A Twilight Bark II

February the 1st. Open to Mooch and Scamp at first. Others within reason may join if so desired. However, please ask before hand.

This thread is a bit different in that it is a conversation between two characters set over a long distance. So while it may start out in Marceline, individual posts will not necessarily be set there. Also, expect some lag between individuals as the messages pass over long distances. Scamp will wander around a bit as he waits on responses.

Scamp's paws crunched as he walked through the slush that coated the backyard. Already the melt off was in force, and the winter snow was quickly vanishing. Patches of grass where starting to poke through and the streets where full of watery run off and mud. The gas streetlamps where already lit, as was the porch lamp that hung on the side of Jim Dear's house. The Grey mongol craned his head to looked up at the night sky, it's starry expanse so still and clear as a pain of glass.

That night had found the young mongrel restless. It was only a matter of days before he was forced to return to the Pridelands and too the war he had so hoped to leave behind. Jim Dear had finished his message, and good new or bad, the official correspondence had fallen to Scamp to deliver. Only the knowledge of a quick turn around made the oncoming trip seem less daunting. With recent events there was some concern of what would happen in the little New England town while he was away.

Scamp closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His time home had made the war and it's events seem like a distant dream, the reality of what he was about to return too was just starting to fall upon his shoulders. In a way he felt guilty for having abandoned them. Mooch, Gurri, his sisters and father...'Tani, and Angel.

There was a noticeable hole in his heart on the last two.

Pushing his emotions to the side, he knew of one way to at least get an idea of what he was about to get himself into. It was a trick he had learned from the dalmatians. While it was not as private as he would have liked, it was less awkward then say, sending a telegram, and would hopefully give him more immediate responses. Opening his eyes and taking a deep snort, he padded over to the doghouse. With one good vault he pulled himself atop it's high peeked roof. Thankfully the melting snow had left the shingles bare, and he found good a good perch. Raising his head, he then started a barrage of barking into the heavens.

“Mooch, Mooch, it's Scamp. You there?”

It was the same message, repeated again and again. With five minute intervals between barks. He knew it would take some time for the message to reach it's recipient, and he wished not to wake the neighbors or Jim with continuous barking. He choose Mooch to reach out too, figuring that the sheepdog would still be awake, given the time differences and distance.

Mooch was twitching in his sleep. Fear. Fear was over taking him in his dreams. A barrage of antlers, hooves, blood and battles flowed through his mind like a rushing river. The blackness. The dark. It was making it very hard to sleep without violent nightmares and chills. Because it was damn cold where he was. Even curled next to his now canine girlfriend.

Mooch kicked a few times before a series of barks reached his ears. It couldn't be...
“Mooch, Mooch, it's Scamp. You there?”

"What the hell?" He rose his head and rolled over on four legs, exiting the tent he and Gurri shared. That barking...Scamp? Was he trying the twilight bark? The last time Mooch had used it they had been snapping and yelling at Lucky. Now Scamp was using it properly it seemed. To carry news. At least he thought so.

He rushed to a hilltop, raising his head and letting out his own set of barks. "Scamp! Dude, what's up! What's the word from America?" He cleared his throat and coughed slightly.

"You won't believe what's going on over here! Let me ask you...is it black there too?"

Scamp was just about to give up. It had been a good fifteen minutes since his last bark had echoed off into nothing. He had lowered himself into a laying down position atop the doghouse roof. Mouth curled into a neutral grimace, triangular ears flopping down on each side of his head in an expression of loneliness. He let off a soft sigh, his breath erupting into a cloud of vapor in from of his maw.

But just as he was about to drop down from the kennel roof and head inside, his ears caught the faint faraway barking of a return message. Both ears perked, and the mutt sat bolt upright. The fur of his bang and muzzle flopping forward as he did. It had worked! The damn thing worked! He couldn't believe it, he actually was hearing back from Mooch.

His initial exuberance at hearing from Mooch after a good month was suddenly replaced by confusion. He cleared his throat and began a return bark.

"Mooch, dude. Things are, weird. Something big is going on over here. But what do you mean, black? I mean, it's night, but the stars and moon are out. Why?"

He was truly confused, and concerned. from the way Mooch had phrased it, it wasn't as if he was asking the time of day, it was as if he was asking the color of the world around him. A state of existence.

"Is everything okay? Hows is everyone?"

It would take a good couple of minutes for his barks to travel across the ocean. Mooch knew that. Still he impatiently waited, a long slender ear lifted upwards, lips pursed in a listening position. He had taken a seat though. This conversation was going to have to be a long one. After all Scamp was far away. He had to know all that had transpired in the pridelands.

Finally the barks returned, small and slow. Lots of words. Something big? If Scamp hadn’t answered the question about the stars, Mooch would have asked about it. But when Scamp mentioned stars his stomach curled. So it was just them. “Not good, Scamp,” he woofed back, “Not good at all.”

He shook his head. “Scamp things are dark here. And not nighttime dark. Black. No stars, no moon, no SUN! It’s crazy dark…people keep bumping into each other.” He sneered, teeth gritted before he offered a loud howl.

“Everyone’s fine but…your Mum’s MIA again. They captured your sister and that cat from the outlands. Things are broken up back here, man, you gotta come back!”

(OOC: Scamp doesn't know Lady is alive. This might not be the best time for him to find out. That alone may suddenly take over the whole conversation.)

If Scamp had been confused at first, now he really was in a state of utter bewilderment. No stars, no sun? That made no sense whatsoever. His sister? Which one? And his mom! No...something couldn't be right. It sounded as if the whole world had collapsed after his departure...and his mom was dead. Perhaps that was something that got muddled in translation over the long distance.

He took a few seconds to digest this. Wondering if he was actually talking to Mooch or not, it just seemed so surreal. Finally he raise his head back to the heavens, and began to bark again. This time a note of frantic speed entering into his tone.

"I don't understand. My mom is dead, she has been dead for almost six months. What do you mean my sister has been captured? Which one? Dude, you're not making any sense. And this sky thing? That just sounds freaking impossible...how can it be always dark!"

The dog let out a harsh snort, before returning to the his long howl.

"Look, I'll be coming back as soon as I can. I have uh..," he paused, trying to figure out a way to say he had Shang's message, but without blurting it to a bunch of dogs in-between. "I have a gift for one of our masters. You know...the thing I came out here to receive. But dude...things aren't good here. There are people here who want to hurt me, I think the war is starting to spread."

He bowed his head, suddenly feeling awash with guilt. It sounded like things had gone very wrong for his friends. In a way, he felt that in his rush to find solitude and escape from the war, not only had he brought it home to his own doorstep, but he had suddenly abandoned them to their fates in the war zone.

"I'm leaving tomorrow...okay."

It was a lot to suddenly blast out over the bark, and he hoped it would all reach Mooch in one piece.

Mooch's ear raised again. A bit later Scamp's confusion came to his ears. He groaned, shaking his head as he gave up. The translation was too much so he just dropped it. He'd describe it in detail when Scamp returned. Especially the part about Lady. "The floofy one!" He yelped, "The...ah...animal villain one!" He didn't know Dani's name. He scratched behind his ear, letting silence hang on the air for a few seconds. Hopefully letting his barks soak in.

"Look, I'll be coming back as soon as I can. I have uh..I have a gift for one of our masters. You know...the thing I came out here to receive. But dude...things aren't good here. There are people here who want to hurt me, I think the war is starting to spread."

He hunched his shoulders. He wasn't shocked. The war had spread out of Africa to Europe and now to America it seemed. "...pretty soon there'll be bases at the bottom of the world..." He mumbled to himself. He coughed again before returning the bark.

"It's black here! Nighttime black but with no stars! It started this morning! Nobody knows what's happening!" He coughed again. "Everyone's terrified dude..." His ears perked. "You have to come back if someone's trying to kill you!" He woofed, "Get here soon! Shang'll understand I'm sure!"

Scamp had started scratching behind one of his ears. The night had remained rather silent for a few good moments between his last message. Of course it would take some time for the message to be moved. He dropped down from the doghouse and padded through the snow and started pacing back and forth. One of his sisters had been captured. That much he understood, and while it brought concern to the forefront, it wasn't nearly as confusing as Mooch's statement about some sort of darkness.

The mutt stopped, one triangular ear perked as a far off echo of barking sounded down the cold streets.

The floofy one? So it was Danielle. He quickly deduced that it had to be that she was captured by Simba's Army, given that Mooch knew about it. In some ways he felt a breath of relief. While his younger sister was not out of hot water, it could be much worse.

He plopped his rump into the snow, and once again raised his tousled maw to the heavens.

"Wow, that's some real heavy stuff. It's going to take me a few days to get there. But I'm leaving tomorrow morning. First light! I promise."

He paused for a second, eyes darting about the yard. For a second he thought her heard Jim Dear upstairs. Last thing he needed was to wake up his master. Jim never did like his dogs howling at the moon. One of the reasons his pop used to take him down to the river. he remembered a few times that his sisters had been invited. It always seemed as if Dani had wanted to join...yet peer pressure in their little group forced her away. For a second, the mongrol felt a shard of melancholy over the fate of his wayward sibling.

"How is she..?." he finally howled. "My sister....How are you and Gurri?" 

He almost wanted to ask about Angel. But he knew that whatever Mooch had to say about her would more then likely be refused to be repeated. Plus, he still felt a tad bit awkward admitting to the sheepdog that his nightmares, the things he was attempting to escape from, had fallowed him home.