Redhawk Caldera julie and candy

When he wasn't playing with his siblings or attempting to escape the confines of the rendezvous area, Lucca was generally found as a manic grey blur speeding around the place. He was in constant action, not unlike Clover. His legs didn't seem to even have a walk mode nor did his tail have an off switch. The boy had boundless energy that he couldn't seem to quite burn up completely.

Today, he channelled it into digging. The hole was in the centre of the clearing and right before the den, a new hazard to all who crossed through the area. It was quite sizeable too, though was slow forming as Lucca kept looking up at each and every noise. A bird call caught his attention this time, and he paused in his frantic digging to look up, orange eyes peering up at the treetops for a moment or two before he suddenly snapped back to his current task.

just to clarify, Fiadh = Fee and Lucca = Fi, pronounced F-eye ;)

It never ceased to amaze Finley just how it seemed all of her genes had waited to surface in her children until this particular litter. None of her other kids had the energy that all four of these kids had, nor did they have their boldness, curiosity or lung capacity. Well, maybe Eljay had the latter, but he had employed his mostly for sobbing and wailing. These four just liked to shriek their every emotion. They had no walking speeds, and they had no indoor voices. They were little wildlings, every one - and Fin could not have been more pleased.

The alpha stood watch over her brood that afternoon with @Lagan at her side. Her son had been immensely helpful in keeping the little terrors wrangled at all times, and Fin appreciated the extra bonding time that came with working together so closely. When Lucca strayed, Finley shared that it was her turn to follow and stood to do so. She trotted over to him as he dug frantically into the earth, canting her head as she asked, "Where you tunneling off to, Fi?".

I love all their nicknames omfg

In truth, the hole wasn't all that deep and, come the next downpour or heavy snow fall, it would be promptly filled in again. Not that it would even be remembered by Lucca. Generally after he finished anything, that activity was immediately purged from his memory and he moved onto the next task. However, when he did have a goal, he put all his focus into achieving it (even goals as vague as keep digging forever).

He whipped his head around to give his mother a wide grin as she strode towards him. Though her question gave him pause, and he turned back to stare at his dirty paws, frowning. Where was he going? He didn't exactly have a destination in mind. The cogs in his brain began to whir.

After a moment, he suddenly blurted out, "a worm cave!" From his limited experience, he knew that worms came from the ground (that's where he found them mostly, at least) and worms were the best. Therefore, there had to be some sort of giant den of them right? This newly discovered fact caused the boy to almost vibrate with excitement and Lucca dove right back into his vigorous digging.

Her son was delightfully prompt in explaining where it was he was headed. Fin scrunched up her face in disgust, though her smile persisted through it. Worms were gross in her expert opinion. There was just something super fucked up about them being somehow alive and yet not having faces. She couldn't fathom that he was in pursuit of them because he actually carried some affection for them, so she assumed what was otherwise most logical to her.

"You got some birds that need feeding?" Fin asked, settling down upon her haunches away from the line of dirt that was shooting out past his paws.

Had Finley told Lucca about her disgust of worms, the boy would have flown into a fit. Clover didn't like them either (at least, she wanted to kill them more than play) and Lucca just couldn't understand why. He thought they were the perfect plaything and were much more hardy than tiny bugs, which he also held affection for. Digging them out was also part of the fun!

His boring into the earth paused at his mother's question and the boy looked up questioningly. "Huh? Birds?" he breathed, not quite connected her own question to his current task.

He was a determined little dude. She was lucky enough to appreciate that quality in all four of her latest offspring. They all showed it in different ways - Clover with her hunting, Fiadh with her.. yelling at everything... Tegan with his racing around all over the damn place. And Lucca here with his digging. The thought of it made her chuckle softly, but she tilted her head attentively as her son set his eyes upon her and questioned what she'd said.

"Yeah, birds like to eat worms," Fin replied, "I was thinking maybe you're digging up a bunch of worms for them. You know, we could probably use them as bait for a trap - you lure 'em all in with the worms and then we grab them while they're eating." It was actually a little brilliant. Much as she detested the creepy little fucks, she was willing to dig a few up with her son if it meant potentially hunting down an actual meal.

He stood still for once, forepaws sunk into the pothole he had created, and listened with fascination as Finley explained. Birds...ate his friends? The thought horrified him, and he squinted up at the trees again in disgust, trying to spot any of the offenders. He had never really given any thought as to what other animals ate; the whole needing-food-to-survive thing for creatures other than wolves was lost on Lucca.

His mother's suggestion inspired a fresh round of enthusiasm in the boy. He leapt up with a feverish wag of his tail, though his excitement wasn't from the prospect of a meal — he was more delighted about getting revenge on those stupid birds for daring to eat his worm friends. "Yeah!" he cried. "Let's eat them!" He hadn't completely thought through the plan and was oblivious to the fact that he would have to sacrifice some of his friends for this to work, though. Oh well.

Lucca gazed intently at her as she explained. He was clearly intrigued by the proposal. It amused her to watch the wheels in his little mind spinning with thoughts. She often wished she could know exactly what they were. Kids came up with the most random things most of the time. It was what she adored most about them, their capacity for weirdness.

When the boy finally spoke, it wasn't necessarily a weird comment, but his enthusiasm in saying it amused her. She chuckled and gave a shrug, "Alright, let's! We're going to need more worms though, so you better get digging." For her own part, Fin stood and began to dis just a foot or so away, not with nearly as much gusto as her son though. She personally didn't want to find any worms, but didn't want him to think she wasn't going to help. Even though she pretty much wasn't helping.

Her prompt was more than enough for Lucca to focus back on his task, and with a yip he plunged into digging with renewed fervour. More worms were needed; he could do that! Out of the corner of his eye, he spied his mother beginning to scrape at the earth herself, though did not realise the action was half-hearted. In his eyes, all the boy saw was a challenge. His eyes widened and he started scratching at multiple spots, his grey forelimbs a blur as dirt was flung into the air behind him.

Suddenly, he spotted one of the wiggling creatures, flailing wildly as it was unearthed. Lucca gave a bark to Finley, announcing his discovery, "found one!" Quickly, he snatched it from the ground with a snap of his jaws, instinctively shaking his head to kill it as if it were a rabbit. Of course, he only managed to slap himself in the face with it, but Lucca beamed proudly all the same. "Here!" he cried and, with a toss of his head, he then threw it towards Finley, deigning her to be the keeper of worms.

Lucca was super about this. Fin watched him with a smile as she scraped at the ground with her paws. She wondered what sort of wolf he would grow into. He and all of his siblings were so alike. She imagined that they would all pick up the mercenary title since they were all such ferocious little beasts. But they each seemed to have other interests as well, though less easily defined. Maybe this one would be a hunter, or maybe a naturalist. She was sure that one of them would end up being a scout as the Blackthorns so often did. She was eager to see how they would turn out, but also reluctant to let them grow any bigger than they were right now.

And suddenly there was a worm flying at her face.

Fin flinched visibly away as it came towards her, barely getting out of the way of it smacking right into her muzzle. She stepped back away from it, staring at the squirming thing with disgust. She momentarily forgot that she was supposed to be hiding the fact that she hated these things from her son as she cringed at it, revulsion visible on her face.

At first, the boy didn't check to see if Finley even caught it. He immediately turned back to digging, believing his mother was super extra skilled in her catching abilities. As she stepped back in horror and disgust, Lucca didn't even notice, letting out another happy bark as another, smaller worm appeared (not realising this one was actually just the wayward root of a small plant). He dove for it, eagerly grabbing a mouthful of dirt as he closed his teeth around the second "creature".

He whipped his head around again to show her, and only then realised the repulsion upon her face. His own boyish features dropped, along with the root from his mouth, and concern overcame the boy. "Ma!" he cried, scrambling out of his hole and racing towards her. "Are you okay?"

Lucca's shout took Fin's attention away from the worm that continued to squirm around in front of her. She realized with a jolt that she had stopped hiding her disgust from her son and made a poor attempt at masking it once again with a smile that looked more like a grimace. "Yeah! I'm good," she insisted, "Just. Super excited to catch some birds." Which was true, because that would mean the worms would disappear into the stomachs of their prey.

Come to think of it, that wasn't comforting at all. 

That was the day that Fin stopped eating birds.

But anyway.

"Why don't you grab a couple more and lay them here next to this one, then we'll go hide nearby and wait for the birds to come?" she suggested, looking around to see what shrubbery there was for them to take cover under. "I'll scope out a hiding spot for us," she added, successfully excusing herself from the whole being-near-worms thing.

Lucca agreed and set to work and it wasn't long before they had a decent stash to be getting on with. They set off together in short order with the intention of setting their bird trap and settling down to wait for the chance to spring and nab themselves some far tastier prey.