Slowly, slowly sinking into the mud, his neck increasingly stained by degrees, Stellar smiled.

"Yes," he said, "could you help me move your body onto the bank?"

With great effort - but steadily - he freed a limb from the muck, and braced his hoof into the bank, pushing (steadily) up against her.

( @Ruriska oh shi- yawn woke up now time for bossfight)

“Oh,” she said, blinking with the confused sleepiness of the newly awoken, as he put all of his considerable effort into removing her behind from the mud.

Why was she...? Why was he? Oh my.

Yawn turned her body forward, finally planted her front hooves beneath her and braced herself. With both their strength (and her advantage of actual solid ground), the mud finally gave up its prize.

SHLOOOOP!

She stumbled forward, like a newborn foal figuring out how to walk.

( @Jun huzzuh! and she falls asleep and he dies )

Ah.

Stellar smiled. (Again.)

Now all was well.

It would not matter if he were to sink into the mud, never to be seen again. He had aided in her escape from such a terrible fate, and she was safe. That was enough. His own condition was of no significance. He was at peace.

But then, who was he to squander the Motherfather's gift? He pushed his hoof into the bank, slowly - so very slowly - attempting to free himself from the muck.

( @Ruriska NO MORE THAN HE DESERVES )

Freed, Yawn inspected herself.

She was a terrible mess. Her lower half covered in mud, tail limp and stained brown. This would call for a long bath later.

The doe was oh so terribly slow to take note of her saviour, as he struggled with her own predicament. Not that she didn’t care, her sleep-addled brain simply moved at a snail's pace.

When she finally took note, she stumbled towards him, head dipping down in concern. "Can I... help?" She asked, anxiously.

( @Jun she's so great in a crisis 8P)

At the very moment of her asking, Stellar, now no longer encumbered with another to save, with an almighty heave delivered himself whole from the mud - right into the path of the stumbling doe.

Did they collide?

( @Ruriska wow romcom)

They did.

It was luckily off-centre enough that Yawn didn't accidentally skewer the buck with her horn but the collision sent her to the ground.

Where she found the ground to be a comfortable place for a tired doe and immediately fell asleep, rump up and head down, a muddy mess in Stellar's way.

But at least this time she wasn't sinking.

There had got to be something medically wrong with this doe.

But she didn't seem to be in danger...and she was sweetly, if soundly, asleep, charming in even such a sorry state.

Stellar shook his head, sighed with the burgeoning stirrings of probably unwarranted affection, and picked himself up. He looked around - the nearest stream was a way away, and he was caked up to his ears in mud. But the day was still young, and - well, so was he. What was a few more hours? He couldn't very well let something happen to her in this state, could he?

He folded his hooves beneath him, sitting properly this time, next to the sleeping doe.

Maybe when she woke, she would be amenable to washing off together.

END