Something was happening in the world above their heads. Even Pura could sense tension among their trio of caretakers, despite being less perceptive to - and the least interested in, frankly - the goings-on beyond the sources of the next fun thing. Peregrine was frequently absent, and the only boy had been dimly aware of an emotional and uncharacteristically civil exchange between Junior and his sister on the subject.
Like his uncle, Pura was instinctively deterred by this build-up of feelings and oestrogen, and spent most of his days inspecting every inch of the rendezvous - effectively mimicking the older male's 'ranging' on a smaller scale. By the time he had sniffed the last inch of ground, the first was unfamiliar again - it continued on like this until he was engaged by someone willing to play, or offer food.
Speech came slow to Pura. The girls were stringing crude sentences together, but the palest of the truly greyscale bunch said very little. He was bigger now, approaching the eldest pups in size, and his baby blues had started to harden into a bright, metallic grey. These eyes were trained on a rare four-leaf clover at the far end of their garden now, wondering what it had done to become so horribly deformed.
I'll jump in on this :)
Blue truthfully stayed away from the rendezvous site for the most part, merely because the tension in the air was palatable. She tilted her head as she showed up a small rabbit in her jaws. It would not make much of a meal but it would make a a bit of one. She dropped it and then studied the pups and noticed Pura off on his own staring at something.
He was growing up he was going to be a large boy. She noticed lately that he was mimicking the male caretakers adding his own scent in with the border around. She would smile everytime. He was going to be a good loyal boy. She chuffed at him gently and long legs tore up the ground gently as she walked towards him.
Pura did not leap at Blue in a flurry of mad yelps today, but looked up from his horticultural pursuits with a dazed, puzzled expression. The girls had tired him out with their frequent outbursts and he was in a rarely glimpsed state of calm.
"Whaa..-tuh do?" he asked when she was near enough to hear, looking up at the big, black wolf with a gently quizzical expression. He wanted adult time - alone, and Willow was just the wolf. "Uh-sploooore?" the pup enunciated carefully, looking beyond their invisible pen and back again. He struggled to to speak fluidly, and said as little as possible to avoid the inevitable frustration of being bested by the girls in that category.
Blue listened to him for a moment she was a little worried about his pronunciation, but decided it really wasn't any of her concern and he would get his tongue to work eventually. She chuckled at his quizzical expression. He wanted to explore she was fine with that. The poor boy probably never got a break from his real sister and adopted sisters. It had to be tough being the only boy in a den dominated by females and one of those females could be a bit of a bully, not that she was to Pura, but Blue was fairly certain he probably took care of his sister when Junior would start her dominance display.
Blue bent down a little further to his level and spoke in a whisper, Let's say we go look for Dragons. There might be some out today. Then she stood and with a flick of her tail and head she motioned Pura to follow her looking back at the other adults to let them know she was taking Pura.
Blue listened patiently whilst Pura stumbled his way through the language jungle. His mouth fell open in a smile when she lowered her head, drawing him in with a low whisper and promises of adventure. Dragons? What were dragons? The boy debated asking for more information, but not much time had passed since his last attempt to speak and he was still recovering from that expenditure of mental energy. He nodded instead, accepting the invitation without question - the dragons would reveal themselves soon enough.
Above his head, Blue Willow sought and received permission for a day-trip. Pura sprang into action when she turned to leave, galloping into the forest without looking back (in case one of the girls caught his eye and interpreted it as an invitation to come along).
Blue walked swiftly with a proud Pura beside her at being taken on an adventure. She spoke as they walked No Dragons are shy creatures and they can be large or small and they can look like anything you want them too. I always imagined them with large fangs and wild eyes. How about you Pura? What do you think they look like? She tried to draw the youth into conversation if she could, she knew he had some slow speech, but it didn't bother her and he could take as much time as he needed to talk t oher.
She pretended to get down on her haunches and look for something allowing the boys to imagine whatever he would. that was the point of this game to explore all possibilities of one's own imagination.
Blue Willow caught up quickly, and the pair walked side by side into the great beyond. They would likely not stray over the Plateau's borders (if you did, there was a 75% chance that it would be a cliff, and that would be less than ideal), but to Pura it was the adventure of the week. Or month. His concept of time was a little off - the minutes between two meals seemed like an epoch, but fun started and ended within the blink of an eye. Time was a fickle, cheating, bastard machine, he decided - or felt, but could not put into words. Whatever filthy creature operated its controls would soon be at the mercy of his dragons.
The Daenerys-with-a-dong of Blacktail Deer Plateau flashed a surly look behind Blue's back when she tried to engage him in conversation, but accepted that this was the price for a good time. He wasn't about to make it rain, but the diligent Alpha had made herself deserving of one or two choice words. "Buh-luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuue," he told her, looking skywards whilst she inspected something in the dirt. "Aaan' guh-reeeen, aaan'.. " Fierce? Breath like a cold breeze? Scales glinting like a school of river fish? Pura scrunched up his nose, summoning his inner Perry. "Biiiig f-f-...fuuuckin' fats. Faaaarr-tuhs. Far-tuhs." Farts. Right.
Blue listened to him and nodded her head Ah so we are looking for dragons that are blue and green, makes sense they can blend in with the sky and the grass. Blue was momentarily struck speechless as the cuss words came off of Pura's tongue and for a moment she forgot to breathe. SHe daren't laugh at such language, but she couldn't help but allow a small strangled noise between a laugh and a sigh work it's way from her maw. She also couldn't really correct the boy when his mother, uncle, father, other father swore all the time. What was she to do she did not like those words, but if the boy was speaking shouldn't that be something at least.
Blue spoke over a dry mouth like cotton Well they are big then okay. So we are looking for something Big, green and blue. Do they have sharp fangs do you think like you? Big sharp fangs? Do you think they are tough as you Pura? Surely not after all you're the king of the castle right you'll protect me. SHe knew the boy would most likely be protected by her, but she could make him feel important and good couldn't she, make him proud of himself, when she strongly suspected he felt a little awkward if not worse that he couldn't talk very well.
Having just delivered a speech worthy of United Nations fame, Pura was a little miffed to be on the receiving end of a question gun with a repeat fire problem. Perhaps he shouldn't have encouraged her; the special Peregrine vocabulary were among the longest, most complicated words he could pronounce with ease, and were reserved for special occasions. This could have been a special occasion. Now it was an interrogation, and it was stressing him out.
"SHHHHHHHHH," the pup hissed, emulating the oldest, crankiest librarian in the land. He was quick to realise that nearly spitting an alpha in the face wasn't the smartest thing to do, and quickly swapped his scrunched-up features for what he hoped was an 'intense' and 'dramatic' expression. "Draaa..draagon h-h-hears us."
Blue Willow knew that perhaps she was pushing a little too hard, so she decided to back off a little bit. It was hard for her though, and not necessarily, because he had some issues with some words. It was more that she was a talker, and exhausting talker sometimes. She loved conversations, even if they were with a child. However, she also knew that some children, they just didn’t want to have such conversations.
She chuckled gently, her suspicions obvious when he told her very loudly and a bit crankily, to shhhh. She looked down at him, and saw his regret and the expression’s he tried to school. She shook her head and spoke quietly Oh yes I almost forgot we were hunting dragons. She got a little lower to the ground, she began to stalk along the ground, ears forward and eyes peeled for the imaginary dragons.
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Putting an eagle in the tree - do with it as you please! :D I thought if it was difficult to see, Blue could convince Pura it was a dragon.
Blue Willow was a forgiving creature, and Pura breathed an internal sigh of relief when no scolding came. Junior took scoldings like a champ - repeatedly and often with a lot of shouting, but Pura was (much to his own chagrin) turning out to be quite sensitive soul, and did his best to stay out of serious trouble.
The hunt was on again, and no sooner had the monochromatic pair stalked off in a direction that promised dragons than something rustled overhead. Pura flattened himself to the ground, elbows in the dirt, and peered intently up at the leafy crowns.
Suddenly, an absolutely
huge set of wings
exploded out of the foliage! Pura hooted with delight and fear, rearing up to paw at the black shape above them as it struggled to free itself from whatever magical bonds held it to the ground. Leaves and twigs rained down on the pair like confetti at a parade, and an ear-splitting chorus of shrieks (not unlike one of Ty's tantrums) easily drowned out the noise of the pup and his sitter.
Blue could no more yell at the youth than she could hurt him. She was a giant push over most of the time. She just simply couldn’t help it, one of the reasons why Junior had yet to really get scolded by her for her bullying. She just didn’t like to see the crushed look on their faces, even if it was for only a little while. She really needed to work on that if she ever found a mate and had pups of her own.
Blue herself was startled by the large creature that burst from the trees. She flattened herself beside Pura her hackles raised and a small growl lodged in her throat. As it flew up she noticed what it was simply from its plumage, but seeing an opportunity she said quietly what do you think Pura? Have we found ourselves a dragon?
Blue sat to her haunches and watched as the feathered creature flew up and away and she smiled in delight at Pura’s hoot. She was content and happy and she wondered if he would believe it was a dragon.
The creature made a graceless, flustered exit, stressed by it's entrapment and Pura's noise. Not until it was a black line against the sky did the boy stop howling, breathless with excitement and joy. To Blue's question he simply nodded, unwilling to commit to conversation - but when their first dragon was well and truly gone, he did turn his face up at the alpha.
"More," he said, and loped off to find a second, even bigger dragon.
Conclude?
Blue followed after the youth a smile on her face. The day was turning into a truly wonderful day, what more could she ask for; it was beautiful out, there were dragons and Pura was happy, it was truly a wonderful time. She hummed softly as she followed behind him, as he was intent upon finding a new creature such as they had just seen.