Though the pack made sure to keep her nurtured, Laurel was still hungry all the time. She wanted food, food, food! Many tantrums were thrown and her mother's absence barely went noted in the midst of her constant hunger. Laurel was fast growing to be a demanding little princess — the world belonged to her, and so she demanded all wolves in it to obey her every command, however unclear those commands often were.
Feeling bored, hungry and irritated, Laurel stretched out her neck to look outside the den, then barreled on out to display herself in full glory to anyone out there while loudly screeching, "BAAAAAH!" to whomever might see her.
Laurel loud "BAAAAAH" startled Spring awake. The Alpha had been laying a few feet from the den and had been watching the pups den, in case anything happened, slowly though she had fallen asleep, but after that bah Spring was more than awake. The female jumped to her feet startled and raced towards the den to see what had happened, eyes wide with fear... but when she saw Laurel and Indra were fine Spring just sighed, guessing it was Laurel who had screeched since she seemed the most likely to do something like this in Spring's eyes.
"Scared the life out of me pup." Spring huffed, then slowly lowered herself into a sitting position. "Do you want something Laurel? Is that it? Or is it something else sweetheart..." Spring sighed again wishing that she could just know what the puppies wanted all the time.
There was little more amusing than Spring being surprised, scared, ticked off, or in some other way influenced emotionally by Laurel. She started to giggle as Spring admitted being scared by her maneuvre. Spring then asked her if she wanted anything or if something was wrong, and the answer was very clear.
"BORED!" screamed the little girl at Spring's face and she started to bat at Spring's unmoving forepaws, hoping to be stimulated in some way or another SOON. Because her patience was fast running out. And anyway, "And HUNGRY!" so maybe her boredom and hunger could be quelled all in one go.
When Laurel started to giggle, Spring felt a little less tired and much more sweetened at the sight. She was glad that the pups seemed to being doing somewhat well in the absence of their Mother. Especially Laurel. Her attitude didn't seem to have changed much. Mostly because her favorite word still seemed to "BAAAAAH" normally screeched at the top of her lungs. Spring didn't mind though, because she actually found the signature Laurel "Bah" quite cute.
When Laurel claimed that she was bored, Spring frowned. Couldn't Laurel just go play with her sister? Well, pups never seemed that simple, so maybe there was some classifyed reason why Laurel couldn't go play with her sister. When Laurel said that she was hungry though, Spring's frown cascaded to something deeper. Quickly though she took a deep breath, hiding those expression and claiming a more neutral blank one, since she did not want to scare the pup in any way.
"I'm sorry that you are bored Laurel," Spring started off "would you like to play then? Or what do you feel like doing to get your mind off of being bored?" Spring asked Laurel, purposely skipping the hungry topic entirely, because she did not feel like going into that right now.
Laurel's mind of yet worked in a simple way. Most of her abandonment issues were pushed under the surface, and she showed little signs of being deprived of anything; except maybe a constant deprivation of attention. She needed to be in the spotlight, always, and would do whatever to get her way. Yet for now, screaming and giggling and being an energetic child seemed enough to always get what she wanted and to be in the centre of all attention.
The subject of hunger was quickly forgotten when Spring offered up a different subject. Spring asked if she wanted to play and Laurel seemed to think for a second or three, a rare moment of silence surrounding her, before she made her decision. "Play House Spring!" Soon after Laurel decided: "Spring daddy, Laurel gonna mommy!" But of course their House wouldn't be complete without puppies, 'cause they wouldn't be a real family.
So when Laurel spotted a large snail edging its way along the dirt not far from them she gasped and screamed, "NO PUPPY DIS NO LEAVE!" and dashed off to fetch her precious child lest it get away from her.
Spring was so glad that Laurel seemed to actually consider her option of playing, as Laurel had a few precious moments of very rare silence. When Laurel began to speak again though, Spring was unsure on how to feel. So in this game she had to be the Daddy and Laurel the Mommy... at least it would keep Laurel entertained. Spring was quiet for a few moments in thought of how to play this game out. She wasn't able to think for long though, because Laurel screamed at a snail who now happened to be the child. Spring watched as Laurel dashed away.
Preparing to lower her voice a whole octave deeper, Spring walked after Laurel. Shooting the puppy a playful glance Spring began to speak to the snail/puppy. "You can not leave home like that puppy. You must stay with your parents." Sprring told the snail, wondering what was going on in that snail's head right now. Did it understand what was going on? She wasn't entirely sure, but doubted it.
When Daddy Spring spoke to their snail-child, Laurel giggled and exclaimed, "You talk funny!" unaware that Spring was trying to impersonate a male by lowering her voice. Laurel's ears cupped forward at the snail as she then added, "Yeah, bad puppy!" having already forgotten that Spring's words were already an addition to Laurel's own. The snail just happily edged along in the meantime, seeming to give very little fucks about whatever its parents were doing. Typical puppy.
"Spring, where is my daddy?" asked Laurel suddenly, and she looked up at Spring questioningly, her snail child momentarily forgotten. She knew she'd had a mommy once, and she had disappeared mysteriously (but, Laurel thought, she'd be back some day), but what about her daddy?
Spring smiled at Laurel's comment that she talked funny, not getting the point that she was trying to lower her voice to that of a male and obviously was not doing a good job at it. Her eyes then began to slowly trail the oblivious puppy snail as it just kept sliming on. For the first time in a while Spring found herself feeling very relaxed.
Then Laurel asked her question.
Spring froze, her eyes turning from the snail to Laurel, for a second Spring considered lying and telling Laurel that she didn't have one, but that was not true. Laurel in fact did have one. A very bad one. So Spring would tell her for Laurel's knowledge just in case and because the pup simply deserved to know anything that she was able to ask about her parents in Spring's eyes.
Spring sat before starting. "I am sorry Laurel, but do you remember Reek from the story?" She paused for a few moments. "Reek is your Father and it must be taken seriously to never go to him." Empathy lit her eyes and she tried to give Laurel a comforting nuzzle.
Spring grew serious, and Laurel sort of regretted her question. She looked at the snail puppy and considered interrupting Spring to continue their game of playing house, but in the end Spring already started to speak to let her know about the answer of her question. Laurel looked at Spring attentively, feeling a little weird, as she listened to the words.
She vaguely remembered the story about Reek, though she was pretty sure that he was a story wolf, not a real wolf. Yet the first thing that sprang out to her was not the yes-or-not fictivity of Reek; it was something else that piqued her curiosity. "Why not?" She looked at snailpuppy and wondered how it'd feel never to see Spring again. Surely it wouldn't be very happy, and neither would Spring-daddy.
Laurel launched her a question, a why, which caused Spring to look into the distance, imagining Reek coming. What a horrible day that would be. It would surely never happen though... right? She flicked her gaze back onto Laurel. She knew how to answer Laurel's question, it had a simple answer, althoguh she wouldn't give Laurel a long explaination, she would give the pup a summary so it would not be as confusing. It would be much mroe straight forward this way too afterall.
"Reek... he is a terrible wolf Laurel. He is far away for now, but he is bad..." She paused for a moment, unsure if she should continue or not, but finally decided to. "He hurt your Mom emotionly. He is a bad wolf Laurel... he bears an unkept black coat and has murkey brown eyes. If you ever see him I want you to get very far away. Understood?" Then she watched Laurel with a steady agze, hoping that this time there would be no why's, just a simple: yes.
Laurel looked at Spring as she listened to what she had to say. Being naturally defiant, Laurel always wanted to know the why's and how's and what for's of everything. What Spring said rose another question for her: "What's emotionnully?" She tilted her head in question, wondering what sort of way of hurt this was. She knew about emotions, sort of, but they weren't a very clear concept to her just yet.
"Okay," she agreed eventually, and she nodded at Spring. Then she turned to her snail-baby and said, "NO puppy, get 'way from daddy!" And she made to grab her snail-baby carefully between her teeth to walk away from Spring at a brisks trot.
Laurel didn't really get the point and Spring felt bad. How could she explain this to Laurel? It was... complicated, but not complicated at the same time. So when Laurel took the puppy away from her and in Spring's mind seemed to think that all Fathers were bad Spring cursed at herself internally. Why did this have to be so hard to explain?
"Emotionally means hurting on the inside. Like when your sad, that is an emotional hurting. Your Mother got her feelings hurt. Not all Fathers are bad though Laurel, you don't have to worry too much about that. I just want you to stay away from your Father, Reek. He is an unkept black furred male with murkey brown eyes. He also has a noticable scar that goes from his mouth to around his ear. It's called a glasgow grin or glasgow smile." Spring informed Laurel, hoping that she would what she had told her.
Lots of information was chucked Laurel's way. She registered about half of it, not all that interested and standing protectively over her child because the new implications that this information had given the game of House. She got stuck on the smile bit though, and giggled.
"That sounds funny! Why's called glassow smile?" She looked up expectantly at her caretaker, eager for an answer, even though she didn't even link this bit to Reek anymore, already distracted with other things.
Laurel obviously did not get her point, instead asking what a glasgow smile was, not seeming to pay too much attention to the Reek situation. Spring knew that she had a ton of time to warn them though afterall... or so she hoped. So for now she supposed that she could explain to Laurel what a glasgow smile was and looked like. For a few moments she brought up the memory of Reek's, almost curling her lip at yet another reminder of his digusting face.
"A glasgow smile is a scar that goes from the corner of the mouth, up to the ear, to make a smile or grin like look." Spring did her best to explain simply, so that Laurel would hopefully just get it, point and all. Who knew though? Laurel had already gotten distracted multiple times... it could very well happen again.
Laurel looked at Spring as she explained what a glasgow smile meant, but she wasn't paying overly much attention. When Spring was done explaining, she decided, "Nap time!" because she was growing sleepy and so she decided that it was a good time to take a nap. Laurel loved naps — and so did her caretakers, most likely — and so she started to wander back to the den with a wide yawn, where she was ready to fall over and asleep.
Soon after Spring had finished talking to Laurel about her Father, Laur was quickly distracted by the thought of nap time. The Alpha nodded slowly. Although Laurel's actions could be quite cute, she needed to have more patience and she needed to heed others words more. For now though Laurel was only a puppy, so a puppy Laurel would be.
"Okay Laurel. Lets go back to the den then." Spring told the pup, then turned around back towards the entrance of the den. Then she waited for a few moments to let Laurel join her, then began to walk back towards the den to give Laurel her nap.