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 Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2012 8:54 pm
Feeling the first rays of the sun hit his fur, Pumilio begrudgingly opened his eyes, blinking multiple times to get them used to the bright light of the sun. He didn’t normally get up quite this early, but his excitement had made him quite the light sleeper. In fact, he had found it pretty hard to even fall asleep the night before, wallowing in the fantastic feeling of being curled up next to the love of his life again; plus, all of the things that were about to happen made him completely ecstatic.
Speaking of which, they were going to talk about that today, weren’t they? Flicking his eyes down at Avani, he tried not to move too much, as she was still sleeping, gently leaned against his side. It was so cute, and sometimes her paws would move in accordance to whatever dream she was having. Maybe she was running, chasing something through the jungle; that, he knew, was something she’d like about colony life, once they’d join. She’d be able to go out and do things her own way, and hunt for herself if she wanted.
Taking in a quick breath, Pumilio felt a rush of excitement wash over him; he needed to prepare himself for this. Lifting Avani gently, he let her down slowly, trying not to wake her. Once he was free, his tiredness all but disappeared, and he ended up running around in circles, unsure as to what he should actually do. Moving some rocks, brushing some dirt around with his tail – they all turned out to just be things that eased his mind as he waited for Avani to awake.
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2012 9:27 pm
Running through her dreams, Avani was in a perfectly happy state. Though it was a dream, she could feel the wind brush against her cheeks as she ran through the tall grass, chasing whatever prey’s dark shape was before her. For a moment, though, her dream world shifted, turning first on its side, then quickly going dark.
As she slowly opened her eyes, Avani could see that her world was, in fact, sideways. Raising her head up, she looked around, wondering why she was like this; she was positive that she had gone to sleep leaning up against Pumilio. So where was he now? Swiveling her eyes around, they soon came to rest on his pale coat. He was sitting across from where she was, staring at her a little goofily. He looked a little panicked, which didn’t really surprise her; Pumi was, after all, the type to get overwhelmed by his emotions.
“Well good morning, Pumi.” Rolling up, she rested on her elbows, giving him a soft smile. “Did you sleep well? I hope you didn’t get so excited that you jumped awake before the sun had even risen.” Swishing her tail through the dirt behind her, it wasn’t entirely out of the question; just a little more far-fetched.
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2012 9:44 pm
Darting back and forth, Pumilio froze in his tracks as soon as he heard Avani start to move around. Looking around frantically, he whirled around, plopping himself down right across from her. His ears were back, and his eyes were a little wider than normal. This was it, the time had finally come. Of course, it probably wouldn’t be something that they’d just jump into right away, but she was awake now, so it had to happen soon.
Discussing the future seriously always gave Pumilio a mixture of emotions; generally, he was more excited about the changes that were going to happen, but had a little bit of worry over whether things would go well. This time especially, he was really worried about how everything would go. The last thing he wanted was to say something stupid and have Avani go back on her word. Yeah, that would be….just awful.
“Oh, good morning good morning.” Reaching a paw forward, he could tell that she was probably giggling a bit at him, at least in her head. He was acting a little strange, but as far as he was concerned, he was an expecting father already; although he’d probably be waiting a good while for that to actually be true. “Oh, no, I only just got up a little while ago.” He was a bit surprised himself; he was half-expecting to bolt awake in the middle of the night, and end up pacing a trench in the ground before dawn.
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2012 10:11 pm
Letting her eyes adjust before getting up, Avani could tell that Pumilio was nervous waiting for them to finally discuss the details of what was going to happen. For once, though, she felt like she was the one in control of the conversation, laying out the plan for him. It used to be that she would just follow along with whatever plan he had laid out, and things generally worked out just fine. But it was nice for a little change-up.
“That’s good, then.” Stretching out her paws, Avani let out a yawn, bearing her white teeth momentarily as she did. “Pumi, darling, relax. Everything’s going to be just fine.” Laughing a little, she could understand his nervousness a little bit; she had been so stubborn before, there was no way he’d want to go back to that at all. Neither did she, but that wasn’t really important right now.
“So…” Moving up to a sitting position, Avani stared at her toes for a few moments, wiggling them around in the dirt. “You’ve got a place where we can start a family, hm?” Raising an eyebrow to him, he was teasing him, lightly.
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2012 10:29 pm
Fidgeting back and forth where he sat, Pumilio felt every second immensely. To him, right now, Avani was moving slower than a small slug, trying its hardest to make a trek across the vast savannah. Patience, Pumilio, patience.
“Yes – yes! I have!” Mouth dropping open in a smile, Pumilio was now half-raised, his haunches still in a partial sitting position. “Oh, Avani, I think you’ll really like it, even though it’s not really….like this place at all.” Tilting his head down a little, he remembered how much this place had meant to Avani; she loved their current home dearly, but he hoped that she wouldn’t be opposed to leaving it and anything like it.
“But…it really sounds like a great opportunity for us, doesn’t it? And you can rest assured that it’ll be a perfectly safe place for….our…family…” Feeling his face heat up a little, Pumilio could barely bring himself to look her in the eye. It was completely out-of-character for him to be like this, losing all of his confidence and self-assurance in one swoop.
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2012 10:38 pm
Listening carefully as he spoke, Avani knew just how much this all meant to him. She had never been group-oriented, and although Pumilio was stubborn and had quite the temper, he liked the security and structure of being in a group. She had to admit, there were few downsides of joining up, at least for the two of them.
“Different? Just how different?” It was more curiosity than anything else. The two of them hadn’t really ever discussed just what kind of group they’d be joining, or where they called home. It was more like an ‘oh, hey, let’s join this group’ kind of thing, and the opportunity kind of slipped away when they weren’t really speaking to each other.
“Oh, don’t worry. It’s you, so of course I know that it has to be a safe place.” Smiling at him, she liked this quirky little Pumilio that had been brought out. Maybe not on a long-term basis, but every once in a while was nice to see.
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2012 10:57 pm
“It’s just…from what I was told, it’s a bit more…snow based.” Speaking carefully, Pumilio wasn’t sure where Avani stood on snow. He knew that neither of them had ever really experienced it before, but they’d heard stories of it. “It could definitely be a new adventure.” The word adventure was, of course, used loosely. There wasn’t much else that Pumilio could use to sell the whole ‘snow’ idea with, since he really wasn’t all that sure about it himself.
“But, you know, don’t you think it’d be pretty cool? And any…our…cubs…..would be used to it in no time at all. I think that’s pretty awesome in and of itself.” He mumbled a few of his words; he still felt like he needed to tread lightly with the subject of cubs, since she hadn’t yet said a word about it.
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2012 11:05 pm
“Well…I do like adventures. And I like them even more when I can have them with you.” Still smiling, Avani felt like she had had little to say in this conversation so far. The big issue they needed to tackle was one that she had been fairly hesitant to bring up; more from embarrassment than anything else.
“So I guess that’s settled, at least.” Nodding her head slowly, her eyes quickly found their way back to the ground. “So, Pumi. How ready do you think we are to starting a family?” Her head twisted a little, and she tried to distract herself by playing with a small pebble in front of her. She was almost asking him for a timeline now, so she could know what to expect. Since she had already pretty much given the go – ahead, however clear or unclear it was – for them to plan their future family.
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2012 11:12 pm
Pumilio could almost swear that his fur was starting to stand straight up. So she’d be the one to finally bring it up. He was glad for that, actually; it put far less pressure on him to say the right thing.
“I…I think we’re ready.” Looking directly at her for once, he could understand why she’d look away. It was pretty nerve-wracking for the both of them. But with this, he wanted to be as sincere as possible. “Avani, I could think of no one better to be a mother.” Scooting closer to her, he leaned his head down, pressing his forehead up against hers. “You shouldn’t doubt yourself at all with this; if anyone needs to be doubted, it’s probably me.” Letting out a laugh, Pumilio was slowly returning to his normal self. “But I won’t rush you. I know it’s a big thing – for both of us – but I don’t want you to rush into something that you only just decided on.” Though, he kind of hoped that she’d want to start the process of getting ready and all that sooner rather than later, so they could have something to work on immediately after they joined the group. Making a family-size den would be quite the task, after all.
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2012 11:16 pm
Feeling his warmth, Avani felt reassured. She closed her eyes, trying to visualize it all. The two of them, curled up in the evenings to keep warm, watching little ones run through the snow. Normally, a future mother would probably be worried about small cubs in the cold, but Avani knew that if they had any of Pumilio in them, they’re bodies would probably end up melting the snow around them.
“Mm, I think…I think that sounds like an alright plan.” Nodding her head very slightly, she could understand his reasoning. New families generally liked to start somewhere completely fresh, right? And get used to their new surroundings together. It sounded a lot nicer when put that way.
“Well, take me to this leader that I’ve heard….absolutely nothing about.” Giggling a little, she really felt like this was a brand new adventure built just for the two of them.
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2012 11:20 pm
With her words, Pumilio could feel a something rise up within him; it felt like fire mixed with the sharp cool of rain. It was an amazing feeling, and it energized him through and through.
“Oh, thank you, Avani!” Bringing his head away for a moment, he ran his tongue up the length of her nose quickly, returning his face to hers in an instant. “I know we can do this, together.” Taking a few steps away from her, he looked around, trying to get his bearings. After she gave the word, he felt as though everything needed to happen right now, and was already itching to head off towards where he knew the group would be.
“I…I think…well, I hope you’ll like him. I hope you’ll like everyone in this group, since, well….it’ll be our new home soon.” Hopefully. They were wishful words, but Avani was a very kind and agreeable leopard; there were few creatures that she disliked in the world.
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2012 11:24 pm
Eyes a little wide with slight confusion, Avani wasn’t expecting things to move this quickly. Take their time, relax a little while the morning sun was still being kind, then maybe head off to see this new group in the afternoon or evening.
But, well, Pumilio was excited, and she didn’t want to ruin that for him. Starting to laugh heartily, she slowly got up from where she was sitting, shaking some of the loose dirt from her coat. “Okay, okay. And I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Smiling at him, she took a few steps up to him, nuzzling his neck before they started their journey.
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