[PRP] Island Life (Hemlock x Travels in Circles)

[fluo]

Up and down she walks through the swamp, her little canines in tow. She looks for food, but just more than that, an adventure. She subsists off of adrenaline and rush of the hunt. From the looks of Wolsbane and Poppy, so do they. And right there is a ravine. My, how the rapids are fast. Perhaps she and her merry little gang can jump over or cross it. There's gotta be treasure over there, she reasons. Why else will an island so perilously closed off be so well guarded?

And if anything else, that does look like some fruit trees. All in all, not a bad gamble. She readies her canines. They look back expectantly. Good, they are all thinking the same thing.


Original

[fluo]

A brief, very brief, encounter with his half-siblings had made Travels in Circles itch. There just beneath his ribs where his mouth did not quite reach, no matter how his lips curled or his teeth tried to graze. It was undoubtedly the work of fleas. He wasn't at all sure why his half-siblings had fleas and had decided Mother would not take kindly to such a thing. Perhaps only one had fleas. Mutts had fleas and Hound's Tongue was not a mutt but one might call a mutt a hound... Not that he had ever heard of fleas being on tongue's but...

Oh. That train of thought was interrupted by the sight of an acha and two dogs. One see-through. Perhaps he could peer into their mouths. If they had fleas on their tongues then that ... well he had no idea what that would mean. Maybe they had given him fleas. Was that a nice thing or a mean thing, to be given fleas? A particularly insistent itch had him grazing along a tree.

Itch calmed, he turned his attention back to the trio. "What are you doing?" he called out. They looked frozen in place, ready and waiting, but for what he could not imagine. 

[fluo]

Ah. Another potential lost soul. Perhaps one she can add to her ranks. He was a mighty fine red with stripes and arrows to match. She hailed the stranger, a jaunty near swagger in her steps as she turned in his direction. But the ever steadfast canines do not sway in their focus. Eye on the prize, these ones.

"We are about to go to the island. There are little boulders or stepping stones, see? Last one there's a rotten egg." And with that she and her canines jump in the direction of the Island. The buck will jump if he knows what's good for him, she assures herself. A new adventure partner hopefully he was. 

[fluo]

He did not move right away; in fact he stared at the island a good deal longer than he should've until the blur of the trio distracted him. It was with a great deal of luck and not an ounce of grace that the buck bolted towards the shambles of a pathway, hooves sliding along rock and all sorts of bumbling. Indeed he skidded onto the "island", front legs bent awkwardly and butt high in the air, before turning his head to look for the doe and her dogs. He blew a breath of air at the tail hanging in his face, "Did I win?" 

[fluo]

Win? Did he win? Of course not. He was still on a boulder. She looked at her canines and they were equally befuddled. She breaks it down for him: "Hey, you have to jump over here, where we are."

She scales the boulders near where the buck is, cooing soft words of encouragement. "Come on, you can do it." It's as if she's encouraging a fresh filly.

He is definitely a rotten egg. The canines whine impatiently. 

[fluo]

The tail falls from his head, his derriere lowers, and he looks up. There's nothing in front of him. And then he hears the voice and turns. Ah. It appears he got turned around. He smiled at the encouragement and raises himself up onto his hooves.

"Of course I can." He replies without mentioning he doesn't know what it is. But if she thinks he can do it, well that's good enough for him.

He edges back before barreling forward -- he probably should have asked her to move before he did that -- and is once more bumbling his way from boulder to boulder. But this time he sees the island. This time he...

He looks at the canines, his front hooves on the island and his back hooves on a boulder. He must not have jumped as far as he thought that time. 

[fluo]

Poppy snarls in irritation. Wolfsbane whines, desiring to nudge the buck's hooves off the island. He wags his tail feverishly while looking at Hemlock. He's asking for permission. Hemlock knows exactly what he wants and shakes her head no. Not this time.

She tries to muster up an encouraging smile but it feels too forced. Instead she splashes water at his flank.

"Hey, Slowpoke. We don't have all day." Where niceness failed perhaps bullying might work. It was still friendly. 

[fluo]

The snarls and whines do not bother him. He pulls himself up onto the island, then turns back to Hemlock. "Now what?" he asks. His tail swishes, a fine temptation for the dogs, as he waits for the doe to announce the next move.

It doesn't take long for his attention to wander. A moth flits and flutters, down down down, and he eyes it as it falls below his line of sight. He shifts, turning into a u, as the insect strays terribly close to the canines. 

[fluo]

Wolfsbane snaps his jaws right in front of the red buck's face. It's no longer a friendly warning. It's a straight "I don't like you" movement. It catches Poppy and Hemlock off guard, causing the latter to slightly punt at her canine. "Not nice" she murmurs.

She turns to address the red buck who is totally not paying attention to them or anything going on.

"Waterfall. I hear one. Let's go there. FOLLOW US." She's terrible at leading really, she winds through the trees and jumps and shimmies, all without a trace save some flitting shadows. 

[fluo]

The snap forces the buck's head back on instinct but he merely smiles. "He has very nice teeth. You should find him a mint plant, his breath is strong." He is oblivious to Hemlock's reprimand of her dog. But is paying enough attention to hear about the waterfall and he takes off after them.

He's better at following than he is at finding and by sheer dumb luck manages to stay relatively within sight of the trio. Even better he manages not to trip or stumble, it seems his gracelessness is reserved for boulder jumping. 

[fluo]

Hemlock whistles slow and low, she's impressed. She's aware enough to know she is terribly at leading when someone is supposed to be following. She's lost many trust recruits before. They either got lost or eaten. They're at the heart of the island. She hears the waterfall and sees the water in the near distance. But to get to the water...

there are more boulders

With a wink and a encouraging smile she tosses off in the direction of the boulders, her light, dainty frame dancing on the boulders. She looks back at her new red friend. Taken back that she doesn't know his name. Well, she'll have to ask him when he gets to her. There's quite a distance.

"I see the waterfall now!" she bellows above the sound of the rushing waterfall. Her canines wag their tail, Poppy dipping her nose into the cold, cold water. 

[fluo]

More boulders. All right then. He takes a running leap and once again skids and slides his way across until he comes to one directly underneath the fall of icy water. On that one he finds his front hooves sliding out from under him, back legs lost, until he is sprawled out on his belly. Somehow he has managed to turn, his back being drenched by the falls as he stares at the trio. And still he grins.

"A lovely spot for a bath. Maybe that will drown out the fleas." The latter remarks to himself. Pleased. 

[fluo]

Her laughter is shortlived as she hears the mentioning of fleas. FLEAS? She eyes her canines. And smooths her ruffled fur. Cold water would drown the fleas so no need to worry. They would get wet soon enough. Yes, so that would flush the fleas. She eyes her dogs warily. They did get quite close to her red friend. But she calms her worries. Cold water is a good shock to any system.

"Bravo, bravo, friend." She dunks her small frame in and the dogs follow suit. Soon enough they're shaggy and wet like the red one. One dog shakes off, the other follows and Hemlock indulges in a brisk frisk herself. Now onto claiming the island...

"Let's climb to the very top of the mountains .There will be more boulders, but no more skipping stones." She flies off without looking back to see if he hears her. 

[fluo]

He is surprisingly alert, attentive, to Hemlock. Even as he pulls himself up and gives a toss of his head, nothing distracts him. Then he may only be trying to figure out where that fluorescent green goo came from. He doesn't have time to form a guess. She, all flighty sprite, bounds off and he follows. 

[fluo]

Her merry little gang dances, the greenery whizzing by them as they careen to a fierce stop. There, a cliff. Or, to the left, another journey opens up. Confidently she canters to the lip of the cliff. She kicks a pebble and strains to here it finally plop into the water. Grinning, she looks back at the only other sensible person of input.

"Hmmm, friend. Shall we jump or keep on going?" Six eyes are suddenly on the red, still nameless buck.