Nexus: For Eights cont'd

[hero_farmboy]

Clark is sleeping. Not entirely peacefully, stressful Lex encounters will do that, but he is sleeping. The rest of the farm is quiet as well, with only the occasional moo audible in the late night air

Comments

[hero_farmboy]

Clark ushers her into the truck and then heads north toward Burnham Woods. Eights might be interested in Chandler's Field as they pass it, with the newly rebuilt windmill that he will point out. It's about the only interesting thing to see on the way.

As it's near winter, the lake and the surrounding woods are all but deserted. The truck stops in the makeshift parking lot not too far from the water and Clark slides out, cooler in hand.

"Damn, we should've brought the horses."

[downsidedarling]

The windmill is noted. In a 'damn, I wanna climb that' kind of way.

"...Horses?"

[hero_farmboy]

"Yeah, you know, those big brown things in the barn that have possibly pestered you for sugar cubes," he flashes her a smile as he says this.

"We could have ridden out here."

[downsidedarling]

There are no words, but with a shake of her head and an extraordinarily dubious facial expression Eights manages to convey her mistrust of this prospect.

[hero_farmboy]

"What, you've never been on a horse?" Clark clearly finds this idea preposterous. "It's fun. I could teach you when we get back."

[downsidedarling]

"...City girl. Dead city girl. I... horses... no. No."

[hero_farmboy]

"Oh, come on. They're harmless." He's mostly teasing by now. He won't really push it. "I even got Chloe on a horse. Once. I figure if I can do that, I can get anyone up on one."

[downsidedarling]

"Well, Chloe's not me." Eights grins. "That should be obvious, really."

[hero_farmboy]

He chuckles. "Just a little, yeah."

Then he motions to the lake itself, which is rather large. "Anyway, this is Crater Lake. It used to be full of meteor rocks, but it's been pretty well cleaned out. At least, I can swim in it without getting sick, so I assume it's clean."

[downsidedarling]

She puts it all together fairly easily.

"Right. The vacation, it makes you not get sick around those, doesn't it? The museum--"

[hero_farmboy]

Clark nods, starting to walk slowly along the shore. "If I was the way I usually am, I would have been doubled over in pain at the museum being that close to a meteor rock. Well, the green one, anyway. There's different kinds."

[downsidedarling]

Eights can't help but wince restlessly. It's not in her nature to stand by while others hurt if she can help it.

She follows him quietly, enoying the scenery.

It occurs to her to ask what kinds there are besides red and green, but it doesn't seem the sort of thing he'd particularly want to discuss.

[hero_farmboy]

He wouldn't mind, actually. It's one of the few things he can talk about without too much guilt or discomfort.

"Kind of weird to see this place so deserted. I don't usually come up here outside of summer and then it's packed."

[downsidedarling]

"People swimming?" she guesses. "I'm betting it gets hot around here in the summer."

[hero_farmboy]

"Yeah, it does. We get half the high school and college kids out here in summer. Not many other places to swim in Smallville." Clark idly kicks a stone into the water.

"There's the occasional winter party, but that's more for freshman."

[downsidedarling]

The stone goes plop. Anna watches.

"I feel compelled to inform you at this point that you don't get winter in Kansas," she says dryly. "Never mind I haven't seen a proper Ottawa November in four and a half thousand years, I still remember what they're like."