Madame Askew and The Grand Arbiter

Originally posted to our Patreon

Please allow me to introduce the dashing and delightful Sebastien Springtail. As a young kitten, Sebastien found his way to the warm comfort of an aeronaut’s workshop. Like many kittens, he had been fending for himself in the alleys and footpaths of Manchester but the aeronaut was a forgetful soul who often left the door open into his warm barn where he tinkered away. There Sebastien found him, fallen asleep dangerously near to a precarious oil lantern. With a nudge and few meows, Sebastien woke his aeronaut, thus saving them both, and a friendship was born.

Having no fear of heights and a love of adventure, Sebastian was a perfect aeronaut himself and he traveled with his aeronaut on many exploits around the globe. And of a certainty, after their first meeting, Sebastien knew that his aeronaut needed him to be the voice of reason and to manage the more practical details like teatime and blowing out the candles before bed.  

During one of their wild journeys through the American southwest, on their way to see the Grand Canyon from the air,  his aeronaut managed to crash in the Jemez Mountains. Sebastien risked whiskers and tail to get help, hiking at his fastest lope through the mesquite and scrub, avoiding owls and coyote and other creatures! Lauded as a hero by the local community after they followed him back to find his fallen aeronaut and their airship, 

Sebastien retired in Jemez, a few whiskers lighter and convinced his human to do the same. He lived out his days, quite content to manage his aeronaut in retirement as he had been in adventure. He found the best chair in the snug little parlour of their adobe home and made it his particular perch for naps and editorial comments. It was there that he took his last nap when he had long since gone white about the whiskers.

He has now gone on to his forever haunt where he continues to watch out for the well being of his new family whilst encouraging a fair sense of adventure!