Broken Timber Pines Asking the grinning bobcat why he grins

@Ember!

July 7 2015, Noon, Partly cloudy 75F/24C

Bracken hears a fledgling hawk that has fallen from it's nest.

Bracken was getting used to the familiar sounds and sights of her home. The broken cedars were not impressive to those born among them. They were the perfect height for the pups to hide underneath without ducking and were invaluable for games such as hide-and-seek. She had also become familiar with the large amount of salmonberry brambles, particularly the batch that surrounded the den. Soon Iopah would be moving her daughters and Bracken would not miss the sharp thorns. And there were a lot of woodpeckers. They came in all colors and the young Reinier loved to follow them as they hammered and scattered down pieces of pine bark for her to dash after.

The past few hours had been spent doing just that. She wound an erratic path though the forest; not really going very far, just going all over the place. Whatever the woodpeckers thought of their little shadow was unknown. They were used to her as well now and softly crooned down every few minutes. Bracken stopped to wipe dirt from her tiny nose and yip up at them. The pup was still well within the borders, but probably farther than her parents would be comfortable with (she always was).

She was just about to yip upwards again -ushering them along in the current adventure- when another noise caught her attention. Dark ears drew together clumsily on top of her head to listen. It was strange! Bracken had no words to describe it, but it was too tempting to ignore. The woodpeckers flustered their feathers in concern and the gray-smudged pup hurried after the unknown noise. It didn't matter what it was, only that it might be fun.

With paws ever more steady and boundaries ever expanding, adventure was the name of the game. Ember always wanted to wander further than her parents were willing to let her go, so she learned quickly that thorny bushes made for good hiding places, for the vegetation was far more annoying to larger wolves than they were to her. Then, there were the sideways trees. The pale pup usually fit under them just right. When Mother or Father or any of her sitters tried to bring her back closer to the den, she loved to duck under one of these trees and make a game of chase of it. The bigger wolves were never amused, but that only added to Ember's fun.

Now the pup ducked and weaved through the obstacles of her homeland in silent pursuit. She was as eager as her prey was to follow the woodpeckers and learn about them. Of course, Ember tried to pay attention and watch the strange birds as much as she could, but today, her main interest was Bracken. She wanted to see how long she could follow her sister without being caught. How close could she get before the rustling of plant litter beneath her paws would alert Bracken to her presence? If she could get close enough, Ember fully intended to pounce.

However, the young huntress quickly forget about any intentions when a particularly unusual sound sent a dull echo through the trees. Whatever this was, it needed immediate investigation! Ember simply couldn't allow her sister to get to the thing before she did, so she abandoned her cover and leapt forward to Bracken's side. Without waiting for a reaction, she yipped "Whassat?" and ran toward the source of the sound as fast as her ungainly legs would allow.

There is a rabbit\'s nest nearby. +1 Health

included as a reference xD, this is what they hear and eventually see. Probably they're close enough to find the hawk in your next post

Sometimes the noise was there and sometimes it wasn't. It was a one-sided game of marco-polo, periods of crazy searching followed by minutes of silent waiting for it to come again. She scrambled and bounded when the strange whistle-shriek filtered through the pines. Perhaps it might have been easier to go around the foliage that ended up in her path, but it was certainly more fun to plunge through them. Each time the noise faded away Bracken would freeze, her slate-blue eyes staring in the correct general direction and studded with bits of fern and tiny twigs.

Gradually she made her way closer to the downed hawk fledgling. Overhead, the woodpeckers were frenzied and agitated. They knew that the sound the tiny wolf pup was following was a predator, they knew this was not good. Dangerous for wolf pup, dangerous for them if the hawk parents heard the commotion. Bracken was oblivious to the din overhead. She pawed a fern-frond away from her eyes and turned to her sister. Ember was always around and it was not any sort of surprise to have her sibling suddenly appear. "Somefink!" She chirped back with as an explanation.

Questions (and the corresponding answers) were not very interesting to Bracken. It was "something" and it was likely going to be fun, that was the extent that Bracken cared about. The sound stopped again, but there was something.... Somewhere in the near distance she could hear a rustling. Her eyes went wide. She could hear it. It was close. "Dis way! Dis way!" Bracken exclaimed to her sister and scampered into the nearest patch of alder saplings. The fledgling hawk was just beyond and she simply had to see it, regardless of whether it was a good idea or not.

(This post was last modified: Sep 03, 2015, 02:24 PM by Bracken.)

Ember paused in anxious silence next to her sister as they awaited the intermittent sound's return. She wasn't at all satisfied with Bracken's response to her question, but she knew she would have her answer soon enough. But why? Why had she never heard this sound before? What caused it? Does whatever happens to make the sound usually happen? The pale princess had so many questions, and no answers yet! Waiting, still and silent, was painful!

Two sets of ears perked in unison. There was a telltale noise, and it was close! Hard on her sister's heels did the curious pup run, squealing along the way. Lemme seeeeee! Just short of where she anticipated the thing to be, Ember halted. She could only hope that her sister did the same, because she wanted to see what this thing was and what it was doing before anything else. Only then would she be willing -- more than willing -- to try to play with it.

Between the branches of a convenient bush, Ember spotted the creature. It was a bird. A big bird! Much bigger than most of the birds she'd seen, and it was sitting on the ground, moving nothing but its head to scan its surroundings. What kind of bird sat on the ground and screamed? Like any proper princess, Ember snorted in laughter at the absurd sight. Maybe she could get it to fly and be a normal bird if she pounced at it? That sounded like a good idea, and a fun one besides! Ember lowered herself into a crouch.

(This post was last modified: Sep 22, 2015, 05:06 PM by Ember.)

hehe, Bracken's gonna piss of the birdy!

It was a race! Bracken giggled over her shoulder at her sister. Usually it was Ember leading the way and the darker, smaller sister was inordinately amused at the reversal now. The sound -an increasingly worried fledgling hawk- was almost unnecessary for the current fun. For a brief moment, she actually did forget the point of the chase. Bracken galloped ahead of her sister, paying so much attention to the pup on her heels that she burst right into the clearing without pause.

It was the agitated whistle that finally redirected her attention. Bracken spun around, very surprised to see the creature scarcely a foot from her. It was watching her, not moving, but staring her down nonetheless. Bracken was still for only a moment, channeling all the intensity her pint-sized body held... within moments her tail was beating wildly. This was undeniably the coolest thing she'd ever seen! Her sister's snort made her tail wag all the harder. She lifted her head to grin cheekily into the bush, "Ember! Lookit this—"

Whatever she'd been about to call it was cut off. The fledgling, uncertain with the one wolf pup was now alarmed to discover another. It turned around awkwardly, looking for the hidden laughing pup. The birds mouth opened unnaturally wide and it made the same whistle-shriek as before. Bracken's automatic response was to bark back at it. She crept forward, a paw raised to smack it's back as it was turned away.