Jillian and the Bastet Clan Part 5: The ever allusive red dot. Part 1
The next day, Jillian found herself moments away from starting her final test. She had thought all night and yet the choices she was given hadn’t presented themselves with a viable solution. She only prayed to the great Meower of Heaven that one would come to her during the test. A few minutes later the buzzer sounded and Jillian stepped through the heavy steel doors. Letting her breath out slowly, she calmed her mind as she had been taught by her instructors. The room she had entered was pitch black and an amplified voice boomed from overhead. “The challenge you find yourself faced with today, is to simply catch the red dot. Many have undergone, few have succeed, good luck.” There was a static buzz, followed by a silence that deadened the room.
Jillian heard her quite breathing pound in her ears as she anticipated the next course of events. A loud click snapped through the air and a red light appeared on the far wall. The test had begun. Hunching down, Jillian slowly crawled to where the light rested on the wall. When she was a mere two feet from it she pounced, smacking her head hard on the wall.
Picking herself up, Jillian shook of the birds that were fluttered around her head. There was another click and the red dot zoomed across the room, stopping on the hard surface floor. Crouching again, Jillian made her way to the red dot’s location. When she was almost there, it moved, shooting back the way it had come. Without a moment’s hesitation, Jillian launched her body at the moving dot, claws extended. She hot right on target, only to find the dot was on her paws instead. With a hiss, Jillian tried to bite it, but ending up getting her paw instead.
With a cry of surprise, Jillian jumped back nursing her injured paw. The red dot jiggled itself for a moment in a teasing dance, then picked up speed and began racing around the room. After watching it go by her twice, Jillian was determined to catch it at all costs. As it was coming around for another pass, she made a grab at it with her paws, with little success. Running behind the dot, Jillian made several more attempts to capture it or even slow its progress. But nothing seemed to work. After several laps, Jillian founded herself winded. Stopping to catch her breath, she murmured to herself, “This is impossible’…pant pant pant, “I might as well give up”…pant pant pant… “It’s just like that butterfly in my dream it can’t be caught…” here Jillian paused and realized there was something she was missing.
Knowing that she needed to focus her mind, Jillian assumed the Cactus Pose. Shifting through the thoughts in her mind, she brought up the visions she had seen the day before. Starting with the one where she was a little kitten, Jillian saw herself attempting to catch the butterfly with no success. Understanding the meaning of this dream, she pushed it aside. Drawing forth the second one, Jillian watched as the younger version of herself fell asleep for such an extended period of time that the butterfly crumbled into dust. “Whereas this is an option,’ Jillian meowed silently to herself. ‘Right now, I’m too wired to fall asleep for the amount of time required (no matter what my human might think) to follow this course of action.” Selecting the third image in her mind, Jillian watched as the butterfly fluttered around her head only to be snatched up by the sparrow.
“That’s it,” Jillian purred softly to herself. “I have found my answer.”
