========================================================================= Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 21:40:00 PST Reply-To: Mike Goldman Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Mike Goldman Subject: "Scavenger Hunt" (7/11)--HL Story BTW: Minor profanity warning. Again, praise, comments, flames to Lori at: mgoldman@cts.com "Dog collar." Rory responded after several minutes of prodding. "How much time do we have left?" Mac looked at his watch as they passed under a streetlight. "About an hour and a half." he informed her before making a right-hand turn. Rory nodded and continued to scan the streets. Suddenly she sat bolt up right. "Stop the car!" she yelled. Mac came to a screeching stop. "What?" Rory pointed. An old mutt was sitting in the middle of an unfinished playground, idly scratching itself. "Item number four, here we come!" said Mac. He pulled the car over to the curb and they disembarked, walking slowly into the center of the park. As they did, Rory turned around in a circle to look it over. "I wonder why they haven't finished the place," she mused aloud, her boot crunching on a shard of glass. "Ssh!" Macleod, annoyed, put a finger to his lips. "Here doggie, nice doggie," he started cooing at the mutt who briefly stopped his scratching for a moment to watch the human show. Rory rolled her eyes. "Like *that* will work." As if to prove her wrong, the dog's ears perked up and he started to walk towards Duncan, the buckle on his frayed leather collar making a soft jingling sound. Mac turned to smile triumphantly at Rory and failed to notice the dog's attention being diverted by a small rabbit that scurried across the moonlit park. "Damn!" Rory cursed as the dog took off after the rabbit, "Well, better forget item number four." "No way," Duncan said firmly, "I *want* that dog!" "Why Macleod," she responded, "I thought you Scotsmen only went after sheep!" Duncan gave her a dirty look, but decided discretion was the better part of valor. "The dog went that way," he informed her and pointed to a thicket of bushes. "You go around behind those and I'll see if I can flush him out." Rory shrugged. "Whatever," she mumbled, and ambled off towards the thicket. Mac waited until she was in position and then hurried up to the bushes. "Here doggie," he said in a high-pitched, syrupy, sing-song. Hearing a rustle, he stopped and stared into the dense foliage. "Nice doggie," he tried again. This time, he saw the bushes rustle. Unmindful of branches, he shut his eyes and flung himself into the fray. He felt his hands sinking into something furry and opened his eyes to see his hands full of coarse black and white fur. The skunk, most displeased at being handled this way, vented the full force of his anger on Macleod's face and chest. Yelping in pain and disgust as the foul liquid dripped down his face and the smell reached his nostrils, he dropped the skunk and scrambled out of the bushes. Rory ran around to him. "What the hell--?" she began and stopped as the smell hit her. "Oh my God," she gagged, backing up, "You shoulda gone for the sheep, Macleod." Then, as if to add insult to injury, the object of their chase padded up and sat down on Mac's foot, staring at them. Rory looked at Mac and saw he was still trying to wipe skunk out of his eyes. "C'mere you," she said to the dog who obediently got up and padded over to her. Scratching his ears, she quickly undid his collar, cramming it in her jacket pocket. "Good boy," she said and patted the mutt on his rear. The dog wandered over to Macleod and sat on his foot as Duncan stared dumbly after it. Rory whistled and held up the collar as Mac squinted at her through red-rimmed eyes. "Let's go, huh?" she suggested. Mac nodded and wiped his eyes on his sleeve a final time. As he turned to leave, he felt the dog's weight on his foot and looked down to see the dog had changed position--one paw was now on his foot and the other leg was raised. The next thing he felt was something warm and wet trickling down his calf. The dog finished and then took another exploratory sniff of the odd-smelling human. Apparently contented with what he found, he licked Mac's hand and wandered off. Mac then looked over at Rory who was laughing so hard she was unable to straighten up. "OK, that's enough," he snapped grumpily. Rory wiped the tears from her eyes and tried to quell the laughter bubbling out of her. Mac could see her body shake with the effort. Feeling completely asinine, he stalked towards the car, knowing Rory was following him by the bursts of laughter that he kept hearing behind him. As they got to the car, Rory held out her hand. "What?" he asked petulantly. "Why don't you let me drive?" she asked, biting her lip to try and stop any further laughter from escaping, "I think you should sit downwind and, um, air out a bit." Her mouth quirked and a snort of laughter escaped. "Here." he said, ungraciously shoving the keys at her. She took them gingerly between her thumb and forefinger and slid into the driver's seat, tossing the dog's collar on top of their growing pile of scavenger hunt items. Starting the engine, she showily took a big breath and held it, waving for Mac to climb into the backseat. As he climbed in and tried to arrange himself in the least personally offensive posture, she put on the turn signal and pulled out into traffic, not even trying to quell the laughter anymore as they continued towards their next objective. Will they have an easy time with their next item? Nah....