[open] IT'S TOO EARLY FOR SURRENDER, TOO LATE FOR A PRAYER

[pawper]

Who: Lys a wolf a big fluffy dog + you, random passerby, trouble
When: Early-ish April
Where: School grounds, First and Second Ring (public roads), eventually the Third Ring (docks)
What: BEEP BEEP DOGGO DELIVERY

[Did you ever see the movie Balto? More or less based on a true story, gets mistaken for the work of Don Bluth, was something of a childhood awakening for furries — ...wait. Anyway, there was a scene at the beginning of said movie where the part-dog, part-wolf protagonist traverses a small Alaskian town by way of various parkour tricks, like running across fences and jumping between rooftops. Quick, nimble, and sure-footed, he made clever use of his environment to circumvent a lack of opposable thumbs.

Imagine that, but with a bigger, fluffier, and not quite as graceful creature racing through the streets of Anastara on a beeline for the docks, a package clutched tightly between their jaws. Dodging, sliding, even jumping headlong over obstacles, the beast frantically attempts to navigate through districts that have, on today of all days, become absurdly crowded: spilled boxes, milling pedestrians, workers carrying gigantic panes of glass and crystal, random flocks of angry geese, spontaneous wizard duels, and so much else that it might lead one to wonder if the canine had been a very, very bad dog in a previous life.

Try to clear a path? Deliberately block the way? Attempt to steal the mystery package? Come one, come all!]

Comments

[nomoremistergneissguy]

[The geese were what got Cliff, originally. Twitching. Does he have PTSD? Maaaaybe. But he's watching the large fluffdog attempt to make its way through the flock--and at least most of them don't seem to wield magic...

And since it appears safe (oh fraw he may regret this later), he charges his way after the geese like the big dork he really is, arms raised, bellowing loudly, with Rounder speeding around in his wake like an ambulatory bowling ball (isn't he?), making sure the path stays clear for the pooch. Cliff, meanwhile, cheers her (her?) on.]

Go on, go! You can do it! [His uncle would probably never stoop to such a thing, but he figures only the most intelligent regular dog would not enjoy shredding the parcel. She's got to be someone's familiar.]

[pawper]

[A person wouldn't be wrong to think that simply biting the angry featherbags was the obvious solution; her teeth are large and sharp, cradled in powerful jaws. And yet she seems almost cowardly when first confronted with the geese, bullied away from exploiting openings in the flock by flapping wings and snapping beaks. Head bowed, ears flattened against her skull, she makes low whining noises in her throat as she paces from side to side, narrowly dodging their aggressive charges.

When Cliff opens a way through, she wastes no time in darting past before the scattered geese can rally. Glancing over a broad, black-furred shoulder, she barks her thanks!....dropping the package to do so, whoops. Cue an immediate attempt to pick it back up, nosing the parcel around the floor with growing desperation as her jaws fail to properly grasp it.]

[nomoremistergneissguy]

[Luckily, the familiar is there, helpfully picking up the parcel and offering it up--until the angry honking increases, splitting the air--including an offended and startled yell from Cliff.

Seems he and these geese have, indeed, met before...and they remember him. To his dismay. He hadn't had much luck with their magical prowess before--and he wasn't having much now, either.

He was, however, quite prepared to beat a hasty (and perhaps singed) retreat, but not before the familiar and its package got away. No need to have the geese turn their ire on her and delay the mission! Cliff could make it from here.

He hoped.

For his part, Rounder clearly wants to go help Cliff, miracle of miracles, but he knows how his master is, and that package needs to go with the pooch. So the marble sphere is clearly anxious, but not willing to play keep-away with that ever important parcel. But waiting isn't easy.]

[pawper]

[The package is snatched neatly from Rounder's hand, tail wagging. She moves to take her leave, then stops. Dithering over what to do, great fluffy head swiveling between Cliff and the geese and the road ahead. The package is due at the docks; she's already running short on time.

But those sure are some angry geese with smoke curling from their beaks.

.....

Stowing the package safely behind some roadside crates, the beast turns swiftly on her paws and goes charging back toward the angry flock, leaping into the thick of them and nipping sternly at the nearest feathered bottom.]

[nomoremistergneissguy]

Don't you have someplace to be? [Not that the pooch can really understand him, he thinks, but Cliff is tied between being grateful for the help, and dismayed because whatever the familiar's mission is, now he's bollocksing it up!]

I'm not really planning on staying if I can help it, so you can go! Thank you for helping me, though!

[Mostly he's doing his best to Discover a buckler shield to stave off the worst of the goosey blasts, but he's too knowledgeable of flock tactics to hang around and take a beating. Even Rounder has his arms up in the air, waving around what are clearly his make of smoke bombs...]

[pawper]

[She flicks an ear at him, barks in a way that might indicate agreement, acknowledgement, or simply an instinctive response to the sound of his voice.

Yes, she does have someplace to be. Yes, it would be quite upsetting to face a scolding for getting there too late. But her conscience simply won't allow her to turn tail (to borrow a phrase) on someone in trouble. Especially if they were in said trouble on her account, even tangentially.

So resolved, she snatches one of the geese by the webbed leg and tosses them a good distance, trying to synergize with Cliff and Rounder to force an opening they could all skedaddle through.]

[nomoremistergneissguy]

Okay. [Like he gets it. He doesn't, not really, but clearly the dog is not going to let him go this alone, so he better get his ass in gear, Cliff thinks.]

Rounder, let 'em fly!

[With that, Cliff sweeps the buckler at the nearest goose--startling it into flight. The next one gets caught up on the shield and launched into the air--apparently he thought her idea was a good one. With that, he starts to charge away from the geese. Rounder does launch his smoke bombs, left and right--they should not irritate the lungs much, but the clouds of thick, white smoke obfuscate everyone nicely. Thankfully the dog has a sense of smell, and Rounder doesn't need to see. He'll drag Cliff out slowly, by tugging the hem of his robe and leading him in the right direction. It'll slow his master down a bit, but not really stop him...]

[mithrarin]

Hey, look out!

[That dog's headed straight into a disaster -- Dust can see it from here, where apparently a fruit cart has overturned and spilled cabbages oranges all over the street!]

[He darts forward in a futile attempt to catch up, not certain what he can do. Whatever that package is, something seems urgent about it!]

[pawper]

[She manages to sidestep most of the rolling cabbages oranges, driven (obsessed, really) to never waste food whenever possible, including by way of squashing a perfectly good morsel into the dirt. But there's just so many of the oranges, a verifiable floodtide spilling from the fallen cart, that the inevitable happens: big paws land smack upon a rolling orange, her legs start flailing around in a futile bid for balance, and the beast goes skidding along the wave of treacherous fruit until she smacks headlong into the wheels of another cart.

And.....gets stuck between the spokes. Oh bother.]

[mithrarin]

[Oh -- no, that isn't good! If that cart moves --]

[Dust snatches a board from where it leans up against the wall, then flings it forward. In the same motion he jumps onto it, slamming his heels down so the board skids across the orange-juice-slicked street. His balance lasts just long enough for him to reach the cart, and as the board skitters off underneath it, he jumps off, ramming the Blade of Ahrah into the pavement through the spokes of the frontmost wheel where the puppy is not.]

[There. It won't move, not till she's free.]

[pawper]

[Radical improvisation, my dude! Not that the critter got to see any of it, but she would totally be impressed if she had.

A moment or two of stunned panic, whining loudly from around the package still clutched in her mouth between desperate attempts to yank her head out from between the spokes. Then she seems to calm, quietening down as she steadies her back paws and arches her back. The pulling resumes in a much more calculated and insistent fashion, seemingly uncaring as to whether or not she'll break something in trying.]

[mithrarin]

[What else can he do at this point but offer what aid he can? Dust quickly steps to the canine's side, then grabs the spoke she's caught under with one hand and pulls. His strength is enough to make it flex a little, as he wraps his other arm around her to add some more power to her efforts.]

[pawper]

[She tense briefly at his touch, not afraid so much as startled. But only for a moment, long enough to process that his arm around her wasn't accompanied by a stabbing blade or something equally unpleasant. Sometimes her wolf form had a tendency to be....less than warmly received, in so many words.

The weakened spoke, combined with their mutual effort, ultimately gets the job done. Unfortunately, one of her large ears catches on a nail jutting from the cart's underside as her head finally pops free, tearing open from base to tip in a spout of dripping blood.]

[mithrarin]

[Dust recoils with the sudden feeling like he's been punched in the gut. Except this one is actually an effective punch to the gut, something that passes his guards and defense to leave his stomach roiling in pain.]

[He'd tried to help, and he'd done -- this. This is his fault.]

[The fingers of the hand he's leaning on curl, like he's trying to rip the street out of the ground.]

Let me bandage that. Then, we will get you where you need to be. Then I will take you to get that properly treated.

[pawper]

[Does it hurt? Of course it does. But she's also lived through a lot worse, come back from trauma that made a torn ear look like a paper cut. So she doesn't immediately understand what he's talking about at first, despite being fully cognizant of the pain: a sharp, stinging ache that throbs with every heartbeat.

She looks up at him, dark brown eyes widening in puppylike confusion, and flicks the injured ear in a careless sort of way. Would give his hand a reassuring lick if he wasn't just as furry as her and thus vaguely suspect for reasons that could wait until later to be turned over in the mind, examined from all angles. But she does gently headbutt him in the chest with a soft whine, nothing of pain or distress in the sounds. Even wags her tail enthusiastically for good measure, lifting it high and proud like a banner in the wind.]

[mithrarin]

[Ah -- jeez, don't flick that ear, it just spatters blood everywhere, come on. Dust flinches slightly, though then comes a headbutt that catches him by surprise. Yeah, this must be someone's familiar; too smart to just be an ordinary canine.]

You know where you're going, so lead the way. I'll be with you.

[And in the meantime, he'll be looking for something to bandage that ear with. A piece of cloth will present itself somewhere in this town, no doubt.]

[pawper]

[An agreeable sort of bark, a gesture that might be reasonably interpreted as a nod, and she lopes off to retrieve the package she had dropped shortly before getting stuck, hooking jagged teeth through the loops of twine.

As far as scavenging for bandage material goes, he certainly has his pick of overturned carts with cloth or canvas awnings. Assuming he doesn't feel too guilty over pilfering them from their mysteriously absent owners, of course.]

[mithrarin]

[And dramatically ripping his own cloak, but with other options available he might skip that one. Instead, he scoops up a piece that hangs loose from one cart, following the dog over to kneel next to her.]

Okay, here we go.

[The best he can really do is wrap it up, hold the two sides of the tear together, and let coagulation do its work. But he'll do his darndest, darn it.]

[woo_oo]

[Webby sees the big pup for a total of three seconds.

GIANT DOG GIANT DOG GIANT DOG -

And thus decides to chase after it because she wants to know where it's going, what it is, and if she can pet it.]

This place is SO COOL!

[pawper]

[An excited shout like that could be referring to many things, really. The beast, not thinking it has anything to do with her, only glances over her shoulder out of reflexive curiosity, still running full tilt down the street.

Which means she doesn't notice the two wizards quarreling up ahead, wands emerging from pockets as their voices rise further with each barbed exchange. Something about the difference between newts and salamanders? The details are suddenly lost when the first wizard tries to set his companion's shoes on fire. The second wizard deflects the spell with a warding gesture, sending it flying into the street at a crazy angle, then immediately retaliates with an incantation of his own that swells the other's nose to the size of a grapefruit.

Because her luck is just that good, she catches the spell squarely on her bushy hindquarters as she races past the squabbling duo, dropping the package with a startled yelp when her tail bursts into flame.]

[woo_oo]

Oh, hey!

[She can watch the wizard duel another time, this is far more important!

She rushes towards the package, picking it up as best she can, and then fishes out her wand.]

Water spell, water spell, what was the water spell.... Um, like this?

[She points and aims her wand - here's hoping!]

[pawper]

[She's momentarily forgotten her mission in favor of rolling around desperately on the ground, trying to extinguish the flames by smothering them.

A stream of water from Webby's wand lands a successful hit! On her face.]

[woo_oo]

Yes! ... Wait, no. Wrong direction.

[Well, at least she knows the spell works, she just has to work on her aim. NOW she aims it at the actual fire.]

There we go! Hang on, pup!

[pawper]

[This time the spell works perfectly, engulfing her tail in a flood of water. Whining and sputtering, she blinks dark brown eyes up at Webby between swipes of heavy paws across her muzzle, trying to wipe droplets from her furry face.]

[woo_oo]

Great, it's all out!

[Pleased, she bounds up to the pop, holding up the package.]

Here you go, safe and sound! ... Are you hurt?

[pawper]

[A moment wherein she only blinks some more, then tilts her head to the side and barks once, quietly, nosing lightly at the package before accepting it from Webby with due care. Her teeth are rather big and sharp, after all.

As though suddenly remembering her tail had indeed been on fire for several seconds, she leans over to sniff at it. The fur is scorched in places, singed blacker than its already black hue, but the skin beneath seems untouched. A thick pelt was useful for more than keeping out the winter cold, apparently.]

[woo_oo]

[That's a relief! She smiles, glad that giant pupper does not have giant injuries.]

Great! Those guys were jerks... c'mon, let's get going! We don't want that package to be late!

[And yes, she absolutely does believe she's coming along.]

[pawper]

[An extremely questioning bark, ears flattening back for a second before standing straight again.

Are you absolutely sure about this, strange duckgirl??]

[woo_oo]

C'mon, pleeease?

[Can you resist the doe eyes?]

I can help clear the path for you, and make sure no one else sets you on fire!

[pawper]

[She just doesn't want Webby to get hurt! But as there seems to be no real way of politely dissuading someone while in this form......the beast makes a noise that's not unlike a sigh and paws at the ground. Snorts a bit. Then bends all four shaggy legs at the knee, glancing at Webby with all the quiet expectation of a freshly-saddled horse.

All aboard the Awoo Express, choo choo.]

[woo_oo]

... THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!

[She didn't expect to RIDE the doggo!!! FUCK YEAH!!!! Giggling madly, she eagerly climbs on, making herself nice and comfortable behind the head.]

Onward, valiant canine!