The Sunspire i hear what you're saying,

AW! playtime?

Coelho had gotten a little less nervous since her induction to Sunspire. she still kept herself loosely in Bronte's vicinity, but by the hour seemed to grow braver in her exploration of the place.

so much of the mountainous keep was unfamiliar to her, but after a lifetime of vagrancy the little waif had perfected the art of survival in strange places. she had managed to snare a rabbit earlier, and was presently bounding down the meadow with it dangling in her jaws. there was a playful glint in her eyes as she sought out Bronte -- maybe she could encourage a game of keep-away, provided he was in the mood for it.

Rannoch was adjacent to the territory's perimeter when he caught sight of Coehlo; Sunspire's newest recruit was a ray of sunshine amongst the slush. They had only met briefly, and he wanted to get to know her better and make her feel apart of the pack. 

"Coehlo!" Rannoch called, "Whatcha doin?" He then canted his head, wagged his tail, and offered her a grin.

Coelho's search didn't procure the familiar figure of her dark bear, but she came upon a wolf equally impressive in stature -- Rannoch. Her head bobbed submissively as she saw him, and she wriggled forward on her thin belly in approach. Her tail beat furiously behind her and she carefully thrust the rabbit near his jaws and mumbled: "jusff pflayin'," 

Whether or not her jumbled speech was understood, her intentions were far less ambiguous - every tangent of her posture seemed to predict play; from the rapid sway of her tail to her hunched form and neatly folded hocks.

From Coelho's garbled reply, Rannoch deciphered an intriguing answer. "Playing?" he echoed in an attempt to clarify his assumption. 

Upon further observation, it was evident that his suspicion with correct. In realizing this, Rannoch wagged his tail and dropped to bow; he impersonated her playfulness, and with a certain light in his gaze, he implored her to engage him. Whether or not Coelho understood this, Rannoch then voiced his bidding with a light boof.

When the alpha reclined into a bow, a sunny air of delight seemed to overcome Coelho. Delight was too dampened a word to describe the sheer energy of the emotion that crossed her muzzle: it had all the terminal velocity and overbearing brightness of a nuclear fission -- but without all the inconvenient charred and radioactive after-effects.

She hung there a moment, her gaze held steadfast to somewhere ambigously on his forehead and then -- in a wild lurch, scampered past him the moment his light boof entreated the air. Coelho spun around him once, the object dangling from her grinning mouth, and then shot off like a rocket across the meadow.

Coehlo was truly superfast. In the blink of an eye, she raced in the direction opposite of where Rannoch faced. Without a second thought, he turned around quickly and gave chase. The game had begun. 

Although Rannoch was not the fastest, he was determined. Despite his conviction, Rannoch tarried a few lengths behind her to both preserve his energy and determine his next move.

The sandyfurred canine loped through the sedges, tail waving joyously behind her. She looked back once, and a trill of excitement pressed her throat as she saw Rannoch's burly, loping form closing ground. Doubtless, if she wasn't careful, Rannoch would eventually best her.

She would have to be fast! THRUSTERS, INTO HYPERDRIVE!!

Like some stone hurled by a furious giant, Coelho catapulted forward at a tremendous speed -- yet she tripped almost instantly on something that, quite frankly, simply wasn't there. Unless that something was air, in which case there may have been an abundance of it. Certainly, the next thing the girl felt was the slam of earth rising to meet her -- her teeth clattered with a forcible sound, and she slumped into the ground with a defeated grin as Rannoch presumably caught up to her. "Ooopsth." She offered between closed teeth and hide, tail stirring dust behind her.

Coelho took a tumble, and all Rannoch could do was watch as he closed the distance between them. Despite his competitiveness, his caring constitution overcame him. "Are you okay?" Rannoch asked once he stopped at Coelho's side and sniffed at her dust-covered coat. Her scent seemed to only indicate that she had made physical contact with a ground.

Coelho might have taken a rather hard tumble, but it did nothing to dampen the girl's spirits. She looked up from the dirt, a wide grin pledged to her features -- brightly she rose and shook herself with a nod.  "All okay!" The tawny agouti chirruped, her warm sorel gaze sunnily resting on Rannoch's noble features. She then supplanted a cheery lck to his cheek ad scampered off, rousing more play from her leader. 

Coelho's energies were slow to wane; she enjoyed their game immensely. After a particularly invigorating play sesh Rannoch announced he had a task for her; Coelho accepted the task with somber dignity, skipping off into the woods with newfound purpose to her steps.