Dark Forest

1.The first day of summer

Hello everyone! Here I come again with entirely new story that I wanted to make in summer, because it is set in summer. I hope you will enjoy this start and will give this story a try ;-)

It was a calm summer night. The moon shone brightly in the starless sky as Sam and Penny performed their nightly duties for that day.

"Are you cold, Penny?" Sam asked Penny anxiously as he noticed, not for the first time, that she was shivering almost invisibly.

"It's just colder outside tonight," she replied casually. "I'll be fine," she assured, returning her attention to Venus' key.

"Come with me," Sam invited as Penny looked at him confused.

But she followed him to their lockers anyway. She came just as Sam was opening his. He took something out of it and handed it to Penny with a quick, "Take this."

"I..." she hesitated before giving him a skeptical look. "You keep a scarf in the locker? In the middle of summer?" she asked him with amusement.

"What? My friend from the academy kept his winter boots in his locker all year round," Sam recalled teasingly.

"What for?" She asked curiously.

"You'd have to ask him, but he always assured us it could snow anytime now," Sam replied, holding back a laugh at the memory.

"Luckily for us, there's no snow yet in the summer," Penny said as another shiver made her freeze.

“Really, Penny,” Sam pressed lightly, gently but firmly pushing the scarf into her hand. “Take it.”

"I appreciate your gesture, Sam, but I can't," she argued politely.

“It was supposed to be a birthday present for you anyway,” he came up with an excuse to convince her. “It wouldn't hurt if you got it early, in case you needed it.”

“My birthday is in December, Sam. Have you forgotten?" She asked him jokingly.

"You saw right through me," Sam sighed in resignation. "I bought that scarf for Elvis' birthday, not yours," he admitted. "But I'm going to buy him something else anyway, so..." he smiled at her wishfully, showing her the scarf again.

“I really can't, Sam. That wouldn't be right," Penny argued again.

"Then I'm technically giving you this as a gift for... the first day of summer," he thought as he placed the scarf around Penny's shoulders.

“That's nice, Sam. Thank you." She finally gave in and smiled gratefully at him.

“I think we're almost done. You can come inside. I'll clean up," Sam offered.

"Sam, I really can't ask you for that much," Penny hesitated.

"You're not asking, I'm offering," Sam replied, amused. "Besides, if you need to do something so urgently, I don't think Radar will complain about his bowl being full again," Sam pointed behind them, and sure enough, Radar came down to join them, wagging his tail with an empty bowl in his paws.

"Sam, Radar seems to want something from you," Penny remarked in amusement when the Dalmatian actually rubbed against Sam's leg.

"I'm coming, Radar," Sam gave in, picking up the bowl from the ground.

The Dalmatian immediately ran after him, knowing that he was about to get food. As soon as Sam placed the full bowl in front of his nose, Radar started licking it, wagging his tail as much as he could. While Sam went back downstairs to discover that Penny had already cleaned up most of the equipment.

"I told you to wait for me" Sam objected as he took the toolbox from Penny.

"Sam" she gave him her most skeptical look. "I know what it's like to give Radar food. Once he takes it politely, and the next time he will argue for every piece. Judging by the fact that you did it so quickly, he ate it without a fight, right?" She asked in a teasing tone.