Clearwater Tarn Hey Look Ma, I Made It

For @Arcus and @Scorpius
this is trash, im rusty af

Though it wasn't from lack of trying, Jenessa didn't have many friends.

Sure, she had Valentin to keep her company, but considering how quiet and boring he was...Well, she may as well have been the only pup in Clearwater Tarn. Whenever she tried to coax him into playing with her he seemed to get cold paws. Noooo, he wanted to see what his Ma was up too. Or nooo he was tired, he wanted to nap instead. Jenny liked playing with - or rather pestering- the Tarn's older residents but it just wasn't the same! They were all smiles and waggy tails and Jenny loved that, but the bigs never had the same energy as her. Jenny could run about, leap and prance all day! But the bigs? They were always so bussssy, what could be more important than playing? Nothing, zip, nada!

So how was Jenny supposed to find new friends around here?

As luck would have it Jenny didn't have to look far, fate had bought two possible friends her way.

Brandishing her prized chewing stick, Jenny galloped along with her tail arched high. There were two strange new smells within the Tarn's borders and-unsurprisingly-Jenessa was determined to find out who it belonged to. Newcomers were few and far between at the Tarn, the mountain was always so quiet, so of course, she was so excited! It was all just a matter of finding them...

'Friend' was not a word that currently concerned Arcus.  She had Mama and Papa, and sometimes she had Scort.  These things currently required no label at all -- they just were.  And why not?  She was happy!  Even when she was left by herself for some amount of time, the young wolf was content to make her own fun, be it with puddles, leaves, or even in her own mind.

That was not needed today, of course, because the Kind, Beautiful @Piety had taken her and Scork up to her home.  The climb was very tiring -- Archie was fairly certain she fell asleep as soon as she was near something even remotely like a den -- but today was young, and pleasant, and she'd never seen any of this before.  Crawling out of wherever the Fair and Wonderful wolf had deposited her, the pup did not bother to wake her travelling companion.  More often than not, she was sneaking out whilst her parents slept.  Intentionally waking someone never crossed her mind.

She was in the midst of deciding what to do about her grumbling belly when a pint-sized blur galloped awkwardly through the corner of her vision.  At once, Arcus recognized this for what it was.  A Scork!  Er, no, another pup!

"Hello!" she crowed to the other puppy, getting to her feet in an attempt to follow.  "Where ya goin'?"

mild pp with permission.  @Scorpius -- ur up, buttercup.  

(This post was last modified: Jul 18, 2018, 07:47 PM by Arcus.)

@Jenessa

Her stomach grumbling was what woke him. He'd been lying their listlessly: he just felt so tired and he didn't know what to do about it. He was too young and too outside of his normal routine and the result was that he wasn't sure if he could apply any of the normal logic to any of his situations. If you were up on a big rock would sleeping make you not tired? He closed his eyes—what he thought was sleeping—but it didn't work. And then the belly-aching started and Arcus' hungry alarm was going off too. But hers was way more annoying than his noise because it was her noise.

He was almost happy when she suddenly got up and left him.

But then he realized he was alone.

"Hey wait!" he cried, stumbling to his feet out of their dubious den and out into the sunlight. It was so bright out here that it always startled him. Where were the trees to make it darker? He blinked a few times, noticing weird spots in his eyes. Maybe it was not okay to stare into the sun up here. He looked down to the earth and blinked some more but there was one very dark spot and it wouldn't seem to go away. A dozen blinks later, though, and he realized a small wolf was coming into focus: another puppy just like them!

"We come?" he chirped, following up Arcus' question with his own.

Jenny's ears perked, she would have grinned had it not been for the stick in her mouth. She had been prepared to spend all day dashing about, looking for the two strangers, but nope! They had found her instead! Skidding to a stop, Jenny whipped her neck back and forth, as she waved her twig in the air like a flag, beckoning her new friends to come on over. She had no idea who they were or where they had even come from but did that even matter? Nope, in that moment she couldn't have cared less.

"Hoooi!" She greeted once she was close enough to speak, or rather mutter, without yelling.

Then with a playful gleam in her eye, Jenny leaned forward and bonked them- quite gently- on the top of their heads with her stick. It was official, she had knighted them as her friends! Tossing her stick aside she then grinned so wide her cheeks hurt, just from looking at them she could tell they would be a lot more fun than Valentin. They actually seemed to want to spend time with her, wanted to know where she was going, both very important things in her not so humble opinion.

"Looking for you silllly." Which was true enough, but now what? She'd found them and hadn't planned this far ahead...

She glanced between them, her yellowy gaze flicking from brown to tawny then back. Both of their eyes were green, but the browny's were cooler, brighter. Definitely friend material. The other one though? Maybe, Jenny hadn't yet made up her mind. The same couldn't be said for her course of action, little Jenny had a plan.

"Yeah! Gonna paddle, Pi showed me how!" She proclaimed, her chest puffing up with pride as she stood on her tippy toes. "Come come!" She turned, her tail wagging a mile a minute as she broke out into a puppyish gallop. She would show them the way to the water!

"Oh. Scork!"

Had she woken him up? Was she losing her edge? The worry was only short-lived as the young wolf paused long enough for Scorpius to catch up. He wasn't mad. If he was anything else, she wasn't worried about it. Short, Stumpy, and Cross was given a small lick on the cheek and then she was off again -- thankfully, the other pup had changed course. Before Arcus could come up with anything else to say, she was bonked gently across the skull. Eyes crossed briefly as she tried to watch the stick...and then it was gone. The wolf twitched, ears flicking forward -- the urge to chase was a strong one!!

But!!

So many questions!!

"Paddle? Whaddat?" she wondered aloud, glancing at Scork briefly. Whatever it was, she was obviously going to go and do it. It was probably fun. If it wasn't, it was new, and therefore still fun. "We comin', we comin'," she assured the dark cub, certain that the boy would follow. "'m Arcus!"

It was probably going to be a trademark, that.

@Scorpius

@Jenessa rip bad post

The girl was carrying a stick in her mouth. She used this to knock him on the head, to which his response was, "O-oh." Not something he saw coming. And then as the stick moved in the air over his head, he too was momentarily lost in the thought of bite the stick! bite it! and even made a sad attempt to chomp at it as it sailed away. Why did she throw it! This girl was very confusing.

This girl was like the White Lady in the sense that she seemed to expect them, which was a surprise because they didn't even live here and turned up at the mountain—he assumed—completely by chance. Perhaps there was just like something in the water here that made people Smarter. Not just Mom and Dad smart, in the way they knew things about the world... but smarter smart, knowing things that hadn't even happened yet. He thought about asking her, but then the girl told them she was going to "paddle."

It sounded fun.

"Scork!" he shouted, characteristically trailing after Arcus.

Jennessa skidded to a stop by the shore. Her little sides heaved as her tongue lolled out the side of her mouth, running around on a warm day like this was hard work. But Jenny wasn't at all worried, they'd soon cool down once they started paddling. She turned to her companions and stood up on her tippy toes, as tall as she could manage. They'd given her their names, it was only fair she did the same right?

"Jenny!" She cheered, as though it was something to be proud of.  But it was, as there was only one Jenny and she was really really cool. Or so she thought. "S'good to meet yooou Arky." Then as an afterthought "Scorky."

Taking a few steps forward, Jenny grinned as she felt the water lap at her toes. The water was cold and blue today, perfect for paddling. All she had to do was show them how then they could get to the real fun part. Wading in a little further, so the water was up to her ankles, she dipped down into a play bow, her butt wiggling to beckon them closer. The water was good, it wasn't gonna hurt anybody!

"Like this!"

Raising her front paw high she slammed it down and giggled as droplets of water went flying. She raised her paw and did it again and again, before whipping around in a circle as though she was chasing her tail. Believe it or not, it was even more fun than it looked. The only way it could get even better if Archy-and Scorky- joined in too!

Not wanting to wait anymore, she rushed forward and with a mighty kick sent a big splosh of water Arcus' way. If that wouldn't entice her to join in then nothing would!

(This post was last modified: Jul 20, 2018, 03:00 PM by Jenessa.)

Arky.

Hmm. She kind of liked that. The new nickname gave the girl something to chew on for a moment, temporarily distracted as they came upon the Tarn's personal water source. It was much bigger (and better, she thought secretly) than the dried up streams and creeks near... Where she lived. It had a name, but it was very long, and not very important. What was important was the fact that their situation had vastly improved!

Arcus trotted down to the shoreline, pausing long enough to have a few sips of the cool water. It was refreshing, and tickled her toes. The girl chortled, delighted by this, and took a few steps in, until the water was up to her knees. She'd never gone this deep into the mud before -- but this felt totally different. Nice, in a different way! It made her feel... Feel. Hm. She didn't have the words for it. Not so attached to the ground? Like, like a cloud, maybe?

Lost in her thoughts, she glanced up a moment or two after Jenny had began her stomping -- and got the girl's wave right to her face. "Hey!" she yelped, and then the water was in her nose, her mouth, and her ears. Arcus gave a loud squeal as she shook her head, blowing water out of her nose in short, hard snorts. It didn't help, and she sneezed several times in rapid succession before the water was clear. She lifted her head sharply, brows furrowed as she studied Jenny -- and then looked to Scork.

"C'mon!" she crowed, clearly expecting that he would be on her side in the water war. Arcus lifted an oversized paw and slapped it down. Her wave wasn't nearly as impressive, but it was still quite fun. She she did it again, trying to aim her spray towards Jenny.

@Scorpius

@Aquarius minor pp mention lemme know if you want it removed

Jenny took them to the biggest puddle of water he had ever seen in his god damn little life! He hadn't even realized there could be this much water in the whole world—because quantifying a river was way beyond him—but now that he knew it made all his creeks look dinky in comparison. Up until this point Scorpius could have gone either way about this confusing mountain but now he decided it was a Cool Place and Jenny (the know-it-all) was a Cool Kid. She even called him Scorky, which was pretty hip and new and he wasn't sure how she did that. Like all she did was add an eeeeeeeeeeee sound—how did she know how to do that?—and suddenly he had a whole new name. Wow!

Paddling appeared to be just her own word for playing in the water. That was cool—Scorpius didn't have a word for that. He was discovering more and more every day that there were words for all kinds of things he had never really considered before. What happened next was unexpected but equally as awesome. Jenny did exactly what he used to do to Aquaria when they played in the water: big splashes. Arcus reacted similarly by screeching and thrashing around as if to get the water off her. It looked like Jenny even got water in her nose! (That was often Scorpius' goal).

When his friend said "C'mon" he kind of misunderstood the situation. Across his face an unsettling grin spread, and his butt gave a little wiggle as he jumped in the air and came down in the water right next to Arcus! The splash was HUGE!! If he had been a human he might have shouted "cannonball!"

What a success!

(This post was last modified: Jul 19, 2018, 07:45 PM by Scorpius.)

"Oooopsss" Jenny beamed not even a little sorry. It was only a little bit of water, where was the harm in getting wet?

Maybe if she'd hurt or upset her new friend Jenny would've felt a little bad, but nope! Arky took it in her stride and she splashed Jenny back! Splish splash sploosh! Water went flying in all directions and Jenny was soggier than...than a very wet thing! A little went into her eyes but unlike Arky, Jenny was a pro at this, she blinked a few times and it didn't hurt anymore. The girls kicked up water, back and forth giggling all the while- then Scorky decided he wanted to steal the show.

Jenny saw a flash of brown from the corner of her eye and he made the biggest splash she'd ever seen. That was unfair! He was cheating! But more importantly, why hadn't Jenny thought of that? It looked a lot of fun, jumping real high and landing in the water with a massive WOOSH!

Not wanting to be upstaged, Jenny tossed a sly look Arky's way as a grin settled on her lips. If Scorky thought he was the best splasher in these parts then he had another thing coming.

"Get 'im!!"Jenny roared as she rushed forward, intending to sweep Scorky off his feet to push him into the water. That would show him!

(This post was last modified: Jul 20, 2018, 03:22 PM by Jenessa.)