no fear! Who: Frankie & Ava Where: Castle / Exploring around When: Backd. Saturday afternoon / evening
As a child, it was fair to say that Frankie had never really had the discipline for a pet. He had an owl back home, but Scout mostly took care of himself, especially when they were at school and he could sleep in the owlery and get fed there and all Frankie had to remember to do was take a few treats to breakfast. But cats and dogs? When he was five he had been desperate for a dog, for about five minutes, until it was explained to him that he would have to feed it and groom it and walk it twice a day and train it and pick up its poop. The idea had quickly lost its appeal.
Now that he had a dog, - sort of - however, the problem seemed to be in keeping him inside long enough to do anything with. Gandalf would run off given the slightest opportunity, and at first it had been fairly easy to track him down. They'd find him sitting dejectedly outside the house where he had lived with Frank, and bring him home, and feed him until he collapsed with exhaustion until the next day. But now, with the village so different... well, he could be anywhere.
After the latest debacle of a search which had ended with Frankie almost breaking his neck trying to drag the terrier away from a shockingly steep cliff face, he decided he'd had enough, and leaving the poor creature at the cafe for his mum to keep an eye on (and to beg the customers for scraps, he had no doubt) he fetched his bike and went to meet Ava at the stables. They had not seen much of each other since all the fighting. He felt bad that her father hadn't made it back, but he didn't see why she had to be short with him just because he had. In hindsight though, this had probably been unfair. He could only imagine how rude he would have been to people if he'd lost his mum. True, both his grandparents had gone through the portal, but he was not as close to them, and he couldn't help but wonder if it wasn't better for his granddad, to go home. He had always seemed to Frankie to be a little distant and unhappy.
He parked the bike in a cloud of dust and hopped off, looking around. He hadn't been to the stables before, properly. There were a couple horses around looking at him rather suspiciously, he thought. He sighed. Maybe animals just didn't like him.