The Remarkable Dream of Sanura the House Cat

By S.T. Mast

Follow Sanura the House Cat as she dreams her way across the Ancient World!

Come along as she encounters pirates and philosophers, emperors and her ancestors of old, odd creatures lurking deep in her dreams, and even Alexander the Great.

Explore Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ro

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sherman Thomas Mast
• Release date: Aug 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781088054291

Book preview

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Sanura the House Cat closes her eyes. Softly, her mind begins to drift, as peaceful sleep inclines.

She begins to dream, not dreams of ordinary feline things, of mice and yarn and tinfoil trifles, but strange apparitions, horse-drawn chariots, wizen star-gazers and anonymous scribes who paint papyrus with the wisdom of a thousand years, bearded faces, and endless armies, that emerge and fade away.

Now darkness descends, thick as pitch. Ears bent forward, Sanura peers inside the belly of this blackness, staring as intently as her blue eyes allow. But nothing shows nor stirs.

Hello! she calls, as the word echoes fruitlessly. She tries again, Hello! Hello!

Far down a lightless corridor, a tiny flame begins to glow. Sweet-smellng incense curls around a candle stand, riding around invisible currents.

Sanura senses something coming into form. Now curiosity has been the undoing of many a cat, so Sanura moves most cautiously afoot to have a better look.

Suddenly, Sanura intuits more than sees a gathering presence, like the mixing of a silhouette within the dark palette, then a long outline seeps across the candle flame, bearing the head of a cat and the body of a bejeweled queen.

Greetings, Little One, the odd specter says, in a tone barely more than a whisper.

Who are you? an astonished Sanura exclaims. And, might I also ask, what are you?

I am the Great Cat, which dwelleth in the Seat of Truth, wherein the god Shu riseth, the shadow replies. Come closer and listen to the words that I will speak.

Fright naturally arises from such a sight, but the Great Cat reassures with the soft beat of a mother feline’s purring. Slowly, Sanura creeps closer, alert and ready to bolt, yet growing less fretful with every step, until the candle more fully illuminates this stranger prowling about her nap.

In appearance, the Great Cat could be a marker that has withstood the ages, worthy of honor and reverence. But rather than a cold and lifeless stone, the Great Cat’s eyes, dark and fringed with long lashes, radiate with warmth and caring. A vague smile creases the corners of her whiskered face. A robe drapes her sleek features, perhaps covering her fur, though Sanura cannot tell for certain where the lustrous cloak ends and the Great Cat begins.

Arms crossed, the Great Cat clasps a golden rattle to her breast, and a winged-beetle charm hangs about her neck.

Feeling more at ease, though not entirely secure, Sanura stops and wraps her tail around her legs, and sits up straight. I think you intend no harm, strange thing of my dreams, but I must ask why you trouble my midday slumber, which cats, among all creatures, treasure more dearly than almost anything? And I say so without meaning offense, since you being neither fully human nor cat, might not grasp the importance of such matters. Without my nap, I grow cranky before my afternoon snack.

The Great Cat smiles vaguely, revealing a trace of mirth. You are about to embark upon a journey, Little One, the like of which you have never seen nor scarcely imagined.

Now trips, in general, have no appeal for Sanura, who envisions awkward car rides to such uncomfortable destinations as the veterinarian’s office.

No ordinary adventure this, the Great Cat continues, among the embers of bygone worlds, which though buried beneath the ashes, still smoulder. For the lives of ten thousand generations of cats and kittens even now will cause a spark of memory in the marrow of your bones, as soon you will come to know.

And what’s the purpose of this journey, Sanura queries, when I am perfectly content merely to enjoy my snoozing undisturbed?

When the time has come, you shall understand, the Great Cat replies, as she hangs a silver-leaf key threaded with a purple string around Sanura’s neck. But first, there are many things to grasp.

And with that, the Great Cat begins to shake the golden rattle, which radiates an aura of dazzling light, crimson and yellow and royal purple, and absorbs Sanura into its splendid ambiance until she loses all sense of her surroundings.

And then, as if events so far were not fantastic enough, an expedition even more extraordinary thus begins...

How a royal garden grows

Sanura recedes into half-lit slumber, drifting across a Great Divide, slowly at first, then more rapidly turning. Round and round she goes, tumbling through the deepest part of charcoal gray, then cutting sharply into emerald light, struggling to place her feet upon something of solid, but not knowing upside-down or right-side up.

She yields at last to the luminous swirl, spreading her paws and gliding, pulled faster and faster, as if through a narrow slot, with the silver key around her neck going first.

Another turn or two, and Sanura finds herself wobbled but upright on a sturdy branch. She pauses another moment to regain her wits, then pokes her head through a cover of thickly woven leaves.

And Oh! what wonders to behold. Perched high atop a pyramid, a green, garden colossus, with a wide river curling around the base, Sanura sees laid out before her a great city, and a confusion of carts and camels and people dressed in fine linens jostling through narrow streets, amid the hubbub of a great metropolis.

An enormous wooden wheel groans and creaks as it scoops water from the river and lifts it up terraced flights of fig trees and colorful flowers, almonds, and plant canopies, to a porcelain pool in the center of the grand garden.

Flying creatures, sparrow-sized bumblebees with long snouts, large eyes, and sapphire pupils, suction water from the pool and shower it upon herbs and blossoms grown parched by the desert sun.

Without taking notice, one such winged beast hovers too close, and the concealed Sanura instinctively pounces. According to her nature, when presented with things that dangle in the air, she grabs a paw full of bristles as the shocked Water Bearer screeches and whizzes away.

Impudent cat! Sanura feels a smart whap to the back of her neck. A cat does not belong in the Great Garden of Babylon. Leave my lesser cohorts alone to be about their business undisturbed!

Sanura turns to find a beastie much like the rest, only much larger; it’s vulture-like wings beating, eyes glowing red, and sputtering from its water spout. The flowers roundabout snicker and squeal as the spectacle unfolds.

I know nothing of your garden, nor the doings of this place. But by what right do you treat a stranger with such rudeness and disregard? Sanura demands.

"By what right! By what right do you say! Why, I am the Royal Myronicus, under whose instruction this Great Garden is kept healthy and green. I do not report to an insolent cat, but only to the Master Cultivator, who himself reports only to the