Noctisardor Bypass spechou

@Ezra and/or @Gideon! <3

one of her boys had darted after something or other outside the den, and heda followed at a trot. they were in the process of transitioning out, or would be, as the shelter of their birth could hardly house six active pups any longer.
heda sang as she walked, great is thy faithfulness, came the clear soprano of her lilting voice, delightedly dancing in song notes after the son who explored his home.

Now that he was out of doors, Gideon found himself easily distracted by every flitting insect and windblown leaf to cross his path. He cooed and squealed with excitement as he explored his surroundings, winding this way and that as he was pulled along by the sight of a drifting butterfly or the sound of birdcall overhead.

Eventually his eyes clapped onto several brilliant yellow dandelions in the grass. Having picked up a thing or two about plants being useful from Etienne's and Fiona's frequent visits, the boy scurried toward them and plucked one up in his jaws. Pleased with himself, Gideon went careening back to the singing Heda with the flower held out, presenting her with his special "medicine".

"oh, gideon, that's so pretty, baby. thank you," heda crooned over her boy, lowering her pale muzzle to take the bloom and kiss the top of his head in the process. "dandelions! they're bitter, but you can eat them. and as it gets warmer, they turn to fluff and blow away."
she demonstrated, treating him to a funnel of warm air from her pursed lips. "are you a dandelion, gideon?" she chuckled, encouraging her son to try and recapture the flower with a gentle touch.

Gideon giggled and danced from paw to paw when Heda's muzzle swooped down over his brow. T'ank you mama, he mimicked, having not quite grasped the difference between that and "you're welcome" yet.

Heda went on to describe dandelions, but he was only half listening. Already his eyes were darting around for any sign of a different flower he could present to his mom for more praise and recognition. He tuned back in when she asked if he was a dandelion, eliciting another round of giggles from him. Nooo, mama, he said, shaking his head emphatically. I'm a woof, not a dannyliar! Silly mama!

dandyliar! and her eyes shone with a deep, fierce love for the baby boy who seemed already dazzled by the flora which grew through rivenwood. "yes! you're a wolf, gideon," heda smiled. "and this is a dandelion. but do you know what?" she asked, waiting to catch his wandering gaze.
"god made both of you." she propped her chin on her paws and smiled brightly at her boy. "and both of you are very special."
would her sons know what her heart breathed as life? heda hoped, hoped for a golden faith unbroken by a mother's desperate sins.

His eyes scanned the nearby bushes, but there were only more dandelions and other weeds he had no name for there. Oh well. He would find his mama a new flower soon enough. His tongue flicked out to wet his nose when Heda caught his attention, eliciting a chirped response of, what?!

The expression that crossed his face next was some combination of confused and distant, like Gideon was looking far into the universe to parse the meaning. Really, he was listening to Heda but also to the myriad rapid-fire thoughts crossing his brain at that moment, which included the names of several other flowers he knew. These wires were quick to become crossed.

God? he wondered, followed almost immediately by some innate understanding that God was a person of some kind. He went on, but if God made me and God made too, um, too-lips too then why didun, he took a deep breath, didun He make too-lips and roses and dannyliars all be woofs instead? After all, being a flower must be dreadfully boring compared to being a wolf. Then they'd be even more special!

gideon gave his reasonings, and heda found herself quite impressed with his already expanding knowledge of flowers that grew around rivenwood. 
how beautiful to be able to see him think in real time, to conceptualize god long before she had done so.
"a dandelion is pretty and you can also use it for medicine," heda began, thinking of how bitter the pretty yellow blossoms could be. "a tulip is just so lovely, and they come in all sorts of colors. a rose can be medicine, a rose you can look at, and they too are like a rainbow when it comes to the different roses there are in the world."
"and a wolf can appreciate all these things about all these flowers. we're different because god wanted us to be different. we all have our place in the same world, together. it would be a little boring if we were all the same, don't you think?" heda murmured, completely content.

Some of what Heda tried to explain went right over his head, whether because he was too young to fathom such enormity as every variation of rose in the world or because he was too dumb to realize that a tulip and a rose were not the same thing. Oh, sure, they had different names, but wolves had different names, too, and at the end of the day they were still all wolves no matter what they looked like.

Flowers were no different, and so to Gideon a tulip and a rose were just different names for flowers that looked a little different but were fundamentally the same. This great misunderstanding was where all his future trouble would spring from.

There was no trouble now, though, for he was busy giggling at the idea of a world where everything was wolves. It-ud be funny-est, mama, he said, if all the things were woofs! God didun make it funny 'nuff!

"well, i suppose that's true. i guess it would be funny to go and get flowers, but instead of flowers, they're little wolves." her smile bathed gideon in love. heda looked forward to more of these lessons, knowing that her son would understand more as the days went on.
"you love ezra so much, right? and me? well, that's how god loves us. just like that. just because. and that's why he gives us so many things to look at and to experience. there's always more to see and do."
but she left off there, and pointed to a shadow floating through the canopy. "that's an osprey. he has a mate, a wife, and they have a nest by the lagoon. they've been here a long, long time. have you ever seen them before?"

Gideon was preoccupied for a short while with the thought of little wolf heads and little wolf bums gathered together in a sprawling meadow, hundreds upon hundreds of them. A sudden feeling of ICK washed over him and all at once, he regretted the thought.

Thankfully, Heda rescued him with talk of God. Yeah! I loveses you soooo much! he agreed, trying to imagine someone named God whom he had never met loving him that much. It was difficult; Gideon could not imagine loving someone he had never met. It was clear that Heda knew this God, though, and he could tell from her tone that she loved Him immensely. For now, that satisfied Gideon's hungry mind.

He squinted in the direction mama pointed, focused for once, and his tails stirred when he spotted the drifting shadow. Nuh-uh, he confirmed. Whether he had actually ever seen them or not was debatable. He seldom looked up, and when he did, he couldn't tell a seagull from a crow from a cardinal. How long? Long as you, mama? Long as God? How come I haven't saw God?

"longer than me, i bet, gideon," heda sighed, crossing her paws for a moment. "but not as long as god. and you can't really see god. he's in all the good things you love. he's around you, making the sun rise and set, and keeping the storms from getting too bad."
"i love you so much back, giddy," she sighed, feeling her eyes water a bit. "you have a grandma sequoia, you know. and there's aunt druid, but there's also aunt witch."
no mahler. no worripa. seeds without roots. her boy didn't need to know about them. 
"do you want to see where the ospreys went, baby?"

So sorry for the delay on this one, hope you don't mind me fading here. Last one for me!

Gideon's eyes tracked the shadow through the foliage while Heda spoke, but it soon vanished. Longer than mama, but not as long as God, because God was all around them all the time. Gideon could then only compare God to the sun above, that warm life-giving orb that was always there. Even when it was hidden by the clouds or when the dark of night temporarily hid it, it was always there.

Thus did his understanding of God blossom.

Yeah, lesgo see! he agreed, rushing ahead to where the shadow had disappeared. Maybe if he was quick enough, he would be able to find it again before Heda had to point them out!