hi! :3 wc: 361

She had romped around with Tony a few days earlier, and had been made happier because of it. The young pup was getting her first taste of freedom, and she was loving every single bit of it. Her parents were also less watchful - she thought maybe that was because they saw how grown up and exploring she was! If she explored a lot, she would surely grow up to be a pack explorer. She wondered if Anu and Savina had a rank like that - that would make it perfect for her to explore! Exploring for the pack!

And that was what she was doing. She was patrolling the borders for someone who was trespassing - she could be sure that one was about to turn up, and she'd chase him away with large and shiny teeth and sharp claws, ready to fight another day! Then her parents would realize that she was all grown up now, and she could be the pack explorer and defender. She yelped with excitement and continued on her 'patrol'.

It wasn't until a little while later when her still young nose smelled something weird. She sniffed again, not sure she had actually smelled it - it was a wolf! Well, she thought it was - her nose was still untrained, and it could only distinguish scents from prey and people, and some others like flowers and home and some stinky things as well. She wrinkled her nose, thinking about those smelly things, and chased the scent of the intruder.

She found him sleeping by a tree - he was in his two-leg form, which Fia didn't like - it didn't allow her to run around very much - but this stranger was in it! He was buried in what others called 'clothes' and what Fia called 'stupid'. Her thick winter coat kept her plenty warm, thank you. But this golden man was an intruder!

She ran up to him, yapping and snarling. "Go away, trespasser!" she yelled. "I's the pack defenderer!" She misspoke the last word, but that was alright - this man would know what she meant!

The great man leapt up, and Fia saw with a little bit of fear that he was much, much larger than her. But she couldn't be swayed by something as silly as size! she tried to tell herself, but she still looked a little uncertain. Was this man going to hurt her? It seemed not. He spoke, saying that he did not mean to trespass on their lands - but then why was he here? Fia was about to ask again when he interrupted and said that his name was J'Adore Austral - he used to live on these lands.

J'Adore then stepped forward a few inches until he was a nice distance away, and lied down on the snow-covered grass. Fia just then noticed that she was a bit chilly - the wind had picked up, not yet howling, but fierce on the small puppy. Her paws sank into the snow. She was a bit chilly, yes, but she wasn't that cold yet. Not cold enough to go home, and not cold enough to walk away from this mysterious stranger who said he came from Crimson Dreams.

She cocked her head at him and smelled - she didn't smell any signs of her old pack. The only scent she knew and recognized was that of wolf - her small nose wasn't yet able to recognize the scent of the AniWayan pack, or even know what an AniWayan was. She stared at the man some more, not sure what to say. Then he asked who her parents were, and she suddenly had something to talk about.

"Mommy and Daddy are Ghita and Jazzy!" Fia wasn't able to say her father's full name, so she used a term she made herself - Jazzy. "They's the bestest mommy and daddy," she said matter-of-factly. She did in fact think that they were the best parents around - being born from them, how could she not? She looked at J'Adore and decided that she needed him to know her name, too! "I'm Fia."

:3

Fia puffed out her chest and her tail raised high in the air. "I's not cold!" she squeaked, still holding herself proud and tall - adventurers didn't get cold, they were too tough and strong! "I never get cold!" That was not true - the weather was quite chilly and she was getting a bit of frost on her fur, but she'd never admit that to this stranger. She wanted to prove that she was the toughest, strongest, bravest, most explorer-est puppy in Crimson Dreams! And it was true, to an extent - her fur was thick and warm from being born in the winter, and she didn't get as cold as easily as some others might.

Fia thought she felt even more of a swell of pride when the man named J'Adore asked if she was the pack defender. "Yeah!" she said, leaping up and down. She quickly stopped, however - it wasn't very defender-ish to jump up and down. "I chase away all the intruders! And keep the pack safe from gators!" She didn't forget the time that her and Tony had played Alligator - and that had sort of counted, right? Right!

The puppy's eyes rounded and she looked at J'Adore. "What's an Ani...Wai...AniWa - yi...What's an AniWayee?" she asked, not quite getting the pronunciation of AniWaya down. And he came from there? Did that mean it was a family, a pack, like Crimson Dreams? The only other pack Fia knew about was Cour des Miracles, because they were nearly neighbors and were friendly with one another. She knew there were others, but she didn't know what they were - and she certainly didn't know what an AniWayee was.

lalala! what she calls 'itlee' is Italy xD

Fia bounced up and down. She liked this J'Adore man! He thought she was tough; and apparently he had come from a hot country. She stopped bouncing; Mommy came from a country! It was called Itlee, it maybe Itla, or something that started with an I and had a T and an L in it. Her mother sometimes spoke the language to Fia and her brothers and sisters - that was why her first last name, Marino, sounded so smooth and rolled off the tongue. Her eyes got round; maybe J'Adore was from Itlee!

"Is that country called Itlee? Mommy's from Itlee!" she exclaimed in excitement. Maybe J'Adore knew her mommy from Itlee and they could talk about what Itlee was like! Fia had never really understood the concept of another country - they said it was a place far across the sea, which was a big salty lake. Like an island!

J'Adore stated that AniWayee was a pack, just like she thought - maybe it was even on another country! He said that it was twenty miles that way, and pointed. Fia's eyes grew large and she wagged her tail in excitement. "That's a long way!" she said. "Did you's walk here?" she asked, wonder suddenly taking place in the pup's mind. This man, J'Adore, walked a whole twenty miles! She bet he was even an explorer! Yeah, that was it! How on Earth could he have walked a whole long twenty miles without having some experience as an explorer? She bet that he could teach her all sorts of things about exploring! What she didn't know was that the journey probably took a few hours, or even days - all that was in her mind was that the man had came from another country, and was an explorer!

So Spain was right next to Italy! She wondered if there were lots of packs in Spain and Italy like there were lots of packs here - there were a whole three she knew about, and she was sure that there were lots more! The idea of a pack other than Crimson Dreams both excited and frightened the young child, who had only ever known her own pack and the family it held. She wondered if other packs were very different - she was sure they were, with different families and ranks and leaders and puppies. But no puppy was braver than her, not even ones that came from the toughest packs in the toughest country!

She looked at J'adore in wonder as he said that he had ran some of the way as well as walked. "Don't go!" she squeaked as soon as the words left his lips about her wanting to make him go away. That urge had gone and passed now - J'adore posed no threat to the pack or the puppy, she decided, and he was an adventurer and an explorer besides!

"Tell me all about being an explorer!" she said to the explorer before her very eyes. She noticed that his coloring was darker than hers, and he pulled a strand of black hair out of his eyes. Maybe wolves that came from other countries and were explorers got a dark pelt from being in the sun all day - Fia decided that no matter what, she was going to be the bravest explorer ever! She would scout out all the lands for her pack and family, and come back with valuable information that they'd all praise her for. And she wouldn't be the littlest anymore - she'd be big and strong, stronger than Lorenzo or Tony!

Fia was excited at this new phenomenon that seemed to be totemic to adventurers and explorers alike; meeting new people, exciting and interesting people she was sure, and seeing new sights - mountains and lakes and rivers and valleys, clouds and trenches, the ocean and more! She could imagine the great places J'Adore had been, and was just doing so when he said something else; he would miss his family. She hadn't even considered that - she hadn't even thought about that, really. She was, after all, just a pup. But she wouldn't just be any explorer - she'd be one for Crimson Dreams, and come back all the time to give news! She would explore and see new things. She'd protect her family, too.

And gators! One day, Fia would find and fend off real, live gators. Not the play-gators that she had 'seen' with her eyes of imagination when she'd been playing with Tony. He had pounced on her and led her to believe that he had been a real, live gator - but not for long. One day, she'd go where there were real alligators - they'd be so scared of her, they wouldn't know what to do! They'd crawl back into their alligator-holes and hide there until Fia left them alone!

She looked up as more snow fell in tiny flakes. Without really paying attention to what she was doing, she leapt up so that she was standing on her hind legs and clapped her paws together to catch a snowflake. When she opened her paws again, there it was - a tiny, white flake, with its intricate and beautiful patterns. She watched it for a minute before it melted right before her eyes, and she landed back on her legs. "Snow is fun! I loves snow!"

Fia frolicked in the white powder for a while, kicking up snow and getting herself soaked in the wet stuff. She laughed and giggled, glad that she had this cool stuff to roll around in and get messy with - it wasn't quite like dirt, but it was still fun! Then, J'adore said something that didn't make sense - snow? Causing problems? Yeah, right! "Jay," she said, using a nickname that she had came up with on the spot for the golden wolf, "how can snow's cause problems? It's white and fluffy and fun!" She squeaked the last part out, pouncing on the man and forgetting all animosity she had towards him at first sight.

The pounce wasn't enough to sent J'adore backwards - Fia was still just a puppy, no matter how much of an adventurer she thought of herself - and she ended up on the backside of the man. Shaking herself off, she stood up in the snow, and found herself ankle-deep in the fluff. Shrieking in delight, she kicked it all up, revealing brown dirt underneath the pile. She snuffled underneath the snow into the dirt; the dirt smelled warm and earth-like. She touched her nose to it, however, and found that it was ice-cold and ice-hard, too! Shivering, she withdrew her head from the hole in the snow she'd made, and turned to face J'adore. "See?" she said, as if her expedition with the snow had proven her point that snow could not, in any way, cause problems.

She romped around in the snow as J'adore said that she was right, and that the snow wasn't all that bad - of course she was right! Explorers were always right! She giggled as the golden and black man flung up a clump of snow, letting it fall like raindrops on the ground. One of the bits flipped up and smacked Fia in the forehead, and she laughed even harder as the snow melted down her face. She let a pink tongue run out and lick it off - it was icy cold, and was fresh on her tongue.

She was glad when she saw that J'adore was running around in the snow just like she was doing. She began to run around as well, romping and making a general ruckus of everything. J'adore was a fun grown up - most of them were boring, telling you not to do this and not to do that, but J'adore was being fun! She giggled as he collapsed onto the snow and said that she was fun.

"I like you too! You's fun, too! You's the funnest explorer," she said with a certain level of certainty that all pups had - he was the only explorer she knew, in fact, but that didn't stop her from saying that he was the funnest as well. The snow had stopped falling now, and the wind had stopped howling, allowing a small crack of the sun to peek out from the solid gray wall of clouds that was above their heads. It shed a small amount of heat on the two wolves, and Fia looked up at the great ball. Not too long, though - she had heard of a tale that if you looked at the sun for too long, it would burn your eyes.

Fia grinned as she rolled around in the snow - she hadn't had this much fun in forever! She loved the white snow and danced in it, letting her legs fly up and allow snow to roll down her back and shoulders. She stopped romping and turned her movements into a dance, one that she shared with the white fluff as it sprayed over her head and around her paws. She twirled in the substance, letting the snow and fur fly as it was, and she seemed like she was one with the snow - a perfectly white pelt blending in with the perfectly white snow.

She watched as J'adore danced with her, too, even though maybe in his mind he wasn't dancing, but romping around like a pup. She was glad that he had come to Crimson Dreams again - even if he left, for some reason Fia didn't know, he did come back! Maybe he wanted to be an explorer rather than a Dreamer, deciding to go from pack to pack instead of staying with family and friends. That didn't mean he couldn't visit, though - that was what Fia was going to do! She was going to adventure all around the world, but always visit whenever she got the chance. She watched the man some more. His golden fur and black paws reminded her of the fiery sun and things that burned when they got too hot. She giggled - what if J'adore turned into a real sun and melted all the snow! She was about to say something along these lines as a joke, and was interrupted when J'adore said he had to go.

She stopped dancing and looked at the golden man. "Okays!" she said, glad that he had come. "Bye bye! I hope I sees you later!" She then stood and realized that she was, in fact, cold as the man walked away. It seemed like he was a tiny golden sun, and he was walking away. The sun peaked out of the clouds, but all Fia could feel was the cold, now. Her thick fur was soaked to the skin. She giggled once - it was cold, but the snow was so fun - and began to trek back home to her parents.