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+--- Thread: Hushed Willows As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it (/showthread.php?tid=18391)
As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it - Prialux - October 15, 2016
Everything was grand and hunky-dory in Prialuxland, even though everything in the pack itself was royally fucked up. Word of Larkspur's suicide attempt had no doubt made its way to the DeMonte den, but Prialux was simply too young to even comprehend the situation. She might have picked up on the morose mood that settled over the entire tribe if she could sense it from Amara, but her mother was permanently distant, so Prialux would never be able to tell the difference if there was one.
She sat outside the den, near enough to be called back should Amara decide to pay attention to her but far enough that the den's mouth was hidden from her view. Her head was tilted back so far on her shoulders that her snout made a 90 degree angle with the ground, and her eyes bugged wide as a squirrel skittered along on a branch above her. "Hi!" chirruped Prialux, but when the squirrel didn't respond to her, she pouted and flopped down on her belly.
Hi was the only word she could say, and she was really good at it, but it didn't work on other animals quite the way it worked on other wolves. Feeling dejected, the girl squished her toes in the mud and sighed heavily.
RE: As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it - Tambourine - October 16, 2016
Tambourine was neither (that) young nor (totally) oblivious but Larkspur's recent suicide attempt did not impact him much. He felt sorry for her, of course, and hoped she made a full recovery. He also tried to bring her a flower a few days after the incident but she had rebuffed him. A meaningful look from Harlyn let him know that he should cease and desist. Tambourine had not attempted to make contact since, giving the family their space and focusing on other things.
Today he felt an urge to go see Chalky. He picked another flower, hoping this one would be more well-received than the last. When he arrived at Amara's den, he did not see his young playmate. There was another puppy in view, though. Tambourine halted and blinked at her, the blossom drooping in his maw. He gently dropped it as his paws and then grinned, tail wagging. He looked around, checking again for Chalky, but when he didn't see him, he inched nearer to the little girl and slung his belly to the ground.
"Hiya! Are you Chalky's sister?" Tambourine guessed. He then remembered the boy's real name. "Kavos's sister, I mean." His head cocked to the side, wondering if she would understand him at all.
RE: As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it - Prialux - October 17, 2016
A rustling overhead drew Prialux's gaze back from the mud to the sky, and she spotted a shining bird's tail disappear into the foliage. "Hi!" she yelled at it, but once more, she received no response. Her features drooped into sadness and her brows crumpled over dejected eyes. She got enough of it from her mother, and it stung to get it from other animals, as well. She was far too young to know that other animals simply couldn't easily understand her or reply to her. She expected them to pay attention to here like her brothers did.
She returned to squelching the mud with her feet, only to look up a third time to see a larger, spindlier wolf stooping to drop a flower on the ground. Her mouth hung agape as she glanced between the flower and Tambourine, attempting to put together the puzzle pieces of this interaction. She stilled her tongue from saying hi this time, having already drawn a connection between saying it and being ignored, but when Tambourine spoke to her specifically, her huge ears flared and she beamed and all thoughts of having been ignored were forgotten. She recognized the name "Kavos", but all else was lost on her, and she was too excited to pay much attention anyway.
Prialux leapt to her feet with a surprising amount of agility for a one-month old pup, then screamed at the top of her lungs a joyful, "HI!"
RE: As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it - Tambourine - October 19, 2016
Her quick movement and loud cry startled him somewhat, though Tambourine recovered quickly and grinned at her, silver tail sweeping the ground at his rear. "Hi!" he chirped back, pleased that she knew at least one real word. "I'm Tambourine but you can call me Tambo or Tam. What's your name?"
Suddenly remembering the flower that was now behind him, the lanky young wolf twisted to grasp it with his teeth, then face forward again, effectively presenting the slightly wilted bloom to the little girl. "Would you like a flower?" he asked around the stem clenched in his teeth. It had been intended for Kavos, alias Chalky, but he could always pick another.
RE: As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it - Prialux - October 23, 2016
Prialux's tail windmilled behind her as she stumbled eagerly toward Tambourine. She scarcely understood a word he said, but it didn't matter. She was just excited to be the center of someone's attention, for once. Kavos and Eros were different. They were her brothers, but one was as stoic as the other, and neither of them were any more loving than Amara was. While Prialux depended on them for protection, as they were her siblings and her family, she didn't find the kind of attention she wanted when she went to them.
But Tambourine gave it willingly. It was such a change that she was practically tripping over herself to get more of whatever this was.
"Hi!" she squeaked again, having no other words in her repertoire with which to respond. He presented an object to her, and she flapped her ears up and craned her neck to stare at it. It was a lovely little flower, if a little wilted, but having never seen one, Prialux didn't know what to make of it. She liked it, though, and beamed happily up at Tambourine before deciding to inspect it further. She slowly reached forward, leaning onto her tiptoes, until she was close enough to smell it, and then she shamelessly chomped down on the head of the flower while her tail and butt wagged merrily behind her.
RE: As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it - Tambourine - October 26, 2016
He wasn't the sharpest crayon in the box but Tambourine fairly quickly deduced that the little girl pup was no more articulate than her brother. He sighed inwardly, wondering just when it was that puppies became able to carry a conversation. But he was distracted from this train of thought when she not only grasped the flower but began to eat it.
"Hey!" Tambourine said laughingly. "You're not supposed to eat it." Despite his words, he made no effort to rescue the bloom from Prialux. If she wanted to eat it, then he who was he to stop her? "Does it taste good?" he wanted to know, playfully wrinkling his nose and sticking out his tongue.
RE: As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it - Prialux - November 05, 2016
Her mouth was filled with an acrid, powdery flavour that instantly caused her to draw back. Her face crumpled into a semblance of utter disgust as she attempted to dribble the chewed remains of the flower out of her mouth. There was a great deal of saliva to go with it, but eventually, Prialux threw herself to the ground and swiped her muzzle across the dirt and managed to get rid of most of the taste. Dirt didn't taste a lot better to the cub, but it was at least familiar.
Smacking her lips disdainfully, she found her feet again and gazed suspiciously up at Tambourine. "Hi!" she chirruped in a tone that oozed admonishment, likely made all the funnier by the way her brows crinkled into a fixated frown. Prialux really had no idea what she was doing, though, or how silly she seemed. Amara made this face more often than not at her children and Lil Lux associated it with disapproval. She was full of disapproval regarding that flower, but not Tambourine himself, as evidenced by the continued wagging of her tail.
RE: As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it - Tambourine - November 06, 2016
She didn't give a verbal answer, though her facial expression told him the whole story. Tambourine giggled under his breath as he watched her little features twist in distaste, tongue scraping against her milk teeth as she spat the shredded wet heap onto the ground. That didn't seem to be good enough, for she began to wipe her face in the dirt. The boy's eyes widened and he bit his lip against a louder laugh at her amusing antics.
"Told'ja you weren't supposed to eat it," he said without malice, pale eyes dancing. "Hi," he automatically answered when she greeted him yet again, tail thumping even as her own, smaller appendage swiped the air. "Do you want to get a drink of water? Here. C'mere," Tambourine said, pressing himself upward onto all fours and pausing to make sure she was paying attention.
Tambourine then began walking, threading his way through the underbrush and keeping his pace slow so that she could keep up with him. He didn't lead her far astray, just headed toward the nearest stream and paused by a shallow bend. He motioned at the water and said, "Take a drink! It should help with the bad taste in your mouth."
RE: As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it - Prialux - November 19, 2016
"Hi!" was her only breathy response to all that Tambourine said. She couldn't understand his words, not really, but she could understand his actions. When he rose to his paws, she mimicked him, and when he began leading away from the den, she followed eagerly. Amara had never really cared anyway, and her brothers were nothing if not completely aloof, so it wasn't like she had to be concerned about worrying her family. Anyway, she had no inhibitions yet, and would have followed Tambourine even if he'd verbally threatened to kidnap her.
When the silvery teen gestured to the water, Prialux rushed forward, tumbled over herself, and dunked her entire face in. She slurped greedily, only realizing she couldn't breathe underwater when she attempted to do so. Her nostrils flared as she sucked in a great gush of water, and then she scrambled back, coughing and spluttering as panic overwhelmed her.
RE: As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it - Tambourine - November 19, 2016
He was pretty sure he'd said "drink," not "dunk," but her antics made him chuckle again... until she reared back away from the water, clearly choking. Tambourine experienced his first ever flashback: Kavos had choked like this too (hence his nickname). The boy didn't really think, just rushed to lick at the smaller pup's face in an attempt to clear her mouth and nose, as well as soothe her.
Unsure whether it had worked, he inched back to look at her, eyes wide with worry. "You okay?" he whispered.
RE: As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it - Prialux - November 20, 2016
Prialux's hacking was muffled as Tambourine swooped forward to help her, but the young man did more than she could say. His ministrations encouraged her to cough, and that in turn expelled the water from her throat and lungs. She heaved once as it came gushing out, unaltered from how it went in. Prialux coughed several more times, clearing the last of it, then peered up at Tambourine with streaming, bleary eyes.
"Hi," she stuttered quietly, the only word she knew, but she injected as much heartfelt thanks as she possibly could into it. With a soft whimper she went to Tambourine's chest and pressed her face into the narrow junction where his arm met his shoulder, unintentionally wiping snot and tears on his greyscale fur in the process. Her tail swung weakly back and forth, and her body shivered lightly, but though fear and adrenaline made her feel woozy and unbalanced, it was thanks she meant to convey by seeking his embrace.
RE: As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it - Tambourine - November 21, 2016
"Hi," he answered, visibly sagging in relief. His eyes crinkled at the corners and he crooked a paw to bump it gently against her wet cheek. "You—" he began to say when she thrust herself against him, burying her face in his fur. He didn't mind that she wiped tears and phlegm on him. He shifted to drape a foreleg over her little body, patting her gently on the back and answering her whimper with a low croon of reassurance.
After a few moments, he murmured, "You're okay," then paused and said, "How about we go back to the den?" Maybe they would run into Amara there and Tambourine could ask her why her children didn't seem capable of eating or drinking without hurting themselves.
RE: As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it - Prialux - November 21, 2016
Tambourine was the only wolf thus far who paid little Prialux much attention. As an added bonus, Tam's attention was wholly positive. Prialux loved him immensely already. Warmth poured into her heart when he wrapped a limb around her and comforted her, and she knew then and there that whenever there was something wrong, she would go to him first. Not even Amara would be Prialux's go-to wolf, for in the past, her success rate with her mother had been dubious. She saddled Tambourine with the responsibility of looking out for her, whether he wanted it or not, and it was he she would seek out to kiss all her boo-boos in the future.
For now, she pulled back and sniffled (read: snorted unattractively), and her wide eyes went to his when he spoke to her again. Despite the language barrier, she rose to her paws as though in understanding, and waited for him to bring her home. The truth was that Prialux had had enough adventuring for one day and wanted nothing more than to go and take a nap somewhere warm, preferably with Tambourine since he was her new knight in shining armor, but the den would do just fine.
RE: As the smile fell from your face, I fell with it - Tambourine - November 22, 2016
With an encouraging smile, Tambourine led the way back to the den. There was no sign of Amara, nor Kavos. He paused wonderingly, then glanced at his little sidekick. He motioned her to walk into the den, then hesitated for only a beat before following her. She seemed to want his company and it felt wrong to leave her all alone in here.
The Xi curled up on the floor with the little one tucked close by his side. He gave her a lick between the ears and cleaned the rest of the moisture from her face. When she settled, he did too, unwittingly slipping into a deep, dreamless sleep punctuated by a fair share of snoring and drooling.