Oak Tree Bend SAIL

@Kyna but others are welcome to join and bear witness to the beginning of row NHL

Winter had taken some getting used to, especially for the girl who hated mornings. It was much harder to wake up when the ground underneath her was the only warm thing in the whole world it felt like. She didn't really like being able to see her breath, as it got in the way more than the fog usually did. The constant snowfall had it's ups and downs: it was fun to play in but it also soaked straight through her outer pelt. On the other hand, she liked to laugh at the little clumps that got stuck in the belly-fur of her packmates. They looked like they were playing milkbag for the snow! It was pretty great.

What Sahalie liked best, though, was the ice. Sure, it made drinking a little difficult, but who needed to drink from the stream when she could just eat the snow! Nah, this time of the year Sahalie had decided that the stream was not for drinking, and limited her waterside activities exclusively to play. Slipping around like a moron seemed an appropriate way to spend most afternoons, and there was no end to the kinds of diversions she could come up with. She could push small rocks around, she could wiggle around on her back like an oversized fish — she could even skate.

Sahalie called it Graceful Slipping.

Early on the dark girl had discovered that picking up her paws was a waste of time. It was also a great way to get hurt, since often she would place her weight back down onto the ice only to have her leg slide out from under her. She had gotten enough bruises on her rump and was basically done with drab walking. Instead, it was much easier to thrust off of a back leg and let it carry her forward. A simple shove could take her much farther than a step, anyway. "Graceful Slipping" was a bit of a misnomer, though, as Sahalie had never executed a single movement in her entire life with much grace. But the ice certainly helped. She felt herself moving slowly, she imagined that she really was like a fish or an otter.

This particular morning she found herself out on the stream again, alternating her back legs as if to sort of slalom back and forth. The maneuver was very complicated and it was taking up most of her concentration. Her cheeks puffed with effor.

(This post was last modified: Feb 08, 2016, 11:24 PM by Sahalie.)

Every since joining the Oak Tree Bend pack, Kyna had found herself spending a lot more of her time being active. She had gotten to know the place of her birth quite well, but the trees were nothing like the stone and the sky. It wasn’t so bad here, though. The wolves seemed nice enough, and she still had Aponi. There was no one here to calumniate her mother for what she may or may not have done at Silent Moon Plateau. If nothing else, it was less stressful here, and the newness of it all led to exploration. At the best of times, the girl was delighted with all the new smells and interesting places to hide; alternatively, at the worst of times, it felt stifling and claustrophobic. Alas, but she had little choice, and on days like that, she tried to shake off the feeling that the trees were closing in on her by exploring all the more.

This day was one of such days, and the golden girl had no destination in mind as she wandered about. It was by sheer luck she stumbled across the frozen ice, and she might have passed it by had Sahalie not whizzed by down the stream with far more speed than she’d ever seen anyone obtain while on top of ice. The former princess startled to a halt, head whipping to the side as she watched her friend in an amazed silence, jaw going slack for several moments before her mind finally kicked back into gear.

“Sahalie!” she called out. “That’s amazing! How are you doing that?”

A wild dissertation appears!

@Kyna let's just treat this as their first meeting. I'm going to delete the other thread c:

Barely even three full days had passed since he had joined Oak Tree Bend and he was still just as confused as he had been when he'd gotten there. The place that was meant to be his new home was just as foreign as the lands he had spent the past five months traveling, and the wolves within it just as similar. He could give a total tally to the others he knew within these lands to three, but from the scents he could take in he knew there were many more. But, did he really want to try and get to know them? Each contact meant someone was closer to finding out what his past was, what he was. If they found out, he'd be shunned. He wanted a home, but his past held his fast like a rubber band.


He wandered around the territory, stopping at the borders then turning around and going back in, repeating this as a daily process if he weren't with Hal. Eventually he'd grown bored with it, choosing to seek out his companion. Her scent swirled across the snow, now less distinctly pack but still undoubtedly her. He followed it, nose twitching as he went along until he came upon a stream glittering with ice. A black shape flew by and he paused, blinking in confusion before the echo of the blond girl's amazement met his ears. The black blur had been his friend? Squinting for a closer look, he found that it was indeed her and his brows shot to the sky. He had never seen someone look so...graceful on the slippery surface. Of course, Hal was much smaller than he was. 

Slowly he made his way out of the tree line, a subtle smirk on his maw. He didn't say anything, didn't need to. It was the relationship he had with his friend, though he did give a curious glance to the other girl. She had a strong, blazing orange gaze and a mix between a ginger and a blonde pelt. Something in the recesses of his mind gave a little squirm that he knew her from a mentioning, but it was faint and he hardly recognized it. It surprised him the most that she was very nearly his size, but he didn't let it on much. Attention turning back to his friend, he watched her intently as she flew.

omg I typed kino sometimes :X @Kyna you're up, friend!

Sounds of a friend brought her back to reality, and she felt her paws slip slightly underneath her as she swung her back end around. Stopping was not something that she had mastered. Maybe it was not even possible to master. At first, she had thought that maybe her nails might assist with some added friction, but she could not control them well they bent left and right rather easily. Thus, she was left to spin in a half circle in order to expend whatever momentum was left. "Aww it's not so hard," she said, making conversation in the meantime. Ever so gradually, the black girl finally stopped moving enough to catch a glimpse of her sunset friend on the bank.

With some surprise, Sahalie noted that she was not alone. Alastor had just come up beside her. Her left hind leg pushed at the ice a bit, and the ice carried the girl gently towards them. "You guys been hanging out without me?" she quipped with a snort, giving the two of them a taste of her wiggly eyebrows. But the pair of them had hardly been in the pack for a more than a few days: it was unlikely they had done more than smell eachother's scents as their ships passed in the night. She giggled, "It's okay, just kiddin' I'll introduce you two!"

"Alastor," she said softly, her voice effervescing with her overboiled excitement, "This is the Kyna I told you all about." She hoped he still remembered the mention of her nice, orange friend in the berry field. The otter-pup's body turned towards her firey friend, a little surprised that her fur did not melt the snows around it, "And Kyna this is Alastor. I met him a few months ago. He is super nice. Basically a gentleman." Conspiratorially, she smiled back at the boy. Leave it to her to talk anyone up. "He told me he doesn't talk to other girls, but he'll talk to you cause you're awesome." Kino wasn't rude, after all.

Wow, sorry this is much suck. |D;; @Kino -- all you!

Sahalie had barely answered her call when the young wolf realized they were not alone. A patch of silver caught the corner of her eye and she turned, quickly realizing a boy had joined them. Idly, she wondered if he were anything like Wren, or maybe like Greer. He hadn’t said anything yet, and the youth found herself hoping he might indeed be like her friends gone when the other girl interrupted the rest of her thoughts.

Before she could deny any sort of conspirator gathering with the other pup, the original Oak Tree lass was introducing the pair of them. She shot Alastor a shy glance, bobbing her head in a brief greeting. “Hello,” she murmured, manners not lost on her. “Nice to meet you.”

If he didn’t talk, the child wouldn’t be bothered. @Greer said little, and Kyna was a girl of few words herself. So she shrugged, and inclined her head. “Greer is a gentleman, too. He doesn’t talk very much – but I think he just doesn’t like talking.” To each their own, she thought. Wren had become very quiet after his mother had died, and who was to say Alastor hadn’t lost a parent or something, too? Or he was like Greer. Or she was thinking about it too much.

“So – will you teach us to slip?”

A wild dissertation appears!

Per usual, his darkly pelted friend was chipper as ever as she slid across the slippery surface. He watched her with mute fascination, gaze flickering from her to the fiery girl near him to gage her reaction to Sahalie's jibes. It seemed though that they were much alike in their personalities, this "Kyna". Ah, now it made sense. This was the girl that Hal had met when they'd eaten those strange berries that the otter girl had been so fascinated with. She hadn't been exaggerating when she'd described the girl as fiery, that much could be seen in her red,orange, and cream pelt and blazing eyes. However, it seemed that she possessed a calm and cordial flame rather than one that burned uncontrollably. 


How was it that someone as spunky as the bend girl could possess so many friends as calm as she did?

Auds flickered to catch the greeting of Kyna, who dipped her head. His brows rose, as he hadn't seen a greeting like that since his days in the Crest. Still, he would reciprocate with a dip of his own, throat clearing and a plaintive "Hello, it's nice to meet you as well," give back. He hadn't expected her to keep talking, though, and it seemed that she was trying to convince him that his lack of real verbal conversation was perfectly fine. A small, twitch of a grin settled on the corners of his maw. "I don't mind talking, but words just seem so...easy. Actions are more telling, in my opinion," he replied. Topaz gaze turned back to Hal and he chuckled, "Though, Hal seems to be the exception," he continued, his bushy tail giving a wave behind his bulk frame. 

"So, are you going to teach us how to slip?" Kyna asked, and for a moment Kino blinked in surprise. Sure, Kyna was almost as big as him but he couldn't imagine himself getting out on that ice. There might have been a time, when he was smaller, that he'd have contemplated and agreed to the idea but his friend's perhaps 70 pound frame compared to his 100 made quite the difference. But, he didn't want to ruin the girls' fun. Silently, he tried to remember if he could swim.

well ....i feel bad o_o sorry. let's try to push this one through????? @Kyna

Tongue lolling from her mouth she looked back and forth between her friends, hopeful that things would turn out alright. Two awesome wolves could only be friends, she was sure. Though, with the spotlight on her Kyna seemed a little uncertain. Sahalie licked her nose, eyes flicking over towards Alastor and catching his little startle, though noting the greeting was not poorly recieved even with the small surprise. The nonsense about some other gentleman named Greer flew past her ears--she knew Alastor would hold up his end of the conversation, he didn't need the encouragement.

Alastor's joke caught her by surprise, and she tipped her head as she laughed without immediately understanding what he meant. Did he think she talked a lot? Clearly he hadn't thought that was a bad thing, else he wouldn't hang out with her. "Shush," she said, giving the pale boy a light shove with a small, dark paw.

Apparently meeting a new wolf had not steered Kyna away from her interest in learning to slip. Smiling, Sahalie looked back to the sunset girl, "Yeah! Of course!" Her nose flicked back to Alastor, "You'll do it too, right?" The concern about weight was well beyond her, not being something that she thought about. "It's really easy, you'll pick it up right away!" Kyna especially, Sahalie figured, remembering her powerful snow slides. The girl was already backing up to the ice, turning when she felt her hind paws touch the glassy surface.

"You just uh," wow this was harder than she thought, as the words just suddenly leapt off her tongue, "Well I'll just do it really slowly for you." Slowly she pushed all of her weight into one one fore leg, sliding it slightly away from her body as her hind legs did small steps behind her. "You just kinda... lean into it. Alternate legs. See?"

"Come on out and try it!"

(This post was last modified: Jun 03, 2016, 03:04 AM by Sahalie.)

   

The private joke was lost on the honey-spun wolf.  Whatever humor passed between topaz eyes and those made of gold stayed just there.  Kyna’s brows knit together as she glanced from one to the other before she forced herself to shake the expression off.  It was their business.  It was silly to expect she would know everything about everyone.

Thankfully, Sahalie didn’t seem to have any interest on dwelling on the conversation, either.  Ears pricked forward as her swarthy friend moved backwards.  Privately, she was grateful for the demonstration.  Her attempt at explaining snow sliding had gone horribly for poor @Nalda – and the fallen princess could only hope Sahalie was a better teacher than she herself.

Humming thoughtfully, she tipped her head to one side as she watched the youth’s legs move back and forth.  It was a controlled slipping, there was nothing random about the way she motored across the ice.  After several moments, the blond shuffled forward, stepping gingerly onto the ice.  For a moment, she only slid inches, wobbling like a newborn fawn.  She swallowed hard, and pushed on one set of legs.  Then the other.  Then back again, and—

“Ah!  I’m doing it!” she cried happily, a smile blossoming across her face.  How wonderful, she thought, to move so easily across the ice!

@Sahalie @Kino -- maybe one post from Kino, and then Hal can close this out with a 'they played all day' sort of fade?  :x

A wild dissertation appears!

 

Kino gave an impish grin at Hal’s shove, snorting and playfully rolling his eyes. Auds slid forward to listen to her as she explained to them how to do this…graceful slipping. He squinted, eyeing the way she was doing…whatever it was that she was doing in the glass-like surface. He still had his doubts on it, certain reservations as to whether or not it was exactly safe for a wolf of his size to be getting on something as fragile as ice. The boy wasn’t exactly a reserved wolf, and certainly not afraid of many things but the idea of falling through and getting caught underneath wasn’t exactly pleasant.

His attention turned to Kyna, watching thoughtfully as she meandered her way out into the ice. It was almost comical watching her get her legs underneath of her, wibbling and wobbling all over until, finally, she seemed to be mimicking Hal. It wasn’t perfect, but it still seemed to do the trick. Then, it occurred to him that it was his turn and suddenly he was more unsure than ever. But…if two girls could do it, one of them almost as big as him, he had to. His manhood or whatever was at stake and he couldn’t wimp out.

Moving to the end, he placed a paw uncertainly on the surface, then the other. He slowly shifted his forelegs, trying to get a feel for the surface. The cold stung his pawpads, but in the dead of winter that was nothing new anymore. Slowly, he incorporated one of his hind legs, then, with a push, he was out on the ice. At first he was afraid to move, but with a few, foggy breaths he hiked up his skirt and began to move. Left, right, right, left, that seemed to be the pattern. A slow grin settled onto his lips as he felt as though he was getting the hang of it, moving his legs slightly faster. But, his cockiness was his mistake. Suddenly, his balance was thrown off and his was moving too fast. Topaz gaze went wide in panic as he flailed to try and right himself, but to no avail. He fell with a harsh thud and a grunt in a tangle of limbs, coughing. “Well…that wasn’t supposed to happen,” he mused.

Slowly he managed to roll himself to his stomach, giving his plush head a shake. Luckily his winter pelt was lush and took much of the impact, but he suspected his shoulder and ribs would still be sore later. Working his way to his paws, he decided to take things much slower. Slow and steady won the race, and he didn’t feel like falling again anytime soon.

fade

yay finally done! feel free to go claim @Kino @Kyna

Sahalie's gaze twisted back over her shoulder to catch Kyna's joyful exclamation. Honestly, the sunset girl was not the only one thinking anxiously back to their fateful meeting with Nalda and how awkward parts of it had been. It was good that this was an easy enough skill for her friend to pick up, however thinking about it Sahalie realized the snow slipping had not been difficult for Kyna. There really had never been anything to worry about. So why was she worried?

Oh, that's right: she had no idea what sort of coordination skills Alastor possessed. He stood on his own four paws solidly enough, but the Tainn had never hunted with him or done anything that required any skill of movement. Her tail wiggled behind her, hoping to encourage the boy as he stepped out onto the ice. Right away it seemed that he had it figured out, and the girl gave a short "whoop," of delight, "That's it Al!" only suddenly she noticed he was moving much faster, headed in no particular direction. Her mouth opened but the silver boy was already on the ground, and instead all that came out was laughter.

"Come on, silly, get up. Now that you guys got the basics I'm gunna show you the move...."