unseen moments

Viorel has come to tempt the oldest of his children from the den.
Shortly after sunrise, Overcast 14C/57F

It was early, very early, especially for Viorel who was more of a night owl by nature, but today he was pushing off sleep for a little while longer. He knew since his sister had left the den that soon it would be time for his own children to start making their first journeys out into the world. The thought made him anxious in a way that he couldn’t explain, but also excited to see who they would become, and witness the world through their growing minds.

Making his way back to the den that Clover shared with the trio, a plump lemming swinging from his jaws. He had spent the last hour camped outside of its nursing den before it had finally popped out and Viorel had quickly snapped it up. He didn’t like to show up to any of the nursing mother’s dens empty pawed, they needed their energy and couldn’t go out to get the food on their own.

Dropping the lemming outside of the entrance, the leader chuffed out a quiet greeting to see if anyone was awake inside. Peering in, he waited for his eyes to adjust, blinking against the dim lighting, searching out the forms of Clover, Violet, Oleander, or Margo.

Stating that three-week-old puppies were 'extremely mobile' was an overstatement... at least, when it came to the palest of Viorel Valle's offspring. The cream-furred boy was as chunky and as chubby as arctic wolf mix pups could ever be. In the birthing den, Oleander was half-awake. He was nice and cozy against his sister Marguerite's side when a soft voice called into the darkness. The pup's still-floppy ear straightened as he tilted his head to one side. He recognized it.

The bit of morning light that filtered in went away so abruptly that it startled the pup. Instead of stark shadow, Oleander's blue eyes struggled to focus on the large, dark face. His father and pack Leader.

Tiny jowls parted to show tiny teeth, but he did not move. Not yet. His eyes roved over the bodies of his sisters for a time before he made up his easily distracted mind. He pushed himself up and scooted towards the entrance of the den before shuffling back onto his rump. His button of a nose twitched as he sniffed. I know you, a little wordless whimper relayed. Hello.

they say pray it away, i swear,
OLEANDER VALLE
that I'll never be a saint, no way

She had been dozing in the den with her children, nose tucked to avoid the light creeping from the entrance. She wanted just a little while longer to sleep before getting into the days activities, but a quiet huffed greeting told her it would not go the way she wanted. One eye opened lazily to the sight of her son standing and somewhat haphazardly making his way to the den entrance. A gentle smile appeared on her face at the sight, knowing that it was time for her children to begin exploring the outside world, even if she still wanted to keep them safe where nothing could hurt them.

Clover uncurled her body, giving both her daughters a gentle lick to their faces to wake them up before getting to her own feet and joining Oleander at the den entrance. She pressed a gentle kiss to the top of his head to let him know everything was okay. “It’s okay, you can take your time,” she said encouragingly. It would be a whole new experience for them, and she wanted to give them time to decide themselves when they were ready to take those next steps.

She slipped out of the den, blinking against the stark difference in light, her front end lowering in a deep stretch. A smile was offered Viorel’s way, and she took note of the prey he had come with, as usual. She was ever grateful for his ever dutiful actions to make sure her and their children were taken care of. “It’s about time they left the den for a bit, don’t you think?” Her gaze returned to Oleander at the entrance, wondering if Violet and Marguerite would be as brave as him in stepping outside the den, at least for a short while.

Despite not yet knowing much else in life, Margo quite enjoyed the time she spent lazing about in the den with her siblings and mother. She even liked it when the tubby one slept on top of her small, still-growing frame. Was it comfortable? Not always, sometimes she had a hard time breathing depending on where he flopped his big ole belly. But it was nice in the sense that it had grown familiar, and the pup sure did like familiar.

The little Valle fluttered her developing eyes open after momma made a gentle attempt to wake her. One sibling still seemed to be nearby, but momma was walking away and she couldn't immediately see the chunkier sibling and that both confused and upset Margo thus she wasted no more time in attempting to stand and wobble her way to wherever it was momma was going, all the while being very verbal about how much this whole situation was upsetting her.

She didn't make it far at first. Just a few measly steps before tripping and crashing face first into the earth below. The second attempt went much better. She'd managed to make it twice as many steps, locate her missing sibling near the bright spot of the den where momma was headed, and even noted another familiar figure near that very same bright spot before finally toppling right back onto the ground again. Margo's cries of protest grew louder then. Momma needed to know that whatever it was that was happening right now did not meet her standards in the slightest.

For no reason at all, for no reason that Violet knew, everyone was starting to move towards the unknown. Chunky brother was hesitant, Sister even more so, but Violet did not move a muscle from the back of the den. This last week she had been coping with the awful development of her sense of sight, and she felt completely unprepared and unwilling to experience somewhere that was not here. She was not ready! She was still learning the shape of the dirt and that one pokey hard thing that stuck up out of the Here that she was always tripping on and tried to avoid. How could she handle the Slope if she couldn't even handle a simple root?

Violet began to cry, as she often had these short few weeks that comprised her life. She had so few words, so it probably didn't make a ton of sense to her siblings or her parents. Shutting her eyes, the girl flattened herself to the ground and thought really hard about what it was like being abandoned.

The first thing that the father could make out was the small chubby bodies snuggled together, and then the way Clover was still dozing. Stepping back out of the entrance now that he was assured they were all safe and accounted for he waited to see if the children would join him. He could hear the mother shuffling around and murmuring in an encouraging tone, but could not make out what it was that she said. It would seem that the pups were not overly eager to give up their snoozing and go on an adventure. Suddenly Viorel worried that he had made a mistake in waking them, maybe he should have let Clover make this decision alone?

Thankfully, he did not have to worry about that particular thought for too long. Clover herself was the first to exit the entrance and with her appearance she agreed it was time for them to leave the den for a while. Letting out a silent sigh of relief the dark man nodded in agreement, eyes trained eagerly on the entrance. Smiling softly he teased, ”Of course, once we let them out, it might be a trick to get them back in.” He had no experience, and no way to know how overwhelming this first trip out was for most cubs, and that most did not actually want to spend time out here.

For all his eager watching, Viorel was not met by much actual movement. The peaking of two tiny heads near the entrance, and the sound of a lot of crying, from both girls. Glancing sideways at Clover he was quick to change his previous statement, ”Or maybe not.” Was this normal? Viorel had no way of knowing, maybe he was trying to do this way too early.

Viorel moved away from the den entrance, leaving his son to stare after him in awe. Before his wonderment could get the best of him, he felt a touch to the top of his crown, a kiss from Mama. "It’s okay, you can take your time." She assured him and he let out a small errfff in reply that really meant: Okay, but I'm coming with you.

He gathered his short legs beneath him again so that he stood as tall as he could. His tail wagged as his parents began to speak. The more he feasted his eyes on the world outside, the more his developing eyesight forced him to squint. He hadn't anticipated it all to be so... bright.

"It’s about time they left the den for a bit, don’t you think?"

"Of course, once we let them out, it might be a trick to get them back in."

Behind him, the girls began to cry. One of Oleander's ears went to the side, collecting the sounds of his sisters. His own blue eyes began to tear up.

"Or maybe not." Viorel was obviously let down. This crop was turning out to be a bunch of crybabies.

The pale boy fought and fought, but ultimately an awoooo fled from his tiny lips. Mama was gone and he wanted - no, he needed - more of her voice and encouragement. He leaned forward and tottered out into the open, bathed in the morning sun. His coat became fashioned into a terrible display of gleaming armor. Radiant and glaring. Oleander's eyes shut and he felt around the space in front of him, anguished mewls calling out to his mother. He shuffled forward with uneven steps, unable to find relief until he buried his face into the darkness of Viorel's flank.

they say pray it away, i swear,
OLEANDER VALLE
that I'll never be a saint, no way

She was not surprised at the cries of anguish and distress from the children as she left the den to join Viorel, having fully expected them to be unhappy at the situation, but still feeling that squeezing on her heart at the thought of them being anything but happy and content. Oleander was the first to take any steps beyond the den entrance, wobbling blindly until he fell into Viorel's flank, and she let out a soft sigh, the corners of her mouth downturned in a slight frown. Perhaps it was a bit too much to ask them to leave the den quite yet, maybe another few days of encouraging them to simply sit at the den entrance was needed first.

Clover pressed another kiss to her son's head, glancing up at Viorel with a nod to let him know she was happy for him to keep Oleander occupied while she went back to their two daughters who had yet to fully emerge. With a couple hurried steps she returned to Margo who was still loudly protesting at the den entrance, and lay down on her stomach so she was face-to-face with the small girl. Her muzzle gently nuzzled at Margo's face, allowing her tongue to swipe over her cheeks and nose, soft chuffs leaving her own maw in an attempt to soothe Margo. "It's okay my darling, you can stay inside here if you want."

She spent a good few moments consoling her first daughter before her attention was brought to Violet who had yet to even move, and was still letting out unhappy cries that pulled at her heart. Sure that Margo would be alright, perhaps even happy that she was back inside the den with them, Clover made her way back to Violet, letting out soft soothing croons as she nuzzled her partially hidden face. "Don't cry, everything is okay. I'm here," she said in a soft voice, snuffling against Violet's face in an attempt to distract the girl enough that she would stop crying. The sound of her children being unhappy was too much for her to bear, and she would do anything to make it all better.

Momma's words of comfort calmed Margo down instantly in a way that she couldn't quite understand. She wasn't even 100% sure what the kind woman had just said to her, but whatever it was it seemed to encourage the tiny pup well enough. The small Valle watched as her mother went to comfort the other pup that she liked well enough and then looked ahead into the bright hole once more. Maybe it wasn't so bad. After all, momma went out and came back perfectly fine so maybe she could too, if her tiny little legs would permit it that was.

It took about three more horrible crashes into the dirt before Margo finally made her way to the den entrance, and from there she decided to take a seat. She wasn't outside of the den, but the girl could see what was going on well enough and to her that meant she'd travelled as far as she was going to for today. She could see the big man with the nice voice that came to visit them a lot out there, and she could also see her missing sibling. They appeared to be doing well, and that put the Valle in an even better mood. No more tears for now, but she did still miss that peaceful sleep she'd been having. "Bubububu"

The whole encounter left Viorel feeling awkward and guilty. It twisted his stomach and he couldn’t help but to start to pull away from the whole thing, he should have left the parenting to Clover. Shifting on his paws uncomfortably as the woman comforted their children he murmured, ”I guess they’re still too young.” Looking over his shoulder back towards the main den, he searched desperately for an excuse to get out of here.

Finally, he forced a smile, ”Well. Maybe next time, I’m sorry I got everyone so worked up.” His voice was tight in his attempt to disguise his guilt and disappointment, but the attempt was mostly a failure. ”I had best get back to the caches, lots of mouths to feed.” Without meeting the woman in the eye, he reached his muzzle down and gave each child a gentle brush against their crowns, and turned tail and left quickly. This had not gone the way he was hoping at all.

FADE