All You Have Is Your Fire...

Distressed squeaks emanated from the bag Pyralis held securely in her jaws. She'd had the luck to stumble upon some week old coyote pups. After a battle with the panicked mother she'd been able to steel them and now there was only one thing to do. Find someone willing to play coyote ball with her. It was a grisly past time but an enjoyable one. Alkali didn't care for the game but perhaps someone here wouldn't mind. In fact, maybe she could teach the game to a new generation. Grinning she tipped back her head and howled for someone to come play with her. In the meantime she dropped the bag of squirming pups and proceeded to use her claws to mark out a line in the dirt. There, they had a mark and the coyote balls now all she needed was some players.

The young girl was getting lanky in a way that would inevitably betray her dire size to come. She had been down at the beach, taking a dip in the ocean, as she had quickly come to realise it would make the dull glow that came from her coat brighter, and that made her mother annoyed, so she would do all she could to keep it as bright as possible. It was worth the numb toes and short period of shivering to know it would make her mother all drooly if she tried to pick her up with her mouth.

When a call came out for a game, the mottled girl gave another shake to try and dislodge the last of the sea water from her fur. Oversized ears quickly pinpointed the direction from which it came and she loped awkwardly in the way growing pups tended to. Her head dropped a few inches and she extended her neck, tail waving at mid-mast in greeting to the older wolf, darting in quickly to bump her nose respectfully to the underside of the elder woman’s chin in greeting.

Deluge’s head canted to the side, puppy blue eyes long since faded to a blazing gold as they fell on the smelly balls of brown fluff. The decidedly not wolf smell made her nose itch and her teeth tingle. “Why do they smell bad?” she asked Pyralis innocently enough, but she couldn’t keep the wrinkle out of her muzzle.

Rexx was full of energy and practically brimming with mischief. It was a terrible combination, and it was very well clear that his boisterous nature would not completely taper away with age. Especially as a puppy, he was itching to do anything and everything - especially if it was something like that coyote ball the really old lady had mentioned. The tusked child, so much like his father in coat and muscular build, nearly stumbled over his too-big paws as he lumbered towards his sister Deluge and the elderly wolf. He glanced at his taller sibling, noticing they both were at awkward stages of growth. So he wasn’t the only one fumbling over his clownish feet, and his tusks were slowly beginning to curl upwards and grow. And man did they hurt! He felt the urge to chew all day because of it. Not only that, but the stubs of his crystal spikes emerging on his back were giving him nasty back pain. He flashed a grin towards Deluge - a snarky, troublesome grin as always - and then faced the elder and the wriggling, smelly bag of..things. Tilting his charcoal head, the child didn’t follow the same polite greeting as Deluge did. He was respectful, but only the bare minimum. He stood and watched the bag wriggle, and after his sister’s comment, he said with a wag of his nub tail, "Oh! This is that coyote ball you were talking about, right?" He said towards Pyralis, and with a curious sniff and wrinkle of a snout himself, he added, “I bet stinky coyote ball is better than regular coyote ball!" Rexx was for anything gross, nasty and icky. It just made things more fun!

As far as Flurry was concerned she was the one that ought to get to try coyote ball first. Rexx has blundered his way over to them the first day they'd heard about it, only interested when he'd realized it was something Flurry was learning about, he'd been happy enough to play with Scald like he always had before that moment! At least that's how she saw it.

So she was disappointed to find out she wasn't even the first to respond to Pyralis' call, and she grumped her way over to the group, her siblings and the older woman, she stomped in that stiff-legged way a child did, her face screwed into a scowl so full of wrinkles she appeared to age before their eyes. I was the one who heard about coyote ball first." She said grumpily, sticking a tongue out at her brother as she got up next to them. Dang giants! Flurry would one day stand even with Rexx but for now, she was still the smallest of the siblings. She flicked her fangs forwards and she dropped into a play bow for a moment, admittedly trying to goad her brother.

- | movement | speech  -

code by Cloudy

Updated 01/13/23: I am currently on indefinite scarcity, please be patient and don't remind me of missing tags right now.

Scald's motto would soon become "fashionably late." Even as his siblings gathered around Pyralis and the shrieking sack of coyote pups, he took his time. Too large of paws tripped over rocks and shells more than he cared to admit. Lanky and long, Scald moved as carefully and gracefully as he could manage. Unlike his burly siblings who didn't mind fumbling all over the place, Scald had an image to upkeep. Lifting his chin slightly in the air, he sidled up beside Deluge while Flurry and Rexx squared off with each other. Turning his attention to Pyralis, he eyed the sack of coyotes. As much as he wanted to pounce on Flurry and Rexx, the screaming pups drew him in more. "They really do smell," he retorted with a wrinkle of his nose. Not like they probably smelled any better but this was undoubtedly worse. S C A L D

All You Have Is Your Fire...

Pyralis grinned as the pups wandered into view. First was a horned girl, Deluge, if memory served. Pyralis laughed as the girl commented on the coyote pups terrible smell. "Because they are our enemies. Oh, they may be small now but their mothers will happily snatch up newborn wolf pups to eat. We're going to play a little game with them."

Next to arrive was Rexx and at the mention of coyote ball Pyralis nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yes, I thought it was time we have a little fun." Flurry and Scald soon arrived and Pyralis had a quaint little team of four.

"So for anyone who doesn't know, I'm Pyralis. You may call me Auntie Pyr. I'd like to teach you younglings how to play coyote ball. It's a simple game. You see this coyote pup here is going to be our ball." She bent her head and snatched up the pup, jerking her head sharply upward to toss it into the air. It rose, squealing and flailing until she caught it on the way down then dropped it unceremoniously onto the earth at her feet.


"See that line in the sand. I want two of you on either side. Let's do Deluge and Rexx versus Flurry and Scald. Here are the rules. Each team starts out with 5 points. And we start the game standing four feet apart." Pyralis moved back a bit to what she gauged to be the correct distance, rolling the pup along with her as she moved then laying a rock at the four foot mark. She then did the same on the other side.

"You then toss the coyote 'ball' back and forth til someone drops it. Whoever drops it loses a point. You then need to put six feet of distance between yourselves, then twelve, etc. First one to 0 loses. Make sense? Any questions?"

Teaming up with Rexx was a great idea! Deluge’s back end wiggled with the wave of her tail. To be fair, she wasn’t too keen on putting the smelly things in her mouth, but if that was how the game was played, well she was gonna do her best to play it well enough to win. She snatched up the pup and did her best to hurl it towards Flurry, hoping her sister would catch the ‘ball’ and keep the game going for a bit longer yet. Kids had short attention spans, but this was all still fresh and new and fun!

"Speech"

Rexx liked this super old lady. She was super cool from the get-go - he couldn't recall if their parents would let them play so eagerly with baby coyotes. He wagged his stump tail as Scald, Flurry and Deluge all gathered around to hear Auntie Pyr's rules. He grinned, lips curled upwards in a strange tusk-filled grin. The best smile he could muster when a pair of ivory bony growths were protruding from his jaw, anyways. He was on the same team as Deluge, with Rexx and Flurry on the other side. He'd been itching to spend time with his sisters as well, so this would work out wonderfully! "This'll be awesome, Deluge! We're totally gonna win!" He said confidently, trotting to his designated spot next to her behind the line drawn out in the damp sand. His rump wiggled ever os slightly as he locked his eyes on the coyote pup Deluge ha just tossed, seeing it catapult to the other side. Whoever threw it in his direction, Rexx would hop up on his hind legs to snap at the pup's scruff, and would aim to toss it back at the other side, too. This was so much fun - the perfect activity for a bunch of restless pups. "speech"