When Shade opened his eyes on Monday morning, the first thing he heard was rain pattering against the bedroom window. His mind was still replaying last night's banquet, and it was as though he could still smell the perfume in the young ladies' hair.
Perhaps because of all the dancing at the banquet, he had a strange dream that night.
The dream began with the mellow sound of a saxophone in the background. He was playing Rhodes Cards with someone whose face he could not make out. Then Miss Bayes crawled out of Shade's cards and casually scattered his entire deck. Amid a rain of cards falling like snowflakes, she pulled him into a dance. But as they danced, the girl with beautiful long brown hair suddenly turned into Mia.
Not Miss Mia San Gaode, whom he had yet to meet, but Mia the lazy, gluttonous, timid cat.
Realizing that he was dancing with a giant cat, Shade was terribly frightened in the dream. Then, because of that absurd reality, he immediately realized that he was in a dream.
The moment he realized it, he returned in the dream to that familiar field ridge and looked up at the enormous silver moon overhead.
Perhaps because the dream had been too vivid, his head still hurt a little after waking up.
He sat up in bed, gathered himself, and planned out the new day. The cat lying beside his pillow was awakened by Shade getting up. The little cat sprang up and looked around for a while before jumping onto the blanket.
It stretched its front paws forward, lowered its upper body, and raised its rear, then meowed at Shade. It paced back and forth on the blanket, clearly wanting him to prepare breakfast as soon as possible:
"Good morning, Mia."