Scouts on Patrol: Swampy Is as Swampy Does

TheCuriousSeed

Chapter 2, let's see what's new!

~A mite later Phoebe, Daylily, Heidi and Holly were given an assignment outside the Hollow for surveillance while the rest of the Scouts kept up the day-to-day back home. The sun was beginning to set, so camp was made in a rather swampy area, specifically inside a hollowed, mossy log. Daylily insisted that this was no mission to let their Animal Friends remain alone since there was no way of knowing how long the mission would take.

~"Daylily, did you really have to invite Gingerbright, Francesca, Jojo Sage and Sweetblossom with us?" asked Phoebe.

~"And risk abandonment?" answered Daylily. "Besides, we just got our Animal Friends back."

~"Not me," said Heidi. "I had to return mine to the Mainland because they were fully grown, ergo I adopted new ones."

~"Let's just try to keep watch tonight one at a time," said Holly. "Who's doing first watch because I call last."

~"Better idea: draw lots and the bigger the lot, the later the watch."

~The four Scouts drew blades of grass. Daylily had first watch, then Holly, then Heidi, then Phoebe.

~"G'night, girls," said Daylily as she readied for her watch.

~But Holly slept through her watch, even after the other three tried to wake her up, so Daylily and Heidi shared Holly's watch until Daylily fell asleep on Heidi's lap, then Phoebe, unable to wake Holly, took what should've been Heidi's watch and carried into hers because she had trouble staying asleep. Holly was a really heavy sleeper for a Scout and soon Gingerbright finished Phoebe's shift because she saw that the Scouts were fast asleep.

~"Honestly," said Gingerbright to Francesca. "Your Fairy Friend Holly isn't as diligent a Scout as she is an Animal Talent let alone Hair Stylist."

~"At least your Fairy Friend Daylily can converse with every single animal without an accent," Francesca pointed out. "Holly can barely converse with me yet because to her, I sound like a human baby babbling."

~"Will you two please keep it down?" yawned Sweetblossom. "Some of us are trying to sleep."

~"Speaking of sleep, shouldn't Daylily be sleeping in here instead of our Fairy Friend Heidi's lap?" Jojo Sage asked Sweetblossom.

~"Oh my word!" exclaimed Violet Beacon as she rushed to the Scouts, then looked at Phoebe, finally asleep and using Heidi's tummy as a pillow while Daylily used Heidi's lap as a pillow. "Oh no, this will not do. This will simply not do. Better fetch the Scouting Animals."

~Violet Beacon decided to have the four Scouting Animals move the sleeping Scouts back to their log along with her help. Heidi was no problem for Violet Beacon to lift by herself, but Phoebe was a little too heavy, so Sweetblossom took Phoebe. Daylily, however, proved too heavy even for Gingerbright to lift alone, so Violet Beacon, Sweetblossom, Jojo Sage and Francesca joined in. Unfortunately Daylily woke up.

~"Thank you, but I can return to the log myself," said Daylily.

~"Speaking of the log, morning draws nigh and Holly still sleeps," said Violet Beacon.

~"Wait a second, aren't you supposed to be with Ginkgo?"

~"She'll be here in three... two... one..."

~"Hang onto anything stable!"

~As the five Animal Friends and Daylily rushed back to the log, Ginkgo zoomed in and crashed, but she wasn't alone. Lavender, Foxglove, Magnolia and Onyx joined her too. Lavender then took off her shoes and waded into the shallows to feel the wet ground beneath her toes.

~"Before you ask, yes I did accidentally brush against a skunk's tail on our way here," said Magnolia. "So in advance, I'd fly backwards for that horrid stench I'm wearing, but at least I was already sweaty."

~"Magnolia, that wasn't a skunk you brushed against," said Heidi, quickly holding her really strong nose. "That was a badger, then a weasel, then sixteen stinkbugs and five beetles that sprayed you."

~"How can Holly sleep through all that?!" exclaimed Foxglove. "The barrage of all those animals attacking Magnolia with their foul odours, this stinky swamp, all this eerieness?! Yikes!"

~"Speaking of foul," said Daylily before convincing Magnolia to sit near Holly, hoping to wake her up... but that foul stench didn't. "Oh well, Plan B." Daylily led Magnolia to the swampy water and dunked her in, wings and all.

~"Oh, come on!"

~After a minute of swamp dunking, Magnolia actually smelt a little better, but still worse than the swamp itself. "Well, this was definitely not worth the dunking," she said.

~"Hey, at least the badger you brushed against didn't have enough of his defence mechanism left to spray you," said Heidi. "Still, you should probably try some tomatoes to mitigate the smell even more."

~"I don't wanna be in this swamp anymore," whined Foxglove.

~"Say, anyone seen Ginkgo?" asked Onyx.

~"I'm okay..." said Ginkgo after she recovered. "But why does it smell like smelling salts here? I thought it was supposed to smell like a swamp?"

~"Oh no!" cried Daylily.

~And yet, Holly remained asleep through all of this!

~"Is there anyone here that can form ice?!"

~"Lemme try," said Heidi, letting go of her nose before dipping her hands into the swampy water that Lavender was still having too much fun wading in. She managed to make the water a bit colder, but soon made it too hot to hold! "Yeeeeoooooouch!" she cried, dropping the well-past-boiling water.

~Lavender immediately got out of the water, yelping in pain.

~"Okay, okay, just concentrate," Heidi told herself, trying to freeze the water again. She managed to cool it down a little further, but it was still liquid. "Just a bit further..."

~"Maybe I make a healing soup from what's here?" said Onyx as she grabbed some water, heated it in her hands and grabbed random vegetation.

~"Uh, Onyx, I wouldn't do that," sang Daylily. "The risk for a tummy-ache would be the least of anyone's worries if you use that water without purifying it first."

~But Onyx was too busy working on her soup to notice until she tried feeding it to Ginkgo, only for the latter to feel much worse!

~"Nnnnghh," moaned Ginkgo, who immediately turned a sickly greenish-grey.

~"Uh... whoops," said Onyx.

~"Warned ya," said Daylily.

~The sun wasn't even fully up yet and already shenanigans were happening with Holly sleeping through them all. Daylily decided that once Heidi dried Magnolia's wings, Magnolia needed to fly Ginkgo back home ASAP because Ginkgo was really sick and no one else could fly as fast.

~"Wait for us!" cried Foxglove as she tried to fly away, but wound up falling back to the ground.

~"Looks like we're stuck here a while," said Onyx.

~"Now what?" asked Heidi.

~The sun was finally coming up and the girls had all taken a turn at watch except Holly. Magnolia returned with Ginkgo, Hickory, Blueblitz, Diamondwings (Foxglove's white butterfly) and Heather. Magnolia smelt much better and Ginkgo felt much better. Daylily decided enough was more than, so...

~"Holly?" Daylily called, tapping Holly's head. "Wakey-wakey, tea and cakey."

~But Holly didn't want to wakey-wakey.

~"Yoo-hoo, anyone awake?"

~Hollw wasn't.

~"Why so sleepy?"

~Daylily kept calling Holly's name and tapping Holly's head until Holly finally awoke.

~"It's too early for this," Holly moaned.

~"But we have to survey this land," Daylily told Holly.

~"Already? But I'm too sleepy." Holly went back to sleep.

~Daylily decided to have the Animal Friends wake Holly, so she had them move Holly outside the log and soon the fireflies Gingerbright and Violet Beacon flashed on and off until Holly was finally awake.

~"Way to wake the calvary," laughed Phoebe.

~"Har har har," said Holly. "Let's just get this over with; I was really hoping to get some chill time in."

~"Not today we can't," said Heidi. "We Scouts have work to do here."

~And it was off to get the lay of the land.

~After a day of thorough scanning, there was no danger about, so the non-Scouts could enjoy their holiday while the Scouts were busy. Foxglove really wanted out of this swamp because it was really nasty, but there was just one problem...

~"No dust?!" cried the fairies.

~"And we can't swim back!" cried Heidi.

~"Then it looks like we're walking hereon in," said Daylily.

I hope you enjoyed the second chapter of this tale!