Heron Lake Plateau how many people have to pretend to die.

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Seriously? Niamh couldn't take Finley seriously...But at the same time, did she really want to piss off the Xenomorph queen? This was Colt's older sister, and Niamh wanted to keep whatever good impression she had at the moment- knowing that she would inevitably one day screw it up....Until she had his children- at least then she figured that she'd be safe...Though she still fully expected Finley to look down on her inadequate parenting skills. Especially if she'd ever caught wind of the fact that Niamh had basically taught Cinder how to throw rocks and she'd tried to teach Tywyll to befriend trespassers in order to get closer to them so that attacking was easier. This was probably just payback for the poor influence she'd had on Finley's kids. 

She sighed, and finally decided that it didn't matter. It was just a tree, and Finley had had a point- she needed to be a bit closer to it the next time, maybe. If Finley was trying to call her bluff, then Niamh was going to raise the bet. She tilted her head to the side, rolled her shoulders, and gave Finley a half-grin. "Mouse it is, then," She said, and without hesitation, she launched herself toward the tree again. 

To say she was successful would be a long-shot. The hawk, perturbed by the creature that was much more of a nuisance than it was a threat, took off with the mouse in its claws the moment that Niamh's front feet hit the tree. She kicked off the ground pretty hard and reached the first branch with one bound- managing to actually get her hind feet up on it this time. She then propelled herself shakily upwards and managed to touch a higher branch with her front feet, but that wasn't going to do it. She grabbed hold with her teeth and dangled, then, swinging slightly back and forth as her teeth gritted into the bark. She moaned slightly, looking sideways to try and see where the branch was below her and managed to find it with one hind toe. Even then, the distance between the lowest branch- where her hind toes hovered- and the one she gripped with her teeth was too much for her to stand for very long. 

"Trr brr errnest," She said, through gritted teeth, "Err drrn't plrrn thss errt vrrr werll." She said, just as one of her hind feet lost its traction on the branch below. She growled softly and tightened her grip on the higher branch while trying to fish for the lower branch with her hind foot again, more or less looking like an odd tree ornament. 

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