The Gang of Five
Role Play => Land Before Time RPG => Topic started by: Noname on December 15, 2009, 12:01:37 AM
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A mated pair of sharpteeth, the same kind as Chomper, rested in the wilderness.
The first to wake was Rutilas, a large male with yellow eyes, a red hide with a yellow underside, and a very strong jaw, even by his kind's standards. He was the larger of the two of them by a fair margin.
Rutilas got up and sniffed the air, hoping to find some traces of food. He found none. He looked next to him and saw his mate, Whiteclaw. She was still asleep.
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Whiteclaw was not quite as asleep as Rutilas thought. She just dozed, half awake and half asleep. She was white with a pale yellow belly and soles, slightly smaller than Rutilas, and had three black stripes racing horizontally down her back behind her waist.
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Rutilas got up, stretched his legs, and looked around. He could see no prey, either. Looking on the ground, he found no tracks, save for those of himself and his mate. He could smell her scent lingering in the air around them... but no other creature was close enough for him to smell...
"I hope she'll be fine with the food situation." he thought to himself.
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Whiteclaw shifted and opened her eyes. She yawned and flipped on belly, then pushed herself off the ground. "I see you're up." She said, swishing her tail.
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"Yeah I'm up. Still a bit tired." He replied. He gave his mate a "good morning" nuzzle. "Did you sleep okay?" She was usually the one who had a better night's sleep. The swishing of her tail pushed her scent towards him. A scent he really liked... but now was not the time to think of such things.
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Meanwhile a few kilometers away a young teenaged sharptooth named Rex was searching the surrounding area for a meal but all he had found were small lizards and some bugs. "uh...if i stay hungry any longer i'm gonna have to start eating the vegetation...". Rex made an extremely funny looking face at the thought of eating plants. "back to searching...."
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The valley they were in was not devoid of prey, yet the leafeaters were understandably afraid to get anywhere near the predators they knew lived with them. Even in a valley full of walking food, a sharptooth still had to struggle to fill his belly... and when he finally caught the prey, it often fought back...
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Slasher, Whiteclaw and Rutilus's youngest son, about 8-9 in human years, had just woken up.
"Morning mom, morning dad, what's for breakfast?" Slasher asked.
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Whiteclaw rubbed Slasher's nose gently. "There isn't anything in sight yet, dear." She said gently.
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"I'll start looking for something." Rutilas replied. He was a very good hunter... his mate would grant him that. He was lucky that Slasher was still very small... otherwise, feeding him this morning would be a harder task indeed. He hadn't asked for a child... he just mated his mate. Still... he was glad that it was a boy... every adult male should have a boy, he thought... someone to call "my boy"... he liked the sound of that.
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"I'll keep watch around here, then." Whiteclaw said, dropping her tail loosely.
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"So daddy's going to get breakfast?" Slasher asked his mom
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Rutilas was in good hunting form today. He shook off the last bits of sleep which still clung to his mind, and moved on with his goal."I should be able to bring down a four-legged one... hmm... maybe that threehorn I saw earlier." He thought to himself. After passing through the soft grass, Rutilas came upon some trees, in which he caught the scent of a threehorn grazing on some bushes. It was a younger female, just into adulthood for maybe a year or two. She was alone and unaware that a predator was about to bear down on her...
Rutilas struck! Biting just behing her napeshield, he managed to bring her down with a minimum of effort for such a kill; a spine-shattering bite. A lucky kill. Food for the whole family. The hard part would be to drag it back... she wasn't light to move. Now maybe his mate would be in a better mood... she had given him a piece of her mind last night for his advances...
Dragging to corpse back to his mate and Slasher, Rutilas proudly proclaimed "We have threehorn!."
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(Crud, I'm imagining Cera :wow )
Whiteclaw motioned Slasher to the corpse. "Well, that didn't take long, dear." She looked up at him with a smile. It was not a "signal for permission", but a token of her gratitude. But she had a feeling that Rutilas didn't know that. "Go a head, son." She said to Slasher.
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And he didn't get it. Rutilas was strong, fast, and tough, all good qualities for a sharptooth to have... but he wasn't very smart. He wasn't about to make a scene in front of his son, but he took the signal the wrong way...
After taking several mouthfuls of meat, he moved over to his mate, nuzzled her, and whispered in her ear, so Slasher couldn't hear him "Nice to see you are in 'the mood' When slasher goes off to play, do you want to-."
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"Thank you daddy," Slasher waved as he went off to find his friends.
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Whiteclaw growled grumpily and smacked Rutilas' heels with her tail. "Not in the mood." She said simply.
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"Oh, come one! I got you some food, didn't I? Doesn't that make up for the stuff I said last night? It wasn't anything I didn't just tell you... and Slasher isn't around to look..." He may have been pressuring her too much, but he had some reason to do so. Her pheromones excited him, and just being near her at the right time made his blood pressure increase and muscles tense up... as if ready to mate on the spot. He hardly noticed the slight pain in his heels. Still, the rational part of his mind reminded him that she wasn't ready for it now, come back later... still... the other parts of him outvoted the intelligent part this time...
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White claw took some meat in her jaws and threw it at Rutilas' nose. "No is no!"
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He was going to give it once last shot... this was a very bad idea, but his loins told his brain that if this didn't work, they'd try again later tonight...
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Whiteclaw rolled her eyes and continued devouring the carcass, soon breaking off one of the ribs, which she dropped on Rutilas' foot.
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"Ow! Okay... I think I'll just...stop..." He thought to himself, not getting that she wasn't interested
Yes, this was Rutilas when he wasn't thinking. To his credit, he didn't ask her again... not verbally anyway, but it was clear what he wanted...
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This time, Whiteclaw turned and walked away a few paces and sat down facing the way Slasher went off.
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Rutilas got up and walked away himself... "I'm glad she didn't kick me there..." he thought to himself his rational mind began to reassert itself as her scent faded from the air around him. "Now to get some rest..." he added mentally.
He found a large, flat rock where he could see his mate and his son. Lying down on his side, he stretched out and yawned, then feel into a surprisingly deep sleep surprisingly quickly.
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Whiteclaw glanced backwards, satisfied that Rutilas was unable to bother her. She stood up and went to observe Slasher and his friends.
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Rutilas slept uneasily. Her pheremones no longer reached his snout in the same intensity, but every now and then the wind would pick up and blow some right into his nose. When this happened, the reaction was instantaneous; he thrashed about in his sleep, no doubt dreaming about his mate and him having some... intimate time. It wasn't a very good rest, as it kept being punctuated by a rise and fall in his hormones and heartbeat... still, he was out of his mate's business... so to speak...
Rutilas eventually woke after a few hours had passed. The sun was still out, though...
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Whiteclaw looked back at Rutilas. "Have you settled yet?"
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"I'll be fine. We should get some food. And thanks for not... taking advantage of the situation earlier..." he was grateful she didn't kick him in the... well... he was just glad.
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"I'm still feeling full" Whiteclaw said. "But you can grab yourself a decent sized flier or something if you're still hungry"
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Rutilas proceeded to find himself some food... a young Spiketail with orange skin... a juvenile, not a hatchling.
Later that night, Rutilas decided to have a talk with his mate...
"Whiteclaw... I think... well... I know we have this talk a lot but... we need to talk. I'm not going to ask for anything... I just think we should... see if we can come to some sort of arrangement in which we are both... satisfied..." And Rutilas only knew one meaning of the term "satisfaction."
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"Have you noticed that our son has not returned?" Whiteclaw asked.
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""Wait... I'd thought you had put him to bed... where IS he?" Rutilas asked, thinking about something besides his own urges for once...
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"He hasn't come back since he left." Whiteclaw fidgeted nervously.
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(OOC: I have no idea when Brekclub will be here, so I don't know when the issue about his missing char can be resolved.)
"I was asleep much of the day... weren't you watching him?" Rutilas asked, a bit nervous himself.
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Whiteclaw pondered what had happened. "Well, they split up to play hide and seek. I knew they would find Slasher quickly, and I can trust him to be home before sunset." She paused to think.
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"We should go out and find him... immediately!" Rutilas replied. After an hour of searching, he caught Slasher's scent...
"He's over this way!"
An hour later, they found him already asleep, curled up in some grass...
"Oh. There he is. He must have gotten tired and decided to take a nap, but didn't wake up during the day." Yes...Slasher was already copying his father's ways...
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Just then, Slasher came around the corner.
"Sorry, I fell asleep," the young rex apologized to his parents.
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Whiteclaw drooped with relief. "Praise the Bright Circle." She licked Slasher gently.
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(OOC: I made my first version of Rutilas! I'll get to Whiteclaw soon!)
(http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2009/350/f/4/Rutilas_Version_1_by_Noguy.jpg)
Rutilas leaned over and nuzzled the child. He was just as grateful as his mate... although he had a harder time showing it...
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"Come, son, let's go." Whiteclaw nudged Slasher gently.
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"Gotcha mom," Slasher nodded.
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The three of them went to the nest, happy to be together again. Rutilas wisely kept his mouth shut on certain issues, and they enjoyed the rest of the night.
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Rex had found a nice clearing at least 2 kilometers away from where the other 3 sharpteeth were and he had begun to sleep tired and hungry since he had not found any food to fill up his emty stomache, he almost had a flier but it had gotten away before he could clamp his jaws down...
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The next morning...
Rutilas awoke to find his mate and child were up, although by the looks of it, not for more than a few minutes...
"Morning Whiteclaw. Did you have a good night?"
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Whiteclaw arched her back to stretch. "Quite well after being assured that Slasher was safe."
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Rutilas rose up off of the ground and yawned; the sound from that alone was enough to make flyers take to the sky in fear, but his family didn't mind.
"Good to hear. Shall I get the food today, so you can rest here, or do you want to come along with me on the hunt?"
He decided not to act like he normally did with her... they had just gone through a scare with their son, and even Rutilas knew it was not a good idea to pressure her after that...
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"I would like to come. And it would give Slasher some good hunting opportunity"
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(OOC: Ptyra, I know you like Pterano, so I'll give you the link for a pic I made of him: http://noguy.deviantart.com/art/Pterano-147157464 (http://noguy.deviantart.com/art/Pterano-147157464) Enjoy!)
"Alright then. I'll choose some easier prey. I don't want to risk our son..."
For all his faults as a mate and a father, Rutilas was an excellent hunter. Although his mind was dominated by baser urges, this meant much more than mating and sleeping; it also meant eating, which, for a Sharptooth, meant tracking, hunting, and killing. He was good at all three.
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"What would be "easier" for him?"White claw asked.
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"Hunting something that is old, sick, or crippled. We should also stay away from anything larger than ourselves..." Rutilas replied to his mate.
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"Good then" Whiteclaw said. "Surely none of those will be a struggle for him."
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"Well... we need to find one that is alone, too. If we pick on a creature that is hurt, but has help, it won't end well. We gotta find stragglers and dinosaurs who aren't with a herd." Rutilas added.
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OT Admin call out:
Earlier parts of this RP are not OK on the GOF. I don't have an issue with sharptooth parents raising a youngster, but leave out the descriptive mating rituals.
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(OOC: I'll remove whatever it is you need.)
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OT: Any part where you descriptively explain how ready Rutilas is to get it on with his mate is what there is an issue with. Everything else is fine. I'm not out to shut down the RP. ;)
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(OOC: I've cut out the parts which I believe were in violation of the rule. Is it good now?)
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(Annd hopefully now that it's cleaned and bleached...)
Whiteclaw sniffed the air. "Say, where did you find that threehorn, anyway?"
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"Not too far from here, near the trees." Rutilas replied, sniffing the air. "I smell more of them. Do you?"
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Whiteclaw climbed onto a rock to get a better whiff."Yes, I do. Some of them smell young...young enough for Slasher to take down." She tapped her foot thoughtfully. "Threehorns usually surround their young to protect them. If we could manage to separate the adults from at least one young one, that could give Slasher a chance for a good kill."
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"Do you think you can create a distraction? If you do, I can accompany our son to the threehorn young while the adults are diverted. I'll make sure nothing happens to Slasher while he practices." Rutilas told his mate.
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"I can try"
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"Just give us five minutes of a distraction. That should be plenty of time for me and the boy to do what we have to. If it gets dangerous for you, call it off. Roar to me if you are in big trouble and we'll know to abandon this practice" Rutilas told her. He knew he was the larger, stronger and tougher of them, but his mate was faster on her feet, and. although he wouldn't admit it, she was the smarter of them.
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Whiteclaw nodded. She followed the scent of the threehorns. When she found them grazing, she let out a roar, which startled them all.
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The threehorn herd began moving to surround their young, and the adults formed a line between the kids and Whiteclaw. Luckily, they did not form a circle, as the attack was all coming from one direction, from a female sharptooth. They did not see Rutilas and Slasher moving up from behind, where there were no adults protecting the kids.
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Whiteclaw began communicating with the others in sharptooth.
"There's very small one at the end of the line. Get that one."
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(OOC: I won't have Slasher say anything, but for the sake of the plot, I must have him move on.)
Rutilas noticed his son looking at the Threehorns with a mixture of curiosity and fear.
"Go on, boy! Get that small one! You can do it!"
The threehorns were not moving to attack Whiteclaw. Not yet. She still had them spooked. How much longer this would last was anyone's guess.
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Whiteclaw struck out at one of the threehorns that tried to charge. It staggered back, probably repulsed by the stench of her breath.
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Slasher attacked one of the young threehorns, biting him in the throat. Before it died, it let out a cry of pain, which alerted the other threehorns to Slasher and Rutilas.
"Good kill, son! Now let's get out of here before we're mauled by that herd!"
The father and son ran around the herd, trying to get back to Whiteclaw. The meat from the kill was lost, but Slasher had proven that he could hunt nevertheless. He was proficient for his age, although now the threehorns were mad. Luckily, when Rutilas and Whiteclaw managed to get next to each other again, it made the herd hesitate to attack...except for the alpha male, whose son had just been killed! He charged at the sharpteeth, angry beyond anything he ever had been before.
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Whiteclaw waited for the last possible moment to strike at the charging threehorn. As he came close, she stepped aside and bit him high up the shoulder.
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Rutilas followed up on the attack with a bite to the opposite shoulder, his teeth easily slicing through the thick flesh. He was cut in the leg by the right horn of the alpha male, but it was only a minor injury. The threehorn now faced the very real possibility of being ripped in to by a pair of predators, each one larger than even himself. He thrashed in desperation and pain, roaring madly, slamming into both mates.
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Whiteclaw managed to break off one of the threehorn's eyehorns as she made an attempt to grab his frill.
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At this point, all three combatants were bruised and bloody to a degree, but all of the serious injuries were on the threehorn, who soon collapsed due to blood loss. The rest of the herd was stunned. Would they charge? Would they break and run? Or would they keep standing there?
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Whiteclaw gave a warning look to the rest of the threehorns and let out a threatening snarl.
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Seeing their leader bleeding at the feet of the Sharpteeth, the rest of the herd decided to cut its losses and back off, moving slowly in one, big, massive formation. Even in retreat, it was quite an impressive thing to see a whole herd on the move. And Slasher was uninjured. His parents were sore, but he had learned quite a bit. Altogether, it was a good day for them.
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Whiteclaw moved next to Rutilas and licked a gash near his eye. "I'm not giving a signal." She said bluntly. "I just want to make sure that scratch isn't too bad."
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Rutilas didn't interpret this as anything more than what she had said. He was too tired to really initiate anything now."I appreciate it, Whiteclaw, but it isn't really anything serious."
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A few hours later, the family was back at the nest, and night was starting to fall. Slasher had fallen asleep behind them, leaving the two mates with only each other to talk to.
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Whiteclaw nestled close to Rutilas and put her hand over his. "I'm still not giving any signals." She yawned widely. "But that was quite a nice meal." She stretched. "It makes me feel a bit sleepy."
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Redclaw nuzzled her back, trying not to let his hormones show."I'm glad you liked it Whiteclaw." He didn't move to do anything, but she could smell his hormones raging. He still controlled himself at this time.
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Whiteclaw looked at Slasher with a smile. "He's grown so fast."
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"Yes, yes he is. He's such a good child. Also... Whiteclaw, could you move over a bit? The wind is blowing your scent to me and it's making me... well... you know. I know what your mood is right now, and I don't want to say or do something I will regret." he told her.
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Whiteclaw moved aside, but she kept her hand over his.
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Rutilas calmed somewhat. Her scent didn't make him as excitable. His blood pressure was still up, though. "Whiteclaw, have I ever told you I'm sorry that my body reacts like this when I'm near you at times?"
The urge to multiply was strong in the presence of a fertile female, although for the sake of his family, he had to control himself.
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Slasher slept peacefully that night.
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In either case, there were no incidents that night. Neither mate nor their child caused any issues for the other. The next morning was hot and humid. Rutilas woke up first, having not slept so well that night.
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Whiteclaw opened one eye and grunted. "When did it get so hot?"
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"I guess there will be some sky water coming through. When it gets this hot and humid, it is a sign of that." Rutilas responded to hit mate.
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Whiteclaw stretched until there was a small pop in her back. She gave a contented sigh as the slight pain went away. "Or maybe there was sky water somewhere nearby."
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Rutilas roared and stretched. It was a sound his family was used to hearing, but it frightened any leaf-eaters who heard it "Maybe. I didn't hear and sky water last night." Rutilas responded to his mate. Standing up, he felt the earth give way a bit under his massive feet. The ground was softer than usual.
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Whiteclaw stood up and noticed that the ground was softer too. "See? There could have been some sky water somewhere."
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Rutilas pressed his foot down into the ground, wondering if something was happening. He hit water. Pulling his foot out of the mud, his eyes widened in surprise. "I'm not sure what is happening, but the water level seems to have risen. Something might have happened to the river." It wasn't rain, but something had occurred to make the water level rise. What could have possibly increased the flow of water to the river?
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"Should we go somewhere else daddy?" asked Slasher.
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"I think we need to learn what's happening, son.." He replied. "If something is affecting the water, we are all in danger."
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Rutilas was correct. The river was fed by a waterfall some distance back, but there was a second river not too far away, running parallel to the river which went through their valley. The sky water had indeed fallen some distance away, which made the second river burst its banks to feed into the first one. This created a massive increase in the volume of water...
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Whiteclaw blinked. "Perhaps there was a stormm by Big Water.[/color]
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"I'm not sure what happened. You are the brains of the two of us." Rutilas admitted to his mate. A rare admission for him indeed. Her mind was much clearer than his on most days, at least, when she was with him, but even if he had never caught the scent of a female, she would still be brighter than him.
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If the water level was indeed rising, they would have to do something about it, or else have to move to higher ground. The possibility of leaving their valley was also a very real one. Neither mate wanted it to come to that.
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Whiteclaw snorted. "We just got here and there's already a problem."
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"You have any idea what to do?." Rutilas asked her. "I don't think this problem can be solved by me biting it. If I can't bite it, kick it, or hit it somehow, I admit that it isn't really my strong point when it comes to problems like this." And he was not about to run away from a little water.
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"Perhaps we could look for local sharpteeth and ask them what's going on." Whiteclaw suggested.
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"Maybe. I don't want any other males getting close to you, though. I know that there are more males than females in this valley, and a "surplus" male might try something. I'll go with you if you ask them." He replied, concerned that something might happen.
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"I did say 'we', didn't I?" Whiteclaw asked, but understanding her mate's concern.
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"Well, yes, but I need to make sure. I cannot, will not let you be hurt, killed, or... violated. I would rather have my arms bitten off than to see you hurt like that." He replied. He was serious. Part of this concern was born out of a desire to keep her alive and fit to reproduce with and to keep the other males out of her so they could not breed with her, but most of it was born out of love for her. He was concerned for more good reasons than bad.
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Whiteclaw nuzzled his cheek. "I'm glad you care."
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"Even if we find more sharpteeth to help us, what CAN we do? I don't suppose there is a way to make the water level go back down, is there?" He asked.
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Whiteclaw tapped her foot. "Perhaps, if we find the right way."
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Rutilas saw her taping her foot. Hmm. For once, he had an idea. Large sharpteeth had pretty big feet. "Whiteclaw, how much earth do you think you can move with your feet?"
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Whiteclaw shrugged. "I'm not sure. The most dirt I've moved has only been to make a nest, and that wasn't much.
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"I'm betting you and I can move a good amount, if we took hours and hours to do it. If all the other sharpteeth joined in, we might be able to put enough earth into the river to slow the flow, which should make the level go down. I know from experience, you have pretty strong feet." He replied. He had felt her foot muscles whenever he gave her a massage there, and he knew how fast she was, and how hard she could kick. Very.
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Whiteclaw tilted her head. "Perhaps we could find our extra feet now."
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"Lead the way, my mate. I'll be there all the way. If any of them make a move, I'll bite off their-" He stopped, realizing that his son might be near enough to hear it. "Well, I'll keep you safe. Let's bring Slasher along and go find some help." He knew that his mate was not helpless. She could fight, and if need be, run. She was probably the fastest sharptooth of her kind in the valley, in his estimation.
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Rutilas picked up the scent of another young couple. A mated pair of sharpteeth. Good. He knew that these two wouldn't start anything with him or his mate. They could have a peaceful conversation. The male, Blackscar, had no quarrel with Rutilas, and the female, Malachite, was quite docile for a sharptooth. The largest problem with so many sharpteeth gathered together in one place was that they might decide to settle old scores or take revenge.
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(OOC: I'm continuing this for now. If no one else is able to post, I'll have to let this rest for a while)
Rutilas and Whiteclaw managed to gather several sharpteeth together, but none of them could agree on the best way to move that much earth. Before long, arguments broke out, and it was hard to come to a consensus.