[html]
 . 301 words.
EDIT: forward-dated to 7/20
Ares had brought only his favorite book with him to this land. It was too hard to travel fast while shifted, and too hard to carry much while not. So he had limited himself to one, and brought the beautifully engraved book that told the tales of the Greek gods, that held the glory of his namesake. Then, if anyone doubted him, if anyone challenged him, he could point: look! I am destined to be great, like him. It will be so.
He had been perusing it earlier and it laid on a stone, flipped over on the stone to hold it's place open in a way that would bring horror to those more careful with their belongings - surely it's spine would be creased! But the growing adolescent had gotten hungry, and thus had gone back to the form in which he was an excellent hunter. Theoretically, he knew it was possible to hunt while shifted - many did so (and humans had hunted, too). However, he had absolutely no idea how to fashion the tools frequently employed let alone how to use them. He didn't care too much to learn, either. What was the point? He was a fantastic hunter, even when just a pup, catching mice at an early age. Everyone knew that. Princess had been jealous, and Tokyo had usually taken whatever he had caught to give to her instead.
So the mottled gray boy lay sprawled out beside his book in his natural wolf form, gnawing away happily on a fresh-killed plump rabbit. Ares was happy with his life for the moment, as long as he kept his mind in careful check (a sharp contrast to his lazy posture) refusing to allow it to drift in the direction of his overall purpose for being in these lands.
[/html]
[html] http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee19 ... _table.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;">
300+
The pup’s nose lifted in the air as she sniffed noisily, a paw lifting from the ground in a comically dainty fashion. There was something in the air that smelled very good. Suddenly, the pup jumped as if surprised, but her tail was wagging and there was a smile on her face. Food! As a pup, food was a very exciting thing. She slept, ate, and played all day, and she realized that maybe she was hungry right now. Swiftly, the girl trotted and pranced along the invisible scent trail, humming a random tune noisily as she went. Amata was a friendly pup that didn’t want to hurt anyone, and she was not concerned with being quiet or stealthy. Even though that one adult had been mean and had pounced on her, she was still under the impression that everyone was nice and friendly because she was nice and friendly too. And so when she walked through the grass, the sound of her approach was undisguised, the rustling of the grass like thunder in the silence.
For a brief moment, the girl paused. The blue and green eyes found a young wolf, but he was older than her, she decided, because he was bigger. He was not very colourful to look at—it made sense that he was a boy. She nodded to herself in approval. Once she had inspected the boy, her eyes strayed to the meal that was being devoured, and the creamy pup licked her mouth that salivated hungrily. But it was not nice to be rude, so she would ask him to share first. Amata took several steps forward, her tail waving amiably behind her as she looked down at the older boy, a bright smile on her face. "Hiii!" Her loud greeting was drawn out. There! Now he knew that she was there. Then she sat down, laying in the grass near him but resisting the urge to begin rolling around in the tickly grass. "I’s Amata! Who is you? " The girl’s head cocked in question, and although she smiled she kept her mouth shut to keep from drooling.
[/html]
[html]
308 words
Ares was just wondering how long the rustling would go on before whatever pup it was that he smelled would introduce herself, when the expected voice broke out across the silence. A very friendly, very excited sounding voice. It was sort of weird to see a puppy so little - to think the he had been that little, when he and Princess had ran away! It seemed a lifetime ago, and it sort of was. Buttface didn't exist any more. Only Ares, now. A new life. This kid was cute, he remembered her vaguely as one of the ones that had shown up at the meeting a little while back. One of Savina's, then. A pretty little girl, that he now knew the name for: Amata. "Well hello there, Amata! My name is Ares Chance."
He nosed the rabbit towards her. In the eyes of the world, it was a selfless gesture, but a little kernel inside him acknowledged the act as a very subtle form of boasting. He was so good at hunting, so amazing at it, that he could just toss aside a rabbit like this to a puppy, if she wanted it. Yeah, Ares was just that sort of guy. But his motivation, whatever it was, didn't make the gesture any less kind in and of itself. Cheerful words accompanied the nudging: "Want any?" The lanky adolescent had chewed off a good portion of the hind quarter, but there was still plenty of tasty meat clinging to the skeleton, and sweet marrow hiding in the bones themselves if you had the patience to work it out from the crunchy flimsy rabbit frame. He didn't usually bother on rabbits, but once with Princess he had found an old, mostly discarded and mostly consumed corpse of a fawn, and that had certainly contained marrow worth digging for!
[/html]
[html] http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee19 ... _table.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;">
300+
The young girl wagged her tail, the creamy appendage rustling the grass noisily behind her. She smiled up at the boy. But when he introduced himself in turn, the wagging of her tail faltered and little frown tugged at her little mouth. Why was his name, or part of his name, familiar to her? Her head cocked to the side as if she were contemplating something of great worth. His name shouldn’t be, the young pup reasoned, because she had never met him before—well, not really. She remembered seeing him at the scary pack meeting, but maybe she was just letting that get confused with the name part. So, satisfied with that logic, the little pup continued to smile. "Hi, Air-es," she said again, her blue and green eyes watching him cheerfully. She didn’t play with many boy puppies often, except for Gotham, that was, but he was her brother. "Did you come here with your mamma and dadda," the little girl asked. She did not think that he was related to her or the other adults that she had met in her pack. Maybe he came here with his family.
When he offered her some of the rabbit, the girl nodded vigorously. "Yeah! I woulds!" And he tossed it in her direction. "Thank you!" she said as she rolled around in the grass, only to return immediately. She took several large bites, or at least bites that seemed very large for her, from the meat that was very fresh. The rabbit tasted very good, and so she told him so. "This tastes very good," she said after she swallowed, knowing that it would not be very polite to talk with her mouth full of meat. "Did you catches it all by yourself?" It seemed very amazing to the little, creamy girl. She was not yet old enough or fast enough to kill her own food yet. Chasing rabbits was still a game that she played with her siblings sometimes. Amata took several more bites, tearing at it as she made yummy noises, like growling.
[/html]
[html]
As far as what Amata can do to trigger Ares, do you think she'd want to take his book and try to play with it or something? Just brainstorming, if you had something else in mind that would be cool too~ . 408 words
Amata's careful over-pronunciation of his name drew another smile across his face. She had pretty awesome eyes - one of each of two different colors, a novelty to the adolescent that hadn't ever met more than a handful of different wolves, and thus had never encountered this particular genetic mutation. Ares shook his head at her question. "Nah, I came here 'cause my mamma isn't allowed on these lands. She's mean. And I don't have a dadda." He simplified the situation quite severely, but the tiny nuggets of information were likely more palatable to a child of that age. By describing it such, he was also able to avoid having to get into the nitty-gritty of it. Y'know, shit that wasn't really right for a kid to know, like "dadda"s that would abandon "mamma"s, and "mamma"s that would hit a kid for doing nothing wrong.
He laughed softly at her ferocious attack of the rabbit. Amata was pretty excitable, which was cute, and also another strange thing about these lands, these people. It was sort of weird to see a kid not.. well, afraid, of adults. It seemed such a default part of life, to worry about annoying those bigger and stronger with some incidental offense. She was pleasant enough to be around so far, though, that he supposed she'd probably already been taught all sorts of manners. Besides, he wasn't like his mother. He wouldn't hit a kid for nothing, no never. Even if he'd experienced first hand the effectiveness of physical punishment, it was only necessary when a pup was exhibiting behavior that was actually wrong. Like, lying maybe, or doing something dumb that would endanger themselves - swimming farther out in a river than they should, staying out too late, straying too far, etc. So, morally wrong or dangerous. One to make sure the cub grew up into a good person (his mother, of course, flashed to mind as an example of a child not taught properly. The other, to make sure that they actually had a chance to grow up.
"Thank you." Ares replied solemnly, as if he was actually responsible for the flavor of the rabbit. "I did catch it myself." He was glad that someone was able to appreciate his amazing hunting skills, even if it was a kid. "It's not too hard, although rabbits are tougher to get than mice. I can show you how when you're a bit bigger, if you'd like."
[/html]
[html] http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee19 ... _table.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;">
Haha, yeah. She would just be wanting to play, poor puppy~
500+
The boy’s reply caused the little pup to tilt her head. His mamma had been mean? Why would his mamma do that? And why didn’t he have a dadda? It was all very strange and new for the creamy pup, and for some reason, it made her very sad. If her mamma was mean to her or if her dadda suddenly disappeared, she would probably cry, she thought. But that was as far as she could comprehend such a matter—it didn’t seem very realistic to her, even though she did not doubt that what Ares said was true. And then, suddenly, she remembered why part of his name was familiar. Chance, the little pup repeated in her mind. To-kyo Chance, she articulated, remembering the name her mamma had told her. That was the mean adult that had hurt her and had lied. To-kyo Chance hurt Amata’s feelings a lot! "Is your your mamma Tok-yo Chance?" the little girl asked suddenly. "She was mean to me too, so Mamma said she couldn’t come here anymore." A little pout came to her lip. It was hard for Amata to feel dislike, but she didn’t like mean people or violent people.
"Wow!" she exclaimed before taking another bite. Ares must have been very fast, like an adult, to catch a rabbit. The funny animal was always getting away from her! The creamy puppy was amazed to hear that catching a rabbit was not hard for Ares, and her blue and green eyes were filled with that awe. Her tail wagged as she swallowed her food with visible effort, her excitement causing her to neglect the thorough chewing of her meal. "Is would likes that, Ares," Amata replied with a big, toothy grin. "Ones days, Is will bes fast too," she said with a solemn nod—at least fast enough to catch her own food. Maybe it came with age. Ares was older than her, and he could catch his food. He said that when she was older, he would teach her, so maybe that meant that she would get faster. It was exciting for the little puppy who loved to learn, and she was very appreciative of this boy who wanted to teach her things.
After another bite, the little puppy decided that she was full. Looking up, the book on the stone caught her eyes, which lit up with familiarity and excitement. Swallowing that last gulp, the girl asked, "What’s that book abouts?" as she sprung up with that playful bounce. She pranced over to the book that lay with the pages hiding in the stone, and she wondered what shapes the funny ants had taken on this particular book. "Cans you reads too?" That was amazing as well, because she couldn’t read yet. Dadda could, and he read her stories all the time, which she loved. "Cans you tells me the story?" she asked, cocking her head, her tail wagging. To help him, her small muzzle reached down, those little, sharp teeth biting into the binding of the book as she flipped it over with a child’s careless excitement. The pages fluttered in protest, and Amata made the pages listen to her by putting her paws on it. But, even when she concentrated on the pages, she still couldn’t make the ants make sense—they were all flat and smooshed on the page anyway!
[/html]
[html]
i knowww, i feel so bad with my chars always picking on little amata XD;
333 words
She spoke his mothers name, and there was nothing Amata could have said that would have surprised Ares more. But a couple puzzle pieces in his mind clicked satisfyingly into place, and he nodded solemnly. "Yes, I'm sorry she was mean to you. One of the reasons I'm living here is because she isn't allowed here." He wondered whose kid he was, and flipped the question back on her. It would make sense for her to be Savina's kid, given the dark leader's disdain for Ares' last name: "Is your mamma Savina?" Kids were so easily impressed. Ares grinned at her exclamation, and her careful prediction of the future. Amata finished what she wanted of the rabbit and bounced away from it. The mottled boy stood up and walked towards the remnants of the rabbit, picking up the tasty leftovers, his back towards the book that the puppy had shifted her attention to.
"It's about Greek Gods. And yup, I can read!" Still boasting a little, but it was nice to be around someone who appreciated the things he could do, even if in a real world situation they were not actually impressive in the least. When he turned around, though, and saw her bite into his favorite book so casually, then trample on it's pages. Ares dropped the rabbit, rushing over towards the puppy. He nipped her on the shoulder in a reprimanding fashion (probably hard enough to bruise, maybe draw a little blood), shoving her roughly from the book. "Hey! Be careful with other people's things!" He snapped, yellow eyes narrowed. It was an important lesson to learn. You couldn't get anywhere in life if you didn't respect the value of property.
His fluid transition from pissed-off to amiable resembled similar actions of his mother's, to the point where if he had known how nearly-identical the action was to one of Tokyo's idiosyncrasies he would have hated himself for it. "If you pick a story, I'll read it."
[/html]
[html] http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee19 ... _table.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;">
^=^~
500+
A soft whimper of sympathy came from the young girl as she looked up at the older boy. Once she had swallowed a bite, she said, "It will bes okays," in a comforting way, and she thought that she might be good at comforting because she had a sister and a brother, and sometimes they needed comforting too. Just today she had brought her sister a get-better present. "Iss safe here, and iss fun to live here," the pup continued with a nod. She had always felt safe within the Crimson Dreams pack. The only time that someone had been mean to her had been when she and mamma and Cambi and Got’am had taken a trip near the boarders, and then Tok-yo Chance had been very mean. But that was at the boarders, and the young girl was smart enough to avoid it when she could. Of course, curiosity made her go near and even travel beyond at times. But Mamma and the other adults kept everyone safe so that she could wander off and play on her own. But today she had a friend to play with—she was glad that she had found Air-es. At the mention of her mother’s name, the little pup lit up. "Yeah! She’s my Mamma!" And she exclaimed it happily. "How did yous knows?" She wondered if he had smelled her, and she sniffed her paw.
She was staring closely and intently at the pages, brushing her wet nose against the smashed ants when he answered her first question. She looked up at him and tilted her head. "What’sa greak’od?" And Amata wondered what it was indeed. It was when she went back to inspecting the pages that Air-es came rushing over, and the little girl looked up at him with a smile, hoping that he was coming to read to her. But he wasn’t, and he didn’t. Instead, he bit her and he pushed her. The young pup squeaked and yelped as she fell, tears of pain sprouting in those blue and green eyes. She whimpered, trying to look at her shoulder that smarted with hurt. And then she turned with wide eyes filled with confusion and a hint of anger. Why? And the answer came promptly. "I—" she stuttered, holding back the tears. Why was he being so mean? "I’s was only trying to look...." Her voice was small as she sniffled and looked down at the ground, trying to make her eyes drink the tears back in.
Her creamy head lifted when he spoke again, suddenly wanting to read to her. But the girl shook her head; she wasn’t in the mood to play anymore. "I dons wants to pick a story," she murmbled as she sat there. She lowered her body to the ground and covered her face with her puppy paws—only it hurt to move her shoulder, and it made her want to cry even more. "Yous ares jus’ likes your mamma," she murmured, her voice muffled by the grass and her paws, and the words distorted by the quietness with which she spoke. But as soon as she said it, she was sorry that she had. She didn’t want to be mean, but he was mean and hurt her. So the tears rolled down her face as she sniffled, hidden under her paws.
[/html]
[html] oh god so sad!  . ares is going to run away now though, we should have the follow up apology thread in a week or two or so~ 397 words
Ares was right; she was Savina's kid. He was proud of himself for making the connection. But he had always been clever like that. She asked how he knew, and he made some small comment about the scent; it was easier, and not altogether untrue; now that he knew, he could pick out the distinct threads of Savi's scent embroidered along the edges of Amata's. Her question about the gods, however, went unanswered; he had sprang by then, and the situation escalated beyond what was expected.
Why.. why was Amata so upset? He had barely scratched her. He didn't even see any blood welling where he had bit. Was she just a more sensitive child? It was confusing, to him. Ares had probably cried once or twice when he was very young, but he had been forced to grow numb rapidly in order to survive. He had only really cried when Tokyo got really mad. Usually only when her thrashings left the faded scars that could be found beneath his mottled fur. And he hadn't like, stayed mad at Amata or anything! He had taught her, and moved on, resumed their friendship seamlessly. But she was so upset.. "Geeze kid, grow up a little..."
Ares was definitely caught off guard, but he dismissed the confusion. He hadn't done anything wrong. It was an important lesson to learn. He was sorry only that she was taking it so hard, and the only way to change that was practice. Maybe her mother, Savina, wasn't teaching her stuff right? He frowned. And then she spoke again - she didn't want a story. Well, fine. She could stay here and be miserable. He was willing to make amends, to tell her maybe the story of Artemis and Apollo if she didn't know which to pick. But if she was just going to be a curled up ball of sorry, then she could get over it herself. He turned and stalked off, more annoyed at her unexpected behavior than guilty for his actions.
Her words hit him as he stalked off, and he froze, like an arrow had shot straight through to his heart. No. God, no, she was wrong, wow, what a thing to say. Tokyo had no reason. No justification to her actions. This wasn't even comparable, it was in a completely different paradigm. That settled, he melted off into the bushes.
[/html]
|
