Solo A Welcome Distraction

[Kyo]

37th of Fall, 515 AV

Run, run!
He was too tired to run. Kyo walked instead.

He didn't know where he went, he just went. He did it for the sake of walking, of movement. Of doing something. Anything.

He was aware that his body was hurting something awful. He had been too hungry and too thirsty and too tired for too long, and now it hurt bad. When he put a hand to his belly he could feel the ribs and hips poking out there, and to look at his arm would be to see only wrists and elbows. He knew that he should rest for a few days or longer, curl up and sleep, fill his stomach, drink until he couldn't take another drop. But he didn't. He walked.

He walked because no matter how much his body hurt, inside, inside he was afraid it would hurt much worse if he stopped. There was a hole inside him that someone had dug up and been buried in. Before he had always run away from that emptiness. Now he was too weak to run, so he walked.

He didn't know how long he walked for. Maybe a day. Maybe longer. He felt the rain at one point, warm big drops that washed away most of the dirt and dust and blood and ran his hair --growing too long now-- into his wet eyes. Then there was the chill of what was probably night, and then the sun, not hot but sleepy-warm, settling on his head and shoulders and back. Though he felt better for being clean, he was still miserable. That wincing emptiness in his chest, dragging on him when he breathed. The hole. The burial ground.

He didn't want to think about it, so he walked.

[Kyo]

It took him a while to realize that at some point he had stopped walking and was now standing still. His mind was carefully blank, and so didn't recognize the difference. There was hardly a difference to recognize at all. His breath still panted out in short aching bursts, and his legs still swayed weakly under him. It was much like moving, though he didn't take a step.

When his mind finally woke up enough and saw he had stopped, he saw something else. A man under the overhanging canopy of a tent, sitting in the shade. Beside him a little basket. In the basket, puppies.

Without thinking, Kyo sank to one knee, then sat completely, watching the man and dogs. He rested his chin on his knee, arms wrapped to his sides as if he was cold. He was sure the man saw him looking, but he did not do anything about it, and so Kyo sat. The sun moved in the sky. The shadows lengthened.

While he waited, people came. Most of the pups had ribbons around their necks. Many of the ribbons were green, and it was the green-dressed people who came and got them and took them away. One was purple, and one a sunny yellow-gold. A few other puppies had no ribbons, and yet still they were taken, exchanged in that special illogical way that only people have-- one thing given for another freely, without a fight or show of dominance or decisive winner. Buy and sell, Kyo's tired mind supplied, though the words held no true meaning to him.

It was getting dark, the air growing chill. The man and Kyo sat. The puppies were gone all except the last. The man got up and went into the tent. Kyo could hear him talking to someone, though he didn't know what was said. The man came back outside, bent, and picked up the lone pup by the scruff of the neck.

Kyo was on his feet.

He didn't know what he was doing. He crossed to the tent. The man stopped, asked him something --he didn't know what-- flapping his free hand into shapes. Kyo reached for the pup and the man held it back. Said something again. Kyo just looked at him.

Then he remembered. Buy and sell. An exchange.

He reached into his pocket and brought out the weird shining monies that the human-forms seemed to like so much. The man looked down at his spread palm. Asked something again. Kyo extended his open hand further towards him. Almost confused, the man reached out with his free hand, took some of the monies, leaving others. Then, with the same motion, the man held out the hand that still had the pup by the scruff. Kyo put the rest of the monies back in his pocket and reached for the dog. This time, the man let him take him.

The puppy barely sniffed at him, cocking its head, then curled to chew on his fingers. It hurt more than Kyo expected. Then he remembered the sore, raw state his hands and feet were in. He smiled. The man smiled, too, did something with his hands, and went back into the tent. Kyo turned and left.

---

Back at the tent he was able to sleep for the first time in days. Lonely. He had been lonely. His dogs were far into the grass, to stay safe from the hunters in the city. Now, in the tent, the pup lay curled by his side when he shifted to coyote-form, warm and solid and sometimes licking at Kyo's nose.

Receipt and OOC Note-25.0.0 gm for a Dynakuva Painted Desert Dog

Note: I'll leave it to the grader to see if the guy selling the puppies swindled Kyo out of more than 25 gm. Kyo can't count and doesn't yet understand the monetary system, so relies on store owners and the like to take his money in good faith.

[Kyo]

38th of Fall, 515 AV

He didn't want to wake up, but there was a rumbling. At first, sleepy and confused, he thought it was his stomach. Then he realized the rumbling was near his head. He lifted his face and felt something pull at his ear-- on the left side, the one that wasn't hurt. He twisted to look, creaking open one eye, and it was the pup, rumbling at him with a tiny growl, gnawing on any part of the coyote he could get to. Ears, whiskers, paws, tail. The pup gathered his feet under him and pounced onto the coyote's face.

The coyote flopped over and rolled so the pup was on his other side. He tucked his nose back under his tail, trying to get some more much-needed sleep... but there the pup was, again, crawling over him, little paws pressing into his stomach and side. With a whuff of exhaled air --a doggy sigh-- the coyote stretched to his feet.

It hurt. It hurt a lot to move. He let out a whimper and shifted human. The puppy, dazzled by the short, brief glimmer of light, flopped to his belly on the ground, nose peeking behind his paws. Kyo yanked on his pants --now nearly so ragged as to be falling apart-- and picked up the little dog by the scruff of the neck, settling him into the crook of his arm. The puppy squirmed and yipped, maybe confused by the shift, maybe complaining, and maybe just wanting to play.

Aching so badly it felt like his joints were blocks of stone, Kyo left the tent. It was early morning, so early that the sun had barely risen, the ground still steaming from the night's dew. But already there were many people up. Before, when Kyo had walked human-form through the camp --the city was like one BIG camp, with many fires and many places to sleep and things to do-- the tent-folk had looked at him with hard eyes, seeing his scruffy clothes and injuries, and thinking that he was a stranger, and maybe that he was trouble. Now he saw a child smile and wave, and stop to pet the puppy, who wriggled and wagged his short tail. Kyo smiled and walked on, limping more than he had yesterday, the night's deep rest having made his damaged muscles stiff. He stretched the kinks out of his legs as he went, past tent after tent, following his nose to the edge of the city, and then beyond.

He did not go far into what was called the Sea of Grass. He went just far enough, then set the pup down, whistled once, loud --making the pup startle comically-- and then shifted coyote.

Again the puppy went down to his belly, nudging up with his little paws, and the coyote had to wonder if it really was some sort of reaction the pup had to his shifting-- from coyote to human-form and back again. Whatever the reason, as soon as the coyote nudged him with his nose the little pup was back up, bouncing on his paws, curiously sniffing at the larger canine's face, ears perked.

[Kyo]

His dogs showed up not long after. When they arrived the coyote was laying on his back with the pup chewing his left ear again. The coyote rolled back to his feet, and Brother came to sniff at him and rub shoulders, tail wagging away. Sister was still mostly in the grass, partially hidden, and she let out a low growl as Brother bumped noses with the pup, swapping scents. Instantly the puppy froze, and then yipped and raced right at her.

Sister stepped out of the grass and batted him down with a sweep of one paw, contemptuous, but the pup only rolled to his back and then back onto his feet, jumping and wiggling and wagging tail. Sister snorted, nose in the air, and came to thump the coyote in greeting. The puppy followed on her heels, earning another swat.

The coyote coughed out a chuckle, and Sister bashed into him again, this time harder. He had to stumble along on limping paws for a moment after that, aches and pains flashing up, but Sister just raised her nose again, unrepentant.

It was time to move out a little further, and look for a quick hunt, except when the others started moving --Brother and Sister so used to the routine that they didn't even think about it-- the pup lagged behind, chewing on a piece of grass. The coyote went back and pushed him along to get going, but not soon after the pup was back at it, trying to clamp his teeth to Sister's tail and earning a warning snarl and some kicked dirt from her hind legs. The coyote had to go over and set the pup straight again.

And then again in a few more moments, when he rushed under the coyote's legs and nearly tripped him up.

And then again when he went back to playing in the grass, this time chasing bugs.

Not really irritated, mostly confused, the coyote stopped and sat back on his haunches, watching the little dog as he romped and played. Sister disappeared somewhere and the pup went looking for her, tagging along behind, not using his nose to scent her trail but perking his ears this way and that. Brother lolled on the ground, and the coyote settled into his own laying position.

The pup was perplexing. It was like he didn't know how to follow a command, like to walk quiet and quickly with the rest of the group. Instead all he wanted to do was mess around and play, no matter how many times he was corrected.

The coyote tried to think back to when Brother and Sister were more like son and daughter, a long time ago when they were the pups he found and raised with his coyote-girl. He couldn't remember them being quite like this. Playful, but not bad-playful, at all the wrong times. They had been in a den for a while, and then had quickly learned to hunt the small easy things, like mice in snow and crickets.

He snuffled his nose, not knowing quite what to think of the pup as he watched him gambol around, continuing to chase Sister, who snarled and caused the pup to roll to his back, batting paws playfully.

Well, at least the coyote's attention was focused today, instead of the blank-mind, and he was already starting to feel stronger because of the sleep he had gotten with the pup last night. Now his belly was hungry, though. Whether the pup knew better or no, it was time to hunt.

[Kyo]

The coyote ended up leaving Brother to watch the pup --something the easy-going dog would be good at-- while he and Sister hunted up some rabbits.

They did not have to range as far as the coyote thought they might, being so close to the tent city that it would likely scare prey away; his muscles were merely warming --not exhausted-tired like before-- when he caught the first scent. Sister was off doing her own hunting, and so the coyote was alone for the moment.

Somehow the loneliness wasn't as bad as it had been before. Maybe it was because he had something to focus on now. He could still feel that grave-dug hole inside his chest, squeezing with every breath, but now he could think past it, his mind no longer dull and numb.

Rabbits were some of the easiest prey to catch, besides mice and other small snacks like that. The key was being quiet, then getting them to jump. The coyote slunk through the grasses, nose to the ground, feeling a slight burn in his shoulders from the position. The ground was good for scenting today; there had been rain within the last few days, and everything was nice and damp.

He found a trail and followed it, snuffling along, clearing his nose to the air every so often to refresh the scent. There was a glimmer of wet leaves moving; the coyote leapt, and the rabbit leapt with, darting forward. His legs hurting more now, the coyote gave chase, leading the rabbit in a loose circle as it ran, trying to steer it from behind. As it turned, he cut sharply in, snagging it by the fur on the back. It kicked once, twice and he gave it a quick shake, then pressed it to the ground to bite through the bone in the neck. The rabbit went limp in his jaws, and he gave another shake, this time of his body, trying to shiver the slight, working pain away like he would a layer of raindrops.

His limp was too great now to catch much of anything else, so he spent a while scenting Sister's trail and following to her catch. She'd also caught a rabbit, and had loped back around to where Brother and the pup were laying low. The coyote followed behind, then came to the little dirt-pressed clearing they'd settled into.

Brother and Sister were fighting over what was left of her catch, teasing and playing as they ripped off plump chunks of fur and meat. The pup was laying on his side on the ground not too far away, watching and whining and apparently chastised due to his tucked tail, likely Sister's doing. She wasn't going to share her food with him.

The coyote pawed up and the pup began wagging his tail and perking his ears. He sniffed at the rabbit but didn't seem to know what to do --again, this was odd to the coyote-- and so simply watched as the coyote cleaned the carcass of bits of fur, chomping down the meat and hot bits of organ, for now avoiding the bones, gnawing them clean. The food felt good in his stomach, but he had to regurgitate for the pup to eat, too. Then he went back to his own meal, this time crunching bone, something the pup's young stomach might have had trouble with.

---

After they were done Brother and Sister ran off to hunt more. The coyote tried to get the pup to hunt crickets, which was an easy feast during the summer and fall seasons. But, like before, he just didn't know what to do.

If the coyote had been human-form he would have scratched his head. Had the pup even been out in the grass before? He didn't act like he had, though he was not afraid. Maybe his pup-mother before had not known how to hunt. But that was as foreign an idea to the coyote as was a pup not showing interest in hunting. How could a mother not know how to hunt for her young? How could a mother not teach her young something so important? Perhaps before now the pup had been only on milk. The coyote had no milk to give; the pup would have to make do with a new type of meal.

[Kyo]

He was back in the tent-city, back in human-form, the pup curled in his arm. After the early morning excitement, the pup had fallen asleep, and now lay limp on his back. Occasionally he would twitch as if dreaming; Kyo hoped he was dreaming of the hunt. As if he might learn even as he slept.

Coyote fathers helped raise the young, so it did not feel odd to Kyo to do the things necessary to keep the pup in good health. When they got back to the tent, Kyo shifted coyote again and woke the pup for a good grooming, licking and biting out any burrs or bugs --ticks, fleas-- that might have settled on the pup's coat out in the grass. Afterwards they lay together and snoozed in the entrance of the tent where the morning light hit the ground, and the coyote was glad not to dream his own dreams, which had often been dark and frightening this past season.

[Tribal]

The trader took pity on the on the lean young man who stood in front of him with arm outstretched, offering whatever coin the trader would require in order for Kyo to attain the last pup. He had done well with sales today and Kyo, who obviously struggled with the language and the idea of simple mathematics, was given the pup for the low price of twenty gold miza (he was a bit of a runt anyway).

G R A D E S

Kyo

Experience

• Observation: 3
• Endurance: 1
• Logic: 2
• Negotiation: 1
• Animal Husbandry: 3
• Tracking: 1
• Hunting: 1
• Running: 1
• Grooming: 1

Lore

• Kyo: What it feels like to starve
• Emerald Clan: Infamous Hunters under a banner of green
• Pavi: A language spoken by the Drykas
• Pavi: A sign-language
• Pavi: A quick spoken language
• Animal Husbandry: Training a dog to come to your call
• The Sea of Grass: Wide open grasslands with many hidden dangers
• The Sea of Grass: A rich food source
• Endrykas: The City of Tents

Rewards

Desert Dog for 20 GM [make sure this is deducted from your ledger]

Notes

I really enjoyed reading this; you have a great writing style that I find very interesting. Enjoy the rewards; looking forward to seeing more of your work up for grading soon.