Welcome to Gaia! ::

There was suddenly a voracious commotion coming from the field. A small herd of horses was going wild, the stallion in the middle bucking and rearing and sending its hocks to the sky. A white being clung tightly to its mane, yanking back on it and booting it in the barrel. "YEEHAW! GIDDY UP! GIDDY UP! GIDDY UP!" Malo laughed.

He finally slipped as the horse reared up and fell backwards. In the nick of time, the infant slipped out of the way and smirked, bobbing from the field as several hands ran out to see what the trouble was.

The mischievous Litwick giggled and stood behind a fence, catching his breath. He peeked around, holding back laughter as the men tried to catch and calm the rampaging beast. When one was knocked onto his back, Malo squealed with laughter and fell on the ground, holding himself.

Now THAT was funny!

In plain view of Atticus, the little troublemaker continued to watch, still tittering with giggles.

Malo turned at the voice and floated up to the top of the fence and out of the other's range, blinking owlishly at him. Only preston yelled with that much anger...but this guy was even younger than the Litwick was. He wordlessly regarded him, then his lips pulled into a very off-putting, bizarre smile.

"I was having fun. Preston lets me ride the horses all the time. That's how you're supposed to do it. And its a good time."

He didn't feel endangered, so he slipped off the post and tilted his head from side to side, stepping and skipping around the other.

"And they did do something to me. That big stupid one called me mean names." As he moved, he pulled the other's outfit taught and snapped it.

"You're dressed funny. And I haven't seen you before. You must be new. I'm Malo."

Malo stuck his tongue out and smirked as he was told off. "Its not a dress! Its aaa....." he looked all over as he spun around. "Lapel." he didn't know the meaning of this word, but it seemed fitting.

He bobbed as the other spoke about the horses' master. "I'm from the castle and library." He leaned forwards and smiled. "And he could beat me if he wanted. But he'd have to catch me first!" he babbled with laughter. "Plus my daddy would have something to say about that!" He looked around and picked a flower as he basically ignored the Venipede.

"So what do you down here?"

Malo followed him, step for step, across the turf with that wide smile creeping back to his little face. He took every inch the other did, making sure there was no gained distance between them.

"Nuh-uh! my daddy would throw books!" He laughed. "And your papa would be buried in the books! And then I'd have a real good laugh!"

He suddenly paused as a horrible screech rang out. It boomed across the farmyard and there was a loud squishy noise to follow. Malo went silent, floating up to get a perception on where it had come from.

Once he was high enough, he looked delighted, then down at Abbicus or whatever his name was. He saw what made the noise. Just a knoll over was a road, where a feline had been crushed by a fast-moving trade cart. The cart was vanishing into the distance already but the cat remained, buldgy and twitching horribly.

Malo set off to go get a closer look. "come on, slowpoke!"

Malo giggled. "I sure do know what that is! That's a cat that's just been squashed!" He giggled. "By eight black horses and a whole cart of goodies!" He drifted to the side of the road and stared at the cat. He lowered his head and eyes, peering at it, then squealing and leaping out of the way as another trade cart pulled by eight black horses came galloping through.

The cat was mutilated. Horribly mutilated. A farm cat, nothing more. Malo stared at it and put his tongue in his cheek. "if that thing had nine lives, it must have died once as a kitten and spent two sets of four just now!" He giggled, but truly felt a bit sorry for it...it was squashed all over from the second cart. A cat pancake with its eyes and some flesh sticking out at weird angles.

"What should we do?" he asked. "Tell the farm hand their kitty got pancaked?"

Well that came out of left field. Malo was just making a mental list of all the reasons why the farm hand should know their farm cat was dead when the dare sprang up. He turned slowly, frowning for a moment.

He...did not like dead things. Sure, he laughed them off, but that was his coping strategy. It was much easier to laugh than to cry. To be honest, he was only present at every execution to hope to glimpse the Queen.

But a dare was a dare, fully. He did not think of the possibilites of the cat's innards. Guts were guts. If they worked, the animal was alive and doing animal things. If they stopped working...they were dead! That's the only thing he needed to know about life. He only thought of the dare. He loved a good challenge and so, he looked about, finally finding a rather long broken bit of branch.

Seizing it in hand, he knelt and slid forwards, a bit like a crab, towards the dead things, the flies already feasting on the eyes. He moved the stick towards the cat and winced, then gave it a solid thump.

It was a gross noise and Malo grimaced. "Ewwww!!" He laughed, giving it another poke to hear that sick squelching sound. "That's disgusting!" But he was laughing.

"I'll be careful." He said. "I'm very cleanly. Preston's got neat things in the library sort of like this. Got a big bear skin pelt and a stuffed owl and some butterflies nailed to boards." He spoke nonchalantly as he continued to poke the cat, pausing as blood oozed out. Only then did he back off, staring at the cat, stick in his hand.

"Well that was-"

"ATTICUS!" An enraged voice yelled, a big ol' hulking agron man thundering towards them. A second man followed. In a second, the agron grabbed the pair by their scruffs, Malo fidgeting and demanding to be released.

"Cauh...Tabs! What happened?!" He saw the stick Malo had in his hands. "ABBICUS! WHAT HAPPENED TO TABS!?" He gave the youngling a firm glare, holding him up to eye level as Malo continued to squirm.