Moonspear mechanically make the words come out

she had slept near the mouth of the den the previous night, and the morning's dew had settled thickly in her thin puppy fur. Cass had woken and, after seeking a meal to fill her belly as quickly as possible, scooted out the den in search of adventure. fur spiked up and adopting her signature bedraggled look, the girl wandered down from the den to find whatever she could. she had developed her first interest; words. how wonderful they were, it was, to name all that she saw. and to use those words to illicit a reaction from others. her vocabulary was sparse, and spoken with little clarity and poor volume control, but still, she thirsts for more knowledge. 

she wandered a time, eyes twisting to all that she knew not the name of, and frustrated with the fact that she could name so little, she sought an adult. they, the bigger ones, were a source of Words, if only they could teach her like mother and father did. 

cool if the fam invades? we can make it a voice lesson too <3 @Dakarai @Aries
Set directly after this thread

The pale druid traveled the rest of the way to their cliffside dwelling in silence; complete quietude of voice and environment. The air was still and there was not a sound to be heard. Olive’s mossy gaze reflected the colors of spring grasses as it bounced listless upon the earth in front of her — at this point, the route to their home was muscle memory and the woman found seeing eyes to be unnecessary. Though she did not turn to ensure that both Dakarai and Aries were in tow, the occasional shuffle of feet or squeak from the boy assured her that they were.

Olive could remember her own childhood, living carefree and footloose amongst her small natal family. It had just been her elegant mother, her studious father and her two nutcase brothers — they had survived on their own, and though it was a meager existence with no lands or belongings to speak of, Olive now realized it had been perfect. The three mewling pups had been allowed to explore the world at their leisure, to play with abandon, to not worry about politesse and platitudes… and the shrouded mother mourned her inability to provide such a life for her children.

Pack life stifled and confined her children’s natural way of being just as it stifled her own.

On the way to the densite, Olive intercepted her shadowed daughter. She, too, had grown into an adventurous being and though the mother was proud of such traits in her kin, there were larger swathes of time that she was unsupervised. The time for Cass and Aries to continue going about uneducated in the ways of the world was over. These Moonspear wolves were new and unknown; they did not yet harbor the kindness and love that only time could afford. Until two families were able to mesh together, bonded by friendship rather than discomfort and unease, their children would need to learn a thing.

"Cass," the mother cooed upon seeing her dark child, glad to have the family all together without a summoning call. Deciding this was as good of a place as any, Olive motioned to Dakarai [for the first time since acquiring their diligent son from the Hydra] to place Aries amongst the audience. Olive sidled here featherlight frame in front of them and sat tall, puffing her chest out slightly in a gentle authority over the audience of babes. There was a place for Dakarai at her side, if he wished to assume such a role. Then, without giving the children much time to protest, she continued.

”You two getting older. Almost two months now! Soon, you will be weaned..." The very thought of such a thing was dreadful. "....you aren’t babies anymore.” Yes, they were. ”So, it’s time we talked about… the rules.” Then, she quickly tacked on “—of the mountain.” to denote that these were not her rules. Life with their mother would always be one filled with love — and like hell she was going to dull that shine.

Dakarai walked  behind Aries to make sure he wouldn't escape again. He was stewing over the way Olive had announced that Aries was two months old, that he would learn given time. It was time that the children learned to respect their elders no matter how young their elders were. There had been a threat against Aries's life and Dakarai would not take that lightly. 

"No. the rules of the pack. This is something that will get you far in life, not biting, not fighting. Respect and Submission." he spoke once Olive finished casting her an exasperated look. It was obvious he would be the hard paw in this family, the rule maker and punisher. Olive was the mother so he couldnt blame her, she was tjere to nurse them and soothe their wounds.


Looking at Cassiopeia and Aries who he nudged beside his sister, he took the space beside Olive and looked down at them both. "You can play,have fun, explore. I would never say no to that, but being mean to bigger, older wolves will not work" he stated firmly though with a gentler tone than when he had yelled and snarled at Aries.

The boy felt uncomfortable as he walked - having Da behind normally would not have bothered him, but after the way they had stared at each other he was not sure he wanted to be so close to him right now. Either way, he supposed it was better than having Dakarai walk beside him, for then it would be difficult not to glare at him. It would be easiest if he was behind Da as then he would not have to worry about being watched.

When they arrived at the den, Aries sent a small grin to Cass, wondering what she had been getting up to while he was apparently causing trouble. He shuffled in next to his sister, gazing at their mother with a blank expression once more. Whatever she had to say, he supposed it would have something to do with rules. He hated rules. However, before Aries could make any sort of protest, Dakarai spoke up. The boy was understanding more and more as he grew, and now he could pick out lots of different words and phrases. As his father spoke, Aries felt himself grow more and more restless, getting annoyed over the fact that Da was clearly directing the speech to him, despite the overall statement applying to them both. 

He glared at his father. He knew that he was most likely trying to stop Aries getting hurt, but he didn't need help. He didn't want to show any respect for Hydra. He would have liked at that moment to leave the den, but he knew he would just be put back in, so instead the Sigma turned away sharply, staring instead at the rocky space just behind them. Aries did not want to look at his father, who seemed to not understand the hatred the young boy had for the older girl.

yay! fam thread :D

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A voice had the girl dart around, craning her neck to peer up at Mother. She danced aside, considering attempting to just leave and see what she could find, but decided that would be bad, and her prancing subsided until she sat upon her haunches. Chirping out a customary, loud, " HI",  she wiggled under the gaze of her mother. She perched upon a gnarled root, glancing to see Father and Aries following after her brother. Had they all followed her? Cass peered from one face to another, until her gaze latched on Arie's face and he shot her a grin. She did not return it, rather upset at her adventure being crashed by her whole family. But then her mother begun to speak, and her gaze fastened on her mother's face. Of all the words she grew to understand now, her family's were the easiest- their voices were familiar. Weaned was a word she did not know, and she was about the pop out a loud WHAT as was her habit when coming across something she did not know, when her father began to speak. 

her brow furrowed in angst. Submission! She knew that word, and didn't like it. "No! Su-sum no!" she stated firmly, tail lashing behind her in distress. Submission meant being small and was annoying. She did not want to do submission, and while she wasn't as much of a trouble maker as her brother, she certainly did share his hatred of the act. And then her father continued, prompting her gaze to glint in confusion. She wasn't mean! The only time she had been mean was when the water-magic-multiplying wolves were mean to her! Trying to express this in the words she knew, she began an attempt at a sentence. "No 'ean! No wa bla!" she certainly wasn't mean! It was the weird mean-nice wolves that popped out of the water that were  mean. 

Olive did not miss Dakarai’s disconcerting glance and the women was struck with a sudden range of guilt. This was Dakarai at her side, questioning her methods — his opinion meant everything to her, even if they were no longer bound by the ties of eternal matehood. He alone held the power to rise and break her; no matter the amount of space she placed between them.  And here, side by side, the tips of their fur touching and sparking, she felt the dark knight’s presence more keenly than ever. Olive took a breath and let out of gentle sigh, knowing that he was right in the way he reprimanded their babies.

He was always right.

The children reacted in the way toddlers would — rebelling against any constraints that shackled them. It was almost funny, is it was the nature of young children to be petulant and they could not be faulted for fully experiencing their own childhood. Somehow, Olive deeply understood her children’s developments and minds, despite this being her first litter — perhaps the mother was a bit of a child herself, and this allowed her to commiserate with her children of ash and ebon. She knew them, understood them, and deigned to protect them from the world... but she could not protect them from their father or these ruthless Moonspear wolves who held all their lives in their black coated, blue eyed paws. Olive sighed.  The waifish mother wanted them to have everything she couldn’t.  

“You’re right, Cass — no mean.” Olive reasoned with her children, her eyes jumping from son to daughter and projecting an entreatingly sweet type of sadness. “Being mean will just not do.”  The words felt silly, but necessarily. Somehow, the fae still nurtured a healthy fear that she had poisoned her womb from the fear that was everpresent during her pregnancy. They had been such sweet little mewling things as newborns, but Olive worried that such impacts would show themselves later on during their development. “But please, my children, do try and listen… There is so much on the line. We all must behave.” Surely this went entirely over their tiny, beautiful heads and Olive glanced at Dakarai, briefly catching his eye. Behaving was so difficult.

Deciding the children would need a visual in order to fully grasp the concept of submission, Olive peddled out her willows arms and dainty paws until her chest kissing the ground. “If you meet someone you do not know, you go like this…” From where she laid, the woman shifted her gamine frame to the side and proceeded to curl onto her back, in full submission with her tail curled demurely against her form and all limbs pulled in, leaving her pink belly exposed to an invisible enemy. When they were older and could discern the subtleties of social cues for themselves and determine appropriate responses, perhaps they wouldn’t regularly exhibit such a submissive posture — but until that day, they could not play it safe enough.  Her mossy eyes peered up at the babes beseechingly. 

From this supine posture, Olive continued on her haranguing. “You must.” Her voice was soft, just above a whisper, as was her tendency — but it was rife with earnest. “Bad things happens to wolves that don’t,” and she once again shift to her side, pushing herself up on one feathered elbow. The mother suddenly felt the gravity of their situation.

“If something happened to you, my little moons… I couldn’t… live.”

Aries glared at him and then proceeded to turn around and stare in the opposite direction, a gesture that would have amused Dakarai to no end if there wasn't a possible matter of life or death at hand. Dakarai placed a paw gently on Aries's back and chuffed "You may not like what we are saying, and you may not like this pack. It's understandable son..but you must treat them with respect. They can and will hurt you if you don't." He spoke in a softer tone.


The outburst from Cass was unexpected and Dakarai couldn't hide the look of surprise and bewilderment that crossed his face. His mouth opened and he stared at his daughter his gaze flicking over to Olive. She began to speak just as he did so, for which he was grateful.

He let Olive speak and sat beside her all too aware of how close they were. When she spoke of behaving an almost magnetic pull drew his gaze toward Olive, where he saw her looking at him as well. His eyes heated up and he stared into the mossy green depths for a brief second before turning away again.


He watched as his..no she wasn't his wife anymore. He watched Olive go into a visual display on submission and actually smiled a bit, his lips quirking up into an Expression that softened the hardened look that had taken places on his face lately.  He moved his gaze to the soft fur of her belly and felt a sharp yearning to place his head on the familiar fur of her chest and breath in her scent.


Grunting lightly he flicked his gaze up toward Olive's and then away to his children "there will always be wolves you don't like, but you can't fight them all. I don't nescessarily like this pack yet but I submit because it is the way of things" he didn't bother with childish words, but explained it as simply as possible anyway so that the babes could get the point.

Aries turned his head slightly, nodding at Cass' words. "No sum-bission!" His attempt at the word was not perfect, but he he had gotten his point across. "Not mean!" he gave them a look as if to say 'mean? me? never!' His stare was replaced with the typical child-grump. "Hydra bossy! Hydra mean!" He barked, flicking his tail in annoyance. He still loved his parents, but Hydra was not nice! Neither was Charon.

Then he stood up, and backed away a step or two as his mother lay on the floor. He shook his head lightly, not wanting to even try. "Nononononono! Don't want." His frown deepened, and he glanced at his sister to see what she thought of this. Then the boy's gaze swept back to his mother again. He tilted his head, now confused. "Not moon. I Aries." he corrected her, raising his brow comically and completely unintentionally.