Nomads Pass Growing Pains

Nova gave Aponi her best steely eyed stare, determination boiling through her goldenrod eyes. Dramatically Nova squared her shoulders and turned away from her sister, out to the world that looked oh so distant from the top of the boulder. She tried to keep from glancing down, but Mercy's cries up to her drew her attention downward. She shook her head, feeling very serious about it all, "Mercy, I can do it, don' worry bout me. Aponi's gonna be tha one who gets hurt! Jus' you watch, Imma make it clear to that next rock!"

Her gaze fixed on a distant boulder, much too far for even a skilled adult mountain goat to make the jump, let alone a tiny cub on wobbly legs. With a deep breath, and resolving to keep her eyes fixed on that solitary point, she bunched up her legs beneath her, then without giving herself another moment to reconsider, she sprung forward.

Air roared past her ears, everything rushing forward in an indistinct blur. For a fleeting moment, she felt as if she could maybe even reach the next mountaintop, if she really wanted to. But then everything tilted, spun, and with the world whirling Nova felt herself sinking. Something soft and fuzzy met her forehead, her nose filling with Mercy-scented hairs just before the cold, rocky ground made contact with her hindquarters. Her head was fine, having been softened by knocking into Mercy instead, but her haunches had had a rougher landing. Gravel bit roughly into her flank, where a bruise was sure to be blooming. To her, the jump had seemed a lifetime, but in reality only seconds had passed. It only took an additional second for Nova to start up a terrible whine of "Maaaammaaaaaa! Apppaaaa! Owwwieeeee!", with head tilted back to the sky and eyes scrunched shut.

Aponi heard the boy's protest and growled softly under her breath, he was going to ruin her whole plan if he didn't just be quiet! The growl was silenced by her sisters answer though, she would jump and then blue eyes met gold and for just a moment a silence crept between the two, an ongoing power struggle. Nova looked away first and prepared herself to jump, the silvery princess as response sat her rump upon the boulder to watch, a sly grin upon her features. Watching the dark girl fall to the ground was exactly what Aponi had wanted, even better when Mercy threw himself in the way of her landing. Blue eyes turned to slits as she stared at the scene, would the boy have done that for her? Probably not, this was just another example of how the boy favoured her sister over her, and for that he was worthless to her. In time she would find a way to make him feel as excluded as he and her sister made her feel, but for now seeing him squished against the rock was enjoyable enough.

And then came the wail. The high pitched shriek Nova always used whenever Aponi had tricked her into doing something, the one that was a signal for an adult to come and scold her. Sighing a great huff Aponi leaped from the boulder herself, only she jumped to the slanted side where the ground was much closer. Instead of suffering a bruise and a few scrapes the princess merely endured a few seconds where her paws smarted as they struck the stone. Squeezing through the crevice she approached the two pups, "I didn tell ya to jump off that side, you so stupid sometimes Nova," The insult was flung as a parting gift. The princess turned the bend and sauntered off to go torture someone without a second thought of what she had just done to her sister and the boy.

EXIT APONI

This is ancient, so I'm going to wrap it up...Great thread!

His breath caught in his throat for a moment when he saw Nova leap into the air- for a moment, it didn't seem as though she'd get hurt- she looked so coordinated, so poised in mid-air. But when she came down, she came down fast and that air that he'd had stuck in his lungs was thrust out of him as Nova knocked him clean over, sending him tumbling head over heels in the dirt and coming to a stop on one side. His ribs smarted and he couldn't breathe in, which made him panic. Nova's head had hit him square on in the ribs and had knocked the wind out of him and he tried in vain to drag in breaths, but found it incredibly hard to do so.

He didn't hear Aponi and didn't see her leave. He was wheezing, trying to suck in air though it seemed as though his lungs had become glued together and pulling in air only forced them apart slightly with each intake. The more he relaxed, the easier it became and the black spots which had begun to invade his vision left- he turned his head to look for Nova, whose wailing only met his ears once he set his sights on her and realized what had happened. He was incredibly shaky on his feet but he stumbled over to her and licked her cheek, laying down alongside her when his paws protested that they couldn't hold him up any longer. He was still too stunned to cry and focused only on Nova and trying to get her to stop crying.

Once her sobs settled down, he convinced her to come back to the den with him moving slowly, like wounded soldiers after a lost battle.