Part two of the YCH I got from  TheLoneSparrow !

And of course, dialogue to accompany the piece, written and edited by me.

Artwork by  TheLoneSparrow
Emilia belongs to  TheLoneSparrow
Claire belongs to me,  XausR32
Story written and edited by me,  XausR32

---

"We're pretty far away from town,"

Emilia holds on tight as Claire drives her little Jeep down the old dirt road. Claire's not used to having passengers, so nobody's ever brought up to her how "spirited" her driving off road is. Claire drives along with glee, this was all her, the wilderness, away from everything, but now she's got quite the date with her for this.

"Man, this trail is so dusty. We've left a big dust cloud behind us. I've never done anything like this before, don't you care about how dirty the jeep gets?"

Claire smirks, good thing you asked! She points forward to a huge puddle in the trail. Emilia's eyes widen as she realised Claire isn't trying to avoid it. "Nature's car wash!"

Water splashes upwards and all over the jeep. But her momentum slowed quite a bit. "Oh no you don't!" says Claire. She downshifts to 2nd gear and shifts the transfer case to 4-Lo. Emilia looks on not really following what was going on, but before she could figure out, the jeep launches forward as the front tires bite through the mud.

"Gah, this is a bit rough!" Emilia says, still holding on. The jeep pulls out of the large puddle, and carries on. "Spunky's never let me down!" says Claire with a cheeky smile. Emilia crosses her arms, 'Maybe she's not so quiet after all,' she thinks to herself.

A few more miles down the road, a large tree is visible. "There's my spot! I've known about that tree ever since I was little," Claire says. She pulls her jeep off the trail, and backs in towards the old big tree. "Finally, I need a breather after all that, Claire. I've never had a car ride like that before, whew," says Emilia.

Claire kills the engine and pulls up the handbrake. Hopping out she pockets the keys and goes to the back to open the tailgate. "Ah, the food, my picnic blanket and my camera. We're set!"

Claire grabs her camera and puts its lanyard around the back of her neck, she grabs the basket and hands it to Emilia. "I'll get the blanket!" she says with a quirky smile. "You seemed so shy the other day, Claire. Just nervous?" asked Emilia. "Nah, I'm all hyped up from the drive here. I love doing that before I venture out here!"

As the two snacked away on some coldcut sandwiches made by Claire's aunt who was visiting for the weekend, Claire sees a few birds in the tree's branches above them. "Oh! Those are cardinals! They're so pretty!" Exclaims Claire. She turns on her camera and fiddles with a few settings and starts talking some pictures of the birds.

Emilia lays back and watches Claire do her thing. The cardinals soon flew away, but Claire turns around to see Emilia lying down on her side watching her. "Oooooh, I see I've spotted an elusive pretty doggo!" says Claire as she takes pictures of Emilia.

Emilia giggles and soon covers her face, and Claire crawls over to Emilia and pulls her hands away. She leans over and gives a gentle kiss on Emilia's forehead. "Ya know, I'm really starting to like ya,"