|
Post by Celebes on Jun 2, 2021 9:36:42 GMT -5
**Dewbelle's claws gripped into the tree branch, as she strained at the very edge of her reach to pluck the perfect fruit. A nice, juicy looking red, swollen to the skin with delectable soon-to-be cider. Her claws danced along the skin, scratching it as she just needed to reach a little farther for purchase...ah! Got it! Dewbelle fell back with her prize, as the branch above her swung wildly from the sudden release of weight. The young red squirrel sat down on her branch to examine her prize, bushy red tail swinging behind her.
It was a fine looking fruit, as she expected. Big and plump, and, after squeezing it, just soft enough. The dibbuns in the big open topped wooden barrel that were an apple's throw away would have a hard time crushing this one beneath their foot paws. But, Dewbelle was nothing if she wasn't considerate. She had been helping the sticky stompers by giving them a little head start. Whereas the other squirrels, all grownbeasts, had climbed down and gently plopped them in the apple barrel away from the dibbuns, Dewbelle had helped to speed up the process by simply throwing them the apples. Preferably their when their backs were turned. By the time the overripe fruit slid off them, it was already premashed!
Already giggling to herself about throwing this biggest apple yet, she closed one eye and lined up her target. There were only two in the vat to chose from, and by now they were so covered in sticky juice it was hard to tell who was who. She chose the one that was facing away from her. Winding back her arm - and taking a quick look around to ensure no Elders were watching - Dewbelle hurled the squishy cider apple with all her might at the furry backside of one of the dibbuns stomping the apples.**
|
|
|
Post by Fyri on Jun 4, 2021 6:28:50 GMT -5
**In all her long seasons, Fyri had never before witnessed a scene as gruesome as the one she was not only observing but participating in now. And her seasons needed at least two paws to count them all on! Paws, with claws, claws tearing into bruised skin drawing forth the sweet-smelling lifeblood within. It oozed out, gushing forth, leaking down in a sticky stream along her paw, to her elbow where it pooled and then, drip, drip, drip! joined the cesspool of its fallen fruity friends.
The jill’s snout scrunched up in a mixture of grim satisfaction at crushing the vile fruit to a pulp beneath her, and the unpleasant feeling of her fur getting ever more stuck together in juice. Her entire chest had become a mesh of moist mayhem. The temptation to use her tongue to clean it off was only tempered by one tiny yet very important detail:
Fyri the pine marten preferred pears.
And by much more than an apple’s throw.
The mangled corpse fell back down and Fyri resumed her stomping, footpaws squelching, shloop, shlloop, squishy squish.... She’d rather not think of the state of them. Glancing to her fellow dibbun in the vat she could very easily imagine what state they’d be in. The pine martin looked at it positively again. At least her back, the hardest part to reach for solitary cleaning, was still nice and smooth and--**
TWACK!
**Fyri reeled forward, front paws hitting the edge of the barrel hard, allowing her to at least save herself a mouthful of apple-mash. Her eyes were wide in shock, and black spots momentarily danced across her vision. Something, something malleable and moist had collided with the back of her head. A shiver of discomfort ran over the jill’s entire body as the projectile slowly, slowly, slid down over her neck, leaving a juicy trail in its wake.**
Gaah!
**She brought a paw to her neck to swat the offending, much too slimy-- with bits and pieces!-- substance away but she hit only air as gravity did its thing and hastened the missile along. In one swoop, it travelled down the pine marten’s previously perfectly pristine spine. It fuelled her spin around to face the culprit and confront them. There was only one other in there with her, after all.**
Keeps yer apples tae yerselfs!
**She took a glob of apple-mash and flung it at her fellow dibbun to emphasize her very valid point, the humour in the alignment of statement and action serving to improve Fyri’s mood.**
|
|
|
Post by Madeline on Jun 5, 2021 20:27:54 GMT -5
**How in all the seasons under the sun on this glorious planet did Madeline get roped into this, the worst job in the universe?
**Well, it actually wasn't the worst job. That one would be helping anywhere that involved dirt. But as the kitten mashed and smashed the apples underpaw (under the direction of an adult, of course, because she would never volunteer for this), she began to think that perhaps this was the worst job, after all.
**Sticky, sugary, sweet apple juice that got everywhere was...well, everywhere. The wildcat's semi-long fur was getting stuck in spikes, sticking out in weird angles as the juice dried. Her dress was getting sticky and stained. Madeline's attitude, which had already been slightly morose, was worsening by the moment. The pendulum of her emotions swung between horror and disgust, self-pity and tearfulness, and anger and resentment. Sometimes she felt all of them at the same time!
**The young wildcat had paused, sniffling and trying to smooth down her tail, when the dastardly Dewbelle had flung the apple at Fyri. Why did they have to do this? Why couldn't the adults do all this gross stomping around on what is technically food, instead of forcing the Dibbuns to do it? Madeline typically enjoyed anything that had to do with apples, but this was awful (hence the sniffling and internal whining that was going on)!
**Suddenly, as if from nowhere, the pine marten was hollering at her. Madeline just barely had time to turn around when smack! the apple mush hit her square in the face! The kitten was knocked back, completely unprepared. Falling onto her backside, the kitten felt tears spring out of her eyes as she stared at her fellow Dibbun in shock. After three heartbeats, she sprang up, anger replacing her surprise and sorrow.** "I DIDN'T T'ROW THAT!! WHY'RE YOU SO MEAN?!" **The wildcat picks up a pawful of apple yuck and throws it with surprising force in the general direction of the pine marten's face, her green eyes blazing.**
|
|
|
Post by Celebes on Jun 7, 2021 23:15:35 GMT -5
**Dewbelle had been hiding behind the trunk of the tree on which she still stood, her long front teeth biting into the wood as she stifled a fit of giggles. She couldn't believe it! She had thought that pine marten would have been on to her for sure, after all, Dewbelle had had to throw the apple pretty hard in order to get it from her tree to the tub. But no! She had whirled on her sticky compatriot! And now they were in a tiff! Dewbelle couldn't believe she had just gotten away with murder.
...and it was so tempting to try it again.
The young squirrelmaid didn't attempt a repeat attack immediately, with them both staring at each other it would be pretty obvious that neither of them was the culprit. But she still wanted to enjoy the show. Adjusting her headscarf, Dewy glanced down at the bucket she had been dropping apples in and around down below, and figured there was enough about that she could fill it up and go drop them into the stomping barrel like a normal civilized beast. And have a front row seat all the way there.
Dewbelle dropped to the orchard's grassy floor, and gathered up the soft skinned fruit. She had to swipe one or two from the neighboring squirrel's tree to fill out her bucket, but soon she was trotting over in time to see globs of apple guts get flung over the side, likely by a raging wildcat. Dewbelle was all smiles by the time she arrived and tipped the apples into the big half barrel, eager to get back to her tree so that she could watch how they used the new ammunition. They might need another little nudge to get the fire really going, but there were plenty of sparks to be had up in the trees.**
Here s'more, yeah?
|
|
|
Post by Fyri on Jun 13, 2021 10:47:22 GMT -5
**The satisfaction of that nigh perfectly timed turn and hit of her fruity fire was swiftly dampened when the kitten shouted back at her.**
I DIDN'T T'ROW THAT!! WHY'RE YOU SO MEAN?!
**The pine marten’s perpetually present sense of peacekeeping gave her a pang of remorse in her gut. Fearful of being left out of games and mischief, she was ever trying to please the other dibbuns and stay on their good side. Or, at the very least, not their bad one. For a split second, this internal instinct made her consider that perhaps Madeline hadn’t been the culprit however unlikely given the situation that appeared. That moment lasted less than three heartbeats as the little wildcat’s roar was soon followed up by a pawful of apple-mash making straight for her face. Fyri’s eyes widened but her footpaws, so stuck in the mush, were unable to save her in time.**
SPLOTCH!
**Smack in the middle. The mask of darker fur around her eyes had turned an greenish yellow colour. Fryi groaned and frantically rubbed her eyes with a paw, which didn’t do much, as it was just as badly appled. Thoroughly disgusted, and getting annoyed again, Fyri forgot all about her earlier ephemeral regret.**
Ye’re th’ only body ins th' barrel wi' me!
**She exclaimed as she blindly flailed her free paw about for a new throwing weapon to defend the last remnants of those few apple-free hairs on her body. Her eyes were glued to Madeline, weary of another assault, as much as the sticky substance all around them stuck to her, though her vision was blurry from apples, apples, too much apples!**
Here s'more, yeah?
**The voice startled Fyri out of her concentration. If she weren't seemingly permanently stuck, she's have jumped up several hops. Her upper body twisted briskly towards the squirrel, her still wildly swaying paw hitting the half emptied bucket from below, tipping it back over towards the other side, as she let out a small yelp of surprise.**
Aah!
|
|
|
Post by Madeline on Jun 20, 2021 19:40:58 GMT -5
"That doesn't mean I t'rew it!! I'm no' a liar!!" **Madeline tried to wipe tears from her eyes; she, too, only managed to smear more apple gunk all over her face. One thing she hated the most was not being believed when she was telling the truth. Her old family would rarely believe her, whether she told the truth or lied to try to earn their love. Having anyone not believe her when she told the truth always reminded her of that, and it usually led to tears and anger.
**Had the little wildcat known that Dewbelle had caused this fight, she would have hopped out of the tub and probably gotten in trouble with the adults for fighting in the Abbey. This whole chore was bad enough, in addition to her memories of her old family; that knowledge would have been the last straw to break Madeline's temper.
**However, she, too, was frightened by the squirrel's appearance, unaware of Dewbelle's involvement in the mischief. Her fur would have poufed up if it hadn't already been stiffened by the drying apple juice. Madeline was not as stuck as Fyri, being in a wetter, more juice-filled area of the tub, and she leaped into the air, arms, tail, and legs flailing in all directions at once. She landed with a sickening sploch into the sweetness of pulpy apple juice. If it were possible to make this particular area smell any more of apples, that would have definitely done the job.
**The cat's green eyes narrowed as she focused on the squirrel.** "Maybe she did it!!" **Madeline had no way of knowing that Dewbelle actually was the culprit, nor did she have anything making her suspicious. She was merely attempting to redirect blame.** "She coulda done it while we weren't lookin'! From, like, up in a twee or somethin'!!" **The already upset wildcat tried to grab the squirrel by her arms and bodily haul her into the apple mush pit with her and the pine marten. Madeline may have been on the smaller side and extremely bookish, but she still possessed a bit of strength due to her species. Plus, she was mad. Anger always lends strength.
**But was she fast enough to catch the wily squirrel? Was her strength superiour to that of Dewbelle? Could she get Fyri to help her? And would they all get in trouble with the adults? These were the questions that ought to have plagued Madeline's mind. But she was too busy being upset to think of them.**
|
|
|
Post by Celebes on Jul 2, 2022 10:23:55 GMT -5
She coulda done it while we weren't lookin'! From, like, up in a twee or somethin!
**Dewbelle was almost genetically predisposed to be ready for anything, after all, were not squirrels up in their lofty perches the first to see anything coming? But unfortunately for Dewy, prosaic metaphor or not she was not in a tree, but on the ground, almost being yanked into a tub of very pulpy apple juice. The squirrelmaid yanked back after the initial shock of being hit in the chin when Fyri knocked her apple bucket, digging her claws into the grass.**
What's wiff you?! I gives you apples--
**At this point, Dewbelle got lucky, as despite how hard Maddy was pulling, her paws were still covered in juice, and they literally slipped away from each other, Dewy landing on her bottom in the grass.**
--not the other ways 'round, yeah?!
**Nevermind the fact that she had basically just confirmed what Maddy had accused her of. Dewbelle stumbled back up, licking her arm as she picked up the bucket. Unlike some other dibbuns, she actually really liked apples. But not getting sticky. She quickly backed away before either of them tried to pull her again into that fruity glue. She glared at the wildcat, already plotting her revenge for her assault. She'd get back up in her tree, and find the biggest, heaviest, plumpest apple in the orchard, and then drop it right in front of her in the vat. Maddy would get splashed from head to tail with a wave of that sticky sugar. And probably the pine martin. But she had hit Dewy with a bucket, so she deserved to be collateral damage.**
|
|
|
Post by Fyri on Jul 3, 2022 13:39:41 GMT -5
**The glisten in Maddie’s eyes caught Fyri’s own and her discomfort grew several times more. If there was one thing not-apple related that could make this worse it was the shimmer of fresh tears. Of course, shedding salamander tears to mellow the brothers and sisters of the Abbey was a universal dibbun tactic to lessen the consequences; it was usually not one used to mellow apples or other dibbuns. The fear of mockery was present in most beasts. By other dibbuns, that is. Though, Fyri felt the apples were mocking her attempts to stay clear and clean of them as well…**
What's wiff you?! I gives you apples--
**Did that mean the wildcat was innocent? Was the squirrel not? Fyri didn’t know. The bushy-tailed menace was a likely culprit, as had been the wildcat mere moments ago, if for entirely different reasons. Fyri didn’t like this; she didn’t want to pick a side and risk it being the wrong one, and thus it suited her just fine when they turned against each other. She could choose her own side; the only definitely right one.**
--not the other ways 'round, yeah?!
**Thus Fyri decided that it was time that things were the other way around. She was a pine martin! She could climb a tree, pine or otherwise, at least as agile and skilful as the squirrel could, and find them apples swifter to boot, she bet. Not only would that get her out of this much too sticky situation, it’d also put her at an advantage and on a vantage point for any more approaching attacks from whichever beast they may come.**
‘en lets switchs places…!
**Using the impromptu tug o’ war between the squirrel and wildcat, Fyri gripped the edges of the barrel, using her claws to compensate for the juicy jill’s slippery paws, and pushed, pushed, puuuushhh! Her long body sloooowly became looser, sliding out of the quick mash marsh like an apple’s core being removed.**
Gimme th’ buckit!
**When she was popped halfway out like the cork on a bottle of cordial, Fyri leaned over the edge towards Dewbelle and wildly grabbed at the container, her movements causing more mash of apples to be flung around but she was too focused on her way out of this task to care.**
|
|