Could this day get any worse...? (open)

[[.BakaIsai.]]

"Oh! My poor dear, I never would have dreamed you had been released so soon into the cold wild streets. You seem to handle yourself so well already, although, you can't have had more experience than a young cat that would play in the street. If you'll pardon my horrible expression, my dear.

[/i]"

Leala almost could have giggled at that. It was flattering to hear from someone such as Keisha, a self-proclaimed diva, that she was doing well. Up until now, the basque had thought her attempts to ignore what was happening were on the cowardly end of the spectrum. To be told by someone who seemed as though she wouldn't usually be bothered with attempts at comforting another, to be told that she was surprised with her progress - it made Leala all that more grateful to have come across this little chihuahua.

Her ears perked instantly and her gaze snapped on the little dog at the mention of food. Indeed, she was hungry. A spoiled pooch like herself would not easily be accustomed to this lifestyle that seemed to demand anorectous abilities. As much as she previously loved eating, she would have to come to terms with the fact that she could no longer be so gluttonous.

"I have not eaten, no," she said, getting to her paws with her tail wagging again, "and I would be so very reconnaissant - that is to say, grateful - if you would show me where I may." The young dog's mood was again rising; it appeared that her newly found friend had already accepted the unasked question regarding Leala's status as an apprentice of sorts.

And at this moment in time, the golden basque shepherd felt she could have no better teacher.

word count: 295
mood: kiiiind of bored. supposed to be going to the humane society later though.
muse: 7/10
notes: eck.

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[blizzard]

* * *

Keisha raised an eyebrow (if dogs have eyebrows...) as Leala mentioned showing her the way. It was still pouring rain... Granted, it had let up a little but not nearly enough for her. The most she would ever think about going out in would be a drizzle and even then it wouldn't be a nice experience. "Dahling, I would be delighted to show you the way... in better conditions. She swung her muzzle towards the outside as a gesture to show the pouring rain. When she looked back to Leala in a few short seconds she continued talking. "However! If the rain lets up some more I will most certainly go help you look for some food. After all, you can't expect someone like me to go out and get wet, do you. When she said "do you" it was most likely supposed to be a question but of course Keisha didn't feel the need to make it one.

Keisha looked back towards the outside. Wishing that the rain would stop... There would be no chance humans would come if it kept up like this and if the humans didn't come there would be no food for her to get food fresh from them. It was quite a disappointment... but hey, at least she could get lunch from a food booth. That is, if they could find a way into one. Think positive Keisha-dahling, positive. Of course they'd get into one, it would be guaranteed...

"Come on, dearest, let's go wait by the entrance to watch and see when the rain will ease up." Keisha stood and stretched each of her legs out in turn. Then, she trotted over to the side of the game booth. Close enough to feel the cold wind the rain poured down, but far enough away so she wouldn't get wet.

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[[.BakaIsai.]]

"Dahling, I would be delighted to show you the way. . . in better conditions.

[/i]" Leala followed her gesture outside and realized, yes, it was true. How could she have missed that? "However! If the rain lets up some more I will most certainly go help you look for some food. After all, you can't expect someone like me to go out and get wet, do you.[/i]"

Indeed, Keisha was far too much of a primadonna for such heavy rain. Still, as discouraging at it was at first, Leala did realize that she left the denial open-ended; 'if the rain lets up some more', she had said. The golden basque had never wished harder for a rain to be over, and she even found herself reciting lyrics from that old nursery rhyme, "Rain, Rain, Go Away". In her mind, of course, the words were French and carried the tune much more smoothly than in English. Or, so she felt.

"Come on, dearest, let's go wait by the entrance to watch and see when the rain will ease up.[/i]"

Instead of leaping to her paws as she was so very tempted to do, Leala contained herself to a slow, graceful standing up that ended up falling into a relaxed stretch. Being so still for so long in this rain had cramped her muscles a bit, and she was grateful for the chance to move for several reasons.

Grinning wider than was normally acceptable, she followed the little chihuahua to the entrance, but chose not to sit down with her. Leala had had enough of sitting and instead continued to stand - although she did wonder if the little dog might take it offensively. Hoping to avoid finding out, she immediately thought up something simple for conversation.

"Do you think it will end soon?" Ack, what a silly question! Still, it would hopefully prevent her new friend from questioning her reluctance to sit back down; and hey, these things we call conversations work in interesting ways. Maybe something else would come up from mentioning the weather.

word count: 344
mood: SO great. i love eleventyseven. q.q
muse: 6/10
notes: note to self: it's hard to play leala while listening to very upbeat music.

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[blizzard]

* * *

As it turned out Keisha wasn't really that upset over Leala's refusal to sit down. She was still relatively young so it was a valid excuse not to. However, even if she had been annoyed by it there wasn't much time to be concerned by it since the basque asked her a question.

"Do you think it will end soon?" The chihuahua glanced up at part of the sky she could see. It had lessened up a little more and patches of blue sky were visible behind the gray rain clouds. It couldn't last much longer.

Keisha didn't look over at Leala as she answered. "Dahling, look up there. You can see parts of blue, which means that the rain won't stay here long... probably just a couple more minutes of this horrid water from the sky." She glanced over at the bigger dog with a half smile on her face. She wondered if Leala had ever been out much or if she had ever learned how to tell what sort of weather that supposed to be coming. Keisha had learned by experience. There was usually a damp scent in the air and grayish clouds in the sky if rain was coming and fluffy white clouds that covered the whole sky meant snow. There were many other signs you could use to tell what would happen... you just had to pay attention.

She waited a few minutes before speaking. "So, I suppose, Leala-dahling, that you haven't properly learned how to tell the weather." There was another one of her sentences that was supposed to be a question but she made it to a statement. She always did this since she was sure that she was right and had no use for an interrogative sentence. "I also suppose, that I could help you learn how to do that... She paused to look up at the sky. The rain had pretty much dispersed while she had been talking so now only a few wisps of gray cloud showed against the blue of the sky. Keisha's tail wagged slowly as she stood and took a step out of the shelter of the booth. The ground was soggy (much to her disdain) but she said she'd show the basque where some food was... and she was a dog of her word.

The little dog remembered that she hadn't previously finished her sentence so she did so now, "Eventually. Now, come along. We have to find a booth that sells food fit for two dogs like us." She took a couple more steps and lifted her tiny nose into the air. Unfortunately, any scent that she would have gotten from a food booth would be hard to catch now because of the rain and it also didn't help that she wasn't a dog made for scenting... "Oh dear, I believe that the scents left behind by our possible dinner may have been washed away by the rain... no matter though, I shall find a perfect booth by looking for one. With that, she started peering around... searching for a good specimen... this could take forever.

((Sorry, if it's not that good... I had a headache while posting this.))

[[.BakaIsai.]]

"Dahling, look up there. You can see parts of blue, which means that the rain won't stay here long. . . probably just a couple more minutes of this horrid water from the sky.

[/i]"

She felt her good mood starting to return in greater force at her friend's words. Leala had always liked the rain, and couldn't particularly agree with it being called 'horrid water from the sky', but she did appreciate the fact that it would end soon. Or, at least, it would according to Keisha; and she certainly had a lot more experience than the golden basque. There really wasn't a reason not to trust this little diva, and a grin appeared on Leala's muzzle yet again.

"So, I suppose, Leala-dahling, that you haven't properly learned how to tell the weather.[/i]"

Leala perked at that. She turned her head quickly toward her friend and felt excitement bringing adrenaline into her veins. Could it be? Had she already scored a mentor without asking? It was too good to be true, and yet here it was, staring her in the face. Well, to be more accurate, she was still looking up at the sky, but that was being picky.

"I also suppose, that I could help you learn how to do that. . .[/i]" Elation coursed through her veins; yes! This was perfect! Once again, a howl of exuberance rose in her chest, but she carefully pushed it back down. Now was still not the time for childish displays. Instead, she confined herself to happy thoughts, daydreams, of what her new companion would teach her, and of what they would discover together. She was tempted to lay her head down right there and simply stare off into the distance for a while - in fact, prepared to do so, when she heard Keisha speaking again.

"Eventually. Now, come along. We have to find a booth that sells food fit for two dogs like us.[/i]"

Instead, she hopped to her paws and began dutifully following what would henceforth be considered her mentor, her enseignante. She grinned happily to herself; yes, she was very much happy to have run across this little pup first. Even when she heard slightly disappointing news -

"Oh dear, I believe that the scents left behind by our possible dinner may have been washed away by the rain. . . no matter though, I shall find a perfect booth by looking for one.[/i]"

- her smile didn't waver. There was not a doubt in Leala's mind that this little dog was capable of finding the most gourmet food a stray could find. Stray. . . Leala was starting to like the sound of the word. Instead of sounding like fear and tasting like the unknown, it seemed to have become a sort of home to her in the recent minutes. It carried a connotation of independence, and thus far, it seemed to mean that everyone was your family.

"There's no rush, mon amie," she said to her friend, "I'm quite happy with my thoughts at this moment. It's not so difficult to deal with hunger when one is cheerful."

word count: 523
mood: okay. i'm running out of root beer. :<
muse: 6/10
notes: sorry for how long it took. muse totally crashed and burned and eroded away. q.q

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[blizzard]

* * *

"I'm quite happy with my thoughts at this moment. It's not so difficult to deal with hunger when one is cheerful."

"Mmhm, very nice, dahling, very nice." She said absentmindedly. Keisha's mind wasn't really on what her friend was saying at the moment. She was thinking about which of these booths had food. She couldn't read but the pictures on the side of the booths were enough to tell you what was sold.

The first one she passed had a huge pizza on the front. Not one of her favorite foods so not worth stopping for. The next booth was one for funnel cake... it was tempting... but she remembered a human had set down a whole plate of the stuff before which she had promptly eaten... that had been a huge mistake. The funnel cake had given her a stomach ache and that was not an experience she wished to repeat. The last one she saw had the picture of a corn dog. Perfect...

Keisha straight up to the front of the booth and gave it a once-over. She knew there would be no way in from the front... unless you were a super-dog that could leap thousands of feet into the air... which neither of them were. Keisha wasn't trying to get in this way, she was just trying to see if there was any food sitting in here. She gave a huge sniff which wafted the faint scent of corn dogs to her. She smiled and her tail wagged faintly. She made her way around to the back of the booth and saw with joy that the door was left slightly ajar. It could most likely easily be nosed open... hopefully. Either way though she could fit through the small space and if push came to shove she'd find a way to let her little... apprentice, in.

The little chihuahua turned around and gave a lopsided smile to the basque which had been dutifully following behind her. "Leala-dahling, I present to you the fruit of our long, arduous walk through the horrid, fur-plastering mud!" She paused here for dramatic reasons. Her tiny body seemed to sag when she finished the sentence as to add more emphasis to her words. Then, she leaped and turned around in mid air. Her nose pointing to the ajar door. Her body seeming to gain an inch when she started talking again. "Voila! We enter!" With that, she walked forward through the crack in the door and was greeted with the smell of food. It may have been a little dark but that was alright.

((Note to self: it gives you lots of muse for Keisha when you look at clips of Edna Mode from the Incredibles XD.))

[[.BakaIsai.]]

Leala padded happily behind her friend and mentor, tempted to hum to herself in her elevated mood, but, as usual, restraining herself. Instead, she was content to look around and sniff the air as quickly as she could without making herself dizzy or faint. A carnival was so much more different without humans milling about. The smells were still thickly intertwined, heavy with the smell of recent rain of course, but they still seemed a bit more. . . clean? thick? The right word just would not come to mind, and it bugged that golden shepherd; perhaps it was her new perspective on the world that had her smelling things differently.

She noticed that they bypassed several interesting-looking stands, and while her mind was curious to inspect them, her heart was strict. There would be no wandering off from her new mentor, not when she had just found her. When they finally paused in front of the corn dog stand, Leala was quite pleased with the chihuahua. They seemed to share the same tastes in what the basque referred to as "junk food".

She followed Keisha with a spring in her step that would have told anyone of her everlasting high spirits and wagged her own tail when she spotted what her mentor must have been looking for: a partway-open door. The golden basque sniffed excitedly; the smell itself seemed to prod and taunt her stomach until it growled in response. She had never felt hunger pangs before.

"Leala-dahling, I present to you the fruit of our long, arduous walk through the horrid, fur-plastering mud!

[/i]"

Leala felt her own grin find its way onto her face at the sight of her friend's. The sudden enthusiasm in the diva's attitude was fueling the basque's own happiness, and yet again, she felt the need to howl for joy. A loud sound did escape her when her mentor pulled those aerobatics, and she chuckled at herself as the chihuahua spoke again.

"Voila! We enter![/i]"

Tail wagging full swing now, she followed her new mentor through the door - not without having to widen the space first - and immediately heard her stomach growl again and felt her mouth begin to water. The smell seemed intoxicating to her, and she finally let herself go. With a loud yelp that echoed a bit in the enclosed space, she flung herself to wherever her nose was telling her the source of this wonderful smell was.

word count: 412
mood: eh, okay. i need distractions from sad thoughts. q.q
muse: 5/10
notes: dunno what's getting into me, but these are really getting few and far between. sorry. D:

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