Hushed Willows miley cyrus & her dead petz

There was a chill to the air as Kavos poked his head out the family den, his milky eyes observing as he lingered at their doorstep. It was early morning in the Keep and Kavos had no desire to hang about the family den. Instead, he wanted to explore-- as always. Giving no regards to Amara or his siblings, Kavos pulled himself from out of the den and into the open. He shook himself once he was out of the den before starting off, away from everything and everyone that made his existence such a drag.

Despite his loathing for his family, Kavos was quite the social butterfly. He preferred to interact with those who reacted positively to his existence and to those who cherished his presence. Perhaps it was because of his age, but Kavos often ran into a packmate the attention that he so desired.

Trailing away from the den, Kavos began to wander aimlessly, curious on just what he would run into today.

Prialux was a child who didn't understand loathing in the slightest. While she was ever mistrustful of her mother, she didn't loathe her, and she loved her siblings dearly—they were the only family she had. Neither of them seemed to like her in the slightest, but it didn't stop her from caring for them, and seeking them when she could. She lifted her head and blinked the sleep from her eyes when rustling in the den woke her, and when she spotted the pale figure of Kavos heading out, she scrambled to her feet in pursuit.

Her tail whipped too and fro as a warm beam of sunlight hit her on her way out of the den, but then she was in the heart of the forest, where only shadows lived. Kavos had a major head start, but Prialux made good time in catching up, and whooped an excited, "Kavooo!" at him to get his attention. She would never understand why he didn't like her, or anyone else, or why Eros was so damn mean, but she knew she cared for her brothers and would give them all the attention she could muster, as she so desperately wanted for herself.

A call from behind caused Kavos to freeze in his path and as this happen, he felt the peppered hairs along his nape to rise. Why did she have to follow? He had been so content in his wandering, but, it seemed that he now would have some company. His eyes rolled at the thought. Despite his sister’s doting, Kavos felt a sense of resentment towards the most jovial wolf in the litter. She was a ray of sunshine in comparison to his stormy disposition.

“Preelahux,” he countered simply, turning to face his sister. He frowned then as his milky eyes settled upon her, a single tooth peeking out below his lips. “What want?” He wasn’t sure why she wanted to hang out, but, he wanted nothing to do with it.

Prialux's figure lowered automatically when Kavos turned to her. Her eyes caught upon the snaggled fang that puckered his lip, but that look lasted only a moment before her gaze flickered up to his, and then down to his chest. "Hi!" she said breathlessly, tail wavving at a submissive low mast. His question went unanswered, if only because Prialux didn't want anything in particular. She just wanted to spend time with him, but she didn't yet know how to articulate that, so instead she licked her lips submissively.

"Wha' doin'?" she wondered, briefly glancing around them at the shaded wood. There was no one around. Prialux was by no means a stickler for rules, but usually she only wandered away under supervision, likely because she cared for attention and the trees themselves were incapable of giving them to her. She scarce understood a desire to wander alone, and so she sought him, that he would not have to be alone.

Kavos was only welcomed and tasked a question in turn, both of which brought a sense of displeasure about him. He wanted to know why she was out here and just why she wanted to hang out. Despite his annoyance in this, the child merely sighed in response and did not surface his feelings. "I..." he trailed, his mind searching for the right words in that moment, but he fell just short of what he wanted to say. He regarded the wodded territory around him and found a response within the willows. 

"Twee," he replied steadily, regaining his footing in their conversation. Yes, that was surely an answer that Piralux would understand! Surely she would get this and get lost!

Kavos heaved a breath, and after a beat, supplied an answer that made Prialux tilt her head to the side. One ear flopped toward her temple, and the other pricked straight up. Tree? She peered at the willows beyond his thick shoulder, attempting to find understanding in looking at them, but there was none. Oh! she thought at last, and a grin blossomed on her face. Kavos wanted to pretend to be a tree! That had to be it.

It was a good thing that Prialux was a little more enlightened than most kids, because otherwise she might have obliged him, and attempted to pee on him, like she often did to trees.

"You no twee!" she countered, giggling impishly as she wagged her tail, "See-lee Kavoos." He was doing it wrong! In an effort to show him how it was done, Prialux unsteadily lifted her forelegs off the ground, balancing on her hind feet for only long enough to say, "gotsa be beeeeeg 'n taaaawl," before she wobbled and had to drop to all fours again. She hoped he got the point, though, and maybe even indulged her sunny nature long enough to actually pretend to be a tree. She'd happily join him. Prialux hadn't yet got the memo that she was kind of annoying and he didn't want to spend time with her.

Mind if I crash this party? :D

He hadn't swung by Amara's den in a few days. It wasn't that he was busy with some important task or anything like that, Tambourine just tended to lose track of time doing various mundane and frequently silly things around the Keep. He was still young, after all, having just passed the six-month milestone a day or so back.

But he went there today, eager to see any of the three (or possibly more? He seemed to discover a new and different one each time he dropped by) puppies he knew lived there. When he crossed paths with two smaller wolves, he blinked in mild surprise. First of all, they were bigger than he remembered. Secondly, they were talking!

"You can talk!" Tambourine exclaimed as much, gray tail breaking into a speedy wag as he regarded them in turn. Yes, it was definitely Kavos and Prialux (though he'd never gotten her name). "And you're getting big!" he continued marveling.

Kavos could feel himself growing more irritated with his sister’s presence. Involuntarily, his face scrunched up in response to what she had offered. Just as he was about to offer his own rebuttal, Piralux then did something that he had not expected. His eyes widened at his sister pushed herself slowly onto her hind legs to stand tall. His eyes grew wide as a newfound respect for his sister was found. It was just as he was about to speak such praise that Tambourine happened onto the scene.

Kavos turned towards the older puppy immediately upon his arrival, a genuine smile spreading on his lips and his tail whipping madly as he looked up. “Ey!” he offered happily as he forgot all about the praise he wanted to express to Piralux.

Well, Kavos didn't want to pretend to be a big, tall tree like she did. That was okay. Prialux knew better than to insist. The sobriety of her litter mates was enough to keep her at least a little in check, mostly out of the fear that either of them would retaliate physically. She knew they didn't mean to be the way they were, or at least she thought it, but that didn't stop the fact that they both possessed the savagery of their sire rather than the gentile nature of their mother. She, on the other hand, remained gentle.

Kavos turning was what drew her to look up from him, at about the same time Tambourine exclaimed something. She didn't completely get it, but she knew what "talk" was, and responded with a blithe crow of, "can tawk!" Kavos' wagging tail elicited the whipping of Prialux's own, partly because she very much loved Tambourine as if he was one of the family and partly because Kavos was never excited about anything. She tramped forward a few steps, but natural submissiveness, coupled with a new turn toward shyness, kept her behind Kavos somewhat.

She understood big, too, and giggled as she said, "I beeeg twee, but Kavoo no wanna be beeeg twee." He had to stand up to be a big tree like her!

They both looked at him and though Kavos didn't say much, his sister spoke several words. Tambourine gazed at her, grinning a little foolishly, remembering how not so long ago she'd only said a single word: "hi." Although there was definitely a babyish lisp to her words, it was a delight hearing her string a sentence together. It made her seem more sentient, somehow, not that Tambourine knew that word.

"Beeg twee?" he repeated, too impressed to really compute what she was trying to say. But then it clicked. "Oh. Big tree? You're pretending to be trees?" He glanced between brother and sister, wondering how that worked. Did they just stand as still as possible? That sounded boring. Maybe that's why Kavos didn't want to play. "Maybe we could pretend to be birds instead," Tambourine suggested before abruptly squalling, "C-caw, tikki, tikki!"

Poor Piralux. ;;

A nasty glance was thrown in Piralux’s direction as she called him out on not wanting to be a tree. He didn’t want to be a tree with just Piralux, but, with Tambourine involved perhaps it was time to try and be a tree. Just as he was about to open his mouth and scold his sister and her silliness, Tambourine proposed an even sillier idea that caught his attention.

“Swee Preelux?” he said, turning to face his sibling with a smug smile. “Wee biwds! Naw twees!” Even though he had been the one to propose the idea of being a tree, he had still found a way to attempt to bring her down. Piralux had been simply suggesting a way to further his idea.

Turning back to Tambourine, the child’s smile deepened and he offered his own squawking to the older puppy. “CAW CAW!”

Well, that was just the rudest thing. The daggers in Kavos' eyes made her shrink back uncertainly, and when he taunted her, she didn't know how to think or respond. She knew her brothers were kind of weird and not as bright or happy as she was, but to think there was malice in them... she never had. She was too young to recognize the signs. Still, her face fell when he so easily dismissed her idea and latched onto Tambourine's. Tambourine was pretty cool and his idea was cool, too, but Prialux wanted to be cool as well.

So instead, she stubbornly stated, "I stew a twee," with a resolved pout. They could be birds, but Prialux was a beautiful and majestic tree, no matter what they said. She tried to lift herself up on her hind legs again to prove her point, but stumbled and lost her balance before she could make it all the way up.

Evidently his suggestion drove a wedge right between brother and sister. Tambourine blinked when Kavos unexpectedly shouted at—"Your name's Preelux?" the Xi interrupted a little stupidly, though his question got lost in the back-and-forth between the siblings. Kavos wanted to run (or fly?) with Tambourine's idea but Prialux stubbornly insisted on being a tree.

"That's okay!" the older boy declared loudly, smiling at the little girl in the hopes of reversing her pout. "You can be a tree, you can be a bird," he continued, making eye contact with each puppy in turn, "and I'll be... a squirrel!" Even as he spoke, Prialux attempted to stand on her hind legs only to lose her balance almost immediately. Tambourine darted toward her, swiping out a paw to tickle against her rib cage in a silly mimicry of climbing. Because that's what squirrels did: climbed trees.

We can fade with my post or you can post once more, Kat. Up to you. Kavos' new player doesn't plan to continue old threads.

Much of what was said in the moments between Prialux standing and falling over was lost on her. Otherwise, she would have nodded jubilantly in response to Tambourine, and even taken his suggestion to heart. Instead, all she heard was the jeering laughter of Kavos as he taunted her with bird calls in a young voice, and she felt something she'd never felt before and was unlikely to feel again anytime soon: shame.

Her face felt hot as she turned away from both Tambourine and Kavos, and her ears wilted back. "I's a twee!" she said firmly, but her voice cracked at the end as she fled the scene of her brother's torment.

No laughter met his attempt at tickling. An obviously upset Prialux turned away from him and Kavos and fled into the trees. Tambourine blinked over at the littler boy, making a quick motion for him to follow, then sprang after her with a(n inappropriate) shout of, "Where're you going, Preelux? You need to hold still so I can climb you!"