Bats bats bats

Fall is quite a season for the Mezza shelter. It is a season for change and adaptation. It's rainy, windy, sometimes warm, sometimes glacial and generally unpredictable. It also usually is at this time that Alliamara finds more hurt or incapacitated wild animals. Either the younger ones that were left behind, or the ones that couldn't compete with the ever-changing climate.

Our blue Grem was working on a specific project for a few weeks. The land she has been gifted was quite spread out, with a bunch of old farm buildings scattered around. Alliamara only had renovated the main house and one the stables for the first couple of years she was there, but she wanted to give more space to her two Fuzzarths. The two big birds do need to run around a bunch without risking of stomping on a non suspecting smaller friend. Let's say a couple of accidents already had happened with Locass, the poor thing doesn't need one less limb again.

The field was made of three parts. The House, that connects to the main road leading to various villages and cities. The Barn, composed of various old buildings of various sizes, surrounded by high grass and four small ponds. And the Playground, where stood the stables, a vegetable garden and a kind of big flat and sandy parcel.

Alliamara was working alone on her thing. She'd have help from time to time, but it was usually punctual occurences of helpful citizens. The Barn was made of old and crumbling buildings, but it was also the biggest part of the land and it that had the most potential. She set her eyes on what used to be some kind of sheepfold. It was high enough for the birds to go inside, one of the ponds was near it, and it would be easy to make a small path to access it.

She started cutting overgrown plants, it took her a couple of weeks, but when she could finally go around the building, she started to realize it might be... occupied. She found some bits of eaten fruits and grains, and guano in various spots. Her residents were all obviously curious about the newest project, the three cats posted themselves on the top of an old broken wall, observing the big burly grem working at it. Locass timidly came to sniff around a bunch of times. And of course, the two main animals concerned quickly started to come scrap and peek around.

"Hmm... Bats, huh ?"

As she was inspecting around the old sheepfold, she realised it would be logical to have bats residing here. Maybe there even were some inside of each abandoned building. The thought of it made her sigh greatly. Her goal was far from chasing them from their homes. But she did need that one building. So she prepared herself to enter the stonemade place. She had some kind of protective gear she usually uses when she has to file the residents claws. And most of them were clawed ones. She strongly shook the wooden front door, breaking it in a pile of small pieces.

"Well, that's a start. "

Even if it was bright as day outside, the inside of the building was quite dark. She hadn't removed the overgrown ivy on the windows. It smelled like sugar, dirt and cut grass. There was piles of old equipment, rotten pieces of wood and a lot of dust. She looked around, oddly enough there weren't any bugs or critters on the floor.

"Ah yeah right, bats. "

She looked up, setting her eyes on a small flock of bats all agglutinated on the east corner of the roof.

"At least they don't take too much space..."

The sheepfold was made of two floors. The ground floor with the habitacle for the herd, big enough to fit five of six big birds, it had a bunch of gates opening on the outside. The first floor, which only covered half of the building, making a kind of mezzanine and was used to stock food and wool. Alliamara didn't even try the stairs. She could smell the humidity that rotted the wood. She thought of her strategy : how would she renovate the thing without bothering the residents too much ? She had to keep that one spot in the dark. And also leave some openings in the roof so that they could come and go as they wished. But mostly she had to make sure the Fuzzarths and Bats could co-habitate in some way.

" Okay, we gotta think this through. "

After discreetly going around the ground floor to check on the various parts of the wooden structure, to see what was or wasn't rotten, she got back home and set to get tools and materials for her project. She mainly worked at night so that she was sure the bats were outside. Cleaning up and getting rid of anything rotten and spoiled was the longest. Working at night meant she didn't get much sleep, because she already had quite a schedule during daytime, tending to her residents.

Soon enough the windows were cleared and sunlight started to pour in the sheepfold. She put together a ladder to access the mezzanine floor, tried to come closer to the sleeping flock of winged mammals each day.  The bunch didn't seem to be afraid in any way. She could identify what seemed to be a big family of white and brown myotises and ... two orange gummy bats.

She worked on her nightless schedule until one day she just fell asleep while scraping moss from the inside of the wall. Her tired body just collapsed with the scraping tool in her hand, in the middle of the mezzanine. All the gates and windows were wide open, she'd definitely catch the worse cold if it wasn't for ... the bats.

As the sun was getting higher in the sky, Alliamara was slowly woken up by a sweet and citrussy smell. She felt warm and comfy and snuggled around her blanket before opening her eyes and realising where she was. The flock of bats had huddled around her, like a big dark warm cloud. Turns out that the little beasts always look for places to keep warm while sleeping, and her big fluffy mane couldn't be a better choice. Locass and the three bird footed cats also joined in on the pile, afraid of losing Alliamara to the cold night. So she just sat there for a while, thinking about how she's been overworking herself for that project. As she looked around the little bat crowd, she could see that the gummy bats were quite acclimated to their myotises family. As she was looking at the roof, laying on the new wooden floor, she realised that this was what made her happy.

A peaceful and simple moment.