Fool's Gold Chasm Paddington Bear

Quote:

June 1st, 2021

Aweho, you find a big puddle and can't resist playing in it!

Aweho got bolder as the days ticked by. And they ticked by fast. Because exploring outside of the den took a lot of energy -- squinting, climbing, walking, making noise. And he got hungry so much; it was a lot of back and forth. The light wasn't really hurting his eyes so much anymore and the sounds became less overwhelming. That made it so much easier to explore before he went back to pass out for the rest of the day. There was much more room to play outside of the den, too, which was the very, very best part, even if his siblings seemed less interested than him.

On this particular excursion, he poked around the furthest he'd gone so far (which, for an adult, wasn't saying much), drawn by a new smell. Something extra earthy, kind of musty. It made his nose wrinkle and his brain fire. A thin crack in the ceiling of the cave had let down drip, drip, drips of water right into a slight divet in the floor. A puddle had formed sometime overnight. A perfect puppy puddle. Aweho lowered down to his belly, neck stretched out, ears folded back. He gave it a sniff. It smelled cold like the cave. A droplet from above plopped into the tiny pool and he jumped straight up into the air, startled. Scuttling back, he watched the ripples, hackles up. But the puddle didn't do anything. And eventually the ripples stopped.

Was it...safe? His lips drew back into a tight smile-look as he shuffled forward again and touched his nose to the pool, then drew back again. It left his nose a little chilly and extra wet. But nothing happened. Then he reached out a paw. Same thing. He stretched both paws into the puddle. And then all four paws. The water barely crested his big paws. For a long moment, he just stood there, tense, still waiting for something to happen. And when nothing did, all that tense energy exploded into excitement. The pup began to bounce in the puddle completely dousing himself in water as it splashed up over him.

Enera had quickly decided she liked new things. She was still figuring out the world and her Mama was trying to keep her from wandering off too far, but Enera enjoyed roaming. She wanted to see everything, to know the scent and taste and sound of everything under the sun. She wanted to make friends and pad the world.

If only her paws weren't still so small.

Enera heard dripping first, and then splashing. She turned toward the sound and wiggled into the cave, where she saw Way flailing about in some water. It looked like so much fun, Enera couldn't help herself. She clumsily scuttled forward with a piped, "Way!"

Within a few minutes, he was kind of cold. His fur soaked to the bone and the puddle losing a bit of its depth since he was throwing the water in a decent radius away from the divet. But as long as he kept moving the coldness was kept at bay. Until he rolled onto his side in the puddle. Then it was kind of hard to avoid. But this was fun. Cold be darned.

Especially darned when Ner appeared. His tail whacked the surface of the puddle as he looked at her from his comfortable horizontal position. He huffed into the puddle as he adjusted his position a little to get a better look at her, and discovered bubbles as he exhaled and discomfort when he inhaled water right after. This caused a sneezing fit. An unfit greeting, but here they were.

The water looked fun and Enera wanted to jump in and play too. She tumbled into the small, shallow pool, squeaking as the freezing water soaked into her fur. It was so cold!

As she righted herself Way started sneezing. Concerned, Enera jumped up and slapped a paw down on his head, hoping to shake the sneezes from him. She followed this up by planting her other paw on his ribs and pushing, but she slipped and ended up flopping on top of him.

He hadn't expected Nera to just jump into his puddle, but didn't have time to be upset because one: it was kind of fun, and two: she pushed him back under the water! Aweho didn't quite understand quite yet that maybe inhaling water was bad. He was definitely about to learn though. A paw on his head and then a whole other little just on top of him!

Aweho gurgled and thrashed as he breathed in what was not the stuff he usually breathed in that he didn't ever have to think about. It was cold and it stung his nose and he felt it in his mouth and burned as it hit his throat. Not like Ma's warm food that she gave them. It didn't taste good and it didn't fill his tummy.

"Nurrrrrgggggugugl." He shoved against her in an attempt to throw her off.

Enera didn't understand the needs of life, and didn't know that water was unfriendly to breathing. She just knew it was fun. Way was thrashing beneath her and she rolled off of him; what fun was it to hold him down when they should be splashing together?

She bounced back and barked at him. It wasn't nearly as impressive a sound as she imagined, but it still echoed off the walls. He was making a funny gargling sound as he flailed, so Enera barked again. What was he doing? Shouldn't they be playing?

Water hurt. The boy hacked as Nera got off and he could completely surface. He started a series of sneezes, pawing desperately at his nose to get all the wet out. Eventually he could breathe again. Aweho stumbled out of the puddle. Ears flattened to his head; he was very annoyed with Nera, which was a feeling akin to when his siblings stepped all over him when they were eating. Except it didn't go away, like when he finally got to eat. Nera hurt him. And it was a feeling he had really yet to experience.

Aweho clambered out of the water sneezing, and Enera impatiently watched him. She wanted to play! But then he faced her with flattened ears, and she finally stopped wiggling around. Something was wrong, though she had no way to define the feeling of wrong yet. She just didn't like the way he was looking at her, like Mama did when she did something back. Enera cocked her head and felt her own ears drop of their own accord. Her stumpy little tail lowered.

"Way?" she asked tentatively.

Woya had been resting not too far, only paying minimal attention to what was going on around them. This place her brother had chosen was, she would bitterly only admit to herself, a pretty smart move. They didn't have nearly as much to be wary of as they would have back home, and given how much wandering she had been doing the last few months, she was taking advantage of the lazing opportunities. Still, she couldn't ignore it when she heard some kind of splashing and puppish gurgling; that was definitely out of place.

She lifted her head in time to see the sole bastard pup sprawled atop one of her nephews, holding him down in the water. Immediately she rose, teeth baring with annoyed anger. Little shit.

By the time she got to them, Aweho was up and breathing and Enera seemed confused but Woya really wasn't the compassionate pup sitter that the situation probably required. She promptly wrapped her jaws around the one that wasn't related to her, and attempted to carry her off; she would take her directly to @Rhaegara and let the woman know she needed to keep a closer eye on her blossoming bully child.

Rhaegara had gotten up to stretch her legs, letting Enera out of her eyesight for just a little bit of time but she was reaching the age where Rhae could justify it. She had not seen anything that had happened prior to Woya baring her teeth, Rhae’s eyes narrowing as she made her presence known, seeing Enera in her clutches. “Put my daughter down, now.” The words were crisp and there was a hint of defensiveness in her voice. She didn’t know why Woya was carrying her daughter away, but she knew that she would not stand for another woman handling her child without her permission.

Her daughter was perfect, thank you very much. She was too young to know right from wrong, and there was a time for guidance but this situation just felt off and she didn’t like it. “Enera, dove, are you okay?” She cooed softly to her daughter, looking for some kind of response or feedback.