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 Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 1:18 pm
She didn’t need Salihah. She didn’t need her sister at all.
Huffing slightly as she kicked a pebble away through the grass, the usually cheerful pup was in a darker sort of mood. Well…maybe she was just lonely. But Goldenpaw was mean to her sometimes. She just didn’t understand it. And daddy was busy… Maybe she could have found someone else to play with, except she always wound up right on the edges of the Peke Na territories looking for some kind of adventure she could have all by herself. The last time she’d left she’d met an explorer. That had been fun.
Maybe she’d meet him again. Or maybe she’d find someone else to play with. Or something else to do.
Her little splotchy tail began to wag as she trotted along, still within eyesight of her home but definitely a little further away than she probably ought to be. But she was having fun! Or she was going to be… somehow…
Lika sighed, not looking very much like her pack name at all for the moment. But she was going to have some fun! She would! All by herself! Or at least without her stupid sister…
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 12:07 pm
He looked around curiously, nobody for miles. Vashti grinned. All by himself, he could whatever he wanted, anything! His tail wagged as he took in the fresh air. "Maybe I'll sleep some more," he said to himself, "Or go on an adventure, or just eat all day. I can do ANYTHING!" Vashti began to walk, not knowing what he wanted to do first. His excitement vanished in a moment. The site of something in the distance. "Someone is RUINING my perfect day," he scolded the vague shadow. "I'll show him." Vashti began to march toward the distant figure. As he got closer he could see exactly what was ruining his day off. "Excuse me," he said in a grudging tone, "what do you think you're doing?" He lifted his head up high, in a proud, arrogant pose. "Do you know where you are?" He eyed the newcomer closely. "Who are you? Answer yourself!"
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 1:06 pm
Lika blinked, her blue eyes huge as the other approached her. Her ears went back a bit, she was obviously uncertain. He seemed so confident...or arrogant. Usually Gigglepaws would be easy to fool or persuade, but she'd just spent her morning moping about over Goldenpawed giving her a hard time... she wasn't running in blinders right now.
"I'm Gigglepaws of the Peke Na," she declared, planting her bottom firmly on the grass and looking levely at the green pup from her seat. "I'm on the borders of my pack's territory. Who are you?"
See? She had just as much right to be here as he did! She was right near her pack, and daddy would have warned her if she wasn't supposed to go over here. So there couldn't be anything wrong. She wasn't at fault, she wasn't...
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 1:14 pm
Vashti laughed. "Gigglepaws?" he cocked an eyebrow. "Well, I am Vashti, oldest of my family." He paced a circle. "Wait, did you say Peke Na?" His eyes widened. "You're part of a pack?"
He twitched nervously. A trap? he thought to himself nervously. What if this "pack" is the reason no one's around? What if they're after me next? No doubt this "Gigglepaws" was nothing more than an alias, or a codename. This girl could be a trained assassin.
Vashti backed up slowly.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 1:18 pm
"Yes, that's right," she assured him. "My pack's territory is just there," Lika waved her splotchy-tipped tail in the direction she'd just come from. "My daddy and sister live there too. Mommy and my brothers live outside the territory though.
She cocked her head curiously to the side as he lost the haughty look and backed up a few steps. "Something wrong?" she asked, looking nervously over her shoulder, fully expecting to see something awful sneaking up behind her. Or maybe Salihah... "What is it?" Lika asked uncertainly, looking back at him. Surely he would tell her what it was, right?
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 1:26 pm
Mommy? Daddy? Vashti mused. No assassin would use such a vocabulary, would they? The quiery itched at the back of Vashti's mind. He began to doubt his original hypothesis, but he'd be damned to turn his back on this possible deciever.
"Oh, it was nothing," Vashti straightened up again, pushing his chest forward in a proud fashion. "I thought I saw ... something ... a ... n alligator ..." Vashti considered his lie. "Yeah, an alligator. There was a really big one, right behind you." Vashti paused. " ... but it vanished ... ?" Vashti paused again. "Yup, vanished just like that. Must've been magical, thats why I looked so worried. I not a coward, if thats what you were thinking."
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 1:31 pm
"An alligator?" Lika gasped, whirling to look behind herself again. "But...but... ... what's an alligator?" she asked uncertainly. It had sounded bad, from the way he'd said it. But wouldn't daddy have told her if there was something scary around her? She'd have at least heard of it before, right? Right?
Or was it some scary monster from far away that never came to the territory before? What if it followed her back? What if someone got hurt because she'd wanted to go exploring outside the pack territories?
"Oh no!" she squeaked, having made herself quite alarmed already. She backed up until she was crouching beside the green pup, looking around anxiously. "What do they look like?"
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 1:39 pm
"Well," Vashti's grin came back, "They're big, scaly, toothfilled, monsters." He was going to have some fun with this. "They sneak into your den at night, and swallow you whole." Vashti, turned, but still watched Lika. "They're also magical. They can be one place one second ... "Vashti froze, " ... and ... BOOM!" Vashti jumped to face Lika, "They're someplace else!"
Vashti walked around his newfound prey, "But there is one way you can get away from one ... " Vashti thought about this. Do I really wanna play a prank like this? He asked himself, ... yeah, yeah I do.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 1:45 pm
Lika stood there, her bright blue eyes huge with terror as the other explained. "...th-th-th-th-the...the den?" she choked, small whines starting in her throat. "B-but...but my s-s-sister sleeps in there! And...and my d-daddy!" What if one of these horrible alligator things ate Goldenpawed? Or Blackbird? What would she do?
She yelped in fright as he leaped into her face, and promptly burst into tears. "My s-s-sisters in the den!" Gigglepaws wailed, sobbing hysterically. "I...I t-told her th-that I...I d-didn't w-want to p-play with h-her 'cause...'cause she was m-mean and...and...w-what if she got eaten and she still th-thinks I h-hate her?"
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 1:54 pm
Vashti stared in disbelief, she's crying? This was an unfortunate turn of events, not to mention a major kill-joy. "Uh ... um ... don't ... cry." He walked next to her. "uhh ... Gigglepaws?" He tapped her arm, getting her attention.What was he going to do? He just wanted to have fun and this over sensitive 'Gigglepaws' is ruining it ... again!
Vashti sighed. "I didn't tell you how to prevent it yet, did I?" He lowered his head, pulling grass up from ground with his teeth. He did so until he had a pretty good sized pile. "Here's what you do," he picked up a mouthful, and threw it over his back, until his back was covered. "Remember how I said they were magical? Well so is the method of getting rid of them." He shook, and leaves, being picked up by the wind, flew away.
Even Vashti had to admit, not only was that a pretty smooth idea, its kind of a cool trick.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 2:00 pm
"N-n-no..." she sniffled when he poked her and said he hadn't told her how to get rid of them. "P-please," Lika begged, gulping on sobs. "I...I don't w-want G-goldenpawed t-to g-g-get eated!"
How could she have never known about these alligator-things? They were so terrifying, so scary, surely someone would have told her? Right? Or maybe nobody knew, because everyone who saw one got eated! Oh no!
What about her mommy? She didn't remember her too well, but she knew she had a mommy and some brothers out in the rogue lands. Lika grew hysterical again. Who would tell her brothers how to keep alligators away? What if they got eated too because she didn't know how to find them? It would be all her fault! She was such a terrible sister!
"H-h-how?" she pleaded, utterly confused by the grass. What was he doing? Didn't he know how important this was?
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 2:09 pm
Vashti threw some grass on her back. "Now hold still," he said, trying to calm her down. Doing this doesn't just protect you ... it protects your family ... or something." This was too much for Vashti, he needed an escape, primarily from this crazy emotional pup.
"Now when I give the word ... shake," Vashti imitaded the movement for her." Alligators are ... frightened ... by grass ... and when you do this ... the ... grass guardians ... protect you." Vashti liked that. It was actually kind of cool, and made sense, sort of. "Thats what happens when the grass flies away like that."
" ... wait for it ..." he waited until the wind picked up, "... wait for it ... NOW!"
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 2:15 pm
Lika froze in place as the green pup told her to. Hold still? But...okay. She could do that. She could. Lika sniffled, trying to stop crying. "Even...even if...if I d-don't re-remember th-them?" she begged when he assured her it would protect her family too. She didn't even know if she remembered her brothers' names. Niko and... and something...? Mommy was Okami, she remembered daddy telling about her. But she didn't remember her brothers either...!
She would have nodded when he explained, except he told her to hold still. Her sides shuddered with sobs that she was trying to keep quiet, because hearing about grass-guardians might be important. She about came out of her fur when he told her now, leaping and shaking violently, sending the grass all over the place.
"Is..." she gulped, "Is...is that it?" she asked him in a tiny voice, still sniffling and trying not to cry.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 2:25 pm
Wow, this girl really was ... different. "Yeah, Oh, definitely. The grass guardians know everyone, they're really really smart." This was starting to become more trouble than it was worth.
Vashti tried no to crack a smile. "Uhh ... yeah, thats it." He couldn't believe she actually covered herself in leaves, just to shake them off, what a foolish, gullible, naive little ... wait. Vashti did all that too. Maybe, just maybe she played him for the fool. Maybe she tricked him into making a fool of himself.
It wouldn't work ... well it wouldn't work again. He knew she wasn't some innocent little dog, she was cunning, she had to be in order to trick him. He began to back up again, "You think you've won this round, Gigglepaws, if that is your real name. You may have, but ... I will win the ... next ..."
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 2:28 pm
"Really?" Lika squeaked when he assured her that the grass guardians knew everyone. That was such a releif! "Oh, oh thank you!" she cried, before turning on her heel and bolting back to the pack lands. Just to double check. Salihah couldn't have gotten eated already, right???
As to Vashti's defiant comment...the little puppy was completely oblivious.
FIN
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