Chapter 3: Love at the Lake Shore

When we arrive at the lake, the sun started to disappear in the horizon, painting both the lake and the sky with a beautiful orange.

As I look at the beautiful scenario, Balto and Ezo Red Fox keep going to Beaver and Praire's house, in the hopes that they are at home.

After a moment, I run to catch up to them and when I finally join them, Beaver appears at the door.

"Oh, Silver Fox and Ezo Red Fox. Welcome... and who might you be?" Beaver asks while taking a good look at Balto.

"Hi, Beaver. This is Balto, the new Friend from the recent eruption.", I answer.

And then out of nowhere, Praire appears behind Beaver and already starts introducing herself.

"Oh! Nice to meet you, I'm Black-Tailed Praire Dog, but you can just call me Praire."

Praire said while happily and energetic shakes Balto's hand, that simply nod while probably still trying to catch up to what just happened.

Then Praire would probably do her traditional greeting, but Beaver stopped her and I could notice that her faced seemed a little flustered.

Since it looked like Beaver seemed a little upset with Praire, I decide to ask them in the hopes that they wouldn't start arguing and we would need to wait for it to end.

"Could we stay at your house for the night?"

Beaver suddenly turn from an upset expression to a happy one and say.

"Of course, come inside."

As she pushes Praire to the side while gesturing for us to come inside.

When entering, we go through this really well made tunnel and at the end of it, we climb a ladder, it was really interesting at looking at other Friend's house.

After climbing the ladder, Ezo sits at their wood lounge chair, so she can go back to her game...

And then after some minutes have passed, I could notice that Beaver and Praire are holding hands and sometimes I could swear that they have been kissing each other sometimes, but neither Balto nor Ezo noticed that apparently...

Then after waiting a couple of minutes, I finally decide to approach Beaver to ask about their strange behavior.

"Beaver...sorry to bother you, but I noticed that you have been holding hands with Praire and being really close with her..."

Before I could finish, Beaver smiles at me and say

"That's because quite some time ago, we went to the library with lots of questions related to the fact that we had been feeling quite strange when near each other, and the professor explained to us that this is a human feeling called love, that we, Friends, can also develop among us."

She takes a deep breath while looking at the night sky and then continue.

"At first, we wasn't unsure if that was really what we felt and that answer only brought even more questions, but the professor said that it is something that we can only discover the answers between ourselves and we should try going on a date, that she explained it being walking together while holding hands, going somewhere to eat and doing other activities outside."

we decide to sit on a wood bench and Praire rests her head on Beaver's lap. So after a quick break, Beaver resumes her story.

"I was still overthinking about stuff like, what will the other friends think if they saw us doing such things, what if Praire isn't interested in such relaxing activities and such, then Praire grabbed my hand and said that we should try this date that the professor talked about..."

Beaver slowly lowered her voice until I couldn't understand anymore and I looked at her face and noticed how blushed she was, but at the same time I could still feel some happiness from her embarrassed expression. I question her.

"So, do you love Praire?"

She quickly looks at me in surprise when I mention love and answer.

"Yes... She's everything to me... but at the same time I fear that I might be too harsh to her only because she wants to do her traditional greeting.", she says traditional greeting with a slightly angry expression of sorts, which sends a cold shiver down my spine.

As we continue our fun little talk, Balto suddenly hugs me from behind, making me jump a little by surprise and make my face a little flustered.

"Today was a lot of fun, Silver.", Balto tells me and then licks my cheek playfully.

"I'm glad you had fun.." I say while trying to hide all of my happiness to be this close with each other.

Then I think a litle to myself the question "Could this be what love is like?", but I shake that question off of my mind since all I want right now is to appreciate this little adventure we are doing together right now... and also because I'm a little sleepy since it's quite late already.

After a good night of sleep, we wake up early next morning and say goodbye to Beaver and Praire while going in the direction of the Jungle Area.