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Normally, a set of rather scalding words would have escaped Maeve's lips, but she merely laughed and pulled her feet out of Mel's way before she pounded past.

"I have been lax on keeping my promises, and I think now is the time to fulfill one," she said quietly, tracking Pittersticks movements with her hands. By nature, squirrels are rather erratic in their movements, but Maeve was a good mark, and, after a few moments, she flexed her palms, bringing Pittersticks to a sudden stop as he formed into an ice cube.

"Maeve!" Kaelin exclaimed. "Ooh, good shot."

"Thanks, small one," Maeve smiled. Kaelin's smile disappeared.

One moment, there was a warm, fluffy creature enticingly close in front of Mel, the next she was having flashbacks to the Christmas party as she encountered an immovable object and went up and over, paws over tail, and splat on the sand. There'd been snow, and slippery floors, and dashing creatures at Christmas.

Slowly, dazed, Mel pulled her legs back under her and looked around.

What just happened? Where was that pesky squirrel? How was there ice? Were those green things for decking the halls?

Ainsley raised an eyebrow, it seemed as if every member of their group possessed a hidden talent or three. The tactical portion of her brain noted that if it came down to a fight, she and Jeff would be vastly outgunned. Personally, she wouldn't want to end up on Maeve's badside anyhow. Besides, she seemed nice enough.

"That's one heck of an arm cannon that you've got there."

"Well, I guess it does stand out a bit more when everyone else doesn't have their own," Maeve admitted. "But it really just comes down to lots of practice in the end."

Kaelin walked over and inspected the Pitter-Cube.

"Cool," she said, looking over it and grinning at Mel, then frowned. "Poor thing's gonna feel bad when he defrosts. I wonder how long that will take?"

Maeve shrugged and turned back to Ainsley.

"So what about you? I'm curious as to your exploring experiences. Visiting multiple worlds isn't the easiest, I've found."

Jeffery filled up as many containers as he could carry, carefully juggling them so as to not spill the water. "That sounds like a pretty decent plan. You ready to head on back?"

---

"My father owned a midsized asteroid mining company. He struck it big during the last platinum shortage thirty years ago, afterwards he diversified his holdings. Its all rather boring, but the short version is that I was never hurting for credits. Growing up here on Dittotopia, I got to meet people from across the universe, I used to beg them for stories. Eventually though, I got tired of listening and decided I want to make my own. So I did."

"Sounds pretty exciting," Maeve replied. "Any favorite spots?"

Ainsley's green eyes sparkled a little when Maeve inquired about her travels.

"There's this dwarf planet, just barely inside the habitable zone. Its so tiny and remote that it hardly appears on any charts. It's official designation is DittoX3z9, but like to think that it is Nilfhiem, land of the mists. At the poles The temperature drops deep into the negatives and the mountains shoot into sky. Down in the valleys there are frozen rivers that are so clear you can see straight to the botten, nearly a mile down. The combination of methane snow and low gravity make for some of the best snowboarding I've ever encountered. It's beautiful, but dangerous, you know what I mean? The cold alone would kill you in less than a minute if you were directly exposed. But if I could chose where and how to die, I'd chose to die there, shredding the best powder in the galaxy."

"Sounds glorious," Maeve replied. "It seems like it would offset your fiery personality well, too. What are the people like there?"

"That's the best part," the redhead replied, a massive grin plastered across her face. "There is no sentient native population, there never was. The only semi permanent settlement is a small mining colony along the equator, but other than that it's just you and an entire planet to explore."

Maeve shrugged.

"Don't be too sure of that sort of thing," she said. "Just because the Coalition scanned the planet and declared it unoccupied doesn't mean it's true. They tend to make mistakes in that area."

Faye nodded back to Jeff. No need to dally with how fast the sun was setting. It was quite the balancing act, but they managed to bring most of the water back without spilling much. Faye found herself glancing back and forth from the edge of the jungle repeatedly. After the tracks they found earlier, coming back to the stream just reminded her of the possibility of what creatures they might find here. They still hadn't seen any other than the ones that came with them, but surely the island had at least some animal life.

By the time they got back to the camp, Ainsley and Maeve seemed to be deep in conversation, the youngest girls were braiding palm fronds, and the squirrel... was frozen in a block of ice. No one seemed overly concerned about this, so curious as she was, she decided not to ask about the story behind this, at least not for the time being.

Faye set her containers of water down, then carefully carved and piled the sand around them to give them less chance of tipping or being knocked over. Faye had to admit, the adrenaline rush had faded a long time ago, and she was starting to feel the exertion of all the day's activities. Still, Maeve had been quite clear about getting enough firewood to last the night. The fire was still going, thankfully, but the pile of driftwood they had wasn't likely to be enough.

Faye looked back into the jungle. Was it worth risking any potential predators to get more wood? She glanced around; well, there was still some driftwood to be collected. Not much, but it was a start. She decided to at least work through that first.

(OOC: I was writing this before stargazer's last post, so... I guess they got back before Grace's reaction to Pitter-Cube. )

"Probably...I don't think Maeve wanted to kill him, so..." Kaelin tapped on the ice in front of Pitterstick's eyes. "Maybe we should try defrosting him? We could as Miss Twigs if we could use the water on the fire."

As she stood on the edge of the flickering firelight, Molly felt the tension slowly easing out of her. Maybe things would turn out well in spite of the mess. Pretty decent bunch of people, over all. Once again they were all pitching in to better their position for the night. She'd best do something to add to the effort.

"Mr Walters, why don't you come and help me collect wood, like Faye is doing. You can bring your bag with you, if you must," she added, sure that his eyes were goggling at the thought of leaving it behind. Then she realized that he was looking beyond her. Turning about, she saw a running squirrel, chased by Mel, become encased in a block of ice.

"Never mind him," she continued grimly. "He won't be going anywhere for a while. Come and help."

And she dragged the man willy-nilly off along the beach, as the girls discussed how they should deal with the frozen rodent.

Kaelin followed Grace, and joined in with her own puppy eyes.

"Or can we just put his cube in the pot? We promise not to cook him!"

Maeve did her best to hide her smile from the girls. They were so intent on their rescue, their ideas distracting them from the much larger problems at hand. She looked back at Ainsley.

"Excuse me for a moment," she said standing. "I think I'll take a short walkabout before we settle in for the night."

Maeve sedately wandered to the edge of the camp, soon catching up with Molly and the poor Mr. Waters. It was not ideal, but it would have to do.

"I've been sitting so long, my foot fell asleep. Would you like some help gathering driftwood?" she asked Molly.