[PRP] And Overhead, a Cloudless Sky [ Rouge/Cloudless Rain ]

[Jun D]

At first, it was a distant sound: the sound of many paws, nimbly pushing off the mud and grass - then there they were, pouring over the miry flat, in unison, like a tide. A tide of hounds. Or to be precise, dogs. Sand dogs. A tide of sand dogs. Followed by a wolf. And something that could conceivably be a hound. Except it was strangely see-through. The entire effect might have been rather majestic...if it weren't so incongruous. And mostly tiny. And at the front of them all sallied the pinkest: pink and searing yellow, eyes burning bright.

The hounds of Rouge were slipt.

Atmadja

I HOPE CLOUDLESS RAIN LIKES DOGS QAQ

 

[Atmadja]

Cloudless Rain looked down at her flox, Halting Thunder, as they walked slowly through the grass. The doe's eyes blinked slowly as she focused on the two tails wagging against blades, and she smiled her languid smile.

Her eyes were ahead of her, but her mind was elsewhere.

She was a romantic with wanderlust, enjoying every scent and sound to the hilt before moving on and on and on, and oh -- oh, lately she had found something else to enjoy. Someone else. A lovely stoic thing, the color of dust-clouds and sky-clouds, who solemnly placed a flower behind her ear as she laughed.

Lovely thing, he was. Lovely was the only word.

Cloudless was startled from her reverie too late by the sound of paws. There were many -- too many for her to make a quick retreat with Halting. Halting! Where was the stupid flox?!

"Halting!" cried Cloudless, looking around herself in a quick circle, her delicate hooves making faint trails in the mud. "Halting, come now!"

The flox poked its stupid head out of the grass and Cloudless felt her face get hot. "On my back! Quickly!"

The hounds! They were too close now, too close!

Jun D

 

[Jun D]

Hunting hounds to a dog, they were, red in tooth and claw. Many a small fluffy animal had they gutted (and big, unfluffy ones, too) - a sweet, heedless flox would be a trifle, a mere snack. And here they came racing, flashing fangs, glowing eyes -

Well, just one set of glowing eyes, that now snapped around with the rest of the body, skidding to a sticky stop in the mud, barking commands. At once, they all stopped.

Pulling its tiny pink paws free, the lead sand dog wiped the wet mud off on the grass, skipping over to the flox and doe.

"Arf arf, bark, arf arf! Oh damn, gimme a second -"

A shimmy and a shake and -

"Sorry about that," the newly reconstituted mare said, "I get mixed up when I'm a dog, the throat feels all different, you know? But never mind that! We're so very sorry for startling you!"

Atmadja

YAAAAARRRRRR!!!! YES all your missives came through! ;A; I'm sorry I'm so late, I spent the last couple of days rushing Maxx's birthday present. *cries* Rrrggghh Cloudless Rain is so lovely! Q_Q

 

[Atmadja]

Cloudless Rain gasped as she was approached -- and then again, more breathless, as the dog turned itself into a mare. Her eyes were wide, and even the flox that had made its way to her back was staring.

"I---" Cloudless gulped, trying to find her words. She noticed the tension in her legs and slowly relaxed them, although her eyes remained round. "I'm sorry -- no, I mean, that's quite alright, really. Forgive me, you are -- quite striking."

Jun D

No worries at all! > U< I just hate the quote system sometimes.

 

[Jun D]

Rouge puffed up, for there were few things she liked better than compliments (at least, so she perceived) from a beautiful doe. Such a pity she was pregnant, and Rouge had a policy of not flirting (overly much) when the Kin in question had little ones on the way.

"Why, thank you, my dear," she sweetly declared - then, because she could not help herself, added, "though no more than what you would see staring back at yourself from a clear pool any day.

"But where are my manners? We are on a hunt," a toss of her head at the hounds behind her, obediently waiting (even if Sweetheart was craning an inquisitive eye at the flox - perhaps she just wanted to play...), "or more accurately, on our way to one, and it is hard to break step when we run as a pack - you think as one too, you see. But that is no excuse for barrelling topsy-turvy into an expecting mother - do let me give you a blessing to make up for it!"

Atmadja

Aaw! Yeah, I always worry, too. ;_;

 

[Atmadja]

Regardless of her current romantic entanglement, Rain had the good grace to blush at the compliment, her eyes flashing downward demurely. "Oh," she murmured, "No, you are too kind."

And then her eyes snapped back towars Rogue quickly, her words a gasp. "You can -- tell?" It was her first and silly comment, she shook her head quickly at it; silly vanity, wasn't it? Her curls bounced with her movement, and she colored again. "You are -- you are truly too kind to offer," she said. "I-- I don't have the humility to refuse you, but I have all the gratitude in the world for you."

Jun D

 

[Jun D]

"It's true, all the good ones are taken," she muttered, most unprofessionally, under her breath, before rearing up and throwing herself into a trotting dance around the doe, "my dear, you deserve the best the Motherfather has to offer:

"Beauty begets beauty, but sweetest yet must be the beauty in your foals that grows from beauty inside thee. Swampmother, bless your daughter thus, your child so sweet and true, that her foals, inside and out, be just as beautiful."

She capped it off with a twirling flourish, and took a deep bow.

Atmadja

We can probably close it off pretty soon!

 

[Atmadja]

Rain could not help but let out a laugh when she heard Rouge's words, the titter both flattered and a touch shy. Rain, so often alone in her thoughts or in her wanderlust, was unused to boisterousness and to compliments, but she found she enjoyed them both, and was glad of Rouge's presence beyond that of her blessing.

That, she watched with amazement and rapt attention, her breath half-caught as she viewed that of which she had only ever heard tale. Her skin felt warm and she thought, or imagined, or felt a blooming in her belly, as though her foals could feel the blessing immediately. Her heart swelled with gratitude.

"Amazing," she gasped quietly. Halting Thunder peered from around her hooves, eyes wide. Rain dipped her head in thanks. "Would that I had a thousand voices to cheer you. Thank you, truly and endlessly, for your attention."

Jun D

 

[Jun D]

Rouge sighed the sigh of the increasingly smitten and bowed again, "Your one voice is more than enough, sweet one. It was my pleasure. May we meet again!"

And before she could lose herself and hit on someone's pregnant mate, she'd spun back into a little pink dog, barking orders at her pack. As one, the hounds and wolf rose to their paws, surging forward against the mud and mire.

And then, like a vision, they were gone, only the tracks of myraid paw-prints evidence of their passage.

Atmadja

Wah!