Princess Cocoa

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I.B.F.Fs: Travel Sickness - Chapter 2: The Dingo

In our dream, Luke, Resus and Cleo were running out onto the beach. We felt wild and free. We’ve been on the beach multiple times at home, but this was way better than before. Our energy had come back, and we were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed once again. Luke and Resus were only wearing their swimming trunks. Luke’s was orange with black stripes, while Resus’ was black with red stripes. I was wearing my cute pink swimming costume. Cleo was only wearing her bandages. It was very hot in Australia, so it’s glad Aunt Marie had her sweet-smelling suncream. We loved the smell of Aunt Marie’s suncream. Its scent was enough to drag you onto the beach in a couple of minutes. Once we reached the beach, we rolled along the sand. “Wheeeeeeee!” shouted Luke, Resus and Cleo as the soft sand touched their skin - and bandages. “Wheeeeeee!” I shouted too, rolling along with them. The sand dunes were steep enough to roll down. I leapt on top of my pile of siblings and we all laughed as we collapsed onto the sand.

We would play in the sea. The sea was big, blue, beautiful and cool as a million ice cubes in a fridge. Luke, Resus and Cleo took it in turns to make me jump when the tide splashed in. When it was Luke’s turn and the tide came in, he lifted me up and tickled my wet feet. Resus did indeed jump when it was his turn. I jumped, but Resus fell over and ran back to our beach towel, shivering “Help! Help! It’s cold…” Luke, Cleo and I laughed along with him. Cleo was a pro at playing this game with me. “Here comes a big one!” she would cry, while I giggled and held on tight to Cleo’s hands. When the tide came in, she lifted me right up while yelling “Woohoo!” I was screaming with laughter. Next, we all splashed in the water. I splashed my siblings and they splashed me back. When Luke fell back from such a powerful wave of water, I tickled him and cuddled him. Resus and Cleo would splash and tickle him too. The water was shark-free, making it safe for us to play in. Luke and Cleo would dangle me over the water while I shrieked with laughter, and sometimes, Resus would sit in the water and splash me, while I splashed him back. We wiggled our toes at one another, as if it was a way of communicating.

Before all that, we put on suncream to stay safe from the sun. We decided to play around with it. I sprayed some suncream on Luke’s tummy and drew a smiley face on it. The smiley face didn’t stay smiling for long, as Luke rubbed the suncream all over his body like he was a suntan lotion advert model. He sprayed some on my face, minding my eyes as it’ll hurt when the suncream was applied. I took the suncream and sprayed it on Resus’ back. He giggled, as it tickled on his sensitive back, but I rubbed it all in and he enjoyed it dearly. Cleo was already relaxing on our laid-out beach towel, and that’s when the boys and I decided to play a trick on him. I drew a circle on her back, then Luke and Resus drew a face. We laughed as we ran back to watch and Cleo awoke. She looked around to see that her bandaged back had a creamy feeling to it. “Oh, it’s only suncream,” she laughed, and rubbed it all in. We groaned in disappointment. We knew this was something to fall for - almost!

Minutes later, we lay down on the soft sand and relaxed under the shade of our yellow and pink beach parasol. I lay beside Luke and dreamed as the sounds of seagulls screeching pierced the hot air. Luke, Resus and Cleo were already asleep when I opened my eyes to the sound of crunching. I looked around, and heard that the crunching sound was less audible. I strained my ears to listen out for any crunching. Munch, crunch! There it was again. I looked around in the direction of the crunching. I was in shock to see a real life dingo crunching away at a bone, gnawing as if it were Dig right there and then. But it can’t be Dig! He was at the kennels with Lulu! I always feel emotional when I say goodbye to Dig and Lulu when sending them to the kennels, and I always give them kisses, so tears filled my eyes as I watched the dingo gnaw his large bone, then yawn and settle down on the sand, ready to dream dreamtime dreams.

It took a while for me to dry my eyes and look at the dingo closely. His sandy fur almost camoflagued him against the beach, and his breathing sounded snarly and growly, making him fierce. It wouldn’t hurt to be brave, I thought, so I got down on my hands and knees and crawled slowly over to the dingo. I had to mind all the pebbles and sticks that have been littered at various points on the beach, but at one point I stood on a large pebble and I tried hard not to scream, almost waking the dingo up. I sat down and looked at the pebble. Then I looked at my pebble. It was light brown with white stripes - a rarity on beaches like this. I placed the pebble where I won’t stand on it anymore, and continued crawling over to the dingo. I was almost there. I reached out to the dingo and tried to touch his soft-looking fur, but he shot up and growled at me! I shrank back in horror as the dingo fell asleep again.

I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I go back to my siblings or try stroking the dingo? Surely it can’t be too friendly. I wish…I could do something about it. I looked at my sleeping siblings, and then looked at the dingo. I knew what I had to do. I reached out to the dingo slowly and gently again, and then stroked his muzzle. The dingo seemed to feel calm and content as I stroked him. There were warnings before nature programmes on TV that we mustn’t touch wild animals, because they could be too dangerous to handle, but this was a one-off. It was as if the dingo lost his family and came to the beach to forage for food. By food, I meant the bone. The dingo was a friendly one. I smiled feeling the dingo growl with contentment, its heart beating slowly.

Luke, Resus and Cleo awoke and saw me stroking the dingo. They saw it was a charming sight, and crawled over to me and joined me in stroking this wild dog.