rattle the cage

ASHE I'm not a girl.    Kiada called out that she'd found the reindeer, and Ashe barked up at her. Get em! she said at a laugh.  She watched as Kiada suddenly banked down and out of sight. Hey, where'd you go? Her tongue lolled as she loped and sprinted in the general direction she'd gone down, unreliably following the scent of pumpkin and avian. Her paws flew over the street, and she rounded a corner---    Shit! She didn't have time to stop as the heap of reindeer, woman, and cobwebs appeared before her, but she tried. Her paws skid along the ground, and her eyes went wide as her hind end kept going. There was a yelp, a crash, a squeak from a terrified spider, and then all the air was knocked from her lungs as the wolf thudded down on her back.    Ashe blinked blearily, the world coming in and out of focus as she directed her drunken gaze. And everyone was upside down. Woops. She wondered if she should start tallying up how many times she said that today. Soot then appeared on top of Auni's rump, stumbling with a large hiccup.    She shifted. Laying on her back, the raven-haired girl was grinning and giggling like an idiot as Soot tumbled down off of Auni with a frustrated chitter. "Uuuuh," she said as she righted herself to sit, using her arms to steady herself. "I don't remember." She pursed her lips and crossed her legs under her, not quite processing (or caring?) that they were in the middle of the street in the middle of the day. "Uuuh... oh! First time we train together, you get to pick the weapons."    As Soot crawled up her arm and to her shoulder, he gave an animated chitter. "Oooh yeah! And the pider-webs," she giggled as the spider began draping them across her shoulders. Ashe looked up at Kiada. "That bottle still in the bag, or did Soot fuckin drink it all?" I'm a storm with skin.