NOTE: This is derived from the "Swept Away" RP continuity which started in 2007 and has continued in various forms and spinoffs ever since, first on the old Hillbilly Hell forum and presently in Wingnut City. I'm sure it's not the first or only "Humans in the Carsverse" thing that ever came up, but boy, has it had staying power. By the in-RP timeline, the events of Planes 2 would be taking place perhaps 6 years after the humans' arrival.

Disclaimer: Don't own no canon characters. They belong to Disney. Weesa be makin' no money offa dis!

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Mii'auww could not quite remember when she had finally gone to sleep, sometime after carefully dousing the fire, but she woke to the sounds of a debate that had obviously continued all through the night, only expressed in harsh whispers and hisses that seemed like the imprecations of spirits as she passed from sleep to half-waking. Oh, right, they were spirits! What was the topic now?
At present, it wasn't herself, for which she was relieved.

"So just what is this little Crophopper dude thinking, Hollywood?" Wally curled his lip in Nick's general direction. N'Sheki, resting hipshot on her tether, flicked an ear and switched her tail. "He's not ever gonna make it to certification with a bum gearbox, and Blade ain't cutting him any more slack. He's either gonna get himself f***ing killed or Blade will do it for him, and your young friend there will have THREE ghosts pestering her! I dunno if she could handle THREE of us, knowhutimsayin?"

Nick yawned, trying to affect a ZFG face but not even faking it that well. "Crophopper's making his own choices. I'll give him credit for not bolting outta here screaming when those bobcat guys almost knocked his canopy off with their stunts, or when Dipper went full stalker on his tail-"

"Don't get me started on Li'l Miss Crazycakes again." the Orion-ghost snarled. "Just as well I bought it before she came here. I don't think I coulda put up with her for a minute, never mind as long as Blade has."

"She pulls her weight." Nick smiled tightly. "When she's not losing it over famous young bachelors."

"I suppose as long as she's not applying for a membership in Future Bunny Boilers of America, it's all good." Wally harrumphed, inducing N'Sheki to snort and sidestep in turn. His eyes flicked right, as the figure in the bedroll finally stirred. "Oh... morning."

Mii sat up, hissing as a couple of knots in her neck and back made their presence known. She rubbed the side of her neck, teeth grinding. She should have piled some pine needles to cushion her backside, but it had been just too dark. "Don't tell me you two were going on like this all night."

Wally guffawed, exposing his huge teeth right to the gaps of his "bars". "It's not like WE need to sleep, kiddo. This is what ghosties do, Maker knows there ain't much else on the docket when you're livin' large in eternity. Maybe I should write a book, "Things to Do While You're Dead". But that title's just too good not to be taken already."

"I think they made a movie by that name, Wally." Nick smiled again. "You'll have to think up another one for your future bestseller." Mii'auww, by then, had managed to slip away to attend to the first needs of the morning. "So what are the odds that those bizjets might've set off something with their exhaust?"

"Depends how low they were coming in." Wally looked up. "The approach is south of us, wind is not too bad right now but it's still the morning. Assuming some sparks came down, it's all up to the dry conditions and what the wind does. If it picks up or changes... Katy bar the door, the lodge is gonna be right smack in the middle of it..." His face knotted in barely-suppressed anger. "Maybe ol' Cad would deserve it, but there's some hundreds of other people who'd roast along with him!"

"Let's hope that's not the case, then." Nick was the one scowling now. If Wally's fire was wasabi, Nick's fury was of the hidden ghost pepper variety. "I so wanna see that cabron eat slag for once. It'd be almost worth the lodge to me, but some others wouldn't agree."

"Yeah, wouldn't wanna do that to Ol' Jammer." the Orion conceded. "He's a nice guy. Even nice to me, whenever he showed up at the base."

"You look almost ashamed there, buddy." Nick cracked.

The Orion bared his teeth. "Watch your language, Hollywood."

Mii returned, raising her brow slightly at how the ghosts abrubtly shut up at her re-appearance. She rummaged through her saddlebags, finding the last of the MRE's. She hadn't eaten much the previous day. Chili with beans, it was, with crackers, a confection apparently made of cereal and melted marshmallows, raisins, sugar and various other small things. The chili and crackers were tolerable, but Mii didn't care for the rather heavy and brickish "rice crispie square" so much - she offered it to N'sheki. The mare sniffed and curled her lip at it, much to the amusement of Nick and Wally. Well, it was a relief to see the two agreeing on something.
"Say, how old is that?" Wally surveyed the remaining contents of the meal pack, and a wind-tendril snatched up the outer wrapper. "Chrysler, the date on this is two-thousand-and-f***ing-SEVEN! This alleged food is more than half your age!"

"They got it a year before the blowup." Mii'auww shrugged, between swigs of water. It was advised to take plenty of water when eating those things. The army men said they could cause... digestive issues. "They say it's good for ten years if stored right."

"No wonder that thing looks like a brick." Nick tsk'd. "But that's the last one, huh?"

"There's some granola and pemmican bars." Mii nodded, "But aside from that, just whatever roots, nuts and berries I can find."

Wally opened his mouth. Nick headed him off. "She already found the plums."

"Oh, knock it off already, both of you..." Mii'auww muttered under her breath as she reached under the saddle blanket. That radio had to be somewhere, she'd just seen it a few minutes ago. Ah! There it was... maybe the chatter on the aviation band would shut them up for a while. After a moment's scanning, Mii managed to sort out the chatter from the lodge tower from that of the air attack base. So far, it was mostly from their tower, and in the voice of a woman Nick referred to as "Patch". Did she have any other name? Who knew? Eventually, the radio was turned down and set aside while Mii checked over her mare, going over the animal's feet while making a show of supreme indifference to the evil ears and switching tail. Once or twice, there was a smack and a cross word as N'Sheki pushed her boundaries with bared teeth or a raised hind foot. Wally registered some astonishment. "How'd you keep that little bi-witch from kicking your head off?"

"She's just meaner." Nick chuckled. "She can out-stubborn anybody. Even you."

Wally snorted, but reluctantly conceded. "Yeah, I guess, riding for days on what's for all intents and purposes an alien planet, gotta be ornery for that."

The helo-spirit smirked again. "I think she gets it from grandma."

"Nope." the Orion grimaced. "Had my fill of nasty old ladies. Not going back there again."

"Some airport matriarch kick your aft, Wally? Still smarting at the tooth marks in your tail?"

"Just shut the f*** up, Hollywood!" Wally snarled, then dropped his tone. "Stuck-up old Constellation, just didn't like the tone of my voice." the cadence of his speech took on a pseudo-feminine tone for the last few words. "OK, she did leave a few marks. I'll admit I had it coming."

Gritting her teeth, Mii'auww concentrated on brushing down the mare and smoothing out her coat before saddling her up again. Wally, still smarting from Nick's last riposte and looking for somewhere to displace his tension, went nosing in Mii's gear again. She bit her tongue as the contents of her quiver were scattered over the parched and crunchy pine needles. "Hey, go easy on those. Some of them are signal arrows and they... catch fire."

"Okeees." Wally actually looked apologetic. "Sorry about that."

"Well aren't you curious right now?" Nick cracked as Wally gathered the arrows back into a bundle. The signal arrows were conspicuous by the cloth wound about the shaft just behind the head, secured with wire. It was permeated with pitch and other highly flammable substances. "Those are like, flares or something, right?"

"That's right." Mii bounded over and started stuffing arrows back into the quiver. "So don't fool around with them, especially in THIS giant-sized tinderbox." She looked up again; N'Sheki was weaving restlessly and tugging at her ties, nostrils flaring. "Don't you start again!"

Wally's spectral face tightened. "Hope that's not smoke she's smelling. I just KNEW Cad was going to f*** things up with all that jetwash. I KNEW IT!"

"Hey, easy, you're just scaring the horse even more." Nick confronted Wally curtly. "All we need now is her breaking her ties and running."

Mii'auww stepped up and grabbed N'Sheki's bridle as the mare went into a half-rear. "Hey, settle down, stupid!" That was all SHE needed, Nick and Wally in each other's metaphorical hair and her horse in a panic. The wind was now a stiff breeze, and wisps of smoke were coming in on it. From her mouth came some dark oath in the tongue of her ancestors, something her mother would have backhanded her across the face just for thinking. Wally's brows raised. "What the hell does that mean?"

"You seriously wanna know?" Nick snorted. "If it was translated into English, it would make your F-bombs look like "Gee Golly Gosh" next to it. You better be thankful it wasn't directed at YOU."

"No, I don't wanna find out, thank you very much." Wally retreated several yards. "It's just... when all that came out of her mouth, I felt... collywobbles. Haven't felt that since after I bought the farm."

"Shaman's gift." Nick explained. "She's got it. Something else she got from Grandma. Just don't piss her off any more, all right? She could curse you into a rock, or worse yet, into Cad Spinner's paperweight and then..."

"OK, I got it, I GOT IT!" the Orion snarled back. "So that's what curiosity gets me, damn, I shoulda stayed home!"

Maybe you should have... Mii was about to say, but the radio, still in scanning mode, squawked and all three hushed.

"Propwash Junction to Dusty... come in Dusty, come in Dusty!"