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 Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 4:43 pm
 Chimera wasn't entirely sure how he felt about the sudden appearance of his cousins in his den. They were younger than him, so they weren't much good for wrestling with, and they didn't seem to do much else either.
He was used to having strange pups around. His mother was, after all, the pack's nanny, so there were always the alpha's pups and even sometimes Thealia's -- although they were getting too old to spend much time around the little ones.
He was not used, however, to sharing a den with them. More importantly, he was not used to sharing his mother with them. He was more than a little hurt at the fact that he had to bundle in with his siblings while the infants lay against his own mother's side, drinking his own mother's milk. Seemed a bit unfair, really.
But Father had taken him aside, and explained it to him. That Chimera was extremely lucky, because he had two parents that loved him -- and his brothers -- very, very much and that not many other male pups in the pack could say the same. That he was safe and sound and warm and protected while his cousins were in danger of being cold and sad and lonely and hungry.
So Chimera was nice to them, because it felt a little wrong not to be.
But he still didn't like it.
Eager to keep himself distracted -- and spend as little time as possible loafing around with his infant cousins -- Chimera wriggled his way out of the den where his mother was snoozing, and decided to find some sort of adventure to occupy him. Father was nowhere to be seen just now, and it suited Chimera perfectly fine to have nobody's prying eyes following him around as he sought out entertainment. The sun was going down, but Chimera was much too brave a pup to be afraid of a little thing like the dark.
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:11 pm
To the undiscerned eye, the spastic, darting movements of the little teal puppy seemed to be nothing more than play. Up and down, around and about, and occasionally head over heels, Isobel’s little body twisted in a strange dance as her little teeth snapped the air, her back legs coiling up like springs and her olive eyes locked tightly on her self-given goal. She was glad that she was a little older now, and a little more agile on her lengthening legs, but she was still quite small - making her actions all the more appreciable, as she really was jumping magnificently in her own mind.
Isobel had come across the dying tree on one of her morning jogs, its withered silhouette just visible in the semi-gloom before the sun. It had several long, drooping limbs, and its body had been twisted by many years of strong winds into a corkscrew that, if approached correctly, could allow a small body to climb into its higher regions - though Isobel didn’t attempt this just yet, as it seemed a bit too dangerous for one as littlle as herself. It no longer bore any leaves, but had become a kind of collection for dead twigs and debris, which it held with spindly fingers like a miser and refused to let go, and its bark had become so brittle that with just the right raking of claws or fangs she could leave sizeable marks; marks that, as the days progressed, had begun to reach higher and higher along the tree’s miserable trunk. On some days Isobel would practice jumping until she could barely hold herself upright, but on others she practiced conserving her energy - after all, she thought of this tree as her own personal secret. It would do no good to anyone if she collapsed below it, or didn’t have the strength for official pack training when she was old enough. Oh, so many things for a young mind to think about!
But now, at that particular moment, Isobel was just glad to be on her own. She dearly loved every member of her family, and relished every moment she spent with them - immediately blood-related or not - but lately the den… it had been a bit crowded. Crouch…butt wiggle… LEAP! Isobel’s paws left the earth, her teeth took hold of a branch, and for a moment, she allowed herself to swing some two feet from the ground. She loved her little cousins, and her heart broke for them, so perhaps she was a bit more tolerant of sharing them with her mother than others might be -
She fell with a whumph and a shake of her head that dislodged a sprinkle of dried bark, but her train of thought still continued. They were all male, and she had been told that males were below her, but they were just… so darn cute! She couldn’t bring herself to think lowly of anything because of its gender. Another butt wiggle, her eyes locking on a new target before she bounded up once more - her paws reached upwards, found bark, and left a satisfying gouge inches higher than her last. Some females were so strange, to discard their pups just because they were male. Perhaps, when she was older, she could stop such acts… somehow.
But before she could protect anyone she would have to be much stronger. She couldn’t protect her little cousins or her brothers from cruel females like Varia when she barely reached the elbows of the adults, and she definitely couldn’t be the warrior she needed to become in order to be taken seriously, so with gusto she began backing up. One step, two steps, a handful more - she would have a running start this time, and perhaps - just perhaps - she would attempt to climb the tree.
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 10:55 pm
Chimera caught the sound of rustling and scratching nearby, and froze in his steps. What was that? Was it a monster? Was it Aunt Varia?
Oh, he hoped it wasn't.
Frozen in place, the patchy wolf focused all his senses on the area around him, hoping if it was a Varia-monster that it wouldn't see him. Which was, of course, ridiculous. Because Chimera was plenty of things, but inconspicuous wasn't one of them. Well, unless whoever was looking for him happened to be color blind. Then he was all camouflaged. But aside from that.
Wait. What was he standing around for? Oh, yeah. Focus.
His nose twitched, and the scent registered in his brain and he smiled. Oh. OH! He knew that smell. He liked that smell. It was his favorite smell in his whole family! Except maybe for mama. And sometimes daddy. But aside from that.
"Isobel?" he called, tentatively bounding forward until he'd managed to come in sight of the tree. He stopped then, a few yards away, head tilted, and flopped to his multi-hued haunches. "I heard you scratching and rustling and thought you were a monster! ....What are you doing?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 7:55 pm
Isobel was probably more surprised to hear her brother’s voice than he was at her clawing, and almost in mid-jump she found herself slamming all four paws solidly into the ground. The tree was suddenly a large object in her path that, if she wasn’t quick, she’d run smack dab into, and spinning about she turned to face her arriving brother with a look of both shock and joy on her face. Of all the puppies to stumble across her training grounds! Any other might have gotten a polite greeting, a casual explaination of her odd jumping-about, and asked to be on their way.
Not her dearest baby brother.
“Chimera!” she greeted, her paws caught up in momentum and carrying her forward a few steps. “Oh, I’m no monster! I was just…”
Isobel wasn’t against sharing her secret place with her favourite brother, and gave her little meadow a quick lookover as if to figure out where to begin. “Can you keep a secret? I found a nice, quiet place to train, right here by this tree, and so I was practicing. I’ve gotten really good at jumping - wanna see?”
She waggled her little patchy tail excitedly, prancing all about her little brother and grinning widely. Secrets were all fine and dandy, and often served a young warrior well, but sharing that secret…?
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Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:49 pm
He grinned broadly, his violet eyes flashing. Chimera didn't just love his big sister; he absolutely idolized her. "Of course I can keep your secret," he said, leaning forward, hanging on her every word.
Train? Oh, what a good idea! See, this is why Isobel was the smartest wolf in the whole pack, because she was training even before she had to! Chimera had no doubts at all that she would grow up to be the next head warrior, and he often day-dreamed about Isobel beating Aunt Varia in a fight.
Of course, if any other wolf had suggested staying up late at night to train when they didn't need to, Chimera would think they were pretty stupid.
"Show me!" he said, tail giving a series of rapid thumps behind him. "And then you can teach me, too."
The idea that when official training started Isobel and Najara would be the only ones participating had never crossed Chimera's mind.
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Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 10:21 pm
“Oh, Chimera, I’m so glad!” Isobel sang, darting out briefly to give her brother an affectionate nudge. “I was hoping you’d say that. But come and see this, see the side of the tree?”
Isobel had been told that, in this pack, only females went on to train and to be warriors - but then, she couldn’t harm anything by showing Chimera a few fun tricks. It didn’t seem quite fair to her that, when she went off to train legitimately, Chimera would be left to learn the ways of their father; what if someone bullied him too harshly? Or what if Varia caught up with him? It would break her heart to know that her brother was unskilled and couldn’t defend himself… still, she glanced around quickly to make sure no eyes were upon the teal siblings before she continued. “So, what I’ve been doing is learning how to jump high,” she said sweetly, shaking off the bad thoughts and acting like her brother’s personal trainer. “Strong legs mean faster running and better agility - you can move better and quicker if you’ve got agility. I made marks up the side of the tree to see how good I’m getting at it - see? Right there? And what you do is…”
Isobel crouched, eyed the tree steadily, and hopped up like a small teal rabbit; she scored a hit to the tree trunk with her paw, landed smartly, and gave the mark - an average one, a few marks below her highest - a discerning eye. “The idea isn’t to really get a high mark, though. It’s really good exercise and makes you stronger! Wanna try?”
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Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 12:07 am
He followed after her, nipping playfully at her tail as she took the lead. He watched patiently as she explained her training regimen, but his eyes kept drifting to the marks on the tree. She could really jump that high? That was, like, almost flying. She might as well be part bird!
His ears flicked back to his many-colored head. "I don't think I'll be very good at it," he said, uncertainly, not wanting to look dumb in front of his sister.
But he also didn't want to be the guy who never wanted to do anything fun. That was Romir's job.
Bunching up his haunches, giving his rump a few superfluous wriggles, he jumped. He didn't do too bad, honestly -- though he was barely scrabbling at her lower marks -- but he hadn't thought through the landing part of the equation, and he fell rather unceremoniously onto his rump, falling over onto his back and flailing his legs, completely disoriented.
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Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 12:21 am
Isobel was more than pleased with Chimera’s jump - she was cheering him on, proud to see her little brother trying new things, jumping just as high as she had when she first started measuring her jumps. There really wasn’t a difference in gender, it seemed, as far as a puppy’s skills were concerned - so that meant that when she was told males were the weaker gender… maybe the adults weren’t speaking of just strengths. She was certain that anything she could do, Chimera could do as well - and she would stick to that ideal, no matter what anyone tried to tell her.
But then, Chimera’s landing… Isobel gave a worried little cry, bounding forward and nuzzling Chimera all over. “Oh, Chimera, are you alright?” she whimpered, licking his face and searching all over for injuries. “Where does it hurt? Is it bad?”
She remembered her own awkward falls, and with both sympathetic and frantic attentions, she nosed her confused brother onto his belly. If he was hurt at all…
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Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 1:12 am
"Ack!" He wasn't injured -- puppy fat and the uniquely flexible bones of youth guaranteed that -- but he was confused, and the sudden appearance of a certain girl wolf in his face confused him even more. And then her muzzle all over him! Argh! He laughed, the uncomfortable hysterical laugh of a child being tickled, and for a moment he completely lost himself, oblivious to just how much noise he was making and the possibility that at any second someone might rouse from their den and come to see what all the fuss was about. "Geroff!" He said, between giggles, pawing at her; there were tears of laughter in his eyes. "I'm fine! Get off!"
He managed, with some effort, to stop the laughter -- for the most part, though the occasional giggle still broke through his defenses -- and tried to look up at her seriously.
Maybe this is why girls made better warriors?
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Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:28 pm
Isobel hadn’t meant to tickle her brother; all she really wanted was to assure herself that he was as fine as he claimed to be. But when he laughed and wiggled and thrashed about in response to her little wet nose… well, it was sort of like a game now! And it would have been an incredibly fun one, too, but between Chimera’s loud shrieking and her own building laughter, she knew she would either have to forfeit her secret place or continue tickling him later. When he pushed against her she flopped back, giving a little squealing giggle and promptly pressing her paws over her nose. “Shh, shh!” she whispered, bright eyes glowing. “Okay, alright, if you say you’re fine, then you must be. Kay, Chimera?”
The ‘serious’ look on his face was just too precious, however, and the more he tried, the more she wanted to break into hysterics. Everything he did would forever be adorable in her eyes, but not wanting to hurt his feelings any, she tried to make her own face somewhat like his. “We gotta be a bit more careful, or else someone might find us!” she whispered, lowering herself onto her belly and leaning forward with her new secret. “I didn’t know you were so ticklish, though! I’m gonna remember that, Chimera!”
She grinned with a mix of deviousness and affection; but mostly, she was just relieved.
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Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 3:05 pm
He had to keep his jaws tightly clamped to keep the laughter from bubbling out again, and he looked fairly ridiculous doing it as his cheeks puffed up like little frog jowls in the process. But he swallowed back the last of his giggle-fit and pulled himself dignifiedly to his paws. "Ok. Okay." He said, and it wasn't entirely clear what part of what she'd said -- if any of it -- he was agreeing to. He stuck his tongue out at her when she said she'd remember his ticklish spot -- oh, he bet she would, but he'd get her back somehow! -- but didn't respond.
He looked back to the tree. "I'll try again," he said. "No laughing this time. For serious, now." He glanced over his shoulder at her, and cracked a smile, and then sprang upward again.
This time he didn't make it up quite as high as he had the first time, but he did at least manage to land on all four paws without rolling over, which was a pretty good accomplishment if he did say so himself. All the hopping made his legs hurt, though. Much moreso than running. He could see why Isobel had started doing this -- it really did seem to be a good work out. "There. See?"
His tongue lolled out of his jaws, unbidden, and he backed away from the tree. "What else do you do?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:16 pm
Ah, now Isobel was the picture of true solemnity, despite the absolutely precious face Chimera made as he found his feet. She would give him a bit of room this time, and restrain herself from pouncing if he fell down again, backing up slowly and approving of his new technique. The aim of the game really was for repetitiveness, not height, and so when Chimera refrained from leaping as far as he would go, she gave an appreciative nod; when he landed safely, she knew that it was because he had figured out for himself what his limits were. She hoped that he would continue to get better and stronger, though she had absolutely no plans for letting any of the adults know. “That’s the way, Chimera! Just like that. Isn’t it kinda fun?”
She danced up to his side to congratulate him with a playful pawing, then sat at his side and looked up at her tree. “Well… sometimes, if I think I can jump high enough, I like to grab onto one of the lower branches and dangle there as long as I can. That makes your jaws stronger.” She let her eyes fall on the branch she had caught earlier, not surprised to see it was gouged with scores of puppy chew marks. “But someday, I think I’ll be able to actually climb this tree. See how it leans? It would be good for learning balance if I could get up there, but I also don’t want to fall. can you imagine trying to explain those scraped to mother and father?”
Isobel giggled, but all the same, she let her paws take her to the trunk - right where it would be possible to climb. “What do you think? Could I climb this?”
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:26 pm
His tail wagged at her praise; being complimented by Isobel was pretty much on-par with receiving high praise from the ruler of the universe, so he was feeling pretty good about himself.
As he listened to her, he carefully considered all the hard work she was doing. There was no way he could do all that! He tried to imagine dangling by his full weight from just his jaws and the idea made his teeth hurt. "I don't think you'd get in trouble or anything," he said, in regards to the potential tree-climbing injuries. "They'd probably be really proud of you. I'd get in trouble if it was me, but not you."
He followed her to the tree and sniffed at it curiously. Did wolves climb trees? He'd never heard of that, but then, if anybody could do it Isobel could. "I bet you could. But how would you get back down?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 11:00 pm
“Hmm. I do suppose you’re right… though it doesn’t seem much fair that you’d be the one to get into trouble.”
She knew it would be her baby brother to take some sort of ‘stern talking-to’ if he was the one to brawl up that trunk - because males had no reason to go climbing trees, right? But… and she only pondered this for a moment - their father did a lot of cleaning-up around the pack, that was his job - so what if something dangerous was hanging from a tall branch? When Chimera was older (and if such a threat happened to occur), wouldn’t he be praised for thinking outside the box? Mmm. She shook her head, not really wanting to deal with the future at the moment - what with it being so far away, and so uncertain. “I’m really glad you thought of that,” she continued, smiling softly at Chimera and shaking her head. “I don’t know how I’d get back down. Maybe I could jump… unless I get too high, then I’d have to climb backwards… Oh, that sounds really hard!”
But now, Isobel was curious. While she knew better than to try to climb alone… Chimera was here. And Chimera was a very smart puppy, who could possibly help her by giving her a view from the ground, and warn her of any troubles she might come across… and if push came to shove, well. Baby brothers were a lot softer than the ground.
With a devilish grin and a waggle of her bottom, Isobel bounded forward - and started a rather careful ascent, pretending that for the moment, she was part-squirrel.
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Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 12:05 pm
"Climb backwards," he said, brow furrowed. that didn't seem quite right. "No...I think you'd have to, like....slide. Sounds splintery."
His nose wrinkled, and he was so busy caught up thinking about the strange intricacies of that question that he hardly noticed that she was getting ready to go up. "...You're doing it?" He asked, uneasily. The whole thing had sounded like a shoe-in when it was theoretical, but....oh, there she went.
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