Dead Empress Backwater srendaen

RE: A late season snow storm takes Relic Lore by surprise, take cover!

June 11th; Morning; Scattered Clouds; 51.8 ° F, 11 ° C.

At four weeks old, Oleander was more confident than ever. Today, the wave of curiosity that washed over him was strange. The once comfortable feeling of the den had edged away, forcing him to curl up closer around his sisters. The morning had broken, but it was not what he had been used to. As he stretched his stocky, restless limbs, he pushed himself up to stand.

An experimental shake of his coat (which was something he had seen his mother do every now and again) and he was off. He toddled uneasily to the entrance of the den where the sudden cold front nipped at his nose. A whimper of dismay. It was different. Uncomfortable. The boy's ashen head poked out into the world beyond the birthing burrow. Narrow blue eyes squinted into the morning haze and a flurry of cold and white stuff.

It happened all too suddenly. Something attached itself to his wet little nose. His stump of a tail waggled like a metronome but he did not cry. A second chin made of neck fluff formed beneath his jawline as he withdrew his head. He dragged his tongue down the front of his muzzle and it was gone. Puppy blue eyes went wide.

What was that??

The little Valle poked his head out again, but this time he dared to venture out. Everywhere before him the forest floor had taken on a thin blanket of fresh frost. Oleander's head tilted, unable to find the words or feelings to describe this something new...

(This post was last modified: Jun 11, 2021, 10:01 PM by Oleander.)

         

OLEANDER |

Nobody gets me like you do I'm not the same, not after you

For a whole minute, the boy's eyes remained focused on the sky. Hundreds - no, thousands! - of little white things were falling down. They gathered in the den clearing, on the burrow entrance, on his cream-white coat, and his pale lashes. He blinked and honed in on the ground before him. His right forepaw lifted first, then his left, as he walked out into the wide world.

In childish joy, he spun about, wanting his sisters to join in on the fun. Though, before he could even call out to them, he saw the trail of pawprints behind him. Again his brow furrowed. He turned and walked further from the den, neck craned to one side to watch as the trail formed... His little tail came up in alarm.

It was following him!

Oleander bunny-hopped twice in an attempt to get away from the (unknowingly deciduous) ghost-paws in the snow. He gave a snort. Well, there were two sets of prints. Maybe it had given up. He continued on his way, ready to hold his head high, but he was quick to realize the prints were still there at his back. Hnnngggg...

His needle-like teeth ground together and he let out a sharp bark in a warning. Whatever it was, it ought to stay back.

         

OLEANDER |

Nobody gets me like you do I'm not the same, not after you

Marguerite could only sleep peacefully for so long. Eventually, the absence of Oleander's body heat was noted. The girl didn't like being too hot, nor did she like being too cold, and right now she was definitely too cold. With a shiver, the little pup pushed herself up to examine just where he had thought to go that was so important he'd leave his sister to freeze to death. At first the Valle child was unable to see her kin, but as her ears focused on sounds further out from the comfort of their den, she picked up on him. There. Just outside of the den. He seemed... upset about something.

Pushing herself up completely in a frenzied worry, the child stumbled out to see what was wrong. She wasn't going to let anything hurt her brother. Not while she needed that body heat of his.

As she closed the distance between herself and the den entrance, Margo wasn't quite sure what it was that she was looking at. She saw her brother, she also saw thousands of twinkling lights falling from the sky. These lights covered the ground... and they were.. very cold. Had he made this happen somehow? And had he done it to spite her for some reason? He sure seemed angry. Was it with her? The pup began to wail.

Oleander's attention was so focused on the ground that he didn't notice his sister emerge. He even missed her fascination with it all. What caught his attention, in classic Margo fashion, was her wail. That now-recognizable cry of 'oh no' and 'omgitstheendoftheworld' and the usual 'haaaalpppp!'

Puppy blue eyes found the familiar blob of dark fur that was his littermate, and he bounded over to her. Never mind the things that were "following" him, he wanted to know what his sister was making a fuss about now...

His pale snout found the space at the side of her neck between her jawline and her shoulder blade. Nothing seemed out of place or strange. He sniffed and woofed at her. What? he asked in so many wordless sounds. His tail went from one side to the other and back in a tentative wag. At this age, he could only comprehend so many things in this wide world, but he knew something was wrong.

"Mmm?" he hummed the beginning of the girl's name.

         

OLEANDER |

Nobody gets me like you do I'm not the same, not after you

Margo was confused and upset, but something about the way her brother was acting made her pause for a moment. Why did he appear just as puzzled as she was? He's the one that caused this mess, probably! With a sniffle, the fae broke away from her brother to get a better look at whatever all this wet cold stuff was. How was he able to produce something as strange as this anyway? It was cold and stuck to some bits of the earth as a solid of sorts, but all wet and watery when it landed on her coat. Was that even possible? She didn't trust it, but at the same time she sort of wanted to make some too. The young girl furrowed her brow and looked back toward her brother, demanding answers.

The boy watched as Margo stepped away from him on her own adventure into the strange cold stuff. He watched as her dark brows came together and he looked at him in a way that made him slink back a step.

"Look," was all he could say at first. His attention span had yet to stay focused on one thing for more than a little while. As soon as the word has left his lips, he had become taken with the way the white stuff had gently perched on her downy coat. But, then, all too soon, he saw those prints again, but this time, they had followed his sister.

"Look!" he said again, raising a paw and turning about to follow after her. He didn't even look at her. He was much too amused by how easily his own paw fit into her tracks. "What is?"

         

OLEANDER |

Nobody gets me like you do I'm not the same, not after you

Margo continued to watch her brother with furrowed brows as he carried on with his own analyzation of whatever the heck was going on here. She couldn't help but notice her anger and frustration subside further the longer she was there to witness the interaction. It was becoming clear to her that Oleander wasn't behind this chilly mess, but that mental clarity only lasted but a split second as new, even more confusing questions started to flood the young girl's head. If he wasn't behind it, who was? Or, was anyone actually behind it?

"Oooh! Fit!" Marguerite looked at her brother in amazement as he placed his paw where hers once had been not too long ago. It was a perfect fit! She began to giggle at the sight. The Valle hated not knowing what was going on, but maybe this wasn't so bad after all. "Dunno" she frowned, dragging a paw through the buildup that had begun to form on the ground. A line appeared where her paw had just scraped, how peculiar.

"Poopoo?" She'd seen bird poop before, but never in such a high quantity. Momma always told her not to touch the stuff, so she wouldn't have the slightest idea if it were actually cold to the touch like this or not. Sure was the same color. The child tilted her head up to see if she could spot a frisky flock.

I'm a grown-ass adult, but I swear... I could not stop laughing at imagining these two having this conversation. Thank you. XD

In typical Marguerite fashion, she answered, "Oooh! Fit!"

Fit...

Hm. While amused that he had not considered that word before, a part of him realized he and his sister were the same size. It made sense. For the white stuff on the ground to prove so... maybe not so much.

"Poopoo?" she both questioned and suggested in reply to his next question.

To this, Oleander scowled. Poopoo. This wasn't poopoo. He straight up huffed at her. Ridiculous. Though he followed her gaze skyward, his nose remained wrinkled. "Bird not big," he stated, leveling his head after too much of the white stuff had stung his nostrils.

"Big poopoo... Big bird. Where big bird?" he was challenging her now, wondering if she would be able to see things from his oh-so-rational perspective. "Would see big bird."

         

OLEANDER |

Nobody gets me like you do I'm not the same, not after you

This is the best thread to ever happen to me XD

Marguerite could feel her cheeks grow hot with frustration as her brother dared ridicule her answer.  Sure, there wasn't a big bird in sight, but he wasn't here to see what caused the stuff.  There could of been a big bird earlier, and he couldn't prove otherwise.  "Big bird bye-bye.  Saw big bird." She huffed, turning her head away from the boy dramatically.  "Big, big, BIG bird, was pink an purpee wif sharp teef. Ask mumma."  She was relying on the hope that he wouldn't in fact ask their mother because clearly what Margo was doing right now was telling a fib, but bringing mumma or papa into a conversation definitely made an argument sound more legit.

(This post was last modified: Sep 04, 2021, 11:06 PM by Marguerite.)

Sorry. We're stinkers at making you wait and teasing lil' Margo~

"Big bird bye-bye. Saw big bird," Margo said. "Big, big, BIG bird, was pink an purpee wif sharp teef. Ask mumma."

"Uh-huh," was all Oleander could initially say. Disbelief pointing his ears forward and making his stubby tail bristle.

Snowflakes continued to gather on both his sister's crown and the top of his downy-furred head. As much as he wanted to continue to give her the stink-eye, sustaining a frown was a bit much for his young forehead. His glare melted away and he simply raised a brow. "So..." he began to tease her. "Bird still pooping?" A jab of his nose at the air pointed to a place on Margo's face that she could not see (without the aid of her reflection in the Backwater's surface).

"Has white there... Mus' be poop." He smirked and stuck his tongue out at her, "You yucky."

         

OLEANDER |

Nobody gets me like you do I'm not the same, not after you