I Learn To Play.

"I have been thinking," I said to the cat.
"It will be a while before I am big enough to play with you. But we could go outside and you could play. I could watch you and see how you do it."
The cat pursed its lips and thought about this.
"Well, we could do that," it reasoned. "It's much better with two, though. When will you be big enough to play? How will we know?"
"When I am as big as you," I said. "Imagine how much fun we could have if I was as big as you."
"Well," said the cat: "Maybe. But you might chase me if you are as big as me."
"I might," I said. "But I probably won't. Birds don't chase cats, as a rule."
"True," said the cat. "I have never been chased by a bird yet. How is that hole in your chest?"
"Better," I said. "It is still a bit sore, but I can flap my wings now."
"I was meaning to ask you about that," said the cat. "What are they, those wing things? What do they do?"
I stretched my wings a bit and combed them through with my feet as I thought about it.
"I don't know," I said. "I had wondered that too."
"Come on, then," said the cat. "Let's go into the garden. You can watch me play, and I will guard you from whatever we find out there."
"Thank you," I said, and we went out into the garden, and onto the lawn.
The cat raced around, and pounced on things that were not there.
It rolled and stretched, then leaped into the air, for no reason.
"There," it said, at last. "That's how you have fun. Why don't you try it. I will not chase you."
And so I did, a bit clumsily. I fell over a lot and tripped over a rock. Even the grass made me stumble.
"You're right," said the cat. "You're still too small to play with."
"I did have a bit of fun though," I said. "Is fun when you end up doing things you didn't know you were going to do?"
The cat smiled for the first time. Its whiskers quivered.
"That's it! That's fun, all right," it said. "Wait until you start playing; that's much more fun!"