Redhawk Caldera tick ... tick ... BOOM

Sylvie had learned the art of distraction just after her siblings were born. She found that her self-deprecating thoughts were kept at bay when he busied herself and had been more social in the past few months than she ever had been. Although she felt great most days, she wasn't entirely free of her inner demons.

Today, Sylvie didn't feel so great.

She shied away from her packmates and laid upon the shore of the Caldera's lake, watching her reflection with her head on her paws. "You're so FAT!" her inner-critic snapped, "Nobody in the pack is as big and lazy as you are!" She frowned, knowing this to be true. "And you're just so ... lame! Nobody is as clingy and lame as you are!"

Day 69 of established existance

System upgrade to Windows 2000. Better visuals and information processing capacities. Speech centre activated and in development. HDD storage expanding. RAM working flawlessly and adapting to situations. Mission objectives shifted from direct combat to partisan warfare training.

Situation: controlled
Moode: excited

Three months old and counting. Dwin gradually bid good-bye to her puppyish clumsiness and was growing into more wolf-like form. She enjoyed extra strength and mobility longer legs and generally evened out proportions offered. Daily activity - playing with her siblings to the point of exhaustion - developed not only her physical form, but gave her better agility too.

She had a new favourite past-time - from screaming matches and being all about frontal combat, she had now shifted to, what could be described as a partisan activity. She created hide-outs, she ambushed anyone, who happened to be in the vicinity (usually by nipping at their legs), and learned, how to become invisible even at a close proximity.

So, if Sylvie had thought that she would be able to have a day on her own in order to be depressed and unhappy, there was unpleasant news. She had been tracked and followed quietly and stealthily (that is according to Dwin's perspective, her elder sibling may have noticed this and not said anything), and now a certain someone was lying in the tall grass, observing the plot carefully.

5... 4... 3... 2... 1... LIFT OFF!

Ceridwen bolted from her hiding place and barged at her older sibling full speed. Her aim being the scruff, which was so within reach now that the target was lying down.

Sylvie hadn't noticed that Ceridwen had been following her. She was in her feelings more than Drake; the world around her meant nothing as she looked inward. Her focus only shifted outward as she spotted her sister out of the corner of her eye, and she hardly had any time to react as she was tackled.

Her heart began to race; she cushioned her sister's fall.

"GAH!" she squeaked, "Cerdiwen—how long have you been out here???" How long had she been watching???? This was .... so embarrassing???????????????? Her negative thoughts were replaced with feeling mortified.

Yeah, Ceridwen did not burden herself with feelings of others - she was too young for that yet. Therefore Sylvie's embarrassment and depression vibes flew over her head, she was gleeful for the successful attack. It could have been great, if her sister had had the good sense of falling over and pretending to be dead (that was, what some other adults engaged in much to the joy of the little war-machine) for a bit. But Dwin was not the one to take offence for such matters - not all people were that adept, learning was an issue that was easy to tackle.

Instead of replying to the question, which probably was rhethoric and did not require any input from Dwin, she responded with: "Captive!" To emphasize this she zoomed twice around Sylvia and came to a halt right in front of her. "You do, what I say!" she told her grinning.