Thief the Fluffy! [Vaeyla]

"Really Kela, did you have to have so very many pups?"  Kela simply sent him a harassed look and whined, sitting down and letting her litter crawl all over her with resignation.  Getting all the pups here for socialization training had been a job and half and the fluffy black one Terken had mentally dubbed "Thief" was already making an escape attempt from the portable pen Terken had the puppies in.

He scooped him up, placed him in it, and went to see what two of Thief's sisters were tussling over.  Their tiny barks echoed over the gather square and Terken wished he'd thought to bring back up for this as he separated the two pups before the playfight turned real, then looked up and did a quick head count.

Thief was missing.  Again.  Sighing, Terken looked around, not happy.  Surely the fluffbrained thieving fur ball couldn't have gotten far, right?  He saw it then and nearly whimpered.  Thief was coming back alright, with something brightly colored in his mouth.  It was laid down, the pup plainly proud of himself.  Terken reached down, and picked up a slobber covered slipper.  Sighing, he set it down, on the other side of the playpen, and put Thief back in with his brothers and sisters. 

He fussed over it, the noise loud and making Terken wince.  Kela simply glared at him and Terken thought, not for the first time, that the canines were determined to make his life overly interesting.  When a fight broke out amoung the sisters again, he separated them again, and once again, found Thief gone.  Sighing, he resigned himself to going puppy hunting as soon as he found someone to watch the rest of the litter.  Sometimes, he swore the canines truly did plot against him.

Vee had been lounging around the edge of the weyrbowl having spent the morning with Evritt. She was in no rush to clean pots and kettles so it would easily wait until after she relaxed, considering she seemed to draw kitchen duty a great deal more than some of the others. She was about tired of it and was about this close to just taking up residence in the kitchens and becoming a drudge. She supposed there were worse things than scrubbing pots and dishes but it was still an annoying task and there were a great deal more things she could and should be doing, but why did she care anymore?

Her mind wandered away for awhile as she leaned back against the rock she had sat by, eyes closed, slippers kicked off and on the ground by her outstretched legs. Luckily she was far enough out of the way that she wasn't concerned about being stepped on. She started humming a tune she had heard last night when the harpers had sung but was interrupted by the sound of growls. It was far too quiet to be a dragon, and hopefully they wouldn't send a dragon to make her scrub pots, would they? She popped an eye open and looked around. What she found had not been what she was expecting. What she found was a fluffy little puppy playing with one of her slippers, not that she didn't have more, but that wasn't the point. "Hey!", she yelled at the puppy. It yelped, dropped her slipper, barked at her, snatched it back up and ran from her.

Vee was up instantly, grabbing her other slipper, and running after the little beast, one hand on the skirt of her gown, lifting the hem so she could run and not trip over herself. The little shit was fast and as soon as she got close enough to try and grab it, it changed direction and she lost it, leaving her barefoot with one slipper in her hand. She gave a bit of a growl and panted to catch her breath as she kept walking around the edge of the weyrbowl looking for a puppy. A few minutes later she saw the evil little beast, slipperless, but digging under a rock. "Aha!", she said, snatching the little thing up in her arms. It instantly started squirming and licking at her face. It took about ten seconds for her to decide she couldn't be mad at it any longer and was laughing with her arms full of happy puppy. "Alright you little monster...where is my damn slipper huh?" All she got in response was playful whines and more licks to her already soaked cheeks.  She kept walking, trying to watch where she was going and also trying to to drop her remaining slipper, or the puppy.

She changed directions after a bit when she heard more whining and puppy yips. She lifted a brow and followed the sounds until she came upon a young blonde haired man trying to wrangle an entire pen of squirming puppies. She cleared her throat, a smirk on her face as she held up and puppy that was trying to chew on her fingers even as she held it. "Can I safely assume this cute little brat belongs to you?"

He was knee deep in puppies and despite the general chaos and noise lever that came from dealing with this many young canines at the same time, Terken was happy.  The pen was large enough to give them some room to play, and in a moment of weakness, Terken had allowed some of the younger weyrbrats to festoon it with brightly colored strips and cloth and ribbon.  How was he supposed to say no to the big eyes and pouting of a toddler?  Oh well, at least they hadn't wanted to paint the pen.  That would have been bad. 

He kept looking around for Thief, hoping but doubting that the little beast would wander back on his own.  His luck wasn't that good.  He had his back turned when the entire knot of puppies switched from nosing about the pen to rearing up, yipping and pawing at the wall.  Sighing, he turned, hoping it wasn't a firelizard.  All but one of the litter adored the creatures.  Well, all of them adored the creatures, it was just Trouble that seemed to think they made a wonderful chewtoy.

It was a woman.  Terken couldn't place her right away, but stopped trying, enough in his element to greet her with a relaxed smile.  "Yes.  Might you own that slipper there?"  Thief was trying to chew on her fingers, and Terken reached out to gently tap his nose and told him firmly, "No."  The canine whined, but stopped trying to chew her fingers and licked instead. 

"I'm Terken.  The mother's Kela, and the fluffballs don't all have names yet.  Who are you?"  Yeah, he was a bit blunt about it, but there was seldom a point in beating around the bush.  He continued.  "Thank you for returning Thief to hi..."  That was cut off by an undignified yelp as sharp teeth closed around his ankle. 

"No, Nibble.  No."  The canine in question sat and looked up at Terken sadly, then resumed nibbling on his ankle.  Not correcting her this time, Terken scooped up the canine in question, gave her to Vaeyla and reclaimed Thief.  "I apologize.  Thief's an escape artist and I was supposed to have help socializing this litter but the drudge helping me got reassigned this morning."  He held Thief close to his chest, knowing if he set the pup down he'd escape again.

Hearing another play fight break out between Trouble and Chaos, he moved back to break it up, using his free hand to place each pup on opposite sides of the pen.  They each settled a moment, then started to sniff around the area, then rejoined their brothers and sisters.  Thief was given a pet, Terken relaxing as the canine covered his face in licks.  "Yes, yes, I like you too."

She lifted a brow slightly at the young man then let her dark eyes wander to the indicated slipper and sighed softly. "Yes...that would be mine." She wasn't really upset, how could one be upset with something so terribly adorable. Adorable as the puppy was, his little teeth were sharp and she was rather glad that the owner bopped him lightly and told him no. She giggled when he continued licking her fingers instead. She gave him a bright smile when he introduced himself and the mother of the pups.

"Ah, well it is a pleasure to be sure Terken, I'm Vaeyla.", she said in response, now holding the pup in one hand and playing with it's paws with the other. He was in the middle of thanking her for returning the puo when he gave a yelp. She jumped back a little and had to stifle a laugh as another pup had managed to get loose and was now chewing on Terken's ankle. Nibble, as he called the pup was scooped up, after being told no, and offered to her and she gladly took her, though handed the other over to him in exchange. Again she was assaulted with puppy breath and kisses that made her laugh and she pet the pup.

When he made his apology again he was uninterrupted by puppy teeth and she gave a nod and a smile. "Well, if you like, I am not doing anything right now. I can help you out if you show me what needs to be done." That was an awful lot of puppies for one person to handle alone, especially when they kept finding ways out of their pen. The pup in her arms wiggled ad she readjusted her hold on her then scratched her head as she watched, with a smile, as Terken was covered in puppy kisses as well.

annnnnd my apologies for the epic tardiness of this reply. wow I am fired. x.x

Kela got tired of acting as a jungle gym for her litter and sat up, tumbling puppies off her in a chaotic jumble of fur, barking nad teeth, backing up to the far wall of the pen and doing her best to look regal.

He would have normally fidgeted at spending extended time around a female, any female, but Terken was wise enough to know when he was in over his head.  HE would accept the help gladly, especially since she seemed to like puppies. 

"You should like this, it's easy, there's just alot of them.  I'm socializing them.  My mother trained fine guard dogs but they aren't very friendly.  I am hoping to make sure these little ones will be friendly with people, and it's best to start when they're young...All we have to do is play with them and get others to do so as well, if we can."

He added, "I had someone who was supposed to help me, but she got reassigned...something about playing with puppies not being a hard enough chore to qualify as punishment."  Feeling teeth clamp on his finger, eh pulled it free of Thief's mouth and lightly bopped his nose.  "No."

The pup whined, wriggling and wanting to join his siblings.  "And ahhh...I'm afraid you'll get dirty and you'll probably be chewed on.  I'm sorry about that part."  Deciding to take the chance he set Thief down and scooped up one of the girls instead, who was about to start a play fight with her sister, who was looking rather harassed.  She lathed his face in lots of licks, Terken accepting the first few, then shifting her so she couldn't reach his face anymore. 

Vee couldn't help but give a soft laugh when she watched the mama dog sit up, puppies tumbling off her as she did so. The way Kala sat there, she looked rather proud of herself, or maybe it was just that she was looking for sympathy for her plight. Being corralled with a small herd of puppies was probably the last way the pooch wanted to spend her day.

She listened as Terken spoke, nodding a bit as she continued to scratch and pet the puppy in her arms. "Sounds like a wise thing to try, though I have no knowledge of training anything except my son to walk. I will be more than glad to help keep them from running off, who doesn't love playing with puppies?" She said with lifting the pup in her hands again to face her. It yipped at her and licked at her face until she was laughing out loud. "Alright, enough of that now.", she said and cradled her in her arms again.

Vee gave Terken a grin and nodded. "Yeah I can understand that. You know...", she paused and grinned with a slight eyeroll before continuing, "Punishments must be horrible. Poor thing probably got stuck scrubbing up wher dung or some other such nightmare chore.", she finished with a scratch the the underside of the pups chin. When he mentioned she would get dirty and chewed on she gave a laugh. "Pfft..I am not that delicate, I am perfectly fine getting dirty and chewed on, so no apologies needed Terken.", She said, perfectly amused. So how shall I do this, do I just rotate the pup I hold  every so often?"

omg thats....horrible short and late sorry!!!

Vaeyla kept giving the puppy attention as she talked, something that gave her points in Terken's book.  He grinned at her.  "Dogs are easier then kids.  They can't tell you no.  And most of hte time they want to obey, they just need to figure out what you want." 

He shook his head at the words about punishments.  "I've had more than my share doing that."  He snorted.  "Punishment duty is the worst.  I still remember having to help clear out the herd beast pens, and having to clean up after a turn's end gather."

"Well you can either rotate pups or sit down and let them climb on you.  I was going to do that once I'd found Thief."  He looked down at the pup and ruffled his ears gently, offering the pup a chewy treat.  "I am glad you're sturdy though."  He sat down then and the pups instantly mobbed him, climbing on him, the young man settling them down, keeping them from jumping up and gently scratching ears and chins to let each know they were cared for. 

As Kela saw their attention slide from her to him, she lay down again, tail giving a thump.  She was a good mother, but her babies were wearing her out.  If she could catch a nap however...That would be canine heaven to the dog