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Melissa Mead lives in upstate NY. You may have seen her stories in DSF before. She's a member of SFWA and Codex, and her Web page is carpelibris.wordpress.com. Go to Twisted Fairy Tales to read the other stories published so far in Melissa's series.
"I'll bet you can't transform yourself into something really tiny, like a mouse," said Puss. He winked.
"I can do better than that," said the Ogre, grinning. It became a flea, and hopped into Puss' fur.
"Oh, brilliant!" said Puss. "Hold on; I need to catch a mouse for Master."
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Puss presented the "transformed ogre" to the miller's boy before swallowing it. The boy was so enthralled with "his" new castle, and even more with the beautiful princess beside him, he barely noticed. He thanked Puss in a sincere but distracted sort of way, and wandered off with the girl on his arm.
Puss sighed, remembering the days at the mill before the boy knew that his cat could talk. They'd sit in the sun together, the boy rubbing Puss behind the ears. Humans always had to complicate things. At least the boy was happy.
He shucked off the boots and bounded off through the meadow.
"Where to?" said the transformed ogre from inside his ear.
"Anywhere, as long as it's away from humans and their plots."
"Stop a moment," said the ogre. Puss did. The flea hopped to the ground and transformed into an elegant Persian cat.
"Care for some company?"
Puss hesitated. Technically, this was an ogre. But a companionable ogre, who was now in all respects a gorgeous fellow cat. Pondering too much would make things complicated. Complicated was a human thing.
Leaving the boots behind, they traveled on together.
The End
This story was first published on Wednesday, May 8th, 2013
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