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Post by subtleAssiduities on Feb 22, 2016 18:12:38 GMT -5
Austin smiled. "I know you do. I love you, too." He nosed her cheek lovingly. He lifted his head at the Meowth's exclamation and got to his paws. "I guess they found Chance."
Vivian led the way back to the nest, and she allowed herself a moment of relief when she saw that both her kids were exactly where she left them. Not that she had expected anything else- and Arceus help these kids if they had moved -but it was a satisfying discovery. She spared a glance around. The matriarch had left their company sometime in the night (finally) and there was no sign of here within sight, but Vivian didn't doubt that she was still nearby. She would have loved to just slink out of this damned place, but she knew better than that. They were probably waiting at the exit.
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Post by Atticus on Feb 22, 2016 18:23:19 GMT -5
The Meowth's ears began to flatten as the four Pokémon made their way over. They were a scarier bunch that the young kitten didn't feel much like dealing with. He turned to his Eevee friend, concerned. "Good-bye, Winter. Will you come visit us?"
"I hope so," she muttered in return, and gave the cat a hopeful glance before he rushed back into the field of flowers. Her heart begin to sink. Was he the only cub here, just as she was, back home?
She tried to straighten herself out as her parents grew near, but there was no masking the sadness on the child to leave her new friends. But despite this, she knew better than to argue.
"Come on, kids," Angelo rumbled, nosing Austin and Win to their paws and making a near bee-line for the exit.
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Post by subtleAssiduities on Feb 22, 2016 18:32:41 GMT -5
Austin fell in line behind his father and looked down at his sister with a wavering smile. Poor Win... This place wasn't even close like the Lake of Rage was, when he was regularly visiting Vaporeon. It would be quite a trek if she ever got to come back, and he was not so sure that she would ever have their parents' blessing. Maybe when she was a little older, a little stronger, he could take her here... but still, that was so long. His heart went out to her. Even if this place was full of baby-stealers, they did seem nice, if one were to put that aside. And they had treated them kindly. They hadn't even injured his parents when they had attacked them, and he had gathered that that lightning attack wasn't intentional, having met Lemondrop. It was quite a place to lose, for Win.
Vivian wasn't surprised, but she was irritated to find Dominia sitting by the exit, half of her regal tails wrapped around her tiny paws and the others switching and trembling. She stood off to the side, out of their way. And her gaze was not on them, but trained on Winter. Her fur prickled, and she glanced back to make sure the cub was close to her father and brother, not trailing behind or off on her own.
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Post by Atticus on Feb 22, 2016 18:42:18 GMT -5
Angelo, too, caught sight of the unavoidable Ninetales, and shot a look back at Win. To this, the Umbreon side-stepped, making sure to put himself between the two, even if he was at the head of the group. No way was he letting her get her paws on his daughter again. He wouldn't put it past her to try and snatch up his cub and dart into the forest. Dirty baby-thief.
"Good-bye, Dominia!" the cub called, rushing to the Ninetales despite her father's efforts and hugging her foreleg. From her peripheral vision, she could see Tzerua and her two friends staring at her sadly, so she lifted and waved a paw.
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Post by subtleAssiduities on Feb 22, 2016 18:49:00 GMT -5
For a moment Dominia feared that she would not get to say goodbye, and her chest started to hurt. But as the cub broke away from her family, she let out a sigh that started to feel like a sob, and she put her paw around her, hugging her back. "Goodbye, Winter. I'll miss you very much," she whispered, her words only for the child.
Vivian bristled, and her tail ticked back and forth in unmasked agitation. Her claws dug into the soil as she watched the two, maternal anger burning in her chest. This wasn't to last for long...
Despite the tension that followed through this place, the boys were watching her. Regardless of what the Ninetails had done, Vivian seemed like a worse threat at any given moment.
And Lemondrop watched all this impatiently. She knew no arm would come to the little kid, even if Dominia was reluctant to give her up. This angry suspicion these guys always seemed burdened with was a real downer. Couldn't they just patiently let the foxes say their goodbyes and go home? Why was everything such an ordeal?
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Post by Atticus on Feb 22, 2016 21:56:40 GMT -5
"Me too," the cub murmured, giving her leg one final nuzzle before bouncing back to Austin's side. Right now did not seem like the best time to stop and ask again if they could visit, seeing her mother's prickling fur. But maybe Entei would visit her when she was older... she let out a little sigh and bounced along in an attempt to keep up with her long-legged family.
Angelo was relieved when the forest began to envelop them, and the powdery-flowery fields began to disappear behind them. Now they could finally get home, and get things back to the way they were... albeit he might grab Elliot and put in a request to the humans to make a wire chain-like fence but that was a thought for later.
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Post by subtleAssiduities on Feb 22, 2016 22:07:02 GMT -5
Despite various apprehensions, the group made it back to the ranch in good time. The shadows of the hills had just reached the ranch when the family slid through the fence one by one.
The ranch hadn't seemed to miss them much. Not that Vivian was perturbed by this; she was all too happy to let this whole ordeal slip under the radar, as long as it didn't happen again. She didn't want it being the talk around here for the next moon. Her gaze shifted to her daughter, and the anger that she had put on hold ascended to her primary consciousness. Her eyes narrowed with motherly scorn. There was no holding back now.
Lemondrop walked onto the ranch like she was stepping foot in another world. Chance watched her, and Austin watched him in turn. A tension hung in the air between the two that the young Umbreon could not understand. Something existed there beyond his comprehension, and it made him uneasy and nervous for his brother.
A swift glance over her shoulder was the only gesture the Pikachu made to acknowledge her separation from the group before she took off for the house. Chance moved nearly before her, expecting it, and he glided after her like a shadow. Suddenly Austin found himself standing alone- his brother racing off in the midst of a friendship he was not a part of, and his parents' attention turned inward to his little sister. He felt in the way of both of them. His mother's gaze told him that he was no longer needed her, and he slunk off to look for Chris.
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Post by Atticus on Feb 22, 2016 22:11:08 GMT -5
Winter blinked as the group came to a halt and began to branch off, with Austin running off, and Chance and Lemondrop heading towards the house. That left her with just Vivian and Angelo, and the latter of the two looked ready to awkwardly scoot off, himself. Her dad could be an angry little spark but he was not so good at scolding his children. Winter never came them much reason to, really... except for today.
She bowed her head and flattened her ears, ready for her earful, though in no way excited for it.
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Post by subtleAssiduities on Feb 22, 2016 22:15:58 GMT -5
"Listen carefully to me, Winter. I'm only going to say this once." Vivian turned slowly to face the Eevee, and she leered over her like an angel of death. "If you ever make us have to go looking for you like that again, you are not coming back in one piece. Understand?" She gestured to the fence with an agitated flip of her tail. "You treat that fence like a solid wall. You don't go through it without our permission unless you don't plan on coming back."
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Post by Atticus on Feb 22, 2016 22:31:09 GMT -5
Winter flinched at the harshness of her words; she didn't know what to expect from a lecturing, as this was her first time doing anything that invited a heavy scolding.
She was shocked by her mother's words, though. Was this what all lecturing was like? Laced with threats and promises of some... some kind of abandonment? Dominia would have never said anything like that... she never would have even dreamed it. She was such a kindhearted and maternal creature, she would never even think to say something remotely menacing. This was her first time doing something wrong ever! She would have just as well obeyed if Vivian hadn't been so aggressive about it, but now she felt something devious and bitter sparking in her chest.
"You saying stuff like that is the reason that place exists," the cub muttered, but lifted her head to stare her mother in the eye defiantly.
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Post by subtleAssiduities on Feb 22, 2016 22:45:38 GMT -5
Her eyes widened in surprise, not so much at the weight of the words as the child's open defiance to her. Chance and Austin had never had the gall...
She found herself in a state of suspension while her daughter's stare sank in, but when the shock faded, she was once again left with boiling contempt. "I don't care why that place exists," she growled at last. "You live here. Get in the barn, now."
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Post by Atticus on Feb 22, 2016 23:29:05 GMT -5
"Fine," the Eevee mumbled, tail hanging, but her shoulders were hunched aggressively. "Hopefully I get there in one piece..."
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Post by subtleAssiduities on Feb 22, 2016 23:40:25 GMT -5
"Don't tempt it!" Vivian snapped, whirling around to face her. She pressed her nails into the ground until she was digging up dirt. "Angelo, follow her," she growled.
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Post by Atticus on Feb 22, 2016 23:44:45 GMT -5
Angelo stared at the two dumbfounded before being barked orders. He couldn't find it in him to respond properly, and instead just jogged after their cub. He wasn't expecting that out of Winter, who was usually so tame and nonchalant. But they had gotten a very lax cub out of Austin, perhaps they were only due for a cub with the bite of her parents. But still... it was somehow very unexpected.
He nearly bumped into Win as she stopped and whirled around to her mother. "Why do you have to say that stuff? I'm your cub! You're supposed to love me, but a stranger ended up being better at that than you!"
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Post by subtleAssiduities on Feb 22, 2016 23:51:07 GMT -5
The fur rose on Vivian's shoulders, and pupils constricted. For a moment she was seeing red. She held her breath, grasping at something to keep her from completely losing her temper. Nowhere in her memory could she find a moment that struck her the way Winter did not. She couldn't completely identify the emotion; she didn't know what kept her from giving into the rage, but it was the same thing that pushed her to it in the first place. She closed her eyes, waited for the anger to simmer low enough to leave room for her voice. "She didn't love you, winter. She wanted you."
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