Ank lay out in the sunlight. It was a boring day. A lazy day. The rain had come earlier that morning and soaked the ground but now, with the exception of a patch beneath the tree, it was nearly all dry. Soon, perhaps tomorrow but soon, it would begin to crack again. After all, it hadn't been a whole lot of rain. For now though she was happy laying in the damp spot beneath the shady old tree. Unfortunately, good things never seemed to last long. There had been flies about all morning. It was inevitable that there would be, really. Often she need only to flick them off her ear and they would buzz off upon their own little merry ways to little adventures or just to find some place else on her slate tone fur to land and pester her once again. It was a bit of a nuance, but not a terrible one. She'd spent the greater part of the morning that way, but now it seemed the flies were congregating in droves. Why they'd chose to do so upon her she hadn't the slightest clue, but here they were none the less. For a while longer she simply lay there, limp and lazy, and continued flicking her ears and tail about in an effort to keep them at bay. The flies seemed to be slowing down in the heat themselves though and after a while refused to fly away with even her most persistent flicking and whippings.Growing frustrated she pulled herself up to her feet and dragged herself over to one of the drier patches of dirt out in the sun. There she dropped to her side and rolled furiously, trying to get the lazy, persistent flies to leave her alone. Some of them left but the ones that remained only grew aggravated by her attempts to rid herself of them. These ones, when they could land, began to bite at any soft place they could find. Now, yelping in pain and frustration, Ank tried snapping back at the flies. If she couldn't get them to leave maybe at least she could get herself a bit of a snack before her night time hunt. This, it turns out, did little better then trying to roll them away. She did manage to catch a few but there were simply too many for her to make a significant dent in their numbers.
Her laziness forgotten she got to her feet once again and began running in the direction of the nearest water hole. If dust didn't work, then water. If water didn't work, then gods help her she was going to roll in the mud. The numbers of flies had decreased significantly since she'd began this little ordeal but in her mind's eye she was sure she was being trailed by an entire swarm of the evil little bugs.
Reaching the water she paused only a few moments to be sure that there was no visible danger (this hole wasn't known to harbor crocodiles but one could never be sure about the other predators) before backing up a step then taking a running leap into the cool waters. She figured she must have looked like a real sight, but there was no helping it. The bugs had to go one way or another.
Her belly made contact with the water first, making a loud slap and causing quite the sting before she sunk beneath the water. Painful, but once submerged she could feel no new bites coming from the little mouths and for that at least she was grateful. She held her breath as long as she could, then surfaced, gasping for air. She barely let herself catch her breath before diving again and swimming away from the place where she'd originally dove into the water. She held her breath here until she was nearly blue in the face, then she held it a bit longer before surfacing half way across the little watering hole. A few little fish had swum over to inspect her but they didn't bite so she didn't mind them the least bit. If she'd been offered a choice between the little flies or the curious fish she would have taken the little fishes any old time.
Fortunately for her the flies didn't have the attention span to follow her very far once she was submerged so she managed to swim the rest of the way to the other side and then crawl out safely on the shore. Here caught her breath briefly before curling over and biting at some of the worst bites on one of her back legs. Most of them were sore. The ones that weren't sore were already starting to itch. She sat back on her rump and turned to look at the mud by the water. She'd feel gross, but it would cool a lot of the worst injuries. Sighing, she stepped over to the mud so she could roll about and sooth her itching belly.
She rolled a bit longer then she'd originally intended, wanting to make sure she did a through job before she left to go lay under her tree again. Once she felt significantly gross she got up and sauntered back toward the place she'd originally been resting. It was a bit of a walk when she wasn't running though and by the time she was back to her tree the mud had nearly dried up. Sighing contently and vowing that she'd go rinse the rest of the dirt off later she flopped down and resumed her nap.
Barely a few minutes later something tickled at her ear. She flicked, then waited. Soon it was back. this time on her flank, her nose, her lip, her ear. Flick, flick, flick. The biting ones were not back, though, so as long as they didn't come in great numbers again there was nothing that could drag her out from under her shady and (now increasingly) muddy tree.
This was going to be a long, happy, and lazy day.
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