|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 10:01 pm
 Spring came and, with it, the two pups of Dasha and Fish Eater grew rapidly. While she didn't often spend time with her sister or their parents, Andromeda did make it a point to badger and harass the older wolves of the pack and the younglings that had been born roughly the same time as she. Currently, the young upstart was amusing herself with flowers. Rather, with stomping all over flowers and chasing off the bees. It'd become a rather amusing game to her, as it was her first time to experience such pleasures as a lazy spring afternoon and she'd never actually seen a bee before, though her mother had told her of them in broken phrases and bits of stories.
Apparently, they sting.
They seemed far too tiny to cause any great deal of pain and she found their humming amusing. It sounded almost as if they had tiny voices and were singing as they flew. It became her goal to frighten them from each flower without touching them. It was a good thing that the mischievous youngster didn't decide to make wasps her target, else she'd have had a mishap far sooner!
"Better be moving, mister beeeee, else you'll get squashed!" She tossed out her challenge as she hopped forward, sending the insect buzzing away in a hurry. Her pale paws squished the yellow flower, sending pollen and petals sidewise, into the air.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 10:18 pm
 Lokelani was bored. Bored, and aggravated, because there was never enough to do around here. Sure, everyone else was out doing interesting things -- but Loke was stuck here with her boring sister and boring mom and her boring life. She didn't want anything to do with it!
She wanted to go out and find her dad.
She wanted to go out and find her good-for-nothing father and give him a thorough dressing-down for having abandoned his family. She was young and knew very little about the details of what had transpired, but she felt quite confident that she could chastise him appropriately, if only she had the opportunity.
Problem was, she had no idea where her father was, or even who he was. And she didn't exactly have an opportunity to get out of the pack to find out on her own.
So instead, she sat a bit broodingly in a patch of wildflowers, watching with half-hearted interest as the slightly older pup attacked the bees. Her nose wrinkled. "You're just sending them to my flowers," she said, her tone droll and dry as always.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 10:32 pm
"What's gone and bit off your tail, huh?"
A wry grin inched across her dark, blue streaked muzzle as she cocked her head to one side and regarded the slightly younger pup with a cool glare. She wasn't angry, not really, though her narrowed eyes and lifting hackles might have said otherwise. Truth be told, Lokelani's ever lackluster personality just tickled her to death. She was one to egg on others and the lighter pup was just the perfect target.
"B'sides, I don't want no stinkin' bees over here and you don't own none of them flowers at all, pup." She challenged, holding her head high as she puffed out her chest. She'd rather do this than rely on stupid bees for entertainment. Hell, maybe they'd find something more amusing to do. She was bored with her sister's antics and her mother, well, her mother was just downright weird sometimes. Not that she didn't love her, no, she loved her entire family, they just didn't mesh sometimes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 10:51 pm
Loke glanced back at her tail and gave it a cursory thump as though to show that it was still very much attached. "They'll sting you, you know," she said, and then gave a broad yawn, showing all of her bright pointy puppy teeth in the process.
She looked back at Andromeda, her expression inscrutable. Then, without saying anything, she rose to her paws and carefully withdrew from the flowers, which were now buzzing with somewhat agitated bumblebees, and padded a few feet away. "You know," she said, peering down at them as they moved from blossom to blossom, slowly forgetting -- as insects are prone to do -- whatever had happened in favor of the new task at hand. "Bumblebees aren't supposed to be able to fly. They're too big for their wings. But they do it anyway, because nobody's ever told them that they can't."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 10:57 pm
"Ain't stung me yet."
She snorted indignantly, a bit peeved that her taunting and teasing only brought a yawn from the other youngster. She'd just have to try harder. The bee chasing game was almost completely forgotten as she plodded after Lokelani, a burning in her chest compelling her to continue to pester her. Why she behaved as she did, she wasn't sure. Some might blame it on her mother's blood, though she did her best to distance herself from her batty old lady.
"So? Their fat and can fly. What's that gotta do with the flowers not belonging to you, huh? You don't make any sense, you know that?" She plopped down on her rump, tail wrapped around her forepaws, as she looked over the other with scrutiny.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 11:15 pm
Her brows raised. Clearly, Andromeda was missing the point. "Funny thing for you to say," she said, dryly, in response to the comment about not making sense. "Would it help if I started referring to myself in third person and talking in half-sentences?"
Was that too mean? She pondered on that, for a moment, but let it stand. She personally didn't have any problems with Fisheater, but it was undeniable that the other wolf was weird.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 11:21 pm
Andromeda almost didn't know just how to react.
She stood still for a moment, her brow arched as she took in just what Lokelani was saying and, when it settled it, she felt anger surge through her being. She tried to bite it back, but her emotions often ruled her actions and an irritable rumble left her throat.
"Least I got both my parents around, eh?" Mean, yeah, but she wasn't sure of just what else to say and she almost immediately regretted it. She bit her lip and backed down slightly, though her fur still bristled. Should she apologize? She felt like she ought to, which was a rare feeling. She hardly knew any of what went on between the other youngster's mother and father, it wasn't her place, she merely knew that her father was distinctly absent.
"Sorry..."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 9:23 am
Loke smirked as anger rose in the other wolf. Hah. So often Andromeda tried to get a rise out of her -- it was only fair that Lokelani succeed in doing the reverse.
At the dig about her father, Loke's eye twitched and her ears swept back, but she showed no other sign of irritation. Oh, to be sure, the comment had caught her in that uneasy part of her gut where she felt all sorts of bad things, but she was capable even at a young age of holding back those emotions as they came to the surface.
Instead, she rose once more to her paws and wandered as nonchalantly as she could a small distance away, batting at a pebble with her paw. "I don't care," she said. "I have all the family I need. Too much, maybe."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 9:36 am
"Then why ya lookin' so angry all the time, huh?"
The slightly older youngster plodded after her in her typical "I am going to follow you whether you like it or not" tradition. It was just like her to be in the middle of everyone else's business and she never really did seem to understand why that sort of thing was frowned upon. Regardless, she wasn't about to let their conversation just die, even if they were making each other uncomfortable. Maybe it was Lokelani's insensitivity towards the insult that intrigued Andromeda the most. Sure, she wasn't all that close to her own family, but to just not care?
It was unfathomable in her mind.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 9:47 am
"Just because I don't wear my emotions out on my fur doesn't mean I don't have them," she replied patiently, as though she were speaking to an idiot -- which, she was starting to think, maybe she was.
She kicked a rock and it tumbled away and then disappeared. Odd, she thought, brow furrowed, and she followed it to discover that it had vanished into a hole in the ground, the bolt-exit of a rabbit warren. Intrigued, she lowered herself to her belly and thrust her nose into the opening, sniffing to see if there were any rabbit occupants left inside.
No. No rabbit scent. No scent of anything live at all, actually. How disappointing -- abandoned, just like she was.
...Whoa. Where did that come from?
The thought put Loke's teeth on edge. Maybe Andromeda's comment had dug deeper than she'd thought, or maybe her largely repressed emotions were just festering -- but she couldn't help but realize that deep down inside, she was very angry, and it surprised her to see the emotion, as though it wasn't even a part of herself.
"Do you ever want to leave here?" She asked, suddenly and a bit impulsively. "For an adventure?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 10:01 am
Loke was treading on her patience, though Andromeda fought to keep from showing such things. She sat impassively as the other youngster inspected the bolt hole quietly. She'd never really been one of social prowess, perhaps inherited from her mother, and thus was not exactly sure just how to continue. Part of her wanted to end it there and then. It wasn't really any of her business. But then why did it feel as though her rear was melded with the earth?
And then, suddenly, she was speaking again.
"Well, sure, sometimes. We'll be old 'nough to go out on raids soon, I reckon. Does get kinda boring just sitting around waiting to grow up, though. Why, you ever thought of just up and leaving?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 10:10 am
"All the time," she admitted, with more earnestness and honesty than she had intended to allow in her voice. She felt dangerously close to showing the older pup the full range of her emotions -- limited though they were -- and she wasn't quite ready for that.
But, well, the cat was out of the bag. Might as well go with it for now. "I think we're plenty old enough," she said. "How else do you prove that you're ready if you don't....go out and prove yourself?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 10:40 am
She was surprised. Whether it was pleasantly so or not was up for debate. This sort of conversation was, well, unusual to say the least. Typically, their repertoire consisted of harassing and insulting each other, not heart to hearts. She really wasn't sure she knew how to react and, uncharacteristically, she felt unsure of herself.
"Well, we ain't done growing yet, for one thing. What if we got into a fight what we couldn't handle, being only half size? That sure wouldn't end well, I imagine. You got a point, though, I suppose. Why, you gonna?" And suddenly, a fiendishly awful idea felt as though it was sneaking into her brain. She bit her lip lightly. It was a bad idea, she knew it was a bad idea, and yet she wanted so badly to spit it out.
"But maybe t'gether we equal a full size wolf, if ya know what I mean."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 10:46 am
Loke withdrew from the rabbit-hole and puffed up to her full height. "I can take whoever comes my way," she said, confidently -- perhaps over-confidently -- and her eyes sparkled with a sudden and uncharacteristic enthusiasm.
"Precisely." Ahh, there -- Andromeda was catching on. She met the other's eyes, ears swept back in contemplation. As annoying as the pup was, Loke's selection of potential friends was quite limited, and she new a possible ally when she saw one. "Amarie wants to meet our dad," she said, casually. "And I wouldn't mind giving him a piece of my mind, too."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 9:45 pm
Lokelani's behavior was strange, to say the least, and Andromeda wasn't exactly sure just how she felt about that, yet. On one paw, it was exciting to have her just as eager to go and do as she was, on the other, well... It was just downright strange. Still, if the other youth was willing to set aside their differences for a taste of adventure, Andromeda was not one to turn away. Besides, they'd have to be seen as capable adults when they returned to the pack and it was that which spurned her on more than anything. She wanted to go on a raid with the pack's adults, not stay in the main densite with her babbling bother.
"P'shaw, he deserves it. I'm all for going, ready to get out 'n taste the wild a bit. Ain't gonna get much done just sitting around here twiddling my paws 'n chasing bees, eh? You got a game-plan in mind?" She leaned forward slightly, ears pricked with obvious curiosity.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
