Wolf RPG

The times of day were still foreign to Julius. He understood that sometimes everything was darker, while sometimes it was a lot brighter. He didn't understand that it did that every day, or that there were even days. While he knew that time passed, he had no sense of it. When Julius opened his eyes from a nap to see that it was sort of bright, but nearing dark, he gained no information about the time of day from it.

No matter what time of day it was, the outside of the den was always appealing. Often, he lingered around the entrance, sometimes going outside, but usually to only use the bathroom. But every now and then, there was an extra strong urge to explore it... Like now. That urge was there, but there was also an urge to stay near his family. Well, why not get the best of both worlds? "Keee!" Julius squealed, pawing at Relonikiv's back.

The golden runt looked up from the dead bug he had been studying, cocking his head and smiling as he regarded Julius's eager face. "Da? Da?" he questioned. He grunted and bent his outstretched forelegs to push himself into an upright position. "Ossa?" he asked, blinking his big blue eyes at the doorway, then returning his gaze to Julius's snowy white face.

"Da!" Julius echoed back at Relonikiv. They couldn't communicate very well verbally yet, but Relonikiv's babbles found meanings in Julius' mind, even if they weren't correct. The smaller pup hadn't tried to shoo him off, so it must've meant that he was up for an adventure too. "Owoo!" He barked, clumsily scampering towards the entrance with legs he had yet to master.

Although their language might have sounded like nonsensical gobbledygook, the two boys understood one another perfectly well. "Da, da!" Relonikiv warbled in agreement, scrambling after his older, larger brother. Of course he was up for an adventure! More than that, though, the natural follower was quite prepared to follow one of his several leaders.

"Ju? Wah?" he asked when he bumped into Julius's snowy rump. He tittered, then padded around to stand at the other pup's shoulder. They stood there, staring out at the view from the doorway. He tilted his head again and repeated, "Ju? Wah?" He was happy to accompany his sibling, though Relonikiv waited for Julius to take the lead.

"Kee!" Julius excitedly yipped as Relonikiv stood at the entrance next to him. "Ossa Kee! Ossa!" He exclaimed, using Relonikiv's babbled word as he took a few steps past the entrance, and into the outside world.

While the scents of outside leaked into the den, the scent of his family smothered it. Outside, there wasn't the strong, ever-present scent of his siblings and mom to muffle it. But, 'Outside' - as it was a specific place in Julius's mind - consisted of a lot of different smells. Julius had smelled a lot of them before on wolves who came into the den, as well as sitting by the entrance and his other few romps outside. But, the majority and the strength of the smells never ceased to amaze him. He stuck his nose to the ground, trying to take them all in at once.

Julius stepped into the great outdoors and Relonikiv tagged along right behind him, close enough to be considered a tailgater. When his brother dropped his nose to the ground to take in all the scents, the runt slowly pushed past him and did the same. He immediately discovered the family's latrine. An adult might have wrinkled his or her nose at the odors there, yet the puppy just grinned in delight.

He moved on from there, padding perhaps two feet away from the den's mouth. Although no adult swooped out of the woodwork to block them, Relonikiv had no desire to stray far. It didn't seem Julius had any intentions to take off either. For now, the young brothers simply wanted to check out their small dooryard and did not even think of making any bids for escape.

Though it was a relatively small area, Relonikiv soon became caught up in all the sights, smells and sounds out here. He began to bounce on the balls of his feet, pink tongue waggling from his mouth. He bumped against Julius as if to get him to join in the prancing too. He still wasn't the most coordinated of creatures and eventually went careening sideways, smacking against the rocky lip of the den's entrance.

This didn't hurt in and of itself, though upon impact, the youngster accidentally bit down very hard on his own tongue. Relonikiv yelped, then looked in bewilderment at Julius. He didn't realize what had happened or what hurt, exactly. His tongue protruded from his mouth like a dead strip of flesh, already beginning to bleed and swell.

Julius continued to sniff at the ground until Relonikiv bumped into him. He looked at the runt of the litter who was bouncing around in happiness. Julius gave a small tail wag as his eyesight became his main focus. While the den held many different shades of colors, there were even more out here! They sky was blue, the half-dead grass was a green-brown color, and a cloud in the sky was white. Julius didn't know the color names yet, but someday soon he would.

The bubbly brother next to his side disappeared. That itself was fine, but the yelp that resulted wasn't. Julius looked at Relonikiv before stepping closer to push his nose into his fur. "Kee? Ew ow?" His brother seemed alright, but his tongue looked a little different. Julius had no second thoughts about his tongue though, as he was occupying himself with looking around the area for what hurt his brother.

When Julius couldn't see anything moving, he took a different approach. He stationed himself right in front of Relonikiv, his hackles raising. A high-pitched growl escaped him, letting all the inanimate objects in the area know that they would have to get through him first if they wanted to harm his brother.

The taste of blood filled his mouth and a few drops dripped off his tongue and landed in the snowy mush in front of him. Relonikiv momentarily forgot the pain and leaned forward, his head cocked as he peered at the little red smear. He looked up at Julius, making an inquisitive noise in his throat. His brother growled in response, which made the runt's ears swoop backward and his head to dip. He quickly realized Julius wasn't growling at him and he straightened up again.

"Ju... ow," he belatedly answering. He wasn't the type to make a fuss or complain, yet tears began to prick in his eyes as his swollen tongue throbbed. "Ow, ow, owie..." His complaints transformed into a short-lived mournful howl.

Relonikiv then remembered the little splashes of red on the snow and he bent forward again. He sniffed. It smelled not unlike the chewed meat the adults sometimes provided for the pups. The youngster opened his muzzle and scooped up a mouthful of dirty snow. It initially hurt when he curled his tongue like that, yet the coldness of it quickly numbed him. Relonikiv swirled the melting mixture around in his mouth, swallowed and sighed.

His brother's belated complaints tore Julius' focus off of standing protectively in front of him. His attention span was still very short, but patience was skill that he would develop later in his life. Julius turned around to look at Relonikiv. "Kee...." He sadly said, for he had no idea how to help his brother.

Julius ended up putting his head on Relonikiv's shoulder, licking at the nearby fur in an attempt to comfort Relonikiv. He couldn't make what was bothering Relonikiv go away, so this seemed like thee next best thing to do. Unbeknownst to Julius, Relonikiv didn't stop complaining due to him, but the cold snow in his mouth. "Kee? Beh? Ew beheh?" He asked as he took a step back to look at Relonikiv while speaking.

Only seconds later, his tongue began to ache again. Relonikiv frowned and began to whimper, though when Julius faced him and tried to comfort him, he stopped. He leaned against his litter mate's snowy shoulder, drawing comfort in the soft, warm fuzziness of it. He only drew away when Julius's voice quivered in one of his russet ears.

"Otha bad," Relonikiv said, perhaps a surprising first word (well, one of them) for someone usually so cheery. His tongue felt strangely thick and throbbed uncomfortably when he spoke. Suddenly, he was lapping at the air, though he quickly stopped doing that when it only proved more painful.

But at least he seemed to comprehend the source of the stinging now. He leaned backward slightly and freed one stubby foreleg to paw at his muzzle. "Ow, owie," he said for Julius's benefit. It was his mouth that hurt. He understood that now, though not how or why it had happened. And he couldn't see the small puncture wounds in his tongue.

"Oogh. Go? Ju?" the runt said, a brief, pained smile flickering across his golden face. Relonikiv spun slowly, pointing his blunt muzzle back toward the den's mouth. "Otha bad," he repeated his earlier conclusion. The normally happy puppy would surely change his mind in an hour, yet right now, the outside was a meanie.

Relonikiv claimed that Outside was bad. How could this place of copious scents, sights, and sounds be bad? As if to answer his unspoken question, Relonikiv put a paw on his muzzle and complained. Outside was bad after all. After making that conclusion, Julius' attention was drawn towards Relonikiv's muzzle.

Julius started to sniff near where Relonikiv had his paw. When Relonikiv had his mouth closed there was a faint scent he recognized. It was a scent that came with the food that wasn't milk. When Relonikiv opened his mouth to speak it became stronger. However, Julius didn't connect the scent of blood to Relonikiv's injured tongue. The scent of blood meant good things, such as a meal, do how could it be linked to something bad?

Julius did realize that Relonikiv wanted to go back inside. "Ossa bawd! Insa gud!" He agreed. Then, Julius walked towards the den, leading Relonikiv inside.

If Julius felt differently, he made no mention of it. He was a good older brother, putting Relonikiv's wants and needs before his own. Dutifully, he led the littler pup back inside the shelter of their den. Once more, the Rho tailgated his snowy sibling, his damp little nose even pressing into Julius's hindquarters in his eagerness to scoot back indoors.

But just because they were back within the safety of the lair did not mean Relonikiv was finished playing. Forgetting his injury, he moved to gratefully mouth Julius's chin, a sign of affectionate submission. He then sat down in front of his brother and cocked his head, querying, "Ju?" and adding, "Goo?" for good measure.

Relonikiv seemed better now that he was inside. Julius falsely interpreted that as being inside had completely cured him. Thus, Relonikiv's injury would soon be forgotten. Not right away, but sometime by the end of the day. Right now, he could be thankful that Relonikiv wasn't still hurt - at least he thought he wasn't.

Julius responded to Relonikiv by letting out a happy bark. "Kee!" He merrily exclaimed. Next, Julius play-bowed. The white pup was already ready to put what had happened outside aside.

The stinging had subsided and now the Rho's tongue only ached dully. It still felt thick in his mouth, though coming indoors seemed to have alleviated his concern with it. This just served to confirm his theory that outside was bad and inside was good. He would forget all about this by tomorrow, yet he did furrow his brow briefly in the direction of the den's entrance.

Julius engaged him then by barking, then dipping forward into a playful bow. Relonikiv grinned at him, pouncing forward and batting both his forelimbs at his older brother's face and chest.

Julius turned his face sideways to direct Relonikiv's batting towards the side of his face instead of directly at his face. Then, Julius playfully put a paw on Relonikiv's shoulder, trying to push him down. When that wasn't enough, he put his other front paw on Relonikiv's other shoulder. He was using his size as an advantage unknowingly, trying to force his smaller brother down by putting some of his weight on him.

Julius barely had to try when it came to overpowering Relonikiv. With the Omicron's weight pressing down on both shoulder blades, the litter's runt sank onto his haunches. He didn't mind being shoved this way. In fact, he gave a happy little bark to encourage Julius to keep wrestling with him.

On that note, he did attempt to shrug out of the snowy boy's hold. He also rolled sideways, giggling and kicking as he did so. He didn't seek to harm his brother, though even a well-aimed kick would hardly do any damage to the fluffy white Julius.

His tail wagged a lot from the fun he was having. After Relonikiv sank down, Julius tried to keep most of his weight off of him to avoid crushing the littlest Angelus Mortis. A few of Relonikiv's kicks landed themselves on his stomach, but they did no damage. Yet, Julius dramatically flopped onto his side, rolling upon impact to be belly-up.

Julius let his brother win this round, but there would be many more to come. Some of which would happen today.

When Relonikiv righted himself, he was greeted by the sight of Julius's pale pink belly. His eyes went wide and he squealed. Was his brother submitting to him?! Unable to contain himself, the runt bounced on top of Julius with a particularly earsplitting bark. "Bawth!" he cried as he smashed himself on top of his larger, paler brother.

Of course, he knew this was only a game and that the dynamics would shift back to where they belonged, with Julius ranking above him in the scheme of things. Even at this age, he knew and accepted this. Still, Relonikiv enjoyed the chance to role play. He would never be an Alpha wolf but it was fun to pretend sometimes.

A small grin found a place on the white boy's face when Relonikiv seemed happy with his actions. It was then that he subconsciously decided he'd do just about anything to make not just Relonikiv, but all of his siblings, happy. But, making Relonikiv happy enough to jump on top of him wasn't expected.

He had a sharp intake of breath as Relonikiv collided with his stomach, and it actually hurt for a few moments. It wasn't that Relonikiv was heavy. The runt of the litter was small - almost twice as small as the large Julius! It had just caught Julius off-guard and knocked the air out of him as a result.

Julius laid there for a few moments as he caught his breath. His grin had turned into a momentary frown. However, it quickly disappeared. Relonikiv hadn't done anything to injure him beside knocking the air out of his lungs, so the little amount of pain went away as soon as Julius caught his breath. After that was forgotten, he batted at his brother on top of him with a forepaw playfully, as if giving him minimal resistance.

"Keke," the youngest child yammered happily from his perch atop Julius. "Bawth!" he repeated emphatically, declaring himself master and commander of his sibling. Giggling, Relonikiv then slid off him, tumbling to the floor and sprawling beside his litter mate instead of on top of him. That was more like it.

He felt very comfortable and suddenly his eyelids felt heavy. Like most young children, he fought the urge to go to sleep. Besides, he wasn't about to nap... unless Julius was. Grunting, he pushed himself up on an elbow and blinked heavily. "Ju," he said, tail thumping slowly on the stone and dirt floor. "Theeeeep?"

"Ya, sleep." Julius agreed. He squirmed a little next to Relonikiv, trying to find the most comfortable position. Finally, laying on his side with his stomach facing his brother, he settled down. A small yawn escaped him. Julius succumbed to the drowsiness, and he quickly fell asleep besides his younger brother without another thought. Unlike Relonikiv, he didn't care to fight the napping urge.

Despite the thickness of his tongue, Julius had no trouble understanding his brother's question. Perhaps because they were still so young that proper articulation wasn't even a thing yet. The younger of the two watched as Julius made himself comfortable, his demeanor inviting Relonikiv to join him.

"K," he murmured simply, nudging his blunt snout beneath one of Julius's outstretched legs and then slipping underneath it, so that his brother's limb draped comfortingly over his shoulders. "Nini," Relonikiv said as he then let his chin fall onto his own outstretched legs, his bitten tongue and all the day's adventures giving way to dreamless sleep.