A Dragon Called Cat
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Dragon sat on their roost and looked at the ocean. Her fur was as red as her wings and she enjoyed baking in the mid-day sun above the angry clouds. Today, she knew, was going to be important, and she smiled, because the day carried with it a promise of kindness. She slowly drifted off in a nap as the sun dried her from her morning swim. 

 

She woke up to the sound of beating wings and fluttering feathers, and she lazily opened her eyes and smiled. 

 

“Good morning, Eagle,” Cat the Dragon said.

 

“Hello Dragon,” Eagle said, pretending not to be out of breath. “I’ve flown very far and very fast,” they said proudly.

 

“Congratulations, Eagle,” Dragon said, and raised her eyebrows, impressed.

 

“I was told you share wisdom with those who make it to the top of your mountain, Dragon. Is that true?” Eagle curiously walked around the perch Dragon would spend most of her days lazing around on. 

 

“I don’t have wisdom to share, Eagle,” Cat said. Eagle looked downcast, until Cat continued. “I will share what I know, but I won’t call it wisdom. Ask me your question, Eagle.”

 

Eagle perked up and hopped forward.

 

“Dragon, I have a problem. All my life I have worked hard to become strong, so that I can fly high and fast. But now I find that other eagles can not fly as high or as fast as I can. They aren’t as good at flying as I am, yet I am expected to slow down if I wish to fly with them. Why is this considered fair? Why don’t they work as hard as I do? I shouldn’t have to go slower because others aren’t as good as me.”

 

Cat considered this for a moment and she yawned and stretched for a moment. 

 

“Eagle, you worked very hard.”

 

“Yes, I did!” Eagle said and puffed up their chest at the praise. 

 

“You were not born knowing how to fly high and fast, did you?”

 

“I did not!” Eagle said with dignity.

 

“Did you know how to work hard?”

 

Eagle didn’t understand and cocked their head. “I just did it.”

 

Cat laid her head down on her paws and looked Eagle in the eyes. Eagle felt like they had said something silly, but didn’t know what. 

 

“The same way you didn’t know how to fly high and fast, do you think it is possible other eagles can not work as hard as you?”

 

Eagle didn’t understand. 

 

“Do you think it’s possible you think you have more value because you work harder?”

 

They didn’t say anything. 

 

“Do you think you’d have less value if you didn’t work as hard?” Cat asked gently.

 

Eagle still didn’t say anything. 

 

“If you want my ‘wisdom’, Eagle, it’s this: It has helped me to think that everyone has value. There will be things you are good at, and things other people are good at. If you want to work hard to be good at something, be my guest. I find that it's good to be good at things, if they make my life or that of the people I care about easier, better or happier. But you have no obligation to be good at things.”

 

Cat paused and looked at Eagle, who had gotten very quiet and was looking at the floor. 

 

“You are already good enough, and so are your friends.”

 

Eagle said nothing and flew away. They had many things to think about. 

 

Cat went back to her nap in the sun, and time went by. 

 

In the middle of the afternoon, Wolf made their way to the Dragon’s roost. Wolf limped and breathed heavily, and Dragon sat up at attention. Wolf had been badly hurt, a long time ago, and their eyes were dull and their paws hurt when they walked. 

 

“Can I help you in any way?” Cat asked with worry.

 

“There’s no need,” Wolf wheezed. “Don’t worry about me.”

 

Cat smirked. “I will do with my time what I like, Wolf, and if that’s worrying, you have no say in the matter.”

 

Wolf collapsed on the warm stone and tried to catch their breath. “I don’t want to waste too much of your valuable time. I apologize.”

 

Cat shook her head. “Don’t apologize. My time is well spent whether you are here or not. Take your time.” Cat then also laid down next to Wolf, so as to prove her point, and maybe catch a little bit more sleep. 

 

After a while, Wolf stood up and tried to take a deep breath. Cat opened one eye and smiled. “How are you feeling?”

 

“Better. Thank you, Dragon.”

 

“Any time. How can I help you?”

 

“I need your advice. I am not an old wolf, but I am nearly blind. I am not sickly, but breathing hurts. I am not weak, but my legs hurt with every step. I wish to be a part of my pack, and my family and friends want me to join them, but it is often too hard. It hurts, but I don’t want them to no longer hunt and play and gather out of pity. I will not burden them with my pain.”

 

Cat the Dragon closed her eyes and nodded.

 

“Have you told your pack about this?”

 

“I have not, Dragon. If they knew how hard things are for me, they would treat me with pity and think less of me.”

 

Cat tutted. “You don’t know this with certainty, Wolf, and you know this. Tell me, why are your friends, well, your friends, do you think?”

 

Wolf didn’t know.

 

“Do you think your friends like you because you are not a burden, or do they like you because of your other qualities?”

 

“I…” Wolf began, but then closed their mouth. “They like me as I am. If I change and show weakness now, they will feel I’ve lied to them. That I am not who I showed myself to be.”

 

Cat considered this, too, for a moment.

 

“That doesn’t sound right, I’m afraid, dear Wolf. I think your friends might know and see more than you think they do. Do you think it’s possible that your friends know you are in pain, but don’t want you to feel pitied because you haven’t said anything to them? That they are waiting for you to trust them?”

 

“But I do trust them!” Wolf yelped. “A lot! I love them and cherish them!”

 

Cat smiled warmly and put her head on her paws again.

 

“It sounds like that’s not entirely true. It sounds like you don’t trust your friends to love you for who you are. It sounds like you think your friendship is transactional, and that you have to be ‘better’ to be worthy of their friendship.”

 

Wolf was quiet.

 

“It sounds to me like you think your friends will leave if they know what you are really like, and in my experience, that has never been true, dear Wolf.”

 

“But if I tell them,” Wolf complained, “they’ll get upset, and I don’t want to upset them! They’ll feel guilty for having to listen to me and help me! They’ll be hurt and only because they feel guilty.”

 

“Hush, dear Wolf,” Cat said softly. “You told me you trust your friends. Trust them to tell you when they are tired and upset. Just as they trust you to do the same. If you show your friends you are vulnerable, they will only know to treat you with kindness. Perhaps you can not hunt and play as you used to, but you can still be with them and ask them to be with you.”

 

Wolf nodded. They looked sad, in a good way. Cat stood upright and stretched, and the tips of their wings shivered a little bit.

 

“Will you do me a favour, Wolf?”

 

“What is it?”

 

“Can you repeat after me?”

 

“After me.” Wolf said with a smile, and Cat laughed.

 

“All right, very good. Now. Repeat after me.”

 

“Okay.”

 

“‘I am not a burden. I’m doing nothing wrong asking for help. I have nothing to apologize for.’ Can you do that for me?”

 

Wolf mumbled softly.

 

“I’m afraid I can’t hear you, dear Wolf.” Dragon said. 

 

“‘Mnot a brdn, ‘mdng nfng rongsking frelp, nfing tapolgisefr.”

 

“I do believe you can do better than that, my friend.”

 

Wolf took a deep breath. 

 

“I am not a burden. I’m doing nothing wrong asking for help. I have nothing to apologize for. There. Happy?”

 

Cat smiled. “Very,” she said, and Wolf knew it was the truth. Cat took Wolf in her talons and carried them to the foot of her mountain, so they wouldn’t have to brave the storm again on the way down, and they waved at her as she made her way back up to her warm spot in the sun, before the evening fell. 

 

As Cat approached her lookout, she saw a dark shape in the storm beside her, which quickly fell away. Out of curiosity and a bit of concern, she followed the shape as it tumbled all the way down the mountain and into the ocean. The little black figure thrashed in the water, and without really thinking about it, Cat fished it out of the water and carried it up to the roost. As she set it down, she saw it was Crow, small, soaking wet and shivering.

 

“Hello, Crow,” Dragon said. “Are you all right?”

 

“I am, dear Cat,” Crow said quietly. “Though I’m a little chilly.”

 

“We can’t have that, can we?” Dragon said with a toothy smile, and wrapped herself, all warm sun-baked fur, around the shivering corvid. “Better?”

 

“Better,” Crow said, snug and getting warm quickly. “How was your day, Cat?”

 

“It was…” Cat thought for a moment. “It was good. I saw some friends. Though I am tired.”

 

“Tired because of friends?”

 

“Yes,” Cat said.

 

“Are they really friends if they make you tired?” Crow wondered.

 

“Of course!” Cat said. “Many things I enjoy make me tired. If I go fishing and diving and swimming I get tired, but I don’t consider those a burden.”

 

“That’s a good point, Cat. Was it worth it?”

 

“Yes,” Cat said with certainty. “It was most definitely worth it.”

 

“I’m glad to hear it,” Crow said from their little nest in the Dragon’s fur. Cat curled up in a ball around them, and the evening sun was a warm blanket on them both.

 

“Was there something you came up here to ask?” Cat wondered, her eyes growing heavy as sleep began to beckon her. “Do you need my wisdom?”

 

Crow merely wiggled a little deeper into the fur mountain.

 

“I was only curious,” they said with a sleepy voice, “why you are called Cat.”

 

Cat the Dragon smiled. She said nothing, and purred gently. 

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