[PRP] Quack a Lack (Ducky + Marshrush)

[EchoLimaFoxtrot]

"Quaaaaack!" Waddling Duck called out, her slightly childish singsong voice echoing through the dripping vines. Her mind wandered, as it usually did. She really did love the swamp, how her hooves slupped as she pulled it from the mud, how the water tickled her shoulder and the gnats tickled her cheek....

Gnats! "Quack, come here right now and eat these buggers!" Ducky whined, the last of her words raising a few octanes. Where was that sognbird when you needed her?

With some grumbling, she waded to the shore, where the mud was thicker and easily within reach. Sniffing the stuff, she wrinkled her nose - it was missing something. Reaching up, she grabbed a blossom from the vine and ground it up in her mouth to mix with the mud.

Waddling Duck sniffed it again - perfect. She rubbed a cheek in the stuff, this would help prevent those irritating pesks from feasting on her.  

[Samuel Carlin]

Too warm, it was too warm. The gnats were out and being the pests that they were meant to be. He'd dozed, briefly, and he was sure the gnats hadn't been out before he slept, but now? Maybe the winds had changed or someone had stiffed them up, or ...

It didn't matter. Standing in one place wasn't going to get him away from them, so he stood, stretched, shook himself and moved. Away from the hollow, toward ...the sound of a very strange duck. Or someone trying to sound like a duck.

Ears tipped forward, tail thumping against his sides to keep the gnats from his flank, he walked until he spotted the doe rubbing her cheek into the mud. There he stopped. There he stood. From there, he stared. For a minute.

"What are you doing?"  

[EchoLimaFoxtrot]

Waddling duck was just about to rub the other cheek in her specially concocted mud when a rather handsome looking buck showed up. If she hadn't put mud on her face, then he might have seen a slight pinkening under her golden fur.

"Oh." She stated, staring right back at him, her head still held near the mud shelf. "Um. Uh. Bug Repellent?"

There was an awkward silence except for the buzzing of the annoying gnats.

Only to be soon interrupted by quiet wingbeats and a delicate looking songbird that zoomed around the doe's head before settling on a horn.

Ducky looked back slightly, glaring at the small creature. "There you are, Quack! How nice of you to finally join me."  

[Samuel Carlin]

"Bug repellant," he echoed. He flicked an ear. "Out of mud?" His tail thumped against his flank, dislodging the gnats that had settled there again. Not as effective, perhaps, as mud, but then again. "I usually have a roll on longgrass when they get to me. Doesn't stick to my hide like that. Smells, but not as bad, either." Not that he'd caught a whiff of her perfumed concoction yet.

Then the bird fluttered in and he watched it silently. Of all the creatures sharing the swamp, he liked the birds best, though he'd never tried to lure one himself. "Could have your bird eat them, too.  

[EchoLimaFoxtrot]

The doe beamed slightly, "Yes! Well, no. I mean, I bled some herbs and such - a little of this and a bit of that, so it's not just the mud. The other things help keep them away, whereas the mud prevents them from getting to my skin. And, I agree.... it is a little more lasting than longgrass, but the way it makes my skin and fur feel when it washes off - amazing! Did you want to try it? It gets the brime off the fur and massages the skin as well - assuming you do not let it sit for days."

Waddling Duck wrinkled her nose, "It doesn't smell that bad... just a slight tickling of the nostrils." As if to prove her wrong, Quack gave a little sneeze. The doe just shook her head a bit, as if to warn the songbird for acting up.

"Well, Quack -this is Quack, by the way - usually does eat them, but she sees a butterfly, and then is off and no number of gnats can lure her back until she's done." The doe took another breath. "Besides, the poor thing is already plump full. Maybe she'll help me out later."

She wasn't completely sure that the songbird was full, but by those heavier wingbeats and the slight plumpness to the chest did seem to say that Quack was indeed quite full - and feeling especially lazy right now.  

[Samuel Carlin]

EchoLimaFoxtrot

Mixing herbs that kept the bugs away into the mud? He had to admit that was a little clever, but the whole rolling in the mud thing still didn't appeal. He shook his head, just a little. "I wouldn't let mud sit on me for days." He might not be overly picky about his hide, but he was neater than that. "But I won't try it today. Maybe sometime." Maybe.

He looked up at the songbird again when she sneezed. He couldn't say he'd ever heard a songbird sneeze before. He couldn't say he'd paid much attention, either. "What good does she do for you, if she's that easy to distract?" He looked at the doe again.  

[EchoLimaFoxtrot]

The doe beamed, "Oh, wonderful!" She shook her head ever so slightly, to get the excess mud off. "That means I will see you again, then?" Waddling duck just loved meeting new faces - even more so when you see them again!

"Quack? Well, she's my friend! She may not be the most useful, but when she sings it is wonderful and very comforting. Widgeon says she sounds funny, but I think its wonderful! I cannot really make her sing when I want, though... only when it suits her - I can give suggestions though!" the doe looked very pleased about that.

When she didn't know what to really say, she often just kept talking. As if it would keep them around longer.  

[Samuel Carlin]

Would she see him again? He flicked an ear and shifted his weight. He hadn't really meant... "I don't plan visits, he informed her. "Or go looking for anyone, most of the time. I suppose we might meet again." Anything was possible.

He looked at the songbird again and dismissed it with a shake of his head. "If she sings just went she wants to, she's like to scare your meal away," he guessed. He wouldn't want a companion he couldn't predict, at least.

"Does she watch out for deep water? Or sucking mud? The bird surely had some practical use.  

[EchoLimaFoxtrot]

Ducky was mostly unaware of the buck's disapproval. "Oh no, her eyesight is much too weak for that type of thing. She doesn't care anything away - I think many animals are happy to have her around. She attracts many of them, actually. At times, she drops some really pretty feathers that I can put in my hair and she always shows me where the truffles and sweet nuts are!"

The doe didn't mention that - again - she could not command the little bird to find them... so she tended to hoard her sweet treats when Quack helped to find them.

Unlike her kin, the songbird knew right away that the buck through she was useless. The little bird puffed her chest out and flapped her wings while giving him a baleful stare.

Ducky's grin grew, "She likes you!"

The bird chirped once, as if to say Yeah right!  

[Samuel Carlin]

Liked him. Liked him? Marshrush had seen many a bird puff up. Usually when it was time for the little ones to learn to fly, but instead of staying airborne they fell to the ground. He'd come across a few with their mothers standing over them, feathers all puffed up while they scolded him for getting close. Even when he wasn't hunting.

A bird puffing up at him didn't count as a sign of affection. Not to his mind. "I don't think that means she likes me," he pointed out. The doe needed help understanding before she followed the bird somewhere dangerous because she thought the little thing was trying to lead her to a new friend or something. "See how she made herself bigger? Fluffed out her feathers that way? Birds don't do that when they want to be friends."  

[EchoLimaFoxtrot]

Ducky looked at the bird and back at the buck. "Hmph. I guess she just does that sometimes." As if to prove those words, Quack ruffled her feathers before launching off and preening in on an overhead branch, watching the buck with her beady eyes.

"Well, nevermind Quack! I don't mind your company...." the doe became a little conscious of her cracked mud mask. At least the bugs were repelled a bit! They weren't biting now. "Give me a second, yeah?"

Ducky walked to a tree trunk and rubbed her face to knock off the mud. Along with it, all dirt and imperfections followed - leaving her cheeks glowing from her treatment. Of course, the scent still lingered, and those annoying gnats still left her alone.

"There, is that better?" Of course, she would have to do much more rubbing for the rest her, where the dried mud still clung to her in drips and patches. But at least her face wasn't as unpleasant.

"Do you travel with one - or thing - regularly, or are you usually alone?" The doe tilted her head to the side, curious as to why someone might not have any companionship. She had a weakness for it - having someone (anyone) around for awhile.  

[Samuel Carlin]

EchoLimaFoxtrot

His point was proven, he thought, as the bird peered down at him with those tiny little eyes of hers. Good thing she was too big to be a simple mouthful. And too fast to still be within reach.

Not that he was really the sort to eat another's companion in front of them. He was sometimes gruff and more often blunt, but he did try not to be cruel. Mostly not cruel.

He watched the doe head for a tree and scrape the mud off her cheeks. Ears flicking forward curiously, they flicked away again when her attention swung back to him. Idle curiosity was one thing. Paying too much attention was, well. Too much attention. Still, she looked much better with her coat showing through the sticky, drying muck. Less like a creature out of a dark dream and more like a regular, if confusing, doe.

"I don't travel with anyone," he answered, as if that should be obvious. "I know my way around the swamp well enough to not need a guide. And I've never looked for any ...helpers." He cast another look up at the bird.

"Is that the only one with you?"  

[EchoLimaFoxtrot]

"Yeah," the doe nodded, "Quack is the only one that really sticks around for any given amount of time. I have a friend - Widgeon; she and I are usually always doing our own thing..." Ducky smirked, thinking about many of those 'things' included pranks and such.

"So, if you don't have anyone to do anything with - what do you even do?" Really, it was probably inappropriate to just up and ask someone what they did with their time, but she was pretty oblivious and just didn't know what was polite or not.

Still the curious bug, she took a step closer to look at his coat. "Your fur is really pretty! I like how it is sparkles in the light!" She gave a toothy grin, but almost abruptly frowned.

The mud had rubbed while taking that one step, and now it itched consistently. Her questions already forgotten, she took the step back to the tree and first rubbed her shoulders, then her back, followed closely by her rumps, and finally her legs. As she did, her coat became further and further exposed.

Waddling Duck knew she might not smell the greatest, but by the Mother-Father, her own coat never looked so good! Of course, it would never look as good as... what was his name again. "I am sorry! I forgot your name already.... What was it again?" She should have looked sheepish, but Ducky only asked with her wide eyes and genuine interest.

Samuel Carlin

 

[Samuel Carlin]

Marshrush tried--had tried, was trying--to keep up with all the places the doe's mind went, but it wasn't easy. Especially not when she changed thoughts so quickly. It was as if she'd sat back on her hind hooves, whirled around and raced back the way she'd come just when he caught up.

He'd been about to answer what he did -- hunting, keeping to himself, minding his own business -- when she turned and went back to the tree to ...scrape herself clean? All right, fair enough, he'd been baffled by her smearing the mud on in the first place so scraping it off could only be a good thing. And look at that. Beneath the glop and gunk there was a -- well, he didn't ordinarily reach for words like pretty or eye-catching, but he couldn't complain about the coat revealed once all the crust had been buffed away.

So he blinked a few times. Flicked an ear at her and cleared his throat. "Marshrush. My name's Marshrush." Did he sparkle? He didn't think of himself as sparkling, but then, he'd thought of her as dirty, and now...

EchoLimaFoxtrot

 

[EchoLimaFoxtrot]

"Marshrush. Marsh. Rush. Marshr. Ush." Ducky tasted his name, rolling around her tongue as one might do for delicious-savory food. Satisfied, she gave him a quick nod. "It is great to meet you, I am Waddling Duck, or Ducky as most call me. Had I given you my name?" Her eyes widened at the afront. "Sorry if I failed to do so! I can be so scatter-brained sometimes."

She noticed Marshrush was admiring her coat and beamed proudly. "Do you like it? I could do the same for you! Your fur already sparkles in the light but we can make you shine like fresh-fallen snow! Or, at least what I think fresh-fallen snow looks like.... my father told me it was really quite a sight to see! What do you think? The mud bath is ready and I have all the herbs for bug-repellent! You just have to wait for it to dry and then rub it off.... then all pretty-like, see?" Ducky turned and stretched a back leg to admire the way her skin and fur now felt and looked like.

"It would not take very long..." the doe grinned, with a hint of a mischievous glint in her eye - especially since he already said he didn't want to do it today.... but maybe just a little wouldn't hurt...

Samuel Carlin