Dead Empress Backwater I brought you daffodils in a pretty string

RE: Spirit of Wildwood Tuwile, A vulture appears to have started following you, waiting to scavenge food. Early afternoon. Open to anyone!

Low growls escaped from Tuwile's throat as he dragged the remaining leg from some type of small-ish prey animal that likely one of the adults had left for his mother. Dust particles floated all around him as he haphazardly bumbled around, tripping over his own paws which were getting bigger ever day - too fast for him to properly get used to them.

With a mis-step he went hindlegs over head, faceplanting into the dirt and ending up splayed out on his back. The leg had dropped from his mouth during the tumble and rested beside him.

He sneezed. A big and loud one which had his whole body jerking from the force of it.

Now laying on his back he looked up at the branches above, spotting some type of big bird up in the trees which was eyeing him from where it rested high up, letting out a low raspy hiss. Tuwile merely blinked, head canting to the side to try and figure out what exactly it was. It didn't look like the normal birds around.

Jacy once again found himself avoiding Dace. The other boy just couldn't leave him alone - it was like if he saw him, Dace had to attack. It was getting annoying. Buuuuuut it led to Jacy doing a lot more exploring than he might have otherwise done. He didn't want to worry his new mum by wandering too far. They all seemed so upset by his first mum's disappearance, and while Jacy missed her he was still so little it was almost all too easy to move on. In a few months he probably wouldn't even remember what she looked like.

But those were problems too big for his young head - right now he was more interested in finding something to entertain himself while avoiding his littermate. 'Something' presented itself in the form of his agemate tumbling not far from him. Tilting his head, Jacy went to investigate. He stood beside Wile's head and peered down at him. "Whatcha doon?" he asked.

Only, there was a hissing sound, and Wile was looking up. So Jacy twisted to follow his gaze and squinted against the sunlight to see the massive bird in the trees. "Wassit?" he murmured, almost to himself.

A tawny head with blue eyes were suddenly peering at him from above, blocking his view of the weird rasping bird. Tuwile's tail began to wag in the dust, recognising the other pup as one of his age mates. The other boy spoke, and Tuwile motioned with a paw up to the sky towards the bird. It didn't seem perturbed by the appearance of the other boy, and continued to stare at them with its beady eyes.

The other boy spoke again, and Tuwile had no answer for him. If his parents were here they would likely know what it was, they were smart in that way.

He clumsily rolled over and got back onto all four legs, head tipping back to look up at the bird which still hadn't moved. That intrigued Tuwile; normally birds squawked and hopped around, but this one was eerily still.

His jaws opened with a high-pitched yap, wanting to try and get the bird to do something.

Tuwile didn't exactly answer him, but that was okay because Jacy was getting used to the boy's silence. He didn't seem to talk much at all, though all of them were still figuring it out. The boys looked up at the freaky bird and Jacy frowned, thinking hard, as hard as his little puppy brain could to figure out what it might be. He'd seen songbirds and angry black ones that screamed hoarsely at him, and he'd seen the big scary ones with sharp feet that he was supposed to stay away from. This wasn't like any of them, though, and it appeared just as interested in the pair as they were in it.

Tuwile suddenly yapped at it, startling Jacy into jumping. He turned his frown on his age-mate, disapproval bright in his eyes, but at the sound of a rustle he looked back up. The bird shuffled in place, head bobbing slightly at the sound, but otherwise it seemed unperturbed. This made Jacy uneasy. It was looking at them oddly, and he didn't like it. Like his cousin, Jacy gave a high-pitched bark.

"Speech" Thought

Tuwile glanced sideways as the other boy just about jumped into the air, but then after a few moments mimicked the puppy-sized bark. His tail whipped back and forth behind him, enjoying whatever it was that was happening at that moment. At least his ears and tail weren't being grabbed by sharp teeth like when Tori was around.

Confidence bolstered by the other boy joining in, Tuwile yapped again, putting his whole body into it this time. The strange bird shuffled on the branch in response, making a sound that had the fur on his nape stand on end, but it didn't move from the branch.

And so he continued yapping at it, stamping his front paws with glee, wanting to see if it would move.

The bird continued to regard them and Tuwile continued to bark, and Jacy continued to bark with him. His tail whipped behind him, his back end bumping into his cousin as they danced about, screaming with their little puppy voices to try and get the bird to move. It remained nonplussed as the pups egged it on.

Growing tired and frustrated with the lack of reaction, Jacy plopped back down and glared at this strange thing sitting high in the tree. "Move!" he shouted at it, angry with the bird for not playing along. If it wasn't going to play it should just leave, and Jacy had half a mind to go get @Clover to make it do just that. Stupid bird.

"Speech" Thought

The bird continued to stare at them with its beady eyes, clearly having far more patience than either of the two boys as they eventually both grew tired of making noises up at it. Whatever it wanted they quite obviously did not have, but the bird didn't appear to care much for that.

Tuwile sniffed loudly, turning to the other boy with waggling ears. He appeared far more annoyed by the bird's impartialness to their antics, whereas Tuwile was simply ready to move his attention elsewhere to something more interesting.

He backed up a few paces before suddenly dropping his front end, almost slamming his chin down into the dirt, and whuffed at Jacy. His tail whipped back and forth behind him so fast it almost blurred.

Jacy was still staring at the bird, annoyed and oblivious to his cousin's dwindling interest. What did the bird want? Why was it ignoring them? Why wouldn't it even make a sound at them? They were trying to talk to it and it was being just plain rude! Clover had told them it was bad manner to ignore someone when they were talking to you. Especially when it was one of the adults. Then he might even get in trouble.

He was just beginning to contemplate what might get the bird's full attention when suddenly Tuwile woofed - at him. He turned to look at his cousin, ready for play, and the strange bird was forgotten. Jacy mirrored the play bow for a moment before bouncing forward with a playful yap of his own, rearing up to stand on Tuwile's shoulders and attempt to bite at his ears.

"Speech" Thought