The hour of dark slid swiftly toward them and soon the light would be gone. Merrit knew this; the pattern came every night, and though he didn't understand, he knew it would happen. Soon he would have nothing left to watch. Only then would he crawl back alongside his siblings and drift into dreams that pulsed with rhythm and light, until daylight came and he could start his watch over again.

And for this he prepared, in the dying rays - yet tonight the basic pattern of things shifted again. By now, he found himself used to that. Seeing had turned out to be something good, and maybe this would, too - so Merrit followed his mother without noise or complaint, until he found himself emerging to face a greater light, and his eyes widened just as quick as they reacted against the brightness and collapsed to a rapid blink and squint. The light didn't feel warm, but it stung his eyes for the first few seconds until gradually, the burn subsided and curiosity took hold.

Wide-eyed, he stared, and for the first few seconds of his life above ground, couldn't understand. There were greater things beyond the den - shapes and blurs other than the ones he knew and understood - yet familiar ones the same. Nearby, he heard the coo of his sister for closeness, and while Merrit himself felt little fear, he sensed that Arlette wanted someone near - and best he could, the child would be that.

Merrit kept an eye for Keen even as he moved himself to lean against his pale sister's opposite side, but when he reached her, he turned to her with the concreteness of his watch and cooed a soft and singular note to let her know that he was there, that she was safe with him. Around them, Others approached, their scents swirling and their voices rumbling through the soft ground underfoot. They each had a rhythm, a note, a beat, different, distinct, and lovely, and he turned to appraise them, one by one, and tried to make sense of which chords belonged to whom.

Merrit squinted through the shower of kisses, and he held himself firm. Her force might have toppled a smaller child, but his sister was small compared to him. His legs stayed steady and kept him upright even as she pressed against him. While stoic in composure, Merrit's content showed in the slightest wag of his tail, and the occasional steal of his tongue to return a peck across her cheek.

But Arlette seemed to gather her courage, and soon she clambered off to present herself to the party. Merrit watched, unafraid, but content to remain in the background. The attention of the bigger wolves seemed most fixed on Arlette, and he had no desire to take that from her. He blinked when she glanced his way, but his periphery caught movement, and when he turned, Keen had already moved to press against his side.

His duty shifted from his youngest sister then to focus on the older, who seemed to have drawn just as much attention as Arlette, yet in subtler ways. Merrit felt the anxiety that reeled from her fur, and he pressed closer to offer Keen his strength. With a lean, he reached his nose to her ear, and whispered something soft for only her to hear - mono-syllabic, and babbled, but his murmur ran with the intent to comfort and reassure.

Red did not want to scare the pups by getting too close to them, so she just continued to lay there, green eyes staring widely. She’d seen a few pups in her day, but it had been a long time and she was glad to be experiencing all of this with her packmates. She couldn’t wipe the grin off of her face as she studied them. Feeling inspired, she lowered her head to her paws so that her face was on their level and softly called in their direction, hoping one would come up and, she didn’t know, boop her nose or something?