Swiftcurrent Creek ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Y’know, life was really starting to look up for the little dude. The cold air that he previously believed was the absolute worst had grown on him—in fact, it wasn’t even cold anymore! That first shock of  life-after-birth was entirely shed, leaving behind a fairly mobile little boy that was starting to find his way into the trouble business. It all started when he discovered his legs, and then everything slowly (read:  quickly) went downhill from there.

On this particular night, whilst Kubo should have been dozing soundly alongside his mother, he was instead meandering around like he was tough shit. Nothing in the world could hurt him, there wasn’t a single threat capable of taking down the little boy. He stomped around the perimeter of his mother’s den at first, and then began to gradually work some distance between himself and it, until he couldn’t see the entrance anymore--which, of course, meant he was totally lost and had absolute no way of getting back home and  oh my god, how was he going to get back to bed now?!

Clock had been sleeping lightly in his usual spot beneath some low-growing, shrubby evergreen trees when a rustling not far off caught his attention. At first, he ignored it, but his ears kept twitching incessantly toward the sound and he eventually rolled irritably up onto his chest with his forelegs splayed before him and listened hard. Hm... it did not sound quite right to be a squirrel... too small to be a wolf... a fox would be out of its mind coming this close to a pack of wolves...

His irritation gone and now replaced with perplexion, Clock rose silently to his feet and pushed down the natural instinct to vigorously shake himself awake. He didn't want to call any attention to himself until he'd investigated this curious noise. Moving quietly out from the concealment of the trees, Clock looked over the dark meadow and remained as still and silent as the night around him. It was a clear night, and a partial moon beamed ample light down, casting long shadows on the trees and rocks and obscuring the landscape. It wasn't long, though, when Clock spied a small dark figure ambling about in the distance. He sat up straighter and watched intently, wondering what it was and what it was doing. It did not seem the least bit concerned about being spotted as it made no effort to conceal itself in the shadows. Narrowing his eyes suspiciously, Clock lowered his lithe body to the ground and set off across the meadow toward a grouping of low rocks not far from where the dark creature was moving about. He had decided what to do. He would hide behind the rocks and catch the intruder by surprise when it walked by. At this point, he was fairly certain it was a weasel and he had every intention of heckling it and giving it grief for coming so close to his family of wolves.

Crouching behind the rocks, Clock waiting until he heard the creature coming closer, then he jumped up on top of the rocks and hissed in a loud whisper (not wanting to startle the rest of the sleeping pack), "Hey!"

Growing increasingly more panicked with each second that ticked by, the child began pacing—still stomping, too, of course—back and forth. How was he going to get home? Where was he going to sleep? How was he going to sleep?! Thoughts whirled and twirled around in his head, making him dizzy and bringing him to the brink of tossing his stomach contents all over the ground there; somehow he managed to refrain from filling the territory with the scent of his vomit, swallowing down anything that threatened to rise up.

But that didn’t keep his other end from expelling its contents.

The sudden hey! that shot out from the darkness startled the poor kid so terribly that he crapped himself right there on the spot—Clock literally scared the shit out of him. It was by some true miracle that Kubo avoided trampling right through his own excrement as he reversed at the speed of light, a shrill shriek slipping out through a gaping mouth.

The night was crisp, clear, not too cold, and perfect as a backdrop against which she could hide her sooty coat, or such was Talos's hope as she slipped out past brothers and mother she hoped were all deep alseep so that she could do some real exploring out on her own for a change. She had learned to place her pawpads with increasingly graceful stealth, but kept her nose and ears alert as she glided outside with a growing grin upon her face. She strode some distance away before she stopped, closed her eyes, and with an almost delirious greedy joy dipped her head back and drank in the night. This was what life was all about: this vivid living wild and free with no one about to scold her or get her into trouble or otherwise interfere with her personal agenda and investigations. Her silvery-blue eyes glittered in the moonlight and her whiskers splayed twitching and wide as she dug her toes into the cooling earth and scampered eagerly forth. She'd only taken another few steps however when the bucolic symphony of the night air was interrupted by a sudden discordant note of fearful stink.

Talos stopped in her tracks again, wrinkling her nose and brow both as she processed this newest bit of information, her lip curling itself up a little in involuntary disdain and digust. Exactly what uncouth wolf was despoiling this lovely evening with such a display?! The scent was not entirely unfamiliar, but it was not until Talos trotted a minute in its direction and spotted its source that she remembered the younger, lamer litter who apparently was now at last starting to get out and about into some trouble of their own.

'Ey! she said, the carefully-moderated volume of her voice compensated for by the forceful authority jammed into it. 'Oo know 'oo be therious stank!? How dare you. Ignoring the rest of the world for the moment, she marched right up to jab little Kubo with an accusatory paw, one that demanded to know just what the hell he was doing and why he had to do it in such a smelly fashion. An' noi'! she added irritably. As always seemed to be the case, every interaction with these babies only served to reinforce her own superiority in her mind. Talos was very sure indeed that she had never in her life, not once, ever been such a stinkbomb or noise machine, thank you very much. Why this little beast couldn't control himself a little better was beyond her, frankly. He'd better have a darned good explanation for this nonsense, never mind that he was probably even less capable of clear speech than Talos herself—who was taking a bit of extra effort to try and make herself clear right now, but frankly had been fairly lazy about this whole learning-to-properly-speak thing.

Embarrassed beyond belief, the boy couldn’t form a single word, let alone a sentence. His ears burned with frustration and he stomped several times, only to turn immediately and take off in the opposite direction. He had every intention of putting as much distance between himself and his newfound shame, and such was an intent that he followed through with.