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 Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 11:21 am
 It was a bright, hot afternoon. The sweltering heat was beating off the flat savanna in waves, obscuring the horizon and stealing what little moisture was in the earth. The grasses were left as dry, brittle husks, the sparse trees drooping their undecorated boughs in submission.
A little pink wild dog puppy seemed oblivious to the invisible fire that burned the sky around her, however. Her focus was great, her own intensity blazing much hotter than the giant, blinding ball in the sky. She was determined to ignore the heat and, with her mind set to it, willed it away. She could imagine a blue sphere around her, cool and impenetrable, allowing her to work uninhibited by the strength sapping nature of the bright day.
Of course, it was only because she was shadowed in a cave that she was not burning with the rays of the sun. earlier that morning she had, in boredom, decided she would spend her time digging a hole to the center of the earth. She had accomplished a fair ditch, digging into the side of a hill and unintentionally creating a small burrow.
This architecture was lost to her, however, as she continued with her oblivious quest, her light paws working furiously as though her naturally muscled arms would never tire.
She would find somewhere new to explore, even if it meant working all night.
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 12:58 pm
Yi, on the other hand, didn't even notice the heat of the day. She was so use to it, that she never paid it any mind. Active more during the day then night, she was odd compared to her mother and half sister, and possibly her brothers, but she never stuck around during the day to see if they were up and about. They seemed to always sleep, or when she was there anyways.
She was on her own adventure, which somehow led her to a odd hole. It was dark, but cool. She didn't know which way she had came, nor did she care. her sister would come and find her. She always did. "Hello!" She said into what she didn't know was called a cave. And got her own echo, but she didn't know it was just hers.
She got excited. "Is someone in there?!!" a lower voice said the same thing back, which got her a bit upset. It was just herself, echoing back at her. Her ears went down as she sat. Thinking that she was stupid for thinking anyone could be in such a dark place. Mother had told her once that some creatures slept in those things. Though she forgot what her mother called them.
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 10:33 pm
Laika was startled by the one sided conversation that suddenly surrounded her, causing her jump and meet the low ceiling of the tunnel she was working on. Letting out a yelp, she backed up until there was room enough for her to turn around and look back at the mouth of the cave. It wasn't so far away, but it was dark and she could barely see anything against the bright light that poured in behind the shadow that stood in the entry way.
"I'm in here! Not you! That's your voice you said hi to! How silly! I did that too, though, the first time I explored some rocks, so I don't think you're that silly at all. Unless we're both silly! At least then we'd get along! I can't see you though. I'm Laika! Do you want to come in here? I was digging it to get to the center of the earth!"
She moved closer to the entrance, sitting right next to the cub. Having never seen anything quite like it before, she tilted her head and examined this strange new companion unabashedly. Laika did not know much of fear or caution, imagining that anything that was talking to her must be friendly. Plus, they were both small.
"You have a cool tail!" she pointed out, as if the other might not know that.
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Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 12:12 pm
Yi jumped from the surprise of the sound of someone else. She stood up and her ears went up. "OH! Yay! Hi in there! I'm Yi!" She stood up just in time to see the little wild dog come out. Curious creature, and Yi wasn't the time to really think asking what the other was as rude. "What are you? Your so strange!" She said. Though, to think about it, Yi wasn't all that normal either. Being a mix of two types.
Her sister once told her that it wasn't common for a lion to get with a leopard. "Thanks! I like your tail to, it's short though. Why is it short?" She asked. She was so use to her's and her family's to be very long. So exciting! Yi hadn't ever seen something like that. She'd only seen Leopards and lions.
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:13 pm
"I'm Laika!" The exuberant pink puppy shared, tongue hanging out the side of her grinning mouth, "I'm a Laika! I mean, that's what I think I am. I'm mostly a Wild Dog, though, since that's what a lot of animals call me when they meet me. A lot of them also say I'm 'really annoying' but I don't think that's an animal name."
"It's supposed to be short, I think!" she said, moving on to the topic of her tail. The conversation made her tail wag back and forth vigorously, beating the air into a frenzy as it whipped up the dust from the dig site, "yours is just too long! I've never seen one so long. But I've never seen a... you... before. Yi! A Yi before! I've never seen that. Are you a lion? I've met one lion, but he's huge!"
She sprang around the strange creature, sniffing and examining, all the while letting her tail wag as it wanted to. She might have hit her new friend a few times with it, but she was too excited to notice, "he's a big pillow! But you're much smaller, so you must be my age! You want to help me dig?!"
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 1:43 pm
Yi giggled. "Laika is your name, Wild dog would be what you are." She said with a nod. "See I'm a leopon. Or that's what my mommy says I am." She said as if she was the smartest thing live. Of course, she didn't even know what a leopon was. Other then a mixture of a lion and a leopard. To her, she was a leopard though. Like her mommy and sister. She looked mostly like them.
She giggled "Mines long because my mother is a leopard and my dad is a lion. So I guess I am a lion." She nodded. "My name is Yi, I don't think there is a type of animal named after me. Or I'm sure there isn't. "She tried to think about it. No, her mother would have told her when she named her. Her name meant beauty, or something. Her brothers was close to her name.
The tail did hit her once or twice, but she didn't mind. it wasn't like it hurt. Nor did she care. It was odd having something smell at her. Felines didn't do much of that, or at least she didn't think so. She didn't. Her mother did, no one she met did. "Dig? What are you digging for?" She asked. She never dug before.
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 2:42 pm
"I'm not digging for anything!" Laika barked happily, eager to share her adventure with this new, strange looking friend. The young puppy did not know about half breeds, about prejudice, or about social standards. All she knew was this cub named Yi was friendly, cool looking, and wanted to know about Laika's hole.
And that was enough for the hyperactive pink dog.
"I'm digging to the center of the earth! I don't think I can take anything from there, but I want to see how far I can dig! It started looking like a cave, though, like the ones I stay in when it's raining, unless there's an animal already living there that doesn't like to share. Yi the Leopon! You know how some of those little animals in the plains pop out of holes in the ground? What if we dug one of those?! Have you seen them? They're too small for me but we can make a big one! That might be even more fun!"
She vanished into her den in a flash, dirt flying out from the darkness as she renewed her vigorous efforts. "Come on! You can dig over next to me! Do you know how to dig?!"
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:04 pm
She giggled. The wild dog was talking about prairie dogs she thought. Her mother told her once what they were. Strange little creatures, but fun to try to catch when they pop out of the holes in the ground. She nodded at the other. "Yes, they are super fun trying to catch. They move to fast for me. But man, I just can't help but to try to attack them." She giggled. She never intends to hurt them. Just to see if she could catch one.
"Is there even a center of the earth? I think it's flat. So I don't think there is one." She said with a nod. It was one huge piece of floating land to her. On water. The pup would dig to the water. "But I'm up for digging." She let her claws show "As long as it's easy to get dirt off. My mommy will be angry if I get too dirty." She said. "But I guess it wouldn't be fun if we didn't get dirty, so I can always get in trouble later, and have fun now!"
Yi climbed into the small hole. It was just big enough for the two of them. Thankfully. Yi shook her head "No, I've never tried." She said watching the other's moves to see how it was done. "You do it, and I'll copy."
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:11 pm
"No, it's round! My friend told me! He says he's seen that it curls over the horizon, which means it doesn't drop off. He lives in the water now. He told me about whales and fish!" she had stopped her digging and walked back to deliver this news, only to dive back into the hole a moment later. She had boundless energy, so it was not difficult for her to run back and forth uselessly.
"We can go swimming when we're done! That'll get it all off, I promise. It pretty much comes off when you shake but if you wanted to be really clean then we can jump in the water hole. It's not too far from here. I go there a lot, because I kind of live around here right now, but only for a little while. I don't have a real den or anything like that, like I know a lot of families do, but that's okay because it's fun to walk!"
She was talking as she worked, showing Yi the basics of digging. She tried to slow herself down, her frantic movements hard to follow out in the open air, much less in a cramped hole. "It's just like this! But you can do it any way you want, so long as the dirt goes out behind you! If it rolls back in I think we'll be in trouble."
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Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:34 pm
"He lives in water?" She asked curiously. Who'd ever want to live in water. Yi hated water. Everyone should hate it. It was only good for drinking, and she only did that cause she had to. She still believed that the earth was flat. Or at least, that's what she was going to go with until she found out herself.
"But water is bad." She said looking at the other. She wasn't about to go into that water. What if something came up and ate her? Her real reason why she hated it, was because she didn't know what was in it. Even small puddles she thought mean monsters could be in it.
Yi watched the other carefully not to miss anything. As soon as she started, she started smiling. Though stopped instantly. Images passed threw her eyes again. They happened more often know, and she couldn't explain it. She stared at the wall of the small cave like area. Though what she saw was thick grasses, a purple lion with muli-colored feathers. Her mother.... Her mother was there... Was that her dad. "Dad?" She let escape her mouth she had totally forgot that she was in a dug up hole with someone else.
As soon as the vision started, it had vanished. When it did, she kind of freaked out. "Where'd they go?! She asked looking around realizing that she was indeed not in a thick feld of grass, but in a hole. She remembered that she was helping the wild dog dig it now. Her claws still out, and full of moist dirt clumps. She closed her eyes and shook her head. She hated when that happened. They looked so real. Was that really her father?
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Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:03 pm
"I didn't ask him if he lives in the water," Laika said, suddenly perplexed. It did seem an odd thing for a lion to do, considering they were not the best of swimmers, "but I don't think he thinks water is bad. And neither do I! It's wet and cold and it's really nice! I like it a lot, especially when it's really hot and I can't find any shade. Sometimes shadows from trees look like animals, and that weirds me out and I don't want to sit in it. But I sit in it anyway and nothing happens, but I'm still always nervous!"
She was on a roll with her speech before something strange happened to her new companion. Snapping her trap shut, she jumped backwards when Yi snapped out of her trance, backing up in a scramble for some open space. Escaping the hole, she plopped down at the entryway staring into the hole at the hybred.
"What happened?! Are you okay! You got all weird there and I didn't know what to do so I thought I'd give you space but you look okay now. What happened? Did you see someone? I don't think there's anyone in there, because it's so small. Unless your dad is very small. I don't know where he might have gone, but I didn't see him. Are you okay?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 1:39 pm
Yi didn't really hear what the other said about the other lion. If she had, she would have thought it very strange to hear a lion not hating the water. Her mother told her that all cats hated water. Or at least the ones she's ran until. After her little epic vision thing, she finally realized completely where she was. Hearing the other's voice. She poked her head out of the hole.
"Oh.... It's nothing... Sorry." She said rather embarrassed. "I just see things that aren't there that look so real though." She told the other. She wasn't quite sure what it was, or even if that was her father. Or even why she was plagued with such things. "We should get back digging if we ever want to get to the center." She reminded the other trying to act as if nothing happened at all. She turned back around and was back in the spot she was in.
"Now.... I just do this?" She stuck her claws out once again and started to scratch at the ground. Before her vision, she thought that's what she saw. The other scratching at the ground. It seemed silly. Plus it didn't feel good to have dirt in her nails. But she was still trying it. Her once white paws were now turning light brown from the moist dirt.
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Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:04 pm
"How can you see things that aren't there?!" Laika asked, excited and interested more than scared or concerned, "I can see things, sometimes, but my eyes have to be closed and I have to be thinking really hard. But they don't surprise me, because I'm thinking about them so I know they're there and what they're doing. I have pictures at night, too, but I think everyone has those and I can't really remember them. But you're eyes were open and you were completely awake!"
Charging forward a bit too enthusiastically, she bumped into the wall of the hole and plopped down on her back legs, shaking her face to get rid of some dirt before looking at Yi with a lopsided puppy smile, "yeah, just like that! You have claws, though. I don't really have them. Mine are bigger and made for digging, I think, because they're really good at it. Yours look a lot sharper. Do you scratch things a lot?"
She spoke as she dug, her pace far out running her companion. She was an experienced digger, after all, so it only seemed right for her to do her best effort in front of Yi, just so the strange creature knew what it was supposed to look like.
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Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 7:13 pm
She gave a shrug looking back at the pup. "My mom says it's cause my dad's a god. But I donno. My brother's don't quite have the same problem as me." She told the other. "I'm looking for someone to help me control whatever is happening to me. Or at least teach me something about it. See my mom and sister don't know how to handle me and my brothers cause of our special..... whatever my mom said." Yi didn't know if she ever had any at night. She couldn't remember.
"Are you ok?!" She asked looking at the other upon the ground after she had fell. "I'm just making sure, cause like yeah I never dug before." She continued her little dig but then stopped and looked at the pup again. "Oh, well I like to scratch at trees. It feels nice on my claws." She said with a smile. She went back to digging. Proud of her sharp claws. They were what kept her safe.
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Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 7:46 pm
Laika stopped what she was doing to look at her new companion, her expression bewildered, but happy. Tilting her head to the side, she pondered what she had just heard for a few moments before opening her mouth to reply. She shut it again quickly, thinking again, her eyebrows furrowing expressively.
"A God?" She asked at last, "what's that mean?"
She had forgotten all about bopping into the wall, and even the whole she had been so determined to dig but a few moments earlier. This new friend of hers was much more interesting, anyway. Besides, the hole would always be there. Laika didn't know when Yi would go away.
"Is it like a dog?" she continued, catching the similarity in sound right off the bat. She knew she was called a wild dog, because she had heard others say it to her. She had heard references to 'god', but had never met someone that might be related to one. She didn't even know what it was, considering she had been alone all her life and had never been raised into a religion or even taught of the gods that graced the plains.
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