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Are We Zen Yet?

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MORE FLETCHIN
LOOK AT US GO!

As always, story is a collab with the wonderful NewAgeStables !

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“The wind… it’s
really picking up, isn’t it?” Faye nearly yelled to be heard over the roar. Climbing Mount Rainier on giant cats… It sounded fun in theory. In reality, though, it was tending to be rather miserable, though perhaps it was just the weather. Snow and slush seemed to constantly spew from above, and then there was the wind. It was sometimes hard to even think over that roar. And that was frustrating. Mocha seemed to be enjoying it better than Faye, at least, though she kept trying to veer away from the other two cats and take it alone, which Faye wasn’t in the mood for. Sure, she wanted to be independent, but this SO wasn’t the time for it.


Mocha’s caterwauling off into the occasional distance had Riot putting up her own furious churning dance up the mountainside, and the sunset from the night before had dawned, naturally, on a downpour. And now slush that they were the majority of the way to the top of Rainier. Slushing was definitely a form of precipitation, the weathermen just forgot to mention it. “I can’t tell if it’s the wind anymore OR JUST TOO MUCH LIQUID ROLLING DOWN MY FACE!” ...okay, the need to SCREAM AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE over the aforementioned wind definitely meant it was the wind. “OR IT’S THE WIND TOO…” Dev regretted his lack of goggles for going up the mountain, and remembered his cocky ‘oooh, they’ll just block the view!!’ he’d said earlier that day. BAD LIFE DECISIONS, DEVIN.


Nirvana wasn’t exactly in a state of zen herself. It was, to put it lightly, miserable up here. Nirvana’s ears were permanently pinned to her head at this point, both to mark her displeasure and to keep the wind from blowing into them. Fletcher pulled his hat further down, though it didn’t really help. “Is there any chance there’s some park base or shelter up here?” He could hope… Though even if there were one, what were the chances that it would be big enough for the six of them?


Wishful thinking definitely wouldn’t get them a forest service cabin, let alone this high up. The trees were looking sadder by the half-hour, and the rocks...wait. “FLETCHHHH DO YOU REMEMBER THE CAVES?!” Dev hoped his voice found its way over the wind.



“What?” Did he hear that right? He ran it through his head a few times to see if he could have said something else, but… “You mean the ones that caved in nearly two decades ago? Those caves?”


“Yes, but also no! There’s got to be others, right?!” They also had to be nearing the summit of Rainier, judging by the abysmal lack of plant growth. Rocks, snow and ice were their primary landscape now.


“Before I say anything, Fletch, I know you don’t like hearing about this ‘gambling problem’ I have, but I once actually won a bet based on these caves.  There is at least one more large cave system up here…. somewhere… I think Dev’s on to something!” Faye patted at her pockets for a second before giving up. “Who has a compass? I think there might actually be some close by!” Well, she could hope they were close, at least. A cave made of ice might not be much warmer, but at least they could get out of this damned wind.


“There’s a compass on my watch,” Fletcher yelled to her. He pulled his sleeve up and wiped the moisture from the watch face. “It looks like we’re heading south...east?” He pulled Nirvana over to Faye and Mocha so she could see for herself. She looked around for a minute or so, no doubt trying to figure out where exactly they were in relation to the caves, then, with an excited whoop took off on her cat. Fletch looked over at Riot and Dev. “Last one there’s a rotten egg?”   


The whoop had, of course, already set Riot bounding forward (slightly off-course), but Dev grinned all the same. “A rotten egg or the person who gets the worst sleeping spot!”


“Aha!” Faye said, though the sound was mostly snatched away by the wind. If she hadn’t been looking for it and remembered what the entrance looked like from that picture she had seen a few years back she might have just passed it, but right now she couldn’t think of a more welcome sight. She looked behind her to see the two silvery black cats quickly making their way towards her. Of course they were racing- with a grin she wondered how three very competitive people were going to make it riding cross country together. It would be fun, that was for sure. Mocha edged into the cave, and the sigh nearly took Faye’s breath away. It was, simply put, a spectacular show. The way the ice was shaped, the colors reflected around… And, arguably best of all, the wind was no longer tearing at them.


The wind shut out and all of the extra noise dropped off as Riot and Nirvana entered the cave, and promptly began slipping toward Mocha and Faye. “Warning, cat-pile ahead!” Dev prompted Riot to the side, but with his own wandering eyes taking in all of the fantastic colors, he wasn’t quite focussed enough to keep Riot from letting her tail make a solid -flump!- against Mocha as the silver cat slid to a stop. She looked rather pleased her herself and the water that flew off of her coat with the motion. “Warning, water-fall-de-cat ahead?” Dev hoped not, but then again, he was already soaked to the bone. “Should we explore farther?”


“Oh, as if there is any chance we won’t be exploring this beauty more!” Fletch scoffed. He carefully edged Nirvana in between Riot and Mocha before Mocha could get back at Riot for the tail smack. The small chocolatey colored cat had quite the temper and hadn’t quite warmed up to the sisters yet.


“Hey, guys, I hate to break that up, but any chance we could get a fire going sometime soon?”

“That is probably a good idea….we can race around this place in the morning!”
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NewAgeStables's avatar
Place: Mt. Rainier Caves
Time: Mid-November
Shedus featured: Nevermind Nirvana, Royal Riot, and Mocha Latte
Riders featured: Fletcher Sykes, Devin Kline, and Faye Decanay
Summary: Finally out of a nasty storm on the first leg of the trip across the country, team #fletchin discovers an incredible cave system inside of Mt Rainier. 
AP points count: 1030 words total (1000/250) = 4AP