Wolf RPG

As much as Finley so dearly loved her son, he never ceased to be somewhat of a challenge for her.  It was incredible to see how very different he was from either of his parents.  Even though he looked like their mini doppleganger, his personality was completely his own.  Fin had never been timid for a second of her life, and she had a hard time imagining her mate even at that age being afraid of things like bugs.  Fin certainly never had been.

But there was one way he was very similar to them both... And that was in his stubbornness.  Fin had been trying for weeks now to acclimate the wolf to eating solid food, and Eljay had been staunch in his rejection.  There had been tantrums and tears and frustration - not only on the pup's part, either.  The mother too was beginning to have a hard time dealing with it as her patience had never exactly been the best.  She definitely had more of it for her son than anyone, but as the days went on and the battle continued, Finley was getting nearer and nearer to her limit.

It was with a bundle of nerves writhing in her stomach that she brought him a belly full of meat that day.  After heaving it into a hot mess on the floor of the den, she set her gaze expectantly on Eljay with a look of fierce determination.  He was going to eat it today, by god.

While he'd taken nibbles of food here and there, Eljay had not really eaten much meat, at least not when mommy was around and he had the choice to go for something better. When his mother brought him food that day, Eljay stared at it for a bit. He eventually took a bite or two as he looked at his mommy from the corners of his eyes. Then he had enough of the meat, and Eljay waddled over to his mother with questioning eyes full of feels set in a nearly stoic face.

"Mommy da," Eljay said and he lovingly bashed his head into his mother's leg. Like a cat he slithered past her leg afterwards, to subtly find his way to his mother's teats. The meat had been good, but mommy's milk was a lot better!

As Eljay approached the meat and took a few nibbles, Finley knew better than to breathe easy quite yet.  He was usually pretty good about eating a couple of bites, but soon enough he would decide he'd had enough and abandon the meal for one he clearly liked better.  Well, Fin's nips had had enough of that.  She was tired of looking like a stretched out leather bag, and she was looking forward to the bit of freedom she'd be able to help herself to once he was fully weaned.

Just as predicted, her son made a small attempt at placating his mother by taking a few mouthfuls of food before waddling over to her and searching for a teat.  A gentle growl bubbled in her throat as she gazed sternly down at him, stepping back out of his reach.  With her nose, she prodded him back towards the meat.

The growl made little Elwoof instinctively freeze, and he looked up at his mother a moment from the corners of his eyes. She tried to nose him back towards the meat, but he complained with a "nooo!" It wasn't that he didn't like the meat -- it was also good -- but that didn't mean he didn't want his mommy's milk.

With an unhappy expression with big, watery eyes set in it Elwoof looked up at mommy, his lip trembling. "Elwoof lubs mommy," he said unhappily, as if his mother was doubting this very fact because of his hunger for mommy's milk.

Her son froze at the sound of her growl and peered up at her.  She knew it was coming - had known before she'd even begun this endeavor that this was where it would lead.  Fin sucked in a deep breath before she looked down at his face.

The eyes.

He unleashed the eyes.

Part of Finley suspected it was an art he'd been developing since he'd first come into this world.  There was too much skill in that perfect crinkle of his eyelids, the way they trimmed those sweet little orbs like the vintage oak and beech frame that held the Mona Lisa protectively inside, accentuating the emotion of the portrait without stealing the spotlight.  The sweet pout of his lip - subtle, not too overly dramatic, but still so full of expression.  That paired with the lilt of his ears and the downtrodden slip of his head.  How was any creature on this earth supposed to resist, let alone the angel's very own mother?

"Mommy loves her little Jay," Fin assured him, her expression softening for a moment.  She forced her gaze away from his quivering lip to stare hard at the meat he'd abandoned.  She reached for her resolve and grasped desperately onto it.  She could do this.  No matter how heartbreakingly adorable he was, this was for his benefit, and so she could do it.  "Go eat your dinner, buddy," she said firmly, gesturing with her muzzle at the meat and fixing his forehead with another stern gaze, trying desperately to avoid looking at his round, emotive eyes.

For a moment it looked like mommy was going to cave and give him what he wanted, and all the while Elwoof just kept staring at her face, even as she looked away. When eventually she looked at him again and told him to eat his dinner, Elwoof's first reaction was to refuse again, but then he nodded. "Dinnum," he repeated as he looked at her. Mommy-dinner was sort of like dinner too, right?

Part of the boy knew that he shouldn't try again, but he just really wanted to. Elwoof didn't understand why he wasn't allowed to drink his mommy's milk anymore; he had always been allowed to. He was genuinely beginning to wonder if it was because she didn't love him, or thought he didn't love her, or anything like that. What had he done wrong that he no longer deserved his favourite food (and past-time)?

And so full of good hope, now that mommy had affirmed that she loved him too and he could have his dinner, little Jay started to walk towards mommy's tummy again for his 'mommy-dinner'.

Once again proving he was his parents' son, Eljay gave a mournful frown and made another attempt at her milk.  Fin felt frustration bubble hot in her chest, but she forced herself to be patient.  Again, she growled low at him, but this time, she stepped towards him.  Leaning down, she snatched him up by his scruff, walked him back to the meat, and set him down beside it.

"No, Eljay," Fin said sternly, "No milk.  You eat your meat.  It's good for you.  Now eat."  It came out a little harsher than she'd intended, but this was something the new mother was quickly finding she was not very skilled at.  That very thin line between being firm and being cold was difficult for her to grasp.  Especially when her precious, most perfect little boy was being so difficult and all she wanted was to snuggle his little butt off until he never made that terrible face at her again.

"noo!" the pup protested when mommy picked him up, after growling at him, and put him down by the meat. There was a look of utter dismay on his face, his large watery eyes shining with tears that threatened to break through. At the stern tone in her voice Elwoof knew he had done something wrong. He wasn't very good at doing things wrong, especially not to his perfect mommy.

"Suh-suh-suh-sabby-hy," he brought out through noisy sobs. Convinced that mommy's love was now forever gone from the face of the earth for Elwoof, tears started to roll down the pup's face and his wails got louder. "Moo-hoommyyyy-hyy why-hy-hyyyyyy no lu-hu-hubs huuuuuuuuuu HUUUUUU!" .. and louder...

Then came the tears.  Fin braced herself for them, but there was little hope in ever fully preparing for the sudden wail of heartbreak her son was capable of emitting.  Her ears flattened as he began to cry.  He sobbed something about her, asking why no lubs hu.  She wasn't exactly sure what he was trying to say with this, but she gave a sigh, gritted her teeth, and leaned down to lick the tears off of his precious little face.

"Mommy does love her Little Jay," she crooned, tension evident still in her tone in spite of her attempts to relax, "That's why I need you to eat your meat now, no more milk.  If I didn't love you, then you could have milk.  It's because I do love you that I have to make you eat meat now.  Don't you understand?"  The last bit slipped unintentionally, a product of her frustration that was truly more with herself than with him.  Why couldn't she just suck it up and make him eat his meat?  She knew perfectly well that babying him like this would only encourage his behavior, but she couldn't resist, and she was really pissing herself off.

Elwoof's lip wobbled when mommy licked the tears off his face, and he calmed down, if only for a little bit. He understood none of what she said subsequently, of course; he just wanted mommy's milk. Why was that so hard to understand? Why couldn't he get mommy's milk?

"Nohuhuuu," Elwoof sobbed in answer to her rhetoric question of frustration. "Mohohommmy-hy-hyyyyy ples PLES waaaah s-s-sabby ples mommy-hy-hyyy!" he whined, tears sliding down his cheeks as he looked his mother in the eye, eyes rolled up and shining with watery tortured pain in their depths.

Eljay ignored her reasoning, instead beginning to sob when she pushed him to eat the meat yet again.  Her gut clenched painfully as he cried at her, apologizing and begging to not be forced to do as she asked.  Finley bit her lip and looked up at the ceiling of their den, suddenly feeling a bit like it was closing in on her.  Why wouldn't he just eat his dinner?  Why did this have to be so god damn difficult?  And why for the love of god would he not SHUTUP.

She shut her eyes quickly as tears of frustration stung them.  She sucked in a deep breath, trying to steady her rising anger.  It wasn't Eljay's fault.  He was still so young, he didn't understand.  She needed to be more patient, more understanding.  But she just couldn't.  It was so hard, so painfully frustrating.  She was a terrible mother to feel the way she did about this.  A good mother wouldn't be so angry.  A good mother wouldn't let her son cry like this and be paralyzed with these terrible emotions.  The anxiety of the situation was gnawing on her chest and as his sobs continued, Fin felt as though she were reaching for something to hold onto - something she needed to hold in place before it could snap in two.

She didn't reach it in time.

"STOP IT, ELWOOD," Fin barked suddenly, her face contorted in a snarl, "I told you to eat your dinner, now do as I say."

When mommy screamed, Elwoof was quiet for a split second. He lowered his shoulders and head, crouching back against the wall, and looked up at mommy with big eyes as she continued to talk, telling him to do as she told him to.

After that split second the tears started to well up again and Elwoof started to sob uncontrollably as he tried to deal with mommy's shouting, anger and disappointment in him. "SABBY-HY-HYYY!" Elwoof sobbed loudly while he kept himself pressed low to the ground and the back wall, completely unable to deal with the flood of emotions — his own and mommy's — that was swallowing him awhole.

The second the angry words had left her mouth, she regretted it.  Almost instantly, the guilt enveloped her.  It was suffocating, and quite suddenly, a feel so much more terrible and haunting than guilt overcame her.  It was only for the briefest of seconds.  Her back paw had just barely inched across the floor towards the door before she froze in shock, so stunned by the sudden, undeniable impulse to leave that it left her trembling in horror.

Finley brushed it away.  As quickly as it had come, she had rejected it, forcefully.  It was a fleeting thing - a moment of weakness that meant absolutely nothing.  It was history, it was forgotten, and it would never happen again.  Fin swallowed hard and crept forward towards her son.  She slipped onto her stomach beside him, swept him up in her arms and began to lick away his tears.  "It's okay, baby... shh..." she crooned soothingly.

It would be a minute or two before she realized that she was still shaking, and it wouldn't be until late that night that she even dared think about that impulse again and wonder what might have happened had she given in.