went up the water spout

To the rendezvous sure for @Whittier @Swift @Allure II and @Pasha ! Tagging @Scimitar @Kaskara @Kieran @Tryphon - I figure this is OK since they're about ten weeks now? Adults, feel free to assume that  Bazi just decided this without input, because she is a bossy-pants.

Bazi felt guilty. She had spent more time away from her children lately than nature would have liked - not much more, but enough to leave a mark on her conscience. She had just been so.. distracted, in the wake if Danica's death and the reaching arms of inter-pack tensions that had finally caught up to the them from the South. She gave the latter less thought than the first, preferring to escape into the play-pretend world she had constructed for herself in the Emberwood. It was quiet there, and calm.

But no more. The pups were old enough to be weaned and set loose on the forest - within reason. She roused them early, brusquely - it had become her parenting style by default. "We're leaving the den," she instructed in a firm but calm voice, looking into their dimly lit faces. Two pale, two dark. All of them different, strange, and full of unrealised potential. Her sacrifice.

They walked up the slope, heading for the peak. Mom first, children in a disorganised tumble behind her. Bazi have them free rein - if Whittier was left behind, he would just have to use his nose. The trees thinned and grew taller, stretching high into the waking sky, and the terrain became an undulating scatter of rock, earth, and foliage. No child of hers would grow up on a cushion.

When they finally arrived, the first rays of sunshine had cut their way down, piercing the crest of their very own Pride Rock.

He was distracted as he followed his mother, and thus strayed behind her and his siblings, scuttling off to either side of the trail Bazi laid. By the time they arrived at the rendezvous site, he had a mouthful of plants, some he had not collected before and some he had. As he had done at the den, he found a flat rock and laid them out on it. Then he set to work: here was a new place to explore, and he hardly let his paws rest before he moved to scour their new surroundings.

Allure didn’t truly understand what Bazi had meant by her statement, but the bi-toned girl was happy enough to follow after her mother. Her strides were clumsy in comparison to her graceful mother, but she managed to keep pace.. and every so often would cast her siblings a playful nip.

When they arrived, the girl would press her cheek to her mother’s forearm, peering across the clearing with bright aqua eyes. She was perfectly content to explore, and while Swift tore away from them to do so, the pudgy baby found herself loping behind him, too entranced by the different smells to even give his tail a tug. “Wade up, Sift,” she babbled, a frown crossing her ebony features as she toddled after her far more adventurous brother.

Whit had not wanted to go.  He hadn't realized that this venture away from the den would be a permanent one.  If he had, he would've been even more disgruntled over it, particularly when the terrain they traversed upon grew rockier and slantier.  The chubby boy was a fan of creature comforts and to leave his bed in the first place was enough to put him in a sour mood.  Now, after however long he'd been forced to walk (and to run even, considering he did NOT want to get left behind regardless of how it seemed his mother tried), Whittier was quite ready to throw one hell of a temper tantrum when finally they did stop.

Fortunately, he was too exhausted for that.  Whit waddled slowly up to his family as his siblings went their separate ways to explore.  His sides trembled as he panted heavily, finally flopping himself down on the ground at Bazi's paws to try and catch his breath.  There were tears in his eyes when he finally pointed his stubby muzzle up to his mother and whined.  "Maaa... firstyyyy," he whimpered pathetically, leaning over to place a few kisses sweetly on her forearm in hopes that it would coax her into taking him to get a drink since he was so very over doing things for himself.

Allure, Swift, and Pasha dispersed almost immediately, breaking away to sniff out their new surroundings. Only Whittier remained, gazing tearfully up at his mother. The move was not agreeing with him, and frankly, Bazi was surprised that he had made it this far without losing his shit. She looked down into his pitiful face, willing herself to push him off and away - to tell him that he was perfectly capable of finding water without help. But she was not invincible to Whittier's sweet, plump little face, and eventually he cracked her.

"Fine, fine," the defeated mother agreed with a sigh. The boy deserved a drink of water for making it this far, and the Bitcurrent wasn't far off. "Come on, peanut," she urged, cooling his face with a few sloppy kisses before she set off - slowly, this time - in the direction of running water. It could be heard from where they were standing, but Whittier looked like he might be at the end of his short little puppy tether.

His sister called after him, and he turned his head and slowed his steps to wait for her to catch up. Once she was with him, he dropped his nose and resumed his search with Allure presumably following along. He arrived at a one plant, and gestured to it with his paw, before moving ahead. Next he found some tall grass that was blanketed in cobweb, and he gestured to it as well as his tail wagged, please with his findings. Finally, a soft carpet of moss. This he took to himself, gathering chunks of it in his mouth. Now he looked to see how his sister made out.

Swift’s fascination of plants was not something that the little girl shared – but his attention and time was something she reveled in, and so the pup trotted after her brother, attempting to experience everything he did with a simplistic approach of monkey see monkey do. While Bazi aided Whittier in his quest of a drink, Allure was busy inspecting the grass and cobwebs her other brother had points out to her, unsure of what his true interest was with them.

When he took to gathering moss, the black and white Frostfur mimicked these motions, her own eyes glancing up to see if this was what he wanted help with – collecting green stuff.

Whittier's pathetic display successfully tugged his mother's heartstrings and set her into motion. He wagged his tail happily as she caved and gave him a few kisses, for which he offered up his face quite willingly. He pulled himself up onto all fours at her urging and followed, even though his little legs were on the verge of going on strike.

The stream wasn't too far, and though Whit was exhausted, he bounced quickly forward the moment he saw it. He ran straight into it until the water came up to his belly at which point he paused to slake his thirst. His tail was wagging like crazy as he drank. It was almost as though the water had completely washed away the journey he had just had, for once he lifted his head after drinking, he lifted his paws to begin splashing about, giggling as he did so.

In all honesty, it was a burst of energy that would last for about five minutes at best, but that didn't matter. Whit was enjoying himself after a long, long trip, and he was perfectly happy in the moment.

Mission completed. Allure and Swift set about gathering greens - not a habit she really wanted her daughter to pick up, but she empathized with the little girl's plight. Swift wasn't interested in much else, and it was almost impossible to distract him once he had set his heart on a six-hour stretch of collecting, sorting, and storing.

She settled by the stream to watch all four children. Pasha soon joined Whittier at the edge of the water - hopefully, the presence of playmate would keep him from slumping in a corner and taking a nap. Bazi, however, was entirely deserving of a snooze. Still upright, she allowed herself to drift off, one eye following the movements of her four dependents like Sauron on his mountaintop.

Last Bazi post!

last post :)

It did not occur to him that what he expected of his sister was no where near reasonable, just like it did not occur to him that his affinity for plants and his knowledge was extremely perplexing to those around him. When he gestured to the plant and cobweb, he believed it obvious that he wanted it collected, but his sister did not do so. She did, however, take to gathering moss like he had, and when he looked and saw her mouth full of the stuff, he smiled broadly. None of his other siblings had ever taken the time to help him, and he was so pleased at this he did not even take note of the plant and cobweb she had missed. He gestured with his head for her to follow him, where he would take his gathered moss and lay it in a small hole he had dug that housed a variety of sun-dried foliage, before he settled down to doze.

me too!

Whittier paid little attention to whatever else was going on about him. Swift and Allure were being boring and playing with plants, and though he usually abandoned whatever task he set himself to if his mother didn't join him, he was unusually distracted by his play in the stream. When eventually he tired, the chubby pup would hop back up onto dry land and snuggle his sopping wet self right up against his dozing mother - not likely to be a happy wake up for her, but it promised to be a happy start to naptime for the fat little cuddlebug.

Believing it a good deed done on her end – mouth stuffed full of moss, and time spent her brother, Swift’s beaming smile only encouraged her further, and while she would not likely ever take on his love for plants.. she did love him and would take the time to do things he would like as well.

Following her pale brother, the girl settled her own moss beside his, and as he curled up to have a nap, she would slide her way beside him, tiny nose snuffling in to his side where she too would fall victim to the well loved nap.