A Vacation Among Friends

Water a had fallen on her head and she almost bolted towards Jake, the only person who could of done it from a distance but then there was more pie. Artemis dug into the pie again, ignoring the towel and napkins. Penny was dying her hair off. On any normal day she would of snapped at Penny but there was pie. She devoured the pie then stood up. Her face was sticky and it honestly bugged her a bit. She picked up the town got it wet and scrubbed her face, like how she had seen Salone and Penny do before. She dried her face off and looked at Penny. "It seems like such a waste of time." said Artemis before walking off to Jake's room.

She sat back down in the chair and stared that the pair. Her eyes drifted to Jake's neck. Her bite marks where still there and he seemed not to of noticed yet. She could have fun with this. "So I learned from Salone that you like biting." said Artemis.

Salone’s hand moved quickly to Jake’s hand, squeezing it tight in warning, trying to convey the temper bubbling just below the surface. Salone had a pretty controlled temper unless it involved Jake using his powers to knock her out… but fortunately that had happened a month ago and it held no infringement upon how she was feeling now.
She had stiffened at Artemis’ comment and was shooting daggers at her but was immediately distracted by Jake’s warm lips pressed against her cheek. She didn’t blush this round but she looked up at him, making a small noise of protest as he stood.

At Jake’s response to Artemis, Salone had it. She was sick and tired of the double bladed bantering.
“Enough,” She said calmly but it held a small edge of a knife in her voice. Penny called it her J.C.Penny customer service voice, the one that she used when she wanted to bash skulls. “Artemis, stop it. If you want someone to tangle with, I would be thrilled to romp around, but I am sick of the flirtatious banter.”

Her eyes seemed to be drilling holes into Artemis, clearly stating she was not to be disobeyed on this. The big wolf inside her was showing its snout rather than the massive mountain lion Salone was generally associated with. Yam would be getting his earful later and he better know it…
Penny at that moment poked her head in the door, eyes widening faintly at the rare display of anger coming off of Salone at the moment.

“Hey kids, I have the boat ready to go out on the lake if you want to use it. Jake, I want you to eat something before you go out onto the lake.”

The plate in question had a massive turkey sandwich, with vegetables, and a pile of yams… no pun intended, with a slice of apple pie. The huge plate sat on the table, still hot and waiting for him.
Salone was still staring hard at Artemis; she would not break the gaze away from the wolf girl, not wanting to be the weaker predator.

A smirk appeared on Artemis' face when Jake spoke, he really didn't skip a beat, but what was a doll? She watched him stand up, she didn't do anything to stop him, why would she? If he wanted to stand he could. She didn't understand the whole, 'don't do anything until you are 100%' thing. She rested her feet on Jake's now vacant bed and was about to say something but was cut off. Usually Jake would cut her off but this time, it was Salone. Her eyes sharpened and became focused on Salone. Was this a challenge? She let out a snort of laughter, her eyes focused on Salone. She trusted Salone and considered her a friend and part of her pack. But she was still only a pup.

"Is that a challenge? Pup." said Artemis, confidence in her voice. Salone didn't scare her one bit. Penny had walked into the room, she said something but Artemis ignored her, probably wasn't very important anyway. She was focused Salone now.

Salone moved forward, except there was something wrong with her… It was Salone… but yet it wasn’t.
“Don’t call a being a pup when they have just lived over a thousand lifetimes,” She hissed, “Which is nine hundred and ninety-nine more than you have.”
Inside her own head Salone was grappling with the dragon personality that had reared up. She called out desperately as her human side fought for control. The dragon arched her golden head baring fangs, her jaws snapping closed at the point where Salone’s human mentality had been moments ago.
But Jake had wandered up behind her and was saying something, she wasn’t quite sure what, everything seemed to be sliding in and out of tune like a bad radio. Salone seemed to have stiffened, her pulse jumping erratically in her neck. Her serpentine eyes locked on a spot past Artemis’ head.

The dragon so desperately wanted to pounces and rip Artemis to shreds while Salone was trying to back pedal… It was that slight prick of anger that had set the dragon off.
Stop… no…

“What I mean Artemis is that you and Jake nearly got killed,” Salone said through gritted teeth. “I don’t want any of us to be set off again...I want to avoid another situation like that.”
She placed heavy emphasis on the words set off; trying to convey a silent message of the fact she was having issues… The dragon snarled, baring fangs.

((Italics means what is going on inside Salone's head))

Jake had said something, Artemis didn't exactly know or particularly care at the moment. She was focus on Salone. Artemis felt the hairs on her neck stand up when Salone spoke, but her expression didn't change. "I don't care how many life times you have lived. You are still a pup and always will be." Artemis said sharply. Her eyes narrowed, staring Salone's strangely snake-like eyes. Artemis did pick up on the hint though, something must of happened at the focus site. Maybe that dragon she shifted into wasn't a form of hers after all.

Artemis stood up and stretched, her eyes never waving from Salone. "If you remember correctly I walked out perfectly fine." Artemis began to walk out of the room, breaking her eye contact from Salone. She turned her head back around looking at Salone. "You could live a thousand more life times and still be unable to beat me. Just remember that." With that Artemis left the room, probably to go see what Penny was bugging them about earlier. Something about a boat? Artemis wondered what that was.

Salone was standing with her eyes closed when Jake left the room, fighting with herself. Her friend was being a jerk… well actually more than a jerk but Salone strongly disliked using such words even though in situation like this it was totally plausible to use such language. She felt bad for causing Jake to leave in such a manner, he was probably going to take his anger out on Artemis using hurtful words…

Salone sighed; the she-dragon seemed content for the time being. She knew she would have to let it out eventually to keep it content, maybe she would deal with the dragon tonight. Slowly, her eyes shifted back to normal and she moved towards the door.

With that she moved out the door, the cool breeze blew against her naturally cool skin causing her temperature to drop a few degrees. Salone jogged out to the lake, seeing the motor boat and tube bobbing up and down in the water all ready. Jake appeared to be investigating it with much interest. She made sure he saw her before walking up behind him and wrapping her arms around his middle and pressing her forehead to his back.

“Sorry,” She stated, her voice sounding slightly muffled. What was she apologizing for? The stress of the situation and just everything that had gone wrong; Salone felt like she needed to apologies to someone. Penny was out of the question, she didn’t feel like apologizing to Artemis at the moment, and Jake seemed to have gotten the end of a very bad deal.
“This whole vacation idea is a bad one… with everything going on…”

So a boat was another form of the evil metal beetles of doom and destruction. However Artemis liked this one a bit more. It was open and not closed in. But Artemis was already having trouble navigating the boat. It kept rocking back and forth and it was getting increasingly harder to move. The boat was a pretty good size though, there was a small indoor area of the boat. And Artemis would check it out if she could ever walk in a straight line to get to it.

After a while Salone and Jake where at the boat and once they got on the boat Penny took off and onto the lake. Artemis felt her heart fly up to her throat, she took back every good thing she thought about the boat. It was evil.

The hug gave Salone a few minutes to relax into his embrace, Jake smelled distinctly of the sea; a smell that Salone happened to love. She would have kissed him but Artemis came wandering down the path. So the shapeshifter opted for resting her head on his shoulder for a few seconds before taking his hand and leading him towards the boat. Penny was already on there, checking dials and what not.

Salone and Jake got on and she was surprised that Artemis was already in the boat, trying desperately to navigate the thing. Penny was driving and wouldn’t let Jake play with the steering wheel which made Salone smile.
Then Jake took the matter of speed into his own hands, causing Salone to yell in surprise and latch onto his middle.

“OK JAKE, ENOUGH!” Penny called after they had reached the center of the lake. They bobbed up and down like a cork in the blue green water while Penny wove her way to the back and she kicked the tube into the water.

“You want to go first?” She asked Salone, who grinned broadly in response. She detached herself from Jake’s side, pulling off her shirt to show a swim top.

“In order to make this fun,” Salone stated, putting on a life vest. “No powers.”

She looked at Jake pointedly before looking at Artemis. Penny helped Artemis with her life vest while Salone helped Jake. It was probably pointless for him but Salone was still a creature of habit.

“You want to come?” Salone asked him, motioning towards the tube.

If looks could kill the look Artemis shot Jake would of shot right through his head. She had a feeling Jake did that just to annoy her but now they were stopped and in the middle of the lake. Artemis saw Salone switching into her swim suit and She looked confused. Her clothes really magical? Then she remembered that one time Salone made her wear her clothes and a frown of disgust appeared on her face. The clothes where tighter then she was used to and the under layer of clothes where just flat out uncomfortable. Artemis was happy with her simple set of skins.

Penny made her stand up. Which for Artemis was hard cause she had taken to saying on the floor of the boat and just army crawling every where. But she was up and after having Penny help keep her standing up had a strange object forced on her. It was stiff and felt funny but Penny tightened it so much she thought she would be flattened. Penny let her stand there while she threw some tubes over the side. Artemis took the time to loosen the life jacket a bit. Penny then walked over and nudged Artemis. Possibly in some sort of joke, she wasn't sure. Artemis was trying to figure out what was just put on her. But the nudge made her loose her balance and she flipped over the side of the boat and onto of the tubes, with a lot of flailing.

Salone flattened out on her stomach and clutched some of the straps to keep her from falling off. She explained the use of the straps to Jake, moving his hands so he knew what to grab.

“No powers,” Salone teased him as the boat started moving and the tube was dragged behind. Salone was soon desperately holding on for dear life to not fall off the tube as the boat was going at top speed. Then they hit a particularly rough spot sending Salone tumbling into the water. She bobbed up like a cork, sputtering.

“Whatdidyoudothatfor?” Salone asked, smiling broadly. Her blonde hair plastered to her face and neck. The boat slowed to a stop and circled around to allow Salone to get back onto tube.
She smelled like the lake but she was having fun.

Artemis was freaking out, even when Jake moved the water to put her on the boat. She rushed to the middle of the boat and sat down right in the middle with her hands over her head. Her head was beating a million miles a minute and right now she didn't want to move. Penny walked over to her to see how she was going but all she got was an evil glare from Artemis and she shuffled to face away from Penny.