When Kova stopped Noble did not pause with him. Any other time she would have gone back to him, but today she left him to wander forward. This was farther than she had gone before and she just had to see what was behind the huge rock. Noble rarely needed egging on, there was always something new to see and she was only happy to comply with her brother. She disliked it when he fell behind however, and would stop and pester him until he was once again moving. It was an inborn protectiveness to keep her brother close, but at five weeks it just came out sounding like sibling bossiness. 'Jus' a bit longer...' or 'Hurry up!' she would urge him.

But their dad was here today. No harm could possibly come while he was here. So, while Kova had stopped to observe something in the dirt Noble had toddled forward. It was not nearly as exciting behind the rock as she'd been hoping. The ground was littered with leaves and last-years brittle berry canes. She eyed one with a sad whine, they hurt to chew on. She whined again, louder. She was bored. At her fathers voice she scrambled over.

She pushed her little body under Tokino to stare at the bird in delight. It stared right back at her and Noble laid down with her black little nose pointed directly at the bird. It looked soft and it was the perfect size. She shuffled a little closer to it with an awkward army crawl. Tokino glanced down just then and caught his daughter inching forward. She froze and looked up hopefully at him. "A game?", she asked. It would probably make a wonderful plaything.

It was looking right at her. Huge, unblinking eyes aimed right at the black pup. The burrowing owl knew which of the three wolves was trouble. Noble grinned widely at it, displaying a fine set of needle-like milk teeth, and pushed forward again. She'd seen the older wolves carrying around animals. They were always coming and going with all sorts of dangling critters, sometimes they would even give them to her mum or dad. Their true purpose hadn't yet been explained yet, and with simple puppy logic Noble had assumed they were toys. And Noble wanted a toy of her own.

She scooted herself under the brush, collecting thin twigs and pieces of leaves in her fuzzy coat. There really wasn't a thought out plan. Noble wanted the bird so it followed that she should get closer to it. She imagined it would just sit there and wait for her. Would it jump into her mouth or would she have to pick it up?

It backed away and Noble giggled. Silly thing. Her laugh echoed gently under the brush, in sharp contrast to the noise the owl made. It chattered loudly, strident and sharp. In an instant the owl went from a plaything to something scary. Noble shrunk into the leaf litter, suddenly reconsidering the wisdom of this decision. She was all set to back out, leave this fierce little bird alone, when something grasped a hold of her tail. Thoroughly frightened now, a trembling growl came from her chest and she spun in a little circle to see behind her. Seeing her brother she scrambled out, a shaky mess of black fur, wide blue eyes, and dried leaves.

She wrinkled her noise and announced, "It yelled at me!"... as if they somehow hadn't heard. Now safely with her brother and father, she had the confidence to be indignant. She looked over at the bush with narrowed eyes and stepped closer to Tokino. She was indignant, but she wasn't brave enough to go back under and look at it.

Her pride and the ends of her ears were still tingling. She'd only wanted to play a game and it had yelled at her. Kova would be in trouble if he had yelled like that, Noble was sure. Tokino had not yet jumped forward to punish the bird and Noble looked up at him hopefully. Her ears folded back winningly as he comforted her. She patiently accepted his explanation, sighing as it was crossed off her list of potential fun. If she couldn't catch them and couldn't eat them there were significantly less interesting to the girl. Without another glance at the bush she followed after her father.

She nodded vaguely at his question. There were so many things to smell, chew, and chase that she sometimes lost track of everything. Certainly her father would never trick her so it was safe to agree. The owl and it's insult was nearly forgotten as she scurried after Tokino, glancing back once for her brother. Her pace was idle, attention clearly wandering in her quest for another 'adventure'. She had just found a suitable stick and was collapsing with the intention of chewing the end to ribbons when Tokino spoke up. He wanted to tell a story about a wolf and an owl. The girl hesitated. She didn't like owls anymore and glanced back to the bush and the little bird it sheltered. Maybe it was about a nice owl? Or she could learn how to trick owls? Either way she was intrigued. Her blue eyes searched for her dad and she whined a yes in answer.