i has a friend [bo]

[Edaniel]

It had been a little while since Edaniel had first met his new best friend Bo. Since then, he had spent quite a lot of time with him. He stayed with Bo all the way up until Bo could walk again, and then decided to accompany him on the journey home.

It was a harder journey for Bo than it was for Edaniel. People weren't really meant to survive out in the wilderness for long amounts of time. Edaniel spent most of his time as a mongoose, able to hunt and live off smaller animals. Bo didn't seem to mind; in fact, sometimes he seemed to prefer it when Edaniel couldn't talk.

At the moment, they had stopped at Sugarcreek River. Edaniel, as a mongoose, bounded over to Bo who was taking a rest, turned back to a human, and cheerfully asked, "Wanna go swimming?"

[Bo]

Bo, though he'd never show it, was warming up to the mongoose kid who'd been following him for the past few weeks. Edaniel was a bubbly and clingy person and his personality wasn't something that Bo couldn't ever remember enjoying, and yet, he found himself smiling regularly as they made their journey. He'd been surprisingly satisfied when Edaniel had announced he'd be tagging along for the ride, even though he pretended to be annoyed.

The going had been slow at first, considering all of Bo's injuries, but this week had been much better for both of them. They'd made more time then Bo had thought possible and he was actually starting to enjoy his time on this silly little adventure he'd hated so much at the beginning. The egg was even growing on him, making him feel warm whenever he touched it and making it's way into his dreams at night. He pretended to hate it of course, but he'd often steal glances at it and brush his fingers gently across the silver shell.

He and Edaniel had been stopped at the river running through the woods for about a half an hour. They'd made good time today and hadn't had a decent break since they'd started out this morning over four hours ago, so when Edaniel suggested they go swimming Bo found himself longing to do so. Except, of course, for his secret.

"Nah," Bo said, not missing a beat. She'd learned how to lie smoothly about this, and she wasn't going to give it all up just for one swim. No matter how bad she wanted it. "You can go though, I'll watch." He leaned up against a rock and trailed his fingers in the cool water.

[Edaniel]

Edaniel, who had been laying on his stomach, rolled over onto his back and looked upside-down at Bo. "Why nooooot?" he whined playfully. He had learned pretty quickly that with Bo, no meant no, and their was usually no convincing him to do anything he didn't want to do. So without even waiting for an answer, he jumped up, stripped down to his boxers and made a mad dash for the water.

He dove in ungracefully, and surfaced quickly. He looked over to where Bo was watching him from. "You're missing oooooooout!" he yelled at him.

[Bo]

Bo watched his friend jump haphazardly into the water with an amused smile. Edaniel really had a way with that, making him smile. "I'm fine watching you flail around," he joked, holding a hand over his eyes so the sun wasn't in them.

But he bit his lip as Edaniel dove under again. She really, really wanted to join him. It did look like she was missing out, even if she was having fun just watching. Maybe she'd just jump in with her clothes on. She was wearing shorts, so it wasn't like that would be a problem. But it would be silly for a boy to swim wearing such a baggy shirt.

Sometimes she really regretted this whole choice to live as a man. Did it really matter being a boy or a girl if you lived in the woods? Sure when she lived in the city it was beneficial, people looked down on girls and expected them to be weaker, but out here in the wilderness she didn't meet up with many people. There was no one to judge her but herself.

Oh well, it didn't matter now. Edaniel already thought she was a boy and it wasn't like she could just tell him the truth now. "Just kidding! Hahaha." Yeah. Right. Life was so unfair sometimes. :[

[Edaniel]

Edaniel gave a flamboyant shrug when Bo denied to join him, and dove back under water. He swam down to the very bottom of the river. While down there, he turn into a mongoose and swam after a small school of fish swimming nearby. They scattered, but he managed to catch one in his mouth. He swam back up and surfaced just as he thought he couldn't hold his breath any longer.

Fish still in his mouth, he turned back into a human and took it into his hand. Unaware of how disgusting that might look to Bo, he held it up and cheerfully announced, "I caught dinner!"

[Bo]

Bo looked at the fish with a disgusted face. "You think I'm eating that?" he asked, shaking his head slightly. "I think I'll just catch my own." There was no way he was eating something that had been in Edaniel's mouth, and years on his own had taught him how to catch a variety of different things.

"Too bad my dragon isn't hatched yet," he commented as he got up and stretched, "or it could cook it for ya." Bo never had trouble lighting fires, so he wasn't worried, but it would still be nice having an instant fire starter.

[Edaniel]

"I don't need to cook it if you're not having any," Edaniel replied, looking down at the fish. He didn't really get why Bo didn't want to eat it. It's not like his mouth was any dirtier than the river. Oh well, more for him!

He swam back to shore and climbed out, shivering slightly. He dropped the fish on thr ground, turned back into a mongoose, and started to devour it raw.

[Bo]

Bo rolled his eyes as he knelt down and searched through his bag. Sometimes Edaniel was so disgusting. Finally he found the fishing line he'd stolen a month and a half ago before his trip and set out to the nearest tree, trying to find a good straight branch. He could certainly do without the image of Edaniel snarfing the raw fish and it was perfect timing to find a fishing rod.

He came back five minutes later with a perfect stick and sat back down by the rock he'd been resting against earlier. "I don't know why you like being an animal so much," he mused as he worked on the branch.

[Edaniel]

With a full belly, Edaniel turned backk into a human so he could reply to Bo. "It's nice to not hafta wait till your food is cooked to eat it," he replied, not understanding what the big deal was. When someone's hungry, the sooner they eat the better, right? "If I couldn't turn into an animal I'd still be hungry right now."

He flopped down over onto his back. "That's not the only reason I like it. I can't really explain why it's so cool other than to just say it's really fun, and there's tons of things you can do as an animal that you can't do as a human..."

[Bo]

Bo rolled his eyes again as he finished shaving off the ends of the stick. "I still think it's weird," he said, attaching the fishing line to the pole. "I'd rather wait a few minutes then eat something slimy."

Using a sliver of metal from his pack, Bo fashioned a hook and attached that as well before casting it into the river. "See, this is easy and less disgusting," he said as he sat on the river bank and allowed his feet to dangle in the cool water.

[Edaniel]

"But it takes so longgggg," Edaniel drawled. "And it doesn't taste so bad when it's uncooked. Things taste different when I'm an animal." He probably wouldn't ever scarf down an uncooked fish as a human. He didn't expect Bo to do that either. He just didn't see why it was disgusting to do as an animal. That's what animals did.

He laid there and watched Bo intently for a few moments, and then randomly asked, "Hey Bo, have you ever had a girlfriend?"

[Bo]

That was another thing about Edaniel--he was impatient. It was a really strange thing that Bo liked his company, because normally Bo hated people like him. Maybe it was just because Edaniel had helped him out in a tough situation, but it still didn't really make sense to Bo. Not that it mattered, all that really mattered was that they did get along and it did make Bo happy.

He was watching the water ripple slowly when Edaniel asked him about dating. Asked her about dating. Girls.

Bo bit her lip before answering truthfully. "Nope." She'd never had a boyfriend either, but it wasn't like she was going to point that out. "What about you? Any girl waiting for you back in Saelin?"

[Edaniel]

Edaniel frowned. He wished. "No," he sighed unhappily. "I'm not that popular with girls..." He'd actually once had a girl tell him she didn't want to date him because she didn't want to be mistaken for a lesbian. Let's face it, Edaniel got mistake for a girl a lot. He thought that maybe Bo had the same problem. He hadn't even been sure if Bo was a girl or a boy when he first met him.

[Bo]

Bo couldn't say she found it hard to believe, but she felt bad that Edaniel seemed upset about it. He'd probably been rejected a lot, and she was sure that was probably a little daunting. At least Bo had never been rejected. She'd never pursued any sort of relationship and she'd made sure that everyone knew she didn't want a part of one at all.

"Yeah... sucks," was all she said as she continued to stare into the water. She wasn't sure what to say. Bo had never been a very emotional person and she wasn't good with feeligngs. That was another reason she'd never wanted a relationship, besides the part about her lying about her gender and all.

"But who needs girls anyways?" she said simply. "I never want to settle down or anything."

[Edaniel]

"Why not? I do," Edaniel replied. He sat up and pulled his knees up by his chest, wrapping his arms around them. He was dry now, and could probably put his clothes back on, but didn't feel like it at the moment. "Not anytime soon....right now I just want a girlfriend." Unfortunately the only romantic attention he ever got was from guys who thought he was a chick.