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Post by Leni-Aura Thunderpaw on May 4, 2023 18:01:28 GMT -5
Every lock of fur along Leni-Aura’s hackles raises upon hearing Izzy’s simple, cheerful response; a fire burns within her chest, bitterness rises in her throat as she bites back a frustrated answer to strain only through a voice which contains the thinnest thread of patience, “ My name is Leni-Aura.” She stiffly hops her way into the barn, lips pursed, and cheeks rosy with indignation; the absolute nerve of this giant! Thunderbuns!? WHAT KIND OF NAME EVEN IS THUNDERBUNS!?What does that even mean? What is so thunderous about her…
Wait, no, this is a stupid train of thought: she doesn’t want the answer to that.
Leni-Aura does her best to shake off the embarrassment, clapping her palms against her cheeks as she passes beneath the archway of the barn. She reaches out to push down on the latch; and just as she gets the door open, a baa’ing Bertie goes caterwauling past her, leaving only a gust of air behind in the wake of her momentum. Leni-Aura looks after the woolful as Bertie scrambles to join the others in the pen, bumping into a few of the other woolful, and making them baa irritably at her; she puts as much distance as she possibly can between herself and Izzy. “... You are much too good at that.” She informs Izzy, eyeing her from the shadows of the barn, before Leni-Aura focuses on closing the gate once again. “Do you intend to scare every one we find back into the barn?” Nimbus seems to cackle on her shoulders, a squawking, disjointed sound as he looks back at the sheep in the pen.
... She hates to admit that, honestly, it's pretty efficient thus far.
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Post by Issala 'Izzy' Arodre on May 8, 2023 1:34:23 GMT -5
Izzy cannot help but snicker to herself quietly. Thunderbuns sure was touchy. But, she leaves the subject alone, as she needs to focus on getting good ol' Bertie back into the barn, a task that Izzy proved exceptionally good at. It was almost as though she was built to be terrifying to Bertie specifically. An odd choice, but the gods were capricious at best. And also dead. That was what made them extra capricious.
She grins with a gleeful giggle as Leni-Aura half-compliments her work, taking the glass-half-full approach and adding an extra cup to the waterline of the metaphor. "If we gotta! In my experience, most animals and folks are not especially fond of erratic behaviour and sudden movements. Makes 'em think they're being hunted, or that one of their flock mates are sick. That and--" Izzy gestures to herself with a broad smile. "I look right venomous, don't I?"
"That said, I'm open to any ideas you might have instead?" Izzy waggles her brows, as thoug trying to be convincing. "Scaring them by the tonne can be risky; fear makes critters real unpredictable, so even if I spook the whole herd, they could tear off in stupid directions if we're not careful. Can't deny results, but if you've got a more efficient way of dealing with escaped Woolfuls, I'm all ears." Well. Actually, Leni-Aura was. Izzy bites the inside of her cheek to stifle the snicker.
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Post by Leni-Aura Thunderpaw on May 17, 2023 11:51:24 GMT -5
Leni-Aura’s expression falls into exasperation, “ I wonder why…” she dwells, still feeling the strain from her earlier sprint in the knees of her legs. Her voice is monotone with the trailing statement, but seems to recover when Izzy gestures to herself; she offers a slight huff of a laugh; one which is quickly corrected with a clearing of her throat. “ Mm.” She offers simply, ears tilting back as she rolls her eyes over Izzy’s exaggerated expressions; but she has a point, scaring a whole group would be risky, but…. How else are they supposed to handle this? Borym didn’t seem to have a herding dog around, which makes this a lot harder on the two of them; she did notice leads in his barn, but… they seemed old, and by the way Bertie had expressed her stubbornness earlier, she doubted they could drag the sheep back with any kind of efficiency…
She tosses the possibilities in her head, but the most efficient comes back to… Her ears lower slightly as she sighs. “ I… I don’t have anything better. I do not like the idea of being a herd dog, but I guess we are scaring them.” She shares a glance with Nimbus, who simply wags his tail at her attention. “ We will have to cooperate though; one of us to scare, and the rest to herd— so they don’t scatter or run in the wrong direction. Yes?” She looks back at Izzy. “ You are… quite good at the… whatever it is you do, so you should keep doing that. I can catch any of the Woolful that try to stray easily, and Nimbus can easily keep an eye out for runners.”
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Post by Issala 'Izzy' Arodre on May 22, 2023 18:13:17 GMT -5
Izzy's grin widens at the little huff, followed by an ahem, as though a little trap had been sprung. The tiniest, smallest, itti-bittiest laugh; the sound of success. What more encouragement, what evidence, did Izzy need to prove that her unconventional methods of interacting with people were flawless and above any sort of reproach? Now that she had gotten Leni-Aura to laugh, they were now well on their way to becoming besties, at least in Izzy's mind.
The Fellblood waggles her eyebrows enticingly until Leni-Aura cannot come up with a better idea for which to secure the loose animals, and at her reluctant admission that Izzy's plan was the best chance they had, Izzy's face splits into a grin. She nods along enthusiastically with Leni's reasoning. Gotta cooperate to get the job done, that sounded like good sense to Izzy.
"I am so good at that, yeah," Izzy nods sagely-- the 'whatever it is' she does was her claim to fame. She tips Leni-Aura a salute as the plan finishes its formulation. "Aye aye, Captain! You, me, and Nimbus makes three, and he's just a widdle cutie wootie baby beaaan, yes he iiiis" she coos again at the little lizard friend of Leni-Aura's and then claps her hands together. Back to buisness. "Let's do this thing! Alright now. Where the heck are they."
She exits the barn to look out into the fields, hand covering her brow so she can see against the sunlight. "If I was a Woolful that got spooked after an earthquake and I got distracted by some tasty treats, where would I go...."
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Post by Leni-Aura Thunderpaw on May 24, 2023 16:22:10 GMT -5
Leni-Aura rolls her eyes over Izzy’s expression, paws shuffling against the scratchy hay spread throughout the barn’s interior. “Very good at it, yes.” she agrees, cocking a brow when Izzy starts to baby talk Nimbus again; who is more than thrilled to be the center of attention for a brief moment. The baby drake wiggles his haunches, clicking in a series of trills at Izzy as he spreads his wings and flaps them.
Leni-Aura squints an eye shut as the wind from his wings passes by her, displacing locks of hair that have long since fallen loose from the messy braid dangling over her shoulder. She reaches up with a hand, folding a finger beneath Nimbus’ chin to give him a scritch while Izzy contemplates the location of the aforementioned woolful. “Well…” she trails off, stepping after Izzy with a slight hop in her motions.
The sun falls across her face; and she narrows her eyes against its persistent rays as she gazes out into the field. “… we have help for that. Nimbus?” Leni-Aura glances to the drake perched on her shoulder, who trills at the sound of his name; without needing to be told, he walks the length of Leni-Aura’s arm while she crooks it away from her body into a V.
The little storm drake outstretches his wings and lifts his head up tall and proud before he launches himself into the air. Leni-Aura ignores the strong buffet of wind from his wings as he pulls sharply into the sky, ascending with ease, until he’s but a small spot against the expanse of blue above. Nimbus remains hovering stories above them, wings flapping as he glances about; after a moment of searching, the drake begins to fly towards the tiny horizon-line of some pocket of trees across the plain; and she takes that as a sign that he’s seen something.
Leni-Aura glances to Izzy, nodding her head after the drake’s departure, “You gonna be able to keep up?” She asks; there’s no malice in her tone, but it’s hard to describe it as playfulness, either; perhaps competition might be the best word for it. Either way, she doesn’t wait for a response before bounding after Nimbus.
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Post by Issala 'Izzy' Arodre on Jun 5, 2023 0:51:20 GMT -5
Izzy gasps in delight as she watches Nimbus take wing. What a special boy!!! The specialist. He deserved so many treaties. Her joyous grin turns to one of challenge as Leni-Aura invites her to keep up. "Ohhh, Thunderbuns, careful what you wish fooor~." She winks, before doping exactly that, tearing after the rabbitaur and Nimbus.
She isn't as fast as either of them-- they have her beat in the department of wings and legs. But one thing Izzy is very good at, is moving over obstacles. A lifetime of living on the streets of Zeinav City made her exceptionally good at addressing anything that stood in her path, and while there was very little out here that needed vaulting over, she was very good at using the momentum of her stride to add boosts of speed to her gait.
Still, Leni-Aura and Nimbus make quick work of it. Though when they look back to find Izzy... they cannot. She is gone, vanished once again, somehow, into the tall grass of the field as they approach the missing woolfuls.
Suddenly, a curtain of wild red hair and too-wide eyes erupts from the grass behind the herd.[1] "HBLARGH I'M A SNAKE," Izzy shouted, now twelve feet tall due to her coat[2], using her arms to flail around like noodles[3], and making general hissing noises to spook the woolfuls into sprinting away.
[1] Ranger Prestige: Camoflauge [2] Coat of the Red Rogue [3] Disjoint tattoo
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Post by Leni-Aura Thunderpaw on Jun 7, 2023 18:37:53 GMT -5
“Heavens above, stop calling me that!” Levi’s voice fades, growing a little more distant while she calls out, because she absolutely does not stop to wait for Izzy to catch up. The rabbitaur rolls her eyes, fighting off twinges of annoyance over the impromptu nickname which she still does not understand.
It takes her almost no time to reach the missing woolfuls. She bounds to a slow stop and looks up to find Nimbus circling above. She reaches up, whistling through pursed lips, for the drake to return to her; and he does, returning dutifully in an elegant swooping gesture.
He trills softly as he rests on Leni-Aura’s arm. “ Good job,” the young woman praises; she scratches Nimbus beneath the chin before looking over her shoulder for Izzy; she knows that she is quick, but surely she did not have this much of a head start? “ …” She furrows her brows slightly, confused by the significant lack of reckless reptilians following her; until the question answers itself. Leni-Aura, yet again, bounces (1. Long Stride) when Izzy erupts from behind the herd; her sudden motion alarms Nimbus, who launches himself back into the sky with a squawk. Shocked, terrified, and horrified bleats erupt from every corner of the lost herd. “ WARN US!” Leni-Aura shrieks back after her paws have touched the earth again, and she has finished sputtering through another flurry of halfling curses. The Rabbitaur shoots after the fleeing herd, cornering one stray before it can fully separate; from above, and swinging her spear. She bumps it against the woolful— not hard— but enough to push it back towards its friends; it bleats at her, before turning back into the herd. Nimbus swoops down to spook the herd on its other side— attempting to guide them back towards the barn— and catch any woolfuls who start to stray from the initial group. In their panic, the initial stampede is rather unorganized; but with some effort on each of them, they can be contained for the most part. Leni-Aura pushes back another one of the sheep when she notices a stray; a little blue woolful charges out of the herd, just out of Nimbus' line of sight. "Get that one back in line!" she shouts back at Izzy.
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Post by Issala 'Izzy' Arodre on Jun 18, 2023 16:28:16 GMT -5
SUCCESS! The herd was terrified and bounding away as fast as they could from this strangely coloured predator who was loping after them. "AND GIVE AWAY MY POSITION AND THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE?!" Izzy hollers over the stampeding herd, cackling wildly, clearly having the time of her life. "WELL, OKAY. I'M SCARING THE WOOLFULS NOW!"
So timely and helpful.
She keeps the pressure up on the herd, harrying just enough to continue to be a threat and urge them on, but not so much to exhaust herself. At least not until one agile little blue one breaks from the herd. Aaaagh.
"ON IT!" Izzy calls back, and charges after the Woolful. The ground is such a pain to run on, especially while tall, but ostensibly, all Izzy has to do is scare the Woolful enough to drive it back toward the safety of the herd. And honestly, the little one was acting a lot like prey right now. Bad survival instincts on these things.
So, why not be the wolf?
Her loping gait shifts again as Izzy starts galloping on all fours, her elongated spine undulating in an unnatural way as she pulls herself along the ground in the grass, level with the woolful. As she closes in, and the woolful gives a nervous look over its shoulder to see the predator right on their heels, Izzy snaps her teeth, gnashing them threateningly.
The woolful gives off a terrified little bleat and bolts, springing and twisting in mid air to charge back towards the herd as they come back towards the paddock.
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Post by Leni-Aura Thunderpaw on Jul 12, 2023 18:20:55 GMT -5
It is utterly surreal to watch Izzy do her… Izzy things. Leni-Aura feels some sympathy for the poor Woolful that falls victim to whatever the hell Izzy is doing to scare it. Even she feels a little squeamish; she glances over the undulating rainbow of sheep, watching Izzy snap at the Woolful like some kind of feral, four-legged beast; but it’s hard for her to tell where that gut-feeling of unease actually comes from. Typically it takes more to spook her; not that she would ever admit Izzy spooks her, despite the fact she has jumped multiple times in her presence. Shut up. As the Woolful ducks back into the herd, Nimbus swoops down and clacks his teeth at its heels to ensure it doesn’t try to stray again. It melds into the stampede of cotton; and soon enough, the Woolful charge back through the open doors of the paddock. Borym, armed with a small toolbox to fix the gap adjacent, jumps a little as dust kicks up around him. He covers his eyes, narrowing them against the stampede of bleating Woolful, as they bypass the paddock entirely, and cram into the barn in favour of putting as much room between them and their pursuers. “ Goodness!” The old man marvels, looking after the cloud of dust into the barn, where the woolful have pressed together. One particular little blue woolful shivers as if its seen a ghost. Leni-Aura zooms into the paddock after the woolful, batting at the hind legs of a few stragglers to herd them into the barn with the others. “Go! Git!” She hisses, quickly grabbing hold of the latch on the door and glancing up as Nimbus nips at the heels of one last woolful. It tumbles into the barn, baa’ing its distress, and Leni-Aura moves to shut the barn door behind it, but seems to struggle a bit with its weight.
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Post by Issala 'Izzy' Arodre on Jul 25, 2023 19:17:46 GMT -5
"YEAAAH THAT'S THE TICKET! WHOA!" As she is not a quadripedal creature, Izzy does eventually tumble the moment she loses her momentum upon seeing that Nimbus and Leni-Aura take over the next leg of getting the Woolful's nice and put away. Rolling in the dirt, cackling her head off, her velocity is finally slowed long enough to be able to get properly to her feet. Dusting herself off, she jogs over to the door Leni is heaving her weight against, throwing her shoulder into it to join the rabbitaur in getting the door closed.
Izzy is not well known for her superior physical strength. She is noodly, gangly, odd, and overall rather bendy to be considered strong. The main thing she had going for her of course, was her height, but even that had its limits. As one of the Woolful begin to protest their incarceration, battering back at the door to try and escape once more, the door jostles. "Oof! Fiesty aren't they!" What they needed was leverage! Pure unadulterated strength! She had none of these things.
But her new friend did. She just needed to be... inspired.
"Atta girl, Thunder Buns, put your back into it!" Izzy encourages through a grunt, grinning wide. "Give 'er a kick!"
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Post by Leni-Aura Thunderpaw on Aug 24, 2023 17:46:52 GMT -5
The door rattles; one of the woolfuls inside begins to object to the sudden entrapment. Leni-Aura grunts, paws scraping across the earth as she pushes back against the force of the battering. “ So… feisty…” she agrees beneath her breath. She sees the snout of the woolful causing trouble poking through the crack in the still open door; it bleats in frustration. Borym, meanwhile, chuckles as though this is a sight to see. " Oh, that Baatholomew..." He sighs and very calmly wipes his hands on his overalls. “ I been meaning to fix that old door… The hinges don’t slide like they used to…” he remarks worriedly. “ Try pushing it in a little— helps line up the doorframe a bit better.” Leni-Aura does as suggested, managing to push the door a little further to the side— just enough to keep the woolful inside from stampeding back out... but that nosy snout is still trying to slip through the space that’s left. “ Urghh…” Leni-Aura’s arms tremble with the strain of pushing such a large door in comparison with her size. The snout disappears from her view, but Leni-Aura doubts that the creature is done trying to get out.
She hears a chorus of small bleats inside, and the stomping of hooves. “ Stop… calling me… Thunder Buns!” She objects, frustration blooming in her chest as Izzy pipes in; she still doesn’t understand what that even means, but it sure doesn’t sound flattering! How is she so tall, but… so weak, anyways!? Seriously! Izzy is blotting out the sun behind her! “ Fine, just— just push the door in!” Whether through frustration or actual inspiration, Leni-Aura does stop pushing at the door and rears back as suggested; she pulls her hind legs in, balancing on her forepaws for the briefest moment, and then slams her hind paws into the door. (1. Bull’s Strength) It resounds with a loud ‘Crack!’, groaning beneath the weight of her kick— but snaps shut, leaving a small dent in the wood from the impact. Another impact resounds as the rowdy woolful bangs against the door from the other side seconds later, and bleats from all around occur at the disruption.
A louder, more frustrated bleat sounds just behind the door after impact.
Borym gives a series of tiny claps, "There it goes! Just a bit of elbow grease will get 'er shut for now. I owe the both of you my livelihood for bringin' back my Woolies."
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Post by Issala 'Izzy' Arodre on Sept 11, 2023 0:27:43 GMT -5
Seeing Leni-Aura's frustration at the nickname, the giant Fellblood's grin spreads even wider-- getting the rabbitaur riled up was the name of the game, give her a flash of frustrated energy to inspire her before the exhaustion won out. She does as instructed, lining up the door frame by pullin on the jamb so it would give more room between the hinge and the wall as Leni turned around to line up the kick.
A spectacular display. A kick like that could take a head clean off. "Wooo!!" Izzy whoops with delight, laughing brightly as Leni boots the door closed with her strong back legs, foiliing the Woolful's plans of escape. "That was INCREDIBLE, well done! We make such a good team, don't we?" She has to reach down a little to pat Leni on the shoulder in congratulations, before turnin to Borym with an ostentatious bow.
"Think nothing of it, good sir! My friend and I were more than happy to assist in the gathering of your precious livestock, though of course, a compensatory fee is considered customary, naturally." She flashes the halfling man a rakish grin as she straightens back up. "Though might not be a bad idea to invest in some padlocks or what have you. You know, in case your Woolful get any future inclinations of escape."
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Post by Leni-Aura Thunderpaw on Sept 25, 2023 18:55:04 GMT -5
Leni-Aura is still visibly ruffled even after the door has finally been shut; strands of hair have fallen from her braid, kinked locks of brunette hair curling around her face as she catches her breath. She turns, unable to resist a near-audible roll of her eyes as Izzy whoops and cheers over the success. “ My people have strong legs by nature.” She chuffs; although… the praise is admittedly nice. She does not find find herself praised often. She is, however, caught off guard when Izzy leans down to pat her. Like a child. She puffs up a bit in retort; the presence of Borym is the only thing keeping her from flailing at the woman and her wiggly hands. “ Such a good team!” She agrees, nearly through grit teeth in an attempt to keep her shit together in front of the elderly halfling still watching them. “ Really great. What good fun.” She contradicts the statements by crossing her arm with all the energy of a toddler in a temper tantrum; but Borym simply laughs. He strains to look up at Izzy, his smile soft but present all the same, and nods throughout her ramble. “ Of course! Of course, you have saved me so much trouble, it is only fair that I offer you something in return.” He wipes his hands against his clothing. “I do not need anything, thank you.” Leni-Aura rejects with a shake of her head; to which Borym chuffs; he shakes his head. “Nonsense! Let me make you a cup of tea, or perhaps you can join me for brunch as a little thank you. Any friend of Orym's is a friend of mine.” The rabbitaur opens her mouth as if to decline, but Borym is already moving on, addressing Izzy.
“Oh, I think I have learned my lesson.” He chuckles, reaching up to offer her a small coin purse after rummaging through his pockets— it’s not a lot, but it would likely cover a meal, a night in one of King’s Valley’s Inns, or a few drinks. “Next time I’m in town, I’ll do a little bit of snooping for some new locks… maybe find a handyman to fix that door while I’m at it.”
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Post by Issala 'Izzy' Arodre on Oct 22, 2023 19:32:21 GMT -5
Izzy is either blithely ignorant to the sarcasam in Leni's voice or she does not mind it in the least, grinning down in agreement at the rabbitaur's words. "The MOST fun! We should do this again! Soon!" Which, likely was of no comfort to Leni and sounded more like a threat than a request to perform another task together in the future. A task that would no doubt cast them as even deeper friends. What torment. What fun.
At Orym's incredibly kind offer, Izzys grin only widens further. "You know, I do love a good brunch. Me and Leni here would be DELIGHTED to share a meal with you. How could we possibly say no to such a kind, generous offer?"
They could come up with a few excuses, probably, but now Izzy had made it all but impossible to decline. She plucks the small coin purse out of Borym's hand, and quickly gives Nimbus two coins from within as compensation-- since Leni had declined needing anything at all, of course.
"New locks for sure would be a good idea, something maybe with a latch a little higher so the Woolful can't knock the bar up? Something along those lines." Izzy rambles on as they walk towards Borym's house for what is sure to be a wonderful and modest brunch with her new bestie and the farmer who needed their help.
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