Together Again

(set July 25th for Trio Number 3)

Vitani emerged from the MASH tent, clean white bandages were wrapped around her chest and a salve had been applied to her burns. Her sapphire eyes darted around the camp, searching for the one person she wanted desperately to see.

Scamp.

He was alive. She couldn't believe her own eyes...was it even possible? Or had she hit her head when 627 attacked her and imagined the whole thing? She wanted to believe that Scamp really was back. She'd missed him more than she could say.

"Scamp?" she called out "Are you there?"

Heavy pawpads touched the ground. Mooch had a bunch of flowers in his mouth. He felt terrible about neglecting Tani for Geno and Gurri even though they were his family now. Ears drooped as he approached the MASH tent. Someone had hurt her, he'd heard one of General Stitch's cousins, and now he felt worse than ever. He padded up to the MASH tent but Tani was already outside. Tail wagging, the dog walked up to her but heard what she said and lowered his head.

Scamp.

Why was she calling out for their dead best friend?

"Here ya go," Mooch said, dropping the flowers at Tani's feet, "These are for you. I saw Anita bring flowers to Roger one day when he was sick." He looked up at the sky and sighed.

"I miss him too," he admitted.

(This is meant to be before Scamp's post)

Vitani didn't expect Mooch's arrival and so when he appeared out of nowhere she looked at first shocked and then confused. She hadn't spoken to him in a while, he was still one of her best friends and someone she believed she could trust with anything, but she knew that Geno and Gurri were his family and so let him have his time with them.

She looked down at the flowers he had brought her and then back up at him. She moved forward and put her head on his shoulder.

"Thank you." she said. She wanted to thank him for more than the flowers, she wanted to thank him for just being there when she had needed him...right after Scamp had been taken away from them both. She didn't think she could tell him exactly how much his friendship meant to her.

"I was so sure he had been there...It was so real." she murmured, Mooch probably wouldn't know what she was talking about "It was like...like he'd come back."

"Of course I am!" Suffice it to say that wherever Vitani was, Scamp wouldn't be found very far away. They'd been apart for what felt like a lifetime while he'd been in Heaven, or the Palace, or whatever it was called, and he was determined that nothing was going to keep them that far apart again. In fact, Scamp ahd spent practically the whole night sleeping outside the MASH tent in case she were to come out before he got there. A quick trip to the mess hall was the only time he'd left that position, and he was just returning as 'Tani appeared. He flashed her a bright grin, which only grew wider as he noticed the other canine who'd also shown up.

"Mooch!" Again, completely missing the effect that his being alive again might have on his friend, Scamp bounded forward, tail wagging a mile-a-minute behind him. "I missed you guys so much!"

"It's alright Tani," Mooch said, wrapping a paw around her shoulder, "Sometime when the wind blows in my direction I can still here his voice saying..."

Of course I am!

"Exactly...wait wha?" Mooch turned and gasped loudly. Staring at the grey furred pup before him, his maw hung open and he gasped. Scamp was...alive? "Scamp you...you're alive? How...how is that...!" He grinned evilly and lept off the ground attempting to tackle Scamp to the ground.

"Buddy! You're back! You're back!" He barked, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Vitani broke away from Mooch when she heard Scamp's voice and stared at the grey pup. It had been real. Scamp had been there with 627...he'd protected her from the experiment. She could only stand and stare at the pup she'd fallen in love with for a long moment, like when she had first seen him living again.

He was alive. He'd come back to them from the dead.

She laughed as Mooch tackled him to the ground, memories of sun and adventures coming back to her. Carefree days on the savannah with her two best friends, sometimes she could have forgotten they were at war and simply enjoyed her innocence.

"You're back!" Vitani yelled joining Mooch and Scamp with trying to tackle the others "You're really alive!"

Scamp laughed aloud as both Mooch and Vitani tackled him, predictably ending up at the bottom of the pile. The mutt playfully struggled, trying to force his way out from beneath his two friends with limited success. "Hey, easy guys, you're gonna crush me to death again!" Somehow managing to roll onto his back in spite of their positions on top of him, Scamp felt like he couldn't do much more than grin at the pair of them.

"Well someone had to protect you two," he joked, pawing playfully at Vitani, but carefully enough so as not to dislodge her bandages. "You don't seem to be doing so good a job of not getting yourself hurt," he added, his tone teasing as he lookd pointedly at her wrapped wounds. It was great to see Mooch as well, of course, but it was Vitani who he'd missed the most, who he'd thought about practically every day. Even if she'd never returned his affections, Scamp had a hunch he'd still have been crushing on her something fierce.

"And Angel too," he added in a lower tone, almost hoping that the other two wouldn't hear him. After what she'd done to 'Tani, they probably hated her guts, and it still surprised Scamp that he didn't as well.

"Hey stop joking about that you dingbat," Mooch said placing a large paw on Scamp's fuzzy head, "You will not die again in this war. Not on my watch." He rose from the ground and shook himself. He grinned at Scamp playfully. "Its fun playing with Gurri and Geno but we don't get into the adventures we used to go on." He batted at Scamp's head with his paw. "Plus I can't wrestle a deer to the ground. You know I was the farm's wrestling champion." He grinned smugly but remembered this was about Scamp and returned his paw to the ground.

"So, how'd you get back?" He asked, "I mean did you like fall from heaven?"

Vitani gave a nod at Mooch's words "We won't let you die." she said "They'll have to get through us if they want you."

Scamp drew attention to her bandaged chest and Vitani gave a small frown, she'd hadn't been taking that much care in battles but then again, war wasn't always safe. She knew she could, and probably would, get injured or even killed but she accepted the risk.

Then Mooch asked the question she too had been wondering. How had Scamp returned to them? Had someone raised him from the grave or had he simply escaped the Great Kings and found his body again? Was that even possible. Either way, she was happy that Scamp had returned to her and Mooch...life just wasn't the same without him there.

"Yeah...how did you come back?" she wondered.

"I got better," It was an incredibly stupid answer, but it was also the only thing Scamp could think of at that moment. He wasn't going to admit to his best friends, not in a thousand years, that it had been Patch who had resurected him. No. Way. Ever. Angel's boyfriend was still enemy #1 to Scamp, regardless, and he didn't want Mooch and Vitani to start considering that the dalmatian might not be so bad becuase of this.

"Some crazy monkey had something to do with it," he finally acquiesced once he managed to struggle out from beneath his two friends, keeping very purposefully vague on the details. If they sought out Rafiki to ask about why he'd done it, and Patch's presence came up... well, he didn't care for that to happen, at least until he'd made sense of the fact for himself. "But that's not important," he was quick to add dismissively, hoping that neither would pursue the subject. "What matters is that I'm back, and I'm not gonna die again. Promise."

(ooc: one of you, please, do pursue the subject; I want Scamp to let something slip and see their reactions to Patch's involvement XD)

"Rafiki?" Vitani was surprised to say the least.

Surely Rafiki believed what all the animals of the savannah did, he was one of the biggest advocates for The Circle of Life. Life which flowed into death which flowed back into life again. An ever turning circle that provided everyone with everything they needed provided they respected the balance and gave respect to each creature in the cycle. By bringing Scamp back, Rafiki had broken the cycle, the dead were supposed to go to the Great Kings whilst their earthly body provided grass for the herds...why had he broken the cycle? It didn't make sense to Vitani.

"But Rafiki broke the cycle!" Vitani found the words tumbling from her mouth, no doubt Scamp and Mooch wouldn't believe in the Great Circle of Life like she did "It doesn't make sense. He can't break the cycle."

It wasn't that Vitani didn't want Scamp to live, she would have given everything if she thought he could come back and be with her and Mooch again...but the Circle of Life told her this couldn't happen...not without consequence.

"What's with everyone coming back to life?" Mooch muttered, "I thought dead meant dead." Not that he wasn't happy; the young prince was just confused. He shook his head and listened to what Vitani was saying. The old monkey was familiar to him. He planted his rear on the ground and wiped his face with his paw.

"And this monkey...he just did this for free?" Mooch was skeptical. "I don't believe it. Something must be up." He poked Scamp's chest with his paw. "Spill it, mutt," he said with a grin, "What brought you back to life? Or for that matter...who?" He didn't believe Rafiki would willingly break the circle of life or whatever. Mooch knew that much about the spiritual monkey. "Somebody had to put him up to it. It wasn't Tani or me. Maybe Angel?"

"You sound like Mufasa," Scamp muttered to Vitani, with a slight roll of his eyes. The lion king had been wrong; he was back, and nothing bad had happened because of it. "Look, everything's fine, I haven't screwed up the whole circle of life or anything." He did intend to say more on the matter, actually, but the sheepdog speaking interrupted his train of thought, and Scamp turned to face his best friend instead.

"Forget it, Mooch," he retorted, giving a slight glare as he faced down the other mutt. "I'm not going to say who it was." Not that Mooch or 'Tani would believe him even if he did, Scamp was sure, but he still didn't want to chance it. He wasn't going to give either of the two any reason to think that Patch might not be so bad if he could help it. If they kept on at him, of course he'd have to say, but the pup hoped they'd just get the hint and drop the subject.

Vitani frowned at Scamp's statement. She sounded like Mufasa? What did that mean? Had Mufasa warned Scamp about upsetting the delicate balance of the Circle of Life? Had he too showed concern? She shook this thought off. It was probably only a throwaway statement.

Scamp seemed reluctant to give any information away. Vitani's sapphire eyes jumped between Mooch and Scamp as they spoke and finally she too spoke.

"Scamp, we won't judge you if you tell us." Vitani said, trying to ease the information out of him instead of demanding it like Mooch had "I mean, we thought we'd never see you again and now you're back with us again. We want to know who we can thank for that. Rafiki wouldn't have done this on his own, I know him." her gaze jumpped between Scamp and Mooch "He respects the Great Kings and the Circle of Life. Someone had to have persuaded him to bring you back, Scamp."

"I'm not worried about you judging me," Scamp was quick to reply. It felt bad keeping secrets from his best friends, particularly Vitani, who was still more than just a friend, and the scruffy pup did feel his resolve wavering. Would it hurt so much...? No, no-no-no-no-no, he couldn't. Patch had to remain the enemy here. "I just don't want you two to start thinking anything good about the guy who killed me in the first place." The last bit slipped out before Scamp really realised what he'd just said.

(ooc: short post is short, sorry; couldn't think of much else to say right now, though)