Jukka | Male | 3 1/2 years | Team Dog
Mentions: Everyone

Warm brown eyes opened underneath a couple of inches as the dog they belonged to tried to figure out what had woken him up. He could hear nothing but silence. Silence! The wind was no longer howling! Jukka lifted his nose from where it had been hiding under his tail and poked it out of the snow. His ears perked up as he observed the world around him.

The trees were frosted in snow from the blizzard that had grounded the team and, aside from the occasional wumpf, which was sometimes preceded by a sharp crack, of branches breaking or dumping their snow, there was only muffled silence. The kind that only came after heavy snowfall. Jukka was in the middle of a row of mounds of snow. Most were small, like his mound had been, and two were larger. One was the sled, overturned on it's side from the heavy winds, and the other was the musher's tent, completely covered in snow.

Jukka stood up and stretched with a big yawn before shaking himself off to rid his coat of snow. Snow wasn't the only thing that came off however. It had also sent loose fur flying. The young dog paused to stare at the fur floating to the ground. "Shedding? In winter? Odd..." he thought to himself. He was too young and inexperienced to know that was one of the early symptoms of malnutrition. His body was eating away at what it considered non-vital things in an attempt to gain enough energy to keep his organs functioning. He had never gone more then a couple days without before and even that had been rare.

His shaking had also caused the chain attached to his leather collar to clink and clang. It was a couple feet long and attached to a longer chain that was anchored to the packed snow under the snow that had accumulated during the blizzard. Each dog had the same set up as Jukka and it kept them from wandering off. The dog sat down again and looked to Musher's tent. He had been oblivious when they stopped and had not noticed how weak Musher had been when they stopped and didn't seem to think anything of the fact there was no sign the Musher had come out of his tent during the entire week. Jukka started barking, high pitched and demanding. He wanted food and he wanted it now.

(OOC: kind of bleck. I had a better post written up but I lost it because I got signed out of Lioden D: )

Tyrian | Male | Six years old | Lead dog
Mentions: Everyone
Hunger. That was the main thing that the dog was aware of as he slowly gained consciousness, blinking against the snow-filtered light intruding his make-shift den. As he became more and more aware of his surroundings the incessant sound of demanding barking reached his ears, it's tone sharp and bordering on desperate. Obviously one of the others had awoken before he did, and with a low groan he stood up and shook the accumulated snow off of his fur.

Sunlight glittered off of the piled snow, showing that no more was currently falling. In fact, the sky was devoid of clouds, its blue expanse stretching endlessly in all directions around them. Tyrian gave a single nod as he realized there was no guarantee the weather would remain like this, and if the team stayed here they would starve. Shaking himself one more time, the lead dog turned his attention to the younger male who was barking incessantly at the musher's tent. "Well now every hungry predator in a ten mile radius knows where we are." Huffing softly at the situation he began to walk towards Jukka, stopping only when he hit the end of his chain. He'd forgotten that Musher had chained them down, and so he turned his attention to this 'new' problem.

After thinking for a few moments the elkhound began digging at the base of the chain, where the anchor was. However it soon became clear that he was not going to be able to remove the anchor from it's icy spot, and so he sat back to think some more. A few moments later, he backed up until he hit the end of his chain and began to pull, lowering his head and laying his ears back. Knowing his tendency to slip collars Musher had tightened Tyrian's a little more than usual. However he hadn't tightened it enough! With a pop, the collar flew over the dog's ears and off the end of his nose and just like that he was free!

Flicking an ear at the discarded collar, he spun towards Jukka and gave a sharp bark of his own once he was closer. "Jukka, have you lost your mind?! Are you trying to get us all killed?"

Moza | Female | 6 Years 4Mnths | Wheel Dog
Mentions: Master, Tyrian, Jukka
Moza lifted her head from her large mahogany dusted paws glaring with irritation at the tent's front opening. Dark platinum eyes were still slightly foggy from sleep, as the time she spent resting within the tent seemed to stretch longer and longer, even as Master's breathe began to become shorter and shorter with every passing hour. She had been by the man's side for almost a week now, having successfully escape the weak confines of the hand-me down collar he had given her when he bought her about a month or two ago. In all that time the female had not eaten, and the formerly abused canine was not surprised when her footing was less than full strength. Large cranium would turn deciding to ignore the shouts, and howls coming from outside the snow enveloped tent in favor on checking on the human. What Moza found was a shell, causing a low whine echo within the large female's chest cavity. How long had it been since she had fallen asleep? To long, as there was not even a trace of life lingering in the man's scent.

A small nudge would be administered to the Master's hand...with no luck, it looked as if Moza and her fellow team mates were on their own from now on. A comforting lick, would be placed over the old man's face, before the Green Land dog would exit the tent causing a sudden fall of the snow that had covered the den. The female did not particularly like the prospect of bringing information to the noisy fellows so she instead chose to head toward the unmoving mounds of snow that held sleeping team mates making sure to dig the acquaintances out of their makeshift dens and awaken them fully...sleep itself was now a predator to fear.

Nukka | Male | Four Years Six Months | Swing Dog
Mentions: Jukka, Tyrian, Lucifer, Aatu, Dixie, Moza

A high muffled barking pierced through the thick layer of snow that had settled over the mutt who had already dug himself under. He had knowingly made the den shallow due to the sure amount of snow that would bury it. Despite his preparation Nukka still found it difficult to wiggle in enough room to even think about digging out. Upon nearing the surface where the packed snow had shifted into a feathery sort of powder he launched himself out at full force, or as full as he could after lying curled up under the snow, but was promptly stopped in midair as the leather collar tightened around his neck and dragged the confused mutt back down to earth. He hit the ground with a whumph and spent the next few moments on his side attempting to regain his breath while listening to the going on's of his teammates as they arose from the snow.

The harsh bark of Lucifer made him raise his head, an amused expression touching his features as Tyrian couldn't possibly be appreciative of yet another dog making a racket. Speaking of which it seemed as though Aatu had taken Jukka's place in whining which was certainly not going to turn out well for him. Turning his attention once again to his collar he noticed that the metal half loop that the chain attached to had been partially ripped out by having been yanked on so hard. Tucking his head in Nukka attempted to gnaw around it, but to little avail. The leather was too thick for his teeth, at least in this position. Instead he started jerking his head back and moving away, enlarging the gap until it was hanging by a couple of stretched threads. Grinning he gave one last jerk and felt the weight of the chain drop away, proudly exploring his newfound freedom with the thick leather collar still wrapped around his neck. With a peak at some of the other free dogs he suddenly felt just a tad dumb as they had simply slipped their collars off.

Wandering back to the team he noticed Dixie had her ears pinned back and upon reaching her side he could see a less than happy expression, he was about to inquire as to why this may be when the scent hit him. It wasn't as strong as it would have been if they were somewhere warmer, but the sickening scent of death still managed to creep from the collapsed tent and clung to the pelt of Moza as the large wheel dog made her way out. Turning away he bounded towards Tyrian, a worried expression crossing his normally cheerful face. As he slowed in front of the elkhound, he bowed his head and lowered his tail, "Tyrian, the musher is-" He paused for a moment as he threw a glance back before turning his attention back to the lead dog and lowered his voice, "They're dead."

Tank
Male | 6 years, 6 months | Wheel Dog | Mentions: Jukka, Tyrian, Aatu, Dixie

As the morning arrived, a massive black, grey, and white Alaskan Malamute lay asleep under a mediocre-think layer of snow. Soon enough, Tank awoke and felt something different above him. Perhaps the blizzard stopped and the fierce snow didn't blow hard anymore? At this thought, he stood up quickly - despite the hunger that painfully ached as his stomach growled at him to take care of it. As he did so, the snow that had previously lay above him flew off and probably onto the others that slept, whoever was still sleeping. Blinking his eyes slowly open, pale blue orbs observed his surroundings. The blizzard had stopped, but immediately as he arose, the horrible smell of death reached his nose, just as a annoying noise reached his ears. Who was dead? And who was whining so much? Annoyed with the noise, he searched and very soon saw Jukka, a male team dog younger than him by about half, standing above the snow. He was whining in pain, though it was probably because he was hungry.

But quickly, Tyrian, his lead dog, soon rushed over and scorned Jukka for making noise that would probably attract predators and get the team killed. But Tank soon lost interest in the stupid whinings of the others and turned his attention to the confining collar and chain. Seeing a few others' chains on the ground - as well as Lucifer taking off hers - he was determined to relieve himself of it. His collar was rather tight, but was leather and his neck had pretty strong muscles. So, he bent his head down and gnawed on the color for a moments before pushing and 'flexing' his neck. And soon, the leather collar popped off, landing in the snow beside him.

Feeling free, he shook his head to fix the fur pushed down by the tight color and turned towards Aatu. "Aatu. Tyrian has made it quite clear not to cause noise. Do you want predators to come?" he said to the whining team dog. "I know your hungry, but we all are." he said, his usual deep and intimidating voice stretching to the male team dog that stood in the snow. He then looked at Dixie and saw her upset face. Cocking his head, he trotted over to her, "Dixie? What's wrong?" he said, tail lashing behind him as he looked into the smaller, red female husky. He was actually really confused about why she was upset - figuring it wasn't because of the hunger or the cold - before the terrible stench of death hit his nose once again. Oh... The stench had a little bit of their master's scent hanging on it. Could it be? Maybe the smell of death came from their master. Was their master dead?

OOC: Sorry for the late start, I was gone :)

Dixie | 5 years | Team Dog | Mentions:

After watching over dogs wiggled their ways out of their collars, Dixie turned to hers and started romping and leaping, tugging at her collar occasionally and tilting her head this way and that way. She spun around again to untangle the chain from her body and pulled again, leaning her head down and shaking it quick and fast. She felt the collar around her neck start to loosen and she started to work harder. She'd get it off eventually if she focused. Dixie felt the collar fly off her neck as she fell backwards as a result of tugging.

The red husky wagged her tail and playfully growled at the item that'd been holding her down to keep her in place, she grabbed it and tossed it in the air as she looked around at her team-mates. A dark brown and caramel dog caught her eye and she noticed Nukka looking at her. "Hello!" She greeted him. After the male confirmed their musher was dead, the joy left Dixie's blue eyes and she let her tail fall. Her dark-furred teammate Tank's voice caught her attention and she looked at the male, "Our musher is dead... I can smell it." She whispered as she pinned her ears back again. "Eh?" Dixie's head whipped over to Aatu, a light-colored male, as he attempted to free himself from the chain holding him down, she chuckled and padded over to him. "Want me to help?"

Jukka | Male | 3 1/2 years | Team Dog

Jukka looked to Tyrian as he woke up and wagged his tail at him but flicked his ears back and licked his nose as the older dog scolded him. "There are enough of us to scare away predators..." he said but lost the surety in his voice as he heard Tank saying the same to Aatu, one of his neighbors on the chain. He then looked to Nukka as he approached, frowning at him. "What? Humans can't die! They barely even age!" He said indignantly. In all his three and a half years, he'd never seen a human visibly age. Sure, he occasionally had seen human-pups but considering he had never seen the same kid often enough to even recognize them, he had no idea their rate of aging. To him, people were immortal.

The male decided he might as well slip his collar since everyone else was and backed up until the chain was tight. He pulled harder and tried to slip the collar but it was too tight. A weak link in the chain was the first to give with a loud clank and Jukka fell back on his haunches. He huffed and shook himself off again before running to Musher's tent. He stuck his head inside cautiously should Musher wake up and he get scolded, snorting as the smell of death whacked him in the face. He tucked his tail between his legs, pinned his ears back and backed up so quickly out of the tent he tripped over his own paws. Jukka looked to the other dogs and was breathing heavily. He was having a panic attack. It felt like his world had just collapsed. His faith in humans had been unquestioning. They were almost god level to the dog and he had believed they could solve every problem. He didn't know how they would survive without a human.

(OOC: I was waiting for the last two people to post but ok... Please do not put images in your headers. They slow down computers and get redundant. If someone wants to see what your character looks like, they can go to the character sheets thread.)

Moza | Female | 6 Years 4Mnths | Wheel Dog
Mentions: Everyone
Moza would be stretched out near the fallen sled, determined to conserve as much energy as possible instead of wasting her time squabbling. Let the other mutts panic, her time would be spent listening to what ideas they might possibly come up with...only if she disapproved would her voice be spent. So far it looked as if nothing constructive had yet to happen, so the female would close her eye listening to every sound made, wondering if the dog team would try their skill at the hunt or if they would eventually get along to savaging the sled...the human had required food as well after all...it must be hidden somewhere.

That might be worth doing something, on second thought. The large mahogany and snow stained dog would slowly get to her feet, closing the space between herself and the overturned snow covered sled. Massive paws would start to scoop large quantities of snow into the air seeking the supplies packed within the wooden construction hidden deep within the white blanket.

Tyrian | Male | Six years old | Lead dog
Mentions: Everyone

He could hear the other members of the team slowly waking up and realizing the dire situation they were in, but Jukka's response surprised him. The younger male seemed to truly believe that humans were immortal and could not die! The Elkhound opened his mouth to rid the younger of this foolishness when the male ran into Musher's tent after freeing himself of his chain. However, the lead dog's attention was quickly directed elsewhere as Nukka approached him. "Tyrian, the musher is- They're dead."

The lead dog simply acknowledged this information with a grateful nod of his head as he spotted Jukka leaving the tent from the corner of his eye. The team dog's face was the picture of panic as his breath heaved out in white billows of steam. Flicking an ear, Tyrian quickly glanced around the small area, noting that some of the team had yet to move. What do we do? We'll starve to death if we stay here.

As he tried to think of something to do, he noticed mounds of snow being moved near the overturned sled. Tilting his head, Tyrian simply watched Moza for a few moments before realizing what the other dog was doing and running over to where she was. The human had kept not only food for the team on the sled, but also food for himself. Surely it wasn't all gone yet. Giving her an approving nod, the male threw himself into what he was doing, sending plumes of snow flying. The snow was very heavy however, and he could feel himself tiring thanks to his state of malnutrition. Pausing for a moment, he took a step back and turned towards the others. "Guys, come over here and help us. The food on this sled and Musher are our only options for food, and I'd rather not eat Musher unless we have to."