Trees and Lakes

Salmon put her sack down with a thud in the early afternoon, under a tree beside the lake. She'd been exploring the nearby forest all day and was now absolutely exhausted. She'd made a good haul, her sack full of more goodies scrounged from the forest than she could comfortably carry, but now she decided to rest, watching her large furry partner from her seat beneath the spreading branches.

Down beside the lake, Nebula was flat on her back in the dirt, bench pressing the trunk of a fallen elm tree . Her hair was  spread across the ground, azure tusks grit with intensity.

Salmon watches in her spot under the tree, feeling some amalgamation of fear and pride at the sight of her love heaving such a massive object.

Nebula was powerful, able to casually suplex that entire dead log with ease whereas Salmon would be struggling to even lift it a few inches without practically breaking herself in the process. Eventually, though, even Nebula's strength had its limits, as shown when she tossed the log aside with a wheeze, lying on the ground there for a long moment as sweat dripped down her forehead. She spat a bit as some of it dribbled into her mouth, before rolling over onto her stomach and giving Salmon a toothy grin.

"How was that?..." she wheezed after catching her breath, tongue hanging out between her thick tusks.

Salmon rolled her eyes a bit at her. "Reckless," she teased, half serious, “I'm sure there's plenty of better ways to get exercise than risking dropping a literal tree on your stomach."

"Awww," Nebula giggled, rolling onto her back like the overgrown puppy she was deep down, "you're just jealous that I'm a kajillion times stronger than you!"

Salmon chuckled, choosing to not admit that her statement was at least partially true. "My point still stands--you could've seriously hurt yourself doing that. I don't want you breaking a rib or anything because you feel a bit tubby."

Nebula patted her belly, grinning at her with her head upside down. "Nah, I don't mind the gut--it just gives more of me to cuddle you with~"

Salmon hid her blush sheepishly as Nebula rolled upright, bounding towards her. She reached up to ruffle up Nebula's mane, causing her to purr with satisfaction.

"Hey, I got an idea!"

"What?"

Nebula had that look in her eyes, the one that suggested she was about to offer something brilliant or utterly stupid--with her it was a one in two shot of being either. "You know how you said I shouldn't exercise like that?"

"Yes, I know what words come out of my own mouth."

"Let's go swimming instead!"

Normally Salmon loved swimming, but at the moment she was still sore from all the collecting. "I'd love to, but--"

"Up-up-up! No buts!" Nebula interjected, putting a large fluffy digit against Salmon's lips and practically obscuring her entire face, "Butts are for date night. I'm going swimming, and you're coming with me, because I love you and we're gonna do something fun together!"

Before she could argue, Nebula gives Salmon an energetic smooch on the mouth, before tossing her lonely shirt aside and running for the water. "Try to keep up!" she hollered, before launching herself into the lake with an enthusiastic splash reminiscent of an elephant.

Salmon couldn't help but laugh at the sight, and caught herself wanting to join her. Of course, she was still all dressed up from exploring, and she didn't want any of her clothes to get wet…

She stood up, looking around to make sure nobody was around to see, before stripping down to her underwear and neatly folding her clothes and nestling them under a tree. She tied her hair back and cautiously stepped into the water. The lakewater was almost perfect for her. Not too cold, but just cold enough that it would be a nice, refreshing dip. Nebula was probably already deep in the lake waiting for her, undoubtedly having some sort of misadventure planned for the two of them to get into.

And hey, that's why she loved her: she was a wild card.

Partially in concern for Nebula's safety with whatever she was about to go charging into, somewhat because she was eager to see what she was planning, and entirely because her heart wanted to be close to her again, she took a breath and dove in after her girlfriend, kicking her feet and letting the surface disappear far above her.