[FrostWynd]

"Hey, hey! Did you hear?"
"I certainly did! Is it true, Bess?"
"Yes! And they say it’s as big as a house!"
"Well I heard that it has lots of gnashing teeth that will pick our bones clean!"
"Oh my! I hope nobody gets hurt!"

This was all the animals ever talked about these last few days ever since news about some lost animal started spreading around on the farm. And quite frankly one of the resident barn cats, Bernie, was getting absolutely sick of it. As no matter where he went, somebody just had to talk about it.

[FrostWynd]

He didn't even know how some of these chains of strange rumors about it even started. All that could be confirmed for sure was how there were a lot of humans making a huge fuss about this whole thing around the farms, searching through every single nook and cranny they could get to. But nobody had actually found whatever it was supposed to be yet, and the description of it grew wilder and wilder by the day as information got spread around and mixed up thanks to some dull-witted birds squawking nonsense a lot of the time, until none of the animals around here had any actual clue about the truth anymore.

[FrostWynd]

All that he wanted was for this whole thing to go away already, so that he could spend his day without getting bothered by some random Roosken or Tuskow that found him during one of his lengthy naps. Even his own kin were becoming a massive pain in the neck! Even now as he was resting on a bale of hay with his paws tucked beneath him to soak up the warmth from the sun, a lighter colored Kuhna named Shelly decided to hop up onto his spot. She didn't say anything at first as she made herself comfortable at the edge, but it was only a matter of time before her voice grated on his ears. "Do you think we'll get to see that giant furless Yingsee lamb around here?"

[FrostWynd]

The tip of his tail would twitch in annoyance the moment she brought up the lost animal again. "No." He replied flatly, cracking open one eye to look over at her. "Don't you have someone else you can go bother? I've told you a thousand times to not bring that up with me." The makings of a growl rose up in his throat to make himself more clear on the matter when he saw her open up her mouth to probably say something equally annoying. He did not want to hear about it anymore. Period. No matter how bored Shelly was, she wasn't going to get him to change his mind.

[FrostWynd]

It seemed he managed to shut her up real quick, as her jaw clamped shut right after he shut down any further attempts of getting him to join in on pointless gossip and rumor spreading. Without another word he jerked his head in Shelly's direction, insisting for her to leave already. She looked disappointed, but quickly turned around the jump off from his perch, muttering something to herself that he only heard because of how quiet this spot was, just as he liked it. "I want to see it..."

[FrostWynd]

Bernie would pretty much just ignore the comment she made as she left, as it was also nothing more than nonsense to him. No matter if it was a Yingshee, Tuskow, Tali, Roosken, or whatever it may be, there was no way they would ever get to see this lost animal. Even after it was found, it would just be returned back to its home where it belongs. Plus he firmly believed that it was nowhere near this place, since nobody had seen anything come up yet around here.

[FrostWynd]

Even then, just for extra measure, he still prayed that it wouldn't be found on any farms around here. For if they did, then nobody would stop talking about it, and that would be a major nuisance for him. Until it was found anywhere else but here, it seemed like he was going to have to wait this whole thing out until interest died down and the animals stopped mentioning it.

With the blissful silence returned to him now that Shelly was long gone, Bernie would readjust himself on the sun baked hay to catch some extra z's before lunchtime came around. Rolling over onto his side and making himself comfortable, he quickly drifted off to sleep for a couple of hours.

[FrostWynd]

"Bernie! Berrrnieee!"

His nap would not last nearly as long as he'd hoped. "Uuuugh..." He grumbled indignantly, clearly not happy about someone trying to wake him up. In the attempt to ignore them, he tried to bury his face under his paws. But all that did was encourage them to bug him even more as he felt a paw nudging at his shoulder. "Bernie! Wake up."

"No... Go away..." Bernie then tried to wave a paw around in their direction to try and ward them off, being too sleepy to actually use his claws right now.

[FrostWynd]

Despite that, it seemed like it kind of worked. The paw that was one his shoulder was removed, and waving around his paw turned up nothing within reach. It just wasn't quite enough to actually get rid of them for good. "I can't, Bernie! This is important! Have you seen Shelly anywhere?" The other Kuhna sounded rather agitated as they asked him this, though he paid no attention to that detail when he replied back sharply. "Nope. Now get lost. Tryin' to sleep here."

[FrostWynd]

"Rrrrrr! Where could she be then? This isn't like her to just disappear!" They growled out in frustration, their paws crunching against the dried hay as they started pacing back and forth behind him.

"Wait what." Finally opening his eyes, he raised his head to look up at the Kuhna that had been bugging him. The irritated look now replaced with a confused one. "What do you mean, disappeared? She's gone?"

"Yes! Gone! Nobody has seen her since this morning, Bernie! She mentioned to Cotton that she was going to see you!"

[FrostWynd]

Now that didn't sound right. How could a farm filled with lots of animals not see one little cat? "Not possible. Somebody should have seen her somewhere!" He shot back. Eventually the strain of looking up at the other Kuhna with his head twisted around was started to wear his neck out, and he rolled himself around to fully face them properly. "You're sure you asked everyone?" There were enough around here that he wouldn't put it past this cat to have gotten lazy about it, and only spoke with a few of them.

[FrostWynd]

The question would make the other Kuhna stop to face him, and nod his head furiously. "Yes! I already said that!" Bernie was tempted to correct them, as "nobody" didn't exactly mean "everybody". But... seeing as how their ears were flattened against their head, looking seriously agitated and upset, he thought against doing that. Getting his lovely face torn up was the last thing he wanted. "Okay, okay, fine! Jeez.. So what do you want from me then?"

[FrostWynd]

At first they opened their mouth, as if to yell at him some more. But then they hesitated and closed it again for a moment. "I... I don't know! If you haven't seen her... Ugh! I just want to know that she's safe, and not hurt somewhere!" Aaaand there they go with the pacing again. He was going to start getting dizzy from watching them do this.

Shelly sure made a mess out of this one by up and vanishing.

[FrostWynd]

"Alright, stop, stop! You're givin' me a headache." Bernie finally interrupted when he could not stand seeing them wear down his haybale any longer. "Look, obviously you and the others are just gonna have to keep searching for her. So go. Stop wasting time here!" Standing himself up now that his nap had been completely ruined, he lifted up a paw to lightly nudge their shoulder to encourage them to go already. And stop wasting my time! He'd thought to himself right as he managed to get them to start leaving.

[FrostWynd]

It wouldn't be the fastest departure, as they would only hesitate about leaving at first. But soon they seemed to realized that Bernie was right, and finally gave in. "Y-yeah. You're right, we need to keep looking!" That was when they'd jump down from the haybale, and almost began walking back to the others. But they held back just long enough to look back at him, and said, "we could really use your help too. Please..." When that was done, the other cat would leave. Not sticking around long enough to hear the answer.