The Wildwood hey, hey, what you say? [bwp]

RE: Kino, you have become stuck in a deep pool of mud!
A private thread for mom and dad~  Set in the mid-morning, scattered clouds.  66F.  
Archie is now four weeks old, and a 'toddler'.  Recognizes her name, simple commands, and has enough energy to wander around for a few hours without getting tired...  RIP.

There was little to be said for napping.

And, okay, that wasn't entirely true, as Arcus had enjoyed a nap cuddled up against the soft warmth of one of her parents as recent as this morning, but at this particular moment, she could not bring herself to sing the virtues of such.  Instead, she rather fancied the idea of going for a walk.  Mama and Papa both did it, sometimes.  Usually one of them stayed behind, but...

A furtive glance told the only child that neither of them were in immediate sight.  Was it the first time they let her out of their field of vision?  Maybe, maybe not -- but it was at least the very first time Archie had noticed she was left to her own devices.  The girl bit her bottom lip, puppy blues sparkling with delight as she crept forward into the woods.  It was hard to act demure, quiet, unassuming, but she very much did not want her fun to be spoiled just yet.  There was a big, wet patch of dirt not so far off -- she'd been told 'no' yesterday.  But no one was here right now...  And if no one could actually say it...

Surely it was fine.

Archie scuttled the last couple of (puppy) lengths to what remained of the mud puddle, placing one paw firmly in the outer most perimeter.  It squelched between her toes.  The girl yipped, both delighted and horrified, and sprung backwards, shaking her paw up and down wildly before toddling back, keen on retesting the squishy dirt with her other paw.

@Sahalie & @Kino

(This post was last modified: Jul 03, 2018, 03:56 PM by Sahalie.)

@Kino some weird.... @Treyah ppish stuff in here lemme know if you wanna discuss it?

They were still hanging around Charred Ash Draw. They weren't a part of it—Sahalie wasn't ready for that—but they weren't being treated like... outsiders. They weren't at any rate: they were family. But it was odd and in a lot of ways confusing. Not to mention, most importantly, that her father wasn't here. Even Naira was gone. No one knew if they were alive or dead and with every day that passed Sahalie's daughter grew stronger and bigger and her father missed out on yet another day with the little bundle of thunder and it was like a dull ache. Already he'd missed her first word. She wished she could make Arcus stay this small forever, or however long it would be til her father... returned.

If he returned.

But it wasn't safe to be so small, not now.

There were all sorts of normal dangers in being small, especially considering their circumstances: two young, dumb loners drifting through Relic Lore. Arcus could be snatched by an eagle, fall into a creek, or roll an ankle in her excitement. These things were worrisome but not nearly as pressing in the mother's mind as the ever present threat of the coyotes. They had dogged their every move over the mountain right up until she had gone into labor, so why would the coyotes stop now? Arcus was the perfect size to be snatched.

Being part of Charred Ash Draw officially would be so much safer than what they were doing—that's probably how Alastor felt—but she just couldn't. There was so many things on their list they had left to do: thank Sven for saving them, ask if he had seen Morganna, find the remainder of Quaking Vale, and then look for Laurel. Joining Charred Ash Draw would not be helpful in accomplishing any of these goals. And, more privately, Sahalie did not feel that she was ready to be a part of something bigger than herself. She'd already participated in ripping Oak Tree Bend in half; not committing to Whitestone Monadnock; taking wolves from Wild Rye Fields; and finally she had checked out of and given up on Quaking Vale. She and everyone else had always assumed that, being just a small plucky girl she could do no harm, but it was hard to turn a blind eye to the careless destruction she left in her wake. She needed to be more careful. And she was determined not to have some lasting impact on Charred Ash Draw.

Taking a deep breath she opened her eyes and noticed her daughter was gone from her side. Sahalie took another deep breath and tried not to panic. This was just the beginning of a number of "escapes." Sahalie herself had tried to run away from the Bend when she was very small... How small? She couldn't really remember.

A soft squelching noise caught her attention and she turned around slowly to see, of course, Arcus testing out the mud puddle that they had expressly forbidden her from yesterday. Clearly when her parents were out of sight Arcus was not afraid to test the boundaries, if she even remembered or acknowledged them. "Arcus," Sahalie said, her voice taught, "What are you doing over there?"

Arcus was blissfully unaware of all the thoughts her mother was having -- of packs, of broken packs, of not joining packs, and so on, and so forth. At the moment, 'pack' was just another one of those words she liked to mouth if someone else said it, and then dismissed, added to a growing pile of words to try and not understand. A father she could understand. But not a missing one. Hers might be absent from sight, but Arcus had no doubt her silvery father would be back. He always came back. That's just how the world worked.

Just like wet mud made the most glorious squish. This, too, was catalogued in 'how the world works'. The pup was in the midst of sticking her second paw into the damp earth when her name rang out, firm. She froze, pink tongue poking out between her lips and she glanced up, concentration broken. Her blue eyes were bright, and if she looked sheepish, it only lasted a moment or two. Mama was at least ten bounces away.

Arcus stuck her paw all the way into the mud, giggling delightedly when the squish happened for a second time. "Eh heh heh!" she laughed, having no real answer for Sahalie's question. This. This is what she was doing. And it was awesome.

@Sahalie~

The way Arcus' tongue stuck out of her mouth—just a little bit, like it was forgotten or got stuck—made it hard for Sahalie to feel so serious. Her daughter was silly, innocent; and, in a way, Sahalie was too even still. She'd just misplaced her silliness, and then along came Arcus and she found it in a puddle of mud. The young mother's face relaxed, and slowly she smiled as the child only giggled in response. How could Sahalie spoil the relatively harmless fun and unbridled wonder at discovering the world? What kind of person would that make her.

It would be important to Sahalie for her daughter to like her.

"It's called a puddle," she explained without getting up. "When the water—the rain—comes from the sky it makes everything wet. Sometimes the water stays above the ground, but other times it'll sink right in and mix with the dirt and it becomes mud. It's very squishy, isn't it!" And just like that she felt a pang of homesickness and the vestigial sensation of missing someone she hadn't missed in a long time. She remembered now that some of her earliest thoughts were of mud puddles. Drift loved mud. He played in it often, and when she had wanted to play with him she would play in the mud too.

"You have an uncle that likes mud puddles very much. You would get along with him very well. He would coat himself in mud all the time and pretend his coat was dark like yours and mine, because mud will make you very dirty." That was part of the reason she was perfectly happy laying where she was. Drift and Arcus could enjoy the mud. Sahalie would stay clean.

The noise Archie made next could only have been described as a chirp, ears pressing forward as she stamped her paws down again, rewarded with yet another slimy squish. It was cold and soft and so different from dirt. She loved it! Puppy blue eyes sought out her Mama again, but once it became clear that the older wolf wasn't going over, her shoulders settled a little -- one ear flicked in her direction. Her attention was split, but she was listening, her tongue poking out again as she tried to concentrate on the explanation of this, of mud, and still continue her happy little mud dance.

Eventually, she paused, soft bottom plunking on the ground. Arcus allowed her front feet to slide slowly, squishing through the mud until she was laying, the mud oozing around her belly. She giggled again, gleeful. Then she turned to her Mama. "Un-kle?" she parroted, her tail giving a few tiny wiggles. "Whaddat?"

She hadn't heard that one before....and if she had, it was already lost to her little puppy mind library.

@Sahalie~

The morning was a very pleasant temperature, cooler than what most of the previous days had been and the man with the thick coat reveled in it. He’d left his girls with a kiss to each of their heads early in the morning in order to go hunt for he and Hal, as well as leave a kill in the Draw’s cache as he often did. He was indebted to them for coming to he and Hal’s rescue, and while Hal didn’t want to join them officially Kino still made time to help out when he could. After all, it housed his brother, niece and nephew, and Hal’s sister.

He followed the scent of his wife and Arcus, brows raising in surprise to find the girl laying in quite the mud puddle with Hal lying off to the side. He was sure he remembered Hal telling her no the day before. What had changed her mind? The man placed the rabbit that was dangling from his jaws in front of the woman. “What are my two favorite girls up to? Has little Archie discovered the wonders of mud?” he teased, an amused glint in his gaze.

Several coyote abandoned a half-eaten deer. But before you can take a bite they reappear.

@Arcus

As Archie continued to stomp around Sahalie could only think of dumping her in a cool stream and rubbing all that muck off of her. Hopefully her daughter wouldn't protest too much. Maybe they could make a game of it and she wouldn't even have to know she was getting a bath. Already her daughter was turning into a very willful individual and Sahalie was figuring out if she even wanted to contend with that. "Uncles are another kind of family. They're the brothers of moms and dads. Like how Treyah is your aunt because she's my sister. Uncle is just the male version of that." Sahalie wasn't sure if this was too far beyond her daughter's mental capacity, but she wasn't going to talk down to her. Eventually she would get it. The Tainn family tree was as broad as it was tall, and Sahalie had hopes that Arcus would learn about it—not that this information was particularly useful, the Tainns were a dying breed.

The soft thud of a rabbit landing in front of her announced her mate's return. For a moment the young mother smiled up at him like this was a lazy, cozy Sunday afternoon brunch, before she smelled it. She'd been so preoccupied with observing and teaching her daughter that she'd completely forgotten to listen to what her own nose was trying to tell her. There was a meal much more tasty than a rabbit waiting beyond a nearby tree, only Sahalie wanted nothing to do with it. It was such a large deer—the kind that would attract many predators and ravens to come squabble over any scrap of meat they could get. Only seconds passed before the coyotes appeared to claim their prize.

Slowly, since the coyotes had not seen them yet, Sahalie got to her feet. "Al, go get Arcus." Once they started moving, surely they would be noticed.

"Ayyyyyyy! Papa!"

Sahalie's explanation of familiar relationships were largely lost on the young girl the moment her father appeared. She knew who Tree-ah was (theoretically), and that she was Important -- but that this age, the idea of siblings was, well, rather lost. Perhaps in a few months, or even weeks, she'd wrap her mind around it, but with no litter mates, the idea seemed rather absurd. And not important, not at all, not when there was mud and a Fine Lookin' Father over yonder who probably needed to see her latest discovery. Arcus clamored to her feet, stumpy tail still wagging when her Mama's demeanor changed in the blink of an eye.

The girl gave a brief pause, having not observed the causative force herself. She saw Mama, and Papa, and even a snack for Mama. There was nice, cool mud... Upon glancing up, Archie could not see anything dark in the sky. Her brows furrowed and she shifted uneasily in her mud puddle, glancing between her two parents. "Mama...? Whaddat?"

@Kino