Thicket of Secrets gonna run across the waves

Placing the fish next to the other cold scraps in the cache left him with the same warm, content feeling it did every time. Denied the opportunity to smile down at his contribution gormlessly for a moment like he usually did, Duck refocused on Cinaed, mentally preparing himself with having to go out again. There were no signs of anyone by the dens, so he'd just give a quick call to alert the boy's parents when the time came... or make Cinaed do it - Duck's throat always got a little sore when he howled too much. Just another deficiency among many. At least stuttering wasn't really a thing when howling. Silver linings, right? That's how happy, confident wolves looked at the world?

Listening to Cinaed's babbling with a small but entirely genuine smile, Duck's attention was already slipping, half on the kid and half on what he should really do next. "Y-yeah," he replied absently in agreement to the kid's enthusiastic declaration that they would find it all - find what, all the rabbits? Duck was useless at catching those - and then realised what he was doing just in time to correct himself, and looked back to Cinaed with a fresh smile and encouraging wag of the tail. Just in time to catch the beginnings of a confession.

Blinking, Duck stepped forward, a subconscious gesture to show solidarity and trust, of comfort. A secret? "Alw-ways."

Cin really liked Duck – he wasn’t like the other adults, and the child didn’t see that as a bad thing. Being different was cool, and good even, at least in his experience… for the most part. There were certain kinds of different he couldn’t bring himself to stand. He listened as Duck let out the howl with a soft smile, his tail moving back and forth at which made be new speeds before Duck promised that he could confide a secret in him. He looks at his paws for a few moment as he moved alongside Duckweed towards the edge of the territory.

“I… uh… I wasn’t really followin’ rabbit tracks out there… I know I shouldn’t go out there with an adult but everyone is so busy all the time… I just wanted to see what it was like out there.” He felt the need to justify why he would have been fine if he had been successful with his plan. “I wasn’t gonna go far, just enough to see what was outside of the Thicket.” He swore as he cast a glance at his companion. Cináed wasn’t oblivious to the fact that Duck knew that from the start, and that he sucked at lying, especially to adults. "Please don't be mad."

Where would you like this to go? :D We could either fade soon, or Duck should show him some fishing?

Innocent and sheltered, it should have been obvious that the boy's secret would be so small and straightforward. Cinaed's honesty had barely allowed him to go from the borders to the middle of the territory without being able to confess that he'd been sneaking out. To have such trivial problems, to have so little perspective that they placed disproportionate importance on them... Duck envied the young Athesilas more than they would ever know.

Don't be mad. The runt smiled. It was so easy not to be mad.

"It's ok-k-kay," he said, moving to touch his nose to the boy's own, still marvelling at so much - how guilty Cinaed felt, how much he clearly craved the adult's approval, just how much power Duck had over him - and felt not one flutter of anger or frustration. All this acting the adult was so foreign but felt so right, as if finally he was beginning to see himself as something other than a terrified and tiny yearling. (Just a terrifying and tiny adult, instead.) "I fff-forgive you. We only w-want you to be sss-safe..." But Cinaed knew that, that's why he felt so bad, so Duck just shook his head and laughed, quietly, jerking his thin snout back the way they had come, turning his body as if ready to go back.

"W-what would you like to s-see?"

It wouldn't be long before Cinaed - just like the other two - realised that they weren't little any more, that they didn't need permission to go out on their own for long, and most of all that there was no meaningful protection to be found in Duck's presence.

Lying was bad, he’d always been told, and honesty was the best policy, especially when talking to family. Duckweed was family. It wasn’t that far of a stretch in the boy’s mind for him to feel guilty for his actions, no matter how trivial they might be considered in the eyes of the adults of the pack. Thankfully, the man wasn’t mad, causing a soft sigh of relief from the boy’s lungs. It was okay and he was forgiven, two words that pulled a smile back onto his features from the look of slight panic that Duckweed might be mad at him and also that he would tell Cináed’s parents of his dishonesty.

“I know… I just… I want to explore but I don’t wanna break mom and dad’s rules either!” It was like being between a rock and a hard place. It’d probably be better to have an adult with him, to answer his questions which always came out a mile a minute. They’d been slowing down, less questions to ask he supposed, but that didn’t mean his curiosity was going to die out anytime soon. “I wanna see everything!” He responded without hesitation, a slight bounce to his step as they made their way out of the territory to see what there was beyond the safety of home.

-Fade-