Heron Lake Plateau animals
Brecheliant
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a hundred mini dreams and a healing scar ♥
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Ooc — Iris
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#1
All Welcome 
babysit thread with pups?? :D but a returning mom & dad are cool too. lemme know if any made assumptions need edits!

Eljay was happy that @Raven and @Quixote allowed him to watch @Kite, @Phoebe, @Owen and @Vasa while they were off doing important Alpha things. It helped them all out: Raven and Quixote had time for doing their leaderly duties, and Eljay felt useful again at last now that he could help watch some pups again. He still didn't like Heron Lake Plateau much and often longed back to Redhawk Caldera, but at least this part of the world made sense again and he felt he'd found back a place in this world he had since long lost.

While the Alphas were out at the moment Eljay watched the four growing bundles. He would never get tired of watching little pups sleep, squirm, gnaw on things and waddle around. Hands down it was his favourite thing in the whole world.
Ghost
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Ooc — Starrlight
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#2
hope you don't mind me!

Colt was finally making it by to pop in and say hi to Raven's new kids, but it seemed neither mom nor dad was in at the moment.  Instead, it was his nephew doing sitting duty.

"Hey Eljay."  Finley's firstborn didn't exactly fit the usual Blackthorn mold, but he seemed nice enough despite his oddness, so Colt tried as the cool uncle not to heckle him too much.  "Got your paws full here, huh?"  He didnt come fully inside, since he didn't want to barge in and crowd,  but he could get a peek at them from where he was.
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Ooc — Bryndel
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Owen felt like he was finally starting to get the hang of these eyeball things. It had taken a little while for the sticky lids of the second of the pair to match the first, and fix his wonky depth perception a little better, but Owen was proud to note that it had beens several days, at least, since that blasted corner of the tunnel leading outdoors had managed to ram him. He was getting to be a downright graceful little dancer, wasn't he! His ruddy tail gladly bestirred the dust at the very thought. What stilled his enthusiasm, however, and threw him back into a sulk, was that right when he looked hazily about to share this amazing fact with Momma, @Raven wasn't there. Instead there was another one of these imposters, one of the creatures who admittedly did kindasorta smell a little like Mommy but which lacked the all-important buffet that the lady alpha carried around on her belly. Owen clunked up to Eljay and took a nice big sniff just to make absolutely sure this beast wasn't hiding anything good. Nope. No such luck. Owen squinched up his little face in an unhappy scowling pout at his elder, one that showed off his new teeth. Bwaaaahh, he complained, not up to full-on tantrum-type wails yet but working his way there by inches.

A flash of movement in the entryway caught his eye, and for a moment hope soared as Owen turned to take a long unsteady look at the source. Even as he started to wobble his way toward it, however, his expression soured again. The color was all wrong, the smell was all wrong— this one wasn't a Raven either dagnabbit and just what did a puppy have to do to get a little feeding around here, oh my gosh?! He stumped right up to Colt and self-importantly told this one off. Wahroobahwirruphbahbir, he insisted. Mwrah! Idiot One needed to stop talking to Idiot Two, here, and go get someone useful who'd be able to ensure this poor innocent little puppy wasn't going to waste away from malnutrition, yo. Not that Owen's hoity-toity little speeches to either of them actually did a whole lot to make any of that clear...heh. Just to emphasize his words, the blissfully unaware little Owen twisted his ears about and bobbled his head a little in an exaggerated imitation of a few of the ptero words that that strangest of creatures @Towhee had recently begun trying to teach them all, now that the puppies could actually see some of what she was doing, finally. Owen didn't really "get" any of it yet, but at least he was trying it now, you had to give him that. Even if Towhee shortsightedly hadn't yet taught them anything like the word "nownownownowNOW." Owen figured this was a Very Important Word that, if Towhee hadn't yet invented or described, he's just have to go right ahead and invent for himself right here and now. Now if only these two male adults could get it through their thick skulls; then we'd really be getting somewhere!
Brecheliant
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a hundred mini dreams and a healing scar ♥
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Ooc — Iris
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#4
yay, thanks for joining, both! :D

One of the little ones came close and inspected Eljay, probably to make sure that he wasn't carrying any milk. Eljay frowned as little Owen started to complain about the lack of Raven. They were rather fussy when he was with them but it made sense; they were still so little and depended on Raven much. However, that made him all the more honoured that he was allowed to take care of them, too, even if he lacked some vital things that their momma provided for them.

Uncle Colt showed up and Eljay smiled at him. He didn't know Uncle Colt all that well, really, and often wished he was a bit more, well, manly, like Uncle Colt and most of his family. Anyway, he nodded and opened his mouth to speak but little Owen was quick to wriggle his way over to Colt and started shouting again. "Uhm, yeah," he said, even though point in case had just been proven. "They don't like being away from Raven, which makes sense, 'cause they don't eat meat yet." It would get easier to look after them when they did, but by then they also were more mobile, so maybe not.
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Ooc — KJ
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#5
Kite had been asleep when the switch had been made, so she was genuinely expecting to see Raven or Quixote upon waking — and when she didn’t, her slightly more mobile ears drooped with disappointment. Fortunately, though, there were two very interesting distractions in her near vicinity. The first of them reminded her of Finley and Elwood, though she didn’t yet know them by name, and she cleaved to him eagerly. She lacked her siblings’ confidence when it came to walking and moving, and perhaps this was evident by the way she seemed to snatch a deep breath and center herself before she ever made the attempt. Dainty paws moved with growing confidence, but jittered and quivered intermittently, without any real rhyme or reason — and when she picked up speed, her hips veered left like a fishtailing car.

Propelled by her flailing hindquarters, she bumped into Eljay sideways before looking in bewilderment at Colt. Since when had Owen gotten so — oh, no, wait a minute. There was Owen. Her blurry baby eyes had a hard time differentiating between the tall stranger’s tawny and ocher fur and Owen’s ruddier hues, so it was an immense relief to her that her brother’s small stature remained unchanged. “Ororororooroorooooo!” she sassed him inanely, throwing back her head and offering an odd amalgam of a hound dog’s bay and a wolf’s howl. Then she turned toward Colt, keeping her body smushed against Eljay’s as she moved forward, rubbing her face and eyes against whatever part of the monochrome wolf she could reach. She stopped when she was near enough to Colt that she had to tip her head all the way back to see him fully, her head wobbling unsteadily upon its axis, and yapped saucily.
Ghost
I still don't get it right sometimes · I just don't get it as wrong
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Ooc — Starrlight
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#6
That made sense.  "You know a lot about them, I'm guessing," Colt responded, watching but not quite coming closer just yet.  It was a statement, but also held a hint of invitation.  Pups were something Colt didn't have a whole lot of experience with, but he wouldn't mind learning about.  And he liked Eljay, much as his nephew might not fit the family mold.  Here was a chance for them to chat a little.

"Hey," Colt leaned down, hovering in front of Kit as she tipped at him.  "Not who you were wanting to see, eh?" He guessed, after what Eljay just said.
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Ooc — Bryndel
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#7
<3 Of course! Glad to share this thread with ya, here, even if Owen is Not.  ;D

Neither of the invaders seemed to be getting The Point here, no matter how Owen grimaced and gesticulated. Owen sighed loudly in exasperation; that was the problem with all these wolves who were Not-Mommy. Raven was reasonably good at intuiting what her brood were trying to express—or at the very least distracting them with delicious foodstuffs for long enough to forget about their original complaints, which was probably the real trick of it—but not a single darned one of those who kept sneaking in here and trying to substitute for their mother seemed to have a clue. Not even when Owen deployed his most-brilliant mad word invention skillz. Grownups were so thick. Just how was a puppy expected to deal with them and their dumbness, anyhow?!

The big gray and white befreckled one hesitated just a moment before talking right over Owen's babbling. The small boy turned his head awkwardly about and gave Eljay a look, twisting his little red ears emphatically about to floppily signal, SO RUDE, STOP THAT. ...Yeah, that may have been a ptero-sign that the pups may have elicited a time or five in their little lives and been rather more familiar with, though goodness knows how such little angels could have merited such a response.

Kite in the meantime was determinedly clomping along to butt in with her opinion now, too. She jitterbugged along Eljay's side to make her way to Colt's face near him, and Owen's ear twitched involuntarily this time at the disproportionately loud noise that his tiniest sister managed. Her legs might work kinda funny sometimes but there was no doubt her lungs were in full working order. Owen was inordinately annoyed that big brown Colt leaned over to respond to Kite's noises instead of his own, though. Owen liked his little sister well enough most of the time but criminy was she a big fat attention hog sometimes! He clumsily raised an ivory paw to peremptorily half-poke, half-paw at her and totally-reasonably demand the spotlight be moved back to him, right now —though his legs didn't reach very far at all still and it was pretty questionable whether this was likely to do him the slightest bit of good, especially since he himself started to overbalance and tip over in the attempt. Owen planted his foot back down and righted himself with a swift glance about to make sure no one else had seen this bit of clumsiness. Then, with a final loud RWAH! at Colt and his sister to let them know what he thought of them, Owen stumped back over to Eljay, mustering the most commanding and authoritative stare-down his wavery little puppy-blue eyes could manage. This grayer big one was the weaker and more-promising target here, right? Maybe Owen could cow him and get him to magically produce some food through sheer willpowered mind-control. ...Surely it was worth a shot, at least?
Brecheliant
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a hundred mini dreams and a healing scar ♥
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Ooc — Iris
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#8
Another pup joined in the chorus of loudness. Eljay totally missed the look that Owen gave him as he spoke with his uncle. He nodded as Colt said that he must already know a lot about the pups. Eljay smiled as he looked at his uncle gently interact with them. "They're so cute, aren't they?" eljay said softly. He watched Owen waddle over to him again, then looked at Kite. "Even if they are a little loud sometimes."
Ghost
I still don't get it right sometimes · I just don't get it as wrong
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#9
((Gonna skip this to move it along, sorry about lettin it fall off!))

Colt hadn't even noticed the other puppy until he gave a rawr and stomped off, and Colt watched him go, bemused.  "they are that," he replied with amusement, reaching out a paw for Kite to maybe inspect.

"You have a lot of experience then? With kids?"  He assumed so, and thought he'd heard as much.  "I haven't spent much time around them."  Any, actually.  At all.
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Ooc — Bryndel
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#10
I really hope I am doing this PPC bizness right, eep

@Kite squeaked and half-walked, half-rolled away from her brother's obnoxiously outthrust paw, her hindquarters jittering along a full half-circle farther than the rest of her before she managed to catch herself on Colt's more-gently-offered paw instead. She gratefully leaned against it as she sniffingly inspected its ginormous toes and ignored her brother and his flouncing. More than a little hypocritical of him to be dropping the "attention hog" and "drama queen" labels on anyone else, silly Owen.

Eljay was still overlooking Owen, too. It was so unfair of his sister to show up and hog the spotlight, or for any adults ever to be paying more attention to each other then to him! I mean really! He loosed an unimpressively breathy growl of frustration as he clumsily attempted to climb atop Eljay and shove his nose directly into the put-upon puppysitter's face to try and make his puppyish wishes clear. HEY. YOU. This small starving Owenpup commands your attention NOW! ...Owen wasn't sure just what he could credibly threaten a full-grown adult with if they failed to appropriately bend to his will, but he tried to put every ounce of commanding menace he could into his watery little eyes regardless as he tried to lock those eyes with Eljay's. Fear the wrath of the thwarted puppy, you.

Unfortunately, regardless of what the adults in the room might or might not do, Owen shortly found himself betrayed by his own still-growing body. He hadn't managed to plant himself on the steadiest of ground before attempting to start his little staring contest, and his oversized paws on still-wobbly legs started to shake a little. He tried to ignore their warning signs, hoping they weren't going to detract from his doubtless otherwise impressively commanding appearance, here, but it only took a minute for the whole structure to give way and send him tumbling flat onto the dirt with a loud yelp of surprise and displeasure. He flailed about like an overturned beetle for a moment before it ocurred to him that perhaps he could milk this for a little of the attention and coddling he'd been craving...and maybe even a mouthful or four of milk somehow-or-other, to help nurse him back to health? He tried to keep his hazy eyes beseeching rather than crafty as he looked consideringly from Colt to Eljay and back again, quickly escalating the volume of his murmured dissatisfaction.
Brecheliant
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a hundred mini dreams and a healing scar ♥
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Ooc — Iris
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#11
Eljay watched Kite as she leaned against Colt's paw and he smiled softly. Colt admitted he hadn't spent a lot of time around the pups and then asked if Eljay had more experience.

Eljay nodded and said, "Yeah, I helped raise all the litters mommy and daddy had." It was then that he looked down and saw a very sad Owen staring at him with watery eyes. "Oh! What's wrong, sport..?" Then suddenly he fell over with a squeak. Eljay worriedly frowned as he moved down to nose Owen's belly and inquired: "Are you okay, buddy?"
Ghost
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#12
a forever thread also! Haha we can prob close this out soon if y'all want ^^ or keep it!

That's really cool, bud, Colt responded genuinely.  Raising kids was hard work, and from what Colt could tell, his nieces and nephews were all fantastic.  Which meant obviously Eljay knew his shit, and Elwood, because no way Finley could manage not to screw a kid up goin solo.

While Eljay focused on Owen, Colt turned his own attention to Kite, giving her a gentle paw to wrestle with and, after a while, chew on.  How old are you, then? he asked without looking up, now curious.
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Ooc — Bryndel
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#13
Either/or—I'm happy to keep it going but can totally understand people wanting to wrap up and/or clear up some threadlog space also.  ;)

Well at least Eljay was finally paying attention to the subject Owen most wanted him to—that being Owen himself, of course. Owen raised a piteous little RowrowROOOWWLLll... and let it trail off, hoping that this would garner him a good chunk of sympathy, here, or at the very least annoy the adults into giving him some food simply to shut him the hell up. Rrow? RrowrowROOOoo. He hadn't so much as a scratch from his fall but you wouldn't've known it from his fussing.

Eljay had also been silly enough to put his muzzle right up next to Owen. The young boy glommed his paws onto that target and did his best to sling them there like the stickiest of cobwebs, or perhaps the world's ugliest and clumsiest gecko. Colt was still paying more attention to his bratty little sister, ugh, but at least he was getting a little bit of the spotlight from Eljay now, and he had zero intention of letting it go. Nonono, don't pay attention to the girls and grownups, look right here at poor little starving me. Now where were you hiding the milk buffet, Puppysitter? Owen figured if he was enough of a clingy nuisance here he oughta be able to torture the answer out of one of the adults, eventually. He loosed a snarky little bark in Colt's direction in forewarning, though the threat lost quite a bit of its clarity and bite thanks to the breathy and high-pitched quality of Owen's voice which was all his little lungs would yet support. Nonetheless: tremble in fear, o mortal, and proffer up thy divine offering of appeasing milk right now if you would please.
Brecheliant
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a hundred mini dreams and a healing scar ♥
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Ooc — Iris
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#14
i'd prefer finishing it within a few posts ^^

To have someone be proud of something he did was a weird sentiment to Eljay. He didn't entirely get it, because he had never considered puppysitting any hard work at all, but Eljay smiled nonetheless when his uncle seemed to be genuinely impressed with his pupsitting skills.

Owen seemed to be doing better now, though Eljay had no idea he'd been tricked into giving his attention back to the child. He chuckled at the little growling sounds while keeping a sneaky eye on Colt and Kite, which seemed to be going well enough together to not have to intervene. Upon his uncle's question, Eljay answered for Kite: "They're about a month old now."
Ghost
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#15
You seem a little big for a month Colt returned, winking.  Eljay had obviously misheard his question, but it was good to know their ages too.  He might have been around when they were born but hey, a guy had a lot goin on.

Colt appreciated the spunk of Owen, who seemed to be getting more and more restless by the minute.  Probably a good time to jet.  He listened to whatever response Eljay had to give, then finished. Well, if you ever get a moment, I wouldn't mind a pointer or two from an experienced pup sitter.  Get the feeling you'd be a better teacher than Niamh, but don't tell her I said that. He gave a conspiratorial smirk to his nephew, then an affectionate nudge.  See you around, kid. before ducking back out.
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Ooc — KJ
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#16
Kite was disappointed to lose her new chew toy, but she was also very, very tired. All that weebling and wobbling tended to sap her energy at this age, so she stumbled up alongside Owen, tipped her bobblehead back to regard him, and cooed softly. Utterly oblivious to her ruddy littermate’s pique, she butted her head against his hip in a persnickity, fretful way, and then pillowed her cheek against his flank.

In less than a minute, she was dead asleep.
Brecheliant
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a hundred mini dreams and a healing scar ♥
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Ooc — Iris
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#17
"Oh!" Eljay blurted out and he felt his cheeks grow hot under his fur. He must've misheard the question somehow. "Sorry, I, uh.." he mumbled, but before he could come up with a comprehensive answer the subject had already moved on and Eljay gladly didn't revisit it. He never did get to answer Uncle Colt's question, but Eljay figured that his uncle'd re-ask the same question at some point if he really wanted the answer; Eljay himself certainly was not too keen on revisiting this subject after this awkwardness.

Eljay wasn't entirely sure what Colt wanted advice on. Was he talking about when he and Niamh would get pups of their own? "Oh, of course, I'm always happy to help," Eljay said, even though he totally had no clue what uncle Colt was talking about at all. Then as Colt made to leave, Eljay returned the nudge and said: "Thanks for the company, uncle Colt. See you later." Eljay watched as uncle Colt left and then returned to the pups. Kite had grown still, finally asleep, while Owen was still rather busy. Eljay sighed while he tried to calm Owen, hoping to get some quiet time on his own in a bit.