[C] That Wet Dog Smell

This woman confused him a little.

She was so hostile towards him yet when she had a puppy near her seemed perfectly amiable.

It was intriguing to see.

The man sat down a small distance ffrom the two of the, content to just watch the two of them.

She lets her eyes flutter shut a moment as she relaxes with the puppy, letting her fingers trace along its fur. Her eyes peek open from time to time to look over at the man, but she's slowly dozing off, into a dream world where she's in her hellhound form, chasing around little animals with her new puppy friend.

Her feet twitch in her light sleep and she keeps her hand on the puppy, feeling totally at peace.

Alyosha's lips curled up a little more and the woman dozed off.

What a strange creature she was.

She acted like a dog. Like... Like Tuzik. Was she like Tuzik? A Hell Hound? It was a possibility, he guessed. Tuzik couldn't be the only one in existence.

He ran a hand through his hair once more as he continued to watch the two napping canines.

In her sleepy daze she stretches out and yawns loudly before laying back against the grass and curling up into a ball with the puppy in her arms. Her hair is starting to fall out of its braids and she has little scrapes on her back from her struggle.

She probably won't stir until someone wakes her.

Tuzik had long since scampered off into the woods, eager to run and chase after rabbits when Alyosha had decided he wanted to lay around and read, Tuz had done enough reading for today.

The Hound bounded back towards his Master, a rabbit caught in his mouth, the small grey ball of fur had long since given up thrashing about as he held it, unharmed, by the scruff of the neck.

He stopped in his tracks as he caught the scent of another, same as him, a hell hound.

A growl rumbled in his chest and he padded quietly towards his Master, eying the sleeping woman suspiciously, what was she doing here? Why was she curled up next to his Master?

Tuzik dropped the rabbit and let out a loud bark, wanting to wake them.

Pandora's eyes flickered open at the bark and almost imminently the scent of hellhound fills her nostrils. She had smelled this scent before, on the other man, but it was faint, like a scent that had rubbed off.

Quickly the hellhound sat up and rolled up onto her hands and knees, baring her teeth and growling as well. She locked her lime green eyes on those of the intruder.

So another is trying to be alpha huh? Trying to take her new territory... Even if he had been there before her, but that was beside the point. She barks at the other beast and crouches down a little lower, ready to attack if he strikes first.

Alyosha glanced up when he heard the growl.

He was really attracting growling creatures today. Not something he enjoyed attracting. Couldn't he have a quiet afternoon for once?

He caught the rabbit when Tuzik dropped it, stroking the poor startled thing gently in hopes that it'd calm down. He'd release it when all this mess was other with. As cute as little balls of fluff were, he didn't want to have to deal with this one running around his room along with Ostanki and Tuzik.

The Rus patted Tuzik's thigh warningly, hard enough for the Hound to feel it bot not hard enough for it to be considered a slap.

"Sit down. Quiet."

Everyone would get along. Or at least not growl at each other.

He glanced at his Master as he was scolded, didn't he realize what this bitch hound was trying to do?

The most important thing was that he listened to the man, he was meant to serve and protect him.

Tuzik grudgingly sat down as his growls silenced, sitting and glaring at the other hound, this was him home and his Master, she couldn't just come along and claim it all as her own.

He huffed in annoyance and lay down on his stomach, looking away from both of them as his head rested on his folded arms.

Her eyes narrow as the other hellhound complies to the orders of the man before her. The gears in her mind began to slowly turn as she put together that these two were master and pet. The corners of her mouth turn up into a sickly satisfied smile as the male hellhound complies to the order given to him, she almost looks as if she'll snicker.

Her nose turns up triumphantly into the air and she sits up, her posture like that of a dog. With a sort of neediness for a companion she pulls the little undead dog into her lap once more and holds it close to her, not taking her smug eyes off Tuzik.

Alyosha pursed his lips a little as his eyes flickered between the two of them.

He reached over to Tuzik again, stroking his back gently. "Good boy." Tuzik had done well with following his Master's orders. Alyosha was happy that Tuzik trusted him enough to follow his orders over doing what his instincts told him to.

The Rus turned his attention back to the poor startled rabbit, stroking it gently and crooning to it in Russian as he tried to calm it down, ignoring the slight pain as its teeth sank into his hand and blood spilled onto his jeans.

He'd have to talk Tuzik through hunting only when it was necessary and killing his prey before he bought it to Lyo.

Tayce continued the search for her Hellhound. She had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach from the confrontation she'd just gotten into with that blonde elf girl. Even though in the end Tayce had shown her she was too strong to let the girl make her cry, she hated the feeling that remained.

She was angry and bitter and wanted to throw something just to get her frustration out. Or read. Or something. But just walking around like this was only causing her to fester in the negativity. It wasn't just Kells. It was everyone that Tayce had ever known. Memories from the group home kept gnawing at her and she hated it.

Suddenly though the shade of a neon greenish-yellow caught the young woman's eye. She looked over and saw it was Pandora, sitting in the back garden with some sort of dead thing on her lap.

"oh bordel de merde." She grumbled, making her way towards her friend. She hoped whatever it was Pandora hadn't dug up from a grave. But the closer she got, she realized that this little corpse was still moving.

With an interested flicker in her eyes Tayce picked up her pace. It was then that she noticed the Russian man from before, Alyosha, and a man laying down next to him in a position that looked like how a dog would lay.

She remembered how Alyosha had said that he had a hellhound, and slowly Tayce started to put together that the red head was the hellhound. Especially from the smug look that Pandora was giving him. Tayce frowned as she approached the scene.

"Ees evareysing okay? She hasn't been bad has she?" She asked, a worried look to her face. In a way Tayce looked like a mother concerned that her child had misbehaved. She know how territorial and spunky her Pandora could be.

Though he was still upset about being forced into submission by his Master he crawled over to him, curling up against the man's side with a huff.

He was a large Alpha hound, much bigger than she was, he wasn't used to having to lay down in front of his own kind like this, he just hoped she wouldn't be around much.

Despite his annoyance Tuzik leaned into his Master's strokes, nuzzling up against the side of the man's thigh affectionately, his bright red eyes flicking up to the woman as she approached through he remained silent.

The moment the voice of the approaching woman sounds in Pandora's ears the hounds eyes light up and she jumps to her feet, the little undead dog in her lap plopping on the ground. She dashes over to Tayce, tripping and falling, but getting back up quickly to nearly tackle the woman to the ground.

"Oui! Oui Tacye oui oui!" she chirps, speaking some of the very limited words she knows. She nuzzles the woman's cheeks with her own and ruffles her blue hair with her fingers, so happy to see her master again even though she hadn't been gone that long. She licks the tip of her master's nose and starts walking back over to the two men and the little dog, looking back at Tayce every chance she gets to make sure she is still following her.

Alyosha's eyes flickered up as the shadow of the woman reached his gaze before the woman herself.

Tayce.

Lyo gave the woman a crooked smile.

"No. Is fine." They'd had a little tousle at first with her constantly trying to sit on his head but everything had calmed down and they were all... friends. No need to complain about bygones.

The Russian man smiled down at Tuzik when he cuddled up against his thigh.

The little dog whined when he was dropped from Pan's lap and crawled to his master, curling against his other thigh with a soft whimper.

Tayce had grown accustomed to Pandora's excitable greetings. She braced herself for the tackle and managed to not stumble over when Pan pounced her. She couldn't help but smile wide and hug the girl back as the hound chirped the few words she knew.

A wave of relief flooded over the young French woman when Alyosha assured her that her hellhound had been behaving herself.

"Bonne fille. Oui, bonne fille." She coo'd to Pandora affectionately, petting her brightly colored hair.

As soon as Pandora went back to her spot Tayce followed, offering Lyo a half smile before quickly setting her sights on the bright haired man snuggled up against his thigh.

Her face light up with instant adoration.

"Is zis your hellhound?" She asked, kneeling down to by Tuzik to get a closer look. She was nearly positive she was right. Human's wouldn't snuggle like that, or have that innocent and loyal look in their eyes.

She immediately fell in love with the male hound. He was adorable, an absolute sweetie. She could tell just from the way he looked at Alyosha.

And seeing an animal care so much about Lyo made Tayce soften her own heart towards him slightly. He must have been good to the hellhound for it to love him like that. She hoped at least.

An animals love was often unconditional.

Tuzik looked up at the woman as she neared him, he wasn't wary of her at all, he could sense well enough that she meant no harm, plus the female hound obviously belonged to her.

"Tuzik."

The man replied, in a low growling tone, not that he was actually growling, his voice was just low and rough.

The hound rubbed the size of his head up against his Master's leg, the markings which covered his body were similar to the tattoo Lyo had gotten.

His marking however signified that he was an Alpha hound, not something to be taken lightly, though it was clear he was not vicious, not useless Lyo told him to attack.

Pandora's large green eyes fill with a sort of defensiveness as her master expressed such fondness to the other hell hound. Her gaze darts back and forth between the two until she deducts she must act on this horrifying predicament; her master cannot love another hellhoud as long as she is around!

The female hellhoud rolls onto her feet and pads over to Tuzik, taking a seat on his upper back so her face is right in Tayce's. She holds Tayce's cheeks in her hands and looks into her master's eyes to make sure all of her master's attention and affection is on her.

Pandora lets out a soft whine and wiggles her rear over Tuzki's back to make sure the male knows he's under her, feeling a sense of pride that she's overtop an alpha, a feeling she was never really able to attain in hell.

Alyosha's lips quirked up slightly as he watched the green haired Hound jump onto Tuzik.

The poor Hound was having the same trouble as Lyo had had when he had first met the ...charming young Hound.

"Da," he replied to Tayce with a little nod.

"Tuzik is good Hound."

His hand dropped onto said creature's mop of red hair and ruffled it affectionately.

Tuzik was a good boy and he was proud of that fact.

Tayce's smile grew when Tuzik said his name. If she were to imagine what a male hounds voice were to sound like, Tuzik's fit that to a T.

She gently reached her hand out so that Tuzik could smell her palm first. She knew that to be a sign of friendship when greeting animals. As much as she wanted to jump right into petting him, she didn't know if he was the type to let strangers show him affection like that. She didn't want to startle him.

Her eyes widened when Pandora helped herself over the top of such a big man-hound. The hands were only on her cheeks for a brief moment before Tayce took Pan's wrists.

"Pas de Pandora. Ne pas s'asseoir sur Tuzik" She scolded, guiding Pandora off of the red-head with a firm expression on her face.

Once she had Pandora off of Tuzik she turned to look at Alyosha and the hell hound.

"Sorry, she ees... obsessive...." She apologized, giving the two of them an apologetic grin.

Tuzik was only a moment away from biting the female hound on the backside as Lyo praised him and stroked his hair.

He couldn't attack her after he had said how good he was...his Master would look like a liar if he did.

The Hound huffed softly and lay still, allowing the new woman to pull the bitch off of him.

Tuzik grumbled under his breath and crawled into his Master's lap, leaning up to lick under the man's chin softly, nuzzling their cheeks together before setting down.

Pandora let out a low grow of disapproval as Tayce dragged her off the male hound, her feeling of dominance drained from her, but she would not oppose her master. She stays close to Tayce, huddling near her feet, the threat of newcomers making her feel overprotective of the woman who owns her.

The female hellhoud's eyes dart between Tayce and Alyosha as they speak to one another. Whenever Tayce gets closer to Tuzik or she looks at the redhead for too long a small, low whine rumbles from Pandora's chest. She doesn't like this, this extensive interaction with another hellhond and his master. It's a threat to her comfort and normalcy, but there isn't much she can do.

Her eyes dart to lock onto Tuzik's, giving him a warning gaze in Tayce's defense.

"Is fine."

The woman didn't need to apologise for her Hounds behaviour. He didn't mind and as long as he didn't mind then Tuzik wouldn't be doing or saying anything.

Alyosha turned a small smirk (easily mistaken as a smile) down to Tuzik when the Hound huffed and laid still. That was what he had been aiming for.

The Necromancer smiled (a true smile now) at the Hound as he scrambled into his lap and licked at his chin. "Good boy."

His fingers stroked through the Hound's red hair, nuzzling against him in return.

As much as Tayce kept wanting to get acquainted with Tuzik, it was clear to her that Pandora was not happy about it one bit.

So to keep her friend happy she kept a bit of distance between Alyosha and his hound.

Comfortingly she reached her hand down to run it through Pan's hair, giving her little pats and pets to let her know that everything was okay.

She resolved that she would have to get to know Tuzik some other time. His markings fascinated her and she really did want to learn more about him.

"Merci...er....'sank you...for watching her...." The girl said shyly, not making eye contact with Alyosha.

Tuzik cuddled up to his Master lovingly, at least the bitch hound couldn't take him away, Lyo would always be his Master.

Leaning into the fingers stroking through his hair he gave a pleased whine, his back leg almost thumping against the ground in his enjoyment of the affection.

The Hound rolled onto his back in the man's lap, pawing at the zipper of his black hoody, having taken to wearing nothing more than jeans and a hooded jumper, at least while wearing them he didn't fuss about trying to tear them off, unlike when he was forced into a t-shirt, instead enjoying the fuzzy material of the jacket against his torso, now however he wanted it unzipped so his Master could rub at his tummy.

"Off?"

He asked with a little whine as he looked up at the man with bright eyes through a mop of red hair.

Pandora herself climbs into Tayce's lap so she's facing the woman and she wraps her arms around her torso to embrace her, clinging on like a child to her mother.

The sight itself is rather humorous for Pandora is so much larger than Tayce, but Pandora doesn't even notice. She functions like a larger dog who pictures itself as a lap dog.

The female hellhound nuzzles her face against Tayce's neck, submitting herself to the woman, her master, and hopes she's getting the point across to the rival hellhound.