Early Morning Mist

[kora]

OOC
~

IC
The air was crisp and cool, the sun had just begun to rise, shining dully through the overhanging clouds. A thick mist rose from the ground, swirling slowly in the breeze that filtered through the tree trunks, bringing with it the sweet smells of pine, birch, oak, hickory, clover, and fern, though dulled by the moisture lingering in the early morning air. Birds had just began to wake from their night's slumber, chirping their displeasure for the chilled wind that ruffled their feathers. The water of the river danced at the shore, lapping hungrily at the rocky bank. It was up because of the rain that had fallen only a few hours ago. The sky above still threatened to release more rain still locked in it's darkening clutches.

Large, dark hued paws carried the muscled frame of a dog over the riverbank, along the waters edge. Slow in pace, the dog stared down into the water, dipping it's head and weaving back and forth, pausing every now and again to stare at a spot in the water. Clearly this dog was different though, not just dog, but wolf as well.

Kora's muzzle dipped low the water as she stopped, eyes intent on something below the water's surface not to far from the bank. Slowly she moved forward, turning towards the river and narrowing her eyes. The glare on top of the rippling water made it hard to judge distance, but it couldn't have been more than a few inches down, and it was within reaching distance. Slowly and silently she moved into position, her paws barely touching the edge of the water. She held her position, weaving back and forth to get a better judgement on depth.

With the speed of lightning she lunged, jaws agape and teeth bared. Eyes closed tightly as her muzzle hit the water, jaws clamping together with a muffled snap. As the water settled again she lifted her head. Her patience and years of practice had rewarded her with a large trout.

A slight smile tugged at the sides of her muzzle. Food at last, it had been at least two days since she'd last gotten a good filling meal. Her mouth watered at the thought as she padded away from the waters edge and towards the tree line, finding her place in a nice spot at the base of a tall pine. The roots were twisted and tangled above ground, covered in thick moss that cushioned every step. She lay down, placing the fish on her forepaws and looking around. Her ears twitched, listening for the sounds that any other animals might be nearby. She heard nothing except for the leaves rustling in the breeze, and the annoyed chatter of birds as they preened their feathers dry of morning dew.

Cautiously she lowered her head again, tearing at the fish and gulping down a large chunk of flesh. Her eyes never stopped searching the forest, other animals could smell a fresh kill, even if it was the delicate scent of freshly caught fish. Jaws worked hurriedly at the trout until all that was left were a few fins and a half chewed tail.

The wolf hybrid lifted her head again, licking her muzzle clean of remaining pieces of fish. Her hunger was satisfied for the time being, though she still felt uneasy, as if she were being watched, as if someone were spying on her. Eyes narrowed and she gave a warning growl, startling a squirrel who had been collecting fallen hickory nuts on the other side of a briar bush.

[Honey]

Honey was hungry. Ever since being tied to the lamppost, she had been ravenous.Luckily for her, she had slipped her collar off just as she thought she might go crazy from hunger. Now she was desperate. The river tossed and turned and gulped, and she was afraid to get within ten taillengths of the dark water. Suddenly, she saw a flash of silver. A huge fish jumped out of the water, filling her nose with an unbearably delicious smell... It landed back in the water with a splash. She moved a little closer to investigate. She was now at the water's edge, the frothing, dark water just past her paws. Suddenly, anoth flash of silver, and another fish jumped, just a snap away. It landed back in the water, showering her with water. She shook herself, and moved down river a bit.

She found a shallow spot and warily waded in up to her knees. She looked around nervously, wondering how she was to catch such a big fish. When she had lived with her humans, she had seen the cat next-door fishing in her backyard pond. She remembered how the cat would plunge a paw in, and come out with a fish hooked on it's claw. She waded a bit deeper. She gazed into the water. A flash of silver underpaw, and she dove her forepaw into the river. She hit the riverbed.Growling under her breath, she tried again.And again. And again, but she never so much sa touched a fish.She tried blocking off their passage, she tried grabbing them with her teeth, she tried swatting them up into the air, but to no avail. But the golden dog had not tried one thing... Pouncing headfirst at the fish. So she waited until she saw the familiar glint of sivler, and pounced.

She missed the fish, and went strait into the current. She lost her footing and went under. As a puppy, she had never really been good at swimming, and had never really tried to learn how. She wished she had now... She finally broke the surface, gasping for air, but the current took her again, and she went under. She could feel her strength fading...

[dukeduke]

Duke had watched the whole episode of the wolf looking dog catch the fish. And then the golde dog. He thought about helping her, but decided to wait and watch. He couldn't refuse his instincts when the poor dog plummeted into the river's current. Duke lunged from the bushes. "Hold on!" he barked. "I'm coming, just keep your head above water!" Without a second thought, Duke lunged into the icy cold water. His fur was drenched now and he was happy for his Labrador coat, which kept him somewhat insulated. He paddled with strength he never knew existed in his body towards the dog. He was within grabbing distance now. "Give me your paw!" he shouted just above the water.

[Demitri]

Honey could faintly hear a strange voice. She tried to zone in on it but before she could, she went under again. "Give me your paw!" she heard faintly above the roar of the river. Honey braced herself against the current. Stretching out one leg was an amazing effort. In what seemed like agonizing slow motion, she reached out to the other dog. But then the current flipped her sideways, throwing her into a rock and knocking her unconscious...

[Camo]

KiA

Kia took her time while winding through the maze of high weeds that protruded from the stony ground under her pads. The Husky/Danes thick misty colored pelt blended in with the fog around her, leaving only barely noticeable shape gliding through the cloud. She was a ghost, and her eyes were the color of death today, like all days. There was a strong scent of a feminine loner in the area, and the alpha female of Hazcoe knew that she was way out of her territory, but she knew that if met by a challenger she could hold her ground firmly.
The sun was just rising and set an eerie beam of light through the haze, and Kia swerved around the patches of luminosity with ease, sunlight wasn’t her best friend. A constant pattern of thundering water rang in her ears, so she knew that the river was near. Once, when she was still young and ignorant of the world, taking a swim in this ‘peaceful’ river had occurred to her, and by only pure chance she had finally washed up on shore, unharmed yet quite waterlogged.
Her exceptionally lengthy legs carried her long distances, and now she was right up at the banks. The female loner scent was even stronger than before. Kia knew she was not alone; she was never alone in these terras. She would have to be even more alert; this dog was either friend or foe, most likely foe.
Then another smell wavered in the air in front of her nose. It was softer than the hard scent of the other female. That dog was a female too, but something about her was different. Still another scent came, male, and that made anger burn up in Kia. She could live with males if she had to, but only if she must.
The whole scene played out in front of her eyes. Duke yelling, Honey drowning. Kia almost thought to sit back and laugh, but she decided against it and ran over to try to help. There was no way to save an unconscious dog by telling them to give their paw, so she plunged in the water, fighting the current with all her strength, and grabbed the other dogs golden scruff. Then she saw the other male and barked through fur,
“Help me get her to shore! I can’t fight the current forever!” and tried paddling over to the rock the female had been knocked unconscious on.

[kora]

OOC
Maybe we should set up some sort of posting order, ya think? That way we would all have time to reply, and there wouldn't be a jumble of posts to come back to.
Kora
Honey
Duke
Camo

IC
Kora's head tilted, her ears shifting from side to side until she could pinpoint the sound of distant splashing. She could defiantly smell other dogs now, the breeze had shifted in her favor. The fur over her hackles and down her spine bristled and in an instant she was on her paws, dark amber eyes scanning the river. She knew her own scent would be picked up, but it wouldn't give away her gender, it never had in the past. It was musky and masculine.

Her muzzle lifted and nostrils flared as she drew in the scents of the others, two females and a male, and a strong scent of fear. Her ears lay back for a moment as she paced forward, arching her neck to see through the fog that drifted over the river's surface and into the now brightening daylight. The clouds were beginning to drop their load onto the earth in large drops of rain.

After a moment she began to realize that there were shapes moving in the water a little ways upstream, two dogs... No.. three. A slight rush of adrenaline sped through her veins as she raced up the bank close to the water's edge, though she knew to keep away from darker spots in the bank where the water was deepest. "YOU! OUT THERE! NEED SOME ASSISTANCE?" She yelled over the roar of the water, her voice the tone of a young male. Her ears shoved forward to listen to a response.

Kora's masculine appearance was enough to make any dog mistake her as male, and she wouldn't correct them, in all her years she'd never once tried to tell a dog otherwise.

[Honey]

Honey came-to, swallowing river water, choking and coughing. Another dog seemed to have her by the scruff and was swimming with her to shore. Honey blinked in surprise, but before she could open her mouth to speak, but a wave washed over her head, almost knocking her unconscious again. She tried to move her legs to swim, but as she reached out with her paws to paddle, her right front paw exploded in pain. She was completely immobilized for a few heartbeats. She hung limp in the other dog's grasp. Her head was throbbing, and she was well aware of the scent of blood. Her own blood. Suddenly her vision started to be eaten up. First from above, a dark black crept over her eyes. She couldn't see! Not blind! She begged silently in her head. Please not blind! She was interrupted as her savior's leg brushed her injured paw, and a wave of pain washed over her that knocked her unconscious again.

[[OOC[[ How about she has a cut on her forehead, and the blood ran into her eyes, but she thinks she's blind!]]

[dukeduke]

Duke snarled at the other dog. "She wasn't unconsious when I asked!". He paddled forward and grabbed the dog's scruff. "Hold onto her." he muttered around her fur. He paddled furiously towards the bank but the current was pulling him downriver. "Yes Please!" he barked "Get a stick! A big stick!" he added clamping his jaws onto the dog's scruff once again. He focused entirely on swimming against the current.

[Camo]

KiA

Muddy water was thrashing in her eyes from the ferocious paddling that she was kicking up. The dog in her grasp was wavering on the edges of consciousness, and that didn’t help Kia to her advantages. She passed for a minute, and then realized that treading water wasn’t as easy when you had a giant weight attached to you. Then she heard a male’s voice yelling out to her. Not the one she had met before, but one that was new. Since there was water going up her nose she couldn’t distinctly smell a female.
Oh great, another one. I’m having a field day today! First rescuing a dog I have no idea is, now meeting two arrogant males. Oh joy to me.
Her voice was slurred considering the fact that she had water waving into her mouth every second and was having to constantly spit it out. Over the roar of the waves pounding in her ears, she managed to sputter a sarcastic,
“No, of course we don’t! This unconscious dog and I just decided to go for a dip. What do you think?!? Get a stick!!!”
She would have acted differently if she knew Kora was of the female gender. Then she turned to Duke,
“If you don’t like me that much I can let go and you’ll both drown!”
Paddling like crazy she almost let go of Honey, but then regained her strength and felt mud in the pads of her paws.

[Honey]

Honey regained consciousness once again. The dog she faintly remembered still had a death grip on her scruff. She felt solid ground under her paws. Suddenly remembering about her injured paw, she was careful to keep it from touching anything or anyone. She coughed and collapsed on the river bank. Her breathing slowed to a more normal rate. For a moment she forgot about the dogs around her, her probably broken paw, and the river less than a tail length from her face. She was overwhelmed only by a wave of amazing relief. She had survived.

She after a few more coughing fits, she seemed to have cleared most of the water she had swallowed and breathed in from her lungs. She finally looked up at the other dogs. "Thank-"
was all she managed to choke out before she was thrown into another coughing fit. She smiled
apologetically before closing her eyes and drifting into an exhausted sleep.

[dukeduke]

Duke scrabbled onto the bank. He sat silent watching the dog cough. She was fine. And the other dogs could probably deal with her on their own now. He stood up and began to walk away,water dripping from his sodden coat.

[kora]

OOC
No one ever waits for me to post.

IC
Kora didn't wait around to hear more than the male's comment before rushing off into the tree line, disappearing from view. Her paws worked furiously at the ground carrying her over the mossy soil as her head lifted high, looking around for any fallen sticks worth taking back, though she could hardly see any fallen branches at all.

Finely she'd found one, after what seemed like ages, and grasped it in her jaws, tugging it along, half of it trailing in the dirt behind her as she left the trees behind and headed back towards the place she'd last seen the dogs struggling in the water. Her ears twitched as she noticed that they had already reached the bank. Apparently they hadn't needed her help after all. She dropped the stick, padding slowly towards them. "Is everyone alright?" She grunted in a slightly exasperated tone, not that she was disappointed that they hadn't needed the help, it was just that she hadn't really expected them to make it to shore so quickly.

Shrugging it off she looked up towards the drizzling sky, narrowing her eyes at the light gray clouds.

[Honey]

Honey coughed again. "Wait!" she called in a whisper after the black faced dog.
Then looking to the large male dog standing next to her. "I'm fine, I think...." she
muttered softly, looking at her paw. " can stand' she assured the wolf looking dog, and
staggered to her feet. She was afraid to put any weight on her injured foot, so she just
let it hang off the ground. She tried to put a little weight on it, and immediately collapsed
in pain. "uh.." she moaned. "My foot..."

[Camo]

Kia shook her gray pelt, and watched the golden dog. Then a rather bulky male had come up to them. Only, it was not a male, it was a female, and this put Kia in good spirits, NO MORE GUYS!!! Her tone changed from sarcasim to just a plain tone and she said,
"Don't get rid of that stick! We might need it to set her paw."
Or I might need it. Everyone alaways sticks me with the dirty work around here...
Then Kia turned to Honey,
"Now don't go drifting back unconciouss on me, its hard enough to talk to you as it is!"

)Sorry for such a short post but I have to go to school!!!(

[dukeduke]

Duke stopped and turned to look at the dog. "What is it?" he asked turning around and padding back over, his coat still dripping icy droplets of water.