Lifting the black cat to her breast, Eliana crosses the room and opens a 
narrow door. That door, Raman knows, leads to a narrow stairway. Raman starts to follow, then stops. Each
of the two dozen cats in the room converge on the door in a headlong rush. 
Several more come dashing past Raman’s ankles from beyond the doorway behind
him. Why they hasten to follow Eliana, Raman does not know. He does know, 
however, that accidentally stepping on one of the creatures would make Eliana 
very unhappy, though she rarely shows more than a token awareness of their 
presence.