Oak Tree Bend I was drunk and it didn't mean a thing

For papa @Serach.

Muhmuhmuh, babbled Corsair at an early spring bee as it lazily hovered over a bush mere feet from the den's entrance. The boy was flat on his back, limbs splayed every which way, with his head turned toward the bumbling insect. The bee said nothing in response. Typically, the wolves in his life responded when he made noise, and whether or not what they said was comprehensible, Corsair had quickly come to depend on that attention. The bee blithely ignored him, and that made the Donata's face scrunch up.

What a rude creature.

Intent on showing it who was boss, Corsair rolled slowly onto his side and spoke again, a louder reiteration of, muhMUHMUH, that once more failed to stir a reaction. The pup's temper welled and he slapped first his forepaws and then his tail on the ground before rising to his feet. Oh, he'd show that bee. Corsair was one of the most important pups in the world, as far as he was concerned—as far as he could be concerned about anything, in fact—and that bee was gonna listen to him, damnit.

MUHMUH, he veritably screeched as he lifted a paw and swatted at it. His foot met the ground with the unfortunate bee trapped beneath it, and within seconds he was squealing and sobbing as the pain and shock of being stung for the first time registered, its source somewhere in the tender skin between his toes.

(This post was last modified: May 26, 2017, 11:14 PM by Corsair.)

I'm so excited for this thread!

The hardest part was over; at least, that's what Serach wanted to believe. After their formal introduction to the rest of the pack, Serach had been spending less time standing in front of the den entrance protecting its occupants and more time lounging outside of it watching his offspring begin to explore the world. It was exciting and terrifying, all rolled into one. Every wide-eye stare and gasp of wonder sent a tingle up his spine and his tail wagging in the dirt. Today was no different, either. Settled on his stomach, he watched with quiet fascination as Corsair babbled happily, his tiny paws batting at seemingly nothing in the air. The new father smiled, his tail already wagging slowly behind him.

But then his son was moving and Serach lifted his head from his paws. And then his son's playful babbling turned into a high-pitched screech which turned to crying. On his feet in a moment, the alert father closed the distance between them. "It's okay, it's okay," he cooed, pale yellow eyes darting around to find the cause of his son's despair, but seeing none (he was still developing his parental ability to see through solid objects). Nuzzling Corsair's ears, he licked the top of his son's head in an attempt to comfort him. "What happened?" Hopefully nothing that couldn't be fixed - Aponi would kill him if he broke their son.

Shallow water has trapped several fish in a small pond. Hunt Opportunity

hit the ground running, leave 'em in the dust

In the span of a second, Serach was hovering over him, radiating concern. Corsair could sense it even if he couldn't yet understand it, and the fact of his father's worry only made the situation seem worse than it was. If Serach was worried, then it had to be something major, right? Corsair had no capacity for empathizing with the new father's nerves, which were surely high ever since the birth of his very first litter. The pain of the sting had already faded and the shock was wearing off, the press of Serach's tongue between his ears a soothing distraction, but it was the worry he sensed from the man that kept Corsair blubbering for a while longer.

Ba-aah-aaaduh, he sniffled as he lifted his paw and cradled it close momentarily. Someday, he would realize how uncool it was to be such a big baby about it, but for now his understanding was limited to that hurt and daddy, pay attention to me, and combining the two seemed to produce the desired effect. Already he was forgetting about the sting, although he would never forget to be wary of striped insects in the future.

He flopped onto his side, sniffing heavily as he rested the top of his head somewhere in the vicinity of Serach's paw and stared up at his sire through one navy eye. Humpf, he intoned, which of course was a very philosophical remark about the nature of bees. The crying had run its course, the tears were drying on his fluffy cheeks, and he was starting to feel better. If Serach looked very closely at his son's paw or the ground where it had been, he might discover a smush of black and yellow and the tiny barb still nestled in the soft skin of the pup's inner toes.

only run with those we can trust

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(This post was last modified: Jun 03, 2017, 01:21 PM by Corsair.)

Okay! Wedding planning & moving have slowed down, so I should be able to be much faster in responding to this thread. :D I also had to look up how in the world you get a bee stinger out of a dog paw lol

He was a first-time parent, and it showed. While Aponi might have offered comfort to the crying Corsair, she no doubt would have lost patience with the blubbering sooner rather than later. Serach, on the other hand, didn't know any better and was more than willing to offer his son comfort for as long as the young wolf needed it - and perhaps longer, if Serach's own worries could not be dealt with. But whatever had ailed him seemed to have run its course, and with more dramatic sniff and resigned (or was it a satisfied?) "hump", Corsair flopped over to his side next to one of Serach's front paws, the tears slowly drying up.

His own panic beginning to subside, Serach slowly slid down onto his belly so that Corsair was laying between his father's front legs. Moving to rest his head down on the ground next to his son, the crushed bee finally entered his line of sight, and he stopped to look at its remains. Sniffing at the mush only confirmed his suspicions, and he turned his attention to Corsair, fixing him in his yellow gaze. "I see now," he said, feeling an odd mixture of both panic and relief was over him. Panic because bee stings hurt and it had happened under his watch, and relief because his son was not broken and would make a full recovery. "Those are called 'bees'," he explained, although he was still unsure how much of the things he said registered with his children. Again, he was a first-time parent and had little memory of how fast his own development had been to remember how this worked.

Nosing his son with his muzzle, he gently pushed the boy over on his back so his paws were in the air. "They like to fly by flowers and plants, but they're not fun to play with," he continued to explain, hoping that his tone reflected more of the "relief" than the "panic" part of him. Meanwhile he looked over his son's paws, and saw the telltale black sac that was the remains of the stinger. "Let's see if we can fix this," he offered cheerfully before licking the paw pad in question in hopes of dislodging the offending barb.

Though he struggled briefly against his father's strength, Corsair was unable to overcome it and was pushed easily onto his back. Even for such a young thing, he knew this to be a compromising position, and he didn't really like it. Nevertheless, when his father's tongue soothed the sore spot on his tongue, he relaxed. His head sank back into his crown nearly touched the grass and he sighed gently through his nose. The world wasn't coming to an abrupt end after all.

At some point, Serach did manage to dislodge the stinger. It came out with a strange pulling sensation that made Corsair flex his toes and look up at the white wolf across his narrow little chest. "Bah!" he admonished Serach as he attempted to pull his paw away and hide it from view. Whatever that was, it hadn't felt as nice as dad's tongue on his paw pad. The stinger itself was gone, though, and with it went any hint of pain that he had been feeling prior to its removal.

Feeling rather invigorated, Corsair rolled back onto his belly, unwittingly whipping his father's chest with the strong strokes of his thin tail, and bounded to his feet. The whole episode with the bee was forgotten, though it would remain in his subconscious memory to beward of yellow and black insects, and he was ready to play again. With a muffled war cry, the boy launched himself at Serach's paw, intent on gnawing it with his sharp little teeth.

(This post was last modified: Jul 06, 2017, 01:22 PM by Corsair.)

That table is beautiful, omg.

Whatever complaints Corsair might have had with Serach's decision to push him over, there was little that the young wolf could do about it. His father was on a mission and would not be deterred so easily. He continued his task, dislodging the remains of the stinger at some point from Corsair's tender paw pads. The intake of breath and the responding admonishing sound caused Serach to grin. His son might not have understood the concept of having to endure a few moments of discomfort to get to feel relief, but that was alright. So long as he was feeling better and Aponi could look him over later and see that her son had not been harmed under the guardianship of his father, that was all that mattered.

Pain seemingly forgotten, the mottled gray wolf rolled over on his stomach, his growing tail thwacking Serach's chest. Chuckling, his eyes closed momentarily, missing the signs on Corsair's face about what he would do next. In that single blink of an eye, Corsair began to attack Serach's paw, his growing teeth nipping eagerly. "Ouch," he yelped, yanking his paw back and curling his lips instinctively into a growl. Cutting off the sound before it got too far out of his mouth, he retaliated by swatting at Corsair's head with the targeted paw. Pushing off the ground, he lifted up his rear end so he was standing in a bowed position, his wagging tail inviting Corsair to charge again.

In spite of his very best efforts, Corsair didn't get more than a mouthful of Serach's paw before his much larger father reacted. First came the curl of blackened lips, drawing Corsair's attention to a sudden flash of white that sent an instinctual thrill of fear and uncertainty through him. He flattened himself almost immediately in response to that great instinct, pressing his ears back expertly and curling his whippish tail in under himself to appease the upset wolf above him. This brief fear was only a natural part of their life, though, and didn't extend to Serach himself. Corsair would hardly remember it in mere moments.

Indeed, when Serach corrected his expression and gave his son's head a gentle swipe of the paw, the cub blinked and giggled and fell over from the force of it, only to right himself in a wriggle of excitement. His tail whipped to and fro as he found his footing and half-turned to see his father bowed forward in an undeniable invitation to play. He could hardly contain himself! He panted loudly as he clumsily mimicked the motion, then wasted no more time.

His charge was more of a slow bumble in the eyes of any adult, but from Corsair's perspective, it was the fastest he had ever moved. He ducked and weaved around imaginary foes that sought to protect Serach from him, in reality bobbing here and there in a klutzy display of childish wonderment, and when he reached his sire's paw, he imagined that the trip-and-stumble attempt at a lunge was really a graceful pounce.

Corsair flattened his ears against his head and lowered his whole body to the ground (not that it was very far off of it, yet). A pang of guilt struck Serach in the gut as he pulled back and down into a bow. He had not meant to scare the young wolf, but this was an important lesson in and of itself for Corsair and his siblings. Displays of dominance and submission were important to their understanding of the larger pack dynamics even though they would not be formally joining those dynamics for quite some time. The grin on his son's reassured though that the lesson was not too painful of a learning experience and Serach's tail swished happily in response.

Slowly, but with a determination that clearly marked Corsair as Aponi's child, the young wolf charged forward. Sidestepping from side to side, he dodged imaginary obstacles as he ran towards his father, and Serach goaded him on the entire time with laughter. Again the target was his paw, but although he saw the attack coming from a mile away, the father did not move it off the ground. So when his son tripped over his own paws in a less-than-graceful lunge, Serach did not move to pull away. He let Corsair capture his intended target, letting out a mock yelp before falling to his side in a dramatic fashion. "You got me!" he yelped, although he could not suppress the smile on his face or the beating of his tail against the ground. Carefully he moved his paw around, "struggling" to free it from underneath Corsair's body.