Fool's Gold Chasm giraffes, zebras, and all the others

Forward dated until the pups are approximately 4 weeks old: Pups now weigh 5-6 lbs.; the growth of adult hair around nose and eyes is now apparent, and their high-pitched howls gain strength and volume. Mothers may now leave den for hours to hunt. Play and dominance fights among siblings begin. At 1 month old, puppies fully enter their "toddler" stage. They are able to recognize and respond to their names and will, from this point onward, continue to expand their vocabulary. Simple commands and instruction can also be comprehended (ie. "Stop that," "No," "Come here.") and may be subject to repetition by echolalia and attempts to fully understand the word or phrase. At the end of this phase they should be able to complete two-word sentences (ie. "I eat" or "I go"). Estimated human age: 3 years old.

RE:Fools Gold Chasm, a pair of tornadoes has touched down in your territory.

I'm still wakin' up to you

It had only been a week since Marrah and her siblings had begun to leave the den for short periods of time, and recently the big Mmm had begun to leave them for hours at a time. This was one of those times, evening had faded into early night and with it brought a strange whirring sound from outside. Normally the girl waited for her mother to return before going out of the den, because that was the rule, but the sound was so interesting!

Pulling herself out of the den, puppy blue eyes searched excitedly for the source of the sound, but came up with nothing. Nothing other than the fact that the sky was a colour she had never seen before, it was the same colour as the green tops of the trees. Not only that, but the air was moving very quickly, ruffling her fur around and almost pushing her off her feet. She had to get to the bottom of this!

Walking determinedly away from the den, Marrah knew she could find the source of the woosh.

I've been holdin' on for too long

Enera was thoroughly enjoying the Outside, and she thoroughly enjoyed playing with the Other Smalls, especially Mar and Way. They were fun to tussle with.

Mama was out again, now that she had two mouths to feed, and Enera was wandering the Home again. Today was strange, and even the dating girl knew that the quiet tension in the air was not good.

But she wanted to play and play she would.

She found Mar's scent first and began studiously following it. They weren't far from the Other Smalls' den, and the wind was starting to blow hard enough to rock Enera on her feet. She saw Mar ahead, approaching a grey... Not-tree descending from the sky. The wind looked stronger near it, but it was new and strange and if Mar was going towards it, then Enera certainly wasn't going to stay behind.

"Mar!" she chirruped, hurrying after her. "I come!"

Aweho was nosy. Too nosy and he tried to weasel his way out of the den any chance he got. Which meant more naps. So when Mar snuck out he was at the tail end of a snooze. He might've kept snoozing if he hadn't opened his eyes to see her gone.

She was adventuring without him?

The boy scrambled to his paws and clambered up the slope. The wind pushed against him angrily and the sky looked funny. That had him staring for a long moment until the wind jostled him again and he heard Ner and Mar near by. He ran to them, thinking he had to be stronger than the wind, even though it shoved against his ears and pushed dirt up his nose.

"Loud!"

As time passed on Saga was able to spend more and more time outside of the den, trusting that the children would remain safe within the walls she had built while she snuck off to check borders, or fill caches, or eat. Thus, it was with full confidence that she snuck off to hunt, leaving the kids unattended.

She brushed off the first warning sign, as wind battered her coat. That wasn't odd. The second was a lot more telling as the wind died down, creating an eerie silence that made the hairs of her nape stand on end. Bright green eyes took to the sky, noting the sickly hue that had replaced the previous early-night grey.

Her stomach dropped as ice-cold panic shot through her veins. Silvery paws were moving before the wind picked back up, the roar of air drowned out by the coursing of blood against her eardrums. The cubs weren't far, but as she watched the heavens open up and a funnel begin to descend, Saga couldn't help but note that the tornado wasn't far either.

A second tornado touched ground before she could see the children, clearly outside of the den and unaware of the danger they had been placed in. As soon as her eyes fell upon them she tried to yell over the noise, praying to the gods that the cubs would hear her. "Marrah. Den. Now." If she could get her eldest to turn around, surely the others would follow.

From there, whether they heard her command or not, she would continue closing the distance, hovering over them and attempting to prod them all into the den.

Sága is currently travelling with Huddy, Aubine, Adelard, Rhaegara, Riven, Maugrim & Hrun

Caelyn liked his naps, but his siblings always had different ideas. The agouti boy couldn't let them have all the fun, so he crawled as best as he could on his chubby legs after his siblings. Many noises came frim his small muzzle before he finally joined his brother up on the slope. The wind he was met with prompted a unimpressed grumble from the boy as his baby blues peered out into the outside. Before he knew it, Way took off towards Mar and Ner.

Growling in frustration, he ran after him, the winding almost knocking him down several times in the process. Dirt flew in his face and he paused to contemplate if this was worth it. He couldn't hear Mama yell, Caelyn was too occupied with the ouch in his eyes.

 

I'm still wakin' up to you

The farther from the den that she got, the louder that the woosh became, and it was doing strange things to the clouds. Not only was the sky a weird colour she had never seen before, but it seemed like the clouds were trying to reach down and touch the ground? Marrah had to get to the bottom of this, and seeing it in the distance steeled her resolve that she had some learning to do.

It was with joy that she was joined by Ner and Way! Wagging her tail at the other small, who she was incorrectly thinking of as a sister - after all, the other smalls were her brothers, so Ner must be her sister. Of course she could come! They had to find out about this woosh cloud that was going to touch the ground, the big Mmm would be so proud of them for learning while she was gone. Nodding in agreement to Way she repeated, ”LOUD!” But as the tornado finally made touchdown, far enough away that it wasn’t going to lift them up anytime in the next five or ten minutes, but close enough that large hail suddenly opened up and started pelting them.

Marrah had not even realized that her other brother was on his way to join them, or the frantic yelling of her mother sprinting towards them. She could only squint her eyes against the grit that was not assaulting her face and pin her ears back to protect them from the icy hail. ”OUCH!” the girl shouted, but didn’t know if anyone heard her over the roar of the big woosh cloud. She decided she didn’t want to know what it was anymore, she didn’t like it.

I've been holdin' on for too long

Woya had wanted to spend the day tracking prey, but something about the weather had uneased her, forcing her to remain watchfully within the territory. She'd seen this before, and just as she turned her paws inward toward the dens, her anxieties came to fruition. Cursing under breath, she took off at a run as the wind picked up and hail began to fall.

When she came across the pups, she saw only Saga trying to round them back up and take them to safety. Woya was coming from an opposing direction, and poured everything she had into pumping her legs faster. Whirlwinds could jump and jaunt, rise up and come back down again. They wouldn't be safe until they were underground.

As Woya finally reached them, she grabbed up the nearest whelp, @Caelyn, and attempted to race with him dangling from her jaws toward the nearest natal den's mouth. If successful in depositing him safely, she would turn right back around and go for another pup.

It was so loud. It was so loud and Enera didn't like it, and then there was dust and other things getting in her eyes. She squinted against it, but then she couldn't see. She didn't like it one bit, but she wasn't going to let Marrah have all the fun.

With her ears pressed back against her head and her eyes nearly shut, Enera stopped and held her ground. She was sort of close to the weird cloud, but she wasn't entirely sure where the others were anymore. She was starting to grow scared. She hadn't expected it to be like this. Clouds didn't look like they would be this scary when they were high up in the sky.

She looked behind her to see if Way was still with them, and saw the Scary Lady sprinting towards the den with the other brother dangling from her mouth. Enera didn't want the Scary Lady to pick her up again, much less run with her! She was Scary. "Mama!" she shouted, but she couldn't even hear her own voice over the roaring of the air around her.

How could anything be so loud? With every passing second, the wind picked up. Aweho wanted to press closer to his sister. Yet he could barely stay on his feet. Or hear their mother over the cacophany. Maybe he had been excited at first. Now he was a little worried and it happened quickly.

Aweho squinted his eyes. Ground was going up into his eyes. Fresh baby eyes. The sky danced around them, spinning, spinning, spinning. And cold hard water rained down upon them. This seemed bad. Very bad. "Bad!" Aweho yelled and began to backpedal. He tried to push into Mar. Home. Momma. Safe.

Definitely not this.

The skies opened up as hail rained upon them, pelting her coat with hard, painful blocks. She did what she could once she reached the cubs, attempting to step overtop of them and shelter them as much as she could, but there were too many. Too many cubs, too few mouths to lift them all to safety at once. Leaning down, she yelled, "Den. Right now." and made an attempt at physically pushing the cubs with her nose towards the den.

But then Woya was there, lifting Caelyn to safety. Saga could have cried then, as a small bit of relief flooded her system, but there wasn't time for any of that now. Instead, she simply lifted Enera, trusting that her own children would listen, and continued nudging them towards the den.

Sága is currently travelling with Huddy, Aubine, Adelard, Rhaegara, Riven, Maugrim & Hrun