Encamped, Entrenched

The lake was calm.

On the other side of it, the trees were calm.

Far away, the mountains were calm.

Everything was too damned calm for Gloriosa Daisy.

In the fading light of dusk, she was grumbling, storming up and down the dock, phone pressed tight against her ear as she pouted. It took more restraint than she was sure she could sustain to not hurl it like a skipping stone across that annoyingly-still blue surface.

After a few more teeth-grinding moments, the dialing finally gave way to her brother’s voice. “Hello?”

Gloriosa’s attitude immediately shifted. “Timber, hiiii! I just wanted to call and see what you were up to!”

“......so just how bad is it over there right now?”

Her free hand clenched. “Why, I don’t know what you mean!”

“Uh huh. So I’m not supposed to think something’s up when you start talking to me like one of the campers.”

“I– one second.”

Carefully setting the phone down on the dock, Gloriosa covered her mouth with a cupped hand and cursed profusely into it.

Once satisfied, she picked it back up. “Fine. You got me. It wasn’t a good day.”

“Therapy?”

“Wha– no!” Gloriosa sighed. “That fiasco is tomorrow.”

“You need to keep at it, Glores. It probably doesn’t seem like it, but–”

“I said I’m going, didn’t I?” Gloriosa violently rolled her eyes. Timber was just so confident in the power of one stupid overanalyzing weirdo in an armchair to fix her. Him pushing her to start again after months of missed appointments had become a near-annual tradition ever since the Gaea Incident.

“Where are you, anyway?”

“Only place we ever get decent cell service here.”

“The dock?”

“Yeah.” She tapped the board in front of her with her right foot. Still pretty sturdy, four years on. “Why?”

“Just kinda wanted to picture it, a bit.”

Gloriosa laughed, looking back out across the lake. “College boy feeling homesick? Just saying, this year’s camper crop has been–”

“So what did happen?”

“–absolutely splendiferous.” Her eye twitched at the interruption. “You know, I did ask what you were up to first.”

“Right now, I’m on the phone with my sister. After that, I have homework. And now your turn.”

Gloriosa grumbled a moment before responding. “Fine. It was another bad date. Happy?”

“...right, you did say something about a date this week. You wanna talk about it?”

Looking down at the wooden planks, Gloriosa exhaled. “Not really, I’m sure I’ll be talking about it in gruesome detail tomorrow. It was just another dating app ‘perfect match’ that wasn’t. I don’t know why I still use SaddleUp, this is the third dud in a row.”

She stepped back onto the shoreline, then stopped, knowing she’d lose signal if she went much farther.

“I could see it in his eyes, Timb. Too hyper. Isn’t it funny, how people always want a partner who’s perky and energetic on the app, and then they meet me in real life and suddenly I’m manic?”

“...I mean you can be–”

“Don’t say it.”

“–a bit much on a first impression.”

A shot of rage flashed across Gloriosa’s brain, but it quickly fizzled out into a bitter bit of snark. “I’m in this picture and I hate it.”

“Look, Glores, it’ll take time to find the right person. I mean, at least you’re putting yourself out there, right? Always a start.”

“Says the guy who never goes through less than five girlfriends a year.”

“Ouch.”

Gloriosa sat down on the dirt, planting her feet on the first plank of the dock as she looked out toward the dimming sky.

After a moment, she took the phone away from her ear, set it to speaker mode, and set it beside her, resting her hands on the soft ground.

“One of these days, we’re gonna feel like adults, right?”

She could practically hear Timber’s shrug through the phone. “Maybe. I mean, I’ve always kinda felt like one. At least, since it was just us.”

“Yeah…” Another sigh. “But I mean, like, different from that. Sure, we bought back the camp and have a few actual staff these days, and, well, I guess you’re off at school and stuff, but what's actually really changed? At least for me? It just feels kinda endless.”

Glancing back toward the campground and the main buildings, Gloriosa recalled finding a stray bit of gnarled debris earlier in the day in the grass, all this time later.

“I’ve got to be the only person who could become some kind of actual monster and not have it change my life at all.”

“You know that’s not true.”

“Feels true.” As she glanced toward the phone, bearing her favorite photo of eight-year-old Timber as his caller profile, the eternal thought crossed her mind, and she blurted it. “Wonder what Mom would’ve said.”

“We’ve held onto Camp Everfree all by ourselves this long, sis. She and Dad would be proud.”

Gloriosa was sorely tempted to point out the precise ratios of we applied when it came to maintaining the camp, managing the camp finances, handling bookings, securing supplies, doing laundry, and how that had been growing ever-lopsided since Timber had begun gallivanting off into Canterlot City and eventually to campus in a whole other province…

But the memory of the years where it had just been the two of them ran too strong in her mind, and she couldn't help but consider just where her stability might be without having her little brother there, even at this distance.

“Thanks, Timb.”

“I’ll be back in just a few weeks, Glores. It’ll be a fun summer.”

“I know.” She picked up the phone and turned off speaker mode, placing it gently against her ear. “I’ll see you then.”

“You got this.”

Gloriosa cringed at her ex-catchphrase, but let it slide. “Bye.”

Hanging up, Gloriosa stood and began the walk back to her cabin. Around her, the darkness was creeping in.

Calmly, she switched on her flashlight, and carried on.