They have an array of deadly weapons for an animal its size.
It
If youre a Dreamlands Cat
you likely:
Are busy, active, and aloof.
Are energetic when interesting things are going on but
sleep soundly for hours when no action is afoot. May even
force other party members to carry them.
Are quiet, curious, and interested in new things.
Hate cats natural enemies (including most zoogs, although
he might tolerate individual zoogs).
Are easily distracted.
Are highly athletic and fast-moving
Others probably:
Are not always sure if you are sentient or not. (Is it a nor-
mal cat? Can I talk to it?)
Think you are cute, but possibly useless.
Try to pet or otherwise annoy you when you are otherwise
busy.
Do not understand you or your thought processes, such as
they are.
Unlike many other predators, cats are obligate carnivores.
Their teeth are designed only for cutting and devouring flesh,
so while they can clumsily chew up bread or vegetables, these
are poor sources of nutrition.
Cats have extra-ordinarily keen senses. Their one defect in this
regard is an inability to taste sweetness. When a cat eats can-
taloupe or other sweet items, it does not taste the sugar, and
instead is reacting to whatever savory elements are present.
Cats are extremely good at getting around in the dark. Their
hearing is acute, and their vision is, unsurprisingly, of cat-like
quality. In complete darkness, even a cat cant see, but then
they can rely on their sense of touch, which is amplified by
their whiskers to feel their way around an area.
Cats are almost supernaturally stealthy and sure-footed. Their
silence when moving is proverbial. They do not have rigid
collarbones, so they can squeeze through any space through
which their head will fit.
Cats are famously agile and nimble. A dropped cat almost
always lands on its feet (exception, tailless cats), and this, com-
bined with their small size, means they are usually unhurt even
by quite long drops. Cats can reach a running speed of 50 kph
(30 mph) for short distances, and they can clear more than 2
meters (7 feet) in a vertical jump. They are excellent climbers,
as is well-known.
13
is well known that a cat is more terrifying than almost any oth-
er carnivore of equal size. Few people are afraid of facing down
a 20 kg jackal, but a 20 kg wildcat is an entirely different issue.
Cats are highly vocal when needed. Normal cats have more
than 100 different vocalizations for different purposes. Of
course, Dreamlands Cats have the same vocal apparatus, but
with their greater intellect can string different sounds together
for other meanings.
The Gates of Slumber!
Cats spend so much time asleep, because they are in the
Dreamlands, where they are intelligent. Their waking life is
pretty much just to seek affection, to mate, to fuel their body,
and for rest and relaxation. Most of their activities are in the
sleeping state.
A cat can always choose whether to enter the Dreamlands, or
the waking world, either physically or mentally.
Most of the time, a cat simply enters the Dreamlands mentally,
and thus leaves its body behind, asleep.
When a cat enters the Dreamlands physically, it actually travels
through the Gates of Slumber, a sort of dimensional portal
invisible and unsensible to most beings. When doing so, the
cat is no longer present in the waking world. Cats can only
do this when they are completely unobserved by anything
other than another cat, and the Gates of Slumber are an actual
physical location. However, they are typically open at many
places at once, and move around, so they are not always at the
same spot. Sometimes it may be behind a backyard fence, other
times in an abandoned badger burrow, or up a spooky old tree.
Only cats know. Non-cats usually can only tell the cat has left
physically when (for instance), his cat runs into the attic and
doesnt return for a day or so.
Important: because of these restrictions on finding the Gates
of Slumber, when a cat is (for example) caught in a trap or
imprisoned in a cat-proof container, it cannot escape to the
Dreamlands. They can only perform this travel when they have
free and unrestricted movement. It is not a teleportation
system.