fandomtownies | The Woods, Saturday Late Afternoon

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The Woods, Saturday Late Afternoon

When they sat down and really thought about it, April and Mal decided that obviously, the best activity that two Lumberjanes could do together (the best friendly activity, anyway) was to explore the woods together. It was just what they knew.

So yes, April and Mal were going on an adventure!

April had her notebook, Mal had the flashlight, and they were ready to meet some teal deer or anything else that came their way!

[[open to all! who doesn't want to explore the woods on an event weekend?]]

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"I should warn you, I'm kind of rusty at this," Mal admitted as she stepped over a log.

"Oh come on, it'll all come back to you!" April exclaimed, hopping over the same log with considerably more enthusiasm. "It's in your blood, Mal."

"In my blood? Really?" Mal asked, grinning despite herself. "Would that be the gay blood or the Korean blood?"

"Come onnnn," April teased. "Don't make me do the pledge."

"Okay, okay," Mal surrendered. "I am a champion hiker and explorer of nature because my summer at scouting camp filled me with outdoorsy blood."

"And don't you forget it," April declared happily. "Now which way should we go?"

Mal surveyed the various options. Trees, trees, more trees with squirrels in them...

"This way," she decided, turning at random. "What do you think we're actually gonna find out here?"

"Hopefully some type of monster," April sighed. "It's been a while."

Seeing Mal's expression, she said, "Kidding. Well, one guy told me he saw a teal deer out here. And the squirrels all have little notebooks. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine."

Mal considered that. That didn't sound too bad.

"You know what I'm in the mood for?" she said suddenly. "Riddles. Let's find a magical creature to give us a riddle to solve."

"That's a great goal, Mal!" April encouraged her. She flipped her notebook to the next page and jotted down the word RIDDLES in big, bubbly letters, then circled it. "Let's see what we can find!"

Hanna was -- avoiding everyone. Everything.

She did not want to think about parents. Absent parents. Pseudo-parents. Unknown parents. Everything else. No.

So she was running, running a lot. And finally taking a break, lying down in the center of those strange stone angels, their predatory fingers reaching far over her head toward some unknown prey.

As April and Mal approached the statues, the sounds of their conversation would start to sound closer and closer to Hanna.

"Do you think that was a person running?" April was saying.

"It sounded like a person," Mal replied. "I hope they weren't being chased. Wait, what are these things?"

Then there was a crunching of leaves, and suddenly Mal and April were in Hanna's clearing.

"Oh, hi," Mal said lamely. "I didn't mean to bother you. Um, are you okay?"

Hanna sat up abruptly, face going hot. "Hello." She waved awkwardly to April. "April. And friend." Oh, right. He'd asked her a question. "...no?"

She wasn't bothered yet, anyway. This didn't look too weird, did it, lying under terrifying statues? ... what was the question?

"Hi, Hanna," April said, coming to a stop just behind Mal. Shorter legs, you know. "You're not hurt, are you?"

Her eyes were bright with concern, because she was a caretaker like that.

"This is Mal. She's my friend from camp. Mal, Hanna."

Hanna scrambled the rest of the way to her feet, avoiding the outstretched arms of the angels easily, then picked her way out of their center clearing. "Just taking a rest. I was running, and this is a ... good place to think." She cleared her throat, slightly embarrassed. "Hello. You are showing her around the island?"

"The woods help me think too," April agreed with a grin. "I like listening to sounds that aren't just people talking and their phones going off, you know?"

She was being careful with Hanna on purpose - it seemed obvious that Hanna wasn't in the best mood today, and a few different possibilities for reasons why that might be were starting to cycle through her head.

"Yeah, she's just visiting for the weekend," she added in answer to Hanna's question. "I wanted to show her my favorite place."

Hanna gave a small smile of relief back, and said, "The woods are my favorite. And the Rocky Bits. Challenging, to try and climb them." She bit her lip. "I don't want to intrude, if your friend is only here this weekend."

"Are you kidding? I can't spend the whole weekend only talking to April, I'd die of boredom," Mal assured her, grinning. "Sounds like you're pretty outdoorsy. Do you ever just camp out here?"

She could already tell these woods would be a great place to spend a night or two.

"Sometimes," Hanna admitted, falling into step with them. "I grew up in a forest. Different from this one, but. I miss it sometimes." She peered at them from behind her hair. "How long have you known each other?"

"Just since the summer," Mal said. Although there was some time-perception madness in there, and their eight-week summer session at Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's Camp for Hardcore Lady Types had felt about five or six months long.

"We were scouts together, so it was a lot of forest immersion. You know, I didn't think I'd like it, but it was great. Still don't like bugs, though."

"There weren't as many in Finland," Hanna said in amusement. "But it was much colder, of course... Have you seen the beach on this side of the island? It's very pretty. And some of the streams run into it, in little waterfalls."

"I love the beach," April said wistfully. "But Mal isn't the biggest fan of water."

"I just don't think we need to be getting into bodies of water that probably have living creatures we don't know about in them," Mal protested as justification. "But it's nice to look at. From a safe distance. Like those binoculars they have at boardwalks."

Hanna giggled, enjoying their byplay. "Have you seen any of the wildlife yet?"

Well, she knew they hadn't run into an Alot yet.

"Actually, we were wondering what wildlife there even is here," April said. "Have you seen any?"

"Some. The fish are-- unique," Hanna observed. "And, the deer are blue? I think that is the word."

Teal, dear.

"They sound beautiful," April sighed. "I want to meet a deer."

Mal stifled a snicker, but April was totally serious. Because of course she was.

"I have heard," Hanna said carefully, "that they are attracted to long speeches. I do not talk much, myself. But."

But she still remembered the way all the deer followed Mr. Hardison when she'd kidnapped Older Him.

"I think that might work. They like the sound of human voices."

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The Woods, Saturday Late Afternoon

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