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 Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 11:00 pm
 Rosemary poised atop a rock, her toes splayed and her tail raised high for balance. Before and behind her lay the crude stepping-stones across the river she barely kept from falling into, its waters rushing angrily around the jutting rocks and splashing her with spray. Her coat kept her from feeling the water’s chill, but she continued to move from rock to rock. The last thing she wanted to do was stay still and allow herself to be soaked.
Soon she reached the other side, and although no one had been there to witness this feat, she gave a triumphant bark before shaking the droplets off her rosy brown pelt. Her ears pivoted and her eyes darted inquisitively around her new surroundings, taking everything in. Now that she had crossed the swift-running river once, and without harm, it had lost its risky appeal, and she trotted off in search of another daring adventure, for it was too early in the day to settle with just one. It soon presented itself to her in the form of two trees: one standing tall and foreboding and the second, smaller one, leaning upon the first at an angle, its roots rearing high above the gnarled ground from which it was torn.
She neared it and placed a cautious foot on the base of the smaller tree, then another, and another, until she felt its rough bark below all four paws. Warily she made her way up, gripping the tree with her claws. Twice her foot slipped, sending splintered wood below, but she kept climbing until she could go no higher. She felt satisfied, for she doubted other foxes would climb trees, or go as high as her, and she might have chosen to go down afterwards, were a large branch from the standing tree not so close. But it was, and it was tempting, even more so as she had crossed the dangerous river merely hours before, and was feeling overconfident as a result.
With careful precision, she pushed off the tree and onto the branch, and her ego inflated greatly when she landed safely. Unfortunately, the force of her push had caused the smaller tree to teeter, and then, after a few agonizing seconds, fall. She watched its decent and the resulting crash, ears flattening. “How convenient,” she muttered sarcastically. Carefully, she went towards the base of the branch, where it would be less likely to break, and hoped she wouldn’t meet the same end as the tree below. Desperately, she thought of ways to get down to safety, but could find none. After all, foxes were never meant to climb trees.
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Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 9:37 am
 Muted rainbows danced across the rageful river for a moment, their source pausing high in the air. The colors spun and fragmented as the winged lion banked to his side, winding down towards the earth. Clouds clung to his graceful form, filtering off as he decended lower. Some still stuck to his fur though, shifting slightly with his angled movements, but these were natural designs in his fur, ranging from light to stormy. He glided for a moment above the river, his beautiful, rainbow shadows following under him on the water.
He tilted one of his long wings slightly, and gently touched down on the bank of the coursing river. Shifting, he angled his huge wings so he could readily fly again if he chose to, but out of his way for now. After all, they were at least twice as long as he was, easily. The lion turned for a moment, noticing his own appearance reflecting on a still patch of water two boulders had made. It still startled him to see himself, to see that his face and form was one out of rumors and stories. Practically anyone who had heard the rumors of the Gods and Goddesses would immediately realize who he was. Zenith, God of the Sky.
He shook his head for a moment, then turned his back on the river. the Sky God was looking for something. While he had been airborn, the winged lion had heard a sharp, almost-inaudible-because-of-it's-distance, crack. It had sounded like a a tree falling over, and wanted to know why. The sky had been calm for the moment, and this time he'd made sure to empty the harsh, trouble-makers of the cloud world of their abundance of rain and winds gently and sporatically through his travels. He wouldn't let them destroy another town while he wasn't watching. This time he was prepared and he had hurrily winged off. It hadn't been long until he'd found the river.
Now, the God of the Sky lifted his wings again and effortlessly took off, leaving stained-glass shards of rainbow instead of his shadow. He flew up to just above the tree line, and gazed about. The noise had come from around here, he was sure of it. Then, his silver and gold eyes fell on a fallen tree a fair distance from his location. That must have been it. Within moments, he was gliding toward toward it, but something caught his eye in the tree almost parallel to the fallen if it had been standing straight. It was...a brown fox? What was a fox doing in a tree? He could see she was stuck, and she didn't look at all happy about it. He dove for a moment, and landed gracefully on his inky black paws, just behind the trees, out of view. He was almost laughing at the absurdity of it all. Zenith took a deep breath, the padded out of the cover and to the base of the tree. He called up to the stranded fox. "How did you get up there?" He tossed his head from side to side for a moment, debating the situation. He looked up in the tree at the fox again, "And do you want some help down?"
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Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 7:00 pm
Rosemary’s moment of hopeless despair was broken when flickers of a rainbow danced before her eyes. Curious, for there had been no rain beforehand to explain it, she cast about for the origin, careful to make sure she didn’t put too much weight where the branch started to taper, but was unable to find one. Sitting back, she wondered whether being in a tree made one mad. (It would certainly explain the way birds acted.) Before she could delve further in this train of thought, however, she was interrupted by a voice from below.
From her height, it was hard to tell, but the one who spoke to her seemed to be a large, male blue lion. There was what appeared to be a dark cloth trailing after him, and giant, misshapen lumps on his back. At this revelation, she became skeptical. A fox could be cunning enough to get some help from the bottom. A tiger would be able to climb. But a lion larger than her, made even larger with whatever was on his back?
Well, any help was better than none at all, she figured, and despite her doubts, she really was glad someone had come.
“I climbed,” she replied, raising her voice to ensure it was heard over the distance. “And help would be appreciated.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:22 pm
Zenith watched the fox's reaction, then realized he must have actually managed to land un-noticed, and she probably thought he was crazy to be suggesting he could get her down. With his huge wings furled, from that height he must look like a mutated lion, if anything.
He half-laughed, then called back up to the stranded fox, "So, would you like me to carry you down..." He trailed off, slowly spreading his magnificent, rainbows-for-shadows wings. He stepped back from the base of the tree, poised for a launch. With one quick wing-beat, the Sky God was airborn, and spiraling around the tree's trunk. He was quickly at level with the fox, and with one extra beat, landed gracefully on a branch almost parallel with the fox's, but with enough room to sit on the base of the branch. He motioned at the ground with his wing. "Or would you rather take a cloud?"
Zenith looked at the dark and light brown fox. The Sky God gave her a helpful hlaf-smile. "I'm sorry if I startled you by my flight up here. It's easier for cloud-transportation if I'm on the actual cloud." He explained, and moved slightly. His stormy sash settled around his form again, jagged and looking ready to lash.
"Oh, I should probably introduce myself." It occured to Zenith, his awkward-ness with others kicking in, now that he could help her. "My name is Zenith." He paused, then on a second thought decided to throw his title out, to explain everything. "God of the Sky. And you are?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 8:00 pm
Rosemary felt a furious blush creep up to her cheeks as she mistook his laughter and comment for a mocking insult. She was about to tell the lion to leave her be, and that she’d rather help herself than accept his own, but was stunned into silence when brilliant shards of rainbow appeared at his sides, as if from a prism. The lumps that had been pressed against his body were suddenly unfurled, and at first, she was unable to comprehend what they were. But eventually, she realized they were wings. Not just any wings, but massive ones, ones that looked as if it could take the lion airborne easily, ones that spilled rainbow across the floor and the trees, and ones that could help pull her down safely from the tree.
And it seemed they were as quick as they were large, for she found the lion was soon before her, skillfully settling into the branch closest her that could hold his weight, without nicking his wing tips on the trunks and branches even once.
“A… a cloud?” she asked, almost skeptically. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t have even considered such a thing, but this lion had just flown to her, and the thought of a lion on a tree was more impossible to imagine than a fox in one. If he had told her that flowers were food and rivers were made of the tears of rocks, she wouldn’t have been so quick to disbelieve them.
Her ears flickered with recognition when he introduced himself, and she wondered where she had heard his name before. She remembered as soon as he threw in his title, and her eyes widened. It wasn’t just any strange flying lion that had offered to help her, but the strange flying god of the sky lion, the one who overlooked all the happenings in his vast domain, and kept them under control.
“I go by Rosemary,” she replied, glancing at the fallen tree once more and the predicament she had gotten herself in. “Fox of stupidity,” she muttered quietly before continuing. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. And I’m fine with any method most comfortable to you.”
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Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:18 pm
As the fox, Rosemary, was seeming to recover from her shock of his flight, it occurred to Zenith that when he had laughed on the ground, it may have have been misconstrued by the poor girl. "Ohh..." He paused for a moment, his mind clicking. He seemed to back up on himself vocally, "Um, when I was on the ground, I wasn't laughing at you. I was laughing at my luck at not getting spotted the entire time I was landing, and not crashing into something." The Sky God attempted to apologize to the brown fox, even if he wasn't sure why she had been blushing as he'd ascended. It couldn't possibly have been her blushing about him, after all.
As the fox's eyes widened more then they had previously been at his title, Zenith suddenly felt much more self-concious. His wings ruffled slightly, shattering rainbows and sending muted, beautiful fragments spinning on the branch and the much farther down ground. He shook himself out of his pause for a moment, then nodded at the fox. "It's a likewise pleasure, and I'm sure you're just a bit gutsy." He mentioned at her comment on her intelect. "And if you'd be fine with any form of transport down, then a cloud would be probably the safer attempt."
Zenith cast a look around his location, seeing no clouds within reasonable distance. Ah well, then he'd just have to attempt to make one. He signaled slightly with his wings, concentrating on the cool air and the slight rush of the river in the distance, the particles of water. He urged them to gather, pulling bits and wisps together, nearby clouds to donate some of their existance. A small cloud rolled off the river, weaving through the forests and trees as mist. It swirled around the base of the tree, gathering and surging as it solidified around branches the Sky God and his companion. He took a hesitant step, checking it's support and stability. Hydrogen bonded and fluidly chose to support their deity. He let out a mental sigh of relief. He hadn't known the cloud would accept his authority, or if it was jsut glide away. It seemed content at his beckon though, and settled comfortably around his inky black paws.
He turned, wings slightly angled in preperation if the cloud decided to suddenly explode or deny his movements. "Cloud, don't you dare let her fall. Please." He whispered to the fluffly, docile sheep-cloud. He looked at Rosemary, a faint smile on his face at the fact that his cloud didn't suddenly dive into anarchy. "Alright, Miss Rosemary. Your transportation has decided to be docile, so it should be safe for you to board the cloud." He waved with his dark paw to the fluffed, cotton-like surface. "So, would you like to go right to the ground from here, or would you rather see the world from a bird's view for a while? Just point the direction and I'll take you there, and tell me when you want to land." He said with a smile, offering her the chance of a lifetime, just out of his natural kindness. It seemed a waste just to take her right to the ground, and she seemed like such an adventurer, so why not offer her a chance to see her world from his?
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Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 10:50 pm
Rosemary blinked in surprise when Zenith spoke, then flattened her ears, abashed. He was certainly not the arrogant god she had expected (after all, as many said, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and the power of the sky was immense), and he was even admitting to his own imperfection. The fact that he had even noticed her response from so far off made her even more embarrassed. “It’s fine. It was wrong of me to assume.”
She perked at the mention of a cloud, for while she would have preferred to ride one than be carried down, she didn’t think she should choose whatever she liked best, seeing as she was the one who had been idiotic enough to get herself stuck on a tree, and he was the one who had been kind enough to offer help. So even if she had said she was fine with either, in truth, she had been partial to the cloud. (Not to mention the question of how he was supposed to carry her down still remained. Was she supposed to ride on his back?)
She watched, rapt with interest, as the cloud formed and approached. It looked so wispy and lightweight she wondered how it was supposed to carry anything, much less a lion and a fox. She stared, awed and worried for Zenith’s safety, as he made his way to the cloud. She had to admit, he didn’t seem exactly confident, which was less than reassuring, but the cloud held, much to her surprise, and didn’t even bend under the weight.
She placed a tentative paw on the cloud once Zenith had given the okay, pressing on it with increasing force until she was sure it wouldn’t disappear under her. Although she felt some fear, it was mostly thrill that coursed through her now, and she was quick to clamber atop the cloud, ears pivoting to catch the sky god’s words as he started to speak. His offer excited her, and she would have pounced on him in thanks if it weren’t for the fact that she knew the force of it would probably send them both tumbling to the ground. The very prospect was enough to have her shed the uncertainty she felt towards him (before, she had wondered if she should have been more respectful, or more humble. She had heard gods were quick to anger and quick to use their powers to harm those who had evoked such a feeling from them, but evidently, this did not apply to this god) and her swinging tail expressed the delight she felt.
“Anywhere? Anywhere at all?” she asked, quickly scanning the surroundings from her vantage point before he had even replied.
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Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 10:41 pm
Zenith, confused by what exactly the confusion was caused by (considering now that the fox looked slightly confused herself), gave a quick look from the fox to the surrounding area. "Erm, sound can carry in the air, and since that's in my Domain..." He tried to explain, trailing off when he realized that he was explaining when she hadn't even asked how he'd heard her. "So, ehm yeah. I'll stop talking about that now." He mock-grimaced, with an apologetic look to her.
He watched as her face practically lit up at his offer. Apparently, she did indeed want to take a ride on the cloud, that much was very clear. The sheepy cloud let her settle in, then cushioned her, it's soft floss of air and water like fleece. Edges swirled slightly, tendrils of mist weaving around and through it, wrapping around it's riders like a a tender caress before knitting and mending right back into the surface again. Zenith's wings stretched a bit to stablize the plushy surface of their transportation. Satisfied that his "sheep" wouldn't suddenly tip or dump it's cargo, the Sky God furled his wings again, compact against his frame. He was slightly wary that the cloud might catch a rouge breeze, but his reaction time to such things (such as some flailing, then spreading of wings and rescue of others) could suffice if necessary.
Zenith could see the eager anticipation in her eyes, and in her tone when she replied. He could barely contain his laughter at such a pup-like wonder and joy she was expressing, and managed to compress it into a glad smile. At her comment, he naturally smiled, happy to assist someone, and he couldn't see the harm it could do, plus there was nothing going on in the sky. He would know if there was. "Of course, anywhere. Well, perhaps not too far over cloud level, if that's what you were thinking, because I don't know if you'd be able to breath too easily there. But anywhere that poses no harm to you, it's fine with me. Just tell me a location, direction, whichever you prefer. Perhaps it would quell your implacable spirit for adventure for a moment or so." He joked on his last statement, but everything before that had been completely sincere (and even his last comment was, in it's own way).
He wasn't exactly sure what reactions he was supposed to say or do when females were involved, so he just tried to act normally, although first impressions where not his strong point. At least he thought his actions and offer had been the correct one, but he could never be sure, as that's just how he processed incidents like this.
The deity cast his gaze to follow the brown fox's around the area, half-smiling. He glanced back at her, now with a full smile. He confirmed her again, waving his paw to sweep across the sky. "Anywhere at all."
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Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 10:30 pm
As soon as the confirmation had been heard, Rosemary quickly scanned the area below her, taking care to keep herself from falling over the cloud’s soft, airy edge. It was different, to say the least, as she watched the world below from her vantage point. It seemed as if she was no longer part of the earth, and was merely an observer, but it made her feel powerful in some way, too. She had, after all, oftentimes looked down at the ground in this same fashion when she was in search of prey, such as mice and other rodents. But she shook her head at such thoughts and focused, looking for anything interesting.
She could see the river she had crossed earlier that day, recognizable behind the occasional tree from the line of stones across its width. Around them, there were even more trees, but it would be easy to maneuver around (or should she say above?) the canopy, she figured. Before her, hills and valleys tumbled across the lands, running towards the sun that spilled light across it. To her left, a mountain reared high in the sky, its craggy peaks seeming less imposing now that they weren’t as high. Behind, there was only more forest. And—
“Can we go there?” she asked, motioning towards her right. There was something strange there, something she had never seen before. It, like in all the other directions, started with forest, but eventually broke away to a large rocky cliff, with ground-hugging grass and shrubs clinging to its surface. But that wasn’t what had caught her attention. What had caught, and easily held, her attention was beyond the cliff, in the form of an endless blue-green. It reached the horizon, and probably went even farther than that, farther than what she could see (and she was on a cloud, she reminded herself).
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Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2010 2:15 pm
Zenith watched in mild curiousity as the fox seemed to process her location and return to scanning the area. She looked at home here, it suddened occured to him, up here in the cloudy sky. She must be feeling the same thing I first did, when I would look down. Detatched from one realm and a part of the next. To someone who's always been on the ground, this must be amazing. Zenith contemplated these thoughts as the fox continued with her watching.
He followed her gaze now, wondering that she was imagining from all the way up here in the vast sky. The trees were no problem for him to move them past, if their fluffy steed stayed as docile as it was being now. The sun bounced off his fur, breaking into shattered rainbows and overlapping, but still muted, colors as they collided under his folded wings. The valleys and ranging plains would be no problem to glide over. And the mountains could work, if they stayed low enough for Rosemary to breathe, anyway.
She had turned and asked her question, pointing out into the vast darkness and cliffs that belonged with the ocean. He could see she was enthralled by the murky waters, and for good reason. She had probably never seen an ocean before, nor anything like it. With a smile, he spread a wing to give them a gentle push to get the cloud-sheep moving, and said, "Of course. And we could see much more than you would from the cliff, if you wanted to go a bit closer than just the edge of the rocks, like near the surface or something."
The Sky deity offered to the fox, the cloud picking up some gentle speed and rolling upward toward the ocean. It skimmed the top of the closest trees, and then simply cleared them by a few good feet, before drifting forward and beginning it's casual journey toward the waters. It caught a breeze of wind that the technicolored lion motioned toward it, and began to speed up, enough that they could get to the cliffs relatively soon, but still leisurely enough for it's unusual passanger to be able to go sight-seeing.
After a few moments, Zenith tucked his wings back so Rosemary could have a better view of their scenery, but loose enough that he could snap them open if their ride gave them any trouble and he had to pull another rescue. It wasn't too long before they drifted over the cliffs slightly, the wind coming with the tide pushing them back a bit until they began to still, just a few feet away from the cliffs, near the height of where they dropped into the ocean. Zenith turned to the brown fox and asked, "Well, would you like to go closer to the water or farther out? I can't completely promise your safety, as this is not my Domain for the most part...but I should be able to protect you, unless the deities of the ocean become angry at us. In that case, we're going up into where I can protect you, and get you back to land, alright?" He motioned at the wide waters with his paw and wing, and decided to tell her something which he thought she should already know, but it never hurts to inform. "Oh, and Rosemary? Uhm, in case you'd never heard of it, or seen it, this is the ocean... It's pretty much a huge lake full of water that contains salt, like tears. So don't go jumping in it alright? From any height we're at, that'd be very dangerous, as water becomes almost like a solid from distance." He explained, hoping he wouldn't offend her by telling her something she already knew.
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Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 12:20 am
Rosemary felt an excited trill run through her body at the sky god's offer. The mere thought of getting close to the enormous thing filled her with fear, but that was part of the adventure, and only fueled her enthusiasm. (That wasn't to say she enjoyed fear. Merely overcoming them.)
She peered over the edge of the cloud as they neared, ears flattening in response to the wind blowing over them, threatening to force them away. The land and all that it held suddenly disappeared beneath them, replaced with a wild, rushing blue-green. It moved too much for her to mistake it as land, and it held the familiar motions of water. But could water really be so large?
"I trust you," she said in reply, eagerly awaiting their descent. But his sudden revelation made fresh stabs of fear pierce her, and she shyed away from the cloud's edge. She hadn't really believed her previous guess, but Zenith had just confirmed it. It was not only the concept of water being as hard as rock that alarmed her (although the information itself would have been enough to do so. Water had always been a liquid to her, easy to go through) but the fact that it really was water. Her first friend had met her doom upon a rushing river, and the death had occured early in her life and remained fresh upon her mind.
But she had already conqured that fear, as she had proved earlier that day as she went among the stones in the river... hadn't she?
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