Lost Creek Hollow Mine, Mine, Mine

"Mine!" came Eshe's indisputable screech. A sudden shrill and demanding noise that came from just beyond the lip of her family's den. She did not often raise her voice as such, but when she did, it was because she was being treated unfairly. Or ignored. It was the former, in this case, and in a glaring patch of early noon sun, the sterling sprite faced off with a bold raven who had come to steal a skin-ladden bone from the pit of teething raptors. She was having none of this thievery, but the bird was not so easily frightened by a girl not much bigger than he.

"MINE!" she barked this time, lunging aggressively towards her iridescently winged opponent, and succinctly retreating with the same degree of ferocity, as it fluttered backwards but did not ascend. She knew more words— better ones, in fact!— but equal parts indignation and uncertainty made for a bad verbal cocktail, leaving little Eshe unable to articulate anything else except:

"Gimme!" as bird and pup dove for their prize at the same time.

>.>

He was by again to see to Sionnach, but this time, it wasn't her voice that was screeching. And the yells didn't seem pained... angry? Gannet dropped his mouthful of herbs and frowned, then trotted towards where the unholy racket was coming from.

Seemingly, the pup and a bird were fighting over something. He didn't notice right away which of Liffey's children it was, but that didn't matter. Gannet loosed a growl and leapt for the bird just as it dove for the child's treasure. If he had any luck, he'd snap it. If the bird was lucky, perhaps it might escape with only a few tail feathers missing.

<.<
:D  ...Tagged for reference, at least!

Where Jet went, it was likely that her mother @Treason was not far behind...but right at the moment, she had seized the opportunity her more-distracting brother @Thief had offered up to her on a platter and scurried away as fast as her stubby little black legs could carry her. She'd only tripped over her own feet twice in the process, too: she was getting better! She pricked up her ears and cocked her head at the intruiging noises off to her left shortly before bursting into a clumsy gallop to investigate.

Yaaaaaa-aaarrr! she yowled in contribution as she came charging onto the scene. She batted playfully at one big black bird and snapped at the feathery rump of another. She paused just a second, white-toed paw upraised as she watched the big male wolf threaten another of the birds somewhat more credibly than she, before galumphing up to Eshe at an only-slightly-slower pace than before. Nuh uh! she retorted sassily as she shoved her face at the other puppy, a playful twinkle in her eye. Jet didn't really care if she got the bone or not, right now: she was just happy to be out and free and meeting people and whoo, was the extrovert in her throwing a party. Just to make sure Gannet didn't feel left out she quickly darted a look in his direction and stuck out her little pink tongue before turning her sparkling and mischievous blue eyes back upon the much-likelier target Eshe.

Squork! contributed one of the ravens, perched restlessly on a low-hanging branch with his feathers upruffled. He shuffled sideways and eyeballed first the offensive youngsters who had just interrupted its meal, the smaller black one which had its rump towards him, and then the bigger wolf who'd just added his teeth into the mix. But the big one surely couldn't defend both the small ones at once, right...? The raven hunched his wings up at the ready and scootched his black claws sideways on the branch just a little further, watching for an opening with his ink-dark eyes squinched and narrowed. Jet was having far too much fun to take any notice of this, naturally.

The bird was too quick for him, but he'd at least scared it off from the pup. Facing a full size carnivore, the ravens were less likely to mob, but a puppy size creature they could bully with little recompense.

That didn't mean they wouldn't try though. A few looked shiftily like they might try their luck, but while the pups might be too engrossed in play to notice, Gannet was not. He stood aggressively ready, his silver eyes intent and promising murder to any who might try to get close. Normally a gentle soul, he would not abide any threat they might bring to the little ones he was now watching.

Even though Jet came annoyingly close and began to fancy herself as yet another bone-deterrent, Eshe had become almost entirely engrossed in the scene behind her puphood challenger; and she tried mightily to keep her eyes on the actions of Gannet.

The strong, rippling, beautiful Gannet.

Her heart gave a resounding thump, and she suddenly shoved past Jet— bone forgotten— and tried instead to immediately retrieve the attentions of her one true love. "Kill it, Ganne', kill it!" she squealed excitedly— looking very much the part of the head cheerleader clinging to her quarterback boyfriend's winning arm, as she encouraged him to pulverize the things she didn't like.

Poor Jet went ignored for the time being, but it wouldn't be long before she'd remember her competition and need to snuff it out in favor of recieving all of Gannet's love and attention.

going to wrap this also <3 if you want to continue feel free to pp him however you wish!

One of them egged him to kill the bird, but fortunately said antagonizer thought better of testing the full grown wolf who'd shown up. He stared at it, fur aggressively lifted, and with a final horking cry the bird lifted and wheeled away.

Not today, he replied to Eshe, smiling down at her. It was good that she knew he was there to protect them, and her enthusiasm was brightening.

You are playing. Show me? He would join them in a game with the bone if they allowed, either tug or chase or whatever they wished. Or he would simply stay and keep watch, guardian as they enjoyed the afternoon.

Sorry I've been so, so very slow—RL and electronics have been real PITAs!  >.<  Just as a heads-up Jet's name has been changed to Brouhaha in the future, but obviously not mid-thread, here  ;P  Leaving this as now archiveable, if wished!
...In particular I absolutely adored Eshe's earlier descriptions and her little crush on Gannet though, lol  ;D  Very nice!

Her fellow pup earned herself a quick playful nip before Jet made her dive for the unclaimed bone. She hauled it triumphantly up in her jaws—a heavier load than expected, making her neck wobble a little, but with a mighty effort she heaved the thing skyward—and tried to waggle it about in a proud and teasing manner. Eshe was already past her, though, and Jet watched in growing puzzlement as her fellow puppy for some unfathomable reason only had eyes for the adult in the room, and the noisy big black birds he was giving a hairy eyeball to.

Jet's ability to frown was rather interrupted by the large femur clenched between her pearly whites, but the furrow in her brow went down more successfully. Her tail wagging high and wild started to droop at its little white tip as she stared after the very much preoccupied Eshe. Jet couldn't fgure out what she could possibly have done wrong to have this other girlpup so thoroughly ignoring her, especially since she'd just gotten ahold of what she'd thought was the much-prized toy bone... What the hell? Jet looked at Gannet again in confusion to see if she had perhaps missed something super-interesting he was up to. Nope, he was still just...staring at birds. And in fact, with a bristle and a glare, the most aggressive of the ravens decided it had had enough, and flapped away with a final squork. Jet didn't understand why Eshe had wanted it dead anyway: it sure didn't look like it had much meat on its scrawny hollow bones.

Shortly thereafter the big white-furred Gannet issued the invitation Jet had been waiting for, however, and the young black-furred girl flagged her tail proudly high once more and trotted over to show him her prize with only a little additional difficulty as it tried to pull her steps off-balance. Wavering a little, Jet heaved the thing even higher so that tall Gannet could get a better look and sniff (and also such that the big knob on one end was likely to whack into his nearest shinbone if he didn't watch it—whoops) and then maybe young Eshe would realize just what awesome fun she was missing out on. ...Or not. Jet was pretty happy to while away the time with Gannet instead, if Eshe wasn't going to bite: the important thing was that someone was going to play with her. Someone who wasn't a terrible stinkin' little brother. And with that Jet could definitely count this day a success.