OOC: For @Tagg and @Desideria – This puppy needs some good old fashioned play time!
Weather:
70° F, 21° C
Partly cloudy
6:16 PM
[dohtml]
Oh ho no no no. Oh no he was not going near the lake again. The young boy's mind was still reeling from the terror of the day before, when that gigantic white creature had attacked him for no reason. What else lived by that lake? No, he didn't want to get into that. Each time the wind brought the cool watery scent inland, Cernan made double sure to head the other way. At least it had been much cooler today than in days past. Now that the sun was beginning to move toward the horizon, it was cooling even further. A slow, exploratory walk through the woods had been picked up right where the child had left off some suns ago. He was seeing more and more of the cluster of piney forest that surrounded their lakeside home.
What the lad had yet to realize was that he'd been born on a mountain range. A few minutes walk beyond what distance was comfortable (and allowed) for the youth to wander would easily have revealed such a thing. Any number of ledges and outcrops, along with the change in slope, laid beyond the border. What he could see, however, was the bigger mountain. He had some desire to view the place from the top, but no dreams of traveling that far from the den; from his Momma and Papa. Even if they wanted to take him the lad would have hesitated. It looked terrifying!
Nope. Cernan was perfectly at home discovering what the nice flat forest had to offer him. There were still some hours of golden daylight left, to sniff rocks and chew stuff by. At the moment, a particularly round pine cone had fully absorbed the Vuesain boy. The chubby child took delight and amusement with how it rolled when he smacked it, and had taken to finding new ways of doing so. Best yet was how far he could get it to go with a kick from his back paw, though it was harder to line up. This time was quite the success, as the woody object went sailing into the trees and bounced out of sight. An entertained grin etched itself softly into his features until the toy disappeared. Next he'd see how many bounces he could get!
Stubby legs loped along as he bounded to what he guessed from the sound was its location. The pine cone did not reveal itself at first, though, forcing the prince to put his nose to the ground in search. Now distracted by the vanishing tree-seed, Cernan paid little attention to where he was going.
Tagg was minding his own business, relaxing in the shade of the trees and thinking about Primrose. He hadn’t had much time to speak to her since the pack meeting – or really seen her at all – but curiosity still nagged him. Who exactly was she? She was so cold and aloof, yet didn’t seem to grow annoyed by his approach. He wondered if his own half-blindness had anything to do with that. He sighed. She was definitely one heck of a puzzle.
The sound a pine cone hitting the ground startled him, and he immediately lifted his head and swiveled his ears, sniffing for any sign of a threat. He hadn’t been paying much attention, after all, and one could never be too careful.
Something small touched his flank on his blind side and he jumped to his feet, whirling on the object.
A pine cone?! He thought in surprise. Where had it come from? It certainly hadn’t fallen on him; he would have heard it leave the branch. He stood straight again, fur lying flat as he examined it. It seemed a little beat up, though nothing a fall couldn’t explain. Still, it had to have been moved by something.
A new scent washed over his nose. He’d smelled it only once before – at the pack meeting. He looked up and glanced around to try and see the pup anywhere. Had he moved the pine cone?
Something fuzzy bumped into Tagg’s legs while he was looking away, making him jump again. It was the pup – Cernan, Tagg was pretty sure. “What are you doing?” Tagg asked, voice growing soft. It was the first time he’d spoken to any of the pups, something he regretted. He crouched down so he was more on Cernan’s level. “Does this cone belong to you?”
Desideria was working the border, as was her usual habit this time of day. The female had become more slender since her arrival at Fallen Tree Cove, but it was not due to hunger or losing weight. In fact, the rogue ate much better now than she did in the many months she spent traveling alone! It came from a daily regiment of exercise. If not running and scouting the borders, she spent time swimming, or finding things to jump over. @Vespertion wanted a slick, agile scout who could run for miles without tiring, and that was exactly what she aspired to be!
The sound of a pinecone dropping was not a new one to the woman, and was only afforded the twitch of an ear. She might have kept going, had she not spotted a tawny shape shuffling along the forest floor. Curious, Des curved away from her normal path and approached, steps brightening when she recognized the furry ball as one of the puppies. "Cernan!" she greeted the boy, tail wagging fiercely as she approached. She'd met the child for the first time when he was only a few days old, though she highly doubted he had much recollection of her outside of normal pack interactions.
A moment later, she realized Tagg had appeared as well, and she offered her fellow a head bob and a warm smile. He'd only been nice to her, and she'd had a fine time hunting with him back with the pups had been born. "You boys out exploring today?"
The young Vuesain prince was completely focused on his search; determined to track down the pine cone; which in his mind was now unsuspecting prey. He would track it just like the adults did, and pounce on it with its feet before snatching it in his jaws. Oh yeah, the pine cone wouldn't know who it was messing with. These fantastical, juvenile thoughts came to a crashing halt as he felt his head collide with... something. Startled, his transitional grey-green eyes opened wide and he recoiled in clumsy panic. The other thing seemed to panic too; flinching back from him. Legs splayed defensively and tail tucked in submission, Cernan stared nervously upward. It was another wolf, a pack mate. (Though to be fair he'd never seen someone who wasn't.)
Then, it spoke to him. The tone was surprisingly soft, soothing the timid child out of his desire to flee. Pack mate or not this was practically a stranger! He had no information to apply to this thing and that in itself was scary. On top of things, his face looked strange, and what was with his eye? He simply continued to stare with his big puppy eyes. The words slowly began making sense in his brain, and the child eased his posture a bit. He was ...friendly, so far. His tone wasn't unlike that of Momma's. A response had only just begun to germinate in the young boy's mind when the wolf leaned down and spoke again. At first he shrunk away from the proximity, but again the stranger's speech worked its way into his understanding.
Oh, the pine cone. The toy had all but been forgotten in his utter shock and fear. Cernan looked from the toy and back to the wolf again. Slowly, his black lips parted. “Y- Yeah,” he stuttered cautiously. He didn't want it, did he? Just then another, more recognizable voice burst from off to the left. His tiny head whirled in time to catch sight of the tawny pelt of Desideria; or “Des” as far as he knew. The youth felt instant relief at having a more familiar wolf in the area. Still, he was a bit shy around her too. Her enthusiastic greeting still brought a faint smile to his face in acknowledgment. Then, the attention shifted back to the other guy. The chubby pup watched with full attention as they spoke, trying to decipher what he could. Luckily there weren't any big weird words, so he got the message. Sensing that he might have something of note to add to the conversation, the quiet boy piped up. “I was lookin' for my pine cone,” he said in a low tone. His eyes traveled indicatively to the little toy.
Tagg wasn’t surprised to find Cernan afraid of him; the boy had never met him, after all, and he’d been fairly shy at the pack meeting. His ears twitched a little backwards as the child stared with wide eyes as his blinded side. It wasn’t that he was unused to the attention, he was just unused to so much of it, so blatantly. Others usually tried to be a little more discreet about their curiosity.
He didn’t want to chastise the pup, however, because he didn’t want to scare him away. This was his opportunity to play with him, if Cernan would allow him to join in his game. He was about to ask when Desideria appeared, calling to the pup. She saw him and seemed slightly surprised.
Tagg wasn’t sure how to feel about her arrival. Cernan obviously knew her better and he was more comfortable around her. He couldn’t help but sense that would make the child more likely to pay her all the attention. Tagg had only avoided the pups this far because he figured his face would scare them – something he was sure he had done. But maybe if he’d stuck around more from a younger age they would have been used to it, raised to think it was just a normal part of Tagg. Which it was.
Her referral to him as a ‘boy’ almost made him prickle. The way she said it made him feel as if she were talking down to him – like she were older, or better. But he beat her both in years and rank. Even so, he assumed she was speaking in terms Cernan would be better able to understand. “I was napping, until Cernan’s pine cone startled me.” He was careful to speak to her without exposing the entirety of his eye to the young one; he didn’t want to frighten him too much. “Mind if I join your game?”He asked, returning his attention to the boy.
Desideria swung her slender tail in wide arcs, her pleasure evident, even to a pup. Slowing down, she settled next to the pup, reaching out to brush her nose across his crown in a tender greeting. He seemed so big, compared to when they first met! The boy and his littermates had been barely more than fluff balls at Namid's side – now they were walking, and talking! The prince had even used a full sentence, much to her surprise, and her grin broadened as she bobbed her head in eager understanding. "Looks like Tagg found it for you, huh? That was nice of him," she encouraged the boy, glancing up at her pack mate.
She only caught a hint of his bristle, head tipping to one side in confusion. (As it were, she was a year his senior, and his equal in rank, and offered no insult with the question – it had been an honest inquiry into what the pair of them had been doing.) Deciding to dismiss it as the other delta did, she glanced back down at the pup, tail swinging against the forest floor.
"Would you like to play?" she asked, golden eyes dancing as she studied the boy. He always seemed a bit shy, she thought, and while she knew Tagg to be a good wolf, she wasn't sure if the child would be too afraid to join in. "We could do something else, if you like. Would you like more pinecones? We could make it a little hunt!"
Des was the first to directly respond to his statement. Her incessant wagging made his own bottle-brush tail want to join in, but he was still being reserved. He simply stared at her as she came closer, flattening his ears as the woman planted a wolfish peck on his fuzzy head. The attention managed to draw out his elusive smile, but the prince's teeth remained hidden. It was hard to be so nervous around someone so friendly. What reason could he really conjure up to fear her now anyway? His velvet ears returned to their normal position; perking forward to catch her speech.
Following along with her suggestion, the child turned his eyes back upon this “Tagg,” noticing that he was now attempting to hide the strange facial markings and eye from view. He was too young to truly understand the potential rudeness of staring so blatantly, and luckily for Tagg too timid to bring it up. Realizing that he probably ought to be thankful for this wolf's finding of his toy, Cernan managed to put his skinny tail into motion. A few short strokes kicked up a leaf or two as he tried the same quiet smile. Now this new wolf started speaking to him again with the same soft tone. He wants to play? Cernan couldn't recall playing with the other wolves, but since his parents sometimes played with him and his siblings it seemed to make sense. He hadn't seen his siblings in a little while and play did sound fun...
The prince's smile widened slowly, but he couldn't keep his bashful eyes up. Instead they flickered between Tagg and other things. He didn't actually have to say anything in that moment, though. The pale woman piped up with a very similar question, which he supposed was meant to help draw the words out of him. The tawny boy began nodding. Her too? This was getting exciting. His eyes passed between them both as he offered each a few more excited nods. ”Yeah,” he finally said, looking back at Des. She spoke again, promising something new. Now that the boy thought about it, a change in the game sounded like a pretty good idea. He already knew a few places to look! Cernan's eyes brightened with the prospect. He'd love more pine cones! He could keep a stash, and maybe stack them up or something. Maybe Neha and Aleister would want to play with them too!
His tail burst into action again; now fueled by much higher octane energy. The pup was on his feet already. ”Yeah, yeah! Who'er gets tha most pinecones wins!” He exclaimed, his front end dipping in a slight play bow as he looked up at her and over to Tagg. His muddled green, juvenile eyes snapped back to the older female as another thought occurred. ”How long do we have?” He asked seriously, his smile fading with the honest curiosity in his voice. She came up with the idea, she'd know, right?
OOC: I am SOOOOO sorry this took me so long to do! And I'm giving you a short post, so I suck double time. ;( I'm so sorry I'm awful
[dohtml]
Tagg smiled at the pup as he spoke, glancing up at Desideria. Her presence seemed to help Cernan relax, and he decided that it was perhaps a good idea that she’d arrived. His position wasn’t anything special, after all. With a smile he returned his gaze to Cernan. “That sounds like fun.” He said.
The pup jumped up in excitement, little tail wagging with ecstatic energy before posing a question. He looked at Des.
“Well, since the game was Des’ idea, I think she should pick, don’t you?” He asked, wanting to include the prince in the decision. Perhaps if he made him feel more comfortable…
Tagg looked around, searching for any source of pine cones. If the Prince wanted more cones to play with, so be it. His mission was to do as he was told – and have fun doing it. He returned his gaze to Desideria, waiting for her to announce the time limit and say ready-set-go.
Cernan seemed to be warming up. Offering the prince a warm smile in return, the female bobbed her head once as she waited patiently for the boy to come to his own conclusions. It wouldn’t do to push him into anything he wasn’t comfortable with. Even if she wasn’t terrified of what @Namid might do to her for upsetting one of her children, the scout in training knew enough about pups to know that pushing them usually ended up with resistance. (Especially with her brothers. Perhaps the same ruled true for all little boys.)
Answering his play bow with one of her own, Des slapped her slender paws against the forest floor with delight. Her tail waved behind her happily, tongue lolling out of her mouth as she glanced from the child to her packmate, tipping her head as she waited for Tagg’s input. While he’d suggested the pinecone game to start with, she was surprised to hear that he was willing to defer to her for the rules of the game. The male was met with a wide grin before August eyes slid back to the prince. “Everyone gets five minutes to find their pinecones,” she decided, “and everyone brings their pinecones back here and makes a pile. The most cones, wins!”
Standing back up, she arched her neck, glancing between the two males. “You ready? Set? Go!” the tawny wolf crowed eagerly, waiting for Cernan to begin his hunt before setting off at a trot herself. As long as the boy didn’t go out of sight, she didn’t see why they couldn’t let him make his own pile of cones. It was practice tracking for him, right?
