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ooc
She had watched one spring up from the mud and plop down into the water, but this other one didn't look so good. Addison poked the little frog with her toe, trying to get it to stir. She'd been digging in the mud for a good portion of the morning, as the sun warmed it bit by bit, and had found quite a few frogs buried beneath the surface of the soil. They were in hibernation, of course, but her young mind couldn't grasp such a concept just yet. She was certain that there was something wrong with the frog, or that it was dead. One had just woken up...but this new one she'd found wasn't moving at all.
The girl looked at it sadly, prodding it once more. Wake up! "You fuckin' fwog! Wake up! WAKE UP FWOG." She shouted, reaching her paw out toward the amphibian again. She put a little more weight behind it, stepping on the animal. Still nothing.
Just when she was giving up she saw a stir of movement, and her blue and gold eyes focused on it sharply. Its little toes were moving! Addison reached toward it again.....but she was too late. The frog rolled over in one movement and started leaping away, heading along the ledge that she was sitting on above the quarry. There were several stairlike structures that led down from the cliffs, going down from the top level to the next one down, and the frog hopped down those. The girl followed him closely, watching his every move. She was going to catch him! But the farther she went the more narrow the pathway got, and soon she was walking on a portion that was only a few paw-widths wide.
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[html] http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j40/k ... ump/12.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;"> Geneva had finally gotten around to exploring the territories around Phoenix Valley, swallowing the fact that her days at Crimson Dreams were done. It was strangely bittersweet, to move forward. She was glad not to stagnate, glad to have left some of the heartache behind her. She found it easier to move forward when she focused on the good things, and it seemed lately that those things came in abundance.
She didn't know anyone yet, outside of Jefferson and a strange white man with an odd name she had to grasp to remember. Pendance? Pendzez? Something along those lines. The gray colored wolfess tread carefully along the steps of the quarry, lime colored eyes alert as she traced new, foreign territory.
After a while, partially lost in her thoughts, she thought that she saw a young form wavering on a particularly thin piece of path. She blinked, believing she might of imagined it. But when the image didn't fade, she quickened her pace to stand at the broad beginning of the young girl's path. She paused, not wanting to startled her into falling off. "Hey sweetie," she called softly. "I think it would be safer for you to come back this way."
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ooc: mine sucks ^^;
Addison hadn't met too many of her packmates yet. She'd seen them all briefly at the pack meeting, but it had only been a short, fleeting glance at best. Before coming to Phoenix Valley she had only ever known her mother and father, and now she knew Jefferson and Davinci too...but that was only four wolves. The little female hadn't gotten to know anyone other than them before in her whole life.
The timber-wolf colored pup did hear the voice behind her, but she didn't give it much heed. She was determined to catch the frog no matter what! She almost had it, too, her nose just a hairlength away from the thing's back leg....and then it jumped away. She sneezed and shook her head, her awareness of the situation slowly returning. She was really high up above everything else...and there was no room to turn around. Addi could turn her head back, though, and she did so.
There was somebody there! That was what the voice was. "Whut? Was you talkin' to me?" Wind whipped past her ears. She couldn't tell if Geneva was replying or not, the sound muffling out everything else. "Help me, please! I's stucked out here! Is too small---no turnin' round!!"
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[html] http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j40/k ... ump/12.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;"> She kept her eyes trained on the little girl, almost astonished to see the dual color of her eyes. She had only ever met one other creature with eyes of two colors before. But that was just a passing thought that she spared little attention to. Now she was faced with an even greater dilemma, and had no idea how to deal with it. It seemed that the little one had had no idea what danger she had put herself into. Now Geneva had called her attention to it, and might have complicated the situation even more. The pup might make a sudden move, a fatal move.
The woman would have acted, even without the little girl's plea. But that chord in her voice stuck something in her, forced her to blink and not become overwhelmed with the sudden gravity of the situation. The sound of her voice set her on a course of action that she gave little thought to, as her vision narrowed to a singular purpose.
Swallowing hard, she called out to the little girl. "Don't move. I'm coming to get you!" Geneva was a small boned wolfess, slender and light. She had never been grateful for her small form before now. If she had been much bigger, her balance would have been impossible to maintain. But now she put one foot in front of the other, purposefully not looking down and keeping her eyes on Addison. She kept her face calm to keep the girl from panicking, although her heart thundered in her ears. Geneva hated heights.
She walked carefully, slowly on the slender pathway. And it seemed like a hundred years before she reached the little girl. When she did, she didn't spare a second's hesitation. She bent her neck, seizing the little girl's scruff in her teeth, hoping she'd be still. She couldn't turn around and experienced a moment of panic as she wondered what she could do next. But it was obvious.
Geneva began to walk backward, this time even slower than before. She didn't know how long it took, but she continued to back away, keeping her neck straight and tense, her eyes forward. The distance from herself and the frog stretched and stretched. Geneva didn't stop until she felt a protruding bit of rock bump against her back legs. She spared a glance to the ground and found that they wee on wider, stabler land and had been for about twenty five feet. She sat down shakily and deposited the girl onto the ground.
She really, really hated heights.
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I'm here!
He'd seen the whole thing. Jefferson had been hurrying past, two-legged, thankfully using the speed capabilities of his Luperci form over his three-legged, limping lupus form that only slowed him down. Addison had wandered away from the ranch, as always; he was beginning to grow used to it, and she was at least a couple months old. The packlands were safe and secure for the most part, thus he didn't mind the pup's occasional and understandable wandering--she couldn't be kept in that ranch house all day, even as much as he wished she could. Responsibilities always pulled him away; it was best that she got away to meet the fellow members surrounding her, even if Jefferson had wished he'd been there to supervise. He was growing a bit protective... how wonderful.
Hastening past, he'd heard Geneva's voice and decided to stop, hoping she might've seen the youngster somewhere. Addison had been gone too long; he'd started to worry, and that had sent him running in no time. Jefferson found them both on the ledge; it took all the strength the Patriarch could muster to keep from shouting out at them, following a similar mindset as Geneva in that he was cautious to spook them and send them toppling down the cliffside. He stood wide-eyed, mouth agape in sheer shock and paralyzing fear as Geneva very carefully retrieved the child and cautiously backed her way to safety. Too overwhelmed to bother shifting to a form matching theirs, Jefferson immediately stepped around Geneva and wrapped up the little girl in his arm, holding her dear and close to his chest as if letting her go would mean losing her forever. "Goddamn, Addison," he mumbled beneath his breath in a relieved exhalation. Scolding could wait a couple minutes... until his heart could get back to a normal level, anyway, before he really did have a heart attack. Even Geneva didn't possess a second of his thoughts... no, he was simply too relieved to think straight, even for just a few minutes.
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She looked down and the world spun. She'd never been so high up in her entire life before, and wasn't sure if she should be afraid or not. Sure, she had fallen down before...but never from someplace like this. It had hurt when she'd fallen from the bed, chair, stair, and when she had tripped over the carpet, and those things hadn't been very far from the ground at all. The blue ground was really far down there, and it was moving.
The idea that it would hurt for her to fall all that distance suddenly hit her. She turned her head back to see if Geneva was coming or not, her legs beginning to shake. "Pwease..." She wasn't sure how much longer she could keep standing. She could feel the shaking getting worse and worse and worse. Just when Addi thought that they were going to give out, though, she felt the pressure on the back of her neck and instincts took control. Her eyes closed, legs coming up and tail curling between her legs.
The next thing she knew she was on the ground again. She didn't want to open her eyes, afraid of what she might see. Was she still near the edge? Was she going to fall and get hurt? Addison began to whimper and then cry, her head down and her legs shaking. She was so scared.
Then it was something completely new. She felt herself being picked up and held tight. A familiar smell hit her nose and she pushed her muzzle against him and breathed in a big deep breath of it between sobs, trying to take in as much of the good, home-smell as she could. Even before he spoke and without opening her eyes at all she could tell who it was, and she felt her mouth opening to try and explain. "It was da fwog...and den I was...tuck out dere and da wolf comed...and gotted me and I was scawed!!"
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[html] http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j40/k ... ump/12.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;"> Geneva rested heavily on her haunches, sucking air in through her mouth. Her stance was hunched, almost akin to a resting vulture. She bristled slightly, fur raising on her back as she let the fear melt from her. She could hear the little girl sobbing, but found she couldn't do much but try to keep her breathing under control. The last thing she wanted to do was something stupid like hyperventilate.
She saw a two-legged form out of the corner of her eye and began to rise on shaky legs. Oh god, what now? She felt her shocky state give way to a strange errant strain of anger. Was someone coming to mess with them now? She felt her brows draw together, her mouth shut tight so her teeth clicked together as she turned her head to see who it was. For a moment, she was shocked to see it was Jefferson. Wonder of wonders!
It was like something out of the Twilight Zone when he snatched Addison up against his chest. She sat down hard, her mouth wide open as she gawked at the man. She realized what she was doing and snapped her mouth shut again, this time biting down on her tongue. She grimaced a little, then addressed him in a tired, breathy voice. "Is she okay?"
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Sorry about the wait, guys. Moving back into the dorm is busy work.
Time had stopped momentarily while he caught his breath and his pounding heart stilled; it resumed when Addison blurted some sort of excuse that hardly reached his ears. He continued to hold her close as she sobbed and whimpered, a poor child with an inconvenient fear of heights and death without even understanding its complexities. The one-eyed male sighed, taking a moment to sort out what she'd explained in his mind before the mentioning of the 'other wolf' came to his attention. It was at that point that Geneva approached and questioned as well, evidently Addison's unlikely but unsurprising heroine. Jefferson nodded gently to her, face stern and unthinking; no embarrassment passed through, as his emotions had already been stretched a few different ways and were too weary to start working properly.
"You should thank her, Addison," he said, placing the child back down on the ground as he knelt over her. "She saved your life, you know. Her name is Geneva... she's a good friend of mine." Green eye strayed up at the grayscale-hued wolfess, for a moment wondering what she thought of this experience and this new sight of him; surely she'd have plenty to say about it later. If nothing else, he'd have plenty to teach Addison later, not to mention the swelling of words he'd be getting from Geneva about the whole ordeal. The life of a parent, he supposed.
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"I is not hurted"She answered, peeking her head out from its resting spot against the male. Addison usually adapted to new situations without much fear or doubt, but this one had been too much for her. She had never been in such a dangerous fix in her life. Jefferson had told her not to wander too far away, but she hadn't listened to him. She thought that she knew better. Now she was beginning to realize that Jefferson knew what he was talking about...that she should listen to him more.
"Fankoo for saving me. Mah legs was all shaky and was going to make me fall down and it was a long way down and I thought that I could get the fwog but it hopeded and I got stuck" Jefferson explained that Geneva was his friend. She knew what a friend was! Jefferson was her friend too! She didn't know if that meant that she and Geneva were friends or not, though. Did you become friends with your friend's friends? "We is friends?" She questioned, the last few sniffles beginning to fade away.
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[html] http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j40/k ... ump/12.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;"> Geneva paid as close attention as possible, but her ears were still ringing. She sucked air in through her nose like an ancient vacuum, controlling the air flow and concentrating on making her lungs expand in a smooth, easy pattern. She tried to regain control of her body, especially of her heart. She was ultra-conscious of the way it seemed to be thundering out of control. She closed her eyes as Jefferson spoke, listening both to his words and the movements inside her body. His words surprised her, and her deep breaths turned into hiccups as the air jumped up to stay trapped in her throat and she opened her eyes to see if he had sprouted another head, or if it had really been him speaking at all.
She kept her mouth shut to keep from hiccuping and embarrassing herself, her expression softening from disbelieving to calm. She smile halfway at him, still not at all at ease although Addison seemed as though she had calmed down quite a bit. Geneva felt like a complete idiot, seeing that although Addison was shaken, she seemed much more coherent than the adult wolfess. She bit her lip in embarrassment. "Of course we can be friends," she said, her voice still a bit shaky.
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He smiled a little at the child's blunt remarks; a brief explanation was all it took to put him at ease. It would be good for the little girl to have been exposed to serious fear, even if early in life, and hoped such knowledge and memories would lead to hesitations and cautiousness in future events. Addison needed to know that both he and any other guardians she managed to befriend and hook would be at the ready to protect her, but her reliance on them could not last too long. She was still young, yes, but she would have to fend for herself eventually. Amidst such thoughts, his contemplative single eye raised again to Geneva, curious of her thoughts, and caught her expression a shocked and unusual one for once. Her words were shaky and flushed; Jefferson's expression hardened to that of concern, whether or not he was aware of it, and he watched her for a brief moment before shaking himself out of such a daze and turning back to the little girl.
"Addison..." He started. How could he word himself? Hell, he was bad at this. "You have to be more careful. You're still little, but I can't always watch over you. There might be a time when I won't be able to." Though his head did not turn, his eye subtly glanced back at Geneva, but returned again soon thereafter. "You were just lucky that Geneva was here this time." He straightened his shoulders and glanced her way again, green eye introspective and affixing a solid, unbreakable gaze on her as if he could see right past her own olive eyes. "...Are you all right?" The Patriarch said slowly.
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She definitely needed some more friends. She had spent the first month of her life in Phoenix Valley inside of the cabin, mostly...so she had some catching up to do with making friends. Her parents had been her only friends back home, so she would have to figure out what she would need to do to make some new ones here. Maybe if she gave them something, like something that she caught (a bug) or made (a dirt pie), then they would consider being her friend. She would have to try it out on one of the others...maybe Geneva, later on, just for practice. If Geneva liked the gift, then she would use that technique on new friends.
The idea that she had done something really bad by wandering out away from the cabin was beginning to sink in and her posture wilted down to something more apologetic, her tail brushing against the ground and ears held back. She didn't want to cause Jefferson any trouble...or any of her friends any trouble either. "I am very very very sorry Jeff. And new friend Gen! I will not come over here until I's much bigger...and not go near that big edge again"
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[html] http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j40/k ... ump/12.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;"> Geneva swallowed the lump forming in her throat, her stomach churning in rebellion against the shaking of her system. She blinked hard a few times, looking away from Jefferson and Addison as she tried to regain focus. She was acting completely ridiculous, making a spectacle of herself. And there was clearly no danger present to either of them at the moment. It was so silly, but now she felt the fear flood her bones, stirring the chilled feelings inside of her. But she was grateful that this crippling sense of terror, stealing what little dignity she had left, had come after she had ventured out on to the ledge. She felt that she would have been terrified and just as much in need of rescuing as Addison if she had felt this flood of terror out on the ledge.
Her legs had stopped quivering, the breath wheezing through her airway much less pronounced. She felt much less shaky, much less like the ground was shaking underneath her and like the sky was going to fall and crush her. Now she wished that ground would open up and swallow her whole. She felt Jefferson's emerald eye on her, and the contact felt electric. His scrutiny, his concern felt like a brand burning into her skin. Embarrassment flooded her, but she turned her head slowly to look into his face.
"I'm fine, thank you," she said more evenly, her voice hushed by her embarrassment. Her whisper-thin voice didn't shake, and she was pleased. She didn't want the Patriarch that she was as useless as she felt right now, as if she was made of glass. But in the face of fear, she often folded. She had been trying to face it, trying to conquer it. But she had a long way to go before she could completely, boldly look fear in the face without some stubborn reason to guide her.
She smiled, thin-lipped, at Addison. "Next time you feel like going on an adventure, how about you ask me or Jeff," she rolled her lime green orbs to look into his face with the ghost of amusement in her face, "to keep you company."
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Sorry for the wait, guys...
It was clear that Geneva wasn't as set in her right mind as she admitted; the grayscale-furred girl spoke in a voice hardly above a whisper, somehow at a level reminiscent of a ghost or spook that sent a slight chill down his spine. She played some sort of facade in that she was masking rather obvious embarrassment, inwardly flustered and trying to muster all she could to avoid being so. For a moment, Jefferson was taken aback by it all; Geneva rarely showed such behavior, even if she was foolish in how straightforward she was with him in particular. He'd seen fear and intimidation in her before, but never embarrassment... and yet, he didn't seem to understand why she possessed it at all. Why was she so flustered? Surely something was still amiss, even if the one-eyed idiot couldn't quite put his finger on it.
She denied anything being wrong, but quickly turned back to Addison in an easy sweep in changing the subject. The Patriarch's green eye slowly lowered back down to the pup under his care, shallowly nodding along to whatever it was that Geneva was volunteering him to. And then, she turned her sly olive eyes back to him with some sort of look he couldn't quite distinguish, as if implying that he himself was lonely. The hybrid sent her a sarcastic look. "I'm not one for adventures. You can bug Geneva for that," he grumbled, not breaking the locked gaze he'd set on the gray girl, even though his words were directed to the pup. His head turned slightly to the side and his eye narrowed--silently telling her that he knew something was still wrong with her.
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[html] http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/ ... banner.jpg); background-position: bottom center; background-repeat: no-repeat;"> close this one? And Gwen, can we have a thread with Addison and Geneva? 
She couldn't tell that there was any tension or that Geneva was speaking in a way that was abnormal. Addison hadn't been around her enough to know that. But Jeff sure was looking at her funny. She looked too, copying the male's expression. Something was wrong? But as soon as that thought crossed her mind it was gone again, as the gray wolf spoke. Her tail wagged, a simple reply. "Okay! We can has lots of fun!!" But it seemed that Jeff wasn't up for adventures. She did see him a lot, at home...maybe it would be better to go with Geneva, his friend! She did still want to be Geneva's friend really badly...she would have to find her again after this and give her the things she had been thinking about earlier. "Okayyyy, we can go! But...I is hungry...tummy hurts. We can go home now?"
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