We hide in the bushes next to each other. We listen for any sound at all. But I can’t hear anything unnatural, looking at Stale reveals that he can’t hear anything either. Figures, he doesn’t really have better hearing abilities than me. I gave Stale a push on his shoulder and pointed at the hilltop straight ahead. And so we made aim for that hilltop. Our target is likely just over that hill, so we have to be careful not to get caught. We can’t take flight, too soon. And we haven’t even made eye contact with the target yet. We slid along the grass, trying our best not to make too much noise. My hair has closer color to the grass than Stale’s, we both know that. I peek over the edge, little by little. Through the straws of grass I see that the open plains where it all started look just as we left it. But he wouldn’t go too far, I know his arrogance will be his undoing. I keep looking, looking for any detail, item or movement that is out of place. The bags lie there still. There are hoofprints on the ground, but they are too far away to get a good look. And I don’t want to risk moving and INCH without knowing where he is. We have to pull this through. I tell Stale I can't see him. He is taking the chance of peeking over the edge as well. The trees look untouched, no broken leaves or sticks were left behind. A sudden poke from Stale is telling me he spotted something I couldn’t.
He lowers his head down behind the top. “Six o’ clock from targets ground zero,” he says. If he talked to anyone else, I know they wouldn’t understand. But I do. Under the only tree with a decent shadow under it. I have to look very closely to see it, but he is right! Next to the tree’s core is the abnormality: His coat. He doesn’t know it, but a very feint wind gives away a tiny piece of his Clint Eastwood-like coat. Hiding under that tree is a good choice, especially since I really wouldn’t have hid there due to the lack of space. But he took the chance and opened up a chance for us to spot him. We have him now. I smile to Stale and say “Let’s do this,” I say to him. We exchange a bro-hoof before getting into position. We would have mere seconds to get from here over the hundred meters to that tree, which is almost too far for us to take the chance.
We buckle up and get ready to dash over the edge; we only have one chance for this to work. You know, the best thing about this is that I and Stale have such perfect symmetric way of thinking that we didn’t even have to exchange words or ask the other for opinions here. We both know that this was our chance. We start counting at the same time. “One,” we lower our heads a little further. “Two,” my wings are tense and ready to go. “Three,” we beam over the top of the hill. It. Is. On. Our flying speed would surely impress Dice more than a little, but little does it matter now. With Mate at my right side with the same speed as me, we are closing the distance even faster than we expected! We attack from each side of the tree, the black cloak of Dice is there still. We have him.
The sound in the wind gives it all away far too soon. But that ain’t even the worst part ‘bout their performance. As I expected, I hear a thud below me followed with yelling and groaning in pain. *Sigh* the worst part is that it actually worked to just sit in the tree. I jumped down. The boys roll around on the ground with their hooves on their head, n’ a little blood from their forehead. Stale had mah cloak over his head, so I went over to Mate n’ gave him a tap on the head. Then I went over to Stale n’ did the same. “It’s okay Acorn, I won,” I yelled. I had made sure that Acorn would have sumthin’ for whatever injury they would get. While me n’ the boys had settled our lil’ dispute, she had sat down n’ mixed some herbs. She came trotting out from the woods, behind her followed her extra-large bear bodyguard. But she began to gallop when she saw the lil’ duo on the ground.
“Oh my, what happened?” she asked me after grabbin’ into her pouch n’ grabbin’ some mashed herbs of Celestia-knows-what. Stale was closest, she pulled my coat away from him n’ applied the herbs to his forehead while hushing him. “Shh, it’s okay. Lie still now. Good. Now hold this onto your forehead,” she said to him n’ applied some water to make it stick. He groaned a lil’ less n’ just held the herbs in place while Acorn trotted over to his brother. Breeze, who we had watchin’ n’ judgin’ from above, landed right next to me. He sure got a good laugh, but he didn’t land before finishin’ laughin’. But he still fought to not laugh right in front of the rest. “And the winner is,” he said n’ held my hoof up. “Dice!”
“So, we agreed on who gets the last stew?” Dice asked them. They whined a little, mainly since the stew was enough for BOTH of them or one of Dice, but especially since they were the only ones who didn’t get any stew at all. But they nodded their heads, they lost the bet and Dice gets the last stew. They admitted that much. “How did you know we would come from there?” they asked him. “Obvious, that’s the closest hill from the startin’ point. Ya don’ think further than yer nose,” he said. They both did a face hoof; it was embarrassing for them to have been outsmarted. Again! “Don’t worry guys! I and Teddy made this just for you,” Acorn said and handed them both a bunch of dried violet thistles. Didn’t seem to make them any happier though, but they thanked her and ate it while staring at Dice with a grumpy look.
“Well guys, you sure know how to live up to your names when competing against each other, but you still have a couple of miles to go before reaching Dice’s level,” I said. The bear (whom Acorn had named Teddy) nodded his head in consent. It’s good he didn’t need any food at all, because he would end our trip long before it started if he did. I guess that’s the reason Acorn’s grandmother chose to let him join us. “But I’ll tell you what. If either of you win in hoofwrestling against the other, he gets my stew,” I said. Suddenly they got that spark in their eyes again. They looked at each other and measure up each other. I had to concentrate to hold back my laughter since they look like nearly perfect copies. They found a stump and immediately began their duel.
Fifteen minutes went by without any development at all. Now they were lying on the ground, absolutely exhausted. I took my bowl of the stew and sat down next to them. “Hm, seems like it’s a Stalemate again guys. Guess I’ll just have to take it myself then,” I said and began eating. I could hear them cursing my name into the grass, realizing what I had just done. I and Acorn bursted out laughing. They would never learn. “Um, boys? Ya DO realize that you were supposed to let the other win and then share his stew right?” Dice said. They let out a loud groan, and all of us bursted out laughing.