"Yo, Rev! Slow down! Not all the horses are as fast as Rusty, ya know?" Ace called out to the almost disappearing roadrunner ahead of them.
"Whoops! Sorry!" Rev brought Rusty to a walk.
Soon, the group reached the lake. They let the horses wade in the water. Red and Rusty trotted around in it, soaking everyone nearby. Lucky tried to shake the water off of him, nearly unseating Tech. Annie tried to roll in the water. Thunder was the only one who didn't try to do anything.
When Duck asked Misty to walk forward, the mare just stood there, pretending to drink. Duck gave her a little kick with his heels, and Misty began to back up until the water reached her knees. Duck again asked her to move forward, but Misty only lifted her front legs up into the air, and Duck slid right out of the saddle.
The others broke out in hysterical laughter. Duck scowled as he climbed out of the lake. Misty seemed to be giving Duck a smart look. When Duck mounted Misty again, the saddle made squeaky noises, and the others could not control their laughter.
"So, Tech. Did you ask Cassidy to the dance?" Rev asked.
"Huh? What dance?" Lexi asked. Ace explained about the party after the show. He wanted to ask her, but not here, with the others around.
"You'll see." Tech answered Rev's question.
"That's code for, 'yes.'" Lexi remarked.
"No, it's code for, 'you'll see.'"
"Sure." Lexi rolled her eyes.
When the group returned to the ranch, they found Cassidy in Phantom's stall, combing the mare's creamy tail.
'Hmm.. weird. She was combing Phantom's tail before we left. I wonder what she was doing while we were gone.' Tech thought. "Hey, Cass! We're back!"
"And hungry!" Slam added.
"Let's go get lunch before Slam starts eating the horses' grain." Duck suggested, heading for the cabin.
"Sure!" Cassidy locked up Phantom and followed her friends.
A few minutes later, the Loonatics were resting underneath the shade of a couple of trees, eating lunch. Slam reached beside him to grab his other sandwich, but, much to his suprise, did not find it.
"Huh? Where's my sandwich?" He asked, looking all around himself.
"Probably in your stomach." Duck answered.
"No! I didn't eat this one."
"You didn't, but he did." Rev pointed to a goose that was sitting behind them. The goose was gobbling up a few crumbs left from Slam's stolen lunch.
"Hey! That's my lunch!"
"Don't worry, Slam. We'll get you another one." Ace calmed him down.
The goose waddled up to them. He then jumped up and landed on Duck's head. "GAH! Get it off me!" He yelled, flapping his arms above his head.
"I guess he knows when he's around family, huh?" Tech commented. Cassidy and Tech high-fived each other. They had not forgotten Duck's earlier comment.
Before they knew it, they were being surrounded by geese. The geese did not seem happy with Duck. Duck's eyes widened when he saw the army of geese headed for him.
Meanwhile, Ace, Lexi, Rev, Tech, Cassidy, and Slam were almost killing themselves laughing. The sight of Duck being beaten up by geese was too much for them.
A few minutes and two pillows worth of feathers later, the geese got off of Duck and waddled back to their nests.
"Despicable."
(end chapter 16)