picnic

[anneoftheisland]

Normally Anne's picnic basket held all her worldly belongings, ever since she'd fled her home ahead of the storm, but today she'd stowed all of those things beneath Ariel's bed so that she might use the basket for its intended purpose: a picnic. She'd needed to take a trip down to the small waterfall anyway, to determine whether Matthew's apple tree had survived the storm, so she thought it might be lovely to make a day of it with her new friend Ariel.

"Have you been here before?" Anne asked her, pushing through the last underbrush blocking the path. "Oh, I'm sure you have, you were on this island long before I was, but this is one of my very favourite places."

Comments

[sickof-swimming.livejournal.com]

Ariel moved out from under the waterfall, laughing, and pushed her wet hair out of her face. She grinned at Anne. "I wish you would come in," she called.

[island-anne.livejournal.com]

Anne shook her head as she made herself comfortable, dangling her feet up to mid-calf in the cold water. But maybe next time... maybe the next time she would find it in herself to go swimming as Ariel did. She smiled a little even just thinking about it.

[sickof-swimming.livejournal.com]

Ariel half-waded, half-swam over to Anne's spot and gave her legs a playful splash. She folded her arms on one of the lower rocks beneath Anne's and smiled up at her friend. "Was your mother's hair red, Anne?" she asked, thinking back to what Neil had told her.

[island-anne.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," Anne confessed softly, staring at her feet as she kicked a little water back in Ariel's direction. "My parents died when I was very young; I don't remember them at all. I think someone would have told me if my mother's hair had been red as well, though, if only to console me about my own."

[sickof-swimming.livejournal.com]

"Oh..." Ariel frowned, squinting a bit at the sunlight coming down from behind the other girl. It framed her hair making it look golden. "Red hair comes from the mother's side I was told. Do you not like yours?"

[island-anne.livejournal.com]

"It has always been my burden," said Anne dramatically. "But I think, as I've grown older, I've become more resigned to it. And here on the island, I'm told it's considered beautiful by some, which is quite heartening."

[sickof-swimming.livejournal.com]

"It is beautiful," Ariel insisted. "You should see it in the sunlight right now like I can." She didn't understand how hair of any kind could be a burden, but then Alanna had always complained that her hair looked like a snail's shell, Ariel hadn't paid her much attention when she got like that.

[island-anne.livejournal.com]

"That's very kind of you," said Anne, blushing faintly, "but it's your hair that's lovely. If mine were that deep of a red, I think I could grow to love it too."

[sickof-swimming.livejournal.com]

"Thank you, you're so sweet, Anne," Ariel said, beaming. "Do you think sometime you could braid my hair to look like yours? Every time I've tried to do it myself it just looks messy."

[island-anne.livejournal.com]

"Oh, of course I can," said Anne excitedly. "I could do all sorts of things with it, if you like?"

[sickof-swimming.livejournal.com]

"Sure!" Ariel exclaimed.

She pushed off the rock and sank back into the water, going below so she could feel it surround her. She stayed under as long as she could hold her breath and then resurfaced. "I don't see any fish in here."

[island-anne.livejournal.com]

"It's only a little pool," said Anne thoughfully. "Perhaps there are no fish in it at all. Maybe they're all too careful to fall over the waterfall."

[sickof-swimming.livejournal.com]

"Is there a river up there, then?" Ariel asked, peering up the waterfall. "I wonder how big it is..."

[island-anne.livejournal.com]

"There must be," said Anne reasonably, "or there wouldn't be any water to fall, right? Though it's probably more of a stream than a river; it's much too small."

[sickof-swimming.livejournal.com]

"We should explore it sometime," Ariel said. And because it wasn't nearly as fun to swim when your friend wasn't, she pulled herself up and out of the pool.

[island-anne.livejournal.com]

"We should," agreed Anne, looking up to the top of the waterfall. "I can't imagine why I haven't done that already, it seems so logical."

[sickof-swimming.livejournal.com]

"It's like you were waiting so you could explore it with me," Ariel suggested teasingly. She pulled her long hair behind her shoulders and stretched in the warm sun. "Let's have our picnic now!"

[island-anne.livejournal.com]

"Okay!" said Anne, pulling her feet from the water and tucking them under her for a moment before getting to her feet. "You can swim again after, if you like?"

[sickof-swimming.livejournal.com]

"I think I'll just wait for when you're ready to swim," Ariel decided. She headed over to their picnic site and sat down on the blanket. "What did you pack?"

[island-anne.livejournal.com]

"Regular picnic things," Anne told her, opening the basket. It was the first opportunity she'd had to use her picnic dishes since she'd arrived on the island months ago. "I have sandwiches and fruit and juice and I would have brought some sort of cake but I'm afraid there wasn't any to be had. Perhaps next time."