The Stray

2-33: Fishy Business

The sight of curgar-flattened roadkill, more pulp than beast, ran through Timothy's mind as fast as the sharkette ran at them. With a yelp of genuine prey terror, he dove away and rolled, coming up behind a shield!

Only for V to chuckle, shake her head exasperatedly, and step forward to catch the shark in an absolute bear hug. Timothy half expected to hear the sound of a train crashing into a mountain.

Holy frass, the sharkette really was huge, and sturdy in her own right. Not nearly as buff or generally bulky as V, but athletic in a pleasant kind of way. ...a really pleasant kind of way, and gosh her shorts and top were short. Also extremely pink. His suddenly shield winked out. Eep!

"Giiirl! I haven't seen you in forever!" The sharkette's voice was bright, cheery, and loud.

"We hung out last week!" V laughed. She playfully shoved the sharkette off of her. "And the town got lit on fire! I've been busy!"

"Too busy for li'l ol' me?" She whirled to "faint" dramatically in V's arms. "Oh, the heartbreak! A delicate flower like me supposed to cope?"

Timothy slowly rose, dismissing his shield. Now that he was (pretty) sure he wasn't about to die... what th' heck was that accent? She had a drawl like his, kinda, but with a ton of extra "aw"s and "aah"s. Honestly, it sounded fake. His head tilted in confusion.

All that motion got the sharkette's attention, and she gasped a super long gasp. "And you're hiding cute li'l wolfies from me too!? How could you!"

Cute li'l wolfie? Timothy gaped. V just rolled her eyes all playful. "In my defense, he wasn't exactly presentable before."

"A cutie like this? No way!" She batted her eyes at him. Timothy fully blushed then.

"He got blown in half on Sunday."

"Oh." The sharkette blinked, apparently that the first thing that knocked her off her stride. The wolf gave her a sheepish sort of shrug and smile.

"Now who'd waste a cutie like you that way?" Then she gasped (long gasp, again, seconds on seconds) and her eyes went super wide. "Wait, you're that guy!"

"T-that guy?" The wolf asked, fiddling with his braid nervously.

"The guy from the paper! Well, I mean I wasn't sure you were a guy, the paper just said herbalist, and I guess I wasn't 100% sure now even because you're such a cutie you could pass for a pretty girl but I guess V did use guy pronouns on you so you're a cute boy!"

"U-uh, sorry?" What?

"Sorry? Don't be sorry, I'm absolutely charmed!" Jenny shook his hand like she was trying to shake his arm right off his body. The wolf blushed a second later as it sank in she'd called him cute, multiple times. "My name's Jenny, wolfie. Don't forget it, now!"

"U-uh, sure?" He tried to shake it off, but being called pretty by V, his friend(!), was one thing. The sinister, cold, feared Witch of the Deepshadow being called cute by a gorgeous stranger was quite another! "I-I mean, uh, good to meet you, too?" He glanced at V in the hopes of some social combat reinforcements. No such luck, though, the dragoness took one look at him and broke down laughing. Jerk!

"C'mon, sis, you're scarin' him." A relaxed voice came from a little off. Timothy glanced over, and found himself at eye-level with the other shark's bare abs. Man. The hunk wore a colorful red and gold flower-print shirt, open to show off an absolutely buff chest. A pair of sunglasses sat on his head.

He heard Mandy laughing through the link. The funny thing was, Vol bathed communally— none of this shoulda got a rise out of him at all! And here he was, head spinning from the sight of a little scale. Between this and how distracting V's muscles were, maybe he had spent too long in the woods...