It was still cool for all it was sunny, up in the high peaks of his home. The little Jumper eyed the sharp drop only a scant distance from his paws with an odd intrest, his little fluff of a tail laid out flat behind him on the rocks. A breeze picked at his soft baby fur, and he wiggled his light brown toes at the edge, wondering why. Aheero was always wondering why. Why his paws wanted to go over that edge, why his nose wanted to lead him down the mountain, why his eyes wanted to see the flatlands the elders spoke of in stories, and why his ears wanted to hear the wind across the flatlands. Flat lands. He couldn't imagine anything flat. What a strange sight that would be!
And the animals that lived there! Long-necked creatures who reached at the sky, great herds of preybeasts that were so covered in zigzaggy stripes they couldn't be told apart, giant cats with thick fluffy ruffs around their necks...wow. He'd love to see things like thats someday. But the ground was so very very far away... and someday didn't seem any closer.
There he was again. The young Squire walked carefully, her paws set with all the clumsy grace of a child as she picked her way ever so carefully along the path. It was sunny and bright, but the breeze was nice and cool in her dark fur. She looked like father, she knew she looked like father because mother's fur was ever such a soft creamy color. But dark was alright. She could hide better in the rocks and shadows with it. The darkest of all her siblings, perhaps she would outshine them all one day. Perhaps.
For now, her intrest was caught on this scrawny little air-headed commoner pup. Didn't he know he could fall? Couldn't he see it was such a long way down?
"My mother says never to go that close to the edge," Korrua announced, stopping a good few steps behind him, and away from the edge. Her mother had said so after all. Her mother was wonderful. A Dame. A lady knight.
Oversized ears flicked at the voice, soft green eyes finally tearing themselves from the dizzying drop to he wanted to know where to look over one dark shoulder at the speaker. A pup. Just like him. Aheero's little tail flopped briefly against the ground in greeting. "I'm not gonna fall," he assured her, he was a Jumper after all. His mama had been a ranger and she was the most fleetfooted dog anyone could hope to meet, or so his daddy said. Someday he was going to be just as graceful and fast as she had been! Until then, he'd have to content himself from not falling over his too-big paws.
"My name's Aheero, what's yourses?" he asked, one ear lolling as his head tipped curiously to the side. Maybe he could meet a new friend. It was lonely being an only child...
Not going to fall was he? Well, that was no reason to disobey mother's wishes. Silly boy, didn't he know anything? That his mother and hers might not be in total agreement upon what they told their pups to do didn't occur to her. Her mother was best, naturally she would know everything and do everything right. Anyone else was just wrong was all. And that was that. Her mother was, after all, a proper Dame. There was no way anyone could top her. Well, maybe the Queen. But only by a little tiny bit.
"I'm Korrua," she replied, frowning faintly at the bluish pup. Silly thing indeed. "What are you doing anyhow?"
"Nice to meetcha," Aheero said brightly, his little fluff of a tail wagging harder against the ground. Maybe they could be friends. That would be nice. That would be very nice. It was so lonely with just himself... "I'm wondering," he explained when she asked what he was doing, glancing back to the sharp drop just before him. "I can't help wondering..." the pup added, as though that explained everything. Which, to him at least, it did indeed. Wondering where, wondering why, wondering what... He was wondering was all. It was pretty obvious...wasn't it?
"Charmed," Kurroa replied, just as her mother had taught her, but she eyed the young male without looking particularly charmed. Wondering? Wondering what exactly? Was his head so full of air that he thought he might float if he fell? His mother must not have been raising him particularly well, none of the other Pages were this empty-minded. At least, none that she'd met. Unless.
Unless he wasn't a page at all. Unless, on top of being a boy, he was a commoner as well. Kurroa's frown deepened. "What are you?"
She asked the silliest questions didn't she. Aheero glanced over his shoulder at her, plainly puzzled but offering her a smile all the same. "I'm a dog," he explained brightly, for all it seemed like the most obvious thing in the world. He was a wild dog. Just like she was, just like almost everyone he'd ever met was. What a silly question indeed... "Wanna play?" the pup asked suddenly, rising to his paws and taking a careful step back from the edge before turning around to face her. That also should have been deemed a silly question. What pup wouldn't want to play?
Kurroa frowned even more deeply, the expression scrunching up her little nose and making her eyes go squinty. Did he really think that was what she was asking? What was wrong with his head? "No," she snapped, resisting the urge to call him stupid. Mother had said not to do that sort of thing after all, and mother knew best. "I mean...what are your parents?" If he said that they were dogs she was just going to leave. It was that or risk trying to shove him over the edge of the cliff, see if his air-filled skull made him float.
Was she...mad?
Aheero dropped his ears slightly at the bristling tone, wondering what it was he'd done wrong. He was only trying to be friendly! He only just wanted to play! The fluff of a tail stopped wagging to lie limp and sad in the dirt. "I...I'm sorry?" he offered uncertainly, if he'd upset her then he should apologize, right? That would make it okay again, wouldn't it? And then she wouldn't be mad and they could play. Maybe even be friends.
He really was slow! Airheaded indeed. "Just tell me what your mommy does," Kurroa demanded, wishing she could order him to stop dithering about as her mother did with that icy snap. Her mother could make anyone pay attention, Kurroa still needed to work at it. Especially if this silly boy, this Aheero, was her first real subject. He wouldn't stop being foolish, and it was aggravating her. It might be that he looked like he was younger than she was, it was certainly possible but seemed unlikely to be the whole trouble. Perhaps he was dropped when he was small. His skull must have cracked and let in all the air then.
What his mommy did?
"Mommy...mommy was a Ranger," he tried anxiously, his little paws scuffling again as his ears drooped sadly. Was. Daddy told him all about mommy, and often said that Aheero's brothers and sisters were with mommy and looking after him like the spirits of the sky and mountain. He still wished they were here. He wanted brothers and sisters to play with. He couldn't remember them, even though daddy told him they'd been all cuddled together for weeks and weeks inside of mommy's tummy, which seemed very strange to him. The sky was too far away for him to reach them now though. "Daddy was a Knight," he added, in case that mattered to her somehow. He knew it wouldn't though, it only really mattered what his mother had been. And he was going to be just like her, he was.
A Ranger. Maybe that explained it. He was just a little Jumper, no stern training, no regemented code of honor to learn, nothing to do but follow along after his mother and learn how to pass his coming of age test. Squires had a much harder job of it, being a Ranger was what happened if she wasn't cut out for her noble birthright. As if that would ever happen. No, this Aheero, he was clearly beneath her. She'd other things she could be doing on this small break she'd been given from her rigerous training than to...wait. He'd said his mother was a Ranger. Past tense? Why would he have used the past tense?
"Is your mother...somewhere else?" Kurroa asked hesitantly, not sure exactly what she was going to do if he answered the way it sounded like he might. He looked so very sad when he mentioned her. Maybe she was just busy?
Aheero nodded uncertainly, glad that she didn't sound angry at least. "Daddy...daddy said mommy went to live in the sky wiff my brovers and sissers," the little pup explained to his toes, digging the light brown digits into the dirt. He knew the sky spirit was a great thing, it looked after them all after all. It would be a good place to live. But he just wished his mommy and brothers and sisters were living here. With him. It was all lonely by himself. Especially since daddy was a Knight and Knights were so very busy all the time. He still loved him though, he came back to the empty den and snuggled with him and told him all about the things he'd seen and done and about mommy... Aheero couldn't wait for bedtime. It was so quiet the rest of the day...
Kurroa felt guilty. She knew what the simple expression meant, even if Aheero didn't. She was pleanty old enough to know, and her mother had never honey-coated anything. It was part of being a noble dog, to never ever dishonor the truth, not even with the smallest of white lies. Even if the Jumper didn't know what it meant exactly, she could tell he knew something was different. What would it be like, she wondered, not to have any siblings to play with? Not to have mother explaining her duties to her, not to have her sister to practice with or her brothers to spar? What would it be like to have nothing else in the world besides sitting all alone and wondering how life might have been different?
He was still just a Jumper. She was still a noble. But wasn't part of her duty to look after those who could not defend themselves? It was practically her future job to help him. Not to mention, as stern as her upbringing had been, she still felt sorry for him. She couldn't imagine what it would be like without her family.
"So. What did you want to play?" she offered, and while her tone was hardly giddy and excited the words must count for something.
Aheero's flopped ears pricked forward with excitment when she spoke next. Play? With him? She wanted to? "Really?" he squealed, his whole body wriggling with his wagging tail as he danced towards her before dropping into a gleeful play bow. "I dunno, anyfing!" he pleaded, he didn't know any games to play with other people yet. He'd tried to play with some of the other Jumper pups, but they were much bigger then he was. He kept getting hurt, and when someone tripped over him they said they didn't want him to play with them anymore. So that didn't count because he still didn't know how to play it properly.
A game! She really wanted to play with him! Maybe they could be friends!
Anything was it? Kurroa eyed him coolly, her expression a mask of calm, just as mother's was, but her heart squeezed softly in her chest. So happy he had become with just a small little offer. "Follow the leader then?" she suggested, it would get him away from the cliff at the least. She even do whatever she felt like, and he would enjoy himself because he'd think they were just playing a game. "I'll lead, and you follow me and do everything I do." Keeping an eye on him, she turned and took a few steps. When he was following, she began to simply continue her walk around the pack, though gradually she found herself begining to act silly. Lifting her paws too high, or jigging to the side and back, bouncing up on a fallen tree... It was just to amuse him, she told herself. She wasn't a silly pup anymore. She didn’t ‘play’. She was a strong, serious Dame in training. This was just part of the job.
FIN
