“Ummm...maybe?”

If it was possible Aoife felt her heat pound even faster in her chest and she hesitantly peeled back an eye lid revealing a green iris. She found Aerin cuddling one of the little beasts things kneazels. Both eyes wide open now she cleared her throat and licked her lips. She felt like she ought to declare how adorable, Sir Billy or Bobby or whatever they called the thing, was. She was positive though that Aerin would know it was a lie. Aoife didn’t think Sir Billy bob was even remotely cute, with his pointy teeth and not to mention the claws. Kneazels were even more terrifying than the regular kind of cat. Their eyes held way too much intelligence- more than any animal should have.

“I-I, I guess I don’t like kneazels...”

She was stating the obvious. Aerin was bound to have noticed her unease around Sir Bilbo. Sinking further back into the chair she observed the cat

“How can you, touch it?” she asked genuinely puzzled and curious.

If Aerin could pet it and hug it why couldn’t she? Fears were made to be overcome although Aoife wasn’t sure she was quite ready to face this one, not yet. She brought her shaking hand closer to the table but the moment the kneazel moved an inch she pulled it back immediately. Nope definitely not ready for that yet.

Aoife wasn’t sure when her fear of cats (and kneazels in particular) had been born. She had read an awful lot about kneazels in order to understand the crafty felines. They were described as aggressive and intelligent and while she could sort of respect the smart part she was even more put off when she found out just how dangerous the animals could be. It confirmed all her worst nightmares and there was no way she would be able to force warm and friendly images to come to her mind when she saw one.