The barn door is open!
#1
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WC:1,130Everyone is welcomed to join in! sorry for the depressing first part, there is hilarity towards the end!

There was a lot weighing on the man, too much for him to admit. Nayru’s disappearance had at first been shrugged off, he would have never thought her to be so impulsive and that she would return. After all she had gone after him once, and had sought his return to the once proud pack of Dahlia. But the day kept going by, and with her scent fading his thoughts increasingly became more worried. On top of this he hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to the one person whom he cared the most for, X’y and him had been so busy with their own pursuits that it left little time for them to discuss many of the events going on. Maybe X’y hadn’t told him why she had disappeared, out of fear of him losing his mind and going after her, maybe she just didn’t have the heart to explain it to him but the behemoth was feeling with each passing day that a portion of his heart was dying. True they had never gotten along as well as one would expect when they cared for each other as much as they did. Their meetings where awkward and they never seemed to ever be on the same page but it still bothered him to know she was gone.


For once the brute finally felt what it was like when someone he loved disappeared, maybe he now understood why his young apprentice had come looking for him so long ago. Saluce had for most of his life been the one to leave, he had been forced to leave his home in England, had left Dahlia, left Ichika and now it seemed the lesson wasn’t finished until he was made to feel the opposite end of the spectrum. It didn’t matter where he had wandered off that day, just that he felt for the first time in his life unable to protect those whom he had always hoped to keep near him. Was it so selfish of him to think that the people he held dear to him would never leave? Her disappearance hadn’t brought the usual reaction from him, one would assume he would have left and gone looking for her in desperation, to find and get her to come back but he had stayed. If she had left she had left the pack as well, if the burden of leadership hadn’t kept her from leaving, the responsibility she had to those in the pack then there was nothing he could have said or done to persuade her. On some level he knew it was something desperately important, even without knowing the circumstances, he knew her well enough that she wouldn’t leave just like that without a good reason, but it still hurt him more than he realized.



The stone faced demeanor of the man was in the end the only thing that kept him sane, his ability to project his stability outwardly while he suffered immensely underneath it all. But he wasn’t exactly not doing anything; his long legs carried him along the familiar trails of Ichika as he did his best to help what felt like a pack falling apart at the seams. Pride kept him going, a hope that things would sort themselves out, that if by his example others would continue doing their duties while the more important decisions of leadership and if Nayru was coming back would work themselves out. So the male continued on his first of several patrols of the day, but for the first time his eyes didn’t exactly look outside of the pack as many times as they turned back toward it, hoping to see some ray of hope. The man wished he could spy X’y and her wonderful wagging tail running towards him, or Kiara and her youthful exuberance and pleasant demeanor. He’d even take Jace or Temo right now just to let him know and converse with him about their brood of children and how they were doing. Saul would have been a welcomed sight, he could use his expertise in the shop sometime, after all he had hung around his previous shop long enough that he wouldn’t have to instruct him on every little detail, and he’d have a welcomed second pair of paws to help when he needed it. But each time blues gazed upon the pack he couldn’t pick out any of their faces, only the whistle of wind rushing across and around the Mountain ranges.


His round finished, finding himself on the western most portion of the territory he wound his way along the trails in Ichika, four legs carrying him swiftly before he really noticed anything wrong in the lands. Blues weren’t as observant as the normal where, too much on his mind maybe but the first Llama didn’t seem to phase him until a few steps later as his body came to a halt. Blues peered around suspiciously and back behind him as the Llama stood off the trail, idly grazing on a small stub of forgotten grass. What should have been a warning bell going off in his mind, was more of a small ring as he stared dumbfounded. Seconds ticked by as the knowledge processed in his mind, and it took spying another Llama grazing about before the cogs in his head started spinning and intelligent thought seemed to surge forward.


The gates at the ranch? No, who would have left them open! This couldn’t be, one of the very things they had to offer in return for an alliance with Anathema and they were now roaming all around. His heart beat erratically faster as he at first attempted to wrangle the beasts himself. Four legs drumming along the ground as instinct kicked in, attempting to herd the ones in front of him, what the poor sap didn’t understand was the nature of Llamas and a certain defense mechanism they had. It didn’t take long before he came to close, thinking this like herding sheep before a wad of spit sloshed into his face and he was suddenly aware of a sickening smell. Sneezing and pawing his nose and face he only succeeding in spreading the awful crap all over him.


Sneezing and dry heaving the wolf fought for a moment to regain his composure, a loud aggregated huff left his mouth. He was going to need help it seemed, and he really didn’t know what other animals had escaped either. His mouth rose to the sky and the urgency of his call echoed along the rim of mountains and flowed across the northern plains. The animals where out and the race was on to reclaim them, there would be time later to deal with how they were left out to begin with.


Image courtesy of Frau Böb@Flickr; table by the Mentors!

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#2
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Word Count :: +000

OOC she thinks the llamas are horses. she's with the baby



Dalgina was busy playing with the tiny horse when the call came. The pup lifted her head, wondering what was going on. The horse moved closer to her, and Dalgina nuzzled it reassuringly before trotting towards the source of the call. Amiably the horse followed behind. Other horses were passed as they moved, eating the bushes and grass. Dalgina wagged her tail happily at the sight, barking a greeting to each one, only to have them ignore her. The big black one even charged at her, sending the pup scurrying back!


Luckily she had her own horse to protect her. The baby horse stood calmly besides Dalgina through her wailing, leaning over and nibbling at Dalgina's fur, trying to eat it. Laughing at the horse's antics Dalgina licked it across the nose before continuing on her way. Reaching the source of the call Dalgina's tail wagged happily. A new person! She bounded forward, only to stop as she realized her horse wasn't following. Turning around she trotted back to it. It looked scared of the big gray wolf. Gently Dalgina nuzzled it. It's okay. He's not scary. He's a new friend! Gently she nudged the small horse, and it followed her this time as she approached the adult. Hello! Why call?


Dalgina Wolfe-Denahlii


Table by Alex

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#3
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ooc: It's a Llalla! And she's totally saying it wrong.

Just a few more tasks needed to be completed before the day was out. A final border survey before she checked the conditions of the Abbey, assure herself the Trenton and Westville homes would not suddenly fall apart and of course the Ranch to ensure the animals were well taken care of by the Ma-Tzu. The Nomad had faith that in her absence all would be preserved long after her return, but it gave her peace of mind none the less to go through these motions and be certain all was well.

And when all that was left to check was the ranch, the autumn hued dame decided to take a little break from her chore and settled comfortably within the valley lying on her side to bask in the rare clear day. Serenely she drifted in and out of her doze, smiling to herself at the relative stillness she had managed to ensnare for herself. So peaceful and calm….until an urgent call jarred her from her peace with head swiftly drawn erect and ears poised forward. She knew the baritone enough to recognize it was her mate and leapt to all fours immediately. Wild mane trailed behind her flighty strides as she crossed the snow touched lands in a hurry to reach him. En route her mind entertained troubling scenarios as to what would cause him to call for the pack’s attention. Was someone injured? Had he hurt himself? Were the animals stolen? Perhaps she should have checked the Ranch first-

Why was there a Llaha…a Llana…a Llala… roaming free in the field? The Nomad about broke her neck in the hush to halt her steps, burying both front and rear sets of paws into the ground pushing her into a skid. She couldn’t rightly remember what Sage told her these creatures were called but Llala felt right for the sake of placing a label on them. But they were out and roaming free! Their precious livestock! But while she knew it was important it tend to that matter, still the call of her mate had her paws dancing to respond. She teeter back and forth in place deciding between rallying the lone Llala and receive her mate’s call. And of course his urgency held precedence. Drawing nearer to the ranch she spied both the mountainous form of her mate and the little black pup Dalgina with a small Llala attempting to chew through her fur. The Nomad could not have looked more confused than in this moment and hurriedly trotted over to the trio.

“Saluce, Dalgina,” she greeted each with a concerned inflexion to her melodious voice. “Why are their Llala’s running free?” She looked to the miniature cria (at least that she could remember). “And this one?” She could hardly stand still with the growing sense of urgency to control this spiraling situation. Anxiously she pawed around her mate anticipating a response before she wandered over to the young pup and placed herself above the small female, peeling back her lips in a snarl toward the small Llala, urging it to stay away from the pup.



519 words.

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#4
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Dun dun dun Jace to the rescue x3 | 448


Was.. was that a Llama? The hybrid paused in her patrol to stare at the creature as it chewed thoughtfully on the new growth. It looked back steadily at her and Jace recognised him as the gentle male, Rory. The white and brown Llama looked at her without fear or upset at her presence and Jace then heard the sounds of a second set of footsteps in the snow. The all brown female Pippa came out from the recovering brush and too stared at her with docile eyes. How had they gotten loose? The female huffed, if these two were out then surely the others must be around here somewhere. A sudden howl caused the two herbivores to bolt a short way aways. Jace re-approached them cautiously making a soft clicking noise with her tongue.


They seemed interested in the noise she made and Jace wondered if maybe they remembered the noise she used to make to calm them when she came to feed them, the same as she did with her horses. "ki'yi, ki'yi, ki'yi, ki'yi." Ears shot up in more interest as they obviously remembered the sound that came from her maw. She uttered it again in a softer tone and the male came forwards towards her a few steps. Jace stepped back several steps and the female, Pippa too began to follow her male companion who was following her. They remembered this very many colored wolf who had come and fed them not so long ago and wanted the food she offered again.


It took her quite a bit of time but eventually the ranch was within her sights and the two Llama were following her extremely willingly, their hesitancy shaken off by the fact that she hadn't hurt or scared them. She breathed a sigh of relief as she shut the gate behind them and they looked back at her expectantly from over the wooden barrier so she investigated the contents of the stables and stole a few of the treats meant for the horses, they munched happily on the treats she brought them. Only then did Jace turn back towards the forest and the direction of Saluce's howl. Two down and only four to go. She sighed and broke into a quick jog that increased to a run once her muscles had warmed.


She arrived just in time to see X'yrin baring her teeth at the little Cria who was looking scared of their Tenryu and making small upset noises. "X'yrin it's okay. The cria is friendly, Elin isn't going to hurt Dalgina." Her voice calmed the baby and it stopped making distress noises. "I've managed to get two of the other Llamas into their paddock."


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Table by the lovely Sie


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#5
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WC:515-Sheew, next time I'll update the page before I post before making an ass of myself and not seeing a new post

While he waited he busied himself with the duty of cleaning his face. The awful spit had damn near incapacitated him when the vile substance landed. Oh how he was already developing a hatred for this animal already. A low growl escaped his throat as his eye burned at the damned beast. Suddenly he came to the conclusion that there was no great use for this animal and he wondered idly what they tasted like. But such butchery would have to wait, especially since he had called for help, he doubted it would look good for the pack to find him feasting on one of their animals.


It wasn’t long before a curious little wolf came trampling along as if she didn’t have a care in the world. Saluce looked at her a moment as her growing body came walking along with a Llama in toe, or rather a baby one. All his anger seemed to boil away and his paternal tendencies surged forth when faced with the cute little thing that stopped before him. Apparently a puppies youthful ignorant outlook had provided her with a friend among the foul beasts he had found himself detesting now. Her query caused his head to cock to one side before moving toward her, placing himself between her and the bigger Llamas for the time being.


But it wasn’t long before a flash of gold and then the sound of dirt and snow flying brought his attention elsewhere. His mate had shown up and now she looked about as confused as the little girl. His head turned toward the grazing llamas, except their attention had all drawn to the trio in the middle of them. He could only think of that spit once more being hurled from all angles and having to spend an entire day bathing to get rid of the stench. But furthermore he didn’t want them to escape either.


“Someone must have left the gate open to their pen. We will have to try and wrangle them back to the .” He said in a hurried tone letting the two others work out their own troubles. Blues turned to his mate to find her standing protectively over the little girl and he flashed her a quick smile before turning back to the animals.


“They spit, and it’s vile,” he added as he moved off to survey the situation with the pup now suffering the protective blanket his mate would offer. But it wasn’t long before another showed up and she seemed to be infinitely more comfortable with these animals than he did. His blues looked upon her and not really having seen her often couldn’t place her just yet. But he had seen her before and with her knowledge and her place in the pack regarding them he was so much more thankful she showed up. His blues watched the interactions before clearing his throat.


“How do we get these things in without them spitting all over you?” he said, with a bit of venom, having already been a victim to their defense mechanism.


Image courtesy of Frau Böb@Flickr; table by the Mentors!

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#6
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Word Count :: +000

OOC text here



Dalgina's friend, which she had decided to name Whisper because she was super quiet, decided that Dalgina needed a haircut. She promptly began chewing on Dalgina's fur. The pup's tail wagged happily at the sight of the warrior lady who had rescued her from the evil creature that tried to kill her. It turned into a tiny protective snarl as her horse was threatened though. No! Whisper's my horse! She moved over to the baby horse protectively, calming it with licks until it settled back in next to her, nuzzling her affectionately.


Hearing the reason for the call resulted in Dalgina promptly becoming deeply involved in making sure that Whisper wasn't dirty. She hadn't realized she needed to close the gate after deciding to go exploring with her protector horse. Dalgina had thought the other horses would be smart enough to stay where others could come and take them for protection. They hadn't though, and now the horses were all over the place, and it was her fault. Hopefully nobody would figure that out.


Dalgina Wolfe-Denahlii


Table by Alex

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#7
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ooc:

The actions regarding her involvement were indeed mixed but mainly on the part of the female pup and her little ‘horse’. The Nomad was surprised to see the little one jump to the defense of the cria now named Whisper and couldn’t have been more lost as to how this bond was fashioned between the two. Clearly she had missed something extraordinary, but for the sake of the pup and by the words of the present Yakuso the she-wolf relaxed her protective stance and took to wandering idly as she pondered on a method to collect their escaped livestock.

Upon hearing the successful capture of two of their stock (as well as the appropriate calling of the beasts) she turned to the hybrid mother with ears perked in intrigue. “How should we go about collecting the others? Herd them?” she inquired, but with an irrefutable tinge of disdain on her tongue. She did not like the idea of having to corral the beasts when crippling them and making a meal out of them would have served a more satisfying means to an end. The llama’s had already scattered themselves making delectable challenges for the chase. Would it have been terrible just to make a hunt of them then, instead of wasting their precious energy only to re-fence them?

X’yrin looked to her mate, observing his muzzle still clung to by the defensive gunk of the llama. She needn’t be next to him to smell odiferous rank of their mucus. True to his words, it was vile. They issued that gunk on a whim? Her nose wrinkled with disgust as she comically inched away from her victimized mate. Really, could they eat them instead? She desperately wanted to ask the immediate consensus. What other purpose than meat did the llamas serve other than remaining on display in their pens? Or it simply could have been her appetite wanting for its voice to be heard.




323 words.

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#8
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OOC: So sorry I let this sit for so long. Word Count: 247



It was quite amusing to see the pair of adults so riled up whilst Dalgina snuggled with one of the creatures of their intense dislike not feet away but she held back from laughing at the sight, just as she held back from giggling at the sticky smelly saliva that dripped slowly from Saluce's face. Obviously he had discovered the hard way the Llama's stubborn resistance to begin herded. She shook her head to the both of them, answering their question of herding,


No, herding them will not work and will only end in the result Saluce has already seen. Llama's are not sheep or cows to be chased about, silly creatures they are. However during the time I spent looking after them and knowledge from Tawny who originally brought them to Ichika, they do tend to follow those with food. There are some feed back at the stables that could be perhaps used to lure them back to the ranch house. Idly Jace wondered why they had not had Sage rushing about trying to locate them, maybe the coyote woman did not realise her charges were as yet missing.


The only other alternative would be to let them run free to eat and move at their leisure wherever they wish. I would advise against this however, they would destroy the vineyards and gardens within days. After her piece was said she waited in silence for the verdict, would they take her advice or try to herd the animals.


Jace walks. "Jace talks."


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