There once was a creature known as Cat. She was a living thing, like any other. Cat was curious. A traveler. She wandered through her homeland, then beyond it. She trod unfamiliar ground every day, fueled by an insatiable urge to discover.

One day, she reached the ocean. Cat dove face-first into the depths. She didn’t drown. She swam until she reached land again. This land had people. Cat met them all. She learned all she could from them. She traveled every inch of the land.

Cat saw a chain of islands. Not bothering with swimming again, she leaped. In one stride, Cat reached the nearest island. After exploring it, she leaped to the next. She became strong. She grew. Soon Cat was able to leap continents easily. She traveled this way a long time.

She saw every person, tree, and dust speck on her planet. But Cat still wasn’t satisfied. So she leaped to the moon. She didn’t die. There were no trees or oceans or people there, but Cat explored it nonetheless. She found craters and rocks and ancient secrets.

When she had seen everything on the moon, Cat went further. Leaping to the next planet, then the next, she learned everything about the solar system. Cat was still growing, becoming stronger. Still curious. Again, she had to swim, now through space, to another star system. She learned everything about it.

Cat traveled, world after world, star after star. She finished with one arm of the galaxy, and moved to the next. And the next. She traveled from the galaxy’s center to its outer edges, still alive, filling her lungs with darkness and her belly with starlight.

Then, Cat swam through a greater space to another galaxy. She learned all she could in this new place, seeing every star, planet, moon, person, tree, and dust speck. Cat saw everything there and went on to the next galaxy.

She continued for a very long time, swimming then leaping through space. Each galaxy had its shape, color, secrets, and truths. Cat’s curiosity persisted. She saw everything, went everywhere, and met everyone. She didn’t die.

Eventually, Cat reached the edge of the universe. By now, she was bigger and stronger than anything she had seen. She was certain when she pushed through the cosmic wall, her curiosity would finally be satiated.

Outside of the universe, Cat saw nothing. Pure, utter nothing. Then there was something. Someone. A great figure, clearly far more powerful than Cat, stood before her. Before anything else, Cat heard a resonant voice echo through her mind.

“A living thing out here? That isn’t right…”

And in one swift movement of something sharply silent, Cat was dead.

She still stood there, not used to being dead yet. She no longer wished to explore. Finally knowing what was beyond the universe, she was satisfied. But before Cat had time to think about this any longer, the voice of that entity shook through her head again.

“Curiosity killed the cat.”