Once upon a time, there was a long haired, dark red, Maine Coon sized cat, with bright blue eyes, and long red fur, named Kyrakos.
Kyrakos was always looking for fish, specifically salmon. She would travel far and wide looking for the perfect salmon. But she always ended up finding cod or catfish or tuna. She never ever found any salmon. Until one day she was resting in her cave when a salmon flew into her cave and landed on her face. She woke up from the fish on her face, and when she realized what happened, she, of course, wanted to eat the salmon. But then the salmon said "Hello." She was very surprised to hear a fish speak; for fish do not usually talk at all in this part of the desert and surrounding areas. But then something even more surprising happened; the fish said "I'm terribly sorry for landing on your face. I just escaped from the hand of a lizard that was trying to eat me. But luckily I squeezed my way out of its hand. Please pay no attention to me, while I try to flop my way back to the water." Kyrakos was absolutely stunned that this small little fish was talking, nevertheless being very polite, and that he had managed to flop all the way over to her cave, seemingly unharmed, for she could see no evidence of the fish being too hurt from the lizard.
Before she could even think of what she could possibly do, the salmon started flip-flopping off of her astonished and surprised face, and as he attempted to flop out of her cave to freedom before she could realize what was going on, and eat him. But he was going rather slowly, and, unfortunately for him, by then she had collected her thoughts enough to where she could figure out what she ought to do. And that was of course: that she obviously wanted to eat the floppy little fish! She got herself up, and was getting ready to pounce on the salmon, when the salmon flopped around to face her. And said, "Wait a minute! Are you going to eat me?!! I would certainly hope not! From one deadly situation to another! Oh! Please don't eat me, I beg of you, please!! I want to live!" he cried the last part rather desperate.
She paused. Then she reconsidered eating the fish. She thought to herself "Should I eat him? Or should I help him? Decisions, decisions."
Then the words of her mother echoed in her mind: "Always help anyone and everyone you see, if they are small or if they are big. If you can help them, you should help them no matter what."
As she thought about those nostalgic words, the salmon tried to flop away. But when he got to the edge he realized that there was a huge, possibly deadly drop (about 12 feet or 3.6 meters, which is quite a big fall for a fish.)
But there were some trees around, that Kyrakos would climb and lay on, and would use to get up to the cave entrance. But the salmon didn't really have any feet (or claws), so for it to get down to safety, it would probably have fallen onto the desert sand, near a medium-sized body of water.
Which of course, the fish didn't really want to do; for it would probably get injured or possibly worse. So when he figured all that out, he realized his only options (that he could think of) was to:
a. make friends with Kyrakos, and try to get her help him,
b. fall and take his chances,
c. live in the cave until he dies,
d. try to fall onto the trees to slow his landing,
or
e. be eaten by Kyrakos.
He picked option "a."
So he slowly flopped over to the cat and tried talking to her. "Um, excuse me, but would you mind helping me down out of your cave?..."
"Out of my cave?! Help you?! Out of my cave!?!?"
"Um... yes... out of your, um, lovely cave. If you don't mind... of course." He said rather shakily.
"Well..." she said pondering whether or not to help him, and remembering her mother, she said reluctantly "I guess... I'll help you." and she sighed and looked up, and then back down at him, as she said this.
"Oh! Thank you! Thank you, so very much kind Ms.- oh, uh, what was your name?"
"Kyrakos. But you may call me Kyra."
"I’m Edmund; thank you Ms. Kyrakos." the fish said.
Kyra walked over to him, and picked Edmund up with her mouth very gently, hopped down carefully to the desert ground, and walked over to the big, wide pond, that connected to a large river that ran through the jungle. The jungle that bordered Kyra’s desert, was to the West. She assumed the fish would want to go to the pond, so she plopped him down in the water gently. The fish seemed thankful to be in water again, for he was close to being dried out.
The other cats in their caves, which were carved into the large walls of rock, to the North East of Kyrakos’ cave, watched each move closely.
The salmon said to her:
"Thank you, for saving me and not eating me."
"Your welcome fish. Be careful out there, and don't get eaten. I'll make sure to tell the other cats not to eat you."
"You have my gratitude, Kyrakos."
"Call me Kyra. And if you ever need anything, ask around for me, I'm pretty popular around here."
She was beginning to like him, and wanted to see him again. And she was-of course-very popular in those parts of the desert; so the other cats would respect any friend of Kyra’s.
"Well Kyra, I'm sure you are; what with all this helping of other cats lunches and all."
"Well. I am kind of their leader. So; if they have a problem with that - or you - they will have to take it up with me."
She sat up straight as she said this.
"Ah well I can see why they respect you. I'm sure you make a good leader."
Kyra looked at him and blushed (although you couldn't really see it through her thick coat of dark red fur) and nodded in thanks.
"Hmm, well I should probably get going now. But thank you again for saving me Ms. Kyra."
She smiled and said warmly, "Well then, you are very welcome Mr. Edmund."
She bowed, and saluted him with her right paw.
And with that Edmund swam away contently.
Now after that encounter, Kyrakos thought about it a great deal. And as she went along her usual day of waking up, jumping out of her cave, and searching for food; she could not get Edmund out of her mind. She kept thinking about him, and tried to figure out how a fish could have possibly left that much of an impression on her.
