at first it’d begun…curiously. a restless itching beneath his pelt, driving to vicious bouts of crazed scratching. the boy isn’t even entirely sure what had spurred him to do it, but it’s as though insanity has gripped him during these moments, urging him to sink his teeth into his mottled pelt and bite down until the itching stops. unfortunately, his method has yet to be effective, and the subsequent days have proven themselves a particular brand of unpleasant. it’s a shame, truly, for ordinarily Ume would find the changing of the leaves a colourful barrage of intrigue, fuelling his desire to understand the why and who and how of the world around him. but he can’t even enjoy the peculiarities of the season, wrought as he is by this strange malady. still, Ume is nothing if not himself, and as he traverses absently through the territories he finds himself humming a jaunty little tune that both rises to eerie heights and lowers to rumbling tones that a boy his age should not be able to achieve. meandering in a strange zig-zag, he trudges through the undergrowth and pauses occasionally to itch at his fur, yellow eyes sweeping through the shadows with unnerving focus. he’s not entirely sure what’s driven him this far from home, but Ume rarely questions his instincts. rather, he’s content to drift along and let life blow him as it well, tossing him every which way until he gathers some semblance of understanding. and even then, comprehension is a fickle mistress forever dancing in and out of his grasp, fluttering through the air with all the tangibility of air. truthfully, it often feels as though Ume himself does not possess a corporal form, but rather that he is born of wind and sky and all the invisible things that keep the world turning. fairy child, come to alright, if only for a moment, on solid ground.

WC: 319/1500

Before her acceptance to Ethne, during her travels with Requois and Copper

A little white and purple mottled pup wandered through the grasses. She had lost track of Req and Copper, but they were close by. The strands of grass dying in the fall gave them this crispy feeling and sand color. She didn't understand why they were traveling without her mom, or maybe she refused to understand the whole predicament.

Alexandrite pawed at a grassy leaf, sending wet dew over her pelt and shivers down her spine. Then she heard a strange sound a few tail lengths away, hidden behind a wall of dewy grass.
She tried to stand on her white hind legs to see over the points of the grasses but couldn't get more than her ears over them

"Copper?" She called through the weaving strands, hoping her brother wasn't trying to sneak up and pounce on her again. The motion stopped but the curious rasping noise continued for a moment then moved again in a different direction.

"Hey! What're you-" She wove her way through the grass heading toward the sound and instead of her brother she found a strange kid! With white in his fur like hers! He was scratching and seemed uncomfortable.

"Who're you? You okay?" She asked curiously, tilting her head. What was wrong with him?


Speech/Thoughts

WC: 211 words
Total: 530

the boy is startled from his itching by a strange voice, who calls out for him and freezes him in his tracks. turning to the newcomer, Ume is met by a pair of mismatched eyes in a strangely marked face, split down the middle in two differing extremes. that bright yellow gaze tracks over her, wide and unblinking as though he's looking right through her. "confliction," he murmurs, voice dazed as he stumbles forward a step. should the girl remain still, he begins to walk a slow circuit around her, entranced by the opportunity to examine a complete stranger. "half and half. broken?" his brow scrunches, head tilting to the side in focus. "hmm...perhaps not. but uneven. mismatched." his gaze lifts back to her face, and satisfaction lies there, like he's uncovered some hidden depth. a truth to her that no one else can see. it's only now, his curiosity momentarily sated, that he seems to register what she'd asked. "Umeshu," he says, apropos of nothing. it doesn't occur to him to specify he's just divulged his name, or even ask for hers in exchange. instead, his head snaps around and he sinks his teeth into his scruff, growling lowly as that persistent itching flares up with near-unbearable vigour. "itches," he murmurs into his fur, the word muffled. well, she'd asked if he was okay, hadn't she?

WC: 227
Total: 757/1500

The other kid seems to look right through and utters a strange word she's never heard before. "Conflision?" She echoes, tilting her head at him. She sits her rump down and tilts her head at him this way and that as he circles her. Broken? Was he broken? He was walking around just fine... Did he mean her? She started thinking as he mentioned something about being uneven and mismatched.

"I'm no broken!" She exclaimed, taking a paw backward and scrunching her nose into a half snarl until he came back to her face with a curious look and her expression melted away into her own curious gaze. What was this kid doing? Was his brain broken?

He made a sound that she tried to mimic, "Oomahshoo?" Was that his name or was that some weird language or was it just noise out of his mouth? She could not decipher what he was talking about and she was starting to get a little stressed about how far away her caregiver and brother could be. Who knew if this guy's mom was as harsh as hers and as strange him?  He then turned to start using his teeth in his fur to scratch an itch and through the muffle, she could hear him say similarly.
"Ooooh Itchies!" She said relieved as if that explained all the strangeness up to the point. It didn't, but she didn't know. As they had been talking and the boy circled her, the tiny insects she wouldn't find out a name or until later had transferred to her from him and began to irritate her as well.
"Oh no! Itchies!" She said trying to chew her shoulder for a moment. What were they going to do? She felt a few new one crop up along her back and she felt the sudden urge to find a good lush smelly bed of something grassy to fix it.
"What're we gonna do Ooshoo?" She asked, unsure if that was his name but t was the only one that made a little sense.


Speech/Thoughts

it's...hard to think around the itches pervading his pelt, stealing every scrap of attention until it's all he can do to follow the younger girl's meandering sentences. he struggles to focus on the best of days, and now he can scarcely look at her without wanting to take his fur off. alas, it seems the girl's prolonged contact with him has consequences for them both: the girl begins to itch alongside him, until the pair of them are twisting and writhing like trapped insects. "Ume," he says idly, for it's the only word he can remember with any real clarity. "Umeshu is...me." his brow scrunches up, rendering him much older than his eleven months. "or...the parts that make up - me. the me that is itchy." it makes sense to him, but he doesn't have the capacity to explain it to this child while gripped in the throes of such agony. huffing, the sound both furious and confused, Ume throws himself to the ground and begins to roll vigorously back and forth, hoping to dispel the bugs by squashing them into the earth. he tries to picture it, the satisfied pops of tiny bodies combusting against the ground under the weight of his patchwork body. he tries to sift through the knowledge of his childhood, picturing his father's paws working with poultice and herbs in his den. squishing them into pastes and applying them to wounds, winding cobwebs over scratches and bites, chewing berries into applicable juices. "dandelion..." he murmurs suddenly, eyes seeking the girl, should she still be present. "find...it..." although there were definitely more effective herbs, if chewed into a poultice he could apply it to their pelts to help reduce inflammation. unfortunately, he is no position to look for it himself; hopefully this girl had the presence of mind to follow his instructions.

WC: 305
Total: 1406

It starts to become clearer that the boy is named Ume but he seems to be having a hard time concentrating around the itchies.

Alexandrite also takes to the ground and tries to rub the itchies out but it actually makes it worse. The boy indicates something about dandelion and to go and find it. What was a dandelion? No one had told her what any plants were yet. She decides to grab the closest plant to her and it ends up being a blade of grass. That didn't seem to be what the boy wanted so she bounded a few more steps away to a mushier part of the ground and found a strange very strong-smelling plant. Was this Dandelion? Something in her white paws told her this plant would do, even if it wasn't what the boy was looking for.

She tugged a few leafy stalks of what she would eventually come to learn as Peppermint and brought a whole mouthful before him. "Dandelion?" She asked with her head tilted after she dumped them all on the ground.


Speech/Thoughts
WC: 180
Total: 1586

Ume squints up at her, a strong scent enveloping him. ah, his sluggish mind supplies, peppermint. "mmrpmh..." he grumbles, scrabbling to sit up, "pass that here." it's not exactly what he was hoping for, but perhaps the scent might repulse the fleas. Ume accepts the herbs and slots them into his mouth, chewing them into a poultice. when he's chewed it adequately enough, he spits it out and scoops up the mush, unbothered by its appearance. humming off-handedly, he sets about smearing the plant into his fur, pressing it down on the itchiest parts. by the time he's finished, he looks suitably deranged, but the fleas seem to have subsided somewhat. "come here," he tells the pup, offering a mouthful of the chewed-up substance. he steps forward, eyes fixed determinedly as he attempts to smear it over his companion. okay, so maybe his bedside matter needs some work...but he'll get this pup flea-free whether she likes it or not.

Alexa is curious about what Umeshu is doing. She readily gives him the smelly pant and he immediately chews it up and... Smears it on his fur!? EEW! He seems unbothered, and even as if the fleas were avoiding it.

He then beckons her closer but comes into her space before she can make her own move and she's mortified as he smears the green paste into her white and purple fur. Oh! But... her itchy skin felt a sudden cooling tingling wherever the paste was smeared and the fleas seemed to avoid the stuff readily!

"Oh! Good thinking Ume!" She said and grabbed a mouthful of the plant herself to supplement the spots he missed and smeared into her own fur.

"I can get some of the spots you missed on you!" She said through a mouthful and approached him to get his shoulders and between the ears.


Speech/Thoughts

although the girl is predictably resistant, she lets him apply the poultice with minimal fuss and seems to appreciate the soothing effects, so that’s something. then she offers to help him out, which is also something. “yes,” he agrees, presenting his back to her so she can reach the spots he’d missed. as she works, he falls into a thoughtful silence, mind sifting through moments he’s shared with this pup. what is proper protocol now? what would his siblings do? “um,” he clears his throat, frowning into the distance. “do you like…brains?” finding favoured subjects in common is the polite thing to do, right? when making one’s acquaintance? as a homebody, Ume’s had little cause to wonder about such things.

Alexa exuberantly smears the minty green past into Ume's white fur along his back and along places he missed. She pricked her ears as he vocalized his thoughts aloud as if he were trying to make conversation.

"Brains?" She asked with a grimace, like to eat? Like, to look at? Was he offering to pick apart her brain?
"Oh..uh... n-not really." She replied, suddenly aware of how far away she was from her caregiver and her brother.
"I like flowers though!" She offered, hopefully, a common interest was what he was referring to.
"There, all done. I'm Alexa, nice to meet you Ume. I feel better!" Had she given her name yet? She didn't think so, but just in case she forgot she offered it anyway. Did Ume feel better now?


Speech/Thoughts