Wow, you talks just like human owners do!! An i'll have you know, i haven't thrown a rider since they said the next time it happened, they was going to.. umm I haven't lost a rider since i was a colt..

"Got a lot of experience with animals who need talking to like that, col... uh... stallion." Cinnamon rather thinks this horse still has more of a little colt still in his make-up, but the last thing he wants to do is offend him. He hopes he didn't notice the slip.

Does this mean i have to make the WeeeOOOOO WeeeOOOOO sound?? Moonbeam asks.

"You can make any sound you like, so long as you keep walking nice and slow and steady. Don't worry about the clinic, you don't need to come in, Doc will take over once we get there." Cinnamon was confident his "dad", Doctor Walton, would know what to do. He has no idea how confusing this will sound to Moonbeam.

"W-What is going on? M-Moonbeam di-did you f-find the others?"

"Sounds like one of them found you, but we got to get you looked after first, your friend here can go fetch the rest when we get to the clinic." He climbs forward, patting the wolf's coarse fur, trying to keep him awake. "Can you tell me... oh sna... sugar! Sugarsnaps! He's passed out again." Right, he thinks to himself, don't say 'snake' again. His favorite swear word came from his least favorite duty... cleaning the snake cages. So many animals are weird about snakes, Cinnamon just wishes they had hands to help him.

He straddles Moonbeam's neck and continues to give Koa directions as they head through the trees to the trail, dodging branches and ineffectively attempting to keep them from snapping back at Doc. "And let's get properly introduced. Doc's going to call me Cinnamon, but I prefer Sixtoes..." He wiggles said toes to demonstrate, then stretches his long body to pat the horse between the ears. "And you're Moonbeam, I take it?" and finally, to the corgi, "Do you prefer Koa or Tesla?"

Koa sat in confusion. they must have been talking about another corgi, and couldn't help but let out a small laugh when they confused him for someone else.

"Uhh... I think you have me confused with someone else. I just moved here not to long ago, and was wandering the forest when I heard gunshots. Then after I saw you through my binoculars I went to find some medicine. I didn't run into anyone else, while I was traveling."

"Oh, so you're not Koa Tesla after all? Wait a second, I thought... gunshots!?" Cinnamon hadn't heard any gunshots over the noise of the helicopters.

"Nobody was shooting anything around here! Which way did you come from, where were they shooting? There's not supposed to be any hunters around here, I don't think, but we sure don't want any humans mistaking us for game!" He turns his collar so the bright green tag's clearly visible, and slings his messenger bag over his back.

I didn't hear any shooting.. There was a Big crackling, my fur n' mane stood up on end, then there was a bright Boom.. and a tree exploded into flaming bits.. we ran.. Wolf ordered me to stop.. then went to sleep. then you feell out of another tree.. doesn't seen to be safe around trees today..

Moonbeam eyes the corgi..

I see now, you are a different doggie puppy.

The odd quartet reach a path through the pines heading around the farms and back towards town. It was a short rainstorm so it's not too muddy, but Cinnamon's glad he's riding... his short legs and long tail don't get along with mud at all.

"He ain't asleep, he's hurt! Likely ran under a low branch and fetched him a whack on the head! You gotta be more careful among the trees, or stick to the paths, a big horse like you... you gotta learn how strong you are, and be careful with smaller animals."

He looks around, but doesn't see any signs of smoke. "I'll tell Doc about the fire, he'll know who to call."

That couldn't be, what has happened! really.. My owners didn't want to let me out on my own with these pets. If i have hurt one of them, i'll NEVER be allowed out of the corral again.
Moonbeam hangs his head low, dragging his hooves on the ground..

The group wander in depressed silence down the trail, while Cinnamon tries to think of a way to help the horse without hurting the wolf. He comes up with all kinds of dopey ideas.

"We could say we found him on the trail... but then Doc would want to know why we moved him, and I'd get in awful trouble..."

"We could leave the horse here, but then I'd be moving him, and he would get in awful trouble, worse than he is, I mean..." He looks at the little corgi and himself, "...and they'd never believe we could carry a dog this big!"

And just as the clinic comes into view, "He mighta gotten hurt when the lightning struck that tree, we can tell 'em that!"

The husky nodded. She took off the back pack she had and set it on the ground, unzipping the bag before rummaging through it.
"Think you have any cool gadgets that could help us track them down?"

"Er..." Tesla droned quietly, "If I did, they're ruined now." he huffed, "I lacked the foresight to waterproof any of them..." the corgi added, swinging his stick around the ground to scan fro roots as he padded towards Zanna

Noticing the time, Koa hops down from moonbeam and says

"s...so...sorry, I...I wish I could help some more, but if my owners come home and I'm not there they will......"

He didn't want to give away his problems with his owners so he stopped his sentence, and quickly jolted away; accidentally leaving his satchel behind.

That was related to how he got hurt.

Moonbeam hangs his head lower and lower, as he walks closer n' closer to the clinic. being lead to the end of his brief time of being a pet, instead of just livestock.

Oh who are we kidding. My owners are right, livestock have no business running loose and unsupervised.
They do know what is best after all..

Moonbeam shivers remembering the last time he was taken here.. All the people in the long white jackets. picking and prodding at him. filing his teeth, an those things with the loooong needles.

Looks up at the corgi..
Do you even know which way home is..
looking back twords the clinic..
Although i don't blame you for wanting to run from that place....

Cinnamon leaps down after the corgi, "Hey! Wait, you forgot your bag!", and more of the same, not that his high weasel voice carries far very far through the forest. He grabs Koa's bag and starts after him, but he's a small animal and he's carrying two bags and... well, he stops after a dozen meters and dithers back and forth a few times before heading back. "OK, Moonshi... beam. It's you and me now. Let's go. Nobody's gonna hurt you. It'll be fine, you got him to safety after almost being hit by lightning!"

He hangs both bags over the horse's back, and takes over leading him... through the mud. Muttering under his breath about mud and nastier substances. Which he's had all too much experience of.

It's only a few minutes more until they're at the clinic. Cinnamon looks at the hitching post with distaste. "I don't need to tie you up here, do I? Like you're some kind of rube who doesn't know better than to walk off?" Then he goes ahead and loops the rope around the thick log anyway, because it's the rule. Gotta follow the rules, he's a good pet, an employee even, not some kind of undisciplined wild animal.

He opens up the door and yells, "Hey Doc, Mum, Sandy! I found a sick dog, he got hit by a fallen tree or something, he's out cold!"

"No, I don't have his tag, you guys come out and get him, he's too heavy for me... no! I didn't! He's on a horse! Yes! He's here now! COME ON! You guys are so SLOW!"

A huge bear of a man with greying dirty-blond hair and dressed in a stereotypical white coat comes bustling out, followed after a few moments by a tiny middle-aged woman in garish pink and lime green scrubs and a big sandy-haired teenage boy in a black T-shirt and jeans.

The vet inspects the stricken animal, and decides that it's OK to carry him into an examining room. "... and he's a wolf, not a dog..." he tells Cinnamon as the boy and he carefully lift Doc off Moonbeam's back and take him inside.

"A wolf? he can't be a feral! He's got a collar!"

"Well so do you, young fellow, and you don't look like a ferret to me."

Oh, thinks Cinnamon, he's right, and wanders embarrassed out to talk to the horse and let the humans take care of the wolf. Hope he wakes up soon.

"Well now you have to make even better ones!" Zanna said happily, wagging her tail.
"Ahah!" She pulled her hand of the bag, grasping what looked to be a pair of aviator goggles. She then returned to looking into her bag until she pulled out an unusually shaped, dark blue umbrella.

Humans know bet.. we better follow the rules..
leaning down to crib on the hitching post..


I do too. that wolf is in charge of meeee!

"So, you're saying the wolf is like your owner..."

Cinnamon's interrupted by loud voices from inside the clinic: "Hey, Doc, can you hear me? Can you wake up, Doc?" He emits a high chittering squeak, and darts back inside yelling "Doc? What's the matter, did that wolf..." and skids to a stop in the examination room where his owner is just fine, busily cleaning the wolf's injuries while his "Mom" is holding the wolf's unbuckled collar in her hand, reading his tag and trying to wake him up by calling his name.

Doc had slowly slipped out of complete unconsciousness into a nocturnal sleep during the course of his ride to the clinic and when the doctor yelled his name he quickly and startlingly sat up his eyes darting back and forth between everyone in the room, a slow and rising growl started and he beared his teeth unsure of where he was and what was happening. He remembered being stuck on Moonbeam then getting knocked out and now he was here, Doc could feel his maw sore and his snout a little wet from the crimson that had been leaking from it.

"Settle down, boy," the nurse says, "you've had a nasty whack on the head. You just lay there, and tell us what you can remember."

"Yep! You'll be all right now, 'Mum' will take care of you."

The garishly attired nurse hands the wolf's collar to Cinnamon, "We'll let him rest now. Look up his owner and I'll give them a call so they can pick him up."

Cinnamon obediently takes it, drags a tall pet-chair over to the office computer, and starts tapping away.

She sticks her head through the back door of the exam room, "Sandy! Go see whose horse that is!"

Cinnamon darts over and yells after her "It's OK, the horse belongs to the wolf. Oh! Hey, if you're going out, bring me my bag, and the other one too, that belongs to Koa Tesla!" Then he goes back to looking up Doc's tags.

"Yeah... I hope I can." Tesla Grumbled as he padded towards Zanna in a cleared path as she spoke, but paused when he heard the umbrella come out of the bag, "What is it, Zanna?" he asked in a perkier tone

"Its an umbrella silly!" The husky giggled, putting on the goggles over her eyes. She picked up the umbrella and unwrapped the strap around it.
"Its to keep the rain away." Pressing a button, the umbrella popped up, shading both of them from the pouring rain (and looking something like this)
She scanned the area before pointing over to the broken tree.
"Lets go that-a-way!"

Wandering the forest, Koa realizes that he doesn't know the way out of the forest; and to make matters worse he seems to have run into a part of the forest where it was still raining.

"oh rats! It's still raining here; I better take out my umbrella........uhhhh wheres my satchel?"

Worried at this point, Koa is searching the ground for his satchel then realizes...

"I must have left it with moonbeam..."

He then darts for the nearest tree, so that he can get out of the rain; hoping to run into someone who knows the forest's layout.

No no, he was the one my human owners put in charge of me, Since he has experience handling equines like me.
It was the cougar named Luke, who wanted to own me. Use me on the farm he was going to get..
Moonbeam looks over at Cinnamon..
It's been a very strange, and frightening day....

Doc slightly calmed himself after seeing that they were trying to help him but he didn't need to be treated by doctors and nurses, that cost money and why use money on treatment he could administer himself.
Doc ignored the nurses advice, not needing his owner to hear about this on his first day back out into the woods. But as he hopped off of the table he watched as his collar was taken away, he was aware of how pets felt when they didn't have their collars but being a feral for most of his life he didn't care and was proud either way ( ) He looked at the nurse.

"There was a thunderstorm and Moonbeam freaked out, all I remember is being latched into the harness and hitting a branch. Now I can treat myself I don't need a doctor my owner doesn't need to hear about this either, no one is dead or mortally wounded so we can call this alright."

Then it hit Doc, the others were still out there in the storm they could be hurt or worse and the last thing he needed was a nurse keeping him in a cage here till his owner picked him up, with that Doc hurriedly tried to get out the door.

Cinnamon completely misses the wolf heading out the door until Samantha yells, "Hey! Come back, you need your tags."

The big weasel jumps off the stool, following him, yelling "Don't go out without your collar, there's hunters out there!"

Moonbeam looks up from where he is hitched..
Hunters out where? what are they hunting for?? what is hunting???

"Oh." Tesla mumbled, "I guess it does it's job well." he chirped. The corgi collected his soggy back pack and his scanning stick, inching closer to Zanna, "Uh, which way do you mean? Are you pointing?"

Doc had almost gotten outside when he remembered and hear the warning about his collar, he could care less about wearing a collar but for the sake of others and not walking around town "nude" he quickly ran back inside giving a slightly thankful nod as he grabbed his collar and then back outside he went quickly getting on Moonbeam and being careful not to impossibly tie himself in this time.

"Alright Moonbeam, do you remember the way back?"

Travis had knelt beside Mercury, clutching the borrowed cap in one paw. She really wasn’t inclined to put it back on, knowing that her selflessness and humanitarian conscience would periodically nag her for it.

Her head turned to face Mercury, morose and aloofly silent. At her core, she felt undeniably guilty, and ashamed at herself for even considering this reckless, and trifling trip to the woods. Had she kept the weather and conditions in mind, they wouldn’t be out here and none of this would’ve happened.

She stared briefly at Mercury, her dreary gaze reflecting her pensiveness. Even so, with Mercury’s recuperating humor, she was still at a loss for words.

Zanna nodded.
"Yup. Oops, forgot yoo can't see right now. ". She grabbed the corgi's hand and led him over to the broken tree.
"I think I remember Moonbeam jumping over the over there before disappe-".
A loud and sharp *crack!* noise cut her sentence short and she froze.
"That...didn't sound like thunder..."

Doc comes running out after Cinnamon, "Hold on there, you pets, come back and tell me about these gunshots. Where did you hear them?"

"I don't know, Doc, it wasn't me, it was the other dog. He ran off, but that's his bag over there next to mine." He bounces over to the bags propped up against the wall where Sandy left them, "His name was Koa or something like that, not Tesla, that was the other corgi."

Inside, they can hear the nurse talking on the phone, presumably to the wolf's owner.

Tesla waddled with Zanna to the tree, "Oh, I guess it makes sense that he'd go this w-" the crack rang out and the corgi jumped up with a squeal, "Z-Zanna... Wh-what was th-that?" Tesla asked with his stubby tail down
~~~
Mercury placed his bag on a drier patch of leaves, sighing and smiling. Even if the rain kept pouring, he was still happy to be out, more so to be with a friend. The cat rested his back against the tree's trunk and rolled his head towards Travis, "Hey... Er, you seem kinda out of sorts." breaking the silence and scooting closer, "And, uh, I'm really sorry for snapping at you before." Mercury smiled

"N-not sure..." Zanna breathed. She paused for a second, then her ears pricked up.
There was a, audible *crunch* sound to her right. It wasn't really close, but it wasn't that far away. Footsteps, a few of them, coming closer, running, running, running.
"Shhh..." Zanna whispered. She closed the umbrella and pressed herself closer to the trunk of the broken tree, rain began to pelt them again.

Of course I remember the way back! I'm not blond for a reason.. umm the way back to where?
We could just follow the hoof prints...

The big teenage human follows Cinnamon back out, "It's OK, Dad's called the rangers, they'll take care of any hunters. Maybe they can help find your friends!"

He walks up to Moonbeam, "Easy boy, what's your name, and who's your owner? I'm Sandy, and I work here at the clinic with my dad. Would you like some fodder while we're waiting? Or... you look like you need a rub-down, look at all these wet leaves and needles... let me go get a brush... I'm sure your owner would want us to clean you up. Who is it, by the way?"

Doc nodded but before he could start up another human bugged him, asking Moonbeam questions. Doc didn't want to be too mean but his friends were in trouble out there plus they still had an adventure to finish. Doc stared the Sandy down, slightly glaring at him.

"Look Sorry uh.. Sandy? But we don't have time for that"

Doc pulled the reins to the side to get Moonbeam to turn and like he'd seen in movies he snapped the reins.

"Lets Ride Moonbeam! We need to find the others!"
(OOC: Cheesy, yes. Necessary?...Yes)

What? What are we waiting for? i..I don't need anything done to meee!!
Moonbeam stammers


Lisa-Marie....


Moonbeams head turns around with the way the reins are pulls, and his body follows the head in turning about with a whinnie..


Sorry gotta trot! Owner said i have to obey my wolf rider..
Moonbeam calls out as he slowly trots down along the path away from the clinic. while wanting to run, he doesn't know if this rider could stay on his back if he did...

"Hey, you can't go off without your owner, can he do that? Mum! Can we let a pet go without its owner?"

The young human runs back inside, and while the humans debate whether a pet that hasn't been checked in yet can be allowed to leave, Cinnamon dithers back and forth then yells "I'll go with them to make sure he's all right!" and then without waiting for an answer he may not want to hear anyway he grabs his bag (and Koa's!) and starts dragging them down the trail after the horse calling "Wait up, wait for me!"

Tesla nodded at Zanna's command and pressed himself to the tree. The corgi's ears perked themselves up to scan for more footseps.

(OOC: Soory for the short post, very very busy)

Sitting underneath a tree, Koa is starting to feel a slight chill as he starts to feel really cold, not to mention he is really wet.

"I really hope someones out here... If I stay out here too long I'll get sick...not to mention, I'm getting really hungry... "

Without Koa's bag, he can't treat any sickness he may get, so instead of sitting there waiting he decides to continue walking even though it is raining. Unfortunately, Koa's current position was right next to the cliff and since he wasn't paying attention he fell.

"Ahhhhh!!!!

Are you sure this is what you want to do?
Moonbeam asks his wolf rider.
I'm quite sure that all of us pet have to obey the direct orders of a human..
Looking back, as the human runs back into the clinic..



They have sent there clinic pet after us.. do we stop for him??
Looking up at the wolf and back to the clinic, wolf, clinic, wolf, clinic, all worried.

Did you just hear an Ahhhhhhhhh?