of unease.

  “Hold onto your scruff there, kit,” James interjected. “You may not know this, but that’s a rule we don’t break between gangs.”

  The wind ruffled my chest fur as I regarded James for a moment. I wasn’t sure what he expected me to do, but, frankly, I was starting not to care. My eyes darted back to the other three cats. “Tell your boss Julius the kittens starved to death. If he changes how he distributes food after that, I’ll return them after their training. If he doesn’t, then wouldn’t you agree it’s time for a new boss?”

  All three cats belonging to Julius’s gang stalked toward me.

  “Watch your mouth there, kit,” Zorin growled. “Training with Paws or not, your whiskers aren’t even fully grown, an’ you’re playing a dangerous game.”

  “You’re playing games. I’m trying to make the world better for cats, and we aren’t going to do that without working together. I’d like to help your kittens, but you’re letting pride and loyalty to a garbage cat get in the way. You should be proud that another cat wants to save more of our kind.” There was a crackling tension in the air as I stared at Zorin. I turned, my tail straight up and strode to the end of the alley. “Think about it, then let Paws know when you’ve made up your mind.”

  I could hear James follow, and when he caught up, he shot me a calculative stare. “That was dangerous.”

  “It was the right thing to do.”

  He gave a huff of disapproval. “There is no right and wrong in survival.”

  I didn’t lower my tail for an instant. “There is if you want to do more than just survive.”

  Without looking at my teacher, I continued moving. I felt something powerful brewing in the air, and I could already tell beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’d started something important. Something that felt purrfectly right.

  Part III

  Fight through the Fluff

  “Say it again.”

  “The greatest dangers to cats are fires, poison, and drunk people.”

  “Correct. Why are carts not the greatest danger?”

  “We can hear them coming, and if I get hit by one, I shouldn’t come yowling to you,” I repeated back one of the many lessons James had made me memorize during our time together.

  Truthfully, if it wasn’t for the fact that I was repeating a lot of his lessons to the kittens I managed, I’d have had a harder time remembering everything. Things had been busy, since my witch was having some troubles.

  James blinked approvingly. “Good. Now—”

  “Where’s the little rat?”

  We turned slowly toward the bellowing yowl. Then, every bit of me went still—even my tail.

  James and I were conducting the lesson review atop a discreet stone wall not far from where my witch’s mate lived. Peering down, I saw a cat that rivaled Fat Tony for size. He was mostly white, with gray splotches on his head, belly, and the tip of his tail. Curious, I waited as the ball with legs approached the spot beneath me. Behind the behemoth animal were the three cats from the alley behind The Dear Doe.

  “Paws, is this the piss-whisker that took kittens from my clan?” the large cat snarled.

  James looked at me and tilted his head as if to say. You caused this, you fix it.

  “I’m the one who did that, yes. And you are… Julius?” I meowed, my whiskers bristling in the wind.

  “That’s right. You’re Tony’s new kit, eh? His new runner to replace Scrappy Carl?”

  “Correct.”

  “Well I’ll be taking up this matter with Tony. Count your days, boy. The instant you’re not under his protection, it’ll be my teeth around your neck.”

  “Good luck. Odds are you’ll choke on fluff.”

  “What?” The rolling growl became a shriek at the end of Julius’s cry, making his followers inch back.

  “Why do you care if I train the kittens? You’re getting them back.”

  “What are y—wait.” Julius rounded back to the three cats following him. “You lot said they weren’t likely to be coming back.”

  Zorin lowered his head, but didn’t speak.

  “I said if you started distributing food evenly to the rest of your cats, I’d send them back,” I clarified when I realized no one else was going to.

  Julius’s head swung back to look up at me, but he flinched when I leapt over him. I landed neatly between him and his followers, who backed up even more.

  My eyes narrowed. “Are you even capable of feeding any cat other than yourself?”

  Julius bared his teeth.

  “Zorin, was it? If you and your friends swear loyalty to me as your empurror, I’ll see that you and the other cats don’t go hungry.” I didn’t look over my shoulder at the trio. I knew better than to take my eyes off of Julius, who was practically spitting with rage.

  “You think you can rule these cats better? Please. Paws, you should give up on this one. He’s got fish swimming around where his brain should be.”

  James remained silent.

  I drew myself up to my full height. I could sense the cats behind me stiffening in surprise. I grew big, and I grew quick. “Some cats only think about themselves because they were raised scrounging for rotting scraps in a dirty alley.” I drew closer to Julius, whose ears had flattened against his head as I loomed over him. “Sometimes, that’s all they ever will be: dirty, hungry alley cats. I, on the other hand, want to see cats rise to seize their true power, to recognize that we are meant to hunt and share the spoils, we tend to our sick and young, we move as one, we are loyal to our kind, and we are powerful—though at present, no one knows it with leaders like you.” I lowered my mouth near Julius’s throat. “You will bow, or I will put you on the ground.”

  Julius laughed, but it sounded shaky. “You think a little kit like you can—”

  I wrapped a paw around his neck, flipped, and pulled. It took every ounce of muscle I had, but with a heavy thud, Julius was on his back on the ground. I sauntered away from him and sat in front of his followers to clean my paw while Julius struggled to get off his back, like a turtle that’d been flipped onto its shell. A fat, tyrannical turtle.

  “So. Will you pledge your loyalty?” I purred.

  Zorin glanced over his shoulder at his fellow gang members without so much as a meow, but when they all looked at me once more, they proceeded to bow.

  “We swear loyalty to the empurror.”

  Satisfied, I sniffed and padded back to the wall. “Good. Now, go find the kittens outside the castle barn. They should be enjoying lunch soon and will have some food to share.”

  The three cats darted off without any complaint as I leapt back up onto the wall.

  James watched me.

  I settled back down, as my eyelids grew heavy. It was getting close to high sun; a nap was imminent.

  Julius still hadn’t managed to roll over yet.

  “You strained yourself flipping him, didn’t you?” James guessed casually.

  My tail flapped against the stones of the wall. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  An approving purr rumbled from James Paws. “Flipping him and pretending like it was the easiest thing in the world… You’re made of strong stuff, kit. Who knows. You might not be as full of fish guts as I thought.”

  A smile curled the corners of my lips. “I’m just getting started. Just you wait. One day, there will be nothing to get in my way, not even the Gods themselves.”