Challenge #00832-B101: Picnic in the Park

The final holiday on Earth prompt - Author’s choice as to what the human shows their friend again, but this time everything is finally perfect.

[AN: This story happens somewhere in the middle of #00830-B099]

What

bothered Rael the most about travelling the Earth with Shayde was how easily she switched languages and habits to match her environment.

For

instance, as they marched steadily and almost silently through the Australian wilderness, she was singing an ancient song. Thousands of

years old before she even left this planet. And she sung it in praise

of, and to honour, the people who once lived here[1].

She had lived here when they lived here, and learned it from them. And she sung it as automatically as she breathed.

And

there, in the middle of the scrubby bush, was a hidden spring. Like something out of a fantasy book where children discover another plane of

reality. And in this sudden and unexpected pocket of lush green in the middle of dingy khaki… Rael could easily believe that he had stepped

into a different universe.

Shayde grinned as she spread out a

blanket. “I used tae come here wi’ all the local kids. Me standin’ oot

like a sore thumb o’ course. One wee white kiddie in t’ middle of all

the others. We’d go yabbie-ing a coupl’a ponds over. Swimmin’ here. The

ole tree branch is gone. Long gone…” But it was almost as it was, and

that was the point. So much of the cityscapes had changed. None of her

former landmarks existed, any more.

But this place, barely touched by the hands of adult humans, remained.

Everything else in her pack was travelling food. “You brought me all the way here for a picnic?”

Her

face twisted as she evidently struggled not to blurt out some ancient and crude Australian saying. “Aye,” she said eventually. “We can even go

swimmin’.”

“We don’t have our -er- ‘togs’.”

An even wider grin. “And who’s goin’ tae see that?”

He wasn’t quite sure if she was trying to tempt him or trying to pull his leg.

But the food was excellent, and the quiet noise of nature was restful. And he could almost ignore the way Shayde seemed so comfortable with

herself, even without a stitch of clothing on.

He often wondered

what it was like to grow up without a constant atmosphere of

self-consciousness. Or why, even here and now, he insisted on at least

keeping his Skins on as he gingerly explored the water.

Shayde didn’t say a word about his choices. Just showed him how to tickle the local fish and named some of the native birds.

They

shared an impossible four hours in that little spot. Before time, available light, and the scarcity of food demanded that they hike back.

But it had been, all in all, a surprisingly lovely day.

[1] Don’t worry. They left voluntarily to found their own planet. Nobody’s going to steal their land this time.

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