Exploiting the benefits of a neck that could twist a hundred-and-eighty degrees, Pangaea took in a full panoramic view of the group’s surroundings. They were still in the canyonlands beyond the Great Valley’s (presumably) western border, with walls of rock towering over them on both sides of the river, like a giant, ceilingless hallway. Pangaea had spent much of the past few hours gazing mesmerizedly at the spectacular stony scenery; scrutinizing the bands of color and sculpted appearance of the canyon walls, and nearly dizzying himself in his attempts to see how high the surrounding mountain peaks reached. Almost the entire time his feet had been on autopilot, as he walked robotically along over the relatively level surface of the canyon floor, paying very little conscious attention to where the group was going (Not that it mattered, given that they were simply following the river, and for the moment were in no danger of getting lost). This was the first time in a while that he had really taken note of where the group was, and of the progress they had made since leaving the valley. He noted that the canyon walls and surrounding mountains were gradually becoming lower the farther they traveled from the valley, and the canyon walls were growing wider apart, so he and his friends were no longer hemmed in as close to the water’s edge as they had been at the start of their journey.
“Uhhh…well…I–I don’t know about a nap,” he said, responding to Miles’ query, “but it might not be a bad idea to take a break and rest our feet for a few minutes.”
“Well then,” came Ozzy’s gruff voice, “I think it’s been long enough. Can we take these Bright-Circle-blasted leaves off of our faces?!”
Oh, right, Pangaea thought.
I’d almost forgotten about them. Ideally, he would have wanted to travel down a few forks in the path to the Big Water, so that it would be more difficult for Ozzy and Strut to find their way back to the Great Valley if they ever attempted to do so again. (It had occurred to Pangaea that the blindfolds’ intended purpose of disorienting Ozzy and Strut would be essentially moot if the path connecting the two locations was as straightforward as following a river.) But the egg stealers had been so patientófar more so than Pangaea would have ever expected, especially as far as Ozzy was concernedóthat he felt guilty about forcing them to wear the blindfolds any longer.
Maybe I am just too soft for my own good, Pangaea thought with a sigh. “All right,” he said. “You can take them off.”
“About time!” Ozzy groused, as he reached back to yank his blindfold off. Unfortunately, the hot sun had dried the sap affixing the the leaf to the back of his head, and Ozzy discovered the hard way that removing it was like peeling off a band-aid (a sensation that he was, obviously, not acquainted with). As Ozzy gave the back of the blindfold a tug, he let out a yelp of pain.
Pangaea started. “You okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine, you fluffduster!” Ozzy snapped. He picked at the back of the blindfold with his claws. “It’s stuck!”
“Oh, the sap must’ve dried out,” Pangaea said. “Uhh…just try tearing it off really fast; the pain won’t last as long.”
Ozzy clearly didn’t trust Pangaea’s advice. “And rip the skin on the back of my head off? Not likely!” Finding the overlapping end of the leaf with his fingers, Ozzy began slowly peeling it off. However, he was dealing with the equivalent of a band-aid that wrapped all the way around his head, with one sticky end stuck directly on top of the other sticky end, which was in turn affixed directly to his skin, and so once he had endured the painful process of unsticking the first part, he was still only halfway done (and even he could tell that the second half was going to be even more agonizing).
Struggling desperately to hide the fact that his eyes were watering slightly with pain, Ozzy glared at Pangaea, the ferocity of his gaze somewhat undermined by the half-removed leaf blindfold dangling from the back of his head like a loose scarf. “You knew this thing was going to hurt coming off, didn’t you?” he accused.
Pangaea seemed to shrink down, a profoundly guilty expression on his face. “S–sorry,” he said. “Um…you could try getting the back of the blindfold wet; it might come off easier.”
Ozzy’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, but this time he seemed to accept Pangaea’s suggestion. “If this is a trick…” he growled threateningly.
“It’s not, I swear,” Pangaea assured him. He motioned to the water’s edge. “Just go over there, splash some water on it, soak your entire head if you have to. It should at least make the leaf less painful to pull off. Just watch out for bellydraggers or swimming sharpteeth.”
“Thanks for the advice,” Ozzy grunted sarcastically as he made his way to the riverbank.
(
OOC: Stopped here because I figured this post was getting long enough. I’ll focus on Strut next time.
)
