The World is a Playground (Pooka)

[pooka]

Pooka made the water splash over both of them as he jumped up and down in excitement as the suggestion, nodding so enthusiastically that he made himself dizzy and fell over in the water.
Jumping back to his feet, laughing at himself, he nodded again - this time slightly more carefully.

"I love chasing squirrels! Let's do that!" Right at that moment, he was willing to dub this the best idea anybody had ever had in the history of ideas, sure it would probably be eclipsed by something else, possibly even in the next five minutes, but Pooka liked to live in the moment, and right now, he couldn't think of anything better.

[maxine]

Max bounced with Pooka as he jumped and splashed water everywhere. This was fun! The puppy was so excited too! He seemed fun to play with. He must really love chasing squirrels too which was going to be so much fun! She loved chasing squirrels!

Max thought this was the best idea ever! Chasing squirrels was fun, but it was so much more fun chasing squirrels with other dogs was so much better! It was so much more fun! She was so glad the puppy wanted to chase squirrels too!

Max spotted a squirrel and quickly pointed at it. “Squirrel!” she cried. Then, jumping out of the fountain and giving herself a good shake to get the water off of her fur, she ran after it barking happily.

[pooka]

Pooka leapt out of the fountain after her, or at least he tried to, he was still quite a small boy just as he'd been a small puppy, so he tripped on the edge and kind of tumbled out onto the ground beyond.

Even though humans seemed to be a little more breakable than he had been (no fur to cushion their falls, he guessed), he still wasn't really bothered about it, and quickly scrambled to his feet, wiping his grazed hands on his soggy hoody. Following her lead with a quick shake to get rid of the excess water - which only succeeded in making him dizzy.

He took his first couple of wobbly steps before finding his feet and running after her, yelling his best approximation of a bark.

[maxine]

Max didn’t stop running, not once. She heard the puppy fall over, but he hadn’t cried out so he wasn’t hurt. And puppies were bouncy and they bounced right back so Max wasn’t worried about him. Puppies were better off when the older dogs didn’t interfere. They learned important life lessons that way.

Max loved running and chasing and she was very glad that the puppy wanted to chase squirrels with her too! And he was barking so he was okay so she continued to chase the squirrel until it had run right up a tree. Then Max stood at the base of a tree and barked up at the squirrel as it raced up the tree. It was too Max couldn’t climb, otherwise she would have climbed right into that tree and continued to chase the squirrel.

[pooka]

Pooka ran in circles around the tree, yapping happily. Even if they hadn't caught the squirrel this was still awesome, definitety the best thing that had happened to him since he'd arrived here at Tintagel, Max was-

"Another one! Another squirrel!" He bounced up and down, pointing at the rodent in question, almost tripping over his feet in an attempt to run after it. "Squirrel!" He shouted almost out of frustration before finding his footing and bolting after it.

[maxine]

Max watched the puppy run around the tree. He was a funny puppy running in circles like that around the tree and barking. But the squirrels didn’t seem to want to play with Max or the puppy, which was too bad because they were fun!

Max looked where Pooka was pointing. And there was another squirrel! This was so fun! Max darted off after that squirrel, catching up to the puppy. And then suddenly there were two squirrels! And they were both running away from the human-dogs. “More squirrels!” Max cried delightedly. Squirrel chasing was the best!

[pooka]

Now there were two! That was very exciting because that meant there was one each, and when they caught them they would each have one to play with!
They didn't seem likely to catch them anytime soon though, he didn't seem to be able to run as fast on two legs, and it was only moments before both squirrels darted up separate trees.

"Squirrel! Come play squirrel!" Pooka called up excitedly, bouncing around down the bottom of one of the trees. "Why don't they want to play with us?" He asked in frustration, looking back at Max. "If only they didn't run up into trees, we could chase them around all day, wouldn't that be the mostest fun ever?"

[maxine]

Max chased the other squirrel right up a tree not far from where the puppy was. She barked up the tree at the squirrel, which was now sitting on a branch just out of her reach, chattering at her. “Play?” she questioned it, but it must not have liked her very much because it ran up the tree and away from her.

She turned around to the puppy. None of the squirrels seemed to want to play with them. “Max not know, Puppy,” Max told him. But then she bounced excitedly at the suggestion of chasing squirrels all day. “Fun!” she cried happily. “Max love chase! Best game! Funner with gulls!” Max loved chasing gulls. They were funner than squirrels because they flew away, but they always came back.

[pooka]

"Gulls!?" Pooka's eyes grew wide and delighted "Are there gulls? Can we chase gulls? Where are they?" he spun around as if expecting to see them stood around him right now.

Pooka loved chasing the birds that flocked around the rivers in Paris, especially when they gathered in big groups and he could bound into the middle of them and send them scattering everywhere, that was the best thing ever - and Max was right, they did always come back, so they must enjoy it just as much, they must love playing just like Pooka did!

[maxine]

“Max not know,” Max told the puppy, frowning slightly. She had to think for a moment. “Live on ocean,” she explained. “Max live on ocean too. Gulls on beach. Like water.” This place was different than home though. She didn’t know where the beach was or the ocean. Maybe there was no beach. Maybe there was only land and no water. “Max not know where ocean is. Maybe not here. Maybe no beach. Maybe no gulls.”

Max would have to remember to ask Master about the ocean and the gulls. “Max will ask Master,” she told the puppy, finally. “Master will know.” She couldn’t smell the ocean anymore, but maybe that was because she was not in her dog body anymore. Her human nose was not as strong so she couldn’t smell the ocean and she couldn’t hear the gulls cry anymore, but Master would know because he always knew everything.

[pooka]

In dog form, that would have sent his ears drooping and his big brown eyes looking up forlornly, but as he was a little boy now, he had to settle for pouting. He'd been so hoping to find gulls, but Max seemed to be a very clever dog, and if she didn't know where they were, Pooka probably couldn't find them - and he didn't have time anyway, if he was going looking for anything, it would have to be for Anya.

"No gulls..." he repeated morosely, then he caught movement out the corner of his eye and perked up immediately "But still squirrels!" He announced happily, all trace of upset vanishing in seconds as he took off after the small creature.

[maxine]

Max was sad too that there were no gulls. They were her favorite and they liked to play. She liked to run down the beach at home chasing them. And they would fly away and squawk. But they always came back. And if they didn’t, they landed in the water and Max could chase them there. It was too bad that the puppy couldn’t chase gulls too. He would have liked it.

But she perked right back up at the mention of squirrels! Squirrels were fun too! Max darted after the squirrel too, letting out a happy bark and chasing it up another tree. “Fun!” she cried happily. And then she spied a bunny. And bunnies were even more fun to chase than squirrels! They were faster and darted around all over the place. Max pointed to it and bounced excitedly. “Bunny!” she cried. Then she took off, chasing it.

[pooka]

"Bunny! Bunny bunny bunny!" Pooka seemed too excited to say any other word, and once again he almost tripped over his own feet in his enthusiasm, but he found his footing quickly and took off after Max and the rabbit.

He was having the time of his life, the fact that he hadn't found Anya was only hovering at the back of his mind - not forgotten, of course, never forgotten, but just not as important right now, when he was having so much fun.
Rabbits were the best, they couldn't run up into trees and away from you, sure they could run down their little hidey holes, but there were always less of them than trees.

[maxine]

Max loved to chase bunnies. They were faster than squirrels and they darted around all over the place. They were tricky and liked to run all over the place. They were very fun for playing chase! They liked to run just like Max and she had to run very fast to keep up with the bunny. It darted across the grass and max chased after it, even when it twisted and turned a different way to get away from her.

But then the bunny darted into the bushes and there were a lot of bushes. Well, Max had been a big dog when she had a dog body so she leapt into the bushes. But then she lost the bunny because she wasn’t in her dog body anymore and she couldn’t sniff it out. She could hear the bunny, but she couldn’t see it. “Bunny, Max can’t find,” she called.”Come out bunny! Play with Max!”

[pooka]

"And Pooka! Play with Pooka too!" he shouted, bouncing around the bushes trying vainly to sniff at the air and figure out the location of the rabbit. He didn't want to stand still and listen for it because standing still was boring and wasn't playing and he wanted to play!

"Is it still there? Can you hear it? Is it coming to play?" He asked, bouncing on his heels and craning to see if he could spot the rabbit, eyes darting about all over the place in an effort to see it.

After a long moment he pouted "No playing with rabbit?"