Redhawk Caldera In search of
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#1
All Welcome 
Spread out before Phox were three rocks. Two were plain old rocks. They were a medium gray color. One was smooth; he'd found it near the stream that skirted along the rendezvous site. The other was sharp and pointy, and Phox had gained a cut on his gums bringing it back here, but he was glad that he did. The third one was shiny though! Or rather, half of it was sparkly. The other half looked like a plain old rock.

None of the three rocks were particularly large. Phox had gathered them all, fascinated by how they were both the same but different, and he put his paw on each one for a moment, relishing the coolness of the rock against his black paw pads. Ever-curious about the world around him, he continued to stare at and study the rocks, finding them oddly comforting.
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Ooc — Talamasca
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Titmouse did not know how to mind his own business. When he caught his brother Phox sneaking around, he was lured away from the rendezvous site. He stalked after his sibling in a show of uncharacteristic silence, getting distracted only a few times while he lurked and crept along. By the time Phox had stopped to regard his various prizes, Titmouse had almost lost interest in whatever his brother had been doing — but in passing behind him and catching a small glimpse of something shiny and round, that interest was renewed.

In the next moment Titmouse wasn't being sneaky, but incredibly overt about his desires: he ran headlong towards Phox's position, took a running leap, and tried to tackle him out of the way of the three objects. Titmouse had bad aim though, and paws which had recently begun to get too big to be useful, so he went bowling in to Phox's side at the last second rather than leaping with great finesse over him. Then the boy scrambled to get back on his feet, because he was so very close to the shiny thing — close enough to reach out with his dark-tipped snout and snap at the rock, anyway.

And we all know how much Titmouse loved chewing on rocks.
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So entranced by the rocks he had gathered, Phox hadn't noticed Titmouse's approach. In fact, it wasn't until his brother crashed into his side that Phox's concentration was broken. He tumbled over a few times, but eventually managed to upright himself and regain some sense of what was going on. Fidget watched as Titmouse swiped a rock.

A mixture of anger and shock coursed through Phox's veins at the sight of his brother doing something bad. With a growl, Fidget lunged at Titmouse, jaws agape. He wouldn't, of course, hurt his brother, but he did want to teach him a lesson.
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He had nearly grabbed it by the time Phox was on his feet, scrambling the last few inches to scoop it in to his mouth like a gator might carry its young; then, as Phox snapped at him, Titmouse reeled back to avoid the assault and the rock slipped back with his head. It lodged itself at the back of his throat and made him gag a little, then sputter, and begin coughing and dry-heaving within moments. His eyes, nose, and mouth were all watering by the time the rock came loose and Titmouse gasped back a good breath of air — having nearly choked on the shiny rock — and it landed with a clatter upon the soil, darkened by saliva.
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#5
Writing out Titmouse... somebody wanna save this thread so I can use it for trade purposes?

Titmouse chocked, gagged, and Phox looked on in horror for a split second as he thought he might have just killed his brother, but the stone was dislodged and he was in the clear. "TIT!" he yelled, half in anger and half in relief that his brother hadn't just keeled over right in front of him.

Raven was quick to swoop in, moving Titmouse nearby so she could check and make sure everything was a-ok with her little bro. Phox, now feeling certain that his brother wasn't going to collapse on him, returned to looking at rocks, using a paw to drag the saliva-covered one back near the other two.
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Ooc — Stevie
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#6
*comes to save*

Finley wasn't usually one to interfere with the scuffles between the puppies. Little battles like these were just a part of the growing process. Like all wolves, even the wee ones needed to learn how to settle disputes amongst themselves. Dominance was just a part of life, and it was situations like the one Fin was witnessing currently was simply how wolves learned to deal with one another.

She did rise slightly when Titmouse began to choke. Raven was faster to react though, and Fin settled back down to continue chewing on the deer rib she had claimed for herself during their last meal. She eyed her goddaughter as she took the boy away, then allowed her gaze to drift back to Phox who had gone back to gazing at his little treasures fondly.

"Whatcha got there, Fidge?" she called to him, abandoning the bone between her arms and looking to him with interest.
 
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Thanks!

Titmouse gone, Phox was content to study the three small stones in front of him, rearranging them in different patterns and noting the slight differences in each one. When Finley asked him what he had, he looked up and wagged his tail. "Go' rocks," he replied, nosing them forward. "'i'mouse 'ry uh ea' 'em," he explained in broken puppy English.

He turned over the rock with two different sides to show his guardian. "'is one differen'," he pointed out. Though he didn't know the name for it, it was some kind of geode, which would explain the sparkly colors on one side, but plain appearance on the outside.
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Fin in her laziness did not get up to walk over and see what her nephew had with him. She had hoped he'd collect them and bring them over to her, but it seemed not. She crawled forward on her belly instead until she was a foot or so closer, craning her neck to peer at the rocks Phox was now introducing to her. She cringed slightly as her godson explained what Titmouse had tried to do with them, knowing this was not the first time. "Yeah, we have to work on that..." she muttered to herself before giving up on her laziness and pulling herself up onto all fours.

She trotted over to stand above the boy, looking down at his treasures. He nudged the geode and looked upon it with obvious fascination. A grin slid across her muzzle at his admiration. "You know what that kind of rock is called?" Fin offered, her tail wagging, "It's called a 'sparkly'!"

Yeah, Finley was quite the geologist.
 
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Finley, helpful as ever, named the rock for him. As if all rocks should have names. They were, after all, each unique. "Sparky!" he repeated, tail thumping the ground. Now that Finley had told him what that one was called, he wanted to know about the other two. "Who dis 'un?" he asked, touching one of the more neutral pebbles. It looked almost identical to its sibling, but it was slightly more jagged in places.
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Finley grinned at her nephew's enthusiasm. She hadn't expected him to be able to pronounce sparkly, but he did do better with the word than she had thought he would. She nodded in encouragement, then paused as he asked about one of the other stones. She peered at the small gray rock, stumped.

"That is.. uh... gray.. rock. Gray rock!" she said after a beat, smiling again. Hopefully he would forget this ever happened, otherwise one day he would probably wise up and judge her for her lack of creativity in pulling these names out of her ass.
 
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"Gay rock!" Phox chirped, unaware that he had just assumed the rock's sexual orientation. Then again, it's unlikely that rocks even have a sexual orientation, considering they don't have sex. But never mind that, there was another rock to be named. "Dis 'un?" he asked, scooching the pebble toward his guardian so she could properly identify the small stone.
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"Sure," Fin nodded with a shrug as Phox attempted to repeat what she had named the other stone. She didn't feel the need to correct him, being fully aware that his language skills were still developing. She probably ought to have tried considering his language skills were still developing and letting him mispronounce things was not exactly helping him, but... heh, gay rock.

The alpha took in a breath as she turned thoughtfully to the last of Phox's treasures. She was just as clueless about this one as the last two one, but she didn't want to disappoint him so... "This one is a Rodney stone," Fin told him, making things up once again like a good teacher, "This guy traveled here all the way from Lake Rodney, so even though he's not the coolest-looking, he's the most special." And so, she taught him a moral about not judging things by their appearance. That's good parenting, right?
 
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"Ron'y stone," Phox repeated. He listened as Finley explained that this particular rock was ~special~, though he thought the sparkly rock was way, way more special. It looked so pretty! Then again, if the other one had traveled a long way... maybe it was special for a different reason. What's that? Good parenting? Maybe something like that.

"Where I keep 'em?" he asked. It wasn't like he was going to let them stay here, out in the open, for anybody to take. They were his possessions now, as far as he was concerned.
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Fin smiled as Phox attempted the name Rodney and failed. It was always a little frustrating at first when she could barely understand a words they were saying , but then they learned to speak more eloquently and it made her a bit wistful for when they sounded ridiculous like this.

To his question, Fin gave a thoughtful pause before she made her suggestion. "Why don't we go find somewhere nearby to bury them?" she asked, "Somewhere near the rendezvous site where you can dig them back up anytime you want, but no one else will ever find them." Hopefully Phox wouldn't realize that it was unlikely they'd find such a place where no one would find them. She thought the idea would intrigue him anyway.
 
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I'm gonna go ahead and close this one out. Thanks, Stevie!

Fidget nodded enthusiastically. He would go find somewhere to hide his precious treasures. Gently, he gathered the three rocks up into his mouth (careful not to swallow them), and then began to transport them to a very secret location. Not even Towhee would get to know about this one.

As he trekked carefully to the hiding spot, he wondered how many other unique rocks he could find. The options, it seemed, were limitless. He dug a little hole, dropped the three rocks in, and covered them back up. Obviously, anybody who wanted to find them, would, seeing as a wolf's nose was rather good at finding things. Nevertheless, he thought he'd chosen an unsuspicious spot that he could come back to at a later date and admire his little rock collection. In reality, he'd forget about it three days later and never return.
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