Rhiow took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh, suddenly reminded very much of Arhu. "I'm sorry," she said again. "I forget that not everyone here volunteered their lives to this sort of thing. The People are somewhat used to being uprooted suddenly at the will of others."

She valued the partnership between cats and humans, but sometimes the humans were terrible. Sometimes cats were terrible, but they generally weren't big enough to do the humans any harm. "I think this must be what it would be like if the People one day decided you ehhif needed to go. Something like that wouldn't last long."