OOM: In Gotland with Bodhi and Galen

[ostro_goth]

 It is the very height of summer now, so the fields are turning golden, the young animals in the meadows are nicely grown and running around when they are not stuffing their faces with the abundant grass, and the people are busy in the gardens and in the workshops and among the granaries.

One of the children points up at the procession coming down the barrow-hill, and then everybody is running up to meet them.

Comments

[galen_erso]

"I'll asks them later," Galen says. "The people, not the cats."

He reaches out to stroke the little one's jaw.

[imthepilot]

She purrs loudly, rubbing her cheek against Galen's hand.

Kyber, feeling left out, pounces on her but Bodhi scoops him up. "It's okay. We still love you best."

[galen_erso]

"You are our special little cat," Galen assures him.

The black kitten, utterly unafraid, pounces to retaliate on Kyber.

[imthepilot]

Nahts appears to join in the game, pouncing on Kyber's attacker. Pretty soon their bunk is a riot of playful kittens. Bodhi can't help but laugh. Myrrh trots over to watch, perched on Galen's pillow.

[galen_erso]

"We have all the cats!" Galen laughs when even Isis pokes her placid ginger face around the beam in the corner.

[imthepilot]

"Apparently we're cat people." Bodhi grins, more than okay with that. He gives Myrrh a gentle scratch, making sure she doesn't feel left out.

[galen_erso]

Isis comes all the way in and licks the smallest kitten, the black one, and then lies down by Bodhi's feet.

[imthepilot]

"Is this little one yours?" Bodhi asks Isis, brushing a pat over her flank as she settles. "Well, now we can't get up! Not without upsetting everyone."

[galen_erso]

It takes indeed twenty or so uninterrupted minutes of laziness until a human face appears around that beam. It's rpthe little girl called Myrtia.

"This is the cats' lair now!" she giggles. "They have taken you as their prisoners."

[imthepilot]

"We're trapped." Bodhi admits, Myrrh curled with her head tucked under Bodhi's chin, her purrs vibrating through his chest as the kittens bounce all over the pair of them. "Want to join us?"

[galen_erso]

"Valeria," she calls, "bring the bread and milk; the cats are here."

She climbs in, and her twin sister soon follows, with a small jug of milk and a little basket of sweet bread with dried fruit and nuts baked in.

[imthepilot]

Kyber perks up at the implication of food, mewing pleadingly. "I think that was for us, spoilt one." He bobs Kyber on the nose.

"Are we being rude by staying in bed, Myrtia?"

[galen_erso]

"No," Myrtia says as Valeria settles among the cats as well and offers the bread to the human occupants of the alcove. "Both my dad and the king are still asleep, and they are snoring like bears."

"Too much singing last night," Valeria says, wisely. "But the king doesn't snore like a bear, more like a lion."

"You never heard a lion," Myrtia retorts, taking a bite of the bread.

[imthepilot]

"Neither have I. What does a lion sound like?" Bodhi lets Kyber sniff the bread, just so he can decide he doesn't want it. It saves time fighting him for it.

[galen_erso]

"I haven't heard a lion either," Myrtia says, but Valeria says, "It's a huge cat with a shaggy mane!" and then makes a growling generic monster roar that causes the cats to give her a stare.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi chuckles, stroking Kyber's ruffled fur. "It's alright. She's not going to eat you." Kyber doesn't seem at all convinced

[galen_erso]

Myrrh stands, stretches and licks a paw, thus declaring the the would-be lion doesn't scare her at all. She usually has scarier things than that free with her breakfast. Valeria roars again, a little bit more convincing.

"Lions," declares a sleepy male voice that could be a hoarse Teja or a squeaky Adalgoth, from nearby, "why lions? It is but morning."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi lifts an eyebrow at the girls, dropping his voice conspiratorially. "I won't tell them if you don't."

In a somewhat more normal voice. "The girls were explaining how big cats can get."

[galen_erso]

"Ours are no lions," the man, more likely Adalgoth, says.

"And you have not seen sabre-toothed tigers," Teja adds, sounding just as un-awake. "They are to lions what lions are to house-cats."

The girls are impressed. The cats are completely unimpressed.

[imthepilot]

"They sound like Nexus. I've never seen one in person but they're twice as long as Teja is tall and have a tail like a double whip."

[galen_erso]

Kyber climbs into Bodhi's arms, and Teja chuckles darkly from the next bunk. "It is not the tails that would have me wary."

Beat.

"There is a child here."

A very young giggle follows.

[imthepilot]

"We have a pair in here too." He kisses the top of Kyber's head. "And apparently all the cats."

[galen_erso]

"I have a little Totila, and no cats, not even Nahts," Teja says, then gives a yawn. "And we sang long, last night."

Totila giggles; apparently, there is a pun in there, in Gothic.

[imthepilot]

"Three kittens including Nahts, two cats and the twins." Bodhi toys with the new kitten. "Anyone know what this little one is called?"

[galen_erso]

The twins giggle. "Sunshine!" says one and "She came from Agilolf's because his Mama Kitty had thirteen, and Isis still had milk," says the other.