Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide...
No escape from reality~
Open your eyes,
Look up to the skies and see...
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy-"

What are you doing this time?

Amber eyes blinked open as a soft, irritated murmur cut her off from singing. Alice had been laying on her back across Flamehaze's own, hands tucked comfortably behind her head. Despite the cool weather, both rider and wolf preferred to keep under the shade of trees to avoid the bright rays of sunlight that glinted down. With a small stretch, the Sergeant sat up and dangled her legs over the wolf's side. Even when Haze was lying down, Alice's legs still failed to touch the ground. Casting a wry grin down at Haze, Alice rolled her shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. "I'm singing. Like Siiiining in the Raain~" The girl laughed as she caught Haze's wince. Apparently he was trying to stand her singing without appearing rude. Not that she was a bad singer, he just had sensitive hearing. "What? Ya never heard of singing before?"

Wolves don't sing. Not the ones that I know anyway...

"Aha, that's right. You howl, or whatever is you lot do." A small moment of silence passed by before "OOOWWHH!!"

Flamehaze's head shot up from his paws as he turned to look at the rider on his back with concern. What was that?!

"Howling," Alice stated simply. "It is what you do, isn't it?" she prompted with a chortle.

Not like that... Flamehaze retorted, allowing the hair along his back to lie flat again as he placed his head back down on his paws. Please don't do that again, he continued as Alice prepared another wolf-call. You sound like a dying animal and I'd rather not fend you off from the wolf that hears you as its next meal...

Alice snorted in amusement. "Whatever ya say, chief." She scratched behind the wolf's tall ears, gazing over in the direction of the training grounds boredly. "I wish the Captain had given me an assignment to give to the Privates today. Workin' the little buggers to the bone would do 'em some good."

Haze sighed with the wolf equivalent to an eye-roll. I don't see why you can't talk to the lower ranks without acting serious...

"Sure I can be serious," Alice scoffed, drumming her fingers along Haze's flank. "Who says I can't strike up a good conversation?"

Because you'd rather strike up a fight first...

Alice smirked with a dark chuckle. "You know me too well,"

"Excuse me....?" A bemused expression fell over the girl's face as her head tilted to the side with an unearthly crack. Eyes rolling to the back of her skull, Alice breathed a heavy sigh as she contemplated who's jaw she needed to break today. Like in a supernatural horror movie, the girl's neck twisted at a perfect 90 degree angle with an impassive [removed](the effect being more or less to her benefit just to get on someone's nerves) until her firey eyes fell upon the accuser-of-all-things-that-were-dying-cats. It was only then did she realize that it had been Rayan Delamore, the Sergeant before her, who had raised the accusation. Damn, no jaw-breaking today... she mused to herself. Rayan had her respect because of his previous rank, if nothing else. But that didn't mean she'd let his little remark off so easily. "'Allo gov'ner~" Alice purred, flashing him a toothy grin. One could almost expect a pair of fangs behind that smile. She arched a brow at the soft shaking beneath her and cast a side-glance at Haze's face to see he was trying to hold back some odd noise... almost like laughing.

Well look at that, someone responded to your howl afterall.

Oh Shush, she mentally hissed, eyes flicking back to the man that stood before her. "Oh no, no. A cat's wail is much worse, I assure you. It's much like that of an Apprentice's or Recruit's, if you think about. Ah, but I'm sure you are quite familiar with how that sounds, eh gov'ner?" A wry, sardonic grin tugged on the corner of the Sergeant's mouth. She'd slide off Flamehaze's back to be closer to Rayan's level, but the last thing she needed was her disadvantage in height to be pointed out. Instead Alice settled for sitting in a criss-crossed fashion atop her wolf's back.

A witty retort rolled onto the tip of his tongue, but its escape was cut short as a powerful force sent Rayan flying forward in an awkward flail of limbs. As if that weren't embarassing enough, he felt the weight of a heavy paw press firmly onto his shoulders, shoving his beautiful face further into the muddy snow on the ground. And wait, was that what he thought it was? Yes, his hair was touching the mud!

A squeal, which sounded awfully like a dying skunk, erupted from the ground. Rayan could feel his eyes tearing up in not physical pain, but at emotional pain. The two hours he had spent perfecting the chestnut brown locks that crowned his handsome face were all for naught. Two hours of hardwork had been trampled (literally) within two seconds into the muddy depths of hell. And hell had a name.

"Roffs!" came the indecipherable mumble under the pink wolf's paw as Rayan struggled against the weight of the canine. With painful effort, he managed to lift his head off the ground, spluttering snow as his now browned face turned sharply to glare at the wolf still using him as a pedestal. "Damn it, Rose. Can't you see I'm trying to intimidate this gender-confused human? I can't do that if I'm face-planted to the ground!"

The flailing self-centered creature beneath her paw was ignored. Every word he said didn't even have the liberty of reacher EternalRose's ear. Instead, she looked towards the other wolf and his rider as though suddenly noticing the pair. She stared quietly at Alice for a moment as the rider spoke and bowed to her. Then, her gaze returned the Flamehaze and her expression softened. She lifted her paw off Rayan and moved forwards, not noticing her back leg step on him again, pushing him back into the dirt. She also didn't notice her tail hit in square in the face.

Good day, Flamehaze, she greeted kindly while dipping her head and front body down in submission. She smiled and slowly rose back up although leaving her ears were laid back and tail lingering between her legs. Deepest apologies. I did not notice you at first.

The girl tilted her head to the side and peered at the flattened Private. "Pug-faced daisy...?" she murmured, considering the name a she placed a finger over her pursed lips while the other hand was set down on her knee. She tipped her chin up and gazed at the sky, as if scanning a floating list of insulting nicknames among the clouds. "Nope," she admitted, "Never heard that one before. Surely you can think of something better than that, gov'ner. While you're doing that, try to pull together some manners towards Rose as well, you old stick in the mud." she added dryly, half-amused at her pun while she continued to gaze up at the sky.

EternalRose, he greeted in return with a curt dip of his head. "It's quite alright, there's no reason to feel sorry. " the battle-scarred wolf assured with a soft smile, feeling a bit bashful at how formal the she-wolf acted towards him. He and Alice never felt inclined to deserve any respect since their sudden promotion in rank. Several people doubted the younger rider and her wolf could ever live up to Rayan and Shadowheart's reputation, not that the two had ever thought otherwise. Flamehaze felt awkward speaking to Rose with knowing that he had been the wolf to replace her mate's rank. Haze didn't mind having his rank changed from Gamma to Beta, but it was the reason why he had been promoted that made him feel uncomfortable. "Does your male rider always act so..." he paused for a lack of word, only to notice a small flurry of white aimed towards Alice. Normally, Haze would react within a heartbeat at a threat aimed towards his rider. But knowing it was merely snow and that Alice was a small target to hit, he watched curiously to see what would happen.

Still looking dreamily up at the sky, Alice's hand was up within less than a second to intersect the flying lump of dirty snow. However, as the ball made contact with her palm, bits of frost still managed to spray the side of the girl's face. With a small sigh, Alice's eyes closed while she muttered to herself, "Lovely..." Giving her wrist a short flick to rid her glove of the snow, her eyes opened again, this time fastened to the demoted Sergeant. Ohh, how she would have loved to stoop to Rayan's level and lodge a snowball right back at him. However, she was able to defuse her temper for the time being as her amber eyes softened with disinterest. "Honestly Rayan," she murmured, her voice taking on an oddly mature tone as she wiped the flecks of snow from her face with a sleeve. "You're going to have to be much quicker than that if you ever wish to hit your target." There was a taunting boldness layered behind Alice's tone. Starting a verbally abusive snowball fight sounded fun, but testing each other's limits at the same time would make it oh-so-more interresting.

"Darling, it ain't about being clever. It's all about stating the facts. And you are, indeed, pug-faced and quite the delicate daisy," Rayan corrected her as he crossed his arms defiantly. The wet snow on his shirt soaked further into his skin on contact, but he resisted the urge to shiver at the growing cold. He'd been in worse situations before, and this was an ice cube compared to the glaciers he'd been frozen up in.

A huff as he eyed her small frame with disinterest. Alice wasn't an unattractive specimen, but not his usual cup of tea. For one, she was far too short. And secondly, she had stolen his rank. "Don't worry, I assure you that I'm a far better marksmen than you are. And I wouldn't dream of wasting my talents, or good looks, on you." For added emphasized, Rayan brushed aside a soggy bang, despite know full well that his face wasn't much to look at right now. But he had good enough of a reputation that most women in the Fort would be willing to sleep with him no matter what condition his hair was in. Speaking of which, he didn't even want to think about what was happening to his precious locks as the mud dried in the cold air. He needed to wash it out fast... but male ego would not allow him to back down from this girl.

"And don't be such a prissy, woman. Just because you're Sergeant now doesn't mean you have to have stick up your arse all the time," Rayan sneered the title. This time he acted more quickly, leaving no room at the end of his words as he kicked a heavy foot into the ground, causing a slush of snow to fly towards Alice and the two wolves.

EternalRose was having a very pleasent conversation with the beta when she was rudely interrupted by her 'worker'. A blur of activity passed before her; however all she would focus on what a glob of snow traveling from Rayan's foot closer and closer towards her until Smack! Although Flamehaze did prevent most of the snow from hitting her, a small but deadly handful of slow managed to hit Rose square in the face. Rose was still for a very long time and you could almost see the snow sliding down her muzzle start to melt from the fumes that was coming out from all sides of her head.

RAYAN!!!! She screamed into any mind her voice could reach (which was unfortuantely not Rayan's) and let out a vicious snarl that would have made even FeralBlood proud. Within two leaps, she was standing before Raya with anger enveloping her whole body making her fur stand on ends. With all her might, she... HEADBUTT him!!!

The girl chuckled darkly and gave her wolf an appreciative pat as the wave of snow crashed down onto the already sodden Rayan. She had to admit, the poor fellow probably had been through enough emotional turmoil for one day with his ruined hair. But the more he kept the insults coming, the more she'd keep biting back. Crossing her arms behind her back, Alice appeared to be glancing down at the toe of her boot curiously and seemingly ignoring the rambling that came from the Private. Although it looked as if she were drowning out every word that he said with her own thoughts, she indeed noted his complains word for word.

The Sergeant looked up sharply at the remark about Haze's action's. Her lips formed slowly into a irritated frown. Doubting her faith in her rank and insulting her wolf in the same day? Someone really wanted to see the bitchy side of Alice. And that's exactly what they were going to receive.

Normally most wolves would have taken the term 'immature' into regard as an insult, however Flamehaze looked more ashamed than offended. I'm sorry... he began to whomever bothered to listen, I honestly didn't mean to send snow up ev-

Alice cut Haze off with a small wave of her hand, becoming very still as she mentally counted 3,2,1...
She hadn't seen or felt anything except for a pink blur and the gust that followed after as EternalRose knocked Rayan from his feet in mere seconds. The Sergeant arched a brow in amusement as the Private landed on his rear and, whistling softly to herself, strode quietly towards the male in a very cat-like fashion. Now standing over Rayan, Alice gave a small tsk as her frown morphed into a cheeky grin and leaned hr torso foward slightly to get a better look at the mangled Private.

"Pardon me if I'm not the low-life piece of s**t who attacks members from my own patrol over a petty little nickname. As for Flamehaze," she cast a glance over her shoulder at the Beta, ignoring his waring growl about the cuss that had escaped her mouth. "I'm sure he doesn't mind getting his fur dirty from some mere snow as much as you do you with your hair." Keeping her stance perfectly still, Alice slid a hand into one of her coat pockets."Tell me, darling," she cooed mockingly as she raised a clenched hand with a fist-full of snow above Rayan's head. "Just how important is your hair to you again?" Without waiting for a response, Alice released the snow. No one calls Flamehaze immature and gets away with it on her watch.