01-18-05

Characters involved: Aralyn & Taye

Salamandastron: Entryway

Aralyn, being the trooper she is, is currently toddling quite curiously down the entryway. Because, as she's craftily learned, -someone- simply -has- to be on guard duty about here. Between her paws she carries a small wooden spade, heavy enough that she drags it along, making clacks each time it drives over an irregularity in the rock. Just as she reaches the niche where sand meets stone, one of those large footpaws catches one such irregularity, and she falls forward into the sand with a squeak.

Fortunately, the squeak catches Taye's attention from where he sits along one of the walls. His lifts from where it was resting on one drawn-up knee. Brow-wrinkle. "'Lynnie?" When he sees that yes, it's her, and yes, she's just fallen, he scrabbles up to his footpaws and jogs over to her. Crouch.

Aralyn raises her stubby snout from the sand and shakes it, sending granules of sand every which way. "Umph." The little doe collects herself, pushing herself up to her knees. Dogged determination, it is. Until a certain big-brother arrives, and her face lights up quite brightly. "Tee!" she squeaks, happily, dropping her spade in her surprise. Her short arms raise up to her crouching brother, and wrap around his middle.

"Oof!" Taye can't help but grin like a big goofball at the hug. He playfully swats at one of her ears, "'Ey, don't go squeezin' me t'death, now..." He then gently extracts the clinging furball from around his waist. "How'd ya get all the way down here by yerself, huh?"

Aralyn falls back onto her bottom with her own tiny oof, her nose having wrinkled all up at the earswat. "I woooon't," she says, beaming up at her uniformed older-brother. With a giggle, hear ears fold down, and she covers her mouth with both paws, done up in fists. "Walked," she says, truthfully.. but this is doubtfully the full truth. As to camouflage this, she picks up her spade, holding it up with a big smile for her brother to see.

Taye gives Aralyn a knowing look, but simply nods at the sight of the spade. "Mm-hmm, spades're essential t'walkin'.. I c'n see that." He grins and offers a paw down to the sitting leveret.

Aralyn giggles, putting the handle of the spade in front of her mouth now that it's between her paws. She still shakes with them when she takes Taye's paw, and pulls herself up to her large, bare feet, dropping the spade -again- in the process. She gives

Taye's leg another hug, and then her eyes go wide as she realizes she's dropped it again. She turns, and retrieves her spade, taking a wobbly step out onto the unsteady sand. Raising her arms up above her head, she sticks the spade into the sand, and tuuuugs, to shift just a small pile out of the way... and falls again onto her rear. Plop. This gives her something of a view of the ocean beyond, and she tilts her head thoughtfully back to Taye. "Tee, seen mummy?"

Taye comes up beside the leveret and, leaning against the rock wall just inside the entrance, looks out towards the ocean. His eyes narrow thoughtfully and he shakes his head. "No, 'Lynnie. Mummy's takin' a reeeeally long walk. But she'll be back, promise."

Aralyn drops the spade, and peers down into the small hole she's created, as if it were a tunnel, and not a small pawprint. Her loppy ears fall back over her head, as she looks up to her brother. "...Owh. She shoodn' take so long." With her paws and small claws, she scoops loose sand out of the hole, but makes little headway with the rivulets of sand that pour back in to replace it. "Da misse' 'er. Do ya?"

Another playful swat to Aralyn's ear. "'Course I miss her, ya ninny..." He then scruffs her headfur before stuffing his paws into the pockets of his trousers. Teeny!brood, and much with the staring out to sea. "D'you miss 'er?"

Aralyn laughs at the swat.. it sounds like a series of small squeaks. "S'rry." Her eyes close as his paw rubs over her hair, and stay that way as it withdraws. "I d'..." she says, sincerely, lip tucking under her prominent buck-teeth. The doe's eyes open, and she peers up at her brooding brother. "Cuddn' y' run affer 'er?" She says this with a mix of admiration and envy. He gets a uniform.

Not that the thought hasn't crossed his mind, but clearly he's much too old to entertain such childish ideas. He looks down at Aralyn skeptically, with that look of, 'tch, kids' that older siblings tend to master, and shakes his head. "Da'd skin me, 'Lynnie. Besides, doncha think he'd have gone 'n' brought 'er back if'n he was worried about 'er?"

Aralyn giggles and waves her stubby paw at her brother, sending a grain of sand or two at his trousers. "No' if 'e deedn' -know-," she says, letting him in on this great secret, as her paws slowly put together a tiny sand-mountain, doubtlessly complete with sand-hares. "...Mebbe. Wot if 'e don' know?" She bites her lip again, this thought apparently quite alarming.

"Trust me, 'Lynnie. Da knows." He glances down at his trousers and where the bits of sand have begun to collect at the cuffs. Frowning ever so slightly, he crouches down and carefully brushes it away. While concentrating on this, he shakes his head. "'Tis best t' just wait. If'n I left now, mum'd probably show up here the very next day 'n' I'd still be out searchin' for 'er. Then ya'd be missin' me, next."

Aralyn picks the spade up quite unsteadily with both paws, using it to dig shallowly into a new patch of sand. "'E allus drinks mo' when mum's gone," she notes, losing hold on her spade and having it thunk to the ground. "Bugga." XD After this quiet mumble, she covers her mouth with her paw, shifty-looks, and then giggles. "I'd miss ya, Tee. Miss Tee. Miss Tee..." She claps her paw over the sand-mountain, squishing it. "'ow long till y'ge' t'be a... biiiig patrolla?"

Not around as much when she's gone, either. Which could be one and the same thing, but Taye has a feeling that it might not be. Brow-wrinkle. He finishes brushing off his pants and glances to the spade. "Want me t' do that?" He doesn't say anything about the "interesting" vocabulary, of course, but at the question, he hmms. "Bout anothah season, I guess. There's a lot t' learn, 'Lynnie." He says this confidently, even though he doesn't really... know what else they expect him to learn. Since he hasn't so much learned it, yet. Hee.

Aralyn twitches her whiskers as she ponders the fallen-spade, looking to Taye. Brother help? Well, we can't very well refuse that. Her nose crinkles up as she smiles from ear to ear, leaning forward with an 'umph' to lay paws on the spade, offering it up to her older brother. "Digga 'ole?" Hopeful beam. "Da says we shoodn', 'cause some beas'll break 'is leg, but 'oles'rr fun.." She lowers it a bit whilst in internal conflict, but something eventually wins over and her face brightens once more, holding up the spade as best she can.

Accepting the spade with a small grin in return, Taye gives a gentle shrug whilst placing spade to sand. "We'll jus' fill it back in when we're done, righ'? No harm done." He places his foot on the spade and in it pushes. Shoveling the sand aside, he then looks to Aralyn for further instructions. "How big d'ya want the hole?" Apparently the sand on his uniform /now/ doesn't bother him so much.

Aralyn settles back on her tail when Taye sets to digging, watching curiously. She oohs appreciatively when Taye moves more sand than she had in all those minutes of paw-digging, clapping her paws together. She ponders his question, looking down at the hole, and suddenly squeaks out a laugh. "Loo's li' th'crater!" Her paw drops and she fishes for a moment, producing a grubby little wooden hare from her pocket. She sticks it on the ledge of the hole. "S'you! On sen'ry duty." Beam.

Taye looks from his little sister to the sentry, and then back again. And laughs. He then proceeds to scruff her headfur and to, well, be brotherly. "Goof." He then drops down into a crouch beside the "crater" and fiiinally gives in with a grin. "Whatcha think you'll wanna do when yer old 'nough t' join up, 'Lynnie? Healin' like da?"

Aralyn walks the little hare-figure around the edge of the crater, turning it toward Taye as he crouches, touching a finger to its forehead in a salute. "Goof, sah." This brings about a fit of giggles, causing the hare to tumble down into the crater as he ruffles her headfur. She smiles, and sets her small face in thought. "Don' know," she starts. "I li' th' 'firmy. Lotsa stuff t'play with." She tilts her head up at Taye. "Y'didn' be a heala li' da," she notes.

Admitting the real reason for that to his little sister just isn't going to happen, so he shrugs. "Well, on account o' m'size, I'm righ' speedy as a runnah, 'n' I c'n hide real well." Grin. "I'd say 'm prob'ly the fastest runnah in the whole class." Well, hey, if he can't be confident around his little sis, who can he be confident around? :D

Aralyn reaches waaay down into the hole to collect the wooden patroller, holding it in her fist. She leans down and kisses it on its nose, making it all better. "O', hide'n seek.." The little doe ponders, while giving the figure a pat on the head before she sticks it back in her pocket. "'M fas' too!" She thumps the ground with one of her big footpaws, before hauling up to her feet, giving a hop to clear the hole. "Allus beetcha t'supper." She waggles her ears, impudently. :D

"Only 'cause ya'd soonah die'n miss a meal." Having been crouched for too long, he drops back onto his rear, trousers be damned. He then scoots back the couple feet to the stone wall beside them. Lean. "I've got t'be watchin' what I eat, now. Ya have t' learn how t' ration 'n' stuff..." Pause. "Seems like adults're real concerned about runnin' outta food all th'time." His brow wrinkles slightly, and he mutters mostly to himself. "Bit weird, really... ain't like the mountains short on food or nothin'." Shrug.

Aralyn snickers. An evil 'heh heh' while she pats her belly with both paws. "'m a growin' doe, thas' what e'eryone says, they d'." She trots around the small area of the niche, thumping her footpaws dramatically against the sand as she walks. "They betta be worryin', they'm all gurt feedbags!" The doe nods, solemnly, stopping her trotting as she completes the circuit and reaches her brother. "I's work'd in th'garden afore, too." She reaches up and pulls down her ears as if they were the edges of a large sunhat, still nod-nodding.

Taye flicks a bit of sand at her footpaws, and shrugs. "Adults're weird, I guess. Eatin' everythin' in sight in the mountain, 'n' nibblin' on biscuits 'n' stuff when they're on patrol. Don't righ'ly make sense. Ya'd think they'd just... even it out or somethin'." He glances out towards the sea again, his ears swiveling to listen for any sounds from that direction - there aren't any.

Aralyn tugs thoughtfully on her ears, placing the tips together underneath her chin. "Weeeeellll... they gotta fill t'ose guts with somethin'." She puffs out her cheeks, imitating some burly hare. Splutter. "Y'shoul' eat mo' if y'are runnin'." The little doe becomes matronly, chiding her brother. "Else y'will b'come skin'n bones!" Frownity.

"I heard some o' the othah runnahs talkin' about how they'd lose ten pounds easy on a longah patrol." Squint. He says this thoughtfully, and then glances down at Aralyn. "But I promise I won't go wastin' away. Da showed me which roots're a'right t' eat, 'n' which aren't." Nod. He then pats the sand beside him. "Take a rest, eh? Aftah all that hard work'n all." Heh.

Aralyn gasps, reaching up to touch Taye's middle, splaying out her fingers. "Thas'.. lotsa pounds. If y'los' all that, t'ere'd be nothin' left!" She taps her footpaw, giving him a -very- disapproving look. But, her tone turns a bit grudging. "Weell... ookayy. But if y'go out, y'betta let me fix ya pack with some ex'ra food." She withdraws her paw, and smiles a bit. "Mebbe I'll even give y'some o' my candy." Big grin. The doe moves and sits obediently, tucking her overlarge feet up to her form. "Weren' hard, really. Class' hard-er.." The doe opens her mouth wiiiiide with a tiny squeak of a yawn.

Taye looks down at Aralyn at the yawn. Perhaps a n-a-p will be in order, soon. "Ah, is tha' right? Whatcha learnin', righ' now?" He gives her shoulder a playful bump with his own, and assumes a similar sitting position to Aralyn's.

It might be rapidly approaching Aralyn's nap time. Especially with this little excursion to the niche. "Yeh," she squeaks quietly, in reply.. very da-like. Hee. ;p She reaches out with a short claw to draw a '1' in the sand in front of her, then a '2'. "Numbahs. S'preddy fun." Hehe. The doe smiles, and then makes some squiggy lines through those numbers. "Also readin' some. Mummy likes readin'.. reads t'me lots."

Taye slips an arm around Aralyn's shoulders as the sleepiness seems to be taking hold. Hug. "Ya want that I should read t'ya 'til mummy gets back?"

Aralyn yawns again and places her arms around Taye's middle, snuggling on in to her brother. "Wouldja?" she asks, hopefully, smiling. "I'd li' it." She rests her head against his side, rubbing her cheek against him. "I miss mummy.."

Taye gives a small nod. "I could read t'ya some right now if'n ya want t' head up to da's room." And take a nap afterwards, but no need to say that out loud. Hug.

Aralyn squeezes her smallish arms, and then leaves off a bit to look up to Taye. She chews her lip, but heck, that sounds pretty good. "Okie." Tinygrin. "Read me a story?" Heehee. She's starting to climb slowly to her feet.

"Want a piggy-back?" 'Cause otherwise she's going to fall asleep on her feet. He crouches down and offers a paw over the back of his shoulder for her to grab on to. He glances back at her. "What kinda story?"

Ooh! Aralyn brightens muchly at the offer, and scrambles eagerly up to climb gingerly upon Taye's back, taking his paw in the process. "Ummmm... th' one 'bout th'princess." She smiles and places her chin on Taye's shoulder.

Standing up carefully while keeping a firm hold on Aralyn, Taye 'hmms' thoughtfully. "Th'princess one, eh? A'right, sounds good... What about aftah that?" He notices the spade and crouches down again to pick it up, and then kicks the sand back into the hole they've made before turning to walk back up the corridor into the mountain.

Aralyn places her paws around his neck, her big footpaws locked around his middle. She places her short muzzle against his neck, looking into the mountain with her wide eyes. "Mebbe... th' one with th'otters." She must know these stories very well. XD But doubtlessly she'll be asleep halfway through the first. So, she clings, letting Taye walk them on in.