07-20-2009, 01:38 AM
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[/html]tyy. it was very fun to write, which is why i'm cheating and replying to this thread instead of one of the other ones i should, haha. 698 words.
Sofia was a bit damp from her hesitation on the doorstep, and that fact combined with her scruffy summer coat caused the chilled room to be just below the threshold of a comfortable temperature. She wandered closer to the table, eying the other, empty chair, not sure if it would be too forward to sit down or not. If the coyote was just going to tell her to leave, it would be awkward to settle herself at all. But the other person didn't say anything like that, just answered the spoken question.
So, she wasn't all coyote, which made her similar and thus an even more fascinating canine to encounter. Appearance-wise, the stranger definitely seemed to have less wolf blood than Sofi running through her veins, but it was still really cool. She seemed sort of wary and cold in tone, but not entirely off-putting. So maybe it would be okay for the young girl to stay, wait out the storm, if she didn't bother her too much. But she couldn't really be sure.
Her eyes flitted down to the back of the chair before her, her gray furred fingers running lightly over the top of the chair-back, brushing over the coarse wood. It looked like it was roughly hewn from one of the local species of trees, maybe birch. It was simple, far less complicated in design than most of the well-sanded and elegant wood chairs from back where she had left her father. Three simple bars held up the back, and it was all very.. angular. Nothing to provide any comfort for the sitter, it was completely utilitarian. It was a chair, and it served its function well.
Sofia's eyes flitted back up when the other spoke again, asking her own question. She was actually pretty surprised at it - she hadn't ever been called on her heritage, and had only spoken of it really in-depth with her father. To be fair, she had expressed probably an unusual amount of excitement at the idea of meeting a coyote - maybe that had lead, in part, to the other's conclusion? "Nope." She shook her head, making the word redundant. "My dad was mostly coyote. I never met him, or any coyote, though." It was weird to call the unknown figure in her past her dad - the image conjured by the word was most definitely Calypso, and he had most definitely earned that name. But it was easier, in a conversation with a stranger, to simplify the situation.
The rain drummed hard against the roof, and she glanced around to the few places where the roof was leaking. Again, that was an odd concept - to have roof leaks just left unchecked, when every building she knew was so carefully kept in states of good repair, because it was so much easier to do so than to build from scratch.
The flickering of the flame didn't bother Sofi too much; as long as it was still lit, she could still see pretty well, and that was fine. When lightning flashed again, and thunder grumbled loudly, persistently afterward, the young girl jumped, startled, then whimpered very softly in a barely audible pitch, looking for all the world like a terrified puppy. It was easy enough to ignore the thunder earlier, when she was so focused on finding a safe place from the storm, but now that that was accomplished... Well, it was a lot darker, too. Thunder-storms were awful, but she'd just sort of had to suck it up and deal now that she was out on her own. She didn't even have a blanket to reduce the size of the world to the warm darkness beneath it, let alone the strong arms of her father to hold her and keep her safe.
Finally, she settled herself in the chair, glancing at the other, unperturbed hybrid, casually trying to figure out if she had noticed her embarrassing squeak of fright. She wasn't a pup anymore, she had no excuse for that sort of thing. She crossed her arms, rubbing her forearms to both impart some warmth into them and to comfort herself. "I'm Sofia, by the way." Her voice only trembled a little.