Discovery in the field (open)

Batman has woken up that morning, and promptly freaked out. He barked and jumped on Phil's bed, happily sniffing his master's face and licking it as the boy slowly came to. Phil was groggy and not very coherent, slowly looking at batman and rubbing his eyes.

"What's up batty?" He said, something Batman had come to understand, as Phil said it every, morning. Batman merely barked and looked out the window.

What was this white stuff? Phil took one look and squealed in delight, throwing off the covers and dashing about getting dressed. He was babbling so fast Batman couldn't understand, though he did understand "Come! When Phil left.

The two went outside and Batman's first through were wow this is cold, followed by Ohwowohwow this is heaven.[/i] as he rolled about in the white stuff happily. Phil giggled again and took off running.

They were running and playing for awhile, slowly moving to the field. Then Batman smelled something. Someone!
Someone other than his family! Ignoring Phil's surprised shout, Batman hurried in the direction and soon saw a little bundle in the snow. Brown and tan with a collar around her neck.

Quite friendly, Batman walked right up to her and chimed, "Hi!!![/i]

Batman hardly paid attention to how unsure the pup was, he was too excited. She was a new playmate, and she seemed nice enough, "Hey Bird! My name's Batman! Like the comics, you know? Of course you know, Everyone knows Batman! He's really cool! Phil's over there, he's training me to be a SUPERHERO!" Batman jumped excitedly.

"Do you want to train with us? I need more superheros! Maybe you could be... could be... Well we'll figure that out later. But Phil is a super good teacher and he knows EVERYTHING! He taught me to do this!" Batman proceeded to stand on his front two legs and walk around for a moment before gracefully landing again.

"I'm sure you would do really good! Better then Hamish, but he's not very good at anything other than being all smart and stuff, and who want's to be smart? You're really pretty though, so you have to be good at stuff." Batman didn't really get this correlation at all, but he knew that his cousins really liked it when boys complimented them. Of course, they weren't good at much, but they could do SOME agility tricks. More then Hamish.

Okay, Batman was a bit thick-headed, however he was used to his brother's quietness, so he was sort-of realizing that Tria was a bit like that. However, he'd never really had to explain these things to others, so he didn't really get that she didn't understand a word he was saying. In a valiant effort, Batman did stop jumping around, taking instead to sitting down with his tail wagging against the snow quite quickly while he looked at Tria with excitement in his eyes.

What he did understand was her denial of being pretty. He snorted in disbelief, she was actually quite pleasing to the eye, well as pleasing as a 2 moon old could be to a 10 moon old. "C'mon Bird, don't insult my eyes. You're quite pretty, like Grandpa says; Beauty cannot be denied!" The phrase sounded impressive, and Batman thought it applied. So, as he was always trying to impress, Batman was quick to use it. "Do you wanna come play?

At this point, Phil had realized he could follow his dog's paw prints in the snow, and he wasn't too far off. Batman didn't even notice as Phil slowly made his way over, eyes wide as he took in the other puppy.

"Great!" Batman replied happily, he's front two paws jumping up in response as his excitement took over. New play mate! Phil would be so happy.

Speaking of Phil, Batman looked at the she-dog with confusion as she suddenly hit the ground, and he turned around quickly to see what she was scared of, only to see Phil. He looked at her with confusion. "It's just Phil!" He said in a confused tone, watching as his boy came closer and leaned down to pick up the other puppy. Phil was curious, where had she come from? He recognized the breed and didn't know what one would be doing just out in the open by itself.

Phil was definitely perplexed as he looked at the puppy's collar, wondering if it belonged to one of the numbers. Batman barked up at his boy, trying to decipher what the human was saying, and he caught a few familiar words, "Name.... Mama.... House....Come, Batman!" Phil started running home, the puppy in his arms. Batman ran alongside him, speaking loudly up to the she-dog that even he could tell was terrified.

"Hey, that's my boy. Phil's really nice, he won't hurt you, Bird! He's gonna take you to our house and show you to Mama. Well, not my Mama; his mama. The female humans, and she's really nice too. Why is your collar blank? What's your name anyway, Bird?" Maybe he should be a but kinder, however he really didn't know how else to approach this situation, taking to blabbing on in hopes to help the terrified pup some how.

"Tria!" He sang happily, "That's a pretty name! I'm Batman!" Sure he'd already said as much, but why not again? He wasn't thinking of such things anyway. As the hurried along however, Phil was nearing the house.

Phil started shouting out, and Batman tried to understand, "Mama! ... puppy... found... fields.... please...." Batman didn't really know what it was all about, but he recognized the tone that Phil usually used when trying to get his mother to let him and Batman go outside to play; normally he succeeded after annoying his mother for a period of time. Batman quite liked the strategy, but when he'd tried it with his mother, well he just got cuffed over the ear. Lucky Phil.

Looking up at the girl in Phil's arms again, Batman tilted his head. When could the play?

The harvest was done and the snow had begun to fall the night before, her and Bubba had noticed it when they followed the farmer to the barn to check that the doors were shut, just like he always did. Winter meant there was little work for the farmdogs, especially compared to the busy harvest they'd just endured. They still had to keep the animals safe and the farmers would feed them, but there was very little being planted in the garden and the fields didn't need to be plowed or watered or anything.

Jenna had slept in that morning. She'd played a bit in the falling snow the night before, an smirked as she watched each of her brothers go running out the house with their humans to investigate the new weather. Not her. She was warm and comfy right here in her bed and she lifted her head as she heard Batman marking away outside. They were back already? She tilted her head as Phil slammed the front door open and came running inside. The sight of an unfamiliar pup in his arms stirred the she-dog from her comfy pillow by the fire and she padded into the kitchen, her nails clicking on he tiled floor.

"Now Phil, she must belong to someone in the Village," Melanie, the farmer's wife, said. Phil let out a loud whine and Jenna rolled her eyes. She didn't recognize the little pup, but she only look a few months old, so it was possible that she may be new around the Village.

"But moooooom! She was out in the snow in the fields all by herself!" Jenna tuned out the rest of the humans' conversation to focus her attention on the little pup. "Hey there. What's your name?"

Tria wasn't even trying to understand the humans. She was just too confused and unsure despite the words of Batman. Her ears perked to the sound of a new voice. It was a fellow canine but it was older than Batman. Her gaze went down to Jenna and she fell silent.

With her ears pinning against her head, Tria lowered her head a bit. As if seeking shelter in the arm of Phil without realizing it. Batman quickly answered the adult dog's question so Tria didn't see a point in speaking. Floppy ears twitched to the sounds of the humans talking, attempting to decipher them.

Batman wagged his tail happily as Jenna translate that Phil was trying to convince his mom. Leave it to Phil to work it out! Trying to be helpful, he barked his approval, but Phil ignored him. The boy was focused on the puppy in his arms. After a moment, Batman once again barked in happiness, jumping up on his feet to stand against his boy's leg, looking up at Tria.

"Bird! You get to stay, you get to stay!" Then running over to circle his older sister, he looked up at the mother worriedly. "What would the name her? She's Bird, not some other name!"

Jenna rolled her eyes. Despite that he was a whole year old, Batman hadn't seem to have grown much, except in size. "You can't nae her, Batman. You know they can't understand us, none of the human can speak the Common Tongue. And besides, Phil gave you your name, and they'll give her a name too. And why would they name her Bird?" She shook her head and looked up at the pup, who was startled by Phil. She didn't nip though, so Jenna wasn't too worried.

"Hey there, ignore Batman. The humans will give you a name and if you don't like it, we'll call you something else, but make sure to listen to them when they call or they get all irritated and stuff," she said, tilting her head slightly, ears still perked. She moved away from fill and pawed noisily at the empty water bowl, drawing the Mother's attention to it. She smiled and cooed at Jenna with affection before leaning down and taking the bowl to the sink.

"Now Phil," Mother said as she filled the bowl, "Put the poor thing down and leave her be while you run into town and ask around to see if anyone's missing a spaniel." Mother placed the bowl back on the ground and Jenna leaned over and took a few large laps from it.

Tria had no idea what to do. Everything was strange and confusing. The human pup still held her, which was okay since he didn't squish her yet. Floppy ears twitched to the voice of the female dog and she looked back down at her. They'd name her too? And if she didn't come to them when that name was called they'd get unhappy? So many names, how was she to keep them all straight? Well maybe with time she would hopefully, after all she would most likely end up staying her right?

She didn't see the value of naming but it was something that was always done. So she'd go with it.