Jean's Project: Summer

Uriel sipped his lemonade, looking over the farm. Autumn was almost here, but the head of Summer still remained. The skunk was taking a break from doing chores around the Summers's farm, enjoying the relatively simple labor. Scott was getting old, and there was more work than his grandson could handle, even if Greg wasn't helping Uriel with the photography. The skunk felt guilty without helping out some, which for his superheroic enhanced strength and endurance, more than made up for the work Greg wasn't doing.

Thinking of Greg, he turned his head to watch the energetic collie play with the camera Uriel gave him. It was a simple and cheap compared to Uriel's gear, but it was more advanced than anything Greg had used and the normally rough collie treated it with care. An easy enough present for an easy going dog, but Uriel knew now there were depths within Greg that were hidden.

The collie snapped picture after picture, looking with disgust with each one and loudly complaining on the quality of the shot, He turned to face Uriel, having heard the skunk chuckle, then gave a rude gesture and continued snapping pictures.

It was quiet on the farm, Uriel contemplated. No rush of traffic. No crowds of people. No presence of the media. He went to town with Greg and Scott once a week, but other than that it was just him, Greg, Scott, and Jean.

Uriel frowned as his thoughts went to Jean. She was getting worse, slowly, but still worse. The skunk hoped the elderly collie would make it to the winter, but frown left as he recalled her talking about it.

"The important thing, Mister Photius, is that it be done. I'm going to hang around as long as I can, but if I go before you finish, well, that's how the river flows, my old otter friend used to say. So don't you worry about me. You get it done right, young man! Or," her face turned into that bright grin, "I'll haunt you! Hah!"

Chucking to himself at the memory, Uriel took another sip of lemonade, then heard Greg call out, "Hey, Uriel!" The skunk turned his head in time to see the collie snap a photo. Greg cocked his head and looked down at the camera somewhat puzzled, "Hmmm."

Uriel got up and walked towards the canine. "What's wrong, Greg?"

The collie looked up, a sly look quickly masked by a look of innocence, "Well, it's this picture. See, everything wasn't looking good, so I decided... maybe if I took a picture of the best looking thing I could think of... but I don't know..."

Uriel felt the weight and panic build in him, and he started to freeze up, but it felt different. The old sensation felt tired and full of grief and anger. This... was different.

It was excitement.

Uriel faltered for only a moment before continuing his stride, walking next to Greg and putting his arm around the canine's shoulders. "Well, let's have a looking."

Uriel looked down at the camera display. The picture was a bit blurry and overexposed, it was framed a bit off center and angled. But the skunk looked at the subject matter and paused. Did he... why. So he did.

"Yknow, Greg... I think that's a damn good picture."
"Wait, really? Oh wow, hah! Maybe I've been learning some stuff from you after all! Hah, you better watch out, Mister Big City, I might come and take over your studio!"

Uriel and Greg paused a moment before breaking up into laughter. "Allright," Uriel said, "Break time's over. Let's get the barn clear today, I want to get some more photos tomorrow." He walked back to the barn, still chuckling.

----

Greg watched the skunk walk away, then looked down at the camera. He still didn't see anything really that special, and Greg knew it was just a corny line to get closer to Uriel. He didn't think the skunk would react that way to it.

I mean, Greg thought to himself, it's just a picture of him relaxed and happy...



This is somewhere partway in the story "Jean's Project". I originally wanted just a short story blurb to go with this picture by seibear seibear, who deserves much more attention and love than he has.

It quickly blew up to be something a bit larger than I normally write. This is actually just the part from this picture. I've got the first part written, and realized with it's length it would be too long before I got to here. So here's this part.

The entire story starts about two weeks after Uriel quits the superhero group Alphateam.

Uriel Photius is me
Art by seibear