[WP04] Sleepless & Bitter End

[Jun D]

At first, Sleepless had thought that getting stuck in the mud was the best thing that could ever happen to Bitter End. The "near"-death experience had left the pastel doe more humbled than she had ever witnessed her (humbled to a Bitter End extent, at least), and the gratitude she has expressed to her motley bunch of (ridiculously good-looking) rescuers had actually sounded, almost unbelievably, considering who it was, genuine. And for the time that they walked after, mud caked and slowly drying all over that green and blue pelt, she had been - blessedly - silent, looking contemplative...perhaps even...pensive. When Sleepless had (with much trepidation) asked if she were alright, Bitter End had smiled - actually smiled! - instead of launching into some melodramatic diatribe, or smugly declaring the evident value of her inflated sense of self to the Swampmother...and nodded. She was like, Sleepless had marvelled, a doe transformed.

Perhaps, Sleepless had thought, with an unfamiliar, wildly growing, hope, she could finally explain that the legendary Swamp Root they were in desperate search of was an utter entire invention and not get murdered for it. And then she could finally be freed from this ridiculous goose chase, and return home - home! - to her nice, quiet, isolated little patch, with her specimens, and research, and neatly-marked findings…

She was still dreaming of that when they’d finally come upon a clear, little pool, perfectly suited to a much-needed bath...and with the mud, Bitter End’s new-found temperance seemed to slough right off.

So Sleepless was back to sulking again, grinding her teeth as she trailed behind the bounding Bitter End and her alternating outbursts of loud ignorance and smug arrogance. A tiny part of her was still reflexively peering around for means of escape - but the rest of her already knew it was a hopeless cause.

She was caught in this personal hell.

Forever.  

[Maxx D]

"I wish you had more specific instructions for that root," she said, trotting along and tossing her now free and luxurious mane. "I'm getting impatient. Killing him can't wait my entire lifetime - I'll be stuck with you forever."

Bitter End had started the sentence a little annoyedly, but stated the last part quite airily, as if she didn't mind that at all. At this point, she did not, since Sleepless had kept well at her heels through their current trek. She was even following well enough at times to be a non-entity as she considered the more important things in life, and related her theories of the swamp. It was nice to get it all out without the condescension of her own mother.

"But I trust you." She asserted, an admission she felt was quite important, and fell appropriately silent to graciously let Sleepless to take that in. It was then that her hoof encountered something, and she stopped in her tracks before she tripped on it.

The doe looked down. It was an orange.

She then looked up to see the sea of oranges, and tilted her head. Wading her way through the oranges, she ran them into the orchard's keeper, and upon the promise of something good...she turned eagerly to Sleepless, now being the cause of the delay herself (again): "let's gather oranges." She ordered, with a determined grin. "It's about time to eat anyway."  

[Jun D]

“Anything to shut you up,” she’d muttered (very softly so that Bitter End wouldn’t actually hear), but, to be honest, the prospect of herding oranges wasn’t exactly an unwelcome one. The sheer number of them littered about the ground was, for one, undeniably impressive - it was difficult to take five steps into the grove without sending one rolling. And each round globe did look...well...alluringly delicious.

Sleepless nodded at the doe who seemed to be in charge of all this gathering with an awkward smile of sorts, and started to roll a perfectly plump orange towards a good piling spot.  

[Maxx D]

Bitter End, with a slight competitive urge, staggered her steps, attempting to shuttle a bunch of them with all her hooves. A dodge here, and shuffle there and she managed to send four gently rolling between her legs to a End-designated area for her to horde as many as she could handle. She flipped her mane back with a triumphant look, and trotted away to get more.  

[Jun D]

Satisfied with the stability of her piling spot, Sleepless rolled over three more oranges of comparable size and firmness to form a neat quartet.  

[Maxx D]

Since that technique worked, she figured she may as well do it again. She waddled to a good gathering of oranges on the ground and with hilarious, bizarre but effective scuttling, succeeded in transporting yet another four oranges to her pile. A self-satisfied smile was plastered on her face.  

[Jun D]

Carefully, Sleepless selected yet another orange just like the four she had already herded, and placed it just so on top of the quartet to form a perfect pyramid.  

[Maxx D]

Oh yeah! She was a lean mean orange-gathering machine! She was almost in a shuddery dance now, the oranges pinging against her hooves and surprisingly not bruising as she rolled them merrily over to her growing cache of fruit, like a strange, large and pastel crab scuttling across sand.  

[Jun D]

Feeling quite pleased with her beautifully constructed pyramid, Sleepless glanced over at Bitter End's progress - and double-took as she realised that the other doe had already gathered twice...why, OVER twice the number of oranges she had! An ugly fire flickered in her belly, and with a little less grace and precision, she shoved four more oranges into her piling spot.  

[Maxx D]

The impeccable rhythm of her hooves tossed the four oranges into her expanding pile, and she ducked out for more - more! She was burning the ground up! With a flourish of her mane, she gathered another batch with a swipe of her leg, and jauntily pranced them back to where all the oranges should be - with her.  

[Jun D]

Unbelievable! The speed with which Bitter End maneuvered her oranges was just unbelievable! Despite the fact that it looked frankly ridiculous, despite the fact that she was hardly so athletic, despite the fact that they were just gathering oranges, for crying out loud...Sleepless scuttled forth to replicate that technique.

...But she was hardly the expert that Bitter End was, and only managed to retrieve two, tripping over, flailing about, and finally accidentally squashing the other two. Oops.  

[Maxx D]

A dark laugh emanated from her trembling body, trembling with orange-gathering POWER! She glanced momentarily at Sleepless' collection with a petty smile - of course. Of course. She had to be better at something! This was a terribly ridiculous thing to be superior about, but Bitter End took what she could get where she could get it. Right now, she found solace in collecting oranges, and so she embarked on it with ferocity and funky dancing.  

[Jun D]

Bitter End LAUGHED. Bitter End was LAUGHING at HER. Full of hate and righteous fury, she pulled herself upright and kicked an orange into her pile, glaring with fiery loathing...and thoughtfully punted another orange towards the other doe's occupied hooves...  

[Maxx D]

Of course the universe - her orange-collecting universe - would collapse upon her as soon as she acknowledged her own superiority (at least, in front of someone else). While revelling in her funny little steps she failed to notice a stray orange shooting her way, hoof accidentally stomping onto its juicy and ripe roundness, and slipped dramatically in her scuttling to land face-first into the hard ground.

At this moment, only one of her oranges flew from a flailing limb to arc into her pile exactly. It would've been impressive had she not been face-first in the ground, whining and growling.  

[Jun D]

“Heheheheheh,” Sleepless was so busy sniggering at Bitter End's ridiculous state, she managed only to herd two oranges into the only-very-slowly growing pile...but it was well worth it, “heheh.”