<div class="floatleft">(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/38/35/a3/3835a3fd158d1b8cfe9a89cef21d0ee2.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Alexei Mikhalev (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=254149.msg12560335#msg12560335)<br/><strong>City | Date | Time:</strong>San Francisco / August 3rd / Mid-Afternoon<br/><strong>Tagging | Mentioning:</strong>Eva Bellamy (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=254149.msg12567233#msg12567233)<br/><strong>Content:</strong>Canine Woes<br/><hr/>The city was in that kind of lull of the day, when most of the people that were working would be at work, and everything else was just so... quiet. Peaceful really. Sure, there were the sounds of the world spinning around them still, but at the beach, the world seemed to fade away in view of the magnificent beach, the sounds of the waves crashing against the sand and the gorgeous view of the bay. It gave a sense of freedom to a man who had little else to his name, and hadn't even had freedom for a portion of his life. Like the rest of the city, the beach was all but deserted at this time, with a few joggers running in the sand, a couple of families making a day of their visit, some street artists plying their trade in the down hours of the day. Soon, the traffic would pick up, as people started to find their ways to the various leisure points nearby, but for the moment, the world was empty but for two beings, and they were having a great time.<br/><br/><div class="floatright">(http://f.tqn.com/y/dogs/1/S/p/-/0/-/mix-Abigail-Kayleigh.jpg)</div>Vallie wasn't the going to be winning any prizes for beauty. Her fur was straddling a light gold and white, thick, but short too. She stood as tall as maybe Alexei's knees, with her hind-quarters a bit lower than her front, making her look like a short, albino German Shepherd. With warm, intelligent brown eyes and one ear standing at attention while the other flopped comically to the side, she looked like she was constantly tilting her head and asking an unspoken question. As of right now, she had enough sand in her fur to warrant a bath later on, and had her fangs wrapped around a tennis ball that she had grown attached to. Usually she would be chewing on the poor discolored thing, growling playfully each time he tried to pry it from her mouth, but for today, she was letting him throw it for her. First dropping it on the sand in front of him, looking from the ball to him, knowing that Alexei would pick it up. When he tossed it, she would take off so fast that she would spray him with sand on her way to catch the ball, and she would happily trot back and drop the ball in front of him again.<br/><br/>In a world where everyone either wanted something from him or wanted him dead or in prison, she was all he had, and he was all she had too. She was his, and he was hers, and that was enough for the both of them.<br/><br/>Each time she took off and came back, he could almost see a grin on her face and he laughed. Reasons for laughing came few and far between in his life, and the fun that he had spending time with Vallie was one of them, and he enjoyed it to the full, and he could almost tell that she was enjoying it with him. Alexei picked the ball up from the sand, trying to brush the grains off of it, a pointless gesture he knew, but he kept trying anyways, with Vallie tilting her head at him, the floppy right ear dangling underneath as she studied him. She never barked, not in all the time that they had been together, a low whine made him chuckle and, once again give up on cleaning the damn thing. He aimed for a spot on the beach that didn't have any inhabitants that Vallie would no doubt trample, tackle and trip in order to get to her ball, and with a flick of his powerful arm, he sent it a good distance away, with the mutt spinning a full 180 and sprinting at full speed in the direction of the ball.<br/><br/>He watched her as she closed on the ball, which hit a rough patch of sand and bounced unpredictably high. She bounced right after it, coming in a bit too low and passing the ball by entirely. Vallie managed a half flip, landing on her back and quickly regaining her feet to go after the elusive sphere once more, this time pouncing accurately and catching it with a snap of her jaw. And she trotted back at him, looking at him like," Did you see that?"<br/><br/>Suddenly, she stopped. In midstep too, her paw raised to take another step that just wasn't coming. The ball dropped from between her teeth as she peered to the left, her right ear perking up as the left dropped down. Alexei looked at her, trying the discern what was causing this interruption of their time together when suddenly, abandoning the ball entirely, she took off sprinting to her left, his right, over to where a pier was overlooking the water.<br/><br/>"Vallie!" Alexei called after her, but she was long gone. Cursing softly in Russian, he jogged over to where she'd dropped her ball and then took off after her.