It had already been two days, and Phillip was teaching Crescent surprisingly well. The little filly wasn't following the antics of the weird teacher anymore and had learned to speak rather well. Although she still had a tendency to use a "w" instead of a "l", but this wasn't a bad thing. Mathews still found it adorable that a tiny little thing with little hooves like her talked like that. However, when she would get older...either way, Crescent was starting to tire of the house. She wanted out, and she showed it more with gestures than with words. It took a bit of ingenious thinking, but Mathews had found a little patch of forest where nobody went. So called "haunted" or something stupid like that. Mathews took an extra two days off seeing that he had done a full four days worth of work, and still had some vacation left to take. The man would have to teach Crescent what was what as she hadn't left the house in the entirety of the time that she had been there.
While outside, Mathews locked up the house and began counting everything he had done. The security was activated, the food and clothes were packed. The bug spray was also there. Tooth brush, tooth paste, everything was there.
"Great! Now then." Mathews looked around in caution, then ran into the house and grabbed a big gray blanket, locked the door once more, then ran back to the car. He put the blanket onto the front seat next to the driver's, and got into his spot, quickly making the car wake up with its well known uproar of explosions. With a final check, Fore drove off towards the forest. The bumping on the road was pretty much the only real noise heard through the entire trip...until Crescent poked her head out of her hiding spot.
"Why'd you lock the door then open it again just to get me?" she asked, showing only her glowing eyes through the mount.
"Uhhh...I forgot?"
Mathews gave a nervous smile, but, obviously, Crescent didn't buy that lie. She was smarter than usual children at her age, and this is what intrigued the man about her more than her appearance and abilities. The filly tightened her gaze before letting her eyes disappear underneath the lowering cloth. It only took thirty minutes, and Mathews' car was already rolling on a path of dirt. The trees around the vehicle were very thick, but the forest itself wasn't. It was barely even blocking anything. One could look at one side, and see the end of the other. Dead leaves and tree branches littered the floor, and their incessant crackling filled the forest as Mathews drove around, trying to find the perfect spot. He was looking for a place to put the tent, as well as a location near the lake. Finally, after a long search, he found the perfect spot. The car came to a well deserved halt, and Crescent was let out of the car. She used he wings to slow her descent to the floor.
The tiny black ball of fuzz felt insignificant compared to the rest of the world in the presence of this huge landscape. As she started to look upwards, and try to see the top of the trees, she fall backwards onto her back, then tilted onto her side, her face showing that she was still processing what had just occurred. Mathews broke out in laughter as he looked at her dazed expression.
"Listen, Crescent. While I set up the tent, how about you walk around for awhile? Don't go too far. I don't want to lose you."
"Hmph." she walked in the opposite direction of the giant, her face snuffed upwards.
As Mathews watched that little furball hop difficultly over some logs, sometimes hanging onto a big one and waddling her little legs in the air, he found a yellowish butterfly on his nose. It looked like the same species that Crescent kept playing with when she was in the yard. It was annoying, so the man tried to shoo it away, but every time it flew away, it landed back on his nose.
"Get. Off!" he yelled as he slapped it away this time.
Apparently, it got the message, and left dazily into the forest, levitating and moving bizarrely in every direction. "Stupid bug."
Crescent hadn't gone too far yet, and was still pretty close to the camp site. However, she found, after walking a bit closer to a moss covered cliff, that there was a slight slope hidden by the dead leaves. The little filly tumbled down said slope and ended her little trip by slamming hard against the cliff. She repressed her cries, but her eyes still watered up as she adjusted her position. Some leaves and branches were stuck onto her coat.
"*sniff* Owww. Meanie cliff. You hurt me!"
The cliff, surprisingly, actually reacted, scaring Crescent tremendously. The moss on it all gathered into two dots which became a fluorescent yellow and were looking at her. Were these eyes?
"What the?"
The butterfly came towards the scared filly and landed on her muzzle. The ball of fuzz noticed it and quickly recognized the bug.
"You? Stop following me!" she yelled as she swiped at the horrifying beast.
It flew off the filly's muzzle and started to taunt her like it always did, and, of course, Crescent followed it, trying to smash it. What she didn't notice was that the moss returned to its normal position on the cliff as soon as the two were gone. Every amount of moss that was passed briefly had the same reaction as the one on the cliff. The ball of fuzz constantly hopped over rock and bush to find that accursed butterfly. She even had to use ruse, like going under the layer of dead leaves and walking around under it, making it look like there was a large mole underneath the leaves. Eventually, when she would find the insect, she would shake her tail like a cat and pounce at it, only to fall short of its spot or, unfortunately, smack herself against a hidden obstacle.
The frenzy went on and on until the little filly found herself falling from the edge of yet another cliff, into the lake. The butterfly was currently just flying above the black fuzz ball's drop point, and a distinctive, high-pitched giggle could be heard. Unfortunately for Crescent, she didn't know how to swim, so, once she hit the water like a cannonball, she started to splash about everywhere, gasping for air and screaming for help while semi-crying. It was a good thing that Mathews had made the camping site next to the lake. The greenish tent was almost up, and most of the supplies were out of the car, but still packed.
As the man finished pounding in some of the nails, he heard the screaming and splashing, and walked away from the greenery to the rocky shore of the body of water. Near the cliff, he saw Crescent drowning, and screamed her name before diving into the water himself.
The butterfly watched the whole scene from its rocky perch and giggled again. It flew back towards the camp site and placed itself on a high tree branch overlooking the two newcomers. Crescent was all wet and shaking, her coat literally flopped down, showing how skinny she was. Her big, traumatized eyes also added to the effect. Mathews was holding her tightly against his chest. As the situation calmed down, the man made a joke about how bad the little filly could swim. He told her that he would take this opportunity to try and teach her, although he didn't know how to teach an equidae how to swim. As some would guess, the wet filly didn't take too kindly to this humor, and punched Fore straight in the nose, making him cringe in pain.
With one final look, the butterfly suddenly flew off again. It'd certainly come back and try agai-ah. Nope. It just got eaten by a passing bird. Such are the functions of nature. However, was it really the only one?