Dragoncrest Cliffs he is neither gentle nor kind

adjusting to life in hougeda hadn't been particularly difficult for silkie. but he's got a fairly laid-back demeanor and accepts the fact that he can sleep just about anywhere as long as he's got space to spread out and stretch. hougeda offers him a lot of space while allowing him to stick close to his nomi, mom and siblings. he no longer wakes up with someone's foot jammed into his ribcage and his nose in someone's armpit ( and that was a bonus ). he's unapologetically a 'take up the entire bed' kind of guy though it was never truly intended. he rolls over in his nap and stirs awake, sneezing up a small plume of dust as he blinks his eyes sleepily.

silkie is disoriented but it does not last long as his settings begin to sink in. a strange croaking noise causes an ear to twitch as he stretches, ready to play again. he shrugs it off as a bizarre noise from a sibling. he hears it again accompanied by a shuffling noise and the soft patter of collision upon the cave floor. it leaps again and catches silkie's attention from the corner of his eye. intrigued, silkie moves to investigate the strange blob. "hey!" he calls to the frog in common tongue and nudges it bravely with his nose. it leaps away from him and hops further into hougeda. this ignites silkie's desire to chase and he follows the frog's progression, poking it with his paw and giggling when it leaps away.

Between Ephraim and les petits Étoille has more or less positioned himself as resident puppy-watcher (or at least that is what he aspires to be.) It is, all things considered, a good life. Since his wayward ward's arrival to Drageda the Steltrona has not attempted to leave their borders, preferring to stay close enough to be called upon if he's needed. But Ephraim seems to be adapting nicely with his playmates and as he rises today his thoughts turn to Mirabelle, her teasing proximity. 

She may be right that she would not survive Drageda's culture, but that does not stop him from wanting. And wanting is a strange thing for him to feel.

Perhaps he will see if she has lingered to the north as she suggested -- but he does not make it out of Hougeda, his attention caught by Silkie. He watches the boy for a moment, as always mesmerized by their shared appearance (even if he feels no real pull to them as a paternal figure -- more a friendly uncle -- it is still a miracle, seeing his own genes in action). The poor frog Silkie is tormenting takes a turn towards him and Étoille sidesteps, not wishing to interrupt the boy's play even as he greets him with a "bonjour, Silkie."

silkie continues his game with the frog, oblivious that he was quickly working on the amphibian's nerves. and honestly, even if he had clued into the frustration coming from the other animal he probably wouldn't have ceased and desisted. the frog's flight only further triggers silkie's developing instincts to chase as a top of the food chain predator; but he doesn't yet have the urge to kill it — he only wants to play with it. he's caught up in his game and hougeda and the wolves that currently linger within it all melt out of his focus. he's locked on to his prey as it hops away from him, croaking in annoyance as silkie's butt rises with a wiggle. he pats his front paws against the cavern floor, slinking into a play bow.

with a small growl he lunges at the frog, zooming past étoille whom he doesn't even notice until the older male speaks. silkie's focus is broken and seeing it's chance to escape the frog doesn't hesitate to hop as fast as it could deeper into hougeda's tunnels ...where silkie would not ( could not? ) follow. his attention is claimed and the escaped frog is momentarily forgotten about as silkie fixes his inquisitive gaze upon étoille, pondering the strange word he used in greeting. it didn't sound like common or trigedasleng and silkie's brow furrows, his head cocking to the side in a bird like manner. "bone...jur —" silkie butchers the word as he tries to replicate the sounds étoille had made. "bonejur? what's bonejur?" silkie finally asks, left ear twitching and a frown settling across his lips as he realizes that his attempt to mimic the word has failed.

enter tux.

he emerged from the deeper tunnels of hougeda, frog in mouth, and as he sees his brother he spits it out on the ground, smacking his lips together.  gross, he says, facial features wrinkled into discomfort.  the frog once again made its escape, and tux turned his attention to et-wall! and his brother.

For a moment he thinks Silkie will zoom right by him without comment and contents himself to just watching, but it seems his speech has distracted the boy. His lips curve up in a slightly amused smile, repeating gently, "bonjour. It means 'hello'." 

It seems the poor frog has not made an escape after all, re-emerging briefly in little Tux's mouth as the other boy comes barrelling out of nowhere. Tux drops it and Étoille watches it scramble away, secretly rooting for it's escape before turning his attention to Tux, amused as always by the various pronouncations of his name. "Bonjour, Tux," he greets, "what were you up to?"

silkie watches étoille's expressions for any sign of annoyance or anger towards his butchering of the word he'd used before saying his (silkie's) name but the young dragonling finds none. silkie's perceptive, perhaps surprisingly so for one so young, and the taunt pull of his muscles in his shoulders relax when he notes the smile that pulls across the older male's lips instead. a grin split's the boy's own lips, exposing sharp teeth as his tail sways behind him as étoille offers, once more, the correct pronunciation. the word sounds so smooth, poise and elegant as it falls from étoille's lips and silkie recognizes that he wouldn't be able to replicate the word. "oh," silkie draws out the syllable and gives a firm nod of his head. bonejur = hello. got it. "hello!" silkie chirps, a bit late in return.

the sound of footfalls upon the cavern floor draw silkie's attention away from étoille and to tux instead as his brother makes a grand entrance carrying the frog that silkie had abandoned, silkie assumes anyway, in his mouth. "hey! that's mine!" silkie proclaims slipping easily into trigedasleng as tux spits the frog out to the ground. mine was a relative term. nothing was actually his. he shared many ( if not all ) of his toys with his siblings ( and ephraim for while the new boy wasn't a sibling by blood and silkie didn't know him all that well yet, he was considered one of them by silkie nevertheless ) and though it was childish instinct to want to claim the frog the truth was silkie wasn't overly disgruntled by it. a fact evidenced indisputably by the moments that followed his declaration as he let the poor tortured frog escape. instead silkie lifts his paw in an attempt to give tux a playful boop on the nose if his brother allows it as étoille turns his attention to tux. the question asked was a good one and silkie turns his inquisitive gaze back to tux, offering his youngest littermate a 'yeah tux, what were you up to' look as if étoille and him were playing good cop/bad cop during an interrogation, with silkie, obviously ( and perhaps eagerly as he makes up the scenario in his head ), as the bad cop.

i kept getting too intimidated by how nice and long your post was because tux is like, a potato, so uhh sorry

he is almost disappointed when his brother does not abscond after the poor, tortured little hopping beast.  he is sure that the frog does not feel the same.  but he freezes a little bit when he asks what he was up to, because i think technically the babies aren't supposed to go that far.  i was just lookin' he says before quickly following it up with, what were [i]you[/] doin'?

He watches the little gears turning in Silkie's head, smiling at the belated chirp of greeting. Silkie has finally noticed Tux's prize, switching into Trig (which Étoille still has no real grasp on but it is easy enough to guess at what he is saying). The frog makes a successful escape and Tux scrambles to answer, confronted by his and his lookalike's (not serious) judgement. He is also pretty certain the children are not allowed that deep in Hougeda without supervision but Tux is here now, unharmed, and Étoille is not particularly inclined to discipline. "We were just speaking," he answers, adding "and being where we are supposed to be," suspecting he should make some comment at the least or he will be failing at guardianship. To both Silkie and Tux he addresses his next question, his voice rumbling as it does: "what would you like to do?"

silkie shifts his weight a bit and then plops down upon his haunches unceremoniously because standing for too long was a little exhausting. or maybe it was just boring. silkie liked to move ...or nap and there wasn't really anything in-between those two opposites for him. tux appears to be on trial because he gives a defense in response to étoille's question and then quickly turns the question to the look-a-likes. silkie frowns at his brother and then peers up at the older male as he answers. "yeah," silkie tells tux in an 'what he said' tone that sounded surprisingly assertive. assertive doesn't necessarily fit in with what is primarily silkie's laid-back personality and altruistic demeanor, admittedly.

étoille's question broke silkie's line of thought and the boy ponders the question with a contemplative swivel of his ears and tilt of his head. "i wanna hunt somethin'!" silkie crows abruptly. he likes to chase things, even if the desire and ambition ( at the moment ) doesn't stray too far beyond childish innocence on the matter. still, silkie wants to seize the opportunity while it's present but hesitates then, remembering tux. silkie's eyes trail then to his brother. "whaddya wanna do tux?" he asks in common for étoille's benefit. silkie wasn't sure what they'd do if the two of them had differing ideas of how to kill time. voting on it and the fact of incorporating both doesn't naturally occur to him yet.

the response he got from silkie was so out of character that he drew back, brows knit in confusion.  what?  it made him feel bad, these two mirror images questioning him.

he is unsure where the feelings of jealousy and wrongness come from but it doesn't help the stab of feeling out of place.  i wannan go, he says abruptly, before running off somewhere he was definitely allowed to be.  he'd get over it.  probably.

He does not know what causes Tux to withdraw so suddenly, not yet nuanced enough in the empathy required of babies. A small frown momentarily turns his mouth, worried, but he does not pursue the little penguin, his attention drawn back to his look-alike instead. "We can hunt something," he offers, smoothing over as best he can the abrupt departure, "if you would still like to."

i'm went ahead and wrapped this up with this post.

tux blurts out, abruptly and without warning that he wants to leave and though silkie's lips part to speak something to his brother he scuttles off. for a moment silkie stares dejectedly at the spot where tux had previously been before he turns to étoille as the older man speaks to him once more. silkie's feelings are hurt by his brother's decision to not spend any time with them ( him ) but he sucks it up the best he can. "ok." he says with a soft wag of his tail and looks to his look-alike to lead the way.