Hideaway Strath we're all brave until we realize the cockroach has wings

The moment the bug comes into view, Mallaidh is on her feet and after it. Her steps are clumsy, making a mess of the dirt beneath her paws, but she slinks down to the ground to watch as it traveled this way and that. When it gets too far, she stands and clambers after it. It doesn’t make any noise but she can still hear each pitter patter step it makes. Ears cupped forward, expecting more out of it, and when it turns and gets too close to her, she staggers out of the way so it doesn’t touch her.
 
Eventually, the cockroach comes to a stop and her ears fall back, staring at it for several long minutes. It doesn’t seem to want to go anywhere anymore—is it tired?—and her head cants to one side with every ounce of curiosity she can muster. Slowly, she lifts a paw to touch it, and the moment she gets close, it flutters to life and flies in her direction. Mallaidh’s eyes widen and she leans back, a shrill, ear-shattering screech escapes her muzzle and she flails back until all four legs stick upward. She flinches and flops, fighting off the bug that has long since flown off.

 

Hemlock had been resting nearby, head on one arm as she sprawled comfortably. She only vaguely was watching the darkest of the puppies as she tracked a little bug of sorts but the moment that she cried out and scrambled back, Hemlock was on her feet to go investigate. "Are you alright, cherub?"  Hemlock asked, checking her over. 

The little assailant was gone so that was that, but still, it meant the entire world to a child's perspective and Hemlock understood that. 

Mallaidh does not have time to catch her breath before there’s a sudden movement out the corner of her eyes. Unsure of whether or not she can panic anymore, she finally registers the face as something familiar and her eyes—paler every day—widen in relief. When she realizes the bug is no longer coming at her face, she falls limp and all four legs splay open dramatically.
 
Behold, the tragedy of young death.
 
After a long, drawn out moment, she finally rolls over to one side and faces Hemlock. She nods a few times and eventually offers a verbal response. Yeah. Shake it off. Up and at 'em!
 
From the corner of her eye she spots movement and her pupils blow instantly, head drooping low to watch it scuttle ahead of her. She doesn’t rush after it, having learned her lesson once. She picks her head up and stares at the caretaker in disbelief. “They fly?”

 

Whether the world was ending or not, it seemed Malliadh would carry on, bouncing back with a child's resilience. It wasn't until the bug settled and scurried again that she seemed to spring up fully, and Hemlock's eyes narrowed on the offender. "Sometimes they do,"  She said with a nod, turning back to face the dark puppy. "Did you see the line on its back? Usually that means it has wings hiding." Hemlock explained, taking a seated position to watch the young girl. 

It was a curiosity to her, something she truly enjoyed, as the children began to understand the world at large around them. Sometimes, like today, those lessons came from the tiniest of creatures. "They are harder to spot than bird wings, aren't they?"  

Hemlock answers her question with something not so definitive. Not all of them fly. She scans her greying eyes out where she'd last seen the big but it has long since disappeared. She blinks a few times to register the information and commit them to memory. She can't spot the slit upon its back without seeing it again but she'll know for next time. And she'll be better prepared. "Yeah," she agrees after a moment, smacking her lips and glancing back toward the other. 

"I'll be 'pared to fight next time," she comments rather matter-of-factly with a reassuring nod of her head.

At Mallaidh's words Hemlock gave a little laugh, tail swaying behind her a few beats. "Is that so?' She asked, nudging the girl before she took a couple bounding steps away from her and dropped down on her front. "Show me what you would do, then." Hemlock encouraged. If the play took the girl's mind off the near-death experience (figuratively of course!) she would encourage it. Even if Hemlock did not serve well for fighting and scrapping herself it still didn't mean that she couldn't play with the children when the mood struck them. 

Is that so?

Mallaidh tips her head to the side. One large floppy ear crisscrosses the opposite with perplexity. Of course it's so! She scoffs and Hemlock bounces back playfully. The invitation doesn't need long to be accepted as she shuffled back and mimics a similar position. A wolf and a bug is quite different but the creature is lost from her mind temporarily as she focuses on the caretaker instead. As she sizes the woman up as she does her parents, she equally doesn't hold anything back. Mallaidh launches herself full force only seconds after being invited and she tries to take the woman down by her legs first.

They play for a while longer, back and forth, before Mallaidh ultimately tires herself out and goes to sleep.

 

Hemlock grinned the moment that Mallaidh took her invitation, the two sparring before the dark puppy offers a little sleepy yawn and Hemlock settles herself down a bit. She is a bit ragged in her breathing, but no worse for the wear, only a couple spots on her forearms smarting from the sharp bite of puppy teeth. She gives a little hummed out song as Mallaidh settled herself, wrapping around the young woman in a moment of tenderness as the child drifts off to sleep. It isn't too long before Hemlock joins her, breath aligning itself neatly around the more rapid tempo of the child as they slept.