The Strange Incident of the Abbots Cat

Golgow 6^th Byad, YT330

Immediately the monks removed his manacles and set him free Voweslaw left the abbey precincts and wandered through Golgow. It had been long five weeks of trying to distract himself with language studies and with devising a new trap. The possibility of sudden death made this harder but now that he was officially declared free of 'the curse' he was determined to breathe the free, and pungent, town air. Until a black cat stepped out in front of him, stopped and turned towards him. Voweslaw's palms began to sweat and his mouth became suddenly as dry as one of the Abbot's sermons. The street began to heave like the deck of the ship Velos on that short-but-memorable sea voyage. Next thing he knew he has racing back to the safety of the cloister.

Because of his wild-eyed look, brother Urbanetcs re-fastened a restraint on one wrist before reviving him and giving him some red wine. Unwittingly, this made matters much worse. For after he had gone, the abbots cat strolled in from the kitchens where she had recently been fed. She now proceeded to investigate the strange man-creature. He seemed to make noise and pull back but this just made him more appealing. To Voweslaw the approach of another cat made the tremors, sweating and nausea return with a vengeance and he fainted to the floor. When he came round briefly to find the cat purring on his chest he screamed and went rigid with fear. The monks duly arrived and the cat ran off but Voweslaw now had a lock of pure white hair and the suspicion that this newly acquired fear of cats probably wouldn't be cured easily.