Wolf RPG

With only two months under her belt, Osprey Jr. didn't have the slightest grasp on the complicated relationships between adults. She especially wouldn't understand matters of the heart for many months to come. Yet when she'd woken yesterday to find her father gone, the youngster had sensed something amiss. When she'd looked at her careworn, pacing mother, this feeling had increased. By the time Peregrine finally had shown his face, right around the kids' bedtime, his face had sealed the deal. Osprey didn't know what but she knew: something was horribly wrong.

Now it was a whole day later and, while her father had brought the pups some lunch and played with them a while before their afternoon nap, he'd vanished again. As the shadows of night crawled closer, Junior listlessly padded around the rendezvous site. She didn't have the mental capacity to discern what was wrong, nor the vocabulary to ask. She had questioned Hawkeye and Kisu occasionally ("Daddy, whewe?") but they'd just shaken their heads at her, so by now she'd ceased asking.

Standing near the clearing's furthest northern edge, Osprey Jr. stared off into the woods for a while when she finally heard familiar footfalls approaching. Standing at attention, neck craning forward and tail wagging tentatively, she whined under her breath. The dark puppy bounced like an electrified jackrabbit the moment her father emerged into view, a dead bunny hanging in his jaws. Posturing submissively, she went to him and lapped eagerly at his chin, her greeting clearly saying, I missed you, daddy!

"Hey there, Junior," Peregrine said softly after dropping the dead hare. His face was drawn and his eyes were weary and distant. He licked her head and then peered across the clearing, where Hawkeye, Kisu and the other pups were milling about as they awaited supper. He made no move toward them, so Junior didn't either. Instead, she clung to Peregrine's leg like a static-cling sock when he picked up his kill and began to range along the site's perimeter.

He came to a stop on the far side of the clearing, then dropped the rabbit and called, "Sorry dinner's late!" More softly, he said to Junior, "I'll be back in a little bit. Eat up, little huntress, and tell the others daddy says hi." He nipped affectionately at her ear and then turned and, after a brief glance backward, glided back into the forest.

Young Osprey ignored the food and ran after him, shouting, "Da-a-ad!" Yet he quickly disappeared and she knew better than to try following him. Sighing, she traipsed back to the rabbit. The other pups hadn't wandered over yet, though they surely would in the next minute or two. Although usually rather domineering around meat, Osprey didn't even feel like eating. Her parents' (namely her daddy's) strange behavior was upsetting her stomach. Instead, she flopped down next to the dead rabbit and, upon realizing it smelled a bit like her dad, she began to roll on it.

Something was amiss in the Redleaf-Disarinno neighbourhood. Where Peregrine had been a constant in the childrens' lives up to this point, he suddenly had taken something of a hiatus from the kids' crib, popping up occasionally but quickly dismissing himself once his business was complete. All of the pups had noticed this, though perhaps Saēna was the least affected by it, if only because Osprey was always with Peregrine, and Saēna tended to stay anywhere that the bully wasn't.

It was only the strange behaviour of his most feisty daughter that really clued Saēna in to something being off, for she was much too selfish to really notice Hawkeye's restlessness. Normally, the largest female of the cubs busied herself lording over her underlings, reluctant as they were to accept her command, but now she slumped in the grass beside a tantalizing meal looking positively forlorn after her father had walked away despite her calling for him.

Saēna had begun to recognize even at her young age that approaching Osprey Jr. was a little bit like approaching an atomic bomb, but nevertheless she crept toward the slightly older puppy, for once not defiant of her lesser role but rather, accepting of it. She could tell by Peregrine's disappearance alone that something was wrong, and Osprey seemed to be suffering for it, something that her "sister" couldn't accept no matter how much she "hated" the other. As a testament to her fear of Junior's aggressiveness, the child hung back, but nevertheless pressed her belly to the grassy floor and called hesitantly across the distance, “Ju?”

Just as she'd expected, one of the other pups approached. Normally, Osprey Jr. would have rolled over, jumped to her feet and done her best to force the fellow youngster away from the spoils, especially if it was Saēna. In her current mood, she could have easily done this and worse, taking out her upset on the puppy pack's punching bag.

However, she just didn't have the heart for that kind of thing right now. After rubbing herself all over the rabbit carcass, she slowly rolled over and righted herself, now adopting a sphinx-like pose as she faced the quivering Saēna. She regarded the pale puppy apathetically, then sighed and slumped over, the dead bunny beneath her head and grass tickling her cheek.

"Daddy go," she moaned. "Why daddy go? Why, Saēna-na?" Junior demanded. Her transitioning eyes began to shimmer and she sniffled.

It was almost heart-breaking to see Osprey Jr. like that, although there was another part of Saēna that found it hilarious. That part was, thankfully, buried beneath a mountain of concern and uncertainty, which was built ever higher when the puppy pack's commander turned brimming eyes on her with stressed words. Perhaps she should have been sage and wise and said something brilliant, but she didn't have the answers Junior was looking for.

“Hunting?” she tried pathetically, latching on to her foster father's favourite activity. “Daddy hunter, may... May-beeee hunting. Hunting lotses?” Having been raised by three parents with a rather disconnected relationship with her real father, it wasn't surprising that Saēna had come to call Peregrine daddy as well, though no doubt this would be corrected by the adults in days to come. For now, the girl blissfully believed she was the product of his loins and Kisu was more like a babysitter than anything... However far from the truth that was.

Even if Saēna didn't feel confident in her answer, she spoke with a certainty and clarity that made Osprey's sniffling quiet. Slowly, she lifted her head and blinked her teary eyes in the smaller pup's direction, contemplating her cousling's surprisingly logical response. Junior desperately wanted this to be the answer, yet something still niggled at her, deep down inside...

Ignoring this for the moment and seizing upon this fleetingly comforting thought, Osprey sniffed and said, "Ya, huntin'..." She bobbed her head as if agreeing with (or trying to convince...) herself. She paused, then added, "Saēna-na smawt!" in an unprecedented tone of wonder and praise.

Pushing herself to her feet, Junior ventured nearer to Saēna, viewing her as a kindred spirit, if only for the moment. Although the younger whelp likely cowered away from her, young Osprey paid no mind to this. She bumped her forehead against Saēna's and even went as far as to sling a black foreleg around her cousling's neck. She drew Saēna (a bit forcefully) toward herself, burying her face in her cousin's neck and making a sad, sobbing sound that was muffled by the dainty girl's white fur.

Retreating a moment later, Osprey turned and latched onto the closest part of the rabbit within reach, which happened to be one of its broad back paws. She tugged it toward herself, then pushed it in Saēna's direction, exemplifying a startling show of camaraderie as she clearly invited the littler puppy to eat.

What happened next would be remembered as a dream by Saēna, because it was so unbelievable that even she questioned her sanity.

Osprey Jr. approached her and, taking this as a cue that she was about to be pushed down, the patchy girl crouched and poked her tongue out between her lips. When it wasn't blatantly overbearing, she had come to accept these terms. She had no choice, really, because resistance was more painful than acceptance. But Osprey's forehead bumped harmlessly against her own, and then suddenly she was pulled into a tight embrace.

Still not trusting that this was all done without the intention of punishing her somehow, the puppy pack's Omega remained hesitant. She readily expected to be boxed around the ears, and readily accepted this fate as just another part of her existence. Instead, she was offered the rabbit.

Though it wasn't really a big deal, this display brought dramatic tears to Saēna's eyes. Her fearful instinct was to shake her head and back away and wait her turn appropriately, but fearing that that would incite her cousin held her back from it. The smaller girl instead approached the rabbit hesitantly and, with an eye never leaving Junior's paws in case it was a trick, she buried her snout in the plush fur and began to pull it out in tufts, seeking the warm flesh underneath.

Saēna seemed reluctant to eat and although Osprey failed to see herself as a bully, she supposed she understood the smaller pup's hesitation. "Eadit, Saēna-na," she commanded softly, her tail giving a slow twitch when Saēna finally accepted the gift and buried her snout in the rabbit's soft hide.

Blinking tears out of her eyes, Junior sank to her haunches and watched Saēna absently, her gaze often peering over the other puppy's shoulder, into the woods over yonder. Would Peregrine come back? When? Despite Saēna's comforts, Osprey felt sadness swooping over her again. Although she tried to hold it back, her chest began to hitch and fat, wet teardrops spilled from her eyes as she sat there and pined away for her daddy.

The command given to her spurred her on, and finally she reached flesh. She managed to pluck a hole into it with her teeth, and though she imagined she was a dainty and clean eater, by the time Saēna had eaten her fill and noticed Osprey Jr. crying, she wore a bib of blood.

She stared uncertainly at the Alpha pup, for a moment dumbstruck, before ever so slowly creeping forward to settle next to Junior. Despite her muzzle still being wet and sticky, she snaked it under the larger pup's chin and began to nibble at the fur there, grooming in her own quiet and timid way. She was cautious, each movement taken with careful, subtle jerks in case Junior decided to strike her, but she hoped (at least in her own immature way) that the alternation of nibbling and lapping her tongue over the other pup's dark fur would help somehow.

Eventually, the delicate sounds of Saēna eating faded and, a moment later, she appeared at Osprey's side sporting a beard of blood. The teary-eyed Alpha pup blinked at her, then leaned into the affectionate gestures with a whistling whimper. The smell of blood was thick in her nose and she absently returned her cousling's ministrations, the comforting taste taking the edge off her forlorn mood.

Still, she didn't have much of an appetite herself. After cleaning the gore from Saēna's pale fur and leaving her with a baby pink stain, Junior sighed and flopped to the ground. "Stay? Wif me?" she asked quietly, thumping a paw on the ground to invite Saēna to curl up beside her.

When Saēna obliged, Junior somewhat roughly slung a foreleg about the smaller pup's neck and dragged her closer. She then shifted until she was lying on her side, Saēna clasped against her breast like a teddy bear. Osprey seized one of the Omega pup's rusty-red ears and latched onto it like a pacifier, then sighed one last time and fell into a fitful sleep.

Although she didn't truly have much choice in the matter, Saēna was undeniably flattered that Junior asked her permission rather than commanding her. The pale pup bobbed her head in agreement, settling uneasily on the ground only to find herself pulled into a slightly uncomfortable embrace. She put up with this, eventually falling asleep with the sound of Osprey suckling in her head.