OOC: ©table code and image to jacoby:
Word count: 556. Worth 5 points SSWM
Hanna nearly jumped out of her skin when the lower voice sounded from behind her, but she kept the song going. His voice intertwined with her own and that of her daughter in a way she would not have thought possible. The man had a good voice; it carried and was in the right range of pitch to blend well. After several more minutes of song, Hanna wound it down, tapering into nothing. She let the echos die away, sitting in perfect stillness and silence, seeming to ignore the man behind her. In reality, she was in a happy little place, for just sixty seconds, perhaps double that.
Those fleeting seconds were enough to take her daughter from being pleased as punch and sitting at her Momma's side to wiggling in place, and finally to investigate the man. It took some major struggling for the pup to work her way through the snow, and she was drenched by the time she got to her destination, but she propped her little white paws against Strelein's leg, her tongue lolling happily from her open jaws as she yipped once to get his attention. "'ey! 'ey! Mah name is Dehh -zee -ray! Whoo er yoo, big man?" She did not think for one moment that the "big man" would have trouble understanding her puppy speech, and in truth it was clearer than some pups' language at her age.
Her child's words brought Hanna from her reverie, and she frowned at the ground for several moments before really realizing that Desi wasn't in front of her. Her eyes widened, and Hanna jumped up, glancing frantically around for the merle and white puppy and coming across only tracks. She realized they were leading back behind her, to the last known location of the third voice, and Hanna hurried to follow them back through the trees.
Several long strides brought her in sight of a tallish male, who was around a foot taller than Hanna was herself. He was cream and brown and rust, but his hair was a gorgeous if shocking bright red hue. Her pup was propped against him, and her childish peep carried to her mother's ears as Désirée introduced herself to the male. Having never left AniWaya with her, Hanna had not thought to teach the collie hybrid that little girls did not talk to strangers. The idea had not crossed her mind, and she had not been in Dahlia de Mai during the drama with Conor and Emwe.
Scowling at the little girl, Hanna strode right up to the man and picked her up, scolding her as she did. "Desi, little girls do not talk to strangers without their mommies being there. This man seems nice, but someone else could decide to take you, and Mommy might not be able to find you." She based her idea of nice on the fact that whether he had meant to or not prior to Hanna's arrival, Strelein had not picked up her child. If he had, he might have found a vastly different woman in front of him than the mother parenting her daughter. Instead, she nodded cordially at the Cour des Miracles wolf, extending her hand and introducing herself. "I apologize, Sir. My name is Hanna; I'm from AniWaya. This is my daughter, Désirée."
Speak, think, act,
Desi talks, Desi thinks