He'd come to the den not long after he'd heard
@Ceridwen call, curious to find out what was wanted of his father. As he approached the densite, he found himself trailing an unknown scent leading toward where his father and siblings were. Whoever it was, they weren't from Brecheliant, and he could hear voices coming from the den when he ventured close enough. He didn't bother to enter, or even go close enough to catch a glimpse of who it was- instead, he turned and loped along the tracks left behind by his cousin.
He woofed as he approached, tail winging from side to side, but a look of confusion on his face. He flicked his muzzle back in the direction of where his father and some stranger were conversing.
"Who was that?" he asked incredulously.
He'd never figured that his father had had friends.
"Beats me - she claims to be your dad's sister," Dwin replied, when she had stopped to let the kid catch up with her. "Meerkat - that's her name - Bronco ever told you anything about her?" but then she realized that judging by his earlier question, he was just as clueless as she was.
"Anyway - did dad send you to get him something or you want to join the family reunion?" Dwin asked, hopeful that she could rid herself of nanny duties and get her sleep.
Ponyboy glanced back over his shoulder. Sure, his Dad had mentioned having siblings- a bunch of them- but Ponyboy had an awful hard time remembering all of their names. Fortunately, one was supplied for him and he nodded slowly. "Ohhhhh, that one," he said. Ceridwen looked lightly skeptical but he nodded. "Yeah, she's his sister from his Towma," He explained, as though that would help everything make sense.
As far as Ponyboy could tell, their family tree had some tangled roots.
As for joining them, he made a light grimace. "Nah, they'll just talk about boring stuff," He said, with a sniff. "That's all they ever do," He complained. "What're you doing?" He asked, renewed interest. After all, Ceridwen was one of the older kids- and the older kids were cool.
"Well, in that case we should not worry about his safety," Dwin felt relieved. Not that she would not be able to take Meerkat in a fight. Rather... she did not really want to be the valiant knight. She was way better at running away and saving her own skin. But the world did not have to know that.
"I was planning on playing the most boring game on the planet," she explained. "It is called "naptime", but - I guess - that's not, what you would prefer to do," she yawned. She really needed sleep. But then having a prospect of another lost kid so soon after the first one had returned home safely, made her keep eyes open just for a little while more.
The comment about his Dad's safety caused him to tilt his head for a moment, curious as to why Ceridwen would've been worried about Bronco's safety when it was just his sister was visiting- but he didn't dwell on it. Ponyboy rarely dwelled on anything, though the attack of the striped cougar had made him tread with a bit more caution than before.
He rolled his eyes back and sighed when she mentioned the word nap. "Nap's are so booooring, He complained, showing just how unimpressed he was with a pout. He'd thought that Ceridwen was cooler than that- though of course he was overlooking just how exhausting his generation of children actually were. And he was about to try and squeeze just a bit more effort out of her as well. "C'mon, let's go do something cool," He suggested before he put on the puppy-dog eyes and batted his pale eyelashes at her. "Pleeeeeeease?"
"Wait 'till you are my age," Dwin murmured under her breath, remembering that in a not too distant past she too had been unstoppable force of nature. If she had not been running around awake, her legs kept moving, while slept and dreamt about world domination. But after she had turned one year old, some things had changed. And a good nap was at top of the list of pleasurable things to do.
You owe me, man. Dwin sent a mental note to Bronco. He was a brave man, who did not stop in the face of any kind of challenge - were it a huge, striped cat or a bunch of rambunctious kids. He was a hero - she both admired him and did not quite understand his logic. All the same - even heroes need peace and quiet time from time. "Okay - what do you want to do? What do you not know, how to do?" she asked.
"Hahaha! That's a trick question, isn't it?" He asked, cackling. It hadn't even been a question, it'd been a warning, but he thought he was being clever so he continued. "I'm never gonna be your age. You're always gonna be older," He said, tail waving like a flag in the wind- quite proud he'd punched a solid hole right through her logic when in truth the point had whistled as it had soared above his head.
He thought she'd suggest something fun to do, but instead, she seemed to want to teach him something. He shook his head, nose wrinkled. "I don't wanna learn, I wanna do somethin' cool," He stated again. An idea hit him and he quickly backpedaled, taking her suggestion after all.
"I know what I wanna do! I wanna learn how to do a back-howl-super-dive-with-a-twist off the ledge into the lake!" As if the lake were a pool that had a poster on it with diving instructions. He hopped a couple times enthusiastically before he began to lope toward the Caldera's water feature. "C'mon!"
"Well, if I die before you, there will come a day, when you will surpass me in age," Dwin countered. "And then - if I am still around as a ghost, you will be able to boss me around, because YOU will now be that all grown up and wise and boring adult," she said. But by then the kid had lost all interest in her and was alread loping towards the lake with an intent to become fancy fish food.
Dwin sighed and trotted after him, until they reached the edge of the caldera, not really looking forward to having her coat soaking wet and idly wondering, if Bronco and Teya would really be upset of having one less hyperactive, impulsive and not highly-intelligent kid, in case he drowned and continued his extreme diving feats in the next world. Unfortunately she had a very strong feeling that - nope - they would not share her sentiment.
"Before you do that," she said, when she had caught up with him. "Do you know, how to swim? 'cause there is some Big Fish down there that would be more than glad to have you as a snack," she was not entirely truthful with Ponyboy, but after few months experience in the company of the annoying rascals, she understood Teya a lot better. Sometimes truth was not scary enough to make the kid learn.
He'd never thought of that, but he supposed that it made sense, if a ghost didn't age past the point where it'd been created. "If I get to be old, creaky, stinky and old," He said, "And then I start trying to boss ghost-Ceridwen around, everybody here's gonna start thinking I'm SUPER crazy and they're gonna stick me on the island, in the middle of the lake, so they don't hafta listen to me." He said. Truth be told, he liked the idea of being able to talk out-loud to a ghost, regardless of whether the ghost actually listened to him.
He waited until she caught up, tongue lolling happily out the side of his mouth. His tail wagged eagerly as he took a step closer to the lake, peering over toward the ledge that hung out over the cool water, like a natural diving-board that would let him fall through a couple feet of air before hitting the water, where it was deep, dark blue.
He snorted. "'Course I can swim," He said. "My Mom's the best fisher in the pack. If there's a big fish in there big enough to eat me...She woulda caught it." He said with a shrug. He grinned. "Maybe I'll catch it when I'm in the water and bring it back for dinner," He said with a toothy, hungry growl.
"Well, that won't work, if you are such a good swimmer as you claim to be," Dwin muttered under her breath and not for the first time thinking that Teya might revise her policy on training every kid in the pack, how to swim. She feared - and this was not unfounded - that for the second time today she was going to fish out another over-confident puppy out of Big Fish's grasp. Was there a half-way to teach the kids to swim? So that they are able to float and not drown, but at the same time you can still control and manage them?
"Yeah, I am not so convinced about this," she told Ponyboy, when they had reached exactly the same place, where Frolic had made her leap of faith. "You can ask your cousin - she almost got eaten by the fish recently, though she will probably tell you that she kicked its ass, clawed its eyes out and scared it away to the next caldera over," she said. "Believe me - the truth was quite the opposite," she went on. "Just bear in mind that if you jump and if you drown, I won't go after you," Dwin told, but did not have any hope that her statements would be taken seriously. Blackthorns simply did not do that.
"Hah!" She had a good point. The island would never be a trap for him, not unless he aged to the point where he could no longer swim. He readied himself, doing a couple stretches, quirking an ear when she mentioned yet again some big old fish that she seemed to think could pose a threat. At the mention of his cousin, he merely rolled his eyes. "My cousin's a drama-queen," he commented, not knowing exactly which cousin it was that Ceridwen was talking about- but he was given enough of a hint to assume she was talking about the feisty Frolic.
He wasn't discouraged, and merely shrugged, knowing he wouldn't need Ceridwen to come in after him. "What'd I say...." He said, trying to remember exactly what move it was he said he was going to do. "Oh! A back-howl-super-dive-with-a-twist!" He said, and he bolted for the ledge.
In his head, the choreography should have been fairly simple. He intended to jump from the ledge, sling his hindquarters forward so that he would rotate backwards, and fall bum-first into the water while twisting a bit in mid air, complete with a howl. Out of all of those moves, he accomplished relatively little; he did let out a happy cry as he leapt, though it was nowhere near the majestic how he'd wanted. He did land bottom first in the water, but he'd failed to do the twist altogether. He hit the surface of the water with a splash, and emerged almost immediately afterwards.
He spluttered, and barked happily. "You see that? That was- that was something different but it was pretty good!" He hollered as he paddled his way back to shore.
A drama-queen? Was Frolic one? While Dwin's mind was distracted with these thoughts for couple of seconds, Ponyboy was on the ledge, reiterated his intent to do the super-awesome-whatever trick and all that was left for his tired babysitter to do was to watch him fulfill it. While - yes - he did not accomplish all bulletpoints listed in his plan - she had to admit that his performance had more style than Frolic's leap earlier that morning. Big fish had decided to hunt for feisty and naughty puppies elsewhere, therefore Dwin allowed herself to relax a little and lie down, watching the fellow paddle back to the shore.
"Want to try again?" she asked. "There's definitely room for improvement," she realized not for the first time today that she might live to regret these words, but swimming was known to tire people of all ages out and it seemed for now that this was the best way to entertain the kid with minimal effort from her.
His wet ears flicked forward when Ceridwen encouraged him to try again. And, not understanding completely what she was saying, he actually became more eager to learn that he had ways in which to improve. "For sure!" He thought she was just asking him to be more creative- and take an even more daring leap off the ledge!
Once he was out of the water, he shook his coat out (making sure to avoid his cousin) and then he loped back up to the ledge, pausing to gently poke his wet nose at Ceridwen's cheek on the way, before he skidded to a stop. "I'm gonnaaaaa," He mused out loud, his tail dripping but swaying from side to side as he thought. He backed up a couple steps. "I'm gonna try to do the same thing, but I wanna do a full twist!" He explained, before he scrambled forward and leapt off again.
Yet again, the graceless boy leapt into the air, managing yet again another impressive splash into the water. He mostly just flailed and barked on the way down until he hit the water, but when he popped back up, he was facing toward the shore. "That was- you see that?" He asked as he paddled through the water.
Dwin had hard time stiffling laughter, because Ponyboy was hilarious. Usually kids annoyed and frustrated her, therefore having fun was unusual to her. Perhaps, if she had focussed more on the good the kids did than all the things they did wrong, she would have noticed this earlier.
"I think that there is no one in the whole Brecheliant, who can make a louder jump and splashier splash," she offered generously, since, what he had proposed the first time and the second was technically impossible to do. Maybe to some, but not this guy, in her opinion.
"I think that you have scared all the fish - Big and small - away as well," there weren't any as far as she could see. "So, did your dad inspire you to do that or is it all you?" she asked, though she had an inkling that Ponyboy's talent was a combination of Teya's knowledge of water and Bronco's bravery mixed together with typical Blackthorn recklessness.
The biggest splash? Hell yeah! Ponyboy pulled himself from the water, looking for a moment like some kind of waterlogged rodent (in his case, a R.O.U.S given his size) before he shook the excess from his pelt and began to better resemble a Furby that'd been left out in the rain. He gave Ceridwen an appreciative, toothy grin.
He glanced over his shoulder toward the water as if expecting to see fish still scattering to the far corners of the lake, but it was still now that he'd left the waters. At the mention of his Dad, he shrugged, and then nodded. "Well, kinda- he showed me where to jump from but the twist an' howl," He said, dropping into a playbow. "That's all me," He said, before he raced back to the ledge.
"What should I do this time?" He shouted to her, wondering if she might have any ideas he could borrow for his acrobatics.
When Ponyboy mentioned Bronco showing him the first jumps in the water, Dwin misheard him as saying that he had been "shoved" instead. It was an odd way of teaching a kid to swim and she regarded the boy a bit skeptically, but did not press it any further. Even if it sounded somewhat cruel. Ponyboy had learned to swim decently and not to fear the water at all.
"Well," she got to her feet and stretched, "we could go to the other end of the lake, where the water is clearer and try diving? Like test, how deep you and I can dive and then try to bring some stuff out from the bottom?" No matter the prowess in swimming, Dwin thought that more cannonballs would tire the kid out eventually. Therefore diving seemed like a less strenuous activity.
But it was up to the kid to decide, unless she made the offer more enticing: "I am pretty sure that I saw some hide a treasure there." In fact, it had been her, who had dragged away and downed a skull that the kids had been playing with for weeks. Not out of malice or spite, it had just happened to lie in her path, when she had needed some outlet of her pent up frustration with life.
They spent a very pleasant afternoon with Ponyboy diving and Dwin watching him and forgetting all about her frustrations with Frolic.