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  "description": "Well, there it is! I had to add a couple of pages for an opening, and add an end, to get those 19 pages of paw-written text, but it all came together in the second installment of the Fangle Farmstead series! A bit longer than I thought it would be - well, okay, a lot longer - but there was a lot to tell and to describe in this story! Plus it introduces a new character; the adorable, spunky and cheerful [url=https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=1370173]Daisy Belle[/url] whom I adopted the very moment I saw her described as a farm kitty! She was just too perfect to let her go!\nI also used one of the kitten characters I adopted on here on Inkbunny a good while back, the cute little [url=https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=1279655]Shelly Rogers[/url]! Since I did not have a use for her yet, I now made that kitten Daisy's niece! No doubt we will be seeing a whole lot of all of them in the future!\n\nI put the Mature marking on here just to be safe; nothing naughty happens, but there is a decent amount of talking about nudity, a decent amount of showing nudity, and therefore several relatively detailed descriptions of nudity. So, yeah >~_^<\n\nThe world of Minnaluna and everything therein is © me\nLaura Forman is © me\nDaisy Belle is © me\nShelly Rogers is © me",
  "description_bbcode_parsed": "<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>Well, there it is! I had to add a couple of pages for an opening, and add an end, to get those 19 pages of paw-written text, but it all came together in the second installment of the Fangle Farmstead series! A bit longer than I thought it would be - well, okay, a lot longer - but there was a lot to tell and to describe in this story! Plus it introduces a new character; the adorable, spunky and cheerful <a href=\"https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=1370173\" rel=\"nofollow\">Daisy Belle</a> whom I adopted the very moment I saw her described as a farm kitty! She was just too perfect to let her go!<br />I also used one of the kitten characters I adopted on here on Inkbunny a good while back, the cute little <a href=\"https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=1279655\" rel=\"nofollow\">Shelly Rogers</a>! Since I did not have a use for her yet, I now made that kitten Daisy&#039;s niece! No doubt we will be seeing a whole lot of all of them in the future!<br /><br />I put the Mature marking on here just to be safe; nothing naughty happens, but there is a decent amount of talking about nudity, a decent amount of showing nudity, and therefore several relatively detailed descriptions of nudity. So, yeah &gt;~_^&lt;<br /><br />The world of Minnaluna and everything therein is &copy; me<br />Laura Forman is &copy; me<br />Daisy Belle is &copy; me<br />Shelly Rogers is &copy; me</span>",
  "writing": "Waking up felt strange. Sunlight filtered through thin venetian blinds before unfamiliar windows. The song of many birds greeting the new day was so unlike the usually familiar sounds of the city. It was disorienting.\n\nFor several moments after blinking open her eyes, Laura lay back in the bed and just gazed up at the domed ceiling of the trailer she had found herself waking up in. For several moments more she lay pondering, running the events of the past few days through her mind. Arriving in a new land. The long drive to a tiny little town. The meeting with the mayor. And those two beaver brothers. That's right, that's where the trailer came from. And that's where she was right now. In the tiny little town of Fangle Valley, in a trailer parked next to the dilapidated house on the grounds of her new farm.\n\nHer new farm. Fangle Farmstead. Which was horribly dilapidated and overgrown after having been abandoned for more than three decades. Which was going to have to completely rebuilt. Which was going to keep her busy just clearing grounds before she could even see what she had to work with for several weeks, if not months. But which was going to be worth it so much in the end.\n\nWith a deep breath, Laura sat up and got out of the bed, stretching, her fingers touching the roof of the trailer. She shook herself to settle down her thick, fluffy fur which was standing out in peaks and tufts, before checking the panel with buttons on the shower booth. It took only a few moments for the agouti feline to figure out she had to set the heater, and then the pump after the heater signaled it was done so she could get the shower to work. A few more moments later the heater was done, the pump was set, and Laura could turn on the shower and step under it. The water was lukewarm at best, but it would do.\n\nThe Somali cat found out there was also a limit on the water, as the shower cut out after several minutes. Smirking a bit, Laura shook herself and set the fan in the ceiling of the small booth from extracting the steam to blowing in air to dry her fur. She shivered; it was outside air that was blown in and it was rather chilly. Well, at least it helped her waking up fully. Just in time as well - while she was putting on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, Laura perked and swiveled her ears, turned, and leaned over to look out one of the trailer's windows.\n\nSure enough, she had heard it correctly; the large former military truck was bumping its way across the rutted and overgrown gravel path, letting out the two beaver brothers as soon as it was parked by the old farmhouse. Laura quickly ran a brush through her hair a couple of times before stepping out of the trailer to meet them.\n   \"Good morning!\"\n   \"Mornin',\" Will nodded, tipping his hat.\nEd handed Laura a paper bag.\n   \"Figgered you di'n't have any stuff for breakfast or nothing.\"\nLaura opened the bag and looked inside. Freshly made poppyseed muffins. They even were a little warm still.\n   \"Oh, thank you so much! Yeah, I haven't gotten to do any grocery shopping or anything yet, indeed. That's very thoughtful of you, I appreciate it a lot.\"\nEd nodded, motioning Laura over to the back of the truck. Will had already lowered the tailgate of it, unrolling and spreading out a large paper on which was a crude layout drawing alongside a more detailed floor plan.\n   \"This is what the place is like now,\" Will pointed at the floor plan. \"We gut the lot, start upstairs, work down. Be left with this.\" He pointed at the more crude drawing. \"Leave the fireplace where it is, it has the chimney going through the roof, that's a pain to remove. Anything else, your choice.\"\n   \"Right,\" Laura nodded slowly while munching on one of the muffins. \"I like the fireplace, I wanted to keep that anyway, especially since after clearing the grounds, I will have more wood than I'll know what to do with. Any suggestions on that?\"\n   \"Depends on what trees you'll cut,\" Ed shrugged while motioning an arm across the premises. \"There's pine, mountain ash, birch and beech mainly. Youngest pines that grew in the paths and on the fields, good firewood, same for the other younger trees. Beech too. Some of the older pine, ash and birch can be used for lumber.\"\nLaura nodded slowly again.\n   \"That sounds good. I will have to get most, if not all, of the younger trees cut down to clear the paths, that's the top priority. After that I will need to get the grounds cleared, and I'm thinking, probably need looking at where the original crop fields were and clear those one by one. Meaning that a number of the fields are likely to remain untouched for a few more years. I don't know if I would need to cut down any of the older trees, I suppose that'll be a case by case basis. And I don't know very much about what makes good wood and what wouldn't, so I guess, when I start clearing the grounds. I'll cut down the trees and leave them where they are, and you can assess them and tell me if they'll be suitable for lumber, or firewood.\"\n   \"Fine,\" Ed nodded. \"Once we're done gutting the place and start the rebuild, we'll check the cut trees and process the ones suitable for lumber, and use that for the rebuild. Saves you some money.\"\n   \"I like that idea. It'll be a nice thought having the house rebuilt partially with materials coming from right here off these very grounds,\" Laura nodded, chortling softly. \"And the idea of saving some money in the process is very nice as well, since this whole thing will eat up my savings.\"\n   \"Yeah.\" Will tapped a finger on the paper. \"You take this, y'can write on it what rooms ya want to be where. This drawing has all the walls, but the ones with a cross on it are non-loadbearing walls we'll remove. We'll leave just the main supporting walls in place, but we can remove some of them and put in new ones elsewhere, change the shape and size of the rooms. You draw what you want, we'll check and see if it can be done.\"\n   \"Sounds good to me,\" Laura agreed. \"One thing I know I want to ask; is central heating an option? Along the fireplace? I want to keep the fireplace, but I wouldn't want it to be the sole heating device for the whole house.\"\n   \"Sure,\" Ed nodded. \"Central heating, water main and heater, gas main, sewage main, all possible.\"\n   \"Ah, good. Yes, I'd want all of that. I came from quite a large town, and I've gotten used to having all my creature comforts, I wouldn't want to miss them,\" Laura said with a soft chuckle.\n   \"Done,\" Will nodded, scribbling something in a dog-eared notepad, then checking his watch. \"Dumpster'll be here soon, we'll get to work gutting the place, you're free to do whatever. Any questions, come and ask. We'll be gutting the upstairs first.\"\n   \"Alright, that sounds good to me. I'll leave you to it, you know way better what to do than I do.  I'll just pop into town real quick to get some groceries and necessities, and then I suppose I'll explore the place here and see what I can start on.\"\n   \"Aight.\"\n\nWill rolled up the paper and handed it to Laura, who took it into the trailer with her and put it down somewhere before brushing her hair some more as well as the fluffy fur on her arms, legs and tail. As she was getting her purse and other things together, she leaned over to look out one of the trailer's windows again at the sound of another heavy diesel engine drawing near. This time it was a large truck carrying a very large open dumpster. Stepping out of the trailer, Laura for a while looked at the large dumpster being unloaded on the other side of the house, then got into her car to drive into the tiny town and do some shopping for food and necessities. It was a good opportunity for her to meet more of the local people as well, especially some of the ones she would be dealing with on a somewhat regular basis.\n\nWhen she got back to the farm, the large truck was gone, and the beaver brothers were nowhere to be seen either. The proof of them being hard at work was more than clear, however, as from inside the farmhouse loud sounds of banging, hammering, crashing and splintering rang out, and every so often pieces of wood and stone and other things flew from one of the second floor windows and landed in the dumpster. Laura smiled a bit over it while she stepped into the trailer and put away her groceries and other things, as well as unpacking her suitcase and getting things generally organized at least a bit.\n\nStepping back outside, the Somali cat put her paws in her sides and just wandered around a bit for several moments, gazing over the completely overgrown gravel paths, the broken and falling apart fences, the even more overgrown dirt paths between what were only barely visible outlines of what once had been crop fields. It all seemed... way overwhelming. Everywhere she looked, Laura could see nothing but wilderness with only small remnants of proof that there once had been a farm there. She sauntered up and down the path that ran out into a wide swath of overgrown gravel in front of the farmhouse, peered into the remains of a well somewhere in the middle of there, then slowly stepped past the house and over to the left, where the spattering and burbling sounds of water told her of a creek running somewhere behind the trees and bushes.\n\nThere were several older trees on that side as well, growing in rather straight lines with lots of smaller trees and lots of bushes growing randomly between them. It looked like that had been some kind of small orchard of sorts. Laura spotted a very overgrown gravel path running between that orchard and what once clearly had been a garden as well. And upon closer inspection, wrestling her way through the overgrowth while trying to follow the line of the gravel path, the Somali cat could see a few old buildings as well. Or what was left of them, anyway.\n\nStruggling through the dense, tall grass and vines, the wild bushes and between and around the small and larger trees, Laura managed to follow the line of what definitely had been a gravel path at some point in time. It wasn't before too long the structures looming behind the trees came into clearer view. The former path ran by right in front of them eventually, allowing Laura to walk up to and look at the buildings relatively easily to determine their purpose. There were two rather large buildings side by side, looking pretty much exactly like mirror images of each other - or they would have in former times. Not much more than collapsed husks were left of them, though, but it was still clear enough that both buildings once had been storage barns, most likely to hold the produce harvested from the fields that started on the other side of the overgrown path, behind what had been the garden.\n\nA smaller building, which surprisingly had stood the test of time and the elements a lot better, was tucked to the side of the two collapsed barns, in the space left between the barns, the path and the creek which ran by behind the barns and curved towards the path a bit. A single, person-sized door at the front and a couple of small windows with cracked or shattered glass in them, just visible between the tangle of vines and tendrils covering the building, denoted the building as being some kind of shed, most likely for the storage of tools and such. Laura tilted her head a bit and scratched her left ear while she looked at the small building. Well, that seemed like as good a place to start as any. And who knows, there might even still be some useful tools left in there which could be of good, or at least half decent help in cutting through the wilderness that had overtaken everything.\n\nTaking a deep breath, Laura stepped up to the small building and started yanking and breaking twigs and tearing away vines and tendrils to at least uncover the door. It took a bit of doing, but still quicker than she thought Laura had uncovered the door enough to pull it open. Or rather, pull it clear out of the rotted door frame. Chuckling softly to herself, the agouti feline leaned the remnant of the door against the front of the building and looked inside. What light that managed to filter through the small broken windows provided just enough light for Laura to see what was inside the shed.\n\nTons and tons of cobwebs, of course, covering and connecting everything, hanging from the sagging ceiling and forming a thick layer over beams, walls, tools and almost ancient-looking farming implements, most of which Laura had never even seen before in her life, let alone that she could figure out what they were for. She lightly scratched her left ear again while she looked over everything cluttering the inside of the shed. Most of the things were clearly manual tools, and Laura could even identify a couple of scythes and an old manual lawnmower, but for the life of her she could not tell what most of the things were or what they were for. So she also couldn't think of anything she could possibly be using them for, either.\n\nFortunately, something which looked like a workbench was visible to one side of the shed, and squinting a bit in the very dim and dusty light, Laura could make out some gardening tools scattered around on it that she actually recognized. Even if covered in a finger-thick layer of dust and cobwebs and being completely rusty, they still looked like they could be usable. Leaning into the shed far enough around some of the larger implements, Laura managed to reach the workbench and rummaged through the dusty and rusty tools scattered on the surface. She located a pair of hedge clippers, forcing them apart with a loud creak and trying to loosen them up a bit as they seemed like the most likely candidate of being any help to make her way through the undergrowth covering the paths. Aha, and check it out, that over there seemed like an old can of WD40 or something similar - that would definitely come in handy as well. If there was anything left in it, that was, of course. Well, one way to find out!\n\nGrabbing the can, shaking it and holding it upside-down, Laura managed to wrangle a few last squirts of oily mist from it, just enough to create a small damp spot on the hinge point of the clippers. She yanked them open and shut a couple of times more with loud, protesting creaks, managing to loosen them up a little bit more. Well, that would have to do for the time being. In any way it would probably work well enough to forge a path through the bushes and tendrils that had overtaken the gravel paths running from the entrance gate to the farmhouse and from there between the former garden and the overgrown orchard and past the collapsed barns and the tool shed. Better than if she would try it with just her bare paws, anyway.\n\nTaking note of a rusty wheelbarrow with a flat tire and the other hand tools in the shed, Laura drew a deep breath and braced herself for the task ahead. She stepped out of the tool shed and began hacking and cutting and clipping her way through the undergrowth on her way back to the farmhouse, managing to cut through most of the softer, more yielding stuff and mostly managing to break off some of the heavier branches of the trees overhanging the path relatively easily. All the while, she kept making mental notes as well, thinking of stuff she would need to do and equipment she would need to borrow or rent, like a chainsaw at least, something like a small backhoe or something to remove the smaller trees that had grown right into the path, and perhaps something like a small boom lift to get up to the larger trees that had to be removed so she could cut them down piece by piece from the top down - or at least for the trees in the more dense areas as there was hardly any room to simply fell them and let them fall over.\n\nAs for what was left of those fields... Laura didn't quite know yet what to do with those. She knew she wanted to plant lots of berry bushes and such, but she wasn't quite sure yet on exactly how to do the layout, what would be the handiest and most economical way for using the space available. For that, she would only be able to get something down more concretely once she would have some kind of map or plan available so she could actually make some rough drawings. But with all the work to first clear the grounds, that was something she wouldn't need to worry or even think about for quite some...\n   \"Hiya there!\"\n   \"Gah!\"\n\nLaura spun around with a gasp at the sudden voice cutting off her musings while she was making her way along the overgrown path. Blinking for a moment, Laura realized she was looking at a somewhat short-coupled, but still very slender cat woman of the Siamese variety, with more or less cinnamon-colored instead of seal-grey color points, large, cheerful bright blue eyes and semi-long, straw-blonde hair that was twisted into a braid tied off with a blue ribbon. She was clad in traditional - even almost stereotypical - farmer's clothing, donning a pair of blue jean overalls over a blue and white plaid flannel shirt, and a flat straw hat on her head. She was also almost doubling over with laughter at Laura's reaction to her greeting.\n   \"Oh..! Oh, ahh ha ha, ohmigosh, I'm so sorry, darlin', but that was hilarious! Ha ha ha! Oh, I really shouldn't laugh at ya like that, but... ah ha ha! It jus' looked so funny! Ha ha!\"\nLaura smirked for a moment, wiping the sweat off her forehead with a sleeve and running a paw over her muzzle and whiskers, but only a moment later she was softly laughing as well.\n   \"I suppose it did probably look rather amusing,\" she said, running her paw over her whiskers again. \"And may I ask whom I have the pleasure of being laughed at with?\"\n   \"Oh, o'course, lemme introduce meself! That's the whole reason I came over after all!\" the Siamese said with a bright smile. She grabbed Laura's paw and shook it heartily and energetically. \"The name's Daisy, Daisy Belle! We's neighbors, ya see! I own an' run Bluebell Farm, 'bout half a mile thattaway as the crow flies!\" She waved a paw in a general north-western direction. \"Heard someone finally showed up with the deed to take over Fangle Farmstead, so I figured to hop on over for a look-see an' introduce meself!\"\n   \"I see,\" Laura nodded, a bit overwhelmed still by the Siamese's enthused friendliness, especially after the fright she'd gotten from the sudden unexpected greeting, but smiling over it just the same. \"Well, it's a pleasure meeting you, Daisy. My name is Laura, I'm sure we'll get along well.\"\n   \"O'course we will, o'course we will!\" the Siamese nodded brightly. \"Ev'ryone 'ere in town does! That's why it's so awesome to live 'ere!\" She gestured at the overgrown path Laura had been attempting to clear. \"Ya need any help with that, 'oney? It's gonna be takin' an age an' a half if ya try an' tackle it with them rusty shears, ya know.\"\n   \"Yeah,\" Laura nodded in agreement, looking at the jungle she still had to cut through, and the rusty hedge clippers she was holding. \"It's all I have though, I gotta make do with whatever tools I can find around the place here since I don't have anything of my own yet.\"\n   \"Well, all ya gotta do is ask, 'oney!\" Daisy smiled. \"So what's the goal 'ere? Clearin' the path I reckon, yeah?\"\n   \"That's the idea at least, yeah,\" Laura shrugged. \"First and foremost I'm gonna need to clear the path from the entrance to the house so I won't have to maneuver my car through a forest anymore to get to my living quarters, and I wanna try and get at least all the perimeter paths cleared so I know just and about the size of the place and where everything is and where paths lead to, you know?\"\n   \"Totally, 'oney, totally!\" Daisy nodded. \"No sooner said than done, too! Ya jus' 'ang around, I'll be back in two shakes of a kitten's tail!\"\n\nBefore Laura could even react, the Siamese had turned around and darted off, disappearing in the tangled and overgrown mess of bushes, shot-through grass and flowers, vines and tendrils and trees. Laura blinked again, then shrugged with a smile and decided to make her way back to the tool shed to collect the rusty wheelbarrow with the flat tire, using it to put all the rusty hand tools she could find in the shed in it. A little bit of TLC and spit shine would have those things back into a good enough, workable condition in no time, and Laura knew all too well she would more than likely have a lot of use for all the tools she could find.\n\nStruggling her way back to the farmhouse with the flat-tired wheelbarrow full of rusted tools, the Somali cat looked around and motioned at one of the beaver brothers who was just stepping out of the house.\n   \"Say, Ed, do you know of a place in town where I could get all of this stuff cleaned and repaired?\"\n   \"Ag Co-op,\" the beaver said after a quick glance at the wheelbarrow and its contents. \"Fifteen South Street, just before the salvage yard.\"\n   \"Thank you.\"\n\nLaura started loading the old rusty tools into the trunk of her car, but stopped and looked around at the sound of a small chugging diesel motor drawing nearer and nearer. It turned out to be a small orange tractor trundling its way down the long, overgrown path winding from the gate to the farmhouse. On the front it had two arms holding a small shovel bucket, while on the rear were what looked like two large long hooks. Plus, on the small metal seat, it had the cheerful Siamese cat with the cinnamon-colored color points Daisy, waving cheerily as she pulled up next to Laura's car.\n   \"Heya! Toldcha I'd be back soon, di'n't I? An' I brought some power tools too, that oughta make short work o' them paths, fer sure!\" She looked at the rusty wheelbarrow and the just as rusty tools Laura had been loading into the trunk of her car. \"Don'tcha have a truck, 'oney?\"\nUnable to help herself, Laura chortled at Daisy's cheery demeanor and rapidfire manner of speaking.\n   \"No, I only got here like a day ago after all, and this is the only car I ever had. Or needed, for all that.\"\n   \"Oh 'oney, but if yer gonna be runnin' a farm, yer gonna need to 'ave at least one pickup truck, ya know!\" Daisy's smile brightened even more. \"I know! I'll pick ya up tomorrow an' drive ya over to Fandago, there's a yard there where they 'ave some great trucks for dirt cheap! Old, but still plenty more modern than what ya usually see 'round town 'ere. Ya should totally get one, 'oney!\"\n   \"Thanks, I guess,\" Laura chuckled. \"It would certainly be a lot more handy, I suppose.\"\n   \"Totally! No farmer can do without a truck, 'oney, trust me!\"\n   \"I definitely take your word for it,\" Laura chuckled. \"Either way, thanks for the help, Daisy.\"\n   \"No prob, 'oney, no prob at all,\" Daisy smiled, airily hopping off the seat of the small tractor and motioning at the rusty tools in the trunk of Laura's car. \"I reckon ya was gonna be takin' that stuff over to the Ag Co-op, yeah?\"\n   \"That was the plan, mister Woodhouse said that's where I could get it cleaned and fixed.\"\n   \"True that, true that! Yes indeedy! But ya can also get all new stuff there, ya know! No real need to go an' 'ave all that old stuff refurbished an' all.\"\n   \"Yeah well, but this stuff is perfectly fine as far as I'm concerned,\" Laura shrugged with a smile. \"Just needs a bit of spit shine, and I kinda like the idea of actually using the tools that come from this place to fix this place back up, you know? I'm already gonna be having so much stuff renewed and replaced about the house, and no doubt about the kind of crops that were grown here as well and the way that was done, so it'll be nice to keep at least a few things original, you know?\"\n   \"Oh, yeah, I can totally understand that! Aw, an' it sure is an awesome attitude, 'oney! Keep the old spirit of good ol' Lou alive an' all!\"\n   \"That's kinda what I was thinking, indeed,\" Laura nodded. She closed the trunk of her car. \"Reckon I can better get it done tomorrow or something, so I'll have the time to find my way around town and everything.\"\n   \"Sounds like a plan, 'oney,\" Daisy smiled. \"Matter o' fact, I'll drop by with me truck tomorrow so ya can put all that stuff in there, an' I'll get ya over to the Ag Co-op first to drop it all off afore drivin' ya to Fandago to get a truck for yerself. An' for now, I brought the big stuff to 'elp ya clear them paths. Reckon we'll blaze through'em in no time with all this!\"\nShe gestured at the shovel bucket of her small tractor, and it was only then Laura noticed several things being in there. A small chainsaw, a weedwhacker, a couple of sturdy metal rakes, even a machete, as well as several straps and chains, and some sturdy shovels.\n   \"Hah,\" Laura guffawed. \"Yeah, I'm sure we'll make short work of all those plants with all of this. Uhm... I'm not sure I know how to properly handle a chainsaw, or a tractor for all that, so I guess you could do that? I should be fine with the weedwhacker and such, though.\"\n   \"Then let's get to it, 'oney!\" Daisy giggled, hopping back onto the tractor's small metal seat and starting the engine. \"And I'll teach ya 'ow to handle a chainsaw an' a tractor sometime, no worries.\" She looked behind her. \"This 'ere path's priority, yeah? Know what, I'll drive this all the way back to the gate an' then back 'ere to flatten ev'rything best as I can first, then we can more easily make our way through it to remove mos' of the stuff, sound good, yeah?\"\n   *Sure, sounds great to me,\" Laura chortled. \"I'm not even sure yet of how wide that path is or where exactly it starts and ends, so...\"\n   \"One way to find out, 'oney!\" Daisy giggled, setting the tractor in motion and swinging it around to trundle through the overgrown plantlife and making a wide curve around the well that was near the farmhouse. \"Heigh ho Silver an' all that!\"\n\nLaura laughed and gave her head an amused shake, following the Siamese on the tractor and tossing aside any loose and broken branches and such after Daisy had run over them. Reaching the end of the path, or rather the beginning at the entrance gate, Daisy swung the tractor around again and drove back towards the farmhouse, flattening the plantlife on the other half of the path and this time going all the way past the farmhouse and turning left to run across the overgrown path running alongside the creek and leading past the two collapsed barns and the tool shed as well.\n\nAs it turned out, the creek ran on for a bit more before collecting into a fairly large pond, from the other side of which it ran further down towards the northwest in a much straighter path. Daisy stopped the tractor and pointed across the pond, informing Laura that her farm, Bluebell Farm, lay at the other side of the pretty thick strip of forest to the left side of the pond, with the back end of the pond being on her property and the strip of forest being the border between the Fangle Farmstead grounds and the Bluebell Farm grounds. She also started taking the motorized tools out of the shovel bucket and pointed back up the path.\n   \"Okay, so here's what I'm thinkin', yeah? We go back up that path a ways, hackin' an' whackin' down ev'rything in front of us. The small trees, we jus' cut'em down 'bout two feet above the ground, yeah? An' then when we 'ave a few yards cleared, I'll run the tractor over with the bucket down to shove all the loose stuff outta the way, yeah? Leave the tree stumps till last, we'll yank them out after we 'ave the whole path good as cleared, yeah? Sound okay?\"\n   \"Sounds absolutely great to me,\" Laura nodded with a grateful smile. \"Thank you so much for all the help, Daisy.\"\n   \"Totally no prob, 'oney, not at all!\" Daisy smiled. \"That's jus' what we do 'round 'ere!\"\n   \"I noticed,\" Laura nodded.\n\nTaking and starting the power tools, the whine of the weedwhacker and the grumble of the chainsaw pretty much put an end to any and all further conversation. The work went pretty well though, and much quicker than Laura had expected, with the power tools making short work of the vegetation pretty darn fast despite how overgrown everything was. It helped the path by the creek was relatively narrow, too. After only about an hour and a half, maybe two hours, they had already made their way more than halfway back up the path. A good time for a bit of a break.\n\nSetting down the tools, both cats sat down on the trunk of one of the larger trees they had cut down, wiping the sweat off their faces and foreheads. Without even thinking about it, Laura took off her shirt as well, using it to mop her face and head, then wringing it out and draping it over the tree trunk to dry. She took a packet of cigarettes from her pocket, presenting it to Daisy.\n   \"Smoke?\"\n   \"Naw thanks, I'm good.\"\n   \"Fair enough.\" Laura lit one herself and leaned back on the tree trunk a bit. \"So that's your farm next to mine, then? What do you grow?\"\n   \"Fibers,\" Daisy chortled, giving a wink at Laura's puzzled expression. \"There's a coupla weavin' companies in Fandago, an' they work off the stuff me farm produces for a large part. Cotton, flax, hemp, an' I also 'ave a white mulberry orchard to provide the silkworm farms.\" She pointed along the creek. \"An' ya see 'ow the creek goes on after that pond? It goes all the way to the ocean, but by the other border of me farm it feeds a kinda swampy area we created to cultivate large amounts o' reeds that's made into thatch an' wicker.\"\n   \"Wow,\" Laura said, taking a deep drag from her cigarette. \"That sounds like a whole damn lot of work. Surely you don't do all that all by yourself, do you?\"\n   \"Hee!\" Daisy giggled, shaking her head. \"Course not, 'oney, I could never keep up with alla that on me own!\" She rose from the tree trunk and stretched before sitting back down. \"Naw, I have sev'ral steady farm hands on the payroll, an' durin' harvest season, we usually get a buncha students from the high school helpin' us harvest it all to earn a bit o' pocket money.\"\n   \"Ah, right, yeah, that make sense,\" Laura nodded. \"Still sounds like an awful lot of work, though.\"\n   \"True that, true that. An' add to that I also grow some flowers. Bluebells o'course, that's what the place got its name from, an' I also do edible daisies an' Indian cress. They do great in salads, ya know.\"\n   \"Really? I'd never have thought of that. I mean, like, I know of water cress for like in salads or soup or something, but Indian cress, or even daisies? I thought those were just for decoration.\"\n   \"Mos' cultivated varieties are,\" Daisy nodded in confirmation. \"But there be sev'ral kindsa Indian cress of which the leaves are edible, an' at least one kind of which the leaves, the flowers an' the seed pods are edible - that's the kind I grow.\"\n   \"Neat,\" Laura smiled. \"I'd love to see your farm sometime, it must look lovely.\"\n   \"Sure! O'course! Yer welcome to drop by any time, 'oney! I'll show ya some salad recipes with the flowers an' all. An' I know me niece will love to meet ya too.\"\n   \"Your niece? That's nice, what's she like? I suppose I should drop by sooner than later, before she goes back home, right?\"\n   \"Naw, she lives with me, 'oney. Poor thing lost'er parents when she was five, so I took'er in. She been livin' with me some three years now.\"\n   \"Oh! Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Poor girl, that must have been really hard for her.\" Turning a bit, Laura sent Daisy a warm smile. \"It does sound like she has a wonderful caretaker in you, though.\"\n   \"Aw shucks 'oney, thanks,\" Daisy chortled. \"That's sweet of ya to say.\" She rose up from the tree trunk and stretched again. \"Well, what say we went to work again? Way we been goin', I reckon we're at the house in the next hour, an' we'll 'ave at least one side o' the main path cleared by the end o' the day.\"\n   \"Sounds great,\" Laura chuckled, putting her shirt back on. \"Oh, yeah, I should re-gravel all these paths again as well, would you happen to know where I could get the gravel and all?\"\n   \"Yeah, the Fandago quarry, ya can pick up there yerself or 'ave it delivered,\" Daisy nodded while she re-filled the fuel tanks of the chainsaw and the weedwhacker, after which she pointed both ways along the path. \"Ya want me advice, 'ere's 'ow I'd go 'bout it. We gotta bunch o' tree stumps, we yank'em out with the tractor an' fill up the holes with what's left o' the original path, yeah? Then ya line the paths with plastic, an' ya firs' dump on sev'ral loads o' rocks, grade four they call it at the quarry. Smooth that out with the tractor an' let it settle. For the main path, ya have the Woodhouse guys drivin' them heavy trucks o' theirs across it daily, that's perfect for gettin' it all settled an' as smooth as it'll get. Then after 'bout a week, ten days or so, ya top it with grade point-seven to grade one fine gravel, smooth that with the tractor, get it settled an' compacted by them heavy trucks drivin' across it all the time, and bam, Bob's yer uncle. Nice sturdy gravel paths with good solid foundation an' good drainage 'cause o' the rocks, an' no more plants growin' up through yer paths 'cause o' the plastic linin'.\"\n   \"That definitely sounds like what I'd want alright. I suppose I can get that plastic you mentioned around here somewhere too?\"\n   \"Yeah, jus' go by the Ag Co-op, they got pretty much ev'rything ya will ever need for runnin' a farm,\" Daisy smiled. \"I'll take ya there tomorrow with all them old tools o' yers an' show ya 'round a bit, an' I got an old dump truck ya can borrow too, I'll get ya over to the Fandago quarry an' show ya how to get stuff from there too.\"\n   \"You're too kind,\" Laura smiled. \"I really appreciate all the help. But won't it cut too much into your own time? I mean, surely you must be real busy at your own farm as well, with all that stuff you grow and all?\"\n   \"Not at the moment, 'oney,\" Daisy smiled. \"Crops only been planted coupla weeks ago, sprinkler system keeps'em watered, only thing we 'ave to check on now an' then is weedin'. So I got plenty time to help out my cute new neighbor, hey?\"\nLaura laughed shortly.\n   \"Ha, well, thank you, dear. You're certainly not bad-looking yourself either.\"\n   \"Glad to 'ear it,\" Daisy giggled. She started the chainsaw. \"Well, what say the cute kitty explorers continue hackin' their way through the jungle?\"\n   \"Sounds like a plan to me,\" Laura laughed while she started the weedwhacker. \"Lead on, doctor Livingstone!\"\n\nQuite cheerily, the two felines resumed their work, hacking and cutting and whacking their way through the thick growth that had overtaken the path. Not much more than an hour later they had made their way past the old orchard and overgrown garden, another half hour later found the large gravel area in front of the farmhouse and around the well pretty darn cleared, and by the end of the afternoon, they had in fact made their way all along one side of the main path from the farmhouse to the entrance gate. They had definitely worked their fluffy butts off, and it very clearly showed.\n   \"Well!\" Daisy chortled just as her chainsaw ran out of gas and died with a sputter. \"I'd say that was a pretty gol-durned well-timed end to a mighty productive day o' work.\"\n   \"I couldn't agree more,\" Laura nodded while they walked back to the farmhouse, looking along the main path and the path along the creek, actually having an as good as unobstructed view all the way to the gate, and to the large pond. She waved after the Woodhouse brothers as well who said their goodbyes just as the two cats reached the farmhouse and pulled away in their heavy truck, then stretched and turned back to Daisy. \"Again, thank you [i]so[/i] much for all the help, Daisy. I don't even wanna think about how hard that would've been and how long it would've taken me if I'd had to do it all on my own with nothing but those rusty old hand tools to work with.\" She laughed softly. \"It's that I'm quite in disarray living in that trailer until the house is done, otherwise I'd invite you to stay for dinner.\"\n   \"Well shucks then, jus' follow me to me place, 'oney,\" Daisy chuckled. \"Ya can grab yerself a decent shower there, an' ya can 'elp me with makin' dinner if ya wanna. B'sides...\" She pulled a pocket watch from the front pocket of her overalls and flipped it open to check it. \"Shelly should be home 'bout now too, so ya two can meet right away as well.\"\n   \"Shelly is your niece? Yeah, I'd love to meet her,\" Laura smiled, running a paw through her hair. \"Okay, sure, you've been so friendly and helpful to me already, I may as well take you up on this offer as well. It'll definitely be great to have a decent shower again for a change, my travel from my home town to this land took an age and I didn't have many opportunities for decent showers on the way, and as I found this morning, the shower in this trailer is hardly deserving of the name. Better than nothing, but still, I prefer a decent shower over the five minutes of lukewarm water I get in that trailer.\"\n   \"Yeah, that I can imagine,\" Daisy chuckled, giving a wink. \"Well, ya can luxuriate all ya want when we get to me place, 'oney, an' ya can come over ev'ry day for a good shower if ya want too. Here, lemme go get that tractor, I'll shove all that mess we cut down outta the way an' then lead the way for ya.\"\n   \"Sounds great to me,\" Laura grinned.\n\nShe looked after the Siamese cat as Daisy started making her way to where they had left the tractor. Well! That meeting might have started off with a bit of a scare, but Laura sure was happy Daisy had come over to introduce herself. It was great knowing she had such a cheerful, friendly and helpful neighbor. And Daisy certainly looked really good as well. The classy, svelte lines of traditional Siamese, complemented by a more than healthy dose of country life; it might look like two extremes that would never meet, but they sure had blended into a mix of perfection in Daisy.\n\nJust look at her, deftly working that tractor back and forth, lowering and raising the shovel bucket on the front expertly and so casually to scoop and shove all the loose branches and pieces of trees and bushes into neat heaps at the sides of the now mostly-cleared paths. The routine way she was doing that with just looked so natural, so... like it was meant to be. And her cheerful character definitely was very nice as well - she just seemed like someone everyone could do nothing but get along with.\n\nPlus, truth be told, she really was very cute, too. Those large, sparkly clear blue eyes, the soft cinnamon tint of her color points, that perpetual happy smile creasing her slender muzzle, that long straw-blonde hair pulled into that adorable country braid - it just was irresistibly cute. Definitely someone she more than wouldn't mind getting to know a whole lot better, Laura mused to herself. And taking care of her orphaned niece just like that, too! If there was anyone to whom the expression 'heart of gold' applied, Laura mused, it would be that Siamese lady-cat right there.\n\nHaving reached the farmhouse with her tractor once more, Daisy airily hopped off the machine and collected all the tools she had brought with her and put them in the raised  shovel bucket before turning to Laura with a bright smile.\n   \"Happy thoughts, 'oney? Yer positively glowin' there. Or is that from all the 'ard work?\" she quipped cheerfully.\n   \"Bit of both, I suppose,\" Laura replied with a light laugh. \"I was just thinking how cute you are... friendly, I mean friendly, and helpful, and how fortunate I was for you coming over and introducing yourself and all.\"\n   \"Ha ha!\" Daisy laughed cheerily, her wide smile causing her large blue eyes to squint a bit. \"Well, yer definitely totally welcome, 'oney. An' like I said, I 'appen to think yer mighty cute yerself.\" She gave one of those cheerful winks again. \"I wanna bet, if it ain't all grimy an' sweaty an' ev'rything, all that fur o' yers mus' be wonderfully soft to the touch an' all, too.\"\n   \"Ha,\" Laura chuckled, running a paw over her muzzle and whiskers and wiping away a slight blush at the same time. \"Well, so I've been told sometimes, yeah, and I have always tried my best to keep my fur in as good a condition as I can. Though I reckon with all the labor-intensive work in the outdoors I'm bound to be doing from now on, it will have a bit of an adverse effect on my fur.\"\n   \"That's kinda likely, the sweatin' an' the sun an' all do tend to do that to yer fur,\" Daisy nodded with a smile and another wink. \"Though ya should totally try the shampoo Fabienne makes outta the bluebells I grow, it's awesome stuff an' it does wonders for keepin' yer fur soft an' shiny. Or it does for me, anyway, but o'course me fur is a whole bunch shorter an' finer than yers.\" She playfully nudged Laura's shoulder. \"Ya should totally try it when yer havin' that shower at me place in a moment.\"\n   \"Sounds great,\" Laura chuckled. \"Shall we go then?\"\n   \"Yeah, let's,\" Daisy giggled, climbing back onto her small tractor. \"Wanna hitch a ride on the back o' this, 'oney?\"\n   \"I think I'd better just drive my car, if it's all the same to you,\" Laura laughed softly.\n   \"Fair 'nough, 'oney,\" Daisy winked. \"Either way, jus' follow me, 'kay?\"\n\nLaura nodded while she walked to her car and closed the trunk which was still wide open. After checking the trailer and closing it, she got into her car and drove after Daisy leading the way on the small tractor. They drove quite a way back along the narrow country road leading from the town to Fangle Farmstead, turning onto the dirt road that split off of it and of which Laura had been wondering where it led to. While driving, Laura smirked and shook her head at herself as she thought back on her slip of the tongue when Daisy had asked her what she was thinking of. Had she really said out loud she'd been thinking of how cute the Siamese cat looked? Sheesh! How dumb was that?\n\nFortunately Daisy had taken it very well - that'd had all the makings of a mighty awkward moment if Daisy had not thought it was funny. Then again, come to think of it, the Siamese feline also hadn't so much as flinched or quirked an eyebrow either when she had taken off her shirt during the short break they'd taken earlier, Laura mused to herself. At the time, she hadn't even thought about the fact she was taking off her shirt in front of a stranger she'd only just met, because it was just such a natural thing to do; they'd worked hard, she was hot, she was sweaty, so, she took off her shirt. But in retrospect, that could have turned into a mighty awkward moment as well. Yet Daisy hadn't so much as reacted to it, apparently of the mindset it was a perfectly normal and natural thing to do as well. And the way in which they had been playfully flirting a little bit, plus the frank and almost immediate offer to have a shower at her house, it made Laura think that the cheerful Siamese might just be very open and loose with her morals. If that was due to the simple country way of life in this small time-forgotten town, there was certainly a thing or two to say for country living. Laura knew that she for one definitely was not opposed to getting to know Daisy [i]that[/i] much better.\n\nLooking around her again when the forest to her right started breaking up and giving more views between the trees, Laura smiled as she caught sight of Bluebell Farm. The dirt road connected back to a gravel country road similar to the one leading from town to Fangle Farmstead - though much better maintained of course - and that road made its way through a wide gate in a picket fence of which the slats were painted alternately white and light blue. Being covered in thick, rough gravel between occasional flagstones and pieces of flat rock, the path ran on straight between a row of fields on the left and a double row of fields on the right, all the way between two large, similar buildings painted a weathered silvery blue to a medium-sized, three-story farmhouse painted in fresh bluebell blue with white doors and window frames and blue and white checkered shutters, and a slanted thatched roof with a flat top and a couple of small windows peeking out, each of them with their own small pointed thatched roof. The most prominent feature was the wall-to-wall front porch, which was completely overgrown with an enormous Wisteria plant.\n\nVisible behind the row of fields on the left was a wood dock, bordering what appeared to be some kind of wetlands area in which cat tail reeds and plumed reeds were growing abundantly. To the left of the farmhouse was another barn-like building with the space between that and the house being paved with rough stones and having a number of cars parked there, while on the right of it was a large area paved with small round stones in various colors, surrounded and filled with flowers and flowering bushes and small ornamental conifers and other small trees, a few of the paved areas donning lacquered wood tables with blue and white striped sunshades and deck chairs with light blue and white striped cushions. Further to the right, behind the double row of fields, was the strip of thick, wild forest that separated the grounds from the Fangle Farmstead grounds.\n\nUnable to drive very quickly because she was still following Daisy on the tractor, Laura had plenty of time to look around her, seeing how the fields were indeed only freshly sown in, neat rows upon rows upon rows of tiny little plants only just beginning to sprout. There were also quite a few people about, both men and women, though they were all packing up and getting into the cars that were parked between the farmhouse and the barn to the left of it, all of them waving cheery greetings at Daisy as well as Laura as they pulled away from the parking space to make their way home.\n\nThe Somali cat couldn't help but giggle when Daisy pulled the tractor up to the porch of the house and a small black and white kitten girl bounded from the porch and all but bearhugged the Siamese cat the moment Daisy got off the tractor. That must be that girl Shelly, the niece Daisy had mentioned before. Even from inside her car, Laura could hear the kitten's voice almost bellowing out a happy greeting.\n   \"Auntie Daisyyyyy! Hiyeeeee! Where you been?!\"\nAs she pulled up to the house and got out of her car herself, Laura could hear the rest of the conversation as well, chuckling to herself while she leaned against her car.\n   \"Heya kiddo, so yer home already, ain'tcha? I been over nextdoor, 'oney, helpin' out our new neighbor, ya know.\"\n   \"Oh yeah! Oh yeah! That's awesome! Who is she? What's she like?\"\nDaisy playfully ruffled the kitten's hair with a paw and winked.\n   \"Ease down, 'oney! She's right 'ere, ya know! Why don'tcha go an' say hi? She's right over there, her name's miss Laura.\"\n   \"Eeeeeeee!\" The kitten whirled around and bounded over towards Laura. \"Hiyee miss Laura! You look awesome! So floofy and all! I like you! So you live here now? In the old farm nextdoor? That's nifty! I like that place, it's always so fun to go exploring through the forest and the old buildings and all! Yeah!\"\nLaura chuckled again, giving the kitten a hug, then putting a paw on her shoulder.\n   \"Easy, girl, easy!\" she giggled. \"Yeah, I live in the farm nextdoor from here now. Or well, in a trailer next to it actually because the house is being all fixed up so I can live in there when it's all done. And thanks, I like you too, your markings are really cute. You're a regular little halloween kitty, aren't you?\"\n\nThat was a pretty accurate description actually. The little cat girl was relatively traditional tuxedo in black and white, with her right ear being white and her left ear being black, a white chest and tummy, fully black arms and paws, as well as black legs and feet, with the fingers of both paws and the toes of her right foot being white, and a white tip to her black tail. The halloween aspect mostly came from the marking in her face, which was a fairly large white spot right over her face and eyes, with a second part running down over the middle of her muzzle and her whisker pads, stopping at her upper lips, which made the marking kind of look like a simplified outline of a skull. Adding to that, her eyes were a deep, warm orange in color, making the whole picture look even more halloween-ish.\n\nAt Laura's remark, the kitten squealed again and jumped up and down a couple of times.\n   \"Eeeee! Yeah! That's what aunt Daisy always says all the time too! I'm a halloween cat! Yeah!\" She swung out her arms towards Laura. \"Boo! Are ya scared? Huh? Are ya?\"\n   \"She won't be if ya keep actin' like a hyper bouncy four year old with a coilspring up 'er butt, kiddo,\" Daisy chortled as she returned from parking the tractor in the barn next to the house. She teasingly smacked the kitten on the rump. \"Go on, inside with ya! Git! It's dinnertime! Ya can wash up after I'm done washin' up.\"\n   \"Is miss Laura gonna stay for dinner too?\" Shelly asked with a giggle, flicking her tail at Daisy's paw.\n   \"Yeah, yes I am,\" Laura chuckled.\n   \"Yaaay! Cool! C'mon miss Laura, come see inside!\" Shelly all but cheered, grabbing one of Laura's paws and tugging on it.\n\nShaking her head cheerfully, the agouti feline let the tuxedo kitten pull her onto and across the porch and through the front door, followed by the Siamese who was also softly giggling over her niece's enthusiasm. Reaching a very cozy and homey living room, Daisy motioned around with a paw.\n   \"Flop down anywheres, make yerself comfy, 'oney. I'll go an' grab me a quick rinse in the shower, then I'll show ya where to find it so ya can do the same if ya wanna.\"\n   \"That sounds wonderful, thanks again,\" Laura smiled.\n\nShe calmly stepped into the living room, looking around her and taking in the details. It was a very cozy affair, with a large fireplace, several corduroy couches and one or two corduroy easy chairs in only slightly faded earth tones of orange and a bronze-ish brown and with several throw-pillows cheerily printed with enormously sized daisies in various colors, a table with a thick, colorful knitted wool tablecloth on it by one of the windows, having around it several wood chairs with thick, comfy padded seats, and one almost regal-looking chair with a high back that also had two sort of padded bolsters to either side at the top, plus padded armrests and a thick cushioned seat, all covered in some kind of plushy yet velvety faded forest-green material. There were several cabinets and tea chests and lowboys standing around as well, filled with knickknacks, small potted plants and framed photographs.\n\nThere also was a television, sitting on a low cabinet that was attached to the side of what looked like a china cabinet with glass doors behind which was a large number of glasses and teacups and saucers, but it was a very old-fashioned TV set with two round twist knobs on one side. Plus there was a radio, which actually was a bakelite tube radio, sitting on the mantel piece over the fireplace. A tall grandfather clock covered in artful carvings stood in the corner on the other side of the fireplace, filling the room with a soft and steady tick-tocking.\n   \"You like it?\" Shelly asked after a while of looking at Laura looking around her, looking up at the Somali cat with large, almost expectant eyes.\n   \"Yeah. Yeah, I like it,\" Laura smiled. \"This all looks... very lived in, in a good way; it's very homey and cozy.\"\n   \"Yay! Is your place as nice as this too?\"\n   \"Heh, hardly,\" Laura guffawed. \"Where I come from, I just had a small apartment, and the house here on the farm was a rotting, almost collapsing shell of a building when I got here. Right now the two misters Woodhouse are tearing down everything on the inside, so it's an even bigger mess now. And when they're done with that, everything will have to be built back up, and [i]then[/i] I still have to get all kinds of furniture and stuff.\" Laura chuckled shortly. \"I don't even know where to get most of it. I only brought along a few of my things, and I suppose I will have to simply go and buy all the other stuff I'll be needing secondhand.\"\n   \"I'm sure I 'ave a few things ya could 'ave, 'oney,\" Daisy's voice sounded in place of Shelly. The Siamese was just stepping into the living room, now clad in shorts and a simple T-shirt, and with her hair damp and hanging loose rather than being braided. \"Ready for that shower now though?\"\n   \"Ah yes, that would be lovely,\" Laura nodded with a smile. \"I'm dying for a proper shower.\"\n   \"C'mon then, it's this way.\"\n\nLaura followed Daisy out of the living room and up a flight of stairs at the end of the corridor. Behind one of the doors on the landing, the only door which had a small rectangular pane of frosted glass above it, was a modest but still quite spacious bathroom, with thick, large brown tiles on the floor and the walls covered in smaller, shiny fresh green tiles, with a row of tiles sporting a darker green pattern of fern leaves running the entire perimeter at about eye-level. On one side was a green sink with a cabinet with two small doors underneath it and a mirror with a narrow shelf above it. In the corner was a toilet, also green, while against the back wall was a simple white bath tub half hidden behind a shower curtain printed with large colorful flowers. At the foot end of the tub was another small square area with a drain and a shower head, with squared to that a tall, narrow cabinet holding bottles of shower gel and shampoo on the shelves, and towels behind the doors at the bottom. Next to that, finally, a hamper with two lids was sitting.\n   \"Here ya go,\" Daisy smiled, gesturing around. \"Ya can use either the tub or the shower if ya wanna, and them green bottles on the shelf there, that's the shampoo I toldcha 'bout.\" She giggled softly. \"Ya can use me brush as well, on the shelf over the sink there.\"\n   \"Heh, thanks,\" Laura chuckled. \"I won't take too long, though after how long I've had to miss proper bathing during my journey here and in that trailer, I may be tempted to luxuriate a bit.\"\n   \"Haha, o'course, take all the time ya wanna, 'oney,\" Daisy chortled. \"I'll jus' go an' start dinner, an' I'll call ya when it's ready.\"\n   \"Thanks so much, Daisy. You're a gem,\" Laura smiled.\n   \"Yeah, my aunt is totally the best!\" Shelly piped up from behind Daisy somewhere.\nDaisy laughed and dismissively waved a paw.\n   \"Alright already, stop it with the syrup, I jus' showered.\"\n\nWith another wave, she took Shelly along with her as she stepped out of the bathroom, leaving Laura to look around the room for a moment or two before the Somali cat stretched and shook herself a bit. Stepping over to the shower at the foot end of the bath tub, she tested the taps and eventually mixed a pleasant temperature of warm water raining down from the shower head. Stretching again, she stripped off her grimy and sweaty clothes and draped them over the top of the hamper before stepping under the shower and closing her eyes, just letting the warm water rain down over her and flattening her thick, plushy fur as it gradually soaked her fur and washed away the dust and sweat of the hard work they had done that day.\n\nAhh... she'd had to miss that for much too long now. It was so wonderful to finally be able again to just stand there for a while and let the warm water soak her all the way down to her skin, without needing to worry about the water running out, turning cold, or about hitting her elbows on the partitions of the cramped little shower compartment in the trailer. Eventually though, Laura opened her eyes again and wiped the water off her face, turning and looking at the shelf full of bottles in the tall cabinet. There were several green bottles without a label there. Laura took one and uncapped it, carefully sniffing at the neck of the bottle and wiggling her soggy whiskers at the pleasant scent of flowers wafting up from the bottle. It sure smelled great, alright, and if it worked as well as Daisy said it did...\n\nWith a smile, Laura poured some of the shampoo into one of her paws, smiling deeper at the somewhat strange, deep turquoise color of the stuff. Leaning back, she poured a rich glob of it right on top of her head, dipping her ears sideways and closing her eyes while lightly purring under her breath as she started rubbing and massaging the shampoo into her hair, working up quite an impressive amount of lather.\n   \"Hee! You're pretty, but you look funny with your head all foamy like that!\"\n   \"Gah!\"\n\nAgain, Laura couldn't help but let out a startled gasp at the sudden voice cutting short her thoughts. Wiping some foam off her face and blinking her eyes open, she looked around to find the black and white kitten Shelly standing between the sink and the shower, looking up at her soaked nude form with bright, cheerful eyes.\n   \"You're much thinner with your fur all flat like that, too!\" the kitten continued her cheery assessment. \"You're almost as thin as aunt Daisy like this, hee!\"\n   \"Uhm... well, yeah, my fur does tend to make me look thicker than I actually am,\" Laura said slowly. She did a few half-hearted attempts to cover her breasts and her crotch with her arms and paws, but the foam slowly dripping down from her head and into her face and eyes forced her to lift her paws time and again to wipe the foam away from her eyes. \"Uhm, no offense, dear, but what are you doing here? You knew I was going to be in the shower, didn't you?\"\n   \"Well, yeah!\" Shelly nodded brightly. \"Aunt Daisy told me to go wash up for dinner though!\" She giggled. \"And she said I should tell her if you look just as cute or even cuter when you're all nakie!\"\n   \"Uh, what?\" Laura blinked.\n   \"Yeah!\" Shelly giggled cheerily. \"She wanted to know how cute you are nakie!\"\nLaura blinked again and wiped some more foam off her face while she processed that rather unusual and unexpected bit of trivia. Despite herself, she was unable to stop one of her upper lips from curling into an ever so small bit of a grin.\n   \"She did, huh? So she sent you up here to find out, because she probably figured you're a kit and I wouldn't get mad at you, right?\"\n   \"Hee! I suppose so, but she didn't say anything like that though, hee!\" Shelly giggled. \"She just told me to go wash up, and to tell her if you look just as cute or even cuter when you're nakie, yeah!\"\n   \"Right,\" Laura smirked. She turned and leaned her head down to let her hair flop down forwards, letting the spray from the shower wash away all the foam from her head and hair. \"So what's the verdict then, dear?\" she chuckled softly from her leaned-over position and from behind all her hair. \"Do I look any cuter?\"\n   \"Well... yeah, I think so!\" Shelly nodded brightly. \"You do look a bit silly all soaked and thin like that, but I think you look totally cute, too! I like your boobies, they're a bunch bigger than aunt Daisy's, even though you're almost as thin as she is like this, yeah.\"\n   \"Thanks, that's good to know I suppose,\" Laura chuckled, rising back up and flipping her wet hair back over her shoulders and the back of her head. She ran both paws over her face to wipe away the water from her face. \"And do you think your aunt Daisy would like it too?\"\n   \"She will, she will, yeah!\" Shelly nodded firmly, her eyes growing rounder and brighter, as well as her smile. \"You like aunt Daisy too? You gonna be friends with her like that, all nakie and cuddly and stuff?\"\n   \"Who knows?\" Laura guffawed. \"I do like her a bunch, that's for sure, she's a very lovely and friendly lady, so I sure won't mind being good friends with her. I'm all new in town and I don't know anyone here after all, so it'll be good having a nice friend like that.\"\n   \"Yay!\" Shelly cheered. \"That's gonna be so much fun! We can play and stuff!\"\n   \"Yeah, I'm sure we could,\" Laura smirked, shaking her head a bit.\n\nAgain, one of her upper lips curled into a little bit of a grin as she got an idea. She wasn't an exhibitionist, and although she did love being fully nude around the house and even outdoors, she didn't exactly consider herself to be a nudist either, but she definitely was not ashamed of her body or apprehensive about being seen naked, especially by other women. And she had let slip that she thought Daisy was a mighty cute lady as well, after all.\n   \"So tell me, dear,\" she smiled at Shelly while lathering up the rest of her fur. \"Is it just your aunt Daisy and you in the house now, or is there anyone else around as well? I saw quite a few people being here when I first drove up to the house.\"\n   \"No, those people just work here for aunt Daisy, they don't live here, so they all go to their own home when they're done, and then it's just me and aunt Daisy, yeah!\"\n   \"Right, I see,\" Laura chuckled, teasingly flicking some water in Shelly's face with her soggy tail. \"Why don't you go and do as your aunt told you to and wash up now, then? I'm almost done here myself, and then I'll go and let your aunt decide for herself whether I look just as cute or even cuter with no clothes on.\"\n   \"Eeeee!\" Shelly squealed, both at the water being flicked into her face and at what Laura had said. \"You're gonna come down to dinner all nakie? That's awesome!\" She looked up at Laura with large round sparkling eyes. \"Can I be all nakie too? Yeah?\"\nLaura chuckled with a light smirk.\n   \"As far as I'm concerned, sure. But I suppose that's for your aunt to decide rather than me.\"\n   \"She won't mind! She won't mind! We're always nakie together all the time after everyone's gone home! Yeah!\" Shelly nodded rapidly. \"I'll be nakie now too! Yeah!\"\n\nBefore Laura could even blink, the black and white kitten suited the action to her words and started stripping off her clothes, tossing them in the hamper. Laura shrugged with a light chuckle and shook her head again, turning back to lathering up the fur on her lower body, legs and feet, and using a generous amount of the shampoo on her tail as well, which easily was the fluffiest part of her entire body. She winced and shivered for a moment when Shelly turned on the tap over the sink to wash her paws and her face, and inadvertently causing the water from the shower to dip in temperature momentarily, but once the water was back to its regular temperature, the agouti feline leaned back under the spray with her eyes closed and her ears dipped and folded to the sides to let the water rinse away all the foam from all over her body.\n\nWhen she opened her eyes once again and shook the water off her face and ears, she found the now nude black and white kitten looking up at her with almost expectant eyes.\n   \"D'you think I look cute too, miss Laura, hey?\"\nTilting her head a bit, Laura shook more water off her ears and ran a paw over her whiskers while she looked at Shelly. Sure, she was just a kitten, but she clearly had been raised with a healthy view about her body and about nudity, rather than having been taught it was something dirty or taboo, or to be ashamed or afraid of it. And Laura had to be honest, the kitten did look very cute with her slender, almost lanky build and the patterning of the black and white fur.\n   \"Yes, I think you look very cute too, dear,\" she nodded with a smile while she turned off the shower and ran both her paws down her body to wipe away the excess water.\n   \"Yay! Thank you, miss Laura! I like you! I wanna be your friend too, like aunt Daisy! Can I be your friend too?\" Shelly smiled happily, hugging herself up against the soggy Somali cat as Laura stepped out of the shower.\n   \"Oof, hee!\" Laura giggled at the sudden tight hug. \"Of course, you can be my friend too, dear. Although I think I could better use a towel to dry myself off instead of using you, don't you agree?\"\n   \"Hee, you're silly!\" Shelly giggled.\n\nShe did let go of Laura, though, and handed her a towel from the lower part of the tall cabinet, looking at the Somali cat drying herself off as best as she could. Taking two brushes from the cabinet under the sink, Shelly handed one of those to Laura as well and looked up with an almost begging look in her deep orange eyes.\n   \"Can I brush your tail, miss Laura? Please? I promise I'll do a good job, yeah.\"\n   \"Sure, go ahead, dear,\" Laura chortled. \"It'll be nice to have a bit of help, that thing can be rather hard to reach.\"\n   \"Yay! Thanks!\" Shelly cheered.\n\nShe stepped around to Laura's back and hugged the Somali's tail for a moment before beginning to run the brush over it with long strokes from the base all the way to the end of it. Laura smiled at it while she brushed her own hair and the fur on her arms and upper body, swishing or flicking her tail a bit every now and then whenever the brush or Shelly's paws ran across the cheeks of her rump instead of along her tail.\n   \"That ain't my tail, you know,\" she giggled after a while, turning her head a bit to look at Shelly across her shoulder.\n   \"Hee! I know, but your butt is cute too, all soft and floofy and all, and it needs to be brushed too,\" Shelly giggled.\n   \"Yeah, well, I suppose so, but it's still not needed to spend so much time on it,\" Laura chuckled. \"After all, I'll be sitting down on it in a little while, so the fur will get all messed up again anyway.\"\n   \"Hee, I guess so,\" Shelly giggled, looking up when a voice sounded from outside the bathroom door.\n   \"Ya done in there, 'oney? Dinner's ready.\"\n   \"Be right there,\" Laura said aloud. She handed the brush back to Shelly to put it away where it belonged. \"Guess we better go down, don't you think? And thank you for helping me with my tail, dear.\"\n   \"You're welcome, miss Laura!\" Shelly beamed. \"It was fun, yeah!\"\n\nShe put the brushes back on the cabinet under the sink and opened the bathroom door, leading the way back down the stairs. Laura shook herself firmly once or twice to settle her fluffy fur and smiled as she followed the black and white kitten down the stairs.\n   \"This way, dining room's over here,\" Shelly pointed with a smile.\nShe led the way past the living room door and opened another door leading into a rather small room that was connected to the kitchen. A fairly large, long table was sitting prominently in the middle of the room with six chairs on either side of it, and set with a few plates on one side, plus a very large, flower-print tureen filled with steaming pasta covered in tomato sauce which had obvious bits of flowers mixed through it.\n   \"Yay, spaghetti!\" Shelly cheered upon seeing the tureen, happily bounding up to the table.\nHer enthused outcry made Daisy look up from a drawer in a large china cabinet from which she was getting several sets of cutlery. The Siamese grinned a bit upon noticing the kitten's nakedness, then lightly quirked an eyebrow as Laura also fully stepped into the room, just as naked.\n   \"Well,\" she said after a moment. \"That's a bit of a dif'rent look for ya, 'oney, ain't it?\"\n   \"Yeah, well, a little birdie told me someone was curious about the cuteness of my looks sans the clothing,\" Laura chuckled softly, running the fingers of one paw through her hair to wipe a few stray locks out of her face.\n   \"Diddit, now?\"\nDaisy this time quirked her eyebrow at Shelly, who was happily bustling about with the chairs and the table settings.\n   \"Yeah!\" she giggled as she caught Daisy's eye. \"Miss Laura let me brush her tail, aunt Daisy! She's awesome, she said she'd be my friend and all!\"\n   \"And I'm kinda curious now, dear,\" Laura chuckled while she stepped up to the table and leaned on it. \"Do I look just as cute, or even cuter like this, hm?\"\n   \"A bunch cuter, I'd say,\" Daisy chuckled with her head a bit tilted. \"An' even more so when yer fur is all properly dry an' floofed, I reckon.\"\n   \"Well, thank you, I certainly appreciate that,\" Laura smiled. \"And thanks for letting me use your shower and your shampoo as well. It smelled lovely, I'm sure it will indeed work wonders on my fur, too, even if it's a lot thicker than yours.\"\n   \"Yer welcome, 'oney,\" Daisy nodded with a smile, putting down the cutlery. \"An' as I notice, ya ain't too shy 'bout showin' off the result, are ya?\"\n   \"Yeah, well,\" Laura shrugged. \"Since the little birdie told me someone was interested in the look, I figured I might as well come down to dinner like this. The idea seemed a bunch more pleasant than putting those grimy and clammy clothes back on, anyway.\"\n   \"Mhm, I can understand that,\" Daisy nodded. \"Are ya mebbe a nudist or somethin', by any chance?\"\nLaura shrugged again.\n   \"Not specifically, I'd say. I mean, I do prefer being naked around the house, and a lot of the time outdoors as well when I'm like doing light gardening chores or just sunbathing or something. But I never went to a nudist resort for a vacation, or a nudist event or anything, in my hometown. And they were there, I know that for certain.\"\n   \"I see,  Daisy nodded. \"Well, we are, Shel an' me, so yer always welcome to come an' spend naked time with us whenever ya want, 'oney. An' there's an awesome all-girl nudist resort nearby, too. Ya came in from Beach Cove, yeah?\" Laura nodded. \"Right, then ya 'ad to 'ave come through South Plains to get to our li'l town 'ere.\"\n   \"That's the city with the big fountain... statue, thing in middle, right?\"\n   \"That's right, yeah,\" Daisy smiled. \"Well, jus' outside o' there, a bit into the forest 'tween the city an' the mountains, that's where that resort is. Ladies only, an' it's pretty darn big, specially when ya consider it's run by this one single lady, an' she even 'as a daughter to look after, too.\"\n   \"Yeah, Faye!\" Shelly chimed in. \"She's totally cute! All calico, with the colorful spots, you know? But hers are all super light!\"\n   \"Yeah, her mom's a full calico, with fur even longer an' thicker than yers, an' she 'as a super long tail, too,\" Daisy smiled. \"Lovely woman, she is. She 'ad her daughter when she was still married, an' her husband was a pure white cat, so her daughter is kinda like... diluted, ya know. Looks mighty cute, too.\"\n   \"She does sound like a very cute girl indeed,\" Laura smiled. \"I reckon it'd be great to meet them sometime.\"\n   \"Ya totally should, 'oney,\" Daisy nodded. \"We'll take ya over sometime an' introduce ya.\" She lifted a foot and teasingly poked Shelly's butt with it. \"So are ya almost done fiddlin' with them chairs an' plates there, 'oney?\"\nShelly giggled and flicked her tail.\n   \"Hee! Yeah, I just wanna sit next to miss Laura is all!\"\n   \"Well, why don't I just go sit in the middle then, hm?\" Laura chortled. \"And you can lose the 'miss', dear. Just Laura will do fine.\"\n   \"Yeeeee! Thank you! You're the best, Laura!\" Shelly cheered, hugging the Somali cat around the waist again.\n   \"Thank you too, dear,\" Laura giggled, softly stroking Shelly over the head and ears with a paw.\n   \"An' now that we got that sorted out, 'ow 'bout parkin' yer butt in the chair, missy?\" Daisy giggled. \"Dinner's gettin' cold by now.\"\n\nShelly giggled and nodded, plopping down on her chair. Laura sat down as well, accepting one of the plates Daisy started filling with the spaghetti. Dinner went by relatively calmly, with just some smalltalk, and every now and then some giggles when the spaghetti went rogue. After dinner, Daisy just put the dishes in the sink, allowing the three of them some more time to sit and talk. And, showing she was true to her nudist lifestyle, and seeing as she now knew for certain Laura would not be offended, and that she was the most overdressed of the three of them, Daisy shed her clothes as well.\n\nIt showed she indeed had the traditional Siamese build, being, as Shelly called it, quite thin, even though her slender arms and legs had a good amount of muscle to them. But with all the farm work, that was not all that surprising. The other thing Shelly had mentioned to Laura was also true; Daisy's bosom was a full several cup sizes smaller than Laura's at only a meager 32B, and her rather pale pink nipples and areolae were positively tiny. Still, with her overall slender build and somewhat small stature, even the small breasts were as good as perfectly in proportion.\n\nThe other outstanding feature about the Siamese cat was the pattern in her fur. Laura had already noticed the darker colored points in Daisy's fur were a bit different from traditional Siamese markings, with her ears being only four-fifths colored darker and the marking in her face covering only the very outer end of her slender muzzle. With her clothes removed now, Laura could see the other markings were a bit off as well, with the coloring on Daisy's left arm and right leg starting at her left shoulder and right hip respectively, while the darker coloring on her right arm and left leg started only halfway down her right upper arm and just above her left knee, respectively. It kind of made her look like she was wearing stockings of one which was sagging down. And of course there was the fact the darker color was not a seal-grey, but a soft cinnamon-brown in tint.\n\nWhen Daisy had removed all her clothes and had done a playful little twirl in front of the couch Laura and Shelly were sitting on, Laura laughed softly and winked.\n   \"Well, you already heard me say I think you're cute when I let that slip back at my place, Daisy, but I can honestly say, with your hair down and no clothes on, you certainly look even a bunch cuter, too.\"\n   \"Shucks, well, thanks 'oney,\" Daisy chuckled as she sat down on the couch on Laura's other side, giving a playful wink. \"Well, I reckon it's decided then, huh? We all think the other looks cuter naked, so that's 'ow we'll be spendin' all of our time together.\"\n   \"Yeeeeeah!\" Shelly cheered happily, bouncing on the couch a bit and clapping her paws.\nLaura gave her head an amused shake and giggled softly.\n   \"I suppose I can live with that. It's definitely much nicer sitting around like this anyways, and with such nice and cute company, it's even a whole bunch nicer.\"\n   \"I definitely agree,\" Daisy nodded with a chortle, looking around when the grandfather clock bonged. \"Though for now the sittin' 'round like this will 'ave to come to an end for at least one of us, 'cause it's past yer bedtime, Shel.\"\n   \"Aw, but aunt Shelly, I don't wanna go to bed yet!\" Shelly complained with a giggle, hugging Laura's fluffy tail against her chest with both arms. \"I wanna stay up some more and sit here and look at Laura! She's so cute and fluffy, and she's so soft!\"\nLaura giggled softly and gave the kitten a gentle stroke of a paw over the head and ears again.\n   \"That's sweet of you, dear. But to be honest, I should probably go home soon too. Both misters Woodhouse will be back to work on my house bright and early at seven o'clock tomorrow morning, so I should get plenty of sleep so I can be all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when they show up.\" She laughed shortly. \"Next time I'm over, we'll take a picture so you can see me even when I'm not here too, okay?\"\n   \"Eeeee!\" Shelly squealed, bouncing and clapping her paws again. \"Okay! Yeah! I like that! It's a deal, Laura!\" She let go of Laura's tail and leaned over on the couch to hug the Somali cat fully around the waist. \"You come and tuck me in, too?\"\n   \"Sure, why not, I can do that,\" Laura chuckled.\n   \"Yaaay! Okay! Let's go then!\" Shelly cheered, hopping off the couch and running out of the living room.\nBoth Laura and Daisy laughed and shook their heads in amusement.\n   \"Well, I sure never seen 'er get to bed that fast,\" Daisy chuckled, nudging Laura's shoulder. \"Yer somethin' else aight, Laura.\"\n   \"I guess I'm just that awesome,\" Laura laughed shortly.\nThey laughed again, getting up from the couch and going upstairs to Shelly's bedroom. The kitten was already in bed, so all the two adult cats needed to do was tuck in the sheets a bit and wish her goodnight and pleasant dreams.\n   \"Now, ya get some good sleep, 'oney, 'kay,\" Daisy smiled, pressing a smooch on Shelly's cheek. \"One more day o' school tomorrow, an' then ya can enjoy the weekend, yeah?\"\n   \"Yeah! Wheee! Are we going over to Laura, aunt Daisy?\"\n   \"Well, I'll be, tomorrow, to 'elp her with all the work she 'as,\" Daisy chuckled. \"An' ya can come 'long in the weekend. If Laura's alright with that, o'course.\"\n   \"Heck, sure,\" Laura giggled, stroking Shelly's ears and hair with a paw. \"You're free to come over anytime, dear.\"\n   \"Yay! You're totally the best, Laura!\" Shelly said happily. She reached up to fold her arms around Laura's neck and pressed a big wet slopper of a kiss right on the side of Laura's muzzle. \"Mwwah! You sleep good too, Laura! I'll totally see you soon!\"\nLaura twitched her whiskers and giggled softly, rubbing her muzzle a bit.\n   \"Yeah yeah, you too, dear,\" she giggled. \"Sweet dreams, and do you best in school tomorrow, alright?\"\n   \"I will! I will! See, I'm asleep already!\" Shelly giggled, rolling over and pulling up the sheets and closing her eyes, making fake snoring sounds.\n   \"Good gal,\" Daisy chuckled, patting Shelly's head. \"Nightynight now, 'oney.\"\n   \"Yes, nightynight, dear,\" Laura smiled.\n   \"Nightynight aunt Daisy, nightynight Laura!\" Shelly waved happily.\n   \"Darling little kit,\" Laura chuckled as they stepped across the landing, stopping by the bathroom to pick up her clothes.\n   \"Ain't she though?\" Daisy nodded, leading the way back downstairs. \"Always 'appy an' upbeat, that's Shel for ya.\"\n   \"Well, how could she not be, with such a cheerful and upbeat and helpful aunt for a caretaker?\" Laura smiled.\n   \"Aw shucks 'oney, quit it already, yer gonna make me blush an' all,\" Daisy chuckled. She held up a paw when Laura made to put her shirt back on. \"Jus' a sec afore ya put yer duds back on, 'oney. I wanna 'ave me a feel o' that floof of yers.\" She pulled Laura into a big, close hug and all but nuzzled her entire body up against the Somali. \"Mmm... yeah, as I 'spected, nice an' soft an' floofy aight.\" Stepping back, she rubbed some of Laura's fur between her fingers. \"Looks like me shampoo been workin' on ya already.\"\n   \"Who knows? I do feel kinda soft and light, and it's only really good shampoo that makes my fur feel like that,\" Laura chortled, hugging Daisy back before putting her clothes back on. \"I wanna thank you again for all your help and all your generosity, Daisy. I don't know what I would have done would you not have dropped by to introduce yourself and to help me out like you did.\"\n   \"Shucks 'oney, ain't nuthin',\" Daisy waved away the praise. \"Like I toldcha b'fore, that's jus' 'ow we do things 'round 'ere.\" She put an arm around Laura's shoulders while she walked the agouti feline to her car. \"Now ya go an' get yerself a good night's sleep too, 'kay? If I know them Woodhouses, they'll be there at yer place even afore seven tomorrow, so yer gonna need the rest I'm sure. I'll bring the tools over 'round nine-ish after I dropped Shell off at school, get ya to the quarry an' the car yard an' all, an' ya can come back 'ere for dinner an' a shower an' all again too.\"\n   \"Gotta agree with your niece; you're the best, Daisy,\" Laura chortled, leaning over to press a smooch on the Siamese's cheek. \"I can't tell you how glad I am for having found such an awesome friend so soon.\"\n   \"Mighty glad to hear it, an' I can say the same, 'oney,\" Daisy winked, chuckling softly as she did the same thing to Laura she had done to her niece before, smacking Laura on the butt. \"Now git! Get yer tail back 'ome an' in bed for a good night's sleep, missy!\"\nLaura laughed and flicked her tail.\n   \"Alright alright, I'm gone!\" She hugged Daisy again. \"Goodnight Daisy, sleep well, and I'll see you tomorrow.\"\n   \"Ya will. G'night 'oney!\"\n\nWaving cheerfully at each other, they said their goodbyes, Laura getting into her car and Daisy getting back into the farmhouse after Laura had pulled away. The Somali cat softly chuckled to herself again as she drove down the gravel country road and the dirt path connecting the two country roads leading to both respective farms.\n\nGolly, such a silly kitty, that Daisy... but such an unbelievably helpful and friendly one. It was almost unreal how helpful the Siamese had been. Laura had heard about the friendly and helpful attitude of country folk, especially in tiny towns like the one she found herself in, but she had never thought it would be this overwhelming. Still... it was absolutely wonderful. Heaven knows she needed all the help she could get to get that massive jungle wrestled back into a decent farm.\n\nAnd there was no denying it; Daisy was a babe. That healthy country life sure showed to have major worth - Laura couldn't remember ever having met anyone looking as healthy as Daisy did in the city she came from. And so free and open, too... yeah, living here was gonna be even better than she had already thought it was gonna be. As Daisy would say; totally!\n",
  "writing_bbcode_parsed": "<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>Waking up felt strange. Sunlight filtered through thin venetian blinds before unfamiliar windows. The song of many birds greeting the new day was so unlike the usually familiar sounds of the city. It was disorienting.<br /><br />For several moments after blinking open her eyes, Laura lay back in the bed and just gazed up at the domed ceiling of the trailer she had found herself waking up in. For several moments more she lay pondering, running the events of the past few days through her mind. Arriving in a new land. The long drive to a tiny little town. The meeting with the mayor. And those two beaver brothers. That&#039;s right, that&#039;s where the trailer came from. And that&#039;s where she was right now. In the tiny little town of Fangle Valley, in a trailer parked next to the dilapidated house on the grounds of her new farm.<br /><br />Her new farm. Fangle Farmstead. Which was horribly dilapidated and overgrown after having been abandoned for more than three decades. Which was going to have to completely rebuilt. Which was going to keep her busy just clearing grounds before she could even see what she had to work with for several weeks, if not months. But which was going to be worth it so much in the end.<br /><br />With a deep breath, Laura sat up and got out of the bed, stretching, her fingers touching the roof of the trailer. She shook herself to settle down her thick, fluffy fur which was standing out in peaks and tufts, before checking the panel with buttons on the shower booth. It took only a few moments for the agouti feline to figure out she had to set the heater, and then the pump after the heater signaled it was done so she could get the shower to work. A few more moments later the heater was done, the pump was set, and Laura could turn on the shower and step under it. The water was lukewarm at best, but it would do.<br /><br />The Somali cat found out there was also a limit on the water, as the shower cut out after several minutes. Smirking a bit, Laura shook herself and set the fan in the ceiling of the small booth from extracting the steam to blowing in air to dry her fur. She shivered; it was outside air that was blown in and it was rather chilly. Well, at least it helped her waking up fully. Just in time as well - while she was putting on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, Laura perked and swiveled her ears, turned, and leaned over to look out one of the trailer&#039;s windows.<br /><br />Sure enough, she had heard it correctly; the large former military truck was bumping its way across the rutted and overgrown gravel path, letting out the two beaver brothers as soon as it was parked by the old farmhouse. Laura quickly ran a brush through her hair a couple of times before stepping out of the trailer to meet them.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Good morning!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Mornin&#039;,&quot; Will nodded, tipping his hat.<br />Ed handed Laura a paper bag.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Figgered you di&#039;n&#039;t have any stuff for breakfast or nothing.&quot;<br />Laura opened the bag and looked inside. Freshly made poppyseed muffins. They even were a little warm still.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Oh, thank you so much! Yeah, I haven&#039;t gotten to do any grocery shopping or anything yet, indeed. That&#039;s very thoughtful of you, I appreciate it a lot.&quot;<br />Ed nodded, motioning Laura over to the back of the truck. Will had already lowered the tailgate of it, unrolling and spreading out a large paper on which was a crude layout drawing alongside a more detailed floor plan.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;This is what the place is like now,&quot; Will pointed at the floor plan. &quot;We gut the lot, start upstairs, work down. Be left with this.&quot; He pointed at the more crude drawing. &quot;Leave the fireplace where it is, it has the chimney going through the roof, that&#039;s a pain to remove. Anything else, your choice.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Right,&quot; Laura nodded slowly while munching on one of the muffins. &quot;I like the fireplace, I wanted to keep that anyway, especially since after clearing the grounds, I will have more wood than I&#039;ll know what to do with. Any suggestions on that?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Depends on what trees you&#039;ll cut,&quot; Ed shrugged while motioning an arm across the premises. &quot;There&#039;s pine, mountain ash, birch and beech mainly. Youngest pines that grew in the paths and on the fields, good firewood, same for the other younger trees. Beech too. Some of the older pine, ash and birch can be used for lumber.&quot;<br />Laura nodded slowly again.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;That sounds good. I will have to get most, if not all, of the younger trees cut down to clear the paths, that&#039;s the top priority. After that I will need to get the grounds cleared, and I&#039;m thinking, probably need looking at where the original crop fields were and clear those one by one. Meaning that a number of the fields are likely to remain untouched for a few more years. I don&#039;t know if I would need to cut down any of the older trees, I suppose that&#039;ll be a case by case basis. And I don&#039;t know very much about what makes good wood and what wouldn&#039;t, so I guess, when I start clearing the grounds. I&#039;ll cut down the trees and leave them where they are, and you can assess them and tell me if they&#039;ll be suitable for lumber, or firewood.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Fine,&quot; Ed nodded. &quot;Once we&#039;re done gutting the place and start the rebuild, we&#039;ll check the cut trees and process the ones suitable for lumber, and use that for the rebuild. Saves you some money.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I like that idea. It&#039;ll be a nice thought having the house rebuilt partially with materials coming from right here off these very grounds,&quot; Laura nodded, chortling softly. &quot;And the idea of saving some money in the process is very nice as well, since this whole thing will eat up my savings.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah.&quot; Will tapped a finger on the paper. &quot;You take this, y&#039;can write on it what rooms ya want to be where. This drawing has all the walls, but the ones with a cross on it are non-loadbearing walls we&#039;ll remove. We&#039;ll leave just the main supporting walls in place, but we can remove some of them and put in new ones elsewhere, change the shape and size of the rooms. You draw what you want, we&#039;ll check and see if it can be done.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Sounds good to me,&quot; Laura agreed. &quot;One thing I know I want to ask; is central heating an option? Along the fireplace? I want to keep the fireplace, but I wouldn&#039;t want it to be the sole heating device for the whole house.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Sure,&quot; Ed nodded. &quot;Central heating, water main and heater, gas main, sewage main, all possible.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Ah, good. Yes, I&#039;d want all of that. I came from quite a large town, and I&#039;ve gotten used to having all my creature comforts, I wouldn&#039;t want to miss them,&quot; Laura said with a soft chuckle.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Done,&quot; Will nodded, scribbling something in a dog-eared notepad, then checking his watch. &quot;Dumpster&#039;ll be here soon, we&#039;ll get to work gutting the place, you&#039;re free to do whatever. Any questions, come and ask. We&#039;ll be gutting the upstairs first.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Alright, that sounds good to me. I&#039;ll leave you to it, you know way better what to do than I do.&nbsp;&nbsp;I&#039;ll just pop into town real quick to get some groceries and necessities, and then I suppose I&#039;ll explore the place here and see what I can start on.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Aight.&quot;<br /><br />Will rolled up the paper and handed it to Laura, who took it into the trailer with her and put it down somewhere before brushing her hair some more as well as the fluffy fur on her arms, legs and tail. As she was getting her purse and other things together, she leaned over to look out one of the trailer&#039;s windows again at the sound of another heavy diesel engine drawing near. This time it was a large truck carrying a very large open dumpster. Stepping out of the trailer, Laura for a while looked at the large dumpster being unloaded on the other side of the house, then got into her car to drive into the tiny town and do some shopping for food and necessities. It was a good opportunity for her to meet more of the local people as well, especially some of the ones she would be dealing with on a somewhat regular basis.<br /><br />When she got back to the farm, the large truck was gone, and the beaver brothers were nowhere to be seen either. The proof of them being hard at work was more than clear, however, as from inside the farmhouse loud sounds of banging, hammering, crashing and splintering rang out, and every so often pieces of wood and stone and other things flew from one of the second floor windows and landed in the dumpster. Laura smiled a bit over it while she stepped into the trailer and put away her groceries and other things, as well as unpacking her suitcase and getting things generally organized at least a bit.<br /><br />Stepping back outside, the Somali cat put her paws in her sides and just wandered around a bit for several moments, gazing over the completely overgrown gravel paths, the broken and falling apart fences, the even more overgrown dirt paths between what were only barely visible outlines of what once had been crop fields. It all seemed... way overwhelming. Everywhere she looked, Laura could see nothing but wilderness with only small remnants of proof that there once had been a farm there. She sauntered up and down the path that ran out into a wide swath of overgrown gravel in front of the farmhouse, peered into the remains of a well somewhere in the middle of there, then slowly stepped past the house and over to the left, where the spattering and burbling sounds of water told her of a creek running somewhere behind the trees and bushes.<br /><br />There were several older trees on that side as well, growing in rather straight lines with lots of smaller trees and lots of bushes growing randomly between them. It looked like that had been some kind of small orchard of sorts. Laura spotted a very overgrown gravel path running between that orchard and what once clearly had been a garden as well. And upon closer inspection, wrestling her way through the overgrowth while trying to follow the line of the gravel path, the Somali cat could see a few old buildings as well. Or what was left of them, anyway.<br /><br />Struggling through the dense, tall grass and vines, the wild bushes and between and around the small and larger trees, Laura managed to follow the line of what definitely had been a gravel path at some point in time. It wasn&#039;t before too long the structures looming behind the trees came into clearer view. The former path ran by right in front of them eventually, allowing Laura to walk up to and look at the buildings relatively easily to determine their purpose. There were two rather large buildings side by side, looking pretty much exactly like mirror images of each other - or they would have in former times. Not much more than collapsed husks were left of them, though, but it was still clear enough that both buildings once had been storage barns, most likely to hold the produce harvested from the fields that started on the other side of the overgrown path, behind what had been the garden.<br /><br />A smaller building, which surprisingly had stood the test of time and the elements a lot better, was tucked to the side of the two collapsed barns, in the space left between the barns, the path and the creek which ran by behind the barns and curved towards the path a bit. A single, person-sized door at the front and a couple of small windows with cracked or shattered glass in them, just visible between the tangle of vines and tendrils covering the building, denoted the building as being some kind of shed, most likely for the storage of tools and such. Laura tilted her head a bit and scratched her left ear while she looked at the small building. Well, that seemed like as good a place to start as any. And who knows, there might even still be some useful tools left in there which could be of good, or at least half decent help in cutting through the wilderness that had overtaken everything.<br /><br />Taking a deep breath, Laura stepped up to the small building and started yanking and breaking twigs and tearing away vines and tendrils to at least uncover the door. It took a bit of doing, but still quicker than she thought Laura had uncovered the door enough to pull it open. Or rather, pull it clear out of the rotted door frame. Chuckling softly to herself, the agouti feline leaned the remnant of the door against the front of the building and looked inside. What light that managed to filter through the small broken windows provided just enough light for Laura to see what was inside the shed.<br /><br />Tons and tons of cobwebs, of course, covering and connecting everything, hanging from the sagging ceiling and forming a thick layer over beams, walls, tools and almost ancient-looking farming implements, most of which Laura had never even seen before in her life, let alone that she could figure out what they were for. She lightly scratched her left ear again while she looked over everything cluttering the inside of the shed. Most of the things were clearly manual tools, and Laura could even identify a couple of scythes and an old manual lawnmower, but for the life of her she could not tell what most of the things were or what they were for. So she also couldn&#039;t think of anything she could possibly be using them for, either.<br /><br />Fortunately, something which looked like a workbench was visible to one side of the shed, and squinting a bit in the very dim and dusty light, Laura could make out some gardening tools scattered around on it that she actually recognized. Even if covered in a finger-thick layer of dust and cobwebs and being completely rusty, they still looked like they could be usable. Leaning into the shed far enough around some of the larger implements, Laura managed to reach the workbench and rummaged through the dusty and rusty tools scattered on the surface. She located a pair of hedge clippers, forcing them apart with a loud creak and trying to loosen them up a bit as they seemed like the most likely candidate of being any help to make her way through the undergrowth covering the paths. Aha, and check it out, that over there seemed like an old can of WD40 or something similar - that would definitely come in handy as well. If there was anything left in it, that was, of course. Well, one way to find out!<br /><br />Grabbing the can, shaking it and holding it upside-down, Laura managed to wrangle a few last squirts of oily mist from it, just enough to create a small damp spot on the hinge point of the clippers. She yanked them open and shut a couple of times more with loud, protesting creaks, managing to loosen them up a little bit more. Well, that would have to do for the time being. In any way it would probably work well enough to forge a path through the bushes and tendrils that had overtaken the gravel paths running from the entrance gate to the farmhouse and from there between the former garden and the overgrown orchard and past the collapsed barns and the tool shed. Better than if she would try it with just her bare paws, anyway.<br /><br />Taking note of a rusty wheelbarrow with a flat tire and the other hand tools in the shed, Laura drew a deep breath and braced herself for the task ahead. She stepped out of the tool shed and began hacking and cutting and clipping her way through the undergrowth on her way back to the farmhouse, managing to cut through most of the softer, more yielding stuff and mostly managing to break off some of the heavier branches of the trees overhanging the path relatively easily. All the while, she kept making mental notes as well, thinking of stuff she would need to do and equipment she would need to borrow or rent, like a chainsaw at least, something like a small backhoe or something to remove the smaller trees that had grown right into the path, and perhaps something like a small boom lift to get up to the larger trees that had to be removed so she could cut them down piece by piece from the top down - or at least for the trees in the more dense areas as there was hardly any room to simply fell them and let them fall over.<br /><br />As for what was left of those fields... Laura didn&#039;t quite know yet what to do with those. She knew she wanted to plant lots of berry bushes and such, but she wasn&#039;t quite sure yet on exactly how to do the layout, what would be the handiest and most economical way for using the space available. For that, she would only be able to get something down more concretely once she would have some kind of map or plan available so she could actually make some rough drawings. But with all the work to first clear the grounds, that was something she wouldn&#039;t need to worry or even think about for quite some...<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Hiya there!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Gah!&quot;<br /><br />Laura spun around with a gasp at the sudden voice cutting off her musings while she was making her way along the overgrown path. Blinking for a moment, Laura realized she was looking at a somewhat short-coupled, but still very slender cat woman of the Siamese variety, with more or less cinnamon-colored instead of seal-grey color points, large, cheerful bright blue eyes and semi-long, straw-blonde hair that was twisted into a braid tied off with a blue ribbon. She was clad in traditional - even almost stereotypical - farmer&#039;s clothing, donning a pair of blue jean overalls over a blue and white plaid flannel shirt, and a flat straw hat on her head. She was also almost doubling over with laughter at Laura&#039;s reaction to her greeting.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Oh..! Oh, ahh ha ha, ohmigosh, I&#039;m so sorry, darlin&#039;, but that was hilarious! Ha ha ha! Oh, I really shouldn&#039;t laugh at ya like that, but... ah ha ha! It jus&#039; looked so funny! Ha ha!&quot;<br />Laura smirked for a moment, wiping the sweat off her forehead with a sleeve and running a paw over her muzzle and whiskers, but only a moment later she was softly laughing as well.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I suppose it did probably look rather amusing,&quot; she said, running her paw over her whiskers again. &quot;And may I ask whom I have the pleasure of being laughed at with?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Oh, o&#039;course, lemme introduce meself! That&#039;s the whole reason I came over after all!&quot; the Siamese said with a bright smile. She grabbed Laura&#039;s paw and shook it heartily and energetically. &quot;The name&#039;s Daisy, Daisy Belle! We&#039;s neighbors, ya see! I own an&#039; run Bluebell Farm, &#039;bout half a mile thattaway as the crow flies!&quot; She waved a paw in a general north-western direction. &quot;Heard someone finally showed up with the deed to take over Fangle Farmstead, so I figured to hop on over for a look-see an&#039; introduce meself!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I see,&quot; Laura nodded, a bit overwhelmed still by the Siamese&#039;s enthused friendliness, especially after the fright she&#039;d gotten from the sudden unexpected greeting, but smiling over it just the same. &quot;Well, it&#039;s a pleasure meeting you, Daisy. My name is Laura, I&#039;m sure we&#039;ll get along well.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;O&#039;course we will, o&#039;course we will!&quot; the Siamese nodded brightly. &quot;Ev&#039;ryone &#039;ere in town does! That&#039;s why it&#039;s so awesome to live &#039;ere!&quot; She gestured at the overgrown path Laura had been attempting to clear. &quot;Ya need any help with that, &#039;oney? It&#039;s gonna be takin&#039; an age an&#039; a half if ya try an&#039; tackle it with them rusty shears, ya know.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah,&quot; Laura nodded in agreement, looking at the jungle she still had to cut through, and the rusty hedge clippers she was holding. &quot;It&#039;s all I have though, I gotta make do with whatever tools I can find around the place here since I don&#039;t have anything of my own yet.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Well, all ya gotta do is ask, &#039;oney!&quot; Daisy smiled. &quot;So what&#039;s the goal &#039;ere? Clearin&#039; the path I reckon, yeah?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;That&#039;s the idea at least, yeah,&quot; Laura shrugged. &quot;First and foremost I&#039;m gonna need to clear the path from the entrance to the house so I won&#039;t have to maneuver my car through a forest anymore to get to my living quarters, and I wanna try and get at least all the perimeter paths cleared so I know just and about the size of the place and where everything is and where paths lead to, you know?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Totally, &#039;oney, totally!&quot; Daisy nodded. &quot;No sooner said than done, too! Ya jus&#039; &#039;ang around, I&#039;ll be back in two shakes of a kitten&#039;s tail!&quot;<br /><br />Before Laura could even react, the Siamese had turned around and darted off, disappearing in the tangled and overgrown mess of bushes, shot-through grass and flowers, vines and tendrils and trees. Laura blinked again, then shrugged with a smile and decided to make her way back to the tool shed to collect the rusty wheelbarrow with the flat tire, using it to put all the rusty hand tools she could find in the shed in it. A little bit of TLC and spit shine would have those things back into a good enough, workable condition in no time, and Laura knew all too well she would more than likely have a lot of use for all the tools she could find.<br /><br />Struggling her way back to the farmhouse with the flat-tired wheelbarrow full of rusted tools, the Somali cat looked around and motioned at one of the beaver brothers who was just stepping out of the house.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Say, Ed, do you know of a place in town where I could get all of this stuff cleaned and repaired?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Ag Co-op,&quot; the beaver said after a quick glance at the wheelbarrow and its contents. &quot;Fifteen South Street, just before the salvage yard.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Thank you.&quot;<br /><br />Laura started loading the old rusty tools into the trunk of her car, but stopped and looked around at the sound of a small chugging diesel motor drawing nearer and nearer. It turned out to be a small orange tractor trundling its way down the long, overgrown path winding from the gate to the farmhouse. On the front it had two arms holding a small shovel bucket, while on the rear were what looked like two large long hooks. Plus, on the small metal seat, it had the cheerful Siamese cat with the cinnamon-colored color points Daisy, waving cheerily as she pulled up next to Laura&#039;s car.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Heya! Toldcha I&#039;d be back soon, di&#039;n&#039;t I? An&#039; I brought some power tools too, that oughta make short work o&#039; them paths, fer sure!&quot; She looked at the rusty wheelbarrow and the just as rusty tools Laura had been loading into the trunk of her car. &quot;Don&#039;tcha have a truck, &#039;oney?&quot;<br />Unable to help herself, Laura chortled at Daisy&#039;s cheery demeanor and rapidfire manner of speaking.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;No, I only got here like a day ago after all, and this is the only car I ever had. Or needed, for all that.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Oh &#039;oney, but if yer gonna be runnin&#039; a farm, yer gonna need to &#039;ave at least one pickup truck, ya know!&quot; Daisy&#039;s smile brightened even more. &quot;I know! I&#039;ll pick ya up tomorrow an&#039; drive ya over to Fandago, there&#039;s a yard there where they &#039;ave some great trucks for dirt cheap! Old, but still plenty more modern than what ya usually see &#039;round town &#039;ere. Ya should totally get one, &#039;oney!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Thanks, I guess,&quot; Laura chuckled. &quot;It would certainly be a lot more handy, I suppose.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Totally! No farmer can do without a truck, &#039;oney, trust me!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I definitely take your word for it,&quot; Laura chuckled. &quot;Either way, thanks for the help, Daisy.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;No prob, &#039;oney, no prob at all,&quot; Daisy smiled, airily hopping off the seat of the small tractor and motioning at the rusty tools in the trunk of Laura&#039;s car. &quot;I reckon ya was gonna be takin&#039; that stuff over to the Ag Co-op, yeah?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;That was the plan, mister Woodhouse said that&#039;s where I could get it cleaned and fixed.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;True that, true that! Yes indeedy! But ya can also get all new stuff there, ya know! No real need to go an&#039; &#039;ave all that old stuff refurbished an&#039; all.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah well, but this stuff is perfectly fine as far as I&#039;m concerned,&quot; Laura shrugged with a smile. &quot;Just needs a bit of spit shine, and I kinda like the idea of actually using the tools that come from this place to fix this place back up, you know? I&#039;m already gonna be having so much stuff renewed and replaced about the house, and no doubt about the kind of crops that were grown here as well and the way that was done, so it&#039;ll be nice to keep at least a few things original, you know?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Oh, yeah, I can totally understand that! Aw, an&#039; it sure is an awesome attitude, &#039;oney! Keep the old spirit of good ol&#039; Lou alive an&#039; all!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;That&#039;s kinda what I was thinking, indeed,&quot; Laura nodded. She closed the trunk of her car. &quot;Reckon I can better get it done tomorrow or something, so I&#039;ll have the time to find my way around town and everything.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Sounds like a plan, &#039;oney,&quot; Daisy smiled. &quot;Matter o&#039; fact, I&#039;ll drop by with me truck tomorrow so ya can put all that stuff in there, an&#039; I&#039;ll get ya over to the Ag Co-op first to drop it all off afore drivin&#039; ya to Fandago to get a truck for yerself. An&#039; for now, I brought the big stuff to &#039;elp ya clear them paths. Reckon we&#039;ll blaze through&#039;em in no time with all this!&quot;<br />She gestured at the shovel bucket of her small tractor, and it was only then Laura noticed several things being in there. A small chainsaw, a weedwhacker, a couple of sturdy metal rakes, even a machete, as well as several straps and chains, and some sturdy shovels.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Hah,&quot; Laura guffawed. &quot;Yeah, I&#039;m sure we&#039;ll make short work of all those plants with all of this. Uhm... I&#039;m not sure I know how to properly handle a chainsaw, or a tractor for all that, so I guess you could do that? I should be fine with the weedwhacker and such, though.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Then let&#039;s get to it, &#039;oney!&quot; Daisy giggled, hopping back onto the tractor&#039;s small metal seat and starting the engine. &quot;And I&#039;ll teach ya &#039;ow to handle a chainsaw an&#039; a tractor sometime, no worries.&quot; She looked behind her. &quot;This &#039;ere path&#039;s priority, yeah? Know what, I&#039;ll drive this all the way back to the gate an&#039; then back &#039;ere to flatten ev&#039;rything best as I can first, then we can more easily make our way through it to remove mos&#039; of the stuff, sound good, yeah?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; *Sure, sounds great to me,&quot; Laura chortled. &quot;I&#039;m not even sure yet of how wide that path is or where exactly it starts and ends, so...&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;One way to find out, &#039;oney!&quot; Daisy giggled, setting the tractor in motion and swinging it around to trundle through the overgrown plantlife and making a wide curve around the well that was near the farmhouse. &quot;Heigh ho Silver an&#039; all that!&quot;<br /><br />Laura laughed and gave her head an amused shake, following the Siamese on the tractor and tossing aside any loose and broken branches and such after Daisy had run over them. Reaching the end of the path, or rather the beginning at the entrance gate, Daisy swung the tractor around again and drove back towards the farmhouse, flattening the plantlife on the other half of the path and this time going all the way past the farmhouse and turning left to run across the overgrown path running alongside the creek and leading past the two collapsed barns and the tool shed as well.<br /><br />As it turned out, the creek ran on for a bit more before collecting into a fairly large pond, from the other side of which it ran further down towards the northwest in a much straighter path. Daisy stopped the tractor and pointed across the pond, informing Laura that her farm, Bluebell Farm, lay at the other side of the pretty thick strip of forest to the left side of the pond, with the back end of the pond being on her property and the strip of forest being the border between the Fangle Farmstead grounds and the Bluebell Farm grounds. She also started taking the motorized tools out of the shovel bucket and pointed back up the path.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Okay, so here&#039;s what I&#039;m thinkin&#039;, yeah? We go back up that path a ways, hackin&#039; an&#039; whackin&#039; down ev&#039;rything in front of us. The small trees, we jus&#039; cut&#039;em down &#039;bout two feet above the ground, yeah? An&#039; then when we &#039;ave a few yards cleared, I&#039;ll run the tractor over with the bucket down to shove all the loose stuff outta the way, yeah? Leave the tree stumps till last, we&#039;ll yank them out after we &#039;ave the whole path good as cleared, yeah? Sound okay?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Sounds absolutely great to me,&quot; Laura nodded with a grateful smile. &quot;Thank you so much for all the help, Daisy.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Totally no prob, &#039;oney, not at all!&quot; Daisy smiled. &quot;That&#039;s jus&#039; what we do &#039;round &#039;ere!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I noticed,&quot; Laura nodded.<br /><br />Taking and starting the power tools, the whine of the weedwhacker and the grumble of the chainsaw pretty much put an end to any and all further conversation. The work went pretty well though, and much quicker than Laura had expected, with the power tools making short work of the vegetation pretty darn fast despite how overgrown everything was. It helped the path by the creek was relatively narrow, too. After only about an hour and a half, maybe two hours, they had already made their way more than halfway back up the path. A good time for a bit of a break.<br /><br />Setting down the tools, both cats sat down on the trunk of one of the larger trees they had cut down, wiping the sweat off their faces and foreheads. Without even thinking about it, Laura took off her shirt as well, using it to mop her face and head, then wringing it out and draping it over the tree trunk to dry. She took a packet of cigarettes from her pocket, presenting it to Daisy.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Smoke?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Naw thanks, I&#039;m good.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Fair enough.&quot; Laura lit one herself and leaned back on the tree trunk a bit. &quot;So that&#039;s your farm next to mine, then? What do you grow?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Fibers,&quot; Daisy chortled, giving a wink at Laura&#039;s puzzled expression. &quot;There&#039;s a coupla weavin&#039; companies in Fandago, an&#039; they work off the stuff me farm produces for a large part. Cotton, flax, hemp, an&#039; I also &#039;ave a white mulberry orchard to provide the silkworm farms.&quot; She pointed along the creek. &quot;An&#039; ya see &#039;ow the creek goes on after that pond? It goes all the way to the ocean, but by the other border of me farm it feeds a kinda swampy area we created to cultivate large amounts o&#039; reeds that&#039;s made into thatch an&#039; wicker.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Wow,&quot; Laura said, taking a deep drag from her cigarette. &quot;That sounds like a whole damn lot of work. Surely you don&#039;t do all that all by yourself, do you?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Hee!&quot; Daisy giggled, shaking her head. &quot;Course not, &#039;oney, I could never keep up with alla that on me own!&quot; She rose from the tree trunk and stretched before sitting back down. &quot;Naw, I have sev&#039;ral steady farm hands on the payroll, an&#039; durin&#039; harvest season, we usually get a buncha students from the high school helpin&#039; us harvest it all to earn a bit o&#039; pocket money.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Ah, right, yeah, that make sense,&quot; Laura nodded. &quot;Still sounds like an awful lot of work, though.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;True that, true that. An&#039; add to that I also grow some flowers. Bluebells o&#039;course, that&#039;s what the place got its name from, an&#039; I also do edible daisies an&#039; Indian cress. They do great in salads, ya know.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Really? I&#039;d never have thought of that. I mean, like, I know of water cress for like in salads or soup or something, but Indian cress, or even daisies? I thought those were just for decoration.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Mos&#039; cultivated varieties are,&quot; Daisy nodded in confirmation. &quot;But there be sev&#039;ral kindsa Indian cress of which the leaves are edible, an&#039; at least one kind of which the leaves, the flowers an&#039; the seed pods are edible - that&#039;s the kind I grow.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Neat,&quot; Laura smiled. &quot;I&#039;d love to see your farm sometime, it must look lovely.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Sure! O&#039;course! Yer welcome to drop by any time, &#039;oney! I&#039;ll show ya some salad recipes with the flowers an&#039; all. An&#039; I know me niece will love to meet ya too.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Your niece? That&#039;s nice, what&#039;s she like? I suppose I should drop by sooner than later, before she goes back home, right?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Naw, she lives with me, &#039;oney. Poor thing lost&#039;er parents when she was five, so I took&#039;er in. She been livin&#039; with me some three years now.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Oh! Oh, I&#039;m sorry to hear that. Poor girl, that must have been really hard for her.&quot; Turning a bit, Laura sent Daisy a warm smile. &quot;It does sound like she has a wonderful caretaker in you, though.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Aw shucks &#039;oney, thanks,&quot; Daisy chortled. &quot;That&#039;s sweet of ya to say.&quot; She rose up from the tree trunk and stretched again. &quot;Well, what say we went to work again? Way we been goin&#039;, I reckon we&#039;re at the house in the next hour, an&#039; we&#039;ll &#039;ave at least one side o&#039; the main path cleared by the end o&#039; the day.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Sounds great,&quot; Laura chuckled, putting her shirt back on. &quot;Oh, yeah, I should re-gravel all these paths again as well, would you happen to know where I could get the gravel and all?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah, the Fandago quarry, ya can pick up there yerself or &#039;ave it delivered,&quot; Daisy nodded while she re-filled the fuel tanks of the chainsaw and the weedwhacker, after which she pointed both ways along the path. &quot;Ya want me advice, &#039;ere&#039;s &#039;ow I&#039;d go &#039;bout it. We gotta bunch o&#039; tree stumps, we yank&#039;em out with the tractor an&#039; fill up the holes with what&#039;s left o&#039; the original path, yeah? Then ya line the paths with plastic, an&#039; ya firs&#039; dump on sev&#039;ral loads o&#039; rocks, grade four they call it at the quarry. Smooth that out with the tractor an&#039; let it settle. For the main path, ya have the Woodhouse guys drivin&#039; them heavy trucks o&#039; theirs across it daily, that&#039;s perfect for gettin&#039; it all settled an&#039; as smooth as it&#039;ll get. Then after &#039;bout a week, ten days or so, ya top it with grade point-seven to grade one fine gravel, smooth that with the tractor, get it settled an&#039; compacted by them heavy trucks drivin&#039; across it all the time, and bam, Bob&#039;s yer uncle. Nice sturdy gravel paths with good solid foundation an&#039; good drainage &#039;cause o&#039; the rocks, an&#039; no more plants growin&#039; up through yer paths &#039;cause o&#039; the plastic linin&#039;.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;That definitely sounds like what I&#039;d want alright. I suppose I can get that plastic you mentioned around here somewhere too?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah, jus&#039; go by the Ag Co-op, they got pretty much ev&#039;rything ya will ever need for runnin&#039; a farm,&quot; Daisy smiled. &quot;I&#039;ll take ya there tomorrow with all them old tools o&#039; yers an&#039; show ya &#039;round a bit, an&#039; I got an old dump truck ya can borrow too, I&#039;ll get ya over to the Fandago quarry an&#039; show ya how to get stuff from there too.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;You&#039;re too kind,&quot; Laura smiled. &quot;I really appreciate all the help. But won&#039;t it cut too much into your own time? I mean, surely you must be real busy at your own farm as well, with all that stuff you grow and all?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Not at the moment, &#039;oney,&quot; Daisy smiled. &quot;Crops only been planted coupla weeks ago, sprinkler system keeps&#039;em watered, only thing we &#039;ave to check on now an&#039; then is weedin&#039;. So I got plenty time to help out my cute new neighbor, hey?&quot;<br />Laura laughed shortly.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Ha, well, thank you, dear. You&#039;re certainly not bad-looking yourself either.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Glad to &#039;ear it,&quot; Daisy giggled. She started the chainsaw. &quot;Well, what say the cute kitty explorers continue hackin&#039; their way through the jungle?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Sounds like a plan to me,&quot; Laura laughed while she started the weedwhacker. &quot;Lead on, doctor Livingstone!&quot;<br /><br />Quite cheerily, the two felines resumed their work, hacking and cutting and whacking their way through the thick growth that had overtaken the path. Not much more than an hour later they had made their way past the old orchard and overgrown garden, another half hour later found the large gravel area in front of the farmhouse and around the well pretty darn cleared, and by the end of the afternoon, they had in fact made their way all along one side of the main path from the farmhouse to the entrance gate. They had definitely worked their fluffy butts off, and it very clearly showed.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Well!&quot; Daisy chortled just as her chainsaw ran out of gas and died with a sputter. &quot;I&#039;d say that was a pretty gol-durned well-timed end to a mighty productive day o&#039; work.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I couldn&#039;t agree more,&quot; Laura nodded while they walked back to the farmhouse, looking along the main path and the path along the creek, actually having an as good as unobstructed view all the way to the gate, and to the large pond. She waved after the Woodhouse brothers as well who said their goodbyes just as the two cats reached the farmhouse and pulled away in their heavy truck, then stretched and turned back to Daisy. &quot;Again, thank you <em>so</em> much for all the help, Daisy. I don&#039;t even wanna think about how hard that would&#039;ve been and how long it would&#039;ve taken me if I&#039;d had to do it all on my own with nothing but those rusty old hand tools to work with.&quot; She laughed softly. &quot;It&#039;s that I&#039;m quite in disarray living in that trailer until the house is done, otherwise I&#039;d invite you to stay for dinner.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Well shucks then, jus&#039; follow me to me place, &#039;oney,&quot; Daisy chuckled. &quot;Ya can grab yerself a decent shower there, an&#039; ya can &#039;elp me with makin&#039; dinner if ya wanna. B&#039;sides...&quot; She pulled a pocket watch from the front pocket of her overalls and flipped it open to check it. &quot;Shelly should be home &#039;bout now too, so ya two can meet right away as well.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Shelly is your niece? Yeah, I&#039;d love to meet her,&quot; Laura smiled, running a paw through her hair. &quot;Okay, sure, you&#039;ve been so friendly and helpful to me already, I may as well take you up on this offer as well. It&#039;ll definitely be great to have a decent shower again for a change, my travel from my home town to this land took an age and I didn&#039;t have many opportunities for decent showers on the way, and as I found this morning, the shower in this trailer is hardly deserving of the name. Better than nothing, but still, I prefer a decent shower over the five minutes of lukewarm water I get in that trailer.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah, that I can imagine,&quot; Daisy chuckled, giving a wink. &quot;Well, ya can luxuriate all ya want when we get to me place, &#039;oney, an&#039; ya can come over ev&#039;ry day for a good shower if ya want too. Here, lemme go get that tractor, I&#039;ll shove all that mess we cut down outta the way an&#039; then lead the way for ya.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Sounds great to me,&quot; Laura grinned.<br /><br />She looked after the Siamese cat as Daisy started making her way to where they had left the tractor. Well! That meeting might have started off with a bit of a scare, but Laura sure was happy Daisy had come over to introduce herself. It was great knowing she had such a cheerful, friendly and helpful neighbor. And Daisy certainly looked really good as well. The classy, svelte lines of traditional Siamese, complemented by a more than healthy dose of country life; it might look like two extremes that would never meet, but they sure had blended into a mix of perfection in Daisy.<br /><br />Just look at her, deftly working that tractor back and forth, lowering and raising the shovel bucket on the front expertly and so casually to scoop and shove all the loose branches and pieces of trees and bushes into neat heaps at the sides of the now mostly-cleared paths. The routine way she was doing that with just looked so natural, so... like it was meant to be. And her cheerful character definitely was very nice as well - she just seemed like someone everyone could do nothing but get along with.<br /><br />Plus, truth be told, she really was very cute, too. Those large, sparkly clear blue eyes, the soft cinnamon tint of her color points, that perpetual happy smile creasing her slender muzzle, that long straw-blonde hair pulled into that adorable country braid - it just was irresistibly cute. Definitely someone she more than wouldn&#039;t mind getting to know a whole lot better, Laura mused to herself. And taking care of her orphaned niece just like that, too! If there was anyone to whom the expression &#039;heart of gold&#039; applied, Laura mused, it would be that Siamese lady-cat right there.<br /><br />Having reached the farmhouse with her tractor once more, Daisy airily hopped off the machine and collected all the tools she had brought with her and put them in the raised&nbsp;&nbsp;shovel bucket before turning to Laura with a bright smile.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Happy thoughts, &#039;oney? Yer positively glowin&#039; there. Or is that from all the &#039;ard work?&quot; she quipped cheerfully.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Bit of both, I suppose,&quot; Laura replied with a light laugh. &quot;I was just thinking how cute you are... friendly, I mean friendly, and helpful, and how fortunate I was for you coming over and introducing yourself and all.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Ha ha!&quot; Daisy laughed cheerily, her wide smile causing her large blue eyes to squint a bit. &quot;Well, yer definitely totally welcome, &#039;oney. An&#039; like I said, I &#039;appen to think yer mighty cute yerself.&quot; She gave one of those cheerful winks again. &quot;I wanna bet, if it ain&#039;t all grimy an&#039; sweaty an&#039; ev&#039;rything, all that fur o&#039; yers mus&#039; be wonderfully soft to the touch an&#039; all, too.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Ha,&quot; Laura chuckled, running a paw over her muzzle and whiskers and wiping away a slight blush at the same time. &quot;Well, so I&#039;ve been told sometimes, yeah, and I have always tried my best to keep my fur in as good a condition as I can. Though I reckon with all the labor-intensive work in the outdoors I&#039;m bound to be doing from now on, it will have a bit of an adverse effect on my fur.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;That&#039;s kinda likely, the sweatin&#039; an&#039; the sun an&#039; all do tend to do that to yer fur,&quot; Daisy nodded with a smile and another wink. &quot;Though ya should totally try the shampoo Fabienne makes outta the bluebells I grow, it&#039;s awesome stuff an&#039; it does wonders for keepin&#039; yer fur soft an&#039; shiny. Or it does for me, anyway, but o&#039;course me fur is a whole bunch shorter an&#039; finer than yers.&quot; She playfully nudged Laura&#039;s shoulder. &quot;Ya should totally try it when yer havin&#039; that shower at me place in a moment.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Sounds great,&quot; Laura chuckled. &quot;Shall we go then?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah, let&#039;s,&quot; Daisy giggled, climbing back onto her small tractor. &quot;Wanna hitch a ride on the back o&#039; this, &#039;oney?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I think I&#039;d better just drive my car, if it&#039;s all the same to you,&quot; Laura laughed softly.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Fair &#039;nough, &#039;oney,&quot; Daisy winked. &quot;Either way, jus&#039; follow me, &#039;kay?&quot;<br /><br />Laura nodded while she walked to her car and closed the trunk which was still wide open. After checking the trailer and closing it, she got into her car and drove after Daisy leading the way on the small tractor. They drove quite a way back along the narrow country road leading from the town to Fangle Farmstead, turning onto the dirt road that split off of it and of which Laura had been wondering where it led to. While driving, Laura smirked and shook her head at herself as she thought back on her slip of the tongue when Daisy had asked her what she was thinking of. Had she really said out loud she&#039;d been thinking of how cute the Siamese cat looked? Sheesh! How dumb was that?<br /><br />Fortunately Daisy had taken it very well - that&#039;d had all the makings of a mighty awkward moment if Daisy had not thought it was funny. Then again, come to think of it, the Siamese feline also hadn&#039;t so much as flinched or quirked an eyebrow either when she had taken off her shirt during the short break they&#039;d taken earlier, Laura mused to herself. At the time, she hadn&#039;t even thought about the fact she was taking off her shirt in front of a stranger she&#039;d only just met, because it was just such a natural thing to do; they&#039;d worked hard, she was hot, she was sweaty, so, she took off her shirt. But in retrospect, that could have turned into a mighty awkward moment as well. Yet Daisy hadn&#039;t so much as reacted to it, apparently of the mindset it was a perfectly normal and natural thing to do as well. And the way in which they had been playfully flirting a little bit, plus the frank and almost immediate offer to have a shower at her house, it made Laura think that the cheerful Siamese might just be very open and loose with her morals. If that was due to the simple country way of life in this small time-forgotten town, there was certainly a thing or two to say for country living. Laura knew that she for one definitely was not opposed to getting to know Daisy <em>that</em> much better.<br /><br />Looking around her again when the forest to her right started breaking up and giving more views between the trees, Laura smiled as she caught sight of Bluebell Farm. The dirt road connected back to a gravel country road similar to the one leading from town to Fangle Farmstead - though much better maintained of course - and that road made its way through a wide gate in a picket fence of which the slats were painted alternately white and light blue. Being covered in thick, rough gravel between occasional flagstones and pieces of flat rock, the path ran on straight between a row of fields on the left and a double row of fields on the right, all the way between two large, similar buildings painted a weathered silvery blue to a medium-sized, three-story farmhouse painted in fresh bluebell blue with white doors and window frames and blue and white checkered shutters, and a slanted thatched roof with a flat top and a couple of small windows peeking out, each of them with their own small pointed thatched roof. The most prominent feature was the wall-to-wall front porch, which was completely overgrown with an enormous Wisteria plant.<br /><br />Visible behind the row of fields on the left was a wood dock, bordering what appeared to be some kind of wetlands area in which cat tail reeds and plumed reeds were growing abundantly. To the left of the farmhouse was another barn-like building with the space between that and the house being paved with rough stones and having a number of cars parked there, while on the right of it was a large area paved with small round stones in various colors, surrounded and filled with flowers and flowering bushes and small ornamental conifers and other small trees, a few of the paved areas donning lacquered wood tables with blue and white striped sunshades and deck chairs with light blue and white striped cushions. Further to the right, behind the double row of fields, was the strip of thick, wild forest that separated the grounds from the Fangle Farmstead grounds.<br /><br />Unable to drive very quickly because she was still following Daisy on the tractor, Laura had plenty of time to look around her, seeing how the fields were indeed only freshly sown in, neat rows upon rows upon rows of tiny little plants only just beginning to sprout. There were also quite a few people about, both men and women, though they were all packing up and getting into the cars that were parked between the farmhouse and the barn to the left of it, all of them waving cheery greetings at Daisy as well as Laura as they pulled away from the parking space to make their way home.<br /><br />The Somali cat couldn&#039;t help but giggle when Daisy pulled the tractor up to the porch of the house and a small black and white kitten girl bounded from the porch and all but bearhugged the Siamese cat the moment Daisy got off the tractor. That must be that girl Shelly, the niece Daisy had mentioned before. Even from inside her car, Laura could hear the kitten&#039;s voice almost bellowing out a happy greeting.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Auntie Daisyyyyy! Hiyeeeee! Where you been?!&quot;<br />As she pulled up to the house and got out of her car herself, Laura could hear the rest of the conversation as well, chuckling to herself while she leaned against her car.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Heya kiddo, so yer home already, ain&#039;tcha? I been over nextdoor, &#039;oney, helpin&#039; out our new neighbor, ya know.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Oh yeah! Oh yeah! That&#039;s awesome! Who is she? What&#039;s she like?&quot;<br />Daisy playfully ruffled the kitten&#039;s hair with a paw and winked.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Ease down, &#039;oney! She&#039;s right &#039;ere, ya know! Why don&#039;tcha go an&#039; say hi? She&#039;s right over there, her name&#039;s miss Laura.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Eeeeeeee!&quot; The kitten whirled around and bounded over towards Laura. &quot;Hiyee miss Laura! You look awesome! So floofy and all! I like you! So you live here now? In the old farm nextdoor? That&#039;s nifty! I like that place, it&#039;s always so fun to go exploring through the forest and the old buildings and all! Yeah!&quot;<br />Laura chuckled again, giving the kitten a hug, then putting a paw on her shoulder.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Easy, girl, easy!&quot; she giggled. &quot;Yeah, I live in the farm nextdoor from here now. Or well, in a trailer next to it actually because the house is being all fixed up so I can live in there when it&#039;s all done. And thanks, I like you too, your markings are really cute. You&#039;re a regular little halloween kitty, aren&#039;t you?&quot;<br /><br />That was a pretty accurate description actually. The little cat girl was relatively traditional tuxedo in black and white, with her right ear being white and her left ear being black, a white chest and tummy, fully black arms and paws, as well as black legs and feet, with the fingers of both paws and the toes of her right foot being white, and a white tip to her black tail. The halloween aspect mostly came from the marking in her face, which was a fairly large white spot right over her face and eyes, with a second part running down over the middle of her muzzle and her whisker pads, stopping at her upper lips, which made the marking kind of look like a simplified outline of a skull. Adding to that, her eyes were a deep, warm orange in color, making the whole picture look even more halloween-ish.<br /><br />At Laura&#039;s remark, the kitten squealed again and jumped up and down a couple of times.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Eeeee! Yeah! That&#039;s what aunt Daisy always says all the time too! I&#039;m a halloween cat! Yeah!&quot; She swung out her arms towards Laura. &quot;Boo! Are ya scared? Huh? Are ya?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;She won&#039;t be if ya keep actin&#039; like a hyper bouncy four year old with a coilspring up &#039;er butt, kiddo,&quot; Daisy chortled as she returned from parking the tractor in the barn next to the house. She teasingly smacked the kitten on the rump. &quot;Go on, inside with ya! Git! It&#039;s dinnertime! Ya can wash up after I&#039;m done washin&#039; up.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Is miss Laura gonna stay for dinner too?&quot; Shelly asked with a giggle, flicking her tail at Daisy&#039;s paw.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah, yes I am,&quot; Laura chuckled.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yaaay! Cool! C&#039;mon miss Laura, come see inside!&quot; Shelly all but cheered, grabbing one of Laura&#039;s paws and tugging on it.<br /><br />Shaking her head cheerfully, the agouti feline let the tuxedo kitten pull her onto and across the porch and through the front door, followed by the Siamese who was also softly giggling over her niece&#039;s enthusiasm. Reaching a very cozy and homey living room, Daisy motioned around with a paw.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Flop down anywheres, make yerself comfy, &#039;oney. I&#039;ll go an&#039; grab me a quick rinse in the shower, then I&#039;ll show ya where to find it so ya can do the same if ya wanna.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;That sounds wonderful, thanks again,&quot; Laura smiled.<br /><br />She calmly stepped into the living room, looking around her and taking in the details. It was a very cozy affair, with a large fireplace, several corduroy couches and one or two corduroy easy chairs in only slightly faded earth tones of orange and a bronze-ish brown and with several throw-pillows cheerily printed with enormously sized daisies in various colors, a table with a thick, colorful knitted wool tablecloth on it by one of the windows, having around it several wood chairs with thick, comfy padded seats, and one almost regal-looking chair with a high back that also had two sort of padded bolsters to either side at the top, plus padded armrests and a thick cushioned seat, all covered in some kind of plushy yet velvety faded forest-green material. There were several cabinets and tea chests and lowboys standing around as well, filled with knickknacks, small potted plants and framed photographs.<br /><br />There also was a television, sitting on a low cabinet that was attached to the side of what looked like a china cabinet with glass doors behind which was a large number of glasses and teacups and saucers, but it was a very old-fashioned TV set with two round twist knobs on one side. Plus there was a radio, which actually was a bakelite tube radio, sitting on the mantel piece over the fireplace. A tall grandfather clock covered in artful carvings stood in the corner on the other side of the fireplace, filling the room with a soft and steady tick-tocking.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;You like it?&quot; Shelly asked after a while of looking at Laura looking around her, looking up at the Somali cat with large, almost expectant eyes.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah. Yeah, I like it,&quot; Laura smiled. &quot;This all looks... very lived in, in a good way; it&#039;s very homey and cozy.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yay! Is your place as nice as this too?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Heh, hardly,&quot; Laura guffawed. &quot;Where I come from, I just had a small apartment, and the house here on the farm was a rotting, almost collapsing shell of a building when I got here. Right now the two misters Woodhouse are tearing down everything on the inside, so it&#039;s an even bigger mess now. And when they&#039;re done with that, everything will have to be built back up, and <em>then</em> I still have to get all kinds of furniture and stuff.&quot; Laura chuckled shortly. &quot;I don&#039;t even know where to get most of it. I only brought along a few of my things, and I suppose I will have to simply go and buy all the other stuff I&#039;ll be needing secondhand.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I&#039;m sure I &#039;ave a few things ya could &#039;ave, &#039;oney,&quot; Daisy&#039;s voice sounded in place of Shelly. The Siamese was just stepping into the living room, now clad in shorts and a simple T-shirt, and with her hair damp and hanging loose rather than being braided. &quot;Ready for that shower now though?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Ah yes, that would be lovely,&quot; Laura nodded with a smile. &quot;I&#039;m dying for a proper shower.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;C&#039;mon then, it&#039;s this way.&quot;<br /><br />Laura followed Daisy out of the living room and up a flight of stairs at the end of the corridor. Behind one of the doors on the landing, the only door which had a small rectangular pane of frosted glass above it, was a modest but still quite spacious bathroom, with thick, large brown tiles on the floor and the walls covered in smaller, shiny fresh green tiles, with a row of tiles sporting a darker green pattern of fern leaves running the entire perimeter at about eye-level. On one side was a green sink with a cabinet with two small doors underneath it and a mirror with a narrow shelf above it. In the corner was a toilet, also green, while against the back wall was a simple white bath tub half hidden behind a shower curtain printed with large colorful flowers. At the foot end of the tub was another small square area with a drain and a shower head, with squared to that a tall, narrow cabinet holding bottles of shower gel and shampoo on the shelves, and towels behind the doors at the bottom. Next to that, finally, a hamper with two lids was sitting.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Here ya go,&quot; Daisy smiled, gesturing around. &quot;Ya can use either the tub or the shower if ya wanna, and them green bottles on the shelf there, that&#039;s the shampoo I toldcha &#039;bout.&quot; She giggled softly. &quot;Ya can use me brush as well, on the shelf over the sink there.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Heh, thanks,&quot; Laura chuckled. &quot;I won&#039;t take too long, though after how long I&#039;ve had to miss proper bathing during my journey here and in that trailer, I may be tempted to luxuriate a bit.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Haha, o&#039;course, take all the time ya wanna, &#039;oney,&quot; Daisy chortled. &quot;I&#039;ll jus&#039; go an&#039; start dinner, an&#039; I&#039;ll call ya when it&#039;s ready.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Thanks so much, Daisy. You&#039;re a gem,&quot; Laura smiled.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah, my aunt is totally the best!&quot; Shelly piped up from behind Daisy somewhere.<br />Daisy laughed and dismissively waved a paw.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Alright already, stop it with the syrup, I jus&#039; showered.&quot;<br /><br />With another wave, she took Shelly along with her as she stepped out of the bathroom, leaving Laura to look around the room for a moment or two before the Somali cat stretched and shook herself a bit. Stepping over to the shower at the foot end of the bath tub, she tested the taps and eventually mixed a pleasant temperature of warm water raining down from the shower head. Stretching again, she stripped off her grimy and sweaty clothes and draped them over the top of the hamper before stepping under the shower and closing her eyes, just letting the warm water rain down over her and flattening her thick, plushy fur as it gradually soaked her fur and washed away the dust and sweat of the hard work they had done that day.<br /><br />Ahh... she&#039;d had to miss that for much too long now. It was so wonderful to finally be able again to just stand there for a while and let the warm water soak her all the way down to her skin, without needing to worry about the water running out, turning cold, or about hitting her elbows on the partitions of the cramped little shower compartment in the trailer. Eventually though, Laura opened her eyes again and wiped the water off her face, turning and looking at the shelf full of bottles in the tall cabinet. There were several green bottles without a label there. Laura took one and uncapped it, carefully sniffing at the neck of the bottle and wiggling her soggy whiskers at the pleasant scent of flowers wafting up from the bottle. It sure smelled great, alright, and if it worked as well as Daisy said it did...<br /><br />With a smile, Laura poured some of the shampoo into one of her paws, smiling deeper at the somewhat strange, deep turquoise color of the stuff. Leaning back, she poured a rich glob of it right on top of her head, dipping her ears sideways and closing her eyes while lightly purring under her breath as she started rubbing and massaging the shampoo into her hair, working up quite an impressive amount of lather.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Hee! You&#039;re pretty, but you look funny with your head all foamy like that!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Gah!&quot;<br /><br />Again, Laura couldn&#039;t help but let out a startled gasp at the sudden voice cutting short her thoughts. Wiping some foam off her face and blinking her eyes open, she looked around to find the black and white kitten Shelly standing between the sink and the shower, looking up at her soaked nude form with bright, cheerful eyes.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;You&#039;re much thinner with your fur all flat like that, too!&quot; the kitten continued her cheery assessment. &quot;You&#039;re almost as thin as aunt Daisy like this, hee!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Uhm... well, yeah, my fur does tend to make me look thicker than I actually am,&quot; Laura said slowly. She did a few half-hearted attempts to cover her breasts and her crotch with her arms and paws, but the foam slowly dripping down from her head and into her face and eyes forced her to lift her paws time and again to wipe the foam away from her eyes. &quot;Uhm, no offense, dear, but what are you doing here? You knew I was going to be in the shower, didn&#039;t you?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Well, yeah!&quot; Shelly nodded brightly. &quot;Aunt Daisy told me to go wash up for dinner though!&quot; She giggled. &quot;And she said I should tell her if you look just as cute or even cuter when you&#039;re all nakie!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Uh, what?&quot; Laura blinked.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah!&quot; Shelly giggled cheerily. &quot;She wanted to know how cute you are nakie!&quot;<br />Laura blinked again and wiped some more foam off her face while she processed that rather unusual and unexpected bit of trivia. Despite herself, she was unable to stop one of her upper lips from curling into an ever so small bit of a grin.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;She did, huh? So she sent you up here to find out, because she probably figured you&#039;re a kit and I wouldn&#039;t get mad at you, right?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Hee! I suppose so, but she didn&#039;t say anything like that though, hee!&quot; Shelly giggled. &quot;She just told me to go wash up, and to tell her if you look just as cute or even cuter when you&#039;re nakie, yeah!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Right,&quot; Laura smirked. She turned and leaned her head down to let her hair flop down forwards, letting the spray from the shower wash away all the foam from her head and hair. &quot;So what&#039;s the verdict then, dear?&quot; she chuckled softly from her leaned-over position and from behind all her hair. &quot;Do I look any cuter?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Well... yeah, I think so!&quot; Shelly nodded brightly. &quot;You do look a bit silly all soaked and thin like that, but I think you look totally cute, too! I like your boobies, they&#039;re a bunch bigger than aunt Daisy&#039;s, even though you&#039;re almost as thin as she is like this, yeah.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Thanks, that&#039;s good to know I suppose,&quot; Laura chuckled, rising back up and flipping her wet hair back over her shoulders and the back of her head. She ran both paws over her face to wipe away the water from her face. &quot;And do you think your aunt Daisy would like it too?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;She will, she will, yeah!&quot; Shelly nodded firmly, her eyes growing rounder and brighter, as well as her smile. &quot;You like aunt Daisy too? You gonna be friends with her like that, all nakie and cuddly and stuff?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Who knows?&quot; Laura guffawed. &quot;I do like her a bunch, that&#039;s for sure, she&#039;s a very lovely and friendly lady, so I sure won&#039;t mind being good friends with her. I&#039;m all new in town and I don&#039;t know anyone here after all, so it&#039;ll be good having a nice friend like that.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yay!&quot; Shelly cheered. &quot;That&#039;s gonna be so much fun! We can play and stuff!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah, I&#039;m sure we could,&quot; Laura smirked, shaking her head a bit.<br /><br />Again, one of her upper lips curled into a little bit of a grin as she got an idea. She wasn&#039;t an exhibitionist, and although she did love being fully nude around the house and even outdoors, she didn&#039;t exactly consider herself to be a nudist either, but she definitely was not ashamed of her body or apprehensive about being seen naked, especially by other women. And she had let slip that she thought Daisy was a mighty cute lady as well, after all.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;So tell me, dear,&quot; she smiled at Shelly while lathering up the rest of her fur. &quot;Is it just your aunt Daisy and you in the house now, or is there anyone else around as well? I saw quite a few people being here when I first drove up to the house.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;No, those people just work here for aunt Daisy, they don&#039;t live here, so they all go to their own home when they&#039;re done, and then it&#039;s just me and aunt Daisy, yeah!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Right, I see,&quot; Laura chuckled, teasingly flicking some water in Shelly&#039;s face with her soggy tail. &quot;Why don&#039;t you go and do as your aunt told you to and wash up now, then? I&#039;m almost done here myself, and then I&#039;ll go and let your aunt decide for herself whether I look just as cute or even cuter with no clothes on.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Eeeee!&quot; Shelly squealed, both at the water being flicked into her face and at what Laura had said. &quot;You&#039;re gonna come down to dinner all nakie? That&#039;s awesome!&quot; She looked up at Laura with large round sparkling eyes. &quot;Can I be all nakie too? Yeah?&quot;<br />Laura chuckled with a light smirk.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;As far as I&#039;m concerned, sure. But I suppose that&#039;s for your aunt to decide rather than me.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;She won&#039;t mind! She won&#039;t mind! We&#039;re always nakie together all the time after everyone&#039;s gone home! Yeah!&quot; Shelly nodded rapidly. &quot;I&#039;ll be nakie now too! Yeah!&quot;<br /><br />Before Laura could even blink, the black and white kitten suited the action to her words and started stripping off her clothes, tossing them in the hamper. Laura shrugged with a light chuckle and shook her head again, turning back to lathering up the fur on her lower body, legs and feet, and using a generous amount of the shampoo on her tail as well, which easily was the fluffiest part of her entire body. She winced and shivered for a moment when Shelly turned on the tap over the sink to wash her paws and her face, and inadvertently causing the water from the shower to dip in temperature momentarily, but once the water was back to its regular temperature, the agouti feline leaned back under the spray with her eyes closed and her ears dipped and folded to the sides to let the water rinse away all the foam from all over her body.<br /><br />When she opened her eyes once again and shook the water off her face and ears, she found the now nude black and white kitten looking up at her with almost expectant eyes.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;D&#039;you think I look cute too, miss Laura, hey?&quot;<br />Tilting her head a bit, Laura shook more water off her ears and ran a paw over her whiskers while she looked at Shelly. Sure, she was just a kitten, but she clearly had been raised with a healthy view about her body and about nudity, rather than having been taught it was something dirty or taboo, or to be ashamed or afraid of it. And Laura had to be honest, the kitten did look very cute with her slender, almost lanky build and the patterning of the black and white fur.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yes, I think you look very cute too, dear,&quot; she nodded with a smile while she turned off the shower and ran both her paws down her body to wipe away the excess water.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yay! Thank you, miss Laura! I like you! I wanna be your friend too, like aunt Daisy! Can I be your friend too?&quot; Shelly smiled happily, hugging herself up against the soggy Somali cat as Laura stepped out of the shower.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Oof, hee!&quot; Laura giggled at the sudden tight hug. &quot;Of course, you can be my friend too, dear. Although I think I could better use a towel to dry myself off instead of using you, don&#039;t you agree?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Hee, you&#039;re silly!&quot; Shelly giggled.<br /><br />She did let go of Laura, though, and handed her a towel from the lower part of the tall cabinet, looking at the Somali cat drying herself off as best as she could. Taking two brushes from the cabinet under the sink, Shelly handed one of those to Laura as well and looked up with an almost begging look in her deep orange eyes.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Can I brush your tail, miss Laura? Please? I promise I&#039;ll do a good job, yeah.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Sure, go ahead, dear,&quot; Laura chortled. &quot;It&#039;ll be nice to have a bit of help, that thing can be rather hard to reach.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yay! Thanks!&quot; Shelly cheered.<br /><br />She stepped around to Laura&#039;s back and hugged the Somali&#039;s tail for a moment before beginning to run the brush over it with long strokes from the base all the way to the end of it. Laura smiled at it while she brushed her own hair and the fur on her arms and upper body, swishing or flicking her tail a bit every now and then whenever the brush or Shelly&#039;s paws ran across the cheeks of her rump instead of along her tail.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;That ain&#039;t my tail, you know,&quot; she giggled after a while, turning her head a bit to look at Shelly across her shoulder.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Hee! I know, but your butt is cute too, all soft and floofy and all, and it needs to be brushed too,&quot; Shelly giggled.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah, well, I suppose so, but it&#039;s still not needed to spend so much time on it,&quot; Laura chuckled. &quot;After all, I&#039;ll be sitting down on it in a little while, so the fur will get all messed up again anyway.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Hee, I guess so,&quot; Shelly giggled, looking up when a voice sounded from outside the bathroom door.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Ya done in there, &#039;oney? Dinner&#039;s ready.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Be right there,&quot; Laura said aloud. She handed the brush back to Shelly to put it away where it belonged. &quot;Guess we better go down, don&#039;t you think? And thank you for helping me with my tail, dear.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;You&#039;re welcome, miss Laura!&quot; Shelly beamed. &quot;It was fun, yeah!&quot;<br /><br />She put the brushes back on the cabinet under the sink and opened the bathroom door, leading the way back down the stairs. Laura shook herself firmly once or twice to settle her fluffy fur and smiled as she followed the black and white kitten down the stairs.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;This way, dining room&#039;s over here,&quot; Shelly pointed with a smile.<br />She led the way past the living room door and opened another door leading into a rather small room that was connected to the kitchen. A fairly large, long table was sitting prominently in the middle of the room with six chairs on either side of it, and set with a few plates on one side, plus a very large, flower-print tureen filled with steaming pasta covered in tomato sauce which had obvious bits of flowers mixed through it.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yay, spaghetti!&quot; Shelly cheered upon seeing the tureen, happily bounding up to the table.<br />Her enthused outcry made Daisy look up from a drawer in a large china cabinet from which she was getting several sets of cutlery. The Siamese grinned a bit upon noticing the kitten&#039;s nakedness, then lightly quirked an eyebrow as Laura also fully stepped into the room, just as naked.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Well,&quot; she said after a moment. &quot;That&#039;s a bit of a dif&#039;rent look for ya, &#039;oney, ain&#039;t it?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah, well, a little birdie told me someone was curious about the cuteness of my looks sans the clothing,&quot; Laura chuckled softly, running the fingers of one paw through her hair to wipe a few stray locks out of her face.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Diddit, now?&quot;<br />Daisy this time quirked her eyebrow at Shelly, who was happily bustling about with the chairs and the table settings.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah!&quot; she giggled as she caught Daisy&#039;s eye. &quot;Miss Laura let me brush her tail, aunt Daisy! She&#039;s awesome, she said she&#039;d be my friend and all!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;And I&#039;m kinda curious now, dear,&quot; Laura chuckled while she stepped up to the table and leaned on it. &quot;Do I look just as cute, or even cuter like this, hm?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;A bunch cuter, I&#039;d say,&quot; Daisy chuckled with her head a bit tilted. &quot;An&#039; even more so when yer fur is all properly dry an&#039; floofed, I reckon.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Well, thank you, I certainly appreciate that,&quot; Laura smiled. &quot;And thanks for letting me use your shower and your shampoo as well. It smelled lovely, I&#039;m sure it will indeed work wonders on my fur, too, even if it&#039;s a lot thicker than yours.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yer welcome, &#039;oney,&quot; Daisy nodded with a smile, putting down the cutlery. &quot;An&#039; as I notice, ya ain&#039;t too shy &#039;bout showin&#039; off the result, are ya?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah, well,&quot; Laura shrugged. &quot;Since the little birdie told me someone was interested in the look, I figured I might as well come down to dinner like this. The idea seemed a bunch more pleasant than putting those grimy and clammy clothes back on, anyway.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Mhm, I can understand that,&quot; Daisy nodded. &quot;Are ya mebbe a nudist or somethin&#039;, by any chance?&quot;<br />Laura shrugged again.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Not specifically, I&#039;d say. I mean, I do prefer being naked around the house, and a lot of the time outdoors as well when I&#039;m like doing light gardening chores or just sunbathing or something. But I never went to a nudist resort for a vacation, or a nudist event or anything, in my hometown. And they were there, I know that for certain.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I see,&nbsp;&nbsp;Daisy nodded. &quot;Well, we are, Shel an&#039; me, so yer always welcome to come an&#039; spend naked time with us whenever ya want, &#039;oney. An&#039; there&#039;s an awesome all-girl nudist resort nearby, too. Ya came in from Beach Cove, yeah?&quot; Laura nodded. &quot;Right, then ya &#039;ad to &#039;ave come through South Plains to get to our li&#039;l town &#039;ere.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;That&#039;s the city with the big fountain... statue, thing in middle, right?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;That&#039;s right, yeah,&quot; Daisy smiled. &quot;Well, jus&#039; outside o&#039; there, a bit into the forest &#039;tween the city an&#039; the mountains, that&#039;s where that resort is. Ladies only, an&#039; it&#039;s pretty darn big, specially when ya consider it&#039;s run by this one single lady, an&#039; she even &#039;as a daughter to look after, too.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah, Faye!&quot; Shelly chimed in. &quot;She&#039;s totally cute! All calico, with the colorful spots, you know? But hers are all super light!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah, her mom&#039;s a full calico, with fur even longer an&#039; thicker than yers, an&#039; she &#039;as a super long tail, too,&quot; Daisy smiled. &quot;Lovely woman, she is. She &#039;ad her daughter when she was still married, an&#039; her husband was a pure white cat, so her daughter is kinda like... diluted, ya know. Looks mighty cute, too.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;She does sound like a very cute girl indeed,&quot; Laura smiled. &quot;I reckon it&#039;d be great to meet them sometime.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Ya totally should, &#039;oney,&quot; Daisy nodded. &quot;We&#039;ll take ya over sometime an&#039; introduce ya.&quot; She lifted a foot and teasingly poked Shelly&#039;s butt with it. &quot;So are ya almost done fiddlin&#039; with them chairs an&#039; plates there, &#039;oney?&quot;<br />Shelly giggled and flicked her tail.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Hee! Yeah, I just wanna sit next to miss Laura is all!&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Well, why don&#039;t I just go sit in the middle then, hm?&quot; Laura chortled. &quot;And you can lose the &#039;miss&#039;, dear. Just Laura will do fine.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeeeee! Thank you! You&#039;re the best, Laura!&quot; Shelly cheered, hugging the Somali cat around the waist again.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Thank you too, dear,&quot; Laura giggled, softly stroking Shelly over the head and ears with a paw.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;An&#039; now that we got that sorted out, &#039;ow &#039;bout parkin&#039; yer butt in the chair, missy?&quot; Daisy giggled. &quot;Dinner&#039;s gettin&#039; cold by now.&quot;<br /><br />Shelly giggled and nodded, plopping down on her chair. Laura sat down as well, accepting one of the plates Daisy started filling with the spaghetti. Dinner went by relatively calmly, with just some smalltalk, and every now and then some giggles when the spaghetti went rogue. After dinner, Daisy just put the dishes in the sink, allowing the three of them some more time to sit and talk. And, showing she was true to her nudist lifestyle, and seeing as she now knew for certain Laura would not be offended, and that she was the most overdressed of the three of them, Daisy shed her clothes as well.<br /><br />It showed she indeed had the traditional Siamese build, being, as Shelly called it, quite thin, even though her slender arms and legs had a good amount of muscle to them. But with all the farm work, that was not all that surprising. The other thing Shelly had mentioned to Laura was also true; Daisy&#039;s bosom was a full several cup sizes smaller than Laura&#039;s at only a meager 32B, and her rather pale pink nipples and areolae were positively tiny. Still, with her overall slender build and somewhat small stature, even the small breasts were as good as perfectly in proportion.<br /><br />The other outstanding feature about the Siamese cat was the pattern in her fur. Laura had already noticed the darker colored points in Daisy&#039;s fur were a bit different from traditional Siamese markings, with her ears being only four-fifths colored darker and the marking in her face covering only the very outer end of her slender muzzle. With her clothes removed now, Laura could see the other markings were a bit off as well, with the coloring on Daisy&#039;s left arm and right leg starting at her left shoulder and right hip respectively, while the darker coloring on her right arm and left leg started only halfway down her right upper arm and just above her left knee, respectively. It kind of made her look like she was wearing stockings of one which was sagging down. And of course there was the fact the darker color was not a seal-grey, but a soft cinnamon-brown in tint.<br /><br />When Daisy had removed all her clothes and had done a playful little twirl in front of the couch Laura and Shelly were sitting on, Laura laughed softly and winked.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Well, you already heard me say I think you&#039;re cute when I let that slip back at my place, Daisy, but I can honestly say, with your hair down and no clothes on, you certainly look even a bunch cuter, too.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Shucks, well, thanks &#039;oney,&quot; Daisy chuckled as she sat down on the couch on Laura&#039;s other side, giving a playful wink. &quot;Well, I reckon it&#039;s decided then, huh? We all think the other looks cuter naked, so that&#039;s &#039;ow we&#039;ll be spendin&#039; all of our time together.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeeeeeah!&quot; Shelly cheered happily, bouncing on the couch a bit and clapping her paws.<br />Laura gave her head an amused shake and giggled softly.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I suppose I can live with that. It&#039;s definitely much nicer sitting around like this anyways, and with such nice and cute company, it&#039;s even a whole bunch nicer.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I definitely agree,&quot; Daisy nodded with a chortle, looking around when the grandfather clock bonged. &quot;Though for now the sittin&#039; &#039;round like this will &#039;ave to come to an end for at least one of us, &#039;cause it&#039;s past yer bedtime, Shel.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Aw, but aunt Shelly, I don&#039;t wanna go to bed yet!&quot; Shelly complained with a giggle, hugging Laura&#039;s fluffy tail against her chest with both arms. &quot;I wanna stay up some more and sit here and look at Laura! She&#039;s so cute and fluffy, and she&#039;s so soft!&quot;<br />Laura giggled softly and gave the kitten a gentle stroke of a paw over the head and ears again.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;That&#039;s sweet of you, dear. But to be honest, I should probably go home soon too. Both misters Woodhouse will be back to work on my house bright and early at seven o&#039;clock tomorrow morning, so I should get plenty of sleep so I can be all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when they show up.&quot; She laughed shortly. &quot;Next time I&#039;m over, we&#039;ll take a picture so you can see me even when I&#039;m not here too, okay?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Eeeee!&quot; Shelly squealed, bouncing and clapping her paws again. &quot;Okay! Yeah! I like that! It&#039;s a deal, Laura!&quot; She let go of Laura&#039;s tail and leaned over on the couch to hug the Somali cat fully around the waist. &quot;You come and tuck me in, too?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Sure, why not, I can do that,&quot; Laura chuckled.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yaaay! Okay! Let&#039;s go then!&quot; Shelly cheered, hopping off the couch and running out of the living room.<br />Both Laura and Daisy laughed and shook their heads in amusement.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Well, I sure never seen &#039;er get to bed that fast,&quot; Daisy chuckled, nudging Laura&#039;s shoulder. &quot;Yer somethin&#039; else aight, Laura.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I guess I&#039;m just that awesome,&quot; Laura laughed shortly.<br />They laughed again, getting up from the couch and going upstairs to Shelly&#039;s bedroom. The kitten was already in bed, so all the two adult cats needed to do was tuck in the sheets a bit and wish her goodnight and pleasant dreams.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Now, ya get some good sleep, &#039;oney, &#039;kay,&quot; Daisy smiled, pressing a smooch on Shelly&#039;s cheek. &quot;One more day o&#039; school tomorrow, an&#039; then ya can enjoy the weekend, yeah?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah! Wheee! Are we going over to Laura, aunt Daisy?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Well, I&#039;ll be, tomorrow, to &#039;elp her with all the work she &#039;as,&quot; Daisy chuckled. &quot;An&#039; ya can come &#039;long in the weekend. If Laura&#039;s alright with that, o&#039;course.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Heck, sure,&quot; Laura giggled, stroking Shelly&#039;s ears and hair with a paw. &quot;You&#039;re free to come over anytime, dear.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yay! You&#039;re totally the best, Laura!&quot; Shelly said happily. She reached up to fold her arms around Laura&#039;s neck and pressed a big wet slopper of a kiss right on the side of Laura&#039;s muzzle. &quot;Mwwah! You sleep good too, Laura! I&#039;ll totally see you soon!&quot;<br />Laura twitched her whiskers and giggled softly, rubbing her muzzle a bit.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yeah yeah, you too, dear,&quot; she giggled. &quot;Sweet dreams, and do you best in school tomorrow, alright?&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I will! I will! See, I&#039;m asleep already!&quot; Shelly giggled, rolling over and pulling up the sheets and closing her eyes, making fake snoring sounds.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Good gal,&quot; Daisy chuckled, patting Shelly&#039;s head. &quot;Nightynight now, &#039;oney.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Yes, nightynight, dear,&quot; Laura smiled.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Nightynight aunt Daisy, nightynight Laura!&quot; Shelly waved happily.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Darling little kit,&quot; Laura chuckled as they stepped across the landing, stopping by the bathroom to pick up her clothes.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Ain&#039;t she though?&quot; Daisy nodded, leading the way back downstairs. &quot;Always &#039;appy an&#039; upbeat, that&#039;s Shel for ya.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Well, how could she not be, with such a cheerful and upbeat and helpful aunt for a caretaker?&quot; Laura smiled.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Aw shucks &#039;oney, quit it already, yer gonna make me blush an&#039; all,&quot; Daisy chuckled. She held up a paw when Laura made to put her shirt back on. &quot;Jus&#039; a sec afore ya put yer duds back on, &#039;oney. I wanna &#039;ave me a feel o&#039; that floof of yers.&quot; She pulled Laura into a big, close hug and all but nuzzled her entire body up against the Somali. &quot;Mmm... yeah, as I &#039;spected, nice an&#039; soft an&#039; floofy aight.&quot; Stepping back, she rubbed some of Laura&#039;s fur between her fingers. &quot;Looks like me shampoo been workin&#039; on ya already.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Who knows? I do feel kinda soft and light, and it&#039;s only really good shampoo that makes my fur feel like that,&quot; Laura chortled, hugging Daisy back before putting her clothes back on. &quot;I wanna thank you again for all your help and all your generosity, Daisy. I don&#039;t know what I would have done would you not have dropped by to introduce yourself and to help me out like you did.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Shucks &#039;oney, ain&#039;t nuthin&#039;,&quot; Daisy waved away the praise. &quot;Like I toldcha b&#039;fore, that&#039;s jus&#039; &#039;ow we do things &#039;round &#039;ere.&quot; She put an arm around Laura&#039;s shoulders while she walked the agouti feline to her car. &quot;Now ya go an&#039; get yerself a good night&#039;s sleep too, &#039;kay? If I know them Woodhouses, they&#039;ll be there at yer place even afore seven tomorrow, so yer gonna need the rest I&#039;m sure. I&#039;ll bring the tools over &#039;round nine-ish after I dropped Shell off at school, get ya to the quarry an&#039; the car yard an&#039; all, an&#039; ya can come back &#039;ere for dinner an&#039; a shower an&#039; all again too.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Gotta agree with your niece; you&#039;re the best, Daisy,&quot; Laura chortled, leaning over to press a smooch on the Siamese&#039;s cheek. &quot;I can&#039;t tell you how glad I am for having found such an awesome friend so soon.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Mighty glad to hear it, an&#039; I can say the same, &#039;oney,&quot; Daisy winked, chuckling softly as she did the same thing to Laura she had done to her niece before, smacking Laura on the butt. &quot;Now git! Get yer tail back &#039;ome an&#039; in bed for a good night&#039;s sleep, missy!&quot;<br />Laura laughed and flicked her tail.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Alright alright, I&#039;m gone!&quot; She hugged Daisy again. &quot;Goodnight Daisy, sleep well, and I&#039;ll see you tomorrow.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Ya will. G&#039;night &#039;oney!&quot;<br /><br />Waving cheerfully at each other, they said their goodbyes, Laura getting into her car and Daisy getting back into the farmhouse after Laura had pulled away. The Somali cat softly chuckled to herself again as she drove down the gravel country road and the dirt path connecting the two country roads leading to both respective farms.<br /><br />Golly, such a silly kitty, that Daisy... but such an unbelievably helpful and friendly one. It was almost unreal how helpful the Siamese had been. Laura had heard about the friendly and helpful attitude of country folk, especially in tiny towns like the one she found herself in, but she had never thought it would be this overwhelming. Still... it was absolutely wonderful. Heaven knows she needed all the help she could get to get that massive jungle wrestled back into a decent farm.<br /><br />And there was no denying it; Daisy was a babe. That healthy country life sure showed to have major worth - Laura couldn&#039;t remember ever having met anyone looking as healthy as Daisy did in the city she came from. And so free and open, too... yeah, living here was gonna be even better than she had already thought it was gonna be. As Daisy would say; totally!<br /></span>",
  "pools_count": 1,
  "title": "Meanwhile, in Minnaluna... - Fangle Farmstead - part 02",
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