Wooah!

The early evening was cool with a gentle breeze. Water dripped from trees and clung to the grass. It had rained for most of the day and the night before and although their shoes were heavy with mud and their socks squelched as they walked, it was nice to finally be outside. Tintin and Captain Haddock had left the Professor in the garden and were now heading towards the meadow.

Snowy tore out in front of them like a furry zigzagging rocket, chasing something or other and getting his feet tangled in the knee-high grass. The Captain grinned as Snowy tumbled head-over-paws for what must have been the eleventh time that day. It never ceased to be funny. The dog shook his head and carried on, none the worse for wear.

"Not too far, Snowy," Tintin called. He had stopped to retie his shoelace.

Captain Haddock surveyed the meadow, which glistened in the fading sunlight. The stream which ran through it was wider than usual from the rain and was flowing quite fast. Tiny white mushrooms had sprouted here and there. Tintin straightened up.

"What a lovely evening. Just look at the Moon!"

The Captain looked up and managed to make out the pale shape of the Moon among the clouds. "Oh, yes. It's, er...It's very pretty. In fact…"

In fact, it looked just like the Moon. Tintin, however, seemed to find something a bit more spectacular in it for he was still staring up at the sky. The Captain hoped he wasn't thinking of going to the Moon again. The Professor would only be too happy to build another flying cigar of a rocket and of course he would somehow end up in it-

"WOOAH!" came the shrill bark of Snowy, almost giving the Captain a heart attack.

"Crumbs!" cried Tintin. "He's fallen into the stream!"

"Hey! Tintin, wait!"

But Tintin was already dashing off towards the swollen stream. The Captain tried to follow, but immediately slipped on the grass and went down heavily. "Billions of blue blistering barnacles!"

Meanwhile, Tintin had wasted no time. He stopped further down the bank than Snowy and plunged in without hesitation. By the time the Captain was back on his feet, the stream had carried Snowy straight into Tintin's arms and the boy was attempting to navigate his way towards the bank.

Captain Haddock arrived at the stream in time for a sopping wet and quivering Snowy to be handed to him. Blistering barnacles, the dog weighed a ton!

"By thunder, you didn't have to rush off like that, boy! I could have helped. You could have been swept away!"

He set Snowy aside and helped Tintin haul himself out of the water. He weighed a ton, too.

"I wasn't in any danger, Captain. The water wasn't deep enough for that. Where's Snowy?"

Snowy was beside them. He shook the water out of his fur, spraying them both, and was about to take off again before Tintin scooped him from the ground. "Oh, no you don't. You've caused enough trouble for today. Didn't I tell you to be careful?"

"You didn't," said the Captain.

"I didn't?"

"No."

"So I did?"

"No!"

Tintin shrugged. "Oh well. It makes no difference either way." He made a sudden shuddering movement, similar to Snowy shaking water off, but unlike Snowy he didn't manage to end up any less thoroughly drenched. Snowy whined restlessly and started to clamber up Tintin's shoulder.

"You'd better get inside," said the Captain, taking his arm. "You'll freeze to death out here."

Tintin nodded. "It is a bit chilly…"

"Chilly?" exclaimed the Captain incredulously. "Look at yourself, thundering typhoons! You're soaked through!"

"Yes, I noticed that. I jumped into the stream, didn't I?" Tintin made another shudder before the Captain could reply and this time his hair became dry enough for his quiff to stand up again.

Snowy wiggled, sneezed, and slid down his shirt.

"We should look for the Professor first, to tell him we're going back in. So that he'll know where to find us."

"That's fine. Whatever you like," said the Captain agreeably. "Just be quick about it; the breeze is picking up," he added as he steered the shivering boy by the shoulders.

The Adventures of Tintin was created by Hergé.

This story turned out to be something like twice as long as the ones I've been doing, and I was going to insist on putting it all in one chapter but it got too messy, I think.

I'd had the idea which resulted in the second chapter a few weeks ago and dismissed it because I didn't have enough plot, then I had the idea for the third chapter a few days ago, and I had to write this first chapter to cause the third chapter, then I found a way to influence the third chapter with the second chapter, which gave me an added bonus of using the idea I'd dismissed. Okay. Have I mentioned that I love it when you review?