"How old are you?"

"A hundred and seventy-two, but even a non-immortal Twoleg can live to be like ninety, even a hundred, if they're healthy."

"That is more numbers than there are.  Were.  Yesterday."

"I had to explain large numbers to Fireheart. They just keep going up. Forever."

"A hundred and seventy-two is . . ."  Tigerstar pauses at length, his tail sweeping an arc back and forth in the pine needles behind him.  "Nine nines, and that again, and nine and one?"

"Uh -" He does some arithmetic. "- yes, why was that the most intuitive way to break it down? Do you think in nines because of nine lives or something?"

"It is the largest specific number which existed yesterday."

"Wow. You didn't have ten? Aren't there sometimes more than ten cats around? You have more than ten toes."

"I don't have much cause to speak of my toes or my Clanmates in that particular sort of detail.  Either I want specific cats, or all of them old enough to catch their own prey, or some other criteria that matters more than the precise number.  Lives are almost the only thing as many as nine matters for."

"If you say so. Numbers are useful when you have more - stuff, I think, not because you can count the stuff but because it helps you think about the stuff in a more efficient way."

"I suppose it would also be useful if I lived that long and wanted to tell someone my age.  Most cats retire to the elders' den by then but leaders don't really."

"No? Do the replacement lives make you as spry as a younger cat?"

"No, they only heal lethal injuries.  But we've made a stronger commitment to serving our Clan.  Not that all leaders keep those commitments."

"What's a normal cat retirement age?"

"It depends on the cat.  A permanently-injured kit could move to the elders' den right after the nursery, even, under certain circumstances."

"I guess that makes sense."

"But usually they'd train as a medicine cat instead of a warrior."

"Surely there needs to be some underlying aptitude for medicine?"

"Well, yes; then they might retire.  But most cats very dearly want to contribute to their Clan in some way, and motivation is much of aptitude, I've found."

"Fair enough. Do you and/or the rest of ShadowClan want any material objects?"

"I think not at present, thank you."

"You're welcome. You saw where I put my house, you can stop by there any time if you want to talk though it's possible I will have to move it at some point."

"I see.  ShadowClan is on good terms with RiverClan so I expect to be able to travel there if I so wish, but the same may not hold for the other two Clans."

"I can leave you a little computer setup like the one I gave Princess for using text? Since you can learn to read and write nigh-instantly, apparently. And then you can send me messages like that, and I can give everybody one."

"How generous."