lazy days of blue

Summer brought with it a hoard of complications not the least of which was a disgusting miasma of heat. He certainly didn't feel like moving around in it and if he could have shed himself bald he would have. As it was Simon was forced to suffer the heat in his short, thick coat. He was lucky it was a pale color, but it was still one more block between his skin and the too infrequent breezes. He slumped on the arched, gnarled root of an ancient and massive tree. He couldn't have told you what kind it was by now, he hadn't looked at it since selecting it and then only long enough to decide that the root was a perfect resting place. His paws dangled over either side of the root, cementing him in place as they dipped into the water that ran as a shallow river under the upraised and exposed natural anchor.



With a great yawn he moved his head from the side to rest his chin on the rubbed-smooth bark. Something, or someone, had used this root often for the same purposes. It even had the faint impression of a body on it where weight had pushed down and use had worn it away. Funny how trees could suffer the same signs of use that rocks could. Funnier still how a rock would have been a more welcome bed of comfort than the tree. There was a knot digging unpleasantly into his gut. He groaned and slipped over, rolling off the tree to splash into the water on his back. Wriggling her grinned. Maybe his belly was a little empty because of the summer induced lack of game and maybe it was unpleasant out but he could still enjoy splashing in the water.



With a grunt of satisfaction he lifted himself from his impromptu bath and examined the tree root. Was it worth ending up on top of that most uncomfortable knot? A gnat buzzed by his ears quickly followed by a tiny swarm of equally tiny, black, buzzing insects. He sighed. No, no it was not worth that knot. It was not worth the gnats and it certainly wasn't worth the sticky sweat he'd just washed away. He left the mottled shade of the enormous tree to find a new perch, walking with his paws shuffling the water of the river he'd bathed in.