[Perses]

       Winter's cold grasp took the floral life from the land and left only lifeless trees and snow in its wake. Few flowers survived the freezing purge and one could still find beauty in the winter landscape. The frozen crystals glittered in the sun and ice could create pleasing designs if one looked hard enough.

       In the snowy landscape a dark and cream figure stood. He was a colossal figure with broad shoulders and of considerable height. His wide paws sunk into the snow as his thick limbs supported his exceptional mass that came from his strong musculature with heavy bones to support his enormous size. His size was also exaggerated by his thick fur that made his body seem even larger, not to mention the thick mane that grew from his neck and stretched past his shoulders. Large fangs - sabres - extended from his upper jaw, marking him as a sabretooth, A thick-furred tail brushed against his hocks as red eyes gazed upon the land in front of him.

       The beast was not without adornments, notably a flower crown made of flowers that bloomed in the snow. White snowdrops and pink Camellias were woven together and sat on his broad head. Feathers from multiple birds were woven into his mane, primarily from cardinals, blue jays, and other songbirds but the occasional owl feather peeked out from the giant's mane.


       Perses gazed at the land ahead of him separated by a border of strong scents that was as much of a boundary as any fence. He knew what would happen if he crossed it, he would be attacked. He had learned that lesson the hard way during his first moon alone and he wouldn't forget it in a hurry.

      But the yearling found that he wasn't very good at surviving on his own as he had little solo hunting experience and his large size made hunting alone even more difficult. He had been feeding himself through carcasses and it had been meager pickings for the enormous feline.

      The oversized youngster had little to no knowledge of living with a group, some part of him urged him to find a group of some sort to live with. For most of the beast's life, such idea had been an odd, foreign concept to him and he had no idea what it was like. But his luck couldn't hold out forever.

      But what was he supposed to do? The beast didn't know what to do so he plopped down in the snow, waiting for someone to come across him.

OOC: Hello! Here's Perses who I hope will find a home? Please let me know if anything needs to be edited! Dated to December 5th if that's okay?

[Dali (RP)]

(ooc: gonna take this with Dali, if that's OK? If a full-fledged Sentinel wants to jump in to supervise/evaluate, I'm cool with that)

The outside world still felt like a dream to the hound. A nightmare.

Even though it was part of his duties as a Page to venture out and check on Inaria's allies, Dali always felt a kind of dread that he would somebody be asked to fulfil these duties. Aside from venturing to Nardir so many months ago for a gathering, he had not left Inaria since joining it years ago. He had everything he needed here: security, a safe/warm place to sleep and a ton of berries to munch on. 

In a way, however, he missed the excitement and unpredictability of his old life. 

Ibizan hounds were made to run, to hunt. As cowardly as he could be sometimes, he could not deny that he felt the occasional itch to cross the border in front of him and run and run and run. Run five-ever. Thus, he had begun to spend more time at the border, just to pick up a scent of the world beyond. Occasionally, he would scent a fellow Sentinel and quite often they would say hello and resume their duties. He liked it here, liked having something to do and an excuse to daydream. That was until he picked a strange scent that was very... uncanine-like. Huh.

More curious than afraid (though one emotion did not entirely outbalance the other), Dali followed the scent through the snow, occasionally sneezing as a few flakes got up his nostrils. He momentarily got distracted and rolled around in the white stuff, making a variant of snow angel that looked more like a snow snake. He had been in Inaria for several winters but none had ever been as white as this. He continued on his way, noting the faint tracks of his fellow sentries but the familiarity he felt upon seeing them quickly vanished when he saw the sabre. And its teeth. Its very large, gnashing teeth.

"Man alive!" the Sentinel muttered to himself, ducking behind a tree. 

He had never seen a sabretooth before, but he knew just from sight that they were intimidating creatures. Well, duh, they had huge bloody teeth for no reason other than to rip, kill and destroy. Nevertheless, he was a Sentinel of Inaria... kinda. So, it was down to him to handle this business. Coming out from behind the tree, Dali would take a deep breath and approach the beast. He could tell by the anticipation and anxiety in the youth's face that he was just as nervous as he was. It could have been an act to draw prey in but Dali was too smart for that... or too stupid. He kept to the bushes, popping his head out and grinning mockingly at the young sabre as though the border were some invisible forcefield he could not cross.

"MARCO!" the Sentinel would call, before ducking into the bushes and creeping through them. He would pop up again - like a whack-a-mole game - to the youth's left and shout yet again. "POLO!"  

His intention was not to play but to confuse the lad, make him aware that he - although skinnier and smaller - was a lot faster than he was. Speed was the only thing on Dali's side. Eventually, he would attempt to creep up on the sabre from behind and, upon stopping smack bang behind him, would scream at the top of his lungs: 

"HELLO!"

Whether he was successful in startling the sabre or just creeping him out, he would giggle with delight and prance around to face him. "You lost, friend? What brings you to this neck of the Straits?" he then asked, perfectly serene as though he had not just scared the boy out of his fur.

[Perses]

@RJ.

      Perses had been alone for far too long and getting used to being around other creatures that weren't his mother. He was also very shy and easily startled at his young age. So it was safe to say that the bark of two words that he didn't understand coming from two seperate places was a confusing and scared him. Obviously startled, he looked around for the source of the noise but he didn't see anything. Was it normal for other creatures to greet others at the borders with such cries? It hadn't been something that some of the packs had done before. The giant yearling was confused as his fur started to stand on end. Was he going to be attacked? The oversized sabre considered fleeing as that was his only option out of "fight or flight".

      The too-close scream made the enormous feline's heart almost stop as his first instinct was to get away from such a noise as his ears flattened in response to the piercing sound. The poor boy was already anxious and now frightened but the scream made him terrified. He couldn't even begin to try to figure out what had been screamed but was more intent on getting away from it. He turned and backed against the border, cowering with wide red eyes, his body language readable enough while his mouth struggled to form words. The youngster pressed himself against the snow as he worried that he had crossed the border but his mind was set on fleeing away from the creature that had made the noise.

      The crimson orbs of the large creature found a peculiar-looking figure, one that seemed too small to make such a loud noise. It - he - looked like a skinny deer with a face of a not-deer, a wolf? No, it wasn't a wolf but that was one of the few creatures that the beast knew the name of. He was obviously unfamiliar with species outside of his own, a sabretooth and had mostly encountered larger species in the north. This was not one of them. Was he going to attack him? Were others going to attack him instead. The giant barely processed the words that the creature spoke.

      How the words spoken greatly contrasted from the sound that the creature had made before and sounded perfectly normal. Like it was a normal thing for a greeting. The beast's ears slowly lifted as he seemed to be waiting for a second cry. And then the beast managed to get his tongue back and sniffled as he spoke.

      "I-I...I-I w-wa-...w-wanted t-to j-joi-join...t-to j-join th-thi-this...th-this p-pa-pack," the carmine-eyed creature stuttered, his voice soft and obviously young. "P-Pl...P-Please d-do-don't h-hurt m-me."

[Dali (RP)]

It took all of Dali's effort not to burst out laughing as the sabre looked utterly bemused and frightened at his ability to run from one area to another. Maybe becoming a sentinel wasn't such a bad idea after all. He remembered the pranks that his packmates would play on him as a pup. It had all been in good fun... until they shoved him into pits of mud or just pits of... nothing and left him there all day in the hot sunlight. Not a happy time. At least he wasn't planning on leaving this kid in a pit. He wasn't that mean.

As expected, the young boy jolted with clear terror and anticipation when Dali yelled his greeting. Giggling, the hound went into playful crouch, his tail spinning in his delight. He was not a bad dog, just overexcited and a tad bit too immature for this kind of work. But what he had told Cockatrice was true: he wanted to give something back to Inaria, for allowing an outcast like him into its ranks. The sabre in front of him was evidently spooked but, rather than feeding him confidence, it only made Dali feel slightly bad. Slightly. He had no intended to scare the life out of the boy. Perhaps this would make the acceptance a tad bit easier. One of the most important things to remember was that he was in charge. He was Inaria's first line of defence.

"I-I...I-I w-wa-...w-wanted t-to j-joi-join...t-to j-join th-thi-this...th-this p-pa-pack. P-Pl...P-Please d-do-don't h-hurt m-me."

Man alive, he was young! Dali wondered if he should tell the lad that he was just as scared as him - this was his first acceptance - but he wanted to have some fun. Play a little game with the boy first before letting him on that he was quite harmless. Clearing his throat, Dali stood to his full height. "You're very lucky, you caught me in one of my good moods," he announced in a gruff voice that was quite unlike him. "This is Inaria and I am one of its bravest knights (oh god, that was dramatic: HE LIKED THAT!). I suggest you offer me your name, scoundrel, or prepare to die like a dog... Uhhh, I mean, a cat. Yeah, a cat!"  

It took all his effort to not laugh at how ridiculous he sounded. Nevertheless, it had always been a dream of his to be a brave knight or warrior and he was not about to let this opportunity slip away so easily. Even if it did mean he would soon be back to being same old scatter-brained Dali once this was all over. Or if the sabre decided to get nasty. It was only roleplay after all.

[Perses]

@Dali (RP)

       Perses's heart was racing as he was still getting over the shock of the screaming creature whom his mind was still trying to figure out. He was easily spooked and was unused to such loud noises after being alone for so long. Adding that to the anxiety of joining a new pack, the beast was couple of miles past a nervous wreck. The giant sabretooth eyed the creature nervously until the male spoke in a different tone of voice.

       The change of tone was confusing to say the least and the flower and feather-decorated feline's head tilted sideways. Some of the words that the male uttered were unfamiliar to the beast including "knight" and "scoundrel" but the message was clear enough and the beast pressed himself even closer to the ground, almost like he wanted to disappear into the cold embrace of the earth itself. The cream and chocolate brute's eyes were wide and fearful.

       "M-M...M-My n-na...n-name i-is Perses," the carmine-eyed creature responded.

OOC: Sorry for the short phone post!

Art by Black Rabbit

[Dali (RP)]

ooc: responding with a bullet post for this. My bad for taking a while once again. Darn festive season. :c

- Dali felt kinda bad for scaring the lad for no good reason. Kinda. The thrill of having a sabre trembling at his feet feeds his dickwad meter. 
- "Perses?" he echoed when the creature gave him a name. "That's a weird name. Mind if I call you Percy for short?" 
- He would sniff the sabre, circling him with glee. HE COULD GET THIS GUY TO DO WHATEVER HE WANTED. "OK, Percy," the sentinel-in-training finally declared. "You wanna get in Inaria. First, you gotta pass an initiation test. Very serious business. I don't let many undertake it. DANGEROUS, COULD RESULT IN DEATH!"
- But just how was he gonna test the sabre? The fanfare did not suit the cogs turning in the dog's head. Dali would think for a second, then he would turn to the sabre with a look of pure happiness. "You ever heard of a game called Marco Polo, Percy?" he asked, jumping up and down with joy regardless of the sabre's answer. "OK, it's one of my FAVOURITE games. It's just like hide-and-seek but we have to yell 'Marco' and 'Polo' at each other. I'll hide and yell 'MARCO!' and you have to shout 'POLO!' back. You know, kinda like what I was doing when I was bumped into... I-I mean CONFRONTED you!" 
- Still jumping, Dali would hop to the woodland behind the sabre, grinning confidently at Perses over his shoulder. "You wait right there, sport. When I'm good and ready, I'll shout 'Marco!' and you can come and find me! Make sure you shout 'Polo' when you want me to call 'Marco' again! If you do well enough, I'll let you into Inaria and we can play this game ALL THE TIME, OK? Maybe. Probably. Not likely. Who knows? Bye!"
- He would then turn tail and run through the trees, careful not to leave a clear trail to where he planned to hide. Diving behind a bush, Dali would peek over the leaves to where Perses was standing - probably thoroughly confused - and try and stifle his giggles. What he did not realise was that his tail was sticking out from behind the bush, serving as an obvious marker as to where he was.
- Taking a deep breath, Dali would commence the challenge by yelling: "MARCO!!!"