Phoenix Maplewood Tree dancing malinois style

@Embry Inspirational videos - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOW4LYqhxzw and this one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYsDJg2PaBY

One of Nunataq's solo hunting missions had taken her further away from the Lost Creek Hollow than usual and her absence would last for few days at least. She was in unknown territories, but the wolf tracks that occasionally crossed her solitary path assured her that this place was not entirely barren of her species. Not that she cared much for company, but it was still good to know that there were other people around.

The maplewood forest that she arrived to was generous to it's first-time guest and soon Nunataq was feasting on a freshly caught jackrabbit. She devoured it almost whole and with some scraps and pair of ears lying by her feet, she fell asleep next to them. Dreams were happy and full of movement - that much one could tell by her twitching muzzle, lids and paws that moved as if running.

When she awoke an hour or so later, to stretch a little and get in another comfortable position again, she realized that her hard-won scraps were missing. With a furrowed brow she scanned the immediate vicinity for them, until her gaze stopped at a branch right above her head. A crow or some other petty winged thief had brought the tasty morsels of meat there.

Wruff!!! Nunataq barked in a tone that could only be translated as "Unacceptable!" After realizing that ther was no other way for her to get the scraps back down other than make a jump for it, she did it. On the fifth attempt she got hold of the branch and remained hanging with her feet few feet in the air and the offending twig grasped firmly in her jaws.

those videos are hilarious! perfect imagery

Embry had stumbled upon the spectacle whilst searching for his own dinner for the day. The meat's scent managed to drift down to where the bear of a wolf stood, himself squared with jaws parted. The moment the savory aroma seeped onto his palette, the sandy brute was on a mission.

He had not been to the Taiga before, but as he moved he was almost certain it could not get much colder than this. The ground was frigid beneath him and the wind seemed to whistle in his ears, fawning over the gelid temperatures. Just as he was preparing to dismiss the idea of the delicious bounty - admittedly not one for the cold - there was a loud thud. Intrigued, Embry pushed through the nearby undergrowth and emerged upon...

"Why, it's a flying wolf!" Mirth lighted upon his oceanic gaze, lifting his lips into a sheepish grin. "What in the Great Teakon have we got here?"

And his gaze traced the branch to which this female so feverishly clung. Stifling laughter, he moved closer to inspect the situation. "So you're the lucky one with all this wonderful meat, eh?" 

He knew situations like these could be dangerous. When it came to food, some wolves took to interaction in nasty ways. So he made it extremely evident in his pacific features that he wanted nothing of the share.

The Goldenmute/wolf-cross was right about the dangers of approaching another person, who had food in it's possessions. Nunataq rarely shared her food (to be fair, Merrick was the only on) and were her jaws not busy, holding her whole body weight in the branch, she would have munched on the male's face. With things being as they were, the girl side-downard-glanced at the guy, huffed and returned to the more important task at hand. She growled, did a hefty pull, an ominous crack followed and then she fell, showered by the confetti of meat, snow, pieces of bark and twigs and scraps of meat. The broken end of the branch nearly missed the guy (or, in case he was standing too close - hit him) and pulled Nunataq's head down in an uncomfortable angle. She let go of it instantly, shook her cranium to get all the possible dislocated vertebra and strained muscles in order and then attacked greedily the piece of ear that was lying few yards away. The rest of her claim was scattered in the vicinity of the stranger.

Embry thought it odd, at first, when his words were left to flit feebly upon the open air. He tilted his head, mocha-and-cream fur shimmering in the aureate glimmer of that particular hour. His paws were tucked neatly beneath him as he inspected the she, careful not to attempt an abrupt approach and making with a rather circular route. 

He was intrigued, to say the least, with this stranger's persistence. Part of him had considered assisting her with his own faculties, but it seemed that from the onset this could not have gone well. He was relieved when the branch finally relented, though he had to duck at the ensuing, fibrous shrapnel. A light chuckle escaped his maw, deep and fruity.

Embry assumed language was not a viable source of communication, so he waited patiently as she collected her prize. His oceanic orbs slipped around the clearing with an amiable curiosity to avoid any awkwardness that might arrive from their being pinned upon the girl. And when she finally seemed content, he emit a friendly rumble of a bark; tail wagging and ears perked. He hoped it got the message across: he wasn't looking to share in the spoils. He was just glad she reigned victorious.

Eying the stranger distrustfully and reminding a growling canine shaped vacuum cleaner, in the next few minutes she breathed in every single morsel that lied in her path. Along with some handfuls of snow too, making her stop and wince at one point, when the bitter cold reacted with her stomach and punched her right in the head known also as "brain-freeze" or "cold-stimulus headache" - a more scientific description offered by Wikipedia.

Once the unpleasant feeling had passed and Nunataq had made sure that not even snow smelled anything like her prized possession (yeah, she was that greedy - even the smell particles had to be preserved from the stranger), she sat down, focused her silver orbs at the guy, staring at him shamelessly. At some point she huffed, something akin to a sneer appeared in her lips and she tilted her head to the side. So, how can you impress me, big guy?

Embry's oceanic orbs widened to saucers at the sight: this small girl literally wolfing down her spoils of war. It prompted yet another thundering roll of laughter from the brute. As he had expected, her shovelling of snow would have its revenge, and he was prone to even more rapture despite his aching flanks. 

And then she stared at him - really pierced her little daggers into his fur - and he straightened upon instinct; tugging his paws close in a rather sheepish, floundering manner. Embry couldn't stifle the ensuing, waggish grin of his. Her body language was very telling of the challenge she proferred. Naturally, he was not one to back down.

He stood and shook brambles (and other various whatnot from the dishevelled trees) from his aureate pelage. The man stood almost twice the she's height, and he was very swaggering about it. Without letting on, he ambled toward a nearby swath of branches. He could see where more of her precious meat had been lodged in the surrounding limbs.

With a preparatory mmph, he bunched his muscles and used the trunk of the tree for support; rebounding so that he could just manage to snag the fresh morsels. He landed deftly first on the forepaws and then the hind, his fur rippling to compensate. Ah, yes, and now his eyes really glinted, for he did not relent his grasp. No, no. He raised an eyebrow. So, how can you impress me, little girl? 

For a moment there Nunataq's courage wavered, because, when the guy had stopped laughing about her antics, he got to his feet and proved to be taller than her. She would disagree on the "twice" part, because, where her physical body lacked the height, there her ego made up for it. With this in mind, even if she were to meet an elephant or a blue whale one day, she would consider herself bigger than them, even if it was by half an inch (which proves that egos are great at being super-flexible).

Being a keen observationist (is that a word?) of people, she began to list all the readily available and obvious points about this fellow. If we transcribed it to verbal form, it would look like this at the very moment:

1. Glint of IQ in the eyes - sadly there were far too many people in Nunataq's experience, who just looked smart and made a big fuss of appearing that way, but in reality were nothing but wastepaper baskets. 99% was trash and 1% usually was not worth the effort recovering.

2. Keeps his mouth shut - frankly speaking, convincing the babbling population of wolves every time Nunataq met them, was a tiresome task. So, the fact that he did not waste his words on her was a good thing.

3. Pretty awesome jump, man! But I will never tell you that!

She pursed her lips (I doubt that wolves can do that, but you can get the mental picture of her trying to do that, while thinking), then got to her feet, went over to the same tree, squatted and left a pee mark there. Then she pawed and scratched the snow around it and walked a little distance away to see, what would the guy's response to it be.

Embry's gaze followed the girl as she moved to the tree. He couldn't decipher whether this was just a charade - her being mute and all - and yet part of him strangely found the silence of the interaction rather endearing. Nevertheless, it magnified actions to twice their former significance, so that every flick of the tail seemed to be a gambit.

He had anticipated something with more gusto, so her simple manuever was actually a bit dishevelling at first for Embry. He knit his ponderous brow and narrowed his eyes, the muscles along his jaw clenching and unclenching as he ruminated. She was a young one, but she was definitely not without her senses — or, at least, not without wile. 

With a slow nod, he proceeded to enact one of the most ridiculous scenes of his life. With meat in tow, he patiently lifted his leg and stopped every pace or two to weave a good stream of urine, perambulating the entire trunk itself. When he was satisfied, he nudged some snow onto the former mark for good measure and faced the miss with a magnanimous sniff. He was lucky he had stopped for a drink a few hours back.

The guy proved to be a true master of the trade - Nunataq had never attempted to draw a pee-circle in the snow, but it looked pretty impressive and she decided to try and learn it first thing, when she got back home. This would involve either a lot of ass-dragging or some other clever acrobatics. But - hell - if she would do it. Just to prove a point that this guy was in no way better than her.

Realizing that, once she learned the skill, she would probably not be able to show it off to the guy right away, she had to prove a point now too. She went over to the same tree again, walked around the perimeter and eventually left another, small mark on top of the big one. After all, what mattered was not, who had made it large, but who had done it last.

Having done this, she lost interest in the tree, approached the guy rather boldly for an adolescent and sniffed in the general direction of his muzzle. This looked quite innocent for a bystander, but gears in Nunataq's mind were turning quickly, while she tried to figure out, how to steal the tasty prize from the other guy's jaws.

Embry's eyebrow heightened with puckish demeanor at the girl's final advance upon the tree. Admittedly, he would be perfectly fine with letting her simply win the small affair. But where was the fun in that?

Touché. After all that mess with the ring and the strong waves of ammonia that filled the air, the sandy brute was almost relieved. Maybe now he'd get the chance to understand the fae — find answers to validate how one could be so quiet and yet so bold. Indeed, there was an important lesson that could be learned from the fledgling. 

Seeming to have lost personal interest herself, he watched as the youth drew closer; his mouth readjusting its clamped possession with a hint of apprehension. His blue-green orb eyes followed, with cow-like attentiveness, the ascent. It was so surprising to the man, who, after all, had expected such approach to be far from high on the stranger's list, that he only tilted his head and tried to smile around his prize.

ZING!

When the God had put together Nunataq, he had thought less about the pretty-princess-get-a-boy-marry-live-happily-ever-after kind of girl, but more of a war-machine. Not particularly pretty or gifted with all the good graces and amiable qualities of the best of the princess-race, tomboy from head to toes and tip of her tail. A kid, who preferred to tinker with cars and toy soldiers than with ponies and barbies.

And yet... still a girl, still a female and a growing sense of self-awareness, as she grew into adulthood. She decided early on that a direct approach would not work on this guy (and could end badly for her, if she attempted), but his smile indicated that she had got through at some part of his defenses. She responded with the most sincere and convincing beam of her own, wiggled few steps away from the guy and dropped down in a play-bow, looking up at him with charming, innocent eyes and an invitation for a game.

Embry was uncertain at first. He was a big guy, first of all, and he could all but flatten the lithe pigeon of a girl. Second of all, he definitely was not about to just give up his treasure. Hell no. Smoosh her and then maybe he'll think about it.

But then, miraculously, the girl completely deviated from all predictable paths. His eyes followed her dexterous movements, now playful in a tangibly different manner, and his grip on the meat loosened. She bowed and his tail began to wag, slowly, as he caught on. She wanted to play a game, eh? 

The honey-golden wolf's pelt rippled in sandy-brown hues as he dropped, immediately, to his own, larger rendition. He released a gutteral growl that sifted into a challenging smirk upon his lips. Sea-green orbs danced. Come at me bro. 

Oh, come on! Nunataq rolled her eyes inside her mind, when the guy responded to her invitation for a dance, but still refused to let the meat go. Either he was very keen on keeping the juvenile on edge or did not know, how to swallow. But he would have to drop the prize at some point. Or she would make sure that he did.

With a louder growl than his (she thought so), the girl lunged at his, aiming to get a good hold on the loose and soft fur on the side of the neck. She wanted to pin him and leave him no choice, but to open his jaws and finally drop the scraps.

Embry was almost certain she was just playing with him. Almost. 

She lunged and, upon instinct, his forepaws pushed off. He was propelled onto his hinds legs, rearing like a bear with a semi-chuckle-semi-growl. His emerald gaze glinted with mirth, but there were notes of apprehension, too.

He fastened his teeth ever harder against the fibrous sinew of the meat, batting at the girl with a cheap swipe as he evaded her gnashing fangs. "Hey!" he laughed through the mouthful, forgetting, for the moment, the stranger's lack of lingual knowledge.

"Not yours," he said the words slowly and with special emphasis. "Not. Yours!" And he couldn't help but laugh some more. Here was this tiny viper picking fights with a giant.

This guy was no Pepperoncini (Rannoch), who had let Nunataq win, or Merrick, who submitted (according to her) to her just because she was older, or the lazy lynx she had teased, or the lady, with whom she had romped around in the snow. Not even Indra. He did not give her any liberties and she sensed that, when he swiftly evaded her supposedly well-aimed attack. This fuelled her eagerness to retrieve the morsels even more, therefore she repeated her attack, despite his warning. It is in place to say that in no way her assault was ill-intentioned. Quite the contrary - it was a game and a practice at the same time.

And in the back of her mind she decided that, if this guy continued to impress her, maybe, just maybe he would make into the elite ranks of the Pepper Squad.

oooh, I have heard of this notorious pepper squad...

The girl struck yet again. She was, he decided, rather similar to that of the tide at the day's apex: vigorous, strong, and so very relentless. This was the rhythm he had danced his entire life. Indeed, it was the beat that taught him how to survive and how to hone his skills.

So, he only grinned wider now. His heart was tapping like a wild bird, urging him onwards as he moved. It was like clockwork, this pas de deux, and with every breath that pumped out, fervor filled its place. For such a brute of a guy, Embry was light on his feet, and he let the snapping of the ocean pull him farther and farther from reality. 

The droplet surged at him, but the sandy creature was all in now. He had no intentions of backing down. The meat was only a dim fragment of the present within his teeth. This time, however, it was his turn to strike. Instead of stepping back to counter, he pivoted on a forepaw and sent the other in a hard swipe at the girl's legs, hoping to knock her out of balance. Balance, after all, was key.

Work hard! :P But I already like the dynamic of the too. We have to have another thread after this one. Also - sped some stuff up a little - PM, where I need to correct something.

Embry almost managed to trip Nunataq, but she had not been terrorizing her fellow littermates and Bearclaw wolves all childhood long for nothing. When it came to war-dancing, as she would like to have called this, she had some considerable experience under her belt. Even if her previous opponents hadn't been anything like the current opponent.

The fellow's looks had been decieving - he was of a larger build and looked heavier than her, but, when it came to the dance, he was a superior opponent. And as he deflected, avoided all of the attack moves that were in Nunataq's arsenal, the girls focus shifted from regaining the meat to doing any kind of "damage" to the opponent. She was not losing the fight yet, but she was not progressing anywhere either. Which did not stand well with her "if the doors are barred I will get through the window" approach to life.

So far Embry figuratively speaking had shut all of the doors, nailed boards to all of the windows, sealed-off the basement and blocked the chimney. And since the girl did not possess the lung capacity of the Big Bad Wolf from the "Three Piglets" fairy tale, she decided to back off for a moment and come up with a different approach. If she could not storm the house, could she lure the inhabitant outside?

An idea worth trying out... a bit later. She took a break and lied down in the snow to cool off and have some rest.

Will do! And yeah I'm honestly surprised. I didn't know where I would go with your feisty girl over there XD
No problem w/ the timeskip — we'll definitely be seeing eachother again! So much fun reading your responses

Embry would salsa to the ends of the earth. He would give the best tango, foxtrot, waltz, or quickstep in his arsenal. But when it came time to hit the sack, he wasn't one to object. No matter how much he hated to admit it, the youthful fae had managed to subvert his every attempt at gaining the advantage. It would be a stalemate, whether they reached the conclusion now or at their graves. 

Still a bit hesitant, the tawny male was a tad slower to relax. He adjusted his grip on the meat when she seemed least likely to tag at it, noting the savory flavor of the fresh kill with a glimmer of pride. He had retained it, if nothing else! 

So, with a haughty sigh of content, he plodded up to join the girl a few paces near. His shadow loomed over her for a second or two as he inspected the ground, fidgeting in that preparatory way before plopping down in one happy oomf. He made sure the meat was close enough to share its pleasant aroma, wiggling the eyebrows mischeviously. How fun it was, after all, to speak without uttering a word.

You make plans to amuse god, but sometimes things happen you do not expect, but the way they work for you. Nunataq had not hatched out any top-secret plan, when she had lied down, but, when her opponent did the same and also took a place not too far from her, she grinned. In the next instant she was on her feet and with jaws parted, ready to grab, she pounced at him. If this did not pin him down, she did not know, what would.

Embry thought this was utter betrayal... But he still blurted out laughing. The moment she moved, it was confirmed that either her aunt was a rabid squirrel or she had been bitten by one. He attempted to scram, of course, but his muscles froze and she was upon him much too soon.

The initial surprise was enough to dislodge his meat, though he snapped it back up and formed a plan that would make this girl a true texan. She was going to become a bull rider. Within seconds, he was on all-fours, bucking wildly in an attempt to throw the little rascal off.

Nunataq's victory was short-lived, but she responded to her opponent's laughter with an awkward half-growl-half-bark like chuckle of her own. The situation itself was suddenly less serious, more hilarious and her tail kept wagging excitedly even after Embry had shoved her off his back. And still... still he held on the meat - now this was a feat to truly admire.

However, she was not the type to stare at the guy all goo-goo-eyed. Not even close - she did another leap again aiming to land on her fellow's back and this time stay there. Since he seemed bulky enough to carry the light-weight her.

Embry was proud of his success, and he was relieved to find that the girl reciprocated the pleasant atmosphere. It was hardly a surprise that she would not relent, and when he glanced up to see her yet again scampering his way, he hardly knew what to do. He had played his hand and he was running out of tricks.

She landed square on his back, which was, at least, certainly not the smallest target. Embry swayed only slightly in the way of budging, saliva and juices from the meat dripping now from his lips. This was probably the hardest he had ever worked for a morsel of fresh kill. The best part was, he didn't even want it.

This time, instead of the bull approach, he took more of a Saharan, cheetah-type stance. As soon as she was mounted, he took off — darting like a bear on fire around the clearing.

Nunataq was no jockey, when it came to riding, therefore she fell off Embry's back the moment he sped up and dashed forward. However, she sprang to her feet right away and soon caught up with the guy, running side by side with him for a while and then brushed her shoulder against his, while she craned her neck to grab the fur below her playmate's ear. In case of success she would - according to her - bring him to a halt, or in a semi-failure scenario, be dragged along. Taking in account her small frame and his bulky one, the latter was very likely.

Embry paraded along beside the girl, prancing and enjoying the odd liberty of it all. There were no social stipulations, it seemed, between he and this fae. The only thing that stopped them was their own wit. 

Their shoulders touched and he glanced around, tongue lolling for all the pleasure of the run, to feel her nipping his ear. With a semi-growl he felt her tug to attempt a swift halt. He admired her tenacity — he really did — but the girl managed to do no more than simply slow him down for a couple of bounds. Until he got the picture, she was hitched for the ride. Then he planted his paws hard into the ground, and the two were sent tumbling.

For the second time today Nunataq realized that she had met her match in skills and wit. When Embry came to an abrupt halt, Nuna did too, but the impact made her trip over her feet. She let go off the now slobber-covered piece of fur she had been hanging onto all this time and a good thing she did it. 'cause, if she had retained her bull-dog grasp, the guy would return home with his royal pelt very unellegantly improved (holed).

Alright. She turned with her tail wagging and expression telling about her being well-humoured. She forfeited her rights to the meat, he had won this time.

Maybe you can fade in your next post and I can start a new thread for these two? Nunataq is on the coast at the moment.