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As dawn peaked through the jungle canopy, the first beams of light came through the weary fabric of the tents. The first to awaken was a blue-green stallion named Nogan. It was usually either him or his boss, Doctor Caballeron, both if which were the hardest workers in the group. Nogan was often considered the Doctor's right-hoof stallion compared to the others. He was usually calmer and more reasonable than biff, and had the maturity that Snazzy Shades lacked. He looked over his boss and the other stallions to make sure everything was fine.

As he stepped out of his tent, the sensation they near instantaneously awoke him was the feeling of cold, wet mud he had stepped on. The following night had strong winds and heavy rain, so it was no surprise the morning to come would still be a bit damp and chilly. As he made his way through to set thing's up for the day, he heard the other two henchstallions awaken as well about 15 minutes, one with a yawn, and another with a quick yelp from the mud below. While he thought nothing of it arty first, it quickly came to mind his boss wasn't present.

"Biff!" Nogan called out to him. Have you seen Caballeron anywhere?

With his heavy Hooflyn accent and tiredness, all there came out was a shrug and a mumble saying "I don't know, I haven't seen him". Given the shrug though, words were probably not needed. He went over to Snazzy and asked him as well, same response. He didn't know either. From behind in the disant, Bif chipped in. "Geez Nogan, why are yuh gettin' so wawhried, or what? It's not a big deal! Okay?" Nogan replied back, "I'm not worried! I just find it weird how Caballeron wasn't here before you guys." "I dunno Nogo…", Snazzy said suddenly. "He just might might be tired after last night. Before I hit the hay, the last thing I heard was some pretty bad rain and some wind. Might have kept him up." Thinking about it, he does have a point. The Doctor isn't the best sleeper on nights like the one from before. It only made sense for him to have stayed up and sleeping later than usual from the weather. With that in mind, Nogan and the others continued as usual.

As hours passed by, Nogan and now the others began to worry. He should have at leaSt been up.. even for sleeping late, it wouldn't have been this bad. While he was getting things set up, it was kind of worrying. At that moment, in the distance he heard a collective "WOAH" from Biff and Snazzy Shades. As he trotted out tof where they were, he saw when he was finally there the Doctor… but smething definitely wasn't right. He looked horrible, like he barely made an effort to get ready or to look nice. His muzzle also had turned into a faint dark crimson that contrasted the tan coat of his. As he commanded his henchstallions with inaudible mumbles, he would occasionally just stumble or let out some sort of hoarse cough or hack.

"Doc, what de hell happened tuh yuh?!" Biff bursted out in confusion.

Frustrated and drowsy, Caballeron mumbled some maneish swears before he spoke out.

"Ahuizotl, that's what happened. The freak thot that it would be just fiiine for me to meet him last night in the middle of the rain. Now that all if you got your answers… GET BACK TO-… Too…".

In a quick fashion, he quickly ducked his muzzle into his sleeve where a muffled sneeze came out from him. The way he just did it so quickly and forciblt caused his mane to be flung foward and made it even messier than before, but he didn't care. He just wanted all of this work to be over with. The sick and moody stallion slowly stumbled away as the others watched. Nogan felt genuinely worried now for him, it was very obvious he was on no working condition but still wanted to anyway. Probably because of the fact the person he works for is some sort of beast that can easily do harm or even worse. Regardless, some time down wouldn't hurt, especially when he has 3 other guys who can do the work just as well. Before it went in for any longer, Nogan finally ran and called his boss' name. Caballeron simply snorted and ignored him, though he had already caught up to him and was right behind him.

Doctor Caballeron. With all due respect sir, I really don't think you shouldn't be doing this. I know you at least have some standards of when and when not to work for yourself.

The sick stallion retorted back to him with a little but more anger in his raspy voice. "Well Nogan, life doesn't care of what your 'standards' are. If you want to do something right, you'll have to drop them sometimes to get the job done."

It was obvious that Caballeron wasn't going to have any of it from anypony, but Nogan was still insistent for him to head back and wait for the sickness to pass over. Everytime he attempt so, Caballeron was quick to shoot down his words and getting increasingly irradiated with every time. Finally after only about a minute of bickering he had already reached his breaking point with his henchstallion.

"That's enough from you. Nogan here you are bickering to me of how to do my job, but are you doing yours? Nooo, no you aren't! If you really want me to get better Mr. Nogan; leave me to my work, stop worrying over this whole nonsense, and Get. Back. To. Work…"

As he stood with his teeth clenched together and his stance firce, it wasn't long before that brief moment of adrenaline had began to fade. Before he could walk away, his stumbling had become much more severe as he began to lose his balance. Despite what ahppened, Nogan quickly cane to his side and balanced him out by having the Doctor lean on him.

After his boss regained some balance, he quickly got down and went under him. And to his surprise, Caballeron eyes widened as her heard the stallion say "Come on, you're coming with me" as he felt his hooves lift off the ground. With how quickly it all went, he had trouble finding what to say before he angrily stuttered out "WHAT ARE YOU DOING."

"If you aren't willing to go back yourself. Then I'm going to do it for you." Nogan replied with a little bit of frustration in his voice. The Doctor was absolutely aghast at what had happened, and while he could easily jump off and make a break for it, he knew in his state that it would be near impossible before Nogan had caught up with him again.

It wasn't long before they returned to the camp. Caballeron was mostly silent aside from there occasional Maneish mumbles that came out. Nogan had dropped him off right outside his tent and told him to go inside so he can rest. Before he went back again, the Doctor called him again. Granted much calmer this time.

"Nogan… All of this was unnecessary. You didn't have to do that I would have been fi-" Before he could finish his sentence, Nogan cut him off halfway through to explain to him why he did what he did.
"I have my reasons Doctor. For starters, you are in no working condition. It's just common sense You can barely stand for crying out loud!"

He pondered on a moment ed and scratched his head. "Aaah… well you do have a point, but I just-" It didn't last long before he was cut off again by Nogan.

"Doctor. Before you anything else, let me finish… Another reason I did it was because I care about you guys. We've worked so much together these past years and it just feels like it's my duty as well as yours to make sure that all of us make it out aright. Even when we aren't active in our duties, I know you would do the exact same."

After this statement.. The Doctor just remained sikent. He knew Nogan took his work seriously, but not so much that he actually did care for the others as well. In an odd sort of way, he felt touched by this. He wasn't sure how, but it was very touching to hear how much somepony who works in something most likely illegal could still care about those he works with.

Before Nogan could say anything else, a sudden high-pitched "Awww." Came out of Snazzy Shades and followed by a stern "Shut up will ya!" from Biff. Quickly the two began to bicker as they usually did before quitting it after a simultaneous "ENOUGH." by Nogan and Caballeron.

Nogan quickly diverted his attention back to his boss to finish what he was saying. "Alright.. with that over with, I do have one more reason…"

"Oh? And what would that be?" Caballeron replied in confusion. "If you were to go out sick, I think ithe would compromise everything. A lot of things could have gone wrong. You could get the rest of us sick and unable to work, pass out from overworking, give out our position with a sneeze and what not. Plus it's generally hard to take someone seriously when they're sick."

Now with that revelation in mind, Doctor Caballeron really did think it out and if he had gone out like this, in hindsight it could end very badly for all of them. And Nogan was right about others not taking you seriously while you're sick. It would not only make him appear weak in front of Ahuizotl, but knowing how his nemesis Daring Do writes about the events that take place- it would have been a seriously embarrassing blow to his credibility as a competent archaeologist. As he stood there, he quickly snapped out of it and had his attention directed to his henchstallion. He quickly thanked him before going back into the tent to rest up. Nogan chuckled a bit before he headed back to fulfill his duties.

Upvotes at import: 15 | Stars at import: 11
Posted previously at: 2017-06-15T04:40:43 | Posted previously by: Binkyt11