Stavanger Bay if you've got nothing nice to say

anyone is welcome, set in the clearing at Ragnar and Thistle's den.

Charon was beginning to grasp the fact that ma and da weren't going to return. He still did not really understand why, and neither did he understand why Kevlyn was gone. Admist all of his confusion about this, he was beginning to learn more about the world around him. Charon sat just outside the den that still did not really feel like home, and he missed his parents and Kevlyn. They were rapidly becoming blurry images in the back of his mind, but he knew they'd been there once, and he remembered their warm fur, their soft words — and in Kevlyn's case, loud voice — and if he would smell them again, he'd know right away it was them.

Levi and Liyaní were withdraw and quiet — quieter than Charon — and it made Charon feel like he needed to carry the weight of everybody's happiness on his shoulders by being strong. He did not realise it himself, but it was the reason he did not talk much about missing his parents and Kevlyn; he did not wish to burden anyone, least of all his caretakers or siblings.

"Miss you, ma," said Charon to the sky. The stars were beginning to make place for the sun, the sky splashed in pinks, purples and oranges, but he could still see a few stars. He was sure his mum was one of them, from what he had understood about her death. He wasn't really sure what being dead entailed because they had not told him anything about the dead body nor had they shown it to him, but he knew that Julooke wasn't coming back, whereas there was still a shot in the dark as far as Verrine and Kevlyn were concerned.

Liyaní didn’t understand the turbulent emotions she was experiencing. She only knew that her feelings weren’t pleasant, and that more often than not she was in the worst mood imaginable. She felt the cold sting of resentment towards her caretakers. She didn’t understand why she felt the way she did towards Ragnar and Thistle, though. All Liyaní could really comprehend was that both her parents and her brother were gone.

The only wolves she didn’t feel bitterness towards were her siblings. They were a source of comfort for the tiny girl. Their presence was home for her. The only other place Liyaní could remember to find that homey, soothing feeling was the old den she’d lived in when Verrine, Julooke, and Kevlyn had still been around. She hadn’t tried to venture there by herself just yet, but the idea was becoming increasingly more attractive to the sooty Ostrega.

Sleep had not come easily to Liyaní that evening and so when she woke before the sun had risen over the horizon, she didn’t even attempt to doze off again. She picked her way as silently as she could manage out of the den and slipped into the clearing. There, she spotted Charon’s snowy figure sitting not far away, his head craned up towards the heavens. “Whatcha doin’?” she hissed loudly as she hurried up behind him, oblivious to the notion that she might startle her pale-furred sibling.

I so miss the old WWS guide where it would say for every couple of weeks of age how far their vocabulary and development was along! I hope I'm on par with where they should be (if not I suppose Charon is just a wunderkind :') ).

When Liyaní came up behind him and suddenly spoke, Charon startled a little. He hadn't expected anyone else to join him, and he'd been lost in thought as he was staring at the skies and bidding farewell to his imaginary mother-in-the-stars. However, he soon regained his composure and tried not to let it show to his sister that he'd been startled by her sudden appearance. Ears perked in Liyaní's direction attentively as he tilted his head.

"Lookin' at ma," answered Charon, and he pointed his nose to the sky. "'Fore she gone." He didn't know if Liyaní shared his sentiment that their mother was now a star in the sky, but it hadn't really occurred to him yet that someone else might feel differently than he did about the matter.

Unknowing that his sister felt the same, Charon had wished to visit their family den as of late, too. He missed living there and he didn't like the new place a lot. Even though on the outside he showed the least disturbed — or at the very least, least quiet — of the remaining Ostrega children, Charon felt very much the same as his siblings when it came to missing his family.

He sighed softly and said, "Missin' home..." while he looked at Liyaní. He hadn't admitted to missing home much lately — not after his first couple of days of throwing tantrums for being moved had passed — but he felt like he could talk about anything with his sister and brother.

I've been thinking the same exact thing! Those were always so handy, and it's been forever since I've played a puppy, haha.

Liyaní wasn't quite sure what to make of her brother's gesture towards the dawn-kissed sky. Ebony brows furrowed as her milky blue gaze followed Charon's towards the heavens. "Ma?" she echoed, perplexed. She didn't understand how their mother would have ended up the in the sky, let alone how she would ever make her way down. The sky seemed really, really tall.

Her svelte black ears tipped back against her skull when Charon admitted that he had been missing their home as well. "Me, too," she told the pale-furred boy, whimpering. She was quiet for a moment before speaking again. "Wha we goin' do, Charry?"

"Yes," confirmed Charon when his sister echoed his mentioning of their mother. He did not instantly pick up that his sister didn't understand what he meant, but went on to explain anyway, because he would've gone on to talk about it even if his sister had not expressed her question. "Ma's a star." He didn't really know if she actually was a star or if she just floated around there, but he had heard someone say one time that wolves went somewhere up there, and he'd automatically assumed that it meant that she would be a star, or with the stars. It seemed suiting, since she liked to watch the stars too. Charon had always liked looking at the stars anyway, so the fact that he could feel sort of like being with his mother by looking at the stars was a bonus for him.

Liyaní echoed Charon's sentiment in regards to their home, and he let out a sigh that heaved his entire little body. He wished that he had a solution, but they needed to live with adults and they'd been forbidden to go too far from the den. Besides that, Charon didn't think that he would be able to find back their home den, anyway, because he didn't remember the exact way they'd travelled when getting here. "Dunno," Charon said in defeat. Then, after a moment's thought, he added, "Can try'n find home?" He wasn't so sure he would be able to find it since he didn't remember how they'd got here, but they could at least give it a try. They weren't really allowed to, but surely it couldn't hurt if they would try and find it and then return right home?

Charon seemed to know for certain that their mother had become a star, and although she didn't really understand how that could be, Liyaní took comfort in that notion. It felt good to know that Julooke was somewhere up above looking down on her little broken family. She said nothing more on the subject and simply bobbed her tiny head in agreement. Her gaze lifted towards the heavens once more in hopes of deciphering which of the stars was their mother, but she had no success.

Her teeny ears perked up with interest at Charon's question. For the first time in what seemed like eternity, enthusiasm seeped into her eyes. "Yeah," she said in return, beaming encouragingly at her brother. "Gots be 'iet, doe," she told him in hushed tones. Their caretakers probably wouldn't like the two youngsters wandering through the pack lands unsupervised; they were still too young to be out and about on their own. Liyaní stared at her sibling, waiting to see if he was willing to be the leader of their little escapade.

It was nice to see his sister be enthusiastic about anything at all. Charon's tail wagged briefly as he watched his sister look a little more lively as she agreed to his plan. Even if they'd get into trouble, it would still be worth it in the end, even if just to see Liyaní's eyes spark with life again. Charon wasn't sure at all where to begin in the quest to finding their old home, but he would give it his best shot, since it concerned the happiness of his sibling.

When Liyaní said they needed to be quiet, Charon nodded solemnly. "Yeah," he whispered at her. Even though he didn't know where to start, Charon decided he'd just have to give it a try and lead the way, since Liyaní was expectantly looking to him for guidance.

He wandered into the forests on the side of the den's clearing, trying to remember how they'd got here, but he didn't remember. Charon gestured for his sister to follow as he lead into the forest and away from the den. "D'ya know where?" he asked her while he padded, figuring that, even though he didn't like admitting defeat, he may as well enlist his sister's help if she knew anything more than he. All he knew to follow was a scent track of Ragnar that he found, but he wasn't sure if it would lead them to the right place.

The two pups went on a search for the den, though they never found it and never got very far. They returned to Ragnar and Thistle's den again and fell asleep, sad that they weren't able to find their parental den.