During the two weeks at Mieni Atoll, Abby and her friends had a lot of fun and memorable times. They were going to talk about them alot in their finishing review, but here were a few highlights from their vacation:
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"C'mon, Samson, you've got this," said Abby encouragingly, the two of them swimming around Lover's Lagoon. It was a lovely spot, with water that was deep but not overwhelmingly so. It was a bit like the deep end of the swimming pool that you could dive in. There was also a lot of pretty scenery around both above and below water.
Samson, however, wasn't quite able to enjoy it as much. "Swimming was easier when I had four hooves," he gasped.
"That's because you swam in a completely different way," said Abby, "Horses could float and kick their way forward, but it's not that simple for us. Our hooves are too narrow to push that much water."
"Then how am I supposed to swim?" asked Samson.
"Use your upper body, focus more on your arms, you've got hands that are more than wide enough to act like paddles," said Abby. Samson looked at his hoof-tipped fingers for a second before he tried doing on what Abby suggested. Soon, he was moving through the water faster than he had before. "There you go," said Abby.
"You learned this from your tigress pal?" asked Samson.
"Yeah, Durga really helped me out by pointing out which limbs to focus on," said Abby, "I hear the new custom bikes are coming really soon. I can't wait to race Durga on them."
"Are you and Durga normally this competitive?" asked Samson with bemusement.
"We push each other to do better," said Abby, "It's more fun if you've got someone to both encourage you and you're trying to beat. But you're a lot more hydrodynamic than me and her. You don't have these beach balls slowing you down." She hefted up the breasts in her bikini to show her point.
Samson looked at her breasts with interest before cringing a little in discomfort. His sheath was stiffening a little and it was tightening his speedo even more. "Why did I pick out such a tiny swimsuit?" he groaned.
Abby smiled and said coquettishly, "Just a few more laps around the lagoon and you can take it off." With that, she swam past Samson, giving him a good look at her bikini-bound ass as she went. Samson snorted eagerly before swimming after Abby. Another attractive appeal about Lover's Lagoon was that it was so isolated and allowed plenty of privacy. After all, there was a particular reason it was named that way.
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Sarah and Malice were certainly enjoying their time on the island. There certainly was a lot of interesting new scents to sniff at, though they had a better control of their instincts than that. They were enjoying the sand quite a lot, even building some large sand castles. What was even better was the company there. Plenty of friends had come from Lyre to spend spring break here. And since there were so many canines, that gave Sarah a great idea: they should have a canine volleyball tournament.
There were 6 teams that each consisted of a pair of dogs. There were going to be three different tournaments. First off would be the typical Boys vs. Girls tournament. Naturally, Sarah and Malice had teamed up with each other like Tiffany and Princess did. Travis and Simon were also playing together and since neither Trevor or Riley could play with Jamie, they were also paired up. Jamie ended up teaming up with Mandy. However, there was a bit of a problem since there were more girls than boys. But Beth tended to think of herself more of a boy than a girl, hence why she was wearing broadshorts on the beach. Though she was also wearing a bikini top like the other girls. Either way, she was happy to be teaming up with Daniel for this tournament.
One would think that the tournament would be rather one-sided in favor of the boys. Well, that was at least true with Daniel and Beth. Considering they were the biggest and strongest of their respective genders, the teams they faced didn't stand much of a chance. But the girl teams still played with a lot of enthusiasm, especially the two sister teams. It was little surprise that Daniel and Beth won that tournament.
The next tournament was a bit more interesting: Uplifted vs. Converted. While the Animalians who used to be human had a broader understanding of volleyball than the Animalians who used to be just animals, it was a pretty simple game that they had already picked up on. To make things interesting, Sarah and Simon teamed up against Malice and Travis. Riley and Trevor were paired up again since they've seemed to have achieved a good synergy in the last tournament, leaving Princess with Mandy. To make things fair, Beth and Daniel weren't placed on the same team again. This time, Beth played with Tiffany while Jamie was paired with Daniel.
This time, the tournament wasn't as one-sided. It was particularly interesting to watch Sarah and Malice's match as the husky sisters were playing hard against each other and their mates. Trevor and Riley actually did very well as the teamwork they had built up during the last tournament had improved even more in this one. Frankly, if the two of them weren't competing over who'd get Jamie, they would probably be best friends. It was that dynamic that allowed them to win that tournament.
The third tournament was for Couples. It was pretty easy to pair everyone off: Sarah and Travis, Malice and Simon, Daniel and Mandy. Of course, there was a bit of an argument of whether Riley or Trevor would be paired with Jamie, but it wasn't as heated as usual. When Tiffany volunteered to be paired with Riley, they didn't seem to mind. Jamie noticed that Tiffany seemed to favor the Rottweiler a little more than the wolf. That left Beth with Princess, though neither of them particularly cared.
This tournament wasn't quite as heated as the previous two, probably because they were a little tired from playing so much volleyball. Besides, the players spent almost more time flirting with their teammates than keeping the ball in the air. In the end, it was Sarah and Travis that managed to net the victory. Every dog and wolf there had a lot of fun playing the game and Eliza had also been there both to act as a referee and to record all of the tournament. The videos would probably be very useful to show that Animalians loved to have fun as much as humans. But most of the male viewers would probably me more interested in the way the girls' breasts bounced around in their bikini tops.
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Jessica and Roger have certainly had their fun on the island, but sometimes it was nice to just relax indoors for a while. Jessica was a little worried their larger ears were more susceptible to sunburn, so that was another reason they went inside. Another reason they were inside was because they were looking at an email they had received from Mayor Clara.
"She wants us to be Easter Bunnies," said Jessica with some amusement.
"What does that mean specifically?" asked Roger.
"It means we get to hide a lot of plastic eggs for kids to find," said Jessica, "There will be candy in them, but not chocolate. Also, we've got some costumes to wear, mostly so kids can take pictures with us." Jessica showed Roger an attached image. There were two sets of overalls with bowties for each. One was blue for Roger and one was pink for Jessica. Jessica was a tiny bit disappointed Roger didn't get red overalls with a blue and yellow-spotted bowtie.
Roger looked at the outfits before asking, "Does yours cover enough?"
"I'm sorry?" asked Jessica.
"There doesn't really seem to be much to cover your upper half except those overalls," said Roger.
Jessica smiled and said in a coy voice, "Is someone worried that someone might be looking to much at his girlfriend?"
"Well, I'm worried a bit because we're too young to be showing that much and I don't want people to think you, uh, have low standards," said Roger.
"Aw, you're sweet," said Jessica before leaning over and kissing Roger on the cheek, "Don't worry, I'll be wearing a tube top under the overalls. I'm not going to be wearing anything that scandalous." Then she whispered in his ear, "Until we're fully grown that is."
Roger's ears turned bright pink under the fur and he stammered, "You-you don't mean you wanna..."
Jessica laughed and said, "Nah, I'm not in that much of a hurry to grow up. I can wait a few years."
Roger sighed and said, "You're going to drive me crazy before that, aren't you?"
"What's wrong with a little crazy?" asked Jessica, playfully batting at Roger's ear.
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Sophie and Roland spent quite a bit of time exploring Mieni's jungle. The trails were still not fully defined, so that hampered their ability to go deep into the jungle. But there was still plenty to see on the fringes on the forest. Sophie in particular liked to see the tropical birds that were sitting in the branches. She had no idea that the birds in the Marshall Islands could come in such vibrant colors.
At one point, Roland asked, "You thinking about what kind of bird you wanted to be?"
"Say what?" asked Sophie, looking at Roland.
"Well, someday, you might want to become an Animalian and you said you wanted to be something that can fly," said Roland, "And you don't seem like the bat type to me."
"Not at the moment," said Sophie, "I've just been thinking about JC."
"Your parrot?" asked Roland, "I know he might have liked it here, but he could have flown off and not come back."
"Not if he were an Animalian," said Sophie, "I'm still wondering if it's the right thing or not to keep him as a simple parrot. I just don't know for certain whether he want to be an Animalian."
"Why wouldn't he?" asked Roland.
"I don't know," said Sophie, "But I'm worried that if I let him be uplifted, there will be a lot of problems. Like what he had a crush on me and would be crushed if I didn't feel the same way? Or if he resented me for keeping him as a pet for too long. Or what if he'll try to change me no matter what he feels?"
"You do know how crazy that sounds, right?" asked Roland.
"Yeah..." sighed Sophie, "I just wish there was some way to ask JC what he wanted without having to change him. I mean, I know parrots are supposed to be smart, but is he really smart enough to understand what I'd be asking him?"
"Well, there already are some parrot Animalians," said Roland, "Maybe you could ask one to be an interpreter."
"Are you sure that could work?" asked Sophie skeptically.
"All I know is that Susan is able to communicate with normal dolphins and I think that parrots might have a complex enough language to be able to convey the question you want to ask JC," said Roland, "It couldn't hurt to try at least, no matter what your decision might be."
"Yeah, that might be a good idea," said Sophie. They turned their attention back to the canopy and all the twittering birds up there. Perhaps JC will be able to enjoy this jungle someday.