a light into the darkness

[RED]

Where was she? 
It was night out. A street lamp was flickering not far off from where she stood in the middle of an empty street.

The city. A place she had never been before. The way the ground felt underneath her paw pads was odd. She was used to dirt and grass or hardwood floor and carpet from her home out near Mount Strohm. 
Rouge, a three old Beauceron, had abandoned her home a little over a week ago and simply followed a road all the way back to the city. She had no clue what the city even was. It was almost frightening to her but she was too proud to admit or act out with her fear.
She had run into a few dogs on her way and to put it simply she didn't make friends. 

Rouge surveyed her surroundings carefully with brown eyes, her cropped ears stood erect on her head, turning ever so slightly independently from each other as she listened for anything and everything. There was nothing to be heard and nothing to be seen.. At least from what she could tell at first glance and some careful listening. "So.. No humans?" She muttered quickly to herself. Then her black nose began to twitch rapidly before she began taking a step forward, then another, and another until she started picking up a steady pace. Her dog tags that dangled from her choker chain clinked together and her nails clicked against the hard ground beneath her with every step. The sounds she was making made her a bit uneasy, unsure if she wanted to draw unwanted attention to herself. But she quickly disposed of the uneasiness from her mind and body as she made her way up onto a sidewalk and began sniffing around for food.
She was sure she was more than capable of defending herself if she did happen to draw unwanted attention. 

The black and tan Beauceron noticed a door, to what appeared to be a shop, had its glass in the middle completely destroyed. Something had shattered it to get into the shop at some point. Rouge saw this as an opportunity to snoop around, find food, find something to play with, and or otherwise maybe take refuge within the shop.

Rouge stepped through the opening in the door where there once was a glass window from top to bottom. She immediately felt some large pieces of glass beneath her paw pads and she was quick to step off of it. Lucky for her, she didn't get cut.
When she got past the glass and was sure she wouldn't step on anything else that could be dangerous for her paws she finally looked up and found many things scattered across the floor of the place. She started to doubt she was going to find any food and assumed many other dogs or animals before her could have picked up whatever could have been useful to her. She was sure she was late to the scavenging party but she was going to still look around just in case. Maybe she would get lucky and find a rat somewhere or something else she could eat.

She started to walk around the shop, rummaging through a few things, occasionally standing up on her hind legs as she tried to reach stuff on shelves above her head. Rouge managed to grasp the corner of what seemed to be a plastic bag and she pulled it down off a shelf, knocking down a thing or two while doing so and she flattened her ears against her head as she made a bunch of noise. "Yeah Rouge, just let everyone know you're here.." The Beauceron growled to herself before she realizing there was nothing more than an empty box and some empty flattened cans in the bag she had just pulled down. She nearly rolled her eyes and she left the bag where it was as she moved on to a few other shelves looking for something else she could grab and pull down to her level.
______

680 words
Rouge//Beauceron

[DingoMutt]

Honey //

The cool evening air was quiet, save for the steady hum of the street lamps and the occasional call of a bird. If she had known how busy this place had once been, perhaps it would be eerie and strange, this once lively area of town completely desolate, but she didn't think anything of it. She was of course aware of the way of the world, that man had controlled it and shaped it and was finally disappearing, but that was all there was to it. She wondered the life she'd live if man still had a strong grip on the world, but they did not. Would she still be feral, but struggling to survive in a world where she wasn't wanted? Or would she be a pampered pet with a soft cushy bed and a thick leather collar? Or perhaps she wouldn't have been born at all. She shook her head to clear her mind, dropping her muzzle as she was tracking the scent of a raccoon. She didn't care for the little creatures and didn't really enjoy eating them, but this one had been hanging around her den for a few days despite her warnings. She'd finally had enough.

Licking her lips, she turned a corner just in time to see a dog slink into a dark store. She didn't see much, just a long black and tan leg tuck up to cross into a store with a broken glass door. Her interest was piqued, as she didn't do a whole lot of exploring in the stores around here. The one or two she had checked out had been disappointing, so she had stuck to hunting and the pizza shop she'd made into a home. She'd dragged some old uniform shirts up into the brick oven to make a comfy bed. After 30 years to air out, it didn't smell like italian food and held in her warmth at night just right, and was the perfect size. She quickly sank to her belly on the sidewalk, tall weeds growing between the slabs. She waited several long moments to see if any other dogs were around that might be with the one she was following. When she was sure the coast was clear, and this stranger wasn't likely to be part of big murderous gang, she trotted down the street.

Tail held high, Honey stuck her head through the door and looked around. The glass shards from the door had been disturbed, pushed around in pawprint sized piles in a large spread from whoever had shattered the door. She took a few delicate sniffs, pleased to find the stranger hadn't injured themselves on the glass. If she was to make a friend, she certainly wouldn't begin their relationship by nursing them back to health with four busted paws. She carefully entered the store, placing her paws in the spaces without glass shards that Rouge had left. She could hear the dog rustling around, and she did a little snooping of her own. The stranger was in another room, and her quiet walking around wouldn't be likely to attract their attention.

She froze when Rouge pulled the bag and several items clattered to the ground. She held still for several moments, her ears perked and her eyes wide in the dark. A fair amount of light entered the store from the street lamps, but it wasn't well-lit by any stretch of the imagination. "Yeah Rouge, just let everyone know you're here..." the dog said, her voice a growl. Was she with another dog? Or just speaking to herself? She peeked around the corner into the room the beauceron was in. In the low light, she quickly sized up the other dog and determined she wasn't too much of a threat. The beauceron resumed sniffing and tugging at high up items. They were close to the same height, with the black and tan dog perhaps a little taller, so it wasn't as if Honey could help much with her searching. She took a deep breath and poked her head around the corner, a mischievous grin on her maw.

"Yeah Rouge, keep it together. Any more noise and you'll be waking the dead," she said, smiling. She came into the doorway, still a respectful distance from the other dog. She knew the way out if it came down to it, her body prepared to twist and disappear into the night. She'd never met a dog that could out-run her, and that gave her a bit of confidence as she wagged her tail. She meant no harm. "My name is Honey, by the way. What are you looking for?" she asked, head tilted just a little bit. Her gold eyes glowed a bit in the dark, but otherwise she was a picture of innocence.

ridgeback lurcher // 24 in // 50 lbs
loner // 801 words // RED
ayy!

[RED]

The Beauceron heard nothing. The fact that another dog or even anything could have followed her into the shop when she wasn't paying attention didn't even cross her mind. She was simply too overwhelmed by curiosity and wanted to turn over everything she could in this shop.
She had no idea she was not alone. 

Then, it happened. An unfamiliar voice and her name being said. She whipped her head around suddenly, dog tags on her choker chain clinking together loudly  when she turned her head abruptly, cropped ears erect on her head, tail straight out and stiff, her whole body tense, and her brown eyes locked on another dog. A female voice had interrupted her thoughts, interrupted her search for snacks and toys, and it sure wasn't her own voice in her head that interrupted her. It was this red dog, walking in the doorway, and wagging her tail. How long had this dog been in the shop with her? Had she completely missed her when she first came in? Rouge was confused, maybe even a bit concerned over her own obliviousness of her own surroundings. 

Rouge was sure she looked like a deer in the headlights to this other dog. She was completely frozen as if she had been caught doing something despicable. "Uh, stuff.." She answered although all she could think about was the dogs name. Honey. 
"Just.. I don't know. Just stuff. Snacks and whatever." Rouge managed to say more although her tone was the least bit pleasant as she began to sound less shocked and more uninterested. Not uninterested in Honey, but rather uninterested in her search for stuff as her mind went back to what she was originally doing before this dog startled her.
She took a moment to look around her before loosening herself up, trying not to be so tense anymore, as she then faced Honey completely. Not bad.. Not a bad looking female, in Rouge's eyes. But she couldn't let her mind wander in such a direction.. yet. She couldn't let herself get distracted by a female right now. No, she needed to find a place to sleep, find something to eat, find water, and just overall she needed to figure out what her next move was since she wasn't at all a dog familiar with being feral. She was just a mere house pet, a mere companion for an old man.. or at least she used to be. Now she was on her own, forced to worry about where her next meal was coming from and when it was. She was forced to worry about where she was going to sleep. She knew she wasn't going to be safe on her own but did she really want to team up with any dogs? It wasn't her taste since she wasn't one to play nicely when it came to working as a team but she was aware of the fact that she may have to force herself to team up with others if she wanted to survive.
But she wasn't all that desperate yet for the company of others. Or maybe she could be swayed to work with others.. Only time will tell. 

"And you, pretty lady? You looking for something? Or is this your place?" Rouge began to question as she stood where she was, not moving, only staring with brown eyes at the red female. Her lack of movement only lasted less than a minute before she looked to her left and stared at bag on the floor not far from where she stood. It had something in it.. She could tell. Without a second thought she made her way towards it, not in the slightest bit caring that this place she was roaming around in could possibly be this other females 'home'. Rouge had no real care and what seemed to also be no manners. The Beauceron had a mind of her own and a lack of proper canine social skills. She wasn't used to other dogs since her only time around others was when she was a pup up until she was a little over six weeks old before her human adopted her and ever since living on the farm with the old man she had no other contact with dogs for three whole years. Now here she was with no familiarity of how to act with other dogs. It was either be aggressive or simply not care. Her mind could go either way and at the moment she really did not care because she was so focused on finding a snack or two and she was currently digging her roman nose in a bag that had canned food in it. Human canned food but it was food nonetheless and she was aware of this as she lifted it up, carrying it in her powerful jaws and she tried to break it open by just biting it but it just simply wasn't working so she dropped it, allowing it to land on the floor with a loud clank and it rolled a bit away from her. She watched it carefully, thinking of ways to break it open and get to the food inside of it. All while doing this she was still aware of the female, Honey, standing in the doorway.
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884 words
Rouge//Beauceron
socially awkward little rouge

[DingoMutt]

Honey //

Honey would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy the look of alarm on the beauceron's face. Her head had whipped around when she spoke, her tags jingling and disturbing the quiet of the world. Her whole body was stiff for a moment, and she uneasily answered the lurcher. Just as quickly as she was startled she was relaxed again and back to her search, and for this Honey was glad. She had wanted to spook the beast a bit, as the temptation had just been too much, and thankfully the black and tan dog didn't seem to hold any grudge. The beauceron explained her search for stuff and things, and Honey nodded knowingly. Of course! Stuff and things. She grinned, taking a few steps forward. The other dog's tone wasn't kind after the initial shock wore off, and instead she sounded pretty uptight and uninterested in the red dog.

"Snacks? I don't think you're going to find a whole lot in here that's still edible." she said, taking a few sniffs of the air. She didn't smell any food, and while she certainly had never touched prepackaged snacks in her entire life, she'd eaten her fair share of human scraps. She much preferred the satisfaction of hunting her own meal, but the convenience and taste of human food was too tempting at times. Just that thought made her stomach twist, as she hadn't eaten anything that day. Yesterday she'd been fortunate enough to find the remains of a kill in the woods nearby, but there hadn't been much. Now just thinking and speaking about food made her mouth water. She suddenly remembered her task before she'd made this detour, to track down the damned raccoon that was hanging around her place. He would make a nice meal, and that though soothed her a bit. It would be an ugly fight, but she was confident she'd come out on top. Maybe this beauceron would even be interested in helping in exchange for half the kill, if she even knew how to hunt. Her uneasy tone and body language made her seem completely out of her element, and she was just lucky it was Honey that found her, not some nasty creature that would take advantage of her.

"And you, pretty lady? You looking for something? Or is this your place?" Rouge said. Honey's eyebrow quirked up at "pretty lady." She wasn't the straightest arrow in the bunch, but she thought that Rouge was being fairly forward. Not that she would complain... just another way to earn her attention, and possibly recruit the dog to her side. They stared at one another for a few moments, and then Rouge was sniffing around again. The lurcher wasn't really bothered by her behavior, as she had met her fair share of quirky dogs. Among the ones that were new strays, left behind by their humans, she'd met more than a few that had simply lost it or shut down. For Rouge, she just seemed to be trying to carry on, but unsure how to do so.

"I'm out hunting for a pain in the ass raccoon that likes to hang out around my den. No, I live in a shop down a couple blocks," she said, her ears perking as Rouge found a can of food. She couldn't see the label in the low light, but perhaps it would be something good and not just a can of green beans. The humans she'd known had eaten from cans along with making their own food, so she understood the concept. The beauceron bit down hard on the can, and the lurcher cringed at the sound. She wanted to snap at the dog not to do that and risk her teeth, but she dropped it anyway and it rolled away. "Be careful. You're gonna break your teeth or cut the shit out of your mouth. I bet if you get a sharp rock and put it on top, and then push on that, you can bust it open." she said. She was an observant creature, and she'd seen humans open cans with spoons and knives when they didn't have a can opener.

"If you want to help me with my raccoon, I'd be happy to share. He's a big bastard, probably weighs half as much as me." she said, her tail still wagging slowly. It wasn't an eager, happy wag, it was one meant to convey that she was in a good mood and light hearted. She decided that this Rouge character was pretty interesting, and certainly worth a bit of effort to recruit.

ridgeback lurcher // 24 in // 50 lbs
loner // 770 words // RED
yehh let's go on a coon hunt