Terra in the City

It had been a few days since Akadia had taken to joining the Breeder's Guild. She hadn't done much with that yet, but it was still exciting to feel like a real member of the community. It was a lot easier to talk to people when you had things in common, especially when cute hounds were involved. On the topic of hounds, the chocolate menace she had taken in seemed to be bursting with energy. The stubby tailed beast had taken to running back and forth in their living space and almost literally bouncing off the walls. She needed to go outside pronto. Crow wasn't around at the moment and if he came back to a mess he'd be very upset.

 

Terra stopped immediately when she heard the familiar jingling of her tags on her collar. She knew what that meant, they were going somewhere. She barked excitedly and wagged what little tail she had so hard her entirely hind end moved with it. The display was actually kind of cute. Akadia couldn't help but grin in response to her antics.

 

"You'll have to sit for a moment, okay? We can't go unless you let me put you collar on."

 

Terra sat only long enough for her handler to equip her with a pretty purple collar and a matching lead. Akadia hardly had enough time to click them into place before her hound was once again up and at 'em. Terra jumped up on the door and looked back at her handler with an expectant bark. "Let's hurry up and go already!" she seemed to demand.

 

"Okay, okay, I'm coming."

 

Akadia carefully maneuvered around her overly enthusiastic hound to open the door and out they went.

 

"Let's just stick to the city for now, yeah? I don't know where Crow is and I'd rather not get lost today."

 

Terra was just happy to be outside. Her first order of business was to sniff everything. What other hounds had been around recently? Where had they been? Akadia wondered how many other things her hound could tell about the others that came before her just from the scents they had left behind. She wished her senses were that strong.

 

Oh well. She had apposable thumbs instead. That was much more useful. Probably.

 

It was about midday so the sun was high in the sky and shining bright and warm. The city itself was alive and bustling with activity. The salty scent of the nearby sea mingled with delicious aroma of fresh food on the breeze making Akadia second guess her reason for coming out. A snack wouldn't hurt right?

 

Terra wasn't about to have that, though. She tugged insistently on the lead to get her handler to keep moving. No time for standing around, she wanted to see what else the city had to offer!

 

"You're probably right, I should wait," Akadia relented with a sigh. She made a promise to herself to come back later, maybe without her hound.

 

For now the pair walked down a path they had yet to fully explore. The city seemed to hold so many secrets, it was amazing. It felt like no matter how many times Akadia traversed these cobblestone streets there was always some detail she hadn't noticed before. She didn't think she'd ever get tired of this place. It only further cemented the idea that moving to the New World with Crow was the right choice.

 

She let out a dreamy sigh. Likely the reason she felt this way was because she had a tendency to completely lose track of the real world while she went on random internal tangents. Like now she realized that even though it only felt like a minute or two, the scenery had completely changed. While she had been thoughtlessly following Terra's lead through the city, they'd ended up leaving the central marketplace area and ended up in a more domestic part.

 

It wasn't really an issue, at least not this time, but it was still kind of jarring to essentially "wake up" somewhere else.

 

"Oh. Huh."

 

Akadia took a moment to admire the beautiful homes that surrounded them while Terra busied herself with fervently sniffing different spots in the grass. More than likely, a lot of the houses belonged to hound owners not unlike herself. Hmm. Maybe she'd have to come back here later. It would be nice to get out of the little inn she and Crow had made their temporary base. She'd have to ask him about it the next time they were together.

 

Terra tugged on the lead again, knocking her handler out of yet another daydream.

 

"Okay, okay." Akadia made another mental note to work on training her.

 

They spent a little more time walking until they'd had enough of the city then returned back to their home.