*

Aharsi bent his neck a little and peered into the glassy ice mirror on the ground. Zody purred over his shoulder.

‘What beauuutiful stripes you have,’ she said. ‘When I look into the mirror I see myyy spots. Nobody else has spots quite like mine. My mother had spots, and my mother’s mother, and my mother’s mother’s mother… all the way back to when my great-great-great grandma prowled the grasses of South Africa!’