Lion Head Mesa A new fantastic point of view

The little princess had escaped from the den this morning. Her mother had been busy with her needy brother as always, and she had taken the opportunity the make her way into the world she constantly dreamed about. She wanted to know what was beyond the walls of her mother's private quarters. Others came and went often, some she knew and some she didn't; ash didn't understand why she couldn't do the same. 

So she had taken it upon herself to quench her thirst for knowledge. Once outside, she was in awe of what she saw around her. No amount of fantasizing could have prepared her for this. There was red stone for as far as she could see and it was so bright against the blue morning sky. She could hear the trickle of water in the distance and it pulled her farther from the den. She was dying to know what sort of thing made that kind of sound. To an outsider, her slow, wobbly movements were likely very comical. But to her, she moved with steady determination.

a man, roughly the size of the escaped princess (if not smaller) ambled down the hallways of the mesa, visibly dispirited.

crowfeather was on his mind all the time, and gucci couldn't believe how little effort was put into finding the disabled man. as of recent - specifically, as of breakfast - he had even managed to convince himself that his friend was dead; eaten alive by vicious tigers, or whichever animal it was that lived in the forest. 

that was, surprisingly, a brighter thought than the one that had kept him awake the past few nights; that crowfeather was lost or rendered immobile, doomed to starve at an agonizing slowness, alone and frightened out in the wildernesses - while gucci, his guardian, glutted himself on his portions of meat, incapable of helping his charge in any way that wouldn't result in his own death.

the man sighed. even the tag upon his collar seemed melancholic in the noise it made, a sad series of tink, tink, tinks.

unbelievably, he almost didn't see the child. in fact, he passed by her, muttering a "good evenin'" as he went, not thinking it odd to see a dog his size on the street.

except that this wasn't a street, and there were no dogs in akashingo.

"young lay-dee!" the bewildered chihuahua whipped his head around, followed by his body. "what are'cha doin' out 'ere?!" he padded up to the youngling, the dog tag making a fierce tink tink tink as he went. 

they were on eachother's eye-level, which surely wouldn't last another couple of weeks. "don't your ma' know where y' are? come on, back in the cradle wi' you, off we go." he began nudging the fuzzy pale thing back down the hallway, awakening some ancient herding instinct within himself (his maternal pedigree was quite poorly researched).

OH another puppy. Ash had only seen her brother and sister so far, so she was quite excited to learn there were more of them. This baby spoke funny and used words like she heard other adults use—words she didn't understand. She merely looked at him with a confused tilt of her head.

Then he tried to nudge her in the direction from where she had come, and she was not having that. She sat her butt down on the ground and used her whole weight to counter his pushing. She had no intention of returning yet; there was way too much to explore, and she still wanted to know what that sound was. She yiped at him and tried to gum him, but her balance was still pretty bad, so who knew if she actually made contact.

the pup did that disarming tilt of the head, and gucci shook his muzzle the way someone with fingers might wag their pointer.

"oh naw naw naw, dontchu do that t' meh young miss! ahm a purebred chihuahua," he said with a haughty shake of his mane. "ah've been masterin' cuteness since 'fore ya was a gleam in your father's eye! now, c'mon, we don't need'tcha defecatin' in the hallway." but the child had decided to become an immovable object. 

luckily, gucci had the determination to play an unstoppable force. 

first he tried to push her with his head, goat style, then with his front legs, and then he moseyed back down the way he came, turned around sharply and made a running start, intent to displace the princess with a collision.

what happened instead was that he rolled over her royal chubbiness, essentially leapfrogging, but landing in front of her less gracefully than was usual for the game - flat on his back.

he was looking up at the pup with a frown. "nawt a word o' this t' anyone, understand?"

the girl gummed his entire muzzle.

"ahll take that as a yes." gucci said, albeit muffled.

Well this was a fun game, much more fun that going back to the den. She had stared at the walls of that place too often. 

She refused to budge no matter how hard he tried and when he took a running start and headed her way, she wagged her tail and made a tiny playful sound. 

The other puppy stumbled over her, and Ash took that moment to jump on his face and get to work on his nose.

He spoke adult words again and the little princess stopped what she was doing to stare at him again. Why couldn't she speak like that? She tried just in case, but only babbled gibberish. Not fair.

the pup attempted to communicate, but all that came out was incomprehensible baby babbling. gucci, only somewhat informed about the verbal capabilities of weeks old puppies, determined that simply wouldn't do. 

the toy breed freed his snout from the terrible toothless maws  and found himself with a wet muzzle. he worked to flick away the uncomfortable warm moistness with his wrists, doing only a somewhat decent job at it. the scent of nipplemilk, certainly, he will not get rid of that easily.

once his collar was adjusted properly and his tufts of fur were all in place, the chihuahua turned towards the child-wolf with a haughty expression and raised tail.

"naw. none o' that goo-goo ga-ga nonsensicality. you're a princess o' akashingo n you's need be most outstanding manners. understood?" he tilted head, as if expecting an answer from the girl (he was). "now, repeated aftah me." he raised a paw towards himself. "goo-tchee."

Ash stared at him as he spoke, not understanding much of his words at all. She tilted her head at the word he dragged out, but made no attempt to repeat it because she didn't realize that was what he wanted. 

What she did know, was that this baby was boring and she wanted to do something else. The princess hopped to her feet and barreled past him again, set on finding the sound once more. Hopefully he would take the hint and leave her alone.

"naw naw, nawt dead silence. reapeat." he shut his eyes and inhaled. "gooooo arja goin' yang miss??"

he attempted to twist his body around while still sitting on his tush and ended up toppling over. the diminutive man quickly scampered onto his feet and hurried up after the princess.

"naw naw, nawt that way! ya want'a drown?? want'a leave ya mother desolate?? now you listen here-."

despite the words, gucci had become quite aware that he hadn't the brawn to redirect the wolfchild back the way she came.

to compensate, he would accompany the princess to the wellspring, prattling on in hopes of at least one word sticking with the girl, and would see to it that she doesn't, of course, end up a floating bloated corpse.

hopefully, the journey back to the queen's quarters would be less eventful.

end? 0w0