Wolf RPG

As Saēna aged, she came to know and understand more about her den-mates. Peregrine was the fun one. Osprey Jr. was the bitch, though Saēna didn't have the word for it. The tiny drama queen had decided she hated her cousin for bowling her over every chance she got in dominance tussles, and being young, this emotion was of the extreme variety. No doubt it was an eye roll-inducing exaggeration of a foreign concept, but Saēna directed her screams at Junior more often than not. Pura was her protector, and Tytonidae was, like her, a brat. Those two were her favourites, along with Hawkeye.

Today, Pura and Tytonidae were both elsewhere, and Saēna had hidden herself behind Hawkeye in the outdoor sunshine in hopes Osprey Jr. would leave her alone. Hawkeye was exhausted, however, and dozed in the midafternoon sun, leaving Saēna without a playmate. The girl dramatically collapsed onto the grass, heaving a huge sigh and muttering, "Baaa-aa-aa," for booored at the ground.

When it came to Saēna, Osprey's attempts to put the smaller, paler puppy in her place were nearly relentless... though a distraction could go a long way with her youthful attention span. This afternoon, Osprey ignored her cousling and occupied herself with looking for her friend, the owl. She conducted this search by running about the den site with her head craned back and crashing into or over something at frequent intervals. She looked like a total dumbass, not that there were many witnesses.

Peregrine suddenly materialized at the edge of the clearing and Junior immediately forgot her search and ran to him, ignoring the uncomfortable crick in her short neck. The Alpha male bent down to greet her, then took in the view: Hawkeye catnapping in the mellow May sunshine and Saēna flopped in the grass looking utterly bored. Kisu must have taken the other two off on a jaunt.

Padding over to Saēna, Peregrine nudged the bashful but certainly not quiet girl. Were any of the children quiet? No, he answered himself even as Osprey Jr. went running off across the clearing, shrieking, "OW! OW! OW! OWOWOW!" at the top of her little lungs.

"She's, like, so annoying," Peregrine remarked to Saēna in his best Valley Girl voice, dropping to sit haphazardly on one black hip. He bent down briefly to tug on one rusty ear, then grinned and winked down at her.

The littlest Virtúte flinched visibly when Osprey's yowling cut the silence, instinctively expecting to feel the older girl's weight settle on her in another oppressive display of “bettertude”, but it never came. Instead, the swarthy Peregrine's nose touched her and she felt its chill through her downy fur. A jolt of sensation went through her and she winced away with a quiet giggle, kicking her hind feet happily now that someone was paying attention to her.

She still couldn't comprehend everything that was said to her, but her limited vocabulary was rapidly expanding. She knew all the extremely important words, like fuck, tits and ass, as well as some of the basics, including the affirmative “YAAAAAA,” which she screeched at Peregrine without restraint. Saēna hadn't really understood what Peregrine said, but she was quick to give her two cents and even began mimicking him with a stern expression. After all, gossiping was the most serious business there was.

“Aaaaaaannnn,” repeated the pup through a frown, “Annn, annn-aaaaa annnnnaaaa. Joo aaaannaa.” To her, it was a sophisticated collection of reasons why Osprey Jr. was the biggest meanie ever, but to Peregrine it was likely no more eloquent than the strangled sounds a constipated badger might make.

Saēna loudly agreed with him, though Peregrine doubted she really knew the implication of her noisy declaration. "Ya, mon," Peregrine rejoined absently, a smile tugging his lips. "People are going to start to wonder if we beat her," he then mused aloud as Osprey continued to screech, "Ow, ow, ow!" at the top of her lungs.

Trying his best to ignore Junior's clamorous antics, he slipped forward into a sphinx-like position, forcing one leg beneath Saēna in the process so that she wound up balancing on the bones and tendons of his long, black limb. The Alpha male grinned mischievously and tried to adjust his foreleg so that Saēna would not slip to one side or the other.

"Smooth road," he said, sliding it back and forth, then, "bumpy road," as he began to jog his leg up and down beneath her. Peregrine froze, then yanked it from beneath her while shouting, "HOLE IN THE ROAD!" He was quite possibly as annoying as his daughter.

Osprey continued to holler in the background, enticing Saēna's ears to swivel in the larger pup's direction, but her bright blue eyes were fixed on her adoptive father. When he slid down, Saēna mimicked him, attempting to splay her legs out the same way he did, but when his foot nudged its way beneath her pudgy belly, the girl squealed and her attempt to sit regally was abandoned.

“Wheeeeee,” went Saēna as Peregrine made a festival ride out of his own leg. “Ee-ee-ee-ee,” hiccoughed the babe as he began to jackhammer his limb. She felt herself slipping to the left and clung tightly, her mouth opened wide in a grin of sheer delight and her eyes wide with excitement.

Then, suddenly, the ride stopped. Just before Saēna could protest, she was sent tumbling to her side in the dirt as Peregrine's leg slid out from under her, and in response to his sudden shout, the babe laughed madly. Her tail whipped the ground as she struggled to right herself, and when finally she found her feet, the little splotched pup bounced exuberantly. “Gen! Gen! GEN!” Saēna squealed in an attempt to get him to take her on another ride down his imaginary pothole-ridden road.

Although he tossed her about like the world's most adorable sack of potatoes, Saēna seemed nothing but delighted by the game. "Okay," he responded when she begged for more, "but remember: you asked for it. So don't suddenly start crying or anything if you fall down and go boom." His lips twitched. Of course, if she actually hurt herself (or, rather, if he hurt her), Peregrine would kiss away her tears, not hold her to anything.

Thumping his leg against the ground, he invited her to climb aboard again and repeated the same process. "Smoooooth road," he began, his leg snaking back and forth over the grass and dirt. He did that for a bit longer this time before transitioning into Stage 2: Bumpy Road. "Bumpy road!" he declared exuberantly, doing it long enough to rattle her milk teeth before yanking his leg away and dumping Saēna on the ground once more with a yell of, "HOLE IN THE ROAD!" that caused Hawkeye's ears to twitch and Junior to freeze all the way across the clearing.

Uncle Perry's words of warning fell on completely deaf ears, for Saēna couldn't be arsed about safety. She wanted what she wanted and she wanted it now, and warnings be damned. When his leg thumped the ground, the smallest pup rushed eagerly over and flopped down atop it. She did her best to stay absolutely still so her adoptive father could readjust as necessary, but erupted into delighted giggling as soon as he began to move his leg.

"Smooooooo raaaa!" Saēna cried out, mimicking Peregrine's sounds as best she could. His leg began to thump uncontrollably beneath her again and she laughed wildly. "Buh-buh-buh-buh-buh ra-ra-ra!" came her stuttering repetition, and when his leg shot out from under her, she rolled onto the ground, breathless with mirth. "HOE RA!" she screamed, flailing around gleefully.

His mate, chronically exhausted and borrowing z's whenever and wherever she could, did little more than stir. Osprey, however, veered toward her father and cousling and bounded over with a raucous volley of barks. Peregrine could see that she intended to pounce the rolling Saēna and, while the young father did not intend to interfere in the natural hierarchy developing between the youths, he stepped in front of Junior before she could spring her attack.

"Look," he said, spotting a discarded bone a few feet away and gesturing to it. Before Osprey Jr. could contemplate it long, he swept it up in his muzzle, then arched his neck and flung it across the clearing. "Fetch, Junior! Get it before Saēna does!"

While the dark youngster went cavorting after the bone and began circling in an effort to find it hidden in the spring grass, Peregrine chortled to himself and turned back to Saēna. "That'll buy us, oh, about thirty seconds. Wanna go for round three or do you wanna play fetch too, Saēna-san?"

Something magical happened in the moment that Saēna spent recovering. Someone defended her. In reality, all Peregrine had done was redirect his true daughter's attention, possibly in order to prevent Saēna from slinking away to hide for the rest of the day, but in her mind, he had saved her. He had kicked and punched the bully in the face and sent her crying to her mommy.

Suffice it to say, Saēna stared with huge, adoring eyes up at Peregrine in that moment. Unwittingly, the Alpha male had unlocked something in her small breast that rang of retribution, aimed toward all those who sought to put her down. She would never be the fighter of the troupe, but somehow, a ray of light came down and woke her up.

It was a brief Eureka, however, because Peregrine instantly drew her attention back to the game by flinging a bone across the clearing. Osprey Jr. tore after it, and even Saēna seemed to lunge forward before finding in herself some restraint. As much as she wanted to go after the bone, she instinctively knew she would be put in her place if she did. She hesitated, but Peregrine drew her right back into the thick of his attention by offering to “fetch” her.

Saēna didn't know the word, exactly, but he had uttered it seconds after throwing the bone, so she assumed a fetch was throwing. “Fesh, fesh, FESH!” she repeated, dancing on her tippy-toes in hopes he would throw her next.

"Fesh it is," he replied to Saēna's endearingly exuberant reply, a slight teasing note in his voice that she surely wouldn't notice. Unaware that the child wished him to throw her across the clearing, the Alpha male turned his attention to the patch of ground immediately surrounding himself. He nosed about in the grass until he found a small stone, which clicked against his teeth when he plucked it off the ground.

"Fesh!" he said, this time the pronunciation an accident caused by the object in his mouth. Peregrine snapped his neck, sending the rock flying less than ten feet. Surely it would be far enough to entice Saēna into chasing it down.

In the meantime, Junior ran up to him with the bone clutched firmly in her small maw. While Saēna presumably went after the stone, Peregrine attempted to get his elder daughter to spit out her prize, to no avail. She grinned around the bone and danced just out of reach, earning a dry, "This is so not fetch," from her Valley Girl father.

As her foster father rooted through the grass underfoot, Saēna drummed her paws beneath her, fidgeting and dancing restlessly until finally, his head came back up. Between his teeth he gripped something she had come to know as a rock, which she enthusiastically identified with a raucous call of, “RAWWWWWKUUUUH rawkuh rawkuh!”

Peregrine flung the rock as best he could and Saēna tore after it, staring blankly at the sky as she ran with her tongue hanging out until the thump of the rock hitting the ground attracted her attention. She caught sight of the rock as it flipped over on the ground and, quick as her legs could carry her, she pounced on it. Her little mouth fumbled for a while with it, but eventually she got a good grip on it and began to run back to her foster father with ropes of drool falling from her mouth.

The Alpha male let his daughter toy with him a moment before he eventually lunged, grabbing the bone right out of her mouth. His swiftness left the pup bewildered and blinking for a few beats... then she scowled at him and leaped ferociously upward. Grinning teasingly, he held the object out of her reach for a few seconds, then once more snapped his neck, sending the bone flying out over the clearing. It went quite a bit further than the rock and, as soon Junior realized what he'd done, she raced after it so quickly it was a surprise she didn't leave a trail of fire in her wake.

Right then, Saēna jogged up with the rock in her mouth, ropes of drool leaking from her lips. "Oh, man, I've got this pattern down pat," he bragged, then reached down to nose her. He wondered if Saēna would also try to dance out of reach, similarly unwilling to give up her hard-won prize.

Saena had many options here: she could give up the rock for round two of fetch, or she could dance away with it an entice her foster father into a game of keep away. She could throw the rock herself, pathetic as its distance might be, and see if Peregrine would chase it the way his children did. She could try to collect more rocks and make a tiny rock pile out of them, and then hoard them to herself like dragon's treasure.

Saena did none of these things. Instead, the girl danced on her paws for a moment and grinned widely before promptly swallowing the stone. The stone was apparently perturbed by this development, for it responded by sticking painfully in the pup's throat and eliciting a deep, barking cough from the child as she struggled to free it.

Saēna danced on her paws but did not move away, giving Peregrine hope that she would play by the rules. This hope was dashed when the child began to gag and cough, though his foster daughter's ability to play games properly was the last of his worries when he realized she was choking. Beneath his cloak of dark fur, the Alpha male paled as the blood drained from his face. Simultaneously, his eyes bugged.

"Saēna!" he yelled, crouching over the small child. He thought wildly of summoning Blue Willow but knew there wasn't enough time for that. He must help her or Saēna would choke to death. "Saēna... breathe," he said uselessly and lifted up a paw to clap against her back.

This seemed to worsen the cough and his instinct was to withdraw. Then a thought occurred to him. Peregrine had never heard of the Heimlich maneuver, naturally, but he suddenly wondered if he couldn't slap Saēna on the back and cause the rock to dislodge from her throat. When he saw that the flesh around her nose and eyes was turning a scary shade of purplish blue, he didn't hesitate.

"I'm sorry," Peregrine said in the split second before he struck Saēna square between her tiny shoulder blades. She felt so small and breakable. Peregrine tried to hit her hard enough to make a difference without hurting her and wasn't sure he was successful at either. "I'm so sorry, baby," he repeated, slamming his paw just beyond the nape of her neck. If this didn't work, he wasn't sure what else he could do...

Drawn by the notes of distress in her father's voice, Osprey Jr. romped back into the scene sans any small objects upon which to choke (thank goodness for small miracles). Sensing something had gone terribly wrong, she stared in wide-eyed wonder as her father proceeded to hit Saēna as if punishing her for misbehaving.

Deciding the younger girl must have done something gravely wrong, Osprey Jr. decided to join in on the beating. "BAD!" she shrieked as she suddenly charged at her cousling like a tiny bull, flipping over the unsuspecting Saēna and causing her to slam to the ground. The force of impact jarred the stone loose and shot it out of her mouth, striking Junior directly between the eyes and dropping her like a stone.

Panic dug its icy claws into her breast as her vision began to swam. Choking was a new concept, and Saēna would forever lay the blame on rocks rather than on herself for it. She was much too busy choking to consider it now, and instead she sunk pitifully to her stomach, retching nothing up. Her throat whistled weirdly with every breath, and she remembered thinking that it was interesting when she began to black out.

What she would remember then was the sensation of drowning, and then suddenly being able to breathe again. Luckily for Peregrine and Junior both, the diva wouldn't remember being hit by either of them. Gasping and coughing hard against the sudden onslaught of oxygen and finding that her eyes with heavy with tears, she sent a bewildered look in her adoptive father's direction.

Her eyes found the unconscious Osprey Jr. instead. Though she was wholly unaware of what had happened, she intuitively knew that, at least for the moment, she was safe from the bully's wrath. It never occurred to her and likely never would that her worst nightmare had just been responsible for saving her life, and had taken the fall for it, intentionally or otherwise.

"OSPREY, NO—!" Peregrine bellowed at the top of his lungs as she made to tackle Saēna. His paw shot out, intending to shove her forcefully away from the choking girl, terrified that Junior's interference would make everything much worse.

Before he could intervene, however, Osprey Jr. made contact, Saēna went down and the rock came sailing out of her mouth to nail Junior directly in the forehead. She dropped like a sack of potatoes, leaving Peregrine reeling. A moment ago, it had been Saēna who'd been in danger and now she was fine and it was young Osprey who'd fallen (after serendipitous saving her cousling's life!).

"Osprey? Osprey?" Peregrine questioned in a high-pitched voice. He looked at Saēna, who appeared to be none the worse for wear despite her episode, then very gently nudged his unconscious daughter. "Wake up, lil' girl... please wake up..." He licked her head. There was no blood, at least, though he could feel a lump forming between Osprey's eyes.

After what seemed like an eternity (but which was actually no more than three or four minutes), Junior began to come around. She twitched faintly, then groaned. Her eyelids fluttered and opened halfway. "Ooooogh," she muttered as she tried to sit up. Dizziness struck her like a tsunami and she bobbed and weaved like a drunk.

A shaky, relieved laugh burst from Peregrine's muzzle as he gently nosed his woozy daughter. "Oh, man..." he breathed as he gathered her gently with one foreleg. He used the other to wrap around Saēna and drag her close too. "That was a great shot, Saē. I give it a 10/10. Ho-ly shee-it. I'm glad you're both okay." And he clutched them to himself and snuggled them, fighting an urge to weep as his body quivered like boneless mush.