03-03-2009, 11:16 PM
[html]
[/html]Tayui saw Dawali's arrival was mirrored by that of his spirit guide, who was perched on his shoulder (and looking quite proud of this). Tayui chuckled quietly, wondering why she had not noticed the majestic bird until now -- certainly, the creature had been present before. Now that she thought about it, each time Tayui had met Dawali, she had seen -- out of the corner of her eye -- the eagle hovering nearby. She paused for a moment, curious to see if her children could also see his spirit guide, but none of them said anything about it, so she assumed they could not. After all, if they could see the bird, they would certainly enquire about it -- that Tayui knew for sure.
Tayui nodded at her friend's words, smiling quietly as he spoke. I'm very well! And more so now that I know that you and the young ones are ok. Again, Tayui nodded, as she too was glad each one of her puppies was in such good health. It was everything she could have imagined, and more. Perhaps he was a closet romantic at heart. Perhaps she had read too many human romance novels. Perhaps she was enjoying herself so much she didn't even care.
It didn't matter. She was surrounded by those she loved -- her puppies, Dawali, and so many others.
"This one--" she began, but was abruptly cut off by Attila. He stepped forward and introduced himself with a mock salute, stumbling from the momentum. "AHM ATTILA!" he shouted, grinning from beneath a pile of snow. He burrowed deeper into the snow, then jumped back out, shouting a garbled mixture of "hello"'s and "whatcha doin'?"s to his fellow puppies. "Thass Osheeyam, thass Clawdyus, and thass Nwar. Clawdyuss iss smelly!" he declared, then leapt for the snow once more. Tayui frowned and glanced over at Claudius, glad he had not been paying attention. She didn't want him to cry again -- he was easily upset, especially by Attila. "Attila, that wasn't very nice," she admonished, frowning. "Ohkayy, ah sorree, you's nuh smelly, okay," he said to Claudius. Claudius frowned, wondering what was going on, then shook his head. He didn't want to know.
Tayui laughed, shaking her head. "This is Attila," she said, scooting the boy over with a push of her paw so he was sitting next to her. "This is Noir," she continued, "Ocèane... and Claudius."