Disclaimer: All The Magician characters - and related material - are copyrighted by Gaumont Multimedia. I just felt that Zina needed a story all her own.
Something was bothering Zina. She prowled around the Magic Express, trying to find - what? Cosmo had come in just a short time ago, and flung his jacket and a few other of the usual items he carried in a chair. That's when Zina noticed a smell she never smelled before.
Or had she? It seemed familiar, somehow. She had gone over to Cosmo's things and started to check them out, but he had pushed her away, saying,"No, Zina. Leave my things alone."
"Maybe you should put them in your room and close the door, Cosmo, so she won't bother them." That was Ace talking, her friend. People thought he was her master, but she knew better. Who was going to master a panther? Both she and Ace knew that it was far better for them to be friends.
But there was still the strange smell. What was it? She now smelled it in different areas. After Ace and Cosmo had left to go to the theater, she continued to investigate. She smelled it in the hallway, and in Ace's room. She checked those areas, but there was nothing unusual anywhere. Then she smelled it again. She lifted her head and sniffed the air. The kitchen.
She hurried into the kitchen and looked around, but couldn't see a thing. Then, she heard a faint sound from a corner to her left, kind of a spitting sound. She looked over and couldn't believe what she saw. How had that gotten in here? She walked over to it and sniffed it a little more. Then she picked it up in her mouth and carried it to her usual spot to sleep when she was alone.
Ace and Cosmo returned a few hours later. "Well, I'm glad we got that taken care of now. It could have been dangerous if we hadn't," Cosmo said.
But Ace wasn't paying attention. "Shh," he said, pointing to Zina. "Look at that."
Zina was asleep in a late afternoon patch of sun. That wasn't unusual. But what was, was a tiny black kitten, asleep between her front paws.