Silver Creek bad rock

Their mother had never returned and Laurel's life consisted of moments where she missed her mother, but also many moments in which she was totally fine. She was still young and somehow she often just thought that her mother would return at some point, that she was only out for a little while. Yet days went by and their mother never did return, like Milo, while Laurel and Indra grew bigger each day.

The sun was shining when Laurel bounced out of the den. She wasn't going anywhere in particular but soon she noticed a glint to her left and changed direction, turning upon her helpless prey in an instant. Laurel pounced with her trademark "BAAAAAH!" and snatched her prey between her front paws while her milk teeth lashed out to grab it.

Much to her dismay, her prey wasn't a bug or plant or something else that was soft and edible — it was a hard piece of shiny rock and Laurel cried out in dismay, jumping up into the air, as her teeth crunched down on it.

Hallo. :D

Oh for... the old lady grumbled as she heard one of the girls cry out. They were old enough now to wander bits of Silver Creek as they pleased, but, although they were now being raised by the pack and not one individual, Shreya sometimes found this was more trouble than it was worth.

Surprisingly, the creaky Delta was first on the scene, and she saw what had happened almost immediately. What's that Laur, bite a rock did you? Come here and get a hug, she insisted, bleary eyes surveying the scene.

ty for joining :D

When she turned around, Shreya was upon her almost immediately. Laurel looked back when she heard Shreya's voice and her bottom lip wobbled a sad note as she was asked if she'd gone and bit a rock. "Ya," she answered with a tragic note in her voice.

Laurel moved on over to Shreya and pressed herself against her chest to receive the promised hug. "Thought it was bug!" This she said with all the outrage in the world, as if it was all the rock's fault for being bug-looking.

My pleasure!

Given Laurel's age and the soft state of her teeth and gums, now was not the time for her to go biting rocks. So she brought the bug-catcher gently into a hug, resting her muzzle briefly on the top of her head. Poor silly thing.

There there, murmured the croaky elder. Now open up, let's have a look at the old chompers, she proposed, drawing back so she could survey the damage — if any had indeed been done.

Laurel's woes were quickly forgotten in the arms of attention. At Shreya's request to show her teeth, Laurel opened wide with a compliant "aaaaaaaa".

One of Laurel's (baby teeth) incissors had come loose and blood was flowing from her mouth now. There was no telling if it'd been loose previously, though some of the incissors had begun to wiggle a little lately, ready to be replaced by their bigger replacements.

Shreya had a close look at the damaged mouth. Luckily, the tooth hadn't dug into the gum — it had just come loose. Prematurely loose, of course, but it would be harmless in the long run she was quite sure.

Alright, let's get this cleaned up at the river, she suggested, leading the way. Don't fiddle with it, m'kay? It would be hard for the pup to resist prodding the tooth with her tongue, but she'd have to do her best.

Laurel nodded at Shreya when she was instructed not to fiddle with it and she followed her to the river. Of course, being a defiant little child, Laurel was rummaging around with it non-stop, tasting her blood and poking her tongue at the hole created by the loose tooth. It felt funny, but she decided not to share that with Shreya 'cause she hadn't been allowed to poke at it in the first place.

As they walked Laurel asked, her voice funny because she was still poking her tongue at the hole where her tooth was once, "Is my dad really a bad wolf?" She looked up expectantly at Shreya; she knew Spring hadn't wanted to tell her more, just that he was bad and he had hurt mom, and that she should stay away from him. Maybe Shreya would elaborate more.

As they trotted to the river, Laurel brought up a good question, and Shreya moved to walk at her side rather than in front of her. No, Reek's grandmother answered easily enough. He's a medium wolf. It was complicated, but Shreya, being old, had long got to grips with complicated.

You see, some wolves are good and some wolves are bad — but most of them are just medium. Somewhere in between. That's because most wolves do good things and bad things. For example, I know a girl who ate all her supper up last night like a very good pup... but then, when I told her not to fiddle with her tooth, she did fiddle with it. Very naughty.

Laurel tilted her head as Shreya said that her father was a medium wolf. She corrected, "Not size!" But before she could tack on anything more, Shreya already began to explain what she meant with her words. There were good, bad and medium wolves, apparently. Laurel was pretty sure she was a good kind of wolf. But if her father was a medium kind of wolf, then why had Spring told her that he was bad? It made no sense.

"Oooh, that's naughty of her!" Laurel said and she giggled. She knew that this was about her, but she didn't look caught or guilty at all. "Why does Spring say my dad is a really bad mean wolf and we gotta stay away from him if he's just medium?" she asked then, inquiring eyes once more upon Shreya as she posed the question. All of this talk was making her curious to meet her real dad, especially because of the conflicting stories!

Of course things were more complicated than that, but only so much depth could be described to such a young thing. The important point, Shreya realised, was to tell her a child-friendly version of the truth, explain the importance of a grey area, and give Laurel the respect and space to think it through on her own terms.

She smiled at the girl's cheekiness, and responded to the question as they reached the river. I had a word with Spring about that, she said. You've never met your dad, and the pack — your guardians — aren't comfortable with him because of the naughty things he's done. That's the long reason why you have to stay away from him. But luckily, she added, you don't have to worry about that for now, because he's nowhere to be seen. She paused with mock-suspicion. and moved her good paw to peer under a rock. Hmm no, he's not even under this rock.

At Shreya's words, Laurel instantly felt a kinship to him. She was naughty sometimes, too. The things he'd done couldn't have been that bad, could they? Laurel listened to the words and found admiration growing for this mysterious father of hers, and a desire to meet him some day.

Yet Shreya was quick to quench her enthusiasm with a reminder that he was nowhere nearby right now. She felt disappointed at first, but was quickly distracted once more when Shreya turned a rock upside down and Laurel looked under it, even though she kinda knew he wouldn't be under there. She giggled when Shreya said that he wasn't hiding there either and exclaimed: "My dad's not a midget, silly!" Or... She thought he wasn't — was he?

Shreya peered pensively under the rock until she decided that no, he was not there. But then she straightened to regard Laurel, and raised her brow with surprise. He's not? Then why are you so teensy?! she challenged, and gave the girl a mischievous tickle.

Laurel fell to the ground giggling when Shreya called her tiny and startled to tickle her. Her tummy was thoroughly tickled and she giggled as she squeaked, "NOOOT TEENSYYY!" in disagreement with the name she was dubbed, while she squirmed on the ground, both trying to get away from and liking the tickling.

Shreya tickled her ferociously, and gave a light bark of laughter at the response.
Come on, she said once the hysterics had died down, let's have a drink and clean out that tooth of yours. The old wolf padded to the river and opened her maw to drink, leading by example.

"Okay!" Laurel agreed and she giddily followed Shreya down to the river, her tail wiggling in excitement as she followed Shreya's example and leaned down to drink. Then they would clean her tooth best they could, and although it looked bloody when mingled with the water there wasn't any permanent damage, as the baby tooth would've come out to make space for its replacement anyway.

Good time to fade? <3

Shreya chuckled lightly at Laurel's enthusiasm for washing her mouth out. This was classic behaviour from the girl, she had learnt. And she hoped that the pup's sweet attitude would venture onwards into adulthood and bring her strength that came from the will to keep enjoying life.