Wolf RPG

It was mid afternoon and the fox was, as usual, entertaining himself. What he found was a chipmunk, who had excavated a series of holes around the base of a tree and its thick, lifted roots. He watched the creature scamper from the nearby woods to one of the holes with its cheeks rounded out with nuts, and quietly sneaked over.

He stuck his nose into the hole and breathed in, taking in the scent of the striped rodent. He proceeded to paw at the dirt, widening the entrance, but was distracted when the chipmunk's head reappeared in another hole. He pounced over to that hole and the chipmunk darted back in. His tail waved in the air as he resumed digging, only to see the rodent reappear yet again in the first hole.

This pattern repeated itself several times over, before Three decided he needed a new game and stole away into some nearby ferns. He laid down, and watched in silence. Soon, he saw that familiar head poke out. "Seeing you!" He called softly, and the head disappeared. This elicited a giggle from the boy, as he waited to see where the creature would pop out next.

Past midday, Aariak left his border-enforcing duties to quickly check on Tonravik and her pups as it was his custom, just in case the mother needed a little time off. The pups were growing fast and every day they reached out just a little bit further away from the den, so Aariak knew that now more than ever his help would come in handy.

It wasn't hard to spot the red pup hiding in the bushes in his way to the den, and when he did, Aariak observed him for a moment trying to figure out what he was doing. For a second, Three's tail got a rush of excitement and stired around in the air, just to suddenly get back to a resting position. It happened two or three times before Aariak noticed it happened every time a tiny chipmunk head appeared in one of the holes that seemed to have had a little re-design.

Aariak made sure to be silent in his approach, and gently laid besides the little Tartok. "Are you planning on catching it, Pingasut?" the male asked in a barely audible volume.

This pattern also repeated itself, with the chipmunk peeking out of a hole and the fox calling to it softly just to see it retreat into the safe confines of its many-chambered burrow. "Come in to the out!" He squeaked, his encouragement lending his voice an even higher pitch. But the chipmunk did not hear him, or was not listening. He crossed his forelegs in a notably prim way as he waited once more.

The pack's caretaker joined him then, slipping in beside him quietly. Pingasut greeted him with a friendly smile and a wagging tail, responding at first to the question with a small shake of his narrow head. "Not hungering." He informed. "I wants him to play." He furrowed his brows, exhaling in a soft sigh. "He doos not wants to play."

Since the first time he saw the Third, Aariak knew that he would be an adventurer. Curiosity overflowed the little creature, and it often came with giggles. That was, in Aariak's oppinion, Pingasut's strength, and that was what he would make an effort to enforce.

With wonky vocabulary, the child informed Aariak that he was not seeking to hunt the rodent, but instead wanted him to play. Interesting.

Aariak hummed, "Perhaps he is already playing." he said and looked at Ping with a raised eyebrow, curious as to what the boy's reaction would be.

His caretaker's words caused him to draw his breath in a gasp as he peered wide eyed at him. He then turned his head and his eyes back toward the chipmunk holes, and was quiet as he considered what had just been said to him. After several moments, he slapped his dainty paw onto the ground. "I dids not think of that!" he declared, and he pursed his lips as he thought some more, holding his breath for another few moments before he exhaled all at once and made another declaration. "I thinks..." he paused. "I thinks he is seeming more to be scared than playing." He looked quizzically at Aariak. "Why is he to be scared?"

Pingasut gasped at the caretaker's suggestion, declaring that he hadn't think of that. And then, after more thinking, he suggested himself that the chipmunk seemed more scared than playing. That caused Aariak to grin and raise his eyebrows.

"Do you really think it's scared?" the male whispered and looked back at the rodent, which had just popped out of another hole.

"Why did you scare it if you wanted to play with it?" Aariak asked, faking confusion just to see how the boy would react to a troubling situation as such.

"Do you really think it's scared?" The fox considered this with brows furrowed. He did believe this, even more so when he glanced toward the network of holes and watched the rodent pop out and pop back in as soon as he discovered the wolves were still nearby. There was something about the chipmunk's flighty mannerisms that told Pingasut it was scared, though he was not aware that he sensed that in its movements, only that he did believe - for some reason - that it was.

He was about to comment on this, to reaffirm his opinion, when the caretaker asked another question. He was taken aback by this, and blurted out rather indignant "I dids not!" He folded his ears back as he continued. "I only telled him I sees him." He was not hunting him; the chipmunk should know the difference. For why else would it be scared unless it thought that it was being hunted?

The child's reaction was priceless. Pingasut clearly didn't understand why the chipmunk would feel threatened by him, who had been born to be a killing machine. It was heartwarming to witness a child's innocence, and sad to think that it wouldn't last much. But growing up opened up space for bigger things, and that was Aariak's job.

"Do you think he can understand you?" asked the caretaker hoping to boost the boy's interest in drawing his own conclusions. Pingasut had demonstrated how interesting and unknown the world was to him, and Aariak was glad he had these oportunities to explore it with him.

The caretaker's next question really caused the boy the pause. His brows knitted over his eyes as they stared toward the chipmunk's holes. His family could understand him. His packmates could understand him. He had never held a conversation with a chipmunk or any other creature, but then how could he when they hid from him? His mouth shifted as he pondered, his ears twitching absently. He had no reason to think it could not understand him and yet no reason to think it could. It baffled him.

He opened his mouth as if to speak, but closed it again with a soft exhale. He did not know. Before he was about to admit that, however, the chipmunk's head appeared. "Are you understanding me!?" he called out, but of course, it quickly ducked back into its den. Pingasut sighed, and looked back to Aariak. "Maybe he cans not use words. But..." he searched for his explanation. "He cans see. He should be knowing I am a playing wolf not a hunting wolf." He glanced back to the holes with a snort. "Maybe he just dumb."

The caretaker chuckled at Ping's conlusion. Out of the four, Pingasut was the most curious one about the world, and he had been the first to go out and explore it by his own means, which Aariak admired. The boy reminded him of his father, who not only share his fire coat, but also irradiated passion.

With children, Aariak thought it was best to evaluate their capacities in order to help them become their best version in the end. With many it was easy as they showed an instinctive preference for physical domain, but there were exceptions. Pingasut, although repeatedly showed his energetic nature, striked Aariak as a more adventurous kid, which in the end Aariak suspected would become a bold explorer or an analytical naturalist. And if he chose not to, Aariak would be happy to help him fulfill his dreams.

The chipmunk's head sank underground once again as Pingasut spoke. Aariak laughed again with him. "Maybe..." he said with a grin.

Dumb or not, the chipmunk was not a good playmate. The red-haired child sighed. He had grown bored, as kids tended to do. "I finding some other animal," the boy declared as he rose to his paws. He stepped past his caretaker, brushing a cheek against his shoulder before he prowled through the undergrowth in search of some other critter. Meanwhile, the chipmunk waited in its den for both wolves to leave before it could resume gathering nuts and seeds.

Eventually, the kid grew bored of the lack of interaction with the chipmunk, and Aariak didn't blame him for that. He wasn't doing it right...

Aariak nudged the kid gently as he slipped away to find something more interesting to do, and his orange eyes followed his figure as he wadded away. Once the kid disappeared in the undergrowth, the Caretaker got up and walked towards the chipmunk's holes in silence. His black nose hovered all of them for a moment, and then his quick paws dug, and the chipmunk was cornered. Aariak took it between his jaws, and didn't stop putting pressure until it cracked. That was the right way to interact with a rodent.