{will you be my firework?} open

[Punktestern]

Stern


Stern smiled indulgently as Reno, no, Red checked his coat color. She smiled, “Yes, your fur is red.” The other female interrupted her, “It’s a nice color, Ren—Red.” Stern wrinkled her brow. Was this lady trying to hit on Reno? Something wasn’t trustworthy about him. But then again, what did she know? All dogs wore mask, she herself was no exception. So why deny Ilmatar, this little delight?

She stretched as Red pranced around her, letting her jaws split apart in a yawn. Her sharp teeth flashed in the dappled light, but Stern soon closed her mouth again, feeling somewhat more relaxed. She smiled at Red’s next comment, “No, Socks doesn’t fit you. Red symbolizes a lot, though. If you prefer, we can call you Green.” She thought about his observation of the human. Red didn’t seem to be the smartest dog either, but maybe it was a mask. Everyone had at least one these days, it seemed. It was rare that one came across a dog that still dared disclose their real feelings, about anything.

At Ilamtar’s nickname, she had to laugh, “Birdy? I must say it fits.” As a little girl came towards them, she felt her hair rising up. She stood and turned, looking around for a way of escape. She saw Birdy getting ready to bolt and nodded, “I have no problems with that, my pack should be fine without me. Red?”As the girl toddled away again, she slowly let her fur relax again.

Ilmatar

Ilmatar giggled at her nickname, “I guess that works for me.” She thought about herself, comparing herself to a bird. She shrugged, “I like it, actually.” She hoped that meant that they would keep meeting. Especially her and Reno. Maybe he would be the friend she had never had? And Stern didn’t seem that bad either, for a pack dog. She wanted to know more about this group, actually. “If you don’t mind, I have some questions. Don’t answer them if you don’t want to.” She didn’t want her group to feel uncomfortable.

Just then, a little girl came up to them. Ilmatar rose swiftly to her feet, “I can’t stay. What do you guys think? Could we meet again later, maybe tomorrow, here?” She looked wildly at the little girl, hoping they would say yes. As Fluffy assented, she smiled briefly and ran away, soon just a speck at the other edge of the park.

[Sasha]

BABY blues opened as the mostly red husky watched his companions bolt like mice fleeing a wildfire. Even amongst adult humans he wasn't that afraid. He'd get tense and growl if they got too close but other than that, he just kept his distance. To fear a mere human pup seemed silly since they probably not only weighed more than the scrap of skin and bone but they also were much much stronger. Oh well, it made things easier in the end for Reno. For a while, he simply laid in the grass before sucking in a big breath and huffing it out. With that, the husky rolled onto his belly and pushed himself to stand. Giving his pelt a thorough shaking, getting rid of bits of grass and the like. Reclining on his haunches again, tail thumping lightly on the grass, Reno glanced around. Stern was still there but Ily was nowhere to be found. Scoping out the park again, curious as to the she-dog's sudden disappearance, his keen gaze spotted her far off on the other end of the park. It was a wonder she could survive in a city if she fled from humans at such a light touch. Fitting on his mask again, the red brute sprang lightly to his paws, winked at Stern and turned to gallop after the black and white femme.

FOR a purebred made from complete accident, Reno was a fair enough showing of his breed. His body was atheltic in build with a dense double coat that kept him dry in all weather. His legs were strong, ears keen, eyes sharp. If someone had him run for miles through mounds and mounds of snow, he could do it with ease and actually enjoyed it quite a lot. Running through the park, weaving between humans, trees, benches and whatnot, the warm springtime sunlight made his red coat glint and flash in quite a showy manner. His strides were smooth and certain. Put a harness on him and stick him with five other dogs and he would still shine like an overbright star in the nighttime. Of course, he was prone to his moments of vanity so the flashiness of his looks suited him. After all, his mother always told him there was no such thing as an ugly husky. Other dogs could be prone to ugly but not huskies. Then again, he'd never believed anything she told him. After all, she'd said she'd always look out for them and then two weeks later she was gone.

SKIDDING to a stop in front of Birdy, Reno wagged his tail in greeting and aimed to bump his muzzle lightly against hers. He hoped she wouldn't mind. Sitting back on his haunches again, the male angled his head to one side, swerved his ears toward Ily and looked at her expectantly.

"THOUGHT you said you had questions? I'm pretty sure how fast Stern or I could run wasn't one but hey, I'm certain you're faster than both of us," Reno barked, his voice easy and calm.

[Punktestern]

Stern

Stern shook her head as Ily ran off. She kept her eyes on her new friend. If that was what Birdy was. Stern hoped so. She needed friends that she could trust. She knew she had her pack, but somehow she wanted other friends, ones that didn’t need to scrape in front of her for her mercy. She did like being alphess of the Shadow Pack, but somehow all of the dogs were so… usual. They asked her for favors, and never thought for themselves. Since Stern had to lead the pack by herself for now, she found herself annoyed so often. That’s why she had been here. One of her pack had annoyed her with their pointless questions. At least something good had come out of it. As Reno rose to follow Birdy, she thought she caught the hint of a wink before he turned away.

Ily

Ily slid to a stop to avoid crashing into Reno. Instead of stopping neatly like she had hope, she went sprawling. Just her luck, she splashed into a mud puddle. With a sigh, she stood up again and padded back to Reno. She gave her chest fur a few embarrassed licks. As he made to bump his muzzle against her own and then shrugged, “No, it originally wasn’t, but you’ve proved that you could, if you wanted to.” She shook some of the larger pieces of mud from her coat, then looked up towards Stern, “I’m sorry. I don’t like humans, not even small ones.” She shuddered, “Ah well. Should we head back to Ste- Fluffy?” She didn’t know whether or not it was right, but it didn’t seem polite to just leave the German Shepherd looking dog to sit by herself. She looked around, making sure that no humans were close to her. She just didn’t like them. Not that she hated them, either, but she had no particular love for them. It was a ‘stay away from me, leave me be’ relationship, at least as far as she was concerned. And if a human did try to approach her, well, she could either run or growl and show her teeth, couldn’t she?

[Sasha]

GIVING his red pelt a shake, Reno grinned as Ily tripped and nearly tumbled. Licking his chops just because he had nothing else to do, the husky glanced back toward where they'd left Stern when Ily mentioned her. Should they go back? To be polite, the answer was yes, but honestly, Reno was getting bored. The company was good but, hey, he was a roamer. It wasn't in his nature to hang around too long and he'd already wasted most of his afternoon with these two lovely ladies. Ily was cute and Stern was funny in her own way but his mind was three steps ahead of them and neither seemed inclined to good old fashioned play time. He needed to move around and keep his mind going, not lounge around gossiping with these two like a retriever going gray around his muzzle. Plus, he wasn't a female, so gossip didn't really cut it for him anyway. It was informative sometimes but Stern was like talking to a brick wall and...well...Ily seemed shy and all over herself. If she got it together and relaxed a bit she might not be so bad but if she bolted every time a human came around, conversation was going to be extremely patchy.

"ACTUALLY Birdy I hate to cut it short but I've gotta get going," Reno barked with an apologetic smile, ducking his head sheepishly. "It's gettin' late and, well, I still have to track down my next meal."

NO need to make the lady feel bad by just saying he was bored, he was more of a gentleman than that. Also, it was a half truth. He didn't know where his next meal was going to come from and he'd better figure it out because he could feel the monster that was his bottomless pit of a stomach beginning to come to life. After all, it was a believable excuse. Most strays were at least somewhat hungry all the time.

OFFERING a cheery grin to the black and white she-dog, Reno wagged his curled tail. "Sorry but you know how it is on the streets, it now or eat never. By the time it gets dark there won't be a scrap at any of my normal stomping grounds. I'll come back here in a few days if I can and maybe see you then?"

WHEELING away the white-socked brute bounded back toward Stern, passing the black and brown femme and flashing her a grin and nodding as he passed. Claws clicking as he leaped onto the sidewalk, Reno wove through a few strolling humans and dodged a hound chasing a tennis ball and headed out of the park. He felt kind of bad just up and leaving like that, but he genuinely had things to do before the sun went down. One of them was finding food but the other, well, Stern and Ily probably wouldn't like him so much if they knew he traded information. He'd tell anyone with the highest bid anything they wanted to know about anyone and anything. It was how he kept himself alive, bargining the downfall of one for the safety of another. No doubt there'd be someone ready to know who was the "Shadow Queen" these days. It paid to be Reno's friend because he could protect anyone but it hurt to be his enemy because he would sell any enemy out for nothing. Luckily, Stern had struck a good cord for now so, he'd fudge the truth a bit if he did end up having to do a bit of trading, but if she ever turned a bad cord with him, there'd be more than one dog out for her hide just because she led a pack of lab dogs.

[Punktestern]

Ilmatar

Ily’s face fell when Reno said he had to go, but his reason was a good one. She had been enjoying his company, although she was reluctant to admit it to anyone. She smiled, tremulously, “Well, all right. I can understand that. Good… hunting, I guess?” She watched him run, feeling confused. She padded after him, coming to a stop by the tree, next to Stern. She sat down next to the tan and black female and tried to conceal her disappointment.
Reno had said he was coming back, hadn’t he? She hoped that he would, something about him made her smile. She hoped he wouldn’t be like the others that she had met, but something warned her to keep her distance. It could just be her mind, remembering how she had been hurt too often, that part of her that kept her from approaching many dogs. She couldn’t even understand why she had come up to these two anyway; maybe she was just too lonely? Or maybe Reno was something she should stay away from, a dog that her heart told her to stay away from because there was something off about him.
Her ears flicked as Stern started talking, seemingly thinking aloud, “There is something off about Reno, too many secrets. He seems too keep his mind in check, doesn’t he?” With this question, Ily realized that the femme was actually talking to her. She shrugged, “I don’t know.”

Stern

Stern watched Reno turn away from Ily and start loping in her direction. A smile and a nod, and the red husky was gone. Stern followed him with her eyes, seeing him weave skillfully in and out of the humans. With her other sense, she followed him even further, listening to his thoughts. She caught something about ‘Shadow Queen’ and her being okay, something about changing the truth a little, and realized why the dog had seemed to be so untrustworthy. She noticed that Ily was beside her then, and decided to ask the other dog about it. As the russet sibe shrugged, Stern realized that she had revealed too much, yet again. She vowed to keep herself in check around Reno, now, and debated whether to tell Ily about the husky’s last thoughts. She had already given away her secret, what did she have to lose? So she turned to look at the sibe, “Birdy, Ily, I need to talk to you, somewhere no one can overhear us. Will you come with me?” As the dog nodded, Stern rose and led her towards the general store, the one that she called home nowadays…

(I'm guessing this one is done now?)