The pup ran. Azalea chased. Cart vendors and pedestrians were collateral damage.
Azalea was going to catch that dog if it meant it would be her life's work. She enjoyed running, but not just for the sake of it. As people and dogs went, these two had reversed roles. Azalea needed a ball to chase or a friend to play a game with in order to get her going, but once she was, the exercise was exhilarating and she could go for hours. Doing that whole, up early, drink a healthy breakfast shake, and then out jogging five miles as the sun rose was not her thing. The pup in question however would run from dawn til dusk if society would let him. Unfortunately, unadulterated freedom is not something that dogs generally get to enjoy.
Rushing through the crowded streets of Precip, Azalea was too preoccupied to notice how quickly they were coming to the edge of town. Precip was so named for two reasons. One was the heavy levels of rainfall that the mountainside city was prone to throughout the year. It was a benefit in that the town had a luscious environment characterized by deep greens, easy agricultural cultivation, and mild temperatures. It was a problem in that it facilitated the second reason for the town's name, invoking the alternate definition of "headlong fall or rush; a hastening or acceleration, especially one that is sudden or unexpected". For the most part the city rested on the only solid bit of mountain space left, the rest having been washed away over the centuries from its history of steady rain. The trees were cherished within the city, but also grew on all the available crags around the back and sides of the city walls. At the front end of the city, however, the space was open to the air-docks which allowed for Precip's survival in the steam age. The city's air-docks the center of the city's booming engineering business as world-leaders in airship and dirigible technology, were easily the busiest place in town. There was constant innovation and experiments happening along the outer rim and also the general market and loading zone for all the workers and produce returning from the valley below that took over any spare space. This was the Azalea-pup obstacle course that inevitably lead to the greatest adventure of Azalea's life...
