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"I won't," Oscar promised. "I was just thinking about it." He paused, then added, "I kind of want to try looking at them like how I looked at people and saw what they were thinking, earlier. Is it okay if I try, just for a second? I want to know what they're thinking."
Honor bit her lip and thought for a minute before nodding slowly, pulling her now empty hand away from the cow, "I suppose you can, but you have to promise me it's just going to be for a second, and you're not going to do anything beside looking at them." She set the bucket of food down and took a small step away, still wary of his power.
Oscar glanced at her and nodded, catching her discomfort. "I promise." Turning back to the cows, he focused on them, his eyes turning black a moment later. He dove deep into the minds of the animals, curious about what he'd find.
"That's…..weird," he said after a second. "They're thinking almost….nothing." He broke the mental connection and stared at the cows with a frown. "It's like, there's a wheel of a few different thoughts, or feelings, inside their heads, and they can only have one or two at a time. Right now they're just….happy and calm, and they're thinking about food. That's it." Oscar glanced back at Honor. "I'm really glad I didn't get stuck in a cow's body when I ended up here."
She laughed and nodded, seeming a little more at ease once he turned back to no black eyes, "Yeah, getting stuck in a cow's body would not be fun, and as for the feelings, that's really interesting to know." Honor looked over at him as she fed another scoop of feed to the cows, "Do you want to stay here with the cows a little longer? Or go see some other animals?"
"I'd like to see some more," he decided, glancing around at the rest of the farm. "Where are the barn cats?"
She looked around the pasture for any of the cats before motioning for him to follow her as she made her way back up to the barn. Quickly, she put the bucket and food away before walking up to the hay loft, making a clicking noise with her tongue and looking around for any of the cats, "They're around here somewhere, most of them are scared of new people, but I'll find Yoda. She's not scared of new people."
"Okay," Oscar said, following her a bit more slowly into the barn. He was beginning to realize that his vision was annoyingly flawed–namely, it took his eyes several moments to adjust when going from a bright place to a dark one, or vice versa. He wondered if Honor experienced the same thing, but got distracted by a flicker of movement in the shadows before he could ask her. "I think there's something over there?" he said, pointing it out.
She stopped her clicking noise for a moment to see what he was talking about, a smile coming onto her face as she turned her path and started over to the shadowy area. "Baby girl, c'mere." She cooed, crouching down and smiling when she got a soft meow in response, "I have someone who wants to meet you, he's nice."
Oscar heard the meow and perked up, tilting his head curiously. He crouched down next to Honor, blinking as his eyes finally started adjusting. "Should I do anything?" he whispered.
Honor shook her head, moving closer to the shadows and clicking her tongue again. Soon a dark striped cat popped it's head out of the shadow, meowing again and walking to her. "Hi Yoda," She said, petting the cat between the large ears she clearly got her name from, "Oscar, this is Yoda. Yoda, this is Oscar."
Oscar stared at Yoda, unsure. "Hello," he said quietly, then reached out his hand, unable to resist trying to touch the small creature. "It's….pretty."
Yoda seemed slightly unsure when Oscar reached his hand out, though she purred and looked up at him with large dark eyes. "She's my favorite one of the barn cats, and yes, she's very pretty." Honor said, stepping closer to Oscar so he could pet the furball in her arms, "Do you want to hold her?"
(I gotta go to bed, but have this anyway)
Oscar blinked, then nodded. ".….Yeah? Yeah, I do. Please." He very carefully stroked the top of Yoda's head, fascinated by her purring. "How do I take her from you?"
"Just hold your arms like I have mine, and I'll set her in your arms," She explained with a smile, "It's really simple." Yoda leaned into Oscar's petting, seeming very fine with being by him and his petting. Honor knew Yoda was the tamest barn cat they had, and she knew it would be extremely rare that she would attack Oscar or scare him. She didn't want him to have a bad first experience around a cat, especially one that was so nice.
Oscar reluctantly stopped petting Yoda for a moment and tried to hold his arms the way Honor was holding hers. "Okay, I'm ready." Part of him was mildly surprise that none of the animals so far could tell he wasn't human, but at the same time he wasn't about to complain. He had a feeling that if they knew, they wouldn't be willing to go anywhere near him.
She nodded, gently setting Yoda in his arms, taking a small step back but remaining close incase anything happened. "All good?" Honor asked, petting Yoda just to hear her purr and so Oscar could feel the purring against his chest.
Oscar adjusted his arms slightly to hold Yoda more comfortably, and as he heard her purring, he couldn't stop himself from grinning a bit. "Yes. I like Yoda. And I think she likes me too." He freed one hand so he could continue petting her, wanting her to keep purring. "Can I try looking at her thoughts too, please? Only this one more time, and then I'm done, I promise."
"Yes you can, but this is the last time." She said, reaching out and petting Yoda once again before taking another step back. Honor nodded, mostly to herself and looked around the loft again, "I'll try to find another one of the cats, if any of them are in here."
"Okay." Oscar concentrated on Yoda and soon the cat's outer shell was stripped away in his vision, revealing the glowing web of consciousness underneath. Perhaps because he was touching her, he was able to pick apart the individual thoughts and feelings in much better detail. However, the connection seemed to go two ways, and in a matter of moments Yoda had stopped purring, hissed, and leaped out of Oscar's arms, bounding away into the shadows.
Oscar blinked, disappointed, and looked around for Honor. "Honor? Cats are simple on the inside, like cows, but something is completely flipped around, I think. She hunts for things, doesn't she? And cows don't….also she, uh, ran away…."
As soon as she heard a hiss, she spun around from her search for other cats, seeing Yoda springing out of his arms and bolting away. "Yes, she hunts, it's her job out here to catch mice. Cats are predators, they hunt to eat, cows are prey, they eat plants and are eaten by the predators." Honor didn't bother looking for Yoda again, knowing she would be far gone into the piles of hay, "Do you want me to find another cat? Or do you want to go see some of the other animals?"
"Um…..maybe we should find some other animals," Oscar said reluctantly. "Wait….so the cats hunt and eat the cows??"
"No, the cats are too small to hunt the cows, the cats eat mice and other small animals, squirrels, birds, you get the idea." She explained, motioning for him to follow her as she led him back out the barn and towards where the chickens were kept.
"Oh…that makes much more sense." Oscar was slightly relieved—the idea that a tiny little cat could take down a huge animal like a cow left an unsettling image in his mind. He trotted after Honor, blinking in the sunlight. "What are we going to see now?"
Honor thought for a minute and pointed to the coop, "I'll show you the chickens, they're the ones I got the eggs from for breakfast this morning." She saw a few more of the cats chasing each other around the yard though these ones were clearly just kittens playing around and exploring.
Oscar spotted the younger cats as well and eyed them with interest, but decided he was more curious about these mysterious egg-makers Honor was talking about. "Chickens, huh? Okay. Are they more like cows, or cats?"