if nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies
Birds chirped, the sun shone radiantly, and bees buzzed around the brilliant flowers whilst the lazy Alphess napped. Smack dab in the center of the Sunrise Meadow, the silvery wolfess lay on her back, bathed in golden sunlight. She had not meant to come out here so far from the den just to loaf around, but the warmth of the meadow had been all too inviting. Just a few minutes, she told herself, and she would be rested and renewed. Yet after a moment of watching the lackadaisical horseflies mill about the swaying grasses her eyelids became heavy and soon she slipped off into springtime dreams.
She didn’t fall too deeply asleep, though, because the insects and bugs that loved this land would not stop tickling her ears, so she only dozed lightly. Sometimes one leg would twitch, and ear flick, or one of her forepaws that were curled up to her sun-drenched belly would scratch at her chest. Here in the middle of the flowery meadow was heaven.
Adonia had been at the end of her heat, the scent still lingering around her, but fading...thank the stars! Though the sun was out right now...it was a star after all! She now traveled lazily along highway 104, or that was what some of the green laced signs said that she came across. Either way, it was broken road carried her from one end of the territory to the other. Her faithful bird on her back, she was thinking of another way for the eaglet to hold her when she was in lupus form, but nothing came to mind. She found a way in Optime form...but that was it. Hopefully, though, it was only going to be a month longer before he would just be flying more. Until then he just rode on her back.
Her paws moved gracefully through the spring filled road. The chirping of birds and the sound of rabbits bounding away at her presence. A few grasshoppers bounded off the road in a rush. She debated on bounding after them, but was halted by the increasingly heavy Golden Eaglet on her back. A heavy sigh came from her and she continued to stroll on.
Soon she crossed the river and found herself in the meadow where she knelt down in a play bow stature signaling for the bird to jump off. His claws were beginning to hurt her shoulder blades and spine. "...I'm debating on filing down those claws of yours.." She half joked. His deadly stare met her eyes and she laughed. "Oh chill, you need to start getting some flying feathers..you know that.." He hissed at her and attempted to speak, "..na-na" He spat out, she understood what he was trying to say, "Name?" She felt bad that she had him for a whole month and yet hadn't named him. He nodded to her, "..I'm sorry..maybe I'll settle on one now.
She sat down and began to ponder one. [B]"I'll take the search more seriously..you need something masculine...or I could just call you Fluffy.." Her eyes glanced over and a large smile spread on her. He didn't take it nearly as humorously. He spread out his wings and charged biting at her, "Hey! Hey!" She yelled lifting her right paw and bonking down his head making him fall beak first into the ground. "You deserved that! Don't attack me!" He pulled up falling back onto his butt. His pride was hurt and she came up to him, licking his head. He was angry...but that was always him. He was so serious. "Hey...that's your name, how do you like it, hey?" He grumbled at her and she laughed. "..okay, okay..." She sat again and let out a sigh. She was awful with naming things. I mean, her favorite stuffed animal was named red dog...and it was a white and red dog.
Word Count → 400+ :: I'm so glad you wanted to keep going with this thread! ^_^
Long into Titania’s respite the serenity of her surroundings was finally broken by the sound of voices. No… not really voices but a voice and some kind of chattering. The sounds drew closer and closer for a short while before holding still, as though the culprits had stopped their trek down the road. Resistant to ending her little siesta, Titania merely turned an ear toward the pair, but as her curiosity surmounted she soon found herself rolling back over and standing up.
When she popped up above the grasses she scanned the verdant landscape to catch sight of the white and black girl standing not too far off, speaking to invisible creatures. With her head tilted down, Adonia was clearly focusing on something Titania couldn’t see from her vantage point, the baby eagle obscured by the grasses.
“What kind of imp are you talking to over there?” she asked, her voice a breezy chortle. She was clearly joking, although in Titania’s world things like imps and fairies were real and she probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it if Adonia answered her seriously. After all, the Alphess had been known to talk to the fairies herself, and both she and Zalen had witnessed the phenomenon of Ruby’s ghost appearing in Avalon all those months ago. Her paws danced over the ground as she trotted toward Adonia.
When she drew closer she could finally see the indignant young eagle through the blades of grass and a new kind of smile came to her muzzle. She recognized the bird’s species immediately – even if she didn’t know exactly what they were called. Her uncle Niro had an avian companion just like it, although Marahute was much older. She had made a fine hunting companion. Even her cousin, Jiva, had taken up his father’s ornithological hobby and had his own companion here in New Dawn as well.
“I didn’t know anyone but Jiva had a winged pet,” she said, not knowing if the bird could understand her or if she would offend it with the word ‘pet.’ She lowered her nose, bringing her muzzle close to the youngster and sniffing at the bird, her tail twitching in a sideways wag. “Did you have it all this time or did you just find it?” Her eyes flicked to the nearby road, once paved smooth but now a cracked mess, and then back to Adonia. She was in good spirits, her nap leaving her happy even if a little groggy. “And what are you up to traveling the highway all alone?”
Adonia's head rose and looked over as she heard a voice calling out to her. The woman was immediately recognized as her Alphess. Adonia remembered her from the story teller. She asked a question and Adonia let her ears go back a little and she answered back, "No imp...just a bird.." Her peripheral vision caught sight of her bird raising itself and looking at her in an obvious attitude, "Oh, you're getting quite cocky!" She huffs at the bird just as the alphess came quickly toward the two. Adonia looked over at her and saw the curiosity and appreciation for the avian companion. She smiled with excitement while her friend took it quite the other way, he rose tall and his wings came off his back a little mouth opening some, "Oh, I've had him a while, but he's not quite well socialized...and he's got a bit of attitude...as you can see.." She became a little embarrassed by his display. "...I got him as a two day old...and I'm a little ashamed to say that I'm having trouble naming him..."
Adonia sat down once more as the eaglet attempted to go beneath her but he was now getting to big. He was wedging himself beneath her, "...hey.." She said to him, and he made an odd groaning noise as if trying say something but his beak was muffled by her thick fur. She rolled her eyes, "Sorry, about his attitude.." she said apologetically.
Her eyes focused on the bird as he looked rather indignant, then tried to shove his way beneath Adonia. She wasn’t offended in the least by his lack of respect. He was only a bird, after all, and the intelligence of any animal that was not wolf was obviously of limited capacity. He was full of antics, though, and she hoped Adonia could instill an obedience within him before he became too wild to handle.
“He looks like a Puck to me,” she told Adonia, thinking of the trickster fairy of old mythology. Her mother told her the story of the fairies many times, and Titania knew that she herself was named after the fairy queen of Shakespeare’s tale. She took a step closer and, poking her nose between Adonia’s legs, gave the spritely bird a lick on the back of the head for the sole purpose of ruffling his feathers.
When she stood back up she looked down the road. Off in the distance she could see one of the few human scars that marred their beautiful Dawn homelands; the rest stop. A rusted old sign hung lopsided, swinging from one link from an old gas station over hang. There were a few more old faded buildings on each side of the road, much of which had decayed with time. They were only echoes of what they once had been, but Titania still did not like what they represented.
The matter of the bird now forgotten, Titania frowned, her thoughts delving into the pity of the place down the road. Shaking her head, she muttered, “It’s such a shame that place is there to tarnish our beautiful field.” Her ears dropped back to punctuate her displeasure.
Adonia smiled kindly to the alphess as she watched her feathered friend. It was a little embarrassing that her friend would be so rude. She would have a talk about manners with him later. He would need to learn who to be rude to and who he needed to give his full respect. She looked from the golden eaglet to the alphess as she said he looked like a Puck. Adonia smiled, as the first thing that came to mind was a hockey puck, but soon she remembered being asked about mythical creatures. Adonia did realize that the woman was talking about a fairy name. She recalled it from her grandmothers stories of fairies, and one involved a Puck, but it was so long ago, she couldn't recall it fully. Adonia's ears perked and she looked to her alphess in complete curiosity, "That name sounds very familiar, my grandmother used to tell me stories about Fairies, but it was so long ago, and can't think of what fairy Puck was..."
Adonia's eyes looked over to the structure that Titiana was looking at and she found it to look rather neat being engulfed by the wild growth. She saw the frown that was on the woman, and quickly found their feelings differed on the man made structures, but Adonia came up with an idea, "Wanna help the veins and trees reclaim it?" A slightly childish smile came to Adonia as she stood and wagged her tail, the feathered friend looked at them both curiously. "..re...recl..cl..claim?" The bird managed to say, Adonia looked down, head upside down to look at him, "Yes! Reclaim..to take back...once ago, that building was either tree, dirt, or water...wooden structures used to be trees, like the ones you like to sit in...bricks used to be dirt and water..it was how bricks are made.." She smiled warmly. She loved to educate her bird, she hoped he'd become much more intelligent and hopefully, the more she taught him and spoke to him, the more he could pick up high speech and speak back.
