Tiar looked over the edge of Eldora's tallest mountain peak. For a mountain, Eldora always seemed to take advantage of the extreme sunlight and store it for colder weather. The high officials of the clouded community made use of the precious metals of the mountain to reflect sunlight and then radiate that heat to the area.
Three concentric circles of buildings branch from the center of Auste, Eldora's main city and commerce district. Tiar hardly ever set one hind paw near that, and mainly drifted from one complex of housing to another along the outermost circle around Eldora, if it could even be considered still in Eldora. Out here, Taeds lived single in small cottages spread far apart from each other. Light, fragrant mountain flowers grew along the pathways that they cared for while fountains of mystic blue radiance flowed over cobble bricks into the nearby streams that flowed down to the ground of Rhul. Sun always shined down on this outermost circle, which made Tiar wonder why anyone went near Auste willingly.
Gentle clouds filled the sky as it turned to dusk on top of Eperi, the complex in which Tiar lived. Sitting motionless underneath a makeshift shade spot, Tiar watched the sun drop over the eastern corner towards the desert. He wasn't sure what the desert was like; the Seque did not like its people traveling down the mountain into main Rhul and never taught it in proper schools- but then again, Tiar never received orthodox education. His father left him and his mother while he was still quite young and his mother never believed in sending a child away to some, as she stated, "fancy building with written nonsense just so those who lick the teacher's tail can have better comments on a worthless piece of paper!" Nightmares in her adult years, if haven't assumed already, plagued her with memories of past schooling experiments attempted by her own parents that she did not favor well to.
As the sun slowed its final bow on the horizon stage, Tiar bent his head down into his furry lap and sighed with the strength of a ladybug recently crushed with a tomato-, which in reality was hardly a sigh at all. Digressing, Tiar sat with little energy atop that mountain and for many days he would return to his faithful sitting place underneath a weightless banbury tree and sit from dawn to twilight. What just was Tiar thinking about? Mainly he sat staring at passing clouds and wishing his days away on the white patches of air. Mostly friendless, Tiar spent many days like this.
Dusting a paw off on some nearby grass, Tiar picked himself up and headed back to his conventional home, alone. He quickly mumbled to himself, "Such a beautiful show, and I am sure I was the only one to see that." And climbed into his hay bed, of course subsequent to a peak into the refrigerator and grabbing a few fruits.
He lies in bed wondering to him, "What would it be like to have a… friend?" It didn't matter much to him directly, but he noticed how around the spring months, a lot of things traveled in pairs. After his brief inquiring, Tiar drifted to sleep.
Hardly recollecting last night's query, Tiar woke up as he did every morning, walked into his bathroom, washed his shaggy body, and treaded softly to his kitchen. Since he was hardly around his house, excluding sleeping hours, Tiar's house remained relatively clean for the most part, especially for a house constructed with a dirt floor. The walls of the bedroom and bathroom fixated the thatched roof with sturdy twigs of brown and dark red color, no doubt from banburry trees! While opening the door to his refrigerator, Tiar hummed along to a little tune that whistled from the wind outside. Finding a leftover carrot in one of the refrigerator's drawers, Tiar skipped merrily to his front door, opened it and stepped outside.
The morning promised blue skies and few clouds with a beating sun, Tiar could tell just by how the wind blew through his think body hair.
"Oh what grand winds blow today I-I," Tiar stopped at his doorstep, blocked by a little gray mound of fur laying adjacent to his hooves. "And what, may I ask so bluntly, in the good mountain air of Eldora are you?" Tiar grew exceedingly impatient as the young fur ball stretched itself out, turned to face Tiar and let out a little yelp. "What is your problem? I don't have time to feed you." Tiar left the little animal on his doorstep and made his way to his sitting spot where he would stay for the rest of the day. At dusk, the little fur ball was gone.
By the next morning, no figment of the furred creature remained in Tiar's memory, that is, until he walked outside.
"You again?" He sighed and rolled his eyes. The same white muzzle peered at the Taed's grumpy face, and tried to imitate the expression.
"Grumf!" The little pup yelped as Tiar turned around to shut the door behind him.
"Grumf to you too!" At the sound of Tiar's voice, the pup cocked his head slightly and grinned. Tiar ignored the expression and traveled down the withered path to the edge of the mountainside. He sat down underneath the makeshift shade and leaned back only to find the pup had crawled behind him and settled down.
The puppy had a long body and gray fur that lightly covered the poor thing's skin. He looked as if he'd been wandering on the streets of Auste for days, lost and alone.
"You are alone too, aren't you?" The dog, as if he understood, laid his head on Tiar's lap and stared at the horizon. "Oh well, everyone needs a little company now and then, even someone like me." Tiar almost grinned at the pup- that he still didn't know what to call it. "What's your name, I've never seen something like you before!" He thought a moment and whispered, "How about Adi?"
Adi was the name of his grandfather on his mother's side. He was the only company he ever wished to have, and this mammal seemed to be growing on him. The pup raised his head and yet again cocked it to one side yet expressed the emotion of acceptance.
The day passed as Tiar got to know little Adi. Adi enjoyed being rubbed on his belly and curled into a little ball when he was scared. Tiar even showed Adi his emotions and how he acted. The days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months. As time passed, Tiar noticed how Adi's fur changed.
Tiar picked up a loose piece of gray fur off of his floor. "Eww… Adi, I brush you for a reason, not for you to just drop it then on the ground." He made a disgusted face and placed the fur into a wastebasket. "Adi?" He couldn't find the little thing. A long trail of fur lead around the hut until Tiar found Adi in a corner scratching himself and knocking the last bit of fur away from his neck area. What was left of the little gray puppy was now a dark colored canine, almost resembling Tiar's fur that covered his body. Tiar could almost not believe what he saw.
Adi raised his head and gave a pleased look to Tiar. "I guess you prefer that thick fur to the light hair on your body now that the colder months are coming, huh?" Adi stood up and nuzzled Tiar's leg. To appease him, Tiar bent down and gave a gentle nudge to Adi's muzzle. "Nice, yes, I think I'll keep you!" Adi replied with a roll of the eyes as Tiar rebutted with a faint laugh, "You know I am just kidding, I can't see how I can ever be without a friend like you!"
Tiar become more active with Adi around and shaped up. Hours of his time now spent with Adi left him little time to worry about the outcast he became, however one day a surprise greeted him as he walked with Adi outside near a different part of Eperi.
"Tiar? Is that you?" A young Taer female trotted over to Tiar and Adi. "I am sorry if I am intruding, but you resemble someone I remembered from my childhood days."
"Yes, I am Tiar, but I am afraid I don't have the slightest clue as to who you are." He blushed a little bit, the female had a kind expression, neatly combed hair around her face that feathered past her shoulders and deep brown eyes that dazzled.
"You don't remember me?" Her expression dropped slightly, "I am Petra. I grew up next to you when we were kids."
Tiar thought back to the lonely days when he was still growing up, the hurt he felt from other people because of his scrawny body and unkempt fur.
Petra continued, "I saw your mother the other day and she told me you were out here. I haven't seen you in such a long time."
"What made you come and look for me?"
Young Petra shuffled her feet and looked at the ground, "I was lonely there, and I remembered how this little boy I knew never let other people get him down. Now I see he has grown quite strong for himself, and probably still doesn't need any company." She glanced at Adi quickly, shot a slight smile in his direction and gazed back at Tiar.
Tiar had grown more accepting over the past few months and leaned closer to Petra, "I remember, you talked to me on occasions. Hey," He paused as his eyes drifted to Adi, the canine enjoyed Petra's company, and that was good enough evidence for him. "Why don't you come by tomorrow and we can catch up?"
A smile gradually developed on Petra's face and as her lips spread a light "Okay" escaped from her mouth.
February 25, 2006 4:28 PM