Waking up was Lacey's favourite thing to do.

Well, actually, everything was Lacey's favourite thing to do. She was still so new to the world that no experience had lost its shine and polish yet. Everything was immensely exciting. The fact that every day her vision was sharper was beyond thrilling. That her ears had popped just a few days ago and she began picking up on muffled sounds was both frightening and exhilarating. Already, she was deeply in love with her parents' soothing voices, the deep timbre of Kerberos and the softer hush of Maera easing her into contentment whenever she felt uneasy.

Whenever light began to filter into the den and tickle the baby blues behind her tightly closed eyelids, Lacey would spring awake, and the day would become a hundred times more exciting for her, and a hundred times more exasperating for her parents. After all, Lacey wanted absolutely nothing more than to reach the light, and she spent the majority of her days alternating between napping, nursing, and trying her damnedest to sneak out. Thus far her parents had not failed to keep her contained.

So when Kerberos arrived, Lacey was already awake and scrambling around the den on strong little legs, trying to give Maera the slip. She turned her head rapidly when the very muffled sound of her father's voice spoke incomprehensible words to her, but she turned too quickly and overbalanced easily. Toppling onto her side, the Rigel girl giggled wildly and began scooting toward both father and light beyond, and when she found her paws again, it was to pick herself up into a hurried waddle that she imagined would carry her right past her completely, utterly amazed father at mach 2.

Except Lacey's fresh new imagination was a thousand times exaggerated and she moved about as quickly as a tortoise, so Kerberos would have zero trouble catching her.

As she flew toward her father, she couldn't help the cascade of giggles pouring from her widely opened maw. She was doing it! She didn't have the foresight or the intelligence yet to realize that Kerberos was intentionally moving backward, nor enough of a grasp on reality to know that she wasn't, in fact, as fast as a Formula One racecar. She was just going, going, going... she was gone! She was going to get to that light and they weren't stopping her!

Except she wasn't. As the pup felt the warm splash of sunlight on her back and tasted a fresh breeze for the first time, she screeched to a halt and froze in place. Her eyes were wide and her pupils were pinpricks as sheer daylight poured into her vision, and only after several seconds did she realize that it hurt and gave in to the instinct to close her eyes. The chirping of birds was hardly a peep in her plugged ears, and the hushed rustle of leaves in the wind was too quiet for her, but nevertheless she was overcome by a sudden onslaught of stimuli.

Fearless and fierce though she was in the den, the heavily squinting pup could not process her sublime change in scenery all at once without some form of comfort. She quickly closed the remaining distance to Kerberos' chest, unwittingly going to him just as he asked, and buried her face in his coarser hair while her tail wriggled close to her rump, betraying her unease about the place she'd finally reached. It was much, much larger and busier than anything she had ever known yet, but the sweet smells flooding her nose were tantalizing and wonderful as well and she drank them in hungrily.

With Kerberos' coarse hair tickling her soft puppy nose,
Lacey cuddled close and dared to blink her eyes open again. The blinding light stung her eyes but she managed to squint enough to relieve the pain, and soon enough it disappeared. Moment by moment, the cub explored her sense of sight and the effect bright light had on it. By the time Kerberos commented on her muzzle, something she was entirely unaware of, she was able to look around freely.

She didn't, though. She was swept off her paws by the stronger force of her father, dumped with care onto her back. She had only a second or two to adjust to the new position before the lead male's nose dove for her belly. An unfamiliar sensation spread from the point of contact. Lacey was compelled to curl her limbs in and flail to try to throw him off, and she squealed and squeaked and giggled relentlessly as Kerberos found her most ticklish spot, right in the center of her belly.

She fought her father as valiantly as any three week old cub ever fought, batting with her soft paws and snapping her tiny, nonthreatening jaws at him, but she was uncoordinated at best. It didn't take long before she was reduced to a helpless infant unable to stop her laughter, and she lost control of her bladder even as she tried to roll toward Maera.