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 Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 10:17 pm
 ~~~~~ Dolci and Yuuki~*~ ♡ ~*~
Poking her head out from around a large, mossy tree trunk, Dolci eyed the immediate area. Lids squinted in the waning sunlight, trying to see past and through the heavy shadows settling in over the forest. At dusk might not have been the best time to start up yet another rousing round of Hide 'n' Seek, but Dolci had been enjoying herself immensely!
So much so that she barely even noticed as the hours seem to fly by.
Dizzy and Usagi had been her main targets for the game. Along with a few younger ponies that had all but begged the trio to play with them. But as Dolci toed her way around the tree, and stepped (with a large, jarring crack as a fallen branch crunched under a hoof) across the grass a few feet... the pony suddenly realized..
I'm all alone?
She could no longer hear the anxious giggles of her friends hiding behind rocks or inside hollowed logs. And as she walked along further, eyes desperately darting for any sort of movement around her, she didn't notice the dip in the ground a yard or two away.
"Hello...? Dizzy, you guys there? It's starting to get dark and I can't see very well and I think we should head back to the pastu---.... EEEEEEEH!"
With a resounding crash and a surprised yelp, the bright pink pony went tumbling. First, over her own hooves, then those hooves went over her head, and she landed with a loud "oomf!"...
...at the bottom of a small hole.
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 10:58 pm
It was that time again, Yuuki thought to himself as he gathered his strength to stand on all fours. The sun was setting and usually at this time of night Yuuki liked to take a stroll around the pasture just to make sure that there was no incoming danger (which there never really was) and also to make sure that all of the ponies were accounted for.
"One, two, three..."
He began to take a head count, getting down to the last few ponies when he realized his count was off tonight, one of the ponies was missing.
Before any of the other ponies could ask why Yuuki had suddenly become alarmed, he galloped off toward the forest at full speed, there was no time to waste, he needed to find Dolci before the other ponies caught on to what was happening and before the sun totally set, when the wolves came out.
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 11:04 pm
 Wincing slightly, Dolci rolled with a flump over onto her side. Where had that hole come from, anyway? It seemed to just open up underneath her hoof and swallow her up in the blink of an eye!
Thankfully, as she pulled her long legs up underneath herself, the only things broken were branches and leaves. Her hindquarters hurt, as did her head, but she felt fine otherwise. And she let out a sigh of relief at that.
"Wow..." Her voice was quiet as she spoke, pushing off the ground to straighten herself out. She shook her head, tossing a few leaves and a clump of dirt out of her pretty magenta mane, and nudged a rock out from under foot.
"..now what?"
Tilting her head up, she could see the lip of the hole she'd fallen into. It wasn't high, but high enough. "I don't think I can climb that far."
With a frown, she trotted over to the edge of the hole, nosed at the ground there and watched as part of the dirt came loose and fell in around her hooves.
"I definitely can't climb that far."
Huffing loudly, she took a deep breath, and did the only thing she could think of.
Scream!
"HEEEEELLPPP!!! DIZZY!! USAGI!! HELP!!" Pause, to pout. "...I'm stuck in a HOLE!!!"
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 11:17 pm
Yuuki didn't have the slightest clue as to where to start looking, weaving his way through the trees and thick branches, he huffed loudly, his hooves kicking up dirt and bracken as he ran as fast as he could, muttering to himself all the while.
"Just wait until I find you Dolci, you are going to wish you'd stayed lost in the forest! How many times have I told the younger ponies to stay close to the pasture.."
Skidding to a stop in the center of a clearing, he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply to get his bearings straight before hearing a cry. It didn't sound to far, but then again he wasn't sure so he started to trot forward slowly, looking every which way. The cries becoming louder and louder the farther he walked and then finally a few feet away he saw a flash of pink trapped inside of a rather large hole.
With a sigh of relief, he walked over to the hole, looking down into it, tapping one of his hooves against the ground impatiently. "There you are.. and I see you've gotten yourself into quite the mess."
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 11:24 pm
Ah! Never had a grumpy face ever looked so nice!
Dolci's eyes lit up and she halted in mid-scream, prancing happily at the wall of the hole.
"Yuuki!" she exclaimed in excitement. "Where are Dizzy and Usagi?"
No matter. Yuuki would get her out of the hole, and that was all that mattered. The longer she was stuck at the bottom, the more it felt like the walls were going to cave in on her at any given moment. Rocks and worms and dirt and mud and dead grass and probably the buried bones of a dead squirrel and -- .... well, it would all come crashing in on her. And that was not so ideal.
"Will you help me out?!" Her voice all but squeaked up at him, trying her best to look both sweet and cute ... and in need of help all at the same time. "Please? I can't get out on my own or else I would have. I don't think I can climb that high."
Flickering her ears forward, she fixed Yuuki's dark face with a pleading gaze. "Pretty please?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 11:34 pm
Taken aback for a moment when she looked at him, he cleared his throat before lifting his head high and looking off to the side. "I should leave you in here just to teach you a lesson. As for Dizzy and Usagi, they are back at the pasture where you should be as well."
He took a few steps back away from the hole, furrowing his brows while trying to think of a way to get her up out of the hole. She was a petite horse but still big enough that it would be quite a task getting her out, especially with the dirt being moist from an earlier rain shower, he knew the walls of the hole could give out at any moment so he needed to act quickly and cautiously.
Trotting over to a nearby tree, he hoisted himself up onto his hind legs, biting down onto a thick branch and yanking his head back to break it away from the trunk, making his way back to the hole carefully, he ducked his head down to extend the branch toward her, mumbling around it.
"Bite down onto the end and I'll try to pull you out!!"
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 11:43 pm
Dolci's voice was tiny and broken when she spoke. "They left me..?" Her happy expression faltered as a deep frown settled it's way across her mouth, mirroring the V her brows turned into. "...they left me?"
How could they do that? Had no one noticed she wasn't with them when they decided the games would be over for the day? She had been the seeker, but instead... this time she'd been hidden and not found.
And then suddenly, as she blinked the beginnings of a torrent of tears away, she peered back up at the edge of the hole... to see nothing but darkening sky. Yuuki left me too?!
"No, wait! Please don't leave me here!" Dolci screeched and launched up onto her haunches, scrambling to try and climb out herself. "I'm sorry, don't leave!"
But what she saw the next moment was a branch heading right down towards her face and her ears flickered again at the gruff instructions she was given.
"Okay," she said warily. "Okay, I will."
Digging her front hooves into the dirt, she craned her neck as high as she could to catch the end of the thick branch between her teeth. It tasted awful and she scrunched her face, but she gave a tug on the branch to signal she was holding on tight.
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 11:51 pm
When he felt the tug on the branch, he took a deep breath before digging his hooves into the ground for support, pulling against the branch to begin lifting her from the hole very slowly. When he felt her moving up, he would take a few steps back to pull on the branch, tugging her out of the whole further, using all of the strength he could muster.
If I don't get her out of this hole.. I don't even want to think about what could happen. He thought to himself as he started to gain momentum, biting down onto the branch so hard that it actually started to make his teeth hurt. But little by little he could see more and more of her raising up from the hole and finally with one last firm tug, he pulled her out all together with enough force to bring her frame forward against him, knocking them both to the ground with a loud thud.
Spitting the stick from his mouth, he shook his head quickly, letting a few leaves that were caught in his mane fall to the ground before he mumbled quietly. "I hate holes."
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:01 am
As soon as Yuuki started to pull, Dolci used every last bit of her strength (the little she had, anyway) to push off of the ground with her back legs and to crawl up the wall of the hole. Dirt and debris fell in her hoof's wake, crumbling to the ground in a small pile underneath her.
Her grip on the branch tightened and she tried to ignore the tight, sharp pain in the muscles on her back legs as she climbed. Once she was halfway up, the thought of falling back into the hole made her desperate to get all the way out, and she fought against the deteriorating wall with her hooves...
...only to be all but plucked out the hole by Yuuki!
The momentum of his last pull had her stumbling forward on her legs and she crashed into him head first. Tumbling over herself and onto him and landing with wide eyes and a shocked murmur.
But she was out of the hole! Free! And whatever lingering sadness she felt about being left behind by her friends was replaced by exuberant happiness and gratitude.
"Yuuuuuukki!!!" She squealed at him, completely ignoring her sprawling perch on top of the darker pony. "Yuuki, you saved me!" Craning her head, she nuzzled her nose at his neck, giggling excitedly. "You saved me, thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:09 am
His eyes went wide for a moment when he felt her nose nuzzling against his neck and he leaned toward her for a moment before pulling back quickly, squirming around to climb out from under her, pushing himself up to stand, shaking his body quickly from head to toe to get all of the bits of dirt and grass off of his hair.
"Well.. You're welcome. You're alright, nothing is broken? Because I don't think I can carry you back to the pasture myself."
He ducked his head down to nudge her gently, helping her to her feet, swishing his tail back and forth nervously, his gaze darting around the forest quickly. While he was pulling her out of the hole, he hadn't noticed that the sun had gone down and the forest was now completely dark. "We should start heading back now, the other ponies are worried I'm sure. We can talk along the way."
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:20 am
"Nope, nothing is broken!" Now that she was out of the hole, everything was wonderful. Spectacular. Awesome. Beautiful. Dolci wouldn't have to be stuck down there for the rest of her life, she was free! In the real world with the rest of the ponies. And it was all thanks to Yuuki, whom up until now, Dolci had assumed was gruff and ... sort of annoying.
But no longer! He was her hero, saved the day without a cape! And when he nudged at her to stand up, she flailed her long legs to immediately right herself onto all fours.
"Thank you, Yuuki." She said, only a smidgen more calm than previously. "That was amazing, how did you think to get the tree branch?" Stomping her feet lightly on the ground, and giving a full body twitch, she freed her vibrant fur of flecks of dirt and grass.
"They should be worred," came with a quick bounce of a nod. Serves them right to be worried, leaving her behind. "I don't understand why--.."
Stopping short, both of her ears flattened to the top of her head. Every last hair on her body raised and her magenta tail twitched. In the distance, she could hear something moving. And when she stopped talking, a piercing, shrill howl ripped through the otherwise quiet forest around them.
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:35 am
"Move, now!" Yuuki nudged her again a bit more firmly before he started back the way he came, his ears perked straight up listening all around them while he glanced back quickly to make sure she was able to keep up with him.
Ducking now and then to keep from hitting branches, he could see lighting in the sky. Great, it's going to rain again.. That's just what we need right now. He thought to himself and then out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flicker of gray fur dart past, followed buy a flicker of darker brown and then few more ran past, all similar colors.
"We need to move faster Dolci, there is a storm coming..and we have company."
The growls were getting louder and he knew it wouldn't be long before the wolves made themselves known and he knew it was only a matter of time before they reached the edge of the forest, they could be back in the pasture and the wolves would retreat back into the forest. Oh he could only imagine the fit Bianca would be throwing when the storm really started to pick up.
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:45 am
There would be absolutely no reason to tell her twice! Dolci was moving the second Yuuki was, trotting along beside him in a quick enough pace to keep up. Of course, there would be wolves trailing them now. It was just her luck!
Fall in a hole...
...get eaten by beasts...
...in the rain!
She gave a frightened whinny when she spied dark fur that wasn't Yuuki's out of the corner of her eye. And nearly jumped out of her skin when the sky crackled with a bright shard of lightning. Willing her legs to move faster, and being exceedingly careful to hop over fallen branches and around rocks in her path, she began to gallop rather than trot. All the while, sticking like she'd been glued to Yuuki's side.
"I'm trying!" She whined, kicking up dead grass with her hoofs as she moved. But she could see the line of the forest's edge in the dark distance, and the soft meadow of the pasture up ahead, and welcoming warm light of the buildings dotted across it. Safety was only a few hundred yards away.
But a throaty growl sounded off at her left flank, followed by a loud snap of teeth that she swear she could feel. And in a split second of reaction, she paused in her long strides, kicked up on her front feet and sent a flying kick of her back legs.
Into the yelping, snarling face of the leader of the wolf pack.
Dolci didn't turn to see how her kick had connected and the brush of lupine fur on her hooves was enough to light a fire underneath her. So much so that she started to run even faster, threatening to leave Yuuki in her wake.
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