Nine Lives

Nine Lives is the first Picture Book found in Puppeteer. It details the life of Ying Yang and how he lost several of his lives.

Acquisition

 * Complete Act 1.

Story
All cats, even Moon-cats, have nine lives.

Behold Castle Grizzlestein, aka the Black Castle. Doesn't sound very welcoming, does it? Not that this cat minded. The witch lucky enough to be his mistress—one Ezma Potts—had a nice, warm kitchen, with plenty of nooks just the right size for a catnap.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think I had a sloth for a pet," said the Witch, who was wising up to the cat's hiding places.

He remembered more exciting old days, when he'd served the Moon Goddess instead. "It wasn't always like this," he purred, signaling a flashback on the next page.

Ah, Castle Wax Wane—a palace so white you had to squint to find the doorknob. Its ruler, the Goddess, had a special place in her heart for one purr-ticular feline. So when the tyrant stole Moonstone and scissors and staged a rebellion, who do you think cat-apulted into action first? Meow!

The blitz may have been cut tragically short, but it was a life worth giving.

Even after the whole Moon Realm had fallen, the cat rallied the Goddess's most faithful subjects, determined to kitty-corner the tyrant right in his throne room.

"Follow me, you dogs!" he shouted to the Four Champions. And all of them—even the young Knight, who was allergic—did just that. The plan might have gone without a hitch, had the Knight not been such a hopeless chicken.

Well, you can run over a cat twice, but you can never road-kill his spirit. The Four Champions had been slain, their powers scattered. But our dear feline never gave up on the Goddess. He spent another life scouring the moon for any ally willing to fight for her cause.

Thrice dead, but undeterred, the cat tried his luck on the high seas. No danger was too distressuous, no horror to harrowific. Into the jaws of peril he leapt—! ...And found it quite difficult to get back out.

Would none take his side in this cold, cruel world?

No, he had but two allies now—his feline pride, and the love for the Goddess in his heart. "I'll tackle that monster all by myself," he meowsed. "No matter how many lives it takes." But alas. What hope had one messenger of justice beneath the beefy legs of evil?

Our protagonist quickly flipped to the end of this book in search of a happy ending.

The sting of five lives lost and the acrid taste of disappointment were just too much to bear. It was then that he met Ezma Potts.

To be clear, this was no shining goddess. The witch was so ugly on the outside, so nasty on the inside that the Moon-cat felt compelled to walk away... until, that is, he realized they had a common goal. He decided to hold out hope for a 'special child' the Witch assured him was coming. Each night, he gathered a few puppets and led them up to the Tower of Tribulations. But these were mere children. Dreaming children! The brave ones died and turned to grubs, while the cowards who ran were enslaved in the kitchen.

...It was no use. After seven messy deaths, our plucky feline had fought himself out. Yes, the Goddess was beautiful. Yes, life was better once. But getting all worked up over the paradise he'd lost was blinding him to the joys of mediocrity.

"Eat up, you mangy sluggard, so you can get some work done for a change!"

Today's joy was snot-colored soup and a lecture, but at least he wouldn't starve. Home is where you hang your hat. He had two lives left, and this Moon-cat planned to sleep through them to their fullest.

Characters

 * Ezma Potts
 * Four Heroes of the Moon
 * Grubs (mentioned)
 * Moon Bear King
 * Moon Goddess
 * Ying Yang

Locations

 * Castle Grizzlestein
 * Tower of Tribulations
 * Castle Wax Wane
 * Moonshine Sea
 * Wild Waste

Items

 * Calibrus
 * Moonstone