Blacktail Deer Plateau how to train your dragon

Tagging: @Pura :)

Crickets chirped and spring peepers peeped, filling the muggy evening air with song. Osprey sat on the edge of the large clearing, listening to the voices of the woodland creatures. Some unspoken lyric in their symphony spoke to her, resonated in her chest, sounded in the deeps of her soul. Without really being aware of it, Junior felt her own voice crawling up her throat to join in the ballad.

The howl that loosed from her muzzle started off shaky, yet as nature beat her rhythmic drums, Osprey squeezed her eyes shut and lifted her voice toward the darkling sky. Her cry grew louder, stronger, fiercer. Her eyes popped open in surprise at the power of her own aria and the fat moon was reflected in her glowing mismatched eyes.

Junior's song roused Pura from his late afternoon siesta, bursting a particularly splendid dream bubble. In it, he had been reborn as pied piper of bugs, summoning all manner of mysterious insects with a few whispered words. They were just lining up to be processed by his eight stomachs - in this dream, he was blessed with the ability to relive meals eight times over - when the out-of-place howl fell on the whole scene like a smack. Pura raised his head off the ground and made squinty, frowny eyes at his cousin whilst she belted out her tune. It was an impressive sound, but Junior was so full of hot air and trouble that it was hardly a surprise that she was capable of a mighty howl.

The growing pup rose and immediately engaged in a bit of pilates. The night sky was given a view of his steel-grey rump and the ground was treated to a close-up of his crotch as he bent and stretched. Older wolves produced a chorus of pops and cracks, put Pura was too young and too bendy for this to happen. Satisfactorily warmed up for an evening of antics, he moseyed to Junior’s side and raised his own broadening muzzle to join in the sing-along.

When Pura approached, Osprey blinked. When he tipped his own muzzle toward the sky and joined in the song, her voice wavered. She thought of pushing him or shouting at him for daring to howl over her... but then the sound of their voices blending tripped some instinctual wire in her brain. She sucked in a deep breath and loosed an even louder bay toward the darkling skies, her voice contralto to Pura's tenor.

Junior eventually ran out of breath and lapsed into silence, at which point her eyes pinned on Pura's upturned face and her black ears pricked and quivered as the notes of his now solo song began to decrescendo. Her moonlit face was filled with wonder at the noises the two of them could produce. It was enough to stay any urge to lash out at her cousling, though in the past few weeks, Osprey Jr. had relaxed her persecution of Pura and Ty anyway, choosing to focus all her energies upon her punching bag, Saēna, unless the other two were particularly out of line.

"Poowa," Osprey Jr. spoke when he fell silent too. She wasn't really sure what she wanted to say. "Wanna hun dwagons?" she queried after a slight hesitation, her two-toned eyes glimmering in the dusk.

For a moment, Junior looked like she might protest - but something ancient willed her not to. The authority of a million years of evolution was not enough to stop her from competing, but Pura wasn't fussed. He let her take center stage whilst he provided background, and the resulting sound was much more impressive for it.

Junior flagged first. Her dutiful back-up singer concluded his own section, and turned to look into her bright, two-tone eyes just as the subject of Dragons escaped her mouth. Pura said nothing. Dragons were serious business - serious enough that the female half of the top tier had taken it upon herself to pass knowledge of their existence down to Pura. "OK," the boy replied severely. Without further word, he got to his feet and nodded in the direction of a more or less adult-free corner of the rendezvous site, where they could slip away unnoticed.

Pura took her up on her offer and the two of them slipped to a far corner of the clearing. Although they had sung together so enchantingly, their sisters were raising hell by engaging in a screaming match. It was much less pleasant on the ears, yet it was the perfect cover and Junior and Pura made their escape effortlessly.

Once free to roam the dark woods, Junior stopped and peered at her companion. "D'you smells any dwagons?" she whispered to him conspiratorially. Never mind that they were no more than a dozen yards from the clearing. To her, it seemed like they'd already plunged into the heart of the woods and that a dragon might be lurking behind any of the statuesque trees surrounding them.

Pura hadn't noticed how much the shrieking was grating on his nerves until a merciful cushion of distance separated him from the two warring girls. Nobody noticed the two pups melt into the darkness - not even the lighter of the two, who had just been through the Great Puppy Wash of a Thousand Tongues and gleamed like a four-legged Silver Surfer.

"D'you smells any dwagons?" Osprey whispered, and Pura immediately put his nose to the ground in response, snuffling in the immediate vicinity of their paws. The catalogue of scents had grown considerably since birth, and although he still preferred the intense and varied scent of scat, he wasn't unaware of other, subtler sources of nose candy.

Suddenly, a nearby bush executed an impressively cartoon-like rustle. Pura sprang back as if the ground had turned to hot coals, but quickly remembered that men were supposed to square up to danger. He did so with great drama, rivaling the pomposity of the Frigatebird. "Dr-r-rrrrragon!"

He gave no verbal response, though Osprey had become accustomed to Pura's preference for nonverbal communication. Her eyes followed him as his head dropped to the ground, small nose now sifting through the scents there. She followed suit, though she'd only sniffed a few feet when a loud rustling sound made her bat-like ears fall back and her head snap upward. Her eyes grew very wide, yet she stood her ground.

Her gaze cut to Pura at the sound of his cry. "Less get 'em!" Osprey stage-whispered, sounding braver than she actually felt. Without waiting to see if he would back her up (and, in fact, totally trusting that he would), the darker puppy sprang at the shrubs with a fearsome, puppyish snarl.

I've been low on Pura-muse. :( Do you want me to conclude this or go to 10?

Pura did not disappoint - he lunged when Junior did, toes spreading to grasp at whatever it was that had caused the commotion. As it happened, it was a couple of nesting birds, and they were none too pleased to be interrupted by two boisterous wolf pups. The bush erupted in ear-piercing shrieks and frenzied flapping (convincing Pura once and for all that they were indeed dealing with dragons).

One black, feathered thing flapped angrily at Junior's' face, nipping at her eyes with a bright yellow beak. The other went for Pura, cleverly targeting his rear end when the disoriented pup was still recovering from the shock.

I'm aiming for ten so I can use this toward my Warrior earnings. But I think this might actually be the tenth post, so you can either post again or ship it right to the archives.

Edit: Just kidding, it needs one more. D'you mind? :)

The two pups sang again, albeit with none of the rhythm and grace of yore. Now their screams filled the night as they found themselves the victims of a pair of rudely awoken birds. It was the first (although not the last) time Junior had tangled with the feathered denizens of the plateau and the assault from beaks, wings and claws alike made her want to turn tail and run.

But the young Warrior stood her ground, clenched her teeth together and swung a paw through the air. By sheer happenstance, she struck one of the birds to the ground, where it flapped and flailed. Surprised by her success, Junior simply gaped for a moment. By the time it occurred to her to pounce, the bird had righted itself, launched back into the dark air and made its escape.

Osprey Jr. whirled to assist poor Pura when a dark wraith appeared above them. "What are you—damn it, come here." It was Peregrine's voice. Without awaiting a response, he shooed the second bird away and then corralled Junior and Pura, ushering them back to the rendezvous site and sending them to bed a good ten minutes early for their troubles.

Pura faced his beast with the same gusto, though his first move lacked Junior's success. Once he had confirmed that the bird had not severed his tail (it managed to fit in a good nip before springing back to prepare for a second attack), Pura threw himself at blustering bird in a bid to swallow it whole.

Peregrine interrupted before he could connect, scaring the bird into flight. The freckled little warrior allowed himself to be herded back to the rendezvous site, occasionally craning his neck to look back at the site of his very first 'pups only' dragon battle. There was no telling when they would get that opportunity again. He gave Junior a dead look - it was meant to be disappointed, but he didn't quite have that expression down - before the two of them were separated and sent to bed.

Now it's archive ready. :D