Swiftcurrent Creek Wallaroo

The pups were growing and developing swiftly, even the runt of the litter. Presently, he sat just inside the den's mouth, soft ears twitching in response to the various noises from outdoors. They were fully open but only partially upright and every little sound triggered a reaction. He smiled blithely, enjoying the music the world made.

Eventually, hunger drove him to turn from the doorway. He could sit up without much of a problem, though standing and walking were still a challenge. Relonikiv rose slowly and shakily onto all fours, then took a wee baby step forward. He made it another three steps before he sank onto his bottom. The mere act of making his way across the den was pretty overwhelming, though his golden smile never failed.

They were an addicting little bunch, and Scimitar was eager for a distraction of any form these days. So with a rabbit hanging limply in his jaws, the cinnamon regal made his way to the birthing den, his ears tipping forward for any indication of the silence that might meet him – would they be asleep?

As he drew nearer, the faint shadow of gold fur answered his question enough – Relonikiv was lingering near the den entrance, though his little puppy legs hadn’t yet scooched him outside yet. With a lopsided grin, the Alpha quickened his pace, his creamy limbs striding with more purpose before he gently dropped the rabbit to the side of the den entrance – something to feed Paarthurnax, and in turn, keep her milk flowing. His aqua eyes studied the shadow just within the den walls, and slowly pulling his form lower so his belly grazed the ground, Scimitar crooned to the boy, his tail giving a quick sweep through the air to see if he would come play.

A noise behind him made Relonikiv peer over his shoulder. His tail began thumping when a large shadow filled the den's entrance. He smiled his boyish smile, then carefully climbed to his feet. When he tried to turn around to face Scimitar, his legs became tangled and he fell forward. Undaunted, he rearranged himself and rose again, taking careful, measured steps toward the Alpha male. The whole time, his tail wiggled and spun in the air.

"Bah!" he cried. It was less of a noise and more of an actual word, even if it was nonsensical. "Bah, bah, bah," he babbled as he eventually bumped into Scimitar's paws. His nose hovered just above them and it wasn't long before Relonikiv reached up to touch it with his own. If Scimitar's was a walnut, the runt's was the tiniest of buttons.

"Ee, ee!" he began to squeal now, though in between his noisy yammering, he heard a strange noise and hushed immediately. He heard it again: a loud, gurgling growl. He turned his head sideways, listening to the silence, when it came a third time. His golden fur prickled uncertainly and he shot Scimitar a questioning look and a quizzical, "Aba? Aba?"

With his rump presented in the air in a fashion very rare for the usually stoical and serious man, he felt his grin widen as his playmate began a rather comical stride forward – only to face plant in a tangle of puppy paws and limbs. He had no chance to react, and no sooner did his form even twitch to rise, Relonikiv was back on determined paws, trumpeting his way over to the Alpha male without fear of anything – something that was admirable and also made the Alpha nervous. Was the boy perhaps too trusting?

Garbled words escaped his tiny comrade, and with an impressed quirk of his wolfish brows, a tiny nose touched his own, stirring Scimitar to slide fully down to the snowy ground, feeling the coolness against his belly. “You’re right,” he nodded sagely then, as if the two were amidst a discussion that far outranked the realm of serious. “We need to have a bro-talk,” he determined then, shifting his weight so he could press most of it sideways and on to his shoulder.

But that was when the low noise echoed about them, and cupping his ears forward, the regal attempting to pinpoint the growling rumble over the toddler’s cooing blabbering. A serious note struck his features then, and slowly, the male began to lift himself up, one large paw lumbering protectively in front of the boy as his eyes began to scour for the source.

Well this thread already took a sharp turn into ADORABLE.

Scimitar seemed perturbed by the sound and Relonikiv took his cues from his superior. He fell quiet, watching as the Alpha slowly began to rise. The noise rumbled ominously again and the runt blinked, then looked downward. Wait, had that noise come from him...? He stared at his own tubby pink belly when, indeed, it gave another savage growl, announcing its hunger to all the world.

Eyes as wide as saucers now, Relonikiv practically gave himself whiplash as he looked up to Scimitar again and peeped, "Umga? Eeme?" He leaned back precariously as if to show the big male his tummy, his pale golden snout pointing at it as it unleashed yet another guttural snarl. "Umff!" he declared with an almost proud smile as he concluded, Yep, I'm making that scary noise!

It continued, and a scowl of worry creased the wolf's brows as he felt his body stiffen, ready to surge in to the brush and pull out whatever beast might lurk by it's sorry ears.. But when a rather sharp and tumultous rumble occurred, a dawning realization fell upon the male, and blinking, he glanced down sharply at the golden puff of fur, who had also come to the same conclusion, though his reaction was of a large surprise.

"Big noise for a small belly," he mused to the pup, feeling his grin returning as his muscles eased. Paarthurnax made no movement to come collect the boy -- likely because if he was hungry enough, he could seek her out.. But he was also at an age where meat was a possibility.

Giving a small shake of his muzzle and emitting a chuckle, the Alpha did what any man would do in his position -- he hocked back a decent guttersl throat noise and produced some enticing regurgitated meat. It thwumped to the ground in a small splat, and eyeing it with nervous caution, his eyes swept over to the youth, wondering how he felt about this.

Little did he know that he had certainly eaten worse.

When Scimitar spoke, Relonikiv beamed proudly, as if he understood the words and agreed with them. When the Alpha began to show signs of regurgitating, it had a Pavlovian effect on the little golden wolf. His eyes grew wide, his tongue lolled out and he began to drool. His rump remained planted on the cold den floor, though it wiggled back and forth as his tail wagged a million miles an hour in anticipation of a warm, soupy meal.

The leader delivered and Relonikiv fell upon the chunky stew, easily bolting down the larger chunks and slurping at the liquid underneath. He'd had plenty of practice by now! For one so small, he polished off the meal rather quickly. His belly no longer growled hungrily, though it was round and full of gurgles as the digestion process began.

"Fwah!" he yapped when he was done, then followed this announcement with a very loud, juicy burp.

With his new friend delighted by what was presented to him, the cinnamon wolf took the moment to stretch out on the ground once more, his aqua eyes holding an amused glint as they regarded the boy as he gulped down the meal. Feeling as if he treaded on eggshells only because they seemed so fragile, he watched in wonder as Relonikiv made him feel all the more foolish for being so hesitant at providing him with well chewed meat, for the boy did not choke.

Scimitar was also rewarded with a cheeky burp in the end, stirring an amused snort from the Alpha, while his ears cupped forward once more to the grumbling stomach.. one for a potentially very different cause. Shitballs indeed, the wolf’s jowls quirked in a light grin. “All better?” His creamy paw lifted to poke at the tiny golden belly ever so gently.

He had burped many times in his short life (although not nearly as often as Trajan, the King of Burps) but never before had it sounded so loud. He hiccuped in bewilderment for a second, then suddenly broke out in a fit of giggles. Had that noise come from him too? It tickled him silly, just as Scimitar's paw did when it feathered against his little potbelly.

"Umga! Abwa!" little Relonikiv chirped, enjoying the Alpha's undivided attention without any competition from his more dominant litter mates. In his opinion, their conversation was going swell. "Beeb? Ohpi?"

The little boy giggled at the noise he made – very much something Scimitar would expect he would not grow out of before, say, his sister. The thought stirred a small smile to his lips, and fascinated with the puppies Paarthurnax had given the Creek, he found his muzzle canting sideways for a stolen moment, knowing each moment spent with them would only further his fondness for them. Never before did he think he would actually feel bad for Shadow – but seeing the litter he had at least aided with in creation alone, Scimitar felt a hint of remorse that the father was missing these tender moments.

“Since I have your rapt attention,” he rumbled then, crossing one paw over the other in a ‘matter-of-fact’ way. “What can you tell me about Bazi? What’s she been up to lately?” He could only imagine how close the ivory she-wolf had become with Paarthurnax’s children, and with his own turmoil about where the two stood, he knew, at least for now, Relonikiv could guard any secrets he might spill to the boy.

When Scimitar crossed his forelegs, Relonikiv felt tempted to pounce those broad paws and gigantic toes. Then another idea occurred to him. He tried to emulate the Alpha by attempting to cross his own legs. They were too stubby and he was too uncoordinated. He ended up sliding forward on his tubby belly, one foreleg thrown awkwardly over the other and certainly not neatly folded together at the ankles like Scimitar's.

The large male addressed Relonikiv again and the boy smiled and replied, "Baba! Seks!" Oblivious to how that sounded or his own comedic timing, he grunted and stuck one tongue in his cheek as he tried to rearrange his legs some more to better match his leader's.

There was a small pause in the conversation – one the boy would not comprehend as a rather interesting blurb of noise emitted from him – one that had to give the adult a moment to consider whether or not this word was actually a part of his vocabulary.

It couldn’t be. Paarthurnax would have cuffed anyone that dared to teach her near newborn boy that – and he partly expected the mother to come barreling out the den now, demanding to know what he was teaching 'little shitballs' as it was.

“Interesting,” he mused, his eyes sweeping over the youth as he clumsily attempted to mimic his own pose. “Bazi IS sexy, or Bazi has lots OF sex?” Either way, there was something dreadfully wrong with the way this conversation was certainly going.

Truly, the youngster had no idea what he was saying. Even repeating words others said was something new to him, a developmental milestone he wasn't aware he was reaching. Relonikiv did sense that Scimitar was impressed by what he had to say, so he beamed up at the Alpha male. If it had been his style, he would have thrust out his little chest in pride; but it wasn't, so he merely glowed beneath what he intuited as the leader's praise.

"Baba see? Ohva seks? Seks!" the babe declared next, his thin golden whip of a tail wriggling. Relonikiv then resorted back to his earlier yammering of, "Bah bah! Ah bah! Umga!" Wasn't that just thrilling?

The baby blurbs continued merrily, and as the boy continued to absolutely glow and shift himself to better match the adult before him, the aqua-eyed male gave his comrade a deliberate wink. “You’re very wise,” he offered solemnly, giving a nod of grand approval.

“Do you think I should ask her out?” That was the question of the day – did he pursue what was lost between him and the ex-leader of the Creek, or did he simply move forward and try to play house with someone else? Canting his muzzle, he waited to see what suggestion would occur now – he half expected a fart next, given the amount of food Relonikiv had stashed away so quickly.

The baby boy glowed under his leader's praise; even though he couldn't possibly understand the words, he was already rather adept at processing tone and reading body language. He liked to pretend he was already a good speaker and listener otherwise, and so he happily pushed his cinnamon ears forward when Scimitar posed another important question unto him.

Relonikiv pondered this for perhaps two seconds before blurting, "Seks!" again. Unable to contain himself, he bounded upward and was abruptly hugging against Scimitar's leg. It probably looked a bit strange—perhaps even a tad inappropriate—but it was clearly an innocent expression of affection that bordered on worship.

"Yee, eee, aye aye aye," he babbled as he rolled off the Alpha male's leg and tumbled onto his side. He gazed up at Scimitar and smiled, then let his cheek rest on the floor. Having eaten and played (sort of), he was coming up on nap time. But he wasn't ready for the conversation to end or for Scimitar to go, which he expressed by trapping the Alpha with one small golden paw.

The boy was on a roll -- likely due to the amount of amusement that seemed to emanate from the cinnamon wolf each time the pup spoke. Deciding it was likely Paarthurnax would waltz out of the den at any moment and cuff him for the conversation he was more or less egging on (rather innocently, though!) the Alpha allowed the words to shift to the wayside.

Instead, as the tan pup flopped to his side and placed a paw on his arm, coaxing him to stay, the Frostfur stretched his forepaws out, encompassing Relonikiv in the equivalence of a wolf hug before pulling him in closer to his chest. With a meal in the boy's belly, and the fresh air he had received, Scimitar did not doubt it was time for a nap, and so he fell silent, his own muzzle brushing down to rest beside the warm body curled in to his embrace as he hoped to lull them both to sleep.

I should totally add Scimitar to his profile as his foster father, after everything that's happened/about to happen. :) <3

His golden eyelids began to drift closed, though suddenly he was being shuffled about and Relonikiv made a questioning whimpering sound. Scimitar was quick to position the tyke against his chest. The puppy murmured, gravitating toward the soft warmth of the Alpha's plush winter coat. He bent his head back to look up at his father figure for a moment, blue eyes wide and worshipful, then cooed and buried his head in Scimitar's chest, falling fast asleep.