Small Annoyances (End!)

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

((AHAHAHAH, I love Nova!))

Lariel saw his tail drop and mentally growled. She hadn't meant to make the poor pup cringe, but he'd called it a ROCK for crying out loud. She had to be honest with herself though, she had felt better at his submissive behavior. Even though she would one day walk on just two feet, she was still an animal with animal instincts.

If it's so important to you ... why do you drag it on the ground?

Lariel had stopped walking and felt the blue piece of her homeland knock into her foreleg. Her mouth dropped open as she turned to look at the firey pup. What a silly question! Or was it? Something so dear to her hear was being dragged on the ground wherever she went.
Immediately Lariel turned her body to look at the beautiful blue stone and studied it's edges. It showed some rough wear, but all in all it had held up to anything, anywhere she had been. It really wasn't worse for wear.

Embarrassed the thought had never occurred to her before, Lariel turned back around and stuck her nose in the air, resuming her walk down the street.

"Well, where else would I keep it? It's too heavy for an earing and I don't want to wear a silly necklace," Lariel said, knowing full well that she would have worn it as a necklace if she'd thought about it. "Besides, my homeland is sturdy and can't be damaged by being dragged and bounced behind me."
Lariel's tail swished behind her in irritation. "I bet if you carried a piece of land where you came from it would crumble before the first day ended," she added rudely.

[Kitty]

Higher up on your leg, on a shorter chain maybe... or fused to the ....

He stopped before finishing his sentence and blinked several times in rapid succession with his muzzle still partially open. On second thought perhaps the feline wouldn't enjoy hearing all the alternative placements of her precious little rock from someone who was, at the very least, half her own age. The open mawed expression quickly turned into a somewhat sheepish grin as he thumped his tail in a somewhat apologetic manner. He really, really didn't want the feline to whip around and bop him.

Well of course it wouldn't ... momma keeps it soft and pliable for all his pretty roses but if I grabbed a ro-

He stopped talking again before finishing the word 'rock'. Perhaps he was starting to gain a little tact as he grew? Granted it was coming to his head a little late but the hey, at least he was trying not to offend her further. That was a good start, right?

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Lariel's patience was running out, very quickly. She closed her eyes and ground her teeth together, counting to 10. Okay, 20. She only opened her eyes after the little menace had stopped talking. It was true what he said. She could have had her piece of homeland attached somewhere else, but the bracelet had been made for her by her family before she'd departed for the Capitol. The thought hadn't even occurred to her to change it; and she didn't often think of the blue stone with too conscious of a thought.

She was just about to say just that when the kid started talking again! Maybe he'd been dropped on the head, many times, when he was a little baby. He was awful annoying, Suits!

"We don't take just any part of our land with us! A sacred stone is picked out and then a ceremony is performed over it before it's given to its intended. It's a sacred stone!" Lariel was panting now and her voice was getting precariously close to shouting.

Taking many, many deep breaths the Bobcat began to calm down. "The bracelet was made for me by my family and means more to me than any chain or necklace I could buy. I like it where it is, so drop it if you know what's good for you." Lariel turned away from the firey pup and started walking again.

"And now, thanks to you, I need to get a drink." Any longer around this whelp, and she may just ring his neck. She hoped there was someone looking for a fight at the bar she was headed towards. She could use a good release.

[Kitty]

This kitty cat was actually pretty amusing when you looked past all the grumbly aggression of her nature. It's not like she turned around and swatted at him or anything like that so this was a pretty fun game so far and his tail was waving merrily, even when her voice rose in volume. He just simply stared at her with a grin on his face, which could definitely be misconstrued as the dreaded empty-head syndrome. He was listening and taking in what she had to say but at the same time he saw no reason to be nervous. He did, however, flip his ears back a bit to keep her tone from offending his keen sense of hearing to much.

I was just offering you ideas is all.

And there she went again, walking away from him and still not saying goodbye or any satisfactory dismissal.... thus he continued to follow her with his prance like walk. Even if he didn't quite understand what she meant by needing a drink ...

You're welcome?

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Lariel snarled to herself. It was true that he had offered her ideas. In fact, if she had to be honest with herself (though she didn't want to be), he had even offered her good ideas. She just couldn't stand to be upstaged by a mere pup! Her pride wouldn't let her take that kind of embarrassment. Lariel promised herself that as soon as she could, she'd forget the whole thing....pup included.

You're welcome?

Lariel nearly tripped over her own paws after that one. The worst thing? She felt one corner of her mouth lift up in slight amusement. Hoping to the Suits the pup hadn't seen it, Lariel continued to storm on. Realizing she had somewhat longer legs than the pup behind her the Bobcat glanced once behind her at the dog and took off at a full run, the piece of her homeland bouncing harmlessly on the ground beneath her.

Let him try to keep up with her now!

[Kitty]

When the bobcat took off at a run a broad grin spread over his muzzle, he had no idea she wanted to play! Well, always up for a good game ... especially of chase or tag, he set off after her with an excited little yip. Well this could definitely prove to be tons of fun and it didn't really matter if she got to far ahead ... after all people tended to move out of his way. Well that and the fact that he could track her with his ears because of that stone and her scent with his nose.

He pulled his wings in as close to his sides as was possible but they still sent little licks of flame up in vanishing trail behind him. He lowered his head and flattened his ears, determined to get his legs to carry him as fast as was possible. He was damned and determined to catch the feline and possibly gnaw on her a bit in a playful manner when he did,

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Lariel let her tongue hang out of her maw as she ran. Her muscles had protested at first, but now adrenaline was pumping through her veins and it just felt good to run! She tried to think of the last time she had done a flat out run, and realized with a twinge of sadness she couldn't think of it. Her life was a hectic one, that was true, but how often did she take any time for herself?

Lariel remembered running the valleys of Sorgaire Range over and over when she was younger. There had been no people to avoid crashing into and it had been plush grass under her paws instead the stone of the road. All of a sudden a great longing for home filled her chest and Lariel frowned. She hadn't seen her family in months, almost a year now. She hadn't even thought of them the entire time since. Maybe, if her business let her, she'd have to take a vacation back to the Range.

Lost in her own reverie, the Bobcat had failed to notice the strange looks people were throwing her way...and behind her. Slowing down a little bit and turning her head, Lariel's eyes widened in shock when she saw the fiery pup running behind her. What the hell! Did she have some sort of target painted on her back for annoyance?

Putting on another burst of speed, Lariel raced ahead in the general direction of the bar she remembered. She hadn't been to the establishment in awhile, so only vaguely knew where it was. Hopefully she'd be able to find it before the damned dog caught up with her.

[Kitty]

He was making headway and catching up to the feline that shared a few colors with his mother. He was going to catch her, he just had to! What was the fun in this game if he didn't? He ran like this all the time, sometimes after someone else and, well ... sometimes just to run and burn off some steam. And she was ... speeding up again? So it was now, officially a challenge!

A little growl rumbled up from his throat and he dropped his tail down and straightened it out, pushing himself a little harder to catch up with the blasted cat. He wasn't entirely certain how far he could run at top speed, but what better way was there the find out then to do so while also weaving through a nice little obstacle course of living beings?

Finally his maw opened and his little red-orange tongue lolled out the side of his own muzzle as he let his mind simply enjoy the thrill of the chase.

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Lariel was a feline and good at running, but mostly in sprints. This long distance stuff was wearing her out, and fast. She'd been panting for the past minute and her breath was coming in shallow gasps now. She had to stop, but damnit the bar wasn't even in sight! Growling to herself Lariel looked behind her to see the pup still chasing, and gaining, after her.

With a last ditch effort, Lariel turned down a small alley, hoping over bits of garbage and miscellaneous items someone had dumped. Spying a dumpster the Bobcat turned and ran behind it, wrinkling her nose up at the smell of all the garbage inside of the metal box. She just hoped it was enough to mask her scent from the determined canine.

Crawling a bit forward she peeked her head around the metal box and looked toward the mouth of the alley, waiting for a blur of flame to pass by.

[Kitty]

Had he been moving in a lope rather then a flat out run he probably could have followed her for hours, but as it was he was getting rather tired and wasn't watching what his paws were doing quite as close as he should have been. In fact he almost forgot that he was chasing someone until his target seemed to vanish out of his line of vision completely instead of flicker in and out from behind a veil of people.

He slowed his pace just a bit, triangular ears perking forward inquisitively as orange eyes tried to find where the cat had gone. Her scent was growing stronger and stronger the closer he moved to the alleyway, suggesting the feline had stopped somewhere close, but that didn't make sense at since, well ... he couldn't see her.

He wrinkled up his nose as he tried to figure out what happened to the kitty when his big puppy paws finally lashed out at him like they usually did and he went crashing to the ground with a yelp of pain and surprise as his chin hit the concrete and caused tears to well up in his eyes. He didn't want to cry but suits ... that hurt.