The Drifter [Sol's Intro]

[solisticeofwinter]

So clean. So pristine...

The sickened thoughts of the shadow passed over. The small creekside homes and houses were all quiet. Green lawns and white picket fences. Enough to make even the hardiest stray vomit. The humans came with dogs, yappy little things with an air of superiority it made the shadow want to rip their bejeweled collars off and give them a what's for on learning the ways of the school of hard knocks. White Westies and precious Yorkies were all the rage with humans in a city. A kindly herding dog was worth nothing because the lazy sack of twolegs weren't good enough to get up and a walk a dog.

That's why my mother was cast aside like a used snot rag... The shadow was bitterly angry. But, this shadow had a distinctive shape, a scent, and color. The shadow that lurked under the Yew bush was very much solid, and very much alive. The shadow had icy eyes that were narrowed with disgust and hatred.

But the shadow was more than a shadow. Under the darkness of the yew, out stepped a large dog with a distinct dappled red coat. Long, tall, and lean, this dog looked like fire in the piercing sun rays. This dog was no other than an Australian Shepherd. Proud, intelligent, and gorgeous. But what any one wouldn't know, is that this dog's heritage is up Malinois and Aussie decent. Her father, a Don Juan of the streets, filled her mother's head with unfulfilled promises and left her when she gave birth to be with some high-end sheepdog. She hated her father, and somewhat, her mother for letting her father go out on them like that. Mixed feelings drew deep in her body.

But, this was a female, a red and white coat with splotches, smears, and patches. Her head was 3/4 white with red markings. She was sleek, and yet, grimy with mud and debris. Her flop ears were attuned to her surroundings, her piercing ice-blue gaze drew in the sights around her. Deep in her own thought, she bearly noticed the man and his Komondor walk out of their home. Darting back into the yews, the aussie watched.

She sized them both up, drew in their scents, and eyed them from her hiding place. The corded dog gazed about loftily, and trotted by his slave driver's feet as they went in. The tantalizing stench of fresh garbage made the aussies brownish-pink nose twitch with delight. She gave it a minute, then slunk out from her hiding spot.

The gate was ajar, and the aussie crammed her nose in the gap, and pushed back. The well oiled gate opened quietly and the dog made a break for the garbage. She looked around warily, her icy eyes flashing toward the porch steps. Then, cautiously, she crammed her nose into the lid and pried it ajar. Carefully, she directed it to land on the lawn without making any noise. She was successful. With a discreet plop it landed on the grass.

She tipped the can over on the land with a poompla and crammed herself in. She looked and surveyed: three eggshells, a pile of coffee grounds, waded up napkins, an old paper bag, some bottles and lids, and discarded shows that had been chewed. There was also a yummy yellow bag. Fishy smells came fromt he bag. Seizing it up with her teeth, the dog plopped it in her 'To-go' pile. She sniffed around again and found a half-eaten chicken breast. She crunched the meat down in ravenous, rushed gulps. She moved on to some peas and potatoes, and also scarfed down some hamburger steak.

Belly as round as could be, the dog backed out of the can just as the corded dog and his master came out. Angry yelling and fierce barking lead the Aussie to grab her yellow bag and scadaddle out of there. Angry, the human shouted profanity at her and picked up a carton from the trash pile and slung it at her just as she disappeared. It whizzed by her ear as she lead a hasty retreat.


Heading to a small woods, the young dog sighed and lay down in the warm sunlight. She rumaged through the bag contents and found some half eaten fish fillets and old french fries. She dug a hole, grinding her black claws into the earth, churning it till the hole was big enough for storage. She grabbed the bag with her teeth and carefully placed it in the hole. She re-churned the dirt and buried her next meal. She scraped some dead foliage across the food site, and rubbed her scent on near by trees. This was her spot, her food, and she was leaving her scent.

She looked out at the town below her hill and barked loudly,"I am the Drifter Solstice. I have settled here for know until my paws take me elsewhere. Keep away!"

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[»Rie]

Talking Drum

Young Dog, Old soul

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In looking back...

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Sunlight filtered through the air creating gold and silver enmeshed designs on the edges of the fluffy clouds that rolled silently through the blue, blue heaven. Robin, Sparrow, Cardinal, even a few finches chattered their daily song creating a cocoon of serenity in the hustle and bustle. The distant sound of car tires rolling over pavement with a hiss carried into the ears of the denizens; and even more distant the irate honking of an upset driver. Bright sunlight fell starkly on the white washed walls of the apartment buildings, creating highlights upon highlights and turning the cool shadows darker than ever.

There was a green bench on the side of the roar, near a sign for the city bus, and on this green bench there was a dog. He sat there as if he belonged there: As calm as you please, his head tilted back so that his slim white muzzle was pointed toward the blue, blue sky. Drum's russet eyes tracked the slowly drifting clouds absently. One foreleg was tucked into his chest, the other was braced paw down against the slats of the wooden bench; his hind legs bunched beneath his haunches and a long white tail dipped over the edge to hang toward the pavement. A few humans passed by, sending the dog odd stares as they did so; but they mostly seemed to give him a wide berth as though afraid he might jump up and attack them should they come to close.

Common thought... The dog with the patchwork coat mused. So odd... so hostile.. His mind was, as usual, a million miles away. In his mind he didn't sit here, he soared through the air on eagles wings. Russet eyes hooded, and he almost fathomed he could see this town spread out below him in patchwork patterns. He wasn't sure he liked it here, that was for sure.

A loud clatter and the sound of a human voice shouting obscenity caught the dog's attention, and he sat up slowly; pushing himself into the position with his front paws. Sunlight flared across the copper, bronze, and gold highlights in the patches of brown, red, and russet fur that spattered the white majority of his fur. Large alert ears flowed further forward toward the sound, and a moment later he noticed another dog fleeing with something in their jaws, dodging a thrown object as they went.

"Hm." He mused quietly to himself. "It's a grand day not to be a cat." Gently he hopped down from his perch and began to meander along the lane, sticking to the opposite side of the road from where the dog had appeared from; he wasn't interested in having something thrown at him as well.

Sniffing slightly he caught the scent trail of a female dog, lightly overlapped with fresh rubbish; and taking the chance that was the one he wanted he followed along that pathway. As he drew nearer to a stand of trees he heard a voice declaring a desired lack of want for company. Drum paused, paw in the air; halfway through a step: Hesitating about whether he ought to continue forward. Taking a few more wandering steps forward the spirit dog sat down on his haunches and called in his quiet, somewhat melancholy and distant tenor, "Shall I just wander back the other way, then?"

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OoC: Hope you don't mind me posting, I just couldn't resist posting to such a lengthy post. Meh, not to good a reply, but eh.. Dx;

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... we see the future.

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[solisticeofwinter]

The Drifter...

I fear change....

OCC://I don't mind

The birds all fluttered and called to one another. The sky was deep and inviting to one who felt trapped in a small place. Sol felt that way. She felt lost and alone in this world. Creamy clouds blocked the sun out overhead, casting a weary dim apon her forest home. She zealously guarded her food from any scavengers. This could be her only meal for many days and many nights. Maybe even for a moon change. Being a stray was hard to those unequipped to live the life. Sol was one who grew up not knowing the warmth of a upwalker's home, or the caress of a hand on the head. She preferred the caress of the sun and and the warmth of her pelt.

The emerald forest shed a misty glow around her. Deep in thought and half asleep, Sol's head bobbed forward. To and fro it went, making her look rather dizzy.

She daydreamed.....
The spacious sky held the threat of rain as Sol looked up. She could see the outline of a dog, but she could not see his face. Long lean, and dangerous looking, he stared at her with blue eyes. They had the warmth of icicles and frost of a blizzard day. The dog was strangely off looking. Gray and tan pelt....

The dog looked over in her direction, shadowed face and eerie optics looking at her, the dog rushed her and she felt teeth sink into her throat......

She heard rustling in the bushes, and raised her threat once more.
"I am the Drifter Solstice. I have settled here for know until my paws take me elsewhere. Keep away!"

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Sol jumped when she heard a new voice behind her. Slow and wise. She turned her head to see a patchwork quilt of a dog. His eyes were kind. His wolf-like exterior took Sol aback. He was young, but he seemed so old inside....

She heard him speak, and she looked at him with soft ice blue eyes. "Your only welcome if you mean no harm. What is your name? They call me The Drifter. Sol to anyone with sense." Solstice inquired and retorted playfully in a way.

Red dapple fur relaxing, Sol rocked on her haunches in a sit position, with an nonthreatening look upon her face.

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[»Rie]

Talking Drum

Young Dog, Old soul

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In looking back...

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Solemn russet eyes stared from serious white and multi-colored face, the gentle slope of his slender muzzle ending in a chocolate colored nose. His head tipped slightly to the side as he regarded the female before him with quiet interest, and when he offered the faintest hint of a smile he spoke in his distant, somewhat melancholy way, "Harm not those with which you would make peace." He quoted almost absently as if he were more speaking to himself than she who stood across from him. He curled his finely furred tail around the side of his haunch until the tip covered one of his forepaws, the alert ears at the crest of his head tilting toward her. "So I gathered from your warning, my friend. Solstice... A good strong name." His head tilted back, allowing that serious gaze of his to slowly drift up along the bark of the trees until he could see the dance of light in leaves above them. Several moments passed as he seemed to contemplate the movement of the wind, then he turned his russet gaze back upon the female, "My name is Talking Drum. Drum is fine, of course."

Drum studied the female with interest, he'd had several odd encounters since he had arrived at this town; this one was the first of which that he could deign to call normal, and probably the only one he'd call friendly at this point. His pride still stung gently from the accusations that had been hurled at him by the duo he'd encountered in the waste center, and he didn't really know what to think of the male he'd met in the gorge outside of town: He supposed he didn't really think anything at all. His gaze slid to the side slightly, staring at the point on that bark of one of the trees behind and to the left of the other canine as he contemplated his current position. He really wasn't sure what he'd been expecting when he arrived here: Truthfully he hadn't been expecting much of anything, he was a wanderer; he'd simply blown into the area in much the same way that a cloud drifts by overhead.

A near silent puff of air filtered passed his lips, and he brought himself back to focus his fathomless gaze on the canine, he hoped she didn't take him for rudeness; he really didn't try to be. His mind was simply... a free wandering thing.

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... we see the future.

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[solisticeofwinter]

The Drifter...

Sol looked at Drum with interest, this dog seemed wise beyond his years and intrigued something Solstice. She looked at him as he spoke of her name. Embarrassment in the form of discomfort pricked at her paws. No one had ever noticed her name. Especially not in an exceptional way. Solstice looked at him when he spoke his name. This dog was very unique in deed. Not the oddities she had viewed the most.

"Well Drum, seems as if I am not the only competent dog around. Alot of them don't appreciate a fine garbage expedition." Her light colored lips twisted back to a smile and she watched as the sun began to die down. She knew what tomorrow she would be leaving again. She sighed, gazing up at the indigo sky bleeding scarlet. The moon was obsquered by a dark, weary cloud, and the other millions of stars glared brightly in the night sky.


She turned her weary gaze back upon Drum. Her sighed audible. She looked at him. "Sometimes, I wish I had a settled home. All this traveling is taking its toll on me. But I do not do so well with both humans and dogs." Which is the reason why young Solstice had never tried to find a settled home in this town.

[»Rie]

Talking Drum

Young Dog, Old soul

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In looking back...

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His tail tip twitched minutely against his paws as he seemed to contemplate her words for a moment; never hasty in his decisions or his words as he replied, "It does not bode well to scoff at that which necessitates survival." He spoke the words slowly, savoring their flavor; testing them on his tongue. He seemed to consider them after he'd spoken them, and deemed them well enough: As though he had to make sure they'd properly expressed his sentiments on the matter. To Drum survival was just that; an act of necessity and it was foolhardy at best and crass at the worst to look down on the means to it; whether that meant foraging, hunting, or scavenging. All things, in Drum's mind, had their place.

He watched her quietly as she contemplated the heavens, and after several seconds of watching the other dog he, to, turned his head toward the sky and allowed his features to be bathed in the dying pastel light. Speckled lights appeared in ever growing clusters, and Drum rather fathomed that it looked like the sky was turning into a field of blooming chrysanthemums. Amused by his own whimsy he gave voice to the barest of chuckles; no more than a breath or a sigh of sound.

Her words drew his attention back to her once more, and as he heard them he couldn't help but to bear witness to her melancholy, and it its aftermath he offered all he could in the form of his own understandings, "My home is the place where I lay to rest at night. It is in the sun that warms me, and the stars that guide me." His russet eyes flickered over the area around them like dragonflies seeking berth in a waterlily for a moment, and he stood; drifting forward a few steps in an almost absent dance of movement. "I once had a home, but the warmth in the hearth died... and so, I turn to this pathway; and this is the pathway I walk. Without regret, I willingly give up my fireside." For Drum the home he'd once had was home no more, as what had made it home was no longer there. His home remained only in his heart; and so, he had it where ever he wandered.

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... we see the future.

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[solisticeofwinter]

The Drifter...

Sol sat with the multi-colored male. She listened as he talked, his slow moving words sliding smoothing from his motioned mouth. Solstice had respect for Drum now. He was very unique and wise, and she admired that in a stray dog. Though, he had a home once before with humans. Solstice didn't like humans, because they cast her mother out into the dark and dangerous streets of Harlow, and her father took it upon himself to get her mother pregnant, whispering false promises softly in his ears. The fierce dog was probably dead now, and as far as Solstice was concerned, she had no father. The Malinois was dead to her, and he probably really was dead out there somewhere, or locked away with his new female. The thought made Sol bristle angrily. But, the past was gone and the present was now. Sol had made a friend in this dank world. And he understood the life of the stray.

She followed his eyes up to the sky, the indigo dominating the scarlet. The sun relinquished to the moon, which hung over brightly. The soft song of crickets echoed through the trees, the creek of Creekside humming with rhythm. Frogs croaked their nightly song of hunt, off prowling for the cricket chorus to devour. While gazing at the terrestrial skies, Sol followed the flight sequence of the fly creatures above. Their leathery wings with spiney fingers caught the air beneath the body, and the bats put on a aerial show, snapping at the bugs that bothered Sol. Small bodies coated in a brown coat, the bats dived and swooped. Sol pricked her ears and tilted her ears questionably. Bats were interesting to Sol. She wanted to know how the flew. She knew it was from wings. Sol wanted wings.


Sol looked at Drum. He voice was sad as he spoke of his home."I am sorry for your loss. I have never known the pleasantries of a human home. Just the cruelty of being unwanted." Sol murmured softly, her words depressive and unbidden. Then with a fiery glare of her icy blue eyes, Sol continued.."But I dislike the human race so. My mother told me when I was a young whelp the cruelties of being disowned. They cast her out you know. To die alone..."

If a dog could cry, maybe Solstice would have down that. She let a faint whine of distress from her vocals, low and heart wrenching.

[»Rie]

Talking Drum

Young Dog, Old soul

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In looking back...

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The stars were thickening in the sky through the paltry haze that the city lights cast; dimming the sky until the twinkle of the orbiting heavenly bodies was all but null. Russet eyes traced the spattered pathways of constellations for several seconds before slowly lowering once more to offer a frank gaze toward the Aussie. He contemplated her words for several seconds then sighed sadly, "Dislike of a race for what few have done... Is that not what they do to us? A circle of hated breeds no end." He drifted further forward, and slid his muzzle along the underside of her's in a gesture of simple friendly comfort, and for a moment melancholy russet eyes stared into empyrean blue from a near distance.

Drum backed off, turning an easy circle as he began to drift toward the edge of the copse the Aussie had claimed for her own, "I can see how your mother would be disturbed by the iniquitous behavior of humanity, but to let you're own eyes be clouded by hate and judgment could prove foolhardy." He glanced back at her with one russet eye, and slowly his slender muzzle bore a small smile. "I give you this advice, not for the sake of humanity; but for the sake of your humane nature: Let not bitterness and resent tarnish your heart, my friend."

Then with the soft tread of his paws against the cool earth he started to drift off, as silent as a cloud through the sky, and just as ephemeral. The spirit dog slipped down the night covered street to be embraced by the shadows of a building and slip from view.

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OoC: Sorry for the crappyness, my muse is temperamental D;

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... we see the future.

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[solisticeofwinter]

The Drifter...

Sol looked at Drum. "Maybe your right...." She looked at Drum with equalism, and bid him farewell.


OCC:// This is where Sol goes to the Alley..

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