Walk Through This World [open]

[Ash]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,439,true][atrb=height,296][atrb=background,http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg583/Quirky_Tea/Table%20Graphics/jessamine-top.png] powhatan alpha four years old

[atrb=background,http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg583/Quirky_Tea/Table%20Graphics/jessamine-mid.png] "Humphrey" | "Jessamine" Jessamine wasn't one for wandering when there were things that she needed to get done, but she had sent out all of the patrols for day, and it would do her no good sitting in camp and waiting for those dogs to return with whatever news that they would have. So she had picked her sorry butt off of the ground and kicked herself out of camp. She did no one any good waiting around and doing nothing. There were things that she needed to accomplish today, and she wasn't going to let the day waste away before her just because she was curious to what would come back to be reported to her. Curiosity killed the cat, and Jessamine was most certainly not going to end up in the same situation as that cat. Who would want to be a cat, anyway? They were so finicky and cold, and thought oh so highly of themselves. Or, at least, that was what she thought they would be like. She had never actually met a cat in her lifetime. She knew about them, maybe saw a glimpse, a long time ago, but she hadn't seen one. Jess wasn't going to disobey her own orders of her pack mates, to keep themselves busy. Hunt, fish, patrol! If she couldn't follow her own instructions, how could she expect them to listen to her? She wouldn't listen to herself, even, if she didn't due what she said everyone should do. Therefore, the fairly young female had wandered down to the shore to search for prey, see if she could fish, which she doubted that she could, in the ocean. That would prove more difficult a thing than she was willing to try, and quite dangerous, too. The see wasn't a creature that liked to be tied down, and it wouldn't stop trying to drown her, even if she was the alpha of the pack that ruled it's coastline. The ocean wouldn't really care, and she wasn't exactly willing to take the chance of ending up drowning in it's wild waters. "Isn't a wonderful day?" Jess asked, more to herself than her companion, Humphrey, a duck, who was currently goofing around in the shallows of the water. He was a duck, after all, it wasn't like she could keep him away from the water. It was like asking someone to stop breathing, he just liked the water, the same as she did, with her retriever like pelt and her water resistant fur, which kept out the cold, as well as the tiresome water. She swam much better than a Siberian husky, for sure. They ended up with long, water logged fur. Jessamine swam gracefully, her fur repelling water, slightly, and cutting through the waves with ease. That was why Jess considered herself a bit more of a fisher, rather than a hunter. "Yes, it's a wonderful day, indeed, the water's absolutely wonderful. So comfortable." The duck responded, the last part more to his self as he swam around, leaving Jessamine alone in her thoughts. the female padded down to the shore, savoring the feel of the wet sand beneath her webbed feet, feeling the incoming waves lapping lazily at her feet, as she watched it drag the sand back out. She slowly padded out until the water reached her underbelly, savoring the relaxed feeling, as well as the strength of the ocean, which she very well knew was there. Jess was content. Relaxing out here on the beach and allowing her mind to drift freely among her thoughts. Her eyes staring out over the horizon, out into the endless ocean.

[atrb=background,http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg583/Quirky_Tea/Table%20Graphics/jessamine-bottomcopy.png][atrb=height,25]

table coding & graphics (c) quirky tea | dog (cc) j. jenefeldt @ flickr.com

[QUIRKY TEA !]

There was one packmember that Jessamine hadn't sent out that day—a wolf, a rather new member. Freyja felt restless due to how useless she was at the moment. When she moved quickly, one could hardly tell that she was missing a limb, the momentum of three legs giving smooth movement. She started her flight on the beach, the sand cushioned her footfalls, making a comfortable run. She didn't feel safe leaving the territory left, needing time to heal from old, emotional wounds first, but she could find a tidepool or search for shellfish to fulfill her job as a fisher on the beach. The wolf was rather resourceful, in tune with nature. She knew where to find food. The killdeer next to her flapped her wings, flying along side her.

She slowed somewhat as she smelled the brine of shellfish underneath the wet sand. Zee landed and walked on the ground with her, moving ahead because she moved faster. Freyja's gait transformed from an efficient run to a jerky walk, her single hind leg hopping to keep her moving at the slower pace. Clams were underneath, their feet sticking out of their shells, their siphons making little holes in the low-tide sand, the fact that they needed to breathe gave them away. Zee, the Killdeer, walked over the wet sand without so much of an indent marking her steps and located the clams with Freyja. "I think there's a bunch here," the plover said, turning a copper eye toward Freyja. The wolf followed in her awkward gait.

Freyja lowered her body into a sit. She sat in an awkward puppy-sit, sitting on the side with the smaller leg, having her good leg brace her and keep her balance strong. She leaned forward, her nose sniffing gently. Definitely an edible type of clam. She then stood up, started digging with one paw, the other front paw was used to brace herself, keep her from toppling over. Freyja moved quickly and uncovered the clam. She continued until she had a few. It was then that she noticed Jessamine standing in the ocean. Her dark head was hard to see upon the dark waves. And her smell was obscured by seawater.

The wolf gave a howl in greeting. "Alpha Jessamine!" she called. Zee snorted. Freyja tended to cling to whoever she trusted with dear life, but still considered herself in the romantic portrayal of the lone wolf. Zee just wanted the wolf to grow up, leave behind the scars of the past and just be whole again. But given that she was missing the length of her right hind leg, Freyja would probably argue with her.

[Ash]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,439,true][atrb=height,296][atrb=background,http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg583/Quirky_Tea/Table%20Graphics/jessamine-top.png] powhatan alpha four years old

[atrb=background,http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg583/Quirky_Tea/Table%20Graphics/jessamine-mid.png] "Humphrey" | "Jessamine" Jessamine's eyes lowered from the horizon that they had previously remained focused upon, now though, her eyes focused on the waves that gently hit her chest and lapped at her under belly. She could feel the small fish that had gradually grown much more brave and now nibbled at her long, lean black legs. She watched as the fish went back to whatever they had been doing, keeping herself loose, she shifted her posture carefully to bend down, and in one move the middle aged female dove into the deeper water and grasped a fish tightly in between her jaws. It took her a few moments to fight her way to the surface, but when she did she took a deep gasp of a breath of the salty sea water. The fish remained grasped within Jessamine's black muzzle as she heard one of the pack's newer members, a former lone wolf named Freyja. Wolves were rare enough, since they didn't tend to actually join the wolf packs, or even approach them to talk. They rarely acted civilized around each other, which was the extent of the female's knowledge, as well as being combined, at least a little bit with her own personal experience with the wolves that dwelled along side the dogs in these parts. Therefore, when the young female wolf had decided to join Jessamine's pack, the older female had been at least a bit suspicious. She would have liked to have been able to trust all of the wolves around here, but she wasn't so comfortable about that. At least, not until she actually knew that they wouldn't worm themselves into her good graces and then end up attacking her pack for no apparent reason. Jessamine's pack came first, above almost everything else, and it always would, as long as she helped in it's running. Freyja's greeting to Jessamine didn't go unnoticed to the older female's ears. With the fish that had, basically stopped flopping the female padded off towards the shore, a lopsided combination of swimming and rocking, which she kept up until she reached the shore. Jessamine grinned around her rather large catch as she trotted towards the wolf, placing her fish beside the shellfish that Freyja had found, at least, Jessamine assumed Freyja had found them, since they didn't exactly tend to dwell on the sand, right in the open. "Hello there, Freyja!" Jessamine replied to the wolf cheerfully, her tail wagging like a banner behind her. It made her happy to be the leader of this pack. She was familiar with everyone, or at least tried to become so, when she wasn't working or hunting at the very least. She was a busy girl, and she wasn't going to sit around doing nothing, especially when everyone was supposed to help out the rest of the pack somehow. You couldn't have any lazy dogs, or wolves, lying around the camp, not doing anything. Everyone had to help out in some manner or another, after all. "Are you well today?" Jessamine asked, seating herself in the sand. She always hoped that all her pack mates were always at their best, though sometimes disease did come, she always wished dearly that it would keep away into some other pack, or just not exist at all, since she wouldn't want to wish something of that sort on any other dogs. The thing she hoped for the most, though, was that her pack would thrive under her rule, or guidance, however you looked at it, anyway.

[atrb=background,http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg583/Quirky_Tea/Table%20Graphics/jessamine-bottomcopy.png][atrb=height,25]

table coding & graphics (c) quirky tea | dog (cc) j. jenefeldt @ flickr.com

[QUIRKY TEA !]

"Hello, Alpha," Freyja said, her body crumpling as Jessamine neared her. If she had four legs, she would have ran in the waves to greet her Alpha after the black dog showed that she was receptive to interaction. But instead, she stayed, her deformity making it much easier for the dog to come to her. Jessamine

"Fish and clams," Freyja said, a grin curling on her muzzle. She looked up at the female, but was unsure of how to interact with a dog. She managed a confused expression of eagerness, a bit stronger than how a dog would display.

Wolves tended to communicate without subtlety. Where a dog would prick his ears, a wolf's expression would be the facial equivalent of an exclamation point. Where a dog would give a slight lowering of the body out of respect, a wolf would grovel, almost like a worm in the dirt for his Alpha. Freyja knew that dogs were much more lax, much more fair in the way they conducted their business. Somehow, it felt strange not to be crawling in the dirt. To be sharing this meal and to have the Alpha share hers—add it to the pile. However, sharing was something Freyja didn't want to do. She didn't want handouts, but was Jessamine even intending to share the catch?

Zee preened herself idly, as if unaware of Frey's feelings. The bird's copper eye glancing at the duck that was Jess's soul. The plover was smitten with the creature. Another bird, one that seemed quite at home in the water.

"Do you want my clams? You can take as many as you like, but I cannot take your fish," Freyja said, her tone polite. She wagged her tail. She wanted to open up the clams, but didn't want to eat before her Alpha did. To do so had the feeling of wrongness, in the same way as being stroked the opposite direction your fur grew. And Freyja couldn't take her Alpha's kill because, well, she was a proud wolf. She was a wolf who didn't want to admit that she needed freebies from time to time.

"Geez, Frey," the killdeer said, her eye on her wolf. "It wouldn't kill you to, gah." The sentence disintegrated with a glare from Freyja. The bird grumbled under her breath, her eyes averted. She worried for her wolf, wanted the wolf to be okay with, possibly, just allowing herself to be helped.

Freyja eased onto her feet, wanting to look strong and able despite her deformity. "I'm perfectly able to take care of myself," the wolf said. Proud. Too proud for her rank and her form.