Kingsfall dance with me

All welcome, but hoping for someone not from HR. This is for Yarrow now because I have wanted a Riley thread for SO LONG T.T

Patchy rain possible
67 ° F, 19 ° C

It was official - Risaela was a wild child. At just over eight weeks of age, it was near impossible to keep the pup stationary - since they'd moved into the communal den, Ris had elected to explore as much as she could. She had much better balance now, and didn't run into trees or fall down dents in the ground nearly as often. She knew her way around their territory better than any of the other pups; though, to be fair, she was the only one who ever really went anywhere. Matheo was much more obedient than she was, and the other girls were still a bit too young to keep up with the explorative Tainn. Not that she didn't take time every now and again to go visit her younger packmates - in fact, she liked them all very much.

She was not, however, visiting them now. The silvery pup was by the border, her puppy-blue eyes (which were morphing into something more of a grayish mercury tone) looking in wonder beyond the scent markers, where a whole new world lay. It was just like when she'd left the den for the first time, five weeks ago. It didn't even occur to the pup that she was probably not supposed to cross the border, and she leaped out into the unexplored forest for the first time in her young life.

Okay, it occurred to her that she shouldn't be doing it after she crossed, but there was no going back now. Instead, she bolted forward with a surprising amount of grace for a pup of her age - what she lacked in the verbal department, she made up for in her physique. Her paws thumped against the ground as she went, tail whipping back and forth with so much excitement that it knocked her off-balance. She giggled breathily as she took a small tumble through some sort of berry bush, streaking her pelt with the colorful juice the fruits contained.

The pup only slowed when something crossed her path - a scaly worm, it seemed. She wasn't sure exactly, but would later come to know that it was a snake - and not of the poisonous variety. The naivety of the girl did not allow her to feel any fear as she approached the ophidian, intent on making the foreign entity her new friend.

(This post was last modified: Jun 30, 2017, 04:27 AM by Risaela.)

Yarrow found himself in Kingsfall by pure accident, somehow far beyond the reach he had intended to survey. It was probably wise to turn back now, and he would, once he found his way out of the trees. The great northern forest sprawled thick and wide, serving to humble the masses. Of course, Yarrow was exempt from this particular feeling, striding regally through the tall trunks as easily as he did anywhere else.

A pale ear swiveled toward the rustling of a nearby brush, giving pause to his autonomous motion forward. The sound did not indicate another wolf or larger prey, but it was far too loud and careless to be a hare or something smaller. His golden eyes narrowed, scrutinizing the bush, only to widen in surprise as a cub came toddling out of it. Well that certainly wasn't what he had been expecting. The youth continued to plod around without a care in the world, only coming to a sudden stop when something at her paws managed to draw her focus. Yarrow saw only a flicker in the grass but knew immediately what was slithering by. Seems she was about to get her first lesson in snakes.

Standing still, he observed the whelp with muted disdain. The Ritter heir had always been particularly uninterested in the livelihood of the young. Bambi eyes and bounciness never appealed to him. What he sought was sharp minds like his own - and babies simply couldn't provide that to him. If it was possible he was even less interested in unrelated young; selfishly, of course. This brat, like many other brats, carried the stench of a pack and came with its own protection squad. In his limited experience Yarrow found that parents of cubs were quick to flash fangs and even quicker to snap them, and he was in no state to get caught up in an unsavory situation here.

Still, he couldn't help but notice nobody seemed to be coming for the little idiot. She teetered closer and closer to the snake, gleefully risking her short life for a sniff. Yarrow was no teacher. Such little effort was required for him to merely part his jaws and call out a warning, effectively saving this little pupil. But who was he to play God with her life? He would only play God with his own, and she didn't affect him one bit.

<3 thanks for joining!

The little pup bounced around the snake, who had just been innocently enjoying a moment in the brief sunlight in between the rains. Her silvery tail waved in a high arc above her back, excited even though the unknown creature was hissing at her. She slipped a bit in the mud, and when her paws got too close to the snake's mouth, it lunged. Its teeth hit her little toes, and she jumped back with a soft gasp. It didn't quite hurt, exactly - not in the way that it hurt when she fell down or rammed her face into a tree by accidents. It was, however, a severe betrayal of their short-lived friendship.

Apparently she had misjudged the creature. They were absolutely not friends. It was a mean worm.

So, she ran around to its other side, crouching down and squaring her shoulders in preparation to leap. Her rump wiggled, her hind legs pushed hard off of the ground, and she bounced over to plant both of her forepaws down on top of the wormsnakething's head in retaliation. The snake, since it was not warm enough to move quickly, had its face smushed into the mud, but was not injured. Satisfied, the pup pranced off of the scaly thing, snorting sharply in its general direction. She showed it what for.

But she wouldn't be mad for long. Perhaps she'd come back later, and it would be in a better mood.

It was only after she'd pushed the snake into the mud that she recognized another presence in the immediate vicinity. Silvering eyes flicked upward and landed on the figure over by the other corner of the clearing. He was colored brighter than most of the wolves in the River pack, and she'd never seen him before, but she knew everybody in her pack. So maybe he was one of those other wolves that lived by themselves.

How sad.

Risaela set a friendly wag of her tail and a smile on her lips as she bounced up to the newcomer. If the snake didn't want to be her friend, perhaps this wolf did. "'Lo," she greeted, her voice slightly hoarse and tight from disuse. There wasn't an ounce of fear in the little pup's gaze as she stood before the loner, her ears perked and a crooked grin on her maw. Her brows curled up in concentration as she tried forming her next words. "Whu-whass'yer name?" she slurred in an attempt.

The child seemed no more wary as she continued to tempt fate, carelessly bouncing around the unfortunate ophidian. Predictably she stumbled and ended up too close for the predators taste and got exactly what had been coming to her all along: the bite of the serpent. She reeled away, understandably offended, tiny maw agape. Yarrow could only wrinkle his muzzle at the cute display, hoping that the bite would be enough to drive her home to mama.

Irritatingly, it was not. Instead the whelp chose to challenge again, giving an incredible display of a pounce directly on to the snake. It seemed to miss the chance to bite again, a rather unfortunate happenstance. The cub certainly seemed like it would do well to be bitten more than once. With that business settled she turned away from the muddy snake and fastened herself in a direction directly at him, only then noticing his presence at all. Exhaustion seeped into his spine the moment her grey-blue eyes found his golden pair. He really didn't have the patience for this brat.

She smiled at him, for no damn reason at all, and made short work of the distance Yarrow had protected. Trying out a new set of words, the damnable whelp wanted an introduction from him. Yarrow, of course, decided to oblige her. An introduction was exactly what she'd get.

His mahongany-tipped hackles raised as he turned to face the youth directly, pulling back his dark lips to reveal his yellowed fangs. A growl rumbled from between his teeth as his tail lifted over his back, nearly pointing to the Ritter marking between the blades of his shoulders. Finally he shifted backwards, increasing the space that the whelp neglected to keep. If she hadn't been smart enough to understand the warning of one snake, perhaps she wouldn't be smart enough for this one either - but Yarrow did it anyway to please himself.

His golden eyes gleamed viciously, a stare which dared her no closer. And yet he would respond, his voice deep and soft. "You may call me Ritter."

Instead of responding to her happy greeting in an equally happy manner, it seemed that the man had become angry with her. She skittered to a stop, her mouth opening wordlessly and her tail drooping - more out of disappointment and shame than actual fear. She glanced around her to see if there was someone else there, or if she had perhaps done something wrong. But there was nothing that the pup could pinpoint, so she turned back to him again, a bit more leery this time.

"Uh... mmm," she began, deciding to be polite and wag her tail again - though not at the quick tempo it had been at initially. "M'... I... R-Rissy," came the introduction, a forced smile finding its way back onto her lips. She definitely wasn't angry with her new friend, and she didn't want him to think that she was. The girl made a move to close the gap between them again, but once she met his furious golden eyes, she stopped again with her forepaw caught mid-step. Her ears pressed tight to her skull, and she frowned in concentration trying to think of what she might be able to do to appease this Ritter guy.

There was no way she could say that name, so she didn't even try.

It was as though a lightbulb went off inside her mind as she thought of the meats her mother had been feeding her instead of milk. "Choo hungee?" she asked, her chest lowering closer to the ground and her tail once again whipping back and forth at the goodness of her plan. Food was, after her family and exploring and playing and fun, the best thing ever. It was a scientific fact. If she couldn't win him over with food, then perhaps he was a lost cause.

The whelp seemed to respond to the bristle. At least, after an initial hapless glance around the old wood to determine if there was anyone else - perhaps that mud-stomped snake - that he could have possibly meant the display for. Then haplessly fumbled syllables preceded a sound which he had to assume was the whelps name - Rissy - which Yarrow refused to commit to memory on principle alone. He hoped to never see this child again after this day, a sentiment swelling with vitriol as he watched her reach forward with a paw to come closer. A snarl readied itself within his throat but she caught the violence of his glimmering gold gaze... and stopped. Well. Perhaps the whelp could learn.

No sooner than the offended look she wore after his warning come than it did disappear, replaced by possibly the strangest thing he could have ever imagined the child to offer. Was he... hungee? Now that was an interesting proposition. Even a wolf like him was still wolf in the end, and indeed the hunger in his belly was his only constant companion in the weary days of travel since he'd left his homeland. Was the Ritter too proud to be fed by a baby? She hardly seemed past her suckling days herself. But perhaps by thinking of this an exercise in what he could get the imp to do for him... he might be able to allow it.

Yarrow allowed his lips to fall and cover his teeth, though the sneer remained upon his wrinkled muzzle to indicate to the whelp that this was tolerance, not acceptance. He drew his pale chin slightly higher, looking down his mahogany-painted muzzle at the girl. He was well aware that the young one hadn't the capacity for adult communication yet, but he simply refused to lower himself beyond his stature and spoke to the child as though she was not a child. She would need to work hard to understand him, if she was even capable of it. "What would you bring me?" He rumbled once more. 

Shortish post - I'm sorry ;.; next one will be longer.

After her offer of food, the man before her seemed to calm down. His teeth went away, and he raised his head up higher. The pup watched him intently, awaiting his response. Most of the time, the wolves in her pack would use simple words so that she could understand better, but not this one. He said a complete adult-y sentence, and Ris' blue-gray eyes widened as she fought to comprehend it. Luckily, the pup was bright, and could understand the words bring and me together to mean that he probably wanted her to take him some food.

But what would she bring him?

It was quite the dilemma for her young mind. The child glanced around the clearing, at the worm that she'd jumped on. Her ears pressed backward at the thought of feeding him the worm - it was mean, and it would bite him. She didn't want to get the man hurt, and she didn't want to hurt the worm, either. Which left the child very few options - she could go get something from inside of their borders, but she didn't want to leave her friend for long enough to do that. So, the puppy did the only thing she could think of.

"Look?" she asked, dropping her chest to the ground and wagging her tail back and forth. "Wif me?" The question was hesitant and hopeful. Then, she remembered her manners. "P'eas?" She wanted to go with the russet wolf to find something for him to eat so badly. At the moment, it was the most important thing in the whole entire world.

(This post was last modified: Jul 01, 2017, 03:41 AM by Risaela.)