Neither of them were very graceful as they beat their retreat. Caspa was trying to choose the best direction to move, not run into the puppy, make sure the puppy was moving away too, not drop the axe on the puppy, and not slip on the ice. Her arms windmilled, attempting to keep her balance. The tree's creak grew louder and louder as it halved itself, the whole crown coming thundering to the ground with a great many splintering branches, some of the roots rising into the air and bringing a great clod of earth with them. Caspa skidded to a halt to stare at it, sure now they were both clear, but her stop was too sudden for this treacherous frosted ground and her feet went from under her. She landed in the snow near to where the pup had also tripped and tumbled down, and lay flat on her back, panting and looking at the cloud-covered sky. When the girl spoke up, her voice plaintive, Caspa turned her head. Lottie was the name spoken, and she could only assume it belonged to this child. She was a similar size to the golden princeling, Skoll: certainly a sister. Caspa had no idea what comfort she could offer to a puppy who believed a tree didn't like her. Thankfully, it wasn't necessary. With a string of nonsense pouring from her mouth, the child bounded forward, back the way they'd run, torrent of words changing into a torrent of playful barks. Caspa let her head collapse back into the snow again. She'd come very close to squashing a Cour princess. She could not quite digest this fact.
When the excited noises became too much to take lying down, the snow-coloured dog got unsteadily to her feet, picking up the axe too. She appraised the scene: the fallen goliath, the tiny girl challenging it with her youthful tones. Many of the smaller branches had come off by themselves. They could be hauled back to the smokehouse as they were. This would save time, so she could spend a few moments recovering from the near-miss and no harm done. Caspa leaned on the axe. "Careful, Lottie, if you scare the tree too much it'll run away and we won't have any wood left to burn." she jested with a smirk reserved for puppies alone.
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