Taxonomy

They had no name for it, at first; this unknown thing that warped the minds of their children and turned them away from their parents. An illness, maybe, if the Cats had words for such things. (They did not. Not then.)

They smelled wrong.

When they spoke, it made no sense, and when you spoke to them, they did not understand.

The Change, the elders called it; some said it came every few years. That it made the Cat race stronger.

Some, who knew the tongue of Cloister and had read the ancient texts, whispered another words. Softly. Reverently.

Evolution.