Firefly Festival: The Starting Line

On your mark! This race is only for the fastest, most agile wolves! Who will step up and claim their place as the fastest wolf at the festival? The faster you are, the more you win! What's not to love? Note that companion riding and fighting is strictly prohibited! If you think you're up for the challenge then, get ready, get set, GO!

Post an in-character post of each participant lining up for the race! All participants must be posted by July 29th, 12am Ardent time!

Siobhan wanted to participate. she wanted to win something to bring home and play with. if she was a human child, it'd be a stuffed animal. but she was a wolf and wolves liked things that were practical. maybe she'd win a small little necklace so she could be pretty? rolling up to the start line, she wasn't going to be deterred that she was a pup in an adult race. this was just for fun, after all. eyeing the line of wolves amongst the crowd, she could spot her Papa cheering her on. she smiled at him, wiggling her little tail in excitement. looking around at the much taller wolves, the girl went to the start line. "good luck!" she beamed at the others participating. she didn't expect to win though. Siobhan wanted to have a good time and be happy her family was supporting her. if someone chose to make it a problem, or be ultra-competitive... well, Papa could beat them up! kidding, she didn't want that either. she could handle herself just fine - and that meant losing too! ooc; sio lines up to start!

The main reason Belle lined herself up at the starting line was because Luce had tried to forbid the practice. She was going on heavily pregnant and her movement was becoming more restricted, but the Empress was not going to be deterred. She was fine, the extra weight was barely affecting her, and a good run would surely do her some good. She snuck away from her sister and took her place before she could be veered away by any Ashen wolves who thought her decision inappropriate. Royal form swept through, she had little real chance of winning the race but she wasn’t about to allow herself to miss the opportunity. Mostly she looked forward to seeing the other wolves faces when the pregnant woman beat them out. With an amused smirk playing on her features Deatahbelle took her place and awaited the countdown. "Speech"

Hannibal was excited to enter into all of the separate contests. After the fighting tournament going fairly well and rebuilding his physical strength he was ready to show off what he could do. Unless of course, he tripped over his own lanky legs or something crazy like that. Nevertheless, the competitive Klein could never give up the chance at participating in a race! The male wondered who else may have entered in. He assumed he would find quite a few different Kleins and various pack members. Maybe some faces from the challenges or winter tourney. Perhaps even Tyranis or that dreadful fanged Alpha.. The male promptly made his way to the starting line. But, what shocked him was the scent of his Empress. The sight of his dappled Alpha plump with pup filled his sight, as well as pup. He tilted his head at the sight.. Am I at the wrong race? Was I really meant to race against my pregnant sister and some newborn? The male shrugged gently assuming if he were confused the festival hosts would steer him in the wrong direction. Hannibal came up behind Belle and stood shoulder to shoulder at her right with about half a tail length of space between them. "Be sure to keep your mouth shut when running.." A devious smirk slipped across his lips, "So you don't end up eating my dust.." Hannibal cackled before shaking his head with a gleaming gaze. But, his attention was quickly turned to the path ahead. speech

B

anshee was prepared to leave all the old folks in her dust when it came to each and every one of the competitions. Much like many other Kleins, the babe was dead set on being a champion. Thus, as she strolled up to the starting line the youngster had her head held up high and her tail flicking with confidence. Those baby blue eyes flicked across her father, the tall and slim albino, then to her Empress, the black and white fat lady. The babe rolled her eyes as she overheard the taunting words of her cocky sire and decided to keep distance between herself and the pair of cringy adults. Thus, she found herself standing near the younger pup with grey and white markings. Banshee's eyes didn't spare the pup a second glance before finding the path ahead. While awaiting the start of the race she began to stretch out her limbs like Luc had told her to do at the examination. Banshee was sure it would help her be more fluid once the race began.

Speech

Leonce had caught wind of the festival and the Abaveners who were going he was rather excited to participate in everything he could. Festivals were supposed to be fun, but he hadn’t properly gone to one before. In honor of the occasion Leonce of course brought Colin along although Colin had gone and run off somewhere else for the time being. Hopefully they could find each other again, Leonce had become a bit hesitant about losing his friend. Colin was small and could easily be confused for food or stepped on, Colin insisted that he could handle himself around other wolves and even so Leonce worried.

As Leonce approached the starting line for the race he caught sight of a few wolves, this surprised him. It didn’t make sense for this few amount of wolves to be here. One he vaguely remembered meeting and the other two he hadn’t met at all. A pregnant wolf and a pup looked like they were going to run in the race, Leonce went up next to the pup and smiled. He was here to have fun, competitive wasn’t really his style. He’d rather let the pup win than himself, after all he had a clear advantage with longer legs.

Once again a festival had rolled into town. The Adravendi's curiosity was quite easily perked. The promise of prize and competition was enough for him to enter into some of the events. The one he was most excited for would be the digging, but the race was a close second. It all depends on how long the race was. Due to Miach's size and weight he was a good powerful runner within short distances or a steady runner at long distances. But, he was not trained enough to be fast at long distances like a trained ranger would be. Perhaps that is something i'd need to work at.. Nevertheless, the red eyed beast found himself sauntering up to the starting line. He chose to stand at the far right of the line with some distance between himself and the other opponents. He could recall the pregnant woman from an encounter in the desert and the albino Alpha from a challenge and the tournament. But, the others? Miach hadn't a clue. As he stood there the beast focused on his breathing and rolled his shoulders. Hopefully the race would begin soon.

Heloise wished to partake in all the events. this was her first festival in Boreas and she was quite eager to show her skills off. the result of her training allowed her to be quicker, with excellent endurance to back it up. though she did not expect to win this race, it was part of the fun. taking her place beside her packmate, she gave a soft smile to Miach. she had met this wolf before on Winterfell lands. with them were a pregnant female, a piebald man, two children and one man that was from another pack. she'd smile down at one of them - the girl that had been catching fireflies with her - before uttering a "good luck to you all" to, well, all of them. she crouched into a starting position, allowing herself a good stretch before the race began. above her on a tree overlooking the race, was her gyrfalcon Kresnik. he gave a shriek of good luck to his mistress before quieting down.

I'll tough it out, I won't give in

Shedding his pack Álarr moved to the starting line. All these adults here were making him feel super short! He wasn't really expecting to win but he was curious to see how well he'd stack up against the other contestants, pups and adults alike. Brynhildr nuzzled him with her ivory beak. "Good luck, do your best!" She flew up into a nearby tree to watch. Afi watched her go, golden eyes glittering before he turned back to his charge. "Don't fall on your face and remember that your ass should stay behind you, don't let it go flipping over your head."

Álarr scowled at the cat but he knew not to take the feline's words too seriously. This was close to affection from the grumpy, little beast.

Sparrow found the place where the race was supposed to start. Her dad had led here here, but as soon as she saw it, she took the lead. There were so many fireflies! And so many wolves! Sparrow had to get focused! She had to get ready! This was her chance to show everyone how fast and agile she was. She was going to have to be fast to one day be king of the pirates! Today was a great day to practice and to show her dad that she was ready to take on the position! The thought of losing never even crossed her mind, though in reality her chances of winning weren't great. For now, she was just ready.

dark mists are cloaking what the eyes can see

"I'm too fat for this." Technically he wasn't fat. He was just huge and muscular and built more like a boulder than a gazelle but he'd lost a bet with Kaler and the cat wanted to see how he'd handle the race. Éldi glared at the bobcat. He didn't know for sure how long this race was. If it was a sprint he was toast but if it was something requiring endurance he'd have a shot. He was constantly trying to improve his endurance in order to run down his prey, but something told him this race was definitely a sprint. The viking nodded politely to the other wolves, feeling out of place as he took up a position on the end to wait for the start.

Theory set herself up at the starting line, peering about for Rhyme's familiar face. She didn't seem him yet in the crowd, but she hoped he would show up soon. There were more wolves here than she'd ever seen before, and she had thought that Abaven was fairly large as far as packs went. Nervously, she paced back and forth. How long would it take until the race began?

Far above, Alouette circled in the sky and looked for Imperia and Solitude. It would be great fun to cheer on their land-bound friends from the skies above. She gave a raucous caw, which caused Theory to look up and smile. Knowing that Lou was nearby gave her some small confidence; she stopped pacing and readied herself for the race to begin.

Samara was more than happy to be allowed to be out of the packlands for a while, allowed to just enjoy herself without needing to make sure she was constantly on. And when she'd heard of the race she couldn't help but feel excited. Sure she was no good when it came to long distances, her joints were not her friends in those cases but she'd raced her siblings many time and those short distances? Hoo could she ever sprint. So when she approached the designated starting line and spotted not just one but two siblings she couldn't help but feel a bit cocky. There were two pups, one visibly younger than the other and as she passed her gaze over them she idly wondered if either were family, she was woefully out of the loop. Which was even more evident as she looked upon her very pregnant half sister, fit to burst as far as she could tell. "Well glad it looks I'll be outrunning at least someone here." She teased, sticking her tongue out playfully at her sister. "And I'll just trip the rest." She added, winking up at Hannibal. But as much as she wanted to reconnect with her siblings, especially the formerly lost patriarch, she couldn't risk being too friendly to them, there'd be time to find a place away from prying eyes for them to talk later. Instead moving off to an area where she could mostly be considered alone right now. The woman swung her gaze around, curious if Ryhme would join the race or not. Maybe she could hitch a ride with him again? She stretched her neck and then set about getting ready for the mad dash that would no doubt be the start of the race. ""

With a frustrated expression on her face, Luce tracked Deathbelle to the startling line of the race. She knew there was little she could do to prevent her impish, strong-willed sister from participating... but sometimes the best teacher was failure. Once she realized how difficult it would be to run the race, perhaps she'd come to her senses. While she was still relatively mobile, it was true, no doubt her stamina would be shot at this point in the pregnancy. Females were so often unaware of how much additional energy their body expended simply to keep themselves upright and their litter growing.

Trying not to act too snide, Lucretia took her place far enough away from Belle that she might not immediately be noticed, but close enough that she could rush to her side if need be.

Ash followed his enthusiastic daughter with a light bounce in his step. It was good t see her running around confidently in the presence of strangers, but it was a lot of work to keep up with her. Today, Ash wore only his bright shirt without the harness. At least if she got lost, she'd know what to look for. One day, he'd take her to that ship and let her choose something she wanted. For now, however, they wanted to see what they could get at this festival. With that in mind, Ash had told Sparrow where to find him after the race. He didn't want to leave empty handed and he was sure that between the two of them they could score some sort of reward, but not if they ran together. Ash would find her after the race. As long as they stuck with that agreement, they were ready.

Tyrian was already in the zone as he trotted up to the starting line. He was gonna win this one because he had the longest legs out of all the puppies he'd seen so far and as for the adults...well they weren't known for being the fastest creatures out there, were they? He could outrun them too.

He trotted up behind Sparrow and, after filling his mouth with saliva, aimed to lick her from crown to browspots and give her a slimy pre-race cowlick. It was a good luck lick, okay? Totally not meant to throw her off and give him an edge, no he would never do such a thing...never...

Of course there was a fucking race. Rags made her way to the finish line with her ambling gait, hoping that no one was staring. It was kind of Torin to escort her to the festival alongside his family. His litter was completely charming in a way that she hoped her own children might one day be. As if to rub salt in the wound, she was in heat. With her shuffling gait and obvious hormonal condition, she was already drawing an uncomfortable amount of attention. Couldn't a gal just have some clean, simple fun?

Running a race wasn't about winning, anyway. Er... or something. Rags shook her head, dispelling any doubts as she did so. Her eyes roved the crowd for any Lirim wolves and found only one of Torin's young daughters. She approached Sio, taking her place next to the girl's side. "My bet's on you," she whispered affectionately in the pup's ear.

He had managed to stalk after his sister, curious about where she was headed. Derecho was close on his heels, wanting to ensure the safety of both children. Her uncle was left in charge of the rest of the litter while Torin was busy with alpha duties. Paddy was feeling a bit nosy, but he was also concerned about Siobhan going off on her own and wanted to catch up before any harm would come of her. The place that he fallowed her too was something he had never seen before, a festival on an island! It made him excited when they arrived on the island and heard about all of the activities going on. He begged his mom to participate and after some hounding from him, she ended up allowing it.

He would run in circles and bounce around before dashing after his sister to the first event, while his mother took a seat to watch. Pulling up to the start line right beside Siobhan (Opposite from Rags) his silver blue eyes looked over to her and he flashed her a big smile. His scrawny tail wiggled in happiness that he would get to participate with her.

"Let's do this Sis!" he said in excitement as he readied himself.

-Paddy waits at the start line-

Brandr quietly moved to the starting like, nodding politely at those he made eye contact with. He really wasn't a sprinter but it was a lovely night for a run and the exercise certainly wouldn't hurt. If he could just shake this troublesome cough. It had been dogging him since the fire and he was fairly certain it had something to do with smoke inhalation. He probably just needed a bit more time. Stretching light, Brandr sought to limber up a bit before the race. He'd need everything he could get in order to run his best race. Really, his goal was just to not end up in last place. "Talk" "You" Think

Archon was not much for the race or much for a festival at all, but he could not turn down the opportunity to possibly win something. Besides, Belle was going and Archon was ready to follow her wherever she desired to go. He came up to her after Hannibal's comment and offered her a warm smile. He wouldn't reach to touch her, no, not here in front of all thee prying eyes. A smile for now would suffice.

"I wish you luck, Deathbelle," he rumbled just to her with a dip of his head. "Try not to strain yourself too much, but don't let any second-rate mortals take your place either."

With that, he turned to the starting line. He, too, was ready.