Stone Circle Crawl out of love

Only recently had the three month old realized that the world was larger than the mile and a half surrounding his family's den, and ever since that discovery, young Burr was prone to stretching his growing legs on longer walks through Easthollow's territory. He never ventured near enough to the borders to cause any concern, nor was he over-curious what lay beyond his carefully constructed boundaries. He never went farther than the Marino River in the forest and never any farther than their meadow of wildflowers elsewhere. Much of his time was spent in the vicinity of the Stone Circle itself, where he felt safest and most assured.

Today, however, he was nearer to the river than the circle. The aspens rose all around him, confounding his sense of direction due to their similarity. The boy eyed each one warily as he passed by it, but even years spent studying these trees wouldn't result in an intimate knowledge of which was which. That one to his right had five brown scores in its white bark facing eastward, while the one to the left had two and one-half around the side, but further along he encountered two more trees with a similar arrangement, and knew he would never be able to pinpoint his exact location in the forest until he found the river, no matter how observant.

Speaking of the river, Burr's little ears perked up when the burbling of water became clear. He was kind of thirsty. He was also hungry, tired, and his paws were sore from all the walking, but little Burr wasn't one to complain about it. If he had a problem, he was apt to solve it, and for right now, he could solve his thirst problem. So he picked his way through the thick undergrowth to the edge of the river and emerged, a smallish grey blob of puppy about to enter a growth spurt, and bent down to lap clumsily at the shallows, heedless of the danger presented by rivers.

While she could no longer consider her sister too fat to hunt, Nanook quickly guessed that Desna wouldn't be leaving the Stone Circle anytime soon. She hadn't yet seen the pups, but the way Desna hardly left the den at all in the week and a bit since the birthing was enough to convince her of this. Which rendered her sister just as useless to take care of herself, and just as dependant on the pack to provide for both her and the little bundles who had effectively stolen her sister and turned her into an antisocial mole.

Not that she was bitter, or any different herself.

Nanook sloshed through the quick moving stream until the waters sped halfway up her legs, cool and brisk. She shivered, though the late summer sun brought warmth. For all the things she missed of the night, at least the daylight provided this. With careful attention, she scanned the depths and peered through the ripples to discern the dance of sunlight on the surface from the treasures she sought beneath. Simple thoughts filled her, thoughts of water and fish, and when she would find the energy to follow the stars again and breach Easthollow to venture in the unclaimed land. No, no. Not until Desna could hunt for herself; not until Desna didn't need her anymore, at least in the way she needed her now.

But there was a bore in fishing, and another slippery flash blurred by while her thoughts roved to more curious matters. Like the Stone Circle, and what had put the rocks in place. Like Desna, and if she even liked eating fish. Like starlight, and how she actually missed the pitched laughter of foxes at night.

Like the little grey and gangly pup drinking away downstream. Her eyes lit up. She'd kept a good distance from the small family who had joined Easthollow in the earlier months of summer, for no reason other than the business of her own studies and schedule. But today, even company looked better than her sorry bout of "fishing" and she ploughed toward him with the current in great and clumsy splashes.

Any number of misfortunes could have befallen Burr at that moment. A slip of the paw, an errant leaping fish, or a swell in the current all would suffice to send a young, still growing pup to his doom in the river. Luckily for the Saefyn youth, none of those things had a chance to happen. The loud sound of splashing drew Burr's attention away from the water under his muzzle and his eyes traced the current up until they latched on Nanook. Seeing a wolf pressing toward him in the water was enough to push him back from the edge an inch or two, back to a place of absolute safety, as if he would get in trouble for drinking on his own.

His ears scooped forward expectantly, but when the unkempt grey female sloshing through the river didn't immediately admonish him, Burr's curiosity won out. She didn't really resemble his papa or mama, or anyone else he had ever met, but he knew one thing about her. "Aren'cha wet, miss?" he hollered to her, far louder than was necessary to be heard over the gurgle of the water, and his curled tail gave a few cautious shakes to accompany his ears, which pressed back apologetically. He just had to know, though, because who willingly got wet like that? There had to be some secret and Burr was determined to know it!

The little wolf shuffled away from the shoreline and her splashing approach, which only made Nanook figure he wanted to save himself from getting wet. Her movements were rather sloshing and far reaching, so she eased herself into a gentler wade the closer she came.

Nanook cupped her ears toward him, a mirror of his own interest, and at first blinked and momentarily folded her ears against his shout. Nanook glanced down. Water dribbled from every inch of her body and matted her fur in sopping clumps. The river swirled around to collect the steady stream falling from her own body, and she could feel the slide of droplets down her forehead to eddy along the sharp curve of her snout. She blinked again to whisk away the wetness from her eyes. "Um. Yes." She said, and lifted her gaze again.

"Aren't you dry?"

She still had a long way to go in humour.

"Uhhhhhh," was Burr's long, drawn out response to Nanook's complete lack of humour. The woman remained in the water even though he had not-so-quietly implied that that was unusual. Okay, so he was a kid and his own sense of humour was still sorely lacking. And okay, he hadn't exactly been subtle about his own habit of stating the obvious. Still, he hadn't expected her to come back with something so predictably plain, and Burr wasn't able to see the silliness in it yet. He was still several months shy of complete comprehension and was baffled by it.

So he frowned at her, sucked in a breath, puffed out his cheeks, and yelled, "Duh!" Mama didn't like it much when he spoke like that, citing it as rude and unnecessary. Burr would agree when he was a little more understanding and refined, but for now, he was still a bit shy of any amount of maturity. "Bu' you're apposed to be dry, aren'cha?" he continued, and he was unable to prevent himself from lifting his chin just a notch as if he had just said something incredibly smart. "Aren'cha ummmcomfy?"