A Casual Collection: Season 2

Ep14: Love at Fifth Book

"Why did you bring us out here Mel?" Add asked as he snuck behind Melisa. He was the loudest out of the two, as his metal armor thumped along the ground and rustled around with each joint he bent. "Are we doing another bounty? A prank?" He kept inquiring curiously, brushing away stray branches that blocked his pat. "Just keep following, I needed to show you something," she said, taking them through a few more bushes before emerging behind the last one next to a lake. "There," she said, pointing to Lao walking in the distance. Tucked under his arm was a book that he took with him.

"I do not get it, it's just a book right?" Add said confused, scratching his head.

"No, keep watching."

"Alright, but I don't see anything happening..." Add stared at Lao walking along the Lake, getting bored rather quickly. "Melisa, this is wrong to spy on him..."

"Shh! Wait for it...." Add turned back to Lao, getting intrigued when Lao hopped off the path and slowed down. "Hmm?" He said to particularly no one as he spectated closely, seeing him sit down on a patch of grass and whistle. The water in front of him started to shift and bubble, and out pops a bunyip through the previously tranquil waterline!

"Is that like a pet or associate?" Add thought, this spectacle raising more questions than answers. He was on the edge of the bush now, watching as the bunyip slithered up to Lao, plopped her tush right down beside him, and gave him a long, wet kiss on the cheek. He fell back from the bush in disbelief, grasping at straws on what he had just witnessed. "But, he...dead...love...."

"And get this. He has been doing this for a while now. And we have never been told!"

"He didn't even react..." Add's world felt like it had just been altered tremendously. "Doesn't he usually shrug off affection? He just sat there...and smiled. What is going on?"

"Oh, don't I have a tale for you...."

(One explanation later...)

"So that's what happened," Add said while leaning against a tree. Melisa had taken a spot on a chopped-down tree to explain everything. "So this bunyip...is like a second chance?"

"Yes, which is why I need your help. Actually no, I needed you to do everything. What if the bunyip dies? It would spell disaster for Lao..."

"I see your point. He might never learn to love again, for real this time!"

"Love? It isn't that!" Melisa exclaimed. "What if he barricades himself in the house once more? Then we would have to wait for an entire week and..." she trailed off when she noticed the suit of armor staring at her, with a slight head shake of disappointment. "...and if he was stuck inside for an entire week he would be alone to deal with the fallout..."

Add nodded approvingly and peered back over the bushes. Lao was wrapping things up with the bunyip now, exchanging books and pecks on the cheek before continuing on his way past the lake. The bunyip was giddy with excitement, staring at the cover as she slipped back into the pond. "I hope that book has been waterproofed..."

"So Add, what are you going to do?" Melisa asked him.

"Don't you mean we?"

"No, I mean you. I, personally, do not care how he feels. If he isn't physically injured, then it is none of my concern. Also, I have no idea what I should do."

"Figures. Well first, we will need more people to watch over him. I'll go get Witty, and you get....um..."

"The slut of a commander?"

"Marilyn, yes." They both nodded and went their separate ways to gather others for their plan, agreeing to meet back up after dark, when Lao would have been sleeping in his room.