( Round two XD )
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The lake shimmered in the pale sunlight, steam rising from it due to the heavy rains that had been falling for the last few days. The raindrops still glistened in the trees, and the puddles on the ground rippled in the light breeze.
The little family walked through the woods, dodging the bigger puddles, and walking through (or jumping in) the smaller ones. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon, and a perfect day for a walk. Stellar jumped in almost every puddle she came across, the temptation being too much to resist for an eight-year-old, and her pink wellington boots were covered in mud, and her cheeks were pink with her dashing about so much. Lily sat in the pushchair, being too little at almost two to walk far. The pushchair rolled along, being pushed by Murrue, who was pointing out all the different trees and animals to the toddler.
She was walking arm-in-arm with Mwu whilst pushing the chair, and they were sharing happy smiles at the memories of coming here on romantic evening walks before they had got married. The memories made Murrue blush a little, but despite Stellar's questioning, she wouldn't tell her why.
"Just remembering things. You'll find out when you're older, sweetie."
Stellar pouted, and smiled sweetly at her father. "Papa, won't you tell me?" Mwu just grinned and ruffled the little girl's hair.
"I think your mama's right on this one..."
"You're no fun. Okay, when I get older, you have to tell me. Promise?"
Murrue blushed again, and looked down, and Mwu chuckled. "Maybe."
Stellar grumbled about that, but soon cheered up when they reached the banks of the lake. A motley assortment of ducks paddled in the shallows, and waddled about on the banks, pecking at the ground.
"Hey, look! Can we feed the ducks, Mama?" asked the girl, her auburn pigtails bouncing as she jumped up and down.
Murrue reached down into the pushchair's bag, pulling out a bag of bread crusts.
"There you are. Make sure you break it up into little bits so they can eat it properly, okay?"
Mwu and Murrue smiled as they watched their daughter throw the bread to the ducks, listening to her giggle as the birds pecked and swallowed, quacking as they fought over the morsels.
Suddenly, the quacking was drowned out by a loud hissing, and a huge white bird appeared on the banks, flapping it's wings and scaring all the ducks away. Stellar screamed, threw the rest of the bread on the ground, and ran back to her parents, hiding behind Mwu.
"What's that, Papa? It's scary!" she whimpered, peeking out from behind his back.
"It's a swan...I guess he was hungry too." The family watched as the swan pecked up all the rest of the bread, then launched itself back into the water, swimming away majestically.
"But the ducks will be all hungry now..." said the girl, looking sad. Mwu pretended to think.
"Well, tell you what, how about we feed you to them?" Lifting Stellar up, he made as if to throw her in the lake, and she squealed and giggled. "No, put me down!"
Mwu put his daughter down just as they reached the water's edge. "Ooof, you're heavy!"
Murrue had been laughing that entire time. "No, honey. It's because you don't get enough exercise, and you eat too many cookies."
Stellar giggled, and poked her father in the stomach. "Papa's podgy!"
He blinked at that, then lunged at the little girl, who ran back to her mother, laughing all the time.
As they walked along the woodland path, Lily wiggled her legs, and reached out, trying to get out of the pushchair.
"What is it? Do you want to walk for a while?" The toddler nodded, and Murrue unclasped the restraints, lifting Lily out of the chair and onto the ground. She raced around, jumping in little puddles just like her big sister, and she found something in one of those puddles that fascinated her.
"What that?"
Mwu leaned over the puddle, and grinned. "That's a worm."
"Worm?"
"Uh-huh, a wiggly worm." Picking it up, he held it out to Stellar. "Wanna hold it?" At the girl's refusal, he held it out to his wife.
"What about you?" Murrue screwed her face up. "Yuck."
"No fun, you're all sissies" He made as if to put the worm back in the puddle, then pretended to throw it at Murrue, who shrieked and ducked.
Stellar suddenly pointed to the trail up ahead. "Hey look at that!" A little wooden hut stood in the trees. "It's like a fairy tale! Can we go inside? Please?"
"Sure we can. It's lunchtime, anyway. We can eat in there."
The four of them sat on the little benches inside the hut, and Mwu unpacked the picnic lunch from the pack he carried. There was sandwiches, crisps, muffins, all kinds of things. There was also juice, and coffee, as well as fruit, as Murrue took being a mother very seriously, and didn't want her children to only eat junk food.
"What's this hut for, Mama?"
"It's for birdwatching. People come and sit in here to look at the birds. If you look out of the window, there's a perfect view of the lake."
The eight-year-old peered out of the hut's window at the lake, and saw many birds on the water, including the swan from earlier.
"Oh...I see. That's nice that they don't have to sit in the outside and watch when it's raining..."
After lunch, they carried on their walk, Lily this time sitting on her father's shoulders. As they rounded the edge of the lake, they heard a rush and a gurgle of water, and a weir came into sight. Stellar watched, mesmerised by the water.
"What's that for, Papa?"
"It's like an overflow for the lake. Because it's rained so much, the lake might get too full, and then it would flood and cause a lot of trouble. So this helps all the extra water drain away." The little girl nodded at her father's explanation, and Murrue watched with a soft smile, thinking how good a teacher Mwu had turned out to be.
Lily watched the weir, blue eyes wide. The rush and roar of the water frightened her, and she started to cry. "Don't like it!" she wailed kicking at Mwu's shoulders until her mother lifted her down and gave her a cuddle.
"Ssssshh, it's all right, it's all right. It's only water..." The toddler looked up at Murrue with wet eyes, and sniffled. "Scary..." she whimpered.
To make their walk shorter, the four of them cut across the lake on the small path that had been placed in the shallower water. The path had raised kerb edges to help people feel more secure, and Stellar jumped on these and ran across them easily, being part of the gymnastic team at her school. Murrue called out to her to be careful, but the girl had perfect balance, and didn't even stumble as she ran across to the other side.
Mwu grinned. "Hey, that looks like fun!" Stepping on the kerb edge, he tried to run across too.
"Wait, Mwu, be..." Murrue got no further as a terrific splash cut her off, and her husband vanished into the lake.
"Mwu? Mwu, are you okay? Where are you?"
He appeared above the surface, coughing and spluttering, covered in green weed and mud, and clambered back onto the path.
"Bad...idea..." he wheezed, coughing again.
"Well, of course it was." replied his wife unsympathetically. "You can't keep acting like a kid, Mwu..." she sighed, and put her jacket around him to warm him up after his freezing dip.
"I think we'd better go home now..." and they walked back to the car, the children giggling the entire time.
As Murrue drove them home, Mwu began to shiver, and his cheeks were flushed pink. This worried Murrue, as he never got sick. When they reached home, she got him into a warm bath, and then dry clothes, and tucked him into bed.
He was shivering violently, and his golden hair clung limply to his damp forehead.
"Now look what happened. You caught a chill..." Murrue brushed aside the hair from his face, and put a hand to his cheek.
"You idiot. What were you thinking?"
He looked up at her, blue eyes bright with fever, and moaned. "Sorry..."
She sat on the bed by his side, putting a cool cloth to his head, and he reached out to her, resting his head on her lap, where he fell asleep.
Stellar and Lily peeked around the bedroom door. "Is Papa okay?" whispered the older girl, and her mother nodded.
"Yes, he'll be fine, he just has a bit of a cold. This might teach him not to show off..."
Stellar smiled. "Papa will never learn to not show off."
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( Ta-da! Two in one day :wins:
The lake is based entirely on one I visited with my grandparents when I was little, including the hut, the path, the weir, and the swan XD
And as for Mwu...well, he shows off so much...actions have consequences sometimes :laughs:
Please read and review! )
