Posts by ophelia!

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]The small black form of a one-month-old border collie was visible against the snow as she slunk through camp. Her gray-blue eyes took everything, as wide as they could be without showing the whites of her eyes. Everything was so big, she thought. Who was she? She was Ophelia. A little puppy whose priorities were mainly eating, sleeping, and just enjoying herself. Basically the priorities of every one-month-old dog. The differences between Ophelia and most other young dogs, though, was that most four-week-old puppies did not tromp through snow, nor be away from their mothers. Ophelia was indeed trudging through the snow, pausing every so often to shake snow off her fur. Usually she would easily walk on top of the snow, but this snow was unusually soft, and broke even under her weight. She also indeed did not have a mother. Well, she did have a mother, but her mother wasn't with her.

She was part of a basket litter found by Barghest, so if he counted as a mother, then she did have one. But most probably wouldn't say that. Ophelia wouldn't say that, possibly because the word "Mother" was two syllables, a lot for her. Speaking of things that were a lot for her, this snow was really starting to irritate her. Especially since she had her eye on something; a little squirrel that was shuffling through the snow, just as she was. How was she supposed to catch something if the frigging snow wasn't allowing her to move faster than a turtle? With a frustrated little huff, she attempted to find a more solid area of snow. She put her front paws, hesitantly, on a miniature snowbank. No luck- it caved in beneath her tiny paws, and again an irritated sigh puffed out of her mouth.

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]She was so distracted with the snow and the squirrel that she didn't even notice Reyna until she ducked her head down and spoke. With a small woof of surprise, she sat back for a moment- her startled reaction to the sudden appearance of Reyna. She took a moment to just process Reyna's words, and with a hint of satisfaction in her mind, she realized she knew all of them. No asking "what does that mean?" this time! Ophelia stood back up, wagging her small tail. Reyna didn't seem like a threat, and her words were soft and nice. Even if she was a threat, Ophelia wouldn't have realized. She had not learned about the dangers of the world, yet. She hadn't even really learned about pain or death. It was a very simple, happy life she lived right now.

"I'm fine!" Ophelia replied enthusiastically, not wanting to risk saying the word "alright". It was a short one, but she hadn't said it very many times, and she never knew when a word would be difficult for her to say. Thus, she took the easier route and just went with "fine". After a second, the young border collie spoke again. "Who're you? What are those?" She pointed with one snow-coated paw at Reyna's horns, her squirrel-hunting spree apparently forgotten. The squirrel itself had run off, anyway. Now Ophelia was focused on Reyna. She would always pick being around actual talking people over hunting a squirrel by herself. Ophelia greatly enjoyed just... being around people.

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]"What's a meetie greet?" Came the high-pitched voice of Ophelia as she came over, mishearing the words that Stargazer had spoken. Even as she asked the question, she wasn't looking at Stargazer. Not because she had anything against her or anything, but because she was trying to figure out which patches of snow would hold her weight and which wouldn't. With a satisfied smile, she climbed onto a small pile of snow that was packed down (probably previously serving as a snowball fight fort, or something like that) and sat down on it nearby, her large brown eyes now focusing in on Stargazer. "Is it food?" She asked after a pause, remembering that "meat" was the tasty stuff that came from animals. Ophelia didn't eat meat normally, since she was so young; instead, she had to chew it up a lot, since she wasn't used to not having milk.

After asking her second question, Ophelia fell silent for a moment, continuing to stare intently at Stargazer. She knew nothing about "it's rude to stare". Her gaze shifted from Stargazer's paws to her face, and slowly Ophelia tilted her head, before exclaiming gleefully, "Fehvers!" It was her way of saying feathers, and she was referring to the little feathers that covered Stargazer's body. Never before had Ophelia seen a mammal with feathers and not fur, and this was really exciting to her. "You're a bird! But you don't look like one." She decided, deciding so because so far she had only seen birds with feathers.

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]It was Barghest's voice that drew Ophelia away from the small clump of snow she was digging a hole in. She wasn't exactly sure why she was digging a hole; maybe to just snuggle down in? But it was a hole of snow. That wasn't very cozy. Maybe, she thought, she would go find a super cool stick and bury it, and it would be like hidden treasure! And then, when she was older, she could dig it up and have a super cool stick. But, then again, she could just have the stick without burying it. Decisions, decisions. Then she didn't have to decide, because she swung around and started listening to Barghest, because loud voices, she had learned, were usually something you want to listen to.

She, unfortunately, did not understand half of what he said. She needed to work on her language skills, that was obvious. Ophelia tilted her head, trying to make sense of what Barghest had said. He had said he was holding a clan... battle training? She knew what holding and clan meant (well, sort of), but battle training was unfamiliar to her. Plus, this was confusing, because Barghest wasn't holding anything! And, yet, the black-furred puppy wandered over even though she was puzzled. Because Barghest was high up and out of reach, Ophelia went over to Reyna bed the little serval that was talking to her. Ophelia had never seen her before, and a look of fascination appeared on her face as she saw that the serval had both wings and long, scary teeth.

However, for now she just put all her attention on Reyna. "What does baht... bahtul traying mean?" She butchered the word horrifically, her wide eyes flickering from Reyna to the little, pale-furred serval.

[ mobile, sorry if there are any spelling mistakes! ]

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]The thrill of the chase surged through Ophelia's body as she dashed over some snow-covered dirt, her little paws crunching the snow underneath her. Her prey, a small mouse, dashed and darted every which way, and Ophelia was having trouble keeping up with it. But she would catch it, no doubt! She leaped onto a rock, and then jumped off, almost landing on the mouse. Just as she was about to grab it with a paw and swoop it up, she smacked into a tree, nose-first. Nobody had ever said that Ophelia was graceful.

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]The reason that Ophelia was so close to the border was that she had been following Barghest, darting behind trees and the like and pretending to be some sort of secret spy. Maybe he had noticed her, maybe he hadn't, but Ophelia had been having a great time just following him around. But, now, she stopped, watching Barghest and the rottweiler. She popped out from behind a bush, her little paws going pitter-patter over the snow as she dashed over as fast as she could, which wasn't very fast since she had super stubby legs right now.

"Hi!" The border collie pup yapped, coming to a stop next to Barghest.
Her blue-gray eyes watched Scorpio. "I'm Oph- Oph- umm..." She paused. Sometimes her name was a bit of a challenge for her. "Ophelia!" Her face brightened as she got her name right. Wagging her tail, the puppy added, "Wellum to BohClan!" She butchered the pronunciation of both "welcome" and "BoneClan" but, hey, she was trying.

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]Oops, Ophelia was laaate to this. She skittered in with a mildly confused expression on her face, wondering what exactly was going on. It seemed that Barghest and Anubis were having a conversation, maybe? But they both seemed sort of annoyed. Ophelia tilted her head. She did not have much experience with anger or annoyance, but she got the vibe. Watching them with wide eyes, she sat down, wondering what the heck they were talking about. Again, she had come in late.

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]The snow was good for drawing pictures, Ophelia had figured out. She was using one of her delicate little paws to try and make the outline of a tree. Her shapes were lopsided, the lines squiggly and messy. But if anyone was basing off art by how many pictures one could make, Ophelia would have won. She had a whole patch of snow with many works of art; more tiny trees that just had circles standing in for leaves, animals with lopsided heads and thin little legs. She was not talented, but she sure as heck was enjoying herself. With a little thrilled yap, she would add the finishing touch to the tree; the bottom of the trunk. Just one line. And with that, she was done with her art gallery. Her attention was fading away from it, but now she had to find something else to do. Maybe someone would come along...

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]She had never heard of Truth or Dare or Spin the Bottle. But of course she hadn't. She had only experienced life for a month and a week or two, and she had not played such complicated games. Her style of games was either "Pretend To Be A Spy" or "Playing In Snow". So, when she heard Barghest speak, she was instantly curious. What were these strange combinations of words he was saying? The border collie pup came over, wagging her tail cheerfully. "What does truth mean? Or dare? Or spin? Or bottle?" She asked, knowing at least a bit about what the other words meant. But these ones were unfamiliar; well, she had heard "truth" once. Someone had been talking about being truthful. What did that mean? Ophelia didn't know, and she decided not to ask.

After peppering him with those questions, the black-furred pup would smile and head on over to Barghest. She sniffed at the bottle, tilted her head, and then cuddled up in his tails, gray-blue eyes watching Barghest as she waited for answers.

trackity track. o:

tracking this because ophelia will be so excited to have siblings!

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]She had been doing nothing until she heard someone say "meet-and-greet". Stargazer had explained to her what a meet-and-greet was, and so the puppy didn't have to ask anything. Instead, she swung around from spacing out to walk over to Allyson and Electriclove. She dug a small place in the snow for her to sit, and then plunked her fluffy butt down, her eyes bright. "Hi! Ophelia!" In her excitement at the realization that she could pronounce her name right, she had forgotten to add the "I'm" part beforehand, and so she backtracked. "I'm Ophelia." She repeated, this time saying it correctly. She glanced at Electriclove momentarily, taking in the sight of his antlers and gaping a little bit, before turning to Allyson. "Name?" She asked, as in "what's your name?". Ophelia was having a tough time with the first part of sentences today, it seemed.

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]Ophelia had never known Pishacha, really. She had seen him a few times, and knew that he was someone of a lot of importance (whatever that was), but that was about it. Now, as the small black pup stared at the two bodies before her, she felt simply confused. There was Pishacha, but nobody was talking to him! And there was all this gross red stuff, and another body. Ophelia wrinkled her nose, more disgusted by the scent than sad or anything else. She had a feeble concept of death. She had chased after small mammals such as mice and squirrels, but never killed any. Sure, she ate the meat of dead creatures and had seen older members take down the prey she only dreamed of catching... but she didn't ever pause to think about why she was eating them. It was because they were dead and prey, but she had never thought that.

Now she looked at the corpses, and a thought entered her mind. That Pishacha and the other body were like the prey she ate. What was it called again, the stuff she ate? Fresh-kill... but also... what were they, again? There was an adjective that she was missing here, she knew. If she had arrived early enough to hear Cireasa, she would not have had this problem. But she had arrived late. She tilted her head, thinking. Oh! Her ears pricked up as she thought of what she was looking for. They looked dead. She hardly knew what dead meant, other than that when you were dead you didn't mean much and you were fair game to eat. But Pishacha and the coyote both had the blank-eyed look of the prey she ate.

"Dead?" She whispered quietly, mainly to herself. She could not read, so she did not see Reyna's name etched into the coyote's body. She sat down, trying to make sense of things. Some of her clanmates looked a little repulsed, maybe by the red stuff? What was that, again? Oh, right, blood. That was sometimes on prey, and it had been on her when she had pricked her pad with a thorn by accident. What did blood do, other than come out of you? Why was it gross? Why did everyone look so sad? Was death sad? Though she ate dead animals, Ophelia didn't really think that they were gone once they went in her mouth. Weren't they alive somewhere or something?

She didn't know about the finality of death. Eventually, all her questions would be answered and she would understand truly what it was, but for now there she sat, looking confused and probably the least sad of anyone there. She didn't like the smell of blood, but she had not been taught that blood did anything than come out of you (as in, she didn't realize that blood happened because you were hurt), and so she only had a mildly grossed-out expression on her face, mixed with puzzlement.

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]It was too cold, in Ophelia's opinion. While she had not really payed attention to dying or disappearing or leaving people (well, she had seen Pishacha's body, but other than that she really hadn't been paying attention), she had been paying attention to the fact that it was way too cold. She felt like she was constantly chilly, even when she was huddled up somewhere. Ophelia had been huddled up somewhere, in fact, until she saw the green fire. She raised her head, standing up, and hobbled towards the fire. She was hobbling because of the fact that it was so cold, her paws hurt when she put them down. When she had reached the fire, she was greeted with the sight of that bubbly, happy lady- Paroxysm- and Barghest. Paroxysm said something, with a voice that sounded serious. Not realizing the question was directed at Barghest, Ophelia replied enthusiastically, "Hi! I'm okay!"

With that, she walked over to Barghest and sat down, immediately surprised, though pleasantly, by the warmth of the fire. Her tail wagged, and she sat quietly for a moment, just savoring the heat. It was so wonderful, so warm, so nice. She leaned forward, discovering that if she leaned towards the fire, it would make her even warmer. In a rare moment of non-impulsiveness, she didn't immediately jump into it. "Can I touch it?" She asked, to no one in particular.

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]One of the things Ophelia liked to do was follow Barghest around. So she had been doing just so, when he stopped and started talking to a stranger. The little black-furred pup pitter-pattered over, a slightly disgruntled expression on her normally happy face. There was simply too much snow! Why couldn't the weather just cater to her? Ugh. She cast a glance at the other member of BoneClan there- a tiger. She hadn't seen many of those before, if at all, and so stared at her for a while. Then, she turned her attention towards the newcomer. "Hi! 'm Ophelia! You know Daddy?" She asked, her face turning from ticked off to curious. She gestured with her head towards the black Labrador, her tail giving a feeble wag.

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]As she was approaching her two-month-old mark, Ophelia felt that she could be allowed to walk a little further away from camp. Maybe, you know, to the border. So that's what she did, and was pleasantly surprised to see one, an unfamiliar face who said three words that almost sounded like one, her Daddy, and a clanmate whom she had seen around but not properly introduced herself to. The black pup bounded over energetically, sure that it would be a quick run over. It wasn't. She had stubby legs. By the time she had reached them, she was breathing heavily, but still, she managed a happy grin. "Hi Daddy! Hi people! What's a trickertreat? What are those?" She had caught sight of the candy and marshmallows. They had quite the intoxicating scent, and curiosity had taken over her features; her eyes were wide, ears perked up, head tilted to the side. She was hardly paying any attention to the Rift member or even her clanmates anymore; she had now zeroed in on the candy.

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]She had seen the older members of the clan carving pumpkins, and Ophelia thought she might have a go at it. The problem was, though, that her clanmates used knives to carve the pumpkins, because they wouldn't stab themselves by accident if they were given one. Ophelia wasn't allowed to have a knife, because she would stab herself by accident. After a kind BoneClanner came and gutted the unreasonably large pumpkin for her, and then rushed off because they were late for something, Ophelia had decided to trying carving it- with her teeth.

It was a comical sight; the tiny puppy gnawing in an irritated way at the pumpkin's surface. It was too slippery for her teeth, so her fangs never actually dug into the pumpkin's skin. She was basically just mashing her face against the pumpkin, repeatedly, hoping that one of her bites would... magically cut through the entire pumpkin's surface and make it have a terrifying and amazing face? Yeah, right. So far there were a few indents in the pumpkin where she had smushed her head against it, and a few little tooth and claw (she had tried scrabbling furiously at the pumpkin, but it hadn't worked out great, since her nails were so tiny) marks, but that was about it. She took a step back, and then flung herself at the pumpkin again. For some reason, she hadn't thought to ask anyone for help, other than that one cat who had had to go, so she was stuck like this, at least until someone else came along.

[ the moral of this story is don't let ophelia do anything at all ]

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]What happens when an excitable little puppy finds a box full of costumes? She gets excited, of course. That's what Ophelia was; excited. She had just found the box sitting around, and if she had been able to read, she would have seen the sign on the side that said "FREE". The box was filled with costumes designed for animals, ranging from her size to something that could fit on a very large dog. There was also random stuff like hats and masks and swords and stretchy tutus. Ophelia had seen her some of her clanmates wearing stuff like this, and she let out a yap of excitement. Now she'd be able to dress up, too!

She grabbed a very floppy pink hat in her jaws and pulled it out of the box, ducking underneath it to put it on her head. Nope. That was way too big; she couldn't see anything. She shook it off and started rifling through the costumes, a look of pure concentration on her face.

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]She had no idea what a gathering was, and she was probably too young to attend, but the very young border collie came over anyway, her grayish eyes wide. Reyna had said so many words! But she knew some of them. As she approached her second month of life, she was figuring out words quicker and quicker. But the one word she didn't get was "gathering", and that frustrated her, because it seemed to be what everyone was reacting to. She pawed at Barghest's leg. "What's a gathering? Is it a place?" She whispered, glancing at Aeneas. Dang it, he seemed to understand! Ophelia appeared to have missed the entire deal about gatherings, and a slightly frustrated expression appeared on her face as a result of it.

[fancypost bgcolor= transparent; border: 0px solid black; height: auto; width: 420px;][justify][font=georgia][color=#FFF0D4]"BRUVVER!" She yelped in excitement as she spotted Aeneas, her childish voice mispronouncing the word "brother". She had been outside playing in the snow a good twenty feet away from the nursery, which wasn't the best decision. She was chilled to the bone after burying herself in the snow, but that didn't stop her from racing over to Aeneas and Barghest. Unlike Aeneas, she wasn't all that concerned with being the leader of the nursery, though in her bluntness, Ophelia often accidentally sounded pretty bossy. The border collie pup came to a halt, faceplanting in the snow and then picking herself right up. She nuzzled against Barghest's leg, muttering "Hi, Daddy!" and then turned to her "bruvver".
They weren't related by blood, seeing as Ophelia had been found by Barghest and adopted, but she didn't really know or care about that. "Soldier..." She muttered under her breath, and then remembered what the word meant, feeling a flash of pride. "Do soldiers walk back and forth in front of nurseries?" Another flash of pride as she got through the sentence without stumbling over a word. Soldiers was pretty easy, and she had been saying "nursery" for a long time now. It was one of her first words.