Night shelter (Open)

[Ashni]

It had been some time since the Kelpie talked with Wyatt. It felt nice to be able to talk with a dog who wasn't trying to attack her and or kill her because she was an inconvenience. Later that night however the dog who she had beat the night before had found her and he had brought a couple of his gang with him. It was all Ash could do to escape them by jumping out one of the windows in the back. She ran and ran till she couldn't hear her adversaries growls anymore. It was almost midnight when the winds of a dust storm getting closer. Perking her ear up panic started to set in as she looked for a place to take shelter. Bits of sand were starting to hit her eyes when she saw a large dark spot in the side of the hill. Ash bolted for it and slipped inside just as the a wall of dust and sand blocked it off a small cloud of it following her in but died a few feet in.
"Looks like I'm staying here for the night." She more or less said to herself as she moved to the left wall and laid down. But there was a problem. As she started to put pressure on her side she felt a stinging burning pain that ran from her shoulder to almost her elbow. It was too dark for her to see anything but she could feel how sticky her fur was and the pain in her leg was slowly building as her adrenaline died down and the memory of her jumping out the window flashed in her mind.
"Damn it." She growled.

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[xena9709]

Bentley cruised along quietly, the only noise being his steady, rhythmic panting. His light, yellow brown eyes flickered in the shadows. He had been running for almost an hour now, looking for somebody, anybody to share his time with. There were no birds out right now, not in the dead of the night. Everything was black as could be, but his red and white coat was easy to spot even from a distance as it flashed in between the sparse grass. His coat had mostly shed out, but in this drought it was enough to make him prefer to move at night, even if it meant that he couldn't chase birds. His mind always came back to birds. It was bred into him, he was just a bird crazy dog and that was that. He wasn't thinking about much as he traveled - just about how lonely he was and how he so wanted a friend to travel and play by his side.

He caught the scent of a female nearby and followed it, ending up in a dark, desolate cave like place. He slowed to a walk and crept forward slowly, sniffing his way in. He came upon another dog, who seemed somewhat annoyed almost, but he couldn't tell. He smelled a fresh wound and put his ears back submissively. "Hi there, I'm Bentley." he said to her. He didn't want to scare her off now that he had found her.

(sucky post I've been really distracted trying to do this one, sorry)

[Ashni]

Ashni was too absorbed by the fact that she had a large cut in her shoulder to notice that the dust storm had passed. It was in a position that she couldn't really reach to clean it and the temperature was dropping, especially in the cave like place she was in. But when she heard an unfamiliar voice call out to her she jumped to her feet and took on a defensive stance. However she wasn't able to put much weight on her left leg due to her wound and she didn't know what she was going to do if this dog decided to act aggressively. When the moon light started to shine into the mine she saw the submissive stance that he took and her growls slowly died down and her stance started to relax. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. It's just... I just got done running from some other dogs not that long ago." Ash apologized wagging her tail slightly to try and smooth things over.
"My name is Ashni, but you can call me Ash if you want." She said attempting to take a step towards him but yelped slightly when she put pressure on her injured leg her ears going flat as she whimpered softly. "Damn it. Friken glass." She growled to herself for being so careless.

[xena9709]

Bentley took a step back when the female stepped at him. He was never one to pick a fight, even with males. He just wanted to play, what was all the fighting about with everyone? In the dim light, he could see that this dog was quite pretty, with a chocolate brown coat and bright amber eyes staring out from it. She looked scared, and in pain. He frowned, wondering what was bothering her so. She said her name was Ashni. "Well Ash..." he hesitated when she stumbled and cried. "What happened to you?" He stepped nearer to her and sniffed the wound on her leg cautiously, in case she was too aggressive to allow that. His gaze softened and he looked at her, wondering. What had made this female so scared and so uptight? He hoped that she would let him stick around. He loved to bring joy into other's lives again and teach them how to live and be a dog. He was an expert, at least when it came to hunting. Again the birds flew into his mind. He couldn't stop thinking about them. He shook himself of the thought and his delicate, soft feathered ears flapped on the sides of his face, the sound ricocheting off the walls of the cave. It made him slightly nervous to be down here. The air was silent and still, almost smothering him. "Why don't you come out of here, into the light." he suggested to her. He waited beside her in case she couldn't walk well ,and searched her eyes once again for answers.

[Ashni]

Meeting Bentley's eyes when he came closer to smell her wound she remained calm but she was slightly tense. "That group of dogs I mentioned I had just ran from, I had to go threw a window to get away. Guise I got cut on the glass." She tried to chuckle at her own clumsiness. When he suggested that they go outside she looked toward the moonlight and her heart sank. Sure they were only maybe five or six feet in but her leg was throbbing and her body was shaking from exhaustion. But she tried none the less. With the hunting hound next to her Ash moved towards the pale moonlight. Shuffling slightly as a way of keeping her bad leg up. She hated it when she was injured and couldn't be at her best and take care of herself. Although she had to admit that it felt good to have a companion with so that she didn't have to be alone. Ash made it about four feet with her walk/shuffle before she had to stop. It wasn't her bad leg that was giving her problems. The rest of her body was screaming and begging for her to stop moving and let it rest. Whimpering softly she hung her head slightly as her muscles started to twitch. "Damn, I'm so tired." Ash mumbled to herself not sure if Bentley heard her or not but it was clear that she was giving into her exhaustion as she started to sit.

[xena9709]

Bentley was at least glad they had made it closer to the entrance than before. He could smell a light breeze coming through the air ahead of him, and as long as he had that he could deal with anything else. He just hated to be shut into any place. His heart belonged in the fields and in the skies, flying along and running. It was just his nature, and what his instincts told him. He looked back at Ashni, realizing this was probably as far as she was going to be going tonight and he sat down; his little stub of a tail almost invisible. He shook quickly, ridding himself of the nasty cobwebs that had planted themselves on him. "Well I guess we can just stay here for now, and if you feel better int he morning we can head to the stream nearby and maybe find some water to clean that out." He gazed at her sympathetically. The female was quite beautiful, especially in this light; her chocolate brown coat was quite striking and not a color you saw very often. "Where are you actually from?" the Brittany asked her. "If you don't mind me asking of course." He was curious. He was new around here of course, but he had met a few dogs and she was not one of them. He wondered in the back of his head why she had been chased by dogs in the first place. Snapping back to the present he laid his head down in between his paws and gave the female a chance to make herself comfortable. His red and white coat was quite visible, and next to hers, a striking contrast. He wiggled a little closer as discreetly as possible, hoping she wouldn't see him as rude, but he was lonely.

[Ashni]

Her whole body was trembling from the cool of the mine and night air. But what was worse was her injured shoulder. It was burning and when she tried to move. Feeling Bentley's warmth next to her Ash looked at him, a smile in her eyes happy that she wasn't alone. Whimpering softly when a muscle tremor sent a painful sting threw her shoulder she slightly dug her claws into the ground. "Damn it all." She cursed again softly. Ash made an attempt to try and relax her body so that she could sleep, and with the combination of Bentley's body heat and comfort of his fur, it was a success. Her dreams were the same as always, she was back with her family. Her girl was on the porch with her mother while she and the master worked with the herd. But soon enough, a giant wall of dust appeared in the distance. In the real world Ash had started to run slightly in her sleep and she was whimpering as the memory of the look in her girl's eyes when they had to leave her behind.