The world was changing.
It had taken her a little while to notice it, this time. At first, it had been darkness and warmth, safety and predictability surrounding her in as close an embrace as the physical walls of the womb. But very suddenly it had grown less predictable—her little planet became much, much bigger all at once, and she had found herself sharing it both with bigger presences that appeared and disappeared (occasionally and most inconveniently rearranging or sometimes—horror of horrors!—washing her before they vanished) and smaller, squirmier creatures who stayed constant—and constantly battled with her at the milk bar, every time it came time to eat, the little beasts. She showed them what was what, though. With the sudden addition of differing patches of warmth and cold, the strange sensations of coarse earth and stone beneath her paws at some times and tantalizingly soft fur and skin at others...someone had been screwing with the thermostat and switching out some stage props who really shouldn't have been, obviously! Talos didn't know why things needed to be changed up in so uncooperatively dramatic a fashion. She was going to have some Words with The Management, just as soon as she figured out who they were and why they insisted on upending things again and again, not to mention taking away the world's only and best food source before she was done sucking it all down, every last time. This was a stupid way of them to run things, indeed.
This time around, though, the changes were a faint and gradual dawning, a slow and misty changing that took awhile to process. The alien sensation she could only just barely begin to make out, the bright mist off to one side serving as a distinct contrast to the other much darker gloom off in the other direction... they hadn't been here the week before, and now suddenly, it clicked in her tiny brain that these things now were. The first and tiniest of cracks had appeared at one corner of her deep black eyelids, with the first glimmer of an eye peeping out from underneath. Talos raised her coal puffball of a head and wobbled it back and forth, experimenting. Someplace off toward the darker end of the world were the three warm lumps of her brothers. Off toward that brightness, though... there was a weaker but far more fascinating warmth that seemed to be increasing along with the light. What was this?
It took a minute and several grunts of effort to get herself turned toward it. She stuck her wrinkled black nose curiously up into the bright source, fascinated by the way its heat played across her fur even if the blinding, all-consuming light caused that tiny crevasse of eyeball to water in response. Talos paddled her legs in determination, and began to wallow her way out, up, and away, resolving to leave the more-familiar concentrated warmth and dark behind and chase down this strange new source of heat and light. Neither of the big ones were here to stop her, after all, so maybe, just maybe she could claim it for her own—and not have to share it with any of her greedy little brothers, so there.
samothes has not made an effort to visit the durnevhiir's den -- something tells him the severe woman would prefer visits from non-family to a minimum, and frankly, he's not a big fan of children in the first place.
but at some point it is proper protocol, he figures, to make sure all is well with the new generation, the happy parents, et cetera. plus he has done little to assert himself since their arrival in swiftcurrent creek, focused more on his sister and friend than on their swelling numbers. it's not on for a gamma.
the svelte-figured messeda decides to fix this little faux pas, spending his morning acquiring a decently sized trout from the lake southward to bring as a gift. he arrives, fish in mouth, just in time to watch a dark, wriggling creature attempting to worm free of the dark safety of the den. blinking, samothes looks around, hoping for some sort of parental figure to appear and step in. when one doesn't, he drops the fish with a resigned sigh and somewhat hesitantly moves toward the child, reaching to nudge it with his nose back toward the den. "come now, i'm sure your parents would prefer you stayed in there," he reasons with the pup, hoping it will go back easily.
She was like a living drop of shadow herself, silent and stealthy and stealing across the ground with the greatest of ease as the mysterious light beckoned her alluringly onward...! Well. In her mind, at least. In reality, her wallowing progress wasn't getting her terribly far, or in even a very straight line toward her goal. Still, as Talos oozed in first one direction and then the other with her stocky coal-furred limbs flailing crookedly away, she was bound and determined not to bedeafeated. No matter how arduous the journey, no matter how difficult the obstacles in her way, her quest would succeed!
Except that the wet splat of a strange new monster reverberated through the earth before her. Talos reared her head back in surprise, her mouth forming a little "o." Then, as the huge smelly thing failed to immediately jump forward and eat her, she jabbed her nose back out in its direction, sniffing inquiringly. What the hell was this thing? It seemed to be stationary, but its smell was both fascinating and overwhelming and wet. Talos hobbled forth to give the thing an inquiring poke and demand some answers from it, but she was thwarted by another, even larger source of unfamiliar scent, one much hairer and alike yet unlike the most familiar smells of her world. What was this?! It was sticking its big fat head in the way of her goal! Oh no, it wasn't here to haul her back and give her yet another of those dreaded baths, was it?! Talos wailed in protest at the very thought, and flailed blindly at the big nose that Samothes had stuck out in her direction. Leave the adventurer princess alone, you big bully! She fiercely targeted him with her most unwelcoming thoughts—I can hurt you with my brain! Right?!—and hoped her outswiped claws and yelling at him might change his mind. Surely such a fearsome array of weaponry could not fail to topple even the hairiest, stinkiest, and most determined of dragons. Surely.
the girl's confusion when confronted with the fish -- nearly her size, my god! -- are amusing, he'll allow for that, he's not heartless. but every moment that passes with him trying to reason with her is one moment closer to durnevhiir's inevitable arrival, upon which she will surely eviscerate him for being too close to her children unsupervised. believe it or not, the messeda boy has a healthy respect for (read: fear of) mothers. his family was damn near matriarchal.
she does not listen to his perfectly reasonable request, instead making an attempt at attacking his beautiful face. fortunately for all involved, her tiny claws do little, as uncoordinated as her movements are. samothes sighs. "i see you won't listen to reason," he tells her grimly, and lifts his head, staying positioned to prevent her from trying to dart past him. "i don't believe durnevhiir will appreciate me entering her den," samothes says, as if she will understand him, "but i can't exactly let you wander off, either. where are your parents, anyway?"
a quick glance confirms their absence still (at least as far as he can tell, not wanting to take attention off this renegade child if he can help it). drat. "are you sure you wouldn't rather be inside your nice, cozy den?" he pleads, using a paw to try and scooch her back into the den's warm embrace.
Poor foolish Samothes. His words, his attempts to redirect and aid, they are indeed entirely reasonable—but reasonable is a not a word that is yet in this pup's vocabulary, in any sense. And even if she had known where her parents were lurking, she certainly wouldn't have confessed their location to this interfering beast, of all people! His big rude head was not giving way to her ineptly flailing paws or her valiant attempts at mind control, so she loosed her fiercest growl—a wavering, high-pitched rrrroowl that was not in the least frightening to anything larger than a pillbug—and thrust her head forward in a creditable attempt at a headbutt, for one with so wobbly and weak of a small black neck. That should teach him! Not for nothing was Talos the biggest and most powerful of all the puppies she knew! (All whopping four of them. "Hrair" was a pretty impressive number, though, right?)
She cannot understand his words, but the murmurs of his voice reverberate through the earth and air in a manner she can vaguely sense, especially this close to his face, but yet stubbornly ignores. She then follows up her tiny headbutt with another most-fearsome-of-puppy-growls and several more swipes of her paws. Then Samothes pokes a much larger paw in her direction, and Talos with cutthroat eagerness latches on to it as best she can. All four paws, the entire length of her stubby black legs, the curvature of her belly she commands to wrap about this offending adult's paw like a python! It is doubtful this attack is going to do much to Samothes either, but it does at least finally enable the poor boy to sweep Talos's stubby little body back into the dirt hall leading down into the den proper. Talos, feeling and faintly seeing the sunshine's rays disappear from her face, transmutes her little growl into a frustrated yip of surprise. Nooooo! You can't do this to me! You big bully! She bobs her head up and down at as ferocious a tempo as she can manage, and hopes to strike and discourage the giant's poking hairy toes in the process. Nice cozy dens could go right to hell! Talos wanted sunshine, the great outdoors, and freedom!
sorry for the wait!
it seems escape is not on the agenda for either of them. her parents are nowhere to be seen -- samothes' best hope is to keep her occupied until her small form grows tired and gives up. she's an infant; surely it won't take too long.
he hopes.
there's something admirable in her fighting spirit that under different circumstances the messeda boy might let himself be charmed by. currently it is aggravating. puppy teeth hurt. he sucks in a deep breath, fighting the urge to do anything that might upset the delicate creature (again, mostly for fear of their frankly terrifying mother) -- and feels triumph surge through him when she's finally sent back into the safety of her den. "ha!" he cheers, and then, "ow!" as she resumes her assault on his poor abused toes. but he's trapped -- if he concedes an inch she'll surely take it -- and so with great resignation samothes settles on the ground, his lean form a barricade against freedom.
Exhaustion weighed heavily on her eyelids, and the russet Alphess struggled to keep herself from drifting in and out of sleep. With @Viinturuth restless and keen to give one of his brothers a swift kick in the face, she remained torn between preventing an outburst and leaving them to sort their own hierarchy between them.
She nudged her palest son to her flank, bumping his tiny rear with the tip of her snout and guiding him rather roughly toward a teat - an offering of distraction to prevent the frustration among his litter-mates that she didn't have the energy to deal with. He latched, and the world around them turned quiet. Peace, perfect peace.
Durnehviir drifted into light slumber and when a voice beyond her den roused her, she instinctively curled herself protectively around her baby dragons. She leaned over them, nares hovering over each little body as she counted - one, two, three... where's number four!?
She gathered herself onto her paws, eyes frantically scanning the nest with the worry that she may have accidentally lay atop her darkest child. The tone of another's voice at the mouth of her hollow caused her to bristle with uncertainty, though her hackles promptly flattened with recognition. Of all her pack-mates, the Messeda boy is perhaps the only one she would trust around her babes.
She stepped over her three contained cubs and poked her head outside, ginger ears thrust forward and pale gaze finding the bold Talos tormenting the one who dared block her path. A smirk tugged the corner of her mouth and she stepped into the clearing, tail wagging. "Having fun?"
No problem—been dragging a little bit myself of late, too! ...Also, hi mom! XD <3 Good to have you here as well, lol.
She flails and fights, stubbornly banging a tattoo against the enormous paw she has tried and failed to enwrap with her stubby black body. The only change is for her to feel dirt beneath her butt as the big hairy monster standing between her and freedom changes his position, to instead
lay between her and freedom now. Needless to say, this is
not what Talos had in mind! She yodels out another protest before switching tactics herself. As she opens her jaws wide she can still smell the interesting wet-and-salty thing somewhere beyond the monster's big smelly bulk, but more faintly now, and in time starting to get overpowered by the growing scent of Mother as well.
Talos grumbles as she clings to Samothes's paw and tries to clamp her jaws around one of his toes in punishment. They are just
too darn big for her to make much headway, but she gives it a valiant try. Her energy seems like it may finally be flagging, but she doesn't let that weaken her stumpy coal-furred legs' grip. Her hijinks are likely to be interrupted soon, she is vaguely aware, but before the Fun Police inevitably come to take her away and return her to the milk bar Talos is bound and determined that this big bully of an interfering wolf learn to never again even
think about thwarting her plans and stealing her sunshine. So there!
he's foiled her, blessedly, wincing at the scrape and poke of her teeth but otherwise resigned to his fate. and then who shall make an appearance but their dear mother? samothes tenses in alarm, prepared to be punished for his proximity, but durnevhiir seems more amused by his predicament than anything else. yeah, yeah, yuck it up.
"she's... willful," he says, relaxing a degree as he realises he's not about to meet a cruel fate under her teeth. after a beat, samothes adds, "i brought you a fish," rising to his feet now that he's not the only one here to play referee with the tiny thing stuck to his toes. gently he nudges her toward her mother once more before grabbing the fish and placing it within durnevhiir's reach. "i trust all has been going well?"
Durnehviir reached out for her rogue child as Samothes gently nudged her forward. Carefully, the russet Queen collected the cub between her jaws and turned away, stepping down into her hollow to settle the only daughter among her other children. Although there was likely objection of Talos' part, Durnehviir left her to wail it out and moved out to thank Samothes for his kindness.
"It's been going great," she assured her comrade with a soft sway of her tail, and is content to engage him in conversation before duty summons him elsewhere. She collects his offering and returns to her litter, glad for a meal to satisfy her never-ending hunger.