Wild Rye Fields push it and push it until my luck is over

chimera kasai avalon

trading in who I've been for shiny celebrity skin

October 17th; Late afternoon; Overcast Clouds; 55.4 ° F, 13 ° C.

Since the "uncles'" departure, things to Kasai seemed... well... off. It was almost as though something had been missing or misplaced - and, there was. Two individuals who had been there since his birth, two ever-watchful shadows, were gone. For the young Avalon, though, it meant something else: the sort of freedom that came with realizing that there were two less sets of eyes at his back. Freedom.

When the red-touched cub had woken up from a nap, he immediately went off in search of some sort of adventure. He could play by himself, he figured, at least for today. Being alone wasn't a problem; and, honestly, going off on his own meant he didn't have to deal with his brother and sister slowing him down or bending the rules or visions of his own little make-believe games. In just a few moments, as soon as he found a suitable place where the rye grew just a little taller than the tips of his russet ears, he would begin.

Dark paws found a suitable place: Reyes and Askan's den, now abandoned and presently empty. Brightening yellow eyes lit up as he approached the burrow. In his mind's eye, he saw the wide mouth of the cave welcoming its owner home from an eons-long absence. It beckoned to him without words and, effortlessly, Kasai found solace simply in laying at its entrance. His stout but still-growing body curled up with a soft thump on the cool soil. With his forepaws pressed together, his whole frame composed like that of an Egyptian sphinx, he surveyed the waves of golden field before him, his lands for as far as he could see.

Ever quite the regal in his own imagination, he puffed up his chest and closed his eyes, envisioning a setting sun as it warmed his face despite the cool autumn weather and presently grey clouds. He had traveled far, had seen corners of the world that he had only ever seen in his wildest dreams, had met many a weary traveler and now the Red Hound had come home to his lair.

(This post was last modified: Oct 17, 2017, 11:51 PM by Chimera.)

we can be blue as a neon light, singing them sad love songs all night
Niles is currently traveling with Chimera and may hop into this IC thread!

Neko sorely missed Askan and Reyes. She wasn’t mad at them for leaving, but each of them had taken a piece of her heart with them when they departed. By now, their scents had all but faded from the fields, but there was one place where they had not yet faded, and that was their den. She had visited the den a few times since they left. She knew that her longing for them would not bring them back, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t try to wish them back home.

She had just finished checking her herb caches and had decided to pay another visit to the Reyan den to reminisce in silence once again. She casually trotted among the rye stalks as she silently approached the entrance to the den. As she drew closer, she realized she was not alone. It appeared that Chimera was visiting the den as well. No doubt he missed Askan and Reyes too.

She stopped and sat down near the entrance where Kasai was lying. She couldn’t help being amused by his posture with his eyes closed and chest puffed up. She figured he must be imagining something, lost in some fantasy. It seemed like only yesterday that she was a pup herself, playing pretend games with her brother and best friend.

She thought that she had not spent nearly enough time with the pups since her arrival, and they were growing so quickly. Perhaps the yearling could join him in his fantasy. A slight giggle escaped her as spoke. “Hello there.”

A lynx has left behind the remains of a deer. +5 Health

chimera kasai avalon

trading in who I've been for shiny celebrity skin

One red-touched ear swiveled in the newcomer's direction and, while he was so sure that the individual that had come into his midst would be loud-mouthed and interrupt his little game, he kept quiet. After some time, his whole body relaxed, his chest seemingly exhaling what relief it had held within upon make-believing that he had come home to rest after a long journey to the ends of the earth. His tail flicked and only when she had giggled did his crack open a yellow eye.

"Hello there."

It was apparent in her tone that she either thought he was funny or she was slightly amused. Kasai gambled on the idea that she was even the tiniest bit interested in his play-acting. His other eye opened and he glanced upward into the face of a dark woman with amber eyes. He even noticed that one of her ears... they were - his head cocked to one side in mid-thought - different. If he had been any other boy, he might have not said anything; but, alas, this was Kasai...

"What happened to your ear?" he mused, suddenly all too riveted in the appearance on his pack mate. "Who're you?" While the cubs had known that there were others in the pack, it wasn't in the boy's interest to seek them out and learn more about them unless they initiated contact first. By default, they were all just adults, caretakers or Mom and Dad's friends; and, most of the time, they were much too busy doing adult stuff to do anything with anyone who wasn't an adult.

(This post was last modified: Oct 19, 2017, 01:09 AM by Chimera.)

we can be blue as a neon light, singing them sad love songs all night
Niles is currently traveling with Chimera and may hop into this IC thread!

In response to the pup’s first question, Neko casually flicked her droopy ear. “If you mean the one that droops, it happened when I was a pup. I was checking out a strange flower with teeth on its petals, and it bit my ear. I was lucky it was just baby, ‘cause the bigger ones could swallow a pup whole.” Really, she was just born that way, but she remembered when she was a pup, the adults in her pack had told her all sorts of stories, and she was gullible enough to believe most of them.

She was taken a little by surprise when Chimera asked her who she was. It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen each other several times before, but in fairness, she had never really stopped to talk to or play with the pups. She smiled and said, “You know who I am, silly, I’m Neko and I’m part of your pack. Surely you’ve seen me in the den with you at night?” Not that she spent every night in the den, as she was often out working, playing, or exploring when she ought to have been sleeping.

She yawned and stretched out into a playbow and added, “I might have other names too, but that depends on the game.”

chimera kasai avalon

trading in who I've been for shiny celebrity skin

Kasai’s eyes grew wide as she told him about the flower with teeth; at this moment, it didn’t matter if it was truly real or not, he had given in to the whimsy of it (and, in turn, it was clear that he had invited her in). His lips parted enough to form the word ‘whoa’ as his mind wrapped around the idea of falling into a flower and becoming a green-thing’s lunch. It was probably bigger and taller than mom and dad combined! His ears fully came forward now, eagerly hanging on her every unspoken word. In his mind’s eye, the Red Hound welcomed the black-furred woman as a magnificent creature like him, albeit wiser and perhaps much larger. A Sage, maybe... with a droopy ear who only ever came to these parts every 200 moons to depart upon a lucky wanderer much precious wisdom.

“You know who I am, silly,” she told him. The boy sat up now, his interest piqued. She said that her name was Neko - oh yeah! his face wordlessly lit up. Well, now he finally had her name paired up with her face. Up until now she had just been “one of them,” and she even had a place in his make-believe world. She even had other names.

“Oh!” he chirped, his tone uplifted as she recognized that he had been immersed in his own little world. “Well, not many know who I am. I travel a lot, seek out the secrets of the deep forests, and swim in the bluest seas. I go alone and I don’t see many others.” His tail wiggled and waved, “They call me the Red Hound. They said when the sun rose and kissed my crown, my fur was painted with its rays. It said I would never be a wise king, so I go to seek my own treasure.”

He paused for effect, his story unfolding before his captive audience, “Have I heard of your other names? You said I’ve seen you before...”

(This post was last modified: Oct 25, 2017, 01:39 AM by Chimera.)

we can be blue as a neon light, singing them sad love songs all night
Niles is currently traveling with Chimera and may hop into this IC thread!

Neko couldn’t help being impressed with the boy’s imagination and creativity, and she hoped he wouldn’t lose such gifts as he grew. Having grown up in a nomadic pack, she had been traveling since she was a pup and had seen some wondrous places, both beautiful and terrifying. She wished the boy could see such places for real. Perhaps when he grows some more, he could be given opportunities to travel for real.

“Around these parts, I’m known as the Black Cat,” she said with an air of mystery. It was a nickname she had been given in what seemed like another lifetime, although she hoped it wouldn’t remind Kasai of the recent cougar attack and scare him. “Your story sounds similar to mine, Red Hound, only I was chosen by the moon rather than the sun. I was born in a dark cave underground, and my coat was painted with the shadows from the dark side of the moon. I’ve wandered alone for most my life, but for a time, I was the minion of a red coywolf known throughout the land as Witchbaby, and Witchbaby was known for spreading mischief far and wide.” The coywolf in her story was really little more than a brief acquaintance, but one who had made a lasting impression on her. “She was as sly as the nine-tailed fox, and even more beautiful. I learned some of my best magic from her.” She waved a fore-paw in the air as if casting a spell.

“So, Red Hound, do you wish to be a wise king?” She laid down near the entrance to the den, a few paces from Kasai. “And what sorts of treasures do you seek?”

(This post was last modified: Oct 20, 2017, 01:59 AM by Neko.)

His black-lined lips formed an 'o' shape as she told him her secondary alias. The attack had been a distant memory now, his growing and all-too-imaginative mind much too busy to dwell on it. The Red Hound had better things to do than to worry or fret over a memory that had long since passed. As her own story came to him, he visibly leaned forward, closer to her, eager all the more.

Just as he had been "chosen" by the sun, she had been blessed by the moon. However, it was not the light, white parts that she had been painted with, but the dark. Bright yellow eyes scanned over her fur, seeing the blackest of blacks in her coat wherever he was able without the sun shining down on her. He presumed he looked just as dark, the reddish parts of his coat rendered a flat brown under the clouded skies. He perked up again when she made mention of another red creature, a coywolf called Witchbaby.

His head tilted. That was such an odd name for someone. He made a face - then again, he also had his birth name "Chimera" which sounded just as strange.

Upon the idea of anyone having nine-tails, though, his nose wrinkled, amusement settling in on the rest of his face. Nine tails was a lot! Even for something as skinny or "little-looking" as a fox. The Black Cat sprawled out before him and he regarded her question with the most inquisitive of faces. His canine teeth poked out from beneath his upper lip, his snout still wrinkled up along one side, his brow still furrowed. After some time, he stole a glance at his companion, "I wish for all things, but maybe not to be king. Wise, though, maybe..." His head leveled. "I like to look for all sorts of things. I only know of three wonders: the elder stick, the life stone, and the pelt of invisibility. But-" he had to think about all that for a second, "-I don't think I've ever seen them. Yet."

we can be blue as a neon light, singing them sad love songs all night
Niles is currently traveling with Chimera and may hop into this IC thread!

The Black Cat mirrored the attentiveness that the Red Hound showed when she had told her stories. She leaned forward with her ears perked up as he answered her questions. “Perhaps you can’t be a wise king," she said, "but if you don’t wish to be a king, then who says you can’t be wise? Alternatively, you could be a king who is not wise, but then your subjects probably wouldn’t be very happy, would they? I do believe you have the right idea, preferring wisdom over power.”

“You know, when I was a puppy-” the Black Cat stopped and quickly corrected herself, “I mean a kitten. When I was a kitten, I heard some stories about a wise wolf-king. In one story, he faced a raging dragon. He had a hard time even getting to close the dragon because it spat fire at him, and even when he did reach it, his teeth couldn’t pierce its scales. The wolf-king’s pack said the dragon could not be defeated, but the clever wolf-king tricked the dragon into chasing him into a ferocious storm. With all the rain, the dragon couldn’t keep its fire lit, and when the dragon opened its mouth to roar, a bolt of lightning shot right down its throat. That was the last they ever saw of that dragon.”

The Black Cat lay quietly for a moment, giving the Red Hound a chance to process her story. She tilted her head and looked towards the sky for a few seconds as if deep in thought and said, “It’s your turn, Red Hound. I’m interested in these three wonders. The elder stick, the life stone, and the pelt of invisibility. Do you much about them? I don’t believe I am familiar with any of them.”

The boy's affection for his playmate grew with every word she spoke. In his mind, The Red Hound would forever remember her words, what possibilities and scenarios they offered. When he got the chance to go out on another adventure again, he was gonna seek out those foolish kings and knock some senses into them. He was also gonna look for the wise kings he had not yet met - even if he already knew that they would not even compare to The Black Cat.

“You know, when I was a puppy-” Up until now, Kasai had been looking at her as though she had merely been herself, but upon hearing her words, his mind drew her back up in the likes of a black cougar. Mysterious and, yes, sagely. The boy's face lit up further as she continued, imagining a little cougar cub at first, then a king - likened to his aging father - facing whatever he thought was a dragon (at this point it was like a huge wolf, but maybe more feral - with bird wings!). Then came the storm and the imagined brilliance that was 'fire,' followed by the lightning bolt that struck the dragon down and the celebrated return of the king to his pack.

As quietly as he could, he scooted a little closer to her when she had turned her eyes to the clouded sky. “It’s your turn, Red Hound," she then said. Kasai's eyes lit up, most especially when she expressed interest in his three mystical items. "Well," he started, not even missing a beat. "The elder stick is like... this stick that grants extraordinary powers and it isn't just some stick. It comes from a special tree. The life stone comes from the river where the waters can heal any sickness; and, the pelt..." He had to think about this one. For the most part, he wasn't quite sure if he knew just what kind of animal the pelt it had once belonged to. "The pelt is interesting. I don't know what color it is or where it's from but if you hide under it, it'll make you invisible!"

we can be blue as a neon light, singing them sad love songs all night
Niles is currently traveling with Chimera and may hop into this IC thread!