Away and Afar

by PropsValroa


Chapter 43

"Fluffy and cute?" Jump Start asked, "You mean you want to go and hug a... panthin kitten? Or were you talking about the seaponies? We can't go underwater anymore, so that would be hard to do." she said.

"Not necessarily. They did say that some of them occasionally go to the beach to relax. If we manage to spot one or they spot us, you could get what you want that way, Collapse." Magloria added.

Magloria began to idly play about with her short sword as she distributed some of the food they had to each of them. "Though something comes to mind regarding clearing out the forest... The more we clear, the more noticeable it's going to become. Eventually the Panthins are going to know where we are, one way or another. If not them, then other things as well." she said.

Collapse had an idea for what Magloria spoke of and pondered over her response while smirking at Jump Start. "Why not both? But yeah, the fact that we can't go underwater is a bit of a downer. Maybe we'll see some on the beach at some point. After all, they did offer to help us with the ship building too." she spoke.

"However, maybe we don't clear all in the same area. Clear one tree here or there, not all in the same spot at once. Or we could clear an area away from where we are, but if we build a house here it would be quite visible for anyone walking by here. That's a good point though." she spoke, biting into the f ood more.

Magloria shook her head. "Reason why I say they'd find us eventually is because almost any means of concealing where we take the fallen trees to would be inefficient." she stated, then rose an eyebrow.

"I take it you don't really want to drag dozens of trees through thick jungle just to 'hide' our work from them, do you? Cutting down the trees some distance from here would be preferable, but we absolutely must have a path to where we'd store it all. Otherwise we run into the same difficulties." She sliced her fruit open, sticking an entire half into her mouth in such a way that 'drove her point across', as much as eating something could anyways.

Jump Start didn't have much else to say, and instead decided to consume her meal in silence.

Collapse notices Magloria's tactics with making her point and simply nodded. She would eat in silence afterwards as she didn't have anything else to really add to the conversation. Not only that she didn't really want to potentially stirr Magloria's ire. That is not something she'd want to happen at all. She munches on her fruits but before long she was complete. She took off her boots and gear, setting it by one of the pedals.

She seemed to look at the two of them in silence. They probably knew what she was thinking and what she wanted. Her wagging tail and the smirk she was obviously trying to repress was a pretty good indication at what she wanted.

Magloria gave Collapse a deadpan stare, just watching her body reactions. For once, Magloria didn't attempt to ignore them like a professional captain would. "Must you be so obvious in your desires? I know you can't control yourself, but every creature within a kilometer would be able to tell how much you want to be near us." she said.

"Come on Magloria." Jump Start interrupted, "You know how much she seems to enjoy it. Why wouldn't she act like this? It would be like me receiving a plate of delicious pasta with mozzarella cheese topped with fresh alfredo sauce every night, steaming warm. Mmm!"

"Or you with... uh..." she paused, trying to think of what Magloria enjoyed. "...figurine collecting...?" she finished awkwardly.

Magloria sighed before relenting. "Fine, I get your point, as poor as your comparisons were. At least we won't need to use wood on a fire when pressed together, so that's *one* plus."

They waited for Collapse to curl up on their bed first before setting aside their things and joined her. Magloria once more with hesitation.

Collapse looks to Magloria, her ears folded back a bit at the first statement but thankfully Jump Start interrupted on Collapse's behalf. She didn't expect that she would do that for her sake and let out a gentle giggle in reply as she lays down.

"I know that I can't control myself but I do my best to not be all over you two during the day. N-not that I would be..." she looked away after she said that before looking to Jump Start. "All this talk about food makes me think of something. If you have two pieces of bread and put them on exact opposite sides of the planet...you can have the world be a sandwich...technically." she joked before watching them lay down next to her.

"It also reminds me when we were behind that rock in the tunnel when the Felines were walking by and we were all squished together. Hey, at least I wasn't complaining. If anything I perform well in close quarters with other mares when I need to...but I digress." she then would watch Magloria for a few seconds and inch closer to her.

Her tail flicks around, laying itself on Jump Start.

Magloria remains silent as Collapse monologues on about things, merely allowing Collapse to get close without responding positively in any noticeable way. Maybe one day, Collapse, but this isn't the day. Magloria's silence left Jump Start to pick up the conversation instead.

"That's an... odd thing to think about. I dunno if a world sandwich would really count. Maybe it would? Maybe it wouldn't because the world is inedible? I don't know."

"We should probably get to sleep now though." she said, curling down under Collapse's tail. It was now completely dark outside, the moon having been covered by the cloudscape and the tree canopy, leaving them in an eerie darkness, quite similar to the caves. The fact they were together was some comfort against that at least.

Collapse for now was satisfied that she was able to get Magloria to lay down next to her again for the second time. While she wanted her to be smiling and giggling at her actions, that was a long way away in all likelyhood.

As Jump Start talks, her tail gently tightens around Jump Start a bit so she could feel maximum warmth and comfort at it's softness. Although, Collapse was a bit nervous at the darkness. Hopefully the universe would let them have a nice night after what happened the past few nights.

"Yup. Goodnight Jump Start...and goodnight Magloria..." Collapse says as her eyes shut. She wanted to inch closer to Magloria but this time she wasn't willing to push her luck.

Collapse knew that she was the first one to have woken up this morning. How could she tell? That was easy. It was because she was still blanketed in warmth from all sides, and had woken up with her face pressed into the blue fluff of Magloria's chest.

She could tell the sun was starting to rise from the dim light in the sky. The usual jungle birds sung their morning songs, various predators called out as they returned to their homes until the next night, and insects had begun to annoyingly buzz around again.

Today was going to be pretty standard, if what they had plans for was any indication. Just a whole bunch of resource gathering. Boring but necessary.

Because Collapse had woken up earlier than them she took the time to just lay there and admire Magloria's blue fluff. It was very nice for her, a dream come true! She didn't move much though, to maximize her enjoyment of Magloria for as long as possible. The warmth from all sides was just heavenly.

Looking out into the dim sky and listening to the sounds of the jungle. It was oddly peaceful, despite imagining all the pythons and other dangerous predators. Thinking through what they were going to do today, she had plans to build a cart and hopefully get some trees down for a larger shelter.

All good things must come to an end. Eventually Magloria and Jump Start would awaken to the sight of a very awake Collapse laying beside them, enjoying their warmth.

Magloria was the one who awoke first. After checking their surroundings and giving a "Morning." to Collapse, she extracted herself from the group, stretched out in various ways then levitated some of her things over to herself, getting ready for the day ahead.

Jump Start followed a similar wakeup routine, except she didn't extract herself immediately, instead preferring to do the stretching without thinking of the consequences. Those consequences being Collapse got poked accidentally by a leg.

She was too bleary to realize, and just went out and snatched herself some food from their stash.

Assuming Collapse didn't need to say anything to them, they'd likely all just prepare themselves for the day ahead.

Collapse smiled to Jump Start sweetly when she got poked although she likely didn't see it. She took out one of her Coconuts and proceeded to drink the milk of it and eat the flesh inside of it, after accessing the interior goodness within. Then came a bit of a stretch of the legs.

Her boots levitated onto her hooves and she gathered her saddlebags onto her. Once they were all ready to begin logging for the day she would turn to both of them. "Well, time for logging and gathering resources. We can easily cut a few trees down and get ourselves a firepit for roasting our fruits a bit." she suggested before heading out.

Collapse didn't have any particular spots she wanted to begin cutting down the trees. She let Magloria decide. Once she decided, Collapse would begin cutting down some trees with her mushroom axe and getting everything all neatly in a pile.

Magloria had decided on cutting a path of trees towards the beach. She explained that not only would it give them an easier way to reach the ocean, both for constructing the boat and for access to the seaponies, but it also headed in the opposite direction of the felines. Less chance to be noticed.

As they worked, they split into different tasks. Magloria marked the trees that she wanted chopped down with big 'X's, using her short sword, and while Collapse was busy hacking away at trees, she had wandered off and found some more vines. These were then used to create a harness.

Jump Start gladly lent her strength for pulling the trees to where they made a neat pile. After she was fitted with Magloria's vine harness, the light blue mare would tie it on tightly to each tree, giving Jump Start an extremely easy way to drag them around.

Most of the trees didn't take much effort for Collapse to fell, since they were tall, thin and easily chopped down.

However problems arose when she came across the first big tree. It looked very sturdy, and the first few strikes of the axe only left cuts half as deep as the other trees, letting her know immediately that this tree was made from a denser, harder wood. Great for building important things that need to be durable. Not so great for actually gathering from the tree.

Collapse had greatly enjoyed the process of felling the smaller types of trees. It felt good that she was doing something physical. When one does physical labor it was very rewarding because it was very easy to see what one has done at a glance. She felt a sense of pride in her work deep down. More fitting of an Earth pony, for Collapse's magical abilities she felt more in tune with what she could see and touch. Probably she chose the line of work she did.

Upon seeing the big tree Collapse remarked that this one would likely best be used for building the ship. They wanted a ship that was very solid and sturdy, all things considered. It would take more time to cut but she was careful with the areas she cut at, as well as the angle. They didn't want this tree falling in the wrong place.

When the tree had fallen Collapse smirked at a good job done. "Pretty good start, eh?" she remarked.