Some might find it enviable that the young could find a simple object and from it elicit such great entertainment that it could last them for hours. For this particular case, young ten year old Emily found herself highly engaged with one of the most primitive of things a cat could possibly love: a ball of yarn. Indeed, the young Somali was giggling and currently on her back, paws splayed as she tossed the bright blue ball of yarn to and fro, absolutely entranced with the material. Caek, her ever faithful dog doll, sat at her side as a silent sentinel as she began to unravel the thing. “Take that! And that!” Emily play growled between laughter, whiskers twitching delightfully as a loose strand tickled her nose. Outside it might be bright and sunny, but Emster wasn’t out being active, no, she was busy trying to figure out what laid on the inside of this magnificent thing!

Playful growls got to the curled ears of the American Curl female, and Caroline's nose twitched a bit. There was now giggling and talking and it sounded as though it were another kitten. Golden eyes curled up as a smile spread over her feckled face. Putting her book to the side, the freecollar got up from her spot and stretched long arms over her head with a litle noise. She'd recently been under a tree for a few hours, simply enjoying the sun and being ouside. Walking over towards the noises, she was delighted to see a little kitten enjoying a ball of yarn. Caroline, herself, had spent many days as a kitten with one of those things as her best friend. Moving closer, she sat in the soft grass, her tail, and the bow on it, flicking this way and that. "Having fun?"

Without missing a beat, Emily replied, “Yeeeeeeeeessssssssssss~ It’ssomuchfunallwrappedupinaball!” As was typical of her, when overly excited about something her words ran together: “word soup”, she called it. As much as it pained her to put a pause on her game for a moment, she did so and attempted to sit up properly to greet the stranger . . . Only her paws were entangled in the yarn so much that she couldn’t sit up straight. “Oh! U-Um. Just a sec. Ack! C’mon. You. Let. Go! Raaagh! Clever!” She felt as if she was just getting more entangled, and of course Caek was just sitting there limp as ever, silently sniggering. She pouted at it, then turned to the older freecollar with an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that, didn’t think it could get vengeance . . . Oh dear.”

Caroline moved over to help the little girl untangle herself and laughed softly. After a momen, she managed to free the girl and wrap the yarn back into the ball before rolling it to her again. "I had the same problem when I was your age! Yarn is just so addictive, isn't it? All... mysterious and ....in a ball. It feels good between your toes and your teeth..." Her voice trailed off and she shook her head, red hair swishing as she did. "Anyway. I'm Caroline! Call me Caro or Carol if you want."

The girl’s eyes sparkled, and she bobbed her head multiple times in agreement. “I know, right? Like all ‘I’m a tough ball, nothing can make me open up’,” she said, affecting a bad gruff voice for a second before going back to normal, “except it has just one end open that you bat at, and it unravels slowly, and you win! Except me, I always lose~” Yet she seemed fine with this, looking grateful as the girl freed her and even managed to wrap it all back up again. “Carooooool. Hark how the bells, sweet silver bells, all seem to say, throw cares away~ Before you ask, I do weird stuff like that,” Emily added with a giggle, “singing or making up random stuff. I gave a boy three different nicknames once. But I don’t think they’re original . . . anyway, I’m Emily!” She extended a hand in greeting, smiling. “And this is Caek, my doll. He says thanks for saving me.”

Carol couldn't help but laugh as the girl bushed into song and then seemed to just speak all in one breath. Looking towards the doll, she gave him a little smile and shook both her hand and the doll's. "It isn't a problem, Caek. It seems it's a good way to meet wonderfully, fun kittens!" With a nailed finger, she lightly tapped Emily on the nose. "Emily is such a pretty name! I'll call you Emmy. Is that OK?"

Emily went cross-eyed trying to follow Caroline’s finger, laughing a little as he nose was tapped. “Sure, Miss Carol, that’s what everyone calls me if it’s a nickname. Well except for Peace, he calls me Ily, which is like Ilu only not. Oh, and sometimes it’s Emster too.” She sat up, hugging Caek to her chest and grinning at Caroline. “Caek’s also impressed that you shook his paw too. People are so ob . . . obsurvunt. Otherwise he wouldn’t like you at all, and that’d be a big problem sicne Ilike to make friends and he kinda . . . doesn’t. He’s too protective like my daddy. What about your daddy, Miss Carol?” she asked. “Is he protective too?”

The girl seemed to talk on and on and it mad Caroline slightly dizzy, but finally he girl took a breath. "I don't remember my daddy," she said with a smile. She didn't seem sad at all. "Bu my mother was protective. She was a good woman who taught me so well. I was her only kitten." She nodded a bit and patted Emmy's head a moment before laughing. "She was a very good woman. She lived a long life. But... she's no longer living.”

“Don’t remember? No longer living?” She blinked as she was patted, her still innocent mind needing time to process this, ears docking. “Oh . . . M’sorry, Miss Carol. At least she was a good momma, right? My momma is ‘made of tough stuff’ like Poppa puts it, she even runs her own territory at the university with someone else. I think Remi . . . It’s for artsy-farts and musical kitties,” Emily explained simply. “I’m not any of them, but Peace said I should write my songs down anyway. I made up a rhyme about a warehouse once, it was pretty cool~ Caek liked it too. So what’ve you been doing since you’re on your own, Miss Carol?”

Carol gave a small nod and watched the girl process everything. Her story wasn't a sad one, but she did miss her mother a lot of the time. She listened as the girl prattled on about singing and her ears perked in interest. "I can't sing, but, I read and write!" She patted Emmy's head and then thought about her question. What had she been doing? "I watch birds, and go to the library to read. I adore books. When I'm not reading, I'm writing, and when I'm not doing that Im napping or eating. My life isn't a very exciting one!"

“I can’t sing neither,” Emily said with a tiny shrug, “but those kinds of voices make the funniest sort of songs, don’tcha think? I’d rather make people laugh, and they like rhymes most of the time. Liiike . . . ‘Up a creek without a paddle, or on the gate he’d rather straddle, there lies Pete the magician at large, let’s get him now, let’s get him, CHARGE!’ . . . Eh, not a very good one, but nonsense stuff like that,” Emily concluded, then perked up. “So you like to read too? A lot of the books at the university are too high for me to get, and Poppa doesn’t like me climbing the stool to reach them. But I’ve found a lot of picture books with cute drawings~ Is that what you like to read, Miss Carol? ‘Cause one day I’m gonna read the biggest book in the world and get really, really smart.”

She shook her head and laughed as Emily recited the poem and gave her a little round of applause. She was so cute! If Caroline got lucky, her and her mate, if she ever got one, would have a girl just like her. She reached out and hugged the girl, resting her chin between Emily's ears. "Nope. I don't have pictures in my books. They're full of romance and action, mystery. I read books with lots of pages. And I've read quite a few things to make me smart. Maybe not as smart as some, but I am smart! And, if you need help with that biggest book in the world! You just come to me. I'll help you read it!"

Emily nodded, clearly pleased with the applause. “Buuuuut I can’t be the smartest person in the world if I need help reading the biggest book in the world,” she pointed out in all of her 10 year old wisdom. “Thanks, though. So people write books about mystery? Like Scooby Doo?” Sometimes in her pretend games she fancied herself a female Sherlock Holmes, though she had yet to find the perfect hat to take on that persona and add to her small collection. “I’d like to read one if it didn’t have pictures. Scary pictures are really scary. But a romance book with pictures would be d’awwwww~ I need to find a Disney picture book or something, but the library only has all this stuff about school most of the time.” She sighed.

"Even the smartest people need help!" She pointed out, nodding a bit more. Ah, not quite Scooby Doo. "Uhm. No. These are about murder or a missing person. And often times the main character gets badly hurt through the book. As for the library, you are just not looking in the right sections! You'll simply have to tag along with me one day, and I'll show you all kinds of books." Caroline felt like a mother right now, and it was a wonderful feeling. She gave Emily a hug and sighed a little. "Should you not be getting home soon? It's getting late for little kittens!"

“Nu-uh, if you need help then you’re not smart enough~” the little somali insisted with a grin. “I’ll prove you wrong one day, Miss Carol. Meanwhile, I wanna go to the library with you sometime too! It’ll be fun so long as no books fall on us. Or shelves. Or other cats.” Hey, you never know! The kitten purred as she was hugged, returning it warmly as she loved hugs and nuzzles and all that really physical-lovey stuff – her family was the subject of leg hugs and surprise glomps from behind more often than not. “It’s getting late? Awww . . . I like it when it grows warm ‘cause Poppa says that’s when the days get longer.” She gathered Caek into her arms and stood up, dusting herself off a bit. “D’you wanna come with me to the University? They have this café with these awesome pieces of cracker bread stuff that humans dunk into their coffee, and it’s sooooooo gooooooooood.”

Caroline got up and dusted off her skirt with a happy nod. That actually sounded like a fun way to beat the heat; going inside and getting food from humans. "Of course I'd love to go! I just don't know how long I shall be staying. I want to try to find someone close to my age! Do you know of anyone?" Caroline was eager to make friends her own age, not that she didn't enjoy hanging out with the little ones. She adored it; but there was something gnawing at her.

“Uuuuum . . . There’s Ms. Gwin,” Emily began to list. “And Mr. Remi, and my parents, and Ms. Nyx, and a pair I can’t remember the names of, they’re all older. Poppa’s kinda hard to get along with, but he’s a really nice guy on the inside. And my momma is a master of the territory, she’s a really good dancer. Ms. Gwin is the art teacher I sometimes take classes from, but I’m not very good at art. And Mr. Remi is really good at the violin, but he likes to travel too much for Momma’s tastes to be called master of the territory anymore. I kinda like him, though, he’s funny. Anyway, there’s plenty of people for you to meet and not enough day to do it. C’mon!” Sticking Caek under her arm, she took one of Caroline’s hands and began to skip forward, dragging the poor older freecollar along with her.

Caroline nodded. It seemed there was a great deal of freecollars at this... school. She'd never heard of it, but tha wasn't anyhing new. She let Emily drag her and gave a genle laugh, tail flicking happily behind her. "Ok! I'll have to make a good impression." And she hoped she would.