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 Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 11:24 pm
 Spring had finally arrived, though it would have been hard to tell by looking at the moutain terrain if one wasn't familiar with the land. Briar trailed along under the stern-looking conifers that had been the only bit of green during the long months of snow. Tree branches painted severe pictures against the blue sky with branches still mostly bare, but by the time summer started up he knew the forest would be a riot of green. Already the underbrush was kicking it's growth up a notch.
He sighed. The landscape looked so beautiful to him, and he wished he had someone he could share it with. He could point out the tiny buds of flowers sitting in the rare sun spots, ready to open any day now and display their colors like a jewel sitting in a beam of light made specially to uplift the soul. Time baby animals would be emerging into the world soon. The scent of newly growing things had begun to filter through the sharp smells of winter.
There was a lot he could have pointed out, but there wasn't anyone around to point all this stuff out too. Briar wasn't even certain if anyone else could really appreciate the beauty of his mountain home anyway, where it was always cool and spring got a late start. It wasn't easy living and heavenly flowerbeds, but that only made it even more lovely to the sleddog fox.
For some time now he'd found himself silently wishing for a....a companion of sorts. Someone he could be friends with. It was a common enough thought, though he had so few social skills he wasn't sure what he would have done if a potential friend did show up in front of him.
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 12:22 am
 Vixen was not paying much attention to her surroundings. She was deep into a game of tag with a passing butterfly. It seemed to be a very circular game, what with the butterfly moving in seemily geometric patterns, but they were still headed in a...general direction. The passing of winter and the Christmas holidays made Vixen a little sad, but Spring was on its way, as evidenced by her new friend, the butterfly, so Vixen was in a good mood.
The jingling of her harness always preceeded her, especially at times like this when she was bouncing around like a kit and having a good 'ol time being silly. The butterfly flew off suddenly and came to land on the nose of a male fox that Vixen hadn't even noticed during her game. The male was varying shades of olive, had a curly tail she'd never seen on any other fox, and...and he was wearing a harness like her! Well, without the bells.
"Oh, well hi!" she called out, giving a happy leap and tinkling her bells again.
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 12:37 am
It would have been fairly accurate to say Briar was a bit startled at the moment. His first clue that something was off with his usual world was the jingling sound. It was actually a very pleasant noise, almost like birdsong but with a very limited amount of notes.
The butterfly wasn't anything new, nor was having it land on him. Apparently he smelled nice or the sprig of holly that remained tucked behind his ear was irrestable, because he got a lot of visits from nectar collectors.
In the amount of time it took to take a single breath was when then next anomiliy sprang in. Literally. Briar's head reared back in surprise, startling the butterfly off his nose and onto the tip of his left ear.
It wasn't just the appearance of a stranger, which would have been puzzling enough for the solitary fox. It wasn't even the tiny little stub of a tail, since he was used to thinking of his kind as a norm and small tails were expected. Even if they didn't curly over one's back. The harness, if somewhat different from his own, only enforced the feeling of kinship.
No, it was the set of perfectly branching antlers set firmly into the female's head that threw him. Antlers were things he associated with male deer, not female foxes. It left him a bit taken aback, and not really sure what to say. "Ah, h-hello," he managed, trying to arrange his face into some sembalance of politeness.
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 4:31 pm
Vixen paused for a heartbeat. She knew that not every fox accepted her because she looked like a deer, food to most foxes. Still, she was also aware that sometimes the reactions other foxes had were based in surprise, not malice. And, being ever the optimist, she always decided to give a new fox the benefit of the doubt.
Tilting her head back and to the side, pulling the points of her antlers away from the new fox to make him more comfortable, Vixen smiled at the other. "Sorry I startled you. I didn't realize anyone was around...I was distracted by the butterfly." Vixen gave a small laugh and pranced, setting off her bells again.
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 7:00 pm
"I...see," he said, drawing out the second word a bit as the meaning processed through his brain. Yes, he knew foxes liked to chase things for fun, and butterflies were included in that. And yes, he knew that chasing for fun wasn't always limited to kit activity. But knowing and knowing were different things, and Briar hadn't even actually seen an adult engaging in what his parents told him was the act of an extreme airhead that would amount to nothing in life.
But then, Briar had been trying to teach himself that most of what his parents had said was wrong.
He cleared his throat and nodded his head, dislodging the butterfly yet again; this time it tried landing on the top of his curly tail. "I'm glad you weren't so distracted that you didn't spot when it landed on me," he said, his baritone voice polite. A touch of humor could be heard in the next, "I enjoy learning new things but I do not think being able to tell, from personal experience, just what it feels like to be on the business end of some very impressive antlers."
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Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 2:34 pm
Vixen shrugged at the tone of his first comment. She was alone...a lot and she probably didn't act like most foxes, but then she wasn't like most foxes, so there wasn't much point as far as she could see.
"I'd never give another fox an example of what my antler points feel like. Unless they were trying to hurt me or mine." Vixen assured the male. She was unbelievably weary of having other foxes afraid of her antlers. "And I always pay attention, even when I'm playing silly kit games." She said sheepishly, pawing at the ground.
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 12:07 am
Briar watched the vixen paw at the ground, and from the way she was holding herself could instantly sympathize with her mood. The feeling of being scolded over something that was not one's fault, or even something one could help, was something he was all to intimate with. The fact that he'd caused another fox to feel this way left him a little horrified.
Actually, the internal dilemna might have been amusing in other circumstances. The vixens mood had him feeling instantly protective, but he was the one to cause this. So what, he was protecting her from himself. Yes, hilarious.
Briar tried to salvage the situation. "I believe you," he said, voice kind and ringing with sincerity. "It was merely an attempt at humor than an implication that you are careless." He paused to make a face, pulling his head closer to his body and glancing towards the ground. "I do not appear to make good jokes."
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 1:08 pm
"Oh, a joke." Vixen said, laughing a little. "Sorry, I'm...not real used to company. Sometimes I miss some crucial social cues." She nodded and recalled his complement. "And thanks for thinking my antlers are impressive, many foxes think they're...ah, something to be avoided."
"Speaking of oddities, I've never seen a fox with a tail like yours before. And I've only ever seen one other fox with a harness." Vixen said, remembering Dasher.
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Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:45 am
Briar thought about it for a moment. "I have heard that male Daevas possess a single horn of their own, though I've never seen one in person. It shouldn't be unreasonable to assume that they aren't the only ones within a species to have such ornaments. Perhaps it's not so much that you have antlers that makes other foxes, er....nervous so much as the concept that such a thing could be possible had never entered their thoughts."
Briar hoped he wasn't boring the female with his speculations. He seemed to always follow one of two trends though. Either he didn't say enough, or he said too much. Or at least that's how it felt to him. He felt his face heat up a little with self-consciousness, and hastened to answer the questions originally asked of him.
"Ah, that. I'm part of another subspecies, the common term being "dogfox". We think our ancestors were orginally befriended by dogs, tame and trained by humans for pulling sleds in the snow, and we ended up breeding with them and helping humans in turn. It's just a theory, though," he added, thoughtfully. "We're all on excellent terms with humans in the polar regions, though, and we are all born with harnesses that mark us friends and allies. I've never personally been involved with humans, but I've heard of a tribe that has races in winter and makes delieveries for the local towns."
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2011 3:06 pm
Vixen nodded. "Maybe. I don't really know if it's fear or just because I'm different. However, the result is the same...they seem very uncomfortable around me." Vixen shrugged and smiled. "There are others like me though, so I'm sure there are foxes out there who don't mind the antlers at all." She pointed out, shaking her antlers slightly.
"A dogfox, huh? And I'm a deerfox." She let out a little giggle. "That's why we have harnesses too. I think our ancestors befriended this one human who lived far to the North. He is supposedly one of the nicest humans in existence, though I've never met him personally."
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2011 10:33 pm
Briar smiled. "One of the nicest humans in existence, eh? Odd, how all the humans we strange foxes have befriended all live up in the north. Perhaps the area is just a friendly one." It was amusing too, and even made Briar cucked a little.
"I do not think I have introduced myself," he said, when the chuckled died. "My name is Briar."
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 9:41 pm
"I'm Vixen." She said, wagging her little stub of a tail and causing her bells to tinkle cheerfully again. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Briar." She said, remembering her manners far more easily than remembering how to recognize a joke.
"You come from the north? I have to admit, I haven't traveled too far north, though I've heard it's very snowy up there." Vixen nodded before pausing and holding her antler away from Briar again. She didn't want to scare him off now that they were having a conversation.
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Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 12:21 am
Briar smiled encouragingly. He might never be adept in social graces, but somehow he always managed to make the kindest expressions. Perhaps that was a reason for his akwardness, that others expected he would be nicer than he was and he fumbled a bit trying to meet expectations he wasn't comfortable with. He'd certainly considered the matter before.
Vixen didn't seem to expect a lot from him, though. If anything she was trying to be careful with him. He appreciated the sentiment, though hopefully she wouldn't feel so conscious of her antlers around him. Once the first shock of seeing them was over, they really weren't all that bad...
"I don't come from the far north. We had a lot of snow, but we had the other seasons as well," he said. "There are some places so far north that I hear there is always snow on the ground." Another smile made his lips twitch. "It sounds as though it would be quite cold in a place like that."
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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 7:03 pm
Vixen nodded and grinned back at him. "Yeah, it wounds really cold. I've gotten so used to living here, where it's relatively warm most of the time. I don't think I could survive in the far far North. Snow is great, I love snow, but it's all the better because it only comes around once a year."
The fluffy stuff that came earliest in the winter was her favorite. It was light and easy to jump through, and even better to play in. Especially when she got down on her belly and slid down a hill like she used to with her daughter.
"How about you? What's your favorite time of the year?" She asked.
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Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 2:16 am
Briar tilted his head and gave the question a moment of thought. "Autumn, I think," he said. "I love the way the air smells kinda smoky, and how everything gets very colorful right before all the color disappears. That and you can find some really tasty things to eat, and lots of things to make comfortable dens with right before the air gets cold. Snow is even more fun to play in when you have a warm place to return to afterwards."
A tiny smile played on Briar's lips. That was probably one of the longer answers he had given to another in quite some time.
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