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 Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:48 pm
Cert pending
The sun was nearing the end of its cycle. The clouds were roseate and a gentle breeze blew over the Down. It carried a smell of falling leaves and crispness. Autumn was coming.
Sandbur was sitting amid a small patch of clover, nibbling it for her evening silflay. The purple, soft flowers had long been cropped to slumped, pathetic stems. She ate it with a bored expression, tail twitching behind her. Her ears, as usual, flicked like a fly was buzzing around. She may have looked dull and defenseless, but she was listening all around for the trace of elil, as she couldn't smell so well, as she never could.
She paused as a large, golden butterfly fluttered past. Mesmerized, she stared at it, her ears still flicking. She took it in all at once, but she also took in every detail- the contours of its wings and legs and antenna and furry body and orange pigments that melded into black and greens and blue eyes that were so foreign, so...innocent. She watched it fly, wondering if she would ever do the same. Her ears flicked up and down in movement, trying to match it. It didn't work. She pouted, but continued to observe until it landed on her nose, where the sweet smell of clover greens lingered. She crossed her eyes to see it and sat perfectly still. So close, even she could smell where it had been on its legs. It was...the smell of a cornfield. She suddenly pinched her eyes shut and did something uncharacteristic- she swatted at the creature, scaring it away.
That smell brought back memories...everyone was dead. Everyone but her and the men were drawing their fingers on her hill. And she ran through the cornfield. And she was cut on her paws, and ears, though her red-brown markings were perfect camoflague. She had run into the night. Then she had been a Hlessi for the first time in her life, wandering many miles. She had found the Down like a shining beacon...
and now her mind rolled backwards, into the evening she arrived at the down.
....
She panted, a ragtag and unkept rabbit with a dirty pelt, snagged and matted fur, ears and tail a mess of burs and snagged bits of bark. She was mad, not interested in anything except moving as far from that field as possible. As far from those men and their smoke and the elilflay...
She came to a stop beside a large, long slope. No-one seemed to be near, she was upwind of the warren that spiderwebbed through most of the hill. She was exhausted, though, and slowly slid to her belly in a gooseberry bush near the bottom of the slope, in a small trench. She knew she was easy prey, but her legs would not move...and she was unaware of the stabbing hunger in her belly that had been there for her three-day trek though she didn't pay attention to it.
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Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:23 pm
"Oi!"
Amber eyes narrowed and a frown was firm set in the smallish buck's maw. He certainly wasn't one of massive size. In fact, some others might consider him down right runty, but his mind was sift and his claws swifter.
Not to mention he had an explosive temper.
He found himself recruited into the Owsla while fairly young, despite his size, and had served proudly and determinedly thus far.
"Who're you and why are you here, embleer hlessi?" He demanded sternly. There was no trace of pity in his hardened features or his narrowed eyes as he loped towards her at an easy pace. He had been watching for some time, as he had been on patrol this particular evening. Hardly a movement went unnoticed and her scent had been wafting in the wind, his sharp eyes had watched her take cover.
The temperamental Owsla officer seemed to be hesitant to approach her out right, sheerly due to the illness that had been resting on the outskirts of their warren recently. The sharp minded officer wasn't about to risk himself needlessly if he could wheedle information out of the scrawny doe from a distance. He would use force, if necessary, to drive her from the Down.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:29 am
At his call her tired head lifted and she seemed to sigh deeply. She was so tired. Couldn't this runt just let her sleep? Slowly, she got to her feet and took a single hop out of the bushes.
"I'm not a hlessi." she said. "I am called Sandbur where I come from." Her ears flicked and her reddish nose wiggled at him, ears flicking as they had a habit of doing. "I have traveled from far away. I will be gone by morning, but please don't chase me away. I mean no harm...I can't go any father today. It will be one night, only, i promise."
She turned and slunk back under the bush, laying down once more, too tired to care just who she was irritating.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:44 am
"You need to move. You are not welcome here, hlessi. That is what you are, no matter what you say. Where is your warren? No where and not here."
His heated voice drifted from him forcefully as his already narrowed eyes seemed to squint. His tattered ears flicked in annoyance and he gnashed his teeth. He would have no qualms...
And the stench of disease did not seem to cling to her at all.
He stomped his forepaws against the earth in an aggressive display against the displaced and exhausted doe.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 12:00 pm
"I am not a hlessi. My old warren...it was no longer safe. And my kin would have come with me, if not for the elilflay." she sat on her back legs, her ears a mess of movement as she became more and more agitated. She was tired and hungry and not in her right mind.
"I will go as far away as you'd have me on the morrow, but my legs will give out before this conversation does. I shall not be any trouble. I only ask for a few whippets of grass for my silflay and the cover of this bush from the threat of elil."
She slunk onto her belly once more, trying to get to sleep, praying her answers were good enough for his satisfaction.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 12:09 pm
"You are a hlessi, no matter what you say. You wander and run with no warren, you are embleer hlessi."
He stamped his paws against the moistened earth yet again, trying to strike at least some fear into the trespassing doe. He could not let this slide at all.
"We have had problems with your type and you are not welcome here at this time. Perhaps in later days, but not now. I will force you to move, if you do not. I guarantee you won't want these claws tearing at your backside." As he spoke, he purposefully exposed his small, sharpened claws that would easily cause a bit of damage. He was not about to give in, especially with some opportunity to assert some dominance and release a bit of tension.
What was an easier target than an exhausted hlessi? He would make her wish she had never wandered this way.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 12:28 pm
As he spoke, she narrowed her eyes into thin slits, as his were. She was tired and now she was cranky. She was doing no harm here, nor was she bothering him. And besides, she didn't see a warren. Then what was he? Warrenless, a hlessi like herself?
She sat up once more and turned to face him directly. "Look. I'm not doing anything wrong. I am tired, but if its a fight you want, then I'll take you on, you small, simple rabbit." She showed her teeth and clicked them together.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 3:34 pm
Those words set him over edge.
What control he had snapped the moment the word small left her. His tattered ears flattened and his muscle flexed beneath his brown hued pelt as he shot forward, towards the doe. He was small, but swift and eager to make the doe pay for waltzing into the Down and, on top of that, insulting his size.
"You will pay for that!" He practically hissed as he charged for her, aiming to swipe with his sharpened claws. No doe, a stranger at that, would get away with such an insult while he was around. He was bent on driving her away.
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Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 9:07 am
 Out of no-where a black shape slammed into the smaller buck, sending the brown rabbit flying sideways and well out of reach of the exausted doe. Landing on his feet, claws digging furrows in the earth as he slid to a hault, the bristling black owsla officer set himself four-square between the strange doe and Ginkgo.
Paws spread apart and braced, amber eyes narrowed and watching the other officer intently. Blackthorn bared his teeth in warning as he growled at Ginkgo. "Did we forget our manners back in the warren, Ginkgo?" The dark owsla remarked, voice low and tightly controlled. He was as wary as any warren rabbit about Hlessi, but he had been watching this doe for the last few marks and had listened to their brief conversation before Ginkgo lost it. He had not been able to smell the disease on her, no find any signs of ill health aside form exaustion and malnourishment. At the very least she had to be brought before Bracken-rah and for the Chief to decide what to do with her... not the upstart owsla Gingko.
Wary of the short-tempered officer's violence, Blackthorn kept ears and eyes trained on the smaller buck, though he hadn't forgotten the doe behind him, claws flexing in the soil.
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Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 9:16 am
Ginkgo had been caught completely off guard.
He tumbled paw over paw sidewise as he struggled to balance himself, but the larger buck's charge had been true. He fell hard against the earth and was growling before he managed to find his paws again. He knew before the buck spoke that it was Blackthorn.
That rabbit was always getting in his way, and he knew Blackthorn's position in the warren, one who supported Bracken regardless. The interference was increasing his anger drastically.
He turned sharply once on his paws and faced the other buck with a glare and scowl.
"This one is a trespasser and must be dealt with as such!" He hissed back as his claws churned the dirt beneath them in preparation for the fight he knew would come. There was no way he could back down from this...
His inflated ego wouldn't let him.
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Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:28 pm
"oh frith....embleer frith.." Sandbur murmered softly. She eyeballed the rabbit who had come to her rescue and wiggled her nose. Now HE was a rabbit that demanded attention- from his size to his voice and his coat and stance..She took a deep breath as she felt the tension in the air rise. She chattered her teeth, but nervously, and backed up under her bush, out of the way of the fight. She no longer felt tired though.
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Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:50 pm
Bronze-tipped ears pressed back along midnight fur as Gonkgo spun, hissing and spitting with rage. A rage Blackthorn knew well. Keeping his body itght and tence, ready to tackle the smaller buck, he ground his teeth together in frustration. Ginkgo never could control himself and seemed to take joy in putting down those around him. Blackthorn was entirely sick and tired of the other officer's behaviour, which had only been getting worse recently.
"She WILL be taken to Bracken-rah." He growled out, tone clipped and authorative. "He is Chief here, not you, Ginkgo."
If he could get the doe away from Ginkgo without fighting, then he would, but he was at the end of his patience with the disruptive male before him and would not hold back if Ginkgo pushed.
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 10:15 pm
"You actually want to bother Bracken-rah with this filthy Hlessi? He has more important things to worry about, and Frith knows we don't need another mouth to feed!" He gnashed his teeth angrily as he took a paw step towards the larger buck. His tattered ears flattened and his small frame tensed as he prepared to defend himself and his reputation.
He was hardly about to back down from this particular challenge. Besides, he couldn't lose face... Especially in front of this newcomer.
"Just get back to your duties, or else I'll have to report you to the Captain!"
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Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 9:51 am
Sandbur was watching with her ears down and eyes wide. Never had she seen such a sight! The rabbits of her warren were the fat and lazy type, only ever needing to defend themselves from elil and never each other. They had an Owsla, sure, but it was a lot friendlier then the sight she saw here. She wasn't scared, persay, but she didn't want to get tangled up between them.
From what the larger buck said, she assumed Bracken was the chief rabbit here. She felt safer around this black rabbit, sniffing at him from her cover. She decided that, if he needed help (though he looked like he'd hold his own), she would assist him.
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Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 4:23 am
Blackthorn growled low, solid body shifting, tensing, as he prepared to attack the smaller buck. "That is our law Ginkgo. You have no right to second guess theChief." Bareing powerful insisors the dark-hued officer snarled angrily. "Yes.. why don't you run to Cocklebur like a good little rabbit. He won't settle for your nonscence." Despite the unrest within the warren, Blackthorn still held respect for their Captain, though no one was infalible.. and there had been some od rumours of late, it did not affect the grey rabbits history of serving the warren. Yet anyway..
Baring his teath he took a step forwards, solid frame tight and ready, ears pressed flat back against dark fur. "I'm warning you Ginkgo, leave, or I will make you." Another step, fur bristling dangerously, claws digging into the soil as he readied for the attack.
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