Stone Circle this common blood

For @Sunny and @Dawn, pretty please <3 Runs parallel to this thread. Slight PP of Adeline, let me know if I should change anything, Mary Ellen!

Day woke as day broke, blinking his eyes open at the sound of a howl. His ears twitched in question as he stood and exited the den, shaking off his pelt before glancing back to be sure that the other inhabitants of the den were still fast asleep. The answer appeared to be yes, but that would soon change.

Tipping his head back, Day howled his own good morning back at @Steady. He'd been taking the night shift, lately, sleeping during the day and patrolling at night, but in light of recent events, Day had been sure to change up his schedule every few nights. It was good to be able to spend the nights curled up with Addie and the kids, even though he knew the older girl was perfectly capable of keeping them warm.

The truth was, he was still terrified. Even though the event had passed, even though Sunny was out of danger. Day was terrified, and he didn't know how to fix it. He didn't know what to do. And what he wanted was to drop the kids off with Steady and Valette, or Krytpon or Mara - where they would be safe, because he was obviously doing a terrible job. But this whole thing had happened because he hadn't been around, and Day was determined to be a better father.

And that meant actually being around his kids.

After saying a quick goodbye to Adeline, Day roused both his children and began herding them away, desiring to have a day with just the three of them to reconnect. He'd shared these plans with Addie during a late night the week prior. Things like that had become sort of normal - there wasn't much he didn't tell her nowadays.

"There's something I want to talk to you two about," Day said softly, stopping when they'd reached the meadow, where the early-morning sun could reach down and warm their fur. He turned a few circles and laid in the grass, creating a warm daybed upon which his children could shelter.

Sunny opened his eyes, jerking at the touch against his fur though settling down again once he saw it was his father. He huffed a sigh and straightened himself out, forelgs out in front of his chest as he looked up at Gray. He opened his mouth to complain, to say he wanted to just curl up and sleep more like he had been doing for days sine the attack, but his father began to herd him out of the den beside Dawn.Once out of the den he squinted his eyes against the sun, turning his face away completely.

His father spoke about needing to say something, and sunny looked up at him silently before nodding "okay...go ahead" his voice was somewhat listless though there was a small light of curiosity in his gaze.

PPing Dawn in this thread

Dawn, though usually a Daddy's girl, decided to sit with her brother in an ever-more-common show of solidarity. Day tried not to let it bother him, but it still cut deep that his children were growing more distant from his heart. At least they can grow stronger togther, he thought.

"I haven't been a very good dad to you two," he said without preamble. "I wasn't around enough when you were little and I'm not around enough now. And I'm sorry about that."

He huffed a little sigh and took a deep breath before going on. "It was hard for me when Mama left. I didn't know how to take care of you, and in a lot of ways, I still don't. But I'm going to try harder, okay? I'm gonna be around more, and I'm gonna protect you, even though you're both gettin' bigger now."

It was hard to realize that they were almost past the need for protection, at this point. He'd been a wandering soldier by this age, having been considered capable enough to find his way home by the pack. But things were different here - there was hunger, danger. Even from fellow wolves. "Can you two forgive me?" he asked softly, looking more toward Sunny than Dawn.

Sunny didn't undertsand why gray was apologizing. His father was there whenever sunny really needed him, and that was all that mattered to him. It didn't matter that Grayday hadn't played with him or had silly sentimental moments, it matter that when Sunny was crying Gray was there to wipe the tears, It mattered that when he was attacked by that vile woman on the borders, Gray was to the rescue.

With a Tilt of his head sunny looked at his father "Nothing to forgive daddy. You were here when i really needed you" he said softly and moved forward, tail wagging slowly behind him as he pushed his way underneath his father's chin, placing affectionate licks against his throat.

:'D These threads kill me

Day couldn't stop his tail from wagging at Sunny's easy reply, echoed sweetly by Dawn. Guilt still festered in the pit of his stomach, but his heart swelled with love and relief at being so quickly forgiven - at being told there was nothing to forgive. The words of a pup had never meant so much to him, but this was his son. He meant everything.

"I have some exciting news, too," he said with a wily grin, gathering his children closer to him. "We're gonna go on an adventure soon - just the three of us. There's a place next door that I want you two to see, and I want you to get used to travelling. If you're good, we might take a bigger adventure in the springtime. There's a whole big world I want to show you guys."

It was necessary, in part, but Day didn't consider this a chore. It would be sad to leave Easthollow, even just for a little while, but he knew that he and his children would have a grand old time exploring the wilds. He wanted to take them to the ocean, to the mountains, to the edges of the map. Maybe then they'd never feel the need to wander far from him. If he gave them the world, maybe they wouldn't need to find it for themselves.

Grayday had him at 'Adventure' and Sunny began to wiggle excitedly, staring up at his father with wide and eager eyes. They were gonna go on a trip together? Just him,Dawn,and Daddy Gray? That sounded amazing and fun and exciting and awesome and cool and...so many other things! Sunny got to his paws and grasped Gray's forelegt gently within his jaws, tugging gently "Lets go now! Please? I wanna see everything!" he begged.

A hearty laugh escaped him at Dawn and Sunny's excited antics. He'd known they'd be thrilled by the idea, but it was different to expect something and then actually see it.

"We can't leave just yet," he said firmly, tail lashing in delight. "There are some rules we have to go over first, and then we need to get some good nights of sleep, and some nice, hearty meals before we go."

He leveled them each with a serious stare. "Are you ready to listen to the rules?"

Sunny knew a serious moment when he saw it, so he placed his rear flat against the ground though he couldn't help the excited wiggling that still happened. With a silent nod and attentive gaze, he looked up at his father eagerly his ears perked forward as his every fiber was focused on his father. 

so sorry! shit post

When Sunny and Dawn were both (seeming to be) paying attention, Grayday took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts.

"Rule number one," he said, looking between his two little monsters, "both of you must always be within leaping distance, unless I tell you it's okay to wander. And even then, you have to stay close enough that I could reach you quickly, if something were to happen.

"Rule number two - if you see a stranger, tell me at once, and then stay back and behind me until I tell you it's alright." He didn't expand on this one, as he knew both his children now had a healthy wariness of strange wolves.

"Rule number three - take care of each other. No matter what happens, we must stay together. If you lose track of me, you must stick with each other, and stay where I can find you. Your dad has a good nose, and if you don't wander far, I'll be able to find you," he assured them, giving them each a lick on the cheek. "If you practice hard, you two might make good trackers one day, too. We'll be doing a lot of hunting on our trip, so I'm sure you'll have plenty of opporutnities to find out."

Listening closely he repeated each rule out loud "Stay within leaping distance, tell daddy about stranger and then hide behind him, and....and...oh! stick together at all times!" he finished with a wiggle of pride as he grinned up at his father. Turning to give Dawn and affectionate Nudge he whispered "I would never leave my sister, I can protect her good!" he said as he looked at Dawn with adoration. The female pup gave sunny a half hearted glare and hissed "I can protect you too" with a sense of desperation. No matter what Dawn said Sunny would always be her protector, even more so when they grew older perhaps.

The father's tail whipped back and forth over his back - nothing pleased him more than to see his children growing up so well, so protective of each other. It was good that they didn't squabble as he and his own littermates had. Day felt as though he must've done something right to have been blessed with a family like this.

"We'll have to protect each other," he said firmly, "When we leave this territory, we will be each other's home. We will have no one else to go to or rely on - only each other."

He gave the two a warm look, dropping the serious manner of the conversation.

"We'll leave in a few weeks, so sleep late, run hard, and eat until your bellies are full. We'll be fitting hunting lessons somewhere in there as well," he instructed. "Now, what to you two want to do for the rest of the day?"

Hunting lessons? Sunny knew exactly what he wanted to do! "Can we practice now?" he asked hopefully. Adeline had already taught him some things about hunting, like how to place his body and stuff but he hadn't been able to test it out quite yet.

When Sunny's request was echoed by Dawn, Grayday knew that there would be no getting out of it - not that he wanted to. He was done trying to get away from his children. He loved them, and they were his, and that meant he got to teach them how to hunt.

"Alright, c'mon," he said gamely, standing and leading the pair away from the meadow and into the little glade near the north-western edge of the territory. "We're gonna hunt some turkeys, okay? They can't bite you, but they'll peck you if you let them," he warned, smiling to show that this was not something to be anxious about. They had claws as well, but Grayday was not too concerned about his kids getting scratches. Scratches healed, and he'd gotten plenty of scrapes and bruises as a cub.

"We have to find them first," he instructed. "So let's sniff around and see if we can catch their trail. It's a kind of dusty, woody scent - like most bird feathers."

Sunny had never seen turkey or heard of them, but was eager to hunt them anyway. The smell of wood and dust was familiar to him, sometimes this dusty cloud filled the air when he rolled in some dry dirt. And wood? There were trees all over the place, so that was simple! He tried to imagine how they would smell together and wrinkled his nose in Concentration, as he though. He then nodded slowly to himself as he lowered his nose to the ground, and sniffed hesitantly. Taking a few steps forward he sniffed again. He couldn't smell anything but grass and dirt yet, but he wouldn't give up yet.



Moving forward with purpose he sniffed deeply and caught a whiff of something. Head lifting quickly and ears perked forward he looked at grayday "I smelled somethin Daddy" he whispered seriously.

Feel free to have Sunny lead them to whatever

The father was not really sure whether or not he'd told his children about turkeys. It seemed like all he thought about lately was trying to get all the turkeys into Easthollow's territory, but he'd neglected to mention any of these plans to his children, as he did with most things. Hopefully, this sort of thing would be remedied during their family trip.

Grayday's tail wagged excitedly when Sunny announced his find. "Yeah?" he asked, coming to sniff where his son had. "That's great, buck-o - let's see if you can track it down!"

Day stayed just behind his son, displaying his willingness to follow wherever the child would lead them.

Over the weeks that followed His father's promotion to Beta, Sunny had gotten to know more about what ranks really meant. He knew his father was high up, Second in command really so when Grayday looked willing to follow him sunny felt excited and a bit nervous. A part of him knew it wasn't for real, merely a simple excercise to see if Sunny knew how to track at all but he pushed the logic down preferring to feel blessed.


Lifting his nose to catch the breeze he caught the scent once more and shifted his body to face the direction it came from. moving forward he kept his nose pointed to the direction the scent was strongest in, only losing track a few times but quickly correcting himself as well. After about ten minutes of this excercise a weird noise made sunny scramble backward. It sounded like something was dying. What was that? For sure His daddy would know what it was, and kill it before it scared away the prey. The scent was super strong here!

the dying noise is a turkey ahaha

"Hear that?" he whispered to his son, ears pricking in the direction of the gobblings. "That's a turkey - a really big bird. We're gonna jump out at it in a second, and when I hold it down, you have to come and kill it, okay? Just give it a big bite on the throat."

Giving his son one last look to make sure he understood, Grayday crept through the tall grasses until he knew the turkey was right in front of them. He shot Sunny a wink before bounding toward the creature and attempting to pin it down with his body and limbs. It was tougher than simply going for the kill, but he wanted Sunny to get a taste for fresh blood, and hoped that it would spur the kid into an interest for hunting and tracking.

That was a turkey? They were going after a bird of hell! Sunny swallowed down his nervousness as best he could and poked his head through a patch of tall grass so he could what his father was doing. The turkey thrashed below his father in a way that made it seem like the bird was alot stronger than other birds. After a few moments of hesitation he ran out of the grass toward the pinned bird.



moving quickly toward the throat Sunny parted his jaws and bit down. It was harder than he had thought, but as he repositioned his jaws he found he could break the flesh. Doing so with a strong clench of his jaws he could taste the fresh blood flow into his jaw. Growling he struggled to clamp down more until finally he heard a loud crunch. The bird went limp underneath his jaws and he stepped back looking over at Grayday to see if he did a good job.

Sunny had dispatched the bird in no time - just as Grayday had hoped.

"Good job, buck-o!" he praised, tail wagging. It was one step closer to Sunny not needing him anymore, but Day pushed back the sadness of the moment. He was glad that his son was learning to fend for himself, and Sunny was still eons away from being a grown-up. Right?

Fade with your post?