"Good morning, sleepyhead!" Maxie shook my tent. "Rise and shine, lovely!"
"Was that sarcastic?" I asked, opening my groggy eyes. His laughter as he walked away gave me the answer.
"So, what'll we do today?" I asked, rubbing my stomach. I'd sort of gorged myself on a lovely breakfast of fish and bacon that Tarot conjured up. Of course, there was a downside to that as well- it just made Peanut even more smitten than before.
"Well, we were at the lake yesterday, so I vote for a dry activity today," Maxie answered before anyone else could talk. "How about hiking?"
Tarot frowned. "But I thought we were going to go swi-"
"Hiking it is, then!" Maxie flashed his infamous toothy grin. Swinging his arm over my shoulder, slinking his tail jauntily, he sauntered off. "Shall we go?"
We decided- well, Maxwell decided- to hike up Coomb's Peak, one of the tallest mountains in the area. We would hike up to the top, have a picnic for lunch, then walk back down to our campsite by sundown. "You're carrying the picnic basket, though, darling. You know I would, but, um, I can't because I… um, because- oh! I have to carry the map! Right, so we don't get lost!" Maxwell flashed his grin, grabbed the map out of Peanut's paws, and strutted off. With a sigh, I followed.
"So, Peanut," Tarot smiled adorably, "we haven't gotten to spend much time together since we got here."
I took her hand. Ever since she'd had the canoe hover, I'd realized what this really was. I was dating a superhero! I looked at her in a different light now. I still had no idea how to act around her, but for some reason it didn't matter anymore. We were together. That's what mattered.
"So, Grapey, what's new?" Maxwell squeezed my hand.
"Maxie, what has gotten into you lately? You're forcing us to go hiking, you're making me carry the food- you're being a jerk!"
Maxwell stopped. We were behind Peanut and Tarot, so they kept walking without us. "A jerk? I'm just trying to have fun! Instead of being so selfish, think of it from my point of view! I'm only trying to make this week fun!"
"Selfish? You're the one being selfish! While you're 'having fun', you're ruining it for the rest of us! If Peanut-"
Maxwell laughed. "Peanut? This is about Peanut? Grape, he's a dog! Do you know what would happen if anyone at home knew? You're the one being selfish! If you would give yp this petty infatuation with that dog-"
"Peanut is more than 'just a dog', he's ten times the gentleman you are! At least he thinks about other people!" I yelled this last bit loudly, having lost the last shreds of self-control. There was a rumble, then two canine screams up ahead.
Max and I looked at each other, our argument forgotten for the moment. "Rockslide!"
"Peanut! Tarot! Are you all right?" I called out as we ran to the place we'd seen them last.
The damage wrought by the rockslide was catastrophic. The entire side of the mountain had caved in; the trail was buried under a pile of rocks. There was no sign of Peanut or Tarot anywhere.
"Tarot!" Maxwell called. "Peanut! Tarot! Anyone? HELP!"
"Max? Help!" a voice called, faint underneath the rubble. Maxie and I ran towards it.
"Peanut? Is that you?"
"Yeah," Peanut breathed faintly, "it's me. I'm bruised pretty bad, but more importantly, I can't find Tarot anywhere. I think she might have been knocked out by the slide. Help me find her!"
"Okay," I said, thinking fast, "Max, you look on that half, and I'll check over here. Be very careful! If you move the wrong way, you'll knock over more rocks and you could bury them under there!"
Maxie is the one that found her. She was buried, unconscious, under at least ten feet of stones, but there was a hole at the top that showed us where she was.
To get them out, we had Peanut carefully climb upward until we could hoist him out, and then here carefully dug down to where Tarot was lying prone. Lifting her up, I grabbed her and pulled her out, then Peanut used Maxie's tail to pull himself up and out. (Maxie wasn't too happy about that, but it had to be done, and I was carrying a fluffy, psychic Pomeranian.) Obviously, once we got everyone to safety, we made our way back to the campgrounds instead of finishing the hike.
"Are we gonna go home?" Maxie asked Peanut anxiously as he laid Tarot down in her sleeping bag. "Because we've only been here two days, and it would be a waste to leave now."
I rolled my eyes at Maxwell's selfishness. "Maxie, they were just buried under a mountain! Yes, we're going home!"
Peanut looked up. "Actually, I'm with Max here. None of us was seriously injured, and Tarot shouldn't even that bad of a headache tomorrow. I'm all for staying! But we can't tell our parent's this happened," he said. "They would kill us."
And that was that.
"Grape?" Peanut walked over to me. We had just finished dinner- fish and bacon, again- and it was my turn to wash the mess kits. Tarot has woken up by then, and after we explained how she had been rescued- with a lot of added sound effects from Peanut- she readily agreed to staying for the remainder of the week. "I just wanted to thank you for helping me and Tarot out there. We might still be trapped down there if it weren't for you." He leaned over and gave me a quick, warm peck on the cheek.
I felt my face heat up. "It was nothing," I managed to stutter out, before wheeling around and running into my tent.
That stupid dog isn't making this easy for me at all, is he?
