Zig Zag is Copyright © Max Black Rabbit. Sabrina, Darke Katt and R.C. are Copyright © Eric W. Schwartz. James Sheppard, Marvin Badger, Rhonda Badger, Yohni, Alexi, Michael, Esteban, Mia, Wanda Vixen and Tamara Rabbit are Copyright © James Bruner. Jean LeBrun, Francois LeBrun, Marie LeBrun, Gabrielle Ryder, Theodore Bigglesworth-Farthington von Salzburg the Third, Roxanne Bigglesworth-Farthington von Salzburg, Timothy Bigglesworth-Farthington von Salzburg, Malcolm Grazer, Doctor Lupin, Doctor Fox Jones, William Pongo, Captain Archibald, Peter Spermophilus, Miranda Spermophilus, Leo Leon, Vincent Leon, Abu-Yusuf, Sergeant Otetiani, Lieutenant Black, Julie Black, Miriam Redtail, Lizzy Doe, Emma Grey, Rowena Spyke, Jeremy Mustela, William White, Hannah Vulpes, Richard Terry, Hantaywee Twofeathers, Professor Nutkin, Professor Moose Nicholson, Professor Werner Schnauzer, Professor Erica Belge, Charles 'Mouse' Mombay, Ulf Søndergård, Signe Enoksen, Gertrud Katze, Rita Sanchez, Agent Grochy, Agent Manchilla, Paul Donkey, Harley Davidson (Not the motorcycle manufacturer, obviously) and Pethouse Magazine is © Joan Jacobsen, 2005.
Legal Notice: This story is Copyright © 2005 by Joan Jacobsen. This story may not be sold or used for commercial profit in any form or fashion. This story may not be modified in any way. This story may not be posted on a mirror site or any other Internet site without the written permission of the author. This story may not be distributed on print, magnetic, electrical or optical mediums.
Permission to use characters that are Copyright other individuals was obtained prior to the appearance of said characters.
The author, Joan Jacobsen, hereby asserts moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
This is an independent work of fiction with no connection whatsoever to Max Black Rabbit, Eric W. Schwartz, E.S. Productions or James Bruner and is in no way meant to imply any connection with Max Black Rabbit, Eric W. Schwartz, E.S. Productions, or James Bruner. This story contains characters created by Max Black Rabbit, Eric W. Schwartz, James Bruner, Tigermark and Silver Coyote. Events and characters occurring in this story should not be considered part of the storylines for either 'Zig Zag', 'Sabrina Online' or 'Sabrina Online - The Story'.
In fact, as far as 'Zig Zag', 'Sabrina Online', 'Sabrina Online - The Story' and 'Zig Zag the Story' are concerned, this story does not exist. The artists disavow any knowledge of and do not officially sanction the events in this story.
Gone fishing...
"Is that everything we need?" Leo asked, brushing his paws off against one another.
He looked at the car. His parents had insisted on buying him a new car for his last birthday...and he had let them. It wasn't that he was in any way troubled by having rich parents, but he did prefer to get by in life on his own. But once in a while, he allowed them to spoil him. And Lizzy. He knew they liked the doe...even though they had a quiet arrangement going about not discussing finances or politics when they met. They usually debated charity, though. Leo suspected his father actually took down notes about what suggestions Lizzy made for charitable causes.
The car was one of those things he actually saw a good reason to accept, when his parents had offered it. It was a four-wheel drive. Not something a student could realistically afford, and truth be told it hadn't been used much either. It was very costly in gas. But now that Lizzy had a job, that wasn't going to be quite as big a problem, and it was certainly useful when going fishing. Plenty of room for fishing poles and tackle-boxes, and plenty of power under the engine hood when going off-road to get to a good fishing spot.
"I theenk so," Esteban answered and started counting on fingers. "Tent, feesheeng poles, tackle, boat, fire exteenguisher for the campfire...matches..." he continued for a while. "Si...we have eet all."
Jeremy nodded. "I haven't gone fishing since I was a kid," he said and smiled. "It's gonna be nice trying it out again."
Leo grinned and nodded. "We'll have fun, don't worry."
Out of the corner of his eyes, the lion saw Esteban gritting his teeth.
They got into the car and set off. Late the previous evening, Esteban and Leo had decided against going to their usual fishing lake. They didn't want to show Jeremy where they normally hung out, after all. There were plenty of other options and besides, the most important thing was that they'd be the only furs there.
As they left Columbus, Esteban turned on the radio, and they drove on in silence.
###
Jean sat at home, looking over the selection of absolutely mindbogglingly boring television. It came down to a choice between reruns of old soaps, reruns of old soaps or reruns of old soaps. Of course, if she switched a few more times, she could see the shopping channel...and the horror of it was that she actually found the amusement factor higher in seeing some over-energized salesfur in a very ugly bowtie, jumping around on screen telling her why she absolutely HAD to own something totally useless.
Annoyed, she turned the television off.
She had half a mind to go back to bed, curl up and open a good book. She read too little these days. Or rather, she read plenty, but it was all about history. While she loved the topic, she was fairly sure it'd do her some good to read something else for a change.
She got up to take a look at the collection of books on the shelves. There were plenty of good books there, that she simply never had found a chance to read.
Picking one out, she looked at it for a while. It was a real brick. The kind of book that, if dropped from two stories up, would go clean through the roof of a car. Pondering if she should start with something that massive, the vixen let her eyes scan the lines of reading material in front of her.
The phone snapped her out of her thoughts and she put the book down to answer.
"Jean speaking," she said as she picked up the receiver.
She listened to the response. Her knees went weak and she fell backwards into the chair behind her.
"H...hello mom..." she said, quietly. "I...didn't expect you...to call."
After that...she mostly listened.
###
Miranda crawled out of bed to the sound of a bawling toddler. It was one of the inevitable pleasures of parenthood. Peter was still asleep. How he managed to do it was beyond Miranda's comprehension, but he just turned over and snored on. There were days where she'd give a lot for that talent. And other days where she wanted to kick him for it. It wasn't quite fair of her, she thought. Peter was a terrific dad and he always had time for the baby.
"It's okay, sweety...mommy's coming," she said, drowsily, and headed into the smaller, adjoining bedroom.
Picking her daughter up out of her crib, she smiled and rocked her on her arm. The crib was actually getting too small.
"That's right!" she said and smiled to her daughter. "You're such a big girl now, I'm going to have to get you a real bed."
Two moist, baby-blue eyes looked up at her and Miranda felt herself melting. It was entirely unfair for children to have such awesome weapons to use against their parents.
"What is it, Dina? Your teeth hurting?" she asked, gently, stroking her daughters hair.
Dina nodded and prodded one of her cheeks very gently with one finger. "Here mommy..." she whimpered.
Miranda nodded and bounced Dina a little on her arm again. It was to be expected. Dina was teething late...at least her molars were arriving late. And they were arriving with a serious vengeance.
Dina leaned in against her mother and sniffled, hiding her face against Miranda's shoulder. It was safe when mommy was there, but the pain wasn't going away. It was very unfair and not how pain was supposed to behave. She whimpered a little more, but at least the pain wasn't as scary when she had mommy or daddy to cling on to. Even if it still did hurt.
"Hey...would you like to make daddy smile?" Miranda asked and kissed Dina's hair. She kept her voice cheerful.
Momentarily forgetting the pain, Dina nodded eagerly and smiled widely. That, however, brought a painful reminder of the pain in her cheek and she whimpered again. Timidly, she tried nodding without smiling.
"Let's go make him breakfast, so it's ready when he wakes up. And you can have one of the pills that taste like orange...it'll make the pain go away."
Dina couldn't help smiling, pain or not. The orange-tasting pills were nice. And they made the pain go away, like mommy said.
Miranda headed into the kitchen, still with Dina on her arm. She reached into a cupboard and took out out a glass and a small pill-box. She half filled the glass with water, and gave it to Dina, as well as a bright orange pill.
"Now remember, don't chew it or it won't make the pain stop..."
Dina didn't need to be told, really. Chewing it would make it go away faster and it tasted just like candy. Besides, chewing anything when her teeth were hurting wasn't much of an option. She suckled on it and occasionally drank a little cold water. Soon, the pain began to fade and she relaxed.
Miranda noticed and put Dina down in her high chair. She turned around, turning on the television set and got started on breakfast. Peter needed to be pampered. He'd spent a lot of hours behind his desk at work, lately...and he was tired. He never let on but she knew. She could tell. Breakfast in bed seemed like just the thing.
Dina was staring intently at the television set. She'd gone very quiet.
It took a while before Miranda noticed. Then she turned around and looked at Dina, quizzically. Following her daughter's gaze to the TV, she saw a very serious looking newsreader.
"Mommy? Why she sad?" Dina asked.
Miranda didn't know how to answer. The caption beneath the newsreader said 'Terrorist trail leads to Afghanistan'. Miranda reached out and gently ran a paw over Dina's hair, before turning up the volume slightly.
"...a White House spokesperson said. The information is still rather inconclusive, but we will follow this as the story breaks. Meanwhile, reservists are being called back into active service, and the President has stated, that unless the Taliban government of Afghanistan willingly cooperates in apprehending Osama bin Laden...the United States will not abstain from using any force necessary."
She reached out and turned the volume back down again. Life had been returning to normal...little by little, America had started to breathe again. But the wounds had still been bleeding under the bandages. Now, it seems...the one who had held the knife had been located.
War was coming.
Miranda looked at her daughter and swallowed. Dina, happily unaware of what 'war' meant, had forgotten the sad looking newsreader and was busy looking through the bottom of her now empty glass. She was giggling at the distorted image. Clearly, the pain was already subsiding.
Miranda swallowed. Perhaps it was best to wake Peter up and let him have breakfast somewhere where he could watch the news.
###
It wasn't the news that had made Zig Zag cancel her plans for a weekend with James. It was James' job. Apparently, someone had found it incredibly amusing to use the news of imminent war to release some sort of new virus or worm on the world and half the major companies in Columbus had been hit. James was, in other words, indisposed indefinitely. And Zig Zag was in an outright foul mood as a result.
She didn't blame James. Not for a moment. He always took time to be with her whenever it was in any way possible for him and she knew he was just as frustrated that the weekend plans had to be canceled like that. He'd been looking forward to a long, romantic evening with her...he'd said that much on the phone, at least. It had been difficult to hear him on account of all the frantic voices in the background.
Zig Zag didn't pretend to be a computer expert but she did have a serious itch in her fingers and a good mind to throttle whomever had released that little piece of malevolent software. She'd called Sabrina the moment she heard, to check if the Studio computers had been infected as well or if the homepage was affected. Sabrina had graciously volunteered to drop by work to check. Even if the system was affected, Sabrina couldn't really do much about it except call James' company and let them find time to come and repair the damage.
The phone rang and Zig Zag reached out, picking it up.
"Zig Zag here..." she said, realizing she sounded annoyed.
"Hey Boss...it's Sabrina. We're all clear. No damage. When you get to work Monday, don't open any emails unless you know who they are from and don't open any attachments until you've updated your virus-scanner, okay?" the voice on the other end said.
"Thanks...that's a relief. Glad you could find the time to do this on a Saturday morning," Zig Zag said and exhaled, heavily. The last thing she needed was for the computers to break down. Her workload was big enough as it was.
"No problem. See you Monday."
"Sure. Have fun with R.C. this weekend."
They hung up.
Zig Zag got up and headed to the bathroom. She could at least do herself a favor and prepare a long, hot bath with so much bubbly foam that she'd vanish in it. It was always a good way to cheer herself up.
There was a knock on the front door and she stopped, halfway to the bathroom, turning her head towards the sound. Perhaps James had managed to find a way to get out of work despite the virus? She hoped so, at least. Straightening down her top and flicking back her hair, she headed to the door and opened it.
Alex O'Whitt was standing outside, wearing an Air Force uniform. On his shoulderboards, silver oak leaves shone brightly, and his overall appearance was smart and snappy. Except for his eyes. The tiger smiled warmly...but it couldn't disguise the thick, dark rims under his eyes. He looked unbelievably tired and Zig Zag noticed it immediately. In fact, he looked like he had barely slept for a week. Maybe even more.
"Hello Tonya..." he said, sounding as weary as he looked. "Mind...if I come in?"
Zig Zag blinked. She was so surprised to see her cousin in the doorway that she didn't protest the use of her birth name. Normally, she'd correct anyone calling her that. But for once...she didn't. Instead, she just stepped aside and shook her head.
"I don't mind at all, Alex. You're always welcome...you know that. Please...please come in. Can I get you anything? A cup of coffee? Tea?"
"Coffee would be nice. Tea would just...put me to sleep, I'm afraid," Alex said and entered.
Zig Zag smiled warmly. "Frankly, you look like you need it...how come you're in Columbus?" she asked and headed towards the kitchen to make a start on the coffee right away.
"I'm passing through. I've been recalled to active duty, as...as I'm sure you can understand," Alex explained, removing his shoes and entering the living room. He took a seat on the couch and put his face in his paws. He was exhausted. He couldn't hide it no matter what. It had been so hard to sleep...since...since...
No. He didn't want to think about it. It was enough that it kept him awake at night.
"I should have guessed, of course..." Zig Zag said and peeked in from the kitchen. "It's good to see you, Alex. It's been too long."
"It has," the tiger agreed. "But you know...Kentiger is keeping me busy all hours, normally. Business is booming, to put it mildly."
Zig Zag reentered the living room and smiled, sitting down opposite her cousin. "That's good to hear," she said and crossed her legs. "So's mine, but I'll spare you the details."
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
Alex chuckled. He didn't object to his cousin's company. But he didn't see a particular need to know precisely what went on there either. Scratching his cheek, he fell quiet for a while. Finally, he looked up and fixed Zig Zag in his vision.
"Do you have a guest bedroom I can use tonight?" he asked.
The tone of the request was so...pleading...that Zig Zag felt herself momentarily caught off guard. She did have an extra room, and it was certainly no problem for Alex to stay overnight...in fact she would've asked him if he wanted to, herself, had she known he wasn't continuing onwards the same day. But he looked like something was terribly wrong. Like there was something weighing very heavily on his mind.
"Of course, Alex...you needn't even ask," she said, leaning forward a bit. "Are...are you all right? You look...so tired."
"Oh, it's just work. I'm hoping I can catch up on a few of my missing hours before continuing to base tomorrow, y'know," Alex said, smiling what he hoped was a disarming and cheerful smile.
Zig Zag played along. She wasn't going to pressure the tiger for answers...but she knew he wasn't telling her everything. Something was really terribly wrong. All she could hope was that he'd talk about it by himself, when he was ready.
"I'll go get that coffee. I've got to talk to you about booking your company to fly a group from the Studio to Chicago for a convention...but you know what, that can wait. We have some catching up to do..." Zig Zag said, getting up to fetch the coffee and a couple of mugs.
It was annoying that she couldn't spend the weekend with James...but somehow, she felt lucky at the same time. If she had been at James' place, Alex wouldn't have found her at home. And the tiger needed family to talk to...whether he admitted it or not.
###
"There...that should hold it," Leo said after putting up the tent.
They were camping by a forest pond. Large enough that the small rowboat that Leo had brought would be necessary. It was the kind of boat that would fit, inverted, on the top of his car. If it had been a smaller vehicle, it probably wouldn't, but since it was a fairly large four-wheel drive, there was room for it. All the rest of their baggage was thrown into the back of the car itself.
The location was quiet...quite idyllic as well. The tree-line completely obscured the pond from view, and the only sounds they could hear apart from those they made themselves were those of birds and insects. Getting to the pond had proved why Leo had been right in getting a four wheel drive. The road had been so bad that ordinary suspension would've collapsed within half a mile.
But they were there.
The lion nodded to the other two males and smiled.
"All set up, si?" Esteban said. "Well...let's get the rods assembled and go feesheeng!"
Jeremy nodded and grinned, getting out his rod and assembling it. "Ready when you are..."
Esteban got started picking out his favorite spinners from his tackle-box. Leo just kept smiling...looking everywhere but at Jeremy.
###
Emma got home. She'd spent the night at Lizzy's. The doe had been in a right state, too...and it had taken two bottles of red wine, a lot of soothing and a big friendly shoulder to lean on, before she had relaxed. Emma could see why. They'd caught the news that morning...hung over, but that had cleared fast as they realized that Leo might be headed for Afghanistan.
Lizzy had slumped in a couch, mumbling about the battle of the Kyber pass. The doe had a vivid interest in the age of Imperialism. Considering her Marxist leanings, it wasn't a surprise, and Emma had needed to calm her friend down all over again.
"He's in the reserves, dear...he may not even be going," she had said...without really believing it.
If Leo had been in the General Infantry or something similar, she'd have believed that...but he was in a specialist branch. In fact...in a branch of the army which would be sorely needed in a landscape like the Afghan mountains. The newsreader had droned on and on, but neither of them had listened. Both had been too busy worrying.
Finally, Lizzy had been calm enough that Emma could go home. She needed a bath and a change of clothing. Badly. Taking off her glasses, she rubbed her eyes and groaned. She could do with a few more hours of sleep, too. She wiped the lenses clean with a piece of tissue paper and decided to make herself a hot cup of tea before sleeping a little. A hot drink always made it easier to sleep.
Sitting down at the table, she ran a paw over her hair and looked at her own TV-screen. She hadn't turned it on, and she didn't feel like doing so. The prospect of Leo going off to war was difficult for her to face. He was a fantastic friend, and she couldn't bear the idea that he might get hurt. The next thought was...that Jeremy might have to go. Come to think of it she didn't know if he'd ever served in any of the armed forces.
That thought stuck with her for a moment. Then she laughed. Loud and clear, removing her glasses and putting them on the table. Jeremy...in the army? Yeah right. She shook her head and smiled. The very notion was idiotic.
Getting into that relationship had been idiotic. She had just been so tired of being alone.
Tired and afraid.
She stopped for a while...lingering on the word 'afraid', as it has popped up in her head. What had she been afraid of? She had good friends...probably the best anyone could want. And according to them, her looks weren't the problem. She'd always seen herself as a boring little waste of space, but when both Leo and Esteban, both of whom she trusted implicitly, had told her that she was in fact quite the opposite...she'd started listening. Fox had offered to counsel her as well...which she thought was a rather cute but very clumsy way of offering to help. But he was right. She knew it. The problem wasn't how she looked. The problem was how she looked at herself . Back in the early days at university, she'd looked like a bad joke. Her clothes had been hopelessly out of date. Her haircut and her glasses had been terrible. Then...she'd taken a chance, on her friends insistence. Gotten new glasses...a new haircut...she'd started working on her wardrobe. Little by little. And it had worked. It had made her feel better.
Stronger.
But the males still hadn't shown much interest. Jean had been the best kind of friend one could ask for in that situation, consistently reminding her that it took time. That she had to build her own self esteem first...before they'd really start taking notice.
"When you walk into a room like you own it, back straight and full of confidence, Emma...they'll notice you and they'll want to find out who you are...and then you can't help netting one of them. Or more. You'll see."
Those had been the vixen's words.
Emma still remembered it as it they'd been spoken yesterday.
And she had tried. So hard...to feel that way. Only...she couldn't. It hadn't worked. However hard she had tried, she'd never managed to see herself in that same light and slowly, she'd started to lose confidence in herself again.
Then...Jeremy had come along and shown her just that interest that she had been looking for. And at first...it had all been like a faerie-tale. For the first three months, he'd been almost shy...loving and caring.
Until he hit her the first time. He'd been shocked, himself. Apologized...profusely so...sworn it'd never happen again.
But it had.
Emma looked at her paws.
A thought at the back of her mind was gnawing and growling at her, wanting to get out and be heard. She wasn't quite sure what it was yet, but...
...why had she tried so hard?
Why had she tried so hard to act the way Jean had said she should? That was just it, wasn't it? It was an act. She shouldn't do that...she should just behave that way when it came natural.
Groaning, Emma put her head in her paws. The others had tried to tell her that too but she'd been too heady with her own newfound strength. She'd thought it had been so overwhelming. Now Jeremy was systematically picking her apart again and she knew she had let him.
Look at that night at Jean's place...celebrating her new job? After she had picked out a top that Jeremy didn't like and they had argued about it, he'd beaten her. She hadn't wanted to go, looking like that...but Jeremy had sneered that since she had been so damned insistent on going, she'd be going whether she wanted to or not. And he had answered for her, all night.
She had wanted to jump up and tell everyone...right there...'look, the bastard hit me...and he's done so a lot of times'...but she never had.
Where had her strength been then?
Slamming her paws into the table, she got up to get the tea-kettle. When Jeremy got back from his fishing trip, she'd tell him to piss off and never show his face around her again. Ever. If he wouldn't...she'd get the police involved, and get a restraining order. She'd lost enough time. She wanted her life back on track.
When she sat back down with her tea...she was smiling again.
She'd almost forgotten how it felt.
###
Esteban was a content fur for about five minutes. After throwing the line into the water, he'd forgotten all about Jeremy for a few moments. Not for long though. The weasel yawned behind him...clearly not having slept enough.
That wasn't so bad, Esteban told himself. He'd wake up soon enough.
They sat there for probably twenty minutes...Leo pulled in a couple of small trouts, before finally, he managed to catch Esteban's eyes behind Jeremy's back.
He just nodded.
Esteban smiled and responded. Another few minutes passed, then Esteban deliberately messed up his line. He groaned loudly and looked at the other two. "I'll have to cut eet and set a new speenner. Damned...thees was one of my best," he muttered and pretended to pull a bit. "Eet's stuck een weed on top of theengs. Jeremy...I need you to get up, so I can get past you. We'll sweetch places."
Jeremy looked up, as if snapping out of deep concentration. "Huh? Oh...oh, okay...hang on," he said and pulled in his line. He put the fishing rod down in the bottom of the boat and rose...
So did Esteban...but unsteadily. Very...very unsteadily.
The boat rocked...from side to side. Jeremy looked momentarily panicky. Behind him, Leo had grabbed the sides of the boat and was rocking it even wilder. Esteban, being able to see what the lion was doing, was able to brace himself and follow the rocking.
"Oh sheet...eet's hard to stand een a boat, eh Jeremee?" the wolf said...before his right leg gave a particularly wild jerk.
Jeremy didn't get to answer. He'd lost his footing and gasping in surprise and shock, he tumbled over the side of the boat and into the water.
He resurfaced, quickly enough. Just in time to see Leo put the oars into the water and Esteban taking his seat again. The wolf withdrew a pocket knife from his jeans and cut the line, before putting his fishing rod back in the bottom of the boat.
"Two feesh, yes? That's one for each..." he said and smiled.
"I figured the same. We can always catch more later. I hear there's a particularly big trout in this pond. Who knows, we may hook him," Leo chuckled and started rowing back ashore.
"Erhh...guys? Help me out of here..." Jeremy tried. "Guys...what are you doing??"
He was utterly ignored...
###
After a long night of red wine and Emma's calming presence, Lizzy was feeling considerably better. It wasn't easy for her to deal with Leo probably ending up in Afghanistan, but he'd be able to look after himself. That was what she had to remind herself. He was an officer and...as she could attest to first-paw...a gentlefur. And despite his background, she felt sure he hadn't gotten his rank without earning it.
She looked at the letter again. It was still laying on the table. It told her a few things she didn't know about Leo. He was a Second Lieutenant. His precise rank had eluded her until now. And his unit was stationed in Pennsylvania.
The thought occurred to her that the artillery wouldn't recall it's reserves unless they were needed for actual combat service. Firing modern artillery pieces involved a good deal more training than simply popping black powder and a round ball of metal in a long barrel and lighting a fuse. It stood to reason that Leo would need to be retrained, and that was costly. Even though he no doubt knew most of what he'd need. The army wasn't going to spend that kind of money on a service branch unless it was for a reason, she told herself.
At least...he wouldn't be on the absolute front lines. The artillery usually took up position far behind the lines. Shooting at enemy positions and enemy artillery.
Of course...that meant any enemy artillery would be shooting at...Leo.
She shuddered and pushed the thought out of her mind. It was something she wouldn't think of. Watching the news didn't help. All her worst worries had been confirmed that morning. Emma, fortunately, had stayed the night and managed to calm her down one more time. She was grateful for that. Besides, she had something else to think about. It wasn't going to be long until she had to go out, after all. The other femmes from the consulate would be waiting for her. It was actually a relief to think of. She'd be in good company, and she'd be able to tell the others of her worries. Maybe some of them would be able to offer some advice. Maybe...one or two of them had husbands or boyfriends going off for the army too...
Relieved that she wouldn't spend a whole evening alone with her worries, she set off to the bedroom to get dressed.
###
Jeremy shuddered. He was cold. Drenched to the skin and shivering. It was late enough fall that a tumble into the pond was going to make him really, really sick unless he got into some dry clothes soon. He was furious, on top of things.
Why the hell had they left him in the water?
Was it their idea of a joke? Or...
He stopped. Smiled. No, it was probably some kind of initiation. Chuckling to himself, he nodded and headed towards the camp. It had to be. He could still see both Esteban and Leo there...and there was a campfire. No doubt they'd be ready with a hot drink and a cheer.
He shook himself one more time and approached the fire.
"Good joke, guys..." he started.
Esteban looked up at him. The look on the wolf's face made Jeremy blanch and stop, dead in his tracks.
"What joke?" Leo asked, calmly. "I don't recall telling any jokes..."
"You know..." Jeremy tried. He was feeling very uncertain all of the sudden. "...letting me fall into the water and not helping me back up?"
"Oh...oh that. No, I'm afraid that wasn't a joke," Leo said, indifferently and looked at the pot of soup, boiling over the fireplace.
"W...what do you mean?" the weasel asked. He didn't like the look on Esteban's face. The wolf kept staring at him with an expression of supreme loathing.
Leo brushed his paws off against one another and got to his feet. He walked up to Jeremy and stood, facing the shorter male, keeping that look of indifference on his face. As if...Jeremy simply didn't matter.
"I mean," he began "...that you needed to feel what it is like to be helpless and abandoned. That you needed to understand that Emma has friends who will protect her."
Jeremy blinked. For a brief moment, he was doubly confused, then everything started coming into perspective. "Now, look here..." he began, indignantly. "What happens between Emma and me is..."
"...Veree much our buseeness!" Esteban snarled. His incisors were showing...his lips curling back.
Swallowing hard, Jeremy suddenly realized the whole, horrible truth. That he'd been lured here under false pretenses and that he was now facing two very large, very fit and very angry males. If he fought them, he'd be ripped apart in seconds.
"You know how femmes can be!!" Jeremy tried. "I don't want to hit her but..."
Esteban got to his feet too and cracked his knuckles. "Before we came here, Jeremee...I had made Leo swear we wouldn't actually heet you. Because we are not the kind of slime you are. But eef you feeneesh that sentence, not even God heemself, come to Earth, weell stop me from removeeng your teeth, one by one, and pusheeng them down your lungs through your nostreels. Comprende?!"
"Are you threatening me??" Jeremy blustered, taking a step backwards.
Leo stopped him, by putting a calming paw on his shoulder. He smiled...widely. Very widely. Showing a great deal of very sharp teeth. Then he leaned forward and looked directly into Jeremy's eyes, punctuating the fact that he was considerably taller than the weasel.
"No Jeremy...we are promising," he said, softly.
Jerking himself loose, the weasel back towards the bank of the pond. "There are lots of furs who know I'm here...you'll be caught!" he snapped, panic evident on his voice.
Esteban smiled again, grimly...calming himself down. "I don't theenk he's leesteneeng, Leo. Deedn't I just tell him we weren't actuallee goeeng to heet heem?"
"Ahh well," Leo said and smiled crookedly. "I'm sure he's got something to think about now. Jeremy, there's hot soup in the pot. Much as I'd like to poison it, I assure you it's arsenic free..."
Esteban couldn't conceal a lopsided grin...
"...but you will need to stay warm. We'll leave your dry clothes, your equipment and a tent with you. As well as money for the fare home. But we are leaving. Now. How you get home isn't our concern. If you ever show your face within three miles of Emma again and we learn of it...I assure you, I will hold you while Esteban plays dentist on you," the lion finished. Then he nodded to Esteban and they both picked up their gear and started packing the car once again.
"Short feesheeng treep, eh?" Esteban said, nonchalantly.
"Well, my friend...fish don't bite when you throw garbage in the water..." Leo said and shrugged. "And the few types of fish that do eat shit...I won't eat."
The wolf laughed.
Ten minutes later, Leo and Esteban were on their way home.
Leaving Jeremy behind.