Bearclaw Valley Earworm

@Indra

The only two occasions, when Nuna was not on the run, were: 1. She was passed out, wherever here tired body had happened to fall down. 2. She was eating. But even then - while the first was inevitable (compensated by several power-naps), the second she always tried to do in a greedy haste, gobbling down any and every food given to her. Then trying to shamelessly steal more from her siblings and then dashing off. Not always this haste worked well - on more than one occasion she ended up throwing up her stomach contents, demanding her to slow down and eat more carefully.

But point 2. had a subpoint 2.1. called "Chewing bones". She had learned early on that chewing was difficult, if you moved around too much, but you could aim and convert all of the bursting energy to the strength and determination to destroy that ossified piece of meat and tendons. This she was doing now, having stolen (or scavenged - depends on the point of view) a shin-bone from remnants of a fawn that had been hidden in a cache. To have an easy escape, in case other puppies wanted to have the bone too (sure they would), Nuna had positioned herself not far from Indra's den. With the bone placed expertly between her outstretched forepaws, she was chewing and gnawing it away.

drawn outside by the ravenous sound of bone-crunching, indra swept her eyelids closed and squinted into the afternoon glare. nunataq's small form, at first just a shadow while her eyes adjusted, seemed hunched over something -- and as indra's vision slowly took to the brightness outside, she caught the form of a splintered bone peeking out between the girl's forepaws.

indra's stomach grumbled; heeding her gut's reminder, the russet redleaf stalked off to the cache and returned with some unidentified carcass left by tadec. settling not too far from the girl, indra ate her fill and then stretched out content, basking in the suffused glow of sunlight.

Indra had never taken food away from Nunataq, but still - when the caretaker passed the puppy, she crouched over her bone and growled. Just to remind that this was hers to keep and there would be no sharing involved. This proved an unneccessary move, because the she-wolf returned with a carcass of her own and Nuna followed her every movement, while she ate her fill and stretched out eventually.

The gears in the girl's mind were turning now, mixing up the ingredients for a mischief. But before that could take place, something else happened. Mindlessly she continued to chew on the bone, until there was a quiet crack, a yelp of pain that followed it and a very perplexed face that was looking down at the two pieces of canine milk teeth that she had broken.

nunataq was perhaps lucky it was indra's shadow that passed over hers, and not laurel's -- no doubt had laurel been at the receiving end of that tiny growl, she would have corrected it with a tyrant's unyielding hand. yet indra was not laurel, and while they were similar in many ways, indra wished for nunataq to grow firm and fierce, and would not dilute that fiery flicker in the girl's ever-beating heart.

she had enjoyed what little quiet had passed, up until a crack and yelp caused her to startle. immediately rising, she pulled towards nunataq and invasively shoved her face in the girl's worriedly. nosing her, she discovered the split tooth -- her heart settled, if only a bit -- before she snuffed the tooth with a claw into the dirt. she would not coddle nunataq's pain -- and to distract the girl, gave a gentle nip to her hips before striding off.

Nunataq was not the one, who asked for pity or coddling, when things went wrong for her. When something painful happened the yelp and occasional whine was only to express her surprise about the sudden change of the situation not that she needed anyone to soothe her. It was just not, how her mind worked, and - frankly speaking - she did not even know that you could ask others to sympathise with you anyway.

Therefore she stared intently down at the two teeth, then lifted her muzzle to give an affectionate lick on Indra's and tapped her tail few times in a friendly greeting. What really confused her was, where these two bony things had come from, and she was unable to put two plus two together and realize that - a) pain, where the teeth had been; b) the two broken pieces of teeth - were bound together.

However, math was immediately forgotten, when Nuna's caretaker invited the girl for a game. And being the one, who never declined a challenge, she sprang to her feet and bounded after the russet she-wolf, intent on catching her and nipping at her heels.

indra was relieved there was no threat of further outcry -- she could hear the rush of rising limbs and the scamper of a determined pup in pursuit. presumably, the pain and the teeth were forgotten and the russet woman pulled away in a loping gallop.

nunataq's breath bounded hot on her heels, but she would not make it easy: she galloped round their densite and then, with a great heave, leapt upon the fallen tree that shielded the entryway. scaling its rough bark, she turned around with jaws harmlessly snapping, preparing to fend nunataq from getting up top in deep but playful growls.

The victory was so near and Nuna could almost taste in on the tip of her tongue and then - wham! Indra disappeared for a moment from her field of vision only to appear on top of the tree trunk that guarded the entrance of their den.

"Wruff!" she barked out something that could be translated into "hey, not fair!" and then approached the trunk, got to her hind paws, balancing her fore pair against the tree and looked up at Indra with a wagging tail. But only for a moment, because she aimed her next attack at the fingers that were closest to her.

the beta grinned, peering down at the jumping menace at her feet; she answered the wruff with a little growl of her own, swiping at the girl's outstretched muzzle just as she lunged for indra's paws.

it was a miracle indra didn't fall on her face then, for she abruptly tried to swap the limb she rested upon to avoid a toe-crunch -- it was a graceless exchange, but she managed to pull her paw away but not before nunataq's sharp teeth closed around them.

cronch! it was not a good feeling; indra winced and collapsed onto her chest, jaws parted to jaw-spar with the girl before she crunched on any other of indra's sensitive digits.

Indra was good at tightrope (tight-log?) dancing and succesfully avoided all of Nuna's well-aimed attempts to lessen her number of digits. The luck of success, however, did not deter her from going on. Quite the contrary - it fuelled her motivation and inbetween the bites there were some awkward swipes with either of her forepaws as well.

And finally she managed to grab hold of one of the fingers and the feeling of finally getting to the end of that biologically programmed chain of actions was extatic. Nuna held her grip firmly (but conscious that this was no bone or stick that she could destory, but a living being and that hurting them would mean an abrupt stop to any game whatsoever) and let go only, when Indra's parted jaws were right next to her head.

Nuna grinned and reached for the loose fur on her caretakers neck, eager to repeat the whole chain again with an aim to grab and keep hold of it.

indra whirred approvingly; nunataq's teeth, hard as they were, were clasped gently around her paws. indra much preferred that to harshness, and would have ended the game then and there had nunataq's mouthing turned into masticating.

it was hard work balancing on the log and fending off the tiny menace, who was not so tiny anymore -- nunataq was growing day by day, and soon would match indra in height. keeping the log nunataq-free was challenging, and she put up a good effort to jawspar with the girl even as her teeth caught her cheek.

the pull from nunataq's grip was enough to capsize indra's already precarious position. slow at first, ever looming like the pendulous swing of an upended tree, indra went crashing towards the ground with a growl. the earth was quick to meet her, but her paws were quicker -- she broke the fall in a catlike manner, but would have little time to react if nunataq changed course and went for the log... or her..

I understood that Indra fell in Nunataq's direction?

Nunataq's small victory of actually latching herself on Indra's fur was short-lived, because one of her tugs did not meet the usual resistance and a moment later her caretaker had lost balance and was falling dangerously towards her. From her experience with Lucas, the little piranha was quick to react and slid under the tree trunk, avoiding the collision.

There she turned around, peeked out to see that once again Indra was on her feet - this was enough for the kid to forget the dangerous situation earlier and she happily bounded back to her, now standing side by side and eager to continue the spar.

ahah yea! nunataq plays fair i see

it was a graceless save, but a save nonetheless. nunataq in the form of a shadow had darted to safety, under the aegis of the log that had been indra's undoing. she collected herself with a rough shake and turned around to nunataq, head low and a wide grin on her face as she charged.

there was immense power in a wolf's body, but indra had tempered her strength to match nunataq's - she was careful never once to provide too much resistance, yet she was not soft in her thrusts and parries either. with the girl alongside her she dove for nunataq's paw, using her shoulders as a playful battering ram in the process.

Nuna guessed Indra's plan right away - she made a swift jump to the side, avoiding the attack and came to stand right in front of her. Then she bowed in play, shuffled to the left and right and in a sudden outburst of energy she zoomed in full speed around the russet wolf two or three times. On the fourth lapt she had the not so smart idea of jumping up at the log mentioned previously - she miscalculated the distance and instead of landing on top of it, she hit it hard with her chest and belly.

"Umph," was all Nuna could say, because air was knocked out of her lungs and being hit in the solar plexus had not ended without consequences either. She slumped to the ground and unable to cry in pain, she gasped for air and tried to get back on her feet.

rofl, been there nuna - poor girl hehe

indra had meant to be somewhat consistent in her defenses; that way, nunataq may learn to study the body language of her competitors, and perhaps someday, learn to predict their motives before they ever thought them. as indra lunged for a leg, there was no leg to grab -- indra watched approvingly as nunataq pulled away and then promptly zoomed around her like a speeding comet.

nunataq's next effort was not so smoothly executed. indra winced as she watched the girl fly too close to the sun in her victory, and then came abruptly crashing to the earth. the log was unmoved post-crash, and nunataq rested crumpled in a heap at the foot of its wiry trunk. indra swiftly strode towards the girl and nosed her with concern; she was clearly hurt -- was it the kind of hurt that indra would need a medic for (ogodplzno), or the kind that nunataq could shrug off after a few minutes?

A kind of hurt somewhere in the middle of the both. Nuna regained her breath, but her ribs and belly were still aching. While Indra did a check-up on her, she whimpered softly and tears welled up in her eyes. An outright state of wailing and crying was something the girl had never entered - up until now she had not even known it existed. But even the toughest and strongest have to shed a tear after a heavy crash landing, therefore she let them quietly roll down her cheeks. She pulled her legs under herself and curled up in a ball to keep the pain reined in, until it would subside. For now she was done playing.

My last post here. Thanks!

from the sorry state of nunataq's quavering eyes, indra could tell she was in pain. it was a marvel that the girl was as composed as she was, indra thought -- for it had been a terrific impact. gingerly, the red wolf stepped over the hunched form, noting the tightly clamped position in which nunataq tensely held herself.

there was nothing indra could do; thus was the powerless struggle of mothers and caretakers alike -- to watch their little ones suffer, and know that the battle is not theirs to win. careful not to nudge nunataq, indra slunk to the ground and rested her head on her paws. she was very worried, and would sit there a while until the girl got up again.