The Black Cat

Noble knights, gentlemen, boys, girls, and ladies. The story I present here is not about a black cat.

This is the story of the black cat, the first, true and unique.

It all started a long time ago. When cats were venerated as gods, temples were built and offerings were made.

And that certainly had its reasons.

Among all the cats in the world there were those that were born with two tails. Each of them had a gift. And immortality.

Their gifts were related to nature, they could vary from making plants grow faster or increase raining.

At that time this was already of immense help to humans who would have nothing to eat in the winter if the harvest was not very profitable, or when their houses wouldn't be able to withstand the storms if they weren't strong.

Humans gave and did anything for the protection of cats, from prayers to sacrifices.

Cats, meanwhile, lived lazily in the palace of heaven.

They spent their day's blessing the humans, eating, drinking, sleeping, and playing. Their lives were so luxurious that no other being could endure that long.

But for cats, that was life and the source of all their happiness, and they would never need anything else.

Unfortunately, as time went on, humans began to find and develop easier and cheaper ways of living without the blessing of cats.

So fewer and fewer people prayed or made offerings.

The temples were abandoned, and the city in the sky was beginning to crumble.

Of course, cats didn't notice anything.

They were always entertained and working less for the humans was a motivation for more celebration. They were used to abundance and had a stock of centuries of offerings. A few cracks here and there also means nothing.

It was around the mid-1600s that they began to feel the winds of change. A new religion took over the world and the abandoned temples were simply destroyed.

Offerings rarely took place once a year.

The wine was gone and the houses in the sky were losing their shape and becoming simple clouds. The cats finally panicked.

But it was too late, there was nothing they could do.

The sky city had fallen.

They hid in old houses, abandoned buildings, or forests. Places where no one goes, but in particular, cemeteries. There they lived off from the offerings made to the dead.

At night their cries could be heard in any dark alley or abandoned place.

They were stealing and tricking the humans to get food, treasures, and thing to live comfortable, so they continued the same lifestyle, just without the usual luxury.

They didn't know about work and effort, neither intended to learn it someday.

Thus cats lived for the next two centuries.

Why just until there? Well, two centuries later we met in 1800.

In this era, concrete forests were erected and the smoke machinery was at its peak.

The landscapes were gray and dark, the days were always cloudy and people stressed.

In one of the many dirty and dark alleys of a city that never slept, a gray cat, small but neither thin nor fat, was huddled in a cardboard box leaning against the wall.

The cat was giving birth, meowing day, meowing night, squirming, and crying.

At dawn, the crying stopped and for a few seconds, the alley went silent again.

In the next minute, the silence was broken by the sweet cry of baby kittens.

Seven gray balls of fur wept for the first time.

No... Six of them were as gray as the mother, but the seventh was completely white.

Not only that, it had more than one tail! Since the city of heaven had fallen, no two-tailed cat had been born, until that moment.

Even so, the existing two-tailed cats were too busy deceiving and stealing to welcome the kitten.

But what surprised everyone the most was that when the kitten turned on its back, a before hidden third tail was seen!

It was seen at the same time by all cats with two tails that paid the least attention to the birth of more than one of their own.

Those who didn't see it, in a second would receive the news. That evening, a herd of two-tailed cats of all colors and sizes floated by, meowing, dancing, and singing through the alleys of the dark, noisy gray city.

It was the biggest party since the city of heaven had fallen.

When the first god cat arrived in the alley, he ran towards the cardboard box and grabbed the little white cat by the fur on the neck.

He went flying with the other god cats behind, without mercy for having pulled a newborn from the mother's arms.

They threw the puppy from side to side up and down.

When they got exhausted, they lay down on the grass of a hill far from the city and started to ask the kitten questions like "What's your name?" "What's your favorite food?" and of course the most important: "What's your gift?"

You are probably asking that the cat gods were too stupid to ask newborn babies questions. 

But be aware that cats with two tails were born "ready", already knowing everything they needed to know and with a "ready" personality too, so they didn't like to learn new things and remained the same inside out throughout their lives.

Then the kitten simply replied, "What is your wish?" All the cats were surprised by the answer.

At first, they didn't understand, after a while, they were just confused about the reason for the question. 

The silence reigned until one of the cats got up and answered, "My greatest wish is that I can return to live in the city of heaven!"

Silence. 

The kitten looks at the starry sky and takes a deep breath, breathes, breathes, and when it looked like it was going to explode it blows all the air in the sky.

The breath of a kitten is usually not enough for a dandelion, but it was not a normal kitten. 

He blew, blew, and blew. 

And his breath shaped the clouds and gave them texture and when he was finished, the city of heaven arose.

All cats were astonished.

Petrified, they stayed that way until the first one advanced towards the sky, then another and another until all the cats flew towards the city.

The little kitten was chasing.

There were food wine and offerings of all kinds.

 After enjoying the miracle for a while the cats' attention returned to the little cat.

They asked for palaces, temples, and followers and all wishes were granted.

They put the kitten in the most luxurious room in the city of heaven. They named him their king and gave him everything a God cat needs, drink, food, music, dance, respect, and comfort.

It was the beginning of a new era.

Soon humans also realized this, the power to perform miracles was too good to be true, but after countless demonstrations, it didn't take long for people from all over the world to line up for the cat temple.

Cats lived in luxury and abundance. 

All were secretaries of the king and only helped him to perform miracles, without having to fulfill wishes and having a good life, all cats with two tails were happier than ever.

All two, I said, for our dear king it was not like that!

It wasn't as if he was sad too, in fact, he could be sad in a place as good as the city of heaven? He just wasn't happy.

At first, it didn't bother him, but as his curiosity about happiness grew, so did his growth.

The cats soon realized that and started to worry about.

In fact, if the king of the happiest cats in the world was sad it must be a serious disease!

The following year, the three-tailed king called a council of the wisest people in the world to solve his problems.

The first sages advised him to try different forms of happiness, such as love, adventure, pride, or even victory. 

But it was useless. 

The big cat had no interest in love or adventure, he was the most powerful being in the world, and still, he had no pride or the satisfaction of victory.

The second group advised the big cat to try to seek his dreams or goals, but it was no use either.

Being able to grant any wish, he had nothing he particularly wanted but to experience true happiness.

The third group advised a big cat to observe the result of his Miracles, in fact observing people happy because of him would normally make you happy. 

But not for the white cat, he did this since the day he was born and did not feel anything in particular.

The fourth group was not exactly in a group, it was a simple old gray cat mother of six gray cats.

She walked to the king and advised him to give up his life as a king and his powers, that he should become mortal and live in the dirty streets of the cities like all other cats with one tail.

It was chaos in the entire palace. 

Someone had just advised the king to do something comparable to killing himself and being born again!

And most importantly, to finish the source of happiness and hope for all people and cats!

Unforgiven!

The gray cat was thrown out of the palace and the doors were closed.

The meeting had ended without a definite end.

But even so, the big cat had kept the gray cat's words in mind, in fact, he was the only one who recognized her.

The next day the big cat weighed only that. 

All the cat gods spent the day trying to convince him it was bullshit. 

But nothing could convince you more than the gray cat's words. At the end of the day, he made his decision.

And he took off one of his tails.

For the first time he felt his power disappear, he felt free and finally happy! 

Excited and anxious for more he tore off the second tail, but the only thing that came was pain and despair, he felt fear and remorse. It hurt, it hurt too much, it wasn't happiness, it was worse, it was just bad, he regretted it and cried, but it was no use at night no one saw him because he had become black as the night.

He screamed and squirmed all night but never grew a new tail.

As the gray cat had said he lost all power and became mortal, he would live on the dirty streets like every other cat.

All just because of the happiness he always had, he just didn't know.

Anyone who crossed his path would have a day as bad as his due to how great his suffering was.