A Vacation Among Friends

Salone poked her head out of the car and the smell of pine needles hit her nose. The British woman driving got out of the car and she looked fairly pleased with herself.  The shapeshifter was slightly sleepy as she had fallen asleep on the hour and a half long drive, with her head rested on Jake’s shoulder.

“Whoa,” Was all Salone had to say to show that she was impressed.  Then, “How-“

Penny looked like a smug cat at that moment, “I called in a favor with my aunt. She said we could use her place.”

The place in question was a small cottage with a lake and a dock. Well trimmed hedges lined the outside of the building and a little wooden boat sat next to the dock, flipped upside down to keep the falling debris out.
 
“We just have to leave it in the same condition we found it in… if not better.” Penny shot everyone a warning look.

Salone felt like a giddy little kid for a few seconds, wanting to run around and splash in the lake but having a mother holding her back. They took five minutes to pull food and take it inside before Salone went outside to explore. There was a little stream flowing down into the river, the rocks and water glittered while she stuck her hand in. The water was cool and clear. The lake itself was a blue green color and very clear as well. They had managed to time their visit to England perfectly as it was warm.  The forest around them was filled with many shades of green, dark to light. The shade was cool and the pine scent perfumed the air. It looked like a cool twisty forest to go explore. Salone’s inner predator was itching to do so anyway.

There was no way Artemis was getting into one of those evil metal beetles of death and destruction. She had her fill of them when Salone took her to meet Penny for the first time. Instead she flew above them as a hawk, which wasn't a problem but eventually near the end of the trip she was feeling tired, most likely because she still wasn't 100%. Jake may of healed her leg but that didn't fix the fatigue she felt. But once the car stop she landed on the ground not to far from it and shifted to her human form, stretching and yawning.

When she walked up to the others she heard Penny mention they needed to keep the small cottage in the same condition that it was in. "It doesn't seem very big, are you sure it can fit all of us? You saw how big Jake can get." Joked Artemis, looking at Jake out the corner of her eye.

    I ended up I a car. I hate these things. I read this thing called a ‘Statistic’ that these cars cause things like STD’s in people, and I don’t know what that is, but it sounds bad.  True story, I saw it on the inter-netting. I have no idea why they call it netting though, I couldn’t catch fish with it if I tried…which I did….with Penny’s laptop. She said I was the dumbest wise-man she knew. Not sure how exactly that pans out…is it a compliment or an insult.
 
      "You WISH you knew how big I can get..." I said quietly, as far as I know Artemis and I heard it, but then again, for all I know it could have been heard by Penny and Salone. I don't think Salone will mind, since she know's I'm only doing it to get to Artemis.
 
      I couldn’t help but feel as though Penny saying that whole “wah-wa-wa-wah wah wah wah wah-wah” Thing and looking around was directed at me. Too bad I didn’t follow exactly what she said…she sounded like the adults on the Peanuts with Charley brown and the snoopy puppy. I spent too much time on the webbing last night. We eventually all stepped into the room, as we did I brushed past Artemis subtly and made my way even further into the room. I won’t lie. I really enjoy this messing with people stuff….
 
      "Dang Penny, I want to see your Aunts Horde...for a human this is slightly impressive..." I said with an excited smile and an interest in everything around. I was like a kid in a candy shop...
      ......I wonder what All I 'm gonna end up breaking while I'm here...

“Well… I guess he can always sleep outside if he is naughty,” Salone joined in on the Jake teasing for a few moments before putting suitcases in their designated rooms.
Salone rolled her eyes at Jake before venturing off; she wasn’t sure how much Artemis fake flirting she could take… but for the time being it was amusing. The small home was indeed very nice and Salone loved every tiny detail. However, Salone brought in her suitcase but didn’t roll out her sleeping bag. The Time Collector doubted she would get any sleep… she had gotten none ever since what had happened at Stonehenge, except for that short nap in the car.

Salone heard Penny respond to what Jake had told her before she vanished out the door, looking up at the sky. Penny gave Salone a concerned look as she vanished out the door. The sky itself was a dark shade of sky blue, with a few wispy clouds rolling across it… she sighed before moving off towards the forest, shifting as she did so. The mountain cat covered the terrain and scrambled up the tree before laying lazily across the branch. Tip of the tail flicking back and forth lazily.

Artemis snorted at Jake's snide remark. She held her tongue on a response though. He brushed his way past her afterwards, into the cabin. She shortly followed after. The place was impressive, there were enough rooms for everyone to have there own but the rest of the cabin seemed compact. There was a small social area with a couch and a few chairs surrounding one of those black magic boxes. After that there where three hallways. The left and right hallways held two rooms and a bathroom each. the one straight back led to a room with a dining room/kitchen combo. Apparently it was impressive, but since Artemis didn't know what was considered impressive case she lived outside most of the time time she held her mouth shut.

"Eww, don't make him sleep out there with me." Jested Artemis. Although in all honesty though she did like the strange rectangles, they where large and soft, not to mention fun to jump on. "You are going to make me use those strange mini waterfalls aren't you." said Artemis mentioning the showers. "Although those slippery bar thing feels good." She then splintered off from the rest of the group choosing the room at the far left end. She really didn't have anything to bring with her but she just sat on the bed, still fatigued from the fight the day earlier and the flight here.

Penny chuckled and patted Jake on the shoulder before going into the kitchen, “soap and soap opera are two very different things.” She called over her shoulder, opening the cooler and putting the food in the fridge. Water, soda pop, meat, cheese sticks, and other items that would make an individual happy. She looked out the window, searching for her blonde counterpart… only to not be seeing her. Penny bit her lip and looked worried, as only an adopted sister could.

Penny pulled down several boxes and began to make dinner for the group, She dropped the boxes and screamed however. A few seconds ago the dog door had swung in and out, expecting a dog she had turned to look. Only to see a female mountain lion, with glowing amber gold eyes, licking her paw and with a nicked bleeding ear.

Salone shifted back and reached for a rag, to hold it to her ear. The shapeshifter had been startled by another mountain lion, male, and the stupid cat wouldn’t leave her alone until she ran off to shift into a smaller dragon. When the male cat had come upon her she growled at it and the mountain lion had turned tail and ran. The cut had happened when the male had clawed her ear. Salone winced as the rag made contact to her ear, leaning against the counter.

Artemis sat on the bed for a whole to moment before not being able to resist jumping on it. She did find until she landed funny and lost her balance. She waved her hands back and forth and heard Jake yelling at her to be careful. She regained her balance and sat back on the bed. Weird, Artemis was in the far left room, even if Jake was in the room next to her he would of have to of walked past his room to see her. It just crossed Artemis as strange. She got up and walked out of her room. Apparently he had heard her comment on the strange white bars, which were apparently called Soap. He was discussing the concept of the name of the bar with Penny when Penny let out a loud shrieked when Salone walked in. Her ear was scratched and when she shifted back started to treat it. A smile grew on Artemis' face as she had a good guess on what happened?

"Attracted a possible mate have you?" teased Artemis. "Don't feel bad, happened to me all the time in the wild. But don't you already have one?" Her eyes lingered on Jake has she spoke.

       "Stupid mortals and their doublespeak" I mumbled to myself as I stood up and walked over to my little sack. I pulled out a set of clean clothing, a grey zip up hoodie and absoutly sliced up black jeans. With that I made my way out towards the shower. Penny gave me a look like she was wonderign what I was doing, and I gave her a harsh glare as I passed.  I locked the door and pulled the hot water nozzel thingy, got undressed and hopped into the clean white tub. I sat in there, curled up and gnawing on my knee. Stupid shapeshifter and stupid mortals. I'm starting to hate them all. Whydid I always have to be the butt of the joke? Let's see them drive me to the point I transform, see how well the shape-shifters do inside my stomach! GAH I HATE THEM!
 
     Suddenly I felt my powers going off and doing their own thing, how friggin wonderful was this!? The pipes rumbled, but no water would burst, insteasd the water falling over me was dripping off me or sliding off my skin and creating something. I suddenly realizd that a large portion of water began streaming out anbd going into the other room. What would it be do-oh, oh no!

      The Water construct of myself was in the other room and it was probably be going to kill them! Artemis wouldn't be able to smell anything wrong, or see, or anything! I hopped out of the shower, not even bothering to turn it off, grabbign a towel and bursting out of the door. I carged my water close, sending my blades into it. It let out a loud hiss and turned into a puddle on the ground. I quickly covered myself, wrapping the towel around my waist and sighing.
  
    "Jake! The same condition or better!" Penny said. I glared at her, sop badly I just wanted to-to...GAH!
      "I just got the floor ready to be mopped..." I ssaid as I walekd for the front door, leaving behind my clothign and everything. I guess I'll just be walking around in a towel for a while.  

Salone flushed, “I honestly have no idea at this point.”
She told this to Artemis before sitting down at the table. She laid her head down on the table and was half asleep before she heard a crash from the other room and Penny shouting something. Sleepily she got up to investigate. A towel clad Jake is what she found. Penny looked less than amused and suddenly Salone was very wide awake, she seemed to be having issues keeping her eyes in one spot. So she made a b-line out of the room. Salone happened to have a horrible weakness for muscle… which Jake happened to have a lot of and her pulse had climbed in rate dramatically. When they had first met Salone hadn’t noticed since she was mostly concerned about the fact Jake had been unconscious.

The shapeshifter was faintly suspicious that Jake could feel her emotional reaction from catching him wearing nothing more than a towel through the connection of the dragon medallion.
Penny on the other hand was impervious to the male dragon standing half naked before her. Lucky for Salone, Penny had missed her reaction as she was to busy glaring at Jake.

“Could you at least work some of you water magic and clean this up?” Penny asked, she sounded as tired as the rest of the group. “And put on a pair of pants please. We don’t want Salone catching sight of you in that.”

With that she went back to making lunch. Salone however had vanished into her room.

Artemis sat down at the kitchen table while Jake angrily walked off. She wondered what he was doing, maybe she would check later. Turning her attention back to Salone. "Well if it tried to hump you it probably was." joked Artemis. "You seemed to be attracted to him. Has your will to mate with him and have pups no longer there? Is it because of what he turned into back at the focus site?" Artemis was going to continue, really at this point she was just 'pushing buttons'. Or at least she thought that she was using that phrase right, she didn't exactly know what I button was.

Then there was a crash, or was it a splash, either way it got all of there attention. The source of the crash was Jake, who was now standing over a rather large puddle, only wrapped in a towel. Hell it even made a light blush appear on Artemis' face. It was just so unexpected. She was able to pull her gaze away, unlike Penny. Although Salone had the worse reaction. She had to run to the other room. He shortly ran to through the front door shortly after. She didn't know where Salone went but Penny just went back to what she was doing. Before going to clean up the water.

Artemis on the other hand slipped out when no one was looking, following Jake's scent. He wasn't hard to track, he had a particular smell. Her search led to her a cave, which was quite far away from the cabin. Heck she wasn't even sure if she could find her way back on foot. She wasn't really paying attention on the way up but there where a lot of twists and turns. She walked into the cave and found Jake, who was sitting on the ground. "Hey what was that about back there?" said Artemis. She looked directly at him, despite the current lack of clothes. Her voice sounded softer then normal, like she actually cared for him. Although she would never admit it.

Salone looked up as Penny knocked on her door, “Yeah?” She asked tiredly. It had been about ten or fifteen minutes since catching Jake in the towel.

“Can you go get Jake and Artemis and bring them to lunch?” Penny asked brightly, “You can also tell Jake I’m not mad at him anymore. We’re all a little snappy from being trapped in the car for too long.  You also might wanna take him a change of clothes.”
Salone’s eyebrows shot up, Jake just about naked in the forest? Good things can never come from that. For some reason that thought amused her as she stood, getting up from her chair. Salone vanished into Jake’s room and pulled out the items he would need.

The medallion was resting on a table and Salone slipped that around her neck. The shapeshifter cast her mind out, looking for Jake.

Hey, where are you? Lunch is ready in case you’re interested. She gave Jake this information in English and draconic, just in case he had gone dragon mode on her; which was a totally plausible thought considering all that had happened.

With that the young woman set off in search of her two friends… well one friend and the guy she may or may not be falling hard for… It was hard to tell at this point. Who was she kidding… she fell for him a long time ago.  

Artemis was on the receiving end of what she guessed was a death stare. She had a feeling Jake was going to pretty much attempt to tear her a new one, but he didn't. He simply answered her and scales covered his body, he grew claws and got up. He walked down the cave dragging his claws on the wall. It was an annoying sound. But at this point Artemis was feeling two things. One, she was annoyed at him. He was suppose to be this great and powerful dragon and yet he was just wallowing in self pity. The second reason she didn't know how to explain. Back when he had kissed her as what she figured was a joke she did feel this strange twinge of something. The same annoying twinge was there again but mainly cause for the same reasons as the first reason. To her it was kinda strange and made no sense.

But she followed Jake deeper into the cave. There wasn't much light the farther she went in. At some point she was walking in pitch blackness, following Jake's scent. After a few more minutes of walking she finally got caught up with Jake. They seemed to be in cavern. Light dropped in from a hole in the ceiling and there was a small lake in the cavern. The room itself was huge, but mostly covered in water. She saw Jake on the shore sitting on the ground. She walked over and sat next to him.

"If you think you are the only person that feels like they don't belong with humans you are wrong." said Artemis. There was no fear in her voice while she spoke. She sound confident but something else was hiding under her words. "I remember the first time I traveled into the 'modern world'. I still don't understand most of it, like those metal beetles. Anyway I remember I ran into this one man, really big and strong. He prevented me from doing what came natural to me and when I asked why he was protecting something that wasn't part of his pack he just looked at me confused. I still don't understand why he did it." Artemis looked Jake in the eyes and put her hand on his shoulder. "I may not know what your life was life before I meet you and we have probably been through different things. Either way he both know what it's like to not be excepted or understand what humans do, what they say or why they do it. Heck, I was raised by wolves. But I will not let you act so down about yourself just because you feel all 'woe is me'."

”Woe is me? No…woe is anyone who thinks they can even comprehend what I’ve been through. How old do you think I am Artemis?” I asked her, concealing my anger. I looked away and shook his head. ”I’m older than the Earth. This place you were raised on…the wolves that raised you. I’m older than their ancestors and then some. When I was born, Earth was a realm of total darkness, the only thing in existence was stars. Artemis…I am the Dragon King. The Alpha of all dragons, the Apex of the pack in the realm of Seppam, my home. Yet here I am on Earth…broken and beaten. This is not a “Woe is Me” moment, this is the accumulation of hundreds and thousands of CENTURIES coming to critical mass, the point of no return. Artemis…I want you to imagine this okay?” I said repositioning as I looked her in the eyes, trying to keep my anger in check. She didn’t know any better…sadly she and Salone had been the straw that broke the camels back.

     ”You’re father, the leader of your pack…of your family. He goes bat-crap crazy and just starts running around and killing members of your pack. You and your pack cast him out and then he runs around and dominates every other pack, comes back to your pack after he’s been cast out…and controls you as well. Then, he forces you to fight your mom to see who survives. After that he throws you out of the pack, like you did him. You spend twenty-thousand years. The sun rises and falls 7300000 times. Every day you are working to make yourself strong enough to taker you pack back. Then let’s say you meet Salone. You and her are the best of friends, sisters, packmates. You make your own pack, to need to go and kill off every member of your old pack. Your brothers and sisters cry out “Why Artemis?” as your teeth rake their throats, your tail impales them and they curse your name. You know that they don’t want to fight you…you know that your father, their pack leader has direct control over them…Kill all three-hundred siblings…and the only person you have at your side is Salone. Now…you kill your father…and you are crowned queen.
You are now the ruler of Earth, okay? You own this WHOLE thing, the seas, the sky and the soil. It’s all yours. Now lets say you fall in love…you find ONE mate that changes everything, you don’t feel the same. Every time he talks you can’t help but listen, when you don’t look at him for long you start to hurt. When you can’t feel him nearby…you feel…incomplete. Now lets say that this mate means so much to you…you’re willing to give up your ability to shapeshift…just to grow old and die with him. Salone tricks you…has someone kill him, the only thing that ever really meant anything to you. Salone has also told the people of Earth that you’re evil, and they believe her. Now imagine soaring as an eagle or a falcon over the seas, on your way to confront Salone and ask her why….and suddenly your wings are clipped….and you fall into the water. Salone takes your throne…and now she’s queen…and you’re left alone.
   Now you finally come back up onto land…many many sun cycles later. And you meet someone like your old mate…he makes you feel….so real…but e has this one friend…and he just won’t get off your case. He keeps making little comments about you being able to turn into an animal…and how he basically says you two should have puppies…and he just irritates you…We’ll name the annoying friend Jake….Jake just heckles you and heckles you and tries to get you uncomfortable. Now not only do you have annoying Jake to worry about, but Salone shows up and almost kills your new potential mate. SO this is twice now she’s taken a mate form you…and you can do NOTHING. Now find out that Jake…he’s stronger than you, and more easily harms Salone than you can. Jake…who came out of the middle of Hic-arse nowhere…and somehow he’s stronger than you…YOU…who saved Earth, who was forced to survive. To top things off…the potential mate you like now…gets possessed by the soul of the mate you once had….Now imagine you’re sitting on the beach…trying to get yourself settled in and come to terms with your failures…and Jake is sitting here JUDGING you saying you feel down on yourself.” I finished, I drew in a heavy annoyed breath and lay back in the sand. There was a moment of silence, the water by the sea began to swirl, and soon a large Maelstrom had formed, boats off the shore began to funnel in. I heard a faint whisper…it was Salone…No…I wouldn’t hear her now…I CHOOSE not to hear her now…