Dead Empress Backwater Tip-toe through the tulips

Llinnea liked her new freedoms, being allowed to leave the den. Mor was always watching her, though, and never let her get far by herself. If she were older and more experienced she might recognized that her mor was scared, but as it was Llinnea felt as if she were the victim of a great injustice. She had yet to meet the other pups of the pack - had yet to learn of their existence - but she wanted to go and find their friend who brought them treats.

Keeping her ears pricked for her mother, Llinnea crept from the den and peered around. She didn't see anything, so with her heart thumping in excitement she darted from the entrance to their safe haven and made a mad dash for the trees.

The Valle girl was only seven weeks old, but was already beginning to pick up on the slight differences in the way she was treated. Her siblings traveled to and from the rendezvous sites without supervision, but she was prompted to wait for an adult. It was confusing to young Sephrina who had yet to comprehend that not all wolves saw the way that she did. Even her parents were yet to realize how poor her eyesight really was, just hoping she would be a “late bloomer”.

These small injustices were very angering to such a small girl, who had no practice in regulating her emotions. She didn’t have the word for jealous yet; but she did have the word for angry. She also had enough intelligence to wait until all the adults were away doing their duties to sneak away. Sephrina was pleased that she was able to do this without being caught, and was even more pleased when she caught the scent of someone new.

Sephrina had yet to meet the other children in the territory, her parents purposely keeping them separate, but there was no day like today. As soon as the blurred form of Llinnea came into view she barked out, ”hello!” She was determined today.

It would seem Llinnea wasn't the only one making a mad dash for freedom today. She hadn't gotten very far - enough to be out of earshot of the den, at least, she thought - before someone else was suddenly there, blurting out a greeting. Llinnea recognized the word - it wasn't one her mor used, but she'd heard the Big Black Friend say it when he arrived to bring them goodies. She stopped abruptly and turned to face the other girl. "Heh-lo," she sounded out, the word still strange on her tongue. She perked up. She'd been practicing something! "Jeg 'r L'nay!" she blurted, then scrunched her nose. That wasn't right. "Llin-ay," she tried again. "Llinnea!"

She sat up a little prouder. She'd said it right! At least, that's how it sounded when mor said it. "Jeg 'r Llinnea," she repeated, now sure of herself, sniffing at the other girl. She was little like her and her bror, not like the others that visited them. Maybe she could be a friend!

The way that this small stranger spoke gave Sephrina pause. She was replying hello but in a way that sounded disjointed and awkward, the way her siblings and she spoke a few weeks ago. Maybe this other was just little like that? Then she said a bunch of other words that didn’t make sense and that the Valle had never heard before.

Sephrina sat for a second and scratched at her ear, trying to think of what to do or what to say, and buy herself some time. She was still coming up with nothing. Well, here goes nothing. Getting back up onto her paws and walking boldly forward, she gave the other boy a big sniff right on the snout. He smelled like her older brother Archer and that was good enough for the Valle girl.

So, she repeated the weird word this other boy kept saying, ”Llinnea?” It sounded weird on her tongue, but it was clearly important to the pup and so Spehrina was going to try to figure out what it meant.

Llinnea watched the other pup with wide, intent eyes. She hadn't met anyone like her and her bror before! It was so exciting! She crouched down, waiting for the other to share her name, but instead she repeated hers. Llinnea jumped up excited, tail flipping about behind her. "Llinnea!" she said again, pleased to get it right a second time. All her hard practice had paid off!

But she wanted to know the other girl's name! "Du?" she asked, cocking her head. She knew bror was Azz-mun, and their friend that visited them was Archer. Sometimes he brought Ros. She was getting good at memorizing names!

Well Sephrina was still not entirely sure what a Llinnea was, but it sure made the other pup happy when she said it. Brightening at the thought of having a friend she didn’t have to share with her siblings, the dark tail began to wag behind her. It slowed for a moment at du? but it sounded close enough to you she was able to figure it out. Smiling proudly she said, ”I’m Sephrina!” then, thinking of how happy it had made her new friend she repeated, ”Llinnea and Sephrina!”

This was decidedly a good day for the child. She had successfully snuck away and proven she could go for walks alone, and found a friend she would not have to share with her siblings. Grinning she declared, ”Now friends!” There really was no other option was there? Although it might be hard to keep a friendship alive if she always had to sneak away to see her, oh well, that was a problem for another time. She could figure that out at a later date, for now she was pleased with what she had done.

Llinnea was having a great day. Like the other girl, she was pleased to have gone out on her own and met someone else. Asmund was going to be so jealous! Well, maybe. He rarely ventured out, preferring to stay close to Mor like she liked them to do. Maybe her adventure would be enough to coax him away - clearly it was just fine to wander. They were safe and Mor was worried about nothing. If others like them could do it, they could too!

To Llinnea's delight the other girl seemed to understand what she was saying and said her own name. Llinnea recognized enough of her words from things Archer would say to understand in turn. "Sepher-na," she tried out. It sounded wrong. "Seeeeehphrna. Sephrina. Sephrina!" she bounced about when she got it right, and then repeated what Sephrina had said. "Llinnea and Sephrina!" She was so proud of herself.

At 'now friends' Llinnea had to pause and cock her head. What was this new thing she was saying? What was friends? "Frenz?" she said. "Hva 'frenz'?" Whatever it was, she thought she liked it. The other girl seemed happy, so Llinnea wagged her tail and gave a play bow. "Frenz frenz!" she chanted.

The child was thrilled when her new friend repeated her name, and then paired them together. Beaming brightly at her agemate she repeated it once more herself, ”Llinea and Sephrina!” Although now that they had gotten that section out of the way, there were more questions about words that did not seem to make any sense. Hva the Valle had never heard anything like that before and had nothing to compare it to.

Pausing for a minute, head tilting to and fro, she seriously came up empty pawed, nothing. Finally she asked, ”What’s hva?” Doing her best to copy the accent that her new friend had used. It must be a good thing because Llinea still seemed happy and was saying it with their names and the word friends. But, even with all of these clues she still had no idea what it may be. It was ironic that she was so perplexed by the word and asking what it meant, when it literally meant what.

Llinnea was having fun. She couldn't wait to tell Azzy about this! She was finally meeting someone else. Maybe even Archer would be jealous, even though he was big and got to walk around lots. He probably already knew everyone and didn't get the joy of meeting someone new anymore, but she did.

So excited was the pup that she didn't notice Sephrina pause until she was asking a question. Llinnea too stopped and looked at her, head tilted as she considered her answer. These words were unfamiliar to her as well, but she'd heard Archer use them sometimes. "Hva?" she asked. The girl puzzled over it. "Hva... what?" she said, unintentionally both answering her age-mate's question and asking the same thing.

The child was a bit perplexed by the answer from her new friend, until she realized that maybe Hva meant what! Smiling again at the realization the pup nodded her understanding, this was going to be so good. She could learn a bunch of words and she and her new friend could speak their secret language and her siblings would be left out in the dark. She might let them know a couple words, but that was it!

Sephrina had been looking around the clearing for easy things they could point out and compare words on. Things like trees, grass, flowers, stuff like that where they could actually see the item and name it. The pup had been just about to point to a nearby tree and declare it when she heard her father calling for her.

Looking towards where the voice had come from, she knew she was about to be lectured. Sighing she told Llinea, ”Sorry, gotta go!” Then she hurried off towards she was being beckoned.