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 Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 10:33 am
River. There lies a wide river that travels alongside of the mountains. It is a rather dormant looking beast, almost more like an ongoing lake. It's waters are calm, but also deep, and houses the path that the fish swim to return to the ocean for spawning. The river is joined by a small stream to the west of it's tree-lined banks. The stream is an excellent fishing location during migration-season.
On the east of the river there is a cave at the foot of the center of the mountains. This cave is an excellent shelter and hiding place, as it burrows deeply under the mountains and leads away to a hidden cavern whose walls echo with the music the rock-pools create from within.
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Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 6:46 pm
There came a time in every pup's life that things began to change. For Marissa these changes came gracefully and welcomed. Her legs were growing out, no longer short but not quite at full length either. She'd also begun growing into her paws, at last. Her fur was coming in richer, though thinning with the approach of summer. There was a healthy sheen to it, and definite length, however. She and her siblings were, after all, half Mountain-wolf.
Her older brother was keeping pace alongside of her as the two trotted along the length of the packland's river. Who knew where Carey and Iye were, off being themselves, Marissa supposed. She cared for her siblings, but Carey was frightening in her sadistic ideas of play, and Iye barely spoke. Marissa was the baby, and as such she sought acceptance. That probably even explained why she was always trying to be better at Conan in things when they were pups, but those days were behind them now.
Blue eyes gazed over at her older brother with tempered affection, a little hero worship, and excitement.
"Uncle Hige told me once that there's a cave on the other side of the lake, but I was too little to swim across... Do you think we could make it now, Conan?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 6:58 pm
However graceful age came to his sister, it came markedly less kindly to Conan. Where she was lengthy limbs and more right-sized paws, he was gangly legs and feet that insisted upon being just big enough to trip over from time to time. His coat and voice were the only parts of him that seemed to grow nicely. Though thinning, his fur was less puppy-fluff and more the coarse, proper wolves pelt, and darkening nicely to boot. His voice was the smoothest yet, deepening into what would eventually be a nice, adult baritone. Thank goodness he'd gotten rid of his high puppy's voice.
Despite his less-than-well-changing-body, he kept up with his sister nicely, quite happy to spend time with his puppy-hood 'rival' instead of with the inner-dubbed Crazey Carey and the almost stone silent Iye. Trying to hold a conversation with those two was most awkward.
He looked out of his golden eye at Marissa, full of fond but-I'm-not-gonna-show-it-XP brotherly affection. In answer to her question, he puffed up his chest confidently. "Of course we can! I really wanna see what's in that cave, anyhow."
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Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 7:03 pm
"And if there's a bear in there waiting for us...?" She asked with a sly and slow grin sent towards the pelt-muted male. She took a good natured n** at his chest, an amused little, sisterly laugh bubbling up. He could be such a goofball, and she loved him for it, but goodness if it wasn't funny watching him puff himself up like some kind of territorial mountain cat.
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Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 7:08 pm
A... bear?
Conan faltered slightly, only a little stumble in his easy (if a little awkward) stride.
But one thought of the cave and what they could possibly find within it resolved him again. His chest repuffed itself, despite Marissa's n**. "If there's a bear waiting for us, we'll... we'll run. We're bound to be faster than a dumb old bear." He wasn't stupid. He wasn't going to fight a bear without a pack to help him out.
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Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 7:53 pm
Marissa had another good natured laugh at that, putting a little bounce in her step for a few paces. Life was too good to let fear keep you from enjoying it, she knew! She just had to give her brother a little teasing from time to time.
"We should bring something back with us to proove we made it across." She quipped randomly.
The sounds of the river altered, echoing softly further ahead. They must be nearing the area where the cave was.
Sure enough, there it loomed up ahead on the opposite bank.
At first glance it didn't look as though there were anything living there, it looked eerie and still, dark. It caused Marissa's fur to bristle on the back of her neck but on she went.
The river bank sat at the bottom of a slight slope, the female clambered down without waiting for Conan and began trying to size up the distance across. It was easy to speak with the confidence of youth, but wow, it looked like it was quite a ways off... They'd never tried swimming that far before, could they make it?
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Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 8:00 pm
"Yeah, something we couldn't have just picked up on the ground somewhere..." So lost in his musings was he that Conan was barely aware of the closing proximity of the river, or the cave, until Marissa descended to the bank.
Shaking himself to his senses, Conan spared a glance towards the targetted cave, suppressing a shiver at the dark, lifeless appearance of it. He tore his eyes away from it quickly enough, concentrating on scrabbling down after his sister, progressing far enough to get his forepaws wet with the edge of the river.
".... We can make it." I think. His tail jittered in his uneasiness while he eyed the distance, looking for a shallow spot or one with less current than the rest. The middle would be the hardest part...
Curse it that they didn't have a convenient tree fallen across it that they could use as a bridge.
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 2:22 pm
"Only one way to be sure," Marissa reasoned, moving forward and easing into the waters. "It's warm!" She whined happily, no doubt thanks to all the sunlight that the open pathway gave.
Marissa glanced back over her shoulder at Conan after she'd bounded in a few steps, now in almost up to her shoulders.
"Come on!"
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 2:27 pm
Conan didn't have to be told twice!
In the blink of an eye, he'd jumped in after Marissa, creating a rather large splash before continuing on a step or three. He was close to the point where he'd actually have to swim, but paused to look over his shoulder.
"Come on!" Heh heh, it was always fun to throw words back at wolves. "We gotta do this before dark, or Dad's gonna come looking for us." And berate them for swimming the river no doubt, too.
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 2:55 pm
Ohhhh! >O Conan was always doing that! One-upping her, or trying. It drove her nuts sometimes!
"Hmph." She huffed indignantly and moved further in without looking to Conan. She moved out until she could feel the ground drop away from under her paws, and for a moment Marissa dipped down and looked like she might fall under the surface, but her legs picked up paddling right on cue, carrying her steadily towards the center of the river.
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 7:45 pm
Hehehee. Marissa was so easy to rile. Really, it was her own fault. >}
Nevertheless, Conan kept pace with the cold-shouldering female nicely, dipping down a fraction of a moment after her, and coming up swimming nicely.
Now came the hard part. Swimming through the current without letting it push them too far downstream when the finally made land.
"Hurry up, 'Rissa! Mom can swim faster than you!" Conan called out to her even though she was but a few feet away, jaw hanging in a teasing smile. He never, never passed up a chance to tease her.
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Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:31 am
Marissa growled briefly, dipping her muzzle under the surface before surging forward again and paddling as fast as her legs would take her. That Conan, sometimes he really got under her fur! She couldn't help it if their mother swam faster, her legs were longer and she was bigger and more experienced than she was!
~Why does he always have to make me feel like second best?~
About halfway in, the seemingly placid river began pushing her further South at an almost alarming rate. Marissa yelped in a panic and paddled harder. After that she seemed to be making decent progress, though she had to work more to avoid being swept away.
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Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:15 pm
Conan was blithely unaware that his teasings made Marissa feel like she wasn't as good as anyone else. He was, however, aware that the comment had made her frostier than ever, and so he wisely decided to keep his wisecracks to himself until she was in a better mood.
"Whup!" The river had caught him unawares, and dragged Conan for several feet before the male could concentrate on swimming faster and stronger and pull himself out of the drag. "Geez..."
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Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 4:03 pm
It felt like ages until they finally made it across, and Marissa was feeling exhausted. She understood now, why father didn't want them swimming across on their own, but as long as they rested before heading back they'd be fine, right?
She pulled herself ashore, coat completely saturated with water which drained off of her like waterfalls. She felt heavy with the wetness of her coat, and whined, giving her body a great big shake and sending water in all directions. Her fur was a little poofy to show for it, but sun drying would help with that.
She hesitantly looked back to see if Conan made it across alright, annoyed with him, and not wanting to show concern, but secretly she was worried and hoped he was fine.
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Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 9:11 am
"MaRIssA~" Conan whined, having dragged himself ashore just in time to catch the brunt of her shake. "Watch where you shake."
In revenge, he thought it was only fair to shake free of his own thick dose of water.
Conan was tired as well (stupid river) but he gave no pause to reflect on how their father was right in his order for them to not swim without someone with them. He had a cave to explore now, and nothing got between Conan and his need to explore and know things.
Besides, they'd get rested enough in the cave. Swimming back shouldn't be harder than it had been swimming here.
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