Part II
It is Death who hears the creature speak. She finds it in the evening, bathing beneath the shining silver light of her great moon. ‘What are you?’ Death asks, approaching it as she would any other. She holds out her hand, and it considers her as no one else ever has.
‘I am a watcher,’ it says. ‘I am all.’
‘And what does that mean?’ Death asks.
‘I see all there is to see, and I know all there is to know.’
‘You cannot,’ Death refutes. ‘For there are things not for you to know.’
‘Ah, but I will watch in any case. And I will learn. And I will know all there is for me to know.’
Death considers this creature. It stands on four tall, sturdy legs, all covered in white-and-grey fur. Its body is lithe and agile, its face round with deep-set eyes capable of seeing a very great distance.
‘Why do you wish to watch when there are other things to do?’
‘What are other things to me? I know who I am. I know what I want. And this is what I wish to do.’
‘You do not answer to Life,’ Death notes.
‘No,’ the creature replies. ‘I do not.’
‘And what is your name?’
‘I am Nightcat,’ it says. ‘And I am yours.’
– Myths, Legends and Realities, Anonymous