Bothersome Flirt

[Shantik]

A flash of deep golden-brown fur appeared between two graves. Light, golden-brown eyes flicked from side to side, searching the wary place. A slightly narrow face poked out from behind a stone, a curious expression on the maw. Austin's black ears perked with interest at every little sound as he took his steps forward. He'd been through cemetaries before, but tonight, this one just seemed so eiry. And the nightly howls from those crazy, short-tempered wolves downwind weren't helping.

Austin took another step, an unusual scent of fear begining to come off him. He was new to this place, and since his new wanderings had placed him here, his usual care-free attitude was beginning to wane. Not to mention the lack of females around was starting to really bore his life.

Finally, he le out a sigh and plopped down on the grass, looking out into the sea of gravestones. Beneath each one, he knew, lay a man or woman, a human. No dogs were buried her. No cats. Not even birds. Just humans. How selfish can a species get? What, are animals not worthy to get a proper grave?

He let out a growl and rested his head on the ground, right on his gold-toed black paws. As if this day could get no worse...His ears flicked down when he felt a slight trikle of rain, but ignored it. So what? Rain was good. He continued laying down, wishing that there was soeone here to lighten his mood.

[Donn]

Lost. That's what Thorfinn was, he realised after he'd been walking for about twenty minutes. He thought he had been walking in a straight line, but as the Jämthund past by the same grave ("Orothe the Unknown lies here - Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo") For the third time, he finally understood his predicament. Then the rain started. It soon had Thorfinn's long, light brown, almost yellow fur droop down, and the drops made echoey noises as they struck the dog's Viking helmet.

"Ach, this is the worst run bad luck I've ever had!" he cursed to himself, loudly. He was exaggerating, of course, but his forceful voice would almost convince you that it really was the worst luck he'd had. As he went by another gravestone, which looked horribly familiar, another creature came into sight. It was lying down, and Thorfinn thought it was dead. He couldn't see it too well in this light. Thorfinn kept as quiet as possible, sniffing. He didn't think it was dead now, he could hear it breathing. Unless... something else was breathing. Thorfinn gulped, as his imagination made him think of all kinds of beasts which might have slain that fellow.

He turned around. Graves. Turned again. More graves. And back. The body lying down. Thorfinn was nervous, and he realised for the past few minutes that he'd been chewing the light brown braids on his chin. He spat them out in annoyance. "I'm a Viking!" He reminded himself, trying to feel confident, whilst whispering it at the same time. Then a howl rang through the graveyard. Thorfinn couldn't bear this much longer. He crept up noisily to Austin's side, and loudly whispered "Hello?". He was trying to be as quiet as possible, but with Thorfinn, quiet was near an impossibility.

[Shantik]

Austin had found it remarkably hard to rest his weary head when he kept hearing loud barks and such from the outside world. They'd not been there a moment before...had they? Ah, well. He ignored them ,moving into a new position, keeping very still as he usually did when sleeping. He was often extremly still as he rested, almost never making a move. then his ears flicked very slightly as the sounds came closer.

The cry and the disticnt word 'Viking' caught Austin's immediette interest as he blinked his eyes open very slightly. He'd heard of Vikings. They were quite interesting and he'd never actually met one. What a strange coincedence. He felt a soft nose touch his fur and he twitched, slowly getting up, more words reaching his ears. He didn't hear them properly in his foggy mind, but he understood curiousity and the hint of fear in the tone.

"Hey there." Austin greeted, blinking to get a better look at the dog.

[Donn]

He was alive. And all right, from the sound of things. Thorfinn stood back a bit, and watched him carefully. Hopefully, this dog was familiar with the graveyard, or at least knew a way out, because Thorfinn had just about given up trying to find an exit. And the sooner the better, for the Viking had business in lands further on past the graveyard, along Dante's Pass, then further south. Provided he didn't get lost along there either.

Thorfinn completely forgot he was supposed to be quiet, ,and said out loud in his carrying voice, getting straight to the point. "Where's der exit?" he asked, and his words echoed a bit in the distance, making him wince, though he still decided to continue speaking, albeit in a more hushed tone now. "I need to get out, for I must travel South!" He said determinedly. For the moment, he forgot to introduce himself, the desire to leave made him forget such things.

[Shantik]

"Me? Know the way out?" Austin chuckled, but sat and looked about, trying to stop an end to the horizon of gravestones. He realized slowly that he might just be...oh, boy...could he be lost? He shook off the idea. Naah, if he was lost, he couldn't help, and he could ALWAYS help...right?

He turned to the other and pointed his ears towards the southern horizon. "Then we head south. Come on. If we head in a straight line, we should be out in no time!" He smiled and lept down a sharp decline and looked back up at the Viking dog. "Well, you coming, Master Viking?"

[Donn]

Thorfinn hesitated. He had just been attempting to travel in a straight line for some time now, and he wasn't sure if that was the best plan they could come up with. 'Well, you coming, Master Viking?". Thorfinn, smiled at the recognition of what he was, and followed. However he felt that he should introduce himself, as he didn't really want to be addressed as 'Viking" for the remainder oft he trip. Plus he didn't know the other dog's name.

"Ah, my name is Thorfinn. I do not know your name though." he pointed out. His Norse accent made him roll his "r"s a little bit. He caught up to Austin and kept with the dog's pace. He wondered how the dog knew that was South. He usually used the sun as an indication of direction, but it was hidden by clouds, which continued to rain on the graveyard.

[Shantik]

Austin smiled. "Thorfinn, eh? Cool. My name's Austin." He grinned and jutted his nose to the direction he was headed. "The wolves howl from the other directions. If we're headed south, there's that canyon, Dante's Pass? Well, wolves don't usually like canyons, so I'd suspect that we wouldn't hear howls from this side." He explained, trotting on, constantly flicking his ears to listen in more closely on the howls.

(Ack! SHORT!! Sorry, I'm short on thoughts of how to relpy...braindead...)

[Donn]

((I know the feeling all too well... ))

"Ha!" Thorfinn barked out a laugh. He didn't want to look afraid of wolves in Austin's presence, especially since he had decided that he would actively be as much of a Viking threat to Sallin as he could. Their ideals disgusted him, and the next time he saw a Sallin member... well... they wouldn't be too well off. But somehow this graveyard made the wolves sound more dangerous, more... more... scary?

Looking confident, he spoke again. "Don't worry too much about the wolves. They don't scare me! I'm a Viking!" Perhaps Thorfinn was a dog that said that phrase too much, but it made him feel better, and his slightly less intelligent nature often made him forget that he'd said it only a few minutes before. It wasn't something he could help. The light brown Viking dog kept following Austin, secretly as alert as possible for movement, despite trying to look carefree at the same time.

[Shantik]

Austin grinned wickedly. "I'm not worried about the wolves, but if you are, that's fine." He ran forward a ways and sniffed at the ground. He snorted, his nose feeling dead the minute he set it to the ground. All he could scent was death all around. Boy, did that makes things a whole lot more eirree...

He shivered and turned back to Thorfinn. "Hey, Viking, could you make a slight promise not to run at first sign of danger? Sorry if I sound accusing, but I've had that happen WAY too many times."

[Donn]

"Eh?" Thorfinn's slower mind didn't process that as quickly as Austin perhaps would have expected. Viking? Yes, he was a Viking, but they'd covered his name already hadn't they? "Er, Thorfinn." he said. "My name is Thorfinn, remember?". And hadn't he already explained what he thought of danger? Hadn't he already pointed out he was a Viking, and therefore wasn't afraid of anything... except graveyards.

"No, I'm not going to run away from danger, I wouldn't be much of a Viking warrior if I did that, now would I, silly Austin!" He roared happily. Honestly, Austin was a little bit stupid to think those things, Thorfinn thought, despite the stupidity being the other way around. "Don't you worry about a thing, with me here!" he proclaimed. "In fact, you have to promise the same thing, or Thorfinn will be lost again!"

[Shantik]

Austin let out a fake cough. Who is this dolt? He thought. He shook his head. "Whatever...Listen...I - don't - care - about- your - pride." He growled, taking a seat on a hillock. "Personally, if you have too much of that, it could get you killed." He launched up and sank his teeth into a magpie that had been asleep in the tree above him. He flicked his ears and began wolfing down the small meal. He hadn't realized just how hungry he was until he began eating, and he wasn't about to share.

[Donn]

Thorfinn let out a hearty laugh. "Oh, you are a silly dog, aren't you Austin! Vikings are always proud! That's a given, no?" He kept laughing. "And I'm not dead yet! Ha! So, where are you headed, then, grumpy?" he asked. Since having this conversation with Austin, however rude he was being, Thorfinn felt better, forgetting the problems of being lost a few minutes ago. His memory didn't really have a place for times of fear, instead highlighting the better parts of Thorfinn's life, which suited the dog fine. He noted the magpie, now being devoured, and looked up at where Austin had found it. Magpie was no suitable meal for a warrior like him, no! He needed something more... meaty. Plus he didn't know if he could jump that far, and didn't want to look the fool for trying.

[Shantik]

Austin twitched slightly. Hewasn't sure if he liked the idea of walking around with some prideful idiot. He sighed and stalked forward. In a flash he ran forward, dissapearing momentarily. He came back with a faceful of claws and scratches, many bleeding, and a dead crow. "Here." He said, tossing it to the viking. "And we're heading south. Like you wanted. Not like I have a place to go anyway."

[Donn]

Thorfinn raised an eyebrow at the dead crow. "Thanks, friend. I suppose I'll need that." He listened further. Nowhere to go? How strange. Thorfinn didn't think that the dog lived in the graveyard, that would be absurd, but why was he here? Just visiting? Maybe he was running away from something. Thorfinn thought over what Austin's motive was as he downed the crow at a fairly fast rate.

Finishing the bird, Thorfinn spoke again to Austin. "Well, I'm going to look if I can join up with the pack called Synl. If you've nowhere to go, I don't know, maybe you'd like to come, no?" He asked.

[Shantik]

Austin flinched and he stopped dead. His eyes flased with sme new etin and he shk his head furiusly. "N..n...I, um...I'll just lead you to where you wanna go then I'll be on my own merry way." He tried to sound cheery, but something stopped him. He scrapped a load of dirt over his finished kill and stepped over the make-shift grave.

"We should get going then. We don't want things to get any creepier, do we?" He chuckled half-heartedly and dashed forward, leaping carefully over gravestones and looking back at the viking dog. "Come on, then!"