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 Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 2:47 pm
As it were, in the midsts of winter, many outrageous sports were invented. One of which was sledding. The theory was that by using your own weight to propel yourself (on top of a bit of plastic) you could go down a hill at rapid speed, and thus, amuse yourself. Monty didn't see the point in it, not really, but it was something that she often did with her family before. It was fun, kids loved it, so naturally Regina would like it, too, wouldn't she?
Well... Hypothesis proven wrong. Regina, scowling at the piece of plastic quietly, absolutely refused to succumb to such a whim and go down a hill in a piece of plastic, with no control but a rope. "No." She said solemnly, looking at Monty and narrowing her eyes when Monty tried to argue. "No." She repeated adamantly, growling. Monty sighed, and rubbed her eyes, picking up the neon-green sled and using it as a sort of leaning post.
"I don't see what you're afraid of, Regina. It's fun! Look!" She waved her arm avidly at the kids who were also sledding, and laughing and having a blast. Regina looked at the children, arched an eyebrow, and looked back at Monty.
"... No." She snorted, and sat down, crossing her legs and arms and sitting with a glowering face. "Stupid." Monty winced, and fumed. A word she'd picked up from her cousin, of course, and one that Monty was quickly becoming tired of.
"Regina, we don't say words like that."
Regina looked at her pointedly, and arched an eyebrow in a true display of contempt. "Stupid." She repeated pointedly, looking at the kids again. She saw a kid slide down the hill, and crash into a tree, and her eyes went wide. She pointed. "See! See!? Stupid!" On the ground, Regina's arms flailed about a little as she explained how stupid the child was.
Monty sighed, and put the sled down, sitting on it. "Fine, Regina. We'll sit here and be boring."
"'Kay." Regina nodded sagely, and sat as she was. In the snow. With her legs and arms crossed, and her ears perked up. Oh yes, she would sit it out. One did not try to out-sit Regina, oh no. It was on.
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 3:19 pm
Laura staggered through the snow, panting under the weight of the sled and the little girl hanging on to her back. Naida was bundled in a soft pink sweater which Laura had thought was cute, and a pair of heavily mutilated orange snowpants, which Laura had also thought were cute, but hadn't realized looked terrible with the sweater until she had already cut them up. With her tail wrapped up in waterproof fabric, she looked like nothing so much as an enormous caterpillar.
"So - what do you - want to do?" Laura asked between gasps, mounting the hill at last.
"Wanna sled," Naida replied patiently, adjusting her hold on Laura's neck. Of course she wanted to sled. That was what she had been doing in the hallway, albeit with more water and less snow, and that was why they were here.
"Yeah, but where d'you want to go?" Laura asked, beginning to get her breath back. She surveyed the hill, looking for a free spot where Naida would be unlikely to crash into either trees or other children.
"There," she said immediately, pointing a stubby finger off to the right. Laura looked over to the decided spot and frowned.
"No, baby, there's already a little girl there. She's using it, see?"
Naida shook her head, forehead crinkling with confusion. That was wrong. She wasn't using it. She was just sitting there, and she could sit while Naida sledded.
Laura sighed, her breath clouding in the cold air. "Fine, we'll see if she'll share with us. But you need to be good if she says no, okay?" she relented, mostly because there didn't seem to be another good spot and she didn't want to give up after dragging the sled up the hill.
She stumped off through the snow to the little girl and her mother, Naida happily clinging to her neck and swishing her tail. "Hey, do you think we could join you?" Laura asked, smiling apologetically.
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 3:30 pm
Monty had as much pride when it came to arguments that Regina seemed to have, and while they sat there, glaring each other down and fighting without actually fighting, she couldn't help but wonder if maybe that was her influence, or just her sheer luck playing a part. Regina's ears swiveled backwards as far as they could, she could hear snow crunching under someone's feet. She turned to look appraisingly at their guest, and actually did a doubletake when she saw the girl on the woman's back.
Monty looked up when she spotted the figures coming towards them, and offered a wide and friendly smile. "Oh, sure! Feel free." She said, grinning at the woman in understanding. A fellow mother taking her tot out for a sled, it was cute. Why couldn't Regina like sledding, again? She looked at Regina, and then back at Laura, smiling. "I'm Monty." She introduced. "And this is Regina. Gina, say hi."
"'Lo." Gina said in a low voice, watching Naida curiously. She rose from the snow, brushing herself off, and went over to Laura, stopping in front of her. "Gina." She held out a hand, like she'd seen Monty do to a stranger. It was polite. Monty bit back a grin at Regina's manners, and looked amused. Until Regina opened her mouth again.
"Whossat?" She nodded to Naida, frowning curiously. Monty blinked, and hit her forehead.
"Gina, that's not polite."
"Said who, not what." She emphasized, rolling her eyes at Monty as if that made it polite. Because it did. Duh. Then she looked at Laura, waiting for an answer. Impatient little puppy, isn't she?
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 4:01 pm
"Oh, thank you," Laura said, smiling. "It's just so crowded today..."
The dark-haired little girl held out her hand, and Laura adjusted Naida on her back and reached down to firmly return the handshake. It was cute, but she imagined the girl didn't think so.
"Hello! Nice to meet you, Gina, Monty," she said, nodding to each in turn. "I'm Laura, and this is Naida. You said hi too, Naida," she added, lifting the little girl down into the snow, where she sat on top of her tail, hanging onto Laura's pant leg for balance.
"H'lo," Naida said, smiling. "My tail issa fish," she told Regina quickly, something which she was just beginning to realize was unusual and was now extremely proud of.
"So, were you two going to sled?" Laura asked, looking down at the plastic sled they had brought. It didn't look like the little girl had much interest in it, but she figured she had better ask all the same.
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 4:32 pm
Monty nodded in understanding, grinning a little. "We got here earlier, we were lucky to snag a nice spot." Monty replied, looking around. "Probably the last bit of snow, that's why it's so crowded, I think." She nodded sagely, then grinned at Laura again.
"Tail?" Regina's brown eyes grew wide and curious, and her nose twitched in a sniff. "Can I see?" Taking matters into her own hands, Regina went right behind Laura, to investigate this girl's 'fish tail'. If, in fact, it was a fish tail, and not just some silly costume with two legs stuffed in it. "Nice meet'chu." She said to Laura from behind her, remembering her manners a bit later than she meant to. But she remembered, and that's what counted.
Monty looked down at the sled she was sitting on, and snorted a little. "I was hopin' to, but Regina doesn't seem all that interested in it." She said honestly, both shoulders lifting and dropping in a meek shrug. "I tried, though." She grinned sheepishly.
Regina heard the mention of a 'sled', and rolled her eyes a little, snorting. "Stupid." She mumbled, crossing her arms and investigating Naida curiously. She did appear to have a tail wrapped up in that orange thing, at least it looked like it. Or maybe she just looked like a caterpillar with it on. "Look like a bug." She informed Naida, nodding sagely. Monty heard it, and fumed a little.
"Gina!"
"She does!" Regina insisted, ears flattening sheepishly. She didn't mean harm by it, really, but she did look like a bug to Regina. "Sorry." She mumbled at Naida, feeling the Maternal Glare of Doom coming from Monty. It was creepy.
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:03 pm
Laura laughed and nodded understandingly. "Naida discovered yesterday that the floors were slippery enough to slide on when they were wet, so I figured I'd better take her out here before she tried it again," she explained, looking down at the little girl.
"Yes," Naida told Regina, but she was already looking at her tail so she guessed she didn't really need to. She wriggled it to prove that it was really a tail, and giggled at her comment. "Really?" she asked, pleased with the idea. "I like bugs." She had eaten one once, but that had been bad so she didn't tell about it. It hadn't tasted good, anyway, so she didn't like bugs to eat.
"S'okay," she said in response to the apology, although she wasn't sure why Regina was sorry. Maybe that was a bad thing to say.
Naida looked down at her sled, mildly conflicted. She wanted to sled, because it was a fun thing to do, but she wanted to play, too, because there weren't other little girls at Laura's house, and Regina didn't want to sled. "Whatchoo like t'do?" she asked, figuring that there were only snowy things to do here, and snow was slippery in general, so whatever she wanted to do would involve slipping.
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:26 pm
Monty grinned and nodded a little, amused. "I'm lucky so far, Gina hasn't found much in the way of trouble yet." She rubbed her neck, shrugging again. "Worst thing is she's got fangs." She hooked a finger into the side of her mouth, baring her teeth, and pointing at the canines and molars. "Righ' 'ere." She let go of her mouth. "She chews on things like crazy."
"Bugs are okay." Regina nodded solemnly, then grinned. And the only word that could properly describe this grin was malicious. "Monny's got repitails." She nodded sagely. "They go like this." She wiggled her finger like a worm. "And one crawls reeeal slow." Regina grinned at Naida. Regina watched her glance down at the sled, and then shrugged when asked what she liked to do. "Bite things." She put her hand in her mouth and chomped down to emphasize.
She winced, and took her hand out of her mouth, shaking it as discreetly as she could. "You want to sled." It wasn't a question, so much as an observation. Then she nodded to the hill. "It's fun." Yes, this coming from the girl who was so adamantly against the idea of careening down a hill at a crazy and uncontrolled speed. "You sled." She smiled at her, folding her hands behind her back.
"Why don't you go down the hill too, Gina?" Monty said, smirking a little. "So Naida doesn't have to go down alone."
Regina's ears perked up, and then flattened. She glared at her guardian, then reached up and rubbed her ears. "If she wants me too." She muttered, working so hard to keep the whine out of her voice. If Naida said so, she would. She was pretty obedient about it, even if it looked dangerous and silly.
For the fish-tailed girl, she'd sled.
Even though it was a really stupid hobby.
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 9:15 pm
"Oh? Good thing she only bites things, then," Laura said, smiling. "A friend of mine has a little boy who bites anyone who gets near him, and I imagine he'd be a terror if he could do any damage."
Naida listened intently, rocking back on her tail. She didn't know what a repitail was, but it sounded funny. She thought maybe it was some kind of bug, because bugs crawled too and weren't fast at all, but then wouldn't she have just called them bugs? Maybe repitails was just a better word for it, like a grown-up word.
Then she bit herself, and Naida frowned because that didn't seem like something she would like. It didn't look like Regina liked it either, because she had been hurt when it happened, but maybe she just didn't like biting her hand.
Naida smiled when the topic of sleds came up, wriggling the end of her tail a little with pleasure. Powdery snow piled up on either side of it, creating a kind of tail angel. She did want to sled. Sledding was fun. Was Regina going to sled with her, maybe?
"I want you t'sled with me," she said, smiling widely. "I like you!" She reached back and clutched the fraying rope attached to the sled, happily tugging it closer to her. Naida had unearthed it in the garage, and immediately rejected the new plastic sled Laura had bought on the grounds that it was red, and the aging wooden sled was blue. Of a sort - it was faded and chipped in places, and no longer really qualified as completely blue. All the same, Naida was in love with it and it had seemed solid enough, and so Laura had brought it, feeling vaguely guilty about letting her child ride a sled in such sorry shape.
"This's my sled," Naida proclaimed, gesturing toward it grandly. "It's blue."
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 4:06 pm
"I really hope she grows out of it," Monty said sheepishly, snorting. "I don't know if I can keep everything out of her reach as she gets older." Monty smiled a little, glancing at Naida off to the side. "Sliding about on a wet floor's the worst offense with her?" She asked, grinning a little.
Regina's ears flattened when Naida had confirmed that yes, she wanted her to sled with her, and sighed a little. Maybe if she hadn't added the 'I like you', Regina could've been bratted. But that just flew out of the window then. "Then I'll sled wit'chu." She said, nodding meekly. She spotted the blue sled, and blinked, then grinned wide. "It's very blue." She agreed, nodding. Then she looked at the sled Monty was sitting on, and scowled a little.
"That's my sled." She mumbled ruefully, going over to The Big Green Neon Monster and kicking it pointedly. Monty blinked, and snorted at Gina, getting up.
"Don't be so pushy."
"I dinn' push you." Regina pointed out snidely, picking up the sled as much she could and balancing it up. Unfortunately, she counterbalanced herself, and down she went. The sled came down ontop of her, and then slid off to the side. Flattened into the snow, Regina blinked, and sat up. Snow clung to her ears, which flicked on instinct, and she scowled a little. "Stupid sled."
"Gina, that's not a nice word."
"Not nice." Regina shook her head. "True." She grumbled, and got up, yanking on the rope with the sled. She looked at Naida, and then at the hill. "You go first?" Stupid neon green monster, stupid hill...
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 5:42 pm
"Well, more like getting everything wet to make for better sliding," Laura said, smiling. "Naida hasn't really grasped the idea that not everyone likes water as much as she does yet."
Naida smiled happily and nodded, mittens tightening around the rope of her sled. "Okay," she said, then added "thank you," because that was what she was supposed to say when somebody did something nice, and Regina didn't want to go sledding, so that meant it was a nice thing to do it anyway. "We can bite things after," she offered, figuring she ought to return the favor.
She watched Regina's sled intently, slightly afraid of it. It was bigger and brighter and greener than hers, and looked less tired. Maybe that was a good thing for a sled, though, so it could go down the hill right. Or maybe it was an evil sled.
Then Regina picked it up and it lunged and tried to eat her! Naida gave a little cry of surprise and leaned away from it, eyes wide. Gina didn't seem especially frightened by the attack, but maybe she hadn't realized what her sled had been doing-
"Okay," Naida replied, her thoughts interrupted by the question. She frowned slightly, wondering if the big green sled would eat Gina when she went down afterward. "Go with me?" she asked, smiling hopefully. She wasn't that big, and Regina wasn't that big, and the blue sled was pretty big, so maybe they could all go together.
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 5:13 pm
Monty grinned a little, and nodded. "Give her time." She laughed a little. "Regina hasn't gotten into anything like that yet." She mused, watching the Doberman child flick her ears nervously. "Except for the biting." She added, snorting a little. And she'd already had that little talk with Regina.
Regina blinked when Naida offered to bite things after, and grinned a little, baring her teeth in what she thought was a friendly grin. Unfortunately, it probably looked more menacing than friendly. "We don't hafta." She said, shrugging her shoulders. "Biting things isn't for everyone." She realized that after trying to force Monty into chewing on something with her, and Monty explained that not everyone liked to bite things like she did. Which was just weird.
After flicking the snow off her ears, and wiping it off her as best she could, Regina picked up the question. She blinked, and then grinned again, and nodded. "'Kay." She said, going over to her sled. It looked friendlier. And not neon-fricking-green. "You wanna be in front?" She offered, looking over at Naida and grinning a little at her.
Monty watched the interaction, and couldn't help grinning when she saw Regina grin. It wasn't something she did lots of, mostly she scowled or growled at people. It was cute.
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:30 pm
Laura nodded, grinning. "Hopefully the house will be a little drier when she's older," she said, chuckling. "I guess these are the sorts of things that make good stories when they're grown up, though."
"'Kay," Naida replied, smiling. That was a good thing; she didn't think she would have been very good at biting, or at least not as good as Regina, who had two impressively sharp teeth. Naida ran her tongue over her mouthful of baby teeth, suddenly dissatisfied with them.
Naida grinned back at Gina, pleased that she was coming with her and was not going to be eaten by the angry green sled, and also pleased that she got to ride in the front. "Yes," she answered, "I like the front."
"Say thank you, baby," Laura reminded her absently, more out of reflex than anything.
"Thank you," she said carefully, then smiled again and tugged the sled closer to them so she could climb in. The white-powdered blue wood of the sled crunched into the snow as she clambered onto it, slightly hampered by her tail. She curled it up in front of her so there would be space for Regina, the fabric of the snowpants making a funny zipping sound as she moved. Her hair was long and would probably fly around and do rude things to Gina if she let it be, so she pinched it together and kept it in front of her right shoulder, where it would be good.
"Okay, ready now?" she asked earnestly, looking over at Regina.
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Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:27 pm
"Oh, I'm sure." Monty grinned a little, and shook her head. "I'm afraid I'll only have teethmarks in all of our furniture to show for her youth." She mused, looking over at the girls absently and imagining what it'd be like when Regina was a big girl. God, that was a terrifying thought. "'Course, growing up where she is... I don't think Regina'll be very normal." Monty mused, tilting her head to the side. If nothing else, she'd have a relatively abnormal love of all things reptile.
Or so Monty hoped. Severely hoped, at that.
Regina nodded to Naida's thank you, and smiled meekly. "Welcome." She mumbled. The toddler waited until Naida was settled in, before climbing onto the back of the sled and looking around them. It was terrifying. She was going to die. She was going to go down a stupid hill on a stupid sled and she was going to die.
"I'm ready." She muttered, looking around. As ready as she was going to be, considering she was going to die. Regina looked past Naida, at the descent they'd be taking, and bit back a small whimper. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die and I haven't even tasted properly cooked food. Such a waste of a good life.
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Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 8:40 pm
"Mm?" Laura asked, confused by her last comment. "How so?" Although, she supposed that a half-animal child that had come from a leaf didn't have much of a shot at being normal regardless of where she grew up. She looked down at her little girl with mild amusement, imagining a fully-grown, aquatics-obsessed woman.
"S'gonna be fun," Naida told her friend reassuringly, looking over her shoulder and smiling. "See? S'just snow, it's like air. Or wayuh."
She peered over the curved front of the sled and down the hill, her heart thumping in her ears. It was such a big hill, and they were gonna go so fast. It was scary, a little bit, but she was excited. They were going to fly down the hill, she was sure, fly over the snow like magic snow fairies, or something like that.
"Okaay," she said, drawing it out like her mother did when she was building up to something, "Le's go!" She pushed forward with a great heave, and the sled inched forward, very slowly for one long moment, and then the curved nose pointed down and they were off, sliding down the hill like it was some enormous ice cream scoop.
Like strawberry ice cream. That was her favorite.
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 1:32 pm
"Well... I work from home." Monty said, shrugging a little. "Which means my house is generally infested with snakes, turtles, lizards... But mostly snakes." She counted off on her fingers like it was nothing at all. Then she grinned a little, and looked at Regina. "She's already handling one of the snakes pretty well. She knows when to put her down, at least."
Monty sort of knew that Iaga would end up biting her eventually, but she hoped it'd be when Regina was old enough to know Iaga was just scared, and not necessarily out to get the girl. Meanwhile, Regina nodded mutedly, looking past Naida at the big hill of snow. The big hill of snow and death and doom.
And... snow.
It was a huge hill, and they were going to crash into a tree and burst into flames like on that one movie Monty let her watch. She didn't want to burst into flame! But maybe the snow would put it out and she'd die from snow and not fire. What an ironic situation that would be. Death by Snow. When Naida pushed forward, Regina couldn't help but wrap both arms around the girl and cling as they went over the edge of the hill.
It felt like they were going straight down, and Regina didn't dare look to see if that's what was happening. What if they just kept going and going and got away from Monty and Laura and never came home?
That wasn't likely. The Earth was circular, right? So they'd go right by them at least once... Unless the sled stopped on the other side of the world. Oh no!
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