Forward dated to June 7th
Mami and Da had left Seal and Orca in Towhee and Phox’s care while they went on a short trip. Though the little girl was still sad about Raiyuk and Stingray, she knew her parents would be back soon enough. Plus, it was sort of exciting to have a slumber party with her grandparents! They did a good job keeping the kids busy and preoccupied between short lessons of Ptero.
Today, over lunch, they all had a recess at the rendezvous site. Seal, full of energy, bounded over to
@Sable and gave him a rough nudge.
“Tag!! You’re it!” she crowed before jumping away and folding into a play-bow.
Day…he wasn’t counting. Dad wasn’t back. Home had shifted from the vale to here. Sable, in his infinite wisdom, had stuck his paw into an ant bed and gotten bit.
He had sulked about it for days, but the swelling had gone down, as well as the itches, and he had gone outside today to go stare at the ants again.
He’d stopped for a moment to stare at a distant squirrel with the petrified expression of an elephant seeing a mouse in an old cartoon. The thing to break him out of this daring face off between predator and prey was the touch of someone else.
That was not his sister. Sable whipped his head around to find it was another puppy. He was related to this one? He thought? Maybe he was related to all of them. He didn’t know.
Anyway. Tag.
He was serial killer slow as he slid to his chest in a mockery of the play bow in front of him, his eyes wide and face expressionless. Perhaps if he stared intently enough, she’d roll over and he’d win.
Barring that didn’t work, he’d bounce forward, near tripping over his paws, before pursuing.
Any emotional turmoil experienced by Towhee Jr or Sable went right over Seal’s head. She was too young to understand that the Redhawk family had uprooted their whole lives and that their dad wasn’t with them… and she was also too oblivious to connect that fact with Sable’s sulking. She only picked up on the absence of joy. And, well, she was pretty good at creating that!
Seal didn’t break her play bow when Sable’s gaze turned into laser beams. She was like a golden retriever puppy… effervescent and a little airheaded. She thought he was a little weird – and she liked it! As an extrovert, it was her responsibility to adopt all the introverts!
When Sable finally gave chase Seal shrieked a laugh and ran away as fast as she could (while also tripping over too-big puppy paws). “You cannae catch MEEEEE!!!!”