Faster yet
Where should he go? North? West? No no, east. Wait, he came from the east already. Glancing behind him- yup- he saw footprints. Definitely came from the east. Okay, then, maybe he should go...
"WEST!"
He decided finally on a direction and- surprise- it was already the direction he was headed. Good! Stretching his back legs a few times to ready himself, and with a small little butt wiggle, he kicked off, ready to place some more footprints in this never-ending flat space of snow.
in your wildest dreams
Alarik jumped into the snow, shivering a bit and letting his tongue tumble from the side of his mouth as he ran along, letting the coldness wake him up. He just loped along for a while, relishing the feeling of winter while he still could. But then he saw a stranger sprinting through the sparkling white fluff, sending a spray in his wake. Alarik laughed and ran after the other male, barking to get his attention. "Hey!" he yelled. "Where are you going in such a rush?"
As he slowed, he flailed out and stood, now able to fully face the other male.
Oh- those were markings, not blood.
A lopsided smile curled onto the man's face, wrinkling his freckles. "Well, I was trying to leave the world's longest trail of paw prints in the last Enterprise stretch of snow I could find but- uh-" Ashmedai looked at the trail of messy snow before him, "- I kinda fucked that up, huh?"
Ashmedai shook himself off, "I saw you and thought all of that-" he motioned to the red in Alark's fur, "- and thought, 'Oh shit this dude needs help,' but you didn't so now we're here. It's actually kind of pretty now that I see it."
Ash flicked his ear, "Got a name, blood bath?"
in your wildest dreams
The male explained that he'd been trying to leave the longest trail of paw prints and Alarik shrugged a bit when he said he'd messed it up. "Nah, you could always..." he loped over to where the skidding mess had started, "Pick up where you left off here and keep going!" Alarik laughed again. Maybe not. But the whole longest trail of paw prints thing sounded like a fun idea.
The comment about his markings made sense. After all, they were sort of like the color of dried blood. But then the male said they were pretty and Alarik smiled, oddly touched. "Well, thanks!" he said. "I'm Alarik Xanilov. It's nice to meet you."
Ashmedai looked back to where his paw prints began. He traced them back with his eyes until they disappeared on the horizon. His eyes dashed back to Alarik, an eyebrow quirking, "Yeah, I totally already broke it."
Ashmedai shook some of the loose snow from his fur after the male introduced himself.
"So, Alarik, what brings you to this snowy expanse? I'm guessing you weren't trying to break any records."
in your wildest dreams
He couldn't deny that it was an impressively long trail of paw prints. He stared off at the horizon as well,
and then looked back at the male when he asked what had brought him here.
"Well, originally, I was just exploring the area." He shrugged a bit. He hadn't really had any purpose, he just wanted to keep looking around. "But in most places, the snow is halfway melted by now. So I was just excited to see a place with so much snow still lying around."
Alarik smirked a bit. "When I saw all this snow, I just wanted to play around in it. Seems like you had a similar idea," he said, laughing. "So stranger, what might I call you?"
"Most people would be more concerned with getting warm with all this late snow laying around. Guess we're the odd ones out." Ashmedai thought he might eventually like to warm up. His paws were a little cold. He knew a way to warm up, but he decided not to suggest it to the other male.
Alarik asked what he could call Ash and Ash perked his ears in response, "My name? Oh! I forgot to give you my name! It's Ashmedai!"
The large man stood, "So now that we're acquainted... Wanna race?"
in your wildest dreams
It seemed the other male had totally forgotten to introduce himself, which made Alarik laugh. "Good to know, Ashmedai," he said with a pleasant wag of his tail. And that wagging only intensified when he offered for the two of them to race.
"Uh, yeah!" Alarik replied, like it should be obvious. Of course he wanted to race! He turned to face the same direction as Ashmedai, standing beside him and crouching low to coil up the muscles in his legs. "Ready... set..."
The male said his coat was thick all year round- a feeling Ashmedai could relate to.
"Bein' dark doesn't really help, does it?"
The male- Alarik- seemed completely down to race, something Ashmedai wasn't quite used to. Normally he was brushed off for his childlike antics, but apparently not today. The large brute's smile widened and he readied himself, crouching like a cat.
"Ready... Set..."
"GO!"
Ashmedai barked and kicked off into the snow. It was go time.
in your wildest dreams
Presently, the two males were lining up to race once another. Alarik began the countdown, and Ashmedai finished it. He barked go and the two of them were off like bullets from a gun. Both were strong, but Alarik was considerably more agile. After all, Ash was a good six inches taller than him, and more bulky too. Alarik lowered his head, as if that would make him more streamlined, and pushed his legs as fast as they could go to carry him through the snow. He almost wanted to laugh, because this was just so fun. But he concentrated on winning the race, and soon he felt himself pulling ahead of the other male. After all, smaller usually meant faster. And boy, was it strange to be the small one for once!
"You know," Ash yelled between breaths, "We never set an end mark."
He was able to run longer than he was able to run fast. His mouth quirked into a smile, "Is this a stamina race?"
Ashmedai scanned the horizon. Nope, nothing. His eyes dashed to his side. Was he ahead or behind now?
in your wildest dreams
Ashmedai was smiling when he asked if this would turn out to be a stamina race, and Alarik laughed a bit breathlessly. "Yeah, right," he said. "You mean so you can win?"
Alarik joked at him, saying that he just wanted a stamina race so he could win. Ashmedai laughed, taking a moment to steady his breathing again before attempting to speak.
"And you just want a short-distance race so you can win!"
Ashmedai was silent for a bit, focusing on his running pattern and breathing pattern.
"So," Ashmedai began, "What do we do now? I'm not gonna give up, you know."
in your wildest dreams
He didn't want to admit it, but he was getting a little bit tired. Alarik was used to running some long distances while hunting. He was fairly conditioned for it, but it seemed that this man was even more conditioned for it. It was quiet for a while as the two of them concentrated on maintaining speed and not letting fatigue get the best of them. But then Ashmedai said he wasn't going to give up, and Alarik looked at the man out of the corner of his eye. He had gained a bit of ground on Alarik already. No doubt he was going to win. But that's when the smaller brute got an idea.
"Well," he began. "It just so happens that I... came up with a brilliant way to... end this race," he managed to say between breaths. Man, this was tiring. Time to end it.
He jumped sideways, the way he would if he'd been running alongside prey for sometime and wanted to trip them up. He'd have to see if it would work. If it did, his momentum would likely bring him down along with Ashmedai. But hey, it would end the race, wouldn't it?
Alarik said he might know a way to end the race and Ashmedai shot him a glance just in time to see the smaller wolf ebbing over into his space. Oh so they were gonna play like that? Ashmedai threw his weight toward Alarik, "Best wipeout wins!"
in your wildest dreams
So, whether he was successful in knocking Ashmedai over or not, it didn't really matter. Because the dip made his steps falter and he fell head over tail through the snow, rolling and rolling until he thought he was going to become an actual snowball.
There were limbs and snow everywhere as Ashmedai tumbled on the ground, his laughter resonating in the cold air. Luckily, the snow was still soft enough to not hurt. When he was eventually done rolling, the brute sat up sloppily, giving lopsided smile.
"You alright back there?" he called.
in your wildest dreams
"Yeah!" he called out, laughing brightly again. He was definitely alright. "That was fun!"
And as if to prove that he did indeed think it was fun, Alarik burrowed his face into some fresh, untouched snow nearby and rolled onto his back. His legs flailed gracelessly as he rolled himself around in the snow again, and then he stood up. His fur looked mostly white by now. "Watch this," he said to Ashmedai, and then all at once he shook himself, head and body and tail, and the snow flew off of him in a cloud of white. He laughed again.
He hadn't had this much fun in so long!
As if to reiterate his point, Alarik buried himself in the snow then shook it all out, a cloud of white billowing out from him. Ashmedai squinted through the snow. He wanted to try too. He was bigger, so his cloud of snow would be bigger right?
Ashmedai did his best to jump in a plot of fresh snow and wiggle himself down into it before rolling over and wiggling himself down again. He popped out and gingerly walked right towards Alarik before shaking suddenly. It was an obvious move, but he hoped to coat Alarik in snow too.
"New game! Best snow cloud wins!"
in your wildest dreams
But then the other male wanted to make another game out of it. Best snow cloud wins. Which of course meant biggest snow cloud wins.
"Does everything have to be a competition with you?" the Xanilov boy asked with a carefree laugh. He didn't mind. Competitions made things more fun sometimes. Like in this situation.
He barreled into a fresh pile of snow, putting the front half of his body down while his rump remained in the air and he pushed himself forward, letting the snow pile up around his chest, and then he rolled around to get plenty of it on his back and head. He was going to break the record for biggest freakin' snow cloud.