Verdigris Ravine Seek and say

Andi was oblivious to the changes in her little body. She could move with more precision. Scoot around, but she mostly stayed a motionless lump of puppy fur. Until on a bright morning as the sun crested. She opened those little eyes of hers and the world was no longer just vibrations.

She yipped in surprise. Puppy blue eyes bright. And though it was more shapes than actual things. She could see.

the clan male divided his time between dens.

when his large ears caught the sound of s'ari's child, he grunted back automatically, settling nearby.

idly he chewed on a piece of snake-meat, gutturally sending another sound toward the shelter.

A vibration in the air. Not mother. A tilt of her tiny head. All she could see was a large blob. She shifted. These legs and paws. She windmilled them. Finally she was able to set them where she wanted. And sort of hold herself up and scoot for a moment.

Painstakingly slow she made it to the big blob. But she was cold and tired by the time she got there. She made a noise. She couldn't hear it, but she felt it in her chest.

he hummed to her again, and swallowed his meal.

zoug lay down and growled, not to frighten, but to send the thrumming down into the sand and under her paws, so that she would know one of the first ways that their kind hunted in the desert.

There was those vibrations again. She shifted closer. Attempting to seek them out. She only saw large body. But as he lowered himself and the sound hit her paws. 

Her eyes grew wider and she bent her head to look at her paws surprised. She felt that, but how. He was making the ground speak?

her wonder was clear. amusement climbed into the scarred gaze.

zoug altered the rumbling to imitate how a mouse felt beneath the sand, trembling in one burrow or another right beneath a sensitive nose and long whiskers.

Andi felt a strange feeling. And turned her head to notice  her tail wagging. So hard that she almost felt unbalanced.

 A soft grr grr sound left her maw, and she lifted a paw and tried to smack it down. Though it unbalanced her and she sort of tilted to the side, but she did catch herself.

he reached a paw, to steady her.

"still," grunted zoug, and it would be so. he met her eyes with a warmer look.

"we sing. tribekin. we sing."

She was steadied and told to be still and so she was.

Waiting and listening. Ears perked forwards as he spoke.

So what would they sing. She made a soft woo woo sound.

he returned the sound, his tones rising and falling.

rising and falling.

he raised his paw to sign before her baby eyes; soon you will run fast through the ravine.

slowly the children would learn these clan words also.

Andi's ears quivered at the sound. She felt it in her soul and heart. It was family it was home.

She watched his paws eyes growing cross as she tried to follow them. She knew innately that they were words, but what they meant.

She returned the sign clumsily, wrongly, but she tried.

she tried! zoug was delighted, which showed only with a rigid flick of his ears. he made the signs again, and again, and a third time.

the one eye waited for andanari now, encouraging the girl to try again with a grunt.

This one who was not of their den, but came. He showed her again three times. She wiggled her tail, her tiny brow furrowing in concentration. The tip of her tongue between milk teeth.

She tried again, and again, and a third time like him. Was able to make half of the signs correctly.

"good," zoug grunted. "good, good."

the shadow of a hawk flashed above.

his single eye shone firmly as he glanced up, then again at the girl. "go back to" mother, he instructed, something like a smile touching his face despite the danger.