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The very first breath of winter had been expelled across the lands, leaving thin layers of frost gripping the branches of naked trees. Hemming's warm coat was supplemented with a burgundy hat, which he had knitted out of the wool from the store he had visited with Ember. He was going to wait until they got together to finally knit something, but he just couldn't resist the soft yarn or the lovely wooden needles he had chosen. The books of patterns were like little treasure chests, filled with things to keep him happy and busy. True, they weren't perfect, as would be attested by Hemming's ears, which barely had enough room beneath the hat despite that he had made it much bigger than recommended. Next time he would have to figure out how to make holes for them, and, perhaps, even little ear covers! The weather wasn't really cold enough to completely justify wearing anything extra now, especially since the gray wolf had a thick Scandinavian coat, but the bit of nippiness in the air at least supplied a plausible excuse.
He grinned as he made his way across the grasslands, lugging a bag filled with needles and wool and a couple of books. Of course, he hadn't forgotten the candy that the two wolves had found on the way to the wool shop. It had been a fun trip, and though their little knitting party was a little delayed it was still something that stirred some excitement in him. He wasn't sure how well Ember could knit, but he had been practicing quite a bit and could help if necessary. By now, he had the hang of the stitches commonly used, and understood the basic concepts of the construction of various items. It would be quite a lot of fun to sit around and actually interact with someone while knitting. There was always such joy to be found in sharing a task with someone else.
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She didn't know what time it was exactly, but the sun was shining...so it had to be day time at least. Ember had been taking a few days off from her training as she fought off a bad cold, her nose dripping and throat making it hard to breathe. It was a good thing she had stored that meat in the barn...she had just barely been able to get to it and walk back before she was overtaken by coughing and more drips from her nose. Her resting had extended itself through her illness and into the few days following it, though, the dark wolf choosing to sleep in instead of waking with the sun.
In fact, she was quite sure that she didn't know whether it was morning or afternoon. There was a light shining in her face, though. But...was it moonlight, even? Even that question wasn't enough to make her get up. She had lost track of everything in the last few days....yawn....but another few hours of sleep would do her good! She would return to her tribal duties tomorrow.
She was just closing her eyes when she heard footsteps, though. The nearby sounds made her snap to attention, ears going up as she listened. "Who's out there?" She called.
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Before Hemming had even started to look for her, Ember had appeared. Spotting her dark fur easily among the waves of white snow, he called out, "Hi! It's Hemming!" Lugging the bag stuffed with goodies, he moved towards her. When he was close enough, he let the bag's strap slip off his shoulder and placed the bag on the ground before his friend. "I have wool and stuff, let's knit!" The male grinned. Knitting was such a manly pursuit!
Seeing as it was getting colder, he figured that he might knit himself something to keep himself warm. His pelt was nice and cozy, but the cold air still seeped into his fur. An additional layer would make him almost impermeable. Mostly, though, he just wanted to knit the thing.
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She yawned, stretching her arms out of the hole of her den. There was snow everywhere but the stuff around the mouth of her den had remained untouched until Hemming came nearer. She hadn't gone anywhere for a while, not since her last meal. Too much sleep to catch up on! She lifted up one hand in a lazy response, rolling over again so that she viewed him from an upside-down angle. "Yo."
Ember hadn't been doing too much with her needles lately...she felt a twinge of slight guilt when he mentioned knitting, but nodded and rolled back inside the den so that he could follow her down. She had a fire going already in her spacious living quarters, constantly keeping it going with bits of wood and straw that she had stockpiled in one of the farther back "rooms" of the den. "I'm glad you came by, and knitting sounds fun. I'm not too good...but once I get started it'll be easier. I know how to knit some things, but I could probably use some help. You been busy knitting lately?"
table by mel
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As Ember stretched out and prepared herself for, it seemed, a rare day of actually doing something, Hemming lifted a hand to his brow and looked out across the lands. The layer of snow was like icing on a cake, sparkly and even. The sky, void of clouds, was a pure blue that truly did seem to be a dome around them, pale at the edges and the deepest directly above them. Winter birds, flocking together in groups of threes or fives, streamed through the air, their feathers glinting in the sun. It was remarkably bright out, the sky seeming clearer than ever, and Hemming could only handle so much of it before he looked back down, just in time to see her rolling out of view.
He had never been in her den, nor anyone else's, so he had always assumed that it was a rather private space. In AniWaya, into where he had come from his reclusive spot in the forest, his den was one of the few places that was his own. Anyway, he didn't really have to worry about anyone coming in for a long period of time, as it was so full with things that there was little room for another to stay comfortably. Despite a tidbit of apprehension, the male followed her in and made himself comfortable, setting down the heavy bag.
With a grin, he nodded as she spoke, pulling out a half-finished mitten and untangling the ball of wool it was attached to from the other balls. Holding up the mitt in response to her question, he replied cheerfully, "Yep!" and then added, "Go ahead and pick out a color you like!"
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She was interested in learning how to do something new, but had been having a lot of trouble with inspiration as of late. Her days were long and lazy, and now she had to suck it up and get back into the routine. Maybe taking the small step of knitting with Hemming would help things a bit. He held up his partway-finished mitten and she gasped, surprised. He was already so much farther than her! She'd really have to work at it!
"Ooh...you do have some interesting colors there. I think I'll take this green. I think I'll start making umm..a scarf..." It was the only thing she knew how to make, and barely even that. Hopefully he would be around when she was ready to cast off, so he could remind her how. She started with the bare needle, winding the string around it to start her first row. "So Hemming...what have you been up to lately?"
table by mel
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Hemming nodded and crooned in approval as Ember picked out a very nice green yarn. It was quite similar to the green he had started a new hat out of, one he planned to give ear holes and perhaps even little sleeves for his chilly ears. Green was a wonderful color, too, and in the male's mind represented of one of the most important inventions of the natural world - chlorophyll. On a less profound thought, the color went nicely with Ember's eyes. "You can never have too many scarves!" he chimed, despite a little nagging feeling in the back of his head that suggested that yes, it was possible to have too many scarves. The large (but fortunately not growing) pile of scarves on the wolf's shelf would attest to that.
He hadn't been up to much, in complete honesty. It had been a pleasure to help Dawali construct the town hall, and he hoped that they could build something else soon. Other than that, he had been knitting, carving wood, and he had fashioned a shelf out of the whale bones he had found with Addison at the beach. Free time was spent wandering around, feet crusted with snow, or in a pursuit he had found himself rather fond of as of late: climbing trees. Dagrun seemed to enjoy it, or, at least, enjoyed watching Hemming make a fool out of himself and struggle to find sure footing.
"Oh, not much," he said at length, obviously having thought of the past few days. "What about you?"
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[html] http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a329/ ... _horse.gif); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;"> rather short! <3 ilu!!
There was one thing that she was wondering, but wasn't sure if she ought to ask about it yet. She was glad to see Hemming, happy that he had come by her den to visit, but she did want to know that one bit of information. She just didn't want him to think that it was the only reason she was interested in seeing him. "I'm really glad you came by today! If I didn't mention that already. I think I did. I was sick for a little while, but now I'm doing better and it's good to see a friend. But that's really all I've been up to...being sick. I barely got out to care for the horses some days."
She cleared her throat carefully and concentrated on her knitting for a few minutes. She didn't want to bring the subject up too soon. The only sound in the silence was the clicking of their knitting needles for a while before she opened her mouth to ask that one special question. "You...uh...bring any candy with you?"
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[html] ♥!
The male continued to grin, pleased by the enthusiasm in Ember's voice and words. He was, however, sad to hear that she had been sick, and he raised his eyebrows slightly in sympathy. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that!" he replied. Her mention of the horses made him think of his new friend, darling little Obi, and widened his smile just a little bit more. It was a miracle his face hadn't split in half yet.
He had brought the candy, stuffed in a side compartment of the bag, and since Ember had asked when he was halfway through increasing a stitch, he merely nodded at the pocket it was in. He hadn't tried any, since the colors weirded him out a little, but if Ember was going to he figured that he should too.
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[html] http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a329/ ... _horse.gif); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;"> you wouldn't think writing would be so hard! lol. I took a little break and had some coke  not the fun kind tho D: wc: 437
The dark wolf rolled over so that she could get to his backpack, pulling it over to her and digging into the pocket that he had specified. Whoah!! There was a ton of candy in there! She wasn't sure what to start with first. It was luck of the draw with what flavor she might get, really. The wolf had tested a few of her own that she had brought back with her from Halifax, but hadn't cared much for any of them. One was "Gum", whatever that meant, and she'd also had some "Pop rocks" and "Laffy Taffy". The first one, gum, had been pretty surprising. It had gone into her mouth hard, and she'd had to chew at it for a while, but then all of a sudden it had combined with her saliva and become a big gooey mess. Her tongue wasn't too good at moving the gum around in her mouth so she had ended up chewing it on one side of her mouth only. When she'd tried moving it over to the other side she had accidentally swallowed it, and had been left wondering about how long it took gum to digest. The next one, the Poprocks, had also been an enigma of flavor and an overall strange experience. She hadn't been sure how to eat them at first and had cut the top of the packaging off so that she could look inside. The ones she'd had were red, and had looked relatively nonthreatening...that is, until she had put them into her mouth. Once she had started to eat them, the things had began jumping in her mouth! Up and down, making very loud popping sounds. She had tried to spit most of them out, but had only succeeded partway; her mouth had still crackled quite a bit for the next few minutes until they had all dissolved. She would definitely have to give Hemming some of those Pop rocks to see his reaction. After the Pop rocks, the Laffy Taffy had not been as much of a problem. The only thing wrong with that candy was the odd ache it gave her teeth when she tried to bite all the way into it. It was thick and rubbery and stretched when she had pulled on it, trying to get a bite out. The wolfess hopped up to go and get her own backpack after picking some suckers out of Hemming's, emptying it out on the floor in front of him. Mwahaha. Which one would he go for first? "Pick your poison" She said, grinning. "All of these are pretty interesting."
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Hemming had to finish his row before he could take a good look at the candy in the bag. As his friend emptied her bag onto the floor, memories of the sweets shop came back to his mind. The air had been so rich and heavy, and whether it was the pile of candy or just his imagination, the air in the den seemed to adopt similar properties. Luckily, it was not so suffocating nor intoxicating, and the male maintained his state of mind. Once finished the couple of stitches he had left on the one needle, he placed his work in his lap and leaned over to inspect the various types of sweets that the two wolves had lugged back from the city. There was a lot of it, and the diversity astounded Hemming. Scary purple stuff, oddly green stuff... Unfortunately (or, fortunately), they hadn't brought any chocolate back. Ember had said it was bad to eat, but it smelled oh-so delicious.
He looked at what Ember chose and reached into his own bag, pulling out a lollipop as well. It was green, which, compared to the neon yellows and the bright reds, seemed a rather innocuous color. The male wondered how the humans got all these funny colors, and pondered if perhaps it was through the use of pigments from living things. They seemed so unnatural, though, entirely removed from the natural order. By now the male had learned that the plastic on the outside of the "edible" stuff was not itself edible, and he pulled off the clear plastic surrounding the green candy, all the while holding it by the paper stick. He was working under the assumption that this was not edible, either.
After a moment of staring at it somewhat warily, Hemming extended his tongue and gave the candy a lick. It was.. not as bad as it could have been. Sweet, sickly so, but tasty. There was a problem, though, and Hemming voiced his dissonance, "How do you suppose one's supposed to eat this?"
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[html] such a hot table <3 wc: 240
The dark wolf was glad that Hemming had decided to take her advice and not bring any of the chocolate with him. She probably would have had to find some way to get it away from him. Ember wasn’t sure if eating just a little bit of chocolate would have killed him, but she didn’t want to take any chances. It had been a while ago that she had read that chocolate wasn’t good for dogs, and she couldn’t remember exactly what it was that the book had said. Was it that dogs shouldn’t eat any at all, or could they eat a little bit? Hmm. She reached over for the bag again, looking through it to make sure that he didn’t have any.
At his question the female frowned. Her clawed fingers tugged at the wrapper of her own sucker, pulling it away from its hard, candy innards. She looked at it curiously before taking a lick and answering his question. Ember put the sucker into her mouth and bit down gently, then harder, then harder. Nope. She couldn’t bite through it! It was probably old, so maybe that made it harder. She looked back up at Hemming, rubbing her jaw a little. "I dunno. It hurts my teeth to try and bite it...I guess I should suck it!" She put the sugary end of it into her mouth. "Mmm, yes! Def-nitely wike dis" She said around the sucker.
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Humans largely baffled Hemming. On one hand, they had created many useful inventions and done wonders to decrease disease, transport things great distances, and discover the secrets of the universe. On the other hand, they had done great damage to the environment and invented many things that seemed absolutely ridiculous to the male. This lollipop thing fell into the latter category; what exactly was to gain from liquifying sugar, making it colorful, and pouring it into molds? It was rather tasty, he would admit that, but nothing near as delicious as a good slab of meat or even nuts. The smell of chocolate had been heavenly, but that was beside the point, which was this: humans were weird. They had possessed not only a desire for answers and progress, but also for silly things that did not fit into the scheme Hemming had created for them. That was the nature of a species, though, and of any group; they each had different desires and different ideas of pleasure.
"Oh, yes," he said after trying her technique, "That seems about right." He tried it for another minute, as the sugar seemed to melt away and seep right into him. It was rather strangely sweet, and a slightly dizzy feeling was taking over the wolf. "It feels kind of funny. But not in a bad way." He mentioned. After a moment he figured he was getting the hang of eating the odd candy and he left it in his mouth, the paper stick protruding from his cheek. Picking up his knitting, he continued with his work, working up the thumb gusset, needles clicking together.
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Word Count: 434 - SoSuWriMo
come dance with the west wind and touch on the mountain tops
He was still, sitting without words and observing the two not too far away. Not spying, but observing, and by chance, too. They would not be able to smell that he was close by; his scent was everywhere, for he was everywhere during a day or two. His paths criss-crossed this land like a spider's web, always bringing him somewhere where there was more that should be done. Dawali Amara was rarely out of work. He had meant to simply pass by here, on his way to something else, but the laughter had made him curious, and he had stopped to see. Though, whether he liked what he saw was another matter. Ember had gone ill, and the two had been awkward ever since she so childishly outran him in a flurry of emotions. It was perhaps a long time ago already, but this male did not forget. They made him uncomfortable, these feelings she had claimed to have for him. It seemed she was all better now. Her and Hemming sat and made jokes over things he could not see, but he was certain this was something related to their friendship. If that was what it was, anyway.
He would have approached them, taken part in the conversation for a moment, and walked on. He would have, but he didn't. Something held him here, and he felt as if he was perverted to watch them as he did. But, he could not help it. His emotions were unclear to him (as they had always been), but it was like he was angry with Ember. Perhaps for prodding his emotions all this time. He was not comfortable around his subleader, and this was a huge inconvenience. But now, he felt, for what? For what had he been uncomfortable? It seemed she was getting on very well. He would certainly not butt in to do anything about it. Cranky, now, he rose and turned and walked back where he had come from. What ever had been the point of telling him about these things, about making him feel so awkward about it all, if she had not meant it anyway? Females! Oh, he would never understand the workings of their minds. He would go back to doing whatever it was he had been on his way to do — what was it? He could not remember. Gvihita sat on his shoulder, and had it not been for her lack of a mouth he could have sworn she was smirking. She, too, should just leave him alone. He was better off if females just left him alone.
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