House and home

Nian Redtree · 12-28-2010, 12:56 AM

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After what had been a very pleasant day - with the exception of the cloudy weather - Nian was finally sitting down to get some of the work he had planned finished. After he had encountered Ouija, he had spent the rest of his afternoon gathering thin branches from the woods with which he intended to fill in the gaps of his lean-to wall. After that he had broken off any twigs that stuck out, as they would only get in the way of his work. His original plan had been to simply patch the wall; now he realized that making a woven wall of wattle would be greatly superior. As a result, he only had a few of the larger timbers from his wall leaning across the entrance to his den. The smaller ones went into the pile of branches ready to be woven between the few remaining posts.

As he took a sharp stone to the branches, clearing away the remaining irregularities of bark and twigs, Nian began to hum to himself. He was not particularly good at carrying a tune, but the song was simple enough that it sounded all right, at least to his ears. It reminded him of dances back home, with pretty girls and delicious food and a sky full of stars. The tune itself was a bit odd, sounding somewhere between a lullaby and dancing rhythm, but the repetitive pattern of it was well-suited for working. The tune took some of the stress off his hands as he bobbed his head to the music in his head and continued to hum out loud.

Gypsy · 12-28-2010, 01:17 AM

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Woot! This shall be fun I do think xD She can show off her talents and help him, all at once! XD

The golden brown femme trotted along through the woods. Her new denmate was back at the den, settling into his newly chosen room, and she was out to gather items for a nest and to decorate her own personal room to her temporary liking. The more serious redesigning would take time, but some feathers and soft moss for a nest and a few pretty rocks and bones would do. She was sniffing out the sharp scent of an herb she knew grew alongside moss, and had just caught a faint whiff when she heard the faint whisperings of song on the breeze, from a slight distance. A lover of the finer arts, she trotted forward, following the sound, to better hear it.

Soon she was in much better hearing ranges, and realized that the lupine beast that this voice belonged to was not exactly a master at this art, but had the promise of a good voice in the low tones of a male voice, humming a song at random. She listened carefully, and found a certain pattern to his song, and she began to softly hum along, her own voice naturally graceful, falling in in a higher register, and she easily found a rhythm that sounded good alongside his song. Then she sang it louder, no words, but only bits of song, and moved closer. Her bracelets jangled cheerily in her fast pace, the three golden loops dangling around her slim left wrist. The three tiny hoops in her right ear, the top gold, the middle silver, and the bottom bronze, blended in with her fur, but caught the sunlight in a way that made them obvious, and visibly pleasing against her coloring and tones. Her eyes were a shocking amber, just a shade too bright to be considered natural, but indeed they were natural.

She soon found the place where a lean-to was built up, and a male wolf, the belonger to the humming voice, bent over a pile of twigs, weaving them through larger branches. The musty smell of dirt alerted her to the den below the lean-to, and she smiled. He was fixing up his den, as she was hers. She wondered if she should offer him help? At the very least she could chat a bit. The fact that his den was here, and that his scent held that of the now familiar scent of the AniWaya, told her that he was part of her new pack. She wanted to be friendly with her pack. With a smile she trotted forward. "Hello! I heard you singing and working and thought I'd come say hello. I am Gypsy, and am new to this pack. You are?" She had dropped the song, and now her voice was low and sweet, completely friendly. Her tail wagged, but hung low to the ground, and her ears were perked in the way of friendliness.

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Nian Redtree · 12-28-2010, 01:44 AM

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Nian looked up, suddenly aware that the female voice singing harmonies with him was not, in fact, an accompaniment in his head but actually had a real wolf attached to it. He stared at her for a few moments, for once faltering for something to say. Even though the wolfess had caught him by surprise, he had no reason to be afraid of her. She smelled like a member of AniWaya, and her body language was friendly enough. Plus, after he got over the initial surprise he could see that she was quite pretty, and her voice had a pleasant quality to it which matched well with the singing voice he had heard. Smiling, he put the thin branches down and looked up at her with a friendly expression."Sorry, I didn't hear you come up! Oh, well... I did actually, but I thought it was something in my imagination. I was pretty absorbed in what I was doing. My name's Nian." He gestured towards a relatively dry spot. "You can sit down if you'd like. I've been working at this for a while, and I could use some friendly conversation. It's a little boring cleaning all of these branches." Saying this, he indicated the pile of finished poles, which by now had grown to a fairly substantial size.

Gypsy · 12-30-2010, 06:06 PM

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OOC

Gypsy laughed, a cheery sound, at his talk. He had thought he imagined her! "Is this something you do often, imagine wolfesses, I mean?" She smiled at him, blinking her amber orbs. At his invitation she sat down, her bracelets jangling, and she grinned at him. "I would love to talk, though I'm afraid I can't stay long. My denmate is waiting for me to bring some moss back." She wagged her tail and tilted her head at the pile of branches.

"Weaving? That will make a mighty strong wall. Stand almost any storm." She looked at him curiously. "I'm not bad at weaving myself, perhaps I could help you for a short time?" She put her paw out, gently prodding the pile, and glanced up at him. "In my travelings I have learned a few building tricks, I'm sure I could find a few to help you out here." She watched him as he continued working, probably thinking over her words. "In South America I learned the art of making tree houses in the jungle, and in North America the native wolves taught me to build using adobe mud. Quite interesting, but for a lean-to I do think you've chosen well to use weaving." She smiled her approvement, and thought for a few seconds. "Not far from here I learned to use clay. Perhaps if we could dig up some you could fill the little cracks with it? It would make it sturdier, less likely to fall apart, and keep the breezes out." She suggested, staring at the lean-to. Yes, clay would do well here.

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Nian Redtree · 12-30-2010, 06:29 PM

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out of character text

"Well, um... Not usually. I just happened to be thinking about how people would sing that song back in my old pack, and , well, your singing went along well with my memories."

Although he outwardly had a quick explanation, inwardly he was kicking himself for saying something like that. Now she probably thought he was spacey, or full of idle fancy, or... something. Which was odd, because he did not normally rise and fall with the opinions of other people. However, when she complimented his plan he felt his confidence rise again and nodded enthusiastically. "A little help would be fantastic, and since I've already got the posts set up, weaving the sticks through them will go much more quickly with two sets of paws. The clay's a good idea too. It will work much better than moss and twigs at any rate, and it should seal the top where the branches are leaning against the ledge."

His own pack had used wattle-and-daub huts occasionally, especially during the winter, so the idea was not a new one to him. Had she said something about adobe bricks as well? Not far from his old home, there had been a pack of wolves who built with adobe bricks. Could they perhaps be talking about the same group? Although he was curious to hear more and find out if they had indeed traveled to the same places, he decided to keep the conversation closer to home. He had only just met her, after all. He didn't want to seem too interested, even though in reality he was dying to know. Even though he felt happy and comfortable here in the AniWaya, a connection to his childhood home was always welcome. "It sounds like you've traveled all sort of places... We're sort of the same that way," he said, then, reminding himself to keep the conversation closer to home: "So who are you denning with, if I may ask? Is your den close by?"

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