up up and away

There were a lot of puppies here. Mom and dad were thrilled to meet their newest grandchildren (Vanta's nieces and nephews, which should have sounded weird except her other nieces and nephews were a year her senior.) and Vanta enjoyed the moments of peace she could find when she slid away from their attentive eyes. In fact she was enjoying the lack of supervision so much that when her mother took her for a walk through the gardens, she was able to scamper off and escape beneath the woman's watchful gaze. She made it as far as the adjoining God's Garden, the place that supposedly a statue had cropped up. Vanta had seen the other statue in the north and was very curious how different this one might be from the last, determined to find it and look upon it.

Without an adult to guide her, finding the central statue was harder than she thought. Her guide-snake did not know which way to go, and seeing as the sun was already beginning to rise, soon she'd lose the ability to look for herself. Onward the pup travelled, admiring the trees and their autumn leaves until, suddenly, her paws had left the ground. The earth flew further and further way the higher she rose, the air growing colder. Oh, look, there was the statue - waaaaay over there.

The puppy began to write, tiny snarls and growls peeling from her tiny toothed maw as she began to fight for her freedom. The bird held her tight but she still had tooth and claw! She ravaged the talons as best as she could, nibbling at toes and scratching at the scale-like keratin, but to no avail.