Sex: MaleRE: Mouse, you have become stuck in a deep pool of mud!
September 27th; Mid-afternoon; Overcast Clouds; 55.4 ° F, 13 ° C.
Wide yellow-gold eyes peered out from the thick underbrush as Mouse crouched beneath a densely-leafed hedge. He had been stalking a frog since earlier that morning in attempt to ignore the shift in the air that his family had adopted over the past month or so. Papa had grown quiet and, in turn, the littler Lyall had grown quieter. He did as he was told when the adults spoke to him; he let Merida do as she pleased whenever the duo crossed paths; he obeyed Mama whenever she asked something of him; he showed and gave Dad the gesture of respect he was owed. Had he been a little younger, he might have been oblivious, but at four-months old, Mouse missed nothing.
Day by day, the borders of disappearing and the paths he used to follow were slowly being lost from disuse. Whenever he asked Papa about Dad or about Mama, he would receive an answer that would neither satisfy or disappoint him. It was strange. Though, as an opportunist, Mouse saw his chance to explore the Cedarwood as he pleased - so long as he was able to find his way back to any of the pack's old dens.
His right ear perked up as his target let out a chirp. Behind him, his tail curled upward but he would not wag it just yet. Tongue hanging from his mouth, he stopped sucking on his forepaw pads for a moment as he prowled forward to find a shallow mud pit and - lo and behold - the frog! Without wasting a single moment, he lunged forward, flying through the air and landing smack dab in the middle of the puddle with a glorious SPLAT!
The frog, having sensed Mouse at its back, jumped away, kicking up mud onto the youngster's brown-furred muzzle. "Yuck," he told the impish plaything as it stared at him at the edge of the sludge pool. He lifted his right forepaw with another expression of disgust, watching the brown stuff slide off his digits and back from where it had been pulled from, "Blegh." The frog chirped again, seemingly unamused. Mouse blew a raspberry at it, but when he made to move his hind legs, he found he couldn't. He placed his front paw back into the mud to try again - big mistake. Now, it felt as though he were really stuck. Panic began to seize him from the inside out and he grit his teeth while he cried. His jaw quivered, "PAPA?! DADDY?! HELP!"