Forever & Ever More
[ Pups of Valhalla or Laoise's relatives ]
The girl was disturbed from her thoughts when she felt something crawl over one of her paws. Glancing down quickly, she noticed it was a small lizard. The girl leaned down to sniff at the creature, her nose almost touching it. The sudden gust of air had startled the lizard, and it ran across the girl's sizeable paws and booked it into the rather short grass.
"Hey, wait!" she yipped out, scrambling on the wet ground to chase after the small thing. It wasn't long before the girl managed to trip herself up on her large paws, landing face-first into the soft grass. Laoise watched as the lizard continued its frantic escape from her, letting a huff out from frustration. The girl made no effort to right herself, simply peering down at the dew that graced the grass, as well as the small flowers.
"Man, I'll never be a good anything since I can't run," she grumbled out forlornly to herself. The thought caused Laoise to clamp her eyes shut and scowl at the world.
No, knowing his sister she wasn’t in trouble as much as refusing to keep still. Coran hopped out of the den looking for signs of where his sister went up to and spotted her after a few moments in some short grass. Why was she lying down out here? Coran bounded over to her looking down, “Uh Laoise? Whatcha doin? You ok?” Funny how she liked to make up rules but here she was also the one sneaking off before anyone else was awake.
"Hey, I gotta learn how to protect you all and be the strongest warrior ever somehow, and first that starts with waking up first," she replied confidently. She sprung up from her seated position, tail wagging as she booped her brother's muzzle in affectionate greeting. She was always happy to spend time with her siblings, and Coran always seemed to act like he knew a little more than her. She didn't mind though, since he could be the brain and she could be the brawn. Her mind often moved at a mile a minute, and so the girl was quick to whip her head around to peer around the surroundings, keeping to her word of keeping her family safe. Even if she wasn't nearly as ready for fighting and protecting her family on the frontlines as she thought, a girl could dream.
"So all we gotta do is practice real hard." This last part was said as he hopped up on his back legs to end by whacking Laoise on her muzzle. Coran's tail wagged as he offered this obvious and positive advice to his sister. "Wanna beat me though you gotta work extra hard. Cause I'm planning to be the best," he needed to be the best to get a higher up rank and protect his brother. Coran's tail was swaying back and forth as he imagined it. Technically Ardyn should be even better but this was just between him and Laoise for the moment.
"Okay okay, compromise, what if WE become the best-maybe not Aoife 'cause she small-but anyways what if we all became the best guards so we can protect mom and dad and Ardyn? We'd be better together," she replied, lowering her front into a bow. Her tail waggled, moving so fast it blurred.
"And please, I'm not that smart so therefore I have to be the strongest! You can pretend all you want, princess," she added snarkily, a happy grin on her maw. The girl then leaned back onto her hindlegs and raised her paws to bat at Coran's ears with a mischievous giggle.
Those important words were said even as he dropped into a bow as well, butt wiggling in anticipation. Then the word 'princess' came from his sister. That did it! He squatted down, her paw swatted ears and in turn Coran pounced his sister, aiming to bite into her ear muttering, "princess huh? Princess this!"
Her tail wagged once before her brother was upon her. The weight of the duo sent them somersaulting backward and Laoise giggled with glee, trying to hide the sound with a fake growl. She landed on her back with an oof and was quick to kick her back legs up against her brother, teeth bared in a growl-smile combination.
"No, if Aoife doesn't want to be strong, and wants to be smart, I'll be twice as strong for her!" she replied confidently, sticking her tongue out at her brother. Whatever anyone in her family decided to do, Laoise would always remain a support for them, even if she didn't understand. I mean, why wouldn't you want to be as strong as dad and as cool as mom?
Ardyn
Master Fighter (250)
Master Hunter (240)
Knight
Bloodletter
6 Years
Male
1056
BrienaSkysong
Ardyn Cadeyrn Aodhán Phoenix Adravendi |
“Aoife is strong, Lee.” Ardyn piped simply as he padded down the three steps, landing at the bottom of the last with a faint grunt before he shook out his ink-black coat, kindling a fresh blaze in his fur from nose to tail-tip before he launched into his two younger siblings with a purring growl, reaching to playfully tug on either pup’s ears with his nimble front paw-hands.
He’d woken up about the time Coran left the puppy pile, and he’d listened to the majority of the conversation from just inside the cave mouth.
He squinted at both of them, a mixture of stern and play as he added, “We are all strong. As long as we work together, nobody can stop us, right?”
Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Labhair an Sean-Teanga." ---- "Hear" ---- Think |
Ardyn at first glance is as black as can be imagined with a raven sheen.
Closer inspection proves that he shimmers in fire tones in every hair on his hide right down to his lashes.
More obviously, he glows like a bed of coals and flames with every movement and brush of fur. His tail is usually wagging, so blazes like a torch.
His adult teeth are in and his saber canines have grown to their full length (see profile). His mane and tail hair have grown to full length, as well as being lightweight and easily buffeted by breezes.
A look at his front paws will give the impression of hands, with his dew claw dropped low and lengthened into a functioning thumb, and his toes elongated into fingers. He has retractable, solid black cat-like claws on every paw.
Ardyn has developed a glowing mast of intricate markings in fire and ice colors over his face, symmetrical over the last seasons of Year 17 (see profile for details). During hunts or raids/sieges, he will smudge them out with black soot to cover the glow, otherwise, they are bright enough to note at first direct glance at his face. Not all his artwork currently portrays the mask markings.
He is also often bedecked in beads, small bells, feathers in blues, ribbons and braids thanks to the Ooze Event of Halloween 2021, and the Coathanger item that he got. The accessories generally are seen most in his mane and tail hair. He removes the brighter items and bells for hunts or battle.
When Ardyn tugged on his ear Coran hopped back, lowering his head with that playful growl before responding. “You bet! We are the best! No one’s ever gonna even want to mess with us.” Coran was all in with clear belief and pride in his words.
“Hey, we should all go hunting together at some point. Maybe if we work together we can catch something!” Adults wolves used group hunts to catch large game, so maybe they could catch somewhat smaller game as a group? It seemed a good way to prove how they could all be strong together in his mind.
"I doubt we have to work together to get a small thing, but we could probably bring down a bear if we were all together!!!" she replied enthusiastically, tail wagging softly. Laoise knew couldn't articulate how she felt well, but perhaps she could show her love through actions.