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«Get up.»
Ehlana groaned and tugged the layers of blankets over her head, protecting her ears and nostrils from Miau's encroaching whiskers. She heard him snuffling around the top of her head as he looked for a place to invade. "Go away," she muttered.
«You said. Get you up no matter how hard you tried to go back to sleep. Busy day. And I want breakfast.»
"I lied. It's a thing humans do. Go kill one of your toys and leave me alone."
«You have no one but yourself to blame for this.»
Miau put both front paws on her shoulder and yowled.
Ehlana burrowed deeper into the blankets, holding them tight around her head, but nothing was going to prevent that sound from getting through, especially not when Miau held it until his little voice actually cracked.
"Are you done?"
«No. I can do this for a long time, you know. I have more patience than you do. Get up and feed me.»
He yowled again, louder and even longer.
"Stop! Cease, desist. I'm up." Ehlana rolled over, Miau leaping onto the tall stool beside the bed. She sat up and rubbed her eyes as she allowed herself one more yawn. "You are an incredibly demanding animal."
«I could be worse. I could be a dog.»
"At least a dog pays attention to commands."
Miau licked his shoulder, one ear flicking dismissively. «If you wanted someone to obey you, shouldn't have summoned a cat."
"I didn't summon you. I thought, a cat might be good to have around the house, and you walked in as if you owned the place." Ehlana said as she pulled soft padding over the end of her thigh and smoothed it up her leg. "What shall we use today? Carved flowers or painted birds?"
«I did own the place. Life number two as a human. A hundred years ago.» Miau tilted his head, whiskers pricked forward. «A leg wrapped in twine would be nice.»
"You're not using my leg as a scratching post. We've had this conversation before."
«Carved flowers, then, if you insist on being no fun about it.» Miau jumped off the table and strolled for the curtained arch out of her bedroom. «Breakfast!»
"Let me get dressed!" Ehlana called after him. His tail lashed as he exited and she shook her head with a smile. "Spoiled brat," she muttered affectionately.
Using the stool for balance, she hopped the few steps to her wardrobe and tugged the fastenings of her nightdress to slide it off her shoulders. She pulled the carved leg out of the wardrobe and settled her padded stump into it, adjusted the soft leather cuff around her thigh, and buckled it firmly. Pressing her fingers into three divots in the leather, she whispered the charm her mother had taught her as soon as she could speak, a charm bought from a traveling artificer three months after Ehlana had been born with half a leg.
A couple of tentative swings and stomps assured her that her false leg would stay in place and the spell work would keep her walking and standing for the day. She dressed quickly in a loose tunic, long split skirt, and a single leather half-boot.
Raking her fingers through her hair to straighten out the mess she'd made in her sleep, she grabbed the cane that matched her leg and headed for the front room of her tiny cottage. She snapped her fingers to start the fire crackling in the three-legged burner and set a pot of water on it. The charm work on the burner brought the water to a boil almost immediately, and she dumped a handful of oats into the pot. "What will it be today?" she asked Miau, who was pacing on the countertop beneath the window. "Fish? Alternatively, you could have fish. Or perhaps, for a change of pace, fish."
Miau knocked his head against her arm and pawed at his empty bowl. «Starving.»
Ehlana rolled her eyes. "You're not fooling me."
He sprawled across the counter and endeavored to look pathetic, as if he had never had a meal even once in his life and would waste away within moments.
"You haven't missed a single meal in three years," she said as she put together both of their breakfasts: fish in broth for him; for her, the thin porridge and a slab of thick bread with honey from her hives. "You eat even if I'm fasting for a spell, so don't give me that starving routine."
She flicked her fingers to put out the fire, set Miau's bowl in front of him, and leaned against the counter as she ate straight from the pot, blowing on each spoonful of her porridge.
«Good fish.» Head down in his bowl, Miau growled in satisfaction. «What are we doing today?»
Ehlana finished a mouthful of bread and licked the honey from her lip. "The berries in the west patch are ready for picking, so we'll get a couple baskets of that," she said, one finger pressed between her brows as she thought. "Three care visits, two with a new batch of medicine and one to see how that broken wrist is healing. Go to the forge, see if the adjusted salve is working better for the blacksmith and see how he's doing with my nails."
«His wife sells nails by the bucket.»
"Spiral shanked nails soaked in fresh water fetched daily from a crooked stream until the moon has gone dark three times?"
Miau lifted his head and squinted at her. He licked both sides of his mouth. «Fetched daily. From a crooked stream. For three months. Never heard of that spell component and I've been a witch in two lives.»
Ehlana chuckled. "I don't need nails and there's no spell involved. The blacksmith needs to strengthen his lungs. Nearest crooked stream is five furlongs from the village. Does him good to get a walk in once a day."
«And once he's done it for that many days it will be easier to convince him to continue doing it?» Miau licked the side of his paw and swiped his foot over his ear.
"That's the hope. Finish your bath and get in your carrier while I visit the privy, then we'll leave. And if you're very well behaved today, we'll visit the barrel-maker's cat."
The sun was setting as Ehlana limped up the hard-packed path to her cottage, leaning heavily on her cane with Miau beside her, his tail crooked with concern. When they rounded the bend and the door of the cottage came into view, he leapt ahead to rise up on his back legs and paw at the latch, then put his full weight against the door to shove it open.
"Thanks," Ehlana muttered as he returned to her side. "Could you fix dinner and start the fire while you're at it?"
«If I had thumbs, I would. You did too much today. You didn't have to clean that well of newts.»
"It's a simple charm, hardly any effort."
«Or cure the weaver's cold.»
"She was miserable and her eyes were swollen. It's hard to weave when you can't see." She stopped at the door, her cane tapping on the stone threshold. "And when they ask for help...."
«You have to help.» Miau flattened his ears and sneezed dismissively. «Price of magic, I'm aware. More aware than most. Life number four.»
Ehlana shuffled into the cottage and snapped her fingers, oil lamps flaring to life around the room and the fire roaring in the hearth. "Was that the one with the prickling sickness that ran through your village?"
«Yes. And I ran myself so ragged with brewing medicines and casting charms and putting up protective wards that I didn't care for my own health at all. I caught the sickness and I'd used up all my strength and my magic on everyone else. I was too weak to survive the winter.» Miau jumped up on the counter as Ehlana dropped her pack on the floor. He stared into her eyes, his pupils wide circles. «Help where it's needed but don't push yourself too far. Don't make my mistakes.»
Ehlana leaned down and gently touched her nose to the top of his head. "I won't," she said, keeping her voice low that close to his sensitive ears. "I'll take care of myself. Promise you, for the next two days I won't go anywhere or do anything that's not completely necessary. No visits, no collection trips, no magic more intense than household charms."
«Good.» He pricked his whiskers forward and licked the tip of her nose. «Now what about dinner?»
"If there's one thing I can count on, every day in every season, it's a hungry cat." Chuckling, Ehlana straightened up. Her back and leg both gave a twinge of pain and she hissed quietly. "Dinner and willow bark tea, coming up."
With a kettle dangling from one iron hook in the fireplace and a stewpot hanging from the other, and Ehlana's magic speeding up the preparation, dinner was quickly ready and even more quickly eaten. After, she sat in a comfortable chair near the fire, with Miau curled in her lap and purring as she slowly stroked his back. One of her grimoires floated in front of her, a page turning each time she flicked her fingers.
"This one," she said, pointing at one page with an illustration of a puffball mushroom. "I think there's a patch of them in the woods, west of the village. If we can find some good ones, that will serve as a substitute for meat."
Miau waved the end of his tail over his nose. «Nothing replaces meat. You get sick without it.»
"Cats do. Not humans. I want to do that capnomantic ritual and I need to abstain from meat for five days beforehand. I can use mushrooms instead. And if I work out a few nice recipes, I can give them to the tanner's daughter, the one who gets that horrible rash when she has any mammal meat. It would add a little variety to her diet."
«Thought you were going to rest for the next couple of days.»
Ehlana chuckled. "I am. But that doesn't mean I can't think about what to do after." She scratched between his shoulders and at the top of his long curving spine where he could never reach, smiling as he kneaded happily at the air. "Tomorrow will involve nothing more complicated than a long bath and an even longer nap."
«Two of my favorite things.»
Ehlana curled her fingers into a fist. The floating grimoire closed itself and settled into place on the shelf. Closing her eyes, she tipped her head back against her chair and let herself relax. The fire crackled merrily as Ehlana drifted into sleep, the sound of Miau's purrs filling her cottage.