Young Volcanoes [ily]

[Bhu ♥ Irwin]

So, maybe in retrospect it had been a silly idea. Chris was in better shape than me, after all, and his legs longer despite his younger age. But the boy was quiet, much more so than I approved of. Miles was quiet, but too young. Kerry could not leap for obvious reasons. Kara did not need any help being pushed out of her shell because, quite frankly, she did not have a shell. So who else could I run up to upon seeing what looked to be a mild sink hole and challenge for a running leap? Sure, we could have just placed a stick down, ran at it, jumped over it and observed who landed the greater distance, but what was the fun in that? I needed to get my adrenaline going and that would have not been the way to do so. That would have been boring and Chris probably would have declined anyway. Part of me knew he had only agreed to this so that he’d be close enough to help me should something go wrong.

Which it had.

I should have gone and actually investigated the sink hole before laying out the competition’s foundation. Miles had recommended I do so, but I had disregarded his suggestion because he was younger. Silly me, the kid had been right. Charging the hole, Chris and I had both became aware that the other side was quite a great deal further away then predicted. No big deal, but put on our breaks. Chris came to an instant halt. My brain shut off and I remember not really knowing why Chris’ relieved face shifted to horror as soon as he turned to look at me. When it all processed, I felt my legs give way and realized I was sliding through the mud right at the hole. I remember hearing Miles shout in panic and Chris lunging for me, but then my paws hit a rock and I tumbled into the greedy quick-sand, or mud, swallowed by the blackness.

Sounds had become muffled, and then faded out as my mind finished deciding that this was indeed a very bad thing and it needed to focus on more important things. Like, for example, pushing all my strength into fighting the constructing grasps of water-logged earth so I could flip my head towards the surface and break back into air. Breathing was the most important thing, after all. I closed my eyes, they weren’t doing me any good anyway. I could not see a thing, this was not water, this was liquefied earth. I had to trust my gut and any gods that cared about me for this one, because I sure did not know which way was up. My brain went to distract me to keep me from panicking, bringing forward all the good memories I had with my human and her house-dog. I thought about escaping the facility with Miles and finding the Demarais siblings and Kerry. All the good things. It wasn’t until I struggled to the surface that I realized that had been my life flashing before my eyes, not my brain trying to comfort me.

My brain had thought I was dying.

I emitted a shriek of pure terror as my snout finally broke the surface, mud flowing in and choking me. Again, a very bad idea on my part. I swallowed the vile substance, knowing spitting it out would only make more come in. My stomach churned in terror and disgust. I still could not see, my face was coated thick with the gooey earth, but the sounds were muffled again. I struggled to breath, but I knew I was at the surface. There was mud in my nose and my chest was constricted, but I was managing to take in some oxygen. That was a start. Through the dirt caked in my ears I caught Chris’ harsh voice telling Miles to back away from the edge and sit his butt down to the side. My heart went out to my little brother of sorts. He had lost one sibling, and I knew what was going through his head right now--self-doubt, terror, knowing that if I died that it was somehow his fault. I wished I could say my pain at feeling his agony was enough to fuel me enough to break my paws from the prison so I could wipe the mud from my face and ears so I could speak and hear, but it wasn’t. I was exhausted.

And for the first time in my life I felt defeated.

[I L Y I C H]

Oh this had been a horrible idea. I'd tried to tell her, tried to warn her of what that stuff could do but Barbara wasn't one for listening about troubles. It had just been a game until it very much wasn't. Kara had accepted the golden pup's challenge but it seemed that there was only one dog who couldn't stop short in time. The Demarais sister had gone forward with a yell, following Miles step for step in panic before Christ snapped them both back into place. Then there was little old me hovering father back then anyone else, scared out of my wits and terrified that something horrible was going to happen. Something horrible was happening though, and we had to act on it. Right now. Before that something horrible turned into something tragic.

Looking around frantically I moved as rapidly as I could to the side kicking apart grasses looking for the scraps of wood that so often got drug out here form the woods. Anything heavy enough to not shatter under the force. Kara came to help me, obviously knowing what I was doing, shoving her face through the stems just as rapidly as me as me both fought to avoid tripping each other in the chaos. It took the two of us far too long to find something that was hopefully big enough. Even longer to fight it out of the grasses roots. Hooking my fangs into it I back tracked ignoring the strain in muscles not at all use to such things though Kara did so easily. Both of us half scrambling back to the hole I half slipped int he mud, one good leg almost giving out though I caught myself out of sheer familiarity with the motion.

The stick was all but flung at Christ. He was oldest. Biggest. I might be smart but I lacked a fair amount of weight due to obvious reasons. Kara was just as old but she was slimmer. Miles was the youngest, and the most panicked. I locked my dual-toned eyes on Chris, fear of what might happen shaking through me. Motioning rapidly at the bark-less thing I hopped carefully back and forth on my hind legs unable to completely the anxious motion with the front. "Your gonna have to jab her in the nose with it" Kara hissed moving passed me to hover behind Miles, brown eyes wide and terrified. Our games had never come to something like this.

Shaking my head roughly I bent back down to grip the other end in my teeth. It was long enough. The lot of us could grab ahold of it maybe. Otherwise we could grab ahold of each other. "W-we'll get this end" Kara moved back over from Miles, tail tucked between her legs much as my own was. Merle fur stuck up violently in fear I bit down harder into the wood ignoring the taste and waiting for Chris to take the lead.

[Bhu ♥ Irwin]

My heart was steady, not allowing myself to give into the panic that bit at the back of my skull. I could feel Miles staring at me, expectant, waiting for instruction, or action. I looked stern, a little indifferent to the whole ordeal. I was masking over all the worry, the depression, watching with an intense stare at the sink-hole’s surface. Seeing my parents die had allowed me to learn how to deal with tragedy--had created a cold shield that I could pull into place while staring at death. Because Barbara was dying. I could not see her, and I would not risk anyone here to pull her out. If one of us jumped in, all it would do was give this sink-hole two prizes. I had to wait for Barbara to be given a miracle.

And there it was, her snout poked through the surface.

I turned around and caught Kara and Kerry searching for some wood, which they found and brought to the edge. By now Barbara had gotten her entire head, caked almost black with mud, to the surface. Her movements and ragged breathing had slowed, quieted. I could imagine how exhausted she was, and I knew that we had to act quickly now. It wouldn’t be long before she sunk back beneath the surface, no longer holding the energy to fight for her spot in the air. I watched Kara and Kerry place the stick. “Good.” I offered the one word, voice quiet, but firm. Everyone here was terrified. We were much too young for this--so I had to play mature. I had to pretend I wasn’t as scared, frantic, and lost as the rest. I had to act like I knew what I was doing.

“Miles, I need you to put your front paws into the muck and bite down as far up the wood as you can without endangering yourself. You’re lighter, so you will be able to wade how further without being pulled in.” I saw the smaller boy become wide eyed, nodding slowly as he approached the greedy fingers of the muddy shoreline. “Direct it, make it hit her snout so she knows where to bite.” I didn’t feel the need to warn him that odds are she was too tired to keep a grip onto the wood. We would cross that bridge if we came to it--no need to panic the child just yet.

Miles went a bit further in than I was comfortable with, but I grabbed a hold of the wood on the same side of him to be sure I could move forward and grab his tail quickly if the land under his paws gave way. I watched the mud leach up his legs, rising to his chest as he pushed in. I realized then that he had not yet grabbed a hold of the wood and I was about to demand he do so, but he did at the very moment I opened my mouth. It took only one well directed jab to the nose to get Barbara’s attention. She latched on violently, ears flicking in our direction, and even through the mud I could feel determination leak back into her expression. There was hope and if there was one thing I knew about the golden woman, she latched onto any bit of hope that could be dangled in front of her with an unwavering passion, no matter the situation. “Hold tight, Miles!” I bunched up my muscles, and I pulled, knowing Kerry and Kara would follow suit.

[I L Y I C H]

Kara flicked her ears at her brother, nodding her golden head sharply. I took a step back, only moving forward again when Miles and Chris had both stepped in enough to plonk Barbara good on the nose. Wide eyes kept fixed sharply on the now two dogs in the mud. Terrified for the most part, determined for the rest. I wouldn't loose these two. I wouldn't. Kara grunted as her brother called for the pull in his own way. I didn't make a sound, pressing my teeth as deep into wood as I could ignoring the bite from the splintering branch. Muscles grouping I pulled back violently putting as much weight into my hind legs and shoulder as possible. It burned. Of course it did. I was well aware that it wasn't just my three legs that was the problem. Sometimes my chest felt a bit too small. Crushing far too tightly on the left side right under my empty elbow socket.

Not that it mattered. Silly things like that. Maybe I was a bit of a coward but I wasn't going to give into pain. not when it was Barbara caught up and drowning in mud. Not when the older girl had given me more hope in the last month then I'd had for months previously. So I pulled violently backwards, wrenching in time with Kara's scrambling as she all but shoved her paws into the bowls of the earth. The pain lanced through my chest, sinking my breaths sideways in a way that really really wasn't all that healthy. Again not that it mattered. Couldn't do a thing about it until I could let go and calm myself down. Until Barbara and Miles were back and safe. Kara snapped around her piece of the branch as she took a faltering step back forcing me to all but hop away from her haunches.

"Back up paw step by paw step." Her voice was just as commanding as Chris's now that it was calm. Calm enough at least. The two were our leaders after all. Always keeping an eye on us. Maybe the most mature, though I liked to think I could be a better teacher then Kara at times. Not that anyone wanted to learn anything from a three legged dog with chest pains, but still. It happened slowly, the dragging. Hopefully fast enough that poor Barbara's tired jaws could keep ahold. We all tugged moving violently and haphazardly backwards. Kara almost knocked me over more then once and I jerked the branch at the very end haphazardly gasping out an apology every single time. Finally and with a massive seize of pain in my chest we have one last heave and with a last sucking plop the thing released our fallen friend from it's trap.

Fighting the urge to fall to my stomach and vomit from the lack of breath in my lungs and the rolling pain coming off my still healing shoulder I half stumbled over to the muddy girl. "Hey" I wheezed it at her, trying to keep my voice calm. Struggling to shoo the hurt out of it. No reason to worry anyone. Needed to help Barb. "Anything in your lungs?" I leaned forward half collapsing as I always had to still not yet getting the trick of how to get down without half tumbling over myself. Pressing my white and silver body to hers I tried to press as much heat into her body as I could using my left side so the slightly larger girl wouldn't have to contend with a limb in her way. Pressing my tongue against Barbara's face I moved carefully ignoring the taste of dirt on my tongue as I tried to mother the poor overly exuberant girl.

[Bhu ♥ Irwin]

Miles and Kerry were on the black mess in a heartbeat. I climbed back to my paws, having stumbled when the hole violently released our friend. My first instinct was to scold Barbara, but I swallowed it away. She had been trying to have some fun and a mistake had been made. I was only angry because I was scared. I didn't want to be the adult. My sister and I deserved to be children like anyone else. We couldn't handle this, obviously. Throwing my shoulders forward and head low with ears back, I moved my way to be beside my sister, off to the side. "We need to find a pack, soon. Next time we may not get so lucky." I whispered it past her ears, partially because Miles would be upset if he knew my attention was not solely on his 'sister' at the moment, and also because Barbara was persistent that we didn't need an adult. She was the oldest physically so she thought her say was the final word--or at least she liked to pretend it was. She thought we would be fine on our own, even though it was her that made us need the adults.

I watched as Barbara flailed a paw towards Miles, whom had began to clear out her ears. She pushed him away roughly, and he snorted in surprise. Turning her face in the direction he had been in, pulling her snout away from Kerry, she keeled over and vomited up an icky black mess. She lifted a paw and swiped the remaining thick glop beside her left eye and opened the baby blues. With a grin that could only be called comedic, she turned the gaze to Kerry. "Not anymore!" I could feel my neck hair rise in frustration. This was exactly why we needed someone more experienced. The woman seemed to be unaware, or not caring, that it was truly a miracle she was alive. I watched as she turned her gaze to Miles, who was unsteadily getting back to his feet. "Sorry, kid! I figured you'd throw up if I barfed on you!" Miles shook the dirt from his pelt in response, then looked to her grinning widely. He saw Barbara as the role model, so her carelessness seemed to pass onto him in the most inappropriate times.

I felt mud splatter across my face and I blinked in surprise. Barbara's longer fur spike wildly in every direction and I could see a few strands of crusted gold hair poke through the dominantly brown disaster. I glared at the woman in disbelief and she just grinned right back at me. She had shook with all of us standing around here, throwing mud onto our already much too dirty pelts. "Thought I'd share because you know what they say,"

"Sharing is caring!" Miles wailed it in amusement as he moved to grooming his own fur now, his quick strokes unorganized in compared to the slow rasps of Barbara's tongue she was now carefully streaking over her back. Despite all the joking, I knew it was just the woman's way of trying to make the world stop worrying so much--her pale gold pelt was her pride and joy, so she had clearly been eager to clean it out. I looked to Kerry and noticed the muffled breathing. I approached him, still a little frustrated over Barbara's immaturity and the fact that it was rubbing off onto Miles.

"Hey, lay down and relax yourself. I will work on this mud Barbara decided to share with you." I rolled my eyes but couldn't help giving the three-legged man a warm smile. Him and Miles had been the ones standing closest to Barbara when she decided to shake the thick globs of mud from her pelt, so they had received the brunt of the attack.

[I L Y I C H]

Watching Kerry and Miles rapid tongue strokes I couldn't help the tightening of my chest. Mild panic. How many times did this have to happen before it wouldn't happen any more? Until one of us paid for once. We were kids. Kids didn't need to know that consequences existed. Didn't need to know that stuff like this led to things no one ever wanted to see. Flesh tore so easily, and the thought made me shudder. It would be so simple for someone to just leap and never get up again. We didn't know anything about the world or its dangers. The risk of something horrible happening just got worse as the days went on. Chocolate brown eyes jumped to Chris when he spoke and I nodded shortly in return. "We need to find adults. We can't save ourselves from dangers we dont know about." I agreed quietly, voice pitching low out of anxiousness.

Turning my ears to Barbara and her peppy responses I huffed and fell back onto my own playfulness. I didn't want to be an adult. It wasn't fair that Chris and I had to grow up faster then everyone else. I wanted to be able to keep up my own optimism. I wanted to be able to be happy that my friend was ok, not worry over what would happen when she wasn't. Moving forward on quick small paws I smiled brightly at the mess everywhere. Trust Barbara to thank us by flinging the filth everywhere. Huffing ungainly I stuck my nose up in the air. Playing along. Barbs wanted to shake off her own fear like this then I would help her. What were friends for? "Your nasty you know that?" Playing petulance I stuck my tongue out at her all but jumped her, shoving my tongue against her jaw. "If this is what you call caring I don't want any part of it!" I nipped at the golden girl's ears, cleaning off mud as I moved. It was so odd to see her prized pelt so... brown.

My attention turned away from Barbara when she sat down to clean herself off. No one messed with that fur, even herself I guess. Backing away i turned to playfully prod Miles with one white foot. "Your pretty good for being so little" I chuckled, teasing just a bit. It was really a complement. My heart had been in my throat watching the black and tan boy wade into the mud but he'd pulled it off. Saved a sibling. He'd saved a life and I hope he knew that, though I wouldn't voice it aloud. Not when everyone was so carefree. It wouldn't do anything but bring us down. So I just smiled stupidly and turned slightly to look at Kerry upon Chris's intervention. Worry spiked up again, though not quiet as horrendously thick as earlier. I was running on the same high as everyone else of course.

Had Kerry hurt himself pulling Barbara up? My shoulders stung from the exertion and I had all four legs. My lips peeled back in a grimace in response to the thought. I had forgotten to take poor Kerry's troubles into consideration. Guilt bit at me, but the smaller kid just leaned his head back slightly and laughed, flicking his snout to clear some of the muck that had been thrown on him. "I'm fine Chris" Kerry's voice was high and bright as always, though it was a bit breathless. "Though I'd really love the help" The secondary phrase was offered with a weak smile. Pitiful really. I let out a laugh and Kerry's dual toned eyes turned to me, narrowed slightly with mirth. Turning back to Miles I wagged my tail, offering to get the mud off his ears if he'd get it off mine.

[Bhu ♥ Irwin]

My gaze flicked around actively as I worked to pull the thick mud from my chest. It seemed to cling strongest to where the surface filth had touched me. Baked by the sun and hardened, I presumed, so the fingers were stronger on it. With a huff of mild frustration, I dug my teeth into one chunk and yanked, squeaking at the pinch it gave when it finally tore off. I saw Barbara's eyes flash to me for a moment and my insides warmed at the mist of concern that took to her gaze for a split second until she realized I was fine. She wasn't a bad dog. I felt that Chris grew annoyed with her sometimes. I heard him whisper harshly one night to her, asking if she even cared about the rest of us, because she was going to get someone killed. Barbara had brushed it off and called him paranoid, but I knew the question had stung her. She loved us, and the only way she knew how to show it was by not letting the world make us as dark as everyone else.

When Kara jumped her, my head shot up in amusement. The Demarais siblings were very different. I wondered iddly as I watched Barbara react to the attack by getting to her paws and shaking some more, if Chris had been like Kara once. I saw it, sometimes, the carefree nature that all children should have. They reacted to this whole ordeal we had found ourselves in in complete opposite ways. Kara allowed herself to be her age most of the time, then pushed forward the adult when the time called for her. Chris forced the adult forward most of the time, and only allowed the child through on rare occasions.

Like now.

My eyes ran to watch him go forward quite eagerly to help Kerry with the mud in his fur. He had a carefree, perhaps even content (gasp--Chris was happy?) look on his face. The man shifted forward to lay down close to the other boy, as he arched his neck to groom the mud gently from the Kerry's forehead and ears, the places most difficult for him to reach due to his...disability. There was something strong about the way Chris groomed the man, the calm about it--a brotherhood. I realized then that Chris didn't want to be an adult anymore than Kara did. My ears fell back as I slowly turned my eyes to Barbara and Kara once more, wondering if maybe I would be doing a service by trying to persuade Barbara to accept we needed a pack. I still wasn't sure I liked the idea, but I could now understand why the Demarais siblings were so persistent.

I turned my attention back to the girls just in time to catch Barbara's reply. "But I love you, Kara!"

[/b][/i] And then swiped her paw over her chest and chucked a glob of mud at Kara's retreating tail as the woman headed towards me. The golden dog then went back to grooming as if she had not just been tackled and then chucked mud.

My head arched down to go back to working on my chest, but then Kara's paw prodded at me, carrying my attention back to her. The statement made some heat rise to my cheeks and I self-consciously returned to my chest strokes. "I follow orders..."

"Not very well--I said put your two front paws in." Chris' amused bark came from across the way, but by the time I shot a glare at him, he was back to cleaning Kerry's forehead. I sighed and said nothing more. What could I say? Oh, woe is me, I have lost too much to really give a shit if I am alive anyway? I have lost too much to let anyone else die, especially not someone that I consider my siblings? That the whole time I was in that mud trying to get Barbara's attention, I was flashing back to my own brother dying and I thought my new sister would give up and just die like he had? Fuck that. We had all lost everything--I had no right to speak of my own past. So I chose silence, and I avoided the woman's eyes as I maneuvered my tongue. I was a filthy little screw-up that wasn't worthy of these dogs but, since they allowed me access to their lives, I would try and make it worth their while.

I simply abandoned my chest at her offer, forced forward the plastic smile, and reached up to pick a glob of filth from my friend's ears. [/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]