The land of Oz. [Open]

[» cyanide]

K A I

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An exuberant bundle of white fluff jumped madly around a darkened house, running about the home so the loud noise of claws scraping across the carpet was the main source of disruption. Finally the Alaskan Klee Kai ripped around a corner and directly onto a bed awakening his master’s son with a loud yip. It wasn’t normal for Kai to stay in at five in the morning his master woke up at four thirty and then took his prized dog out on a exhausting walk around Harlow at five, and well Kai wanted his walk.

The black haired male grumbled and slowly clambered from bed putting his dozy hand to gently grab the dog’s collar, eyes still groggy Quinn stomped out to the kitchen, unlocked a sliding glass door and pushed Kai outside before slamming it shut, locking it, and slinking off to bed once more.

Kai; surprised that one could be oh so rude to his own father’s favorite animal growled in disapproval as he moved back to his bed. Though he did get what he asked for, he could always go out on his own little walk this time without the discomfort of that long leather lead pulling his throat to a close with every sharp tug if he took one step in the wrong direction. He took all of this new found freedom in stride and jumped happily off the porch into the dark grass. A white toothy grin formed on his maw as he walked around to the front yard and slid under a bush where he found a hole that led from inside his fence to the free world.

Quickly the male scrambled through the wide hole and came up on the other side his belly brown with mud. He took one final fair-well glance at his home and took off in a fast lope down his street.

After a while the house pet sullenly realized he was in fact; lost. Thankfully the golden orb slunk up over the horizon creating long shadows and partially lighting the path to wherever the hell he was going. Unfortunately the domestic found himself at a large sign, green with white chipping letters it read, ‘Harlow Waste Management Center’. He had to let out a soft gag at the thought but turned to a gate; chain link with what looked to be green strips of something intertwined in the woven metal, making it impossible to see inside.

Blue crystals glanced behind him as he slowly strolled over by the sign, near the hinges of those huge gates, luckily there was a large pulled back piece of metal that reeked of strays. Reluctantly he climbed underneath and was greeted by a million food scents; even though he didn’t need to eat from the garbage he certainly couldn’t turn down a huge buffet!

The pristine pooch lowered his nose to the ground and scented out a half eaten hot dog, a large party tray of pepperoni, cheese, and crackers, and a large loaf of moldy bread. He couldn’t help but salivate on his found items and moved them over to the side of the dump where he laid protectively over them and gnawed on the loaf of bread.

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[Skitt is Under Marmalade Skies]

A black and white, rather fluffy, puppy sat outside on a porch, wailing pitifully. His owners seemed to have locked up, unaware that the pup was still outside. He scratched on the door once more, but after finding himself still outside, he gave up.

The pup, whose name was Zeppelin, sat down, looking out into the street. He wasn’t really the adventurous type, preferring to cuddle with his humans. So it wasn’t that unusual that he was scared out of his mind. Sure, he had been outside before, but not without his humans, or one of his sisters. The 6 month old pup found the outside world, at least right now, to be frightening. It was very unfamiliar, and big. He lay down, head on paws, looking quite adorable, but sad nonetheless. He gave a yawn, his small mouth stretching to reveal white, pointy, perfect puppy teeth. Slowly, his eyes began to close, and he fell into a light sleep.

Suddenly, Zepp jolted awake. He looked around; hoping to find what woke him. When he spotted it, he snorted. It was that annoying, yappy little dog across the way. He let out a high-pitched yip, which lead the other dog, who Zepp though was more rat than anything, into a frenzy of yips. Finally, the owner picked up the dog, cooing into its ear and giving Zepp a glare, before carrying the rat inside. Zepp sighed, getting up and stretching. Well, as long as he was out here, he might as well explore.

He wandered down the drive way, halting at the street. He sniffed it, his nose crinkling in disgust. He stepped out, only to leap back a second later as a car sped past. Zepp stared at it as it drove away, sitting there is wide-eyed shock. ‘What was that?’ He wondered.

After catching his breath, he continued, bolt across the street and onto a green, soft lawn. He trotted down the street, looking around.'This isn't too bad' he though to himself. He continued on his way, before halting. He sniffed the air. 'What is that delicious smell?' the pup wondered. He lifted his nose, then continued toward the smell and toward the dump.

When he finally found the source of the smell, he stopped, looking aorund. This place was the dump, he supposed. He had heard of it before, but had never been to it until now. He shrugged and walked in, sniffing around. Then, he spotted a piee of rather old chicken, and dove for it. Kaying on the ground and nawing at the chicken, the pups tail began to wag. He was oblivious to the world around im, and at the moment, was on top of the world.

{OCC: CHEESY ENDING!}

[»Rie]

Pallid watery light spilled between the slats of a wooden pallet that was leaning diagonally against at decomposing heap of rubbish; a stack of worn out tires kept it at a slight slant, and at some point an old threadbare pale green blanket had caught on the wood's ragged edges to dangle down over one of the openings in the impromptu lean-to. The decaying blanket fluttered feebly now, and then as the air stirred. Behind the rotted trim one could catch a glimpse of paws covered in white fur that was turning a sort of parchment color from to long without proper cleaning. The dirt before the opening had the marks of paws in it and a stray tuft of white fur had snagged on a jagged edge of the pallet.

Drum ignored the fall of sunlight across his eyes for the moment simply breathing in the scents of spoiled food stuff, and decaying trash. Beneath it was the smell of smog, and exhausted; city smells. He'd never been to a city before, so when he'd finally arrived here from the wilderness he'd suffered something of a culture shock: The closest he'd ever been to something like this was a small rural town with a population in the hundreds. Drum had decided on a tactical retreat, and found his way here; simply crawling into the perceived safety of the lean-to, and collapsing into sleep.

Now, however, another day dawned and there was no rest for the living; and perhaps none for the dead either, he supposed. A single russet eye cracked open, then closed again. Drum wriggled forward, nosing aside the rotting blanket and emerging from his make-shift shelter. His fore paws immediately slid forward, his hind end sticking in the air; as he stretched out, jaws popping wide open to emit a near soundless yawn. His haunches dropped back to the ground then, and he gave a low unintelligible mumble. Lifting a fore paw he dragged it across his eyes absently.

It was about then that he earned the rattle of chain link, and glanced over to see a well-groomed white dog slithering through a gap in the dump's fence, and not but a short while later a pup came barreling through. Drum blinked a few times before lifting himself up, and sauntering along the edge of the pile of trash he'd camped out near, watching the two from the corner of one russet eye, as he pawed about for something to fill his complaining stomach.

[Skitt is Under Marmalade Skies]

Zepp continued to chew on his chicken, which was now only but a bone. He sighed happily, looking around the dump. The pup’s tail was wagging, but only slightly. Finally, he gave up on the bone, and got up to go look for something else. After a few seconds, he found something that had once been tasty, whatever it was. As he sat back down, he saw something out of the corner of his deep brown eyes.

Getting up abruptly, he faced the larger dog. “Am I in your home? Is this where you live? Do you want me to leave? Please don’t kill me!” He squeaked, beginning to tremble. He could tell that this dog was a loner. He had heard about strays before, mainly that they were fierce mean warriors.

The pup dropped to the ground, hoping the other dog would see that he would do whatever he wanted as long as he didn’t kill him. He stared up at him, before lowering his eyes. He stared at the dogs eyes, wondering what it was like to be a stray. Who would rather be on the cold streets, not knowing if they were going to eat or not, rather than be a warm house, with all the food you could eat?

The puppy whimpered, the suspense of not knowing driving him mad.

{OCC: Ugly Ugly Ugly!}

[Kato]

Sakura raised her face from the trash heap. She had heard a whimper from somewhere near by. What if something was wrong? It was a pup who whimpered. But what if it was with it's mother? Sakura didn't want to take the chance of the pup getting hurt. She barreled full speed to the sound of the whimper. She saw a pup, flatened to the ground, and a stray leaning over it. She ran up behind the pup and stood over it, sheilding it from the other stray.

"Back off. I won't let you hurt this small little pup!" she growled. She hopped she sounded intimidating, Sakura useually didn't start fights. But this dog was asking for it. She didn't dare take her eyes of the stray, in fear of attack.

[» cyanide]

K A I

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The brute of an Alaskan Klee Kai just got finished with the moldy loaf of bread and turned his jaws on the delicious looking half-eaten hot dog. It was obvious by the stench radiating from this delicate morsel a child’s lips had touched this piece of mixed up meat. Hence why only a bit was gone, turning his head abruptly his hot dog hung from his mouth limply, what was that noise? A soft whimper and pleas for survival? He had to check this one out that was for sure. He gobbled up the hot dog and quickly downed the party tray stinky from other pieces of garbage hitting the now moldy cheese.

Kai stuck his pink nose to the ground as it quivered, inhaling the scents and blowing air out, keeping scents stuck inside for his mind to sort through and tell what they were. He strolled across the dump near a piece of lounging wood and saw a large male before a pup; shortly a female darted in the way. His head cocked suspiciously and he quietly strolled by the larger male.

His crystal diamonds skimmed over the pup as he lowered his maw to comfort the scared pup, he gently nuzzled it affectionately.

[/color]“It’s ok buddy.”[/color] He said softly in his best child-friendly tone. Though as soon as he lifted his maw from the gentle state it most normally was in, he turned his skull to look at the large brute and lifted his lip in hatred.

Pure scorn rested upon his casual features as he had turned his maw, hating this large male already. How dare he cause a pup so small to cry out in a plea for life. No mutt should do that and get away with it that was for god damn sure.
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Crappy.. Forgive
my ugly post?
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[»Rie]

Drum was drawn away from his scavenging when a tumbling rush of questions were yapped at him in quick succession, and it took several long moments before he could puzzle out what had been said. Instead for quite a bit of time Drum had simply lifted his head, and stared in expressionless bemusement at the pup cowering before his paws with warm russet eyes that seemed to be oddly unfocused. It finally settled in what the pup had said to him, and the words made Drum's skin crawl beneath his white and autumn colored fur. 'Please don't kill me!'

Drum stared even longer now, feeling unabashedly dumbfounded. Kill him? Where had the pup gotten such a ludicrous idea? Drum hadn't even made a motion toward him! He'd simply been pawing through the refuse looking for something appetizing. His thoughts tumbled end over end through his head like autumnal leaves tossed in the air. After a moment he snapped out of his daze, and took a couple slow steps toward the pup, leaning forward to speak to him....

Only to take two quick paces back as a white furred form barreled into his visual space to loom over the young one from behind, snapping at him and demanding he not hurt the mite. Drum's head came up, staring at the female no; his neck curved and haunches lowered slightly in a pose that almost looked like a German shepherds stance. He absently kept one fore paw off the ground; the curved edge of his claws just grazing the soil as he favored in a bit.

Drum's stomach heaved, and he suddenly didn't feel hungry at all anymore. In fact he felt rather like he wanted to go retch dryly in a corner somewhere. His ears tilted out ward from his head, the only major change in his calm expression. The words he spoke tumbled out in his gentle tenor; iced with an amount of bite and viscosity that Drum rarely used, "The evidence of a foolish mind rests in thoughtless action." He immediately felt a pang in his heart at the insult as it fell heedlessly from his lips, but at the same time he couldn't help himself. It hurt to be accused of such an act; and Drum didn't think himself in the wrong here: He wouldn't apologize.

Moments later a second adult dog arrived on the scene, nuzzling and murmuring to the silly little whelp before turning toward Drum. This dog, a male, lifted his lip and stared at the white and autumn colored male with disgust and hatred in his eyes, and Drum felt his own temper sizzling at the base of his skull like embers in a fire. His hackles bristled lightly, and in a clipped tone that spoke of controlled temper and upset the young male informed him, "Judge not those you've only encountered, unless you wish to be scorned in turn." The muscles in Drum's body trembled with barely controlled anger: How dare they? Turning his head away the dog with the patchy markings shifted, and began to pace away giving the pup and it's 'Saviors' a wide berth, he simply wanted to take his leave at this point. He didn't really think he needed to stick around for them to impinge his honor and dignity.

[Skitt is Under Marmalade Skies]

The pup watched, wide eye as a fae run over, protecting him from the bigger dog. But, he was even more shocked when a second dog came, also for him. His eyes were wide, but his hair began to lie flat, his fear scent subsiding.

Zepp looked up at Drum, quite confused by his words. He wasn;t making any sense. All he knew was he was big and looked scary. He pressed into Sakura's leg, grateful the fae's protection. Perhaps not all strays were mean. He looked back up at the big brute, tilting his head slightly. "S-sorry." He whimpered. He knew he was being cowardly, but the big dog was, well, big, and looked at if he was fully capable of killing him.
{OCC: Sorry for the ugliness}

[Kato]

Sakura watched as the other dog ran up to also protect the pup. She took the opportunity to glance down at the pup, who was hugging her leg. She smiled and looked back at the large dog. Her smile instantly faded, and was soon replaced by a confussed face. Wait, what did he say? Sakura thought. She watched the dog back up, but she still didn't let her guard down. Tt could be a surprise attack. Sakura had dealt with that before, it wasn't pretty.

Sakura looked down at the pup as he apologized. Sweet little thing. Looks alone. I don't want to leave him alone after the threat is over. What if he starves? Sakura looked back at Drum. She didn't say anything. She just glared, not with hatred, but with curiousity.