(TWWM) [Origins] Lacey

“Bishop!” Lacey came bounding out of the barn with a chicken hot on her heels. There was a chicken squawking and flying at her, its wings flapping maniacally as it tried to get to the cat that had spooked it.

Bishop turned when he heard his apprentice call for him, looking up just in time for the little green-eyed kitten zip behind him and hide under his legs, while the chicken landed in front of him, huffing indignantly. Bishop guarded his new apprentice, her head brushing against his stomach.

“Bishop.” The hen seethed.

“Gloria.” Bishop echoed her name back at her.

“You need to contain that little heathen of yours.” Gloria squawked. “She plucked one of my tail feathers!”

“And so did I when I first became a barn cat, Gloria. She’ll grow out of it. I have to let her be a kitten.”

“Hmph!”

Gloria stomped away, huffy and upset about losing one of her precious tail feathers. 

Bishop looked down at Lacey, and the kitten pouted under him, glaring at the hen as she walked away. Bishop sat down and began grooming at her head, holding her still with his paw. She whined from the doting.

“Bishop, I’m fine-”

“I know you are.” He said. “Lacey, I want you to be able to be a kitten for the time being, but you do have to be respectful.”

“She started it! She called me a void of nothing, because I have no potential, and that I could never live up to you.” She whined.

Bishop chuckled a little bit, his light blue eyes staring into her green ones. “While that is true, you shouldn’t try to live up to me. You’re your own cat.” He said. “You’ll be a fantastic barn cat someday. You won’t be me. I don’t want you to be me.”

“B-But you’re awesome. I wanna be just like you.” She whined softly. 

“And you’re not bad either, kid.” He chuckled. “And you’re already halfway decent at the job, which means when you’re old enough to be an official barn cat, you’ll be even better at it than I am, but in your own way.” He said. His ear twitched a little as the cows began to low from the pasture. “Come now, I believe that was Agnes I heard.” He beckoned, standing up.

The little black kitten pouted but stood up as well, following after her mentor.

She tried her best to walk through the tall grasses with Bishop, alongside him, but she eventually had to trail behind him instead. She simply wasn’t big enough to rifle through the grass as efficiently as Bishop could. Wild flowers of blue, red, yellow, and white stood tall and proud in the overgrown grass, wavering around as they walked through the grasses.

One day, when I’m bigger, I’ll be able to run past him, and he’ll have to follow me.

Agnes the cow was laying out across a shorter bit of the pasture, huffing softly, her tail flicking this way and that. A farmer was already there, rubbing at her haunches gently.

“Come on, old girl, you need to stand up for this.” He hummed. “Look, your favourite cats’re here, could you stand for them?”

“Hello Agnes.” Bishop greeted.

The blonde heifer looked at the brown cat. “Oh thank goodness. Could you please tell this man that not hell or high water could get me to stand up right now?” She groaned, rolling over to lie on her belly. Bishop hopped up onto her back and began to purr, loudly, laying out across her spine.

“Baby coming?” He asked.

“Finally. I need this little one out of me.” Agnes lowed unhappily, her tail flicking again, nearly hitting the farmer in the face. “Today or tomorrow.”

“We can try and aim for today, but you do need to stand.” Bishop said. “The baby won’t wanna come out with you being so comfy here on the ground, and the farmers have to help pull him out. They may not have room to get him out if you’re laying out on the grass like this.”

“Ugh.” Agnes shook her head, upset by the circumstances. She didn’t want to move for even a second. But she slowly stood up, her hoofs shaking a little as she got up but eventually stabilised. She wasn’t happy at all about being up, but she wanted this kid out of her more than she wanted to lay down.

“There you go, that’s it.” Bishop began to knead at her side, purring louder. “It’ll all be over soon and you can lie back down.”

Lacey watched in awe as Bishop was able to get the cow to do what he wanted her to do, what the farmer wanted her to do, with just a little encouragement. Lacey sat back as her mentor and the farmer worked together to keep the heifer calm to deliver a new life into their world.

When all was said and done, Agnes plopped right back down onto the grass and sprawled her limbs out as a vet came in to check on the cow. Bishop hopped off of the blonde heifer and found Lacey, sitting next to her and watching the humans work.

“You’re amazing.” Lacey sighed. “I’m not sure if I could ever have that level of confidence.”

“You will. With time.” Bishop said.

“You made her get up just by suggesting it.” Lacey retorted. “That’s like, your super power. All of the other animals listen to you. They barely give me the time of day…”

“That’s because they respect and trust me.” Bishop said. “In order to earn their respect and trust, you have to be kind, you can’t just play pranks all the time. Especially plucking tail feathers.” Bishop admonished his little apprentice, bopping her gently on the back of her head. Lacey let out another whine and put her paws over her head, indignant. 

“Sh-She started it-!”

“While I agree that Gloria was rather mean and shouldn’t have said that about you, or much less to you, it is much better to prove her wrong rather than mess with her simply because you can.” He admonished softly. “We have a few other heifers who are due soon. The next time one of them is ready, I want you to help out, alright?” He said, getting up and twisting around to go back towards the barn. Bishop had a schedule, and it was almost time for him to search around the barn for any unwanted pests.

“What can I do?... I’m not good at comforting them like you are.” She said, hopping up to follow after him. “You did that without even thinking about it.”

“Because I’ve been a barn cat for seven years.” He laughed. “You’ll get there. With time. But you’ll just need to get on their back with me and purr and knead. It brings them comfort, knowing we’re there and keeping track of everything.” He said. “I’ll tell you how to feel if something’s wrong.”

“A-Alright.” Lacey sighed, still upset with herself. 

“But first, the main part of this job and what you have to be good at, is mousing.” Bishop said, turning back to Lacey. “So we’re gonna practise hunting.”

Lacey hadn’t dreamt in a long time. She couldn’t remember the last time she had even slept. As an esk, she didn’t get tired, there was no need for sleep and there was so much work to be done that she rarely even considered the idea.

But with the new resident in the barn and watching him sleep and dream every night, it made her drowsy more often than not. 

Would sleeping feel the same as it had before? Kiran often had nightmares, she wouldn’t be the same, would she?

But she was too tempted now. Lacey walked around the barn, finding her old favourite napping spot. Bishop’s old favourite napping spot. She climbed up to the window carefully, the one with the wider ledge. She still fit just right on the window sill, with her back pressed against the glass, and facing where the sun would rise and warm her fur. 

Lacey laid her head down and felt the cool night air embrace her, and before she knew it, she was out like a light.

“You’re retiring next year?” Lacey was shocked.

“I’m getting old, Lacey. I’m not sure I can live much longer, or be much help mousing. I’m getting slow. Four mice got away from me, just today.”

“S-Sure, but I caught them right after-”

“I’m not like I was in my prime, kitten.” Bishop admonished her arguing, trying to still be gentle to his kitten even after the years had turned her into a capable cat. Grey furs had begun to sprout over his muzzle, a stark difference to the lush browns that made up the rest of his fur. He was indeed getting old, but Lacey hadn’t wanted to think about it. She was doomed from the start to have to watch him die. Their age difference was so stark, it was inevitable. “I can’t mouse, I can’t fight off foxes, I was slowing down already when they first gave you to me to train - they were thinking about purchasing a dog.”

“O-Oh. Goodness.” She looked away from him.

“You’ll be alone. Is that what you’re afraid of?” He chuckled.

“M-Maybe.” Lacey said. “I’ve never… not had another cat here with me.”

“There’s plenty of farm animals here. You won’t be alone.”

“But I won’t have you.” She said. “I would rather keep you.”

“Now, Lacey,” Bishop sighed, “that’s very selfish of you.”

“I-It’s okay to be a little selfish every once in a while. How could it be a bad thing to want your best friend to be around a while longer?” She said, pouting at her mentor. 

“Don’t pull at my heart strings, kiddo, I’ve been messing with the farmers for years with that. Just because I can dish it doesn’t mean I can take it.” He joked.

Lacey woke with tears in her eyes. She wouldn’t call it a nightmare, but she wouldn’t exactly call it a pleasant dream either. She wiped at her eyes, the blue wildflowers that grew in her mane were nothing but a stark reminder of her times with Bishop. The flowers in the pasture had barely begun to grow back, and the only ones there were the blue ones.

She missed when the pasture used to be dotted with them everywhere.

“Lacey?”

Solomon’s voice was in front of her, and she slowly lifted her head up, trying to maintain her calm but she was feeling rather frazzled after her dream.

“Were you sleeping?” Solomon tilted his head at her. 

As Lacey came to, her water droplets began to form again. They followed her everywhere and rarely left, she wasn’t exactly sure if she could turn them off, but she could control them at least. The water droplets began to swarm around her slowly, as they usually did. Spinning in a circle. Some hit the wood of the barn due to how and where she was sitting, but they reformed shortly after, and she flicked one at Solomon’s forehead, who flinched as it hit him.

“H-Hey.” Solomon laughed softly. “That wasn’t very nice. I merely asked if you were sleeping.”

“And that’s my answer.” Lacey said, standing up and sliding down the wall before hopping down as carefully as she could. “We have work to do.”

“Is it because of that little esk we dragged in here last week?” Solomon asked, following after her. 

“The pasture still has a long way to go to be fully usable. Kelsey accidentally ate some of the leftover burnt grass and complained about it all day.” 

“And you’re just going to ignore me. Fantastic.” Solomon sighed. “You know, this whole working with you thing would go easier if you talked to me sometimes.”

“Yes I slept because watching Kiran sleep made me tired.” Lacey finally answered. “I used to sleep sixteen hours a day, sue me for wanting to try it out again.” She huffed. “No, I will not be telling you about it.”

“What!” Solomon squinted at her. “You can’t be serious-”

“If you want to know so bad you should try it yourself.” She said. “Get the full experience.”

“But I wanna know what made you start crying while you were asleep.” Solomon pushed the topic. Lacey wasn’t an easy esk to get to talk about the things that bothered her, but one could do it if they pushed enough. “Did you have a nightmare? Kiran’s been having them a lot lately.”

“No.” Lacey deadpanned. “Solomon, I have work to do. If you’re not going to help then you can go take care of Kiran or go off into your forest.” She said, water beginning to soak into the grounds around her, careful and meticulous. This and her animals were about the only thing she had any patience for, and even this was stretching it a bit.

Solomon groaned, turning back to go inside the barn. “Fine, but I expect a full run down later tonight when you stop working! I mean it!”

Lacey snorted and sighed, shaking her head. Shell came up and nudged her lightly, and Lacey looked up at her, then twisted around and hopped up on top of the heifer’s back and laid down, soaking up the warm summer sun.