yeah

“Oh Ciiiissyyyyy!”

Narcisa gave a little laugh and the smallest of groans—she turned to see a now <i>very</i> familiar redhead walking towards her. Narcisa straightened herself, as she did for every other person above her, but held her arms out, wincing and waiting for the bone-crushing hug June was well known for.

Up she was swept into the Jupiter girl’s arms, hearing a small ‘pop’—it was probably her wrist, which was currently crushed under June’s arm. When she managed to extract herself, she wiggled her wrist, hearing another ‘pop’ as something slid back into place. Ouch. Her wrist was going to make a weird sound for a while. As if it wasn’t messed up enough from throwing the discus.

“Ducky, I need your help again today!” June grinned and squeezed her again, this time into a breathtaking hug.

“Oh sure!” Narcisa grinned, turning her head and giving the smallest cough. Jeez, she was probably going to die from these hugs someday. Or something was going to break, she was almost certain.

“Come on, chickadee, I’ll take you there!” June wrapped an arm around Narcisa’s waist and flew off to the stables with her, landing in front of the largest one.

“Cissy, I’d like you to meet Matilda and Captain Hamilton!” She whistled, and out lumbered two huge, grey pachyderms.

“…Elephants. Um. Okay. What am I doing with the elephants?” Narcisa gave a nervous grin up at the lumbering creatures; one of them shot out her trunk and snuffled Narci’s face, before plucking her from where she was standing and setting her on the elephant’s back, the girl giving a scream and holding onto the elephant for dear life.

“Matilda!” June called up sternly to the animal. “Bad girl! You scared Narcisa! You know you don’t pick people up unless they ask you to. Put her down right now!”

The elephant trumpeted at June, somewhat mournfully, before setting Narcisa back down on the ground. June said a tad grumpily, “I’m sorry, she likes to pick people up—she’s very friendly. You have to keep a much closer eye on Captain Hamilton though! He’s like Houdini! You turn your back and he’s out the gate.”

“…What am I doing again, June?” Narcisa was flummoxed, her face obviously belying her confusion.

June turned to her. “Babysitting them; didn’t I say that? I’ll help you get them to the pasture—just make sure you keep a close eye on Captain and don’t let him get out! Dickens will be by every now and then to make sure the elephants are okay!” She opened the gates, floating up and sitting on Captain Hamilton’s back.

“Matilda… Um, up please?” Cissa smiled at the elephant weakly, and bit down a screech when she was lifted into the air and placed upon her back again.

“Just tap her side with your heel to make her go,” called June, who already had her pachyderm lumbering along. And gently nudge behind her ear if you want her to turn left or right!”

“Oh gods how do I get myself into these things,” mumbled Cissa, tapping her elephant’s side. She trotted forward, following behind Hamilton, straight into the pasture. Both elephants quickly got to work feeding, and June scooped Narcisa off Matilda’s back, setting her on the ground.

“See you later!”

Narcisa watched June fly off, glancing at the open gate and at the elephants—she ran as fast as she could, hearing something lumbering behind her, and grabbed the gate on the left, throwing it forward, and doing the same to the right.

“Hurry hurry hurry,” she hissed to herself, glancing back—Captain Hamilton was getting closer!! She grabbed the chain to link the fences nervously, feeling it slip through her hands time and again while she fumbled with the lock, finally hearing the blessed click of the lock sliding closed.

She turned around to find herself face-to-trunk with the male elephant; she took a deep breath and shouted, “Go on, get! Shoo! Go back to eating; you aren’t getting out of here that easily, mister!” She made shooing motions with her hands and the elephant grumpily went back to stand near Matilda, stuffing grass into his mouth. Narcisa wandered away, sitting by the fence and leaning against a post. The day was warm and there was a pleasant breeze… She hadn’t gotten much sleep last night because of a nightmare she had; the elephants would be fine, right? She just needed to close her eyes for a few seconds…

Narcisa jerked awake when she heard a clanging noise—she whipped her head around, seeing Captain Hamilton yanking at the chain.

“Hey!” She shouted at him, getting up and trying to shake the sleep from her body; she ran sluggishly towards him, yawning and trying to force herself awake. “You get away from there, Captain Hamilton!”

He trumpeted at her, rattling the chain, which was interrupted by a quick ‘clop-clop.’ Dickens was coming! Oh thank the gods. He hopped over the gate and petted Captain Hamilton’s side.

“Y-you fell asleep, d-didn’t y-you?” Dickens’s voice wavered but his gaze was accusing and Narcisa nodded, looking ashamed.

“I didn’t get any sleep last night and I fell asleep, yes.”

He sighed and shooed her off, telling her they’d had enough and he’d lead them back to the stable. She offered more help, but he still shooed her away, and off she went, hoping for a nap.