Moonspear I'm bigger than my body

perhaps one of the sisters?

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she had darted in a straight line from her den, moving like a clumsy dark blur through the budding mountainside. she toppled over roots and steep inclines multiple times, yet ever time simply lurched back to her feet and continued on her way. it was late morning when she found the pool and proceeded to tumble into it's shallows rather ungracefully. she darted backwards, tail on end and hackles raised as if she faced a great warrior. she stared at the pool, unsettled at the sudden wetness, watched the ripples still and the surface become smooth and unflawed once more. 

she moved forward carefully, tail still raised perpendicular to the earth, hackles and ears pricked. she stared into the pool, and there the dark form solidified into another version of herself. unimpressed by the girl that had suddenly appeared in the ground before her, she snarled as she had seen adults do time and time before, a fiercely bedraggled look. the other dark form echoed her movements, though blurry and wavering, the girl recognised the challenge. with a wild lunge, she darted forth and snapped her jaw's shut where the other girl's face had been, only to catch water in her jaws. she whirled around, peering furiously and wondering where the curious wavering girl had gone.

Ayla's short, fluffy ears flickered irritably as she hear the sound of clumsy, unfamiliar steps. Was it the squirrel from early that she'd damaged, but failed to kill. Silently, the dark girl padded toward the sound, beginning to think that it sounded a bit bigger than a squirrel - and that she'd never seen a squirrel splashing around in the water.

When she arrived on the scene, it was to see a little girl across the pond, growling at her own shadow. She did not remember being this small, or escaping from her own den to see her own relfection in the water. If she'd remembered that day - with Floki and Dash - or her reaction to the image she'd seen, she might've been a bit more understanding. As it was, she turned her head automatically to one side, as if she expected Hydra to be there to hear her disparaging comment. But they'd separated, briefly, and Alya was glad. Lyra seemed to have some sort of soft spot for the new children in the pack, and Alya did not.

The girl let out a soft sound - a sigh, probably - and slipped gracefully into the water, submerging until it came up to her shoulder. With a bored expression written clearly across her face (though she was not bored - she was actually rather interested in seeing what this child was about), Alya stared at the younger girl, waiting for her to do something.

a sigh had her twist back to the pond, and she blinked to see the dark shadow made whole and clear. she stared at the girl, suddenly so much bigger, and though her snarl slowly uncurled, her tail remained poised and her hackles rippled. she did not waver from her silent staring for a few brief moments, determined to see what this odd woman who had emerged from the pond was. when no reaction was immediately forthcoming, the girl stalked into the pond with a proud air about her, gaze piercing as she stared still at the other. 

what did no come to the girl's mind was the fact that she was much, much smaller than the girl before her. and that, of course, meant that to her, the pond would be all the deeper. rather quickly, the water rose to her stomach. already wet, and feeling that she could not stop her advance toward the girl, she continued, as dignified as a fierce tiny girl could move through cold pond water.

and then the earth that sucked at her paws, vanished. the pond suddenly deepened, and Cassiopeia, not at all expecting such a thing to happen, was caught off guard. without a sound, she suddenly plunged up to her muzzle. panic ensued, and her tiny form thrashed and wiggled fiercely as she sought to stay afloat, a sudden change from her former dignified advance.

Hydra was not too far off from Alya, though intentionally kept a decent distance to work on her tracking. She was certain Alya did not know she followed as her right hand typically fell into line with her before they found Lyra and set upon various tasks together before doing their own independent thing for a brief time. But soon there was no distance to cover—Alya had stopped, and Hydra drew toward the sound of splashing. 

The little girl that had been at the borders marched toward her sister in a way that set Hydra on edge. While she knew the girl not to be a threat, she recalled her fathers lesson to Aries about respect. Hydra knew for certain she would teach the children the very same lesson if she must... but she approached her sister with a very bored look upon her countenance, despite the thoughts that rifled through her mind. One thing she knew for certain was that she did not enjoy these little beings. 

So when it began to struggle, Hydra only stared in contempt. There was a feeling of amusement within her—she did not think the thing would die and so there was a lack of true concern within, and death was still a foreign concept to her—as she peered toward her sister, knowing her mind would be read: incompetent! That they were this young and helpless once was also forgotten by Hydra. Her eyes turned back toward the struggling girl, simply watching.

Alya did not react to the girl's aggression beyond a dissatisfied swivel of her ear. It had not occured to her that the other girl would struggle in the deeper waters, but now that it was happening, she looked on with a mildly interested look on her face, waiting for the girl to either save herself, or fall beneath the waters. For the moment, she was not sure which she would prefer - it would be amusing to see her fail, of course, but that would also leave her to save the little rodent.

Hydra seemed to materialize by her side. Alya glanced toward her with a withering expression on her face, just in time to catch a similar message from Hydra's expression.

"Oh, look, Hy," she said, speaking with surprise and contempt in equal measures. "It's a little black rat, dirtying our water. What should we do with it?"

Cassiopeia did not like the feeling of being helpless. she thrashed in the water, for a moment choking down some of the vile liquid, before rejecting it from her maw with a violent cough. one of her paws scraped against a rock, and instinct drove her to thrash her way towards it, the movements slowly, surely becoming less violent and more methodical. paws dug into the sanctuary that the rock provided from the pond, and when she finally stilled, for the most part, the water reached only her upper flank. 

her gaze narrowed in anger, anger at the pond that had hurt her so. her lungs heaved, and she shivered with a cold that seeped into her bones. yet, this only made the tiny, bedraggled girl angrier, and anger was what kept her from calling for her mother. she swayed upon her narrow rock, gaze turning to the girl- and then realising that there were now two. 

she did not like them. first, they had been in the pond, taunting her. and then, the pond had attacked her! and now, quite suddenly, there were two. her logic followed a straying, not-entirely-there path, but when she reached the end of it, her anger was directed at the pond and the girl and the other girl and then realised that everything here was bad. the quaking little girl precariously wobbled on her rock, fixing her gaze onto the nearest of the bad girls. with reckless abandon did she leap ungracefully from her perch, trashing her way through the water towards the nearest girl with the burning intent to latch her tiny fangs onto the dark girl's pelt, knowing that that was what was done with bad things.

Lyra had been close, as always, trailing a distance from her sisters as each went about their business. She had been inspecting the plants that grew around Moonspear, committing each to memory and figuring out how each stood out from the others, what made them unique. Every so often, her path would cross that of Alya or Hydra's own scent, but it was only when she heard the nearby voice of the former that she decided to go see what she was up to.

Her brow creased in both confusion and concern at what she found.

"Alya," she stated in a slightly condemning tone as she watched a much smaller version of themselves flail in the water before her. She glanced judgingly at Hydra who also was not doing anything to help the thing. She knew her sisters didn't very much like the younger newcomers, but Lyra was too soft-hearted to hate something so small and vulnerable. Yet, that also didn't mean she knew what to do here. She was torn between helping their newest pack mate and siding with her sisters.

However, when the pup suddenly found purchase upon a rock and glared angrily at Alya, Lyra couldn't help but feel the slightest amount of contempt, wanting to defend her sister's honour even if it was against a month old child. The feeling only increased tenfold as it suddenly lunged back into the pool towards her sister, and Lyra quickly leapt into the water to grab at the pup's scruff.

Hydra heard Alya's voice, and one ear cupped in her direction as her eyes remained upon the girl. The ear upon the girl twitched as she heard the approach of none other than Lyra—the sound of her gait was unmistakable, though only the sisters would know it so intimately—and when she heard the admonishing tone her eyes flashed as they moved from cub to sister. We were teaching her to swim, she quipped cruelly. The judging look was not missed, and Hydra lifted her head to stare her mirror image down. Only when Lyra looked away to the cub did Hydra let her attention fall back onto the girl that had clambered atop a rock. When the thing charged, Hydra bristled. She had been about to move to simply give the girl a rough push to put her in her place when she felt the energy their softest of sisters gave off. 

It was Lyra who moved to attempt to put the girl in her place for The Cerberus, and Hydra's tail waved loosely behind her. There was pride within her heart that burst with an excited, complimentary rumble: good job. One ear flick to Alya told her to stay put—they would collectively let Lyra have this moment, and the new girl, unintelligent as she was, was young enough that Hydra would not permit a beating... But there was a lesson to be taught, and Hydra bore her fangs toward the young cub, her eyes hard and cold as she snapped before the other girl could get out a sound of complaint: Be silent, and remember this: if you touch any of my family in a way that means harm, you will be punished, she forewarned. Hydra did not know what young cubs did and did not know, but this she was certain the girl would not forget. On her life, she had better not.

The appearance of Lyra was, for the first time in Alya's memory, a bit of an unpleasant surprise. Of course, she could never truly be surprised by Lyra being where she and Hydra were, but in her curiosity over this little child, she hadn't thought about how Lyra would feel when she came upon the scene. At her sister's admonishing look, Alya seemed to recede somewhat, though she did not physically move. The triplet was not concerned by Cassiopeia's attack - she was not even quite offended, as she knew she'd been taunting the girl. It was more amusing, than anything, though she understood that, if their positions had been reversed, Alya would have been indignant that the tiny girl would go after her sister.

"The little gnat didn't get me," she said loftily, though per Hydra's cue, she did not move to stop whatever Lyra would do to the child. The girl merely looked on, feeling glad that Lyra had ended up on their side after all, but knowing that it would probably not still well with their sister if she were made - or even just encouraged - to harm the little child. Alya took a few steps closer just to get a better look.

"Shame about her eyes," she said absently, gazing thoughtfully at the girl. A moment later, her lip curled. "And her attitude. But maybe if we fixed that, she might be... useful to have around." She looked to Hydra, wondering what the High Commander thought of this. Sure, her eyes would always make her imperfect, but it might be fun to have a little minion around to get into tight spaces and act as bait from time-to-time.

her thrashing quest was soon stopped by a pressure around her neck, and fangs in her scruff. she hissed, unsettled by the sudden attack on her scruff, yet was still on instinct, expecting her mother or father to be behind her sudden stop. yet when she squirmed to see the face that held her, her expression was a perfect semblance of shock when she realised that yet another of the dark pond monsters held her. she squirmed, gaze flashing to the other two, very upset with the entire affair. 

they spoke then, the tree pond monsters, and the meaning of their words escaped her, her ears caught a few words that she recognised to have meaning. but too distraught was she to understand their meaning as a whole, and, as an idea flashed into her mind, she shrieked a mighty, "NO". one of the first words she had learned and one that's meaning was clear and was most useful. in her very, very limited vocabulary, it meant no, stop, don't, and was simply negative to her. very upset with the situation she found herself, the fiercely bedraggled girl continued. " no no no no no NO!"

Her teeth found purchase and, suddenly, she had a small child hanging by its scruff within her jaws. Lyra stood stock still as the girl first calmed, before glimpsing at the one who held it and beginning to wiggle furiously again once more. She glanced uneasily at her sisters, not entirely sure what to do now. She had a fleeting sense of purpose when she had dove for the cub, not wanting it to assault her sister, but now she held such a fragile little thing who was quite decidedly upset and she wasn't sure how to react.

She continued to watch on wordlessly as Alya and Hydra inspected the young girl, frowning slightly at Alya's words. She wasn't entirely sure what her sister meant by the pup's usefulness, but it didn't sit right with her. What if its parents found out about this? The shouting by the whelp proved it hadn't the vocabulary to properly explain the situation yet (would it even remember this?) but Lyra still couldn't help but feel using a pup for their own gain was a bit...unethical?

The constant wailing distracted the girl, however, and she focused back on the pup in her maw. It swung back and forth from all its wiggling and, fed up, Lyra waded through the pond to a partially submerged rock that was surrounded by water on all sides. There, she planted the other girl and gave her a hard stare. "Be quiet," she said with as stern of a voice as she could manage.

Understood or not, Hydra would make good on her words. If the other did not understand, she would ever be reminded—and one day, she would. At Alya's words, Hydra's ear flicked and she looked thoughtful. She did not oppose of the idea, but she did not know what the young girl could do that they could not. Hydra could sense Lyra's own reservations and wondered about them—the reason for them, really. What did this runt mean to Lyra? That was something she wanted to understand better, too. 

The wailing cut into her thoughts. It's annoying, she snapped suddenly, and Lyra seemed to have read her mind as she placed it down and spoke to it. and it's stupid. Can stupidity be fixed? Hydra was insensitive, and a bit stupid herself by way of not knowing that the girl was only young, and this was why it could not understand. But she looked to both Alya and Lyra for their verdict. You think this thing will be of benefit to us?

"She's terrified," Alya sighed, her voice a strange mixture of pity, amusement, and exasperation. "Here, lemme see her." Muscling (gently) past Lyra, Alya plucked up the little girl once more and waded out of the pond with her, wincing at her increased proximity to the awful noise the girl was making. (It did not occur to her that she'd been exactly like this, as a young girl.)

"We're not gonna hurt you," she said shortly, pinning Cassiopeia between her forepaws and beginning to groom her, as Amekaze had once groomed them. Only, Alya had not had much practice at being gentle, and it was probably a bit uncomfortable for the girl. "I know she's useless to us like this," Alya added, between bouts of savage and forced affection. "But maybe we can teach her to do more than shit and whine - maybe she'll hunt with us, one day. If we teach her. Obviously, her parents are majorly inept and teaching things. Someone has to do it."