Igraine the Brave

Igraine woke up because something was crawling over her face. Something with a lot of legs. She opened her eyes and there it was, sitting right on the end of her nose, a fat black spider. Igraine was scared stiff of spiders.
‘Sisyphus!’ she whispered in a trembling voice. ‘Wake up, Sisyphus. Shoo that spider away!’
The cat raised his furry grey face from Igraine’s stomach, blinked, stretched – and snapped up the spider from the end of her nose. One gulp, and it was gone.
‘Did I say anything about eating it?’ Igraine wiped cat-spit off her cheek and pushed Sisyphus off her bed.
‘A spider on my nose,’ she muttered, throwing back the covers. ‘The day before my birthday too. That’s not a good omen.’
Barefoot, she went over to the window and looked out.