Keth Joins in the fun.
“Won’t you have problems actually getting customers if you riddle at anyone who needs a ride?” The boy and Charley had seemingly snuck around the two girls while they were playing, the truck set up behind them and they boldly, fearlessly approached what had to look like a girl and her giant pet cat.
The confused yet small audience watching this exchange seemed to make up their mind on the question of fear or curiosity, even those who had opted to hide as a pragmatic solution had surely come to realize this wasn’t a monster on a rampage.
“Oh, right. Because travelers …” Daniel grumbled. “At least now that we’re here I can talk to you guys again.”
“Won’t you just need to carry anyone you’re talking to?” Angel pipes up. “It seems you don’t break into uncontrollable riddles when its someone on your back, so just do all business deals or whatever while pretending to be a chair.”
“Ya kids gonna keep chattin in the lot er are we gonna actually catchus som fish?” The distinct, thick voice of the truck driver carried over the parking lot.
“We’ll keep chatting, duh.” Angel mouthed off without a second thought.
“Do you need me to help unload things sir?” Daniel asked, glancing toward the bed of the car.
“Nah, don need much just da rods and bait. Ya’ll go on down to da shore and I’ll get us booked fer da night.” Charley started off towards the lodge, a thick squat building made of old logs and even older decorations. Even if it was a hotel there was no possible way Daniel could fit inside a guest room. It would have been a struggle just to get a single paw through the front door, at best she could peer through the windows and try to blow curtains aside.
“I must confess I did not expect you to keep up so easily miss Daniel.” Keth’s voice brought the lioness back to attention.
“Not a girl. And no sweat, didn’t know if I could do it either but turns out magic cat ladies can run like the wind.” She smirked, standing back up onto her haunches and starting to weave her way forward. The pathway was clear, a bit more open than usual seeing as most of the other people around were diving out of the way or standing back to snap pictures.
“Well.” Keth reached up to scratch the bridge of his nose. “Strictly speaking, lions and rather felines in general do not utilize mass sweat glands as a cooling mechanism. Only their feet are able to sweat at all, and when overheated a lion would be forced to resort to panting before anything else.”
“Can a girl lion chase a car down the freeway?” Angel bounced up, leaning her arm onto Keth’s shoulder and causing the boy to wobble on his way towards the waters.
“Not a girl.”
“Strictly speaking.” Keth once more seemed to ignore the giant winged cat to his left. “A lion can usually run up to fifty miles per hour, or I should say eighty one kilometers. But this can only be done in short bursts for a single chase after which the feline is exhausted. Miss Daniel here- …”
“Not a girl! Stop that!”
“She’s been running along with us for almost an hour while carrying a passenger.” Angel finishes for him, holding a thumbs up to Daniel like this was a worthy accomplishment.
“So what, this is just normal for a lion? Waitwhat I can’t sweat at all? What other changes am I supposed to be worrying about?”
“Your paws should be very moist right now if you have been exerting yourself, but assuming the legends and mythology concerning your species are at least correct in their ancient representation then I do believe that is all I can think off from the top of my head. When I am reminded of anything else about your body that confuses you I shall endeavor to fill the gaps in your information.”
Daniel narrows her eyes, but with a heavy sigh saunters up ahead of them and waggles her tail just behind. Sometimes flicking out to poke against angel’s back, to which she responded by grabbing the tail and applying all of her muscles to hold it still. With a bit of embarrassment Daniel did take note of just how dirt encrusted her paws were, damp and musty with twigs and leaves clinging to the underside of her paws. But she was adamant about not bringing this up. Sweaty feet weren’t something to brag about even if they were going to get wet soon.
“Hey Keth, remember the last time we were here and you fell into that mud puddle.”
“Pushed you mean.” Keth turns up his nose. “That rotten fish shall rue the day it trifled with me!”
“Waitwat?” Daniel blinks back.
“Hehehe, we were fishing around the corner over there, and Keth found a dumb rock while I managed to snag a really big fish. Like, a huge fish. Bigger than my arm even! Right as I was showing off Keth comes running up to me with a rock in his hand.”
“And that accursed fiend smacks me with its tail. The pain! The absolute humiliation!”
Daniel tries not to snicker.
“It would not have been so terrible if we at least managed to eat the foul beast in revenge, but the monster escaped!” Keth makes an exaggerated sweeping motion with his arms.
“Only because you were shouting so loud we had to set it down and come drag you out.”
“You set it down in the water!”
“It wasn’t water when we put it there.”
“Waves are a thing!”
“The waves aren’t all that big here, it’s a lake.”
“You could have at least put it inside a basket.”
“And you could have not gotten your butt handed to you by a fish.” Angel sticks her tongue out at him.
Smush.
If Keth was about to retort, neither he nor Angel managed to continue the argument. Each was now a muffled squirming, flailing mass of legs and arms and distorted shouts while Daniel kept her paws on top of the both of them. Each paw almost as big around as the humans were tall, he didn’t have to press down in the slightest to knock them off balance and keep them buried in exceedingly soft fluff.
“We’re here.” She announces to the two with a smirk.
Written by Arbon on 23 October 2016