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Disclaimer: The story below has no connection to Finley's canon. Finley is zoleth's OC and anything you read below is my own interpretation of said canon and it may or may not apply to Finley's lore. It is a fanfic at most.
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College can drain the soul out of you and nobody knew this better than Finley. Studies, soccer, a new modelling job, along with many other things meant that Finley had his hands full every week, sometimes even on the weekends. Luckily, this weekend he was completely free.
Still, he couldn't get his mind off the responsibilities and it was eating him inside: His coach was planning more intensive trainings, the amount of subjects he needed to study for his tests was slowly piling up, and the list just went on.
He tried to just sit back and enjoy the weekend, but could he?
"I really need to relax..."
But how? Seeing Ethan would really do him good right now - that innocent smile and eyes could make any heart melt away - but Carla had reached its limit.
And to make things worse, he would have to do the work himself, since he couldn't afford a mechanic and he needed the car.
"I have no idea how a car works. Dammit..."
And the worries just kept coming and coming, nonstop. That's when he remembered a path through a nearby forest that was often talked about on campus, especially among the students. With this in mind, the young collie decided to take a relaxing hike through said path. Maybe it would help him enjoy the weekend more!
A few minutes later...
As he walked through the path, he couldn't help but notice how beautiful the forest was and how alive it felt. The leaves of the trees, the flowers on the ground, the occasional bee, he even got to witness a bird mom arrive with food for her babies! No wonder this path was so popular on campus!
However, nothing could prepare him for the discovery he was about to make.
At one point, Finley decided to leave the path and walk in another direction. He would go in a straight line, so coming back wouldn't be hard.
After about 20 minutes of walking and dodging a bunch of branches and fallen logs, he found it. And it was astounding.
A true feat of nature, in fact. It turns out that there was this waterfall that poured into a hole, filling a lake at its bottom. Not only that, the flora around was like nothing Finley had ever seen! The smell was sweet and it all looked so peaceful. Clearly no one had been there in a long time.
He also couldn't help but notice the lake below. The water looked great! He wanted to take a dip, but had no bathing suit with him. However, this was a secluded area and, even so, it's not like he never got naked in front of anyone before.
Finley found a safe path to the bottom of the pit. After getting there, he stripped off his clothes, got in the water and started swimming... or not. Turns out that the lake was shallow, so no swimming was possible.
"Oh well. I guess I'll get a bath then!" He thought.
As he took his bath, he kept looking at the scenery around him, still not believing how beautiful it was. Being a Biological Sciences student, he recognized a good chunk of the flora, and the little he didn't recognize felt at least familiar.
"Wait, did you do that homework from yesterday?"
"Yeah, you did, relax."
"A few pictures of these plants would really help you with that project Professor Lino gave y'all."
"That can wait, mate. You'll be fine."
"What about-"
"It's a Saturday, dammit."
One voice told him he needed to work. Another kept telling him to just relax. He knew that the right thing to do was to just relax and enjoy the moment, but, again, how?
"Enjoy the moment...?"
And that's when he remembered a Youtube video he watched a long time ago that talked about mindfulness and how it helped calm the mind. Finley figured this would be the perfect moment to try that.
Taking a deep breath, he relaxed his muscles, spread his arms, closed his eyes and paid attention to the environment around him: The birds chirping, the cool breeze running through his body, the water peacefully running through his feet, the droplets falling from his arms, the sweet smell of the pit, and so much more.
And just like that, all the life worries had melted away! Yes yes yes, he'd have to deal with them at some point, but for now, it was time to just enjoy the moment.
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This is my first official attempt with Illustrious and my first time making a gift art. I know it's not very good, but I did my best. ;)
Once again, thanks zoleth for helping me figure out Illustrious! I hope you like this! ^.^
I really like this art style, but I'm not sure if this is going to become the norm on this account, because I'm still experimenting with it. Even if it doesn't, I'll still be glad that I tried something new! ;)
Either way, see y'all soon! :D
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Generation data is in the last page of the submission.