From All Walks of Life

    Angel bent her head down and tore another chunk of meat off the bone. She moved her forepaws so as to turn the chunk of ham over and get at another angle of fresh meat. Her teeth sinking into the softness of the flesh, and easily pulling a sizable husk off. She looked over at Fuli as the latter spoke about learning to hunt at such a young age. The dog's jaws rolling as she chewed on her meal. Angel couldn't remember when she first learned to scavenge. It was sort of a street dog thing that you either learned to be successful at, or you died. (or found a family.) The ability to eat regularly was one of the driving forces behind joining Buster's junkyard gang in the first place.

    "Well Spots, I can't say that I do. I've never had to hunt live prey," Her tail flicked as she spoke, her ears perking. "Where I'm from, you had to hunt with your eyes and ears, head and tail. Learn to beg, to steal, and to scavenge. If you didn't know how to play the humans just right, or where the best cans to steal from were, you didn't survive."

    She rolled her forepaws to tip the bone upright and took another chomp. The ham was sweat, and juices rolled around her jowls. She chuckled she swallowed. "This is just a chunk of ham, I gave Tiana some wide eyes and she caved. Humans are pretty easy to get what you want from." That is, excepting that what you want is a family. Still, even that she finally found, and she proudly wore that badge around her neck. "Unless you had a family, every day would be a test of survival."

    She smiled, and tilted her head to one side before rolling her forepaws back over, this time to kick the bone of ham over and offer it to the Cheetah. “Wanna try some?”

"You never know," Fuli pointed out. "You're young, you're probably pretty fast... I can see potential hunting skills." She shrugged her shoulders at that moment. Apparently dogs were at least a little similar to jackals, in that they had a face that could charm people. Angel had worked her charms on the chef of their ranks, and Fuli smirked a little at that much. She had to admit she was impressed by that much.

"Sure, why not? I could try a little," she said. As she rose to her paws to actually sample the cooked meat, though, a familiar voice caught her attention. Fuli's ears perked, and before she knew it she was playing witness to Gurri arriving on the scene. Although she did roll her eyes a little at the young doe's eager words and claims that she was fast, she did still smile. How could she not? Gurri was one of Kion's pals despite the distinct species difference. Such was the way with the worlds merging and the war brewing.

"Hey, Gurri," she greeted. "I dunno if you guys've met, but this is Angel. She's pretty cool." She didn't know all that Gurri did about dogs, or at least what Bambi had taught his daughter about them, so her guess was as good as Angel's about what Gurri was getting at.

"I... don't know what that means. Why would humans call a dog a 'pet' if it means something else?"

"I feel.......like you're making fun of me."

She scrunched her nose a bit before letting out another laugh. She didn't care, it wasn't like Angel was being mean. But she did stare a bit at Angel. She didn't look anything like the dogs that her father had described. Bambi had gone on for what seemed like hours to her and her brother about short pelted things with floppy ears and muscular bodies with glowing yellow eyes and sharp teeth. Angel seemed little more than a squirrel.

"Oh it's very pretty," Gurri said politely, "I want one!" But as Angel kept talking about what the license met the young fawn retracted her previous claim in her head. She didn't want to be marked by man. Sure they walked around the camp and they were pretty nice despite being smelly. But she didn't think she could be owned by one. She spared a glance at Fuli, letting Angel talk while she bit some of the grass at her side and started chewing. She raised an eyebrow at her last few words.

"Someone's home where you have to abide by rules? I think they just call that parents," she said with a mouthful of grass wadded in her cheek. Not very princess like at all. "But if you're happy about it then it's a-okay." She swallowed the grass.

"But what if you wanna...I don't know...run around and get muddy?" She snorted a laugh. "I mean my Dad doesn't like it too much when I track mud into the thicket but it's probably worse in a man-house, huh?"

    “Right again Gap Tooth, but don't worry. My bark is far worse then my bite,”


    If there was one benefit to Buster's junkyard gang, it had been the fact that working as a pack, they were capable of eating pretty regularly. Of course, there were others like the Tramp, who indeed learned not just to survive, but to thrive on the streets. Angel had done well on her own, better with Buster's gang...even at the sacrifice of some dignity. The barrage of questions from Gurri caused the dog to hold up a paw to the young fawn, as if saying “slow down,” however Angel was a naturally relaxed pup, and she took all the questions volleyed at her from both of her companions in stride. She lowered her paw, and rolled her head to the side slightly so as to knock her folded ear back from the corner of her vision.
    
    “Oh, there are rules. Like, you can't go on some pieces of furniture like chairs and couches, you have to eat from your bowl and eat in a particular room. You go for a walk on the end of a leash sometimes, and you do have to take a bath...but...well...” Her voice trailed off as she tried to find the right words to explain a concept to two lives who had never had to deal with the battles she once fought, no more then she to deal with theirs. She cocked her mouth and seemed to balance on her own words before finally declaring; “I wasn't stretching when I said it was hard to explain. But, let's just say that there is unconditional love in a 'real' family. So, it's more then rules, or a house, or a fancy tag....and I can still do a lot of things as I please. Like come out here.”

    The way she spoke at the end sounded like there was more to the story, but she left it there, and quickly moved forward. Her tail starting to swish back and forth behind her.

    “So, what brought you guys out here? To this place, that is? I'm sure it wasn't to take in some sight-seeing.”

Fuli was actually pretty grateful for Angel explaining all that she had. She'd had similar questions to what Gurri had asked, too, but decided to let the fawn do the asking when it came to the matters of furniture and the like. As soon as Fuli parted her jaws to start answering Angel's question for the two of them, though, Gurri jumped in and started talking at about a mile a minute again. She blinked a few times and still felt like she'd missed quite a bit of the story, even though she knew the story pretty well. Nevertheless, Fuli didn't comment. She just let a soft snorty laugh escape her and gave a small shake of her head. Were all cloven hooved animals this talkative, or was Gurri just the exception? She felt like she'd never know either way.

"I was born a while before Gurri and the royal cubs," she said to start. "But I'm friends with at least one of them. Kion, actually. Anyway..." She ran a claw through the dirt and let her gaze go down for a beat. Talking about how she'd come to join the war wasn't easy. She'd mentioned it before, back when she was helping Hiccup and Toothless understand the situation, but it still was difficult to think about. Nevertheless, she took in a small breath and continued.

"The war brought me out here. Well... it brought all of us out here. So, duh. But it was the attack on the Pride Lands that really made me come. I... lost my mom in the chaos that day." She paused there, raising a paw to potentially cut off questions. "I know, I know. I just was talking about how cheetahs don't need their families after a certain point. And I don't. But I still liked seeing her around, you know?" Her tail gave a light flick, then a fond little smile tugged upon her creamy lips for a few moments. A soft sigh filled the air again soon after, though.

"I hated knowing that some Cursed Thorns lady had decided to attack our home and destroy everything. The Pride Lands, where I used to live? I can't go back there now because it's all covered in thorns. Huge ones. So... I wanted to do what I could to make sure we eventually can go home. And maybe make someone regret what they did to the Pride Lands in the first place. Once we're done with all this trainee stuff, I mean," she explained. Maybe there was a little vengeance in mind, and maybe Fuli just genuinely wanted to make the world safe. Either way? She couldn't let the Thorns live down what they'd done. Her thoughts turned back to the other Pride Landers after a moment, though. She wasn't the only one who'd lost a home.

"So yeah. Basically why I came out here boils down to wanting to help everyone from the Pride Lands in a way. But what about you, Angel?"

It was taking all Gurri owned to not bop back and forth or roll around. Angel's story was really nice and maybe she would never understand what was going on with Fuli and Angel losing their homes. Gurri leaned down to pluck some grass from the ground, chewing as the girls swapped stories of lost lives, lost homes. She all of a sudden felt uncomfortable. Her ears dropped, feeling guilty. Her life had been very easy. She had friends, parents who loved her, a brother she loved and got along with. She's never really dealt with loss or devastation or even death. She swallowed the grass and shook her head, her ears flapping a bit as they wiggled.

"I'm sorry," she blurted out, "I'm sorry those stories are so sad. Why doesn't Kopa talk about that at all, Fuli?" Large blue eyes turned towards the cheetah before landing on the dog before her. Maybe grandfather was wrong, maybe dogs weren't so bad.

"You've got a place here now," she said, whistling through her gap teeth, "So that's all that matters. And you can be our friends and our family too!" She huffed. "My dad and grampa don't like dogs too much. They say they hunt us. Have you ever chased a deer? I'll bet not."

She smiled brightly. "Okay? So everyone is fine? Because I still want to know WHAT FURNITURE IS!!!!"