She sighed and paused for a moment, then continued. “I wandered this lush, green land in solitude for countless days and nights. I began to realize that though I longed for death, I would not, or rather, I could not die. So, I continued to wander aimlessly. In my heart, I cried. In my spirit, I cried. And in my sorrow, my cries were eventually answered.

“I began to sense the presence of another, another that I could keenly feel was just like me. I followed that feeling and thanks to the mercy of the Great Spirit, it led me to my beloved mate. Like me, he was born from a distant ancestor of our people. He had also outlived his family and was living alone in destitution. And, also like me, he began to develop a sixth sense that led him to me. We found each other and put an end to our seemingly eternal loneliness. We have been together ever since.”

Nothing at all that the woman before them spoke, made even a fragment of sense. Born of an ancient being that dwelt in an ancient past, not even the legends of the first ones spoke of something so fantastically outrageous. Everything she had imparted to them was nothing short of phenomenal! It left them speechless.

“As for as my children,” she continued through the reverent silence, “their destined counterparts emerged on the islands they reigned over, long after I had given birth to them. As I said, on the lands they journeyed to, there were none like us. There were only the primitive ones, beings like my mother and siblings. Though we did not share a resemblance in form, we did share a common species. As differing as we were, we were all still cats. It was that undeniable bond that caused the bodies of our primal kin to change.