FIRE DRILL!, Outside of the Dorms, Very Late Thursday Night/Very Early Friday Morning

[suitably_heroic]

The wind roared around campus this time of night. Temperatures had dropped to close to freezing, and clouds blocked out most of the fragile light of the moon.

Perfect time to ring the fire alarm for a test, right? Right.

Somewhere deep in the middle of the night, the alarm went off. Loudly. So grab what you can and bustle on outside, students! ... and let's hope this is over quick.

[[ FIRE DRILL! have at. ]]

Comments

[kenselvren]

Jalian laughed. "They would. That was a bad idea," she confessed. "You could let him play with people more often." She had the Canute seal of approval on her and her stick!

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"That's more reasonable," Elsa decided, nodding and crouching down to greet the pup as he came bounding back with a stone in his mouth that he'd found all on his own! "Hey, now. Spit that out, Canute. It's probably terrible for your teeth, boy..."

There was a pause, and then she sheepishly added, "With people, and with proper puppy toys, maybe."

[kenselvren]

"Sticks are better." Jalian...didn't have one right now, and the lawn wasn't forthcoming. She pulled one knife from its leather sheath and stuck it through her belt, then waved the sheath at him. "Much better than rocks!"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Almost anything must be better than rocks," Elsa decided, managing to liberate the slightly slobbery rock just as Jalian's sheath-waving caught his eye. She made a face at it, and then decided to hold on to the thing until Canute had forgotten about it.

So, that was the sound of a happy puppy barking, to go with the noise of the fire alarm. But at least it came with a crouch, and a butt sticking in the air, and a wagging tail. Play? Play play play? Plaaay?

[kenselvren]

Jalian laughed and threw the sheath. "Go on!"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes THING! Flying thing! Happy throwing thing flying gonna get it gonna chew it gotta yes this was the best ever bark bark run run run run run!

Elsa, if anybody needed her, was going to be busy trying not to laugh too hard at the enthusiastic pup as he bobbled and bounded and tripped over his own paws on the way to retrieving his new favourite toy ever. At least he'd already learned the essentials of fetch, and was proudly prancing back to Jalian with the chewy leather thing in his mouth, rather than settling in to gnaw on it for a while where he'd picked it up?

[kenselvren]

Oh, Jalian had written it off as "gnawed to death" before she threw it. She could make another.

Which was probably good, since he seemed less inclined to actually give it to her once he brought it back.

"I can't throw it if you don't let go!" she told him, laughing herself.

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Elsa was pretty much doomed, if she wanted to stop laughing. She was setting the rock down, finally, and holding her sides as she made her way over to... figure out if there was some way she could possibly assist. The prognosis in that regard was looking dim.

"Come on, boy, just let it go," she coaxed, trying to make a reach for his muzzle or something. "You can play more if you do."

Canute was having none of it. Tug-of-war was fun too, okay??

[kenselvren]

Jalian was a grown Huntress! Canute was a male! She would not be bested!

...She couldn't stop laughing, either. "Come on, Canute. I can't throw it with you attached!"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Pfff, it wasn't like the puppy understood gender limitations and biases among human beings! He was a good boy, and he was playing!

"I think he's more interested in playing tug," Elsa observed, right about the same time Canute started shaking his head back and forth, trying to get it back from Jalian's grasp.

[kenselvren]

Ah, but shaking meant changing his grip, and that meant there was a weak point, and...

"Ha!" Jalian pulled it free and waved it for about half a second before throwing it again.

"He'll be a good defender for you," she told Elsa. "He has very strong jaws."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

And off he ran, tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth as he went!

"You suppose so? He really wasn't intended to be a guard dog so much as a companion animal, but... as future Queen, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to train him, just in case."

Never let it be said that the future Queen of Arendelle couldn't also be practical.

[kenselvren]

"A good companion will still guard you," Jalian said. She watched the dignified and staid...slobber and floppiness as Canute ran. "Maybe training him would be a good idea."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"I think I might have my work cut out for me," Elsa admitted. "I've never actually trained a dog before. So far, I've managed to get him to sit... when he feels like it?"

Which was better than nothing? Maybe?

[kenselvren]

"I've never worked with training dogs," Jalian admitted. "Someone here must know how, though."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"There has to be somebody," Elsa agreed. "Even if I have to go back and ask about it at the shelter where I got him, or look it up in the library. The library does have an entire section of books about pets, after all."

[kenselvren]

"It does?" Jalian frowned in confusion. "How much can there be to know?"

Jalian had never had a pet.

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Far more than I ever thought there could be," Elsa admitted as Canute trotted back, sheath in his mouth and his tail waggling behind him some more. "There's training, and different breeds have different strengths and mannerisms. Plus there's what you need to know about their health, and there are so many other pets people might keep besides. My family keeps horses, back home. There's an awful lot to know about them, too."

[kenselvren]

"Horses are very important," Jalian said firmly. "Horses and cattle. I don't think those are pets, though. More...workers. Are they companions here, too?" She tried to picture someone with a horse in the dorms. "...You would have to get a bigger room. And bed."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"There are stables on the island for the horses to stay in," Elsa replied, gesturing off toward them with one hand. "I don't think there are any students who have them here at the moment, though. I've seen the stables while walking Canute, but I've never gone in to investigate."

[kenselvren]

"Good. That makes more sense!" Jalian smiled in relief.

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"I know I don't want to be the one to try to get a horse to climb that many flights of stairs just so I can keep one in my room," Elsa noted. "But if Canute keeps growing the way he has been, I suppose he might very well just fill that role all the same."

[kenselvren]

Jalian snickered. "Do they make dog saddles?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"I haven't a clue, but I'm tempted to find out, now," Elsa admitted, ducking her head a little so that her own urge to break into more giggles wouldn't be so apparent. "I can picture that going terribly for me the moment somebody throws a stick, mind."

[kenselvren]

And that did it! Jalian was now laughing too hard at that image and had to sit. Which of course was Canute's cue to bark happily and climb into her lap! Because yay, she was playing!