Gygax woke. The sunspot was elsewhere and was wasted on the hard wood floor. He scrunched over and went back to sleep.
He was walking among the dreams. He walked on the edge of a razor that separated the meadows of snoozes from the forests of slumber.
Ever curious, he peeped into the dreams of those around him. Mice dream of food and safty, birds dreams of food and safety, and squirrels dream of food and safety. The catfriend that feeds him was not here. He must be awake. Gygax wandered the shoals of reverie and joined his catfriends. They groomed each other, swatted paws in play, and bragged. You know, cat things.
Then they scattered, and Gygax felt pain. It wasn't the first time. Gygax didn't like to be hunted. He was not a mouse!
Well he was awake again, and hungry. He raced out of the house and into the fields. He stalked a lone chipmunk. He pounced on it and brought it back to play. Once it died, he ate. It felt good to hunt, even though the Human Food Guy would give him nice moist meat. But he was not here.
Gygax climbed up on the bed. He curled up and went back to sleep.
He climbed a great tree of repose and wandered branches that led to islands of fancy.
He was making his way to Ulthar, that wonderful city of cats and their friendly humans when he was attacked.
Something gave him away. For the first time he saw what was hunting him. It was a human, but not one like his Food Guy. It was smaller. Meaner. With yellowish pale skin and rotten teeth. It had black removable fur, like his Food Guy, but dirty, ripped. He had a stick that made sounds like thunder. Gygax knew to run. He ran in a circle and attacked the horrible thing. He jumped though it. Of course. The thing was real, and Gygax was a dream.
At least he knew who it was who was hunting him.
He went back to his prowl, hoping to visit Ulthar when something happened to his Food Guy!
It was horrible.
Gygax knew he was in pain. The pain a mouse would feel when it was hunted.
Gygax woke up and hid under the bed. For three whole days and nights he hid. No eating, no sleeping, no grooming. Just listening.
He ventured out in hunger. He killed a nice plump bird and brought it back under the bed.
He then groomed. After a while, he went to sleep.
He saw the red cord that always led to his Food Human. He saw that he was asleep. But there was something else there. Something horrible. Worse than the thing that hunted him. It was treating him bad. With ropes. This horrible thing was treating his Food Human like a dog! It had him on leashes!
Gygax jumped on his Food Guy. He licked, climbed, clawed and bit him. He did this every day for a long time. He only woke up to hunt. He had to do wake his Food Guy up.
Then one day it worked. He woke up and broke the leashes. He then went to the real world. Gygax feared, but he knew his Food Guy was a good hunter.
Gygax found Ulthar. It had been a while. The kind people of Ulthar always fed, pet and talked to the cat dreamers. But never before did Gygax understand their words...
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