Heron Lake Plateau We might fall in love- or fall apart

If you've ever seen one of those YouTube videos of a gopro attached to the family pet, you'd understand what it was like for Screech to throw himself violently in to a bramble bush with an angry old elk tailgating his ass. It went from bright, colorful  idyllic sunlit grass to a vat of black shadow with sharp pricks as he was grazed by ream after ream of budding rosebush.

It fucking hurt — not as much as being assaulted up the rear by an antler, but enough to make him reconsider the spontaneous choice he had made. It would be added to the growing list of choices he regretted. 

No sooner had the chaos settled, another body came shooting after him through the grass. He was recoiling from the sharpness of the brambles when he finally spotted Niamh but she seemed unaware of the plants growing all over the place beneath the rare tree or two; her head was lowered and he could at the very least assume she was coming to check on him - but there was no time.

Screech made a judgement call which would probably bite him in the ass: he lowered his own head and aimed to deflect her arrival with the brunt of his intervention. Within moments she was closing the gap; Niamh would either collide with Screech and have a nice goose egg on her head, or veer in to the brambles and get scraped to shit. In a way he was trying to save her, but would probably just piss her off more.