Herding Cats [open]

[Alina Westwood]

78th Day of Spring, 510 A.V.

Alina exited the pavilion warily, blinking rapidly in the bright sunlight. Her native eyes adjusted quickly and within seconds the scene around her had appeared from the brightness. Other pavilions lay near, interspersed with grazing horses and small naked children shrieking and playing.

Finlath poked his cold nose the back of her knee before threading his way around her. She scratched the dog's head absentmindedly. He was a lean long haired dog, white with brown splothes and lively brown eyes. She looked down and smiled as his tail wagged, thumping against her leg.

"C'mon Finlath, let's go find Jevah before he gets himself in trouble." She set off towards the nearest grazing area, her faithful dog at her side. She was looking for a brown horse with a black mane, rather tall and giving off an unkempt and gangly appearance even when properly groomed. He was never clumsy, he just looked a bit like it. It was her great-uncles fault though. He was dead, reincarnated in her horse and occupying it with his eccentricity. The things that creature would get into...

There he was, sniffing a leaf suspiciously at the edge of the grazing area. She smiled and whistled, the special call that was only for Jevah. He looked up and saw her. With a happy whicker her came trotting over, thrusting his big head into her chest and nudging her.

"Hello uncle. I hope you're well this morning," she said in Pavi with a smile. She had never met her great uncle, but according to a family friend who was also a Webber, this was him. He had spent most of his life trying to figure out how to breed and herd woolly furred cats in an effort to create a less dependent domesticated animal. Of course this all came to nothing, but those that were there say it was quite amusing to watch.

Jevah nibbled her hair in response. The woman made a face and pushed his head away.

"Yuck, Jevah!"

He snorted apologetically. She pushed his head gently.

"Let's go find me some food."

[Dhanya]

Pygmy was feeling obstinant and annoyed, grumpy at the world for reasons she could not fathom. She wondered if she'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed or eaten too much cheese before retiring the night before. She'd opened her eyes with a frown on her face and almost immediately undressed and turned into a goat. She didn't feel like talking and it was the easiest way to avoid conversation without seeming rude.

She guessed it was just a goat sort of day. She had her necklace on, so those around Vanator's pavilion would at least know who she was. She hadn't even practiced her dancing that day, instead choosing to spend it running around the outskirts of Endrykas and scaring flocks of scouraging birds into flight.

Her travels took her directly into Alina's path. She stopped in front of the other woman, her dog and her horse. Pygmy snorted, a high and sneeze-like sound that was accompanied with a wriggle of her nose. She bleated at them all.

People everywhere, love a duck. She wondered if the dog would let her play a game of chasing. She was full with restless energy and wanted some way to get it out of her system.

To Alina she would have seemed out of place. A well-groomed, small goat out on its own and wearing jewelery.

[Alina Westwood]

Alina stopped abruptly in front of a strange sneezing goat. Jevah, who was walking behind her, stuck his blocky head next to her hip to see the disruption. He whiffled at the creature and his ears flattened against his cranium. Jevah didn't like goats.

"Now what have we here?"

Alina kneeled down to take a look at the necklace the goat was wearing. It wasn't typical clan marking, but the animal had to belong to someone. Then again, goats pretty much did what they liked and sometimes disdained to come back to the person that fed them.

Finlath's herder ancestry came into play as he began to dance around the animal, yipping and occasionally biting the air. He bowed down, tail wagging, before dashing in an arc to the ungulate's other side and repeating the patter. The woman sighed in exasperation. Would none of her animals behave in an appropriate manner?

"Finlath, leave the poor creature alone!"

[Dhanya]

They were a go, repeat, they were a go. Pygmy put her head down as a nip to the air came to close for comfort and charged the dog. It wasn't much of a charge, without a decent mass it couldn't hope to be. The shock value was worth more. Finlath danced back, making a surprised growl. Herders were used to sheep and cattle. Goats were not the same at all.

They were a pain in the ass. Two pains, if you counted both horns separately. Pygmy jumped in the air, taking short steps as she chased Finlath around Alina and Jevah.

She bleated at Alina, flicking her head towards the dog, as if to say, "What you doing? Your dog might have bitten me."

Finlath wagged his tail and barked, still bouncing about around her. Pygmy took up the chase once more, now moving around the Drykas in loose circles until they tired.

[Alina Westwood]

This was a strange goat. Normal goats would certainly have charged Finlath, but they would have caught up and given the over energetic pup something to whimper about by now. This one seemed content chasing the dog, as if it was a game. The canine fled from the goat with a mixture fear of the horns and elation at finding a playmate.

The goat gave Alina such a look she couldn't help but smile and shrug. "Sorry, eight years and he still won't always listen to me." She had a bit of a doubt in her head though. It was one thing to speak to her horse and her dog, but now livestock? Perhaps she'd end up like Jevah, electrocuted in a storm trying to bottle lightning.

But then again she knew this wasn't a regular goat, and animals were rumored to understand Pavi. "Heel Finlath." She said finally in her most decisive voice. The exhausted dog trotted over and ploped down at her feet, panting happily.

She nudged him with a foot. "C'mon hound, we're getting grub remember?" She started to move on, but something made her look to the goat and add, "You're welcome to come too."

[Dhanya]

The Drykas were certainly a polite people. Pygmy had found she'd been treated better as a goat in Endrykas than she had anywhere else. It was a pleasant change to be somewhere that was so respectful towards animals and people that looked like them.

Pygmy bleated and followed along behind Alina, alternately trotting awkwardly ahead so she could get a better look at her, then falling behind so she wouldn't get lost. She had heard mention of food and was quite hungry herself.

She pondered changing back into a human but she still didn't feel as though she was in the mood for two legs, even if it would have made conversation easier. Pygmy didn't want to talk. She bleated every now and again to remind Alina of her presence, hopeful that carrots might be in her future.