Redhawk Caldera return of the moomy

@Fox ? :3

At nearly two months of age, the pup was still a little behind on everything. Luckily, with no siblings, he did not realise such himself. At times he would notice a worried look upon his parents' faces when they laid eyes on him, but often the moment the pup looked at them, it would melt away. The pup went by many names, and he did not seem to identify with any of them in particular yet. Well, none but "I!" anyway. Recently, the pup had discovered the "I" word, and he liked it, because it gave him ways to indicate himself in a way that everybody understood. Some called him Eljay, some called him little Jay, little Elwood, Elwood Junior, and sometimes little twig or variations of the sorts, but everybody knew who "I" was!

After his terrifying incident with the beetles and the tree, and various other scary experiences, the pup was a little scared to go far from the den. He'd spent weeks sitting outside looking about, and now he had come to the point where he dared take a few steps outside at a time.

After playing with a stick outside for a while, the pup returned to the den. He dropped the stick and called, "Moomy!" into the den, hoping to draw out his mother. However, upon further inspection, it turned out that his mother was gone! The pup was pretty sure she had been here before, not that long ago. He flopped down just in front of the den and started to sob noisily -- a thing he had done little as a tiny baby, but was a recent discovery -- while he whispered to himself, "I wan moomy!"

*swoops in*

Somebody's cries grabbed Fox's attention away from her current task, which was simply watching over Peregrine as he took a midday nap. She recognized the cries as belonging to Elwood Jr, and she figured it wouldn't hurt to take a break from creepily watching Peregrine as he slept. He was recovering well, even if his eyesight didn't look (haha, pun) like it was coming back anytime soon. He would adapt, Fox hoped, sooner rather than later. For now, she just needed something to take her mind off of it, and Elwood Jr had made himself the perfect target.

Giving Peregrine one last look, she trotted over to the Blackthorn den to find the child in a heap at the mouth of the den. "What's wrong, tyke?" she asked. Even though he and her own children had only been born a few months apart, the size difference was staggering. Then again, the Firebirds were nearly adults now. At least in size, if not in mind. Fox swept her gaze over the surrounding landscape before returning her attention to the Blackthorn kid. "Your mom not around?"

Someone soon showed up to help the pup. He looked up at Fox with his big, bright eyes. His cries waned, but he still let through the occasional noisy sob as he looked up at her and she asked him what was wrong. When Fox asked about his mother, the pup nodded. "Yuh," he shared with an unhappy frown. The world terrified the pup, and little Jay wanted nothing more than to see his mommy. Why wasn't she here? Why had she abandoned him?

"I wan moomy," he told Fox and he looked at her expectantly, as if he expected her to have a magic wand that would make his mother appear out of thin air.

Fox looked behind herself, but she didn't expect to see Finley there. Lady was probably off with Elwood making sweet sweet love (or something along those lines). "I think she’s busy right now." Fox wondered if part of this was due to Finley's son not having any siblings. What kinds of emotional problems was he going to have because of that? Fox had grown up with a couple of sisters, and her own children had each other… but Elwood Jr didn't have the luxury of siblings. At least he had his Firebird "cousins."

"Wanna play a game until she gets back?" Fox asked/suggested. Perhaps it would help keep his mind off of his mother if he was actively doing something else. Besides, Elwood Jr seemed… well… a little sheltered, and Fox wanted to get him into some trouble. Not terrible, life-threatening trouble. (That was reserved for herself and Finley.) Just some good ol' fashioned rough-housing. Toughen him up, that kind of thing.

The pup didn't like when his mother or his father were 'busy'. They were supposed to be right here catering to his very needs all day long! Another day the pup might be as worried about his father not being here as his mother's, but currently he was worried mostly about his mother's disappearance, for she had been here just moments ago, he was sure of it. And she didn't usually just up and leave, even though little Jay was getting better and better at amusing himself and was becoming more self-dependant (though not as much as one would expect of a pup of his age), as well as the fact that there were usually other adults -- or the older pups -- of Redhawk Caldera around to look after him.

That didn't mean he liked it one bit, of course. He was distracted by Fox suggesting a game, though. A game could be good, as long a it wasn't a scary game. "Yuh nunkie Fee!" the pup agreed while he nodded his head. He did not realise that Fox wasn't an uncle (nor that the letter 'F' wasn't pronounced with 'ee' in it), but since Fox and Peregrine were often together, just like mommy and daddy, they were dibbed nunkie P and nunkie F in Elwood Junior's head.

Fox didn't mind the mis-naming. "Nunkie Fee" could have been a dozen other, more terrible things. Fox had kind of figured that Finley had told Eljay to call her something incredibly stupid like, "Butt Sauce." That was more Finley's style. But if Fox had to settle for a more cutesy name, she'd take it. He seemed up for a game, and it did seem to take his mind off his parents (for now), which meant she had to be quick about coming up with a game. Fox wasn't much of a planner when she came to talking, usually making things up on the fly.

"Let’s play hide and seek!" she decided, figuring that was an easy enough game to start with. "You go hide while I count to twenty, and then I’ll come find you." That was less scary (she thought) than the other way around. Not only that, but he'd get to practice exploring nearby without going too far. And he'd have to be on his own for a bit, which Fox hoped would make him feel a little more independent.

Hide and seek sounded a bit scary, but the pup decided that he was going to give it a try. He didn't understand all that she asked of him, but he did understand that he needed to go and hide somewhere. When smaller he had played this game sometimes with mommy and daddy, he remembered. He looked around for good hiding places, and then said, "Yah," in agreement that the game could start.

Once Fox started counting, the pup looked around for a good place to hide. He saw some fallen logs from the storm, and while they might provide a good hiding place, the pup was scared that he'd run into more beetles, like that time with daddy. No, that wouldn't do.

At 'four' the pup waddled to behind Fox, and pondered if this would be a good place. When she hit 'nine' he decided it would not, even though he had no idea how much time was left to hide (he wasn't really occupied with that). So he got up again and he looked around for a new place. At 'fifteen' the pup settled in some tall grasses, through which he could still easily be seen. At 'nineteen' the pup decided that it wasn't good enough a spot, but by that time Fox just hit 'twenty' and...

"Twenty! Ready or not, here I come!" Fox called out, letting the hider know that the seeker was finished counting. Of course, for animals with a sophisticated nose such as the ones they possessed, hide and seek was more of a tracking game and less of a visual seeking game. Still, Fox was willing to set aside her nose for a moment to give Elwood Jr. the best possible chance of staying hidden from her.

The Alpha started by wandering around the tree where she had started, wondering if he had simply snuck behind it. No dice. She meandered in one direction, then the other, grey eyes curious around every corner. It didn't take that long to find him, hidden in the grass, and she locked eyes with him. "Found you, stinker!" Fox bounded toward him, nudging his shoulder roughly. "My turn to hide! Close your eyes and count."

The pup stayed in place, since he saw that Fox was beginning to move. She looked around for a bit in various places, not immediately finding him, but it did not take her long to find the pup. He looked up at 'Nunkie F' as she said that it was her time to hide. The pup tilted his head and then plopped down on the ground.

The pup squinted his eyes comically, shutting them really tight to make sure no one would think he was cheating, and started to immitate what he thought Nunkie F had been saying (as he wasn't all that good at counting yet): "One, too, free, four, hahm... hive, fiz..." This is where he pretty much lost track, and with a frown on his face he started to recount more words that sort of somewhat remotely sounded like the numbers he was searching for.

I'm so out of practice. @_@

Because this could have been Elwood Junior's first time playing hide and seek, Fox did not wish to make the game too hard on him. She had no reason to. Instead, she would make it as easy as possible to find her while not being too obvious about where she was. The Alpha snuck around him, then darted off in one direction, making a beeline for some shrubs where she knew she could hide.

Once she was in the shrubbery (and what an excellent word that is), Fox put her belly to the floor, eyes peering out and waiting to hear her friend's child yell the age-old "here I come!"

want to finish this soon and have a more recent thread at some point?

"Hubbowmn!" The pup shouted when it was time to go look for Nunkie Fee and he opened his eyes. He had counted up some random non-existent numbers, trying to immitate the counting he'd heard before, and then reopened his eyes.

The pup wiggled his nose and started to sniff around. He followed the scent trail until he found some shrubberies — and Nunkie Fee! "Nunkie Fee!" the pup called out to her to signify that he had found her, his little tail wiggling excitedly.

A long yawn followed, for while this was a fun game, it was also a tiring experience.

Fine by me! ^__^

The last several numbers were complete nonsense, but Fox didn't mind. The little tyke was young enough that he could get away with it... for now. Just as she had done with her own children, Fox planned on being less and less lenient as Elwood Jr. grew and matured. It was only natural.

When he spotted her, Fox feigned her surprise, but not her delight. This one seemed to have a decent head on his shoulders. Elwood and Finley had done well, which was no surprise at all. The two of them were lovely wolves, and it only made sense that they would make lovely children. Hopefully next time, they'd consult their superiors before doing the deed.

"Let's get you somewhere so you can rest," Fox suggested, nudging Eljay toward the den he shared with his parents. At the very least, she had managed to distract his tiny brain away from his mother for a time.

"Otay," the pup agreed when Fox started to herd him back towards the den. They hadn't gone far, so he didn't have to walk far to get home, and once he was there, he fell right asleep inside of the den. When he woke up Finley would be right beside him again and the terror of missing mommy was all forgotten as he was once more reunited with his favourite wolf in the world.