Maurice, and the Curious Incidence of his Amazingness
Author's Note: This is the first multi-chapter piece that I have done for a while. This is the prequel to The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the story of Maurice's initial confusion at his sudden sentience, and how he meets the Changeling rats, and the stupid-looking kid, and starts his scams. It will also feature references to other books in the Discworld Series, such as, in Chapter 1, Moving Pictures. Enjoy!
Chapter 1 – By the Desire, By the Curiosity
Yesterday, at this time of day, Maurice had been nothing more than a cat – a rather smart cat, admittedly, but only a cat, nevertheless. Now he was…well, still a rather smart cat, but one who suddenly, without warning, now knew that he was a smart cat, and, indeed, that he was Maurice (he had heard an old lady calling him that once, and, now that he had the knowledge that she had, in fact, been referring to him, had decided that he rather liked the name, and so would keep it).
But all of these new thoughts were a mystery – yesterday, he had simply been living a cat's life – sleeping, eating, annoying dogs, getting humans to pet him and/or give him something to eat or drink. Today, he actually had an awareness that that was what he had been doing. And he had no idea why he had that awareness. Cats are famous (and infamous) for their curiosity, and Maurice was no exception – if he had suddenly gained consciousness, there must surely have been a reason, and so he decided that he wanted to find out what that might be.
And so he wandered around the streets of Ankh-Morpork, listening for any clues that might be forthcoming, any information that might give him information concerning his strange new sense of self-awareness. He padded along streets that he had walked down many times before, and no-one paid him much attention, or tried to stop him going about his business. It seemed that humans had, finally, realised that it was fundamentally pointless to make laws to prevent cats doing anything at all – indeed, when a cat is told not to do something, such as not to go somewhere, it will, more than likely, find a way of doing exactly what was forbidden – leading to humans scratching their heads, when, for example, they find a cute little tabby cat curled up asleep on top of a building, with no clue as to how it got up there. So, eventually, humanity had simply realised that cats were, in a sense, above the law, and that any laws and rules that they made, quite simply, did not apply to felines.
Maurice continued on his journey, wandering the streets with the easy grace that only cats can possibly possess. He met a few other cats, and tried to engage them in conversation – but it quickly became apparent that they were just dumb animals, both literally and figuratively. Maurice vaguely wondered if he had ever been like that, and suddenly felt embarrassed at the thought that, only a day ago, he had been exactly the way that they were now. Yet, at the same time, he could also not help himself from envying their uncomplicated way of life, as they clearly did not have to deal with complex thoughts and sentience. So Maurice carried on along his way, now largely ignoring other cats, as he decided to try to find a way to investigate the reason that he suddenly possessed this strange new intelligence, and the reason why he also suddenly possessed…er, reason.
He passed an old lady, who had lovingly placed a saucer of milk in front of a black and white kitten, who was now licking up the milk, and purring appreciatively, as the old lady gently stroked its back. Maurice watched for a moment, and felt a twinge of envy – suddenly, he felt that that was what he wanted – an old lady to treat him just like that, to feed him and lovingly pet him. But Maurice was no longer a cute kitten – he could feel the twinges in his joints, and knew that these were associated with middle age. And why would an old lady want to adopt a mangy old moggy, when she could have an adorable young kitten, like the one that she was even now petting?
Why would an old lady want him as a lap cat? The thought went around his suddenly fizzing, sparkling new brain.
Desire – that was what was important. Get people by the desire, and they could be manipulated; desire could be used to get them to do what you wanted. So, what was it that old ladies desired? Apart from cute kittens?
Comfort, safety, someone to look after them in their twilight years. How could Maurice arrange it so that he could give an old lady one, or, preferably, all of these?
Money – it might not, as the saying went, literally make the world go around, might not be able to buy happiness - but it could certainly make that world more comfortable for those who possessed it, compared to those that did not.
So, how could Maurice get money? He continued to pad along the streets, thinking about this, but was distracted when he heard a group of people talking about a talking dog.
Apparently, Maurice heard as he neared them, there had been a small mongrel in the city, and this mongrel could talk. They said that this mongrel sometimes spent time with a group of beggars, and that he also sometimes helped the Watch, and he had been known to give information to The Times newspaper.
Maurice listened to them with interest. Only yesterday, he would have dismissed such talk – that is, if he had understood it at all – as nothing more than rumours. And, indeed, there was the very real possibility that that was all that it was. But, it was also possible that whatever had happened to Change Maurice into his Amazing new self, had also happened (albeit to a much lesser degree) to the dog. That meant that it was possible that the little mongrel might know something about the Changes that had happened to both of them, about how these Changes had resulted in them both developing intelligence and sentience. At the very least, it was worth trying to locate the dog. Of course, it was quite likely that the mangy mutt would want nothing to do with a cat – after all, yesterday Maurice would have wanted nothing to do with any dogs – but if the mongrel was indeed like Maurice, then there was at least the possibility that he would be willing to engage in conversation with him. At the very least, it could do no harm to try to locate him – although locating one specific mongrel in a city where there were thousands of stray mutts could prove to be challenging. So, Maurice listened some more to the conversation of the group, to see if they would give him any clue as to this dog's current whereabouts.
He listened for a few more minutes, but they stopped talking about the little dog, and instead started to complain about the Musicians' Guild increasing its membership fee without consulting its members. Maurice was just going to leave, when the group's conversation once more meandered into something potentially interesting to Maurice – apparently, a few years back, there had been several animals that had developed sentience, and the ability to speak. These had apparently included a dog, a mouse, a cat, a duck and a rabbit – and they had all gone off to a place called Holy Wood, where they had intended to live out a new life and explore the extent of their new abilities.
After a little while, the conversation once more became boring to Maurice, as the group discussed how annoying it could be when creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions broke through into this reality. Maurice waited for a few more minutes, but, since it was clear that the group had stopped talking about talking animals, he eventually decided to wander off and consider everything that he had just heard.
Holy Wood…a place where sentient and intelligent creatures could live together, could form a society of Animals…Maurice was not sure how accurate the group's chatter had been about that place – but it had got him by the curiosity now – and getting someone by the curiosity was almost as effective as getting them by the desire. Maurice was now even more determined to find the talking dog (if it really did exist, of course). Well, the group had said that the little mongrel sometimes spent time around the watch houses, so Maurice decided that he might as well go and visit one of those, in order to get some idea of where the little mutt might now be located.