Post by Althaea on Jun 20, 2013 3:30:42 GMT -5
Nanahi, female Wolf Pup
Strife, female Wolf Pup
Dense Undergrowth
The leafy undergrowth is nearly smothering in its denseness here - almost impossible to navigate without some sense of where you want to go. Untended foliage grows thick and wild due to the nourishing river nearby, heavy brush blocking off most easy paths through the area. Tall trees surround the beaten path on all sides, crowded with overgrown shrubbery, thick with ivy vines, thorns, and a multitude of bitter berries and stinging nettles. In an area where the ground slopes slightly above the normal level, a well-hidden hole can just barely be spotted, likely leading into a den.
The Queen of the Forest was having a bad day. She had been confined to her hollow, dirt packed prison for almost thirty minutes now, and the outrage of it all was just too much to handle. HER: locked away underground like a common rabbit? NONSENSE! Can the ground keep a bird locked to its soil? Can the river trap every drop of rain? ABSOLUTELY NOT! And she was NOT going to lay down and let this stupid concept of a "Time Out" keep her in this hellhole! Growling (At nothing in particular) Nanahi suddenly turns and bolts the entrance. FREEEEEEDOMMMMMMMM!
In-out-in-out. That's what has made up today's activities, for Strife anyway. Her mom apparently taking a breather outside and dad watching from just outside. Its been rather fun avoiding contact with him but surely her luck would soon run out. Till that she takes advantage of the situation. That is until her sister comes barreling past her. Was that.. Turning about Strife makes after her wayward sibling. "Hey, where you going?"
"Where am I going?" Nanahi stops dead in her tracks, spraying loose soil in front of her and turns slowly...dramatically... "Freedom, sister....Freedom." She whispers the last word like it's some magical, fantastic, ethereal spell. However, her tough exterior cracks with the snap of a twig out of earshot and she hits the ground. "Was that mom? Where'd she go?!" Looking left, then right, then left again, and then bolting towards Strife. "RUN RUN RUN!"
Strife head tilts rather confused. Freedom? Nanahi actually think they were stuck here did she. Sure mom was out and dad, well, he's somewhere, but that doesn't mean their being held captive in this dirt enclosure. Peering out past her sister, just as she bolts toward her, the pup chuckles. No way was she going to run, not this close to the den. Stepping outside the confounds she yips in excitement. Hassler's going to be so jealous he's missing out. "Lets go check it out."
"Come ON Strife! If mom catches me out I'm...I'm..." she can't quite get the word choice correct and merely shudders. "Don't go TOWARDS the sound! It could be mom!" Dad wasn't an issue, him she could deal with...it was mom - scary, scary mommy. "Let's GO!" kicking up the leaves behind her, Nanahi rushes to try to pull Strife in the direction she wants - escape into the brush, ESCAPE!
If it wasn't for the fact she was larger than her sister, Nanahi's attempt to pull her along would be a success. Pulling against such attempts however, Strife's paws slide across the ground. "What if its not mom. You be all scared for nuttin." A big grin is plastered over her face all the while curious to what makes her sister in such a hurry to hide. Starting to pull back now, "Quit being a baby, lets go check it out." Maybe they could crouch through the brush the whole way..
Nanahi narrows her eyes and grumbles incoherently at Strife before harrumphing and running on ahead of her sister. "I am NOT a baby!" She's totally like, almost less of a baby than she was 2 months ago! That has to mean something. "If it's mom I'll never forgive you!" With a final hmph she takes off towards the brush, fur all a bristle ready to bite at the toes of whatever she runs into!
Strife chuckles and knew that would get her going. "I know your not, but got you to go didn't I." Yup, name calling always works. Staying behind for only a moment to watch her sister take toward the sound in a false act of braveness, she snickers then steps forward to follow. "I hope its a bug.. or a rabbit." Yeah, she's seen plenty of those running about when she was younger.
"If it IS a rabbit I'll catch it all on my own and you can't have ANY!" Yeah...totally gonna happen... Crashing into the undergrowth (her smell self disappearing entirely into the leafy, grassy, prickly world that her parents could float through without a passing glance; but to little Nana, it was a jungle in and of itself. "Well are you coming or not? Maybe YOU'RE the big baby!"
Aww, how mean. Glaring at Nanahi thinking she's unfair, Strife bolts ahead diving in to the brush like it were an ocean of leaves. If it really is a rabbit she was going to get to it first. Back hair sticking out just a smidgen through their cover, the pup barks. "I just wanted to see how far you'd go be yourself." Pretty far it would seem as she actually lost her little sister in the brush. "Race you!" Picking up the pace she hopes not knowing where Nanahi is doesn't work against her.
REALLY, doesn't work against her...muahaha! Nanahi, stopping to let her sister catch up with her, doesn't speak up when Strife runs past her. It is time for revenge! Creeping quietly (as she can), Nanahi stalks her sister through the growth - nearly losing her once or twice - before crouching to make her move. It is over in a violent flash of black fur and tiny white teeth. "STRIIIIFE!"
Strife runs till she is just about out of the brush, skidding to a stop which ultimately puts her right in the path of her sisters vengeful teeth. Rolling right out into the open, a large ball of black fur, Strife meeps grabbing onto her sibling. Coming to a stop in a fit of laughs she calls out. "I win!" Letting go and getting to all four, it does even hit her that she's now not just a target to her sister but to whatever else is out there too, grring playfully.
Nanahi doesn't seem to care that they're in the open, unprotected, now either. Can't be that bad, right? They aren't that far away from the den anyway! Er...right? "Yeah RIGHT!" the black pup screeches, grinning as she goes into a play bow - tail wagging hard enough to register on the richter scale - and rushes her sister again. Never one to give up (especially when she isn't the one winning) she wasn't going to let that BLATANT inaccuracy mar her (almost) perfect record of triumph.
Tail wagging in short bursts, Strife drops down herself in the same manner; waiting and watching. A bit delayed to act when Nanahi springs forward, she just manages to avoid with a scooch backward rising onto her hindquarters and pummeling her sibling from above like a large black blanket. "Hah!" There she tries to chew on Nana's ears.
ANYTHING BUT THE EARS! Crying out in indignant dismay, the little bundle of fluff wriggles and squirms, trying to free herself. She is smaller and struggles to free herself from the clutches of DEATH. IT. SELF. Nipping at anything available to her she attempts to get one of her sister's back paws in her teeth to try to flip Strife off of her. The noise they had heard earlier returns, a twig crackling somewhere off to the right - but why should she care? Chances are, it's nothing. "Y'r gu'n payrrr!" She grunts behind a mouthful of sister.
Death. It. Self. That has a nice ring to it and Strife would represent it well if it wasn't for the fact she's not out to kill anyone, just mess them up some. Reaching for one ear then the other, she nips wetting the hair there before letting go to adjust herself. Doing so however causes Nanahi to gain the paw she seeks and immediately she tries to pull it away. The crackling draws Strife's gaze upward, a very stupid thing to do when your one paw down, but is ripped away as she flys off to the side losing her balance. Ack! Umph! That hurts.
YES! Taking the advantage and not letting it go, Nana rolls over onto her sister yowling and howling for all she's worth. The whole world will know of this victory! She was becoming aware of a growing sense of unease that she couldn't quite place, but ignoring it, she continues to pummel her sister. "Say I win!"
For the moment the broken twig is driven from her mind as Strife lets out a yip. Oh no, this cant be! How will she ever live it up when Hass finds out. She'll be laughed at. Pushing up with all four paws at whatever parts of her sister she can reach, she reaches her muzzle up, "Never!" and nips at Nana's chest fur. Never go down without a fight, never give in.
Reckless as the pups are, they continue to underestimate the crackling and snapping. As luck would have it, the shuffling in the brush was not what they should have worried about but what they could not see or hear that lurked above them. It was the fierceness of their play fighting that saved them from first strike, a rough and tumble accidental escape from the large owl just starting its' hunt. A wolf - even a pup - shouldn't be a part of an owl's meal, but they can be creatures of advantage. Strife and Nanahi were helpless, not paying attention, but after his first strike merely grazed Nana's back, they knew he was there now. Nana yells despite herself, perfectly content to fight fake danger but, of course, she has never seen REAL danger before. "RUN, STRIFE, RUN!" Shaking like a leaf, she tries to bare her teeth and growl at the owl, ready to protect herself and her sister...or, at least, try to protect them.
While Strife was large and often at times powering, her sister was nothing compared to the object that loomed overhead. Being beneath her sister and in perfect position to see the first attempts go sour, there was little mistaking the look of fear. Whatever it was has stopped all actions from the black pup, frozen as she watches the hairs of her sisters back get shaved from their foundation and fly into the air. Nanahi's yell, snapping her back to reality, brings Strife to her paws. Looking all around for the flying beast she negates her sisters order to run. If anything it should be her doing the protecting not Nana and so she growls. Two growly pups has got to be better than one, right.
It would seem that they were not all that much of a threat to the great winged beast. However, it would not take two. Nana, being smaller, seemed the more obvious choice as it re-angled itself and took off for a second assault. Nana tries to howl, or cry out hoping that somebody ANYBODY would hear but her calls seem to be going unnoticed as the bird swoops toward her. Biting and snapping at the air as she tries to scramble aside she manages to nip at a taloned foot - though for all the good it does her she might as well have done nothing at all. She evades capture for now as the bird turns to Strife in fury, Nana trying to snap at his tail in vain.
All attempts to ward the creature away are a pointless endeavor. Crouched down, Strife does her best to keep herself from being the target. Size apparently on her size, she is mildly relieved to know she wasn't the flyers menu choice. Fear still with her, she glances to her sister whose cry for help is more than she can bare. She wanted to do something to help, but what.. She was just a pup, how could she fend off something that flies. Coming up with an idea on the fly, she creeps in just at the flying beast makes it move on her sister, but just as she is about to make her move shes face to face with the creature. Strife swallows hard, back stepping the way she came. So much for that plan. Time to make a run for it into the tangled brush where she narrowly escapes.
Nanahi tears after Strife, dodging between the outstretched talons and fierce cries. She can't make it through the brush where Strife escaped, the path blocked by wings and feathers - She backtracks, whining, crying for mom, for dad, for anyone. But no one was coming - she was on her own. Strife was even gone - she could do nothing. She bolted, unable to fight the creature and unable to get past it - freedom for her, came unexpected and was all the sweeter because of it. Tearing through the brush, alive.