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 Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:58 pm
Arrin trudged through the snow as fast as he could while still being careful. As he got to a spot where Cari had been digging he looked at it. There was snow scraped down to rock and dirt before she moved on. He was puzzled by this but quickly came to the realization that Cari had been plant hunting for small weeds that might grow in the cracks. Arrin blinked impressed. I’m not sure why I am impressed by Cari’s cleverness by now, still she continues to amaze me. Arrin bounded up toward Cari trying not to fall behind. As he looked where Cari was didn’t Arrin didn’t notice any roots or leaves peeking out so he continued to follow Cari keeping his eyes open. The desire to speak with Cari again grew but Arrin didn’t have subject to discuss.
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 6:31 pm
"Found something," Cari crowed from up ahead. She came bounding around the slight corner, back into Arrin's line of view, a branch clenched in her teeth. A few bright red berries still clung feebly to the weathered wood. "Desh tsh lk ebible," she asked, forced the words out around the branch. Hopefully Arrin could understand, talking with stuff in her mouth was hard!
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Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 7:47 pm
Blinking Arrin looked at Cari approached she just looked so ridiculous trotting up with that branch in her mouth. He smiled and managed not to laugh. That’s why I love being around Cari she always knew how to brighten the mood. Arrin leaned in close and inspected the berries wishing he knew more about plants. I think they should be edible. And if we can’t eat them then maybe the tribe can lure them in and catch some birds with them. Arrin carefully plucked the berries from the branch Cari held and hide them in his tail. After a moment’s pause he also nipped off a piece of the bark and stowed them with the berries. I hope we don’t have to bring home a lot of plants or I won’t be able to hold them all in my tail.
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Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 8:25 pm
Cari giggled a bit at the sight of Arrin's tail. "Oo uk lk uh skrl." Translation: You look like a squirrel. The branch was still in her mouth and muddling her words, but she was pretty sure Arrin would be able to pick out some of the words. And his tail really did look squirrel-like in the way that it was all bushy and curled up to hold on to the various odds and ends they were finding.
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Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 8:49 pm
Arrin adjusted the odds and ends in his tail so that they were secure under his fur and wouldn’t slip out if he had to run. This involved mussing his fur so that it tangled and formed matts and knots over the items, but he could work those out later grooming. Skrl? Arrin repeated the word slowly over and over in his mind until the meaning became clear. Oh squirrel. I suppose I must. But you look like a lap dog fetching a stick. Arrin poked Cari in the chest before bouncing around her. He tried to dash further ahead but was slowed down because he didn’t want his cargo to fall out of the tail even though it shouldn’t.
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Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 9:04 pm
Cari's eyes widened. "I oo no," came the muffled response, though you could tell from the volume and set of her eyes she was mildly indignant. Lap dog indeed; They couldn't fetch a stick if their lives depended on it!
She did giggle a little as Arrin poked her then bounded over her though, and loped off after him. Don't ask why she still had the stick in her mouth, the answer probably wouldn't make much sense. It just wasn't bothering her, so why set it down? Cari's line of thought was odd like that.
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Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 8:14 pm
Arrin risked a look over his shoulder and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Cari was chasing him with the stick still in her mouth! It looked ridiculous as she ran. Still even with the awkward stick in her mouth Cari was catching up.
Arrin picked up speed but knew that Cari would catch up to him soon enough as things were. There is no way I can outrun her but that doesn’t mean I can’t slow her down when she catches up to me. Arrin was quickly thinking of ways to stop both him and Cari when she caught up to him. This will be fun.
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Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 2:59 am
Rather than flat-out run, which was nearly impossible to do going uphill with all the snow and ice anyway, Cari adopted a different method. It looked ridiculous(ly cute), but it was effective; she hopped like a coyote or fox hunting for rodents in the snow. Minus the burying face in the snow bit, of course, which would have been impossible anyway with the branch.
It only took about five hops, and she was on Arrin's tail. She startled giggling in a mischievous way, though she still wasn't quite sure what kind of mini revenge she wanted to extract just yet.
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Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:27 am
Arrin hearing Cari right behind him turned so that he wasn’t right in front of her and then spun and snapped not at her but at the stick she held in her mouth. He was careful in his timing and pulled back slightly so that the stick wouldn’t snap as Cari continued forward. Arrin then held on letting the vixen’s momentum send them spinning in a circle. He was spinning around and grinning even though he kept his teeth securely on the stick. This would slow down both he and Cari without getting one of them hurt by falling on the stick.
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Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:26 pm
Cari had time to emit a single surprised squeak before she and Arrin became a rolling blur of blue and scarlet; she hadn't realized quite how fast she'd been going. She'd been in mid-bound before he'd grabbed the stick, which only added some extra momentum.
They made one rapid rotation, and then Cari fell forward on the ground. She still had an excellent grip on the stick, so Arrin ended up down in the snow with her. After a moment or two of silence she began to giggle in a delighted way. It was so much fun when Arrin got playful!
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Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 6:07 pm
Arrin let go of the stick and stood up and took a few steps shaking out the snow. Cari was giggling like a maniac next to him. He poked her in the side grinning. What’s wrong Cari one minute you’re up in the air the next you’re laying in the snow?
He was teasing her in a friendly manner. He did a quick check to make sure the cargo he had in his tail was still there. He nodded to himself when he saw that it was. Then he looked at Cari with an idea. Surprise. He put his nose to her shoulder and wiggled it until it was next to her bare skin. The face there was still some snow on his nose should make her jump.
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Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 6:23 pm
Cari squeaked again and leveled a playful swat at Arrin. "Arrin, that's cooold," she protested, still giggling so that the complaint really didn't hold any weight. It was actually very hard to make Cari angry, so much so that sometimes it was a game with others to see if they could provoke an irate response from her.
She stood up and shook off her fur, slying managing to get a couple globs of snow to flick Arrin's ears as they went past. Well globs might have been the wrong word, drops might have been better. Still, the icy cold again the less-protected ears was plenty enough "revenge" for Cari.
"Come on, we gotta get up at least a bit higher or Nika will scold us." She giggled as if the idea of their leader yelling at them was amusing her to, and started forward again.
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Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 11:23 am
It wouldn’t be snow if it was warm. Arrin wiped his ears as the particles of snow Cari shook off struck him. He shivered as one or two melted and formed a trickle of water they went deeper into his ear. He shook his head to clear it. Brrr…
The blue male nodded and started following Cari. Yep wouldn’t want to get scolded by the boss. It was true Nika would want them to travel outward more to find some plants, still a little playing every now and then was good. Cari certainly never complained, and Arrin had the thought that as long as they kept to their task in the long run a little break was good. Arrin turned his head left and right looking for places for plants to hide. As he did so he couldn’t help but marvel at the landscape. There tribe home was beautiful. The snow seemed to make everything picturesque. It was a good thing Cari convinced me to join. I like being here. With her.
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Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 3:15 pm
"So how ya settlin' in," Cari asked, as though picking up on Arrin's latest string of thoughts. For her, bounding around the mountains was something she did everyday to help keep up her speed, agility, strength, and endurance. Digging around in the rocks craigs in the snow was also common for her, since she would look for small plants or animals to eat while she was out. Part of her worried a lot when she wasn't with Arrin; he could be so shy sometimes and there were lots of other strong personalities in the gang.
Not that Arrin didn't have a strong personality, no! It was just hard to compete in attitude with foxes like Nika or in energy with foxes like herself or Nia. There were a couple of sticks in the mud like Ayame who seemed like they'd be fine, cause they never showed a ton of interest in anything really. Bor-ring! Life was tons better with fun and friends!
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Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 5:32 pm
I’m doing well enough. Arrin didn’t want to tell Cari that he hadn’t really made any friends other then little Rόis, who was growing up in the tribe. I have been spending much of my time training so I can survive out here. I’m not used to the cold and snow so I had to learn how to take care of myself in case of emergencies. It was true. Arrin had done a lot of training to get stronger. He still couldn’t compete with the runners or stronger members of the tribe though.
I think I’m doing much better at traveling through snow. I’m at least able to better tell where ice is most likely to be under the snow and how to distribute my weight so I don’t crack it. Some of these lessons were learned the hard way but that was the nice thing about being in a tribe. There were always foxes to look out for each other.
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