Open The Farm we can get high, but only if the wind blows [ INTRO ]

[Lily]

(★)

Lily spends much of her time 'hunting'. That is, she spends a lot of time playing with her food and stalking the various bugs, mice pups, and chicks that make their homes in and around the barn. She isn't very good at actually catching these things. She prefers to watch them from a distance, and if she gets close enough she enjoys batting at them as long as she's able. Typically, she doesn't land enough of a blow to kill anything. Just terrify it- not that she really knows the difference anyway- until it finally scampers away from her.

The lilac tortoiseshell stays crouched in the lofts of the barn. Today's prey item is a rather large ticket: an adult mouse that has found its home in the walls. The kitten's eyes are trained on it and she is as still as she can manage (still swaying a bit in her excitement) as she takes aim. Lily raises an awkward paw, leans forward, and... SMACK! Lily smashes a small paw straight into the boards of the barnloft, no mouse to be pinned beneath.

The mouse squeaks in terror and takes off down into the base levels of the barn. Lily chases soonafter, scrambling and clumsily crashing into and through various things as she follows the mouse. Of course, as mice do, it evades her by disappearing into a hole. But not before Lily has run full force into a pile of hay. "Darn!" the lilac molly cries out as she pops her head from the hay pile "I really for real almost had it this time!" She spots some of the other barncats nearby and calls to them: "Didya see? I was 'real quick!"

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ooc Information

• ooc: —
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  LILY — SHE/HER ･ 6 MOONS ･ BARNCAT ･ PENNED BY CARAT!

  small lilac tortoiseshell with green eyes. naïve and silly girl.

 

[sassafras]

SASSAFRAS, 26 moons / barncat mouser
a pale blue tabby with scraggly fur and a large shoulder scar
sister to honey, mate and parent to none
a scrappy cowboy who feels he has something to prove. stupidly stubborn but gentle and kind
Tagging person here

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Hunting inside the barn is more trouble than it's worth, some days. While Sassafras had grown up learning just as Lily and other kits her age about the best hiding spots and pockets of haybales to dive into, he had quickly outgrown the novelty and convenience it brought. He often now bit his tongue from retorts when a kittens playful cry made his prey scatter, or too inexperienced paws tried to show off and blow his chances of catching anything into the wind.

Lily was a good example for that, and if Sassafras hadn't caught something earlier in the dead cornstalks he might have been more bitter about her failure. "Mm. I saw." A scraggly blue tail flicked over his paws as he answered Lily with not so much of a glance her way. He had stopped watching the moment her paws slammed down on empty wood, his own experience telling him there was no saving that mouse chase. Not even an experienced mouser like himself could.

"Y'gotta get quicker, though. Just 'nough ain't gonna feed your belly, is it?" Sassafras isn't mean when he said it, but more stern than passive.

 

[smudge]

Smudge was still getting used to the stalky feeling of the hay, and how it stuck into her pelt if she lay in it slightly wrong, but it was warm and otherwise mostly comfortable, and just as it attracted felines, it attracted all sorts of other things.

Like Lily, she spent a fair amount of her time trying to hunt them. And like Lily... she also wasn't very lucky in her endeavors. This shared sense of failure hadn't endeared Smudge to her yet though - mostly because the other kitten didn't seem to feel her lack of success quite the same way as Smudge did. Which was to say it smarted, much like the self-conscious tortie's empty belly.

Peeking out over the top of one of the higher bales, she hadn't seen the mouse, but she had seen (and heard!) Lily. Unlike her quarry she'd been hard to miss. Quicker. Smudge wasn't so sure if it was only quickness Lily needed... as she huddled back into the hay, so just her nose and ears were visible again. She flattened the latter in the pair's direction, ailed by her rumbling tummy, and also a bit wary of the unsmiling mouser. Silently, Smudge hoped he hadn't seen her trying to hunt earlier.

 

[Pebble]

pebble

you are not always to know where you are headed

Pebble's whiskers twitched as he observed Lily's determined attempt at catching the mouse, his eyes gleaming with encouragement. She was trying so hard, holding still (mostly), staying patient (for the most part), and keeping her focus (well, at least until she pounced). It wasn't quite the graceful, precise strike she'd probably envisioned.

Pebble winced as she went barreling forward, her little paws crashing through the barn with all the subtlety of a thunderclap. A few objects clattered in protest, rolling and toppling over in her wake. And-- oof-- there she went, disappearing into a pile of hay.

For a moment, he wasn't sure if she'd pop back out or if they'd lost her to the hay forever. But then, a little tortoiseshell head peeked out, and Pebble let out a relieved (and slightly amused) chuckle.

" Quick is good! " he chirped from where he lay sprawled, grinning wide. " Quicker and, uh… maybe more… flexible? " He tilted his head, thinking. " You gotta avoid crashing into stuff, though. Startles everything else! Mama Alder taught me that! " He puffed out his chest at the mention of his mother's wisdom, clearly proud to pass it along.

With an encouraging flick of his tail, he nodded once. " But with a lot of training, you'll catch it next time! " His voice rang with confidence, as if there was no doubt in his mind that Lily would soon be the best mouser in the barn.

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