He continued his charade, entirely oblivious to how the calls might sound to someone other than himself. The barks and short howls left his muzzle, bounced around the rock and came back at him like a boomerang, possibly the oddest way of talking to himself he could have found but he couldn’t help the huge lopsided grin that had settled on his face. He almost misses the arrival of the girl, might not even have noticed her if her words hadn’t floated down to him in a brief pause of his antics. For a moment he just stood there, staring at the rock wall and wondering if he hadn’t lost it just a bit and the rocks now truly were talking back to him. Only her following giggle causes his two toned gaze to shift upward and find her perched on the ledge above.

“Out?” he questions in response, “but I’ve only just gotten down here.” His words are followed by barking laughter that he simply cannot control. He flashes her a smile and dances around a bit just to show her exactly how alright he was, but it was obvious she was not going to join him, probably a good idea in all honesty, so for a moment he does scan the steep walls of his current playground. His brows knit while he chews on his lip considering the best possible exit. Out was definitely going to be harder than in had been.

Finally he makes his decision, glancing for a moment up at his very concerned companion, “Have not fear, I’ve been in much worse predicaments before!” His words were laced heavily with a false bravado as he had never quite found himself in such a situation before but he was as stubborn as he was playful most days. He backed up, gathering his long legs beneath him before loping forward and jumping toward a large rock at the base of the ravine then on to a small ledge that protruded. One more jump and he was close enough to the surface and he could almost see eye to eye with the golden girl who watched him so carefully. He readied himself for the final leap, thankful today for his lanky legs that most days caused him too much trouble; yet as he pushed off the rock below him slipped. His slender front paws still managed to make contact with the ground above, back feet scrabbling on the rock and gravel as he slowly hauled himself up and over.

He rolled on to his back, legs splayed above him pointed toward the sky as he let out a huge guffaw. “WHEW!” he exclaimed with breathy laughter still tinging his words. Some might vilify him for such a lackadaisical view of life, but he couldn’t bear to take anything too seriously at the end of it all. Rolling to his stomach his blue and gold eyes flashed toward the girl to see if she was still on her ledge, a laughter sparking within them mirrored by the lopsided grin on his face and his pink tongue lolling out from it all. “How was that?”