Nine Lives
Chapter 1
Once upon a time, there was a cat who lived in the city of Athens. The cat loved to play cruel jokes on humans, who were so easy to fool. He loved to play jokes because he didn't like people. He didn't like people because, unlike many cats, he did not have a home, or someone to stroke him and scratch behind his ears.
One day, the cat wandered into the temple of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty. Her statue of white marble towered over the small cat. He stared a moment, then yawned. He was bored. He leaped onto the platform on which the statue rested and began to sharpen his claws on one white ankle.
All at once, there came a rumbling sound. The cat gave a start. A flock of doves flew into the temple. From the cloud of flapping wings appeared a most beautiful woman with a most ugly expression upon her lovely face. "What have you done to me?!" boomed the goddess. Her doves rushed from the temple in fear.
The cat settled back onto his haunches. "Pardon?" it asked. "Are talking to me, Great Goddess?"
Aphrodite's eyes burned with rage. "Yes, cat! You! Do you not have eyes? Do you not see whose ankle you have ravaged? Whose beauty you have marred?" she said.
The cat looked at his claws. He looked at the teeny, tiny little grooves in the marble of the statue. He looked at Aphrodite. He looked at his claws again. ". . .Yours?"
"Do not mock me! Do not gaze upon me! You sicken me!" said the goddess, shrilly.
The cat did not look away. "It's just your ankle. Not even yours- your statue's."
"My likeness is indeed myself! It is utter perfection. Look! Look! Do you see? They come, every day my admirers come! They will come today! And what will they find? They will find this. . . this thing that is not me at all!" ranted the goddess. The cat stared, and suddenly had a wicked thought.
"Still," said the cat, "an ankle is an ankle. I know humans, Great Goddess. They will not notice. Such slender legs, for instance," The cat had risen to his paws and was now gracefully climbing the leg of the statue. "will surely draw their attentions away."
Aphrodite's anger ebbed slightly.
The cat bounced off the statue's hip. "That hourglass waist. . ." He gushed. "And any young maiden on all of our earth could only dream of having such long flowing hair!"commented the cat, while scaling his way to the statue's shoulder.
Aphrodite ran a hand through her own golden hair.
"And we can't forget that enthralling personality." he said as he rubbed his flank against the statue's smooth cheek. "If I were you, I wouldn't be at all upset with me- a poor, mangy stray cat- about a little ankle scratch. Not when I have so much else going for me."
Aphrodite's anger was diffused now. She was watching him intently.
"I wouldn't be angry with me," he continued, "unless I did this." In one swipe the cat clawed three nasty grooves into the perfect marble face, disfiguring the statue.
Aphrodite screamed. She screeched at the cat with venom, "You evil, horrid thing! This abomination will be your tomb!" The statue began to crack from the feet up. It shook violently. The cat lost his grip and fell to the platform, marble ruble tumbling after. The cat's last moments before he was crushed under stone were of wicked glee.
Hey, y'all! This was originally a homework assignment that got a bit... strange. Anyway, it's not over yet! I hope you liked this first installment!
~ Kayla
