Nice Day

[Numa]

The Greater forest, a notoriously dark, dank and dirty place. Within its towering depths, monsters run amok. Humans stalk the shadows with their deadly rifles, their vicious dogs at their side, attacking everything that moves. The trees drip with the blood of the innocent, the dirt stained red with shame and death hangs in the air like an omen. Small animals flee in terror, large ones stand fast and die, birds strain to take off, their feathers wet with what was left of their comrades...

Yet every world of shadows has a light to keep secret...

The thick branches of the dense trees can't block the sun everywhere and, lone behold, where their trunks spread apart and their branches have more space, the light shines through. A perfect circle, an oasis in the blood dessert. Who knew a simple clearing, a randomly placed circular expanse where the trees are scarce, who knew it could be so heavenly...?

The dog knew...

Laying on his silver-colored back, the mastiff was reclined lazily upon one of the many rocks that littered his clearing, his head hanging over the edge, allowing his normally folded ears to be pulled open by gravity and hang to the ground. Deep brown eyes were closed blissfully, the warming sunshine playing across the large dog's scarred face and a thick bushy tail waving mindlessly behind him...

"Hmmm... Nice day. Nice nice day..."

The mastiff brooded to himself without a care, stretching his legs upward as if reaching out to pull the sunlight closer. Powerful muscles relaxed soon enough and the massive brute returned to a casual position on his back, his legs sprawled and his tail swaying. Not wagging, just swaying...

"Nice... nice... day..."

[Alex]

<sub>Stella had been trotting along- likely story. Stella was disrupting a few rabbit holes. Her ears lay back as she curled her lips, and the beauceron bitch puffed up her neck fur to make herself look more threatening. “Oh, how you spoil me!” The dog growled in frustration, for the rabbits had found shelter deep in their warren.

She payed no mind to it, or rather “ignored” the fact that it would take hours to get down that deep. But with hunger driving her angry, she began to dig into one of the holes that led deeper inside the warren. The dirt burrowed into in-between her toes and it found itself under her long dog claws.

And this was one of the pleasures that a human would have digging in their own backyard.</sub>

[Numa]

Now resituated on the comfortable rock perch, the spanish mastiff was slowly drifting back into his boring little dreamland, the sunlight warming his light creamy underside and the breeze tickling his fuzzy coat. However, a harsh scent struck his nose, immediately waking the large canine with a start...

There was someone out there...

Though not worried, the cautious brute was just that: cautious. If this stranger was a possible threat, he'd have to be ready. So, without a sound or any complaint, he rolled onto his stomach, choosing a comfortable lying position atop his rocky throne and scouring the area with his dark chocolate gaze...

((Dinnertime. Be back in 15 or less.))

[Alex]

<sub>Stella worked her claws until they seemed they were just going to fall off. She spotted the end of the tunnel and a little fuzzy tail poking out of it as it twisted violently to the right.

“Gotcha!”

The bitch shoved her head into the hole and grabbed the rabbit on its thigh, and it squealed as she thrust her jaws together to try and puncture the tendon. She forced her neck upward with incredible speed, the rabbit hung limp in her jaws in fear. In a matter of seconds, he tried to kick its way free.

Stella knew what to do, and oh how did she love doing it. Since the dog had no guns or speed of her legs she flung the rodent at tree. It slunk to the ground with a snapped spine.

She ran over to her prize, and immediately began to snack on it. “Wonderful,” She gritted her teeth as she ripped some skin from the flank.</sub>

[Numa]

His eyes could see nothing out there in the deep darkness of the Greater Forest, the shadows of the grand trees hiding what lay within from the massive dog's view. But where younger more inexperienced dogs would panic, the mastiff merely saught another way to find the creature that had tipped his senses. Should it be a dangerous creature lurking in the woodlands, the male wasn't about to run out there and confrunt it after a good scent tracking. No, he needed a different, more distanced way to pinpoint what the creature was and where...

Folded sandy-brown ears perked at the indication of what could only be a voice. So, he knew three things at that point: a dog, a female, a hunter. She'd managed to kill a rabbit, or at least wound one to bleeding, which is not only interesting but dangerous. Rabbits around here were quick and even greyhounds had trouble catching them. The wolves however, found them common and easy prey. The scent of a daed one could attract attention from some loners out for a good scavenging...

Furrowing his already wrinkled brown, the mastiff hopped of his sunny seat with a deep, throaty huff, pausing a moment to shake out his grizzled coat before trotting off into the shadows at a smooth gait. Not that he was interested in the activities of a stranger. More that he didn't really need someone else to attract wolves to his territory...

[Alex]

The Beauceron had completely cleaned the muscle and skin from the rabbit’s lower half, and he was on her way to chewing the marrow. Once she had cracked open the bones of the abdomen and gave it a few good licks, she would snatch it up by its shoulder and some of the poor rabbit’s nape. Stella had been awfully hungry, and she began to wonder around a bit before a scent wafted in the air.

It was a dog.

Stella growled instinctively in defense of her rather small kill, but rabbits where very hard to catch! But after a few seconds that passed she was smart enough to take another few sniffs and enough to realize that it was probably no more than a mile away. That would give her time to bury the spoils and probably forget about it. What a dumb mutt.

--

After she did so, she let her curiosity take over. She raised her head and let out two barks, a short howl, and another two barks in a repeating sequence about three times. Even if the other dog wasn’t interested, she sure was.

[Numa]

Taking his time trotting out into the woodland, the Spanish mastiff very casually strolled in and out of shadows cast upon the land by the tall trees. He wasn't exactly enthused about investigating a stranger in his lands. If life was his way, he'd be back on his rock at the moment, snoozing away and dreaming of food. Ah yes, food... At the mere mention of the word in the far reaches of his thoughts, the massive dog's stomach suddenly let out a rather loud rumble, loud enough to make the male look down at himself in bewilderment...

Hmm... He was hungry...

After this whole stranger business was cleared up, he'd have to run off to find a good meal somewhere. Maybe he could scavenge some off the local coyotes since the sun was at its highest and the day at it hottest. Scavenging, though demeaning and something the large brute tried to avoid, took much less energy than hunting, particularly with the day so warm...

With new found inspiration and a distant pep talk from the stranger in question, the light brown brute increased his leisurely stroll to a more spirited lope of sorts, his long slightly fluffy tail waving behind him and his large floppy ears blowing about in the wind that whipped past. At such a high speed, he broke through th trees in only a few minutes, skidding to a stop a few lengths from the stranger in question...

A female Beauceron...

Cautious as always, the mastiff held his ground out of striking distance of the interloper but still held his tail high yet waving, a welcoming sort of gesture. While he was not one to start fights, he was unsure whether or not the fae was the same... or the opposite. Chocolate gaze remained fixed on her form in a curiously interested sort of way, yet it still held a charming air to it, as did the gruff voice with which the brute spoke...

"You rang?"