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 Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:49 pm
"Kanti...KANti....KANTI!" Called a woman's voice above the crowd of people that meandered along the sidewalks and shop-fronts of town.
"Whhaatttt!?" A girl's voice popped up from alongside one of the brick buildings.
The black eared werewolf pushed her way through the throng of bodies before finally pressing herself against the same wall as the orange-haired girl. "This place is a mad-house. I thought it'd be less crowded..."
"They all got the same idea as us...only they walk ten times slower..."
"Where's your brother?"
"Uh...."
"OSSSOOOO!!" Both females called at same time, hands cupped over their mouths. They ignored the annoyed looks from passer-bys due to their calling.
"Yeeeeeeaaahh?" Osso sideled up next to the pair, fluffy, pale, blonde hair falling into his face like always.
"We're going somewhere less crowded," replied Azumi as she lowered her hands and looked directly at the Mishap....god he was getting tall.
The three soon squeezed themselves off the sidewalk and into the icey street where cars were actually quite scarce these days.
"Where to?" The blonde woman asked, but only received a couple of shrugs. "You're a lot of help...."
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 8:08 pm
Perfect. Juuuuuust perfect.
Wraith sighed as he huddled in a blissfully abandoned doorway on a blissfully abandoned street, feeling the warmth of the shop pulsing at his back, tiny wings furled beneath his jacket to escape the miserable cold invading every tiny crack in exposed scales. "Oh, gods, it's cold," he grumbled, shoving both gloved hands into his pockets and wishing that he weren't so cold-blooded, even if it didn't happen to be in the literal sense.
Sadly, Odnako seemed to be faring no better than her larger, surlier 'bodyguard.' Clad in a small but remarkably heavy down coat and thick pants the same pink as the average stick of bubblegum, her ears poking miserably out from beneath a dome-shaped hat three sizes too big and her hooves trapped in tiny, equally ill-fitting mittens, the tiny deer-child was not at all pleased with how the day had thus gone.
Woken at a miserable hour somewhere close to nine, only moments after she had gone to sleep (or so it felt), stuffed into this ridiculous get-up (as Jou had so kindly put it as she was dragged out the door), and then forced to wear a leash...it was simply undignified!!
... ... ... buuuut at least she had her plushie.
Gurgling happily to herself where she sat on the step, the fawn buried her face in the poof's chest, loving the warmth that breathed back against her face, Nako rocked easily back and forth, forth and back, tiny hooves clicking softly under layers of yarn as they crossed over the toy's fluffy back.
"...oh, just fantastic," Wraith growled, watching a trio of unfamiliar faces appear around the corner. "Great. Just great. Come on, Nako; let's get out of here." Without waiting for a reply, the half-dragon jerked hard on the child's leash, taking off at a sharp clip along the nearly empty street --
Torn from her place by a sudden snap on her tether, the fawn went careening off the steps, all four limbs flailing for purchase in mid-air even as she went sprawling unceremoniously across the sidewalk.
Half of her wanted to cry as she picked herself up and pawed at the pain in her chin.
...the other half wanted vengeance.
Either way, the response was the same.
Chin scuffed and Poof gone, Odnako opened her mouth wide and shrieked to the overcast sky.
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 9:42 pm
"Osso!"
"Osso, where are you going!?"
The calls danced around the empty frozen street behind the boy's back, the words sounding like mush and lacked a need to be understood or heeded, and thus were completely ignored.
A black and white hand gingerly thrusted the brown plush toy near the currently screaming child's face. Ice stuck to its fur, and its limbs were a little dirty from landing on the street, but otherwise the toy was completely intact and fine. "Odnako," Osso said as he crouched down, toy still out for the babe to grab when she wanted to.
"Os....so?" Kanti let her words fade out as she came to a sliding halt a few feet behind her sibling. Her amber eyes looked to each individual; the unknown man, he screaming kid who made her ears hurt, and her brother. In a state of loss, Kanti looked over her shoulder at her guardian way back behind her....though Azumi only shrugged at the girl.
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:20 pm
Grit and cold and soft fur and faint warmth pressed against her face. For an instant Odnako's shrieking intensified, shaking the clouds hanging so low in the sky and threatening to heap snow down upon her head...
...and in the next instant she was silent, mittened hoof pawing at the ice and dirt clinging obstinately to the plush's fur before burying her face once more in its fur, gurgling a rumbling mutter as she tugged it closer. "Puff," she mumbed faintly. "Puff Puff Puff."
It took a long moment for her to lift her eyes again, staring balefully at the skeletal face that peered back at her. White bone, pale hair...hmm. He looked so strangely...familiar...
Velvety ears flicked forward at the strange cheetah-child's call. "O...so...?" That was...that was familiar...but from where? Face buried deep in tufts of dirty fur, dark eyes bright and cold, she stared long and hard at that strange face, trying to place it from a long ago memory...
"Who are you and what do you want?" It figured, it really did: first the interruption, then the screaming, then this. Above all things, Wraith did not want to deal with people. "Thank you for getting her to shut up, but we really have to get going." Tugging sharply on the leash, the half-dragon turned. "Come on, Nako, let's get going. NOW, please."
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Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:17 am
Osso looked up sharply as the man's sharp words hit his ears. Hollow gaze narrowed for a second before smarty words flew from his mouth, "going without have your question's answered?"
The boy stood up from her previous crouched position and crossed his arms over his chest, though not in a defiant action. "My name's Osso and I was giving my friend back her toy," though it didn't look like he did, Osso glanced down at Nako for a moment before giving his full, empty, stare back at the man. "Now I'll ask you the same question, but with some difference to it; Who are you and what are you doing? I met Nako when I was younger and her guardian was a woman named Gray, not you."
The boy's companions said not a word and moved not an inch as they watched, almost intently, at the scene unfolding.
((eh, sort of sucky response o-o; ))
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Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 1:10 pm
Wraith was impatient. It was clear and sharp in every line of his body. Introductions, answers, it was all just an instinct, a formality at best for the testy dragon as he froze slowly to the core in the ice-clad street.
"I'd love to leave without getting my questions answered, yes," he replied smoothly, a pale sneer creasing the delicate scales of his face. "In all honesty, I'd rather just leave and be done with it." Osso's questions sent cold ears pressing sharply back against pale hair, the very points of his fangs glittering against his pale lip. "I don't know any Crow," the half-dragon growled. "And I certainly never thought that Nako could have friends, little monster that she is. "If you have to know, my name is Wraith, and Odnako here was shoved on me a few months back. I didn't ask for her, I didn't want her, but apparently she's my responsibility. Now, if you'll excuse us..."
As he turned, his pale gaze caught Kanti's stare. "What're you lookin' at?"
Osso...Osso...that name rings bells...
Odnako stared long and hard at the pale, skeletal face whose stare -- well, she figured it was a stare, despite the hollow eyes -- was fixed so intently on the evil dragon she was bound and determined to slay as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Could she have met this Osso character before...? He certainly seemed familiar enough...though big. Very big. She couldn't remember many people like him that big. But he said they'd met...
Hmmm. Odd.
(XD Don't worry about it! I thought it was fine. <3)
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Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:07 am
Kanti continued to stare for a moment after the man's comment. "You and your height...I think I'm taller than you," the child commented as she mimicked the sneer he had given her brother a few minutes before.
Osso raised a brow at the pale-eyed man. Though he did not outwardly show it at this time, he was quite in disbelief and unsure is it was true or not...howeber, he figured, Kanti probably would've called him out on it had he lied... ... Still, though, it didn't offer much comfort.
"Almost everyone's capable of having friends. I'm sure even someone who's as pissy as you are has them, though whether you decide to call them by that is your decission."
Osso crouched down infront of Nako and let his fingers gingerly lift the leash a little by where it was connected onto the smaller child. "...I find people behave better when they're treated like people and not pets..." When he finished, the Mishap reached into his coat and extracted something which glinted black and silver. A second later the leash connecting his friend and the man was severed.
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Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:15 am
Wraith rolled his eyes. "Real mature. Height jabs. At least I don't have gaudy make-up built into my genes."
...yeah, Wraith. What was that about maturity?
The half-dragon's sharp ears tucked back into his hair at Osso's sharp chiding, narrow eyes cold and bright. "I don't like people," he growled. "People don't like me. It's a good system and it works. Besides, I'm not treating Nako as a pet, it's the only way -- "
And then he realized, with a sickening chill. that the leash was no longer attached.
A series of muffled curses colored the silence.
It took only an instant for Odnako to realize that her bond had been mercifully severed. In that instant she was up and off, careening about the alley with her legs kicked high before taking her joyous frolic down toward the busy street beyond.
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Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:27 am
Kanti only giggled at the man's comeback before she watched the deer babe run off. "OSSO!"
"Chill out, Kanti," the skeletal boy said as he stood up and put the knife back.
"But there are cars up there, Osso!"
"I already know what's going to happen, she won't get hurt. She'll bound across after two cars go by, then get scared out of her wits or something when one almost hits her, and then sit on the otherside of the street, on the sidewalk, like a deer in headlights. No pun intended." The boy spoke calmly, his attention seemingly not even on the now bounding deer child or the whirring road beyond.
Kanti looked at him, then over her shoulder at her mother who was still standing in the same spot as before, arms across her chest.
Azumi only nodded. The Noir knew of her boy's accuracy, and usually of his reasons behind his actions...that and she knew he would never ever put a friend, or almost any other person, in harm.
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Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:47 am
...was that laughter...?
Whatever sharp snarl the dragon might have considered was lost in an instant as Odnako went leaping her way off toward the busy street. "NAKO!!"
...it felt so strange, getting worked up about a child that he hardly knew. Even as rust-colored wings filled the alley and he took off, there was a curious sense of detachment: was this really him? Was he really doing this? Had something happened while he wasn't paying attention?
...did he really care about this child?
Odnako, for her part, was quite enjoying her newfound freedom, even if it was still miserably cold; running would help to warm her up, like that shop had just a while ago.
Whatever those strange metal roaring beasts were, they weren't coming anymore; the last two had passed just as she made her flying leap from the mouth of the alley. Safe and confident, the fawn bounded giddily into the street --
The sudden blast of noise sent her skidding out of the way just as another monster came shooting out of nowhere. Stunned, terrified, the deer child fell on the sidewalk, face buried in her plushie's chest as she tried so hard to breathe and found herself unable.
"ODNAKO!!" Wings swirling the loose, gritty snow and gravel that lay mixed across the sidewalk, Wraith returned to solid ground and swept the fawn up into his arms, tucking her close to his coat, deft hands probing what little skin he could find through layers of winter wear, seeking warmth, seeking assurance that the child was still alive, somehow, someway --
The muffled shrill of displeasure that met his ears as cold scales touched her ear was more than enough to convince him that, whether he would end up liking it or not, Odnako was safe and sound. "Oh, thank the gods..."
...it felt so strange to hug her, he realized as he tucked her close into his arms. He had never done this before, and yet it somehow felt so natural...
"...come on, Odnako. Let's get you home."
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Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:02 am
Across the street and still many feet away, the gang of three had once more grouped together. They watched, but couldn't listen, and just had to guess and assume that perhaps some feelings were being figured out between the two...or at least one of them.
"Huh..."
"What?"
"It seems to have actually worked..."
The jaws of the Noir and Cheetah-child almost dropped.
"What do you mean by that?" Asked the woman, brows raised as high as they could possibly get.
"Just that I wasn't sure how the guy'd react!" Osso looked at his mother's stare. "I knew she wouldn't get hurt!" He replied in defense.
A sigh escaped both Kanti and Azumi.
"Just...don't do that again without telling me first," the Noir stated, shaking her head. With a small smile she ruffled the boy's hair, much to his protesting, and then dragged the two down the street again. They had yet to have lunch and it seemed that the two across the road would definitely not be coming back with words of thanks.
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