Hearthwood River No fire where I lit my spark

@Aytigin let me know if you want anything changed <3

Even someone as free spirited and carefree as Lil could tell something had happened. Dad had seemed out of sorts last night and things were unusually quiet, even with the girl humming under her breath and bouncing across the territory, feet happily kicking up drifts of snow leaving narrow channels in her wake. Brows pinched over mismatched eyes and lips pursed as she contemplated just what could possibly be... missing? Nah it wasn't something gone, it was like... the heavy feeling in the air before a thunderstorm, but the sky was clear, so what could it be?

She didn't expect to see Ayti just... laying down. When did he ever do that? Never one to pass up an opportunity she approached casually, seemingly incredibly interested in something at the very tippy tops of the trees. She stopped and sat, directly on the older wolfs head, towards the back of his skull so he'd still be able to see whatever it was that had caught his attention so thoroughly. "Yoyo why so low?" she questioned with a smile, her waving tail slapping him across the bridge of his nose. If this didn't turn that frown upside then she didn't know what would.

AWH

Ayti didn't mope - almost ever. In fact, if anything, he usually just threw himself headfirst into his work or patrolling or whatever. But moping certainly wasn't what he was doing right now. It was simply that he was tired, and the massive man was laid out on the forest floor, a dusting of snow across his fur from where he had been there for so long. Was he ever going to move again? Probably not, he decided. At least until he was enacted upon by an external force.

Lilliana was that external force.

The young wolf padded over as though she owned the place and sat upon his head like it was a throne. One golden hazel eye opened to look up at her, and a cheesy smile spread across his maw. "I'm not down, just laying around," he replied, trying to rhyme like she was. He nipped lightly at her tail when it hit his nose. "You're getting too big to sit on people's heads, missy."

let ‘em say what they gonna say

Lilliana Stark

Lilliana's faint grin morphed into a face splitting smile as Aytigin answered with a rhyme of his own. She hadn't spent much time with the adults of the pack that weren't her parents truthfully, she was often too busy exploring, but it meant a lot to her that he wasn't looking at her like she'd grown a second head. When he told her she was too big to sit on his head she poked out her tongue. "If you'd get out of bed, I wouldn't be able to sit on your head, silly billy." But she rose her rump none the less. It wouldn't do to crush the poor man after all. He did so much for them.

She could feel a little of the oppressive air lifting but it wasn't enough to lift the atmosphere completely, Ayti wasn't the only one out of sorts. "So who bought the rain clouds round? Everyone's stompin' on the ground, it's enough to send a kid into hidin'." She managed a lopsided smile to show she was just prying for her own interest but she couldn't help but think someone was throwing blame where it wasn't warranted again.

Ayti hadn’t spent much time with this pup in particular, nor her more uptight sister, but he rather liked the rhymey little pup. He lifted his head when Lil Lil scolded him for laying down like he was, after she had lifted her rump off. ”You're getting too big to use me as a playground,” he jested back, leaning forward to nudge the smaller wolf with his muzzle. ”You coulda squished my brains out or something like that.”

A soft sigh escaped the massive wolf and he dipped his head a bit. ”It’s not any big deal,” he assured the child, though he honestly believed even the pups could see where Inna was being insane recently. ”Just a little squabble. Lorcan tried to come back and Inna tried to ask him to stay when your mom and dad weren’t there, so I stepped in and things got a little dirty. But it’ll be okay.” He smiled afterward, his tail thumping on the ground behind him. Lach and Lilya would take care of this. ”Whaddabout you? Something on your mind?” he enquired.

When he suggested she might squish his brains out the girl giggled. "S'that really a risk?" She teased, playfully nipping at the larger man's ears, she didn't think she was that heavy, but then again she didn't really know for sure. Her movements ceased as he went on to tell her of the goings on before and she sighed. "Everyone's always squabblin' like crows on a carcass. Doesn't matter that ma and da lead, I can't go draggin' people back so what entitles her to? She's just a subordinate, an' I'm just a kid. None of us owns this place." It was only through the good graces of the land itself that they were permitted to stay as far as she could tell. "I keep wonderin' whats out there y'know? Why do we stay?"

A young deer has been separated from the rest of its herd. Hunt Opportunity