mods please delete

[korvid]

1 x 1 for me and aishia
i'll code this later

[korvid]

[i.] Dakota (Kota) [ii.] austrailian shephard mix [iii.] male
[iv.] 4 years [v.] bisexual/romantic [vi.] stray, former hunting dog

+ traits. independent, strong-willed, clever
n traits. reserved, sarcastic, aloof
- traits. petty, judgmental, stubborn, cynical

appearence. a marginally white, medium legnth coat, covered in
black and dark grey spotting characteristic to that of an australian shephard. long legged and lean, with ears that flop slightly
and a curled tail. light blue eyes, framed by black patches. around his neck hangs a tattered yellow collar, with a rusted now unreadable tag.

. skilled at hunting
. hates water, but will swim if he's forced to
. prefers to be called Kota
. cautious around people, but loves the attention
. comes across as grumpy but he's usually not
. street smart, has a memory like a map

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[i.] Gage [ii.] burmese mountain dog/ malamute mix [iii.] male
[iv.] 6 years [v.] heterosexuall/romantic [vi.] stray

appearence. Gage's coat is long and thick, comprised of mostly dark brown and black fur, with white around his eyes, muzzle, and ears. His tail is large and curls against his back, and his ears flop slightly. Upon a glance, Gage is an intimidating sight, with impressive height and a massive squared muzzle. Dark brown eyes stand out against the pale fur of his face, with is scared slightly around his jaws from old fights.

[i.] Sam [ii.] american alsatian [iii.] male
[iv.] 4 years [v.] bisexual/romantic [vi.] stray

appearence. wolfish in appearance, Sam's pelt is mainly tan, with a long black overcoat and feathered tail. Along with pointed ears, and striking amber eyes. wip

[skinklegs]

Name: Rizana
Sex: Female
Age: Four Years
Breed: American Akita Mix
Height: 25"
Weight: 115lbs.


01. Steadfast . 02. Stubborn
03. Loyal ... 04. Courageous
05. Arrogant 06. Headstrong
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Appearance:

At a glance, it can be difficult to tell she is not a purebred. Evidence of her mixed lineage is visible primarily in the shape of her face. True to her Akita heritage, her head is broad and substantial, but her crown less convex. Her ears, angled slightly forward, are larger than they ought to be, and her snout a bit longer. She is, in all other areas, a fine representation of her breed. Built for power, Rizana boasts a thick, solid frame. Bold, heavy brindle streaks her dense red coat, broken up only by small patches of white. These patches are located on her chest, tail, and forelimbs, with finer dusting on her face and the insides of her ears. Her eyes are a dim amber color, and while somewhat dull, they still manage to stand out in clear contrast to her dark coat. On the right side of her face, marring the skin between her ear and the base of her muzzle, are three aged scars. They blend in quite well with her dark red fur, and can be difficult to see at a distance, despite their size.



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Name: Nikita
Sex: Neutered Male
Age: Seven Years
Breed: Belgian Malinois
Height: 23"
Weight: 70lbs.


01. Patient .. 02. Intelligent
03. Perceptive . 04. Cunning
05. Compassionate 06. Calm
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Appearance:

Nikita's right foreleg has been entirely amputated. Traces of the operation are no longer visible, the scar long since covered over with dense fur. Over time he has learned to cope quite well without the limb. He does, however, tend to hold himself a bit awkwardly, and running for any length is a perilous and strenuous ordeal. In recent months, his muscles have worn down due to lack of use. This gives him an exceptionally thin, bony physique that is emphasized all the more by the three long, lanky legs that remain. His short coat displays the countershaded russet coloration that is common for his breed, with stark patches of black adorning his face, chest, and legs. His eyes are a bright, warm cinnamon color.

[korvid]

Dakota felt his stomach growl for the umpteenth time and finally forced himself out of the comfort of his bed. Said pile of old tarps was now lightly dusted with a blanket of powdery snow. Some of which clung to his fur and flew into the air when he gave a quick shake. A few feet away, the slow rise and fall of another raggedy tarp told him that his companion on today's little excursion was still fast asleep. Bless the lucky soul. Across the road, which was barely visible under the untouched snow, Dakota could see the lights of the diner were still off. It was still fairly dark out and it wasn't usually until cars were on the road and the sun high enough in the sky, that the diner would open. Cursing his obnoxious stomach, Dakota decided taking a walk might ease the ache. He contemplated waking the other mutt, just momentarily, to tell him where he was going, but quickly decided against it. The last thing he wanted while half asleep and hungry was Gage talking his ears off about some dumb sled team he'd seen come through town, or a rabbit he'd managed to catch when it practically delivered itself into his paws.

Snow crunched beneath his paws, echoing around him as he made his way through the series of back alley's that would eventually deliver him out of the town center, and into the sparsely inhabited area just outside it. He settled beside an old shed, the overhang of the roof having created a snow-free spot just large enough for him to settle down in. Just over the hill, Dakota could make out the old barn they often slept in when traveling between the two close towns. What he wouldn't give to be curled up in a cozy pile of hay right about now. But of course, he'd drawn the small straw, having been chosen along with Gage for today's scavenge. If it had been up to him they would be hunting, but Gage couldn't hunt to save his life and even Dakota couldn't deny that stealing from the diner was always easier in the long run. He sat there for awhile, letting the wind ruffle his fur, and listening as the town slowly came to life behind him. By the time he made his way back to the alley Gage was awake and stretching his limbs like he hadn't used them in weeks.

"Oh, there you are." The slightly larger dog commented nonchalantly. Dakota knew he wouldn't ask where he'd been, so he didn't bother responding, moving to sit beside the other. By this time, the diner was lit and if one were to look hard enough they could see the people moving around inside. Gage gave one last stretch, his long and matted coat still clumped with snow. "Bet I can bring more back?" Without even turning his head Dakota could imagine the look of challenge on his friend's face. Dakota sighed. "Yeah probably, with those fat jaws of yours." He heard Gage grunt in mock-offense, then in silent agreement, they both made their way across the quiet street.

Only once a day were the huge garbage cans outside the diner full of food. Early in the morning before the town was very lively, the humans inside the diner would dump buckets of perfectly fine scraps into the cans behind the building. If one got there quickly enough, it was easy to get a good pick of food. But if enough time passed it would be lost to the crows and raccoons, and whatever other hungry creatures happen to pass through. Gage wasted no time, nosing his way through the contents of today's leftovers. He pulled away with a half discarded chicken in his mouth and light in his eyes. Dakota snorted. "Well I doubt I'll do better than that." He teased, jumping onto the lid of the only closed can so that he could look down into the open ones. Nothing in particular caught his eye, but he managed to pull a sausage from the contents. "Yeah, I guess you have me beat," he mumbled, gulping it down.

[skinklegs]

The air was dry and bitter that morning. It nipped at the cold flesh of her nose as she thrust her snout into the air, snuffling hopefully at the whistling breeze. It carried with it a cascade of tiny, dancing snowflakes, drifting down from the gray sky to join the mounds piled up along the roadsides. The roads themselves were clear, but covered in a strange gravelly substance that stung her paws when she walked on it. So she had been doing her travelling the hard way as of late: through the snow. She supposed it was better that way, anyhow. Should a vehicle come rumbling up the highway, she would have nowhere to go but directly into one of the towering snowbanks. Having to leave a Rizana-shaped hole in the snow to avoid being flattened by a passing semi was only slightly less favorable than trudging slowly through a sea of powder that, at times, reached her knees. She took some solace in the fact that she must have looked cool as hell doing that, though. Like Balto or whatever.

For a long time, she had been following the same road. All roads led to civilization in the end, and sure enough, a while ago, she passed a building. Then another, and another, and now she found herself in the makings of a small town. At first, there were no signs of life there, save for the occasional smoking chimney. But then, as she was waddling her way past one of the houses, a light flickered to life in the window. It startled her. She paused in her tracks and looked up, ears pricked forward, eyes searching the window. A shadow moved within. Someone was awake. She remembered her master, how he would wake almost every morning at sunrise. It couldn't have been sunrise already, could it? She looked behind her, in the direction she thought was east, and was met with nothing but endless gray clouds. They blotted out the young rays of sun that should have been cresting the hilltops just then, and left her feeling a bit bewildered. She had been walking since sundown, before the clouds smothered the stars. No wonder her paws felt so heavy.

A pang of hunger rolled through her stomach, and before moving on, she lifted her head again, sniffing the cold air. The faint smell of smoke made her sneeze, and she continued on.

Eventually she scented something a bit more promising. It smelled warm and tangy, like meat bathed in some type of sauce. It must have been a kind of human food. But if it was meat, then it was edible; and if it was edible, she wanted it. Especially if it was outside. Humans never put their food outside with the intent to keep it.

She bounded through the snow with renewed vigor, and finally came upon a series of interconnected roads and sidewalks. After examining them for the biting white gravel, she found them clear, and hauled herself out of the snow and onto the pavement. Then she shook herself free of the stuff and trotted on, following her nose, not paying much mind to her surroundings. Once in a great while a car would come meandering down the road, but it was still too early to see much activity. With that in mind, it surprised her a great deal to catch another scent intermingling with the beef. (It was beef; she could tell now.) It smelled like her, but not quite. It was a dog. No, she thought, stretching her neck forward and sniffing purposefully. It was two. No matter. If they got there first, they were probably already full. And some scavenging strays were nothing she couldn't handle, anyway. It would be easy enough to bully them away from their prize, at least until she had her fill. She rolled her shoulders, angled her chin up, and trotted on until she came into an alleyway. There stood a collection of garbage bins, and among the garbage bins were the two dogs she scented a moment ago. Their mouths were full. She almost chuckled, but felt it inappropriate. Instead, she shook her coat again, hoping to draw their attention while still at a distance. Surprised mutts were aggressive mutts, and she would rather have conserved the calories than waste them in a scuffle.

[korvid]

It took only a few minutes for Dakota to eat his fill of old sausages, and Gage to find his own meal among the discarded rubbish. While they ate, the silence of the town had slowly begun to fade into the noisy bustle of humans walking and moving around inside their homes. Muffled voices crept through the windows of the diner, along with all sorts of intoxicating smells that would have made Dakota’s stomach groan in protest had he not already eaten enough to quench it. Between them, on the snow-dusted ground, lay the chicken Gage had discovered earlier, and a fair sized leg of what Dakota assumed was either beef or pork. Enough for them to bring back to the others without slowing them down while they traversed the uneven and snow covered trec back to the cabin.

Dakota usually prided himself in his ability to always be ahead of others. There wasn't a single rabbit that could sneak by him, and certainly had he never let another dog catch him off guard. However, even Dakota had to accept that he’d failed to keep vigilant when the scent of an unknown dog broke through that of the previously overpowering scraps of meat around him. He did a double take, nearly lifting his muzzle from the pile of discarded cattle bones he’d been gnawing on. A low growl started at the back of his throat, a warning that was usually effective in chasing off the odd hunting dog that had wandered from it’s master. Reluctantly, he lifted his head to gaze down the alleyway toward the shape of an unfamiliar canine at its entrance. Fighting wasn’t his specialty, as much as he’d rather not admit it, being smaller and leaner than a majority of the dogs he’d encountered over the past year or so. This dog looked to be no exception.

Behind him just behind the row of cans, Gage was too busy driving his massive maw into a now ripped bag to take notice of the intruder. Dakota took a step forward, lowering his head and pulling his lips back into a snarl. When in doubt at least pretend to be tougher than you are, right? "Keep moving!" He barked, loudly enough to catch Gage's attention, and with enough vigor to hopefully get his point across. Said older dog's head shot up, pale muzzle dirtied red from whatever he'd been digging through. Unlike Dakota though, Gage reacted without hostility, moving to stand protectively in front of their meal and besides Dakota. "Looks like a sled dog." He commented, licking his chops.

"Evey dog is a sled dog to you." Dakota scoffed back, not letting the others naivety distract him from the possible threat. Now really wasn't the time for one of Gage's stories about how he was part malamute.

[skinklegs]

Despite her best efforts, she had surprised the mutts.

One of them—the smaller of the two—issued a warning growl. She couldn't imagine where he hoped to get with that. Her eyes wandered leisurely over his frame as he stood defensively behind his breakfast, and she took note of his lanky appearance. He was much too small to be of any threat to her. And then her attention wavered to his companion, situated behind him for the time being, square muzzle stuffed in a bag of goods. He, on the other hand, could pose a problem. She adjusted her strategy accordingly. As the smaller of the two dogs began to move toward her, she stood unflinching at the mouth of the alley, not responding in any way to his challenge. Not yet.

She jumped a bit when he barked at her, hackles bristling and tail lifting slightly from atop her rump. Her eyes darted to his muzzle. He had pulled back his thin black lips to reveal a set of pearly white incisors. Smaller than mine, she thought. But it was a good try. What worried her was the fact that his friend was now on his feet as well. He moved to stand beside the smaller male, and it was evident then just how much larger he was. Rizana scrunched up her face and was about to speak when the biggest male said: "Looks like a sled dog." And at that, the smaller quipped back in a way that no subordinate would address his superior. The little white one must have been the leader, she thought; never mind how that came to be.

"I'm not a sled dog," she said calmly, shifting her weight between her two front paws. "I'm not much of anything anymore. Except hungry."

Then she strode forward a few paces, slowly, keeping her eyes trained on the small white male. She even allowed her tail to sway to and fro above her hips, signaling that she was not game for a scuffle. She nodded in the direction of the ravaged garbage bins behind them, and said: "You're not going to eat all of that. There's plenty here to share; no need to get testy."

[korvid]

Dakota felt his muscles tense underneath his short yet thick coat as she approached. Ready to spring, into fight or flight he wasn't quite sure yet, if the larger dog attempted anything. Past experiences had made him cautious and hostile especially when it came to food. Just because she was acting friendly, didn't make him any less on edge. What she said had taken him back a bit though. Whatever she had meant by, 'nothing much anymore.'

Before he could tell her to go scavenge somewhere else, Gage chimed in warmly. “Dakota here is quick to anger, you’re right there's plenty.” He sat back on his haunches, short tail drumming the ground and scatting snow underneath it. The larger dog motioned behind himself toward the final bin in the row, the only garbage bin to still have the lid on it. “That last bin is still pretty full if you want to dig through there.” Dakota sent him a glare at that, Gage’s tail slowing to a stop.

“If we let every passing stray do as they please then there wouldn't be plenty.” Dakota swept a paw over the pile of bones in front of him, dragging them a bit closer. “Survival of the fittest and all that crap.” He then took a step closer to her albeit warily, he knew something was off about her scent, he just couldn't quite place it. Whatever it was, she wasn’t from around here. “Where are you from?” He asked, meeting her gaze evenly despite the good five inches she had on him heightwise. Hell if he was going to let some stranger intimidate him.

[skinklegs]

Much to Rizana's relief, the larger one seemed far less eager to pick a fight. Emboldened by his lack of hostility, she relaxed her shoulders a bit and proceeded in the direction of his invitation. Her pace slowed when his small, aggressive friend spoke up in reprimand. She watched him paw at the bones in front of him, jealously guarding them as if he thought she would want them. Rizana scrunched her nose up in distaste. She was hungry, sure, but she still liked to think she was above gnawing the marrow out of old bones. Slightly. Slightly above.

She held her ground when the little white dog stepped closer to her. She kept her head high and her ears forward, angling her nose down a bit to look him in the eyes. He had a lot of gall for someone of his size, though she suspected the presence of his much larger subordinate had something to do with his boldness.

He posed an interesting question then. What did it matter to him where she came from? She quirked a curious eyebrow at him before replying: "Nowhere in particular. I've been travelling—on my own, if that's what you're worried about." Surely if she were commanding a pack of roving strays, she would have had them run this pair out of the alley long before now. She was tempted to do so herself—and likely would have if she thought the struggle would be worth the meager reward.

"Does it matter?" she added, patience waning a bit. "I'll be gone in a few minutes, and you'll never have to see me again."

[korvid]

Something about this mutt really ground Dakota's gears. Perhaps it was her size, though he suspected it was more-so her impudent attitude. "Never see you again? What'd're gonna do, huh? The next town isn't exactly a feasible walking distance." For a moment he was thrown back to the last time he'd trecked his way there and could practically feel the ice clinging to his coat, the numbness in his paws, and the pain in his gut. He shook the thought away and angled his ears forward, straightening his shoulders in an attempt to gain a bit of height. "And something tells me you won't just turn tail and go back the way you came."

If Dakota had to admit it, he was worried she'd somehow fix together a pack of her own if she stayed too long. Heaven knows with the amount of spineless strays around here it would be easy. Then again, another large dog, one that clearly knew how to take care of herself, could be pretty useful if she was aligned with his own interests. With Sam constantly going off on his own, maybe this was his shot- the opportunity he'd been waiting for. Now he was faced with an annoying predicament. Watch her walk off and miss out on an opportunity while potentially creating a problem? Or throw his pride to the icy wind for a moment and offer her a spot in his pack? He ground his teeth in frustration. For now, he'd just have to find a way of convincing her that didn't involve making him look foolish.

"So, what are you doing then? Running from something? Someone?" Fighting wasn't his specialty, sure. But talking had always been his strong suit. Beside him, Gage had fallen silent, accustomed to letting Dakota talk his way out of situations before bothering to step in. Dakota was grateful for the backup, fairly sure the female would've already taken what she needed and split had she not been wary of Gage's intimidating size.