Closed See A Man About A Dog (Ruari)

[Colt]

77th of summer, 515 a.v
early evening

There was an acute lull that had fallen over the city, one thick with low, animated talking and hushed excitement. The mysterious chest of silver that had appeared on the outskirts had, throughout the day, set nearly everyone aflutter with wonder and curiosity. Some had stayed away from it altogether, some had taken wary glances, others had made the reverent exchange of goods: into the chest went something, and out of the chest came something else. And the exchanges, like the people, were varied; some had come away with reputedly glorious treasures, others had come away with worthless trinkets, and still others had come away with terrible curses.

As such, places like the Pride were somewhat less crowded than normal; it seemed that most of the population had either gone to see the chest or were tittering over it with close friends and family, and businesses were not on the forefront of anyone’s minds, save, perhaps, for those who operated them. Traffic was lessened, attentions were turned inward, and the city was laced with the low buzz of superstition.

No one seemed to notice the clanless hunter that did none of these things.

Shahar moved quickly and deliberately through the outskirts of Endrykas, determined to get to the Pride before it began to gather its animals for the night and close up its tents; he had calculated his approach to miss the usual daytime crowd, although the daytime crowd seemed to have hardly existed in the first place. He scanned the world around him cautiously, hyperaware of the eyes of his brethren and careful to shield them as best he could from the snow-white canine walking at his hip.

At first glance she would appear to be a wolf, a bit smaller than normal and perhaps unusually fluffy. A second glance, however, followed by a knowing examination, would reveal that, while she did indeed look more like a wolf than anything, she was still covered in the down fur of puphood, milk-teethed and thin-tailed. To one who knew dogs, she was quite clearly no more than two seasons old, although she was almost twice the size of any Luvanor her age.

Due to Shahar’s carefully casual stride, or perhaps due to the late hour, or perhaps due to the excitement of the silver chest, no one did spare a second glance

At his other hip strode a hunting cat, older than the pup but still just shy of adulthood. Lean and corded with wire and tendon, she walked much more comfortably at the side of her Drykas, quite accustomed to traveling through the tent city with him. The Pride was, perhaps, a difficult place for her to be––there were so many small prey-things for her to chase down––but her training and a firm stay close kept her obediently at Shahar’s heel.

The pup, on the other hand, was far more nervous than either of them. The zibri and goats and oxen were larger than any animals she had ever seen, and they intimidated her; she kept fearfully close to Shahar’s legs, nearly tripping him every few strides.

Big, bad, don’t go near. She didn’t like this place of large things.

I will protect you, Shahar thought fiercely. Nothing would harm her so long as he had strength to breathe.

She glanced up at him, hope blossoming between them. She was always hopeful.

Shahar had been at the Pride before, and so he knew where it was that he could find those who specialized in the care of animals and in caring of other people’s animals; he needed to find someone to tell him about her, his wonder-gratitude-promise-hope-love-guard-treasure-family. She was piercingly hungry, which she had been conveying to him repeatedly for some time. But he didn’t know what her kind ate at her age, and her only response had been an unhelpful food; he needed someone who knew wolves. He needed someone from the Pride.

When he reached his destination, Shahar was lucky enough to be greeted by a young boy. The pup hid behind Shahar’s legs.

“Can I help you?” the boy asked.

Help yes, Shahar said. Advice curious inquiry, knowledge seek. “Dog.”

The boy nodded, although he was also looking far too intently towards the ball of white fur that lingered behind the hunter. “Yes,” he said finally, audibly reluctant. “I will find someone.”

With that, the boy ran off to find someone to help, all the while casting nosy glances back over his shoulder.

[Ruari Darkwind]

The caretakers of the animals of The Pride were in the beginning phase of closing up for the evening, a distinct lack of customers and the buzzing of rumour in regards to a silver chest leaving them bereft of activity through much of the day beyond a startling incident with a young kitten and a grown rabbit. It had been cloudy, which offered respite from the heat of the summer thus far, but the quiet wasn't exactly welcome, even if it kept the animals calm.

When the boy came amongst them, looking from handler to handler for someone to bring back with him to look at the strange dog and the man who kept it, he didn't think there were any present who knew what he thought must have been a wolf. They didn't typically breed wolves in The Pride; wolves offered a distinct challenge beyond that of a cat or dog, and the large prey animals were especially wary of them. He didn't think he'd seen a wolf in all his time there... and he was so curious.

When he ended up selecting Ruari, for whatever reason thinking help meant cure, he found her washing her hands of the day's work. Although she was eager to go home to the firepit, the pavilion, and her dinner, she listened to him talk to her, and she read the urgency in his hands and the curiosity his fingers spelled for her before she signed a single calm, and then she washed her face.

"Where?" Ruari asked when she was done, towelling off the water that had trickled into her hair and onto her neck. He gestured towards the entrance, well out of the way of attention from the handlers that had more important things to do with herding the animals. Ruari didn't recognise the man, and from the angle she had she saw no beast at his heel that would have earned the urgency and driving curiosity that the boy had displayed, so Ruari sent him away to assist one of the riders with a murmured word and a sweeping gesture to get him going.

The approach she made to the stranger was wary, but welcoming; she presented herself as gentle, offering no threat, but caution was in her nature. "I was told you needed help with a dog," she said to him, close enough to see the animal but preferring instead to watch the man. "I am an animal doctor."

[Colt]

Shahar waited.

With the boy gone, the pup peeked out from behind his legs and took another look around. The large green tents and fluttering banners of the Pride waved before them, the gentle susurration of animals getting ready for the night came from behind them, and from here and there came the sounds of men and women and children taking care of this or that, speaking about animals or encouraging the animals under their care to settle and cease their activities, and still others ran between the tents and pens, carrying those supplies that needed to be somewhere but had been forgotten until the last moment.

All of these the pup looked quickly between, quite astounded by the sneer number of things that she had never seen before. Of course, she had come from a box, which caused Shahar to wonder exactly how many things she had seen before. It didn’t particularly matter, though; she was here now, and she was in need, and he had to make sure she was cared for before he got lost in his wonderings.

The pup perked and her ears focused on a single point, this time somewhere inside the tent directly in front of them. Shahar followed her attention and soon realized that he could hear something as well: movement and voices, mingled between the sound of rustling cloth and the thump of feet. Someone was approaching. An animal handler?

This new person gave the pup a similar feeling to the last, and she had tucked herself back behind his legs by the time the person they had requested emerged. A woman, young, brown haired with a distinct peppering of freckles across her face. She moved with confidence; she knew the Pride, she knew her own skill and she knew her destination.

She could only be here for one reason.

“I was told you need help with a dog,” the woman said, posture both welcoming and simultaneously wary. “I am an animal doctor.”

He had been correct, then.

Affirmation, Shahar nodded. Assistance inquiry, have something, don’t know. He turned to the snowy creature behind him. Gentle, love, come out, safe.

She was reluctant, but a soft touch from the hunter eventually brought back that glimmer of hope that was quickly becoming familiar. Shahar stepped behind her and knelt, placing a hand on her shoulders to prevent her from hiding again. The pup was obviously nervous with the new situation, but was not at all ill-tempered; knowledge that this new female-smelling person posed no danger would quickly erase her nervousness.

This one, Shahar gestured. What is? I “have cats. No dogs before.” Although, to be fair, the pup couldn’t exactly be called a dog.

[Ruari Darkwind]

From where, how, calm, Ruari signed, silent as she lowered herself before the dog and slowly extended her free hand, a sign she meant as peaceful with the intention to introduce herself to the animal, and to coax her from her shyness so she may not hide. Ruari wished to instill peace, calm, admiration, into the animal, as if she did understand the hand signs of Pavi.

"Does it have a name?" She asked of Shahar, hands mute in her goal to assure the animal of her good intentions. Her body language lost the edge of wariness she'd expressed at first, slowly transitioning into something less unkind. It wasn't trust, but it was the calm she'd signed twice to the animal.

At the distance she was from the animal, whether or not she'd accepted Ruari's sign of peace and interest, Ruari was able to eye the beast and appraise her, as she'd done hunting cats and tracking dogs before, and her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Are you sure it is a dog?"

Her appraisal of the animal's features, of it's facial structure and body, told her that it wasn't much similar to the dogs she'd come into contact with. The ears were smaller, and the white coat was completely unlike any dog she'd seen, and even more subtle was the narrow chest and hips, and the dogs that ran with the hunters in Endrykas were much different, their bodies wider in the chest and their paws less turned out.

If Ruari had to guess, and she would be guessing as she hadn't actually properly examined one, she would have to guess that this animal was a wolf, and she would have to base her guess off of the un-dog like features it possessed, as it resembled a dog enough to convince even this man that it was a dog.

At last, she looked up at the man to address him, but she remained crouched at the same level as the beast. "Where is it from? How old is it?" Her hands, though not as accusatory as her voice, spoke of alarm, curiosity, demand, but she tried to pass along calm to the animal, and even further, to the cat that had come in with them.

[Colt]

The woman knelt, which initially made the pup even more uncomfortable; closer, big, close come why hurt me?

[i]Calm no hurt, protect no harm, curious friend seek know more.

That, combined with the fact that the woman had also made herself much smaller, assuaged the pup’s unease, at least enough that the desire to hide slipped slowly away.

The woman extended her hand for the pup to inspect, simultaneously letting inquiries flicker over her body. Where, how, both questions that Shahar himself wasn’t entirely sure how to answer. What exactly was the correct response to such a thing?

The pup leaned forward and sniffed the offered hand cautiously, and again her thoughts were tinted with hope. The hand didn’t smell bad, apparently, as the pup continued on, taking a single step forward, sniffing down the woman’s wrist and even standing to walk towards her curiously. This woman continued to lack any trace of threat, which made the pup more confident in her exploration; now that she was more comfortable, she wanted to properly meet this odd new woman. She wanted a new friend.

Mysterious, was Shahar’s only ready answer to the woman’s unvoiced inquiry. She looked over the creature with a discerning eye, one that Shahar recognized as trained and experienced; she knew what she was looking for, and that filled him with a confidence of his own.

“Does it have a name?”

A name? Shahar realized that the thought of a verbal name hadn’t even crossed his mind. It seemed almost unnecessary; to him, and to the pup, it was unnecessary. He did have a name for her, but it was a name made out of thoughts and images and patterns of emotion, as was the pup’s name for him. It was a name infinitely more encompassing than any words could ever hope to be, and it was a name that was entirely impossible to say out loud. How could he possibly tell that to this woman? How could he possibly tell it to anyone, Naiya or even Khida?

The pup would need a different name. A name for others, a name for those that were not them and could not understand the nature of her true name. Shahar looked at the pup with a tilted head, and he made himself look at her from the outside. He tried to see her as this woman saw her, without knowing what Shahar knew. Young. Large. Wild. Unbearably fluffy. White as snow.

White as snow?

That would do as well as anything else.

“Snow,” Shahar said. It would serve the purpose of a voice-name.

Her examination was time-consuming in its deliberation; her eyes lingered on the ears, the face, the long, pointed muzzle, the shape of the chest and length of the legs. Shahar was silent, but he watched her, wondering what exactly she was seeing through those eyes that were tempered for animals, and tempered for seeing things that Shahar’s eyes could not. She looked, and he waited, and eventually she felt her examination was complete and looked back up to him.

“Where is it from?” she asked, accusation thick in her voice. “How old is it?”

Shahar didn’t much like her tone, and defensiveness found its way into his posture as a response. “Two seasons?” Guessing. He paused, considering his words before he answered her first question. This one from… what would she think when he told her? Would she refuse to examine the pup any farther? Would she distance herself from it and spread the word of the magic silver-chest pup? “... the Gods.” Gift. I… “The chest, silver.”

[Ruari Darkwind]

She let the dog approach her, cautious of moving in on the young animal so as to not startle her away and behind the man to bring her in. She knew this stage, having had to introduce herself first in her life to Rhoswen, and then to those animals kept at The Pride. Introducing herself to the dog-wolf was a practiced affair, and when the dog grew bolder and more curious, Ruari offered her a few experimental touches to also introduce her to that sensation. She wasn't aware of if he touched the animal, other than to urge her forward, and Ruari wouldn't miss a chance to socialize a beast before it got out of her sight. If she allowed, Ruari would even scratch behind her ears, along her neck and at her shoulders, where she expected there to be sweet spots for attention.

Ruari knew little of mysterious animals belonging to mysterious people, more accustom to looking over sick animals she'd seen before when they were younger and still lived in The Pride. This man was a stranger to her, a wolf and a cat as his companions, but it was only because he spoke her language like a Drykas would that she didn't back away then and there.

"Snow is a wolf," she said. There was uncertainty and reassurance there in equal measure, as she was sure that the wolf was young and still like a dog, still dependent and learning and not ready yet to tear into them as an older wolf may. "She's little like a dog, like the hunting dogs, do you see that?" Her evidence was offered vaguely, though, as handsign couldn't say where to look but only how it felt. The wolves had sharp ears that didn't go down, relaxed like a dog's would, and their tails didn't curl. "Do you have dogs already?"

[Colt]

The woman reached out as Snow explored further, eventually giving the pup a light, non-invasive touch. Snow startled and recoiled, but the woman’s hand was gentle and kind––not at all threatening, merely unexpected. The pup didn’t back away, although she didn’t immediately relax; turning to sniff the hand curiously, Snow let it remain as it was and turned her attention to the woman’s arm rather than the woman herself. At the silent agreement, the woman grew bolder in her movements, moving to the shoulders and neck with practiced scratches that made Snow’s tail wag in delighted pleasure. No, this woman was not at all threatening, and the pup quite liked what she was doing.

As for Shahar, the pup’s comfort made him ease up somewhat; the woman seemed to at least have Snow’s safety in mind, which had been Shahar’s primary worry in the first place. He observed the exchange silently, although an unconscious bit of approval flickered across the space between him and the pup that made Snow all the happier.

“Snow is a wolf,” the woman finally concluded.

Shahar wasn’t exactly surprised, although couldn’t help a disappointed sigh. He had been hoping it to be otherwise. There was an undeniably wildness in the shape of Snow’s head, in the curve of her spine and the length of her legs, and with her promised size it was a shape that could easily grow to be seen as dangerous.

“She’s a little like a dog, like the hunting dogs, do you see that?” the woman continued, gesturing vaguely to the pup’s body in general.

Shahar reflected agreement back to her; Snow was similar enough to a dog to not be mistaken for… a cat, although it was undeniable that she was no Luvanor or Imperial. Dogs were softer in shape, with more expressive faces. Even as a pup, Snow was made of angles and edges, built for survival rather than service.

She was indeed a wolf, then.

"Do you have dogs already?"

No, he replied. To Tuka, he gestured this one I have, three, siblings, long ago kittens, now adults.

[Ruari Darkwind]

Well, at least the wolf wasn't snarling or cowering, Ruari thought. She was fortunate, and so too did she consider the pup fortunate. It was social enough for now, friendly and curious and engaging, if a little wary. The coat was soft, too, if the animal needed to be put out, but hopefully a gift of the gods would not go down that road. She too had been given something from them, after all.

"I am not too strong with how to train animals, or even to work with wolves," she admitted after a moment of delighting the animal with affection. "Snow has a good build, and should be a good hunter." But that was what she thought of all wolves, beautiful and long-legged and ruthless as they were. "They are pack hunters, she should be trained with dogs, or if not dogs, but cats too may work."

Ruari tried to think of instances where cats and dogs were trained to hunt together here, but she really did have little familiarity with that aspect of work. It became a goal, at that moment, to correct that oversight; maybe some day, another person would come to her with the pup of a wolf and request help, and she needed to know then if what she offered now was what she should offer.

The veterinarian then suggested the idea that he should socialise the dog properly throughout training her so she didn't come across people as shy as she was, and also so she didn't barrel into people when she inevitably grey into the curious and rambunctious stage young dogs often do. Ruari tried to pass along the feeling that the wolf could be trained as a dog while retaining the caution that Snow was still a wolf and wolves, unlike dogs, grew up.

[Khida]

Ruari Darkwind

Should you return, please PM me and I will grade your posts.

Shahar Dawnwhisper

Skill	Points
Planning	+1
Investigation	+1

• Endrykas: everyday patterns of activity
• Investigation: taking questions to an expert
• Ruari Darkwind: an animal doctor
• Ruari Darkwind: gentle and patient with pups
• Snow: identified as wolf

Notes

Not a lot of skill usage I could award for Shahar here, but I tried to make up for it with lores.

Please let me know if you have any problems or concerns regarding your grade. Also, please edit your request to show this thread has been graded.