He watched out of the corner of his eyes the streak of color rising to the dirt pile. The boy had picked a good spot, and Triell took to the side of the hill, facing backwards, shoveling the dirt in the same way it had gotten out. It was quiet work, except for the falling grains of dirt. The pile soon losing it's size, the black male stopped. "Indru, erm, your dad taught me that we gotta pat it down..." he said, and he stepped over to the sifted dirt. When he was sure Fen was watching, he started packing it down with it's front paws compacting it. "See?" He said. He hoped the idea was prehensible, but it wasn't because he thought Fenru wouldn't understand it was more, he was not very confident in his own teaching abilities.

He looked back to the young pup waiting for a sign of understanding, and then quickly he started throwing more dirt into the pile. This time when the pile seemed to have switched over the top of the hare, he waited for Fenru to pack it down finishing the job. Once everything seemed alright, he beamed at the young Tainn. "Well done, now what would you like to do?" He asked, feeling it might be a good oppertunity for the boy to explore with some disguised supervision.

When the dirt was quickly replaced by the efficiency of Uncle Triell's backward technique Fenru grinned. He would have to try that sometime. Digging backwards to fill in a hole... Absolute genius. The yearling suggested that they pat the dirt down... 'cause Dad taught him to do that. Oh. He watched attentively as Triell pressed his large paws down into the soil. "See?" Fen nodded, continuing to observe as Triell added more dirt from the surrounding area to the place where they had dug out a hole.

When given the opportunity to follow his Uncle's lead, he slowly pressed his forepaws down the compacted pile, noticing now how small his paw imprints were compared with the older Tainn. He glanced up into a pair of approving eyes and wagged his tail as Triell praised him. Fen thought about what they could do next, but instead brought their conversation back to the cache they had just finished preparing. "But... why d'we gotta pat it down? Is it 'cause o' the birds?" His mind whipped up a vision of a large crow, digging into the space between the tree's roots with its beak. Surely it would take it a long while to unearth the hare, but would compacting the dirt and clay actually keep the feathery (and rather scary) nuisances away?

He figured the boy would want to go somewhere, he stood up slightly ready to wander away from here. Before he got to ahead of himself, there was one of those questions again. If he wasn't about being so a good impression, he would have answered without a thought. He really wanted to teach Fenru the right thing, and his borws softly wrinkled, and he hesitated collecting the words into a sentence.

"Well Fen, if you were really hungry, and you knew this was here you'd try to dig it up. See birds are often rather hungry too, and if they knew what was here it wouldn't take them long to dig. We pat it down because it makes it harder. You see if a bird came down he couldn't just steal the hare right away, we'd spot him before he got there, don't you think?" It made sense, and he again played it back as a question to the boy. "There are more thieves than just birds too," he added.

His nose slightly tickled, and he looked away from Fenru, letting out a loud "Achoo!" He wiped his nose along his forelimb, and then shook his head. "You know Fenru birds aren't all bad. If you see a bunch of them gathered on the ground, that usually means there's something to eat."

"Well, Fen," Triell began and Fenru was instantly captivated. He took a step toward the older Tainn, hanging on his every word. So... Birds also ate hare when they were hungry and if they knew where the pack's caches were, they'd have at it. Packing the soil made the task of digging up the meal much harder. He nodded as he came to understand the idea that was just explained to him. "There are even more thieves than just birds too."

The pup's brows knit together and his ears flattened slightly in worry. Triell sneezed; the loud sound making Fen's ears perk right back up. He watched as the yearling shook his head before assuring him that birds weren't bad. Birds, specifically the ones on the ground, meant food. "Even th-the big, scary ones?" he asked timidly. "The ones that're... that're... that're like..." The pup bowed forward and bellowed at the top of his lungs, "CAW CAWWWW!?!" He then covered his head with paws when he was done; for all he knew, he might've caught some crow's unwanted attention.

He didn't intend to worry him about more thieves, but he felt like he should know just in case he spotted something else trying to take their treasure that wasn't a bird. Though he wasn't going to tell him what exactly, he remembered his own imagination made things worse when thinking about what coyotes were, and the like until he had actually saw them. Then again if Fenru asked maybe he would have to think of something.

He knew he had to not laugh at Fenru, but it was a little hard when he started cawing, Triell thought he was going to loose it. He managed by half grinneing, and coughing to cut out a chuckle that might escape. Then he started having a bit of a coughing fit, and had take a big breath to make it stop. He probably looked pretty stupid, but he had not laughed. "Those are crows, or ravens. They won't hurt you,you know, your a wolf. You just make a big bark, and they'll scatter," he grinned, chuckling slightly while shaking his head because his eyes had watered a bit. "But really Fenru, don't be scared of them. If they were eating a dead deer, they would gladly share it with you because their scared of you."

Uncle Triell started to cough and Fenru peered up from underneath his large paws. He blinked as the older Tainn took a deep breath. He wasn't sure what type of response that was, but either way, maybe Triell was just... processing his nephew's antic. "Those are crows, or ravens," Triell explained and Fen slowly placed his paws on either side of his head before sitting up. Trying to wrap his head around the concept of being a wolf, a top predator in Relic Lore's food chain was still, well, hard.

The idea that the "crovens" would gladly share their meal was even more unthinkable. They would share just because they were scared of him? But whenever he had seen them gather by the den they'd stare and let out such horrendous noises! Especially when someone brought something to eat. Were they scared of him then?

"But, Uncle," he said, somewhat exasperated. "They're... they're big! What if... if they want to eat me?!" Fen let out a whine to genuinely express his worry. At one point, he could have sworn that when one of those gutsy birds landed next to his forelimb to take a morsel of his meal, it could have easily picked him up and flown away. Then he'd never see his family again.

Triell did remember what it was like to be little. He had been scared of somethings just because they were bigger, but his curiousity had often overide his fears, and the small fact he wanted to be brave like Ruiko and Indru. He didn't say anything, listening as the boy explained why they scared him. If there was a bird his size, Triell would be pretty wary of it. Dark brows wrinkled together, his lips in a tight line. "Hmm, Fen that's a good point." He said, looking a the boy wondering how to remedy his fears.

He sat a little taller, and his eyes went to the gold,yellow, and burgundy landscape of fall. Telling Fenru not to be scared wouldn't help. That was as good as telling the sky not to be blue. What could Triell do? He stood up, and wondered maybe if they could find some birds, that would invovle finding something that was dead. He tipped his muzzle back to the boy. "Fenru I promise they won't eat you. They just know they can squawk at ya to steal your dinner." He could see a huge crow doing just that, and knowing the puppy would scamper away. A grin worked it's way up his lips. "See you have to be scarier then them. You think you can do that?" He asked, meeting the orange eyes of his nephew. Taking a few steps he jerked his head,"Come on, lets go pratice" Nose was directed to a shady spot where it appeared to look like a cool spot to pratice barking, because he doubted Fenru was ready for the real thing.

The yearling promised that the scary black birds wouldn't eat him. Fenru merely nodded, half-believing it. "See, you have to be scarier than them. You think you can do that?" Triell asked. The younger Tainn shook his head, but Triell encouraged him to practice. Standing up and looking to the shady spot, he slowly walked over to the tree, eyeing its branches first before standing beside its trunk. There weren't any birds on it that he could see. He gazed back to his Uncle quietly, his ears sinking down in self-consciousness, "You weren't scared of crovens at all when you were lil', huh?"

It was in this moment his nephew reminded him of his brother Kinis again, and how often Triell had stepped between Borlla and him because he would not stand up to his bold sister. He tried not to frown, but instead kept his grin, black tail wagging. He was confident like Kinis, Fenru in time would find his own stength. "Oh, I bet you can." He offered, determined to help him through this. He stood beneath the branches of the tree, feeling much better, though he saw the reluctence. He was about to start off, when Fen inquired of his own fears.

Triell's shoulders flexed, and he cast a glance down. No, he had not been; Triell had been scared of other things, like losing his family. He couldn't exactly explain it, he felt after all he'd been through birds were nothing. He especially didn't want to talk about it, because it might bring up Indru's absence. He shook his head. "No Fen, but I was scared of other things. I remember thinking a deer would get me when I first saw one." Now he hoped that wouldn't make Fenru scared of something else, but he wasn't sure. He shook his coat gently, and cleared his throat. "Look, you can be afraid of birds. They are scary, but they don't have to know your scared of them. You think I dont get scare sometimes? I do, but the trick is to pretend your not." Like that made sense Triell. He thought feeling his thoughts were scrambled, and he would confuse the poor boy. "Let's just see if you can bark louder than me okay? You wanna go first or me?"