Peekaboo was becoming very independent, and Tina was progressing rapidly in learning to get around and help herself when she wanted something.
It was Tina who helped Peekaboo lose her fear of Dmitri, through a game they played.
Tina, who was never afraid of Dmitri in the first place, would threaten to catch and tickle him, and then he would retreat, pretending to be scared. Originally this was just a game to help Tina learn to move about more independently and have fun learning. But during one of these games, Dmitri happened to retreat into a corner, beneath a shelf where Peekaboo was perched. This gave him an idea.
"Help! Peekaboo, save me!" he called.
Peekaboo laughed, jumped down and blocked Tina's path so that she was right between her and Dmitri. "That's far enough." She grinned. But she didn't have long to enjoy feeling proud over losing her fear.
Palestina grinned back. "Well, if I can't get him, I'll get you."
both furby babies took off, leaving Dmitri chuckling to himself.
Jessica was sitting and folding up facecloths and towels with Toby nodding off on her shoulder, when they heard:
"Wa, wa, wa!
Hoo, ha, ha!
Wa ha hoo ha hoo ha hah!"
"Hmh." Toby started awake and looked around, confused.
Jessica laughed. "What's up, Dmitri?"
"You'll never guess who just rescued me from Tina."
"Floyd?"
"Nope."
"Sybil?"
"Nope. Peekaboo."
"Really? Wow, that's great!"
"She's not scared of me any more!" And with that, Dmitri let loose with the laughter and a few songs and dances.
Jessica laughed. "Well, in that case, this calls for a celebration. Like, French toast for dinner."
"Oooooohhh!" Toby purred excitedly.
"Yaaa!" said Dmitri.
"Somehow I thought that might go over well." Jessica grinned. And I still have those unbaked frozen cookies, I think I'll bake them after I'm through with this laundry.
"Cookie dough?" Dmitri got a ravenous look in his eye. "Mmm-hmmm." he smacked his lips.
"Hah! Get in line, I'm making sure to be the first customer." Toby grinned mischievously."
"Not likely if Sundown or Kitri catches wind of this." said Jessica.
"Hmm, we'll see about that." Toby responded slyly.
"Good luck. I've battled Kitri for grub. I lost." said Dmitri.
"But she hasn't taken me on yet." purred Toby mysteriously.
"Uh, no offence, dude," Dmitri shrugged, "but if I can't win against her, I don't think you stand a snowball's chance."
Toby straightened up and peered menacingly down from Jessica's shoulder at Dmitri. "Ahem, keep that up, and Tina isn't the only one you'll be running from."
Dmitri grinned impishly and backed away.
"First, and last - warning." said Toby.
"You're really pushing it, Dmitri," said Jessica. "One day you'll provoke the wrong person at the wrong time, and - look out."
"Oh yeah?" Dmitri challenged, and then burped.
"Excuse you." said Jessica.
Toby burped back.
"Excuse you too." Jessica said. "Especially so close to my ear."
"Oops, sorry Jessica."
Dmitri chuckled.
"and you shut up." said Jessica.
"That's nothing, you guys got nothing on me! Buck entered, apparently having heard this.
"Oh, no," Jessica mumbled. Aloud, she quickly said, "Buck, don't you - "
Buck out-burped both his friends before Jessica could finish telling him not to dare.
"Yeesh, such uncouth houseguests." Jessica said in the snootiest manner she could muster.
"So, what's going on in here?" Buck asked.
"Nothing much, I'm going to - " Jessica's sentence was interrupted by Dmitri.
"Jessica's gonna make us some cookies, then later on, we're having French toast for supper."
"Yaaah!" Buck exulted, and ran out to go tell all the other furbies.
"Note to self," Jessica began, "If you want to keep a secret, never mention it to Buck."
The others laughed.
Later on, the smell of baking cookies brought all the furbies to the kitchen.
There, they found three large raw cookies just sitting in a plate.
Tina looked longingly at them. "Can I have some?"
"of course. Help yourselves, guys."
"Gang way!" Duckling yelled as she was first to pounce on the bounty. She was soon not alone as the cupboard top was just hopping with happily munching furbies.
"Here's a piece for you, Tina," Kitri grabbed some and jumped off the cupboard, which was still too high for Tina to jump on to.
"Hey Toby why aren't you joining in?" asked Sybil.
"Jessica already let me have my share." the contented Toby responded from his place on her shoulder "Told ya I'd be the first customer, didn't I?"
Jessica smirked and batted one of his ears with a finger.
"Oh, that's good!" Tina exclaimed.
"Thanks, guys." Jessica smiled. "Wow, looks like I'll have to put out a little more for you." She took another three raw cookies from a pan that was waiting to go into the oven next, and put them out for the furbies.
"Yeah, yeah, woo-hoo!" Kitri whooped.
"Wa, wa, wa! Hoo, ha, ha!" said Dmitri.
"Yeah! Yeah! YEAH! buck chimed in.
"Yes yes yes!" that was Sybil.
Duckling and Peekaboo laughed, Tina and Floyd cheered.
Sundown's reaction was drowned out by the others, but he smiled at Jessica and dug in with delight.
Jessica laughed at their enthusiasm, and then pinched off another piece of dough. "Here, Toby, have a second." she held it up to him.
He accepted it gratefully and made short work of it with purrs of delight.
When the furbies had finished and started filing out, Toby leapt off Jessica's shoulder and approached Kitri. "Can I talk to you for a second? And Sybil?"
Jessica grinned.
"Sure, what's up?" asked Kitri.
"I'll tell you in a moment."
More time went by, and when dinner time came, nobody wasted time filing in, the French toast smelled absolutely delicious.
"Hey! argh!" Dmitri protested as Toby snatched his piece away on him.
toby scarfed it down. "Ahhhhhhhhh."
"Oh, you!" Dmitri went for another one.
Toby blocked him. "Uh-uh."
"What the - heck?"
Kitri snickered.
"Nothing for you until you take back what you said this afternoon." said Toby.
Dmitri looked perplexed, but only for a moment. Then it dawned on him what Toby was referring to. In playful defiance, he stuck out his tongue. "Never." and made a grabb for another piece.
But Toby wasn't about to let him enjoy it, he started by giving Dmitri's tail a good yank, causing him to whirl around and confront him. That gave Toby the chance to grab that piece away from Dmitri and toss it to Sybil.
"Oh, you're gonna get it!"
"Really?"
The two began tussling, and Dmitri found himself getting back as good as he could dish out. And no one was offering to help him, not even Peekaboo.
"Okay, let's take this somewhere else." Dmitri finally said, and tried to exit the kitchen.
That was hard to do with Toby buffeting and play-pummelling him from behind and side to side the whole time.
In the front room, the tussle continued.
"Urf! Get off!" Dmitri shouted, giving Toby a violent shove.
"Aaaaack!" Toby skidded hard into the cabinet beneath the TV. He turned a menacing eye on Dmitri. "You are asking for it!"
Dmitri leapt onto the back of Jessica's reclining chair. "Hah!" He stuck his tongue out at Toby on the floor.
Toby hissed and leapt onto one of the chair's armrests.
Dmitri was rather surprised at this, and hadn't planned on his next move yet. But he wasn't going to just sit there and give Toby a chance to nail him. He jumped down onto the armrest and butted him with one of his horns.
Toby snarled and slammed his beak into the side of Dmitri's head.
The two of them traded head-butts for a while, neither one willing to give up their position on the armrest, until Toby finally said, "Bor-ring." and withdrew.
"Hahahahaha! Giving up already? That was easy." Dmitri crowed, jumping back onto the back of the chair.
With a satisfied grin, Dmitri watched Toby slink away, apparently defeated.
"Hah! He crowed. "Now, back to the mess hall for - Aaaaaaack!"
Dmitri found himself pitched violently off the back of the chair by a body-slam from behind. He landed with a thud in the middle of the floor.
He barely had time to register that when he felt the impact of Toby slamming hard into him again.
"I'm just getting warmed up, pal." Toby breathed menacingly.
"Oh - you - devious little - bugger!" Dmitri panted, trying to catch his breath.
"Had enough yet?"
"Of you? Yeah."
Toby chortled.
"Ah shadup!" Dmitri gave one of Toby's ears a yank.
"Make me." Toby shoved back.
The tussle continued. Bodies got slammed, ears and horns got yanked, shouts, growls and groans were uttered, tails pulled, until finally they had to take a rest.
"So, what's that you were saying to me about a snowball's chance?" Toby insisted, trying to catch his breath.
"I - take it back." Dmitri puffed.
Toby grinned, satisfied. "You know, you could've avoided this whole thing by listening to me in the first place."
"Ugh." said Dmitri. "Okay, so will you let me eat in peace now?"
"Uh-huh."
The two of them returned to resume the meal, grinning.
"Have fun?" Jessica asked.
"Heck yeah." said Toby.
"Not so much." said Dmitri.
There were laughs all around.
When everyone was through eating, Peekaboo piped up with "That was great, we should have it again!"
There were definite reactions in the affirmative from the others.
Jessica smiled. "Oh, we will, don't you worry." Then she looked at Peekaboo. "Oh, by the way, I have something from Beth and Hannah that I think you should see. Gotta clean up the kitchen first, so it will be a little while."
"Hee hee hee yeah!" said Peekaboo.
Kitri and Toby stuck around to, well, clean the plates just a little more before Jessica put them in the dishwasher.
Later on, Jessica called everyone into the front room, where she had hooked her laptop up to the TV, prepared to put on a video or movie.
What it turned out to be was a series of Youtube videos from Peekaboo Parrots, where the birds talked. Even the little parrotlets were understood as they exclaimed: "1, 2, 3! Peekaboo!"
The furbling cheered at this. "They said my name!"
"Yep. And that's for being such a brave furbling today." said Jessica. Then she looked at Floyd. "And I'll get you that battery cover somehow. In the meantime, just keep mingling with us, don't let this problem get you down, because I'm not giving up."
"that's my Jess." Kitri looked fondly at her.
Toby nodded with a pleased grin.
"Thanks," said Floyd bashfully.
So another day was through, and everyone eventually retired perfectly contented.
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