"Has anyone ever told you..." [aries!]

[crumblebread]

"...that you're small?" The canine drawled. "I mean obviously you're small, you're a feline, but... even for those, you're..." A careful pause as the right word was searched for, his mental dictionary still leagues from complete, "petite. Is it just me? I don't think so, I'm plenty confident in my eyesight."

The leaves folded obediently and crunched satisfyingly under his paws, the afternoon sun doing nothing to dim their brilliant warm colourations. There was a slight chill in the air but it didn't seem as potent here, although in actuality there was nothing keeping him from the bite of it.

"This is all very..." Homely. Comforting. Nice. "Red."

[Aries]

"So? I could still out run, and climb you any day!" Antares retorted, honestly a bit embarrassed at his mediocre size. Not many felines were smaller than him, although rarely were any as agile or quick thinking. His lengthy whiskers twitched in amusement after a moment at the canine's annoyance over his size. It was almost childish.

"Yes it is isn't it. All of the colors are really beautiful, aren't they?" he let out an excited sigh, pouncing play fully on one of the sunlit leaves, sending many more flying through the air.

"Where should we go now?" the feline hopped up, shaking the crumbled leaves from his fur.

[crumblebread]

"I was just...pointing it out, of course you're more lithe than I am. However, you're more bearable when you aren't speaking." Yamir remarked, but if you looked past his disinterested tone you may have found something akin to playfulness there. Or at the least, as near to playful as he could get.

"Beautiful's one word. Prickly is another." His nose scrunched up as several airborne leaves produced by the other settled on his face. He shook them off indignantly. Amber eyes searched up and about, searching the treetops for signs of life. Other than a sugar glider that seemed in a bit of a hurry away from something, it looked as if the trees were the best company they were getting. "That depends. Where can we go now?"

[Aries]

"Oh, am I?" Antares laughed, he had gotten used to the canine's tone. The slightly playful tinge in his voice was satisfying. Hunting wouldn't be very successful, Antares's black pelt stuck out like a sore thumb among the flame colored leaves.

"You do have a point, but that makes it all the more fun!" his eyes flitted to the lose looking pile of leaves directly next to the canine. With a wiggle of his haunches he pounced on the pile of leaves sending even more tiny leaves flying through the air.

"We could just stay here" the feline smiled, a hint of a challenge in his voice.

[crumblebread]

"You really are." He left it at that, knowing that no matter how loudly he whined his wish wouldn't be granted, and a small part of him was completely fine with that. Noticing how much Antares stood out against the leaves, he exhaled in amusement. "You look like a giant beetle." Suddenly, his expression grew horrified. "Can we actually not talk about giant beetles?" He'd been bitten by an ant before near the StarPack den. After that, bugs weren't really on his love list.

... "Fun." He remained silent but his face was rather expressive. A growl escaped his throat as more leaves floated onto his fur, and he tried to shake them off once more.

Okay, so Yamir took the bait. "Stay here with all this nothingness?" His eyes glittered with disgust. "No. Let's go see if we can find any trouble." With that, he set off in a direction he thought looked promising.

[Aries]

"A beetle? That's gross.. I can't be that bad!" Antares scrunched his face in disgust, he simply didn't like bugs. No particular reason why though.

"You missed a spot" he giggled flicking his tail towards the cluster of cleaves clinging to him near his hindquarters. He was going to send more leaves flying at the canine's coat, but before he could make the action Yamir spoke and set off in another direction.

"Trouble? That sounds like fun" Antares trotted quickly to catch up with the other, tail stuck straight up in the air, flicking with excitement. Walking was boring, running was more fun. Without a word Antares raced ahead, hoping the canine would accept his wordless challenge.

[crumblebread]

"That's because trouble is - " Oh God, was he really running? Yamir made an audible noise of protest but his complaints were to fall on closed ears. It seemed even the spirits of the forest were fed up with him. Giving a grunt of defeat, his limbs tensed and he was off like a bullet (a scrawny one, but a bullet nonetheless) behind Antares, calling out ahead. "I resent your existence right now!" But his lips were quirked happily where no one could see.

He worked to get ahead, but it seemed true to his word that the feline was faster than him, and he couldn't seem to get further than a yard behind him. Still, he continued on, satisfied that he had more or less caught up, eyes tracing over the shape of the scattered trees and looking for a sign of anything unusual.

[Aries]

"You know you love me!" the feline called out slowing just a tiny bit to look behind him, just barely catching Yamir's smile. Success! That was the first tome he - or anyone else for the matter had caught the canine smiling.

They were approaching an enormous fallen tree, Antares sped up even further to hopefully clear it. This log was at least four time the height of him, at least it would be fun, a new challenge.

"Let's jump that log!" Antares called out once more to the canine, hoping that he would hear him over the whoosh of the wind in their ears.

[crumblebread]

[OH NO antares caught yamir smiling that's like finding out batman's secret identity]

Just as he was about to suggest that they move to the left to try and avoid the MASSIVE, SCARY TREE in their midst, Antares cut in with the sparkling idea of jumping it. Jumping it! It quadrupled the size of Antares and twice the size of Yamir. He was about to shake his head and call Antares a fool, but he realised that in his disbelief he had gotten a bit too close to the tree to call it quits. He was going as fast as his legs would take him, and slowing down required some space. Some space that he really didn't have.

He braced himself. This was stupid. He wasn't stupid. What was he doing? Only choice, that's what he was doing. Ugh. Squeezing his eyes shut, he hurtled for the log and gave his best leap.

[Aries]

[Lol no kidding, right? I had to have Antares catch him in the act for that very reason. xDD]

Antares watched carefully for the best time to leap, not too far, not too close. Either of those would end up in disaster for him. Only a few feet from the base of the log, still streaking towards it.

He leaped. He leaped with all of the force his back legs could possibly push him with. His belly fur just barely scraped a the top of the log as he cleared the beginning of it. Unless he put his feet down he would end up doing a front flip over the other side. He quickly dug his hind legs into the bark and gave one last leap over the log.

The feline landed on the soft leaves on the other side of the immense tree and waited for Yamir to leap over it as well.

[crumblebread]

Expecting to smash face-first into the tree and bark imprints on his face for the rest of his life, he was confused when his hind legs subconsciously scrabbled against the top of the tree and sent him soaring the last few feet onto the floor near Antares. Except, on his back. "...Ow." With a bitter expression, he flipped over slowly and got to his feet, tail tucked between his legs. "Give me a second as my spine readjusts." That was Yamir-speak for 'I'm fine but your idea sucked'.

"No more log jumping."

[Aries]

Antares was laying on his back in a giggle fit. "That would be why you don't close your eyes!" he continued to laugh, now rolling slightly. "No more log jumping? What about climbing!" Antares was already clawing his way up the rough surface of the log.

"Hey, I wonder if this thing is hollow!" the feline bounded down to the closest end of the fallen tree and stuck his head over the side.

Bad idea.

Really bad idea

Right in front of Antares's nose was a spider bigger than his head. This thing was huge. With a terrified shriek he took his own tumble down the log. Face first in to a pile of leaves. The leaves may have been soft, but he fell hard.

"Don't look at me like that."

[crumblebread]

"Oh, cute!" Yamir exclaimed crossly. This wasn't funny, he did as gracefully as any young canine could have! He flopped onto his butt, eyeing Antares with a masked curiosity as he heaved himself onto the log. "Probably not, I mean how long could the tree have been sitting th - "

Ahhhh!

Oh. Apparently it was.

Eyes shining with amusement, Yamir gave him a dubious look. "What was in there, a corpse?"

[Aries]

"There is a HUGE spider in there" he gasped, quickly flattening the ruffled fur on his back. "The stupid thing was bigger than my face, it could have moved a giant hairy leg and touched me!" he shivered, now he hated spiders more than ever, and logs. he didn't want to go near a hollow log ever again.

Antares's curiosity got the best of him though, of course he padded back to the end of the log again to see if it was just a figment of his imagination.

Nope.

There was more. Hundreds of giant, hairy, disgusting spiders were nested in the log, and they looked angry.

[crumblebread]

Just as Yamir was gussying up to go save the witty bitty guy from whatever was so scary in the hollow log, he heard the word spider. He released a sharp breath and laughed, but it was devoid of humour and much more full of 'hey-let's-get-out-of-here-yeah?-yeah'. "What is it?" His voice was laden with a bit of irritation as Antares had gone suspiciously quiet. "Has it eaten you? Come on now, let's go."

Confused, he maneuvered around the side of the log to see this hideous monster that had the feline in such a daze. Head craning around and brushing pasts Antares' ear, he peeked into the log. "Just a measly little spider, what's it gonna' do, chase - "

Oh. Oh.