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 Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 8:09 am
Instantly Raffaele flicked his tail across his nose as if to dust off something he hadn't known was even there. A teal colored eye cracked slowly and peered around him blearily.
The normally nocturnal wild dog wasn't one to be woken during the day, lest there be something of intrest in the area. Generally it was something that was interesting and dangerous that got him up and moving. Lifting his head, Raff checked around himself to make sure that nothing had snuck up on him during the short span of his nap. Would he that it had been longer, but he no longer felt safe in an area where he was awoken abruptly.
Stretching his long body out, the wild dog took to his mismatched feet stiffly. Birds in the air chirped down to him as he glanced up into the branches of the tree above him. They were always happy it seemed. A sigh pulled from his scarred muzzle and Raff shook out the thick and fluffy fur all over his body, always mindful of the deep scars on his belly and on his left hip that made motion stiff and slow in the morning.
It would be another long day, another long day filled with boredom and hunger.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 11:38 am
It was a LOVELY day! Then again, the female thought all days were lovely. Life was just positively wonderful for the runt wild dog, and she loved every moment.
Grinning ear to ear, teeth visible overtop the gazelle flesh, Baobab seemed bounced across the savanna, oblivious to anything bad or evil around her. She wasn't going anywhere in particular. She was a wanderer, having left her family not too long ago. While she was keeping an eye open for a place to settle down every day, she was in no rush. The world was a big place, after all. There was a lot of walking to do. But Baobab just loved walking. It made her feel so fresh and happy!
A gust of wind blew into Baobab in that moment, dust swirling and getting sucked up into her nose. She sneezed loudly, nearly losing her grip on the gazelle leg, but she managed to hold onto it. When she looked up, her eyes were met with an unexpected sight. In front of her, only a few long strides off, was what looked like another wild dog. What a pleasant surprise!
Ever the optimistic one, Baobab set her paws on course for the other wild dog, tail wagging and ears perked as she grinned, bouncing over to him.
"Heh-oh!" Baobab called as she walked, not making much sense because of the leg in her mouth. But she didn't seem to be aware of that.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:55 pm
In the process of stretching out his bad leg, Raffaele twisted his head and turned his piercing eyes onto the dark wild dog. The instant his eyes made contact he noticed two very important things... well three.
It was a female that was trotting up to him as happy as a clam in the sea. There were so few of those that he'd seen in his life and the ones he'd run across had been nice for the most part. His eyes were still wary despite this fact though, not everything he'd met on the Savannah was mean when he first met them.
The scars on his face, belly and leg proved that fact rather adamantly.
The other was that she was a tiny thing, barely to his shoulder, though Raff was somewhat large in terms of wild dogs height. Most normal wild dogs came at least to his ears in height, so he was only a little larger than the norm, this female on the other hand came just to his shoulder with the top of her head. Ears included maybe to his chin. Smaller wild dogs were hard to come across anymore, since most of the population was breeding larger and larger dogs.
Of course that didn't fit with the lack of surge in herd beast activity. Rather it contradicted the lack of the surge.
Tilting his head, as Raff had had all these thoughts in the span of a heartbeat, the fluffy dog let a hesitant, shy smile spread across his scarred face. The edges of his eyebrows tilted a little, making the smile into a sad effect.
"Hello..." Raffaele offered shyly, his rough sounding voice was soft despite the harsh natural edge it had. It wasn't something he could control, but it seemed that those around him always believed he was angry for one reason or another thanks to it. "You brought that gazelle down all by yourself?"
Resourcefull little thing if she downed a full grown gazelle on her own. Or maybe she just scavenged it. All the same that made her brave, hyenas usually laid claim to the refuse of the savannah that the buzzards didn't get. Vultures themselves could be somewhat nasty and violent when it came to an unsuspecting visitor disturbing their feast of sorts.
Raff liked the idea that the female had downed the swift gazelle herself though. It reminded him of his adoptive mother Temari, the tiny wild dog that ran like the wind. She'd tried to teach him but Raff was all muscle and bulk, made for hunting and heavy prey rather than running after the swift herd beasts. The calculatory part of his brain itched to ask the female an array of questions about her tactics... but the shyest part of him, the part that had been wounded and disenchanted howled louder in his creamy ears.
Conversation first then... questions later if he was feeling particularly brave.
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Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:30 am
Having grown up with several sisters and several brothers, Baobab was skilled in the art of conversation, in every sense of the word. She could understand expressions, body language, vocal tones, mannerisms and accents. So whenever she met someone knew, someone who didn't know her, and they began a conversation, Baobab would become a sort of sponge, absorbing everything that made that creature who they were.
If her wide-eyed, intrigued staring made someone uncomfortable, the wild dog was never aware of it, despite her "reading" skills.
Aqua eyes blinking, she watched the male's hesitant smile. She grinned in response, ears twitching for reasons unknown.
Baobab dropped the gazelle leg almost violently, full of energy as she always was. She nodded quickly in reply to the male's question, ears flopping as she did so.
"Yup, I did!" she said, wagging her tail. "Papa always told me to go for the legs since I'm petite. So I always go for the legs, and it works every time. But I can never eat the whole thing so I just take a leg and run off and leave the rest of the body for someone else 'cause I only really need the leg since I can just eat the leg and then go hunt another gazelle when I get hungry again." she rambled happily, beaming. "But sometimes I can't even eat the whole leg, so if you want some, you can have some, hon!"
On that note, the female shook the length of her pelt, dark dirt flying off of her and swirling around her, and lied down in front of her meal. She pawed at it, staring up at the male invitingly.
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Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 6:35 pm
One cream colored ear flicked forward and backward again at her admittance of skill. It wasn't in the least bit bragging, in fact it was just a simple declaration of her prowess. A female from his own heart as most others that would be able to take down a full sized gazelle at her size would have bragged their way right onto his ever-present raw nerve.
Slowly his ears fell to the sides of his head in a more relaxed position. Small hairs on the back of his neck fell at last as well, having been woken by the feel of the grass on his nose. They hadn't been visible, this much he knew, but they relaxed and so did Raff in the presence of the small female.
When the leg was dropped at his dark feet the dog nearly left his fur but managed to hold the frightened side of him harshly in check by sheer force of will. Readjusting his stiff back leg, Raff smiled again, a little stronger this time.
"You're very fast then. Impressive. You'd be pretty easy to work with if you go for the legs while someone else goes for the throat." His rocky voice was stronger this time as he spoke, more sure that she wouldn't attack him or go running off. "And I'm sure the local scavengers welcome your hunting habits if you feed them so often."
Slowly he lay back down across from her, his thick, wooly fur spread out a bit around him and his bushy tail stirred up dust as he wagged it slowly behind him. Her rambling was easy to be around, it made up for his apparent lack of vocalized communication. His physical body language was easy to read, it painted him the picture of a gentle and shy young male but deep inside his own head was a different story. He was gruff and occaisionally snappish if pushed too far.
Raff had been misunderstood when he was younger, his parents had thought he was mean when in reality it was just irritabilty that masked how loyal and kind his big heart was. He loved his family and friends too much and was too afraid to show them.
That wasn't a problem now though, not after what had happened to him. He was so closed off that he'd avoided his family and lost them and all his friends.
Maybe it was time to start re-thinking his previous ways. Maybe it was time to start making up for past mistakes.
"Um.... my names Raffaele... what's yours?" Raff reached one of his large paws out and sat it on the haunch of meat before him. No reason not to seem willing even if he were too shy to latch onto it with how hungry he was.
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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:03 pm
Baobab's tail wagged violently, face dipping into her meal and tearing off bits of flesh as she listened to the male's pleasant voice. She wasn't one to always seem attentive and interested when someone was speaking. However, she was always very consumed whenever someone was speaking to her. She listened to every word, saw ever gesture, letting nothing go unseen. She was a very good listener, and loved conversation.
Baobab's ears flopped up tall whenever she heard a question. She pulled her head up and grinned at the male, blood splattered on her muzzle, speckling her dark face with red. To see such a jovial, inviting expression marred with blood was quite a strange sight, but Baobab was always unaware of her own appearance. Some would say she had no concept of vanity.
"My name is Baobab." she said happily, bobbing her head. "And if you ever wanted to go for the throat while I went for the legs, I'd be a happy hunter." she laughed, pausing in her laughter to sit down and scratch an itch. "Do you live here, hon?" she asked after a moment, peering up at him as she scratched herself.
The male was fluffy; not like any wild dog she had met before. It made her wonder, really wonder, just how many wild dogs there were in the world. Fluffy ones, short-haired ones, big ones, little ones...The world was so big.
Then again, she was really small...
BUT SHE WAS FIERCE! At least, that's what her dad always said.
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Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 7:30 pm
A lazy grin crossed his broad muzzle and Raffaele shook his head.
"I live wherever I want to live. I haven't had a pack since mine broke up and my family with it." the large dog shrugged his massive shoulders and peered at her a little.
Was she alone as well? Or had she planned on taking that kill to her family and was now sharing it with him?
If she were sharing a planned meal with him then he felt rather bad, but Raff couldn't leap to conclusions with this female, as she wasn't doing what most creatures on the savannah had done to him recently. Certainly not.
Most of the creatures on the savannah would have either attacked him already or run away at the first glimpse of him. It was the way of things and this female was throwing all those things he knew out of skew.
"Were you planning on taking this home to your family?" Raffaele laid his large paw down on top of the leg and peered at her green eyes. "You don't have to share this with me if so."
The hesitant part of him was back and he couldn't hold it back.
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Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 11:03 pm
Head pointed down and eyes cast up, Baobab peered at the male, ever-happy smile glued to her face, but something observant in her stare.
"Awww, your pack broke up? That's awful! I'm so sorry!" she whined, ears flopping to the sides. She wondered what it would've been like to have a big, big family just like packs had...What it would've been like to have that many friends. She had enough siblings to form a small pack, but that wasn't the same as a "normal" pack...What would it have been like? Was it really like a family? Was this boy hurt because of the separation? How long ago was it? Question buzzed through the little female's head and a deep frown crossed her muzzle, eyes welling with tears.
The unexpected question shifted Baobab out of her sad thoughts of compassion towards the male and she snapped her head up, eyes blinking quickly.
"Taking...?" she echoed. Then she smiled, all traces of sadness gone in a flash of white teeth. "No, I don't live with my family anymore! Most of us left once we were big enough. Now I run around all over." she said childishly, paw waving in the air to emphasize how far she'd traveled. "I don't live with my family now...I'm all by myself." Her eyes were pensive for a moment, but she shifted back to reality very quickly, gripping the male in a stare once again. She grinned wider, tail wagging.
"But now you're here! And we're sharing food!" she said excitedly, perhaps not understanding how naive she her words sounded. She always did have trouble expressing thought through words...
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Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:55 am
Raffaele saw the sadness that passed over the small female's face and the tears that welled in her eyes when she talked of how his pack had broken up. It was just normal for him, the pack hadn't been healthy in the later years of it. In fact it had started to get violent and the dogs of the pack had begun to get rowdy and mean. Especially under Tawa... she had torn the pack apart at the seams long before Raff had even grown to an adult.
"Please don't.... cry." He said quietly.
He didn't know how pack's started, though he would assume it started with a pair of wild dogs that ended up as mates. That probably wouldn't work but he couldn't figure out how to make up a pack of his own. A slow shrug pulled out of his shoulders.
"You're right. We are sharing. I should get you something in return." Raff looked around himself, knowing that he'd dropped something nearby the night before. He didn't stay in one spot too often but this tree was comfortable and it made him feel at home. Or it had. Now that this female was here he felt a little at odds.
It wasn't that he did or didn't trust other creatures... it was just that.. they hadn't given any reason for him to.
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