A chaotic couple: Drake and Lara

Chapter 1: Blue
 
“Oh no no no no no! C’moooon” Station Square’s train station. It was pretty small for such a big city. However that became an advantage for the dark blue fox trying to make his way towards the train. He quickly opened the door to the indoor station. His train. It was still there. A slight smirk on the fox his face. But he wasn’t there yet. The blue spot, carrying a huge backpack, tried to make his way through the crowd. It was surprisingly busy for so early in the morning. “Got it….got iiiit” He was almost there. Only a few meters left. But he heard the sound of air getting pushed out. Shit. The doors were closing. He was almost there. He ran towards the door, but it would be closed before he got there. He quickly grabbed a piece of rope with a hook on the end. The opening of the door was empty. Nobody was standing there luckily. He threw the hook in the train. The doors closed. However the door he threw a hook in couldn’t close. There was a rope in the way. It opened again. The fox quickly ran inside and rolled up the rope. The door could close now, and it did. Meanwhile the conductor shook his head in disappointment towards the blue fox. The fox grinned and scratched the back of his head, giving a ‘sorry’ expression. Luckily the train was already leaving, so he had no time to talk.
 
Now it was time to find Jirard. He walked through one of the wagons and then saw a brown owl sitting on one of the train’s chairs. “Yo Jirard!” The fox said. The owl turned his head freakishly far to the right. “Hm? Oh! Drake. So you made it.” A gentle but friendly smile appeared on the owl’s face. Drake put his backpack on top of the parts where all other suitcases were, then he sat down. The owl looked somewhat older than the fox. Drake was only 20 at that time. Jirard was 41. “Are you ready for the expedition?” Drake shrugged. “Meh probably not. I always forget stuff to bring with me, like a flashlig-I forgot my flashlight. Great!” He crossed his arms and looked a bit grumpy. Jirard grinned. “Don’t worry. There must be someone who has a spare one with him. Peter always takes extra stuff with him for people like you who forget it.” Drake nodded. “Well I hope so. I can’t explore new areas in the night without a flashlight.” The owl looked questioning at Drake. “You want to do that during night time? You know that’s not really efficient right. I know you though. You’d want to explore every minute of the day.” The fox nodded. “I’ve heard some places light up at night on Angel Island because of the Master Emeralds radiation. Kind of curious what places that’d be.” “That’s understandable. Hopefully somebody has a photo camera with them. Then you could make quite some nice pictures.” The fox became excited. His voice became a tad too loud for a train. “Yeah! Totally!” Some judging looks came from the other people inside the train.
The two had some more small talk and eventually arrived to a station close to Angel Island. The Mystic Ruins. They grabbed their bags and stepped out of their wagon. “The rest should be already here. I expect them to be in that hut there.” The owl pointed his winged arm towards a hut that was quite some distance away. As both of them started walking towards the hut, Jirard asked the fox a question. “This is quite a big expedition for a second one young sport. Are you sure you want to do this? We’re gonna be away for about two months.” The fox shook his head. “Jirard… You know I want this. It’s my job now and this is a chance I might never get.” The owl looked into Drake’s eyes. He could see his ambition. Made him remember the times when he just started out as a rookie. He grinned. “Well okay then. Just wanted to make sure. Now don’t you dare to get homesick otherwise I’ll kick you off that floating island okay?” He laughed. Drake did as well. “I’ll promise you. You’ll be crying to go home earlier than I will.” “Deal.”
 
The two arrived at the hut. Opening the door, the owl got greeted by four other people. When the fox walked in, everyone started to yell even louder. “Rookie Drake!” The fox grinned. “Hello there old-timers! I’m here to steal your jobs!” The others laughed. The hut looked small but cosy. It had a sofa and some chairs around a small wooden table. A separate room that led to two double decker beds. One person was still sitting on this chair, looking a bit grumpy. A leopard didn’t seem to be amused by the fox his presence. Jirard noticed it and took place next to him while the others were loudly talking. The owl held his voice down so that nobody else could hear it. “What’s the problem August?” The leopard looked away. Trying to ignore the owl. Jirard definitely was in favour of Drake joining the party, however he turned his head back towards Jirard and answer. “I just…don’t want him to screw up the expedition. Angel Island is a great opportunity y’know.” The owl nodded. He seemed to get it. “I understand, however I’ve known Drake a long time already and he’s not a rookie when it comes down to it. When he needs to be serious he is serious and his techniques are like ones I’ve never seen before.” He held his wing on the leopard’s shoulder. “Trust me. This kid’s good.” The leopard nodded and smirked. “Well if you say so, but I’ll be keeping an eye out for him.”
 
Jirard seemed to have quite some influence on the group here. And that isn’t just for no reason. He has been on many expeditions and is one of the more known explorers of Mobius. If you need a space on the world map filled, this is the guy you should get. “Good. Well then. Guys are you all ready to go to Angel Island?” The rest nodded. “Yeah!” “Well then. Let’s get to the plane then. We only have an hour left so if someone needs to use the phone, they should do it now, because outside world connection won’t be there. There are no phone lines holding the Island in position.” Drake didn’t need the phone. He had already informed everyone he knew about what he was going to do. And they knew it well enough, because this guy had been talking about this expedition for a few months straight. He already said bye to his parents, hence the reason why he was almost late, so he just had to wait on the rest saying goodbye to their wives and families.
 
It was finally time to leave. The explorers all pushed their luggage in the small plane that would bring them towards the island. There wasn’t a lot of room so they all had to do it with only a buttsize of space and lots of touching other people’s shoulders. It didn’t help either that almost everyone was pretty broad, and seeing as oxygen also was a problem, they decided to quickly get this over with. No speech was exchanged during the flight, mainly because it was hot and sweaty and the passengers really didn’t want to waste any oxygen. Drake was really trying his best to keep his trap shut. He knew that nobody would appreciate his talkative nature, so he kept quiet. But the fox couldn’t hold it anymore once they came close to the island. The fact that it was floating just by an oversized emerald amazed him too much.
 
“Is it really only the emerald that keeps the island afloat? I mean it’s pretty huge. I thought it would’ve been smaller.” The leopard sighed, however a dark red hedgehog began to look excited as well. Apparently he was just as eager to explain it as Drake was eager to listen. “Well the Master Emerald is essentially the controller over the chaos emeralds. And seeing as the chaos emeralds have an almost unlimited amount of energy in them, the master emerald must have quite some power as well.” He upped his glasses so that they wouldn’t fall off his nose and maybe to look even smarter. “Amazing…” Drake’s eyes were filled with enthusiasm. He was going to be on that island for 2 whole months, exploring things most people will never be able to see.
 
When the plane landed the door was immediately opened and one of the crew members already jumped out of the plane before it even stopped moving. “Aaaah! Fresh air! Amazing!” The bear stretched his arms and legs. This one was definitely excited. And rather intimidating as well, however his Hawaiian blouse made him look a bit more friendly. “Melvin please calm down a bit. We don’t want any injuries.” August yelled while he was stepping out of the stationary plane. “You seem a bit bored for somebody who just arrived on one of the most mythical places on Mobius Aug. You alright?” The bear grinned. “Yeah. I’m fine. I just want the camp to be set up so we don’t have to worry about that anymore.” A somewhat more feminine voice suddenly came out of the plane. “Indeed. I need a place where I can be alone instead of you guys being around me all the time.” She grinned and stepped out of the plane. The bear spoke at a teasing voice. “Ahw…So Angelia still doesn’t want a piece of the Mel?” The purple wolf laughed. “Not in a million years, bear trap.”
 
Drake seemed to enjoy the rest of the crew. They all seemed so diverse yet so much the same. Their enthusiasm  was matched with his own. He already felt comfortable on this group. Drake was carrying all the backpacks outside of the plane. Luckily Jirard knew how to pilot one, so that the plane could stay here. If there would be an emergency, they could easily go back to the civilized world. Angelia grabbed her back and winked at Drake. “Thanks kid. Now I don’t have to go back into that sauna again.” The fox shook his head and smiled. “You guys are all gonna call me kid this whole expedition huh?” The wolf smirked. “Maybe. Maybe not. I guess we’ll quit when it isn’t funny anymore.” A short silence. Angelia thought about it for a second. “I mean, I can stop if you don’t want me to sa-“ “No no it’s completely fine I can get used to it!” Drake smiled friendly. Angelia nodded. “Nice! Good to see you’re not a drama queen!”
 
Meanwhile the red hedgehog grabbed his backpack, which was almost twice the size of himself. “Peter, how are you even carrying that stuff?” The wolf placed a hand on her hip and pointed with her other hand at the giant-sized backpack. The hedgehog scratched the back of his head. “I guess it’s just sheer willpower!” The wolf seemed unamused. The hedgehog looked disappointed. “O-Okay maybe it’s because of something I built to make me wear bigger backpacks but it’s only more benefitting! I could bring more food for you guys!” Angelia grinned and raised her shoulders. “Well I guess I can’t complain about that.” Jirard meanwhile checked if there was any stuff left in the plane. Seeing as there was nothing forgotten by the fox, he closed the door and spoke to the rest. “Okay so I have pinpointed the location of our camp on all of your maps. I think we should get there as soon as possible so we can set up the basic camp for today. That will be our main base for the rest of the expedition if nobody else can find something more suitable.” The others nodded, grabbed their backpacks and started walking towards the camp.
 
Once they were there, they all dropped their luggage. The camping site was an open field just in front of a jungle. The jungle seemed to not be mapped very well, so their camp was just in front of the working place. It was quite a walk. Drake had a small chat with everyone to get to know them better. For now however, it was time to set up camp. Everyone was exhausted from the walk. The only people that were still on their feet were Melvin and Drake. “Hey kid! Why don’t we set up the tents now! Then at least we’re done with that for today and we can relax after that.” Drake accepted the proposal and they set up six tents in just a few minutes. These two seemed to have an infinite amount of energy in them. Everyone started filling their own tent with their backpacks and packed out the sleeping stuff, together with some food. “I’ll cook for today.” August said. Some pleasant sounds could be heard from the rest of the crew. Jirard poked with his elbow in Drake’s side and whispered. “This guy can cook like no other. You’ve got to try his food.” Drake replied “I will never lay down on a plate of food.” The bear cheered. “That’s something I wanna hear! Now let’s get cooking!” The leopard started making some of his finest meals. He was in luck. All the food that they had was still fresh, so he could immediately use the freshest supplies which would go bad after only a few days. “Enjoy it while you’re still able to. Can’t wait for the moment we only have canned food left.” Everyone ate and had a fun time.
 
After a long time of sitting and chatting, everyone slowly went to bed, until the only people there were Drake and Angelia. They were on the opposite of each other of a small campfire. It was already dark, but Drake wanted to stay up. The sky here was beautiful at night. Stars filled up the dark and the high trees of the jungle seemed like they wanted to reach those stars. “So,” The wolf bended down, laying her arms on her legs while she sat on a chair. “What do you think of the crew?” The fox replied with a smile. “Oh they all seem really nice! They all have their own abilities, but they seem to blend in well together!” The wolf smiled back. “Well, that’s good to hear! We’ve been on expeditions together for a few years now and it’s always fun to see these fellows doing their job.” She looked away, giving a kind of tired, but still friendly smile. “Y’know. They all seem to like you. Even August, who doesn’t really want to show it.” The fox looked astonished. “O-oh!...that’s great! I wasn’t expecting that! Especially August. He was a tough nut to crack.” Angelia giggled. “Yeah. Don’t worry though. He still cares about the whole group and is enthusiastic to explore as well.” The wolf shook her head wildly. “Egh I should go to bed. You should too soon. Tomorrow’s gonna be a busy day.” The fox nodded. “I will. In a few minutes.” The wolf laughed. “Well okay then, don’t blame me if you’re not awake at time tomorrow.” The fox laughed. “Goodnight…”
 
The fox enjoyed the world around him somewhat more. So much that he couldn’t help but giving a quick look in the jungle. It was all so natural. The sounds of night animals waking up, rustling leaves caused by a soft breeze, orange light stuck on a mobian… Wait. Orange light stuck on a mobian? That’s not right. He tried to focus on it, but it was very dark. The only thing he could see was that there was an orange stripe of light quickly moving through the jungle, and that the light seemed to come from a creature. But that’s all he could see. The creature was already gone again. He tried to follow it. Jumping over bushes, dodging the branches that were in his way, but it was already too late. The creature was too far away. He couldn’t even see the light anymore. The fox looked at his watch and then it suddenly was 3 ‘o clock at night. The fox was surprised. He thought it would maximally be 12 ‘o clock. He decided that it’d be better if he immediately went to bed. Tomorrow’s gonna be a big day. And so he did.
 
“Okay so today is the beginning of our expedition.” August was standing in front of the rest of the crew, which were standing in a line. Angelia was correcting her clothes, Peter was checking the map, Melvin was day dreaming and the only one who actually had full attention for August was Jirard. “Jirard and Peter?” Jirard nodded. Peter looked up. “Hm?” “You two are setting up the communication panel and other stuff needed on the base.” The two nodded. “For the others, I want you to explore in a range of 500 meters away from the base to look for places we might find useful, like water and extra food if our own resources fail to be enough” Angelia and Melvin nodded. “Also you guys there is an ancient tribe nearby. The Chaos Kitsunes. Just like the other tribes you should try and leave them alone, we don’t want to bother them and we certainly don’t want any problems with them. Melvin noticed something. “Hey…Where’s rookie Drake?” August realised it too now. “Oh you’re right!” They all totally forgot about him. The team had been these five together for years now. The new addition to the group was totally overseen. “Meh he’s probably still in his tent sleeping. He made it a long night probably.” Angelia leaned on a chair next to her, as if she was kind of tired herself.
 
“Well that’s still no reason to not be awake at nine. Today’s supposed to be the starting day of the expedition. He should be here like we told him so.” August walked over to Drake’s tent and knocked on it a few times. “Hey sleepy head! It’s time to wake up!” The fox slowly opened his eyes, yawning loudly. It almost sounded like growling. He immediately regretted what he did last night. “Oh…right. I’m sorry. I’ll be there in a sec.” The leopard sighed, but Jirard couldn’t help but grin. Typical Drake. He must’ve made it late last night. The fox opened his tent after a minute. He was dressed with an open blouse and a T-shirt, together with some simple trousers and mountain climbing shoes. His hair shined from the wax he had thrown into it, making his hair stand upright like a flaming fire.  Melvin laughed at Drake’s tired face. “Sleepin’ with the maids of the jungle I see?” Drake didn’t quite get that one, so he just tried to smile it off. Everyone else seemed to laugh at it though.
 
“Have you heard anything of what I said while you were in your tent?” August asked full of hope. Drake wildly shook his head. “Sorry. Was up in the clouds too much. What’s my job today?” August sighed. “Today I want you to explore as much as the jungle as possible today.” The fox tired head suddenly lightened up. The rest looked questionably at each other. “Okay! Will do! I’ll immediately do it!” He grabbed his traveling backpack. It had some survival stuff in it like food, rope, a knife and bandages. Peter walked to Drake and gave him a phone the size of an oversized brick. “Here. You can use this to contact the communication panel with this once it’s built up if you need anything. But for now don’t get into much trouble. The panel isn’t set up yet so you won’t be able to contact us.” Drake nodded. “Thanks.”  He put it in one of his bags on the side. “Anything else?” The fox asked. Jirard replied. “I guess you should take your map with you and write down any special places you might find. Got your compass with you?” Drake grinned. “Now that’s a thing I’d never forget!” Jirard smiled back. “Well good. Good luck then.” Drake wandered off into the jungle.
 
Angelia still looked confused. “August…why did you tell him to explore the jungle? You didn’t even tell him about the 500 meter radius?” August shook his head. “He should’ve been awake earlier. Also the guy seemed to be very excited about the jungle. I heard him wander off to there at like 12 ‘o clock.” Angelia seemed to not be pleased with that answer. “If he wanders off and dies it’s gonna be your fault.” August laughed. “I don’t think Drake is incapable of surviving. And it only gives Jirard and Peter more reason quickly set up the communication panel.” Jirad tried to reassure Angelia that Drake would be safe. “I know him for quite some time now. Drake is able to work in hectic circumstances. Even if he’s under massive amounts of stress, he still smiles it off like it’s nothing. Trust me.” Angelia felt a bit more sure now. “Okay. But the thing still stands. If he dies it’s your fault.” She pointed at the leopard.
 
Meanwhile Drake was headed into the jungle. He was still curious about the light he had seen last night. Maybe he was able to find out what it was. The island was floating, so there weren’t many escape routes for this creature. Except if it was able to fly. What if this creature was an unidentified species? That’d mean he was close to finding a new species on Mobius! He was already thinking about names for the creature. Angel light thing, Orange night light, butt. Haha butt. Nice one Drake. But what if it wasn’t an animal? What if it was another mobian? Would there be other mobians here? Or was it just some kind of prank from the crew, trying to scare off the rookie? The fox wandered around in the jungle for half an hour without finding anything. It was kinda boring. And he had to pay a lot of attention to where he was walking on the map. If he would find something, he had to write it down at the right spot.
 
He finally saw something interesting through the trees. It seemed like he arrived at a small lake. It had a huge rock in the middle. The rock was almost as big as one of the bigger trees. Moss covered its surface and the  sun was still low enough so that it looked like it was hiding behind the rock, and sunlight emitted from the stone. Drake knew what to do. He quickly grabbed a pencil out of his backpack, put the backpack on the ground and wrote something down, walking closer towards the lake, however just before he was able to stand on ground away from the trees, the fox tripped over by something that was laying on the ground. Suddenly he hung in a net. There had been a trap set up here.  Drake was really confused. He tried to move around, but obviously the net held him in a lying position. He tried to grab his machete on his side pocket. Someone was getting closer to him.  He removed the casing of the machete and cut down the net. His body smashed down on the ground by the wonderful powers of gravity. However he fell down in such a weird position that he fell on his machete. A loud growl was heard through the jungle. “ARRRRRGHHHH” He yelled out in pain, turned himself around, away from the machete, quickly pulled out his blouse and T-shirt, which hurt pretty bad and looked at the wound. The cut wasn’t too severe luckily. A cut of ten centimetres long covered the right side of his chest from the top to the bottom of, just next to the…ehm…nipple. Luckily he wore a T-shirt. That slightly protect him against the cut getting in deep. Now it was only three tenths of a centimetre thick. But it still hurt as hell. The being was getting closer. Drake quickly grabbed his phone. No connection. Great. Just what he needed. He stood ready to fight the beast coming at him. However when he was finally able to see the beast, it wasn’t a beast. It was a mobian. The mobian had a metal stick in her hand and held it in front of the fox so that there was still some distance between them. Drake could finally see the creature in its eyes. It was a she. She was green and had an orange stripe on her hand. Orange…like the light. Drake took a deep breath to get back to his senses somewhat more. The other mobian didn’t seem to start talking, so he could take his time. Now that his focus was back he could better look at the mobian. And the focus had quickly left again. She…she was… “W-W-What are you d-doing here?” The mobian asked.
 
She was a fox. But with two tails instead of one. The two-tailed fox asked a simple question, but the fox with one tail wasn’t really able to say anything. The female. Her hair was dark brown. Her build was thin, yet very athletic. Her clothing was kind of peculiar. The colour was boring light brown. Her shoulders weren’t covered, but her arms were. In the same kind of fabric as the rest of her clothing. However the hands weren’t covered as well. Probably to show of that orange stripe on her hand. A long skirt with multiple layers and no shoes at all. In her hair were some beads in various colors, swimming around a bit from her movement. But her eyes. Her eyes were bright orange. Like a peach. They almost seemed to be glowing. The fox still couldn’t answer. He was still too focused on her body rather than what she asked. She blushed and clearly seemed to know what was going on. A soft poke with her stick against his nose. “I-I asked you a question s-sir!” Her pose looked steady, but her emotions weren’t at all. Drake shook his head to get out of his trance. “S-S-Sorry. I’m-uh…Drake! Drake Frolig! Who are you?” The green fox looked a bit confused. “I…I-that was not what I asked. W-What are you doing here?” Drake looked a bit shocked. She really did ask him a question before! His mind completely forgot the question. Luckily she asked it again. “I-I’m here to explore the jungle…A-a-at least I was trying to, until this trap like…trapped me. The pain returned to his chest. He held his hand on the wound. It bled a bit. The green fox looked shocked now as well. “O-Oh! Did the trap do that to you? Oh I’m so sorry!” She slowly walked closer to him. She was clearly smaller than him. Almost a head smaller, but that didn’t seem to scare the green fox. She gave a quick glance at the wound, trying not to stare at it for too long. “Do you have any bandaging with you?” She smelled like spices, and her hair looked soft. And Drake should probably get his mind out of the gutter. After a short pause Drake realised what the other person asked. “O-Oh! Right! Yes I have some bandaging in my backpack.” He pointed towards it with his left arm.
 
The green fox walked towards it, but didn’t seem to be able to actually open his backpack. All she could do was stare at it, trying to figure out how it worked. Drake stared at her. What was happening to him? He felt so attached to her for some reason, but she hasn’t even told him her name. Did she feel the same? Did she? Drake then walked to his backpack as well. Movement didn’t seem to hurt him. He bended down next to the other fox. “Here. It’s a zipper. You’ve gotta grab this.” He grabbed the metal piece at the end of the closed zipper. “And then…” He opened up his backpack. The green fox looked amazed. “W-Well that’s certainly something we don’t have. A….zippah?” Drake grinned. “Yeah! It’s pretty useful if you wanna keep things shut.” DON’T. DON’T DO THIS. Drake clearly knew he should keep the pants example to himself. “Well that’s interesting.” The green fox pulled a  bandage out of his bag. “You should organize your bag better next time. Here let me help you.”
 
 She tried to cover up his wound. Her hands felt as if they were from glass. Thin and elegant. She was careful with the bandaging. Drake was trying not to blush. He realised what the problem was about her. She…she was pretty. After a short silence, the green fox shrugged. “My name is Lara by the way. Lara Chaol. Uh…Sorry for giving you that injury…” She looked away. Drake was astounded. He didn’t expect her to be sorry. “Oh no no no! This is totally my own fault! I mean, I landed on my machete. That’s how I got the cut.” Lara looked back at Drake. He felt a temptation. Their faces were close. Too close actually. They both stared at each other. Suddenly Lara turned her head away and stood back up. “W-W-Well u-u-uhm…At least you’re not dead huh?” Drake quickly recovered from the decline and stood up as well, grinning. “I guess death will have to wait another day.” She laughed. “So ehm…when did you arrive here? I assume you’re not from here. I’ve never seen someone like you before, except people that didn’t come from the island.” She stood upright, with her hands behind her back and her legs close to each other. “You’re right! I’m not from here.” Drake tried to look steady. His legs far away from each other and his hands in his side. It hurt a little, but it gave a cool and mighty effect. “I am not from here.” He said with a deep tone. “I am from the mythical ‘outside world’” He said, while waving his left arm in front of him, giving it some extra magic. Lara giggled. Drake replied. “I arrived yesterday with my crew. We’re exploring Angel Island so we can put it on the map!” Lara looked excited. “Oh! That’s nice! Then I guess people can finally look up where I live!” That was basically the confirmation that she lived on this island. Amazing. It’d be so special to live in a place like this!

Lara suddenly looked a bit sad. It seemed like she realised something. “You are not…going to ‘explore’ the village…right?” Drake was a bit confused. He just heard about such a village to exist on this island. The answer was obvious. “Of course I’m going to! It’d be stupid not to do such a thing!” He smiled, but Lara looked disturbed. “A-Are you sure? Many of the villagers are not really fond with outsiders.” “Oh that’s okay. We can have a drink and talk and then they’ll see what a nice guy I am!” Lara didn’t laugh at the joke, she was still rather confused. Great. Now Drake felt bad. “They’re…really not fond of outsiders huh?” Lara shook her head. “O-Oh…” Drake’s ears lowered. “Well then…” Lara seemed to be about to leave. She turned around and opened her mouth to say goodbye, but Drake had to ask something. “Lara?” “Hm?” She turned back to Drake. “Yesterday night, I walked into the forest. I saw orange light on a creature.” He then gestured at Lara’s left hand, where the orange stripe was placed. “Was that…you?” The green fox raised her left hand, looking at it as if she had never seen it before. She then turned red. “W-W-Well I mean,” Her voiced raised a few pitches. “I was probably looking for something? Right yes! I was looking for my sister’s necklace!” Drake grinned. “Of course.” So it was her. It must’ve been. “Lara? One other thing.” “Yeeees?” Drake looked downwards. He was a bit nervous to ask. “So this island’s pretty big.” Lara nodded. “And I’m supposed to explore it all.” Lara nodded even wilder. A smile appeared on her face. “Yeeeees?” “And I was wondering if… You could help me with searching for extraordinary places?” He scratched the back of his head with his left arm. Warmth emitted from Lara’s smile. “Of course I would. But not today. I’m kind of busy with…setting traps…” Drake laughed. “Of course. Do you have some sort of way to read the time?” Lara nodded. “Yes I do!” “Okay. What about….” He looked at his pocket watch. 12 ‘o clock already? Geesh… “11 ‘o clock tomorrow?” Lara smiled. “That is alright with me.” “Good! I’ll see you then!” Lara turned around, but not before having another short period of deep eye contact. “See you…tomorrow….” Lara started to walk away from Drake. Drake stared after her. Shit. Did he really…Did he really just fall in love?” The fox grabbed his machete and put it back in its holster and decided to go back to camp. The afternoon had just begun and he already had seen so much. This wound should be taken care of first however. He didn’t want to get infected by any weird Angel Island deceases.
 
It took him 45 minutes to get back to camp. His wound was working against him. Every time he wanted to move his right arm. It hurt a bit. But it didn’t hurt that much. His mind was somewhere else. That girl. She was so sweet, even though he ruined her trap. He was smiling brightly. When he finally was back at the camp, it seemed like the camp had gotten somewhat bigger. There was a small windshield with a roof. It had the communication panel under it. The rest was already back. Their heads popped up from out of the windshield. Peter walked up to Drake. He looked kind of worried. Probably because Drake still wasn’t wearing any shirt so his already somewhat red bandaging was in plain sight. “Wow! Are-Are you okay?” The hedgehog asked carefully. Drake enthusiastically nodded. Peter found his smile to be weird. That wound must sting right now. He should be in a bit of a pain right now, so a smile wasn’t feeling right. “I’m okay. Oh boy it stings a bit.” Peter’s hand came closer to the wound. “Can I…Can I look? I mean the bandaging is splendidly done but We should be sure to disinfect it. Or have you already done that?” The fox shook his head, still smiling. Melvin came closer. “Man, what’s wrong with you. You come back with a major cut and you’re smiling? What happened?” The fox smiled. “Meh…nothing much…” He thought it was better to just keep it quiet for now. It wasn’t necessary for them to immediately know about it. “Well okay. I’ll take care of the wound now. Could you please sit down? It’s going to sting a little so don’t cry. Or I have to feel sentimental.” Peter grinned.
 
It was only 1 ‘o clock, but the fox decided to lie down in his tent. He was pretty tired already. The short night. The wound that kept stinging, but most of all that energy reducing moment. When she was there. She’s going to show him all the greatest spots on Angel Island. Before the rest could even get to them. He couldn’t fall asleep. He was to enthusiastic. This expedition was going to be amazing. He couldn’t wait for the next day to come.