Spark of Something new had lived enough seasons to know some of the Swamp’s secrets, those little puzzles that begged to be solved. Unraveling these mysteries took much of her time, and she found herself often flirting from one thing to the next, in search of something exciting, something fresh and real.

At this particular moment, she was sizing up a tree that she’d spent the better part of the afternoon searching for. She knew from experience that it produced a tart, sweet berry in the summertime, and she even saw a few dangling tantalizingly from the edge of a branch. But the tree had grown in the past year and she had not, which meant that no matter how she stretched and craned from the ground, her prize was out of reach.

No matter. Spark was no stranger to challenges—she set to work finding some vines that were sturdy enough to toss. If she could just get one end up and over a branch she could tug it with her teeth, shaking the whole limb until she got her treat. They would taste better because she’d had to work to get them, she just knew it.

With some trial and error, Spark managed to toss a vine high enough to catch one of the lower branches. With both ends secured in her teeth, she pulled down and shook her head, hoping the berries were ripe enough to just fall down. As long as there weren’t any wasps up there, she’d be just fine.

With a loud scream, a ball of red and black tumbled from the tree, kicking up a large cloud of dust as it landed on the ground.

The confused Grained Melon coughed and waved his tail until the dust cloud settled. Shaking himself, he tried to sit up, but something stopped him. He was startled to notice the vine wrapped around his ankle. "What the.." he muttered, half to himself, tugging on the vine, hoping to loosen it. Great. This is the last thing I need right now, he thought.

The day had started so well; he was woken up by the first rays of sunshine and went for a walk. His destination was the lake at the end of the valley. On the way he observed a small family of birds building a nest. Lost in thought, he hadn't noticed how time had passed and by the time he was able to tear himself away from the chirping of the birds, it was already afternoon. Yawning, he padded on, it was now too far to the lake, so why not spend the day in this beautiful spot? Another yawn escaped him, maybe a nap would be good and looked around. His gaze stopped on a slightly larger tree and approached it. Looks sturdy enough, he thought to himself and unerringly pulled himself up onto the slightly thicker branches. Hidden by the shady leaves, he made himself comfortable and dozed off with the background noise of the chirping birds. And then.. and then..

He snapped out of his thoughts... the vine! He now impatiently pulled and tugged at the stable structure, which only tightened further. As his impatience grew, his attempts became more and more primitive and in the end he just rolled from one side to the other, causing it to snag further on him and tie him up. He came to a stop in front of her like a fully wrapped present.

Hoofs? His eyes shot up from the ground and he saw a pretty kin. Her orange fur shone in the sunlight.

“Heeelp,” he smiled at her, slightly desperate and tried to move.

AMItotic

Under the cover of lush summer foliage, Spark had never expected there to be anything other than berries in the tree--certainly not an entire buck, tumbling down to the soft dirt below. It made her jump back, tail swishing and eyes bright as she assessed the situation.

"You aren't a berry," she blurted out at once, before she snorted, her head tilted. Of course he wasn't a berry. He also didn't look particularly harmful, which meant she approached easy enough, slipping her horn between where the vines had him trapped. "I have questions," she added, before she tossed her head up, snapping through a weak part of the plant. "First off--what were you doing up there?"

“You have questions?!” Melon giggled and tilted his head slightly. "You just pulled me out of a tree because you thought I was a berry, which by the way isn't the case, except berries can talk these days." He chuckled. "That would make me the biggest berry in the swamp." He got up and shook the dust out of his fur. "I think we both have enough questions, but first thank you for freeing me." He kicked at the vines on the ground and muttered under his breath "stupid vine", then he looked at her "by the way, my name is Grained Melon".

AMItotic

"Of course I have questions," she repeated, a little stiff--but her ears came forward, friendly and curious, as she watched the buck shake himself off. "It's not every day you see a talking berry--or pull a kin out of a tree."

At his introduction, she bowed her head a little bit, hooves drawing in to seem more proper. "It's only fair, seeing as how I trapped you on accident. I'm Spark of Something New, it's--well. It is the dream I was given, at the least," she said, ears flicking back. "What were you doing up there?"

He laughed "I hope so, it would not be that funny if that is something ordinary you do every day." He chuckled a little. "It's nice to meet you, Spark of Something New!" he straightening up a little so as not to look like a complete klutz while she greeted him with etiquette.

"To answer your question about what I was doing there," he began, pointing with his nose to the tree behind him. "As a berry, you lead a really hard life, animals always want to nibble on you. So I thought I'd hide among the other berries.", he joked with a teasing expression on his face and ran his tail over his face in a mock, exaggerated state of helplessness.
He strolled along the tree, looked up at it and then continued. "All joking aside, I actually just wanted to rest a bit. I was all day out here and I thought a little break wouldn't hurt. And yes, I really did climb a tree for that," he said, laughing slightly.

Then he sauntered towards her. "You talked about berries in the tree and then you use a vine to get to the berries? That sounds really complicated and laborious." He stopped a little way in front of her, a questioning look on his face, "What is so special about these berries in particular?"

AMItotic

Ah. So there was a bit of a game to it. Spark watched bemused, ears forward, while he recounted his tale. "It must be a hard life," she agreed, following his gaze. "I'd been after a bit of a nibble myself when you came crashing down. This is generally a pretty good spot to find them, and I'd thought," she paused, giving him a look, "That no one else had found it."

"You see," she explained, glancing him over. "These berries are perfectly ripe this time of year, still tart and firm before they get too sweet after the longest days. You really only can get them right here, right now, and you miss them the whole rest of the year. I don't have any creatures trained to go picking them, so I made it work in other ways."

Still, the flicker of her tail was playful as she wandered along beside him, glancing up the height of the tree and marveling at it. "That you were able to get so high on your own feet...that's quite impressive. Maybe if we find some berries on another branch, I can show you why it's worth the work, and you can show me how you got up there." A fair trade of information, in the doe's eyes.

Grained Melon's gaze flickered from her to the tree and back again as he listened to her. "Hmm, I see, actually I didn't know the berries were edible." His expression became a little more serious for a moment. "I did notice them when I was up there, but I don't put anything I don't know in my mouth, you never know what might happen." Then his eyes widened. "Waaait. You can't talk about berries while looking at me like that." He quickly looked away, hoping she didn't see him blush. To cover it up, he quickly announced loud, "Alright, berries for the lady."

He slowly walked around the tree, his gaze wandering over the trunk. Meanwhile, half lost in his thoughts, he tried to explain to her what he was looking for. "I'm not a professional when it comes to climbing trees, but what I do know is that you need a very stable hold." He glanced at her briefly to make sure she was listening. "It's an advantage if the edge of your hooves protrude a little, that part is much harder, I like to use that to be able to hook onto small protrusions." He lifted his hoof to show her what he meant. "The nice thing about this tree is the uneven bark, with a bit of luck you'll find small, protruding bulges through which you can work your way up the trunk bit by bit." As if on command, he stopped and pointed with his nose to a spot on the trunk. "Look here, the perfect bulge to start." He had already put his hoof on the spot and was carefully climbing the tree bit by bit, his hooves carefully on the bulges shown earlier. He helped himself for the last part by grabbing a sturdy branch with his mouth and using it to pull himself up.

When he reached the top, he disappeared into the leaves of the tree. A loud rustling here, a rustling on the other side, then his head appeared from the branches, his mouth full of branches and berries, he just mumbled "Be careful" and slid, more than he climbed, down the trunk.

He stopped in front of her, a little out of breath, then looked at her and, with a slightly crooked smile, leaned over and offered her the berries. "I hope the berries are to your liking," he mumbled, a twinkle in his eyes.

AMItotic wrote:

"That's the smart way to be," nodded Spark, her tail lifting in curiosity, friendly posture. The swamp was her home, had always been her home, but even after several cycles of the seasons there was still so much to learn, so many hazards to fall into if one wasn't careful. The wrong sort of berries could easily turn a kin's stomach or worse, and so it was only reasonable to be cautious about what you put in your mouth. She caught the sudden fluster in the buck's voice, tilting her head with a silent little grin on her lips. Was he nervous? Did she make him nervous? She'd often watched as kin fell head over hooves fawning for her siblings attention, her nieces and nephews, but rare was the kin that paused their gaze on her. Maybe it was just because she was the only one of her family here, but...she wanted to savor this moment, if she could.

So she watched, gaze attentive as Grained Melon took to the tree, craning her head to follow his technique. She nodded at certain points, curiously leaning forward to inspect the bark--sure enough, if she looked for one of the crags on the tree's surface and placed her hoof a certain way, she found it to be stable footing (even if the posture felt strange and unnatural, like some sort of hooved lemur).

"And you're sure it's safe?" she asked, watching him scamper up like it was effortless. Before she could blink he was obscured by the leaves again, and on his instruction she stepped back just enough to give him plenty of space for a landing, this one much smoother than the first attempt. And like that, he was there--hardly a scratch on him, mouth full of more berry branches than she could ever hope to achieve with her vine contraption.

"That's...amazing!!" beamed Spark, with a little excited wag of her tail. "That's so clever--and you figured that out on your own? That's such a useful skill, you could use that to--find shelter, or escape a flood, or--I mean, the possibilities are endless, aren't they?"

And when she looked up, she realized she'd moved closer to Melon, eyes blinking slowly at how close their snouts were. "But I mean--you knew that, of course you knew that already," she laughed, nervous, and it was her turn to duck her head down and away, to give them some space.

Grained Melon cautiously looked down and gasped as he saw Sparks's snout inches from his own. His voice trembled as he realized the implications of their closeness. "Thats.. I.. You.." He took a deep breath.
He couldn't help but smile at Spark's enthusiasm. Her excitement was contagious, and he found himself feeling just as happy as she was. He carefully placed the berries on a leaf. "I'm glad you think so", he said, his voice soft, without the tremble. "I've always been good at climbing trees, but I've never really thought about how useful it could be. Thanks for opening my eyes to that."

They stood there for a moment, looking at each other in silence. The air between them was charged with an undeniable chemistry. A spark of something more profound had ignited within him, a realization that left him both exhilarated and anxious. Grained Melon took a step closer, he looked into her eyes, his eyes sparkled with mischief, and a faint smile played upon his snout.

AMItotic wrote: