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.......Anu was the first inhabitant of these lands he had met since meeting Dawali at the AniWaya border, and she seemed extremely pleasant as well. Hopefully this trend would continue; Hemming liked to think that everyone got along just fine, and he was having a good time wandering and feeling safe. He smiled at the alabaster female's response - or was really just smiling in general - and nodded a little at her final words. It was a little upsetting that you could share a home with many others and not get along, but everyone had different goals and ideals, and ultimately it would likely be those little concepts that would make or break a family group. All of this was idealistic speculation on Hemming's part, though. He hadn't spent much of his time - and certainly not his adult life - in a family situation. .......Thinking about his own experiences in his birth pack, he stared at the water at his feet again. "No. I suppose nothing is truly perfect." He said this almost optimistically, making waves with his toes. "It's all just degrees of imperfection." After this escaped his lips he looked up at Anu and chuckled about how philosophical their conversation was in danger of becoming. Though he did enjoy his philosophical musings, he had had enough time to do that already. After the adrenaline that had surged through him while they were rescuing the jellyfish, Hemming was excited to experience more of the shore, and after a moment of rest he was ready to go again. ....... "An exception can be made, I think, for this perfect day. Wouldn't you agree?" The male grinned and stood up, ankle deep in water now, and took a few steps out into the ocean before turning around and offering a hand to her. That the rock was fairly high off the ground was not the only reason he did so, and perhaps a longing for contact, and the desire to share some cheer was the true driving force behind this action. |
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Many of the books that Hemming had read mentioned fossils and some even had pictures, but the wolf had never held one himself. His fingers continued to trace the outlines of the shells as he marvelled at the age of the piece, images of what life might have been like back then flipping through his mind without being called up. Oh, if only he had some of his books with him, he could consult with their yellowing pages and their greying photographs. Maybe he could even figure out how old the imprints were, and what they might of belonged to. For now, he imagined them as clam-like creatures, making their way along the bottom of the ocean as prehistoric sharks knifed though the waters above.
The gray wolf didn't notice the other until his paws appeared in his peripheral vision, a few feet off to his side. He looked up, a smile tugging gently at the corners of his lips. The other's question pleased Hemming, for he always liked to share the little things that brought him joy. Holding the fossil with two hands, he turned his body around to face the other squarely and put the object down between them. "Take a look," he said, excitement evident in his voice, "I think it's a fossil... These creatures must have been buried in this sand, which must have then compacted and trapped them for... millions of years." There was a slight inflection in his voice at the end, betraying his uncertainty. Hemming ran a finger along an edge once more, absolutely fascinated by this little discovery. |
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Hemming stopped his tentative advance when he was a meter or so away from the strange structure. Letting his eyes trace along the panes of glass and the wooden beams, he wondered what it could possibly be. He took a few steps sideways to get a look from another perspective, and concluded that it didn't seem to be something the humans had left behind; though many of the pieces seemed to be old and must have been constructed by the humans, they were of varying wear and tear, no matter how subtly. The heavy rain and the lack of any familiar landmarks or smells made the moment, and indeed the partly finished structure before him, seem rather surreal to the gray wolf. It was certainly well constructed, but by whom? He peered for a few moments more, some of which Dagrun popped an eye open for, wondering why they had stopped. The rain seemed to create a curtain around the wolf and the little bird, forming an enclosed world that consisted only of the odd structure, the two creatures, and a lot of water. Mostly for this reason, Hemming jumped a little as a voice rolled through the rain and into his little world. It was certainly a friendly voice, though, and he looked up quickly, a small smile on his face. A wide grin grew when he saw that the approaching wolf had planks of wood across his shoulder, and was likely the builder. Perhaps he would be so kind as to explain the purpose of his project. Lifting his hand in the air to wave, he called back, "Hi!" Gesturing to the structure with a slight nod of his chin, he added, "Is this yours?" Hemming's smile remained on his face and he stood relaxed, as if the rain water was soaking into his muscles and smoothing them. The strong wolf seemed to be quite comfortable carrying the long pieces of wood, and already Hemming was feeling that it was quite natural he should be doing so. |
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Hemming was starting to get used to being completely drenched. His legs picked up the extra weight with little trouble, and he had figured out at what intervals he should blink to keep the rain out of his eyes and running instead down the curve of his eyelids. The moisture was rather pleasant, more so than the oppressive heat of the last few weeks, and the gray wolf maintained a small smile on his lips. The rain didn't seem bother his Spirit Guide, Dagrun, either, and she chirped wildly each time a particularly impressive bolt of lightning freed itself from the sky. The little bird kept watch from her perch on the top of the wolf's head, huddled close to his fur to maintain a little pillow of warmth.
To say the clouds were ominous would be inaccurate; it was one single cloud, stretched across the great sky. With all the rumbling it was doing, Hemming felt a little as if he must be in a giant stomach, and in a moment like many he had experienced before he could imagine how all the ancient human myths had been inspired. He wondered what they might have said on a day like today. A god had swallowed Earth, and now all the creatures must traverse the digestive tract, in its perilous twists and turns..? Hemming twisted his mouth a little; that wasn't nearly as epic as he had hoped.
Though the lightning clearly didn't upset Dagrun at all, it stirred a little nervousness in Hemming. Taller than the wild grasses he was walking through, and taller than most everything around, he felt a little threatened by it. He was relieved when he reached the edge of a vast, thick forest, and stepped gratefully into the shelter it provided. As the rain tapped on the leaves far above, Hemming picked out rhythms to go along with it, humming them as he walked. The tiny amount of light that illuminated the gray sky barely penetrated to the forest floor, and the wolf wandered in near darkness, his hands resting momentarily on tree trunks as he meandered past them.
He wasn't sure how far he had travelled before he stumbled upon a little dwelling in the woods. The wolf slowed to a stop a good distance away, craning his head forward and squinting in an effort to make its form out more clearly. Movement on the porch caught his eye, and he watched for a moment before stepping a little closer so his presence was obvious. "Hello?" he called out gingerly, thinking only after the words had left his mouth that perhaps it would not be a good idea, and might even be dangerous, to intrude. |
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The wolf's eyes widened a bit when the female mentioned the name of her sister, and he grinned broadly. "Oh, I know her! Nice girl, isn't she? Don't know where she might be today, though." Hemming continued to grin as the female sat down, lucky to have some company to rescue him before he became completely neurotic. He continued to hold the needles in his hands, the stitches completed until half-way through a row. He was still worried that if he put the pair of needles down, stitches would start to fall off. The male would have no clue what to do then, and all would be lost.
Hemming didn't think much about what she had said and replied impetuously, still not quite completely distracted from his little project, "New herbs? How come?" Learning a little bit more about healing was something that the male had been hoping to do for a while, but he always seemed to find such wonderful things to be distracted by in AniWaya and its surrounding territories. Perhaps this female had run out of something that she had collected far away, or maybe in the period of time that she hadn't been healing they had just gone bad. The knitting wolf didn't really know much about herbs, and he was too caught up in his repetitive task for these thoughts to squeeze through, anyway. It was so much easier to just ask.
When the little sticks that sat at his side were questioned, Hemming realized that his role in the conversation was becoming more involved and he couldn't just float through it by muttering whatever words came to his mind first. "Sorry, just lemme finish thi..." he mumbled, bringing the needles closer to his eyes again and completing the row. Sliding them further into the middle of the needle, so they wouldn't fall back, he finally put them down, sighing as if it had been an inordinate amount of work. "They're kuh-nitting needles... I found this book in a little human town, and thought I'd try it out." He dragged the book toward him using the foot that was already resting on the pages inside, and held it up to show the cover to the female. There was a funny (at least Hemming thought so) photograph of three humans posing in gigantic sweaters. "Kuh-nitting, nitting, I'm not really sure how to pronounce it. That K has got to be in there for a reason, right?" He shrugged it off, grinning a little sheepishly and feeling slightly hysterical from all the effort he had used on such a seemingly simple task.
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The male was surprised by the voice that drifted towards him, and he almost did fall in. He turned his head towards the girl and watched her for just a moment. Her voice seemed disconnected from the figure that stood there now, as if time had cleaved noise from form, and now the words were drowned in the distant rush of the waves. It could have been that she hadn't spoken at all. Hemming was a man of reason, though, and his attraction to whimsy did not deteriorate his devotion to evidence. A faint smile played on his lips as he let words escape them. "They're not fish, though. Come see." He pushed himself further back onto his feet, the tops of them pressed against the sand, and beckoned the other over with his freed hand. There was an awe in his voice, a calmness that contrasted with the other's candor. Her statements, beside making him call her over, made the wolf wish he could swim. Truly, Hemming wouldn't mind swimming with the fishes, their world just as populated with strange creatures as the one above sea level. It was a skill that he had never had, and now, he envied those that could, envied the creatures that could take to the water like fish and then come above land to walk about. It wasn't a jealous envy, though, if such a feeling could possibly exist, but a reverence, a respect for such an animal. In the truest sense, it was a desire to be just like it, or even just understand the way it lived. What was it like to cross the bridge between two worlds, or live in them both just as a wolf lived in one? And then there were the creatures that took to the air just as the wolf took to the plains, to the forests. What a marvellous diversity there was, a splendid fortune that the Earth had been generous to lend some room to. |
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Her rush to the water seemed to have taken a bit out of the girl, and for a moment Hemming just watched her recover. He was still a little shocked, and didn't think anything of it when the other reached into the sand and lifted up a handful. It seemed a rather odd thing to do, but its real purpose didn't dawn on Hemming until the bit of sand was flying towards him. With a squeak of surprise, he twisted his body to protect his face. Some of the sand, wet and fluid, hit his shoulder, and he continued to shield his face as he peered back at her. His brows were furrowed as he tried to make sense of her sudden outburst. The crab hadn't had a mean bone in its body, and absolutely no intention of harming the girl! It was the actions of the other wolf that had landed a little beast in her fur.
"But--" he started, flabbergasted, "It didn't attack you!" He had barely got the phrase out when the other started charging towards him. Eyes widening, he turned and started to run across the beach away from her, his big feet making big splashes. His arms flailed in the arm as he ran and he huffed out single syllables at a time. "Don't!" the splash of a footfall, "No!" another splash, "Stop!" He turned his head over his shoulder to look at the girl that was in hot pursuit, hoping that the sand she clutched would not end up in his eyes.
After a moment, he realized how truly silly this all was, and he considered stopping. By this point, though, adrenaline had started to pump through his veins and this game started to be rather... fun. With a laugh, he continued to run down the beach, peering backwards once and a while. Hopefully the girl's anger would wear off quickly.
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At last, Hemming was taking a trip to Halifax to raid its many curiosities. Ember, having spotted the male with his knitting, had stated that she knew of a yarn store in the city. The silver male jumped at the idea, of course (knitting with one's own fur seemed a little odd) and off they went. It was a fair walk, but excitement made it faster, and soon enough the two were wandering down the streets of the city. Hemming admired the strange fronts of the buildings, all running together and quite elegant with their square faces. Even more interesting than the maritime architecture was the things that these buildings showed off; in their great glass showrooms they held funny human-shaped plastic things with clothes on them. Most of the clothing they had passed by contained clothes that Hemming wouldn't wear, or even fit into, but there had been a couple curious items. Nothing worth taking home yet, though, and the wolf was saving himself for the yarn store. Dagrun, from her perch on the top of his head, had uttered little discouraging hums each time he had paused to look at something for too long.
Finally he would not only have some different types of yarn to use, he would be able to have a lot of it. Previously, when he was desperate for some more yarn to knit with he had attacked his own fur with a fury, pulling out the tufts that would come with even a little resistance. Also, he hoped that there would be some good books to learn from, because, though it was quite thorough, the book he had was for someone with quite a bit more experience. The wolf had the stitches down, thanks to that book, but the instructions introduced too much individual consideration for him to handle successfully. For now, he needed to be a knitting zombie, faithfully reproducing the exact stitches that he was told to. Once he started to develop a sense for such a thing he could go on to design his own socks and hats (which he would certainly have to do, because wolves had such pesky ears).
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| http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/ ... settop.jpg); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; padding-top:131px;"> |
| http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/ ... bottom.jpg); background-color:#000000; background-position:bottom center; background-repeat:no-repeat; padding-top:0px; padding-left:15px; padding-right:15px; padding-bottom:179px;"> Psh! I see no suckage. |
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Lemme know if this table is too hard to read off of.
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Hemming nodded and crooned in approval as Ember picked out a very nice green yarn. It was quite similar to the green he had started a new hat out of, one he planned to give ear holes and perhaps even little sleeves for his chilly ears. Green was a wonderful color, too, and in the male's mind represented of one of the most important inventions of the natural world - chlorophyll. On a less profound thought, the color went nicely with Ember's eyes. "You can never have too many scarves!" he chimed, despite a little nagging feeling in the back of his head that suggested that yes, it was possible to have too many scarves. The large (but fortunately not growing) pile of scarves on the wolf's shelf would attest to that. He hadn't been up to much, in complete honesty. It had been a pleasure to help Dawali construct the town hall, and he hoped that they could build something else soon. Other than that, he had been knitting, carving wood, and he had fashioned a shelf out of the whale bones he had found with Addison at the beach. Free time was spent wandering around, feet crusted with snow, or in a pursuit he had found himself rather fond of as of late: climbing trees. Dagrun seemed to enjoy it, or, at least, enjoyed watching Hemming make a fool out of himself and struggle to find sure footing. "Oh, not much," he said at length, obviously having thought of the past few days. "What about you?" |
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In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Morbi pharetra eleifend dui eget laoreet. Nulla imperdiet molestie auctor. In congue molestie justo in mattis. Vestibulum commodo aliquam dui at tempor. Phasellus dictum tincidunt purus ut venenatis. Nunc mollis dolor ut sem vehicula venenatis. Suspendisse pulvinar, nisl sit amet fringilla lobortis, orci odio consequat augue, eget faucibus est turpis vulputate turpis. Donec a lectus massa, sit amet luctus ante. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Morbi elementum laoreet quam, sit amet vulputate mi interdum id. Vestibulum vitae sapien massa. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. "speech"
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OOC  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi tempor justo nec metus aliquet consequat. Nunc at sodales lorem. Praesent egestas malesuada justo sit amet malesuada. Proin diam libero, feugiat in tincidunt vel, pretium eget elit. Donec sagittis varius felis eget faucibus. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Donec consectetur nunc non neque adipiscing quis malesuada quam lobortis. Phasellus semper diam quis ante luctus ac consequat risus condimentum. Nullam varius condimentum magna, sed pharetra elit aliquet non. Curabitur sagittis massa ac dui condimentum feugiat. Nam vel lorem quis leo viverra volutpat ut ut ipsum. Ut bibendum porta leo at aliquet. Nam rutrum tempor ante, sit amet feugiat turpis viverra a. Quisque leo nisl, iaculis eu euismod ac, vulputate nec risus. Aenean non tellus purus. Duis dictum, lacus eget mollis laoreet, velit velit lacinia justo, quis euismod tellus ante ut dolor. Nam tempus congue leo a volutpat. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Nam commodo lacus in eros aliquet rhoncus. |