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[eirenikos]

There is an Eirene outside today. In general, this is not an unusual situation; the blonde adores being outside. In particular, she has a companion, her new black labrador puppy, Melantha. They're bounding all over the place, because puppies (and goddesses) need plenty of exercise, especially along the walking trails and down by the lake, to get Mel used to the water.

Botherable.


tinytag: Eirene, Paul Varjak

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[shecalledmefred.livejournal.com]

And (without my consent) there is another puppy running into the mix.

-- and a certain writer (me) running after her.

"Gloria!"

[eirenikos]

Mel turns away from where she is batting at a piece of driftwood at the scent of another canine, gives an excited yip, and scrambles in Gloria's direction: intending to bark, yip, sniff and generally do a puppy meet-n-greet.

Eirene watches tolerantly, and grins over at the stranger. "Hi. I assume you belong to Gloria?"

[shecalledmefred.livejournal.com]

Out of breath -- "Yes. She -- always -- runs off like that." One last gasp, taken as I'm hunched over, hands on my knees: "I'm Paul."

[eirenikos]

"Why don't you sit down and recover for a few minutes. I can watch both of them."

As evidenced by the fact she's got both eyes on the pair of them.

"I'm Eirene. Nice to meet you, Paul."

[shecalledmefred.livejournal.com]

"Eirene?" Rather than sit, I look up at her, one brow lowered and the other raised. "Ouranos' great-grandaughter?"

[eirenikos]

"Granddaughter. My mother is his child. Do you know him?"

She certainly looks interested, turning away to whistle sharply just once, and watch Mel bound towards her, possibly followed by Gloria (depending on how the other narration feels).

[shecalledmefred.livejournal.com]

As the person behind the pup has 0 expertise with puppies, she is more than contented to let someone else god Gloria as long as she doesn't, like, die or something.

Finally, I sit on the grass. "Yeah. I'm a friend of his. We, um -- " I scratch the back of my head nervously " -- live together."

[eirenikos]

The narration would never harm another narration's animal, not without permission.

Eirene tilts her head and settles down next to Paul, a hand idly reaching out to scratch behind Mel's ears.

"Living together in a platonic or romantic kind of way?"

[shecalledmefred.livejournal.com]

"Um -- " It would appear there's a colony of fleas living in my head. "R-romantically."

[ostro_goth]

Teja is sitting by the lake, and fishing. It had been a good thing to catch and eat one's own fish, before the expedition to find Kate and Doc, when he did so with Yrael, once.

So, newly returned from fight and travel, Teja has done his unarmed exercises, had a decent breakfast, and taken up things in the forge -- it had been a few days since he'd been there, as before the quest with Luke and Atton and the others, Weyland had locked himself into the forge for a day for some secret work that Teja could guess at, but would indeed rather not witness, unless it was done for himself.

Now, satisfied that everything is as it was after what was, as it turned out, but one single day in this place, Teja is getting his own lunch from the lake.

[eirenikos]

Correction. Teja was getting his own lunch from the lake, up until the moment Mel scrambles down the slope, and splashes into the shallows only a few feet from where he's located. Followed rather quickly by one blonde goddess without shoes, who happens to be currently giggling.

"Careful there, we don't want you to drown." She nudges the black puppy out of the water before, "Hi, Teja!"

[ostro_goth]

"Greetings, Eirene," Teja says, smiling at his friend -- yes, smiling!

"It seems you acquired a dog?"

She seems to be cheerful still, but no longer unduly so.

[eirenikos]

Is he trying to give her a heart attack? Teja never smiles. "It seems I did. Come here, sweetheart." She scoops up the wriggling canine and wanders over to flop next to her best friend. "This is Melantha, known as Mel. Mel, this is Teja."

Mel, being a puppy, takes this opportunity to lung forward and start licking at Teja's cheek.

"Aw, she likes you!"

[ostro_goth]

Teja ruffles the black fur. He prefers cats, but this black puppy is a sweet creature indeed.

"She will grow into a large, sensible dog, one assumes?" he says. "Now, she is neither, but amusing."

He looks at Eirene. "One assumes that strange cheerfulness from our last meeting has left you?"

[eirenikos]

Mel continues on her quest to get Teja's face perfectly clean, then yips and whines when Eirene eases her away after a minute. "Of course. This breed is incredibly good with children, and they have an easy, calm temperment. And she's absolutely adorable, aren't you Mel?"

The puppy barks in agreement before wriggling around until she's comfortable leaning against her goddess's human's shoulder.

"Yeah, and wasn't that odd? As soon as we left the bar it lessened. And speaking of that, are you alright? You looked horrible last week, but I wasn't exactly in my right mind to ask. Do I need to keep you supplied with mulled wine and srs conversation?"

[ostro_goth]

"Last week - it was only last week for you, indeed," Teja says. "I have been out in the meanwhile, with others, to find Brand of Amber, and get Kate and Doc back."

He nods at her other remark.

"My conversation is ever serious, unless it be with Carlotta, or Atton, or -- indeed, I think, I might have become somewhat less serious, uin this place. But the other week, I was grieving -- it had been midsummer, the anniversary of the battle of Taginae, and my Totila's death; when I realised what date it was, it saddened me greatly."

[eirenikos]

"Last week according to the calender in the bar. I've been gone two weeks trying to train the beautiful, four-legged terror here." The one pretending to doze in her lap, probably in hopes that Eirene will let down her guard enough for Mel to pounce on Teja.

"Oh, my Teja." She reaches out her free arm in an attempt to tug him against her without disturbing the puppy, and maybe even press a kiss to his pale cheek. "You seem... more balanced today. I assume the trip out of bar was a warrior's quest, considering what I have heard of this Brand fellow."

[hero_farmboy]

And from seemingly out of nowhere, there is a ball tossed into the mix.

Please ignore the sneaky farmboy in the background.

[eirenikos]

Ball! Mel takes off down the path in pursuit, as fast as her legs will carry her, and corners said chew toy when it rolls into a thicket of wildflowers. It'll take her a couple of minutes to scramble back and zero in on the guy who threw it.

Which gives Eirene time to whirl around, expression lighting up when she sees him. "Hi!"

[hero_farmboy]

"Hi," he grins back, making his way over to Eirene to give her a hello kiss. And then there's a nose at his leg and a ball waiting to be thrown, so he does so.

"Having fun?"

[eirenikos]

Kiss returned happily, though Mel's reappearance distracts her enough to watch the little black terror take off after the ball again, with no signs of slowing down.

"A ball, pardon the pun. She's the most adorable dog in the world. How are you?"

[hero_farmboy]

"She looks like she's having a blast," Clark agrees.

"I'm good. Just finished cleaning out the milk barn, so I thought I'd take a break." Beat. "Don't worry, I showered first."

[eirenikos]

"She is. Sleeps at the foot of my bed every night now. Potty-trained her the first week, and we've taken three obedience classes so far. Watch."

Eirene lets out a sharp whistle, and Mel comes trotting down the path a minute later, the cowed ball in her jaws, and drops it at Eirene's feet. Which, you know, gets her picked up and smothered with affection.

"I suppose it's too late to suggest showering with a friend, then, huh."

[hero_farmboy]

"That's a lot of work for one little puppy." But there might be a note of pride in Clark's tone as he reaches over to give floppy ears a scritch.

And then he snorts softly. "Trust me, that's one situation where sharing would not be a good thing."

[eirenikos]

"Mel is brilliant. She's smart enough that it only takes a few hours for her to get the hang of something, or the suggestion of it - like the paper training took several days because I kept moving it closer to the door, and then outside in the yard. And the obedience training has been an hour each ... she's too young for anything more grueling."

Said canine genius is carefully handed over to Clark. "Ah, well. You know how I'm all about conservation and stuff."

Mel takes the opportunity to start chewing on his hair again.