Post by Pavane on May 17, 2011 0:40:44 GMT -5
with Bristlecone, a male adolescent coyote,
and Zihna, a female adolescent dog,
at the Merging Tributary.
***Across the River***
The sun is just barely over the horizon, but a certain coyote is already up, sniffing around at one of the scent-trails of small creatures that cross over each other in this area. Bristlecone lopes along slowly, and then pauses, lifting up his head to look over the river to the opposite shore. He sighs softly.
Bristle isn't the only mouse stirring - Zihna is trotting along the opposite shore, eyes following first a butterfly, and then the fabled 'early bird' flying past...its a nice day for her. But she catches a scent and slows, turning quickly to see Bristlecone across the water. Normally much more catious and withdrawn with strangers, something about having the safety net of moving water is confidence building, and she does the unthinkable: "Um, hello there!"
Bristlecone looks over, as that call rises over the sound of the water, and his ears perk up curiously, his tail half-lifting. He hasn't seen this dog before - well, to be honest, he hasn't seen a dog before, but he also hasn't seen this one. "Oh! Hello..." he replies, and pads closer - right to the edge of the water, dipping one paw in before he realizes that, oh yeah, there's the river here.
As the coyote starts to move towards her, she instinctively takes a step back, but halts as he does. Water. It's her friend. "I, uh, I come in peace. And if I'm, uh, trespassing or something I apologize." What was it she was supposed to do to greet someone? Something with her tail..thing. Oh! Yes. She gives her tail a brief, curt wag. She's a bit out of practice. "My names Zihna..." She chances a few steps closer to the river and diving line.
"Oh! No, no... you're not trespassing at all," says Bristlecone. "I mean, this is my parents' territory, but... I'm sure they won't mind." He's stumbling over his words somewhat - meeting people it one thing, but this is a /girl/. He's very aware of that, adolescent that he is. "I'm Bristlecone. It's nice to meet you."
Zihna is a girl, of a different species but still a girl. But...well, hey dogs and coyotes...it could work. "Oh, good. I'm not in the mood to be chased off another plot." Yes! Totes going for the whole 'conversation' thing. "Pleasure, Bristlecone." That is a mouthful. Zi narrows her eyes at the coyote from across the river - he seems roughly her age, which relaxes her. Its the older ones you need to look out for. This guy, she decides, can't be all bad. He seems friendly enough. "So, er, whats this place called?"
Bristlecone wags his tail. Sure, Zihna's a different species. But she's got the same basic shape, and she seems to have the same sort of general responses. Besides, after the strange sorts his parents call friends, he's inclined to be generous with his categories! He nods brightly, then pauses. What -is- this called, anyhow? It's always just been 'the place where he lives' to the yote. Wild things don't much go for place names. "Uhm. Well, this is the two rivers." It's as good a name as any, he figures!
Hey, same basic shape and at this age the hormones'll rage for anything with four legs. "The two rivers? Well, that's easy enough to remember." You can't blame her for her name-thing, just how she was raised. Go Here. Go There. Giving her tail another wag she makes her final decision: Yes, this is a friendly creature, so she lets her guard dissolve and pops a squat. Still seperated by a river, but hey. She's in her comfort zone. "Is there...much to do around here? I mean...I'm new. Sorry for all the questions." She grins, tilting her head slightly.
Names are a very human sort of thing. Humans and the animals around them. Not that Bristlecone minds, he's just never thought about things that way much. He grins back cheerfully, his tail wagging again. The river's no real barrier to him, growing up next to it as he has - but the dog seems more comfortable with a bit of distance, for now. "Well, I mostly play with - " He cuts himself off suddenly. With Felix, he was about to say, but with dawning consciousness he's just realized the fox is another boy, and somehow, he doesn't want the competition. At least not yet. "With the others here. Chasing squirrels up the trees, fish through the river, all that sort of thing."
Collar around the neck, human ideals on the brain. Yep, that's her! She listens politely, missing his pause and plowing on with the conversation. "Oh, that sounds nice." Ideal, magical. All the synonyms she could have used to make her sound smart. Nope. She went with 'nice'. "So do you think it would be cool if I just kind of...bunked here for awhile? I don't really know what to do with myself..." She bats her eyelids. That normally works when she's trying to get something she wants.
Bristlecone grins. He supposes it is pretty nice, now that he thinks about it! He's always been pretty happy, just... well, just a bit lonely sometimes. So it's not just adolescent hormones that make him perk up when Zihna asks about sticking around. "Oh, sure! I'm sure you could, that'd be pretty great. I mean, it's a nice place, and there's plenty of room around here." He's trying not to sound too eager, but his body gives it away as he wags his tail happily.
Well, thats settled. That makes them friends and all, right? Standing she makes a quick decision and stands, moves to the river's edge, and slips in. She was never the strongest swimmer, but she can handle herself nicely in the water, and makes it across. "Thought I'd come over to say a proper hello!" Even though she's all wet. She shakes herself off, briefly forgetting manners. "Whoops! Sorry." She's a fellow lonely-youth, that makes a friendship, right?
Bristlecone watches with just a little anxiety as Zi swims, seeing how the current starts to tug her. The water is still cold, after all! He pads over to greet the dog once she arrives on bank, tail still wagging. He gets splashed quite well, not that he seems to care, still grinning. "I like that idea," he says, leaning in to gently sniff at her, and then to bump noses gently, if she'll let him. "I mean, getting to know you. Properly, and all. You seem nice."
Accounting for the current she had wound up a little off her original targe but it was still a good swim, in her opinion! As he goes to bump her nose, her eyes cross. That was new. But her tail wags out its steady rythm and she grins. "You seem very nice too. I mean. You could have been all 'rawr' and stuff." Yeah, that made sense somewhere.
Bristlecone grins, and he lifts up one paw and waves it at the air. "Rawr?" he says. "I'm not very good at it, I don't think. I don't have much practice at being all... fierce and stuff." He laughs, somewhat abashedly. "I think it's better if I don't try. I'll just be nice instead."
Zihna blinks. "Yeah...the nice guy look works much better for you." She smirks. "Its something you can work on. Maybe try the whole...lip thing. Raise it, show some teeth, make some noise. Then you'd be vicious. And. Stuff." Her advice...so coherent.
Bristlecone grins. Hey, if it works better, than that must mean it works, at least a little! And that is downright excellent. He nods. "I'll have to practice. Get that whole snarl going. That's fierce, right? All grr and argh and gonna-eat-you." That wagging tail is going to be a problem for any attempts at fierceness, really. But he's kind of okay with that impediment.
Zihna nods sagely. "You may succeed yet, young pupil. Work on your grrs and arghs and maybe throw a fee-fi-fo-fum and you're smokin." Of course the wagging tail will have to go when he aims for fierceness, but until then she concludes that it is cute.
Bristlecone bows to the dog, lowering his front half and then raising it up again. "I shall apply myself diligently to the lesson!" he replies, and grins. He pauses a moment, and then asks a question that's been lurking in his mind almost since he first saw her. "What's that thing on your neck, anyway?"
"You have made progress already!" She grins, but as he mentions the coller she 'erms'. "Oh, that?" Her ears flick back. "Its something the humans put on me. They attach it to a rope and would tie i to a stake or walk me around. I worked for them for a long time." She explains. Not so much embaressed by her past as afraid of being shunned for it.
Bristlecone listens curiously, his ears pricked forward. He doesn't have much context for making sense of it, but he thinks he has some idea, put together from the stories he's heard. It's probably wrong in the details, but some things are hard to understand without living them. "Are humans... what my mother calls two-legs?"
Zihna has grown used to the knowledge that most creatures don't know the humans, and her experiences are strange and foreign. "Yeah, they only have two legs." She shakes herself again, collar jingling. "They get the wrong idea about things. They take us up and own us, some are nice, some aren't. They're a very confusing thing."
Bristlecone blinks. He's definitely pretty confused about them. Ownership? That's for territories and caught prey, not people. You can have a mate, sure, but that's not -owning- them. Between that, and his mother's stories... "They sound strange. I can see why you decided to leave! Things are much simpler, around here."
***Hunting for Rabbits***
Where is this rabbit even going? Bristlecone has been following the trail for hours, as it twists around trees, dives through thickets nearly too dense for a coyote to follow, and hops through muddy puddles. He's beginning to think he should just give up, try some other prey - but he's come this far, and he doesn't want to stop now! And then he sees it - a splash of fur amidst the undergrowth, teased by the wind. Finally! Heedless of his careful stalk, and spurred on by his hunger, the coyote charges headlong at what he thinks is the rabbit!
...Thats not a rabbit. "WHATTHEBLOODY--?!" Zi is up and shooting off in a second. One moment, she's relaxing on the ground, the next she's being attacked! She whirls around when she reaches a safe distance but...Oh its only Bristlecone! Well, that was terrifying. With the danger passed she narrows her eyes, lowering herself to take aim. Its time for revenge. "You. Will. Pay." And in a flash of fur and the audible jingle of a collar she's off!
Wait, what? That's - he was chasing a rabbit, not - Zihna? "You!" is all he manages to say, in his shock. He tries to skid to a stop, but one of those muddy puddles is lurking right there, and his paw slides right through it, making him half sprawl across the ground, one paw stretched way out in front of him. He looks up after Zi, hoping he didn't scare her too badly, and then his eyes widen as he sees her charging straight at him. Oh sh- out of the way, time to get out of the way, right, coyote, move - and his paw slips again in the mud -
Zihna is in a full fledged charge. But...there's something wrong about attacking someone while they're down. Unfortunately, try as she might, it's pretty hard to pull out of a charge. Especially when there's a mud puddle, and the next thing she knows she's on the ground as well. "Well. This is certainly a turn of events." she mutters, pushing herself upright. She could still attack him.
Bristlecone knows all about the difficulty of reversing a charge! From recent experience, even. Now, though, he's on the other side of that experience, with Zi bearing down on him! His paws scrabble against the ground, and finally he manages to get them into a spot that -isn't- covered in mud, and he scrambles to his feet. His wits are still sprawled every which way, though, because all the coyote can think to say is an accusative, "You're not a rabbit!"
"Oh, figured that out, have you?" She demands, half amused, half confused. She shakes mud off her fur and narrows her eyes. "You attacked me." She states, ears flicking back as she lowers herself again. Yep. Taking aim. "And you know what that makes you?" Her voice is low and mockingly dangerous. Playfully harsh, she whispers: "The rabbit."
Bristlecone thought he had everything well understood! The scent trail, the patch of fur, it was all just a perfect setup! But not, apparently, the one he thought it was. Whatever wily old bunny laid that trail must be laughing from the bushes now, but the coyote isn't so sure he approves! He yipes, and hares off, running towards a pair of scrubby pine trees whose branches nearly touch at ground level.
He might have been chasing a rabbit as some point, but - lets face it. Zihna is no bunny. And she's given chase. Paws scrape at the earth as she gives him a moment's head start before shooting off. The humans taught her how to catch things - though perhaps in a more violent way than was appropriate for play. Thankfully she's able to keep that learned behavior tucked away, setting after him towards the branches. Preparing to duck between the trees she is already lowering herself.
Bristlecone runs towards those trees - and then he does the unexpected, and instead of just ducking under the branches, he actually leaps onto one - and then the next, and the next, gathering himself up with each one and jumping before he's quite landed fully. It's a strange sight, particularly from a canine! They aren't supposed to climb trees, even nice pines with level, evenly spaced branches. But the coyote has some practice with it... the result of some incidents in his puppy days that forced him to learn... or else!
Zihna skids to a halt. Aw hells no. She runs along below the branches, not being one to master tree climbing as a pup she prefers her paws firmly grounded. "No fair!" She whines from the ground, jumping up to try and snap at his feet which - of course - is a futile endeavor. She scrapes at the trunk, trying to pull herself up...not working. And then a horrible thought strikes. A horrible, devilish, deviant thought. Sitting back on her haunches she looks up and bats her eyelashes in the girliest manner. "If you come down -" she teases "I'll give you a kiss!" Blink. Blink. Oh, yes. Evil plan in the making.
Bristlecone comes to a stop with his paws split between two mid-level branches. He's too big now to go much higher - but this does put him safely out of reach of the avenging Zi! He pants, watching down anxiously in case she figures out the trick of it - but, no, he sees safe. Whew! That certainly makes him feel better, and so he teases, "You're not a squirrel, eith - " Whoa. A kiss? Really? He hops one branch lower on sheer muscle reaction, while his mind is still stunned by the prospect. Then sense reasserts itself. "You're just trying to trick me!" he says, and then hesitates. But what if he's wrong? What if there's a KISS here, and he just has to get it? "...aren't you?"
"Weeell..." She stands, turning around to leave and looking over her shoulder at him. "I could be. But...well I'm probably not. I can see when I've been outsmarted." She flicks her tail and begins to walk slowly, purposefully away. She trusts her own charm to bring him down. Then, she strikes...or does she?
Common sense and hormones battle it out in Bristlecone's head, and... well, the common sense never even had a chance. The poor adolescent coyote hops down quickly from the tree, landing on the ground with a soft thump. "Wait, I didn't mean - I just - "
Hormones work in her favor. More often then not! She stops and pivots slowly. Evil plan step 1: Approach. nothing is suspicious here. She smiles and walks up to the coyote - eyelashes batting for all they're worth. Female charm, female charm, female charm. "See? There's much more on the /ground/, isn't there?" Her tail wags disarmingly and she leans forward. Quick kiss - of course he gets one! He came all the way down, didn't he? But that was her tool for disarment. Once he's distracted and gooey - POUNCE!
A wiser coyote would be suspicious of just how innocent that approach seems. But Bristlecone has yet to acquire that wisdom, and so he just grins hopefully as Zi comes in close. The kiss - his first! - makes him quiver with excitement. "Ohhh, woooo - yeeep!" He doesn't even have a chance to savor it, pounced by the sneaky dog and taken -entirely- off-guard, his limbs splaying in all directions as he falls down!
Hey - even if its just a decoy - it still counts! Sure, she took him down completely and unquestionably but. Hey. He still got something out of it. "Gotcha!" She announces unnecessarily. Tail wagging. "The kissing thing was fun though."
Even with his dignity in shreds, Bristlecone still has a hard time looking too offended. After all, he -did- get that kiss, and the glowing feeling he has about that does a lot to make him not regret having been so utterly defeated. He grrrs, half-heartedly, and then says, trying not to sound too hopeful, "You know... if you wanted to do it again... I probably couldn't stop you..." Wouldn't even try, really!
Zihna does! Hey she enjoyed it too. And you're only young once. Ah, adolescence...the good, the bad and the ugly. Thankfully, they were caught up in the good. At least the second time she goes for a kiss she isn't set on attacking him. She's already won now, so she gets to have /fun/ with it! Dawwww. The teens do the darndest things, don't they?
Yeah, Bristlecone thought he liked this kissing thing the first time, and now he's certain of it! He could learn to be okay with losing, if this is where it gets him... tail wagging, kissing a pretty girl who - even if she's not exactly the same species - is certainly close enough to make him quiver with excitement.
See kids? Its okay to fall behind in life. If you lose, you get to kiss the purty girl dogs. Finally breaking the happy adolescent breakthrough-first she wags her tail and sits down on the ground. She can let him get up at least. Because, right now she just kind of feels like an overpowering force. Which is okay in some situations (and maybe this one, depends on what you're into, hey I don't judge.) "Now. You /could/ have stayed up in a tree...this is way more interesting." Interesting, fun, exciting? Same species romance is /sooo/ over rated anyways. Hey, there's such thing as a Coydog. And its frieken adorable.
Bristlecone puts his legs under him, and pushes off the ground to sit up. Though he's pretty sure he's already floating several feet above it, judging from how he feels. But his head was below Zi's, and he couldn't really see her properly, and that was just tragic. Smitten? Well, maybe a little. Can you blame him? He wags his tail, and nods. "You're way more interesting than a squirrel. Or a rabbit." Or a coyote? That, he doesn't know. But then, he's never met any girl coyotes he wasn't related to. And his desire to do so is getting less urgent by the minute!
Shifts to allow him room to rise. Grinning, her own tail sweeping the ground behind her. "I should hope so." She teases leaning in to bump noses. "/You're/ more interesting than the average coyote, I imagine!" Aw, such puppy love. "Sooo..." She starts, uncertainly. "And now what?" nervous little giggle.
She thinks he's interesting! She actually thinks he's interesting! Bristlecone grins as he bumps noses with the girl dog, and steals a lick along her muzzle while he's at it. He tilts his head, and then her question... kind of gets him at a loss. What now, indeed? Neither his practical knowledge nor his fevered dreams include what to do when you've got a girl sitting next to you, and she's nice, and you like her and she seems to like you. "Uhm," he says unhelpfully, and then leans in to try to snag another kiss. Boys with their one-track minds!
With a grin she gives him a little nuzzle in return. This is nice - its a fun thing. Maybe she's just as smitten! Enamoured, could be the word. And then there's more kissing. She's not against it, in fact, she's more than willing. Her tail beats a steady rhythm against the ground. Hm. Yeah, this she enjoys. She gives his neck a nuzzle.
Bristlecone leans in, nuzzling at her ears as she noses along her neck. His tail sways happily, and he wriggles his way a bit closer, nearer to the pretty dog as he explores her shape with uncertain but eager touches. The points of ears, the sleek neck with that strange collar around it, the shoulders... He doesn't know what he's doing - but he knows he likes it, and he's pretty sure she does, too, and so he's definitely going to enjoy figuring it all out!
and Zihna, a female adolescent dog,
at the Merging Tributary.
***Across the River***
The sun is just barely over the horizon, but a certain coyote is already up, sniffing around at one of the scent-trails of small creatures that cross over each other in this area. Bristlecone lopes along slowly, and then pauses, lifting up his head to look over the river to the opposite shore. He sighs softly.
Bristle isn't the only mouse stirring - Zihna is trotting along the opposite shore, eyes following first a butterfly, and then the fabled 'early bird' flying past...its a nice day for her. But she catches a scent and slows, turning quickly to see Bristlecone across the water. Normally much more catious and withdrawn with strangers, something about having the safety net of moving water is confidence building, and she does the unthinkable: "Um, hello there!"
Bristlecone looks over, as that call rises over the sound of the water, and his ears perk up curiously, his tail half-lifting. He hasn't seen this dog before - well, to be honest, he hasn't seen a dog before, but he also hasn't seen this one. "Oh! Hello..." he replies, and pads closer - right to the edge of the water, dipping one paw in before he realizes that, oh yeah, there's the river here.
As the coyote starts to move towards her, she instinctively takes a step back, but halts as he does. Water. It's her friend. "I, uh, I come in peace. And if I'm, uh, trespassing or something I apologize." What was it she was supposed to do to greet someone? Something with her tail..thing. Oh! Yes. She gives her tail a brief, curt wag. She's a bit out of practice. "My names Zihna..." She chances a few steps closer to the river and diving line.
"Oh! No, no... you're not trespassing at all," says Bristlecone. "I mean, this is my parents' territory, but... I'm sure they won't mind." He's stumbling over his words somewhat - meeting people it one thing, but this is a /girl/. He's very aware of that, adolescent that he is. "I'm Bristlecone. It's nice to meet you."
Zihna is a girl, of a different species but still a girl. But...well, hey dogs and coyotes...it could work. "Oh, good. I'm not in the mood to be chased off another plot." Yes! Totes going for the whole 'conversation' thing. "Pleasure, Bristlecone." That is a mouthful. Zi narrows her eyes at the coyote from across the river - he seems roughly her age, which relaxes her. Its the older ones you need to look out for. This guy, she decides, can't be all bad. He seems friendly enough. "So, er, whats this place called?"
Bristlecone wags his tail. Sure, Zihna's a different species. But she's got the same basic shape, and she seems to have the same sort of general responses. Besides, after the strange sorts his parents call friends, he's inclined to be generous with his categories! He nods brightly, then pauses. What -is- this called, anyhow? It's always just been 'the place where he lives' to the yote. Wild things don't much go for place names. "Uhm. Well, this is the two rivers." It's as good a name as any, he figures!
Hey, same basic shape and at this age the hormones'll rage for anything with four legs. "The two rivers? Well, that's easy enough to remember." You can't blame her for her name-thing, just how she was raised. Go Here. Go There. Giving her tail another wag she makes her final decision: Yes, this is a friendly creature, so she lets her guard dissolve and pops a squat. Still seperated by a river, but hey. She's in her comfort zone. "Is there...much to do around here? I mean...I'm new. Sorry for all the questions." She grins, tilting her head slightly.
Names are a very human sort of thing. Humans and the animals around them. Not that Bristlecone minds, he's just never thought about things that way much. He grins back cheerfully, his tail wagging again. The river's no real barrier to him, growing up next to it as he has - but the dog seems more comfortable with a bit of distance, for now. "Well, I mostly play with - " He cuts himself off suddenly. With Felix, he was about to say, but with dawning consciousness he's just realized the fox is another boy, and somehow, he doesn't want the competition. At least not yet. "With the others here. Chasing squirrels up the trees, fish through the river, all that sort of thing."
Collar around the neck, human ideals on the brain. Yep, that's her! She listens politely, missing his pause and plowing on with the conversation. "Oh, that sounds nice." Ideal, magical. All the synonyms she could have used to make her sound smart. Nope. She went with 'nice'. "So do you think it would be cool if I just kind of...bunked here for awhile? I don't really know what to do with myself..." She bats her eyelids. That normally works when she's trying to get something she wants.
Bristlecone grins. He supposes it is pretty nice, now that he thinks about it! He's always been pretty happy, just... well, just a bit lonely sometimes. So it's not just adolescent hormones that make him perk up when Zihna asks about sticking around. "Oh, sure! I'm sure you could, that'd be pretty great. I mean, it's a nice place, and there's plenty of room around here." He's trying not to sound too eager, but his body gives it away as he wags his tail happily.
Well, thats settled. That makes them friends and all, right? Standing she makes a quick decision and stands, moves to the river's edge, and slips in. She was never the strongest swimmer, but she can handle herself nicely in the water, and makes it across. "Thought I'd come over to say a proper hello!" Even though she's all wet. She shakes herself off, briefly forgetting manners. "Whoops! Sorry." She's a fellow lonely-youth, that makes a friendship, right?
Bristlecone watches with just a little anxiety as Zi swims, seeing how the current starts to tug her. The water is still cold, after all! He pads over to greet the dog once she arrives on bank, tail still wagging. He gets splashed quite well, not that he seems to care, still grinning. "I like that idea," he says, leaning in to gently sniff at her, and then to bump noses gently, if she'll let him. "I mean, getting to know you. Properly, and all. You seem nice."
Accounting for the current she had wound up a little off her original targe but it was still a good swim, in her opinion! As he goes to bump her nose, her eyes cross. That was new. But her tail wags out its steady rythm and she grins. "You seem very nice too. I mean. You could have been all 'rawr' and stuff." Yeah, that made sense somewhere.
Bristlecone grins, and he lifts up one paw and waves it at the air. "Rawr?" he says. "I'm not very good at it, I don't think. I don't have much practice at being all... fierce and stuff." He laughs, somewhat abashedly. "I think it's better if I don't try. I'll just be nice instead."
Zihna blinks. "Yeah...the nice guy look works much better for you." She smirks. "Its something you can work on. Maybe try the whole...lip thing. Raise it, show some teeth, make some noise. Then you'd be vicious. And. Stuff." Her advice...so coherent.
Bristlecone grins. Hey, if it works better, than that must mean it works, at least a little! And that is downright excellent. He nods. "I'll have to practice. Get that whole snarl going. That's fierce, right? All grr and argh and gonna-eat-you." That wagging tail is going to be a problem for any attempts at fierceness, really. But he's kind of okay with that impediment.
Zihna nods sagely. "You may succeed yet, young pupil. Work on your grrs and arghs and maybe throw a fee-fi-fo-fum and you're smokin." Of course the wagging tail will have to go when he aims for fierceness, but until then she concludes that it is cute.
Bristlecone bows to the dog, lowering his front half and then raising it up again. "I shall apply myself diligently to the lesson!" he replies, and grins. He pauses a moment, and then asks a question that's been lurking in his mind almost since he first saw her. "What's that thing on your neck, anyway?"
"You have made progress already!" She grins, but as he mentions the coller she 'erms'. "Oh, that?" Her ears flick back. "Its something the humans put on me. They attach it to a rope and would tie i to a stake or walk me around. I worked for them for a long time." She explains. Not so much embaressed by her past as afraid of being shunned for it.
Bristlecone listens curiously, his ears pricked forward. He doesn't have much context for making sense of it, but he thinks he has some idea, put together from the stories he's heard. It's probably wrong in the details, but some things are hard to understand without living them. "Are humans... what my mother calls two-legs?"
Zihna has grown used to the knowledge that most creatures don't know the humans, and her experiences are strange and foreign. "Yeah, they only have two legs." She shakes herself again, collar jingling. "They get the wrong idea about things. They take us up and own us, some are nice, some aren't. They're a very confusing thing."
Bristlecone blinks. He's definitely pretty confused about them. Ownership? That's for territories and caught prey, not people. You can have a mate, sure, but that's not -owning- them. Between that, and his mother's stories... "They sound strange. I can see why you decided to leave! Things are much simpler, around here."
***Hunting for Rabbits***
Where is this rabbit even going? Bristlecone has been following the trail for hours, as it twists around trees, dives through thickets nearly too dense for a coyote to follow, and hops through muddy puddles. He's beginning to think he should just give up, try some other prey - but he's come this far, and he doesn't want to stop now! And then he sees it - a splash of fur amidst the undergrowth, teased by the wind. Finally! Heedless of his careful stalk, and spurred on by his hunger, the coyote charges headlong at what he thinks is the rabbit!
...Thats not a rabbit. "WHATTHEBLOODY--?!" Zi is up and shooting off in a second. One moment, she's relaxing on the ground, the next she's being attacked! She whirls around when she reaches a safe distance but...Oh its only Bristlecone! Well, that was terrifying. With the danger passed she narrows her eyes, lowering herself to take aim. Its time for revenge. "You. Will. Pay." And in a flash of fur and the audible jingle of a collar she's off!
Wait, what? That's - he was chasing a rabbit, not - Zihna? "You!" is all he manages to say, in his shock. He tries to skid to a stop, but one of those muddy puddles is lurking right there, and his paw slides right through it, making him half sprawl across the ground, one paw stretched way out in front of him. He looks up after Zi, hoping he didn't scare her too badly, and then his eyes widen as he sees her charging straight at him. Oh sh- out of the way, time to get out of the way, right, coyote, move - and his paw slips again in the mud -
Zihna is in a full fledged charge. But...there's something wrong about attacking someone while they're down. Unfortunately, try as she might, it's pretty hard to pull out of a charge. Especially when there's a mud puddle, and the next thing she knows she's on the ground as well. "Well. This is certainly a turn of events." she mutters, pushing herself upright. She could still attack him.
Bristlecone knows all about the difficulty of reversing a charge! From recent experience, even. Now, though, he's on the other side of that experience, with Zi bearing down on him! His paws scrabble against the ground, and finally he manages to get them into a spot that -isn't- covered in mud, and he scrambles to his feet. His wits are still sprawled every which way, though, because all the coyote can think to say is an accusative, "You're not a rabbit!"
"Oh, figured that out, have you?" She demands, half amused, half confused. She shakes mud off her fur and narrows her eyes. "You attacked me." She states, ears flicking back as she lowers herself again. Yep. Taking aim. "And you know what that makes you?" Her voice is low and mockingly dangerous. Playfully harsh, she whispers: "The rabbit."
Bristlecone thought he had everything well understood! The scent trail, the patch of fur, it was all just a perfect setup! But not, apparently, the one he thought it was. Whatever wily old bunny laid that trail must be laughing from the bushes now, but the coyote isn't so sure he approves! He yipes, and hares off, running towards a pair of scrubby pine trees whose branches nearly touch at ground level.
He might have been chasing a rabbit as some point, but - lets face it. Zihna is no bunny. And she's given chase. Paws scrape at the earth as she gives him a moment's head start before shooting off. The humans taught her how to catch things - though perhaps in a more violent way than was appropriate for play. Thankfully she's able to keep that learned behavior tucked away, setting after him towards the branches. Preparing to duck between the trees she is already lowering herself.
Bristlecone runs towards those trees - and then he does the unexpected, and instead of just ducking under the branches, he actually leaps onto one - and then the next, and the next, gathering himself up with each one and jumping before he's quite landed fully. It's a strange sight, particularly from a canine! They aren't supposed to climb trees, even nice pines with level, evenly spaced branches. But the coyote has some practice with it... the result of some incidents in his puppy days that forced him to learn... or else!
Zihna skids to a halt. Aw hells no. She runs along below the branches, not being one to master tree climbing as a pup she prefers her paws firmly grounded. "No fair!" She whines from the ground, jumping up to try and snap at his feet which - of course - is a futile endeavor. She scrapes at the trunk, trying to pull herself up...not working. And then a horrible thought strikes. A horrible, devilish, deviant thought. Sitting back on her haunches she looks up and bats her eyelashes in the girliest manner. "If you come down -" she teases "I'll give you a kiss!" Blink. Blink. Oh, yes. Evil plan in the making.
Bristlecone comes to a stop with his paws split between two mid-level branches. He's too big now to go much higher - but this does put him safely out of reach of the avenging Zi! He pants, watching down anxiously in case she figures out the trick of it - but, no, he sees safe. Whew! That certainly makes him feel better, and so he teases, "You're not a squirrel, eith - " Whoa. A kiss? Really? He hops one branch lower on sheer muscle reaction, while his mind is still stunned by the prospect. Then sense reasserts itself. "You're just trying to trick me!" he says, and then hesitates. But what if he's wrong? What if there's a KISS here, and he just has to get it? "...aren't you?"
"Weeell..." She stands, turning around to leave and looking over her shoulder at him. "I could be. But...well I'm probably not. I can see when I've been outsmarted." She flicks her tail and begins to walk slowly, purposefully away. She trusts her own charm to bring him down. Then, she strikes...or does she?
Common sense and hormones battle it out in Bristlecone's head, and... well, the common sense never even had a chance. The poor adolescent coyote hops down quickly from the tree, landing on the ground with a soft thump. "Wait, I didn't mean - I just - "
Hormones work in her favor. More often then not! She stops and pivots slowly. Evil plan step 1: Approach. nothing is suspicious here. She smiles and walks up to the coyote - eyelashes batting for all they're worth. Female charm, female charm, female charm. "See? There's much more on the /ground/, isn't there?" Her tail wags disarmingly and she leans forward. Quick kiss - of course he gets one! He came all the way down, didn't he? But that was her tool for disarment. Once he's distracted and gooey - POUNCE!
A wiser coyote would be suspicious of just how innocent that approach seems. But Bristlecone has yet to acquire that wisdom, and so he just grins hopefully as Zi comes in close. The kiss - his first! - makes him quiver with excitement. "Ohhh, woooo - yeeep!" He doesn't even have a chance to savor it, pounced by the sneaky dog and taken -entirely- off-guard, his limbs splaying in all directions as he falls down!
Hey - even if its just a decoy - it still counts! Sure, she took him down completely and unquestionably but. Hey. He still got something out of it. "Gotcha!" She announces unnecessarily. Tail wagging. "The kissing thing was fun though."
Even with his dignity in shreds, Bristlecone still has a hard time looking too offended. After all, he -did- get that kiss, and the glowing feeling he has about that does a lot to make him not regret having been so utterly defeated. He grrrs, half-heartedly, and then says, trying not to sound too hopeful, "You know... if you wanted to do it again... I probably couldn't stop you..." Wouldn't even try, really!
Zihna does! Hey she enjoyed it too. And you're only young once. Ah, adolescence...the good, the bad and the ugly. Thankfully, they were caught up in the good. At least the second time she goes for a kiss she isn't set on attacking him. She's already won now, so she gets to have /fun/ with it! Dawwww. The teens do the darndest things, don't they?
Yeah, Bristlecone thought he liked this kissing thing the first time, and now he's certain of it! He could learn to be okay with losing, if this is where it gets him... tail wagging, kissing a pretty girl who - even if she's not exactly the same species - is certainly close enough to make him quiver with excitement.
See kids? Its okay to fall behind in life. If you lose, you get to kiss the purty girl dogs. Finally breaking the happy adolescent breakthrough-first she wags her tail and sits down on the ground. She can let him get up at least. Because, right now she just kind of feels like an overpowering force. Which is okay in some situations (and maybe this one, depends on what you're into, hey I don't judge.) "Now. You /could/ have stayed up in a tree...this is way more interesting." Interesting, fun, exciting? Same species romance is /sooo/ over rated anyways. Hey, there's such thing as a Coydog. And its frieken adorable.
Bristlecone puts his legs under him, and pushes off the ground to sit up. Though he's pretty sure he's already floating several feet above it, judging from how he feels. But his head was below Zi's, and he couldn't really see her properly, and that was just tragic. Smitten? Well, maybe a little. Can you blame him? He wags his tail, and nods. "You're way more interesting than a squirrel. Or a rabbit." Or a coyote? That, he doesn't know. But then, he's never met any girl coyotes he wasn't related to. And his desire to do so is getting less urgent by the minute!
Shifts to allow him room to rise. Grinning, her own tail sweeping the ground behind her. "I should hope so." She teases leaning in to bump noses. "/You're/ more interesting than the average coyote, I imagine!" Aw, such puppy love. "Sooo..." She starts, uncertainly. "And now what?" nervous little giggle.
She thinks he's interesting! She actually thinks he's interesting! Bristlecone grins as he bumps noses with the girl dog, and steals a lick along her muzzle while he's at it. He tilts his head, and then her question... kind of gets him at a loss. What now, indeed? Neither his practical knowledge nor his fevered dreams include what to do when you've got a girl sitting next to you, and she's nice, and you like her and she seems to like you. "Uhm," he says unhelpfully, and then leans in to try to snag another kiss. Boys with their one-track minds!
With a grin she gives him a little nuzzle in return. This is nice - its a fun thing. Maybe she's just as smitten! Enamoured, could be the word. And then there's more kissing. She's not against it, in fact, she's more than willing. Her tail beats a steady rhythm against the ground. Hm. Yeah, this she enjoys. She gives his neck a nuzzle.
Bristlecone leans in, nuzzling at her ears as she noses along her neck. His tail sways happily, and he wriggles his way a bit closer, nearer to the pretty dog as he explores her shape with uncertain but eager touches. The points of ears, the sleek neck with that strange collar around it, the shoulders... He doesn't know what he's doing - but he knows he likes it, and he's pretty sure she does, too, and so he's definitely going to enjoy figuring it all out!