For a while, he existed as such- scurrying around the town, listening in on the day to day lives of its people, eavesdropping on the temple. When people dared to come near him, he hissed and drove them off; he made a strong effort not to get close to anyone or anything. If people took notice or set out extra for him, he would move away to another part of the town where he was not paid attention to.

Knowing his luck, the first person to show pity to him would be burnt at the stake within the next hour.

It was a cool day, late into the fall, and as he trotted along, he realized a young man in priest's clothes was following him. He flicked his tail, and darted into an alley, cutting below a fence that the young man could not hope to climb without looking stupid.

" Kitty! Here, kitty-kitty! Come back!" he heard him call, sounding disappointed.

Suspicion riled him. Had it been noticed that he wasn't a regular cat? After all, that one perceptive peasant woman outside of his old home had somehow known.

He took a different path to the temple the next day, and still the result was the same- as he left, this young man approached him, offering a morsel of cooked fish.

" Pspspsps," he tried beckoning Sif, to no avail. As Sif ran away, he heard an old woman speak.

" That's of no use, lad," she said. " That un's completely wild. Never seen it friendly to no one."

And damn if that didn't make the man more persistent!

For the entire next week, he seemed to make it his life mission to interfere with Sif, coming straight out from his theology lessons to chase him around fruitlessly. Even the other priests were beginning to tease him about it.

" Have you caught your cat yet?" Another young man teased him, elbowing him as he left the building. Sif used the temporary distraction as an opportunity to hide beneath a flowering shrub, out of sight, and hunker down.

" I've never met one so ornery," the young priest complained. " Back home, we had them on every corner, and they'd all swarm us for scraps..."

" Every corner, huh," his companion said. " No wonder you're so daft."

" What's that supposed to mean?"

And so it went, the two bickering as their voices faded away.

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