As it got closer to evening, Timber was snuggling up with the dazed creature as if the creature was a warm fire comforting the body during a harsh winter night. He slowly began wrapping his forearms around it, feeling its soft, fluffy, and scaly skin against his dense undercoat. He takes his fingers and starts stroking around its gills. Maw grew some nice gills. He begins twirling the creature's gills around his fingers. He drifted further into his slumber, beginning to hear the faintest sound of a gentle, motherly voice: Hush a by...an'don't you cry…..An'go to sleep little baby…..When you wake…..you shall have some cake....A warmth spreads around the inside of Timber's central chest and his smile becomes bigger…and then it slowly fades. Timber squeezes his facial muscles, hoping his brain would recall the angelic voice again, but it fails. He hugs the creature even tighter like it was his favorite teddy bear as tears well up in his eyes. He presses deeper against its scaly yet soft body, trying to absorb every last bit of its coldblooded warmth. C'mon what was the rest of it. Timber rubs his face deeper into the creature's chest. Its warmth is enough to feel like a soft, heated mattress against his furry cheek. Oh right…wasn't it something like…You shall have a little…..a little…..his eyelids can't be kept apart any longer and his eyes are closed. His eyes circle around the inside of his eyelids, picking up nothing but darkness. What comes after little? Timber feels his eyebrows curving down his forehead. The image of the creature appears in the darkness. Maw, what comes after little? He asks, but he hears no response from the creature. Instead, the creature begins turning around and walking away into the darkness. Maw, wait tell me! Timber barks after the creature, but the creature keeps walking forward. He reaches his paw out and runs after the creature, stumbling over his hind paws. Maw, please—-!
The creature's tongue slaps him on his left cheek. Timber's eyes jolt open. He rubs the sleep dust out of his eyes with his numb paws and squeals out a yawn. He can feel the creature's chest still moving up and down underneath his cheek. He presses his cheek closer to its chest, wanting to enjoy his merry go round ride a bit more. Timber glances up at the creature, the rest of his body tied to the creature. Its obsidian eyes were wide open, looking straight up at the narrow cracks in the wooden ceiling, and its tongue was flopping around its mouth a bit. He glances back down the creature's waist and notices the innie belly button it has. His finger sneaks around the creature's scaly stomach. On the edge of the innie, the finger dances around. Timber wonders aloud, "I didn't know your belly button looked like this." He looks back up at the creature's eyes, but its eyes remain locked on the evening clouds they could manage to see passing above them. His eyes drop. His finger stops around the edge. His whole paw relaxes and wraps under its waist. Timber continues his thought, "but then again, there's a lot of things I don't know about you." He rubs the flaking, waist scales between his fingers, sheepishly asking, "Can I ask you something, maw?" The creature keeps licking its drying out face with its long tongue, still cloud watching.
He keeps peeling and rubbing scales between his fingers, asking, "Why did you leave me under that tree?" The creature retracts its tongue, some slimy drool runs down its cheeks.
"I mean I'm sure whatever you had to take care of must have been important, but did you have to leave me?"
The creature brings out its tongue and licks the tuft on Timber's furry head. Timber giggles, "I guess you're right, that doesn't matter now." He nuzzles into the creature's chest to listen to its angelic heartbeat and he can see how he could match his heartbeat with the creature's, but just when a smile is escaping his lips, Timber starts to feel his stomach growling and saliva begins to pour out of the sides of his snout. He brings his paw up from under the creature's waist to rub the saliva off his cheeks. He squeezes his eyelids together and the creature tighter to him and whispers, "I love you, maw."
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Maria sits up right in her wooden chair, swirling a quarter-full bottle of medicine just to eyeball how much liquid is needed to reach the etched line. She pulls up her chair a bit closer to her desk and attaches the bottle to a faucet that seems to belong to a brewing stand. I don't get what he sees in that fish. She turns a knob to let some magenta liquid with pinkish chunks splash into the glass while she runs through some inner reflections. I mean sure it has similar complexions to him at some parts, but it's still a completely different species proven by its scales and very obvious gills. She turns off the knob once she eyeballs that the glass is filled to the etched line with the chunky, magenta mixture. But regardless if it should be our food by now, I'll have to help keep it alive for him because heavens to Betsy if I kill his 'maw'. She swiftly detaches the replenished medication from the faucet and places it back into her leather bag, leaning against the leg of his desk. The bag keeps falling over though so she fights with the stubborn bag until it could sit properly on the table. Various items such as a lantern, some papers, a wooden jar of worms, and a net decide to crawl out towards the edge of the bag's opening just to make her grind her teeth even more, and then her iron sword falls out and slides out of the bedroom, clanking against wall after wall until it finally rests in the spot in the middle of the open area of the wooden hut. As Maria bends down to pick up the sword, she glances up at Timber snuggling up to the creature, his chest rhymically moving up and down with it. Her grip tightens on the sword's leather handle. When did he like snuggling? Maria wonders. She picks up the sword and clamps back into her bedroom. She sets the sword on her desk, leaning over it with both hands firmly pressed into the table's styled edge and feeling her stomach growling louder. He doesn't even like it when I rub his head. She pears outside her bedroom and gives the relaxed and happy creature a sinister glare. Maria goes back to brooding over her work station. He's only known this fish thing for a moment. What could it have possibly done for him to make him want its warmth? Meanwhile,I've done everything for him! Her fingers curl up against the table, some bark getting under her fingernails. It's just a fish! And then her fingers relax, leaving scars on her desk.
Her eyes glance at the iron sword. Her index finger pecks at the leather handle until it goes into her hand like a magnet. Maria moves the iron sword off the table, rubbing it smoothly against the wooden desk. The iron sword hangs out of her hand, the tip making close contact with the wooden floor. She clamps to barely a tip-toe. She sucks in her breath each time the floor creaks even in the slightest. Maria senses that the tip of the iron sword is almost touching the ground, so she picks it up a bit, letting it hop upwards through her grip. She feels sweat seeping down her forehead as she approaches the creature. Timber was still wrapped around it as if the creature was his body pillow. Her heart pounds like a paddle ball against her chest. The leather handle is slipping through her fingers. Maria adjusts the handle back into her grip and continues fighting against her body's natural noises of breathing and rubbing against her clothes while her sweat droplets quietly fall onto the ground. She manages to get her feet back to their original pacing— "Canoe!" Timber barks as he jolts awake. Maria stumbles back, the iron sword clanking against the wooden floorboard. She grabs her chest. Her heart was bouncing against every wall in her body like a bouncy ball. "Canoe?" Maria sputters out. Timber groans as he rubs his eye with his tired paw and sits up criss-cross applesauce, "Nothing." He glances over at the iron sword lying alone on the ground. "What in tarnation is all this fuss 'bout?" Maria glances over too, and her eyes bulge out of their sockets. She can barely control her breathing. Her mouth hung agape as she tried giving an explanation. Timber frowns at her, trying to read what was happening, which makes her fidget. She quickly shuffles through lies in her mind. Finally, she stutters out, "W-We're going on a fishing trip!" Timber rolls his eyes, groaning some more while rubbing his face. "Must I be a-comin' along?" Maria nods and replies, "Mhm." She scrabbles herself back up and races over to the table like she's striding on skates. She grabs her leather bag. Then, she darts and strides over to the bedroom, the bag's contents jumping up and down, to grab a pouch for drinking water and toss it to Timber while she goes to grab the fishing rod. "But what 'bout—" His eyes frantically looks back at the creature and then back at Maria, "Maw?"
She slips the fishing rod into her leather bag and hangs the drinking flask around his neck, lifting gently his chin so that he could see her reassuring face, "The fish will be fine." Timber pouts and crosses his arms like a kid forbidden to play in the sandbox with his friends, "I'se a-wantin' maw to come along with us!" She sighs, "Tim, how many times do I have to tell you? I'm your maw." His eyebrows curl deeper down his forehead as he growls, "Ma maw's gonna get mighty thirsty while we're away." Maria frowns, revoking the flask from Timber. She launches some water onto the creature and rubs it into the creature's skin. Maria walks over to Timber and gently plants her hand onto his shoulder as her face contorts into a stern yet concerned look, saying, "Tim honey, that thing is not your maw." She slams her hand against her chest and dictates, "I am. I've been your maw since she left you." She then points at the creature, saying, "It doesn't have any reason to come with us, and since you want it alive so much I gave it water, so trust me it'll be fine while we're gone." Maria grunts while she struggles to pick her body up and off the ground, "Now, we're going out to go fishing, so your stomach can stop growling." Timber bubbles up with anger and hits the wooden floor with his paws crumbled up into fists. He whines, "I'se a-wantin' maw to come along with us!" Maria's face flinches. She stares at the sight of Timber huffing and puffing with steam coming out of his ears, tears streaming down his cheeks. She exhales as her head drops, "You won't come with me if the creature can't?" Timber nods, still pouting on the floor like a child. "Okay…" Maria collects herself and walks over to the creature, scooping it up. She gestures her head towards the door. Timber leaps off the floor with a bright smile on his face and scurries quickly out the door. He skids to the side through the front lawn as if they lived on a vast prairie, trying to turn into the dry, tundra forest path while Maria follows behind with the creature in her arms.
She could feel the creature's slimy body slipping around in her arms like butter in a hot frying pan while her feet stumbled down the steep, tundra forest path. Her ears were bombarded with the loud sounds of Timber's paws hitting the hard ground and multiple snapping twigs. Timber's forearms lunge forward and his hind legs push backward with each chaotic trot. He is scurrying faster than a horse in a derby race. Maria did her best to run at his pace, the creature bouncing up and down in her arms. It slaps her against her upper chest, under her chin and in her face. Some sticky clumps are even dripping into her mouth. God I wish he would slow down! Maria rants to herself while she tries to lower the creature down within her arms down to her stomach, so she can have room in front of her to spit out the clotted slime. She sees that Timber is getting closer to the water's edge and picks up her speed even more, more than the soles of her boots are able to navigate. He better not try to swim again—-! An isolated tree branch catches the tip of her right leather boot causing it to trip over her left. Maria slams face first into the firm, tundra forest path. The creature is launched out of her arms. It tumbles down the path like a tumbleweed past Timber and splashes into the muddy soil by the edge of the water. Timber skids against the soil, his head clocking back over his shoulder. The creature is lying sporadically across the ground, its tongue hanging on the side of its face. His eyes widened. Timber's paws trot towards the creature, barking, "Maw!" He slides against the muddy soil. He searches around for the creature's obsidian eyes to meet his, but they continue to look up at the fluffy clouds that were moving across the yellowish blue sky. He tries rubbing the creature's face and begs, "Y'all doin' alright?" The creature's tongue flops around and slaps its forehead. Timber lets go of its squishy and scaly face. He giggles, "Maw, quit foolin' 'round. We gotta skedaddle fer fishin'."
He digs his snout under the creature's back and begins flipping it towards the water. "Well now, reckon I gotta fill ya in on a few bits 'n pieces 'bout fishin'," Timber grunts, "but then again, ya been swimmin' with them fishies fer so long, reckon you're a right expert by now." He digs his paws under the creature's torso and flips it over one more time so that it can finally touch the ocean. Its body twitches awake before the creature begins wading in the water. "Well darlin', you have yourself a grand ol' time in them waters while I go wrangle up the ol' boat." Timber says. He trots away towards the wooden boat. The boat appears chipped and scratched in some places with some wood splinting out of the bow. It has some algae growing on its sides and cobwebs spun within the inside. He pushes the dusty, wooden boat and notices how the boat doesn't budge in the slightest. He glances back at the swimming creature, barking, "Maw watch this!" Grinning, he rubs his paws together. His paws dig underneath the boat and find its flat bottom. He sucks in some air. He arches his back. The veins in his boyish biceps begin throbbing. He bites down on his lower jaw, desperate to not let a howl escape. He looks over his shoulder, but the creature is just standing in the water staring blankly at him. He lifts harder, his fingers bending and cracking under the boat's weight, his muscles beginning to ache and stretch further than their capacity. His shoulders were about ready to pop out of their sockets. Timber! His ears perk up. Maria was calling after him, her leather bag spinning around her neck enough to practically be choking her, her legs stumbling through the muddy ground and her leather boots splashing mud all over her already soiled clothes. She grabs Timber's shoulders and yanks him away from the boat. The boat slams into the muddy soil, spraying mud all over them. And if that isn't enough, they stumble back into more muddy soil. Maria picks herself up and reaches down for Timber. "Tim, you know you can't lift it. You have to push it," Maria coughs up, still trying to get the slime and now mud out of the inner sides of her mouth. Timber slaps Maria's hand away and gets up on all fours. "Y'all done gone and ruined it! I was fixin' to surely impress maw!" Timber growls as he shakes off as much mud clumps as he can. Maria frowns and dictates, "You can't impress a fish."
Timber barks, "Mah maw ain't no fish, I tell ya!" Maria's hands squeeze into a fist, but before she argues, her stomach growls. Maria takes a deep breath. She exhales and clicks her tongue. She instructs, "You know what? Let's just try pushing the boat by its stern into the water." Timber picks himself up to stand on his hind legs. He pouts, crosses his arms and walks away towards the swimming creature, mud squishing between his toes. Maria frowns at him from a distance and mutters to herself, "Fine, I'll do it myself." She squishes towards the stern of the boat and plants both of her hands. The boat moves with ease through the mud while Maria's leather boots push back through the wet soil with each step. From a distance, she watches Timber playfully splashing the creature within the shallow waters like he was in a kiddy pool. He likes playing in the water now? She pushes harder on the boat to quickly get closer to where they were. Her leather boots even pick up a faster pace. As Maria got closer and closer, it was like a door slam directly against her heart because Timber's giggling became louder. "C'mon, Maw! Ya can do better'n that," He barks at the floundering creature, flipping around in the water like a donut in a hot fryer. Her heart twists. Maria grips the stern, veins throbbing from her wrist. She gives one final aggressive heave to the boat into the water. A whole wave washes over Timber and the creature. His fur is completely soaked. The creature doesn't even flinch and just soaks up the water into its pores and licks its face a bit. Timber doggy paddles to the surface looking like an Old English Dog. He flips his fur back and growls, "What in tarnation was that for?"
"Sorry Tim, I didn't mean it like that," Maria stutters. "Well, I reckon maw's doin' fine, I suppose." Timber says, rubbing the creature's shoulder. The creature swims around, wagging its furry dorsal fin. The fin cut through the water's surface hard enough to where it was splashing waves of water over him. "Maw, hush now! Knock it off!" Timber giggles. He decides to return the favor by splashing little puddles back in the creature's face. The creature stares cold at him, licking its wet face with its long, slimy tongue. It glances down at the worm that brushes against its furry digit and dips its head into the water. The worm burrows into the ground before it could snatch it with its jaw. The creature searches around, moving the ocean floor away. It starts crawling around on all fours deeper into the water. "Y'all alright, maw?" Timber asks, wading forward and trying to follow where the creature was going.
His body almost submerges itself underwater before Maria grasps his boyish bicep and pulls him back over the surface, saying, "And what do you think you're doing?"
Timber says, "I be wonderin' if maw could use my help. Reckon she's searchin' for somethin'."
"It's probably just trying to find some underwater worms."
He growls, yanking his biceps out of Maria's tight grip, "Ma maw ain't no 'it', no sirree."
Maria exhales, "I'll be on the boat if you'd like to join me." She gently throws her leather bag over her shoulder and into the boat's floor. She lifts her legs over the boat's curved frame and sits on the front thwart, spreading out the opening of her bag. Maria bends down to rumble through its contents. She pulls out a fishing rod. She cranks the string out and looks over to Timber. He is doggy paddling to follow the creature deeper into the water. Maria slams down her fishing rod. She snatches the oar off the floor boards and cuts through the water's surface on either side of the boat, making sure that with each stride, the boat pushes quickly through the ocean. "Timber!" She cries out and Timber's ears do perk up, but he keeps paddling deeper. Maria cuts into the water's surface, creating deep wounds across the ocean that splashes enough on her to make her slimy clothes even more sticky and washing all the cobwebs off the sides of the boat. "Timber!" She cries out, this time from her chest. Timber keeps paddling with the swimming creature. He constantly lifts his head above the ocean's surface, trying not to be dragged under again by some unknown slimy lasso. The creature on the other hand is cutting through the water like Michael Phelps. Its furry dorsal fin slapped the water up and down creating large spalashes that washed over Timber. "Maw, hold yer horses!" He barks while he struggles to keep his neck above the waves moving him around. "Timber!" Maria cracks. She cuts the oars even deeper into the ocean's surface from side to side, getting closer and closer to Timber's floating head. "Maw, hold your horses now! I reckon I wanna lend a hand!" Timber howls, his neck aching as it tries to stay bent backwards to avoid further submergence into the water. Maria shifts the oar to her dominant hand and holds out her other hand, shaping it like an open claw machine. "Maw?" Timber whines while the last bit of his neck descends underwater and he watches with tears forming in his eyes the creature jumping through the water as high as a dolphin. It jumps one last time before cutting deep and swimming down into the ocean, leaving behind a large splash that looked as if a bomb had been detonated and exploded in the ocean. Maria's claw machine perfectly wrapped around the back of Timber's furry head. Her arm moved like a crane over the wooden boat and dropped its sobbing and coughing prize onto the boat's floors. She yells and points down at him, "Don't you dare scare your maw like that ever again!"
"Y'ain't my maw, now!" Timber growls loudly in Maria's face, almost biting her nose as he coughs up more water before pouting and crossing his arms, sitting cross cross apple sauce. Every word crinkles her heart like a piece of paper. It sinks back down onto the thwart. Maria exhales while she picks up her fishing rod and cranks down the string holding the sharp, metal hook. "I may not have fur, but I've cared for you more than that fish thing ever has," Maria mutters as she launches the fishing rod over her shoulder. The fishing rod's string is thrown into the water. The iron hook sends ripples across the water until it sinks down. Maria looks over her shoulder to see Timber still pouting on the wooden floor. She frowns and says, "You should think it's for the best the creature swam away. You weren't going to eat it anyways." Timber slams his paws against the boat, causing it to wobble and Maria to lose a bit of her sitting balance on the thwart, barking, "Because she's my maw!" Maria scowls at Timber. She says, "I don't think I like this new behavior." Timber springs up on all fours, growling, "Show some respect fer my maw, y'hear?" He trots around and curls up on the wooden floor in the middle of the sailing boat. He turns his head away from her. Maria exhales. Her hands grip tighter on the fishing rod. Her eyelids are doing their best to hold back an ocean of tears like a dam. To help, she tries curving her eyebrows down, strengthening her eyelids to push back on the water works. She looks forward to the painted sky filled with mixtures of oranges and yellows and pinks around the sun painted with pure white slowly dripping down and across the water to keep her mind off of her emerging tears.