milliways_bar | (no subject)

"Yoo-hoo? Hello? Want to play?"

There is a small bright-red cat (http://www.livejournal.com/community/milliways_bar/2476032.html?mode=reply) by the lakeside.

The baby seal comes to the shore and studies the cat.

< Play how? >

The cat has never seen a baby seal. You don't get them in Swedish lakes.

"Can you play hockey?"

Findus can. Well, sort of. He plays it against himself, mostly. And is proud of the great victories he scored.

The seal looks at the cat for a moment.

< ...no. >

"It's easy," Findus says confidently. "You must come out onto the ice. I can't play it in the water, I'm a cat. Then we need a little thing to shoot about on the ice. And you try to hit my goal. And I hit yours. And then we score. Got it?"

< I know what hockey is. I'm a freaking seal, they're not exactly good at moving around on land. >

Tobias is not in a great mood. Woe.

"You're a Freaking Seal? Oooh, I have seen seals in a magazine that my old man was reading. Now we have seals in out lake - how exciting! So do you know another game?"

If seals could facepalm, Tobias would.

< Yeah. It's called leaving me the hell alone. I came out here because I didn't think there was gonna be anyone else around. >

"This is a lake, it is full of animals. Some of them are just real scary pike, though. And the old man's ice-fishing over there - somewhere..."

He vaguely waves his paw at where he came from.

And he is afraid of pikes.

"Where are your seal friends?"

Silence.

Then, in a rather cold 'voice':

< Dead. >

Findus comes nearer to try and touch his nose to that of the uunhappy animal that sticks its head out of the ice.

"Awww, I am sorry to hear that - were they hunted? Hunters are so stupid! We helped a moose escape last autumn, you know," he says to make it clear that he doesn't approve of hunting at all. Just fishing.

"Do you eat fish?"

It probably doesn't help that all baby seals look like they're about to cry.

< You could say that we were hunted, yeah. For a long time. >

"Nobody is going to hunt you here!", Findus assures the baby seal. "And I can be your friend and we can find something to play at if you like. So you're not so lonely any more."

The cat touches his nose to the baby seal's as if to comfort the poor lonely animal. He'd cheered a depressed tiger once, too. Findus is not afraid of bigger animals.

< I... have to go. My time's almost up. >

"Oooh - who tells you when to come home? I always come home for dinner, but that's not because the old man tells me to. I want my dinner! But the chickens sometimes don't come when told to. They can be a bit silly. But nice."

At least this sad little animal has some person to take care of him and tell him to come home to dinner, too.

Findus waves to the baby seal. "I hope your dinner is good! We will have fish if the old man catches anything today."

< Thanks. I, uh. I gotta go, okay? >

"Bye - it was nice to meet you. Let's find something else to play the next time!"

Findus then waves to the seal and bounces off, through the hole in the shrubbery where he came from, to tell the old man he'd seen a real live seal in the lake. Never guessing he had been somewhere else entriely, and only slightly offended that Pettersson doesn't believe him about the seal, and how lonely it is.

Anyone watching would see a seal dive into the lake and emerge on the other side, closer to the forest, and then become a hawk which vanishes into the trees.