Lorna sighed, Rikki's persistence was getting more annoying. Why was he so interested in her anyways? Turning to face the raccoon completely she said, "I told you what was wrong, i'm looking for a new home. No stupid human is bothering me or anything, so just stop." The wolf crossed her arms, hoping to get her point across.

Rikki stared back at her, straight into her eyes: he knew she was lying.

Lorna waited for a response, but the raccoon just stared at her. "Why do you care so much, huh? I just met you only a few minutes ago." She kept her arms cross, continuing to stare right back. The wolf was debating whether or not all this trouble was worth the water she had hoped to be brought to.

Rikki stared at her a moment longer before responding, "Fine." he waved it off and kept walking, "If you don't wanna tell me, I can't make you. You can change your mind at any time..."

Lorna let out a sigh, following behind the raccoon. "I'm telling you the truth, no human is bothering me. There definitely annoying, but I don't plan on messing with them again." She watched the ground as they went, being reminded again of her situation. "Nothing but pain," she spoke this softly, but audibly. She hated how things turned out, and now she was on her own.

Rikki fell back a little to get back to walking next to her. He nodded at her comment, "I know what you mean, humans can..." he stared off to the side for a moment, "Humans can do some pretty bad things..." He looked ahead again, "But they're not all that bad. Jack and the other rangers are pretty good people, even Roger... And I've met a few more..." he thought briefly of Matt, and also that one human who had the gun-range beneath his house... He hadn't seen either of them in a long time...

Lorna glanced over at Rikki as he walked beside her, getting more interested in the strange animal. "I've only met one nice human, and even then I'm not sure if he had honest intentions. Hidden motives maybe..." She trailed off as she thought for a moment. "I don't plan on meeting anymore, too much trouble. Can't rely on them for anything..." Lorna turned her gaze back to the earth's floor, feeling a bit relieved to talk about such things.

*******

"You better hold on," Sam smiled as she grabbed onto the merry-go-round. Bracing herself, she began to push the device. Going slow but quickly building up speed as she ran in a circle. When she figured it was fast enough she jumped on to enjoy the ride.

"I can understand that..." Rikki said, "I'm not sure how I feel about all of them either... Jack's a good friend though..." he looked ahead, "Yeah, the stream is right up here..." sure enough, the sound of trickling water could be heard up ahead.

Not too far away was a small brook, which had sides that suggested that the water level was about a foot lower than usual. At the bottom of it though, there was still a steady stream of clear water a few inches deep running over and around the polished rocks which lined its bed...

Lorna's facial expressions lit up as the stream came into view, tail moving a bit more quickly. "Finally!" She smiled and ran to the stream, happy something good had finally happened that day. The stream wasn't as big as she expected, but that didn't matter now. Fresh, clear clean water was there for her. Dropping to her knees, she cupped water into her paws as best as she could and lapped it up. Doing this process a few times before feeling satisfied, re-positioning herself to sit beside the stream. "Ah, that's so much better then dying of thirst." Her tail wagged lazily as she rested, feeling much better now.

Rikki walked calmly over to the stream, walked through it downstream of where Lorna had crouched, and dropped to all fours across from her, sticking his muzzle in and drinking like that for a moment before leaning back himself. "Yeah, this runs from a lake a ways out there." he waved in the direction of the massive lake, "I think someone told me it comes from a place where snow melted or something, from the winter, but I'm not sure how that works. I just know it's really high in the spring and gets lower until the winter, when it turns into ice..." he looked up at the sky through the trees, "That's comin' up pretty soon..." he looked down and ran his fingers through his fur, which was starting to get a bit longer and fluffier. He looked back up, "So... I take it there weren't many good streams between here and Yorkshire? I heard they got 'po-lew-tehd' or something..."

Lorna watched curiously as Rikki drank from the stream. 'I guess that's how most wild animals would drink.' She took in the surroundings before replying. "Polluted? I dunno, I didn't run into any. Where I used to live was a small pond, but it's just a hole now...I never did find another one." She shrugged, looking down to watch the water flow by. "Sounds like you have plenty here though, that and I'm sure you could get some from your ranger buddies." Just then her stomach growled briefly, reminded on how she hadn't eaten much all day. 'Probably gets food from them too...The luxury of humans.'

Arin had grown a little used to Kat's hyper sci-fi talk, giggling to herself, and leaning against Spike as they waited for Alex to be back. She didn't really feel like snacking, though.

"Nice to meet you," Max said, starting to make a small sand castle. "so, did you just get here too or have you been here a while? I've met a lot of people who just got here..."

ooc:(sorry for delay, wound up swamped this week.)

Despite the fact she started off slow enough, he made as much noise as possible. Barking excessively urging her to go faster. Of course once she hopped on, he hugged the main bar and let his tongue hang loose as the thing spun. For a new guy, he obviously seemed to enjoy even simple things. "Yaaaaaay!"

"I have been living here with Matt and Frank for awhile." Darin watched curiously as the cat began to build with the sand. "What are you making?"

***********

Sam couldn't help but laugh as they spun, Therin's excitement was too amusing. She hung on tightly as they went, enjoying her fur being blown as they went. Her tail wagged happily behind her, "Woo-hoo!"

"I'm making a sand castle," Max said, leaning forward to scoop sand up into a small tower. As he moved, Nate fell off his shoulder and landed next to the castle.

"AHHH!" Nate screamed as he fell, until he managed to recover and scramble out of the little pit Max had just dug.

Darin jumped slightly, startled from the squeaky yell and the sudden appearance of the mouse. He hadn't noticed it before, the sun making it hard to have seen the mouse on the cat's shoulder. That and the mouse smelt of the cat, which Darin realized as he bent down and sniffed at the mouse. "Is that your mouse?" He sat back up and looked to Max, wondering why he had a mouse with him.

"Yeah, Yeah, I know where it is... You know I spend a lot of time here." Varg replied "Anyway, be back soon." The wolf said, heading for the bathroom.

[/quote]
"Half of those don't work." Rion whispered in Kat's ear.


"Whoa, whoa, slow down." Rion tried to calm Kat. "Don't get so excited just yet. Knowing Alexander, he'll probably give us quite the show, so let's save the excitement for then, okay?"

[OOC: sorry for the long break, had to put some stuff in motion.]

Nate looked up and saw the wolf. From his low angle in the trench, he only saw its head and focused more on the teeth than anything else. He squeaked in terror again and hid behind one of Max's back legs. It wasn't exactly the best idea, but it was better than facing a wolf.

"That's Nate..." Max said, "through... some very odd circumstances, he's my adopted brother..."

Darin tilted his head slightly, "Adopted brother?" The wolf pup leaned to try and get a another look of the mouse, but couldn't see him. Truly confused he asked,"Why?" He didn't understand why anyone would mess around with their food like that.

"Well, I was adopted by my own/dad out of a pound... And unfortunately, the mouse came as a package deal," Max said, "and bad things are going to happen to me if anything happens to him... So... he's really not allowed to be my prey." He worked on building up the base of his sand-towers, one layer at a time. Meanwhile, the mouse continued to hide.

He barely heard it, the sound of Sam's enjoyment before it was whisked away, of course they weren't going as fast as possible. Still, any event thats fun can be made better with a friend, and as far as Therin was concerned. Sam was a friend. So he kept holding tight waiting for it to slow down enough to get off. Though his tail wagged behind him enough to count as a broom. He let his tongue loll out like he did in the car. Thus, the reason the Merry-Go-Round was his favorite.

Darin thought for a moment, watching max build with the sand. He turned back to look at the feline, "What kind of bad things?" He paused, trying to reason why eating a mouse would be a bad thing. "Does your owner really like mouses as pets?"

******

Sam smiled, the ride slowly coming to a stop. She stood up straight from her previously bent position from holding the railing. "How was that, fast enough for you?" Her tail wagged lazily behind her, waiting for Therin to respond.

This was a question Max hadn't quite planned for. Why are pups so curious. he thought to himself before answering. "Its complicated," he said, "in the worst case, I die... And I prefer not to take that chance."

Darin was only get more confused, why was eating a mouse so bad? "Is it poisonous? I never heard of a poisonous rat before..." The pup figured some plants were dangerous to eat, could animals be the same way?

"No, he's not poisionous," Max said, "but my dad and someone from the animal shelter would probably kill me." He moved on to making an outer wall around the center tower.

"Humans are weird." Darin dismissed the subject, not wanting to pursue the subject anymore. Instead he turned his attention back to what Max was creating with the sand. "You're really good at that. I have buckets that make that for me, but you did it with nothing." He studied the feline's work for a few seconds before looking up at Max. "Do you play in the sand a lot?"

"Sometimes, I make things with whatever I get," Max said, which was pretty much true. Mice built their little homes out of whatever wasn't guarded by a predator. Its just that, as a cat, he didn't quite need that skill for home making, now it was just a hobby. "It just takes a bit of time."

"What kind of things?" Darin began to work on building his own little tower, having trouble with out his tools (Sand toys). "Other stuff besides sand castles?"

"It varies," Max said, "I've made some tools, a little shelter, just, simple things."

Darin worked on his sand tower, "That's neat." He kept his attention on his little tower, trying to make it just right. The pup tried adding more sand, but the tower crumbled. "Aww.."

Max crawled over to help the wolf pup with his tower. He sat across from him and started moving some sand, "Let me help with that," he said, starting to pile up a messy tower.

When he moved, Nate was exposed. He looked up at the giant knee he had hidden behind moving away. So, he chased after it and wound up half-pinned under it when it sat down. He really hated being a mouse.

((:3 Female counterpart demanded my attention as it was so gladly given. Back though.))

Therin smiled to her and gave her a thumbs up tail wagging, he would sit there for the moment trying to pass off that he wasn't dizzy...which in fact he was and would flop if he tried to stand. To his logic, he was so dizzy his words would come out jumbled.

Darin smiled, "Thanks." The pup's tail wagged as he watched the cat reassmble his sand tower, paying attention and trying to learn from the cat. After a few moments Darin realized he had forgotten about the mouse and looked for where he had gone, lean to his left and right to see around Max. "Where did your mouse go?"

********

Sam smirked, crossing her arms. "All I get for that is a thumbs up?" She chuckled, quickly turning off the false mood and hopping off the merry go round. "You want to do this again or try something else?"

Giving off a soft chuckle in reply he slid off the merry-go-round to give her a quircked brow "Isn't it my turn to spin you? If you want to do something else, sure. I just don't want to skimp out on your turn." To be honest, he did want to try something else, but he didn't want to cheap her out of anything.

"Nate?" Max asked, looking around. It took him a few minutes until he found the little mouse under his leg. He shifted and pushed the rodent out. "Apparently hiding from the sun." Of course, the mouse was angry at being exposed and happy to be let out. He didn't know quite how to react.

Sam shrugged, "Up to you, I don't care if you owe me a turn." She looked around the play ground, taking notice of Max. She turned back to Therin, "You wanna do something else?"

***********

Darin watched the mouse, never having interected with one before."Is he always like that, or is it a mouse thing?" He continued to watch Nate, looking to see if he'd speak or do anything.

Mystic remained quiet in the place. He really didn't like gatherings, he just lowered his ears to hear less noise than there was and closed his eyes, thinking. "An alien device...? Welp, if Alexander says so...". Then he asked Alexander: "And there is no way to 'attack' that 'immune system'...?"

Kat began to breathe again. "I guess you're right, Ri. thanks."

Spike got over his distraction and put his arm around Arin's shoulder, turning his head to kiss hers.

"Kinda both," Max said, "there's timid mice, brave mice and then there's Nate... He'd run from his shadow if he could."

Nate was silent and pretty much tried to stay hidden. He didn't quite like other pets, least of all giant predators.

--Meanwhile--

Thor sat in the van, luckily not too crammed in. It could hold something like 16 people if packed wall to wall and if a few people had no seat belts on. Today, it only had three humans and two cats total, so, it was fairly comfortable, despite the long drive. Their 'dad' would have been in there too, but, he was driving in the little truck in front of them. So, lots of room.

Next to him, he saw Loki hugging his tail like a pillow for the long drive. It was, somewhat annoying but he'd had to get used to it. He had his nook out in front of him to read some books. More or less it was the MIT Guide to Pranks. Anyone who's ever been to MIT knows that they are the kings of pranking, with feats such as stealing a police car, disassembling it, breaking into a government building, and reassembling the car on said buiding's roof without ever being caught and with the car working the first time they started it.

More or less it was the complete guide of the legends on how to do mischief.

At around page 400 he looked up to see them nearing their new home. The truck was already backed into the driveway ahead. As they pulled in, he flicked his tail a bit to try and stir Loki.